The Role Of Adh In Pkd
ADH helped life evolve from oceans to land, eons ago. If it weren’t for ADH, many living organisms would be unable to withstand the harsh dehydrating influence of the warmer land surface under a blazing sun.
Produced by a part of the brain called the hypothalamus, ADH is a hormone that acts on the kidneys and makes them retain and conserve water. It is what makes urine look dark and concentrated when you have not had enough water to drink or spent a day outside in the hot sun. It can, therefore, influence how much water needs to be excreted and how much must be “recycled” to meet the body’s needs .
How does ADH fit into the discussion on CKD? Studies have shown that ADH is one of the major promoters of cyst growth in PKD. In other words, if you could somehow lower ADH levels, or block its action on the cysts, it might be possible to slow down cyst growth and the inexorable progression of PKD.
Thehealthsitecom Spoke To Dr Sandeep Kumar Mandal Consultant
Written by Satata Karmakar | Updated : March 10, 2022 5:31 PM IST
Polycystic Kidney Disease is an inherited health condition in which several cysts develop primarily inside the kidneys, causing the organ to enlarge and lose function over time. Cysts are noncancerous round sacs containing fluid. They usually vary in size, and they can grow very large over time, if not treated. On World Kidney Day, TheHealthSite.com spoke to Dr. Sandeep Kumar Mandal, Consultant – Nephrology, Manipal Hospital, Gurugram, to understand more about this condition. Here is what the doctor has to say.
New Treatment For High Blood Pressure In Cats
Did you know that the kidneys secrete a hormone that regulates blood pressure? Cats that suffer from severe kidney problems tend to have high blood pressure that puts undue stress on internal organs, including the heart, lungs and retinas.
Oftentimes, they will require kidney medication for cats, like Amlodipine, to lower blood pressure. While Amlodipine is still the mainstay of treatment, sometimes it is not enough to lower blood pressures adequately.
If this is a problem in your cat, ask your veterinarian about a new drug called Semintra, which can help normalize blood pressure in cats that arent responding well to Amlodipine.
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What Are The Signs And Symptoms
A Polycystic Kidney Disease can be both symptomatic and asymptomatic. Some of the symptoms of this condition may include:
- Increase in your blood pressure
- Kidney function impairment
- Flank pain Cyst infection due to cyst haemorrhage, stones, large size cyst infections
How can one diagnose this condition? Diagnosis is done by ultrasonography, CT scan, and MRI of the kidneys.
Can Kidney Disease Be Prevented
Seeing your healthcare provider on a regular basis throughout your life is a good start for preventing kidney disease. About one in every three people in the United States is at risk for kidney disease. Identify and manage any risk factors for developing kidney disease.
- Control your high blood pressure. Normal blood pressure is 120/80.
- Control your blood sugar if you have diabetes.
- Eat a healthy diet. Follow a low-fat, low-salt diet.
- Dont smoke.
- Be active for 30 minutes at least five days a week.
- Maintain a healthy weight.
- Take nonprescription pain relievers only as directed. Taking more than directed can damage your kidneys.
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Who Is At Risk Of Developing Pkd
How to know if you are too, at risk of developing severe polycystic kidney disease? Here are some of the risk factors that can contribute largely to this fatal health condition.
What Is The Survival Rate Of Pkd
Although Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease occurs in approximately one in a thousand live births, it is estimated that less than half of these cases will be diagnosed during the patient’s lifetime, as the disease is often clinically silent. Survival depends on the rate of its progression to kidney failure, which varies in families. Survival also depends on the extrarenal association of PKD like Intrarenal aneurysms.
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What Happens If My Test Results Show I May Have Chronic Kidney Disease
Your doctor will want to pinpoint your diagnosis and check your kidney function to help plan your treatment. The doctor may do the following:
- Calculate your Glomerular Filtration Rate , which is the best way to tell how much kidney function you have. You do not need to have another test to know your GFR. Your doctor can calculate it from your blood creatinine, your age, race, gender and other factors. Your GFR tells your doctor your stage of kidney disease and helps the doctor plan your treatment.
- Perform an ultrasound or CT scan to get a picture of your kidneys and urinary tract. This tells your doctor whether your kidneys are too large or too small, whether you have a problem like a kidney stone or tumor and whether there are any problems in the structure of your kidneys and urinary tract.
- Perform a kidney biopsy, which is done in some cases to check for a specific type of kidney disease, see how much kidney damage has occurred and help plan treatment. To do a biopsy, the doctor removes small pieces of kidney tissue and looks at them under a microscope.
Your doctor may also ask you to see a kidney specialist who will consult on your case and help manage your care.
For help making sense of your lab values, .
When Do I Have To Start Dialysis
For most people, the need for dialysis comes on slowly. Symptoms, such as losing your desire to eat and losing muscle, may begin so slowly that you dont notice them. Many people start dialysis when their kidney function is between 5 and 10. When kidney function is this low, you may have symptoms from kidney failure and starting dialysis may help relieve them. Starting dialysis can help you regain your appetite and maintain your strength, which is harder to rebuild than it is to retain. Your health care provider can help you decide the best time to begin treatment.
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Understanding Kidney Failure And How It Impacts The Body
Kidney failure interferes with the entire arrangement of the human body. The beginning of kidney failure depends on the loss of the kidneys.
One more name for kidney failure is renal failure or end-stage renal disease. As stated above, kidneys have functional parts that help with finishing kidneys everyday obligations. However, the focal obligation that is answerable for getting the entire equilibrium of the body is blood filtration. Kidneys are the filtering and disposing system of the body because the kidneys filtering units (the glomerulus and the tubules, filter the blood while eliminating the byproducts and excess liquids from the body.
Kidney failure is the last objective that records most instances of kidney disease. When kidneys become unfit to work as indicated by their functional order- filtration-reabsorption and disposal, this prompts hampering the kidneys filtering capabilities. A series of entanglements shows up as improper blood filtration is unhealthy to the organs of the body. Complexities like hypertension, aggravation, and waste products are stored in the blood. Different organs likewise face deterrents because of disabled kidney function.
There are two types of kidney failure:
- Acute kidney failure .
- Chronic kidney failure .
What Do Your Kidneys Do
You have two kidneys. They are bean-shaped organs that are located toward your back, on either side of your spine, just underneath the rib cage. Each kidney is about the size of your fist.
Your kidneys have many jobs, but their main job is to filter your blood, getting rid of toxins and excess salt and water as urine. If your kidneys are damaged and dont work as they should, wastes can build up in your blood and can make you sick. Your kidneys also balance the amount of salts and minerals in your body, make hormones that control blood pressure, make red blood cells and keep your bones strong.
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How Will I Know Which Medicines Are Right For Me
The only way to know which medicines are right for you is to talk to your doctor. Your doctor will choose medicines for you based on many factors, including:
- Other medicines you are taking
Talk to your doctor and other health care providers to understand all your prescribed medicines:
- Learn the names of the medicines your doctor prescribes
- Understand how each medicine works to keep you healthy
- Know when to take different medicines, such as before bed or after eating
- Know which medicines you can or cannot take together
Always talk to your doctor before you start or stop any medicines, including any vitamins and supplements.
Treatment For Kidney Disease
If detected early enough, the progress of kidney disease can be slowed and sometimes even prevented. In the early stages, changes to diet and medication can help to increase the life of your kidneys.
If kidney function is reduced to less than 10 per cent of normal, the loss of function must be replaced by dialysis or a kidney transplant. Dialysis is a treatment for kidney failure that removes waste products and extra water from the blood by filtering it through a special membrane .
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Stage 3 Kidney Disease Diet
Processed foods are extremely hard on the body. Since your kidneys are responsible for removing wastes and balancing electrolytes, eating too many of the wrong foods can overload your kidneys.
Its important to eat more whole foods like produce and grains, and to eat fewer processed foods and less of the saturated fats found in animal products.
A doctor may recommend decreasing your protein intake. If your potassium levels are too high from CKD, they may also recommend that you avoid certain high-potassium foods like bananas, potatoes, and tomatoes.
The same principle pertains to sodium. You may need to cut down on salty foods if your sodium levels are too high.
Weight loss is common in more advanced stages of CKD because of appetite loss. This can also put you at risk of malnutrition.
If youre experiencing appetite loss, consider eating smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day to make sure youre getting enough calories and nutrients.
Who Should See An Early Kidney Disease Specialist
You should be considered for evaluation in the Early RenalInsufficiency Program if you:
- Have modestly elevated levels of creatinine, a chemical used to measure kidney function
- Have a low glomerular filtration rate , which is a test used to determine kidney function
- Have diabetes with small or large amounts of protein in your urine
- Have high blood pressure with low-grade levels of protein in your urine
- View yourself at a high risk for development of renal disease
In This Section:
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What Are The Basics About Conservative Management
Conservative management for kidney failure means that your health care team continues your care without dialysis or a kidney transplant. The focus of care is on your quality of life and symptom control.The decision to start dialysis is yours. For most people, dialysis may extend and improve quality of life. For others who have serious conditions in addition to kidney failure, dialysis may seem like a burden that only prolongs suffering.
You have the right to decide how your kidney failure will be treated. You may want to speak with your family, doctor, counselor, or renal social workerwho helps people with kidney diseaseto help you make this decision.
If you decide not to begin dialysis treatments, you may live for a few weeks or for several months, depending on your health and your remaining kidney function. Many of the complications of kidney failure can be treated with medicines, but only dialysis or transplant can filter wastes from your blood. As your kidney function declines, you may want to consider adding hospice, or end-of-life, care. You can have hospice care in a facility or at home. The hospice program is designed to meet end-of-life physical and emotional needs. Hospice care focuses on relieving pain and other symptoms.
What Is The Prognosis And Life Expectancy For Kidney Failure Can It Be Prevented
The outlook for kidney failure depends upon the underlying condition that caused it. Kidney function may return to normal, especially if it is due to an acute obstruction and that obstruction is relieved. Other causes of decreased kidney function leading to kidney failure are due to underlying disease and occur slowly over time.
Prevention is the best chance to maintain kidney function, and controlling high blood pressure and diabetes over a lifetime can decrease the potential for progressive kidney damage. Chronic kidney failure may be managed to help monitor electrolyte and waste product levels in the bloodstream. Major abnormalities can be life-threatening, and treatment options may be limited to dialysis or transplant.
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What Are The Basics About Hemodialysis
Hemodialysis can replace part of your kidney function. In hemodialysis, your blood goes through a filter outside your body and filtered blood is returned to your body. Hemodialysis
- filters your blood to remove harmful wastes and extra fluid
- helps control blood pressure
- helps balance important minerals, such as potassium, sodium, and calcium in your blood
Hemodialysis isnt a cure for kidney failure, but it can help you feel better and live longer. You will also need to change what you eat, take medicines, and limit the amount of water and other liquids you drink and get from food.
Before you can start hemodialysis, youll need to have minor surgery to create a vascular accessa place on your body where you insert needles to allow your blood to flow from and return to your body during dialysis.
You can have hemodialysis at a dialysis center or in your home. Hemodialysis is usually done at a dialysis center three times a week, with each session lasting about 4 hours.
What About Prescription Kidney Diets
Most savvy cat owners know that their feline needs to eat a high-quality diet rich in protein, but what about cats with kidney disease? The old belief was to restrict protein in cats with kidney disease, but now veterinarians know better.
Feline kidney disease treatment often includes a diet consisting of highly digestible protein that meets or exceeds minimum standards, is restricted in phosphorus, and is high in omega-3 fatty acids.
Prescription cat food that focuses on kidney support, such as Blue Natural Kidney and Mobility diet, fits the nutritional needs of cats with kidney disease. The earlier you can transition your cat to a specialized diet for kidney support, the more quickly you can support your cats special nutritional needs and maintain quality of life.
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What Are Dialysis And Hemodialysis
Dialysis cleanses the body of waste products by body by use of filter systems. There are two types of dialysis, 1) hemodialysis and 2) peritoneal dialysis.
Hemodialysis uses a machine filter called a dialyzer or artificial kidney to remove excess water and salt, to balance the other electrolytes in the body, and to remove waste products of metabolism. Blood is removed from the body and flows through tubing into the machine, where it passes next to a filter membrane. A specialized chemical solution flows on the other side of the membrane. The dialysate is formulated to draw impurities from the blood through the filter membrane. Blood and dialysate are never touched in the artificial kidney machine.
For this type of dialysis, access to the blood vessels needs to be surgically created so that large amounts of blood can flow into the machine and back to the body. Surgeons can build a fistula, a connection between a large artery and vein in the body, usually in the arm, that allows a large amount of blood to flow into the vein. This makes the vein swell or dilate, and its walls become thicker so that it can tolerate repeated needle sticks to attach tubing from the body to the machine. Since it takes many weeks or months for a fistula to mature enough to be used, significant planning is required if hemodialysis is to be considered as an option.
Treatment For Kidney Failure
When you have kidney failure , it means your kidneys have stopped working well enough for you to live without treatment. There is no cure for kidney failure, but with treatment many people with kidney failure are able to keep doing activities they want or need to do. Talk to your doctor about which treatment is best for you.
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What Are My Treatment Options For Kidney Failure
You can choose one of three treatment options to filter your blood and take over a small part of the work your damaged kidneys can no longer do. A fourth option offers care without replacing the work of the kidneys. None of these treatments will help your kidneys get better. However, they all can help you feel better.
- Hemodialysis uses a machine to move your blood through a filter outside your body, removing wastes.
- Peritoneal dialysis uses the lining of your belly to filter your blood inside your body, removing wastes.
- Kidney transplant is surgery to place a healthy kidney from a person who has just died, or from a living person, into your body to filter your blood.
- Conservative management treats kidney failure without dialysis or a transplant. Youll work with your health care team to manage symptoms and preserve your kidney function and quality of life as long as possible.
Doing well with kidney failure is a challenge, and it works best if you
- stick to your treatment schedule.
- review your medicines with your health care provider at every visit. You are the only one who knows how your body is responding to each of your medicines. Its really important that your provider knows which medicines you are taking.
- are active most days of the week.


“Luke,” Richard Hays remarks in one of his books, “is above all a storyteller” (2016, 275). This characterization, brief as it is, highlights what might be the most important dimension of the lens that Union Presbyterian Seminary professor John T. Carroll brings to the table in his book, Luke: A Commentary, which was published in 2012.
A number of New Testament scholars—maybe most prominent among them James Dunn—have highlighted the importance of remembering that the materials we read in the Gospels were in all likelihood first passed on as oral traditions by the earliest communities of Jesus followers. This insight is important at the very least because it prevents contemporary readers from making anachronistic assumptions about how the canonical Gospel texts were formed, but it doesn’t take away from the fruits that can be gathered by also exploring their literary shape and texture. Recognizing the predominantly oral origins of the Gospels and studying the narrative dynamics of their final forms aren’t mutually exclusive tasks. After all, the Gospel writers, in their own distinctive ways, were creative theologians in their own right, not merely haphazard compilers of community traditions.
This gives us one helpful way of framing how Carroll’s commentary fits into the ongoing stream of scholarship on Luke: while some commentaries devote most of their pages to reconstructing the historical world behind the text, and others delve most deeply into the twists and turns of interpretation history that have developed in front of the text, Carroll focuses his critical efforts on narrative analysis on the nuances of meaning in the text itself (9).Social Critique and the Empire in Luke
In Carroll’s reading, matters of money, possessions, and social inclusion emerge as prominent concerns in Luke. Over and over throughout the commentary’s pages, Carroll points out the many occasions where encounters with Jesus and his teachings lead to unexpected reversals of social and economic structures (10). A bit further on, Carroll expands on this point and makes clear that, in his eyes, this vision of God’s commitment to justice, faithfulness, and mercy isn’t a novel addition to Israel’s testimony:
Honor, wealth, and power all undergo radical redefinition… in this Gospel. Yet Jesus, in carrying out his ministry—with its vision of a radical social transformation that elevates the poor and powerless and demotes the wealthy and powerful—will not be an innovator, a point that Mary’s Song already makes clear. The social revolution of God’s realm continues an ancient story. It is about a God who remembers mercy and keeps covenant with God’s people. (52)
Carroll is far from alone when he says this. Other writers have also made note of the emphasis on social critique, reversal, and concern for the vulnerable in Luke’s Gospel, including the Protestant theologian Joel Green in The Theology of the Gospel of Luke (1995) and the Catholic scholar Joseph Fitzmeyer in his series of lectures, Luke the Theologian (1989). But Carroll writes on this aspect with both clarity and nuance, making him a useful companion for those using this commentary to become familiar with Luke’s Gospel for the first time.
On a not entirely unrelated note, Carroll also delves into Luke’s portrayal of the relationship between the early communities of Jesus followers and the Roman Empire. As Carroll shows, there is actually no small amount of disagreement about how to best characterize Luke’s portrayal of the empire in both the Gospel and Acts (398-399). It is, for example, true that imperial figures aren’t portrayed in a uniformly negative light by him in the narrative. The centurion in Luke 7 is actually praised for his faith and benefaction (402). Nevertheless, it is fairly clear that for Luke, Caesar’s claim to lordship is relativized and undercut by Jesus’s ultimate identity as Lord. As Carroll puts it, “Loyal service of God trumps all other claims, even Caesar’s” (403). For Carroll, the early Jesus movement’s relation to the Roman Empire shouldn’t be reduced to either resigned submission or open rebellion (400). Rather, it engaged in something more akin to indirect criticism while seeking to embody a peaceful, alternative possibility for life that avoided overt rebellion:
Luke’s audience is introduced to, and invited to participate in, a counterreign defined by alternative practices and a fundamentally different notion of power and status… the alternative political community and discourse and alternative social practices that come into being around Jesus, symbolically enacted in inclusive, status-blending, boundary-crossing meals, are deeply countercultural. (402-403)
In some ways, I think it may be that Luke’s overarching approach reflects a strategy for persuading the surrounding Roman world that early Christians didn’t need to be persecuted or vilified as a dangerous threat. It may also be part of Luke’s relative openness to Gentile inclusion in the young Christian movement. To once again complicate things, though, we do well to keep in mind that all of Luke-Acts takes place under the shadow of the Empire, with first Jesus in the Gospel and then Paul in Acts coming into grave conflict with the authorities (399-400). Clearly this is a complex interpretive question.
While Carroll provides no easy answers, he does orient readers to the various ways contemporary scholars have approached these questions, and I think he does help his audience begin to notice the ways in which Luke seemingly critiques the exploitative socioeconomic aspects of the Empire in his narrative without stepping into open confrontation with it. These are just a few of the interpretive topics Carroll explores, but hopefully they demonstrate his way of using a literary approach and keeping an eye out for social dimensions of Luke’s Gospel to bring out layers in the text that may otherwise be missed.
Luke’s Gospel can arguably be seen as the most linguistically crafted of the canonical gospel accounts. And his attentiveness to the stories Jesus told while on the way to Jerusalem is also distinctive. It is Luke, Eugene Peterson suggests, who “immerses us in the way Jesus uses language as he deals with the ordinary and the occasional” (2008, 17). For a Gospel of this sort, there is much to be gained by paying attention to its literary contours, and with a satisfying amount of scholarly rigor, Carroll takes on this task, and his commentary comes out the better for it. By shedding light on Luke’s use of language and story, Carroll deepens the experience of those who use his commentary as a reading companion, and for this I am certainly grateful.
*Disclosure: I received this book free from Westminster John Knox Press for review purposes. The opinions I have expressed are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review.
Other Works Cited
Fitzmyer, Joseph A. Luke the Theologian: Aspects of his Teaching. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1989.
Green, Joel B. The Theology of the Gospel of Luke. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Hays, Richard B. Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2016.
Peterson, Eugene. Tell it Slant: A Conversation on the Language of Jesus in his Stories and Prayers. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2008.


O sole me-ow. Music may prevent two cats from fighting! What kind works best?
One woman with two constantly bickering cats kept classical music on for them all day while she was away and found it was the only thing that stopped them from fighting.
Another cat owner, who also also found that music diminished her cat's aggressiveness, found that classical harp music worked the best.
Here are some more off-beat facts about music and your cat.
A certain key may make kittens defecate and older cats become sexually aroused. (We'll tell you the note if you promise not to test it out for yourself: It's E in the fourth octave. Don't write us about the results. We don't want to know.)
Cats may respond to some music, for example, becoming happy when they hear the theme song of a TV show. (Some cats are also attracted to mice who sing offkey. Bet you didn't even know that they sang on key.)
And if you start singing off key, your cat may meow in distress. (As will other people around you.)


Natural resource revenue could reduce out-of-school numbers by 86% in 17 developing countries
A new paper from UNESCO’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report, shows that 17 developing countries* could finance access to primary school for 86% of their out-of-school children or 42% of their out of school adolescents, if they managed their revenues from natural resources better.
Released the week of the World Economic Forum on Africa (Cape Town, South Africa 8-10 May), the policy paper reveals that an extra US$5 billion in funding for education could be raised from these 17 countries per year if 30% of income from their minerals and 75% from their oil and gas was converted into public revenue and 20% of this sum invested in education. This is equivalent to two and a half times the amount that these countries received in aid to education in 2010. It would fill a fifth of the $26 billion financing gap needed to give all children a good quality basic education.
“National commitment to education has to be supported by adequate resources. The 17 countries covered in this study face tremendous educational challenges that can be met only through additional financing to expand their systems,” said Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO. “The study finds that revenue from natural resources could enable these countries to reach over 11 million out-of-school children. This is an investment in future generations that should be seized now.”
The EFA Global Monitoring Report’s paper, “Turning the resource curse into a blessing for education,” gives examples of the revenue that natural resources could bring to education:
- In Uganda, following recent oil discoveries, the government’s total budget is set to almost double by 2016. This could lead to a doubling of the education budget and send all primary and lower secondary school-aged children to school.
- In the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the value of copper and gold this year is expected to be worth more than double its value in 2008, enough to double their education budget and almost achieve universal primary education.
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo, receives less than 10% of the income from its minerals with the remaining 90% going to extracting companies. Striking a better deal with these companies and keeping more as government revenue could likely send all of its children to primary school.
Transparency of natural resource exports is key, but is not enough on its own to secure a country’s future; it is also vital to ensure countries strike a good deal, and allocate a share to education.
“Many countries have mismanaged the income from their natural resources, have poorly negotiated with extractive companies, or have made misguided spending choices” said Pauline Rose, director of the Education for All Global Monitoring Report. “In some cases, the funds have been channeled into armed conflicts instead of towards education. If they managed their income revenue better and put 20% of the revenue into education, ten of the 17 countries we analyzed could reach universal primary education.”
The EFA Global Monitoring Report has partnered with international NGO Global Witness and the Africa Progress Panel, chaired by Kofi Annan, to call on countries to use their natural resource revenue for social goods such as education. They are also calling on the G8 to prioritize transparency on the agenda.
1. ‘Old’ and ‘new’ resource-rich countries must maximize the revenue they get from their resources to improve social services and particularly education 2. Funds from resources must be managed efficiently and transparently to enable citizens to monitor the way they are being used. All countries rich in natural resources should publish annual budget data (including resource revenues, the Enacted Budget, actual spending, and an Audit Report) as well as sign up to Extractives Industry Transparency initiative and other transparency and fair taxation measures. 3. At least 20% of the funds raised from resources should be channeled into education, which will bring equitable and sustainable benefits for the population.
- For more information, for interviews, for an infographic related to the issue, or photos on education in each of the related country please contact Kate Redman on k.redman(at)unesco.org or 0033 671 78 6234
- Follow this link to read the full paper, ‘Turning the resource curse into a blessing for education’
Developed by an independent team and published by UNESCO, the Education for All Global Monitoring Report is an authoritative reference that aims to inform, influence and sustain genuine commitment towards Education for All.
*NOTES TO EDITORS
Many resource-rich countries could reach Education for All if they raised more revenue and increased focus on education
Notes: The countries included in the table are those with youth literacy rates below 90%. Cambodia, Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar and Mali are also set to increase extraction of natural resources in coming years, but the potential quantity of exports is not yet known. Countries in italics are the seventeen included in the aggregate figure used in the text.
1. According to the list of conflict-affected countries compiled for the 2011 EFA Global Monitoring Report.
2. ‘Potential extra education funding from natural resource revenue’ is based on assumptions that (a) governments increase the share of revenue raised from natural resource exports to 30% for mineral-rich countries and 75% for oil- and gas-rich countries and (b) governments spend 20% of the extra revenue (i.e. above what is already being raised) on education. Because Iraq and Yemen already raise more than 75% from oil exports, and Mauritania 30% of minerals exports, there is no extra education funding available.
3. Pupil unit costs were calculated for primary school and lower secondary school using either EPDC and UNESCO (2009) costings (therefore including improvements in quality) or actual unit costs as reported in the statistical tables of this Report. For countries where data were unavailable, an income group average was used.
4. For countries with available data, the potential number of pupils that could be funded was capped at the number of current out-of-school children, with funds remaining in many cases. For countries without out-of-school figures, the total number of pupils that could be funded is shown in italics. The inclusion of this number does not mean that there are necessarily that many children out of school.
5. For countries with recently discovered deposits, an annual average over 2010–2015 of current IMF projections on exports for natural resource revenue was used to calculate potential education funding.
Sources: EFA Global Monitoring Report team calculations (2012) based on IMF Article IV reviews and EPDC and UNESCO (2009); Annex, Statistical Tables 2 and 9.
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|Los Costumbres|| |
People go to cemeteries to be with the souls of the departed and build private altars containing the favorite foods and beverages as well as photos and memorabilia of the departed. The intent is to encourage visits by the souls, so that the souls will hear the prayers and the comments of the living directed to them. Celebrations can take a humorous tone, as celebrants remember funny events and anecdotes about the departed.
Plans for the day are made throughout the year, including gathering the goods to be offered to the dead. During the three-day period, families usually clean and decorate graves; most visit the cemeteries where their loved ones are buried and decorate their graves with ofrendas ("offerings"), which often include orange mexican marigolds.
Toys are brought for dead children (los angelitos, or "the little angels"). Families will also offer trinkets or the deceased's favorite candies on the grave. Ofrendas are also put in homes, usually with foods such as candied pumpkin, pan de muerto ("bread of the dead"), and sugar skulls and beverages such as atole. The ofrendas are left out in the homes as a welcoming gesture for the deceased. Some people believe the spirits of the dead eat the "spiritual essence" of the ofrendas food, so even though the celebrators eat the food after the festivities, they believe it lacks nutritional value. Pillows and blankets are left out so that the deceased can rest after their long journey.
Some families build altars in their homes; statues or pictures of deceased relatives and other persons, scores of candles and an ofrenda. Traditionally, families spend some time around the altar, praying and telling anecdotes about the deceased. In some locations, celebrants wear shells on their clothing, so that when they dance, the noise will wake up the dead; some will also dress up as the deceased.
Public schools at all levels build altars with ofrendas, usually omitting the religious symbols. Government offices usually have at least a small altar, as this holiday is seen as important to the Mexican heritage.


SD cards weren't always designed for high capacity storage. SD cards can hold up to 2GB of data, but the newer SDHC cards have been developed to hold up to 32GB. Not all card readers, devices and computers can read the high capacity format, however. If you are getting a read error, it could be that your reader is not SDHC compliant. If this is the case, your device should read 2GB or smaller cards, but respond with an error for larger capacity cards.
- Skill level:
Other People Are Reading
Verify that your reader has a SDHC logo. If this logo does not appear on your reader or device, it may not be compliant with high capacity cards (over 2GB).
Transfer files from your electronic device. If you attach your device to a computer using a USB cable or Bluetooth, you can transfer your files that way. Access the card's storage through Windows Explorer and drag and drop the files you need.
Check the Downloads or Support page for your computer or other device. You should check with your device manufacturer to see if there is a firmware update available. Follow the specific instructions supplied with the update to apply your device.
Use an SDHC reader. If you want to transfer your files to a computer, you can purchase an inexpensive SDHC card reader that can be connected via USB.
Check for an operating system update. If you are running Windows XP with Service Pack 3, there is an update available from Microsoft to allow you to access SDHC cards of 4GB and larger size (see Resources).
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ITALIAN CHRISTMAS POETRY
especially Italy, in the thirteenth century. 9 For the twenty all-too-short vears of St. Francis's apostolate have passed, and a new attitude towards God and man and the world has become possible. Not that the change was due solely to St. Francis ; he was rather the supreme embodiment of the ideals and tendencies of his day than their actual creator ; but he was the spark that kindled a mighty flame. In him we reach so important a turning-point in the history of Christmas that we must linger awhile at his side.
Early Franciscanism meant above all the democratizing, the humanizing of Christianity; with it begins that "carol spirit" which is the most winning part of the Christian Christmas, the spirit which, while not forgetting the divine side of the Nativity, yet delights in its simple humanity, the spirit that links the Incarnation to the common life of the people, that brings human tenderness into religion. The faithful no longer contemplate merely a theological mystery, they are moved by affectionate devotion to the Babe of Bethlehem, realized as an actual living child, God indeed, yet feeling the cold of winter, the roughness of the manger bed.
St. Francis, it must be remembered, was not a man of high birth, but the son of a silk merchant, and his appeal was made chiefly to the traders and skilled workmen of the cities, who, in his day, were rising to importance, coming, in modern Socialist terms, to class-consciousness. The monks, although boys of low birth were sometimes admitted into the cloister, were in sympathy one with the upper classes, and monastic religion and culture were essentially aristocratic. The rise of the Franciscans meant the bringing home of Christianity to masses of town-workers, homely people, who needed a religion full of vivid humanity, and whom the pathetic story of the Nativity would peculiarly touch.
Love to man, the sense of human brotherhood—that was the great thing which St. Francis brought home to his age. The message, certainly, was not new, but he realized it with infectious intensity. The second great commandment, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," had not indeed been forgotten by


Lesson 29: A Long Time Ago
Anna: Hello! In Washington, D.C., there are many places that bring history to life. But people who live here often do not have time to see them. They are too busy with work -- like me. Hi, Marsha!
Marsha: Hi, Anna! Have a seat.
Anna: Thanks. This was a good idea. Working outdoors is nice.
Marsha: Um-hum, it is.
Anna: I am tired. Today was a busy day at work. And I still have work to do!
Marsha: Hmm, that's too bad.
Anna: How are you these days?
Marsha: I'm really busy too, Anna. Let's get to work.
Anna: Marsha, look! That bus has a photo of Abraham Lincoln!
Marsha: That's an advertisement for Ford's Theatre. They have a new show.
Anna: They have shows where Abraham Lincoln died?
Marsha: Yeah, it's a working theater and a museum.
Anna: I love Lincoln. You know, Marsha, that advertisement reminds me of something.
Marsha: Um-hum. What's that?
Anna: When I was a little girl ... When I was a little girl ... I was not like other children.
Marsha: Um-hum, I can believe that.
Anna's voice: I was tall, serious child. At the playground the other children played silly games. They played with dart guns. They played on the swings, the slide and the teeter-totter. They also played ball But not me. I loved to read serious books about U.S. presidents.
Anna: In fact, I wanted to be ... don't laugh ... President of the United States.
Anna: Stop! I know it's a silly childhood dream.
Marsha: I'm sorry. It's not silly. Guess what I wanted to be?
Marsha: I wanted to be... an astronaut.
Marsha's Voice: When I was a kid, I studied the stars and planets. I wanted to fly into outer space!
Anna: You know, Marsha, childhood dreams are really important.
Marsha: They are. And it's good to remember them.
Anna: Hey! I have an idea. Let's go.
Marsha: Go where?
Anna: Let's go make our childhood dreams come true.
Marsha: We're going to the Air & Space Museum! Yes!
Anna: No. We're going to see a show at Ford's Theatre just like Abraham Lincoln! It's not far from here.
Marsha: Uh huh. That is your childhood dream.
Anna: Good point. Okay, next week, we'll come here and be astronauts.
Anna: Tonight we are seeing a show at Ford's Theatre, where a man shot President Abraham Lincoln. This is history come to life ... and a childhood dream come true! Until next time ...


With a population of over 10,000 in 1864, Virginia City was the largest town in the inland Northwest. The communities strung out along Alder Gulch were known as the "Fourteen-mile City."
The 2nd most commonly asked question here in Virginia City is: How many people live here now? According to the latest population survey... 132 very hardy souls.
Research shows that people have lived in southwest Montana for the past 12,000 years. Some of the native tribes that lived in, hunted in, or traveled through the area include: Shoshoni, Bannock, Cree, Salish, Crow, Kootenai, Pend d'Oreille, Nez Perce, and Blackfeet. Southwestern Montana was designated as common hunting ground for the Blackfeet and other tribes in 1855. Trappers, miners, homesteaders and ranchers displaced in a few decades the hunting and gathering way of life that had existed here for thousands of years.
The gold rush in Alder Gulch produced the largest amount of placer gold in the Northwest an estimated $120 million. Placer gold mining, or free gold prospecting, should not be confused with hard rock gold mining. Placer mining involves dust, flakes, and nuggets, while hard rock mining involves veins of ore.
Alder Gulch yielded an estimated $30 million in gold just in the three short years between 1863 and 1866, but not everyone got rich here. The typical miner at Alder Gulch struggled, got blisters and a sore back, and barely made living wages. They would often work a few days at one job and soon quit to try another.
Alder Gulch garnets were made into jewelry during the early 1900's.
Some small-scale mining operations continue to this day, and evidence of past mining operations are visible everywhere - prospect pits, trenches, shafts, adits (generally collapsed tunnels), mill tailings, and waste-rock dumps scatter the hills of Virginia City.
Virginia City was one of the main Montana stations of Ben Holladay's Overland Mail & Express Company between 1863 and 1866, later incorporated into the Wells Fargo stage coaching empire.
Western miners came from the California gold rush to Virginia City traveling up the Columbia River and overland on the Mullan Road during the 1860's. Businessmen and homesteaders traveled the Bozeman Trail, portions of which have recently been named to the National Register of Historic Places.
Camels arrived in Virginia City in 1865 for freighting. Electricity arrived in Virginia City in 1892 for lighting.
The first public school in Montana opened in Virginia City in 1866. The Madison County Courthouse was built in 1876. The first company of the Montana National Guard organized in Virginia City in 1885.
The first newspaper in the territory, the Montana Post, printed its first issue in August of 1864. Today's local newspaper, the Madisonian, began publication in 1873.
Merchants established the first businesses in Virginia City in wagons, tents, and wickiups (brush shacks) during the summer of 1863. Gold dust was the preferred medium of exchange, which was valued at $16 - $18/ounce.
The occupants of many of the buildings in Virginia City changed frequently, especially during the boom years of the 1860's. Buildings were converted from residential to commercial and back again quite often.
Virginia City was the outfitting point for trips to the Yellowstone area during the 1860's and 1870's, and Virginia City served as the first administrative site for the park when it was designated as America's first National Park in 1872.
Virginia City became the capitol of the Montana Territory in 1865. Thomas Meagher was the acting governor that year. Today, the capitol of Montana is in Helena; our governor's name is Steve Bullock.
The first theatre company was formed in Virginia City in 1864. Today's Virginia City Players were formed in 1948 by a gentleman named Larry Barsness for the purposes of providing entertainment to evening visitors.
During the 1860's and 1870's, Virginia City was known as the "Social City." Balls and dances were held for every occasion, and women's clubs provided place for literary pursuits, general self-improvement and the "reform of society."
Telephone service was established in Virginia City with 28 telephones in 1902. Cellular service finally arrived in June 2010.
Virginia City served as a regional marketplace throughout the 1880's and was tied to the international economy. Today, it is a regional attraction and draws visitors from the international community.
Virginia City was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.
The displays in Virginia and Nevada Cities differ from other outdoor museums in that they are interspersed within a living community and house the largest collection of old-west artifacts outside of the Smithsonian.
Wallace Street has one of the finest collections of 1860's - early 1870's mining camp commercial architecture on its original site in the country.
Charles & Sue Bovey came to the area in 1944 and established the Historic Landmark Society, and later Bovey Restorations in 1972, to save and restore Virginia and Nevada Cities and to provide visitor services. In 1997, the State of Montana purchased the Bovey properties and established the Montana Heritage Commission to continue their work.
If you think your trip here was long, consider the journey of James P. Miller, an early resident of VC, who walked the 450 miles from Salt Lake City in May of 1865. The trip took him 16 days, and he was required to pay a $10 toll upon his arrival.
"There was nothing visible to remind a person in the slightest degree that it was Sunday. Every store, saloon, and dancing hall was in full blast." from The Road to Virginia City - the Diary of James P. Miller
"Rained, snowed, and hailed all day. Horrible weather and very cold." from The Road to Virginia City - the Diary of James P. Miller
"News arrived this P.M. of the attack of the stagecoach going east- by road agents. Four men killed, one missing- The road agents numbered about twenty. There is a mass meeting of the Vigilantes this evening." from The Road to Virginia City - the Diary of James P. Miller
"Up half past six. Snow three feet deep and still snowing." from The Road to Virginia City - the Diary of James P. Miller
"After supper, walked to the top of Burying Ground Hill (Boot Hill Cemetery) - I enjoyed a good cigar and watched the sunset, a beautiful spectacle away to the west as far as the eye would distinguish." from The Road to Virginia City - the Diary of James P. Miller
"Two men found 'hanging in the air' this morning up the gulch a little bit with a card on their backs on which were the words 'Hung by the Vigilance Committee for being road agents'" from The Road to Virginia City - the Diary of James P. Miller
"having used the fire water rather freely, felt the effects so much that I went to bed accordingly."
"Resolved on October 22, 1865, that from this date I do not spend a cent for foolish expenses such as Billiards, Drinking or Eating, Driving, Riding, Smoking, that I limit my monthly expenses for Dancing and Gifts to $10."
"Bought a 5 gallon keg of beer, which I propose to drink for my health. Cost $2 per gallon, resolution intact." from The Road to Virginia City - the Diary of James P. Miller
"Into the sleigh and started our ride - very crowded - about 18 inside. Rode all through the streets, Took possession of several saloons. Had a carousing time." from The Road to Virginia City - the Diary of James P. Miller
"Episcopal services in the morning. Methodist Sunday School at 2 P.M. and intended attending Presbyterian Meeting at night but, happening to be in the Occidental (Bar), I was unable to resist the temptation, losing about $20 in games and drinks." from The Road to Virginia City - the Diary of James P. Miller
"At about 8 o'clock, attracted my attention to a beautiful display of 'Aurora Borealis' or Northern Lights - the most beautiful I had ever beheld." from The Road to Virginia City - the Diary of James P. Miller


One needn’t look very far to see predictions for all sorts of fabulous innovations that will change our lives soon. The pace of technology creation is accelerating and the transformation of entire industries is happening right before our eyes. No one denies that the world in 10 to 15 years will look very different than the one we are now in.
But what is driving these transformations? Most people would say technology. But as fast as technology is changing, so are patterns of behavior that drive demand. In the preface to this series on the future of innovation, the twin forces of design (possibilities driven by science and technology) and demand (wants driven by individual and collective needs and desires) provided the evolutionary forces that shape the artifacts we humans create. The fact is that creating new technology, and advancing the science that underlies it, is a human endeavor. So is the adoption of new outcomes and experiences and the changes in behavior that result.
The question to ask is what motivates people to create the science, transform it into technology, design it into artifacts and adopt and experience these new creations? In other words, what is the dynamic behind innovative actions and how is this dynamic going to change in the future?
In this series of articles we look at precisely this question, how is innovation itself going to change over the next decade or so. These articles will focus on how we, as individuals, communities and organizations, will change the ways we come up with the new things that will change our lives. What is clear even now is that the ways we innovate will change – and dramatically. As we create new artifacts that change our experience at work, play, leisure and learning, we are also altering the way we come up with new ideas and how we pursue these ideas to turn them into reality.
The concept of innovation has been around since the 16th century when the word ‘innovate’ was first coined from the Latin in-‘into’ + novare ‘make new’ (from novus ‘new’). Schumpeter discussed innovation in his early 20th century studies of creative disruption. In 1985, Drucker addressed innovation in his influential book ‘Innovation and Entrepreneurship’. But the actual study and implementation of innovation as a structured practice can trace its roots back to the early 1990’s with Geoffrey Moore’s 1991 book ‘Crossing the Chasm[i]’ and Clayton Christensen’s seminal ‘The Innovator’s Dilemma[ii]’ in 1997. Since 2000, the pace of writing, consulting and creation of innovation practices has increased at an exponential rate.
The growth and maturity of innovation as a practice can be compared to an analogous practice that saw early theory and experiment turn into universal adoption. That analogous practice is the Quality movement. The quality movement today is manifested in standard practices such a 6-sigma, lean manufacturing and kaizen that are an absolute requirement for any company making goods and services. If an organization does not have a quality system, it will not survive. At its beginnings, however, the quality movement looked very much like the innovation movement looks today. Starting with Taylor[iii] and his time and motion studies in the early 1900s the study and practice of quality continued with Demming[iv] and Juran[v] starting in Japan in the post WW2 era and moving to the US in the 1970’s and 80’s and culminating with the near universal adoption of 6-Sigma practices[vi] first adopted by Motorola and others in the 80’s and 90’s. Figure 1 shows an approximation of the emergence and growth of both the quality movement and the innovation movement.
Figure 1 – The Emergence and Growth of the Quality and the Innovation Movements
Today, no executive would ever suggest that a company’s quality or NPD processes and systems be dismantled or cut back no matter what the financial circumstance of the company. Yet this is what happens routinely with front-end innovation processes and systems.
Innovation practice, like everything else today, is moving at a faster pace than the quality movement did in the 20th century. Even so, it is virtually certain that we are still in the early, exponentially changing stages of innovation practice. The pace of change in the introduction of new processes, methods and tools for innovation, is accelerating. From the introduction of Open Innovation to Business Model innovation to Test and Learn methods and tools, new ways of doing innovation are being developed and introduced at a very rapid pace. The implication of this is that it is fruitless to try and instill innovation best practices since this year’s best practice will be next year’s standard practice and the following year’s obsolete practice. Instead one should strive to create innovation next practices, building on what has been done before but extending and enhancing the processes, methods and tools we use to innovate. This is called innovating innovation. As the creators and purveyors of the practice of innovation, we are in our maximal growth phase and it is interesting to look into the near future and see what might transpire.
When people think about innovation, they implicitly think about the future. But what people naturally tend to think about are the innovations of the future, not how innovation will be done in the future. If the world is rapidly transforming in virtually every domain, why would it not transform in the ways innovation is done? Of course it would. What would this involve?
- How we discover – the ways in which we (or our machines) learn new information, see patterns, uncover important signals of change and separate them from the noise
- How we predict – the ways we model the world and see how futures can unfold. Our ability to understand complex systems.
- How we create – the ways we do science, create technologies, craft designs and develop business models
- How we organize – the ways we structure and operate the collective entities that bring our artifacts into existence and make them available to the world
- How we adopt – the ways we pay attention to, acquire and start using new artifacts
- How we adapt – the ways we change our behaviors due to our experiences with the artifacts we create
Thinking about the future of innovation must focus on the above questions. The answers are not about specific offerings or business models, the answers are about how we think, create, design and assess increasingly complex patterns of data and information. The answers are about how we organize ourselves to develop, produce and deliver the artifacts we want and that our artifacts want. For we are entering a world where the things we create are becoming increasingly automated and intelligent and it is not a far stretch to think about what our artifacts themselves want.
Figure 2 illustrates a simple model of the framework we will use to think about the future of innovation.
Figure 2 – A framework for discussing the future of innovation
In this framework, there are three intersecting complex systems:
- People – how individuals will act as both creators and adopters
- Organizations[viii] – how individuals will organize themselves into collective entities and how these collective entities will evolve their structures and behaviors as distinct from individuals
- Artifacts – how the things we create act and interact and evolve over time to influence each other and influence people and organizations
How these systems operate, evolve and interact with each other provides the basis for creating the scenarios that let us gain insight on the future of innovation.
[i] Moore, Geoffrey; Crossing the Chasm; HarperBusiness; 3rd edition (2014)
[ii] Christensen, Clayton; The Innovator’s Dilemma; Harvard Business Review Press; Reprint edition (November 19, 2013)
[iii] Taylor, Frederick Winslow; The Principles of Scientific Management; 1911; New York, NY, US and London, UK: Harper & Brothers.
[iv] Deming, W. Edwards, 1950 Lecture to Japanese Management
[v] Juran, Joseph, 1954 Lectures to Japanese Executives, published in Quality Management Journal; vol. 15, no. 3; 2008
[vi] Akpose, Wole; A History of 6-sigma; IEEE
[vii] O’Connor, Gina Grabbing Lightning; Jossey-Bass; 2008
[viii] The definition of the term ‘artifact’ includes an organization (i.e.it is a human creation). It better serves the purposes of understanding the future of innovation to treat organizations as a special type of artifact deserving of its own complex system.


State of the Weather
It is summer time in the US and, of course, it is warm. But how bad or good is it compared to the past and what bodes for the future? The average temperature for the contiguous U.S. during June was 71.2°F, which is 2.0°F above the 20th century average. The June temperatures contributed to a record-warm first half of the year and the warmest 12-month period the nation has experienced since recordkeeping began in 1895. The nation, as a whole, experienced its tenth driest June on record, with a nationally-averaged precipitation total of 2.27 inches, 0.62 inch below average.
It was not hotter everywhere. Based on preliminary data, temperatures in the Northeast averaged 65.4 degrees F (18.6 degrees C), which was normal. For the first time since October, mean temperatures in June were below average across most of the Southeast region.
Rainfall varied significantly depending on where you lived. Overall the northeast was normal. With 176 percent of normal, Maine had it’s 4th wettest June in 118 years, while West Virginia experienced its 11 driest June since 1895. Maine was one of four states with above normal rainfall totals - New Hampshire, New Jersey and Rhode Island were the other three. Departures in the dry states ranged from 62 percent of normal in West Virginia to 97 percent of normal in Connecticut and Vermont.
It is in the west where local wild fires have been d=fueld by dry conditins where it is particularly hot and dry. The largest temperature departures occurred in an area encompassing the panhandle of Nebraska, eastern Wyoming, eastern Colorado, and northwestern Kansas where the departures from normal temperature ranged from 6.0-10.0 degrees F (3.3-5.6 degrees C) above normal. The only areas in the Region to have lower than normal temperatures were northwest Wyoming and a few pockets of North Dakota. The warm pattern caused many locations across the Region to be ranked in the top 10 warmest Junes on record. Colorado Springs, Colorado had its warmest June on record with an average temperature of 73.2 degrees F which was 8.1 degrees F above normal.
Precipitation was significantly lacking in all but a few isolated areas of the High Plains Region this month. Most of Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Kansas received less than 50 percent of normal precipitation. There were even large areas of the Region that received less than 5 percent of normal precipitation, including western and central Wyoming, northwest Colorado, and central Nebraska.
According to the U.S. Seasonal Drought outlook released on June 21st, drought conditions were expected to improve only in eastern North Dakota and the far northwest corner of South Dakota. Current areas of drought in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming were expected to persist, while drought was expected to develop in eastern Nebraska and southern South Dakota.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, as of July 3, 56.0 percent of the contiguous U.S. experienced drought conditions, marking the largest percentage of the nation experiencing drought conditions in the 12-year record of the U.S. Drought Monitor. Drought conditions improved across Florida, due to the rains from Tropical Storm Debby. Drought conditions worsened across much of the West, Central Plains, and the Ohio Valley, causing significant impacts on agriculture in those regions.
Now for a different point of view consider Alaska where it has been wet and cold. There wet and cold records were set.
For further weather results see NOAA.
Bad Weather image via Wikipedia.


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Students investigate what type of climate and physical features certain Indigenous groups live in using an atlas and a provided worksheet. They then match the tribe and its location to the sustainable stategy employed in agricultural practices. This will help them realize the positive effects Indigenous groups have had on the environment.


CISPA: The Cliffnotes Version
If you spend a lot of time online, especially on Facebook, you should definitely know what CISPA is. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act is that little piece of paper that allows/requires technology companies to share the information they’ve harvested from their customers with the United States Government. It’s meant to protect the United States government and private companies from cyber attacks. With terrorism infiltrated every aspect of our lives, the government wants access to more information and the ability to stop potential cyber attacks.
What It Is
In the event of a cyber attack, CISPA allows for voluntary sharing of information between private companies and the government. This is meant to go both ways, the government can notify Google or Facebook, for example, if they saw a cyber attack in the works, and those companies could notify the government if they saw unusual activity as well. This is a huge win for the government because private companies, including both Google and Facebook have much more information, and highly advanced means of gathering more.
When It Started
Last April, the House passed CISPA, and we heard a lot about this SOPA/PIPA-esque bill. The media coverage eventually died off when CISPA never made it through the Senate and the White House didn’t show any support.
Why It’s Controversial
It all comes down the fear of Big Brother. CISPA doesn’t give the most specific regulations about information sharing, so there’s a chance that all of those emails you allowed Google to read, or the illegal songs you let iTunes’ Genius know about might be fair game to the government. We’ve come a long way with Internet privacy, and CISPA has a clause in it that would override just about
Why It’s Back in the News
The congressmen responsible for the bill were catching a lot of backlash due to this vague wording, and introduced an amendment that would require the government to make any shared information anonymous. There are currently a number of amendments being proposed in an effort to sway the Senate and the White House. These include one that offers a lot of vague descriptions about information sharing for some kind of national security. After the mayhem with North Korea, and the crazy Boston Marathon scare, Americans and the media are on high alert. It’s back in the news because these amendments were recently added, and because the media is really good at capturing the public’s fear and glorifying it.
Who Supports It
CISPA is pretty different from SOPA and PIPA, despite the many similarities drawn by the media. There are many companies that actually show full support for this bill, including AT&T, IBM, Verizon, and more. At first, even Facebook showed support, but changed their tune mid-2012. It’s anyone’s guess whether this will actually gain enough support to pass, but it’s interesting enough that some major companies are supporting this open sharing of private information. Would customers choose different companies knowing that some are more willing to hand over their personal information? Or would they choose those companies because they seem more prepared to guard their company and customers against cyber attacks? We can’t be sure.
Finally, the real reason why people are arguing about this bill right now is the most recent amendment. There’s a chance that this bill will let employers REQUIRE their employees’ passwords to social media sites such as Facebook. A last-minute amendment was made to ban this, but was shut down by the House. While many of us monitor our own activities on social networks because of our jobs, the idea that we’d have to fork over our actual ACCESS to those networks is pretty preposterous.
Well, folks, there you have it. CISPA in summary.


Navyna•vy (nā′vē),USA pronunciation n., pl. -vies.
- the whole body of warships and auxiliaries belonging to a country or ruler.
- (often cap.) the complete body of such warships together with their officers and enlisted personnel, equipment, yards, etc., constituting the sea power of a nation.
- (often cap.) the department of government charged with its management.
- See navy blue.
- [Archaic.]a fleet of ships.
Blueblue (blo̅o̅),USA pronunciation n., adj., blu•er, blu•est, v., blued, blu•ing or blue•ing.
- the pure color of a clear sky;
the primary color between green and violet in the visible spectrum, an effect of light with a wavelength between 450 and 500 nm.
- something having a blue color: Place the blue next to the red.
- a person who wears blue or is a member of a group characterized by some blue symbol: Tomorrow the blues will play the browns.
- (often cap.) a member of the Union army in the American Civil War or the army itself. Cf. gray (def. 13).
- See blue ribbon (def. 1).
- any of several blue-winged butterflies of the family Lycaenidae.
- the blue:
- the sky.
- the sea.
- the remote distance: They've vanished into the blue somewhere.
- out of the blue, suddenly and unexpectedly: The inheritance came out of the blue as a stroke of good fortune.
- of the color of blue: a blue tie.
- (cap.) of or pertaining to the Union army in the American Civil War.
- (of the skin) discolored by cold, contusion, fear, or vascular collapse.
- depressed in spirits;
melancholy: She felt blue about not being chosen for the team.
- holding or offering little hope;
bleak: a blue outlook.
- characterized by or stemming from rigid morals or religion: statutes that were blue and unrealistic.
- marked by blasphemy: The air was blue with oaths.
- (of an animal's pelage) grayish-blue.
risqué: a blue joke or film.
- blue in the face, exhausted and speechless, as from excessive anger, physical strain, etc.: I reminded him about it till I was blue in the face.
- to make blue;
dye a blue color.
- to tinge with bluing: Don't blue your clothes till the second rinse.
- to become or turn blue.
Roundround1 (round),USA pronunciation adj., -er, -est, n., adv., prep., v.
- having a flat, circular surface, as a disk.
- ring-shaped, as a hoop.
- curved like part of a circle, as an outline.
- having a circular cross section, as a cylinder;
- spherical or globular, as a ball.
- shaped more or less like a part of a sphere;
- free from angularity;
consisting of full, curved lines or shapes, as handwriting or parts of the body.
- executed with or involving circular motion.
- full, complete, or entire: a round dozen.
- noting, formed, or expressed by an integer or whole number with no fraction.
- expressed, given, or exact to the nearest multiple or power of ten;
in tens, hundreds, thousands, or the like: in round numbers.
- roughly correct;
approximate: a round guess.
- considerable in amount;
ample: a round sum of money.
- brought to completeness or perfection.
- full and sonorous, as sound.
- vigorous or brisk: a round trot.
- straightforward, plain, or candid;
outspoken: a round scolding.
- positive or unqualified: a round assertion.
- any round shape, as a circle, ring or sphere.
- a circular, ring-shaped, curved, or spherical object;
a rounded form.
- something circular in cross section, as a rung of a ladder or chair.
- Sometimes, rounds. a completed course of time, series of events or operations, etc., ending at a point corresponding to that at the beginning: We waited through the round of many years.
- any complete course, series, or succession: The strike was settled after a long round of talks; a round of parties.
- Often, rounds. a going around from place to place, as in a habitual or definite circuit: a doctor's rounds.
- a completed course or spell of activity, commonly one of a series, in some play or sport: the second round of a tournament.
- a recurring period of time, succession of events, duties, etc.: the daily round.
- an entire range: the round of human capabilities.
- a single outburst, as of applause or cheers.
- a single discharge of shot by each of a number of guns, rifles, etc.
- a single discharge by one firearm.
- a charge of ammunition for a single shot.
- a single serving, esp. of drink, made more or less simultaneously to everyone present, as at table or at a bar: The next round is on me.
- See round dance.
- movement in a circle or around an axis.
- Also, round of beef. the portion of the thigh of beef below the rump and above the leg. See diag. under beef.
- See round steak.
- a slice, as of bread.
- [Archery.]a specified number of arrows shot from a specified distance from the target in accordance with the rules.
- one of a series of three-minute periods making up a boxing match: a 15-round bout.
- a short, rhythmical canon at the unison, in which the several voices enter at equally spaced intervals of time.
- rounds, the order followed in ringing a peal of bells in diatonic sequence from the highest to the lowest.
- [Golf.]a playing of the complete course.
- [Cards.]a division of play in a game, consisting of a turn each for every player to bid, bet, play a card, deal the cards, or be dealt cards.
- in the round:
- (of a theater) having a stage completely surrounded by seats for the audience.
- in the style of theater-in-the-round: The play should be done in the round.
- in complete detail;
from all aspects: a character as seen in the round.
- (of sculpture) not attached to a supporting background;
- make the rounds:
- to go from one place to another, as in making deliveries, paying social visits, or seeking employment.
- Also, go the rounds. to be reported or told;
circulate: another rumor making the rounds.
- throughout or from the beginning to the end of a recurring period of time: all year round.
- Also, 'round. around: The music goes round and round.
- throughout (a period of time): a resort visited all round the year.
- around: It happened round noon.
- to make round.
- to free from angularity;
fill out symmetrically;
- to bring to completeness or perfection;
- to form (a gem) roughly (sometimes fol. by up);
- to end (a sentence, paragraph, etc.) with something specified: He rounded his speech with a particularly apt quotation.
- to encircle or surround.
- to make a complete circuit of;
pass completely around.
- to make a turn or partial circuit around or to the other side of: to round a corner.
- to cause to move in a circle;
- to make the opening at (the lips) relatively round or pursed during an utterance.
- to pronounce (a speech sound, esp. a vowel) with rounded lips;
- to contract (the lips) laterally. Cf. spread (def. 14), unround.
- to replace by the nearest multiple of 10, with 5 being increased to the next highest multiple: 15,837 can be rounded to 15,840;
then to 15,800;
then to 16,000.
- to become round.
- to become free from angularity;
- to develop to completeness or perfection.
- to take a circular course;
make a circuit, as a guard.
- to make a turn or partial circuit around something.
- to turn around as on an axis: to round on one's heels.
- to reduce successively the number of digits to the right of the decimal point of a mixed number by dropping the final digit and adding 1 to the next preceding digit if the dropped digit was 5 or greater, or leaving the preceding digit unchanged if the dropped digit was 4 or less.
- round off:
- to complete or perfect;
- to express as a round number, usually to the nearest multiple of 10.
- round out:
- to complete or perfect: The new coin rounded out his collection.
- to fill out;
become rounder: She rounded out so nicely that everyone soon forgot she had been so ill.
- round to, [Naut.]to turn a sailing vessel in the direction from which the wind is blowing.
- round up:
- to drive or bring (cattle, sheep, etc.) together.
- to assemble;
gather: to round up all the suspects in an investigation.
Rugrug (rug),USA pronunciation n.
- a thick fabric for covering part of a floor, often woven of wool and often having an oblong shape with a border design. Cf. carpet.
- the treated skin of an animal, used as a floor covering: a bear rug.
- [Chiefly Brit.]a piece of thick, warm cloth, used as a coverlet, lap robe, etc.
- cut a rug, [Older Slang.]to dance, esp. to jitterbug.
Lowlow1 (lō),USA pronunciation adj., -er, -est, adv., -er, -est, n.
- situated, placed, or occurring not far above the ground, floor, or base: a low shelf.
- of small extent upward;
not high or tall: A low wall surrounds the property.
- not far above the horizon, as a planet: The moon was low in the sky.
- lying or being below the general level: low ground.
- designating or pertaining to regions near sea level, esp. near the sea: low countries.
- bending or passing far downward;
deep: a low bow.
- (of a garment) low-necked;
décolleté: The dress she wore was fashionably low.
- rising but slightly from a surface: a low relief on a frieze.
- of less than average or normal height or depth, as a liquid or stream: The river is low this time of year.
- near the first of a series: a low number.
- ranked near the beginning or bottom on some scale of measurement: a low income bracket.
- indicating the bottom or the point farthest down: the low point in his creative life.
- lacking in strength, energy, or vigor;
weak: to feel low and listless.
- providing little nourishment or strength, as a diet.
- of small number, amount, degree, force, intensity, etc.: low visibility; a generator with a low output.
- indicated or represented by a low number: A low latitude is one relatively near the equator.
- soft: subdued;
not loud: a low murmur.
- produced by relatively slow vibrations, as sounds;
grave in pitch.
- assigning or attributing little worth, value, excellence, or the like: a low estimate of a new book.
- containing a relatively small amount: a diet low in starches.
- nearing depletion;
not adequately supplied: low on funds; Our stock of towels is low.
- depressed or dejected: low spirits.
- far down in the scale of rank or estimation;
humble: of low birth.
- of inferior quality or character: a low grade of fabric; a low type of intellect.
- lacking in dignity or elevation, as of thought or expression.
- mean, base, or disreputable: low tricks; low companions.
- coarse or vulgar: entertainment of a low sort.
- [Boxing.]struck or delivered below a contestant's belt.
- having a relatively simple structure;
not complex in organization.
- (of a vowel) articulated with a relatively large opening above the tongue, as the vowels of hat, hut, hot, ought, etc. Cf. high (def. 23).
- of, pertaining to, or operating at the gear transmission ratio at which the drive shaft moves at the lowest speed with relation to the speed of the engine crankshaft, used esp. for temporarily overcoming the weight or inertia of the vehicle;
first: low gear.
- [Baseball.](of a pitched ball) passing the plate at a level below that of the batter's knees: a low curve.
- [Cards.]having less value than other cards: a low card.
- having a relatively small amount of a specified constituent (usually used in combination): low-carbon steel.
- [Chiefly Brit.]holding to Low Church principles and practices.
- in or to a low position, point, degree, etc.: The raiders crouched low in the bushes.
- near the ground, floor, or base;
not aloft: The plane flew low.
- in or to a humble or abject state: Some live low while others live high. She swore she would bring him low.
- in or to a condition of depletion, prostration, or death: The gas in the tank is running low.
- at comparatively small cost;
cheaply: to buy something low and sell it high.
- at or to a low pitch, volume, intensity, etc.: to turn the radio low; lights turned down low.
- in a low tone;
to speak low.
- [Archaic.]far down in time;
- lay low:
- to overpower or kill;
defeat: to lay one's attackers low.
- to knock down;
- [Informal.]to lie low.
- lie low:
- to conceal oneself: He had to lie low for a while.
- to do nothing until the right opportunity develops;
bide one's time: Until the dispute is settled, you would do best to lie low.
- something that is low, as ground or prices: numerous marshy lows in the forest; the recent low in the stock market.
- low gear;
- an atmospheric low-pressure system;
cyclone. Cf. high (def. 41).
- the lowest trump card.
- a card of small value, or of lower value than other cards.
- the lowest score in a game.
- a player having such a score.
- a point of deepest decline, vulgarity, etc.: a new low in tastelessness.
- a period of intense depression or discomfort, when the effects of a drug have subsided.
Hi guys, this image is about Navy Blue Round Rug Photo Gallery #8 FLÖNG Rug, Low Pile. It is a image/jpeg and the resolution of this file is 1680 x 1680. It's file size is only 562 KB. Wether You desired to download It to Your computer, you can Click here. You may too download more photos by clicking the following picture or see more at this post: Navy Blue Round Rug.
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- the space size, feel and shade of the surfaces, large ceilings along with the colour of the furniture ought to be your first consideration whenever choosing colors for the ground. For that final design to achieve success ought to be contrasting shades,
- the newest flooring should match the timber surfaces that are present to maintain the house's reliability and movement,
- Avoid using dark floor in a small space with dim surfaces - it'll create the area more heavy and gloomy (see how floors made from black timber)
- Dark shades enhance the other components of decor's warmth,
- In areas with minimal ceilings go for lightcolored floors and walls,
- Dark and black hues are a preferred selection for painters' studios, contemporary decorations and elegant
- Contaminated in the event that you favor a vintage look standard brown shade or pure wood which can be great,
- Colour depth and strong (numerous shades of reddish: cherry and ash Jatoba or stained in the same colour) that is ideal for industrial rooms, workplaces along with other significant places where a floor becomes a key part of the decor,
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- floor that is dull and White will make your bedroom large,
- Go when the power to hide a small dent and scrapes are a must for natural tinted wood floor in matt end,
- Remember that the colors must enhance contrast and each other. The floor can't have equivalent colors as furniture and surfaces,


For many children, moving into a bed of their own is a mark of maturity. After years of sleeping in a crib or sharing a room with their parents, they suddenly have their own cozy space for restful sleeping, daydreaming, reading, doing their homework when they are older, or just enjoying some quiet alone time. Even in a shared room, one’s own bed is an important asset. But not all children – especially those living in poverty – have that luxury. We partner with Southern Indiana schools in hopes of providing bed frames, mattresses, sheets, blankets, pillows, and laundry bags to children that need them. We know that a good night’s sleep is important to a child’s academic success. Adverse effects caused by lack of sleep can include aggressive behavior and bullying, poor grades, short attention span, and disruptions in cognitive and linguistic function. Something as simple as providing children with their own place to rest, however, can improve overall performance in school. Getting enough sleep can support more creativity, enhance mood, fight sickness, and positively impact overall health.
2023 Build-a-Bed Sponsors:


The spread of two newly discovered subvariants has doctors watching closely. New York Times piece on our work, 4 May 2022.
By Alexandra E. Petri, Published May 2, 2022, Updated May 4, 2022
Coronavirus cases are surging again in South Africa, and public health experts are monitoring the situation, eager to know what¬ís driving the spike, what it says about immunity from previous infections and what its implications are globally.
South Africa experienced a decline in cases after hitting an Omicron-fueled, pandemic peak in December. But in the past week, cases have tripled, positivity rates are up and hospitalizations have also increased, health officials said. The surge has the country facing a possible fifth wave.
The spike is linked to BA.4 And BA.5, two subvariants that are part of the Omicron family.
Tulio de Oliveira, director of South Africa¬ís KwaZulu-Natal Research and Innovation Sequencing Platform, said that BA.4 and BA.5 demonstrate how the virus is evolving differently as global immunity increases.
'What we are seeing now, or at least maybe the first signs, is not completely new variants emerging, but current variants are starting to create lineages of themselves,' Dr. de Oliveira said. Since its initial identification in South Africa and Botswana last November, Omicron has produced several subvariants.
Some scientists are trying to understand what the BA.4 and BA.5 spike in South Africa, which is concentrated mainly in the Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, says about immunity from previous Omicron infections. The highly contagious Omicron variant first appeared in South Africa late last year, then quickly spread globally.
In South Africa, researchers estimate about 90 percent of the population has some immunity, in part from inoculation but largely because of previous infection. Yet immunity from infection typically begins to wane at around three months. It¬ís natural to see re-infection at this stage, particularly given people¬ís changing behaviors, like less mask-wearing and traveling more, said Dr. Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington, and formerly of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Emerging data show that in unvaccinated people, BA.4 and BA.5 evades natural defenses produced from an infection with the original Omicron variant, known as BA.1, which sent case counts skyrocketing in South Africa last winter, Dr. de Oliveira said. The result is symptomatic infections with the new subvariants.
'That is the reason why it is starting to fuel a wave in South Africa,' Dr. de Oliveira said.
Scientists are still studying whether this new wave creates milder or more severe illness, and it is unclear if the two subvariants could surge elsewhere in the world.
'We¬íre at an awkward global moment where the past can¬ít really predict the future,' said Dr. Kavita Patel, a primary care physician who led the pandemic preparedness response for the H1N1 swine flu virus during the Obama administration.
The familiar patterns ¬ó a wave in one country means another wave elsewhere ¬ó no longer necessarily work like clockwork, Dr. Patel said. But monitoring situations and data coming out of countries like South Africa offers reliable signals to understanding the virus¬ís evolution.
Currently, another Omicron subvariant, BA.2, is dominant in the United States, with BA.2.12.1 gaining speed as well although public health officials have identified BA.4 and BA.5 circulating at low levels.
Whatever the dominant variant, 'the lesson here is stopping transmission is the most important,' said Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist who is the chief of the Covid-19 task force at the World Health Network.
News date: 2022-05-04
KRISP has been created by the coordinated effort of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) and the South African Medical Research Countil (SAMRC).


Sir Thomas Dale
Dale, Sir Thomas, d.1619, acting governor (May–Aug., 1611, 1614–16) of the Virginia colony. Sent by the London Company to restore order, he arrived (1611) in Virginia with three ships of settlers and governed until another fleet under Sir Thomas Gates arrived four months later. When Governor Gates departed (1614) Dale again ruled. Although Dale's administration was severe, famines, epidemics, insubordination, and Indian attacks were overcome; private holdings were instituted; cultivation of tobacco was begun; and the colony was settled in a more favorable location at Henrico. Upon his return to England, Dale received command of a fleet bound for India, fought the Dutch en route, and died soon after arrival.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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To perform classification on remotely sensed imagery data, a small number of pixels or fields need to be labelled. It has been found that this labelling task requires many auxiliary materials such as crop calendar, soil data, cropping practice and a weather summary. This task is at the present time manually performed by photo-interpreters. It is time-consuming and liable to human error. The paper describes a computer based interactive color display system for assisting photointerpreters. Its objective is to reduce contact time and to increase labelling accuracy. This system has been designed to extract features from a temporal series of MSS data and to display these features using color graphic techniques. Special attention was paid to convert crop calendar information to quantitative information consistent with observed data. More specifically, descriptive crop phenology on a crop calendar was converted into quantitative growth index curves, to which observed features derived from MSS data are directly comparable. This system has been designed for feasibility demonstration only and although it is still in the evolutionary stage, it has already demonstrated that the method to be presented offers an effective solution to alleviating many problems associated with the current manual labelling process.
Date of this Version


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Unformatted text preview: must generally be a readily accepted understanding of the meaning of a series of sounds. Communication is fundamental to any form of organizing, but it is preeminent in virtual organizations. Without communication, the boundary-spanning among virtual entities would not be possible. Electronic communication enables parties to link across distance, time, culture, departments, and organizations. During the encounter, attention to verbal and non-verbal communication, understanding different participants’ backgrounds and communication styles can all help teams capture the productivity improvements associated with effective team operations. Ultimately, the increased productivity that results from developing a range of communications protocols for different situations, circumstances and audiences is likely to be well worth the effort....
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- Spring '08
- Non-verbal communication, TAO GUO


Like Sebrone Johnson and Jeff Smink in their recent essay supporting statewide standardized tests, we want all the students in New York’s schools to succeed.
However, we differ in how to achieve those goals and the role of high-stakes testing. Research and our experience tells us that high-stakes testing undermines efforts to improve equity, parent engagement, and student success by diverting our attention from developing educational and social reforms that increase learning.
Rather than having one test for all, we propose using multiple measures to assess students and teachers.
We agree that more can be done to improve student achievement for students who live in poverty. However, we don’t need statewide annual tests to tell us this. We know it from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and our own experience in schools.
In addition, the state’s annual exams don’t tell us what Johnson and Smink think they tell us. Teachers do not know all the types of questions and the results are reported too late to be of any instructional use. Moreover, because student scores are highly correlated with family income, the scores mostly tell us the average family income in the district, something we already know from census data. Low test scores can also be directly associated with the institutional and structural racism Blacks and Hispanics have suffered over the past several hundred years.
There are dozens of studies showing how high-stakes testing undermines good teaching as teachers focus on test prep and teaching as a profession. Nationally and locally teacher education programs report declining enrollments and veteran teachers are leaving the profession at a higher rate than usual.
Instead, we should focus on alternatives to high-stakes testing. Daniel Koretz, professor of education at the Harvard, in his new book The Testing Charade: Pretending to Make Schools Better, details, without jargon, how high-stakes testing harms rather than improves education. We note that while Koretz would eliminate high-stakes testing, he defends standardized testing, such as the NAEP, which tells us how states are doing compared to past years and other states.
At the close of the book he details how to devise such a system. He pulls no punches and admits that developing an appropriate and beneficial assessment system is complicated. But he urges educators, parents, students, and community members to collaboratively investigate assessment systems and methods. Following his advice, the Rochester Coalition for Public Education and Writers and Books are organizing a series of events for fall 2018 where anyone who cares about education can work to improve assessment. Daniel Koretz will also join the discussion.
David Hursh is professor of education at the Warner Graduate School of Education at the University of Rochester and a member of the Rochester Coalition for Public Education; Bill Cala is past superintendent of the Fairport and past interim superintendent of the Rochester City School District; Eileen Graham is founder of Black Student Leadership, member of the Rochester Coalition for Public Education and steering committee member of the New York State Allies for Public Education.


Igniting the Imagination of Youth In collaboration with SAATH (Gujarat) and Bandhan (Kolkata) at Sirsi, Western Ghats
Developing young community leaders for a sustainable tomorrow
Programme Purpose and Objectives:
- To provide an immersive experience that would increase participant’s knowledge, enhance their skills & develop passion for the environment while striving to provide ideas for conservation action.
- Connect participants with global, national and regional environmental sustainability issues and challenges.
- Provide hands on experience on scientific methods of collecting research data.
- Develop understanding of the role participants can play for a sustainable environment.
A programme by SABIC - India and Earthwatch Institute India
Creating a Platform for Experiential Learning in the 21st Century
Developing a School Network of Young Champions, who care for Urban Fresh water conservation and initiate actions within their school, community and their homes on water conservation and management and at the same time, get the opportunity to engage in some of the leading Earthwatch Expeditions in India
Project site: Biodiversity of the Okhla Wetland - An Important Bird Area (IBA) & Study Area
- The Okhla Wetland on the river Yamuna provides suitable habitats with plenty of open spaces, food and breeding grounds for a diverse variety of flora and fauna. Okhla Wetland has been designated as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by the Birdlife International. Urfi (2003) has compiled a list of 302 bird species from this site. An additional 27 species have been listed by Harris (2001) as probable. They need confirmation. During winters, between 14,000 and 20,000 water birds are recorded. This site qualifies in IBA A4iii criteria (i.e. the site is known or thought to hold 20,000 water birds)
- As the river Yamuna falls on the route of the migratory birds, a large number of them halt at the Okhla Barrage in winters. This water body renders good water levels along with suitable breeding and foraging grounds for migratory birds. According to the Indian Wildlife Club, an online nature club, over 300 species of birds (out of about 450 species recorded in and around Delhi) can be spotted here.
Long term field research project at Okhla –
Realising the pressing need for a conservation approach to urban freshwater bodies, a long term field research programme based on the Citizen Science model has been initiated by Earthwatch Institute India. Through this model, till date, opportunities have been created for citizens to contribute to water conservation by encouraging them to undertake research & monitoring, learn and disseminate conservation models that could conserve and save the water bodies.
WaterScope at Okhla based on Earthwatch’s Citizen Science model –
- The programme aimed at inspiring citizens and young people to value water resources understand the local freshwater challenge and take proactive action for water conservation and management was formally launched on October 15, 2014. Through this programme Earthwatch Institute and SABIC India have helped educate and involve students as volunteers in freshwater research through a participatory field programme. These student volunteers also called as the WaterScope Champions belong to different age groups and belong to not just the high end schools of the NCR but also from the schools which are charitable in nature, thus helping to encourage opportunities for children from low income families, to participate in this programme.
- By collecting water data and monitoring the freshwater bodies, these students are helping to address local water issues and the data collected by them is being used to help further strengthen the conservation of the fresh water-bodies.
- This ‘Citizen Science’ based experiential learning programme is aimed at developing young environmental leaders who will mainstream water conservation considerations into reality. This initiative has the potential to modify attitudes, beliefs, decisions and actions regarding environment and sustainability for these school students.
- To create awareness about importance of water conservation thereby leading to positive actions by students and teachers, the project has helped enhance participant’s understanding of the interlink between water quality and quantity as well as biodiversity.
- By working together in teams with leading Earthwatch scientists, students and teachers have gained firsthand experience by participating in a field research experiential learning module about water quality and have also further helped the participants to take actions for water conservation on their return from the programme
- The programme has thus helped create a number of action oriented participatory engagement opportunities for students and teachers from Delhi NCR region
- To connect students and teachers with global, national and regional water conservation challenges.
- To provide hands on experience on scientific methods to measure chemical parameters for water quality.
- To develop actions which students can take for water conservation.
- Deeper understanding of water related topics learnt as a part of school curriculum.
- Enhanced understanding of scientific methods used for monitoring of water quality.
- Ideas generated by students for individual and group action.
- Sensitized individuals who will take conscious decisions regarding direct and indirect consumption of water.
- Interactive resource material water challenges.
Expected individual actions by the WaterScope Champions:
- Monitoring and research on water quality and bird life.
- Understanding the linkages between water quality and its impact on ecosystems and biodiversity.
- Awareness and outreach to disseminate intricacies of ecosystem functioning such as how environmental drivers impact water quality.
- Movement for a participatory conservation practice.
- As sensitized community, the schools will take up sustainability projects within their school campuses. These projects will address the school centric goals on solving issues pertaining to environment sustainability and help them engage in a positive action.
- Earthwatch Institute will be the knowledge partner for them in this engagement and will handhold them and guide them – through on-site demonstrations, mobile application engagements (e.g. Frog Find App, Butterflies & Bees App, etc.).
- At the same time, the identified 160 WaterScope Student Champions will be the ambassadors for sensitizing the communities outside the school on the importance of freshwater and water conservation.