Fluoride: An Invisible Killer
by Floyd Maxwell, BASc
Author of the International Anti-Fluoridation Database
* * * * * * * * *"We would not purposely add arsenic to the water supply. And we would not purposely add lead. But we add fluoride. The fact is that fluoride is more toxic than lead and just slightly less toxic than arsenic." (source)
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"The federal maximum contaminant level (MCL) for lead is 15 parts per billion (ppb), 5 ppb for arsenic and 4000 ppb for fluoride." (source)
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1952: The Delaney Committee 82nd Congress Hearings on Fluoride revealed that there was no actual scientific basis for the fluoridation of water supplies in the prevention of tooth decay. The recommendation of the Committee was that more research be done, before proceeding with this national mass medication. Their recommendation was totally ignored.
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A common obstacle one runs into when trying to inform others of the dangers of a product is being told you are not an "expert". This can, however, be used to one's advantage if one happens to find an "expert" who verifies your own views on the benefits of natural versus chemical approaches to health.
My background is that of a Chemical Engineer, having earned my B.A.Sc. from the University of British Columbia in 1984. When it comes to chemistry I can say that I am an "expert" in this area due to studying it full time for over 10 years.
Luckily I also retained the ability to think for myself...
In studying the elements (see the Periodic Table of the Elements graphic above), application of just a few basic principles can lead to a grouping of families of elements based on their similar chemical properties.
As one goes down the Table, the size of elements increases while the reactivity decreases.
The second-to-last column of the Periodic Table are the halides, and start with F (Fluorine), then Cl (Chlorine), Br (Bromine), I (Iodine) and At (Astatine).
Applying the reactivity rule one can accurately say that Fluorine is more reactive than Chlorine, that is more reactive than Bromine, that is more reactive than Iodine.
This reactivity rule also holds true for molecules/compounds (composed of two or more atoms that may be the same element or different ones) provided that one atom remains the same and only the halide changes.
Thus, we can infer that HF is more reactive than HCl. HCl (Hydro Chloric acid) was the strongest acid we used in school. But HF is so reactive, and so deadly that it was never seen or used in any of the 10 years of chemistry demonstrations and labs I took part in. Allen Hoffmann (email@example.com), a former Scientific Glassblower, was forced to be in contact with HF as part of his work (and is now seeking Worker's Compensation for the damage it did to his body) notes that:In other words, by the time you smell it, your life is danger! -- hence the title of this article: "Fluoride: An Invisible Killer".HF can't be smelled until 24ppm but has an IDLH (Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health) concentration level of 30ppm.
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How strong, and prevalent, are fluorine-containing compounds?HF is one of the strongest acids in the world. So strong it can etch glass (in fact, this is a common test for the presence of fluoride), making storage of this compound rather difficult!
Not to mention the danger in handling it!
Searching for "hydrofluoric acid" on Google produced about 12,000 web pages, evenly divided between typical chemical data sheets [with stringent handling procedures!] and health warning pages!
In fact, Fluorine is the most reactive of all the elements (elemental Fluoride is never found by itself in nature) and it was only the relatively recent laboratory-induced joining of Fluoride to Xenon, one of the previously "inert" elements (those in the right-most column in the picture above) that caused this group of elements to be renamed "noble" instead.
This photograph shows what the fluorine added to Calgary, Alberta's drinking water has done to a thick and "corrosion resistant" steel water supply valve.
Fluoride is used extensively in computer chip and Aluminum and steel manufacture, causing a staggering amount of environmental damage.
In fact, in May, 2000, 3M Corporation announced it was discontinuing a whole family of fluorinated compounds, including Scotchgard, due to their incredible destructiveness to the environment.
Fluoridated compounds are also extremely effective in killing bugs. The wholely predictable side effect of spraying crops with fluoridated pesticides is that fluoride remains on the produce, making fluoride-caused food contamination a very real concern and a good reason, by itself, to consider eating only organic food. Beverage drinkers are not safe either.
Fluorine is also found in mind-affecting drugs like Prozac and the "date rape" drug Rohypnol. Click here for a more complete list of drugs containing fluorine.
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What are "Free Radicals"?Perhaps some of you have heard of "free radicals" in recent years. The natural health industry has worked on finding compounds that can absorb, prevent the formation of or ameliorate the consequences of "free radicals".
But what are they?
Free radicals are what you get when you break a molecule into unstable pieces. This is achieved by subjecting an otherwise stable molecule to a jolt of energy of some sort (sunlight, heat, flame, etc.). Thus, too much sunlight can cause the formation of free radicals, as can heat or partial combustion (ie. smoke).
We are all already aware of the damaging effects of the sun. And we are increasingly aware of the harmful effects of smoke. But did we know that "free radicals" are one of the biggest and most dangerous by-products of smoking? Has anyone told us this?
Free radicals are so destructive because they are unstable and extremely reactive. So reactive, in fact, that they will react with almost anything, and in doing so will alter what they reactive -- in plain terms, healthy tissue becomes unhealthy tissue due to the action of free radicals. It's that simple.
Many of us are already aware of something similar to this regarding the Chlorine that is sometimes added to municipal water supplies -- that it forms families of compounds in the water. Well, Fluorine is much more reactive than Chlorine, so one can only imagine the range of deadly compounds it is capable of creating when it is added to drinking water.
I just want to emphasize that, chemically, free radicals are much worse than most cancer causing compounds because free radicals can do "whatever they want" when they contact your body. They can alter virtually anything they contact -- cells, blood vessels, organs, etc.
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- Chlorine is known to form numerous compounds after it is added to municipal water supplies.
- Fluorine is much more reactive than Chlorine.
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So, what happens when you add F to municipal water?
It turns out that there are vast ramifications from adding F, and va$t rea$on$ for doing it.
In essence, the fertilizer, aluminum and steel industries produce, in the process, massive quantities of fluoride that used to be industrial waste. To save large amounts of money, they came up with the idea of dumping this industrial waste into drinking water. Now, instead of having to pay to have the fluoride waste hauled away, they are paid to poison us.
Here are just a few of the numerous web links that I encourage you to explore:
Ask the government for your 1992 Fluoridation Census report
The Fluoridation Fiasco: Poison In Your Water:
The Fluoride Stop:
Why EPA's Headquarters Union Of Scientists Opposes Fluoridation
Fluoride Pollution: An Overview
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Just Think It's International Anti-Fluoridation Database:
150+ facts, horror stories and cover-ups about Fluoride
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Call to ACTIONAssuming that Fluoride is "bad", how should we minimize or eliminate the problem?
Quite simply, most of you are being poisoned and you should be very concerned about this and should tell your official representatives of your concern.
And you should not stop until they stop adding it.
Find articles about Fluoride. Print them. Fax them. Send letters to local newspapers. Find out if your community is being poisoned and if it is and we don't already know about it, tell us so we can tell other people in your community.
(2) Avoid it
Note that I did not say "Remove it" because this is not possible, contrary to what countless manufacturers are claiming. The key reasons why not: (1) Fluorine's extreme reactiveness, causing it to "cling" more tightly to water than anything I am aware of, and (2) the size of the F atom.
We have already dealt with one aspect of the Fluorine atom's size -- that it makes the atom extremely reactive.
The second aspect of Fluorine can be revealed by comparing the weight of a "mole" (602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms) of F to that of a mole of H2O (water). [To confirm the calculation, refer to the Periodic Table of the Elements graphic above.] F weighs 19 grams per mole (g/M), H2O weighs 18 g/M.
Summoning another well known rule of chemistry, that the size of a molecule/atom is directly related to its molecular weight and we can infer that these two molecules are almost identical in size.
Ineffectiveness of Reverse Osmosis unitsReverse Osmosis [RO] manufacturers' claim they can remove fluoride. Don't believe their claim$.
RO units work on the same principle as our kidneys. Think of a mesh, like the mosquito netting on your screen door. The mesh lets in air, but not mosquitos, because air molecules are smaller than mosquitos.
An RO unit is thus great for removing "heavy metals" like Pb (Lead), Hg (Mercury) and Cd (Cadmium), as well as Cl- family compounds like PCBs and PCP's (Poly Chlorinated Phenyls and BiPhenyls) because these are all large molecules relative to the size of H2O. In fact, even Cl (the smallest of these) is relative large (molecular weight of 35 g/M) and so if the RO unit is new and it is well made (ie. with precision tolerances on the RO membrane) it might even filter out some of the Cl. Note the "ifs" and conditions in the last sentence.
So, an RO unit will not filter out F atoms, as F atoms are too similar in size to H2O molecules.
Equally Ineffective Distillation unitsDistillation units will also not work because similar sized polar molecules have similar boiling and freezing points.
Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit and FH boils at 203 to 239 degress Fahrenheit. So, when your distillation unit has warmed up the water to 212 degrees Fahrenheit, and the water starts to boil off (evaporate), *so* does the Fluoride! It stays right with the water vapor, and gets condensed back into liquid at the end of the process.
So, don't let anyone tell you otherwise and don't trust those that do.
(3) Don't trust your water
Unlike Chlorine, Fluoride is colorless, odorless and tasteless so you have almost no way of knowing if it is present in the water you are drinking or using.
Even bathing or showering in fluoridated water will cause you to absorb an unhealthy amount of it through your skin.
Fruit juices often have very high concentrations of Fluorine, due to the use of Fluorine in pesticides.
Pop and other packaged beverages are also common and substantial sources of Fluorine, not only because of the fluoridated water but because of fluoride-laced ingredients, and the concentration of same during the manufacturing process.
Bottled water can be an option, but choose carefully. Mineral Waters of the World provides a free and very detailed analysis of the composition of over 600 types of bottled water available throughout the world.
(4) Don't trust the experts
Before you even listen to someone's opinion about Fluoride, figure out what they have to gain by their opinion.
RO manufacturers would see sales "dry up" if they admitted that their units can not remove it. They will thus never admit it, and will try to "poison" our efforts to give people unbiased information.
Fluoride producers (the multi-billion dollar aluminum, fertilizer and steel industries) have everything to lose and nothing to gain by admitting that Fluoride is even remotely bad for anyone.
Ditto toothpaste manufacturers and thus dentists. Yes, dentists have a lot to gain by fluoridation -- dental fluorosis, caused by fluoridation, produces mottled teeth (in advanced stages, fluorosis can turn teeth into black stumps -- see for yourself, or view this 46 page slide show) and this leads people to get very expensive cosmetic dental work performed...by dentists.
As to the supposed benefits of drinking fluoridated water, read the results of this study, or this one, or this one, or this:
Any tooth decay reducing effect attributable to fluoride occurs by topical mechanisms involving action on tooth surfaces and on oral bacteria that promote dental caries. There is negligible anti-caries benefit from ingested fluoride that does not have actual contact with the surfaces of the teeth. - "Fluoride in Dentistry", 2nd Edition (source)
Of course, topical application has its own problems:
Children under age 4 swallow 40% or more of the toothpaste they use.
- Oregon Citizens for Safe Drinking Water
And "public" health officials will definitely *not* want to admit that they have been officially encouraging the largest act of public poisoning the world has ever known.
"Anti-Expert" shields up!
(5) Hound the water bottling companies
For some reason (worth an investigation itself) water bottling companies in the U.S. are not required to report the content of water on the label (and thus most don't).
Oh sure, they report how many calories the water has (zero), how much of the recommended daily allowance of protein, carbohydrates, and vitamins xyz (all zero) but there is no mandatory listing of the amounts of such common elements as Ca (Calcium), Na (Sodium), Cl (Chlorine) and (F) Fluoride!
Then visit their web sites. I did this for the largest bottlers in the Phoenix area and learned exactly nothing about the content of the water they are selling. I also learned that many are owned by larger companies, such as Perrier. And that they have "zero point zero" (ie. no) interest in communicating with the people who buy their product. On the Perrier site there was no way to contact them. No forms to fill out, no email addresses to use and, when I used my Internet knowledge to send to standard email addresses that every domain usually has I still got exactly zero response. Why?! Think about it...
I finally went with Sedona Springs because they told me the (low and naturally occuring) Fluoride content of their spring water. [Free plug: Sedona Springs, 602-254-0000, home or office delivery, sport bottles, half or full size jugs for your/rented water cooler...and "6 gallons for the price of 5"]
We encourage everyone to adopt this approach as well. Check the chemical analysis of your local water bottlers online at Mineral Waters of the World. If some or all of your local brands are not on the list, try to contact your local bottlers/sellers. Ask them for a chemical analysis of their water, and especially the fluoride content. If you should manage to obtain this information, give it to Mineral Waters of the World and they will update their database.
Free plug for the good guysAustralians can choose "NOBLE'S ULTRA PURE WATER" with zero fluoride.
Above all, only trust (ie. drink the water of) bottlers who tells you the Fluoride concentration of their water.
A guideline is that city water is polluted with 1 part per million (ppm) of F, and bottled water can have this much or even more! When I visited Toronto some time back I found only one brand (of perhaps 5 or 10) that had very low F. Every one of the other brands had "municipal" levels of Fluoride in their bottled water. Incredible!
Bottled water with the lowest F content that I have seen is around 0.08 ppm -- 12 times less than in the municipal water supplies, and "naturally occurring" of course. Naturally occurring fluoride is less harmful because the fluoride has already bonded (securely) with calcium. A well-bonded atom is a less reactive atom.
Be cautious, if not downright skeptical of bottled water that says things like "trace", and be only slightly more reassured by the word "undetectable". These days scientific equipment can measure parts per *trillion* and better, so parts per million measurements are trivially easy to make by comparison.
If they say they "can't" measure it, what else are they incapable of doing? Telling the truth?
(6) To repeat...
Send us what you have learned. Tell us what happened when you tried to find out what your municipality is doing to your water. And what they told you about their chemical additions: concentrations, controls, reasons, etc. We are building an International Anti-Fluoridation Database movement and we need your help.
Still unconvinced? Check out these 150+ fluoride facts!
Our children thank you. For your action.
This article can be found at:
And in plain ASCII text (Microsoft Word-compatible) here:
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 Dr. John Yiamouyiannis, "Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products", Fifth Ed., Williams and Wilkins. Quote at: http://rense.com/health/fluoride1.htm
 We have collected every fact, horror story and cover-up we can find [150+ of them so far!] and challenge you to read them -- strong medicine!
 We are building a free International Anti-Fluoridation Database but we need your help in adding to it. We ask everyone reading this to contact their local city officials and find out whether they are adding F, Cl or something else like Chloramine, and to tells us what concentration is being added and what (if any) safety measures are in place to protect Joe/Jane Citizen from catastrophic over-additions. Then send us the information, preferably by email, at this address:


Therapy of Concomitant Strabismus
Treatment is generallylong-term. The duration of treatment may extend from the first months of life to about the age of twelve. Specific treatments and therapeutic success are determined not only by the clinical course but also by the child’s overall per-sonality and the parents’ ability to cooperate. The entire course of treatment may be divided into three phases with corresponding interim goals.
1. The ophthalmologist determines whether the cause of the strabismus may be treated with eyeglasses (such as hyperopia).
2. If the strabismus cannot be fully corrected with eyeglasses, the next step in treatment (parallel to prescribing eyeglasses) is to minimize the risk of amblyopia by occlusion therapy.
3. Once the occlusion therapy has produced sufficient visual acuity in both eyes, the alignment of one or both eyes is corrected by surgery. Late stra-bismus with normal sensory development is an exception to this rule (for further information, see Surgery). The alignment correction is required for normal binocular vision and has the added benefit of cosmetic improvement.
The only purpose of surgeryis cosmetic improvement. A functional improvement in binocular vision can no longer be achieved.
Where the strabismus is due to a cause that can be treated with eyeglasses, then eyeglasses can eliminate at least the accommodative component of the disorder. Often residual strabismus requiring further treatment will remain despite eyeglass correction.
Strict occlusion therapy by eye patching or eyeglass occlusion is the most effective method of avoiding or treating strabismic amblyopia. Primarily theleading eye is patched.
Severe amblyopia with eccentric fixation requires an eye patch(Fig. 17.11). Eyeglass occlusion (see next section) entails the risk that the child might attempt to circumvent the occlusion of the good eye by looking over the rim of the eyeglasses with the leading eye. This would compromise the effectiveness of occlusion therapy, whose purpose is to train the amblyopic eye.
Mild cases of amblyopia usually may be treated success-fully by covering the eyeglass lens of the leading eye with an opaque material. In such cases, the child usually does not attempt to look over the rim of the eyeglasses because the deviating eye has sufficient visual acuity.
The duration of occlusion therapy must be balanced so as to avoida loss of visual acuity in the leading eye. The leading eye is occluded for several hours at a time in mild amblyopia, and for several days at a time in severe amblyopia depending to the patient’s age. For example, the nondeviat-ing eye in a four-year-old patient is patched for four days while the deviating eye is left uncovered. Both eyes are then left uncovered for one day. This treat-ment cycle is repeated beginning on the following day.
Amblyopia must be treated in early childhood. The younger the child is, the more favorable and rapid the response to treatment will be. The upper age limit for occlusion therapy is approximately the age of nine. The earlier therapy is initiated, the sooner amblyopia can be eliminated.
The goal of treatment in infantile strabismus is to achievealternating stra-bismus with full visual acuity and central fixation in both eyes. Binocularvision is less important in this setting. It is not normally developed anyway in patients who develop strabismus at an early age and cannot be further improved.
Surgery should be postponeduntil after amblyopia has been successfully treated (see previous section). It is also advisable to wait until the patient has reached a certain age. Adequate follow-up includes precise measurement of visual acuity at regular intervals in tests that require the patient’s cooperation, and such cooperation is diffi-cult to ensure in young patients below the age of four. Surgical correction in a very young patient prior to successful treatment of amblyopia involves a risk that a decrease in visual acuity in one eye may go unnoticed after the stra-bismus has been corrected. However, the child should undergo surgery prior to entering school so as to avoid the social stigma of strabismus. In such a case, surgery achieves only a cosmetic correction of strabismus.
In thiscase, surgery should be performed as early as possible because the primary goal is to preserve binocular vision, which is necessarily absent in infantile strabismus syndrome.
The effect of surgery is less to alter the pull of the extraocularmuscles than to alter the position of the eyes at rest. Esotropia is corrected by a combined procedure involving a medial rectus recession and a lateral rectus resection. The medial rectus is released because its pull is “too strong” (see Fig. 17.1), whereas the lateral rectus is shorted to increase its pull. The degree of correction depends on the angle of deviation. Primary oblique muscle dys-function is corrected by inferior oblique recession and if necessary by dou-bling the superior oblique to reinforce it. Exotropia is corrected by posteriorly a lateral rectus recession in combination with a medial rectus resection.


Published on February 28, 2014
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES By: MARIA KRISIA FAE DELOS REYES DE ASIS, BSN-RN
TISSUE LEVEL OF ORGANIZATION GLANDULAR EPITHELIUM -Function: SECRETION -Often lie in clusters deep to the covering and lining epithelium -A gland may consist of a single cell or a group of cells that secrete substances into ducts, onto a surface, or into the blood
TISSUE LEVEL OF ORGANIZATION > Endocrine Glands -Diffuse substances directly into the bloodstream without flowing through a duct -Secretions are called hormones, which regulate chemical reactions in the body
TISSUE LEVEL OF ORGANIZATION > Exocrine Glands -Secrete their substances into ducts that empty onto a surface such as skin or lumen -Examples of substances: sweat, oil, earwax, saliva, enzymes
TISSUE LEVEL OF ORGANIZATION CONNECTIVE TISSUE -ranges in consistency from the gel-like softness of areolar connective tissue to the hardness of bone -Blood is also a connective tissue -Connective tissue (CT) forms an extensive compartment in the body and can be considered as the "glue" that holds the body together
TISSUE LEVEL OF ORGANIZATION Types of Connective Tissue: 1. Fibroblasts – are large, flat cells with branching processes. They are usually the most numerous. They migrate through the connective tissue, secreting the fibers and ground substance of the extracellular matrix
TISSUE LEVEL OF ORGANIZATION 2. Macrophages – are capable of engulfing bacteria and cellular debris by phagocytosis Fixed macrophages - reside in specific tissues Wandering macrophages - can move throughout the tissues where inflammation and infection are located
TISSUE LEVEL OF ORGANIZATION 3. Plasma cells – small cells that develop from immune cells called Blymphocytes. They secrete antibodies. 4. Mast cells – abundant alongside the blood vessels that supply connective tissue. They produce histamine, a chemical that influences inflammatory response. They can also engulf bacteria.
TISSUE LEVEL OF ORGANIZATION 5. Adipocytes – also called fat cells or adipose cells. They store triglycerides as a reserve source of energy 6. White blood cells – they migrate from blood into the connective tissue during infection or allergic reactions.
TISSUE LEVEL OF ORGANIZATION EMBRYONIC CONNECTIVE TISSUE Mesenchyme - composed of irregularly shaped cells, a semifluid ground substance, and delicate reticular fibers. - Function: forms all other types of connective tissue - present in the embryo
TISSUE LEVEL OF ORGANIZATION Mucous connective tissue - found mainly in the umbilical cord of the fetus - Function: supports the 2 arteries and 1 vein in the umbilical cord - also called Wharton’s jelly
TISSUE LEVEL OF ORGANIZATION MATURE CONNECTIVE TISSUE LOOSE CONNECTIVE TISSUE - Loosely intertwined between cells 1. Areolar - Most widely distributed - All types of fibers (collagen, elastic, reticular) are arranged randomly throughout the tissue - Combined with adipose tissue, they form the SUBCUTANEOUS LAYER of the skin
TISSUE LEVEL OF ORGANIZATION 2. Adipose - Contain adipocytes - Good insulator that reduces heat loss through the skin - Protection for various organ - Energy reserve White Adipose Tissue - usually found in adults Brown Adipose Tissue - Has very rich blood supply
TISSUE LEVEL OF ORGANIZATION 3. Reticular - Forms the stroma (supporting tissue) of the liver, spleen, and lymph nodes - Helps bind together smooth muscle cells - Also removes worn out cells and bacteria
TISSUE LEVEL OF ORGANIZATION DENSE CONNECTIVE TISSUE - More numerous thicker and denser fibers, but fewer cells 1. Dense Regular - Bundles of collagen are regularly arranged in parallel patterns to provide great strength to tissues - Fibroblasts appear in rows between the fibers - Tissues are silvery white and tough. Ex. Tendons, ligaments
TISSUE LEVEL OF ORGANIZATION 2. Dense Irregular - Contains collagen fibers that are packed more tightly together and irregularly arranged - Found in parts of the body where pulling forces are exerted in various directions - Ex. Dermis of the skin, pericardium of the heart
TISSUE LEVEL OF ORGANIZATION 3. Elastic - Contains branching elastic fibers that gives the tissue a yellow color - Fibroblasts are present between the fibers - Very strong and recoils to original shape after being stretched - Ex. Lungs, arteries
Please bring out any piece of paper and prepare for a quiz..
QUESTION: 1. This type of connective tissue is found mainly on the umbilical cord
QUESTION: 2. How many arteries are found in the umbilical cord?
QUESTION: 3. What is the primary function of glandular epithelium?
QUESTION: 4. It may consist of a single cell or a group of cells that secrete substances into ducts, onto a surface, or into the blood.
QUESTION: 5. These are also called fat cells or adipose cells.
QUESTION: 6. Connective tissues which have bundles of collagen are regularly arranged in parallel patterns to provide great strength to tissues.
QUESTION: 7. Connective tissues which is very strong and recoils to original shape after being stretched.
QUESTION: 8. What are the substances secreted by endocrine glands?
QUESTION: 9. Combined with adipose tissue, they form the SUBCUTANEOUS LAYER of the skin.
QUESTION: 10. Connective tissues which are loosely intertwined between cells.
QUESTION: 11. This is a good insulator that reduces heat loss through the skin.
QUESTION: 12. Connective tissues which form all other types of connective tissue
QUESTION: 13. These are macrophages that can move throughout the tissues where inflammation and infection are located
QUESTION: 14. These are usually the most numerous type of connective tissue.
QUESTION: 15. These are cells that secrete antibodies.
1. biological sciences by: maria krisia fae delos reyes de asis, bsn-rn. 2. tissue level of organization glandular epithelium -function: secretion -often ...
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Time for Fall Garden Clean Up
Fall is coming and it will soon be time to put the garden to ‘bed’ for the winter, said Sharon Yiesla, a University of Illinois Extension horticulture educator based in Lake County.
“Here are some things that should be done to get the garden ready for the dormant season,” she said.
Clean up vegetable gardens and annual flower beds: Harvest all usable vegetables and annual flowers. Leftover debris can be tilled into soil to decay and enrich the soil or it can be placed into the compost pile. Clean up weeds as they can harbor diseases and insects. Add compost and other organic material to enrich the soil. Mulch beds to prevent erosion during winter.
Clean up perennial flower beds: Remove weeds that may harbor diseases and insects. After a couple of frosts have occurred, mulch the perennial bed, if needed. About 2-3 inches of mulch should be adequate. Plants can be cut back now or in early spring. New perennials can be planted in fall and established perennials can be divided. September is the best time for this, since air temperatures are cool, but the soil is still warm enough to encourage root development.
Tree and shrub maintenance: Prune deciduous trees after they go dormant (lose their leaves) or in early spring. Late summer and fall flowering shrubs can also be pruned after they go dormant. DO NOT prune spring flowering shrubs in fall (they already have their flower buds). Deciduous trees and shrubs can be fertilized after they go dormant in October. Continue regular watering as long as the ground is not frozen. Watering is especially important for evergreens.
Miscellaneous: Plant spring flowering bulbs in early fall (mid-September to mid-October). Clean garden tools so they will be ready for next season. See to proper storage of seeds, fertilizer and garden chemicals. Drain and store garden hoses. Consider composting as a method to deal with garden debris and autumn leaves.


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BIRMINGHAM (August 21, 2013) – Children’s of Alabama launched the state’s first mobile application designed to identify toxic plants and venomous and poisonous animals today, offering Alabamians a simple resource to identify potentially dangerous plants, insects, snakes and common household items from an iPhone.
The app - entitled “PoisonPerils” - is free and can be downloaded from iTunes. The resource was designed to make parents, grandparents, teachers and other caregivers aware of the plants, snakes, insects and household items that the Regional Poison Control Center (RPCC) at Children’s receives calls about each year. This poison hotline (1-800-222-1222) is one of the few services at Children’s that treats adults as well as children.
“Poison Perils was designed to provide key information about Alabama’s flora, fauna, and also common household items, that is critical for parents, teachers and other caregivers to know in order to keep children, and themselves, safe,” said Dr. Ann Slattery of the Regional Poison Control Center. “We believe this is the first and only resource of its kind in Alabama and think this information is critical due to the state’s amazing array of biodiversity.”
Alabama has six types of venomous snakes, more than double that number of poisonous insects and scores of toxic plants. Additionally, poisonings from household items also result in frequent calls to the RPCC. Last year, in fact, the RPCC handled more than 32,000 calls and provided more than 75,000 follow-up calls to assure appropriate treatment and outcomes.
Dr. Slattery said the app also serves as a hotline to dial the RPCC in an emergency – users may simply click the app to dial the RPCC rather than dial the center’s 10-digit telephone number. Without an identification resource like this app, she said, parents and caregivers must rely on trying to describe an insect, plant, snake or household item in question, using precious time in the event of an emergency.
The application was developed by Appsolute Genius, a boutique Birmingham software shop specializing in the development of custom mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, Android phone, and Android tablet devices. PoisonPerils arrives around the first anniversary of the opening of Children’s $400 million Benjamin Russell Hospital for Children expansion and continues the organization’s increased emphasis on improving the patient families’ healthcare experience.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, the Alabama Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and UAB, helped make this resource possible according to Dr. Slattery.
Children’s of Alabama has provided specialized medical care for ill and injured children since 1911, offering inpatient and outpatient services throughout central Alabama. Last year, families made more than 670,000 outpatient and nearly 14,000 inpatient visits to Children’s from every county in Alabama and from 41 other states and four foreign countries. With more than 2 million square feet, Children’s is the third largest pediatric medical facility in the U.S. and has been ranked among the top children’s hospital programs in the country for the past four years by U.S. News & World Report. More information is available at www.childrensal.org/rpcc.


Heart health is important, and new research proves that making small switches in your daily diet is one of the best ways to maintain a health heart and healthy teeth.
There are many foods you can eat that are healthy for your heart and teeth. What you put in your body matters, and the foods you choose affect your oral health. Choose healthy foods and eat them more often.
Foods that have antioxidants, mono- and polyunsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids will be the bets source because all of these foods will help reduce the risk of heart disease and can improve your oral health.
Oatmeal: Oatmeal is a great food to add into your daily diet because it is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, fiber and potassium. Oatmeal is a fiber rich food can lower cholesterol, which will help to clear arteries. Oatmeal has fiber and it will help you feel full longer.
Salmon: Salmon is great for your skin. It is mega-rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which can reduce blood pressure. Some people don’t eat salmon because they don’t like it, if you want an alternative eat other oily fish such as mackerel, herring or tuna, and sardines. All of these fish can help your heart health.
Avocados: Add avocados for a healthy fat into your diet. Put it into a sandwich or on a spinach salad. Avocadoes are packed with monounsaturated fat, which is the good fat. They can help lower cholesterol levels in the body.
Olive oil: Olive oil is loaded with monounsaturated fats, plus olive oil can lower bad cholesterol as well as reduce your risk of developing heart disease. Look for extra-virgin or virgin varieties — they’re the least processed — and use them instead of butter or other oils when cooking.
Nuts: Add more nuts into your diet for protein and healthy fat. Walnuts, almonds and macadamia nuts, contain mono- and polyunsaturated fats and fiber. You could use nuts instead of croutons for your salads.
Berries: Most types of berries are really good for your health— blueberries, raspberries, blackberries are examples that are all anti-inflammatory agents, which can help lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of hypertension. Put some blueberries in your oatmeal or mix berries in a smoothie for heart-healthy snacks.
For more health advice visit TenderCare Dental, a dentist in NW Portland. Shannon Kaiser is a wellness writer.


As far as I can remember I learnt that the following were the ancient civilization (in decreasing chronological order)
- Mesopotamia (
) Sumer Egypt
The above was taught to us in the schools. It was also a belief that Aryans came drove the Dravidians down south. This belief also aids disrespect for the languages both in the North as well as the South. Due to this any attempt to have a common language is met with resentment. The Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) has also created much misconception about the culture in
2. The predominant model of Indo-European origins is the Kurgan hypothesis
The Out of India theory is popular with the Hindutva ideologist while the
The evidence of the oldest literary records of the Indo-European family of languages, the Rig Veda and the Avesta, as we have seen, clearly and unambiguously depicts a movement of the Indo-Iranians from the east to the west and northwest. If, therefore, the scholars,, by and large, remain strongly resistant to the Indian homeland theory, it is not because the facts of the case rule out this theory, but because a defence of the standard theory has become a dogma with the scholars, and any scholar, particularly an Indian one, who pursues the Indian homeland theory is automatically held suspect as a fundamentalist or a chauvinistic nationalist. Whatever the outcome is, we should wait for historians to come out with an answer which I think could be in the near future. It will be good to know the origin of our culture, civilization and what caused so many languages to develop. The Indo-European Homeland could soon be accepted.
This is what most of us believe (and a prevalent view in Europe and West)
Mehrgarh (Credit: Indus and Mehrgarh archaeological mission)
Mehrgarh was discovered and excavations begun by a French team led by Jean-François Jarrige; the site was excavated continuously between 1974 and 1986.
Excavations (Mehrgarh, Nausharo & Pirak) carried out at Mehrgarh by French Archeologists have proved that the Mehrgarh represents a highly developed civilization that existed there until around 8,000 years ago. Much older than the Sumer Civilization. Mehrgarh is now seen as a precursor to the Indus Valley Civilization. This discovery also changes whole lot of things about the Aryan Invasion, the Rig Veda, the Sanskrit (1700 BC), Tamil (300 BCE) and other ancient languages of this country. It also proves that Civilization started in Mehrgarh (now in
The prevalent belief regarding the age of the Vedas as between 1200 and 1000 BC is based purely upon an ad hoc pronouncement by Max Muller despite his admission in his last work that the date could as well be 1500 as 15,000 BC!. The proponents of Kurgan Hypothesis suggest that the Aryans came from Anatolia and were Hittites. The Hittites were an ancient people from KanešIndo-European language, and established a kingdom centered at Hattusa (Hittite URUḪattuša) in north-central Anatolia from the 18th century BC. In the 14th century BC, the Hittite empire was at its height, encompassing Anatolia, north-western Syria about as far south as the mouth of the Litani River (a territory known as Amqu), and eastward into upper Mesopotamia. There is now evidence that Rig Veda is older than the oldest Hittite works (which are currently believed to be the oldest literary works) and Sanskrit could prove to be the origin for all european languages. The Rig Veda hereafter is the most important document not only for Indology but most indo European studies in philology, religion, mythology or history. Archeological investigations in Pakistan and NW india pushes the date of Rig Veda to 3100 BC and sanskrit before that. There is no evidence furnished in support of any invasion or entry of people from Europe. PH Francfort utilizing images from the French satellite SPOT finds that the river saraswati is pre-harrapan and started drying 4000BC. Rig Veda knows two very large rivers Saraswati and Indus. With this evidence, the date of Rig Veda and Sanskrit can be pushed back to atleast 3800 BC. You can read in more detail on the A new date for the Rgveda Here. The origin of Dravidian Languages could be older than this. Some linguistic scholars incorporate the Dravidian languages into a larger Elamo-Dravidian language family, which includes the ancient Elamite language (Haltami) of what is now south-western Iran. Dravidian is one of the primary linguistic groups in the proposed Nostratic language system, linking almost all languages in North Africa, Europe and Western Asia into a common family with its origins in the Fertile Crescent sometime between the last Ice Age and the emergence of proto-Indo-European 4-6 thousand years BC. Dravidian grammatical impact on the structure and syntax of Indo-Aryan languages is considered far greater than the Indo-Aryan grammatical impact on Dravidian. Some linguists explain this anomaly by arguing that Middle Indo-Aryan and New Indo-Aryan were built on a Dravidian substratum.
The Indus Valley Civilization were known to Sumerians as Meluhha. Meluhha was
The word “Aryan” has been twisted to provide a racial connotation that it never had. “arya” referres to a quality of character: nobility, and “arya-varta” means the abode of noble people. Aryans never denotes a race of people as it is now taken as.
- Vedic Age - 7000-4000 BC
- End of Rig Vedic Age - 3750 BC
- End of Ramayana - Mahabharat Period - 3000 BC
- Development of Saraswati-Indus Civilization - 3000-2000 BC
- Decline of
Indusand Saraswati Civilization - 2200-1900 BC
- Period of Complete chaos and migration - 2000-1500 BC
- Period of evolution of Hindu culture - 1400 - 250 BC
Due to the drying up of Saraswati, Civilization moved to
The Indus Valley Civilization people were artists, craftsmen and traders. They were hard working people. They had a highly organized system of agriculture with large granaries and storehouses. They lived in highly planned cities with broad roads and two-storied terraced buildings. They had a script (developed probably from the Elamite script). They made beautiful objects of art, necklaces and other ornaments. They had sailboats and bullock carts. They had wind mills. They played chess. They had stringed musical instruments. They had trade contacts with all the civilisations of their time namely Sumerians, Egyptians and Chinese. They therefore to some extent would have mixed with people of these cultures also.. Theirs probably is the first globalised culture in the world. Their caravans went up to
The Indus valley region was made fertile by the rivers running down from the
The word Dravid was initially used in Sanskrit to refer to the
There is evidence for the beginning of rice cultivation in the


The Adoration of the Shepherds, shortly after 1450
The Adoration of the Shepherds, shortly after 1450. Andrea Mantegna (c.? 1431 – September 13, 1506) was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g. by lowering the horizon in order to create a sense of greater monumentality. His flinty, metallic landscapes and somewhat stony figures give evidence of a fundamentally sculptural approach to painting. He also led a workshop that was the leading producer of prints in Venice before 1500.


The Rainbow Fish
Author Marcus Pfister
Page Designed by Hannah Durham
starts at the bottom of
the ocean where all the beautiful
fish live. There was one special fish, the rainbow fish. His scales
were of shades of blue, green and purple. He also had shiny scales that
glitter under the water. These scales are his most prizes scales.
rainbow fish started to become very proud and selfish. He became so
selfish that he refused to share his shiny scales with the other fish.
Eventually, he had no friends left, and he felt very lonely. The
rainbow fish goes and asks a wise octopus for advice. The octopus tell
the rainbow fish to give away his beauty and "discover how to be happy".
rainbow fish begins to give his shiny scales away and he starts to feel
different. He learns what it means to share with friends. The other
fish begin to accept him again. The rainbow fish finds true beauty and
1. What does it mean to you to
share with your friends?
2. If you were the rainbow
fish would you share your shiny scales
with the other fish?


What is Strategy Analysis?
Before defining anything about strategy analysis, let us first discuss what exactly does a strategy means? Strategy means a particular plan of actions which is framed and then executed in order to achieve a desired goal or objective.
Having executed a strategy, it has to be thoroughly analyzed in order to pre-plan systematically before taking any further move. Everything around a strategy is interconnected. One wrong strategy or one bad move of that strategy can lead you in deep troubled waters.
One should consider the following process of any strategy analysis:
First of all, we prepare a business strategy and then we analyze it. How we do it is discussed below.
Business Strategy Formulation
a. Identification of Strategic Goals:these are actually the vision or mission statements of the firm, which acts as a guidepost for the company in order to frame small strategies in order to achieve certain objectives like short-term goals and tactical goals. For example: Goals can be to be the market leader in 2 years of time; or to improve upon various financial ratios in the coming few quarters. etc
b. Defining Business Strategy:here, the focus is shifted to the product or service which the company is offering to its customers. The management team of the firm, thinks and strategizes the technology to be used in future development of the product/service; the expansion plans for the related product/service etc.
c. Determining you key strengths and other skills:all the resources, which the company has at its disposal is analyzed and then the strategy is checked whether it is feasible to implement along with the available resources. Then, possible changes are made to the strategy before implementing or executing it according to the skill-set available with the organization as well as all the resources that are constrained.
Here, the main focus rests on SWOT analysis. It is a deeper analysis of both your internal and external environment which can have a deep-routed impact on whatever strategy you have framed. The main objective of doing this exercise is to identify that how effective and efficient our strategies are in attaining the objectives and goals of the company.
Also, your strategy is compared to the industry performance standard in order to check whether your particular strategy has driven the company towards those standards or taken back from them.
Let us look at the SWOT analysis in detail:
S – Strength; W – Weakness; O – Opportunities; T – Threats.
Strength: under this head, we can determine that what our strength was when we executed the strategy. One can think that how this can be capitalized further in future for getting better result than this time.
Weakness: From this evaluation, we can analyze that where we lack on a common parlance with other competitors. The intention here is to make sure that these weaknesses do not remain so in future. Proper measures should be formulated and executed to completely wipe it off from the organization.
Opportunities: this is an array of bright light for any company. Many a times a declining company can rise due to unexpected opportunity break-through in the market. The common instances of this could be getting a patent; improvement in technology; favourable government regulation etc.
Threat: these are areas which we can just try and defend ourselves. We have no control over this as these are unpredictable and external to any organization.
Finally, recommendation comes into picture. Here, corrective measures for the prior wrong moves are framed and plans for the execution of those corrective actions are made.
Our tutors at Transtutors are highly qualified and undergo months of training before providing homework help and assignment help.


A genetic pattern could predict how aggressive prostate cancer is before treatment, and whether the disease will come back in men who have already been treated, according to research published1 in the Lancet Oncology.
Researchers funded by Cancer Research UK2 and based at Queen Mary, University of London, found that men with the highest levels of ‘cell cycle progression’ (CCP) genes – ones that encourage cells to grow – were three times more likely than those with the lowest levels to have a fatal form of prostate cancer.
And for patients who have had surgery to remove their prostate, those with the highest CCP levels were 70 per cent more likely to have a recurrence of the disease3.
Knowing how to distinguish the aggressive tumours that need treatment from the slow-growing ones that could be monitored, sparing men from unnecessary treatment and side effects like impotence and incontinence, is the most important riddle prostate cancer scientists have to solve.
The researchers believe that if these results are confirmed in large clinical trials, a test for CCP gene expression – alongside existing tests like PSA – could be used routinely in the clinic to overcome this problem.
Lead author and Cancer Research UK epidemiologist, Professor Jack Cuzick, based at Queen Mary, University of London, said: “Our findings have great potential. CCP genes are expressed at higher levels in actively growing cells, so we could be indirectly measuring the growth rate and inherent aggressiveness of the tumour through our test.
“We already know that CCP levels can predict survival for breast and, more recently, brain and lung cancers. It’s really encouraging that this could also be applied to prostate cancer, where we desperately need a way to predict how aggressive the disease will be.”
The study looked at 703 men with prostate cancer – 366 men in America who had undergone surgery to remove the prostate, and 337 men in the UK with cancer that was confined to the prostate and were judged to not need immediate treatment. The untreated group were given the ‘watch and wait’ option, which allows doctors to try to avoid treating men whose prostate cancer will not cause them any significant problems.
Tissue samples from the prostate were either taken during surgery or during the biopsy that was used to diagnose the disease.
The sample was then tested for levels of 31 different genes involved in CCP. The researchers were then able to show that a predefined combination of these gene levels can identify men at high or low risk of the disease spreading beyond the prostate and those most likely to die.
Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK, said: “This is important research that could one day help solve one of the biggest problems in prostate cancer treatment. For some men, detecting prostate cancer early could be lifesaving. For others, it could mean unnecessary treatment and serious side effects.
“This test isn’t yet available for routine use, but we’ll look forward to seeing the results of large clinical trials that will tell us whether it’ll be useful for all men with prostate cancer.”
For media enquiries please contact the Cancer Research UK press office on 020 3469 8300 or, out-of-hours, the duty press officer on 07050 264 059
Cuzick J et al (2011). Prognostic value of an RNA expression signature derived from cell cycle proliferation genes in patients with prostate cancer: a retrospective study Lancet Oncology DOI: 10.1016/S1470-2045(10)70295-3
2. The research was funded by Cancer Research UK, Queen Mary University of London, The Orchid Appeal, National Institutes of Health, the David H. Koch Foundation and Myriad Genetics.
3. Detected through PSA testing.


May 05, 2019 12:03 PM EDT
Analysis of data captured during a long-term study of aging adults shows those who reported being very sleepy during the day, were three times more likely to have brain deposits of beta-amyloid; a protein that's a hallmark for Alzheimer's disease, years later. This suggests that getting adequate nighttime sleep could be a way to help prevent Alzheimer's disease.
"Factors like diet, exercise, and cognitive activity have been widely recognized as important potential targets for Alzheimer's disease prevention, but sleep hasn't quite risen to that status-although that may well be changing," says Adam P. Spira, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Spira led the study with collaborators from the National Institute on Aging or NIA, the Bloomberg School, and Johns Hopkins Medicine. "If disturbed sleep contributes to Alzheimer's disease," he adds, "we may be able to treat patients with sleep issues to avoid these negative outcomes."
The study used data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA), a long-term study started by the NIA in 1958 that followed the health of thousands of volunteers as they age. As part of the study's periodic exams, volunteers filled a questionnaire between 1991 and 2000 that asked a simple yes/no question: "Do you often become drowsy or fall asleep during the daytime when you wish to be awake?" They were also asked, "Do you nap?" with response options of "daily," "1-2 times/week," "3-5 times/week," and "rarely or never."
A subgroup of BLSA volunteers also began receiving neuroimaging assessments in 1994. Starting in 2005, some of these participants received positron emission tomography (PET) scans using Pittsburgh compound B (PiB), a radioactive compound that can help identify beta-amyloid plaques in neuronal tissue. These plaques are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. The researchers identified 123 volunteers who both answered the earlier questions and had a PET scan with PiB an average of nearly 16 years later. They then analyzed this data to see if there was a correlation between participants who reported daytime sleepiness or napping and whether they scored positive for beta-amyloid deposition in their brains.
Before adjusting for demographic factors that could influence daytime sleepiness, such as age, sex, education, and body-mass index, their results showed that those who reported daytime sleepiness were about three times more likely to have beta-amyloid deposition than those who didn't report daytime fatigue. After adjusting for these factors, the risk was still 2.75 times higher in those with daytime sleepiness.
It's currently unclear why daytime sleepiness would be correlated with the deposition of beta-amyloid protein, Spira says. One possibility is that daytime sleepiness itself might somehow cause this protein to form in the brain. Based on previous research, a more likely explanation is that disturbed sleep due to obstructive sleep apnea, for example-or insufficient sleep due to other factors, causes beta-amyloid plaques to form through a currently unknown mechanism and that these sleep disturbances also cause excessive daytime sleepiness.
Researchers have long known that sleep disturbances are common in patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease-caregiver stress from being up with patients at night is a leading reason for Alzheimer's disease patients to be placed in long-term care, Spira explains.
"There is no cure yet for Alzheimer's disease, so we have to do our best to prevent it. Even if a cure is developed, prevention strategies should be emphasized," Spira says. "Prioritizing sleep may be one way to help prevent or perhaps slow this condition."
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Summary: Kindness is a lost art at times.
• SLIDE #1
• Today as we carry on with out look at the fruit of the spirit, we are going to take some time to examine a fruit that seems to be pretty nondescript on the surface.
• Kindness seems like something that is pretty ordinary, but when you start to really think about it, kindness is remarkable and inspiring.
• The exhibition of the fruit of kindness can literally change the lives of those around us.
• Kindness may be one of the most underrated fruits on the fruit stand.
• How many times in your life have you felt discouraged or felt like everything was against you only to be met by someone who was willing to show kindness to you.
• I wonder how many lives have been changed by someone showing the fruit of kindness.
• How many lives have been changed because of the kindness extended to them by another person?
• Theologian William Barclay once said, “More people have been brought into the church by the kindness of real Christian love than by all the theological arguments in the world”
• Today we are going to look at this nondescript fruit; we will look at what it is and why it can be so powerful and life changing.
• SLIDE #2
I. DEFINING KINDNESS.
• When you think of the word kindness, what comes to mind, do you think of the nice grandmother figure that is waiting there with a bunch of cookies for you?
• Is kindness emotional feeling?
• SLIDE #3
• The Encarta dictionary defines kindness as: the practice of being or the capability to be sympathetic and compassionate
• The English word does not fully capture the meaning of the original word. Kindness is more than being capable of being sympathetic and compassionate.
• SLIDE #4
• The word derives from a verb meaning “to take into use” and has the basic sense of “excellent,” “serviceable,” or “useful.”
• It refers to something that is well suited for its purpose, such as a “worker” bee, an “orderly” house, or “healthy and tasty” food.
• When the word was applied to people it meant they were “worthy,” “decent,” “honest.” When a person is all that he is supposed to be—when a human is humane—he is decent, reliable, gentle, and kind. All of this is included in what our Bible calls “kindness.”
• It is not just a sweet disposition: it is a serving, productive trait as well. College Press Commentary.
• It relates to tender concern for others. It has nothing to do with weakness or lack of conviction but is the genuine desire of a believer to treat others gently, just as the Lord treats him.
• Kindness is more than compassion. The very of nature of exhibiting kindness to another person makes that person have a sense of worth and usefulness. By exhibiting kindness to another person we are affirming their worth as a person, we are telling them that they are important enough for us to be inconvenienced, by them or that we would give them special attention. It is closely related to being gentle.
• Jesus’ kindness is the believer’s example. When “some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them, … Jesus said, ‘Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these’” (Matt. 19:13-14).
• On another occasion He said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:28-29).
• Jesus by allowing the children to come to Him, showed them their worth to Him. The children were important to Him. His display of kindness to them let them know that.
• When Jesus calls those who are weary and heavy-laden to come to Him for rest, His kindness toward them shows us how important we are to Him.
• It has been said that "Kindness is a language the dumb can speak and the deaf can hear and understand." — Christian Nestell Bovee; Instant Quotation Dictionary
• Now let us look at kindness played out.
• SLIDE #5
II. JESUS HAS EXHIBITED KINDNESS TO US.
• WE have spoken of a couple of instances where Jesus displayed kindness toward people; let us look at some specific ways in which He exhibited kindness toward us. In looking at these areas, we can learn some things we need to know about kindness.
• SLIDE #6
1. Jesus understands my weakness. (Hebrews 4:15-16)


Thanks to tech like Skype, the ability to both see and hear someone across thousands of miles is a mundane exercise for most of us here in the early 21st century. But back in 1947, signing a contract over videophone was like looking into the future. Even if that future turned out a bit different than we were expecting.
When commercial videophone service started in earnest, in the 1960s, one of the big selling points was that you could see and show documents from a great distance. You could even sign contracts with all signatories "present" despite the fact that they were thousands of miles apart.
But the first use of this technology would actually happen decades earlier, in 1947, during a publicity stunt in which execs from Chevy signed a deal with Dumont to sponsor some TV programming.
The January 9, 1947 issue of the Alexandria Times-Tribune in Indiana explained:
A legally binding business contract simultaneously signed by contracting parties more than 200 miles apart, yet able to see and hear each other by television, resulted from the first use of this newest medium of communication to consummate a business agreement.
Parties to the transaction, which may presage an entirely new way of doing business face to face though many miles apart, were the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors and Dumont Television, through whom Chevrolet was the first automotive manufacturer to sponsor a commercial television broadcast series.
The strange aspect of the story to modern eyes? They called the Skype-like technology the ability to see "by television." Here in 2015 we think of TV as simply a broadcast medium. But early TV, much like early radio, also encompassed point-to-point communications.
Image via the April 1947 issue of Mechanix Illustrated by way of the Modern Mechanix blog


The theory of evolution, a cornerstone of modern biology, offers a comprehensive explanation for the diversity and interconnectedness of life on Earth. Charles Darwin, its primary architect, proposed that all species descend from common ancestors through a process he termed “natural selection.” This theory, though initially met with skepticism, has since been bolstered by a wealth of evidence from various scientific disciplines. Understanding this evidence is crucial, not only for appreciating the grandeur of life’s history but also for making informed decisions about issues like antibiotic resistance, conservation, and genetic engineering.
Fossil Records: A Time Capsule of Evolution
Fossil records serve as a veritable time capsule, offering glimpses into the ancient past. They provide a chronological sequence of life forms, from simple, single-celled organisms to complex, multicellular ones. The consistency of this sequence, with older fossils being simpler and younger ones more complex, supports the evolutionary timeline.
Interestingly, there are no “anachronistic” fossils—fossils that appear out of their proper time. For instance, we do not find fossils of rabbits in Precambrian rocks, which predate the evolution of mammals. This absence of anachronistic fossils further corroborates the evolutionary sequence of life.
Comparative Anatomy: A Glimpse into Evolutionary Relationships
Comparative anatomy provides another layer of evidence for evolution. Homologous structures—body parts with similar structures but different functions—suggest a common ancestry. For example, the human arm, the wing of a bat, and the flipper of a whale all share a similar bone structure, pointing to a common ancestral mammal.
Vestigial structures, or remnants of structures that were functional in ancestral species, also support evolution. For instance, humans have a vestigial tailbone, a remnant of our primate ancestors’ tails. On the other hand, convergent evolution, where unrelated species develop similar traits due to similar environments, leads to analogous structures. The wings of bats and insects are an example of this phenomenon.
Genetic Evidence: The Blueprint of Evolution
Genetics has revolutionized our understanding of evolution. DNA sequencing reveals the genetic relatedness of species, confirming the relationships suggested by comparative anatomy. Moreover, genetic mutations, which introduce variation into populations, provide the raw material for natural selection.
The presence of shared genes across species further supports common ancestry. For instance, humans share about 98% of their genes with chimpanzees, our closest living relatives. This genetic similarity underscores our shared evolutionary history.
Biogeography: The Geographic Distribution of Species
Biogeography, the study of the geographic distribution of species, also provides evidence for evolution. The theory of continental drift, which explains the movement of Earth’s landmasses over geological time, has helped elucidate patterns of species distribution. For example, the unique fauna of Australia, such as marsupials, can be explained by its long isolation from other continents.
Island biogeography, in particular, offers compelling evidence for adaptive radiation, a process where a single species evolves into many different forms to exploit different ecological niches. The diverse finch species on the Galapagos Islands, studied by Darwin himself, exemplify this process.
Direct Observations of Evolutionary Change
Despite the common misconception, evolution is not just a theory but a process that can be directly observed. Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a stark example of this. Overuse of antibiotics has led to the evolution of resistant strains, a pressing public health concern.
Similarly, the evolution of finches on the Galapagos Islands has been documented over several decades. Changes in beak size and shape in response to environmental changes provide a real-time glimpse into the process of evolution.
Embryology: Tracing Evolutionary Development
Embryology, the study of early developmental stages, offers further evidence for evolution. Many species show striking similarities in their embryonic stages, suggesting a common ancestry. For instance, human embryos have gill-like structures, reflecting our aquatic vertebrate ancestors.
Moreover, human embryos exhibit “evolutionary throwbacks,” such as a tail and fur-like hair, further supporting our evolutionary history.
Evolutionary Predictions Confirmed by Subsequent Discoveries
The predictive power of the theory of evolution is one of its most compelling aspects. For example, the prediction and subsequent discovery of Tiktaalik, a transitional fossil between fish and land-dwelling animals, bolstered our understanding of vertebrate evolution.
Similarly, evolutionary predictions about human chromosome 2, which appears to be a fusion of two ancestral ape chromosomes, were confirmed by genetic research. This finding provided further evidence for our common ancestry with apes.
Evolutionary Misconceptions and Controversies
Despite the overwhelming evidence, misconceptions and controversies about evolution persist. Many people misunderstand the term “theory” in a scientific context, equating it with a mere guess. However, in science, a theory is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, backed by a body of evidence.
The controversy surrounding human evolution often stems from religious or philosophical beliefs. However, it’s important to note that many religious groups, including the Catholic Church, accept the scientific validity of evolution.
Closing Thoughts, the theory of evolution, supported by a wealth of evidence from fossil records, comparative anatomy, genetics, biogeography, direct observations, embryology, and confirmed predictions, offers a comprehensive explanation for the diversity and interconnectedness of life. As our understanding of life’s complexity deepens, so does our appreciation for the elegant simplicity of the evolutionary process. The ongoing study of evolution continues to shed light on our place in the natural world and inform our decisions about pressing issues like antibiotic resistance, conservation, and genetic engineering.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the theory of evolution?
The theory of evolution is a scientific explanation for the diversity and interconnectedness of life. It proposes that all species descend from common ancestors through a process called natural selection.
What evidence supports the theory of evolution?
Evidence for evolution comes from various scientific disciplines, including fossil records, comparative anatomy, genetics, biogeography, direct observations, embryology, and confirmed predictions.
What are homologous and vestigial structures?
Homologous structures are body parts with similar structures but different functions, suggesting a common ancestry. Vestigial structures are remnants of structures that were functional in ancestral species.
How does genetics support evolution?
Genetics supports evolution in several ways. DNA sequencing reveals the genetic relatedness of species. Genetic mutations introduce variation into populations, providing the raw material for natural selection. Shared genes across species further support common ancestry.
What is biogeography and how does it support evolution?
Biogeography is the study of the geographic distribution of species. It supports evolution by showing how species distribution patterns can be explained by historical events like continental drift and processes like adaptive radiation.
What are some misconceptions about evolution?
Some common misconceptions about evolution include the misunderstanding of the term “theory” in a scientific context and the controversy surrounding human evolution due to religious or philosophical beliefs.
- Darwin, C. (1859). On the Origin of Species. John Murray.
- Futuyma, D. J., & Kirkpatrick, M. (2017). Evolution (4th ed.). Sinauer Associates.
- Gould, S. J. (1990). Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History. W. W. Norton & Company.
- Lamichhaney, S., Berglund, J., Almén, M. S., Maqbool, K., Grabherr, M., Martinez-Barrio, A., … & Grant, B. R. (2015). Evolution of Darwin’s finches and their beaks revealed by genome sequencing. Nature, 518(7539), 371-375.
- Shubin, N. (2008). Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body. Pantheon Books.
- Zimmer, C., & Emlen, D. J. (2015). Evolution: Making Sense of Life (2nd ed.). Roberts and Company Publishers.


Desert crocs puncture four-legged theory
The fossil remains of two ancient crocodile-like creatures, discovered in the sun-scorched Niger desert, are making palaeontologists rethink the evolution of Earth's four-legged beasts.
The two new amphibian species, dubbed Nigerpeton ricqlesi and Saharastega moradiensis are both dated to the Permian Era, some 250 million years ago.
N. ricqlesi's cranium resembles that of a long-snouted crocodile, and was probably about three metres long, say the researchers.
"It probably operated like crocodiles do today, using periscopic vision, with eyes bulging just above the water-line or just out of the mud, to spot its prey," says team member, Jean-Sebastien Steyer, of the Museum of Natural History in Paris.
S. moradiensis had a more rounded muzzle and its size suggests the creature was probably about two metres long.
Its skull shows, unusually, a mixture of primitive and evolved characteristics. This makes it hard to figure out exactly how the animal lived, although the lateral position of the eyes suggest that it was somewhat more of a landlubber than N. ricqlesi, says Steyer.
During the Permian period, most of the world's land was stuck together, forming a single super-continent called Pangaea, which gradually broke apart and eventually formed the continents that we know today.
Until now, scientists presumed that Permian tetrapods (four-legged creatures) were all rather similar.
But this latest find, along with other discoveries made in Niger in the past few years, suggests that species diversification was well underway 250 million years ago.
Climate driver for diversification?
During the Permian, Africa was not dissected by large oceans or mountain ranges so Sidor and team came up with another explanation for why the newly discovered species were found nowhere else.
They suspect the two were isolated in Niger, at the centre of Pangaea, by its climate.
"Climate is the only thing we can think of that would explain it," says Sidor.
Between the early and later Permian period, the Earth went through a long warming spell.
Huge glaciers existed early on but by the end of the period the centre of Pangaea had developed into a large desert-like area, which is where the fossils of the creatures were found.
"We think our animals were basically isolated from the rest of what was going on in Pangaea by this large desert climate. So climate is really the driving force between what we see in Niger and basically the rest of the world," Sidor says.
Scientists had thought the group had become extinct 40 million years earlier, so finding two new specimens was a complete surprise.
The animals are amphibians so Sidor and his team suspect there must have been some water in the area.
They hope to go back to Niger to test the climate hypothesis.


Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) is one of the most lethal plants found in North America. This biennial weed is now producing flowers in southwest Ohio. So, the clock is ticking on preventing seed production by this non-native invasive plant.
Poison hemlock is a biennial weed. It spends the first year as a basal rosette and the second year as an erect, towering flowering plant that can measure 6-10' tall. I stand around 6' 2" and as you can see in the photo below, I cannot reach the top of this poison hemlock plant.
Despite its common name, poison hemlock is not a tree; it is a member of the carrot family, Apiaceae (formerly Umbelliferae). Thus, it shares many characteristics with other notable non-native members of the carrot family found growing in Ohio such as Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota) and Wild Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa). Indeed, some of the accidental poisonings in the U.S. have occurred with people mistaking poison hemlock for Queen Anne's Lace, although this plant will not appear until much later in the season.
Poison hemlock contains highly toxic piperidine alkaloid compounds, including coniine and gamma-coniceine, which cause respiratory failure and death when ingested by mammals. The roots are more toxic than the leaves and stems; however, all parts of the plant including the seeds should be considered dangerous. It is a common misconception that poison hemlock sap will cause skin rashes and blisters. In fact, poison hemlock toxins must be ingested or enter through the eyes, cuts, or other openings to cause poisoning.
All stages of the poison hemlock plant have bluish-green leaves that are 3-4 times pinnately compound, and the deeply cut parsley-like leaflets have sharp points. Flowering plants have hairless, light-green to bluish-green stems that are covered with obvious purplish blotches. Clusters of tiny white flowers are borne on structures called umbels that look like upside-down umbrellas.
While poison hemlock can be partially managed by mowing and tilling, the most effective control approach involves properly timed applications of selective or non-selective post-emergent herbicides including glyphosate (e.g. Roundup). It is a prolific seed producer, so applications of herbicides made now will control the second season flowering stage, before seeds are produced.


NEW YORK – A new Common Core-aligned lesson is teaching fifth-graders across the United States that “the commands of government officials must be obeyed by all,” and that “the wants of an individual are less important than the well-being of the nation.”
Those un-American and unconstitutional concepts are being peddled to elementary students by the Pearson Education company, one of the nation’s leading producers of school curricula, reports MinutemenNews.com.
The historically inaccurate lesson appears to be part of a Pearson Education unit that teaches kids about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War – “Hold the Flag High” – while doubling as an English assignment. (Having English concepts “bleed through” into other subject areas is a hallmark of the new Common Core learning standards.)
The assignment (which can be viewed here) instructs students to make pre-written sentences “less wordy by replacing the underlined words with a possessive noun phrase” and to write the new sentence in the space provided.
Students are then presented with six sentences that deal with the job of a U.S. president.
The first three sentences are fairly innocuous, but the final three are downright subversive.
Sentence four tells students, “(The president) makes sure the laws of the country are fair.”
Anyone with a proper understanding of the U.S. government knows the task of ensuring equality in the law belongs to the judicial branch. The president – as head of the executive branch of our government – is only charged with administering the laws passed by Congress, the legislative branch.
The Pearson Education lesson leaves students with the mistaken idea that American presidents have king-like powers, a concept our Founding Fathers would find abhorrent.
The indoctrination continues with sentence five: “The commands of government officials must be obeyed by all.”
That’s a chilling concept, one that any constitutional attorney would be quick to take issue with.
But the sixth sentence assigned to students should cause the most alarm to Americans: “The wants of an individual are less important than the well-being of the nation.”
That sentence – which Karl Marx would have been proud to write – runs completely counter to America’s founding principles and documents, namely the Bill of Rights.
The information being presented to elementary-age students is stunningly wrong, and it should cause Americans to question what’s going on in their schools.
Part of the reason this tripe is ending up in classrooms is because school officials are in a mad dash to remake their curriculum in the Common Core vision, which will take full effect in some 45 states beginning next fall. Officials need new materials and are mindlessly grabbing anything that has the Common Core seal of approval.
They’re guilty of not reviewing the materials properly and should be held accountable by parents and taxpayers.
But the major reason these un-American concepts are being taught is because left-wing radicals are heavily involved in the Education Establishment – from the nation’s teacher colleges to its textbook companies.
These radicals have been trying to get their progressive views into the nation’s classrooms for decades. While they’ve been shockingly successful on that front, they’ve discovered that the upheaval caused by the transition to Common Core is providing them with an unprecedented opportunity to remake the nation’s K-12 curriculum in their image.
It’s as if they’ve been given a blank slate to fill in with their propaganda, and they’re making the most of the opportunity.
It’ll be up to parents to guard against this nonsense. Many of them are using social media to warn their fellow parents about what’s coming down the Common Core turnpike.
A commenter in the Facebook group Parents and Educators Against Common Core Standards likely spoke for many when she suggested the Pearson Education lesson is “part of the plan to make the children dependent on the government.”


Every small step in saving energy and reducing carbon footprint counts for an eco-friendly environment. There are plenty of sustainable living ideas that anyone can implement easily to start living eco-friendly. These ideas can not only helo the environment but also save you money on your bills.
Turn off electricals
Leaving your electricals on standby uses up unnecessary energy and increases carbon footprint. Every conservation is the easiest way to live an eco-friendly life. Turn off the lights and appliances unless keeping them on is necessary. You will also save on your energy bills.
Use eco-friendly technology
Choose energy-efficient appliances and fixtures for your home. Check for the energy star rating on the appliances before purchasing them. The appliances with maximum starts will save more energy and money for you.
Eat more vegetables
Cutting down the amount of meat that you each can create a huge impact on nature. You should be thinking of connecting to nature from your heart. Not having red meat for two or three days can reduce your carbon footprint significantly.
When you switch to an eco-friendly lifestyle, you automatically start recycling things. You need to improve your recycling ability every day to find out what is the next big thing that you can recycle to reduce the carbon footprint. Before you throw papers, batteries, plastic away, think of ways you can use them again.
Use LED lights
LED light fixtures not las longer, they are far more efficient than other bulbs and lights to save energy. You can save so much power and also money when you do not have to replace them for a long time. LED lights are available in a different range of designs and brightness which can suit any area in your home.
Insulate your home
Insulating your home can help you maintain good room temperature irrespective of the temperature outside. The homes that are not insulated are harder to keep warm during winters. It is an eco-friendly way of living comfortably while not having to use heaters and ACs.
Get your food home delivered
One way to reduce the pollution caused due to traffic is to let the shops deliver the food or other items for you at your home. Instead of having more cars going to the shopping mart and causing pollution and traffic, a delivery van from the shopping mart can home deliver the items to every customer. It is comfortable and eco-friendly.
Another easy way to reduce the carbon footprint is to buy locally. When you purchase clothes and accessories from international brands, gallons and gallons of fuel is used to ship those products through air or water. Try to support your local food and clothing companies to grow your local economy as well as save the environment from fuel emission.


Japanese beetle may help fight hemlock-killing insect
Entomologists at Virginia Tech are now studying a beetle from Japan that may be a natural predator of Adelges tsugae, or hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA). Scientists hope the Japanese beetle will curb the rapid spread of the HWA without damaging forest ecosystems.
Virginia Tech leads the biological control efforts to curb the spread of HWA, which feeds on the cells that transfer and store nutrients in hemlock trees until their needles desiccate. “Mass application of pesticides would not be effective,” said Scott Salom, professor of entomology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and HWA project leader. “Unlike the gypsy moth, which lives in tree canopies, you cannot spray pesticides over a forest in an aerial flight to kill the hemlock woolly adelgid, which lives at the base of newly formed needles.”
Salom and his colleagues traveled to Japan in 2006 to collect 300 adult insects and hundreds of larvae for evaluation at the Beneficial Insects Quarantine Laboratory at Virginia Tech after a scientist at the Osaka Museum of Natural History discovered an adelgid predator in the island country that had never previously been observed. The Japanese beetle does not currently have a scientific name.
Last year, Yale University researchers performed a series of DNA comparisons between HWA and other adelgid populations in China, Japan, and western North American and discovered that the insect plaguing eastern hemlocks originated in the Osaka region of Japan. Virginia Tech researchers are hopeful that the Japanese beetle now under quarantine in Blacksburg will be an effective natural enemy against the HWA because both originate from the same area, Salom said.
This follows more than a decade of research on the beetle’s North American cousin. In 1997, Salom’s research team imported Laricobius nigrinus, a tiny beetle from British Columbia, to evaluate its effectiveness and safety as a biological control agent. By the end of 2006, scientists at Virginia Tech, Clemson University, and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville had completed more than 22 research-based releases using protocols developed at a Virginia Tech insectory. In all, more than 17,000 British Columbia beetles were released in U.S. forests with encouraging results, in that their research shows that the beetle is establishing at most of the release locations.
Unlike other predators that have been released into the wild, such as the Asian lady beetle, the British Columbian and Japanese beetles only thrive on one food source. “If the beetles we introduce cannot feed or reproduce on other hosts, then the natural conclusion is that there is no risk,” Salom said.
American scientists first noticed the tiny, aphid-like insect in the West as early as the 1920s, but it was not until the 1950s that they spotted HWA producing its cottony egg masses near Richmond, Va. Unlike hemlock stands in Asia and in the western United States, eastern hemlocks did not co-evolve with an adelgid species and therefore never developed a natural immunity to the insect. Today, HWA infestations span more than half of the geographic range of eastern hemlocks. In Virginia, they have reportedly killed more than 90 percent of hemlocks in the Shenandoah Valley.
Source: Virginia Tech


We have been working very hard learning to take away. We are now becoming confident in this!
20.11.20 - we carried out and discussed a problem solving activity after working on our fluency. Look at the images for some of the children's understanding of the question.
The question was:
How many ways cab you get an answer of 0?
___ - ___ = 0
What is the rule?
17.11.20 - LO: I can subtract from 10.
Today we have used a stick of 10 to subtract a given number. We have learn't the golden rule - the number at the start of the calculation must be the bigger number otherwise you cannot do it. Take a look at the photos below to see our amazing skills :) There is hopefully a video to follow!
7.10.20 - measuring.
Today we have been measuring using non-standard units - our hands, finger prints and feet. We worked outside so we could move around more and had so much fun :)
6.10.20 - Weighing
Today we postponed our outdoor measuring activity for weighing using balance scales. The children have learn't that if the scale drops the heavier item is in the pot. They know that if the pot comes up the lighter item is in the pot.
5.10.20 - Measure
Today with have been comparing and ordering heights. We compared our height, hand size (without touching) and shoe size with our partner. We used mathematical language to do this - I am taller / bigger / shorter / smaller than you...
25.9.20 - Part, Part, Whole.
Today we have been recalling our number bonds to 10 using the method of 'Part, Part, Whole'. We have used cubes to show this to build up our fluency skills.
3 + 7 = 10
21.9.20 - Place Value Number Museum.
We have worked very hard to show the value of a number using a variety of equipment we have been learning to use over the past couple of weeks. I am so proud of all you. 1, 2, 3 well do me!!


Last month, I wrote a blog post about some items that could be recycled and usually end up in landfill and it was quite popular on social media. People do love to recycle, which again is a great thing – as long as we also try to reduce our waste the best we can.
So, I’ve decided to keep writing about recycling items outside the normal kerbside council services, mainly to bring awareness about these possibilities.
Please note, links in today’s post are mainly for people living in Australia, but if you are reading from another country, please read these options and check what’s available locally. I am sure in many countries there are also ways to recycle these products.
From time to time, we need to have X-rays taken for different reasons, and when we are done we save them in the “just in case” drawer and completely forget about them. The reality is: these films are hardly ever used again.
If you’ve got some old X-rays that you no longer need, these can be recycled. According to Planet Ark:
“X-ray films contain silver in the form of halides, which can be extracted and converted into pure silver.”
If you are in Australia, the easier way to find places to recycle X-rays is searching in RecyclingNearYou.com.au. Enter your suburb/postcode and select “X-Ray films” from the drop-down list.
Coffee cups and plastic straws
Take-away coffee cups are not as eco-friendly as they look, they have a hidden material inside: a lining of plastic. This makes the process of recycling really hard, that’s why most kerbside recycling services won’t take them (they do recycle the plastic lids though).
Plastic straws are also hard to recycle because they are too small and fall during the sorting process; most of them end up in landfill.
The best option is to get a reusable cup (and reusable straw if you need one) and forget about disposable plastic all together, but I know life happens – particularly when trying to build new habits, things won’t go as planned. So if you end up with a take-away coffee cup or straw in your hands, here in Australia 7-Eleven has joined forces with Simply cups to recycle these items.
7-Eleven recycling program
Note that they recycle all brands, not only 7-11 ones, so you can collect these items and drop them there.
Find your nearest location here: 7-Eleven Cup Rescue Program.
Did you know that it is a bad idea to drain cooking oil down the sink? For many years, I didn’t know. It turns out that this oil ends up in our waterways where it can cause many environmental issues and it can also clog pipes.
The good news is that cooking oil can actually be recycled. According to Planet Ark:
“Used oil is collected from on-site storage bins and delivered to a processing facility. The oil is filtered into large storage tanks which are heated and treated for subsequent conversion in to a range of other products including biofuel, animal feed products, detergents and soap, paints and industrial lubricants.”
I personally collect the cooking oil in a glass jar and when it is full, I take it to a council waste and recycle centre. I don’t fry a lot of food, so it takes ages to fill up.
You can also add cooking oil to the compost bin, however, it is probably better to give it another chance and recycle it.
If you are in Australia, the easier way to find places to recycle cooking oil is searching in RecyclingNearYou.com.au. Enter your suburb/postcode and select “Oil – cooking” from the drop-down list.
If you own a restaurant, there are also commercial oil recycling services, to find out more click here.
Sooner or later eyeglasses break or people replace them for new ones when they get new a prescription and the old ones end up in a drawer or in landfill.
Here in Australia the easiest way to give your glasses a second life is through Lions Recycle for Sight Australia. From their website
“We receive requests from humanitarian organisations either travelling to a third world country or supplying shipping container loads of suitable humanitarian aid from Australia to groups in the third world.”
They have partner with many optometrists, so it is easy to find a collection point, otherwise you can send them via mail. Information here.
However, sending these items overseas in not the same as recycling the materials. While searching info for this post, I found some articles suggesting that sending prescription glasses overseas is not the best option because only a small percentage of those glasses can actually be reused (read more here). Due to this, Vision Aid Overseas in UK stopped sending glasses and instead they recycle second-hand glasses and extract the materials.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an option to actually recycle glasses in Australia; if you know about it, please let me know to update this post.
Given the topic, I’d like to mention a company called Dresden. They sell affordable glasses made from recycled plastic and when they break you can actually return them back and they recycle them into new glasses. Isn’t that cool? A closed loop. Check their website, I have no affiliation with them, but I love this type of companies doing the right thing for the planet.
NOTE: When the frame is in good condition, in my opinion best thing to do is to reuse them and only get the lenses. I have done this several times. In the optical, they always try to convince me that it is better to get new ones because they are not responsible for damages to the frames bla bla bla, but I have never had any problems.
You have probably seen mattresses in the streets waiting for rubbish collection. According to PlanetArk:
“Each year in Australia around 1.25 million mattresses are sent to landfill and each mattress takes up 0.75 cubic metres of space in landfill.”
There are valuable materials in these mattresses, so they can be recycled. There are private and social enterprise companies who charge you a small fee to collect and recycle your mattress. Visit RecyclingNearYou website and check the map.
Also check with your council and ask them about your rubbish collection. If they don’t recycle the mattresses they collect, then suggest them to do something about it. We can all bring positive changes to the world when we speak up!
“The vast possibilities of our great future will become realities only if we make ourselves responsible for that future.”-Gifford Pinchot
That’s it for today. Let me know in the comments below: Did you learn something from this post? Are you ready to start recycling any of these items?
If you are a social media user, please follow my accounts to learn more about these topics…


Navy operations are seeing increasing use of smaller craft being deployed from larger platforms. Interceptions and boarding are conducted with fast manned RHIBs. In the mine countermeasures area, the trend is for minesweeping equipment to be carried by relatively small unmanned surface craft, while unmanned subsurface craft are already a dominant platform for mine hunting systems. Unmanned (sub-)surface vehicles are also seeing increasing use in the areas of Anti Submarine Warfare and for the gathering of intelligence to name a few.
These trends have consequences for the larger naval platforms as they increasingly become craft carrying ships, where flexibility is the key parameter. A good example of such a platform is the US Literal Combat Ship (LCS).
This new role poses challenges and demands on both the design and operation of naval platforms. One such challenge is the launch and recovery (L&R) of the smaller craft in a dynamic seagoing environment.
For RHIB type craft, the solution is often found in some form of stern ramp (or slipway), while other craft are normally launched with a crane or davit system, which are often dedicated to the specific craft.
objectives & scope
The aim of the JIP is the development of a design standard for a common system that can launch and recover a wide variety of small craft and which can be operated in a wide environmental regime.
LAURA 1 and 2 are closed. Phase 3 ran from 2015 to 2020 in which we achieved to
- Mature the promising concepts (use of a cradle, extension of a davit system to unmanned crafts, use of planers and a lobsterpot concept for zero craft speed recovery).
- Develop enhanced simulations methods.
- Perform verification and validation by both model and full scale testing (see First full scale tirals with unmanned RHIB)
- Assure specifications for standardisation are flowing into the NATO Seaway and Mobility Group, drafting an ANEP on this topic.