Monday, August 29, 2011
The Economic Role of Government
As I tell my students, it is a legitimate and defensible position to argue that the government should not try to manage the macroeconomy. For a variety of reasons (such as corruption, incompetence, and the influence of special interests), it is conceivable that policy makers and implementers will make things worse, not better. If one chooses this position, however, then one cannot complain about high unemployment, high inflation, or a lack of economic growth.
Prior to the Great Depression, the predominant school of economic thought, classical economics, suggested that macroeconomic problems would correct themselves. If unemployment increased, the response would be a decrease in wages until employers were willing to hire them again. Similarly, inflation (a general increase in the level of prices) would cause people to buy less (as prices rose). Reduced demand for products then would cause prices to fall. The biggest problem with classical economic thought, however, is that it is based on assumptions that are rarely true. (For example, it assumes people have full information, which is almost never the case.) Several decades of subsequent economic thought have been devoted to explanations of flaws in the simplistic classical rationale. (The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel has been awarded 42 times to 67 Laureates between 1969 and 2010 to highlight and honor those achievements.)
John Maynard Keynes, a British economist, popularized the notion that the government can and should play an active role in managing the macroeconomy. Keynes acknowledged that classical thought might have applicability over an extremely long time period, but “in the long run we are all dead.” If people wait for the macroeconomy to correct itself, they may not live long enough to see the changes. The severity and prolonged duration of the Great Depression convinced most people of the validity of Keynes’ insights. During the Great Depression, prices were falling, but that did not motivate an increase in purchases and employment as classical economics predicts. Even if people had income, they were reluctant to spend it because of uncertainty about the future.
Mainstream economics since the Great Depression is Keynesian economics. The overwhelming majority of economists around the world believe it is appropriate for the government to take actions to promote economic growth and to maintain low unemployment and low inflation. The debate in the United States is not whether the government should try to achieve these goals. Instead, the discussion is about what the government should do. Essentially, Republicans argue that public policies should primarily benefit businesses and the wealthy because they are the job creators. Democrats respond that making the wealthy richer will not cause them to hire more workers unless there is a significant increase in the demand for goods and services. Democrats favor policies with broader benefits because they believe increasing the overall demand for products will increase employment. Very few people argue that the government should do nothing to reduce unemployment, maintain stable prices, and promote economic growth. Indeed, the mood of the country is “they have not fixed the economy, so throw the bums out.”
If President Obama loses the 2012 election, it will be because he did too little to improve the economy, not because he did too much. Reports from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a government agency whose professional economists provide non-partisan analysis to legislators, consistently confirm that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the much criticized stimulus spending program, created jobs, increased employment, and reduced the unemployment rate from what would have occurred in its absence. It is a fair criticism to say some politicians steered ARRA funds away from the most economically beneficial projects toward other favored objectives. But that is a failure of the political system and the implementation of the suggested policies, not of Keynesian economic theory.


The St. Pius X Fine Arts Department offers courses in technology related to the performing arts. Music Production courses cover and expand upon the essential points of current technology used in today’s music production and sound for film and television environments. As students develop their skills, they will learn more about complex audio signal flow and processing, multi‐track recording and editing, multi‐track mixing, software mastering, film and video sound, and live music production/performance.
Theater Technology emphasizes the practical use of equipment and operation of the theater. It includes use of lighting and sound equipment, stage and house management, building and equipment maintenance, and working with performers and patrons of the arts. We offer:
- Music Production I (grades 9-12)
- Music Production II (grades 10-12)
- Theater Technology (grades 9-12)
Questions? Contact the Tech Director, Keith Cordell at email@example.com


Sordan figures prominently in THE SECOND STONE. Much of the book is set there and readers are introduced to many facets of the City. Not only is Sordan the ancestral and political seat of the Sordaneon dynasty upon which so much of the Triempery Revelations is focused, but Sordan serves as a cultural touchpoint for the Staubaun-centered society upon which the Triempery is founded.
Readers looking for overarching themes and foundational politics will find them in THE SECOND STONE—and in Sordan.
Sordan is third among the Five Cities—two of which vanished with the destruction of the First Creation. In the First Creation it served as a primary Rill hub and a center for science and learning. Sordan survived the Devastation. Because the Leur creators of the Five Cities raised its towers and buildings as quasi-organic and self-sustaining, Sordan also survived the many millennia (and possibly longer, given the temporal mechanics involved in making the Second Creation) preceding the Return.
The history of the Second Creation is dated from the expedition of the Aryati Amynas (Amynas Malyrdys) and the Leur Lokenalys, the first refugees—called Exiles—to venture from sanctuaries in the archived pasts of the First Creation into the “future” temporal aspect of Leur’s tripartite Second Creation. The Rift Gate they used placed them in what is now Sansordan. Having ascertained where they were—and knowing that Mulsor was destroyed—they set out to see what had become of Sordan.
Amynas, it is said, was the first to set foot upon the island, on the shore at the base of Sordan’s Citadel. This event marks Day One of the Return, 2/1/01/01. This date coincides with both the vernal equinox and the start of the Malyrdean New Year.
Amynas and the Leur left Sordan to bring home the Exiles. The first celebration of the Coming by a handful of those Exiles, including Amynas and the Three, occurred on 2/2/01/01.
Celebration of the Coming is central to understanding Sordan’s place in the Triempery, in the creation of which the City played a key part.
The Coming takes place over three days:
The Feast of First Day, which celebrates Amynas and Leur feasting upon the fish of the lake and the bounty of Sordan Island;
The Illumination of Second Day, which commemorates Amynas and Leur reawakening the sleeping City and mourning the lost First Creation;
The Consecration of Third Day, which reveres the conception and birth of the Three, the godborn offspring of Amynas and Leur and progenitors of the Triempery’s Highborn rulers.
According to the annals of Cibulitus, the actual events occurred over more than three literal days.
The Coming has been celebrated in Sordan annually for over 1870 years. It is the seminal Highborn holiday and tradition holds that all Highborn attend the Coming at least once in their lives. Many attend every year. It is part of the fabric of the Triempery’s Staubaun population that they, too, should attend at least one celebration of the Coming, which has led to a tradition of Staubauns and other Triemperal faithful making a pilgrimage to Sordan during this time.
Sordan has Aryati elements incorporated into its Leur creation: a global/lunar transportation core and bio-forges. The transportation core of the Rill commanded a network of living, Leur-raised structures and terminals and existed for only a decade before Devastation. The vast destruction of the Devastation crippled the Rill and when Amynas and Leur arrived in Sordan, they found the Rill unresponsive and useless.
Derlon, one of the Three, believed the Rill essential to growing the new Triempery he and his brothers sought to build using the remaining Three Cities as a foundation. To this end Derlon claimed Sordan as his City and undertook to revive the quasi-living system. On 2/0042/10/12 Derlon went into the machine and gave over his immortal body, fusing his Leur cells with those of the Rill. The self-healing omnificence of Leur empowered Derlon to regrow parts of the Rill, starting with Sordan’s hub and almost immediately connecting to Permephedon.
Derlon’s transformation is known as the Inception. A Temple of the Inception stands beside Sordan’s Rill terminal and platforms and is the site of an annual celebration of that Entity.
Sordan remains the Rill’s primary hub and the City benefits from its immense economic, social, and political advantages.
The progeny of Derlon continue to claim the City, rule as its Hierarchs, and are named Sordaneon. Under them, Sordan has served as seat of the Sordaneon Hierarchate, the center third of the tripartite continental Triempery conceived by the Three.
With the Rill as its economic engine, Sordan has long been immensely wealthy. The Sordaneons in the City’s initial charter bestowed a substantial Rill endowment that supports and maintains the City’s public works and spaces, defenses, academies, and houses of healing. Sordan continues its historic reputation as a center for learning and commerce.
Sordan has never been attacked. Its lake, Sarkuan, serves as a natural defense against land attacks. Ships cannot be built along its shores in sufficient numbers to present a threat. Ships sailing up the Sorand’ruil would be noticed and sunk by the Sordan Hierarchate’s navy. As a military power and economic presence in its region, Sordan has for centuries fostered mutually beneficial relationships with its neighbors.
Sordan is such a vital part of the Triempery, and controls so much of its economy, that when the Sordaneon Hierarch Labran threatened to rebel, Essera could not countenance the possibility—the Esseran King Marc Frederick seized and imprisoned Labran, then occupied Sordan to prevent succession.
Important Institutions and Structures
The Citadel. The Leur-raised center towers belong to the City and the Hierarchate, with some lower floors housing governmental chambers, administrative offices, and some centers of learning, such as the Magistracy and the College of Physicians. The Sordaneons control access to the upper towers—parts of which have yet to be entered.
The Serat. The Sordaneon residence and palace. Parts of the Serat are Leur-raised and parts have been more recently constructed. Main buildings include the Hierarchal palace, official throne hall and administrative offices; the royal family’s private residence; elite apartments and guest quarters; barracks and stables; extensive parks and gardens; the Sordaneon treasury and Trove of storied artifacts, the Void interrogation chamber, and ceremonial galleries and halls. The Sordaneon Serat is so splendid it is considered one of the wonders of the world.
The Rill Complex. Platforms, terminals, waiting areas, and residences for the Epoptes are all part of this extensive complex. The Rill structures, platforms, and terminals are Leur-raised or Derlon-inhabited; other parts are of later construction.
The Temple of the Inception. Overlooks the Godborn Stair and just below the Rill complex. An open, beautiful building conceived for contemplation. Home to a school for philosophers.
The Dekkora. Sordan’s star-shaped central plaza. The Promise Statue with its figure of Amynas holding aloft his sword stands at the plaza’s center. The Godborn Stair which leads to the Rill complex and the Temple of the Inception, the high wall of the Sordaneon Serat, and many important buildings—banks, City Treasury, libraries, influential guilds—front on the Dekkora.
The Upper City. The higher rings of residences and shops nearest the Dekkora and Citadel. Where the wealthy live and the those who cater to them do business.
The Lower City. Residences and shops nearer the harbor and shore, where streets are crowded and noisy. Less wealthy merchants, tradesfolk, and working people live in these neighborhoods.
The Harbor and Harbor Wall. Sordan’s harbor is famed for its majestic breakwater and lighthouses. Within the breakwater are a military basin and a commercial basin. Sordan’s harbor facilities are second to none, with advanced cranes, dry docks, and extensive warehouse capacity and ship maintenance.
The Avenue of Heroes. This ceremonial boulevard starts where the main road from the Lower City into the Upper City begins and leads to the Dekkora. The Avenue is lined with obelisks and statues commemorating victories, warriors lost in far off wars, and those who died committing heroic deeds. Memorials are costly and can only be erected on the avenue with permission of the Hierarch; an Unsleeping Guard patrols the Avenue (and also serves to protect the approach to the important buildings of the Dekkora).


According to the American Cancer Society, 1,688,780 new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2017. With more and more of our patient’s facing a cancer diagnosis, collaboration with other health care providers throughout their treatment is essential. This course will review the oral manifestations of chemotherapy, radiation and other forms of cancer treatment as well as review preventative therapies to support your patient’s oral health before, during and after treatment.
List the different oral side effects of chemotherapy, radiation and other cancer treatment therapies
Recognize the early stages of oral conditions resulting from cancer treatment
Describe preventive treatment for hard and soft tissue to prevent destruction of oral tissue
Identify resources for healthcare professionals in treating patients with cancer
Presented by: Diane Peterson, RDH, M.Ed
Diane Peterson is an Academic Relations Manager for Colgate Oral Pharmaceuticals, covering seven states in the Northeast region of the country. She joined Colgate from Vermont Technical College where she was a full time faculty member. Diane graduated from the University of Vermont with an Associate’s Degree in dental hygiene. She received both her Bachelor’s Degree and Master of Science Degree in Education at the University of Vermont. She has nearly thirty years of clinical expertise in the field combining many roles including clinician, educator, advocate, and research-er. She has developed and presented courses to student dental professionals, professional associations, dental socie-ties and study clubs. Her focus is to provide dental professionals with current scientific research and information to assist them with making active, evidence-based recommendations in their clinical practice. Diane is an active member of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association, the American Dental Education Association, and the Sigma Phi Alpha Dental Hygiene Honor Society.
This course is supported by an educational grant from Colgate Palmolive.


Built around 1550, the four-story castle is located in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Noting its remarkably well-preserved architectural and design features, local authorities listed the structure on the local historic building registry in 1972.
"This 16th century tower house retains many original features and is particularly distinguished by the early nineteenth century additions of the belfry and Venetian window," explains the structure's official listing with Historic Environment Scotland.
According to local legend, the castle's dungeon was once used to house suspected witch Katy Rankin, who ultimately hanged on a hill overlooking the house. Since then, the structure has housed several members of the royal family, including Princesses Louise, Victoria and Maud of Wales, daughters of Edward VII.
Now, however, the structure's future is uncertain, as its current residents have evacuated following warnings that more rain could be in the forecast.
Storm Frank is the latest and strongest in a series of windstorms to bring heavy rainfall and devastating flooding to parts of the United Kingdom. Throughout the season, the region has reported seven fatalities and damages estimated to cost nearly two billion euros.
This post originally appeared on DSCOVRD.


Plain text is a public, standardized, and universally readable document and file format. That’s why we selected this format for our interactive e-mail validation thru DeBounce dashboard! Using plain text instead of bit-streams to explicit markup makes them in large part resistant to system architecture incompatibilities.
Earlier than uploading the file containing the e-mail addresses, you or your sub-accounts simply need to comply with these commands:
- Your file extension has to be the .txt document type;
- Your file have to include only the e-mail addresses to validate – one per line – with no additional characters included;
- Your file size needs to be lower than 5MB. However you could effortlessly workaround this limitation by means of simply splitting big lists into multiple smaller items.
What is a Plain Text format (.txt) File?
TXT is a file extension for a text file, used by a variety of text editors. Text is a human-readable sequence of characters and the words they form that can be encoded into computer-readable formats. There is no standard definition of a text file, though there are several common formats, including ASCII (a cross-platform format), and ANSI (used on DOS and Windows platforms).
How to Create a text (.txt) File?
You can create a text file on your computer with a text editor. An example of a text editor is Notepad, which is included with Microsoft Windows. The following section includes instructions for three of the most used ones – Windows, MacOS and Ubuntu.
Ms Windows: Notepad
The easiest way to create a text file in Windows is to open up the Notepad software program on your computer. The Notepad is a text editor included with Microsoft Windows. The Windows Notepad program can be found by following either of the steps below:
- Click Start
- In the Run or Search box, type Notepad and press enter.
- Click Start
- Open All Programs → Accessories, then click on the Notepad shortcut.
Once Notepad is open, you may create and store your new .txt file!
TextEdit is an application on every Mac that you can use to create and edit text files. It’s included with all versions of macOS and OS X. Find TextEdit in the Applications folder on your Mac computer. By default, it creates formatted documents saved in rich text format, but you can use it to create a plain text file on a Mac. To do so, launch the program, click the “Format” menu and select “Make Plain Text.” Use the “Open” command in the “File” menu to find, open and edit existing text documents.
gEdit is a Linux text editor commonly deployed as part of the GNOME desktop environment. If it is not included in your Ubuntu system, you can install this software by either selecting gedit in Synaptic (System → Administration → Synaptic Package Manager) or by typing the following command on your Terminal (or ALT+F2):
- sudo apt-get install gedit
After installation, you will be able to open gEdit by going to Applications → Accessories → Text Editor and start editing and saving new .txt files.
These suggestions are for applications covered with an operating system, however you may additionally download and deploy different text editors (e.g. Notepad++ on windows or Bluefish / NEdit on Linux) which might be usually more powerful. furthermore, you may also create a text file using every other word processing software program including Microsoft word and – while saving the file – change the document type to plain text and ensure the file extension is .txt.


- Born: 1845
- Died: 1915
- Japanese: 笹森儀助 (Sasamori Gisuke)
Sasamori Gisuke was the fifth Meiji period governor of Amami Ôshima, serving in that position for four years, from 1894 to 1898. He is also known as an explorer, who surveyed and mapped areas of Japan.
Born in Hirosaki han, he became governor of Amami Ôshima in 1894. The previous year, he traveled elsewhere in the Ryûkyû Islands, including visiting the former Ryukyuan royal capital of Shuri, as part of a survey of natural resources and agricultural production requested by Minister of the Interior Inoue Kaoru; Gisuke recorded in his diary that the local people still treated the former King of Ryûkyû, Shô Tai, and the former crown prince, Shô Ten, with immense respect, even lining the streets and bowing down to watch them pass along the road. Gisuke wrote that the Okinawans treated the Japanese as intruders or invaders, and that when Imperial Prince Kitashirakawa-no-miya paid a formal visit to Okinawa that same year (June 1893), not a single member of the former Ryukyuan royal court accepted invitations to formal banquets held by the prince. According to Gisuke, there was not a single instance of an Okinawan marrying a Japanese, nor of a Japanese taking up permanent residence in the prefecture; deeply supportive of the Japanese imperialistic project in Okinawa, he wrote that "the natives’ feeling is one of strong attachment to the restoration of the old regime, and for this reason their attitude has not been satisfactory to this day."
After becoming governor of Amami Ôshima the following year, he undertook a number of extensive surveys of the situation on the island, and made efforts to relieve people of their debt burdens and to curb usury by sugar magnates. He led reforms of the sugar industry, promoted education, and attempted policies to combat the spread of epidemics.
During his time overseeing Amami Ôshima, he led efforts to get monuments or historical markers erected on the island in honor of Saigô Takamori and Katsu Kaishû. In addition to those, a monument in his honor has since been erected on the island as well.
- Watanabe Miki 渡辺美季, "Ryûkyû Okinawa hontô torishirabesho shoshû Shurijô no zu ni tsuite" 「『琉球沖縄本島取調書』所収「首里城ノ図」について」, Tôkyô daigaku shiryôhensanjo fuzoku gazô shiryô kaiseki sentaa tsûshin 東京大学史料編纂所附属画像史料解析センター通信 90 (Oct 2020), p18.
- Donald Keene, Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912, Columbia University Press (2002), 307.
- Monument to Sasamori, Tatsugô-chô, Amami.
- "Sego-don Yukari Map," plaque in Tatsugô, Amami.


An Archive as conceptual axis of this project that redeems the ancient value of a plant demonized by western civilization while collecting everything related to it: botanical drawings, herbariums, engravings, photographs, etc. We are compiling all the knowledge in a book to share it with the world.
We created a Coca Garden to reunite in the same place the four varieties of coca cultivated in South America since ancient times. We are currently working on an automatized greenhouse to replicate the microclimates of the four varieties in an innovative piece of art, science & technology.
The Coca Plant
Khoka is a term used by the Aymara people to refer to the plant we nowadays know as coca, and, at the same time, to communicate the archetypal idea of a “tree”.
This is an initial clue that allows us to glimpse the importance of the role played by this plant in the culture and everyday life of this and many other native peoples that have inhabited the vastness of South America since antiquity.
In an archeological site within the valley of the Nanchoc river, in northwestern Peru, a team of archeologists led by American professor Tom Dillehay found out that the use of coca and of its stimulating properties goes back over 8000 years in the past. His research also showed that the utilization of limestone as an additive to extractalkaloids via leaf-chewing pushed forward the building of the first ritual public spaces that we know of in the Americas. This discovery reveals that coca use was one of the catalysts in the sedentarization of some groups of hunter-gatherers in the area, and in the subsequent appearance of complex civilizations within the continent.
The man of Nanchoc is until our days just the first link in a long chain of archeological findings that allow us to track down the systematic use of this plant for millennia by the colonizers of the rough tropical geography of this side of the world. While the domestication of the plant is almost as ancient as the birth of agriculture in South America, the exact place where this occurred is still unknown. What we know for sure is that by time of the European discovery of America, the plant was widely grown and used from Colombia and Venezuela to northern Argentina.
Coca is one of the cultural axes that illuminate the complex interaction networks among the native peoples of the continent, from the emergence of Andean civilizations, and through the intercultural relations that became possible thanks to economic interchanges taking place after the development of agriculture and complex types of social organization.
Write us to know more about this project.


Bismarck and Mitteleuropa
This study in the genre of political biography is revisionist. Bismarck emerges as a somewhat more conservative traditionalist than much of the national liberal historiography has depicted him. Moreover, the national orientation in much of the literature on the history of Central Europe during the nineteenth century is also implicitly challenged. Downgrading somewhat the founding of the German Reich of 1871, traditionally viewed as Bismarck's greatest achievement, the author treats this episode as but one of many throughout Bismarck's long career wherein his efforts to build a federative, multiethnic Mitteleuropa encountered many setbacks or otherwise necessitated at best the acceptance of many limited achievements that cumulatively produced a quite incomplete Middle-European system stretching from the northern seas to the mideast.
From this perspective, the author sees the limited victory of Bismarck's Prussia over Franz Joseph's Austria in the War of 1866 as the critical event in the entire history of Bismarckian politics. His policy until then was to achieve a restructuring of the German Confederation on the basis of a joint Austro-Prussian leadership in Mitteleuropa. After Franz Joseph decided in early 1866 that a war was preferable to the limited concessions sought by Bismarck, the Prussian armies failed to inflict on the main Habsburg host the Cannae that the general staff planned for 3 July. Thereafter, Bismarck's task became more difficult than ever.
His labors were often fruitless. His own master, Wilhelm I, and the Prussian bureaucrats, diplomats, and courtiers with direct access to this first of Bismarck's Wilhelmian nemeses could be at least as obstructionist in Berlin as Franz Joseph and his minions in Vienna. In fact, all too often Bismarck's lack of control over the Prussian elites was in part responsible for the resistance of the Habsburg ruling circle.
If Bismarck left his neo-Wilhelmian successors an incomplete system upon his retirement from office, the leadership of the Reich after 1890 was incompetent to continue the great chancellor's work. Berlin never again made the Mitteleuropa conception the central theme of its policy until the great war that Bismarck aimed to prevent with his system. In challenging the commonly held notion of Mitteleuropa historians about "continuity" from the Bismarckian Reich to the "New Order" of the Nazis, the author stresses the much older reichisch and Confederate "continuities" that are evident in Bismarckian system-building. Rejecting the "democratic-moralistic" interpretations of Professor Fritz Fischer and others about German Mitteleuropa imperialism, the author focuses on the "structural-functional" processes of Bismarckian decision-making and system-building through the largely prenational mechanisms of a diplomatic-constitutional federative polity that had developed over many centuries but that neither set of his Wilhelmian antagonists understood or appreciated. In truth, no European statesman - not even one in Vienna - rivaled Bismarck in understanding the baroque complexities of Middle-European politics.
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When you think of light, you probably think of what your eyes can see. But the light to which our eyes are sensitive is just the beginning; it is a sliver of the total amount of light that surrounds us. The electromagnetic spectrum is the term used by scientists to describe the entire range of light that exists. From radio waves to gamma rays, most of the light in the universe is, in fact, invisible to us!
Light is a wave of alternating electric and magnetic fields. The propagation of light isn’t much different than waves crossing an ocean. Like any other wave, light has a few fundamental properties that describe it. One is its frequency, measured in hertz (Hz), which counts the number of waves that pass by a point in one second. Another closely related property is wavelength: the distance from the peak of one wave to the peak of the next. These two attributes are inversely related. The larger the frequency, the smaller the wavelength – and vice versa.
The electromagnetic waves your eyes detect – visible light – oscillate between 400 and 790 terahertz (THz). That’s several hundred trillion times a second. The wavelengths are roughly the size of a large virus: 390 – 750 nanometers (1 nanometer = 1 billionth of a meter; a meter is about 39 inches long). Our brain interprets the various wavelengths of light as different colors. Red has the longest wavelength, and violet the shortest. When we pass sunlight through a prism, we see that it’s actually composed of many wavelengths of light. The prism creates a rainbow by redirecting each wavelength out at a slightly different angle.
But light doesn’t stop at red or violet. Just like there are sounds we can’t hear (but other animals can), there is also an enormous range of light that our eyes can’t detect. In general, the longer wavelengths come from the coolest and darkest regions of space. Meanwhile, the shorter wavelengths measure extremely energetic phenomena.
Astronomers use the entire electromagnetic spectrum to observe a variety of things. Radio waves and microwaves – the longest wavelengths and lowest energies of light – are used to peer inside dense interstellar clouds and track the motion of cold, dark gas. Radio telescopes have been used to map the structure of our galaxy while microwave telescopes are sensitive to the remnant glow of the Big Bang.
Infrared telescopes excel at finding cool, dim stars, slicing through interstellar dust bands, and even measuring the temperatures of planets in other solar systems. The wavelengths of infrared light are long enough to navigate through clouds that would otherwise block our view. By using large infrared telescopes, astronomers have been able to peer through the dust lanes of the Milky Way into the core of our galaxy.
The majority of stars emit most of their electromagnetic energy as visible light, the tiny portion of the spectrum to which our eyes are sensitive. Because wavelength correlates with energy, the color of a star tells us how hot it is: red stars are coolest, blue are hottest. The coldest of stars emit hardly any visible light at all; they can only be seen with infrared telescopes.
At wavelengths shorter than violet, we find the ultraviolet, or UV, light. You may be familiar with UV from its ability to give you a sunburn. Astronomers use it to hunt out the most energetic of stars and identify regions of star birth. When viewing distant galaxies with UV telescopes, most of the stars and gas disappear, and all the stellar nurseries flare into view.
Beyond UV come the highest energies in the electromagnetic spectrum: X-rays and gamma rays. Our atmosphere blocks this light, so astronomers must rely on telescopes in space to see the X-ray and gamma ray universe. X-rays come from exotic neutron stars, the vortex of superheated material spiraling around a black hole, or diffuse clouds of gas in galactic clusters that are heated to many millions of degrees. Meanwhile, gamma rays – the shortest wavelength of light and deadly to humans – unveil violent supernova explosions, cosmic radioactive decay, and even the destruction of antimatter. Gamma ray bursts – the brief flickering of gamma ray light from distant galaxies when a star explodes and creates a black hole – are among the most energetic singular events in the universe.
Bottom line: The electromagnetic spectrum describes all the wavelengths of light – both seen and unseen.
Chris Crockett got his Ph.D. in astronomy from UCLA in 2011 and worked at Lowell Observatory and the U.S. Naval Observatory. He then realized he enjoyed talking about astronomy a lot more than actually doing it. After being awarded a Mass Media Fellowship in 2013 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he spent a summer writing for Scientific American, then went on to become the staff astronomy writer at Science News from 2014 - 2017. These days, he freelances, focusing on stories about astronomy, planetary science, and physics. His work has appeared in Science News, Scientific American, Smithsonian Magazine, Knowable, Sky & Telescope, and the American Physical Society's online magazine Physics.


Blindness takes a heavy toll in India, where the rate of childhood blindness is three times that of Western nations. Half of India's blind children die before the age of 5, and nearly all those who survive childhood are uneducated and unemployed.
Most cases of blindness in India are caused by vitamin A deficiency, cataracts, retinal or optical dystrophies, or microphthalmos (poorly developed eyes). About half of these cases are treatable or preventable, but many blind children never receive medical care.
New Delhi and other cities have good eye-care facilities, but "the bulk of the problem lies out in the villages, which are largely cut off from modern medical care," says Pawan Sinha, who founded Project Prakash to help find and treat blind children, in 2004. He notes that Indian village "medicine men" sometimes offer treatments that only make the problem worse — putting sugar crystals in the eye to treat minor infections, for instance.
"There's a humanitarian need to tackle this problem, and in addressing this humanitarian need we also have the opportunity, as neuroscientists, to understand how the brain learns to make sense of its visual environment," says Sinha, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT.
So far, Project Prakash has screened more than 1,000 people, at hostels and schools for the blind as well as in remote villages, and has treated more than 200. The project coordinates its efforts through existing hospitals in India, but is hoping to expand soon and build its own hospital, school and research facilities.
Project Prakash is now raising $15 million for the new 50-bed clinic and a 500-student school, to be built in Rishikesh, about 140 miles from New Delhi in the foothills of the Himalayas. The new complex will allow Project Prakash to oversee all of the patients' medical care, ensure that sight-restored children receive education appropriate to their unique condition, and undertake basic research to develop better treatments and rehabilitation programs. Although its initial focus is on blindness, the Prakash Center will eventually address other major childhood disabilities as well.
Sinha has found that even after children have their sight restored, they often face difficult challenges in obtaining an education and joining mainstream society. One recent patient decided that he wanted to go back to a school for blind children because other schools were unwilling to adapt to the needs of a newly sighted child.
"That's the kind of thing we want to prevent. We want to get them on firm footing as soon as possible after treatment," says Sinha.


Serious complications after oesophageal surgery cause lasting health problems in long-term survivors
[PRESS RELEASE 3 April 2012] Oesophageal cancer is a very serious form of cancer that, if not fatal, requires extensive surgery. A new study from Karolinska Institutet shows that when serious complications arise after surgery for oesophageal cancer, many patients suffer other health problems, such as breathlessness, fatigue, insomnia and eating problems, for five years afterwards.
"Patients who suffer serious post-operative complications after surgery for oesophageal cancer need very close, long-term monitoring so that any problems that arise can be identified and targeted quickly," says research team member Maryam Derogar, doctoral student at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery.
Oesophageal cancer is the eighth most common form of cancer in the world. The disease is often discovered at a late stage once the symptoms, such as difficulties swallowing and weight loss, have occurred. The most established curative treatment is radical surgery that often incorporates the abdomen, chest and throat. Surgery is only performed on 25 to 33 per cent of patients, a third of whom survive for at least 5 years after the operation. The research team recently showed that one in six patients who underwent surgery for oesophageal cancer had an impaired quality of life to a level well below the national average.
The aim of the current study, which is published in The Journal of Clinical Oncology, was to ascertain whether serious complications following surgery for oesophageal cancer affect the quality of life among patients who survive for at least five years after their operation.
The researchers studied the quality of life trends for 141 patients who had undergone surgery for oesophageal cancer in Sweden between 2001 and 2005 and who had survived for at least 5 years afterwards. They found that 45 (roughly one third) of these patients suffered from at least one serious postoperative complication, such as chronic respiratory insufficiency or severe infection.
The patients were asked to rate their quality of life by answering a questionnaire concerning functional (e.g. physical, social and emotional function) capacity and symptoms (e.g. pain, fatigue and eating problems) at 6 months, 3 years and 5 years after surgery. After converting their responses to scores on 0 to 100 scale (where high scores for functionality and low scores for symptoms were good), the researchers made a statistical comparison of quality of life between patients who suffered serious postoperative complications and those who did not, taking into account age (at operation), sex, other health problems, type of surgery, and type and stage of tumour.
They found that patients who suffered a serious postoperative complication had more symptoms of breathlessness, fatigue and eating problems than those who had not had such complications. The impairments were apparent six months following surgery and remained unchanged for 5 years. These patients also had problems with insomnia and heartburn.
Influence of major postoperative complications in long-term survivors after esophageal cancer surgery
Journal of Clinical Oncology, online 2 April 2012


Chapter 2 Measurement of Physical Quantities
Measurement refers to the comparison of an unknown quantity with a standard. It judge against a quantity with a standard to see how many times as big as the standard the quantity is.
Background of Measurement
*Unit of the quantity = standard for describing magnitudes of physical quantities.
*1791 =metric system of measurement was established, Paris Academy of Sciences
o Meter was originally define as one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North pole
o Second as the time for a pendulum one meter long to swing from one side to the other.
*1889 the definitions of the basic units have been established by an international organization, the general Conference on weights and Measures.
*1960 it has been known officially as the International System or SI (the abbriviation for the French equivalent, Syteme International)
o meter was define by an atomic standard, in terms of the wavelength of the orange- red light emitted by atoms of Krypton (86Kr) in a glow discharge tube; one meter was define as 1650763.73 of these wavelength.
o the unit of time was based on a certain fraction of the mean solar day, the average time interval between successive arrivals of the sun at its highest point in the sky.
*1967 is an atomic one, based on the two lowest energy states of the cesium atom.
o One second = the time required for 9192631770 cycles of this radiation
*November 1983 the standard was change again in a more radical way.
o Meter is the distance light travels in 1/299792458 second.
The three basic quantities are length, mass and time.
Length is a physical quantity for measuring space. The distance between two points.
Mass is a basic property of matter. The mass of an object is measure of the amount of matter it contains. The mass of an onject does not vary with the location. It remains the same even if the position of the object is changed with reference to the earth’s center.
Time is the interval between two successive events.
Length and its Units
Yard – In A.D. 1120, yard is measure from the standard length of the kings tip nose to the end of his outreached arm (King Louis XIV).
Meter was originally defined as one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole (1791).
Meter was defined by an atomic standard, in terms of the wavelength of the orange- red light emitted by atoms of Krypton (86Kr) in a glow discharge tube; one meter was defined as 1650763.73 of these wavelengths (1960).
Meter was redefined as the distance traveled by light in vacuum during a time of 1/ 299792458 second.
Mass and its Units
The MKS unit of mass is Kilogram. Kilogram (Kg) is defined as the mass of a specific platinum-iridium alloy cylinder kept at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures at Serves, France (1887).
Time and its Units
The unit of time was based on a certain fraction of the mean solar day, the average time interval between successive arrivals of the sun at its highest point in the sky (1960).
In 1967, the second/s is redefined as 9192631770 times the period of vibration of radiation from the cesium atom (Period is the time interval needed for one complete vibration).


The canter is a controlled, three-beat gait performed by a horse. It is a natural gait possessed by all horses, faster than most horses’ trot but slower than the gallop. A variation of the canter, seen in western riding, is called the lope and is generally quite slow.
The "lead" of a canter refers to the order in which the legs are placed, and is determined by which leg is the last to ground before the suspension phase. If the left hind leg is placed first (beat one), which would then be followed by the right hind and left foreleg (beat two), before the right foreleg (beat three), the horse is said to be on the "Right Lead." If the right hind leg is beat one, then the left foreleg will be the last leg to ground, and the horse will be said to be on the "Left Lead." Therefore, a person on the ground can tell which lead the horse is on by watching the front and rear legs and determining which is the last one to touch the ground, but may also simply watch to see on which side the legs are literally "leading", landing in front of the opposing side.
When the horse is on a lead, the legs on that side (usually the inside front and hind) have greater extension than those on the other side (usually the outside front and hind). Therefore, a horse on the Right Lead will have its right hind (beat two) come slightly further under its body than the left hindleg had when it grounded (beat one), and the right foreleg (beat three) will reach further out from the horse's body than the left foreleg had extended (beat two).
In general, the horse is on the "correct" lead when it matches the direction it is going. So a horse turning to the right should be on the Right Lead, a horse turning to the left should be on the Left Lead. However, just as people find it easier to write with one hand or the other, most horses have a "better side", on which they find it easier to lead at a canter. In limited circumstances, mostly in dressage training, a horse may be deliberately asked to take the lead opposite of the direction it is traveling. In such cases, this type of canter is called a counter-canter.
A variant canter, involving the same sequence of beats but variant footfalls in beats one and two, is often referred to by equestrians as cross-firing, cross-cantering, or disunited canter, among other terms. To the observer, the horse appears to be leading with one leg in front, but the opposite leg behind. It is produced by an improper sequence of footfalls.
The problem with this sequence is in beat two: the grounded hind and foreleg are NOT diagonal pairs, but are on the same side of the horse (in this case, the outside). This means that the horse is balancing on only one side of its body, which is very difficult for the horse, making it hard to keep the animal balanced, rhythmical, and keeping impulsion. A horse that is cross-firing cannot perform to the best of its ability, and can even be dangerous (such as an unbalanced, cross-firing horse who must jump a huge, solid cross-country obstacle). Additionally, it makes for a very uncomfortable, awkward ride, producing a rolling movement often described as riding an eggbeater, which makes it difficult for the rider to perform to the best of his or her abilities.
The most important function of the correct lead is for balance. While they are unimportant on a straight line, they can greatly influence the athletic ability of a horse on turns, especially if the turn is tight or performed at speed. Horses naturally lean in to the direction they are turning. Since they extend their lead-side legs further out, they may use them to balance themselves as they lean into that direction. So, if on the Right Lead while taking a right turn, the right hind will be positioned more under the body, and the right foreleg more in front of the body, to act as a stabilizer as the horse turns.
When on the incorrect lead, the horse is usually left unbalanced. In this case, correct riding can make the difference in the horse's performance. Good riding can keep the legs positioned correctly enough so that the horse is still able to perform the turn. Poor riding will hinder rather than help the horse, and in extreme situations such as a tight turn at speed, the horse may lose its legs footing and fall.
Click the link below to download a PDF of the above text along with photographs for illustration.


Every year Nigeria loses between 350,000 and 400,000 hectares of forest cover, and over 10.5 billion naira to environmental challenges. Unofficial estimates put the annual losses in the billions of dollars.
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The desert is winning in many parts of northern Nigeria. (Photo/WB/Flickr).


What is a gracilis muscle transplant to masseter nerve?
The gracilis muscle transplant to masseter nerve is a single surgery designed to reanimate the smile. The gracilis is a long muscle located in the inner thigh. It is responsible for moving the hip inwards (or, adduction). It is a redundant muscle for this function. In other words, there are several other muscles that accomplish the same goal; therefore, sacrificing the muscle results in no loss of function in the thigh. Only a small, thin segment of the gracilis muscle is taken from the thigh along with its blood and nerve supply. The muscle is then moved to the paralyzed side of the face where it is connected to local nerves and blood vessels. In this case, it is attached to the masseter nerve on the same side as the paralyzed face. After 3-6 months, the muscle becomes active and contracts to move the corner of the lip.
The masseter nerve is derived from a branch of the fifth cranial nerve (trigeminal nerve) and is responsible for activating the bite via the masseter muscle. The reason that it is used in facial reanimation surgery is because biting is an analogous function to smiling. In other words, to a certain degree human beings trigger their biting muscles when smiling. This
There are several advantages to using the masseter nerve to power the gracilis muscle over a cross-face nerve graft. First, only a single surgery is required to achieve lip movement as opposed to two. Second, recent studies suggest that gracilis muscles connected to the masseter nerve deliver a greater contractile force over a cross-face nerve graft, making the corner of the mouth rise more aggressively. Third, the time to smile reanimation is significantly abbreviated (3-6 months vs 12-18 months). The main disadvantage to using the masseter nerve is that activation of the smile is not spontaneous, since stimulation is derived from the fifth cranial nerve used in biting. In other words, initially, a person would need to trigger a bite to create a smile. Physical therapy is required to re-train the gracilis muscle for smiling. However, this is achievable in the great majority of patients.
How is a gracilis muscle transplant to masseter nerve performed?
The gracilis muscle is harvested through a small incision measuring 3-4 inches in the inner thigh. The blood vessels and nerves are isolated. The muscle is measured for the exact length and width that is required in the paralyzed side of the face, from the corner of the lip to an area near the top of the ear. Once the dimensions are confirmed, the muscle is then split and divided. It is then transplanted to the face where it is anchored.
In preparing the face, an incision is placed in the pattern of a facelift with a small extension underneath the jaw. The skin is elevated, and the masseter muscle is identified. The nerve to the masseter muscle is then carefully dissected deep within the muscle. There are at least two branches of the masseter nerve, which allows the use of one for the purpose of smile reanimation without risking loss of biting force. The nerve is prepared and brought into position for connection to the nerve of the gracilis muscle. Anchoring sutures are placed at precise locations along the corner of the mouth and upper lip. The blood vessels are located and prepared. The blood vessels are then connected using a high-powered microscope (microsurgery). Next, the nerve is connected to the masseter nerve. All incisions are closed with absorbable sutures.
What is the recovery from a gracilis muscle transplant to masseter nerve?
Following surgery, patients remain in the hospital or aftercare facility for 3-6 days. The head is kept wrapped in a bulky soft dressing, and the thigh is wrapped with a mild compression dressing. There may be moderate swelling of the face and eyelids. Antibiotics are required for 10-14 days, and a soft diet is necessary for 3 weeks. A soft rubber drainage tube is left underneath the skin to relieve any fluid collection in the face. This is taken out 2-3 days following surgery. It is imperative to avoid any pressure or accidental blunt trauma to the cheek during this time. Contact sports and heavy lifting are avoided for 4-6 weeks. Adults will need to take between 3-4 weeks off for recovery before they return to light duty. Muscle activity then begins approximately 3-9 months after surgery.
What are the risks and complications of a gracilis muscle transplant to masseter nerve?
Bleeding, infection, and complications from anesthesia are possible during or after surgery, as with all types of surgical procedures. These are rare risks; however, other risks are related more specifically. For example, asymmetry is possible either in the resting position or with smiling. The amount of muscle movement is difficult to predict with accuracy at the time of surgery. Also, there may be contour issues such as increased cheek bulk or unwanted dimpling of the cheek with smiling. The creation of the lip-cheek fold (nasolabial fold) may also be unpredictable. In addition, there is a small rate of failure that may be related to lack of nerve regeneration or disruption of blood flow to the gracilis muscle. In this event, there may be no discernible movement.
To minimize your risk, pay close attention to instructions before and after surgery. Dr. Panossian’s staff is available at all times to clarify any pre- or postoperative instructions that you are given.


In this lesson, your tutor will help you go over this topic: birthdays. First, go over the following vocabulary and expressions with your tutor. Read the word/expression and definition out loud, and your tutor will go over anything you do not understand. Practice creating a sentence or two to make sure you know how to use the word/expression properly.
|birthday cake||(n) a sweet and soft food made with eggs, flour sugar, and other ingredients and decorated for birthdays
My favorite birthday cake is a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing.
|surprise party||(n) an unexpected birthday celebration someone has for you
My wife had a surprise party for my birthday this year.
|milestone birthday||(n) a birthday event marking a specific or significant age
In the USA some milestone birthdays are celebrated at 16, 25, 50, and 100.
|present||(n) a gift that is given to someone for a life event like a birthday
I received a present from my parents for my birthday.
|wrapping paper||(n) a special paper that is used to cover presents or gifts
The wrapping paper has balloons, candles, and a cake on it.
|ribbon||(n) a long strip of fabric used to decorate a present
She wrapped the gift with a ribbon around it.
|birthdate||(n) the date when a person was born
My birthdate is April 15, 1966.
|candle||(n) wax formed into a stick and has a string in the middle that can be burned
For my 50th birthday, they put 50 candles on my cake.
|birthday wish||(n) a special desire or hope for someone’s birthday
Example: 1. I hope you have a wonderful birthday 2. I wish you all the best on your birthday.
|tradition||(n) a custom or belief in a country or group of people that is passed from one generation to the next
We have a tradition of going out for dinner on our birthdays.
Use the following questions as a guideline to form an interesting conversation with your tutor. Feel free to diverge from these suggestions if anything interesting comes up.
- How are birthdays celebrated in your country? Are there traditions in your country?
- What is your best birthday memory?
- What flavor of birthday cake do you like?
- What are some presents people receive in your country for birthdays?
- When were you born?
- What are some things you like to do for your birthday?
- What was the best present you ever received and from whom?
- Are milestone birthdays celebrated in your country? If so, which birthdays are milestones?
- Have you ever had a surprise birthday party? If so, tell me about. If no, do you want one?
- Is the cost of a present important to you? Why or why not?


In the title essay, Jamieson argues that moral progress is possible and that we have experienced it in our lifetimes. The remainder of the volume includes 21 previously published essays, all of which address specific issues on which moral progress is needed. Most of the chapters focus on treatment of animals, but several deal with other environmental issues such as sustainable development. From a substantive point of view, the book is important because it is full of compassion and ethical insight. From a methodological point of view, the book is interesting both because of its readability and because it offers a window on how a “philosophically naturalist, morally consequentialist, and metaethically constructivist” (vii) person might do practical ethics.
In the first essay, Jamieson defines and defends moral progress as “the increasing dominance of objective, impersonal, or agent-neutral reasons for action over subjective, personal, or agent-relative reasons” (9). He says progress involves “the abolition of war and slavery, the reduction of poverty and class privilege, the extension of liberty, the empowerment of marginalized groups, and respect for animals and nature” (9). Lauding the classical utilitarians as moral progressives (12), Jamieson nevertheless argues that a wide variety of ethical theorists could endorse his account of moral progress (13). He closes the chapter with two important contemporary examples of moral progress: the end of “American apartheid,” with the l964 Civil Rights Act, and the growing recognition of animal rights. To achieve such moral progress, Jamieson argues in chapter 2 that philosophers must forego the prejudice of sharply distinguishing moral theory from moral practice and the belief that the former has little or nothing to do with acting morally. His solution is to defend “applied philosophy” and argue for doing it.
Most of the essays in the remainder of the book deal with animal rights. Chapter 3 argues for endorsing the “Declaration on the Great Apes,” that is, the rights of chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans who are members of our “community of equals within which certain basic moral principles govern our relationships with each other”; among these principles, Jamieson includes “the right to life and the protection of individual liberty” (48). Chapter 4 defends attributing mental states to animals, while chapters 5 and 6 clarify and defend cognitive ethology, the study of the biological bases of behavior. All three chapters explain behavior within evolutionary history, emphasize the similarities between humans and other animals, and lay a foundation for chapter 7. There Jamieson argues that much human behavior is at odds with acceptance of the truism that one ought to minimize pain; most humans do not minimize animal pain. Next he argues that harming an animal for any reason, including scientific research, requires a defense (chapters 8-9). Animals, he says, are like humans in relevant ways; they are innocent; and our bad treatment of them makes us worse as people.
Chapter 10 examines the relation between cognition and moral status, including issues such as privacy. Chapters 11 and 12 argue against zoos, while chapters 13 and 14, respectively, argue against not only the distinction between wild and captive animals but also the separation of environmental ethics from animal liberation. Chapter 16 argues for a pluralistic metaethics, which Jamieson calls “sensible objectivism” (234) and which combines elements of subjectivism, conventionalism, and realism. Nevertheless, he maintains that all these metaethical positions, taken singly, also are compatible with the view that there are values in nature.
Most of the remainder of the volume argues against a variety of current environmental policies, including using “ecosystem health” as a scientific term (chapter 15); most attempts at central planning/redevelopment (chapter 17); US policy on global warming (chapter 18); too limited a conception of environmental justice (chapter 19); naive implementation of biotechnology (chapter 20); and sustainability that ignores ethics (chapter 21). The final chapter is an entertaining and sensitive autobiography that traces Jamieson’s evolution from a child of the sixties to a philosopher interested in language, science, and the elimination of animal suffering.
As a collection of partially-unrelated essays, the volume has six important strengths to recommend it. First, the issues with which Jamieson deals are fundamentally important: whether moral progress is possible; whether society has been massively unethical in its treatment of animals; whether current patterns of resource distribution are equitable and how most lifestyles contribute to inequity. Second, his argument – that different ethical perspectives (virtue theory, deontology, and utilitarianism) can be shown to support respect for animals and for nature – seems effective, correct, and importantly different from related claims made by Amartya Sen and Richard Brandt. Third, his chapter-two defense of applied ethics is the best anywhere. Every philosopher should read it. My only quibble is that instead of “applied ethics,” he should have said “practical ethics.” As Feinberg realized, practical ethics is not the mindless, “plug-and-chug” application of fully-formed ethical theories to contemporary problems, but the amendment and enrichment of ethical theory itself, on the basis of factual, practical, and case-specific information, and vice-versa. “Practical ethics” does more justice both to the complexity of work like Jamieson’s, and to affirming the continuity between contemporary practical ethics and classical normative ethics -- in the tradition of Plato, Aristotle, Kant, and Mill.
Another virtue of the volume is its profound and thought-provoking insights (especially in the area of ethics and animal suffering). These insights reveal good philosophical instincts, such as realizing that the side bearing the burden of proof often will come out second-best in a philosophical controversy. Jamieson deftly changes the burden of proof when he claims “When I look at an animal as a behaving body….the real object of my perception has been displaced by a philosophical monster – the idea of a behaving body….[that] needlessly problematizes the question of animal minds…. When scientists assume that what we observe is bodily movements and then worry about whether any inference to internal mental states is justified, they wrap themselves in the garb of hard-headed empiricism. But really they are recommending a disorder as a methodological stance” (57, 69; see also 135). His insights also frequently have a knack for exposing inconsistency, as when he notes: “Is it really better to confine a few hapless Mountain Gorillas in a zoo than to permit the species to become extinct? To most environmentalists the answer is obvious: the species must be preserved at all costs. But this smacks of sacrificing the lower-case gorilla for the upper case Gorilla….What is to blame is the peculiar moral schizophrenia of a culture that drives a species to the edge of extinction and then romanticizes its remnants” (173, 178; see also 186, 188, 253, 257, 301, 311, 314, 317, 320, 334-336).
Because Jamieson’s book relies on his rich understanding of a wealth of literature, he is able to bring new arguments for animal liberation out of old texts that others may have misread or left unread. For example, he cites the case of Kant, who condemns the man who shoots a dog who has become too old to serve (169); and of C. S. Lewis, who argued that, if animals have no souls and no life beyond the grave, then the obligation to minimize their suffering is increased by the fact that there is nothing, beyond the grave, to counterbalance their pain (110).
Still another strength is Jamieson’s witty, common-sensical, and accessible prose. After his elegant argument for animal minds, based on cognitive ethology, it is a delight to read about his dog : “I can identify Toby’s mental states more reliably than those of the President of my college” (63). Seventh, because of his blend of philosophical argument, insight, and good prose, Jamieson’s volume is one to be enjoyed by students, philosophy professors, animal-rights activists, and thoughtful policymakers. Jane Goodall said the volume was full of “clarity, elegance, and courage,” and she is right. The same could not be said of most volumes of contemporary moral philosophy.
With so much to praise in Jamieson, does the volume generate any worries? Such worries might fall into any of three areas: metaethics, environmental ethics, and animal liberation. On the metaethics front, one concern is whether Jamieson is correct that metaethics has no normative entailments (231, 233-234). If not, then one wonders why Jamieson in chapter 2 criticizes the claim that moral theory has no bearing on moral practice and seeks to remedy the disconnect. If not, one also wonders why Jamieson, later in the book, takes pains to argue that various metaethical positions (subjectivism, conventionalism, and realism) are compatible with affirming value in nature. A second metaethical concern, one of professional philosophers, might be whether Jamieson ought to have spent so much time preaching to the converted, regarding relatively easy first-order ethical claims, while doing little second-order ethical analysis. For example, he spends a chapter arguing that people do not consistently attempt to minimize suffering, including that of animals, while they claim to want to do so (97; see pp. 135, 152, 210; see also pp. 107, 111, 117-119, 123, 129, 145, 162, 172, 184). Obviously he is correct here. But isn’t the real issue that of dissecting, via second-order ethical analyses, why and when one might be justified in minimizing or not minimizing such suffering? In what cases might eating meat be justified, if ever? A related worry is whether Jamieson can consistently (and often without argument) defer to populist wisdom, in repeated cases, but reject it in other cases, also often without argument. For example, he defers to populist wisdom in accepting the claim that there are animal minds, but he rejects the populist belief in the reality of moral values (233; see 241, 277). The problem is not his populist predispositions (which I share). Rather, to the degree that one claims to follow these predispositions, often without argument, then one seems bound to explain and defend one’s deviations from them.
Regarding environmental ethics, some minor concerns are whether Jamieson sometimes gets his science slightly wrong. For instance, he questions much economic theorizing on grounds of willingness to pay, but he ignores willingness to accept; he questions ecological science as a basis for environmental ethics and policy (216), yet he ignores more sophisticated ecological methods and models. The volume also could have been improved had he updated the science in his essays. Several of them do not reflect the scientific about-face that has taken place, on topics like global warming, in the last 15 years. And sometimes Jamieson merely appeals to some scientific authority (131), when what he seems to need to do is adjudicate conflicting claims of different scientists.
With respect to animal liberation, philosophers might ask whether Jamieson ought to assume, with only limited argument, that apes and humans have equal rights (233). Should he merely have preached to the converted, that gorillas, apes, orangutans, and humans have equal rights to life (ch. 3), but failed to provide the complicated analysis of concepts like “equality,” necessary to sustain such a position? Or should he have claimed that animals and humans share community (ch. 8, esp. 107, 128), but failed to give any arguments about the conditions that are necessary and sufficient for moral community? After all, one does not need to have moral community with animals in order to argue effectively that it is wrong to harm them. Yet in his concern with evolutionary history and animal minds, Jamieson has the basis for arguing effectively about his community claims. But what are the precise necessary and sufficient conditions for moral community? Does he agree with the classic stance of Golding, that members of a moral community must share a conception of the good?
Another worry is whether Jamieson can completely escape Tom Regan’s charge (made against many animal liberationists and environmentalists) that they are misanthropic “environmental fascists.” Without argument, Jamieson says that the destruction of the old city of Dubrovnik “would be a greater crime than some measure of death and destruction wrought upon the people of Dubrovnik” (206). Such remarks may leave him open to Regan-type charges. Finally, one wonders whether Jamieson can convincingly argue, to the nonconverted, that all sentient beings ought to be in the sphere of moral concern (7), but fail to provide second-order ethical criteria for adjudicating claims made by, or on behalf of, different sentient beings (see pp. 48, 50). His basic point about sentient beings and moral concern seems correct, but the difficult philosophical business is not that point but instead developing criteria for resolving conflicts among sentients.
From the point of view of philosophical flaws, the previous discussion suggests no great concerns. This is in part because many of the questions (raised above) have been addressed in Jamieson’s journal articles. Also, virtually all these philosophical worries are more correctly understood as merely audience-specific questions from professional moral philosophers, worried about second-order ethical analyses. As such, these worries merely are requests for Jamieson to tell a fuller, more philosophically and scientifically sophisticated, story. Yet a more philosophically and scientifically sophisticated story arguably would bleed the manuscript of its readability, clarity, wit, and courage. The resulting book likely would not be one that nonprofessionals, as well as philosophers, would read. In short, Jamieson ought to be defended for failing to address more journal-appropriate metaethical disputes, in large part because of his audience. But given this more inclusive audience, his book would have been better, had he updated the science in old essays (like ch. 18) and had he edited his volume, so as to reconcile apparent inconsistencies in positions he took at different stages of his career. The book also would have been better had he removed offhand appeals to alternative metaethical positions, especially since he repeatedly claims that such positions carry no normative entailments in the real world (231-234), and had he removed chapters (like 14) that detail largely abstract, internecine battles among theoretical environmental philosophers. But these quibbles are minor. They speak largely to the difficulty of writing both for laypeople, in hopes of changing the world, and for philosophers, in hopes of changing the way we see the world. Jamieson is one of the best at doing both.


Rice paddy ecosystems receive huge amounts of synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizers each year. However, the underlying mechanisms by which soil microbes regulate the nitrogen cycle in rice paddies and its response to elevated atmospheric CO2 remain elusive. Denitrification and ammonia volatilization have often been identified as two major pathways of ammonium-N losses in rice paddies, but could not fully explain the gap of the N balance estimation in field. In this study, we combine both 15N-labelling microcosm and field experiments to assess the potential for anaerobic oxidation of ammonium coupled to iron(III) reduction (AOA-IR) under elevated CO2 in a rice ecosystem.
We found that AOA-IR can produce dinitrogen (N2), nitrite (NO2-) or nitrate (NO3-) in rice paddies and elevated CO2 significantly facilitated this process. AOA-IR directly to N2 or AOA-IR-generated NO2- followed by denitrification were two main pathways of N losses under anaerobic conditions. Our results suggested that CO2-induced N loss through AOA-IR and/or denitrification in rice paddies may limit the sustainability of rice plants in response to higher atmospheric CO2, raising an important question about food production under future climate change scenarios.


3 / 13 West Houston: green corridors based on the existing water system
Traditional cities, which are solely energy consumers, are facing both the challenge and the opportunity of accommodating energy production within their footprints. This challenge will be even bigger with the ambition of managing urban growth in more compact models of development.
Historically, political, religious and geographic agents have defined our cities. In the new era, the logic of energy production and distribution will start having a significant impact on the spatial organization of the urban growth.


From Internet giants like Google and Wikipedia to threats from Anonymous, social media campaigns and online petitions, the outcry throughout the World Wide Web was loud enough to be heard in the halls of Congress. Both SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) have been dropped or postponed, as of today.
SOPA and PIPA Concerns
For the creators of any original and copyrighted work, piracy is a problem. ‘Scraper’ websites and blogs steal text, information and images from the original creators regularly. Entire websites are devoted to streaming pirated movies and music. Internet theft, in general, is a big business – so what’s the problem with anti-piracy legislation? In a nutshell, critics claim that these bills are like using a chainsaw for plastic surgery – they will do more harm than good.
Google, for example, included this comment with their online petition:
Fighting online piracy is important. The most effective way to shut down pirate websites is through targeted legislation that cuts off their funding. There’s no need to make American social networks, blogs and search engines censor the Internet or undermine the existing laws that have enabled the Web to thrive, creating millions of U.S. jobs.
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