Keeping weight in check, being active, and eating a healthy diet can help prevent most cases of type 2 diabetes.
If type 2 diabetes were an infectious disease, passed from one person to another, public health officials would say we’re in the midst of an epidemic. This difficult disease is striking an ever-growing number of adults, and with the rising rates of childhood obesity, it has become more common in youth, especially among certain ethnic groups (learn more about diabetes, including the other types and risk factors).
The good news is that prediabetes and type 2 diabetes are largely preventable. About 9 in 10 cases in the U.S. can be avoided by making lifestyle changes. These same changes can also lower the chances of developing heart disease and some cancers. The key to prevention can be boiled down to five words: Stay lean and stay active.
What if I already have diabetes?
Excess weight is the single most important cause of type 2 diabetes. Being overweight increases the chances of developing type 2 diabetes seven-fold. Being obese makes you 20 to 40 times more likely to develop diabetes than someone with a healthy weight.
Losing weight can help if your weight is above the healthy-weight range. Losing 7-10% of your current weight can cut your chances of developing type 2 diabetes in half.
Inactivity promotes type 2 diabetes.  Working your muscles more often and making them work harder improves their ability to use insulin and absorb glucose. This puts less stress on your insulin-making cells. So trade some of your sit-time for fit-time.
Long bouts of hot, sweaty exercise aren’t necessary to reap this benefit. Findings from the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study suggest that walking briskly for a half hour every day reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 30%. [3,4] More recently, The Black Women’s Health Study reported similar diabetes-prevention benefits for brisk walking of more than 5 hours per week.  This amount of exercise has a variety of other benefits as well. And even greater cardiovascular and other advantages can be attained by more, and more intense, exercise.
Television-watching appears to be an especially-detrimental form of inactivity: Every two hours you spend watching TV instead of pursuing something more active increases the chances of developing diabetes by 20%; it also increases the risk of heart disease (15%) and early death (13%).  The more television people watch, the more likely they are to be overweight or obese, and this seems to explain part of the TV viewing-diabetes link. The unhealthy diet patterns associated with TV watching may also explain some of this relationship.
Four dietary changes can have a big impact on the risk of type 2 diabetes.
1. Choose whole grains and whole grain products over refined grains and other highly processed carbohydrates.
There is convincing evidence that diets rich in whole grains protect against diabetes, whereas diets rich in refined carbohydrates lead to increased risk . In the Nurses’ Health Studies I and II, for example, researchers looked at the whole grain consumption of more than 160,000 women whose health and dietary habits were followed for up to 18 years. Women who averaged 2-3 servings of whole grains a day were 30% less likely to have developed type 2 diabetes than those who rarely ate whole grains.  When the researchers combined these results with those of several other large studies, they found that eating an extra two servings of whole grains a day decreased the risk of type 2 diabetes by 21%.
Whole grains don’t contain a magical nutrient that fights diabetes and improves health. It’s the entire package—elements intact and working together—that’s important. The bran and fiber in whole grains make it more difficult for digestive enzymes to break down the starches into glucose. This leads to lower, slower increases in blood sugar and insulin, and a lower glycemic index. As a result, they stress the body’s insulin-making machinery less, and so may help prevent type 2 diabetes.  Whole grains are also rich in essential vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals that may help reduce the risk of diabetes.
In contrast, white bread, white rice, mashed potatoes, donuts, bagels, and many breakfast cereals have what’s called a high glycemic index and glycemic load. That means they cause sustained spikes in blood sugar and insulin levels, which in turn may lead to increased diabetes risk.  In China, for example, where white rice is a staple, the Shanghai Women’s Health Study found that women whose diets had the highest glycemic index had a 21% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes, compared with women whose diets had the lowest glycemic index.  Similar findings were reported in the Black Women’s Health Study.
More recent findings from the Nurses Health Studies I and II and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study suggest that swapping whole grains for white rice could help lower diabetes risk: Researchers found that women and men who ate the most white rice—five or more servings a week—had a 17% higher risk of diabetes than those who ate white rice less than one time a month. People who ate the most brown rice—two or more servings a week—had an 11% lower risk of diabetes than those who rarely ate brown rice. Researchers estimate that swapping whole grains in place of even some white rice could lower diabetes risk by 36%.
2. Skip the sugary drinks, and choose water, coffee, or tea instead.
Like refined grains, sugary beverages have a high glycemic load, and drinking more of this sugary stuff is associated with increased risk of diabetes. In the Nurses’ Health Study II, women who drank one or more sugar-sweetened beverages per day had an 83% higher risk of type 2 diabetes, compared with women who drank less than one sugar-sweetened beverage per month.
Combining the Nurses’ Health Study results with those from seven other studies found a similar link between sugary beverage consumption and type 2 diabetes. For every additional 12-ounce serving of sugary beverage that people drank each day, their risk of type 2 diabetes rose 25%.  Studies also suggest that fruit drinks— powdered drinks, fortified fruit drinks, or juices—are not the healthy choice that food advertisements often portray them to be. Women in the Black Women’s Health study who drank two or more servings of fruit drinks a day had a 31% higher risk of type 2 diabetes, compared with women who drank less than one serving a month.
How do sugary drinks lead to this increased risk? Weight gain may explain the link. In both the Nurses’ Health Study II and the Black Women’s Health Study, women who drank more sugary drinks gained more weight than women who cut back on sugary drinks. [13,15] Several studies show that children and adults who drink soda or other sugar-sweetened beverages are more likely to gain weight than those who don’t. [15-17] and that switching from these to water or unsweetened beverages can reduce weight.  Even so, weight gain caused by sugary drinks may not completely explain the increased diabetes risk. There is mounting evidence that sugary drinks contribute to chronic inflammation, high triglycerides, decreased “good” (HDL) cholesterol, and increased insulin resistance, all of which are risk factors for diabetes.
What to drink in place of the sugary stuff? Water is an excellent choice. Coffee and tea are also good calorie-free substitutes for sugared beverages (as long as you don’t load them up with sugar and cream). And there’s convincing evidence that coffee may help protect against diabetes; [20,21] emerging research suggests that tea may hold diabetes-prevention benefits as well, but more research is needed.
There’s been some controversy over whether artificially sweetened beverages are beneficial for weight control and, by extension, diabetes prevention.  Some studies have found that people who regularly drink diet beverages have a higher risk of diabetes than people who rarely drink such beverages, [23,24] but there could be another explanation for those findings. People often start drinking diet beverages because they have a weight problem or a family history of diabetes; studies that don’t adequately account for these other factors may make it wrongly appear as though the diet soda led to the increased diabetes risk. A long-term analysis on data from 40,000 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study found that drinking one 12-ounce serving of diet soda a day did not appear to increase diabetes risk.  So, in moderation diet beverages can be a sugary-drink alternative for adults.
3. Choose healthy fats.
The types of fats in your diet can also affect the development of diabetes. Healthful fats, such as the polyunsaturated fats found in liquid vegetable oils, nuts, and seeds can help ward off type 2 diabetes.  Trans fats do just the opposite. [1,27] These harmful fats were once found in many kinds of margarine, packaged baked goods, fried foods in most fast-food restaurants, and any product that listed “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil” on the label. Eating polyunsaturated fats from fish—also known as “long chain omega 3” or “marine omega 3” fats—does not protect against diabetes, even though there is much evidence that these marine omega 3 fats help prevent heart disease.  If you already have diabetes, eating fish can help protect you against a heart attack or dying from heart disease.
4. Limit red meat and avoid processed meat; choose nuts, beans, whole grains, poultry, or fish instead.
The evidence is growing stronger that eating red meat (beef, pork, lamb) and processed red meat (bacon, hot dogs, deli meats) increases the risk of diabetes, even among people who consume only small amounts. A meta-analysis combined findings from the Nurses’ Health Studies I and II, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, and six other long-term studies. The researchers looked at data from roughly 440,000 people, about 28,000 of whom developed diabetes during the course of the study.  They found that eating just one 3-ounce serving of red meat daily—say, a steak that’s about the size of a deck of cards—increased the risk of type 2 diabetes by 20%. Eating even smaller amounts of processed red meat each day—just two slices of bacon, one hot dog, or the like—increased diabetes risk by 51%.
The good news from this study: Swapping out red meat or processed red meat for a healthier protein source, such as nuts, low-fat dairy, poultry, or fish, or for whole grains lowered diabetes risk by up to 35%. Not surprisingly, the greatest risk reductions came from ditching processed red meat.
How meat is cooked may matter too. A study of three large cohorts followed for 12-16 years—including more than 289,000 men and women from the Nurses’ Health Studies and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study—found that participants who most frequently ate meats and chicken cooked at high temperatures were 1.5 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, compared with those who ate the least.  An increased risk of weight gain and developing obesity in the frequent users of high-temperature cooking methods may have contributed to the development of diabetes.
Why do these types of meat appear to boost diabetes risk? It may be that the high iron content of red meat diminishes insulin’s effectiveness or damages the cells that produce insulin. The high levels of sodium and nitrites (preservatives) in processed red meats may also be to blame. Red and processed meats are a hallmark of the unhealthful “Western” dietary pattern, which seems to trigger diabetes in people who are already at genetic risk.
Furthermore, a related body of research has suggested that plant-based dietary patterns may help lower type 2 diabetes risk, and more specifically, those who adhere to predominantly healthy plant-based diets may have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who follow these diets with lower adherence:
- A 2019 meta-analysis that included health data from 307,099 participants with 23,544 cases of type 2 diabetes examined adherence to an “overall” predominantly plant-based diet (which could include a mix of healthy plant-based foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and legumes, but also less healthy plant-based foods such as potatoes, white flour, and sugar, and modest amounts of animal products). The researchers also looked at “healthful” plant-based diets, which were defined as those emphasizing healthy plant-based foods, with lower consumption of unhealthy plant-based foods. They found that people with the highest adherence to overall predominantly plant-based diets had a 23% lower risk of type 2 diabetes compared to those with weaker adherence to the diets. The researchers also found that the association was strengthened for those who ate healthful plant-based diets
Add type 2 diabetes to the long list of health problems linked with smoking. Smokers are roughly 50% more likely to develop diabetes than nonsmokers, and heavy smokers have an even higher risk.
Evidence has consistently linked moderate alcohol consumption with reduced risk of heart disease. The same may be true for type 2 diabetes. Moderate amounts of alcohol—up to a drink a day for women, up to two drinks a day for men—increases the efficiency of insulin at getting glucose inside cells. And some studies indicate that moderate alcohol consumption decreases the risk of type 2 diabetes. [1, 34-39], but excess alcohol intake actually increases the risk. If you already drink alcohol, the key is to keep your consumption in the moderate range, as higher amounts of alcohol could increase diabetes risk.  If you don’t drink alcohol, there’s no need to start—you can get the same benefits by losing weight, exercising more, and changing your eating patterns.
Beyond individual behavior
Type 2 diabetes is largely preventable by taking several simple steps: keeping weight under control, exercising more, eating a healthy diet, and not smoking. Yet it is clear that the burden of behavior change cannot fall entirely on individuals. Families, schools, worksites, healthcare providers, communities, media, the food industry, and government must work together to make healthy choices easy choices. For links to evidence-based guidelines, research reports, and other resources for action, visit our diabetes prevention toolkit.
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- Malik VS, Popkin BM, Bray GA, Després JP, Willett WC, Hu FB. Sugar-sweetened beverages and risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes: a meta-analysis. Diabetes care. 2010 Nov 1;33(11):2477-83.
- Palmer JR, Boggs DA, Krishnan S, Hu FB, Singer M, Rosenberg L. Sugar-sweetened beverages and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in African American women. Archives of internal medicine. 2008 Jul 28;168(14):1487-92.
- Ludwig DS, Peterson KE, Gortmaker SL. Relation between consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks and childhood obesity: a prospective, observational analysis. The Lancet. 2001 Feb 17;357(9255):505-8.
- Vartanian LR, Schwartz MB, Brownell KD. Effects of soft drink consumption on nutrition and health: a systematic review and meta-analysis. American journal of public health. 2007 Apr;97(4):667-75.
- Ebbeling CB, Feldman HA, Osganian SK, Chomitz VR, Ellenbogen SJ, Ludwig DS. Effects of decreasing sugar-sweetened beverage consumption on body weight in adolescents: a randomized, controlled pilot study. Pediatrics. 2006 Mar 1;117(3):673-80.
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- De Koning L, Malik VS, Rimm EB, Willett WC, Hu FB. Sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened beverage consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes in men. The American journal of clinical nutrition. 2011 Mar 23;93(6):1321-7.
- Risérus U, Willett WC, Hu FB. Dietary fats and prevention of type 2 diabetes. Progress in lipid research. 2009 Jan 1;48(1):44-51.
- Mozaffarian D, Katan MB, Ascherio A, Stampfer MJ, Willett WC. Trans fatty acids and cardiovascular disease. New England Journal of Medicine. 2006 Apr 13;354(15):1601-13.
- Kaushik M, Mozaffarian D, Spiegelman D, Manson JE, Willett WC, Hu FB. Long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, fish intake, and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. The American journal of clinical nutrition. 2009 Jul 22;90(3):613-20.
- Hu FB, Cho E, Rexrode KM, Albert CM, Manson JE. Fish and long-chain ω-3 fatty acid intake and risk of coronary heart disease and total mortality in diabetic women. Circulation. 2003 Apr 15;107(14):1852-7.
- Pan A, Sun Q, Bernstein AM, Schulze MB, Manson JE, Willett WC, Hu FB. Red meat consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes: 3 cohorts of US adults and an updated meta-analysis. The American journal of clinical nutrition. 2011 Aug 10;94(4):1088-96.
- Liu G, Zong G, Wu K, Hu Y, Li Y, Willett WC, Eisenberg DM, Hu FB, Sun Q. Meat cooking methods and risk of type 2 diabetes: results from three prospective cohort studies. Diabetes care. 2018 May 1;41(5):1049-60.
- Qi L, Cornelis MC, Zhang C, Van Dam RM, Hu FB. Genetic predisposition, Western dietary pattern, and the risk of type 2 diabetes in men. The American journal of clinical nutrition. 2009 Mar 11;89(5):1453-8.
- Willi C, Bodenmann P, Ghali WA, Faris PD, Cornuz J. Active smoking and the risk of type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA. 2007 Dec 12;298(22):2654-64.
- Djoussé L, Biggs ML, Mukamal KJ, Siscovick DS. Alcohol consumption and type 2 diabetes among older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study. Obesity. 2007 Jul;15(7):1758-65.
- Rimm EB, Chan J, Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA, Willett WC. Prospective study of cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and the risk of diabetes in men. BMJ. 1995 Mar 4;310(6979):555-9.
- Koppes LL, Dekker JM, Hendriks HF, Bouter LM, Heine RJ. Moderate alcohol consumption lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes: a meta-analysis of prospective observational studies. Diabetes care. 2005 Mar 1;28(3):719-25.
- Conigrave KM, Hu BF, Camargo CA, Stampfer MJ, Willett WC, Rimm EB. A prospective study of drinking patterns in relation to risk of type 2 diabetes among men. Diabetes. 2001 Oct 1;50(10):2390-5.
- Mukamal KJ, Conigrave KM, Mittleman MA, Camargo Jr CA, Stampfer MJ, Willett WC, Rimm EB. Roles of drinking pattern and type of alcohol consumed in coronary heart disease in men. New England Journal of Medicine. 2003 Jan 9;348(2):109-18.
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Imagine an Aotearoa New Zealand where our native species are safe from extinction and thriving alongside us. We all want our unique species of birds, frogs, lizards and plants to flourish. That’s why Predator Free 2050 is working towards eradication of our three most damaging predators (rats, stoats, and possums) – and everyone has a role to play.
Sadly, we are rapidly losing these treasured species. Having evolved separately from the rest of the world for millions of years, our native animals did not learn to defend themselves against introduced predators. Now, these predators kill an estimated 25 million native birds each year. Some 4000 native species are threatened or at risk of extinction – one of the highest proportions in the world.
There’s good news. With government investment, Predator Free 2050:
And people all over Aotearoa are taking part - backyard trapping, planting natives, volunteering, and donating. This movement brings together expertise from government, Māori, businesses, NGOs, and communities. Together, we can achieve a predator free New Zealand.
This is no small undertaking, it’s requiring new collaborations, innovation and active communities. But, as New Zealanders, we’re ready for the challenge. Learn about the plan to get there in the Predator Free 2050 Strategy and how we’re #OneStepCloserPF2050 in the PF2050 5-year progress report. Strategy and 5-year progress report.
Get the tools and guidance you need to trap in your community and on larger sites.
Animal pests and threats have a major detrimental effect on our environment. Controlling them is essential for the survival of our native plants and animals.
Check out blogs, podcasts and video stories about Predator Free 2050.


“I tell everyone that I meet that they should take an Irish language course,” said Rae Moors, a senior Irish language and literature major.
In the first program of its kind in North America, Notre Dame Irish majors learn the indigenous language of Ireland and engage with a wide range of literature, from medieval sagas to contemporary poetry and prose. “There are so many angles you can take while studying Ireland,” said Moors. “Ireland really is different from every other place just in the history of what they’ve faced and how they have had to deal with it.”
During her sophomore year, Moors interned at the National Folklore Collection at University College Dublin with support from the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies. She then practiced her Irish in Gleann Cholm Cille, County Donegal, with a grant from the Summer Language Abroad program sponsored by the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures. Moors appreciated these opportunities to advance her fluency because “the sort of immersion that you need to truly learn a language is something that you can’t experience in America.”
“The experiences I’ve had in the department have been really valuable,” said Moors. “Everyone should take Irish!”
You can also watch this video on YouTube.
Learn More >
Originally published by al.nd.edu on November 21, 2014.at


We often do our best work in competitive environments – whether we’re racing against our market competition, or competing in internal “innovation contests." Some of history's most important inventions were the products of intense competition. No fewer than 20 people claimed responsibility for the light bulb when Thomas Edison began marketing his invention. The telephone drew on the contributions of at least 10 individuals working over a period of 50 years, even though it is commonly credited to Alexander Graham Bell. This competition helps companies and individual inventors be on top of their game and avoid getting complacent.
The Relationship Between Competition and Innovation
Steve Tobak writes in Entrepreneur Magazine that competition "doesn’t just create winners and success stories. It builds strong personalities, resilience and determination, and a sense of humor and humility. It builds high-performing entrepreneurs, executives and business leaders. It makes us strong." Looking back at the history of civilization, he notes that the "survival of the fittest" has shaped our development since the dawn of our species, becoming encoded in our methods of progress.
Whether you're an individual innovator or a giant brand, chances are you have competition in your market space. High performance rivalries between companies like Apple and Google have been responsible for major leaps in innovation. Without that competition, it would be easy for big brands to sit back on previous accomplishments rather than push forward into new territory. Competition means always looking ahead, pushing yourself to be the first, the fastest, and the best.
In a competitive market, the best and the brightest ideas succeed. In fact, competition is vital to the consumer visibility of new products and services. Without a competitor to compare to, consumers don't have a frame of reference from which to understand a new product. Competition creates a paradigm that increases product visibility and gets consumers emotionally invested in the success of their preferred brand. That's good for everyone, from consumers to stockholders to innovators.
Competition, Innovation, and the Inverted U
One theory — Yerkes-Dodson Law — maintains that individuals perform better when under stress, up to a point. The graph of this relationship looks something like an upside down letter U, thus the "inverted U" moniker. The premise is that competition, deadlines, and other pressures release stress hormones that sharpen memory and cognition. Thus, competition acts not only to keep innovators on task and focused on their work, but also to become even sharper mentally than they would be without the stress of competition.
However, there is a down side to the prolonged release of stress hormones. Too much stress, too much competition, can actually have a negative effect. Think of the football team's kicker, who can win the game with a good field goal kick. Instead of nailing the kick, he sloughs the ball and "chokes." Too much pressure can create a breaking point and impede performance.
Harnessing the Power of Competition
Embracing the natural competition of your market space and viewing it as an ally rather than an enemy is the first big step to making competition work in your company's favor. In addition to external market competition, you can create friendly internal competition to increase productivity and innovation. In a recent article on the Salesforce.com blog, Bob Marsh offers great tips for increasing collaboration and driving results with internal competition. I've adapted them below:
- Make Results Visible
Whatever your success metrics are, make them visible. Creating a "leaderboard" encourages friendly competition by keeping everyone accountable. The satisfaction of being at the top or rising through the ranks incentivizes progress and success.
- "Socialize" Competition
In addition to a visible leaderboard, other efforts to make friendly competition a part of your company culture will go a long way towards increasing productivity and innovation. Publicly acknowledging success and encouraging others to do the same creates an atmosphere in which success is at the forefront. Think of the excitement surrounding the Olympics or World Series — water cooler conversations keep friendly competition alive and thriving.
- Collaborate Across Departments
Creating goals and metrics that encourage inter-departmental collaboration rallies teams together around a common cause. Competition in isolation can be discouraging and counterproductive, but get a whole team involved and collaboration and cross-pollination results, increasing innovation and boosting morale.
What's the Bottom Line?
While you may find it stressful to have another company or innovator right on your heels, working on the same or similar project as you are, such competition is actually likely to be pushing both you and your competitor to achieve better things. Harnessing this power within your organization can have positive effects on productivity and creativity as well as support a healthy company culture.
Remember the Inverted U, however, and don't use competition as an excuse to push your people too hard. Always recognize and reward success, but don't mock or penalize failure, otherwise competition can quickly turn toxic. Done right, internal competition partnered with market competition creates a work space that is vibrant, innovative, and collaborative.
How have you used competition to your advantage? Tweet as @EidsonPartners to share your thoughts!


A new Li-Fi R&D centre has been opened at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland to aid in the development of a new generation of high-speed internet technology known as Li-Fi. The centre was opened on the 28 November, and will encourage collaboration between experts from the University and other research institutes around the world.
Li-Fi technology is transmitted using light waves instead of the existing radio technology. It is seen as the successor to the latest 4G wireless internet systems which were introduced in the UK in 2012. The demand for wireless internet access, brought about by the revolution in smart phone technology, is in danger of overloading the amount of data that can currently be supplied by Wi-Fi. However, according to researchers, Li-Fi has no such limitations. Using light to deliver wireless internet will also allow connectivity in environments that do not currently support Wi-Fi, such as aircraft cabins and hospitals.
Researchers at the centre are keen to identify new industrial partners and to collaborate more widely with international electronics companies to further develop Li-Fi technology. Professor Haas, chair of mobile communications at the University of Edinburgh and co-founder of a spin-out company, pureLiFi, said: ‘This internationally leading UK centre will accelerate the adoption of Li-Fi, and emerging wireless technology, through engagement with major industrial partners, to fully harness the potential of Li-Fi and establish a major new US$6 billion Li-Fi industry.’
Professor Lesley Yellowlees, head of the University of Edinburgh’s college of Science and Engineering, added: ‘The University of Edinburgh has a strong track record in communications research and providing industry solutions to this sector. This R&D centre in Edinburgh is a unique opportunity for the UK to lead the global development of Li-Fi technology.’


Rural spaces are connected with different cultural, economic, social and political codes and meanings. In this book these meanings are analysed through gender. The articles concretely show the process of producing gender and the ways in which accepted gender-based behaviour has been constructed at different times and in different groups. Discussion of gendered spaces leads to wider questions such as power relations and displacement in society. The changing rural processes are analysed on the micro level, and the focus is set on how these changes affect people's everyday lives. Answers are looked for questions like how are individuals responding to these changes? What are their strategies, solutions and tactics? How have they experienced the change process?
These are words or phrases in the text that have been automatically identified by the Named Entity Recognition and Disambiguation service, which provides Wikipedia () and Wikidata () links for these entities.
Olsson P. & Ruotsala H. (eds.) 2009. Gendered Rural Spaces. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21435/sfe.12
This book is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution + Noncommercial + NoDerivatives 4.0 license. Copyright is retained by the author(s)
This book has been peer reviewed. See our Peer Review Policies for more information.
Published on 22 Dec 2009


Paint Rock in Jackson County, Alabama — The American South (East South Central)
The History of Paint Rock, Alabama / Paint Rock Arrests in 1931 Began ‘Scottsboro Boys’ Cases
The History of Paint Rock, Alabama
Originally Camden circa 1830, the post office was renamed Redman in 1846 and became Paint Rock on May 17, 1860. After the Memphis and Charleston Railroad Co. built a depot and water tower in 1856, the village thrived as a farm to market center. Four battles were waged nearby during the Civil War and Union troops guarded the railroad.
Early industries included a mill to grind corn and wheat, a pencil mill, and two mills made staves for whiskey barrels. In the early 1900s, the town acquired a hosiery mill and a chair factory. By the 1930s, the bustling town boasted a bank, car dealership, textile mill, drug store, and hotel. The two-story brick Rousseau Store sold merchandise from farm plows to groceries and caskets.
Tornadoes damaged the region in 1870, 1880, and 1932. The 1932 storm killed six people and destroyed the textile mill, half of the town's homes, and most of the downtown buildings. Highway construction widening U.S. 72 in 1975 removed most of the remaining business section of the town.
Paint Rock Arrests in 1931 Began 'Scottsboro Boys' Cases
On March 25, 1931, Jackson County Sheriff Matt Wann ordered an armed posse to stop a Southern Railway freight at Paint Rock after six hoboing
At Scottsboro, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates identified Chattanooga teens Clarence Norris, Haywood Patterson, Eugene Williams and brothers Andy and Roy Wright, as well as Georgia residents Charlie Weems, Olin Montgomery, Willie Robeson and Ozie Powell as their attackers. The black men denied the charges. Four all-white Scottsboro juries reached multiple guilty verdicts with death sentences on April 6-9.
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the convictions and moved future trials to Decatur where Ruby Bates recanted her accusations. The trials, which created support for the defendants, continued into 1937 with more convictions, but none of the men were executed.
In 2013, the State of Alabama exonerated the nine men, the last of whom died in 1989, and issued pardons.
Erected 2013 by the Town of Paint Rock and the Alabama Tourism Department.
Location. 34° 39.952′ N, 86° 19.756′ W. Marker is in Paint Rock, Alabama, in Jackson County. Marker is at the intersection of John T Reid Parkway (U.S. 72) and Church Street, on the right when Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Paint Rock AL 35764, United States of America.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 10 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies. "Wildwood" (was approx. 2.6 miles away but has been reported missing. ); Town of Gurley (approx. 3½ miles away); Decatur County (approx. 5.4 miles away); Whitaker Cemetery (approx. 7½ miles away); Trail of Tears (approx. 7½ miles away); Walnut Grove Cumberland Presbyterian Church (approx. 8.2 miles away); Cathedral Caverns (approx. 8½ miles away); Vienna (New Hope) (approx. 9.7 miles away).
More about this marker. Marker is located in front of the Paint Rock Town Hall and Senior Center Building, near the Fire Department.
Categories. • African Americans • Civil Rights • Industry & Commerce • War, US Civil •
Credits. This page was last revised on June 16, 2016. This page originally submitted on October 27, 2013, by Lee Hattabaugh of Capshaw, Alabama. This page has been viewed 845 times since then and 31 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on October 27, 2013, by Lee Hattabaugh of Capshaw, Alabama. • Bernard Fisher was the editor who published this page.


This page provides links to and descriptions of resources for gifted and twice-exceptional children and adolescents and their families, as well as teachers and counselors. I do not endorse or promote any of these resources specifically, but have attempted to compile a list of resources that are recognized by families, researchers, and educators in the field of gifted education. I welcome any suggestions for additions or adjustments to this list.
Online Resources and Tools
Best Nuggets & Tools of ISTE13 - List of technology tools from the International Society for Technology in Education 2013 Conference.
2012 Digital Learning Report Card - "Digital Learning Now!’s second annual report card measures state policies on digital learning based on their alignment to the 10 Elements of High-Quality Digital Learning."
Duke TIP Digest of Gifted Research - Duke University, "a trusted resource for research-based information about raising and educating academically talented children."
Gifted Homeschoolers Forum - "The Gifted Homeschoolers Forum (GHF) supports gifted homeschoolers in the United States and around the world through education, advocacy, community and support."
Gifted Resources – Jo Freitag, mother of four gifted children in Australia
Hoagies Gifted Education Page – "the 'all things gifted' page for parents, teachers, administrators, mental health professionals, and gifted kids and adults."
Hoagies Gifted Education Page, Gifted Students at Risk – includes students in poverty, low income, of color, LGBT, urban, rural.
ICT magic - wiki by Martin Burrett, a teacher in the UK, with links to educational tools, such as ZooBurst, VOKI and edcanvas.
Institute for Research and Policy on Acceleration - Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development, A Nation Deceived and other publications about acceleration.
Jack Kent Cook Foundation - "The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is a private, independent foundation established by Jack Kent Cooke to help exceptionally promising students reach their full potential through education. Launched in 2000, the Foundation focuses in particular on students with financial need." Scholarships, direct service programs, and grants.
Mindset - "Mindset is a simple idea discovered by world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck in decades of research on achievement and success." She describes fixed and growth mindsets and "how teaching a growth mindset creates motivation and productivity in the worlds of business, education, and sports."
NAGC Link to Gifted and Talented Resources Directory - Parent and educator resources, schools and programs, and academic subjects of interest.
Our Gifted - home of the Understanding Our Gifted Journal (non-academic) and the Beyond Giftedness Conference in Colorado, where they are" dedicated to providing information to help you understand and work with gifted children."
Raising Smarter Kids - Resources, ideas, and support, from Dona Matthews, PhD, and Joanne Foster, EdD, authors of Being Smart about Gifted Education.
Reducing Stereotype Threat - "Reducingstereotypethreat.org was created by two social psychologists as a resource for faculty, teachers, students, and the general public interested in the phenomenon of stereotype threat. This website offers summaries of research on stereotype threat and discusses unresolved issues and controversies in the research literature. Included are some research-based suggestions for reducing the negative consequences of stereotyping, particularly in academic settings."
Empirically Validated Strategies to Reduce Stereotype Threat – Walton, Cohen, and Steele (2012), Stanford University
Renzulli Learning – online program based on research by Joe Renzulli, PhD, and Sally Reis, PhD, that is "student-centered, personalized, and project-centered."
What's Today App - "calendar and daily activity schedule app for kids on the iPad," designed by Lynette Breedlove, "Director of Advanced Academic Studies and Secondary Counseling in a public school district in the Houston area, where she oversees the gifted and talented program K-12, including services for highly gifted children."
Gifted Homeschoolers Forum Resources for Twice Exceptional – Links to resources for 2e, organizations, and websites.
TECA – Twice-Exceptional Children’s Advocacy – "Supporting gifted children and adolescents with special needs."
The National Institute for Twice-Exceptionality (NITE) - "The Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development at the University of Iowa College of Education is in the process of designing and implementing the National Institute for Twice-Exceptionality (NITE). This institute will be a national resource for gifted students who have one or more disabilities (twice-exceptional) as well as a training center for parents, educators, counselors, and psychologists."
Twice-Exceptional Gifted Children – Links to resources and book by author Beverly Trail, EdD, 2e consultant and on faculty of Regis University.
2e-Twice-Exceptional Newsletter – "For parents, educators, and other professionals. Helping 2e children reach their potential."
U.S. Department of Education Official Letter Regarding Access by Students with Disabilities to Accelerated Programs - A letter from Stephanie Monroe, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in 2007, encouraging prohibition against disability-based discrimination in accelerated programs.
Wrightslaw-Twice Exceptional Children (2e) – Site for information about special education law, education law, and advocacy for children with disabilities. Developed by Pete and Pam Wright, co-founders and faculty at the William & Mary Law Institute of Special Education Advocacy (ISEA).


Feeling tired all the time, experiencing changes in your mood, being constipated, or dealing with infertility can feel like an uphill battle when you’re struggling to find the cause, but the answer might be right under your nose, or rather, chin.
The thyroid , a butterfly-shaped gland at the front of your neck, is responsible for producing and releasing hormones that control everything from metabolism and heart rate to breathing and menstrual cycles. When the thyroid isn’t functioning properly, it may produce too little or too much thyroid hormone, leading to a range of seemingly unlinked symptoms that can progress over time and have serious health consequences.
If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, you’re not alone. Thyroid conditions such as hypothyroidism (low thyroid function), Graves’ disease, Hashimoto’s disease, and autoimmune thyroiditis are all on the rise. Thyroid cancer is also the most rapidly increasing cancer in the U.S., tripling in the past three decades. But why the sudden increase? Science is pointing to several reasons that could be to blame.
Around 70 percent of autoimmune thyroid conditions can be attributed to a genetic predisposition that is triggered by an environmental agent, while the other 30 percent are linked to environmental and lifestyle components or triggers. But the incidence of thyroid conditions in women, who are five to eight times more likely than men to have thyroid problems , may be more related to environmental concerns.
One study in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that women who were married to men who used agricultural pesticides were at a higher risk of developing thyroid disease than women who didn’t live in agricultural areas. Below are some of the other most common causes of thyroid issues you want to be aware of.
Other environmental factors that can disrupt your thyroid function include BPA in plastic bottles, soy isoflavones, and triclosan, which is found in everything from antibacterial soaps to toys. Workers that are exposed to deodorizers, sanitizers, and disinfectants through jobs in healthcare or cleaning also had a greater risk for developing thyroid cancer. These chemicals and pollutants interfere with thyroid hormone synthesis, metabolism, excretion, and action, often lowering levels of circulating thyroid hormones.
Your diet might also be a contributing factor to a thyroid condition. Iodine, selenium, iron, Zinc, and vitamin A nutrient deficiencies can all disrupt thyroid function . Without sufficient iodine, for instance, your thyroid is unable to produce adequate thyroid hormone, while low selenium could expose your thyroid to free radical damage.
A high-stress lifestyle may also play a role in altered thyroid function. When scientists examined thyroid hormone levels and levels of cortisol , the stress hormone, from a group of men and women, they found that elevated levels of thyroid hormone were associated with elevated cortisol.
Because so many of the symptoms of thyroid disorders can also be symptoms of other issues, more than half of people with thyroid problems have no idea they have them. At Parsley Health we diagnose thyroid issues that have gone undetected. How? Because we look for it in ways other doctors don’t.
We routinely test a complete a thyroid panel on every patient, looking at TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone), T4, Total T4, Free T3, Total T3, and Reverse T3. The test also looks for antibodies to the thyroid that indicates autoimmune activity against it. In addition, we’ll look at inflammatory markers and nutrient deficiencies that could signal something is off.
Thyroid function can often be restored through diet and appropriate supplementation, like by adding in these five foods that support thyroid health .
One of our members came to us suffering from weight gain, depression and fatigue. Before coming to Parsley, his doctors put him on antidepressants and told him his problem was testosterone. No one ever thought to test his thyroid. When we began testing him, we discovered he had Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. We were then able to heal his glands with diet changes and supplements . (Check out more of his story here. )
Another patient experienced recurrent miscarriages. Her doctor had ignored her symptoms of muscle pain and fatigue because her TSH levels were “normal.” However, at Parsley Health we know from European research that our range for “normal” in the U.S. is too broad, especially if someone is experiencing symptoms.
After we treated her with a natural form of thyroid hormone support, she got pregnant right away and is now mother to a happy, healthy baby boy!
Dr. Robin Berzin is the founder and CEO of Parsley Health. A Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Robin completed medical school at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, and trained in Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.


You may be asking yourself whether that’s a trick question. After all, almost one-third of 18- to 34-year-olds are still living at home with their parents. It is, in fact, the most common living arrangement for this age group and a circumstance that hasn’t occurred in more than 130 years, according to Pew Research Center.1
If your children are at home, you may be wondering whether they’ll move out before you retire. (If they don’t, perhaps you can charge rent to supplement your retirement income.) If your children do move out, will you begin to save more?
It’s an important question because many studies of retirement readiness assume Americans will save at higher rates after their children become financially independent. The Boston College Center for Retirement Research (BCCRR) examined this issue. Specifically, they analyzed data to determine whether retirement savings rates increased when parents became empty nesters.2
“Kids are expensive. As a result, when children become financially independent, parents often have a substantial amount of extra money on hand. In this case, they have two basic choices: spend more on themselves or increase their saving for retirement.”3
If they choose the former, then they may not be ready for retirement at full retirement age. After all, if parents spend any ‘extra’ money, they are raising their standard of living without increasing the resources available to support that standard in retirement.3
Many parents don’t save significantly more in 401(k) plans
BCCRR looked at the Health and Retirement Study, a panel survey of households with members who are age 50 or older. The survey has been conducted every year since 1992. The goal was to determine what happens to 401(k) plan savings after children move out. They found savings did increase by 0.3 percent to 0.7 percent, depending on the data used to define whether children were independent:3
“…For example, consider a household with two adults and two kids at home making $100,000 and contributing 6 percent of salary to a 401(k). The research studies that assume households follow an ‘increase-saving’ path would suggest that the couple move all the way to the 401(k) deferral limit of $18,000 in 2015 or 18 percent of earnings, a 12-percentage-point increase. Yet the results showed, at most, only a 0.7-percentage-point increase…”
While parents may find they have extra money on hand when children become financially independent, researchers found no evidence to support the idea parents were inspired to save significantly more for retirement.2
The nest is finally empty…what now?
Gas, electric, water, gasoline, insurance, groceries – it may be hard to fathom the savings that arrive on your doorstep when children depart. Readers of The Wall Street Journal offered opinions about what empty nesters should do with their “found” money:4
“Some people expressed regret at not having spent more when they were in good health. Others argued that there’s no way around the math – and it’s irresponsible not to save when you can. Still others provided tips on ways to have your cake and eat it too – by splurging at a low cost.”
Clearly, the savings strategy that suits one person may not be right for another. An individual who is close to meeting his or her retirement goal, and has a high probability of having enough savings to live comfortably throughout retirement, may decide to splurge. An individual or couple at the other end of the spectrum – with too little set aside for retirement – may make an entirely different choice and dramatically increase savings.
Unfortunately, relatively few Americans have ever figured out how well they are prepared for retirement. The 2016 Retirement Confidence Survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald & Associates reported just 48 percent of participants had ever tried to calculate how much money they need to save to live comfortably in retirement.5
As a result, many parents may not know how well prepared they are for retirement, even if they’ve been saving for years. Those who haven’t taken time to evaluate their retirement readiness may want to take a few minutes to contact their financial advisor, or use an online calculator, to determine the state of their retirement preparations.
Folks who are not as well prepared as they would like to be, may have to make some tough decisions. Their choices may include choosing to save more, retiring later, investing differently, and living on less in retirement. Before making any changes, it’s a good idea to talk with a financial professional who understands both sides of the retirement equation – accumulating wealth before retirement and dispersing savings as income during retirement.
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing.
There are hypothetical examples provided and they are not representative of any specific investment or scenario. This is not intended to be a substitute for specific individualized tax advice. We suggest you discuss your specific tax issues with a qualified tax advisor.
4 http://www.wsj.com/articles/empty-nester-spending-readers-weigh-in-1444146676 (or go to
This material was prepared by Peak Advisor Alliance. Peak Advisor Alliance is not affiliated with the named broker/dealer.


January 29, 2013 | 2
The vision is beautiful, if not somewhat tried: a large cluster of 360 foot tall towers encircled with long, slightly cupped blades, similar to airplane wings, spinning in the wind like a wind vane. The result? An outpouring of clean electricity at the Megawatt (MW) scale.
That’s what Harry Ruda, CEO of Wing Power Energy, a small vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) company, sees when he imagines his turbines coming of age. He’s one of the believers out there gallantly chasing the dream of making VAWTS big.
Currently, his 2-kilowatt capacity turbines stand 34 feet tall. However diminutive (both in terms of height and output), Ruda believes these turbines are the blueprint for the next generation of wind energy, that when scaled up, will revamp wind power at the utility level, ushering in wind 3.0.
The quest to slay the faulty dragon of conventional, or horizontal axis, wind turbines (HAWTS) has been an impossible one, thus far. The domination of conventional wind comes from their reliability, efficiency and increasingly low cost, despite vertical’s touted improvements – less expensive to build and maintain, safer for birds and bats, quieter, and their ability to use less open space.
“VAWTs are a perfectly legitimate technology, but these are not toys or lawn ornaments,” enthuses Paul Gipe, a renewable energy advocate and analyst, who’s worked in the industry for over 30 years, “They are supposed to produce electricity, and must compete with all the other machines that produce electricity. Right now, no one produces a VAWT that is more cost effective than a conventional wind turbine.”
There are enough examples of VAWT failure to solidify this air of doubt. According to Gipe, in California in the 1980s, hundreds of VAWTs were in operation producing millions of kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. Those turbines were not cost effective and were less reliable, as evidenced by their aluminum blades weakening and flying off after operating for several hundreds of hours (Eeeek!). Not one of these turbines is operating today.
More recently, a handful of small startups have tried to take up the cause. Helix Wind, a company that seemed to be heading in the right direction, ended its run due to financial troubles. Another, Windspire Energy, received accolades for its streamline design, was promoted in Popular Science’s “Best of What’s New” in 2008, and then declared Chapter 11 last year when it lost huge amounts of funds while repairing unreliable parts under warranty.
The problem, says John O. Dabiri, the Director for the Center for Bioinspired Wind Energy, California Institute of Technology, is that even though multiple companies are premiering new design developments like improved efficiency of 10-15%, they’ve still ignored the Achilles heal of vertical axis wind – fees and functionality.
“The main goal should be to change the cost and reliability of the designs, not its efficiency,” said Dabiri. “If a 2kw turbine costs more than $5,000.00 the company is blowing smoke about its viability.”
This means a turbine would have to be in the range of $1-$2 per kilowatt of maximum power production, and about 5 cents/kwh of electricity to get anywhere close to being competitive with the current fossil fuel market. It would also have to operate smoothly for about 20 years.
If this $5,000 cost point is the measure of success, Wing Energy’s current turbine isn’t likely to make headlines soon their small turbine sells for about $10,000. The Economies of scale bear much of this blame, since until a product is mass-produced, it’s difficult to keep manufacturing, installation, and distribution costs low. However, so too is the material choice.
“We do think there’s a lot of promise for VAWTs,” said Dabiri speaking on the future, but added that the [designers] need to start by using the right materials for small turbines before trying their hand at large wind.”
It’s this sliver of hope that keeps companies trying, including Venger Wind, Wepower Eco, and Urban Green Energy. This is the list that Wing Power wants to best with their turbine that combines the savonius and darrieus design into one technology, allowing it to operate very efficiently in low and high wind speed. This design is already being utilized on the micro wind scale to further the reach of cellphones.
“We believe that verticals will ultimately rule the day and replace horizontals because of their innate benefits,” says Ruda pitching his concept. “One of our missions is to prove this theory by starting with modeling 100 kilowatt capacity turbines and then moving to megawatt.”


Catalysts for Change
In 2009, the California Endowment and the Building Movement Project surveyed more than 450 California nonprofit service providers about their methods used to integrate social change activities into their work. Five main themes emerged from the survey results, as well as several case studies. These themes offer insights into what service providers can focus on in order to increase their capacity to engage in social change activities.
Theory of Change
Theory of Change is a method or technique that can assist communities to think about, plan and evaluate their work. It involves backwards mapping from the goals or desired outcomes of the program to identify what is needed in the program design to accomplish these goals. This website offers in depth resources, guides, and examples for how to develop and apply a TOC.
Developing a Logic Model or Theory of Change
This section of “Other Models for Promoting Community Health and Development,” from the Community Tools Box, answers the following questions:
1) What is a logic model?
2) When can a logic model be used?
3) How do you create a logic model?
4) What makes a logic model effective?
5) What are the benefits and limitations of logic modeling?
Movement Capacity Building
This fact sheet from BMP highlights some key differences between capacity building for organizational sustainability and capacity building for social change. It identifies nine areas identified as important building blocks of social movement capacity for nonprofit organizations.


Nominations for the inaugural RTCC Climate Change Awards, due to be presented at UNFCCC COP19 in Warsaw
BASF developed and rolled out new technologies for wind power this year.
Since August 2013, BASF’s RELEST coatings have made a crucial contribution to the longevity of the turbine on Hamburg’s inland wind turbine. They protect the rotor blades from enormous stresses brought about by weathering, erosion and UV radiation.
BASF works across Europe, was named a WWF Green Game-changer in 2012 and is signed up as circular economy task force member with the Green Alliance.
Turkana Wind Farm will be the largest wind power project in Africa. The project will allow the landlocked Great Rift Valley region to be connected to the rest of the country through the improved infrastructure linked to the wind farm, including a road, fibre-optic cable and electrification.
The project will add 300MW to power generation capacity and will benefit Kenya by providing clean and affordable energy that will reduce the overall energy cost to end consumers.
This zero-emission project will contribute in filling the energy gap in the country, enhancing energy diversification and saving 16 million tons of CO2 emission compared to a fossil fuel fired power plant.
In 2013, Dong Energy built Denmark’s biggest offshore wind farm at Anhold in record quick time.
Also this year, Dong Energy entered into cooperation with an academic consortium of three leading universities to work on a unique research and development project aimed at reducing the cost of energy from offshore wind turbines. The academic consortium, led by the University of Oxford, UK, will investigate how offshore wind turbine foundations can be designed more effectively in the future.
Dong Energy established 130 climate partnerships in Denmark from 2007-2012 as part of its first climate partnership with Novo Nordisk. It was also a partner in the London Array, the world’s biggest offshore wind project.
DeepCwind got the US’s first offshore wind turbine into the water and generating power, deploying a prototype 65-foot floating turbine off the coast of Maine in June 2013.
The concrete-composite design was a world-first. This was an early milestone for offshore wind in USA which has been slow to get off the ground due to cost. This new approach of a floating turbine is much cheaper.
Following this prototype, DeepCwind plans to install a machine with a 423-foot diameter rotor in 2016. By 2020, the hope is to create a wind farm with 80 turbines, about 20 miles offshore.
In June, WindMade launched the first global consumer label identifying organisations and products that use wind power in their operations or production. The scheme aims to promote products and brands that use a high level of wind-generated power across the world.
The WindMade Product Label can be applied to all products using a minimum share of 75% of renewable energy in their total electricity consumption, with wind power representing the largest share. The company worked with NGOs on the ‘Show You Care’ campaign.
Google has improved its environmental record after pressure from Greenpeace in Clean Our Cloud campaign. Google said it has spent more than $1 billion over the last four years on renewable energy projects in the US, Germany and South Africa. Google’s goal is to power 100% of their operations with renewables.


Marxism is the system of Marx’s views and teachings. Marx was the genius who continued and consummated the three main ideological currents of the 19th century, as represented by the three most advanced countries of mankind: classical German philosophy, classical English political economy, and French socialism combined with French revolutionary doctrines in general. Acknowledged even by his opponents, the remarkable consistency and integrity of Marx’s views, whose totality constitutes modern materialism and modern scientific socialism, as the theory and programme of the working-class movement in all the civilized countries of the world, make it incumbent on us to present a brief outline of his world-conception in general, prior to giving an exposition of the principal content of Marxism, namely, Marx’s economic doctrine.
Beginning with the years 1844–45, when his views took shape, Marx was a materialist and especially a follower of Ludwig Feuerbach, whose weak point he subsequently saw only in his materialism being insufficiently consistent and comprehensive. To Marx, Feuerbach’s historic and “epoch-making” significance lay in his having resolutely broken with Hegel’s idealism and in his proclamation of materialism, which already “in the 18th century, particularly French materialism, was not only a struggle against the existing political institutions and against... religion and theology, but also... against all metaphysics” (in the sense of “drunken speculation” as distinct from “sober philosophy”). (The Holy Family, in Literarischer Nachlass) “To Hegel... ,” wrote Marx, “the process of thinking, which, under the name of ‘the Idea’, he even transforms into an independent subject, is the demiurgos (the creator, the maker) of the real world.... With me, on the contrary, the ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind, and translated into forms of thought.” (Capital, Vol. I, Afterward to the Second Edition.) In full conformity with this materialist philosophy of Marx’s, and expounding it, Frederick Engels wrote in Anti-Duhring (read by Marx in the manuscript): “The real unity of the world consists in its materiality, and this is proved... by a long and wearisome development of philosophy and natural science....” “Motion is the mode of existence of matter. Never anywhere has there been matter without motion, or motion without matter, nor can there be.... Bit if the... question is raised: what thought and consciousness really are, and where they come from; it becomes apparent that they are products of the human brain and that main himself is a product of Nature, which has developed in and along with its environment; hence it is self-evident that the products of the human brain, being in the last analysis also products of Nature, do not contradict the rest of Nature’s interconnections but are in correspondence with them....
“Hegel was an idealist, that is to say, the thoughts within his mind were to him not the more or less abstract images [Abbilder, reflections; Engels sometimes speaks of “imprints”] of real things and processes, but on the contrary, things and their development were to him only the images, made real, of the “Idea” existing somewhere or other before the world existed.”
In his Ludwig Feuerbach—which expounded his own and Marx’s views on Feuerbach’s philosophy, and was sent to the printers after he had re-read an old manuscript Marx and himself had written in 1844-45 on Hegel, Feuerbach and the materialist conception of history—Engels wrote:
“The great basic question of all philosophy, especially of more recent philosophy, is the relation of thinking and being... spirit to Nature... which is primary, spirit or Nature.... The answers which the philosophers gave to this question split them into two great camps. Those who asserted the primary of spirit to Nature and, therefore, in the last instance, assumed world creation in some form or other... comprised the camp of idealism. The others, who regarded Nature as primary, belonged to the various schools of materialism.”
Any other use of the concepts of (philosophical) idealism and materialism leads only to confusion. Marx decidedly rejected, not only idealism, which is always linked in one way or another with religion, but also the views—especially widespread in our day—of Hume and Kant, agnosticism, criticism, and positivism in their various forms; he considered that philosophy a “reactionary” concession to idealism, and at best a “shame-faced way of surreptitiously accepting materialism, while denying it before the world.”
On this question, see, besides the works by Engels and Marx mentioned above, a letter Marx wrote to Engels on December 12, 1868, in which, referring to an utterance by the naturalist Thomas Huxley, which was “more materialistic” than usual, and to his recognition that “as long as we actually observe and think, we cannot possibly get away from materialism”, Marx reproached Huxley for leaving a “loop hole” for agnosticism, for Humism.
It is particularly important to note Marx’s view on the relation between freedom and necessity: “Freedom is the appreciation of necessity. ‘Necessity is blind only insofar as it is not understood.’” (Engels in Anti-Duhring) This means recognition of the rule of objective laws in Nature and of the dialectical transformation of necessity into freedom (in the same manner as the transformation of the uncognized but cognizable “thing-in-itself” into the “thing-for-us”, of the “essence of things” into “phenomena”). Marx and Engels considered that the “old” materialism, including that of Feuerbach (and still more the “vulgar” materialism of Buchner, Vogt and Moleschott), contained the following major shortcomings:
this materialism was “predominantly mechanical,” failing
to take account of the
latest developments in chemistry and biology (today it would be necessary to add:
and in the electrical theory of matter);
the old materialism was non-historical and non-dialectical (metaphysical, in the
meaning of anti-dialectical), and did not adhere consistently and comprehensively
to the standpoint of development;
it regarded the “human essence” in the abstract, not as the “complex of
all” (concretely and historically determined) “social relations”, and therefore
merely “interpreted” the world, whereas it was a question of “changing” it,
i.e., it did not understand the importance of “revolutionary practical activity”.
As the most comprehensive and profound doctrine of development, and the richest in content, Hegelian dialectics was considered by Marx and Engels the greatest achievement of classical German philosophy. They thought that any other formulation of the principle of development, of evolution, was one-sided and poor in content, and could only distort and mutilate the actual course of development (which often proceeds by leaps, and via catastrophes and revolutions) in Nature and in society.
“Marx and I were pretty well the only people to rescue conscious dialectics [from the destruction of idealism, including Hegelianism] and apply it in the materialist conception of Nature.... Nature is the proof of dialectics, and it must be said for modern natural science that it has furnished extremely rich [this was written before the discovery of radium, electrons, the transmutation of elements, etc.!] and daily increasing materials for this test, and has thus proved that in the last analysis Nature’s process is dialectical and not metaphysical.
“ The great basic thought,” Engels writes, “that the world is not to be comprehended as a complex of ready-made things, but as a complex of processes, in which the things apparently stable no less than their mind images in our heads, the concepts, go through an uninterrupted change of coming into being and passing away... this great fundamental thought has, especially since the time of Hegel, so thoroughly permeated ordinary consciousness that in this generality it is now scarcely ever contradicted. But to acknowledge this fundamental thought in words and to apply it in reality in detail to each domain of investigation are two different things.... For dialectical philosophy nothing is final, absolute, sacred. It reveals the transitory character of everything and in everything; nothing can endure before it except the uninterrupted process of becoming and of passing away, of endless ascendancy from the lower to the higher. And dialectical philosophy itself is nothing more than the mere reflection of this process in the thinking brain.” Thus, according to Marx, dialectics is “the science of the general laws of motion, both of the external world and of human thought.”
This revolutionary aspect of Hegel’s philosophy was adopted and developed by Marx. Dialectical materialism “does not need any philosophy standing above the other sciences.” From previous philosophy there remains “the science of thought and its laws—formal logic and dialectics.” Dialectics, as understood by Marx, and also in conformity with Hegel, includes what is now called the theory of knowledge, or epistemology, studying and generalizing the original and development of knowledge, the transition from non-knowledge to knowledge.
In our times, the idea of development, of evolution, has almost completely penetrated social consciousness, only in other ways, and not through Hegelian philosophy. Still, this idea, as formulated by Marx and Engels on the basis of Hegels’ philosophy, is far more comprehensive and far richer in content than the current idea of evolution is. A development that repeats, as it were, stages that have already been passed, but repeats them in a different way, on a higher basis (“the negation of the negation”), a development, so to speak, that proceeds in spirals, not in a straight line; a development by leaps, catastrophes, and revolutions; “breaks in continuity”; the transformation of quantity into quality; inner impulses towards development, imparted by the contradiction and conflict of the various forces and tendencies acting on a given body, or within a given phenomenon, or within a given society; the interdependence and the closest and indissoluble connection between all aspects of any phenomenon (history constantly revealing ever new aspects), a connection that provides a uniform, and universal process of motion, one that follows definite laws—these are some of the features of dialectics as a doctrine of development that is richer than the conventional one. (Cf. Marx’s letter to Engels of January 8, 1868, in which he ridicules Stein’s “wooden trichotomies,” which it would be absurd to confuse with materialist dialectics.)
A realization of the inconsistency, incompleteness, and onesidedness of the old materialism convinced Marx of the necessity of “bringing the science of society... into harmony with the materialist foundation, and of reconstructing it thereupon.” Since materialism in general explains consciousness as the outcome of being, and not conversely, then materialism as applied to the social life of mankind has to explain social consciousness as the outcome of social being. “Technology,” Marx writes (Capital, Vol. I), “discloses man’s mode of dealing with Nature, the immediate process of production by which he sustains his life, and thereby also lays bare the mode of formation of his social relations, and of the mental conceptions that flow from them.” In the preface to his Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Marx gives an integral formulation of the fundamental principles of materialism as applied to human society and its history, in the following words:
“In the social production of their life, men enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will, relations of production which correspond to a definite stage of development of their material productive forces.
“The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the social, political and intellectual life process in general. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness. At a certain stage of their development, the material productive forces of society come in conflict with the existing relations of production, or—what is but a legal expression for the same thing—with the property relations within which they have been at work hitherto. From forms of development of the productive forces these relation turn into their fetters. Then begins an epoch of social revolution. With the change of the economic foundation the entire immense superstructure is more or less rapidly transformed. In considering such transformations a distinction should always be made between the material transformation of the economic conditions of production, which can be determined with the precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, aesthetic or philosophic—in short, ideological forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out.
“Just as our opinion of an individual is not based on what he thinks of himself, so we cannot judge of such a period of transformation by its own consciousness; on the contrary, this consciousness must be explained rather from the contradictions of material life, from the existing conflict between the social productive forces and the relations of production.... In broad outlines, Asiatic, ancient, feudal, and modern bourgeois modes of production can be designated as progressive epochs in the economic formation of society.” [Cf. Marx’s brief formulation in a letter to Engels dated July 7, 1866: “Our theory that the organization of labor is determined by the means of production.”]
The discovery of the materialist conception of history, or more correctly, the consistent continuation and extension of materialism into the domain of social phenomena, removed the two chief shortcomings in earlier historical theories. In the first place, the latter at best examined only the ideological motives in the historical activities of human beings, without investigating the origins of those motives, or ascertaining the objective laws governing the development of the system of social relations, or seeing the roots of these relations in the degree of development reached by material production; in the second place, the earlier theories did not embrace the activities of the masses of the population, whereas historical materialism made it possible for the first time to study with scientific accuracy the social conditions of the life of the masses, and the changes in those conditions. At best, pre-Marxist “sociology” and historiography brought forth an accumulation of raw facts, collected at random, and a description of individual aspects of the historical process. By examining the totality of opposing tendencies, by reducing them to precisely definable conditions of life and production of the various classes of individual aspects of the historical process. By examining the choice of a particular “dominant” idea or in its interpretation, and by revealing that, without exception, all ideas and all the various tendencies stem from the condition of the material forces of production, Marxism indicated the way to an all-embracing and comprehensive study of the process of the rise, development, and decline of socio-economic systems. People make their own history but what determines the motives of people, of the mass of people—i.e., what is the sum total of all these clashes in the mass of human societies? What are the objective conditions of production of material life that form the basis of all man’s historical activity? What is the law of development of these conditions? To all these Marx drew attention and indicated the way to a scientific study of history as a single process which, with all its immense variety and contradictoriness, is governed by definite laws.
It is common knowledge that, in any given society, the striving of some of its members conflict with the strivings of others, that social life is full of contradictions, and that history reveals a struggle between nations and societies, as well as within nations and societies, and, besides, an alternation of periods of revolution and reaction, peace and war, stagnation and rapid progress or decline. Marxism has provided the guidance —i.e., the theory of the class struggle—for the discovery of the laws governing this seeming maze and chaos. It is only a study of the sum of the strivings of all the members of a given society or group of societies that can lead to a scientific definition of the result of those strivings. Now the conflicting strivings stem from the difference in the position and mode of life of the classes into which each society is divided.
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles,” Marx wrote in the Communist Manifesto (with the exception of the history of the primitive community, Engels added subsequently). “Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstruction of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.... The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones. Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinctive feature: it has simplified class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.”
Ever since the Great French Revolution, European history has, in a number of countries, tellingly revealed what actually lies at the bottom of events—the struggle of classes. The Restoration period in France already produced a number of historians (Thierry, Guizot, Mignet, and Thiers) who, in summing up what was taking place, were obliged to admit that the class struggle was taking place, were obliged to admit that the class struggle was the key to all French history. The modern period—that of complete victory of the bourgeoisie, representative institutions, extensive (if not universal) suffrage, a cheap daily press that is widely circulated among the masses, etc., a period of powerful and every-expanding unions of workers and unions of employers, etc.—has shown even more strikingly (though sometimes in a very one-sided, “peaceful”, and “constitutional” form) the class struggle as the mainspring of events. The following passage from Marx’s Communist Manifesto will show us what Marx demanded of social science as regards an objective analysis of the position of each class in modern society, with reference to an analysis of each class’s conditions of development:
“Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of Modern Industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product. The lower middle class, the small manufacturer, the shopkeeper, the artisan, the peasant, all these fight against the bourgeoisie, to save from extinction their existence as fractions of the middle class. They are therefore not revolutionary, but conservative. Nay more, they are reactionary, for they try to roll back the wheel of history. If by chance they are revolutionary, they are so only in view of their impending transfer into the proletariat; they thus defend not their present, but their future interests; they desert their own standpoint to place themselves at that of the proletariat.”
In a number of historical works (see Bibliography), Marx gave brilliant and profound examples of materialist historiography, of an analysis of the position of each individual class, and sometimes of various groups or strata within a class, showing plainly why and how “every class struggle is a political struggle.” The above-quoted passage is an illustration of what a complex network of social relations and transitional stages from one class to another, from the past to the future, was analyzed by Marx so as to determine the resultant of historical development.
Marx’s economic doctrine is the most profound, comprehensive and detailed confirmation and application of his theory.
 See Marx and Engels, The Holy Family (Chapter Eight)—Lenin
 Agnoticism—An idealist philosophical theory asserting that the world in unknowable, that the human mind is limited and cannot know anything beyond the realms of sensations. Agnosticism has various forms: some agnostics recognize the objective existence of the material world but deny the possibility of knowing it, others deny the existence of the material world on the plea that man cannot know whether anything exists beyond his sensations.
Criticism—Kant gave this name to his idealist philosophy, considering the criticism of man’s cognitive ability to be the purpose of that philosophy. Kant’s criticism led him to the conviction that human reason cannot know the nature of things.
Positivism—A widespread trend in bourgeois philosophy and sociology, founded by Comte (1798-1857), a French philosopher and sociologist. The positivists deny the possibility of knowing inner regularities and relations and deny the significance of philosophy as a method of knowing and changing the objective world. They reduce philosophy to a summary of the data provided by the various branches of science and to a superficial description of the results of direct observation—i.e., to “positive” facts. Positivism considers itself to be “above” both materialism and idealism but it is actually nothing more than a variety of subjective idealism.—Ed.
 Frederick Engels: Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy—Lenin
 Frederick Engels: Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy—Lenin
 Frederick Engels: Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy—Lenin
 See Karl Marx, Capital. Volume I.—Lenin
 Karl Marx, Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859)—Lenin
 The Restoration—The period in France between 1814 and 1830 when power was in the hands of the Bourbons, restored to the throne after their overthrow by the French bourgeois revolution in 1792.—Ed.
 See Marx and Engels, Selected Works Vol. 1, Moscow, 1973, pp. 108-09, 117-18, 116.—Ed.


The King County Lake Beach Monitoring Program protects public health by providing timely and accessible information on water quality (bacteria and algal toxins) at selected public swimming beaches. We often help beach managers identify and test ways to reduce pollution by improving management practices. In addition, we regularly monitor some streams that impact nearby swimming beaches, and work with stormwater managers to locate specific sources of bacteria pollution.
The Lake Beach Monitoring Program began in 1996, and grew out of King County’s existing monitoring program on Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish. Regular monitoring of these large lakes began in 1981. But King County’s water-quality monitoring arguably traces back to 1958, when voters approved the formation of The Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle (Metro). Metro’s initial goal was to develop a regional wastewater treatment system to reduce sewage pollution of our lakes and Puget Sound.
© SWIM DRINK FISH CANADA, 2011 - 2022


By Mary Brett BSc (Hons) Chair of Cannabis Skunk Sense in Great Britain www.cannabisskunksense.co.uk
Damage is caused in several different ways.
BRAIN: Messages are passed from cell to cell (neurons) in the brain by chemicals called neurotransmitters which fit by shape into their own receptor sites on specific cells.
The neurotransmitter, anandamide, an endo-cannabinoid (made in body) whose job is to control by suppression the levels of other neurotransmitters is mimicked and so replaced by a cannabinoid (not made in body) in cannabis called THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol). THC is very much stronger and damps down more forcefully the release of other neurotransmitters. Consequently the total activity of the brain decreases. Chaos ensues.
Neurotransmitters delivering messages to the hippocampus, the area for learning and memory don’t receive enough stimulation to reach it, so signals are lost for ever. Academic performance plummets and IQs fall by about 8 points. Neurons can be lost permanently. This is brain damage. No child using cannabis even occasionally will achieve their full potential.
Because signalling is slowed down, reaction times increase. Driving becomes hazardous and fatal accidents are rising in legalised USA states. Alcohol plus cannabis in drivers is 16 times more dangerous.
Since THC is fat-soluble, it stays in cells for weeks, constantly ensuring this decrease in brain activity. In the sixties/seventies the THC content was around 1-3%, now in London only ‘skunk’ at 16-20% THC is available. Professor Sir Robin Murray has said that, ‘users will be in a state of low-grade intoxication most of the time’.
The Dopamine neurotransmitter has no receptor sites for anandamide and so THC doesn’t affect it. But the inhibitory Gaba neurotransmitter has. Gaba normally suppresses dopamine but since it is itself suppressed by THC, levels of dopamine quickly increase. Excess dopamine is found in the brains of psychotics, and even schizophrenics if they have a genetic vulnerability. Anyone taking enough THC at one sitting will suffer a psychotic episode which could become permanent.
Aggression, violence, even homicides, suicides and murders have resulted from cannabis-induced psychosis. The first research paper linking THC with psychosis was published in 1845. Cannabis-induced schizophrenia costs the country around £2 billion/year. Some of these mentally ill people will spend the rest of their lives in psychiatric units.
THC also depletes the levels of the ‘happiness’ neurotransmitter Serotonin. This can cause depression which may lead to suicide.
THC causes dependence. This will affect 1 in 6 using adolescents and 1 in 9 of the general population. Since THC replaces anandamide, there is no need for its production which reduces and eventually stops so the receptor sites are left empty. Withdrawal then sets in with irritability, sleeplessness, anxiety, depression, even violence until anandamide production resumes. Rehab specialists have told us that adolescent pot addiction is the most challenging to treat.
Cannabis can also act as a gateway drug – it can ‘prime’ the brain for the use of other drugs. Professor David Fergusson (NZ) in longitudinal studies from birth found that ‘The use of cannabis in late adolescence and early adulthood emerged as the strongest risk factor for later involvement in other illicit drug use’.
THC inhibits the vomiting reflex. If a person has drunk too much alcohol, they are often sick and get rid of it. An overdose of alcohol can kill (respiratory muscles stop working) so using cannabis together with alcohol can be fatal.
The signalling of endo-cannabinoids is crucial in brain development. They guide the formation, survival, proliferation, motility and differentiation of new neurons. THC badly interferes with these essential processes.
Chaos ensues among the confused brain signals and a cannabis personality develops. Users can’t think logically. They have fixed opinions and answers, can’t find words, can’t take criticism – it’s always someone else’s fault, and can’t plan their day. Families suffer from their violent mood swings – houses get trashed. Anxiety, panic and paranoia may ensue. At the same time users are lonely, miserable and feel misunderstood.
Cannabis smoke has many of the same constituents as tobacco smoke but more of its carcinogens – in cancer terms a joint equals 4/5 cigarettes. More tar is deposited in the lungs and airways. Coughing, wheezing, emphysema, bronchitis and cancers have been seen in the lungs.
Heart rates rise and stay high for 3-4 hours after a joint. Heart attacks and strokes have been recorded. Some teenagers had strokes and died after bingeing on cannabis.
The hypothalamus is a region of the brain known to regulate appetite. Endo-cannabinoids in this area send ‘I’m hungry’ messages. When you take THC, that message is boosted. This is called ‘the munchies’. Nabilone, (synthetic THC) can be used to stimulate the appetite in AIDS patients.
DNA and Reproduction:
THC affects the DNA in any new cells being made in the body. It speeds up the programmed cell death (apoptosis) of our defence white blood cells, so our immune system is diminished. There are also fewer sperm. Infertility and impotence have been reported as far back as the 1990s.
An Australian paper published in July 2016 explains this phenomenon. THC can disrupt the actual process of normal cell division mitosis and meiosis (formation of sperm and eggs). In mitosis, the chromosomes replicate and gather together at the centre of the cell. Protein strands (microtubules) are formed from the ends of the cell to pull half of the chromosomes to each end to form the 2 new cells. Unfortunately THC disrupts microtubule formation. Chromosomes can become isolated, rejoin other bits of chromosome and have other abnormalities. Some will actually be shattered into fragments (chromothripsis).
This DNA damage can also cause cancers. Oncogenes (cancer-causing genes) may be activated, and tumour suppressant genes silenced. Chromosome fragments and abnormal chromosomes are frequently seen in cancerous tissues. This would account for other cancers, leukaemia, brain, prostate, cervix, testes and bladder etc, reported in regions of the body not exposed to the smoke. Pregnant users see a 2-4 fold increase in the number of childhood cancers in their offspring.
The DNA damage has also been associated with foetal abnormalities – low birth weight, pre-term birth, spontaneous miscarriage, spina bifida, anencephaly (absence of brain parts), gastroschisis (babies born with intestines outside the body) cardiac defects and shorter limbs. All these defects bear in common an arrest of cell growth and cell migration at critical development stages consistent with the inhibition of mitosis noted with cannabis.
DNA damage at meiosis results in fewer sperm as we have seen. Increased errors in meiosis have the potential for transmission to subsequent generations. The zygote (fertilised egg) death rate rises by 50% after the first division.
In infants, birth weight is lower and they may be born addicted. Children may have problems with behaviour and cognitive functions as they grow. Childhood cancers are more common. Intensive care for newborns doubles. The younger they start using cannabis, the more likely they are to remain immature, become addicted, suffer from mental illnesses or progress to other drugs. Average age of first use is 13.
Regular cannabis users have worse jobs, less than average money, downward social mobility, relationship problems and antisocial behaviour.
Cannabis Skunk Website www.cannabisskunksense.co.uk Cannabis: A survey of its harmful effects by Mary Brett is available on DOWNLOADS. It is a 300+ page report written in 2006 and kept up to date.
Chromothripsis and epigenomics complete causality criteria for cannabis- and addiction-connected carcinogenicity, congenital toxicity and heritable genotoxicity https://www.cannabisskunksense.co.uk/uploads/site-files/ty,Chromothripsis,CarcinogenicityandFetotoxicity,MR-FMMM.pdf
Book: Adverse Health Consequencies of Cannabis Use. Jan Ramstrom National Institute of Public Health Sweden www.fhi.se


It is very common to feel nervous and anxious before an important test or final exam. The easiest way to reduce these feelings of anxiety is to prepare. This means you must STUDY. Begin to study your materials at least one month in advance of your exam to give yourself sufficient time to get to know and understand your subject matter. Give yourself an extra leg up by working with an in-home private tutor, or take advantage of online tutoring to really master the material. Once it’s time to write the final exam, all your hard work and preparation will pay off, but it can still be a nerve-wracking time especially if you suffer from test anxiety.
Here are some tips to help you remain calm and confident while in the exam hall:
Before answering any questions, take a few minutes to read through the exam. By reviewing all questions as soon as you receive the exam, there are no surprises. Make sure to read all instructions carefully. Often, exams will feature sections where you only need to answer three out of five questions, for example. You don’t want to waste any time answering questions that will not be counted as part of your final mark! If any questions are at all unclear, take time to ask the exam supervisor(s) to clarify. You may know the answer after all, with a better idea of what the question is asking.
After you do a preliminary review of the exam, flag the questions you know you can easily answer first. Write down the key points and concepts of your answer in bullet-form in the margins. It will make you feel more confident knowing that you have already written down all of the information you need in your answer – there is no way you will forget it now.
If you are unsure of how to answer a few of the trickier questions, don’t panic, just leave them to the end. By leaving problem questions until the end, you allow yourself time to let your mind explore different topics as you answer the other questions. Often times, answering other questions you will jog your memory and remember concepts and facts that you may have overlooked initially. At the end of the exam, if you find you still can’t answer the questions fully, answer with the best response you can create given the knowledge you do have. Even if you don’t answer a question fully, it is better to get partial marks for explaining part of a concept, or making an educated guess, rather than receiving a mark of zero for leaving the answer blank.
Good luck with your exams and enjoy your summer!