The US Department of Housing and Urban Development. The USA, also known as HUD, is a cabinet department in the executive branch of the US federal government as homeless assistance programs USA.
Some realted posts you may visit:
- 1 Homeless Assistance Programs
Homeless Assistance Programs
HUD is primarily focused on attracting strong, durable and inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all.
Since its inception in the 1960s, HUD has been consistently working. it is in the direction of conditioning the nation’s housing industry to improve the economy.
In addition to all of its other programs, HUD has now introduced Continuing Assistance Programs. For the Homeless, this is often divided into three sub-programs, namely; the Supportive Housing Program (SHP) and, finally, the Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation Program for Single Room Occupancy (SRO).
The primary function of CoC’s Homeless Assistance programs is to reduce the appearance of homeless people in established CoC communities. It confirming the need to support homeless individuals and families during the rapid transition process to self-sufficiency and permanent housing.
As listed in the Federal Domestic Assistance Catalog, CoC’s Homeless Assistance Programs are designed for the following purposes:
The Supportive Housing Program is built around the premise of promoting the development of supportive housing and support services, all aimed at helping homeless people in their transition process and allowing them to live as independently as possible.
Meanwhile, The Shelter Plus Care Program was created to provide rental assistance, connected to support services funded by sources other than the program in question. The provision of rental assistance largely involves the homeless (with chronic and mental disabilities) and their families.
Department of Housing and Urban Development, the branch that provides funds for CoC’s Homeless Assistance Programs. It is constantly working to improve homeownership, support community progress. And increase access to affordable housing without discrimination. .
CoC Homeless Assistance Program is essential to HUD in a way that helps them achieve their goal of giving homeless people. It gives the opportunity to exercise more independence in obtaining a home , they can properly call their own.
Single Mother Housing Assistance (HUD)
HUD administers two government assistance programs for single mothers to help low-income households rent suitable shelter and homes for children. There are government department buildings to help meet the demand for affordable housing; However, both programs tend to have a long waiting list. Nonprofit organizations (such as churches and homeless shelters) try to fill the gap until the units are available.
Housing Programs for Veterans
Most of these homeless veterans are the elderly and single men who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Many of them served the country during the Vietnam era. According to the Department of Homeless Services, approximately 64 percent of these homeless veterans are African American.
The remaining 3 percent covers the other races. There are still an increasing number of homeless veterans who have come from the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and therefore serious efforts are required to ensure t housing for veterans is not an issue.
They were created shelter systems to make sure veterans don’t sleep on the street since they don’t have a home to go to. To spearhead this initiative, another initiative known as Project Torch was created, it was a joint project of the Department of Homeless Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The main objective of this initiative was to build a new centralized admission center for homeless veterans.
There are many other initiatives that aim to ensure the veterans are not faced with homelessness. The GroHome County and Tarranty County housing projects also aim to ensure the housing for veterans is not an issue.
Homeless Programs 2020
|Programs||Enacted Fy 2020|
|McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants Program||2777|
|Rapid Re-Housing for Youth Demonstrations||80|
|HUD-VA Supportive Housing Program||40|
|Project-Based Rental Assistance||1200|
|Community Development Block Grant Program||3450|
Critics have indicated the government efforts to support veterans have continued to be underfunded and are also not targeting the next generation of veterans. For example, female veterans have been on the rise since they began participating in the military in the early 1990s. Housing assistance programs must be at the forefront to help not only these women but everyone else by giving Homeless shelter. Veterans,who deserve a better life after sacrificing a lot to serve the country in war.
Where can I get immediate housing assistance?
- Contact a homeless service provider in your community.
- Contact a housing counseling agency in your area or call 800-569-4287.
- Find affordable rental housing near you.
- Get assistance with home improvements.
What help is available for homeless?
The federal government’s Section 8 housing choice voucher program helps people with very low incomes, as well as the elderly and disabled, find private homes or apartments of their choice.
Where can I get emergency hotel vouchers?
Some places can offer motel or hotel vouchers, even online, may be the Salvation Army, a local church, Catholic Charities, or some municipal governments as well. Or the coupon may need to be used to stay in a local shelter or some type of public housing unit.
How do I get a homeless voucher?
Find CoC Homeless Assistance Program and ask if they have any available. Most counties and / or regions have homeless assistance programs. You can usually find them by visiting the nearest human services offices. They can usually provide you with a hotel voucher or some form of emergency housing assistance.
You see them in every city in America. They are standing in the corners with signs trying to raise money for their next meal. They are sitting in the shadows on the steps of abandoned buildings. All of them are gathered in groups around a fire in dark alleys. They are in lines that stretch many blocks waiting for their next meal in popular dining rooms.
Also her former neighbors who have recently been evicted and have nowhere to sleep. They are her co-workers who lost their jobs due to the recession and can no longer pay the rent. His friends who recently became disabled due to unforeseen accidents and are too proud to ask for help.
Emergency Homeless Assistance Programs Near Me


Spiritual, Moral, Social & Cultural
At Mill Hill Primary Academy we recognise that the personal development of pupils, spiritually, morally, socially and culturally, plays a significant part in their ability to learn and achieve. We therefore aim to provide an education that provides pupils with opportunities to explore and develop their own values and beliefs, spiritual awareness, high standards of personal behaviour, a positive, caring attitude towards other people, an understanding of their social and cultural traditions and an appreciation of the diversity and richness of the cultures.
Religious education of pupils at Mill Hill Primary Academy places an emphasis on Christianity, though other religions and beliefs are studied and our pupils are encouraged to explore and reflect on their own values.
Collective worship also takes place during assembly, and daily class ‘Thought for the day’ programme. However, if any parents wish to withdraw their child from an R.E lesson or act of worship they are welcome to contact us and alternative arrangements can be made.
At Mill Hill Primary Academy our Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) programme aims to incorporate many essential aspects of pupil development to give them the knowledge, understanding and skills they need to manage their lives, now and in the future.
The core themes of PSHE include health and wellbeing, relationships and living in the wider world. All subject areas covered have due regard to the maturity of the individual child.


As the weather warms up, everyone wants to go outside, so make sure your lawn is in great shape for the upcoming sun-filled months.
Raking: Start by raking the area hard to dislodge any materials that have been left over by the winter such as leaves, thatch, sticks and dead grass. Doing this helps to expose the bare soil. The best time to rake your lawn is after the dormancy period of winter when the grass starts to green up. Dead turf patches in the spring are often the result of winter foot traffic on frozen grass or heavy snow pack that crushes the crowns of the grass. Turf that is severely matted will cause a large build-up of thatch. While some thatch is beneficial, too much of it can destroy your lawn. Decomposed matted turf is a breeding ground for fungus that can spread and infect the rest of your lawn. Use a metal-toothed thatch rake to properly loosen dead, matted turf.
Seeding: Over-seed with the correct type of grass seed for your area. The seed needs to come into direct contact with the soil surface for optimum growth. Prior to seeding, apply a 1-inch thick layer of topsoil into the ground. Use your hands to evenly sprinkle on the grass seed.
Perform a pH Test: Do a pH test to determine if lime is needed. Lime allows the soil to be less favorable for weeds to grow. A pH test determines the amount of acidity and alkalinity within the soil. You can purchase a pH testing kit online or at a garden-themed store. You may want to contact your local county extension office to determine how much lime is needed for your lawn. Fill your lawn spreader with lime, then set the spreader dial on the valve so that an adequate amount of lime will spread over the grass, bringing the pH level to the correct range. With the spreader, start at the outer corner of your lawn, carefully following the edge. Continue working your way back and forth until your lawn is completely covered.
Fertilizer and Lawn Food: An application of low-fertility organic fertilizer or lawn food should be used in conjunction with seeding. Select a fertilizer designed for your type of grass by researching labels. Use “starter” or “new lawn” formulas for a lawn that is less than two years old. With a more established lawn, use a slow-release, granular fertilizer, instead. Fill your lawn spreader with fertilizer and walk behind it at a steady pace, ensuring that no areas are skipped over. Since water-soluble lawn food doesn’t last long, reapply it as needed.
Compost: Next, apply a thin layer of compost to nestle in around the seed and hold the seed into place. Composting helps to prevent the seeds from washing away while holding in moisture. It also protects the seed from being eaten by birds. Before composting, run over your lawn with a core aerator. The purpose of aeration is to remove plugs of soil to the depth of 2 to 3 inches. Aeration helps water and other vital nutrients to reach into the soil, past the dense thickness of the grass. After aeration, evenly distribute the compost onto your lawn with a shovel, then rake it into the lawn so that the compost covers the lawn at the depth of 1/2 inch.
Watering: A daily light watering is necessary for seed germination. Germination is not an exact science as the process can take anywhere from 10 to 25 days, depending upon soil temperatures and available moisture. The water should penetrate at least 6 inches into the ground, for at least 20 minutes. To prevent messy mud puddles, water the grass for 10 minutes, then allow the water to penetrate into the ground for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes have passed, continue watering for an additional 10 minutes. Repeat this watering process every day for up to two weeks. If you live in a rainy climate, reduce the amount of watering accordingly. Once the grass reaches 1-inch in height, reduce the watering to every three days.
Maintenance is Key: With a little effort now, you can have your lawn looking great for the whole season!


The Tonian Beck Spring Dolomite: Marine Dolomitization in a Shallow, Anoxic Sea
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The reason for the abundance of dolomite lithologies in Earth's early geological record compared to modern environments remains contentious. This study provides new insight into this Precambrian “dolomite problem” by revisiting one of the most controversial dolomite localities, the Beck Spring Dolomite, of Death Valley, USA. Consistent with some previous studies, petrographic evidence indicates that although the Beck Spring Dolomite now consists almost entirely of dolomite, it was originally precipitated largely as aragonite and high-Mg calcite. Depositional constituents (microbialites and ooids) were likely originally aragonitic, and early marine length-fast cements (now dolomite) are suggested to have precipitated as high-Mg calcite then replaced syntaxially by dolomite. Based on petrographic and geochemical evidence, we suggest that marine dolomitization was the dominant synsedimentary diagenetic process in the unit, and for the most part, involved syntaxial and mimetic replacement. Further, a length-slow fibrous dolomite generation was precipitated during the later stages of marine diagenesis as a primary marine dolomite cement. This is indicated by the length-slow crystallographic structure of the cement and from its preserved geochemical and cathodoluminescence growth zonation. This new evidence for Tonian marine dolomite precipitation reinforces the idea of Precambrian marine environmental conditions, including the chemical composition of seawater, promoting dolomite formation at this time. The trace metal geochemical composition of well-preserved marine components, especially dolomite marine cements, reveals information about redox conditions in this Tonian shallow seawater. In terms of rare earth element geochemistry, the Beck Spring Dolomite has no significant Ce anomaly, and a ubiquitous positive Eu anomaly, consistent with widespread oceanic anoxia during deposition. Furthermore, the relatively low levels of iron and chalcophile elements Co, Cu, Pb and Zn in marine components compared to other Neoproterozoic carbonates suggest euxinic conditions (both anoxic and sulphidic) prevailed during deposition of the Beck Spring Dolomite.
Beck Spring Dolomite; Carbonate geochemistry; Carbonite sedimentology; Diagenesis; Tonian seawater
Earth Sciences | Geochemistry
Shuster, A. M.,
Wallace, M. W.,
van Smeerdijk Hood, A.,
The Tonian Beck Spring Dolomite: Marine Dolomitization in a Shallow, Anoxic Sea.
Sedimentary Geology, 368


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 8, 2007
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —The new cognitive technologies promise a great future — machines helping people learn faster, better; new ways for experts to share information; and more efficient ways for people to work using machines. But potential danger lurks in the shadows if these technologies are misused or misunderstood.
“We are talking about a whole new level of ethical and legal considerations that may have impacts in ways we can’t yet even comprehend,” says Wendy Shaneyfelt, member of the Sandia National Laboratories cognition research team that began thinking about these issues early in the research.
Many questions emerge when thinking about these systems, Shaneyfelt says. Who owns a cognitive model that represents a human (cognitive agent) and is responsible for its behavior? Can a cognitive agent be licensed? Can a cognitive agent legally act on a person’s behalf? How can access to a cognitive agent be controlled? What if a cognitive agent performs a business transaction on behalf of a deceased person? Who is responsible for erroneous information supplied by a cognitive agent? What if a cognitive agent shares personal information it is not authorized to share?
In an effort to be ahead of the game and be prepared with answers before the cognitive revolution reaches fruition, Shaneyfelt led a grassroots effort to explore how other emerging and well-established scientific disciplines confronted similar issues and what it would take to develop cognitive systems responsibly.
“We wanted to learn from the experiences that the biotechnology and nanotechnology communities have had as they confront ethical and legal issues in their respective rapidly expanding fields,” says Russ Skocypec, senior manager of the Human, Systems, and Simulation Technologies Department.
The result was the evolution of seven ethical principles and guidelines for the development of cognitive systems.
Working with the cognitive science researchers in Shaneyfelt’s team and consulting with ethicists and psychology professors from the University of New Mexico, a framework was established to provide guidance and practical strategies to proactively address both real and potential ethical issues.
“In general, the principles vary in terms of the specificity of their content,” Shaneyfelt. “Some are broad, like respect for persons, while others are more limited in scope — protecting the confidentiality of a research participant’s data.”
Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.
Sandia news media contact: Chris Burroughs, email@example.com, (505) 844-0948


PINKEL THE THIEF
Long, long ago there lived a widow who had three sons. The two eldest were grown up, and though they were known to be idle fellows, some of the neighbours had given them work to do on account of the respect in which their mother was held. But at the time this story begins they had both been so careless and idle that their masters declared they would keep them no longer.
So home they went to their mother and youngest brother, of whom they thought little, because he made himself useful about the house, and looked after the hens, and milked the cow. 'Pinkel,' they called him in scorn, and by-and-by 'Pinkel' became his name thoughout the village.
The two young men thought it was much nicer to live at home and be idle than to be obliged to do a quantity of disagreeable things they did not like, and they would have stayed by the fire till the end of their lives had not the widow lost patience with them and said that since they would not look for work at home they must seek it elsewhere, for she would not have them under her roof any longer. But she repented bitterly of her words when Pinkel told her that he too was old enough to go out into the world, and that when he had made a fortune he would send for his mother to keep house for him.
The widow wept many tears at parting from her youngest son, but as she saw that his heart was set


Plate XVII. Functions of the Hermaphrodites
Hermaphrodites, partaking of the nature of each sex, are quite common in these parts, and are considered odious by the Indians themselves, who, however, employ them, as they are strong, instead of beasts of burden. When a chief goes out to war, the hermaphrodites carry the provisions. When any Indian is dead of wounds or disease, two hermaphrodites take a couple of stout poles, fasten crosspieces on them, and attach to these a mat woven of reeds. On this they place the deceased, with a skin under his head, a second bound around his body, a third around one thigh, a fourth around one leg. Why these are so used, I did not ascertain; but I imagine by way of ornament, as in some cases they do not go so far, but put the skin upon one leg only. Then they take thongs of hide, three or four fingers broad, fasten the ends to the ends of the poles, and put the middle over their heads, which are remarkably hard; and in this manner they carry the deceased to the place of burial. Persons having contagious diseases are also carried to places appointed for the purpose on the shoulders of the hermaphrodites, who supply them with food and take care of them, until they get quite well again.


Encourage women considering pregnancy to schedule a visit to discuss preconception health and the optimization of maternal and fetal outcomes.
Take advantage of episodic visits to identify health risks, offer related interventions and encourage positive health behaviours prior to conception.
Encourage all women and men of reproductive age to develop a reproductive-life plan, whether they intend to have children or not.
Recommend a daily multivitamin containing 400 mcg (0.4 mg) of folic acid for all women of reproductive age who could become pregnant, and discuss risk factors that may warrant a higher dose.
Ensure that immunizations are complete and up-to-date, using immunization history or serological testing for routinely recommended adult vaccines and those for which pregnancy requires specific screening.
Review all medications for their potential teratogenicity and counsel women about the potential impact on a pregnancy, regardless of their plans to conceive.
Discuss the effects of alcohol in pregnancy and encourage abstinence leading up to and during pregnancy.
Promote smoking cessation. Prepregnancy is the ideal time to stop smoking in order to prevent adverse perinatal outcomes associated with maternal smoking.
Encourage progress towards healthier weights in women who are underweight, overweight or obese. Adverse perinatal and maternal outcomes can be reduced with appropriate preconception weight gain or loss.
Screen for elevated sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk factors. Identifying an infection before conception allows for timely treatment and prevention of transmission during pregnancy and birth.
Optimize chronic medical conditions prior to conception to improve perinatal and maternal outcomes.
Encourage 18 to 24 month intervals between completed pregnancies. Both shorter and longer IPIs have been associated with an increased risk of adverse maternal and newborn outcomes.


We all understand that we need to do more to protect the environment and it is clear that we can’t rely upon politicians to do it for us.
History has shown that society makes the most advances when business takes the lead and with this in mind, the development of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) is a development that promises to make a major change in the way that companies interact with their environment.
So what is sustainable finance and how do businesses need to change to take advantage of the new ways of working?
In this post, we’re looking at what sustainable finance is and why it is becoming important.
What is sustainable finance?
Sustainable finance is all about using the power your investment funds give to choose only companies that adhere to the highest environmental, social, and governance standards possible.
In some cases, this may be through a formally constituted fund, such as a green energy investment fund. Sometimes it may apply to only financing companies who use a fair trade business model. And sometimes it may be a less formal general approach to making sure that the companies you look to support act in the best interests of the community that they are a part of.
There are three strands to sustainable finance;
The environmental aspect of the ESG principles looks at the way that the company interacts with its environment. Among other things it assesses the way the business uses energy and the waste it produces, the conservation of natural resources, the way it treats animals and deforestation.
The social element of ESG examines the way that a business treats people both inside and outside the organisation.
It will look at the company’s record on diversity and inclusion, data hygiene and security, its record on human rights the way it interacts with stakeholders and the contribution it (and its staff) makes to society.
When we come to governance, the ESG standards are really looking at the way the company is run and how it seeks to influence and affect decision-makers.
It looks at shareholders’ rights, transparency, the board of directors and its makeup (including diversity), executive compensation, anti-bribery practices, political contributions and lobbying and venture partner compensation.
Why is sustainable finance important?
The first (and most obvious) reason that sustainable finance is important is that we should all be doing our individual bits to make the world a better place.
Sure this means making sure that we are good custodians of the natural world, but it also means more than that.
It means treating our fellow citizens with respect, paying our taxes, and contributing positively to the wider society.
So from a moral standpoint, sustainable finance principles should underpin our thinking on a daily basis.
But there is a more hard-headed approach that makes total business sense.
The sustainable finance sector is growing at a remarkable rate with private investors, banks, and all the way through to institutional investment funds all looking at ways to promote an ESG compliant agenda.
For any business looking to raise capital in the future, cutting itself off from a sizeable chunk of capital is a bad move.
It is also distinctly likely that in response to tighter COP26 commitments, governments may shortly introduce greater reporting requirements. This could result in non-compliant businesses taking severe reputational hits, both with funders and with their customer base.
If nothing else, we expect that investors will want to see their target companies show that they have, as a very minimum, assessed the environmental risks and put in plans to mitigate their effects.
This has knock-on effects for finance leaders. As Kevin Hagen, Vice President of Environment, Social, & Governance (ESG) Strategy at Iron Mountain says “accounting functions need to add skills for gathering, managing, analyzing, and reporting a whole new genre of business metrics, such as greenhouse gas emissions, gender pay gap results, and ethics and anti-corruption indicators.”
Who are the key providers of sustainable finance?
For many executives, ESG finance is a new and uncharted land.
But to a large extent, sustainable finance has been going under the radar for quite some time and has now reached the point where there are more sources of funding than ever for compliant enterprises. These include;
- Official bodies –for example, the UNFCCC, the UNEP, the OECD, and the G20.
- Governments – this can include finance earmarked for climate change initiatives, Money often exists at national, regional, local and municipal government levels.
- Development Finance Institutions – this includes Development Banks and sources such as JICA, KfW (Germany), and the UK Development Fund (UK).
- Green Investment Banks – In the last few years, the market has seen a rapid increase in Green Banks and as the name suggests, these are banks with a specific focus on providing capital for projects focusing on climate change mitigation
- Domestic capital markets – including institutional investors who support projects in the same country.
- Corporations – corporations such as Venture Capital and Private Equity firms are increasingly looking for ‘climate-friendly’ investments, often driven by consumer and shareholder demand for improved CSR.
- Aid agencies – like the WWF. these groups can play a key role in helping finance projects which are highly important but which are otherwise unfinanceable and usually look for projects that specifically deliver on their area of interest.
- Community-focused approaches – online ‘crowdfunding’ and fundraising platforms have made it easier to mobile the public to provide capital for the development of specific ideas and technologies.
- Foundations – Large foundations have an important role to play in funding the ESG initiatives that commercial funding sources are unwilling to support.
How does sustainable finance attract investors and catalyse private investment?
The first thing to consider here is how ESG manages to reduce the risk profile of any potential investment.
Companies with superb sustainable practices are much less likely to suffer reputational damage due to poor ESG compliance and are more likely to understand fully the environment in which they exist.
Good environmental awareness also reduces the risk of high costs of remediation works when damage occurs, reducing any unseen contingent liabilities.
It is also true to say that when investment funds are available only for green and ethical investments, sustainable strategies allow the company to access these, providing a ‘seat at the table’ so to speak.
The governance and transparency aspect is also a key driver of sustainable finance interest. Companies that fully embrace the ESG principles are much more likely to provide clear and unambiguous reports which will include a full CSR audit of the company’s activities.
What’s next for companies wanting to attract sustainable finance?
Whilst the aims and ambitions of sustainable finance are laudable, nobody is suggesting that a company can adopt all of the principles in one go.
Instead, businesses need to develop a transitional model, which shows the move towards fully sustainable operations over a period of time.
This move needs to be cultural because it will only be truly attractive to ESG investors if the principles are adopted from top to bottom.
The good news is that there are funds available for companies that want to start out on the transitional journey with platforms such as the OECD centre for green finance signposting opportunities to attract grant and low-cost loan funding.
We’d argue that the starting point for any company wanting to adopt a sustainable business model is to fully identify all the benefits that will accrue from the move.
Only when you see how ESG operations can provide real and lasting benefits can you then sell the project to executives, customers, shareholders, and employees alike.
We aren’t suggesting that the move is easy, but with a robust plan and true leadership, any business can accrue significant benefits and attract sustainable finance.


Rheumatology is the medical study of diseases that affect the joints, tendons, ligaments, bones and muscles. Among them are many types of arthritis. A rheumatologist will diagnose your condition, prepare a treatment plan for you that will most likely include medication, exercise, and diet and stress management.
Most of the above conditions happen when the body’s immune system attacks its own tissues. It could be hereditary (genetically passed down) or caused by an injury, abnormal metabolic disorder, infection or immune system dysfunction. If your arthritis requires surgical intervention, your rheumatologist will further refer you to an orthopaedic surgeon.


Mercury left out of fish tests
THE Queensland Government did not test for mercury during toxicology tests done on barramundi from Gladstone Harbour last year, despite concerns about mercury contamination in fish in the area being raised 10 years ago.
The tests have come under scrutiny in the past week since the Gladstone Fish Health Scientific Advisory Committee released its final report, which revealed the panel was unable to come to a definitive conclusion on what has caused fish diseases in the harbour area.
While the summer flooding a year ago was identified as the cause of some marine animal deaths in the area, speculation remains rife in Gladstone's commercial fishing industry about whether a dredging project by the Gladstone Ports Corporation contributed to fish diseases, a point which port management denies.
In toxicology test results released in December last year, Queensland Health's forensic laboratory tested three barramundi samples for heavy metals including aluminium, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, nickel, copper, iron, zinc, silver and selenium.
Biosecurity Queensland, which ordered the testing, did not ask for mercury or lead levels in the fish samples to be tested, on the grounds that the environmental impact assessment completed before the Western Basin Dredging program began found that mercury and lead were "not of concern".
But a doctoral report published by Central Queensland University (CQU) in 2002 found that mercury levels in barramundi were a concern, due to bio-accumulation of the heavy metal by predator fish in the area.
An addendum to the Western Basin Dredging and Disposal Project Environmental Impact Statement also said that chemical analyses done on sediment in a potential dredging area found that levels of mercury, arsenic, copper, lead and nickel were exceeding the Federal Government's National Assessment Guidelines for Dredging.
This report did, however, state that the levels of mercury may have been naturally occurring.
The CQU report also said the effects of mercury on fish could include necrosis (cell death) in internal organs and tissue.
Previous government tests found a high number of fish samples with tissue necrosis, among other symptoms, as well as a flatworm that affected fish health.
Fisheries Queensland did not respond to questions yesterday.


Popular Science Monthly/Volume 34/December 1888/The Origin of Forest-Groupings
|←Infant Mortality and the Environment||Popular Science Monthly Volume 34 December 1888 (1888)
The Origin of Forest-Groupings
By Antoine de Saporta
|Chinese Marriage Customs→|
By THE MARQUIS DE SAPORTA.
THE organic relations or homologies of structure, showing connections of different beings with one another, which, in ignorance of their real bearing, were formerly made useful only for the classification of animals and plants into natural groups, have acquired a new significance since the doctrine of evolution has been brought to bear upon questions of origin and of the progress through time and space of living beings and their relations with those beings whose former existence is revealed by paleontology. The question whether there are evidences of affiliation of the former by the latter, of a direct relationship, has received attention from students; and, as one of the attempts to solve it, we may mention M. Gaudry's essay on "The Links in the Animal World," in which the development of the mammalia through geological times is investigated on the basis of the osseous frame. A difficulty that has never been surmounted besetting the study of the terrestrial mammalia with aerial respiration, arises out of their power of changing their place, which, while it is limited by geographical restrictions in the case of quadrupeds, is complete with birds. It is easy to conceive that overlappings and general irregularities have time and again been introduced into the combinations of groups of animals which any given country has successively contained. By that fact alone, the new-comers of each period, at points where we have not been able to observe their ancestors in the country of their origin, have an air of having risen suddenly and been preceded by nothing.
This is not so much the case in the vegetable kingdom, and is least so with its most eminent representative, the tree, particularly the forest tree or the tree that has become social. It is true that 230 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
while we sometimes possess of fossil animals entire skeletons, and nearly always parts on which we can justly base a classification, we ordinarily get of the ancient trees only isolated specimens of leaves, or more rarely of fruits and seeds. We, nevertheless, gen- erally succeed in determining these relics, and, by comparing them with analogous living ones, in forming conclusions, the probability of which carries conviction. Thus, with the aid of the data fur- nished by stratigraphy, we can not only reconstitute the forests of former days, but can also arrange them chronologically, grasp their mutual relations, establish their filiations, and finally explain how they have in the past been displaced and renewed.
It is necessary to take account of the peculiarity that trees are enrooted or fixed in the soil, so that only their seeds can leave them and be carried away, but never to a very great distance. This fixity is certainly one of the causes of the regularity and relative slowness of the modifications to which arborescent vege- tation has been subjected in the periods anterior to ours. The new-comers of each region can never have rapidly traversed dis- tances. It has been rather by slow steps, and by the aid of at first partial introductions, that the flora of all the epochs has been trans- formed. Instead of leaps, we meet with modifications aided by time, which were worked out through a long duration before be- coming definitive. An attentive examination of the vegetable impressions collected over many successive levels and at points distributed along the course formerly followed by the vegetation, and marking its advance, should therefore enable us to recover the partial terms of the presumed filiation of the types whose ori- gin we are investigating.
One phenomenon has been remarked in intimate relation with this gradual and successive substitution of plants ; it is the cool- ing of the globe, operating insensibly, but subject to a general movement, the progress of which, although extremely slow, has never been arrested. Plants have pursued their migrations under the rule of this phenomenon, moving toward the south and grad- ually abandoning the north, beginning with the extreme north, or the immediate environs of the pole. The discovery of numerous vegetable fossils at different points in the arctic regions, in Spitz- bergen, Greenland, Grinnell Land, etc., has been sufficient to give rise to terms of comparison and demonstrate what was the char- acter of fossil vegetation when that of Europe more or less resem- bled the present vegetation of countries near the tropics. Hence it has been possible to establish with fair probability not only the general march but also the filiation of a number of plants ; and it has been ascertained that the direct ancestors of part of our trees originally inhabited the interior of the polar circle, while many others, confined now to southern countries, once had European
�� � THE ORIGIN OF FOREST-GROUPINGS.
��predecessors. " The forest " may be defined as an association of trees freely grouped over a space ; or, as the vegetable kingdom delivered to its own forces and meeting conditions favorable to its becoming master of the soil and spreading its wealth over it. The " virgin " forest is the forest into which man has penetrated only in passing, or upon which he has never laid hand to attack or modify it. It is peculiarly the forest of hot countries, or of the intertropical zone, where everything concurs to stimulate luxuri- ance of the vegetable kingdom. Even in temperate climates, whose pretensions of this kind are modest, we have only to trans- port ourselves into some region where the native forest yet exists in all its primitive grandeur, to perceive at once the might and majesty of the vegetable kingdom thus abandoned to itself, and having uncontested possession of the territory. Forestal asso- ciations interpret the influence of the climate to which they are adapted. They change in aspect and composition according to the latitude, and present characteristic diversities combined in a deter- mined and successive order as we advance from the neighborhood of the polar circle toward the south. In the review which we can make of them, they constantly present a double aspect, as thej^ may be considered in themselves, or as with reference to their re- lations with the past, and their bonds of kindred with anterior vegetations. But, previous to placing ourselves at the latter point of view, we should glance at existing plants to determine the feat- ures of the order which now presides over their distribution.
The domain of the forest extends beyond the polar circle in Europe and Siberia, where it reaches and even passes a little above the seventieth degree. In America it retreats from that region about Labrador and Hudson Bay, the polar circle being hardly indented in the interval between Mackenzie River and Bering Strait. But in this domain, as in those that succeed it, an essen- tial distinction should be made between the resinous forests, con- sisting almost exclusively of conifers, and those that are composed of "foliage-trees." In the north, the forests of resinous trees extend over great spaces. In central or more southerly regions, these forests prefer the mountainous masses. Besides the coni- fers, many foliage-trees — among them the birches, alders, aspens, willows, and mountain-ash — penetrate within the polar circle, and constitute a part of the arctic forests. South of the sixtieth degree in Europe, and of a lower latitude in America, there ex- tends a richer assemblage of varieties, but insensibly connected with the preceding one. The birch, oak, elm, maples, ashes, and limes are its characteristic trees, while the foliage-trees and coni- fers of the preceding group are not excluded from it. The latter show a tendency to graduate themselves on the slopes as they ascend them, much as, in going from southern to northern coun-
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tries, we pass through, regions occupied by like series of vegeta- tion. Pursuing our course from north to south, we find the beech giving place in lower latitudes to varieties of oak ; and it is one of the effects of this movement that other oaks appear at first in scattered colonies, as does also the chestnut, which, aside from its requirements as to the composition of the soil, seems to find, espe- cially in southern Europe, the conditions normal to its forest development. The association of foliage-trees, whose outline is thus sketched, which would cover central Europe with a continu- ous forest if the continent had not been taken possession of by cultivation, is found on the southern slopes of the great mountain- ranges, only under specially favorable conditions of altitude and moisture. Its principal characteristics, besides the particular grouping of species, result from the winter caducity of the leaves, to the law of which the holly, the box, and the ivy — types also be- longing to the next southern or Mediterranean group — are almost the only exceptions.
The Mediterranean group touches abruptly on the preceding one, and derives its name from the Mediterranean Sea, of which it occupies the whole periphery. In all the regions within this perimeter a similar forest flora covers with the same species a soil generally hilly, under a climate dry and warm, while subject to violent contrasts. The evergreen oaks, other oaks with semi- persistent foliage, the laurel, olive, pomegranate, terebinths, some of the maples, the oleander, and the carob ; numerous shrubs with persistent leaves — laurestinuses, arbutuses, mock-privets, daphnes, heaths, cistuses, etc. — contribute to the constitution of this assem- blage, which is all the more striking because an astonishing rich- ness of characteristic details is concealed in it under an apparent uniformity. A more careful examination of the elements of which this flora is composed is demanded if we undertake to seek their origin. Besides the foliage-trees, the group includes conifers which are j)eculiar to it. The pines alone cover a large extent, one of them, the Aleppo pine, being very generally diffused, while a number of other species have each their determined station and place. The mountains in the interior of the region bear species that are special to them, and it is to such scattered islands of vege- tation that we are indebted for such choice garden-plants as the spruces of Andalusia, Numidia, Mount Parnassus, Cephalonia, and Cilicia. In the same category are the cedars, which, with different names and varietal distinctions, people the ridges above a certain level of altitude of the Taurus, Lebanon, and Atlas. These are the mountaineer conifers, adapted to the Alpine stations of the Mediterranean region, where the altitude permits the beech, chestnut, maples, lindens, and birch to reappear and maintain themselves here and there in sporadic colonies.
�� � TEE ORIGIN OF FOREST GROUPINGS. 233
Another distinct grouping of species in the bosom of this region is dependent on the nature of the soil. It includes the cork-oak, the chestnut, and the maritime pine, which are limited to the siliceous zone, and with them a whole train of plants and shrubs which are found with striking uniformity wherever the mineral composition of the soil is of similar character. So strict an adaptation, so absolute a selection, could not have been the work of a small number of centuries, but they may properly be attributed to causes that existed in a remote past.
To complete our review of the Mediterranean forest-grouping, we should consider, besides the dominant forms, some exception- ally sheltered parts of the regions, and other regions in which intermittent rigors of temperature have spared only the hardiest types. Three elements may be distinguished in the aggregate of about two hundred species included in the forestal vegetation of this region: First, the principal and characteristic element, in which plants with persistent leaves predominate, and which in- cludes among its rarer types species in a declining condition, which are cantoned upon the best-sheltered or most southern points, and are transitional toward tropical types ; next, the mountaineer element, to which altitude is favorable ; and a third element, to which heat and moisture are agreeable. The last in- cludes plants with deciduous leaves, which, while they can accom- modate themselves to a cold climate, are better adapted to south- ern temperatures, and do not grow spontaneously in the central region ; with which corresponds a group of trees — large, not very numerous, and usually monotypal — which deserves attention because of what it has been in the past, and which may be said to represent the southern prolongation of the central group, elbow- ing into the Mediterranean region. Its members, including the alder, the Eastern witch-elm, the hornbeam, the plane, the liquid- ambar, the fig, vine, some ashes, lindens, and walnut, are more in contrast with the mass of the Mediterranean plants than with the types equivalent in order that are domiciled farther north. It might be said of them that, while they are found associated with the former plants, they belong naturally to the category of the latter, as they would visibly had not the free extension of these to the southward been arrested. This view is confirmed by the examination of the forestal flora of a corresponding latitude in America. The absence on that continent of any vegetable domain equivalent to that of the Mediterranean disengages that element, and supplies, through the plane, the liquidambar, the persimmon, and American vines and walnuts direct from the ancient world, a parallelism or a repetition of forms which the study of pale- ontology helps to illustrate.
The principal elements of the Mediterranean group — hollies.
�� � 234 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
laurels, olives, myrtles, etc. — with their narrow, elongated, coria- ceous, entire or spiny foliage, only slightly divided, do not display the luxuriant fullness of tropical forms, but seem to lead toward them. They touch upon them on some sides, indicating the influ- ence of a special medium, determined by conditions of intermit- tent heat and dryness. A peculiar feature of the Mediterranean group, and one which may help to determine its significance, is the capricious and uneven distribution in the interior region of plants of the most decided characteristics, evidently outside of the range of common species, manifesting affinities with hot coun- try types. These species are narrowly cantoned in certain sta- tions. The Pinus excelsa of the Himalayas is found only on a single mountain of Macedonia ; the Algerine Thuya only in the Atlas ; the false cork-oak in only a few specimens at a single spot ; the carob at a few places on the littoral ; the poplar of the Eu- phrates on the banks of the Jordan and at one point in the prov- ince of Constantine. Numerous instances of this kind betoken the existence of a former condition which has been more or less changed by subsequent events, that the group has suffered from revolutions which have displaced and partly eliminated elements that were formerly more widely distributed. The group has been impoverished, probably by the depreciation of some elements, certainly by the destruction of others.
This brief review of the forestal zones from north to south is sufficient for the study we have in view of the paleontological origin of the principal types of trees. This origin, which is at the best hard to determine, could not be sought with any proba- bility, except as to those species concerning which we have data of a character to cast light on their history in the past, their for- mer migrations, and their career through time as well as through space. Europe, North America, and the arctic zone furnish these data. They are not to be found in India, China, and Australia, for the guiding thread would be wanting there. Knowledge of many fossils is not enough of itself to conduct to the desired end. Vegetable impressions are useful indications, which, taken singly^ have a relative value, but rarely lead to results of a material bearing.
Multiplied observations and discoveries, and fossil beds of un- usual richness, to be explored at many points from north to south, have been required to give a view of the floral past of a part of the globe. It was also necessary that these beds, instead of be- longing to a single period, should be frequently separated by long intervals distributed through successive ages, so as to present the complete picture of the series of past times. Thus a comprehen- sive grasp has become possible of the vicissitudes through which the vegetable kingdom has gradually undergone transformation.
�� � THE ORIGIN OF FOREST-GROUPINGS. 235
Changes insensible at each single step have in the long run re- sulted in modifications of the aspect of the landscape and replace- ments of the types and species composing the floral carpet at a given movement by forms different from them, and also from those before -which they were themselves destined to retire at a later period.
The impression which one feels in the midst of a deep forest is one of perennial duration. Except man, what is there to uproot those giants that have lived through centuries ? What action can be conceived of that will exclude them from the ground which they possess so completely ? The first impression would almost make these forest masses coeval with the globe, its natural product and spontaneous dress from the days of its youth. Such an impression would be a mistaken one. The forests have not been perpetuated in the same order from the beginning, but have changed much in the course of ages. Those which we now see have taken the place of other more ancient ones, and these substi- tutions have occurred many times, sometimes through partial modifications and sometimes also under such conditions that the old order has only indirect relations with the present one, or is even wholly foreign to it.
Since a serious mind can not suppose that at every revolution of plant-life there has been a total destruction of the anterior ele- ments, followed by a creation conceived anew in all its details, we are forced to seek in the order which precedes the reason for the existence of that which has replaced it. This view implies an endless chain of causes and effects, of ancestral and derived forms, stretching along, now spreading, now continuing themselves, to spread out again, and — in what more particularly concerns the types of the vegetable kingdom — emigrating in a determined di- rection. This direction is found to have consisted, for plants, in a march from north to south in search of more favorable regions and stations better fitted to the exigencies of acquired adaptation, as rapidly as the terrestrial temperature declined from its pris- tine conditions, as latitudes took on their individual characteris- tics, and as the arctic zone, which had been temperate, grew cooler and became more and more differentiated. The polar circle was thus constituted a barrier that became more pronounced, less ac- cessible, and was finally closed to arboreal vegetation, while under the operation of the same movement the present temperate zone became cooled in an equivalent measure, was impoverished, and gradually stripped of a considerable part of its floral wealth. The remnants that escaped this elimination in those successive and numerous retreats that filled the second half of the Tertiary period still occur, scattered and dwarfed, in the southern part of that zone, and upon points where the less sensible depression of
�� � 236 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
temperature lias permitted them to maintain themselves sporadi- cally.
By regarding these considerations and this presumed march, we succeed in determining the connection between recent and fos- sil species, and evidences of affiliation between them. There also exist relations not to be neglected between some recent types and other old ones which we can not believe to be wholly lost, and others between present forestal groupings taken separately and those which have succeeded one another through the ages ; but the further we go back, the more we address ourselves to a dis- tant order of things, the less tangible are these relations found to be. Of all the Carboniferous vegetation there remain only iso- lated or dwarfed types, as of EquisetcB, ferns, and club-mosses. The singular Japanese gingko, and perhaps the dammara of the Indian Archipelago, can trace their ancestry back to that period. A greater number of estrays have survived from the Secondary ages ; but they are still rare — auracarias, cedars, pines, thuyas, and a few colonies of cycads south of the equator. There has been something vague and undetermined about the " foliage " trees since they first appeared in the Cretaceous period ; but their evolution and characteristic physiognomy have been tending to fix them- selves. The magnolia, tulip-tree, plane-tree, ivy, etc., have hardly varied since then ; but the subsequent modifications of other Eu- ropean flora have been so frequent and profound that no collec- tion of existing species corresponds excejjt by partial traits that have been questioned with the Cretaceous vegetation. The cor- respondence is somewhat closer with the vegetation of the Eocene, especially of the later Eocene. The examination of certain floras which are referred to this horizon has shown that vegetation has not varied much since then, except from the impoverishment which it has suffered by the subsequent elimination of some types, and the addition of a number of deciduous types of later intro- duction. Thus, a considerable proportion of forms, the ancestors of which appeared in the Eocene, have persisted in place from that epoch, while those which have since migrated are found in more southerly regions.
It is in the Miocene, particularly in the later Miocene, that the relations become manifest of the deciduous trees of southern habit which we have spoken of as being dispersed over various points of the Mediterranean domain — the plane-tree, the liquidambar, the planera, the linden, the vine, some hornbeams and ashes, the date- palm, the pomegranate, etc. ; and the lauriferous grouping of the Canary Islands, preserved intact by means of its insular situa- tion and of the persistency of local climatological conditions, re- produces unchanged the picture of a mountain-forest of central Europe, as recent discoveries have shown it to have been in the
�� � THE ORIGIN OF FOREST-GROUPINGS. 237
later Miocene and earlier Pliocene. There are the same species, the same mixture of laurels, hollies, olives, to which are added recent Japanese or Caucasian forms of nuts, maples, elms, and toward the high summits pines and firs very like those of the higher mountains of Teneriffe, Morocco, and Asia Minor. Collec- tions made by M. Marion in the marly sediments of Durfort, where bones of the southern elephant were also found, and in the tufas of Valentine, near Marseilles, show that a number of plants now found only further south, still in the second half of the Pliocene inhabited the hills and shore-lines of southern France. These plants were then, therefore, at home further north than they are now found ; and their occurrence in the Pliocene points to a later flowing back of species, amounting to a definite retreat in the Quaternary age.
This retreat, perfectly logical and almost regular in its opera- tion, is connected with changes of climate, which were themselves in relation with a progressive depression of the temperature of the earth. It is connected also, in a parallel order of phenomena, with the exhaustion of some races, and with the development, by a concomitant origination, of other young and new races, favored by the same circumstances that caused the elimination of the races that gave way to them. Considering all the elements of the question, we find that it is by the extension, at a given moment, of vegetable races previously localized and realizing a certain amount of variation, that species are constituted at the start. Once characterized — that is, after the acquisition of a total of characteristics, at first fleeting, then hereditarily fixed — the spe- cies is permanent nevertheless only in a relative fashion so long as there exist in it parts susceptible of differentiation anew. The amplitude of the limits between which it may range through the course of time depends on the proportion of the elements that re- main variable to those that will not change. The morphological oscillations of which it offers an example are thus determined by its own tendencies to submit more or less readily to excita- tions from without. Hence there are evident inequalities in the specific type, sometimes running to obscure shades, sometimes clearly cut ; the last especially after the exclusion of intermediate forms.
There exist, in fact, fleeting species, which can not be circum- scribed by any precise limit ; and others, fixed in their minutest traits, that are susceptible only of insignificant variations. The forms of the latter category, such, for example, as the sequoias of America and the cedars of the Atlas, persist in the places of which they have once taken possession, where some of them have been driven back and cantoned, so that quite contrary conditions or the intrusion of more vigorous forms have not sufficed wholly
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to exclude them. We see, from this manner of looking at things, that the relations of the present arborescent species with those of ancient ages are only the last consequence of a march or an an- tagonism of long continuance, which must of necessity have left traces. Regarding this closely, we find the indices of filiation of the living by fossil species not wanting, but fully confirming our interpretation ; and the genetic bonds disclose themselves to the investigator from the moment when he consents to regard the species as having acquired by degrees the characteristics which it possesses, and also as susceptible of displacement by extension or by crowding back.
The morphological connection has certainly the signification of a relationship ; but it can and must vary according as the rela- tionshij^ is more intimate or remote, direct and immediate, or in- direct and collateral. We can, by the aid of a direct method, rather led by a kind of intuition than subjected to precise rules, found a judgment concerning the bearing of these analogical shades. While the opportunities of observing forms nearly allied to those that are familiar to us diminish as we go back in the past, yet, at whatever age we place ourselves, a near resemblance always induces the notion of a direct descent of the recent form from the one which predicted its traits in the midst of an order of things remote from that which has since prevailed. The observed resemblance may also be conceived to be the more de- cisive as the species in which it appears belongs to a more ancient period. The indices of genetic connection may thus go far back into the past, and as to certain types of trees little subject to vari- ance, they are discerned in a quite remote past. In order logically to reach precise conclusions, he who engages in such researches should take account not only of the type, but also of the species considered in itself, that is, of the state of race, with its particular history, of which it is sometimes possible to follow the incidents. So far as is possible, the type, or union of allied forms, derived originally from the same stock, should not be confounded with the species, or the particularized race, which, its characteristics having been once acquired and its aptitudes determined, necessa- rily assumes a march in harmony with the tendencies that distin- guish it, within an area suited to it. The plane-trees, poplars, tulip-trees, beeches, and chestnuts appear toward the middle of the Cretaceous period, but it does not follow that existing forms are the immediate descendants of these primitive forms, or of any one of them taken separately. The traces of our plane-trees, the visible ancestor of the tulip-tree, and the evident predecessors of existing poplars, make their first distinct appearance during the Tertiary. So do those of the beech and chestnut, the introduc- tion of which into Europe took place through isolated individu-
�� � THE ORIGIN OF FOREST-GROUPINGS. 239
als, distinguished by shades which were gradually effaced on approaching modern times.
The principal requisite for tracing the presumed origins, whether of the type at its birth, of supposed ancestors, or of the direct antecedents of existing species, is to have in mind the exact succession of the periods and stages, giving the relative date of each of the determined first appearances and the order of the constitutive elements of the march which the forms of which we meet the traces have followed through time and space. The succession of ages, represented by beds deposited in a constant order, or stratigraphic geology, makes this known to us. It is also necessary to take account of the changes that have been im- pressed upon the whole vegetable kingdom during this long series of periods. The changes have been too profound, and attended by too complete renovations, for us to be able to find the cradles of existing plants in the primitive periods.
Three great plant-periods may be distinguished, starting from the moment when the surface of the globe first began to be cov- ered with aerial vegetation : the primary or paleophytic period, or cryptogamic era, which derives its name from the domination of cryptogams; the secondary period, or mesophytic, during which gymnosperms — conifers and cycads — obtained the predomi- nance, while foliage-trees were still absent ; and the tertiary or neophytic period, also called angiospermic, from the presence of the higher plants and particularly of the foliage-trees.
The last of these periods, which began with the chalk and is still in continuance, is characterized by the appearance and exten- sion of the higher plants, and was also coincident with the first signs of polar refrigeration and with the more and more marked decrease of terrestrial temperature with increase of latitude. This fact, at first hardly sensible, then gradually accented, exercised an influence within the polar circle before extending its action beyond, into the temperate zone, which was for a long time hot, and afterward warm, while the regions around the pole were already frozen. A remarkable relation certainly seems to exist between the beginning and the course of the climatological de- pression of the northern regions and the progress of vegetation, which perfected itself in a parallel line. Indeed, it closed the en- tire cycle of its definitive evolution by the adjunction of the an- giosperms, the most perfect plants ; and these acquired prepon- derance as rapidly as the cooling of the arctic regions went on. These regions appear to have been exempt till this time from the rigors of a cold season, and, by that fact, subtracted from the effects of the winter rest.
It is certain that the vegetable kingdom, as soon as it had ac- quired all the elements of which it is still composed, began to dis-
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tribute itself in. groups ordered according to the latitude ; and this movement once started, the differences between the groups be- came continually more accentuated by the increasing exclusion in each of them of a part of the types which they originally con- tained. There resulted from this a constant impoverishment of northern countries as comj)ared with southern ones, which gained, at least by contrast, what the former never ceased to lose. The movement has thus tended to a differentiation by zones, and has resulted in despoiling them, but in unequal proportions, increas- ingly as they are removed from the tropical zone, the only one which has been exempt from the spoliation.
Let us not forget that, parallel with this movement, working, moreover, with an extreme slowness and in harmony with it, an- other movement, purely organic and evolutionary, although in- cited, if not directed, by the former, has not ceased to push to de- velopment and to morphological differentiation various groups of plants ; particularly of those which, relatively young and plastic, were susceptible, by this fact, of giving birth to new forms, and, by successive splittings, to new types. These are the angiosperms, which, having once gained preponderance, have offered the spec- tacle of an increasing multiplicity of races and forms. That mul- tiplicity could only increase. The displacements resulting from the climatic depressions have aided in it by inducing changes of stations and opening new cantonments to races not yet fully established. The revolutions of the surface, continental contigui- ties, and the more or less accentuated orographic relief, have con- stituted other factors not less active in the general push of species, incessantly solicited to vary as they adapted themselves to the soil of the regions into which they penetrated, as they scattered, and as they struggled victoriously against rival species.
Such is the spectacle which the vegetation of the globe has not ceased to present ; and the existing forests appear as the final re- sultant and ultimate consequence of that long series of alterna- tives which is summarized in the expression, " the struggle for existence." — Translated for the Popular Science Montlihj from the Revue des Deux Mondes.
��The development of a new vegetation on Krakatoa is affording a rare oppor- tunity for studying the origin of floras. The old vegetation was totally destroyed, with all its seeds, by the great heat that prevailed during the eruption, and the island was covered with a thick layer of cinders and pumice-stone. But in June, 1886, a new growth, of ferns and isolated plants of phanerogams, had appeared on the shore and the mountain. The riddle of its appearance in a soil apparently so un- promising was explained, on examination, by finding that the mineral had received a coating of fresh-water algse, which gave it a gelatinous and hydroscopic quality, by virtue of which a higher vegetation could gain a standing. The phanerogamic plants are similar to those which take possession of newly-raised coral islands.


Layout and engineering of a an overhead trolley conveyor is largely a matter of following established procedures and practices which have become standardized as the result of satisfactory performance over the years.
The overhead conveyor track is specially rolled I-beam section produced from C-1045 steel to the following specifications:
- .43 – .50 carbon
- .6 – .9 manganese
The specially rolled I-beam conveyor track is available in 3-inch, 4-inch, and 6-inch track size. The conveyor track is stocked in 20 ft. lengths and can be cut to any required length.
Due to high carbon content, our conveyor track assures longer wear life and better resistance against track flange peening than standard structural I-beam sections. Also, to assure a uniform cross section of the track, the track is rolled under controlled conditions. Standard mill tolerances, often the cause of misaligned joints and out of square and out of parallel conditions are eliminated.
Solution of Combined Vertical Curve Problems
- Refer to Table 1. Locate the colored bar indicating desired slope in the proper radius column.
- Project horizontally to either side of the table and determine drop “D”.
- Calculate “f” from Formula 1.
- Determine “e” from Table 2. Note that if “f” is not shown in the table, it can be broken up. For example, if “f” = 14′ – 6 3/8″ add “e” values for “F” = 10′ – 0 “, 4′ – 0″, 6″ and 3/8″.
- Locate “L” for proper slope and radius in Table 1.
- Calculate total length Le from Formula 2.
- Determine “g” and “A” as in steps 4 and 5.
- Calculate developed length of curve from Formula 3.
Note: Single bent rails are fabricated with a straight tangent section “T” on each end.
- Formula 1: f (Table 2) = DF -D (Table 1).
- Formula 2: Le = L (Table 1 ) = e (Table 2).
- Formula 3: Developed length of rail = 2A (Table 1) + g (Table 2)


Dedicated to the Preservation and Restoration of the Whole of Creation: Humans - Animals - Environment
"And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.
And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day" (Genesis 1:31)
(Wild Rose, Rosa Rugosa - 06) This is another look at the wild rugosa rose. The rose is one of the flowers that remind us of the way God deals with sinful human beings. After Adam had disobeyed God (Genesis 3), God told Adam that his disobedience had cursed the ground and that thorns and thistles would grow where he had to till the ground to grow food (verses 17 and 18). Nothing could be thornier than the rugosa rose, but in the midst of all the thorns, God places these beautiful flowers to remind us of his forgiving grace, if we are willing to accept it, and to also remind us that as peacemaking children of God (Matthew 5:9), we can free creation from this curse of corruption (Romans 8:18-23), if we are willing to do so.
(Wild Rose, Rosa Rugosa - 06a) In this bee's eye view of the wild rugosa rose flower, we can see the sunlight highlighting the many stamens.
(Wild Rose, Rosa Rugosa - 07) In this photo of the wild rugosa rose, we can see both a flower with a single layer of overlapping petals, and a flower with double petals.
(Wild Rose, Rosa Rugosa - 07a) This is a little closer look at both types of wild rugosa rose flowers.
(Wild Rose, Rosa Rugosa - 08)
In this photo of the wild rugosa rose, we can see the single layer of petals on
the flower on the lower left, and double rows of petals on the other two
(Wild Rose, Rosa Rugosa - 08a) It is much easier to see the 5 individual 4.5cm broad by 4cm long overlapping petals when there is only one layer of petals. Each flower can also have 100 or more stamens arranged in a fan around the central pistils. In our area, the wild rugosa rose begins to bloom around the 1st of June and sometimes will continue to bloom until October.
(Wild Rose, Rosa Rugosa - 09) The filtered sunlight coming through the leaves of the tree above, gives this wild rugosa rose an interesting perspective. Rosa rugosa can also have white flowers, but they don't grow on the same bush.
(Wild Rose, Rosa Rugosa - 09a) The way the sunlight is hitting these wild rugosa rose leaves, it highlights the corrugated appearance.
(Wild Rose, Rosa Rugosa - 10)
This is another look at some of the wild rugosa roses.
(Wild Rose, Rosa Rugosa - 10a) In the lower left of this photo, we can see a wild rugosa rose leaf with nine leaflets.
Presented here are just a few of the countless components of God's creation. Just as we cannot have human and animal life without water and plants, neither can we have lasting peace without love and compassion. It is our hope and prayer that this series will motivate people to live and act in a cruelty-free manner; that we would no longer hurt or destroy each other, the animals or our environment.


Previously developed soft robots tend to be slow, especially when accomplishing tasks without being tethered to power sources and other electronics. Researchers have now created the world's first 3D-printed robot with a rigid core but a soft exterior that helps him take multiple jumps and adapt better with humans. In a series of tests, the robot jumped about two-and-a-half-feet in height and half-a-foot laterally. During experiments, the robot jumped more than 100 times and survived an additional 35 falls from a height of almost four feet.
Engineers from Harvard University and the University of California (UC)- San Diego said, "The nature-inspired robot is capable of more than 30 untethered jumps and is powered by a mix of butane and oxygen."
AdvertisementMichael Tolley, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at UC-San Diego, said, "Bringing together soft and rigid materials will help create a new generation of fast, agile robots that are more adaptable than their predecessors and can safely work side by side with humans. In nature, complexity has a very low cost. Using new manufacturing techniques like 3D printing, we are trying to translate this to robotics."
The researcher team hopes that their work will allow rigid components to be better integrated within soft robots who can move faster without compromising the safety of the humans who would work with them.
The study appears in Science.


Globally, cases of covid19 are on the rise and there seems to be no end in sight for some countries recently hit by the pandemic. While the US cases are increasing day after day, the epicenter of covid19 now is in Europe. Countries like Italy and Spain are slowly gaining control of the spread of the coronavirus, while countries like the UK are only experiencing the beginning. Covid19 does not spare anyone, as the prime minister of the UK Boris Johnson has contracted covid19 and recently been admitted to the ICU at a hospital in London. With so many people globally worried about the pandemic, call centers for organizations have seen an unprecedented amount of incoming calls. A majority of these calls are concerning symptoms and questions about the diagnosis of Covid19. One country affected greatly by the pandemic is Denmark. Residents’ calls mostly directed to healthcare organizations are overwhelming call centers. At one point, Emergency Medical Services, a call center in Copenhagen attempted to open a second call center to handle the volume of calls but that wasn’t enough.
This is where artificial intelligence steps in. A virtual assistant answers the call and determines the level of a call. The virtual assistant can handle incoming call volume more efficiently and be able to detect which calls are “high-priority” to transfer to a human representative. This call center is one of many organizations that adopted Microsoft’s Healthcare Bot to analyze callers for covid19 infections and treatment.
Powered by Microsoft Azure, the service uses artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing technology to help organizations create their own bots — in which the data is owned and solely accessible by the organization — to respond to inquiries and free up doctors, nurses and other health care professionals so they can provide critical care to patients who need it.
Microsoft’s service has been around for some time, but not been tested in capacity and efficiency until now. Since the start of last year, it’s principal function was to work alongside health assistants in case the system experienced difficulties. However, this scenario changed when covid19 went from an epidemic to a pandemic. Organizations across the globe began to adopt the service to analyze callers for any symptoms of covid19.
Microsoft’s artificial intelligence service is a great help to alleviate the stress and workload of healthcare workers. Since the service is now used for screening patients and determining whether they should visit a medical professional, healthcare workers now have time to dedicate to what matters the most: saving those suffering from covid19. When the Emergency Medical Service in Copenhagen adopted the service in March, it took a short period of time to create and set-up the service. On its launch date, the bot responded to more than 30,000 calls. Some of these calls were questions about covid19, meaning the bot answered questions callers had while shortening the number of calls directed to the emergency number.
Since other organizations in Demark clearly saw the benefit of adopting a service like Microsoft’s, the whole country adopted the service. The benefits can clearly be seen, as the national emergency has freed up massively and callers across the country can get answers about covid19 much quicker.
Now is the best time for all healthcare providers to adopt technologies that will help alleviate the workload on healthcare workers. As a shortage of doctors and nurses occurs worldwide, bots like Microsoft’s healthcare bot and telemedicine are needed to increase the number of healthcare workers on the front lines. The benefits outweigh any hiccups with the launch or trial period.


created by Ralph A. Bucci
layout design by Dave Shanker&Danilo Groppa
Charles W. Flanagan High School
Picture if you will a sunset. You know you will be asked to describe this sunset as well as the other members of your class. Your description will depend on the angle, or perspective if you will. This scenario holds true with the character of Macbeth because if you were asked to describe Macbeth your perspective of him depends upon whether you look at him as ambitious, as influenced or a combination of both. Choosing a description like choosing a piece of a puzzle needs careful examination. As you embark on this WebQuest you are urged to make distinctions that will empower you to discover the exact pieces for your puzzle.
The character of Macbeth that William Shakespeare creates serves as a classic example of a seemingly good man turns bad. The following WebQuest will help you examine three factors that Shakespeare introduces to you the audience. If you are perceptive, you will not only notice them but be able to realize their importance in viewing the decline of Macbeth's character. A number of internet references are provided to assist you with your discovery. Understanding Macbeth is a complex endeavor, and there seems to be a deeper meaning to his degeneration. A quick study will not do justice to the complete picture that Shakespeare paints of Macbeth.
This is particularly true when we use the Internet for our research because many people post their personal opinions or only know a sliver of the whole story. In the following WebQuest, you will use the power of teamwork and the abundant resources on the Internet to learn all about Evil in Literature. Each person on your team will learn one piece of the puzzle and then you will come together to get a better understanding of the topic.
How does the action revealed in THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH also become reality when viewed in history?
In this WebQuest you will be working together with a group of students in class. Each group will answer the Task or Quest(ion). As a member of the group you will explore Webpages from people all over the world who care about Evil in Literature. Because these are real Webpages we're tapping into, not things made just for schools, the reading level might challenge you. Feel free to use the online Webster dictionary or one in your classroom.
You'll begin with everyone in your group getting some background before dividing into roles where people on your team become experts on one part of the topic.
Use the Internet information linked below to answer the basic questions of who? what? where? when? why? and how? Be creative in exploring the information so that you answer these questions as fully and insightfully as you can.
1. Individuals or pairs from your larger WebQuest team will explore one of the roles below.
2. Read through the files linked to your group. If you print out the files, underline the passages that you feel are the most important. If you look at the files on the computer, copy sections you feel are important by dragging the mouse across the passage and copying / pasting it into a word processor or other writing software.
3. Note: Remember to write down or copy/paste the URL of the file you take the passage from so you can quickly go back to it if you need to to prove your point.
4. Be prepared to focus what you've learned into one main opinion that answers the Big Quest(ion) or Task based on what you have learned from the links for your role.
HEAVEN AND HELLUse the Internet information linked below to answer these questions specifically related to HEAVEN AND HELL:
1. Shakespeare uses the imagery of Heaven and Hell to create a sense of good and evil. Locate the following passages from the play and discuss and then record the intended meaning for each:
Act I scene iii line 107
Act I scene iii line 124
Act I scene vi lines 3-8
Act I scene vii line 7
Act II scene iii lines 1-3
Act II scene iii lines 67-69
Act II scene iii line 30
Act II scene iv lines 4-6
Act II scene iv line 41
2. I have located examples from Acts I and II to get you started. Now locate examples from the remaining three acts that Shakespeare uses as imagery for heaven and hell.
- Heaven and Hell - A site that examines some of the passages that refer to good and evil.
DARKNESSUse the Internet information linked below to answer these questions specifically related to DARKNESS:
1. Shakespeare purposely uses darkness as a sign of chaos in the play. More specifically this reference is intended for evil characters or setting. Understanding this imagery will lead you to understand the intended use of disorder in the next quest. Acts I and IV have extensive uses of this, so now you must locate the following passages, discuss the relevence and record what is intended.
Language describing Macbeth
Macbeth as an agent of order
Description of Scotland
scene i- the witches cave
scene i- the witches' appearance
Macbeth consulting with the witches
Macbeth murdering Macduff's family
Macbeth creating chaos in Scotland
Language describing Macbeth
Scotland under the rule of Macbeth
Description of the witches
Macbeth as an agent of disorder
Description of Scotland
2. Now locate atleast five more examples of Shakespeare's use of darkness as it applies to the play.
- Darkness, a sign of chaos - Shakespeare's use of darkness as imagery to show evil in MACBETH.
ORDER AND DISORDERUse the Internet information linked below to answer these questions specifically related to ORDER AND DISORDER:
1. Discuss and then record how each of the following applies to the play:
Elizabethan order in the 17th century
Monarch ruling by divine right
2. Shakespeare shows when the rightful place of things is upset, then everything is upset until the situation is returned to normal. Describe and record how Shakespeare describes the following:
When Macbeth murders Duncan
Scotland not at peace until Malcolm is crowned
3. Discuss, describe and record how Shakespeare shows great disruption caused by Macbeth's crime:
Daytime in Scotland
4. Discuss, describe and record how Shakespeare shows there is no order under Macbeth's rule:
- Order and Disorder - How Shakespeare uses order and disorder to show how MACBETH changes from good to evil.
You have all learned about a different part of Evil in Literature. Now group members come back to the larger WebQuest team with expertise gained by searching from one perspective. You must all now answer the Task / Quest(ion) as a group. Each of you will bring a certain viewpoint to the answer: some of you will agree and others disagree. Use information, pictures, movies, facts, opinions, etc. from the Webpages you explored to convince your teammates that your viewpoint is important and should be part of your team's answer to the Task / Quest(ion). Your WebQuest team should write out an answer that everyone on the team can live with.
You and your teammates have learned a lot by dividing up into different roles. Now's the time to put your learning into a letter you'll send out for real world feedback. Together you will write a letter that contains opinions, information, and perspectives that you've gained. Here's the process:
1. Begin your letter with a statement of who you are and why you are writing your message to this particular person or organization.
2. Give background information that shows you understand the topic.
STATE THE TASK / QUEST(ION) AND YOUR GROUP'S ANSWER.
3. Each person in your group should write a paragraph that gives two good reasons supporting the group's opinion. Make sure to be specific in both the information (like where you got it from on the Web) and the reasoning (why the information proves your group's point).
4. Have each person on the team proofread the message. Use correct letter format and make sure you have correctly addressed the email message. Use the link below to make contact. Send your message and make sure your teacher gets a copy.
Your Contact is: Oscar Siflinger
Now you have seen how through the use of imagery, most notably heaven and hell, darkness, and order and disorder Shakespeare creates a feeling of evil. This holds true for the real world once you examine history. Your WebQuest will now help you make the connection between what you have realized in THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH and how this universal them of evil relates to a real world situation in history.
Now that the picture of your puzzle nears completion, continue to put together the final pieces in order to view the big picture.


The base line can be given by the teacher, and it may be connected to material recently
learned, which we would like to develop.
For example, if we have learned how to play with finger no. 2, we could use the following
How does it work?
First the whole class learns the base line - almost by heart. Then the class is divided
into pairs. In each pair student A - the accompanist - plays the base line repeatedly.
Student B - the improviser - joins in, exploring and improvising by ear and rhythm.
After several experiments the two players will reach an agreement as to how to begin the
piece, how and when to end it, whether or not to switch roles in the middle, whether to
include percussion and how, etc.
Options in improvisation
a. Switching roles between the improviser and
the player of the base line.
b. A soloist improviser accompanied by an
orchestra (the whole class will play the base line quietly).
c. Suggest that several students will
improvise in singing.
d. Combining percussion (tapping the back of
the instrument) in the parts of the improviser and accompanist.
e. A soloist improviser in percussion, while
the whole class plays the base line.
f. "Chaining" - combining several
improvisation pieces so as to form a chain of improvisations made up of pair work.
Everyone joins in for the last improvisation. Such a piece could have great potential as a
piece for the final concert.
We can involve painting and moods in our music activities.
How about title this lesson: "Faces in music mirrors" - Contact for the full
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you are watching the Shareware pages. We are inviting you to Join the program
to have it all.
For program's teachers
personal study only Using the above information is legal only when you have a
permission or a legal agreement from Naftai Lahav
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Fax: 972 4 6429756


Mercury in seafood: Where does it come from?
Yes, there is water on Mercury, but there is also mercury in the water. Lots of it.
In fact, according to a giant new report called “Sources to Seafood: Mercury Pollution in the Marine Environment,” mercury pollution near the ocean’s surface has more than doubled as a result of human activities over the last century.
That mercury is largely invisible to most of us — invisible as it makes its way into fish and other wild seafood and largely invisible in our bodies when we eat that seafood. That is, until it causes major cognitive or developmental issues in babies born to women who have been exposed.
Of course, these days, most women of childbearing age are told to be cautious about the kinds of fish that are high in mercury (mainly top-of-the-food-chain species, such as tuna, swordfish, and shark). But how often do we hear about where it originates (that is, unless you’re a regular reader of Grist’s David Roberts)?
“People don’t ever seem to know where the mercury comes from,” says Celia Chen, one of an impressive array of 70 mercury and marine scientists from universities across the country, including Dartmouth, Harvard, and Syracuse, who spent two years assembling the report.
“Most of the fish that people in the U.S. eat are from the open ocean. And most of the mercury that goes into the open ocean is from atmospheric emissions, which comes from fossil fuel burning,” says Chen, a food chain biologist from Dartmouth. Coal-fired power plants are the biggest source, globally. Of course, coastal areas are a different story; much of the seafood eaten in places like the Gulf of Maine, the Gulf of Mexico, and the San Francisco Bay come from other industrial sources (think old mining operations).
Chen and the other scientists worked together to create the first complete picture of the way mercury moves from these sources, around the ocean, and up the food chain. “We want to draw a straight line for the American public between those sources to the seafood they love,” she says.
The report is also aimed at policymakers, as the U.S. prepares to negotiate with other nations about mercury contamination and regulation at United Nations’ Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC5) in Switzerland next month.
“We wanted to have this out in time for people to be able to consider it, and if the international treaty is ratified, we want it to help shape how mercury is controlled and assessed as we go forward,” Chen says.
On the bright side, the scientists found that reducing the amount of mercury in the atmosphere would have a direct impact on fish. They found that a 20 percent cut in atmospheric deposition would lead to a 16 percent decline in mercury in seafood. In other words, while it’s not quite 1:1, it’s close enough that it’s clearly worth doing. Chen also notes that because of the large quantities of “historic mercury” that are constantly recycling through (or, essentially, being re-released into) the atmosphere, the actual burning of fossil fuels would have to be cut by as much as 40 percent in order to create a 20 percent decrease of mercury depositions from the air.
The U.S. is not the largest contributor of atmosphere mercury (Asia as a continent now far exceeds Europe and North America), but we are responsible for a great deal of the historic mercury in the air, Chen says. And we do have an opportunity to push for more monitoring and regulation — especially now that this massive team of scientists has shined a bright light on the big picture of mercury pollution in the ocean.
“There are many chemicals out there — and new ones being produced all the time — that we don’t know the effects of,” Chen says. “But when it comes to mercury, we know where it comes from, we know where it ends up, we know what the human effects are. Now we have to think about whether we want to do anything about that.”