Fort Clatsop/Fort Exhibit:
1. Why did the expedition camp here? Why did they choose this spot?
They had to camp somewhere west of the Rocky Mountains until the snow melted enough for their return trip, and they decided that this was the best spot. After camping nearly two weeks on the north (Washington) shore of the Columbia River, the party voted to look for a campsite on the south side of the river as some visiting Clatsop people had advised. Lewis led a scouting party west of Tongue Point to explore Youngs Bay and continued about 2 miles up the Skipanon River before backtracking to Youngs Bay and then up the Netul River (Lewis and Clark River). The location of the Fort Exhibit is the site on the Netul River where Lewis found everything they needed for a good campsite: trees for building and for firewood, high ground up above the high tides, flat ground, elk for hunting, a fresh water spring, easy river access, away from the ocean and its winter storms, yet near to the Clatsop villages at the beach, near to the ocean for making salt (which they ran out of on January 13th) and near to the mouth of the Columbia in case a trade ship came by they could have bought (with a letter of credit) more trade goods (they were almost out).
2. How long did it take the explorers to build their Fort Clatsop?
It took about 3½ weeks. They started felling trees on December 9 and had it finished enough to move into on Christmas Day 1805. The pickets and gates completed the fort on New Years Day.
3. How long did the expedition stay here?
They were here for 106 days or about 3 ½ months. They arrived here December 7, 1805 and stayed until March 23, 1806 when they started their trip back to the U.S.A.
4. Why did they name it Fort Clatsop?
They named it for the local American Indians, the Clatsops. Clatsop means “dried salmon people.”
5. How much of the fort today is original?
None of it. The Fort Exhibit is a replica of the original structure.
6. When was the exhibit built? And Who built it?
The replica is built on, or near, the original site by area citizens and civic groups celebrating the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of the expedition in 1955. The current fort exhibit is the second replica built in this location. The first exhibit was built in 1955-58 and was destroyed by fire on October 3, 2005. The current exhibit was erected during the spring & summer of 2006
7. What happened to the original fort?
It rotted away by the mid-1800s. The average annual rainfall in the area is about 70” so untreated, unmaintained wood rots quickly. Then in the early 1850s the site was homesteaded and the last remnants of the fort were burned.
8. Is the fort an exact replica?
It is the same dimension and layout as Clark’s floor plan sketched in (& on) one of his journals. Many of the details of the replica are based on other military camps of the time, or are best educated guesses. Some details are “incorrect” to help the fort endure and for visitor safety e.g. it has a cement foundation, the bark has been peeled off of the logs, there are subdued electric lights in the fort, etc.
9. How much of the stuff in the fort is real?
Everything, except for the meat, is real, but not from the expedition or that time.
10. How much of the stuff in the fort is original?
None of it; all of the items are newer items or replicas.
11. Where did they go to the bathroom?
Latrines (they called them sinks), pits or trenches, were dug outside the fort (probably somewhere out the watergate).
12. What’s the small structure outside the orderly room?
It is a sentry box. There was always a soldier on guard duty and the sentry box provided shelter from the rain.
13. What are the candles make of?
Tallow: the oil of animal fat. Ours are made from beef tallow and paraffin (paraffin is a derivative of the petroleum industry). The paraffin is used to make the beef tallow harder. When the explorers were camped here, they made candles from elk tallow. Elk tallow is harder than beef tallow, so they wouldn’t have needed anything to make them hard. They were also here in the winter so anything made of fat wouldn’t have melted.
14. If the natives were friendly, why did the explorers need to build a fort?
The party was in an unknown wilderness and did not know who or what they would run into. The walls of the fort helped them protect their tools and supplies from theft. The fort reinforced the explorers’ sense of military order and helped with morale.
15. How could this fort be defended?
There was always a sentry on guard duty. The inward sloping roofs put the highest wall on the outside to hinder anyone sneaking over undetected. The stockade of the original fort might have been higher.
16. Why are the roofs slanted in?
See the previous answer—it is for defense.
17. What does “rives” mean?
It means to split.
18. What did they cover the windows with?
They didn’t write about this in their journals, but they probably used rawhide to cover the windows.
19. Did the fort really have a wooden floor?
Yes, William Clark’s journal mentions a puncheon (rough plank) floor. We really don’t know if there was a complete wooden floor in every room.
20. What did they line the fireplace with?
They didn’t write about this, but the soil here has a lot of clay in it, there are clay deposits throughout the area. Clay was even mined on the site after the Expedition. So, the Expedition probably lined their fireplaces with clay mud.
21. What’s that bench thing?
It is a carpentry vise for clamping a project to free the users hands for carving. It is called a “shaving horse” or a “wood vise” and is typical of the time period. The explorers may have built one to use while making their furniture.
22. Who had the room with the double bed?
The Charbonneau family: Toussaint Charbonneau, Sacagawea and their baby son Jean Baptiste Charbonneau.
23. Why does the fort have doorsills?
Leaving the bottom log intact keeps the walls of the fort strong. The bottom logs are the foundation of the fort.
24. How old are the trees by the fort?
The huge Sitka spruce near the Fort Exhibit were not present when the Oregon Historical Society acquired the site in 1901. Most have grown up since the turn of the century.
25. How close is the replica to the original site?
It overlaps the original site or is within a few dozen yards.
26. How do you know this is the original site?
Clark’s maps are so detailed that with only his map, the site could be easily determined to within a mile. Five years after the explorers’ winter here, Astoria was started as a fur trading post and one of the early fur trappers wrote of seeing the dilapidated campsite in 1813. Carlos Shane got the Donation Land Claim that included the fort ruins about 1850 and was able to later describe the layout of the rotten rooms. In 1901 the Oregon Historical Society put up a marker on the site based on the oral histories of people who had seen the remains.
27. Has there been any archeology here?
Some archeological work, with backhoes, was done in the late 1950s. They were looking for artifacts such as remnants of the fort or items left behind by the Expedition. Nothing conclusive was found. The total amount of work done during this era amounted to approximately 3 weeks.
Since 1995 the archeological work at the site has included magnatometry to map the magnetic fields of the site and archeological excavations. Excavations were conducted in 1996, 1997 and 1998. The magnatometry shows ground disturbances which may be of interest and help guide the archeologists search. So far, a few items that may be from the expedition, have been found: a sharpened stick, a brass bead, a glass bead, and a lead rifle ball. Though the ages of the items are consistent with the explorers’ winter here, we cannot yet conclusively state that they are from the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Work will continue as funding permits.
28. How many people camped here?
33: the 2 captains, 3 sergeants, 23 privates, Clark’s slave York, 2 interpreters: George Droulliard and Toussaint Charbonneau, Charbonneau’s wife: Sacagawea, and their baby son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. Lewis’ Newfoundland dog, Seaman, was here, too.
29. I thought about 45 men were on this trip?
Yes, 45 men left Camp Wood (Wood River, Illinois). This 45 included a detachment of soldiers and some voyagers (rivermen) that were hired to help move the boats up the Missouri River in 1804. Only one man died during the entire expedition. Sergeant Floyd died from a burst appendix near present day Sioux City, Iowa early in the journey.
After winter 1804-05 at Fort Mandan, the permanent party of 33 included 29 of the men who left Camp Wood, plus Baptiste LePage and the Charbonneau family (Touissaint Charbonneau, Sacagawea and Jean Baptiste Charbonneau) which joined during the 1804-05 winter camp at Fort Mandan in North Dakota, continued on to the Pacific Ocean. The rest of the men returned to the United States with the keel boat and specimens collected up until Fort Mandan.
Here at Fort Clatsop, Lewis and Clark National & State Historical Parks we commemorate the 33 members of the permanent party and Seaman, Lewis’ large Newfoundland dog. Each member of the Expedition was equally important.
30. How tall were the men? The doors and beds seem so short.
The average American man in the early 1800s was 5’5” or 5’6”. Both Clark and Lewis were six feet tall though. Under most circumstances military recruits had to be at least 5’4” to join the army. The fort and its furnishings reflect the lifestyle of a temporary military outpost. The beds don’t need to be long, because at that time most Americans and Europeans slept sitting partly up (for healthier breathing). The short doors helped keep heat inside the room, as well as provide additional security. You not only have to step over the doorsill if you are tall, you have to duck as well.
33. How old were the captains?
Lewis was born August 18, 1774 and was 29 at the beginning of the trip; Clark was 33, born August 1, 1770.
34. What was Clark’s first name? Was he related to George Rogers Clark?
William. Yes, Revolutionary War hero George Rogers Clark was his older brother.
35. What did the explorers eat?
At Fort Clatsop, they ate mostly elk meat (often somewhat spoiled) plus occasional wapato roots, dried berries, whale blubber and fish that they bought from the American Indians.
36. Why didn’t they eat more fish?
In the winter there are no salmon in the Columbia River and its’ tributaries—salmon move into freshwater rivers early spring through fall. The rest of the year they are out in the ocean mostly in Alaskan waters. As the Expedition was here only in winter there was no opportunity for them to catch salmon. In addition, the explorers had gotten sick when eating salmon back in Idaho and had not regained their appetite for it. They did eat some fish that they purchased from the American Indians. The 33 people could eat one elk and one deer each day and it was easier for the hunters to kill one elk than to catch hundreds of pounds of fish. The elk also provided skins for bedding and clothing, plus some fat for making candles.
37. Why were the explorers such poor spellers?
Noah Webster's Spelling Book (1782-1783) was the forerunner of his Compendious Dictionary of the English Language (1806). But English spelling had long been standardized in Samuel Johnson's famous Dictionary(1755). That's why Jefferson, Benj. Franklin, John Adams, Benj. Rush and all the other educated contemporaries of Lewis and Clark spelled the same way and well. English spelling was definitely standardized. Shakespeare and his contemporaries spelled more or less the same 200 years earlier.
Captains Lewis and Clark were hired for their frontier skills and leadership ability. They had no access to a dictionary while recording their journals. Since none of the Indian languages they encountered had writing, they wrote Indian words phonetically.
38. Who was Sacagawea married to? Or Who was the baby’s father?
Her husband and her baby’s father was a French-Canadian named Toussaint Charbonneau who was hired by the Captains as an interpreter. He brought his wife Sacagawea to interpret the Shoshone language, and their infant son along on the trip.
39. How do you pronounce the Indian woman’s name?
Lewis’ rendition of it as “Sah ca gah we a” is fine. The accent is on the second syllable as in “Chicago.” The spelling “Sacajawea” came about when the first printed paraphrased versions of the Captains’ journals were completed in 1814. In these journals her name is spelled with a “j”, but in the handwritten journals of Lewis and Clark her name is spelled with a “g”. In addition, Sacagawea was stolen as a young girl from the Shoshone by the Minnetare/Hidatsa people. In the journals Sacagawea is called “Bird Woman” and in the Minnetare/Hidatsa language Sacagawea means “Bird Woman.” In the Shoshone language there is no letter “g” and Sacajawea means “Boat Launcher.” It is possible that her name was changed by any one of the groups, but as Lewis and Clark spelled it consistently with a letter “g” we pronounce and spell her name: Sacagawea.
40. Where and when did Sacagawea die?
She died on December 20, 1812 at Fort Manuel in present-day South Dakota of a “putrid fever” (possibly diphtheria). Her death was recorded in the clerk’s journal of Fort Manuel.
41. What happened to Meriwether Lewis after the trip?
Jefferson appointed him governor of the upper Louisiana Territory. In October 1809 he died under mysterious circumstances at an inn on the Natchez Trace in Tennessee. He may have died by suicide or murder. There is evidence for both.
42. I see you have Clark’s family tree, why don’t you have Lewis’ family tree?
He was never married. See previous answer. There are people related through Meriwether’s siblings, but a complete family tree has never been published.
43. What became of William Clark?
He was appointed brigadier general of the Missouri militia and Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the western territories, and later became governor of Missouri. He married Julia Hancock and had five children. After Julia’s death, he married her cousin, Harriet Kennerly Radford and had three more children. He was 68 years old when he died. He also was the guardian of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau and his sister Lizzette (after their mother’s death in 1812 at Ft. Manuel).
44. What happened to the Clatsop Indians?
The tribal population was already in decline (from a small pox epidemic 20-30 years before the L&C Expedition) at the time of the explorers’ arrival. After Astoria began as a fur trading post, the Clatsops married into the arriving American and European population. Today they are not recognized as a separate American Indian Nation and there is no one who is 100% Clatsop, but there are many descendants of the Clatsops who live in the area and elsewhere. Today the Clatsops are included with the Chinook Tribal Council (Chinook, WA) who are seeking federal recognition.
Lewis and Clark Expedition:
45. Why was the expedition sent?
An overland exploration of the west was long desired by Thomas Jefferson. As president, with congressional authorization, the planning commenced. The Mission of the Corps of Volunteers for North Western Discovery was to see if the Missouri met the Columbia - the dream of the Northwest Passage; to collect information on the people, animals, plants, soil, climate, etc. of the west; and to be ambassadors of the United States to the American Indian nations.
56. Where did the expedition begin?
The starting point was Camp Wood on Wood River (River Dubois) in Illinois, a short distance from St. Louis. This served as the gathering and shakedown area for the Corps of Volunteers for North Western Discovery (the L&C Expedition). Some people feel that the Expedition didn’t begin until they were at St. Charles, as Lewis caught up with the group near St. Charles (he had been in St. Loius conducting final business before the group left the United States).
47. Why did Jefferson fail to send a ship to meet them?
There was no plan to send a ship (what date would they plan to meet?J) The explorers hoped to replenish their depleted trade goods by meeting one of many trade ships that did business with the American Indians at the mouth of the Columbia (Lewis had a letter of credit from President Jefferson). The trade ships avoided the area during the winter, though, because of the dangerous storms and the treacherous Columbia River Bar (sandbars).
It turns out that the explorers just missed the first ship of the spring (an American brig: the Lydia) as they began their return trip up the Columbia.
48. How much gunpowder did they bring and how did they carry it?
Much of their gunpowder (over 200 lb.) was carried in 52 sealed lead canisters, which were in turn recycled to make bullets. They also brought 625 gun flints for their weapons.
49. How much did the expedition cost?
$38,722. The original estimate was for $2,500!
50. How did they return home?
By a river route similar to the one they used to get here. In Montana they split into five parties to explore the Yellowstone and Marias Rivers and to pick up boats and supplies cached on the way out. Near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers they all met up and traveled the rest of the way down the Missouri to St. Louis together (except for the Charbonneau family who stayed in N. Dakota and Private John Colter who received special permission to leave the party in N. Dakota and join some trappers heading up the Yellowstone).
51. How long did the whole expedition last?
From May 14, 1804 to September 23, 1806. Two years, four months, ten days - from their departure from Camp Wood to their return to St. Louis at journey’s end.
52. How many miles did the expedition travel?
About 8000 miles from Camp Wood to mouth of the Columbia and back to St. Louis.
53. Where are the original items from the expedition?
Some of them are as follows:
Fort Clatsop, Lewis and Clark National & State Historical Parks
54. When did this become a National Park Service site?
In 1958 Fort Clatsop was authorized to commemorate the culmination and winter quarters of the expedition as a National Memorial. In 2004, Fort Clatsop became a part of Lewis and Clark National and State Historical Parks.
55. What is this place?
This is the winter encampment of the Lewis and Clark Expedition of December 7, 1805-March 23, 1806. It is a unit of the National Park Service along with the Salt Works site in Seaside, Oregon.
56. Where are the restrooms?
They are off the front entrance of the visitor center.
57. Has the weather changed? Does it still rain that much?
Although weather patterns cycle, the winter of 1805-06 does not seem to have been much “worse” than a typical winter in this area. Sergeant Patrick Gass wrote that of the 106 days they were here it rained all but 12, and of the 12 dry days, 6 were sunny. Today, during the same time period as the Expedition was here, this area averages 55-65 days of precipitation, an average of 3 clear days each winter month and the rest of the time clouds. That winter did have more snow than usual: one morning there was 8”.
58. Why was the Salt Works so far away?
The area where they had the salt camp, in present-day Seaside 14-15 miles away, was the first place which provided firewood, rocks, fresh water, game animals and good neighbors. The men sent out to make salt actually started near the mouth of the Columbia River, but it wasn’t until they were 14 or 15 miles south that they found a suitable location. In addition, the fresh water carried by the Columbia dilutes the ocean water - it is saltier a few miles away. Today the Salt Works site is part of Fort Clatsop, Lewis and Clark National & State Historical Parks and can be visited in Seaside, Oregon.
59. How many visitors visit Fort Clatsop? I bet you don’t get visitors in the winter.
Approximately 250,000 visitors per year. The slowest days of the year are in December, but we haven’t had any days of no visitors.
60. Do you sell postcards?
Yes, the Fort Clatsop Historical Association operates a bookstore in the visitor center that sells postcards, books, videos, and other theme-related items (but no film or snacks). A mail order brochure is available upon request.
61. What are the pilings or logs I see in the river at the Canoe Landing?
They are used by the timeber industry to build the log booms, or log rafts, to haul the logs to their destinations (e.g., mills or ships). The logs are dropped into the river then floated into the raft shape, the outer logs are cabled together and then cables are worked through all the logs. A boom boat is used to move these logs around. Then the log boom, or raft, is tugged to its location.
62. What books and videos would you recommend?
· Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition edited by Gary Moulton, 13 volumes
· Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition condensed by Frank Bergon
· Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition condensed by Bernard DeVoto
· A Charbonneau Family Portrait by Irving Anderson
· Fort Clatsop: The Story Behind the Scenery by Daniel Dattilio
· Lewis & Clark: Historic Places Associated with their Transcontinental Exploration by Roy Appleman
· Lewis & Clark Among the Indians by James Ronda
· Lewis & Clark: Partners in Discovery by John Bakeless
· Lewis & Clark Pioneering Naturalists by Paul Russell Cutright
· Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns
· Lewis & Clark: Voyage of Discovery by Dan Murphy
· Meriwether Lewis by Richard Dillon
· The Way to the Western Sea by David Lavender
· Those Tremendous Mountains by David Freeman Hawke
· Thomas Jefferson and the Stony Mountains by Donald Jackson
· Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose
· Traveling the Lewis & Clark Trail by Julie Fanselow
· The Incredible Journey of Lewis & Clark by Rhoda Blumberg
· Along the Trail with Lewis and Clark by Barbara Fifer and Vicky Soderberg with maps by Joseph Mussulman
· “We Proceeded On…” 32 minutes, by Kaw Valley Productions
· Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery 4 hours, by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan
63. What are some good websites I can learn more from?
PBS and Ken Burns: www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/
Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation: www.lewisandclark.org/
Discovering Lewis and Clark (Joe Mussulman):www.lewis-clark.org/
Fort Clatsop, Lewis and Clark National & State Historical Parks homepage: www.nps.gov/focl
Last updated: March 31, 2012


you’re diabetic, you probably already know how important
it is to pay close attention to your diet. Not only do you have
to maintain a healthy body weight, but you also need to eat for
optimal heart benefits. On top of that, you’re constantly
aware of your blood sugar level, avoiding hypoglycemia but being
to become hyperglycemic. If you eat right you can make your diet
work for your health and learn to live comfortably with diabetes.
Diet is one of the major components of a diabetes treatment plan.
Many diabetics think of their prescribed diet as restrictive, but
it’s actually a healthy diet that all people should follow
and that allows for consistent meals that can be very satisfying.
Many of the aspects of a diabetic diet are similar to a heart
healthy diet. This is important because diabetics are at an increased risk
for heart and circulatory disease.
There are two types of diabetes—type
1 and type 2. Both involve your body’s ability to carry glucose
(basic sugar) from your bloodstream to your cells via insulin.
This is the way your body
gleans energy from your food. Sometimes, type 2 diabetes can be
brought on by obesity, when your cells stop responding to insulin.
with type 1 diabetes are born with the inability to produce insulin
and have to inject it into their bloodstream. With diabetes, there
are a few key elements to the proper diet, which will be expanded
and personalized by your healthcare provider depending on your
Manage your weight. Especially if you have type 2
diabetes, the first step in managing diabetes is to manage your
provider will work with you to come up with a daily meal, a plan
that you should follow very strictly in order to shed the pounds
to get to a healthy weight. It isn’t a good idea to start
a fad diet or to stop eating in order to lose the weight, especially
if you’re diabetic. You can run the risk of lowering your
blood sugar level to a dangerous level if you skip meals. The key
diabetic diet is portion control and counting carbohydrate intake.
It is also prudent to limit the amount of saturated and hydrogenated
fats because of an increased risk of heart disease. Some of basic
steps in cutting out fats and eating a healthy diabetic diet include:
- Avoid excess fatty meats; go for fish and lean poultry over
- Stay away from fried food; bake or sauté your meals
- Choose low-fat dairy products like yogurt, skim milk
and low-fat cheeses.
- Cut out saturated fats found in processed
foods, like chips or frozen dinners.
- Use water, vegetable juice
or small amounts of olive oil when cooking
- Meet with a healthcare
provider to determine your individual carbohydrate needs.
Like a heart healthy diet, a diabetic diet should
vegetables, legumes and whole grains. These complex carbohydrates
help to regulate your blood sugar, but they’re also loaded
with other vitamins and minerals that help your body keep a healthy
balance. Fruits, vegetables and legumes all contain fiber, a crucial
element in the diabetic diet. Soluble fiber is helpful in maintaining
a normal blood sugar level. It helps to slow down your blood sugar
level after a meal. Instead of having an immediate surge of blood
sugar after a meal, if you have soluble fiber, this rise is more
Limit salt and sodium. While you’re eating for your
heart because of diabetes, be thankful for the extra initiative
and lower your blood pressure. Watch out for hidden sodium by reading
labels carefully and keeping aware. The most obvious way to cut
out sodium is to pass the salt shaker on at the table or while
Control. In a diabetic diet, it’s not all about ingredients—although
that is the first step. Next, you’ll need to control your
portion size in order to avoid going hyperglycemic after a big
healthcare provider might be able to discuss proper portion control
with you if you find this to be difficult to maintain. When cooking,
prepare less food in order to ensure that you don’t go for
seconds. Ask your family to help you maintain proper portion sizes
at meals. Try snacking regularly throughout the day to avoid sitting
down for a meal too hungry. This doesn’t mean you have to
starve yourself, or skip meals. It just means you need to pay attention
to how much you eat and plan ahead to make sure you keep your meals
Be consistent. Many diabetics forget that a fundamental
aspect of the diet is to keep consistent throughout the day, and
from day to
day. That means getting on a meal and snack schedule, and sticking
to it. This will allow your body to get accustomed to blood sugar
levels, and help you avoid hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar levels.
Your healthcare provider might advise you to pay close attention
to your body and blood glucose levels in order to establish specific
times when you feel it is particularly low, so that you may plan
on eating small meals to curb hypoglycemia.
A diabetic diet is
highly individualized for each case. However, the above guidelines
are a firm foundation in the healthy fundamentals
to eating with diabetes. You might notice that all of the guidelines
are also highly advised for non-diabetic people who wish to be
healthy. That’s because proper nutrition is universal. A
diabetic diet should be accompanied by moderate exercise to optimize
benefits. Some diabetics are prescribed medication for treatment
Click below to read about related topics.
Heart Healthy Eating
Nutrition for Athletes


Don’t waste your time on trying to solve robotic manipulation! Robotic manipulation has been solved in 1968. It has been solved when the Unimate robot demonstrated how a robot could butter a toast, pour coffee, set a table, open a fridge and open a bottle of champagne. Look around on the internet, and you would not find a better video of a robot doing something with its hands. Indeed, robotic manipulation seems to have gotten much, much harder over the years. Looking closely at more recent videos, it seems it is not only difficult to make a robot grasp something without running into the object or table, topple the object due to accidental contact, make the object literally avoid the grasp by jetting around the table upon contact, or reliably holding it while the robot moves.
2016 robots are shaky and barely get a handle on the objects they wish to manipulate. So what’s the difference? Of course, motions in the 1968 video were pre-programmed and getting the video has probably taken many, many shots. But why is it so much harder to localize an object accurately and replay the correct motion then? We have shown that it is actually not too much different when equipped with the right sensors, finally allowing the robot to react to objects in unstructured environments, leading to videos that show shakey robots, but showing robots that work almost every time a video is taken.
Robotic Materials sensors provide the missing link between existing perception systems and (not so) accurate robotic manipulators. Proximity allows the robot to make up for inaccuracies of perception and manipulation, contact allows the robot to validate pose without exerting forces, and pressure allows the robot to confirm the object pose relative to its body. Don’t believe it? Get your evaluation kit now, try our solutions for Rethink Robotics, the – much less shaky – Kinova robots, or contact us for a custom solution to solve your manipulation problem.


What is GNU?
The GNU Project was launched in 1984 to develop a complete Unix-like operating system which is free software: the GNU system.
GNU's kernel wasn't finished, so GNU is used with the kernel Linux. The combination of GNU and Linux is the GNU/Linux operating system, now used by millions. (Sometimes this combination is incorrectly called Linux.)
There are many variants or “distributions” of GNU/Linux. We recommend the GNU/Linux distributions that are 100% free software; in other words, entirely freedom-respecting.
The name “GNU” is a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not Unix”; it is pronounced g-noo, as one syllable with no vowel sound between the g and the n.
What is this site?
Our aim is to promote the GNU philosophy and free software. This site used to be a mirror page of a main GNU web site. However, such a mirroring proved to be of no use, so we have decided to discontinue it. From now on, this site will provide informations not reflected on the GNU main site and links to other GNU resources.
The reconstruction of this page is underway, visit us soon to find more information about GNU software, including links to documentation and downloads.
This site is run by Sergey Poznyakoff, who works with GNU since 2000. He is maintainer and developer of several GNU projects.
Translations of this page
None so far


Francis Drake Birth And Early Years
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Mystic Sciences >> Astrology
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- given to his early life and his introduction to piracy.
- Harry Francis Drake Date of Birth: 04/01/1923 Place of Birth: Corrie
- Harry Francis Drake. Page 1 of 3 Place of Birth: Corrie, King Island, 7256. brothers learnt proficiently at 6 years of age.
- The Life and Times of A.B. Simpson
- Foreword: His Life. . .
- SAH JOAQUIN HISTORIAN
- on the mission churches to which she gave birth and direction during their formative veal's (St. and ninety' years earlier, in June and July of 1579, while. Sir Francis Drake was anchored above San Francisco Bay.
- Such a man as thisdeserves a good biography, more especially as
- It is the fruit of many years of study. of descent from Sir Francis Drake.
Suggested Web Resources
- Birth and early years
- Birth and Early Years.
- Sir Francis Drake
- Sir Francis Drake achieved lasting fame as a result of his association with the victory against the Spanish Armada We do not know for sure the year of his birth.
- Francis Drake Biography - life, family, children, young, son
- The English navigator Sir Francis Drake was the first of his countrymen to sail around Angered by this, Drake decided to devote his life to war against Spain.
- Sir Francis Drake
- Sir Francis Drake. Born: 1540 Early Life. I was born in 1541 in a cottage made of rough tree branches on a nobleman's estate in the country of England.
Francis Drake Birth And Early Years Topics
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The future role of the teacher librarian. As the scope of information and technology continues to expand, Dr James Herring considers what impact this will have on the role of teacher librarians.
I began my career as a school librarian in the UK as part of the local public library service. What struck me when I started — and this is still true today — was that my teaching colleagues were expected to teach their subjects, advise students, and complete administrative tasks. As the school librarian, I was expected to manage the library, taking in book selection, cataloguing and classification, displays and class visits — and advise students, liaise with teachers, complete administrative tasks, and teach students about using information and the library. So, perhaps I should call this article the future roles of the teacher librarian. I have selected four future roles in relation to information literacy, resources, technology/social media, and social learning, and will address each individually.
Information literacy Resources. The importance of school libraries in the Google Age. Kay Oddone In Australia, access to the internet is almost ubiquitous.
In 2014–15, 85% of the Australian population aged 15 years and over were internet users, with 99% of people aged 15–17 using the internet (ABS 2016). With such widespread access to information comes the commonly asked question: now that we have Google, do we still require libraries and librarians? This question is particularly being pressed in schools, where smartphones mean that both teachers and students carry a wealth of information in their pocket, and school budgets are increasingly stretched between a wide range of competing demands. Professional learning - School libraries - guides at NSW Department of Education. It’s time: let’s improve schools' perceptions of teacher librarians. Bev Novak I recently noticed that a work colleague shared a link to Sally Dring’s fabulous article published in 2014, ‘Don’t overlook your school librarian, they’re the unsung heroes of literacy’.
When I read this article a couple of years ago, I shared it on Twitter, and was delighted to read Sally’s reply: ‘It needs saying!’ Dring’s article highlighted the many valuable attributes and skills that teacher librarians bring to the school community. These are outlined below. What do TL do. Things that School Librarians Do. Awesome Graphic on the 27 Things Teacher Librarians Do. What librarians do. The planner’s hat. A vision statement is just the beginning.
If it is to come to fruition then it needs to be teased out in and supported with a formal strategic plan which becomes the road map to the destination of your vision. Such a plan shows the pathway forward, guides decisions, helps negotiate obstacles and avoid detours, has markers and milestones which prove your progress and ensures that your steps are leading in the right direction. It includes identifiying purposeprioritiesgoalstimeframesperformance indicatorsstakeholdersroles and responsibilitiesfinancial, human, time and physical resourcesexternal supportdocumentationreview periods It needs to answer these sorts of questions… What have we already got?
Purpose All that is done within the library, whether it is wearing your teacher’s hat or your librarian’s hat must contribute positively to the teaching and learning in the school. Priorities Not everything needs to be done at once. Areas of priority to be considered include Goals Timeframes Stakeholders. The reader leader’s hat. Being an “independent reader” is much more than the mastery of the mechanics – it involves having an emotional attachment that makes the experience a part of who we are as a person, embracing the affective domain as well as the cognitive and the physical.
Being an independent reader means developing a lifelong habit that continues because we want to read and not because we are required to or have to. It means that we read even when daily support such as dedicated in-class reading time such as the DEAR and USSR programs are no longer available. In her book Reading in the Wild , a professional text that has had the greatest impact on my beliefs and actions of any I’ve read for a very long time, Donalyn Miller identifies five key characteristics of an independent reader… Read the research Firstly, there is a growing body of evidence such as that by Combes and Coiro that for students to read effectively online, they must first build up a traditional literacy skillset which is based on print.
Libraries for future learners-Conference 2015 pre-reading.pdf. School report. Curriculum Planning, Programming, Assessing & Reporting to parents K-12. Stocktake. State of the Library 2014-15. (4545 check outs this school year) Libraries are not the sum of their circulation statistics.
It's not the numbers that count, but the library can do on campus. It's more about relationships, collaboration, goals achieved Staff PD campus/district wide Research process with CORE CLASSES Booktalks for ENGLISH I-IV Curation tools with CTE CLASSES Community partnership with ROANOKE PUBLIC LIBRARY Create better presentations - WORLD LANGUAGES Infographics with CORE CLASSES Google Slides with ATHLETICS Video creation with FINE ARTS CLASSES Database and research with STEM CLASSES Professional Involvement/Activities: TCEA (member): Library/CIT partnerships Austin TX TxLA (member) Executive Board Member Austin, TX American Library Assn/YALSA Young Adult Lit Symposium Austin, TX North Texas Regional High School Librarians PLN (monthly) Northwest ISD District Library PLC (monthly)


There is a great debate currently unfolding in the U.S., and it centered on the link between childhood vaccines and the development of Autism.
Many scientists and drug companies (who make the vaccines) claim that vaccines do not cause Autism in children. In stark counterpoint, many consumer organizations claim to have solid evidence that vaccines do indeed cause Autism in children.
According to a spokesperson for the National Vaccine Information Center, the rise in Autism cases can be directly correlated to the increased number of vaccines given to our children. In the recent past, the administration of vaccines to children has nearly doubled. At the same time, our nation experienced a nearly 50 percent rise in children diagnoses with learning disabilities and asthma. Plus, we’ve seen cases of childhood diabetes triple and in every state Autism has increased by 200 to 7,000 percent. These are big numbers that deserve big attention. But money stands in the way of settling this debate, as many federal grants have not been renewed to continue research on this vital topic.
So what can you do as a parent to protect your children? Learn more about the research that has already been conducted in the field of vaccinations. Visit the National Vaccine Information Center at http://www.909shot.com/ for the latest news and information.


Blog/America's Economic History
Posted Sep 11, 2018 by Martin Armstrong
QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; You are a history buff. Who was the richest person in ancient times? Has there ever been a trillionaire?
ANSWER: The Roman Emperor Augustus. He is believed to have been worth in current dollar terms nearly $5 trillion. The only other person to have reached the trillion dollars net worth status was King Solomon of Judaea. After Octavian/Augustus defeated Marc Antony and Cleopatra, he then possessed the entire wealth of Egypt. In this respect, the wealth really did belong to him. The Roman system was that a governor paid the tax to the state and he had the right to mine that province for taxes which were always in excess. So in this perspective, the wealth of Egypt truly did belong to Octavian/Augustus.
Some have attributed the entire wealth of nations conquered and argued that Genghis Khan was worth probably $100 trillion dollars. However, Genghis Khan may have been the ruler, but this was not exactly the same as the Roman system. All taxation was not the personal property of Genghis Khan as was the case for a governor of a province in the Roman Empire.
Marcus Licinius Crassus was perhaps one of the richest private men in Roman history. He amassed an enormous fortune through real estate speculation buying confiscated property seized by Marius from the supporters of Sulla. Crassus’s wealth is estimated by Pliny at approximately 200 million sestertii. Plutarch says the wealth of Crassus increased from less than 300 talents at first to 7,100 talents. An Attic (Greek, Athens) talent was the equivalent of 60 minae or 6,000 drachmae. A silver Drachm was generally 15mm in diameter with a weight of 4.20 grams. In Roman terms, this was about 26 kilograms (57 lb). If we take Plutarch’s measurement of wealth, that would be 42.6 million denarii.
A Roman soldier earned 225 denarii a year. Today, the average soldier in the US army earns $48,538 per year. That would approximately be $9.189 billion. If we take Jeff Bezos who is reported to be worth $164 billion based upon his stock in Amazon, that works out to the annual salary of 3.4 million soldiers compared to Crassus’ worth being 189,333 soldiers. However, the real difference is that Crassus’ wealth is cash whereas Bezos’ wealth is the current value of a stock. If he tried to sell it for cash, the value would be significantly less.
Crassus’ son, Publius Licinius Crassus (c 86BC – 53 BC), served under Julius Caesar. He did issue coins during the Republic as a “moneyer” who was a person authorized to issue the coins during the Roman Republic. The Senate actually controlled the quantity of money to be produced. There would be a “State of the Union” type of address to the Senate where they would be given the account of money on hand and what they expected the annual expenses would be. The Senate would then authorize the number of coins to be issued that fiscal year. The Quaestors handed the raw bullion and they would turn that over to the official who was the “moneyer” for that year. The moneyers would decide on the design to be issued which often celebrated his ancestors. The coinage would be struck and then handed back to the Quaestors for the expenditure of the government. The office of a moneyer continued into the Imperial period.


The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Henderson County, as counties all over the nation, saw the rise of lodges and secret societies in the 19th century.
The Odd Fellows history (continued): Although some books claim to trace Odd Fellowship back to Roman times when members of the Roman Legions in England were called Fellow Citizens", what is said to be the earliest printed record of an Odd Fellows Lodge appears in a reference to a lodge meeting at a Globe Tavern in England in 1748.
This lodge was numbered nine so apparently there were at least nine associated Odd Fellows lodges at that time. Source: www.ioof.com


By James Wright, MD, MPH, FRCSC
Young adolescents with chronic conditions need to begin preparing for the transition to adult care
Not long ago, it used to be that most children born with spina bifida would not survive to age 20. The condition, in which the spinal column does not close properly before birth, has several types and can create devastating problems. Over the decades however, surgery has helped improved both survival and the quality of life of these patients. Today, most children born with spina bifida will live full lives.
This incredible success has created its own issues though. Generally, patients with spina bifida like most chronic conditions, require ongoing care. While it is initially treated with surgery, care will not end in the post-operative ward. Nor will it end when the child grows up to become an adult. Spina bifida is just one of a growing list of chronic conditions which are successfully treated early, saving the life of the child, but making that child a patient for life into adulthood.
During early childhood, the responsibility for sticking with the ongoing care these patients need is primarily the responsibility of the parents. They bring the child to the appointments, and make sure their medications are taken at the right time and at the right doses. This demanding responsibility allows the child to gain his or her maximum potential and avoid bigger medical issues as they grow.
But as the child turns into an adolescent and ultimately an adult, that responsibility will shift from parent to patient. The question is, will they be ready to take on that responsibility?
Transition to adult care: patients, parents and clinicians
Imagine you have a growing and for the most part, responsible child. The day is coming that he will be allowed to stay at home by himself. No parent would introduce this responsibility to their child by saying: ‘We’re going on a month-long vacation to Thailand and it’s your job to look after yourself and the house’. More likely, advance preparation will be undertaken. A list of important phone numbers posted on the fridge. Do’s and Don’ts spelled out: yes, you may watch television; no, you may not use the oven. Some parents may even put their child through a home alone workshop to help train them to do it. Moreover, the child will be eased into being at home alone; at first it might just be for an hour after school. After a few years of this, the boy, now an adolescent, might be ready to take care of the house while his parents are on vacation.
As more and more children with chronic conditions survive into adulthood, the more the health care team has recognized the need to prepare patients to take responsibility for their health as young adults. Studies showed many were not making it to appointments and the quality of their health was going down. In general, it was a lack of adherence to treatment rather than lack of treatment options that was the impediment. In some cases, these came with devastating consequences.
But it’s not just the patients: there is also a need to train health care professionals on how to treat adult patients who have what have traditionally been thought of as paediatric conditions. In addition to spina bifida, many outside the pediatric world may have little experience with all manner of congenital conditions that were initially treated with surgery during childhood.
Put another way, the longer survival and better health of patients with chronic conditions can be a brand new treatment experience for patients and non-paediatric experts alike.
What parents can do to prepare their child. Some general advice
Parents of healthy children often have a tough time letting go and helping their child become independent. This is likely even more difficult for parents with a child who has a chronic condition. Children learn independence by making mistakes and for these children, the consequences of making mistakes could be a lot more serious. Still, it is critically important for these children to become independent. Parents should start small and early.
Preparing children for transition should begin at latest in early adolescence: the tween years. At that time, parents should begin shifting their involvement in their child’s care. This may mean getting your child to book his or her own health care appointment and then seeing the health care provider alone. Tweens should start practicing asking doctors questions to increase their comfort level. Encourage them to keep track of appointments and results.
Parents should also evaluate their child’s level of readiness for transitions over time. For example, does your child know the name of the condition, the type of drugs they take, and what constitutes an emergency situation? Does your child know how their prescriptions are renewed and paid for?
Parents should also remember that a chronic condition does not make their child immune to the false bravado typical of teenagers. Like their peers, their brain is still developing, their ability to calculate risk benefit analyses is undeveloped, and their hormones may be as out of whack as any other teen. With this in mind, the trick it to always get them to do the maximum they are capable of without going beyond their capacity.
Good 2 Go Transition Program
Based on the ‘shared management model’ of health care developed in Seattle a decade ago, the Good To Go Transition program is designed to help patients with different chronic conditions take ownership of their own healthcare. It provides evidence-based tools and advice to parents, clinicians, and adolescents on how to gradually shift responsibility and make a successful transition to adult care.
One of the tools developed is a ‘Healthcare Passport’, a printable wallet-sized card that summarizes a person’s health specifics. Filled out by the patient and generated on the web, there are templates for specific conditions as well as ones that are more general. From this information, the patient can also develop what is called the ‘three sentence summary’ to help them practice communicating to health care providers. The idea is that as the transition to adult care occurs, the now teenager will be meeting new healthcare providers in new settings. The experience can be daunting if not overwhelming. Learning how to describe their condition in just three sentences helps teens practice speaking about it in a way that is both concise and effective. While the Good 2 Go program and others like it are comprehensive, research to find best practices for transition to adult care is ongoing. And it’s a two-pronged approach: the professionals involved in this work are also aiding adult health care providers prepare to take care of these patients, creating champions for them on the other side.
Dr. James G. Wright, MD, MPH, FRCSC, is Surgeon-in-Chief, Robert B. Salter Chair of Pediatric Surgical Research, and Senior Scientist, Population Health Sciences at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). He is also a professor in the Departments of Surgery, Public Health Sciences, and Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.
More on transitioning to adult care for children with epilepsy, for children who have undergone a blood and marrow transplant, for kids with juvenile ideopathic arthritis, and children with congenital heart conditions.
For more on the Good 2 Go program including templates to create you own health passport.
Fetal surgery for spina bifida.
More columns by Dr. James Wright


adult education: Development
Only in the past two centuries has the field of adult education acquired definite organization. Its relatively recent development results from numerous social trends—the general spread of public education, the intensification of economic competition with a resulting premium on skills, the complexities of national and international politics demanding constant study, the stimulating effects of urbanization, the opportunity offered by increased leisure time, and increased interest in educational activities on the part of many older men and women. Modern and formal adult education probably originated in European political groups and, after the Industrial Revolution, in vocational classes for workers. Continuation schools for workers in Germany and Switzerland were common. The folk high school in Denmark, founded by Bishop Grundtvig , stressed intellectual studies, and the Adult Schools of the Society of Friends in England (1845) fostered the education of the poor.
The earliest American forms of adult education were the public lectures given in the lyceum (c.1826) and the Lowell Institute of Boston endowed by John Lowell (1836). In 1873 the Chautauqua movement introduced the discussion group and modified lecture system. Free public lectures supported by the Dept. of Education of New York City were inaugurated in 1904. In 1926 the Carnegie Corporation organized the American Association for Adult Education, which later became the Adult Education Association of the U.S.A. In 1982 it merged with the National Association for Public Continuing Adult Education to form the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education. This group, through its research and publications, works not only to promote education as a lifelong learning process but also to systematize the methods and philosophy of the field. The 21st cent. has seen the increasing development of online courses offered for free (without credit); the courses are offered in forms ranging from lecture videos and podcasts to text materials unsupplemented by any form of multimedia.
Federal funding and support for adult education have been provided through the Vocational Education Act (1963), the Economic Opportunity Act (1964), the Manpower Act (1965), the Adult Education Act (1966, amended 1970), the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (1973), the Lifelong Learning Act (1976), and for a broader spectrum of learners by the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Act (1984). The Office of Vocational and Adult Education, under the U.S. Dept. of Education, administers grant, contract, and technical assistance programs for adult education, literacy, and occupational training. Most federal funding for these programs is administered through the states, counties, and individual communities. Other major federal providers of adult education are the Dept. of Agriculture and the Dept. of Defense.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Education: Terms and Concepts


"I educate and diagnose malaria. The serious cases I refer to the hospital. We are the first line of defense for the village - and cases have been decreasing. I teach people to be careful, to use a net at night and to wear long-sleeved shirts after dusk. My job is not difficult, but it takes a lot of time to do properly. It's a big responsibility. But at least no one wakes me up at night! We try to work in the daylight hours. Less mosquitoes, you know."
For every patient diagnosed with malaria at a health facility, it is believed that four to five infections occur in the community. Therefore, community health workers play a critical role in the fight against the disease. Not only do they diagnose and begin early treatment of malaria, they also educate their communities about how the parasite is transmitted, and the importance of using preventive measures such as mosquito nets, wearing long sleeves at night, or repellent after dusk. The village malaria workers demonstrate how successful community-level prevention is a critical component for a sustainable malaria solution.


Report on Talang (Indonesia) — June 2010
Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, vol. 35, no. 6 (June 2010)
Managing Editor: Richard Wunderman.
Talang (Indonesia) Episodes of elevated seismicity in August 2009 and February 2010
Please cite this report as:
Global Volcanism Program, 2010. Report on Talang (Indonesia). In: Wunderman, R (ed.), Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, 35:6. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.BGVN201006-261160.
0.979°S, 100.681°E; summit elev. 2575 m
All times are local (unless otherwise noted)
Seismicity at Talang had generally declined since February 2009. However on 16 August 2009 there was a M 6.9 earthquake centered W of Sumatra in the southern part of Siberut Island. That event caused tremors recorded at Talang. Increased seismicity through the next day led to CVGHM to raise the Alert Level for Talang from 2 to 3 (on a scale of 1-4). Monitoring was also stepped up, and an emergency response team was assigned to conduct an onsite evaluation. Foggy conditions prevented visual observations.
Between the August activity and February 2010, Talang was comparatively quiet; however in early February another episode of increased seismicity included harmonic tremor, shallow volcanic earthquakes, and deep volcanic earthquakes. By 17 February the elevated seismicity had subsided. MODVOLC satellite surveillance has shown no indications of any thermal activity.
Geologic Background. Talang, which forms a twin volcano with the extinct Pasar Arbaa volcano, lies ESE of the major city of Padang and rises NW of Dibawah Lake. Talang has two crater lakes on its flanks; the largest of these is 1 x 2 km wide Danau Talang. The summit exhibits fumarolic activity, but which lacks a crater. Historical eruptions have mostly involved small-to-moderate explosive activity first documented in the 19th century that originated from a series of small craters in a valley on the upper NE flank.
Information Contacts: Center of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (CVGHM), Jalan Diponegoro 57, Bandung 40122, Indonesia (URL: http://vsi.esdm.go.id/).


Dr. Helen MacMurchy had a noble mission. She was determined to save Canada from the ills of the modern world. To accomplish this, however, meant confronting the problem of the “feeble-minded,” as she and others called “mentally defective” individuals who threatened the health of the nation.
MacMurchy is remembered today as one of the country’s pioneers of public health.
Although she often sounded like such champions of the early twentieth-century eugenics movement as American Charles Davenport in her passionate conviction that feeble-mindedness — clearly linked, she argued, to crime, prostitution, and juvenile delinquency — and an open-door immigration policy posed a real threat to Canadian survival.
Indeed, these fears were realized when W.G. Smith, a psychology professor at the University of Toronto, published his book A Study in Canadian Immigration in 1920.
Among other “disturbing” facts, Smith’s calculations showed that while at New York’s Ellis Island, “the Americans’ rate of rejection of mental defectives was one to every 1,590 immigrants ... Canada’s was only one to every 10,127 as evidence of leniency of the latter country’s screening process.”
MacMurchy was influenced by the work of such U.S. eugenicists as Henry Goddard and, in particular, Richard Dugdale.
Dugdale was the author of a celebrated heredity study published in 1877 that showed how the union of an upstate New York frontiersman he called Max Juke and his “degenerate” (or morally inferior) wife in the 1730s were responsible for seven generations of misfits and criminals.
Like her mentors, MacMurchy accepted that “individual inadequacy,” rather than environment factors, had caused a crisis and required a bold solution.
“Poverty, of course, is not a simple, but a complex condition,” she wrote in a 1912 report. “It probably means poor health, inefficiency, lack of energy, less than average intelligence or force in some way, not enough imagination to see the importance of details.”
Born in Ontario in 1862, MacMurchy, seemingly prim and proper from a young age, was also unorthodox; she opted to become a doctor, which was not a usual career choice for a Canadian woman at the turn of the century.
She graduated from Women’s Medical College in Toronto in 1901 and then furthered her studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Returning to Canada, she was the first woman offered a position in the Toronto General Hospital's Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
She gradually became more active in public health and starting in 1906 submitted reports on the feeble-minded to the Ontario government. She was appointed the province’s first inspector of the feebleminded in 1914 and briefly worked for the Ontario education department supervising special-education classes.
Recognized for her expertise in the area, the federal government recruited her for its newly established Department of Health in 1920. She ran its Division of Maternal and Child Welfare for the next fourteen years, taking a special interest in reducing infant mortality — a problem she typically blamed on “ignorant mothers.”
The same year she became an Ottawa civil servant, she also published her bestselling book The Almosts: A Study of the Feeble-Minded (1920). Using research she had conducted during her work as Ontario’s inspector of the feebleminded, MacMurchy educated Canadians (as well as Americans, since the book was published in Boston) beyond the medical and political communities on the unfit and degenerate menace afflicting the country — yet always with a feeling of empathy.
One had to treat the feeble-minded with care, she noted, yet never lose sight of the fact that they were abnormal and had to be treated as such. “It is the age of true democracy,” she wrote, “that will not only give every one justice, but will redeem the waste products of humanity and give the mental defective all the chance he needs to develop his gifts and all the protection he needs to keep away from evils and temptations that he never will be grown-up enough to resist, and that society cannot afford to let him fall a victim to.”
Should society, in fact, have failed these hopeless and helpless people, then the consequences would be severe. The feeble-minded might have been a small percentage of the total population, but as she maintained in a 1916 report — “with dubious statistical precision,” as Canadian eugenics historian Angus McLaren has put it — they accounted for the vast majority of alcoholics, juvenile delinquents, unmarried mothers, and prostitutes.
Quoting from the work of an American physician, Dr. Walter Fernald, she expressed the sentiment shared by eugenicists across North America that “every mental defective is a potential criminal.”
It was Charles Darwin’s cousin Francis Galton who coined the term eugenics in 1883, following the publication of his book Hereditary Genius in 1869. It was derived from the Greek root meaning “good in birth” or “noble in heredity” to describe his utopian scheme.
Eugenics was, he said, “a brief word to express the science of improving stock, which is by no means confined to questions of judicious mating, but which, especially in the case of man, takes cognizance of all influences that tend in however remote a degree to give to the more suitable races or strains of blood a better chance of prevailing speedily over the less suitable than they otherwise would have had.”
So convinced was he of the flawlessness of his theory, he believed “its principles ought to become one of the dominant motives in a civilized nation, much as if they were one of its religious tenets.”
The scientific and intellectual communities did not immediately embrace Galton’s plan for a better and fitter world. Many later did. Their faith in the paramount significance of heredity was not really confirmed until the turn of the century. In 1900, scientists showed renewed interest in and acceptance of the work of an Austrian monk and botanist named Gregor Mendel, who had extensively studied the breeding of pea plants in the 1860s.
From his experiments, Mendel had been able to draw reasonable conclusions about what he called “elements” — dominant and recessive genes — which were passed on from one generation to the next.
“Mendel’s law of segregation and independent assortment,” as it became known, laid the foundation of modern genetics (a term first used in 1906). It only made sense to early eugenicists that human traits — not just physical, but also intellectual and moral characteristics — were transmitted in the same way.
That was the view, at any rate, of influential scientists and writers like Karl Pearson in England and especially Charles Davenport in the United States, who operated a huge eugenics institution at Cold Spring Harbor, outside of New York City. Davenport participated in international eugenic conferences in Germany (organized by the International Society for Racial Hygiene) and was involved in national conferences on “race betterment” on how to improve “American stock.”
One such gathering took place in 1915 in San Francisco in conjunction with the Panama Pacific Exposition being held in the city at the time. Davenport’s group mounted an effective eugenics exhibit at the Palace of Education, complete with graphs, photographs, and portraits displaying the impact of heredity on the American population. For the thousands of people visiting the exhibit, it was a lesson in “the rapid increase of race degeneracy.”
During this period, and again in the early 1920s, middle-class Americans and Canadians could not hear or read enough about eugenics. Countless articles appeared in the New York Times and other newspapers espousing its virtues, and the best magazines — Harper’s Weekly, Atlantic Monthly, Saturday Evening Post, and the New Republic — profiled the movement’s proponents and analyzed their apparently scientifically sound findings.
Writers such as J.F. Bobbitt, Granville Stanley Hall (a prolific American educator), and particularly journalist Albert E. Wiggam, author of the 1923 bestseller The New Decalogue of Science, spread the gospel of eugenics across North America.
At Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, and other North American colleges and universities, eugenics found its way into the science curriculum. “We know enough about agriculture so that the agricultural production of the country could be doubled if the knowledge were applied,” claimed Charles Van Hise, a geologist and president of the University of Wisconsin.
“We know enough about disease so that if the knowledge were utilized, infectious and contagious diseases would be substantially destroyed in the United States within a score of years; we know enough about eugenics so that if the knowledge were applied, the defective classes would disappear within a generation.”
The tremendous appeal of the eugenics movement was partly based on hope and partly on fear — hope for building a stronger and more intelligent populace, and fear that the trend was going in the opposite direction.
Progressive-minded Americans and Canadians watched in trepidation as their respective countries were swamped by foreigners, who not only challenged the supremacy of the Nordic or Anglo-Saxon race, but also brought to their cities nothing but poverty, slums, crime, prostitution, and corruption.
“National deterioration,” was what pro-eugenic academics and propagandists called it in Britain.
Then the First World War began, and they saw their best and brightest march off to die in the battlefields of Belgium and France, while the unfit, weaklings, degenerates, and feeble-minded remained at home to reproduce more of their own kind. (It was not lost on eugenic supporters that improvements in modern medicine and the quality of life generally also permitted the weak and feeble-minded to survive and have children when in an earlier era they might have perished).
Most eugenicists dwelled incessantly on controlling the birth rate of the unfit, but for some, eliminating the feeble-minded altogether was the obvious next step.
In London, George Bernard Shaw, the Fabian socialist and dramatist, who preached positive eugenics, which emphasized the importance of “good breeding quality,” also argued that “extermination must be put on a scientific basis if it is ever to be carried out humanely.” Adding, “If we desire a certain type of civilization and culture, we must exterminate the sort of people who do not fit it.”
Novelist D.H. Lawrence was more direct and eerily prophetic. In a letter to a friend in 1908 he explained his plan to save the world:
“If I had my way, I would build a lethal chamber as big as the Crystal Palace, with a military band playing softly, and a Cinematograph working brightly; then I’d go out in the back streets and main streets and bring them in, all the sick, the halt, and the maimed; I would lead them gently, and they would smile me a weary thanks.”
Lawrence died in the south of France in 1930, not knowing that the Nazis would indeed implement such a devastating policy ten years later.
Most Canadian supporters of eugenics would not have gone that far. Education and a more efficient immigration inspection system were necessary.
But Helen MacMurchy, among others, also campaigned for segregation and sterilization of the “feeble-minded” as the best method to protect the country’s well-being. Birth control, in MacMurchy’s opinion, was not a practical solution — she referred to it as “unnatural” and “contrary to one’s higher instincts.”
Still, Canadian politicians were more reticent than were the Americans to introduce sterilization legislation. Following the precedent set in Indiana in 1907 — the first of more than a dozen states to pass sterilization laws — Dr. John Godfrey attempted five years later to introduce a sterilization bill for asylum patients in the Ontario Legislature.
Despite support from such esteemed medical experts as psychiatrist Charles Clarke of the Toronto General Hospital and a staunch proponent of eugenics, the provincial government took a more cautious approach.
Unlike Americans, some Canadians, perhaps, were not as certain that an aggressive eugenics program would result in a glorious future. Sensing that the public was uncertain how to proceed, Ontario politicians let the matter drop for the moment.
Throughout the twenties, women’s groups in particular continued to push for legalized sterilization. In British Columbia and Alberta, Nellie McClung, Judge Emily Murphy, and Henrietta Edwards, among others, believed sterilization was a panacea for society’s ills.
In her memoirs published in 1945, McClung recalled visiting one prairie family who had sterilized their feeble-minded daughter, named Katie. The effect was apparently soothing, almost magical.
“Katie was well and neatly dressed,” wrote McClung. “Her mother told me that she was taking full charge of the chickens now, and in the evenings was doing Norwegian knitting which had a ready sale in the neighbourhood. The home was happy again.”
Always more pragmatic than McClung, Emily Murphy, an Alberta police magistrate (considered the first female judge in Canada as well as the British Empire), was also more direct.
“We protect the public against diseased and distempered cattle,” she declared. “We should similarly protect them against the offal of humanity.”
Sterilization bills were introduced into the B.C. and Alberta legislatures. In B.C., the government decided to appoint a Royal Commission on Mental Hygiene in 1925. It took more than two years to study the issue, although the commissioners — who were influenced by developments in the United States — recommended the sterilization of individuals in mental institutions.
The editors of the Vancouver Sun added their support in an editorial. Sterilization, they wrote, was “the only reasonable way of protecting the strains from which the world must draw its leaders.” By the time the commissioners submitted their final report in 1928, however, there had been a change in government in B.C. and the matter was not resolved for another five years.
Events were more decisive in Alberta.
Support for a sterilization law had been voiced in the provincial legislature since the early 1920s. Lectures, presentations, and articles had convinced many Albertans of the pressing need to deal decisively with this issue. Asked Margaret Gunn, the president of the United Farm Women of Alberta in 1924:
“Shall we continue our present system of merely taking charge of the very lowest physical and mental types, those who cause a menace to the state, the feeble-minded who in large measure fill our jails and penitentiaries and make up the great substratum of humanity — social derelicts, doomed because of congenital inferiority to lead lives that are crass and unlovely, and to lower the vitality of our civilization?”
She advised the government to adopt a policy of “racial betterment through the weeding out of undesirable strains,” adding that “democracy was never intended for degenerates.”
George Hoadley, the health minister in John Brownlee’s United Farmers of Alberta government, concurred with such sentiments. Arguing that the continuing increase in the province’s feeble-minded population — a majority of whom he pointed out were foreigners — was an undue burden on taxpayers, he introduced a sexual sterilization bill in February 1928.
Still, not everyone approved. Soon Alberta newspapers were filled with letters to the editor from concerned citizens who questioned what they regarded as the government’s heavy-handed actions.
“Are we animals and soon to be classed as Tomworths, Holsteins or Clydes?” asked one writer in the Edmonton Journal.
“Possibly Mr. Hoadley in his desire for physical perfection will bring in a bill next year that all children, such as those suffering from infantile paralysis or any deformity, be taken to the high level bridge and thrown into the Saskatchewan.”
A group of prominent Edmonton residents organized the People’s Protective League to fight the proposed legislation, which it declared was “interfering with the rights of people.”
It was to no avail. The government passed Canada’s first sterilization act in early March along with provision for the establishment of a “eugenics board” (consisting of two medical practitioners and two lay people) whose job it was to evaluate each case on its own merits.
According to the act, parents or guardians were to be consulted before any medical procedure was to occur, a stipulation that was eliminated by the Social Credit government of William Aberhart in 1937. Alberta’s sterilization act remained untouched until it was finally repealed in 1972.
By then, 2,822 Albertans had been sterilized for reasons varying from possessing a “low IQ to apparent promiscuity.” (As Alberta historian Alvin Finkel also notes, in later years “some boys with Down’s syndrome had one testicle removed for the benefit of a researcher into the causes of Down’s.)
British Columbia instituted a similar bill in 1933, yet other provinces, including Ontario, where there always had been substantial support for such a law, felt that it was too drastic a measure. The Eugenics Society of Canada, organized by a group of committed academics and doctors in late 1930 to promote “race betterment” and sterilization, never stopped hoping that the situation would change.
During the thirties, Canadian and American physicians and scientists watched almost with envy as Hitler and the Nazis imposed their own eugenics program. In their view, it was something to behold.
According to a January 1936 article in the magazine Canadian Doctor, the Nazis’ policy had ensured that 200,000 unfit German citizens would not have children. The financial saving to Hitler’s government was supposedly enormous. That same year, Charles Davenport’s protégé Harry Laughlin was awarded an honorary doctorate of medicine by the University of Heidelberg for his eugenics work at Cold Spring Harbor.
He was unable to attend the ceremony but wrote to thank the university’s officials. It was, he noted, “evidence of a common understanding of German and American scientists of the nature of eugenics.”
Historians estimate that by the end of the Second World War, the Nazis, who had transformed their forced sterilization program of more than 400,000 individuals into a massive killing machine, had likely murdered 140,000 physically handicapped and mentally ill people.
At one mental institution in Nazi Germany, the staff toasted with beer the cremation of the ten-thousandth patient — a child gassed to death. In 1946, at the trial of Nazi doctors held at Nuremberg, one physician after the other stated that they had modelled their system after the one in the United States.


CAS No. 7664-41-7
Ammonia (NH3) is found throughout the environment in the air, soil, and water, and in plants and animals, including humans. Ammonia is also found in many household and industrial cleaners. High levels of ammonia can irritate and burn the skin, mouth, throat, lungs, and eyes. Very high levels of ammonia can damage the lungs or cause death. Workers may be harmed from exposure to ammonia. The level of exposure depends upon dose, duration, and work being done.
Ammonia is used in many industries. Some examples of workers at risk of being exposed to ammonia include the following:
- Agricultural workers who use soil fertilizer
- Industrial workers who manufacture fertilizers, rubber, nitric acid, urea, plastics, fibers, synthetic resin, solvents and other chemicals
- Miners and metallurgic workers
- Workers in petroleum refining
- Workers who use a commercial refrigerant in food processing, produce ice, are near cold storage and de-icing operations.
NIOSH recommends that employers use Hierarchy of Controls to prevent injuries. If you work in an industry that uses ammonia, please read chemical labels and the accompanying Safety Data Sheet for hazard information. Visit NIOSH’s page on Managing Chemical Safety in the Workplace to learn more about controlling chemical workplace exposures.
The following resources provide information about occupational exposure to ammonia. Useful search terms for ammonia include “anhydrous ammonia,” “aqua ammonia,”and “aqueous ammonia.”
The NIOSH Pocket Guide (NPG) provides safety and health information on several hundred chemicals found in the workplace. The guide aims to help workers and employers identify and control chemical hazards.
The NIOSH Manual of Analytical Methods (NMAM) is a collection of methods for sampling and analysis of contaminants in workplace air, and in the blood and urine of workers who are occupationally exposed.
The Health Hazard Evaluation Program (HHE) conducts onsite investigations of possible worker exposure to chemicals. Search the HHE database for more information on ammonia.
- NIOSHTIC-2 search results for ammonia – NIOSHTIC-2 is a searchable database of worker safety and health publications, documents, grant reports, and journal articles supported in whole or in part by NIOSH.
- Immediately Dangerous to LIfe or Health (IDLH) Value of ammonia– NIOSH reviews scientific data and researches methods for developing IDLH values.
- Emergency Response Safety and Health Database (ERSH-DB): Ammonia Solution (UN 3318); Ammonia Anhydrous (UN 1005) – The ERSH-DB provides emergency personnel responding to a terrorist event with accurate and concise information on high-priority chemical, biological and radiological agents that could be encountered.
- NIOSH Certified Equipment List for protections against ammonia
- NIOSH Criteria Documents: Criteria for a Recommended Standard: Occupational Exposure to Ammonia
- NIOSH Guidelines for Chemical Hazards DHHS Publication No. 74-136 (1974) – Contains a standard for mitigation of exposure to ammonia to prevent adverse effects over a working lifetime.
- Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) Toxicological Profile for Ammonia
- ATSDR – ToxFAQs™: Ammonia
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Acute Exposure Guideline Levels (AEGLs): Ammonia
- EPA Chemistry Dashboard: Ammonia
- EPA Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS): Ammonia
- National AG Safety Database: Androus Ammonia Safety
- National Library of Medicine (NLM) Hazardous Substance Data Bank: Ammonia
- NLM Haz-Map: Ammonia
- NLM Medline Plus: Ammonia Poisoning
- Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA) Guideline for Ammonia [PDF – 264 KB]
- OSHA Hazard Communication
- OSHA Safety and Health Topics: Ammonia Refrigeration
- OSHA Safety and Health Topics: Anhydrous Ammonia
- New Jersey Hazardous Substance Fact Sheets: Ammonia
- European Chemical Agency(ECHA): Ammonia
- eCHEM Global Portal search results for ammonia
- International Labour Organization International Chemical Safety Cards:
- INCHEM Health and Safety Guide No. 37: Ammonia
- INCHEM Environmental Health Criteria 54: Ammonia
- German Social Accident Insurance GESTIS hazardous substances search results
- Page last reviewed: May 17, 2018
- Page last updated: November 15, 2018
- Content source:
- National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Education and Information Division


Guidelines for College Essays
In college, you will be faced with a number of essay assignments. Whether you are writing a literary analysis, a chemistry report or a historical research project, you will find that for each type of essay, you must abide by certain guidelines. According to the Purdue Online Writing Lab, there are four genres of essays: description, narration, exposition and argumentation. Each of these essays, however, requires different guidelines.
1 Descriptive Essays
According to the Purdue Online Writing Lab, the descriptive genre allows "for a great deal of artistic freedom," in which a writer can paint vivid images with words. The central guideline for writing a descriptive essay is that the writer must choose his vocabulary carefully. For example, if you are asked to write a description about horseback riding, put the reader on a horse alongside you by describing everything about the experience. For instance, rather than writing, "Horseback riding is a fun activity," be more vivid. Assume the reader has never ridden a horse. How does it feel? What are your emotions? What are you thinking as you sit in the saddle? This will effectively evoke images in your reader's mind.
2 Narrative Essays
Like the descriptive essay, a narrative essay may also allow creative freedom in the form of storytelling. According to the Purdue Online Writing Lab, if written as a story, your narrative should include all elements of storytelling, such as an introduction, plot, characters, setting, climax and conclusion; however, a narrative essay does not always have to be written in the form of a story. For example, a book report may be more informative than creative; however, it should still ignite some emotions within the reader.
3 Expository Essays
An expository essay is intended to share information with the reader. The main focus of the information is introduced in the thesis statement, which usually appears in the first paragraph of the essay and lets the reader know what the paper is about. For example, if you are writing a research essay about the disadvantages of drinking diet soda, your thesis statement might read something like, "Although substituting diet soda for regular soft drinks may provide some health benefits, consuming diet soda also poses major risks to your health." This informs the reader that the rest of your paper is about the health disadvantages of drinking diet soda. You must then support this claim with reliable evidence. For instance, if your goal is to educate readers about the dangers of drinking diet soda, support these claims with credible sources, such as studies conducted by major universities. Finally, you need to conclude the essay in your own words. Do not repeat the thesis statement. Instead, bring your essay full circle by offering your own personal advice or opinion relevant to your thesis statement. Furthermore, you must list all references cited in your paper -- whether books, websites or surveys -- on a separate Works Cited or References page.
4 Persuasive Essays
In a persuasive essay, also known as an argumentative essay, you take a stand on a specific issue and attempt to persuade the reader to adopt your beliefs. Your persuasive essay should contain a thesis statement in the opening paragraph. For example, if you are trying to persuade the reader that a laptop computer is better than a desktop computer, your thesis statement might read, "The advantages of owning a laptop computer outweigh those of owning a desktop computer." You should then transition to the body of the essay, offering evidence and examples that support your argument. Some evidence might include interviews, surveys or credible studies, as long as the evidence remains relevant to your thesis statement. However, according to Austin Peay State University, it is also "unethical to exclude evidence that may not support the thesis." For instance, if there are some studies or positions that oppose your argument, you must also include these in your essay. Rather than writing about how you think these opposing positions are completely wrong, explain how perhaps the opposing position may be outdated or too generalized. Finally, conclude your paper. Rather than repeating your thesis statement, your conclusion should leave a lasting impression on the reader.


Display Screen Equipment (DSE) is a device or equipment that has an alphanumeric or graphic display screen, regardless of the display process involved; it includes both conventional display screens and those used in laptops, touch-screens and other similar devices.
Do you use this type of device/equipment?
Computer workstations or equipment can be associated with neck, shoulder, back or arm pain, as well as with fatigue and eyestrain.
Surveys have found that a high proportion of DSE workers report aches, pains or eye discomfort. These aches and pains are sometimes called upper limb disorders (ULDs), which can include a range of medical conditions. Most of these conditions do not indicate any serious ill health, but it makes sense to avoid them as far as possible.
The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 aim to protect the health of people who work with DSE. The Regulations were introduced because DSE has become one of the most common kinds of work equipment. That doesn’t mean that DSE work is risky – it isn’t. ULDs can be avoided if users follow effective practice, set up their workstations properly and take breaks during prolonged use.
By just taking a few simple precautions, work with DSE can be more comfortable and productive, so contact Ava Office Interiors and take advantage of our free DSE Assessment service, ensuring your workforce are as productive as possible, whilst they reduce the risks of workplace injuries and any related absences.


Level IV: (80k) Partly Forested Mountains
The Partly Forested Mountains ecoregion occupies the elevational belt above the Semiarid Uplands on the Jarbidge, Independence, Owyhee, and Steens mountains, from 6,500 to 10,900 feet (1,981 to 3,322 m). These are partially glaciated, high, rugged mountains with glacial features including moraines, cirques, and tarn (lake)s.
Perennial or intermittent, high gradient, cold streams are fed by snowmelt and springs, supporting federally threatened bull trout and Lahontan cutthroat trout in Nevada. Riffle segments have cobble or boulder substrates.
Annual precipitation is sufficient to support a Great Basin pine forest community of Douglas-fir, subalpine fir, ponderosa pine, and limber pine, with whitebark pine near the tree line, and aspen stands in riparian meadows, moist draws, and wet depressions. The understory features low juniper, mountain big sagebrush, mountain brush, serviceberry, snowberry, mountain-mahogany, Idaho fescue, sheep fescue, rough fescue, bottlebrush squirreltail, prairie lupine, mountain brome, bluebunch wheatgrass, and Sandberg bluegrass. Small areas of tundra and alpine meadows are found at the highest elevations. On Steens Mountain, above the juniper woodland zone of the Semirarid Uplands, the landscape is almost treeless; broad areas of mountain big sagebrush alternate with scattered groves of aspen.
Alpine areas on Steens Mountain were seriously eroded following intense grazing by domestic sheep in the late 19th century. The region covers 105 square miles (272 km2) in Nevada, 103 square miles (267 km2) in Oregon, and 38 square miles (98 km2) in Idaho, and contains the Jarbidge Wilderness in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.


September 2015. Thousands of Syrian migrants crossing the Balkan route were heading toward Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel was on the phone with Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, talking about a number of measures to protect the borders, where thousands of policemen were secretly located along with buses and helicopters. De Maizière turned for advice to Dieter Romann, then head of the police. "Can we live with the images that will come out?" de Mazière asked. "What happens if 500 refugees with children in their arms run toward the border guards?"
De Maiziére was told that the appropriate use of the measures to be taken would have be decided by the police on the field. When de Maizière relayed Romann's response to the Chancellor, Merkel reversed her original commitment. And the borders were opened for 180 days.
"For historical reasons, the Chancellor feared images of armed German police confronting civilians on our borders," writes Robin Alexander, Die Welt's leading journalist, who revealed these details in a new book, Die Getriebenen ("The Driven Ones"). Alexander reveals the real reason that pushed Merkel to open the door to a million and a half migrants in a few weeks: "In the end, Merkel refused to take responsibility, governing through the polls." This is how the famous Merkel's motto "Wir schaffen das" was born: "We can do it."
According to Die Zeit:
"Merkel and her people are convinced that the marchers could only be stopped with the help of violence: with water cannons, truncheons and pepper spray. It would be chaotic and the images would be horrific. Merkel is extremely wary of such images and of their political impact, and she is convinced that Germany wouldn't tolerate them. Merkel once said that Germany wouldn't be able to stand the images from the dismal conditions in the refugee camp at Calais for more than three days. But how much more devastating would images be of refugees being beaten as they try to get to Austria or Germany?"
Merkel's refugee policy was not a masterpiece of humanitarian politics; it was dictated by the fear of television images spread all over the world. In so many key moments, it is the photograph that dictates our behavior: the image that dishonors us, that makes us cringe in horror.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's refugee policy was not a masterpiece of humanitarian politics; it was dictated by the fear of television images spread all over the world. In so many key moments, it is the photograph that dictates our behavior: the image that dishonors us, that makes us cringe in horror. (Photo by Adam Berry/Getty Images)
Now, the main German sentiment that seems to be driving public opinion and politics is a dramatic sense of guilt. It is a "secular sin", according to a new book by German sociologist Rolf Peter Sieferle that is topping the German bestseller list, "Finis Germania".
The behavior of Germans during the current migrant crisis, however, is symbolic of a more general Western condition. On April 30, 1975, the fall of Saigon was part of a war fought and lost by the United States as much on television as in the Vietnamese forests and rice paddies. It ended with the the escape of helicopters from the rooftop of the US embassy.
In 1991, the imagery of the "highway of death" of Saddam Hussein's bombed army of thugs fleeing a plundered Kuwait also shocked the public in the West, and led to calls for an immediate cessation of the fighting in Iraq and Kuwait. The result was that Saddam Hussein's air force and Republican Guard divisions were spared; during the "peace" that followed, it was these troops who butchered Kurds and Shiites.
The photograph of a dead American soldier dragged through the streets of Mogadishu after the "Black Hawk Down" incident pushed President Bill Clinton to order a shameful retreat from Somalia. That photograph also led the US Administration to rethink and cancel plans to use US troops for United Nations peace operations in Bosnia, Haiti and other strategic points. General David Petraeus would describe America's engagement in Afghanistan as a "war of perception".
Even the suffering of our enemies disturbs us, in the humanitarian culture of the West. We are therefore increasingly amenable to policies of appeasement, censorship and retreat, in order not to have to face the possibility of such horribleness and actually having to fight it.
That is why radical Islam has been able to horrify the West into submission. We have paralysed ourselves. We censor the cartoons, the graphic photos of the terrorists' victims and even the faces and names of the jihadists. The Islamic terrorists, on the other hand, are not publicity-seekers; they are soldiers ready to die and kill in the name of what they care about.
This week, the German media was shocked by the revelation that the German air force will probably come under fire during its Syrian mission. "Endangering German soldiers!" -- with an exclamation point -- wrote Bild, the largest-selling newspaper in Germany. The statement exposed the anxiety of what John Vinocur of the Wall Street Journal called a "country where the army and air force basically do not fight". A pacifist Germany is now a source of trouble also for its own neighbors, such as Poland. "For centuries, our main worry in Poland was a very strong German army", said former Polish Defense Minister Janusz Onyszkiewicz. "Today, we're seriously worried about German armed forces that are too weak."
The Western establishment censors images of our enemies' crimes while giving prominence to our "guilt". The French government censored the "gruesome torture" of the victims at the Bataclan Theater, who were castrated, disemboweled and had their eyes gouged out by the Islamist terrorists. It was a mistake: it was in the public interest to know exactly what enemy we are facing.
The FBI and Department of Justice released a transcript of the Orlando jihadist's 911 call, but omitted all reference to the terror group ISIS and to Islam. These authorities did not want the public to know that Omar Mateen identified himself as an "Islamic soldier".
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance then told the British press it should not report when terrorists are Muslim.
The CEO of Twitter, Dick Costolo, suspended accounts that showed photographs of the beheading of John Foley, along with other Islamist beheadings and savagery. But Twitter did not mind being flooded by images of a little dead boy, Alan (Aylan) Kurdi on a beach.
The mainstream media in the US fought hard to lift the photo ban on military coffins during the war in Iraq. Its goal, apparently, was to humiliate and intimidate the public, to lower the support for the war.
Images, as in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, are published only if they amplify the West's sense of guilt and turn the "war on terror" into something more even more dangerous than the jihad causing the war.
Amnesty International's Secretary General, Irene Khan -- referring to concentration camps in the Soviet Union, where millions of people perished -- infamously called Guantanamo "the Gulag of our time". The result is to erase our enemy from our imagination. This is how the "war on terror" has become synonymous with lawlessness throughout the West.
Ten years ago, after the brave surge in Iraq, US soldiers discovered Al Qaeda's torture chambers. No one -- not ABC, not CBS, not the New York Times -- published one photo of them; they just filled our eyes with naked bodies at Abu Ghraib.
We are utopian technophiles and, contrary to the traditional Western view that we are flawed human beings in a tragic world. We now believe in Mark Zuckerberg's brave new world where no one should ever suffer and everyone should be happy and peaceful all the time. That is an exorbitant dream. For a short time we can afford it, as with Angela Merkel and Europe's migrant crisis. Unfortunately, that fantasy will not last. The conflicts at our gates, together with our aversion to making hard choices, will exact a far higher price.
Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.