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Scripto | Transcribe Page
Proceedings of the State Equal Rights' Convention, of the Colored People of Pennsylvania, held in the city of Harrisburg February 8th, 9th, and 10th, 1865 : together with a few of the arguments presented suggesting the necessity for holding the convention, and an address of the Colored State Convention to the people of Pennsylvania.
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Mr. J. W. Purnell spoke in opposition to adopting the Report, as the expenses of the traveling agent have been paid outof their funds; he said this Convention appointed no such agent, and as he was appointed by the State League that body should pay him.
Mr. J. R. Gordon was in favor of the motion made by Mr. Judah, and said that as this Convention have enjoyed the benefits resulting from the labors of this agent, they are justly obligated to pay this bill.
Mr. Charles H. Vance followed in opposition to the adoption and said he would brand it as an imposition and would record his vote against it.
Mr. J. E. Glasgow hoped that we would continue in the harmony which so far has been with us, and that we would pay the bill and part in peace.
Mr. Daniel Williams spoke in favor of paying the bill, and urged that as our time was fast going, we ought to settle this question and proceed to other business.
Mr. J. W. Purnell urged that he was in favor of paying all the legitimate expenses of this Convention, but he could not see that this bill belonged to us at all.
Mr. A. M. Green rose to explain. He desired it to be understood that he was particularly interested in this question as he was here as a representative of the State League. He was also the agent referred to in this bill, and had travelled and published at his own expense, and as a member of this Convention he would be willing to pay five dollars from his own pocket to reimburse the State League for its outlay in getting up this Convention.
Mr. D. B. Bowser said he came here untrammelled by membership of the State League or any of her body, and he would urge that the harmony of this assembly should not be endangered by the small sum of forty-seven dollars. We have come here, said he, to legislate for the good of the people and the cause, let us then not waste time in this idle discussion, but accept the bill and pay it.
Mr. Redman Fausett was opposed to the adoption, he said, he too was. untrammelled, having come from the same source as the gentleman who had just preceded him.
It was not the question of forty-seven dollars, that merited his opposition, it was the principle involved. He denied the right of the Finance Committee to spend the money of this body without their resolution to that effect. If we pay this bill, it will be acknowledging the right of the State League to govern this Convention, on these grounds he objected to its payment.
Mr. James R. Gordon said that it appeared from Mr. Fausett's remarks that the main objection seems to be to the words State League. The gentleman thought this bill ought to be paid to its proper source the State League or any other League.
Mr. Thomas Early was not opposed to the State League, he would be willing to pay every cent of the surplus funds of this Convention into the treasury of the League, although not a member of it.
Mr. James Prosser stated that he was no speaker, but was of the belief that if he were Sergeant-at-arms he would silence some of these members in one way or another.
Mr. D. D. Turner thought as the State League had taken all the preliminary expense of getting up the Convention, we ought to pay this bill without further quibbling.
The motion to adopt the report was then put and carried.
The following statement was made by Mr. James R. Gordon, Chairman of the Finance Committee. This entire Church was rented for the use of this Convention at a cost of fifty dollars, and the basement of the Church had been given, without the knowledge of this body, in order to hold an entertainment for raising money to pay the entrance to this Convention, of the Harrisburg Reserve delegation. The sale of refreshments had been held on Wednesday and Thursday evenings and this Convention had been deceived by the notice given from the desk, stating that the proceeds of the entertainment were for the sick and wounded soldiers.
After considerable debate and explanation the following resolution was presented by Mr. Jos. C. Bustill and unanimously adopted.
Resolved, That as the entire Church was under the control of this Convention, and used without their consent, the proceeds from these
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Gero-kinesiologists—combining the studies of geriatrics care (relating to older patients) and kinesiology (relating to body movement)—are researchers who specialize in understanding the effects of aging on movement, strength, flexibility, and overall well being. They are also physical trainers, who teach older adults how to age healthily and maintain their independence and dignity. Gero-kinesiologists might develop custom exercise programs for adults with limited mobility, perform health assessments, recommend exercise routines, or even lead fitness classes for older adults looking to stay in shape. They might also advise aging professional athletes on how to keep their edge as they age.
In 2030, as Canada’s aging population grows, it’ll be more important than ever to encourage healthy lifestyles in aging adults. Studies show that even moderate physical activity can slow aging-related decline of everything from mobility to short-term memory. Having people who understand aging and can design exercise and wellness programs for seniors will be a crucial part of taking pressure off of assisted living, social service, and healthcare organizations, and most importantly helping people remain healthy throughout their lives.
In 2030, as Canada’s aging population grows, it’ll be more important than ever to encourage healthy lifestyles in aging adults.
Job Requirements / Skills
In addition to an interest in biology and physiology, gero-kinesiologists have a passion for helping people stick to their goals and lead healthier, more fulfilling lives. Good gero-kinesiologists are driven by results, but they also take the time to listen to and understand their clients, and tailor their programs to fit their interests, goals, and abilities.


Greenwich, Connecticut is known for one thing: the ‘one percenters’ who reside there. The Johnny-come-lately hedge fund traders whose firms are headquartered there may occupy some of the multi-million dollar mansions that line the wooded enclaves, but they’re not the ones who have made this southern Connecticut coastal landing point as exclusive as it is. No, the history of Greenwich is pure blue blood. Private, for-hire, police forces patrol entire neighbourhoods with deliberately narrow roads … all the better to slow down potential getaway cars. Generations are handed down palatial homes and country club memberships. Thankfully, the general public is the beneficiary of one such estate: The Bruce Museum, the former home and property of a wealthy 19th century textile merchant and member of the New York Cotton Exchange.
The museum and its park are dedicated to art, history and science, and attracted members of the well known Cos Cob School (named for a picturesque harbour town a few miles north), an important part of the history of American painting. The core collection is made up of these paintings, and others.
Alfred Sisley retrospective
The Bruce Museum is unlike other museums of its size and stature. Thanks to generous patrons passionate about the arts, the museum punches above its weight. It’s currently hosting the only American exhibit of French impressionist, Alfred Sisley before it travels to Aix-en-Provence at the end of May.
The show features about fifty paintings from private collections and major museums in Europe and North America and represents the first retrospective presentation in the United States in over twenty years.
Sisley was born in Paris to British parents. He was meant to follow in his father’s footsteps and earn a decent living as a businessman. Except, when Sisley’s parents sent him to London to learn commerce, he instead studied the painting techniques of Constable and Turner. When he returned to Paris, Sisley took a studio and learned from contemporaries like Monet, Pissarro and Renoir.
Glimpse of rarefied locations
He adhered to the original concept of Impressionism through his career – painting “en plein air” often in bad weather to capture his landscape. While he never accomplished the fame of his friends, he had a remarkable and prolific career, painting more than 900 pictures during his lifetime. Sisley tended to focus on panoramic views of a location detailing different aspects of a location. For example, he painted the “Banks of the River Loing,” with views of the windmills, the old bridge and the village. One painting is an exploration of the bridge structure, whilst another, “Evening in Moret-Late October” moves the viewer to the riverside. Sisley is known for his skill to depict light and color; one can see the sparkle on the water as it moves toward the town.
As one would expect, The Bruce Museum has the latest technology, enabling visitors to access audio guides from personal smartphones.
The building is set on a park, surrounding a lovely lake, and plenty of green space for picnicking, Frisbee, or as the locals might … croquet.
You can reach the Bruce Park and Museum by Metro North and then a five-minute walk. Twice a year in October and May, they sponsor outdoor festivals featuring arts and crafts from around the world. After your fill of culture, have a wander up and down Greenwich Avenue, which offers a glimpse of what the other 99 percent are missing.


Written by Kelly Wold, edited by Tim Smyth
While unrealized in his lifetime, Willis “Obie” Obrien’s mastery of animation has helped inspire the mind's eye of generations. This pioneer’s monstrous legacy was cultivated through years of developing innovative techniques.
The Oakland born California native gained life experience before stepping into motion pictures. O’Brien’s winding artistic road began in his teens working briefly as a cowboy, boxer and cartoonist. These interests would resurface in his later works. Obie’s focus shifted to sculpture, consisting of mainly human and animal figures. He would add molded rubber to their surfaces giving his pieces both character and freedom of movement.
It was said that during a particularly slow day of work, Obrien and a coworker created tiny boxers out of clay and proceeded to stage a boxing match. Through this “play”, the seeds of stop motion were planted in O’Brien’s mind. Though in their infancy, this thought process would grow into years of collected knowledge – leading to Willis’ greatest accomplishment…Kong.
Obie’s innovative methods caught the attention of the Edison Company, who hired him to produce several prehistorically themed shorts. In his early pieces, Willis’ characters consisted mainly of clay. As both his career and skills grew, so did the intricacy of his models. Complex articulated armatures covered with rubber skins would dominate the models Willis would build and design. Some of O’Brien’s designs even included a rubber bladder that allowed his creatures to “breathe”. By inflating and deflating the bladder, his creations could fight, move, and give the appearance of breathing – stirring both our fears and imaginations.
During this time, Willis would meet and impulsively marry the young Hazel Collette. Their marriage would result in separation and profound tragedy for O’Brien. With their uneasy union dissolved, the increasingly despondent Hazel was left in charge of their two sons, William and Willis Jr.
Though his private life was highly conflicted, Obie continued researching and developing his characters for the upcoming feature - King Kong. To develop his portrayal of the mighty Kong, O’Brien frequented zoos to study the gorilla’s movements. Likewise, he would attend wrestling matches to observe their interactions and improve the choreography of his creatures’ battles. This attention to detail coupled with his own life experiences, is what set O'Brien's work apart
At a mere 18 inches high, Kong’s rich character coupled a new style of rear projection film effects left audiences thrilled and amazed – exceeding all previous films of its type. The new style of metal armature with ball and socket joints was built up using foam and covered with rabbit fur. It was then shot one frame at a time to create the illusion of life. Though largely a technical process, the success of Kong stemmed from O’Brien’s ability to give a lifeless puppet a personality which audiences were able to identify with. The gentle giants endearing performance was as strong as the films special effects.
Though his method of live action mixed with stop motion animation is a standard process today, the special effects techniques developed by Willis O'Brien was groundbreaking. For the first time, a cellulose-acetate screen was used for rear projection. This new type of cellulose screen was flexible and stretched over a frame like canvas.
He also began using a blue screen behind live action actors to allow them to be matted into existing footage. This technique as well as rear and miniature projection improved the optical process. Until computer animation became widely used, these techniques were utilized in most monster films until the 1990's.
O'Brien continued to write concepts for several films after King Kong but only found the backing to complete a few. While filming the follow up feature Son of Kong, tragedy would enter into Willis’ life. O’Brien’s ex wife Hazel would proceed to shoot and kill both of their sons and then turn the gun on herself. While stricken with grief, O'Brien forged on laboring in obscurity, gaining neither fame nor fortune. Though recognized today, O'Brien was often discouraged with his career, seeking financial backing for unrealized projects.
Now known to the world as the man who created Kong, O’Brien is synonymous as a legend among horror, dinosaur and animation fans. In 1950 he received a special Oscar for his work on Mighty Joe Young.
Willis O’Brien passed away in November of 1962. Following his passing, he was posthumously awarded the Winsor McCay Award by ASIFA-Hollywood for lifetime/career contributions to the art of animation in 1997.
Willis “Obie” O’Brien has been an inspiration to many, conjuring up delightful worlds of fantasy and wonder. Though solitary in his life’s work, he laid the foundation that we all can build and grow upon.


Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Introduction
In A Nutshell
Maybe you haven't heard of Sir Gawain, but we're willing to bet you definitely know of King Arthur. Sir Gawain is one of Arthur's trusty knights, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a looong poem about him.
This poem is part of the medieval romance tradition, which means it focuses on the journey or quest of a single knight (here, Sir Gawain) and what he learns about himself and his culture in the process of pursuing a great adventure. The noble Gawain accepts the challenge of a mysterious knight. Nope, not a black one or a dark one. A green one. And the story goes from there.
Sir Gawain was written in northwestern England in the late 14th century… yep, meaning the 1300s. Old as it is, Sir Gawain was written in English. But not the kind of English you'd recognize. It's written in a dialect of Middle English called North West Midland. Middle English was a much less standardized language than modern English is today. Two people writing at the same time, in the "same" language, would have a hard time understanding one another’s work if they came from different parts of England. The North West Midland dialect of Middle English has a lot of loan-words from Welsh. It also has a lot of holdovers from Anglo-Saxon, the language spoken in England before it mixed with French.
What does that mean for you? Well, you'll probably be reading the poem translated into modern English. Heck, even if you got the hang of Chaucer's London dialect of Middle English when reading The Canterbury Tales, that doesn't mean you'll be able to read the English of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Bummer. But don't feel bad. Lots of people who study this stuff for a living can’t make it through the poem without their facing-page translations. And it's still worth checking out Sir Gawain in its original form; it's fun to try to puzzle out the words. Hey, maybe you'll eventually become a master of the language and write your own translation, kind of like J.R.R. Tolkien (of Lord of the Rings fame).
No one knows who wrote Sir Gawain, but it's written in a unique style (which you can read all about in "Writing Style"). The author responsible for Sir Gawain's distinctive style probably also wrote three other long poems that are contained in the same manuscript, Pearl, Patience and Cleanness. Unlike Sir Gawain, these other two poems are more obviously religious in nature. Because he also wrote Pearl, though, the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is sometimes also known as "the Pearl Poet."
Why Should I Care?
Have you ever felt pressure to be perfect? Maybe your parents or your teachers have standards for you that seem impossibly high. Or maybe you’ve done well at something in the past and feel like if you don’t continue to succeed at it in the future, you’ll let everybody down. Well, that’s probably how Gawain feels when he arrives at the castle in the enchanted forest only to find that his reputation has preceded him.
Everybody knows him as Sir Gawain the Great – yes, that Gawain, the one renowned for chivalric behavior, knightly prowess and courtesy, the best knight and the greatest lover ever to walk the earth. They expect more of the same from the Gawain who arrives at their castle, but all the while, he’s quaking in his boots about having to confront the terrifying Green Knight in a few days. Gawain probably wishes he weren’t Gawain the Great – that he could just be a regular guy who makes a stupid promise and backs out at the last minute.
Unfortunately, though, life doesn’t work that way: it’s a rare person who can walk out on all his obligations without losing himself in the process. Yet, as Gawain learns, it doesn’t have to be an either / or proposition: in the end, he can be partly a truly great knight, and partly a really huge coward, and life will still go on. In fact, when it comes right down to it, the person with the highest expectations for Gawain is himself.


During the years which have elapsed since the discovery of the non-symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria there have been extensive investigations on the characteristics and activities of this group of organisms. They have been found to be of great importance from the fertility standpoint, adding appreciable amounts of nitrogen to the soil annually where the conditions are favorable for their development. In many cases too, a correlation has been found between the ability of a soil to support a vigorous Azotobacter growth and its crop producing power.
Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science
© Copyright 1929 by the Iowa Academy of Science, Inc.
Walker, R. H. and Sullivan, John L.
"The Spontaneous Culture Method for Studying the Non-Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria of the Soil,"
Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 36(1), 53-61.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol36/iss1/7


What is Dry Ice?
- A copy of the brochure, What is Dry Ice?, is available in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF, 145KB, 2pg).
Dry ice is solidified carbon dioxide. When dry ice melts, it turns into carbon dioxide gas. Carbon dioxide gas is always present in the environment, but in low concentrations. It is colorless and odorless.
Use Dry Ice Safely
Carbon dioxide gas is heavier than air, and therefore, it can pool in basements or other low areas.
When transporting dry ice, always keep vehicle windows open to bring in fresh air.
The quantity of dry ice used in a regular freezer or refrigerator is unlikely to produce carbon dioxide gas in sufficient quantity to cause a health problem. Dry ice can readily be used to keep foods cool in those types of containers.
Are there any special precautions I should take when using dry ice?
There are a number of important precautions to take when handling dry ice:
- Dry ice is much colder than regular ice, and can burn the skin similar to frostbite. You should wear insulated gloves when handling it. Wear safety glasses and a face shield if you are cutting or chipping it.
- Keep dry ice out of the reach of children.
- Never eat or swallow dry ice.
- Avoid inhaling carbon dioxide gas.
Can I actually suffocate from dry ice?
Dry ice can be a very serious hazard in a small space that isn't well-ventilated. As dry ice melts, it turns into carbon dioxide gas. In a small space, this gas can build up. If enough carbon dioxide gas is present, a person can become unconscious, and in some cases, die.
Can I use dry ice in a walk-in cooler or freezer?
It is very dangerous to use dry ice in a walk-in freezer, cooler, closed truck bed, or other small space with poor ventilation. A large amount of dry ice in a walk-in cooler or freezer can produce a great deal of carbon dioxide, which can possibly be fatal to someone entering that space.
What are signs of being exposed to too much carbon dioxide?
Symptoms of overexposure to carbon dioxide include headache and difficulty breathing, and with greater exposure, nausea and vomiting.
What are some tips for using dry ice to keep foods cool?
- Order dry ice in the form and size in which it will be used. It can be difficult and dangerous to cut.
- Store dry ice in a container that allows some leakage. If unvented, carbon dioxide gas can build up pressure inside a jar or container as dry ice melts.
How much dry ice will I need?
The quantity of dry ice you will need to maintain temperature in a storage freezer or refrigerator will vary. Some basic tips for using dry ice to cool foods are:
In a Refrigerator:
- A home-style refrigerator may use about 10 pounds of dry ice per day.
- Dry ice may freeze items, so place foods that may become damaged by freezing as far from dry ice as possible.
- Place ice on the bottom of a household type unit. Place newspaper or other materials as insulation on glass shelves to prevent the shelves from cracking.
- Keep liquids tightly covered so they do not become carbonated as the refrigerator fills with carbon dioxide.
In a Freezer:
- A chest freezer may use 40 to 50 pounds of dry ice per day, placed on top of the food.
In a Home-Style Refrigerator/Freezer Combination Unit:
- A unit with the freezer on bottom may use 15 to 25 pounds per day, placed on top of food.
- A unit with the freezer on top may use 20 to 30 pounds per day, placed on top of and surrounding food.
- A unit with a side-by-side freezer may use 30 to 40 pounds per day, placed on top of and surrounding food.
How do I dispose of dry ice?
- Because dry ice can cause carbon dioxide gas to accumulate and build up pressure, do not dispose of dry ice in a sewer, garbage disposal, garbage chute, etc.
- Allow leftover dry ice to melt and turn into gas in a well-ventilated area.


High technology, innovation and inequality: Does high-tech growth come at a cost?
Innovative, high-technology sectors are widely seen as crucial for economic development. An optimistic literature touts the benefits of these sectors for the prosperity of city economies. Tech workers earn high salaries, which generate beneficial spillovers throughout the local economy, especially in terms of the creation of non-tech jobs in nontradable sectors (Moretti, 2010; van Dijk, 2016). Success stories like San Francisco, Seattle and Cambridge have inspired urban policymakers to focus on innovation and high-tech as the route to prosperity.
But there may be a dark side to the story. Prototypical cases of technology-driven success display very high levels of inequality (Breau et al., 2014), leading Florida (2017) to declare the existence of a ‘new urban crisis’. Lee and Rodriguez-Pose (2016) show that the benefits of high-tech do not trickle down to those at risk of poverty. Kemeny and Osman (2017) suggest that – once local living costs are taken into account – workers in nontradable activities may actually be made worse off. Meanwhile, Hsieh and Moretti (2015) argue that tight planning restrictions reduce national growth and redistribute spillovers from workers to homeowners. This special session seeks papers focused on the intersection of innovation, high-technology and inequality.
Themes include, but are not limited to: Who are the winners and losers from growth in innovative and high-technology activities? What are the spatial distributional consequences of skill-bias technical change? Can innovation-led development be inclusive? The urban impact of new technology The impact of new technologies on labour markets Case studies of labour markets in innovative cities
Breau, S., Kogler, D. F., & Bolton, K. C. (2014). On the relationship between innovation and wage inequality: new evidence from Canadian cities. Economic Geography, 90(4), 351-373.
Hsieh, C. T., & Moretti, E. (2015). Why do cities matter? Local growth and aggregate growth. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. w21154.
Kemeny, T., and Osman, T. (2017) The wider impacts of high-technology employment. Mimeo
Lee, N., & Rodríguez-Pose, A. (2016). Is there trickle-down from tech? Poverty, employment, and the high-technology multiplier in US cities. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 106(5), 1114-1134.
Moretti, E. (2010) Local multipliers. American Economic Review, 100, 1–7. van Dijk, J. J. (2016). Local employment multipliers in US cities. Journal of Economic Geography, lbw010.


Brief Summary of Pets in Trusts
Rebecca F. Wisch (2008; updated 2010)
According to a Gallup Poll conducted in 2007, 59% of Americans own a cat or dog. Most of these same people view their companion animals as members of the family. The importance people place upon companion animals has only increased in recent years, both in terms of the amount of money spent on them and the reported emotional value owners place upon those pets.
Despite this, most pet owners are unaware or uninformed as to what might happen to their pets should they die or become incapacitated. This is especially significant considering the fact that the American population is aging.
Historically, owners were frustrated in their attempts to leave money to care for their pets, both during life or after death. Those who did attempt to create some sort of “trust,” found them invalidated because these pets were viewed as personal property. Since property (the pet) cannot legally own property (the money in the trust), these trusts failed. These trusts also failed because the pet could not legally be a beneficiary to the trust.
This began to change in the 1990's when states began to enact pet trust laws after the Uniform Probate Code (UPC) was changed to allow the creation of pet trusts. Sparked by this concern for our companion animals, many states, 39 in fact, have enacted what are termed "Pet Trust Laws." Attorneys in these states can now help concerned pet owners construct trusts that operate in the event of an owner’s death or disabling life events.
A pet trusts allows a person to set aside a sum of money to care for the pet. This may occur in regular disbursements of the funds, or in the manner the trust specifies. Further, an owner can make specific instructions regarding feeding, housing, and veterinary care. In most states, the trusts last as long as the last animal named in the trust lives (if Fluffy and Scooter are named in the trust, and Fluffy dies first, the trust continues throughout Scooter’s life) The named trustee oversees the distribution and management of the funds while another named person cares for the pet as directed by the trust. Some owners even specify that the remaining money left in trust after the pet dies (called the remainder) goes to a non-profit animal rescue organization.
Companion animal owners have been encouraged by legal professionals to think about who they might be comfortable with assuming the day-to-day care of their pet. Many times this person is a sibling, adult child, close friend, or other individual who assures the owner that he or she is willing to accept this responsibility. In addition, owners should be aware of what specific instructions for care should be provided. Does the pet require special food or grooming? Are there special medical concerns? And, most difficultly, is there a medical condition that would necessitate euthanasia such as terminal cancer or severe injury that profoundly impacts the pet’s quality of life?
As with any legal instrument, it is important to contact a licensed attorney in your state to counsel you on the particulars of your state’s pet trust laws. In the meantime, a pet owner could write a list of some of concerns regarding care for his or her pet. While thinking about one’s own death or incapacity can be a troubling subject, some planning can alleviate future worry and concern.
Overview of Pets in Wills and Trusts
David S. Favre (2003; updated 2010)
"Can I put my pet in my will?"
The answer to this question depends in large part whether your state has adopted the Uniform Trust Act (UTA) of 2000 or a statute that addresses pet trusts. The UTA does not allow you to will property to an animal per se , but allows you to set up a trust for the continuing care of your pet. The Act itself is an example of the increased recognition of animal interests in the civil law arena. The provisions of the Uniform Trust Act of 2000, 1 which have been adopted in approximately 39 states, 2 lower another long-standing legal barrier for animals. The river has been forded. The traditional view in the United States has disallowed animals to be the lawful subject of a provision in a will or trust. 3 This inability of individuals to make provisions for their pets after their deaths was addressed by the drafters of the Uniform Trust Law with the drafting of Section 408 of the Act. Under this section, a trust for the care of an animal is specifically allowed along with the authorization for courts to appoint someone to enforce the trust. 4 Parallel language has also been made part of the Uniform Probate Law. 5 Thus, a pet becomes a legally relevant being, one who has income and assets which must be protected with in the legal system.
This change of legal status has occurred in that most traditional of legal areas - trust and estates. This change is of a different quality than the examples before. In this case, government action is not required for the interests of an animal to be asserted in the legal system. The civil courts have authority to act on behalf of the animals. While the primary motivation may well have been taking care of the concerns of human owner of pets, the lawyers and legislatures adopting the Uniform Law and associated state statutes apparently did not have any conceptual difficulty in accommodating animals into our existing legal community.
1 Uniform Trust Code, Last Revised or Amended in 2001, Drafted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.(available at: http://www.law.upenn.edu/library/ulc/uta/2001final.htm ).
2 For example, see Alaska (Sec 13.12.907); Arizona (Sec 14-2907); California (CA Prob. Sec 15212); Colorado (Sec 15-11-901); Florida (Sec 737.116); Iowa (Sec 633.2105); Kansas ( KS ST § 58a-408 ); Michigan (Sec 700.2722); Missouri (Sec 456.055); Montana (Sec 72-2-1017); Nevada (Sec 163.0075); New Jersey (Sec 3B:11-38); New Mexico (Sec 45-2-907); New York (Est. Pow. & Trst. Sec 7-8.1); North Carolina (Sec 36C-4-408); Oregon (Sec 128.308); Tennessee (Sec 35-15-408); Utah (Sec 75-2-1001); Washington ( WA ST 11.118.005 - WA ST 11.118.110 ), among others).
3 See generally, Gerry W. Beyer Pet Animals: What Happens When Their Humans Die? 40 SANTA CLARA L. REV. 617 (2000); Siobhan Morrissey, Wills Go To the Dogs, 89 ABA JOUR. 24 (May 2003).
(a) A trust may be created to provide for the care of an animal alive during the settlor's lifetime. The trust terminates upon the death of the animal or, if the trust was created to provide for the care of more than one animal alive during the settlor's lifetime, upon the death of the last surviving animal.
(b) A trust authorized by this section may be enforced by a person appointed in the terms of the trust or, if no person is so appointed, by a person appointed by the court. A person having an interest in the welfare of the animal may request the court to appoint a person to enforce the trust or to remove a person appointed.
Uniform Trust Code § 408, supra note .
Honorary trusts; trusts for pets; conditions
B. A trust for the care of a designated domestic or pet animal is valid. The trust terminates when no living animal is covered by the trust. A governing instrument shall be liberally construed to bring the transfer within this subsection, to presume against the merely precatory or honorary nature of the disposition and to carry out the general intent of the transferor. Extrinsic evidence is admissible in determining the transferor's intent.


Lincoln was a great deal darker last Saturday as the most recognised feature of the city skyline turned off its lights for the annual Earth Hour. The cathedral was one of many landmarks across the world to participate in the 60-minute blackout, which aimed to promote energy sustainability and all things environmental.
If every home in Lincoln turned off one light bulb in their house for an hour, the city would have saved four tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. So was this no more than a grand gesture, or did Earth Hour actually make a difference in city homes?
People polled by The Lincolnite on the streets of Lincoln admitted that they had little to no idea what Earth Hour was about, and typical responses were those of surprise: “oh, was it”…”I knew nothing about it”…”I had no clue”.
Kerry Houghton (25) reinforced the views: “I’ve never heard of it and none of my friends have mentioned it.” Even environmentally aware Kim Pacey (27), who lives in an eco-friendly council house, complete with energy-saving lights and solar panels, knew nothing about last week’s event.
Despite this lack of awareness, people speaking to The Lincolnite were positive about a greener Lincoln, with the majority encouraging future plans to get unplugged. Though Earth Hour had bypassed them, most were actively trying to save energy in their homes, primarily by switching off idle appliances and investing in energy-efficient light bulbs.
Unsurprisingly, shrinking monthly costs was the main motivation for many, though this wasn’t always reflected in their bank statements. “The bills haven’t gone up but then we haven’t seen any savings,” said Matt Smith (44). Kim Pacey, however, has seen a notable savings, indicating how effective solar panels can be in reducing energy costs, albeit with a hefty initial expense.
Not everyone was as concerned with bills though: “My parents and their parents before them have made a mess so it’s time to do something about it now,” said Sharron Smith (37). She agreed that it was not an aversion to environmental issues that prevented participation in Earth Hour on a large-scale, but instead the failure to send a clear message to the public.
Making a difference
Encouragingly, questions concerning the future of events like Earth Hour were met with no resistance on Lincoln’s streets. In fact, there was a unanimous response from members of the public polled by The Lincolnite that more should be done to increase environmental awareness, as only with a communal effort real progress can be made.
Kate Bell, Community Environment Coordinator at the City of Lincoln Council, said: “The overwhelming message from Earth Hour is what else we can do as individuals and a community in Lincoln to reduce our demand for energy. We want to build a resilient community that becomes less dependant on imported energy.”
The City Council and the Transition Lincoln group are also organising a talk at the University of Lincoln in June (details to be confimed), where they invited a former Camden Town councillor to talk about his experience of working to address the challenges posed by climate change and how communities can make the transition to become more self-sufficient and cope with rising energy prices.


If you have seen tumbleweeds sailing across the roads, you know: Tumbleweed season is underway.
Thanks to the rains that drenched the area in July and August, expect "a bumper crop" of tumbleweeds this year, says Sharon Pattee, a rancher in Fountain and a member of El Paso County's Forestry and Weed Advisory Commission.
Tumbleweeds come from a number of plants and occur when the plant matures, dries out, breaks free of its roots and takes a wind-fueled journey across the ground, dispersing its seeds along the way. In El Paso County, the two chief culprits are Russian thistle and kochia, Pattee says. The Colorado State University Extension labels them both as "troublesome annual weeds of rangeland, pastures, fields, disturbed areas, gardens, roadsides, ditch banks and small acreages."
Both are non-native species. Russian thistle originated in, yep, Russia, and is believed to have come to the United States in the late 1800s through contaminated flax seed. Kochia is from Asia.
Though generally considered a nuisance, both weeds do have some uses. Kochia provides foliage for deer and pronghorn, for example, while songbirds and some game birds eat its seeds. Livestock might eat Russian thistle until it gets older and spikier, Pattee says. CSU Extension warns that Russian thistle can accumulate levels of nitrates that could be toxic to cattle and sheep; kochia has similar dangers.
Kochia has served as human food, at least in desperate times, Pattee says.
"Back in the Dust Bowl age, it was one of the few plants that was prevalent, at least for a while. And people were so destitute that they would boil it, salt it and eat it."
Some craft-minded people use tumbleweeds; I stumbled across "How to Make a Tumbleweed Christmas Tree" online. I also found a company, Curious Country Creations.com, that sells "natural tumbleweed seeds."
"Take these seeds and plant in your garden or window box and see the magic happen as your own tumbleweeds will begin to grow and take shape," the company advertises.
On my property, the "magic" of tumbleweeds is how they leap over fences and somehow stuff themselves under the stairs on the south side of our house. When they stop at a fence instead of sailing over, they can be a big problem, Pattee says.
"They'll back up against a fence and, after time, they can be 4, 5, 6 feet deep. And that's a lot of weight when the wind starts blowing and pushing on that fence."
With tumbleweeds being so dry, they also pose a fire hazard, Pattee says. I've burned tumbleweeds (in controlled situations, I hasten to add) and can confirm they burn in an instant.
Mowing your weeds is one way to cut down the tumbleweed population, Pattee says, but timing is key.
"Mowing the plant before it gets to the point of having mature seed is ideal," she says. With a relatively small acreage, like our 5 acres, she recommends mowing a couple of times during the summer.
"Of course, you can get into chemical treatment," she says, "but a lot of people don't want to do that."
And because of the traveling nature of tumbleweeds, control measures won't necessarily keep your property tumbleweed-free.
"I manage my place pretty well, so I'm not contributing, I hope, to that problem," Pattee says. "But other peoples' tumbleweeds blow, of course, into my property."
Bill Radford and his wife live in the countryside east of Colorado Springs with a menagerie that includes one horse, one mule, two goats, two dogs, two cats, a half-dozen chickens, two rabbits, two guinea pigs and two parrots. Contact him: Twitter @billradfordiii, gazettebillradford on Facebook. Follow his blog at blogs.gazette.com/


As the California drought continues, it’s hard to look at all the lush lawns without thinking about the water that goes into keeping them green. In Los Angeles, the city will actually pay you to rip up your grass.
But a gravel-covered yard isn’t that appealing, unless you are a toddler with a taste for rocks.
“I think that the biggest myth that should be dispelled is that native plant gardens are wild and ugly and look dead during part of the year,” said Lili Singer, with the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants. With drought-resistant natives, you can have lush gardens with flowers.
But it takes time for them to grow in, and it takes some work. You can’t just pop a plant in the ground and walk away.
“When you first put in a drought-tolerant garden,” Singer said, “it isn’t drought tolerant the day you put it in. These are coming from a nursery, they’re little babies."
At Theodore Payne’s nursery, garden designer Wynne Wilson looks at buckwheat, sage, and heuchera, “I’m like a chocoholic in Candyland."
Low-impact gardens can be quite sophisticated. You have to think about the soil, the sun, the plants, the texture, the time of year they’ll bloom, and how to get them water.
“It’s extremely important how we water these new gardens,” Wilson said.
Modern irrigation systems have moved well beyond sprinklers on timers. They waste less water and they have a lot of moving parts. There are computers, ground sensors, even a 6-inch satellite dish you put on your house that communicates with weather satellites about humidity and temperature.
“We just did a 2,000 square foot front garden, completely new, with the irrigation we did all of our beautiful systems, and that was approximately $3,500,” Wilson said.
Of course, you don’t need a satellite or a $3,500 irrigation system to have a lovely drought-resistant garden.
Just some knowledge about plants, a $10 garden hose, and the time to water each plant one at at time.
“I think the best compliment I can give is not to say how much your programs have taught me (a ton), but how much Marketplace has motivated me to go out and teach myself.” – Michael in Arlington, VABEFORE YOU GO


Vitamin C has always been vital to immune function, but COVID-19 has shone the spotlight on the vitamin in a big way. While everyone is scurrying to stock up on citrus fruits, there’s actually another fruit that contains more vitamin C than any other: red bell peppers.
Yes, you read that right. Red bell peppers are often categorized, and cooked, as a vegetable, but because they contain seeds, they’re botanically classified as a fruit. Of course, you might not be as concerned with that as much as how they can contribute to your vitamin C intake and what other health benefits red bell peppers have to offer.
Vitamin C in Red Bell Peppers
Although you might immediately think of oranges or orange juice when you hear the term “vitamin C,” bell peppers — specifically sweet red bell peppers — are a far better source.
One cup of sliced raw red bell pepper contains 117 milligrams (mg) of vitamin C,1 which actually exceeds the current RDA for the entire day. For comparison, the same amount of green bell peppers contains around 74 mg.2 According to a comparative study in the September 2012 issue of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture,3 those numbers increase even more if you choose organic bell peppers.
The researchers analyzed the amounts of bioactive compounds in organically grown bell peppers and conventionally grown bell peppers and found that the organically grown peppers contained significantly more vitamin C and higher amounts of carotenoids, like beta carotene, phenolic acids and flavonoids, such as quercetin.
Health Benefits of Red Bell Peppers
Many of the health benefits of red bell peppers can be attributed to the combination of bioactive compounds found within them. A single red bell pepper contains 30 different antioxidants,4 making them one of the most nutrient-dense fruits you can eat.
Antioxidants have been shown to help fight heart disease,5 prevent cancer,6 protect against liver disease and combat oxidative stress and inflammation.7 One of the notable compounds in red bell peppers is quercetin, which is known to have a wide range of health benefits. Quercetin has been shown to help reduce inflammation, alleviate pain,8 lower blood pressure9 and improve learning and memory.10
Of course, some of the health benefits of red bell peppers are also a result of its high vitamin C content. Although vitamin C is often hailed for its powerful immune-boosting properties, it has a protective effect against heart disease and early death, too.
Researchers who published a study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in June 2015 looked at the diet and health of 97,203 people. They found those who consumed the largest amount of fruits and vegetables had a lower risk of developing heart disease and lower risk of early death when compared with those with the lowest intakes.11
The researchers concluded that this benefit may be driven by the high vitamin C concentration in fruits and vegetables, since those with the highest plasma vitamin C levels seemed to experience the greatest effect.
Vitamin C has also been linked to better eye health. Oxidative stress is connected to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and cataracts, two of the leading causes of blindness in older adults.
In one cohort study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in December 2005, researchers found that a high intake of vitamin C, combined with an above average intake of beta-carotene, vitamin E and zinc, could reduce the risk of developing AMD by 35%.12
Vitamin C is also heavily involved in your nervous system. It supports your neurons, modulates the transmission of nerve impulses and helps your body make catecholamines13 or the hormones dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine that help control your stress levels.
A February 2018 study published in the Journal of Critical Care found preliminary evidence that administering vitamin C in addition to standard therapy may help combat inflammation and stabilize heart rate in those with sepsis and septic shock14 — an emergency situation that accounts for 30% to 50% of all in-hospital deaths15 and believed to be the underlying cause of some serious complications and death in severe COVID-19 infections. Vitamin C may also be useful for16:
Protecting against UV damage
Preventing wrinkles and loss of collagen
Healing burns and wounds
Alleviating dry skin
How Much Vitamin C Do You Need?
Vitamin C is water-soluble, which means it dissolves in water and is carried throughout the body to your cells for immediate use. Your cells take what they need and anything left over gets excreted from your body through your urine. Unlike fat-soluble vitamins, your body doesn’t store any extra for later. Your body also can’t make vitamin C on its own. That means it’s extra important that you get sufficient amounts from your diet every day.
The current recommendation for vitamin C is 75 mg per day for adult women and 90 mg per day for adult men.18 While daily doses of several hundred mg per day makes sense for many, there’s evidence that higher doses, meaning those over 1,000 mg per day, may be better for combating viruses like the common cold19 and Epstein-Barr20 and as part of the treatment for cancer.21
Other Sources of Vitamin C
One cup of sliced red bell peppers provides more than the current RDA for vitamin C, but if you want to increase your intake even more, there are plenty of other fruits and vegetables that are excellent sources of vitamin C as well.
One of the most vitamin C-rich fruits available is the acerola or Barbados cherry,22 which provides 1,644 mg of vitamin C per cup.23 Compare that to a medium orange, which contains about 69.7 mg of vitamin C.24 Other fruits and vegetables that are particularly rich in the vitamin include25:
Vitamin C Supplements
Supplementation is an option too, but it’s best to get what you need from a variety of fruits and vegetables. When you eat fruits and vegetables, you’re not only getting natural, easily absorbed vitamin C, you’re also getting dozens of other super nutrients, like antioxidants and phytochemicals, which help fight chronic disease, reduce inflammation and help eliminate carcinogens.
However, if you’re having trouble meeting your needs with diet alone, you can supplement a healthy diet with liposomal vitamin C, which has enhanced bioavailability when compared to other oral forms of the vitamin.
In one small study published in Nutrition and Metabolic Insights in June 2016, researchers compared liposomal vitamin C supplements to other types of oral vitamin C,26 finding liposomal supplements raised the amount of vitamin C in the blood more effectively than the other unencapsulated types.
That’s because the liposomes encapsulate, or surround, the vitamin C, which protects it from the harsh environment of your digestive tract, according to a July 2019 report in the Journal of Liposome Research.27 This helps slows down the release of the vitamin from the supplement and improves absorption.
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Rocky Run seventh-grade history teacher Maggie Brown stacked the desks in her classroom on top of each other. She then covered the with brown paper to simulate a sod house and had her students sit on the floor inside it.
Then, dressed as Prairie Annie, who’d lived in the 1860s and 1870s, she taught the children about that part of the Westward Movement. She showed them slides of things including wagon trains and land and spoke in an accent as she explained what life was like for the new settlers.
“Prairie Annie and her husband moved from Virginia to Omaha, Neb., and got land from the U.S. government as part of the Homestead Act,” said Brown. “They paid $10 for 160 acres. And because there were no trees where they lived, they built a sod house for them and their seven children.”
Brown was one of four history teachers participating in the seventh grade’s recent Westward Movement experience. Students rotated among each teacher’s class to learn different aspects of the westward expansion in America in the 1870s and 1880s, after the Civil War.
Dressed as a Pocahontas character called “Pocostello,” teacher Jeannie Costello discussed Native Americans. Teacher Jamie Sawatsky became a Thomas the Tank Engine-type character called “The Iron Horse” and taught about the railroads. And decked out in a cowboy hat and kerchief was teacher Daniel Vroman as “Cowboy Vroman,” telling students about the role of the cowboys.
The Homestead Act was passed in 1862 and, said Brown, “It was the first time women had the right to own land. But Confederate soldiers couldn’t get land through this act because they’d fought against the U.S. You had to build a house and cultivate that land and, after five years, the government would give you the deed to the land.”
Since it hardly ever rained in Omaha, settlers there had to learn dry farming. The soil was so rocky that steel plows were invented to tackle it. “So we dig our seeds way down in the soil where there’s water,” said Brown as Prairie Annie. “We don’t have to worry about water from the sky.”
Praising barbed wire, she called it “the best thing that happened to settlers because it keeps the cows out of our homes and property.” However, she added, there was no indoor plumbing and outhouses were built far from the homes. And when a dust storm blew up, layers of dust covered everything.
“We get so excited when the Sears & Roebuck catalogue comes so we can order things out of it,” said Brown. “When we’re through with it, we take it to the outhouse. And do you know what we do with it?” A student answered, “Read it?” Nope, she replied; “We use it for toilet paper.” She also noted that buffalo “chips” were used for fuel to build fires to heat their houses. And she had her students act out various scenarios, pretending to be, for example, a cowboy upset about the barbed wire the farmers had put up.
Brown said the farmers grew corn and wheat and added it to meals with vegetables, dried fruits and milk. “We rely on our neighbors,” she added. “We can’t survive without each other.” As for school, she said, “All grades were together with the same teacher in a one-room, sod schoolhouse. Students walked a half-mile or more to school barefoot, until the freezing weather, because their shoes came from the catalog.”
After her class, student Audrey McCleary said she learned “how it wasn’t easy and what everyone had to do to survive. The toughest part was starting out and trying to make everything from scratch. I didn’t know about [that part of American history] and it was fun to have the visual character of Prairie Annie.”
Deonja McCrimmon learned that “it was hard to make the crops grow; corn was the easiest. And when there were dust storms, you had to put ropes on each side of the house to find your way from one place to the other. Boys weren’t allowed to wear shoes [every day] because they’d tear them up in two days flat. And children ate bread and lard for lunch.” So would she have liked to have lived back then?” Replied Deonja: “No; it would be too hard.”
Patricia Edouard said it was difficult for the homesteaders to settle into their new lives. “You had to send your kids one-and-a-half miles to school, so you’d be worried about them,” she said. Patricia enjoyed learning this way, rather than just reading about this time period in a textbook. “In a book, it would be just plain facts,” she said. “But seeing it in a different perspective gives you a new feel about it.” “I found it fascinating and weird that they found sod more comfortable than wood houses,” said Shreya Menon. “I’d want to have my school close by; I’m sorry, but I don’t want to walk a half-mile. And the outhouses? That’s disgusting; I couldn’t do that.”
Learning about the Westward Movement via slides, reenactments, music and costumed teachers was “attention-grabbing,” added Shreya. “You’re really listening, and I learned fun facts, like people straightening their hair with irons. If I were the mom, though, I’d fear for my family, ’cause I’m not a good cook.”
“We’ve also reenacted the Electoral College – the 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden presidential election signifying the end of Reconstruction,” said Brown. “The students watched a video I made about it and then ‘were’ the Electoral College and looked at the Southern Democrats’ solution to Reconstruction.”
“The best way to learn history is to ‘live’ through it,” she continued. “I also apply it to the students’ regular lives so they can relate to it better and it’s not just a lot of boring, old facts.”


Do many of us not we enjoy a beautiful sunny day? In general, we have a good perception of the Sun, because we enjoy a warm weather and summer, especially when it comes to outdoor activities. The Sun is an essential element for life on the planet and has positive effects on our body, as for example the stimulation of the synthesis of vitamin D. But rarely are aware of the damage-causing sun rays on our skin; even though the effects are not visible immediately or in the short term, the damage accumulates with the passage of time. Solar energy, also known as ultraviolet rays (UV rays), affect from the outermost layer to the deeper layers of the skin. Many times the skin changes attributed to the old, such as wrinkles and dark spots, are consequence of prolonged exposure to the Sun. This type of premature aging is caused by the incidence of solar rays into the layers of skin, which impairs the production of collagen, frees radicals libres and inhibits skin self-healing mechanisms. Ultraviolet rays are also considered as the environmental factor of increased risk in the occurrence of skin cancer, which is the most common cancer in the United States. This is one of the reasons why in recent years the sunscreen has become so important, beyond the merely aesthetic consequences. But this does not mean that we can not seize the sunny days, or that we have to stop enjoying the summer, simply must take certain precautions to prevent damage from the Sun on the skin.


There are plenty of places on the web where speakers get together and discuss their art hoping to become better at it. They share tips; they discuss tactics, and everyone helps each other.
But when I was taking part in a particularly interesting conversation where many speakers were talking about techniques, it suddenly dawned on me that I didn’t have a clue what these people spoke about. What was their subject?
Much of the literature about speaking states that anybody can become a speaker. It’s a skill that can be learned like riding a bike or a new language; it just takes practice and access to some tuition or by getting help from your peers. But what is it that people speak about?
For many people, speaking is borne out of a need, or even a desire to tell others about their particular passion. You can hear it in the way they project themselves at a conference, whether it be a gathering of model railway enthusiasts or the local Rotary Club, they love the subject so much that speaking about it is easy.
But others don’t speak about such things. Some speakers can speak about anything, and they do, regularly and with great success. How do they do it?
Death by PowerPoint
You’ve probably heard this term before, and it refers to those times you’ve been in a meeting and listened to someone drone on with hundreds of slides, reading off each one. I sat through a presentation once where someone insisted on reading the text, yes, every single word on every one of 90 slides in PowerPoint. It was horrendous and totally unnecessary.
When you speak, you are not there to bombard your audience with information to the point where it starts falling out of their ears. That’s called a lecture. No, you’re there to impart some information in an entertaining and enjoyable way so that people will remember it.
The key here is to focus. If you are speaking about the ways people can lose weight quickly, then you shouldn’t be reading out fifty recipes for people to write down and take away. You should be explaining just a small area of the subject matter and leaving the detail to leaflets and handouts.
Keep the focus small. Concentrate on one small part of the subject matter and learn everything you can about it and impart that knowledge to your audience.
And the important thing about it? You absolutely do not need to be an expert to speak about the subject. A friend of mine once gave an impassioned speech about the benefits of neural network based search engine technology to a group of undergraduates at Cardiff University. He knew nothing about neural networks, but he still got a standing ovation. If you know how to speak, keep your focus small, and you can enliven the crowd, that’s all you need to do.
Even so, if you’re a beginner, it’s good to know your subject matter just in case someone decides to question you.
So to get back to answer the question, here’s a handy reminder:
- When starting out, speak about something you know about. Just speak about a small part of it, however, and don’t feel you need to tell the audience everything in one mammoth session.
- When you’ve got some speaking gigs under your belt, you can eventually speak about anything.
- When speaking about a new subject, pick a small area and learn as much as you can about it.
- Being entertaining can usually plaster over the cracks, but be prepared for some awkward questions!
But most of all, enjoy it!


Caffeine content in tea
Are caffeine and theine the same substance?
Yes, caffeine and theine are the same substance. Caffeine was discovered for the first time in the coffee bean, which gave its name caffeine. The same substance was also found in tea leaves and other plants.
To refer to tea caffeine it is often used the term theine.
The same applies to other plants containing caffeine, such as guarana, which are said to contain guaranine, which, in fact, is also caffeine. or mateine of yerba mate.
- Caffeine and theine are the same substance and are considered synonymous words.
|Content of caffeine in some stimulating drinks
|Mg. of caffeineper cup of 200ml.
What is caffeine?
Chemically, caffeine (or theine) is classified as a xanthic base or xanthine. There are other xanthines such as theophylline and theobromine. Plants containing caffeine may also contain doses of these xanthines. These substances stimulate the nervous system.
Plants containing caffeine are coffee, cola, tea, guarana or yerba mate. Cocoa contains theobromine, other xanthine that also has stimulatory effects on the nervous system.
Effects of caffeine on the body
When caffeine is absorbed, it travels through the bloodstream to the brain, where it binds to a type of brain receptors called adenosines.
Adenosine receptors are in charge, when there is adenosine, to dilate blood vessels, depress the nervous system and produce a state of sedation. Caffeine prevents adenosine binds to adenosine receptors, preventing the occurrence of these calming effects.
Blocking the adenosine receptor causes increase levels of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine stimulates mental alertness and wakefulness, promoting better association of ideas and greater resistance to fatigue and stimulating thermogenesis and fat burning.
For this reason, drinking coffee, mate or tea increases brain performance. Other effects of caffeine, for the same reason, are: increasing stomach acid secretion, stimulating fat burning, speeding cardiac frequency, etc..
Contraindications of caffeine
People with dyspepsia, heartburn, peptic ulcer, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, epilepsy, diabetes, liver or kidney disease should avoid caffeine because of its side effects.
Caffeine in pregnancy and lactation
Scientific studies show that when a pregnant woman drinks caffeine, it can be absorbed by the fetus and appears in breast milk when she is breastfeeding. Because the effects of caffeine are stronger in neonates (caffeine takes 80-100 hours to be removed from the body), women should not consume drinks with caffeine during these stages of their life.
More information on tea
10 January, 2022


1561: Lope de Aguirre, born in Onate, Gipuzkoa, and his men proclaim “Don Fernando, by the grace of God, prince of Peru, Tierra Firma and Chile,” intending to crown him king once they arrive in Peru. Fernando de Guzman is made general of the expedition — searching for Omagua and El Dorado — after Aguirre disposes of Pedro de Ursua, the original leader of the expedition. The document in which this is proclaimed is referred to as the First Act of Independence of America.
According to Aunamendi, it was Fernando de Guzman who was proclaimed Prince of Peru, but a number of English language sites, including Wikipedia, state it was Aguirre himself who was proclaimed Prince.
1972: Cristobal Balenciaga Eizagurrie, fashion designer born in Getaria, dies. Balenciaga became world-reknowned after he is forced by the Spanish Civil War to move to Paris, where among other achievements, he totally transformed the silhouette, broadening the shoulders and removing the waist.


Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Trust and strong relationships between researchers and traditional tribal leaders of small pacific islands allows for quick and effective implementation of science-based strategies that slow the decline of coral reefs, an international conference has heard.
Coral reefs recovered far quicker when scientists worked directly with leaders of local communities — rather than national governments — on changing the damaging land-use practices that pollute coastal waters, said Robert Richmond, a professor of marine biology at the University of Hawaii, United States.
He was speaking at the biennial Ocean Sciences Meeting in Honolulu, United States, last week (23-28 February).
But these strategies can only be a stopgap as the rising sea levels, watertemperatures and acidification — which could spell the end for many reef ecosystems — will need to be addressed by an international climate changeagreement, he said.
For local populations dependent on ever-diminishing coral reefs for survival, conservation laws take too long to devise, and are difficult to enforce and monitor in remote regions, Richmond tells SciDev.Net.
Local chiefs have the ability to quickly change damaging practices but researchers must first work to build trust before their advice will be considered, he adds.
“Many times, the local level is much more efficient than national governance. Working at a local level means communities can act immediately,” Richmond says.
Pacific island examples
Palau, for example, was suffering from decline of reefs and fish stock. Scientists had pinpointed the cause of to an increase in the run-off of sediment caused by the destruction of mangroves along the coastline.
Within two weeks of presenting the data to village chiefs, women’s groups and fishermen, a local moratorium had been imposed on mangrove clearance.
Similar results were achieved on Guam, where a common practice of burning hillside vegetation was halted and on Pohnpei, in Micronesia, where cultivation of a cash root-crop called sakau was relocated to lowlands to avoid forest destruction.
Jim Foley, a marine science educator at the University of Hawaii’s Centre for Microbial Oceanography Research and Education, who specialises in local outreach agrees on the value of targeting local communities.
As “canaries in the coalmine”, he says, local leaders and the populations they represent are the first to feel the impact of environmental disruption and therefore are often open to implementing change.
However, with a history of researchers leaving communities as soon as their work has been completed, a level of wariness and scepticism must be overcome to develop productive relationships, he adds.
This problem is not lost on Richmond, who took years to build productive relationships with chieftains during his research.
While there is no substitute for trained scientists from within indigenous communities who can bridge the cultural divide much more easily, trusted outsiders like himself can act as proxies for other researchers trying to communicate their science, while local capacity continues to develop.
And any longer-term solutions will inevitably need to address the impacts of climate change, too, says Richmond.
Computer modelling studies, he says, suggests that cutting the flow of sediment and nutrients into the oceans through better land management will allow corals to keep recovering until 2050.
After this point, however, the benefits will no longer counteract the growing toll of global warming and ocean acidification on reefs and so an international climate agreement will remain a necessity, says Richmond.


PORTRAIT OF AN UNHEALTHY CITY: NEW YORK IN THE 1800S
From: Columbia University – by David Rosner
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION | As New York City ascended from a small seaport to an international city in the 1800s, it underwent severe growing pains. Filth, disease and disorder ravaged the city to a degree that would horrify even the most jaded modern urban dweller. David Rosner, professor of history and co-director of the program in the History of Public Health and Medicine at the School of Public Health at Columbia University, paints a vivid portrait of a city in the throes of an ecological crisis.
New York City epitomized a city in crisis during the nineteenth century. A small city of approximately 30,000 in 1800, New York began to essentially double in size every 10 years. By the turn of the twentieth century the population had reached 4 million, almost all of whom lived either below 57th Street in Manhattan or along the border of Brooklyn--a tiny portion of the modern city's boundaries. (To enlarge the photo of the horse-drawn streetcar, click on the photo or link)
Such incredible human congestion combined with a primitive infrastructure to create ideal conditions for a dramatic increase in epidemic disease. The relatively healthful city of 1800 experienced an onslaught of infectious diseases. Cholera, typhoid, typhus, yellow fever, malaria and other mosquito- and tick-borne diseases festered. The city's mortality rate skyrocketed, and children died in large numbers. The city seemed to be coming apart.
At the turn of the nineteenth century, New York City's infrastructure relied upon disease-creating entities such as the horse. Between 100,000 and 200,000 horses lived in the city at any given time. Each one of those horses gave off 24 pounds of manure and several quarts of urine a day
The vast majority of city horses were not elegant animals who pulled carriages and lived in stables near the homes of the wealthy; most were big workhorses who did all the hauling--pulling wagons loaded with goods from the shore. Big teams of workhorses powered the city's horse-driven street trolley system. The limited range and speed of these trolleys were one reason everyone lived below 57th Street. Horses are very inefficient in terms of moving people--especially atop big, heavy trolleys. Horses get tired, hungry and thirsty. They also drop dead. The average life span of a horse in New York City in the 1860s and '70s was a meager two and a half years. They were literally worked to death.
Workhorses were poorly kept and lived in big garages within New York's "horse districts," such as in the Twenties on the East Side. Large granaries existed alongside horse garages, attracting rats and other rodents. As an added danger, rotting food within the granaries would occasionally explode, burning down the granary and perhaps the neighborhood.
In fact, New York City in the 1800s was built around supporting not only human beings but animals as well. Horses, pigs, sheep and cattle were all part of everyday city life. Pigs regularly roamed through the city in herds
Stoops, carcasses and manure blocks
Despite the presence of animals, the city had no systematic street-cleaning efforts. During winter, neighborhoods sometimes rose between two and six feet in height because of the accumulation of waste and snow. The middle-class brownstones of the 1880s provided a stoop leading to a second-floor entrance so that the residents would rise above manure--which seeped into the ground floor during a storm or with melting snow.
Horses posed an additional street-cleaning dilemma. A horse carcass can easily weigh 1,200 pounds, far beyond the lifting capabilities of a person. When a horse died, its carcass would be left to rot until it had disintegrated enough for someone to pick up the pieces. Children would play with dead horses lying on the streets.
Once the bridge was built, the city started taking waste out of Manhattan and depositing it in the farmland communities of Queens. They collected it in "manure blocks"--literally huge city blocks devoted to the collection of horse manure. City maps from the era show manure blocks very close to the water reservoir on 42nd Street,
In addition to lacking street cleaning, the city also had no sewage system and no flush toilets. Garbage--which included both human and animal waste--was basically thrown out windows and onto city streets. Today, antique stores on Columbus Avenue in New York sell chamber pots for $300. People would use chamber pots, essentially basins, as a toilet in the middle of the night, to make a deposit of what was called "night soil." Between the hours of 5 a.m. and 7 a.m., you were supposed to bring down your night soil and deposit it in your outdoor privy, usually an overflowing heap. More often than not, however, the actual custom was to sling it out into the middle of the street from the window of your four-story walk-up
This practice led to all sorts of etiquette problems. Etiquette books told
young ladies to wear parasols during the day not just to keep off the sun or the
rain but also to protect them in case something was to fall from the sky. Men
were supposed to wear wide-brimmed hats and walk on the outside of the curb, so
that they might get splattered instead of the young lady


What is the importance and meaning of ears in Hamlet? There are so many things related with ears (spilling poison to ear, eavesdropping...)
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Ears and the act of hearing are a motif that runs throughout Hamlet, which enhances the theme of "Appearance versus Reality." Words and conversations are used as a form of manipulation and corruption. Manipulation is used by some characters (specifically Claudius) to improve their social status or power.
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It’s fun! It’s therapeutic! It’s sustainable. It’s environmentally friendly. It’s just a darn good way to grow food! So why aquaponic? Here’s why “we aquaponic!”
Aquaponics produces both fish and organic vegetables, in a dynamic, natural, pond-type ecosystem that can either feed you and your family or scaled up to feed many commercially. It’s the farming of the future! Even if you haven’t farmed or gardened extensively, most can grasp this simply way to grow food. Unlike hydroponics and managing chemical inputs and fertilizer, the natural ecosystem of an aquaponics system makes aquaponics an easier to manage. Most of today’s farmers are retiring and leaving a huge deficit in people knowing how and wanting to grow food.
Aquaponics uses only a fraction of the water used in conventional farming and can use even less if you collect rain water to add to your system. Aquaponic farmers are not dependent on huge amounts of water as are conventional in-ground farmers and it does not have the same environmental impact of tremendous water consumption and waste. The minimal use of water means Aquaponics is the answer for drought stricken environments. It’s like the oasis in the desert.
Aquaponics also can grow more produce compared to produce grown conventionally in the ground. Vegetables usually grow significantly faster, and at three to four times the density, without ever depleting the nutrients. Its soil counterpart depletes nutrients with every planting and farmers struggle to replace them with synthetic fertilizers. This way of growing food means the aquaponics farm does not require farmland with fertile soil, or even land with soil at for that matter.
Another huge benefit of aquaponic growing is that it grows 100% chemical free, all natural produce. If any chemical or synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers are used, the fish could die, effectively killing your system generator! There is no question that aquaponically grown food is chem free as it cannot be cheated. Even most approved organic pesticides could kill the fish.
Undeniably organic produce IS better to eat, however farming organically on a commercial conventional scale uses the same amount of petrochemical energy as conventional farming and has higher labor costs. This is why organic produce costs more in the market. While chemical fertilizers and pesticides for use in conventional farming take a tremendous amount of petrochemical energy to make, organic farming on a commercial scale uses just as much petrochemical energy to power tractors, compost shredders, spreaders, cultivators, plows and the organic pesticide sprayers. It is a huge cycle of oil consumption and a far cry from green.
So, let’s talk about how green aquaponics is. Aquaponics energy usage is from 70% to 92% less than a conventional or organic farm which use fuel and/or petrochemical-intensive fertilizers. All energy used is electrical, so alternate energy systems such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric can be used to power an aquaponic farm 100%. This alternate energy can be produced locally instead of being shipped in from oil-refining countries, which may be great distances away from the end-user (this shipping over great distances requires still more petrochemical energy). This technology doesn’t even need oil!
In aquaponics, there is no soil, weeds, soil pests or pathogens. Thus, there is no labor required for tilling, cultivating, fertilizer spreading, compost shredding, manure spreading, plowing cover crops in, or irrigating. Seeding, planting and most harvesting can be done standing and working at waist level. The only inputs to an aquaponic system is electricity, fish food, seeds, and potting media. That’s it.
Aquaponics even boasts benefits for both aquaculture and hydroponic operations. The integration of the two, in effect aquaponics, eliminates costly practices in either one. One of the biggest costs in an aquaculture operation is filtering the water free of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate accumulations. However when combined with hydroponics, the plants are the sole source of filtration as well as a great source of income. When compared to hydroponics, aquaponics doesn’t require system purges or dumps or expensive chemicals that must be constantly replenished to grow the food.
The benefits go on and on. For some reason, food grown aquaponically tastes better than conventionally or hydroponically grown food. Perhaps it is the simplicity and natural way it works. With no chemicals to alter or mask the vegetable’s true taste, it simply tastes better. It also lasts longer! And we haven’t even touched on the fact that aquaponics not only grows veggies and fruit, there’s also great tasting fish! And you can consume and sell your fish with the knowledge of the conditions they were raised in and without hormones or antibiotics. Consider it another stream of revenue or perhaps just a way to farm free. Even just selling your fish at your cost to raise them means growing your produce entirely free, no fertilizer cost! Beyond the business implications, consider aquaponics as a life sustaining practice in places where there is no food. It will produce both protein and vegetables. It can keep people alive.
Aquaponics is absolutely the answer for how we are going to grow and get our food for the future. Don’t you want to join the Farm Revolution? Join us and many others and get in on the ground floor of what is going to be the biggest change to agriculture since the industrial revolution. It’s time for another revolution and you can be a part. What are you waiting for?


Heart and vascular with Dr. Haqqani: Angina and its cardiovascular signals
Angina is the term used to describe chest pain or discomfort in the chest. There are several types of angina and it often signals coronary heart disease and other serious problems relating to the heart and cardiovascular system. It can also occur in the jaw, back, arms, neck or shoulders. There are identifiable symptoms, treatments and ways to help prevent it and the problems angina foretells.
Not all chest pain is the result of angina. It can be caused by asthma, indigestion or other conditions. However, when angina occurs, there are definite characteristics. The four types of angina are stable angina, unstable angina, variant (Prinzmetal) angina and microvascular angina. Angina occurs when blood flows poorly to the heart, denying it the proper amount of oxygen. Stable angina (angina pectoris), is the most common type of angina. Physical or emotional stress is often associated with it. Rest and medicine can offer relief.
Unstable angina (acute coronary syndrome) occurs unexpectedly. Unstable angina is often caused by loosened blood clots and can happen anytime, even when an individual is at rest, sitting or sleeping. Unlike stable angina, rest and medicine often do nothing to stop the pain. It can worsen as time goes by and may signal a heart attack.
Variant or Prinzmetal angina occurs in only about two percent of angina cases. Usually noticed between midnight and early morning by an individual at rest, it is very painful. Spasms in coronary arteries delivering blood to the heart cause variant angina.
Angina in the smallest coronary artery blood vessels is known as microvascular angina, or MVD. The spasms within the smallest arterial blood vessels prevent proper blood flow and can cause pain that can last from ten to thirty minutes. The pain can be very severe and may be accompanied by shortness of breath or fatigue. MVD is more common among women, especially younger women, but may also appear in men.
Symptoms of angina
While chest pain is the common denominator in those suffering angina, how they feel the pain may differ. A feeling of heaviness or pressure may occur in some, while burning or squeezing may describe angina in others. General discomfort and aching may best describe how an individual may experience angina. Pain in the breastbone area may also spread to the back, neck, shoulders, arm or jaw. Sweating, dizziness or shortness of breath may also take place along with pain.
Risk and prevention
Risk factors for angina and the cardiovascular conditions it may indicate, such as heart attack, include diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels. Additionally, smoking, inactivity and an unhealthy diet contribute to risk. Family cardiovascular history may also increase the probability of angina, as could age. Men over age 45 and women over age 55 see an increase in the probability of angina.
Treatment for angina could start with lifestyle changes that would include maintaining a healthy weight, getting appropriate exercise, eating a proper diet and eliminating smoking. Medications to regulate heartbeat, prevent clotting and improve blood flow may be prescribed, as well.
A cardiologist may also recommend angioplasty, a procedure in which the arteries are widened with the use of a tube and a small balloon. Once in place, the balloon helps widen the artery to allow proper blood flow. A stent, or small tube, may be left in the artery to make sure it continues properly deliver blood to the heart. The stent supports the inner artery wall.
If cases are more severe, a cardiovascular surgeon may perform coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), or bypass surgery. Healthy arteries are installed to route blood around damaged vessels and get oxygen-rich blood to the heart. This replaces (or bypasses) the blocked part of the coronary artery. During the same operation, a surgeon may perform several bypasses. The success rate for CABG is good and can eliminate symptoms for years afterward.
Dr. Omar P. Haqqani is the chief of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at Vascular Health Clinics in Midland: www.vascularhealthclinics.org


Everyone hears about the terms credit, credit report, and credit score most of the time, but few know exactly what they really are.
What is Your Credit Report?
Your credit report is a file that lists down your credit history, from the moment you first obtained credit to your current credit standing. It contains all information related to your debts, such as outstanding balances in your loan and credit accounts, types of accounts that you have closed or have kept active, your credit limits in each account, and your payment histories. Your credit report also lists down public records against you, such as bankruptcies, repossessions, foreclosures, tax liens, and judgments.
What is Your Credit Score?
Your credit score is a three-digit number that pretty much rates how good or bad a borrower you are. It is calculated based on how timely you are with your payments, how you keep your balances below your credit limit, the mix of credits that you have, and your average age of credit.
Why is Credit Important?
Your credit is important because it affects your ability to borrow money. The higher your credit score, the better your chances of getting approved in every loan or credit application. However, even if you don’t intend to borrow money, there are other aspects in life wherein you can see the importance of credit.
First, not only is your credit necessary if you’re trying to apply for a mortgage loan, but it is vital even if you’re just renting an apartment. Many business owners, including landlords, would like to determine if you habitually make payments on time, and they will pull out your credit report in order to see that.
Second, credit also affects your ability to apply for utility or mobile phone services, for the same reason that these companies like customers who pay diligently. If you have bad credit, it would be hard to get approved for these services without shelling out a security deposit.
Lastly, good credit can help you find better employment or achieve your well-deserved promotion. Nowadays, credentials alone aren’t enough. Most employers are cautious when a person has bad credit because it might reflect financial distress and irresponsibility.
How Soon Should a Person Start Building Credit?
Ideally, the best time to start obtaining credit is during college or as soon as the person reaches legal age. This can help establish financial discipline early on. While people in this age group might be the most risky borrowers, they are also the ones who can become financially successful sooner if guided and taught properly.
What You can Do to Protect Your Credit?
While obtaining credit alone is challenging already, maintaining it requires extra effort. To start with, make sure to always pay your bills on time. Keep constant watch of your balances and as much as possible pay off every balance in full. Keep your old accounts active and maintain a good mix of revolving and installment accounts. Additionally, you should protect yourself from identity theft, which can ruin your credit and everything you’ve worked for overnight.


Earlier this week, while the world was distracted by the buildup to the events in Cupertino, the Swiss team behind the first aircraft to fly around the clock on solar power took that craft's successor on its maiden flight.
Solar Impulse 2, a larger and upgraded version of the first craft, is designed to stay aloft for several days straight in order to allow its pilots to take it across the Pacific. To manage that feat, its designers have built a giant glider with a wingspan greater than a 747's but weighing only as much as about a dozen of the jet's wheels. Every horizontal surface on the aircraft is covered with solar panels, and over a quarter of its weight is accounted for by batteries that will keep its propellers turning overnight.
The updated design involves a number of new materials, so this is the first of a series of tests flights that will be necessary to determine if the craft holds up to the wear and tear of extended use. The pilots will also test whether the performance of the aircraft matches up to the predictions made using aerodynamic models—so far, everything looks good in that regard.
The first flight only took two hours, and it took Solar Impulse 2 to an altitude of 1.6 km (about a mile) and a maximum speed of 55 km/hour (35mph). Future flights will be longer and undoubtedly build up to round-the-clock test flights. The flights will be based out of Payerne, Switzerland, near the city of Lausanne on Lake Geneva. The Solar Impulse team has been working closely with the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne since the project's inception.


The problem with looking for clues to deception is that you need to know what you’re looking for before you start. Should we count the number of smiles a person makes? How long they hold the smile for? Whether the smile is of a certain size? Whether it is faked? It requires some expectations, which we know aren’t always accurate.
By using an automated system, we were able to capture overall bodily motion (from the waist up) in a way that did not require us to select a particular behaviour to examine.
In one study, people came into the lab under the guise of a maths study. The study was rigged so that the second maths test was much harder than the first maths test. But we offered a cash prize for those who did better on the second test. Would people claim to have done better on the much harder test in order to get the cash prize? around 60% of people did, while 40% were honest about having done worse on the second test. We captured their body movements while lying and telling the truth.
There was a second opportunity to lie. Half-way through the study, a friendly research assistant accidentally knocked over the experimenter’s laptop while the experimenter was out of the room. At the end of the study, the experimenter checked his laptop and found it not working. Would people drop the friendly research assistant into trouble, or would they lie on the research assistant’s behalf? Again, about 60% of people lied, and about 40% told the truth.
Whether people were lying for a self monetary gain or for the benefit of another (not being reprimanded by the experimenter), we found that people moved less overall than the truth-tellers.
Making use of dynamical systems mathematical techniques (assessing motion recurrence and multiscaled entropy over time), we were able to show that it was not the case that liars simply clamped down their behaviours, as though ‘caught in headlights’. Quite the opposite: although liars moved less overall, there were subtle changes in how they behaved, showing greater flexibility in their patterns of behaviours than truth-tellers. This would seem to suggest that when we lie, we have flexible strategies that allow us to adapt our behaviour to the demands of lying. That is – people in general are skilled liars that have strategies preventing them from giving away their lies.
Duran, N. D., Dale, R., Kello, C., Street, C. N. H., & Richardson, D.C. (2013). Exploring the movement dynamics of deception. Frontiers in Cognitive Science, 4. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00140. [pdf]
Eapen, N. M., Baron, S., Street, C. N. H., & Richardson, D. C. (2010). The bodily movements of liars. Proceedings of the Thirty-Second Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society, 2548-2554. [pdf]


Strange human fossils unearthed over a decade ago on Indonesia's island of Flores revealed the existence of an ancient, petite species of human, dubbed Homo floresiensis and nicknamed "hobbits."
At the time, researchers said that the unique, extinct, 3.5-foot-tall human may have lived as recently as 18,000 years ago, perhaps even 13,000 to 11,000 years ago. This would have made the newfound species the last remaining human other than Homo sapiens.
But now those dates have been revised. A new study argues those fossils are actually between 100,000 and 60,000 years old.
The cause of the confusion? Erosion. Researchers date fossils like those of H. floresiensis by determining how long sediment has been covering specimens. Some layers around these fossils had eroded, making it seem as though the specimens had been deposited much more recently, say a team of scientists whose revised chronology was published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
"The initial excavations were sampling very small areas," says study author Matthew W. Tocheri, a researcher at the Smithsonian's Human Origins Program, in a phone interview with The Christian Science Monitor. "You don't get to see the full picture."
It's a lot like putting together a puzzle, says Dr. Tocheri, who also teaches anthropology at Canada's Lakehead University. "If you only pull out two pieces and try to fit them together, a lot of the time the pictures that you make from that are going to be very different than after you've pulled out 15 or 20 pieces of the puzzle."
And researchers have been pulling out more puzzle pieces over the past decade.
Ever since H. floresiensis skeletons and stone tools were first found at the Liang Bua cave on Flores, archaeologists have been searching for more fossils. The cave is quite large, Tocheri says, so scientists had a lot of ground to cover.
As excavations continued, it became clear that there was some sort of boundary in the sediment right around the layer in which the initial fossils were found. The researchers investigated further and found a stratigraphic unconformity, evidence that sediment had not been deposited continuously. And that missing layer was the key.
But the researchers had to be sure before they announced this revision to the world. "This has really been going on for nine years," Tocheri says. "By 2010 or 2011 it started to become much clearer that there was at least a stratigraphic unconformity, so it was a matter of trying to use as many dating methods as possible. We were trying to be as thorough as we possibly could."
Ultimately the team used stratigraphy, radiocarbon dating, luminescence dating, uranium-series dating, and argon-argon dating to determine that the skeletal remains were in deposits dated between 100,000 and 60,000 years old and stone artifacts associated with these archaic humans fit somewhere between 190,000 to 50,000 years old.
"In many ways, science does correct itself. By continually investigating a site, you sometimes find minor errors that you made in the earlier interpretations and then you want to revise those interpretations," explains Russell L. Ciochon, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, who was not part of the study, in an interview with the Monitor.
"Although we think of determining the age of a site as just the simplest thing, it actually is pretty hard," says Michael Chazan, a paleoarcheologist at the University of Toronto who was also not part of this study.
These new findings constitute "the kind of research we've been waiting for in terms of a really well done, pretty fundamental description of how the site formed," he tells the Monitor in an interview.
Tocheri simply says, "It's part of the scientific process."
Evolving a mysterious hobbit
H. floresiensis is enigmatic in its own right, even with the revised dates.
The strange little archaic human has been nicknamed "hobbit" for its stature. But how did it come to be so small?
Two other human species are known to have reached the island region, H. erectus and our own species, H. sapiens. Both are significantly larger than the hobbits.
Scientists have suggested that this is a case of island dwarfism. In such a scenario, a human population would have arrived on the island large but shrunk over generations, thanks to evolutionary selection. Other animals, like elephants, have been found to undergo island dwarfism, but "this is the only example we have of island dwarfing of a human lineage," says Dr. Ciochon.
But which species originally settled the island?
H. floresiensis is morphologically similar to the older human species H. erectus, Tocheri says.
Furthermore, the new dates refute any hypotheses that suggest H. floresiensis was descended from anatomically modern humans, as our species didn't make it to the region until around 50,000 years ago. Perhaps the two species interacted, he says, but currently the earliest evidence of H. sapiens on Flores is from about 11,000 years ago, long after the smaller species went extinct.
An alternate explanation is that "Homo floresiensis is the descendant of another premodern species of Homo that may have been smaller-bodied and smaller-brained (e.g., like in African species attributed to early Homo) to begin with when it reached the island. Further discoveries of older hominin fossils on Flores and elsewhere in Asia are needed to resolve these questions about the ancestry of Homo floresiensis," Tocheri writes in an email to the Monitor.
The researchers point out that the revised dates apply to this site and these fossils, but if H. floresiensis fossils are discovered elsewhere, they might be younger.
"If there was a book that chronicled the entire evolutionary history of Homo floresiensis, then it would be like we have only a few tattered and torn pages with the rest of the pages missing (but hopefully not lost forever!)," Tocheri writes.
Regardless, H. floresiensis "highlights how much variation there probably was in the human family tree," Daniel Lieberman, a paleoanthropologist at Harvard University who was not part of the study, tells the Monitor in an email.
"Our genetic diversity as a family group was far more greater in the past than it is today. And that's from a genetic perspective, that's from a morphological perspective, it's from a behavioral perspective," Tocheri says. "It's easy for us to forget because we're the only ones left that can pontificate about what it means to be human."