A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury that is caused by a bump, blow or jolt to the head. The brain bumps into the interior wall of the skull where it is hit, as well as the point opposite of impact.
Concussions also can result from a fall or a blow to the body that causes the head and brain to move quickly back and forth. Health care professionals may describe a concussion as a “mild” brain injury, because concussions are usually not life-threatening. Even so, their effects can be serious, especially in repeated concussions, because they can affect how the brain works.
Signs and Symptoms of Concussion
Athletes who experience one or more of the signs and symptoms listed below after a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or body may have a concussion.
|Signs Observed by Coaching Staff||Symptoms Reported by Athlete|
|Appears dazed or stunned||Headache or “pressure” in head|
|Is confused about assignment or position||Nausea or vomiting|
|Forgets an instruction||Balance problems or dizziness|
|Is unsure of game, score, or opponent||Double or blurry vision|
|Moves clumsily||Sensitivity to light|
|Answers questions slowly||Sensitivity to noise|
|Loses consciousness (even briefly)||Feeling sluggish, hazy, foggy, or groggy|
|Shows mood, behavior, or personality changes||Concentration or memory problems|
|Can’t recall events prior to hit or fall||Confusion|
|Can’t recall events after hit or fall||Just not “feeling right” or is “feeling down”|
Concussion Symptoms May be Delayed
Not all people with a concussion lose consciousness. Some concussion symptoms may appear right away, while others may not be noticed for days or even months after the injury. That's why the signs and symptoms of a concussion may be missed initially by the person with the concussion, family members or a doctor. People may look fine even though they are acting or feeling differently. It is important to contact a physician if you recognize concussion signs and symptoms.
Resuming daily activities may make the signs of concussion more apparent. Some people who have had a concussion find it more difficult to deal with school and work demands, get along with everyone at home, or simply to relax. Sometimes, people are not aware of or will not admit they are having problems. Others may not understand why they are having difficulties, which can make them frustrated.
Concussion in Sports: 4-step Action Plan
If you suspect that an athlete has a concussion, implement your 4-step action plan:
Remove the athlete from play. Look for signs and symptoms of a concussion if your athlete has experienced a bump or blow to the head or body. When in doubt, keep the athlete out of play.
- Ensure that the athlete is evaluated by a health care professional experienced in evaluating for concussion. Do not try to judge the severity of the injury yourself. Health care professionals have a number of methods that they can use to assess the severity of concussions. As a coach, recording the following information can help health care professionals in assessing the athlete after the injury:
- Cause of the injury and force of the hit or blow to the head or body
- Any loss of consciousness (passed out/knocked out) and if so, for how long
- Any memory loss immediately following the injury
- Any seizures immediately following the injury
- Number of previous concussions (if any)
Inform the athlete’s parents or guardians about the possible concussion and give them the fact sheet on concussion. Make sure they know that the athlete should be seen by a health care professional experienced in evaluating for concussion.
- IMPORTANT: Keep the athlete out of play the day of the injury and until a health care professional, experienced in evaluating for concussion, says he or she is symptom-free and it is okay to return to play. A repeat concussion that occurs before the brain recovers from the first—usually within a short period of time (hours, days, or weeks)—can slow recovery or increase the likelihood of having long-term problems. In rare cases, repeat concussions can result in edema (brain swelling), permanent brain damage, and even death.
Recovering from a Concussion
Although most people recover fully after a concussion, how quickly they improve depends on many factors, including: their age, how healthy they were before the concussion, and how they take care of themselves after the injury.
Rest and time are the most important factors in recovering from a concussion. Rest is necessary because it helps the brain to heal, which takes time. “Toughing it out” and ignoring symptoms often makes them worse. Under the supervision of their healthcare provider, a person with a concussion should gradually resume normal work and school activities only when symptoms have reduced significantly. If symptoms return or new symptoms appear, it means the patient is pushing himself too hard. A person with a known or suspected concussion should not return to play until he is evaluated and given permission by an appropriate healthcare professional.
More Tips for Recovering from a Concussion
- Avoid activities that are physically demanding (e.g., weightlifting/working-out) or require a lot of concentration. They can make your symptoms worse and slow your recovery.
- Get plenty of sleep at night and rest during the day.
- Avoid activities, such as contact or recreational sports that could cause another blow or jolt to the head. (It is best to avoid roller coasters or other high speed rides that can make your symptoms worse or even cause a concussion.)
- Because your ability to react may be slower after a concussion, ask your healthcare professional when you can safely drive a car, ride a bike, or operate heavy equipment.
- Talk with your health care professional about when you can return to work. Ask about how you can help your employer understand what has happened to you.
- Consider talking with your employer about returning to work gradually and about changing your work activities or schedule until you recover (e.g., work half-days).
- Take only those drugs that your health care professional has approved.
- Do not drink alcoholic beverages until your health care professional says you are well enough. Alcohol and other drugs may slow your recovery and put you at risk of further injury.
- Write down the things that may be harder than usual for you to remember.
- If you’re easily distracted, try to do one thing at a time. For example, don’t try to watch TV while fixing dinner.
- Consult with family members or close friends when making important decisions.
- Do not neglect your basic needs, such as eating well and getting enough rest.
- Avoid sustained computer use, including computer/video games early in the recovery process.
- Some people report that flying in airplanes makes their symptoms worse shortly after a concussion.
Source: Centers for Disease Control


The Shape Of Your Glass Affects How Fast You Drink Beer
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online
How quickly a person drinks beer depends upon the shape of the glass the alcoholic beverage is contained in, researchers from the University of Bristol claim as part of a new study.
According to Steven Morris of the Guardian, the researchers discovered that it took beer drinkers nearly half the time to empty a curved glass than it did to finish the liquid contained in a straight glass. Morris reported that it took an average of 12 minutes to drain a straight glass of beer, but just seven minutes from a curved one.
“The researchers suggest the reason may be that it is more difficult to accurately judge the halfway point of curved glasses. As a result, people are less able to gauge how much they have drunk,” he said. “They believe drinkers try to pace themselves and so the halfway point becomes important.”
Interestingly, the Bristol researchers, who have published their findings in the journal PLoS One, found that when the 159 men and women who took part in the research drank soft drinks instead of beer, there was virtually no difference between the two different types of mugs. Regardless of whether or not they were drinking the non-alcoholic beverage from a straight or curved vessel, they finished the beverage in an average of approximately seven minutes.
Morris reports that the experiment was conducted by the university’s School of Experimental Psychology, and that the subjects chosen for the research were between the ages of 18 and 40 with no prior history of alcoholism. Each subject was first asked to drink from one of the two types of glasses while watching a nature documentary, and then asked to return for a second session, during which they looked at pictures of different straight and curved glasses and determine whether each was more than half full or less than half full.
“It emerged that the participants who showed the greatest error in their judgment of where halfway was in the curved glasses tended to be those that drank the quickest from them,” he said. “The study highlights how in recent years makers of alcoholic drinks have invested in interesting branded glasses to differentiate their products. These include chalice glasses, curved beer flutes, tankards and novel curved glasses.”
“While many people drink alcohol responsibly, it is not difficult to have ‘one too many’ and become intoxicated. Because of the negative effects alcohol has on decision making and control of behavior, this opens us up to a number of risks,” lead researcher Dr. Angela Attwood said in a statement. “People often talk of ‘pacing themselves’ when drinking alcohol as a means of controlling levels of drunkenness, and I think the important point to take from our research is that the ability to pace effectively may be compromised when drinking from certain types of glasses.”


In a Long Fat Network (LFN) the Round Trip Time (RTT) and Bandwidth Delay Product (BDP) can affect throughput of a download. Normal FTP downloads suffer. This program reduces this problem by downloading chunks of a given file (slices of a given file) in parallel. A number of threads are used to read at different offsets of a file on the FTP server. FTP REST command is used to retrieve content at a given offset within the file by a thread.
Output can be to a single file or multiple "chunk" files in a directory which can be concatenated later.


Why is Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night famous?
1 Answer | Add Yours
When Twelfth Night was first performed in 1602, it proved to be very popular. Shakespeare's audiences especially took a liking to Malvolio and all of the comedy surrounding his characterization. In fact, Malvolio was so popular that by 1623 Shakespeare's fans came to call the play simply Malvolio. The prank Maria pulls on Malvolio is certainly the height of comedy, especially convincing him to do the things Olivia detests, such as wearing yellow stockings, appearing cross-gartered and smiling, as signs that he is returning her affection, as we see Maria explain in her speech:
[H]e will come to her in yellow stockings, and 'tis a colour she abhors, and crossgartered, a fashion she detests; and he will smile upon her, which will now be so unsuitable to her disposition, being addicted to melancholy as she is. (II.v.179-84)
However, beyond Malvolio, Twelfth Night delves into intriguing themes, such as "conflicts of power, class structure, and sexuality," particularly the sexual complications demonstrated by the fact that Olivia falls in love with who is essentially a fellow woman and even that Antonio, the sea captain who rescued Sebastian, has such strong feelings for Sebastian that his feelings lead him to danger ("Twelfth Night In Performance"). It's these themes that have made Twelfth Night popular throughout the ages, each era wanting to interpret the play differently. In addition, naturally the mistaken identities and mixed-up lovers add to the play's humor, making it one of the most frequently performed plays.
Join to answer this question
Join a community of thousands of dedicated teachers and students.Join eNotes


PRINCETON – An information war has erupted around the world. The battle lines are drawn between those governments that regard the free flow of information, and the ability to access it, as a matter of fundamental human rights, and those that regard official control of information as a fundamental sovereign prerogative. The contest is being waged institutionally in organizations like the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and daily in countries like Syria.
The sociologist Philip N. Howard recently used the term “new cold war” to describe “battles between broadcast media outlets and social-media upstarts, which have very different approaches to news production, ownership, and censorship.” Because broadcasting requires significant funding, it is more centralized – and thus much more susceptible to state control. Social media, by contrast, transforms anyone with a mobile phone into a potential roving monitor of government deeds or misdeeds, and are hard to shut down without shutting down the entire Internet. Surveying struggles between broadcast and social media in Russia, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, Howard concludes that, notwithstanding their different media cultures, all three governments strongly back state-controlled broadcasting.
These intra-media struggles are interesting and important. The way that information circulates does reflect, as Howard argues, a conception of how a society/polity should be organized.
But an even deeper difference concerns the fundamental issue of who owns information in the first place. In January 2010, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proclaimed that the United States “stand[s] for a single Internet where all of humanity has equal access to information and ideas.” She linked that stance not only to the US Constitution’s First Amendment, which protects freedom of expression and freedom of the press, but also to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which holds that all people have the right “to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Many governments’ determination to “erect electronic barriers” to block their citizens’ efforts to access the full resources of the Internet, she said, means that “a new information curtain is descending across our world.”
This larger struggle is playing out in many places, including the ITU, which will convene 190 countries in Dubai in December to update an international telecommunications treaty first adopted in 1988. Although many of the treaty’s details are highly technical, involving the routing of telecommunications, various governments have submitted proposals to amend the treaty that include provisions aimed at facilitating government censorship of the Internet.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been open about his desire to use the ITU “to establish international control” over the Internet, thereby superseding current arrangements, which leave Internet governance in the hands of private groups like the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and the Internet Engineering Task Force. The US would never sign a treaty that fundamentally changed Internet governance arrangements, but the point is that many governments will try to use the treaty process to increase their ability to control the information that their citizens can access.
On the ground, governments are often still primarily focused on blocking information about what they are doing. One of the Syrian government’s first moves after it began shooting protesters, for example, was to expel all foreign journalists. Several weeks ago, the government of Tajikistan blocked YouTube and reportedly shut down communications networks in a remote region where government forces were battling an opposition group. The Chinese government barred all foreign journalists from Tibet when it cracked down hard on protesters before the 2008 Olympics.
These more traditional tactics can now be supplemented with new tools for misinformation. For close followers of the Syrian conflict, tracking key reporters and opposition representatives on Twitter can be a surreal experience.
Two weeks ago, Ausama Monajed, a Syrian strategic communications consultant who sends out a steady stream of information and links to opposition activities in Syria, suddenly started sending out pro-government propaganda. The Saudi-owned satellite news channel Al Arabiya has also reported the hacking of its Twitter feed by the “Electronic Syrian Army,” a shadowy group most likely comprised of free-lance operatives with the direct or indirect support of the Syrian government. It is one thing to read about sophisticated cyber-war capabilities; it is quite another to see the online identities of familiar people or Web sites suddenly hijacked.
In the many manifestations of the ongoing and growing information war(s), the pro-freedom-of-information forces need a new weapon. A government’s banning of journalists or blocking of news and social-media Web sites that were previously allowed should itself be regarded as an early warning sign of a crisis meriting international scrutiny. The presumption should be that governments with nothing to hide have nothing to lose by allowing their citizens and internationally recognized media to report on their actions.
To give this presumption teeth, it should be included in international trade and investment agreements. Imagine if the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and regional development banks suspended financing as soon as a government pulled down an information curtain. Suppose foreign investors wrote contracts providing that the expulsion and banning of foreign journalists or widespread blocking of access to international news sources and social media constituted a sign of political risk sufficient to suspend investor obligations under the contract.
Americans say that sunlight is the best disinfectant. Citizens’ access to information is an essential tool to hold governments accountable. Government efforts to manipulate or block information should be presumed to be an abuse of power – one intended to mask many other abuses.


The endocrine system plays a vital role in maintaining cell integrity. It consists of a series of ductless glands that secrete chemical messengers (hormones) into the bloodstream to act on distal locations. Although these hormones vary in structure and function, together their effects maintain a stable environment that can adapt to stressors. These effects include managing the production, storage and utilization of energy, development and growth, and maintenance of intravascular volume status.
Hormones can be divided into four groups based on their chemical structure: amino acids, polypeptides, steroids, and eicosanoids. Amino acids are structurally modified from their base amino acid structures, allowing participation in signaling. Polypeptide hormones consist of chains of amino acids that are further modified by adding carbohydrates. Steroidal hormones are cholesterol-derived lipids that generally cross the cell membrane to enact their effects. Eicosanoids are also plasma membrane phospholipid-based messengers. These hormones are secreted to the surrounding interstitial spaces or travel into the bloodstream to distal sites.
There are two main signaling mechanisms based on the hormone’s solubility characteristics:
Lipid-soluble hormones cross the cell membrane and bind to cytoplasmic proteins. The hormone–protein complex promotes the transcription of a target DNA segment, stimulating the production of enzymes to enact the hormone’s effect.
Water-soluble proteins bind membrane receptors on the target cells. The receptor–hormone complex triggers the production of a secondary messenger in the cytoplasm. This second messenger cascade has a variety of effects, but ultimately results in the upregulation of target enzymes as well.
Hormone regulation occurs via neural regulation or feedback mechanisms. Direct neural regulation can be seen in catecholamine release, where preganglionic sympathetic nerve fibers synapse directly on the adrenal medulla to stimulate catecholamine release.
When the body senses changes to its equilibrium, the endocrine system acts to restore it. These changes can be an aberrant glucose level, an abnormal temperature, or a sudden physical stressor. Hormone production is upregulated when its effects are needed. When the body senses that the intended physiologic effect exceeds what is necessary, an inhibitory signal is sent to halt production of the messengers via a negative feedback loop. Positive feedback loops, however, are rare. One notable exception is that of oxytocin during labor. Once a threshold level of oxytocin is reached, oxytocin production is further increased, until labor occurs.
HYPOTHALAMUS AND PITUITARY GLAND
The hypothalamus and pituitary gland are distinct from the other members of the endocrine system. They act as the control center of the endocrine system with a wide arsenal of hormones to enact their effects. This tiered system of control offers two main benefits. First, it allows an amplification of the initial signal to generate a more significant end effect. Second, it provides multiple targets for feedback loops, offering layers of control.
The hypothalamus is located near the corpus callosum ...


Sendes vanligvis innen 5-15 dager
Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing delights in the verbal sparring between reluctant lovers, Beatrice and Benedick who are happily brought together at the end of the play by the schemes of their friends. And, no story is complete without one evil character, Don John, who unsuccessfully tries to tear apart the wedding plans of Hero and Claudio, the other lovers in this sparkling story. Rewritten in rhyming couplets for children to read, this version of the play is illustrated by the author's own pupils who have created wonderful drawings of the play. Their artistic interpretations are vivid evidence of her clever ability to bring Shakespeare's complex characters and intricate plots to life for young people.
|Antall sider||64||Dimensjoner||20cm x 23cm x 0,4cm|
|Vekt||181 gram||Leverandør||Bertram Trading Ltd|
|Andre medvirkende||Denzel Washington||Emner og form||Educational: English literature, Playscripts (Children's / Teenage)|


Scientists anywhere will tell you the importance of trial runs. Before you launch a rocket to the moon or distribute a new medicine to thousands of people, you start small to make sure it works. Before you put it on a large stage, you first have to master it on a smaller scale.
The same principle can be applied to leadership: before you can lead other people, you have to learn how to lead yourself. It's an idea known as values-based leadership, largely created by management professor and best-selling author Harry Kraemer. In Harry's world, you are the guinea pig to test your ideas and to put yourself in the right mindset to be a successful leader. Leadership doesn't depend on your job title or where you fall in your company's organization chart; it relies on your ability to influence and engage other people.
To learn to lead yourself, Harry suggests four principles that every future leader must develop in themselves:
Self-reflection. Being a leader means being able to step back and ask yourself difficult questions. What are your values? What do you stand for? What is your purpose? What kind of leader do you want to be? Find time to slow down and be honest with yourself about where you are and where you want to be. Daily self-reflection can help you improve each day and keep you in line so that your daily actions match your long-term goals and purposes. Self-reflection sets the foundation for strong leadership and allows you to do solidify your beliefs and make sure you are following through on your promises.
Balance. Good leaders don't try to be right, they try to do the right thing. More important than having all the answers themselves is being respected. To make the right decision, you need to look at things from a variety of perspectives. After all, if you always do things according to your own view, you may be forgetting a number of other important outlooks. Don't be afraid to get opinions from other people and to ask for help and guidance when necessary. The final decision comes down to you as the leader, but it can do you well to be informed and make a balanced choice.
True self-confidence. This can often get confused with being arrogant or egotistical, but true self-confidence is accepting you who are and owning your skills and your flaws. Leaders who are truly self-confident know where they stand and work to improve themselves every day. Many people in the business world may act confident without actually being self-confident. Harry recommends asking yourself if you have reached a point in your life where you feel comfortable saying, "I don't know" or "I was wrong"--that's the sign of true self-confidence.
Genuine humility. Humility goes hand in hand with self-confidence. Even if you have reached a great milestone in your career, don't forget where you came from and everyone who helped you reach your goals. Almost every current executive started their career in a cubicle or bullpen--don't forget that cube and how far you have come. If you are self-centered or egotistical, people won't be able to relate or connect with you, which negates your ability to be an effective leader. Remembering where you came from and creating connections with people who are now in those situations can be hugely beneficial in being a successful leader.
Once you have mastered these four principles, your leadership ability will grow exponentially. However, it doesn't stop after you've gone through the steps just once--you must be constantly evaluating your progress and ensuring you are staying on the humble, balanced path to being an effective leader.
How do you build values-based leadership?


Mineral processing dust control handbookSoiling clothes with crushed limestone dust (rockdust) for testing . Relatively New Primary Grinding Mill Facility.
In mineral processing or metallurgy, the first stage of comminution isneeds to have sufficient crushing power to provide a Pto grinding of
The following are the major processing methods involved in ore dressing/ mineral processing:. Size reduction (Crushing ,Grinding )..
Valuable minerals are extracted from rock via the process of comminution (crushing and grinding). This process can be further refined using various means of
The EduMine short course Advanced Crushing and Grinding Techniques, Lima,Short Courses > Mineral Processing > Advanced Crushing and Grinding
Mineral processing is a major division in the science of Extractive Metallurgy.The crushing and grinding process will produce a range of particles with varying
In the field of extractive metallurgy, mineral processing, also known as ore dressing, is thepurposes in a mineral processing plant. Crushing is a dry process whereas grinding is generally performed wet and hence is more energy intensive.
Modifying blasting practices to achieve a more suitable mill feed size – which varies according to the crushing/grinding circuit – can achieve up to a%
s equipment for the mining industry includes thermal processing, filtration, separation, materials handling, grinding, screening and crushing systems.
Grinding is the second step of mineral processing and the last stage of the comminution process. The product from a crushing unit is fed to a mill in order to
GTKs Mineral Processing Laboratory provides a wide range of ore beneficiationlowenvironmental-impact crushing, grinding and concentration processes.
and fine mineral processing and aggregate applications both for cyanide and acid leaching CRUSHING SCRUBBING GRINDING GRAVITY CONCENTRATION.
t/h are constantly proving their value crushing and processing hard rock, limestone, coal, ore, overburden and other minerals in open pit pines and quarries.
Mineral ProcessingCrushingPlant design, construction, operation . to potential problems in Crushing Screening and Grinding the ore with
grinding, to single stage crushing and semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) andbut has seen an improvement in the overall efficiency of mineral processing as.
Home > Global engineering expertise > Mineral Processingde-water, roast, crush, grind, concentrate, agglomerate, and smelt many different ore types.
technology to the minerals processinggrinding technology can be implemented in minerals processing especially in .. crushing and grinding (Eloranta,.
mineral processing: Art of treating crude ores and mineral products in order tobegins by crushing the ore to below a certain size and finishes by grinding it into
CRUSHING SCRUBBING GRINDING GRAVITY CONCENTRATIONCRUSHI MINERAL PROCESSING AND AGGREGATE SPECIALISTS SCRUBB.
Overview Mineral Processing · Crushing plants · CrushersHome · Products & Services · Mineral Processing · Grinding plants · Wet grinding plants; Ball millsBall mills are used for wet grinding iron ore, gold/copper ore, nickel ore and otherThe grinding plant consists of an SAG mill of.m diameter x.m length
Ore from the pit is first processed through the Crushing Circuit which consists of athe properties of the other ores are also amenable to crushing/grinding by HPGR.The ball mill is one of three mills in the mineral processing plant and is the
Each possible mineral recovery process has a certain size range of best performance, and the final product of the crushing/grinding circuit must
BASICS IN MINERAL PROCESSING. CONTENT. Introduction.. Minerals in operation.. Size reduction.. Crushing. Grinding. Size control.. Screening.
The laboratory includes coal and mineral processing laboratory, Washability laboratory and Crushing and Grinding laboratory. Coal and
Dedicated in April,the Max Bowen Mineral Processing LaboratoryCrushing; Grinding; Size Classification; Mineral Concentration
A short history of mineral processing. Fathi Habashi. Laval University, Quebec City, Canada. ABSTRACT: Crushing and grinding of ores and their beneficiation
This is a simple video slideshow, if you want to know more details, please click on our website http://www.gospellightbaptistschool.com , we will
The online version of Mineral Processing Design and Operation by A. Gupta andUnit processes of crushing, grinding, solid–liquid separation, flotation are
Metallic mineral processing typically involves the mining of ore from either open pitprimary, secondary, and tertiary crushing; dry grinding; drying; and material
Xinhai mineral processing equipment mainly include: grindingthe use of certain crushing grinding process to make one of the minerals to


Research shows whales can be just like boys in a bar
MIGRATING whales display behaviour not dissimilar to that of humans in the way they interact and treat each other.
That may be a layman's take on the way mothers and calves totter along on their way south from Hervey Bay while the males rush about bossing and hurrying them along, but it has some validity according to University of Queensland Behaviour Responses of Australian Humpback Whales to Seismic Searches program co-director Mike Noad.
Dr Noad says that when on their own, unaccompanied by a male 'escort', the mums and calves keep their own rhythm, swimming for three hours and then resting while the young nurse before setting off again. The arrival of males on the scene rushing about looking for a mate can have all the hallmarks of a Friday night at a bar.
A team of 30 scientists and volunteers from across the globe are on the Sunshine Coast for the 11th year of a whale behaviour monitoring program that started in 1997.
Initially set up to examine the impact air guns used in oil and gas exploration had on migrating whales, the research program has branched out to study their social behaviour, sounds and songs.
This year the focus of teams deployed atop Emu Mountain, at sea in two small craft, and at Peregian and Sunshine Beach, is to document the underlying social behaviour of the mammals that grow to 16 metres.
Dr Noad said a set of five hydrophones attached to buoys off Peregian Beach radio back sounds to scientists working from Horizons Resort who can listen in real time and track the animals underwater through triangulation while teams at Costa Nova in Sunshine Beach and on Emu Mountain record surface-based activity.
His co-director, Dr Rebecca Dunlop, has compiled the first comprehensive catalogue of humpback social sounds and has tracked the transference of song through groups here to as far away as French Polynesia, more than 7000km away.


The Chesapeake Bay’s Eastern Shore is a special place; a place alive with stories.
An expanded view of the Eastern Shore would include all of what’s called the Delmarva — Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia — Peninsula and would encompass everything from the eastern foot of the Bay Bridge to the Atlantic Ocean and from the lighthouse at Cape Charles north to the Chesapeake’s upper tributaries, but as with any special place, the gateway often holds much of that place’s power.
Courtesy Delaware Public Archives
Kent Island, the largest island in the Chesapeake Bay, and one of the oldest permanent English settlements in our country, originally claimed for the Virginia by the surveyor/ fur trader William Claiborne in 1631, and predated only by Jamestown and Plymouth, Massachusetts, is the first stop upon arrival in the Land of Pleasant Living.
Courtesy Encyclopedia Virginia
Claiborne built the upper bay’s first trading post, fort, and English residences. Kent Island’s Christ Church Parrish is Maryland‘s oldest active religious congregation. It is said the first boat built entirely of wood indigenous to the Chesapeake Bay, The Long Tayle, was built in Claiborne’s shipyard.
Years of violence, bad blood, and the first recorded naval battles and charges of piracy in North American waters followed after King Charles I granted to George Calvert, the original Baron of Baltimore, a charter for the colony of Maryland, which included the Eastern Shore and Claiborne’s already settled “Isle of Kent”.
Claiborne, though on the losing end of history, did not give up easily. Feeling wrongly persecuted and badly treated, he argued and battled tenaciously, and long after defeat, bad-mouthed his enemies and harbored bitter resentments.
On the Eastern Shore, we know how to hold a grudge.
For generations, except for certain advancements in work or leisure, life on the Eastern Shore remained virtually unchanged; small agricultural communities and hardscrabble watermen’s enclaves populated by independent and stubborn hard-working people known for the blunt earthiness and salty eccentricity that comes natural to tough folk living off the land and the water. Early in the morning, the Chesapeake Bay always belonged to the watermen, and the land to the farmers.
The first span of the William Preston Lane Jr Memorial Bridge, the Bay Bridge to everybody except the state of Maryland, opened in 1952. Before that, access to and from the western shore (the Eastern Shore is always capitalized, the western shore never) was feasible only by boat – dugout log canoes and sailing ships, barges and bugeyes, schooners and skipjacks, steamers and ferries.
Though generally self-sufficient, life on the Eastern Shore in the decades before the bridge had required interaction with the outside world: supplies, mail, news, and even entertainment (as evidenced by the early 20th century’s James Adams Floating Theater), were shipped in; seafood, farm products, (and the occasional prodigal son or daughter who was “Craving the World”), shipped out.
The Bay Bridge changed all that.
Courtesy Kent island Heritage Society
Much of the Eastern Shore can still be called rural-in-nature, but suburban sprawl has increased exponentially in recent years, and the gateway areas within 20 miles of the bridge have been perhaps the most transformed.
Though there’s always been some reluctance to accept “foreigners” – anybody whose family tree doesn’t have roots going back seven generations – one attribute we on the Eastern Shore have always been known for is our hospitality.
Colonial era ordinaries and taverns were at the heart of regional economic, political and social activity, serving villagers and travelers alike. The tavern proprietor also often functioned as postmaster, real estate agent, auctioneer, arbitrator, and referee.
After the Civil War, as our economy expanded, boardinghouses and hotels began to proliferate. Around the turn of the 20th century, and for 50 years or so, our Chesapeake shorelines were dotted with grand vacation resorts such as Kent Island’s Love Point Hotel, where in the early 1930s, a buck and quarter bought you an-all you-could-eat meal of crabcakes, softcrabs, fish and oysters, Maryland fried chicken, chops, steaks, corn-on-the-cob, mashed potatoes smothered in country butter, local tomatoes, hot beaten biscuits, and homemade pies and cakes.
And of course there was nothing like a little sweet tea, or local bootlegged liquor, to wash it all down.Courtesy Kent island Heritage Society
The Eastern Shore, like most places with a long history, also has its share of legend and lore that is scoffed at in the light of day, but isn’t as funny after the sun goes down.
In the old days, folk feared will-o’-the-wisps or jack-o’-lanterns, mysterious lights that appeared at night, hovering over the salt marshes at a distance, and luring susceptible victims to a watery grave.
In 1712, an Eastern Shore spinster named Virtue Viol was prosecuted in Maryland’s last witch trial.
Over several frantic nights in July 1952, just as the Bay Bridge was opening, a commotion of UFO activity was documented from the lower Eastern Shore to the seats of power in Washington, D.C.
Certainly the most celebrated mystery in the modern era is reports of a strange 30-40 foot bay serpent, affectionately called Chessie.
There is still an occasional sighting, but the Chessie frenzy was concentrated in the waters surrounding Kent Island throughout the 1980s, and garnered national attention after a local family supposedly videotaped the cryptozoological creature.
Though skeptics speculate what witnesses have actually seen is such natural phenomenon as detached construction equipment or displaced marine animals, others believe Chessie could be anything from a surviving prehistoric monster to a giant mutant eel.
Sometimes gateways can be mysterious places.
Courtesy Britt Eckardt Slattery – Environmental Protection Agency, Public Domain,
Books by Brent Lewis are available on Amazon.com
Remembering Kent Island: Stories from the Chesapeake and A History of the Kent Island Volunteer Fire Department published by Arcadia Publishing & The History Press:


I recently came across a video of Kseniya Simonova, a Ukrainian sand artist. Beguiling to see, she scatters and shapes sand across a light box, as if painting with the particles. See here for the performance that won her Ukraine’s take on America’s Got Talent, in which she uses sand to interpret Germany’s occupation of her country during World War II. Be prepared though, to feel shocked, somber and staggered after seeing this.
Simonova’s sand work pointed me in the direction of Sand Fountain (1948) by Joseph Cornell at the National Gallery of Art. An American, Cornell (1903 – 1972) is best-known now for pioneering Assemblage art, which uses 3D found objects to create works. Assemblage art was only properly established in the 1950s, when the name was coined, but nonetheless its roots dig deeper, to the mid 1930s, when Cornell came up with his first assemblage pieces. Primarily an urban art form, Assemblage sprang up in New York, Cornell’s native city (indeed, apart from five years spent at Phillips Academy in Andover, he lived his whole life there, in a working-class part of Queens).
Boxed assemblages like the one we’re looking at today formed a large part of Cornell’s reputation and success as an artist over the decades (he produced his first example in the in 1930s). These works see Cornell move far and wide from the traditional genres of painting and sculpture, to create hybrid 3D forms of gathered-together discarded objects and scrap materials, in boxes. Sand Fountain (1948) does a lot to lay bare the bones of Cornell’s peculiar practice.
You’ll see that this box is plastered over the outside and edges with light-salmon newspaper. Inside one side is pasted with some sort of geographical map with lines and coordinates: collage like this loomed large in early Assemblage art. Peering beyond the glass panel slotted across the front of the box, we observe an odd cluster of things. There’s a funnel-like form coming down from the top (it’s painted with cracked and peeling white paint and marked with a pitch-black dot). Out from under a little lip trickles a thin ribbon of sand, color ochre, into the sharp-edged, shattered remains of a (champagne?) glass. The sand has overflowed throughout the base of the box, duning against the sides and pushing up against the pane.
Cornell’s eclectic fusion of found things recalls Surrealism, a style that lived on in New York into the 1940s, and which exerted influence on all the genres he worked in. While Cornell didn’t espouse the Surrealists’ ethos of uncovering the unconscious through art, there does seem to be some tapping into a deeper level of meaning here.
The objects he’s used for Sand Fountain sit somewhere between junk and abandoned and broken sometime-treasures. There’s an ‘everyday’ element to the things we see (sand, a glass, strips of newspaper), which lends a certain notion of nostalgia. But alongside the recognizable bits and pieces pries an unsettling sense of breakage, interruption and loss. In a plain way, Cornell might be highlighting the wastefulness of society (certainly, he was an important influence on Pop Art of the 1960s, which was all about analyzing aspects of consumerism). But surely there’s more to be uncovered here? Even though it wasn’t until the 1960s and 1970s that Assemblage art started to ‘comment’ openly on social issues, I can’t help but peruse the possible readings here. I’m seeing an hourglass and an attendant concern with time and transience. What do other people see?


The Importance of Lullabies
Since response to sound is one of the most highly developed abilities in the newborn infant, children need to be musically nurtured from birth. Staincliffe Maternity Hospital in England soothes new infants by playing recorded music of such composers as Brahms, Handel, and Mozart. The effect on the infants works wonders, hospital attendants say. In some hospitals, a program of lullaby music is piped into rooms where mothers are feeding their babies.
Lullabies from the greatest composers and spontaneous melodies sung and hummed by loving caregivers have brought comfort and sleep to countless babies. For generations, people throughout the world have sung lullabies to their babies as they cuddled them in their arms and gently rocked them to sleep. Modern research is only beginning to discover the full importance of lullabies. Hearing soft, rhythmic songs brings a sense of calmness and security to the sensitive infant. Besides soothing an infant, rocking and singing help the infant become accustomed to the “feelings” of sound motion. Without this type of gentle introduction to music, many infants will continue to react with a startle to sudden movement and loud sounds and noises.
Another benefit of singing lullabies is the communication that occurs between the caregiver and the baby. An infant often seems to respond directly to the singer by cooing and babbling, thus encouraging the development of speech and singing.
In today’s technological world, people are accustomed to hearing music produced by top professionals. It’s understandable that when comparing themselves to the professional, some people feel inadequate in making music on their own. It is not unusual for parents and teachers to become unduly concerned about the quality of their singing voices. Some will not attempt to sing to or with children. Dr. John Lind, professor emeritus at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, discovered that children who have parents with rather poor singing voices still grow up to love to sing and are able to sing on key (Fletcher, 1981, p. 26). It is more important that parents sing to their babies than that they sing well. Authorities like Lind and Hardgrove (1978) remind us, “It is not the quality of the voice that matters, it is the connection....It is not the on-key, smooth mechanical perfection that brings joy to infants as well as adults. The joy comes in the rendition, and the example of this intimate parent-to-infant message encourages the child to sing” (p. 10).
Although singing lullabies comes naturally to many people, some may need a few tips on sharing them with infants. Infants’ interest in a world of sound can be enhanced in different ways and through different qualities of tones and pitches, rhythmical movement, and songs.
Suggestions for Singing Lullabies to Infants
- Build a repertoire of favorites lullabies. If possible, memorize them. This is important, as many of today's young parents have no memories of being lullabied and are not familiar with the most beautiful lullabies from around the world. There are excellent lullaby books on the market. There is also a wide variety of good lullaby compact discs (CDs) and cassette tapes available. Note: Tapes and CDs should be used only as accompaniment or as an aid when learning new songs. The parent's or teacher's voice should always be present.
- Some infants prefer one lullaby over another; however, don't limit your singing to only music labeled lullabies. Try singing contemporary songs and show tunes. Infants enjoy variety and change of pace.
- As you securely hold and gently rock an infant, smile warmly and look directly into the infant's face and eyes. This kind of "bonding" brings contentment and security to the infant.
© ______ 2005, Merrill, an imprint of Pearson Education Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The reproduction, duplication, or distribution of this material by any means including but not limited to email and blogs is strictly prohibited without the explicit permission of the publisher.
- Kindergarten Sight Words List
- First Grade Sight Words List
- 10 Fun Activities for Children with Autism
- Signs Your Child Might Have Asperger's Syndrome
- A Teacher's Guide to Differentiating Instruction
- Definitions of Social Studies
- What Makes a School Effective?
- Curriculum Definition
- Theories of Learning
- Child Development Theories


May 11, 2012
This image has been posted with express written permission. This cartoon was originally published at Town Hall.
May 11, 2012
This image has been posted with express written permission. This cartoon was originally published at Town Hall.
May 11, 2012
The Six Day War spawned the special relationship between Israel and the United States of America. Elizabeth Stephens explores the cultural backdrop to this momentous development which resonates in the Middle East to this day.
The Six Day War that erupted on June 5th, 1967, was a profound event in Middle Eastern history that reshaped the political landscape of the region and redrew the boundaries of the state of Israel. But its consequences are far wider reaching. In its lightning victory against the Soviet-supported Arab states of Egypt and Syria, and the pro-Western kingdom of Jordan, Israel not only re-wrote the political and military geography of the Middle East, it accelerated the pace of cultural identification between Israel and America. The short conflict was of far greater significance in consolidating the ‘special relationship’ between Israel and the world’s greatest superpower than Truman’s recognition of the Jewish state in 1948. The events surrounding the war brought together the strains of a cultural identification that underpins one of the most enduring, potent and anomalous alliances of the twenty-first century.
The US was uniquely created from the desire of the Pilgrim Fathers to build a New World, free from the scourge of religious persecution and cultural decadence. The belief that God has blessed America has created the desire to shape the world in its image. It underlies Bill Clinton’s impulse to extend the sphere of democracies to the undemocratic world and George W. Bush’s description in his 2007 State of the Union address of the ‘war on terror’ as an ideological struggle. This desire is perpetuated by the country’s unrivalled military might that bestows the ability to shape international relations and to remove the leaders of states that are categorized as ‘rogue regimes’.
Israel’s sixty years of recent history, after a hiatus of nearly 2,000 years, makes it a relative newcomer to world affairs. Yet, despite its brief existence and small scale, Israel has reshaped the political and religious contours of the Middle East and extended its reach across the globe. It has established an international significance far beyond its geographical size and economic muscle. What other country with a population of 6.5 million can claim such importance in the eyes of world leaders?
Given the uniqueness of both countries it would be expected that the interaction between the two would take on a special character as well. All interactions between states are unique, but not all relationships are ‘special’, which implies bonds that go beyond utility to a deeper sense of affinity, one that transcends, and may on occasion even appear to be detrimental to, the national interests of one of the parties.
Contrary to popular perceptions, Israel was not created as a bastion of American democracy or an outpost of Western imperialism in the Middle East. In the years preceding the establishment of Israel, Jewish efforts were met with hostility by the British imperial power that sought to limit Jewish immigration to Palestine. The Truman administration opposed the tough stance Britain adopted to Jewish immigration and, as early as June 1945, President Truman recommended that 100,000 European Jewish refugees be immediately admitted to Palestine.
Ultimately, US support for the partition of Palestine and the recognition of Israel was considered crucial to the international legitimacy of the Jewish state, but US policy in the run-up to these events was quite ambivalent. Truman’s decision to recognize Israel was made at the last minute and was bitterly debated by his advisors in the Departments of State and Defense. In any event, the Jews acted unilaterally in declaring the existence of the state of Israel at 6pm on May 14th, 1948, with Truman extending de facto recognition to an accomplished fact. It was not until the convening of democratic elections in 1949 that the US granted de jure recognition, the arms embargo was lifted and an Israeli loans request was considered.
The United States may have been the first nation to bestow international legitimacy on the fledgling Jewish state by granting recognition but this did not translate into automatic or ongoing support. Economic and military aid from the US remained low throughout the 1950s and as late as 1967 Israel received only $13 million annually from the US. In the early years of Israel’s existence the relationship was conducted at arms length. In the aftermath of the Second World War Americans were focused on rebuilding their civilian lives and enjoying their country’s prosperity, while their government was focused on containing the newly perceived threat to ‘freedom’ emanating from the Soviet Union.
In 1948, Washington was preoccupied with establishing boundaries in the newly emerging Cold War world and shied away from becoming the protector of what was viewed as another weak, Third World, state. The desire to avoid such entanglements was reinforced by the uncertainty surrounding Israel’s political orientation, with the Soviet Union anticipating that as many of Israel’s Jewish inhabitants were leftwing refugees from Eastern Europe, Israel would embody the trappings of a socialist state. Immediately after its establishment, Israel looked to Moscow, not to Washington, for the arms it needed to defend itself.
Crises took place between Israel and the US in 1953 and 1956-57 over Suez, when the Eisenhower administration exerted great pressure on Israel to withdraw from the Sinai peninsula which its troops had captured from Egypt in the 1956 war. This was achieved through American recognition that the Straits of Tiran were an international waterway and no nation had the right to prevent free passage through them.
The potential association between Israel and Communism was reinforced in the late 1940s and early 1950s, by the relatively high number of Jews appearing in espionage prosecutions in the US. The ultimate public relations disasters for American Jewish organizations in the 1950s were the trials of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Morton Sobell, Harry Gold and David Greenglass, all of whom invoked the need to defeat Nazi Germany because of its perpetration of the Holocaust as justification for their association with the Soviet Union. As Holocaust rhetoric was a staple of Communist Party policy, American Jewish organizations were determined to distance themselves from it, and by implication, from the Holocaust itself.
While the disassociation of Jews and Communists in the public mind was a powerful imperative, it was only one of a number of factors that explain the reticence of American Jews to draw attention to the Holocaust during this time or to demand that Washington extend greater support to the Jewish homeland. Involvement in the Second World War had united Americans and the post-war years were a time of optimism. American Jews shared in this ebullient mood. The postwar decades and the ‘victory’ over Nazism drew many Americans, particularly the sons and daughters of recent immigrants, into a shared experience of the American dream. The 1950s and 1960s saw a sharp decline in anti-Semitism in the United States, in part because Jews were increasingly seen as less ‘foreign’ than in the past. Generally, they were no longer the new immigrants, but third-generation Americans: by the 1950s three-quarters of American Jews were native born. They were energetically engaged in becoming integrated into American society and seizing the opportunities available to them. It was not until this process of assimilation and acceptance was complete, when Jews felt comfortable in America as Americans, and when the lustre of America itself had dimmed, that American Jews were ready to acknowledge the full extent of the Holocaust, the corollary of which was to lobby for greater US support for Israel…
May 11, 2012
One night last September, a prisoner named Naji Najjar was brought, blindfolded and handcuffed, to an abandoned military base on the outskirts of Tripoli. A group of young men in camouflage pushed him into a dimly lit interrogation room and forced him to his knees. The commander of the militia, a big man with disheveled hair and sleepy eyes, stood behind Najjar. “What do you want?” the commander said, clutching a length of industrial pipe.
“What do you mean?” the prisoner said.
“What do you want?” the commander repeated. He paused. “Don’t you remember?”
Of course Najjar remembered. Until a few weeks earlier, he was a notorious guard at one of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s prisons. Then Tripoli fell, and the same men he’d beaten for so long tracked him down at his sister’s house and dragged him to their base. Now they were mimicking his own sadistic ritual. Every day, Najjar greeted the prisoners with the words What do you want? forcing them to beg for the pipe — known in the prison by its industrial term, PPR — or be beaten twice as badly. The militia commander now standing behind him, Jalal Ragai, had been one of his favorite victims.
“What do you want?” Jalal said for the last time. He held the very same pipe that had so often been used on him.
“PPR!” Najjar howled, and his former victim brought the rod down on his back.
I heard this story in early April from Naji Najjar himself. He was still being held captive by the militia, living with 11 other men who had killed and tortured for Qaddafi, in a large room with a single barred window and mattresses piled on the floor. The rebels had attached a white metal plate onto the door and a couple of big bolts, to make it look more like a prison. Najjar’s old PPR pipe and falga, a wooden stick used to raise prisoners’ legs in order to beat them on the soles of the feet, rested on a table upstairs. They had gotten some use in the first months of his confinement, when former victims and their relatives came to the base to deliver revenge beatings. One rebel laughed as he told me about a woman whose brother had his finger cut off in prison: when she found the man who did it, she beat him with a broom until it broke. Now, though, the instruments of torture were mostly museum pieces. After six months in captivity, Najjar — Naji to everyone here — had come to seem more clown than villain, and the militiamen had appointed him their cook. Slouching in an armchair among a group of rebels who smoked and chatted casually, Najjar recounted his strange journey from guard to prisoner. “One of the visitors once broke the PPR on me,” he told me.
“Naji, that wasn’t a PPR; it was plastic,” one rebel shot back. “You could beat a pig with a PPR all day, and it wouldn’t break.” Besides, he said, the visitor in question had a ruptured disc from one of Naji’s own beatings, so it was only fair. The men then got into a friendly argument about Naji’s favorite tactics for beating and whether he had used a pipe or a hose when he gashed Jalal’s forehead back in July.
The militia’s deputy commander strolled into the room and gave Najjar’s palm a friendly slap. “Hey, Sheik Naji,” he said. “You got a letter.” The commander opened it and began to read. “It’s from your brother,” he said, and his face lit up with a derisive smile. “It says: ‘Naji is being held by an illegal entity, being tortured on a daily basis, starved and forced to sign false statements.’ Oh, and look at this — the letter is copied to the army and the Higher Security Committee!” This last detail elicited a burst of laughter from the men in the room. Even Naji seemed to find it funny. “We always tell the relatives the same thing,” one man added, for my benefit: “There is no legal entity for us to hand the prisoners over to.”
Libya has no army. It has no government. These things exist on paper, but in practice, Libya has yet to recover from the long maelstrom of Qaddafi’s rule. The country’s oil is being pumped again, but there are still no lawmakers, no provincial governors, no unions and almost no police. Streetlights in Tripoli blink red and green and are universally ignored. Residents cart their garbage to Qaddafi’s ruined stronghold, Bab al-Aziziya, and dump it on piles that have grown mountainous, their stench overpowering. Even such basic issues as property ownership are in a state of profound confusion. Qaddafi nationalized much of the private property in Libya starting in 1978, and now the old owners, some of them returning after decades abroad, are clamoring for the apartments and villas and factories that belonged to their grandparents. I met Libyans brandishing faded documents in Turkish and Italian, threatening to take up arms if their ancestral tracts of land were not returned…
Sable Island National Park: How to reconcile the competing interests of wilderness protection and ecotourism. Can a national park really manage both?
May 11, 2012
THREE HUNDRED kilometres southeast of Halifax, and 170 kilometres from the nearest landfall, at Canso, Nova Scotia, one of the most remote pieces of Canada stands out against the Atlantic like a thin white rune. Sable Island is the exposed tip of a massive sandbar perched on the edge of the Eastern Scotian Shelf, a spare, desertlike landscape in the middle of the sea. Its sands have shifted into an unlikely shape: a crescent some forty-two kilometres long, tapered at the extremities into curled, narrow spits, calling to mind a smile of uncertain temper. A system of tall dunes runs down the middle of the island like a spine, two parallel ridges with fields of grass and heath, and in between a smattering of ponds fed by the freshwater lens that underlies the island and sustains its life. The dunes are fuzzed with windswept marram grass, its deep, fibrous roots holding them together as they are sculpted by the powerful marine elements: gales, waves, and the duelling currents of the warm Gulf Stream running eastward off the island’s southern shore, and the cold, westward-flowing Labrador Current to the north. The mixing of temperatures can cause fog as thick as chowder, which is partly why Sable is infamous for shipwrecks, some 350 of which lie buried in the shoals and sprawling sandbars that surround its coast. It’s also famous for the shaggy wild horses that live among the dunes — one of the world’s last free-roaming herds and, on days when the sun is shining, an almost irresistible symbol of innocence and freedom. In a country known for finding its history comparatively bland, Sable Island is an anomaly: a place that seems, with all its improbable beauty and folklore, to exist half in the realm of myth.
As such, it has a powerful allure for anyone with a passion for adventure travel. Yet even by Canadian standards, it isn’t easy to get to. Only one commercial charter flies there, and only when conditions are good enough that the plane, a twin-engine Britten-Norman Islander operated out of Halifax by Maritime Air, can be sure of making it there and back by day’s end. It’s also not for the thrifty. The charter alone costs about $5,500, and on top of that there are ground support fees to finance the preparation of the island’s “runway,” a makeshift landing strip on the beach marked out by tire tracks, which is often underwater or covered by a colony of sunbathing grey seals. Maritime Air isn’t licensed to sell individual seats, so you have to charter the whole plane; cost sharing is possible but difficult to coordinate. Those who manage to arrange a shared flight still risk paying for a trip to Halifax, only to discover on the morning of the scheduled charter that the weather isn’t co-operating; they’ll go home disappointed. The lucky few who make it will have spent at minimum a couple of thousand dollars for just a few hours on the island — not much time to try to understand the weird science and melancholy beauty of a place that is, on the surface, little more than an isolated strip of heaped sediment and buried debris. On top of that, the fragility of the local ecosystem raises ethical questions about whether tourists should be allowed there at all, making a trip to Sable Island an exercise in scrutinizing one’s beliefs about responsible travel and what it means to care for the natural environment.
This is not the kind of excursion most people have in mind when contemplating a day at the park. Yet that’s soon what it will be: on October 17, 2011, following lengthy negotiations by federal and provincial governments and various interest groups, Sable Island was designated as Canada’s newest national park reserve, the final step before officially making it the country’s forty-third national park.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN to call a place a park? A park is the playground we go to when we’re young, to play on the swing set and dig in the sandbox. A park is a large urban green space, like High Park in Toronto or Stanley Park in Vancouver, a multi-use public area where city dwellers can spend time outdoors. A ballpark is a place to play; so is a skate park, but in a different way. A national park is vast, monumental nature in all of its potency — but what is it for, exactly?
This question lies at the heart of the story of Canada’s national parks system. Parks Canada is the federal agency that oversees the country’s forty-two national parks, as well as 167 national historic sites and four national marine conservation areas. It was founded in 1911 as the Dominion Parks Branch, the first federally managed national parks service in the world. Its first commissioner, J. B. Harkin, sometimes called “the father of Canada’s national parks,” embodies the struggle to define what a national park should be. He is often discussed in connection with the so-called dual mandate of Parks Canada, which ostensibly aims to balance — or combine — conservation with recreation.
Harkin was engaged with parks as a nation builder, which required him to think as both a philosopher and a businessman. His annual report of 1912 included a statement that would reverberate through the agency’s history: “Of equal importance with construction and development work in the parks is the work of conservation.” He saw parks as opportunities to generate tourism, and his ideas have been criticized for paving the way for resort-style parks such as Banff, or Jasper, where just this year a new controversy erupted over the construction of a privately funded tourist walkway over the Columbia Icefield. But years before environmentalism had a cultural shape, his statement tied it forever to the official raison d’être of Canada’s national parks. His conundrum, how to balance protection with public access, remains very much at play in current thinking about park creation and management. Our collective, conscious desire to protect nature is stronger now than at any other time in history, but so is our ability to destroy it, and the struggle to balance protection and control in our relationship with nature is a big part of why these parks exist at all.
Canada’s newest national parks tend to be either in the Far North, or in equally remote destinations like Sable Island, which makes them a hard sell to the majority of Canadians who live in cities near the American border and are more likely to support publicly funded projects closer to home. In the case of Sable Island, the problem is made more complex by a historical narrative that goes back further than the earliest incarnations of the country itself — a set of stories that connects the island to dozens of different cultures, giving it value as a heritage property, but complicating decisions about how to integrate it into the official narrative of Canada’s national parks.
THE BEGINNING of human history on Sable Island has been lost in time. Mi’kmaq have long explored the waters around Nova Scotia in seafaring canoes, but their contemporary descendants are unaware of any early connection to the island. There is speculation that the Vikings may have landed there, or the Basques, or John Cabot, but none of these claims has been substantiated to the point of widespread acceptance. Most accounts name the Portuguese explorer João Alvares Fagundes as the island’s discoverer and the first to claim ownership. He presumably found Sable on a voyage taken before March 1521, when King Manuel I issued a document granting him rights to parts of the New World, including “the island Santa Cruz, which lies at the foot of the bank,” assumed to be a reference to Sable Island.
The island’s early history, however, is filled with names from all of the colonial powers. L’Isle de Sablon. Isola del Arena. Its would-be masters variously tried to populate the island, farm it, use it as a strategic base, or claim it as a kind of midocean food depot. The first recorded shipwreck occurred in 1583, when the English explorer Sir Humphrey Gilbert went looking for Sable and ran the flagship Delight aground on its sandbar. Fifteen years later, the island became home to one of the first continuous European settlements in what would later be Canada, when the Marquis de La Roche-Mesgouez, a French nobleman charged by Henry IV with bringing Catholicism to Natives in New France, sailed a group of convicts and soldiers to the island, which had been chosen as his first landing point and a good spot for a military outpost. Bad weather forced the marquis back to France, but the misfit colony he left behind endured from 1598 to 1603 before sliding into chaos.
Over time, an increasing number of wrecks won Sable Island its dark reputation as “the graveyard of the Atlantic,” and a selection of enduring ghost stories about the island became popular, increasing its folkloric reach. Among the most famous is the tale of the Pale Lady, the ghost of one Mrs. Copeland, who drowned in the wreck of the English ship Francis in 1799; she was said to wander the island in search of her missing wedding ring — and the finger that was stolen along with it. Although such fantasies made people wary of Sable Island, it was rarely uninhabited for long, and eventually the many nautical catastrophes forced Nova Scotia Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Wentworth to pursue a permanent presence…


Natural Areas are sub-divisions of England, each with a characteristic association of wildlife and natural features. They provide a way of interpreting the ecological variations of the country in terms of natural features, illustrating the distinctions bewteen one area and another. Each Natural Area has a unique identity resulting from the inetraction of wildlife, landforms, geology, land use and human impact. They provide a framwork for setting objectives for nature conservation.This approach can provide a wider context for nature conservation action, as it takes into account not only the wildlife and natural features of the landscape but also the views of the people who live and work there.
IN312 – Natural Areas in the North West
IN313 – Natural Areas in Yorkshire and Humber region
IN314 – Natural Areas in the East Midlands
IN316 – Natural Areas in the East of England
IN317 – Natural Areas in the London and the South East Region
IN318 – Natural Areas in the South West
Please note: This document is published for historic and research purposes.


Vol. 3, Issue 3 (2016)
Influence of Teacher's Personality on Apprentices
Author(s): Sunita Thombre, BC Mahapatra
Abstract: It was a study on thirty-year old persons who had been studied as infants, children and adolescents. Mac Farlane found it surprising that many of the thirty-year olds remembered all of their teachers and many recalled teachers who were especially important to them as the ones who simultaneously respected their feeling, excited. Their interests and elected a maximum performance from them. He advises that with all the variety in the pupils the teachers should have to reach all the pupils. If he cannot do this he should not take up the teaching profession. In brief, we can say that teachers who are competent and emotionally mature make the total school atmosphere full of pleasurable learning experiences for the pupils. On the other hand, the important and maladjusted teacher spoils the school atmosphere.


the African Diaspora includes for most Black Americans the TransAtlantic Slave Trade. Human Beings were stolen, kidnapped from the Continent of Africa. The Gold coast and the Grain Coast is the location for modern African countries such as Ghana, Togo and Benin. Other countries from which people were taken against their will were Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Angola.
and lets look at the ethnic communities within these countries.
Nigeria is composed of more than 250 ethnic groups. The most populous and politically influential groups are: Hausa and Fulani 29%, Yoruba 21%, Igbo (Ibo) 18%, Ijaw 10%, Kanuri 4%, Ibibio 3.5%, Tiv 2.5%. The principal religions are Muslim 50%, Christian 40%, and indigenous beliefs 10%.
Ghana, The principal ethnic groups in Ghana are: Akan 45.3%, Mole-Dagbon 15.2%, Ewe 11.7%, Ga-Dangme 7.3%, Guan 4%, Gurma 3.6%, Grusi 2.6%, Mande-Busanga 1%, other tribes 1.4%, other 7.8%.
People were put on boats by slavers. striped of freedom, status, clothing, language, tradition and family. forced, against their will, at fear of death, to speak english, worship a foreign god, to imitate chattel, property, animals… in order to survive.
when were we ever just one type of people.
further, the notion that there is only one way to be Black denies the infinite variation of humanity.
white privilege and the myth of white supremacy dictates that there is only one way to be black because it is not complex enough to respond to more than that.


What is a Laparoscopy?
It is a procedure in which an instrument called a Laparoscope is passed into the abdomen to enable the doctor to look inside. It is performed under intravenous (IV) sedation. Small incisions, measuring about one centimeter each, are made just below the belly button, by the bikini line. A needle is inserted through the incision to pass carbon dioxide into the abdomen. This gas swells the abdominal cavity and separates the bowel from the abdominal wall in order for the laparoscope to be inserted safely. The laparoscope has a powerful light attached to it which allows the doctor to look inside the abdomen and examine the organs, particularly, the outside of the uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries. The procedure usually takes about 60-90 minutes.
Any tissue taken at the time of your operation will be sent for examination. You will be notified of the results. Following the investigation, the tissue will be disposed of in accordance with health and safety regulations.
Why do I need to have a Laparoscopy?
A laparoscopy is used to examine your Uterus, Fallopian Tubes, Ovaries, and Pelvic Wall. It can help the doctor to diagnose the cause of your infertility and decide on the best form of treatment.
In many cases, Endometriosis and other pelvic inflammatory diseases may be the cause of repeated embryo implantation failures. By relieving the abdominal cavity of such adhesions or scarring, there is an increased likelihood that the embryo may implant. This procedure can also be used for treatment of conditions such as removal of ovarian cysts and ectopic pregnancy.
What alternatives do I have?
This depends on the reasons for having the laparoscopy. The doctor would be happy to discuss any alternative investigations or treatment if they are applicable to your particular case.
What are the benefits of Laparoscopy?
A diagnosis can be often made immediately and can prevent the need for major surgery.
What are the risks of a Laparoscopy?
A small number of women (2 out of every 1000) have some internal bleeding which usually does not require any further treatment.
There is a small risk of perforating the bowel or bladder when the needle of laparoscope is inserted. In these circumstances, an immediate operation may be necessary to repair the damage (1 in every 1000). This will involve a bigger incision to the abdomen and a longer hospitalization.
It is possible that a wound infection may develop. Any inflammation, discharge from the wound site or fever (temperature 100.3 or above) that develop, should be reported to your doctor. If you have any concerns about the risks mentioned here, please speak to our medical staff.
How long will I have to stay in the hospital?
Many times this procedure is done on an out-patient basis, where the patient does not require admission to the hospital. Some patients may stay overnight due to side effects from the anesthesia. You are also more likely to stay overnight if the procedure is carried out late in the afternoon or early evening.
How will I feel after a Laparoscopy?
You may experience abdominal bloating and pain that is caused by the insertion of gas at the time of procedure. Sometimes, the pain may be felt in your shoulders and neck. This is not serious and should decrease within 12 hours. Simple pain medication, such as Advil, Motrin, and Tylenol, are effective in most cases.
What happens to the stitches?
Dissolving stitches are used to close the small incisions. These are absorbed and the remains fall out. This can take over a week. If you find the stitches irritating, notify your physician who can take them out.
How long is the recovery?
You will probably need a week to recover from the procedure. Most people will need a few days off from work, but can return as soon as they feel able. Please follow-up with our office on the date instructed.
Will I be able to drive?
You should not drive for the first 72 hours and until you can move about freely. As long as you feel comfortable, you should not have problems driving.
When can I resume intercourse?
This depends on the findings during surgery and can be discussed with a member of the hospital staff before your discharge home.
Fertility clinic in New York New Hope Fertility is the top fertility clinic in the US brings together a team of world-class, top fertility specialists that are committed to bring you the best of tomorrow’s IVF treatment, today. Our extensive experience with customized, minimal stimulation, best IVF in NYC as well as latest treatments and personalized IVF protocols allows us to create successful IVF treatment options, that can only be made in the best infertility clinic in NYC.


Writing for The Economist about COVID19, Bill Gates explains that life will not return to normal until most of the population is vaccinated. People have a natural aversion to exposing themselves to disease. As the pandemic slows in developed nations, it will accelerate in developing countries, were fewer jobs can be done remotely and social distancing measures won’t work as well.
According to Gates, Coronavirus will hasten three big medical breakthroughs:
- Fast development of vaccines, along with facilities around the world to manufacture them. This will allow that in the future, other vaccines are manufactured at scale and at affordable prices.
- Diagnosis. Researches could have tests ready within a few months of identifying a new disease.
- Antiviral drugs. We haven’t been as effective at developing drugs to fight viruses as we have those to fight bacteria.
All three technologies will prepare us for the next pandemic by allowing us to intervene early, when the number of cases is still very low. But the underlying research will also assist us in fighting existing infectious diseases—and even help advance cures for cancer.
In the future, writes Gates, a mix of “national, regional, and global organizations” will help us fight the next pandemic.


Nearchus, (died probably 312 bc), officer in the Macedonian army under Alexander the Great who, on Alexander’s orders, sailed from the Hydaspes River in western India to the Persian Gulf and up the Euphrates River to Babylon.
Earlier, in 333, Alexander had made Nearchus satrap (provincial governor) of the newly conquered Lycia and Pamphylia in Anatolia. Nearchus embarked on his expedition in 325, when Alexander descended the Indus River to the sea. He chronicled the journey in a detailed narrative, a full abstract of which is included in Arrian’s Indica (2nd century ad). Nearchus was unable to play any significant role in the struggles following Alexander’s death (323); the statement of a late source that he recovered his former satrapies is doubtful.


Various studies have been conducted to formulate that about 45% of the US population is known to have one or more chronic illness and this illness account for 78% of all health care spending. (Managing Care for Adults with Chronic Conditions, 2002, par. 2) The percentage alone divulges relevant information on the sheer number of possible clients needing patient care. Patients with chronic illnesses such as arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, among others, have actual and potential learning needs. Chronic disorders can impair mobility and therefore “interfere with learning psychomotor skills as a result of decreased flexibility and dexterity of the fingers”. (Delaune Ladner, 2006, 424) Other chronic illnesses such as diabetes require continuing education and monitoring of their health situation and their ability to take care of themselves. Diabetes required regular monitoring of levels of blood sugar which is affected by the nature of the patient’s diet and physical activity. Further, as averred by Daniels, Nosek Nicoll (2007, 1833), “diabetes mellitus and hypertension are the two most common causes of Chronic Renal Failure (CRF) in the United States” ultimately leading to Renal Replacement Therapy (RRT).Statistics on the number of end-stage renal patients have been seen to be on the increasing trend since 1996 with patients on dialysis showing a similar trend. (MEDPAC, 2009, 1) This essay is hereby written to discuss the impact of the concept of demand and supply on resorting to dialysis, as an end-stage renal service and mainstay of RRT.The article was written by Infiniti Research Limited (2010, 1) proffer that “end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is an irreversible loss of kidney function, which requires treatment with dialysis or transplantation.” The treatment, through dialysis, includes artificial means for the removal of toxins and excess fluids from the bloodstream. The numbers of patients with end-stage renal disorders have been increasing due to factors such asdietary habits of people in general.


of Home Improvements
Paints and finishes release low level toxic emissions into the air for years after application. The source of these toxins is a variey of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which, until recently, were essential to the performance of the paint.
regulations, and consumer demand, have led to the development of low-VOC
and zero-VOC paints and finishes. Most paint manufacturers now produce
one or more non-VOC variety of paint. These new paints are durable, cost-effective
and less harmful to human and environmental health.
Health - Reduced toxins benefit everyone, including those with allergies and chemical sensitivities.
Environment - Reduces landfill, groundwater and ozone depleting contaminants.
Effective - Low-VOC products perform well in terms of coverage, scrubability and hideability (covering flaws on previous coats).
Water-Based - Easy cleanup wtih soap and warm water. Little or No hazardous fumes. Low odor during application; no odor once cured. No off-gassing. Painted areas can be occupied sooner, with no odor complaints.
Deemed Hazardous Waste
and disposal greatly simplified.
Types of Non-Toxic Paints and Finishes
Natural Paints and Finishes - These are paints made from natural raw ingredients such as water, plant oils and resins, plant dyes and essential oils; natural minerals such as clay, chalk and talcum; milk casein, natural latex, bees' wax, earth and mineral dyes. Water-based natural paints give off almost no smell. The oil-based natural paints usually have a pleasant fragrance of citrus or essential oils. Allergies and sensitivities to these paints is uncommon. These paints are the safest for your health and for the environment.
Zero VOC - Any paint with VOC's in the range of 5 grams/litre or less can be called "Zero VOC", according to the EPA Reference Test Method 24. Some manufacturers may claim "Zero-VOC's", but these paints may still use colorants, biocides and fungicides with some VOC's. Adding a color tint usually brings the VOC level up to 10 grams/liter, which is still quite low.
Low VOC - Low VOC paints, stains and varnishes use water as a carrier instead of petroleum-based solvents. As such, the levels of harmful emissions are lower than solvent-borne surface coatings. These certified coatings also contain no, or very low levels, of heavy metals and formaldehyde. The amount of VOC's varies among different "low-VOC" products, and is listed on the paint can or MSDS. Paints and stains, to meet EPA standards. must not contain VOCs in excess of 200 grams per litre. Varnishes must not contain VOCs in excess of 300 grams per liter. As a general rule, low VOC paints marketed by reputable paint manufacturers usually meet the 50 g/L VOC threshold. Paints with the Green Seal Standard (GS-11) mark are certified lower than 50 g/L (for flat sheen) or 150 g/L (for non-flat sheen).
Low VOC paints will still emit an odor until dry. If you are particularly sensitive, make sure the paint you buy contains fewer than 25 grams/liter of VOC's.
Most paint strippers are caustic - they work by melting the paint. The active ingredient, methylene chloride, is a potential carcinogen. A new generation of biodegradable paint strippers is now entering the market. They are water-soluble, noncaustic and nontoxic - some can even be washed down the drain.
The active ingredient in these products is N-Methylpyrrolidone, an organic solvent. Rather than burning or melting, the compound chemically changes the paint itself, softening it. The downside? These new strippers are more expensive than their traditional counterparts, and they take longer to work.
Pet birds can be hard on cages - often chewing, scratching or wearing the paint. They can ingest flakes of paint which can be harmful to their health, or can be sensitive to fumes from new paint. Birds have very sensitive lungs, and in many, paint odors can even cause death.
Read the label
and product literature: Besides general information, look for:
Solids Content: Solids, or pigments, can range in concentration from 25% to 45% by volume. The higher the percent solids, the less volatiles in the paint.
EPA, OSHA, DOT Registrations: When a product has an EPA, OHSA or DOT registration number, this means that it contains toxic ingredients which must be monitored. One way to ensure that you are using a product that is safe both for the environment and the applicator is to seek out products which are not registered with these agencies.
made from the resin of coniferous trees, is an environmentally-friendly
solvent. It is excellent for cleaning brushes used with oil-based paints,
and for cleaning up small drips. Use a short glass jar, filled no higher
than the bristles. Add a few drops of dishwashing liquid. After cleaning
the brush, rinse with water.
Non Toxic paint
I know how a fresh coat of paint is such a simple way to transform your house more into a home. But did you know that while adding color to a room, you are also slapping on lead, formaldehyde, benzene, toluene and xylene-all potentially hazardous to your health? These neurotoxins are powerful enough to vaporize into the air you breathe. After automobiles, paint and its companions are the second highest source of VOC (volatile organic compounds) emissions. The smells tend to stick around upwards of a week as the paint dries but can last up to three months. That is three months of exposure to toxic chemicals!
Non-toxic paint (also called non-VOC paint) has been gaining popularity since it was first introduced in the 1960s. It is marketed as a safer, less-polluting solution for interior wall painting and even artistic painting. The absence of chemical solvents renders it a safer, less-polluting solution for interior wall painting and even artistic painting.
Obviously, the major pros involve health and the environment. You don't breathe in the fumes that are emitted by solvent-containing paints as they dry. Some of the most popular non-VOC paints are made with milk or other organic components that smell better as you paint and don't release harmful vapors.
The pros are especially important for people who have chronic respiratory problems or allergies. Chemical fumes create more irritants in the air, which can worsen pre-existing conditions or even create new conditions that are harder to control. Even if you use an air purifier and allergen-free furnishings, paint with chemicals can significantly damage your health.
Other pros of non-toxic paint include price, drying time and disposal, though the first two are affected largely by the non-VOC paint product you choose. Many of these alternative paints cost less (especially in bulk), and dry much faster due to their thicker consistency. Furthermore, you don't have to dispose of non-toxic paint as hazardous waste, which makes clean-up much easier.
Natural paints and finishes:
Using a paint that is made from natural raw ingredients will produce a paint that gives off no smell. This is the ideal and safest choice if you have access to it (see sources below), but will be more expensive than the other options. Ingredients include: plant dyes, oils and resins; minerals such as clay, chalk and talcum; natural oils and waxes such a bee’s wax; milk casein and natural latex.
Zero volatile organic compounds:
This paint meets the EPA Standard of 5 g/L (grams per litre) or less. It appears that it can still have some chemicals though Pigments will increase the VOC ratio.
This paint meets the EPA minimum requirement of no more than 250 g/L and no more than 80 g/L for oil based paint to be considered low-VOC. These paints, stains and varnishes use water as a carrier, contain no petroleum-based solvents and have very low levels of heavy metals and formaldehyde. So it can still have an off-gassing effect, just not as significant as conventional paint. Look for paints with the Green Seal Standard (GS-11) certification or the Green Guard Air Control label. Pigments will increase the VOC ratio.
So next time you are considering doing a little redecoration in your home, check out these non toxic paint as safer alternatives.


Origin of predominate
OTHER WORDS FROM predominatepre·dom·i·nate·ly [pri-dom-uh-nit-lee], /prɪˈdɒm ə nɪt li/, adverbpre·dom·i·nat·ing·ly, adverbpre·dom·i·na·tion, nounpre·dom·i·na·tor, noun
WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH predominatepredominant, predominate
How to use predominate in a sentence
“Juliana’s death ends up reflecting a violent country, where those who have weapons predominate and end up doing harm,” she said.
Admittedly on the fence, he says that if asked to bet which disease will predominate, “I’d put a little bit of money each way.”What will happen when COVID-19 and the flu collide this fall?|Tina Hesman Saey|September 18, 2020|Science News
Xue and his colleagues decided to concentrate on the substantia nigra, a region in the midbrain where dopaminergic neurons predominate and typically die during the disease.The Neurons That Appeared from Nowhere - Issue 89: The Dark Side|Nayanah Siva|September 2, 2020|Nautilus
The silhouette was classic Christopher Bailey, with coat dresses, wraps and pencil skirts predominating.
Several persons were talking at once, and Victor's voice was predominating, even over that of his mother.The Awakening and Selected Short Stories|Kate Chopin
Bodies could also be distinguished as fiery,949 terrestrial, and so forth, according to their predominating element.Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 3|Plotinos (Plotinus)
Such therefore is the predominating color of the solar atmosphere.Astronomy for Amateurs|Camille Flammarion
The doctor was a nondescript; a compound of gravity, fun, seriousness, and humbug—the latter predominating.Hudson Bay|R.M. Ballantyne
Each one has in it also mixtures of the other three elements, the one which gives it the name predominating.A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy|Isaac Husik


A hooded merganser swims a quiet creek. A cardinal sings from a bird feeder on a bare cottonwood branch. A bald eagle crisscrosses the blue sky.
Observed in a single morning, these birds were part of millions–33,464,616 to be exact –that made up the final tally of the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) in 2013 when participants in 111 countries submitted 137,998 checklists, documenting more than one-third of the world’s bird species in just four days.
Want to be a part of the experience? No matter where you live, fifteen minutes is all you need.
During the 17th Annual GBBC February 14-17, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society encourages people tally the number of birds observed from the backyard and beyond. The GBBC collects information and photographs online, providing a real-time snapshot of the world’s dynamic bird population at: http://gbbc.birdcount.org/.
In Nebraska, GBBC events such as the annual “Birds and Breakfast” at Ponca State Park on Saturday (Feb. 15) invites the public to participate, guided by members of the Loess Hills Audubon Society. Free birding tours take place throughout the day following breakfast at the Resource and Education Center. For more information, contact the park at (402) 755 2284.


- She drove across the grass area, hit the road sign and the car turned over on to its side.
- You could serve it as a side dish, on its own with a salad, or as part of buffet spread.
- The bow is separated from the main body of the wreck and rests on its starboard side.
- The ideal is for a lamb to have milk from its mother as soon as possible after birth.
- Owner Jane Organ said it was tragic for the pup to be taken from its mother at such a young age.
- She may be its mother but that does not give her the right to decide whether or not it lives or dies.
Its is the possessive form of it ( the dog licked its paw), while it’s is the contraction of it is ( look, it’s a dog licking its paw) or it has ( it’s been too long). The apostrophe in it’s never denotes a possessive. The confusion is understandable, since other possessive forms (singular nouns) do take an apostrophe + s, as in the girl’s bike or the president’s smile.
Words that rhyme with itsBiarritz, blitz, Fritz, glitz, it's, Ritz, spitz, spritz, St Kitts
For editors and proofreaders
Definition of its in:
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
Comments that don't adhere to our Community Guidelines may be moderated or removed.


How to prepare your teen for the real world
One of the most difficult things for teenagers is the transition from being completely dependent on their parents into the real world, where they need to act responsibly and maturely to be successful. Though much focus is on protecting our children as they grow up, we also must allow them to take calculated risks, learn to fail and do real-life problem solving.
We consulted speaker and author Tim Elmore, who specializes with what he calls "Generation iY" -- current teenagers. He founded the international non-profit Growing Leaders to develop young leaders who will transform society. "The number one challenge students today face is what I call artificial maturity," says Elmore. "This challenge stems from the fact that kids are consuming information far earlier than they are ready and gaining real life experience far later than they're ready."
Preparation for adulthood
Before teens enter the real world, we need to prepare them for what to expect. Otherwise, they will encounter many obstacles. By instilling moral values, responsible behavior and a strong work ethic in your teens, you will be doing all you can to prepare them for life after high school or college.
Respect and responsibility. We all know that you have to give respect to get respect. And this is an important lesson for kids of all ages. Teach your children as early as possible about the value of respect and responsibility. Hold them accountable for their actions with suitable consequences. Insist they participate in chores to keep the household running smoothly, and allow them to get a job to earn their own money.
Learn more about why you should teach responsibility >>
Money management. Make budgeting and money management a common topic in your household. Handing your child a credit card or giving them unlimited funds to purchase clothes, games and other entertainment isn't doing your teen any favors. Educate your family about the need for comparison shopping, how to avoid money scams, the costs of regular expenses (such as cell phones) and the importance of budgeting.
Read more about how to raise a money-savvy teen >>
Community involvement. Successful people know and care about what's going on in their community and around the world. Watch the news with your teens. Discuss politics regularly and get them involved in community activities and charity opportunities.
Find out how to help your child volunteer their time >>
Armed for success
Parents need to make an effort to put their children in the position to succeed in life. Elmore discusses how can parents help high schoolers capitalize on their strengths in order become successful leaders.
"Ultimately, people mature as both autonomy and responsibility are distributed evenly," explains Elmore. "If a young person wants autonomy (to be free and independent), they must demonstrate an equal amount of responsibility to earn it. For instance, if my son wants the car keys, he cannot get them unless he agrees to buy the gas. It's simple and life only works when the two go together. When autonomy comes without responsibility, parents are doing too much protecting and not enough preparing.
"When a student learns what their primary strengths are, they can build on them and consequently bolster authentic self-esteem, a clear sense of unique identity and even a work ethic, as they labor passionately in an area of their giftedness. While I am far from perfect as a dad and an educator, my two kids are realizing this today, at 19 and 23 years old. When young people find and invest themselves in their strength area, they are more intuitive, passionate, natural, confident, comfortable and influential in that area."
Teens today multi-task more than any other population of children in modern history. Many parents and teachers wonder: Is this good for them or not? Does it increase their ability to take on more or does it simply dilute their focus?
"Thanks to the incredible brain research done over the last decade, we know more about the teen brain that's still developing during these years. The effects this multitasking has on still-forming brains can be positive and negative," says Elmore. Elmore claims the key is balance. Here are some of his ideas to achieve that balance.
- Help them balance screen time with face-to-face time with people. For every hour they spend in front of a screen, have them spend an hour with people.
- Help them balance connected time with disconnected time -- ask them to disconnect from phones and computers for two hours and focus on one important goal.
- Help them balance sedentary time with active time. For each hour spent sitting still (often in front of a screen), engage them in physical activity.
- Help them to balance trivial time with meaningful time. Especially for teens, they need to engage in meaningful work that contributes to a cause larger than themselves.
- Help them balance passive stimulation time with personal creative time. Provide project objectives that force them to create ideas that come from within, not from an external source.
With some effort and preparation, we can help our teens enter the real world with a strong foundation and sense of direction.