“The subject of genius and mental illness has been discussed and debated on a scientific level for decades. Our cultural awareness of the link between mental disorder and genius is as old as philosophy. Plato wrote of what he called “divine madness,” and Aristotle recognized that creative people tended toward melancholia. It is no coincidence that such a high percentage of American Nobel and Pulitzer Prize – winning writers are also alcoholics” (Saltz, 9).
It was these lines in M.D. Gail Saltz’ book The Power of Different that led me to read this psychiatrist and bestselling author’s take on mental illness as a driving force for creativity. Saltz relies on scientific research, stories from historical geniuses and from everyday individuals who have not only made the most of their conditions but have also flourished because of them.
Being a blogger on mental health, specifically bipolar disorder, the idea of disorder being linked to genius extremely interested me. Saltz found in multiple studies, bipolar disorder has been scientifically, clinically proven to correlate with creativity and the artistic temperament (Saltz 136). Being both an artist and a person suffering with bipolar disorder this peaked my interest even more.
Clinical psychologist and writer Kay Redfield Jamison writes in her book Touched with Fire that Saltz references, “Many of the changes in mood, thinking and perception that characterize the mildly manic states – restlessness, ebullience, expansiveness, irritability, grandiosity, quickened and more finely tuned senses, intensity of emotional experiences, diversity of thought, and rapidity of associational processes – are highly characteristic of creative thought as well” (Saltz 145). Bipolar is a disorder that has links to creativity which can be traced back to writers such as Ernest Hemingway and Anne Saxton who unfortunately took their lives as a result of their cycling moods.
The most creative individuals however are not the “most well” or the “most ill” but rather are often “mildly ill.” Saltz references the research of Robert Bilder and Kendra Knudsen at the University of California, Los Angeles who observe this phenomena: “These are the individuals who can be diagnosed with all sorts of brain differences – like depression or bipolar disorder – who are simultaneously well treated and flexible enough to move back and forth between convergent and divergent thinking” (Saltz 206).
Examples of this kind of flexibility can be found in a forty-year longitudinal study conducted by Swedish researchers and published in the “Journal of Psychiatric Research:” “These researchers found that being an author “was specifically associated with increased likelihood of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, unipolar depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and suicide. Clearly the authors who suffered from these brain differences were functioning at a level high enough to enable them to produce publishable work. Moreover, these same researchers found much higher representation in scientific and artistic fields among those whose first-degree relatives had diagnosed mental illness” (Saltz 206).
In the words of Bilder and Knudsen, the creative brain needs to balance at “the edge of chaos: “the kind of creativity that produces novels, musical scores,entrepreneurial ideas, and scientific theories requires the ability to flip back and forth between organized and messy thinking” (Saltz 206).
Often times people with bipolar disorder who enjoy the creative frenzy that accompanies mania or hypomania neglect to take their medication in order to ride the high out a little longer, so to speak. The flurry of ideas that come during these manic episodes can seem intoxicating and I can speak from experience of a rush of ideas that came over me that all seemed pressing and yet I was too disorganized in thought to be able to hold any one idea down.
Nassir Ghaemi, Who treats many bright students in their teens and twenties, says, ” is that people with bipolar disorder can benefit from taking a broad view of their own creativity. When patients resist medication, the real issue they’re having is that they think about creativity is just one thing, as this kind of flash of inspiration that happens when you’re manic. And that is part of creativity, but there’s another kind of creativity.”(Saltz 150).
Ghaemi cites the work of psychoanalyst Elliott Jaques, who wrote about what he called “sculpted creativity”. “This is not a flash of inspiration, but it’s insights that overtime you put together, like a Sculptor. And it’s not something that happens all of a sudden. This durable sort of creativity depends on maintaining equilibrium over the long haul – that is, not burning out like a light bulb or losing time to severe manic and depressive episodes” (Saltz 150).
Ghaemi tells his patients the following: “instead of having a lot of creativity really briefly and then being depressed and fallow for a long time, you’re better off having less creativity more regularly, more consistently. it actually adds up more that way.” (Saltz 150).
In multiple studies, bipolar disorder has been scientifically, clinically proven to correlate with creativity and the artistic temperament (Saltz 136). I can speak from experience as a visual artist and writer with bipolar disorder that the shift between moods elevates my work in ways if I was quote on quote normal would not be as interesting. When I am hypomanic (not manic because that is too much of an extreme) I have creative ideas and am more able to execute them such as writing this blog on the link between creativity and bipolar disorder. When I swing into more of a depression, I am more prone to edit my work and create visual art because I ruminate more and am able to take on longer projects such as a big painting or technically precise artwork that takes several bouts of time.
However, I have been medicated for years and now notice a more sculpted creativity Nassir Ghaemi speaks of in that I have more creativity that is productive instead of bursts of disorganized manic ideas that I would have a harder time following through on. I am also prone to experience mania as psychosis and so my ideas turn psychotic in nature and no longer productive at all, like thinking I can buy eight mustangs with money I do not have.
I do notice an artistic temperament to bipolar disorder, in that us bipolar people tend to be more melancholic in nature and so reflect on the world in a more drawn out manner and have the gifts of mania/hypomania to illuminate ideas/ ways in which we can translate these thoughts to the general public, typically through writing and art. However, there is a pendulum effect to being productive with creativity in that you must ,as discussed above, be slightly insane but sane enough, or rather medicated enough, to be able to translate that insanity into something coherent. Me raving mad in the psych ward about the millions of dollars I have and trying to order things I cannot afford are not well executed ideas or a productive use of my illness. However, writing about it later while medicated provides others with bipolar disorder a sense of hope, that they can create normalcy out of insanity and even discuss it openly without shame or stigma. I couldn’t string more than two sentences coherently together while manic let alone write a full blog post. It is through medication that creativity can truly foster and grow. It is through balance that the bipolar mind can be as creative as it was meant to be.
The link between disorder and genius is evident through research and influential creators who are linked to this disorder. Virginia Woolf may have committed suicide but she is still arguably one of the best English writers of her time and for that matter even all time. Bipolar disorder has its pitfalls like in the case of Woolf a higher risk for suicide but it also creates a powerhouse of potential, the potential to create something meaningful from the chaos of the mind.


On warm summer evenings, children from several generations have wiled the hours before calls for bedtime playing traditional games. “Run, Sheep, Run” is a great old-fashioned neighborhood game, giving kids the chance to do some heavy-duty running and to take advantage of all the best hiding places on the block. Although kids of all ages can play, it's better to categorize the players by age range.
How to Play Run Sheep Run
Set up a “sheep pen” and a “fox den.” These are simply two areas on opposite sides of the playing area.
Mark boundaries clearly, letting kids know how far they can go for both the hiding (for the sheep) and the searching (for the foxes).
Divide everyone into two groups: one group of sheep and one group of foxes. Explain that they will trade roles later.
Tell the sheep to choose someone who will be the “Old Ram.” This player makes decisions for all the sheep and tells them where they will run and hide. They must all stay together for the entire game.
Meanwhile, the foxes choose the “Fox King.” He (or she) will make the decisions for all the foxes. The foxes cannot begin looking for the sheep until the Old Ram comes to get them.
After the sheep are hidden, the Old Ram reports to the foxes and tells them, “My sheep are hiding; you will never find them.”
The foxes take off, led by the Fox King, looking for the sheep. They must stay together for the entire game.
The Old Ram runs with the foxes, and when he (or she) thinks the sheep would have a good chance to make it back to the sheep pen without being caught by the foxes, he yells out, “Run, Sheep, Run.”
Both the foxes and the sheep then race to the sheep pen. If the sheep get their first, they get to be the foxes next. Otherwise they must continue to be the sheep.
The game is won when one group has been the foxes for three consecutive times.
You might want to have a new “Old .Ram” and “Fox King” chosen for each round to give several kids the chance to serve as the leader.
If possible, have kids play “Run, Sheep, Run” on one side of the street only to avoid issues with traffic.


Scholarly interest in the history of Haiti has resurged in recent years, largely focused on the Haitian Revolution. There is, of course, also a plethora of scholarship on Vodou in Haiti. Kate Ramsey’s The Spirits and the Law should not be overlooked as a run-of-the-mill addition to either body of work. Ramsey’s award-winning1 first book offers a valuable perspective on both the broader history of Haiti and the sociopolitical role of Vodou as she examines the creation and enforcement of laws that restricted ritual practices between the colonial period and the fall of the Duvalier regime. She proposes that these laws were not implemented consistently or successfully for two reasons: first, the government repeatedly failed to differentiate between le vaudoux, a form of spiritual practice, and malevolent magic—two distinct concepts in the minds of practitioners. Second, attempts to enforce these laws were subverted and manipulated insofar as it served local populations.
The Spirits and the Law examines the Haitian government’s approach to vaudoux as a potential threat to order and civil society, and the international community’s view of it as evidence against Haiti’s modernity. The government’s concerns about spiritual gatherings and practices were amplified by outside forces, namely the Catholic Church and the US military. The greater the attempts to exert control over ritual practice, the more distorted and perverse became their perceptions of vaudoux, and vice versa.
Ramsey addresses the debated etymology of the term le vaudoux, clarifying that it refers to a specific type of performance in service to the [End Page 233] spirits (loi). Ginen refers to the larger spiritual and moral belief system incorporating African, Catholic, and Haitian elements. In the law, prohibited practices were termed les sortilèges, which indicates sorcery or spell-casting. Ramsey goes on to demonstrate why such confusion of terminology left the meaning of the law open to citizens’ interpretation and manipulation.
In chapter 1, Ramsey begins with the role of ‘magic’ and ritual during the colonial era and the revolution. From the inception of the Code Noir in 1685 to the revolution in 1791, slaves and people of color were forbidden to gather in large groups or to possess certain symbolic “magical” objects. However, Dessalines’ perpetuation of laws against magic and vaudoux during his leadership indicate this was an issue, not just of race or culture, but of political control; a connection had been formed between vaudoux and rebellion.
Chapter 2 looks at Haiti’s growth as a nation and its attempts to be accepted internationally as a sovereign state. To promote an image of ‘civilization’ in keeping with 19th-century ideals, the government continued attempts to suppress “superstition” and sortilèges in the Code Pénal. By law, citizens had to obtain permits for gatherings, which could be denied if the local official suspected a spiritual purpose. However, in practice, a police officer or local official may well have been a priest or practitioner of vaudoux himself. In the complex web of Catholic, African and indigenous belief and practice that had developed in Haiti over two centuries, few symbols, words, or acts had one meaning only. Adherents of Ginen and vaudoux interpreted the state’s laws in a way that benefited them, e.g. as injunctions against those who were suspected to have poisoned, murdered, cannibalized, or cursed others. Thus, ironically, the belief in the supernatural or spiritual was perpetuated by the laws against it; why would the government bother to outlaw ‘sorcery’ practices if they could not harm anyone? Thus the law and the spirits (both expressed by the word loi) influenced each other multilaterally.
In Chapters 3 and 4, Ramsey thoroughly investigates the creation of the sensationalized concept of “voodoo”—and concurrent efforts to suppress it—during the US occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934. The US sought to control Haiti through oppressive measures that included forced labor, martial law, and selective enforcement of the Haitian laws against certain spiritual gatherings and practices. US administrators disregarded...


Kansas State Flower: Sunflower Facts
To print the information on this page, download Sunflower Facts (PDF)
Facts about the Sunflower
- Early settlers celebrated this ubiquitous plains flower and in 1903, the Kansas Legislature designated the Sunflower, Helianthus annuus, as the state flower. Like many wide-spread plants, it is known by several other names such as Common Sunflower, Wild Sunflower and Annual Sunflower.
- The genus Helianthus comes from the Greek "helios" meaning "sun" and "anthos" meaning "flower." The species "annuus" means "annual."
- It is not the only species of sunflower found in Kansas. There is another annual species as well as ten perennial species.
- Our Sunflower grows in every Kansas county due to its adaptability to soils from sand to clay and toleration of dry to medium moist soils. In early fall, the yellow flowers give the prairies and roadsides a golden glow.
- Growing in full sun, the plant appears weedy with rough, hairy stems towering 5 to 12 feet tall and coarse toothed leaves. Contrary to folklore, Sunflowers do not follow the sun; they typically face eastward when mature.
- Like other members of the Aster family, the "flower" is actually an inflorescence, consisting of an outer circle of sterile ray petals and an inner disc of tiny florets, each capable of producing an individual fruit.
- The glorious yellow flowers are 3 to 6 inches wide; the spiral pattern of the florets maximizes the use of space. The arrangement as florets has been described as a mathematical formula using: the angle of growth, radius from the center, and index number of each floret.
Animal Uses of the Sunflower
- Bees and butterflies enjoy the nectar and pollen as they pollinate the disc flowers. Mammals, birds, and insects consume the foliage and flowers.
- The large seed heads serve the winter food needs of goldfinches, sparrows and many small mammals.
- Cattle feeds are made from the leaves, stems, and flowers as well as the seed remains created when extracting oil.
Human Uses of the Sunflower
- The Sunflower was domesticated by indigenous North and South American peoples over 3,000 BC. The Sunflower represented the Sun God to many Native American tribes and remains an iconic positive symbol, used in advertising and company logos.
- Sunflower seeds provide the third most common source of cooking oil. They also serve as a human food and can be converted into biofuel.
- Yellow dye can be extracted from the flowers and purple-black dye from the seed. Paper and latex can be manufactured from the stems. The stem piths are ultra light and can be used in flotation devices.
- Sunflowers tolerate high levels of soil toxins and are used to remove lead, arsenic, and radioactive isotopes from contaminated soil in a process known as "phytoremediation."
- Gardeners appreciate Sunflowers for their beauty, drought tolerance, and deer-resistance. Over 50 cultivars of Helianthus annuus have been bred for the home garden and cut flower trade.


Mourning. The word evokes images of bereavement, of people lamenting the loss of a loved one. Jesus himself uses the word, teaching that in God’s kingdom, those who mourn are blessed because they are promised comfort (Matt 5:4). And as Christians, we do indeed look forward to the day in which “mourning and crying and pain will be no more” (Rev 21:4, NRSV).
But when Jesus speaks of mourning, he looks not only to the future, but to the past, to the ancient words of Israel’s prophets and the laments of God’s people in exile. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus stands up in the synagogue on the Sabbath, and reads from the prophet Isaiah (61:1-2):
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4:18-19, NRSV)
Then he sat down and, with all eyes on him, declared, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (vs. 21).
We don’t know, of course, whether Luke has actually given us everything that Jesus said that morning. The quotation from Isaiah ends midsentence; in the prophet’s words, God’s servant is also sent to “comfort all who mourn” (Isa 61:2, NRSV). It’s meant as a word of encouragement to God’s people, who had watched the final fragments of their decaying kingdom destroyed, and who had been carted off by the Babylonians into exile. There they had time to think, time to grieve the sin responsible for the catastrophe. Blessed are those who mourn: not because grief is a happy state, but because those who truly understand their own guilt are best equipped to rejoice in the miracle of God’s redeeming and restoring grace, both now and into the future.
Here’s a test case for mourning. In the previous post, we saw how Paul had to confront a case of incest between a Corinthian Christian and his stepmother. In the Corinthians’ distorted theology, the situation had become a cause for arrogant boasting: somehow, they had come to believe that freedom in the grace of God meant they could flaunt social norms with impunity. Paul, perplexed, confronts them directly: Why are you bragging? You should be in mourning instead, and boot this guy out (1 Cor 5:2).
I’m reluctant to read this text instrumentally, as if our only concern should be to extract a rule for church discipline. I’d prefer to ask this: even if we find it difficult to imagine boasting about incest, would Paul have reason to scold us for failing to mourn sin?
Paul seems to think that a robust doctrine of grace is fully compatible with Christians holding one another accountable for their behavior. That idea might make us nervous; we Americans prize our individual privacy, and treat many aspects of our lives as nobody else’s business.
But I’m not suggesting that we intrusively police each other, even if some behave as if this were their spiritual vocation. The more fundamental issue, rather, turns on three questions. First, do we truly understand ourselves to be one body in Christ? Second, if so, do we understand the importance of holiness in that body? And third, in the pursuit of that holiness, do we understand the depth of our own brokenness and our dependence upon the mercy of God?
Accountability must grow organically from the soil of humble mourning, coupled with the desire to be the people God intends for us to be, together.


There’s good news to report on teens’ use of alcohol and cigarettes. According to new government data, smoking and drinking among teenagers fell to new lows in 2015.
According to the data gathered, just 9.6 percent of adolescents, ages 12 to 17, reported using alcohol in 2015, down from 17.6 percent in 2002.
Far fewer adolescents smoke every day: about 20 percent in 2015, down from 32 percent in 2002.
The numbers came from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a federal agency that tracks addiction and mental health issues in the United States.
It appears that today’s teens are choosing not to follow in their parent’s footsteps, which had much higher rates of smoking and drinking when they were adolescents.
Kana Enomoto, principal deputy administrator at the agency, said the new numbers showed that rigorous public health efforts to reduce smoking and drinking among teenagers were paying off.
The survey also tracked prescription drug use and abuse, as well as the use of illegal drugs like heroin. While the trend is still down, the difference was not statistically significant from 2014, but headed in the right direction. Heroin deaths have been increasing rapidly across the country, health experts are hoping the data showing a decline in use could be an early indicator that the trend is reversing.
Prescription drug abuse is still very high in the United States. The survey found that about 119 million Americans 12 and older, or about 44 percent of that population, used prescription psychotherapeutic drugs in the past year. Of those, the vast majority — about 98 million — used pain relievers.
In all, about 19 million people age 12 and older, or about 7 percent of that population, misused prescription drugs in the past year, including about 12.5 million people who misused pain relievers.
Government funded treatment programs for drug abuse continue to lack congressional approval, frustrating mental health and drug abuse service providers.
“There’s no other condition for which we would accept the fact that less than 10 percent of people are treated,” Ms. Enomoto said.
A decrease in the numbers of teens drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes is really a welcomed change. Smoking is the largest cause of preventable death in the United States, with illnesses linked to it taking more than 480,000 lives a year.
Research indicates that alcohol use during the teenage years could interfere with normal adolescent brain development and increase the risk of developing an Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD.) In addition, underage drinking contributes to a range of acute consequences, including injuries, sexual assaults, and even deaths—including those from car crashes.
No one wants to see his or her son or daughter become one more sad statistic. Family support and treatment availability are key in helping our young people live healthier and happier lives.
Story source: Sabrina Tavernise,


These 142-year-old seeds sprouted аfter spending more thаn а century underground.
These resilient plаnts аre pаrt of а centuries-long experiment аt Michigаn Stаte University.
Thаt’s а quite long time for аn experiment, I think we will аll аgree on thаt.
Under the cover of dаrkness, а teаm of scientists set out into а cold Michigаn night in Аpril, аrmed with flаshlights аnd а mаp from 1879. It mаrked the secret locаtion of аn unlikely treаsure: bottles of seeds from two centuries pаst, buried underground аnd pаtiently wаiting for their turn to come to life.
Аll of these mystic items аre pаrt of аn ongoing biology experiment аt Michigаn Stаte University (MSU) cаlled the Beаl seed experiment, which seeks to find out how long seeds cаn remаin viаble in soil—аnd this recent successful germinаtion of 13 seeds shows thаt the аnswer is аt leаst 142 years. Nаmed for botаnist Williаm Jаmes Beаl, who stаrted the experiment, the project hаs become аn ongoing аnd living legаcy of the university’s botаnists.
To test his question аll those years аgo, Beаl buried 20 bottles of seeds underground on the MSU cаmpus, аlmost upside down but аt а slight аngle to аvoid wаter collecting in them, while still аllowing moisture аnd soil to enter. Eаch bottle contаined 50 seeds from 21 plаnt species, for а totаl of 1,050 seeds per bottle. The intention wаs thаt а bottle would be dug up every five years, аnd the seeds within would be plаnted to see whаt could grow.
When Beаl retired in 1910, he pаssed the experiment to fellow botаny professor H.T. Dаrlington to continue his work, the first in а series of hаndoffs. In 1920, the length of time between unburyings wаs extended to 10 years, аnd in 1990 it wаs further extended to its current cаdence of 20 years. The current bottle wаs originаlly scheduled to be uneаrthed in 2020, but the pаndemic meаnt thаt the cаmpus аnd the growth chаmbers within it were closed, so it wаs postponed а year.
Now, Frаnk Telweski, а professor of plаnt biology аt MSU, is the most senior member of the teаm presiding over the bottles, hаving аlso uneаrthed а bottle in 2000. Teleski recently mаde the decision to expаnd the teаm beyond just one successor to represent а diversity of expertise on seed viаbility.
“Becаuse of the diverse teаm, people hаve different perspectives аnd bring their different knowledge to it,” Telewski sаys. “We cаn begin to expаnd some of the things thаt Beаl did, аnd reаlly build upon the 140 years of science thаt hаs аccumulаted since he designed аnd stаrted the experiment.”
The current teаm includes fellow plаnt biologist Dаvid Lowry, restorаtion ecologist Lаrs Brudvig, evolutionаry ecologist Mаrjorie Weber, аnd evolutionаry аnd moleculаr biologist Mаrgаret Fleming, who previously worked in the US’s Nаtionаl Lаborаtory for Genetic Resource Preservаtion аt Fort Collins. Weber аnd Fleming аre the first two women involved in the experiment.
The 13 seeds thаt defied the odds this year аnd germinаted аppeаr to be the sаme species: а weedy, fаirly common plаnt with а yellow flower cаlled Verbаscum blаttаriа. The verbаscum’s continued success proves thаt the resilient seed is а greаt choice for future experimentаtion on seed viаbility.
“I would hаve аssumed thаt everything with reаlly smаll seeds, nаively, would not survive very long,” Lowry sаys. “You usuаlly think thаt these lаrger seeds thаt аre well provisioned with resources thаt would be аble to survive for long periods of time in the soil, but thаt doesn’t seem to be the cаse. Now we know thаt there’s probаbly lots of things with very smаll seeds thаt cаn survive multiple centuries in the soil.”
If no more plаnts germinаte in аbout the next week, the teаm of scientists will try to jump-stаrt growth through аn eight-week cold treаtment to simulаte winter, а technique thаt yielded one аdditionаl seed germinаtion in 2000.
Then, they will try some treаtments new to this experiment, like а liquid smoke treаtment thаt they predict could trigger the growth of fireweed seeds (which hаs never grown in аll the years of the experiment). The ideа is to simulаte the chemicаls in smoke thаt trigger germinаtion for some species in environments with а regulаr burn frequency. They will аlso treаt the seeds with gibberellic аcid, а plаnt hormone, to stimulаte growth.
Finаlly, Fleming will test the metаbolic аnd nucleic аcid аctivity of аny seeds thаt didn’t germinаte, аs some seeds still could hаve some functionаl piece of their metаbolism thаt hаs broken, mаking them unаble to germinаte.
“They’re kind of like zombie seeds, if you will,” Telewski sаys. “[Fleming is] going to see if she cаn’t find аny of these thаt still show some level of life, but not enough to аctuаlly permit them to germinаte. Аnd thаt’s something thаt Beаl probаbly never would hаve dreаmt of being аble to do.”
The successfully germinаted plаnts will lаter be on displаy аt the W. J. Beаl Botаnicаl Gаrden, аn outdoor lаborаtory for students founded by Beаl аnd where Telewski is the director.
Even so, the originаl question of seed viаbility remаins unаnswered, аnd only the continuаtion of the project could provide аn аnswer.
There аre four more bottles left in the ground, аnd аt this pаce the experiment is set to end in 2100. While the scientists hаve considered widening the gаp between uneаrthings to а longer time like 50 years, if nothing grows it would be hаrder to know when exаctly the seeds stopped being viаble.
А longer cаdence between uneаrthings would аlso bring up chаllenges with mаintаining continuity between generаtions of scientists. Recent events hаve demonstrаted the tenuous nаture of the project.
“Frаnk hаnded me the mаp to the bottles аnd he’s like, ‘Just in cаse something hаppens to me, I wаnt you to hаve the mаp,’” Lowry sаys. “The next month he hаd а stroke. Fortunаtely, he’s mostly recovered from it аnd thаt’s been аmаzing, but it wаs this reаlizаtion thаt these things аre frаgile аnd you do hаve to hаve а number of people know where the bottles аre. You аlso don’t wаnt to stretch it out too long becаuse there might not be thаt institutionаl memory thаt will аllow you to keep the experiment going.”
Whаt’s much more likely for the future is thаt the teаm will embаrk on а “Beаl 2.0,” а second version of the experiment. But there аre mаny questions to consider while deciding on the design of the new study, like whаt species of seeds to use, the locаtion of the bottles аnd the pаce for opening them.
Whаt the reseаrchers аre pretty much set on, however, is hаving two bottles thаt will be dug up for eаch uneаrthing. The ideа is to plаnt the seeds from one bottle, like in the originаl experiment. The second set would be used for destructive sаmpling, which is the type you need to properly аnаlyze how DNА, RNА, аnd other metаbolic processes аre breаking down.
Whаt is your opinion on this kind of experiments? Аre they ground-breаking or just…weird?
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INTRO: Several countries of the world have experimented with changing of the location of their capital cities. Countries such as Brazil moved her capital city from Rio de Janeiro to the built-for-the-purpose Brasilia in 1961; Kazakhstan moved from Almaty to Astana in 1997; and Cote d'Ivoire moved from Abijan to Yamoussoukro in 1983. In the year 1991, Nigeria joined the ranks of countries that for one reason or another relocated their capital cities when she moved her capital city from Lagos to Abuja.
The move was initiated in 1975 by the military government of General Murtala Mohammed when he set up a 7-man panel under the chairmanship of Dr. Akinola Aguda to examine the issue of a new capital city for Nigeria. The panel after their studies recommended Abuja and the military government under Decree No. 6 of 1976 established the Federal Capital Development Authority to midwife the planning, designing and developing of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The Murtala administration did not live to complete what it started due to the abortive but bloody coup of 1976 that claimed his life. Subsequent governments contributed their quota during their reign but the dream was only actualized in 1991 by the military government of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. The reasons for the relocation of Nigeria's capital city from Lagos to Abuja include the following:
1) Security: Lagos is a coastal city bordering the Atlantic Ocean. This geographical location leaves the city susceptible to attacks from air or sea by enemy countries; and in a war, when a capital city falls, the whole country has fallen. Unlike Lagos, Abuja is located at the heart of Nigeria's land.
2) Overpopulation: Lagos is a densely populated city due to the fact that it was not just the seat of power but also the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria. It has been the destination for the bulk of Nigeria's rural-urban migration in search of greener pasture. This overpopulation causes serious congestion and environmental degradation, makes nonsense of every developmental efforts in the city, and renders the city unfit for a capital city.
3) Lack of Land for Expansion: Lagos has limited area of land that will accommodate the future expansions of a typical capital city. With an area of 8,000 sq. kms, Abuja is twice the area of Lagos State. Currently covering 250 sq. km, Abuja still have over 7,000 sq. km in reserve for future expansion.
4) Neutrality: Lagos is the land of the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria. Even till today, Yoruba people are not happy when Lagos is referred to as "no man's land." Unlike Lagos, Abuja bestrides different tribes in a way that nobody could lay claim to the land. The entire territory itself was carved out from three state, namely, Niger State which contributed 79% of the land area and 71% of the indigenous population, Nasarawa State which contributed 16% and 21% respectively, and Kogi state which made a contribution of 5% and 8% respectively. This neutral stance of the city explains why it is called the Centre of Unity.
5) Purpose: Lagos city was not built for the purpose of being a capital city, and pushing the the city to fit the purpose if possible is not desirable because of the socio-economic implications. Abuja was designed and built for the purpose of being the capital city of Nigeria.
6) An Expression of Independence: Lagos was made the capital by the colonial masters. Relocation of the capital city from the former colonial base sends the message of repudiation across to the former masters that "Nigeria has come of age, and is no longer under the orbit of any extra continental power." Policies similar to this relocation of the capital city was the changing of currency from Pounds to Naira, and the system of government from Parliamentarism to Presidentialism.


1840-57 Half Cent Liberty Head (Braided Hair) History
Although gold and silver still took center stage in the 18th and 19th century monetary world, copper coins were dear to the colonial experience. Since well before the American Revolution, small coppers minted by official and unofficial sources circulated virtually everywhere in the Thirteen Colonies. The large number and variety of colonial coppers attest to how needed these coins were for common everyday transactions. When the United States Mint was established, the first regular issue coins minted were the copper cent and half cent.
When the Mint began making copper coins in 1793, they were still competing with private coin issuers. Mint record show that 1,076 lbs. of Talbot, Allum & Lee 1795 cent tokens (about 52,000 tokens) were purchased in April of 1795 and were cut down to make half cents. As more coins became available for the stream of commerce, the lowly half cent ceased to have meaning as a medium of exchange. The coins of choice were the vast numbers of Spanish reales that circulated freely in the pre-Civil War United States.
Half cents were minted only sporadically after 1811. An order from Jonathan Elliott & Sons of Baltimore, Maryland was responsible for reestablishing production of the coin in 1825, but by the end of 1829, over 800,000 of the small coppers had accumulated in the Mint's vaults. Production peaked in 1835 but ceased the following year, after lack of orders for the denomination caused Mint Director Robert M. Patterson to wait until the large quantity stored in Mint vaults could be distributed. It was the custom in this era to give visiting dignitaries gifts of proof sets of United States coins. In 1840, Patterson decided to include the half cent in the proof sets and instructed Mint engraver Christian Gobrecht to create dies for this purpose. He also directed him to complete hubs from which working dies could be made in case the need for half cents returned. Gobrecht used the same Braided Hair design he had used on his cent of 1839. The new Miss Liberty replaced John Reich's matronly "Classic Head " used from 1809 to 1829 and again, with some modifications by William Kneass, from 1831 through 1836. The Gobrecht Braided Hair is a simple design that gives dignity to this lowest coin denomination. A bust of Liberty, her hair braided into a bun in the back of her head, ringlets of hair draping down below the base of the bust, faces left. She is wearing a tiara in which the word LIBERTY is inscribed. Thirteen stars surround her head in a semicircle. The reverse continued the design introduced on John Reich's half cent of 1809 and used with minor changes throughout the history of this coin. The denomination HALF CENT is framed in a wreath tied at the bottom with a bow, surrounded by the legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Braided Hair half cents of 1840 to 1849 were made only as proofs and were used for diplomatic presentation sets or sold to well-connected collectors. Orders for business strikes numbered only about 16,000 pieces per year, and the Mint met demand from stocks on hand. As late as 1848 there were still 82,000 half cents remaining in the Mint's vaults from the 1834 and 1835 mintages. In 1849, with supplies dwindling, small orders for half cents were received by the Mint, and production of the coin began again. The orders were probably stimulated by the growing shortage of silver coins that were being withdrawn from circulation due to the rising price of silver. Except for a hiatus in production in 1852, when sufficient quantities of the coin were again on hand, minting continued until 1857 when the denomination was finally discontinued. After 1850, most production went to Post Offices where they were used for making change. Collecting coins became a popular hobby in the 1850s, and it became irresistible to some mint employees to get out the old dies and "restrike" the proof issues for the growing army of paying collectors. These were sold surreptitiously by Theodore Eckfeldt, the Mint's night watchman, through a Philadelphia store owned by a Dr. M. W. Dickeson and later through coin dealer William Idler. Mint Director James Ross Snowden discovered this scam and sealed the dies away in the mint vault in July of 1860. Eight years later, the then Mint Director Henry R. Linderman opened the cartons and struck some additional pieces before finally destroying the dies.
There were ten years of proofs before business strikes even began. This is unique in the history of United States coinage, making this an interesting but expensive area to collect. Although scarce, nearly all the proof dates appear in the numismatic marketplace at one time or another, though some varieties are extremely rare. "Restrikes" are easy to identify. The originals have large berries in the wreath, and the restrikes have small berries. Though the exact mintage is impossible to determine, it has been estimated by various sources that there were fewer than fifteen hundred proofs minted in all years, including the proofs and restrikes of 1852.
The business strikes present another kind of collecting challenge. Only 544,510 coins were minted. Although every date is available in uncirculated and circulated grades, finding original red mint state pieces is difficult. "Hoard" dates such as those of 1851, 1854, 1855, and 1857 appear occasionally, but most seem to suffer from the black spotting that detracts from the eye-appeal of copper coins. Brown or red-brown uncirculated coins are more commonly found. Beware of coins dipped in cyanide to simulate pristine coins.
When grading Braided Hair half cents note that mint state coins usually have some blemishes. Copper is a chemically active metal and, depending on the storage environment, can suffer from carbon spots and corrosion marks. These imperfections must be considered when grading. Look for wear spots first on Liberty's hair just to the right of her ear and on the hair curls on the lower part of her neck and below the bust. On the reverse, check for traces of wear on the laurel wreath at nine o'clock and three o'clock and on the bow.
The half cent as a denomination died in 1857 but was almost revived by Congress in 1912. Ohio Representative Bulkley, on the advice of Treasury Secretary Franklin MacVeagh, introduced a bill that would have created a new half cent and three cent piece. It passed the House on May 6, 1912 but never passed the Senate, ending forever the half cent denomination.
Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Doubleday, New York, 1988.
Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of United States Half Cents 1793-1857, American Institute of Numismatic Research, South Gate, CA, 1983.
Cohen, Roger S. Jr., American Half Cents, the "Little Half Sisters", 2nd Edition, Wigglesworth & Ghatt, Arlington, VA, 1982.
Garraty, John, The Columbia History of the World, Harper & Row, New York, 1972.
Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Sanford J. Durst, New York, 1983.
Courtesy of Numismatic Guaranty Corporation An Historical Reference from the NGC PHOTO PROOF Series
Braided Hair Half Cents on eBay
Click on any of the boxes to see much larger images.


The toxicity of NSAIDs is related to COX selectively, dosage, and duration ( see Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs in Animals Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs in Animals The importance of pain management and the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in animals has increased dramatically in recent decades, and use of NSAIDs in companion animals... read more ). It is hypothesized that nonselective COX inhibitors have greater risk of toxicity than COX-selective drugs. COX inhibitors also cause delayed GI healing. The GI tract and kidneys are most commonly affected by NSAID toxicity. NSAID-induced injury can occur anywhere in the GI tract, but the large colon (especially the right dorsal colon) and gastric mucosa appear to be the most sensitive. The ulcerogenicity of phenylbutazone is greater than that of flunixin meglumine, which has greater ulcerogenicity than ketoprofen. The COX-2 selective inhibitor firocoxib appears to be safer. Ulcerative lesions in the large colon lead to a protein-losing enteropathy, often with clinical signs of ventral edema, anorexia, lethargy, weight loss, diarrhea, and colic. Scarring of the right dorsal colon can occur leading to large-colon impactions, sometimes requiring large-colon resection.
Phenylbutazone administered at high doses or for prolonged periods causes a protein-losing enterocolopathy in horses. However, some horses are inherently sensitive to NSAIDs, and right dorsal colitis can occur at lower than recommended dosages. Toxicosis can develop from oral or parenteral administration of NSAIDs. Hypoproteinemia (hypoalbuminemia and hypoglobulinemia) is seen due to loss of protein into the intestinal lumen, which can occur without visible ulceration. Renal papillary necrosis may also be seen. Administration of flunixin meglumine at high doses or for prolonged periods can result in a similar toxicosis.
Clinical signs of NSAID toxicity include difficulty in mastication due to oral and lingual ulceration, hypersalivation, and signs of pain when swallowing due to esophageal ulceration. Gastric ulceration can result in recumbency after eating, signs of colic, and anorexia. Horses with colonic ulceration can have soft feces, diarrhea, and ventral edema. Intestinal ulceration can be severe enough to allow endotoxin and bacterial translocation and signs of systemic inflammation and septicemia. Dehydration, fever, and tachycardia can occur in severe cases. Clinical signs can occur days to weeks after NSAID therapy. More chronic cases present with recurring colic, weight loss, and soft feces.
A tentative diagnosis can be made based on history of NSAID administration, clinical signs, and presence of hypoproteinemia. Severe cases may have hyponatremia, hypochloremia, hypocalcemia, and acidemia in addition to hypovolemia. Ultrasonography may detect thickening of the colon. Gastric ulceration can be confirmed by gastroscopy but requires an endoscope 2–3 m long.
Treatment includes discontinuing use of phenylbutazone or any other NSAID. In acute toxicosis, administration of 1 gal. of mineral oil repeated after 2 hr may be beneficial to decrease drug absorption. To help prevent gastric ulceration, reducing production of gastric acid with an H2-receptor blocker (eg, ranitidine) or a proton pump inhibitor (eg, omeprazole) may be beneficial; sucralfate may be indicated as well. Administration of misoprostol (a synthetic prostaglandin analogue) may be beneficial but can cause additional signs of diarrhea and colic. IV fluid therapy is indicated in cases of hypovolemia, especially with concurrent azotemia. Plasma transfusion or synthetic colloids can be used to increase plasma oncotic pressure.
Longterm dietary management consisting of a low-fiber complete pelleted ration fed several times throughout the day, and elimination of roughage is recommended. Corn oil can be given to provide supplemental calories and may help heal damaged intestinal mucosa. Psyllium mucilloid can also promote colonic healing by increasing the concentration of short-chain fatty acids. Surgery may be required if scarring of the bowel has resulted in partial obstruction of the intestine.
Prevention of NSAID toxicity involves limiting the dose and duration of NSAID treatment, using a COX-2 selective NSAID, or relying on alternative analgesic therapy. Monitoring for fecal consistency and serum albumin concentrations are easy methods to detect the development of right dorsal colitis in horses receiving NSAIDs.


In what may be the most astonishing (and ethically murky) experiment since the CRISPR babies, scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder have successfully transplanted python hearts into three human patients. The transplant recipients—once extremely stressed, pre-quals graduate students—are now in perfect health. Even more astonishing is the patients’ sudden, extreme weight loss. In just under one month, the once-obese patients have lost enough weight to land in healthy range of the Body Mass Index (BMI) scale.
This obesity super-cure is just the latest feat from the lab of Dr. Leslie Leinwand. For decades, the Leinwand lab has used pythons as a model to study human heart hypertrophy, or pathological enlargement of the heart. Pythons are a unique model for studying heart growth as their hearts nearly double in size upon eating. Remarkably, python hearts shrink back to normal size in almost no time.
“Human heart hypertrophy is incredibly dangerous,” explained Melissa Blaese, graduate researcher and mad lead scientist behind the transplant study. “People with enlarged hearts often die from complications of heart failure. I thought that if we could figure out how python hearts shrink so quickly, perhaps we could devise a treatment for human patients.”
But, after spending years failing to uncover the exact mechanism for pythons’ shrinking hearts, Blaese went rogue.
“I’ve been in grad school for 8 [expletive] years,” explained Blaese. “I just kept thinking, ‘How can I get myself out of here faster?’ And then it hit me…why struggle to find a cure when we can just give humans python hearts instead?”
So, with the fearlessness that only an eighth-year grad student can muster, Blaese moved forward with her plan. Unbeknownst to her coworkers, she removed the hearts from three lab pythons, later transplanting them into human subjects*.
To the surprise of many, the surgeries were successful. At just under one-month post-operation (and just over one-week post-qualifying exams), all three transplant recipients seemed healthier and happier. Patients’ blood pressure dropped an average 50 millimeters of mercury from hypertensive to the low end of normal, and their blood showed no residual stress markers. Even more striking, however, were the drastic changes in body composition.
“I was dropping weight like crazy!” exclaimed snake-human hybrid Jason Alvares. “You shoulda seen me last week…I don’t even look like the same person. My ex-boyfriend is so gonna regret leaving me.”
While the python heart transplants seem to be a one-size-fits-all obesity cure, physicians are recommending people proceed with caution
“We know little to nothing about cross-species transplants,” explained Dr. Haneen Akacem, medical director at St. Margaret’s Hospital in Cumberland, Maryland. “Sure, the initial results are promising, but what about the long-term side effects?”
Akacem may be on to something, as reports of bizarre symptoms are trickling in.
“My husband is a completely different person!” explained the wife of one patient, who wishes to remain anonymous. “He just seems so cold and distant, spending all of his time lazing about in the sun. Not to mention the change in appetite…after years as a dedicated vegetarian, he’s refusing to eat anything but venison!”
Other reported symptoms include increased jaw flexibility and extreme skin shedding.
When asked about the ethical implications of the experiment, Blaese simply responded, “Listen, that’s for the media to work out. I just graduated, I’m outta here.” With that, she slithered out of her office and could no longer be reached for comment.
*Correction: an earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the subjects were willing transplant recipients. We have since learned that Blaese coerced subjects, saying she “knew a guy” and that participants would “totally pass their qualifying exams”
By Gretchen Wettstein


Since their invention in 1878, doorknobs and handles are now a permanent feature on every door, both outdoors and indoors. However, when it comes to standard. Different countries have their standard on the height of placing the doorknob.
Typical Door Handle Height
The typical door handle height varies due to a lot of factors. These factors may include door handle height code in a particular country, purpose, and type of handle.
Even though different countries have their standards. The International Building Code provides a standard for a doorknob height. The code prescribes that the height of a doorknob be approximately between 34 and 48 inches from a finished floor.
It, however, suggests that if the door leads to a swimming pool the doorknob be placed 48 to 54 inches from the finished floor. High enough from the reach of children
It also requires that all projection leading to the doorway, hallway or other means of access be favorable and compatible with wheelchair use. Allowing wheelchair users free access without obstruction by the handles.
For a doorknob hole, they are no speciation or regulation around them. This depends on the size of the doorknob.
A 2-1/8-inch hole saw is a sufficient tool to drill a hole for a standard doorknob dimension. A hole saw is usually aggressive and you should have a proper back up to avoid splintering of the veneer
Some notable and varying standards include;
Australia and UK Standard Doorknob Height
The standard doorknob height in Australia and Uk considers other factors besides the International Building Code. Each installer or builder must take into account children’s safety and the intention of the handle. Wheelchair users are also considered before new handles are installed
The doorknobs should be placed 35.5-41.5 inches above a finished floor. They should also be operated by free moving slide action.
BS 8300 which is a British Standard requires that doorknob be placed between 31.5-41.5 inches from the floor. BS 8300 code of practice is to ensure that buildings can be accessed by disabling people. It covers the Equality Act, formerly the Disability Discrimination Act
Door Handle Height in the United States
Across the US different bodies have varied regulations on the standard door handle height. These regulations are captured in different sets of codes that govern the design, construction, and accessibility of a building. The Department of Housing and Urban Development, Defence, Postal Services and the General Services Administration have different regulations.
Different Types of Door Handles
Door handles are an integral part of a door. They provide a mechanism used to close or open a door. Different countries use different standards on how high to fix door handles. They are three major types of door handles .pull handles, lever handles, and doorknobs. Let’s have a look at each type
Door pull handles are suitable for passage doors. They are available as the following:
Pull handles on rose.
They are fitted into a round rose. They have a modern and elegant look on doors.
Pull handles on a backplate.
They feature a more traditional look. They can be used for both internal or external doors
Back to back pull handles.
This is the most common type door handle used in residential houses, public and commercial buildings. Lever handles can be further subdivided into two;
Lever handles on a backplate
Lever handle on rose
Lever handles on a backplate
Lever handles on a backplate have three operating mechanisms .lever bathroom, lever latch, and lever lock
Often used where privacy I required, such bathroom or bedroom doors. This mechanism involves a thumb turn lock that can easily be locked or unlocked from inside. In case of an emergency, it can easily be unlocked from the outside by turning the coin slot.
This is used for interior doors. They involve a simple mechanism where you only push the handle down to open the door
These provide both security and privacy. Their mechanism feature key-operated door handles and has a keyhole mostly combined with a mortice lock
Lever handles on rose
This is more modern door handles that sit on either a square rose or a round square. They are much smaller than backplates. They are typically operated with a latch. However, for added security, they can be paired with a locking mechanism.
They round handle which rotate either to open a door. Mainly used for internal doors. They are also used for decoration and pulling entry doors closed from outside. Here are some of the types:
This type pull the doors open without rotation
They are used for doors of rooms that don’t require privacy. They feature a latch mechanism and the handle is rotated to open the door.
They feature a twist-lock which only functions from one direction. They are suitable for bathroom and bedroom doors. In an emergency, they can be unlocked from the outside.
Keyed entry doorknobs.
They have a lock and key mechanism on either side of the door. They can be used for rooms that require to be secured
What to consider when choosing door handles and knobs
1.Door style and finish
This is an important factor to consider when deciding on the door handles and knobs.in this you consider if the door is:
The shape is another key element to consider. For example: Oval, round, angular, classic, contemporary
3.Other doors in a room
You should consider the function of the door handle or knob before installation.
The size and weight of the doors
How frequently are the doors going to be used?
How suitable are they children,disabled and the elderly?
A door handle height is an important factor for it determines how accessible a building is and the safety children. As such, it is upon the builder to determine the correct height for fixing the door height based on the door type and use. That said the builder should always adhere to universal standards like the International Building Code and the United Nations recommendations on standard door height


3GPP specifications are backbone of 3G, IMS, HSPA, Enhanced UTRA technologies. To understand a certain aspect of a protocol stack or encoding of PDUs or to study deep into physical layer one need to understand the respective specifications.
The specifications are developed taking into consideration that they should describe the behaviors of certain layer but the implementations in most of places are left to the developers.
For a beginner studying 3GPP specifications are really difficult. There are various reasons.
3GPP Specification Are Interlinked
Each specification in 3GPP has many referenced specifications. So when one tries to understand one specification he end up following many. This happens to many new 3GPP professionals.
3GPP Specifications Do Not Cover Examples
It is always handy to have some real time examples with the theories. As many part of 3GPP specification are left implementation dependent, they do not cover many examples.
Also encoding and decoding of PDUs also are described without examples (e.g. encoding of RLC or MAC PDUs).
Some Specifications Are Very Big
Specifications like RRC (Radio Resource Control, 25.331) are huge in size. Some of them contain more than 1000 pages. So most of time it is very hard to complete the specification.
So Many Technologies
Sometimes beginners find it difficult to know what technology to follow. As 3GPP specifications cover UMTS, GSM/GPRS/EDGE, HSPA, IMS, LTE and many other technologies, it is very hard for a beginner to know what he or she needs to read.
Apart from above few problems there are many more problems may arise while one starts following the specifications.
To understand a specification or part of the specification one need to follow some simple guidelines. These guidelines may not be the strict ones but these can help a lot while reading a specification.
Know What You Want To Read
This is the most important thing before opening any specifications. For example if you want to know detail about cell reselection, you should start with idle mode specification 25.304.
Apart from that one should know for which specification version one is looking for. The specifications are version numbered from Release 99 till Release 11. Not all NW vendors or UE manufacturer supports all releases.
So before downloading any specification from 3GPP website make sure exactly what you are looking for.
Study The Respective Specification First Then Go To The References
It is always get confused easily if you start following the references before reading the specific part.
For example you want to study about PDU structure of MAC (Medium Access Control) protocol, you should study the PDU structure from MAC specification (25.211) before going to other specification like RLC (Radio Link Control) protocol to study MAC SDU (Service Data Unit).
This way you will stick to the part what you are looking for.
Take A Printout When Necessary
It is good for the environment not to take printouts, but it is always helpful to make printout of the part you are just studying.
This works for many engineers I talked to. They like to read from paper printouts more than reading from computer screens. This is because it is always handy to write notes on the printouts and putting markers on important points.
You may use the computer screen to read the reference documents.
Follow What You Are Studying
Master of all is a good term. But it is achieved through small steps.
When you start reading a specification try to follow the whole. This way the fundamental of the protocol layer or technology can be understood easily.
If your professional career is based on RRC (Radio Resource Control) protocol try to read the main part of the specification and then the communication between Upper layers and lower layers.
Sometimes exceptions can be done here when you need to understand a small part for your work. Then you can study deeply in that part.
Examples Can Solve Your Problem
This is always true that examples can help you a lot to understand certain parts of specification.
In most of the time it is hard to get good examples. In those cases try to study and make a specific examples yourself.
For example you want to study RLC (Radio Link Protocol) AM (Acknowledge Mode) PDU structure.
Try to make an example of different way the PDU can be encoded.
Always Good To Ask
It is always good to ask questions to colleagues and co professionals when needed.
But before asking any question to other make sure that you studied the part completely so that you should not waste others time. This will make the discussion complete and relevant.


|Type of paper:||Essay|
|Categories:||Democracy Andrew Jackson American history|
Jeffersonian and Jacksonian presidency and style of democracy both envisioned a more united America characterized by equality and limited aristocracy. However, the two forms of democracy differed in their views regarding the role of government and citizen participation in governance. Jefferson's democratic-republicans hailed as people from the revolutionary war period. They believed that by acquiring education citizen had a better chance of participating in government more meaningfully. In other words, they believed that the educated elite should hold government positions. Also, Jefferson's strict interpretation of the constitution made him believe that the federal government should be small, simple and limited so as not to intervene in citizen's lives directly.
Despite the significance of Jeffersonian democracy in the history of the United States, it had a lot of flaws that would later be revealed during the Jacksonian era. Jackson's Democratic Party was of a new generation and took the idea that the government belonged to the people and should basically be run by the citizens (Benson, 2015). Jackson had a strong belief that everyone was qualified to take up leadership in public offices and he made that easier by disregarding academic qualification and experience. He became the father of a spoils system of national politics after appointing his close allies to various public offices despite their experience or qualification. Additionally, it is during his period that nominating conventions were proposed to ensure a rotational system of political positions.
Causes of changes
Unlike his counterpart, Jackson had little education and had risen to the realms of power through chance. With this regard, he likewise believed that all men were qualified for leadership and that all they needed was an opportunity. This prompted his leadership to rule out education and experience as the main basis for disqualifying people from holding public offices. Jeffersonian democracy believed that the elite should rule as such individuals from poor social class with limited access to education were left out (Shi & Tindall, 2016). To promote equality Jacksonian democracy introduced a rotational system through nominating conventions.
Significance of changes
With the emergence of Jacksonian democracy concentration of power in the hands of a few wealthy elites was revolutionized. For the first time in the history of the United States, the common man became a voice in government affairs. The Democrats' policies actualized the full potential of peoples rule. Alongside equality and social justness Jacksons, mighty legacy increased industrialization (Young, 2018).
Benson, L. (2015). The concept of Jacksonian democracy: New York as a test case. Princeton University Press.Shi, D. E., & Tindall, G. B. (2016). America: A narrative history. WW Norton & Company.
Young, J. (2018). Reconsidering American liberalism: The troubled odyssey of the liberal idea. Routledge.
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What a time it is for African Americans to be represented in comic book movies, today’s most popular film genre. The ending of Avengers Endgame strongly suggests the next Captain America will be Black, while Black Panther remains the highest-grossing solo superhero movie ($1,346,913,161 globally). On the DC side, its most popular movie character is Aquaman ($1,147,761,807 globally), portrayed by a person of color (Jason Momoa) – so that has to count for something.
Does this mean African Americans are being represented fairly these days in comic book movies (or Hollywood for that matter)?
That’s a complicated question that requires a sense of context by understanding the history and evolution of the Black comic book hero. To understand this complexity, we surveyed more than 500 African Americans to gauge their perception, attitude and overall opinion, when it comes to Black superheroes. The research found that, when it comes to African American being well-represented in comic book movies, 39 percent agreed while 42 percent of the respondents disagreed. However, 80 percent of the respondents claimed they presently or have in the past read comic books. While this is a surprisingly high number, it is not odd, considering that Black Panther was a nationwide cultural phenomenon.
Yes, it’s complicated, so let’s take a historical journey to understand the Black superhero and its impact on American culture.
The First Black Superpower
African Americans appeared widely in 20th-century comic books as both sidekicks and heroes, under such brands as All-Negro Comics and Timely Comics. Yet the world wouldn’t see its first Black superhero until July 1966, in an issue of Marvel’s Fantastic Four (#52).
That was Black Panther.
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, T’Challa — a.k.a “Black Panther” — wasn’t a big seller. The character, however, was broadly accepted along with other minorities in Marvel’s continual multicultural rollout throughout the decades (inclusivity and social causes were always part of Lee’s visionary marketing). What’s more, Black Panther served two important purposes, according to an article by Noel Murray in The Week:
- Becoming a cultural icon for the burgeoning Black Power movement (and later black middle class)
- Presenting a well-rounded character instead of a two-dimensional trope, which would set the tone for future Black and other minority characters
Three years after Black Panther’s debut, Marvel introduced Falcon (today’s new Captain America in his film version, as mentioned). DC would shortly follow suit when Kirby switched companies and created Black Racer for his series New Gods (1971), followed by the introduction of John Stewart, an architect who becomes Hal Jordan’s new backup Green Lantern (1972). (Murray explains that Stewart was far from a well-rounded character, falling into the “angry Black man” trope.)
No Black superhero starred in his own mainstream comic title until 1972 when Luke Cage debuted for Marvel in Luke Cage, Hero for Hire. As for DC, its first Black superhero series was Black Lightning in 1977.
According to the Ebony/QuestionPro study, Black Panther is the most popular Black male superhero (50 percent), with Blade in second (15 percent). (Superman, the American dream archetypal image, is the African American’s favorite non-Black superhero.)
However, Black Panther (or any of the characters above) is not the highest-selling Black comic book. That achievement falls to another character whose story adds to the complex history of Black superheroes.
The Trojan Horse Superhero
According to various comic book sales statistics, Spawn is one of the best-selling comic books in history. The comic book selling more than 150 million copies is impressive on its own, but even more so considering that Spawn debuted in 1992, long after other mega-selling superheroes like Superman, Batman, or Spider-Man.
Created by Todd McFarlane for Image Comics, the character Spawn has always been an unusual figure, more of a demonic mercenary than a traditional cape crusader. What’s fascinating is that McFarlane didn’t reveal to readers that his masked antihero was African American until the series was in full swing and already a runaway success. The “content of the character” was sold first — in the form of Spawn’s origin story, personality and powers — and then his skin color was revealed to geekdom. Spawn remained hugely successful for years, even if its 1997 film adaptation was tepidly received (but it should be noted that Michael Jai White, who played Spawn, became the first African American to portray a comic book superhero in a major motion picture).
One could argue that the edgy and visceral Spawn brand would pave the way for the huge success of Westley Snipes in the Blade trilogy (grossing more than $800 million globally, an impressive feat for an R-rated franchise). If you add to this the box office success of Will Smith’s Hancock (2008) and Laurence Fishbourne’s iconic portrayal of Morpheus in The Matrix trilogy, then it’s no surprise that Black Panther would engage the interest of all races once he appeared in film.
It seems Black Panther has come full circle as both an American and Black icon – but we shall see if the Spawn film reboot with Oscar-winner Jammie Foxx can take it even higher.
Without a doubt, Black superheroes have come along way, using various means, but there is still a major problem: The Black female superhero.
Only One Storm
Despite the breakthrough and scene-stealing performances of Danai Gurira (Okoye) and Lupita Nyong’o (Nakia) in Black Panther or Zazie Beetz (Domino) in Deadpool 2, Black female superheroes have been grossly underrepresented in all mediums.
The most recognized and popular female Black superhero would be the Kenyan Ororo Munroe as Storm. She was part of a wider Black superhero rollout in the late 70s and early 80s that included Cyborg, Deathlok, and Blade — even becoming the eventual leader of the X-Men. As far as the successful X-Men film franchise, both Halle Berry and Alexandra Shipp’s portrayals of Storm have been received with mixed results.
Results from our study shows that Storm is easily the most popular black female superhero (47 percent), followed by Bumblebee (seven percent), Nubia (six percent), and Vixen (six percent). If you include all other Black female superheroes ever created for comic books, only Storm has appeared in a movie adaptation (please don’t make me admit that Cat Woman was ever made). There are no plans for a Nakia or Domino origin-story film – although Jurnee Smollett-Bell will be playing Black Canary in DC’s upcoming Birds of Prey.
In short and for the most part, Black female superheroes are still stuck somewhere in the early 60s when it comes to wide representation.
Mirror, mirror on the Black wall
Black superheroes were a reaction and action to their specific eras – a reflection of African American culture and struggles, as well as a looking glass into hopeful futures.
Black Panther appeared in a time of turmoil and civil rights battles, followed by other gritty characters like the urban Luke Cage. The principled but disabled Cyborg and the immigrant, mutant Storm are apt representations of African Americans during the Reagan Era – with Spawn as the culmination in the early 90s as a wrathful force against an oppressive society (remember the Los Angeles and St. Petersburg riots?). Blade can be seen as the African American fight against the vampiric forces of police brutality and mass incarceration during the Bush and Clinton presidencies. Black Panther in his film incarnation is the return of 60s activism in the #BlackLivesMatter era, as well as the symbol of what is best and noble in African Americans.
Beyond this Jungian speculation, one must admit Black superheroes have been successful in terms of comic book and movie ticket sales. The dollars made by Spawn, Blade, and Black Panther don’t lie. The path has been uneven and even murky, but it has certainly created role models and epic stories that cut across all demographics.
But there is much ground to be made (especially with Black women). The success of African Americans in comic book movies has not bled into the perception Blacks have of Hollywood’s portrayal of them. As illustrations, the study further found that:
- 83 percent of respondents agree African Americans are stereotyped in film or television
- 59 percent of respondents agree that African Americans are cast for no other reason but to add diversity
- 71 percent agree that African Americans get killed off more/earlier than other characters
There is no cape crusader coming to change this, but there is the creativity of writers and artists who take risks to capture the zeitgeist of our culture, imperfectly bringing hope to one Black child’s imagination at a time.


The 8th International Conference Buddhism & Australia
Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia Illustrations
|Articles by alphabetic order|
The Lotus Flower by The Venerable Master Hsuan Hua
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The lotus is a most rare flower. It blooms and bears fruit at the same time. When the lotus blooms, the lotus seeds appear. The lotus takes root in the mud and its stem grows up through the water. The flower is neither in the mud nor the water, but blooms above the surface of the water. The root in the mud represents common people. The stem in the water represents those of the Two Vehicles. Common people are attached to existence; the mud is an anology for "existence." Those of the Two Vehicles are attached to emptiness; the stem in the water represents emptiness.
The lotus flower, which blooms above the water, represents the transcendence of emptiness and existence and represents the Absolute Principle of the Middle Way in which there is neither falling into emptiness nor going to the extreme of existence. Emptiness and existence are the two "extremes." To be unattached to either of the two extremes is the Absolute Principle of the Middle Way.
We say this because the lotus flower's blooming and bearing fruit simultaneously represents the non-duality of cause and effect. As the cause is thus, thus is the effect. If the cause planted is one of Buddhahood, the effect will be one of Buddhahood.
The lotus blooming and bearing fruit simultaneously also represents the "opening of the provisional to manifest the real. The blooming of the lotus represents the "opening" of the provisional dharma. The lotus seeds which are revealed when the lotus blooms represent the real Dharma. Provisional Dharma refers to expedient devices and real Dharma is the genuine, "not-false" Dharma, the Principle of the Real Mark.


Identification: Fringes are brown with a few white spots. Upperside is gray-black; male forewing has a tiny stigma. Underside of hindwing is gray with white dusting outwardly and usually at least one white dot at the wing base. Populations on the southern Great Plains (A. h. turneri) are paler gray; those in Florida and along the southern Atlantic coast (A. h. loammi) have white spots on the hindwing undersides.
Wing Span: 1 1/4 - 1 11/16 inches (3.2 - 4.3 cm).
Life History: To watch for receptive females, males perch on or near the ground during the daytime. Caterpillars eat leaves and live in tents of silked-together leaves. Fully-grown caterpillars hibernate and pupate in a sealed nest at the base of the host plant.
Flight: One brood from May-June in the north; two broods from March-October in Florida.
Caterpillar Hosts: Little bluestem (Andropogon scoparius) and big bluestem (A. gerardi).
Adult Food: Nectar from flowers including Japanese honeysuckle, wild strawberry, blackberry, wild hyacinth, phlox, vervain, and red clover.
Habitat: Grasslands, prairies, barrens, and old fields.
Range: Local. Eastern Wyoming, central Colorado, northern New Mexico, and central Texas east to New Hampshire and Massachusetts; south to peninsular Florida and the Gulf Coast.
Conservation: Not usually required.
NCGR: G4 - Apparently secure globally, though it might be quite rare in parts of its range, especially at the periphery.


Serengeti National Park, located in Tanzania, is a world-renowned wildlife destination that captivates visitors with its breathtaking landscapes and abundant wildlife. Spanning an area of over 14,750 square kilometers, the park is known for its diverse climatic conditions, incredible animal populations, and offers a range of unique experiences for nature enthusiasts.
Climatic conditions in the Serengeti vary throughout the year, adding to its allure. The park experiences two main seasons: the dry season and the wet season. The dry season, which occurs from June to October, is characterized by clear skies, minimal rainfall, and cooler temperatures. This is considered the best time to visit for wildlife viewing, as animals congregate around water sources and the grass is shorter, making it easier to spot them.
The wet season, which spans from November to May, brings periodic rainfall and transforms the Serengeti into a lush, green landscape. This is the time when the park’s wildebeest migration occurs, as over a million wildebeest, accompanied by zebras and gazelles, move in search of fresh grazing areas. The wet season also sees the birth of numerous young animals, making it a prime time for witnessing the circle of life.
Serengeti National Park boasts an exceptional array of wildlife. The park is home to the iconic African “Big Five,” which includes elephants, lions, leopards, rhinoceros, and buffalo. Additionally, visitors can spot cheetahs, hyenas, giraffes, zebras, hippos, and a vast variety of antelope species. The park also boasts an impressive bird population, with over 500 bird species recorded, including ostriches, secretary birds, and various colorful species.
The best time to witness the dramatic wildebeest migration in the Serengeti is during the dry season, particularly from June to July when the herds cross the Grumeti River. The river crossings present a thrilling spectacle as crocodiles lurk in the waters, waiting for their opportunity to strike. Another prime time to observe the migration is from December to February when the wildebeest gather in the southern Serengeti, calving en masse.
Visiting the Serengeti National Park offers various experiences, including game drives, hot air balloon safaris, walking safaris, and cultural interactions with the Maasai people. Game drives allow visitors to explore the park’s diverse ecosystems, while hot air balloon safaris provide a unique perspective from above, offering panoramic views of the savannah and its wildlife.
Walking safaris are an excellent opportunity to intimately connect with nature, guided by experienced rangers who share their knowledge about the park’s flora and fauna. Cultural interactions with the Maasai people provide insight into their traditional way of life, including their vibrant clothing, dances, and age-old customs.
The Serengeti National Park is a year-round destination, with each season offering a unique experience. Whether you seek the thrilling wildlife encounters during the dry season or wish to witness the wildebeest migration and the birth of new life during the wet season, the Serengeti promises an unforgettable adventure. Immerse yourself in the magic of this iconic African park and create memories that will last a lifetime.


It is not unusual for teachers to face a common dilemma – the one computer classroom with a class of 25+ students.
There are several tricks you can do to help your classroom run smoothly. The following are a few tips I’ve compiled to help you manage you classroom!
Tip #1: Place the computer in an easily accessible and easily supervised place. This will prevent over-crowding for students using the computer in the classroom. This will allow you to easily assist students and keep an eye on what is being done.
Tip #2: Create “stations” or multiple activities, using the computer as only one of the tools necessary to complete assignments. Encourage the use of more traditional resources, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, magazines, newspapers, and books within the school library.
Tip #3: Teachers should designate a certain amount of time for each student to have a turn using the computer in the classroom. For older students, why not make it the student’s responsibility to keep track of their appointed time?
Tip #4: Project the computer screen onto a larger screen so the entire class can see. This is especially helpful if you have an interactive white board which can help take your lesson plan to the next level.
Tip #5: A great way teachers can engage students is to include lessons designed for group participation with an auto response system. This allows teachers to integrate surveys, polls, questions, and drawing activity slides into PowerPoint lessons.
Tip #6: Providing step-by-step instructions and examples of what work should be completed can help ensure that all students are prepared before it is their turn at the computer station.
We hope these 6 tips will help you incorporate technology into your lessons, while effectively managing a one computer classroom. If you have any more tips to share with teachers, please share them in the comments below.


American Standard Code for Information Interchange
The basis of character sets used in almost all present-day computers. US-ASCII uses only the lower seven bits (character points 0 to 127) to convey some control codes, space, numbers, most basic punctuation, and unaccented letters a-z and A-Z. More modern coded character sets (e.g., Latin-1, Unicode) define extensions to ASCII for values above 127 for conveying special Latin characters (like accented characters, or German ess-tsett), characters from non-Latin writing systems (e.g., Cyrillic, or Han characters), and such desirable glyphs as distinct open- and close-quotation marks. ASCII replaced earlier systems such as EBCDIC and Baudot, which used fewer bytes, but were each broken in their own way.Computers are much pickier about spelling than humans; thus, hackers need to be very precise when talking about characters, and have developed a considerable amount of verbal shorthand for them. Every character has one or more names - some formal, some concise, some silly. Individual characters are listed in this dictionary with alternative names from revision 2.3 of the Usenet ASCII pronunciation guide in rough order of popularity, including their official ITU-T names and the particularly silly names introduced by INTERCAL. See V ampersand, asterisk, back quote, backslash, caret, colon, comma, commercial at, control-C, dollar, dot, double quote, equals, exclamation mark, greater than, hash, left bracket, left parenthesis, less than, minus, parentheses, oblique stroke, percent, plus, question mark, right brace, right brace, right bracket, right parenthesis, semicolon, single quote, space, tilde, underscore, vertical bar, zero. Some other common usages cause odd overlaps. The "#", "$", ">", and "&" characters, for example, were all pronounced "hex" in different communities because various assemblers use them as a prefix tag for hexadecimal constants (in particular, "#" in many assembler-programming cultures, "$" in the 6502 world, ">" at Texas Instruments, and "&" on the BBC Micro, Acorn Archimedes, Sinclair, and some Zilog Z80 machines). See also splat. The inability of US-ASCII to correctly represent nearly any language other than English became an obvious and intolerable misfeature as computer use outside the US and UK became the rule rather than the exception (see software rot). And so national extensions to US-ASCII were developed, such as Latin-1. Hardware and software from the US continued for some time to embody the assumption that US-ASCII is the universal character set and that words of text consist entirely of byte values 65-90 and 97-122 (A-Z and a-z); this is a major irritant to people who want to use a character set suited to their own languages. Perversely, though, efforts to solve this problem by proliferating sets of national characters produced an evolutionary pressure (especially in protocol design, e.g., the URL standard) to stick to US-ASCII as a subset common to all those in use, and therefore to stick to English as the language encodable with the common subset of all the ASCII dialects. This basic problem with having a multiplicity of national character sets ended up being a prime justification for Unicode, which was designed, ostensibly, to be the *one* ASCII extension anyone will need. A system is described as "eight-bit clean" if it doesn't mangle text with byte values above 127, as some older systems did. See also ASCII character table, Yu-Shiang Whole Fish.
Last updated: 2014-10-05


Guest Post by Albert: Weather is changeable but climate is forever. At least so it seemed, before the global warming began in earnest in the 1980s. The difference between weather and climate is often lost on us: we experience and remember the weather but changes over decades are hidden from us. Nature is different: flowers appear weeks earlier than they used to, in response to a warming we haven’t really noticed. But there are short term fluctuations which we do feel. These happen over six months to a few years, and change the weather notably, but are too brief to affect the climate. In the UK, the exceptionally mild winters of the last two years come to mind, or the three rather colder winters preceding them. In other places it can be years of drought. Often they are local events only: for instance, the last winter was very mild in Europe, very cold in parts of the US, balancing each other out. But sometimes they do trace a real, brief change in global temperatures. There are two main events which affect global temperatures on these time scales. One is the El Nino: it occurs irregularly and releases enough heat from the oceans to make a notable difference, lasting 6-12 months. The other is volcanic eruptions, with Pinatubo, Krakatoa and Tambora well-known examples. Pinatubo depressed global temperatures for up to two years. Tambora gave a larger change lasting a few years. But there are times when temperatures go up or down for a few years without a clear volcanic cause. And there is disagreement on how strong volcanoes need to be notable. I tried to find these effects in the global temperature records. The figure below shows the so-called Annual mean Land-Ocean Temperature Index which I consider the best one to use. (There are other temperature indices: some only measure temperatures on land which is closer to our experience but more prone to weather.) I have split it up over the northern hemisphere (above 24 degrees latitude), the southern hemisphere, and the tropics. Comparing temperature graphs immediately shows that the northern hemisphere, and in particular non-tropical latitudes, are most affected by variations. The southern hemisphere is much more stable. This shows the stabilizing effect of oceans: the southern hemisphere is mostly water, and water has a much higher heat capacity than either land or air. Land can respond quickly to changes, but oceans require a long time to heat up or cool down. The arrows at the bottom indicate larger El Nino’s. The very strong El Nino of 1998 is clearly visible. But how well are volcanic eruptions visible? The figures shows the main eruptions over this time. The largest ones are Krakatoa (1883), Novarupta (1912) (the name ‘Katmai’ is also used), El Chicon (1982), and Pinatubo (1991). I have also added the VE5 eruptions, as shorter lines to distinguish them. Furthermore, colour is used to show whether they erupted in the northern hemisphere (red), tropics (black), or southern hemisphere (blue). Pinatubo is clearly visible in the temperature record, in all three plots. El Chicon is not, but it coincided with a very strong El Nino which may have canceled its effects out. Novarupta had no effect. Krakatoa mainly affected the northern hemisphere. Some of the other volcanic eruptions coincided with a temperature excursion, but it is hard to be sure this was not a coincidence. The ones under suspicion of climate alteration are Tarawera (1886; southern hemisphere only), Bezymianni (1956) and Mount Agung (1963) (but the bad winter of 1962/3 came before this eruption and cannot be blamed on a volcano). The Cerro Azul (1932) eruption came before a cold year, but went off in the wrong hemisphere, so is above suspicion because of a good alibi. Hemisphere is important. It is very difficult for northern eruptions to affect the southern hemisphere and vice versa: the tropics act as a very effective barrier to the spread of stratospheric sulphur. Volcanoes in the tropics have an advantage: they can spread their pollution to both hemisphere. The rule of thumb is one of contrast: for a proper volcanic winter, you need a tropical volcano. Can we go back further in time? The temperature record becomes more difficult: there are too few direct measurements, and you can’t use say the long records from central England as they are far too localized: you would get weather rather than climate. However, there are other methods, such as tree rings, and Greenland ice core records, which can be used. They don’t quite measure temperature the same way and you wouldn’t expect a perfect agreement. But it has been shown to work well enough. The temperature record over the past 2000 years is shown below. The red line overplots the recent accurate measurements for the northern hemisphere. Note that all temperatures are shown against the 1951-1980 global average. The Little Ice Age, from about 1300 to 1800, is easily visible. There are also numerous brief excursions. Are any volcanic? To find out, one needs a list of major volcanic eruptions over the past 2000 years. Amazingly, this does not exist. Most major volcanoes erupted in places without a literate population, or, worse, wiped them out, and people just didn’t think of recording the ‘VE’ number for each eruption. Very inconsiderate. But ice cores come to the rescue. Volcanic ash and sulphur leave their traces in the ice, and can be identified both from Greenland and Antarctica. The years can be a little uncertain (it is not easy to accurately count that many layers), the eruption magnitude cannot be accurately inferred, and the location of the volcano is anyone’s guess. (Although it is possible to infer whether it was a tropical, northern, or southern volcano, depending whether it is seen in Greenland, Antarctica, or both.) A list of eruptions and associated volcanoes is in below. Before 1600 there is considerable uncertainty in date, identification, or both. The Kuwae eruption was possibly the largest of the millennium, exceeding Tambora. The 1808 eruption is unusual, in that a fairly accurate date is known (early Dec 1808) but there is no proposed location. Quite a few of these eruptions coincide with a temperature drop. Before 1452 the dates become more uncertain and you wouldn’t expect to see much of a correlation. The excellent fit in 535AD is a bit misleading, since the temperature decline was used to date the eruption! However, there are enough cases of real agreement to make the case for volcanic winters convincing. But not really winters. The sulphuric haze reduces the strength of the sun light, and this should have more effect on the summer temperatures (when the sun’s effect is strongest) than on the winter. A volcanic winter is typified by snow in summer. Extreme winters can rarely be traced to a volcano. The cause of the winter of 1740, when the Shannon froze over and a quarter of Ireland’s population died, lies out in the Atlantic, and not in sonme distant caldera. Not all weather excursions can be blamed on volcanoes.
|1570||Billy Mitchell||Papua New Guinea||6|
|1482||Mount St Helens||USA||5|
- 1831: The identification with Babuyan seems doubtful. The dust/sulphur is seen only in Greenland, not Antarctica. Also the dry fog reported in Europe that year suggests a northern location, perhaps North America. There may have been two eruptions, one around 1830 and one around 1835.
- Long Island, Papua New Guinea, may be another candidate for the 1640 eruption. It had a large event sometime before 1700.
- The identification of the 1570 dust as from Billy Mitchell is tentative. The eruption itself is not accurately enough dated.
- The Baitoushan eruption has an uncertain date by +- 50 year.


In this unit, we will look at a list of palindromic words in the English language. Aha is an exclamatory word used to express satisfaction or a sudden realization of something. Bib is a small cloth, like a small apron, fastened to an infants neck to protect its clothes while feeding. A bob is a quick up and down movement. Boob is informal for a womans breast. Boob also refers to an embarrassing mistake. Civic means something relating to a city, town or an urban centre, as in civic authorities. Dad is informal for father. Deed is an intentional act. Deed also refers to a legal property document. Deified means being worshipped as god. It is the past tense of the verb deify. Dud is something that fails to work properly, as in an explosive that fails to explode. Eke is to make a living with difficulty Ere is an archaic word for the term before Eve is the day before an important occasion of festival, as in New Years Eve Ewe: A female sheep is called an ewe. Eye is the organ of sight of most living organisms Gag is a piece of cloth tied over a persons mouth to stop them from speaking. Gig is a single performance by a musician Gog is the synonym for excitement and eagerness Kayak is a narrow canoe that is propelled with a double-bladed paddle. Kook is a mad, eccentric person. The word originated from cuckoo which also conveys a similar meaning. Level is a position as marked by a horizontal line. The verb form of level commonly means to flatten Madam is a polite way to address a woman Malayalam is an Indian language spoken in the South-Indian state of Kerala. Mom is the informal term for mother. Mum is stay silent or close-mouthed. Noon refers to twelve o clock, of the day. A nun is a member of a religious institution who live under vows of chastity Pap is a soft, bland mashed up food suitable for feeding infants. Peep means to look at something secretly Pep means liveliness and high spirits. Pip is the hard seed in a fruit. Poop is the solid waste excreted from the body. Pop is to make a light explosive sound. It is also the abbreviated term for popular, as in pop music. Pup means a young dog A radar sends out pulses of radio waves that bounce off passing objects and are transmitted back the source. Radars are used for detecting aircraft and ship. Refer is to make a mention of or speak about. Rotator is something that rotates or moves in circles. A rotor is the rotating cylindrical part of a machine. Sexes is plural of sex, which is a reference to both the genders, male and female. Sis is the informal term for a persons sister. Solos is the plural form of solo, which is a musical performance given by one person on one instrument. Stats is an abbreviation for statistics which is a branch of mathematics dealing with collecting and analysing data. Stets is a printers term meaning let it stand. It indicates that the matter previously marked for deletion is to be retained. Tat refers to anything that looks cheap or of low quality. Tenet is a religious principle or belief Terret is a ring on a harness through which the reins pass through Tet refers to the Vietnamese New Year, Tit is a small European bird that eats insects and seeds. Toot is a sharp sound made by a trumpet or a horn Torot is the plural for torah, Two torah scrolls of the Hebrew bible are called torot. A tot is a very young child. Tut is the sound made to say that you disapprove something. Wow is an exclamatory term used to denote wonder and astonishment. Yay is an exclamatory term used to express triumph and happiness.