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What is an extruder?
First, let's understand what extrusion is. When a material is heated and pushed through an extruder, it is usually rubber, pellets, dry powder, plastic, metal bars stock, or food. The die is basically a mold that shapes the material when it is forced through the small opening on the other side. This is one of the most popular ways to make sheets and strips from stock metal, plastic, and rubber.
An extruder simply refers to the machine that completes the extrusion process. The machine heats the product using a combination of barrels or cylinders. It then propels the product through the die to form the desired shape.
What is an extruder used for?
By shaping different materials, extruders can create many useful products. Food extruders are used to produce breakfast cereals and snack products that are nearly identical. They use controlled temperature and pressure to make the pieces we put into our bowls every morning.
Pet food and treats are made with food extruders because they provide consistency and high quality meals for our furry friends.
Many industries use catalyst extruders to produce catalysts like high aluminas. No matter if your company needs minute pellets or solid rods, unsupported ring, or any other catalyst configuration,
Extrusion of rubber bales is possible for many purposes. Extruders made from rubber can extrude hydrogels that are used for everything, including contact lenses and replacement cartilage.
Even extrusion equipment can be used to make the materials that purify the air and water inside our homes. Activated carbon is now created using vacuum extruders that were initially used by the clay industry to air their products. The carbon is de-aired by the extruder to improve its adsorptive qualities and make it suitable for use in a variety of water and air purification applications.
Other extrusion equipment manufacturers might specialize in extruders that can be used with other materials such as clay, aluminum, plastics, and other metals. PVC pipe can be made with plastic extruders. You can see that there are many types of extrusion equipment available and the uses they have.
What Can Any Extruder Do?
No. First, extruders can only be used for personal, individual use. However, manufacturers will require larger and more advanced industrial extruders. It all depends upon the size of your operation, and the industry standards.
There are many industrial extruders, just like any other type, and each one has a specific purpose. Some extruders are also designed for a niche purpose, such as pelletizing, de-airing, or de-watering a material.
Another factor that differentiates is capacity. A Terrier High Volume Production Extruder (Terrier) is a good choice for large quantities and high production. A company that is specialized in research and development will probably be able to use low-volume Lab Extruders to produce and test their products in small batches. A different solution might be needed by another company.
The applications, volumes, shapes, and materials you require will determine what kind of product you need.


An Overview of the Silk Road: Time, Space and Themes
The Silk Road in the Digital Space
The Silk Road in Rare Books is a series of ten articles that have been compiled based on the rare books contained in the Digital Silk Road archives (See the list of articles in the table of contents on the right). In this introductory article, we take a look at the overall history of the Silk Road in terms of time, space and themes.
Beginning from the viewpoint of “Time,” we start by tracing the several thousand-year history of the Silk Road from ancient to modern times. We next examine the Silk Road in terms of “Space,” following the main routes which formed these long-distance overland trade roads from east to west. Finally, we take up several notable Silk Road events to explore the history of the Silk Road in terms of themes.
The Digital Silk Road is an attempt to take a fresh look at the scholarly achievements of those archaeologists, art historians and adventurers of the past. In doing so, we seek to look again at the important documents that these scholars left behind, and by digitally archiving them, make these valuable resources more accessible. It is our belief that the documents will serve as a significant resource through which people will be able to utilize from their own individual points of view, and in this way come to create new understandings and interpretations of Silk Road history and culture.
The documents contained in the digital Silk Road archives were compiled in great part by explorers from the nineteenth to the twentieth century (09) who risked their lives to travel over the then-obscure regions along Silk Road in order to make their valuable discoveries. It is our hope that in the future, explorers can travel in this digital world, and in doing so, they too can excavate all kinds of important information buried in the archives. Containing endless possibilities for producing new images of the Silk Road, it is possible that future digital explorers will then go on to share their findings will many others via the Internet; in this way preserving and passing down these valuable resources to posterity.
The Silk Road “Time”
1. Prehistoric Central Asia
Many things remain clouded in mystery regarding the ancient history of Central Asia. However, it is thought that agriculture started in the Tarīm Basin around 4000 BC. Studies undertaken on the Tocharian language (an extinct Indo-European language) suggest that Indo-European peoples first arrived from West Asia moving into the Tarīm Basin around 2000 to 1000 BC (06). Mummies found in Loulan (in the Xiao He Grave site (小河墓) (06), which are estimated to be 3,800 years old, show distinctly Caucasian features, and we therefore know that at one time Central Asia was home to Indo-European people.
2. The Dawn of the Silk Road
Our earliest records of Central Asian history come from Chinese records documenting various Chinese inroads into the e region, as well as recording tribute received from Central Asian nations. . The earliest records appear in the of the Early Han period, under the reign of the Emperor Wudi (141 BC-87 BC). It was under Emperor Wudi that the imperial envoy Zhang Qian (02) made his legendary journey through Central Asia and his reports are contained in such Chinese documents as “Accounts of Ferghana” (in Records of the Grand Historian); Dynastyand “Geographical Accounts of the Western Area” (in History of the Han Dynasty). Although the purpose of his journey was solely political, the information about Central Asia which he brought back was significant in helping to open up trade routes between east and west.
Emperor Wudi, using the knowledge brought back by Zhang Qian, pressed ahead with aggressive military campaigns in Central Asia, sending great generals such as Wei Qing and Huo Qubing to fight against the nomadic Xiongnu (Huns). In 121 BC, he succeeded in expelling the Xiongnu from the Tarīm Basin, and then in 102 BC, he invaded Ferghana in order to extend his control over neighboring countries in the region. The Tarim Basin, home to the important east-west trade routes, as well as being the sole place where superior horses could be obtained, held unending appeal for the Early Han Dynasty emperors. This was especially so concerning Han control of Ferghana, the home of the legendary “Blood Sweating Horses.” (For more on the history of the time and the legendary blood-sweating horses see Digital Silk Road’s “The Horses of the Steppe: The Mongolian Horse and the Blood-Sweating Stallions”) For about 100 years, the Early Han controlled the trade routes passing through Central Asia. It was around this time as well that the Kingdom of Loulan became a puppet state of the Chinese Han, thereby changing their name to Shan-shan in 77 BC (06).
The Han control over Central Asia, however, was loosened for approximately 60 years when Wang Mang usurped the throne and established his Xin Dynasty. Chinese control of the region resumed once again during the Later Han Dynasty, under Emperor Mingdi (57-75 AD). General Ban Chao (a younger brother of Ban Gu, the author of History of the Han Dynasty) ruled the region in a peaceful manner for many long years. During this time, the countries of Central Asia were reduced to subservient status with some under direct Han rule-- and then later Wei and Western Jin rule—and with others retaining their independence but made to pay tribute to the Chinese court. . Of the two different historical periods represented in the ruins found in Mīran (07), the older ruins (date of origin unknown up to end of the third century) were built and abandoned during this period.
Resulting from the political turmoil which occurred at the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, China was divided into north and south, in what is known as the Southern and Northern Dynasties period (420-589). In the north, Chinese and non-Chinese steppe peoples (known collective as the Wu Hu—or five non-Chinese nomadic tribes), established the short-lived Sixteen Kingdoms. Some of these tribes attempted to extend their power over Central Asia, intending to gain control of the trade routes in the region . In the famous “Li Bo Document(1) (in 328) (06) found at Loulan, we learn that the later Liang Dynasty had gained control of the region. During this period, as mainland China fell into political disarray and conflict, the main east-west trade route through the Hexi Corridor became insecure. The Tuyuhun tribe exploited this situation to make forays into the lucrative east-west trade using another route through the Qinghai region during the fourth to the seventh centuries (07).
The period of the Northern and Southern dynasties was also a time when many Buddhist priests immigrated to China from Central Asia. The period saw the flowering of Buddhist culture in Central Asia, and it was in this period that much of the great cave temple art was created in the region. The Kizil Caves (04), for example, were constructed starting in the the late third or the fifth century and the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang (05) in the second half of the fourth century.
3. The Tang Protectorate over Central Asia
With the reunification of northern and southern China under the Sui Dynasty, east-west trade in Central Asia achieved unprecedented prosperity. This prosperity was further increased under the Tang Dynasty which came to control a vast area of Central Asia (having overthrown the Qu-shi Gaochang Kingdom (498-640) in Turfan in 640 in addition to its subjugation of other countries in the region). The Tang installed a Protectorate General of Anxi to serve as the base for the management of trade in Central Asia. It also established a Protectorate General of Beiting in 702 to prepare against attacks from Turkish tribes based in the Dzungarian Basin to the north of the Tian Shan mountains.
Tang Dynasty influence over Central Asia can be seen in the antiquities found in the ancient cemetery of Astāna, to the north of Kara-Khōja (Sketch Plan of Kara-Khōja by Grünwedel(2), Sketch Plan of Kara-Khōja by Stein(3)), at the Ancient Cemetery of Astāna(4). These antiquities showing a clear Tang influence include Clay Figures(5) and Silk Paintings(6). In addition, Chinese-style Wall Paintings(8) can be found in the Kumtura Thousand Buddha Caves(7) as well.
Tang power over the area quickly waned after its defeat against the Arab Abbasid Caliphate at the Battle of Talas in 751. This devastating defeat was then followed by the chaos within China following the the aftermath of the An Shi Rebellion from 755 to 763. With China in chaos, in 786, the Tibetan Tubo Kingdom (07) seized the Hexi Corridor (05). Occupying both the Protectorate Generals of Anxi and Beiting, they therein expelled the Tang from Central Asia. The second period ruins of the Mīran site (07) is that of a Tibetan fort. The ruins of Dandān-Uiliq (near Khōtan (03)) were of a city also deserted at the time of Tang withdraw from Central Asia and the desertion of the city is thought to be linked with the end of Tang power in the region.
4. Turkic-Islamification of Central Asia
At the end of the eighth century, Uighurs (01, 08), originally inhabitants of the Mongolian Plateau (02) migrated south into the Turfan basin where they establisged their Uighur Empire. The Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves(9) (01) were built by Uighurs between the ninth and the tenth century. At Kara-Khōja, for example, banners portraying Uighur donors (01) have been excavated.
During the tenth century, the Turkish Karakhanid Dynasty conquered a large area of Central Asia not including Turfan. These two Turkic Kingdoms, the Uighur Kingdom and the Karakhanid Dynasty, brought the Turkic language into Central Asia—thereby replacing the Aryan people and their languages. At the same time, there was an increased mixing between peoples, which further contributed to the Turkification of the region. In addition, because the Karakhanid Dynasty was Islamic, this contributed to the Islamification of Central Asia (Muhammadan Tombs in Tumshuk(10), Ruin of Muhammadan Tomb in Khara-Khoto(11)). Such was the extent of these influences that the region came to be known as Turkestan, which literally means “the Land of the Turkic peoples” (08).
During Song dynasty times in China, the Tangut people established their Western Xia Dynasty (1032-1227) in the northwestern part of China. This powerful state came to control the Hexi Corridor during this period. Fervently Buddhist, the Western Xia constructed new cave temples at the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang , in addition to repairing the older ones which had been built there much earlier. The famous Library Cave (Cangjing-dong, Cave 17) (05), where a great number of manuscripts and paintings were famously found in 1900 was walled up for some reason during the Western Xia period. The Tanguts of the Western Xia also built the city of Khara-Khoto (08) at the point on the Silk Road where two routes (the east-west route connecting outer Mongolia to the Tian Shan and the north-south route connecting the Oasis cities of Jiuquan and Zhangye along Hexi Corridor) come together.
5. The Twilight of the Silk Road
Around the time that Central Asia was becoming both Islamified and dominated by Turkic peoples, the world was seeing great changes in systems governing the movement of goods. In the northern part of Central Asia, for example, a route running east- west through the steppe, which had long been an insignificantly small trade route grew greatly in importance. Maritime trade, something which had long been monopolized by Islamic merchants, gained in significance as well. The discovery of new sea routes by Europeans became the decisive factor in reducing the importance of Central Asia for trade. With these new routes for moving goods, Central Asia slowly lost its significance and later fell into oblivion.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, with its former prosperity long gone, Central Asia once again began to attract attention. This time, though, it attracted attention as a geographical vacuum, luring explorers from all over the world (09).
The Silk Road “Space”
1. Mountains, Deserts, and Trade Routes
Located in the center of the Eurasia Continent, Central Asia geographically stands as a bridge between east and west. A region of tremendous extremes, Central Asia extends over a vast dry zone composed of the world’s largest mountains and most desolate deserts. Because of its incredibly challenging terrain, human settlements and trade routes were built between oasis towns just like drawing dot-to-dots on a line.
Known as “the Roof of the World”, the Pamir Mountain range is made up of mountains with an average height of 3,500 to 4,500 meters (Map(12), Muztagh-Ata(13) of 7433 meters high). To the east of these mountains spreads the Tarīm Basin. In the middle of the basin is the Taklamakan Desert, with the Tian Shan Mountains(14) to the north, and the Kunlun Mountains(15) to the south. Oasis routes have long served travelers crossing these towering mountain ranges.
Among these routes, the route running along the northern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains is called the Northern -Tianshan Circuit, while the one running along the southern foothills is called the Southern -Tianshan Circuit. This latter route then divides once again to skirt the the Taklamakan Desert, and these two routes north and south of the Taklamakan desert are the Northern and Southern Routes of the Silk Road. Most of the ruin sites lie along these two routes.
2. The Northern Route of the Silk Road
There are two population centers located on the Northern Route of the Silk Road: Turfan to the northeast (01) and Kucha in the center (04). Turfan, which is located in a bowl-shaped basin separate from the Tarīm Basin, has its lowest elevation at 154 meters below sea level. This area flourished not only as a strategic point on the North Route of the Silk Road, but also for its location at a significant transportation crossroads where one could travel along the Northern -Tianshan Circuit, or into Mongolia, and Dzungaria, all areas where nomadic peoples lived. The geographical proximity to China made it easy to bring Chinese culture into this area (Painted Image of Chinese Mythological Gods of Fuxi and Nvwa from Astāna Cemetery(16)). The later Cheshi Kingdom was located at Yār-khoto during the Early Han Period and then in later times, the city of Gaochang (Kara-Khōja) prospered in this area around Turfan
Kucha was situated almost in the center of the Northern Route and in former times was known as Qiuci (亀玆国). In 658, the Protectorate General of Anxi was established there, making Kucha an important base for trade in Central Asia. The notable Buddhist priest Kumārajīva (04 was from this area and introduced Mahayana Buddhism to East Asia during the Sixteenth Kingdoms Period.
3. The Southern Route of the Silk Road
The Southern Route is divided into Khōtan district (03) to the west and the Lop district (06) to the east. The most important oasis city on the Southern Route was the ancient Buddhist kingdom of Khōtan. The oasis city of Khōtan stood on a fertile plain sandwiched between the Yurungkash or White Jade River and the Karakash or Black Jade River, both rivers originating in the heights of the Kunlun Mountains. As suggested by their names, the rivers are well known for their quality jade which is found along the river beds. The jade produced in Khōtan was traded widely across the world from prehistoric times. It has been discovered from as far away as China in the east to Iran, Iraq and Egypt in the west. Located in proximity to India across the Karakorum Range, Khōtan had long been influenced by Indian Buddhist culture right down till the time it was conquered by the Karakhanid Dynasty in the early eleventh century. Dandān-Uiliq (03) are Buddhist ruins found to the northeast of Khōtan in the Taklamakan Desert.
The Lop district located on the east part of the Route is famous for the ruins of Loulan (06) and Mīran (07). This district is also known as the Lop Desert. The “Wandering Lake,” Lop Nor, was once located in this area, and the landscape is characterized by its unusually-shaped hills called Mesas (small hills)(17) and Yardangs (table-like hills)(18) which were created by wind erosion so that only the hard layers remain. Because soil salt levels were so high, agricultural cultivatation was impossible in the area. According to the History of the Han, Loulan depended on neighboring countries for food even during its heyday.
4. Hexi Corridor
The Hexi Corridor is located in the northwestern part of China and is a historical route leading to the Tarīm Basin. The route is sandwiched between the Qilian Mountains, (a mountain range on the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau), and the Gobi Desert (on the southeastern edge of Mongolia). Connecting China in the east with Central Asia in the west, the route was dotted with oasis towns and was a main artery for the east-west trade. From the very early days of the Silk Road during the Han DynastyHan Period, Chinese people began to colonize this area. Dunhuang (05) was the westernmost Chinese city at that time, and north of Dunhuang the remains of the Han-built section of the Great Wall still remains.
The Hexi Corridor now is part of Gansu Province. The origin of the province’s name comes from Ganzhou (present Zhangye) and Suzhou (present Jiuquan). From each province runs a river: the Ganzhou River (or Zhangye River) and the Beida River. Running north, both rivers flow into the Etsin-Gol River (or Juyan River). This area has long been a route for those traveling from Mongolia to the Hexi Corridor. At the end of the route on the side of Etsin-Gol, was the city of Juyan (09), which was established as a base for Chinese colonization during the Han Period. During the Western Xia Period, the city of Khara-Khoto (08) was established here as well.
Silk Road “Themes”
In addition to the flourishing of east-west trade, Central Asia was also a region through which Buddhism was transmitted eastward from India in to China. From the tenth century, Islam became the dominant religion in Central Asia, but until that time, it was Buddhist religion, philosophy and art which flourished there under the influence of India, Iran (former Persia), and China.
[Buddhist Cave Temples]
We find many Buddhist cave temples in the region which were carved out of cliffs by Buddhist artists and monks. These cave temples in the Kucha area include the Kizil Grottoes (04), the Kumtura Grottoes, the Kizilgaha Grottoes, the Sim-Sim Cave, and the Shikchin Thousand Buddha Caves (Floor Plan(19), Wall Paintings(20)）.
In the Turfan region, there are the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves （01） and Toyuku Caves (Floor Plan(21), Distant View(22)).
Along the Hexi Corridor, we find the Mogao Grottoes (05) in Dunhuang (which are the largest and the most famous), and the Yulin Grottoes in Anxi （Distant View(23), Interior of a Cave(24), which also displays the Present View） many wall paintings and stucco sculptures made between the Early Tang and Western Xia Period.
[Buddhist Temple Remains]
On the Northern Route, there are various temple ruins including, Shorchuk (Panoramic View(25), Wall Painting(26), Standing Image of Bodhisattva(27), Seated Buddha(28)), Tumshuq, Chotscho (Kara-Khōja) (01), and Yār-Khoto (Sketch Plan(30), Photo(31)), Murtuk.
On the Southern Route, there are the ruins found at Yōtkan (03), Dandān-Uiliq (03), Rawak (Plan of Ruined Vihāra(33), Relief Sculptures of Buddhas(34)), Head of Buddha(35)), Endere Fort(36), Lou-lan (06), Mīran (07), and Khara-Khoto (08).
2. Ancient Documents
Central Asia is a treasure trove of documents in ancient languages. In Kucha on the Northern Route, experts have found documents in the Tokharian B (West Tocharian, or Kuchean) language. In Loulan (06), Niya (Detailed Map of Niya Site(37), Ruined House(38)), and Khōtan on the Southern Route, archaeologists have discovered Chinese documents which tell us about Chinese control over this area, along with documents in Indo-European languages like Kharoshthi (Documents on Rectangular Tablets(39), Documents on Double-Wedge Tablets(40)), Brāhmī and Khōtanese.
The Dunhuang Manuscripts (09) discovered at the Library Cave (05) in the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang have been particularly historically significant. These documents include those written in Chinese, Khōtanese, Kuchean, Turkish, Uighur, Tibetan, Turkish Runic, Sogdian(41) and Gupta scripts. In Khara-Khoto, documents in the Western Xia language created originally by the Tanguts have been discovered (08).
Manichaeism is a syncretic religion which originated in the Persia during the Sassanian Dynasty. As the Sassanian Empire flourished, the religion also saw its influence spread east. Introduced into the Tarīm Basin, many Manichaeism relics have been uncovered (Miniature with Uighur Scripture from Kara-Khōja(42), Manichaean Khuastuanift Text in Turkish from Dunhuang(43)).
While the harsh climate caused bythe desert sands and the dry climate created tremendous challenges for to inhabitants or travelers in Central Asia (09), these same conditions made for a highly favorable environment for preserving historic objects such as ancient houses, temples, tombs, and documents. Dandān-Uiliq (03) in the Taklamakan Desert and Loulan (06) in the Lop Desert are some typical examples.
It is thought that Central Asia once had had huge inland seas full of water, but that these waters gradually dried up as time passed. It was climate change which caused the Tarim Basin’s largest lake, Lop Nor (06), to shift its location through fluctuations in the movement of the rivers flowing into it. Once known as the “Salty Lake” by ancient Chinese in the Han Dynasty, it later came to be known as the “Wandering Lake.” Not far from the lake, the ancient city of Khara-Khoto (08) was built during Western Xia Period and was continuously inhabited and even expanded up until the Yuan dynasty. The reason why the city was eventually abandoned is thought to be linked with the aridness that plagued the entire Central Asia.
To Learn More
- Matsuda Hisao Hakase Kokikinensyuppan Iinkai ed. Tozai Bunka Koryushi. Tokyo: Yūzankaku shuppan, 1975.
- Shinji Maejima, et al ed., Watashi no Sirukurōdo. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1978.
- Tokyo National Museum, Kyoto National Museum and Asahi Shimbun ed., Sai'iki Bijutsu Ten: Doitsu-Turfan Tankentai (Central Asian Art from the Museum of Indian Art, Berlin, SMPK). Tokyo : Asahi Shimbunsha, 1991.
- Hisao Matsuda, Sabaku no Bunka: Chūō Ajia to Tōzaikōshō. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1994.
English Edition :
English Revised Edition :
Japanese Edition :
Author : Makiko Onishi, Asanobu Kitamoto
Translator : Yasuhiro Itami ; English adaptation by Leanne Ogasawara


Cadernos de Pesquisa
Print version ISSN 0100-1574
FIGUEIREDO, Fernando Jorge Costa. Two congenitally blind children in the first cycle of regular school. Cad. Pesqui. [online]. 2010, vol.40, n.139, pp. 95-119. ISSN 0100-1574. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0100-15742010000100006.
This study aims to look in more detail into the mental representation of reality in congenitally blind children when compared with normal-sighted children in basic education in a regular school in Portugal. Starting with the theoretical fundamentals, its intention is to analyze different children over time as well as the current society, vis-à-vis these children. We undertook two case studies and combined quantitative and qualitative data. The analysis of these cases reveals two different paths in the integration of the congenitally blind children, a differentiation that does not result from processes of adapting to the specific child from a humanistic perspective, but rather from the physical (schools) and organizational (Special Education) conditions.
Keywords : SPECIAL EDUCATION; VISUAL HANDICAPS; CHILDREN; SCHOOL INTEGRATION.


- a broad, thick sheet of ice covering an extensive area for a long period of time.
- a glacier covering a large fraction of a continent.
Origin of ice sheet
First recorded in 1870–75
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for ice sheet
Under his single weight we could see the ice-sheet undulating.Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled
Underneath the ice-sheet the stones, sand, and clay behaved in the same way.
Eventually, however, this later advance of the ice-sheet ceased.
All of them thus owe their origin to the action of the ice-sheet.
The progress of the ice-sheet was southward, but it spread like a fan so that its widening border turned to east and west.Earth and Sky Every Child Should Know
Julia Ellen Rogers
- a thick layer of ice covering a large area of land for a long time, esp those in Antarctica and Greenland
- A large sheet of ice and snow that covers an entire region and spreads out under its own weight. Ice sheets have an area of more than 50,000 square km (19,500 square mi). Compare icecap.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.


Los Angeles is a city born of Thomas Edison’s inventions. The movie camera, obviously, helped propel it to become the second-largest city in the United States, but the light bulb, too, is integral to the city’s heritage. Unlike many of the country’s older cities, Los Angeles barely knew a time without electricity. There is even a hip bar called The Edison paying homage to the city’s history in a former power plant in the heart of downtown.
Cities have a very unique ability to be at once visionary and pragmatic
Growing up alongside the car and electricity industries, Los Angeles has long been seen as one of the country’s most modern cities. But now, as our collective dependence on power has been found guilty of damaging our water, air, and climate, the city is taking steps to be part of the new future: a clean energy future.
The City Council is going to consider a motion this month that would direct the municipal utility to determine how to move the city to 100 percent renewable energy. The motion already has broad support from councilmembers, and Los Angeles officials confirmed that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has begun work on the report, which will be developed with research partners, including the Dept. of Energy.
The motion from council members Paul Krekorian and Mike Bonin reads:
LADWP is on the verge of making significant investments in its infrastructure, and with that 100-year-old power system in need of significant upgrades, the city has an opportunity to re-create its utility in a way that recognizes the potential for a fossil-free future, demonstrates global leadership in its commitment to clean energy, and protects ratepayers from the increasing costs of carbon-based fuels
Mayor Eric Garcetti, who has introduced a number of clean energy policies since taking office, supports the initiative.
Over the past few years, Los Angeles has seen the beginnings of a massive transition, and the city itself has been responsible for much of it. In one high-profile move, the city spent $57 million to replace its traditional streetlights with LED bulbs. That simple, if grand, gesture is saving the city $9 million a year in electricity costs and has reduced CO2 emissions by 60,000 metric tons — about equal to 8,860 homes’ worth of electricity.
Why cities could be key to addressing climate change
In fact, cities are seen as one of the most pivotal points for clean energy transformation.
According to the most recent progress report from C40, an international coalition, 228 world cities — representing 436 million people — have set targets that would reduce emissions by 13 gigatons of CO2 by 2050. Partly, this opportunity for reductions is tied to the sheer size of cities. Cities hold more than half of the world’s population, so changes can have outsized impacts.
But cities also operate differently than states and countries, where it can be much harder to change direction of policies.
“Cities have a very unique ability to be at once visionary and pragmatic,” Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, told ThinkProgress. “It’s pretty hard to get stuck in dogmatic, ideological thinking when you’re the mayor of a city or you’re on the council.”
The Sierra Club worked with the councilmembers behind Los Angeles’ current proposal as part of the group’s Ready for 100 campaign, a grassroots effort to encourage commitments to 100 percent renewable energy. In the United States, 12 cities, including both San Francisco and San Diego, have enacted 100 percent clean energy goals, and four cities are already there.
The campaign officially launched in January, but Brune said there are active campaigns now in dozens of cities. “From Oakland, Calif., to Cleveland, Ohio, Boulder, Miami, Boise — these are all efforts that just got started in the last 90 days,” Brune said. He estimated there would be 50 cities with active campaigns by the end of the year.
“We hoped it would grow quickly, and it’s growing more quickly than we hoped,” he said. “You have cities that want to be able to show strong leadership on climate, and they see an enormous opportunity for economic benefit,” Brune said.
Green also means green
The importance of the economics here cannot be underestimated. Los Angeles’ $57 million worth of LED lights, for example, will have paid themselves off in less than six years — a staggering return on investment.
A report published last fall found that cities could save themselves $17 trillion by pursuing clean energy options such as increased efficiency, “aggressive” solar installations, and better public transportation.
All of those tactics are part of Garcetti’s Sustainable City pLAn, released last year.
Earlier this week, Garcetti announced 100 new electric vehicles have been added to the LAPD’s fleet. The city also installed 104 new charging stations and is on track to pass it’s pledge to install 1,000 charging stations by next year. This type of city-led infrastructure is key to allowing the public to also transition to new clean technologies.
But as energy nerds know, EVs are only as clean as the electricity they are using. An EV running off coal-fired generation is responsible for as much greenhouse gas emissions as a regular gas-powered car, according to some estimates. The LADWP, which functions as the city’s sole utility, already has net energy metering and has doubled down on the feed-in tariff program, which allows building and land-owners to install medium-sized solar arrays and sell the electricity directly to the LADWP.
Angelenos are more than ready for a change
In 2015, Los Angeles got 20 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources, according to data sent to ThinkProgress. Nuclear and large-scale hydro together accounted for another 11 percent, but more than 60 percent of the city’s electricity came from coal and natural gas. Coal still accounts for a whopping 40 percent of the city’s power supply. Natural gas, including from four local plants, was 22 percent.
They know which way the parade is marching, and they want to get out in front of it
But there is a lot of support right now in Los Angeles for changing the way Angelenos get their electricity. Over the winter, an uncontrolled natural gas leak in northern Los Angeles caused thousands of families to be evacuated from their homes. People complained of bloody noses, headaches, and other health problems, while Southern California Gas Company struggled for months to contain the Aliso Canyon facility. Subsequently, the company said the region would face potential blackouts this summer without Aliso Canyon, which provides gas to some local power plants.
The Scariest Part Of California’s Gas Leak Wasn’t Rashes And Bloody Noses. It’s What Happens Next.Tatiana Khanlian is 2 years old. Over four months this winter, she had rashes along her arms, spontaneous bloody noses…thinkprogress.orgThat statement infuriated locals, who insist that the city can go green and avoid reopening the storage facility.
“This blowout really highlights that this is just one incident in a larger ongoing disaster,” said Alexandra Nagy, a senior organizer with Food and Water Watch. “We are advocating for the permanent closure of Aliso Canyon. There is really no other option. We cannot go back to business as usual.”
And as the Sierra Club’s Brune put it, big-city mayors are eager to head up popular initiatives:
“They know which way the parade is marching, and they want to get out in front of it,” he said.
A previous version of this post referred to the councilman by the wrong first name. Paul Krekorian has cosponsored the motion. It also said the new charging stations would be available the public. They will only be available to the LAPD.


Governments have been wrestling with the challenges of reopening borders and restarting economies while also performing their fundamental responsibility of protecting populations and national health systems from threats related to COVID-19 and its variants.
Vaccination rates have climbed while PCR and health test verification systems have evolved to a point where seamless health status verification between governments, airlines, and airports is possible.
The combination presents a pivotal moment in both the fight against COVID and the struggle to kick-start idle economies.
The managed border
The best practice framework for border protection is a ‘defence-in-depth model’. This layered approach to border security means having a sequence of screening steps in place for managing risks, with the primary goal of preventing risks from reaching a country in the first place.
One could assume that without the requisite controls in place, many risks go undetected. But COVID-19 and its variants spread quickly across borders and the impacts have been devastating.
Some countries have managed these risks by closing borders quickly.
Closing borders and imposing lockdowns are very effective ways to slow the spread of a virus such as COVID-19, but shutting borders also means shutting down critical parts of the economy such as aviation and tourism.
Layered approach to border management
The first layer in border protection is the visa system, which now includes Electronic Travel Authorities (ETAs), the simplest form of screening and granting permission to travel to a country.
This step allows for checking against watch lists and profiles before travel. Closer to the date of travel, governments receive Passenger Name Record (PNR) data from airlines about travel bookings, providing further opportunities for risk assessment.
As part of a passenger’s check-in procedure, airlines send more current journey and confirmed identity information in the form of Advance Passenger Information (API), or Advance Passenger Processing (APP) data.
These steps provide additional opportunities to detect and manage risks. Importantly, APP is an interactive measure between airlines and governments, meaning that airlines send check-in data to a country and stand by for a Boarding Directive instruction from a government before allowing a person to travel, after check-in data is assessed against various data stores, watchlists, and profiles.
APP for incoming travelers exports the border and allows a government to prevent a passenger from traveling to their country.
APP for departing travelers provides opportunities for countries and airlines to cooperate even further, with a departure country also providing assurance that passengers have met all requirements to leave, including in relation to their immigration and their health status.
Restarting borders with APP
While border management always requires alignment across a range of agencies with responsibility for immigration, customs and security for example, now national health authorities are also assuming a most critical front-line responsibility for border protection.
More than ever before, countries need robust border controls in place, controls that allow essential and safe travel, and controls that can be configured quickly to treat evolving risks.
As COVID spread across the world in 2020, countries with Advanced Passenger Processing (APP) were able to quickly close travel routes from particular hotspots, reducing exposure to the virus in the early stages of the pandemic.
Due to the rapid spread of this virus across many countries, it was eventually necessary for governments to close borders entirely.
Now, with the virus under control in some countries and with increasing rates of vaccination for many others, we are at a turning point.
Using APP, governments have been able to safely and very selectively reopen their borders using their ability to completely control who can embark upon a journey.
With the right capabilities in place, travel routes are opened and can be closed again quickly if an outbreak occurs, or virus threats change.
Where travel bans exist, governments need to deal with a range of different scenarios. While borders might be closed to certain visitors, for example, citizens need to get home.
Exemptions to travel bans may also be necessary for different visa holders like permanent residents, diplomats, or health care workers. We also talk about quarantine-free ‘green flights’, and quarantine-required ‘red flights’. How do you manage all these different cases?
The answer is through APP configuration.
- Different models for travel corridors and bubbles can be facilitated. Arrangements that rely on manual checking of PCR tests for example, can be slow and open to fraud. There are now Health Pass apps available that offer digital assurance of health status for a person, issued by testing labs and increasingly by governments. Health Passes can be integrated with APP checks for fast assurance of PCR test results or vaccination certificates prior to travel. This kind of health check will be an important component of boarding directives as travel resumes.
- Sophisticated APP systems have configurable lists of ports and visas, that allow a government to block or allow boarding for different scenarios. In this way you can prevent boarding for a tourist from a particular place, allow boarding for a citizen or resident returning home, or potentially refer the case to the government for further consideration.
- Where low risk countries decide to implement travel bubble arrangements, APP can be configured to allow passengers to depart on a ‘green flight’ if they have been in the country for 14 days, protecting the destination country as well as other passengers.
There are further possibilities for making use of APP as a critical border control layer, that could be relevant for both international borders and for regional travel.
The most widely used platform facilitating Boarding Directives between airlines and governments has been in place for over 25 years, and is ready to support the safe reopening of borders and the resumption of travel.


BEER-SHEVA, Israel, February 18, 2014... Researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), using specialized monitoring technology, have determined that intensive organic agriculture in greenhouses in Israel can cause significant pollution from nitrate leaching into groundwater.
Public demand has led to the rapid development of organic farming in recent years to provide healthy food products that are free of chemical additives and to reduce industrial and groundwater pollution worldwide. But, according to the paper published in Journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, intensive organic matter using composted manure prior to planting resulted in significantly higher groundwater pollution rates compared with liquid fertilization techniques.
The study used Vadose Zone Monitoring System technology developed at BGU and commercialized by Sensoil Innovations Ltd. to compare the water quality across the entire unsaturated zone under organic and conventional greenhouses in Israel. The system is designed to monitor liquid, gas and soil hydraulic properties and allows real time continuous tracking of water in deep sections of the vadose zone, from land surface to groundwater. It is currently being used in more than 25 commercial and research sites in the United States, Israel, Spain, Namibia, and South Africa.
While groundwater pollution is usually attributed to a large array of chemicals, high nitrate concentration in aquifer water is the main cause for drinking-water well shutdowns. The down leaching of nitrates under intensive organic farming is due to nutrient release from the compost to the soil during the early stages of the growing season. In this stage, nutrient uptake capacity of the young plants is very low and down leaching of nitrates to the deeper parts of the vadose zone and groundwater is unavoidable.
The study, funded by the Israel Water Authority, was conducted in commercial greenhouses on the Southern part of the coastal aquifer in Israel.
The BGU researchers included Dr. Ofer Dahan and Dr. Naftali Lazarovitch of the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research and Efrat E. Russak of the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, and Dr. Daniel Kurtzman, The Volcani Center .
American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (AABGU) plays a vital role in sustaining David Ben-Gurion's vision, creating a world-class institution of education and research in the Israeli desert, nurturing the Negev community and sharing the University's expertise locally and around the globe. With some 20,000 students on campuses in Beer-Sheva, Sede Boqer and Eilat in Israel's southern desert, BGU is a university with a conscience, where the highest academic standards are integrated with community involvement, committed to sustainable development of the Negev. AABGU is headquartered in Manhattan and has nine regional offices throughout the U.S. For more information, please visit http://www.


Search articles from 1992 to the present.
Hollies Suitable for the Iowa Landscape
This article was published originally on 5/19/2000
Holly is a plant often associated with the Christmas season. Their glossy, green leaves and brightly-colored fruit are often used in wreaths, centerpieces, and other decorations. Unfortunately, most holly species are not reliably hardy in Iowa. However, winterberry, inkberry, and several Meserve hybrid hollies can be successfully grown in the state.
The flowers of all holly species are small and inconspicuous. Hollies are also dioecious. Dioecious plant species produce male and female flowers on separate plants. Only the female plants produce the attractive fruit. However, a male plant is required for pollination and fruit set.
Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) is native to much of the eastern United States, including areas in north central and northeast Iowa. While most hollies are evergreen, winterberry loses its leaves in the fall. It grows 6 to 10 feet tall. The fruit on female plants turn a bright red in fall and persist into winter.
Gardeners can choose from several female varieties noted for their excellent fruit display. 'Sparkleberry' is a large, upright shrub. It may become leggy with age as it may reach a height of 10 to 12 feet. 'Sparkleberry' produces brilliant red, 3/8 inch diameter fruit. Another excellent red- fruited variety is 'Winter Red.' 'Winter Red' is a rounded, 6- to 9-foot-tall shrub with dark green leaves and bright red, 3/8 inch diameter fruit. 'Afterglow' is a slow-growing, globe-shaped shrub with orange to orange-red fruit. Its mature height is approximately 6 to 8 feet. Where a small shrub is required, 'Red Sprite' is a good choice. 'Red Sprite' is a compact, globe-shaped shrub that grows about 3 feet tall. It produces red, 1/2 inch diameter fruit.
When planting hollies, a male variety must be planted for pollination and fruit set. One male plant is adequate for 6 to 8 female plants. 'Jim Dandy' is a suitable male variety for 'Afterglow' and 'Red Sprite.' 'Southern Gentlemen' is a male selection used to pollinate 'Winter Red' and 'Sparkleberry.'
Winterberry performs best in moist, acid soils in partial shade to full sun. Best fruiting occurs in those areas that receive at least 6 hours of sun. In alkaline soils, winterberry leaves may become chlorotic or turn a yellow-green. Chlorosis can be prevented by incorporating Canadian sphagnum peat moss into the soil of the planting area before planting.
Unlike many hollies, inkberry (Ilex glabra) is not grown for its fruit. Inkberry is an evergreen holly with dark green foliage and black, berry-like fruit. Plants grow 6 to 8 feet tall. While inkberry is evergreen, in Iowa it will oftentimes lose its leaves in winter during extreme cold. It is best used in protected areas as an accent or specimen plant in the home landscape. 'Compacta' is a dwarf female variety that grows 3 to 4 feet tall. 'Nordic' is a compact, rounded shrub with lustrous dark green foliage. It grows 3 to 4 feet tall. Inkberry requires a moist, acid soil in partial shade to full sun.
Several hybrid broadleaf evergreen hollies, collectively known as Meserve hybrid hollies, can also be grown in Iowa. 'Blue Prince,' 'Blue Princess,' Blue Maid , and Blue Stallion have dark, bluish green foliage and are often referred to as blue hollies. The female varieties have attractive red fruit. For gardeners with limited space, 'Berri-Magic Kids' contains a male ('Blue Boy') and a female ('Blue Girl') in one container. Other attractive Meserve hybrids include China Boy and China Girl .
Meserve hollies are variable in height. Most varieties grow 5 to 10 feet tall. They are hardy in USDA Hardiness Zone 5. However, they are susceptible to desiccation injury from bright sun and cold, dry winds in winter. Meserve hollies should be planted in protected sites, such as on the east sides of buildings.
Year of Publication:
IC-483(11) -- May 19, 2000


Partners: __________, __________
Section: _____ Group #: _
Write a brief summary of your report here. It shouldn’t be any longer than two
paragraphs, and can be shorter if you are skilled at being precise. I’m looking for major
results and conclusions.
If there are no numbers here, you are not being specific enough. If there is only a
sentence or two stating the results of your measurement you are not really summarizing
Include all of your data here. That includes EVERYTHING you measured in class. (not
necessarily just the data you put in the computer and graphed. There is probably more.)
Also, it is okay to include calculated results here, including errors. This is NOT the place
to do your calculations, but you can display the results here.
Tables are really nice for organizing data. They are not required though.
If you are not using tables, then maybe have a “subsection” for different kinds of data.
Inner radius = XX cm
Outer radius = XX cm
Inner radius = XX cm
Outer radius = XX cm
Just make it really easy to identify what you measured, what the measurement was, and
DON’T FORGET UNITS!
This is where you will show all of your calculations. This will generally include
many equations. Be sure to include all of the following:
• State the equation you are going to use. (example: F=ma)
• Define the parameters. (F is the force in Newtons, m is the mass in
kilograms, and a is the acceleration in m/s^2) This could be done in many
ways. You could have a list of all your parameters and their meaning at
the beginning of this section; you could define each parameter as they
appear in the report, or any other way that ensures that any reader could
identify what all of your symbols mean.
• Explain any derivations. If an equation is given in the lab manual then you
can generally just use it, but if you have to combine any equations to get
the one you are using or the source of your equation is in any way unclear
you should explain where it comes from.
• Actually show your calculations. Just because you wrote down the right
equation doesn’t mean that you used it correctly, so if you show me the
numbers you used I may catch small errors you made and take off fewer
points than if you just show an equation and a result that is incorrect.
o If you have to do the same calculation many different times you
can show a single sample calculation and then just list the various
results, but still show at least one calculation for each different
equation that you use.
• There should always be some sort of error calculations as well. That may
be calculations of percent error, percent difference, or error propagations,
or all of the above, but there will always be some sort of error that you
need to calculate and show.
Please do your best to organize this section in such a way that it is easy to identify
what calculation you are doing. Also, this section does not need to be typed. If it is easier
for you to simply write out your calculations and then include that work here, that is
okay. Please, please be sure that I will be able to read your work EASILY.
Here you answer questions about WHY you did the things you did. Show your
understanding here. For example, why did we use the slope of your graph to calculate
whatever value? For what purpose was a particular step included in the procedure?
Here you just briefly wrap up the report. Restate the most important results and
make some conclusions about what those results imply. Did you achieve your objective?
Possibly identify some application of this material to the real world.
You need to have your signed data sheets and graphs attached to this report. Whether
they are included where they belong in the body of the report, or simply attached here at
the end, I don’t care. They can even be attached as separate files when you submit your
report, but I’d rather you not do that if you can include them somewhere in the report.
Remember, the most important part of your report is that it be CLEAR! If I can’t read it, I
can’t grade it.
The First upload material is how the lab report should look like.
The second upload material is the Lab Manual which is all the information about the lab.
The third upload material is my measurement in the lab and the experiment measures and my notes.


Denisovan DNA influences immune system of modern day Oceanian populations
More than 120,000 novel human genetic variations that affect large regions of DNA have been discovered, some of which are linked to immune response, disease susceptibility or digestion. Scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute identified these changes affecting multiple bases of DNA, known as structural variations, in a study of the most diverse worldwide populations examined to date. This included variations in medically-important genes in populations from Papua New Guinea that were inherited from Denisovan ancestors.
The resource, published today in Cell, adds new regions of sequence to the human reference genome, the world standard for all of human genetics, which is nevertheless incomplete. These previously-unknown variations in medically-important genes, which could affect the efficacy of medical treatments in certain populations, will be a valuable resource for the field of precision medicine around the globe.
Structural variations are genetic changes that can encompass anything from a few to millions of base pairs of DNA and are therefore particularly likely to affect how genes function. Some genes, such as those that influence immune response, are considered to be 'medically important'. DNA changes affecting how these genes function can lead to health problems or increased resistance or susceptibility to particular diseases.
Up until now, most large-scale genetic studies have generally focused on changes affecting single base pairs of DNA.
Scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute had previously led the sequencing of 911 genomes from 54 geographically, linguistically and culturally diverse populations from across the globe, and have now searched for structural variations in these sequences.
The sequences were compared to the human reference genome to create a catalogue of structural variations, over three quarters of which were previously unknown. The team then investigated how common these structural variations are in each of the 54 populations, and which of them were inherited from Neanderthal or Denisovan ancestors.
Among the 126,018 structural variations discovered were medically-important variations inherited from Denisovan ancestors in Oceanian populations from Papua New Guinea and nearby, including a high-frequency deletion in the AQR gene that plays a role in detection of viruses and regulation of antiviral immune response.
Mohamed Almarri, first author of the study and Ph.D. student at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "By analysing the genomes of understudied populations we've been able to find high-frequency structural variations not uncovered by previous large-scale sequencing projects. Several of these are in medically-important genes that tell us how a population has evolved to resist a certain disease or why they might be susceptible to others. This is vital knowledge and will help to ensure that treatments can be tailored to each specific population."
Other notable structural variations were uncovered by the study that, together with existing knowledge of human evolution and the role of specific genes, shine a light on how individual populations have evolved.
The Karitiana people, who reside in modern-day Brazil, were found to carry a variation in the MGAM gene that affects starch digestion. The Karitiana diet is derived from fishing, hunting and farming, so a decrease in starch digestion is probably disadvantageous and therefore surprising. It is thought that bad luck may have concentrated this variation in the small population that survived a population crash within the last 5,000 years.
The team also discovered novel 'runaway duplications', where populations have evolved to carry multiple copies of genes. For example, all of the African populations included in the study carried multiple copies of the HPR gene, which is associated with resistance to sleeping sickness. The highest numbers of copies (up to nine) were carried by Central and West African populations, where the disease is most prevalent.
Dr. Ed Hollox, an expert in the field from the University of Leicester, said: "This is a very valuable study showing the importance of structural variation of the human genome in the genetic diversity of humans around the world. The work supports the concept that some human adaptations to different environments are due to the loss or gain of whole genes, or parts of genes. Structural variation can be challenging to find, and this study also provides a well-founded structural variation reference set which will serve as an important springboard for future studies."
The study adds almost two million newly-identified base pairs to the human reference genome sequence. Because the human reference genome was assembled from a small number of people, regions of DNA that were not present in these individuals are missing from the reference sequence.
The team recreated 25 diverse human genomes from scratch using a recent technological innovation called de novo genome assembly. By directly comparing these assembled genomes to the reference, the researchers were able to identify missing sequences present in multiple populations. This illustrates the limitation of a single human reference and the need for high-quality reference genomes from diverse populations.
Dr. Yali Xue, recently retired from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "Structural variants are complicated yet very important functionally, evolutionarily and medically. The discovery of these new structural variations provides one of the richest resources of this kind of variation so far, which not only offers unique insights into population histories and improves the currently used human reference genome, but will also substantially benefit future medical studies."


We often pay so much attention to what we want to keep out of our food (trans fats, artificial colors, GMO ingredients, high fructose corn syrup, excess salt) that we can so easily overlook what health risks may be going on to our foods. Irradiation is a process that affects more than 40 types of food products. It’s approved for use in 37 countries with each nation producing at least 10,000 tons of irradiated food a year. So how does this affect what’s on your plate?
According to the FDA, irradiation is a food safety technology similar to pasteurization that can help with the elimination of disease-causing microorganisms such as E. coli, Campylobacter and Salmonella. It may also reduce insects, parasites, spoilage and, in some fruits or vegetables, it can delay ripening and sprouting.
The low-levels of radiation are not powerful enough to make food radioactive, according to the FDA website, and several scientific studies have shown that nutrient content, flavor and texture of food is not affected by irradiation. But, a number of health experts have concerns about the safety of this process. New York, New Jersey and Maine prohibit the sale and distribution of irradiated foods, as do countries including Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand.
The Cancer Prevention Coalition (CPC) suggests irradiation causes complex chemical changes in food, which have never been tested for cancer or other delayed effects. According to their website, irradiation not only reduces levels of essential nutrients in foods but there are “numerous reports of chronic toxic effects in insensitive studies on test animals fed unextracted whole irradiated food. These include reproductive damage in rodents and chromosomal damage in rodents, monkeys and children.”
You can tell if your food has been irradiated if you notice the international symbol for irradiation, the radura, which must be on packages if more than 10 percent of the product was irradiated. The phrase, “treated by irradiation” (or “with irradiation”) must also be on packages where the contents have been irradiated.
The most commonly irradiated foods include red meat, poultry, pork, eggs, wheat, potatoes, spices and dry vegetable seasonings, and fresh fruits and vegetables commonly at risk for bacterial contamination such as spinach. According to current regulations, no organic food items can be irradiated…another reason to support organic farming in America.
Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger


New research from NASA shows the moon is shrinking, giving way to “moonquakes.”
The shrinking has occurred as the interior of the moon has cooled, NASA said in a Monday press release. It’s become about 150 feet skinnier over the past several hundred million years.
The shrinking has caused the crust to form “thrust faults” on the moon’s surface, which resemble stair-step-shaped cliffs.
NASA tweeted a video that shows fault lines on the moon’s surface.
“Our analysis gives the first evidence that these faults are still active and likely producing moonquakes today as the moon continues to gradually cool and shrink,” said NASA scientist Thomas Watters. “Some of these quakes can be fairly strong, around 5 on the Richter scale.”
Scientists were able to draw this conclusion based on data from four seismometers placed on the moon’s surface during the Apollo missions, NASA said. Other evidence came from photos of the moon’s surface taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.
“It’s really remarkable to see how data from nearly 50 years ago and from the LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) mission has been combined to advance our understanding of the Moon while suggesting where future missions intent on studying the moon’s interior processes should go,” said NASA scientist John Keller.
The findings were published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
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September 22, 2015
3D printing is a very cool technology that has garnered a lot of attention lately. The additive manufacturing process 3D printers use and the software to create 3D models can be extremely confusing. In an attempt to share some information about the 3D printing process Shapeways created a 2D explainer of 3D printing. Introducing students to the world of 3D printing is a great way to get them excited about manufacturing and design. Students are able to see their ideas and creations come to life before their eyes in a very short period of time.
One of the main benefits of 3D printing is the ability to rapidly prototype ideas and designs for anything from fashion accessories to the rocket engines produced by industrial printers at NASA. The Shapeways marketplace gives students and teachers the ability to quickly upload designs and have them printed and shipped within weeks. For classrooms without access to expensive 3D printers, this allows students to get in on the exciting action of 3D printing and modeling.
Take a look at the infographic below to learn about some of the most common processes used in 3D printing and the cutting edge innovations that 3D printers are being used to create!


Example 1: Title – Changing Communities in Our City (Oral Presentation Rubric)
Task Description: Each student will make a 5-minute presentation on the changes in one Portland community over the past thirty years. The students may focus the presentation in any way he or she wishes, but there needs to be a thesis of some sort, not just a chronological exposition. The presentation should include appropriate photographs, maps, graphs and other visual aids for the audience.
Example 2: Title – Research Foundations (Research Paper Rubric)
Task Description: You are to find at least 10 research articles related to your project topic. You will write a 10- page review of these articles that shows how they relate to and contribute to your understanding of your topic.
Example 3: Title – Film Presentation (Group Project Rubric)
Task Description: Working in groups of four or five, students will develop an analysis of a Japanese or American movie about World War II. This analysis should go beyond a simple synopsis of the movie to discuss how well or poorly the film reflects a particular point of view about the war. All group members are expected to participate.
Example 4: Title – Online/Blackboard Discussion Forum (Discussion Board Rubric)
Task Description: Each student is expected to participate weekly in the online discussion forum. Participation means: address the weekly question on the discussion forum submitted by the instructor, and respond to at least two other discussion forum posts that other students have made.


Some may believe that grasshoppers symbolize change and that they are a reminder that life keeps moving forward. As a species, grasshoppers have a very short life span, so they can be seen as a symbol of the impermanence of life.
Grasshopper represents new beginnings, while others see it as a symbol of change. Ultimately, the meaning of Grasshopper is up to the individual.
What is the symbolism behind a grasshopper?
Grasshoppers are often seen as symbols of change. They are known for their ability to quickly jump from one stage of life to the next. This reflects the way that grasshoppers can quickly adapt to new environments.
THIS is How You Know You Really Have the Holy Spirit
What is the meaning behind the hopping?
Hops are used in beer for two main reasons: bitterness and flavor. Bitterness is created when the alpha acids in hops break down the proteins in the malt. This process causes a sharp, bitter taste. Flavor is created when the hops interact with the other ingredients in the beer.
What is the spiritual significance of a grasshopper?
There is a lot of debate surrounding the spiritual significance of grasshoppers. Some believe that they are representative of change and movement, while others believe that they are representative of rebirth.
Some believe that they are a metaphor for the human spirit, while others believe that they are simply a fascinating and unique creature. Ultimately, the spiritual significance of a grasshopper is up to interpretation.
What is the origin story of the grasshopper?
The grasshopper is a creature that is found in many parts of the world. They are known for their jumping abilities and how they can change their colors. The grasshopper is said to have originated in Asia.
Grasshoppers have many different spiritual meanings, and their hopping ability reflects their adaptability.


Growing up, I always dreamed of someday owning a robot.
You see, I really disliked doing chores. (I mean, let’s be honest – not many kids actually enjoy doing chores.) And because I disliked doing chores, it was my dream to own a robot who would do all the vacuuming, dusting, cleaning, and scrubbing so that I wouldn’t have to.
Sadly, my goal of owning a robot has not come to fruition. 🙂 Nonetheless, you can thank my childhood dream of owning a robot for inspiring me to create the Robot Do-a-Dot Printables that I am releasing today.
My Robot Do-a-Dot Printables pack contains 20 pages of robot do-a-dot worksheets. As kids complete these worksheets, they will work on one-to-one correspondence, shapes, colors, patterning, letters, numbers, and counting.
The activities in my Robot Do-a-Dot Printables pack are designed to be completed using do-a-dot markers.
Do-a-dot markers are especially good for young children who have not yet developed the fine motor skills to use a pencil or crayon. By using do-a-dot markers, even little ones can color in pictures, hunt for items in a worksheet, and express themselves creatively at a younger age than is possible for them if they are required to hold a pencil or crayon.
But do-a-dot markers are not just for little kids! Kids of all ages will enjoy using do-a-dot markers. From experience I can tell you that my kids get much more excited about doing worksheets with do-a-dot markers than with regular pencils or crayons. I think there’s a uniqueness factor to do-a-dot markers that just makes them more fun than using pencils or crayons.
Although I’m a fan of do-a-dot markers, I’ve also written in this post about many other ways to use do-a-dot printables to support your children’s learning. So even if you don’t own do-a-dot markers, I’m sure you’ll find that these printables can still be of value to you and your children.
Here is a sneak peak at the activities included in my Robot Do-a-Dot Printables pack:
The activities in this pack cover a range of skills. This means that the worksheets in this pack are likely to appeal to toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary students. I hope you find something in this pack that your children will enjoy!
Want a copy of my Robot Do-a-Dot Printables?
Get it as part of the Do-a-Dot Printables Bundle.
Or get this product by clicking the button below.
More robot resources
More robot activities from Gift of Curiosity:
- Books about robots
- Flip a Robot book
- Robot Sudoku Puzzles
- Robot Activities Pack
- Draw a Robot printable
- Finish Building the Robot
- Robot Coloring Pages
You’ll find more robot printables and activities on my Robots Pinterest board.


A steam locomotive is a steam powered railway locomotive. It was used a lot between about 1830 and 1970. Afterwards, diesel and electric locomotives were used more often. The first steam locomotive was made by Richard Trevithick for a railway used for moving iron at an Ironworks in Wales. A steam locomotive works by burning a fuel like coal in a special space called a firebox. This produces hot gases that rise and go through tubes in a boiler - a large space with water in it. This heats the water, producing steam. The steam is then taken through another tube to a cylinder. The steam then pushes the piston which in turn pushes a metal rod that is connected to the wheels, making the locomotive move. The steam then rises out through the chimney.
Steam locomotives are still today used in many developing countries where the railways have not yet been electrified.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Steam locomotives.|
- GKB 671:The longest serving steam locomotive in the world (since 1860)
- Database of surviving steam locomotives in North America
- Information on North American steam railroads in operation
- UK heritage railways and preserved locomotives database
- Pages for the British project to build a modern steam locomotive. The Advanced Steam Locomotive. (5AT)
- International Steam Locomotives Archived 2010-02-18 at the Wayback Machine
- Tracks of Time Archived 2009-06-05 at the Wayback Machine


Introduction to Socialism
During our work among people in our communities, activists with Socialist Organizer frequently get questions about capitalism, socialism, Marx and how to change the world amid globalization and economic collapse.
What challenges do revolutionaries face today? How do we answer the key questions of our time about class, race, gender and oppression?
Socialist Organizer advocates its members, supporters and everyone interested in true social change carefully study the past, present and future. The following are our most popular questions and answers, as well as some writings we often recommend.
- Is There Enough to Go Around?
- What About Human Nature?
- What Does A Revolution Look Like?
- Can Capitalism Be Humanized?
- Anarchism Versus Marxism?
- Why A Labor Party?
- Can the Oppression of Women Be Ended?
- Can Racism Be Abolished?
- Does Socialism Have to be International?
- Are the Democrats A Lesser Evil?
- What is Capitalism?
- Why is Capitalism in Crisis Today?
- What is Globalization?
- What is the Working Class?
- Are U.S Workers Bought Off?
- Who Rules the United States?
- Surplus Product
- Law of Value
- Value and Price
- Surplus Value
- Absolute vs. Relative Surplus Value
- What is Socialism?
- What Went Wrong in Russia?
- What Are the Four Workers’ Internationals?
- Do Socialists Fight for Reforms?
- Is A Workers’ State Needed?
- What Would A Workers’ State Look Like?
- Is Socialism About Conformism?
- Is A Stateless Society Possible?
- What Incentive Will People Have Under Socialism?
- Is Socialism Inevitable?
- How Will People Get Paid Under Socialism?
- How Will Work Be Organized Under Socialism?
How to Change the World
- Are Lifestyle Changes A Solution?
- What is the Marxist Position on Elections?
- What Do Marxists Say About Direct Action?
- Is Leadership Necessary?
- How Can We Save the Environment?
- 40 Years after Roe vs. Wade: The War On Women Today
- Marxism and Feminism
Introduction to Socialism
- Why Socialism?
- Socialism and Democracy
- What Socialism Would Look Like
- “Lifestyle” Politics or Mass Action?
- Anarchism vs. Marxism
- What Revolutionaries Stand For
Socialism in Practice
- In Defense of Socialism
- Engels on the U.S. Labor Party Question
- What Socialist America Will Look Like
- America Under Workers’ Rule
- Can U.S. Workers Make a Socialist Revolution?
- The United Front and the Revolutionary Party
- Introduction to the Transitional Program
- An Introduction to the Russian Revolution
- The Relevance of the October Revolution
- Marxists and the Labor Party Movement: 1919 to 1924
- The Labor Party Question in the U.S., 1828-1930: An Historical Perspective
Introduction | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Appendix 1 | Appendix 2
Socialism and Race
- Racism, Self-Determination and Marxism
- Why Racism Began and How to End It
- Malcolm X on Capitalism and Socialism
- MLK vs. Capitalism
- The State and Revolution
- The Communist Manifesto
- The ABC of Materialist Dialectics
- The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism
- The Case for a Revolutionary Socialist Party
- Why Marxists Oppose Individual Terrorism
- “Left-Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder
- The Rise and Consequences of Stalinism
- Recommended Books
- The Origins of the Fourth International
- Strengths and Weaknesses of Cannonism
- The 60th Anniversary of the Fourth International
- The Fourth International and the United Front
- Toward a Balance Sheet of the Fourth International in the United States
- Some Reflections on the Founding of the Fourth International and the Relevance of its Programme


Executive Functioning Success *Now Available*
Executive functions are the set of mental skills that help us complete daily tasks. Many students and adults with executive functioning deficits have difficulty with time management, planning, organization, focusing their attention, staying on task and completing tasks. This may appear to be due to laziness or lack of motivation, but most often is due to a lack of skills. In this training, participants will learn what executive functions are, why they are important, and how to improve executive functioning skills through the use of visual strategies. This training offers a more in depth look at specific visual strategies to build independence, improve accountability, reduce frustration, and increase daily success.
Intense/Systematic Spelling Instruction for Special Education
Silver Moon Spelling Rules *Great for struggling spellers*
Learn how to present the Silver Moon Spelling Rules Program one-on-one or to small groups. This program is explicit, multi-sensory, cumulative, and scaffolded. This professional development course gives essential background regarding struggling spellers and includes an overview of all 21 lessons which include learning objectives, direct skill modeling, guided practice, and independent practice. Attendees will be taught how to use the pre and post tests which will measure student learning. Your students will not have to memorize words for a weekly spelling test anymore. They will apply mastered spelling rules on unmemorized and unrehearsed words and experience success in spelling.
Barton Reading and Spelling System
Kelly is certified in the Barton Reading and Spelling System. She has experience training and coaching special education teachers and instructional assistants in using the Barton System. This professional development course will be individualized to address your specific training needs as it relates to using the Barton System.


The Home Economics programme seeks to:
Home Economics has an important contribution to make to the whole school curriculum. Home Economics combines aspects of science, nutrition, cooking, parenting skills and finance. Home Economics also allows students to explore and debate topics around the key concepts of home and family life and independent living. Students learn about diet and health in a practical context- through preparation of food and the planning of meals. It also encourages students to think about their relationship with food in a positive way, to challenge the way they choose food, and to inspire a love for food and a willingness to experiment and be creative with food.
Students learn about the inter-relationships between diet, health, family, home and choice and the management of resources.
As a result, students become more informed and responsible to make choices about their health, their family relationships and their resources now and in the future.


The world would be a poorer place without religion, secular culture and spirituality. There is much to appreciate in the diversity of religious, secular and spiritual experiences. Yet concerns about such experiences and the exaggerated interpretation of their value deserve examination in the light of Transcendence.
Transcendence refers to that which reveals the conventional, the relative, the ordinary and then goes beyond the mundane. Transcendence here in this text expresses metaphysics in terms of its original meaning. ‘Metaphysics’ comes from the Greek – ‘beyond the physical.’ Metaphysics today usually refers to abstractions in philosophy.
Religion, secular culture and spiritual practice can point the way to Transcendence. The path of meditation and inquiry can reveal Transcendence. Transcendence reveal a truth which liberates from entrapment in the mundane. There is no guarantee if one settles for stress reduction, repetition of forms/techniques and reliance on institutional standpoints.
Western religions have traditionally confined Transcendence to a single word – God. The holding to a single concept has obscured the richness and significance of Transcendence.
The variety of ways Transcendence reveals itself matter for humanity.
Religion, Secularism, Spirituality
Religion has often wrapped its beliefs around Transcendence with its rituals, ceremonies, dogma, sacred books, gurus, prophets and saviours. Transcendence becomes hard to realise in the mists of the orthodoxy of religion.
Secularism/humanism has generally confined itself to the conventional alongside views and opinions around morality, values, progress, achievement of goals and science. The world of self-interest, family issues, profit, society and the nation state often govern the mind.
There is little knowledge or realisation of the importance of Transcendence in secular culture.
Authentic Transcendence fails to have a significant relevance in religion or secularism. There is little interest to dedicate one’s life to seeing and knowing of Transcendence.
The mind’s construction of purpose and meaning remains confined to a field of human interest rather than any direct relationship to Transcendence.
We have witnessed decade after decade the emergence of spirituality. In recognising the limits and pitfalls of a life confined to religion or secularism, the quest for purpose and meaning continues.
Spirituality also finds itself entrapped with specific definitions that hold an attraction in the cult of individualism.
Religion, secularism and spirituality has resisted diversity. Religion is patriarchal and monotheistic. Secular confines the young to a rigid and abusive educational system and life as wage slaves. Spirituality becomes an appendix to daily life, a forlorn belief in self-help.
Has the self-help world become a profitable industry, along with a plethora of celebrity status for the Masters, Spiritual Leaders, their organisations and foundations?
Definitions of the Spiritual
The spiritual can become confined to experiences in the nature. A response to an expression in the art/culture/humanities.
The spiritual gets defined as being in the Now with a view that being in the Now is the truth, the real, the ultimate.
Others proclaim Oneness the Truth, as the Real.
Others proclaim the experience of the Non-Dual is the Truth, the Reality when the mind has no leaning in one direction or the other.
Others claim we have a True Self – beyond body and mind.
Others proclaim we are Pure Consciousness. These spiritual standpoints have a growing appeal. Various ‘enlightened beings’ offer their teachings to advocate one or more of these spiritual postures. Others proclaim Mindfulness as the new Renaissance rather than a very basic tool adopted widely by the self-help culture.
The here and now, oneness, non-duality, mindfulness, true self, radiant awareness, consciousness etc belong to the relative, the conventional. The highlighting of one or more of these concepts does not elevate the concept into having a Transcendent significance.
Do these standpoints show Transcendence? Do these terms simple enhance views through applying such statements to certain kinds of experiences?
The sheer frequency of expression of certain spiritual based terms lends itself towards the magnification of the terms, Is the self-help culture infected with self-interest to the point that its bear little relevance to Transcendence, nor directly concerned with the plight of humanity, animals and the environment?
The endless reification of these terms makes no difference to their status since they remain wrapped up in the field of human experience and the interpretation of such experiences.
Transcendence shows the limits of the mind not a means to invoke a special meaning to life.


Saturday, August 4, 2012 | Latest audio lessons → VOA Learning English
When Animals Make People Sick
Researchers estimate that more than two billion people a year get diseases spread by animals. More than two million of them die.
Delia Grace is a veterinary epidemiologist -- an expert in the spread of diseases involving animals. She is also a food safety expert. She works at the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. She says diseases transmitted between animals and people are called zoonoses. She says more than 60 percent of human diseases come from other vertebrate animals. Some of these diseases are common. Others are extremely rare.
Delia Grace says there are many different infection pathways for a person. Probably the most common one is for people to get sick from food. Other transmission pathways include direct contact with animals. And some diseases can be transmitted through water or through the air.Delia Grace says diseases like avian influenza or mad cow disease have killed very few people. But she says they are of interest because some of them could kill a lot of people. They include the Spanish flu after the First World War, and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Delia Grace is the lead author of a new report called "Mapping of Poverty and Likely Zoonoses Hotspots." She points out that poverty and disease are closely linked, so preventing the transmission of animal diseases could help reduce poverty.
The report, for Britain's Department for International Development, lists places where the diseases are most common. The report lists places where a disease has existed for a long time, a so-called endemic zoonosis, as well as places with new threats.
Delia Grace says things could get worse in the coming years as meat production increases to feed a growing world population. High production farms often raise animals close together. Crowding can allow diseases to spread quickly. Another concern is the use of antibiotics in food animals, not only to prevent and treat diseases but to increase growth. The report says an "incentive-based" system to encourage safer methods of raising animals could be more effective than increasing food inspections. For example, small farmers could receive training and other help that would lead to official approval of their products.
For VOA Special English, I'm Mario Ritter. (Adapted from a radio program broadcast 10Jul2012)


f you think there is nothing you can do to delay, stop, or even prevent Alzheimer's disease, we have a saying around here: We can change your mind.
While there is no “cure” for Alzheimer's yet, clinical research data shows that current therapies can delay the progression of the disease by anywhere from a third to 60 percent. To translate that to something meaningful, delaying Alzheimer's progression could mean the difference between reaching the end of your life without the ability to balance your checkbook versus losing the ability to swallow your food.
In fact, because the average course of Alzheimer's progression takes about 14 years, if you detect and treat it early, you could effectively prevent the disease by delaying its onset.
So how can you detect Alzheimer's early?
The most important step is to see your doctor. For too long people have believed that Alzheimer's cannot be treated and that it cannot be properly diagnosed without an autopsy. That was true 20 years ago, but now we have an ability to diagnose with better than 90 percent accuracy, and treat the disease with positive results. Unfortunately, fear and fatalism still surround Alzheimer's, leading people to avoid seeking a diagnosis.
We now know we can detect Alzheimer's in the “mild cognitive impairment” stage. That's when you can still do all your well-learned skills – shopping, paying bills, hobbies – but have trouble retaining recently acquired information, like appointments, recent conversations or new locations.
To catch it early, have your memory checked annually after the age of 45, when memory problems start to develop in people with Alzheimer's. By establishing a good baseline, any changes will be detected early.
The Orange County Vital Brain Aging Program has implemented a simple memory assessment that distinguishes between normal “senior moment” experiences and mild cognitive impairment with 97 percent accuracy.
You can discuss establishing your baseline with your physician, or visit one of the program's sites in Newport Beach, Irvine, Corona del Mar and Huntington Beach.
The purpose of the program has been to educate the public as well as physicians about the benefit of early detection, and since 2010, more than 7,000 people have passed through the doors, including 700 physicians who have been trained to recognize the disease in their patients.
We have found 1 out of every 4 people over the age of 55 in Orange County has mild cognitive impairment. We know from population studies that half of those individuals will have Alzheimer's. That translates to about 40,000 people in Orange County who have the disease and will experience dementia if not treated.
On the other hand, half of those individuals do not have Alzheimer's disease, but more treatable conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and depression. All these conditions can cause mild cognitive impairment if not managed properly.
Medical treatment has improved dramatically, and even staying physically and mentally active can go a long way toward improving your memory and slowing the progression of the disease.
One of my patients is a perfect example of this: An identical twin in her 70s with a strong genetic predisposition to Alzheimer's, she has recently experienced mild memory loss. Her twin sister, meanwhile, is mute, incontinent and living in a nursing home with advanced dementia.
When I asked what might have contributed to this wide gap, my patient said she stayed physically active, took classes, read and continued to learn during her adult life. Her sister did not. She also took her health seriously and has been having her memory checked.
She took control and changed her mind. And it has made all the difference.
– Dr. William R. Shankle is director of the Memory and Cognitive Disorders Program at Hoag Neurosciences Institute, and oversees the Orange County Vital Brain Aging Program.


It is quite rare to find people who know about their Desi sports which belong to a time lost. There are several sports being played that not many give attention to nor are interested in knowing about them. However, for the love of sports and history one does feel the need to write about such ventures. Games like Kabaddi, Gulli Danda, Marbles, Shatapoo are now only found being played by the little mud clad children in villages of Pakistan. Today I am going to shed some light on a different kind of sport, a little more dignified, a little more mysterious, and a little more majestic: the Game of Kings.
Also known as Tent Pegging in English and more usually known as Neza Baazi in Urdu. Our generation which is more interested in main street sports like football and cricket would not mostly know about this lost art. It is reminiscent to polo but not quite so.
Tent Pegging is a cavalry sport of ancient times. To be more precise it is the cavalry sport of removing wooden ‘tent pegs’ from the back of a galloping horse from the ground using a sword or lance. It is also said that the origins of the sport can be traced back some 2,500 years to the time when Asian armies relied on their skills of the lance. There are many stories about its origins such as that that tent pegging was used as a target practice drill in order to disable enemy war elephants by spearing their toe nails in actual combat. Some believe the sport began when the cavalry soldiers of Alexander the Great used tent-pegging as a battle tactic against the elephants in the army of the Indian King Porus.
However, the most widely accepted theory is that the game originated in medieval India as a training tool for cavaliers facing war elephants. From the back of a galloping horse a cavalier would stab the highly sensitive flesh behind an elephant’s toenail, causing the enemy elephant to rear, unseat his mahout, and possibly run amok, breaking ranks and trampling infantry. In order to perfect this technique, the cavalry started the practice of tent-pegging which eventually turned into the modern sport as we know. Tent-pegging is now a popular equestrian sport in many countries around the world.
The game of tent pegging has a mounted horseman riding atop a galloping horse and using a sword or a lance to pierce, pick up, and carry away a small ground target (a wooden tent peg) or a series of small ground targets.
The Next High class of tent pegging games also include ring jousting in which a galloping rider tries to pass the point of his weapon through a suspended ring; usually a lemon or an orange sticking in which the rider tries to stab or slice a lemon or an orange suspended from a cord or sitting on a platform)
A given tent pegging competition’s rules specify the size and composition of the target, the number of consecutive targets placed on a course, the dimensions and weight of the sword or lance, the minimum time in which a course must be covered and the extent to which a target must be struck, cut, or carried. There are single Section Tent pegging as well as Team Tent Pegging Competitions.
As a Local and International Sport:
Today, tent pegging is practised around the world, but is especially popular in Australia, India, Oman, Pakistan, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The Olympic Council of Asia included tent pegging as an official sport in 1982, and the International Federation for Equestrian Sports recognised it as an official equestrian discipline in 2004.
From the results of the 2008 International Tent Pegging Championships, the world’s three leading national teams are currently Canada, India, and Oman. In Pakistan tent pegging is known as Neza Bazi as well. It has been popular in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and some parts of Sindh and Balochistan. There are many clubs who have different and unique styles of turbans and waistcoats which serve as a form of intensification with their clubs. People also decorate their horses for the competition. Every club arranges a neza bazi competition and invites other clubs to participate in them. There are some specific shows being arranged for many decades: National Horse and Cattle Show is one of them. It is held at the Fortress Stadium in Lahore every year usually in end of February or at first week of March. Tent pegging is a part of this event. Clubs from all the districts of Pakistan participate.
The police forces dominate world-class tent pegging, however, the sport is being increasingly embraced by civilian riders in India, Oman and Canada because their Governments support this sport. However in other countries it is not popular due to the expenses involved. Owing a horse, its maintenance, riding gear and the fee to learn tent pegging all require funding. Thus it is more popular in the military and police forces. In Pakistan, different clans do train their riders and show their outstanding performances in International Tent Pegging Competitions. This recognition further places Pakistan as a selected member in the International Tent Pegging Federation.


Snow leopards in Central Asia
This year’s World Wildlife Day, on March 3rd, is themed around big cats, as predators under threat deserving international protection. The high altitude valleys that connect the northern states of India with the Tibetan plateau, are home to vulnerable populations of snow leopards and bears, while endangered tigers live in reserves at the foothills of the Himalayans.
This week’s PROBA-V 100 m image nicely visualizes a part of Uttarakhand state, India (southwest) and the valleys through the rugged Himalayan mountains.
Snow leopards live in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and national park of Nanda Devi and the Valley of Flowers, located in the valley in the southeast of the image. The park lies at an altitude over 3500m and is surrounded by mountain peaks between 6000 m and 7500 m high.
The glacial valleys are of particular value to mankind as well, as they are the source of mighty rivers such as the Ganges, providing water to millions.


My students are from Title 1 school. Many of these children are socioeconomically disadvantaged and second language learners. They have a wide range in academic abilities, some as low as 2nd grade. Their is still a gap technology skills, but seems to be getting smaller with basic operations and programs. Abilities range from students who can program all the way to those that need to learn to copy and paste.All students have a device and access to the school's wifi during all non-school hours.
During the first semester, My Initial driving question was "What is the impact concept maps have on student clarity for the learning objectives and achievement?"
I studied this for a semester, and considering the data I gathered from the students, made the decision to modify my question to better meet the needs of the students in my classroom. my secondary driving question became:
"How can digital platforms help students gain clarity on the learning objectives, success criteria, and provide a way to monitor their learning progress in middle school science?"
Digital Tools used for Student Clarity Video
I wanted my logo to represent Digital tools will lead to Student clarity. The compass represents having a clear direction of where they need to go in their learning. I wanted the text to resemble an equal sign symbolizing digital tools equal clarity. The different text I am hoping draws the eye so it could read up and down also. I chose the color green because that is often used in education and was easy on my eye.
Link to Initial Analysis Prototype


Blog By: Aishwarya Ghumekar
When most adults think about exercise, they imagine working out in the gym, running on a treadmill, or lifting weights.
But for kids, exercise means playing and being physically active. Kids exercise when they have gym class at school, during recess, at dance class or soccer practice, while riding bikes, or when playing tag.
The Many Benefits of Exercise
Everyone can benefit from regular exercise. Kids who are active will:
- have stronger muscles and bones
- have a leaner body because exercise helps control body fat
- be less likely to become overweight
- decrease the risk of developing type 2 diabetes
- lower blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels
- have a better outlook on life
Besides enjoying the health benefits of regular exercise, kids who are physically fit sleep better. They’re also better able to handle physical and emotional challenges — from running to catch a bus to studying for a test.
The Three Elements of Fitness
If you’ve ever watched kids on a playground, you’ve seen the three elements of fitness in action when they:
- run away from the kid who’s “it” (endurance)
- cross the monkey bars (strength)
- bend down to tie their shoes (flexibility)
Parents should encourage their kids to do a variety of activities so that they can work on all three elements.
Endurance develops when kids regularly get aerobic activity. During aerobic exercise, the heart beats faster and a person breathes harder. When done regularly and for extended periods of time, aerobic activity strengthens the heart and improves the body’s ability to deliver oxygen to all its cells.
Aerobic exercise can be fun for both adults and kids. Examples of aerobic activities include:
- ice skating
- inline skating
Thus a healthy lifestyle will be definitely useful for kids.