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As political allegory, the characters of "Lord of the Flies" represent some abstract idea of government. Ralph represents the good-hearted, but not completely effective leader of a democratic society. Piggy is his loyal adviser; he is not able to rule himself because of his physical shortcomings, but he can offer rational and logical advice to his leader for whom he cares deeply. On the other hand, Jack, who rules by hysteria and charisma, is the totalitarian leader who touches the emotional responses of his people.
That Piggy represents the rational side of the boys is evident by his introduction of the conch as the symbol for order. He realizes that the need to build shelters is almost as important as keeping the fire going. When Jack and the hunters threaten to prevent the others from reaching the fire on top of the mountain, Piggy suggests that they build the fire on the beach. Piggy uses words such as "if there's something wrong, there's someone to put it right." Always he appeals to the logical point of view.
When Jack shouts, "Bollocks to the rules!" Piggy tells Ralph,
You got to be tough now. Make 'em do what you want....If you don't blow [the conch], we'll soon be animals anyway. I can't see what they're doing but I can hear.
When the hunters become more powerful, Piggy advises Ralph, "We just got to go on, that's all. That's what grownup would do." He always encourages Ralph whenever Ralph loses courage. When Ralph hesitates,
But we must keep the fire burning. The fire's the most important thing on the island, because, because--
Piggy answers for him, whispering urgently, "Rescue." But, when Piggy is slain, Ralph becomes filled with self-doubt and anxiety as the hunters come after him. Fortunately, he is rescued, but he
wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.
From the first, Piggy is compared to Ralph. Compared to the lithe, athletic physique that Ralph possesses, Piggy is fat and short. He is asthmatic and wears glasses. However, despite his unattractive appearance, he is very intelligent and thoughtful, coming up with a number of suggestions to help the boys in their plight. For example, it is he that suggests that Ralph blow the conch to summon the rest of the boys and it is he that goes around asking all the boys their names when they come. He is also loyal to Ralph and to the function of the conch.
His glasses are also richly symbolic of reason and the ability to see. It is highly significant that the boys descend to their lowest point of anarchy when they chose to steal Piggy's glasses and they break.
The fact that Piggy is repeatedly picked on shows sympathy from readers. Even though, Piggy may not be full with confidence and pride, I think he is the smartest of them all especially when it comes to survival and civilizations order. The fact that Piggy relies on the conch shows the audience how much he has respect towards rights and orders and it shows readers that he will always follow them.
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To most people today, the joke about the deer hanging by its tale probably sounds lame. However, something about it and the image it evoked struck King Martin I as over the top funny. Apparently, while some jokes are timeless and universal, many more are time and culture sensitive. It seems that in fifteenth century Aragon, deer hanging by their tails as punishment for stealing figs were considered to be super funny. So funny, in King Martin’s case, that he laughed uncontrollably for three hours.
The king’s fit of uncontrollable laughter finally ended when he fell out of the bed and hit the floor, stone dead. It was a funny death, but the consequences were serious. Martin had only one son, but he was illegitimate, and he failed to secure him the succession. So Martin ended up being the last king of the Aragonite House of Barcelona (878 – 1410), and was succeeded by a nephew, Ferdinand I of Aragon. Martin however had gone out laughing, which was not a bad ending for a royal life or dynasty. Especially when we consider the many nasty possibilities the often surrounded the end of royal dynasties and noble lineages.
6. Town vs Gown Was Taken to Extremes in the Middle Ages
Tensions between universities, with their populations of academics and students, and the surrounding community of ordinary folk going about their everyday lives, have been around since seemingly forever. Long before universities had even been invented, places known as centers of scholarship, such as ancient Athens or Ptolemaic Alexandria, had often experienced bad blood between the academics who flocked there in scholarly pursuits, and the wider population amongst whom they dwelt. However, relatively few such “town vs gown” tensions have ever boiled over and erupted in as dramatic a fashion as happened in Oxford in 1355.
On February 10th of that year, St. Scholastica Day, two Oxford University students, Roger de Chesterfield and Walter Spryngheuse, were having drinks at the Swindlestock Tavern in Oxford. At some point, they complained to the taverner, John Croidon, about the quality of the drinks. He did not take kindly to their complaints. One thing led to another, heated words were exchanged, and the students ended up throwing the drinks in the tavern keeper’s face, then proceeded to beat him to a bloody pulp. That incident, as seen below, led to medieval England’s biggest town vs gown rumble.
5. Medieval Oxford Students Bit More Than They Could Chew When They Took on the Townies
After a pair of Oxford University students violently assaulted a local tavern keeper, the town’s mayor asked the university to arrest the academic hooligans. However, the university’s authorities ignored his request. Instead, 200 students sided with their thuggish classmates, Walter Spryngheuse and Roger de Chesterfield, and went on a rampage during which they assaulted the mayor and other Townies. That was too much for the locals, who mounted a counter-riot of their own, with hundreds pouring in from the countryside to help hunt down the students
Crying: “Havoc! Havoc! Smyte [smite] fast! Give gode knocks!” the Townies fell upon the students and routed them. By the time it was over, 63 Oxford students had been killed, along with 30 locals. In the aftermath, the authorities sided with the university. Every year thereafter, on February 10th, Oxford’s mayor and city councilors were made to atone by marching bareheaded through the streets. They then had to attend mass, and pay a penny for each student killed. That tradition lasted for 425 years, until 1825, when an Oxford mayor finally put his foot down and refused to participate.
Eels are notoriously slippery, and that difficulty in getting a hold of them might explain why they were sometimes used as currency during the medieval period. Eels may not be a popular dish in the West these, but they were once such a common staple in medieval England that they were used as currency. For example, the Domesday Book lists hundreds of English watermills whose rent was paid in eels, bundled in “sticks” of 25. One proprietor who received his rent in eels was “Giles brother of Ansculf”, who got 1000 sticks from his watermill in Bottisham, Cambridgshire, and 2000 sticks from his watermill in Datchet, Buckinghamshire.
How much were eels worth, though? In 1273, King Edward I issued price controls for the sale of certain foods in London, and a stick of 25 eels was listed as 2 pence, or the equivalent of about $9 in 2021 US dollars. Edward’s price controls were issued almost two centuries after the Domesday Book, but inflation was nowhere near as great in those days as it is day. Thus, if we assume that 2 pence had roughly the same purchasing value in both Domesday Book and Edward I days, Giles brother of Ansculf got about $9000 in rent for his Bottisham watermill, and $18,000 for the one in Datchet.
If the question of who the middle ages’ deadliest man comes up, many would assume it must be Genghis Khan. However, while Genghis is one of history’s scariest people, he was not as lethal as an even deadlier medieval warrior: Timur (1336 – 1405). Byname Timur Link, which means “Timur the Lame” in Turkish, Timur was the last of the great Eurasian Steppe conquerors to terrify the civilized world with widespread devastation and butchery. He is chiefly remembered for his savagery, and his wide-ranging rampage, from India to Russia and the Mediterranean and points in between. Timur is estimated to have killed about 17 million people, amounting to 5 percent of the world’s population at the time. That would be equivalent to 390 million people today.
A Muslim Turko-Mongol who claimed descent from Genghis Khan, Timur was born in the Chagatai Khanate in today’s Uzbekistan, which was ruled by Genghis’ descendants at the time. His rise began in 1360, when he led Turkic tribesmen on behalf of the Chagatai Khan. However, the Khan was murdered by rivals, which triggered a struggle for power. When the dust settled, Timur had emerged as the power behind a throne occupied by a figurehead Chagatai puppet, through whom Timur ruled.
Timur’s claimed descent from Genghis Khan might have been dubious. That did not stop him, however, from using it to justify his conquests as a restoration of the by then defunct Mongol Empire, and as a re-imposition of legitimate Mongol rule over lands that had been wrongfully seized by usurpers. With those justifications, Timur spent 35 years roiling the medieval world, and earning a reputation for savagery while bringing fire and sword to the lands between the Indus and the Volga, the Himalayas and the Mediterranean.
Among the cities he left depopulated and in ruins were Damascus and Aleppo in Syria; Baghdad in Iraq; Sarai, capital of the Golden Horde, and Ryazan, both in Russia; India’s Delhi, outside whose walls he massacred over 100,000 captives; and Isfahan in Iran, where he massacred 200,000. Timur was also in the habit of piling up pyramids of severed heads, cementing live prisoners into the walls of captured cities, and erecting towers of his victims’ skulls as object lessons and to terrorize would-be opponents.
Timur’s most dramatic victory came at the expense of the Ottoman Turks. A rising power in their own right, the Ottomans were as exuberantly confident in their prowess as was Timur. For years, insulting letters were exchanged between Timur and the Ottoman Sultan, Bayezid, until Timur finally showed up in 1402, Timur crushed Bayezid, and took him captive. In one of the medieval era’s greatest acts of ownage, Timur humiliated his prisoner by keeping him in a cage at court, while Bayezid’s favorite wife was made to serve the victor and his courtiers, naked.
Timur’s decades-long rampage finally came to an end in 1405, while he was preparing to invade China. He took ill while encamped, and died before launching the campaign. His grave was reportedly cursed. His body was exhumed by Soviet anthropologists on June 19th, 1941. Carved inside his tomb were the words “When I rise from the dead, the word shall tremble“. Two days later, the Nazis launched the largest military operation of all time against the USSR, which the Soviets survived only by the skin of their teeth. Just to be on the safe side, in November, 1942, shortly before Operation Uranus which led to the first major Soviet victory at Stalingrad, Timur was reburied with full Islamic rituals.
Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading


BOSTON, May 21: Researchers have revealed the components of the immune system in macaques which help them develop immunity to coronavirus re-infection, findings which have helped them uncover the likely protective function a potential vaccine should exhibit.
While there are differences between SARS-CoV-2 infection in macaques and humans, the findings, published in the journal Science, offer some of the first evidences that non-human primates can develop protective immunity to COVID-19.
According to the researchers, including Indian-origin scientist Abhishek Chandrashekar from Harvard Medical School in the US, one of the questions which remain unanswered is whether infection with SARS-CoV-2 results in protective immunity against re-exposure to the virus.
Citing an earlier study, they said macaques were found to be promising models for testing COVID-19 therapeutics, and to get answers to these questions.
In two current studies, the researchers explored whether initial exposure to SARS-CoV-2 protected against re-infection, and whether vaccination protected offered protection.
In the first study, they developed a macaque model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, which captured certain aspects of human infection.
The scientists then tested whether nine of the adult animals that had cleared the virus were immune to re-infection 35 days later.
According to the study, all nine animals showed little to no symptoms after re-challenge, and exhibited immune responses that protected against the second infection.
However, the scientists said additional research will be required to define the durability of natural immunity.
Rigorous clinical studies will be required to determine whether SARS-CoV-2 infection effectively protects against its re-exposure in humans, they said.
In the other study, including many of the same researchers, and led by Jingyou Yu from Harvard Medical School, the scientists designed prototypes of SARS-CoV-2 DNA vaccine candidates.
These prototypes expressed six different forms of the the novel coronavirus’ spike protein, which is used by the virus to bind and invade human cells.
According to the researchers, these vaccine candidates provide DNA that allows host cells to make their own spike proteins so as to generate antibody responses to it.
When the scientists vaccinated 35 adult macaques with these vaccines, in initial rounds, and later with booster doses, the animals exhibited similar immune responses to those recovering in the first study by Chandrashekar and his team.
When the vaccinated macaques were infected intranasally with SARS-CoV-2 six weeks later, the study reported levels of antibodies in their blood sufficient to neutralise the virus in two weeks’ time.
The researchers said these levels were similar to those seen in humans recovering from SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Protective immunity in the macaques, they said, is likely mediated by an immune system response similar to the one seen in the first study.
The scientists believe that their work could accelerate the development of vaccines, but said more research is needed to determine the optimal platforms for one suited for humans. (PTI)


PE is the third most common cause of death from cardiovascular disease after heart attack and stroke . In the UK, Hospital Episode Statistics show that there were more than 28,000 cases in a recent 1 year period (2010-11) . An international registry of PE patients showed that the mortality rate for acute PE exceeds 15% in the first 3 months after diagnosis and surpasses that of myocardial infarction . Death from PE most commonly occurs as a result of progressive right ventricular failure resulting in cardiovascular collapse . Survivors of acute PE remain at risk for CTPH .
|Major risk factors for PE |
|Idiopathic, primary, and unprovoked|
|No apparent cause|
|Old age (>65 years)|
|Associated with thrombophilia (e.g. factor V Leiden or prothrombin gene mutation)|
|Secondary and provoked|
|Oral contraceptives, pregnancy, or postmenopausal hormonal replacement|
|Acute medical illness (e.g. pneumonia, congestive heart failure)|
CTPH, defined as a mean pulmonary artery pressure greater than 25 mm Hg that persists for 6 months after diagnosis of PE, is an important long-term morbidity associated with PE and occurs in 2–4% of patients after acute PE . The diagnosis can be overlooked because many patients do not have a history of clinically overt PE . CTPH results in disabling dyspnoea, both at rest and on exertion. Life expectancy is often shortened and patients frequently die of sudden cardiac death. Death is usually due to progressive pulmonary hypertension culminating in right ventricular failure.


The Phoenix and the Turtle
The Phoenix and the Turtle is an allegorical poem about the death of ideal love by William Shakespeare. It is widely considered to be one of his most obscure works and has led to many conflicting interpretations. It has also been called "the first great published metaphysical poem". The title "The Phoenix and the Turtle" is a conventional label. As published, the poem was untitled. The "turtle" is the Turtledove, not the shelled reptile.
The poem describes a funeral arranged for the deceased Phoenix and Turtledove, respectively emblems of perfection and of devoted love. Some birds are invited, but others excluded. It goes on to state that the love of the birds created a perfect unity which transcended all logic and material fact. It concludes with a prayer for the dead lovers.
It was first published in 1601 as a supplement to a long poem by Robert Chester, entitled Love's Martyr. The full title of Chester's book explains the content:
- Love's Martyr: or Rosalins Complaint. Allegorically shadowing the truth of Loue, in the constant Fate of the Phoenix and Turtle. A Poeme enterlaced with much varietie and raritie; now first translated out of the venerable Italian Torquato Caeliano, by Robert Chester. With the true legend of famous King Arthur the last of the nine Worthies, being the first Essay of a new Brytish Poet: collected out of diuerse Authenticall Records. To these are added some new compositions of seuerall moderne Writers whose names are subscribed to their seuerall workes, vpon the first subiect viz. the Phoenix and Turtle.
Chester prefaced his poem with a short dedication addressed to the Phoenix and Turtledove. The Phoenix is envisaged as female and the dove as male:
- Phoenix of beautie, beauteous, Bird of any
- To thee I do entitle all my labour,
- More precious in mine eye by far then many
- That feedst all earthly sences with thy savour:
- Accept my home-writ praises of thy love,
- And kind acceptance of thy Turtle-dove
Chester's main poem is a long allegory in which the relationship between the birds is explored, and its symbolism articulated. It incorporates the story of King Arthur, and a history of ancient Britain, emphasising Welsh etymologies for British towns. It culminates with the joint immolation of the Phoenix and Turtledove, giving birth to a new and more beautiful bird from the ashes. It also includes several allegorical love poems within it, supposed to have been written by the Turtledove to the Phoenix.
It is followed by a brief collection of "Diverse Poeticall Essaies" by the "best and chiefest of our moderne writers, with their names sub-scribed to their particular workes". These include, in addition to Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, George Chapman, John Marston and the anonymous "Vatum Chorus" and "Ignoto". All use the same imagery. The poems are introduced by Vatum Chorus and Ignoto, followed by The Phoenix and the Turtle, which ends with mourning for the death of the perfect lovers, "leaving no posterity". Marston then seems to reply to Shakespeare's "moving epicedium", by referring to the couple's "glorious issue": the being born from the flames. Chapman adds more detail on the relationship, saying that the Phoenix provided every variety of life to the Turtle, "She was to him the Analysed World of pleasure, / Her firmness cloth'd him in variety". Jonson ends with an idealisation of the Phoenix, whose judgement shines as "Clear as a naked Vestal, / Closed in an orb of Crystal."
In addition to an allegory of an ideal marriage, the poem can be seen as an elucidation of the relationship between truth and beauty, or of fulfilled love, in the context of Renaissance Neoplatonism. It also seems that the roots of this conception of perfect love lie not only in scholastic sources regarding the union of persons in the Trinity, but also in the confluence of three other lines of medieval Catholic tradition: the literary traditions of mystical union, spiritual friendship, and spiritual marriage  Shakespeare introduces a number of other birds, drawing on earlier literature about the "parliament of birds", to portray the death of the lovers as the loss of an ideal that can only be lamented.
Several attempts have been made to link the lovers of the poem to historical individuals, though others have argued that the poem should not be interpreted with "appliqué literalism", in the words of James P. Bednarz. Indeed, exponents of the New Criticism such as I. A. Richards and William Empson emphasised the unresolvable nature of the text's ambiguities. Helen Hackett argues that the poem "invites deciphering, but at the same time firmly rebuff it." Some of the more prominent attempted decodings of the allegory with reference to real individuals are listed below:
John and Ursula Salusbury
Because Chester dedicated the main poem to the Welsh statesman Sir John Salusbury and his wife Ursula Stanley, it has been argued that all the poems in the collection, including Shakespeare's, also celebrate the couple. Salusbury was a courtier at the court of Elizabeth I, and was a member of the powerful Salusbury Family of Wales. His wife Ursula was the illegitimate daughter of Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby. A difficulty with this view is the fact that the couple are known to have had ten children, but the poem refers to the relationship as a childless "married chastity". This is commented on elsewhere in the collection by John Marston, and all the poems in the collection emphasise the chaste and spiritual nature of the relationship, the couple's only child being the mysterious being born from their bodily deaths. The identification of the Salusburys as the subject was first argued in detail by Carleton Brown in 1913. Brown tried to resolve the problem by arguing that it was written after the birth of the couple's first child, but not published until many years later. Later writers have sometimes argued that while Chester's Love's Martyr may be intended to celebrate the couple, Shakespeare's own poem does not. John Klause suggests that the "death" implied in Chester's work is symbolic of marriage and "sexual surrender", but in Shakespeare' poem death is literal. G. Wilson Knight suggested that the poem celebrates chaste love because it is about Salusbury's devotion to his sister, for whom Salusbury himself had written a poem.
An alternative is to interpret the Turtle as John Salusbury and the Phoenix as Queen Elizabeth I, which would explain the chastity of the relationship and the implication that their "child" is something mystical rather than physical. Elizabeth was often connected to the phoenix, and she is referred to as the "maiden phoenix" in the play Henry VIII, partly written by Shakespeare (though the "maiden phoenix" passage is typically attributed to John Fletcher). Two panel portraits attributed to Nicholas Hilliard are known as the "Phoenix" and "Pelican" portraits because of jewels the queen wears: her personal badges of the pelican and the phoenix. Both birds appear in Chester's main poem. An objection is that the intimacy between the lovers seems rather too strong for Salusbury and the queen.
Katherine Duncan-Jones and Henry Woudhuysen adopt a variation of the view that the poem refers to Salusbury and the queen, arguing that the "session" mentioned in the poem is the 1601 parliament, in which Elizabeth made a famous speech about the symbolic relationship between herself and her people, sometimes referred to as her Farewell Speech. They draw on the earlier work of Marie Axton, who argued that Elizabeth herself is both birds, in her monarchical and human aspects, but that the human aspect (the Turtle) also includes the body of the people as a whole. Duncan-Jones and Woudhuysen suggest that Salusbury represents the people.
Some scholars interpret the child of the phoenix as a reference to Elizabeth's heir, James VI of Scotland. This imagery was used in 1604, when James arrived in London, but this would have been problematic in 1601, when Elizabeth was still alive.
The theory that both Chester's and Shakespeare's poems were intended to refer to the relationship between Elizabeth and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex was first proposed by A.B. Grosart in 1878, and was revived by William Matchett in 1965. Many authors who reject the identification of the lovers as Essex and Elizabeth nevertheless argue that the events of Essex's rebellion and execution in early 1601 may lie behind some of the more obscure symbolism in the poem and the others in the collection. Sir John Salusbury had been knighted for helping to suppress the rebellion, while his cousin Owen Salusbury was killed while participating in it. Sir John's brother, Thomas Salusbury, had been executed after the earlier Babington Plot against Elizabeth. Duncan-Jones and Woudhuysen argue that Salusbury was "love's martyr" for putting devotion to his queen above his family. Peter Ackroyd and James P. Bednarz both argue that Shakespeare may have written the poem to dissociate himself from Essex, with whom he was implicated because of his links to Essex's main ally the Earl of Southampton, and because his play about the overthrow of a monarch, Richard II, had been performed at the request of the rebels. For Bednarz "Shakespeare's name, subscribed to his poem in Love's Martyr shows his accommodation to the political order without endorsing any specific political position."
Another view, first put forward in the 1930s by Clara Longworth in a novel, My Shakespeare, Rise!, is that the poem is a cryptic Catholic eulogy and is linked to claims that Shakespeare was a secret Catholic sympathiser. This approach is supported by the advocacy of prayers for the dead ("these dead birds") in the final line. Several critics, including Clare Asquith and David Beauregard have noted that the poem appears to refer to Catholic liturgy and possibly to the writings of the Jesuit poet Robert Southwell, who translated the Latin hymn Lauda Sion and also wrote a poem praising the married chastity of Mary and Joseph. John Klause has argued that it contains various parallels to the Dies Irae from the Liturgy for the Dead, but suggests that its Catholic imagery satirises conventional Protestant attitudes expressed in Chester's poem, and that it represents a subtle protest against the project of lauding Sir John Salusbury, whose imagined death he supposes it celebrates.
Proponents of a Catholic interpretation have suggested various identities for the poem's birds, but the reading that has gained the most traction is that the phoenix commemorates Anne Line, a Catholic executed at Tyburn in 1601 and subsequently canonised by the Catholic Church as a martyr. Anne Line and her young husband Roger were separated when he was imprisoned and then exiled after being arrested at a banned Catholic Mass. He died on the continent a few years later and Anne Line began working for the Jesuits in London. She was arrested at a Candlemas celebration and convicted of harbouring a priest leading to her execution. Her body was retrieved from the common grave in the road and one of the Jesuits who knew her hinted that a secret requiem was later held in her honour. It is suggested that this requiem provides the setting for Shakespeare's poem. The identification was supported by the belief that, like Shakespeare's couple, the Lines had no children. However, it has now been established that they had a son called John who was adopted by relatives.
The suggestion that Anne Line is Shakespeare's phoenix was first made by Clara Longworth, who proceeded to identify the turtle with Mark Barkworth, a priest who reportedly embraced her body as it hung on the scaffold before he was also executed. John Finnis and Patrick Martin have argued more recently that Anne Line is the phoenix and her husband Roger is the turtle. They concur with Asquith that the 'bird of loudest lay' represents the composer William Byrd and that the crow is the Jesuit Henry Garnet. Martin Dodwell has argued further that Shakespeare uses Anne and Roger Line to symbolise the Catholic Church, disinherited and rejected by England.
Text of the poem
The Phoenix and the Turtle
Let the bird of loudest lay,
On the sole Arabian tree,
Herald sad and trumpet be,
To whose sound chaste wings obey.
But thou, shrieking harbinger,
Foul pre-currer of the fiend,
Augur of the fever's end,
To this troop come thou not near.
From this session interdict
Every fowl of tyrant wing,
Save the eagle, feather'd king:
Keep the obsequy so strict.
Let the priest in surplice white,
That defunctive music can,
Be the death-divining swan,
Lest the requiem lack his right.
And thou, treble-dated crow,
That thy sable gender mak'st
With the breath thou giv'st and tak'st,
'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.
Here the anthem doth commence:
Love and constancy is dead;
Phoenix and the turtle fled
In a mutual flame from hence.
So they lov'd, as love in twain
Had the essence but in one;
Two distincts, division none:
Number there in love was slain.
Hearts remote, yet not asunder;
Distance, and no space was seen
'Twixt the turtle and his queen;
But in them it were a wonder.
So between them love did shine,
That the turtle saw his right
Flaming in the phoenix' sight:
Either was the other's mine.
Property was thus appall'd,
That the self was not the same;
Single nature's double name
Neither two nor one was call'd.
Reason, in itself confounded,
Saw division grow together;
To themselves yet either-neither,
Simple were so well compounded
That it cried how true a twain
Seemeth this concordant one!
Love hath reason, reason none
If what parts can so remain.
Whereupon it made this threne
To the phoenix and the dove,
Co-supreme and stars of love;
As chorus to their tragic scene.
Beauty, truth, and rarity.
Grace in all simplicity,
Here enclos'd in cinders lie.
Death is now the phoenix' nest;
And the turtle's loyal breast
To eternity doth rest,
Leaving no posterity:--
'Twas not their infirmity,
It was married chastity.
Truth may seem, but cannot be:
Beauty brag, but 'tis not she;
Truth and beauty buried be.
To this urn let those repair
That are either true or fair;
For these dead birds sigh a prayer.
- Oxford Anthology of Literature of Renaissance England, J. Holander, F. Kermode (eds), OUP, 1973, p.424.
- James P. Bednarz in Cheney, Patrick Gerard The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's Poetry, Cambridge University Press, 2007, p117
- Zezmer, D.M., Guide to Shakespeare, 1976, New York, p.88
- Beauregard, David, “’The Mutual Flame of Love’: Spiritual Marriage in Shakespeare’s The Phoenix And Turtle,” Religion and the Arts 15 (2011) 131–147
- James P. Bednarz, Shakespeare and the Truth of Love: The Mystery of 'The Phoenix and Turtle', Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
- Helen Hackett, Shakespeare and Elizabeth: The Meeting of Two Myths, Princeton University Press, 2009, p.136.
- Poems by Sir John Salusbury and Robert Chester by Carleton Brown.
- John Klause, "The Phoenix and the Turtle in its Time", in Gwynne Blakemore Evans (ed), In the Company of Shakespeare: Essays on English Renaissance Literature, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 2002, p.206-227.
- William Empson, Essays on Shakespeare, Cambridge University Press, 1986, p.20.
- Duncan-Jones and Woudhuyson, Shakespeare's Poems, Arden Shakespeare, Cengage Learning EMEA, 2007, p.421ff.
- "The Phoenix and the Turtle: Shakespeare's Poem and Chester's Loues Martyr" by William H. Matchett; reviewed by Thomas P. Harrison, Modern Philology, Vol. 64, No. 2 (Nov., 1966), pp. 155–157.
- John Finnis and Patrick Martin, "Another turn for the Turtle", The Times Literary Supplement, 18 April 2003
- James P. Bednarz, p.72.
- Longworth, Clara, My Shakespeare, Rise!, London: 1935
- David Beauregard, pp. 141-44.
- see discussion in Shakespeare's Poems,(Arden Shakespeare Series) 93-94.
- Martin Dodwell. Anne Line: Shakespeare's Tragic Muse. Brighton: The Book Guild, 2013.
- Christine J. Kelly, “Anne Line [St Anne Line] (d. 1601)”, ODNB; online edn, January 2009, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/69035, accessed 11/03/2013.
- Times Literary Supplement, 18 April 2003, p.12-14
- Asquith, Clare, Shakespeare Newsletter, 50, 2001.
- Straumann, Heinrich. “‘The Phoenix and the Turtle’ in its Dramatic Context.” ES 58 (1977) 494–500.
- Gillham, Christiane. "'Single Nature Double Name': Some Comments on The Phoenix and Turtle." Connotations 2.2 (1992). 126-36.
- Milward, Peter. "'Double Nature's Single Name': A Response to Christiane Gillham." Connotations 3.1 (1993). 60–63.
- Sims, James. "Shakespeare's 'The Phoenix and the Turtle': A Reconsideration of 'Single Natures Double Name.'" Connotations 3.1 (1993). 64–71.
- Gillham, Christiane. "Single Natures-Double Name: A Reply to Peter Milward and James H. Sims." Connotations 3.2 (1993/94). 123-28.
- "Shakespeare, Elegy and Epitaph: 1557-1640", Kerrigan, John. In Jonathan Post, ed., Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare's Poetry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 225-44.
- "Reading 'The Phoenix and Turtle'", Kerrigan, John. In Post, ed., Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare's Poetry, 540-59.
- The Phoenix and the Turtle at Wikibooks
- Robert Chester's Love's martyr, or, Rosalins complaint (1601) : with its supplement "Diverse poeticall essaies" on the Turtle and Phoenix at Internet Archive
- Public domain recording of the poem at archive.org
- Partial bibliography for Clifford Stetner's PhD dissertation Shakespeare's Shrieking Harbinger: The Phoenix and the Turtle, the First Folio, and the Shapes of Time
- The Phoenix and the Turtle public domain audiobook at LibriVox


Ultrasonic flow meters are non-intrusive devices that use acoustic vibrations to measure the flow rate of liquid. There are two types, Doppler and transit time.
Ultrasonic meters are ideal for wastewater applications or any dirty liquid which is conductive or water based but will generally not work with distilled water or drinking water. These flow meters are also ideal for applications where low pressure drop, chemical compatibility, and low maintenance are required.
In 1842, Christian Doppler discovered that a stationary observer perceives a sound to have shorter wavelengths as its source approaches, longer wavelengths as its source recedes.
The Doppler effect explains why one hears rising pitch in the blowing horn of an approaching car. When the car zooms away, the pitch seems to drop. Ultrasonic Doppler flow meters put this frequency shift to work in so-called dirty liquids containing acoustical discontinuities; suspended particles, entrained gas bubbles or turbulence vortexes.
How does an ultrasonic flow meter work?
Ultrasonic flow meters are a non-contact means of measuring flow velocity. They are clamp-on devices that attach to the exterior of the pipe and enable measurement of corrosive liquids without damage to sensors.
The two types of ultrasonic flow meters, Doppler and transit time, each function by way of two different technologies. The Doppler ultrasonic flow meter must have particles or bubbles to reflect the ultrasonic signals. Consideration must be given to the lower limits for concentrations and sizes of solids or bubbles, and the liquid must flow at a rate high enough to keep the solids suspended.
When transmitted into a pipe that contains flowing liquid with such discontinuities, an ultrasonic pulse or beam reflects from them with a change in frequency that is directly proportional to the liquid’s flow rate. Thus, the ultrasonic Doppler flowmeter calculates flow rate from the velocity of the discontinuities, rather than from the velocity of the liquid.
Principle of operation
Questions which need to be answered before selecting an ultrasonic flow meter:
- Does the liquid have particulates of 100 ppm of 100 microns in size?
- Do you require a handheld or continuous process monitor?
- Do you require an analog output?
- What is the minimum and maximum flow rate for the flow meter?
- What is the minimum and maximum process temperature?
- What is the minimum and maximum process pressure?
- What is the size of the pipe?
- Is the pipe always full?
The Doppler ultrasonic flow meter operates on the principle of the Doppler Effect, which is the physical phenomenon of a sound wave changing frequency. In the case of ultrasonic flow meters, the frequency of an ultrasonic signal changes (Doppler Effect) in direct proportion to the rate of flow of the liquid when reflected by suspended particles or gas bubbles (discontinuities) in motion.
Typically, an ultrasonic Doppler flowmeter consists of a transmitter/indicator/totalizer and a transducer. The user selects a configuration appropriate to the application, taking into account the liquid, the size and concentration of solids or bubbles, the pipe dimensions and the pipe lining. The transmitter’s signal threshold usually adjusts to filter out mechanical and electrical noise.
A high-frequency oscillator in the transmitter drives the transducer, which, in the popular clamp-on design, mounts on the pipe exterior. The transducer generates an ultrasonic signal that passes through the pipe wall into the flowing liquid; the transmitter converts the difference between its output and input frequencies to electronic pulses. Processed, scaled and totalized, the pulses provide a measurement of flow.
Ultrasonic Doppler flowmeters that clamp onto the outside of a pipe operate non-invasively, without moving parts. They cause no pressure drop, risk no damage from the process liquid and entail little maintenance. If properly calibrated, they can have ±1% accuracy, however, the pipe wall and any air space between the wall and the liquid can generate signal interference. Moreover, a stainless steel pipe wall might conduct the transmitted signal to the extent that the reflected signal will seem to undergo a major shift.
Transit time ultrasonic flow meters measure the time difference between when an ultrasonic signal is transmitted from the first transducer until it is received by the second transducer. A comparison is made of upstream and downstream measurements. If there is no flow, the travel time will be the same in both directions. When flow is present, sound moves faster if traveling in the same direction and slower if moving against it.
A third ultrasonic flowmeter employs cross-correlation between upstream and downstream transducer pairs to compute flow. Some flowmeters of this design use microprocessors to switch automatically between “clean” and “dirty” modes based on correlation factors. A single cross-correlation hybrid flowmeter could, for example, monitor flow of either activated or digested sludge. Carefully engineered applications using such flowmeters have had reported installed accuracy within 0.5% of reading.
How do you select the right magnetic flow meter?
Ultrasonic flow meters are also ideal for applications where low-pressure drop is needed, and low maintenance is required. An ultrasonic Doppler flow meter is a volumetric flow meter that is ideal for aerated liquids such as wastewater or slurries. Transit time ultrasonic flow meters are ideal for clean liquid applications such as water and oil.
There are three main types of ultrasonic flow meters. Factors such as the type of output (analog or digital), size of the pipe, minimum and maximum process temperature, pressure, and flow rate can all impact which ultrasonic flow meter is right for your application.
Ultrasonic Flow Meter Styles
Ultrasonic flow meter with totalization
These ultrasonic flow meters are well-suited for full pipes of liquid that contain at least 100 ppm of 100 microns or larger suspended particles or gas bubbles for pipe sizes 0.25 to 120”. Ideal uses include flow measurement of wastewater sewage, reactivated sludge, waste activated sludge, primary sludge, slurries, crude oils, lime slurries, phosphates, and pulp stock.
Portable ultrasonic flow meter
This ultrasonic flow meter uses a non-invasive clamp-on transducer, which is placed on the outside of a metal or plastic pipe containing liquids with more than 100 ppm of 100 microns or larger suspended solids or entrained gases.
Clamp-on ultrasonic flow meters come in either single or dual-sensor versions. In the single-sensor version, the transmit and receive crystals are potted into the same sensor body, which is clamped onto a single point of the pipe surface. A coupling compound is used to ultrasonically connect the sensor to the pipe. In the dual sensor version, the transmit crystal is in one sensor body, while the receive crystal is in another. Clamp-on Doppler flow meters are subject to interference from the pipe wall itself, as well as from any air space between the sensor and the wall. If the pipe wall is made of stainless steel, it might conduct the transmit signal far enough so that the returning echo will be shifted enough to interfere with the reading. There are also built-in acoustic discontinuities in copper, concrete-lined, plastic-lined, and fiberglass-reinforced pipes. These are significant enough to either completely scatter the transmitted signal or attenuate the return signal. This dramatically decreases flow meter accuracy (to within only ±20%), and, in most cases, clamp-on meters will not work at all if the pipe is lined.
How to install an ultrasonic flow meter
Both Doppler and transit time flow meters are designed to clamp onto the outside of a pipe without breaking the line or interrupting the flow. This also eliminates pressure losses and prevents leaking, which is common with an inline flow meter.
The accuracy of an ultrasonic flow meter relies on proper mounting. Large temperature changes in the pipe or a significant amount of vibration may affect the alignment of the transducers and acoustic coupling to the pipe. In most cases, ultrasonic flow meters won’t work at all if the pipe is lined with materials such as copper, concrete, plastic or fiberglass. These factors must be accounted for during installation. In addition, to provide an accurate volumetric flow rate, all ultrasonic flow meters require the pipe to be full.
Popular industry applications
Ultrasonic flow meters are mostly used in oil and gas industries. They are also used in chemical, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, metal, mining, pulp and paper and wastewater industries. Some examples of popular applications are explained in these articles:
- Flow Measurement in a Return Activated Sludge Line
- Monitoring Water Flow in an Egg Farm Application
- Hybrid Ultrasonic Flow Meter Application Helps Ensure Accurate Enzyme


Posture plays a huge role in your entire respiratory system. Enabling your body to have good psture can increase breathing and really help expand your lungs. This video will demonstrate exactly how to improve lung capacity with a posture breath excersise.
Poor posture is often referred to as forward head shoulders posture. Rounded shoulders means less space in the chest for the lungs to expand. This decrease in space affects the air exchange and the mechanism of breathing. It also restricts the activity of the diaphragm in drawing in air. That has many serious consequences - particularly if one doesn't have a strong heart. Restoring proper posture can increase the lung capacity by 30% or more - if the chest muscles are stretched to increase the space. This isn't likely to happen unintentionally. The Posture Breath exercise is designed to stretch out those tight muscles while correcting posture.


When access to the grid is limited
PRODUCE AND CONSUME ENERGY LOCALLY
In the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region
Here in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France, remote sites are mainly located in rural or mountainous areas. These sites do share several characteristics: limited access to the grid and, therefore, the need to produce and consume energy locally and, more generally, the need to keep energy consumption to a minimum. Tenerrdis members are positioned to bring innovative solutions to this unique set of challenges.
In emerging countries
Emerging countries have the capacity to bring the members of the Tenerrdis ecosystem a broad range of business and partnership opportunities, from equipment manufacturing and project engineering to services and training contracts. These countries are facing some huge challenges in terms of access to energy. Their demographics are exploding—the population of Bamako, Mali, for example, is growing by 200,000 inhabitants per year—and this population growth is an intrinsic driver of economic growth.
Renewable energy has the capacity to ensure access to energy for all.
Tenerrdis is involved in programs in several regions—Africa, Southeast Asia, India—facing off-grid challenges. The cluster serves as a facilitator, helping the members of its ecosystem respond to the demands of these markets in a coordinated, concerted manner. Tenerrdis helps its members work together to bid on private-sector and government contracts and follow up on relevant business leads. To date, Tenerrdis and its partners (nonprofit Cité de la Solidarité internationale, the Association for the Development of Education in Africa, Bpifrance, and France’s development agency AFD) have run two workshops to identify needs and match them with relevant solutions offered by members of the ecosystem.


I am old enough to remember Danker’s antique shop on Clanbrassil Street as I often cycled from my home in Clontarf to my grandparent’s house in Kimmage. I had little reason to stray into the streets behind it, which along with the South Circular Road and environs formed the hub of Dublin’s Jewish community of which Danker’s was a part. As I passed through Harold’s Cross and Terenure, I was unknowingly tracing the migration of those Jews to leafier suburbs as they prospered and gentrified. I had heard of the Briscoes and of course Leopold Bloom (who ‘lived’ in Number 52 Clanbrassil Street) but knew little else of the Jews of Dublin. Where did they come from?
The number of Jews in Ireland historically was very small indeed: Some traces of Sephardic Jews after their 15th century expulsion from Spain and Portugal, Jews from Holland and of course a number of Anglo-Jews. Portuguese Jews established the first Synagogue in Dublin in 1660. Taken together, Jews in Ireland up to the mid-19th century never comprised more than a few hundred. It was only in the 1880s that the Jewish population in Ireland suddenly began to grow, hitting four digits and eventually about 5,000 by the 1930s on the island as a whole.
The following traces the background to Jewish emigration to Ireland and draws some comparisons and contrasts with Irish emigration in the same period. It is based mainly on Ó Cormac Gráda’s scholarly and charming Jewish Ireland in the Age of Joyce (Princeton, 2006), a typical little masterpiece of his work that combines hard data, eloquence and the human dimension. I have also drawn on Chaim Herzog’s biography Living History (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1997) and Kirby Miller’s Emigrants and Exiles, Ireland and the Exodus to North America (Oxford, 1985). See also Dermot Keogh’s Jews in Twentieth Century Ireland: Refugees, Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust and Holocaust Education Trust Ireland here www.hetireland.org.
The influx of Jews – at least an ‘influx’ comparative to the earlier Jewish presence – came mainly from one area in what is today Northern Lithuania. They were therefore Litvaks as Jews from Lithuania were called. In fact the shtetls in Kovno province from which they came were all within 50km of each other. They began arriving in Ireland in the 1870S but only in numbers in the 1880s. They came mainly to Dublin (by design), Cork (reputedly by accident) and Belfast (because of its industrialization). But Dublin remained the preferred option, for the Jewish population declined in Cork subsequently and the numbers in Belfast never exceeded those in Dublin despite the disparity in economic opportunity.
Why did they leave Lithuania? With Ó Gráda’s trademark parsing of the evidence, it is clear that the stories of pogroms and oppression mythologized the decision to emigrate. The primary motivation was economic, with diminishing opportunities acting as the push and prosperity further west, particularly in America, acting as the pull.
This is not to completely discount persecution as the spark for emigration. The pogroms in Russia and the Great Famine in Ireland certainly generated an immediate wave of respectively Jewish and Irish emigration. However, the soaring levels of European migration and emigration in the following decades pointed to much more powerful economic forces at work. In Ireland’s case, the reshaping of farm ownership brought about by the Famine – single holdings only inheritable by one son – and the failure to create an urbanized industrialized economy (outside of Belfast) meant that only emigration offered prospects of economic betterment.
In the creation of this lore of persecution the Lithuanian Jews had something in common with the Irish. For the Irish emigrants too mythologized themselves as exiles from British oppression rather than being mere economic migrants. In another parallel only a fraction, less than 1%, of either group ever returned home.
In contrast, where the Jews did not lament the homeland left behind, the Irish did and created a canon of songs lamenting their plight and longing for the old country. (The often painful and lonely adjustment psychologically and culturally of the Irish to America is too often unacknowledged in Ireland; but it was in this adjustment that Irish America took shape and defined itself; see Kirby Millar’s Emigrants and Exiles.)
So the Jews like the Irish emigrated for primarily economic reasons, though Jews tended to be married on departure where the vast majority of the Irish were single. In Lithuania (at the time part of Tsarist Russia), their traditional sources of income as artisans, middlemen, traders, creditors and so on were being squeezed by the coming of the trains with their cargos of cheaper manufactured goods and supplies; by urbanization and the development of retail; and by modern retail banking, facilitated by new communications like telexes which eroded the local Litvak role as creditors. This combined with a rapidly growing population meant that local opportunities were shrinking just as industrialization and technology was spurring unprecedented prosperity in the West. For those with some capital and some skills, the chance was not one to miss.
The Jews of Eastern Europe, along with their Irish counterparts, were part of the late 19th century European migration westward, one of the greatest mass movements of people in human history. Many were drawn by the lure of America and its vast burgeoning markets, its opportunities and its freedom.
The Jews arriving in Western Europe would embrace modernity with gusto; urbanization, retail, mass communication and mass transport, commerce and banking. This would create not only dynasties like the Rothschilds in France but a whole class of successful professional bourgeoisie throughout western Europe. Michael Marks, a Polish Jew who arrived virtually penniless in England in the early 1880s, would found Marks and Spencers. They would not only embrace European science and the arts but lead in the cascade of new thinking in literature, music, painting, physics and psychology.
Simon Schama’s sweeping yet deeply felt narrative of this ‘deal’ – integrate and become a citizen who happens to be Jewish as he summarises it – in episode three of his documentary The Story of the Jews is well worth seeking out. As he eloquently and passionately describes it, the Jewish attempt at integration into European Society would end up rejected, symbolically in the Dreyfus affair in the 1890s and catastrophically in the Holocaust. Prescient Jews like Theodore Herzl, in sensing the fell danger of this failed deal, would create Zionism as the last, the only option for the future security of the Jews.
The Litvaks who arrived in Dublin were far removed from the Rothschilds of course. As Ó Gráda points out, the sheer poverty of urban Ireland at the turn of the century meant that the Litvaks found a ready if modest use for their skills as craftsmen, traders, lenders and middlemen.
Yet economic opportunities were only part of the attraction of Dublin for the new arrivals. It was said of their like that they were particularly literate and erudite and found Dublin temperamentally appealing. Many would only transit Dublin but those who stayed were according to one of them “the type that were not very ambitious to make a lot of money, but there was an atmosphere of learning in the place that the more temperate of the emigrants preferred, so though the opportunities for financial success [were] not very great, there was a feeling of ease” (quoted p. 29, Ó Gráda). This tradition of learning of course meant that within a generation, the Litvaks began a progression to the professions and middle-class status. In the 1880s 2% were middle-class; 5% by the 1920s 17% and by the 1980s over 70% (Ó Gráda, p. 84).
The Herzog family illustrated the point. As Belfast-born and Dublin-raised Chaim Herzog recalls in his biography, the social life of the Jewish community in Dublin revolved around the synagogues: Adelaide Road for the Anglo-Jews and Greenville Hall for the Orthodox Eastern Europeans. His maternal side hailed from Kovno and his paternal from Poland; males on both sides were rabbis. His father Isaac, a renowned scholar and Chief Rabbi of Ireland, would be elected Chief Rabbi of Palestine in 1936, a mere year after the family moved there. Chaim Herzog himself, after a secondary education in Alexandra and Wesley, would go on to have an illustrious career in Israel, eventually becoming its President.
In Ó Gráda’s nice phrase, the Litvak emigration to Ireland was then a “tributary” of the great movement of Eastern European Jews westward, for some to what they called ‘England-Ireland’, for some to Palestine and for many more to Europe and America. The Jews and the Irish would arrive and settle in the larger cities of the United States, forming dense urban communities. Both the Irish and the Jews would form powerful political constituencies; the Irish would shape the Democratic Party through their ‘machine politics’ whose roots lay in the Irish slums of Boston, New York and Chicago where clientalism and collaboration were keys to survival and advance. Jewish entrepreneurial skill and general erudition would see them rapidly advance economically, academically and socially, providing the means for political influence.
The highpoint for the Irish was John F. Kennedy’s election as President but thereafter as the Irish dispersed to the suburbs the famed Irish American political machine would disintegrate and with it direct political influence, though it would be re-animated among Irish American leaders for a time by the conflict in Northern Ireland. The affinity for Ireland, if not the organization that once characterized it in the late 19th and early 20th century, however remains resilient and enduring in Irish America. Organized Jewish political influence remains famously strong in the US, animated in great part by the deep desire to support Israel.
Perhaps some of the Jews who left Lithuania sensed the darkening mood as anti-Semitism began to get a foothold in European thought at the end of the 19th century, gathering a fateful pace in the opening decades of the 20th. For most, the decision to leave was simply a search for a better life. They could not have known how fortuitous the decision to emigrate would prove to be. Nor could those who stayed behind imagine that extinction awaited them. Of some 210,000 Lithuanian Jews alive there in 1939, 93% or up to 196,000 would be murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, most of them in a concentrated period of butchery during the second half of 1941.
Thanks to Irish neutrality, the Litvaks in Ireland escaped World War II, though some German bombs fell in their neighbourhood (thanks to the heavy clay of South Dublin, the bombs did little damage). Had the Nazis made good on their plans to invade Ireland their fate would have been sealed. In fact, the only Irish born Jew to die in the Shoah was Ettie Steinberg whose mistake was to marry and move to Belgium where she and her family, including her young son, were rounded up and transported to Auschwitz, one day before visas from her family in Dublin for safe passage to Ireland were delivered.


ACTION, not Apathy
“The basic matter is not one of economics. It is a matter of morality — a matter of intergenerational justice. The blame, if we fail to stand up and demand a change of course, will fall on us, the current generation of adults. Our parents honestly did not know that their actions could harm future generations. We, the current generation, can only pretend that we did not know.”
~Dr. James Hansen
Early and provident fear is the mother of safety.
~ Edmund Burke (1727 – 1779)
Here are some tangible things you can do to help stop the global climate destabilization that we are heading toward if humans continue to pollute the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels indiscriminately.
- SPEAK UP. Write, email and/or phone your elected leaders and let them know that you are concerned about climate change. In Canada, you can contact your local member of your provincial legislature as well as your Member of Parliament. Remember, these people work for you as a voter! Join Citizens Climate Lobby to work with other people who are building the political will for a sustainable climate.
- GET INVOLVED. Join local action groups, and get connected to other people in your local community that are concerned about this issue. Citizens Climate Lobby is an excellent, grassroots organization working to create the political will for a sustainable climate, as well as to empower individuals to have breakthroughs in exercising their personal and political power. The Transition Network is another grassroots movement that supports “community-led responses to climate change and shrinking supplies of cheap energy, building resilience and happiness”- go to their website to find a Transition group in your region, or to find out about how to start one.
- GET EDUCATED. Learn about this issue – and be very careful about the credentials and funding of the websites and people you are listening to. Climate scientists around the world have been working on and studying this issue for years, and they are not multi-millionaires. Exxon Mobile, on the other hand, is the biggest and richest corporation in the world, and makes money off of our addiction to fossil fuels. Who would you believe?
- GO MEATLESS. Start decreasing your intake of meat by observing “meatless Mondays”. If you are already a vegetarian, congratulate yourself! Livestock produce more greenhouse gases than all the world’s transport combined, with beef production singled out by a recent UN report as a particular enemy at the gate. Changing what we put on our forks and spoons can be a powerful tool to fight global warming.
- EAT LOCAL.Our food system is highly dependant on the burning of fossil fuels. Fruits and vegetables from China and New Zealand (for example) have a huge carbon footprint compared to those grown closer to home. Click here for more information.
No Impact Man.com, Colin Beavan’s website based on his experience of living a no-impact lifestyle for a year, has a list of “Top Ten Eco-Lifestyle Changes”. They include giving up bottled water, observing an eco-sabbath (a regular time each week where you don’t use up any of the planet’s resources), dedicating a day’s worth of TV watching (~4 1/2 hours for the average North American) to eco-service each week, and believing with all your heart that how you live your life makes a difference to all of us. Click here to go Beavan’s website.
For more action ideas, go to these excellent websites:


About Reticulated Giraffe
Reticulated giraffes are the world’s tallest mammal, with males standing 18 feet tall! Both male and female giraffes have a spotted coat. The pattern of the coat varies and helps the giraffe camouflage in different habitats. Giraffes are social animals, living in loose, open, unstable herds varying from 10 to 20 individuals.
The Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF) is an organization dedicated to a sustainable future for all giraffe populations in the wild. Find out more about the foundation and how you can get involved here.
Giraffes live in the dry savannas and open woodlands of northeast Africa in Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia. Because they only occasionally drink, giraffes can be found away from a water source.
Giraffes spend most of their time eating. They eat mainly leaves from Acacia trees with some flowers, seed pods, and fruit. An adult male can eat up to 146 pounds (66 kg) of food in one day!
Female giraffes have a gestational period of 15 months and give birth standing up! Newborn calves get to their feet 15 minutes after birth. At birth, giraffe calves are 6.5 feet tall from the ground to their shoulders and weigh 110 pounds.
Conservation StatusThe conservation status of the Reticulated Giraffe is classified as vulnerable.
- The main threats to the reticulated giraffe are lions, leopards, and hyenas. Giraffes are able to defend themselves against predators – they can give deadly blows by kicking with their hooves. The giraffe’s skin also helps camouflage them while foraging in scrub forests.
- Near water, crocodiles pose a threat by attacking young, sick, or elderly giraffes.
- Giraffes are hunted for their meat, coat, and tails in the wild by humans. Humans also pose a major threat through habitat destruction and fragmentation.
Facts about Reticulated Giraffe
Order:Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates)
Family:Giraffidae (giraffes and okapis)
Species:Giraffa camelopardalis reticulate (reticulated giraffe)
Life Span:10 – 15 years (wild) / 20 – 27 years (zoo)
Size:Male: 18 feet (5.5 m) / female: 15 feet (4.6 m)
Weight:Male: 4,254 pounds (1,930 kg) / female: 26,01 pounds (1,180 kg)
- That’s quite a long neck you have! Giraffes have the same number of bones in their necks as we do, but their neck is MUCH bigger than ours averaging 6 feet long!
- Giraffes can run up to 35 miles/hour over short distances. They have several adaptations for such a large body. Their hearts are not very large, so their hearts have to be very strong and thick to pump all that blood through such a large body. Their heart beats up to 170 times each minute and generates extremely high blood pressure (280/180 mm Hg) – double that of humans!
- No head rush here! There is a complex pressure-regulation system in their necks that stops blood from rushing to their brains when they lower their heads. They also have very tight, thick skin around their lower legs which helps them keep high blood pressure in their legs, similar to a pilot’s G-suit.


There are many benefits to studying, but wouldn’t it be amazing if weight loss was one of them? When we use our brain to do mental tasks such as studying we use energy. So you may be wondering “Does Studying Help you Lose Weight?” In this post, we are going to look at how the brain uses energy and if in fact, it leads to weight loss.
Does Studying Help you Lose Weight?
While the brain, given its small size uses a lot of energy it is not sufficient enough to cause significant weight loss. The brain which accounts for 2% of our body weight uses around 320 to 450 calories on a typical day, for females and males respectively. This is about 20% of our body’s energy use. The brain even when we are at rest uses energy. The bigger the brain that we have the more energy it will use.
If we spend the majority of the day doing mentally challenging tasks then yes we are more likely to increase our energy expenditure and therefore burn more calories than someone who has spent the day just watching television. However, learning something new isn’t the most energy tasking thing for the brain so it doesn’t result in a huge increase in energy consumption.
Can I lose weight by studying for a long time?
According to fitday.com, a 135lb female will on average burn 46 calories per hour of studying. This includes reading and writing while sitting down. While it may be tempting to think that if we increase the number of mental tasks that we perform on a daily bases that we could cause it to increase the calorie consumption.
However, according to research the increase in energy consumption by increasing mental tasks is negligible suggesting that a person who performs a mentally challenging task for 8 hours would likely burn 100 calories more than a person who spends the same amount of time watching tv. And to prevent your brain from becoming mentally fatigued you would need to provide it with energy.
To replenish glucose so your brain can continue to function you would need to eat and what you eat would be very important. For example, a slice of multi-grain bread would be approximately 100 calories before you put any spread on it. So as you can see it would be easy to eat more calories than you burn.
While the brain does benefit from performing mental tasks, and there are so many benefits such as increasing concentration, memory and boosting your focus it is not the same as what happens when we do physical exercise.
When we perform physical exercise we not only burn energy but we also stimulate muscles to grow. This is turn leads to an increase in calorie burn, even when we are at rest because those muscles need more energy. So if you’re looking to drop a few pounds then exercise is the best method.
The brain, on the other hand, is not a muscle, it is an organ and the more we use it, while it is beneficial to do so, it does not grow as a muscle does. So to get weight loss results it is key to eat a healthy balanced combined with some exercise.
But all is not lost, however, in the long run, these calories used during mental task do add up. And if you have a job that is mentally demanding this can have long term benefits. To read more from this research check out the post here.
4 Tips for losing weight while studying
1) walk more
If you physically attend a college to study your course why not try walking there if it is feasible rather than driving or taking the bus. When in college walk to every class and don’t avoid taking the stairs.
If you’re studying online and work during the day take the stairs in work rather the lift. Again if you can walk or cycle to work this can be a real benefit to your weight loss. Try to get up and walk around every hour at work. Even just to get up and stretch.
2) Study habits
When studying try sitting with a correct posture as this results in more energy burn. Even better, you could walk around your room while studying rather than just sitting at a desk.
3) Eat healthily
One of the most important aspects of losing weight and keeping weight off is to eat a healthy balanced diet. It can be quite easy to develop unhealthy eating habits while studying therefore try to focus on eating real whole foods.
Eat smaller meals a few times a day to keep your energy levels stable and when studying surround yourself with healthy foods that will satisfy your cravings without packing on the pounds. Check out our posts on “what is the best food for your brain?” and “32 foods to eat while studying“
4) Use your breaks wisely
Taking regular breaks is important in order to study effectively. You can use these breaks to do some exercise. For example, you could do some yoga or go for a short walk.
So, Does Studying Help You Lose Weight?
Regularly performing mental tasks are great for your brain. It helps to improve focus, concentration and your memory. But does studying help you lose weight? While you will use energy while studying it is unlikely to be significant enough to see any dramatic weight loss so if your a student and looking to lose weight focus on eating healthy and doing some exercise. This could be a short work every day for 30 minutes. Maybe skip the bus on your way to college the next day and instead take the opportunity to walk.


Local legend has it that in the late 19th century, a relative of Queen Victoria visited the Town of Goderich, Ont., on the shores of Lake Huron, and returned to tell the British monarch what a beautiful place it was: to which she replied, "Surely it must be the prettiest town in Canada."
The story may be more legend than fact but nevertheless, to this day, Goderich still calls itself "The Prettiest Town in Canada," but it could, however, go one step further by also boasting that it is also the home to the largest salt mine in the world and no one would dispute that assertion either because it’s a fact.
The Sifto salt mine, owned and operated by Compass Minerals of Overland Park, Kansas, produces nine million tonnes annually. Ninety per cent of that output is scattered on road surfaces in Ontario, Quebec and a number of northern U.S. states every winter to keep them ice-free and safe for the driving public. The balance is used in water softening and as chemical feed stocks.
The mine, which opened in 1959, currently employs 550 people.
As the largest employer in town, it has a huge presence on the local economy but its also one of the more ‘invisible’ companies in the community because its main operations are located 1,800 feet underground, almost entirely beneath Lake Huron.
The company’s crews are now working just over three kilometres beyond the shoreline, according to Rowland Howe, Compass’ country executive for Canada.
The salt bed is about 100 feet thick and it is virtually impermeable. Therefore, says Howe, it is remarkably dry in the mine, despite having between 100 and 150 feet of water overhead.
For most of the life of the operation, the salt has been extracted using the drill and blast approach. Miners cut into the floor of the deposit, drill holes, insert dynamite and then detonate.
"It basically turns the whole thing into a quarrying operation," says Howe, "We use front loaders and trucks to move the rock back to the crushers and screeners."
However, the company is now converting to a continuous mining operation employing massive, tracked machines armed with a moveable cutterhead, which is essentially a rotating drum with protruding teeth that scrape and gouge the salt from the deposit.
Similar in nature to a potash-mining operation, the salt falls onto a tray at the front of the machine and a conveyor moves it to the rear and straight into awaiting trucks.
Howe says there are several advantages over the drill-and-blast approach, which requires periodical breaks while a fresh section of the deposit is cut, drilled and blasted. The equipment will allow non-stop extraction other than downtime for repairs and maintenance.
"You’re using one machine to do the work of four," says Howe. "You’re eliminating the use of explosives so it is safer. The potash guys use the same machines, but they’re much larger and less manoeuverable. We use a model that cuts about 15 feet wide and 15 feet high. They’re monsters, really."
A fleet of trucks are used to haul the rock to crushers and screeners that are located within the mine.
"Everything is crushed and screened to size underground and then hoisted to surface storage facilities for distribution to customers," says Howe. "Salt is hydroscopic, meaning it absorbs atmospheric moisture so in humid weather, especially in the summer, crushing and screening would be more difficult if we were doing it on the surface. As well, because it’s very dry underground, it reduces the corrosion to the machinery."
Road salt is crushed and screened to a diameter of about five-eighths of an inch and it is moved by ship to distribution centres from Montreal to Duluth, Minn. From there it is hauled by truck to storage facilities owned by municipalities and other customers.
Compass also operates a solution mine and evaporator plant that employ an additional 100 people. These operations produce Sifto table salt from the same mineral deposit, but both are located several kilometres inland and a good distance from the underground mine.
From the underground operation, Howe says, "We flood bore holes with water to dissolve the salt in a controlled manner to create a cavity in the deposit and there are techniques to control the shape and dimensions. The cavities can last a long time, several years."
The salt-laden solution, known as brine, is drawn to the surface and processed in a closed-circuit evaporation plant. In essence, heat is applied to the solution and most of the water evaporates, but the steam is captured within the plant and allowed to condense and re-injected into the bore holes. Meantime, the slurry is dried and the salt crushed and screened to remove any impurities. It is then packaged and shipped to grocers and food processors across the country.
The Sifto underground mine and the nearby solution mine have provided several decades of stable employment in the small, pretty lakeside community of Goderich and there is no reason to expect that that will change in the foreseeable future.
Compass is working a vast deposit that is far from exhausted and there’s little reason to anticipate a drop in demand for salt, either for safe roads or human consumption.
Furthermore, the company has compiled an enviable safety record over the years at both the solution mine and the underground operation.
Howe points out that the company employs conservative practices beneath the surface. The salt bed is a stable, nearly horizontal formation and the company leaves the top 30 feet of the deposit intact. It forms a stable roof over the mined out chambers, but Howe says the company also bolts it as an added precaution. As well, the miner leaves massive pillars of salt in place to further reduce any possible risk of a collapse.
"We’re very proud of our safety record," says Howe.


IBM and groups like the OpenAjax Alliance are launching a few initiatives to make the Internet more accessible to folks with mobility or sensory disabilities.
The overarching theme here is that the Internet needs voice Web development and other interfaces to address 750 million people around the world with disabilities and another 900 million illiterate folks. The elderly as well as people with disabilities have largely had to sit out the Web 2.0 advances such as social networking.
Among the notable moves:
- The OpenAjax Alliance (OAA) will open roll out new source tools to help developers test Web 2.0 applications to see how they line up with federal accessibility standards. With the OAA tools, applications are tested dynamically as developers build the code. Before the OAA tool developers had to complete their ode to see how they worked for the blind and other people with disabilities.
- IBM Research in India will launch an effort with the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay to develop mobile Web interfaces for semi- to illiterate people.
- IBM Research in Japan will highlight an accessibility improvement system to deliver public services via the Internet. Japan has a bevy of elderly citizens it needs to reach. Japan's Tottori Prefecture Information-Center, KOA Corporation and IBM will collaborate on the system, which will aggregate requested improvements in the cloud and renovate pages to address requests by the disabled.


“The petroleum system approach is the guiding principle for everything we do these days,” says John Curtis, professor emeritus of geology and geological engineering and director of Mines’ Potential Gas Agency, which provides technical and administrative support to the influential Potential Gas Committee that is responsible for issuing estimates of future domestic natural gas supplies.
Demaison and Meissner are two of the five people who formalized and championed the petroleum system approach, which factors in all components and processes required to create and preserve hydrocarbons. Curtis explains that depending on the region, these might include source rocks, reservoir rocks, seal rocks, overburden rocks, trap formation, and the timing of hydrocarbon generation, migration and accumulation.
In recent years, the PGC has nearly doubled its estimates for technically recoverable natural gas, largely due to the shale gas drilling underway in U.S. plays from the Appalachians to the Rockies and beyond. Development of the petroleum system approach three decades ago helped the energy industry understand where these hydrocarbons could be found, but only recently have technological developments been made to unlock them.
The impact on oil recovery is much the same. The United States is importing 1 million to 1.5 million fewer barrels of oil per day thanks to these developments, and companies prospecting overseas have roughly a 1 in 3 chance of finding something, compared with 1 in 20 in the mid-20th century.
“We went from looking for and drilling geological structures in hopes they would hold hydrocarbons to backing up and looking at everything from the source rocks that generated the hydrocarbons to the rocks in between the source rock and the trap, and understanding it all in four dimensions, time being the fourth,” Curtis says. “Their work has made all the difference in the world.”
Demaison was born in France in 1927, the son of novelist André Demaison, who traveled widely and often returned from exotic locales with semiprecious stones and fossils. His father’s collections sparked the younger Demaison’s interests at an early age, inspiring him to pursue degrees in geology and paleontology at the University of Paris before heading to Mines in 1949 for a master’s degree in geology and geological engineering. He had to interrupt his studies for a year of national service in the French military, and when he returned to Golden, he was dismayed to learn that Dean William Burger was requiring that he bolster his knowledge of chemistry before graduating. This added another year to his education.
“He said geology alone is not enough,” recalls Demaison, now 86, retired and living in California. “I grumbled at the time, but it opened my mind.” That additional training set him apart as one of the first to infuse organic chemistry into geology and prepared him to understand new technologies, like gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, that were poised to revolutionize the industry.
“For a long time, the industry found most of the world’s oil without really knowing where it came from,” says Demaison. “The origin of oil was a complete mystery. These new technologies permitted us to observe, in crude oil and source rocks, at the molecular level, what was going on in the subsurface.”
As late as the 1970s and 1980s, much exploration hinged on finding large anticlinal structures (raised folds in the earth) and drilling them. But the more companies drilled, the more dry holes they found.
Demaison clearly remembers flying over the Atlas Mountains of Algeria in 1963, looking down on a landscape that was remarkably similar to the hydrocarbon-rich Middle East. The difference: When the giant anticlines below had been drilled, no oil or gas was found.
“How can we explain that?” Demaison asked his employer and mentor, British Petroleum Chief Geologist Norman Falcon, who was sitting in the seat next to him.
Falcon responded with another question: “Where are the oil seepages?” He pointed out that throughout the nearly identical but oil-producing folded belts of Persia, many spectacular surface seepages of oil and gas are found. “Those are just not present here.”
Demaison points to this conversation as a turning point in his career. “It was the greatest and most durable lesson in petroleum geology I received in my formative years,” he says. Instead of just looking for the right formations or ‘boxes’ ripe for oil accumulation, he began to think about how oil migrated into those natural reservoirs, which led to questions about where it came from in the first place.
In subsequent years, while working at Chevron, Demaison would serve as a critical liaison between scientists developing geochemical techniques to better understand that origin and migration, and companies wanting to apply them. He would pen 21 papers, including a seminal work in 1980, ‘Anoxic Environments and Oil Source Bed Genesis,’ credited with elucidating how organic matter is deposited and preserved to form hydrocarbon source beds. His 1993 magnum opus, ‘Genetic Classification of Petroleum Systems Using Three Factors: Charge, Migration and Entrapment,’ brought it all together, earning him the American Association of Petroleum Geologists’ prestigious Wallace Pratt Award that year. (AAPG honored him again with Honorary Membership in 1995.)
At first, he stresses, his work was not universally accepted. “We met resistance from the bottom, from people who did not understand organic chemistry, to the top, where they were worried they would buy something that would not work,” he says. It was a battle he and Meissner were in together, and the two spoke frequently. “We were the knights of a new order who rattled the cages of people trying to hold on to the old methods.”
Ultimately, his persistence paid off, guiding the discovery of numerous international oil reserves. (Executives with the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras, for whom Demaison consulted, credit his work with guiding their enormous discoveries in the Campos Basin.)
In the last public talk of his career, Demaison returned to Mines to lecture before a crowd of geologists, geophysicists and petroleum engineers who were all keenly aware of the impact his work has had on their fields. “It was like a saint walking into the room,” Curtis says.
During his 18-year stint as an adjunct professor at Mines, Meissner’s course, Geology 609, also known as ‘Where oil and gas come from and how they get to where we find them,’ became the stuff of legends, Curtis says. With students running dual slide projectors, he described the hydrocarbon kitchen in detail and questioned what he called the ‘conventional dogma’ of using anticlinal theory alone to look for oil. He referred to geology as part art, part science, once telling a colleague that ‘just as in fly-fishing,’ you have to start with the right equipment and know how to use it. (That’s the science.) But to be successful, you have to think like a fish (or in this case, the oil).
“He used every trick of the trade possible. He set the stage for a generation of geologists to be much more prepared than a lot of others at integrating various disciplines,” says Mark Sonnenfeld MS ’91, PhD ’96, vice president of geoscience for Whiting Petroleum. Like many other students, Sonnenfeld still has the thick binder of class notes he received in Meissner’s class. (On its cover is a cartoon showing a drop of oil named ‘Oily’ and his mother, ‘Ma Earth.’)
When awarded AAPG’s Grover E. Murray Memorial Distinguished Educator Award in 2005, Meissner said it was the most meaningful award he had ever received. “My career as an educator has been more like a hobby than any kind of job,” he wrote.
Even after being diagnosed with esophageal cancer, Meissner continued teaching. In September 2007, he led an educational field trip along the Mineral Belt Trail in Leadville, Colo., for a geology study group, including Curtis, Sonnenfeld and Lyn Canter PhD ’10, another geology graduate.
They transported him along the trail in a bicycle rickshaw, patiently waiting when he paused mid-lecture, his illness getting the best of him for a moment. “He was the embodiment of passion about his career, and it was infectious,” Sonnenfeld says. Meissner died two weeks later at the age of 75.


In Part 1 on repackaging tobacco for a food fight, I focused on the tobacco industry’s arguments to misguide the public and influence policymakers. This week, I focus on public health’s arguments to counter tobacco and how we might extend this to the debate on the National School Lunch Program, which Congress is set to reauthorize this year. During the tobacco debate, the public health community focused on the individual rights of non-smokers, being the underdog in a fight against Big Tobacco (think “David versus Goliath”), and misinformation from the tobacco industry about the health consequences of smoking.
[This post is the second of a two-part series.]
1. Non-smoker’s rights & individual choice
The public health community argued that non-smokers should have the right to be free from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke in the workplace and public places. Similar to the tobacco industry promoting individual choice, the public health community argued that they were also protecting individual choice. They argued that because smokers were addicted to nicotine, the tobacco industry undermined their ability to exercise individual choice. Later, it was revealed that the tobacco industry manipulated nicotine levels and marketed to kids so smokers would become more easily addicted, and at younger ages.
2. David versus Goliath
The public health community argued that tobacco should be regulated in society’s best interest: their health. Because tobacco users were addicted to a product, it was necessary for the government to regulate tobacco for everyone’s safety. To combat the image of a “nanny state” the public health community portrayed themselves as “David” fighting against the industry giant “Goliath” with little money and few resources.
3. Economic productivity
The public health community argued that smoking and the tobacco industry were actually counterproductive to economic security because smoking had serious health consequences. These health consequences decreased worker productivity and increased healthcare costs, both of which shook the foundation of economic security.
The tobacco industry knowingly misinformed the public about the health consequences of smoking. They used conflicting medical evidence when communicating to the public and hid negative scientific data about the harms of smoking to undermine evidence put forth by the public health community.
Tobacco and food: how are they different?
It is important to keep in mind that although food is similar to tobacco, they are different. Although we can conclude that tobacco has no health benefits, we cannot claim that for all food. Food is a necessary requirement for our bodies and our existence. We can recommend that people stop smoking, but we can’t recommend they stop eating.
The way a public health issue is framed affects public opinion, individual behavior, and policy formation. During the fight against the tobacco industry, early tobacco-control legislation failed because the tobacco industry marketed their public messages effectively—framing arguments to suggest that smoking was about individual choice. Only after publicizing the tobacco industry’s manipulation of nicotine levels, the harms of secondhand smoke, and intentional advertising to youth did public support for smoking decrease, which allowed policymakers to seize the opportunity to successfully enact tobacco-control legislation.
While the National School Lunch Program is still a very young debate, where will you stand in 2015 for our children’s health?
Support from UCS members make work like this possible. Will you join us? Help UCS advance independent science for a healthy environment and a safer world.


Example (Right-सही) Sentences in Hindi & English Meaning, Pronunciation
दैनिक उपयोग अंग्रेजी वाक्य हिंदी में का उपयोग सही
Word forms of Right:
- Singular present tense - Rights,
- Present participle - Righting,
- Past tense, past participle – Righted.
- If something is not right, there is something unsatisfactory about the situation or thing that you are talking about.
- If someone is right about something, they are correct in what they say or think about it.
- If something is right, it is correct and agrees with the facts.
- If you do something in the right way or in the right place, you do it as or where it should be done or was planned to be done.
- If you say that someone is seen in all the right places or knows all the right people, you mean that they go to places which are socially acceptable or know people who are socially acceptable.
- If you right a wrong, you do something to make up for a mistake or something bad that you did in the past.
- If you right something or if it rights itself, it returns to its normal or correct state, after being in an undesirable state.
- If you right something that has fallen or rolled over, or if it rights itself, it returns to its normal upright position.
- If you say that something happened right after a particular time or event or right before it, you mean that it happened immediately after or before it.
- You can say 'right' to show that you are listening to what someone is saying and that you accept it or understand it.
- You can use right to emphasize how far something moves or extends or how long it continues.
- You use right in order to attract someone's attention or to indicate that you have dealt with one thing so you can go on to another.
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Wizened carrots and shrunken, shriveled onions haunt your produce bin, and you don't even remember buying those tubs of Greek yogurt at the back of the fridge. That stale baguette has seen better days, too. Yes, you're a food waster. And you're not alone. In fact, we each waste an average of 20 pounds of food every month, says the Natural Resources Defense Council. A whopping 40 percent of food in the U.S. ends up in the garbage, it adds, costing $165 billion each year.
Just this week Britain's House of Lords European Union Committee released a report that highlighted the problem of food waste and called for supermarkets to market food responsibly. The report suggests that "buy one, get one free" campaigns encourage overbuying and waste.
So how can we change our wasteful ways? Cue technology: These apps make it easy to save food -- and money.
Made too much lasagna? Post details and see if anyone in your area bites. Hungry? Check out what's being offered.
Plan meals, keep track of your food so you waste less, and get ideas for cooking up tasty leftovers. LFHW's website offers a handy cheat sheet of ways to save money on your food bills, too.
Wise Up on Waste
Work in a professional kitchen? Wise Up on Waste helps you track food waste and pinpoint ways to be more efficient. Find out exactly how much you can dough you can save by keeping more food out of the garbage.
Make food shopping easier and more efficient with this app, and track your fridge and pantry items by expiry date so you enjoy them and toss less in the trash.
This nifty app lets you scan barcodes or add info to log what's in your kitchen. It even sends alerts when expiration dates are approaching.
Is that takeout rice still good? How long can you keep eggs past the carton date? StillTasty gives helpful shelf-life advice and sends alerts so you can use items before they expire.


The moment I heard of Bhojpur, I was reminded of the famous Hindi saying ‘Kahan Raja Bhoj, kahan Gangu teli’. A phrase which is commonly used to highlight the contrasts. The image of Raja Bhoj and hence his kingdom Bhojpur is that of something that has grandeur and prosperity which is incomparable. What you may not know is that he was actually responsible for building lakes in and around the present-day Bhopal. He belonged to the Parmar dynasty which ruled the region almost a millennium ago.
Bhojpur Shiva Temple – Bhojeshwar Temple
What is left in Bhojpur now to see is an unfinished but practicing Shiva temple in dark stone? Known as Bhojeshwar temple, built in the early 11th century. This temple is famous for the huge Shivalinga that it adorns. But as you may know, Shivalinga has two parts Linga and the Yoni. The lower platform like part is called Yoni. The yoni in this temple is the probably the biggest you would ever see. The linga part is definitely not the largest, as a temple in Khajuraho has much bigger Linga. The yoni is huge and beautiful.
The roof of the temple is ornamental, with design in the form of concentric circles. Quite like the temples in Khajuraho. There are four pillars inside the temple and the walls seem to have been put later. Or may be restored recently as they look too bland in comparison to the rest of the temple. My guess would be probably the temple was open standing on the four pillars. Like many other Shiva temples, but I have no data to support that.
Huge Temple Platform
The temple is built on a huge platform, as was prevalent in those days. And on the right side of the temple, there is a ramp. Which was probably used to bring the stones up on the platform for constructing the temple? But for this ramp, we would have kept wondering how the huge stones and sculptures were ported on top of the platform. And even to build the platform how the stones were ported. There are two small temples outside the main temple which are again practicing ones. The outer wall on the right-hand side of the temple has some unfinished artwork. Which gives you a glimpse of how the work progressed as the temples were built.
Apparently, the excavations at the place have revealed that the intent and plan was to build more temples in this place. Probably a kind of campus of temples like the one in Khajuraho. But it could not be done and even this temple had to be left unfinished. Though the idol was set up in this temple and the worship must have started. As this is still a practicing temple.
As you stand on the huge temple platform and look around, you would see what Jawahar Lal Nehru would have called the temples of modern India. And what our future generations may blame us for polluting the world that we pass them on. You would see a line of huge factories. Throwing a constant stream of thick black smoke from their gigantic chimneys, forming the skyline of the neighboring industrial town of Mandideep.
How I wish I had lived in the times of prosperity in this land. Instead of going place to place tracing ruins after ruins.
Recommend you to read following blog posts on Madhya Pradesh Tourist Places.


Students can work on Fastt Math's Stretch-To-Go feature at home or anywhere else with an Internet connection at any time of day. This program focuses on math fact fluency in recognizing unknowns, inverse relationships, number composition and other Common Core State Standards requirements, utilizing progression assessments for each individual student.Continue Reading
Fastt Math's adaptive technology and learning assessment automatically identify the student's level of ability, which in turn determines the level of difficulty the program then provides via problems and Stretch-To-Go's six math games. This enables students to complete a significant amount of work themselves wherever they are, including at home. Fastt Math identifies areas where the student is struggling and then adapts to focus the student on those problem areas while recording student performance through its Scholastic Achievement Manager. The SAM is viewable by teachers, parents and students alike.
An additional from-home learning component that Fastt Math offers is take-home math worksheets that students can customize according to their needs. In addition, as of 2015 the Fastt Math program is available for download on both Apple and Android tablets for home use. Links on Fastt Math's website lead visitors to the Apple and Google pages where they can install the program on their devices.Learn more about K-12 Curriculum


If millennials today think transitioning out of their parents’ basements and into adulthood is difficult, wait until they see new data from the Census Bureau. It reports that one in five adults between the ages of 18 and 34 now live in poverty.
These Census reports are consistent with the under- or unemployment of millennials.
But it doesn’t get to the fundamental cause of their distress, which is this: Millennials are carrying too much debt from loans that went to pay for college degrees that, in the real world, aren’t worth that much.
Richard Vedder of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity notes that the poverty millennnials face today isn’t as severe as the “the sort of hard-core poverty where you have significant malnourishment.”
Rather, it’s a new form of dependency, the sort that relies on help from parents as college grads transition into jobs that don’t really require a college degree.
As Vedder explains, this is because “we turn out so darn many college grads, which also hurts the high schoolers.” In other words, jobs such as bartending and Starbucks barista-ing are being taken over by those with college degrees.
Yes, compared to the same age group in 1980, 1990 and 2000, the Census says the number of millennials in poverty has increased by 20 percent. But in some ways this is like comparing apples to oranges.
A stronger economy, of course, would indeed lessen the pain here by creating more jobs. But the problem isn’t just a weaker economy. It’s that the market has caught on to the real truth: A college degree today just doesn’t mean what it did in the past.
Even into the 1960s and ’70s, says Vedder, a “college grad was a special kind of person; they could still get a half-way decent job.”
“Now, almost a third of the adult population has four-year degrees . . . but almost a quarter are living with their parents two years after graduation, so even though their reported income is low, being at the margin is kind of important. It’s a sort of prosperous form of poverty,” he concluded
In other words, the day when a college degree was the guarantee of a good job and a comfortable, middle-class life is gone.
And millennials with soft degrees that don’t mean much are finding out the hard way that in the end you don’t always get what you paid for — especially at our modern American universities.