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Created By The Mercury 7 Astronauts
Scott Carpenter, one of America’s original Mercury Seven astronauts, has the unique distinction of being the first human being to conduct missions in both outer- and inner-space.
Carpenter was born in Boulder, Colorado, on May 1, 1925. He studied Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder before joining the U.S. Navy. He was commissioned in 1949, received flight training at Pensacola, FL, and Corpus Christi, TX, and became a Naval aviator in 1951. During the Korean War he served with Patrol Squadron SIX, flying anti-submarine, ship surveillance and aerial mining missions in the Yellow Sea, South China Sea and Formosa Straits. He attended the Navy Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Md., in 1954 and subsequently was assigned to the Electronics Test Division of the Naval Air Test Center.
Carpenter was selected one of the original seven Mercury astronauts in 1959. He flew the second American orbital flight in a Mercury capsule on May 24, 1962. He piloted his Aurora 7 spacecraft through three revolutions of the Earth, reaching a maximum altitude of 164 miles. A slight misalignment of the spacecraft on retrofire caused him to land 250 miles beyond the intended target in the Atlantic after a flight of 4 hours 54 minutes.
On leave from NASA, Carpenter participated in the Navy’s Man-in-the-Sea Project as as Aquanaut in the SEALAB II program off the coast of La Jolla, Calif., in 1965. During the experiment, Carpenter spent 30 days living and working on the ocean floor. He returned to NASA as executive assistant to the director of the Manned Spacecraft Center and was active in design of the Apollo Lunar Landing Module and in underwater space walk crew training.
In 1967, he joined the Navy’s Deep Submergence Systems Project as director of aquanaut operations during the SEALAB III experiment. He retired from the Navy in 1969 and founded and was chief executive officer of Sea Sciences, Inc., a venture capital corporation active in developing programs aimed at enhanced utilization of ocean resources and improved health of the oceans.
Carpenter continued to apply his knowledge of aerospace and ocean engineering as a consultant to industry and the private sector. He wrote two novels about the Navy SEALS, “The Steel Albatross”, and a sequel, “Deep Flight.” As a Founder of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, he served on its Board of Directors. He was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on May 11, 1990.
Scott Carpenter passed away at the age of 88 on October 10, 2013.
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Researchers at the UCSD School of Medicine have identified a fibrin-derived peptide that inhibits this specific inflammation process in mouse models of multiple sclerosis (MS), reducing MS symptoms.
A fibrous protein called fibrinogen, found in circulating blood and important in blood clotting, can promote multiple sclerosis when it leaks from the blood into the brain, triggering inflammation that leads to MS-related nerve damage. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have identified a fibrin-derived peptide that inhibits this specific inflammation process in mouse models of MS, reducing MS symptoms.
"Current strategies to develop therapies to fight MS primarily target T cells," said Katerina Akassoglou, Ph.D., assistant professor in UCSD's Department of Pharmacology, whose study was published in the March 19 issue of Journal of Experimental Medicine. "Blood proteins have been neglected as a therapeutic target, but this research shows that a blood clotting factor is an important player in MS."
MS is an inflammatory disease that affects the central nervous system, causing symptoms such as loss of balance and muscle coordination, and changes in cognitive function. The disease is marked by loss of myelin, a material that coats nerve fibers. Past studies showed that the destruction of the myelin sheath is associated with the accumulation of fibrinogen deposits in the brain of human MS patients. In this study, Akassoglou and colleagues showed that fibrinogen is not merely associated with the damage in MS, but an active participant. Fibrinogen activates macrophage cells in the brain called microglia, causing inflammation which damages myelin.
The scientists sought to design a therapeutic strategy that would block the damaging effects of fibrinogen without affecting its beneficial blood coagulation. Studying a mouse model, the researchers identified a specific receptor called Mac-1 that is expressed by microglial cells and binds to fibrinogen. Mice expressing a mutant form of fibrinogen that failed to bind Mac-1 had fewer inflammatory lesions and less severe MS symptoms. Blocking the interaction between Mac-1 and fibrinogen after the first episode of paralysis using the fibrin peptide prevented subsequent relapses. It also prevented further microglia activation and damage to myelin in the diseased mice, allowing them to survive with improved motor function.
"Importantly, this approach blocks fibrin's interaction with microglia, but not with platelets, so clotting wouldn't be impacted," said Akassoglou, adding that this potential MS therapy might also have applications to other blood-brain barrier diseases where blood leakage and microglia activation is present such as spinal cord injury, Alzheimer's disease or stroke.
Additional contributors to the paper include Ryan A. Adams, Shoana L. Sikorski and Tal Nuriel of UCSD's Department of Pharmacology; Jan Bauer and Hans Lassmann, Center for Brain Research, Medical University of Vienna; and Matthew J. Flick and Jay L. Degen, Children's Hospital Research Foundation and University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
Funding for the study was provided in part by the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, and by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Cite This Page:
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Future of Children authors Sandy Baum, Charles Kurose, and Michael McPherson write that as postsecondary enrollment expands in the US, student demand for academic and personal support services is increasing. Academic support programs such as developmental or remediation courses help older, returning students or high school graduates who need additional training to reach college-entry level. Personal support programs may provide services such as child care or transportation. All of these programs seek to improve student experiences and college outcomes.
Students with learning disabilities are a rapidly growing population that has received relatively little attention in terms of college preparation and support. Many of these children participate in special education programs before finishing high school. Authors Laudan Aron and Pamela Loprest explain that the special education system has helped to increase their access to and participation in public education, but there is room for improvement. An often challenging point for these children is in the transition into adulthood. Janet Currie and Robert Kahn report that high schools offer services to help students make the transition but no one is required to monitor the effectiveness of services for adults once they enter the community.
As college enrollment among students with learning disabilities increases, demand for personal and academic support services should also increase. Thus, a growing number of traditional universities are seeking to improve resources for students with disabilities, including supplemental support programs. For the latest research and policy recommendations on this topic, see the Future of Children issues on Postsecondary Education and Children with Disabilities.
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Learning Support Services has its philosophy rooted in the VIS mission statement, which aims to: empower all of our students to be successful and responsible learners in a nurturing and diverse community. In harmony with the ideals of the IB learner profile, VIS recognises all students’ individuality and diversity.
- We believe in challenging students to realise their personal potential for excellence in an inclusive and supportive environment
- We believe in nurturing confident, responsible, reflective, and independent lifelong learners
- We believe in embracing diversity as an enriching resource and unifying force in our school
The goal of Learning Support Services is to enable students to become empowered and lifelong learners who value their strengths and recognize and understand their individual needs in order to work towards their potential. We also want to develop skills and strategies that will enable them to become independent and successful individuals who are able to advocate for their needs.
Learning Support is a programme designed for students who have been identified as requiring an Individual Learning Plan (ILP), which may include modified/alternative learning expectations and/or accommodations. An ILP is developed either when a student enrolls at VIS with diagnosed learning differences or when there is a recommendation resulting from a referral process within the school. This support may be offered in the classroom or in a Learning Support Resource Room, by a Learning Support teacher or by an educational assistant.
In-Class Support in the Primary School is generally the first response to supporting emerging learning needs. The Learning Support teacher assists the teacher in differentiating lessons and supports students by teaching and coaching the development of skills for identified needs such as attention, behavior, motivation and collaboration in line with the Individual Learning Plan (ILP). In the ELC through Grade 1, In-Class Support can also be provided to help students who need more individualised assistance in achieving developmental milestones.
In-Class Support in the Secondary School is put in place where students need individual or small group support in specific areas of the curriculum. The Learning Support teacher collaborates with the subject teacher to develop differentiated or modified learning experiences and/or assessments to support individual students’ needs in line with the Individual Learning Plan (ILP).
Skills Lab in the Primary School provides a higher level of support and includes a combination of in-class and more targeted and specific support in a Learning Support classroom. Programmes are designed to develop general learning skills and/or skills specific to reading, writing, or mathematics as a foundation for further learning.
Skills Lab in the Secondary School provides a higher level of support and may include a combination of in-class and more targeted and specific support in a Learning Support classroom. Programmes are designed, for example, to develop general learning skills and/or skills specific to reading, writing, or mathematics as a foundationfor further learning. For some students timetabled lessons called Content Mastery form a part of their Skills Lab Support.
In order to support students before In-Class and Skills Lab support is needed, learning information is used to identify students who would benefit from targeted instruction. These students work with Learning Support teachers for a shorter period of time on targeted goals, usually in the areas of reading, writing and mathematics. If expected progress is not made, further support is determined by the Student Support Team.
The School may determine that a student requires an individual assistant when, students are unable to meet curriculum standards without modifications to the curriculum and with the on-going support that has been provided.
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Mobile Phone is usually additionally referred to as a “cellular phone”. it's a tool in the main used for a voice decision. Presently technological advancements have created our life straight forward.
Here is the Introduction to Internet. And complete English Essay about advantages and disadvantages of internet with Quotations..
In this article you are going to learn advantages and disadvantages of mobile phone and quotations for english essay.
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Cumberland, historic county, extreme northwestern England, bounded on the north by Scotland, on the east by the historic counties of Northumberland and Durham, and on the south by the historic counties of Westmorland and Lancashire. Cumberland is presently part of the administrative county of Cumbria.
Cumberland lies along the northwest coast of England, facing the Solway Firth and the Irish Sea. A narrow coastal plain rises in the south to the Cumbrian Mountains, which reach an elevation of 3,210 feet (978 metres) at Scafell Pike, the highest point in England. These mountains surround the scenic Lake District, part of which lies in Cumberland. The lower part of the fertile Vale of Eden lies at the centre of the county. The historic county town (seat), Carlisle, stands where this valley broadens to meet the coastal plain in the north. To the east the Pennines form the border with Northumbria and Durham.
Evidence of Bronze Age occupation includes stone circles, notably Long Meg and Her Daughters (near Little Selkeld) and Castlerigg Circle (near Keswick). Between 122 and 126 ce the Roman emperor Hadrian constructed the great wall complex between Wallsend in Northumberland and Bowness-on-Solway in Cumberland (Hadrian’s Wall). The Roman occupation was primarily military, and Carlisle, then called Luguvallium, was the main civilian settlement. St. Ninian brought Christianity to Cumberland in the late 4th century. In the 7th century the kingdom of Northumbria conquered the area, then known as Cumbria, whose people were Celtic-speaking Britons. The name Cumbria, like Cambria, is a Latinized version of the Welsh Cymry or Cymru (now applied exclusively to Wales).
Danes and Norsemen from Ireland or the Isle of Man raided Cumbria in the 9th century. In 945 Edmund Iravaged all “Cumbraland”—first mentioned by that name—and handed it over to the Scottish king Malcolm I in return for a promise of military support. (The area of Cumbraland then presumably included the southwest of present-day Scotland as well as the region that became Cumberland.) The earls of Northumbria controlled part of the county in the first half of the 11th century, but by 1068 the king of the Scots had taken the area, nearly all of which lay outside William the Conqueror’s kingdom. In 1092 a vassal of the Scottish king ruled Carlisle, when it was captured by King William II (William Rufus), who repaired the city, ordered the building of Carlisle Castle and sent settlers to claim the land. Place-names with the suffixby following a Norman personal name reflect immigration from the south about this time. The land was briefly recaptured by the Scots, but the historic county of Cumberland, established by 1177, remained a part of England.
Because of its border position, Cumberland was the scene of constant strife and much bloodshed from the Middle Ages until after the union of the English and Scottish crowns in 1603. Although many of the inhabitants of the county supported the Stuart cause during the English Civil Wars, active backing for the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745 was limited. It was only after the 1745 rebellion that Cumberland became more closely linked to the rest of England. Roads were built or improved, trade increased, and the Lake District became popular throughout England for its picturesque scenery.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.
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Opportunities, challenges, and ways forward for emerging agricultural technologies in sustainable food systems
Guests:Dr. Rob Newell, Associate Director, Food and Agriculture Institute, and Dr. Lenore Newman, Canada Research Chair in Food Security and Environment, University of the Fraser Valley
The emerging technologies and techniques of the so-called fourth agricultural revolution, such as vertical and cellular agriculture, could potentially play a powerful role in transitions toward sustainable food systems. These technologies and techniques could support high-yield food production methods, with short supply chains and low environmental footprints, but technology alone does not comprise a sustainable solution.
Samantha Charlton speaks with Dr. Newell and Dr. Newman about their research that is applying an interdisciplinary lens to understanding, and managing, the sustainability and equity outcomes of new agri-technologies.
Climate resilience, agricultural land protection, food security, labour, employment, power relations, governance, and animal ethics, there is a lot to consider when evaluating agri-technology. This episode dives into how research can help consider these factors and inform the development and implementation of policies and strategies that take social and cultural implications into account.
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Blood pressure testing for African and Caribbean men
Black Caribbean and African men are at high risk of developing high blood pressure.
What is high blood pressure?
Your blood pressure pushes blood through your body, but if it is too high, this means your heart is under more pressure than it should be. It is important to know if you have high blood pressure as it is often a warning sign for other health conditions such as weakening your kidneys, or it can lead to a stroke or heart attack.
Why does your blood pressure matter?
High blood pressure is known as the ‘silent killer’ because often there are no symptoms to tell you that you have developed it. So it is important to check your blood pressure by getting it measured when required, for example through the NHS Health Check.
Race Equality Foundation in partnership with Men’s Health Forum, Faith Action and Clinks developed a community-centred programme to offer blood pressure testing and raise awareness amongst black African and Caribbean males. The programme was being piloted in barbershops, a bus depot and a local church in three London boroughs.
For further information on the project, contact Tracey Bignall via email [email protected] or telephone 020 7428 1884
Resources and further information
There are lifestyle changes that you can make to help improve your blood pressure and details can be found on the following web sites.
British Heart Foundation – high blood pressure information
High blood pressure and ethnicity
High blood pressure and African and Caribbean people
NHS Health Check
Checking your blood pressure regularly, as offered through the NHS Health Check,
will let you know if you have high blood pressure and what steps you can take to
A number of apps and have been developed which help to examine your health
including and look at high blood pressure:
NHS Health Help Now
- Health & Care
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- Each year, works of art with expired copyrights enter the public domain
- William Patry: How long copyright should last has been a contentious issue since 1790
- Patry: When length of copyright is too long, it hinders creative repurposing of older works
- He says that in the digital age, arcane copyright laws should be updated
On the first day of every year, works of art whose term of copyright has expired enters the public domain. This year's class is particularly strong, as the novels of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf are now free of copyright protection. If you ever wanted to stage a puppet show of Joyce's masterpiece "Ulysses" or set Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" to music, now is your chance.
But why now?
When copyright expires, it means that the public is not liable for using works of art in ways that would otherwise violate the copyright law. Dover can publish scores of classical music at low prices; translations of literature can be commissioned; authors, artists and motion picture companies can adapt older works and make them into new works. A number of Disney classics are, in fact, based on public domain works.
How long copyright should last has been a contentious issue since the first copyright act of 1790. In some industries, copyright laws are necessary to provide financial protection for the time and investment that goes into creating works of art. But when the length of copyright is so long that it hinders creative repurposing of older work, then copyright's purpose isn't being served.
Our original copyright act in 1790 protected only books, maps and charts. Over time, the law expanded to include fine art and photographs, among other things. Currently, a blockbuster film such as "Avatar" gets the same protection as an e-mail you dash off to your friends.
To understand how copyright law has changed in the United States over the past 30 years, it's helpful to take a look at Duke University's Center for the Public Domain's list of famous works that would have gone into the public domain if it weren't for the changes in copyright law. This year, it would include Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita," J.R.R. Tolkien's "Return of the King" and Disney's "The Lady and the Tramp."
These famous works were originally covered by a law in 1909, which stipulated that copyright lasted for 28 years from first publication, with the possibility of another 28 years, but only if the copyright owner filed a renewal publication with the Copyright Office. Thousands of works were protected under this sensible system, and 85% of them entered the public domain after 28 years, making them available to artists and more accessible to consumers.
But in 1978, Congress retroactively changed the rules, giving these works another 19 years at the end. If the artist renewed the copyright, he or she received 47 years rather than 28 years, for a maximum of 75 years. And then in 1998, Congress retroactively added another 20 years to these old art works, meaning they now have a protection up to a maximum of 95 years. For works created after 1978, the length of copyright is even longer: life of the author plus 70 years after the author's death.
The effect of this dramatic lengthening of copyright has come at a large cost with little benefit: older works cannot be used productively by motion picture companies, authors and artists. Many owners of copyrighted works cannot even be located. And remote heirs, such as grandchildren and great-grandchildren or the estates of deceased authors, can veto uses that are economically harmless.
For example, when I was in private practice at a large law firm, a partner asked me to approach the estate of a famous playwright. My colleague was hoping to get permission to produce an abridged version of a play at his son's special education school.
The school was willing to pay the licensing fee, but the children were capable of only performing one act, not three. The production would be only before parents, not for any profit. After all this was explained to the estate, they subsequently refused permission and the money, insisting the children had to produce the play as written, or not at all.
As we adapt to the digital age, arcane copyright laws that offer no benefit even to the current copyright holder must be reconsidered. A sensible approach would not act as an obstacle to future generations who want to create something new.
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In the sixties, Roger Zelazny wrote ‘Damnation Alley’, in which Hell Tanner drives from Los Angeles to Boston in a land ravaged by near constant hurricanes and tornadoes in an attempt to deliver a life-saving plague vaccine. While we’re nowhere near that doomsday scenario, this year’s hurricane season is certainly hotting up.
Hurricane Gustav is crossing Cuba into the centre of the Gulf of Mexico today, with many of the simulations projecting it to land as a strength three hurricane somewhere in Louisiana on Tuesday night. Meanwhile, a few days further out in the Atlantic tropical storm Hanna (the eighth named storm of the year) is growing steadily and is also projected to land as a hurricane next weekend anywhere from Florida to Mexico. It may or may not enter the Gulf.
Further out than that a number of other weather systems are beginning to form in the infamous ‘hurricane alley’, creating a conveyor belt of large storms. High ocean temperatures of 28-32 degrees in the Gulf of Mexico in particular are increasing the size of intensity of these systems. When the sea temperatures are above 26 degrees, a tropical storm or hurricane above it will intensify. Below that level the cyclone begins to unravel. With Ocean temperatures high and a number of storms forming, the Southeast coast of the US and the caribbean are in for a pounding over the next few weeks. Oil experts are already beginning to predict problems for oil production, with large percentages of US oil production and refining taking place in the Gulf of Mexico. While it would be inaccurate to link a single hurricane to climate change, if tropical ocean temperatures remain high, the residents at the end of hurricane rally will have to expect more storms.
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"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence." by President Calvin Coolidge in The Power of Persistence. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
As we welcome the holidays, we are compelled to reflect on the past year and then set our vision on the future. Against multiple challenges, whether they are personal, professional, or concerns about the threats facing our great nation, one can find guidance and comfort in the powerful words of personal inspiration from a past President of the United States.
Calvin Coolidge became the 30th President in 1923. Catapulted into power when Warren Harding suddenly died in office, Coolidge was a no-nonsense New Englander. He brought integrity and hard work to the Oval Office. A self-effacing, modest man during the height of the Roaring 20's, he was known for being a man who chose his few words carefully while seeking an America where hard work was its own reward. Given the opportunity to run for a second full term, historians note he declined what would have surely been an Election Night victory with a simple sentence; "I do not chose to run."
In his retirement he would write newspaper columns and magazine articles. Among his contributions was a singular observation that carries as much weight in the 21st Century as it did one hundred years ago. Entitled "The Power of Persistence," he wrote, "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On!' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."
History is the force behind Coolidge's instruction. Ludwig van Beethoven started becoming deaf by the age of 30 and yet he composed some of his most inspired works while losing his hearing. By the time he conducted his monumental Ninth Symphony musicians needed to turn him to face the audience so he could see their outpouring of emotion.
Helen Keller was deaf and blind from the time of her infancy at the turn of the century and yet she went on to international acclaim as one who overcame such disabilities to write a dozen books and would achieve a Bachelor of Arts college degree – an unheard of accomplishment for a disabled woman of that era.
Today there are daily examples of extraordinary persistence in contemporary headlines that could fill a bestselling book, making President Coolidge's observation as relevant as ever.
As we approach the year 2022, we need to embrace his philosophy that allows us to take pride in overcoming the most difficult of obstacles. Beyond a personal mission, it is a shared aspiration that our nation as a whole needs to embrace if we are to maintain our role as mankind's last best hope to live in a world of freedom, democracy and opportunity.
Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.
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Former astronaut Scott Carpenter, one of the legendary seven original U.S. astronauts and the second American to orbit the Earth, has died after suffering a stroke.
He was 88 years old.
Carpenter flew into space aboard his Aurora space capsule on May 24, 1962 -- a time when spaceflights were new and captured the attention of the entire nation.
He orbited the Earth three times and also gave NASA its first major scare.
Technical problems and low fuel forced Carpenter to manually bring the space capsule back to Earth. He splashed down in the Caribbean Sea, 465 kilometers off course.
Millions of television viewers held their breaths wondering if Carpenter survived, before a Navy rescue crew found him.
Carpenter never flew in space again, but did live on the Pacific Ocean floor for a month aboard the Sealab capsule in 1965.
The story of Carpenter's flight and the seven original astronauts is vividly told in the book and film The Right Stuff. Carpenter's death leaves John Glenn as the only one of the first seven astronauts still alive.
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In Malea D. Powell’s excerpt titled “River” I really enjoyed how she looked at the technical definition of rhetoric and found multiple meanings in regards to the word. However, Powell still believes that rhetoric is a type of art, which I found intriguing. Powell also states that if we are all supposed to “eat from the same bowl” then we must accept all forms of rhetoric that appears in different texts or in different forms. The excerpt states how in the 19th century that whites spoke on behalf of Native Americans, and when Native Americans did speak on their own behalf they had to write in English to appease their white audience, they could not write in their own language. This led to other Native Americans not being able to read these books, that excerpt states that these days are now over. Native Americans have the right to write in their own language or their own rhetoric, which I believe Powell is trying to address in “River”.
The excerpt ‘Rhetorical Sovereignty’ by Scott Richard Lyons I believe discusses how the Native Americans want the sovereignty or control over writing and their meanings. Lyons discusses how the brutality and violence during the nineteenth century contributed to the distrust among Native Americans. This distrust led to the Native Americans becoming skeptical of the English written word. There wasn’t a correlation between the writings of the nineteenth century and the actual brutality and violence that occurred during that time. Lyons says that Native Americans would like rhetorical sovereignty due to the fact that they would like to survive and flourish as people. They would like to regain their losses that they endured during the 19th century, and regain their personal self respect. They also discuss how rhetorical sovereignty is the right or ability to determine their communication and desires. This makes sense within the excerpt because earlier on Lyons discusses how Luther Standing and his other Native American classmates had to choose “white” names at Castle Indian School. This was mind boggling to me due to the fact these young children were losing their identity and being forced to assimilate to the white culture, the Native Americans had no control or sovereignty over their own identity. This excerpt was saying in a sense that Native Americans in the United States were being limited in regards to their sovereignty simply due to the fact that it was the United States. Reading ‘Rhetorical Sovereignty definitely helped me understand the unfairness that is still continued presently in regards to Native Americans and their sovereignty.
After reading Down By the River, an essay by Malea Powell regarding the education and philosophy of respected Native scholar Susan La Flesche Picotte, I was struck by a lot of the motives within her work.
Powell references a lack of American Indian rhetoric and composition in modern day teachings. She uses the term “primacy,” where literature and composition that is taught is selected based on the privileged opinion and deemed correct. Though this might not be entirely true, one must acknowledge the fact that throughout history, whether philosophy, arithmetic, or any of the sciences, the forefathers are typically white males. Even in spite of this, the common goal for most Indian scholars is to reach a shared understanding of history, rather than defying the teachings of the privileged Europeans that wrote the history books.
Later on in the essay, the problem begins to broaden. Powell references the “Ponca” incident, where the Poncan tribe was cast out of reservation into the essentially barren Oklahoma. Upon return and in spite of their being wrong, members of the tribe were imprisoned. This sparked a literary revolution, bringing authors like Helen Jackson to the table who wrote on behalf of those Natives who were wronged. WNIA (Womens National Indian Association) formed in an effort to publicize the injustices brought upon such tribes and fought for the rights of Indians everywhere. The leaders of this Indian rights movement inspired Susan La Flesche Picotte’s plight and education, where she was able to move people with her words by addressing the problems of her people in a manner that was respected by whites (due to being educated by such whites).
In Rhetorical Sovereignty, an essay written by Scott Lyons on behalf of the Indian peoples, he addresses the concept of rhetorical sovereignty and the lack thereof in India history up until now.
Rhetorical Sovereignty is defined as the inherent right and ability of people to determine their own communicative needs and desires. Throughout the essay, Lyons illustrates how this was attempted but very much not delivered in the transition of Western expansion. Though schooling was offered to some Indians, it was essentially done so with the intent to eradicate all sense of being an Indian and transitioning into a white-bred machine of productivity.
Lyons also makes reference to how this sovereignty was taken advantage of during colonization. Essentially, Europeans made treaties with the Natives, allowing them “rights” to their land while also allowing for Europeans to settle it. However, with the growing political and military prowess of the United States, much of these treaties were overturned and land was taken from the Natives “legally.” The treaties were all deemed bogus under laws of the United States and the Indians had no say in the matter. If anything was learned, it was that “he who sets the terms sets the limits” (452).
Similar to Down by the River, it appears as though both stories are arguing for rhetorical sovereignty. In the words of Scott Lyons, “rhetorical sovereignty requires above all the presence of an Indian voice, speaking or witing in an ongoing context of colonization and setting at least some terms of the debate” (462).
In “Rhetorical Sovereignty” by Lyons the writing basically points out how the Native Americans were stripped of their culture as the Europeans came onto their land. They did things very different ways. Writing changed ways for Native Americans. The violence that occurred during the time period of the nineteenth century was leading to the Native Americans distrust. For example, boarding schools were the clearest way that Europeans took over with their forcing of white names among Native Americans. Native Americans treaties were broken; they lost control of land and material possessions. The most interesting part of the reading I found to be was when Lyons points out the importance of schools needing to become aware and present what had happened in the Native American culture. Native Americans want to regain their self-respect and culture while being able to choose their traditions and means of communication that they may have lost during this violent time. This reading was saying Native Americans were being deprived of their sovereignty just because of the location they were living in.
In relation Malea D. Powell’s “Down by the River” points out that the U.S. government is testing the faith of the Native Americans. She points out that Native Americans ways must change in order to survive. Some positive movements in the right direction would be the various organizations being built to flourish and represent their rights. This will help limit the common problems of the Natives like land, stereotypes, creation stories, health, treaties, etc. This reading gave good examples of steps to take in order for the culture of the Natives to survive.
In the reading Rhetorical Sovereignty, I couldn’t help but feel sympathetic and sad for the Native Americans. The Native Americans had to go to a new school and pencils were the first Europeans technology that was introduced to them and they couldn’t believe what it was able to do. What saddened me was when they had to choose new Europeans names that were written on a board. Not only did they have to compromise some of their culture, but also they had to pick random names to be called for the rest of their lives. Our names are our identity and who we are, and they were forced to change theirs.
“Our strength was, and is, in alliance and in the ability to adapt to rapidly changing worlds. We borrowed European goods and ideas, and these became part of our cultural traditions. After all, all cultures must change if they are to survive.” This quote from the Down By The River story was one that stood out to me the most. It is sad that different cultures cannot get along unless they change some of their ideas and beliefs. Native American culture had to change to survive and this was the story of their lives.
Malea D. Powell's Down by the River spoke to me out of both of the reading assignments for this week. The Native people learned how to write or were rather forced to write and become a part of the European race. Changing their old names to become essentially more "American". What down by the river talks about though is relearning the traditions of the Native people. In the first story Powell talks about her attempts to learn about traditional beadwork. She struggled with it for a very long time until her teacher helped her with it. The teacher tells her to not work so hard at it and to let everything come naturally. I feel that this lesson is a good lesson for not just the author but for everyone. We live in a day and age where we want everything to be perfect and fast. We work hard to get at that perfection when in reality nothing is perfect. Sometimes we even give up if its not as perfect as we want it. If we were to take this lesson as advice and guidance I think there would be less people unhappy with their lives because then instead of worrying about working for perfection they would instead be happy with what they have.
In the reading “Down by the River” by Malea Powell she talks briefly about how she aims to present information that will get people to take Native Americans seriously. She claims whether we are speaking about contemporary scholars, or historical figures we need to learn to take them seriously even though most writing about them up to this point had “done a pretty good job of not doing a very good job”(41). Not only does she want American Indians to be taken seriously, but she wants all stories to be considered important. She speaks about considering stories from all different cultures and viewing all of them as significant. That statement really got me thinking about how true that was, anytime I learned about another ethnicity’s stories whether it is African American, Native American, Latino, etc. it was always considered an extra. It was not included in our base history classes, and rather viewed as additional stories, because their authenticity was unclear or they had no significance in our lesson. I agree with Powell that these stories do need to be taken into account, and more importantly viewed as equal. As a future educator I want to be sure that I give my students a well-rounded and complete education, not leaving out major parts of peoples’ history because they ‘don’t fit into the plan’.
After reading “Down by the River” by Powell I realized how important it is that all human beings need to come together and learn the different ways of life each person uses so we can keep up with the changing world. Native Americans were the ones that came up with “the middle ground” which is a political, economic, and social system based on equal sharing and borrowing between allies. They knew that to help themselves they need to borrow European ideas and goods. During the 19th century whites spoke on behalf of Indians and when Indians did write their own books they had to address it to white people, since they were writing in English and their people couldn’t read them. The Native people knew that things had to change if they wanted to their communities to survive and that was to learn from the white people. If they wanted their people to be able to read the books they wrote or even understand the English language, they needed to learn from the best, the white people. Native people wanted to put an end to the way the United States Government was treating them and get the attention of people by telling them the harsh and cruel things the government was putting them through. Helen Hunt Jackson decided to write a record of our broken treaties and call it “A Century of Dishonor”. She wanted to tell the people of America what we have been guilty of this whole time in dealing with Indian Nations and the wrongs that had been perpetrated upon the Indians. The U.S. government is all about if someone breaks the law then they have to face the consequences for their actions, but when it comes to them being the ones breaking the law there are no punishments for them because they have a sense of entitlement since it’s their laws. The U.S. robbed them of their land, homes, and basically their life. Jackson thought that Indians should be given citizenship, education, and property to make up for so much pain and suffering they went through.
The story of Susan La Flesche gave me so much inspiration because even after everything she went through she never gave up on herself or the Omaha tribe. She fought hard to get an education and learn the ways of white people because she knew that with these ways her tribe would be able to survive. Although the past and present was important to the Omaha tribe the first priority was the future because with the future of the Omaha means that Omaha styles, beliefs, values, and life will still live on. The La Flesche family believed that European-American education played a significant role in their future, but that doesn’t mean that they trade in everything they know of for the white man’s way, but to use what they know from their own Ohama lifestyle and also use the white man’s education to their advantage. Susan is a perfect example of someone who is able to find a “middle ground” between whites and Indians. She will always have everything she learned from the Ohama tribe and also everything she has learned from European-American education and thus she has best of both worlds. Even though she was taught by white people she will always be Ohama no matter what and that will never change. Because of people like Susan, tribes like Ohama are able to redeem themselves and adapt to the ever changing world by updating their knowledge. She knew that in order for her tribe to survive she had to stop with the hatred of white people and learn their ways so she could teach her people. Every race, culture, tribe etc. has specific ways of life they live by and if we taught each other one’s way we could help teach easier or more sufficient ways of living that could benefit the world at large. It all comes down to the balance of life and to keep this balance it can’t be one way or another it has to be a middle ground where everyone is heard, seen, and benefits from it.
Native Writing and Rhetoric
One of the most interesting aspects of the “Down the River” piece by Powell was the concept of a “nomos—‘a normative universe of shared meanings.’”(42) Examples of this are the symbolic images of “linking arms together” or “eating from the same bowl.” This was important clarification for me. When we read about the common bowl in the beginning of the course, I understood the symbolic meaning of universality, but I did not fully understand the larger significance.
Additionally, I found the story regarding the beadwork significant in my path towards understanding native culture. Powell’s teacher states, “So, when I’m having a hard time I just get up and take a big breath and go outside and remember that it’s respect for other living things I celebrate with my art—not my ego.” I think this is extremely relevant because it solidifies the basis of what we have learned in this course; this basis has taught me that the underlying themes to most native traditions deal with respect towards all living things in nature and humanity. Although respect for one’s self is pivotal, Native Americans teach that the purpose of human existence does not trend towards an egotistical paradigm.
I also found the definitions of the author’s view of “rhetoric” very helpful. I feel as though people often use the word “rhetoric” in various contexts. While taking this course, I have done internet searches on the word to try to find a meaning which is definitive and correlated to this course in a meaningful manner. I really appreciated the definition, “an art that links theory.” As we study this material, Native American way of life is directly associated with art, just as the teacher in the author’s story described how decorating their things was a form of respect to nature. Art is deeply connected to Native traditions; therefore, continuing to employ that art as a direct way to connect theory works beautifully.
Critical Response 5
September 23, 2014
The article “Down By the River” brings up many points that make a reader stop and think about present day life. The first time this occurred for me in the reading is on page forty when the author says, “cultures that do not change cannot survive.” This is true in so many forms, and is even still true today. Thinking back to the colonial era, the original settlers only had their knowledge of living in England to support them. That limited amount of knowledge significantly hindered their survival until the Natives showed them how to live off that particular land. The colonists were forced to adapt and change, something that was key to their survival. The next part that caught my eye was when the author says to imagine a “usable past” where Native American writings aren’t just included, but are critically important, and this goes for other minorities’ writings as well. The author goes on to say that a new language is needed when talking about critical writing between cultures and in general. The “language” we use now pits one another against each other rather than call for collaboration. The author says that we as society of rhetoric need a language that demands respect and an alliance. I think this can be tied loosely to either “White Man’s Indian” or “Firstings and Lastings.” The before mentioned uses language that slanders and gives no respect to the Natives’ culture, which includes their oral stories. Then there is “Firstings and Lastings,” which uses language that omits the Native American culture. These are both examples of writing that does not respect nor call for an alliance in any sort of way. Even acknowledging the existence of the other culture’s would be a step in the right direction.
The next article, “Rhetorical Sovereignty,” is about making the Native American children go to colonial schooling. The beginning talks about how they are given a pencil and blank slate without even knowing what to do with them at first. It goes on to say that the children were forced to pick a white person’s name, therefore starting the process of replacing their identity. This article reminds me of “Firstings and Lastings.” That article was about naming the first and last things in that town, giving no heed to anything Native that came before it. The colonists were essentially replacing the identity of the land, just as they were doing in schools. This is a tragedy to read about, and something that in some ways has been hard to overturn.
Having read “Down by the River” by Powell it was refreshing to hear of a victory shared amongst the Native Americans thanks to alliances made between the tribes. Despite the Europeans military dominance the Native Americans were able to come together to defeat them in a large scale battle. It’s not a surprise as to why these alliances were made since they helped ensure survivability of the people. Though it goes against the Native American’s thinking, I wonder what a fully united tribe of Native Americans would have been like. I also find myself agreeing with the statement made in the article that a culture must adapt to its surroundings to survive. Perhaps that is the reason why that Native Americans were having such a hard time warding off European intrusions was because they weren’t adapting well enough. Many think that by keeping a culture static and unchanging they are keeping it pure however no culture in the world could survive like that. Native Americans did take in many European resources and even some of the customs as well. Even the large scale alliances were uncommon until the settlers arrived and it became vital to do so for them to survive. I also wonder at what the Native American history was like before Europeans arrived and how much life differed once the Europeans did show up. Most accounts of American history is from only after the Europeans arrived and much of what life was like before their arrival is a mystery to me. Powell raises a good point that the minority ethnicities deserve a much larger role in rhetoric and academics especially in history rather than giving one central viewpoint of the more dominant powers. Though I believe that problem is hard to avoid since history has always been written by the victors, it’s nearly impossible to have an unbiased account. The article “What Do American Indians want from Writing?” by Scott Lyons touches upon the distrust Natives have when reading English accounts of history or rhetoric due to this bias. Again this is why giving the minorities, such as the natives, a larger role in academics is important however daunting that task may be. As a student with an education minor I already believe that the education system is in dire need of reform and this is just one of many examples as to why.
In “Down by the River”, Malea Powell begins by telling a story of a tribe. I found the beginning of this story to be interesting because it talks about an alliance that was between many Native American tribes. This was the greatest defeat Americans suffered by Native Americans. Though it appears that this was savage, we have to realize that the tribes were protecting their land and family. After this the Native Americans decided to change their culture because this was a way of survival. “We borrowed European goods and ideas, and these became part of our cultural traditions. After all, all cultures must change if they are to survive,” (Powell, 39). I think this is where the stereotype that Native Americans no longer exist. Many people thought they didn’t exist because they changed and adapted their culture. It appeared to everyone they were gone because they made the decision to adapt like the Europeans. Like everything you have to adapt to survive, I don’t know if Native Americans wanted to change their culture or did it only for survival. Though I know, and we all know that his or her culture did survive, not everyone conformed to the European culture. I think many people were forced to change. Knowing that their culture did and has survived this long, I think the alliance mention where understanding and respect of each culture occurred. Many people must have been clueless to the world around them. Considering there were probably Native Americans around them.
In “Rhetorical Sovereignty”, Scott Lyons discusses how the Native Americans lost their culture. Children were forced into school and their culture was stripped from them. Their parents were the only ones keeping their culture alive. Children were forced to wear different clothing, also given a “white mans” name. It appears that they were almost tricked into this new culture. They were shown slate with a pencil and told to draw. They drew what they knew, to me it seems like they would enjoy that and be memorized by it. The next day they tell them they cannot do this and educated them on how to be a “white man”. Over time their culture would fade and change.
Mentioned in the other text that they were adapting, I feel that they were forced to. Though it was said that it was for survival, I think this is exactly what they were doing. They were protecting their family by having their kids adapt and fit in. This would ensure in future generations they would be part of an accepted culture, safe from ridicule and torture.
African American Lit.
September 21, 2014
After reading “Down by the River, or How Susan La Flesche Picotte Can Teach Us about Alliance as a Practice of Survivance” by Malea D. Powell and “Rhetorical Sovereignty: What Do American Indians Want from Writing?” by Scott Richard Lyons I had a lot of thoughts. Looking first at Lyons’ essay, I found it to be extremely sad that young Native Americans were forced to do things such as learn to write in English or even take white names as their own. It seems so clear that these people have no only been stripped of their lands but also literally robbed of their own culture. It is truly disappointing to think about how much culture may have been lost due to this process of sending the Native American children to European-based boarding schools. Without even realizing it, many children probably forgot a lot about their native culture once that had been submerged into a new one.
Powell’s essay ties into Lyons’ essay very effectively. While Lyons’ displays to his audience just how Natives lost a lot of their culture due to being essentially taught how to be white, Powell’s essay calls attention to the idea that many Native American writings are somewhat not Native American at all. For example, if a native story or legend had been told throughout native culture, but then that same story was translated into English, then the story may be drastically different, even if changing the story was unintentional. Powell even makes note of the fact that many Native American writings were done in English, and therefore were meant for English-speaking audiences. It is strange to think about the fact that a story being told by an Indian, to other Indians in a native language, might appear to be completely different then the same story being written about by an Indian for an English speaking audience.
Overall I found these essays to be very insightful in helping us to come closer to understanding exactly what qualifies as Native American literature and rhetoric. I feel as if I will always stop to analyze any future Native American texts that I read in the future. I can see myself trying to imagine the way a story might have been told by a native of the past, rather than just simply looking at the words written on the page for me. I also look forward to reading new works of Native American writing in our modern time as written by modern Native Americans. It is disappointing to think about all of the great Indian works that were lost due to the Europeans’ decision to assimilate all native people into being more European. It is clear that many native writers seem to struggle with identity issues, and a major cause of these issues are a loss of connection to their past through their own unique literature. Both essays make great points about what it means to be a Native American work, and also what these works represent to the Native American population of today.
While reading Vine Deloria and Thomas King’s pieces, it is intriguing to see if there are any parallel notions to discuss. They are entirely different, however, and both texts offer very engaging experiences. Deloria makes a unique argument against the pompous nature of scientific academia. I immediately noticed his semi hostile tone in “Read Earth, White Lies”, and I think it is well placed. Deloria is directly commentating on the scientific community’s often irrational commitment to a theory or concept. He uses the Bering Strait theory of immigration, which is widely regarded as historical fact. It is so widely accepted, actually, that it is a major part of history lessons in public high school curricula. Deloria’s position is based in common sense, too, as he argues that it might just be worth reconsidering all the basic characteristics of what we believed to have happen. He does a worthy job of summarizing the main points against the theory, such as the lack of inhabitants in ancient Siberia, or the issue of flood water from the Ice Age covering the path to North America. But it is his central argument with the scientific community, however, that I find the most compelling. In his consideration of the journey that the travelers would have made, he writes “Almost every articulation of the Bering Strait theory is woefully deficient in providing a motive for the movement” (Deloria 76). This rational approach to examining the issue is very provocative. I’m a staunch supporter of research and scientific inquiry, but I can understand Deloria’s initial commentary on the scientific community, especially when there are ideas spread around as facts simply because they were the easiest to accept at the time.
In contrast to Deloria, King’s piece offers a text to consider much more human and personal concerns. King can be very simple, yet eloquent in his writing. I found his initial chapter very engaging, and, similar to Deloria, King’s tone is noticeable. His recollection of his Mother’s hardships and his Father’s failures are particularly compelling. They are soaked in a sense of sadness, and they support the overall idea regarding storytelling. King interestingly writes “…there is a part of me that has never been able to move past these stories, a part of me that will be chained to these stories as long as I live” (King 9). It is a very human understanding of storytelling. He has made this concept deeply personal, and, while celebrating it, he also notes that it can be painful as well.
This is my OLD post from Tuesday on Powell and Lyons, but I wanted to share it here because I put in on the other thread since this one hadn't been posted yet.
Powell and Lyons
The essays by Scott Richard Lyons and Malea D. Powell assigned for today’s readings both discuss the importance of Native American peoples maintaining a sense of rhetorical sovereignty. Both essays highlight the desperate need for Native Americans to have a hand in defining their own culture and history, not just allowing European colonizers to make up their own version of indigenous peoples’ pasts. It is fascinating to see how both Lyons and Powell share common ideologies in their writing, despite the very different content of their texts. All differences aside, Lyons and Powell both found that Native American rhetorical sovereignty is not just something necessary for political equality and peace across cultural boundaries, but is something necessary for the survival of American Indians and their valuable ideologies and teachings.
In Lyons’s essay, he contrasts the European idea of political sovereignty with the Native American notion of sovereignty as a device used to preserve and represent an entire group of people. Rather than seeing sovereignty as a tool to aid in conquering and ruling as the European settlers did (and do?), American Indians see how sovereignty can be used to help a culture protect and define itself. In short, Lyons uses his essay to portray the American Indian desire to maintain balance and order by having a certain degree of respect for differences and boundaries. Lyons discusses the way white conquerors refuse to share the desires for peace and balance between cultures that many Native Americans have, and therefore shows us how a lack of sovereignty for Native American people can result in the eradication or disappearance of their culture as they know it.
Powell writes of the survival of Native American culture in her essay as well, but offers a fresh perspective on the topic. Powell believes that the survival of the traditional American Indian is something that can only be achieved through acceptance of change. Powell understands, although she does not necessarily agree with, the way times are changing, and she believes the key to rhetorical sovereignty is cooperation between American Indian and non-Indian scholars and thinkers. In her essay, Powell urges non-Indians to find a desire to understand indigenous peoples, just as indigenous peoples find ways to understand the ever-evolving world around them, dominated by white thought and law. As Americans in general, Powell sees one surefire way we can guarantee the survival of Native American culture – by working together.
Here is today's submission on Thomas King's work.
The excerpts from Thomas King’s work The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative helped me to realize just how big of an impact stories have on our thoughts about life and the world around us as human beings. King provides a comparison between the Native American creation story and the Christian creation story in order to make his point about how influential stories can be on entire cultures after they are passed down from generation to generation. I thoroughly enjoyed watching King’s writing develop throughout the excerpt and seeing how stories influenced his life in a number of ways. The excerpt from King’s book caused me to reflect on myself and the stories I have been exposed to in my own life (as well as the ones I have exposed other people to) and made me reevaluate my outlook on a number of things including native peoples.
King makes a bold statement about the striking differences between Native American tales of how the world was created, and biblical versions of the creation of Earth and humankind. King notes that in the Native American version, the deity is flawed and needs to rely on the animals and elements existing on Earth in order to successfully build land and people. In Christian tellings of the story of Adam and Eve, God is not flawed but rather is a pure, all-powerful, all-knowing figure who has a relationship with Adam, Eve, and the other organisms of the Earth that relies on a hierarchy. The Native American creation story stresses cooperation, inclusion, growth, and balance, while the Christian story stresses solitary power and the threat of punishment. King draws clear connections between the fundamental messages in different cultures’ creation stories and how those messages are portrayed in the cultures themselves. In general, as we’ve been learning in our ENGL 326 assignments, Native Americans strongly valued balance and it shows in their treatment of the Earth, while European settlers in North America were more interested in conquering and claiming ownership (even at the risk of throwing out balance altogether).
While King uses creation stories to exemplify historical influences on peoples, he switches gears in his writing to show another story that influences cultural perspectives even to this day - the story of “the Indian.” I was horrified and also very surprised to learn in King’s text how heavily the stereotypical “Indian” created by modern Americans influenced white perspectives of Indian culture and established one singular image of what a Native American person looks like and how they should behave. It was disgusting to learn about how desperate Americans were to take a story they created in their minds about Indian life and impress that story upon an entire group of people with no regards for their actual history, language, customs, or traditions. Essentially it looks as though white Americans were uncomfortable with native peoples they were sharing the United States with, so they constructed a story (an image) they were comfortable with and promoted that story, pressuring Indians to comply with it regardless of their agreement with it. Personally, I think as a nation it is time we begin writing a new Native American story. A true one.
Response to Thomas King’s Work
In Thomas Kings first story, I could not help but think of the number of stories that are told each day. Every family, group of friends, community and country all have stories of their past and of their present. It is crazy to think that what is taught in school systems is all a bunch of stories that are from one person or group of people and made into what our culture and society consists of. It also got me thinking that when we all leave the earth, we are nothing but a story. Whatever we did during our time is just a memory that other people have to share and remember to tell the next generations to come. Everyone has a story and we keep passing these stories down from people to people. I thought it was interesting that he says we have to be careful to who we tell stories to. The title alone got me to want to read this section because of how it zeros in on a specific way to tell a story.
The second story once again just put reality right back on the table. Stereotypes that the Native people faced are always going to be there because of people who cannot let that history go. There were sections that talk about the Indian “paraphernalia” and how it is always the same no matter where they come across those individual peoples. Racism is brought up in this section and it reads, “Racism is a funny thing, you know. Dead quiet on occasion. Often dangerous. But sometimes it has a peculiar sense of humor.” It was interesting because here he mentions how he was looking at the Mexicans, because they were of different race than he, but then he looks around and people are staring at him because he is a Native American. One group of people may think that they are considered with the norm, but then when they are in a completely different area, they become the outcasts. Another major part of the second story is when race is brought up within a family picture. He says, “we believe we can see it” which is so beyond true. When looking around you, you may think you can guess someone’s race, but that is just based on his or her look. You cannot look at a picture and guess what someone’s race is; it goes beyond their looks and features.
“You’ll never believe what happened” is always a great way to start and “You’re not the Indian I had in mind” sparked a lot of thoughts for me and that is important within a story. It is sad to see that no matter what we read, there always seems to be that underlying stereotype that does not want to disappear about the Native Americans.
After reading “The Nations Within” by Deloria I began to think of how hard it must be for Native people to believe that the United States government is actually trying to help and protect them because it seems like the only reason they do this is to keep taking from the Natives. We seem so greedy and after everything we have and the power we have, it is never enough we always want more. Even though when we think of Indians we think of people with feathers, costumes on, dancing to Indian music, living in tee-pees, etc. in the end they are no different than any other American. Most Indians live in poor, isolated places and there are many American people that live in these conditions as well. American Indians represent the only aboriginal people still practicing self-government after a new and modern civilization has been brought into their lands. One thing that is important to them is keeping their culture and history alive and keep it going forever. Just because a new updated government has been created does not mean they have to jump right at it and leave everything they once knew behind, they are not going to follow the U.S. just because they have power and tell them this is the way to live. The way they are living has worked for them in the past and is working for them now in the present and will continue to work for them in the future and when the world does change they will have to adapt better but on their own terms. There are some things they could learn that would benefit them and help make them stronger but that does not mean that they have to give up and have the U.S. government take over all it means is that they need to change up some things and figure ways out that would benefit them.
Indians do not agree with the way that white leaders stand in the back of their men while at war and allow their men to die first to protect authority. When thinking of the term leader, the first thing that comes to mind is the first person in a line not the last so when a leader brings their men to war they need to lead them into war from beginning to end. I totally agree with the Native people on this one and until now I never thought how wrong it was for the leader to stand in the back of his men. To me that is not a leader it is a coward and that person does not deserve the title leader at all. To become a chief or leader depeneds on personal prestige, honestly, charisma, and integrity not popularity like white people. I agree with the Native people on this, too because if everyone votes for one person just because they are rich or come from a powerful family how do you know if that person is even a good candidate for the job? This person could and probably would be a selfish and have a large ego which will not help win a war at all but would most likely help become defeated. You need someone who is strong-willed, selfless, and willing to do whatever means necessary to help his people.
25 September 2014
Critical Response - 9/23
King’s reading intrigues me on many levels for what it has to say about story and its function in our society. Stories are used to pass down knowledge and learning from one generation to the next, in in doing so, pass on lessons learned from the past, whatever these lessons might be. Whether they are personal, family stories, or far reaching stories of mythology, they shape who we are as a person, often in subtle ways, and connect us to the culture we live in.
In a point that our class touched on recently, the idea of religion as story spring up in this reading, as well. King talks about the inherent difference in the creation stories of the Native Americans and of the European settlers who came and colonized the land. He speaks of how the Native American creation story is one of cooperation and sacrifice. There is an overarching theme of equality and sacrifice that permeates this particular Native American story, and it shapes the way native people saw the world around them. Like their creation story, they were chiefly concerned with maintaining balance in all things. The world was not a place that was inherently good or evil. It was a place where harmony was the only way to live, and relationships between people, animals, and nature should be kept neutral.
Compare this directly with Christian mythology and the story told in the book of Genesis. Here, we have an all-powerful deity who has created a world for humanity, one in which perfection is the status quo and evil is kept at bay by God himself. Hinging on man’s propensity to evil and one mistake that would damn all of us, it is a story of broken rules, and as King himself related, a story which seeks to establish that there is most assuredly a hierarchy to the world, and God himself is firmly seated at the top.
Seeing these stories laid out in such a way brings to light issues that we overlook every day. King makes a point of this when he briefly mentions the power of religion to shape our thoughts. He speaks about the fact that if one is to hold a certain story as gospel, the other must inherently be a secular tale. It is a fascinating point, one that I believe to be true, but it is astonishing to think how little we think about its implications.
As adults, we largely take for granted the fact that we are insightful enough to pick and choose our own values. We are far better and much more capable than children to listen to or read a story and extract meaning from it, applying the lessons learned to our lives as we see fit. Children, however, function differently. They are much more likely to take a story at face value, and when exposed to a particular story in childhood, that story becomes “the” story of their life. That story will shape their worldview and everything else will have to be filtered through that lens. It is remarkable how appropriate King’s dialogue is about the power of these stories.
This idea does not just apply to religious narratives, either. Think about the implication of story in our own lives. Most of us have very little experience, or have ever met a Native American person in the flesh. We have nothing but stories to base our idea of an entire people, a group that is just as diverse as any other group on this planet. And because all we do have it stories, the people of Native ancestry that we do meet come to unfairly embody all native people and represent not just themselves, but the entire community. If we are to ever hope to move past petty stereotypes and what we “know,” we must train ourselves to think far less on the importance of story, and pay more attention to the role of experience in our lives.
Stories are unique and different. Something that is told from one person to another in the Okanagan understood this. They knew that each time they heard a story it would be changed somehow. It would be changed by the accent, and dialect. Or it could be changed by the order, or possibly something added to the story. This is an interesting perspective on storytelling, whereas I always thought a story would be the same. I suppose it is like the game of telephone, which I never realized before. This doesn’t bother the Okanagan people, they embrace the changes in the story, they believe they are merely retelling the same story in a different pattern.
I thought it was interesting when the narrator spoke of a story that was told about the witches, and how they wanted the story that was told aloud to be taken back. I couldn’t though, “For once a story is told, it cannot be called back. Once told, it is loose in the work, (King, 10). So you have to be careful of the stories that are told. I think this is not only a clever story but a good life story. Many people are careless of the stories they tell. Once they have been told there's not way of undoing that. Lies or hurtful words can be spread by word of mouth, this is why you must be careful of the stories you tell. Once it is told it is out in the world.
I liked that part that explained that the entire world is made up of stories, “You can’t understand the world without telling a story,” (King, 32). It appears that Native Americans used stories to explain the world around them, but so do we. It seems to be scientific, but when you go to tell someone how something happens you are just telling a story. When I thought about it I thought that we have become so advanced from Native Americans, but in reality we haven’t. We use stories just as they did, the difference I have noticed is that they were careful with what came from their mouths. As nowadays we blurt out untrue statements, that we can not retract. We aim to hurt people with our stories. We are less careful with our stories, it is like we take them for granted.
In Thomas King's The Truth About Stories he tells about an early life with his mother. Growing up fatherless his mother had support them. In a male centered society women were often forced to be seen and not heard, in the kitchen. Whatever job a woman did have was as an assistant and even then they did not get as much income as a man would have. The sad thing about these stories is that they become reality more often then they should. A couple get married and have children and then the husband leaves after realizing he can't deal with the commitment or stress involved with raising a family. Raising a family takes self-sacrifice and many people do not understand this. The author and his brother become the children that were left behind. The whole story becomes a part of the normal tale. This happens in America more and more because people marry and have kids without understanding the responsibility. Stories are what give lessons such as this to fellow readers. If readers can get the advice out of what is being told then there is hope that the lesson will sit in the minds of the reader.
Native Writing and Rhetoric
There are several aspects of Thomas King’s “The Truth About Stories” that has resonated with me. First of all, I really appreciate the story regarding his mother. There is still a great need to project the feminist outlook. I understand that the author is describing a different time period and that in our modern society we have progressed significantly on the issue of the equality of the sexes. However, I still believe that there is a certain silence among many male authors to vocalize these issues.
But most importantly, I found the comparison between the native creation story and the Biblical one to be mentally stimulating. King suggests that the strict, authoritative nature of the Biblical story generates a negative cultural dynamic. He continues to convey that building this world out of spite and self-importance creates an arrogant and self-motivated society. He suggests that the outlook that we are “God’s Chosen People…Masters of the Universe” employs us with the notion that we are invincible and privileged. When I read this I correlated it to another piece of literature I read a couple of times for two other classes. This piece is called “Of Plymouth Plantation” ,and it was written by the Puritan man William Bradford. In his piece, he describes an exploration of the land led by the settlers; in this exploration, the men discover buried corn that was grown and harvested by the Indigenous people. Instead of burying the corn and leaving empty handed, the settlers took some with them. After describing this action, he made a Biblical allusion to when the Israelites found the grapes right outside Canaan, also referred to as “the promised land.” Therefore, I feel as though the author , though not directly referencing this work, may be writing on this topic with this history in mind. The “white man”, or any ethnicity generating from Christianity based religion, seems to always employ that religion as a tool against the oppressed. Because these native people did not share the same religious background, the Puritans and other settler groups determined that they must be of a superior nature. This detrimental outlook greatly affected the way which humanity has dealt with war and land issues. I think that this is an important outlook because it explores the “why” behind what occurred throughout history as Christian groups, who deemed themselves fervent in the goodness of their faith, lacked the humanity to view their actions as horrific.
Sovereignty and other such governmental and national aspects of cultures never really peaked my interest. This reading was no different, but again, it got me thinking about Native Americans in a way that I never have before. When I think of Native Americans back in the older times never once did I consider that they had an organized ‘government’ of any kind, or as it is referred to for the entirety of this reading, their sovereignty. I’ll admit I did always think of Native Americans as the barbarians they were believed to be for quite some time, with the scalping and massacring they were remembered for. However, this reading was actually an eyebrow raiser, the Native American people actually fighting for their independence. I knew that they would fight to protect their respected tribes, but not in unison as a culture rather than tribes.
I guess I just assumed that the Native Americans just gave up and kept moving west until there was nowhere else to flee to, hence the trail of tears. But again, I took this class with the intention of not only reading fascinating literature, but also learning more about the Native American people that once lived on the land that I live on now.
Everyone has the right to their own independence and freedoms, their sovereignties, it is a little sickening to me that our white ancestors didn’t seem to think the same way and took everything away from the Native American people.
I find myself incredibly sympathetic for the Native American people and find myself more outrage by the selfish and evil explorers from the eastern side of the ocean in Europe. Nowadays it is impossible for someone to claim something that isn’t his or hers, apparently it was very easy for someone to do that back when the Native Americans lived where we stand now. How violating, how insulting towards basic human rights.
Critical Response 6
September 25, 2014
In “The Truth About Stories,” King mentions, “You can’t understand the world without telling a story,” and that stories make up whom we are. This reminds me of the stories about Selu that we read earlier, and she shed her corn in order for the rest of us to survive. That was a story that in part explained how we came to be, and therefore gives substance to who are as humans. This is what King is explaining, that stories are used for more than just to pass the time, but to explain who we are. In the same chapter, King also talks about how the Indian of present day is different that the past and the stereotypes that we hold in our mind now. During his journey to collect photographs across the country, he came across one of a group of Indians, in full headdresses, golfing. Even to me this is a peculiar image to read about. I admit I am not used to hearing about Native Americans golfing or playing any sports such as that. What is curious about the photograph is that none of the names are listed, but just that it is a group of Indians. This is glancing over the fact that these men have identities, and is just playing into a cliché that they are merely something to look at it. However, on this same picture the white caddies had names. This makes no sense at all. King gives his explanation, “Though to give them identities, to reveal them to be actual people, would be, I suppose, a violation of the physical laws governing matter and antimatter, that the Indian and Indians cannot exist in the same imagination.” He is sarcastically saying that if you pointed out that these Native Americans have identities, then people will begin to possibly be feel ashamed, or even question what they have thought in the past.
King had an acquaintance, Curtis, who reveled in the same project of gathering photographs and postcards of Native Americans. However, King says that if Curtis were asked why he believed this project was important, he would say it is because the Indian is dying. This is not in the literal sense, but in the literal sense, that the stories and traditions of the Native American are dying. Taking the photographs contained a responsibility he said to the implication that the lives of the Natives needed to be improved. This relates loosely to “Rhetorical Sovereignty,” and how room must be allowed for Native American culture to be embraced. If this is denied, then we will gradually see the disappearance of their literature, overshadowed by those who do not care and do not see the worth, when in fact, there is everything to be gained.
9 – 25 – 2014
After reading “Red earth, white lies” I started think of scientific theories that had no real scientific basis similar to the Bering Strait theory. I remember learning in history that southerners believed blacks had smaller brains and that Hitler created his own pseudo-science to judge who was purebred or a Jew. So in essence the settlers were no better than the racists history has taught me about before. Even the song by Woody Guthrie holds some discriminatory remarks “This land is your land, this land is my land.” And I never saw it that way as a child and have long forgotten what the song even represented. The article goes on to talk about how far back Native American history goes in that land and how insignificant it was to settlers. The article’s casual tone made it feel more like a conversation rather than a dense academic novel which in my opinion made the text flow very smoothly. There were numerous scientific theories thrown around in the courtroom and I believe people were losing sight of the true problem. It didn’t matter where the Natives came from what mattered was how they were being treated. It’s undeniable that Native Americans were in America first and had been treated poorly since their discovery by settlers yet it took so long for them to be officially recognized and given reparations for the crimes against them. Even to this day there are things they deserve and yet are still ignored. It was peculiar to hear about so much scientific theory being discussed over a legality issue but ultimately it ignored Native American tradition which was why it was so heavily opposed by the Natives. Sadly, even now the debate is still going and a definitive resolution hasn’t been found. This may become an obstacle for future quarrels between the United States government and Native American tribes.
Space to comment on the readings for each class...
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Who doesn’t love a cute, colorful squirrel?
The Indian Giant Squirrel – also called the Malabar Giant Squirrel – is an adorable creature which has been hiding in the depths of India for far too long.
And thanks to some savvy photographers, we can now see the amazing sight of these brown, dark red, white, purple, yellow and orange animals.
They usually hang out by themselves and are often seen early in the morning and evening.
When they’re stressed – often from predators – they freeze and lie on a tree trunk, hoping they won’t be noticed.
So next time you’re in the tropical forests of India, bring some binoculars! These squirrels are not easy to spot.
These cannot be real. How cute are they? If they feel threatened, they’ll lie against a tree trunk.
The #Indian #giant #squirrel, or #Malabar giant squirrel, is a large #tree squirrel #species genus #Ratufa native to #India. It is a large-bodied #diurnal, #arboreal, and #herbivorous squirrel found in #South #Asia. #theknownindia #beautiful #creature #animalkingdom #animal #fauna #aves #incredibleindia #kerala #namastey #forest #jungle #yehmeraindia #achankovil
The Giant Indian Squirrel’s tail is usually around six feet long.
The #IndianGiantSquirrel (Ratufa indica), also called the #MalabarGiantSquirrel, is a large species of tree #squirrel native to South Asia. It typically has a three-colored coat of reddish-brown, black, and cream. It grows to be about a foot long, with an additional two feet of tail. It can weigh more than four pounds. The Indian Giant Squirrel lives in the canopies of trees and travels from tree to tree by leaping off of branches, sometimes jumping more than 20 feet. It feeds on a variety of plants, especially fruits and nuts. It plays a vital role in shaping its habitat through seed dispersal. This large rodent is often preyed on by Leopards and birds of prey. There are five subspecies of Indian Giant Squirrel.
It’s a rare sight to see two squirrels together.
I just can’t handle this cuteness. I’m off to India.
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What is Biological Therapy?
Biological therapy is a cancer treatment that uses the body to fight against the cancer by stimulating the immune system to recognize and fight the cancer cells. Some biological therapies do not target cancer cells directly but stimulate other chemicals or cells to attack the cancer. These types of biological therapy are sometimes referred to collectively as “immunotherapy” or “biological response modifier therapy.”
Other biological therapies, such as antibodies or segments of genetic material, target cancer cells directly. Biological therapies that interfere with specific molecules involved in tumor growth and progression are also referred to as targeted therapies.
Biological therapies may be used to treat cancer or the side effects of other cancer treatments.
What is the difference between chemotherapy and biological therapies?
Chemotherapy uses drugs, while biological therapy (or immunotherapy) uses what we naturally produce in our bodies.
Since cancer cells divide and grow rapidly, chemotherapy is made to target rapidly dividing cells and kill them. Biological therapy treatments do not directly kill cancer cells. Instead, they help your immune system fight the cancer.
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Washington, D.C. – Two strongly bipartisan bills supporting women in science fields passed the House of Representatives on 22 March 2016.
The “INSPIRE Women Act,” sponsored by Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA), calls on NASA to encourage young women and girls to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) careers and the “Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act,” sponsored by Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-CT), calls for improved federal support for women entrepreneurs in STEM fields.
“For the American economy to be successful in the 21st Century, we need to have a skilled labor force that understands innovation and emerging technologies,” Comstock said in a statement.
The two acts follow recently passed bills supporting STEM education, including the Every Child Succeeds Act and the STEM Education Act of 2015, as well as a recently introduced initiative supporting women and minorities in computer science.
INSPIRE Women Act
The H.R.4755 “Inspiring the Next Space Pioneers, Innovators, Researchers, and Explorers (INSPIRE) Women Act” aims to encourage women to enter STEM fields, especially aerospace, through three of NASA’s mentorship and outreach programs.
First, the act calls for the Administrator of NASA to support the NASA GIRLS and NASA BOYS program. The program matches young students from across the country to NASA engineers and scientists and provides a platform for them to video chat about possible careers in STEM.
Second, the act encourages NASA’s Aspire to Inspire (A2I) program, which engages young girls to think about careers in STEM by introducing them to early career women at NASA. The A2I project created short digital films featuring early career women at NASA and reached out to societies, clubs, and other institutions geared toward a similar goal.
Third, the act calls for NASA to support the Summer Institute in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Research (SISTER) at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. The institute gives female middle school students the opportunity to meet and mingle with Goddard Space Flight Center women scientists, engineers, mathematicians, technicians, and researchers.
If the act is signed into law, the Administrator of NASA must submit a plan to the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. The plan would elaborate on NASA’s existing outreach programs and how those programs could expand; propose and describe a program specific to retired astronauts and innovators; and identify any additional authorities.
“The INSPIRE Women Act will help create a climate for young girls and women to be successful in STEM and competitive on the world stage, and be great assets to growing the 21st Century economy,” Comstock said.
Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act
The H.R.4742 “Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act” also encourages women to enter STEM fields by supporting entrepreneurial programs for women. The act expands the mission of the National Science Foundation to include supporting entrepreneurial programs for women in the commercial sphere.
The act emphasizes the fact that women are less likely to study STEM in universities and that only 26 percent of women who achieve degrees in STEM fields work in STEM careers. The act also cites studies that show that women are successful drivers of technology and commercialization ventures.
“The overwhelming, bipartisan passage” of the act “makes clear that helping women break into fields where they have long been underrepresented is a priority for our national economy,” Esty said in a statement.
By Elizabeth Goldbaum, GSA Science Policy Fellow
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There is a worrying tendency to assume that science is the only source of truth and knowledge. John Gray's essay embodies that school of thought (14 September, p 46).
The philosophy that he argues against is as useful now as it was 2000 years ago. Gray states: "Ever since Socrates, philosophers have aspired to a life based solely on true beliefs. Yet recent research suggests we are programmed to live on illusions." Gray fails to accept that philosophers attempt either to see through the illusions or show that it is unnecessary to do so. If the human mind were programmed to accept illusions, why would science be better able to show us the truth than philosophy?
Gray later tries to show that science is better at explaining the world than our perceptions. But science is based on perception. A scientist will observe a phenomenon, then devise a theory that ...
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.
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Apollo 40th Anniversary web site celebrates the many accomplishments of the Apollo Program.
NASA's 45th Anniversary:
On October 1, 1958 NASA began operations. This page is a
celebration of NASA's 45th anniversary in 2003. It contains links to
photos, videos, documents, publications, biographies, and other
information about the formation of NASA and its 45 years of
activities. There are also links to a basic fact sheet on NASA
history and a chronology of defining events for NASA. We also have a
similar site for NASA's 40th Anniversary in 1998 and a new one for NASA's 50th anniversary.
NACA's 90th Anniversary: Founded in 1915, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) pushed the boundaries of the emerging aeronautics and astronautics fields. NASA succeeded the organization in 1958. This website commemorates that 90th anniversary of NACA's foundation in 2005.
Anniversary of the Mercury-Atlas 6 (Friendship 7) Mission: John H. Glenn, Jr. became the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962.
Anniversary of STS-1:
On April 12, 1981, the first Space Shuttle mission blasted into orbit with astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen aboard.
This site commemorates the 25th anniversary of this historic achievement, with a history, chronology, photos, and other useful resources.
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project:
Prepared for the 30th anniversary of the historic link-up in space that
took place in July 1975, this site commemorates the first human
spaceflight mission managed jointly by two nations.
Anniversary of Apollo 11:
This site includes a variety of newly available information such as
interviews with the three crew members and interesting historical
Anniversary of the Mercury Seven:
On April 9th, 1959, NASA announced the Mercury Seven's formation.;
These pages contain biographies, documents, pictures and other items of
interest about the formation of the first group of American astronauts,
Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., John Glenn, Jr., Virgil "Gus"
Grissom, Walter Schirra, Jr., Alan Shepard, Jr., and Donald "Deke"
On October 14, 1947, the X-1 airplane broke the sound barrier.
This site celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of that historic flight,
including photos, reports, biographies, and much more.
Sputnik Anniversary :
On October 4, 1957. the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I,
the world's first artificial satellite. This site is devoted to the
history and ramifications of Sputnik. It includes information
explaining the larger context of the International Geophysical Year,
the first Explorer spacecraft, the Vanguard program, and the birth of
Apollo 204 (Apollo 1):
On January 27, 1967, tragedy struck the Apollo program. A flash
fire occurred in the command module during a launch pad test, killing
astronauts Lt. Col. Virgil I. Grissom, Lt. Col. Edward H. White, and
Roger B. Chaffee. This page is dedicated to the remembrance of
the tragedy and the lives it claimed.
On January 28, 1986, space shuttle Challenger was launched with a crew
of seven astronauts. Tragically, 73 seconds after lift-off, the space
craft exploded, killing its entire crew. This page, published on the
tenth anniversary of the accident, contains NASA administrator reports
and speeches as well as biographical and technical information about
Remembering Columbia STS-107:
On February 1, 2003, space shuttle Columbia and its seven member crew
were lost during reentry following a sixteen-day mission. This is a
comprehensive site containing information about the STS-107 mission,
accident, recovery efforts, and investigation. The site contains
numerous documents and images, including information from the former
Columbia Accident Investigation Board Website.
Steve Garber, NASA History Web Curator
For further information email [email protected]
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Xanthus Russell SmithMarine, landscape, portrait, and historical painter.
American , 1839-1929
was an American artist best known for his illustrations of the American Civil War. Born in Philadelphia, Smith served in the United States Navy during the war and depicted naval battles with a variety of media, including pencil and oil paint. His best known work (right) recreates the 1864 battle between the CSS Alabama and USS Kearsarge off Cherbourg, France. Smith did not actually participate in most of the battles he illustrated; instead, he generally consulted those who were present at the engagements.
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Buzz, Moz and the Bees by Roch Carrier
Might as well tell you right away: my name is Buzz. I'm the singer in our band, Buzz and the Bees . We practice three hours a day. Sometimes four. Our mothers often ask: "Why can't you spend that much time on your homework?" We are in training for the Battle of the Bands.
The other day, when we got to school, we saw that it wasn't a regular day. In the hallway the girls were clustered like a bunch of grapes.
Me , Buzz , and my Bees went up to them. In the middle of this group of girls, we saw this weird-looking guy in a shiny tunic like people wore in the days of the Beatles. His face was pockmarked. The girls were all excited because he kissed their hands like in old movies. He spoke French, English, German, Italian all at the same time. The girls could understand his gobbledygook. They told us he was a musician: that he'd put on concerts in Europe. Me, Buzz, I didn't believe his bragging. The bell rang. The great star declared: "A day without Mozart is a day without sunshine!" To the girls, that was awesome. Me and my Bees had a quiet meeting. We decided we hated this Mozart.
At the start of class, our teacher introduced the new student. He wasn't nervous. He smiled at everybody. In his pink outfit, he looked like a butterfly.
The lesson was about the origin of the world. "How did it begin?" asked the teacher.
"I know because my father has a telescope and a microscope: it all started with music," Mozart answered.
Huh? We looked at each other. Who'd have thought such a thing?
"Even when there wasn't anything, there was music. Because silence is music too. Have you ever listened to silence?"
The teacher said: "Scientists say the universe began with a huge explosion, the Big Bang!"
"Here's what the Big Bang was like," said Mozart, and he blew this gigantic raspberry.
The whole class roared. Mozart was proud of himself. The teacher did his best to keep a straight face. He ordered Mozart to explain his Big Bang to the principal. The new kid said: "Sorry, but that's nature - not very polite."
At recess me, Buzz, and my Bees went and asked Mozart: "Hey, man, are you really a musician like us?"
He said: "I could tell you guys had music in you!" I can't say why, but we felt proud.
Mozart had never skated. I lent him my skates. He borrowed scarves and wrapped them around his hands. "So I won't break my fingers if I fall," he explained. Then he zipped onto the ice like someone who isn't worried about breaking his neck. Mozart had rubber ankles, but he sang and the girls followed him.
I invited him to visit Buzz and the Bees in our garage. Mozart asked: "How come you need all those boxes and wires to create music?" He'd never picked up an electric guitar. "You don't need lessons to play this." His fingers picked out a few notes and he started playing softly.
Now me, Buzz, I've got talent. But I never got tunes out of my guitar like he did. Me, I play on three strings. Mozart sounded like he was improvising on twenty-five strings. Wow!
Would he like to join Buzz and the Bees for the Battle of the Bands? Yes! The next morning posters announced: BUZZ, MOZ AND THE BEES LAY DOWN THE LAW!
Never before in the history of the Battle of the Bands was there as much shouting as there was in our gym. We'd found an electronic piano for Mozart. He jumped up and down with excitement when he saw this toy. He took four or five notes of our music and broke them down. Here, I'll explain. At his piano, Mozart cut the notes into little pieces of sound and flung them up in the air. The pieces whirled like birds, they did singing pirouettes, they danced and then he brought all the birds back to their cage� And closed the door… There was just one that was chirping. Can you hear it? Then all at once Mozart opened the door again. And the feast of music started up again. Yeah! And Buzz, Moz and the Bees won the Battle of the Groups. We'll be on TV Wednesday night at 8:30. Don't miss it!
A couple of days later, we were rehearsing in our garage when this black limousine as long as a bus pulled up. It was Moz. "Get in, we're going to the National Arts Centre."
Me, Buzz and my Bees got taken to seats in the first row. At least two thousand people were there, all dressed up as if they were at a wedding. When Moz came on stage the crowd jumped to their feet.
He had on this wig. Me, Buzz, I think he was making up his music while he played it. Yeah! We were so close we could see everything. Sometimes his fingers moved so fast on the keys that we couldn't follow them. Cool! His whole body was quivering..Wow! He was watching the audience. Sometimes one hand crossed over the other one to find a note at the opposite end of the keyboard. Or else instead of using ten fingers, Moz asked just one to do all the work. He played as easily as a kid scribbles. It was, it was … it was amazing� With all his � inventions, his combinations, we felt… I don't know how to put it. Mozart gave our ears wings… Yeah!
When his concert was over, Mozart said: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd like to introduce my musician friends Buzz and the Bees, winners of the Battle of the Bands." Believe it or not, he'd brought along our instruments. Even the electronic piano. I'm sorry you weren't there. Me, Buzz, I've never played better.
In the same way that he'd turned up at our school, Mozart, our friend Moz, disappeared. The girls say he went to Mexico. He told us once: "You have to know your limits to surpass them." We play now as if he was still with us. Me, Buzz, I know he'll come back. You know what I mean?
Translated by Sheila Fischman
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PASSIONATE GRAMMARIANS have long quarrelled over whether data should be singular or plural (contrary to common usage, this newspaper is sticking with the latter, for now). A better question is why are data so singularly plural? That is, why do they have so many different faces?
For an answer, start with the many metaphors used to describe flows of data. Originally they were likened to oil, suggesting that data are the fuel of the future. More recently, the comparison has been with sunlight because soon, like solar rays, they will be everywhere and underlie everything. There is also talk of data as infrastructure: they should be seen as a kind of digital twin of roads or railways, requiring public investment and new institutions to manage them.
The multiplication of metaphors reflects the malleable economics of data. First, they are “non-rivalrous”: since they are infinitely copyable, they can be used by many people without limiting the use by others. But they are also “excludable”: technologies like encryption can control who has access to them. Depending on where one sets the cryptographic slider, data can indeed be private goods like oil or public goods like sunlight—or something in between, known as a “club good”.
This in turn means that there is not just one data economy, but three more or less distinct ones, each with its own ideology. And the big question is whether one will come to dominate, or whether the mirror world will be as much of a mixture as the real one.
If oil is still the most-used metaphor, it is because comparing data to the black stuff is easy. Like oil, data must be refined to be useful. In most cases they need to be “cleansed” and “tagged”, meaning stripped of inaccuracies and marked to identify what can be seen, say, on a video. This has spawned a global industry employing hundreds of thousands of people, mostly in low-wage countries. Scale AI, a startup in San Francisco, employs 30,000 taggers around the world who review footage from self-driving cars and ensure the firm’s software has correctly classified things like houses and pedestrians.
Before data can power AI services, they also need to be fed through algorithms, to teach them to recognise faces, steer self-driving cars and predict when jet engines need a check-up. And different data sets often need to be combined for statistical patterns to emerge. In the case of jet engines, for instance, mixing usage and weather data helps forecast wear and tear.
The oil metaphor also rings true because some types of data and some of the insights extracted from them are already widely traded. Online advertising is perhaps the biggest marketplace for personal data: clicks are bought and sold based on a detailed digital profile of each viewer. It was worth $178bn globally in 2018, according to Strategy&, a consultancy. Data brokers, which can track thousands of data points for each individual, do brisk business with personal information, too. They sell it to everyone from banks to telecoms carriers, generating annual revenue of more than $21bn, says Strategy&.
Offering insights from mining data can be very profitable, too. On Kaggle, a website owned by Google that hosts machine-learning contests, thousands of teams of data scientists compete against each other to see who can come up with the best algorithms to predict a building’s energy consumption or to detect “deepfake” videos, with prizes sometimes exceeding $1m. That is also Facebook’s and Google’s way to make money. They hardly ever sell data, but they do sell insights about who is the best target for advertising.
Yet data have failed to become “a new asset class”, as the World Economic Forum, a conference-organiser and think-tank, predicted in 2011. Most data never change hands, and attempts to make them more tradable have not taken off. To change this, especially in Europe, manufacturers are pushing to secure property rights for the data generated by their products. Others want consumers to own the data they create, so they can sell them and get a bigger cut from their information.
Again, economics gets in the way. Although data are often thought of as a commodity, corporate data sets, in particular, tend not to be fungible. Each is different in the way it was collected, and in its purpose and reliability. This makes it difficult for buyers and sellers to agree on a price: the value of each sort is hard to compare and changes over time. A further barrier to trading is that the value of a data set depends on who controls it. What might simply be data exhaust to one firm could be digital gold to another. “There is no true value of data,” says Diane Coyle of the University of Cambridge.
As for personal data, defining property rights is tricky, because much information cannot be attributed to one person. Who, for instance, owns the fact that a dating site has matched a couple? The couple themselves? Or the service? Complicating matters, data have plenty of externalities, both positive and negative, meaning that markets often fail. Why should a social network, say, buy the data of an individual if it can make quite accurate predictions about him by crunching data from other users?
Although data are unlikely ever to be traded as widely as oil, tech firms keep trying to make this easier. Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud-computing arm of the e-commerce giant recently launched a marketplace that aims to make trading in data as easy as possible. It works a bit like an online store for smartphone apps: buyers subscribe to feeds, agree to licensing conditions, and AWS processes the payment.
Light stuff not black stuff
Champions of the “open-data” movement push organisations to give away their data
As the oil metaphor is seen as increasingly problematic, the comparison to sunlight or similar resources, such as air and water, has risen in favour. Many people who prefer this metaphor ask if data do not really lend themselves to be turned into a tradable good, then why even try? Would it not instead be better to ensure that data are used as much as possible? After all, this will maximise social wealth. In other words, nobody puts up curtains and tries to charge for sunlight.
This line of argument has already given birth to what is known as the “open-data” movement. Its champions push organisations and universities to give away their data so they can be widely used, for instance by startups. Today, most governments, national or otherwise, boast an open-data project, although the quality of the data made available varies greatly.
More recently, companies have started to publish their data, too. Several firms that work on self-driving cars have shared some of the information collected by their vehicles. “For researchers to ask the right questions, they need the right data,” according to Dragomir Anguelov, principal scientist at Waymo, a firm owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent, that is one of the companies that has done this. Others are working on technology to make such data-sharing easier: Microsoft and other software makers will soon start to implement what it calls the “open-data initiative”.
Some see such efforts as the beginning of an open-source movement for data, much like the approach that now rules large parts of the software industry. And Microsoft, in particular, is keen to see this happen. “We need to democratise AI and the data on which it relies,” writes Brad Smith, the firm’s president and chief legal officer in his recently published book, “Tools and Weapons”. Unsurprisingly, this position also smacks of self-interest: Microsoft does not make much money from data directly, but does from tools and services that handle data.
Like the oil comparison, however, the data-as-sunlight analogy breaks down: open data, too, can go only so far. For personal data, the main limitation is increasingly strict privacy laws, such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as well as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which will start being enforced in July. For corporate data the checks are economic in nature: generating good data is expensive and they can reveal too much about a firm’s products. “Companies will make very strategic decisions about what data sets they will make public and which ones they will keep to themselves,” explains Michael Chui of the McKinsey Global Institute, a consultancy think-tank.
Separating what can be safely shared from what should be closely guarded will be tricky, but technology should, in time, make such decisions easier. Something called “differential privacy”, for instance, replaces one data set with another that includes different information, but has the same statistical patterns. “Homomorphic encryption” allows algorithms to crunch data without decrypting them. And blockchains, which are the special databases of the sort that underlie many digital currencies, enable people and companies to manage in minute detail who is allowed to access what data and to track who has done so.
Slowly these technologies are being deployed. DECODE, an initiative financed until last year by the European Union, has used a combination of them to create tools that allow people to control the data they generate and collect about their environment, for instance, on noise levels and air quality. They are being tested in Amsterdam and Barcelona. Oasis Labs, another startup in San Francisco, has built something similar for health data. Its first service, which will launch soon, will let users donate genetic information to research projects.
Such data-dividing technologies are also grist to the mill of those who liken data to infrastructure. You have to travel many digital roads—and combine many data sets and streams—to get to new insights, says Jeni Tennison, who heads the Open Data Institute, a research outfit based in Britain. Some will be private toll roads, others public multi-lane highways, but many need to be operated as shared digital resources managed in a “club” by users.
Yet technology alone will not be enough to create these “club goods”. They also need institutions that provide what Ms Tennison calls “data stewardship”. Data trusts, data co-operatives, personal data stores—all are different in detail, but the idea is essentially the same: they provide a governance structure to organise access to data in a way that takes into account the interests of those producing and using a particular sort of data.
It is early days, but such data clubs have started to pop up in many places. MIDATA is a Swiss co-operative that collects and manages members’ health-care data. In Taiwan Audrey Tang, the digital minister, has created an ongoing “Presidential Hackathon” to set up “data collaboratives”, including several for environmental data. In Finland, Sitra, a policy outfit, has launched a similar competition to help get “fair data exchanges” off the ground.
New thing on the old continent
Most projects are still small and live on the public dime, which raises doubts about whether they will ever be a big part of the data economy. But whether they are successful or not is a question of political will, says Francesca Bria, the founder of the DECODE project. Cities in particular, she argues, need to create alternatives to the big online platforms, which treat data they collect as their own. A former chief technology officer of Barcelona, she turned the city into a model of what is possible, which is now copied elsewhere in Europe. Not only can Barcelona’s citizens control the data the city holds on them, but its suppliers must add the information they gather while delivering services to the municipal data commons.
Given their respective limitations, none of the three sorts of data economies will dominate, but they are likely to have strongholds. In America data are treated like oil: whoever extracts them owns them. China—although it, too, has data-hungry online platforms of its own, including Alibaba and Tencent—is an extreme example of a place where data are public goods. They are ultimately controlled by the government, which is pushing firms to pool certain types, such as health data. In Europe, many regulators have come to see data as infrastructure. The new European Commission in Brussels has big plans to support the creation of data trusts.
This sounds as if the EU is about to condemn itself to remaining a tech laggard. But this need not be the case. A “fair data-economy”—one that takes into account the interests of citizens and consumers, who will generate much of the fuel of the future—may prove to be quite competitive, says Luukas Ilves, the co-author of a report for Sitra in Finland. If people, as well as firms, can trust the continent’s data infrastructure, they will be willing to share more and better data, which means better services for everyone. If such a “virtuous cycle” were to take off, it would be quite a reversal of the old world’s fortunes.■
This article appeared in the Special report section of the print edition under the headline "Digital plurality"
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How to Cook a Star: The Reason Stars Shine
By Brian Tung
6 November 2000
I remember, as a child, going to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. The Exploratorium is a hands-on science museum for kids and adults, where you can investigate such disparate science topics as the motion of objects in a gravitational field, the effect of darkness and delay on three-dimensional vision, how engines work, and so forth. It's still there, and a great way to spend a day.
One of the exhibits they had was a sort of primitive pinball machine, with only one bumper. This bumper had an unknown shape -- at least, it was unknown to the user at first -- because it was hidden underneath a circular mask, which covered it completely. However, you could fire pinballs up at the bumper, which would strike it underneath the mask, and then bounce back every which way. You could slide the plunger back and forth along the bottom edge of the frame, and also rotate the bumper, so that you could strike the bumper from different positions and angles.
The purpose of all this firing and bouncing was to try to determine the shape of the bumper. You couldn't see the actual bumper, you couldn't get at it to take it apart; all you could do was fire pinballs up at it and observe which way they bounced. They had a whole bunch of these machines; eventually, you could piece together that the shape was a star, or a hexagon, or a triangle, or whatever it was. Sometimes you would decide right away that it was a square, and all of a sudden one of the pinballs, fired just right, would bounce back in a completely unexpected direction. You would have to play around a little longer before you realized that the shape was really a cross.
That, to me, is the essence of science. You practically never have full and complete access to the internal workings of whatever it is you're trying to figure out. Either it's too small, or too old and decayed, or too hard to get at; it's always too something to look at directly and figure out what's going on. You're always limited in how you can manipulate the darn thing. And yet, even using a limited tool set, you can arrive at a more complete picture of how it works.
In astronomy, of course, the problem is that everything is too far away. Only in this century has it become feasible to travel to the moon and planets, and even then we've only been able to bring back samples from the moon for first-hand observation and analysis. And although it now appears conceivable to one day travel to the stars, it's hardly out of the question that we still won't be able to go in and take core samples. How, then, do we figure out what's in the stars, and what makes them shine?
For generations upon generations, human observers have looked up at the stars and been unable to see anything more distinct than dots of light. It might have been possible for eagle-eyed humans to see the discs of Venus or Jupiter, to be sure, but even the ancient Greeks knew that these were planets and not fixed stars, so of course they were different. The stars remained infinitesimal points of light.
Even after Galileo first brought a telescope to bear on the stars (and no, he did not invent it), that's all anyone ever saw: points of light. Galileo's telescopes were so inferior by today's standards that he was unable to distinguish Saturn's rings, something that practically any dime-store telescope nowadays can do. Anyone who saw the stars as finite in extent soon discovered that their telescope was in error, and that they had not actually seen the surface of a star. Centuries passed, telescopes improved in both resolution and light-gathering power -- and points of light the stars steadfastly remained.
In the early 19th century, the French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798-1857) was trying to come up with an example of something that would forever be unattainable. The inability to resolve even one star other than our own sun led him to conclude that we would never be able to determine the composition of the stars. We would never be able to sample them physically, he argued, and there seemed no other way to analyze them, since no one could see the surface of any star, other than our own sun:
To attain a true idea of the nature and composition of [astronomy], it is indispensable. . .to mark the boundaries of the positive knowledge that we are able to gain of the stars. . . .We can never by any means investigate their chemical composition. . . .The positive knowledge we can have of the stars is limited solely to their geometrical and mechanical properties. [Cours de philosophie positive, 1842]
By "mechanical properties," Comte meant the movement of the stars through space, not their internal workings. As it sometimes goes, though, it took only a couple of years after Comte died for him to be proven wrong, and it didn't in fact require travel to the stars. Since Isaac Newton (1642-1727), it had been known that white light, such as light from the sun, could be separated into its constituent colors using a prism. This spectrum, as it came to be called, appeared to be continuous -- that is, there were no gaps anywhere where colors might be missing.
By the 19th century, however, the Bavarian optician Joseph von Fraunhofer (1787-1826) had discovered that the spectrum was not, in fact, completely continuous, but instead had little gaps here and there. These gaps are now called Fraunhofer lines in his honor. Then, in 1859, the German physicist Gustav Kirchhoff (1824-1887) discovered that when you heated certain minerals, the light emitted by the resulting flame wasn't a smooth and complete spectrum, as was light from the sun. Instead, it was a collection of small bands of light, each in its proper position along the spectrum, but in isolation.
Could it be that the gaps and the light bands were related in some way? When Kirchhoff looked at a pair of gaps in the solar spectrum, near the orange portion, he noticed that they seemed to be in exactly the same position as the two lines emitted by burning sodium. To test their similarity, he decided to pass sunlight through burning sodium vapor, and then subject the combined light to a prism, expecting to see the emission lines of the sodium vapor fill in the gaps in the solar spectrum. To Kirchhoff's great surprise, they did no such thing. If anything, the gaps became even darker and more distinct than they had been without the sodium vapor. Were the emission lines of the sodium vapor just off a bit from the gaps in the solar spectrum, and somehow mysteriously drawing further light from those gaps?
It took a few experiments more before Kirchhoff discovered what was going on. The burning sodium vapor was in fact emitting the same lines as were missing in the solar spectrum. However, when light from one source (the sun) passes through another light source cooler than the first (the burning sodium), the second source absorbs precisely the same lines it would emit by itself. In recognition of Kirchhoff's investigations into gas emissions and absorptions, this whole business about cooler gases absorbing and hotter gases emitting is known as Kirchhoff's Law. In this way, he had proven Comte wrong, just two years after the latter's death.
Soon after, in 1862, the Swedish physicist Anders Ångstrom (1814-1874) examined the solar spectrum in much finer detail than Kirchhoff had, and discovered hydrogen in the sun. Ångstrom measured the position of the hydrogen lines (and a whole host of others) to a precision of one ten-billionth of a meter. In his honor, that unit of length is now named after him, and you will still see, occasionally, light wavelengths measured in Ångstroms. (The appropriate official metric unit is the nanometer, which is a billionth of a meter.)
He had to measure it so finely, because, as it turns out, hydrogen produces relatively faint absorption lines, even though it constitutes most of the matter in the sun (and, indeed, the universe). The sun, we now know, is about 75 percent hydrogen. The remainder is mostly an element that was first discovered six years later when the French astronomer Pierre Janssen (1824-1907) detected absorption lines that didn't appear to correspond to any known element. The British astronomer Joseph Lockyer (1836-1920) examined Janssen's data, agreed that the element indicated was a previously unknown one, and named the newly discovered substance helium, after the Greek word for "sun."
Hydrogen and helium are the two lightest elements, which explains why the earth has so little of them. The earth's gravity is simply insufficiently strong to hold onto hydrogen and helium -- it can only hold onto heavier gases, such as nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and so forth. Hydrogen is at least reasonably reactive, so that it forms lots of compounds that the earth can hold onto, such as methane and ammonia and water. Helium, on the other hand, is an inert gas; it tends to "ignore" other elements, and the only reason that we have any amount of it for blowing up zeppelins and party balloons is that it is a byproduct of the decay of radioactive elements. (There's an interesting story about how helium was first discovered on the earth, but that's a question for another time.) When a party balloon loses its helium, that helium dissipates into the atmosphere, where it eventually finds its way outward into space and is lost forever. The sun, on the other hand, is so massive that although it is very hot, so that the hydrogen and helium atoms are jostling about very rapidly, its gravity is more than sufficient to keep those atoms from escaping.
So, the sun is made of about three-quarters hydrogen and one-quarter helium, and a tiny smattering of other elements. If we mix those gases here on earth, we certainly don't get the sun. We could light it up, and then the mixture would likely go up in a blaze of fire (provided enough oxygen were present), but it would last only for a brief time. How then does the sun stay lit?
People have been wondering about that for a long time. The earthly activity most like the shining of the sun is clearly the burning of fire. Here, of course, fire is dynamic, local in effect, and temporary in duration, whereas the sun seems steady and wide-ranging, and as far as anyone can tell, it's been shining essentially forever. Nevertheless, this was a reasonable analogy on the face of it, so before we knew what the sun was made of, the German physician Julius Mayer (1814-1878) calculated that if the sun were essentially a humongous lump of coal, there was enough fuel there to last about 5,000 years. Other substances could be substituted in place of coal, but none of them, in fact no chemical phenomenon at all, could be relied on to produce the sun's level of energy production for more than several thousand years, and in any case the soon-to-be-discovered composition of the sun made most of these infeasible to begin with.
Mayer himself then proposed another explanation. Perhaps, he suggested, meteoroids and other space debris were attracted continually by the sun's gravity and fell into the sun, in the process generating heat. It had been known for some time that a moving object carries kinetic energy according to the equation:
KE = (mv^2)/2
where m is the object's mass and v is its velocity.
When an object comes to a stop, that kinetic energy cannot simply vanish. It has to be transferred elsewhere, and the "lowest common denominator" form of energy is heat. This explains why a hammer gets hot after striking a lot of nails -- because the hammer's motion is impeded by the nails (or, if you're unlucky, your thumb), and the kinetic energy of the hammer's bulk motion is transferred to the kinetic energy of the molecules in the hammer (and the nails and your thumb, too, for that matter). Heat, in other words. Something similar might be happening with the sun, and if so, maybe that was keeping the sun lit.
Mayer's proposal had the advantage of explaining how the sun could continue shining indefinitely, since as far as anyone knew, there could be a limitless supply of space debris. However, the Irish physicist William Thomson (1824-1907), later Lord Kelvin, discovered another problem with Mayer's proposal. When space debris collides with the sun, its kinetic energy is turned into heat and that can be radiated away. However, the amount of kinetic energy, according to the above formula, depends not only on the velocity of the debris but on its mass as well, and that mass cannot be radiated away. It has to stay in the sun's bowels. Thomson calculated the rate of mass that would have fall into the sun to support its current power output, and determined that the sun would have to "gain weight" so quickly that its gravitational force would have increased and the orbit of the earth would have shrunk measurably in historic times. Since no such shrinking had ever been detected, Mayer's proposal had to be rejected.
Well, if falling objects couldn't keep the sun lit, perhaps the sun was falling in on itself. The German philospher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) had earlier proposed the nebular hypothesis of the sun's formation, which theorized that the sun and the rest of the solar system condensed out of a great cloud of gas and dust. If Kant was right and the sun had indeed collapsed from a cloud of gas and dust, maybe that condensation itself was sufficient to power the sun. That way, the sun could heat up without gaining mass and changing the earth's orbit in any way. The German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) calculated that under reasonable assumptions, this process was enough to keep the sun radiating at its current power for several million years. Unfortunately, by this time, the earth was known (from geological and biological lines of reasoning) to be much older than this.
The crucial clue came in the form of the famous theory of general relativity, developed by the Swiss physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955). In it, Einstein developed his famous equation,
E = mc^2
which tells us that any mass -- a bit of starstuff, an automobile, dryer lint -- can be transformed into an astounding amount of energy. The British astronomer Arthur Eddington (1882-1944) suggested that the sun had so much hydrogen and helium because it was turning the hydrogen into helium. Helium was available in small quantities to study in the laboratory, and it had been discovered that a helium atom weighed almost but not quite as much as four hydrogen atoms; the precise ratio was closer to 3.97 to 1. Perhaps, Eddington mused, the missing mass was being transformed into energy in the form of light and heat.
Eddington quickly convinced himself and others that the amount of energy liberated by this transformation was enough to power the sun, at least in principle. The sticking point was how, exactly, four hydrogen atoms would come together to form a single helium atom. Atoms are electrically neutral, so they have no problem at all bumping into each other -- all the more so in the hot interior of the sun, which Eddington calculated to be 40 million degrees Kelvin. However, in order to fuse four hydrogen atoms into a helium atom, it is the atomic nuclei that have to come into contact, and those are positively charged and instantly repel each other. If the hydrogen atoms are moving fast enough, the repulsion can be overcome and the atoms will fuse, but there is a catch: in order to fuse more than a trivial amount of hydrogen, the temperature had to be much higher than Eddington calculated -- more like tens of billions of degrees Kelvin. Such a hot sun is incompatible with the sun's current size; at those temperatures, the sun should be much more bloated than it is. Eddington was convinced therefore that hydrogen was somehow fusing instead at the much colder temperature of 40 million degrees; he wrote in 1927,
We do not argue with the critic who urges that the stars are not hot enough for this process; we tell him to go and find a hotter place.
However, physicists could see no way around the electric repulsion problem.
As it turned out, however, there was a way. Just about the time that Eddington was fighting electric repulsion, the young Russian physicist George Gamov (1904-1968) showed that quantum mechanics explained how atomic nuclei could split apart in nuclear fission, even though the nuclear force holding the nucleus together was technically too strong to allow this to happen. The Welsh astronomer Robert Atkinson (1898-1982) and German physicist Fritz Houtermans (1903-1966) determined that the same mechanism could permit hydrogen nuclei to come together, even though the electromagnetic force holding them apart was technically too strong to allow this to happen, and they wrote this up in a paper in 1929. At last, the primary energy source of the stars was understood.
Let us recap, then. Stars derive their energy from fusion. In the process of fusing into a single atom of helium, four hydrogen atoms lose some mass; this mass is transformed into energy. The hydrogen atoms do not all come together at once -- even quantum mechanics does not allow this in the sun. Instead, the sun fuses hydrogen in two main ways:
1. In one process, a carbon atom "swallows" the four hydrogen atoms, one by one, emitting bits of energy along the way and becoming in turn different forms of nitrogen and oxygen, until it "burps out" the helium at the end and returns to its original carbon self. This is known as the carbon cycle.
2. In the second process, two hydrogens come together to form deuterium, a heavy form of hydrogen weighing about twice as much; this then collides with another hydrogen to form helium-3, a lighter form of helium which weighs -- you guessed it -- three times as much as ordinary hydrogen; finally, two helium-3 atoms collide to yield an ordinary helium atom and two hydrogen atoms. Those two hydrogen atoms are then available to be fused. This is known as the proton-proton chain.
Which process is more dominant in any given star depends on that star's temperature. For our own star and other cooler stars, the proton-proton chain is dominant. Stars much hotter than our own produce most of their energy via the carbon cycle.
The advent of computers made it possible to simulate stars of different mass and watch their progress in reasonable times (by human standards). Several billion years of stellar evolution could be compressed at first into weeks, then days, and then hours. Out of these simulations came the conclusion that more massive stars burn their hydrogen fuel much more quickly than less massive ones. Even though more massive stars have more hydrogen to begin with, they also burn hotter, and go through their hydrogen supply that much faster. The sun has enough hydrogen for about 11 billion years of uninterrupted fusion. Much larger stars -- say, those of about 50 times the sun's mass -- run out of hydrogen in only a few million years. On the other hand, much smaller stars, perhaps as small as a tenth of the sun's mass, run out of their hydrogen supply only after trillions of years. All of the stars this small are still burning steadily, because there hasn't been enough time since the universe was born for them to burn out.
But what happens after the hydrogen runs out? What then? Do they just fizzle out and gradually cool down, as many astronomers suspected? Or does something more fantastic happen? When the earliest stellar models were run through the computers, the simulations didn't yield anything like what we believed to be aging stars. Nor did they yield any kind of nonsensical result. They refused to yield anything at all; once the fusible hydrogen was depleted, the computers were unable to proceed further. There was hydrogen further out in the star, but only where it was so cool that fusion couldn't take place. It would take a completely new simulation technique to carry the life story of stars forward into death.
In my next essay, then, I'll talk about what happens when stars run out of hydrogen.
Adapted from Astronomical Games, September 2000.
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Space opera is a genre of science fiction literature, and the term can also be applied to movies and TV programs. The genre has almost no relationship to the opera music form, except for the similarity of grand scope and dramatic intensity. Typically, space opera occurs on a galactic scale, has multiple types of spacecraft, from speedy corvettes to battleships capable of destroying planets. There is plenty of action and adventure in space opera.
Space Opera Literature
The literature of space opera is varied and many books are available. Space opera books are the most popular science fiction tomes on planet Earth. From Asimov’s world-spanning tale of galactic empire upheaval, to Banks’ focus on a utopian society that struggles in a hostile universe, space opera books are uber-epic. There are also many good examples of short fiction, such as those stories collected in ‘The New Space Opera’ anthology.
Books: ‘Foundation’ by Isaac Asimov, ‘Ringworld’ by Larry Niven, ‘Vorkosigan Saga’ novels by Lois McMaster Bujold, ‘Culture’ novels by Iain M. Banks, ‘Revelation Space’ by Alastair Reynolds, ‘The New Space Opera’ edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan
Space Opera Movies
Space Opera movies are known for great villains. From Darth Vader to Khan, and Zorg to the Lord Marshal, they are all twisted characters exhibiting nasty, sadistic behavior. Yet they are villains that we love to hate.
Films: Star Wars movies, Star Trek movies, The Fifth Element, Serenity, The Chronicles of Riddick, Starship Troopers.
Space Opera Television
The history of space opera in television is a long one. However, the original Star Trek program was the first of the higher quality shows. Even though the costumes and graphics appear campy by today’s standards, the writing and acting is good enough to make the program a timeless classic.
Television: Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: Enterprise, Firefly, Stargate SG-1, Babylon 5, Farscape
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The 1978-79 war and subsequent political turmoil in Uganda led to a failure of agricultural extension services, leaving peasants to farm with archaic methods. This led to soil impoverishment, failing crop production and severe environmental degradation. A growing population and traditional inheritance practices led to land fragmentation and further soil impoverishment. During the 1980s and 1990s the country was ravaged by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, further reducing the capacity of families to farm. During this period coffee failed due to severe wilt and prices on the international markets collapsed. The effect of these events was to exacerbate poverty, food insecurity and environmental degradation. The most vulnerable groups, women, widows and orphans were the most affected by the situation.
St. Jude Family Project is a Community Based Organization (CBO) in Masaka, Uganda that began as a small organic farm on 3 acres owned by John and Josephine Kizza since the 1980s. Its purpose is to improve household income, crop yields, household food security and diet. St. Jude teaches the most vulnerable groups in the society ways of improving family subsistence farming and diet. The training techniques use locally available materials and the methods used are environmentally sustainable. St. Jude works mainly with rural families, many of who are supporting orphans, and youth groups. St. Jude targets groups in areas where farming techniques are poor and soils are depleted, especially in its immediate vicinity. St. Jude trains many groups of local farmers who then become part of the St. Jude Farmers Association. Support from overseas donors has enabled St. Jude to provide training and support to very poor local farmers who cannot afford training fees.
At the St. Jude farm, rural farmers experience modern scientific integrated organic agriculture and low-cost, environmentally sustainable innovations that increase productivity. A wide range of subsistence and income generating farming projects are located at the farm, and many useful sustainable organic farming techniques can be demonstrated and seen in action. The integrated farming ensures that all farm products are used including run-off water for irrigation and home use, manure for biogas and compost, animal urine for pest control and manure, and weeds and kitchen waste for compost making. Integrated organic farming is based on an integrated cycle, which requires few additional inputs.
The appropriate technology demonstrated at St. Jude includes soil and water conservation, water-harvesting techniques including water storage, fuel conserving stoves, portable solar driers for home use, and a biogas digester for cooking with methane. The introduction of large-scale solar drying facilities for organically grown fruits has enabled organic farmers to be certified and find a market for their produce.
Training courses that are appropriate for adult learning have been developed with a combination of theory and practical work. The practical training enables adult groups with low literacy to make improvements in their lives. The training involves improved management and labor saving techniques.
The introduction of improved animals breeds at St. Jude by crossing local with imported breeds has enabled many farmers to increase production of meat and milk. St. Jude has pioneered the improvement of local poultry by crossbreeding, increasing the egg and meat production of the birds. St. Jude has also introduced local farmers to new cash crops such as vanilla and improved coffee varieties.
In the early days of the St. Jude project the main form of training was farm tours. St. Jude has since evolved into a training center. In a typical year, the St. Jude Training Center trains over 20,000 farmers. The training seeks to reduce the burden on women, who do most of the work in the home and farms. Fuel conserving stoves made by St. Jude from bricks and clay reduce by more than 50% the firewood required. Water is another burden for women that St. Jude seeks to reduce. St Jude has developed a safe, low-cost water storage system that uses a pit, black polythene bags as the liner, and a small lockable trap door to ensure the safety of the supply.
St. Jude trains farmers in a variety of methods of fruit drying and food processing. As a result, 147 farmers have been certified as organic growers by KRAV, a certifying company in Sweden. The need for solar drying is an indicator of the effectiveness of training in organic farming. Local groups are now producing a surplus of food crops, but the local markets are insufficient and the over-supply has caused prices to fall. To improve family nutrition and income, St. Jude developed ways of preserving fruits for the home and for access to better markets. Because ripe fruit spoils easily and transportation on poor roads is difficult, St. Jude developed a simple portable solar drier for home use - a box on four legs with a plastic cover, and a tray for the fruit or vegetable inside. These simple portable driers can dry a wide range of produce to add value for sale. The materials used for the portable driers are affordable and locally available. The plastic covers are in many shops, and the wooden box is simple to assemble. The solar drier has proved popular with groups and individual rural farmers.
At present, there is little knowledge of modern ways of improving a farm among many rural populations in Uganda. The staple food, matoke (bananas), is often managed poorly resulting in very low yields. There is a tendency to think that change is only possible with donors or loans. St. Jude enables farmers to make an impact on their income, nutrition and health soon after they complete training. The center has trained 800 farmers to date.
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Principles of Isometric Projection
What is Isometric Projection?
Iso (in Greek) means equal; metric means to measure. Hence Isometric projection means a system of projection of equality of measure.
Orthographic Projection of a cube: The principle involved in drawing an isometric projection can be explained best by drawing the Orthographic Projection of a Cube, resting on HP on one of its corners with a solid diagonal (solid diagonal is an imaginary line joining one of the corners at the top and the diametrically opposite corner at the bottom) perpendicular to HP.
- All the edges and faces of the cube are equally inclined to the plane of projection. Hence the square faces are seen as similar and equal rhombuses.
- The three edges/sides of the cube AB, AD and AE are meeting at the point A. These edges are mutually perpendicular to each other in the solid.
- Above three edges from 90º in the Orthographic Projection and are now seen to include 120º with each other in Isometric Projection.
- Edges AB and AD make 30º with the horizontal. Edge AE is vertical.
- The three edges AB, AD and AE meeting at A forming a right angle are also equally inclined to VP and therefore they are equally foreshortened.
All the other edges like CB and BF are parallel to any of the lines AB, AD, AE and are also equally foreshortened. These edges being equally foreshortened leads us to the problem of selecting an Isometric scale.
- BD and AC represent equal diagonals of the cube but are equally shortened in Isometric view. Diagonal DA of the top face of the cube is parallel to the VP. Hence it retains its true length in Isometric. However, the diagonal AC is shortened.
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Flu Season is here…
Have you noticed a great deal of people around you are coughing and sneezing? This year's flu season started a month earlier than usual and the virus is in full effect. For those who haven't gotten their flu shot yet it might be a smart idea to look into getting one.
This season's flu vaccine is still available in select locations, and according to the government's study it is said to be 62 percent effective. Although the flu may be seen as another virus, if proper manners are not addressed the flu may become a critical issue. Be mindful of any surfaces you're touching, wash your hands regularly, and be sure to stock up on hand sanitizer.
The flu virus most commonly affects those with weak immune systems, particularly infants & elderly individuals. Therefore, health officials are encouraging everyone six months and older to get vaccinated.
Some indications to look out for include a high fever, extreme fatigue, chills, tiredness, or body aches. Serious cases of the flu may even lead to bacterial infections, hospitalization, or pneumonia. It is always better to be safe than sorry. Protect yourself with a flu vaccine!
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Venus Fly Traps are famous for eating bugs, but it is apparently a rare occurrence when a carnivorous plant is able to eat an entire bird. Hopefully there aren't any "Little Shop of Horrors" plants lurking in the jungle out there that can eat a whole human.
The plant is a pitcher plant from the genus of Nepenthes which are found traditionally in South East Asia. The poor bird, which met an untimely demise, was a blue tit. The plant is located in a garden nursery, under the care of Nigel Hewitt-Cooper, who was making his rounds in the tropical garden when he discovered that the pitcher plant had trapped the bird.
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Book Author: Richard Lewontin
Reviewed by: Jonathan Latham (The Bioscience Resource Project)
Biologists know that complex traits are typically associated with genetic variation between individuals. Nevertheless, if we hear on the news that obesity, antisocial behaviour or some other disorder has a strong genetic component, we are likely to attach special significance to this ‘fact’. We may be less likely to attribute social factors as a cause and we may be more likely to accept a technological or pharmaceutical solution as a remedy. The disorder may also acquire a credibility and a sense of inevitability that it previously lacked. The reasoning that leads to these conclusions has a certain logic, after all we investigate causes primarily so that we can find remedies, but nevertheless we need to be careful that our thinking is well-founded.
In the six short chapters contained in Biology as Ideology, Richard Lewontin, a renowned geneticist, sets about clarifying the relationship between genes, society and genetics. In particular, he scrutinises the dominance acquired by genetic determinism as a mechanism of causation.
Biological traits, he argues, are the result of genes, chance and environment, and these elements are irreducibly intertwined. For example, it is simply not true (as many claim) that X-percent of height or IQ or any other characteristic is genetically determined and the rest is a result of environment. Nor is it true in some statistical sense for a population as a whole. That this is a fallacy can be demonstrated by considering height. If one feeds a group of individuals the same diet and measures variability in height among them, any variability will be due to genetic factors together with chance variations accrued during development. None of it will be due to environment, unless of course factors other than diet have an environmental influence. The ‘heritability’ of height will, under such circumstances, be very high. If, on the other hand each individual had been fed a different diet, especially diets varying greatly in quantity or quality, the ‘heritability’ of height would appear to be very low. ‘Heritability’ therefore is not an absolute value but depends in fact on the environment. As a measurable value it is therefore not generalisable. It is true only for a specific population under specific circumstances.
None of which is to say that genes are not important. Rather, that the trap into which genetic determinism falls is, in part, a trap of reductionism. It is a mindset that tends to obscure the myriad other causes of obesity, antisocial behaviour, schizophrenia and many other human ills. Many biologists, formally at least, disavow reductionism and will insist that genes are not ‘for’ obesity or any other trait, but they nevertheless write grants, publish and publicise exactly as if they were. Their disclaimers somehow get lost.
Biology as Ideology once earned the title ‘most subversive book’ of 1993. How is it that this book, indeed any science book, could earn such a title? The chief reason is that Lewontin recognises what few scientists do, that the respectability attained by biological, and particularly genetic, determinism is not simply an error of scientific judgement. It is instead an example of the tendency for interactions between scientists and those with power to be mutually accommodating.
This tendency is revealed most clearly in socio-biology, which, by a series of logical fallacies, arrives at a theory of human nature that allows its followers to argue that xenophobia, hierarchy and competition are the ‘natural’ state of human societies. Thus, by implication, if inequality and violence are ‘natural’ to human nature, then the fault does not after all lie with our social arrangements and institutions but with our genes. But socio-biology, as Lewontin shows, is not well grounded in science. It is wishful thinking with a scientific gloss. In this, Biology as Ideology showcases the conclusion that increasing numbers of philosophers and sociologists of science have also reached, though usually with infinitely less clarity and style-that scientists do not only (or even ever) generate their theories based solely on objective consideration of evidence. Their beliefs, values and financial prospects can also influence them to consistently ignore inconvenient facts, no matter how evident they may be.
Biology as Ideology is one of the finest books on genetics ever written. It illuminates the subject in a forthright and accessible way and continues the tradition of scientific scepticism that is so much admired outside of science. However, in so doing it demonstrates that scepticism in science is not equally distributed and that some areas of science consistently fail to receive the full dose.
ISBN: 0140232192 Publisher: Penguin books (1991)
Important scientific updates on the recent failures of human genomics and genetic determinism, much of it predicted by Richard Lewontin, are found at the project resource page: Human Genetic Predispositions – the hidden politics of genomic science
If this article was useful to you please consider sharing it with your networks.
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The Red and the Green was Iris Murdoch’s seventh novel and stood out in her fictional career as a unique attempt to capture an historical event. The topic was The Easter Rising, Dublin 1916, in which independence fighters staged an abortive attempt to defeat the island’s British rulers. Home Rule was anyway in the offing, and six years later a free Ireland was born.
Murdoch was interested in two things: an era of heroism and accounting for her own departure from Ireland and Irishness. Born into an Anglo-Irish family in Dublin in 1919 she, like Frances in the novel, left to make her adult life in England and never returned. But in a coda to the novel’s main action she had Frances more than two decades on weep at the memory of good men; and especially at the memory of rebel leader Pat Dumay, whom she had secretly loved. When she wrote the novel in 1965, as if for the half-centenary of the Easter Rising the following year, Murdoch wished, through Frances, that the feelings surrounding the Dublin men’s self-sacrifice for their country shouldn’t be forgotten. Again through Frances she compared it to the moral debacle of the Spanish Civil War. National feeling was also a mystical element in the novel.
Murdoch in England felt with her characters on both sides of the divide and all around it. The mystique of old times and of the fighting spirit of oppressed small nations was something Frances’s English husband, decent, kind, an Establishment figure, could not appreciate. Frances too chose England, yet loved Pat.
None of her novels before or after reflected quite such a battlefield of loyalties, in one city and two closely linked families. Moreover they were loyalties that went to the heart of her growing body of work as a writer and philosopher. She was interested in moral feelings; in the dialogues people had internally with themselves over the right thing to do; in feelings of love avowed and hidden, known and unconscious. Interwoven through the whole was the role religious faith played in those feelings, or not. ‘Muddle,’ was a repeated word. Perhaps it was the case that you couldn’t have heroism without muddle. That in turn left Murdoch, a philosopher, in some professional difficulty. Another repeated, spurned idea in the novel was ‘logic’. Logic never helped anyone work out what to do.
The descriptions of Dublin were rich and evocative, the dialogue sharp, and the characters among the most convincing she ever created. This was Murdoch at her nineteenth-century realist best, with only a hint, at the end, of the kind of Dostoevskian Gothic that would turn too much of her fiction into arch melodrama.
In fact Pat Dumay did not particularly stand out as lovable among the brilliant interweave of English, Irish and Anglo-Irish characters. But he was noble. What was said in the novel of the historical figure of Roger Casement, whom the British later hanged, applied to Pat. ‘He’s a brave man and a patriot. He does it purely for love of Ireland. To love Ireland so much, to love anything so much, even if he’s wrong-headed, is somehow noble.’ Pat Dumay felt ‘the enormity of the insult laid upon his people.’ More intimately, he was a Lawrentian figure in his physicality, only with an un-Lawrence-like obsession with sexual purity. He loves none of the women in the book. One passing suggestion is he might prefer men. The scene when his fourteen-year-old brother Cathal prepares him a hot bath sticks in the memory as uniquely sensual. Their father long dead, Pat will guard Cathal with his life, in a relationship that is at once surrogate-paternal and erotic.
Cathal, precociously involved and desperate to fight, takes up themes often underplayed in historical accounts of the event. The rebels’ cause was overlaid with a sense that they were overthrowing the ruling class in the name of the international proletariat. One of their leaders, James Connolly, Cathal’s hero, was a follower of Lenin. Murdoch as a young woman had been a Communist sympathiser.
Like any novelist she couldn’t help setting out, early on, many of the themes that would recurr through her work. To moral muddle add sexual muddle and gender confusion, and remnants of mystical and religious feeling her characters don’t know what to do with. It is rightly said that though this novel was set in 1916 it was suffused with the sexual liberation of the early 1960s and with the questioning of traditional gender roles.
The author has a particular debate with herself in The Red and the Green over what kind of woman to be. Frances is bright and determined but remains demure. She embarks on a conventional marriage, with children, which turns out happy if slightly dull. Her opposite is Millie, a flamboyant aristocrat said to have been inspired by the historical figure of Constance Markievicz. Millie wears trousers and instals a shooting gallery in her home. Her animality – Murdoch uses the word – her prettiness and her charm repeatedly ravish men. To use another 1960s word, when such behaviour was still seen as unconventional and unacceptable, Millie was promiscuous in her favours and probably never really in love, except with the heroic, unreachable Pat Dumay. There are moments when Millie seems like a principal boy in an operetta, or a schoolgirl playing a man on stage. She’s pushing the boundaries of gender.
Another 1960s element was a strong whiff of existentialism: of defining oneself through action rather than, as long centuries of philosophy had insisted, through contemplation. Murdoch had written one of her most successful books on Jean-Paul Sartre’s ethos of political commitment.
Looking from outside, Murdoch herself was at least two things. She was an English conservative Romantic, picking up postwar where the interwar Romantic modernists had led in painting and poetry. She loved landscape, light, sea, and was inclined to find there some metaphysical significance. She was also a liberated woman of androgynous appearance and inclination, leading a bisexual life that would force her to resign her Fellowship at St Annes College, Oxford. Her fiction fused mystical love with the discovery of the decade that casual sex could be fun.
In The Red and the Green a terrific, conflicted character called Barney has had to abandon his vocation as a priest because of his feelings for the ‘animal’ Millie. Ever after, even after having married the staid Kathleen and become an alcoholic figure of fun and pity, he hangs around Millie’s Dublin home. In fact this failed priest draws from Murdoch an extended outpouring of religious feeling, as he follows the progress of the Easter story. These feelings in turn segue into a mystical sense of ‘Ireland’. The English in Ireland don’t get it. ‘In Ireland religion was a matter of choosing between one appalling vulgarity and another,’ says Andrew Chase-White, who always hoped to marry Frances. But Barney, even as he denounces the rebels as incapable of running the country, and the Irish church as ‘mushy devotional nonsense’, always comes back to some national essence. ‘Ireland for him was a dark place, slow dignified and mystical.’
In Murdoch’s wonderful evocations, the weather has a great deal to do with Ireland’s distinctiveness. The rain in Ireland, she once said, had the same mystical import as snow in Russia.
History was the feeling of ‘a rhythm of a much larger scheme which has included us within its composition.’ (Chapter 12) Although here she sounded pedestrian, what attracted her, as a writer, was the moment of historical witness. ‘Of course the men had been told, from long ago, that they must be prepared for anything on any occasion when they marched out at arms. But they had marched out in arms so often and returned afterwards to their tea. There was a ferment in Dublin all the same …[which] was dangerous. It was still only Thursday.’ She didn’t quite capture that ferment, but she made the Easter Rising a stunning family affair in a haunting city.
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Glaucoma Treatment in Lacey, WA
What is Glaucoma?
Protecting Your Vision
How Does Glaucoma Develop?
How Does Glaucoma Cause Loss of Vision?
Types of Glaucoma
Glaucoma Detection and Diagnosis
What is Glaucoma?
Glaucoma is a group of diseases that cause increased pressure in the eye which can damage the eye’s optic nerve and result in vision loss and blindness. Glaucoma affects more than three million Americans. However, approximately half of these individuals don’t even know they have the disease and many will be diagnosed only when it’s too late to save vision. Glaucoma is called the “silent thief of sight” because patients experience no pain, no noticeable symptoms, and there is no cure. The good news is that glaucoma can be controlled and vision can be preserved if the condition is detected early. Dr. John Samples is a fellowship-trained glaucoma specialist who has the knowledge and expertise to help you manage and treat your glaucoma.
Protecting Your Vision
Studies have shown that the early detection and treatment of glaucoma, before it causes major vision loss, is the best way to control the disease. If you fall into one of the groups at high risk for the disease, make sure to have your eyes examined through dilated pupils every one to two years at Olympia Eye Clinic.
Help protect your vision and the vision of your relatives and friends. People over 60 years of age, people with relatives that have glaucoma, and African Americans over the age of 40 run a high risk of having glaucoma.
How Does Glaucoma Develop and Cause Loss of Vision?
In order to understand how glaucoma develops, it is important to understand how all the parts of the eye’s anterior chamber work together. The anterior chamber is a small space in the front of the eye between the cornea and the iris (the colored part of the eye). The hole in the iris is called the pupil. Behind the iris and the pupil is the lens. The anterior chamber is filled with a fluid called the aqueous humor, which brings oxygen and nutrition to the lens and cornea, and also removes waste products.
A tiny organ called the ciliary body, which is located behind the iris, continuously produces the aqueous humor. From there the aqueous flows forward through the pupil and enters the anterior chamber. Like air pumped into a tire, the aqueous keeps the eye “pumped up” to just the right pressure. The pressure inside the eye is called the intraocular pressure. The right amount of pressure depends on the correct balance of aqueous fluid going into, and the ease with which it flows out of, the anterior chamber. The aqueous humor empties out of the eye through a special drain located in the corner, or angle, where the cornea and iris meet in front of the iris. This drain is called the trabecular meshwork.
The balance between the amount of aqueous fluid produced and the amount removed through the trabecular meshwork is very important. If too much aqueous is being made, if it cannot drain fast enough, or if the drain is not working properly, the pressure inside the eye will rise. The pressure in the eye can never rise so high that the eye will burst, but it can rise high enough to damage the optic nerve and cause loss of vision. This condition is called glaucoma.
How Does Glaucoma Cause Loss of Vision?
The loss of vision from glaucoma is caused by damage to the optic nerve. Once vision is lost it cannot be restored. Glaucoma truly supports the old adage that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. Glaucoma treatment options are aimed at stopping or slowing the loss of vision by lowering the pressure in the eye. As glaucoma progresses, the optic nerve loses nerve fibers, resulting in a larger and larger empty indentation called the “cup”.
Types of Glaucoma
There are two basic kinds of glaucoma: open angle glaucoma and narrow angle (closure) glaucoma.
In open angle glaucoma, the aqueous fluid cannot drain out of the eye properly because the trabecular meshwork is not working properly. As fluid builds up in the eye, the pressure rises. This pressure can cause irreversible damage to the optic nerve, which can lead to loss of vision.
In narrow angle glaucoma, the iris is pushed against the cornea so that the aqueous cannot even get to the drain. In angle closure glaucoma, the drain, the trabecular meshwork, is physically blocked by the iris. This can cause the intraocular pressure to rise dramatically.
Glaucoma Detection and Diagnosis
As we examine your eyes to ascertain whether or not you have glaucoma, we will carefully evaluate five crucial factors: the pressure in the eye, the health of the optic nerve, your visual field, the health of the retinal nerve fiber layer, and the thickness of your cornea.
The normal intraocular pressure in the eye is between 10 and 20mmHg (millimeters of mercury). However, there is not a hard and fast relationship between pressure readings and glaucoma. Many individuals appear to tolerate elevated pressures for years, while others suffer damage even at “normal” pressures. Nonetheless, studies show that the higher the pressure, the greater the chance that the patient has or will develop damage to the optic nerve. One of the most important facts about open angle glaucoma is that the rise in pressure inside the eye usually occurs very gradually, over a period of several months or years. Because the pressure builds up gradually, it causes no pain, redness, blurred vision, or other symptoms. Therefore, patients in the early or middle stages of open angle glaucoma have no way of knowing that they have glaucoma, unless they are examined regularly.
The loss of vision from glaucoma is caused by damage to the optic nerve. As glaucoma progresses, the optic nerve loses nerve fibers, resulting in a larger and larger empty indentation called the “cup.” A dilated comprehensive exam will allow your doctor to see the optic nerve and determine how healthy it looks.
Traditionally, the early loss of vision in glaucoma is thought to be a dimming of the peripheral field of vision. Such loss can be insidious, sneaking up on the patient until the (irreversible) damage is quite severe. What’s even worse is that in some patients glaucoma will very rapidly cause loss of vision that encroaches very close to the patient’s central view of the world. An essential part of a glaucoma evaluation is a thorough assessment of the “visual field,” performed with our state-of-the-art Humphrey static threshold perimeters.
Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer
Olympia Eye Clinic uses an advanced imaging technique called retinal tomography to visualize the retinal nerve fiber layer. Using a state-of-the-art Heidelberg Retinal Tomographer (HRT), photographs of the optic nerve and surrounding retina are taken and a detailed three-dimensional image is compiled.
Corneal thickness is important because it can prevent accurate measurement of intraocular pressure. Patients with thin corneas may have higher actual intraocular pressures than what is recorded and patients with thick corneas may have lower actual intraocular pressures than what is recorded. Corneal pachymetry is a quick and painless test that measures the thickness of your cornea. This measurement will allow your doctor to better evaluate your intraocular pressures and develop an appropriate treatment plan.
High pressure, optic nerve damage, or reduced visual field can occur in a patient who does not, in fact, have glaucoma. But when two or three or these conditions are present in the same person, the diagnosis of glaucoma becomes more likely. In advanced cases of glaucoma, the pressure inside the eye can be quite high and there is a significant loss of tissue in the optic nerve, as well as loss of peripheral vision. Remember that in open angle glaucoma the patient can have all of these conditions for many, many years before he or she notices anything or feels that something is wrong.
For the majority of patients with glaucoma, careful diagnosis, treatment, and long-term professional care can prevent or delay loss of vision. All patients over the age of 40 should have an eye examination that not only measures vision but also measures the intraocular pressure and examines the retina and the optic nerve every one or two years. If glaucoma is detected, several treatment options are available, including eye drops, oral medication, Argon Laser Trabeculoplasty (ALT), Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty (SLT), Cyclophotocoagulation laser treatment, trabeculectomy surgery, and glaucoma shunt surgery. Depending on the type of glaucoma and other factors, one or more of these treatments may be utilized to provide safe, effective relief.
To learn more about glaucoma or to speak with a specialist about glaucoma treatment options, call us at 360-456-4800 to schedule a consultation.
How did I get glaucoma?
Unless you had a specific injury or disease, you were simply born with a tendency to develop glaucoma, and it has developed progressively throughout your life.
Do I have to watch my diet?
In some patients, excessive caffeine intake will elevate the intraocular pressure.
Can I take cold and allergy medications?
Many such medicines carry warnings about use by patients with glaucoma. These warnings are directed at patients with untreated narrow angle glaucoma, and for the most part do not apply to patients with open angle glaucoma (or patients who have had peripheral iridectomies for their angle closure glaucoma).
How does my blood pressure affect my glaucoma?
Some blood pressure medicines will also lower eye pressure. People with very low blood pressure may develop glaucomatous optic nerve damage even with “normal” eye pressure.
Does stress or tension cause the intraocular pressure to go up?
If you respond to stress by consuming large amounts of caffeine, it may raise your eye pressure. Stress or tension by themselves do not raise intraocular pressure.
Will I be able to feel it when my pressure is high?
Pressures in the range that causes damage for most patients with open angle glaucoma is not symptomatic. This is why regular testing and comprehensive dilated exams are vital for people at risk for glaucoma.
Are cataracts and glaucoma similar or related?
Cataracts (a clouding of the lens) and glaucoma are both diseases that tend to occur more in older individuals, and they both affect the front of the eye. There are many patients who have cataracts and glaucoma at the same time. Cataract surgery often results in lower eye pressure, and more easily controlled glaucoma.
How will glaucoma eye drops affect my vision?
Many drops have no effect on vision. Some glaucoma drops, such as pilocarpine, tend to affect the vision in particular patients. When you are given drops for glaucoma treatment, your doctor will check to see if they lower the pressure, if they affect your vision, and if there are any undesirable side effects.
Will eye drops, glaucoma laser surgery, or conventional glaucoma surgery improve my vision?
Treatment for glaucoma rarely, if ever, improves vision. The goal of glaucoma treatment is to lower the intraocular pressure and prevent further loss of vision. No treatment can restore vision once it has been lost because of glaucoma.
If I have laser surgery, will I still need the glaucoma drops?
Whether we are adding a second or third drop to your regimen, or adding laser treatment, our goal is to adequately control your pressure and preserve your vision, rather than to “get you off drops.” Approximately one out of four patients can stop using eye drops after glaucoma laser surgery.
Are Trabeculectomies and Glaucoma Shunt surgeries safe?
All surgery carries some risks. Glaucoma surgery is no exception. Because incisional surgeries such as trabeculectomies and glaucoma shunt surgery carry considerably more risk than other treatment options like drops and laser procedures, we will endeavor to control your glaucoma through the safest means possible. Regardless of the surgeon who performs these procedures, these surgeries will invariably lead to an acceleration of cataract formation (perhaps requiring a second surgery), and the risk of infection, hemorrhage, severe inflammation, and other complications is quite high. Accordingly, all other options should be exhausted before resorting to these procedures. Your Olympia Eye Clinic Physician will explain all of the risks and benefits of glaucoma surgery.
If I have glaucoma does that mean that I will eventually go blind?
Although glaucoma can cause blindness especially if neglected, with early detection and timely care nearly everyone with glaucoma can retain good vision.
Is there a permanent cure for glaucoma?
Generally, there is no permanent cure for glaucoma. In some patients, glaucoma surgery can reduce the intraocular pressure to normal levels without medicines indefinitely, but it is still important for all patients with glaucoma to continue a lifelong program of regular visits to Olympia Eye Clinic to make sure that the glaucoma stays under control.
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Visite nuestro sitio/Visit our home page:
always happens in such historic moments, the man unto whom it was
vouchsafed clearly to grasp the idea of which many had a dim presentiment,
and to give eloquent expression to the word that many had awaited, now
appeared. This man was Dr. Theodor Herzl. In the autumn of 1896 he
published a concisely-written book, " The Jewish State," (Der
Judenstaat), which, with a determination hitherto unknown, declared
that the Jews are a Nation, who demand for themselves all the rights of a
Nation and wish to settle on a land where they can lead the complete
unfettered life of a state.
Jewish State" -a subjective work.
Jewish State" became the starting-point of political Zionism- the
starting-point, not the programme. Herzl's book is still the subjective
work of an individual who speaks in his own name. Many portions of it are
literature. It is not easy everywhere to draw a sharp line of division
between the sober earnestness of the social politician and the phantasy of
the prophetic poet. The real programme had to be a collective task,
founded indeed upon Herzl's book and inspired by Herzl's visions, but
freed from all fantastic elements and wrought only out of elements of
effect of "The Jewish State."
Herzl's book was at once greeted by myriads of Jews, especially by young Jewry, as an act of deliverance. They determined that it should not remain mere printed paper, but should be converted into practical reality. There arose everywhere new societies, no longer for the slow, petty colonisation of Palestine by the surreptitious entry of groups of Jews, but for the preparation of a general Jewish immigration into the Holy Land, on the basis of a treaty, guaranteed by the Great Powers, with the Turkish Government, such as should grant the settlers in the country the rights of self-government.
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Kevin Gibb, Product Line Manager, TechInsights
EETimes (1/11/2016 00:01 AM EST)
No one talks about the workhorse of the metal gate CMOS transistors -- the input/output (I/O) transistor. TechInsights thinks they are worth a look.
Much has been written about metal gate CMOS transistors for low-voltage applications such as processors and system on chip (SoC) devices. But these devices are connected to the outside world and require input/output (I/O) transistors that support higher bias voltages. Little is said about input/output (I/O) transistors. We at TechInsights think that they are worth a look.
We begin with a polysilicon gate I/O transistor, in this case from a 28nm node MediaTek part fabbed by TSMC (Figure 1). The I/O transistor has a fairly long gate length (160nm) that is typical of I/O transistors. This long gate length reduces the magnitude of the lateral electric field in the channel region beneath the gate. We care about this lateral field as it gives rise to hot carrier injection of electrons (NMOS) or holes (PMOS) from the channel into the gate dielectric that can degrade the transistor’s electrical performance.
Click here to read more ...
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What can we learn from this “new normal” situation during this COVID-19 pandemic that forces some of us to stay at home until everything recedes? First of all, you need internet to get things done, to keep yourself entertained and stay productive. And second, we should anticipate permanent behaviour change, something that I learn from a webinar in Digital Alibaba Cloud Day APAC 2020 few days ago.
One of a theme in that webinar really got me curious: how technology can help combatting COVID-19 pandemic. One of the speakers, Alex Huang as a Lead Architect of Internet and FinTech in Alibaba Cloud Intelligence International, mentioned about the challenges faced by schools during the pandemic.
During that virus outbreak, over 200 millions of students and 16 millions of teachers in mainland China turned to online education. But that means we need resilient infrastructure to support all these online class sections.
There are three main requirements to host online education, Mr Huang said, which is providing stable and reliable infrastructure to make sure high quality network access, comprehensive security to prevent data leakage or cyber attack, and safe yet reliable mass internet storage.
At the same time, those requirements also comes with challenges. Building infrastructure means high investments, so does high technical barriers that come with comprehensive security, and lastly high operation costs to maintain the videos.
I must say that what happened in Indonesia differs so drastically, at least from my personal experience watching my kids studying at home. They used video apps daily to have a meeting with friends and teachers, homework were distributed through messaging apps, some of the instruction tutorials were uploaded on Youtube.
For the daily tasks, it has to be submitted using messaging app, sometimes using Google Classroom. But if you have trouble with the app, you can still send it with messaging app to the teacher personal number.
My conclusion: our kids school “digital education” is treated like an emergency measures, just to mitigate during physical distancing (our term in social distancing policy). The reasons behind third party services is to minimize operation costs, maintain security, and data management even it comes with a heavy price: unstructured data and teaching materials.
I got an impression that my kids school will return to conventional teaching methods once the pandemic ends. But one problem remains: what if our assumptions are wrong? What if this is a new normal that we have to live in right now?
Back to Mr Huang panel, he said that digital education system will provide some benefits if properly operated. One example is personalized teaching plan, since the infrastructure can support video storage management, we can tailor the syllabus based on school needs.
This factor alone, can help narrow the gap of education between regions and in the long run can benefit for other sectors than education.
This pandemic, said Mr Huang, force people to make a change to their behaviour. Some are temporary, but we can anticipate the one that are permanent. And education should be one of it. It is a good opportunity to kickstart the digital education system.
COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia has forced us to shift our perception about the definition of normal. Most of the business has come to an understanding that this pandemic will bring long term effect and they have to modify their business model. In the end, they are not just trying to survive, but generate revenue to keep the cashflow. So does with other aspects in life, we need to anticipate permanent behaviour change because of this pandemic.
That panel was insightful for me during Digital Alibaba Cloud Day APAC 2020, and I’m sure about the other panels. Fortunately, we can still watch the replay on their site.
As one of the cloud provider company, Alibaba Cloud provide solutions for educational institute. Such as VIPKid.com that teaches english for children in China. They need a system to provide video materials from the teachers located outside China for 35.000 courses real time.
In order to provide that service, VIPKid build a full- mesh network of online classrooms based on Alibaba Cloud VPC, Cloud Enterprise Network, Edge Nodes, and Express Connect. With network delay less than 200ms, the complaints due to internet reasons have dropped to less than 1 percent. That was a testimony from VIPKid CTO.
At the same time, Alibaba Cloud also offers incentives for small medium enterprises (SMEs) to kickstart their way to digital industry. They have rolled out US$ 30 million programme in form of support packages for 12 key products. The application has been opened since Thursday (24/4/2020) to June 22. For more information, just click this link.
Attending this webinar had me realize one thing. We can perceive this pandemic as a “disaster that should be mitigated and wait until everything returns to normal” or “an event that change how we behave and think permanently”. I prefer the later since there’s no sign of the pandemic will put us back to February 2020, before COVID-19 first reported. Let’s be realistic.
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Cycle of Violence
The Cycle of Violence describes the pattern of abusive relationships. There are three distinct phases: tension building, explosion and false honeymoon.
Tension Building This phase is often described
by survivors as “walking on eggshells”. Tension and stress are
building and the survivor is trying to control the situation to
avoid possible violence. Emotional abuse can also occur in
this stage of the cycle.
Explosion This phase is where the abuse occurs. The abuse is triggered by anything, everything, and nothing. The trigger is the excuse that the violent person uses to justify being abusive. Each and all of the 5 types of domestic violence can happen during this phase.
False Honeymoon Here the relationship seems peaceful and romantic; forgiveness is requested and given. The abuser is typically trying to use the romance to manipulate and control the victim in different ways than used before. The false honeymoon stage will begin to fade after some time, and the cycle will begin again. Over time, the false honeymoon period will get shorter and shorter, and can disappear completely.
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Coloring Books And Markers Pencils For Adults Pens Storage Anxiety
|Include In Article|
Adult Coloring Books And Pens
|Published Date||Thursday , March 12th 2020|
Coloring. Thursday , March 12th 2020.
Quote from Adult Coloring Books And Pens :
Elementary school is a tough time in the lives of many children. Most kids report a lot of boredom at school. They hate homework and would rather be playing outside. Although recess is fun, most of their time is spent doing some things that they find boring. Perhaps this is a good idea given that some kids will end up doing a job they don’t like! However, shouldn’t elementary school be a time when kids have some fun? Obviously you need to teach them some critical skills, but it is also important for them to enjoy themselves. One way to do so is to encourage their creative side. If kids are given an opportunity to express themselves and control a creative product you will find that they enjoy school much more. Regular creative projects will dramatically change the way elementary school kids think about learning. Because most kids love animals it is a good idea to integrate this love with their creativity. Although most kids don’t know how to draw animals they can learn to color them. Described below are some of my favorite animal coloring crafts for elementary school.
Rapid Knowledge of things, Like already said picture lessons are easily retained by children more than any other thing. When they have pictures to color (say an animal), they take notice of the lines, shape, form and names. This will help them recognize such picture next time they see it. Easy recognition of things helps build their overall knowledge with time.
The simple act of coloring is the beginning of gaining tinting knowledge with personal experiences of school day memories and trial and error. As you follow suggestions for cool and warm colors one begins to understand how colors offer contrast or compliment each other. The emotional side benefits of tranquility and immediate rewards encourage learning.
Do you like to color? If you haven’t done so you may wish to try your coloring techniques on a new hobby called coloring for adults. Its popularity started out as means of occupying your idle time while traveling or waiting your turn for an appointment at the doctor’s or dentist’s office.
Any content, trademark/s, or other material that might be found on this site that is not this site property remains the copyright of its respective owner/s. In no way does LocalHost claim ownership or responsibility for such items and you should seek legal consent for any use of such materials from its owner.
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- Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building - http://inhabitat.com -
Modern Morerava Eco Cabins Sit Lightly on Easter Island
Posted By Andrew Michler On January 24, 2011 @ 8:11 pm In Prefab Housing,Sustainable Building | 2 Comments
The project celebrates sustainable design in a challenging environment where its impact can be the most beneficial. The cabins were built in on the Chilean mainland and placed on piers to eliminate the need for local resources and to protect the native vegetation. The piers’ placement was carefully planned to protect the floor system from moisture damage. Because of the moderate climate the cabins do not need insulation – this allows the lightweight, exposed scissor roof and walls to become the primary design element. The vertical board exterior and zinc steel roof maintain a rustic quality.
Each of the nine cabins can accommodate six people, however they are cleverly designed to maintain privacy despite the close quarters. The secret is offset panels of glass that run high on one side and low on the other, eliminating direct lines of sight between the cabins while still allowing access to plenty of indirect light. Cross-ventilation through the windows maintains the interior climate. The steel roof is offset from the roof deck to allow hot air to escape.
Although water taps are available, each of the cabins has a rain catchment and filter system to provide water for primary needs. Water is heated by low-cost solar batch water heaters protruding from the roof tops, which require no electricity — instead they use thermosiphoning , which eliminates the need for imported fuel.
The Morerava Cabins blend low-tech off-grid systems with low-impact building to offer a comfortable retreat in a sensitive environmental area.
Via Plataforma Arquitectura
Article printed from Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building: http://inhabitat.com
URL to article: http://inhabitat.com/modern-morerava-eco-cabins-sit-lightly-on-easter-island/
URLs in this post:
retreat: http://inhabitat.com/eco-wellness-retreat-with-rammed-earth-gueshouses-at-arizonas-miraval/
prefab building techniques: http://inhabitat.com/category/architecture/prefab-housing/
Chilean mainland: http://inhabitat.com/wood-wrapped-green-office-complex-opens-in-chile/
rain catchment: http://inhabitat.com/page/2/?s=rainwater+catchment
solar batch water heaters: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_water_heating#Passive_systems
thermosiphoning: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermosiphon
Plataforma Arquitectura: http://www.plataformaarquitectura.cl/2011/01/24/cabanas-morerava-aata-arquitectos/
Copyright © 2011 Inhabitat Local - New York. All rights reserved.
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Studio Gary Krüger
References – Technique and History of Photogravure
Instructions including technique and history of photogravure
Gary Krüger, 2022 (Vita)
256 Pages, A4
Price: 89.00 Euro plus shipping
This book contains a detailed description of the various processes involved in converting a photograph into a photogravure, taking into account the use of materials available today. The first part of the book explains in detail the principle of photogravure, historical notes, materials needed, workshop equipment, as well as all the necessary steps for the production of a photogravure. In summary, in the chapters describing the respective procedures, there is a brief guide at the end with information on possible sources of error. The second part contains the description of different noble printing techniques such as carborundum, soot and pigment printing, which can be combined with photogravure. Furthermore, the reader receives detailed construction plans for necessary equipment as well as instructions for the production of materials used in photogravure.
Technique of Photogravure
Photogravure, based on gelatine, is just one of many methods of reproduction. Gelatine itself is not sensitive to light, a chemical substance is required for this: Potassium diichromate K2Cr2O7. A gelatin layer soaked with potassium dichromate becomes insoluble in water after exposure to natural light (UV rays) at normal temperatures.
History of Photogravue
The history of the photogravure reaches back up to the photographic experiments of Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833). In 1816 he tried to project a picture by a camera obscura so that it could be brought in a printable form. This first quite primitive photomechanical process is called Niépce Gravure Heliographique.
I would be happy to accept your printing order. For this I need a negative, positive or photo in the format up to 20 x 30 cm. Of course, digital data can also be stored on CD/DVD and be used for a template. Please note that the image in original size in TIFF or JPEG format /RGB mode/resolution 300dpi must be present.
Maximum plate size: Digital templateand analog Template: up to 40 x 50 cm
Maximum sheet size: 78 x 106 cm in white, brigh white or creme white printing paper: Hahnemühle, 300g Printing ink: Charbonnel universal black or as desired. Edition: up to 15 prints per plate Your template: Slide, Positive, Photo or Digital
Other materials can also be used on request. However, the papers and colours I use guarantee optimum quality.
For further information and prices please contact:
On this page are works of photogravures, which I have produced for different artists.
Introductory speech by Dr. Andreas Gabelmann on the occasion of the exhibition opening “Stillstand” at the Städtische Museum Engen, 4 April 2019
read (Only in German)
Article “Edel gedruckt”, Susanne Kohlheyer, Graphic Art 1/2011, Edition Curt Visel, Memmingen
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When dozens of 30-year-old eucalyptus trees along Grand Avenue in downtown Escondido were cut down last year, a view to the east was revealed that for decades had gone unseen.
Looking east down Grand over the soon-to-be demolished former Palomar Hospital is Bottle Peak, a boulder-pocked mountain covered in coastal sage scrub and chaparral.
It’s as if the street had been built with the view in mind.
“The removal of the eucalyptus trees, which were non-native, invasive anyway, and were killing the rest of the landscape, has really exposed the beauty of the hillsides,” said City Councilwoman Olga Diaz during a recent meeting.
“You can see Bottle Peak now,” she said. “You can stand on Grand Avenue and look toward that direction and see the mountains. It is gorgeous. Since I’ve lived here, I’ve never seen it that way before. Once the trees were gone, it really made it look more picturesque.”
Bottle Peak has played a big role in Escondido’s history beginning in the late 1800s, when gold was thought to lie in the hills, said Francis Ryan, an Escondido historian and author in an interview she gave in 1978. No gold was found.
However, a quartz mine did operate from 1897 to about 1914, which included a 67-foot-long tunnel running into the mountainside.
In 1904, a wildfire devastated the peak and surrounding area and prompted U.S. Forest Ranger E.D. Bish eight years later to build the county’s first fire lookout tower atop a large rock known as “The Devil’s Anvil” at the peak’s 2,136-foot summit.
Even before the fire lookout was placed on the rock, locals were calling the mountain Bottle Peak because it looked like a bottle. The fire tower only added to the impression.
A 1967 historical piece in the Escondido Times Advocate said some in the area mistakenly thought the mountain derived its name from a mineral spring bottling operation that once existed in the area.
“From it, a great expanse of country can be seen — as far north as Pala, south beyond San Diego, west to the ocean and east to the mountains back of Warner Hot Springs. From it, in clear weather, the forester in charge is able to keep a close watch for forest fires over a big expanse of territory,” according to an article published in 1912 in the San Diego Union.
Bish built the tower with his own money and labor, but was later reimbursed by the forestry department. He was then transferred to Hot Springs Mountain near Warner Springs where he built a similar lookout at the top of the county’s highest mountain.
The Bottle Peak lookout was listed as “abandoned” in a 1938 National Geodetic Survey data sheet, according to the Forest Fire Lookout Association website, but still stood into the 1950s when the wooden structure was destroyed by another fire.
Both the Bottle Peak and Hot Springs Mountain lookouts are gone now, though their foundations still exist.
The Bottle Peak property exchanged hands numerous times over the past 100 years, but became a 418-acre County of San Diego open space preserve, not open to the public, in 2013.
It is unclear, according to historical records, whether Grand Avenue (it was originally called San Pasqual Road) was built so that a view of the peak would be directly to the east, though most assume so. It should be noted that the same view exists as travellers drive east on E. Valley Parkway.
[email protected]; 760/529-4931; Twitter: @jharryjones
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Health Indicator Report of Environmental Burden of Childhood Diseases
The term "environmental burden" refers to what extent environmental exposures are attributable to the overall incidence and cost of a disease. Each year, modifiable environmental risk factors affect health, causing significant suffering, stress, financial strain to families, and a considerable economic impact. Calculating the environmental burden for children and then computing the proportion of overall cost that is attributable to the environment is important because it is one way to show how the environment impacts human health. Children are more susceptible to environmental factors than adults. A child's nervous, immune, reproductive, and digestive systems are still developing and because they are growing, children tend to breathe more air as well as eat and drink more in proportion to their weight. For these reasons, exposure to environmental factors such as breathing in particulate matter, ozone, or cigarette smoke can have more negative effects on children than adults.
NotesIt is expected that if a child is exposed to one environmental exposure, they will also be exposed to others. For this reason the overall EAF formula accounts for some of the association between the different environmental exposures. That is why the overall EAF is not the same as the sum of the separate environmental exposures.
- Utah Data: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, Office of Public Health Assessment, Utah Department of Health
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Air and Radiation, AIRS data
Data Interpretation IssuesOdds ratios were obtained from a literature review for each environmental exposure. When available, proportions were used from Utah specific data. When Utah-specific data was not available, a national or study proportion was used. This could skew the results if Utah has a proportion exposed at a higher or lower rate than the national estimate. Because this is a new topic of discussion, some findings, mainly traffic exposure, had odds ratios that were not considered statistically significant because of the small sample sizes or few surveys asking questions about exposure.
DefinitionThis report estimates the economic cost of childhood asthma that is attributable to the environment. This estimate is based on total cost of asthma. This includes direct health care costs and indirect costs. Indirect costs include costs associated with missed school days and lost wages for parents. The estimate is also based on an environmental attributable fraction, which estimates the proportion of childhood asthma that can be credited to the environment. The environment is being defined as outdoor and indoor pollutants from sources that could potentially be reduced.
NumeratorThis Indicator Report contains the following measures: 1. environmental attributable fraction for childhood asthma among the child population, age 17 years or less 2. childhood asthma environmentally attributable costs
How Are We Doing?The EPA recognizes secondhand smoke, mold, chemical irritants, and outdoor air pollution as common triggers for asthma. Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases among children. The American Lung Association and Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that about 7.1 million children under the age of 18 are affected by asthma. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), children who reported currently having asthma has risen from 8.7% in 2001 to 9.4% percent in 2010. The Utah Asthma Program has estimated that the current prevalence of asthma among children ranges from about 2 percent in younger children to almost 10 percent among children ages 15-17.
How Do We Compare With the U.S.?This was a one-time project collaborating with other states to calculate a state specific environmental burden of disease. The contributions of environmental factors vary by state and because of this, Utah's combined environmental attributable fraction (EAF) differed from others. In Utah, PM2.5 is the largest contributor to the total EAF.
Page Content Updated On 04/15/2021, Published on 03/30/2022
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Empaths have the unique ability to sense and absorb the feelings of others — and that can create some real challenges.
Being highly sensitive to emotions makes empaths caring, compassionate, and understanding of other people. Friends and family tend to turn to them first for a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on. While most of the world struggles to put themselves in others’ shoes, empaths possess a true superpower — the ability to easily see a person’s perspective because they actually feel their emotions as their own. Many highly sensitive people (HSPs) describe themselves as empaths.
(Are you one? Here are 13 signs you’re an empath.)
On the other hand, there are real challenges that come with being so empathetic. Empaths often feel misunderstood because of how deeply they feel. They can also become overwhelmed easily as they juggle all the emotions they experience — from themselves and others.
As an empath myself, I know there are just certain struggles only other empaths can fully understand. Here are 14 of them. Can you relate?
Common Empath Problems
1. Others’ emotions can flip yours like a switch.
You were having a good day. Maybe you got some good feedback at work, checked off all the items on your to-do list, or were generally just feeling good about life. Then, your partner gets home or you meet up with a friend who had an awful day.
Immediately, you feel your emotions shift. Your good vibes are gone, and you feel sad or angry just like your friend or loved one. It feels as if their day happened to you. This can make it hard to hold space for the other person because you’re now trying to manage the same feelings. As an empath, it’s hard to disconnect someone else’s emotions from your own.
2. You’re constantly battling emotional fatigue.
Feeling your own emotions can be exhausting enough. But as an empath who picks up on what everyone around you is feeling, it can quickly become way too much. This includes strong emotions of any kind — from deep sadness to excitement and joy. Empaths have to carefully manage their emotions and practice a lot of self-care to avoid constant emotional fatigue and exhaustion.
3. Compassion can feel like a burden.
Empaths are used to being told (or led to feel like) they care “too much” or are “too emotional.” But to us, it’s odd that others don’t care more.
At the same time, not being able to shut off compassion for those around you can feel heavy and leave you carrying a lot of burdens you may not have control over. When you’re the person who feels suffering more than anyone around you, it’s hard not to feel responsible for remedying it.
4. You’re torn between going out and staying in.
Although empaths tend to connect well with others, ironically, they need a lot of time alone to process their own emotions and have a break from absorbing others’. Sometimes they’re even mistaken for introverts (although many people are both — learn more here about how introverts and empaths compare). If you don’t have alone time, you can easily crumble under the pressure. On the other hand, maintaining healthy relationships is good for your mental health, and pure isolation is not.
It can be a real struggle to balance alone time with socializing. For this reason, empaths tend to prefer more low-key settings, such as coffee shops or friends’ houses, over noisy clubs or parties.
5. Alone time is necessary — and not everyone understands that.
Speaking of needing time to recharge, it can be hard to explain to others why you need it. For me, it’s the only time I can properly listen to myself and sort out the thoughts swirling around in my head. I also need quiet moments to “hear” myself and filter out the emotions I may have picked up throughout the day from other people.
Non-empaths may not need as much time alone, and some even thrive being around others constantly. If you’re an empath who lives with a partner or roommates — or has extroverted friends — it may require long conversations to help them understand your solitary needs.
6. You need time to process transitions.
Empaths can have a hard time going from high-stimulus environments to low-stimulus situations, and vise versa. This is why some may feel a strange “hollowness” after a loud party or be completely overwhelmed jumping into a crowded event. They need time to process the staggering transition and all emotions associated with it.
7. You struggle with anxiety or depression.
Although not true of every empath, it’s not uncommon for them to struggle with their mental health. Because they are so sensitive to emotions — their own included — they may deal with a lot of self-doubt, stress, and anxiety. Receiving anger or disappointment from other people can feel like getting hit with a ton of bricks.
Dr. Judith Orloff, author of The Empath’s Survival Guide, writes that empaths can feel the entire spectrum of mental and physical symptoms that come with others’ emotions — including depression, panic attacks, chronic fatigue, and more. This means empaths can be left juggling the mental effects of their own problems, as well as those of others.
In addition, many of us empaths have spent our lives feeling different from those around us, which can lead to isolation. This is why it’s so crucial for empaths to take time for themselves and make their wellbeing a priority.
8. You know someone is feeling “off” when no one else notices.
Empaths can sense when a person is upset, often even before they have indicated it to others. This can be a wonderful trait because it allows you to notice when others are in need. However, it can also make it hard to enjoy yourself.
For me, this can happen when I’m just trying to have a nice, carefree time with my friends. Once I notice someone is feeling less-than-happy, I can’t enjoy myself if I begin taking on their emotions.
9. People take advantage of your compassion.
Intuition is a huge empath superpower. They often have gut feelings after meeting new people that turn out to be true, thus shielding themselves and others from dishonest people, or those with bad intentions. That being said, empaths are not immune to deception, narcissism, and toxic people. It’s important to watch out for those who try to take advantage of your empathy, compassion, and willingness to help.
10. “Small” things can deeply upset you.
Empaths care — a lot, about everything. It’s just in their nature. So, “little” things, such as one mean comment from a stranger online or a disagreement with a coworker, can affect you for days and take a long time to get over. Other people may not understand why you can’t just “get over it.”
11. Sometimes you forget to leave emotional space for yourself.
You feel so much from those around you, and your empathy makes you a great listener, healer, and problem solver. But sometimes you give away all your energy to others, while forgetting about yourself. This is where it’s so important to prioritize inner work and self-care. Empaths must help themselves before they can have the energy to help others.
Like what you’re reading? Get our newsletter just for HSPs. One email, every Friday. Subscribe here.
12. Saying no is really hard.
“No” often makes you feel guilty. Empaths hate disappointing or potentially hurting others. In the moment, you’re happy to sacrifice your time or energy to make others feel good — until it leaves you drained and overwhelmed.
13. Violence and horror deeply upset you.
Although not true of every empath, some empaths will never understand how other people enjoy horror movies so much. Or how some people can watch a violent scene or read a tragic news story and simply move on with their day. Fake and real-life violence can leave empaths upset for hours or even days after they’ve seen or read about it.
14. You don’t always know which emotions are yours.
This is probably the biggest ongoing challenge empaths face. When you’re constantly absorbing emotional information from other people, it can be hard to know what you’re feeling from others vs. your own thoughts and emotions. This can make decisions hard, and sometimes your “feelings” lead you down the wrong path.
Empaths, which of these challenges resonate with you? What would you add to this list? Let me know in the comments below.
You might like:
- 13 Signs That You’re an Empath
- The Difference Between Introverts, Empaths, and HSPs
- Why Doctor Visits Really Are Different for HSPs
We participate in the Amazon affiliate program.
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Urgent-Act Now to Protect Lobos!
On Feb. 3, the Arizona Legislature’s Committee on Government and the Environment passed legislation and a resolution to push this tiny, critically endangered population of wolves even closer to extinction.
Legislation by AZ State Senator Gail Griffin (SB 1211) will encourage Arizona residents to trap and kill Mexican gray wolves in violation of federal law.
A second bill (SB 1212) appropriates $250,000 for state litigation to impede federal efforts to recover Mexican wolves.
And as if that weren’t enough, the Senate passed, by a vote of 18-11, a concurrent resolution against Mexican wolf recovery (SCR 1006).
We can still stop these bills. Please contact your AZ State Legislators and urge them to oppose these bills!
Critically endangered Mexican gray wolves are native to Arizona and are an important part of our natural heritage. By restoring these beautiful, intelligent animals, we can eventually restore the balance to our state’s wild lands and achieve economic benefits from wolf focused eco-tourism.
We can still stop these outrageous bills from becoming state law. Please contact your legislators today!
Tell them politely that you expect them to oppose these bills that embarrass Arizona, waste taxpayer money and fly in the face of overwhelming majority public support for wolf recovery.
Additional talking points include:
- Polling showed 77% of Arizona voters and 69% of New Mexico voters support the Mexican wolf reintroduction.
- The livestock industry has a responsibility to share public lands with wolves and other wildlife. There are many tried and true methods to avoid conflicts between livestock and wolves. Funds are available to help livestock growers implement nonlethal deterrents, better animal husbandry practices, and other innovative tools that minimize conflict.
- If state legislators really want to help, they should redirect the $250,000 slated for lawyers toward implementation of the new Coexistence Plan -- a performance-based program co-developed by ranchers, conservationists and wildlife agencies, which provides funds to help implement conflict-avoidance measures and “rewards” ranchers for helping to successfully raise the wolf population.
- Wildlife biologists believe that Mexican wolves will improve the overall health of the Southwest and its rivers and streams – just as the return of gray wolves to Yellowstone has helped restore balance to its lands and waters..
- Wolves generate economic benefits - a University of Montana study found that visitors who come to see wolves in Yellowstone contribute roughly $35.5 million annually to the regional economy.
If you live outside AZ, but still want to help, you can find a list of all AZ legislators and their contact info here.
The bill to appropriate $250,000 for Arizona to litigate against Mexican wolf recovery (SB1212) is here.
You can read the inflammatory, misleading resolution against wolves (SCR 1006) here.
Please act today to stop these outrageous bills from moving forward!
Thank you for standing for Mexican wolf recovery.
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My 13 Commandments is Matthias Fritsch's personal tool for trying out the path to a sustainable society in everyday life. Since even small steps can have a strong effect on everyday habits through constant routine, there is a very great potential for positive changes here.
If a person changes a daily habit, then this constant change becomes significant in its sum after one year. If many people change certain habits at the same time and create a critical mass, the effect becomes fundamental and can lead to social change.
WHY 13 COMMANDMENTS?
A sustainable society leaves its environment and culture in the same or better conditions. 'We are dwarves on the shoulders of giants' and will eventually be part of the giants that future generations will build on. I try living and acting according to the following principles. They can help to ensure that the future is not worse than the present. At the moment the scientific consensus is that we urgently need to change our habits. How fast we can do this as a society depends directly on everyone of us.
1. be grateful to live & respect the life around you
We're all mortal. Rejoice every morning that you are alive. Respect other people, animals and plants around you. Albert Schweitzer once said: "I am life that wants to live, in the midst of life that wants to live.
2. do not stop learning and share your knowledge with others
Keep trying to learn new things. Be independent and understand the big connections and systems. Question arguments of others and research their content of reason and truth yourself.
3. think global, act local
Demand determines supply. Question what you consume. Every consumer action and every cent spent causes an expenditure of resources, energy, transport & labour somewhere in the world. The profit and the associated taxes benefit a certain person, company, organization, municipality and form of government - you decide which one at the moment of purchase and consumption.
4. reduce, divide & use things several times
Live with less and enjoy the associated free space and leisure time, less consumption, less work, less technology, save water, energy and raw materials. How? Share what you have with other people, give away, make more sustainable holidays, recycle materials, buy used goods, collect usable on the street, offer your help & tools to others.
5. keep the environment clean
Artificial man-made materials often damage the environment. Leave your environment cleaner than you found it, and when you collect your rubbish, take the opportunity to remove some rubbish left behind by other people.
6. avoid plastic & harmful materials
Reduce your waste production to a minimum. Plastic, in particular, is currently a major threat to ecosystems and ends up in large quantities in the ocean, where it decomposes into microparticles, causes a lot of damage to animals, combines with other pollutants and ultimately returns to our food cycle. Use plastic more than once and packaging materials that are made of only one material and therefore easier to recycle or even better biodegradable plastic alternatives.
7. use your body for transportation
Look at everyday transport as sports exercises. Activities: Walking, running, carrying, cycling, stairs instead of elevators.
The fewer transport machines and routes you use, the less this infrastructure needs to be rebuilt and maintained.
8. produce and save energy where you live
Decentralize the energy grid, reduce transmission losses, produce energy with simple technologies that you can master. 50% of our energy consumption at home is used for heating. Put on one more garment instead of turning up the heating.
Possibilities: small solar and wind energy plants, Bio-Meiler and various off-grid alternatives.
Efficiency and sufficiency must go hand in hand to prevent rebound effects. Surf the Internet with low resolution and low bit rates for media, as less power and infrastructure is required for transmission & caching (Link).
9. eat plants from the neighbourhood
Use plants from the region and immediate vicinity. Collect and grow your own food and support local producers. Proceed in a habitat-conserving manner. Opportunities: City gardens, vegetables on the windowsill & on the wall, don't throw away any food, but cook hot smooties from leaves, stems and second-rate but unspoilt food that you wouldn't eat otherwise.
10. cook and process your food yourself
Keep control of your food. We are what we eat. Learn to cook, ferment and enjoy industrially processed food only on special occasions.
11. reduce meat and dairy products
According to current projections, up to 51% of all man-made CO2 emissions can be attributed directly or indirectly to livestock farming. As a result, eating little or no meat would already meet half of our most pressing climate change targets. Eat meat only on special occasions.
12. produce humus & return carbon to the soil
Worldwide, mankind is destroying the fertile soil that is the basis for our food production. Help to rebuild a fertile humus layer and return carbon to the soil!
Tools: humus generators in every home, Terra Preta for permanent humus, Kon-Tiki for charcoal production
13. collect your urine & feces and bring nutrients back to the fields
Helps to close the nutrient cycles. At the moment we are unfortunately flushing valuable nutrients through our water toilet system into the water cycle, where they have no place and clarification is very expensive and energy-intensive. It would be better to send them back where they come from: to the fields and forests. In cities, an infrastructure still needs to be developed to collect, compost and process urine and excrement on a large scale. In private, anyone can start now: Compost toilets and pouring with gold water (10% urine & 90% water mix, per person & year approx. 200qm floor area are needed for spreading)
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Organic Agriculture can Feed the World’s Hungry
Organic Agriculture Can Feed the World’s Hungry
The verdict is in: According to projections released this past fall, the world’s population is expected to hit more than 9.5 billion in 2050, and continue climbing up to 11 billion or more by 2100, if the current trend continues. But as research on world population growth and climate change moves forward, farmers, economists, and policymakers are still struggling to address a major concern: How will the Earth feed all these people? Further, can we do so without destroying the remainder of the planet’s resources?
As it turns out, happily, the planet already produces enough food to feed everyone, but the problem of unequal distribution and poverty remains, leading to two of the leading causes of illness across the world: Chronic hunger and obesity.
Scientists and experts of all sorts have weighed in with potential solutions to the ongoing problem of feeding a growing population and ending world hunger. Up until recently, most of these solutions have focused on utilizing conventional agricultural technology to produce more food. Solutions have ranged from embracing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to indoor farming, among other, technology-based fixes. On the flip side, small farmers and organic agricultural methods have hardly been researched, or even considered, because, as previous experts have noted, these farms simply cannot compare to their conventional counterparts when it comes to production. Or can they?
According to recent research conducted by scientists at the University of California Berkeley, small farmers could play an important role in saving world hunger, after all. The study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society earlier last month found that when organic farmers utilized certain diversification methods, the yield gap between organic and conventional producers essentially vanished, proving what organic food devotees the world over already suspected — that organic food can help to feed the world. The UC Berkeley study “found relatively small, and potentially overestimated, differences in yield between organic and conventional agriculture, despite historically low rates of investment in organic cropping systems.”
One of the most important merits of organic agriculture on a global scale is that, unlike conventional methods, organic agriculture doesn’t rely on synthetic chemical inputs, and is therefore much easier on the environment than conventional farms. Since agriculture is one of the largest contributors to climate change, the idea that organic agriculture could compete with its conventional counterparts is monumental.
The report notes that while our current, conventional agricultural system is “tremendously productive,” it also “causes many environmental problems, often trading off long- maintenance of ecosystem services for short-term agricultural production.”
The UN Food & Agricultural Organisation (FAO) also points out that while experts may have a tendency to ignore the small farmer’s contributions, “the world’s smallholders produce 70 percent of the world’s food on 25 percent of the land.” So while one small farmer may not seem to make much of a difference, the reality is that they absolutely do. And further, because small farmers are often important members of smaller, local communities, they have one of the biggest roles to play in helping to curb world hunger.
Professor Hilal Elver, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, would agree. In her first public speech in September, Elver noted that the focus on small farmers and alternative agricultural models “is critical for future agricultural policies. Currently, most subsidies go to large agribusiness. This must change. Governments must support small farmers.” According to the UN, 80% of subsidies and 90% of research funding in the European Union goes to supporting conventional industrial agriculture.
Despite the fact that organic agricultural methods are just now beginning to gain traction as a viable solution to world hunger and climate change, in actuality the UC Berkeley’s study isn’tthe first to suggest that the “yield gap” between conventional and organic agriculture may be much smaller than previously thought, although the study has found new clues as to whyorganic agriculture has historically been less productive.
The study notes that agroecology, more so than simply “organic” practices are among the key differences which help to narrow the “yield gap” between conventional and organic farming. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, “agroecology” has been defined by the UC Berkeley as “a scientific discipline that uses ecological theory to study, design, manage, and evaluate agricultural systems that are productive but also resource conserving.” Organic agriculture,notes FoodFirst, an activist group advocating for a sustainable food system, isn’t inherently synonymous with agroecological methods of farming, but, in the same way that a rectangle isn’t always a square, many organic farms utilize agroecological methods and philosophies as a sort of natural extension or byproduct of their organic practices.
Agroecology isn’t a new philosophy of farming, though it is just beginning to find greater support and traction amongst the scientific (and political) community. Agroecology, the report explains, is “a traditional way of using farming methods that are less resource oriented, and which work in harmony with society.” The study adds that “further investment in agroecological research has the potential to improve productivity of sustainable agricultural methods to equal or better conventional yields.”
In September, the UN’s FAO launched a new agroecology initiative, calling on governments to invest more money on researching alternative agricultural models, such as agroecological ones. In a speech, Dr. David Fig, who serves on the board of Biowatch South Africa said, “we are being far too kind to industrialized agriculture. The private sector has endorsed it, but it has failed to feed the world, it has contributed to major environmental contamination and misuse of natural resources. It’s time we switched more attention, public funds, and policy measures to agroecology, to replace the old model as soon as possible.”
There are proponents of both conventional agricultural and agroecological solutions to world hunger and climate change within the food systems community, but the two camps approach the planet’s problems in very different ways. According to FoodFirst, one of the profound benefits of agroecological methods is that “unlike genetically engineered crops (GMOs) which attempt to build resilience into the genomes of specific cultivars one trait at a time, agroecology strengthens the resilience of the entire ecosystem.”
The UC Berkeley study concurs, noting that it found the most effective management practices for increasing yields were practices “that diversify crop fields in space or over time,” such as “multi-cropping and crop rotations,” though the study also found that “these results suggest that polyculture and crop rotations increase yields in both organic and conventional cropping systems” (emphasis added).
Overall, the UC Berkeley study is reason for optimism; more and more experts seem united in viewing the problems inherent in today’s agricultural systems as obstacles with plausible and achievable solutions, and agroecology seems like a viable way forward for future research. FAO scientists recently described agroecology as a “well-grounded science, a set of time-tested agronomic practices and, when embedded in sound socio-political institutions the most promising pathway for achieving sustainable food production.”
It seems, in other words, that in order to solve today’s food crisis, we may need to look to the past, as well as into the future, embracing both traditional, ecosystem-conscious methods, as well as investing in new research and breeding for tomorrow’s farms.
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Freedman's Savings and Trust Company
From Ancestry.com Wiki
| African American Research
This article is part of a series.
|Overview of African American Research|
|Compiled Sources in African American Research|
|Census Records in African American Research|
|Military Records in African American Research|
|Freedman's Savings and Trust Company|
|Researching Free Blacks|
|List of Useful Resources for African American Research|
Serving in the Civil War, many ex-slaves who had labored without wages all their life suddenly had cash in their pockets. In addition to earning a bounty for enlisting in the military, they received $10 a month in pay. Many soldiers sent their money home, but a fair amount was spent on gambling, liquor, and women. Military officers who wanted soldiers to save their money started a military savings bank for the “colored” troops.
General Rufas Saxton, commanding general of the Department of the South, began the Military Savings Bank at Beaufort, South Carolina, in August 1864. In Norfolk, Virginia, General Benjamin Butler undertook a similar enterprise in the fall of 1864. And General Nathaniel Banks established a military savings bank in Louisiana in 1864.
New York businessmen learned of these banks and saw an opportunity. After the Civil War, they applied to the federal government to start a savings bank where soldiers and former slaves could invest their money. On 3 March 1865, the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, sometimes referred to as the Freedman’s Bank, was incorporated by an act of Congress. Accounts from the military savings banks were transferred into the Freedman’s Bank.
The first Freedman’s Bank was established in Washington, D.C. Later, thirty-six additional branches were opened, mainly in the South, but also in New York, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. Due to mismanagement and fraud, the bank failed in 1874. Its assets were taken over by the federal government and liquidated. Fortunately many of the records were saved and eventually transferred to the National Archives.
Surviving records include signature registers, pass books, questionnaires for lost passbooks, dividend payment schedules, an Index to Deposit Ledgers, voided dividend checks, correspondence, and loan papers and schedules.
The Signature Registers hold the most interest for genealogists. A Signature Card was completed for each account holder upon opening an account. Many depositors could not read, write, nor sign their names. Because photography was very rare and costly in the 1860s, the means of identification became answers to questions. The bank asked many personal questions of the depositor, about him or her, and about the depositor’s family, in the belief that only the depositor was likely to know the answer. The surviving records of this detailed examination have created a gold mine of information for genealogists.
The register format varied among branches and changed over time. The extent to which the forms were filled out also varied. Generally, the questions asked included name; residence; name of spouse, children, parents and siblings; and place of birth. Other genealogical data sometimes included complexion, former residence, occupation, employer, and names of deceased relatives. The early forms asked for name of master and name of mistress. The names of the former slave owners are essential to search enslaved people during the antebellum period.
A seamstress and washerwoman named Nancy Patterson established an account in the Louisville branch on 15 September 1865. In the final “remarks” portion of the signature record, it is noted that she “formerly belonged to Bob Smith, was bot [sic] by her mother upon the block in 1854 or 5.”25 No relatives were noted in her record, but in some cases it is not unusual to find three generations chronicled in a single instance.
One typical entry is that for Elias Webb, who held an account in the Vicksburg, Mississippi, branch. His record states that he was born and raised in Anderson District, South Carolina, and was residing in Port Gibson, Mississippi, at the time his account was opened. His father was Moses, his mother Rachel. He had four brothers, listed as Green Webb, Jeremiah Webb, Marcus Webb, and Scipio Lewis. His sisters were listed as Emeline, Mary, and Amanda Webb.
It was not unusual for people to cross a county line to make a deposit in a branch office. Therefore, while the number of cities with branches was limited, those branches served more than just the immediate vicinity. In addition, the bank had agents collecting money from soldiers in the field. The signature records indicate that significant numbers of ex-slaves from at least ten Mississippi counties and three Louisiana parishes opened accounts at the Vicksburg branch.
Many of the signature record forms contained space to indicate military regiment and company, providing evidence of Civil War service in the United States Colored Troops. Veterans continued to provide this information for many years after they had mustered out of the service.
There are several ways to access the Signature Registers, which are on microfilm at the National Archives and many genealogical libraries. Genealogists have transcribed and indexed records from several branches (see the bibliographies for Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, and New Orleans indexes). In addition, prisoners at the Utah State Penitentiary have transcribed all the records, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) has published the project on a CD-ROM titled Freedman’s Bank Records.
Like all sources, the CD-ROM has advantages and disadvantages. You can search for names of brothers, sisters, parents, or anyone who is mentioned on the Signature Registers. However, search engine results do not include alternate spellings of surnames. One genealogist who was searching for the surname Harget in New Bern, North Carolina, could not find it on the CD-ROM. However, a check of Bill Reaves’s North Carolina Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company Records revealed that sixteen Hargets opened accounts: eight under Hardgate; six under Hardget; and two under Hardgett. Although these sixteen entries were located on a second check of the CD-ROM, none of these spellings had been suggested for alternate searches.
Therefore a genealogist searching for the surname Harget in New Bern, North Carolina, would have to enter each spelling variation to find the eight Hardgates, six Hardgets, and two Hardgetts.
For a subscription fee, Ancestry.com and Proquest have recently added the Freedman’s Bank records to their online databases.
An Index to Deposit Ledgers was the only other record microfilmed. However, it is not an index to the Signature Registers, and the deposit ledgers themselves did not survive. Nevertheless, the index can be proof that an account existed for an ancestor when the Signature Registers did not survive for a branch.
There are a few passbooks that are at the National Archives. Some of the best records yet unfilmed are the questionnaires for lost passbooks. The questionnaires ask for similar information to that which is on the Signature Registers, and can substitute when Signature Registers have not survived. The added bonus is that some questionnaires were completed by descendants of deceased relatives who held accounts. Such a return can pick up additional ancestors and descendants.
Also not filmed are dividend payment schedules from 1882 to 1889. These schedules indicate an account’s balance and how much was returned after the bank folded. The five payouts returned 62 percent of the depositor’s account.
For more details, see Brewer’s “Do You Trust That Freedman’s Bank?”; Burroughs’s “Records Specific to African Americans” in African American Genealogical Sourcebook; and Washington’s “The Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company and African American Genealogical Research.”
The Bureau and the Bank: Separate Entities
Do not confuse the Freedmen’s Bureau with the Freedman’s Bank. Some researchers search the Freedman’s Bank records on CD-ROM and think they have researched the Freedmen’s Bureau. They have not.
Congress passed the Freedmen’s Bureau Act in 1865 and subsequent legislation to prolong Bureau activities. However, similar to today’s unfunded mandates, no financial appropriations accompanied passage of the acts. Since the Bureau was not funded, its services were implemented by the War Department. Records of the Freedmen’s Bureau in the National Archives are therefore included with military records.
In contrast, the Freedmen’s Savings & Trust Company was a private financial institution with a federal charter. Its operation was not related to the Freedmen’s Bureau. Records for the bank are at the National Archives as civilian records.
Military records and civilian records are organized and catalogued separately. Records for the Freedmen’s Bureau are in Record Group 105, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Records for the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company (the Freedman’s Bank) are part of Record Group 101, Records of Controller of the Currency. These two completely different groups of records each have their own unique set of inventories, finding aids, and microfilm. See Burroughs, “Records Specific to African Americans” in African American Genealogical Sourcebook for more details.
- ↑ Carl R. Osthaus, Freedmen, Philanthropy, and Fraud: A History of the Freedman's Savings Bank (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1976), 3.
- ↑ Ibid., roll 15, Vicksburg, Mississippi, branch, record no. 1186.
- ↑ Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, 1865-74, NARA microfilm, M816.
- ↑ Freedman's Bank Records, CD-ROM (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2001).
- ↑ Bill Reaves, North Carolina Freedman's Savings and Trust Company Records (Raleigh: North Carolina Genealogical Society, 1992).
- ↑ Charles Brewer, "Do You Trust That Freedman's Bank?" (presentation at 2003 Federation of Genealogical Societies conference, 3-6 September 2003), tape FGS2003T91; Tony Burroughs, "Records Specific to African Americans - The Freedman's Savings and Trust Company," in African-American Genealogical Sourcebook, ed. Paula Byers (Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1995), 57-67; Reginald Washington, "The Freedman's Savings and Trust Company and African American Genealogical Research" Prologue 29 (Summer 1997):170-81.
- ↑ Tony Burroughs, "Records Specific to African Americans - The Freedman's Savings and Trust Company," in African American Genealogical Sourcebook, ed. Paula Byers (Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1995), 57-67.
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- Standard 1a – create short pieces consisting of sounds from a variety of traditional (e.g. tambourine, recorder, piano, voice), electronic (e.g. keyboard), and nontraditional sound sources (e.g. water-filled glasses)
- Standard 3a – through listening, identify the strengths and weaknesses of specific musical works and performances, including their own and others\'
Student creates vocal exploration composition.
- Teacher expressively reads a folktale that contains several examples of repetitive text (e.g.,Anansi & the Moss Covered Rock), adding props to enhance.
- Student names repeated phrases of text (e.g., “Isn’t this a strange moss-covered rock?”)
- Student walks around the room & experiments vocally w/melodies that fit the text. Class regroups & shares melodies. Teacher notates melodies, using iconic notation that students can understand. (Generally the melodies will be pentatonic.)
- Student selects & sings favorite melodic composition for the text. Process is repeated for all text phrases in the story.
- Teacher writes out selected compositions in standard notation & students use these pieces in a performance retelling the story (after much practice).
- For PreK-K, suggested folktale is The Lovely Princess.
Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock, Eric Kimmel The Lovely Princess, Barbara Andress
Teacher uses an observational checklist to assess student abilities to create & sing melodies: + Student improvises/sings a melody that is phrase-like & can be easily repeated by self & others. v Student improvises/sings a melody that uses the singing voice but may not be easily repeated. - Student does not sing a melody but uses a speaking voice instead.
Has been used successfully in grades 1 & 2; also addresses ELA, & theater standards. This Instructional Idea also appears in Music: Resource Guide for Standards-Based Instruction, SED, 2002, p.11.
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Gro Harlem Brundtland
Prime Minister of Norway (1986-1989 and 1990-1996)
Place and Date of birth:
Oslo, April 20, 1939
Medical doctor and Master of Public Health (MPH) from Harvard University.
Spent 10 years as a physician and scientist in the Norwegian public health system. In 1965 she joined the Ministry of Health where she worked on children's health issues including breastfeeding, cancer prevention and other diseases. She worked in the children's department of the National Hospital and Oslo City Hospital and became Director of Health Services for Oslo's schoolchildren.
At the age of seven, she was enrolled as a member of the Norwegian Labour Movement in its children's section and has been a member ever since, leading the Labour Party to election victory three times.
In 1974, Dr Brundtland was offered the job of Minister of the Environment. During the 1970s she acquired international recognition in environmental circles and a political reputation at home. In 1981, at the age of 41, she was appointed Prime Minister for the first time. Gro Harlem Brundtland was the youngest person and the first woman ever to hold the office of Prime Minister in Norway. With two other periods as Prime Minister from 1986-1989 and 1990-1996, Dr Brundtland was Head of Government for more than 10 years.
Throughout her political career, Dr Brundtland developed a growing concern for issues of global significance. In 1983 the then United Nations Secretary-General invited her to establish and chair the World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission). The Commission, which is best known for developing the broad political concept of sustainable development, published its report Our Common Future in April 1987. The Commission's recommendations led to the Earth Summit - the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
Dr Brundtland stepped down as Prime Minister in October 1996 and went on to become Secretary General of the World Health Organisation from July 1998 to July 2003.
In 2007 she was appointed Special Envoy for Climate Change by UN Secretary-General.
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Supreme Court Approves Va. Claim to River Water
Virginia may withdraw water from the Potomac River to supply fast-growing suburbs without getting permission from neighboring Maryland, the Supreme Court ruled today.
Relying on centuries-old treaties, the court ruled 7-2 in a long-running dispute over growth and development around Washington, D.C.
Maryland owns the Potomac under a 1632 land grant from King Charles I, but a 1785 compact between the states gave Virginia certain water rights. The states have squabbled over water and fishing rights in the river for hundreds of years.
The most recent controversy stems from a 1996 application by Fairfax County, Va., to build an intake pipe extending farther into the river to serve its 1.2 million customers. Fairfax said its existing pipe draws water that is too muddy.
Maryland fought the project, arguing that its historical control over the riverbed gave it say-so over Virginia's water plans. The pipe went into use last summer, while the litigation continued.
The Supreme Court appointed an outside arbitrator who sided with Virginia last year, and the high court affirmed that outcome today.
The 1785 treaty allows Virginia to make various shoreline improvements and withdraw water, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for the majority.
Justices John Paul Stevens and Anthony Kennedy dissented, arguing that Maryland owns the riverbed and retains control over its use.
"This is major victory for economic development and quality of life in northern Virginia," Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore said in a statement. "Ensuring that Virginians have access to water in an environmentally sound way will help ensure that northern Virginia remains vibrant and strong."
More Like This
- Supreme Court to Hear Maryland-Virginia Water Dispute
- Supreme Court Sidesteps Wetlands Disputes
- California Supreme Court Rules in Favor of San Gabriel Valley Residents in Water Contamination Suit
- Potomac Sewage Flow Being Monitored
- $1 Billion in Clean-up Settlements for Baltimore Co. and Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission
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Thesis - campus only access
Date of Award
Master of Science (MS)
The purpose of this paper was to examine more fully the literature on team teaching in order to gain a concrete understanding of the issues and problems involved; to learn same steps which are necessary for developing a team teaching program; and to formulate a program on the primary level using the ungraded team teaching approach. Materials used in research of the problem were bulletins from the National Association of Secondary-School Principals on staff utilization, an annotated bibliography compiled by Anne Kavanaugh at Indiana University, the two new books on team teaching, Team Teaching--Bold Hew Venture, and Team Teaching. Contact was made with various school systems which have used both the team teaching approach and the ungraded primary. Team teaching materials developed by Ford Foundation were used in study of the organization plans of team teaching. Research in the team teaching field and the ungraded primary has indicated the following generalizations: 1. Team teaching and the ungraded primary have similarities in philosophy, administration, programming, educational goals, use of teaching personnel, pupil grouping, and the high interest in individual differences. 2. The elementary principal will have a greater emphasis placed upon his role. 3. A greater one to one relationship will exist than the recommended 25-1 ratio of the self - contained classroom of the present. 4. The kindergarten will became more of a part of the primary school. The recommendations include an ungraded team teaching plan for a school of one hundred pupils, and presents a program in reading to show how subjects may be adapted to this type of organization.
Jagels, Raymond A., "Team Teaching and the Ungraded Primary Organization" (1964). Master's Theses. 858.
© 1964 Raymond A. Jagels
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By Allen Walker; adapted by David Sullivan
For the sake of truth, and as a safeguard against deception, let us consider at this time the claim that the Ten Commandment law is the old covenant. Those who make this claim do so in an attempt to prove that the observance of the seventh day passed away with the old covenant at the cross, and is, therefore, no longer obligatory. Of course, if this is true of the seventh day, it is also true of those duties enjoined by the other nine commandments as well; and that which proves too much proves nothing. Many Scriptures are used, or rather misused, to prove this claim, which are confusing to those who do not clearly understand the Bible truth concerning the two covenants.
We shall first present the arguments of those who oppose the observance of the seventh day (based on their misunderstanding of the two covenants) in order to see if they are "rightly dividing the word of truth" in the use of the Scriptures which they cite. After having done this we promise to take up three propositions as follows: (1) What the old covenant was not; (2) What the old covenant was; (3) What the new covenant is. With this introduction we are now ready to present the arguments of those who claim the law of Ten Commandments to be the old covenant.
The first text usually read is Hebrews 8:13, which says, "In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." The proponents of the claim under consideration emphasize the fact (as stated in this verse) that the old covenant has vanished away, and Christians are under the new covenant, to which claim Seventh-day Adventists certainly agree. But we just as strongly deny that this old covenant is the law of the Ten Commandments.
After reading that the old covenant is gone and the new has come in its place, the no-law preachers next go to Galatians 4:24 to prove that the old covenant originated at Mount Sinai, and hence (according to their understanding) must be the Ten Commandments. So, going to Galatians 4:24 we read: "For these are the two covenants, the one (old covenant) from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage . . ." Paul is here comparing the bondage of the old covenant with the liberty of the new by contrasting Hagar and Ishmael (who were bondslaves of Abraham) with Sarah and Isaac, who were free. Please note that Paul plainly says that this old covenant which gendered to bondage and passed away was "from Mount Sinai." Then to prove that this old covenant is the law of Ten Commandments, they hasten to Mount Sinai (Exodus 20) and read the Ten Commandments. In doing this they feel they have indisputably proved their point.
But they do not stop at this. They next go to Deuteronomy 4:13, and then quote Deuteronomy 9:9-11: "When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights . . . The Lord gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant." This additional evidence seems entirely satisfactory in proving the Ten Commandments to be the old covenant "from Mount Sinai" which passed away. And if this contention is true, then of course, they say, the observance of the Sabbath passed away too, seeing it is one of the Ten Commandments.
We are now ready to examine these arguments, remembering the importance of "rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). But before doing this there are two more verses which we would insist on being added to the citations already made in the attempt to prove the Ten Commandments to be the old covenant. These two verses, 1 Kings 8:21 and 9, seemingly clinch their arguments. These verses read: "I have set there a place for the ark, wherein is the covenant of the Lord, which He made with our fathers, when He brought them out of the land of Egypt." "There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb." Don't fail to notice that in this ark there was a complete "covenant."
We agree with the no-law people that all these verses cited (and especially the last two) do prove beyond all question that the law of Ten Commandments alone does constitute one of the covenants which the Lord made with Israel at Sinai. But at the same time we contend that this is not the old covenant which waxed old and vanished away. This will be better understood when we Scripturally prove how impossible it is to apply Paul's descriptions of the old covenant to the Ten Commandments. We shall prove that God made two covenants with the Israelites at Mount Sinai--one in the nineteenth chapter of Exodus and, three days later, another in the twentieth chapter of Exodus where the Ten Commandments covenant is found.
Do not forget that this law is a "covenant." Let us now prove by the Scriptures what the old covenant is not. And we make haste to claim that the old covenant is not the Ten Commandments, because the inspired descriptions of the old covenant can never be applied to the law of the Ten Commandments. They were a "covenant", but not the "old covenant."
Speaking of the defects of the old covenant, Paul declares in Hebrews 8:6: "But now hath He (Christ) obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also He is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises." Here we have the evidence that something was wrong with some of the "promises" of the old covenant, and that the new covenant is established upon "better promises." At this point (if we were debating the question publicly) we would hang up a chart with the Ten Commandments on it, so that the audience could read them. And our diagreeing brother having admitted that Paul says the old covenant contained poor "promises," we would invite him to read the Ten Commandments one by one to the audience, and expose the poor promises in this law. The writer has done this very thing a number of times, but as yet no one has ever accepted the challenge, or attempted to find anything weak or wrong with the promises in the Ten Commandments.
In Ephesians 6:1-3, on this very point, Paul says "Children, obey your parents in the Lord; for this is right. Honor thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth." This is the fifth commandment, and in reading them through it is the first of the ten with a promise; and that is a good promise of long life to children who obey their parents.
We ask our brother if he can find anything wrong with this promise, and he admits he cannot. We also, at the same time, call attention to the fact that Paul is here quoting directly from the Ten Commandments, and not from some portion of
the New Testament writings, and that this proves that Paul still believed in these commandments and their observance. He did not believe they had been abolished. Then, if in Paul's day, the first commandment of the ten was still binding, the fourth, which declares, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord"-- "the Lord's day" (Exodus 20:8-11; Revelation 1:10) was binding. This makes it Scripturally impossible for the Ten Commandments to be the old covenant; for there are no defective promises found therein.
Now, continuing the proposition of what the old covenant is not, we turn to another defect of the old covenant, mentioned in Hebrews 8:7 as follows: "For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second." Here we find that it was on account of the faults (in addition to the poor promises) of this old covenant that it was done away. Our brother will next admit the truth of Paul's statement that the old covenant was faulty. Next we invite him to examine the Ten Commandments and tell the people the faults found in them. This is another challenge that has never been undertaken. But if the Ten Commandments constitute the old covenant, then the faults must be there. And yet no one would presume even to attempt to prove that a law which the Lord Himself proclaimed with His own voice was here and there defective and faulty.
When the Lord commanded that man refrain from idolatry, from desecrating His name and His day, from dishonoring parents, from murder, theft, adultery, lying and coveting, did He later discover that such commands were faulty because they imposed a burdensome yoke upon the carnal nature and should therefore vanish away and thus set man at liberty? So contend the no-lawists when their arguments are followed to a logical conclusion.
That the Ten Commandments have no faults in them is clearly proved by the Scriptures. In Psalm 19:7 we are told: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." Paul declares: Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good" (Romans 7:12). Then how could anything be perfect, holy, just and good, and faulty at the same time? Surely this proves that the descriptions of the old covenant do not fit the Ten Commandments. But then when we come to the proposition, What the old covenant is, we shall find the promises that were not good, the faults, and why it gendered to bondage and vanished away.
Speaking again of the old covenant, Paul said: "In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away" (Hebrews 8:13). This certainly proves that time and necessity made void the old covenant, and it passed away. But what about the law? Had it been made void too, in Paul's day? If the law and the old covenant are one and the same thing, it certainly had been. But what says the apostle Paul concerning the law? In Romans 3:31 he says: "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law." How could something be "established" in the letter to the Romans, and the same thing be abolished and done away in the epistle to the Hebrews? Suppose we put "old covenant" in Romans 3:31 instead of "law" and see how it reads: Do we the make void the old covenant through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the old covenant." That changed reading would be Scripturally correct if it be true that the law and the old covenant are one and the same. But the absurdity of the change certainly puts to shame the argument which contends that the law is the old covenant.
Having found that the old covenant is not the Ten Commandments, we are now ready to go to the nineteenth chapter of Exodus and there find what the old covenant is. We have certainly found that the Ten Commandments are said to be a covenant which the Lord made with the house of Israel at Mount Sinai. This is one covenant found in the twentieth chapter of Exodus. Now, we repeat, if we find another made three days before, in the nineteenth chapter of Exodus, that will be two covenants made at Sinai. That more than one covenant was made with Israel is proved by Paul's language in Romans 9:4: "Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises." Here we have the proof of "covenants" (plural) made with the Israelites.
That the covenant of the nineteenth chapter of Exodus was made at Mount Sinai is proved by reading the first two verses of this chapter as follows: "In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai . . . And there Israel camped before the mount." Here we have them at the foot of Mount Sinai.
Now comes the preamble of the old covenant:
"And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto Myself" (Exodus 19:3, 4).
Next comes God's part of the contract, or covenant:
"Now, therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine; and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel" (Exodus 19:5, 6).
If we find that the Israelites accepted this proposition, we shall have a covenant, plain and simple, between the Lord and them at Mount Sinai, recorded in the nineteenth chapter of Exodus, and made three days before the Ten Command-ment covenant of Exodus 20. Did they enter into this covenant with God after Moses put the proposition to them? We read that they did; and now comes the people's part of the covenant:
"And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all those words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord" (verse 7, 8).
This, we shall prove, is the old covenant spoken of by Paul in the eighth chapter of Hebrews, which proved faulty, and had poor promises, gendered to bondage, and vanished away; because as we shall see, the people never kept these promises, and thus failed to live up to their part of the covenant, or contract, thereby forfeiting the promises God had made to them.
Let us carefully follow what happened. They had entered into a covenant to obey the "voice" of the Lord. They had not as yet heard what that "voice" was going to command them. But the Lord told Moses to get them ready. The Lord said: "And be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai" (Exodus 19:11). Moses did as he was commanded.
"And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the nether part of the mount" (verses 16, 17).
And then in the next chapter follows the law of Ten Commandments. Please note: In the nineteenth chapter of Exodus we have a record of this covenant between God and them wherein they promised that they would obey His voice and be obedient. Then in the twentieth chapter we find the Ten Commandments, which they had covenanted to obey before they knew just what God's "voice" would command them to do. Then to make sure that everything was clearly understood before the covenant was ratified, we read:
"Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people, and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient" (Exodus 24:3-7).
Note what they said: "All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient." We read on: "And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words" (verse 8). Please note that this covenant was not "the words" but was made "concerning all these words." The Lord had said that if they would be an obedient people, He would wonderfully bless them. That was God's part of the covenant, and their part was what they repeated three different times: "All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient." Then followed Moses' declaration, which we quote again: "Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words." So here we have another covenant at Sinai.
In order to impress it definitely upon the mind, we are going to quote again the texts which prove that in addition to the covenant made with them "concerning all these words," the law of Ten Commandments, which were included in "these words," was also a covenant. When we have done that, we will have two covenants at Sinai; namely, the Ten Commandments and the covenant made concerning the law and its accompanying judgments. Here are the texts again:
"And He wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments" (Exodus 34:28). "He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even Ten Commandments; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone" (Deuteronomy 4:13). "And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant" (Deuteronomy 9:11) "And I have set there a place for the ark, wherein is the covenant of the Lord, which He made with our fathers, when He brought them out of the land of Egypt" (1 Kings 8:21). "There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb" (verse 9).
Please notice the words of the last two verses: "The ark wherein is the covenant."-- "there was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone." And we can add: There was nothing written on the tables of stone but the Ten Commandments. These verses make the Ten Commandments a covenant with nothing added or taken from them.
Then in addition to this, there was a covenant made "concerning all these words"; and that makes two covenants at Sinai. The covenant "concerning all these words" is the old covenant with its bondage, poor promises and faults; for in this covenant there were repeated promises by the people that "all that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient." The Israelites failed in every promise made for a period of centuries reaching to the cross. Because of these failures they were repeatedly in spiritual and literal bondage. This is what Paul means when he declares that this old covenant gendered to bondage and did vanish away.
Please note that they kept repeating their promises, saying, "We will do." How very unreliable were those promises which they made as their part of the old covenant! In the covenant of Ten Commandments, they heard the voice of God saying: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath . . . Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them." The whole congregation promised three different times they would be obedient to this, as well as to the other command-ments (Exodus 19:8; 24:3, 7). But when Moses remained up in the mount longer than they had expected, "the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron , and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us" (Exodus32:1). So they brought their earrings of gold unto Aaron, and he made a molten calf, and they worshiped it. Then "the Lord said unto Moses, get thee down; for . . . they have tuned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten calf, and have worshiped it" (Exodus 32:7, 8).
This not only explains about the poor promises of the old covenant, but also explains why it gendered to bondage, as Paul declared in Galatians 4:24. This act, worshiping the calf, brought them under the bondage of condemnation before God; and, as we read in the remainder of this thirty-second chapter, had not Moses importuned for them in prayer, God would have destroyed them.
Putting all this together we find the promises, the faults, and the bondage of the old covenant. We have proved also that two covenants were made at Sinai, one in the nineteenth chapter of Exodus and one in the twentieth. We now know what the old covenant is, and why it cannot be the Ten Commandments.
This makes way for the third proposition, What the New Covenant is. We turn first to Jeremiah 31:31-33:
"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people."
The new covenant is: "I will put My law (then in existence) in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." Here are the "better promises" of the new covenant, better because God makes them. God's "I will" is sure, but the people's "we will" proved to be faulty and gendered to bondage of broken promises.
We are now ready for Hebrews 8:6-13, where the two covenants, the old and the new, are contrasted. We there read:
"But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant (made in Exodus 19, when Moses acted as the mediator) had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them ("them" does not refer to the law, but to the people, for breaking their promises of the Exodus 19 covenant), He saith (Jeremiah 31:33), Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people" (Hebrews 8:6-10).
Please note the "better promises": "I will put My laws into their mind." "I will write them in their hearts." "I will be to them a God." "They will be to Me a people."
All these promises are divine. They are made by One who is able to carry them out. It is thus that the new covenant is established upon better promises.
The fundamental difference between the old covenant and the new is, that in ancient times the people undertook the performance of spiritual duties through human effort,saying "We will do." This could not be done then nor can it be done now. For, says Paul, "we know that the law is spiritual" (Romans 7:14). This explains why "the carnal mind . . . is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7). But the new covenant people are made spiritual by the regenerative operation of the Holy Spirit on the heart, and then the law, which is spiritual, is written in their hearts, and thus obedience becomes divinely performed through the indwelling Christ. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned (conquered) sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us" (Romans 8:3, 4). Note that the requirements of the law are not fulfilled by us but in us. In the old covenant the "righteousness of the law" was attempted by us; and in the new covenant it is accomplished "in us." The words "in us," as contrasted with the words "we will do," explain the fundamental difference between the old and the new covenants.
Speaking of this new or "everlasting covenant" and its advantages, Paul says:
"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ" (Hebrews 13:20, 21).
The old covenant (Exodus 19) proposition of "we will do" ended in failure; but the proposition of God "working in you . . . through Jesus Christ" means victory and not defeat. There is no other way that the requirements of a spiritual law can be lived out in the flesh (see Galatians 2:20).
In the face of these Scriptural evidences, what becomes of the human arguments claiming God's law was abolished at the cross? Would God supernaturally write the principles of an abrogated law in the hearts of His people? Would God include obedience to an abolished law in the new covenant? The wording of the new covenant proves that the new covenant people cannot be those who are in rebellion against these Ten Commandments and claiming they are done away. Remember, too, that this law written in the hearts of His people includes the commandment which declares, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord"-- "the Lord's day" (Exodus 20:8-11; Revelation 1:10).
This new covenant, or new testament, does not include the observance of the first day of the week, Sunday, as a new covenant duty; for, according to the advocates of first day observance, the first day never originated as a New Testament duty until after the death of Christ. Every one knows that after the death of a man nothing can be added or taken from his last will and testament. The death of the testator ratifies the will, or testament. Then if the observance of the first day of the week is a New Testament duty it had to be put into the new covenant before the death of Christ; and since it was not, that Scripturally excludes it.
Now we are ready for some Scripture on this point. In Hebrews 9:16, 17 we read: "For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead; otherwise it is no strength at all while the testator liveth."
This explains why Jesus, before His death, instituted the Lord's Supper. It would be too late to get it into the new covenant, or testament, after He died. So we read: "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, take, eat; this is My body. And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is My blood of the new testament (or covenant), which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matthew 26:26-28).
So in order to get the Lord's Supper into the new covenant, it was necessary that it be put there before the death of the testator. "For," says Paul, "a testament is of force after men are dead." Then how could the observance of the first day of the week originate as a new covenant duty after the death of Christ, the Testator? That such a thing was impossible is stated by Paul in Galatians 3:15, where he declares: "Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed (by death), no man dis-annulleth, or addeth thereto." Then, if Jesus Himself could not add the Lord's Supper after His death, how could Constantine, the Pope, or even the disciples, or any one else, add the observance of the first day of the week as a new covenant duty after the death of Christ? His death ratified, confirmed, finished, and closed up the New Testament, which, says Paul, was of force after the death of the Testator, Christ. But the law of Ten Commandments, which the Lord in Jeremiah 31:31-33 called "My law" ("I will put My law in their inward parts"), as written in the hearts of the new covenant people, did have in it back in Jeremiah's day, and still does have in it, that commandment which says, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord," thus constituting the observance of the true Sabbath, the seventh day, a new covenant duty.
E. B. Jones advertised a pamphlet in a number of Fundamentalist publications in which he tries to prove one of the most impossible things ever attempted, viz., that after the death of our Lord, "the leaders of the early church" set apart the first day of the week as the day to be kept. A logical mind can only conclude, that until these "leaders" did this, the seventh day must have continued to be observed. Or was there an interval between the abolition (?) of the seventh day and the later "setting apart" of the "first day," that the Christian world was without a day of worship? Jones speaks of: "the setting apart by the leaders of the early church of Sunday as a day of worship." We ask of the honest, truth-seeking reader, How such an argument can be truth in the face of the fact that Jesus, the Testator of the New Covenant, ratified it by His death on the cross and after that, "no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto"? (Galatians 3:15). It is such false teachings that lead many honest hearts to understand and obey the truth.
In conclusion, we have found: (1) The old covenant is not the Ten Commandments. (2) The old covenant is the agreement between God and Israel found in the first part of the nineteenth chapter of Exodus. (3) The new covenant is: "I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people" (Hebrews 8:10).
It seems that since there is a new covenant people they could be discovered by this principle; namely, they will have the commandments written in their hearts. The Bible says: "Out of it (the heart) are the issues of life." This makes it plain that those who have the commandments in the heart will be constantly preaching them, or at least be open to them, and willing to observe them. On the other hand, those who are not interested in being God's new covenant people will be constantly preaching against the Ten Commandments because they are not in their hearts. "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin" (James 4:17). God cannot write in the heart that which the heart rebels against and holds in contempt.
We have seen that the principle of the old covenant was that of righteousness by the works of the law, which then and now leads to bondage; that the principle of the new covenant is that of righteousness by faith, which constitutes such as have it children of the free (Galatians 4:31). The following verses set forth the old covenant principle and its results:
"But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law" (Romans 9:31, 32). These two verses may be summed up in three words: "we will do." Now for a verse which sets forth the principle of the new covenant by way of contrast: "What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not (by human effort) after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith" (Romans 9:30).
This verse may be summed up in three words: "Christ in you." In view of this Scriptural teaching concerning the principles of, and the contrasts between, the two covenants, how very unfortunate it is that some would claim that the old covenant is the Ten Commandments, no more and no less, and there stop!
The truth that the old covenant is based on the principle of what man attempts to do and fails, as contrasted with the new covenant illustration of these two principles by the two wives of Abraham: Hagar, the wife of bondage, with her son Ishmael, and Sarah, the wife of freedom, and her son Isaac. As we understand this illustration and how it fits into the proposition of "we will do" as contrasted with the proposition of "God working in you," we will see how far they miss the mark who contend that the old covenant is the law of Ten Commandments. Please read carefully the following:
"Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants: the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free" (Galatians 4:21-31).
Then he continues:
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith."
These last two verses are quoted from Galatians 5:1-5 and mention the law of circumcision. These verses are a continuation of the points Paul was trying to make in the illustration of the bond-woman and her son, representing the old covenant from Sinai, and the free woman and her son, representing the subjects of the new covenant.
Before studying further into the meaning of all this, let us first look into the interpretation of this allegory by the dispensationalists and other no-Ten-Commandment-law teachers.
In the first place this allegory is directed to "ye that desire to be under the law" (Galatians 4:21). It is claimed that Paul here has reference to the Ten Commandments and is against those who respect them. To put that interpretation into this text it would have to read, "Tell me ye that desire to refrain from idolatry, stealing, lying, murder, profanity, Sabbath desecration, etc., do ye not hear the law?" But here the words "the law" have reference to something written in Genesis.
This is proved by the fact that after he asks, "Do ye not hear the law?" he immediately follows this by saying, "For it is written." Written where? Answer: "written in the law" which said, "Abraham had two sons." This positively proves he was not quoting from the Ten Commandments but from the book of Genesis, which he called "the law." Jesus called Psalm 82:6 "Your law" (John 10:34).
Let us suppose that after Paul had said, Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?" he had gone on as follows: "For it is written, Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." If that is what had followed after Paul said, "For it is written," it would suit the opponents of this law a great deal better than the things which Paul did say, after saying, "It is written." But notwithstanding the fact that he started quoting in Genesis rather than from the twentieth chapter of Exodus, the dispensationalists still must have it that when Paul said "the law" here, he had his mind exclusively on the Ten Commandments.
Going back to Abraham and Sarah, we find that after the failure based on "we will" produces a son, God said: "Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac" (Genesis 17:19). At that time Sarah was not only barren but "she was past age" (Hebrews 11:11). But "the Lord visited Sarah" and "Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age" (Genesis 21:1, 2).
It required a supernatural act of God to bring this son into being. Paul calls him the child of promise. He was not "born after the flesh" but "after the Spirit" (Galatians 4:29). Just so, on account of the fact that "the flesh is weak," man cannot attain to "the righteousness of the law." For this to be done, there must be a supernatural working of the power of God, as in the case of Isaac. All attempts on the old-covenant basis of "we will do," will produce only children of bondage. But when the heart is yielded to God, then the Holy Spirit writes the principles of the law in the "tables of the heart," and all such are "the children . . . of the free." When these principles of love as expressed in "the letter" on "tables of stone" are transferred to the "tables of the heart" by the working of God's power through the Holy Spirit, then, "the righteousness of the law" is "fulfilled in us" (Romans 8:1-4), or, in other words, "Isaac is born." The same grace which forgives us, cleanses us, and presents us to the Father clothed in Christ's righteousness--also changes us, empowers us, strengthens us, and transforms our minds and fashions them after the mind of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 2:16; Philippians 2:5, 13; Romans 12:1, 2; Romans 1:16).
So instead of Paul's illustration teaching that the commandments are abolished, it teaches that through the operation of the Holy Spirit, provision is made for obedience. Ishmael represents those who are "born after the flesh" and are not "subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7). Isaac represents those who are "born after the Spirit," in whom "the righteousness of the law" is being fulfilled. Thus do we clearly see that the commandment breakers (claiming they are done away) are the children of bondage, and the commandment keepers (through Christ) are the children of the free.
Jesus made this plain is John 8:34, 35:
"Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house forever."
This last statement about the servant not abiding in the house reminds us of the words, "Cast out the bondwoman and her son." Then Jesus continued, "If the
Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free
indeed." Observe carefully. Who is the "servant of sin"? The
answer is, "He that committeth sin." Again we inquire, What is sin?
The answer to this question is, "Sin is the transgression of the law"
(1 John 3:4). Then who are the Ishmaelites of the old covenant? The answer is
evident: It is those who live in transgression of God's holy law, or those who attempt to work their way to heaven--trying to be "obedient" in their own strength.
Jesus said, "If ye love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15). The Lord Jesus would not ask us to do something without giving us the strength to do it. He is vitally interested in how we relate to the Father, and how we relate to one another. The first four commandments instruct us in the first area of relating properly to God; the last six commandments instruct us in the second area of treating people with dignity, love, and respect. Jesus said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40).
When our Lord said that the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments, He wasn't eradicating everything the law and the prophets had said. He wassummarizing what they had said. He was boiling it down to the most simple of expressions--so simple and pure that a child can understand it. Jesus had a way of doing this. He magnified the law, and showed that the spirit of the law is even deeper more far-reaching than the letter of the law. Murder is not just killing someone; it is hatred in one's heart towards a neighbor. Adultery is not just an adulterous affair; it is the unseen lust in one's heart (see the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7).
Jesus said that He didn't come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17, 18). He was a walking, talking Torah! He was a personification of the principles of the law. The law reveals God's character, and Jesus came to reveal the Father (John 17:3, 6, 26). It's all about love. A love so immense that the God whom we have sinned against would suffer and die for our sins! So it should not surprise us that Jesus went out of His way to radically keep the Ten Commandment law, for this law reveals what true love looks like in real life.
Many of the miraculous healings of Jesus took place on the Sabbath. Jesus made a lot of self-righteous people mad because He didn't keep the Sabbath the way they thought it should be kept. Jesus revealed the true nature of the Sabbath. He allowed His disciples to pluck ears of corn in the cornfield, because they were hungry. This made the Pharisees angry, because it violated their conception of the Sabbath (which was a very narrow, legalistic, burdensome conception). In addition, they were looking for ways to catch Jesus in some unlawful practice, so they could bring Him to trial. But Jesus reminds them that God requires mercy and not sacrifice; and that He, Jesus, is "Lord even of the sabbath day" (Matthew 12:8). This was the very spirit of the Sabbath all along. This is what the Lord had in mind for the Sabbath from the beginning-- "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath" (Mark 2:27). It was instituted by God during creation week--before sin--to be an eternal blessing to the human race. It was made for us.
After this, Jesus went into the synagogue, and the Pharisees again tried to find some reason to accuse Jesus of wrongdoing. They showed Him a man with a withered hand, and they asked Jesus if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath. "Then He said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much more then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days. Then saith He to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other" (Matthew 12:11-13).
This is the intended meaning of the Sabbath experience. It is a time for close communion with God. It is a time for resting--not just from our daily labors--but from our anxieties, worries, stresses, perplexities, and strivings. We rest in Jesus, fully realizing that His precious blood has saved us; and we are caught up in His glory and majesty and love. We rest in His strength, realizing that we cannot possibly save ourselves, nor change ourselves. We bless others on this day. We follow in the footsteps of the Master, who went about doing "well" on the Sabbath.
In Paul's allegory, Ishmael who was "born after the flesh", persecuted Isaac, who was "born after the Spirit." There is no persecution involved in a person's violating the commandments of God. But Revelation 12:17 says, "The dragon (Satan) was wroth with the woman (church), and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." There is no such thing as persecution against Sunday keeping, but many are the records in our own free America of the observers of the seventh day having been thrown into prison. In almost every instance this has been done at the instigation of religious leaders who preach that the Ten Commandments are abolished.
We are now ready to sum up Paul's illustration of the contrast between the principles of the old and new covenants.
God promised Abraham a son. After long waiting, he received no son. "Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children." Then instead of waiting longer and trusting God to solve the problem, "Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing; I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai." "And Hagar bare Abram a son; and Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael. And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram" (Genesis 16:1, 2, 15, 16). Paul says this son was "born after the flesh" and was in "bondage" because his mother was a slave in Abraham's household. Instead of Abraham's recognizing that because of Sarah's barrenness and age there was nothing he could do to produce a son, and that God would have to do this for him by the operation of divine power, he hearkened unto Sarah and undertook the impossible on the basis of "we will do" through Hagar. The result was a child of bondage whom God cast out and could not accept.
Here we have the principle of the old covenant. When God in Exodus 19:4-8 said to Israel, "If ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people," instead of saying, "We will do," they should have said, "Lord, we of ourselves can do nothing. We pray you to work out that obedience in us." But instead of this, just as Abraham did, they set out to do by their own "works" that which only God can do, and the result was bondage and slavery to condemnation. This transaction between God and Israel was at Mount Sinai, where Israel camped before the mount (Exodus 19:2). This is why Paul in speaking of that covenant said, "the one from Mount Sinai which gendereth to bondage" (Galatians 4:24).
Those who claim that these Ten Commandments (which constituted one of the covenants given at Sinai) were for no other people except the Jews, read Deuteronomy 5:2-5 as their proof:
"The Lord God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us alive here this day," and then follows the Ten Commandments.
Then it is claimed that their "fathers," Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and those who lived back there before Sinai, were under no obligation to refrain from idolatry, image worship, taking the Lord's name in vain, Sabbath desecration, dishonoring parents, stealing, lying, committing adultery, murdering, coveting, etc., that they could practice all these degrading vices without it being counted against them as sin. If that is not the logic of their argument, pray what are we trying to prove?
In the first few chapters of Deuteronomy, Moses was rehearsing (Deuteronomy means rehearsing) to them the many favors and blessings which God had bestowed upon them and of the obligations of obedience and faithfulness which God would require of them on account of these bountiful dealings. Among other things Moses rehearsed in chapter five how that God had come down on Sinai and spake to them the covenant of the Ten Commandments, and at the same time reminding them, that God did not do this with their "fathers." God had not called their fathers at the foot of Sinai and talked with them audibly as he had with them, and that is the crux of what Moses was getting them to understand. But that Abraham did have, in some way, a knowledge of God's commandments and kept them is plainly stated in Genesis 26:5:
"Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."
But by the use of this argument, that what God made with Israel is not for Gentiles, they cut themselves off completely from the benefits of the New Covenant, for, it, too, was made (not with Gentiles) but "with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah" (Jeremiah 31:31-33). The author of Hebrews quoted this New Covenant, and showed it to be in force in his day: "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put their laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them (these Israelites) a God, and they shall be to me a people" (Hebrews 8:10).
So by claiming that what God gave to the Israelites was not
for the Gentiles, they divorce themselves from the New Covenant. Also from the
entire book of James, for it was not addressed to Gentiles, but to "the
twelve tribes scattered abroad" (James 1:1). When they read in Exodus 31:16
that, "that the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath," they try
to make a great deal about that not being for them since they are in no sense
"Israel." But when they read just as distinctly that the New Covenant
was for "the house of Israel," they will argue to the last that
"Israel includes them, though they are Gentiles and Gentiles only, through
See the documents "WHAT
WAS ABOLISHED AT THE CROSS?" and "THE
Questions or comments? You can email us at: [email protected]
Or you can write us at:
P.O. Box 796
Dickson, TN 37056
return to bibleevidencelinks page
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Dolphin and whale nonhuman personhood is viewed as the next step in animal rights. Cetaceans must first be considered nonhuman persons in order to have their rights officially recognized. But this legal and moral concept can be confusing – so let’s break it down a bit.
Many people don’t realize that dolphins and whales do not have the right to be alive. To this day, they are considered and treated as property for human benefit. We capture them from the ocean, kill them for food and keep them in captivity. Each of these activities remains legal because of dolphins’ explicit lack of rights. Businesses like SeaWorld rely on orcas being considered legal property to make money off of their lives.
‘Rights’ are another way of saying protections. Human beings have rights because we have emotions, we care about things such as family and freedom, and we experience pain when we are physically or psychologically injured. We have the need for protections in order to safeguard against pain and to help ensure that we can all lead happy, full lives.
Until recently, Western cultures believed that other-than-human animals were unthinking, unfeeling machines. It was assumed that they had no need for rights because they simply wouldn’t notice whether they had them or not. However, we now have enough scientific evidence to refute these ideas.
Cetaceans in particular benefit from a wealth of such discoveries. We now know that they are highly intelligent, they value many of the same things that we do, and that they likely experience emotions and pain in similar ways that we do. Because of these discoveries, we now understand that they need, and deserve, protections too.
This is where the concept of whale and dolphin nonhuman personhood comes in. Sonar advisor Thomas I. White, author of In Defense of Dolphins, provides a nifty summary of personhood here.
An entity must first be considered a legal ‘person’ in order to be given any rights. At the moment, human beings and corporations are the only things that are considered ‘persons’, meaning that everything else is classified as property, and as such has no rights. So, making cetaceans legal ‘persons’ opens the door for their increased protection.
While the exact definition for personhood is still debated, below is a list of traits that many believe qualify a being to be considered a legal ‘person’:
- Being Consciousness
- Having self-awareness
- Having emotions
- Having control over one’s actions, the ability to make decisions
- Recognizing other persons
- Being able to solve complex problems
- Possessing cognitive sophistication
Giving dolphins and whales nonhuman personhood standing does not mean that they will ever be able to vote, or that they will be assigned jury duty. It means that they will be eligible to be given basic rights, such as the right to life, liberty and freedom from harm. This would essentially make it illegal for any human being to capture dolphins from the oceans, keep them in captivity for any purpose, or kill them.
It is impossible to argue against dolphin and whale nonhuman personhood. It is only a matter of time until these ideas become more accepted and manifest as actual policy and legal protection. Sonar is working to speed this process along. We work with communities, lawmakers, public officials, other organizations and scientists in order to get dolphin and whale nonhuman personhood legislation passed in cities across the globe.
Members of our Sonar pod have been advocating for dolphin and whale nonhuman personhood for some time now, with a few key successes in the past that give an example of what we continuously work on.
Nation of India:
In 2013, the government of India banned cetacean captivity throughout their nation, and declared that cetaceans ought to be considered nonhuman persons. It was among the most progressive nonhuman rights statements ever to be issued by a major government.
In February 2014, the mayor of Malibu, California passed a resolution stating that dolphins and whales deserve the right to their own freedom and lives.
San Francisco, California:
The Malibu resolution spurred another initiative among the San Francisco Board of Supervisors who ended up passing a resolution in October that same year stating that cetaceans have the right to be unrestricted and free of captivity.
Nation of Canada:
In June 2015, we advised on a Canadian bill aimed at placing cetaceans ‘beyond use’ of human beings.
Convincing governing bodies to begin recognizing cetacean’s rights to their own lives is an important step in increasing widespread understanding of who these beings are, and reducing the harm they experience at our hands.
If you would like to pass a dolphin and whale nonhuman personhood bill in your local community, get in touch with us: dolphin (at) wearesonar.org
Photo by Scott Portelli.
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A lost seed with a funny looking hat helps young children learn not only about seed science but also important lessons about diversity and difference.
Explore nature by tuning in to the sounds of your environment.
Grade K-5 readers are invited to play a game of I Spy to find urban wildlife along with this story’s main character, a family dog named Scooter.
Sounds abound in every school yard! This activity encourages PreK-2 learners to explore sounds all around their neighborhood and compare how sounds change from one season to the next.
Using no words and a dramatic color palate, this book follows a little boy who leaves his tent to explore the environment in the dark.
This book demonstrates how a young girl, Sophie, deals with anger when her older sister takes a favorite toy. Learn which PLT activities it supports.
In this children’s book, a young girl takes a quiet walk with her father and identifies the many different sounds they hear.
Try these teaching ideas to provide students with different learning styles and abilities multiple avenues to acquire and process content.
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Tuesday, September 11, 2012
The World Trade Centre Memorial Tree
Species name: Quercus bicolor
Common name: Swamp white oak
I figured that today's blog post should have a special meaning, so the plant of the day is the swamp white oak. It is a native species to southern Ontario, with a species range almost completely overlapping with the previous day's blog, the pin oak. Like the pin oak, the swamp white oak can tolerate being partially submerged during the spring run-off, but unlike the pin oak it can also tolerate being submerged (either temporarily or permanently) during the growing season. Also unlike the pin oak, it is mildly shade tolerant and so is a good competitor in swampy forests.
So what about this blog post has special meaning? Well, as I'm sure everyone is aware, today is the 11th anniversary of the World Trade Centre attacks. While I don't personally know anyone that was in the WTC at the time of the attacks, or even know someone that knows someone that was in the WTC, I do remember my OAC ("grade 13") physics teacher stopping the class and turning on the TV so we could watch the news coverage. I remember the feeling of sadness of all of us in the class, and also the feeling of fear. None of us had ever stopped to think that this kind of thing even happened, let alone anywhere close to us. I won't ever forget where I was on that terrible day in history, and I don't think anyone else will, either. Unfortunately, the devastation of that day still rages on both in mentally in memories and in very physical ways. There are currently hundreds of firefighters and other first responders that are now battling unusual forms of cancer and lung disease because of the fumes they were inhaling while trying to save other peoples' lives. I heard on the news this morning that the American Government has finally agreed to pay for their medical treatment for their various cancers (previously it was limited to lung disease), which is a wonderful piece of news to hear.
In 2003, there was a competition to design a memorial for the former WTC site. The winning design was submitted by Michael Arad and Peter Walker, and includes two reflecting pools, a meeting area in the middle, and a mind-boggling number of trees. The memorial site was finally opened to the public on September 12, 2011, the day after the 10th anniversary dedication ceremony.
So where does the swamp white oak fit into this? Every single tree planted at the memorial site is a hand-picked swamp white oak from NYC and surrounding area. The workers on the site each got to choose a tree and a location to plant it within the memorial site, which ensures and almost "individualization" of each tree. The trees are all different sizes, different stages of maturity, and have different genetic backgrounds which help contribute to a spectacular colour show in the fall (the leaves of the swamp white oak change to yellow, orange or even pink depending on climate, light levels, and genetic background). A very neat idea, to say the least.
May we never forget the lives that we lost that day. If you see a first responder today, whether in NYC or in any other city around the world, thank them for their work. They selflessly put their lives on the line every time they walk into an emergency situation, and for that they should be commended.
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Comment on the three types of sociological theories, explain and argue, based on
your library or Internet research, which type of theory is the most appropriate
theory for sociology to adopt.
The three general types of sociological theory are positivistic, interpretive and
critical theory. In determining which theory is the most appropriate for sociology to
adopt, a basic understanding of each theory's strengths and weaknesses is necessary. In
defining each of these theories, it is important to determine the ontological basis or the
theory's basis for determining what is knowable; the epistemological basis or the theory's
relationship between the knower and the knowable; and, finally, the methodological basis
or the theory's method for gathering data and obtaining knowledge.
The positivistic theory is based on an ontology of being a realist. The realistic
slant of positivism is also known as determinism. The positivist knows that a reality is
'out there' to be defined and categorized.
The hard sciences from the time of Newton
and Decartes have traditionally relied on the positivistic approach. The positivist hopes to
be able to approximate 'reality' in a detailed generalization or theory on how reality
operates. The theories of a positivist generally take the form of cause and effect laws
describing the outside reality. Robert Merton defined these theorems as 'clear verifiable
statements of the relationships between specified variables.'
Positivism relies on an objective epistemology. The observer remains distant and
does not interact with the observation or experiment. Values and any other factors that
might lead to bias are to be carefully removed so that the cold, monological gaze of
science can be used to analyze the data. The positivist is an objectivist.
The methodology of positivism is experimental and manipulative. The approach is...
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Roughness of retinal layers, a new Alzheimer's biomarker
Over recent years, the retina has established its position as one of the most promising biomarkers for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's. Moving on from the debate as to the retina becoming thinner or thicker, researchers from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Hospital Clínico San Carlos are focusing their attention on the roughness of the ten retinal layers.
The study, published in Scientific Reports, "proves innovative" in three aspects according to José Manuel Ramírez, Director of the IIORC (Ramón Castroviejo Institute of Ophthalmologic Research) at the UCM. "This is the first study to propose studying the roughness of the retina and its ten constituent layers. They have devised a mathematical method to measure the degree of wrinkling, through the fractal dimension, and have discovered that in some layers of the retina these measurements indicate that wrinkling begins at very early stages of Alzheimer's disease," explains the IIORC expert.
To undertake the study, launched six years ago, the researchers developed computer programs allowing them to separate each layer of the retina. Following this subdivision, the problem which arose was how to distinguish the roughness of one layer from that of the neighboring layers.
"As each is in contact with the others, the wrinkling of one layer is transmitted to the adjacent layers, and their roughness becomes blurred. The solution was to flatten each layer mathematically on each side and study the roughness remaining on the other side," indicates Lucía Jáñez, the lead author of the publication.
Software development to calculate roughness
The second problem faced in the research was to find a procedure to measure roughness. "The solution lay in calculating the fractal dimension of the side of each retinal layer studied," explains Luis Jáñez, researcher at the UCM's ITC (Institute of Knowledge Technology).
"A flat surface has only two dimensions: length and width, but if it is folded or wrinkled it progressively takes on body and begins to appear a three-dimensional solid object. The fractal dimension adopts fractional values between 2 and 3, and so is suitable to measure the degree of wrinkling of retinal layers," he adds.
The final step taken by the group was to incorporate the technology they had developed within the Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) currently available on the market, using mathematical analysis to express this in software which calculates the roughness of each retinal layer, and establishes the boundary between health/illness.
For the patient, this is a simple, quick and low-cost test. "No prior preparation is required. They simply turn up for an ophthalmology appointment, sit facing the machine and spend about 4 seconds looking at a dot of light inside: that generates the OCT image. The analysis of the roughness of the image is performed by a computer program in less than one minute," the ITC researcher indicates.
After a decade working in this field, researchers understand how the eyesight of patients with Alzheimer's evolves, and the changes in retinal thickness. "From now on, with this new technique we can research how to use retinal roughness to monitor and ascertain the stage of Alzheimer's disease," predicts the IIORC researcher Elena Salobrar García.
As well as being used in Alzheimer's, the methods they have developed could be applied in studying other diseases, such as ALS or Parkinson's, "the effects of which on the retina we are now beginning to understand. As well as contributing to advances in neuroscience, this might also be useful in ophthalmology," concludes Omar Bachtoula, researcher at the UCM Psychology Faculty.
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Is it normal for a toddler to lose her appetite? My 2-year-old doesn't eat as much as she used to.
Very normal. Here's why: First, toddlers are busy people. Eating can seem low-priority to a kid who has a block tower to build, a doll to dress, and serious scribbling to do. Toddlers also become more discerning—okay, picky—about their food as their independence grows and they start to express their own likes and dislikes. They don't like to be told what to do, eating included.
There's biology involved, too. Children's rate of growth is very rapid for about their first 12 months of life, and then it slows a little. It makes sense that they'd need less food to fuel them after that point.
So don't push your daughter to eat. It's better if you let her listen to her own hunger cues; this can help prevent obesity later on. Offer her healthy choices at various times of day (she won't starve!).
Very rarely, a loss of appetite can be more of a problem. Call your doctor if your daughter:
- is losing weight
- complains of a stomachache or other pains
- is vomiting or has diarrhea or blood in her stools
- has fever, cough, or other signs of illness.
Claire McCarthy, M.D., director of pediatrics at the Martha Eliot Health Center, in Jamaica Plain, MA, and a faculty member at Harvard Medical School. She's also busy raising five children.
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The New York Times of August 29 featured the recent unveiling of a monument to Fascist general Rodolfo Graziani (“Village Tribute Reignites a Debate About Italy’s Fascist Past“) in the Italian town of Affile, one paid for in part for by public funds no less. Graziani can legitimately be called a war criminal on two continents for his role in Italy’s Ethiopian conquest and for his service to prolonging Mussolini’s doomed rule in the home country itself.
Before the gentle reader clucks his or her tongue at the recalcitrance of the unreconstructed Italian right, it must be pointed out that the great city of Chicago (home to both Criticism &c. and the Barack Obama re-election campaign) has its own Fascist problem.
The Windy City has had a prominent downtown street named after Italo Balbo, one of Mussolini’s early lieutenants since the early 1930s. Balbo, one of the organizers of the 1922 March on Rome and often referred to by the anodyne descriptor “aviator,” led a convoy of planes on a flight from Italy to Chicago as part of Fascist Italy’s participation in the 1933 International Exposition. These long-distance endurance flights were popular as feats of nationalist aggrandizement in this era—Stalin’s U.S.S.R. had a weakness for them also.
Balbo was feted as a celebrity at the exhibition and was even invited to dine with President Roosevelt, who was no doubt anxious to appeal to those Italian-Americans sympathetic to Balbo’s message that Mussolini had made Italy a country to be “respected.” Mussolini donated a Roman column to Chicago—which is still standing—to thank the city for the warm welcome extended to the Fascist airman.
Upon his return, Mussolini appointed Balbo governor of the newly-created colony of Italian Libya. The Fascist potentate took his job seriously and forced the British colonial forces in Egypt to divide their attention in North African in two directions while the Italians invaded Ethiopia, then called Abyssinia. It was in this bloody campaign, during which the League of Nations temporized magnificently, that Graziani made his first mark on history.
Balbo met a fitting end in 1940 by being shot down over Tobruk, Libya by his own troops (Tobruk was later the site of a massive tank battle between the German-Italian forces and Britain). Italy’s African adventures came to a definitive end by 1943. Mussolini held on as a Nazi figurehead in Italy until he was captured and summarily executed by the Partisans in April of 1945.
The upshot of this sorry story? Criticism &c. proposes that Chicago’s Balbo Drive be renamed in honor of Domenico Saudino, a socialist, journalist and anti-fascist leader of the Italian immigrant radical workers’ movement in Chicago. Saudino wrote for the Italian-language workers’ newspaper La Parola del Popolo and was the author of the anti-Mussolini book, Sotto il Segno del Littorio, published in Chicago in 1933, the year of Balbo’s visit. An archival collection of his papers are located at the University of Minnesota’s Immigration History Research Center.
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The iconic redwood tree with a tunnel through its trunk toppled during a particularly strong winter storm Sunday afternoon in California.
The storm blew for several hours, flooding the trail, and the tree that lived for more than a century with a hole in its trunk fell over, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The Calaveras Big Trees State Park first announced the tree had toppled in a Facebook post Sunday evening.
“When I went out there [Sunday afternoon], the trail was literally a river, the trail is washed out,” park volunteer Jim Allday told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I could see the tree on the ground, it looked like it was laying in a pond or lake with a river running through it.”
Hours of rain probably loosened the tree’s root system, which couldn’t secure the tree in the storm’s high wind. The giant sequoia’s roots are only about four feet deep, the Associate Press reported.
The Pioneer Cabin Tree, named for a tiny structure built near the tree’s roots, was hollowed into a tunnel during the 1880s as a tourist attraction. Since then, visiting hikers and even cars were able to pass underneath the still-living tree.
Send tips to [email protected].
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].
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As you recognize, this earth goes thru lots of struggling because of human activity. It is already preoccupied with drastic weather changes. This is why greener technology and different healthful options are being favored via way of means of humans to preserve a healthful planet. It isn’t always unknown that the toxic emissions from vehicles inspire the greenhouse impact.
Their dangerous emissions are a great chance for the surroundings. To lessen the threat of such dangerous emissions, electric powered motors got here into evolution. This is an in basic terms new and clean concept, and rechargeable batteries in those motors cause them to run.
However, the electrical additives of those electric powered motors damage the tires (foremost component) even though the evolution of such motors is ideal news. This article will expose the consequences of electrical motors on Green Max banden Leeuwarden and the way you may test the broken tires in this sort of automobile at home.
Electric motors greater adverse to tires: Know Why?
As in comparison to non-electric powered counterparts, Electric motors are heavier. The heavy batteries positioned withinside the automobile make contributions to this weight. These batteries function as a boon for the planet, however, aren’t identical for the tires. The tires of the electrical motors are uncovered to large load and strain, which makes them burn out quickly as a consequence.
Protecting electric powered automobile tires
It’s authentic that in comparison to the alternative ordinary motors, the tires of an electric-powered automobile burns out quicker. But, the identical tires as an electric-powered automobile can final longer in case you preserve it in the right condition.
If you boom the rate of your electric powered automobile all of sudden at the same time as riding, your tires could be greater on the threat of harm because of the combining impact of this harsh movement and the heavyweight of the automobile. Thus, you need to now no longer take harsh cornering and boost up the automobile easily to store the tires.
Another important aspect that you need to preserve in thoughts is the internal fringe of the tires in an electric-powered automobile that is pruned to carrying. So, the wheel alignment and additionally the internal tire facet need to be checked regularly, to recognize approximately the carrying symptoms and symptoms early. The sturdiness of tires may be boosted up via way of means of the right alignment of wheels. Hence, you need to have a look at this important function at ordinary durations of time.
So it is important to make certain that the tires you buy in your electric powered automobile need to suit the version and length of your automobile. Additionally, you need to make certain that your automobile tire is maintained with ok strain as in line with the burden and length of the automobile. You can take the assistance of a skilled car expert in case you aren’t so informed concerning this.
Inspecting tires harm
If you hint at the symptoms and symptoms of the carrying and deterioration of the tires early, you may store lots of time and money. This bureaucracy an important part of your automobile maintenance.
It could assist in case you inspected the Banden Leeuwarden tread for any harm like cuts, cracks, or some other troubles. If you hint that the grooves of the tread are wider than usual, this suggests the aging of the tire. Some of the troubles and damages can without problems be visible thru the bare eye.
You need to additionally test the tire to discover the life of any undesirable count number that could reason puncture or tire harm. The tires of an electric-powered automobile can rarely withstand a puncture because of their heavyweight.
If you study your automobile tire dropping strain constantly, you need to go to reputed storage together along with your automobile to hint the issue, restore the tires, or update them. Constant lack of air strain is a clear indication of sluggish leaks withinside the tires.
Your automobile’s performance is decreased via way of means of inefficient tires, which impacts the surroundings additionally. The electric-powered motors need to be equipped with the best tires to decorate the riding enjoyment.
Jacob Taylor has lots of enjoy writing articles, he’s presently writing an editorial The Effect Of Electric Cars On Tires. Visit our internet site for Banden Leeuwarden
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The areas where north hallways intersect the Corridor of History feature iconic objects that bridge the galleries and reference changes in time. These items also serve as landmarks for our visitors, providing examples of the time period represented in each gallery. Scan the hallway and select the time period you wish to explore.
Dakota the Dinomummy
Located at the east end of the Corridor of History, outside the Adaptation Gallery: Geologic Time, is one of the rarest fossils ever found. This hadrosaur, or duck-billed dinosaur, is nicknamed Dakota. It was discovered in 1999 near Marmarth in southwestern North Dakota. Dakota arrived at the North Dakota Heritage Center in a four-ton body block and smaller tail block in 2006. On exhibit is what we found of the animal: one arm, the body, tail, and feet.
The nearly complete hadrosaur has skin, bones, and tendons preserved in sediment (a combination of sandstones and mudstones) and is one of about only six naturally preserved hadrosaur mummies discovered. Unlike previous dinosaur mummies, which typically show skin impressions in rock, Dakota’s skin appears to be mostly intact with visible scales. This makes Dakota one of the most scientifically important dinosaurs ever found.
Dakota was a plant eater that weighed about four tons when it was living. Scientists believe it could run up to 28 miles per hour.
The dinomummy has been featured in national and international news reports because of its rare skin preservation. The National Geographic Society, a major contributor to the excavation, preparation and research on Dakota, has published two books and produced a National Geographic Channel television program called “Dino Autopsy” about the rare find.
“The Life, Death, and Discovery of Dakota, A Dinosaur From Hell Creek” and the National Geographic DVD are available in the Museum Store.
The icon bridging the Adaptation Gallery: Geologic Time and the Innovation Gallery: Early Peoples is the mastodon, which lived at the end of the ice age and was hunted by the early inhabitants of North Dakota. The mastodon was one of two elephant-like mammals that lived in North America 10,000 to 20,000 years ago.
Adult male mastodons were about 10 feet tall at the shoulder and weighed 8,000 pounds. Like its cousin, the woolly mammoth, mastodons were cold-climate animals covered with a coat of long, shaggy hair.
The "Holland Special"
Samuel Holland (1859-1937) was a Norwegian immigrant to Park River, North Dakota. A skilled blacksmith and machinist, he built at least six automobiles between 1898 and 1908. The “Holland Special,” built in 1904, was a low-wheeled runabout that had a 4 hp single-cylinder engine.
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Lacrosse is a field game, like football or basketball, which began within the Iroquois nation of Native Americans and involves the use of a small rubber ball and a specialized stick known as a crosse, although protective gear is usually just as important. In a similar method as being restricted to the use of legs in the sport of soccer, only the crosse is valid for any sort of maneuver, be it holding, catching, or hurling the ball. However, bodily contact is perfect accepted within the sport, usually as a means of “negotiating” a switch in control of the ball or hampering a potential point. Points are scored by successfully throwing the ball into the opposing team’s goal.
Like most field sports, a lacrosse field consists of four zones: attack, defense, goalie, and midfield. The standard field lacrosse play utilizes 10 players, breaking down from there into three on each non-goalie position. The crosse of an attacker or midfielder, known as a short crosse, is no more than 42 inches in total length, while the crosse of a goalie or defender is known as a long crosse, no more than 6 feet in total length. A proper lacrosse field is 100 m x 55 m, with goals being 5.5 m in diameter. Each quarter and goal scored triggers a face-off, where two players scrap for the ball, hoping to flick it to one of the players on his side of the field. Notably, neither attacks nor defenders can cross the midfield line until a midfielder has acquired control of the ball.
Although the sport of lacrosse has a uniform name, there are actually four separate forms of its play:
• Men’s field lacrosse
• Women’s lacrosse
• Box lacrosse, also known as boxla
The last two items differ from the standard form of play as follows; intercrosse is a non-contact version of the sport that is mildly popular in Europe, while box lacrosse is simply an indoors version of the sport popular in the United States.
The amount of variation with this sport, coupled with the opportunity for lots of physical activity, means that there are more than enough options for a person to not only get a good workout and maybe even make some new friends on the field.
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Children have special educational needs (SEN) if they have a learning difficulty that calls for special educational provision to be made for them. Children have a learning difficulty if they:
- Have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age, or;
- Have a disability that prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for children of the same age in school.
Special educational provision refers to:
Educational provision for children two years old and above that is additional to, or otherwise different from, the educational provision made generally for children of this age in schools maintained by the LA, other than special schools in the area.
Detailed below are two important documents produced by our school: the Melksham Oak SEN policy and the Melksham Oak SEN information report.
Within Learning Support we work and support a wide range of students with an even wider range of different difficulties; low levels of literacy or numeracy, Specific Learning Difficulties, Sensory impairments, Physical, Behavioural, Emotional or Social Difficulties.
We work in a proactive way providing support to students using SEN teachers and / or Teaching Assistants via in-class support, 1:1 work, paired work or small group work.
We work in a preventative way providing a secure and supportive learning environment which develops and sustains confidence and motivation. We strive to provide access for all to the whole curriculum, adapting this provision where necessary to ensure that we are enabling students to reach their potential.
We assess and monitor SEN students regularly. We work within and advise other Departments on appropriate strategies to use with specific students encouraging all staff to match ability of students with demands made upon them. We work closely with a variety of Outside Agencies and Professional bodies.
We encourage students to take responsibility for themselves: both their learning and behaviour.
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Moscow. A city of fountains, great architecture, momentous history, and circles.
Yes, circles. Moscow is essentially a series of concentric rings which have grown outwards over time. When it was first founded, like most Russian towns, the central Kremlin, at first a fortress, became the main administrative centre, and this was surrounded by the first circle, the defensive Kremlin wall. What we would call a town would grow outside the Kremlin wall, until at some point the need to defend the buildings and people in the town led to another wall, another circle. And of course, as the town grows, and there is no more room inside the wall, people start building outside the wall.
The first walled city of Moscow was called Kitai-Gorod. There is still an area of Moscow with that name, and a metro station, which is today understood to mean “China-town” but the confusion arises from the Russian name for China, understandably, originally having a similar etymology.
Over the centuries the process repeated – first with the white wall of Bely Gorod (the white city) and then Zemlyanoy Gorod (the earthworks city). Each time the level of prestige inside the fortification was greater than the prestige attached to those living outside the walls – at one point people living outside the walls were known as meshchane – a word that nowadays means “petty borgeois” or “philistine”. In the 20th century it was a motorway, the MKAD ringroad that set the most recent boundary of Moscow’s territorial reach, although yet again the city is creeping out beyond that limit.
The rings are more than just historical anomalies. There are transport ringroads aligning with the edges of Bely Gorod (the Boulevard Ring) and Zemlyanoy Gorod (the Garden Ring). The effect is to make the Metro underground map look something like a bicycle wheel, with spokes crossing from one side of the city to the other, and the radial lines connecting them.
It is fascinating to contrast Moscow, a city that has just grown outwards in every direction, ring by ring like an ancient oak tree, with Volgograd, which clings defiantly to the twists and turns of the Volga river and has been stretched out to 80km in length but little more than 10km wide at any point.
Of course Moscow also has its history as the capital of Russia for many years, and its shares of triumphs and tragedies, great artists and writers and poets and leaders, and terrible villains.
As we drove home on our final day, we took the Garden Ring motorway to circle the old Zemyanoy city before heading south to Domodedovo airport. I saw once again the magnificent historical university building, immediately recognisable on the skyline atop the Sparrow Hills. And we passed the new Moscow, the big, bold skyscrapers which have appeared on the horizon during the last decade and are growing in number as the cranes converge to bring a new, modern style of architecture that would not be out of place in Tokyo, Dubai or New York.
History rolls on, and Moscow rolls on with it. Thank you for reading my thoughts about my first encounter with this great city.
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The Arctic broke multiple climate records and saw its highest temperatures ever recorded this year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) annual Arctic Report Card released Tuesday.
The report shows surface air temperature in September at the highest level since 1900 “by far” and the region set new monthly record highs in January, February, October and November. “The Arctic as a whole is warming at least twice as fast as the rest of the planet,” report author and NOAA climate scientist Jeremy Mathis told NPR.
Report Card Highlights:
-The average surface air temperature for the year ending September 2016 is by far the highest since 1900 and new monthly record highs were recorded for January, February, October and November 2016.
-After only modest changes from 2013-2015, minimum sea ice extent at the end of summer 2016 tied with 2007 for the second lowest in the satellite record, which started in 1979.
-Spring snow cover extent in the North American Arctic was the lowest in the satellite record, which started in 1967.
-In 37 years of Greenland ice sheet observations, only one year had earlier onset of spring melting than 2016.
-The Arctic Ocean is especially prone to ocean acidification, due to water temperatures that are colder than those further south. The short Arctic food chain leaves Arctic marine ecosystems vulnerable to ocean acidification events.
-Thawing permafrost releases carbon into the atmosphere, whereas greening tundra absorbs atmospheric carbon. Overall, tundra is presently releasing net carbon into the atmosphere.
-Small Arctic mammals, such as shrews, and their parasites, serve as indicators for present and historical environmental variability. -Newly acquired parasites indicate northward sifts of sub-Arctic species and increases in Arctic biodiversity.
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by Ari Grebstein
Chase Farm, officially known as Chase Farm Park, is one of Lincoln’s finest historical treasures. It consists of seventy acres comprised of fields, picnic sites, trails, gardens, and sled riding trails. On the property sits a 2 1/2 story early Victorian house. This house represents just one aspect of Chase Farm’s rich history. The preservation of fields and stone walls enhance the rural and open character of the Great Road district.
Chase Farm was originally purchased by Thomas Arnold in 1661. Throughout the years, Chase farm passed through many hands. It became part of the Chase family in 1867 when Benjamin Ellery Chase and his wife, Alzada, bought 118 acres for $10,000 from the then current owners, the Whipple family. Charles Thornton Chase then purchased the land from his parents, Benjamin and Alzada, for a minimal fee of $100. Charles then married Alice Crawshaw, and the couple later sold the Chase property to their son, Benjamin Ellery Chase. Benjamin then married Wilhelmina Gladys in 1921, who became the sole owner of the land in April of 1974 after Benjamin’s death. Ultimately, on May 10th in 1979, the town of Lincoln bought Chase Farm as an open-space area for $94,500 from Wilhemina Gladys Chase. Wilhemina continued to live in the Chase house until her death on May 13th, 1987.
In addition to the to the genealogical history of the Chase Farm, other activities associated with the farm are also intriguing. In 1895, when the first pasteurizing equipment became available, the Chase farm began operations in the dairy industry, which continued until 1965. The Chases were known for being very conservative in the dairy business. They had local routes limited to Lime Rock, Lonsdale, Saylesville, Fairlawn, and occasionally Central Falls and Pawtucket. The cows kept on the Chase farm were of the Holstein variety, known for a higher production of milk than other cows but not as rich in butterfat. But it may not have only been the type of cows that were responsible for the high quality milk. Music was played while the workers milked the cows. Although it was said that the music was intended for the benefit of the workers, some people thought the music was responsible for increasing the quality of the milk.
The rich history of Chase Farm would not be complete without describing the physical evolution of the area. A fire, estimated to have occurred in 1925 or 1926, destroyed a barn located behind the Chase’s house. The fire was caused by lightning which actually went through a neighboring house. Not only was the barn destroyed, but the horses were killed. In response to the fire, Benjamin Chase bought a neighboring farm, known as the Butterfly Farm. The Chase Farm then became known as the Chase and Butterfly Farm, although it was still referred to as the Chase Farm. Visiting the Chase Farm is a worthwhile trip, and understanding the history will add to your fun and enjoyment that much more.
Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission. Statewide Historical Preservation Report P-L-1. Lincoln, 1982.
Klyberg, Albert T., and Peter L. Moreau. Hannaway Blacksmith Shop and Chase Farm: A Report and Recommendations. Lincoln, 1990.
Town of Lincoln. http://www.lincolnri.org/parksandrecreation.shtml.
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An activist group wants to place a label on poultry products warning consumers they may contain feces.
The legal arguments
In April, a group called the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) claiming the agency does an insufficient job of inspecting bird carcasses in poultry slaughter plants. PCRM is a group focused on plant-based nutrition and eliminating the use of animals in scientific research.
A press release from the PCRM said the lawsuit quotes an anonymous federal inspector who said inspectors often see birds headed down the processing line with intestines, potentially full of fecal matter, still attached.
“If there is no fecal contamination on the bird’s skin, however, we can do nothing to stop that bird from going down that line,” the unnamed witness says in the release. “It is more than reasonable to assume that once the bird gets into the chill tank, that contamination will enter the water and contaminate all of the other carcasses in the chiller.”
The release goes on to cite a study conducted by the group in 2011 looking for fecal bacteria on chicken products found the bacteria on 48 percent of the products sampled. It uses this as evidence of what it calls contamination of chicken products.
Reading between the lines
It seems to me the real target of this suit and/or publicity stunt is the New Poultry Inspection System (NPIS). The NPIS allows plant workers to assume some duties formerly assumed by USDA inspectors and, under certain circumstances, permits the speed of the processing line to be increased from 140 birds per minute to 175.
The PCRM release, without citing any data, says the data show the handful of plants operating under the NPIS are “more likely to fail USDA’s performance standards for Salmonella, a bacteria found in feces, than those operating under the traditional inspection scheme.”
The suit, of course, is dubious. As KatieRose McCullough, the North American Meat Institute’s director of regulatory and scientific affairs, told WATT Global Media, the detection of certain, naturally present bacteria like E. coli does not mean a surface is contaminated with feces. Moreover, the USDA has a zero tolerance policy for fecal matter entering the chiller as well as high standards for the presence of Salmonella and other foodborne pathogens.
This may not matter as the suit is already having its desired effect of getting headlines like this actual headline from CNN, “It's legal for your meat to have trace amounts of fecal matter. A group of doctors want to change that.” In that sense, it may be achieving its goal of disgusting, and misinforming, consumers even if it fails in court.
This lawsuit, as well as the surrounding press it’s generated, should serve as a reminder that the industry is constantly under scrutiny from both motivated activists and passive consumers. The best defense from these attacks is to run a clean operation following best practices.
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California finally caught up with local communities when a ban on sales of breeding mill puppies, kittens and bunnies went into effect Jan. 1.
Under the Assembly Bill (AB) 485 puppy mill ban, pet stores that sell dogs, cats and bunnies must get them from rescue organizations and animal shelters. Each store must record where the dogs, cats and rabbits they sell came from for a year. Pet stores must also follow regulations about spaying and neutering. Each violation is subject to a $500 fine.
AB 485: Landmark legislation
California became the first state in the nation to ban puppy mills when AB 485 was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in October 2017. But it was a case of the tail wagging the dog. A total of 33 California cities and counties had already banned breeding mill pets.
Among them were Burbank, Garden Grove, Glendale, Hermosa Beach, Los Angeles, Long Beach, South Pasadena and West Hollywood.
This law doesn’t affect breeders who sell their animals privately. Consumers must still do their homework when purchasing those pets. Anyone working with a breeder should check the conditions in which the animals live, how often the animals have litters and how the breeding is done.
Why ban puppy mills?
According to the AB 485 Fact Sheet, animals living in puppy mills are often in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions. In many cases, they may not have enough food, water, socialization or veterinary care. As a result, these animals often face health problems, including communicable diseases, behavioral issues and genetic disorders.
The fact sheet notes that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requires breeders who sell puppies to pet stores to be licensed and inspected, but the standards are “extremely minimal.” (For example: the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) requirement that a cage be only six inches larger than the animal it contains and cleaned just once a week.)
California taxpayers spend $250 million annually to take care of animals in local animal shelters while puppy mills and kitten factories continue mass operations breeding pets for profit, according to the fact sheet.
Friends and Foes of the puppy mill ban
While the legislation was supported by a wide range of rescue organizations, government animal service agencies and humane societies, it was opposed by the American Kennel Club, the California Retailers Association, Dog Owners of the Golden State, the English Cocker Spaniel Club of Southern California, the German Shepard Dog Club of America and the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council, among others.
The bill was written by Democrats Patrick O’Donnell and Matt Dababneh.
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Look through shakespeare essay sample about supernatural elements in his books ask us to help you any time needed and get original paper. In essence by using the supernatural and prophecy in the play, we see how it affects macbeth and the decisions he elects that is his freewill. Supernatural forces in macbeth , free study guides and book notes including comprehensive chapter analysis, complete summary analysis, author biography information. Struggling with themes such as the supernatural in william shakespeare’s macbeth we’ve got the quick and easy lowdown on it here. Shakespeare intelligently introduced the elements of the supernatural in act 1, scene 3 shakespeare located his scene in a mysterious related gcse macbeth essays. Supernatural effect in macbeth in the play “macbeth,” there were many interesting sections whichcould be concentrated on due to the suspense and the involvement.
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Free essays and term papers on macbeth and hamlet supernatural essays over half a million essays submitted by students from around the world. Free essay: as macbeth arrives, along with his close companion banquo, they each react differently to the witches, banquo describes them as man like, yet. Write an essay on the role of the supernatural in macbeth and its influence on macbeth's actions students are asked to analyse relevant sections of the play.
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After bad weather prompted worries of a further delay, US space shuttle Atlantis successfully blasted into space today, the AP reports. NASA had feared the same cold front that ravaged the South with tornadoes would push the launch to tomorrow, or later. Aboard, with seven astronauts, is the European Space Agency’s Columbus lab, bound for the international space station.
The $2-billion Columbus lab has seen 23 years of delays, from budget issues to technology hiccups to shuttle disasters. French Air Force Gen. Leopold Eyharts will help get the module up and running, and he'll relieve NASA's Daniel Tani, who is scheduled to return to Earth aboard Atlantis, likely Feb. 19. Tani's mother died during his four months on the space station.
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For the first time, biologists at UCSD have identified and imaged the specific region in vertebrates where adult blood cells arise during embryonic development.
The discovery, reported in the journal Nature, is a signficant step toward creating safer, more effective stem cell therapies for patients with leukemia, multiple myelomas, anemia and other diseases of the blood or bone marrow.
The time-lapse imaging, which can be at http://biology.ucsd.edu/scicomm/video/bloodorigin.mov, shows primitive embryonic tissues in a model organism, the zebrafish, producing the parent stem cells that create all adult blood cells over the life of the individual.
Current transplantation therapies rely on an infusion of donor stem cells into a patient's bone marrow to generate new, healthy blood cells without disease. The procedure is fraught with risk and sometimes fatal due, in part, to possible host-rejection of the donor cells.
"If we could generate healthy hematopoetic (blood) stem cells from patients and transplant them back into their own bone marrow, it would eliminate many complications," said David Traver, an assistant professor of biology who headed the research.
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Don Vaughan provides infrequently used words to strengthen your vocabulary.
Sometimes I’m asked, “How long have you been doing Vaughan’s Vocabulary?” Actually, it’s been about 20 years. I originally did Vaughan’s Vocabulary when I was a radio personality. I gave the listeners an infrequently used word, followed by four choices, one being the right definition. Later, it evolved from a radio show to a column in The Reflector newspaper at Mississippi State University, where I taught communication courses. It wasn’t long before the fun and educational column grew to other newspapers.
Increasing my vocabulary became important to me when I was an undergraduate trying to wend my way through reading assignments. When I came upon a word I did not know, I looked up its meaning and wrote it and the definition in a notebook.
Having a good vocabulary will improve oral communication, interpersonal communication, writing skills, reading comprehension, and the comprehension of movies, television programs, and theatrical plays. It can heighten your esteem, credibility, and confidence, and yes, it might even help your love life.
See how you do with this week’s word quiz. Let me hear from you.
1. redoubtable (ree-DOW-tuh-bul)
A. becoming doubly suspicious
B. causing fear or alarm
C. creating confidence
D. second guessing
2. candor (CAN-dur)
C. freedom from bias, prejudice or malice
Let’s see how you are doing so far. Aside from B, redoubtable means commanding or evoking respect, reverence, and the like. No. 2 is C. Candor is the state or quality of being frank, open and sincere.
3. disingenuous (dis-in-JEN-u-us)
A. lacking in candor
C. displaying quality work
4. attenuate (uh-TEN-you-ate)
A. to weaken or reduce in force, intensity, effect, quantity, or value
B. to worsen
C. to elaborate
D. None of the above
5. idoneous (i-DOH-nee-us)
B. appropriate, fit, suitable
D. not likeable
No. 3, disingenuous, is A. Attenuate can also be pronounced “uh-TEN-you-it). In my public speaking classes, I help my students to attenuate their public speaking anxiety by first speaking in pairs, small groups, and in ice breaker speeches. A is the answer.
Lastly, if something is idoneous it is apt, appropriate, and suitable (B).
Last week’s mystery word is jejune.
This week’s mystery word to solve is sometimes mispronounced with the first syllable having the sound of “cop” and if you say it that way your pronunciation won’t be what it means, very satisfactory.
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Last week, I wrote about Freidl Dicker-Brandeis as the first subject in a new series on great teachers in history.
But then I realized, Dicker-Brandeis wasn’t just “great.” She was a badass. Here’s why:
1. She helped hundreds of children cope with the soul-crushing conditions of living in a ghetto during the Holocaust, forced to live separately from their parents and facing down their own deaths.
2. Before being sent to Auschwitz, Dicker-Brandeis had the foresight to hide two suitcases full of her students’ art so they wouldn’t be destroyed by the Nazis. If she hadn’t done so, we would have lost 4,500 testaments to the power of art to create hope and humanity in the worst of circumstances.
3. To prepare for teaching in the Terezin ghetto, she brought largely art supplies with her, instead of personal belongings and other survival items.
4. She was an accomplished artist in her own right — a student of the Bauhaus movement who studied under famous figures like Paul Klee. Here are two of her paintings.
I’m hereby renaming the series Badass Teachers in History. This is also a conscious choice to draw an alliance between history and the present — namely, efforts by groups like the Badass Teachers Association to fight education “reforms” that destroy individuality, creativity, and teacher morale in public schools.
And thanks to the Twitterers (Tweeters?) over at the Zinn Education Project, I have a whole bunch more Badass Teachers in History to write about.
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Summary: Researchers say our decisions are influence by our past judgments as a way to remain self consistent.
When making decisions, our perception is influenced by judgments we have made in the past as a way of remaining consistent with ourselves, suggests new research published in eLife.
The findings provide greater understanding of human decision making generally, and pave the way for deeper investigation into how our choices are affected by our attempts to be self-consistent.
We make thousands of decisions every day based on sensory information – where to walk, who to greet and what to eat. How such perceptual decisions are formed through the integration and evaluation of sensory evidence has been studied extensively. But while previous research has suggested that the choices we make may influence our subsequent decisions, the findings have been diverse, and there is no clear model explanation that connects the various results.
To address this, two US researchers tested the hypothesis that attempting to remain self-consistent leads to post-decision biases in people when making future choices. “We expressed this hypothesis with a self-consistent Bayesian model, which assumes that a person’s perception is influenced by both their sensory evidence and their earlier choices when making a decision,” explains senior author Alan Stocker, Associate Professor at the Computational Perception and Cognition (CPC) Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania.
The scientists validated their newly developed model and its key assumptions with a set of three psychophysical experiments carried out by 10 participants (six males and four females). These experiments focused on a task sequence where the subjects first had to judge whether the overall orientation of a visual pattern (the stimulus) was clockwise or counterclockwise of a reference, before recalling the actual orientation of the pattern from memory.
The second experiment tested how the subjects’ orientation estimates were dependent on their knowledge of the stimulus in the first test, while the third experiment looked at whether they treated their judgments as if they were correct. A new set of study participants, in addition to the original 10, were recruited to perform the second and third experiments.
“Our tests validated the self-consistent model by showing that the bias pattern depended on the subjects’ prior knowledge of the stimulus, and that the subjects treated their decision as if it were absolutely correct,” says first author Long Luu, graduate student in the CPC Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. “Together, the results suggest that our decisions can substantially change our immediate memory of what we have just perceptually experienced in an attempt to make our experience consistent with our preceding decisions.”
Luu adds that the current model links to well-known cognitive phenomena such as confirmation bias and suggests that, in decision making generally, the brain focuses more on remaining self-consistent than on remembering precise details of the past. “This indicates that humans subconsciously condition themselves to be self-consistent in how they remember the past, and our model allows us to precisely quantify and predict these bias effects,” he says.
“Further research is now needed to understand how this self-consistency bias is reflected in the neural processes underlying our decision-making activities.”
Funding: The work was funded by National Science Foundation.
Source: Emily Packer – eLife
Publisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com.
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Open access research for “Post-decision biases reveal a self-consistency principle in perceptual inference” by Long Luu, and Alan A Stocker in eLife. Published May 22 2018.
Post-decision biases reveal a self-consistency principle in perceptual inference
Making a categorical judgment can systematically bias our subsequent perception of the world. We show that these biases are well explained by a self-consistent Bayesian observer whose perceptual inference process is causally conditioned on the preceding choice. We quantitatively validated the model and its key assumptions with a targeted set of three psychophysical experiments, focusing on a task sequence where subjects first had to make a categorical orientation judgment before estimating the actual orientation of a visual stimulus. Subjects exhibited a high degree of consistency between categorical judgment and estimate, which is difficult to reconcile with alternative models in the face of late, memory related noise. The observed bias patterns resemble the well-known changes in subjective preferences associated with cognitive dissonance, which suggests that the brain’s inference processes may be governed by a universal self-consistency constraint that avoids entertaining ‘dissonant’ interpretations of the evidence.
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Four states around the Great Lakes have an average of 2.5 parking-lot spaces per car, and that doesn't even include parking structures or spots on the street, a new study finds. Purdue University researchers who surveyed Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin found that parking lots take up an incredible 5 percent of urban land in those states.
To people who regularly waste entire weekend mornings looking for parking (like many of us in the Bay Area do), this doesn't sound so bad. But parking lots take a toll on the environment: By contributing to the urban heat island effect, parking lots can make cities hotter. They can conduct toxic runoff into streams and lakes, leading to poor water quality. They can also raise the temperature of waterways, which is bad news for plants and animals whose survival depends on cool enough water.
Discovery News interviewed UCLA parking expert Donald Shoup about how to solve this problem:
"Parking is so heavily regulated in terms of minimum spaces," said Shoup. Typically city or county regulations require a certain minimum number of spaces per square feet of floor space of business. The type of business matters too.
Restaurants, for instance, require more space than an accountant's office. But it's a minimum, not a maximum number of spaces, and there is a tendency for businesses to lean towards more spaces, since no one wants to lose a customer because of lack of parking.
As a result, cities have no way of knowing how many parking spaces there are, Shoup said.
Several things can be done, however, to keep parking lots from taking over, he said. One is to set maximums for parking spaces. Another is to allow businesses and residential areas to share parking areas, so that a bank, for instance, uses the parking during the day and a bar uses it at night.
Street parking obviously makes use of already-existing paved areas, but there's not enough of it in most cities, and endless driving around searching for a spot wastes gas and creates carbon emissions. One solution: this phone app, which shows you the nearest available parking spaces. Any other parking-lot proliferation solutions you can think of, readers?
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Proteins are organic compounds made of molecules composed of one or more long chains of amino acids, in which each chain is held together by peptide bonds. Proteins are essential for all living organisms.
Proteins are large molecules built from small units known as amino acids, commonly affiliated with meat or muscle. They are used for growth and repair, as well as for strengthening the bones. They help to make tissue and cells. They can be found in animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and also in the human body. For example, muscles contain a lot of proteins. Body builders will eat foods with a lot of protein as an easy way to keep or gain high levels of muscles that is safer than taking steroids. Proteins form an important part in foods like milk, eggs, meat, fish, beans, and nuts. Animals eat proteins to get energy and amino acids. These amino acids are used to build new proteins that are used as enzymes, hormones, or antibodies. Protein is also very healthy and keeps you strong and makes your bones last. Proteins are essential for life. Proteins were discovered by Berzelius.
Topics of Interest
Proteins (also known as polypeptides) are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and folded into a globular form. The amino acids in a polymer are joined together by the peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid residues. The sequence of amino acids in a protein is defined by the sequence of a gene, which is encoded in the genetic code. In general, the genetic code specifies 20 standard amino acids; however, in certain organisms the genetic code can include selenocysteine — and in certain archaea — pyrrolysine. Shortly after or even during synthesis, the residues in a protein are often chemically modified by post-translational modification, which alters the physical and chemical properties, folding, stability, activity, and ultimately, the function of the proteins. Proteins can also work together to achieve a particular function, and they often associate to form stable complexes.
In nutrition, proteins are broken down in the stomach during digestion by enzymes known as proteases into smaller polypeptides to provide amino acids for the organism, including the essential amino acids that the organism cannot biosynthesize itself. Aside from their role in protein synthesis, amino acids are also important nutritional sources of nitrogen.
Proteins contain 16.8 kilojoules (4 kilocalories) per gram as opposed to lipids which contain 37.8 kilojoules (9 kilocalories) and alcohols which contain 29.4 kilojoules (7 kilocalories). These numbers are averages, as each protein is slightly different (range roughly 3.5-4.5). The liver, and to a much lesser extent the kidneys, can convert amino acids used by cells in protein biosynthesis into glucose by a process known as gluconeogenesis. The amino acids leucine and lysine are exceptions.
Like other biological macromolecules such as polysaccharides and nucleic acids, proteins are essential parts of organisms and participate in virtually every process within cells. Many proteins are enzymes that catalyze biochemical reactions and are vital to metabolism. Proteins also have structural or mechanical functions, such as actin and myosin in muscle and the proteins in the cytoskeleton, which form a system of scaffolding that maintains cell shape. Other proteins are important in cell signaling, immune responses, cell adhesion, and the cell cycle. Proteins are also necessary in animals' diets, since animals cannot synthesize all the amino acids they need and must obtain essential amino acids from food. Through the process of digestion, animals break down ingested protein into free amino acids that are then used in metabolism.
Proteins were first described by the Dutch chemist Gerhardus Johannes Mulder and named by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jakob Berzelius in 1838. The central role of proteins in living organisms was however not fully appreciated until 1926, when James B. Sumner showed that the enzyme urease was a protein. The first protein to be sequenced was insulin, by Frederick Sanger, who won the Nobel Prize for this achievement in 1958. The first protein structures to be solved were hemoglobin and myoglobin, by Max Perutz and Sir John Cowdery Kendrew, respectively, in 1958. The three-dimensional structures of both proteins were first determined by x-ray diffraction analysis; Perutz and Kendrew shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for these discoveries. Proteins may be purified from other cellular components using a variety of techniques such as ultracentrifugation, precipitation, electrophoresis, and chromatography; the advent of genetic engineering has made possible a number of methods to facilitate purification. Methods commonly used to study protein structure and function include immunohistochemistry, site-directed mutagenesis, and mass spectrometry.
Most proteins are linear polymers built from series of up to 20 different L-α-amino acids. All amino acids possess common structural features, including an α-carbon to which an amino group, a carboxyl group, and a variable side chain are bonded. Only proline differs from this basic structure as it contains an unusual ring to the N-end amine group, which forces the CO–NH amide moiety into a fixed conformation. The side chains of the standard amino acids, detailed in the list of standard amino acids, have a great variety of chemical structures and properties; it is the combined effect of all of the amino acid side chains in a protein that ultimately determines its three-dimensional structure and its chemical reactivity.
The amino acids in a polypeptide chain are linked by peptide bonds. Once linked in the protein chain, an individual amino acid is called a residue, and the linked series of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen atoms are known as the main chain or protein backbone. The peptide bond has two resonance forms that contribute some double-bond character and inhibit rotation around its axis, so that the alpha carbons are roughly coplanar. The other two dihedral angles in the peptide bond determine the local shape assumed by the protein backbone. The end of the protein with a free carboxyl group is known as the C-terminus or carboxy terminus, whereas the end with a free amino group is known as the N-terminus or amino terminus.
The words protein, polypeptide, and peptide are a little ambiguous and can overlap in meaning. Protein is generally used to refer to the complete biological molecule in a stable conformation, whereas peptide is generally reserved for a short amino acid oligomers often lacking a stable three-dimensional structure. However, the boundary between the two is not well defined and usually lies near 20–30 residues. Polypeptide can refer to any single linear chain of amino acids, usually regardless of length, but often implies an absence of a defined conformation.
Protein synthesis is the process in which cells build proteins. The term is sometimes used to refer only to protein translation but more often it refers to a multi-step process, beginning with amino acid synthesis and transcription of nuclear DNA into messenger RNA which is then used as input to translation.
Cellular functions: Proteins are the chief actors within the cell, said to be carrying out the duties specified by the information encoded in genes. With the exception of certain types of RNA, most other biological molecules are relatively inert elements upon which proteins act. Proteins make up half the dry weight of an Escherichia coli cell, whereas other macromolecules such as DNA and RNA make up only 3% and 20%, respectively. The set of proteins expressed in a particular cell or cell type is known as its proteome.
Enzymes are proteins that catalyze (i.e., increase the rates of) chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called substrates, and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, called the products. Almost all processes in a biological cell need enzymes to occur at significant rates. Since enzymes are selective for their substrates and speed up only a few reactions from among many possibilities, the set of enzymes made in a cell determines which metabolic pathways occur in that cell.
There are genetic methods for studying proteins, methods for detecting proteins, methods for isolating and purifying proteins and other methods for characterizing the structure and function of proteins, often requiring that the protein first be purified.
Protein purification is a series of processes intended to isolate a single type of protein from a complex mixture. Protein purification is vital for the characterisation of the function, structure and interactions of the protein of interest. The starting material is usually a biological tissue or a microbial culture. The various steps in the purification process may free the protein from a matrix that confines it, separate the protein and non-protein parts of the mixture, and finally separate the desired protein from all other proteins. Separation of one protein from all others is typically the most laborious aspect of protein purification. Separation steps exploit differences in protein size, physico-chemical properties and binding affinity.
Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins, particularly their structures and functions. Proteins are vital parts of living organisms, as they are the main components of the physiological metabolic pathways of cells. The term "proteomics" was first coined in 1997 to make an analogy with genomics, the study of the genes. The word "proteome" is a blend of "protein" and "genome", and was coined by Marc Wilkins in 1994 while working on the concept as a PhD student. The proteome is the entire complement of proteins, including the modifications made to a particular set of proteins, produced by an organism or system.
Protein structure prediction is the prediction of the three-dimensional structure of a protein from its amino acid sequence—that is, the prediction of a protein's tertiary structure from its primary structure (structure prediction is fundamentally different from the inverse, and less difficult, problem of protein design). Protein structure prediction is one of the most important goals pursued by bioinformatics and theoretical chemistry. Protein structure prediction is of high importance in medicine (for example, in drug design) and biotechnology (for example, in the design of novel enzymes). Every two years, the performance of current methods is assessed in the CASP experiment.
Source: Wikipedia (All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License and Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.)
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Who were the Trojans?
This turns out to be a very tricky question.
|The walls of Troy|
Part I: The Greek Assumption
Until the 19th century when German businessman Heinrich Schliemann followed his idiosyncratic dream and found Troy on the coast of Turkey near the Hellespont, many people thought “Troy” was the stuff of myth. We can now say with reasonable certainty that we know where Troy existed. A contemporary dig, begun under the leadership of the German archaeologist Manfred Korfmann, has confirmed the earlier identification and revealed a great deal more about the nature of this famous city.
However, knowing the city’s location doesn’t tell us what cultural/ethnic group the residents belonged to, what language they spoke, what their religious system was.
If you read the Iliad, you would think you had the answer—the Trojans were basically Greeks. Rather like Star Trek, heroes from the opposing sides in Homer’s poem can carry on conversations without any translators. In the Iliad the Trojans have temples to Apollo and Athena, who were also Greek gods. Based on Homer, scholars from past generations sometimes concluded that the residents of Troy were culturally the same as the Greeks who sailed across the Aegean to attack their city. When I started writing my novel about Briseis, a woman taken captive by the Greeks, I assumed the same thing.
|Temple of Apollo Smintheon near Troy|
It’s true that Greeks in the Archaic period, well after the “Homeric” period of Troy, colonized the western coast of Anatolia (modern Turkey). It’s also true that the Greeks had powerful outposts there in the relevant period—the Late Bronze Age, such as at Miletus (Milawata in Hittite correspondence). Mycenaean Greek pottery and other signs of trade influence have been found at Troy. The Trojans interacted with the Greeks in ways both friendly and warlike.
Nonetheless, the assumption that the Trojans were a variety of Greek is wrong.
Part II: The Hittite Connection; The Trojans are Luwians
Scholarly opinion now leans toward identifying the Trojans as part of the Luwian peoples who occupied large swaths of what we now call Turkey, primarily in the Western and Southeastern portions, throughout the Bronze Ages.
|Map of the Hittite Empire, Luwian region shown on western part of map|
So who were the Luwians and how does that connect the Trojans to the Hittites?
A key issue is that we know a lot about the Hittites from their written records, but no such libraries of clay tablets have been found in the western Luwian areas such as Troy. Most of what we know about the Luwians is found in the Hittite texts which include a lot of Luwian information in the Luwian language. It’s a lopsided filter through which to view a people, but it’s the best we can do at this point until tablets are found at a Luwian site. Hence the Hittite connection: If you want to understand the Trojans/Luwians, by necessity you must examine the Hittites. That is why so much of the information on this website is about Hittites.
Beyond the lack of extant tablets from Luwian sites, studying the Hittites to understand the Luwians/Trojans is useful because they are closely related culturally and religiously. If we could go back in time and watch the two cultures, we would no doubt realize that the two peoples did a number of things differently, but the similarities would probably outnumber the differences overall. So in the absence of a large body of information about the Luwians/Trojans, an historian or historical fiction writer can turn to the Hittites and extrapolate with a fair sense of being roughly on track.
|Hittite bronze statue of a mother and child, possibly a goddess|
Part III: A summary of who the Luwians were and the ways the Luwians and Hittites influenced each other
The Luwians and Hittites were Indo-European. Scholars are still debating at what time period these Indo-European groups arrived in the area of Anatolia and from what region they might have come, but they differ from their eastern neighbors such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, etc. who have Semitic or other origins. Luwian, as a language, is part of a closely related group including Hittite, Palaic, Lycian, Lydian, and Carian. All of these languages of ancient Anatolia are derived from a prehistoric language we may call “Proto-Anatolian” which in turn derived from “Proto-Indo-European.” Indo-European encompasses most of the languages of Europe—so to that extent the Luwians’ language and the Luwians themselves are remote “cousins” of Greek, but they had separate developments from very early on. (For more on Indo-European)
Linguistically the Hittites and Luwians were close in many ways, and language is a significant cultural determinor. The Hittite language directly borrowed many Luwian words. Indeed by the height of the Hittite empire, a majority of the residents of Hattusa, the Hittite capital, spoke Luwian. The Hittite king and royal family spoke both Luwian and Hittite.
|Hieroglyphic seal, photo by Baris Askin, The Troy Guide|
We cannot be absolutely certain that Luwian, rather than Palaic or some other similar language, was spoken in the region around Troy, but it seems the most likely choice based on the evidence. The only piece of writing from Troy, a hieroglyphic seal, is written in Luwian. (Luwian was written in both cuneiform and hieroglyphics depending on the context.) Also the oldest form of the name for Troy known to the Hittites, Wilusiya-, is a Luwian formulation. The later Hittite name for Troy is Wilusa.
The Luwians as a people never formed one unified state. By the Late Bronze Age the western Luwian lands were roughly grouped into five states, Troy/Wilusa being one of them. They occasionally acted together in war. Treaties exist between these states and the huge Hittite empire to the east of these lands. The Hittites are dominant in these treaties and other correspondence between them. Although these Luwian areas are frequently not formally part of the Hittite empire, they are under its political influence.
|Hittite king offering to a god, photo by Dick Osseman|
A wide variety of religious influences between the Hittites and Luwians can be found in the written evidence. Luwian cultic texts were incorporated from an early period into the Hittite religious texts. That means the actual ritual practices of the Hittites would include Luwian elements.
In the Hittite law codes, there are mentions of separate penalties for Luwians as opposed to Hittites. This means that the two peoples interacted closely and constantly, but it also means that the Hittites viewed the Luwians as a people separate from themselves.
Interesting historical footnote:
Why did Hittite texts survive and not Luwian?
Only one piece of writing has been found at Troy, a hieroglyphic seal, so a logical assumption would seem at first to be that the Trojans didn’t write or read. However, the Hittite side of correspondence and treaties with the Trojans and others in this Luwian area are extant, so we know that the kings of Troy/Wilusa had scribes and written records.
So why haven’t tablets at Troy been found? You’d think clay tablets would survive—after all pottery shards pop up everywhere in archaeological sites.
Pots are fired, clay tablets are not. Clay tablets melt away into the dust unless a catastrophic fire burns so hot and long that the tablets are in essence fired. The absence of a “library” at Troy may perhaps be explained by something as simple and arbitrary as the lack of a hot-enough destructive fire in the correct buildings.
What about Greeks and writing?
The Mycenaean Greeks were also literate—they wrote a form of Greek called Linear B and also corresponded with the Hittites.
|Linear B tablet and drawing|
Unlike the Hittites, they did not use writing to record myths, laws, and other interesting cultural documents. They used writing primarily as financial record keeping.
Writing was lost to the Greek world after the Late Bronze Age and was rediscovered with a new alphabetic writing system around the 8th century BC. From that time on they used more or less the letters we are familiar with as Greek. Around the time of this rebirth of literacy, the oral poems we know as the Iliad and Odyssey were put into written form.
Many thanks to Judith, who I hope will be back with more guest posts talking about her research into these long-ago civilizations.
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How Effective were the Efforts of the Freedmen’s Bureau?
- National Archives Education Team
- Weighing the Evidence
- Historical Era:
- Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
- Primary Historical Thinking Skill:
- Historical Issues-Analysis & Decision-Making
- Bloom's Taxonomy:
In this activity, students will analyze documents from the War Department’s Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands — better known as the Freedmen’s Bureau — that Congress established on March 3, 1865, as the Civil War was coming to an end. Using the scale in Weighing the Evidence, students will evaluate the effectiveness of the Freedmen’s Bureau in assisting formerly enslaved persons.
Students will be able to identify and draw conclusions about the roles of the Freedmen’s Bureau (Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands), critically analyze primary sources, formulate opinions about the effectiveness of the Bureau, and back up their opinions verbally or in writing.
This activity may be used to introduce, or as a wrap-up to, the study of the Freedmen’s Bureau. The activity can be completed as a class, in small groups, in pairs, or individually. For grades 6-12. Approximate time needed is 50 minutes.
Remind students that President Lincoln’s issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, the defeat of the Confederate Army, and the passage of the 13th Amendment resulted in the freeing of approximately four million African Americans. Upon being freed, the formerly enslaved persons faced many challenges. As a warm-up activity, ask students to consider the following questions: What did these people need once slavery ended? What did they want after being freed? What resources did they have to meet needs and wants? Which of their needs and wants were tangible? Which were intangible?
Encourage students to think about their responses to these questions throughout this activity.
Open the activity and choose one of the documents. Model careful document analysis, concluding with the following question: Did anything surprise you about the conditions the formerly enslaved persons were facing, the institution of slavery, or the Freedmen’s Bureau? Ask them to share their thoughts.
Demonstrate how the scale works. Explain to students that they will place the photograph and textual documents on the scale based on their careful document analysis.
Following completion of the activity, conduct a class discussion based on the questions found on the final screen (or ask students to reflect on these in small groups or in writing). Possible responses about the job of the Freedmen’s Bureau might include: legalizing marriages, supplying necessities such as food and clothing, promoting education, witnessing labor contracts between the freedmen and plantation owners or other employers, and settling freedmen on abandoned or confiscated land.
This is an opportunity to examine the content of the documents even more critically. The class can discuss if the measures implemented by the Freedmen’s Bureau really helped formerly enslaved persons or if they helped only in name. Ask students, for instance, if the labor contracts that they saw in fact advanced the rights of the individuals involved or if they maintained the antebellum status quo. Discuss what needs would have been most pressing for formerly enslaved persons (material and physical supplies or political rights). This discussion will inform students’ determinations about the effectiveness of the Freedmen’s Bureau and may cause them to reconsider which interpretation they felt the documents supported.
For more information about the featured documents, follow the links below.
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Chevrons are making headlines again! Today’s post is a follow up to a previous article filed under ‘100 Years Ago Today’ about chevrons called Marks of Service, which concludes with the author pleading to its readers:
“The man who displays any of the chevrons…has done his full duty by his country and is worthy of honor.”Cheyenne Record, Volume 7, Number 44, January 23, 1919
Apparently the message didn’t hold water for many people reached out to their Congressmen over the “discrimination” of the distinction of gold vs. silver chevrons, complaining that their service stateside was not their choice but their assignment, and they gladly would have served on the front lines instead.
A single gold chevron for each wound received in service in the Theater of Operations (mostly France) is worn on the forearm of the right sleeve. This chevron is placed pointing downward.
A single silver chevron for each complete six month’s service in the United States is worn on the forearm of the left sleeve. This chevron is placed pointing downward.
Republican House Representative, John C. McKenzie, (who held that position from 1911-1925), gets a looooong quote in this page three opinion piece, saying that Congress may need to prohibit certain chevrons, but I can’t find any evidence that this was actually brought to lawmakers, nor that it was passed. Rep. McKenzie does offer an interesting solution to the problem, namely that chevrons should only be worn by those who “served in actual fighting” and “clearly risked their lives.”
But what is “actual fighting” and what does it mean to “clearly” risk your life? The article’s author rebuts with a nod to the air servicemen who trained pilots stateside. I imagine their job being akin to a Drivers Ed teacher, except your students are flying primitive airplanes thousands of feet above the ground. Clear risk? Check!
Also, Rep McKenzie, what’s up with the shaming of the army field clerks who according to you, “dodged real military service”? Does the military not have important clerking to be done? Records to keep? Messages to send? Shout out to the clerks!
Regardless of whether Rep. McKenzie’s solution is appropriate, the problem was very real to servicemen after the War. I like the following explanation of hierarchy that was causing the rift:
“There was a clear hierarchy for these left sleeve service chevrons: silver were the lowest ranking and could not be worn by anyone entitled to wear either a single blue chevron or for anyone entitled to wear gold chevrons(s). The next rung was the single blue chevron, showing less than 6 months in the theater of operations. Anyone with more than six months service was to wear a gold chevron for each 6 months in the theater of operations. Thus World War I uniforms should exist only with one or more silver chevrons, one blue chevron, or one or more gold chevrons.”emersoninsignia.net
I’m also intrigued by the way that the editorial cartoon highlights the problem of untreated anxiety servicemen were dealing with post-WWI.
The poor fella on the right who can’t get the ladies wears two silver chevrons, meaning he served stateside for at least 12 months but not more than 17 months, while the (pipe smoking?) gent on the left served at least six month but not more than 11 months abroad.
Pfft, AND he was probably a clerk. Kudos to the cartoonist for the inclusion of the word GOLD in all caps on the woman’s shoulder to let us know her man’s chevron color. Very subtle.
The anxieties I’m seeing in the cartoon include: Can I find a partner? Will anyone want me after my service? Should I wear my military uniform? Is this attracting people or repelling them? Why is everyone else getting the attention I want? Why is it so hard being lonely? How can I improve my status when it’s printed on my sleeve?
100 years ago today, chevrons became a point of contention for former service members, symbolizing the anxiety over status in 20th century America, to the point that Congress members were thinking of making laws to legislate chevron wearing.
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2018. Education database.
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Daniel J. Sharfstein. The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White. New York: Penguin Press, 2011. 415 pp. Hardcover ISBN: 9781594202827.
Steven F. Riley
“This is the decade of Tiger Woods and Barack Obama, where we talked about race combinations,” Robert Groves, director of the federal agency, said about forthcoming 2010 Census data in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt”. “I can’t wait to see the pattern of responses on multiple races. That’ll be a neat indicator to watch.”
The Toronto Star
December 13, 2010
While it is tempting to be as excited as Mr. Groves is in waiting for the census results of the racial makeup of the United States, I would suggest that the so-called “race combinations” that he speaks of have been occurring for quite some time. Much has been written in recent years about the “changing face” of America that foretells that we will become a “mixed-race” country, or as Marcia A. Dawkins states, a “Miscege-Nation.” Yet, this is not wholly true, for we are not becoming a multiracial society, we already are a multiracial society. We have been multiracial not for years, or even decades, but for centuries.
So while many may proclaim that an increasing number of self-identified mixed-race individuals will usher in a new era of racial reconciliation, we are fortunate to benefit from the excellent scholarship of Daniel J. Sharfstein, Associate Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University, who points out to us that racial mixture is as old as the nation and it has not—in and by itself—led to racial reconciliation. In fact, his portrayal of three families over a span of three centuries in his new book The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White, shows that under the specter of white supremacy, racial mixture was—and may still be—a way-station on the road to a white racial identity. These racial journeys occurred so frequently in American history they should be considered one of the great mass movements of people such as the settlement of North America, the westward expansion, and immigration. Furthermore, these journeys from black to white did not necessarily involve a change of venue, but could occur in the same community over a generation or more.
Unlike the stories of the Hemmings and Hairstons that explore the white roots of black families, The Invisible Line is an important work that explores the “black” roots of white familes. Though “race” as we know it today is a social—not biological—construct, Sharfstein reminds us that it was and still is a very salient social construct. In fact, for the families portrayed in the book, “race” becomes a form of wealth/property, obtained (by “passing” if necessary) and inherited by future generations. In The Invisible Line, Sharfstein avoids casting a pejorative gaze upon these “passers” and their occasional accusers and instead casts blame squarely on the shoulders white supremacy. Early in the introduction, Sharfstein points out that…
African Americans began to migrate from black to white as soon as slaves arrived on American shores. In seventeenth-century Virginia, social distinctions such as class and race were fluid, but the consequences of being black or white were enormous. It often meant the difference between slavery and freedom, poverty and prosperity, persecution and power. Even so, dozens of European women had children by African men, and together they established the first free black communities in the colonies. With every incentive to become white—it would give them better land and jobs, lower taxes, and less risk of being enslaved—many free blacks assimilated into white communities over time…
After researching hundreds of families, court cases, government records, histories, scholarly works, newspaper accounts, memoirs and family papers, Sharfstein chose to focus on three families: the Gibsons, the Spencers and the Walls. Each of these families left the bondage of slavery and took different trajectories on the path towards a white identity.
The Gibson story begins in 1672 in colonial Virginia when a free woman named Elizabeth Chavis successfully sued for the freedom of a boy of color named Gibson Gibson… who was also her son. In a reversal of English law where the status of the child followed that of the father, the colonies in a bid to codify slavery enacted laws that set the status of the child to follow the mother, or as the saying went, “birth follows the belly.” Contrary to popular belief, the laws did little to restrict interracial unions—especially between white men and black women—but rather, channeled these unions for the benefit of the institution of slavery. For Gibby Gibson and his brother Hubbard, harsh laws against people of color encouraged them to marry whites. Sharfstein states:
Whites in the family gave their spouses and children stronger claims to freedom and had immediate economic advantages—while black women were subject to heavy taxes, white women were not. Increasingly harsh laws did not separate Africans and Europeans. To the contrary, they spurred some people of African descent to try to escape their classification.
The Gibsons took what I shall describe as a fast-track to whiteness. After Gibby Gibson’s freedom he and his brother spent the next 50 years amassing land and, yes… slaves. After moving to South Carolina in the 1730s as planters they were granted hundreds of acres. By the time of the Civil War they were part of the Southern aristocracy. Two brothers, Randall Lee and Hart Gibson, again took the spotlight and became standout students at Yale University and later ,officers in the Confederate Army. Randall was promoted to brigadier general in 1864. Despite the Confederate defeat at the end of the war, Randall would be a successful New Orleans lawyer, a founder of Tulane University, and would eventually be elected to represent Louisiana for four terms in the House of Representatives and for nine years in the U.S. Senate.
Randall Gibson’s white identity went unchallenged until January 27, 1877, when James Madison Wells wrote in an article that, “This colored Democratic Representative seems to claim a right to assail the white race because he feels boastingly proud of the commingling of the African with Caucasian blood in his veins.” This accusation was grounds for libel, but Gibson did not sue Wells. He did not need to. As Sharfstein deftly points out frequently throughout the Invisible Line, white communities were very much aware of “mixture in their midst,” yet chose to believe these individuals were white. Even if a person believed that his or her whiteness was secure, accusing ones neighbor of being black could have unintended consequences, especially if your children had offspring with the neighbor. “Race” became a socially agreed upon arrangement. Thus, as Sharfstein wrote in a 2007 article:
“…the one-drop rule did not, as many have suggested, make all mixed-race people black. From the beginning, African Americans assimilated into white communities across the South. Often, becoming white did not require the deception normally associated with racial “passing”; whites knew that certain people were different and let them cross the color line anyway. These communities were not islands of racial tolerance. They could be as committed to slavery, segregation, and white supremacy as anywhere else, and so could their newest members—it was one of the things that made them white. The history of the color line is one in which people have lived quite comfortably with contradiction.”
Yet this contradiction was not the same of acceptance, especially in Louisiana, where Sharfstein says…
“the existence of a large, traditionally free mixed-race class meant that whites had long competed with people of color for jobs, land, and status… …On the streets of New Orleans, it was famously difficult to distinguish one race from the other at a glance—many whites were dark, and many blacks were light. Every day people witnessed the color line bending and breaking. The result was that whites believed all the more deeply in their racial supremacy. They organized their entire political life around it…. …Believing in racial difference—enough to kill for it—was what kept whites separate from blacks. For white Louisianans, knowing that blacks could look like them did not discount the importance of blood purity. Rather, they were as likely as anyone in the South to consider a person with traceable African ancestry, no matter how remote, to be black. The porous nature of the color line required eternal vigilance.”
The Spencers took an inconspicuous path towards a white identity. George Freeman, possibly the son of his owner Joseph Spencer, was emancipated at twenty-four years of age around 1814 in Clay County, Kentucky. Through hard work and a large family, Freeman was able to raise a profitable farm, enough so that he could provide loans to other farmers. By 1840, Freeman’s wife had died, but by then eleven people lived with him including his grown daughters with children of their own. In 1841, the Freeman farm would make room for another resident; a twenty-five year-old pioneer white woman from South Carolina named Clarissa “Clarsy” Centers, who was pregnant with his child. Freeman and Centers were not married, and could not if they had wanted to because of Kentucky’s anti-miscegenation laws. Sharfstein points out:
“Freeman and Centers were not the only ones in Clay County breaching the color line. Several free black women were living with white men. It was less common, however for black men to have families with white women, and their relationships were perceived as a far greater threat to the social and racial order. After all, the mixed-race children of black women, more often than not, [became] pieces of property, markers of wealth, for their owners. But the children of slave men and white women were free under Kentucky law, and they blurred the physical distinctions that made racial status conceivable and enforceable. As a result, all such relationships were subversive, even those involving free men.
Moreover, the control that white men had over their families, something that approached ownership under the law, helped maintain the idea that all white men were equal citizens in a country increasingly stratified by wealth… …That control was undermined when white women had children with black men…
At the same time white communities did not always respond to these relationships with reflexive deadly violence. They were capable of tolerating difference or pretending it did not exist. Across the South in the early decades of the nineteenth century, black men and white women were forming families and living in peace.”
In 1845, George Freeman and Clarsy Centers’ daughter Malinda was pregnant by Jordan Spencer, Freeman’s son or brother. After three years and three children, Jordan and Malinda’s family was part of a clan of twenty people within three generations living on fifty acres on Freeman’s farm; that was to small to sustain them all.
By 1855, Freeman was dead, forced to mortgage his farm to fight a fornication charge because he could not marry Clarsy Centers. The family of Jordan and Malinda was forced to move 100 miles away within rural Johnson County, Kentucky. When they got there they called themselves Jordan and Malinda Spencer and their new neighbors welcomed them into their community… and called them white. As Sharfstein states:
“In Johnson County and elsewhere, being white did not require exclusively European ancestry. Many whites did not hesitate to claim Native American decent. While Melungeons in Tennessee often lived apart and married among themselves, the Collins and Ratliff families in Johnson County were considerably less isolated. Half of the worshippers at the Rockhouse Methodist meeting had white faces, and light and dark families were neighbors along the nearby creeks. Many of the families themselves were mixed, like Jordan and Malinda Spencer’s. Their community offered them a path to assimilation. Although the Spencers were listed as “mulatto” in the 1860 census, dozens of Collins and Ratliff men and women were, at a glance, regarded as white. Jordan Spencer may have been dark, but there was such a thing as a dark white man.”
For the Wall family, the path to becoming white was a reluctant and painful one. Orindatus Simon Bolivar (O.S.B.) Wall and his siblings were freed by their owner (and father) in the 1830s and 1840s and sent from their plantation in North Carolina to be raised by radical Quakers in Ohio. O.S.B. Wall eventually ended up in Oberlin, Ohio. With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, slave catchers could now demand assistance from federal and local officials in any state (including free-states) in locating and apprehending runaway slaves. Sharfstein notes that,
“The act also permitted slave-owners to kidnap people and force them into federal court. After a short hearing, a commissioner would determine the status of the person in custody. Commissioners were paid ten dollars upon ruling that a person was a slave, but only five dollars if they determined that he or she was free.”
Thus even free and freed blacks lived in constant fear that they and their families could be kidnapped and enslaved. Fortunately, there was no place more hostile to slave catchers than Oberlin. A generation earlier, New England Puritans had built the college and the town in the northern Ohio forest, dedicating themselves to bringing “our perishing world… under the entire influence of the blessed gospel of peace.” Oberlin Collegiate Institute, founded in 1832 was a school that educated both sexes and within three years took the then-radical step of admitting students “irrespective of color.” Oberlin did not just give blacks the opportunity to do business on equal terms with whites—it offered blacks the unheard-of possibility of real political power. In 1857 the town voted John Mercer Langston to be its clerk and appointed him a manager of the public schools. He was the first black elected official in the United States.
After the end of the Civil War, Wall was detached to South Carolina to the Bureau of Refugees, Freedman and Abandoned Lands, a new federal agency devoted to integrating former slaves into civil society, (otherwise known as the Freedman’s Bureau.) His hope was “to do justice to freedmen” while “do[ing] no injustice to white persons.” It would appear that his hopes would become a reality in the fall of 1865 when the Bureau had begun redistributing thousands of acres of confiscated property to freed-people, but President Andrew Johnson ordered almost all the land returned to its previous owners. By the fall of 1865 former slaves found themselves no better than indentured servants. As the hope of Reconstruction began to fade, he realized that to serve the righteous cause, he would need more than a title and a responsibility, more than the sanction of law. He needed power. Wall would move to Washington D.C.
By 1877 Federal troops had abandoned the South, and as Sharfstein writes:
“Democrats had carte blanche to ‘encourage violence and crime, elevate to office the men whose hands are reddest with innocent blood; force the Negroes out of Southern politics by the shotgun and the bulldozer’s whip; cheat them out of the elective franchise; suppress the Republican vote; kill off their white Republican leaders and keep the South solid. Countless thousands of Negroes in the South lived in conditions approximating slavery, shackled by sharecropping contracts, arrested on trumped-up charges, and sold as convict labor. Every few days a Negro was lynched: burned, shot, castrated or hacked to pieces.”
The Invisible Line reveals that the trajectory of history is never a straight line. The promise of the Reconstruction became the repression of Jim Crow. The Democrats of the past that sought defend slavery before and during the Civil War and deny basic freedoms to blacks afterwards are now the Republicans of the present who deny these events have any impact on the lives of black Americans today. Up became down, and black became white.
Perhaps the most emphatic paragraph in the book is on page 236, where Sharfstein describes the everyday pain in the lives of black Americans.
“The harder whites made it for blacks to earn a living, educate their children, and just make it through a single day without threat or insult, the greater the incentives grew for light-skinned blacks to leave their communities and establish themselves as white. If anything, the drumbeat of racial purity, the insistence that any African ancestry—a single drop of blood—tainted a person’s very existence, accelerated the migration to new identities and lives. The difference between white and black seemed obvious, an iron-clad rule, a biological fact. But the Walls knew that blacks could be as good as whites and as bad, as smart and as stupid. Blacks had just as much claim to schooling and jobs and love and family, to common courtesies each day. The Walls knew that blacks could be every bit the equal to whites—and that their skins could be equally light. As the United States veered from slavery to Jim Crow, O.S.B. Wall’s children did not stand up and fight. They faded away.”
This paragraph for me, offers a clear rationale why individuals chose to identify as white. More importantly though, Sharfstein like all good historians, shows us how events in the past can be repeated in the present and in the future. For the Spencers, becoming white meant fitting in. For the Gibsons, becoming white allowed them to amass great wealth, to lose it (after the Civil War), and reclaim it. O.S.B. Wall lived his entire life working towards the goal that people of African descent could be free, prosperous, American and black. For the Wall children, becoming white (even at the loss of financial status) was an escape from the indignities of being black. The chains of oppression do not always result in resistance. Sometimes the result is denial, surrender and assimilation. Furthermore, Sharfstein, without saying so, reasserts the importance of influence of law and power upon the lives of his subjects. Though it is now popular for contempary novelists and cursory historians to recount, reframe, and reimagine the stories of the individual lives without acknowledging the legal and social forces shaping those lives, this is simply unacceptable. Fortunately, the works of Daniel Sharfstein and the late Peggy Pascoe remind us, as I like to put it, not to allow the history of experiences to obscure the experience of history.
Though The Invisible Line is about past racial migrations, the book says little if anything about present-day racial migrations. Persistent economic and social disparity among racialized groups in the United States may lead to more Gibsons, Spencers and Walls in the future. Just over a half-century ago, in 1947, N.A.A.C.P. Secretary Walter White said:
“Every year approximately 12,000 white-skinned Negroes disappear—people whose absence cannot be explained by death or emigration. Nearly every one of the 14 million discernible Negroes in the United States knows at least one member of his race who is ‘passing’—the magic word which means that some Negroes can get by as whites… Often these emigrants achieve success in business, the professions, the arts and sciences. Many of them have married white people… Sometimes they tell their husbands or wives of their Negro blood, sometimes not…”
Thus according to sociologist George A. Yancey, white Americans—despite demographic projections—will not lose their numerical majority status in 40 years or so. For scholars like Yancey, Sharfstein’s secret journey to whiteness, may become a public parade. Despite the increasing numbers and acceptance of interracial relationships and mixed-race births, intermarriage among non-blacks with whites far outpaces intermarriage between blacks and whites. The future for Yancey and others is not a white/non-white divide, but rather a black/non-black divide.
With the increasing enactment of harsh anti-immigration legislation, it is indeed conceivable that many Asians and Latinos—particularly those with mixed European ancestry—may opt for a white identity through intermarriage with whites as a balm against increased anti-immigrant sentiment. As sociologists Jennifer Lee and Frank D. Bean point out, “Asian and Latinos may be next in line to be white, with multiracial Asian whites and Latino whites at the head of the queue.” If the notion that Asians and Latinos can become white seems implausible, sociologist Charles A. Gallagher points out in his 2010 essay “In-between racial status, mobility, and the promise of assimilation: Irish, Italians yesterday, Latinos and Asians today,” “If you were Italian or Irish in the mid- to late- nineteenth century it was likely that, as a matter of common understanding and perception, you were on the ‘margins of whiteness.'”
While The Invisible Line is a remarkable book that should be read by anyone interested in the complicated racial history of the United States, it is not a book that trumpets a so-called “post-racial” era. Sharfstein does an excellent job shattering the notion of racial difference and shows us that the African American experience is integral to the American experience as a whole. Yet in doing so, he does not—and perhaps he should not—suggest that not only is the notion of “difference” a fallacy, but the notion of “race” is too. After all, shouldn’t the Gibsons, Spencers, Walls and their descendents transcend race at this point in time? Race—or as Rainier Spencer suggests—the belief in race, has been, and still is such a potent force in American life, it may take three more centuries to dispense with it. For all of the current discourses on a utopian future filled with mixed or blended identities, these identities are still defined within same outdated and hierarchical social topology of the past 400 years. Thus the consequences of the memberships within this multi-tiered topology still has the life altering outcomes—though not as extreme—as in the seventeenth century Virginia that Sharfstein describes. Without a drastic altering or the elimination of this topology, individuals and families who can, will continue to make the journey from a lower tiered racialized status to a higher one and heap misery and scorn upon those who cannot. In the end, Daniel J. Sharfstein’s Invisible Line, may not only be a window to the past, but also a glance at the future.
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is Sworn in as President, 1923
Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge filled the Vice Presidential slot in Republican Warren G. Harding's 1920 run for the White House. Coolidge shared in Harding's landslide victory and settled comfortably into the undemanding routine of his office.
|Coolidge uses the presidential limousine
while vacationing in the Adirondacks
The Vice President's life changed dramatically on the night of August 2, 1923 as he vacationed at the family farmhouse in Vermont. Coolidge went to bed early that evening and slept as the events that would propel him into the presidency unfolded.
A continent away and unbeknownst to Coolidge, President Warren Harding lay mortally ill in his San Francisco hotel room. The President died in the early evening but it took four hours for the news to reach the East Coast. A telegram announcing Harding's death was delivered to the farmhouse around 2:30 AM and Coolidge's father trudged up the stairs to awake his son.
A notary public, the elder Coolidge administered the oath of office to his son by the light of a kerosene lamp in the parlor.
Coolidge recalls that night:
"On the night of August 2, 1923, I was awakened by my father coming up the stairs, calling my name. I noticed that his voice trembled. As the only times I had ever observed that before were when death had visited our family, I knew that something of the gravest nature had occurred.
He placed in my hands an official report and told me that President Harding had just passed away. My wife and I at once dressed.
Before leaving the room I knelt down and, with the same prayer with which I have since approached the altar of the church, asked God to bless the American people and give me power to serve them.
My first thought was to express my sympathy for those who had been bereaved and after that was done to attempt to reassure the country with the knowledge that I proposed no sweeping displacement of the men then in office and that there were to be no violent changes in the administration of affairs. As soon as I had dispatched a telegram to Mrs. Harding, I therefore issued a short public statement declaratory of that purpose.
Meantime I had been examining the Constitution to determine what might be necessary for qualifying by taking the oath of office. It is not clear that any additional oath is required beyond what is taken by the vice president when he is sworn into office. It is the same form as that taken by the president.
|An artist's rendition of Coolidge
taking the oath of office
Having found this form in the Constitution, I had it set up on the typewriter, and the oath was administered by my father in his capacity as a notary public, an office he had held for a great many years.
The oath was taken in what we always called the sitting room, by the light of the kerosene lamp, which was the most modern form of lighting that had then reached the neighborhood. The Bible which had belonged to my mother lay on the table at my hand. It was not officially used, as it is not the practice in Vermont or Massachusetts to use a Bible in connection with the administration of an oath.
Besides my father and myself, there were present my wife, Senator Dale, who happened to be stopping a few miles away, my stenographer, and my chauffeur."
Coolidge, Calvin, The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge (1929); Sann, Paul, The Lawless Decade (1957).
How To Cite This Article:
"Calvin Coolidge is Sworn in as President, 1923," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2003).
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Holocaust Memorial Day 2017
We commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day on Friday with a number of events in School. Form 2 delivered an assembly to the Senior School which looked at how and why we remember the Holocaust. We discussed what happened during the Holocaust and how similar genocides continue to happen. Pupils were reminded of the importance of being kind to each other and respecting each other’s differences in the hope that humankind will stop repeating mistakes of the past.
Miss Eynon held a lunchtime talk which explored at the biological science involved in the Holocaust, and Mrs Farrow studied the subject with her classes during the week, culminating in a visual presentation outside her classroom.
Published on: 30th January 2017
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New research led by the American Museum of Natural History reveals that the evolution of modern birds was greatly shaped by the history of our planet’s geography and climate. The DNA-based work, published today in the journal Science Advances, finds that birds arose in what is now South America around 90 million years ago, and radiated extensively around the time of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event that killed off the non-avian dinosaurs.
The new research suggests that birds in South America survived this event and then started moving to other parts of the world via multiple land bridges while diversifying during periods of global cooling.
“Modern birds are the most diverse group of terrestrial vertebrates in terms of species richness and global distribution, but we still don’t fully understand their large-scale evolutionary history,” said Joel Cracraft, a curator in the Museum’s Department of Ornithology and co-author of the paper. “It’s a difficult problem to solve because we have very large gaps in the fossil record. This is the first quantitative analysis estimating where birds might have arisen, based on the best phylogenetic hypothesis that we have today.”
Cracraft and lead author Santiago Claramunt, a research associate in the Museum’s Department of Ornithology, analyzed DNA sequences for most modern bird families with information from 130 fossil birds to generate a new evolutionary time tree.
“With very few exceptions, fossils of modern birds have been found only after the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction,” said Claramunt. “This has led some researchers to suggest that modern birds didn’t start to diversify until after this event, when major competitors were gone. But our new work, which agrees with previous DNA-based studies, suggests that birds began to radiate before this massive extinction.”
After the K-Pg extinction, birds used two routes to cover the globe: first, to North America across a Paleogene Central American land bridge and then to the Old World; and second, to Australia and New Zealand across Antarctica, which was relatively warm at that time.
Claramunt and Cracraft also found that bird diversification rates increased during periods of global cooling.
“When the Earth cools and dries, fragmentation of tropical forests results in bird populations being isolated,” Cracraft said. “Many times, these small populations will end up going extinct, but fragmentation also provides the opportunity for speciation to occur and for biotas to expand when environments get warm again. This work provides pervasive evidence that avian evolution has been influenced by plate tectonics and environmental change.”
S. Claramunt, J. Cracraft. A new time tree reveals Earth historys imprint on the evolution of modern birds. Science Advances, 2015; 1 (11): e1501005 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1501005
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Are you really in control, or is your every decision predetermined? Who's at the steering wheel: you, your genes, your upbringing, fate, karma, God?
A hot topic for several thousand years, the question of whether free will exists may never be settled to everyone's satisfaction. But in a series of new articles for the Chronicles of Higher Education, six academics from diverse fields offer fresh perspectives from the standpoints of modern neuroscience and philosophy. Ultimately, they voted 4-2 in favor of the position that free will is merely an illusion.
The four scientists on the panel denied the existence of free will, arguing that human behavior is governed by the brain, which is itself controlled by each person's genetic blueprint built upon by his or her life experiences. Meanwhile, the two philosophers cast the dissenting votes, arguing that free will is perfectly compatible with the discoveries of neuroscience.
Jerry Coyne, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago, defined free will as the possibility that, after making a decision, you could have chosen otherwise. But a "decision," Coyne argues, is merely a series of electrical and chemical impulses between molecules in the brain — molecules whose configuration is predetermined by genes and environment. Though each decision is the outcome of an immensely complicated series of chemical reactions, those reactions are governed by the laws of physics and could not possibly turn out differently. "Like the output of a programmed computer, only one choice is ever physically possible: the one you made," Coyne wrote.
The three other scientists concurred with Coyne's viewpoint. As Owen Jones, a professor of law and biological sciences at Vanderbilt University, put it in his essay: "Will is as free as lunch. (If you doubt, just try willing yourself out of love, lust, anger, or jealousy)."
Though everyone must be held accountable for his or her actions, neuroscience and the nonexistence of free will should be factored into some criminal cases, the scholars argued. [Math Formula May Explain Why Serial Killers Kill]
A counterargument came from Hilary Bok, a philosopher at the Johns Hopkins University, who said scientists misunderstand the question of free will when they argue that decisions are governed by the activity of brain cells. Free will, in her opinion, is being capable of stepping back from one's existing motivations and habits and making a reasoned decision among various alternatives. "The claim that a person chose her action does not conflict with the claim that some neural processes or states caused it; it simply redescribes it," she wrote.
Alfred Mele, another philosopher at Florida State University, also believes the concept of free will is compatible with the findings of neuroscience. He cited a 2008 study in which volunteers were asked to push either of two buttons. According to the study, brain activity up to 10 seconds before the decision was consciously reached revealed which button the volunteer was more likely to press.
Though the study is widely viewed as evidence against free will, Mele pointed out that the study participants' brain activity accurately predicted their eventual decision only 60 percent of the time. In his view, this suggests people can consciously choose to override their brains' predispositions.
Therefore, he wrote, "I do not recommend betting the farm on the nonexistence of free will."
Copyright 2012 Life's Little Mysteries, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill affected close to 500 miles of coastline, across five states. Considering the size of the disaster, and the variety of habitats affected, great challenges to effectively remediate and protect the entire coastline still remain. Differences in environmental conditions, such as salinity, dissolved oxygen levels and temperature, can have drastic effects on the uptake and effects of contaminants on aquatic organisms. However, there is poor understanding on how aquatic organisms respond and adapt to the combined effects of extreme environmental factors (e.g. hypoxia and high temperatures), typical of highly variable coastal ecosystems, in the presence of contaminants. Thus the development of models that predict impacts of contaminants in these ecosystems is critical in order to prioritize remediation efforts and identify areas of concern.
The proposed project falls under Research Theme 3: “Environmental effects of the petroleum/dispersant system on the sea floor, water column, coastal waters, beach sediments wetlands, marshes, and organisms; and the science of ecosystem recovery”. The objective of this proposal is to study the impact of multiple environmental and anthropogenic stressors on fish development and reproduction. This data will subsequently be used to (1) develop a model that predicts potential population level effects; (2) identify biomarkers which can easily be assessed in the field and are predictive of population level impacts, and (3) identify scenarios (the combination of environmental and anthropogenic stressors) which are most likely to result in population level effects.
More specifically, the aims of the current project are to:
- Determine under which environmental conditions (salinity, oxygen levels and temperature) the effects of petrogenic contaminants are greatest;
- Determine the life-stage most sensitive to exposure;
- Determine the impacts of petrogenic contaminants on reproduction under different environmental scenarios;
- Model observed biological effects and body burdens of petrogenic contaminants in relation to different environmental conditions for prediction of population consequences.
A number of interconnected hypotheses associated with four specific aims will be evaluated. These hypotheses will be tested using both a mixture of environmentally relevant polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs; the group of contaminants of greatest concern within oil), as well as surrogate weathered oil obtained from BP. We will use the gulf killifish (Fundulus grandis) as the model to test our hypotheses. F. grandis is not only an environmental relevant species, but more importantly it is present along the entire Gulf of Mexico coast allowing it to serve a sentinel for evaluating impacts.
In year 1 a series of high throughput embryo tests will be conducted using F. grandis to determine the environmental conditions under which embryos are most sensitive to PAH exposure (Aim 1). Based on these results, follow-up experiments with early-life stages (Aim 2) and adults (Aim 3) will be conducted testing the combined effects of petrogenic contaminants and stressful environmental conditions on F. grandis survival, growth and reproduction. This data will then be used in a stochastic population model that will aid in the identification and prioritization of areas of concern based on environmental variables (Aim 4).
Ultimately, this project will result in timely information on the impact of different environmental conditions on fish development and reproduction. Moreover, it will use this data and integrate it into a population model which can be used by fellow scientists, policy makers and the public to help identify areas of concern.
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What are phylacteries?
Question: "What are phylacteries?"
Answer: Phylacteries, sometimes called tefillin, are small, square leather boxes containing portions of Scripture worn by Conservative and Orthodox Jews during prayer services. Phylacteries are worn in pairs—one phylactery is strapped on the left arm, and one is strapped to the forehead of Jewish men during weekday morning prayers. The word phylactery comes from a Greek word meaning “safeguard, protection, or amulet.”
The phylactery strapped to the arm is called the shel yad and has only one compartment; the one on the forehead, containing four compartments, is called the shel rosh. The letter shin (ש) is printed on either side of the head phylactery. Various rules govern the length and width of the connecting straps, the tying of the knots to secure the phylacteries, and the color of the boxes (black). Inside each phylactery are four passages from the Old Testament: Exodus 13:1–10, 11–16; Deuteronomy 6:4–9; 11:13–21. The verses must be written in black ink on parchment specially prepared for this purpose, using the skin of a clean animal. Other rules specify the type of writing instrument to be used, the number of printed lines devoted to each verse, the arrangement of the pieces of parchment within each compartment, etc.
The wearing of phylacteries is based on some commands in Deuteronomy. Israel was told to love God and keep His commandments. In fact, they were to “tie [the commandments] as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads” (Deuteronomy 6:8). Later, God tells them, “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads” (Deuteronomy 11:18). We take the wording of these commands to be figurative: whatever we do (with the hand) and whatever we think (with the head) is to be guided by the authority of God’s Word. But, at some point—possibly as early as the fourth century BC—the Jewish rabbis began applying this verse literally, and the practice of tying phylacteries onto their arms and heads commenced.
Phylacteries are mentioned in the New Testament. Jesus, warning His disciples about the hypocrisy of the teachers and Pharisees, said, “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long” (Matthew 23:5). The religious leaders of Jesus’ day had strayed from God’s intention in the Law. Phylacteries were being made larger for the sole purpose of drawing attention to the wearer—the larger the phylactery, the more piety it supposedly showed. Ironically, the very command to honor the Word of God was being used to dishonor the Word.
Jesus taught that God is not as concerned with the external trappings of religion as He is with the true nature of the heart. He pointed out that it was possible to wear large phylacteries containing God’s Word yet disobey God’s Word at the same time. Likewise, in the church today, it’s possible to wear a cross, pay a tithe, raise a hand, and quote a creed—all without truly acknowledging the Lord in our hearts. God knows the truth of our spiritual condition. “LORD Almighty, you . . . examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind” (Jeremiah 20:12). May we be able to say with the psalmist, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11).
Recommended Resource: The End of the Law: Mosaic Covenant in Pauline Theology by Jason Meyer
How could the laws of God be written on doorframes, gates, and foreheads?
What is a prayer shawl?
How is Jesus our Sabbath Rest?
What day is the Sabbath, Saturday or Sunday?
What is the Sabbath day?
What are phylacteries?
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The 2014 Winter Olympics are now in full swing at Sochi, Russia. While most people are interested in the sporting events, I tend to focus on the design. It must be an interesting challenge to convey the excitement of the Games while communicating to the whole world. Many great designers and firms, such as Ludwig Hohlwein, Lance Wyman, Deborah Sussman, and Wolff Olins, have taken on this high-profile job over the years, and the designs have ranged from excellent to average to just plain bad. Interbrand designed the identity this time, with a simple, digital look that includes the web address as part of the logo. Two of the most iconic designers for the Olympics, though, are Japan's Yusaku Kamekura and Germany's Otl Aicher.
All eyes were on Tokyo, Japan during the summer of 1964. For the first time, the Olympics were to be held in an Asian country and broadcast in color. The people of Japan wanted to show the world that they had rebuilt after the devastation of World War II, that they were no longer the enemy, and that they were a force in the technology industry. Yusaku Kamekura's logo and dynamic posters—the first in Olympic history to use photography—are perfect examples of his ability to combine European modernism with traditional Japanese aesthetics. His work showed the world that Japan was a force in the design world as well.
Figure 1 1964 Tokyo Olympics poster.
When the Olympics were held in Munich, Germany in 1972, organizers hoped to move past the 1936 “Nazi Olympics” in Berlin, which Hitler used for his own propaganda, and show the world a bright and happy face. Otl Aicher and his design team developed colorful posters and a logo based on the sun. To transcend language barriers among the international audience, Aicher relied on visuals rather than text as much as possible. He developed a system of pictograms to identify the different sports and to provide general wayfinding information. He reduced the human image to the simplest of geometric forms, yet kept it recognizable. Aicher wasn’t the first to design pictograms for the Olympics, but he was the first to base each one on a grid, establishing a unity of form lacking in earlier, more illustrative versions.
Figure 2 Olympic pictograms.
Both Kamekura and Aicher went on to have long, noteworthy careers, but their designs for the Olympics will always stand out to me.
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Humanities › History & Culture Manco Inca’s Rebellion (1535-1544) Share Flipboard Email Print Manco Inca. Artist Unknown History & Culture Latin American History Colonialism and Imperialism History Before Columbus Caribbean History Central American History South American History Mexican History American History African American History African History Ancient History and Culture Asian History European History Genealogy Inventions Medieval & Renaissance History Military History The 20th Century Women's History View More By Christopher Minster Professor of History and Literature Ph.D., Spanish, Ohio State University M.A., Spanish, University of Montana B.A., Spanish, Penn State University Christopher Minster, Ph.D., is a professor at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. He is a former head writer at VIVA Travel Guides. our editorial process Christopher Minster Updated March 06, 2017 Manco Inca’s Rebellion (1535-1544): Manco Inca (1516-1544) was one of the last native lords of the Inca Empire. Installed by the Spanish as a puppet leader, Manco grew increasingly angry at his masters, who treated him with disrespect and who were plundering his empire and enslaving his people. In 1536 he escaped from the Spanish and spent the next nine years on the run, organizing a guerrilla resistance against the hated Spanish until his assassination in 1544. Ascent of Manco Inca: In 1532, the Inca Empire was picking up the pieces after a long civil war between brothers Atahualpa and Huáscar. Just as Atahualpa had defeated Huáscar, a far greater threat approached: 160 Spanish conquistadors under Francisco Pizarro. Pizarro and his men captured Atahualpa at Cajamarca and held him for ransom. Atahualpa paid, but the Spanish killed him anyway in 1533. The Spaniards installed a puppet Emperor, Tupac Huallpa, upon Atahualpa's death, but he died shortly thereafter of smallpox. The Spanish selected Manco, a brother of Atahualpa and Huáscar, to be the next Inca: he was only about 19 years old. A supporter of the defeated Huáscar, Manco was lucky to have survived the civil war and was thrilled to be offered the position of Emperor. Abuses of Manco: Manco soon found that serving as puppet emperor did not suit him. The Spaniards who controlled him were coarse, greedy men who did not respect Manco or any other native. Although nominally in charge of his people, he had little real power and mostly performed traditional ceremonial and religious duties. In private, the Spanish tortured him to make him reveal the location of more gold and silver (the invaders had already carted off a fortune in precious metals but wanted more). His worst tormentors were Juan and Gonzalo Pizarro: Gonzalo even forcibly stole Manco's noble Inca wife. Manco tried to escape in October of 1535, but was recaptured and jailed. Escape and Rebellion: In April of 1836 Manco tried to escape again. This time he had a clever plan: he told the Spanish that he had to go officiate at a religious ceremony in the Yucay Valley and that he would bring back a golden statue he knew of: the promise of gold worked like a charm, as he had known it would. Manco escaped and summoned his generals and called for his people to take up arms. In May, Manco led a massive army of 100,000 native warriors in a siege of Cuzco. The Spanish there only survived by capturing and occupying the nearby fortress of Sachsaywaman. The situation turned into a stalemate until a force of Spanish conquistadors under Diego de Almagro returned from an expedition to Chile and dispersed Manco's forces. Biding His Time: Manco and his officers retreated to the town of Vitcos in the remote Vilcabamba Valley. There, they fought off en expedition led by Rodrigo Orgoñez. Meanwhile, a civil war had broken out in Peru between the supporters of Francisco Pizarro and those of Diego de Almagro. Manco waited patiently in Vitcos while his enemies made war on one another. The civil wars would eventually claim the lives of both Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro; Manco must have been pleased to see his old foes brought down. Manco’s Second Rebellion: In 1537, Manco decided it was time to strike again. Last time, he had led a massive army in the field and had been defeated: he decided to try new tactics this time. He sent out word to local chieftains to attack and wipe out any isolated Spanish garrisons or expeditions. The strategy worked, to an extent: some Spanish individuals and small groups were killed and travel through Peru became very unsafe. The Spanish responded by sending another expedition after Manco and traveling in larger groups. The natives did not succeed, however, in securing an important military victory or driving the hated Spanish out. The Spanish were furious with Manco: Francisco Pizarro even ordered the execution of Cura Ocllo, Manco’s wife and a captive of the Spanish, in 1539. By 1541 Manco was once again in hiding in the Vilcabamba Valley. Death of Manco Inca: In 1541 the civil wars broke out again as supporters of Diego de Almagro's son assassinated Francisco Pizarro in Lima. For a few months, Almagro the Younger ruled in Peru, but he was defeated and executed. Seven of Almagro's Spanish supporters, knowing they would be executed for treason if captured, showed up in Vilcabamba asking for sanctuary. Manco granted them entrance: he put them to work training his soldiers in horsemanship and the use of Spanish armor and weapons. These treacherous men murdered Manco sometime in mid-1544. They were hoping to gain a pardon for their support of Almagro, but instead they were quickly tracked down and killed by some of Manco's soldiers. Legacy of Manco’s Rebellions: Manco's first rebellion of 1536 represented the last, best chance the native Andeans had of kicking out the hated Spanish. When Manco failed to capture Cuzco and annihilate the Spanish presence in the highlands, any hope of ever returning to native Inca rule collapsed. Had he captured Cuzco, he could have tried to keep the Spanish to the coastal regions and maybe force them to negotiate. His second rebellion was well thought-out and did enjoy some success, but the guerrilla campaign did not last long enough to do any lasting damage. When he was treacherously murdered, Manco was training his troops and officers in Spanish methods of warfare: this suggests the intriguing possibility that had he survived he many have eventually used the Spanish weapons against them. With his death, however, this training was abandoned and future rogue Inca leaders such as Túpac Amaru did not have Manco's vision. Manco was a good leader of his people. He initially sold out to become ruler, but swiftly saw that he had made a grave mistake. Once he escaped and rebelled, he did not look back and dedicated himself to removing the hated Spanish from his homeland. Source: Hemming, John. The Conquest of the Inca London: Pan Books, 2004 (original 1970).
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Alaska Fish & Wildlife News
Public Access to Alaska Waters
Fishing and Boating Access is Protected
Every year Alaskans migrate outdoors to enjoy our abundant opportunities for recreation on Alaska's rivers, lakes, and streams. Accordingly, each spring and summer, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game receives calls from the public requesting information regarding use of Alaska's waterways. Many of these calls come from frustrated fishers and boaters who arrived at a favorite stream and found posted signs or were accosted by landowners claiming ownership of the stream and the submerged lands under it.
In Alaska, the public has a constitutional right to access on and use of navigable and public waters regardless of who owns the underlying bed. This right is defined in Article VIII, Section 14, of the Alaska Constitution, which states: "Free access to the navigable or public waters of the state, as defined by the legislature, shall not be denied any citizen of the United States or resident of the state …." This section of the constitution also empowered the state legislature to define navigable and public waters. A navigable water body under state law includes any water of the state that is navigable in fact for any useful purpose including boating, hunting, fishing, and other recreational activities (AS 38.05.965(13)). Public water, as defined in state statute, includes navigable water and all other water that is reasonably suitable for public use and utility including habitat for fish and wildlife in which there is a public interest (AS 38.05.965(18)).
The Alaska Constitution and state statutes protect the public's right to use navigable or public waters. Under Alaska law, ownership of uplands adjacent to navigable or public water does not grant an exclusive right to use the water or to control public use of the water, even if the title includes the submerged land. Any land below the ordinary high water mark of navigable or public waters is subject to the right of the people to use for recreational or other purposes consistent with the public trust (AS 38.05.126). Such uses include fishing, trapping, boating, and hunting. Use of the water and land below the ordinary high water mark is not considered trespassing. On the contrary, it is a misdemeanor to interfere with or obstruct a person's free passage or use of navigable water, including the land below the ordinary high water mark. Accordingly, the state holds the view that the public's right to use navigable or public waters also includes the right to walk or stand on the lake or streambed below the ordinary high water mark.
Along non-tidal waters, the ordinary high water mark can usually be identified by the vegetation line or a physical line indicated by erosion, shelving, or changes in soil characteristics along the streambank or lake shore. In a braided river or stream, the area below the ordinary high water mark includes everything between the ordinary high water marks on the outside margin of the most distant channels.
While permission from the adjacent upland owner is not required for use of the water or land below the ordinary high water mark, the right to use the water does not include the right to enter, cross, or use private uplands except as minimally necessary to portage around obstacles or obstructions. River users should not assume the adjacent uplands are open for any use.
At the Department of Fish and Game, public access issues are addressed by a small, but dedicated staff in the Division of Sport Fish, Access and Defense Program that works in partnership with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and federal resource agencies. Access and Defense staff work cooperatively with these agencies to assist the public with access questions and to resolve issues statewide involving public access and state authorities over fish, wildlife, and water. One way that Access and Defense staff protect public access is by reviewing federal, state, and municipal land management plans and land conveyances to ensure that navigable waterways and other easements are protected as land is transferred across jurisdictions or into private hands. The Access and Defense staff also investigates historical and modern uses of state waters to help determine which water bodies are in fact navigable under federal law, which means the lands underlying the waterway are owned by the state.
For further information contact the Sport Fish Information Center at the Department of Fish and Game offices in Anchorage or the Public Access Assertion and Defense unit at the Department of Natural Resources.
Dave Ryland is a biologist and navigable waters program leader who works for Division of Sport Fish in Anchorage.
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[The following is reproduced from the original NARA descriptive pamphlet for M1913.]
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, also known as the Freedmen's Bureau, was established in the War Department by an act of Congress on March 3, 1865 (13 Stat. 507). The life of the Bureau was extended twice by acts of July 16, 1866 (14 Stat. 173), and July 6, 1868 (15 Stat. 83). The Bureau was responsible for the supervision and management of all matters relating to refugees and freedmen, and of lands abandoned or seized during the Civil War. In May 1865, President Andrew Johnson appointed Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard as Commissioner of the Bureau, and Howard served in that position until June 30, 1872, when activities of the Bureau were terminated in accordance with an act of June 10, 1872 (17 Stat. 366). While a major part of the Bureau's early activities involved the supervision of abandoned and confiscated property, its mission was to provide relief and help freedmen become self–sufficient. Bureau officials issued rations and clothing, operated hospitals and refugee camps, and supervised labor contracts. In addition, the Bureau managed apprenticeship disputes and complaints, assisted benevolent societies in the establishment of schools, helped freedmen in legalizing marriages entered into during slavery, and provided transportation to refugees and freedmen who were attempting to reunite with their family or relocate to other parts of the country. The Bureau also helped black soldiers, sailors, and their heirs collect bounty claims, pensions, and back pay.
The act of March 3, 1865, authorized the appointment of Assistant Commissioners to aid the Commissioner in supervising the work of the Bureau in the former Confederate states, the border states, and the District of Columbia. While the work performed by Assistant Commissioners in each state was similar, the organizational structure of staff officers varied from state to state. At various times, the staff could consist of a superintendent of education, an assistant adjutant general, an assistant inspector general, a disbursing officer, a chief medical officer, a chief quartermaster, and a commissary of subsistence. Subordinate to these officers were the assistant superintendents or subassistant commissioners as they later became known, who commanded the subdistricts.
The Assistant Commissioner corresponded extensively with both his superior in the Washington Bureau headquarters and his subordinate officers in the subdistricts. Based upon reports submitted to him by the subassistant commissioners and other subordinate staff officers, he prepared reports that he sent to the Commissioner concerning Bureau activities in areas under his jurisdiction. The Assistant Commissioner also received letters from freedmen, local white citizens, state officials, and other non–Bureau personnel. These letters varied in nature from complaints to applications for jobs in the Bureau. Because the assistant adjutant general handled much of the mail for the Assistant Commissioner's office, it was often addressed to him instead of to the Assistant Commissioner.
In a circular issued by Commissioner Howard in July 1865, the Assistant Commissioners were instructed to designate one officer in each state to serve as "General Superintendents of Schools." These officials were to "take cognizance of all that is being done to educate refugees and freedmen, secure proper protection to schools and teachers, promote method and efficiency, correspond with the benevolent agencies which are supplying his field, and aid the Assistant Commissioner in making his required reports." In October 1865, a degree of centralized control was established over Bureau educational activities in the states when Rev. John W. Alvord was appointed Inspector of Finances and Schools. In January 1867, Alvord was divested of his financial responsibilities, and he was appointed General Superintendent of Education.
An act of Congress approved July 25, 1868 (15 Stat. 193), ordered that the Commissioner of the Bureau "shall, on the first day of January next, cause the said bureau to be withdrawn from the several States within which said bureau has acted and its operation shall be discontinued." Consequently, in early 1869, with the exception of the superintendents of education and the claims agents, the Assistant Commissioners and their subordinate officers were withdrawn from the states.
For the next year and a half the Bureau continued to pursue its education work and to process claims. In the summer of 1870, the superintendents of education were withdrawn from the states, and the headquarters staff was greatly reduced. From that time until the Bureau was abolished by an act of Congress approved June 10, 1872 (17 Stat. 366), effective June 30, 1872, the Bureau's functions related almost exclusively to the disposition of claims. The Bureau's records and remaining functions were then transferred to the Freedmen's Branch in the office of the Adjutant General. However, the records of this branch are among the Bureau's files.
THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU IN VIRGINIA
In Virginia, the Bureau's operations began in June 1865 when Assistant Commissioner Orlando Brown established his headquarters in Richmond. Brown served until May 1866, when he was succeeded by Maj. Gen. Alfred H. Terry, who remained in office until August 1866. Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield served from August 1866 to March 1867, when Orlando Brown again assumed office and served as both Assistant Commissioner and superintendent of education until May 1869.
From June 1866 to March 1867, Assistant Commissioners Terry and Schofield also served as military commanders of the Department of Virginia and its successor, the Department of the Potomac. Although the two generals created and received records in both capacities, they maintained separate sets of records for this period. Records created by Terry and Schofield while serving in their military capacities are found among the Records of United States Army Commands, 1821–1920, RG 393.
Beginning in September 1865, the Assistant Commissioner for the District of Columbia was responsible for Bureau operations in the Virginia counties of Alexandria, Fairfax, and Loudoun, and the Freedmen's Village near Arlington, VA. Bureau officers were assigned to supervise the activities of these districts. In August 1866, supervision of Loudoun County was transferred to the Assistant Commissioner for Virginia, and Alexandria and Fairfax Counties were similarly transferred in March 1867. Because officers in the above counties reported to the Assistant Commissioner of the District of Columbia, some records for Virginia are among his files.
From July 4, 1865 to April 14, 1867, the Virginia Bureau was divided into 10 districts, with an agent or superintendent in charge of each. Districts were further divided into subdistricts, each headed by an assistant superintendent. On April 15, 1867, the state was reorganized into 10 subdistricts, with a subassistant commissioner in charge of each. The subdistricts were divided further into divisions headed by assistant subassistant commissioners. Subdistrict headquarters were established at Alexandria, Fort Monroe, Fredericksburg, Gordonsville, Lynchburg, Norfolk, Petersburg, Richmond, Winchester, and Wytheville. On January 1, 1869, the 10 subdistricts were reorganized into 8 educational subdistricts, with an assistant superintendent of schools in charge of each. The heads of the various subdivisions supervised all Bureau activities, including education, in their respective areas and reported on educational matters to both the superintendent of education and the Assistant Commissioner.
The major activities of the Freedmen's Bureau in Virginia generally resembled those conducted in other states. The Bureau issued rations and provided medical relief to both freedmen and white refugees, supervised labor contracts between planters and freedmen, administered justice, and worked with benevolent societies in the establishment of schools.
The Freedmen's Bureau's efforts to provide relief to both blacks and whites in Virginia began almost as soon as Orlando Brown assumed office as Assistant Commissioner for the state in June 1865. From late summer to early fall 1865, the Bureau issued more than 350,000 rations at a cost of nearly $33,000. By mid October 1865, however, the number of rations issued had declined from a previous 275,000 to less than 236,000. During the same period, the number of people receiving rations decreased from 16,298 to 11,622. In September 1866, with Commissioner Howard's limitation of government assistance to those persons in orphanages and hospitals, and the plan to relinquish relief efforts for the destitute to state and local government officials, the Bureau in Virginia issued rations to fewer than 5,000 individuals statewide. Because the Virginia Bureau in 1866 and 1867 was committed to reducing expenditures and providing limited relief for those in dire need, by late September 1868 a large number of freedmen in the state still remained impoverished.1
The Virginia Bureau also opened several hospitals for the sick and infirm. At various times, hospitals were established at Eastville, Drummondtown, Norfolk, Hampton, Yorktown, Petersburg, Farmville, Lynchburg, Danville, Richmond, and City Point. Under the direction of surgeon J. J. De Lamaster, 13 contract and 2 noncontract physicians provided treatment for more than 650 patients during 1865 and 1866. Two dispensaries administered more than 18,000 prescriptions for medicine. At Howard Grove Hospital near Richmond, Virginia, the Bureau opened a ward for the insane and a home for the aged and infirm. In the northern part of the state, homes were located for 139 inmates housed at an orphan asylum. By late October 1866, over 30,000 freedmen received medical aid from the Bureau in Virginia. By October 1867, that number increased to 50,000.2
The Bureau worked to make freedmen self–sufficient and to incorporate them into the new free–labor system in Virginia. Thousands of freedmen who crossed Union lines during the Civil War continued to seek support from the Freedmen's Bureau at war's end. With great demand for labor in some areas (especially in large cities) and not in others, and the Federal Government's determination to reduce dependency on government aid, the Virginia Bureau provided transportation for persons who were unable to find work in areas where they resided to locations where work was readily available. Those able–bodied freedmen who refused or did not apply for transportation would no longer receive rations. Under labor agreements approved by the Virginia Bureau, freedmen received rations (but no clothing) and wages that averaged about $9 per month. In some districts freedmen worked for a share of the crop. Often, however, with limited employment (especially during the winter months), low wages, inadequate shares of crops, and the failure of local officials to provide for the destitute, freedmen were constantly dependent upon the Bureau for subsistence.3
Safeguarding rights and securing justice for freedmen were major concerns of the Virginia Bureau. Following the Civil War, several Southern states, including Virginia, enacted a series of laws commonly known as "Black Codes" that restricted the rights and legal status of freedmen. Freedmen were often given harsh sentences for petty crimes and in some instances were unable to get their cases heard or to testify in state courts. In September 1865, Assistant Commissioner Orlando Brown established Freedmen's Bureau courts to adjudicate cases involving freedmen where the penalties did not exceed a $100 fine or three months in prison. The three–member court was composed, for the most part, of a Bureau agent, a planters' representative, and an individual selected by freedmen. In February 1866, the Virginia legislature amended laws that adversely affected the rights of freedmen, and thus by early May 1866, Bureau courts were discontinued, and both civil and criminal cases were turned over to state authorities. However, because of the failure of many local court officials to administer equal justice (especially in areas outside of large cities and towns), the Bureau in Virginia found it necessary to re–establish Bureau courts in certain areas of the state. In late May 1867, Maj. Gen. Schofield, who served as both Commander of the 1st Military District and Assistant Commissioner for Virginia, issued orders appointing military commissioners to oversee the administration of justice in Bureau subdistricts throughout Virginia, giving them exclusive jurisdiction and power to decide whether a case would be tried by a civil court or a military commission. Despite the establishment of military commissioners however, protecting the rights and securing justice for freedpeople still remained an enormous problem for the Bureau as late as the fall of 1868.4
The Freedmen's Bureau's educational activities in Virginia began with Assistant Commissioner Brown's appointment of Prof. W. H. Woodbury as Virginia's superintendent of schools for freedmen on June 20, 1865. By November, he had been replaced by Ralza Morse Manly, the assistant superintendent of schools (later education), who served until August 15, 1870, when all Bureau educational activities ceased.
Within six months of assuming office, Manly had more than 136 teachers instructing some 8,000 pupils. The number of teachers soon increased to more than 200, with nearly 18,000 students under instruction. During the years 1866 and 1867, freedmen schools continued to improve and expand. By the fall of 1868, there were nearly 270 schools in operation, with more than 350 teachers providing instruction for some 20,000 pupils.5 Schools assisted or maintained by the Bureau in Virginia included day schools for children, night schools for adults, and Sabbath schools. Students received instruction in such subjects as reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography. Many teachers were recruited from the North by freedmen's aid societies that included the American Missionary Association, the New York National Freedmen's Relief Association, the New England Freedmen's Aid Society, the American Baptist Home Mission Society, the Friends Freedmen's Relief Association, and the American Freedmen's Union Commission. Teachers were also recruited from among the local white and black populations.
The Bureau's educational support for freedmen schools generally involved assistance in the establishment and maintenance of schools and the examination and appointment of teachers. Bureau funds were used to pay for construction and repair of school buildings, for rental of properties used for educational purposes, and for providing teachers with transportation. Teachers' salaries were usually paid by freedmen's aid societies; however, in some situations, salaries were partially subsidized by contributions from freedmen. Whenever possible, the Bureau solicited subscriptions from freedmen for the establishment of schools, and in some cases tuition was charged.
1 Mary J. Farmer, "Because They Are Women: Gender and the Virginia Freedmen's Bureau's War on Dependency," in The Freedmen's Bureau and Reconstruction: Reconsiderations, eds. Paul A. Cimbala and Randall M. Miller, (New York: Fordham University Press, 1999), 165 – 169; Annual Reports of the Assistant Commissioners, Virginia, October 8, 1867 [pp. 4 – 7], and October 19, 1868 [pp. 12 – 14], Records of the Office of the Commissioner, Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, Record Group (RG) 105, National Archives Building (NAB), Washington, DC.
2 Senate Ex. Doc. 6, 39th Cong., 2nd Sess., Serial Vol. 1276, 163 – 164; For further details on the medical activities of the Freedmen's Bureau in Virginia, see Annual Reports of J. J. De Lamater, Surgeon and Chief, Virginia, October 25, 1866 [pp. 1 – 34], and October 1, 1867 [pp. 1 – 23], Annual Reports, Virginia, RG 105, NAB.
3 Senate Ex. Doc. 6, Serial Vol. 1276, 161 – 162; see also Annual Reports, Virginia, October 8, 1867, [pp. 4 – 8], and October 19, 1868, [pp. 12 – 14].
4 George R. Bentley, A History of the Freedmen's Bureau (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1944), 152 – 153; Senate Ex. Doc. 6, Serial Vol. 1276, 165 – 167; Annual Reports, Virginia, October 8, 1867, [p. 3], and October 19, 1868, [pp. 2 – 8].
5 Senate Ex. Doc. 6, Serial Vol. 1276, 164 – 165; Annual Reports, Virginia, October 8, 1867, [pp. 9 – 14], and October 19, 1868, [pp. 16 – 18].
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Give up smoking and you'll have a healthier and happier baby
By JENNY HOPE
Last updated at 10:49 19 March 2008
Women who smoked heavily during pregnancy had the most difficult infants
You can expect to have a happier baby if you break the habit.
Giving up cigarettes not only improves mother and child's physical health, it also makes it more likely the baby will have a sunnier nature, with regular sleeping and eating patterns.
And, according to research published today, the babies of recent quitters were even more easy-going than those born to women who had never smoked or had stopped years earlier.
Dr Kate Pickett, of York University, suggested a possible explanation for quitters having better behaved children than non-smokers.
"Women who are strongly motivated to give up smoking in pregnancy are very positive about the decision and the outcomes for the baby," she said.
Her research is the first evidence of the impact on babies' behaviour of stopping smoking in early pregnancy.
Although the risks to physical health caused by mothers' smoking have been well-documented, data on their babies' mental well-being has been scarce.
The study of 18,000 British children at the age of nine months found women who smoke heavily in pregnancy - more than ten cigarettes a day - had the most difficult infants with the worst moods.
Mothers who kicked the habit ended up with the best behaved babies. These babies had the lowest chances of unpredictable behaviour, were receptive to new things and had regular eating and sleeping patterns.
Dr Pickett said: "We know that children in later life suffer adverse effects from passive smoking in the womb, so it's not surprising to find subtle signs of behaviour differences in the first few months of life.
"Mothers themselves picked up these differences, with the babies of quitters having the most positive temperaments.
"It's an extra incentive to give up smoking in pregnancy."
The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, assessed infants' temperaments with scales designed to pick up positive mood, receptivity to new things, and eating and sleeping patterns.
Around 4,000 women involved in the 2000-02 study continued to smoke while expecting.
Dr Pickett said: "It's good to be able to tell women that quitting has a good effect on their babies' behaviour in the short and longterm but we mustn't minimise the difficulties of giving up an extremely addictive habit."
Amanda Sandford, of the antismoking campaign ASH, said as many as one in three women is a smoker at the time of conception-with around 17 per cent of them continuing to smoke during pregnancy.
Chemicals from cigarettes are known to harm the development of the brains of babies in the womb. They are also linked to low birth weight, birth defects and increased risk of cot death.
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South Island, New Zealand
The South Island (Māori: Te Wai Pounamu) is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean. The South Island is sometimes called the “mainland”. While it has a 33% larger landmass than the North Island, only 24% of New Zealand’s 4.4 million inhabitants live in the South Island.
In the early stages of European (Pākehā) settlement of the country, the South Island had the majority of the European population and wealth due to the 1860s gold rushes. The North Island population overtook the South in the early 20th century, with 56% of the population living in the North in 1911, and the drift north of people and businesses continued throughout the century.
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Fastcase is a legal database that provides access to state and Federal cases, statutes, constitutions, and administrative regulations. View the video demonstrations below to learn how to search this specialized database.
Boolean Operators connect keywords or concepts logically to retrieve relevant articles, books, and other resources. There are three Boolean Operators:
Example: The result list will include resources that include both keywords -- "distracted driving" and "texting" -- in the same article or resource, represented in the shaded area where the circles intersect (area shaded in purple).
Example: The result list will include resources that include the keyword "texting" OR the keyword "cell phone" (entire area shaded in blue); either is acceptable.
Example: The result list will include all resources that includes the term "car" (green area) but will exclude any resource that includes the term "motorcycle" (purple area) even though the term car may be present in the resource.
A library database searches for keywords throughout the entire resource record including the full-text of the resource, subject headings, tags, bibliographic information, etc.
Example: The keyword list above was developed to find resources that discuss how texting while driving results in accidents. Notice that there are synonyms (texting and "text messaging"), related terms ("cell phones" and texting), and spelling variations ("cell phone" and cellphone). Using keywords when searching full-text requires consideration of various words that express an idea or concept.
Example 1: In EBSCO's Academic Search Complete, clicking on the "Subject Terms" tab provides access to the entire subject heading list used in the database. It also allows a search for specific subject terms.
Example 2: A subject term can be incorporated into a keyword search by clicking on the down arrow next to "Select a Field" and selecting "Subject Terms" from the dropdown list. Also, notice how subject headings are listed below the title of the resource providing another strategy for discovering subject headings used in the database.
When a search term is more than one word, enclose the phrase in quotation marks to retrieve more precise and accurate results. Using quotation marks around a term will search it as a "chunk," searching for those particular words together in that order within the text of a resource.
TIP: In some databases, neglecting to enclose phrases in quotation marks will insert the AND Boolean connector between each word resulting in unintended search results.
Truncation provides an option to search for a root of a keyword in order to retrieve resources that include variations of that word. This feature can be used to broaden search results, although some results may not be relevant. To truncate a keyword, type an asterisk (*) following the root of the word.
Library databases provide a variety of tools to limit and refine search results. Limiters provide the ability to limit search results to resources having specified characteristics including:
In both the EBSCO and ProQuest databases, the limiting tools are located in the left panel of the results page.
The short video below provides a demonstration of how to use limiters to refine a list of search results.
Each resource in a library database is stored in a record. In addition to the full-text of the resources, searchable Fields are attached that typically include:
Incorporating Fields into your search can assist in focusing and refining search results by limiting the results to those resources that include specific information in a particular field.
In both EBSCO and ProQuest databases, selecting the Advanced Search option will allow Fields to be included in a search.
For example, in the Advanced Search option in EBSCO's Academic Search Complete database, clicking on the down arrow next to "Select a Field" provides a list of fields that can be searched within that database. Select the field and enter the information in the text box to the left to use this feature.
Stop words are short, commonly used words--articles, prepositions, and pronouns-- that are automatically dropped from a search. Typical stop words include:
In library databases, a stop word will not be searched even if it is included in a phrase enclosed in quotation marks. In some instances, a word will be substituted for the stop word to allow for the other words in the phrase to be searched in proximity to one another within the text of the resource.
For example, if you searched company of America, your result list will include these variatons:
This short video demonstrates how to create a search string -- keywords connected with Boolean operators -- to use in a library database search to retrieve relevant resources for any research assignment.
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Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India, is the oldest bearer of Dravidian tradition and customs. Each area of the state has a lot of proof of Dravidian tradition that also really well exists. Tamil Nadu is famed for the longest recorded historical past and langugae. Tamil, the primary and respectable language of the state could also be an historic language of India.
For a number of eras, Tamil Nadu has been dominated by way of aristocratic and robust rulers of quite a lot of dynasties. A majority of these rulers had a perfect passion in artwork and structure. They gave beneficiant patronage to quite a lot of artisans like sculptors, architects and artists. Because of this Tamil Nadu has an unending array of exquisitely carved monuments that performs an essential component in state’s tourism business.
Many towns and cities of Tamil Nadu are widely recognized in all the global are well-known for those architectural wonders of yesteryears. One of the well-known monuments of Tamil Nadu are
Padmanabhapuram Palace: In-built 1601 A.D, Padmanabhapuram palace is positioned at Thuckalay in Kanya Kumari district, Tamil Nadu. It used to be the palace of rulers of Travancore and remained because the seat of energy until 1790. It’s superb palace which is famed for its making plans and army structure. Work of art, cutting edge designs and wood carvings are the primary points of interest of those palace. There may be huge courtyard provide on the entrance of the palace, served as a parade floor for recruiting infantrymen for the military.
Fortress St. George: Thought to be the primary British Castle in India, Fortress St. George is positioned at Chennai. It’s the oldest English castle on the East coast of India. Built in between 1640 A.D to 1653 A.D and once more reconstructed all over 1783 A.D, Fortress St. George used to be as soon as an entire the city. It has a number of streets, alleys and roads having specific identify. Within the yesteryears, it used to be hub of service provider job. Inside of this large castle, there’s a church named St. Marys’s Church and a space named after Lord Robert Clive. It additionally possess some British artifacts and French antiques.
Vivekananda Rock: Because the identify suggests, it’s devoted to Swami Vivekananda, an Indian thinker and social reformer. It’s an remoted rock, positioned on the convergence of Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, close to Kanya Kumari. Within the yr 1892, Swami has swam around the sea and meditated in this rock. A memorial devoted to Swami is to be had at the rock, which homes Vivekananda Mandapan and Sripada Mandapam on two rocks dealing with each and every different. Vivekananda Mandapan has a meditation corridor named Dhyan Mandapan, a Meeting corridor or Sabha Mandapan which has a statue of Swami Vivekananda. Ferry products and services are there from Kanyakumari, to achieve the rock.
Thanjavur Palace: Thanjuvur palace is some other well-known monument of Tamil Nadu. It used to be partially built by way of Nayaks in 1550 A.D and partially by way of Marthas. Two large halls, spacious corridors and courtyard, statement and arsenal towers, a library, a museum and a art-gallery are to be had within this palace. The royal museum of this palace has royal garments, looking guns, head gears and different artifacts or antiques belonging to Chola dynasty.
Valluvar Kottam: This is a memorial devoted to poet-saint Tiruvalluvar. Formed like temple chariot of Thiruvarur, this memorial has a 33m tall statue of saint Tiruvalluvar. It has the biggest auditorium in Asia and will accommodate about 4000 other people. This 101 feet prime temple chariot construction is made up of three, 000 blocks of stone.
Beside them Tamil Nadu has a number of different gorgeous monuments corresponding to Mahabalipuram Rathas, Arjuna’s penance, Rock Fortress Temple, Tanjore Maratha Marvels, Shivganga palace and Caves.
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'Pingo' itself is an Eskimo word and is described as an arctic mound or hill, shaped like a volcano, consisting of an outer layer of soil covering a core of solid ice. These features are common in the Arctic /Eskimo regions of the world today. What we have here in Camross are the remains of what once fitted the above description. Of course, with the ice core long melted, the central mound has subsided and we are left with a collapsed centre surrounded by a raised rim of land forming a circle or partial circle.
These land structures - fossil pingos- were first identified in the Camross area in 1969, by Professor Frank Mitchell, of Trinity College Dublin. The assumption was, that if pingos were quite common in arctic regions at present, the probability was they must have occurred in parts of Ireland when we had similar climatic conditions to the arctic today.
The Pingos were first identified from the air, and Professor Mitchell and his surveying party spent the summer months of 1971 in Camross analysing and documenting them. He published the results of his findings in November 1973 in a booklet from the Royal Irish Academy entitled 'Fossil Pingos in Camross townland, Co. Wexford.' '200 structures believed to be fossil pingos are recorded in the study area. The main road from New Ross to Wexford in south east Ireland runs through Camross townland at an altitude of 70 metres (225 feet). The local rocks are slates and sandstones of Ordovician age containing contemporary volcanic rocks. The area was strongly effected by the Caledonian folding movement. Denudation has produced a 'surface' at about 60 meters (200 ft) on the sedimentary rocks above which rise the more resistant volcanic rocks.
In the North of the townsland a boss of quartzporphry rises to 180 metres (600 ft) to form Camross Hill. The area was glaciated in the late phase of the Munsterian Cold Stage when ice coming from the Midlands passed over the area in a south easterly direction. The area was not glaciated in the Midlandian Cold Stage, although, ice of that age, advancing westwards from the basin of the Irish Sea only halted at Tomcoole cross-roads three kilometres south-east of Camross.
In a limited area, North east of Camross, fossil pingos were particularly prominent . Here it is assumed that a pingo is formed when water which has been forced upwards by freezing pressure, itself freezes in a lens like form near the surface of the ground arching the surface layers up over itself and forming an earth covered ice-cored mound .
When thawing sets in, the surface layer thaws first and slumps down off the ice-core building a rim of earth round the core. This material is transferred from the central area to the perimeter and, when the core melts, a hollow will be left at the centre, surrounded by the raised rim, which contains the transferred material. In an ideal case slumping will have taken place evenly around the core and the subsequent rim will form a complete circle. But slumping may have been uneven, or there may have been subsequent collapse and the rim may be incomplete forming only an arc of a circle' .
The remains of this process so many, many years ago is still with us to this day in the Camross area and it is remarkable that after thousands and thousands of years, evidence of the Ice Age remains on in our local landscape.
The fossil pingos vary greatly in size from small circular hollows to structures as big as 75 meters (250 ft) in diameter. Many of the larger ones have (or had before drainage) floating masses of vegetation while the smaller ones formed part of cultivated areas without any hindrance.
One notable aspect in the existence of fossil pingos is that they all occur on poorly drained soils and where the soil is well drained, pingos cease to exist. As already mentioned they are particularly prominent in an area north east of Camross, on the right hand side of the Oldtown road, as one travels from Camross to Adamstown.
They continue along the valley, where they cease, on entry to a vast area of marshland, known as the 'black bog'. South eastwards from here a section of well drained soil arises but beyond that, where the soil is again poorly drained, pingos appear in quantity.
On the south side of Camross these structures continue on a gently sloping floor towards Caroreigh, but disappear again, when converging flanks of well drained soil appear. Again quoting from Professor Mitchell, he says 'a poorly defined ridge of higher ground links Camross to Wattle Cross-roads (cross of the wobble). The soil on the ridge is poorly drained and a few pingos can be traced across it. An embayment of flattish land lies on the floor of the valley west of Camross and big pingos also occurred here. West of Wattle cross- roads the slope is again very gently and numerous pingos spring from the floor of an embayment which lies between 60 and 65 meters (200- 210 ft).'
Locally, pingos, before they were authoritatively identified, were known as 'bog holes' and 'ponds' and one, in particular, was known as 'the cat and dog hole'. Many believed that they were dug out of straight earth in the last century to build mud and clay houses. Professor Mitchell and his team concluded, by technical examination into the floor bottom of some of the larger pingos, that they had been disturbed in the early nineteenth century, and they contained peats and muds dried and used for firewood. However, he found one pingo which contained a small amount of open water mud at the base, which was undisturbed organic material.
Samples for pollen counts and macroscopic examination were taken. Results from the pollen count show that, at a depth of 110 cm. in the sandy clay loam, the open characteristic of the last Ice Age was in evidence. Above that, the overlying mud showed the establishment of post glacial grasslands, followed by the appearance of Juniperus and Betula. Juniperus are evergreen trees and Betula is of the birch tree family. Thus, we can see the undoubted influence that the movement of ice has had on our local landscape.
This influence has also happened in other areas. For example, we know that pingos occur south of a line from Arklow to the Shannon Estuary and in northern latitudes around the world.
In the 'Shell Guide to the Irish Landscape' there are three very interesting photographs in the chapter dealing with the ice age. One shows a modern pingo in its frozen state in the arctic region of Siberia. The second shows a collapsing pingo in a less colder area of the North west Territory of Canada and the third photograph shows the fossil pingos that we have here in Camross today. We have only reached this fossilised state by going through the processes which are presently occurring in Northern Arctic regions.
The formation of pingos was not an isolated activity during the time of the Ice Age. In fact, this era witnessed other upheavals and movements in the earth's surface. Further evidence of these can be seen today in the landscapes of the parish of Taghmon.
In his book 'The Landscape of South Wexford', Dr Edward Culleton says that the deep channel running from near Growtown through Brownscastle to Mulmontry bridge was cut through the solid rock from a decaying ice sheet. He goes on to state: 'The exact origin of this meltwater channel is not clear. It may be the original course of the Slaney which, blocked by a glacier to the south and the east and powered by meltwaters from an ice cap on the Wicklow mountains, cut its way through the shale bedrock to form this steep sided channel. Alternatively the channel may have been cut by meltwaters from the Irish Sea glacier escaping eastwards.
Some evidence is provided for this by the "erratics" such as flint in the glacial deposits at Mulmontry further west.'
We can see from this that the structure of the land in Brownscastle today is another fine example of what melting ice did, as it cut its ways through the ground forming a deep gorge powered by continuous melting ice behind it. Other examples of meltwater channels in the county can be seen at Poulmounty, Taylorstown, Carrigmannon, Kilcotty and Ferrycarrig.
Dr Edward Culleton also refers to the 'Caledonian Folding movement' by which, professor Mitchell says, the area was affected. This, Dr. Culleton says, was a series of convulsions in the earth's surface, probably lasting millions of years and causing the crust to crumble long before the ice came.
Camross Rock is one of a series of volcanic rocks running from Duncannon, in south west Wexford, to Kilmichael Point, in the north east of the county. Others include Carrigbyrne, Bree and Vinegar Hills. According to Dr. Culleton, this happened during the Ordovician age which was also referred to by Professor Mitchell. The Ordovician period occurred around 430 million years ago. Dr. Culleton goes on to say: 'these volcanic rocks emerged from small underwater volcanoes pushing molten material up to the surface. This solidified to form hard rocks which have resisted breakdown by weathering agents to the present day'. This includes the ice sheets which spread glacial drift - a mixture of boulders, clay, sand and gravel - over the areas where we now live and indeed throughout much of County Wexford.
All of this activity helped to form the fertile farmland which we now use to great benefit.
So whether it is pingos, meltwater channels, or the very soil that we cultivate, they all form part of the great legacy left to us by the Ice Age, which happened in the dim twilight of long, long ago.
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Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher.
Some seventy years ago, this past August, the first major collection of captured Japanese documents in the Pacific Theater to arrive at Pearl Harbor were those captured in August 1942 when the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, under Lt. Col. Evans F. Carlson, made a harassing raid on Makin Island, an atoll in the Gilberts. The raid was intended primarily as a diversion to distract Japanese from sending reinforcements to Guadalcanal and Tulagi where Marines had landed earlier in the month.
In Mid-December 1941 the Japanese had occupied the Gilberts. At first the only military installation that the Japanese constructed on the Gilberts was a seaplane base on Butaritari Island of the Makin Atoll. Seaplanes there could harass shipping lanes to Australia. The Americans had little information about Makin in 1942. It appeared that the atoll’s main island, Butaritari, was as a weather station and seaplane base, defended by force estimated between 50 and 350. Actually it was garrisoned by no more than a platoon of the 62nd Guard Unit, fewer than 50 men in all, commanded by Sgt. Maj. Kanemitsu.
Two large submarines, Nautilus and Argonaut, carried Carlson’s 221-man raiding force, including Maj. James Roosevelt, the President’s son and Carlson’s executive officer, to the island. The raiders went ashore at dawn on August 17 and attacked the Japanese garrison. That morning Capt. Gerald Holtom, who read, wrote and spoke fluent Japanese and served as the battalion’s intelligence officer, was killed by a sniper.By the end of the morning the Japanese had been pressed into a last-ditch defense at the shore. Japanese efforts to reinforce Makin were to with little avail, with no more than 35 soldiers being added to the Japanese forces. The Japanese were wiped out in suicide attack or subsequently killed or killed themselves. During the remainder of day and the next the raiders picked up important documents at the headquarters and from the bodies of the dead and destroyed enemy weapons and equipment. Around 11pm August 18 almost all of raiders still on the island reached the submarines and just before midnight they set sail for Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately, by accident, nine raiders were left behind. They would be subsequently captured and executed at Kwajalein, on October 16, 1942. The Nautilus arrived on the morning of August 25 and the Argonaut the following day. The press was initially informed that an estimated eighty Japanese were killed during the raid. About a week later the number was raised to 350. In the official report Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet/Commander in Chief Pacific Ocean Area, subsequently sent Admiral Ernest J. King, Commander in Chief, United States Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations, the number pared down to between 100 and 150.
It is has been debated whether the diversionary attack on Makin diverted any Japanese forces from Guadalcanal. But there is no debate about the captured documents. Although Makin was a minor outpost it had been supplied with major documents. This Ellis M. Zacharias, a naval intelligence officer, would call a “grave intelligence blunder.” The documents were quickly brought back to Pearl Harbor on board the submarines. They included plans, charts, air defense details on all Japanese-held Pacific islands, battle orders, one top-secret map that provided the air defense capabilities of all Japanese-held Pacific islands, the strength of all Japanese-held Pacific islands, the strength of the air forces on them, and the forces’ radius of operations, methods of alert, types of aircraft, and operation plans for future emergencies. It is also likely that Japanese weather code books were also captured.
Among the documents captured at Makin was a Japanese chart of Tarawa Atoll in the Gilberts. An officer with the Intelligence Center, Pacific Ocean Area, Pearl Harbor felt as though he had seen this chart before as it looked vaguely familiar. A translator told him why. The title and written descriptions were in Japanese; otherwise it was an exact duplicate of the U.S. Hydrographic Office chart of Tarawa. Comdr. Joseph J. Rochefort, reminded this officer that when the Tokyo earthquake of 1923 destroyed the plates of the Japanese Hydrographic Office’s charts, the US Hydrographic Office gave the Japanese duplicate plates of its charts of the Pacific. “What we had captured,” W. J. Holmes would later write in Doubled-Edged Secrets: U.S. Naval Intelligence Operations During World War II, “was a perfectly legal Japanese edition of one of our own charts, complete with all the inaccuracies of the original surveys made in the mid-nineteenth century, without a jot of new information.”
Besides acquiring documents and charts the raiders on Makin acquired many souvenirs. Carlson gathered up a Japanese flag, pistol, and samurai sword which he intended to give President Roosevelt and Admiral Nimitz upon his return. These were subsequently delivered.
Subsequently Marine Corps Lt. W. S. LeFrancois, who participated in the raid, in 1943 published a story about it entitled “We Mopped Up Makin Island,” in the Saturday Evening Post. A movie based on this account was made, and released on December 23, 1943. The movie, starring Randolph Scott, is usually referred to by its short title Gung Ho!, but its full title is Gung Ho!: The Story of Carlson’s Makin Island Raiders. The term Gung Ho, a Chinese expression meaning “working together,” was adopted by Carlson, who had spent time in China before the war, as the slogan of his Marine Raiders. It soon spread throughout the U.S. Marine Corps as an expression of spirit and eventually entered the public lexicon to mean “enthusiastic” or “dedicated.”
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Spanish Bilingual Preschool Program
Learning a second language at a young age provides children with a firm foundation for greater educational success.
Our full-day Spanish Bilingual Program is available for children in 3’s & 4’s and Pre K classes. Research has shown that it is never too early to begin exposing children to a second language. We have developed this unique preschool program with a coordinated approach to the English curriculum and to everyday, meaningful conversation.
The preschool age is the perfect window of opportunity for your child to follow the natural sequence of learning a second language, understanding, speaking, reading and writing of basic words. Development of the English language is taught in the same progression.
Benefits for Children:
- Boosts brain development
- Enriches mental and verbal development
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- Enhances English language abilities
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- Provides a solid foundation for future Bilingual Learning
THREE’S & FOUR’S CLASS: Provide students with an opportunity to learn basic skills of listening, speaking, learning rhymes, learning finger plays and communicating in both Spanish and English. Teachers translate instructions, books and rhymes in Spanish when speaking to the children. The children work within the Cambridge Schools™ Core Curriculum.
PRE-K CLASS: The goal of this class is to start or continue the children on their journey of learning a second language at a young age by offering a high quality, developmentally appropriate bilingual environment. The children are provided with a platform of basic listening, speaking, reading, cognitive development, phonics and writing skills in BOTH languages that they will be able to expand upon during their academic life. The children work within the Cambridge Schools Core Curriculum.
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Here's the abstract:
Between 1939 and 1943, the Canadian tax system was transformed under the guidance and leadership of J.L. Ilsley, the federal minister of finance from 1940 to 1946. The personal income tax was extended to most of the working population at high, progressive rates, and the corporation income tax was raised drastically and applied to excess wartime profits. Through the tax rental agreements, income tax jurisdiction was transferred from the provinces to the federal government. The effect was to make income taxation the principal source of federal government revenue for financing Canada's war effort and to lay the basis for financing the post-war welfare state. Ilsley's mastery of the issues and his leadership both in Cabinet and before the public were essential elements of this transformation.
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nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP), a time-varying electromagnetic radiation resulting from a nuclear explosion. For a high-yield explosion of approximately 10 megatons detonated 320 km (200 miles) above the centre of the continental United States, almost the entire country, as well as parts of Mexico and Canada, would be affected by EMP—destroying practically all electronic devices and electrical transformers. Procedures to improve the ability of networks, especially military command and control systems, to withstand EMP are known as “hardening.”
The development of the EMP is shaped by the initial nuclear radiation from the explosion—specifically, the gamma radiation. High-energy electrons are produced in the environment of the explosion when gamma rays collide with air molecules (a process called the Compton effect). Positive and negative charges in the atmosphere are separated as the lighter, negatively charged electrons are swept away from the explosion point and the heavier, positively charged ionized air molecules are left behind. This charge separation produces a large electric field. Asymmetries in the electric field are caused by factors such as the variation in air density with altitude and the proximity of the explosion to Earth’s surface. These asymmetries result in time-varying electrical currents that produce the EMP. The characteristics of the EMP depend strongly on the height of the explosion above the surface.
EMP was first noticed in the United States in the 1950s when electronic equipment failed because of induced currents and voltages during some nuclear tests. In 1960 the potential vulnerability of U.S. military equipment and weapons systems to EMP was officially recognized. EMP can damage unprotected electronic equipment, such as radios, radars, televisions, telephones, computers, and other communication equipment and systems. EMP damage can occur at distances of tens, hundreds, or thousands of kilometres from a nuclear explosion, depending on the weapon yield and the altitude of the detonation. For example, in 1962 a failure of electronic components in street lights in Hawaii and the activation of numerous automobile burglar alarms in Honolulu were attributed to a high-altitude U.S. nuclear test at Johnston Atoll, some 1,300 km (800 miles) to the southwest.
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The ability to engage in meaningful conversations is a skill that is often overlooked in today’s fast-paced and technology-driven world. However, the art of listening, learning, and sharing is essential for personal growth, building relationships, and fostering understanding. In this blog article, we will explore the power of conversation and how it can positively impact our lives.
Conversation is not just about speaking; it also involves actively listening to others. By being present and attentive, we can truly understand different perspectives, gain new insights, and broaden our horizons. It is through conversation that we learn from one another, exchange ideas, and challenge our own beliefs. In an era where echo chambers and polarization are prevalent, the art of conversation becomes even more crucial in bridging gaps and fostering empathy.
The Importance of Active Listening
Active listening is a fundamental aspect of effective communication. It involves giving our full attention to the speaker, focusing on their words, and seeking to understand their perspective. When we engage in active listening, we not only hear the words being spoken but also pay attention to the speaker’s tone, body language, and emotions. This comprehensive approach allows us to grasp the underlying meaning and context of the conversation.
Benefits of Active Listening
By actively listening, we show respect and genuine interest in the speaker’s thoughts and feelings. This creates an atmosphere of trust and openness, enabling more meaningful and productive conversations. Active listening also helps to avoid misunderstandings and misinterpretations, as we take the time to clarify any uncertainties and ensure that we have correctly understood the speaker’s message.
Moreover, active listening allows us to develop empathy and understanding. By immersing ourselves in the speaker’s perspective, we can better appreciate their experiences, emotions, and viewpoints. This empathy fosters a deeper connection and promotes mutual respect, leading to more harmonious relationships and effective collaborations.
Techniques for Active Listening
There are several techniques that can enhance our active listening skills. Firstly, maintaining eye contact with the speaker demonstrates attentiveness and shows that we value their words. Additionally, providing verbal and non-verbal cues such as nodding, smiling, or using encouraging phrases like “I see” or “Tell me more” encourages the speaker to continue and express themselves freely.
Furthermore, paraphrasing and summarizing the speaker’s words can help to clarify understanding and ensure that we are on the same page. By rephrasing what was said and checking if we have interpreted it correctly, we demonstrate our commitment to understanding and valuing the speaker’s perspective.
Creating a Safe Space for Conversation
Creating a safe space for conversation is essential to fostering open and honest dialogue. When individuals feel safe and comfortable expressing their thoughts and emotions, it encourages authentic communication and allows for the exploration of diverse perspectives. Here are some strategies to establish a safe environment for conversation:
1. Active Listening without Judgment
One key aspect of creating a safe space is to listen without judgment. When we approach conversations with an open mind and suspend our preconceived notions, we create an atmosphere where people feel free to share their ideas without fear of criticism or ridicule. By actively listening and showing respect for differing opinions, we encourage others to express themselves honestly.
2. Encouraging Openness and Vulnerability
A safe space is one where vulnerability is embraced and encouraged. By sharing our own experiences, thoughts, and emotions, we set an example for others to do the same. This openness creates a sense of trust and fosters deeper connections, as individuals feel comfortable sharing their own vulnerabilities without judgment or shame.
3. Establishing Ground Rules for Respectful Communication
To ensure a safe space for conversation, it can be helpful to establish ground rules for respectful communication. These rules may include actively listening to others, refraining from interrupting, using “I” statements to express personal experiences and feelings, and avoiding personal attacks or derogatory language. By setting these guidelines, we create an environment where everyone’s voice is valued and respected.
The Art of Asking Thought-Provoking Questions
Thought-provoking questions have the power to stimulate deeper conversations and encourage critical thinking. By asking questions that challenge assumptions and invite reflection, we can delve into the heart of a topic and gain a deeper understanding. Here are some strategies for asking thought-provoking questions:
1. Avoiding Yes/No Questions
Yes/no questions tend to limit conversation and stifle deeper exploration. Instead of asking questions that can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no,” try to ask open-ended questions that require more elaboration. For example, instead of asking, “Do you like this book?” you could ask, “What aspects of this book resonate with you?” This encourages the speaker to share their thoughts in more detail.
2. Diving into the Why and How
Questions that focus on the “why” and “how” behind someone’s beliefs or actions can lead to more insightful conversations. These questions invite reflection and encourage the speaker to explore their underlying motivations and reasoning. By asking, “Why do you think this is the case?” or “How did you arrive at this conclusion?” we can uncover deeper layers of understanding.
3. Encouraging Critical Thinking
Thought-provoking questions can also challenge assumptions and encourage critical thinking. By asking questions that prompt individuals to consider alternative perspectives or evaluate evidence, we create an opportunity for deeper analysis and self-reflection. For instance, asking, “What evidence supports your argument?” or “How might this situation look from a different cultural lens?” encourages a more comprehensive exploration of the topic.
Active Listening in the Digital Age
In today’s digital age, active listening can be challenging, as much of our communication takes place through screens and keyboards. However, with the right approach, we can still engage in meaningful conversations and practice active listening skills in the digital realm. Here are some tips for active listening in the digital age:
1. Mindful Presence in Online Interactions
In digital conversations, it is crucial to be mindful of our presence and focus on the interaction at hand. Minimize distractions by closing unnecessary tabs or silencing notifications, allowing you to fully engage in the conversation. Being present and attentive to the digital conversation demonstrates respect for the other participants and enhances understanding.
2. Reading and Reflecting on Messages
When engaging in written digital conversations, such as email or instant messaging, take the time to read and reflect on the messages before responding. This allows you to fully understand the content and context of the conversation. Consider the tone, emotions, and underlying meaning conveyed in the messages and respond thoughtfully.
3. Using Emoticons and Emojis
In digital conversations, the absence of non-verbal cues can sometimes lead to misinterpretations. To compensate for this, utilize emoticons and emojis to convey emotions or tone. These visual cues can help to clarify intentions and foster a more accurate understanding of the messages exchanged.
The Power of Empathy in Conversation
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. In conversation, empathy plays a crucial role in building connections, resolving conflicts, and fostering mutual understanding. By cultivating empathy, we can create a more compassionate and inclusive world. Here are some ways to harness the power of empathy in conversations:
1. Active Listening with Empathy
Empathy begins with active listening. When engaging in conversation, strive to listen not only to the words being spoken but also to the emotions and experiences underlying them. By putting yourself in the speaker’s shoes and seeking to understand their perspective, you can respond with empathy and compassion.
2. Validating Emotions
Validation is a powerful way to demonstrate empathy. When someone shares their emotions, validate their feelings by acknowledging them and expressing understanding. Phrases like “I can imagine that must be difficult for you” or “It sounds like you’re feeling frustrated” convey empathy and show that you care about the speaker’s well-being.
3. Practicing Perspective-Taking
Perspective-taking is the ability to see a situation from someone else’s point of view. By consciously putting ourselves in the speaker’s position, we can better understand their thoughts, emotions, and motivations. This perspective-taking allows us to respond with empathy and respond in a way that is considerate of their needs and feelings.
The Role of Non-Verbal Communication
While conversation often focuses on spoken words, non-verbal communication plays a significant role in conveying meaning and emotions. Non-verbal cues such as body language, facial expressions, and gestures can enhance or contradict the words being spoken. Understanding and interpreting non-verbal communication can enrich our conversations and improve overall understanding. Here’s how non-verbal communication contributes to effective communication:
1. Body Language
Body language includes posture, gestures, and facial expressions, among other aspects. It can convey emotions, attitudes, and intentions. For example, crossed arms and a frown may indicate defensiveness or disagreement, while open body language and a smile may signify openness and agreement. By paying attention to body language, we can gain insights into the speaker’s underlying emotions and attitudes.
2. Facial Expressions
Facial expressions are an essential part of non-verbal communication. Smiles, frowns, raised eyebrows, or narrowed eyes can convey happiness, sadness, surprise, or skepticism. By observing facial expressions, we can better understand the speaker’s emotional state and respond accordingly. However, it is important to note that cultural differences can influence the interpretation of facial expressions, so context is crucial.
3. Gestures and Posture
Gestures and posture can add depth and emphasis to spoken words. For instance, using hand gestures to illustrate a point or leaning forward to show interest can enhance communication and engagement. Similarly, slumping or avoiding eye contact may indicate disinterest or discomfort. By being aware of our own gestures and posture and observing those of others, we can better align our non-verbal cues with our intended message.
Overcoming Barriers to Effective Communication
Effective communication can face various barriers that hinder understanding and connection. These barriers may arise from language differences, cultural misunderstandings, personal biases, or other factors. Overcoming these barriers is crucial to ensure that conversations are inclusive, respectful, and productive. Here are strategies to overcome common barriers to effective communication:
1. Active Listening and Clarification
Active listening helps address misunderstandings and ensures that the intended message is correctly received. By actively listening, seeking clarification, and asking questions when needed, we can overcome language barriers and ensure that the speaker’s message is accurately understood. This practice also demonstrates respect and a genuine interest in understanding different perspectives.
2. Cultural Sensitivity and Awareness
Cultural differences can significantly impact communication. Being culturally sensitive and aware helps navigate potential misunderstandings and promotes inclusivity. Educate yourself about different cultures’ communication styles, norms, and values to avoid unintentionally offending others or misinterpreting their intentions. Showing respect for cultural diversity fosters mutual understanding and appreciation.
3. Recognizing and Addressing Personal Biases
Personal biases can cloud our judgment and hinder effective communication. It is important to recognize and acknowledge our biases, whether they are based on race, gender, religion, or other factors. By actively challenging our biases and seeking diverse perspectives, we can engage in more inclusive conversations and foster a more inclusive environment for all participants.
The Art of Sharing Personal Stories
Personal stories have the power to connect people on a deeper level and evoke emotions. Sharing our experiences and perspectives can lead to greater understanding, empathy, and connection. Here are some reasons why sharing personal stories is an art worth cultivating:
1. Building Bridges and Creating Connections
Personal stories allow us to share our unique experiences, beliefs, and perspectives. By sharing our stories, we create opportunities for others to relate to us and find common ground. This shared understanding builds bridges and fosters connections, breaking down barriers and promoting empathy.
2. Inspiring and Motivating Others
Personal stories can inspire and motivate others. By sharing our challenges, triumphs, and lessons learned, we can provide encouragement and support to those who may be facing similar situations. Our stories have the power to uplift, inspire, and empower others to overcome their own obstacles.
3. Cultivating Empathy and Understanding
When we share our personal stories, we invite others into our world, allowing them to see life from our perspective. This cultivates empathy and understanding, as others gain insight into our experiences and emotions. Through this understanding, we can break down stereotypes, biases, and prejudices, fostering a more inclusive and compassionate society.
Navigating Difficult Conversations
Difficult conversations can be uncomfortable, but they are often necessary for growth, resolution, and building stronger relationships. Navigating these conversations with care and sensitivity is crucial to ensuring a positive outcome. Here are some strategies to help navigate difficult conversations:
1. Approach with Empathy and Respect
When entering a difficult conversation, approach it with empathy and respect for the other person’s feelings and perspectives. Recognize that their experiences and emotions are valid, even if they differ from your own. By demonstrating empathy and respect, you create a safe space for open and honest dialogue.
2. Active Listening and Validation
Active listening is especially important in difficult conversations. Give the speaker your full attention, listen without interrupting, and seek to understand their point of view. Validate their feelings and emotions by acknowledging them. By actively listening and validating, you create an atmosphere of trust and openness where both parties feel heard and understood.
3. Find Common Ground and Seek Solutions
In difficult conversations, it is essential to find common ground and seek solutions instead of focusing solely on differences. Look for shared goals or values that can serve as a foundation for finding resolution. By working together to find mutually beneficial solutions, you can overcome obstacles and strengthen your relationship.
The Art of Reflective Listening
Reflective listening is a powerful communication technique that involves paraphrasing and summarizing what the speaker said to ensure understanding and demonstrate empathy. By engaging in reflective listening, we can foster deeper connections, mutual understanding, and more effective communication. Here’s how to practice the art of reflective listening:
1. Paraphrasing to Confirm Understanding
Paraphrasing involves restating the speaker’s words in our own words to confirm our understanding. By paraphrasing, we show the speaker that we are actively listening and seeking to comprehend their message. It allows the speaker to clarify any misunderstandings and ensures that we have accurately interpreted their words.
2. Summarizing to Capture Key Points
Summarizing involves condensing the speaker’s main points into a concise summary. By summarizing, we highlight the key ideas and takeaways from the conversation. This technique helps to ensure that we have grasped the main message and can respond to it effectively. Summarizing also shows the speaker that we have been attentive throughout the conversation.
3. Demonstrating Empathy and Understanding
Reflective listening goes beyond restating words; it also involves conveying empathy and understanding. By reflecting back the speaker’s emotions and experiences, we demonstrate that we have truly heard and understood their message. This empathy helps to build trust and deepens the connection between speaker and listener.
In conclusion, the art of conversation is a powerful tool that allows us to listen, learn, and share. By actively engaging in meaningful discussions, we can broaden our perspectives, cultivate empathy, and build stronger relationships. Embracing the art of listening, learning, and sharing can lead to personal growth, enhanced communication skills, and a more connected society.
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