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With these ingenious tips from gardener and author Sharon Lovejoy, you won’t need pesticides to fight insects that munch on your plants.
With these ingenious tips from gardener and author Sharon Lovejoy, you won’t need pesticides to fight insects that munch on your plants. These cures are simple, quick, earth-friendly, and fun to make.
• Spray ant routes with apple cider vinegar to cover their invisible pheromone tracks so they can’t find their way back to foraging sites.
• Pour equal parts baking soda and powder sugar into a bowl and blend thoroughly. Transfer mixture to a cheese or salt shaker and apply directly to ant hills and trails.
• Shake diatomaceous earth into areas when the insects invade. When ants climb over it, their bodies become desiccated.
• Many aphid and mite problems can be solved with water. A strong blast from the hose dislodges aphids and breaks off their sucking mouth parts.
• Aphids are drawn to yellow. Set a shallow yellow pan of soapy water near infested plants, and the aphids will plunge to a watery end.
• Order aphid wolves (larvae of ladybird beetles) and release them into your garden. These predators eat hundreds of aphids a day.
• Sprinkle white flour (not self-rising) on cabbage worms, loopers, and grasshoppers early in the morning when plants are covered with dew. Pests with petrify and desiccate. Rinse off the plants the next day.
• Slip on a pair of lawn aerator sandals after a rain and dance wildly on your wet lawn to destroy grubs before they become Japanese beetles.
• Take a long-handled spatula or spoon and a bucket of warm, soapy water outside early in the morning. Look for beetle infestations on roses, peonies and other flowers. Hold the bucket below the bloom and gently whack the flower. The bugs will drop straight down into the suds.
• Purchase spined soldier bugs, a beetle's greatest enemy, from a nursery and set them on patrol in your garden.
• Fill an empty milk carton with crumpled, moist newspaper and bread crumbs, and set on its side in the garden where it will collect earwigs. Empty bugs into a bucket of soapy water in the morning.
• Pour equal parts canola oil and soy sauce into a shallow container and place in infested areas. Check the lure each morning and dispose of the victims.
• Let the chickens into the garden daily to pluck up earwigs and other pests.
• Lay empty flower pots or milk cartons on their sides in a shady area and dispose of slugs and snails every morning.
• Leave leftover grapefruit and melon rinds in your garden each evening. Scrape the slugs into soapy water every morning. Put out fresh rinds every few days.
• Sink shallow tubs or saucers into the ground and fill them with cheap beer. Slugs dive into it and drown. Empty as needed.
Excerpted from Trowel & Error ©2003 by Sharon Lovejoy. Used by permission of Workman Publishing. All Rights Reserved.
Sit in on dozens of practical workshops from the leading authorities on natural health, organic gardening, real food and more!LEARN MORE | <urn:uuid:60570df4-5275-4540-853e-295a07e711c4> | {
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England in the 14th century - a snapshot.
In the time of Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) (The Canterbury Tales) and William Langland (1330-1400) (Piers the Plowman) England was still largely feudal as established by William the Conqueror. This consisted of parcels of land or `manors` held by a courtier or knight. The manor land was divided between the local lord of the manor, with small plots leased to vassals. The vassals or villeins as they were called, were not subject to eviction as such but were required to work for the landlord a specified number of days a year, as well as pay rents for their plot. On days when he was not required by the bailiff of the manor the vassal was free to work his own land, to raise crops for his subsistence and for sale. He and his wife and family would also have other occupations and skills such as weavers and dyers, spinners of wool, etc to help their income. The system worked well for centuries but gradually a desire for a better life and greater independence percolated the people. This manifested itself in successful peasant farmers expanding their land holdings and employing workers. At the other extreme the unsuccessful turned to outlawry as a means of obtaining a living; and joined a very large population of able bodied beggars, itinerants and persons of no fixed abode.
The poverty of the time is well illustrated in Piers the Plowman :
The neediest are our neighbours if we give heed to them.
Prisoners in the dungeon, the poor in the cottage,
Charged with a crew of children and with a landlords rent.
What they win by their spinning to make their porridge with,
Milk and meal, to satisfy the babes, —
The babes that continually cry for food —
This they must spend on the rent of their houses.
Ày and themselves suffer with hunger,
With woe in winter rising a-nights,
In the narrow room to rock the cradle,
Carding, combing, clouting, washing, rubbing, winding peeling, rushes.
Pitiful is it to read the cottage women’s woe.
A feature of the farming system was that labour was not always available at short notice. This led to the fixed days service being converted into cash, as rents, from which the bailiff could hire labour when needed. There even developed the concept of gang working - specialist labour to do the ploughing when required, to collect in the grain harvest etc. Coupled with the idea of personal freedom was the desire for improved status and therein for better rates of pay. The Black Death in 1348-9 killed about half the population of Britain and labour was short. This was an occasion when the people were astute enough to recognise their worth and to press for higher wages. Complete personal freedom - with freedom as a right, began to be talked about.
In this environment the words and ideas propounded by John Wyckcliffe fell on receptive ears, more so as he wrote in English and the distributed tracts were eagerly sought after. The disendowment of the Church was a suggestion to redistribute the wealth of the church and use it for the relief of the poor. This was also supported by the Lords whose lands had been given to the church as a means of saving their souls, as they saw a means of regaining their wealth (never mind the poor). Wyckcliffe`s tracts included criticism of the mendicant or `begging` friars whom he accused of being
"impudent beggars, roaming from house to house, [who] took advantage of the piety and simplicity of the people, and were snatching the morsel of charity from the famishing mouths of the aged and infirm. That their vows of poverty amounted to a declaration ,on their part, that they were determined to lead a life of indolence and idleness; and that whoever might be hungry, they should be fed at the expense of the community, and riot on the earnings of industrious poverty."
Underpinning this view was a desire to simplify the church and involve the people themselves in an increased responsibility for their beliefs and actions. Wyckcliffe wanted a different type of preacher who would call the people to repentance; use the sermon to reform life and manners, and give people a sense of a personal relationship with God. He saw absolutions, the Mass, pardons and penance commuted for money, as ways of avoiding personal responsibility. Thus he sought a church that was free of pious hypocrites who lived off the poor and kept them in bondage of superstition. He sought change not so much in society, but in people`s hearts with the aim of advancing the Kingdom of Christ.
At the bottom rung meantime, the poor starved and prices increased while wages were restrained by the Statute of Labourers. This legislation constrained the wages payable to free contract labourers for some forty years. The groundwork was thus laid for the likes of zealous former priest, John Ball, to fulminate against the wrongs imposed on the vassals and their families, and to sow the seeds of rebellion that ended in the Peasant`s Revolt of 1381.
It would be 180 years before the Statute of Labourers was replaced by a Statute of Artificers in 1563 which took forward the rights of workers by requiring contracts for labour be for a year. It required that no one could leave that employ for a year and included a requirement for 3 months notice. Every workman was liable to serve seven years apprenticeship and not allowed to leave his home district without permission. Hours of work were regulated and wages settled annually by the justices of the peace; in summer working from 5am to 7 or 8pm. In winter the hours were dawn to dusk. Even this regulation did not help the considerable number of paupers. What in fact was happening was that nothing was replacing the monastic and old feudal system which had focussed upon the responsibility of the community for all within it. This was soon recognised and a law passed
"to the intent that idle and loitering persons and valiant beggars may be avoided , and the impotent, feeble and lame, which are the poor in very deed, should be hereafter relieved and well provided for."
But enforcing it and collecting money was another matter. It was 1601 before The Poor Law was enacted, and work houses and alms houses
became established. These would remain the basis for poor relief until 1834. | <urn:uuid:c83a1493-39eb-4777-9ef9-7c082930e6d2> | {
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One of the criticisms of mainstream schooling is that it typically doesn’t cater for the ‘fact’ that college students have totally different intelligences” or that they’ve most popular studying kinds”. It is an increasingly vital matter now that white college students comprise less than half of the nation’s college students however white lecturers nonetheless make up eighty % of the instructing career. Sometimes a instructor can learn many issues from a pupil too.
Moreover, if companies insist on excessive efficiency at school, exhibiting interest in transcripts and different proof of scholastic efficiency, college students would have very completely different incentives to work exhausting at school. Belle Meade Plantation presents a number of applications and assets for college students and households.
Shifting political and useful resource landscapes can make it tough for training systems to make good choices and implement efficient programs. For more than 50 years Schooling Northwest has partnered with colleges, districts, communities, and other stakeholders to assist all children and youth meet their full potential.
Thus, claims about the impact of schooling, past or future, on general aggregate efficiency of the financial system appear exaggerated, and these claims do not present direct justification for significant expansions in public education. These prospective expenditure increases are more likely to collide with public perceptions that school performance isn’t rising.
Students, parents and all types of stakeholders believe strongly that college students needs to be completely clear as to what’s expected of them in the event that they want to achieve a certain grade. The varsity’s particular education instructor teamed up with Rintola to teach five youngsters with quite a lot of behavioral and learning problems. | <urn:uuid:013ae5f1-d13c-46fc-8a44-4b18022ebf4c> | {
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Water and Sanitation: Third evidence session
Tuesday 12 December 2006, Committee Room 6
Professor Sandy Cairncross, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Darren Saywell, Regional Director, International Water Association
Laura Webster, Senior Policy Officer, Tearfund
Professor Tom Franks, University of Bradford
Antonio Miranda, Director, International Affairs, The National Association of Municipal Sanitation Services (ASSEMAE) (a Brazilian Association of Public Water Operators)
Vicky Cann, Campaign Policy Officer, World Development Movement
Evidence of a global water crisis is widespread. Currently, more than 2 billion people have no access to sanitation and one billion are without access to clean water. The UN believes that over the next 2 decades the average supply of water per person worldwide will drop by a third. The increasing scarcity of water will hit poor people the hardest, with farmers, slum dwellers and women and children amongst the most vulnerable groups. Access to clean water and sanitation are basic human requirements, and are crucial to many aspects of poverty reduction, including improved health and sustainable economic and social development.
The International Development Committee has begun an inquiry into Water and Sanitation. The main purpose of the inquiry will be to examine how donors - notably the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) - can support progress towards Millennium Development Goal 7, which aims to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation by 2015, and support progress towards other MDGs through achieving outcomes in water and sanitation.
In 2005, DFID announced a doubling of its aid to Africa for water. The 2006 DFID White Paper has doubled this figure again to £200 million by 2011. The White Paper pledges support for the delivery of water and sanitation services and the sustainable and equitable management of water resources. The inquiry will examine how DFID is fulfilling these commitments, as well as assessing multilateral efforts to secure progress on water and sanitation. The Committee will also look at progress by other stakeholders on water and sanitation.
The session on 12 December will be made up of two panels, the first focusing in Sanitation and the second on Water Governance. Key issues for each panel include:
- Addressing the urgent need to catalyse progress on the sanitation MDG target
- DFID’s policies and resources for sanitation, including technical capacity
- Replicating successful small-scale sanitation initiatives
- Sanitation and sewerage in poor urban areas
- Local level arrangements for accessing water and sanitation
- DFID’s role in enhancing accountability and water governance
- Provision of water and sanitation services at the municipal level
- Private sector involvement and partnerships for water and sanitation
The membership of the Committee is as follows: Malcolm Bruce MP (Chairman, Lib Dem), John Barrett MP (Lib Dem), John Battle MP (Lab), John Bercow MP (Con), Hugh Bayley MP (Lab), Richard Burden MP (Lab), Mr Quentin Davies MP (Con), James Duddridge MP (Con), Ann McKechin MP (Lab), Joan Ruddock MP (Lab), Mr Marsha Singh (Lab).
Media Enquiries: Alex Paterson, 020 7219 1589 or
Watch committees and parliamentary debates online: | <urn:uuid:52c9958b-9efb-4b94-81f9-680bc9a02735> | {
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The Middle English Physiologus: A Critical Translation and Commentary
Armistead, Mary Allyson
MetadataShow full item record
The tradition of the "Physiologus" is an influential one, and informed medieval literature â not to mention medieval art and architectureâ more than we know. The "Physiologus" was â an established source of Medieval sacred iconography and didactic poetryâ and still continues to rank among the â books which have made a difference in the way we thinkâ (Curley x). Thus, our understanding of the "Physiologus" and its subsequent tradition becomes increasingly important to the fields of medieval literature, humanities, and art. Considering the vast importance of the "Physiologus" tradition in the Middle Ages, one would expect to find that scholars have edited, translated, and studied all of the various versions of the "Physiologus". While most of the Latin bestiaries and versions of the "Physiologus" have been edited, translated, studied, and glossed, the "Middle English (ME) Physiologus"â the only surviving version of the "Physiologus" in Middle Englishâ has neither been translated nor strictly studied as a literary text. In light of the "Physiologus" traditionâ s importance, it would seem that the only version of the "Physiologus" that was translated into Middle English would be quite significant to the study of medieval literature and to the study of English literature as a whole. Thus, in light of this discovery, the current edition attempts to spotlight this frequently overlooked text by providing an accurate translation of the "ME Physiologus," critical commentary, and historical background. Such efforts are put forth with the sincere hope that such a critical translation may win this significant version of the "Physiologus" its due critical and literary attention.
- Masters Theses | <urn:uuid:2240070d-6a49-4722-8d96-187a4b8e7b57> | {
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Holy wow. What a day. We started our day by watching the youtube response to our work by Nancy White (more reinforcement of our participation in a larger conversation… not that it was needed) all the while knowing we were going to have to move on to the dreaded discussion. We needed to refine our trends discussion to two continuums of trendishness… So i dodged and started working with the OECD document
The OECD document is a futures of education scenario planning explanatory document that is one of the four that i leaned on for the creation of this course. It’s a complete front to back look at scenario planning using futures… and while there are a few issues that i have with the document, it is a fabulous place to start to get people thinking about education futures. Thanks OECD.
We took the OECD suggested scenarios as a nice easy place to start. These offer a chance to see what completed scenarios might look like. We first took a look at scenario number one, walked through it together and, shame of shame, I asked them to read through it in class. We explored the five dimensions that OECD uses for each scenario. These scenarios are about education more broadly than we are looking at it, but they offered us an opportunity to explore the idea of scenario, the extreme way in which they reflect the world and how that can be helpful.
This has been mentioned before, but it is critical that we understand what a futures thinking scenario is not. They are ideal paths… they should not be expected to occur in pure form in the real world. They are not predictions seeking to forecast futures accurately. Prediction is doomed to failure. The value of futures thinking is in opening minds to consider new possibilities and to deal with change. They should not be seen as visions of where an organization might go. These particular OECD documents don’t spell out the steps of the process by which these possible futures were reached, but rather they give us a broad sense of what a scenario might look like.
I then gave the remaining samples to each group and gave them an hour or two to work through the process of building a skit to represent what that possible future would look like. I wanted them to FEEL the future from their scenario, desperately hoping that it would influence a positive discussion on the building of our own scenarios. It really couldn’t have worked any better. Following are three of the five skits from my students. We laughed ourselves silly.
By the end of this process, other than a sore belly… we also had a pretty good grasp of what we were looking for in a scenario. You want substance. You want something that is rich enough that you can feel what it would be like to live in a world where that scenario was true. The next step in the process was picking an axes of tension in order to find new scenarios. We used a 2×2 matrix.
So we ended up with five scenarios… the four described in the image and a fifth ‘wild card’ where UV rays can be converted into enough energy to provide unlimitted power. That is what we got accomplished in the 2 1/2 hours before lunch.
After lunch the work began in ernest. I had each group choose one of the scenarios and attempt to write it out in accord with the work done by the OECD. You can see the results of the early part of our work at our wiki http://nafutures.wikispaces.com. I took a look being the work being done and suggested to my students that we could try and publish this document in some format or other. The work was already that good.
If you persuse the wiki, you’ll get a sense of their early work. We took that and did a cross examination session near the end of the day and talked about keeping people firmly in their quadrant to allow the overall structure to hold firm. There were a couple of instances where people were backsliding into what ‘they believed’ rather than what the scenario was tellling them, but the group self corrected. Which is cool. | <urn:uuid:f1be93e3-e868-4f4b-9bc4-cddd37afdd60> | {
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LONDON -- The cyberattack that spread malicious software around the world, shutting down networks at hospitals, banks and government agencies, was stemmed by a young British researcher and an inexpensive domain registration, with help from another 20-something security engineer in the U.S.
Britain's National Cyber Security Center and others were hailing the cybersecurity researcher, a 22-year-old identified online only as MalwareTech, who -- unintentionally at first -- discovered a "kill switch" that halted the unprecedented outbreak.
By then, the "ransomware" attack had hobbled Britain's hospital network and computer systems in several countries, in an effort to extort money from computer users. But the researcher's actions may have saved companies and governments millions of dollars and slowed the outbreak before computers in the U.S. were more widely affected.
MalwareTech said in a in a blog post Saturday that he had returned from lunch with a friend on Friday and learned that networks across Britain's health system had been hit by ransomware, tipping him off that "this was something big."
He began analyzing a sample of the malicious software and noticed its code included a hidden web address that wasn't registered. He said he "promptly" registered the domain, something he regularly does to try to discover ways to track or stop malicious software.
Across an ocean, Darien Huss, a 28-year-old research engineer for the cybersecurity firm Proofpoint, was doing his own analysis. The western Michigan resident said he noticed the authors of the malware had left in a feature known as a kill switch. Huss took a screen shot of his discovery and shared it on Twitter.
MalwareTech and Huss are part of a large global cybersecurity community of people, working independently or for security companies, who are constantly watching for attacks and working together to stop or prevent them, often sharing information via Twitter. It's not uncommon for them to use aliases, either to protect themselves from retaliatory attacks or for privacy.
Soon Huss and MalwareTech were communicating about what they'd found: That registering the domain name and redirecting the attacks to the server of Kryptos Logic, the security firm Malware Tech worked for, had activated the kill switch, halting the ransomware's infections -- creating what's called a "sinkhole."
Who perpetrated this wave of attacks remains unknown. Two security firms -- Kaspersky Lab and Avast -- said they identified the malicious software in more than 70 countries. Both said Russia was hit hardest.
These hackers "have caused enormous amounts of disruption -- probably the biggest ransomware cyberattack in history," said Graham Cluley, a veteran of the anti-virus industry in Oxford, England.
The ransomware exploits a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows that was purportedly identified by the U.S. National Security Agency for its own intelligence-gathering purposes. Hackers said they stole the tools from the NSA and dumped them on the internet.
A malware tracking map showed "WannaCry" infections were widespread. Britain canceled or delayed treatments for thousands of patients. Train systems were hit in Germany and Russia, and phone companies in Madrid and Moscow. Renault's futuristic assembly line in Slovenia, where rows of robots weld car bodies together, was stopped cold. In Brazil, the social security system had to disconnect its computers and cancel public access.
But while FedEx Corp. reported that its Windows computers were "experiencing interference" from malware -- it wouldn't say if it had been hit by the ransomware -- other impacts in the U.S. were not readily apparent on Saturday.
The worldwide effort to extort cash from computer users spread so widely that Microsoft quickly changed its policy, making security fixes for this vulnerability available for free for the older Windows systems still used by millions of individuals and smaller businesses.
Britain's home secretary said one in five of 248 National Health Service groups had been hit. Home Secretary Amber Rudd said all but six of the NHS trusts back to normal Saturday.
The U.K.'s National Cyber Security Center was "working round the clock" to restore vital health services, while urging people to update security software fixes, run anti-virus software and back up their data elsewhere.
All this may be just a taste of what's coming, another cyber security expert warned.
Computer users worldwide -- and everyone else who depends on them -- should assume that the next big "ransomware" attack has already been launched, and just hasn't manifested itself yet, said Ori Eisen, founder of the Trusona cybersecurity firm in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The attack held hospitals and other entities hostage by freezing computers, encrypting data and demanding money through online bitcoin payments. But it appears to be "low-level" stuff, Eisen said Saturday, given the amount of ransom demanded - $300 at first, rising to $600 before it destroys files hours later.
This is already believed to be the biggest online extortion attack ever recorded, disrupting services in nations as diverse as the U.S., Ukraine, Brazil, Spain and India. Europol, the European Union's police agency, said the onslaught was at "an unprecedented level and will require a complex international investigation to identify the culprits."
Huss and others were calling MalwareTech a hero on Saturday, with Huss adding that the global cybersecurity community was working "as a team" to stop the infections from spreading.
"I think the security industry as a whole should be considered heroes," he said.
But he also said he's concerned the authors of the malware could re-release it - perhaps in the next few days or weeks - without a kill switch or with a better one, or that copycats could mimic the attack.
The MalwareTech researcher agreed that the threat hasn't disappeared.
"One thing that is very important to note is our sinkholing only stops this sample and there is nothing stopping them removing the domain check and trying again, so it's incredibly important that any unpatched systems are patched as quickly as possible," he warned.
The kill switch also couldn't help those already infected. Short of paying, options for these individuals and companies are usually limited to recovering data files from a backup, if available, or living without them.
Security experts said it appeared to be caused by a self-replicating piece of software that enters companies when employees click on email attachments, then spreads quickly as employees share documents.
The security holes it exploits were disclosed weeks ago by TheShadowBrokers, a mysterious hacking group. Microsoft swiftly released software "patches" to fix those holes, but many users still haven't installed updates or still use older versions of Windows.
Editors Note: The Associated Press reported erroneously that the researcher known as MalwareTech had redirected the attacks to his server. It was the server of the company he works for, not his personal server. This version of the story has been corrected to reflect that. | <urn:uuid:45dc8271-acb3-4561-8fb8-019722e08aa3> | {
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noun a person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea
advocator; proponent; advocate.
noun someone who expounds and interprets or explains
noun a mathematical notation indicating the number of times a quantity is multiplied by itself
, p. pr. of exponere
to put out, set forth, expose. See Expound
- (Alg.) A number, letter, or any quantity written on the right hand of and above another quantity, and denoting how many times the latter is repeated as a factor to produce the power indicated; thus a2 denotes the second power, and an the xth power, of a (2 and x being the exponents). A fractional exponent, or index, is used to denote the root of a quantity. Thus, a⅓ denotes the third or cube root of a.
- One who, or that which, stands as an index or representative; as, the leader of a party is the exponent of its principles.
Sharpen your Skills with the Masters
"Rowling never met an adverb she didn't like."
-Stephen King on J.K Rowling's excessive use of adverbs.
Fear not the Adverb Hell! | <urn:uuid:fbe11f77-3daf-4175-ac01-34e4312c5dba> | {
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17 March 2014, 10:45 AM ET
Gravitational waves are the "smoking gun" of the Big Bang. Predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity in 1916, a massive object like Earth distorts space-time around it like a bowling ball dropped on a trampoline.
04 March 2014, 02:05 AM ET
NASA's Kepler Space Telescope is an observatory in space dedicated to finding planets outside our solar system.
28 February 2014, 08:39 PM ET
Yes, the moon rotates on its axis. The moon's rate of rotation nearly matches its orbital period, which keep the same side facing Earth.
28 February 2014, 08:34 PM ET
Space is the zone above and around our planet where there is no air to breathe or to scatter light. Space is a vacuum, but it is far from empty.
27 February 2014, 11:57 PM ET
Scientists have calculated that Earth is 4.54 billion years old, with an error range of 50 million years.
27 February 2014, 12:53 AM ET
Artificial satellites from Earth have only populated space since 1957, but there are now hundreds of thousands of objects from our planet in orbit.
13 February 2014, 10:27 PM ET
If you wanted to pay a visit to the red planet, how long would it take? The answer depends on a number of things …
13 February 2014, 10:53 AM ET
Ganymede would easily be classified as a planet if were orbiting the sun rather than Jupiter.
12 February 2014, 07:34 PM ET
Edmond Halley is best remembered for predicting the orbit of the comet that was later named after him. Besides astronomy, he also made significant discoveries in the fields of geophysics, mathematics, meteorology and physics.
11 February 2014, 05:00 PM ET
The Gemini program tested docking, rendezvous, spacewalks and long-duration spaceflight in preparation for the moon missions of the late 1960s.
10 February 2014, 06:50 PM ET
Mercury was a NASA program to prove that astronauts could function effectively in space for minutes to hours at a time.
04 February 2014, 03:11 PM ET
NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) launched in September 2013. Here is everything you need to know about it.
31 January 2014, 11:48 PM ET
Gordon Cooper had the longest flight among the original Mercury astronauts.
31 January 2014, 12:46 AM ET
Scott Carpenter, one of the original Mercury astronauts, explored space and later the sea.
30 January 2014, 12:49 AM ET
Deke Slayton was selected for the Mercury program, but had to wait more than a decade to fly in space after concerns about an erratic heartbeat pulled him out of the flight rotation.
29 January 2014, 01:45 AM ET
Wally Schirra, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, was the only one who flew in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.
28 January 2014, 01:46 AM ET
Gus Grissom, one of the original Mercury Seven, also flew on a Gemini mission. He died during training for the first Apollo mission.
22 January 2014, 01:00 PM ET
Ceres is a dwarf planet, the only one located in the inner reaches of the solar system. It is the largest object in the asteroid belt.
15 January 2014, 10:29 PM ET
The density of the universe determines its shape. It could be spherical, saddle-shaped or flat.
15 January 2014, 12:09 AM ET
Rosetta is a spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency with a 10-year mission to rendezvous with a comet.
06 January 2014, 01:22 PM ET
Kepler-69c, also known as KOI 172.02, is a planet candidate discovered by the Kepler space telescope. It is a "super-Earth" that could hold water on its surface.
02 January 2014, 06:53 PM ET
The rocky planet Kepler-62f could be covered in water, as long as there is enough cloud around the planet to warm the surface below.
31 December 2013, 07:13 PM ET
Kepler-62e is an alien planet that is believed to be in the habitable zone of its red dwarf parent star.
31 December 2013, 06:53 PM ET
Kepler-22b is an alien planet that's a bit larger than Earth, but it's in the habitable region of its star.
30 December 2013, 06:04 PM ET
A do-it-yourself Galilean telescope makes an excellent and inexpensive starter telescope — or science fair project.
24 December 2013, 12:36 AM ET
Based on what we can observe, the universe appears to be almost 28 billion light-years in diameter. However, it is far larger than that.
20 December 2013, 06:21 PM ET
The universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old.
12 December 2013, 07:10 PM ET
Find out the current moon phases. The moon cycles through eight phases every month.
12 December 2013, 10:40 AM ET
The full moon happens once a month. Find out when.
11 December 2013, 09:30 AM ET
Comet ISON, discovered by two amateur astronomers in Russia, arrived in Earth's neighborhood in November 2013 and apparently broke up as it rounded the sun.
03 December 2013, 06:22 PM ET
Gliese 581g is an extra-solar planet that was discovered in 2010, but quickly cast into doubt by other studies. The original discoverers then published a follow-up paper in 2012 defending their find.
02 December 2013, 01:53 PM ET
A black dwarf is all that is left after a white dwarf star burns off all of its heat, but retains its mass. | <urn:uuid:55369b47-f22d-419e-94ee-5bf2509738fa> | {
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For the study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, researchers collected data on 137,580 runners who participated in 14 long-distance races (ranging from 10-K to full-marathon distance) that took place between March 2007 and November 2013 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Researchers recorded the incidents of emergency medical care, hospitalizations, and deaths during the races. While only two serious cardiac-related emergencies occurred (neither fatal) 21 cases of heat stroke were reported—two were fatal and 12 were life-threatening (meaning that those runners needed to be hospitalized in the intensive care unit). That means that heat stroke was 10 times more likely to affect long-distance runners than cardiac issues. The researchers also recorded 42 cases of hospitalization due to heat exhaustion.
"This research shows that heat stroke is a real threat to marathon and long-distance runners," said the study's co-author, Sami Viskin, M.D., a cardiologist at Tel Aviv Medical Center, in a press release. In the study, the authors noted that more research needs to be done to figure out how to prevent heat stroke in long races like these. However, they hypothesize that races held in the spring could be especially hard on runners' bodies because the participants don’t have as much time to get acclimated to the weather before running due to the varied temperature of that season. They also think that racers should be wary of running if they are recovering from the flu, since fever can impair the body from regulating temperature during a workout.
MORE: 5 Race-Day Tips So You PR in Your Next 10-K
While 63 people getting heat-related illnesses out of nearly 140,000 runners is not an alarming rate—it’s actually not even .1 percent—clearly some long-distance runners might benefit from a little more information on how to avoid heat stroke on race day. If you have a race coming up or just love to run outdoors, check out these tips on staying safe in the heat when you hit the road:
6 Ways to Work Out Safely in the Heat
Q&A: How Much Water Should I REALLY Drink on a Long Run?
How to Tell If It's TOO Hot Outside to Exercise | <urn:uuid:3002f0ba-e29c-49cf-b578-ae2f3fa6b784> | {
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By now, we’ve all heard that 2016 was the hottest year on record, and that heat-trapping greenhouse gases hit their highest concentration ever, surpassing 400 parts per million for the first time in nearly 1 million years.
But there are other climate change-related records that have flown more under the radar. Several of those records were highlighted Thursday in the annual State of the Climate report, released in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society:
For example, during August, ice-free areas of the Barents Sea (north of Norway and Russia) were up to 20°F (11°C) above average, a figure that stunned climate scientists.
The Chukchi Sea off Alaska and the waters to the west of Greenland were 13°F to 14°F above average. Those warm waters were linked to the smallest annual winter peak in sea ice levels and the second lowest annual minimum.
The average land surface temperature for the Arctic was 3.6°F (2.0°C) above the 1981-2010 average — a 6.3°F (3.5°C) rise in temperatures since 1900. Record-high temperatures were measured below the surface of the permafrost, or permanently frozen ground, across the North Slope of Alaska.
“2016 was a year in the Arctic like we’ve never seen before,” Jeremy Mathis, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Arctic research program and an author of the report, said.
The rate of warming in the Arctic, which is happening at twice the rate of the rest of the globe, has major impacts on local ecosystems, but also further drives the warming of the planet, as the sea ice that would reflect the sun’s rays back to space is lost.
And for the 37th consecutive year, alpine glaciers retreated across the globe. These glaciers are a major source of water for local communities, and their loss has led to concerns about water security, particularly in places like Southeast Asia.
Source: Climate Central. Reproduced with permission. | <urn:uuid:1f32fb71-541a-48f3-a75f-d669a4b34277> | {
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Flu Season is On Its Way — Here’s What You Need to Know
2017-2018 was a particularly dangerous flu season. The virus can infect anyone, but those with weak immune systems (young and old people, plus people already battling certain diseases) are the most at risk of dangerous consequences from the flu. Between fall 2017 and winter 2018, 180 children died from the flu in the United States — a record-setting death toll for any past flu season. And with another season around the corner, it’s no surprise adults and children alike are bracing for the worst. Here’s what you need to know about how to stay healthy and beat this upcoming flu season.
Doctors and experts can’t predict the severity of the flu
While doctors and researchers try their best to understand the flu, it varies each season. The vaccines don’t always work the way researchers had hoped, which can make some flu seasons much harder than others. Plus, the disease typically is riskiest for babies and the elderly since their immune systems are weaker, but it’s unpredictable exactly how someone’s body will respond. That’s why it’s important to take proper precautions during flu season despite how healthy you may think you are.
Get vaccinated as soon as possible
This is especially true for those with weak immune systems or who may be more exposed to the virus than others. Getting vaccinated right when the flu shot becomes available is the best way to protect yourself from the virus. Once you get the shot, the antibodies that develop may take up to two to four weeks to offer their full protection. Getting the shot at the very beginning of flu season ensures you’re as protected as possible. The CDC recommends that anyone over six months should be vaccinated. It’s nearly impossible to tell the severity of one flu season before it happens, since every year is a completely clean slate for the virus.
Take regular precautions to avoid catching unwanted germs
Act accordingly to prevent the virus. Always wash your hands before you eat and whenever you get home from a public place, such as the mall or grocery store. Kids should avoid using drinking fountains at school, since they’re often a breeding ground for germs. Never share food or drinks with friends or family, and teach any children to do the same. Carry hand sanitizer with you at all times in case you come in contact with someone sick. The measures may seem extreme, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry. The vaccine isn’t usually 100% effective, so those extra precautions could save you a week of being sick in bed — or worse.
If you become infected, take time to recover
Don’t rush back to work or school if you’ve come down with the flu. It can be a lot for the body to handle, so proper recovery time is necessary. Plus, if you return to work or school too soon, the virus may not be completely gone, and you risk infecting others around you. The virus is contagious about a day before symptoms show and up to a week after they start, so make sure you give yourself ample time to recover. Your body — and neighbors — will thank you.
Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook! | <urn:uuid:50995583-a38c-4d8e-91fb-6b976e84d690> | {
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Empirical evidence for the use of lithium and anticonvulsants in children with psychiatric disorders
Department of Psychiatry
Amines; Anticonvulsants; Antimanic Agents; Carbamazepine; Child; Cyclohexanecarboxylic Acids; Drug Therapy; *Empirical Research; Fructose; Humans; Lithium Carbonate; Mental Disorders; Triazines; Valproic Acid; gamma-Aminobutyric Acid
BACKGROUND: The use of psychotropic medications-in particular, mood stabilizers--in youths with psychiatric illness has grown. There are trends toward polypharmacy and the increased use of newer mood stabilizers in youths with psychiatric illness despite a paucity of studies examining the short- and long-term efficacy and safety of these agents in the pediatric population.
METHOD: PubMed was used to identify peer-reviewed publications from the past 30 years (January 1975 to August 2005) studying lithium and anticonvulsants in youths with psychiatric illness.
RESULTS: Evidence supporting the use of lithium and valproate in the treatment of juvenile bipolar disorder and reactive aggression has grown. Evidence for the use of other anticonvulsants in youths with psychiatric illness is sparse. Side effects from lithium and anticonvulsants are typically mild to moderate. Data are accumulating in regard to the longer-term safety of lithium and DVPX in the juvenile psychiatric population. Although data in regard to the newer anticonvulsants are limited, they may have more desirable side-effect profiles.
CONCLUSION: Double-blind, placebo-controlled trials of lithium and anticonvulsants are greatly needed as clinical use of these agents has risen without sufficient evidence supporting their efficacy in the pediatric population.
DOI of Published Version
Harv Rev Psychiatry. 2006 Nov-Dec;14(6):285-304. Link to article on publisher's site
Harvard review of psychiatry
Lopez-Larson, Melissa and Frazier, Jean A., "Empirical evidence for the use of lithium and anticonvulsants in children with psychiatric disorders" (2006). Psychiatry Publications and Presentations. 406. | <urn:uuid:84cb6257-4e57-446e-9a3c-c32074846f1e> | {
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+44 1803 865913
This second edition of a well-received book focuses on rhythmic behaviour...
By: Stefano Mancuso(Editor), Sergey Shabala(Editor)
361 pages, illustrations, tables
Rhythmic behaviour is quintessential to life itself. Advances in plant molecular biology, micro/nanotechnology and applied mathematics provide new tools for understanding how environmental signals and internal clocks regulate rhythmic gene expression and development, and how these signals are translated into physiological responses at various levels of structural organisation.
Rhythms in Plants reviews recent progress in assessing underlying mechanisms controlling plant circadian and ultradian oscillations, and their physiological implications for growth, development, and adaptive responses to the environment. It focuses on mechanisms and theoretical concepts at the level of the cell to the entire plant.
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Multi-currency. Secure worldwide shipping
Wildlife, science and conservation since 1985 | <urn:uuid:8ce00695-8925-47c4-bdd1-9dd49ab234c6> | {
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Total Number of words made out of Fusels = 35
Fusels is an acceptable word in Scrabble
with 9 points.
Fusels is an accepted word in Word with Friends
having 11 points. Fusels
is a 6
letter medium Word starting with F and ending with S. Below are Total 35 words made out of this word.
5 letter Words made out of fusels
1). fusel 2). flues 3). fuses 4). fuels 5). selfs 6). slues
4 letter Words made out of fusels
1). fuse 2). uses 3). sues 4). self 5). slue 6). fuss 7). sels 8). lues 9). less 10). fuel 11). flus 12). flue 13). feus 14). fess
3 letter Words made out of fusels
1). elf 2). sue 3). efs 4). use 5). els 6). ess 7). sel 8). leu 9). feu 10). flu
2 letter Words made out of fusels
1). es 2). el 3). us 4). ef
: . Anagrams are meaningful words made after rearranging all the letters of the word.
Search More words for viewing how many words can be made out of them
There are 2 vowel letters and 4 consonant letters in the word fusels. F is 6th, U is 21th, S is 19th, E is 5th, L is 12th, Letter of Alphabet series.
Wordmaker is a website which tells you how many words you can make out of any given word in english. we have tried our best to include every possible word combination of a given word. Its a good website for those who are looking for anagrams of a particular word. Anagrams are words made using each and every letter of the word and is of the same legth as original english word. Most of the words meaning have also being provided to have a better understanding of the word. A cool tool for scrabble fans and english users, word maker is fastly becoming one of the most sought after english reference across the web. | <urn:uuid:7bb65d9c-b1d6-4675-a714-e398921f831c> | {
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Berlin has a surprising connection to sugar. In 1747, in Berlin, German chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf developed the extraction of sugar from beets. Following his advances, in 1867 the first sugar institute in the world was founded in the city; this museum followed in 1904 in Berlin’s Wedding district.
Exhibitions tell the history of the sugar beet, but also examine colonialism and slavery in the sugar trade and sugar’s role in foods and alcohol. Curiosities on display include a death mask of Kemal Atatürk in sugar, packaging for sugar and sweets from around the world, and ancient preserved specimens of sugar cane and sugar beets. Some say the roof of the ornate building is meant to evoke the shape of a sugar beet. Guided tours, demonstrations, films and slide shows are on offer in English or German, for a fee, and can be geared towards kids, teens or adults; they should be pre-arranged.
The Zucker-Museum (sugar museum) relocates. At the end of 2015 it will open at the new place at the Deutsches Technikmuseum. | <urn:uuid:7b2f3f81-3483-49cd-b15f-c36a6c0b0a28> | {
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Modularity is not an end in itself. It helps us constrain the effect of changes to a single module and lets us add and remove modules without touching others. It allows us to work incrementally.
This is why functional programming really matters: it provides new options for incremental development.
After all, how do we create software? One line at a time.
All software development is incremental.
We can approach this task in two ways: intrusively or non-intrusively. When we have to change and recompile existing code in order to proceed, we call this approach intrusive.
Of course, the best would be if we could apply increments non-intrusively, without touching any existing code at all and without any fear of breaking existing code! This is sometimes possible.
Modular architectures allow to just add new components or services.
In object-oriented systems we can use subtyping to add new implementations for existing abstractions.
With dynamic languages, we can add new capabilities to existing classes.
But all of these options have their limitations. They either work only for anticipated extensions or they come at the expense of increased complexity or weakened type safety, which in the future makes it harder to extend the extensions again.
We would certainly profit if we had more ways of extending software safely.
Functional programming comes with such new options as John Hughes has shown in his seminal paper "Why functional programming matters". He puts it in terms of modularity and new glue for combining modules: high-order functions and lazy evaluation.
The paper is now 25 years old but still one of the best motivations for functional programming. The examples are presented in the Miranda language, the predecessor of Haskell. His line of argumentation accumulates in the last example: a generic solution for playing board games.
We take this very example and implement it in Frege over the course of 4 episodes, following the steps as explained in the paper. You may want to read it in parallel to better understand what we are doing, to deepen your understanding, but first of all because it is just a joy to read.
As the specific board game we choose tic-tac-toe (aka noughts and crosses). It is pretty easy to visualize and has simple rules that do not distract too much from the purpose of the exercise: experiencing incremental development in Frege.
So let’s begin with the first of four episodes. | <urn:uuid:7f211ad8-93ec-4385-82cf-467883673bc6> | {
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Good marriages that are examined have maintained their integrity and staying power because they were built of sturdier materials and were reinforced over the years.
There are nine tasks that that authors,
Judith Wallerstein & Sandra Blakeslee, The Good Marriage, have indicated as the psychological tasks of for subtle growth and accommodation of each person within a marriage.
- To separate emotionally from the family of one's childhood so as to invest fully in the marriage and, at the same time, to redefine the lines of connection with both families of origin.
- To build togetherness by creating the intimacy that supports it while carving out each partner's autonomy. These issues are central throughout the marriage but loom especially large at the outset, at midlife, and at retirement.
- To embrace the daunting roles of parents and to absorb the impact of Her Majesty the baby's dramatic entrance. At the same time the couple must work to protect their own privacy.
- To confront and mast the inevitable crises of life, maintaining the strength of the bond in the face of adversity.
- To create a safe haven for the expression of differences, anger and conflict.
- To establish a rich and pleasurable sexual relationship and protect it from the incursions of the workplace and family obligations.
- To use laughter and humor to keep things in perspective and to avoid boredom by sharing fun, interests, and friends.
- To provide nurturance and comfort to each other, satisfying each partner's needs for dependency and offering continuing encouragement and support.
- To keep alive the early romantic, idealized images of falling in love while facing the sober realities of the changes wrought by time. | <urn:uuid:0e37cba9-ef85-4782-a742-e573f508fe19> | {
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Love the color
"Benjamin Franklin instituted the first municipal streetcleaning service in the United States in 1757, in Philadelphia, and it was around this time that American households initiated the practice of digging refuse pits, as opposed to just throwing garbage out of windows and doors."
-from Rubbish! by William Rathje and Cullen Murphy
Love the color. Dislike seeing trash strewn about the public space, though. | <urn:uuid:fc5f7fb4-99a9-4a86-b110-0ccdf8c4e46d> | {
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A new geological survey has revealed 300-million-year old volcanoes lying far beneath the surface of Irish midlands counties of Roscommon, Longford and Westmeath.
The Geological Survey’s Tellus Program, conducted using low-flying aircraft, shows clusters of small magnetic bodies, especially along the Westmeath/Offaly border, revealing the ancient and long-buried volcanoes.
The survey revealed large bands of highly magnetic volcanic rocks lying several miles deep near Strokestown in Co. Roscommon. These rocks are thought to be associated with a major geological fault that can be traced through Ireland and Scotland.
Surveys such a this are conducted due to the importance of such magnetic volcanic structures to the development of mineral deposits. As a result, researchers have a better idea of the geological makeup of Ireland and can make more informed environmental decisions with regard to radon mapping, smart agriculture and increased investment in mineral exploration.
Specific technology is required to allow researchers to effectively see through the deep glacial deposits and extensive peat cover (in the form of Ireland’s bogs) lying over magnetic rock.
Geological Survey of Ireland principal geologist Ray Scanlon said, “Tellus continues to reveal extraordinary new detail in Ireland’s geological landscape buried beneath our feet, building upon existing data gaps and developing natural resource opportunities.”
Although Ireland is not known for a high level of volcanic activity in the modern age, its landscape shows signs of volcanoes on its surface dating from hundreds of millions of years ago.
Not far from this latest discovery is Croghan Hill, Co. Offaly, which is what is left of an extinct volcano. Famous in the locality, the celebrated geologist Frank Mitchell once named the former volcano as the “navel of Ireland” because it lies in the midst of the great raised bogs of the midlands, the Bog of Allen.
At 768 feet high, Croghan Hill provides fantastic views of the surrounding midlands counties and many climb the hill to not only enjoy the views but to visit a mound at the peak which is believed to be a Bronze-Age burial place.
The hill has had a place of importance right throughout Irish history: St. Brigid is believed to have been born near Croghan Hill. It was once the home of one of the three royal seats in Leinster and used by the O’Neill family to watch over their land. It was also the site where the “Old Croghan Man” was discovered in 2003 – an incredibly well-preserved “bog body” (corpse preserved in bog soil) of an Iron-Age man, who is believed to have died anywhere between 362 BC and 175 BC.
In another part of the country is one of our greatest attractions, also a deposit of volcanic activity.
As legend tells it, the Giant’s Causeway is the ruined remains of a pathway to Scotland built by Irish mythological hero Fionn Mac Cumhaill so he could fight Scottish giant Benandonner. The other side of the pathway was said to finish at Fingal's Cave on the Scottish isle of Staffa, where the same natural phenomenon appears.
In reality, this UNESCO World Heritage site is a unique landscape of 40,000 interlocking basalt columns and cliffs, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. The columns are believed to have been created around 50 to 60 million years ago.
The Tellus Program is currently in its fourth phase, carrying out an airborne survey of Counties Offaly, Kildare, and Meath, and rural County Dublin as well as northern parts of Counties Wicklow and Laois.
H/T: Irish Times | <urn:uuid:da3f9370-84e8-443d-93ab-705e94e6d09b> | {
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Those of you who know me will know what a hopelessly visual-biased learner I am. I adore the way we can communicate complex ideas in a multi-layered way through a simple illustration, shape or diagram. The popularity of info-graphics and data visualisations reflect an increased interest in communicating ideas and messages in an easily accessible format. More on this in a post to follow, but visual representations or pictorial short-hand are by no means new or unfamiliar.
I was watching the BBC documentary series ‘The Tube’ recently and episode 5 included a great piece on the work of Paul Marchant who is Head of Product Design at Transport for London. He gave a fascinating explanation of how the signage throughout the whole London Underground system is designed. The signs are deliberately designed so as to give just the right amount of information at the right time as you travel through the system to get to the right train. Not only that, but the information is deliberately designed according to the best distance to be able to read it, so the size of the lettering (the ‘X heights’) is meticulously calculated to give people enough time to read the information whilst still keeping them flowing through the system.
In his piece to camera, he explained that without the signage, the commuter wouldn’t be able to make their individual decisions at the specific point that they needed which would result in an interruption to the flow of the system, which would then start to back up. The signage enables the system to work more efficiently.”People think this just happens…” he said, but the process that underpins how to increase the efficiency in the flow of commuters through the system is very deliberate indeed. As you would expect, this made me think about learning design…
He used a great phrase for the design principles he uses, “Phased Disclosure”.
It made me think that if we were to apply theses same principles to how we deisgn learning, I wonder if we could increase the flow of learning in lessons?
So here’s an enquiry question: “How do I increase the flow, and therefore quality of learning through my lesson design?”
And my initial thoughts on what success could look like…
1. More opportunities for quality reflection and reduction of interruptions (by teacher and learner)
2. Greater autonomy for learners to make choices (select from the 4 T’s of Autonomy: TEAM: who they work with; TIME: when they get the work done, TECHNIQUE: how they work and TOPIC: what they work on) that will lead to an increase in choices offered and improved decision-making
3. Higher levels of sustained engagement by all learners, working at their own pace and leading their own learning
I’ve had a first go and aligning the ‘flow’ of a commuter through the underground system that Paul Marchant explained to the flow of learning. I’d be interested to hear what you think:
(1) ALL OPTIONS DISPLAYED: Go through the gate line – graphic representations of all possible travel options that are available to you (BIG PICTURE & the WHY, HOW and WHAT of learning*)
*See Simon Sinek’s great TEDx Talk about this model and his website and book “Start with the Why?”
(2) DECISION MAKING POINT: colour coded, suspended signs indicate the route to follow for the desired choice of tube line (AUTONOMY & INDEPENDENCE: 4 T’s of CHOICES: TIME, TECHNIQUE, TEAM, TOPIC*)
*Daniel Pink talks about the ‘Four T’s’ in his brilliant TED Talk (also well worth a watch in animated form in the RSA Animate series) and he has written about motivation in “Drive”
(3) REASSURANCE: as you move down the escalator, there are larger suspended signs that everybody moving down the escalator can read as they descend towards the platforms. These reinforce the information you already have and reassure you that they you moving in the right direction (QUESTIONING & FEEDBACK: LEARNER-TO-TEACHER)
(4) DECISION MAKING POINT: colour coded again and suspended, these provide you with options of northbound or southbound pltaforms (REFLECTION & RESILIENCE: PROGRESS & INTELLECTUAL RISK-TAKING)
(5) BIG PICTURE: as you walk onto your platform, you can check that you are heading the right way for this part of your journey by looking at large static ‘maps’ of the tube route on your desired line, in the direction you have opted. (REFLECTION, ADAPTATION, AMENDMENT & SUCCESS CRITERIA)
This is all very early days in my thinking, but I wonder if this gives us another way to look at how and why) we need to personalise and differentiate?
Perhaps we should be thinking about learning as ‘phased disclosure’? But exactly who gets to do the disclosure is the next challenge… | <urn:uuid:34c59f0b-0e69-40f7-ad80-b2544297c976> | {
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Math Tailor-Made for Your Child: Adaptive Learning
Have you hear of the term "adaptive learning"? Read on to find out how this learning environment helps each child/student grasp a concept at their own pace and speed.
What is Adaptive Learning?
Adaptive learning is basically a customized learning environment specifically designed for the level and ability of the learner. Given that math can be extremely challenging for some, slightly difficult for others and a whole host of issues somewhere in between, it is very helpful to take a different approach with each student during the learning process.
In a customized learning environment, students are allowed the freedom and flexibility to take in information in a way that makes sense to them at a pace that feels comfortable. They are, in essence, self-directing their learning path.
Will This Type of Learning Environment Cause My Child’s Math Skills to Develop at a Slower Pace Than Other Kids?
When children learn at their own pace, it’s actually more beneficial than when they are rigorously pushed to keep up with certain standards or with the progress of other students. Kids don’t like to be compared to other children unless it’s in a favorable light, and when they feel they are lagging behind their peers, their sense of self-esteem and willingness to try can plummet.
Alternatively, when kids are praised for the achievements they make at the various benchmarks that have been set specifically for their level of development, they take pride in what they are doing and feel accomplished. With this kind of positive reinforcement, the focus becomes less on what other kids are doing, and more on what successes they are having themselves.
It is true that self-paced learning may cause your child to spend more time learning certain math concepts than other kids. In the end, however, that extra time spent is well worth the sense of achievement your child will feel when they’ve finally mastered the most challenging aspects of one their most difficult subjects.
Is Self-Directed Learning Engaging Enough for Kids?
Small children are quick to say that they have learned and mastered something new, even when they have only been exposed to it for a short time. As with most core math concepts, repetition is important in the beginning to ensure that there is a firm grasp on how to recognize, understand and solve problems. Core math concepts may not be that engaging, but they are necessary building blocks to math mastery and using adaptive learning techniques can help to make it more fun.
When teaching is geared directly towards your child’s age level and specific ability, it is much more likely that they will feel they can engage interactively with the learning process. When they feel confident in what they are doing instead of fearful that they’ll give a wrong answer, kids pay attention more and become much more invested in their own progress.
Elementary Math Education
Achieving Benchmarks: The Key to Math Success
In a customized learning environment, children are assessed based on a series of standard tests that they take to determine their mastery level of various math concepts. Once a learning level is established, a goal is set based on the child’s ability.
A great benefit of adapting a child’s learning process to fit their ability level is that kids can quickly reach the goals that have been set for them because they are working within their scope of knowledge. Once a child reaches the specified goal, they are much more incentivized to move even further into the process. It is this upwardly progressive movement that allows a child to become much more involved with and interested in math than they might normally have been. Giving them tools to succeed on their own helps them to feel powerful and paves the way for them to develop good study habits and embrace methods for staying focused on exactly where their challenges lie and what they need to work on. | <urn:uuid:f08f8d58-2fd7-43d3-a731-5a2056950e9c> | {
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Automation is one of the marching forces of economic progress. As technology advances, production processes that were once the sole purview of humans start to fall into the capabilities of machines.
For the markets Interconnect Systems serves, automation has played a key role in both increasing quality and lowering costs of manufactured products. Here we explore industrial automation, the benefits it brings and the different kinds of automation that exist.
What is industrial automation?
Industrial automation involves taking the direct control of a production process away from a human and placing it in the hands of a computer system. It can be conceptualised in two stages.
If a production process can be mechanised, and that mechanical process then controlled by a computer, it can be automated.
First is mechanisation, whereby human labour is complimented by machinery. For example, you could move stock around a warehouse by hand, using human labour directly; or, you could use a forklift, where a human is still in control but aided by a machine. Automation takes this one step further and supplants the need for a human driver by having computers control the forklift instead. The principle behind this example can be extended out. If a production process can be mechanised, and that mechanical process then controlled by a computer, it can be automated.
The groundwork for this kind of manufacturing came with the Industrial Revolution. No longer was it necessary for one person to make an entire product on their own; the production process could be broken up into discrete segments, each part performed by a separate person. This partitioning of the process is what laid the foundation for future automation; while technology might have been (and in many cases, still is) incapable of making an entire product on its own, it could master discrete portions of the production chain. All that was needed was the computing technology to catch up, and suddenly many things that once were considered beyond mere machines were possible.
Today, robots are responsible for many tasks in factories around the world. Demand is so high, that there are even industrial construction businesses like Primus Builders (www.primusbuilders.com) that design and build warehouses with automated facilities at the forefront. While most employ some combination of human labour and automated machinery, some are capable of entirely ‘lights out’ operation, with no humans necessary. The term comes from the idea that an entirely automated factory could operate with no need for lights or other services like air conditioning that would be required for human factory workers. With advancing technology and AI however, we might expect more of these ‘lights out’ factories to appear in the future.
What are the benefits to industrial automation?
The basic principle behind automation is “why do with human labour what you can do with fixed capital?” You don’t need to pay a machine by the hour, they don’t need holidays or sick days, and they can often work around the clock. So if a machine is capable of completing a task, it often makes good economic sense to have it do so.
But just because a process can technically be automated, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will, or even should be. Tesla, the electric car manufacturer, discovered this fact first-hand with the production of their low-cost electric vehicle, the Model 3. The factory was designed from the ground up to be as automated as possible, but it ended up slowing production from the 5000 cars per week forecast to only 2000 per week. The factory has since scaled back automation, which has resulted in increased production.
Yes, excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated.
Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 13, 2018
What constrains automation efforts just as often as technology is economics – if it costs too much to invest in the equipment to automate something, it makes more sense to continue doing that process with human labour. There are many production processes that could be automated with current technology, but cost is the primary factor standing in the way.
Automation can also improve the quality of the goods being produced. The variability that comes with making something by hand can be eliminated by having a machine process do it the same way every time.
What different kinds of industrial automation are there?
There are three main kinds of automation, based on the specificity of the machinery and therefore how flexible it is the range of tasks it can accomplish.
Fixed automation involves repetitive and easily predictable processes and employs dedicated equipment that’s specifically designed for the task at hand. This kind of automation is good for high production capacities with a low cost-per-unit, but is limited in its flexibility. A machine that’s perfectly designed for a single task won’t easily be able to complete any others.
Programmable automation utilises machinery with performance characteristics that can be altered with a change in their programming. Within certain parameters defined by the equipment’s capabilities, changes can be made to a production process after the machinery has been installed. What this means is the same equipment can be used to manage runs of slightly different products, accommodating small changes fixed automation methods wouldn’t be able to.
The price to pay for this flexibility is a process that can’t quite match fixed methods in terms of output.
Flexible automation uses equipment that has a variety of capabilities. Multiple products can be produced with the same equipment – all that’s needed is a change in the control instructions.
They say a jack-of-all trades is a master of none and for now at least, the saying holds true for industrial robots. The most flexible automation technologies can’t compete with fixed automation methods in terms of output.
Interconnect Systems works with a variety of clients in the aerospace, military, marine, rail, and industrial mining and gas industries. To hear about our product offerings and how we can help your business succeed, get in touch with a member of the team today. | <urn:uuid:b2e6e892-f266-4ea4-8f1e-8964d69e62bb> | {
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Staying out of World War I helped President Woodrow Wilson narrowly win re-election in November 1916. But five months later he summoned the country to battle against the German Empire with these words: “The world must be made safe for democracy. … We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion.”
Now, 100 years later, the United States is recalling its pivotal role in the war that had turned Europe into a slaughterhouse and only ended after the Americans joined the fight.
It began in 1914 after a young anarchist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. German forces occupied Belgium and parts of France, anticipating quick victory. But fighting dragged on and spilled over to other parts of the world.
Despite sympathies with Great Britain, France and their allies, the United States stayed neutral in the first years of the war. Commercial ties with the Allies remained strong, with the British navy controlling the seas — blocking Germany from accessing vital goods. Germany tried to break the Allied naval blockage with U-boats — submarines — that sunk military, merchant and civilian vessels, including the Cunard liner Lusitania in 1915. Among the 1,198 passengers killed were 128 Americans.
The final straws were Germany’s resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare and the interception of the Zimmerman Telegram. The telegram revealed a German plot to help Mexico regain Texas, New Mexico and Arizona if it attacked America.
When the United States entered the war in April 1917, the U.S. Army had only 130,000 troops, no tanks and few planes. Congress quickly approved conscription to strengthen the forces. A German admiral scoffed that not many American fighters would reach Europe, with U-boats blocking their way.
But they made it. “Lafayette, we are here,” a colonel declared at the Paris tomb of the French nobleman who aided the American Revolution.
The Allies were battered and depleted from over three years of trench warfare. The Americans played a significant role in the war’s last year, especially when German forces launched their final offensive. The arrival of the “doughboys,” as members of the American Expeditionary Force were sometimes called, helped firm up Allied lines and break German morale in the war’s waning months.
Four million Americans served in the military, 2 million were shipped to Europe, and 1.4 million engaged in combat, helping turn back the Germans at the Marne and fighting storied battles at Cantigny, Château-Thierry, Belleau Wood and St. Mihiel.
Sergeant Alvin York, initially a conscientious objector, entered military lore for charging a machine-gun nest in the Argonne Forest and killing or capturing more than 125 men.
“World War I forever altered America’s character,” writes Wilson biographer Scott Berg in World War I and America: Told by the Americans Who Lived It. “After supplying humanitarian relief to faraway countries during the early part of the war, the United States proceeded to act further on a moral imperative, offering the commitment of the entire nation in the name of peace and freedom.”
The war confirmed the United States as a leading player in international affairs. At home, it expanded the size and reach of government and even helped women secure the vote after thousands joined the military and toiled in factories. African-American troops fought valiantly in France, then began a decades-long struggle against segregation at home.
Patriotic fever swept the country, captured in the stirring George M. Cohan anthem “Over There,” Liberty Bond drives, and posters urging men to enlist and everyone to conserve food.
The Ultimate Sacrifice
By Nov. 11, 1918 — Armistice Day — 9 million soldiers and 5 million civilians lay dead, slain not only in battle but by epidemics and starvation.
While the U.S. sacrifice did not match those of the other major combatants, the nation suffered 116,516 military deaths, including Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt, youngest son of former President Theodore Roosevelt, shot down over France.
Cities and villages across Europe and in the United States erected memorials to their dead. At Arlington National Cemetery on November 11, 1921, President Warren Harding dedicated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier containing a doughboy’s remains. “We know not whence he came, but only that his death marks him with the everlasting glory of an American dying for his country,” Harding said.
This article was originally published on March 21, 2017. | <urn:uuid:188b165a-d161-4801-a571-8f18950734b4> | {
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Climate change: Athletes flag the dangers of manmade snow
A British skier crashes through wooden fencing on a downhill corner and slams into a pole, breaking his leg. An American hits an icy patch at the bottom of a hill and crashes into a fence, breaking one ski and twisting the other, also breaking his leg.
Another American, training before a biathlon race, slides out on an icy corner and flies off the trail into a tree, breaking ribs and a shoulder blade and punctures a lung.
These were not scenes from high speed Alpine or ski cross events. They happened on cross country ski and biathlon tracks made with artificial snow.
Many top Nordic skiers and biathletes say crashes like these are becoming more common as climate change reduces the availability of natural snow, forcing racers to compete on tracks with the manmade version. Olympic and World Cup race organizers have come to rely on snow-making equipment to create a ribbon of white through the hills since natural snowfall is less reliable.
Johanna Taliharm, an Estonian Olympic biathlete, said racing on manmade snow comes with risks.
“Artificial snow is icier, therefore faster and more dangerous,” she said. “It also hurts more if you fall outside of the course when there is no fluffy snowbank, but a rocky and muddy hard ground.”
Manmade snow has a higher moisture content, making it ice up quickly, skiers and experts say.
“It can be really rock hard out there and falling can feel like falling on concrete, and so it does make it a little bit more dangerous than if it was natural snow conditions,” said Chris Grover, head cross country coach for the U.S. Ski Team.
Some venues even make snow and then store it under wood chips through the summer and spread it around a track when it gets cold. Artificial snow, welcome as it may be, does not get better with age. Race organizers should take that into consideration when designing courses, skiers and experts say.
A British skier crashes through wooden fencing on a downhill corner and slams into a pole, breaking his leg.
Article Source :
Copyrights of the Climate News articles belong to the respective Media Channels.
This Climate News portal is non-profit and politically non-dependent forwarding readers to The Current Global Climate News | <urn:uuid:9ded3713-1101-4d37-9d6c-07e85f6d0a30> | {
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The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) just took a huge step in preparing our ocean, fisheries and coastal communities for climate change. This type of foresight and required coordination is difficult, and hasn’t happened as often as it should in the past. The Western Regional Action Plan (WRAP) lays out why and how NFMS will develop, use, and apply science that helps West Coast fishery managers prepare for climate change.
The recent, and much heralded, Paris climate negotiations have led to a new global climate agreement. This historic deal involves 195 nations working toward a reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions and restricting future global warming to an increase of “substantially less than 2 degrees Celsius”, a substantially new target that was just one of many new components of the landmark climate agreement. Ocean Conservancy sat down with longtime friend and colleague Jay Manning, a climate and ocean expert from Washington state, to get his inside report from Paris and COP21, and what it means for the health of the world’s ocean.
A Seattle Chef prepares crisp smelt while learning about the local impacts of ocean acidification – credit Zach Lyons
Earlier this April, Ocean Conservancy and the Seattle Chefs Collaborative co- hosted an event featuring what was probably the most delicious seafood in the world. The Seattle Chef’s Collaborative is a local chapter of a national organization that brings chefs together to meet, learn, and advocate. They are not a traditional conservation organization, but in this case were gathered to talk about little-known local species, a problem called ocean acidification, and to enjoy their colleagues’ creations featuring the very species discussed.
Ocean acidification, caused by rising CO₂ emissions being absorbed by the ocean can be a pretty daunting topic. We are always asking ourselves, “how do we move this conversation from small groups of scientists and managers to the bus stops and dinner tables where most of us hang out”
Well, everyone has to eat, and for the most part, they enjoy doing so. | <urn:uuid:1dc2a00a-1556-4076-8029-d911b9cf7425> | {
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A 19th-century island fortress in Montenegro used as a concentration camp during World War II is to be transformed into a luxury resort.
The Montenegrin government approved plans to turn Mamula Island, just 200 meters across, into a tourist destination featuring swimming pools, a marina, a restaurant, a wine bar and a spa. The government said the resort would honor the camp’s victims with a memorial or museum, Balkan Insight reported.
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s troops used the island as a wartime jail, imprisoning a reported 2,300 people. Many were civilians, and 130 died. Families of the prisoners were not pleased with the prospect of turning a place of grave historical significance into a site of luxury and indulgence. “No concentration camp in the world has been transformed into a hotel,” Olivera Doklestic, a relative who is campaigning against the construction, told the AFP.
But Montenegro officials said they had little choice but to accept funding from private partners. “We were facing two options: to leave the site to fall into ruin or find investors who would be willing to restore it and make it accessible to visitors,” the head of the country’s national directorate for tourism development said to the AFP. | <urn:uuid:00d00bf2-ea3b-4135-b74e-c038a482d0f4> | {
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by Scott Bestul
Only 2 out of every 10 newborn whitetails will survive a year in northern Wisconsin, if one year of research done by Badger State scientists proves a trend. DNR researchers captured and radio-collared 30 fawns in the spring of 2011; by April of this year only 6 were still alive.
Predation was the leading cause of mortality, accounting for 15 dead fawns (bears killed 5, “unknown predators” took another five, bobcats nailed 4 fawns, coyotes got one, and “unidentified canid” took another). Hunters, poachers, vehicle collisions and another “unknown” rounded out the list.
This 80% fawn mortality rate is only the beginning of data the WDNR is gleaning from a multi-year mortality study. In the winter of 2010, researchers began capturing adult deer in two study areas; one located in the heavily-forested northern part of the state, the other in central Wisconsin, where agriculture is more prevalent. Fawns were captured and collared beginning in the spring of 2011. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the $2 million study is being funded by the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Fund.
The tough life of a north woods fawn stands in contrast to those collared in the central Wisconsin study area, where 27 of 48 fawns collared in 2011 had survived to this spring, for a survival rate of 56%. There, a fawn was as likely to be killed by a vehicle (six deaths) as eaten by a predator (six deaths, four attributed to coyotes). Natural causes accounted for the rest of fawn mortality sources.
WDNR researchers are also examining mortality factors for adult deer, and I look forward to seeing more data on that as it’s accumulated. I also applaud the agency for taking on this study. It will not only provide much-needed information, but it has also involved citizen input and cooperation. I know two landowners who have allowed deer to be captured on their land in the central study area, and another pair of young women who assisted researchers with fawn captures in the north woods this spring. Wisconsin residents love their whitetails, and it’s great to see the DNR engaging them in this important research project. | <urn:uuid:de5e68ea-c482-4687-86c6-3a86ad11faf8> | {
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Harm and Offence in Media Content (Book)
A Review of the Evidence, Second Edition
Children and teenagers are often the first to adopt new media technologies, and parents and policy makers continue to be concerned about the widespread use of diverse media and its potential effects on young people. Harm and Offence in Media Content presents a significant and comprehensive analysis of the benefits and dangers posed by both established and emergent technologies. Newly updated, this balanced, critical account examines all media, including interactive games, social networking and mobile phones. Many examples specifically focus on the United States, noting the ways in which young people are using new technologies and the partnerships this has given rise to between state governments, media regulators and Internet service providers. This informative guide to a controversial field of study will be a useful resource for scholars in media, communication, psychology, sociology and education.
- AvailablePaperback9781841502380246 pagesList Price: £26.50 Add to basket
Andrea Millwood Hargrave provides independent advice on media regulatory policy and research issues. Sonia Livingstone is professor of social psychology in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. | <urn:uuid:db8f2414-7013-4ce2-9405-d8e5247706c9> | {
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Liquid Biopsy to Characterize Cell-Free DNA in Cancer Detection and Monitoring
Liquid biopsy, a concept introduced approximately a decade ago, refers to noninvasive approaches that have become the focus of biomedical research. In clinical oncology and research, the term liquid biopsy is used in a broad sense as the sampling and analysis of analytes including cell-free DNA from various accessible biological fluids for diagnosis, prognosis and prediction of a therapeutic response. This technology has the potential to be used in tracking the genomic evolution of tumors over time. It may also have therapeutic implications in terms of its ability to detect actionable events or resistant subclonal populations while avoiding the need to conduct repeated biopsies. This paper briefly reviews the major advances in liquid biopsy assay technologies and discusses the types of cancers that most likely benefit from early detection. | <urn:uuid:2bde6631-67a6-4bca-9695-e9ec4918ab65> | {
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eLearning: The Individual’s Perspective
Your Learning Options
eLearning - takes place online and usually individually
Blended learning - usually a combination of eLearning and other learning formats combined;
- eLearning and face-to-face classroom learning
- eLearning, social groups and forums
- Classroom learning and eLearning activities away from the classroom
- Classroom learning, social groups and forums
In deciding on what form of learning to take, one should have a view on their own preferred learning styles, since eLearning can be criticised for leaving individuals isolated unless there is a form of blended learning available to share ideas and gain support. Of course there are those that prefer to work in this way and will tend to be reflective and prefer a logical learning approach.
Depending on the level of study that an individual undertakes, they will tend to resort to their preferred learning method more and more; the higher the level of learning required. For simple awareness type learning, small chunks of learning which are engaging are usually preferred, whereas when studying for higher level qualifications a more structured and variable approach would tend to be the best choice.
Santia’s NEBOSH qualifications, available via eLearning, are complimented by a range of learning methods which allow exploration by the user and interaction in a blended fashion with likeminded learners in forums, creating communities of learning, and access to experts for discussion on specific technical points. There is a growing and developing range of opportunities to work with a blended approach that utilises both the flexibility of eLearning - as the lead learning tool - and the support and attention of the expert in the virtual classroom, by accessing the e-tutorial support sessions available for our most popular qualifications.
The benefits of an eLearning lead approach:
Cost: eLearning is cheaper than face-to-face classroom learning activities. Short training courses - such as those required for compliance and employee development in areas such as manual handling, DSE and general health and safety awareness - can be delivered efficiently, and comprehensively, using eLearning at a fraction of the classroom cost
Effectiveness: eLearning supported with other learning tools has the potential to be more effective than solely face-to-face teaching
Management: eLearning can be used to track employee development and competence within an organisation including CPD activities
Satisfaction: eLearning can and should be both fun and engaging
Accessibility: eLearning is accessible in both time, geography and to a range of people and ages
Continuity: more of our workforce have studied online during their career development, why lock them in a classroom now?
Santia Consulting boast a market leading Learning Management System (LMS), offering its users one of the best possible online learning experiences available. We offer a broad range of health & safety courses providing the training solutions to cover your needs, whether it be the shorter awareness course or the more in-depth accredited course, allowing you to take your prospects in health & safety further.
Simon Jones is the Head of Training Practice at Santia. His educational and technical health & safety experience ensures that the products and services delivered by consultants, i.e. training and client consultancy, meets the high standards which are set as well as expected by demanding clients. He is the Principal Examiner for the NEBOSH International Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety.
Post date: 15 Jan 2016
Back to listing | <urn:uuid:bca1573d-9526-4f91-a084-8167db59cbd1> | {
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The Story of Stanton Hall
In 1857, Irish immigrant and cotton merchant Frederick Stanton began construction on the home of his dreams: a palatial Greek Revival style residence in the heart of Natchez. Then known as Belfast, Stanton's home occupied an entire city block and cost over $83,000 before it was even furnished. Marble mantel pieces were imported from New York, ornate gasoliers were purchased from Philadelphia, and immense mirrors were ordered from France. The facade of Stanton's home was equally impressive with its Corinthian columns and delicate cast iron railings.
The home was completed only months before Stanton's death in 1859 and was occupied by Union troops during the Civil War. The family remained in residence until 1894, at which point the building was transformed into the Stanton College for Young Ladies and rechristened Stanton Hall.
In 1938, the Pilgrimage Garden Club purchased and restored Stanton Hall to its former antebellum splendor. Officially designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974, the building is now furnished much as Frederick originally intended and offers a glimpse into the domestic life of a wealthy Natchez family, including many original pieces belonging to the Stanton family.
Daily 30-minute walking tours are given of the home. After the tour, many guests stop to enjoy a meal at the adjacent Carriage House Restaurant, open Wednesday through Sunday, 11-2. Nationally famous for its Fried Chicken, Mint Juleps, and Southern Cuisine.
For more information about tours, please call:
601.446.6631 or 800.647.6742
For more information about hosting events, please contact:
601.445.4420, email: [email protected]
Stanton Hall Tour Hours:
Every 30 minutes 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. | <urn:uuid:58b40697-e757-46aa-86a1-e1135af162d7> | {
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The study included 307,900 men and women whose serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were measured between 2008 and 2012. Among them, 21,237 had been diagnosed with asthma. Asthma exacerbations were considered to have occurred among subjects who were prescribed oral corticosteroids, who received more than five prescriptions for short acting beta agonists, or who had more than four asthma-related physician visits.
Although vitamin D levels were similar between asthmatics and nonasthmatics, vitamin D deficiency in the asthmatic population was associated with a 25% higher risk of having experienced at least one recent flare-up of the disease in comparison with nondeficient subjects.
“Vitamin D has significant immunomodulatory effects and, as such, was believed to have an effect on asthma — an immunologically mediated disease,” stated lead researcher Ronit Confino-Cohen, of Tel Aviv University. “But most of the existing data regarding vitamin D and asthma came from the pediatric population and was inconsistent. Our present study is unique because the study population of young adults is very large and ‘uncontaminated’ by other diseases.”
“Our results add more evidence to the link between vitamin D and asthma, suggesting beneficial effects of vitamin D on asthma exacerbations,” she observed. “We expect that further prospective studies will support our results. In the meantime, our results support a recommendation for screening of vitamin D levels in the subgroup of asthma patients who experience recurrent exacerbations. In those with vitamin D deficiency, supplementation may be necessary.”
“We know a lot about this disease and many therapeutic options are available,” she added. “Increasing vitamin D levels is something we can easily do to improve patients’ quality of life.”
Reduce inflammatory process in cells, tissues, and blood vessels, helping to slow aging and reduce risk of long-term disease.
Prevents and repairs oxidative damage to cells caused by free radicals.
Support the body’s resistance to infection and strengthen immune vigilance and response.
Improves mood, memory, and focus.
Reduces risk factors for common degenerative and age-related diseases. | <urn:uuid:2ea17020-d50d-4723-b112-d1839c149bf8> | {
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Image Credit: Digital Trends
For decades, futurists have been predicting that the use of electric vehicles (EVs) will overtake conventional vehicles, providing clean, green and cheap transport for all. Although increasing numbers of electric vehicles are being sold in Europe, the internal combustion engine still remains king of the road. EU-funded researchers are trying to change that, developing technology that promises to significantly improve the range and efficiency of EVs without compromising comfort or safety.
As battery and electric motor technology has advanced in recent years, manufacturers have started to produce more commercial electric vehicles, from buses to cars and bikes. But while sales are rising rapidly, there are still fewer than 100,000 purely electric vehicles on Europe’s roads – compared with more than 250 million conventional vehicles, 90 % of which are passenger cars.
Several factors are holding back the electric vehicle market, despite its promises of cheaper transport, less noise, reduced fuel imports and lower emissions of CO2 and other pollutants.
‘The most obvious barrier that explains the hesitation of consumers to choose an electric vehicle is the cost-performance ratio which is, compared to conventional vehicles, not very attractive,’ says Dr Volker Scheuch, a researcher at German automotive electrics group Intedis. ‘One of the drawbacks on the performance side is the short range of electric vehicles due to battery technology, which is still at the beginning of its evolution, and vehicle concepts that still use ideas from times when the economical use of resources was not really a topic.’
Often, the design and many of the components of electric vehicles still borrow features from their conventional predecessors that may not be optimized for EV efficiency or safety. But simply optimizing each component individually is not sufficient – the overall architecture and the interactions between components also need to be addressed if EVs are to meet their full potential.
© EFUTURE project
Several new EV concept vehicles employ parallel motors – offering not only greater maneuverability and performance compared to more conventional single-motor designs, but also increased energy efficiency. However, controlling two motors at the same time safely is a considerable challenge, requiring a novel system architecture and a range of electronic devices, from sensors to control units.
The issue is being tackled by a team of researchers working under the direction of Dr Scheuch in the ‘Safe and efficient electrical vehicle’ (EFUTURE) project, which received EUR 4 million in funding from the European Commission. Their goal is to prepare the next generation of electric vehicles by creating intelligent software that minimizes energy needs while still being able to dynamically optimize decisions between safety and energy efficiency.
‘Today’s vehicles have a very high level of operational safety which needs to be kept for the electric generation,’ according to Dr Scheuch. ‘New challenges arise when more than one motor driving the wheels comes into play. This is what we investigated in EFUTURE – which additional requirements are to be met for two parallel front motors and how can they be implemented into a system safety concept.’
Among other key innovations, the team implemented central decision units in such a way that motor controls are subject to redundancies in case of failures, based on the concept of ‘functional safety’ – which means that any component or system must include the safe management of any likely operator errors, hardware failures or environmental changes.
The team were therefore able to demonstrate an electric prototype vehicle that is not only safe, but also more efficient. They have therefore achieved a potentially much longer range than most existing EVs, achieved ‘virtually’ through use of software alone.
Increasing the range – and attractiveness – of EVs
‘We have therefore demonstrated the feasibility of creating a “virtual range extender”, which has no hardware associated with it, by using new driver-assistance functions, founded on a lean architecture, while keeping a superior level of operational safety,’ Dr Scheuch explains.
Novel ‘Advanced driver assistance systems’ (ADASs) developed by the EFUTURE team include a green ‘Autonomous cruise control’ system (Green ACC) that automatically adjusts vehicle speed depending on traffic and road conditions while improving efficiency, and an ‘ECO mode’ that coaches the driver to adopt driving habits that use less energy.
Less visible to drivers, but no less significant are other EFUTURE innovations such as an automatic Vehicle Observer sensor system to enhance safety, and a Torque Vectoring functionality that improves driving stability and comfort. Torque Vectoring also extends the ‘Anti-lock braking’ (ABS) and ‘Electronic stability control’ (ESC) functions to normal driving, thereby extending the dynamic range of the vehicle.
‘There are also functions not visible to the driver, such as the vehicle energy management system, and decision units that define trajectory and actuator control, which also contribute to the overall efficiency,’ Dr Scheuch says.
The project manager explains that one of the biggest challenges the team had to overcome was adapting a first-generation electric vehicle to meet the project requirements – exemplifying the problem of the use of legacy components based on systems used in conventional cars.
‘To convert our architecture concept into hardware we substituted the core components with new ones: the vehicle control unit, the battery control unit, the battery and motors. Furthermore, we added a complete system for ADAS functionality (cameras and radar), and implemented an entirely new set of control software for all components. In short, we converted a very basic vehicle to a highly instrumented car full of innovative functions,’ Dr Scheuch says.
The prototype concepts and systems developed by the project partners, which includes the European Technical Centre of Tata Motors, are expected to find their way into future generation EVs.
‘Many of the ideas of EFUTURE will be found in future products and services of the partners. The domain architecture of the vehicle controller, the algorithms, the Green ADAS functions, safety concepts and many more will be part of new research projects or are already part of new hardware products for future vehicles,’ the project manager says.
‘The more innovative concepts for efficient driving exist, the higher the impact on the vehicle market in Europe, and EFUTURE is one part of it. Economically, we have shown a feasible way towards a higher EV range, thus enhancing consumers’ acceptance of electrically driven cars – they will get more value for their money.’
Source: European Commission
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Why do humans have two eyes? Why do many animals have stripes? And should poetry be difficult to understand?
These are the types of questions students hoping to study at Oxford University can expect to face at interview.
The top institution has published a sample of the brainteasers posed by tutors in an attempt to give an insight into its selection process.
It comes just days before the deadline for would-be students to submit applications to the university.
Oxford's director of undergraduate admissions, Mike Nicholson, said that the interview questions are a chance for potential students to show their abilities, and to think for themselves rather than recite facts.
Youngsters hoping to study biological sciences could be faced with the question ''Why do many animals have stripes?''
St Anne's College interviewer Martin Speight said the question aims to get applicants to think about biological topics, and then to consider them in the context of successful adaptations to life on earth.
English students could be asked to discuss Harry Potter author JK Rowling's move to writing for adults, while those hoping to study history could be asked how much of the past could be discovered if the only records that existed related to sport.
History interviewer Stephen Tick of Pembroke College said: ''I would say this to a candidate who had mentioned an interest in sport on their personal statement, though it could equally be applied to an interest in something else - like film, drama or music.
''What I would be looking for is to see how the candidate might use their imagination, building on something they know about to tackle questions of historical research.''
David Popplewell, an interviewer for Brasenose College, said potential experimental psychology students could be asked ''Why do human beings have two eyes?''
''This question may result from a more general discussion about the human senses, and can develop in a number of different directions.''
And prospective modern languages students could be asked whether poetry should be difficult to understand.
Mr Nicholson said: ''We know most students won't have experienced this sort of academic interview before, so as much as possible we want to show students what they are really like so they aren't put off by what they might have heard.
''The interviews are meant to give candidates the chance to show their real ability and potential - which means they will be pushed to use their knowledge and apply their thinking to new problems in ways that will both challenge them and allow them to shine.
''The interviews are an academic conversation in a subject area between tutors and candidate, similar to an undergraduate tutorial. And like tutorials, the interviews are designed to push students to think, not recite specific facts or answers.''
The deadline for applying to Oxford for next year is October 15. | <urn:uuid:7c57105c-7daa-41fa-9642-ef8f1214003b> | {
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Jettisoned straight out of Middle Earth and onto our planet, the Rinchenling Gompa is quite an otherworldly place. Located on the banks of a small tributary of the Limi River, the Halji Gompa is undoubtedly one of the highest temples in the world (approximately 3,600 meters). Adding to the Gompa’s ethereal qualities is its setting: Limi Valley, one of the most remote, and starkly beautiful regions of Himalayan Nepal.
The Rinchenling Gompa sits inside Halji Village, one of three small communities within Limi Valley. Access to electricity and warmth are difficult here. Small solar panels, along with a miniature hydro-electric plant provide light only during specified hours of the night. Warmth is provided by burning cow dung in hearths in each of the homes. It’s that remote. Because Limi Valley is right up against the border with Tibet, the Tibetan language is spoken and Tibetan religious customs are practiced in lieu of more Nepali traditions.
The Rinchenling Gompa was said to be founded by Rinchen Zangpo (958-1055 CE), an early translator of Buddhist texts into the Tibetan language. Rinchen Zangpo was one of the fathers of the “Second Dissemination” in which Buddhism was reintroduced to Tibet by leading scholars around the beginning of the 11th century. He is said to have established over 108 temples in his lifetime alone. While it is hard to gauge the veracity of these claims, recent C-14 dating of the Vairocana statue inside the temple point to a range in the early 11th century, well within Rinchen Zangpo’s lifetime.
In recent years, the Rinchenling Gompa has been threatened by flooding. In 2011, a glacial lake high above Halji Village burst, resulting in a flood that caused significant damage to many structures in Halji Village. Though no one was harmed during the flooding, the risk presented is severe. Without adequate restoration and protection, the Rinchenling Gompa is extremely susceptible to flood damages. A more serious flood could completely wash away over 1,000 years of history. International conservation organizations are starting to take notice, however, so there is some hope that the Gompa will receive the protection it deserves. | <urn:uuid:155c8158-091d-48b6-b3c9-643bffc41766> | {
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Nearly one in 15 people in the U.S. gets sick from norovirus each year and up to 800 die. This podcast discusses the importance of hand washing, and other ways to prevent the spread of noroviruses. Created: 6/12/2014 by MMWR.
Date Released: 6/12/2014. Series Name: A Minute of Health with CDC.
A MINUTE OF HEALTH WITH CDC
Foodborne Norovirus Outbreaks – United States, 2009-2012
Recorded: June 10, 2014; posted: June 12, 2014
[Announcer] This program is presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Norovirus is highly contagious and can cause severe vomiting and diarrhea. Nearly one in 15 people in the U.S. gets sick from norovirus each year and up to 800 die. The virus is usually transmitted from person-to-person or through contaminated food. Norovirus is the leading cause of disease outbreaks from contaminated food.
To help prevent norovirus outbreaks, wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds and thoroughly clean surfaces. Also, if you are vomiting or have diarrhea, don’t prepare food for others for at least 48 hours after your symptoms are gone.
Thank you for joining us on a Minute of Health with CDC.
For the most accurate health information, visit www.cdc.gov or call 1-800-CDC-INFO. | <urn:uuid:d102fd8a-585b-45d2-852b-2a1f2779ee7b> | {
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Washington: A new study has revealed that women experience chronic pain longer, more intensely and more often than men.
"Chronic pain affects a higher proportion of women than men around the world," said Jennifer Kelly of the Atlanta Center for Behavioral Medicine.
"We need to encourage women to take a more active role in their treatment and reduce the stigma and embarrassment of this problem."
Kelly said the latest research offers interesting insights into how physicians and mental health providers can better treat women with chronic pain.
Chronic pain conditions that are more prevalent in women than in men include fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis and migraines, said Kelly.
Hormones may be to blame for these differences, said Kelly, who added that estrogen clearly plays a role in conditions such as migraines. Rates of other painful conditions increase for girls as they pass through puberty whereas rates for adolescent boys are stable or rise less steeply.
"Pain perception does vary according to the menstrual cycle phases in women with chronic pain," said Kelly.
"For example, temporomandibular [jaw] pain, or TMJ, is highest in the pre-menstrual period and during menses."
As for treating pain, studies have shown men and women experience different side effects of analgesic medications.
"Genetic and hormonal differences may be the main reason for any differences, but it``s becoming increasingly clear that social and psychological factors are also important," said Kelly.
"Women tend to focus on the emotional aspects of pain.
"Men tend to focus on the physical sensations they experience. Women who concentrate on the emotional aspects of their pain may actually experience more pain as a result, possibly because the emotions associated with pain are negative," she said.
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In the increasingly digital world we live in, cyber threats have become a pressing concern. With the growing interconnection of devices and dependence on technology, the risks associated with cybersecurity have evolved and diversified. This article seeks to provide an updated view of the cyber threat landscape, highlighting the key challenges individuals and organizations face in protecting their digital assets.
Evolution of Threats
As technology advances, so do cyber threats. What once consisted mainly of simple viruses and malware now includes more sophisticated attacks such as ransomware, advanced phishing, and social engineering attacks. Hackers are constantly refining their techniques, exploiting vulnerabilities in systems and networks.
One of the most critical points in the cyber threat landscape is the exploitation of common vulnerabilities. Many organizations still neglect regular updates to their systems and software, leaving significant gaps for exploitation. Furthermore, the lack of user awareness about secure internet practices contributes to increased risk.
Ransomware attacks pose a serious threat, especially to businesses and organizations. In these attacks, hackers block access to the victim’s data and demand a ransom in exchange for restoration. The escalation of these incidents has been alarming, and the complexity of ransomware variants continues to challenge prevention efforts.
Phishing, a technique involving psychological manipulation of users to obtain confidential information, has also evolved. Advanced phishing attacks employ more sophisticated techniques, such as spear phishing, targeting specific individuals within an organization. This makes phishing attempts harder to detect, increasing the risk of compromising sensitive data.
Challenges for Cybersecurity
Beyond specific threats, there are broader challenges for cybersecurity. The rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) significantly increases the attack surface, as more devices are connected to the network. The lack of standardization in the security of these devices creates potential loopholes that can be exploited by attackers.
As new technologies emerge, so do new threats. Artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing, while offering significant benefits, also present challenges in terms of cybersecurity. AI-based cyberattacks can be more automated and difficult to detect, while quantum computing has the potential to break traditional cryptographic algorithms.
Proactive Approaches to Cybersecurity
Faced with this challenging scenario, it is imperative to adopt proactive approaches to cybersecurity. This includes investing in continuous user awareness training, implementing robust patch and update management practices, and adopting advanced security solutions such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems.
Cooperation and Information Sharing
Cybersecurity is a collective effort. Collaboration between organizations, the private sector, and government entities is essential to address large-scale cyber threats. Sharing information about threats and vulnerabilities allows for a quicker and more effective response, strengthening cybersecurity as a whole.
Enhancing Cyber Resilience
In the face of evolving cyber threats, building cyber resilience becomes paramount. Digital resilience refers to an organization’s capability to anticipate, react to, and recuperate from cyber assaults. It involves not only preventing incidents but also having robust strategies in place to mitigate damage and ensure a swift recovery.
Incident Response Planning
Developing and regularly testing an incident response plan is crucial for effective cyber resilience. This plan should outline the steps to be taken when a cyber incident occurs, including communication protocols, containment measures, and strategies for recovery. Organizations that can respond promptly and effectively to incidents can minimize the impact on their operations and reputation.
Continuous Monitoring and Threat Intelligence
Implementing continuous monitoring of networks and systems, coupled with leveraging threat intelligence, is essential for staying one step ahead of cyber adversaries. This proactive approach allows organizations to detect potential threats early on and take preventive action. Threat intelligence involves gathering and analyzing information about current and emerging threats, enabling organizations to anticipate and prepare for potential attacks.
Employee Training and Awareness
Investing in ongoing training programs to enhance employee awareness of cybersecurity is a fundamental aspect of a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy. Employees are often the first line of defense against phishing and social engineering attacks. Educating them on recognizing and reporting suspicious activities can significantly reduce the risk of a successful cyber attack.
Adopting a Zero-Trust Security Model
The traditional approach of trusting entities inside a network while remaining cautious about external threats is no longer sufficient. Adopting a zero-trust security model assumes that threats may come from both external and internal sources. This model verifies and authenticates every user and device, ensuring continuous validation of their trustworthiness throughout the session.
Investment in Emerging Technologies
As cyber threats become more sophisticated, investing in emerging technologies is essential for maintaining robust cybersecurity. Advanced tools, such as machine learning-based threat detection and behavioral analytics, can enhance the ability to identify and respond to unusual patterns indicative of a cyber attack. Similarly, blockchain technology can provide a more secure and transparent framework for certain transactions and data storage.
International Collaboration and Legal Frameworks
Cyber threats transcend national borders, necessitating international collaboration and the development of comprehensive legal frameworks. Countries and organizations must work together to share information, establish norms for responsible behavior in cyberspace, and create legal mechanisms for prosecuting cybercriminals. This collaborative approach strengthens the global defense against cyber threats.
In conclusion, the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats demands a proactive and multifaceted approach to cybersecurity. Organizations and individuals must stay informed about emerging threats, address common vulnerabilities, and implement strategies to enhance cyber resilience. By adopting a mindset of continuous improvement and investing in the right technologies, we can collectively build a more secure digital environment for the future.
As we navigate the complexities of cyberspace, the collaboration between governments, businesses, and individuals will be crucial in mitigating the impact of cyber threats. Through shared knowledge, advanced technologies, and a commitment to best practices, we can create a resilient cybersecurity ecosystem that protects our digital assets and ensures a safer online experience for all.
Did you like this topic? See more content about: Cybersecurity | <urn:uuid:8c4aae15-1780-4c04-9b6c-22b25f969ee0> | {
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In 2005, anthrax killed an estimated 1,000 head of cattle, bison, horses, sheep, llamas and farmed deer and elk in North Dakota.
Livestock producers along the Mouse (Souris) and Missouri rivers should consult with their veterinarians about vaccinating their animals for anthrax this summer.
“River floodwaters may contain anthrax spores and can expose spores already present in the soil, increasing the risk of anthrax on pasture and grazing land,” says North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring. “If your veterinarian says your livestock – cattle, sheep horses and all grazing animals – are at risk and recommends vaccination, please follow that recommendation.”
The state veterinarian, Susan Keller, says vaccination has proved very effective in reducing anthrax deaths in North Dakota.
“Vaccination takes about a week to establish some level of immunity and must be followed up with annual boosters,” Keller says. “If fly control application is needed, it may be just the time to run the cattle through an alleyway and vaccinate them as well.”
Keller also urged producers to monitor their herds for unexpected deaths and report them immediately to their veterinarians.
“The carcasses of animals that die from anthrax decompose quickly, often with little or no signs of rigor mortis,” Keller says.
Animal health officials are concerned that the history of anthrax in North Dakota, together with reports of the disease in nearby states and provinces, ideal weather conditions and the overland flooding could result in widespread cases of the disease among unvaccinated animals.
Most frequently reported in northeast, southeast, and south central North Dakota, anthrax has been confirmed almost everywhere in the state. The state usually records a few cases every year, but in 2005, anthrax killed an estimated 1,000 head of cattle, bison, horses, sheep, llamas and farmed deer and elk. Vaccinated animals rarely die from the disease.
The bacteria Bacillus anthracis causes anthrax. The bacteria’s spores can lie dormant in the ground for decades, becoming active under ideal conditions, such as heavy rainfall, flooding and drought. When animals graze or consume forage or water contaminated with the spores, they may develop anthrax. | <urn:uuid:bd59abcb-0956-46f7-a2ee-9efce68e6f74> | {
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Measuring body fat percentage is a key health metric to track and gauges your proportional body weight in fat.
Tracking this metric over time is an excellent progress indicator and more effective than recording bodyweight alone as it shows changes in body composition.
To put this into perspective, consider the common scenario whereby your bodyweight could actually be increasing whilst your body fat remains the same (or even reduces) as you build lean muscle tissue!
- What is body fat percentage?
- Ideal body fat ranges
- How to measure body fat
- Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis
- Anthropometric Methods
- Skinfold Measurement
- Dual energy X-Ray Absorptiometry
- Underwater weighing
- Visual Body Fat Assessment
- Choosing a method of body fat measurement
- How often to take body fat measurements
- Start tracking your body fat percentage today
You’re made up of organs, muscles, fat, bone, hair and various other little miracles. Body fat percentage is a measure of the percentage of your body weight that is made up of fat.
If your body fat percentage is 15% and you weight 200 lbs, this means that approximately 15% of your weight is fat (30 lbs) and the rest is 85% lean body mass or LBM (the general term for everything else!).
There is no agreed body fat percentage for everyone, but there are guidelines on various ranges. The table below indicates ranges provided by the American Council on Exercise based upon gender (1).
|Essential Fat||10 - 13%||2 - 5%|
|Athletes||14 - 20%||6 - 13%|
|Fitness||21 - 24%||14 - 17%|
|Average||25 - 31%||18 - 24%|
|Obese||32% +||25% +|
Before we now delve into the different methods of measuring body fat and the pros and cons of each, here are some of the most important points to know;
- Pick just one fat testing method and stick with it consistently during your training
- Body fat testing is useful when you're less concerned with absolute accuracy and more focused on consistent measurements and tracking changes over time
- Consistency is key, not just in method of measurement, but also matching the same conditions (time of day, hydration level etc)
Body fat % is a precise empirical measurement and estimating by sight alone is unlikely to be accurate. Be wary of posting pictures and asking for body fat estimates as factors such as lighting, photo angle and water retention can skew results significantly, so expect accuracy to vary in the 5-10% range.
Luckily, there are other methods of measuring body fat and each has various pros and cons and varying degrees of accuracy. A list of the most common methods are shown below;
- Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis
- Anthropometric methods
- Skinfold measurement
- Dual energy X-Ray absorptiometry (DXA Scan)
- Underwater weighing
- Visual Body Fat Assessment
Also known as: BIA, Handheld Body Fat Device, Body Fat Scales
The BIA method of body fat measurement usually takes the form of a scale or handheld device. It estimates body fat percentage by running a small electrical current through the body and measuring the resistance level (fat is not as conductive as muscle, therefore the current passes through the body slower the more fat you carry).
- Very easy to use and low cost of equipment
- Inconsistent readings and high potential for errors
Bioelectrical impedance is not as accurate as other methods and results can be skewed by factors such as body hydration levels and the algorithms used by the hardware often vary (so don't expect consistent values from different devices).
When used, it's recommended to take measurements at the same time of day, preferably in the morning, before eating.
Also known as: Measurement Collections, Height and Circumference Methods
Anthropometry translates to "measurement of man", and this method of estimating body fat involves taking measurements of various parts of the body and applying a formula derived from a statistical model to determine your fat percentage.
All that is needed for this method is a body measuring tape and possibly calipers (depending on the particular anthropometric method used). There are various formulas for measurement collection, but the most popular is the US Navy formula which only requires a body tape measure and measurements for the waist, hip and neck.
You combine these measurements with your height and weight information and the formula predicts your body fat percentage. We won't list the formula here as it's quite complex and we'd recommend that you use an online calculator if this is a method you're interested in using.
- Very easy to measure and calculate and with minimal equipment
- Accuracy can be skewed by factors such as amount of muscle mass and how you relate to the average population size that was used to determine the statistical model
- Taking body measurements is prone to human error and inconsistencies (see our guide on how to take body measurements)
The main problem with anthropometric models is that to ensure that they can be universally used, they are based upon a broad sample of individuals. Ideally, statistical models should be based on a sample of individuals who more accurately relate to the target user, narrowed down by such factors as age, sex, fitness levels and various other lifestyle factors.
Also known as: Skinfold Test, Pinch Test, Caliper method
The skinfold method of body fat measurement requires the use of calipers, which are specially designed equipment for measuring the size of skin folds. A pinch of skin, at various parts of the body is measured using the calipers and the associated measurements are then converted into body fat percentage using an equation.
There are various skinfold formulas that can be used which determines the number and location of measurements that need to be taken. Example methods include:
- Jackson / Pollock (3/4/7 measurement sites)
- Parrillo (9 measurement sites)
- Durnin / Womersley (4 measurement sites)
- Cheap and easy to find or buy equipment
- When used correctly it offers a good method of measuring body composition changes over time
- As you're measuring multiple points on the body you can gauge where you're losing the weight from
- Can provide inconsistent results and has relatively high error rate as it's prone to human error and therefore requires expertise to measure effectively
Also known as: DXA, DEXA Scan
DXA scans are more commonly used to evaluate Bone Mineral Density (BMD), but in recent years have been used to measure body composition and body fat percentage.
DXA scans are an accurate method of determining body composition and measuring body fat %. Essentially, the body is x-rayed and the resultant scan not only shows you the amount of fat mass, but where it’s stored.
- Accurate measurements
- Visual output showing fat deposits
- DXA scans can be expensive reducing their practicality
DXA scans are often used by those who are at a low body fat level and would like to know a precise measurement.
Also known as: Hydrostatic Weighing, Underwater Density Test
Hydrostatic testing works by completely submerging participants in a tank of water and calculating water weight vs land weight based on buoyancy (muscle is more dense than fat).
- Moderately accurate
- Accuracy can vary between measurements (has been shown to be similar to BIA (2), although BIA is less expensive to undertake)
- Results can be skewed by air and gas placement in the body
- Can be expensive
Also known as: VBFA
Visual Body Fat Assessment involves estimating body fat of an individual from photos or direct observation. Measurements are based on previous experience and photographic references.
- Very easy to do and no cost
- Estimate is in the eye of the beholder and can vary between observers
Accurate VBFA requires an experienced practitioner, well researched in body composition and with prior experience using other Body Fat measurement techniques. It is not something that can be relied upon be reliably estimated by the layman.
When choosing how to measure body fat the question is mainly one of convenience vs accuracy and making the appropriate tradeoffs.
The general consensus is that beyond taking an inconvenient autopsy, the DXA scan is most accurate, although not practical for regular use due to cost and limited availability of the service. For consistent use, we would recommend the BIA method. Whilst short term readings may be inconsistent, the BIA will be a good indicator of progress over the long term.
In addition to directly measuring your body fat we would recommend documenting your body changes with regular progress pictures so that you can actually see the changes taking place in your body, which can be a huge motivator.
Whatever method of body fat measurement you choose the key factor is to ensure consistency, both in method used, and time of day that the measurement is taken. A consistent method gives you an indicator of progress by monitoring changes over time.
There are no hard and fast rules on how often to measure body fat. We recommend waiting to test until you think that a change has taken place in your body, or that you’ve gained muscle, or lost fat.
Typically we’d recommend measuring your body fat levels every 2-4 weeks, taking a three-day BIA reading first thing in the morning and recording your average value.
At Fitstream we’re big fans of progress tracking and monitoring body metrics. It helps with motivation, encourages accountability and establishes focus on performance and results.
You can use Fitstream to track your body fat percentage over time and monitor changes in your body with body photographs. Check out our free body tracking app now or find out more about our progress tracking system.
- URL: http://www.acefitness.org/acefit/healthy_living_tools_content.aspx?id=2 Date: 28.Dec.2013
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There may have been an increase in conflicts and disputes between China and the United States in recent years as China grows more powerful, but there are also valuable areas of cooperation related to commitments on climate change.
Both countries issued a joint statement on Nov. 11, 2014. The United States pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 26-28 percent in 2015, levels last seen in 2005.
China, for its part, estimated that its carbon emissions would peak in 2030, and hoped to make that earlier still. It also pledged to boost its use of nonfossil fuels to 20 percent of total energy consumption.
These promises sounded very exciting, and they prompted 146 other countries ... to reach an unprecedented agreement on climate change at the Paris summit at the end of 2015. It was a very positive example of China's involvement in international cooperation and of developments in Sino-U.S. relations.
But were these promises made by China really credible?
Pledges hard to keep
I have no doubt that the Chinese leadership takes environmental issues very seriously. After all, they have to breathe the air too, and they have no reason to deliberately undermine progress.
But when it comes to actually implementing its pledges on the ground, the check is still very much in the mail.
In 2009, the Dalian Fujia PX plant began operation, the brainchild of the State Development and Reform Commission. However, damage caused by seawater led to an emergency situation at the plant, which in turn led to an uprising of local residents in protest.
The Dalian municipal government promised to shut the plant down and demolish it. But what actually happened was that it just started up again a while later. And when another accident occurred at the plant in January 2013, it didn't halt production at all.
A similar thing happened in Kunming in May 2013. Following huge local protests against a planned PX plant in the city, the authorities once more promised to respect the will of the people. But the authorities actually increased the planned production output [by more than tenfold].
The project is now close to completion, and no environmental impact assessment has yet been carried out.
Local governments are quick to promise to delay construction, halt construction, or cancel construction, when faced with a wave of popular anger. But then they just quietly carry on with a product when the wave has passed.
Problems getting worse
China has been focusing on environmental issues for a very long time, and yet the problems seem to get worse and worse.
There are many reasons for this, not least of which is the duplicitous attitudes of local governments.
What credibility do China's promises to the rest of the world have, if Beijing can't even rein in its local governments?
The real problem doesn't lie with the political will in Beijing. Of course they want to deliver on their promises. They just can't.
Economic growth at the local level doesn't just mean jobs; it also contributes to social stability and boosts tax revenues, all of which lines the pockets of local officials.
So local governments will always find a way to subtly resist central government directives about stricter observation of environmental regulations, while nodding along with them in public.
Until these structural problems in China's political system are resolved, there can be no confidence in any of China's environmental commitments.
Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Wang Dan, a former leader of the 1989 pro-democracy movement at Tiananmen Square, lectures on the history of the People's Republic of China at Taiwan's National Tsing Hua University. | <urn:uuid:1da21c36-51fd-4e14-a4db-230d17fd65ab> | {
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The agave stricta, also called the hedgehog agave, is a dramatic and small plant, characterized by its striking symmetrical rosettes of evergreen leaves. This narrow, spine-tipped plant spreads to produce attractive colonies and each individual hedgehog-like rosette produces a crooked, tall flowering stem before it dies. The next rosette in line then grows to take its place.
Water the agave stricta sparingly because over watering will spoil its form, cause uneven growth and it will rot. It prefers a well-drained soil and full exposure to sun. Due to its symmetrical habits and small size, it is the perfect plant for rock gardens, containers, slopes, patios, banks, urban planters and businesses, as long as their spiny leaves will not cause injury to anyone walking too close.
Agave Stricta Planting
When planting the agave stricta you will want to dig the holes or the beds more wide than deep and be careful to keep the root ball intact when removing the plant from its original container. Be sure to spread the roots outward and keep the plant level with its surrounding soil.
You will want to water the plant enough to settle the soil and stake larger plants so they will not be bothered by strong winds.
Watering And Pruning
The agave stricta actually prefers periods of drought from time to time so water the soil very slowly and allow it to dry completely before watering it again.
The only time you need to prune these plants is to remove diseased, dead or top-heavy growth. When possible, try to propagate the cuttings from the plant by inserting them into well-drained, clean potting soil.
Stem cuttings should be allowed to dry completely out for a few days or even weeks prior to replanting. Leaf cuttings and even individual leaves can sometimes sprout new plants when they are placed into moist soil. Seeds may also be sown on well-drained potting soil, providing they are kept very moist until they germinate. After germination they can be transplanted into small containers.Propagation
The agave stricta is quite content to go very long periods of time without fertilizer. When you do fertilize, choose a good quality type that has low nitrogen content and lightly scatter it around the plant’s base. Also, when using a liquid plant food, use much less than the recommended strength as they can easily become overfed.
When planting the agave stricta in a hanging basket, fill the basket with potting soil, leaving a bit of space at the top to make watering easier. Make a few holes in the soil for the new plants and prepare them by untangling the roots. It is helpful to tuck the plant into the sides of the basket by using sphagnum moss to help control the growth pattern. Additionally, it can be useful to use self-moisturizing crystals in the potting soil to retain moisture allowing for less watering.Hanging Basket Planting Tips
Transplanting Into Your Garden
Prepare the soil be adding any needed amendments and dig deep enough holes to set the full roots into. When removing the agave stricta from its container, be careful to handle the leaves or soil, never the stems. Loosen the root ball by gently squeezing it so the roots can grow outward when placed in the soil. Lightly pack the soil over the roots and be sure to cover with mulch to protect the plant from the hot sun. Water it very slowly every couple of days to help the roots to establish themselves without over watering and causing rot.
Transplanting To Another Pot
When the plant roots get too tight, they will need to be transplanted to another container. When doing so, careful removed faded, old or cluttered leaves first. After removing the agave stricta from its container, loosen the old soil and untangle the roots. Next, place it in a slightly larger container, lightly fertilize and mulch the surface to prevent any crusting from occurring after watering. | <urn:uuid:efc9a0c4-ba3d-400d-b892-029b4ece7453> | {
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Slave history, like all history is biased. In most cases it is written from one side only: that of the slave owner. With the exception of Mary Prince’s accounts there are no known records written by slaves in the Turks and Caicos Islands, and even this record appears to have been censored.
What we are left with are the official records. The way slave history has been recorded and preserved has clearly created serious problems when researching the subject. Ignoring the simple fact that most of the records are mere lists and collections of “facts”: slave name, age, sex, numbers, regulations, baptism record, work carried out, administration, legislation etc. and not what we are interested in today: the life and hardships of the slaves. The records are so well concealed amongst thousands of other documents it could take many decades to unravel the leads so far uncovered. This is the case for a small country that rarely had over 2000 slaves so it is likely to be more complex for larger countries with larger populations.
So how can researchers help each other? It is clear that during our research we have come across references that tie to other countries, especially the Bahamas, Bermuda and the USA. We have not passed this information on as it should be known about by the relevant countries as most are in the Public Records which the relevant country’s archivists have had access to. However, with the growth of people carrying out their personal family history there is a broad range of new data being made available, and not necessarily being shared.
One issue the Museum also has is how to try and change popular held beliefs. In most cases these beliefs have been taught in the schools. “Our Country, The Turks and Caicos Islands” has been adopted as the main textbook at schools for history and geography. Written and published before the Museum opened it provided an invaluable insight into the countries history, but was limited to the data available to the coordinating team. There is no discussion about the data presented (for example it only talks about the Esperanza being wrecked on East Caicos with its cargo of 300 slaves) and in some instances is clearly wrong (it shows 1832 as the date of emancipation rather than the real date of 1834). It is now time to try and provide more information to the public of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Maybe one good starting point would be a rewrite of this textbook.
At this point it would be best to end with a quote from Mary Prince:
Oh the horrors of slavery!–How the thought of it pains my heart! But the truth ought to be told of it; and what my eyes have seen I think it is my duty to relate; for few people in England know what slavery is. I have been a slave–I have felt what a slave feels, and I know what a slave knows; and I would have all the good people in England to know it too, that they may break our chains, and set us free. | <urn:uuid:139cf057-334d-4e71-952d-a81ad42dc03d> | {
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In the real world, funding is only an issue; politics is the most persistent problem
It must be something in the air. Or the water. Maybe it is our Puritan heritage. Whatever the reason, Bostonians love to criticize, to complain. If there is an upside to the local culture of negativity, it might be that it keeps everyone on their toes.
As targets for criticism go, it is hard to imagine one more inviting than the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, better known as the MBTA, best known as the T. That such a sprawling system is nearly universally recognized by a single letter is a testimony to its ubiquity. It also suggests the central role the T plays in so many lives.
As with other institutions that protect or foster the common good — schools, police departments, fire stations — Boston was an innovator, a pioneer in providing mass transport. The American Public Transportation Association credits Boston with the nation’s first publicly operated ferryboat (1631), first commuter fare on a railroad (1838), first fare-free promotion (1856), first public-transportation commission (1894), first electric underground street railway line (1897), and first publicly financed transportation facility (1897).
While the community can take pride in the past, pride will not help the region navigate the future. We are building on century-old infrastructure and can not lose site of that.
With gasoline prices skyrocketing, and unlikely to go lower, and recognition of the importance of global warming finally penetrating the national consciousness, the MBTA is of more central importance than ever before.
The special report in this edition of the Phoenix is rooted in that assumption, and looks at issues both large and small. In some cases the articles are analytical; in other cases whimsical. But if there is a bottom line to be found in the Phoenix survey, it is this: all things considered, the MBTA is doing a pretty good job. The question is: how can it do better?
: The Editorial Page
, Deval Patrick, Michael Dukakis, Mitt Romney, More | <urn:uuid:ec151708-dc90-477e-8eb9-4c9df1d8aa54> | {
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How To Support Teachers' Well-Being During COVID-19? Prioritize Relationships With Students.
Our guest authors today are Kristabel Stark, postdoctoral research associate at the University of Maryland, and Nathan Jones, associate professor of special education and education policy at Boston University.
As schools around the country get ready to reopen this month, we’ve heard a lot of talk about masks, ventilation systems, tablets, and internet access. But in the midst of these logistical conversations, it’s been easy to overlook the thing that matters most for a successful return to school: teachers. For teachers, factors associated with COVID-19 have challenged core dimensions of their work. As school gets underway this year, and building and district administrators strategize how to go about rebuilding again in the midst of a pandemic, our research suggests that one action is critical: prioritizing relationship building between teachers and students. We find that, of all of teachers’ daily activities, it is their work with students that is most strongly associated with positive emotions. And, this relationship actually intensified in the early months of the pandemic.
We did not set out to write a COVID paper. In the fall of 2019, we set out to conduct a longitudinal study of teachers’ daily work experiences, including how they budgeted their time across activities and how their emotions varied within and across schooldays. In the study, nearly 250 teachers in two urban school districts completed time diary surveys in which they recorded how long they spent on various activities, who they spent their time with, and how they felt during these activities and interactions. We wanted to understand how teachers’ emotions were associated with specific professional activities, and how those emotions changed over the course of a school year. But of course, we didn’t foresee that, midway through data collection, a global pandemic would emerge, temporarily transforming the nature of teachers’ work lives and professional experiences.
It’s easy to forget how quickly the ground shifted underneath schools. The teachers in our sample, like many others across the country, were told on a Thursday afternoon in March 2020 that school buildings would close on the following Monday. Educators, students, parents alike hoped that the closures would be temporary. Within a week, teachers were familiarizing themselves with online learning platforms, adapting instructional materials for circumstances they were not meant for, collaborating with colleagues and administrators to navigate greatly reduced instructional minutes, and, crucially, working to make sure that their students were safe and accounted for, as well as able to access remote instruction.
Our study results speak to teachers’ resilience in the face of these changes and, ultimately, of the importance of teacher-student relationships. Prior to the pandemic, the single activity most strongly associated with positive emotional experiences was working with students. Interestingly, once the pandemic hit, the intensity of their positive emotions when interacting with students was actually higher during the weeks immediately following school building closures, than before. While teachers have been accused of not stepping up to the plate, we found that teachers in our study felt more determined to meet their students’ needs in the weeks following COVID-related nationwide school shutdowns.
We’re not alone, or the first, in noting the urgency of teacher-student relationships in the wake of the pandemic. But while many researchers have focused on the importance of these relationships for students’ emotional wellbeing and academic progress, our research demonstrates that student-teacher relationships are just as important and meaningful for teachers.
Why should we care so much about teachers’ emotions? Prior research demonstrates there is a connection between teachers’ emotional well-being and their willingness to stay in the profession; teacher shortages and teacher retention are longstanding issues that have only increased during the pandemic. But teachers don’t have unlimited emotional resources—and we don’t have unlimited teachers. While teachers in our study rose to the occasion, prioritizing and deeply investing in their students as the pandemic upended their work and their lives, we don’t know how long they were able to sustain this initial response. Other studies have shown that, as the pandemic wore on, teachers across the country reported feeling demoralized and emotionally depleted. With ongoing teacher shortages, particularly in high-needs neighborhoods, which were hit particularly hard by the pandemic, we can’t afford to lose our teachers.
So what can administrators do? Prioritize—and support—teachers’ efforts to build relationships with their students. They can limit the extent to which additional planning and administrative responsibilities are placed on teachers in efforts to respond to the pandemic. Such efforts alone will likely not be enough to combat the levels of stress and burnout teachers have experienced this year. But in the midst of so many technical solutions to address the current situation – e.g., high dose tutoring, extended days, summer school –our research gently reminds administrators to make space for relationship building, which has always mattered but appears even more central in times of upheaval and uncertainty. | <urn:uuid:3de3ef4a-90c7-47ad-8d12-3d86f958f2b0> | {
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Glass is a translucent or transparent material which is made by pouring molten glass over a layer of tin. Molten glass is made up of limestone, iron oxide for color, dolomite, slat cake and sand exposed to a temperature of 1500o Celsius for a considerable time
Following are the various types of glasses available with us:-
FLOAT OR ANNEALED GLASS
Annealed glass are glass sheets having great optical clarity and can be easily drilled, polished or machined. This type of glass is produced by heating molten glass and then left for cooling at room temperature.
This type of glass is four times stronger than an annealed glass. It is a highly safe glass as when broken it shatters in small cubes of glasses that are harmless. This type of glass is produced using an annealed glass which is heated to over 500o Celsius and then suddenly exposed to cooling. Sudden cooling gives it extra strength and makes it impact resistant. Cutting, drilling and machining is difficult in this glass
HEAT STRENGTHENED GLASS
This type of glass is stronger than annealed glass as it is subjected to controlled heating followed by controlled cooling. It is highly thermal resistant and does not shatter in small pieces when broken. It breaks in larger pieces of glass that stay together making it harmless for the public nearby. Cutting, drilling and machining is difficult in this glass
It is also called as a privacy glass. It allows very less light to pass through as it is made up from acid etching method.
INSULATED OR DOUBLE GLASS
When 2 or more glasses are sealed together, with air in between, it forms an insulated glass. This type of glass has the best thermal performance.
TINTED (COLORED) GLASS
Tinted glass is also called as a colored glass. It is used for anti-glaring purpose to offer a soothing experience to eyes. This type of glass should be carefully selected as the light transmission through it is lesser than the other types of glass.
This type of glass has the property of significantly cutting down the light as well as heat as it is covered with advanced coating. It allows natural light to come in however blocks the heat and radiation. This type of glass is used to cover huge buildings or offices.
It also called as Pyrex glass and used as a heat resistant glass. It is not affected by heat as it has low heat coefficient of expansion. However a sudden change in temperature can cause it to break but not shatter which also makes it a safe glass.
GLASS MYTH BUSTER
Over the past decade, lot of modifications have taken place in the methods of producing a glass. As a result the glass types have also evolved. In such a case it becomes difficult for a layman to decide as to which glass would best suit his/her purpose. Along with it also comes in lot myths that are discussed below.
MYTH BUSTER 1:
People think that more the glazing of the glass better would be the sound insulation
This is not true as more the thickness of the glass better is the sound dilution. Therefore as an example, a 12mm gazing gives a better sound insulation than a 7mm gap plus 12 mm glazing.
MYTH BUSTER 2:
While installing glass there is no need of validating wind flow
This is again not true. Glass should never be installed without wind validation. It is just not a material. Your glass provider would be the best judge to guide you.
MYTH BUSTER 3:
Thick glass reduces sound
The sound insulation property works in a different way in glass. More the thickness of the glass better is the sound insulation. | <urn:uuid:ef9e26af-1031-437c-baa7-ec85f2feb296> | {
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Over centuries, successive waves of immigration from all over Asia have resulted in a rich, cultural diversity. This is evidenced by the various indigenous languages, products and architecture which all have marked differences according to the region.
Mythology and legends are still play a very important role in Timorese life and they speak about the pre-colonial period and the evolution of the traditional kingdoms. Animist beliefs are also part of the cultural makeup as Timor Leste; objects such as stones, animals, wells and streams are believed to be endowed with a mysterious magical powers; there are special sacred places throughout the country.
Modern Timorese culture continues to evolve in local arts and crafts, as well as in performing arts. Cultural motifs are incorporated into the design of tais hand-woven textiles and basket work and wood carvings that are now on sale widely in capital and in the districts. The free arts school Arte Moris is creating a new generation of young Timorese fine artists, and there are now several cultural groups performing the traditional dances and music of Timor-Leste at home as well as touring abroad. | <urn:uuid:24f95b05-7e13-4fb5-ac55-db551134b509> | {
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Name: Niven Ring, or Ringworld
Named for: Larry Niven's 1970 novel Ringworld and its sequels.
Selected Science Fiction Portrayals: Besides those featured in Niven's novels, similar but smaller structures, called Halos, appear in the Halo video game and media franchise. Also, the Orbitals of Iain M. Banks' Culture novels and short stories.
Someday, when humankind outgrows planet Earth, we might aim to build a habitat so vast we could never overpopulate it.
Sci-fi author Larry Niven conjured up such a megastructure for his award-winning 1970 book Ringworld. Niven imagined a ring with a radius of 93 million miles—the sun-Earth distance—with the sun placed at the center. The ring' would reach 600 million miles across and a million miles tall. The vast landscape could comfortably support perhaps trillions of humans (or another similarly ambitious, technologically advanced race).
"The thing is roomy enough: three million times the area of the Earth. It will be some time before anyone complains about the crowding," Niven wrote in a 1974 essay entitled "Bigger Than Worlds."
Niven figured a Ringworld would have a thickness of a few thousand feet, and require raw materials with a mass equal to that of Jupiter. Mountain "walls" a thousand miles high would line each rim, preventing the atmosphere from leaking into space. The inner surface could be sculpted like Earth's surface—full of great (though shallow) oceans, soaring mountains, and prodigious farmland—or whatever its builders desired.
Could a Ringworld ever be made? While the concept does not bend physics past the point of breaking, it would require truly extreme engineering and an utter mastery of the forces of nature. According to Anders Sandberg, a research fellow at Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute who has studied megastructure concepts, a Ringworld "is an amazingly large structure that's way beyond what we can normally imagine, but it's also deeply problematic."
When imagining the ring, Niven had started with the concept of a Dyson Sphere, an idea explored by physicist Freeman Dyson a decade prior to Ringworld's publication.
In its usual science fiction presentation as a "ping pong ball around a star," Niven said, a solid Dyson Sphere lacks gravity. Rotating the sphere would create gravity via centrifugal force, but only the equatorial regions would reap the benefits. "So," Niven tells PM, "I just used the equator."
A Niven Ring, then, can be thought of as the slice of the habitat-friendly section of a Dyson Sphere. To get Earth-like gravity, the Ringworld would need to spin at nearly three million miles per hour. Very fast, to be sure. But in a frictionless space environment, it could be doable. The ring could work up to that speed over time and then maintain it with little additional thrusting.
Managing the Sun
Although it would be equidistant from its central star at all points, the Ringworld would not, in fact, be gravitationally stable. Any perturbing force from, say, a meteorite strike or a close encounter with another star could throw the Ringworld out of attractive equilibrium and onto on a cataclysmic collision course. "A Ringworld will tend to drift off whenever it gets a chance," Sandberg says.
Readers of the original Ringworld, including students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote letters to Niven about this and other technical issues related to the megastructure. Niven addressed the problem in the 1980 sequel, The Ringworld Engineers. Large rockets placed along the Ringworld's edge would have to periodically fire to keep the megastructure properly situated away from its sun.
For residents of the Ringworld, that sun would always be directly overhead at a perpetual high noon. To create a day–night cycle and save plant life from frying, Niven envisioned a set of "shadow squares" around the sun at about Mercury's distance from Earth. The parts of Ringworld between the squares would experience roving daylight, while the eclipsed portions would rest in the shade. The whole length of the Ringworld would be checkered light and dark. "The builders, if they're something like humans, will want day and night because they will want an imitation of their own planet," Niven says.
The Ringworld's arch, as seen from a great ocean. (Photo Credit: Tim Russell courtesy of larryniven.net)
Solar panels on the immense shadows squares could collect energy to power the structure. Energy could be beamed via laser from the squares to receiver stations along the Ringworld's rim, away from inhabited "land."
Lasers would also come in handy for vaporizing asteroids or comets that might smack into the Ringworld. As a big, thin target, a Ringworld would be devastated by a high-speed impactor. A hole explosively punched through it could let the atmosphere eventually drain out.
Material strength is a potential showstopper for a Ringworld. Because of its bulk, the megastructure would be subjected to mechanical stresses violent enough to break any known physical molecular bonds. "The Ring needs to be superstrong," Sandberg says. "Mere molecular bonds will not do."
For super-strength, the best would bet would be, well, the "strong" force. This force is the grippiest of the four described forces of nature. It has 137 times the strength of electromagnetism, a million times that of the weak force, and duodecillion (1039) times that of puny gravity. Yet it operates only on the femtometer scale of the atomic nucleus. The strong force crams like-charged protons into an atomic nucleus. "The electromagnetic repulsion between the [protons] would love to split them apart, but you have the strong nuclear force gluing them together," Sandberg says.
In our present technological state, we are quite good at manipulating electromagnetism and dealing with gravity. If we could learn to wield the strong force, it would suffice for the structural integrity of a Niven Ring. The strong force is medicated by particles called gluons; if we could rip apart quarks and use their "glue" beyond the nucleic scale, all sorts of architectural and engineering feats would become possible.
"We have no clue how to control the strong nuclear force," Sandberg says, "but it could be that advanced civilizations know how."
Niven avoided this can of worms in his stories by inventing a magic, milky-gray material called "scrith." He envisioned it being somehow producible by transmutation of elements, via high-tech fusion. Transmutation of elements, such as the predominant hydrogen and helium available within Jupiter and Saturn, would be necessary anyhow for enough (non-scrith) material to build the megastructure.
From Worlds to a Ringworld
As for the actual Ringworld building process, Niven sketched it as follows. The solar system's planets would be dismantled by machines and reformatted into disc-shaped plates. Cables would link these plates and, in time, the plates would be pulled together to form a ring.
Given the miracle materials and advanced element transmutation required for a colossal Ringworld, smaller, other ringlike habitats make far more sense from an engineering perspective. The "Halos" in the eponymous video games, for instance, are about 10,000 miles in diameter. They could plausibly be made of steel. Bishop Rings, another proposed ring megastructure by a nanotechnologist, Forrest Bishop, would be a "mere" 1,200 miles in diameter and made of ultra-stiff carbon nanotubes. These rings would not encircle a star or planet, but could nestle stably in a Lagrangian point, where the gravitational pull from a planet matches that of the sun.
A ship swoops toward a Halo ring, under construction. The Ark, a construction and control station for Halos, is seen in the bottom of the image. (Photo Credit: commorancy/Flickr/Wikipedia)
Finally, the rationale for ever pursuing a Ringworld is questionable in the first place. The civilization's rulers would be placing an awful lot of eggs in one basket. A catastrophic failure somewhere on the Ring, perhaps of a stabilizing thruster, could doom the entire venture, and its trillion of inhabitants. (Niven explores this kind of crisis in The Ringworld Engineers.)
Niven himself points out that Ringworlds are really for telling a good story rather than offering a prescription for an Earth whose population has runneth over.
"Even if we go for big stuff, there is no reason to build a Ringworld," Niven says, "when we could build a million [other] things and put them in orbit, rather than in orbit around the sun." | <urn:uuid:2f25db1a-57a9-484e-8d4a-ce7ea68430de> | {
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WHAT can a demon do for a quantum computer? It can slyly trap and cool atoms so that their properties can be measured.
Now a team has brought such a creature to life - using lasers. The demon in question is based on the one in a thought experiment devised by the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1871. He imagined a creature capable of seeing individual atoms in a container of gas that had a central barrier with a tiny trapdoor. Maxwell's demon could sort the atoms according to their energy by opening or shutting the trapdoor to incoming atoms, depending on their speed. The demon appears to bring order to chaos without expending energy, violating the second law of thermodynamics.
Daniel Steck at the University of Oregon and colleagues have recreated Maxwell's demon using a pair of parallel lasers that act as the trapdoor. The team confined rubidium ...
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content. | <urn:uuid:0b69ba8c-93ee-41e2-8174-358a24ad5a7a> | {
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The soil is deteriorating, the pollinators are dying and there are floods and droughts all over the world. In the upcoming years, grains will become a rarity. People will not be able to afford vegetables and fruits. The only choice will be to feed on other animals. How will we decide to stay vegetarian or vegan then? The choice will be lost to us…
Dr Sonika Kushwaha
It is a surety that you must have heard the term “climate change” in the past few years or even recently! But, do you actually realise its implications? You are also a witness to the extremes of temperatures- be it heat, cold or rain- in fact, of the peculiarities of weather as well. This year, it rained till the end of the first week of May in north India. The urban population found the weather pleasant while the farmers were hit below the belt. With the latest technologies, we get warnings and notifications about weather forecasting from the Meteorological department, but is this enough? How can the farmers save their crops with such forecasts? They need to know why this is happening. “We wait for this time every year. Good harvesting means we can survive happily for the year. We have full granary and we also sell some portion of the crop to fulfill other requirements,” said Arvind Raikwar, a farmer from Uttar Pradesh. “This time first the Kharif and now the Rabi crops are damaged. We lost everything. There is nothing for our families and for animals. The damage is so much that we cannot even get fodder for animals.”
Farmers are facing the distress of climate change every season. “Farming is like gambling now. If the weather remains stable, crop yield is good but if it changes suddenly, you lose everything,” says Daya Ram, a farmer from village Malipur in Uttar Pradesh. The unpredictable changes, particularly the rainfall patterns, are harmful for all types of agricultural products be it pulses, rice, wheat, fruits, or vegetables. Pooran Prajapati, a small farmer from Niwari Madhya Pradesh is worried about the continuous loss of crops. “The condition of the country's food grains is now affected. Along with this, the food security of the poor is getting worst. In such a situation, despite giving free food grains to the poor under the Food Security Scheme, the price of all edibles is increasing. It is difficult to buy vegetables for the family. Most of them are above Rs 60/kg. We are not able to grow them. Due to sudden rains, the vegetables start rotting in the field itself. The fields get flooded and all the vegetables get spoiled.”
This is a cause of concern because such weather shocks have become more recurrent, intense, and worryingly they are unpredictable. Let us understand from the seasons that we have. The winters are delayed. In November we still use fans and cooling systems. The winters start in the last week of December and continue till February and sometimes in March too. The monsoon has a similar story. It starts late in the month of July and continues till September last and even October. The delay affects the sowing of the crops and the continuation affects the harvesting of the crops. Last year the heavy rain in late September destroyed the pulses completely. The fields were flooded with rain water and the pulses started decaying in the fields due to heavy post-monsoon. According to various resources, around 27% of India was left dry during the 2022 monsoon. Central India received 19% excess rainfall; the southern peninsula received 22% excess rain. Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Assam, Haryana, Delhi, and Punjab received very little rainfall during the monsoon season. But in the last week of September, Uttar Pradesh received more than 193% of the normal rainfall. Haryana received 916%, Punjab 350%, Himachal Pradesh 207%, Uttarakhand 223%, Rajasthan 190%, and Madhya Pradesh 83% above normal rainfall. October was thus one of the wettest in recent years at all India levels. Similarly, wheat harvesting suffered severe losses last month.
Governments are meeting and scientists from various fields are sharing their research to let the people know about the serious impacts of climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) is an eight-year-long undertaking from the world’s most authoritative scientific body on climate change. Drawing on the findings of 234 scientists on the physical science of climate change, 270 scientists on impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability to climate change, and 278 scientists on climate change mitigation, this IPCC synthesis report provides the most comprehensive, best available scientific assessment of climate change. The summary of the report says:
1. Human-induced global warming of 1.1 degrees C has spurred changes to the Earth’s climate that are unprecedented in recent human history.
2. Climate impacts on people and ecosystems are more widespread and severe than expected, and future risks will escalate rapidly with every fraction of a degree of warming.
3. Adaptation measures can effectively build resilience, but more finance is needed to scale solutions.
4. Some climate impacts are already so severe they cannot be adapted to, leading to losses and damages.
5. Global GHG emissions peak before 2025 in 1.5 degrees C-aligned pathways.
6. The world must rapidly shift away from burning fossil fuels — the number one cause of the climate crisis.
7. We also need urgent, system wide transformations to secure a net-zero, climate-resilient future.
8. Carbon removal is now essential to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C.
9. Climate finance for both mitigation and adaptation must increase dramatically this decade.
10. Climate change as well as our collective efforts to adapt to and mitigate it, will exacerbate inequity should we fail to ensure a just transition.
When we sum up the research reports by IPCC, World Bank, the Kyoto Protocol, Paris Agreement, or National Disaster Management Agency it reaches only to a handful of people. These people include researchers, environmentalists, academicians, and to some extent students. The public in general hears only the term “climate change”. The 2015 Paris Agreement aims at limiting the rise in temperature to 1.5°C, but it also added that the probability of limiting this warming to under 2°C by the year 2100 is less than 5 percent. How much do the common people understand from this and how much idea do they have about it?
What common populace need to understand
David Attenborough says: “We live our comfortable lives in the shadow of a disaster of our own making. That disaster is being brought about by the very things that allow us to live our comfortable lives.”- A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future.
Stubble-burning is a very common practice by farmers. This not only contributes to air pollution but also deteriorates the soil’s organic content, essential nutrients, and microbial activity-which together reduces the soil’s long-term productivity. So, somehow farmers also contribute to climate change and they need to understand this. “The biggest problem when it comes to air pollution and anthropogenic aerosols in India is enforcement of the law. Vehicular emissions need to be regulated. Roadside and agricultural burning has no accountability. Open and unattended areas are prime locations for garbage burning too. Coal-fired power plants across the Indo-Gangetic plain are highly dangerous and need to be checked,” Prof SK Satheesh, Divecha Centre for Climate Change, Indian Institute of Science, and recipient of the Infosys Prize 2018 in Physical Sciences, pointed out. However, these problems are better controlled by governmental bodies and require long-term changes.
Newspaper and Rail Neer Packaged Drinking Water bottles along with disposable cups are served to the passengers on board Shatabdi/Rajdhani/Duronto Express trains on a complimentary basis. One bottle of 1 litre Rail Neer Packaged Drinking Water and newspaper is supplied to every passenger. Have you ever thought about or calculated the number of plastic bottles that are generated unnecessarily by the railway? Almost every passenger on these trains carries their own water bottles but not even a single person says no to the water when offered to them. Many of them have just a sip of water and then leave the plastic bottles with unused water. This can be avoided. The educated class of people traveling on these trains should act wisely. Railways can offer RO water that can be filled in reusable water bottles. The small solutions are there that can eventually stop the big devastating climatic effects.
The human population is enhancing every second. We have the same Earth with the same capacity. Humans have depleted the natural resources that were sufficient for their survival. How will the growing population continue to exist?
Dr S M Satheesan, India's leading Airport BASH Management Expert and vulture enthusiast says: “We can write pages after pages on global warming and climate change, the causative and promoting factors as well as ways to reduce the impact of climate change on our day-to-day lives. But core to all climate change solutions is reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which must get to zero as soon as possible. Checking human population explosion and population of other animals will go a long way in addressing most of the problems we face including climate change. When we check the root cause of analyzing any problem, we find unchecked population explosion is the main cause. Not only governments but the public at large should do whatever possible to reduce global warming including preventing the burning of stubble, home refuse, and other industrial and market garbage, and not using generators, air conditioners, and refrigerators wherever possible. Giving sermons on global warming is easy but setting the example on sensible practices to reduce global warming is very difficult. Look at animal and bird species whose populations have grown to a number that cannot be supported by nature, can you eliminate them? Even domesticated and farm animals are a great problem in producing greenhouse gases and animal garbage including slaughter waste. So, having an optimum population of any species should be the very basis for even wildlife conservation, nipping problems in the bud!”
Abhishek Dubey, Outreach Coordinator at Vegan Outreach, India says: “Our demands for milk and milk products is one of the main causes of an increasing number of stray cattle that are left for suffering by the greedy owners.” He further adds that the owners make the animals breed forcefully through unnatural processes for their benefit, the keep the females as long as they are capable of giving milk, and then they leave them to suffer and die. The condition of male animals is even worst. Everywhere you can see feral cattle and dogs roaming around, eating polythene, injured, or becoming a cause of road accidents. Can’t the so-called most intelligent species, homo sapiens manage this? Huge crop losses every season, with the increasing human population and with the uncontrolled rise in some animal species will surely lead to an imbalanced life. The soil is deteriorating, the pollinators are dying, and there are floods and droughts all over the world. In the upcoming years, grains will become a rarity. People won’t be able to afford vegetables and fruits. The only choice will be to feed on other animals. How scary all this appears!
There is more to it
There are diseases due to various types of pollution and outbreaks of viruses, heart attacks; cancers and diabetes are so common that almost every person that we come across is suffering from these. Even if we limit temperature rise to under 2°C, disease spread is set to rise. The only way to tackle this is through increased species-monitoring and surveillance. This could help identify new diseases before they reach crisis levels. However, even this is easier said than done because of disease carriers like bats, rats, and other rodents, which are called hyper reservoirs as they can carry a range of diseases and spread very far with little detection. Dr Monika Raghuvanshi who did her doctorate on “Awareness, knowledge and attitude about environmental issues among secondary school students: An initiative for social as well as green marketing in Bikaner city” follows an eco-friendly lifestyle in every possible way. She believes that humans and nature are inseparable. They may appear to be different but are deeply interconnected. Climate drifting is due to pressure on nature due to anthropogenic activities. Nature is forced to recover its balance which appears as a natural calamity for humans. So, when we don’t change willingly, nature makes us change forcefully.
The famous phrase by Von Wong from Vietnam, “It’s just one straw, said one billion people”, has a very deep meaning for all people from every background. Be it a poor man or a rich one, everyone has taken the privilege of natural resources. An open tap with flowing or dripping water is a very common thing to be seen in a slum area or a public place like a railway station or bus station. Similarly washing expensive cars with open pipes is just a small thing for the rich. We need not realize climate change by the big terrifying data that go beyond our understanding. Mobile phones are a gift of technology for us that make our life easy in a number of ways only if we learn to use them wisely. Lotfi Belkhir, Associate Professor of Engineering at McMaster University said: “Our appetite for phones and the apps that populate them are a contributing factor to climate change. But there will be countable people who will agree to use mobile phones only for important work and not for entertainment.” The unnecessary screen time contributes to digital pollution and is digital waste according to Belkhir.
On an individual level, Satheesh explained that we can still make changes that are helpful. “Vehicle emissions are the easiest to tackle by individuals,” he said. “An Innova can seat 5 to 7 people, yet often has only one or two. We need to familiarise ourselves with carpooling. Another thing we could do is conserve power by turning lights and fans off when we go out. Printing unnecessarily is also a great indirect cause for pollution due to felling of trees which can combat pollution. Then there is plastic,” he said. Satheesh stressed that there are several effects of air pollution that we see around us every day, including the ill health and respiratory disorders developed by senior citizens and bleaching of coral reefs by ocean acidification. Glaciers melt quicker, especially since black carbon particles settle on ice, warming them. We are losing land to water, he says. “In climate change discussions, we always discuss global issues but lag behind on regional coverage,” he said of climate change coverage in the media. “What happens in other parts of the world might be very interesting, but is not of big consequence to a small town in our country, where citizens might not be aware of what is happening around them.” Prof SK Satheesh emphasized.
Climate change is grave trouble that humans have created by their small acts that are mostly preventable. Almost every one of us knows that we should carry our own cloth bag when we go out shopping, particularly for vegetables. We use vehicles even for small distances. This is detrimental to both our health and the environment. We are habitual to consume electricity and water than the requirement. Cape Town in South Africa is facing a severe water crisis. Similar is the condition in many parts of India be it the big cities or interior small villages of the Bundelkhand region. When agriculture becomes impossible in a lack of water, people start migrating to cities to earn their living. Farmers need to revert to the farming system. The use of excessive pesticides has led to soil degradation as well as a reduction in beneficial insects. The use of cow dung manure has multiple benefits. It enhances soil productivity, grows organic food, and also provides shelter to the cattle of farmers.
The construction of highways has destroyed lakhs of big old trees that will take more than a decade to grow. There is a major difference in the services provided by the large old trees and the young planted trees. Moreover, the number of trees that are cut down is never replaced by the same number of a plantation. A single tree is not only important for life-giving oxygen; it is the only habitat of countless species including invertebrates and vertebrates. Right from the roots to the branches, flowers, fruits, and leaves all are important for other living species as well and humans have no right to destroy them. The authorities, the responsible officers, the labour, and everyone who works on the construction projects should have the realization that by destroying nature we won’t be able to survive for long. To quote Ronald Reagan: “Preservation of our environment is not a liberal or conservative challenge, it’s common sense.”
So now is the time to understand climate change without the scientific data and without the enormous targets that are set for the upcoming 20-25 years. We need to change and act now. Ever tried to hug a tree and thanked it for giving us life? Try it now! | <urn:uuid:db3be853-3eb9-4170-a4b6-17d9e9d8bff2> | {
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Disasters lower women’s life expectancy more than men’s.
Women, boys, and girls are 14 times more likely than men to die during a disaster.
Most of the victims trapped in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina were African-American women and their children.
Women were 61% of fatalities in Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis in 2008, 70% after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami in Banda Aceh, and 91% after Cyclone Gorky in Bangladesh in 1991.
Following a disaster, many women may avoid shelters for fear of being sexually assaulted.
Women in poorer countries often are at home with no early warning system (television or radio).
Source: United Nations Development Programme | <urn:uuid:5faed97d-9089-48b0-a358-2bc3cb4ad123> | {
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International Museum Day in Jordan
Amman 18 May, 2012 Every year on May 18, UNESCO together with the global community of museums, celebrates the International Museum Day. This day encourages public awareness and highlights the important role that museums play in the development of society.
The rapid changes our societies are facing challenge the role of museums in an ever faster changing world. For this reason, this year’s theme is “Museums in a changing world. New challenges, new inspirations.” Thanks to new technologies such as social media and networking tools, increased interactions is radically changing the way people relate to each other, acquire knowledge, and access science, heritage and arts. Consequently, modern museums must adapt and compete for a distinct voice against background’s rapid pace.
UNESCO considers museums as centers for conservation, study and reflection on heritage and culture in the service of society, and realizes that they can no longer stand distant from the major issues and social transformations of our time. The organization believes that now more than ever it is very important to invest in museums in order to provide educational and cultural activities, especially for youth, in order to build self-awareness, create openness to knowledge, and foster life-long learning.
Over the past years, in Jordan UNESCO has been supporting the museum sector in Jordan by focusing on the management and educational aspects of museums. Through close partnerships with the Department of Antiquities and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, UNESCO has helped museums in Jordan meet international standards of management practices, conservation and preservation. These partnerships have also created a network of museum specialists. Now, there is a particular focus on museum education and outreach, but also on the introduction of best museum management practices in case of flooding, fire or earthquakes.
Anna Paolini, UNESCO Representative to Jordan, stated that “UNESCO will continue to assist Jordan in improving the management of museums and cultural objects, as well as in promoting cultural diversity and encourage specialised academic programmes at the local universities so that enough qualified and trained professionals will be ready in Jordan to manage and supervise museums according to international standards.”
The International Council of Museums established May 18 as International Museum Day in 1977. May 18 is a day for worldwide recognition and celebration of the importance of museums as cultural and educational institutions.
For more information please contact Valentina Gamba, [email protected]
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Share this articleFeatured in This Article
Sea lions to be culled to protect salmon
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is accepting public comments on a new plan to cull sea lions on the Columbia River, along the Oregon-Washington border, in order to benefit populations of salmon and steelhead, which have been falling in recent years.
Current management policy allows up to 92 California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) to be culled each year at Bonneville Dam, although managers have never reached the limit. The new plan would increase sea lion removal limits to more than 1,000 annually — up to 900 California sea lions and 250 Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) — along a stretch of the river starting 112 miles inland from the river’s mouth and extending upstream to McNary Dam at river mile 292. In that area, sea lions exclusively prey on salmon and steelhead, mostly at dams where the fish are easy to catch as they migrate upstream.
Under existing management, California sea lions are captured at Bonneville Dam by state and federal employees and euthanized off-site. The new plan would also allow tribes to remove sea lions and expand the sites from which sea lions will be removed. NOAA developed the plan at the request of Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Native American tribes.
Thirteen species of Columbia basin salmon and steelhead are listed under the Endangered Species Act. State and federal agencies, tribes and partner organizations have spent billions of dollars over the past few decades on various efforts to recover the populations, including habitat restoration and fish passage at dams, in addition to sea lion removals.
NOAA estimates that sea lions consume nearly 10,000 adult spring Chinook salmon a year, more than 3% of returning adult fish. Overall, NOAA believes that approximately 25 to 35% of the fish consumed by sea lion are listed under the ESA. Removals efforts have been underway since 2008. In 2016, NOAA estimated that removals at Bonneville Dam between 2008 and 2016 prevented the loss of 15,000 to 20,000 salmon and steelhead.
While it can be controversial, prevention or control of wildlife damage, which often includes removal of the animals responsible for the damage, is an essential and responsible part of wildlife management, as noted in The Wildlife Society’s standing position on Wildlife Damage Management.
The plight of Columbia River salmon and steelheads has also gained Congressional attention in recent years, with legislation introduced during the last Congress to increase the numbers of California sea lions culled each year at Bonneville Dam. That bill passed the House of Representatives but did not pass the Senate before the end of the 115th Congress.
NOAA is taking public comment on the plan through Oct. 29.
Read The Wildlife Society’s Standing Position Statement on Wildlife Damage Management. | <urn:uuid:fa26a0fb-7340-4110-9b8b-480dc163c23e> | {
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By James Kingsland for The Guardian
It may seem unlikely, but a small and growing body of evidence suggests that regular meditation can indeed slow aging, at least at a cellular level.
Do people who meditate age more slowly? It seems unlikely on the face of it. How could sitting immobile with one’s eyes closed, perhaps focusing on the breath, possibly keep the Grim Reaper at bay? That said, the Buddha – surely the archetypal meditator – is reputed to have lived to 80, which must have been an exceptionally ripe old age in 5th century BCE India. And according to Buddhist scriptures, even after 80 years in this realm of existence, in the end it wasn’t old age that finished him off but food poisoning.
Two and a half millennia later there is a small but growing body of evidence that regular meditation really can slow aging – at least at the cellular level. A commonly used proxy for cellular aging is the length of telomeres, the DNA and protein caps that protect the ends of each chromosome during cell division. These shorten slightly every time the chromosome replicates, until eventually the cell can no longer divide, becoming senescent or undergoing “apoptosis” – the cellular equivalent of suicide. Having shorter telomeres in your cells is associated with the onset of many age-related diseases, including hypertension, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and dementia. Several lifestyle factors have been found to accelerate telomere shortening, such as poor diet, lack of sleep, smoking, drinking and a sedentary lifestyle.
Chronic stress is also known to accelerate the shortening of telomeres. A study published last month found that long-term meditators had a reduced inflammatory and stress response to psychological and chemical stressors in the lab compared with a control group. By countering the effects of stress, could meditation also indirectly slow cellular aging? An older study found increased telomere length in the immune cells of people after they took part in an intensive meditation retreat. Another revealed increased activity of an enzyme called telomerase, which rebuilds telomeres, after a similar retreat.
Now a study by Spanish researchers suggests that highly experienced Zen meditators have longer telomeres on average than people of a similar age and lifestyle. The research also hints that the psychological factors underpinning this beneficial effect were that the meditators had a more compassionate, accepting outlook on life.
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THIS ARTICLE IS MORE THAN FIVE YEARS OLD
This article is more than five years old. Autism research — and science in general — is constantly evolving, so older articles may contain information or theories that have been reevaluated since their original publication date.
A combination of multiple diagnostic tests may gauge the extent to which adults with autism mimic the behavior of people not on the spectrum1. Both sexes engage in such ‘camouflaging,’ but women do so more than men, the study found.
“If you have a range of autism characteristics inside, but you don’t show it outside by your external behavior, that can be defined as showing camouflaging,” says lead researcher Meng-Chuan Lai, assistant professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Toronto.
In the new study, published 29 November in Autism, researchers combined several diagnostic tests to quantify the chasm between how an individual acts and her true inclinations and abilities.
Camouflaging may help people with autism maintain jobs and relationships, but many of them say it takes an emotional toll. The new work may help scientists better understand the behavior’s fallout.
“Camouflaging seems to be something that a lot of autistic people feel they’re doing a lot of the time, but nobody had really gone about finding a way to actually measure it,” says William Mandy, senior lecturer in clinical psychology at University College London. Mandy was not involved in this study, but is collaborating with Lai on another study of the behavior. “This is an interesting start on what is going to be a big topic, which is mapping the costs and benefits of camouflaging,” Mandy says.
While conducting a brain imaging study published in 2013, Lai and his team noticed that women with autism often rated themselves as having more autism features than their diagnostic assessment reflected2. In the new work, the team tried to measure this discrepancy.
The researchers rated autism features in the same group of 30 men and 30 women, using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), a clinician-administered test for autism.
They then asked the participants to rate their own autism features using the Autism Quotient (AQ), a 50-item questionnaire. They also used the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), which assesses a key social skill: the ability to infer emotion from another person’s eyes.
The researchers standardized the three measures and then subtracted the ADOS score from that for either the AQ or the RMET. They then combined the two subtracted results into a single measure to represent the ability to camouflage, as reflected by an artificially low score on the ADOS.
As a group, women with autism have higher camouflaging scores than men, the researchers found. This finding meshes with anecdotal reports that women feel pressure to fit in and try to do so by imitating socially successful peers. This may also contribute to the gender bias in autism — that is, more women have autism than the reported sex ratio indicates because many women with the condition fly under the diagnostic radar.
On an individual level, however, many men show signs of camouflaging, and some of the men score higher than some of the women.
“Defined our way, it’s not a female-specific phenotype,” Lai says. “It’s actually in everyone who is on the spectrum.”
The degree of camouflaging does not track with intelligence. But all of the participants have intelligence quotients of average or above. “It will be interesting to see how these findings generalize more broadly across the autism spectrum,” Mandy says.
The researchers also examined whether camouflaging scores track with certain cognitive, perceptual and emotional traits. They found that women who have higher camouflaging scores perform better on a task that measures the ability to detect and respond to visual cues.
A lifetime of camouflaging may make women more perceptive, leading to better performance on the task. Women who are naturally more observant may also be better at camouflaging, says Lai.
The researchers found that in men, higher camouflaging scores are tied to a greater incidence of depression. The team saw no association between camouflaging and anxiety, however, despite anecdotal reports from people on the spectrum. “I’ve literally had people say they’ve had to lie in the fetal position in a dark room after camouflaging,” Mandy says. Lai says the adults in the study may have become used to the stress of camouflaging over the years.
The next steps, Lai says, are to use data from behavioral tests to try to detect signs of camouflaging, and to ask participants directly whether they engage in camouflaging behavior. | <urn:uuid:e164b342-3dd5-45f1-a973-e9d217efb820> | {
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Despite all the verve of the American social scene in the 1920s, the Presidential leadership of the decade was quite unremarkable. Warren Harding won his bid for the White House in 1920 with the campaign slogan "Return to Normalcy." Republicans believed Americans had grown weary of the turmoil caused by World War I and promised tranquility. Harding found himself mired in scandals unknown in America since the Grant Administration. Although Harding himself was above the graft, his friends were more than willing to dip into the public treasury. Fraud and bribery plagued the Veterans Bureau and the Justice Department. The Teapot Dome Scandal exposed Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall for accepting bribes for allowing private oil companies to lease public lands. Harding fell ill in 1923 and died shortly thereafter.
Calvin Coolidge brought no significant change to Harding's laissez faire, pro-business style. Progressives bemoaned the end of activist Presidents protecting the public good, prompting Fighting Bob LaFollette to launch an unsuccessful run for the Presidency under the Progressive Party banner in 1924. The only successul progressive reforms occurred on the state and local levels. Politics became interesting in the election year of 1928. The Democrats nominated Al Smith, the first Catholic ever to earn the nomination of a major party. Smith raised eyebrows with an open opposition to the Prohibition amendment. As a result, the South broke with a long tradition of supporting Democrats and helped Herbert Hoover to continue Republican domination of the Presidency.
On the international scene, two themes dominated American diplomacy. The first was to take steps to avoid the mistakes that led to World War I. To this end, President Harding convened the Washington Naval Arms Conference in 1921. The United States, Great Britain, and Japan agreed to a ten-year freeze on the construction of battleships and to maintain a capital ship ratio of 5:5:3. They also agreed to uphold the Open Door Policy and to respect each other's holdings in the Pacific. In 1928, the United States and France led an initiative called the Kellogg-Briand Pact, in which 62 nations agreed to outlaw war. These two measures showed the degree to which Americans hoped to forestall another disastrous war. The second priority dealt with outstanding international debt. While practicing political isolation, the United States was completely entangled with Europe economically. The Allies owed the United States an enormous sum of money from World War I. Lacking the resources to reimburse America, the Allies relied on German reparations. The German economy was so debased by the Treaty of Versailles provisions that they relied on loans from American banks for support. In essence, American banks were funding the repayment of the foreign debt. As Germany slipped further and further into depression, the United States intervened again. The Dawes Plan allowed Germany to extend their payments on more generous terms. In the end, when the Great Depression struck, only Finland was able to make good on its debt to the United States. | <urn:uuid:750b208f-7857-472e-bc08-22496206aba0> | {
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This page provides links to other government research activities that, while not directly part of the Bioregional Assessment Program, are significant in building a broader understanding of Australia’s environment, society and economy in the context of unconventional gas (which includes coal seam gas) and coal exploration and development.
The Australian Government’s Domestic Gas Strategy outlines the Australian Government’s role, and expectations of state and territory governments and industry, in developing unconventional gas. It identifies a number of actions the Australian Government is undertaking to support the responsible development of unconventional gas resources, including understanding and communicating the science to build confidence in the community that risks and environmental impacts can be managed.
Department of the Environment and Energy’s Office of Water Science managed a research program on potential water-related impacts of coal mining and coal seam gas developments. A range of research products and fact sheets on different topics are available.
Gas Industry Social and Environmental Research Alliance
Gas Industry Social & Environmental Research Alliance (GISERA) is a partnership between the CSIRO and industry to research environmental, social and economic impacts and opportunities that onshore gas development may have on communities. The projects and research findings are independently verified and transparently available to everyone on the GISERA website.
Geoscience Australia has completed studies on the hydrogeology and coal resources in four major coal basins in Queensland, South Australia and Victoria. The geological basins that were the focus of this study are not initially part of the Bioregional Assessment Program.
Groundwater hydrochemical characterisation of the Surat Region and Laura Basin — Queensland
Geoscience Australia has completed a desktop study to characterise the hydrogeochemistry of groundwater associated with coal seams and surrounding aquifers in the Surat Region and Laura Basin, in Queensland.
CSIRO and partners undertake research in a wide range of areas associated with understanding and extracting unconventional gas.
CSIRO’s 'Unearthing coal seam gas' animation provides an overview of the coal seam gas extraction process, from drilling the well to what happens to the extracted gas and water. | <urn:uuid:09121ae7-5d20-41b0-83de-b8d645ec77fa> | {
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Full text not currently available from Enlighten.
Publisher's URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/0076609713Z.00000000013
This article presents a summary and interpretation of burial practices in Scotland in AD 400-650, during the transition from the Iron Age to the early medieval period. Due to the dearth of primary historical sources from this period relating to Britain north of Hadrian’s Wall, the numerous burials provide the main evidence pertaining to the knock-on effects of the collapse of the Roman province of Britannia, and the era which saw the formation of Pictish, British, Scottish and Christian identities that would define the region for the remainder of the early medieval period. Yet previous work has generally addressed these sites as evidence for a single aspect of this transition: the conversion to Christianity. This paper summarises the relevant results of the author’s doctoral research, which involved the creation of a database of all burials from Scotland covering the first millennium AD. With a body of nearly 300 individual radiocarbon dates, the Scottish evidence allows theoretical advances into the archaeology of death and burial to be combined with an unprecedented level of chronological precision. This has the potential to influence the discourse on the sub-Roman period in the British Isles, framing new questions about the function of death and commemoration in the longer processes of conversion, the establishment of new social identities, and the formation of ethnic kingdoms.
|Keywords:||Scotland, burial, early Christianity, early medieval|
|Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:||Maldonado, Dr Adrian|
|Subjects:||C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CC Archaeology|
D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D111 Medieval History
|College/School:||College of Arts > School of Humanities > Archaeology|
|Journal Name:||Medieval Archaeology| | <urn:uuid:3e3f8e56-3056-46e2-a236-46d6ea1ef8da> | {
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Entry from US English dictionary
Definition of Carson, Kit in English:
(1809–68), US frontiersman and scout; full name Christopher Carson. He was a US Indian agent in the Southwest 1853–61 and organized Union forces against Indians in the West during the Civil War.
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
Comments that don't adhere to our Community Guidelines may be moderated or removed. | <urn:uuid:f6e39de6-2384-4f1e-9604-905fd61a7b6b> | {
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A study looking at more than 15,000 cardiac events occurring over a ten-year period concluded that the risk for heart attack is 58-66 percent higher in unmarried men and 60-65 percent higher in unmarried women. Though the risk for heart attack is almost equal among men and women, unmarried people are also much more likely to die from a cardiac event.
the important thing
is having strong relationships
Relationships and behavior modification
Researchers at University Hospital in Finland believe this may be due to the fact married people may have better health habits. Cleveland Clinic cardiologist Richard Krasuski, MD, agrees.
“I think we have known for a long time that when we are modifying behaviors, whether it be quitting smoking or getting people to exercise, if we involve the spouse as part of this, people do better,” he says. “I don’t think necessarily it’s only being married. It’s having strong relationships with people. Confiding in other people.”
The importance of having someone close
Resuscitation or calling for help may also contribute to these statistics. Whether married or unmarried, Dr. Krasuski urges patients to have someone they can lean on in a time of need. | <urn:uuid:b4da3d13-762e-4f3b-b147-e89b09f74fd5> | {
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discuss a current challenge/issue facing an organization having to do with diversity, cultural intelligence, inclusion or otherness. You will want to state the situation, how what we have been learning about in class applies to the situation, and based upon what you are learning in this class, what would you recommend to the leaders of the organization to rectify the situation.
This is the exact discussion board and questions that need to be answered:
THIS IS NOT A PAPER JUST ANSWER THE QUESTIONS!
Retrospective Insights – Focus on Current events (Reflection)
During the last several weeks, we have been reviewing and analyzing theories, ideas & concepts, and their application to organizational issues surrounding leadership in diverse and multicultural organizations.
Focus on an organization that has been in the headlines during the time you have been enrolled in OLCU 425 (8 week term).
Address the following (this organization should meet two (2) or more of the below criteria in order for you to respond and offer your initial post in this forum):
- What is the name of the organization and are they publicly facing a challenge/issue surrounding diversity, cultural intelligence, inclusion or embracing ‘otherness?’
- Define the issue/challenge and cite at least two sources of public information (this may include a news article or fact based story on the challenge/issue facing the organization).
- What theory, idea or concept from our course readings and topics covered would you apply to describe the challenge the organization is facing?
- What action steps would you suggest the organization take to improve their current situation?
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Coal Tar and Coal-Tar Pitch
What is coal tar?
Coal tar is derived from coal. It is a byproduct of the production of coke, a solid fuel that contains mostly carbon, and coal gas. Coal tar is used primarily for the production of refined chemicals and coal-tar products, such as creosote and coal-tar pitch. Certain preparations of coal tar have long been used to treat various skin conditions, such as eczema, psoriasis, and dandruff.
What is coal-tar pitch?
Coal-tar pitch is a thick black liquid that remains after the distillation of coal tar. It is used as a base for coatings and paint, in roofing and paving, and as a binder in asphalt products. Both coal tar and coal-tar pitch contain many chemical compounds, including carcinogens such as benzene.
How are people exposed to coal tar and coal-tar pitch?
The primary routes of human exposure to coal tars and coal-tar products are inhalation, ingestion, and absorption through the skin. Exposure to coal tars and coal-tar pitches may occur at foundries and during coke production, coal gasification, and aluminum production. Other workers who may be exposed to coal-tar pitches include those who produce or use pavement tar, roofing tar, coal-tar paints, coal-tar enamels, other coal-tar coatings, or refractory bricks.
The general population may be exposed to coal tars in environmental contaminants and through the use of coal tar preparations to treat skin disorders such as eczema, psoriasis, and dandruff.
Which cancers are associated with exposure to coal tar and coal-tar pitch?
Occupational exposure to coal tar or coal-tar pitch increases the risk of skin cancer. Other types of cancer, including lung, bladder, kidney, and digestive tract cancer, have also been linked to occupational exposure to coal tar and coal-tar pitch.
How can exposures be reduced?
Exposures to coal tar and coal-tart pitch are regulated under the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Air Contaminants Standard for general industry, shipyard employment, and the construction industry. OSHA provides detailed safety and health information about coal-tar pitch to the public.
- National Toxicology Program. Coal Tars and Coal-Tar Pitches, Report on Carcinogens, Fourteenth Edition. Triangle Park, NC: National Institute of Environmental Health and Safety, 2016. Also available online. Last accessed December 28, 2018.
- National Water-Quality Assessment Program. Frequently Asked Questions—Parking-Lot Sealcoat: A Major Source of PAHs in Urban and Suburban Environments. Reston, VA: U.S. Geological Survey, 2014. Available online. Last accessed December 28, 2018.
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Coal Tar Pitch Volatiles, Safety and Health Topics. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor. Available online. Last accessed December 28, 2018.
- Office of Water. Stormwater Best Management Practice: Coal-Tar Sealcoat, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, and Stormwater Pollution. Washington, DC: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2012. Also available online. Last accessed December 28, 2018. | <urn:uuid:aa0d205c-d9db-4fa8-bb38-4c5feecec13d> | {
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Our Accelerate Program Transforms Summer School
Provide a well-rounded education
Promote literacy and math skills in a fun and engaging way with our Accelerate® program, an add-on to the Camp Invention® program from the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame®. This immersive curriculum gets teachers out from behind the desk, changing the way students view summer school.
We know that children thrive in a non-traditional, open-ended environment by learning through hands-on activities. That’s why we’ve designed the Accelerate program to transform the classroom into both an amusement park and a carnival! Your students will be engaged in storytelling and creative problem solving while exploring the excitement of literacy, math and STEM.
This program adds literacy and math concepts to the principles educators have come to expect from the Camp Invention program, including creativity, collaboration and innovation.
Our hands-on challenges turn summer school into a thrilling adventure. So not only will students have a more meaningful learning experience, but they will also be excited to attend each day.
Accelerate offers a flexible curriculum, with two modules that may be implemented either individually or in combination.
The Accelerate modules, Plot Coasters™ (English Language Arts) and Fair Games™ (Mathematics), offer a combined total of 20 hours of engaging, hands-on content and activities, including approximately 50 games emphasizing literacy and math concepts.
In Plot Coasters, children work as design interns for the world’s newest amusement park — Imagination Point! They are challenged to build exciting roller coasters to attract visitors and write best-selling stories that can be sold in the gift shop.
- Develop writing strategies using their journal
- Complete word wall activities to develop and enhance foundational skills in fluency, word recognition and vocabulary
- Engage in daily group and individual reading to develop comprehension
- Be encouraged to discuss ideas in small groups for continued communication and collaboration
- Apply STEM concepts and teamwork to create, test and recreate as they build their roller coasters
In Fair Games, children join carnival worker Captain Sam Dabble on his quest to invent better carnival games that people will love to play! Children explore concepts of measurement, number operations, geometry and algebraic thinking as they engage in the hands-on designing, building and modifying of fun-filled games.
- Execute mental math to construct and navigate their own miniature golf game
- Construct gravity balance scales as they are introduced to fulcrums and levers
- Discover nonstandard measurements as they design an acrobat launching device
- Explore creativity by adding designs to their carnival games
- Practice collaboration and communication for Mega Carnival Midway
With flexible implementation and turnkey curriculum, we provide all the tools and materials your students will need to transform their learning. Because of our dramatically different approach to summer school, students are excited to learn and apply their bright ideas to each innovation challenge.
All of our educational programs qualify for Title I, Title II, Title III, Title IV, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, Migrant Education and Early Learning Challenge funding, as well as state and local district resource funding to support the program.
Bring this program to your district | <urn:uuid:d068e9fc-e583-4bed-abc3-82b7d7a6bc45> | {
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Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
December 10, 1996
Explanation: Here is what a comet nucleus really looks like. For all active comets except Halley, it was only possible to see the surrounding opaque gas cloud called the coma. During Comet Halley's most recent pass through the inner Solar System in 1986, however, spacecraft Giotto was able to go right up to the comet and photograph its nucleus. The above image is a composite of hundreds of these photographs. Although the most famous comet, Halley achieved in 1986 only 1/10th the brightness that Comet Hyakutake did last year, and a similar comparison is likely with next year's pass of Comet Hale-Bopp. Every 76 years Comet Halley comes around again, and each time the nucleus sheds about 6 meters of ice and rock into space. This debris composes Halley's tails and leaves an orbiting trail that, when falling to Earth, are called the Orionids Meteor Shower.
Authors & editors:
NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC | <urn:uuid:b0b2501e-575f-4130-9d7d-5e48b28e6ec0> | {
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Image via Fresno State Olam Sensory Laboratory
Written by The Business Journal Staff
Researchers and undergraduate students at Fresno State are going beyond simple taste testing to capture live data on how people respond to the aromas of wine.
The testing, which is being done at the Jordan Agricultural Research Center, is studying people’s physiological reactions to the aromas using technology that can record facial movements, sweat on the fingertips, respiration cycles and heart rate. Miguel Pedroza, assistant professor of enology in Fresno State’s Department of Viticulture and Enology and one of the head researchers, said this type of data for wine is unprecedented in scientific literature.
“Wine is a very emotional beverage,” Pedroza said. “Historically, mankind has been attracted very heavily to wine, and we believe that this is due to the aromas which might be a link between the emotions and wine. We want to understand a bit more how our body reacts.”
Pedroza is collaborating with three other professors in the Food Science and Nutrition, Psychology and Computer Science departments. The two-year project is funded through the Agricultural Research Institute from the California State University system.
Testing is conducted in the sensory lab at the Jordan Agricultural Research Center, where participants are hooked up to small electrodes to record body signals and given aromas to smell, such as rose, clove or spices. These electrodes can detect the slightest movements, said Martin Shapiro, professor of psychology, who specialized in decision-making and has a physiology lab that measures responses in the body. He added that heart rate levels and sweat also tell about arousal levels and stress.
“These people are great to work with. They’re a lot of fun and we have these great ideas,” Shapiro said. “I’m learning about wine, they’re learning about physiology and we’re learning ways of measuring it all.”
The project will be conducted in three phases and 30 participants are needed for each one. Those interested in volunteering to participate in this or other sensory projects can do so at the Olam Sensory Laboratory website. | <urn:uuid:31753012-3ab7-4452-8da6-577074ac3cd5> | {
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This is the third and last lesson for the "Finding Credible Sources" assignment. You will learn:
In science, the vast majority of new facts and discoveries are communicated in scientific articles (also called scientific papers) published in scholarly journals. A scholarly journal is a journal that contains articles authored by experts. The articles published in these journals -- if they report on new research findings -- must be peer-reviewed before being accepted for publication. Peer-review is an important process that helps ensure that only reliable and accurate information is published. Here is how it works: article manuscripts submitted to the journal are sent out to other researchers ("peers") who have relevant knowledge and expertise to evaluate the merits and accuracy of the article. The article will be published only if these experts agree that the article is high-quality. The peers who evaluate articles are called referees. Sometimes you will hear the phrases scholarly journal, refereed journal, and peer-reviewed journal used interchangeably. Take a look at the diagram below to get a better idea about how scientific information is generated, peer-reviewed, stored, and retrieved.
For college-level research, you might be asked to cite only scholarly or peer-reviewed articles for your research projects. Watch the video below to learn more about the peer-review process and why it is important. (Thanks to Western University for creating this video.)
There are two ways to determine whether a journal has a peer-review process in place.
1) Check the journal's website. You can usually find a journal's website quickly by doing a Google search on the journal's title. Once you find the journal's website, information about peer-review is not always obvious. Look for a link that provides general information about the journal, or look for a link to author guidelines that might explain a peer-review process to prospective authors.
2) Check Ulrichsweb Global Serials Directory (i.e. Ulrich's). While you are an NAU student, you will have access to this resource. After you graduate you can still check for peer-review information on a journal's website, as shown above. You can find Ulrich's by using the link above or navigating to it on the Cline Library website by clicking the Databases by title link, and then typing in Ulrichsweb. To use Ulrich's, enter a journal title, and once you've found a record for that journal, look at the symbols on the left to see if there is a symbol for a referee shirt like those worn by sports referees:
Finding this symbol that means the journal is refereed, which is another way of saying it is peer-reviewed.
Not every item that appears in a scholarly journal has been peer-reviewed. Consult the table below for more information.
|Why are these articles peer-reviewed? The stakes are much higher to get information correct when reporting on new and original research, or summarizing research. Other researchers are going to use and build upon the data and information reported in those articles, so it's important that it is accurate.||Why are these items not peer-reviewed? These items represent opinions or other lower-stakes types of information.|
In science, articles that report on new research are called primary research articles or primary sources, and they have a structured organization that includes the following elements (or minor variations of these core elements):
To make sure you are reading an original research article (a primary source), check whether the article is divided into sections similar to those above. Also, look for data (tables, diagrams, charts, etc.), usually in the results section. The presense of data usually means the authors are sharing the results of original research that they conducted.
Magazines and newspapers are considered popular sources rather than scholarly sources, and they are not peer reviewed. Watch the video below for an excellent overview of the differences between scholarly and popular sources. (Thanks to Peabody Library at Vanderbilt University for creating this video.) | <urn:uuid:f43c4c1c-2a86-4578-81f0-d42e55cc8f17> | {
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You may already know what dental plaque is and that it is a biofilm of bacteria, food particles, and saliva that cling to your teeth. When you run your tongue over your teeth later in the day, the “fuzzy” feeling you get is due to plaque buildup.
It’s crucial to keep plaque buildup under control with brushing and flossing if you want to avoid gum disease from taking hold. Plaque that sits on your teeth gradually mineralizes into a hard substance called tartar.
Tips to Minimize Tartar Buildup on Your Teeth
Tartar makes it difficult to keep your teeth clean and contains bacteria that can lead to gum disease. The only way to get rid of tartar is by scheduling teeth cleaning in Nederland, TX with a dental hygienist who removes it using specialized instruments. However, you can take steps at home to minimize the plaque buildup that turns into tartar.
- Brush twice a day with a tartar-control, fluoride toothpaste and floss once.
- Invest in an electric toothbrush that can remove plaque more effectively than a toothbrush
- Rinse your mouth daily with an antiseptic mouthwash
- Avoid starchy and sugary foods that attract bacteria and speed plaque buildup
- Drink lots of water to carry away food particles, so they don’t collect on your teeth
- If you smoke, quit; tobacco users are more prone to developing tartar buildup
With just a little extra effort, these are all steps that can easily be incorporated into your daily routine. And they are a small price to pay to help you avoid the damage that gingivitis and gum disease can have on your oral health.
Schedule Your Next Dental Cleaning in Nederland, TX
Dr. Whitney Gomez and the team at Nederland Dental are committed to giving you the tools and information you need to manage your oral health at home. If you are due for a teeth cleaning to remove plaque and tartar buildup, call us to schedule an appointment. | <urn:uuid:a5aae528-c18d-46f3-a38d-73122f4f151e> | {
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|Biographical detail : ||One of the most outstanding figures in the annals of Islamic mysticism and founder of the Chistiyya order in India.
Khawaja Moinuddin Chisti looms large in the history of Sufism whose dargah has attained pre-imminence in South Asia due to the legend and hagiography that has developed around him several centuries after his death.
Khawaja Moinuddin Chisti visited the seminaries of Samarland and Bukhara and acquired religious learning at the feet of eminent scholars of his age. He visited nearly all the great centres of Muslim culture, and acquainted himself with almost every important trend in Muslim religious life in the Middle Ages.
Moinuddin Chisti turned towards India and, after a brief stay at Lahore he reached Ajmer where he settled down and there he attracted a substantial following, acquiring a great deal of respect amongst the residents of the city. Today, hundreds of thousands of people, Muslims and Hindus, from Indian sub-continent assemble to his tomb on the occasion of his urs (death anniversary).
Khawaja Moinuddin apparently never wrote down his teachings in the form of a book, nor did his immediate disciple do so. But he laid the foundations of the Chistiyya order in Ajmer, India, where common people flocked to him in large numbers. His firm faith in wahdat al-wajud (Unity of Being) provided the necessary ideological support to his mystic mission to bring about emotional integration of the people amongst whom he lived.
The central principles that became characteristics of the Chistiyya order are based on his many teachings and practices. They lay stress on renunciation of material goods; strict regime of self-discipline and personal prayer; participation in sama as a legitimate means to spiritual transformation; reliance on either cultivation or unsolicited offerings as means of basic subsistence; independence from rulers and the state, including rejection of monetary and land grants; generosity to others, particularly, through sharing of food and wealth, and tolerance and respect for religious differences.
Moinuddin Chisti, in other words, interpreted religion in terms of human service and exhorted his disciples “to develop river-like generosity, sun-like affection and earth-like hospitality.” The highest form of devotion, according to him, was “to redress the misery of those in distress – to fulfil the needs of the helpless and to feed the hungry.”
It was during the reign of Akbar (1556 – 1605) that Ajmer emerged as one of the most important centres of pilgrimage in India when the Mughal Emperor undertook an unceremonial journey on foot to accomplish his humble wish to reach the place. The Akbarnama records that the emperor’s interest was first sparked when he heard some minstrels singing songs about the virtues of the holy man who lay asleep in Ajmer. Emperor Akbar was a Sufi mystic who firmly believed that all existence is one, and that love of God and one’s brethren was more important than narrow religious rituals.
Khawaja Moinuddin Chisti authored several books including ‘Anis al-Arwah’ and ‘Daleel al-Arefeen’ both of them dealing with Islamic code of living.
Khawaja Qutbuddin Baktiyar Kaki (d. 1235) and Hamiduddin Nagori (d. 1276) were Khawaja Moinuddin Chisti’s celebrated khalifas or disciples who continued transmitting the teachings of their master through their disciples, leading to the widespread proliferation of the Chistiyya order in India.
Among Khawaja Qutbuddin Baktiyar’s prominent disciples was Fariduddin Ganj-i-Shakar (d. 1265), whose dargah is at Pakpattan (Pakistan). And Fariduddin’s most famous disciple was Nizamuddin Aulia (d. 1325) popularly referred to as Mahboob-i-Ilahi (God’s beloved) whose dargah is located in old Delhi.
From Delhi the disciples branched out to establish dargahs in several regions of India – from Sindh (now Pakistan) in the west to Bengal (now part Bangladesh) in the east and the Deccan in the south. But from all the network of Chisti dargahs Ajmer dargah took on the special distinction of being the ‘mother’ dargah of them all.
Moinuddin Chisti was born in Sistan, Iran, whose family claimed descent from Hazrat Muhammad (peace be upon him). He was in his teens when his father died. He sold the property he had inherited and went to the Central Asia in search of spiritual instructions. | <urn:uuid:5858846c-d2e8-42be-be9d-bc0108a0c42e> | {
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- Executive Summary
- Trade, investment, infrastructure, and a Chinese sphere of influence
- A short history of Mekong integration
- Road, rail, and water connectivity: a work in progress
- Pearls on land: China’s SEZs in mainland Southeast Asia
- Case Study: Boten SEZ
- Conclusion: an infrastructural sphere of influence?
- China has land borders with mainland Southeast Asia and strong strategic imperatives to develop land routes to the sea. It has both potential and motivation to pursue an infrastructural sphere of influence in the Mekong subregion through Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects joining southern China and mainland Southeast Asia.
- The poorer states, especially Laos and Cambodia, have been receptive to the BRI and infrastructure investment, but Thailand and Vietnam, strong states and protective of sovereignty, have been more cautious. This means China’s impact is significantly varied across the subregion.
- China’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar are in some cases dissolving borders and in others carving out Chinese-controlled enclaves, all increasing the People’s Republic of China (PRC) presence and influence.
Mainland Southeast Asia is a region characterised by a vast asymmetry, between the state destined to become the world’s largest economy — China — and three of the world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs). This means the region risks being drawn into a Chinese sphere of influence. The connective infrastructure being developed across China’s borders and traversing mainland Southeast Asia has the potential to reshape strategic geography, as well as the regional economic landscape. Closely tied to state interests, China’s investment is carving out new transport routes to the sea — in the form of road, rail, and waterways — and establishing new nodes of control in the form of Special Economic Zones (SEZs). This paper assesses progress on these lines and nodes and finds a mixed picture. While the weaker governance of Laos and Myanmar means they are attracted to SEZs and vulnerable to Chinese investment and erosion of sovereignty, transport corridors are progressing more slowly. By contrast, Thailand and Vietnam are adapting to the Belt and Road Initiative in a way that serves their interests as much as China’s. Other external actors, most notably Japan, will continue to play important roles. China’s sphere of influence in mainland Southeast Asia therefore remains fractured and partial, as the strong states of Thailand and Vietnam seek to preserve the greatest autonomy possible. This finding will be of importance to policymakers seeking to understand how China’s geoeconomic policies are playing out among the smaller states of the Indo-Pacific.
One evening in September 2019, my colleagues and I sat in a café in the northern Laos town of Luang Namtha. A car drew up and parked outside. Two young men got out and sat down for a meal. They spoke Lao and Mandarin fluently and had driven more than 3500 kilometres from the northern Chinese city of Harbin. China’s infrastructural network of 5 million kilometres of road, 146 000 kilometres of railroads, 20 000 tunnels, and 230 airports is increasingly connected to mainland Southeast Asia, prompting the question of whether geography will become destiny. As the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) unfolds, and the previously remote regions of Europe and Asia become a single ‘Eurasia’, significant change in continental strategic geography is also occurring in mainland Southeast Asia. Given control of transport corridors is a hallmark of geoeconomic power, increasing connectivity is of potentially immense importance.
The geopolitical alignment of the five ‘Mekong countries’ is politically and strategically important. Both the West and China want these states neutral, if not aligned.
The emerging land connections between Mekong states, and between the Mekong states and China, are significant, and historically unprecedented. Mainland Southeast Asia – the Mekong region - comprises Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Thailand. Like Southeast Asia writ large, it is between China on the one hand, and external powers United States, Japan, India, and Australia on the other. Historically this has mattered. During the Second World War, Japanese troops landed first in Thailand and moved down the peninsula to take Malaysia and Singapore. In the Cold War, the United States feared a succession of falling Southeast Asian dominoes as communism spread southward. Since the 1990s, Mekong states have made up half of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the regional organisation struggling, as geopolitical competition intensifies, to maintain its role as the ‘strategic convenor’ of the Indo-Pacific region. The geopolitical alignment of the five ‘Mekong countries’ is thus politically and strategically important. Both the West and China want these states neutral, if not aligned. So the question, “whither mainland Southeast Asia?”, is attracting attention, especially in view of the ever-increasing flows of Chinese trade and investment, and the roll-out of China’s BRI through the Indochina Peninsula.
This paper examines China’s quest for influence in mainland Southeast Asia through the prism of infrastructural connectivity. It does this for four reasons. One, infrastructure is at the intersection of both China’s goals for national security through regional dominance, and the Mekong states’ goals for economic security through development — an intersection Evelyn Goh has called the “economics-security nexus”. Two, mainland Southeast Asia is distinctive in its physical, terrestrial connectedness to China. Yunnan, China’s southernmost province, has a 4060-kilometre long border with Myanmar in the west and Laos and Vietnam in the south. With over 48 million people, it is China’s linchpin southern province with deep connections — cultural, strategic, and economic — down into the countries of mainland Southeast Asia. Three, barring the case of Vietnam in relation to disputed territories in the South China Sea, it is development, rather than the threat or use of force, which characterises current relations between China and mainland Southeast Asia. Four, the world has arguably entered an era of geoeconomic competition. As the global shift in power from West to East has occurred, it has been accompanied by the rise of a powerful state for whom capitalism is necessarily in the service of the state. Consequently geoeconomics, the view which supposes economics to be a tool of states as they compete, is of increased relevance. Infrastructural connectivity in Southeast Asia is a key illustration of economic competition at play in the region.
China’s SEZs strengthen its presence and influence in mainland Southeast Asia, in some instances with evidence of a concomitant erosion of sovereignty on behalf of the Mekong states who host them.
To help throw light on how connectivity is developing, this paper considers the state of transnational Mekong infrastructure in two dimensions. The first dimension is that of lines of access. This means looking at transport connectivity: road, rail, and internal waterways, and the extent to which they serve China’s interests or those of other states. The second dimension is that of nodes of control. Economic corridors exist to connect zones of production and consumption. In the mainland Southeast Asia context these nodes are often Special Economic Zones (SEZs). These zones have been set up across Southeast Asia, extending special legal and tax treatment to encourage foreign investment. In some cases, SEZs have generated significant Chinese presence in areas including construction, manufacturing, business, and industry. China’s SEZs strengthen its presence and influence in mainland Southeast Asia, in some instances with evidence of a concomitant erosion of sovereignty on behalf of the Mekong states who host them.
The prevailing commentary on China’s presence in Southeast Asia tends towards dramatisation. Observing the world’s second-largest economy towering over the smaller states on its southern periphery, some predict the submission of the region to a “Chinese sphere of influence”. Others warn of the region’s borders dissolving as China’s economic influence grows, or ASEAN splitting or ejecting some Mekong countries if they continue to drift into China’s orbit. Analysing the region in terms of China’s infrastructure influence provides some important perspective on such prognostications.
The meaning of the term ‘sphere of influence’ has evolved considerably since first coined and is subject to very diverse interpretations. This paper proceeds on the interpretation that ‘sphere of influence’ means predominant influence in a geographically bounded area, and argues that any Chinese ‘sphere of influence’ in mainland Southeast Asia will be geoeconomic and jagged. Geoeconomic, because China is using infrastructure for strategic purposes. And jagged, because the two strong Mekong states, Vietnam and Thailand, are resisting being drawn into China’s orbit, cushioned by Vietnam’s rapprochement with the United States, the US-Thai alliance relationship, and Japan’s backing. Others, especially Cambodia and Laos, are far more accommodating. This paper documents cases of the extension of China’s influence into mainland Southeast Asia, which I argue amount to Mekong states subordinating sovereignty to their economic goals. At the same time, I argue that even though China has become the primary economic partner to the Mekong region, the two larger states of Vietnam and Thailand will continue to exercise considerable agency and autonomy. Before discussing China’s lines and nodes, it is useful to first examine the goals of both the Mekong states and China.
Why do the Mekong states want infrastructure and integration?
Poverty and lack of infrastructure still plague mainland Southeast Asia. In 2017, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimated that across Southeast Asia infrastructure investment was needed at a rate of US$184 billion per annum, or US$210 billion per annum if climate change was taken into account — more than double the investment levels of 2015. The investment gap is especially pronounced amongst the four late-joining ASEAN members: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam (also known as CLMV). The CLMV countries were devastated by the wars of the twentieth century and the legacy of underdevelopment has been long-lasting. In 1999, the CLMV represented 8 per cent of ASEAN’s total GDP despite comprising 27 per cent of ASEAN’s population. In 2019, the average GDP per capita of the CLMV states was a tenth of the remaining ASEAN-6. Although the gap is narrowing, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar remain Least Developed Countries (LDCs), states that the United Nations describes as having “severe structural impediments to sustainable development”. These impediments include low levels of schooling and literacy, under-nourishment, and high levels of infant mortality.
Unsurprisingly, the leaders of Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia have all proclaimed infrastructure as a route out of poverty. The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party has sought to maintain its legitimacy by turning increasingly to economic development, drawing on lessons from its neighbours China and Vietnam, especially as commitment to socialist ideology and memory of its “glorious” history of opposition to foreign oppressors diminished. Before the outbreak of post-coup civil conflict in 2021, Myanmar aimed to graduate from LDC status by 2025, with infrastructure featuring strongly in its goals. Focusing on the “rapid development of fundamental economic infrastructure”, roads and ports were part of its 2016 Economic Policy, and the Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan noted that the country’s development would be limited if its infrastructure gap were left unaddressed. Hun Sen, Cambodia’s prime minister, touts his country’s expansion of infrastructure as a marker of his “brilliance” and “competent leadership”.
Hence the integration of mainland Southeast Asia has never been solely a China story. Connectivity has been a goal pursued equally — at least rhetorically — by the Mekong countries themselves, ASEAN, and Japan through the Asian Development Bank and the Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation Program. Connectivity has been core to the liberal economic agenda pursued by the Mekong states and indeed ASEAN in the post-Cold War era, to simultaneously strengthen regime security, build prosperity, and avoid conflict.
Why does China want regional integration?
The Chinese state, through its BRI and other programs, is fostering multiple road and rail linkages to its southern periphery and establishing new nodes of control in the form of SEZs. In 2020, the World Bank declared that the development of connective infrastructure currently underway in mainland Southeast Asia has “the potential to reshape the regional economic landscape”.
Why is China doing this? First, China’s leaders have always understood that infrastructural power — the capability to shape the built environment to achieve political goals — is the principal means by which states penetrate the lives of their citizens and enforce their will. In 2001, President Jiang Zemin answered critics of the Qinghai–Tibet railway, saying: “Some people advised me not to go ahead with this project because it is not commercially viable. I said: ‘This is a political decision.’”. There are parallels between the programs China has used to develop its own Western provinces and those it is pursuing beyond its border. Both have emphasised large-scale infrastructure, government subsidies, and new transportation routes. In fact, some ‘Going West’ projects, like the Qinghai-Tibet railway, are becoming BRI projects as they extend beyond China’s borders.
Second, China wants to change its strategic geography. After the First World War, Germany wanted a railway from Berlin to the Persian Gulf via Baghdad, to compensate for Britain’s naval supremacy. In our region today, Singapore’s location and status as a de facto US ally points to the reasons China seeks infrastructural connectivity. Singapore sits astride the Strait of Malacca, the narrow stretch of water that cargo must traverse when passing northwards to the economic dynamos of Northeast Asia. Resident in Singapore are 15 separate US military commands, including the headquarters of the US Commander, Logistics Group Western Pacific and the US Military Sealift Command Far East. Singapore’s Changi Naval Base regularly hosts US aircraft carriers, littoral combat ships, and P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft. A US blockade of the Strait would be feasible and would strangle China’s economy.
If China did acquire military bases on Cambodia’s coast — a topic of intense speculation in recent years — it could greatly complicate planning for Vietnam in any conflict over the South China Sea.
For China to change its strategic geography, through increased access to the sea, it will need to establish connectivity across mainland Southeast Asia. The Laos–China railway is one among many routes that China is pursuing to provide this redundancy. A completed Singapore to Kunming railway could mean that an additional 1.5 million tonnes of trade between China and ASEAN currently transported via maritime routes could be transported instead by the railway. This would assist China in overcoming its ‘Malacca Dilemma’, in which US naval supremacy and regional alliances have the power to cut China’s supply lines at will. Routes and access to the sea could provide other military advantages. If China did acquire military bases on Cambodia’s coast — a topic of intense speculation in recent years — it could greatly complicate planning for Vietnam in any conflict over the South China Sea. Strengthening its position as a continental power in mainland Southeast Asia would assist China’s contestation of the Indo-Pacific maritime environment, adding to the strategic advantage it has already secured through its Gwadar Port lease in Pakistan as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Project.
Third, China’s building of connective infrastructure also serves its geoeconomic goal by orienting supply chains in a way that cements China as an economic hub. This is consistent with the Marxist ideology of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which sees economic power as the foundation of national power. China’s rejuvenation and ascent to global power, its leaders believe, needs to be achieved through economic rather than military means. Infrastructure is critical to a China as a modern economy reliant on manufacturing. Writer Zhang Hong emphasises that the CCP is strongly aware that previous socialist regimes failed to obtain structurally important positions in the global economy. China’s leaders, in contrast, are set on China becoming a superpower by occupying strategic, structurally advantageous positions in the global economy.
Trade, investment, infrastructure, and a Chinese sphere of influence
How much can trade and investment flows tell us about the geoeconomics of mainland Southeast Asia? This paper argues that the answer is ‘much, but not everything’. China is the largest trading partner for the region as a bloc, and the largest trading partner for each of the countries except Laos, for which it is the second largest partner. Chinese investment, particularly in in Laos and Cambodia, is also conspicuous and important, but trade and investment alone do not make mainland Southeast Asia a Chinese sphere of influence. Cambodia trades more with ASEAN countries as a bloc than it does with China. So does Thailand: 19 per cent of its trade is with China, but 23 per cent is with ASEAN. This should not be surprising, as in 2019 China’s share of total ASEAN trade was only 18 per cent, and mainland Southeast Asian countries are highly-outward facing — Vietnam and Thailand together have three of the world’s fifty busiest ports. Moreover, calling mainland Southeast Asia an economic sphere of influence would imply that there is something special about the level of economic interaction between mainland Southeast Asia and China, such that this geographic area warrants being demarcated as a sphere.
It is important to understand the subtle blend of cooperation, competition, and quiet resistance to China’s infrastructural ambitions that characterise the dynamics of the subregion.
In fact, China’s economic influence is significant and influential across the globe; for example, Australia has almost the same proportion of its trade with China as Myanmar does. African and Pacific Island states are large-scale recipients of Chinese aid and investment, just as Cambodia and Laos are. And it is not only Southeast Asian states such as Cambodia that avoid criticism of China because of its economic support; the European Union (EU), like ASEAN, did not call for China to comply with the ruling of the 2016 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Arbitral Tribunal on the South China Sea. Like ASEAN, the EU was prevented by its poorer members fearful of China’s retaliation. Therefore, infrastructure and connectivity, rather than trade and investment, should be the focus in order to understand the specific character of any Chinese sphere of influence among the Mekong states.
Given China’s geoeconomic ambitions and CLMV need, a geoeconomic infrastructure-sphere of influence might appear a foregone conclusion. But mainland Southeast Asian states are not a blank canvas, and in order to grasp how integration will unfold, and on whose terms, it is important to understand the subtle blend of cooperation, competition, and quiet resistance to China’s infrastructural ambitions that characterise the dynamics of the subregion. We also need to understand that while mainland Southeast Asia has three LDCs seeking to escape poverty, it also has two strong states, Thailand and Vietnam, that have held their own aspirations for subregional dominance at various times. They have the capacity to leverage their geography and protect their sovereignty to a larger degree. But before scrutinising these emerging phenomena, it is useful to briefly survey the longer arc of the integration of mainland Southeast Asia and southern China.
A short history of Mekong integration
For centuries, the borderlands of China and mainland Southeast Asia lay at the fringes of states and empires. Mountainous topography, geographic inaccessibility, and complex ethnic makeup made the borderlands difficult to incorporate into either Chinese or Southeast Asian states. In the nineteenth century, it was quicker to sail from Saigon to Paris than travel overland from Saigon to Luang Prabang in Laos. The colonial period did little to change this. Britain controlled India and Burma, France ruled Indochina, and Thailand lay independent, albeit vulnerable, between these spheres of influence. There was little connection.
As decolonisation and the twentieth century progressed, the emerging states built infrastructure connecting the outlying parts of their territory with their capital cities. But the divisions of the bipolar world of the Cold War held sway. Thailand was reluctant to connect to Vietnam and Laos, and vice versa, and zones of economic activity remained disconnected. Two historic events led to efforts to overcome this fragmentation, the first political, the second economic.
The end of the Cold War, and with it the end of Indochina conflict, was an important milestone in increasing connectivity. The embrace of market-based economic policies in China, Laos, and Vietnam brought more interest in subregional economic cooperation. In 1992, the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) minilateral forum was founded, consisting of the Mekong states plus China’s Yunnan province. Member states signed on to the theory that increasing transport connectivity would attract private capital investment in tourism, agriculture, and manufacturing, thereby reducing poverty. China saw the GMS as a means for development of its poorer western provinces, a goal which was written into the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2001–2005) and which has continued under the rubric of the BRI. Although the GMS coordinates rather than finances infrastructure projects, it has been the most important forum for improving transport connectivity in the subregion.
The Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 was the second event that rallied ASEAN states around the idea of integration and connectivity. After the economic devastation, some 359 treaties and agreements were forged in pursuit of increased Southeast Asian integration, including the establishment of an ASEAN Development Fund and agreement to introduce an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015. ‘Connectivity’ became a new article of political faith within the revitalised integration agenda, and in 2010, the first Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity (MPAC) was issued. Among the priority land transport projects contained in the plan were completing a 38 400 kilometre ASEAN Highway Network and completing the Singapore to Kunming rail link (SKRL) by 2015.
The BRI has two corridors applicable to mainland Southeast Asia, one that passes through Myanmar and another that traverses Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Malaysia.
The rise of China and advent of the BRI represent the most recent chapter of mainland Southeast Asia’s integration, with the BRI’s budget estimated to be between US$1 trillion and $1.3 trillion. President Xi Jinping announced the policy during a visit to Central and Southeast Asia in October 2013, dubbing it the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and then subsequently using the umbrella term One Belt One Road [yi dai yi lu]. The policy drew on older practices of infrastructure diplomacy, but this time, led by the National Development and Reform Commission, comprised a mix of economic and foreign policy objectives ranging from counteracting the United States’ Pivot policy to exporting China’s industrial overcapacity. Xi also announced the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in September 2013 to provide a new means of propelling connectivity, both with its neighbours and across Asia more broadly. Some of the AIIB’s US$100 billion budget has already been allocated to GMS projects, such as road improvement in Laos.
The BRI has two corridors applicable to mainland Southeast Asia, one that passes through Myanmar (the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor (BCIMEC)) and another that traverses Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Malaysia (the China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor (CICPEC)). These aim to leverage the proximity of large Chinese provinces such as Yunnan, Hainan and Guangxi, supporting their continued development by integrating with Southeast Asia. Yunnan, for example, has a GDP per capita significantly bigger than the three Southeast Asian states on its borders. Its provincial capital Kunming has a population of six million people, extensive airport services, and rail links starting to fan out in all directions. Kunming will become a primary node in China’s expansion of influence deep into mainland Southeast Asia and beyond. One question is how quickly that connectivity is likely to develop.
Road, rail, and water connectivity: a work in progress
Today, China’s pursuit of efficient connectivity to the Indian Ocean is challenged by divergent regional agendas. There is a clear difference between Laos’ unequivocal support of China’s proposed rail infrastructure projects running north-south on the one hand, and Vietnam, Myanmar, and Thailand’s diffidence on the other. Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar are emphasising an ‘ASEAN sea transportation hub’: an east-west arc of development stretching from Vietnam, through Cambodia and Thailand, to Myanmar. Importantly, Japan, the most significant funder of infrastructure in Southeast Asia other than China, is bankrolling the east-west axis.
China’s BRI Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor will be built on the bones of the North–South Economic Corridor (NSEC) of the GMS. As of 2018, the NSEC roads that traverse Laos and Myanmar were still in poor condition. Only 36 per cent of Laos NSEC roads were rated as “good”, and there were no four-lane highways. Similarly, only half of Myanmar’s roads on the NSEC were “good” (whereas all of its roads on the East–West Economic Corridor (EWEC) were good). Myanmar had no four-lane highways on the NSEC, but 60 per cent of its EWEC roads were four-lane. This picture is now changing in Laos, with new four-lane highways being built that will eventually span the country. Progress on Myanmar’s projects will be slow until peace returns.
Progress on rail connectivity has also been patchy. The BRI has accelerated progress on the SKRL, a key initiative of the ASEAN Master Plan for Connectivity. In 2021, the Laos–China railway will commence operations as the first significant BRI project to be completed in mainland Southeast Asia. Linked directly to China’s internal rail network, trains will run 414 kilometres from Boten in northern Laos to the capital Vientiane at speeds between 120 and 160 kilometres per hour, passing over 170 bridges and through 21 passenger stations.
But beyond this, further progress is uncertain. Thailand — an essential part of the SKRL route — was initially enthusiastic. Memoranda of understanding (MOUs) were signed in 2010 and 2014, but tough negotiations around shareholding structure, interest rates, and control of adjoining land meant no construction commenced. In 2016, Thailand announced it would finance the entire project itself. After Thailand’s prime minister was not invited to the 2017 BRI conference in a clear message of China’s discontent, the Thai junta overrode bureaucratic roadblocks on use of Chinese materials and engineers. In 2019, a contract was finally signed, but only for a section of rail between Bangkok and the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima. There is at present no agreement for the construction of the remaining section to Laos, leaving the SKRL incomplete and Laos still landlocked.
Pre-coup, Myanmar exhibited the same caution on high-speed rail links to China. In 2011, it signed an MOU for a 1215 kilometre railway line from Kunming to Kyaukphyu. But in 2014, it cancelled the deal, citing objections from “the people and social organizations of Myanmar”. Although Myanmar signed an MOU on a China–Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) as part of the BRI in 2018, the rail project has not been reinstated. Instead, negotiations are underway for a shorter rail line, which would link Muse, on the China–Myanmar border, with the central city of Mandalay. China has submitted a feasibility study, which Myanmar is having checked by a Swiss firm. More broadly, China has proposed 38 projects under the CMEC, but Myanmar had approved only nine by mid-2020.. Current instability will not favour further progress.
The slowing pace of north-south transport connectivity reflects a quiet nervousness about China’s increasing strength, especially among the two stronger states — Thailand and Vietnam — but also Myanmar.
Opening up waterways is another area of waning enthusiasm among Mekong states. China has been in favour of using its rivers as commercial arteries, and Yunnan province has used the Mekong as a transport route between its cities of Simao and Jinghong. In 2010 Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, and China signed the Agreement on Commercial Navigation on Lancang–Mekong, agreeing to improve navigability in the Mekong. It was envisaged that this would eventually allow the passage of ships greater than 500 tonnes. But in 2018, Thailand stalled, as local communities in Chiang Rai province worried that the removal of rapids would destroy fish breeding grounds, impairing traditional livelihoods. In March 2019, China agreed to relinquish the blasting program.
The slowing pace of north-south transport connectivity reflects a quiet nervousness about China’s increasing strength, especially among the two stronger states — Thailand and Vietnam — but also Myanmar. The former two countries are watching their own visions of subregional dominance evaporate. Thailand initially supported connectivity schemes with China such as the road project traversing Laos, but Thailand has seen its relative position and influence slip. Over a decade ago, a Thai diplomat official prophesied China’s rising influence among Thailand’s neighbours, as Laos, Cambodia, and Burma turned to China for infrastructure investment, aid, knowledge, and technology.
This has reduced Thailand’s appetite for north-south connectivity. Indeed, not only has Thailand mourned its decreased influence, it has become increasingly nervous about China’s growing presence in the Thai near-north. In 2016, Thai military and intelligence officers admitted concern regarding China’s activities in Laos, including 99-year leases, large infrastructure projects, and an influx of Chinese workers, stating that from “Thailand’s point of view, it is scary”. At the same time, doubts about becoming too deeply enmeshed in China’s economy are informing Thailand’s reluctance to push forward some components of connective north-south infrastructure. While some analysts attribute Thailand’s reluctance to complete its section of the SKRL to prohibitive costs, others cite wariness about being “drawn much further into China’s orbit”.
The end result is that while soft-pedalling on China’s plans, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Thailand are seeking connective infrastructure on their own terms.
Vietnam has also cooled on allowing China to build north-south infrastructure. In 2019, Vietnam cancelled an international tender for the North-South Expressway, which would have run the length of the country. This effectively ruled out China building the expressway. Anti-China sentiment in the Vietnamese community is part of the reason for the cancellation, with memories of the 1979 Sino–Vietnamese conflict still raw. But so is wariness about the geopolitical and security implications of China’s infrastructure expansion. Instead, Vietnam is now becoming the top recipient of Japanese infrastructure financing in Southeast Asia, with US$58 billion supporting a high-speed railway between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
The end result is that while soft-pedalling on China’s plans, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Thailand are seeking connective infrastructure on their own terms. Although weaker economically, Mekong states can leverage their geography.
East-west connectivity is an important aspect of this geoeconomic leverage. Thailand is pursuing the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) at the junction point of the three GMS economic corridors. The EEC, comprising high-speed rail that links three major airports, will further develop Thailand’s industrial heartland. Linking the EEC to the GMS will allow Thailand to leverage its geographical location to produce the ‘ASEAN sea transportation hub’.
Myanmar is also prioritising the EWEC, as highlighted in its national transport master plan. Thailand is working with Myanmar to connect a four-lane highway between Bangkok and Myanmar’s Dawei port in eastern Myanmar. This will allow travel from Bangkok to Dawei in four hours, with the project commencing in mid-2021.
In their endeavours to promote east-west development, the Mekong countries can rely on Japan for infrastructure development, and there is evidence some may even be leaning towards it. As a significant player in infrastructure development, Japan has sought for more than a decade to maintain its influence and restrain China’s. When Japan held its first Mekong–Japan Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Tokyo in 2009, funding announcements were for the EWEC and Southern Economic Corridor — not the NSEC. The EWEC had more attention in Japan’s daily newspapers, probably because of the high density of Japanese industry in Thailand and growing presence in Vietnam. In essence, Japan seeks to retain influence by strengthening east-west links and pushing back against China’s north-south economic corridors.
In the longer term, it is possible that India will join the infrastructure game in the Mekong subregion through its own goals for regional integration. Its India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway project will link Moreh, India to Mae Sot, Thailand via Myanmar. Despite India’s foreign minister claiming that India “is making an all-out effort” to complete the road, progress on the 1360-kilometre link is proceeding slowly. This is due to both financial problems and ongoing instability in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Another initiative, which is currently stalled, is the Mekong–India Economic Corridor (MIEC), which would connect Chennai to Vietnam via Myanmar’s Dawei port. Analyst Pradumna B Rana argues that India will need to approach its connectivity projects in smaller chunks, with greater trade openness, more coordination internally, and with other partners if it is to become successful.
Nonetheless, it is clear that China’s determination will remain. It continues to propose new projects. A think tank under China’s powerful National Development and Reform Commission, for example, has been arguing that opening up Myanmar’s river system could be cheaper and more secure than road routes. In sum, the economic corridors that China, Japan, and the Mekong states have envisaged since 1992 are slowly taking shape through the growth of connective transportation infrastructure, but with Japan’s support, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Thailand are seeking to ensure that not all roads lead to Kunming, and by extension, Beijing. In this goal, they can leverage geography, but China’s economy and capital reserves do amount to a gravitational pull that is not easily resisted. These strengths of the PRC are increasingly facilitating new nodes of control: SEZs.
Pearls on land: China’s SEZs in mainland Southeast Asia
Visiting China’s SEZs in mainland Southeast Asia can be startling. In December 2019, the author visited Myanmar’s Shwe Kokko SEZ. After passing multiple checkpoints reflecting the complex ethnic politics of the region, we entered the town of Shwe Kokko through a dusty street with local vendors selling basic local products. Thereafter, a new Chinese-built enclave began. Multistorey apartments were under construction, each emblazoned with a red and yellow banner with Chinese characters. A little further along was the four-storey De Yue Ju Xin Hotel with signage in Burmese and Chinese, and rooms only available at an hourly rate. Opposite the hotel were multiple rows of adjoining aluminium-clad housing — workers cottages, many draped with washing. The worker accommodation was fronted by pleasant, wide-tiled walking paths, and interspersed with well-tended ornamental trees, pot plants, and rubbish receptacles. The main builder, a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned enterprise Minmetals Corporation, had recreated much of the appearance of a mainland Chinese city.
The high impact of Chinese investment in mainland Southeast Asia is visible in these SEZs with ‘Chinese characteristics’. Based on long-term leases, they are designed to attract Chinese developers, businesses and tourists, to be built and maintained by Chinese labour and workers, and serviced by Chinese-financed and built transport infrastructure. For some, such as Dara Sakor in Cambodia, Chinese corporations have constructed transport infrastructure such as airstrips that are suited to host military operations. The absence of substantive border controls in some locales suggests particular SEZs are effectively dissolving borders, fulfilling Bilahari Kausikan’s prediction that “borders would become no more than lines on a map”. The overall picture lends credence to the idea of a People’s Republic of China (PRC) sphere of infrastructural influence.
SEZs in mainland Southeast Asia
China’s success with SEZs has made it an attractive model, and one that has been replicated widely. Shenzhen in southern China has, in particular, become a symbol of economic success, famous for having “turned backwaters near the Hong Kong border into a bustling metropolis”. This success might explain why Asia hosts some three-quarters of the world’s SEZs. In 2021, the Stimson Center Mekong Infrastructure Tracker counted 61 SEZs across the five Mekong countries. China is not the only country investing in SEZs in mainland Southeast Asia; Japan has also invested in SEZs in Laos and Myanmar, and Thailand has invested in Myanmar. Likewise, the Mekong states have created their own SEZs within their own territory and near their own borders with each other, sometimes to facilitate cross-border trade and the mobility of foreign labourers.
China’s investment is occurring on two distinct but related lines in Myanmar. The first comprises the official projects of the CMEC — part of the BRI. An example in this category is the Kyaukphyu SEZ that will comprise a deep-sea port and industrial zone across 4300 acres, and a “high-end housing project” on 1235 acres. The Kyaukphyu SEZ is expected to reinforce the use of Kyaukphyu as a base for overland exports of oil to Yunnan, especially if plans for the rail project were to be resumed.
The second category is a set of private Chinese investments ostensibly outside the BRI, with connections to both the Chinese state and the Chinese gambling industry. Karen state in eastern Myanmar hosts three projects of the latter type, that the Chinese businesspeople involved call ‘spinach cities’ because the Chinese word for spinach (bocai) sounds the same as the word for gambling. These projects are generally run by ethnic Chinese businesspeople who have adopted the citizenship of Southeast Asian countries and whose businesses are headquartered in places such as Thailand, Hong Kong, and Cambodia. One of these projects, Yatai New City or Shwe Kokko, has been made possible due to Myanmar’s ‘ceasefire diplomacy’, in which Myanmar’s ethnic armed organisations are given scope to conduct their own business deals in exchange for their loyalty to Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw. One of the figures associated with the 20-square kilometre Saixigang ‘spinach city’, convicted gangster Wan Kuok-koi, nicknamed ‘Broken Tooth Koi’, is a close associate of alleged drug trafficker Tse Chi Lop, recently arrested in Amsterdam.
The Yatai SEZ in eastern Myanmar may, in the long term, support more than casinos and gambling. Its developers have also promoted the SEZ’s central location, its overland links to Bangkok, Kunming in Yunnan, and Singapore, and its sea-links to China, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe (via Moulmein port in Myanmar and Laem Chabang port in Thailand). The Chinese text on a map promoting the SEZ, which was published on a Thai news website, stated boldly that:
“The economic development prospects of the Yatai Eco-Industrial City are promising. According to the design and scale of the Yatai Eco-Industrial city, economic development will stimulate the employment of 120 000 people in the surrounding region.”
Ultimately, one Thai report has suggested, a city with up to one million Chinese residents by 2027 would house factories manufacturing goods for export to overseas markets including Europe and the United States. These goods would be transported 160 kilometres to Mawlamyine port where China is also investing.
Chinese-sponsored enclave SEZs in Cambodia are mostly manufacturing export-processing zones, where inputs are imported and products are exported to foreign markets; others are entertainment zones, offering casinos and resorts. Long Bay at Dara Sakor is a Chinese enclave development and casino project that will include an international airport and deep-sea port alongside its casino. The Long Bay project, with its location and its international runway, could be dual-use. It shares a key proponent, She Zhijiang, with the Yatai project in Myanmar.
Perhaps the most enthusiastic Mekong state for GMS and BRI projects, Laos has used SEZs to try to spur development in remote provinces. The Laos ‘high modernist’ approach to development emphasises large-scale megaprojects as primary routes to development. Disappointed by the failure of economic corridors to tie it into global supply chains and trade, Laos’ Seventh National Socio-Economic Development Plan (2011–2015) adopted a policy of encouraging SEZs. The plan named “connectivity with neighbouring countries” as a priority for overcoming its landlocked status. Several SEZs are well advanced and extensive in area. The That Luang Lake Specific Economic Zone outside the Laos capital Vientiane was built by a Chinese developer on six Laos villages and will cover 365 hectares of land with 12 condominium blocks, public parks, sports centres, and commercial centres, expected to attract as many as 300 000 people. The Golden Triangle SEZ in Bokeo province is on a 99-year lease covering 10 000 hectares, has its own security force, and is described by local expats as “not really part of Laos”. During our 2019 fieldwork, we observed China’s ‘Wujing’ special military police force protecting casinos. While currently a home for casinos and restaurants, the founder Zhao Wei’s longer-term vision imagines the SEZ as a valley of shiny futuristic towers, artificial lakes, sports stadiums, industrial parks, and a pharmaceutical research centre. These plans are not fanciful if what is happening further north, at Boten on the Laos border with China, is any indication.
Case Study: Boten SEZ
Boten, nestled on China’s southern border in Luang Namtha province, is undergoing a transformation. In an earlier life, it was known as a casino town that drew in thousands of Chinese tourists who crossed the border at Boten from Xishuangbanna prefecture in Yunnan province. Hotels flourished alongside pornography outlets and massage parlours. But following the murder of Chinese gamblers in 2011, the Royal Jinlun casino was closed, and many development projects were left unfinished. Some concluded that this Golden Boten City SEZ was never “more than a transitory enclave of vice economies for Chinese tourists”.
Now the arrival of the Laos–China high-speed rail has given Boten a second life; it will become a large resort city catering for Chinese tourists. Like the Golden Triangle SEZ in Bokeo province, it is one of several Laotian enclave developments in which China appears to exercise a form of extraterritoriality by administering almost every aspect of the zone.
In fieldwork conducted in September 2019, the new city was materialising rapidly. Alongside pylons for the railway, a massive program of earthworks was taking place adjacent to the R3 highway that connects Boten to Luang Namtha province. The swathes of cleared land, where the exposed red earth lay in stark contrast to the surrounding verdant forest, was transforming to become the Boten SEZ. This SEZ is expected to ultimately house 300 000 people in a series of apartment towers sprawling over seven square kilometres. In the dioramas and images found in the foyer of the Jinlun Hotel, various parts of the new city will be interspersed with high-rise buildings, artificial lakes, public squares, and sports fields.
During our visit to the nascent SEZ, there was little evidence that the city was in Laos, rather than mainland China. Currency and signage was Chinese, and businesses were predominantly Chinese-owned. City administration, such as parking, appeared to be under Chinese control. We witnessed, from a distance, a troop of soldiers in camouflage uniform conducting fitness drills and were advised by our Laotian driver that the soldiers were Chinese. This is consistent with Pal Nyiri’s finding a decade ago, that the company then administering Golden Boten City employed a “Chinese security force”. The border control point north of the city appeared to allow the free flow of vehicles into Boten and northern Laos. This absence of visible Laos authority speaks to Boten as a ‘global borderland’, a place where foreigners set the rules that govern daily life, not unlike a US military base in Japan or Korea.
This SEZ will eventually offer zones for commerce, banking and finance, logistics, education, medical services, and tourism, rather than acting as an export-processing zone. There will be plenty of time for the city to develop; the city is founded on a 99-year lease signed in 2003. While the SEZ will be open to investment from abroad, the high-speed rail project means the vast preponderance of such funding will probably come from mainland China.
The Laos government has supported this SEZ as a means of reducing the gap between “regions and provinces within the same region [sic]”. But to date, its impact for Laotian people, especially locals, appears to have been largely negative. Laos authorities relocated an entire village to the SEZ, but according to locals, few jobs or opportunities have subsequently arisen. This would be consistent with SEZs elsewhere in Laos, where despite an official policy of limiting foreign workers to 10 per cent of jobs for foreign investments, only 34 per cent of workers in the 11 extant SEZs in 2019 were Laotian. State revenue has also been negligible to date: in 2017, SEZs contributed only US$20 million to Laos government coffers.
The Boten experience, where land adjoining a high-speed rail station becomes a residential city for Chinese investors, may be replicated at other stations at Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, and Vientiane. This is because the deal that was done to finance the China–Laos railway may be, in effect, land for debt. While the 2016 agreement founded a joint venture, Laos–China Railway Company, with Laos holding 30 per cent and China 70 per cent, there has been no transparency on how Laos will fund its share of the total construction cost of US$6 billion. The World Bank commented in its report on the rail project that “the funding of the existing public infrastructure program looks increasingly unsustainable”. A Chinese insurance research company assessed that Laos borrowing for the rail project could “lead to the loss of sovereign land rights to pay off debts [italics added]”. There is evidence of large-scale land clearing around stations at Vientiane, Luang Prabang, and Vang Vieng.
Three reasons explain why Laos is ceding so much. First, as the World Bank assesses, the Laos business environment “continues to be governed by a deal-based rather than a rule-based approach to regulatory enforcement”. Second, the quest for development dominates other considerations. Asked about the Golden Triangle SEZ, a Laos official cited a need to develop remote areas in order to protect locals from drugs. Third, Laos has adopted a Chinese model of planning which relies on large infrastructure projects. In 2008, China’s Yunnan Development and Reform Commission developed a master plan for the economic development of northern Laos, which proposed SEZs along borders run by contractors who would operate and control the concessions. The Laos government adopted the plan at the 9th Congress of the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party.
The Boten SEZ suggests that the more dramatic visions of China establishing a geoeconomic sphere of infrastructural influence are not pure fiction.
China’s motives at the Boten SEZ begin with profit seeking. The developer, Yunnan Hai Cheng Group, has interests in tourism development, real estate, hotels, and property management. It has undertaken similar developments in the city of Jinghong in the adjoining prefecture of Xishuangbanna in Yunnan, explaining the similarity of the architecture in Jinghong and Boten. The Yunnan Hai Cheng Group claims that more than 100 companies have commenced business and trade in Boten.
But there may be other sources of inspiration. Scholar Yos Santasombat argues that a “civilizing mission” pervades the thinking of the Chinese state and its developers. The language of the Yunnan Development and Reform Commission SEZ plan is a good example:
“The mentalities of most people are still at the starting stage of agricultural economic development, which is unsuitable for development of market economy and economic globalization. Their awareness of development, competition, openness and self-reliance and hard working still need to be improved.”
Finally, the Boten development may also serve geoeconomic goals. Unsurprisingly, the developer celebrates Boten’s support of the BRI and “national policies” in its marketing for Chinese audiences. But beyond this, we might consider that China’s border SEZs have in the past sought to achieve economic integration on China’s terms. The famous Shenzhen SEZ is usually viewed as a test-bed for a liberalisation of the Chinese economy. But there was also a geoeconomic goal; the Shenzhen SEZ was a means of achieving economic integration between mainland China and Hong Kong in “an effort to transform the two cities into a single, synergistic mega-metropolitan area”. It is plausible that the Boten SEZ, combined with the high-speed rail project, is a measure to accelerate the economic and territorial integration of China and mainland Southeast Asia, strengthening the north-south orientation of economic integration and placing China at the centre of Southeast Asian economic activity.
In sum, the Boten SEZ suggests that the more dramatic visions of China establishing a geoeconomic sphere of infrastructural influence are not pure fiction. In Laos, China is establishing powerful nodes of control and in the Boten case at least, dissolving borders through economic integration. Whether Laos benefits in the longer term depends on whether its companies and businesses can compete against the Chinese business networks that appear to be given prime opportunities and first mover advantages.
Conclusion: an infrastructural sphere of influence?
In a speech in October 2020, Xi Jinping spoke of China’s desire to build dependence and protect supply lines, saying:
“[We should] continue to enhance our advantages in the entire industrial chains of high-speed rail, electrical power equipment, new energy, communication equipment and other fields…increase the dependence of international industrial chains on our country, and form a powerful countermeasure and deterrence ability for foreign parties who cut our supply.”
In mainland Southeast Asia this means continued effort to establish new routes to the sea, change strategic geography, and make mainland Southeast Asia an infrastructural sphere of influence. China’s SEZs have already granted China islands of control throughout Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar totalling hundreds of square kilometres. The SEZs offer China geoeconomic and even strategic advantage in the future if they can be linked into north-south economic corridors in order to support China’s broader strategic goals in the region.
Will these efforts succeed? Mainland Southeast Asia has three LDCs, whose need for infrastructure investment is acute. This need is driving developments, such as the Laos–China rail project, that deliver China’s goals. But these developments have very visible consequences. Neighbouring states are observing what has occurred in Laos and will factor this into their decisions. Moreover, even Laos rebalanced politically, away from China, after the high-speed rail decisions had been taken. In addition, other external powers, such as the United States and Australia, hope to encourage the Mekong states to think carefully about infrastructure choices, through initiatives such as the Blue Dot Network.
Ultimately, what is most important is that mainland Southeast Asia is not homogenous and has two strong states, Vietnam and Thailand. While very different in their bilateral relations and histories with China, both are cautious with regards to Chinese infrastructure proposals. Therefore, China’s drive for direct and strong transport routes to the sea are at this point incomplete, and facing a degree of inertia from states unwilling to be drawn too deeply into a Chinese economic orbit. The strong states of mainland Southeast Asia — Thailand and Vietnam, supported by Japan — are seeking their own infrastructural destinies. Vietnam and Thailand will accommodate China enough to maintain relations, but not so much as to lose their sovereignty. Myanmar, proudly independent but fractured, deeply ambivalent about China but in dire need of foreign investment, will continue to lean towards the ASEAN states and will not offer easy access. In the end, it is likely that China’s dominance will remain incomplete and uneven: a jagged sphere of geoeconomic influence.
Banner image: Workers lay tracks at the construction site of the China-Laos railway in Vientiane, Laos, 27 March 2020. The rail is the longest in Asia outside China (Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua via Getty).
The author acknowledges the funding provided by the Australian Department of Defence through its Strategic Policy Grants program of 2019-20 which facilitated the author’s original research for this paper.
Photographs by Greg Raymond and Anna Judith were taken on a research trip to Laos and Myanmar in 2019.
“Transport Infrastructure in China — Statistics & Facts”, Statista, https://www.statista.com/topics/1516/transport-infrastructure-in-china/#dossierSummary__chapter2, accessed 21 April 2021.
Bruno Macaes, The Dawn of Eurasia: On the Trail of the New World Order, (London: Penguin Books, 2018).
Glenn Diesen, The Decay of Western Civilisation and the Resurgence of Russia: Between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. (London: Routledge, 2019), 101.
Also known as the CLMVT states, an acronym comprising the first letter of each of the five states. This paper will use the terms ‘mainland Southeast Asia’, ‘Mekong region’, and ‘CLMVT’ interchangeably.
The recently concluded Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP, signed 15 November 2020) is likely to increase these trade and investment flows.
Evelyn Goh, “The Asia Pacific’s ‘Age of Uncertainty’ Great Power Competition, Globalisation, and the Economic-Security Nexus”, RSIS Working Paper No 330, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies Singapore, 10 June 2020.
“GDP Growth Rate — Greater Mekong Subregion”, GMS Statistical Database, https://www.greatermekong.org/stats/index-static.php, accessed 1 February 2021.
China’s economy incorporates both market-based practices and the “strong hand of the state in core sectors”. Elizabeth Economy, “Opening Statement, ‘A “China Model?” Beijing's Promotion of Alternative Global Norms and Standards”, Hearing Before the US–China Economic and Security Review Commission 13 March and 27 April 2020, 205, https://www.uscc.gov/hearings/china-model-beijings-promotion-alternative-global-norms-and-standards,
Connectivity is also developing through electricity networks and satellite ground station networks, but these are beyond the scope of this paper.
In 2018, eminent Australian strategist Paul Dibb warned of Southeast Asia becoming a Chinese sphere of influence. Paul Dibb, “New Security Reality Demands New Australian Policy”, ASPI Strategist, 23 July 2018, https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/new-security-reality-demands-new-australian-policy/. In 2019, former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans suggested that China was recreating “some kind of hegemonic, tributary relationship with its southern neighbours” in which Cambodia and Laos become “wholly owned subsidiaries of Beijing”. “Leadership in 2019 — An Address by Gareth Evans AC, QC”, Asialink, 22 February 2019, https://asialink.unimelb.edu.au/stories/leadership-in-2019-an-address-by-gareth-evans-ac,-qc.
In 2019, veteran commentator and former Singaporean diplomat Bilahari Kausikan stated that “China’s natural gravitational pull is being enhanced by various infrastructure projects. These projects have geopolitical consequences, intended or not. They could in effect merge southwest China and mainland Southeast Asia into one economic space. International boundaries will of course remain as lines on maps. But they could be relegated to inconveniences or irrelevancies.” in Hoang Thi Ha, “Understanding China’s Proposal for an ASEAN–China Community of Common Destiny and ASEAN’s Ambivalent Response”, Contemporary Southeast Asia, 41, 2 (2019), 231. In 2020, Kausikan stated, in reference to Laos and Cambodia, that “We may have to cut loose the two to save the eight”, in “Bilahari Kausikan: Asean May Have to Cut Members if they Continue to be Led by an External Power”, 35th ASEAN Roundtable, 24 October 2020, https://mothership.sg/2020/10/bilahari-asean-china/.
The term emerged during late colonialism. The Russian foreign minister told his British counterpart that Afghanistan was outside the Russian sphere of influence. Meanwhile, powers such as France, Germany, and Britain agreed to give the other a ‘free hand’ in administering their respective claims in Africa. Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977), 207–215.
Asian Development Bank, Meeting Asia’s Infrastructure Needs: Highlights (Manila: Asian Development Bank, 2017), https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/227496/special-report-infrastructure.pdf, xvi, 6.
For example, in one year of its secret war between 1963 and 1974, the United States dropped more ordnance on Laos than it did on Japan for the whole of the Second World War. Joshua Kurlantzick, A Great Place to Have a War: America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2016), 177.
ASEAN Secretariat, “Celebrating ASEAN: 50 Years of Evolution and Progress”, Jakarta, ASEAN Secretariat, July 2017, 60, https://asean.org/?static_post=celebrating-asean-50-years-evolution-progress-1967-2017.
CLMV USD$2062 versus ASEAN-6 USD$20 240 in ASEAN Secretariat, ASEAN Statistical Yearbook, Jakarta, ASEAN Secretariat, December 2020, 41, https://www.aseanstats.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/ASYB_2020.pdf.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, “Least Developed Countries (LDCs)”, https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/least-developed-country-category.html..
Laos and Myanmar have faced additional challenges. The Laos economy has been primarily based on subsistence agriculture and, historically, its geography meant it was not a trading or manufacturing state.
Martin Stuart‐Fox, “Laos in Asean: Dilemmas of Development and Identity”, Asian Studies Review, 22:2, 223–237, 231; and Simon Creak, “LAOS: Celebrations and Development Debates”, Southeast Asian Affairs, 2011, 107–128, 109.
Ministry of Planning and Finance, Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan (2018 – 2030), August 2018, 37, https://themimu.info/sites/themimu.info/files/documents/Core_Doc_Myanmar_Sustainable_Development_Plan_2018_-_2030_Aug2018.pdf.
Kimly Ngoun, “Adaptive Authoritarian Resilience: Cambodian Strongman’s Quest for Legitimacy”, Journal of Contemporary Asia, November 2020, 11.
Some scepticism about ASEAN’s real commitment to economic integration is warranted, given levels of intra-regional trade have remained stagnant for decades at or below 25 per cent of total trade, despite the introduction of an ASEAN Economic Community in 2015. See Jayant Menon, “Regional Means and Global Objectives”, East Asia Forum Quarterly, January–March 2018, 7, https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/n4206/pdf/book.pdf.
World Bank, “From Landlocked to Land-Linked: Unlocking the Potential of Lao–China Rail Connectivity”, World Bank, Washington, 2020, 16, https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/33891.
Alessia Amighini, “A Geopolitical Perspective on China’s Infrastructure Development”, Carlo Secchi and Alberto Belladonna (eds), Infrastructure in a Changing World: Trends And Challenges (Milan: Ledizioni Ledi Publishing, 2020), 103, https://www.ispionline.it/sites/default/files/pubblicazioni/ispi_report-infrastructure_2020.pdf.
Emily T Yeh and Elizabeth Wharton, “Going West and Going Out: Discourses, Migrants, and Models in Chinese Development, Eurasian Geography and Economics, 57:3, 2016, 286–315.
Ibid, 291.
Markus Brunnermeier, Rush Doshi, and Harold James, “Beijing’s Bismarckian Ghosts: How Great Powers Compete Economically”, The Washington Quarterly, 41:3, 2018, 161–176, 170.
Chris Rahman, “Singapore: Forward Operating Site”, in Carnes Lord and Andrew S Erickson (eds), Rebalancing US Forces: Basing and Forward Presence in the Asia-Pacific, (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2014), 121–122.
Joey Long, “Strategic Partners: Singapore and the United States”, in Andrew T H Tan (ed), Handbook on the United States in Asia: Managing Hegemonic Decline, Retaining Influence in the Trump Era (Cheltenham, Glos: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018), 275.
World Bank, “From Landlocked to Land-Linked: Unlocking the Potential of Lao–China Rail Connectivity”, World Bank, Washington, 2020, 27, https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/33891.
Dorsch and Cui estimate that 82 per cent of China’s oil imports, 72 per cent of its coal imports and 30 per cent of its sea-transported natural gas pass through the Strait of Malacca. Jörn Dosch and Shannon Cui, “China’s 21st Century Maritime Silk Road” in Donald Emmerson (ed) The Deer and the Dragon: Southeast Asia and China in the 21st Century, (Stanford, CA: Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center), 338.
For example, the People’s Liberation Air Force (PLAF) would be able to launch an aircraft from a Cambodian base and land and refuel on an artificial island in the South China Sea, and vice versa, in between undertaking combat and surveillance tasks. Drake Long, “Cambodia, China and the Dara Sakor Problem”, The Diplomat, 21 October 2020, https://thediplomat.com/2020/10/cambodia-china-and-the-dara-sakor-problem/.
Gurmeet Kanwal, Pakistan’s Gwadar Port: A New Naval Base in China’s String of Pearls in the Indo-Pacific, CSIS Brief, 2 April 2018, https://www.csis.org/analysis/pakistans-gwadar-port-new-naval-base-chinas-string-pearls-indo-pacific.
“Interview: What’s Missing in the Conversation about China’s Expanding Global Presence?”, Panda Paw Dragon Claw, 4 March 2019, https://pandapawdragonclaw.blog/2019/03/04/interview-whats-missing-in-the-conversation-about-chinas-expanding-global-presence/.
China has been Cambodia’s largest foreign investor since 1995, providing somewhere between a quarter and a third of its total foreign investment. Daniel O’Neill, “Playing Risk: Chinese Foreign Direct Investment in Cambodia”, Contemporary Southeast Asia, 36:2, August 2014, 173–205, 179 cites one-third; and Mark Grimsditch, “The Cambodia Conundrum: The Belt and Road, Private Capital and China’s ‘Non-Interference’ Policy”, Panda Paw Dragon Claw, 25 June 2019, https://pandapawdragonclaw.blog/2019/06/25/the-cambodia-conundrum-the-belt-and-road-private-capital-and-chinas-non-interference-policy/ cites 23 per cent for the 2000–2017 period.
In 2018, Cambodia’s trade with China was US$8.67 billion, but US$18.21 with ASEAN. See Lowy Institute Asia Power Index, 2020 Edition, https://power.lowyinstitute.org/network-power/trade/bilateral.
Lowy Institute Asia Power Index, 2020 Edition, https://power.lowyinstitute.org/network-power/trade/bilateral.
Choi Shing Kwok, “Southeast Asia’s Hopes and Fears about China”, Perspective, Issue 2020:12, 2 March 2020, ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, 2, https://www.iseas.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/ISEAS_Perspective_2020_12.pdf; and “Top 50 World Container Ports, World Shipping Council, http://www.worldshipping.org/about-the-industry/global-trade/top-50-world-container-ports.
China makes up 32 per cent of Australia’s total trade, and 34 per cent of Myanmar’s total trade. Lowy Institute Asia Power Index, 2020 Edition, https://power.lowyinstitute.org/network-power/trade/bilateral.
Cambodia is infamous for its preventing an ASEAN Communique in 2012 because it bowed to China’s pressure not to include language critical of China’s actions in the South China Sea. See Robin Emmott, “EU's Statement on South China Sea Reflects Divisions”, Reuters, 16 July 2016, https://www.reuters.com/article/southchinasea-ruling-eu-idUSL8N1A130Y.
It could be argued that trade, investment, and infrastructure are not separable because foreign investment can drive transport infrastructure development. But high levels of trade with China are often not accompanied by Chinese infrastructure investment (for example, Australia and Thailand), and vice versa (for example, Cambodia has more investment than trade).
Brian Eyler, The Last Days of the Mighty Mekong, (London: Zed Books, 2019), 8.
Vietnam withdrew its forces from Cambodia in 1989 and began its ‘opening up’ [doi moi] policy. Thailand commenced its efforts to turn ‘battlefields into marketplaces’.
Siriluk Masviriyakul, “Sino-Thai Strategic Economic Development in the Greater Mekong Subregion (1992–2003)”, Contemporary Southeast Asia, 26:2, August 2004, 306. The region adjacent to Yunnan, Guangxi, also joined the GMS in 2005.
David Martin Jones, “ASEAN’s Imitation Economic Community”, in Bruno Jetin and Mia Mikic (eds), ASEAN Economic Community: A Model for Asia-wide Regional Integration (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2016), 18.
2010 Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity, (Jakarta: ASEAN Secretariat, 2010), 11, https://cil.nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/2010-Master-Plan-on-ASEAN-Connectivity.pdf.
The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road aims to join China to Europe via the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, while the Silk Road Economic Belt aims to link together China, Russia, Central Asia, and Europe.
Min Ye, “Fragmentation and Mobilization: Domestic Politics of the Belt and Road in China”, Journal of Contemporary China, 28:119, 696–711. In 2017, the policy was renamed the Belt and Road Initiative, but the Chinese-language term remained the same. Ankit Panda, “How Old Is China’s Belt and Road Initiative Exactly?”, The Diplomat, 11 February 2019, https://thediplomat.com/2019/02/how-old-is-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative-exactly/; and Ryan Manuel, “Twists in the Belt and Road”, Chinese Leadership Monitor, 1 September 2019, https://www.prcleader.org/manuel-belt-road..
Yiping Huang, “Understanding China's Belt & Road Initiative: Motivation, Framework and Assessment”, China Economic Review 40, September 2016, 314–321.
Tao Jun and Bui Long, “Interview: AIIB Helps Accelerate Sustainable Infrastructure, Regional Connectivity: Bank Official”, Xinhuanet, 8 April 2018, http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-04/08/c_137096006.htm.
“Six Major Economic Corridors under Belt & Road Initiative”, Belt and Road News, 16 April 2020, https://www.beltandroad.news/six-major-economic-corridors-under-belt-road-initiative/#:~:text=The%20Six%20Major%20Economic%20Corridors,China%2DIndochina%20Peninsula%20Economic%20Corridor.
“Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor: The Next Major Economic Zone of ASEAN”, UOB Global Economics & Market Research, Quarterly Global Outlook 3Q2017, http://www.uobgroup.com/assets/pdfs/research/GMS-Focus_3q17.pdf.
Data from Fitch Solutions puts Japan ahead. Fitch only counts pending projects — those “at the stages of planning, feasibility study, tender and currently under construction”. See Michelle Jamrisko, “China No Match for Japan in Southeast Asia Infrastructure Race,” Bloomberg, 22 June 2019, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-23/china-no-match-for-japan-in-southeast-asia-infrastructure-race.
Economic corridors are “geographically defined areas” facilitating “the national and transnational movement of people, goods, services, capital, and information”. In 1998, the GMS nominated three economic corridors: a North–South Economic Corridor (NSEC), an East–West Economic Corridor (EWEC), and a Southern Economic Corridor: “Assessment of Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Corridors: People’s Republic of China”, 10th Economic Corridors Forum, 13 December 2018, (Manila: GMS Secretariat, Asian Development Bank), 1, https://www.greatermekong.org/sites/default/files/Assessment%20of%20GMS%20Economic%20Corridors_PRC_web.pdf.
Ibid, 45–71.
“Laos, China Keen to Boost Regional Connectivity”, Vientiane Times, 13 October 202, https://www.vientianetimes.org.la/freeContent/FreeConten_Laos_china_199.php.
Despite COVID-19, the project remains on track to be complete by December 2021. Xie Jun and Ma Jingjing, “BRI Contributes Global Post-pandemic Recovery by Laying Foundation for Cooperation and Stabilizing Global Supply Chains”, Global Times, 25 January 2021, https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202101/1213878.shtml.
Pongphisoot Busbarat, “China’s ‘Shame Offensive’: The Omission of Thailand’s Prime Minister from the Belt and Road Initiative Summit 2017”, Perspective, ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, 19 July 2017, 4.
“Thai–Chinese High-speed Rail Contract Inked”, Xinhuanet, 29 October 2020, http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-10/29/c_139476477.htm#:~:text=29%20(Xinhua)%20%2D%2D%20A%20key,to%20the%20country's%20sluggish%20economy.
Patrick Scally, “$20 Billion Sino–Burmese Railroad Abruptly Cancelled”, GoKunming, 22 July 2014, https://www.gokunming.com/en/blog/item/3278/%2420-billion-sino-burmese-railroad-abruptly-cancelled.
Nan Lwin, “Myanmar Pulls Swiss Firm to Scrutinize China’s BRI Project”, The Irrawaddy, 11 June 2020, https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmar-pulls-swiss-firm-scrutinize-chinas-bri-project.html.
Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury, “Myanmar’s Pushback against China-funded Economic Corridor Inspired by Debt Trap in S Asian States”, The Economic Times, 22 August 2020, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/myanmars-pushback-against-china-funded-economic-corridor-inspired-by-debt-trap-in-s-asian-states/articleshow/77688207.cms.
Matteo Fumagalli, “Myanmar Coup: How China Could Help Resolve the Crisis”, The Conversation, 9 March 2021, https://theconversation.com/myanmar-coup-how-china-could-help-resolve-the-crisis-156524.
Acker, “The Geography of Political Fragmentation”, 144.
Agreement on Commercial Navigation on Lancang–Mekong River among the Governments of the People’s Republic of China, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the Union of Myanmar and the Kingdom of Thailand, 22 February 2018, 45, https://www.jcccn.org/index.php/rule-and-regulation/15-agreement-on-commercial-navigation-on-lancang-mekong-river-among-the-governments-of-the-people-s-republic-of-china-the-lao-people-s-democratic-republic-the-union-of-myanmar-and-the-kingdom-of-thailand.
“รมค้านระเบดแก่งเปิดเดินเรือน้ำโขง” [Opposition to Blasting Rapids to Open Passage of Ships in Mekong], Post Today, 6 March 2018, B12.
“China Drops Plan to Blast Mekong Islets”, Bangkok Post, 9 March 2019, https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1641768/china-drops-plan-to-blast-mekong-islets.
See eg Tuong Vu, “In the Service of World Revolutions: Vietnamese Communists’ Radical Ambitions through the Three Indochina Wars”, Journal of Cold War Studies, 21:4, Fall 2019, 4–30, 28.and “Thailand Seeks to Shape a 'Golden Peninsula'”, New York Times, 30 April 1989, 19.
For this purpose, it loaned Laos US$28.5 million for the construction of 85 kilometres of the 228-kilometre road between Huay Xai on the Mekong and Boten on the China–Laos border. Pasuwat Yathip, “Thailand’s Foreign Policy in the post-Cold War Period: Uncovering New Actors in the Foreign Policy-making Process towards Neighbouring Countries”, PhD thesis, James Cook University, 2015, 208.
In 1990, the combined GDPs of China’s Guangxi and Yunnan provinces were about a fifth the size of Thailand’s economyBy 2017, their combined GDP was roughly equal to Thailand’s. In 1990, Guangxi and Yunnan were together smaller than the Vietnamese economy. In 2017, they were almost double. Source: Great Mekong Subregion Statistical Database, https://www.greatermekong.org/stats/index-static.php.
“คำสัมภาษณ์ นายอนุสนธ์ ชินวรรโณ อธบดีกรมเอเชียตะวันออก กระทรวงการต่างประเทศ” [Interview with Mr Anusorn Chinvanno, Head of East Asia Ministry of Foreign Affairs in LTGEN Sirichai Distagul], ผลกระทบจากถ่วงดุลทางยุทธศาสตร์ระหว่างจีนกับสหรับฯทีมีประเทศไทยในห้วงปี ๒๕๕๐ข๒๕๕๔ [Effect of China–US Strategic Balance of Power on Thailand during 2007–2011], unpublished thesis, National Defence College, 2007, 123.
Gregory V Raymond and John C Blaxland, The US–Thai Alliance and Asian International Relations: History, Memory and Current Developments, (Routledge), forthcoming.
Zsombor Peter, “China Plows Ahead with High-Speed Rail Line for Southeast Asia”, VOA News, 28 June 2020, https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/china-plows-ahead-high-speed-rail-line-southeast-asia; and Thodsapol Hongtong, “High-speed Train Talks with China Back on Rails”, Bangkok Post, 20 September 2019, https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1754044/high-speed-train-talks-with-china-back-on-rails.
Le Hong Hiep, “Vietnam's Dilemma with Chinese Infrastructure Investment: Should it Choose Growth or Security?”, South China Morning Post, 11 October 2019, https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3032394/vietnams-dilemma-chinese-infrastructure-investment-should-it,
Jonathan Stromseth, "The Testing Ground: China's Rising Influence in Southeast Asia and Regional Response", Brookings Institution, November 2019, 6, https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-testing-ground-chinas-rising-influence-in-southeast-asia-and-regional-responses/.
“Geographical location also provides Bangkok a unique advantage in its negotiations with Beijing. As the projected SKRL cannot bypass Thailand, Bangkok holds a strategic veto.” Shang-Su Wu and Alan Chong, “Developmental Railpolitics: The Political Economy of China's High-Speed Rail Projects in Thailand and Indonesia”, Contemporary Southeast Asia, 40:3, December 2018, 503–526, 514.
“Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor and What It Means for the GMS”, Greater Mekong Subregion Secretariat, 24 November 2017, https://greatermekong.org/thailand%E2%80%99s-eastern-economic-corridor-and-what-it-means-gms.
Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang and Utapao airports.
Asian Development Bank, “Myanmar: Greater Mekong Subregion East–West Economic Corridor Eindu to Kawkareik Road Improvement Project”, 14 May 2020, https://www.adb.org/projects/46422-003/main#project-pds.
Pavin Chachavalpongpun, “Dawei Port: Thailand's Megaproject in Burma”, Global Asia, 20 December 2011, https://www.globalasia.org/v6no4/feature/dawei-port-thailands-megaproject-in-burma_pavin-chachavalpongpun.
Chan Mya Htwe, “Construction of Highway Connecting Dawei SEZ, Thailand, to Commence Next Year”, Myanmar Times, 9 December 2020, https://www.mmtimes.com/news/construction-highway-connecting-dawei-sez-thailand-commence-next-year.html.
Richard Heydarian, “Japan offers Southeast Asia way out of US-China rivalry”, Nikkei Asia, 11 December 2019, https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Japan-offers-Southeast-Asia-way-out-of-US-China-rivalry; also “Japan Deepens Infrastructure Activity”, Vietnam Investment Review, 19 October 2020, https://www.vir.com.vn/japan-deepens-infrastructure-activity-80087.html
A 2009 WikiLeaks cable from the US Embassy in Japan stated, “Japan's outreach to Mekong countries, and to Southeast Asia in general, is aimed in part to counter what the Japanese perceive as China's growing presence in the region” and that “Embassy contacts expressed concern about the prospect for these countries to fall within China's ‘orb of influence’.”, in “Japan Advancing Ties to the Mekong Region”, 09TOKYO2567, 6 November 2009, https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09TOKYO2567_a.html.
Hidetaka Yoshimatsu, “The Mekong Region, Regional Integration, and Political Rivalry among ASEAN, China and Japan”, Asian Perspective, 2010, 34:3 (2010), 71–111, 97.
There were 1575 Japanese-affiliated companies in Thailand in 2006, the most numerous in Thailand. Masami Ishida, “Evaluating the Effectiveness of GMS Economic Corridors: Why is There More Focus on the Bangkok–Hanoi Road than the East-West Corridor?”, Institute of Developing Economies, Discussion Paper No 123, October 2007, 3, https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/288456865.pdf.
Gwen Robinson, “Southeast Asia Gains New Leverage as China and US Battle for Influence”, Nikkei Asia, 29 May 2019, https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/The-Big-Story/Southeast-Asia-gains-new-leverage-as-China-and-US-battle-for-influence; Hidetaka Yoshimatsu, “The Mekong Region”, 99.
Manoj Anand, “Steps to Complete India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highways”, Deccan Chronicle, 6 October 2020, https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/061020/steps-on-to-complete-india-myanmar-thailand-trilateral-highways.html.
Aakriti Sharma, “Bangladesh Keen to Join India’s ‘Trilateral Highway’ that Includes Myanmar & Thailand”, The Eurasian Times, 19 December 2020, https://eurasiantimes.com/bangladesh-keen-to-join-indias-trilateral-highway-that-includes-myanmar-thailand/.
Pradumna B Rana, “Need for Reset: Modi’s Cross-Border Connectivity Policy”, RSIS Commentary, No 177, 8 October 2020.
Nan Lwin, “China Quietly Pushing Myanmar to Back its Development Plan for Irrawaddy River”, The Irawaddy, 30 December 2019, https://www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/analysis/china-quietly-pushing-myanmar-back-development-plan-irrawaddy-river.html#:~:text=China%20Quietly%20Pushing%20Myanmar%20to%20Back%20Its%20Development%20Plan%20for%20Irrawaddy%20River,-The%20Irrawaddy%20River&text=Developing%20the%202%2C161%2Dkm%20route,Sea%20through%20the%20Irrawaddy%20Delta.
International Crisis Group, “Commerce and Conflict: Navigating Myanmar's China Relationship”, Crisis Group Asia, Report No 305, 30 march 2020, 26.
“A Jungle Airstrip Stirs Suspicions About China’s Plans for Cambodia”, New York Times, 22 December 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/22/world/asia/cambodia-china-military-bases.html.
In Hoang Thi Ha, “Understanding China’s Proposal for an ASEAN–China Community of Common Destiny and ASEAN’s Ambivalent Response”, Contemporary Southeast Asia, 41, 2 (2019), 231.
Prime Sarmiento, “Cambodia to Tap Shenzhen Development”, Khmer Times, 6 November 2020, https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50780386/cambodia-to-tap-shenzhen-development/.
Fabio Figiaconi and Claudia Adele Lodetti, “South-East Asian Special Economic Zones are Becoming Geopolitical”, ISPI (Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale), 17 July 2020, https://www.ispionline.it/it/pubblicazione/south-east-asian-special-economic-zones-are-becoming-geopolitical-26958.
Mekong Infrastructure Tracker Dashboard, Industrial Spaces, https://www.stimson.org/2020/mekong-infrastructure-tracker-tool/.
Examples in Thailand include at Mukdahan on the Laos border and Mae Sot on the Myanmar border. Asian Development Bank, “The Role of Special Economic Zones”, 8, https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/institutional-document/470781/role-sezs-gms-economic-corridors.pdf; in Cambodia, many SEZs located near borders are associated with Cambodian elites with close links to the ruling party. Dennis Arnold, “Spatial Practices and Border SEZs in Mekong Southeast Asia”, Geography Compass, 6:12 (2012): 740–751, 747.
Chan Mya Htwe, “Industrial Zone in Kyaukphyu SEZ to be Built at $30B”, Myanmar Times, 20 February 2020, https://www.mmtimes.com/news/industrial-zone-kyaukphyu-sez-be-built-30b.html.
The three "spinach city" projects are known as Huanya International City in Myawaddy, Saixigang Industrial Zone in Myawadday, and Yatai International city in Shwe Kokko, and as of July 2020, occupied some 157 square kilometres. Jason Tower and Priscilla A Clapp, "Myanmar's Casino Cities: The Role of China and Transnational Criminal Networks", United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Special Report No 471, July 2020, 3, https://www.usip.org/publications/2020/07/myanmars-casino-cities-role-china-and-transnational-criminal-networks.
Nick McKenzie, Chris Uhlmann, and Joel Tozer, “Drug Deals, Dirty Money and Links to Beijing: Australian Police Bring Down Asia’s ‘Mr Big’”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 January 2021, https://www.smh.com.au/national/drug-deals-dirty-money-and-links-to-beijing-australian-police-bring-down-asia-s-mr-big-20210120-p56vk8.html.
Andrew Nachemson, “The Mystery Man Behind the Shwe Kokko Project”, Frontier Myanmar, 7 July 2020, https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/the-mystery-man-behind-the-shwe-kokko-project/.
Kearrin Sims, “High Modernism in a Small Country: China ‘Develops’ Laos”, in Donald K Emmerson, The Deer and the Dragon, (Stanford, CA: Walter H Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center), 271.
Kearrin Sims, “Gambling on the Future: Casino Enclaves, Development, and Poverty Alleviation in Laos”, Pacific Affairs, 90:4, December 2017, 675–700, 681.
Draft Seventh National Socio-Economic Development Plan (2011–2015), 4, https://data.opendevelopmentmekong.net/library_record/7-2011-2015-2010.
“That Luang Lake Specific Economic Zone Project”, Zawya, 16 April 2020, <https://www.zawya.com/mena/en/project/160420114433/that-luang-lake-specific-economic-zone-project/.
Sebastian Strangio, In the Dragon’s Shadow: Southeast Asia in the Chinese Century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020), 53.
Kearrin Sims, “Gambling on the Future”.
Pal Nyiri, “Enclaves of Improvement: Sovereignty and Developmentalism in the Special Zones of the China-Lao Borderlands”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 54:3, July 2012, 536-537.
Victoria Reyes, Global Borderlands: Fantasy, Violence, and Empire in Subic Bay, Philippines, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2019), 2.
“A Glimpse of Boten, Golden Triangle Special Zones in Laos”, People’s Daily Online, 1 February 2011, http://en.people.cn/90001/90780/91421/7278825.html.
Draft Seventh National Socio-Economic Development Plan (2011–2015), 2, https://data.opendevelopmentmekong.net/library_record/7-2011-2015-2010.
Ore Huiying and Wan Man, “A Border Town’s Second Gamble”, China File, 24 November 2020, https://www.chinafile.com/multimedia/photo-gallery/border-towns-second-gamble.
“Statement by Professor Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights on his Visit to Lao PDR, 18–28 March 2019”, Vientiane, 28 March 2019, 7, https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24417&LangID=E.
Under the agreement, Laos would finance its share of the initial construction cost, US$2.4 billion, through $250 million from its own budget and a $470 million loan from Export Import Bank of China at 2.3 per cent interest. This leaves Laos owing US$1.1 billion for its share of the longer-term cost. Peter Janssen, “China Train Project Runs Roughshod over Laos”, Asia Times, 18 August 2018, https://asiatimes.com/2018/08/china-train-project-runs-roughshod-over-laos/.
World Bank, “From Landlocked to Land-Linked: Unlocking the Potential of Laos-China Rail Connectivity” (Washington DC: World Bank 2020), 20.
Beijing Insurance Research Foundation, “Country Risk Data Analysis: Laos Investment Risk Research”, June 2019, 27, http://www.bjircf.org/show.php?catid=9&id=112&fbclid=IwAR20WJTF44e_fmNpggOFY5VLb9Ffq_DxtRpcyZH_3wsTct2-pET9qPPngDs; and World Bank, “From Landlocked to Land-Linked: Unlocking the Potential of Lao–China Rail Connectivity”, World Bank, Washington, 2020, 47, https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/33891.
Peter Janssen, “China Train Project Runs Roughshod over Laos”, https://asiatimes.com/2018/08/china-train-project-runs-roughshod-over-laos/.
World Bank, “From Landlocked to Land-Linked”, 17, https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/33891.
Pinkaew Laungaramsri, “Commodifying Sovereignty: Special Economic Zone and the Neoliberalization of the Lao Frontier”, The Journal of Lao Studies, 3:1, 29–56, 36.
Kearrin Sims, “High Modernism”, 278.
“Boten Special Economic Zone to Lure $10B Investment”, Xinhua, 29 October 2019, http://www.china.org.cn/business/2019-10/29/content_75350548.htm.
Yos Santasombat (ed), Impact of China’s Rise on the Mekong Region, (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2015), 10.
Northern Laos Industrial Economic Development and Cooperation Planning Preparation Group, 2008, 15, in Pinkaew Laungaramsri, “Commodifying Sovereignty: Special Economic Zone and the Neoliberalization of the Lao Frontier”, The Journal of Lao Studies, 3:1, 29–56, 40.
Yunnan Hai Cheng Group promotional video, released 16th January 2020, subtitled in Chinese and English at https://haokan.baidu.com/v?vid=210958978594558929&pd=bjh&fr=bjhauthor&type=video, but now removed. “We have developed southward from Yunnan of China along Chengjiang of Yuxi Pu’er, Jinghong and Mengla, as well as Boten, Phongsaly, Luang Prabang, and Bokeo of Laos.”
Yue Man Yeung, Joanna Lee, and Gordon Kee, “China's Special Economic Zones”, Eurasian Geography and Economics, March 2009, 50:2, 222–240, 234.
Dirk van der Kley, “China is Fighting for the Minds of Asia, Not Australia”, Australian Financial Review, 2 December 2020, https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/china-is-fighting-for-the-minds-of-asia-not-australia-20201201-p56jo9.
Bilahari Kausikan, “Dodging and Hedging in Southeast Asia”, The American Interest, 12:5, 12 January 2017, https://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/01/12/dodging-and-hedging-in-southeast-asia/.
Max Walden, “What is the Blue Dot Network and is It Really the West's Response to China's Belt and Road Project?”, ABC News, 9 November 2019, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-09/blue-dot-network-explainer-us-china-belt-and-road/11682454. | <urn:uuid:6ec5c302-533a-4419-a43d-89c0822803aa> | {
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The Name of the Game Is Crossing the Street
Kids who can focus on game tend to cross streets safely
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 19, 2001 (HealthDayNews) -- A study sponsored by the British government to improve street safety among children has found that young children who can concentrate on games are more attentive when they step off a curb.
Psychologists tested 101 children, ages 4 to 10, for two kinds of focus skills -- concentrating on a task and being able to switch tasks quickly -- and then observed them cross the streets with a parent. They found that youngsters who were best at the tests were more likely to stop and look for cars in the road and walk rather than run across a street.
"There was a link between the amount of self control children showed as they were crossing the road and their distractibility in the laboratory tests," says lead study author George Dunbar, a University of Warwick psychologist. The finding appears in the September Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.
But while exercises and computer games can teach adults to concentrate better, Dunbar says the jury is still out on whether young children have the developmental skills to absorb such lessons.
"It's unclear whether these skills can be trained because of maturational constraints," Dunbar says.
Brigette Ryalls, a specialist in childhood development at the University of Nebraska, says, "The average 4-year-old isn't very good at ignoring distraction, and [in this country] we don't expect them to be very good, which is why pre-schools are unstructured. But other cultures, like Japan, start kids in structured classrooms at much younger ages, and they are expected to perform. It may be that children will do what's expected of them."
The British researchers used two tests, the first to see how adept the children were at switching from one task to another, a skill important when crossing the street while engaged in conversation or play.
Told that a frog was jumping unseen between a house and a train, the children were asked to push either a red or green button to report where the frog was. They were given the information with a visual cue that appeared on a video screen. Their speed in making the switch between the house and train was recorded.
Next, 35 of the children were tested for their ability to concentrate. They had to match the two identical faces among six pictures. Halfway through the test, which included more than a dozen different rounds, a cartoon was also shown. and researchers measured how much longer the children took to match faces while being tempted by the cartoon.
Then all the children, each with a parent holding their hands, were unknowingly videotaped crossing a street. Researchers found that the children who were the most distracted in the tests were the most impulsive on the street, trying to run ahead and not stopping to look for oncoming traffic.
In both video tests children in each age group showed a wide variability. "Some children kept on going with the [concentration test] as if they wore blinkers, while some children walked right over to the cartoon," Dunbar says.
Not surprisingly, younger children were far less skillful at focusing and switching tasks than older children. The 4- and 5-year-olds, for instance, took an average of 2¼ seconds to figure out the right button to push to locate the frog, compared with only a half second for the 7- and 8-year-olds.
Dunbar says, "This is a large effect" when considering the dangers of making decisions in traffic.
He says his study is one of five commissioned by the British government to look into the dangers of children and traffic accidents and that further research is planned to develop educational materials to help reduce the incidence of children's traffic accidents.
In the meantime, he says parents must shepherd their small children through traffic.
"If it's possible, [parents should be] with them in the road environment when children are young. You can't rely on children for self-control," he says. | <urn:uuid:4bcedc68-af38-4cff-9fba-2be4165179ec> | {
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The Notion of Time in India: An Introduction
Professor Charles Ess, Drury College
From Hajime Nakamura's Notion of Time in India
The Indian conception of time is very different from what the Western mind regards as intuitively obvious. In Indian thought, time, like other phenomena, is conceived statically rather than dynamically. It is, of course, recognized that the things of this world are always moving and changing. But the substance of things is seen as basically unchanging, its underlying reality unaffected by the ceaseless flux. The Indian does not concede that we never step into the same river twice; he directs our attention not to the flow of water but to the river itself, the unchanging universal. Indian thought places a high value on universality, and the connection between this, and the static conception of phenomena, is of course not accidental. "The one remains, the many change and flee."
This static conception of time permeates Indian thought. [In contrast,] Western people comprehend action through its changing aspects, while Indians tend to comprehend it attributively. In particular, many Indians consider that action is an unchanging aspect, even an attribute, of existence. Westerners tend to regard action as an active phenomenon while Indians tend to look upon it statically. In the sentence sabbe sankhara anicca (all things are impermanent), a basic idea of Indian Buddhism, anicca, is an adjective. For an Indian, even the statement that "all things of this world are changing and moving" is not, as it was for Heraclitus, the expression of the changing aspects of existences, but the expression of a static and unchanging state.
There are evident similarities here to ancient Greek thought, at least in its Platonic and Parmenidean aspects. Plato formulated the antithesis between Being and Becoming; he saw the true essence of reality as consisting of changeless, timeless forms.' Geometry, as an investigation of the fixed forms of material bodies in space, was the typical pattern of science in ancient times, and in the physical sciences only statics was developed. Interest in the changing world of phenomena, however, was also an important element in Greek thought; "all things flow" is after all as Greek as Plato's ideal forms. Modern thought has concerned itself increasingly (though not exclusively) with Becoming; kinetics has replaced statics in the center of the physicist's attention, and mathematics has turned to analytics and algebra, in which variable quantities are examined. Modern thought is described as "progressive," "dynamic"; the unique contribution of Indian thought, in contrast, can be a kind of rest and joyfulness which may be very welcome to those who are tired of the frantic movement of their culture.
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In the aftermath of the earthquake and the tsunami, Japan is facing the most important nuclear accident worldwide since 1986.
In the aftermath of the earthquake and the tsunami, Japan is facing the most important nuclear accident worldwide since 1986 when a nuclear reactor exploded at Chernobyl.
As South Africa is in the middle of launching its 20-year energy strategy, both the government and citizens would be advised to look closely at the reactor failures at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station and elsewhere in Japan.
Although the explosion of four nuclear cores in the Japanese reactors was caused by an earthquake followed by a tsunami, and Chernobyl was provoked by the Soviet regime in crisis, these two events indicate an obvious dimension of the nuclear industry: it is intrinsically dangerous, whatever the political and economic context might be and whatever level of technological development has been reached.
Virtually all the main nuclear countries have experienced accidents that differ in degree and cause, but they indicate the high risks associated with the nuclear industry. In the United States the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979 displaced 140 000 people and put the brakes on the country’s nuclear programme for 30 years because no insurance company was willing to insure against nuclear accidents. The Chernobyl explosion contaminated the entire European continent and was directly or indirectly responsible for nearly one million deaths.
France, the second-largest nuclear country after the US, has never experienced such a dramatic accident but malfunctioning and mismanagement are common features of its nuclear industry. In 2008, following a leak in a reactor, an NGO found that 770 tonnes of radioactive waste had been stocked by the army for 30 years in an earth mound without any protection.
Accidents and incidents have been generated in the nuclear industry by numerous causes: earthquakes, “misplaced confidence” (as the New York Times put it for Fukushima), Soviet inefficiency, sabotage (remember Koeberg in 1982), missing bolts, spending cuts and poor regulation of the industry, to name a few. In France, after 9/11, the government reluctantly admitted that the concrete cradles that isolate its reactors were not designed to resist a commercial jet crash because the risk was judged to be too low.
The reader might wonder why such information is not more broadly reported. The reason is obvious: the nuclear industry is high risk at very large scales; when something goes wrong it affects millions of people. The industry has to mask the huge risk and to do so needs to control information.
The local industry has thus been restricting access to information for a long time, evident in a recent study edited by Kate Allen (Paper Wars, Wits University Press, 2009). Citing an international example, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reached an agreement in 1959 that binds it to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and prevents it from initiating a programme or activity in the area of nuclear power without consulting the agency “with a view to adjusting the matter by mutual agreement”. This could explain why the WHO still claims that Chernobyl caused 56 deaths and 4 000 thyroid cancers when the most authoritative studies put the toll at 995 000 deaths.
The consequence of such intertwining between risk management and control of information for countries like South Africa is clear: the development of the nuclear sector is not only a risk to the health of the people, it also inherently brings a greater risk for democracy. As the potential exposure to danger is drastically increased, the need for the authorities to veil some of the repercussions of their nuclear activities also increases.
Although France is pushing South Africa to buy its technology, both countries are struggling to find a place to dump their high-level radioactive waste. No village on Earth, if informed of the risks, would welcome the underground facilities that have to store radioactive waste safely for longer than the entire history of human civilisation. Decisions being made now will become an uninvited legacy for many future generations.
A nuclear industry needs special safeguards to prevent proliferation of weapons and to stop nuclear material from falling into suspect hands. As a result, South Africa may have to reintroduce the type of security state reminiscent of the apartheid years. South Africa’s nuclear policy argues, for example, that we will have to introduce a nuclear police force.
South Africa’s nuclear regulator is weak and suffering from an inability to manage existing radioactive wastes generated by its mining industry. Its record of communicating with the public is abysmal. The decision to increase the amount of nuclear power generation will defy the capacity of the regulator to monitor the industry effectively.
The choice the South African government will make for the development of our energy industry is thus not a mere technical option to prevent further load-shedding or to curb carbon emissions, but will more importantly impact structurally on the democratic system itself.
Estienne Rodary, an expert on environmental issues, is stationed at the University of the Witwatersrand. David Fig is a South African commentator on the nuclear industry and author of Uranium Road (Jacana, 2005) | <urn:uuid:b814f01f-d5be-4f35-acc9-ab20cfdb41c2> | {
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Operators starting up the Millstone Unit 1 reactor in Connecticut on September 1, 1972, had their efforts complicated by a problem with a demineralizer intended to clean up water from the main condenser before sending it to the reactor vessel to be turned into steam. Despite having been only recently placed in service, the demineralizer exhibited signs that its capacity to purify water had been nearly fully consumed.
The workers took the troublesome demineralizer out of service and replaced it with another demineralizer. Half an hour later, the second demineralizer exhibited similar signs. The operators began shutting down the reactor. About an hour later, the chloride level of the reactor water increased above maximum allowable limits. The operators scrammed the reactor (i.e., shut it down rapidly).
The main condenser was located directly beneath the turbine. Steam entered the main condenser after spinning the turbine blades to rotate the generator and make electricity. The steam is condensed back into water by flowing past thousands of metal tubes containing cool water – in this case, sea water from Long Island Sound. The condensed water collects in the lower region of the main condenser until pumps send it through the demineralizer and back to the reactor vessel to make more steam. As a safety precaution, the pressure of the condensing steam inside the main condenser was kept lower than the pressure of the sea water flowing through the metal cooling tubes. Consequently, if a tube ruptured, outside water would leak into the plant rather than having radioactively contaminated water leak out.
The aluminum-brass cooling tubes in the main condenser corroded to the point that many broke, allowing sea water to enter the main condenser and then be pumped to the reactor vessel. En route, the sea water overwhelmed one and then a second demineralizer.
Upon reaching the reactor vessel, the sea water damaged all of the local power range monitors (LPRMs). The LPRMs are positioned between fuel bundles in the reactor core to measure the neutron population and provide signals for an automatic scram when the reactor seems to be getting out of control. They also provide input to the plant computer for calculating the power distribution within the reactor core. They are not a good system to have fail in a reactor.
During a lengthy outage lasting nearly a year, workers replaced all the LPRMs. Workers also replaced all the aluminum-brass condenser tubes with copper-nickel tubes.
It cost a lot to replace the main condenser tubes and the LPRMs at Millstone. But when the tide comes in, it’s not supposed to come all the way in to the reactor.
It is amazing how much money is spent on monitoring equipment considering how often the safety flags raised by this equipment are ignored. In this case, the monitoring equipment sensed something unusual in the water going to the reactor. Rather than pursue the cause for this anomaly, workers treated its symptoms by swapping out a demineralizer unit. This futile tactic resulted in less safety and higher cost than had the warning flags been heeded.
There have been worse cases. In August 1966, a thermocouple inside the reactor core at the Fermi Unit 1 reactor outside Detroit reported a much higher temperature than other thermocouples. Workers wrote it off as a failed sensor. In October 1966, this “failed” sensor marked the location of fuel meltdown that was caused by a piece of metal blocking the cooling water flow through that region of the reactor core.
On the other hand, the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in March 1979 was caused in large part by operators trusting a water level instrument that was reading falsely high and turning off emergency equipment that had been saving the day.
The solution: trust, but verify. Just as good doctors review an array of lab results before diagnosing the reason for patients’ high temperatures, good nuclear plant workers must evaluate as full a picture as possible before discarding an anomalous instrument read-out, or betting the plant on one.
“Fission Stories” is a weekly feature by Dave Lochbaum. For more information on nuclear power safety, see the nuclear safety section of UCS’s website and our interactive map, the Nuclear Power Information Tracker.
Support from UCS members make work like this possible. Will you join us? Help UCS advance independent science for a healthy environment and a safer world. | <urn:uuid:32f41e0c-7b4a-4e33-8e2a-3dcc0fef7c1b> | {
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How dense could we be? Very, if you follow much of the commentary in Australian debates about the way we should plan our cities.
High-rise residential developments have been springing up in all Australia’s major cities. The view that carbon constraint, ecological protection and liveability can only be achieved by remodeling our cities at high-rise densities has taken root among much of Australia’s policy intelligentsia. This view is inconveniently flawed.
Most people agree climate change should be understood through robust scientific evidence. Such a standard should also apply to measures to reduce the climate impact of our cities.
Unfortunately a simple formula equating high-rise urbanism with low carbon or ecological impact finds at best partial confirmation in the scientific literature.
When different building scales are compared on objective environmental criteria the evidence suggests that high-rise apartments are often the worst performers. The building scale with least overall ecological impact – measured in energy, CO₂ and water use per capita – tends to be medium-rise of between three to six storeys, with individual detached dwellings the next best.
Alan Perkins and colleagues’ work in Urban Policy and Research, for example shows that on per-capita analysis, attached low-rise dwellings perform best in terms of CO₂, with suburban and high-rise successively worse.
Such patterns arise because any valid assessment must account for all energy use. This includes energy “embodied” in a building during construction, plus energy used in ongoing operations.
While residents of detached houses use high levels of energy to get around, because of their greater car reliance, their overall energy use per capita tends to be lower than high-rise residents. This is because detached dwellings can consume less embodied and operational energy and that use is divided among a higher average occupancy rate (detached dwellings generally house more people than apartments).
The relationships between building type, urban form and CO₂ emissions become even more complex when income – or “lifestyle” – factors are included in the analysis. But it seems that high-rise urbanism exacts a high carbon cost.
The Australian carbon consumption atlas, prepared for the Australian Conservation Foundation by Chris Dey of the University of Sydney and colleagues, provides a striking illustration of this pattern.
Their work shows the highest per capita residential environmental consumption occurs in the higher density inner urban areas of Australian cities. The 37 tonnes of total CO₂ consumed per person each year by downtown Sydney residents is, for example, more than double the 16 tonnes produced by residents of Blacktown. There’s a carbon devil in the detail on density.
Such findings fundamentally confound the simple “high density good, low density bad” assumptions in current debates. High-rise apartments are far less of a solution to our urban environmental challenges than the prevailing consensus suggests. Even if better design could improve high-rise performance, so too could it improve that of other building types.
Some look to New York City as a model for Australian cities. But high-rise Manhattan is a small island set among a continuous interconnected urban mega-region of some 21 million inhabitants, only some of whom live at high densities.
Paul Mees of RMIT has compiled and compared official data on the density of North American and Australian cities. His peer-reviewed work shows that the densest city in the United States is not New York but Los Angeles, which few Australian urbanists aspire to emulate.
Sydney, Australia’s densest city with 20 persons per hectare, is only three quarters as dense as Los Angeles, which has 27 persons per hectare. Yet public transport commuting in Sydney is five times the Los Angeles rate. Transport policy, Mees argues convincingly, is at least as important as urban form in shaping a city’s transport outcomes. Density is not destiny.
With high-rise urbanism facing scientific doubts, its advocates often decorate their arguments with circumlocutions about the aesthetic or cultural qualities of high-rise living. These claims are usually subjective and contestable. For every high-rise architectural masterpiece there are dozens of shoddy apartment blocks thrown up with little ecological or aesthetic concern.
The supposed “vibrancy” of high-rise living is often balanced against provision of green open space, especially at the neighbourhood scale. Children’s development advances through free physically active play but a recent literature review by my colleagues Jason Byrne and Neil Sipe argues planning for higher densities rarely considers children’s needs. Blubberville anyone?
Why then have views favouring high densities gained traction? Despite the waning of the old cultural cringe, a view persists of Australia’s essential suburban character – where most of us live - as artless against the boulevards of Europe or the boogie-woogie of New York.
The intellectual misadventure of high-rise urbanism also perpetuates a pernicious bias in Australian environmental debates in which less affluent suburban dwellers are treated as environmentally unsophisticated “bogans” – a stereotype recently denounced by Melbourne University’s David Nichols.
It fits within a long and regrettably continuing Australian tradition of denigrating suburbia whose recent version sneers at “aspirationals” in suburban “McMansions” driving “monster-trucks”. That complaints about suburban consumption lack objective scientific foundation, raises suspicions that the anti-suburban prejudice serves to deflect scrutiny from the more harmful consumption patterns of wealthier – and typically denser – inner urban households.
Those who criticise high-rise urbanism, though, risk being cast as apologists for urban sprawl. Disagreeing with Sydney’s Barangaroo proposal, for example, doesn’t equate to support for the latest fringe growth area splurge.
More single, detached dwellings in low density estates at the suburban fringe also causes harms. These range from the destruction of bio-diverse habitats to the social isolation of new residents from work and services. My own work on household oil vulnerability clearly reveals the future perils from higher fuel prices already planned into the fabric of many of our car-dependent fringe suburban zones.
So how dense should we be? One possibility is a mid-level suburbanism. Focused nodes of three to six storey development – terraces, walk-ups and low-rise apartments – are dispersed across an entire metropolitan area, not just inner zones. Tied to an employment decentralisation program where more jobs exist outside the CBD, such nodes can then be used to anchor improved suburban public transport networks.
As Paul Mees has shown, suburban densities can easily support high quality public transport if we plan our networks effectively. Such a model can accommodate new residents more widely across the city, and avoids the ecological damage of very high or low densities.
There is an even better solution to the density debate though. Maybe we should abandon our obsession with density as a driving objective of urban policy and instead design our living environments to best accommodate our overall economic, social and environmental goals, at whichever scale is most appropriate.
This means viewing density as just one instrument among many in our urban toolkit. We should use it carefully and selectively, not as a universal prescription that is forced unthinkingly upon our cities.
It similarly requires us to understand the form of our cities as the effect of urban social, economic and institutional processes, not the determinant. People congregate and interact in cities because of social and economic logics, not because they were made to by urban form.
Refreshingly, the draft Australian national urban design guidelines shy away from installing density as a driver of urban outcomes and instead propose methods that could operate at any scale of urban form, albeit rather innocent of the social and economic processes shaping cities and their appearance.
We could be very dense in the way we plan our cities. But we can be much cleverer than that. | <urn:uuid:e5deedab-0f1e-4b3a-8d89-a9314cb6cb2a> | {
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The Institute of Physics report - entitled The Role of Physics in Renewable Energy Research and Development - highlights a lack of general skills and specific technical skills which it says will hamper efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.I have to wonder if similar situations won't arise in other parts of the world -- I know that in the US we're often lamenting our lack of scientific knowledge generally, or the dismal test scores of our secondary students in science, so I wouldn't be surprised to see findings like these here. At the same time, I have to wonder if the promise of a "renewable energy future" might entice some students this way -- either for the excitement of being part of something big, or (and probably more likely) for the high-paying jobs renewable energy's growth will likely create.
Encouraging more physicists to study renewable energy sources could help plug that skills gap, the report says.
But there is very little data available to show exactly which skills are lacking, it adds.
Report author Judith Bates said:" A solution to this problem would be to estimate the future skills and educational needs, from research and development through to applied engineering, and make an effort to ensure these skills are provided."
Categories: renewable, energy, jobs, physics, college, dearth, Britain | <urn:uuid:8020f114-42d2-48f5-9edc-11c7d50a662c> | {
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What Is Neuromuscular Therapy?
Neuromuscular Therapy (NMT) is a very specialized form of manual massage therapy. An NMT therapist is educated in the physiology of the nervous system and its effect on the muscular and skeletal systems. The Neuromuscular Therapist also is educated in kinesiology and biomechanics and the functioning of the human nervous system.
By definition, Neuromuscular Therapy is the utilization of static pressure on specific myofascial points to relieve pain. This technique manipulates the soft tissue of the body (muscles, tendons and connective tissue) to balance the central nervous system. In a healthy individual, nerves transmit impulses (which are responsible for every movement, function and thought) to the body very slowly. Injury, trauma, postural distortion or stress cause nerves to speed up their transmission, inhibiting equilibrium and making the body vulnerable to pain and dysfunction. Neuromuscular Therapy massage works to stabilize low levels of neurological activity to maintain normal function and overall health.
Neuromuscular Therapy will be used to address five elements that may be causing you pain:
- Ischemia: Lack of blood supply to soft tissues which causes hypersensitivity to touch
- Trigger Points: Highly irritated points in muscles which refer pain to other parts of the body
- Nerve Compression or Entrapment: Pressure on a nerve by soft tissue, cartilage or bone
- Postural Distortion: Imbalance of the muscular system resulting from the movement of the body off the longitudinal and horizontal planes
- Biomechanical Dysfunction: Imbalance of the musculoskeletal system resulting in faulty movement patterns (i.e., poor lifting habits, bad mechanics in a golf swing of tennis stroke, computer keyboarding)
Neuromuscular Massage Therapy Technique
Neuromuscular therapy consists of alternating levels of concentrated pressure on the areas of muscle spasm. The massage therapy pressure is usually applied with the fingers, knuckles, or elbow. Once applied to a muscle spasm, the pressure should not vary for ten to thirty seconds.
Massage Therapy Can Reduce Muscle Pain
Muscles that are in spasm will be painful to the touch. The pain is caused by ischemic muscle tissue. Ischemia means the muscle is lacking proper blood flow, usually due to the muscle spasm. This in turn creates a situation where muscle is not receiving enough blood or enough oxygen. This lack of oxygen causes the muscle to produce lactic acid, making the muscle feel sore following physical activity. After the muscle is relaxed through massage therapy, the lactic acid will be released from the muscle, and the muscle should start receiving enough blood and oxygen.
Neuromuscular therapy may feel unfamiliar or even slightly painful at first, but the pressure of the massage should alleviate the muscle spasm. At this point, it is extremely important to communicate with the massage therapist regarding the pressure – whether the pressure is too much, too little, getting better, getting worse. The therapist will listen and respond accordingly.
What to Expect After Neuromuscular Massage Therapy
Following a neuromuscular therapy massage, any soreness that presents itself should fade after twenty-four to thirty-six hours. The muscles that were tight should remain noticeably more relaxed for four to fourteen days, depending on stress, activity level, and severity of back pain prior to beginning massage therapy. | <urn:uuid:861beca5-451e-4f0f-850a-0294fd9fad82> | {
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Critical Path Method (CPM)
By Umesh Dwivedi
The Critical Path Method (CPM) is a schedule network analysis technique. CPM was developed by the DuPont Corporation in 1957. The critical path determines the shortest time to complete the project and it is the longest duration path through a network of tasks. Critical tasks (activities) are tasks (activities) on the critical path.
To understand CPM further let’s first understand nature of the task. According to PMBOK every scheduled task can be defined by the following four parameters.
- Early Start (ES): Earliest possible point in time on which a task can start.
- Early Finish (EF): Earliest possible point in time on which a task can finish.
- Late Start (ES): Latest possible point in time on which a task can start.
- Late Finish (EF): Latest possible point in time on which a task can finish.
Early Start and finish dates are calculated by means of Forward Pass and Late Start and Late Finish dates are calculated by means of Backward Pass.
Many Tasks have some amount of buffer added to them referred as Slack Time or Float. Float time is the amount of time a task can slip before it delays the project schedule. There are two common types of floats:
- Free Float: Amount of time a single task can be delayed without delaying the early start of any successor task.
- Total Float: Amount of time a single task can be delayed without delaying project completion.
Mathematically Float is defined as: Float = LS – ES or LF – EF.
The critical path has zero or negative Total Float. A project can have several critical paths.
- Project Planning and control.
- Time-cost trade-offs.
- Cost-benefit analysis.
- Contingency planning.
- Reducing risk.
Limitations of CPM:
- CPM assumes low uncertainty in schedule dates.
- Does not consider resource dependencies.
- Less efficient use of buffer time.
- Less focus on non critical tasks that can cause risk.
- Based on only deterministic task duration.
- Critical Path can change during execution.
To overcome the above limitations the Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) plays important role.
Umesh Dwivedi is certified PMP (Project Management Professional) from PMI, USA. He is experienced in project planning, execution, monitoring and controlling of projects. He has worked in collaboration with cross-functional, cross-organizational teams for many clients internationally.
Visit his home page at http://www.freewebs.com/umeshspace. | <urn:uuid:6588a484-3648-484d-b37c-d5d45880b8da> | {
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On this day in 1965, Frank Mitchell, 15, from Springfield, Ill., became the first black House page. Rep. Paul Findley (R-Ill.) made the appointment the day after Sen. Jacob Javits (R-N.Y.) named Lawrence Wallace Bradford Jr. as the first black Senate page.
Mitchell’s arrival generated wide media attention. Findley, joined by then-Rep. Gerald Ford (R-Mich.), the minority leader, and Leslie Arends (R-Ill.), the minority whip, held a news conference at the Capitol to publicize the event.
Story Continued Below
As early as 1827, young men were hired to serve as congressional messengers. In the Congressional Record, formerly known as the Congressional Globe, the term “page” was first used in 1839. It referred to youths employed as attendants to people of high rank. It appears, however, that these “pages” had served as messengers since the first Congress in Philadelphia in 1789.
“This marks an historic moment in the history of the House of Representatives,” Ford, a future president, said at the news conference.
Findley, who represented parts of the same congressional district that Abraham Lincoln came from when he served in the House from 1847to 1849, added, “The party of Lincoln is finally giving this very proper recognition to the Negro race.”
Mitchell began working the day after his appointment — which also marked the centennial of Lincoln’s assassination. “It’s a great honor and a privilege,” Mitchell said when asked about his job. “I’m mighty proud to be here.”
The first female pages were appointed in the summer of 1973.
Since 1983, Congress has required that all pages be at least age 16 and high school juniors. They now live in a supervised residence. Previously, pages could be as young as 14, and no housing was provided.
SOURCE: Historian, Clerk of the U.S. House | <urn:uuid:fe274809-5255-416d-af17-33fe026799e3> | {
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Imagine if you could create a product, process or system and try every feature, test every nuance or iron out every single bug before you had even built it. A firm could wave goodbye to waste, white elephants and clumsy prototypes that never got off the drawing board. This is the promise held by digital twinning.
Part of what has been dubbed “the fourth industrial revolution”,
it harnesses tech including sensors, big data and visualisation software to create a complete digital representation of something physical – from a single engine to a whole factory.
Much like the way a gamer can create their own virtual self, or avatar, in a video game and have it react to real-world physics (driving, jumping and so on), a digital twin is able to exist in its own virtual world. It can then be tested virtually, throwing up data that can be used to refine future processes, so that when the physical version is eventually built, it will – in theory – be pretty much perfect.
“Most industry manufacturers will see return on investment as the main benefit of a digital twin,” explains Jon Wilkins, marketing director at industrial automation firm, EU Automation.
“Designers and engineers can create a product and perfect it online, rather than creating expensive physical prototypes. Suppliers can
also send manufacturers a digital twin of their requested product to test the assembly of the product in a virtual factory, and ensure that the order will run smoothly,” he says.
Digital twinning is still a groundbreaking technology with only a handful of real-world examples. So far, it has traditionally been used for high-value products, such as gas turbines, but it’s now starting to be used to tackle more everyday manufacturing problems.
Experts at the University of Strathclyde’s Advanced Forming Research Institute (AFRC), for example, are currently working on a project to improve the filling of whisky casks. The process uses computer-aided design software to create a simulation of the whisky’s flow while it passes through the line.
The intention is for the software to factor in real-world conditions, analyse virtual readings and report back, with the results displayed via a tablet or virtual reality (VR) headset.
Danny McMahon, head of metrology and digital manufacturing at AFRC, says that to create a digital twin, they take this model and drive it with data from the actual physical machine.
“This means that when looking at the virtual model, you're actually seeing what the physical system is doing. A digital
twin will enhance the understanding of a product's full lifecycle, so that future designs can be smarter, more efficient and effective,” he explains.
Colin Taylor, director of industry solutions at IT company, DAI, a business that's involved in the whisky project, adds that using a digital twin for enhanced process evolution is just the latest exciting way that they're making digitalisation real, and delivering tangible benefits to industry.
“It's a methodology that's working in the drinks industry, but can work wherever there's room for improvement in an industrial process,”
With advances in technology, such as the internet of things (IoT)
and big data, digital twinning could one day be used as a fully interactive method of building systems that straddle both the virtual and physical worlds.
Professor Mark Skilton co-authored The 4th Industrial Revolution: Responding to the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Business.
He says that there’s a cyber race to develop augmented reality as a blend of physical and virtual models in digital twins that will become the defacto standard for anything you purchase, from cars to living spaces.
“It will represent new opportunities for companies, municipalities and governments to develop true smart cities and services based on a higher level of precision of location and experience,” he says. | <urn:uuid:8e1a8c5e-e9be-48fb-a4fb-3ac5c1022d0b> | {
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[IAEP] First day of Etoys class in Somerville
sthomas1 at gosargon.com
Wed Apr 6 09:22:07 EDT 2011
Here is a Etoys Minute <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMDYf3_uovk> video
showing how to animate a mouth.
FYI, I created the mouth images with the polygon tool (if you shift click on
a polygon, you can see its "handles") the circles in the handle let you move
vertices and if you click on a green triangle you can add a vertice. From
the menu in the polygon's Halo you can set the lines to curved.
The project "The Walkers<http://squeakland.org/showcase/project.jsp?id=7698>"
by P. A. Dreyfuss shows a great example of what you can do animating
polygons. Note: this project uses some extra code in the polygon object,
but it can be done in Etoys by simply placing each "frame" in a holder and
animating that way. The advantage of using holders IMO is that the kids can
see what's happening more easily.
Also you may want to check
by Kazuhiro Abe. I think kids will like this and at the appropriate time,
with the appropriate guidance they could even write the morphing script
themselves. But for now, they could simply re-use the script to create cool
On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 10:25 PM, Caroline Meeks
<caroline at solutiongrove.com>wrote:
> Thanks Thomas thats incredibly helpful and I'll try these out tomorrow.
> On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 10:22 PM, Steve Thomas <sthomas1 at gosargon.com>wrote:
>> Your students asked:
>> Etoys questions include:
>> 1. How do we make a mouth that moves?
>> When you first open Etoys click on the "Gallery of Projects" then in the
>> second row, first item from the left is a "Bouncing Ball Animation"
>> basically it behaves like flip animation (where you draw the different
>> positions on the edge of each piece of paper and flip through the pages to
>> animate). Have the kids make different drawings of the mouth and place each
>> one in a Holder. Then open the Holder's viewer go to the collections
>> category and you can iterate through the items in the Holder and set the
>> Mouth graphic to the "Holder's player at cursor graphic" To get the
>> "Holder's player at cursor graphic" tile you need to click on the
>> - How do you control the placement of a speech/thought bubble. One
>> girl made a very large heart with a face and the speech bubble appeared
>> right at the top, it would look much better if it were over on the side and
>> closer to the mouth. But I don’t see how to control how it is positioned.
>> Unfortunately you can not control the placement. What you could do is grab
>> an image of the speech bubble and move the grabbed image to a different
>> - How do you make moving eyes (from the object catalog)part of an
>> object so when you move the object with a script the eyes move too?
>> If you place the eyes on top of the object you want to embed them in, then
>> get the halo for the eye and click on the menu icon (top row, second from
>> left), then select "embed" and choose the name of the object you want to
>> embed them in. OR get the Halo of the item to which you want to add eyes
>> then from the menu icon enure "accept drops" is checked. Now anything you
>> place on that object will be embedded in it. NOTE: you may want to turn off
>> "accept drops" once done, also if you move an object (using the move icon,
>> instead of the pick up icon from the Halo, it will not embed).
>> - How do I control when a speech bubble appears and disappears. I
>> seemed to be able to get it to appear fairly easily with the various options
>> in the script but it then seemed to disappear again immediately.
>> Hmmm, can you share an actual project when this happens? Usually to get a
>> speech bubble to disappear I use the "stop saying or thinking" tile. not
>> sure why it would disappear otherwise.
>> I'll try and post an Etoys minute some time tomorrow night to show how
>> these things can be done.
>> On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 9:46 PM, Caroline Meeks <
>> caroline at solutiongrove.com> wrote:
>>> Report is here:
>>> We are working in a computer lab in a housing project in Somerville run
>>> by the Haitain Coalition of Somerville. We are using etoys to start with to
>>> help support collaboration between Waveplace and the Somerville Haitian
>>> Coalition. The students did very impressive work for the first day.
>>> We are using E-toys on a USB stick that works on both PC and Linux and
>>> hopefully mac in a day or two. The goal is to have it
>>> also automatically backup to dropbox. This currently works on XP, hopefully
>>> ubuntu will be next.
>>> We could use help from E-toys users. I have a bunch of how do I do this
>>> in E-toys questions in the report.
>>> We could use help in writing the backup script for ubuntu.
>>> Check out the report. It has nice screen shots. :)
>>> Caroline Meeks
>>> Solution Grove
>>> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>>> 617-500-3488 - Office
>>> 505-213-3268 - Fax
>>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>>> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
> Caroline Meeks
> Solution Grove
> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
> 617-500-3488 - Office
> 505-213-3268 - Fax
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- Recent research suggests hornlike structures may grow on the skull from smartphone use.
- Poor posture when using smartphones may be to blame.
- To be safe, learn how to improve your tech-use posture.
Are Horns Growing on Skulls From Smartphones?
There is no doubt that technology has made a huge impact on our lives over the past two or three decades. Young adults in their late teens and 20s might have difficulty imagining a world without social media to check regularly for updates, texting to communicate with friends, and Google readily available to answer every question. But this constant involvement with smartphones might be having an effect that goes beyond changing how we communicate and perform certain activities. There is research that suggests it may be changing the bone structure within our heads.
The study, which took place at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, found that young people may be developing very small horns at the base of the skull, and smartphones could potentially be to blame.1Shahar, David and Sayers, Mark G.L. “Prominent exostosis projecting from the occipital squama more substantial and prevalent in young adult than older age groups.” Nature. 20 February 2018. Accessed 24 June 2019. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-21625-1. These results are based on two investigations conducted by the same team of researchers who were seeking to determine whether individuals are developing small spike-like growths at the back of their heads, which are known as an external occipital protuberances.
In their first version of the study, 41 percent of the 18- to 30-year-old subjects were found to have hornlike structures that were greater than 10 millimeters (0.4 inches) in length. The second segment of the study was an analysis of 1,200 X-rays of participants ranging in age from 18 to 86, and 33 percent were seen to have the horns.
How Horns, Bone Spurs, and Smartphones are Linked
These horns are actually a kind of bone spur, formed over time when inflammation damages joint cartilage and the body reacts by growing more bone, and they are not uncommon in elderly people. But they typically develop from years of wear and tear and sagging posture. This is the first research to find them developing in a younger population, which is why the investigators believe that technology is to blame.
It is the pronounced forward tilting of the head that we use to look downward at the screen of a smartphone that puts a strain on muscles. This repetitive motion may eventually be responsible for the damage that leads to growths such as the horns that were noted. And it’s possible that the horns are now developing more quickly in younger people because they use their smartphones so frequently and because this has been a regular occurrence since their bodies were developing through childhood and adolescence.
No Definitive Proof That Smartphones Cause Horns
Despite the fact that this study had two variations and both showed evidence of the presence of horns, there were also definitely limitations to its design. First and foremost, the study does not collect any information on smartphone habits, so it is impossible to say definitively that those who use their smartphones most often are the ones growing horns.
What’s more, in the second portion of the research that focuses on the X-rays, the data shows that the likelihood of horns was lower in the older volunteers included. Since these horns are known to develop in elderly populations, we would expect to see more of them in that segment of the population, which calls into question the validity of the X-ray data.
Are We Safe Using Our Smartphones?
While the jury may still be out on the safety of exposure to the radiation our smartphones emit next to our heads, we do know for sure that the typically head down posture we maintain while looking at our smartphones is bad for our bodies. It might or might not contribute to the growth of these minor horns on the skull, but either way it certainly does put major strain on the muscles of the neck, upper back, and shoulders.
To combat that, try to be conscious of your positioning when using your smartphone. Hold it up so you need to tilt your head less or set the phone on a surface that allows you to look forward or even slightly upward toward the device. Stretch out the affected muscles with head rolls and shoulder rolls throughout the day. And, if all else fails, make it a point to schedule regular massage appointments and let your therapist know to focus a lot of energy on your shoulder and neck area.
References [ + ]
|1.||↑||Shahar, David and Sayers, Mark G.L. “Prominent exostosis projecting from the occipital squama more substantial and prevalent in young adult than older age groups.” Nature. 20 February 2018. Accessed 24 June 2019. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-21625-1.| | <urn:uuid:8db4bed8-5362-4c21-985f-dbf3b92fd2f6> | {
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Bain was born in Watten, Scotland. A Scottish clock and instrument
maker, he patented the basics of facsimile, and his claim to
priority is rarely disputed. He was an all-round inventor and
technician who later installed the first telegraph lines alongside
the railway between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
got to be careful when reading history because there are actually
two different devices known as facsimile. The one we wouldn't
recognise today employed the minds of hundreds of inventors
in the early days of telegraphy, and was finally developed to
a useful stage by Elisha Gray, Bell's great rival in the telephone
was the TeleAutograph introduced at the 1893 World's Fair in
Chicago. It transmitted both the x and y parameters of a stylus
movement (electric pen) down different wires, and therefore
transmitted the motions of handwriting over distance.
stylus movements were reproduced at the far end by an ink-trace
on paper-tape moved by clockwork. Later developments of the
TeleAutograph were popular with banks until quite recently for
transferring signatures, and they were also used by the deaf.
the early days of electronic communications developments, the
idea of handwriting transfer was seen as potentially important,
and certainly more socially-acceptable than the telephone. Many
refined people wouldn't use early telephones because they had
to shout to be understood.
anyone could use the TeleAutograph, and the bonus was that it
left a personal message if the receiver wasn't at home. E-mail
has some of these same socially-important characteristics.
fax that we know today depended on a totally different approach;
this is more akin to television scanning. In fact, Alexander
Bain is rightly credited with inventing both the fax and also
the television approach to scanning images progressively.
died in Kirkintilloch and is buried in the Old Aisle cemetery.
To Scottish Scientists and Engineers | <urn:uuid:ffdf01c0-6553-495b-8751-4a81311ce26c> | {
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Michael Arad, the architect behind New York's 9/11 Memorial, has revealed plans for a monument dedicated to the victims of a shooting massacre that took place at Charleston's Mother Emanuel AME Church.
The Emanuel Nine Memorial will recognise those who were killed and wounded in the racially motivated Charleston church shooting on 17 June 2015. White supremacist Dylann Roof opened fire during an evening service, murdering nine African American attendees and injuring five.
Located on the church grounds, Arad's monument will comprise two long benches facing each other across a courtyard, with a low-level marble fountain in between. Water will emerge from a cross-shaped opening in the dipped basin and eventually spill over its sides, where the names of the nine victims will be inscribed.
The design offers a small-scale interpretation of the 9/11 Memorial that Arad completed with landscape architect Peter Walker in 2011 to commemorate the terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center.
Huge waterfalls cascade into pools that trace the exact footprints of the destroyed Twin Towers, with the names of those lost inscribed around the edge.
At the Emanuel Nine Memorial, the seats facing the water feature will have high rounded backs to cocoon visitors. Each will rise in height from the rear to the front to create a swooping shape.
An opening between the benches will lead to a small altar, located in a corner at the rear of courtyard. Here, a white cross will be mounted onto a brick wall, and low pews will be provided for pause and prayer.
Accessed via a pathway from the courtyard, a garden will feature six stone benches and five trees that represent the five who survived the attack. The sixth bench represents the church.
The Israeli-American architect intends the Emanuel Nine Memorial to not only recognise the shooting, but also acknowledge the history of the 202-year-old church. Established in 1816 as a union of both free black people and slaves, it is recognised as having the country's oldest black congregation historically.
"The inspiration for this memorial draws on Mother Emanuel AME Church as a historic place and as a congregation," said Arad in a statement. "Throughout its 200-year history, it has endured slavery, discrimination and racism. When worship and assembly were banned, the church resisted and provided a place of fellowship and sanctuary.
"The Emanuel Nine tragedy marks another dark moment for the church, though faith helped to heal and bring light into the darkness," he added.
Also in the American south, a memorial and museum dedicated to the legacy of racial violence and injustice in the country opened in Montgomery, Alabama, earlier this year. | <urn:uuid:7824ecdb-6d0f-4ca4-82ce-95e79dd29001> | {
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China, Bejing: Authentic old photograph depicting the old Summer Palace in Peking.
The photo is from 1902. from a German counsel.
Hand writing at the back „ Sommerpalast Peking Mittel-Pagode“.
Size: ca. 10 x 7 inches (25,1 x 18,4 cm), good condition.
The Summer Palace has a long history. The origins of the Summer Palace date back to the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in 1153. In 1860, the British and French destroyed parts of the Summer Palace at the end of the Second Opium War while looting and burning down the nearby Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan). The destruction of the palaces was ordered by Lord Elgin, the British High Commissioner to China, and was undertaken in response to the torture and killing of two British envoys, a journalist for The Times, and their escorts. The destruction of large parts of the Summer Palace still evokes strong emotions among some people in China.
Between 1884–95, during the reign of the Guangxu Emperor (r. 1875–1908), Empress Dowager Cixi ordered three million silver taels, originally designated for upgrading the Qing navy (the Beiyang Fleet), to be used for reconstructing and enlarging the Summer Palace to celebrate her 60th birthday. In 1900, towards the end of the Boxer Rebellion, the Summer Palace suffered damage again when the forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance destroyed the imperial gardens and seized many artifacts stored in the palace. The palace was restored two years later.
We offer Vintage Postcards, Chinese Antiques, Autographs, Graphics and more. WORLD WIDE SHIPPING!!
Welcome! Your Shop for perfect Gifts, Vintage Collectibles and Unique Antiques. 2500+ Unique Objects to choose from. | <urn:uuid:b753d6ff-ef44-472e-a2d9-641fc4644113> | {
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Jul 31, 2013 – 7:00 PM EDT
I love raspberries, so I planted a bush. Now I have several bushes. I try to eat them before the birds do. I can hear them squawking as I pluck the berries and pop them into my mouth, leaving less for them.
There are only so many fruits and vegetables we can grow in our home environment. The majority we get at the supermarket, farmers’ markets or local fruit stands. Buying local when we can is ideal because we get the maximum nutrients still intact, the taste is high quality and we are supporting our local farmers.
The goal is to make sure our fruits and vegetables come in contact with as little pesticide as possible. Pesticide use has been around since the 1940s and is used to control insects, crop diseases and bacteria that can destroy fruits, vegetables and grain.
Animals products may contain trace amounts of pesticides since the grains eaten by the animals are often sprayed with them. Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency monitor the amount of pesticides on foods to make sure levels are safe.
Exposure among agricultural workers has been said to cause health problems ranging from irritation of the skin and eyes to affecting the nervous system, fertility problems and links to cancer.
The World Health Organization has estimated three million agricultural workers in the developing world experience pesticide poisoning. A 2007 study in California reported that women who lived near pesticide-sprayed farm fields were more likely to give birth to babies with autism.
For those wanting to limit the amount of pesticides on their foods, buying organic be the way to go. Imported produce may have higher levels of pesticide, which is another reason to ask local farmers how they grow their food. Peeling the skin of certain fruits and vegetables helps to reduce pesticide residue as well as washing the produce well before eating it.
The Environmental Working Group in the U.S. outlined the top 12 fruits and vegetables that are high in pesticides. They are apples, celery, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, grapes, hot peppers, imported nectarines, peaches, potatoes, spinach, strawberries and sweet bell peppers.
Those with the lowest amount are asparagus, avocado, cabbage, cantaloupe, sweet corn, eggplant, grapefruit, kiwi, mangoes, mushrooms, onions, papayas, pineapples, sweet peas and sweet potatoes.
Overall, eating a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables will provide the valuable vitamins, minerals, fibre and perhaps help with weight management.
For more information on pesticide use and inspection, contact The Canadian Food Inspection Agency or read the Regulation of Pesticides In Canada online.
Victoria Mikhail is a local dietitian/nutritionist who wrote The Athlete Can Cook. Check out her website: www.spicedwithnutrition.ca. | <urn:uuid:07c70263-188b-46ce-8292-4a3e1fde84d6> | {
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Why older adults take fewer risks
London, June 3 (IANS) The elderly are less willing to indulge in risk-taking behaviour for potential rewards when compared to youngsters because of the declining levels of dopamine in the brain, finds a study.
Dopamine is a chemical in the brain involved in predicting which actions will lead to rewards and has been known to fall by up to 10 per cent every decade throughout adult life.
The findings showed that older people were not overall more risk-averse as well as they didn’t make much mistakes as compared to young adults.
Rather, the elderly were found simply less attracted to big rewards and this made them less willing to take risks to try to get them, the researchers said.
“The findings offer a potential neuroscientific explanation, suggesting that a natural decline in dopamine with age might make people less receptive to the positive approach than they would have been when they were younger,” said lead author Robb Rutledge from University College London.
The steady decline in risky choices with age matched up with the declining dopamine level.
However, they were no different to younger participants when it came to choosing risky gambles to avoid losing points.
“As one ages, the dopamine levels naturally decline explaining the reason why one is less likely to seek rewards,” added Rutledge.
The study, published in Current Biology, involving 25,189 smartphone users aged 18-69, found that older people were less likely to choose risky gambles to win more points in a smartphone app called The Great Brain Experiment.
In the game, players start with 500 points and aim to win as many points as possible in 30 different trials where they must choose between a safe option and a risky 50/50 gamble.
“This study is an excellent example of the use of digital technology to produce new and robust insights into the workings of the brain,” explained Raliza Stoyanova from the neuroscience and mental health team at Wellcome Trust in Britain. | <urn:uuid:e76208a7-9e64-47ee-b681-2ce1d9b69519> | {
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The Saratoga Campaign in 1777 was an attempt by the British high command for North America to gain military control of the strategically important Hudson River valley during the American Revolutionary War. The primary thrust of the campaign was planned and initiated by General John Burgoyne. Commanding a main force of some 8,000 men, he moved south in June from Quebec, boated up Lake Champlain to middle New York, then marched over the divide and down the Hudson Valley to Saratoga. He initially skirmished there with the Patriot defenders with mixed results. Then, after losses in the Battles of Saratoga in September and October, his deteriorating position and ever increasing size of the American army obliged him to surrender his forces to the American General Horatio Gates.
Efforts to support Burgoyne were unsuccessful. Colonel Barry St. Leger attempted to move on Albany, New York east through the Mohawk River valley, but was forced to retreat during the siege of Fort Stanwix after losing Indian support and a successful ruse by Benedict Arnold. The planned expedition from the south in the summer never materialized (apparently due to miscommunication on that year's campaign goals) when General William Howe sent his army to take Philadelphia rather than sending a portion of it up the Hudson River from New York City. A late effort to support Burgoyne from New York was made by Sir Henry Clinton in early October, but it did not significantly affect the outcome.
The American victory was an enormous morale boost to the fledgling nation, and it convinced France to enter the conflict in support of the United States, openly providing money, soldiers, and naval support, as well as a wider theater of war.
- 1 British strategy
- 2 American strategy
- 3 International interest
- 4 Campaign begins
- 5 Ticonderoga falls
- 6 Reaction and delay
- 7 St. Leger's expedition
- 8 Mounting difficulties
- 9 American change of fortune
- 10 Saratoga
- 11 Surrender
- 12 Aftermath
- 13 Consequences
- 14 Remembrances
- 15 Notes
- 16 References
- 17 Further reading
- 18 External links
Toward the end of 1776 it was apparent to many in England that pacification of New England was very difficult due to the high concentration of Patriots; and so the British leadership set their sights on the central and southern states where Loyalists were more plentiful. Isolating New England seemed a prudent means to this end.
In December 1776 General John Burgoyne arrived in London and began meeting with Lord Germain, the British Secretary of State for the Colonies and the government official responsible for managing the war, to discuss military plans for 1777. There were two main armies in North America to work with: General Guy Carleton's army in Quebec, which had in 1776 successfully driven back the American invasion begun in 1775, and General William Howe's army, which had driven George Washington's army from New York City in the New York campaign.
Howe's plan to attack Philadelphia
On November 30, 1776, Howe—the British commander-in-chief in North America—wrote to Germain, outlining an ambitious plan for the 1777 campaign. Howe said that if Germain sent him substantial reinforcements, he could launch various offensives, including sending 10,000 men up the Hudson River to take Albany, New York. Then, in the autumn, Howe could gather his troops and capture the rebel capital of Philadelphia. Howe soon changed his mind after writing this letter: any reinforcements would probably arrive too late, and the retreat of the Continental Army over the winter of 1776–77 made Philadelphia an increasingly vulnerable target. Therefore, Howe decided that he would first capture Philadelphia in the 1777 campaign, before sending any troops to Albany. Howe sent Germain this revised plan, which Germain received on February 23, 1777.
Burgoyne's plan to capture Albany
Burgoyne, seeking a command in the upcoming action, brought up a plan that had been discussed by various British generals since 1775: an attempt to divide the American colonies by an invasion from Quebec. This had already been attempted by General Carleton in 1776, although he had stopped short of a full scale invasion due to the lateness of the season. Carleton was heavily criticized in London for not taking advantage of the American retreat from Quebec, and he was also intensely disliked by Germain. This, combined with rival Henry Clinton's failed attempt to capture Charleston, South Carolina, placed Burgoyne in a good position to get command of the 1777 northern campaign.
When asked to submit a plan, Burgoyne outlined a number of strategies in a paper entitled "Thoughts for Conducting the War on the Side of Canada", and submitted it to Lord Germain on February 28, 1777. Germain approved his first plan, with minor modifications, and gave Burgoyne command of the main expedition. (Henry Clinton was given a knighthood as consolation, but otherwise he was ordered to continue serving under General Howe, with whom he did not get along well.) Burgoyne was so confident of his success that he bet a friend 50 guineas that he would return victorious within one year.
Burgoyne's invasion plan from Quebec had two components: he would lead the main force of about 8,000 men south from Montreal along Lake Champlain and the Hudson River Valley while a second column of about 2,000 men (which Barry St. Leger was chosen to lead), would move from Lake Ontario east down the Mohawk River valley in a strategic diversion. Both expeditions would converge upon Albany, where they would link up with troops from Howe's army marching up the Hudson. Control of the Lake Champlain-Lake George-Hudson River route from Canada to New York City would cut off New England from the rest of the American colonies.
The last part of Burgoyne's proposal, the advance by Howe up the Hudson from New York City, proved to be the most controversial part of the campaign. Germain approved Burgoyne's plan after having received Howe's letter, in which Howe said he would not be able to support the northern Army until late in the year, after the capture of Philadelphia. Whether Germain told Burgoyne, who was still in London at that time, about Howe's revised plans is unclear: while some sources claim he did, others state that Burgoyne was not notified of the changes until the campaign was well underway. Whether Germain, Howe, and Burgoyne had the same expectations about the degree to which Howe was supposed to support the invasion from Quebec is also unclear. Some have argued that Howe failed to follow instructions and essentially abandoned Burgoyne's army; others suggest that Burgoyne failed on his own and then tried to shift the blame to Howe and Clinton. What is clear is that Germain either left his generals with too much latitude, or without a clearly defined overall strategy. This uncertainty is highlighted by a letter sent by Germain to Howe, dated April 2, 1777, in which he approved Howe's plan for Philadelphia, but also stressed that "it will be executed in time for you to co-operate with the army ordered to proceed from Canada and put itself under your command." Historian Robert Ketchum believes that Burgoyne would probably have been aware of the problems that lay ahead had he received a copy of these instructions.
Burgoyne returned to Quebec on May 6, 1777, bearing a letter from Lord Germain which introduced the plan but lacked some details. This produced another of the conflicts of command that plagued the British throughout the war. Lieutenant General Burgoyne technically outranked Major General Carleton, but Carleton was still the governor of Quebec. Germain's instructions to Burgoyne and Carleton had specifically limited Carleton's role to operations in Quebec. This slight against Carleton, combined with Carleton's failure to get command of the expedition, led to his resignation later in 1777, and to his refusal to supply troops from the Quebec regiments to garrison the forts at Crown Point and Ticonderoga after they were captured.
George Washington, whose army was encamped at Morristown, New Jersey, and the American military command did not have a good picture of British plans for 1777. The principal question on the minds of Washington and his generals Horatio Gates and Philip Schuyler —who both were at turns responsible for the Continental Army's Northern Department and its defense of the Hudson River— was of the movements of Howe's army in New York. They had no significant knowledge of what was being planned for the British forces in Quebec, in spite of Burgoyne's complaints that everyone in Montreal knew what he was planning. The three generals disagreed on what Burgoyne's most likely movement was, and Congress also rendered the opinion that Burgoyne's army was likely to move to New York by sea.
Partly as a result of this indecision, and the fact that it would be isolated from its supply lines if Howe moved north, the garrisons at Fort Ticonderoga and elsewhere in the Mohawk and Hudson valleys were not significantly increased. Schuyler took the measure in April 1777 of sending a large regiment under Colonel Peter Gansevoort to rehabilitate Fort Stanwix in the upper Mohawk valley as a step in defending against British movements in that area. Washington also ordered four regiments to be held at Peekskill, New York that could be directed either to the north or the south in response to British movements.
American troops were allocated throughout New York theater in June 1777. About 1,500 troops (including those of Colonel Gansevoort) were in outposts along the Mohawk River, about 3,000 troops were in the Hudson River highlands under the command of General Israel Putnam, and Schuyler commanded about 4,000 troops (inclusive of local militia and the troops at Ticonderoga under St. Clair).
Ever since the Seven Years' War, France's foreign ministers, beginning with Choiseul, had followed the general idea that the independence of Britain's North American colonies would be good for France and bad for Britain, and furthermore that French attempts to recover parts of New France would be detrimental to that cause. When war broke out in 1775, the Comte de Vergennes, then the Foreign Minister, outlined a series of proposals that led to secret French and also Spanish support of the rebel movement, and some preparations for the possibility of war, including expansion of their navies. Vergennes did not think open participation in the war was diplomatically or politically feasible until the rebels demonstrated their strength and ability to gain military victories without significant assistance.
To further the aim of French participation in the war, Vergennes closely monitored news from North America and London, and worked to remove impediments to Spanish participation in the war. Vergennes went so far as to propose war to King Louis XVI in August 1776, but news of Howe's capture of New York City scuttled that plan.
Most of Burgoyne's army had arrived in Quebec in the spring of 1776, and participated in the routing of Continental Army troops from the province. In addition to British regulars, the troops in Quebec included several regiments from the German principalities of Hesse-Hanau (from whose name the common reference of Hessian comes) and Brunswick under the command of Baron Friedrich Adolph Riedesel. Of these regular forces, 200 British regulars and 300 to 400 Germans were assigned to St. Leger's Mohawk valley expedition, and about 3,500 men remained in Quebec to protect the province. The remaining forces were assigned to Burgoyne for the campaign to Albany. The regular forces were supposed to be augmented by as many as 2,000 militia raised in Quebec; by June, Carleton had managed to raise only three small companies. Burgoyne had also expected as many as 1,000 Indians to support the expedition. About 500 joined between Montreal and Crown Point.
Burgoyne's army was beset by transport difficulties before it left Quebec, something that apparently neither Burgoyne nor Carleton anticipated. As the expedition expected to travel mainly over water, there were few wagons, horses, and other draft animals available to move the large amount of equipment and supplies on the land portions of the route. Only in early June did Carleton issue orders to procure carts sufficient to move the army. Consequently, the carts were poorly constructed of green wood, and the teams were driven by civilians who were at a higher risk of desertion.
On June 13, 1777, Burgoyne and Carleton reviewed the assembled forces at St. John's on the Richelieu River, just north of Lake Champlain, and Burgoyne was ceremonially given command. In addition to five sailing ships built the previous year, a sixth had been built and three had been captured after the Battle of Valcour Island. These provided some transport as well as military cover for the large fleet of transport boats that moved the army south on the lake.
The army that Burgoyne launched the next day had about 7,000 regulars and over 130 artillery pieces ranging from light mortars to 24 pound (11 kg) pieces. His regulars were organized into an advance force under Brigadier General Simon Fraser, and two divisions. Major General William Phillips led the 3,900 British regulars on the right, while Baron Riedesel's 3,100 Brunswickers and Hanauers held the left. His regular troops started out in good condition but some, notably some of the German dragoons, were poorly equipped for wilderness fighting.
Colonel St. Leger's expedition was also assembled by mid-June. His force, a mixed company of British regulars, Loyalists, Hessians, and rangers from the Indian department, numbering about 750 men left Lachine, near Montreal, on June 23.
Burgoyne's army traveled up the lake and occupied the undefended Fort Crown Point by June 30. The screening activities of Burgoyne's Indian support were highly effective at keeping the Americans from learning the details of his movements. General Arthur St. Clair, who had been left in command of Fort Ticonderoga and its surrounding defenses with a garrison of about 3,000 regulars and militia, had no idea on July 1 of the full strength of Burgoyne's army, large elements of which were then just 4 miles (6.4 km) away. St. Clair had been ordered by General Schuyler to hold out as long as possible, and had planned two avenues of retreat.
Open skirmishing began on the outer defense works of Ticonderoga on July 2. By July 4, most of the American garrison was either at Fort Ticonderoga or nearby Mount Independence, the extensive fortifications on the Vermont side of the lake. Unknown to the Americans, their withdrawal from an outer defensive position cleared a way for the British to place artillery on the hilltop known then as Sugar Loaf (now Mount Defiance), whose heights commanded the fort. St. Clair withdrew the night after spotting British cannon on Sugar Loaf on July 5, and Burgoyne's men occupied the main fortification and the positions on Mount Independence on July 6. The uncontested surrender of the supposedly impregnable fort caused a public and political uproar. Although a later investigation cleared both Schuyler and St. Clair of any wrongdoing in the withdrawal, it caused the Continental Congress to replace Schuyler with General Horatio Gates as commander of the Northern Department of the Continental Army in August.
Burgoyne sent forces out from his main body to pursue the retreating army, which St. Clair had sent south via two different routes. The British caught up with elements of the retreating Americans at least three times. General Fraser and elements of Baron Riedesel's troops faced determined resistance in Battle of Hubbardton on July 7, and a skirmish that same day between the vanguard of the main army met Pierse Long's retreating companies in a skirmish at Skenesboro. These were followed by another standoff in the Battle of Fort Anne on July 8, in which a forward company of the British army was nearly decimated. These actions cost the Americans about 50% more casualties than those incurred by the British, and they demonstrated to the British officers present that the Americans were capable of putting up stiff resistance. Burgoyne's army was reduced by about 1,500 men as a result of the Ticonderoga actions. He left 400 men to garrison the magazine at Crown Point and another 900 to defend Ticonderoga, and the battles that followed resulted in about 200 casualties.
The bulk of St. Clair's army retreated through the New Hampshire Grants (present-day Vermont). St. Clair issued appeals to the states for militia support, and also arranged to have as much of the area's livestock and supplies delivered to Fort Edward on the Hudson River, where the American armies would regroup. St. Clair reached Fort Edward on July 12 after five days of grueling marches. Some of the remnants that had been scattered at Hubbardton rejoined the army, but Seth Warner and the remains of his regiment were stationed at Manchester in the Grants.
Reaction and delay
Burgoyne settled into the house of Loyalist Philip Skene at Skenesboro while the pieces of his army regrouped and he considered his next steps. He penned letters describing the British victory, intended for public consumption. When this news reached the capitals of Europe, King George was happy, and the Comte de Vergennes was not, as the news effectively scuttled an early proposal for French entry into the war. British diplomats increased pressure on the French and Spanish, demanding that they close their ports to American shipping. While this demand was refused, it markedly increased the tensions between the powers. The news was also harshly received by Congress and the American public, including slanders that St. Clair and Schuyler had been bribed.
On July 10 Burgoyne issued orders for the next series of movements. Most of the army was to take the rough road from Skenesboro to Fort Edward via Fort Anne, while the heavy artillery was to be transported down Lake George to Fort Edward. Riedesel's troops were sent back up the road toward Castleton, primarily as a diversion intended to suggest that he might be aiming for the Connecticut River. Burgoyne's decision to move the army over land via Fort Anne was a curious one, for it contradicted his own earlier commentaries on planning the expedition, in which he presciently observed that defenders could easily block the route. His decision appears to have been motivated by two factors; the first being the perception that moving the army over water via Lake George would require a retrograde movement that could be perceived as a retreat, and the second being the influence of Philip Skene, whose property would benefit by the improved road Burgoyne would have to build.
General Schuyler, at Albany when he received word of Ticonderoga's fall, immediately rode to Fort Edward, where there was a garrison of about 700 regulars and 1,400 militia. He decided to make Burgoyne's passage as difficult as possible, using the axe as a weapon; as it was much easier to fell large trees in the enemy's path than to remove them after they were down, this brought Burgoyne's advance to a crawl, tiring his troops and forcing them to use up supplies. On July 11 Burgoyne wrote to Lord Germain, complaining that the Americans were systematically felling trees, destroying bridges, and damming streams along the road to Fort Edward. Schuyler also employed scorched earth tactics to deny the British access to local provisions. In spite of Burgoyne's lack of movement, his scouts were active; some of Schuyler's work crews were attacked.
Schuyler's tactics required Burgoyne to build a road through the wilderness for his guns and troops, a task that took about two weeks. They moved out of Skenesboro on July 24, and reached Fort Edward on July 29, finding that Schuyler had already abandoned it, in a retreat that ended at Stillwater, New York. Before he left Skenesboro, Burgoyne was joined by about 500 Indians (mostly Ottawas, but also Fox, Mississauga, Chippewa, and Ojibwe, as well as members of the Iroquois) from the Great Lakes region under the leadership of St. Luc de la Corne and Charles Michel de Langlade.
St. Leger's expedition
Lieutenant Colonel St. Leger sailed up the St. Lawrence and crossed Lake Ontario to arrive at Oswego without incident. He had about 300 regulars, supported by 650 Canadian and Loyalist militia, and they were joined by 1,000 Indians led by John Butler and the Iroquois war chiefs Joseph Brant, Sayenqueraghta and Cornplanter. Leaving Oswego on July 25, they marched to Fort Stanwix on the Mohawk River, and began besieging it on August 2. About 800 members of the Tryon County militia and their Indian allies marched to relieve the siege, but some of St. Leger's British and Indians ambushed them on August 6 at the bloody Battle of Oriskany. While the Americans held the field of battle, they retreated because of the heavy casualties they suffered, including the mortal wounding of their leader, General Nicholas Herkimer. Warriors from Iroquois nations fought on both sides of the battle, marking the beginning of a civil war within the Six Nations. During the Oriskany action, the besieged Americans staged a sortie from Fort Stanwix and raided the nearly empty Indian camp. Combined with the significant Indian casualties at Oriskany, this was a significant blow to Indian morale.
On August 10, Benedict Arnold left Stillwater, New York for Fort Stanwix with 800 men of the Continental Army from Schuyler's Northern Department. He expected to recruit members of the Tryon County militia when he arrived at Fort Dayton on August 21. Arnold could only raise about 100 militia, as most of the militia men that had been at Oriskany were not interested in joining, so he instead resorted to subterfuge. He staged the escape of a Loyalist captive, who convinced St. Leger that Arnold was coming with a much larger force than he actually had. On this news, Joseph Brant and the rest of St. Leger's Indians withdrew. They took most of his remaining supplies with them, and St. Leger was forced to raise the siege and head back through Oswego to Quebec. Arnold sent a detachment a short way after them, and turned the rest of his force east to rejoin the American forces at Saratoga. St. Leger's remaining men eventually arrived at Fort Ticonderoga on September 27. Their arrival was too late to effectively support Burgoyne, whose army was already being hemmed in by the growing American forces around him.
The advance of Burgoyne's army to Fort Edward was, as with the approach to Ticonderoga, preceded by a wave of Indians, which chased away the small contingent of troops left there by Schuyler. These allies became impatient and began indiscriminate raids on frontier families and settlements, which had the effect of increasing rather than reducing local support to the American rebels. In particular, the death at Indian hands of the attractive young Loyalist settler Jane McCrea was widely publicized and served as a catalyst for rebel support, as Burgoyne's decision to not punish the perpetrators was seen as unwillingness or inability to keep the Indians under control.
Even though the bulk of his army made the trip from Skenesboro to Fort Edward in just five days, the army's lack of adequate transport served to delay the army again, as the supply train, hampered by a lack of draft animals and carts and wagons that were capable of dealing with the rough tracks through the wilderness, took time to follow.
On August 3, messengers from General Howe finally succeeded in making their way through the American lines to Burgoyne's camp at Fort Edward. (Numerous attempts by the British generals to communicate were frustrated by the capture and hanging of their messengers by the Americans.) The messengers did not bring good news. On July 17 Howe wrote that he was preparing to depart by sea with his army to capture Philadelphia, and that General Clinton, responsible for New York City's defense, would "act as occurrences may direct". Burgoyne refused to divulge the contents of this dispatch to his staff.
Realizing that he now had a serious supply problem, Burgoyne decided to act on a suggestion that Baron Riedesel had made to him in July. Riedesel, whose forces Burgoyne had stationed at Castleton for a time while he was at Skenesboro, had observed that the area was rich in draft animals and horses, which might be seized for the army's benefit (including the mounting of Riedesel's currently unmounted dragoons). Pursuing this idea, Burgoyne sent Colonel Friedrich Baum's regiment toward western Massachusetts and the New Hampshire Grants on August 9, along with some Brunswick dragoons. Most of Baum's detachment never returned, and the reinforcements he had sent after them came back after they were ravaged in the August 16 Battle of Bennington, which deprived Burgoyne of nearly 1,000 men and the much-needed supplies. What Burgoyne had been unaware of was that St. Clair's calls for militia support following the withdrawal from Ticonderoga had been answered, and General John Stark had placed 2,000 men at Bennington. Stark's force enveloped Baum's, killing him and capturing much of his detachment.
The death of Jane McCrea and the Battle of Bennington, besides acting as rallying cries for the Americans, had another important effect. Burgoyne blamed his Indian and Canadian allies for McCrea's death, and, even after the Indians had lost 80 of their number at Bennington, Burgoyne showed them no gratitude. As a result, Langlade, La Corne, and most of the Indians left the British camp, leaving Burgoyne with fewer than 100 Indian scouts. Burgoyne was left with no protection in the woods against the American rangers. Burgoyne would later blame La Corne for deserting him, while La Corne countered that Burgoyne never respected the Indians. In the British Parliament, Lord Germain sided with La Corne.
American change of fortune
While the tactic of delay worked well in the field, the result in the Continental Congress was a different matter. General Horatio Gates was in Philadelphia when Congress discussed their shock at the fall of Ticonderoga, and Gates was more than willing to help assign the blame to reluctant generals. Some in the Congress had already been impatient with General George Washington, wanting a large, direct confrontation that might eliminate occupation forces but which Washington feared would probably lose the war. John Adams, the head of the War Committee, praised Gates and remarked that "we shall never hold a post until we shoot a general." Over the objections of the New York delegation, Congress sent Gates to take command of the Northern Department on August 10. It also ordered states from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts to call out their militias. On August 19, Gates arrived at Albany to take charge. He was cold and arrogant in manner, and pointedly excluded Schuyler from his first war council. Schuyler left for Philadelphia shortly after, depriving Gates of his intimate knowledge of the area.
Throughout the month of August, and continuing into September, militia companies arrived at the Continental Army camps on the Hudson. These were augmented by troops Washington ordered north from the Hudson Highlands as part of General Arnold's operation to relieve Stanwix, which arrived at the end of August, and included the crack sharpshooters of Daniel Morgan's rifle corps, which he sent north from his own army. News of the American successes at Bennington and Fort Stanwix, combined with outrage over the death of Jane McCrea, rallied support, swelling Gates' army to over 6,000 rank and file. This number did not include Stark's small army at Bennington, which was reduced in size by disease and the departure of some of its companies, but was also augmented by several hundred troops raised by General Benjamin Lincoln, who was assigned to make attacks against Burgoyne's supply and communications.
The "Battle of Saratoga" is often depicted as a single event, but it was actually a month-long series of maneuvers punctuated by two battles. At the beginning of September 1777 Burgoyne's army, now just over 7,000 strong, was located on the east bank of the Hudson. He had learned of St. Leger's failure at Stanwix on August 28, and even earlier that Howe would not be giving him substantial support from New York City. Faced with the need to reach defensible winter quarters, which would require either retreat back to Ticonderoga or advance to Albany, he decided on the latter. Consequent to this decision he made two further crucial decisions. He decided to deliberately cut communications to the north, so that he would not need to maintain a chain of heavily fortified outposts between his position and Ticonderoga, and he decided to cross the Hudson River while he was in a relatively strong position. He therefore ordered Riedesel, whose forces were in the rear, to abandon outposts from Skenesboro south, and ordered the army to cross the river just north of Saratoga, which it did between September 13 and 15. Moving cautiously, since the departure of his Indian support had deprived him of reliable scouting, Burgoyne advanced to the south. On September 18 the vanguard of his army had reached a position just north of Saratoga, about 4 miles (6.4 km) from the American defensive line, and skirmishes occurred between the leading elements of the armies.
When Gates took over Schuyler's army, much of it was located near the mouth of the Mohawk River, south of Stillwater. On September 8 he ordered the army, then about 10,000 men (of whom about 8,500 were effective combat troops), to Stillwater with the idea of setting up defenses there. The Polish engineer Thaddeus Kosciusko found the area inadequate for proper defensive works, so a new location was found about three miles further north (and about 10 miles (16 km) south of Saratoga). At this location Kosciusko laid out defensive lines stretching from the river to the bluffs called Bemis Heights.
The right side of these defenses was nominally given to General Lincoln, but as he was leading troops intended for a diversion against Ticonderoga, Gates assumed command of that portion of the line himself. Gates put General Arnold, with whom he had previously had a good relationship, in command of the army's left, the western defenses on Bemis Heights. The relationship between the two soured when Arnold chose to staff his command with friends of Schuyler, whom Gates hated. Combined with the prickly natures of both Gates and Arnold, this eventually brought internal power squabbles to a boil.
Both Generals Burgoyne and Arnold recognized the importance of the American left flank. Burgoyne recognized that the American position could be flanked, and divided his forces, sending a large detachment to the west on September 19. Arnold, also recognizing that a British attack on the left was likely, asked Gates for permission to move his forces out to Freeman's Farm to anticipate that maneuver. Gates denied a general movement since he wanted to wait behind his defenses for the expected frontal attack; he did permit Arnold to send Daniel Morgan's riflemen and some light infantry out for a reconnaissance in force. These forces precipitated the Battle of Freeman's Farm when they made contact with Burgoyne's flank. In the ensuing battle, the British gained control of Freeman's Farm, but at the cost of 600 casualties, ten percent of their forces.
After the battle the feud between Gates and Arnold erupted. Not only did Gates not mention Arnold at all in the official account of the battle he sent to Congress, but he also transferred Morgan's company, which had been technically independent but operated under Arnold's command in the battle) to his own command. Arnold and Gates had a noisy argument in Gates' quarters, in which Gates said that General Lincoln would be replacing him. Following the argument Arnold drafted a letter to Gates outlining his grievances and requesting a transfer to Washington's command. Gates gave Arnold a pass to leave, and continued to inflict petty indignities on Arnold. A commonly referenced reason why Arnold chose to remain is that a petition signed by all of the line officers except Gates and Lincoln convinced him to stay. While proposals for such a document were considered, there is no contemporary evidence of one actually being drafted and signed.
Burgoyne considered renewing the attack the next day, but called it off when Fraser noted that many men were fatigued from the previous day's exertions. He therefore dug his army in, and waited for news that he would receive some assistance from the south, as a letter he received from General Clinton in New York on September 21 suggested that a movement up the Hudson would draw off some of Gates' army. Although he was aware of the persistent desertions that were reducing the size of his army and that the army was running short of food and other critical supplies, he did not know that the American army was also daily growing in size, or that Gates had intelligence on how dire the situation was in his camp.
Attack on Ticonderoga
Unknown to either side at Saratoga until after the battle, General Lincoln and Colonel John Brown had staged an attack against the British position at Fort Ticonderoga. Lincoln had collected 2,000 men at Bennington by early September. After marching north to Pawlet, they received word that the guard at Ticonderoga might be susceptible to surprise. Lincoln sent three detachments of 500 men each to "annoy, divide, and distract the enemy." One went to Skenesboro, which was found to be abandoned by the British. The second went to capture Mount Independence on the east side of Lake Champlain, while the third, led by John Brown, made the approach to Ticonderoga.
On the morning of September 18, Brown surprised the British defenders at the southern end of the portage trail connecting Lake George to Lake Champlain. Rapidly moving up the trail his men continued to surprise British defenders and capture artillery pieces until they reached the height of land just before Ticonderoga, where they occupied the "old French lines" (so named because it was there that a French defense improbably held against a much larger British army in the 1758 Battle of Carillon). On the way he released 100 prisoners (thus increasing the size of his force) and captured nearly 300. His demand for the fort's surrender was refused, and for the next four days Brown's men and the fort exchanged cannon fire, to little effect. Since he had insufficient manpower to actually assault the fort, Brown then withdrew to Lake George, where he made an unsuccessful attempt to capture a storage depot on an island in the lake.
General Gates wrote to Lincoln on the day of Freeman's Farm, ordering his force back to Saratoga and that "not one moment should be lost". Lincoln reached Bemis Heights on September 22, but the last of his troops did not arrive until the 29th.
Sir Henry Clinton attempts a diversion
General Howe, when he left New York for Philadelphia, had put General Sir Henry Clinton in charge of New York's defense, with instructions to assist Burgoyne if opportunities arose. Clinton wrote to Burgoyne on September 12 that he would "make a push at [Fort] Montgomery in about ten days" if "you think 2000 men can assist you effectually." When Burgoyne received the letter he immediately replied, appealing to Clinton for instruction on whether he should attempt to advance or retreat, based on the likelihood of Clinton's arrival at Albany for support. Burgoyne indicated that if he did not receive a response by October 12 he would be forced to retreat.
On October 3, Clinton sailed up the Hudson River with 3,000 men, and on October 6, one day after receiving Burgoyne's appeal, captured the highland forts named Clinton and Montgomery. Burgoyne never received Clinton's dispatches following this victory, as all three messengers were captured. Clinton followed up the victory by dismantling the chain across the Hudson, and sent a raiding force up the river that reached as far north as Livingston Manor on October 16 before turning back. Word of Clinton's movements only reached Gates after the battle of Bemis Heights.
In addition to the Lincoln's 2,000 men, militia units poured into the American camp, swelling the American army to over 15,000 men. Burgoyne, who had put his army on short rations on October 3, called a council the next day. The decision of this meeting was to launch a reconnaissance in force of about 1,700 men toward the American left flank. Burgoyne and Fraser led this detachment out early on the afternoon of October 7. Their movements were spotted, and Gates wanted to order only Daniel Morgan's men out in opposition. Arnold said that this was clearly insufficient, and that a large force had to be sent. Gates, put off one last time by Arnold's tone, dismissed him, saying, "You have no business here." However, Gates did accede to similar advice given by Lincoln. In addition to sending Morgan's company around the British right, he also sent Enoch Poor's brigade against Burgoyne's left. When Poor's men made contact, the Battle of Bemis Heights was underway.
The initial American attack was highly effective, and Burgoyne attempted to order a withdrawal, but his aide was shot down before the order could be broadcast. In intense fighting, the flanks of Burgoyne's force were exposed, while the Brunswickers at the center held against Learned's determined attack. General Fraser was mortally wounded in this phase of the battle. While frequently claimed to be the work of Timothy Murphy, one of Morgan's men, the story appears to be a 19th-century fabrication. After Fraser's fall and the arrival of additional American troops, Burgoyne ordered what was left of the force to retreat behind their entrenched lines.
General Arnold, frustrated by the sound of fighting he was not involved in, rode off from the American headquarters to join the fray. Arnold, who some claimed was in a drunken fury, took the battle to the British position. The right side of the British line consisted of two earthen redoubts that had been erected on Freeman's Farm, and were manned by Brunswickers under Heinrich Breymann and light infantry under Lord Balcarres. Arnold first rallied troops to attack Balcarres' redoubt, without success. He then boldly rode through the gap between the two redoubts, a space guarded by a small company of Canadian irregulars. Learned's men followed, and made an assault on the open rear of Breymann's redoubt. Arnold's horse was shot out from under him, pinning him and breaking his leg. Breymann was killed in the fierce action, and his position was taken. However, night was falling, and the battle came to an end. The battle was a bloodbath for Burgoyne's troops: nearly 900 men were killed, wounded, or captured, compared to about 150 for the Americans.
Simon Fraser died of his wounds early the next day, but it was not until nearly sunset that he was buried. Burgoyne then ordered the army, whose entrenchments had been subjected to persistent harassment by the Americans, to retreat. (One consequence of the skirmishing was that General Lincoln was also wounded. Combined with Arnold's wounds, this deprived Gates of his top two field commanders.) It took the army nearly two days to reach Saratoga, in which heavy rain and American probes against the column slowed the army's pace. Burgoyne was aided by logistical problems in the American camp, where the army's ability to move forward was hampered by delays in bringing forward and issuing rations. However, Gates did order detachments to take positions on the east side of the Hudson to oppose any attempted crossings. By the morning of October 13 Burgoyne's army was completely surrounded, so his council voted to open negotiations. Terms were agreed on October 16 that Burgoyne insisted on calling a "convention" rather than a capitulation. On October 17, following a ceremony in which Burgoyne gave his sword to Gates, only to have it returned, Burgoyne's army (approaching 6,000 strong) marched out to surrender their arms while the American musicians played "Yankee Doodle".
British troops withdrew from Ticonderoga and Crown Point in November, and Lake Champlain was free of British troops by early December. American troops, on the other hand, still had work to do. Alerted to General Clinton's raids on the Hudson, most of the army marched south toward Albany on October 18, while other detachments accompanied the "Convention Army" east. Burgoyne and Riedesel became guests of General Schuyler, who had come north from Albany to witness the surrender. Burgoyne was allowed to return to England on parole in May 1778, where he spent the next two years defending his actions in Parliament and the press. He was eventually exchanged for more than 1,000 American prisoners.
In response to Burgoyne's surrender, Congress declared December 18, 1777 as a national day "for solemn Thanksgiving and praise" in recognition of the military success at Saratoga; it was the nation's first official observance of a holiday with that name.
Under the terms of the convention Burgoyne's army was to march to Boston, where British ships would transport it back to England, on condition that its members not participate in the conflict until they were formally exchanged. Congress demanded that Burgoyne provide a list of troops in the army so that the terms of the agreement concerning future combat could be enforced. When he refused, Congress decided not to honor the terms of the convention, and the army remained in captivity. The army was kept for some time in sparse camps throughout New England. Although individual officers were exchanged, much of the "Convention Army" was eventually marched south to Virginia, where it remained prisoner for several years. Throughout its captivity, a large number of men (more than 1,300 in the first year alone) escaped and effectively deserted, settling in the United States.
On December 4, 1777, word reached Benjamin Franklin at Versailles that Philadelphia had fallen and that Burgoyne had surrendered. Two days later, King Louis XVI assented to negotiations for an alliance. The treaty was signed on February 6, 1778, and France declared war on Britain one month later, with hostilities beginning with naval skirmishes off Ushant in June. Spain did not enter into the war until 1779, when it entered the war as an ally of France pursuant to the secret Treaty of Aranjuez. Vergennes' diplomatic moves following the French entry into the war also had material impact on the later entry of the Dutch Republic into the war, and declarations of neutrality on the part of other important geopolitical players like Russia.
The British government of Lord North came under sharp criticism when the news of Burgoyne's surrender reached London. Of Lord Germain it was said that "the secretary is incapable of conducting a war", and Horace Walpole opined (incorrectly, as it turned out) that "we are ... very near the end of the American war." Lord North issued a proposal for peace terms in Parliament that did not include independence; when these were finally delivered to Congress by the Carlisle Peace Commission they were rejected.
Most of the battlefields of the campaign have been preserved in some way, usually as state or national parks, but also as historic sites under state or federal control. Some monuments erected to mark the battles are listed as National Historic Landmarks and some are separately listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Many of the battles are regularly reenacted, and the Battle of Bennington (although it was actually fought in present-day Walloomsac, New York) is marked in the state of Vermont by Bennington Battle Day.
The commemorations of Benedict Arnold's contributions to the American success of the campaign are particularly noteworthy. The obelisk at Saratoga National Historical Park has, on three of its four sides, alcoves bearing statues of three generals instrumental in the success at Saratoga: Gates, Schuyler, and Morgan. The fourth alcove, representing Arnold, is empty. The park also contains the Boot Monument which, though again without identifying Arnold by name, clearly honors his contribution in the second Saratoga battle.
- This number is an estimate of the total number of American combatants involved in the campaign. While Nickerson details a significant number of the troop counts during the campaign (pp. 435–451), Pancake (1977) provides a more ready source of numbers for recruitments. The Northern Department (under Schuyler and then Gates), started with about 5,500 men (Pancake, pp. 151–152), and the Highland Department under Putnam, based on troop deployments ordered, had about 3,000 men (pp. 153,180). Militia recruitment after the fall of Ticonderoga and the killing of Jane McCrea was substantial: known recruitments included Stark and Warner 2,000 (p. 153), Lincoln 1,500 (p. 178), and Herkimer 800. Gates was reported to have anywhere from 15,000 to 18,000 men when Burgoyne surrendered (p. 189), which did not include about one-half of Putnam's and Stark's men, the Mohawk River outposts, Herkimer's troops, or earlier losses due to battle, disease, or expiring enlistments. It did include Morgan's 300+ riflemen, dispatched from Washington's main army. Considering that Putnam's forces were also swollen by militia following the Battle of Forts Clinton and Montgomery (one British report claimed 6,000 men were following them on October 16, Pancake p. 188), the number of Americans in the field in mid-October was probably well over 20,000.
- Nickerson (1967), p. 437, and other sources report Burgoyne starting with 7,800 men. Nickerson notes (p. 105) that this number does not include officers and non-combatant staff and camp followers, who would also require supplies. That number also does not include Indians and Loyalists who arrived after the capture of Ticonderoga (about 700, Nickerson p. 439).
- See Siege of Fort Stanwix for details.
- See Battle of Forts Clinton and Montgomery for details. This number includes all troops Clinton sent north from New York, not all of which were involved in battle.
- Ketchum (1997), p. 65
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 42, 51
- Nickerson (1967), p. 78
- Black (1991), p. 127
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 19, 79
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 77–80
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 80–82
- Ketchum (1997), p. 84
- Ketchum (1997), p. 83
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 79–83
- Samuel B. Griffith, The War for American Independence: From 1760 to the Surrender at Yorktown in 1781
- Mark M. Boatner, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, pp. 134–135
- Black, p. 126
- Ketchum (1997), p. 104
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 87–88
- Nickerson (1967), pp. 188–189
- Nickerson (1967), p. 137
- Nickerson (1967), p. 138
- Pancake (1977), p. 139
- Nickerson (1967), p. 139
- Pancake (1977), pp. 151–152
- Nickerson (1967), p. 26
- Nickerson (1967), p. 65–66
- Nickerson (1967), p. 66
- Nickerson (1967), p. 75
- Nickerson (1967), pp. 106–107
- Ketchum (1997), p. 111
- Ketchum (1997), p. 107
- Nickerson (1967), p. 104
- Ketchum (1997), p. 129
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 136–137
- Nickerson (1967), pp. 195–197
- Ketchum (1997), p. 163
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 160–161
- Pancake (1977), pp. 121–122
- Ketchum (1997), p. 172
- Nickerson, pp. 138–140
- Pancake (1977), p. 122
- Nickerson (1967), pp. 146–147
- Pancake (1977), p. 125
- Ketchum (1997), p. 356
- Smith (1882), p. 95
- Nickerson (1967), pp. 146–157, 438
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 217–220
- Nickerson (1967), p. 180
- Nickerson (1967), p. 161
- Nickerson (1967), p. 162
- Nickerson (1967), pp. 160–161
- Ketchum (1997), p. 240
- Nickerson (1967), p. 173
- Ketchum (1997), p. 244
- Ketchum (1997), p. 249
- Nickerson (1967), pp. 179–180
- Nickerson (1967), p. 178
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 265–268
- Nickerson (1967), pp. 195–211
- Nickerson (1967), pp. 271–275
- Nickerson (1967), pp. 276–277
- Nickerson (1967), pp. 354–355
- Ketchum (1997), p. 273
- Nickerson (1967), p. 183
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 275–278
- Ketchum (1997), p. 283
- Nickerson (1967), p. 233
- Nickerson (1967), p. 240
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 285–323
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 281–282,322
- Ketchum (1997), p. 322
- Nickerson (1967), p. 269
- Ketchum (1997), p. 335
- Ketchum (1997), p. 337
- Ketchum (1997), p. 338
- Scott (1927), pp. 267, 292
- Nickerson (1967), p. 288
- Nickerson (1967), p. 268
- Nickerson (1967), pp. 290–295
- Luzader (2008), p. 230
- Nickerson (1967), p. 296
- Nickerson (1967), p. 299
- Nickerson (1967), p. 300
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 346–347
- Luzader (2008), p. 210
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 350–353
- Ketchum (1997), p. 355
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 356–360
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 360–368
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 386–387
- Ketchum (1997), p. 388
- Luzader (2008), p. 271
- Luzader (2008), p. 248
- Ketchum (1997), p. 375
- Ketchum (1997), p. 381
- Nickerson (1967), p. 327
- Ketchum (1997), p. 380
- Ketchum (1997), p. 376
- Ketchum (1997), p. 377
- Nickerson (1967), p. 324
- Nickerson (1967), p. 325
- Ketchum (1997), p. 379
- Nickerson (1967), p. 326
- Nickerson (1967), p. 320
- Nickerson (1967), p. 344
- Nickerson (1967), p. 345
- Nickerson (1967), pp. 343–344
- Ketchum (1997), p. 384
- Nickerson (1967), p. 405
- Nickerson (1967), p. 394
- Luzader (2008), p. 249
- Ketchum (1997), p. 394
- Nickerson (1967), p. 361
- Ketchum (1997), p. 398
- Nickerson (1967), p. 362
- Ketchum (1997), p. 400
- Luzader (2008), p. xxii
- Ketchum (1997), p. 399
- Ketchum (1997), p. 402
- Nickerson (1967), p. 365–366
- Ketchum (1997), p. 403
- Ketchum (1997), p. 405
- Ketchum (1997), p. 406
- Nickerson (1967), p. 371
- Ketchum (1997), p. 410
- Ketchum (1997), p. 417
- Nickerson (1967), p. 387
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 420–425
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 428–430, 437
- Ketchum (1997), p. 439
- Ketchum (1997), pp. 437–439
- Nickerson (1967), pp. 400–404
- Ketchum (1997), p. 436
- Bennett (2008), p. 456
- Ketchum (1997), p. 435
- Ferling (2007), p. 432
- Nickerson (1967), p. 411
- Nickerson (1967), p. 412
- Nickerson (1967), p. 413
- Nickerson (1967), p. 415
- Ketchum (1997), p. 442
- Mary A. Giunta, J. Dane Hartgrove (1998). Documents of the emerging nation. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-8420-2664-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=dhCWEA_aUsMC&pg=PA72&lpg=PA72&dq=Carlisle+Commission#PPA72,M1.
- See the individual battle articles for more detailed information about a battle's remembrances.
- Walworth (1891), p. 82
- Murphy (2007), p. 2
- Bennett, William J; Cribb, John (2008). The American Patriot's Almanac. Thomas Nelson Inc. ISBN 978-1-59555-267-9.
- Black, Jeremy (1991). War for America: The Fight for Independence, 1775-1783. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-06713-5.
- Boatner III, Mark Mayo (1966; revised 1974). Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. New York: McKay. ISBN 0-8117-0578-1.
- Ferling, John E (2007). Almost a miracle: the American victory in the War of Independence. New York: Oxford University Press US. ISBN 978-0-19-518121-0. OCLC 85898929.
- Ketchum, Richard M (1997). Saratoga: Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 978-0-8050-6123-9. OCLC 41397623.
- Luzader, John F. Saratoga: A Military History of the Decisive Campaign of the American Revolution. New York: Savas Beatie. ISBN 978-1-932714-44-9.
- Murphy, Jim (2007). The Real Benedict Arnold. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN 978-0-395-77609-4.
- Nickerson, Hoffman (1967 (first published 1928)). The Turning Point of the Revolution. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat. OCLC 549809.
- Pancake, John S (1977). 1777: The Year of the Hangman. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-8173-5112-0. OCLC 2680804.
- Scott, John Albert (1927). Fort Stanwix and Oriskany: The Romantic Story of the Repulse of St. Legers British Invasion of 1777. Rome, NY: Rome Sentinel Company. OCLC 563963.
- Smith, William Henry (1882). The St. Clair Papers: The Life and Public Services of Arthur St. Clair. Cincinnati: Robert Clark. OCLC 817707. http://books.google.com/books?id=sIUvN0eyjsIC.
- Walworth, Ellen Hardin (1891). Battles of Saratoga, 1777: the Saratoga Monument Association, 1856–1891. Albany: J. Munsell's Sons. OCLC 2183838. http://books.google.com/books?id=nq2dQYOEP-sC.
- Tousignant, Pierre; Dionne-Tousignant, Madeleine (2000). "Biography of La Corne St. Loc". Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=2004.
- Bird, Harrison (1963). March to Saratoga: General Burgoyne and the American Campaign, 1777. New York: Oxford University Press. OCLC 299497.
- Burgoyne, John; O'Callaghan, Edmund Bailey (1860). Orderly book of Lieut. Gen. John Burgoyne: from his entry into the state of New York until his surrender at Saratoga, 16th Oct. 1777 ; from the original manuscript deposited at Washington's head quarters, Newburgh, N. Y.. Albany, NY: J. Munsell. OCLC 2130372. http://books.google.com/books?id=zU52AAAAMAAJ.
- Chidsey, Donald Barr (1967). The War in the North: An Informal History of the American Revolution in and near Canada. New York: Crown. OCLC 394996.
- Corbett, Theodore. No Turning Point: The Saratoga Campaign in Perspective (University of Oklahoma Press; 2012) 436 pages; detailed history; argues it was not a decisive turning point in the war
- Elting, John R (1977). The Battles of Saratoga. Phillip Freneau Press. ISBN 0-912480-13-0.
- Glover, Michael (1976). General Burgoyne in Canada and America: Scapegoat for a System. London: Atheneum Publishers. ISBN 0-86033-013-3.
- Graymont, Barbara (1972). The Iroquois in the American Revolution. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0-8156-0083-6. ISBN 0-8156-0116-6 (paperback).
- Mintz, Max M (1990). The Generals of Saratoga: John Burgoyne & Horatio Gates. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-04778-9. ISBN 0-300-05261-8 (1992 paperback)
- Murray, Stuart (1998). The Honor of Command: General Burgoyne's Saratoga Campaign. Images from the Past. ISBN 1-884592-03-1.
- Stone, William Leete (1893). Ballads and poems relating to the Burgoyne campaign. Albany: J. Munsell's Sons. OCLC 1392761. http://books.google.com/books?id=IfsSAAAAIAAJ.
- Taylor, Alan (2006). The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-45471-3.
- Watt, Gavin (2002). Rebellion in the Mohawk Valley: The St. Leger Expedition of 1777. Dundurn. ISBN 1-55002-376-4.
- Fort Ticonderoga web site
- Hubbardton Battlefield State Historic Site
- National Park Service web site for Fort Stanwix
- Oriskany Battlefield State Historic Site
- Bennington Battlefield State Historic Site
- National Park Service web site for Saratoga National Historical Park
- Fort Montgomery State Historic Site
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Do Lots of SAT Word Problems
I’m going to start with the Math strategy, since I feel it is perhaps the most overlooked among all the uproar about higher-level math and the no-calculator section. Become good at long word problems. That’s because much of the test is going to be made up of long word problems, the kind where the math isn’t super complex but is buried in 12-lines of text, and you have to figure out what the problem is asking.
While this might not seem bad if you do two or three of these questions in a row, but after six such problems your brain is going to become tired, much as it does on a long reading passage. So practice doing long sets of word problems. By doing so you’ll avoid what will likely be countless careless errors, all because you were burnt out from sifting through all that text.
Take Actual Practice Tests from College Board
It’s easy to get caught up in the idea that the SAT is testing higher-level math. After all, this is the kind of math that some of us have never even learned before. Now, I’m not saying to avoid prepping this kind of math (you should definitely learn the unit circle and the basics of imaginary numbers). What I see some students doing is overly fixating on this area by going through dense trig textbooks or pre-calculus books.
The test, however, focuses on a small sliver of information from these concepts, usually at the basic end of the spectrum. Additionally, it asks questions in a very specific manner. Therefore, it’s best that you do actual practice questions and practice tests to get an idea of exactly how the test will deal with a certain concept. Of course, the concept reviews in most prep books are really helpful. Just make sure to not always review, but to actually do practice questions.
Learn To Do Math Without a Calculator
While this might sound like a no brainer, the temptation to use a calculator whenever you prep is big. After all, it’s 2016, so when don’t you use a calculator when doing math. Unless you want to flounder test day, you should put down that calculator and rely either on mental math or the old pencil. The following are some sums you should be able to do in your head:
For anything more advanced, use a pencil. If you are not use to working out problems this way, start soon. You’ll be glad you did.
More from Magoosh
About Chris Lele
Chris Lele is the GRE and SAT Curriculum Manager (and vocabulary wizard) at Magoosh Online Test Prep. In his time at Magoosh, he has inspired countless students across the globe, turning what is otherwise a daunting experience into an opportunity for learning, growth, and fun. Some of his students have even gone on to get near perfect scores. Chris is also very popular on the internet. His GRE channel on YouTube has over 10 million views. You can read Chris's awesome blog posts on the Magoosh GRE blog and High School blog! You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook!
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Magoosh blog comment policy: To create the best experience for our readers, we will approve and respond to comments that are relevant to the article, general enough to be helpful to other students, concise, and well-written! :) If your comment was not approved, it likely did not adhere to these guidelines. If you are a Premium Magoosh student and would like more personalized service, you can use the Help tab on the Magoosh dashboard. Thanks! | <urn:uuid:996d5691-69af-4cbd-8c0a-c593830096fc> | {
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Oatmeal Can Be Healthy—but Not if You Cook It Like This
Oatmeal is hands down one of the best, healthiest breakfast foods you can choose. For one, oats are full of soluble fiber and high in a specific type of soluble fiber known as beta-glucan, which is known to help slow digestion, fill you up quickly, and even help you manage cholesterol and blood sugar.
But while oatmeal on its own is a nutritious breakfast, it also depends on how you prepare your oatmeal and what you include in it. "Oatmeal is an excellent, nutrient-dense, fiber-rich option for a meal or snack," says Trista Best, MPH, RD, LD at Balance One Supplements. "Unfortunately, we make decisions when preparing our oatmeal that can take away from its health value, often unknowingly."
Continue reading to learn about some of the common ways people unknowingly make their oatmeal less healthy, then for more healthy breakfast tips check out Breakfast Habits Aging Your Brain Faster.
Adding too much sugar
Oats on their own don't have a ton of flavor, so it's perfectly natural to want to add some sweetness to them. Adding fruit or other natural sugar sources is a great way to do this, but Best warns that adding too many processed or refined sugars can quickly make your oatmeal more unhealthy.
"Adding some sweeteners, such as refined sugar, brown sugar, heavy creams, and syrups to oatmeal can make it more inflammatory than anti-inflammatory, but natural sweeteners can be used in place of these including fresh or frozen fruit and honey," says Best.
Not choosing the best milk
Another thing to consider when preparing your oatmeal is whether or not you're going to use milk, and what type you choose.
"It can be tempting to add high-fat milk or sweetened plant-based milks when preparing your oatmeal as well. Again, these ingredients can add to the calories, fat, and added sugar content of an otherwise healthy food," says Best.
For example, many people will opt for oat or almond milk to liven up their oats, but reading the nutrition label is important to ensure that your favorite brands aren't sneakily packing in the added sugars.
Oatly is a popular choice for oat milk but just one serving already comes with 10 grams of added sugar and 10 grams of fat. This doesn't mean you shouldn't use it, but it can be helpful to be aware of all the ingredients you're adding to your oats.
How to make your oatmeal as healthy as possible
If you want to make a delicious, healthy bowl of oats, Best says, "a helpful rule of thumb is to stick with whole foods and natural sweeteners as ingredients, so using toppings like berries, walnuts, a drizzle of honey, and flaxseed can up the nutrient density of oatmeal rather than deplete it." | <urn:uuid:8b313fd7-53a4-4d07-a3bd-ffe0c53012a4> | {
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Video created by: John Carnagey In 1966 Cleve Backster conducted his now famous experiment in which he attached a polygraph machine to a plant and was amazed to see that it was alive and was reading out in much the same way a human polygraph readout would display. Backster went on to experiment with biocommunication in plant and animal cells, which led to his theory of "primary perception."
These amazing plants have the ability to sense the thoughts and moods of humans, they display signs of 'stress' when other plants or animals are harmed. They remember those who have harmed other plants and begin to become 'stressed' by there presence. These plants are alive in ways that modern science is only beginning to understand. Yet many of the worlds ancient masters of many creeds spoke frequently and emphasized the interconnected oneness of all life. That everything is connected to an underlying common mind or source.
To Learn More: Can Plants Read Our Thoughts? | <urn:uuid:547e3673-3fe2-4754-958a-de808f0e8caf> | {
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We shape our environments and they in turn influence us. Spaces have an underlying social logic that can support encounters or avoidance. Considering the built environmental as a social spatial network was the starting point for Pirouz Nourian's research to develop computational methods for analysis and synthesis of architectural and urban spatial configurations.
During his PhD defence, Nourian, of the Architecture and the Built Environment faculty, described some of the software tools he created to seek and appraise optimal spatial configurations. The mathematical basis is graph theory, which considers a spatial network of connected nodes. Both intuitive and structured, the connections can be quantified by allocating a certain value to them and are equally understandable for humans and computer programmes. Nourian's approach represents buildings and urban layouts as networks, with rooms and streets as the nodes.
He calls these tools configraphics and stresses that they are not grounded in theory about how people move in space and cannot predict how people will behave. Instead they model the potential of the spaces to accommodate interaction with users and mobility. One tool allows a designer to generate and evaluate the potential of possible plan layouts. Another is a way finding tool for pedestrians and cyclists to find the easiest path in a city accounting for topography and incorporating the difficulty of climbing slopes and turning at junctions.
This approach brings a systematic element to design or decision making, but it is not automated. The human designer has a methodical process with clear evaluation criteria at his/her disposal. The tools provide a supporting analytical technique informing configurational thinking, especially when tackling functionally complex buildings, such as hospitals and airports. An optimal spatial configuration is essential to ensure the safety, security, and efficiency functioning of such buildings. The tools may also be applied to better evaluate urban interventions and compare scenarios promoting walking and cycling for the best place to put infrastructure, such as a new bridge.
The models generate the easiest path when you know where you want to go, but Nourian also investigated probabilistic versions to generate random results. These simulate a random walk which can be applied to calculate the probable whereabouts of a culprit on the run after a given amount of time. They can also model the way tourists roam around streets and help determine the best location for a tourist shop where tourists are most likely to wander by.
Thesis: Configraphics: Graph Theoretical Methods for Design and Analysis of Architectural and Urban Configurations.
PhD supervisor: Dr. Sevil Sariyildiz (Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment).
Defence date: September 30, 2016 | <urn:uuid:e23d5ee7-29d5-4a13-bbc7-d7f496073561> | {
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An adult orca found dead on the Scottish island of Tiree last year wasn't just notable for being one of the last surviving members of her species in the UK – she also died burdened by some of the highest levels of toxic pollutants ever found in a marine mammal.
The 20-year-old Lulu died by becoming entangled in fishing line before being discovered washed up on Tiree's shoreline last January, but researchers say extremely dangerous levels of the chemical polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) detected in her blubber can't be ruled out as a factor that contributed to her death.
"Previous studies have shown that killer whale populations can have very high PCB burdens, but the levels in this case are some of the highest we've ever seen," says veterinary pathologist Andrew Brownlow from Scotland's Rural College (SRUC).
"[G]iven what is known about the toxic effects of PCBs, we have to consider that such a high pollutant burden could have been affecting her health and reproductive fitness."
Lulu was one of a small pod called the West Coast Community residing off the west coast of Scotland, and considered to be the UK's only 'resident' orca population.
With her gone, this group is now thought to only include eight individuals – but analysis of Lulu's body has scientists concerned that a grim future could be in store for these remaining animals, after researchers found "shocking levels of PCBs" when analysing her blubber.
According to the team, Lulu's blubber contained PCB levels around 80 times higher than the accepted PCB toxicity threshold for marine mammals, which is 11 milligrams per kilogram of lipid weight.
"The threshold where we think that there is some form of physiological effect caused by PCBs is around 20-40mg/kg stored within the tissues," Brownlow told Rebecca Morelle at BBC News.
"Lulu had a level of PCBs of 957mg/kg – and this has put her as one of the most contaminated individuals we have ever looked at."
PCBs are a class of human-made organic chemicals that were widely used in industry and manufacturing from the 1920s until it was revealed that they have harmful consequences to human health – including causing cancer and suppressing the immune system – in addition to endangering animal and environmental health.
They were prohibited in the US in 1979, and later bans also took effect elsewhere, but it's estimated that 2 million tonnes of PCBs were ultimately produced, with about 10 percent of this still polluting the environment today.
Marine animals are particularly at risk from PCBs, since the chemicals are known to flow into waterways and the sea from landfill sites.
In this case, Brownlow suspects the presence of the pollutants may also be playing a role in the seeming infertility of the West Coast Community, which has been monitored by scientists for 23 years, and in that time has never produced a calf.
An analysis of Lulu's ovaries suggests that despite being significantly older than the average age for female orca sexual maturity, she never appears to have reproduced.
"Lulu's apparent infertility is an ominous finding for the long-term survivability of this group," Brownlow explained in a press release.
"[W]ith no new animals being born, it is now looking increasingly likely that this small group will eventually go extinct. One of the factors in this group's apparent failure to reproduce could be their high burden of organic pollutants."
Worse still, while the exact health effects of such dangerously high PCB concentrations aren't yet entirely clear, the researchers say it's possible that the pollutants could be slowly weakening and poisoning the orcas – which could explain the unusual circumstances of Lulu's fatal stranding.
"Killer whales are incredibly intelligent, they are very nimble, socially aware animals," Brownlow told BBC News.
"It is potentially plausible that there was some effect of the PCBs that was in some way debilitating her so she wasn't strong enough or even aware enough to deal with this entanglement... We very rarely see entanglement in killer whales – actually, this is one of the first cases we have documented."
The analysis of Lulu's body has not yet been peer-reviewed, so we need to see the results independently verified to know for sure that the reported levels are correct.
"In this case, PCBs will stay in the environment and continue to pollute for many decades," says WWF Oceans Manager Simon Walmsley.
"The results of this analysis must act as a reminder that it is imperative that we continue to strive to find a way that 7 billion people can live on our planet without trashing it." | <urn:uuid:f3f9ce20-211e-4469-aabe-deb85b05a5ec> | {
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Open Resources | Feature
Teaching with OER: 5 Tips for Professional Development Planning
Ed tech professionals offer five tips for approaching professional development that will help smooth the way to adoption of open educational resources.
- By Bridget McCrea
If there's one thing that the information age has taught us, it's that throwing new technology tools and resources at people and expecting them to adapt them successfully is unreasonable and unrealistic. The rule definitely applies in the K-12 educational environment, where preliminary and ongoing professional development is key to ensuring that new innovations "stick" both in and out of the classroom.
Take open educational resources (OER)--which can consist of teaching, research, and learning materials that are licensed for use (and often modification and redistribution) without prior permission under an open license, such as Creative Commons. A novelty for many K-12 educators who are accustomed to having textbooks, assessments, and other materials prepared for them, OERs can create significant challenges when introduced to today's teachers.
Here are five broad tips for professional development planning that will help smooth the way to adoption of these open resources.
1. Help teachers sift through the piles of OER resources. Colleen Worrell, manager of professional development at Virtual High School in Maynard, MA, said she sees the sheer volume of OER resources available today as a huge challenge for K-12 teachers.
The fact that most of those instructors are accustomed to working from a single textbook and a few ancillary resources places the hurdle even higher. To ease some of that burden and help teachers integrate OER into their lesson plans, Worrell culls through the OERs to find the best resources. She shares these with the teachers and talks to them about the best ways to adopt and integrate that content.
"Someone has to do the vetting for the teachers," said Worrell, "even if it's just creating a social bookmarking list of the top 10 OER social studies sites. Everything helps."
2. Acknowledge the fact that not all teachers are comfortable with technology. Not all teachers are tech-savvy and willing to integrate state-of-the-art resources into their classrooms. Some just like the "old ways" of instructing and prefer to stick to those methods.
"If you want teachers to take advantage of OER you really have to assess their comfort levels with it," advised Neeru Khosla, co-founder at open content provider CK-12 in Palo Alto, CA. "You can't expect the mid-range of teachers--that large percentage of them who are on the bell curve--to just accept the new technology if they don't know how to use it."
To overcome this hurdle, Khosla said, OER champions must create value propositions for the open content and help teachers understand the advantages it provides. Getting teachers "hands on" with the content and showing them how to use it (via one-on-one demonstrations and webinars, for example) will also "go a long way in helping teachers get more comfortable with the technology," said Khosla.
3. Create a "culture" of professional development. Rather than offering professional development on a sporadic or ad hoc basis, create a culture around it.
Get teachers, administrators and even students involved in the process. Encourage sharing, said Khosla, and use community collaboration as a way to not only keep everyone up to date and informed, but also to save money.
"Everyone should make it their job to contribute to this type of ongoing professional development," said Khosla. "That way you won't miss out on important little OER nuggets just because they're not associated with a $300 professional development class."
4. Encourage an environment of "reinvention." OER isn't only about using open digital materials in the classroom; it's also about adapting and adjusting that content to make it even more relevant for today's learners.
Sharing that mindset with teachers is an important professional development strategy, according to Jason Neiffer, curriculum director at Montana Digital Academy in Missoula, MT.
"You really need to build an encouraging environment for reinvention and reconsideration of the OER materials," said Neiffer. "Traditional textbook reinvention took place every five to 15 years, but with OER it happens every year--or every time the resources are distributed to students."
Helping teachers adapt to and embrace that rapid pace is a key component of any OER professional development program. "There has to be an ongoing support mechanism in place that encourages teachers to be reflective," said Neiffer, "and that helps them constantly evaluate both existing and potential OERs."
5. Put the power in the hands of the educators. Professional development isn't solely about training teachers, said Neiffer, it's about empowering them to make the best decisions for themselves and for their students.
"In the end it's the teachers who make the decisions about OERs and how they're going to use them in their classrooms--not the administrators or districts," said Neiffer. "The most effective professional development is the kind that recognizes this important point and that truly empowers teachers to make the best possible decisions surrounding OER." | <urn:uuid:35eabb8b-7e34-4af8-8283-7d3c9abf4a2d> | {
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Green technologies, which are also known as clean technologies, refer to the development and extension of processes, practices, and applications that improve or replace the existing technologies facilitating society to meet their own needs while substantially decreasing the impact of human on the planet, and reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. In recent years, climatic changes, global warming, energy depletion and other environment-related concerns have led to the emergence of green technologies. Researchers believe that the increase in the level of sustainable development will result in sustainable economics and societies. Human activities are wreaking havoc on the environment at a rate of knots and if left unchecked could result in environmental degradation beyond repair. Green technologies become vital owing to human rash usage of modern technology which in turn adversely affect land, water bodies, the lower and upper atmosphere. Green technologies are important to protect human lives, our local environment and its biodiversity for future generations. Both environmental and economic impact and efficiency of technology should analyze before the implementation of the technology in question. It should be a win-win situation when economic and sustainable growths are highly emphasized. This research contains a review of works of literature, examples and findings of researchers which posits that sustainable development can be achieved exclusively through green technologies.
Green technologies, sustainable development, renewable energy, solid waste, environmental remediation and environmental impacts.
Adenigba Ademola Adebukola , Ogunlade Christopher Bamidele "Achieving Sustainable Development, Exclusively Through the Use of Green Technologies" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals Volume 6 Issue 3 2022 Page 16-25
Adenigba Ademola Adebukola , Ogunlade Christopher Bamidele "Achieving Sustainable Development, Exclusively Through the Use of Green Technologies" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals, 6(3) | <urn:uuid:33ce9f6e-1d64-4e17-b795-695dcc7ca3c7> | {
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Do you know what makes you joyful? Maybe you think it's a vacation, a promotion or a new car. Perhaps it's a night in with your spouse, a good book or some time with your dog.
In reality, it's none of these things. However, researchers do believe that what makes us happy can be summed up by this totally casual equation:
Translation: A portion of our joy depends on if others have the same fortune as we do at the same time.
Researchers from the University College London originally discovered the formula in 2014 and recently updated it based on new data they collected on what's called "in-the-moment inequality."
"Inequality reduces happiness on average, both when people get more or when they get less than the other people around them," study author Robb Rutledge, a researcher at the University College London, told The Huffington Post.
In other words, we're happier when we have the same circumstances as other people. But if the person next to us is either more or less prosperous, we're aren't as joyful. This reaction may then lead us to be either more or less generous to the other person, Rutledge said.
How it worked
To reach their conclusion, researchers had 47 participants who didn't know each other complete multiple tasks in pairs, known as social partners.
In the first assignment, volunteers were asked to determine how they would split a small sum of money with another person they just met. The next task, they gambled money and were told what the other person's outcome was based on the same gamble. Then they were asked if they wanted to split their money like they did in the first task. Throughout the entire process, researchers checked in and asked the subjects how happy they felt.
On average, people were less happy when they won a gamble and their partner lost. This was likely due to feelings of guilt, according to the researchers. Similarly, when the participants lost a gamble and their partner won, they were less happy. This is possibly contributed to envy.
Researchers discovered that when participants felt guilt, they were more likely to give away half of their money in the experience. Those who kept the money for themselves were more likely to feel envy. The results indicate that inequality reduces happiness and subsequent generosity. The authors then factored these outcomes into their 2014 happiness equation to update the formula.
"This is the first time that people's generosity has been directly linked to how inequality affects their happiness," the authors said in a statement.
Sure, there's a happiness formula -- but there's a catch
The original equation solely suggested that our moment-to-moment happiness depended on our expectations. That is, not how well you're doing at the present time, but if you're doing better than you anticipated. But Rutledge and his team are now discovering that's only a piece of the puzzle.
"Lots of things can affect our happiness and with these equations we are starting to pin down just a few of those important variables including rewards, expectations and what happens to other people," he said.
Of course, there's no such thing as an exact science (or in this case, equation) when it comes to something as transitory as happiness. The team's study sample was small, for starters, so it can't be totally conclusive. Rutledge also says more research is needed to figure out the real life application to how people feel about inequality.
"In our experiment, everyone starts off with the same amount and they can
get equal and unequal outcomes," he said. "In the real world, there is already a
lot of existing inequality, and we don't know yet how exactly that affects happiness."
Ultimately, though, Rutledge says the developing formula will help people discover the main sources of their joy -- and that can play a big role in mood regulation and self-awareness.
"If we want to understand happiness, we need to be able to predict it," he explained. "Hopefully this research will allow us to help people that suffer from depression, and at the same time allow us to understand ourselves a little better."
So, until more definitive research comes, may you and your friends have equal good fortune. | <urn:uuid:eceb7e7f-8d7c-4f7c-b61c-d23e969ac4e2> | {
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I love reading Shakespeare’s plays and seeing them performed. One of the things that fascinates me about the Bard’s work is his use of dramatic devices such as a “play within a play.” He effectively employed this technique in both A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet as a way to advance the plot, with each mock performance serving as a mirror for the events and the themes of the main play.
Researchers recently discovered the biochemical equivalent of a play within a play—or more appropriately a motor within a motor motif—for the enzyme F0-F1 ATP synthase.1 This discovery effectively provides important insight into the way this enzyme functions. It also helps to advance the case for intelligent design.
F0-F1 ATP Synthase
The recognition that many protein complexes function as molecular-level machines is one of the most remarkable advances in biochemistry during the last part of the twentieth century.
One such system is the protein complex F0-F1 ATP synthase. As I point out in The Cell’s Design, this rotary motor, found throughout nature, plays a central role in harvesting energy for cellular use. F0-F1 ATP synthase associates with cell membranes. The F1 portion of the complex is mushroom-shaped and extends above the membrane’s surface. The “button” of the mushroom corresponds literally to an engine turbine. The F0-F1 ATP synthase turbine interacts with the complex’s rotor (the “stalk” of a mushroom). The flow of positively charged hydrogen ions (or in some instances sodium ions) through the F0 component, embedded in the cell membrane, drives the rotation of the rotor. A rod-shaped protein structure, extending above the membrane surface, serves as a stator. This protein rod interacts with the turbine, holding it stationary as the rotor rotates.
The electrical current, flowing through the channels of the F0 complex, is transformed into mechanical energy that drives the rotor’s movement. A cam, extending at a right angle from the rotor’s surface, causes displacements of the turbine. These back-and-forth motions are used to produce ATP (adenosine triphosphate). The cell uses this compound as a source of chemical energy to drive the operation of cellular processes.
The Motor Within
While biochemists generally understood the operation of this enzyme, they lacked a detailed understanding of the chemical mechanism that drives the generation of ATP from ADP (adenosine diphosphate) and Pi (an inorganic phosphate molecule)—until now. New work by scientists from Sweden reveals the missing mechanistic details.
It turns out that the chemical reaction that generates ATP from ADP and Pi occurs at three distinct sites located on the turbine portion of the F1 complex. Specifically, these sites reside in the three grooves between the subunits of the turbine. Each time the rotor turns 120° a molecule of ATP is made, with three molecules of this high-energy compound generated for one full rotation of the rotor.
The researchers discovered that the 120° step consists of two steps comprised of 90° and 30° rotations, respectively. These sub-steps correspond to two distinct transition states as ATP is made from ADP and Pi. Once these transition states are formed, two separate chemical barriers in the turbine groove force the reaction to ratchet forward, thereby preventing the reverse reaction. In other words, the reaction is driven to completion by a Brownian motor, a special type of molecular-scale machine.
The bottom line: there is a motor within a motor architecture for the F0-F1 ATP synthase. The rotary motor translates electrical energy into mechanical energy, thereby erecting the energy barrier for the Brownian motor to drive ATP production.
ATP Synthase and the Case for Intelligent Design
It is remarkable to note the similarity between the structure and general operation of ATP synthase and a man-made rotary motor. This similarity extends even to the Brownian motor located within the ATP synthase rotary motor, a molecular-scale machine that drives ATP production.
Brownian motors are based on the Brownian ratchet, a conceptual machine devised in 1912 by Polish physicist Marian Smoluchowski. Researchers are now exploring the use of Brownian ratchets in nanodevices as a way to power controlled motion at the molecular scale. It is provocative to think that this technology is an integral part of F0-F1 ATP synthase. Plus, as I note in The Cell’s Design, a number of other biochemical systems operate as Brownian motors as well.
The stark resemblance between man-made machines and molecular motors invigorates Paley’s Watchmaker argument and helps make the case that life stems from the work of a Creator. In the case of the F1-F0 ATP synthase, the Watchmaker argument based on the general operation of this biomotor is mirrored by the Brownian motor that operates within. | <urn:uuid:321a09d9-0a3e-4209-953c-155d39ff6245> | {
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SketchUp Tutorial – Circles and Segments
I love the 3D Warehouse and I’ve ranted about its greatness in a previous post, when I decided to upload some of my own 3D models to this glorious library of 3D components. You can view my entire collection of 3D models here.
I don’t want to sound ungrateful but I’ve stumbled upon a slight problem.
You see, when I’ve downloaded models from the 3D Warehouse, I’ve spotted (quite frequently) that organic or rounded models which were created initially using the Circle tool or the Arc tool have edges, when there should be none.
Let me explain.
Circles in SketchUp are actually constructed using a series of connected straight lines. Below are two circles I created in SketchUp, you can clearly see the straight edges in the circle to the left. This circle consists of 24 sides or ‘segments’. Circles in SketchUp are created using 24 segments by default.
In order to create a more fluid circle that DOESN’T have obvious edges, you need to edit the default setting.
The circle to the right, has been created using 62 segments and you can clearly see that it appears much more smooth and fluid.
How to Edit the Number of Segments of a Circle in SketchUp
There are two methods you can use when editing the number of segments:
1. Once you’ve drawn a circle, click on its edge (it will become highlighted in blue, as below), then go to: Window, Entity Info and the section entitled Segments. Here you can change the number of segments from 24 to whatever your preference is. Or you can use the shortcut key: draw your circle, type the number of segments in the measurements toolbar followed by the letter ‘s’ and press ‘enter’.
2. Or you can specify the number of segments BEFORE you draw the circle. You’ll notice in the bottom right hand corner of the image below, the word ‘Sides’ beside the measurements toolbar and a figure of 24. Edit this number before you draw the circle.
It’s important to note that you CANNOT edit the number of segments once the circle has become 3D geometry!!! You MUST edit the number of segments BEFORE you manipulate the circle.
Let’s take this a step further.
I’ve used the Push-Pull tool on the circles above and this is how they appear once they’ve become 3D geometry. You can clearly see that the 3D object to the left has edges, whereas the model on the right has none.
Selecting the Soften Edges tool will NOT correct this, as shown below.
This also applies to the construction of spheres in SketchUp. Here’s two spheres that were created initially using circles (and the Follow Me tool).
Not editing the initial number of segments causes further problems when trying to render 3D models (especially for close-up shots), where the objects should be smooth/rounded, and are not. This also has implications in relation to reflections and shadows cast.
Here’s a quick render of the above 3D models.
The ability to edit the number of segments in SketchUp was something I was told quite a while ago (very kindly) by a fellow SketchUpper and I thought it might be useful to write a blog post about it, considering a lot of models in the 3D Warehouse that I’ve seen in recent months have had organic geometry but unfortunately the segments weren’t edited (initially) to ensure a smooth and rounded overall shape.
Every little helps, right?! | <urn:uuid:1c19d18b-9f67-455c-ab7e-8e7c226e42b3> | {
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Safety Officials Warn of Risks of Button Batteries after Toddler’s Death January 27, 2016 An unimaginable Christmastime tragedy is prompting warnings of the dangers of button-shaped batteries found in many popular toys and electronics. On December 26, two-year-old Brianna Florer happily opened gifts with siblings at her grandparents’ Jay, Oklahoma home. She had run a low-grade fever and was nauseous for a few days, but nothing seemed particularly alarming. Late Sunday evening, though, everything changed when Brianna vomited blood and her tiny body turned a blue shade. She was rushed to a local hospital, where an X-ray revealed the problem. Sometime in the days before, the girl had swallowed a button battery. Once diagnosed, Brianna was rushed to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, where she immediately underwent surgery but could not be saved. Typically, a battery will pass through the digestive system. However, if it lodges in the esophagus or digestive tract, it can open and release an alkaline substance that can cause corrosive or burning injuries that can prove fatal. The problem is more common than many parents realize. Related emergency room visits now exceed 5,000 annually – roughly one every 90 minutes, and fatal injuries can occur in less than two hours, according to a study by the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Between 2005 and 2014, 11,940 battery-swallowing incidents involving children under age six were reported to the National Capitol Poison Center in Washington, DC. Among those cases, 15 children died and another 101 suffered major medical conditions as a result. But swallowing the batteries isn’t the only concern. They also can cause serious complications when lodged in the nose or ear. Besides toys and electronics, button batteries also are commonly used in remote controls, garage door openers, bathroom scales, cameras, watches, calculators, digital thermometers, hearing aids, singing greeting cards, talking books, flashlights, pen lights, flashing shoes, power toothbrushes, bedwetting monitors, key chains and flashing or lighted jewelry and clothing Protect your children by checking all items powered by button batteries to ensure the battery compartments are secured shut. When shopping for battery-operated items, choose those that require a screwdriver or other tool to open the compartment or feature a child-resistant locking mechanism. Store spare batteries out of sight and reach of children. If you suspect that your child has swallowed a button battery, get him or her to a doctor for immediate medical treatment. Then, call 800-251-1111 to speak with a product liability or personal injury attorney with Jacksonville’s Harrell and Harrell. | <urn:uuid:86c900a0-d121-452d-bea2-6e9d19cbd605> | {
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CELEBRATING OUR SOURCES
From the Unitarian Universalist Associations of Congregations:
The living tradition which we share draws from many sources:
Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.
For Earth Day, 2014, we focus on the symbol of the earth wheel.
The circle with a single crossbar is perhaps the oldest known symbol for “Mother Earth.” Our particular applique representation, with white, yellow, red and black inserts closely resembles one of the clan symbols of the Ojibwa. For the Ojibwa, white represents North, Yellow- East, Red –South, and Black-West. Other Native American tribes also use the earth circle with colored inserts. (the Lakota Sioux for example.) Some also mention blue for sky and green for the land. In some ancient societies, the four quarters of the circle also represent the elements, Fire, Water, Air, Earth (soil).
From the venerable Black Elk, some words for reflection:
“Hear me, four quarters of the world.
A relative, I am!
Give me the strength to walk the soft earth.
Give me the eyes to see and the strength to understand.
Look upon these faces of children without number,
That they may face the winds and walk the good road to the day of quiet,
That is my prayer; hear me.
( Josephine Leach, April 22,2014) | <urn:uuid:885a69a7-2cf8-4e1f-a496-defb26304d43> | {
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