Listen to anyone talk about schools today: classical education just can’t keep up. In the digital generation’s world of constant change, most schooling is profoundly boring. But what else is possible?
Imagine an environment where the participants are building a massive network databases, wikis and websites, and thousands of message forums, creating a large-scale knowledge economy. Imagine an environment where participants constantly measure and evaluate their own performance, even if that requires them to build new tools to do so. Imagine an environment where user interface dashboards are constructed by the users themselves to make sense of the world and their own performance in it. Imagine an environment where evaluation is based on after-action reviews to continually enhance performance; an environment where learning happens on a continuous basis, because the participants are internally motivated to find, share, and filter new information on a near-constant basis.
Finding an environment like that sounds difficult, but it isn’t. It already exists, in the form of massively multiplayer online games. These large-scale social communities provide a case study in how players absorb tacit knowledge, process it into a series of increasingly sophisticated questions, and engage collectives to make the experience personally meaningful. What they teach us about learning is not found in the game at all, but is instead embedded in these collectives, which form in, around, and through the game. In essence, the game provides the impetus for collectives to take root.
In our view, the cultures created around MMOs are almost perfect illustrations of a new learning environment. On one hand, online games produce massive information economies, composed of thousands of message forums, wikis, databases, player guilds, and communities. In that sense, they are paragons of an almost unlimited information network. On the other hand, they constitute a bounded environment within which players have near absolute agency, enjoying virtually unlimited experimentation and exploration—more of a petri dish.
MMOs draw in players from every walk of life, of every age, and across gender, class, and socioeconomic divides. They require an immense amount of learning in order to play them and are grounded in participation. Most important, the engine that drives learning is a blend of questioning, imagination, and—best of all—play.
Understanding the New Context
In examining the world of MMOs, we have found that guilds constitute the most significant learning environment within the game. The amount of learning that goes on in even the smallest guilds is amazing, as is the amount of data that gets processed, filtered, and integrated into play and game practices. The game’s forums alone produce more than 15,000 new pieces of information each night. Yet guilds have found ways to avoid being overwhelmed by this mountain of data and instead manage it with surprising efficiency, using techniques that may be evocative for other institutions that face similar problems. Guilds like the Garden Gnome Liberation Army (GLA), a collection of more than 100 players who twice-weekly engage in complex raids, sit at the intersection of the two elements that make up the new culture of learning. They are intensive and complex learning collectives that are deeply invested in constructing, utilizing, and managing large-scale knowledge economies (the information network). In order to succeed, every single member of the guild must take an active, constant, and enthusiastic role in learning information about the game, his or her character class, and the battles, fights, and challenges they will face. At the same time, the space of the world itself is fluid, changing, and dynamic. It presents players with boundaries within which they search for success through trial and error, finding idiosyncratic solutions to complicated problems. Solutions are not discovered so much as they are organically grown (the petri dish). Gamers bring these two elements together through play. They combine the knowledge gained from outside the game with an evolving set of practices that occur inside the game, both of which feed each other. As players create new solutions within the game space, they return verbal characterizations, analyses, and videos to the knowledge economy surrounding the game, thus disseminating them to a wider group of players, who then use that information to create even newer solutions, and so on. In short, they in engage in precisely the activities that we have been describing as inquiry. Within the new culture of learning, we can see networked information as providing nutrients for the petri dish, allowing exploration, play, and experimentation to continually cultivate new questions.
But perhaps the deepest level of play and, for our purposes, the most significant aspect of it, has to do with a sense of collective indwelling. When playing “massively,” one moves beyond a sense of just playing with others. In order to succeed, players immerse themselves in the game, creating and constructing identities, relationships, and practices that constitute deep and profound acts of imagination. And that act of immersion is itself, at base, an act of imagination and collaboration. Very few challenges in World of Warcraft can be solved alone, and none of them occur at advanced levels of the game. A guild’s success depends on how well its members can synchronize their efforts to solve problems.
GLA members, for example, would spend months advancing through a particular raid with only incremental success each week. Eventually, the guild would have a breakthrough and suddenly be able to succeed at something that it had been failing to accomplish for months. At that point, a major shift occurred, and in everyone’s mind, the goal became achievable. And shortly thereafter, usually, the raid succeeded, seemingly without effort. So what changes? Not the gear the players possessed or their own skill levels and talents. Instead, there is a collective shift in imagination. As the fight unfolded one last time, the players—though dispersed all over the globe—had managed to completely synchronize their endeavors. Yet no one could articulate why they could do so on that day and not before. The knowledge acquired to defeat the boss and complete the challenge was principally tacit. As we have seen, tacit learning functions most effectively when students discover their own learning objectives. Games, which allow learners to play, explore, and experience, also allow them to discover what is important to them, what it is they actually want to learn—and that keeps them playing. When people stop learning in a game, they lose interest and quit. When understood properly, therefore, games may in fact be one of the best models for learning and knowing in the twenty-first century. Why? Because if a game is good, you never play it the same way twice.
The Virtual Space of Collective Indwelling
Members of a raiding guild have read plenty of information about what the fight would entail before they set foot into the dungeon, as gleaned from the information network. Yet there is no one “right” way to succeed. Each fight requires countless minor adjustments, which shape the events that follow them, making it impossible to predict what would come next. Knowing how the fight works, therefore, is necessary but insufficient for success. Information alone is just not enough.
Victory also requires a more organic notion of learning: experimentation. The three months of practice helped the guild steadily improve, and as the members made progress—however minor—each week, they set new incremental goals to advance through the fight. Practice made the players more aware of their individual roles and responsibilities and helped them understand both the mechanics of the fight and the possible combination of things they were likely to see.
Yet neither the first notion of the culture of learning (finding information) nor the second (practice, play, experience, and creating new knowledge constantly) accounts for the leap from complete failure to easy success. Something clicked for the guild, something that had not been there before—a key positioning or transition between stages of a fight, a well-timed spell casting, or perhaps a new series of moves that tipped the balance and cleared the path to victory. It’s fascinating that no one in the guild could articulate exactly what had happened. In massively multiplayer games this is a frequent occurrence. Oftentimes triumph seems to occur without reason; battles are won that, by all rights, should have been lost. Players find themselves wondering, “How on earth did we do that?” What’s more, once that shift happens, players find that it can happen again, and eventually it even becomes commonplace.
We believe that this provides a critical key to understanding what we mean by a sense of collective indwelling—the feeling and belief that group members share a tacit understanding of one another, their environment, and the practices necessary to complete their task. Collective indwelling evolves out of the fusion of the information network and petri dish cultures of learning, and it is almost entirely tacit. It both resides in and provokes the imagination. It is at once personal and collective. Though individual performance is vitally important—each and every player must execute the jobs flawlessly or the team doesn’t succeed—it is inherently tied to the group itself. There is no way for a single player (or even a small handful of players) to succeed alone. The team relies on everyone to understand that their success as individuals creates something that amounts to more than the sum of its parts.
A massively multiplayer game may seem to be a strange representative of an environment in the new culture of learning, but in many ways it is also the most appropriate. Throughout this book, we have constantly returned to the ideas of change and flux. And we have found that gamers embody the spirit of embracing change as much as, if not more than, anyone.
Games have grown up, and playing with them is no longer reserved for children. In fact, the ability to play may be the single most important skill to develop for the twenty-first century. In this context, play involves what we think of as a questing disposition. Questing is an activity that is central to most large-scale online games, and it presumes a number of things. Chief among them is that the world provides multiple resources and avenues for solving problems, and solutions are invented as much as they are implemented. The key to questing is not typical problem solving. It is innovation.
As we have seen, the things that are learned through MMOs are fed back into the collective through a variety of sources and gradually become adopted throughout their standard practices. What begins as experimentation is replicated, tested, and incorporated into the stockpile of information that constitutes the knowledge economy surrounding the game.
This type of innovation is also a fusion of the two elements of learning, a pulling together of resources and experimenting with them to see what fits. Through questing one finds what works and what doesn’t for a particular problem, but either way one also gets a feel for each object or item one encounters. At the explicit level, solutions succeed or fail. But at the tacit level, players gain information about the item at hand regardless of success or failure. That tacit knowledge is a key component of indwelling. Without it, players cannot understand the collective or their place in it. Each one develops a personal relationship with the world that, in turn, becomes shared and modified as he or she interacts with others.
Once players start to interact, they also develop a shared sense of imagination that is the means for, and the object of, collective indwelling. The multiplayer environment is made up of the acts of shared imagination among its inhabitants. And what makes that world particularly interesting and challenging is both constant change and the fact that the actions of the players in the world, as a collective, are driving that change. We look to gamers because they don’t just embrace change, they demand it. Their world is in a state of constant flux, and it must continually be reinvented and reimagined through acts of collective imagination. That’s what makes the game fun. But while players defeat bosses, kill monsters, coordinate raids, find new armor, and read blogs, wikis, and forums, learning happens, too.
What Really Counts
From the perspective of learning, battling monsters and collecting treasure are the least interesting things going on in, and particularly around, games such as World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online. These environments make it easy to see just how fun learning can be. They allow us to highlight the connections between knowing, making, and playing. They are places where we are permitted to let our imaginations run free.
That space of imagination is also scalable unlike anything we have seen previously. The information network culture and the bounded culture of experimentation get better, richer, stronger, and more innovative with each additional player, new idea, set of data, and bit of information. The multiple collectives that make up the space in and around a MMO process an astounding amount of information on a continual basis, seamlessly integrating new knowledge into play and action on a routine basis. Information flows and disseminates almost immediately. And as the game gets larger and more complicated, the new culture of learning works even better.
There are no answers online. There is only a progression of increasingly complicated and more difficult questions. And, more often than not, those questions are the result of players pushing against the boundaries that the game provides. Players quickly discover that when they encounter a problem they don’t know how to solve, the fastest and easiest way to learn the solution is to tap into a collective that is already working on it. Maybe members of the new collective will provide an existing piece of information that makes the problem solvable. Or maybe they will inspire a player to find a new, unique solution to the problem and share it with the collective in turn.
The lessons we take from these games show us that the future of learning is not in lectures, memorization, and test taking, but in peer-based learning that challenges the imagination and makes questions (and questing) more important than answers. In many ways our games have always revealed deeper truths about who we are and how we interact, so it is not surprising that we see a new culture of learning unfolding through play.
We believe that where imaginations play, learning happens. Games like A Tale in Desert—a crafting and ‘tradeskills’ MMO set at the dawn of Civilization—demonstrate one more way that peer to peer learning, amplified by the collective, may hold the key to the future of learning in the digital age.


The Somali Democratic Republic (also known as Somalia) lies on the east coast of Africa, in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the north-west, and Kenya to the south. Somalia has a long coast line on the Indian Ocean, extending to the Gulf of Aden to the north.
Area: 637 657 km2
Population: 10.1 million
Currency: Somali Shilling
GDP: $ 5.9 billion (2010)
Internet domain: .so
Languages: Somali, Arabic (official languages)
Working week: Tuesday – Saturday
Exports: Livestock; bananas; hides; fish; charcoal; scrap material
Imports: Foodstuffs; manufactures; petroleum products; construction materials
Somalia is not a member of the Paris Convention. Even though Somalia is a member of the Lusaka Agreement (on ARIPO) and has apparently acceded to but not ratified the Banjul Protocol of ARIPO, no implementing legislation has been passed.
Prior to 1991, the 1955 Ordinance applied in Somalia. Following the overthrow of the government in 1991, Somalia has been without a stable central government and it has become virtually impossible to file new trade mark or patent applications in Somalia, or to maintain existing applications/ registrations in Somalia.
Even at the time of writing, it has been difficult to obtain reliable and up-to-date information. The commentary given below is based on the information available at the time of writing.
Somalia is not a member of the Paris Convention.
Somalia is a member of ARIPO, as it is a party to the Lusaka Agreement on the creation of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organsation (ARIPO). However, Somalia has not yet acceded to the Harare Protocol which regulates the filing of patents and designs in ARIPO. Accordingly, Somalia cannot be designated in an ARIPO patent or design application.
Somalia is not a member of the Berne Convention.
Plant Breeders' Rights
No legislation in force.


What animal can weigh half a ton, run 45 mph with 70 pounds strapped to its skull, belt out haunting bugles that carry for miles, and endure 100 stab wounds a year in its side from fighting? Elk can. Native tribes called them Wapiti, the “White Rump.” No animal is quite like the elk—a true symbol of wildness. The Wild Life of Elk captures this legendary animal in all its glory, following the species though the seasons and through the centuries. It explores the many habitats in which elk thrive, the mythic growth cycle of their antlers and the intricacies of their social structure. The book follows the species through history and shows the many ways that humans have depended on it for eons. Learn how elk defend themselves during fights and from attacking predators, give birth in some of the most majestic locations imaginable, and have adapted to survive brutal winters and blistering heat. Elk remain one of the most dramatic manifestations of the American wilderness, and this book pays them a grand tribute.
For Ages 10 and Up 64 pages, 8.5 x 10, paper Item 364, ISBN 978-0-87842-579-2


Society has long assumed that science and religion are at odds. But research by West Virginia University sociologist Christopher Scheitle demonstrates that the assumption is not so simple—or accurate.
“It is not the case that all scientists dislike religion or are not religious. And not all religious individuals dislike science,” said Scheitle, assistant professor of sociology at WVU. “Some argue that religion and science are independent of each other, that religion has more to do with morality while science has to do with how things work. That’s nice to say, but simplistic. Science involves morality, especially how we use science. It’s naive to think they can be separate.”
Scheitle recently collaborated with colleagues to explore some of the dynamics between religion and science when it comes to issues like parents’ influence on children’s career choices and lawmakers’ motivations for supporting anti-evolution legislation.
A matter of values
Scheitle and Elaine Howard Ecklund, a sociologist at Rice University, sought to assess potential consequences of perceived conflict between religion and science. By surveying adults about their career recommendations and preferences for their children, they found a unique method to assess the potential for conflict.
“The assumption is that if religious individuals don’t like science or view it as a threat, they aren’t going to recommend their children pursue it because that threatens their religious beliefs or identity,” Scheitle said. “This provides a subtle way of getting at how religion shapes people’s orientation toward science.”
The national survey asked 15,868 adults if they would recommend their child pursue careers in 13 occupations, ranging from electrician and high school chemistry teacher to physicist and biologist.
In analyzing responses to the survey, they found that religious individuals are less likely to recommend their child to pursue careers in pure science, technology, engineering and math fields, such as becoming a physicist or biologist. However, these findings did not carry over to applied fields, such as high school chemistry teacher or doctor.
“It’s not that religious individuals hate biologists or physicists; it’s more an issue of values. A lot of religious individuals, such as conservative Protestants, put a lot of emphasis on ending suffering or the importance of life. A child becoming a doctor ties in more directly with those beliefs,” Scheitle said. “It is more difficult to connect other occupations (e.g. biologist) with religion. Some of the applied occupations are more clearly associated with serving or helping others.”
Scheitle and Ecklund’s study, “Recommending a Child Enter a STEM Career: The Role of Religion,” appeared online in the Journal of Career Development in May and will be published in an upcoming print edition.
What is driving anti-evolution legislation?
In another recent study, Scheitle, Ecklund and David Johnson, a sociologist at the University of Nevada-Reno, explored the impact of religion on state-level anti-evolution legislation.
Theorizing that anti-evolution legislation will continue to be introduced to appease religious constituents rather than becoming laws, they sought to understand the relationship between the religious characteristics of states and the anti-evolution bills created in education committees.
From 2000-12, anti-evolution bills were introduced 110 times in 26 states. However, only six of those bills became laws.
The top three states that introduced bills were Oklahoma (13), Mississippi (11) and Alabama (10). According to the Association of Religion Data Archives, these three states also have the highest number of conservative Protestants, a population that includes denominations typically associated with anti-evolution movements.
“The idea was to try to understand why these states had more anti-evolution efforts. Just them being evangelical doesn’t really explain it,” Scheitle said. “How does having a population that is religious translate to their legislators’ actions? There has to be a mediator—someone to talk to someone for (the legislation) to happen,” Scheitle said.
They determined that mediators, such as different interest groups (especially those pertaining to creationist ideas and science), public opinion and political climate (including the role of the state Republican Party) influence the development of legislation regarding evolution and how it is taught in public schools.
Johnson, Scheitle and Ecklund’s study, “Conservative Protestantism and Anti-Evolution Curricular Challenges across States,” appeared online in April by Social Science Quarterly and will be published in an upcoming print edition.
Scheitle said he and Ecklund hope to continue breaking down the stereotypes about religion and science. They are currently putting the final touches on a book manuscript to be published in 2017 by Oxford University Press.
“It is simplistic to say that religion and science are in pure conflict with each other and can’t relate to each other in any way,” Scheitle said. “(Ecklund) and I are trying to provide more of that complexity.”


Introduction: The presence of the pericondylar vein in the area of the temporomandibular joint is scarcely reported in the literature; however, it is present in anatomical dissected preparations and during surgical procedures. Objective: To determine the characteristics of the pericondylar vein located in the area of the temporomandibular joint, related to the parotid region. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional, prospective study that included 30 human cadavers that were dissected at the temporomandibular joint level was conducted. The variables analyzed were the distribution of the pericondylar vein, its shape, dimensions and the relationships existing between bony structures. Results: The 30 cases presented the pericondylar vein that surrounded the external face of the neck of the mandibular condyle; 73,3 % of the veins ended at the level of the retromandibular vein; 38,3 % of them presented an oblique path. The average length of the vein was 2,37 cm and its average diameter was 1.82 mm. The presence of the pericondyleal artery was found in two cases, among other relationships. Conclusions: The pericondyleal vein was present in all cases, mostly unique and located around the outside of the neck of the mandibular condyle. It most frequently runs into the retromandibular vein. Up to its mouth, it often has an oblique path, from top to bottom and backwards.
|Translated title of the contribution||Characteristics of the pericondylar veins of the temporomandibular joint in the parotid cell|
|Number of pages||10|
|Journal||Revista Habanera de Ciencias Medicas|
|State||Published - 1 Jan 2019|
Bibliographical notePublisher Copyright:
© 2019 Universidad de Ciencias Medicas de La Hab. All rights reserved.


What is Auto-GPT and why is it important?
Silicon Valley’s quest to automate every thing is endless, which explains its newest obsession: Automatic GPT.
At its core, Auto-GPT makes use of the flexibility of OpenAI’s newest AI fashions to work together with software program and providers on-line, permitting it to “autonomously” carry out duties comparable to X and Y. as extensive as an ocean however as deep as a puddle.
Auto-GPT, which you might have seen popping up on social media these days, is an open supply utility created by sport developer Toran Bruce Richards. It makes use of OpenAI’s textual content rendering fashions, particularly GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, to behave “autonomously”.
There is no such thing as a magic on this autonomy. Auto-GPT merely manages the follow-ups of the primary immediate of OpenAI fashions, which each ask and reply questions till a activity is accomplished.
Auto-GPT is principally a pairing of GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 with a companion bot that teaches GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 what to do. A person tells Auto-GPT what his purpose is, and in flip, the bot makes use of numerous packages with GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 to carry out each step vital to attain the purpose they set.
What makes Auto-GPT fairly succesful is its skill to work together with functions, software program, and providers, each on-line and regionally, comparable to internet browsers and phrase processors. For instance, given a immediate “assist me develop my flower enterprise”, Auto-GPT can: Develop an affordable promoting technique and create a easy web site.
As Joe Koen, a software program developer experimenting with Auto-GPT, defined through e mail to TechCrunch, Auto-GPT basically automates multi-step initiatives that require back-and-forth steerage, for instance, with a chatbot-focused AI mannequin. , OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
“Auto-GPT defines an agent that communicates with OpenAI’s API,” Koen mentioned. “The aim of this agent is to carry out numerous instructions that the unreal intelligence generates in response to the agent’s requests. Earlier than the agent begins executing instructions, the person is requested to specify the function and targets of the AI.”
Customers outline the identify, function, and purpose of the Auto-GPT agent in a terminal and specify as much as 5 methods to attain that purpose. For instance:
- Title: Smartphone-GPT
- function: An AI designed to search out the very best smartphone
- Intention: Discover the very best smartphones in the marketplace
- 1st purpose: Do market analysis for various smartphones out there out there immediately
- 2nd purpose: Get the 5 greatest smartphones and checklist their execs and cons
Behind the scenes, Auto-GPT depends on GPT-4 and GPT-3.5 for textual content rendering, file storage and summarization, together with options like reminiscence administration to run duties.
Auto-GPT will also be linked to speech synthesizers comparable to: ElevenLabs’for instance in order that he can “make” telephone calls.
Auto-GPT is publicly out there on GitHub, however requires a little bit of setup and technical data to get began. To make use of it, Auto-GPT have to be put in in a improvement atmosphere comparable to Docker and registered with an API key from OpenAI, which requires a paid OpenAI account.
It could be value it—although the jury is out on this one. Early adopters used Auto-GPT to tackle mundane duties that might be higher delegated to a bot. For instance, Auto-GPT can use parts like debugging code and writing emails, or extra superior issues like making a marketing strategy for a contemporary begin.
“If Auto-GPT encounters any obstacles or fails to finish the duty, it’s going to develop new prompts to assist it navigate the scenario and decide acceptable subsequent steps,” mentioned Adnan Masood, chief architect at UST, a know-how consulting agency. TechCrunch in an e mail. “Broad language fashions excel at producing human-like responses, however depend on person prompts and interactions to attain desired outcomes. In distinction, Auto-GPT leverages the superior capabilities of OpenAI’s API to work independently with out person intervention.”
In current weeks, new functions have appeared that make Auto-GPT even simpler to make use of. AgentGPT and GodMode, which gives a easy interface the place customers can enter what they wish to accomplish immediately right into a browser web page. Observe that like Agent-GPT, each require an API key from OpenAI to unlock their full capabilities.
Nonetheless, like all highly effective device, Auto-GPT has its limitations and dangers.
Relying on the goal the device gives, Auto-GPT can behave in very…sudden methods. a Reddit user He claims that Auto-GPT, given a $100 funds to spend on a server occasion, created a wiki web page about cats, exploited a flaw within the instance to realize administrator-level entry, and took over the Python atmosphere it was working in — after which “killed” itself.
There may be additionally ChaosGPT, a modified model of Auto-GPT tasked with “destroying humanity” and “establishing world domination”. Unsurprisingly, ChaosGPT did not come near realizing the robotic apocalypse – however tweeted in a reasonably humiliating means about humanity.
Presumably extra harmful than Auto-GPT attempting to “destroy humanity” are sudden issues that may happen in in any other case completely regular eventualities. As a result of it is constructed on OpenAI’s language fashions – fashions that, like all language fashions, are vulnerable to errors – it could actually err.
That is not the one downside. After efficiently finishing a activity, Auto-GPT typically doesn’t bear in mind the right way to carry out it for later use, and – even when it does – typically doesn’t bear in mind to make use of this system. Auto-GPT additionally struggles to successfully break up complicated duties into less complicated subtasks and struggles to grasp how totally different targets overlap.
“Auto-GPT demonstrates the ability and unknown dangers of generative AI,” mentioned Clara Shih, Salesforce CEO of Service Cloud and an Auto-GPT fanatic. “For organizations, it is notably essential to contain a human within the loop strategy when growing and utilizing generative AI applied sciences like Auto-GPT.”


There are over 48,000 species of spider in 109 families that have been described so far, and around 670 species in 37 families in the U. K. If the total number of spiders on the Earth were spread evenly across the land each square metre would have about 130 spiders on it. It is believed that without spiders humans would probably starve as spiders eat so many of the insects that would otherwise eat or spoil our crops. Spiders range in size from 0.4 - 300 mm in the U. K. The largest in the world are the tarantulas, which can have a body length of up to 12 cm, and a leg span of 28 cm. The fossil record stretches back over 300 million years. Megarachne was fossilized around 300 million years ago in what is now Argentina, had a body length of 33 cm and a leg span of 50 cm! Spiders are found in almost every habitat. All spiders are predators. They are divided into over 100 different families - we cover just a few here.
The hard prosoma (cephalothorax) which contains the brain, legs, palps, chelicerae (fangs), and eyes; the soft and expandable opisthosoma (abdomen) which contains the digestive tract, reproductive organs, silk glands, and ends in the spinnerets which usually number 2, 4 or 6; are joined by a pedicel (see above and below which shows the underside of a mature female). The genital opening of both male and female is on the underside of the abdomen, however the male passes his sperm into the female using his palps.
The chelicerae (singular is chelicera) end in fangs which usually have poison glands, (see the diagram above and the photograph of the Tegenaria mature male below).
The anal tubercle (see above) is present in some species, while in others there is just a single, small excretory pore forming the anus.
The fovea is a dark depression behind the head region where internal muscles are attached.
The cardiac mark shows where, just below the cuticle, the heart lies. Sometimes you can see the heart beating through the thin cardiac mark.
Spiders can have six or eight eyes (see above and below) and the arrangement of the eyes is used in identification; however, vision is poor in most species, and used mainly for detecting movement. The wolf and jumping spiders which hunt down their prey usually have better vision. Spider eyes are not compound like those of insects, but simple with a single lens, and usually arranged in two rows. The arrangement of the eyes is often used to identify to family level.
Each mature female has a pair of sperm storage sacs or spermathecae. The spermathecae are shed with each moult, so the female spider must mate after each moult. The epigastric fold (see above) is where the female genital opening, the epigyne, is located. It is a hardened reddish-brown area, and is seen only in mature females. The palps or pedipalps of the males are modified to transfer sperm into the female's epigyne (genital opening) see above, which is located on the dorsal side of the opisthosoma. The palps are sometimes used in identification to species level. The epigyne of the female and swollen palps of the male (see below) are only seen in mature adults (see the photograph below). In females the palps are always simple. Females spiders are usually larger than males.
Most spiders have what are called book lungs (see the drawing below). These are blood-filled slices of tissue separated by an air space. Most species have one pair of lungs.
Spider legs are divided into 8 parts - see the drawing above. There may be 2 or more claws, and these may have teeth like a comb. Hunting spiders have a pad of hairs which, along with a sticky secretion, enables the spider to get a good grip on most surfaces.
The femur is the equivalent of our thigh, the patella - our knee cap, the tibia - our shin, and the metatarsus, tarsus and claws our foot and toes.
As a rough guide hunting spiders have 2 claws and web builders have 3.
The earliest fossil evidence of arachnid silk is from 400 million years ago. The silk is produced in the silk glands (see the drawing above) and comes out from the spinnerets - see the drawing above (the number of spinnerets varies according to species, but 3 pairs is the most common) which are located on the underside posterior of the opisthosoma. There are 7 different types of silk gland, each producing a different type of silk, but no single species has all 7 types of gland. The silk is a liquid protein chain of amino acids with glycine and alanine being the main ones. The liquid hardens, under tension, in contact with the air, it is 5 times as strong as steel, weight for weight, and is elastic like rubber. It emerges as many very thin strands (the spinnerets have up to 600 ducts) which join up to form one very strong strand. It is drawn out of the spinnerets by the back legs, or by the weight of the spider's body.
Many spiders (except wolf and jumping) catch their prey in webs. And web construction can be used to identify to family or genus. Webs are the most obvious use of spider silk (more on webs), but spiders use silk for much more:
For each of the above a different kind of silk is produced.
Spiders do not stick to their own webs because they either step on the non-sticky parts only, or secrete a special oil on their feet. Also their leg hairs decrease the surface area available to stick.
Silk is also used by the females to build egg sacs where the young remain for a few weeks.
The silk from Araneus diadematus is around 0.003 mm thick - that is just 10% of the thickness of silkworm silk.
Spider silk from webs is used by many birds (tits, warblers, gold crests) as part of their nesting material. Spider silk, both real and man-made, is also used by humans. The ancient Greeks used it to help heal wounds. Today it is used to repair skin, blood vessels and tendons. It is also used to produce bullet-proof clothing.
Spiders undergo an average of 5 and 10 moults in their lifetime, with the larger species tending to moult more, and can moult up to 20 times. Spiders moult their skins as many as 8 times before reaching adulthood.
The new cuticle is very soft and this means the legs are unable to support the body weight, so small spiders suspend themselves from a silk thread, and large species make a silk mat to lie on and moult on their backs to allow the legs to harden.
During the moulting process they can lose a leg, which will be regrown at the next moult. When the spider's cuticle is stretched to the limit the spider can grow only by moulting. Spiderlings may moult every few days, and increase in size with each moult. The time between moults increases with age. When a spider is about to moult it will stop eating, stay immobile, and some species seal themselves inside a silk-lined chamber while the old, outer layer separates from the new layer. The new cuticle is soft and pale.
The old cuticle or exuvium is often mistaken for a dead spider. The cuticle hardens and takes on normal colouration within a few hours.


The Rio scale is a tool for communicating the significance of a signal to the general public. It assigns scores to signals detected in searches for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), which characterizes both the consequences of a signal and the probability the signal is truly from ETI, in an easily digestible format for laypeople to interpret. In the 17 years since its construction, the number of groups actively conducting searches for evidence of intelligent life beyond the Earth has increased significantly, and theoretical work has established a new suite of observables that are capable of revealing the presence of ETI in a range of astronomical observations. In this paper, we revise the Rio scale, with the aim of (i) achieving consensus across academic disciplines on a scheme for classifying signals potentially indicating the existence of advanced extraterrestrial life, (ii) supplying a pedagogical tool to help inform the public about the process scientists go through to develop an understanding of a signal and (iii) providing a means of calibrating the expectations of the world at large when signals are discussed in the media. We also present (and encourage the SETI community to adopt) a single set of consistent terminology for discussing signals.


SCURLOCK, WILLIAM [1807-1885]
SCURLOCK, WILLIAM (1807–1885). William Scurlock, early settler and participant in the Texas Revolution, was born on October 22, 1807, in Chatham County, North Carolina, the son of Joseph and Martha Jones (Glasgow) Sheppard Scurlock and brother of Mial Scurlock. He moved to Tennessee about 1826 or 1828, then to Mississippi. According to family tradition, he studied medicine for several years before moving to Texas in 1834 with his slaves. He lived in San Augustine, where he worked as a clerk. Scurlock enlisted in Capt. Henry W. Augustine's company of the revolutionary army on October 17, 1835, in San Augustine. He reportedly fought in the battle of Concepción on October 28, although one source suggests that Augustine's company did not reach the scene of that engagement in time to participate. He was involved in the Grass Fight on November 26 and in the siege of Bexar, which concluded with the capitulation of Gen. Martín Perfecto de Cos on December 10, 1835. In the latter two engagements Scurlock may have been a member of Capt. Thomas Lewellen's company. After the capture of San Antonio he became a member of a reorganized company under Lewellen that joined the Matamoros expedition of 1835–36. Scurlock was out rounding up horses on March 2, 1836, and thus escaped the battle of Agua Dulce Creek. He then joined Capt. David N. Burke's company under Col. James W. Fannin's command at Goliad. After being taken prisoner at the battle of Coleto on March 20, Scurlock was made a medical assistant and spared from the Goliad Massacre on March 27. After the battle of San Jacinto Gen. José Urrea was ordered to withdraw his army from Texas. Scurlock and several other prisoners were to accompany the Mexican wounded, who were to be sent by ship from Copano to Matamoros. On their way to Copano, however, Scurlock escaped at Refugio. He was reportedly recaptured but either escaped again or was set free. He was honorably discharged in Victoria on May 29, 1836. After returning to San Augustine he became captain of a company of volunteers that enlisted on July 4, 1836, for a three-month term under Thomas J. Rusk's command.
Scurlock may have been the William Scurlock who served on the first commission established to select a permanent site for the Texas capital. This five-member group, elected by the Congress of the Republic of Texas on October 24, 1837, submitted its report on November 20, 1837. The report described potential sites but did not make a specific recommendation. According to his first-class headright, Scurlock was a single man at the time of the Texas Declaration of Independence and the head of a household. He married Frances Augusta Thompson in 1837, and they had eleven children. Scurlock and his family lived on a farm twelve miles southeast of San Augustine in western Sabine County, where in the years before the Civil War he enjoyed increasing prosperity. In 1837 and 1838 he reported owning five slaves. By 1840 he owned seven slaves and held title to 250 acres. By 1850 he owned fourteen slaves and real estate valued at $800. In 1860 he owned fifteen slaves, who must have represented the bulk of his personal-property assets of $15,941. His real property that year was valued at $15,238. Scurlock also received various land grants for his military service and status as an early citizen. These included 4,605.5 acres for having been a Texas resident at the time of the Declaration of Independence, which land he patented in Travis County in 1853; 320 acres for military service from July 4 to October 4, 1836, which he patented in Taylor in 1854; and 960 acres for service from October 17, 1835, to October 4, 1836, which he patented in the town of Coryell in 1852. Six hundred forty acres, for which Scurlock was eligible by virtue of his participation in the battle of Coleto, was patented in Callahan County by his heirs in 1854. Scurlock served as a county commissioner from 1864 to 1866, with a possible hiatus in the immediate aftermath of the war. On November 2, 1870, he applied for his pension as a veteran of the Texas Revolution. Although his claim for the $250 annual allowance was approved, on July 3, 1874, he testified that he had not received anything. He later received a veteran's donation warrant for 1,280 acres, in accordance with legislation passed in 1881.
Scurlock and his wife were early members of McMahan's Chapel, a historic Methodist church located three miles southwest of Geneva. Scurlock also belonged to Red Land Masonic Lodge No. 3 in San Augustine and was a member of the Texas Veterans Association. In 1852 he was one of six Masonic incorporators of Red Mount Seminary, near his home. He died on January 31, 1885, and was buried in Scurlock Cemetery, near the Sabine-San Augustine county line, off Goat Hill Road (via Farm Road 1), four miles southwest of Geneva. A historical marker was dedicated at the cemetery in 1981. See also LAND GRANTS.
Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Muster Rolls of the Texas Revolution (Austin, 1986). Robert Cecil McDaniel, Sabine County, Texas (Waco: Texian, 1987). Essie Walton Martin, The Scurlocks: Seekers of Freedom (1985). Abel Morgan, An Account of the Battle of Goliad and Fanning's Massacre (Paducah, Kentucky?, 1847?). Cooper K. Ragan, Josephus Somerville Irvine: Address Delivered at the Dedication of the Josephus Somerville Irvine Monument (Houston, 1963). Gifford White, First Settlers of Sabine County, Texas (St. Louis: Ingmire, 1983).
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For millions of diabetics, using a glucose meter is a daily routine used for monitoring their blood sugar. The device provides convenience for people with diabetes, checking their blood sugar anytime, wherever they are. A drop of blood is place on a disposable glucose test strip. The selected testing site should be free of sugar residues to make the readings accurate for the user. The readings are different between times because of the rapid changes of glucose levels. The ups and down of blood sugar appears after taking insulin, meals, during exercises, or when a patient is under stress.
Glucose values are different among meters. Sometimes the reading displayed is false, because the glucose level is far from the range measurable by the meter. The problems should be reported to the manufacturer and government agencies regulating glucose meters. Elevated glucose readings which are false lead to excessive insulin treatment, resulting in hypoglycemic shock or death. During hospital stays, health professionals have to make sure that medication used does not contain other sugars.
To prevent harmful results, ask the hospital staffs about the safety methods like drug interaction alerts with patient profiles, and charts in a computer order entry system. When you think your blood glucose is low, use blood from a fingertip.
Meter accuracy can be affected by a test performed on unclean skin, substances in the blood like uric acid, glutathione, and Vitamin C. Consult your health care provider for the correct usage of the meter. Any unexpected side effects using medical product can be reported to Food and Drug Administration. Consumers have an important role for the protection of public health safety. An immediate report of faulty products to the government agencies means safety measures for public health, and prompts actions by the agency, protecting others from using them.
Regular blood glucose measurement alone does not control diabetes. A diabetic must subscribe to a healthy diet and lifestyle. The right meal plan helps the diabetics to keep their blood sugar under control. A dietitian can help diabetics plan meals and ensure proper nutrition for a better memory. Dieticians know that carbohydrates provide energy for the body in the form of glucose and that glucose is the basic source of energy for the cells of the body. They help diabetics balance this need for carbohydrates and the danger of having too much of them in a diabetics system. They can also include in the meal plans other nutrients that are helpful in fighting diabetes such as foods rich in fighting nerve damage, a very common complication of diabetes.


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The chapter you want to look a is chapter four, which explains how vital the domestication of animals was to certain societies. The domestication provided such groups of people with meat, milk, fertiliser, transport, leather, a military advantage, wool and the means of ploughing fields. In addition the domestication of animals exposed societies to a variety of germs that ended up being crucial in the conquest of other peoples, as the decimation of the New World by smallpox amply demonstrates.
In the concluding paragraph of this chapter, the author points out why the domestication of animals was such a crucial ingredient in explaining why some societies were able to ultimately dominate others:
The resulting food surpluses, and (in some areas) the animal-based means of transporting those surpluses, were a prerequisite for the development of settled, politically centralised, socially stratified, economiclaly complex, technologically innovative societies.
The domestication of animals is therefore one of the key factors that helps explain the question that the book sets out to answer.
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It is a set of two innovative classroom-tested books that stimulates creativity and imagination in the young learners and instill in them the confidence to write. The first in the series, My First Step to ABC, introduces the big letters of the English alphabet while focusing on recognition, repetition and recall. The second book, My Second Step to Reading and Writing, gives further practice of big letters followed by introduction of small letters. Gradually, the child becomes more confident and moves towards simple phonetic words. The book rounds up with the child writing simple sentences independently.
The authors of this book are Mondira Bharadwaj and Sudha Ahuja. Mondira Bharadwaj, who has an M.A. B.Ed degree and a PG Diploma from UK, was the Principal of The Indian School, New Delhi. Sudha Ahuja is the Vice President of Hill Top School in Dalhousie, Himachal Pradesh.


The First Texas Navy, 1835 – 1837
Presented by James Bevill
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Tickets $5 for adults (13 and up) |Free admission for members, kids 12 and under, active military and veterans
This powerful presentation takes place in the throes of the Texas Revolution, as the provisional government of Texas scrambled to put together a naval force to wreak havoc upon the Mexican supply lines. Having first resorted to the use of privateers (state sponsored pirates), Texas was able to borrow money in New Orleans in early 1836, to secure the warships Liberty, Invincible, Independence, and the Brutus. This is the story of those four ships, the roles that McKinney & Williams, the Allen Brothers, Captains Hawkins, Hurd, Thompson, and Brown played, as well as the significant contributions these aggressive men made on the high seas in the fight for Texas Independence. Despite their heroic deeds, the Navy soon found itself drowning in a sea of red ink; crippling the effectiveness of the fighting force as the flow of funds needed to maintain a strong military was quickly exhausted. This remarkable story of the first Texas Navy is triumphant, tragic, and highly entertaining.
Complimentary refreshments will be provided.
This lecture is generously sponsored by Frost Bank.


A primary school teacher asking her pupils in the classroom: What do you call a person who speaks 3 languages? Trilingual! what do you call the person who speaks 2 languages? Bilingual. And what do you call a person who speaks only one language? British!
English is not a peace building language for the Muslim children in British schooling. Majority of English speaking Muslim youths are extremists, find themselves cut off from their cultural heritage and are unable to enjoy the beauty of their literature and poetry. One can find English speaking Muslim youths in Syria and Iraq, in prison and in the mental hospital. Thanks to English language. English is the economic language of the Muslims while Arabic , Urdu and other community languages are the social and emotional languages of the Muslim community.
Speaking English does not promote integration into British, American and Australian societies, and broaden opportunities. English speaking Muslim youths are angry, frustrated and extremist, thanks to state schools with monolingual non-Muslim teachers and English language. English language is not only a lingua franca but also lingua frankensteinia. Human right are also covers linguistic right. Cultural and linguistic genocide are very common. British schooling is murdering community languages like Arabic, Urdu and others. English is today the world killer language. Linguistic genocide is a crime against humanity and British schooling is guilty of committing this crime. Language is not just a language. It defines one's culture, identity and consciousness. It defines how we think, communicate and express ourselves. The fact is the most South Asian Muslims have come to know Islam by way of Urdu, the children's alienation from the language that connects them the heritage of their parents and grand parents is disturbing. As a matter of fact, one has to get to know his mother tongue well if one is to master any other language.
Tri-lingual 11 year olds in Hackney outperform monolinguals in reading tests and tell more elaborate stories University of East London A study of language and literacy use in the Guajarati Muslim community shows that children in multilingual families have complex patterns of language use and literacy development. They speak a dialect of Guajarati in the home and the community but have very little access to literacy in that language. They become literate in Urdu to interpret religious texts, but use the language little outside religious contexts. They study the Qur'an in Arabic. Far from being confused by these experiences, by age 11 the children perform above age norms for children of a similar social background in the borough. Unusually, boys are ahead of girls in their reading performance. The children who have encountered traditional stories through two languages rather than one tell more elaborate stories. The children who tell good stories in the community's dialect of Gujerati also tell good stories in English. However due to the lack of access to literacy in Gujerati, the children find access to literary Gujerati difficult. The study was carried out in Hackney between 1996 and 2000. It investigated the language use and literacy practices of 36 children (aged three and a half, seven and eleven) from a Gujerati and Urdu speaking community. The study also found that cultural community centres play a crucial role in slowing down inter-generational language shift Families who use a community centre have more literacy materials in Gujerati and tell more stories to their children. Access to leisure activities with children who share their first language helps children maintain the use of the family language with siblings and friends. Dr Raymonde Sneddon, who carried out the study, notes that contrary to the expectation of many English teachers, children can thrive on a complex diet of language and literacy. The children in the study demonstrated a strong awareness of their different languages and considerable insight into their different uses in their every day life. Children would benefit from having their language awareness skills more readily recognised and developed in school. The study was carried out with 36 children and their families through: Questionnaires and extended interviews of children and their families / observations in school, home and community settings / tape recordings in the home and in school /analyses of children’s drawings, writing and story telling in Gujerati and English / interviews with elders of the community.
Research has shown that bilingualism is beneficial for children’s development and their future. Children exposed to different languages become more aware of different cultures, other people and other points of view. But they also tend to be better than monolinguals at ‘multitasking’ and focusing attention. They are often more precocious readers, and generally find it easier to learn other languages. Bilingualism gives children much more than two languages!
More recent research also suggests that learning another language may have benefits in later life, delaying the onset of dementia symptoms, and slowing cognitive aging. The good news is that these benefits seem to exist even when people learn a second language later in life. So it is never too late – see our resources page for classes and meet up groups around Edinburgh.
As a British Pakistani myself, and a Muslim, I am deeply proud of my heritage and language. At home I speak my own languages, Punjabi and Urdu. I have always said, the more languages you know, the broader your cultural knowledge. Those who say you must only use one language narrow their perception of the world. Also, people who can learn languages are good at playing musical instruments. Languages should be taught more in school. When I speak in Arabic I feel like a poet and when in English, I feel like a philosopher. "This mental flexibility pays big dividends especially later in life: the typical signs of cognitive ageing occur later in bilinguals – and the onset of age-related degenerative disorders such as dementia or Alzheimer’s are delayed in bilinguals by up to five years." We are amazed by being able to speak multilingual which is great Ever thought of the One God Creator Who made these languages.
Multi-Culturalism is even more important and crucial after 9/11, 7/7 and terrorist attacks in various European countries. Muslim youths are also likely to feel alienated by a focus on shared Britishness, rather than multicultural diversity. Rather than promoting a single British “us” teaching should acknowledge that “us” can be diverse and plural. Children should be encouraged to explore differences in appearance, history and religion to reduce social and educational fears. The pressures of multi-Culturalism, racism, bullying and Islamophobia have forced the Muslim community to set up their own schools. Does the media label the troubles in Northern Ireland as Catholic terrorism, or Protestant terrorist, or Christian terrorism? No. There is bias and hate pointed right at Islam. As for race, why did white youths attack a Sikh thinking he was a Muslim? Answer skin colour. People see someone with brown skin and a scarf or foreign clothing and automatically assume they are Muslims.
I think the problem is that, as the UK has become more and more diverse, the curriculum has become more and more restricted. Young teachers (and that's most of them) don't often have the opportunity or the courage to step away from the set learning and try something different. No fault of theirs - the fault lies in our deeply flawed system. Try learning a new language. It will open up a different culture and new ways of seeing the world to you, more fun, and more friends. I recently went to a meeting were four languages were spoken, and none of us spoke them all. But we managed, and we achieved results that could not have been achieved had we each spoken only our native language. Many workplaces function very well on more than one language. Don't succumb to nativist fear!
In Finland, every child who has a mother tongue which is not Finnish or Swedish (the official languages) is entitled to two lessons per week in their native language. In my city, dozens of different languages are taught in schools under this scheme. It enables the children to maintain/improve their mother tongue language skills in an academic environment, outside the home. This can have huge benefits for the country (eg economic) as well as for the children (language learning supports overall literacy). "Bilingualism is something we usually celebrate in adults yet not always in the classroom, where English is usually prioritised." - curious to see how the word "prioritise" has acquired a bad connotation. Surely schools should be to prepare children for life not just the workplace. But in both situations knowledge of more than one language is a bonus. Recognising respecting and encouraging our community languages rather than undermining and even mocking them might be the best place to start.
Muslim children must learn and be well versed in English to follow the National Curriculum and go for higher studies and research to serve humanity. At the same time they must learn and be well versed in Arabic, Urdu and other community languages to keep in touch with their cultural heritage and enjoy the beauty of their literature and poetry, otherwise, they would be lost in western jungle.
A Muslim is a citizen of this tiny global village. he/she does not want to become notoriously monolingual Brits. British schooling has been forcing them to become notoriously monolingual Brits. It is a fact that British schooling is the home of institutional racism and British teachers are chicken racist. It is a crime against humanity to deprive a child form his/her mother tongue. Arabic is a religious language and all Muslims must learn and be well versed in Arabic to recite and understand the Holy Quran.Ed is very proud of his comprehensive school because students were speaking 60 languages. After leaving school, all those who spoke different languages, could only speak English because there is no arrangement for them to learn their own languages at school. Even teachers discouraged them to speak their language in school. British schooling regards bilingualism as a problem and not an asset. The Mayor of London is the product of British schooling. He is very proud that he is unable to speak, read and write Urdu language. I do not blame him. It is the fault of the school.
Legally, the state has an obligation to respect the rights of parents to ensure that 'education and teaching(of their children) is in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.'
The schools must satisfy the spiritual, moral, social and cultural needs of Muslim pupils. State schools with non-Muslim monolingual teachers are not in a position to satisfy their needs and demands. Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. There is no place for a non-Muslim child or a teacher in a Muslim school.
Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental period' otherwise, they would be lost in the Western JUNGLE. There is no place for a non-Muslim child or a teacher in a Muslim school. At higher level of education, a Muslim teacher is not a priority.
There are hundreds of state and church schools where Muslim children are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be opted out as Muslim Academies.


Determines the monospace display width of a string in Ruby
DescriptionWhen printed to the screen, the length of the string is usually equal to the number of cells it occupies. However, there are categories of characters that occupy 2 cells (full-wide), and others that occupy 0. This library provides functions similar to wcwidth() and wcswidth() known from C, to determine the monospace display width of a string.
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Nowadays, many apps and games are developed specifically to improve our cognitive functions. This is a new field of study, and there are not many studies conducted yet.
However, the ones that have been done prove that apps can improve our memory, perception, concentration, etc. For example, this study shows that both classical and digital cognitive training has a positive effect on the human brain.
It is especially useful for processing speed, memory, and overall cognitive function. They also help to keep brain activity sharp while aging, according to recent findings.
Technologies make our lives better in terms of convenience and learning. Using cognitive training apps has a positive effect on anyone.
Here is a list of top 10 apps that are the best in this field.
Top Apps That Improve Your Brain Activity
This is one of the original apps designed for cognitive training. It is available for free, but there is a paid upgrade that offers advanced games. Overall, it has an impressive number of mini-games that train different skills. The advantage is that they are designed both for children and adults.
When starting with the app, a person conducts the test that shows overall results. It helps to find the cognition areas that need more training. The main areas this app deals with are memory, reasoning, focus, and agility. It has daily reminders and tasks to keep you engaged.
Braingle is designed to keep one’s mind sharp and help developing sound reasoning. Various tasks and challenges are based on riddles and optical illusions that make this app stand out from the crowd. There are tasks in logic, language, mystery, cryptography sections. The app is quite exciting and trains overall flexibility of mind.
This app is focused on boosting one’s memory. It helps users to memorize essential numbers and other information. The main benefit of this software is that it uses the information that is of value for you in training. For example, one might try to memorize phone numbers or document details. There are no abstract games; the exercises are customized according to personal needs.
The best thing is that it has tests to check how well you remember things. Another advantage is that it is free to download and use.
Let’s make a stop here and turn from entertainment to education for once. With the abundance of apps, events, and other ways to spend one’s free time, it is easy to forget that you are actually a student on one’s way to graduation.
As there are many apps you can download to survive long, dull lessons, here is the one that might save the day not once.
Whenever you find yourself in a situation desperately looking for help with the thought like “someone write my essay for me”, just open https://essaypro.com/write-my-essay.html. No more failed deadlines or low grades!
You’ll get all the time in the world without wasting energy or effort! The best part – you may very well spend it with use on improving agility or memory with other apps on our list!
This software has a collection of mini-games. It endorses memory and concentration. The app trains the brain to process faster. There is a free version with available upgrades. It has daily challenges and reminders. The games are more based on text rather than colors and illustrations.
Clockwork Brain Training
This software has an interesting design and exciting visuals. There are 17 games to train one’s cognitive functions. They get more complicated with progress and are more puzzle-like. There is a progress chart and with earned points listed. It is free for all users.
Mensa Brain Training
Mensa International is a society of people with the highest IQ scores. They welcome everyone who scored better than 98% of the population. Now they’ve created their app for cognitive training.
Mensa experts develop the games used in the app. Those are divided into five cognitive areas to train: memory, concentration, agility, reasoning, and perception. There are daily tasks to do. Each user gets a personal Mensa Brain Index and can see their progress and compare their results to other users. The best thing is that it is completely free.
CogniFit Brain Fitness
This app has games developed by neuroscientists. It is advanced software with exciting challenges. There are a personal score and progress. There is also an overall brain health statistics. It offers four free games while other options are available for subscription.
In the beginning, each user completes the test to get an analysis of cognitive skills. After that, each game’s complexity is customized according to the score. The authors of this app have also published the study on its effectiveness.
Fit Brains Trainer
This is free software that provides many exciting games and puzzles. They are designed to get more complex with the progress one makes. There are more than 300 games, and the number is only growing. According to your score, the app will provide recommendations on what skills to exercise.
Not the Hole Story
This is a very exciting app that is riddles-based. If you like to solve mysteries, it is what you need. It is quite simple in use and free to download.
Various stories are full of riddles the player solves along the way. They get progressively harder and can even keep you up at night!
These exercises were developed by scientists from respectable institutions all over the world. They endorse several functions like language, problem-solving, agility, etc. Each user gets a customized training plan.
One can also choose the days to train and set reminders for a particular time.
These amazing apps help to keep cognitive functions sharp and on top. They are also linked to reasoning and problem-solving. It is a fun way to give yourself a brain work out.
Even a session of 20-30 minutes a day can increase memory, perception, and agility. Give it a try, and you’ll see the progress.
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- Sleep apnea is the periodic stops of breathing during sleep
- Every 1 out of 5 adults in Jamaica suffer from sleep apnea
- Genes play a role in the transmission of SA
- Other risk factors contribute to OSA, as well.
- There are home-based tests available for the detection of SA
- There is a vast proportion of people suffering from SA that go undiagnosed.
Sleep apnea in Jamaica
Sleep apnea refers to the condition in which there are periodic stops in breathing during sleep. The patient often experiences it 20 to 30 times in an hour. The lack of oxygen prompts the brain to create a pause in a deep sleep, which results in drowsiness and lethargy in the following day. Most people are not aware of it as the duration of being awake is brief. Jamaicans are among the primarily affected populations from Sleep apnea (Morley, 2017). Read more about sleep apnea here.
The number of Jamaican people suffering from it
Every 1 of 5 adults in Jamaica suffers from sleep apnea due to varying reasons. Caribbean black individuals are seen to have ten times more chances of developing sleep apnea than the Americans’ population. Among all, Caribbean black individuals with a history of heart disease are the most affected by OSA (Rosenthal, 2017).
The propensity of the people in Jamaica to get it based on genetics
According to the study conducted on the Genetic Aspects of OSAS by J. Bras in June 2010, there is a strong genetic link of OSA on BMI when patients from Nigeria, Jamaica, and Africa were tested. Similarly, studies also showed monozygotic twins to exhibit the signs of snoring during OSA in Caribbean populations. First-degree relatives of OSA patients tend to show the characteristics of the disease (Petruco, 2010).
Other conditions that can develop it
Among the risk factors of sleep apnea other than genetics, gender predilection has a role to play. Males, precisely above 40 years of age, are seen to be commonly affected than females. Obesity and smoking, and the use of alcohol and tranquilizers have been connected to the disease for many years now; several research types have been conducted to prove the relationship. Mostly, people with heart diseases, history of heart diseases, neuromuscular problems, brain tumors, and strokes are also at high risk of developing sleep apnea (Foldvary-Schaefer, 2017).
How easy is it to test at home?
Sleep apnea can easily be tracked and tested at home by FDA-approved testing devices. A straightforward breathing monitor can detect unusual signs of sleep apnea in a regular sleeping pattern. The doctor must prescribe the device (Rosen, 2018).
How can many be undiagnosed?
Apart from heart diseases’ contribution to sleep apnea, a perfectly normal individual with genetically caused sleep apnea can lead to severe heart and neuromuscular problems. Strokes, diabetes type 2, heart attack, and a shorter life span are associated with sleep apnea. There is a chance of more than half of the individuals suffering from sleep apnea to be unaware of the condition (Lin, 2018).
Foldvary-Schaefer, N. R. (2017). Sleep-Disordered Breathing. . Continuum (Minneapolis, Minn.), 23(4, Sleep Neurology), 1093–1116. https://doi.org/10.1212/01.CON.0000522245.13784.f6.
Lin, J. &. (2018). Sleep Apnea and Sleep-Disordered Breathing. Otolaryngologic clinics of North America, . 51(4), 827–833. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.otc.2018.03.009.
Morley, J. E. (2017). Sleep Apnea: A Geriatric Syndrome. . Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 18(11), 899–904. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2017.08.020.
Petruco, A. C. (2010). Aspectos genéticos da SAOS. Jornal Brasileiro de Pneumologia, , 36(Suppl. 2), 13-16. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1806-37132010001400005.
Rosen, I. M. (2018). Clinical Use of a Home Sleep Apnea Test: An Updated American Academy of Sleep Medicine Position Statement. Journal of clinical sleep medicine: JCSM: official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 14(12), 2075–2077. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7540.
Rosenthal, D. M.-L. (2017). Sleep Apnea Symptoms and Cardiovascular Disease Risks among Haitian Medical Students. Journal of sleep disorders & therapy, 6(2), 264. https://doi.org/10.4172/2167-0277.1000264.


Give your fridge and freezer a good clean before you stock up for Christmas.
Don’t overstock your fridge or freezer – it makes it difficult to maintain the right temperature.
Wash your hands frequently – especially before preparing or touching food, and after touching raw food, coughing, sneezing or touching pets.
Frozen turkeys or other poultry must be thawed thoroughly before cooking. A 15lb turkey will take 24-28 hours to thaw in the fridge; allow more than two days for a 25lb bird to defrost.
There’s no need to rinse your turkey under the tap. This can splash harmful bacteria already on the bird around the kitchen, leading to cross-contamination.
Use separate chopping boards and utensils or wash them to avoid cross-contamination between raw meat, and cooked foods.
Ideally, cook your stuffing separately.
Ensure all meat is thoroughly cooked.
Don’t use raw eggs in food that will not be cooked.Š
Always serve hot food as soon as it is ready.
Avoid reheating food more than once.


Politics is not the exercise of power. Politics ought to be defined on its own terms, as a mode of acting put into practice by a specific kind of subject and deriving from a particular form of reason. It is the political relationship that allows one to think the possibility of a political subject(ivity) [le sujet politique], not the other way around.
To identify politics with the exercise of, and struggle to possess, power is to do away with politics. But we also reduce the scope of politics as a mode of thinking if we conceive of it merely as a theory of power or as an investigation into the grounds of its legitimacy. If there is something specific about politics that makes it something other than a more capacious mode of grouping or a form of power characterized by its mode of legitimation, it is that it involves a distinctive kind of subject considered, and it involves this subject in the form of a mode of relation that is its own. This is what Aristotle means when, in Book I of the Politics, he distinguishes between political rule (as the ruling of equals) from all other kinds of rule; or when, in Book III, he defines the citizen as ‘he who partakes in the fact of ruling and the fact of being ruled.’ Everything about politics is contained in this specific relationship, this ‘part-taking’ [avoir-part], which should be interrogated as to its meaning and as to its conditions of possibility.
An interrogation into what is ‘proper’ to politics must be carefully distinguished from current and widespread propositions regarding “the return of the political.” In the past several years, and in the context of a state-consensus, we have seen the blossoming of affirmations proclaiming the end of the illusion of the social and a return to a ‘pure’ form of politics. Read through either an Arendtian or Straussian lens, these affirmations focus on the same Aristotelian texts gestured to above. These readings generally identify the “proper” political order with that of the eu zen (i.e., a conception of the good) as opposed to a zen (conceived as an order of mere living). On this basis, the frontier between the domestic and the political becomes the frontier between the social and the political; and to the idea of a city-state defined by its common good is opposed the sad reality of modern democracy as the rule of the masses and of necessity. In practice, this celebration of pure politics entrusts the virtue of the ‘political good’ to governmental oligarchies enlightened by “experts;” which is to say that the supposed purification of the political, freed from domestic and social necessity, comes down to nothing more (or less) than the reduction of the political to the state [l’étatique].
Behind the current buffooneries of the ‘returns’ of the political (that include ‘the return of political philosophy’), it is important to recognize the vicious circle that characterizes political philosophy; a vicious circle located in the link between the political relationship and the political subject. This vicious circle posits a way of life that is ‘proper’ to politics. The political relationship is subsequently deduced from the properties of this specific order of being and is explained in terms of the existence of a character who possesses a good or a specific universality, as opposed to the private or domestic world of needs or interests. In short, politics is explained as the accomplishment of a way of life that is proper to those who are destined for it. This partition — which is actually the object of politics — is posited as its basis.
What is proper to politics is thus lost at the outset if politics is thought of as a specific way of living. Politics cannot be defined on the basis of any pre-existing subject. The political ‘difference’ that makes it possible to think its subject must be sought in the form of its relation. If we return to the Aristotelian definition, there is a name given to the subject (politès) that is defined by...


If you’ve never inspected your home’s electrical wiring, now is the time.
Over 25,000 electrical fires are reported annually in the United States, resulting in death or injury to more than 1,300 people, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. Home electrical fires result in greater dollar loss per fire than nonelectrical fires. Even more startling: almost all those fires could have been prevented by taking a few simple steps, including:
If you have an older home, hire a highly rated electrician to inspect the wiring.Electrical wiring is not meant to last forever, so if your home is a century old, it’s overdue to be rewired. This is especially true if your home has aluminum wiring, which is more fire-prone than copper wiring. According to the Copper Development Association, all modern homes should have 12 American Wire Gauge (AWG) solid copper wiring installed to meet the demands of today’s appliances. If your home has the thinner 14-AWG, hire a reputable, appropriately trained and licensed electrician to inspect and make recommendations.
Electrical plug and electrical cord damage
Faulty wiring is one of the main causes of electrical fires. If you find anything that’s frayed, tattered, or worn out, replace it with new wiring. Cords in poor condition can overheat or cause sparks and start a fire. For appliances, you can usually buy replacement cords.
Overloading is a common cause of electrical fires. This happens when you plug too many appliances into the same outlet, extension cord or power strip. The U.S. Fire Administration recommends buying power strips equipped with internal overload protection. This feature ensues that a strip shuts off as soon as it becomes overloaded.
Keep flammable materials away
Portable electric space heaters are especially dangerous, but don’t overlook irons, hair dryers or irons, and even lamps. Any electrical appliance can start a fire if it makes contact with flammable materials, including blankets, towels and rugs. Don’t hide cables, especially extension cords, under rugs or carpets. If overheated, they can easily start a fire.
Electrical short and electrical wiring problems
Unless it’s something as simple as replacing a cord, fixing shorts and faulty wiring requires the expertise of an electrician. Faulty wiring symptoms include flickering lamps, plugs that spark when you plug something in, breakers that constantly trip, and “buzzing” outlets. All these can cause sparks, which can quickly cause a fire.
While you’re at it, make sure to replace or eliminate any wire, connection, extension cord or fuse box that feels warm; warmth in these cases usually indicates a faulty or unsafe wiring connection. It can also mean that too much current is running through the circuits, which could cause an overload and result in a fire.


|JTE Editor:||Mark Sanders|
Reviewed by Mark Snyder
BEYNON, J. & MACKAY, H. (EDS.). (1992). TECHNOLOGICAL LITERACY AND THE CURRICULUM. THE FALMER PRESS, $29.00 (PAPERBACK), 207 PP. (ISBN 1-85000-986-4)
The reviewed book consists of a collection of essays purported to contribute to the so-called debate over the content and meaning of the phrase "technological literacy." In the preface, the editors, from the Polytechnic of Wales, defined their perspective of the topic as follows: "Our view of technological literacy is very different from a narrow, skills-based, technical perspective. We see the cultural and social as central to the technology curriculum, not marginal" (p. vi). Indeed, the editors (and most of the contributors to this reading) are academicians in the realm of the social sciences. Clearly, the intent of the publication is to broaden the accepted definition of technological literacy and to alter the consideration of technology in education to that which includes primarily a cultural orientation. Second in a series of three books published by The Falmer Press, which is based in England, Technological Literacy and the Curriculum was preceded by the book Understanding Technology In Education. This initial volume may perhaps serve as the first indicator that the editors themselves are not fully aware of the aims of technology education or, given the benefit of the doubt, that they would prefer it be something other than it is. As a result, the content of each book is focused primarily upon the separate topic of educational technology rather than technology education. In fact, the majority of the essays included within are specifically concerned with computer literacy. The following statement by Beynon, from Technological Literacy and the Curriculum, clearly indicates the filter through which he has drawn his perception of technological literacy:
We have made it clear that I dislike the term computer literacy and prefer the more generic term technological literacy. Why? Quite simply I would prefer that computers were not decontextualized and studied separately but as part of a wider culture of technology that includes, for example, television, cable and satellite, teletext and viewdata, and telephones. (p. 23)Indeed this book does much to cloud, rather than contribute to, the so-called de- bate over the use of the phrase "technological literacy." Mackay did include some very thoughtful questions related to technological understanding in his article "From Computer Literacy to Technology Literacy" and identified some potentially beneficial aspects of the National Curriculum Technology. However, he continually limited his discussion to computer-based technology and implied, in his final statement, that the National Curriculum Technology is not educationally sound. Perhaps this is due to the editors' opinion that "education is too important to be left to technologists" -a quote from an article by Beynon and Mackay titled "Information Technology into Education: Towards a Critical Perspective" printed in the 1989, volume 4, number 1, issue of the Journal Of Education Policy. Still, there are at least two more articles contained within this book that are worthy of further consideration by Technology Education professionals for their discussions of the Technology portion of the recently mandated National Curriculum of England and Wales. Peter Medway's investigation of how and why technology was included in the National Curriculum is extremely severe. His article, "Constructions of Technology: Reflections on a New Subject" consists of a number of possible scenarios, based on speculation, as to what were the aims of the developers of the technology curriculum. Perhaps Mr. Medway could have simply spent more time trying to gain the perspective of the developers firsthand. Nevertheless, herein lies an open declaration against the consideration of technology as a discipline. Medway, a former English and Humanities teacher who led the national evaluation of technology education, wrote:
Not only is the technology curriculum based on a "discipline" which has no real existence as an integrated entity outside the aspirations of the curriculum designers; it is also a highly selective construction in which ideology plays a conspicuous part. (p. 76)That the technology curriculum is being described as a discipline rather than simply a rehabilitation of "the practical" seems to be Medway's greatest concern. Medway concluded that the new technology curriculum is in fact "at odds" with the other required curriculum areas. He perceived it as an attempt to "address the entire principle of the practical in one subject" (p. 80). Michael Barnett, another contributor to this book, agreed that the new approach might cause merely a modest improvement of "the old craft subjects" (p. 96). Barnett's "Technology, Within the National Curriculum and Elsewhere" was decidedly aimed at proving that the National Curriculum Technology was not thoughtfully linked with the technology of the "real world" -going so far as to call it "mickey mouse." Drawing attention to the fact that most of the activities in the technology curriculum are relatively "low tech" he declared that they do little more than "scratch at the surface" of current key technologies such as biological materials, semiconductors, ceramics, ion beam implantation, optoelectric de- vices, mechatronics, sensors, image processing, flexible manufacturing, etc. In Barnett's opinion, then, the National Curriculum Technology should only be considered "a circumscribed intervention in the field of general education" (p. 96).
Barnett also expressed the concern that societal issues and the wider implications of technology cannot be addressed except through a cross-curricular approach, and that the present technology curriculum falls well short of being interdisciplinary in nature. Not to fault the developers, Barnett recognizes that this is largely due to the nature of "the lumbering circus-train of the National Curriculum" (p.100). In the past few years, there have been many comparisons and contrasts of the American and English approaches to teaching technology. Many aspects of the English system of teaching technology have been considered superior to the American system. As part of a National Curriculum, however, it has been presented quite differently in England and Wales than in the technology education curricula in the United States. Perhaps, because it was a mandate, it has caused conflicts with other agendas and has invited the opposition to technology education that is evident in this publication. More likely, however, it is the result of misunderstanding the aims of technology education and/or a reluctance to accept a new paradigm. Regardless of that which compelled it, this biting commentary is valuable to technology educators worldwide as it is one of the first extremely critical re- views of technology-based curricula.
Mark Snyder is Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial Technology, Illinois State University, Normal, IL.
Copyright 1993, Journal Of Technology Education ISSN 1045-1064.
Permission is given to copy any article or graphic provided credit is given and the copies are not intended for sale.
Journal Of Technology Education Volume 4, Number 2 Fall 1993