High mountain ice is vital to millions. As the world warms, the glaciers’ global melt could see the frozen peaks vanish.
LONDON, 12 April, 2019 – Many of the planet’s most scenic – and most valued – high-altitude landscapes are likely to look quite different within the next 80 years: the glaciers’ global melt will have left just bare rock.
By the century’s end, Europe’s famous Alps – the chain of snow- and ice-covered peaks that have become a playground of the wealthy and a source of income and pleasure for generations – will have lost more than nine-tenths of all its glacier ice.
And in the last 50 years, the world’s glaciers – in Asia, the Americas, Europe, Africa and the sub-Arctic mountains – have lost more than nine trillion tonnes of ice as global temperatures creep ever upwards in response to profligate combustion of fossil fuels.
And as meltwater has trickled down the mountains, the seas have risen by 27mm, thanks entirely to glacial retreat.
“Present mass-loss rates indicate that glaciers could almost disappear in some mountain ranges in this century”
In two separate studies, Swiss scientists have tried to audit a profit and loss account for the world’s frozen high-altitude rivers, and found a steady downhill trend.
Glacial ice is a source of security and even wealth: in the poorest regions the annual summer melt of winter snow and ice banked at altitude can guarantee both energy as hydropower and water for crops in the valleys and floodplains.
In wealthy regions, the white peaks and slopes become sources of income as tourist attractions and centres for winter sport – as well as reliable sources of power and water.
They made computer models of the annual flow of ice and its melting patterns and took 2017 as the reference year: a year when the Alpine glaciers bore 100 cubic kilometres of ice. And then they started simulating the future.
If humankind kept the promise made by 195 nations in Paris in 2015, to drastically reduce fossil fuel use, lower emissions of carbon dioxide, restore the forests and keep global warming to no more than 2°C above historic levels, then the stores of high ice would be reduced by more than a third over the next eight decades. If humankind went on expanding its use of fossil fuels at the present rates, then half of all the ice would be lost by 2050 and 95% by 2100.
But there will be losses in all scenarios: warming so far has seen to that. Ice reflects radiation and keeps itself cold, so change lags behind atmospheric temperature.
“The future evolution of glaciers will strongly depend on how the climate will evolve,” said Harry Zekollari, once of ETH and now at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, who led the research. “In the case of a more limited warming, a far more substantial part of the glaciers could be saved.”
The Alpine glaciers were made world-famous first by Romantic painters and poets of the 19th century, among them JMW Turner and Lord Byron. But their contribution to rising sea levels is, in a global context, negligible.
When Swiss researchers and their Russian, Canadian and European partners looked at the big picture, they found that the mass loss of ice from the mountains of Alaska, Canada, parts of Asia and the Andes matched the increasing flow of water from the melting Greenland ice cap, and exceeded the flow of melting water from the Antarctic continent.
Europe’s modest melt
They report in Nature that glaciers separate from the Greenland and Antarctic sheets covered 706,000 square kilometres of the planet, with a total volume of 170,000 cubic kilometres, or 40 centimetres of potential sea level rise.
And in the five decades from 1961 to 2016, according to careful study of satellite imagery and historic observations, the seas have already risen by 27mm as a consequence of increasing rates of glacial retreat. This is already between 25% and 30% of observed sea level rise so far.
Europe did not figure much in the reckoning. “Globally, we lose three times the ice volume stored in the entirety of the European Alps – every single year,” said Michael Zemp, a glaciologist at the University of Zurich.
He and his colleagues warn: “Present mass-loss rates indicate that glaciers could almost disappear in some mountain ranges in this century, while heavily glacierised regions will continue to contribute to sea level rise beyond 2100.” – Climate News Network


Having Fled War, Syrian Mothers Give Birth During a Deadly Pandemic
This maternity ward in northern Jordan serves one of the biggest Syrian refugee populations in the world — but chances are, you never heard of it.
Written by Clara Long and Ryan Stafford, International Medical Corps
Photos by Nadia Bseiso
Since the 1947–49 Palestine war, Jordan has been a refuge for those fleeing from wars in the region. In the past 10 years, the country has welcomed more than 1 million refugees. The vast majority of them are from Syria, joining an already substantial refugee community made up of Palestinians, Iraqis and a smaller number of African refugees. There are currently 660,000 registered Syrian refugees in Jordan, though the actual number is potentially twice as high.
Did you know that the overwhelming majority of refugees who have fled and survived war, persecution or disasters don’t live in camps, but in and around cities? In fact, more than 80% of Syrian refugees in Jordan live in urban areas, with 136,498 of them living in Irbid, a city in northern Jordan close to the Syrian border where they live autonomously but face challenges securing an income, affordable housing — and healthcare. Put differently, they are just trying to make ends meet, not unlike the communities that host them. Though the situation in Jordan isn’t rare, the brutal reality for most refugees is that about 70% live below the poverty line.
Against this backdrop, International Medical Corps is working hard to ensure that refugees and other displaced communities can access healthcare. Though we operate in Jordan’s main refugee camps, we also support urban refugees and believe it’s crucial to raise awareness about these lesser-known but equally common refugee lives.
Since September 2018, International Medical Corps has been running a maternity ward in Irbid. In this city close to the Syrian border, we serve one of the biggest urban refugee populations in the country. This article steps inside the ward and introduces the midwives, nurses and doctors who care for refugee mothers as they give birth — and are given a haven in the middle of a raging global pandemic.
The Maternal Ward: Safe Motherhood to Refugee Mothers
Refugees living in urban areas face similar, often greater, hardship than those living in camps. Our clinic in Irbid is trying to change that.
International Medical Corps’ team at the maternity ward in Irbid Hospital. Most of Jordan’s refugee population rely on aid organizations like International Medical Corps to access basic healthcare services for free, without demanding citizenship, residence permit, insurance or the capacity to pay. Pregnancy and childbirth services are no exception.
Midwife Yasmin Bishtou at work in the maternity ward. According to one study by the WHO, refugees and migrants suffer increased pregnancy-related risks and outcomes.
Maternity Supervisor Abeer at work. With the right training, midwives could avert more than 80% of all pregnancy-related deaths, including stillbirths and maternal and neonatal deaths.
One of International Medical Corps’ doctors at Irbid Hospital examines a newborn baby. More than 8,000 successful deliveries have so far taken place at the hospital.
Isra’a, a new mother, is learning how to breastfeed her baby. It’s crucial to raise awareness about sexual and reproductive health among pregnant and lactating women.
A nurse brings Faiza to surgery for a cesarean section at Irbid Hospital. The majority of Syrian refugees in Irbid have fled the city of Dara’a, a former Syrian opposition stronghold where the conflict first erupted. Still fearing the Assad regime, most of them don’t want to return to Syria and instead now call Irbid their home.
Midwife Wisal working at the maternity ward. Most maternal and newborn complications occur during and immediately after labor and delivery. Skilled birth attendants can change that, which is why International Medical Corps is focusing on increasing the number of births assisted by trained midwives in some of the world’s toughest humanitarian emergencies.
Saving the Lives of Premature Babies at the NICU
At Irbid Hospital, we also care for critically ill and premature newborn babies at our newborn intensive care unit (NICU).
Mihesin and his wife, together with baby Sadeen, pose for a portrait at the NICU. An estimated 1 million children have been born as refugees in neighboring countries since the war in Syria began.
Sadeen gets a check-up at the NICU. The Syrian conflict has been raging for more than a decade, with millions of children knowing nothing but war and displacement.
Nurse Maha bathes a baby at the NICU. Nearly one in three children living outside their countries of birth are refugees; for adults, the proportion is less than 5%. Child displacement is at a record high.
Nurse Zubaida takes a blood sample. The world suffers from an alarming shortage of health workers. According to the WHO, we will face a global shortfall of 18 million health workers by 2030, primarily in low- and lower-middle-income countries. International Medical Corps is working hard to fill that gap.
A Foundation for a Healthier Future
Women, girls and children face some of the biggest challenges in humanitarian emergencies. Access to sexual reproductive health services is no exception. Though maternal and newborn deaths are rare in high-income countries, women facing war, disaster and displacement, as well as extreme poverty, face a different reality altogether.
Although important progress has been made in the last decades, several hundred thousand women still die during and following pregnancy and childbirth. This tragedy is as unacceptable as it is entirely preventable. Most maternal and newborn deaths are entirely preventable if women — no matter where they are born or live — have equal access to maternity care and safe motherhood.
But simply surviving pregnancy and childbirth shouldn’t be our goal. Reproductive services don’t just save lives; they increase well-being among mothers and their babies together, laying the foundation for a healthier future for their families and the community at large. In this sense, safe motherhood is a prerequisite, a building block, for a world where we can all prosper.
International Medical Corps can support women and their newborn babies in Irbid thanks to generous funding from EU Humanitarian Aid.
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Dr Lea Waters demonstrates in her new book The Strength Switch how optimism, resilience and achievement can be encouraged by focussing on kids’ strengths, rather than correcting their weaknesses. How can schools can bring about a ‘strength-based cultural shift’?
Suzy Barry: Can you briefly describe your research on wellbeing in schools? What did you find?
Dr Lea Waters: I have evaluated the effects of various positive psychology curriculums on student wellbeing. The curriculums have been designed to help students learn a range of psychological skills that help to increase gratitude, mindfulness, use of strengths, kindness and resilience. The research shows that these programs significantly improve a range of wellbeing outcomes for students including increases in optimism, self-esteem, self-acceptance, and life satisfaction as well as reductions in stress, anxiety and depression. In some studies, wellbeing programs have also been shown to improve academic grades.
SB: Are these issues that can be addressed via a strength-based culture? What is this ‘strength-blindness’ how can it be ‘cured’?
LW: A strength-based culture has four key benefits:
- Higher performance and greater likelihood of reaching one’s potential: when schools put the bulk of their resources into lifting low performance (either in students or staff) a lot of effort is spent to moving from poor to average. When we work on weakness we can only take our kids to a point where the weakness no longer exists. It’s when we work on strengths that we get them to high performance.
- Diversity and inclusion: everyone has unique strengths and when we adopt a strength-based culture we get to see the differences in others from an appreciative perspective. We also get to utilize people’s strengths more intentionally, in order to have each staff member and each student contribute to a positive culture. We bring together all strengths – the communicators, the problem solvers, the energisers, the analysers, the change agents, the relationship builders, the creatives and so on – and each person is valued for what they add.
- Wellbeing: research shows that when teachers and students play to their strengths it boosts a range of wellbeing outcomes such as life satisfaction, positive emotions and optimism.
- Fosters better teacher-student bond: Strengths provide a positive common ground for teachers and students to connect because they both have strengths. Teachers and students bond when they find they have similar or complementary strengths. When they have different strengths, they can appreciate the differences. Strengths break down hierarchy – they are a social equaliser because everyone has them. In one school, students engaged in a week of ‘strengths spotting’ of their teachers. They wrote down the strengths they saw in their teachers and these messages were then displayed on the electronic board across the school examples included:
“Mr Green always displays his strength of humour. He plays birthday music for our birthday and we all sing along” and “Ms Berg is really persistent. She told me that it was her mission to get me to love and understand maths. She continues to ask if I am ok and if I need help.”
Strength blindness is the term that psychologists use to describe the phenomenon of people not seeing their strengths clearly. Strengths are the things we perform well, are energised by, and are self-motivated to do. Our strengths come naturally to us and, thus, require less effort to use, than our weaknesses. As such, we tend to take our strengths for granted and we become blind to them – not seeing them as strengths and assuming everyone has the same qualities as us. The downside of strengths blindness is that we then don’t think to use our strengths intentionally to build our wellbeing and performance.
SB: How can school leaders / teachers implement the concepts discussed in your book?
LW: The two key processes in my book for strength-based parenting are first learning how to see strengths in yourself and others; then learning how to build strengths in yourself and others.
These two processes are equally relevant in schools as they are in families. The book shows parents how they can better see and use their own unique strengths in their role as a parent and my research shows that when parents do this, they have higher self-efficacy and more positive emotions. The same would apply for teachers. All the surveys, exercises and activities in the book can be used and adapted to the classroom and I have woven an number of teacher stories throughout the book.
SB: You indicate that parents need to let their kids ‘slack off’ sometimes – should teachers give students ‘down-time’ at school as well? Why/why not?
LW: Yes, when teachers structure down-time into their classes, rather than fill the class time with formal instruction, they are actually helping their students to learn. This might seem counter-intuitive, but neuroscience now shows that when students slow down and turn inwards, although they don’t look busy on the outside, their brains are actually super busy and fully firing.
When the brain’s external-focused, task-mode turns off, an alternate mode in the brain turns on. Neuroscientists have labelled this mode the ‘ Default Network Mode’. Down time shifts a student’s brain into the Default Network Mode – DFM for short – which is critical for learning because it is when we are using our DFM that the brain pauses to:
- integrate information;
- consolidate learning;
- process emotions;
- clear ‘cerebral congestion’,
- and refresh and restore our brain’s capacity for attention.
So, building in down-time, play, mindfulness and opportunities to slack off in class are an important part of helping students learn.
Basically, our brains use down-time to untangle and order all the thoughts and feelings we’ve had that day. Downtime helps us clear our ‘cerebral congestion’. This is as necessary for teachers and all school staff as it is for students.
SB: How can strength-based practices be of use when working with students with specific challenges?
LW: Strengths are a powerful way to build confidence and wellbeing in kids who have learning challenges or who sit along the spectrum. Research on positive parenting with children who have attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) shows that while it doesn’t change their deficit disorder, it does improve their behaviour. ADHD children whose parents use praise, positive emotions, physical affection, and positive engagement as regular features of their parenting have fewer conduct problems, fewer mood issues, fewer sociability problems, and less hyperactivity.
One mother in my book described to me how discovering the core strengths of her son, who has Asperger’s syndrome, allowed her to see his powers of observation of others’ emotions that hadn’t been as noticeable before:
“Fin has Asperger’s syndrome, so it was a surprise to me that he has social intelligence as a signature strength. I didn’t really believe it until I asked others who know him well. His teachers said it made perfect sense to them—Fin notices details that others don’t and is very perceptive of others’ emotions, even though he may not always respond or know what to do with that emotion. Seeing that this was a strength for Fin helped me to understand that he could observe people’s emotions but needed help on appropriate responses. Sometimes when he has friend over, he’ll tell me the friend feels “uncomfortable” and he’ll explain what he sees in the friend’s face. Then we talk and he can think about how to help resolve the situation.”
SB: Schools can only do so much – do you have some suggestions for engaging and educating parents to support you in your strength-based culture?
- Introduce parents to the strength-based approach through a parent night.
- Start parent-teacher session by identifying the strengths you see in their children.
- Incorporate strengths-spotting into the student diary. Have a section where the students record the strengths they used that week and parent sign off on it.
- Bring strengths into the parent newsletter: have a strength of the month and showcase examples of where students and staff have used that strengths
- Include strengths into the school’s mission and purpose statements
- Integrate strengths into report cards, school assemblies and sports reports
- Provide parents and teachers with opportunities to learn more deeply about strengths through the Strength-Switch course that can be facilitated at your school.
SB: What about those weaknesses. Do we just ignore them? Won’t that mean they won’t progress?
LW: Taken a strength-based approach is not about ignoring weakness, these still need to be addressed. But when you come first from strengths, you’ll naturally find more constructive ways to deal with weaknesses and this is for two reasons:
- The student knows that you see the good in them and that you’re on their side; they know you see them in a balanced way – good and bad. This means they are more open and less defensive to you helping address their weak spots and poor behaviour.
- Sometimes you can use a strength to help address a weakness. If you have a student who is struggling academically but has high persistence, you can help them through the learning challenges by drawing on that strength. If you have a class clown who is disruptive, look for a strength in them and channel that. Maybe they have humour but are misapplying it or maybe they’re very social, or even have leadership, but are using these the wrong way. Connect them to their strength and show them how to use it in ways that work for them rather than against them.
The Strength Switch by Dr Lea Waters is published by Penguin Random House Australia.


In a solution, the solute is the smaller portion that is being dissolved by the solvent, the larger portion usually in the form of H2O. Molarity is the term used to describe the solubility of the solute within the solvent in the creation of a solution.
Molarity serves as the bridge between moles and volume. It is the concentration of a solution represented as moles of solute per liter of solution:
This would mean a solution that is 0.10 M NaCl:
Although moles per liter are the traditional units for molarity, you can also use mg/mL because it is proportionally equivalent.
From the molarity formula, you can calculate volume, grams or the moles of solute.
To calculate molarity from mass (in grams, milligrams, etc.) and volume (milliliters, liters, microliters, etc.) we do the following.
PRACTICE 1: Find the molarity from 25.0 g NaCl in 500 mL solution.
STEP 1: Convert the grams given into moles given.
STEP 2: Convert milliliters into liters.
STEP 3: To find the molarity of the solution plug in the moles and liters calculated from Steps 1 and 2.
Now we must calculate the mass from volume and concentration.
PRACTICE 2: Find the grams of NaCl from 50.0 mL of 0.120 M NaCl.
STEP 1: Rearrange the molarity formula in order to isolate the moles.
STEP 2: Convert the milliliters into liters.
STEP 3: Multiply liters and molarity together to isolate the moles of the compound.
STEP 4: Convert the moles into grams.
Finally here's how you calculate the volume from mass and concentration.
PRACTICE 3: Find the volume (in mL) of 0.110 M NaCl from 2.50 moles NaCl.
STEP 1: Rearrange the molarity formula in order to isolate the liters.
STEP 2: Divide moles by molarity to isolate the liters of the compound.
STEP 3: Convert liters into millimeters.
Ionic molarity or osmolarity represents the molarity of dissolved ions in a solution. For example, if you were asked how to calculate the osmolarity of 0.200 M KNO3.
STEP 1: Break the ionic compound into its ions.
STEP 2: Now calculate the osmolarity of the solution with its equation.
Another common idea related to molarity deals with the dilution of stock solutions. In a dilution a concentrated solution is made more diluted by adding water directly to it.
Eventually you will do calculations that connect molarity to problems with density, molarity vs molality, mole fraction, mass fraction or percent.
Beyond these calculations that deal directly with the molarity formula you can bring in stoichiometry. This brings in more complex problems dealing with solution chemistry, acid base titration, pH and pOH.


September 13th, 2015
If you live in South Africa (or are sailing the southern Atlantic and Indian oceans) you’ll be lucky enough to experience a partial solar eclipse on Sunday morning. The best view will be for observers in Cape Town where the eclipse actually begins about eight minutes before sunrise.
Maximum eclipse occurs at 7:43 a.m. local time when the Moon will cover about 30% of the Sun’s surface. You might notice a slight drop in the brightness of your surroundings but DO NOT look directly at the Sun. There won’t be anything to see without optical aid anyway.
Instead, if you have a telescope and have some observational experience, use it to project an image of our nearest star onto a piece of white card. Local clubs and societies might also be offering public viewing events.
For observers in Europe and eastern North America, there’s a trade off. You might not see the partial solar eclipse but you’ll be able to enjoy the total lunar eclipse on the 27th. Personally, I’d rather bark at a coppery Moon than stare at a slightly obscured Sun anyway!
Time and Date.com – http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/south-africa/cape-town
NASA’s Eclipse Page – http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsearch/SEsearchmap.php?Ecl=20150913
All Astronomical Events for September 13th, 2015
06:41 UT – New Moon. This is the farthest new moon of the year. (Leo, not visible.)
06:55 UT – Partial solar eclipse. (Details will vary by location. Leo. See above and visit NASA’s eclipse site for more information.)
The open star cluster M52 culminates at midnight tonight. (Magnitude 5.0. Cassiopeia, all night.)
Events in bold involve objects and/or events that are visible with the naked eye.
All times are in Universal Time (UTC). To convert the time to your timezone, click here.
Astronomical events taken from 2015: An Astronomical Year, available in Kindle and paperback formats from Amazon in the US, Canada and the United Kingdom. Sky simulations created using the Mobile Observatory app for Android devices.
2015: An Astronomical Year
|2016: An Astronomical Year||2016: The Night Sky Sights||The Astronomical Almanac (2016-2020)||The Amateur Astronomer’s Notebook (Pocket Edition)|
(Kindle & Paperback)
|(Kindle & Paperback)||(Kindle & Paperback)||(Kindle & Paperback)||
|Amazon – US||Amazon – US||Amazon – US||Amazon – US|
|Amazon – UK||Amazon – UK||Amazon – UK||Amazon – UK|
Details of all available books across the world can be found here or by visiting the author’s page on Amazon. If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to contact me at astronomywriter “at” gmail.com


By: Wendy Gerber
Managing Director, Mentoring USA
I attended the recent opening of the film “42” about Jackie Robinson’s life and the breaking of the color line in baseball. At the end of the film, the audience applauded — significant because the screening was in Bedford, a pretty homogenous enclave in northern Westchester.
Out of the audience of more than 200, only a handful of viewers weren’t white. I can’t remember the last time an entire audience clapped for a feature film like this.
The film was impactful both for its well-researched story of Robinson’s life and for its compelling depiction of the institutional racism that existed not just in Major League Baseball but throughout American society. The film provides a strong lesson in civil rights, strength of character, the importance of having a mentor who believes in you, and a host of other important issues. It should be required viewing for middle school and high school students.
Branch Rickey, the Dodgers general manager, played by Harrison Ford, who makes the decision to hire Robinson and break the color barrier, not only gives Robinson a critical opportunity, but also guides him how best to overcome the bigotry and challenges that will confront him.
Rickey tells Robinson, who had been court-martialed in the Army for refusing an order to move to the back of a bus, to “turn the other cheek” at the overt racism he would encounter: “I want a player who’s got the guts not to fight back.” These compelling words form the heart of the story.
The bullying and racial epithets Robinson endures while learning to keep focused provides a powerful lesson for America’s youth, many of whom are themselves tormented by bullying.
When Robinson’s teammates, who were initially opposed to his joining the Dodgers, begin to come to his defense against bigotry, we see the strength and unity that comes from those who witness bullying or victimization and rise to the victim’s defense, rather than remaining silent bystanders.
Robinson didn’t just break the baseball color barrier, he prepared America for the civil rights movement. Although another two decades passed before it fully materialized, Robinson’s stepping onto the field and up to the plate was more than a sports milestone.
It was a pivotal moment in U.S. history. Baseball was considered the national pastime, and the fact that Major League Baseball was all white was a reminder of how minorities were treated as second-class citizens. Black Americans fought and died for their country in World War II, but they returned home to separate drinking fountains and a ban on blacks in the major leagues.
It took Rickey’s determination to break the unwritten color code in professional baseball. The depiction of racism in the film is important for young people to see. While they see individual cases of bullying and prejudice all too frequently, they don’t understand or witness institutional racism.
Considering that Major League Baseball is now one of the most racially diverse professional sports organizations in the United States, it is compelling for younger audiences to see that baseball was once a purely white institution. Until 2008, so too was the presidency.
Many youth across America can benefit from having mentors in their lives who believe in them and can support and guide them, as Rickey did with Robinson. Mentoring USA, with which I am associated, works with underserved youth across America to provide one-to-one site-based mentoring services to enable young people to achieve their potential.
The program founded by former New York first lady Matilda Raffa Cuomo became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 1995, and has provided mentors for more than 5,000 children since its inception and serves youth nationally and internationally.
We need to provide support and guidance as mentors to ensure that young people believe in themselves, have a caring support system, and have the tools to achieve their goals.
The film “42” is far more than a movie about a baseball legend. It is a compelling story of believing in yourself, rising up against intolerance and racism, having the support of a mentor who helps you pursue your dreams, and keeping your eye on the ball even when faced with setbacks or racism. And it is a story of the importance of solidarity.
The movie should be required viewing for middle school and high school students — and adults — to remind us of America’s progress and how much we have left to achieve.


Length: 1500 words
- Submit your report through the Assessment 3 ‘Cultural Capabilities Report’ link
in the ‘Assessment Submission’ area of Learnline by the due date. This assignment is submitted using SafeAssign.
- Save your Word document file with your name, unit name, and assessment number included (e.g. Jamie Green CUC107 Assessment 3). Ensure you have your name, student number and page number in the footer of your document, and the title of the assignment in the header.
Introduction: It has been argued that cultural capabilities are fundamental to operating effectively in the workplace, community and the university. Cultural self-awareness, cultural intelligence and cultural capability are all required for creating safe work and social spaces. So, to complete this task you will be drawing together all of the learning from the unit to show understanding of strategies to create safe spaces.
Task: Write a formal report to observe and analyse whether characters in a given scenario are showing effective cultural capabilities and maintaining a culturally safe space. Also, recommend how effective cultural capabilities of the characters could be improved.
The report should:
- Summarise and describe observations of the interactions related to aspects of cultural capabilities in the scenario.
- Analyse (with formal references) the safe and unsafe aspects of the scenario, including the physical location and interactions between people.
- Provide recommendations for creating or sustaining this scenario as a culturally safe space.
Be written in a formal tone – avoid personal language, contractions and slang. (For more information, see link to formal writing in the Assessment Tasks Overview Summary Table.)
Steps for successfully completing Assessment 3, Part 1
- As you think about the given scenario below, observe the way that the social and cultural groups concerned are represented in the interaction. Distinguish between the actual interaction depicted and the social issue; remember you are analysing the situation for the cultural capabilities demonstrated in the interaction.
Jabiluka Mine story about Consultation from about 10 min in the older footage of a ‘consultation’ and language used in the interaction.
- Format the Report
Prepare the layout before writing.
Font size and type: Use font size 12. You may use font type calibri, arial or times new roman. Margins: Use Default margin, 2.54cm.
Line Spacing: 1.5 line spacing. You will need to include sections and subsections which should have numbered and titled headings. Word counts for each section below are only a guide but do indicate relative importance of the sections. This is reflected in the marking for each section.
(Please do not include the word count and the section instructions below in your report. This is only provided as information to help you in preparing the report.)
- Title of Report: This should be on a separate page. Include the title, your name and student number, and the date. The title should include the name of the assignment and describe what the report will do. You can be creative to make an interesting title page.
- Table of Contents: This should be on a separate page. A table of contents provides a list of the Sections and Sub-sections that you have used in your report, and the page on which they start. You can use the word function in ‘references’ tab to generate a table of contents from the levels of headings you can choose)
Now use this outline:
- Introduction (approx. 200 words): Briefly explain background, aim and scope of this report. Include the following sub-sections in the introduction.
1.1 Background An orientation to the topic of cultural capability and safe spaces.
1.2 Aim Tell the reader what the report aims to do – i.e. It will provide a summary, description and analysis of an example of a safe or unsafe space and will recommend improvements to improve the safety of the space where appropriate.
1.3 Scope Explain what the report will focus on, including what video, what particular scenes you will be discussing, and if the example depicts a safe or unsafe space.
- Summary and Observations (Approx. 350- 400 words): This section will include two sub-sections.
2.1 Summary of the scenario: needs to include:
- a brief plot line of the events you are analysing
- the setting with a general overview of the scene
- any relevant background information to understand the scene
- identification of the key characters (you can use ‘persons A, B and C’ if required).
2.2 Observations: Identify the behaviours that are evidence of the cultural safety issues and cultural capability. These observations should confirm your statement in the introduction about whether the space is safe or unsafe. Some of the things to look for and describe are: physical factors (size and layout of space, position of people in the space), communication factors (body language, voice, words), signs of inclusion or exclusion, and displays of or lack of cultural intelligence. It is a good idea to include a Table to set out your observations. Word count is included in the ‘summary and observations” quota, so don’t ‘spend’ all your words here.
If you use a table, remember that it will need to be introduced, and a number and title provided, as per below. (Note replace highlighted instructions with your own words):
Table 1 Title of table here
|Scene description event or sections of event||Column heading eg Signs of empathy, stages of cultural awareness||Column heading eg
Stereotypes, cultural judgements, difference
|Column heading eg
communication styles, cross cultural communication
|Column heading eg
Situation specific observation/ category
|Add more rows if needed|
- Analysis: (700-800 words):
In this section you should demonstrate your understanding of the key concepts covered in the unit. Using relevant literature, together with your observations in section 2 of elements within the scenario, analyse whether chosen scenes are a safe or an unsafe space and explain why. Support your claims about whether each scene is a safe or unsafe space with readings and definitions of the concepts that comprise cultural safety including cultural intelligence and cultural capabilities.
- Identify an example of cultural intelligence from the scenario
- Integrate a definition of cultural intelligence from one of the readings
- Explain how the behaviour in this example relates to the definition and the broader question of cultural capability and safety for the report
Hint: As noted earlier, to improve clarity, your analysis may include numbered sub-headings to highlight and structure key issues or reasons that you have identified in your scenario as important to whether the space represented there is safe or not safe (e.g. 3.1 Empathy, 3.2 Intercultural Communication, 3.3 Awareness of Body Language, 3.4 Culture Shock, Etc.).
- Recommendations (150 – 200 words): Based on your analysis section, make recommendations for how situations in the situation may be changed using cultural capabilities to make this a safer space. The recommendations that you make should tie in very closely to your discussion in the analysis section. If the scenario is already safe, identify what aspects of the scenario have been important in making it safe. References are needed here. Number and subheadings for each recommendation as it relates to the analysis:
- Summary and Conclusion (approx. 100 words): Summarise the main ideas. What did the situation show about safe spaces, and what actions needed to be taken to make it a safe space, if anything? No new material or references should be included in the summary and conclusion.
References: This list should be on a separate page. The title, References, should be centred in the page. The reference list should follow APA Style guidelines (http://libguides.cdu.edu.au/ld.php?content_id=40378641). Include all of the readings that you have mentioned throughout your report. You need to have at least seven references. Include at least four of the readings we have provided during the semester (Holley and Steiner 2005; Bruhn 2005; Brislin, Worthley and McNab 2006; Quappe and Cantatore 2005; Russell 2011; Flanja 2009; Spencer-Oatey 2012). You will need to conduct your own research by including at least two references. See CDU Library for additional journal articles, professional literature and books. Avoid referencing websites. You are expected to use academic texts. Hint: Refer to the readings in the Analysis and Recommendations section.
Before writing: Brainstorm connections between developing cultural capabilities and creating safe spaces.
- Write down the connections you identified in assessment 2 about cultural intelligence, and cultural self-awareness as they relate to developing cultural capabilities.
- Think about what you have learned about cultural judgments: how do effective cultural judgments create productive safe spaces?
- Some initial questions to prompt your thinking might include:
- What is the relationship between cultural judgments and cultural empathy?
- How do we negotiate and create safe spaces?
- Whose responsibility is it to create and sustain these spaces?
- Who could take an action to improve the situation being represented?
- Jot down some key points (with references).
- Review what an analysis is. Apply this technique to your scenario and readings to identify the links between, for example, cultural empathy and safe social and work settings.
- Consider how the literature can help to explain and analyse your chosen film scene relating to work or social space applications.
Some tips and more detailed questions you might ask yourself when analysing and discussing the video using readings for this report.
Use the following framework to help analyse the issue. Remember to refer back to what you have learned throughout the semester to think about the following questions.
- Do any of the people concerned display cultural self- awareness (or lack of)? How do they do this?
- What sorts of behaviours indicate their awareness or lack thereof?
- Do people display characteristics of cultural intelligence? How do you know?
- How is cross-cultural communication being conveyed?
- Is cultural difference a source of conflict?
- What happens when conflict is present and how do the people respond?
- Are there any cultural judgments present in the scenario? Which people make cultural judgments and if so, how do they do this?
- How do the people create safe or unsafe spaces?
Visual cues to look for:
- Safe atmosphere (safe from physical, emotional or psychological harm?)
- Body language, eye contact, hand placement, stance, proximity
- Verbal communication (what and how)
How does cultural empathy relate to safe spaces?
- How does cultural empathy help create effective work or social, settings?
- How would you recognise that cultural empathy is occurring [or not] in any setting.
|Assessment 3: Pre-submission Checklist|
|Does the report demonstrate a good understanding of how and why cultural capabilities can be applied to a work or social space to create or maintain a safe space? Does it:
· include a clear introduction with all components;
· provide a clear and relevant summary of scenario and observations;
· discuss issues in the analysis in a thoughtful, clear and relevant way;
· support the analysis by using academic sources;
· select and integrate into the analysis appropriate examples from the chosen scenario;
· include appropriate recommendations; related to the analysis;
· have a clear conclusion?
|· Is there an appropriate report structure with sections mostly titled, numbered and formatted according to the formatting instructions?
· Is the content logically developed through the summary and observations, analysis, and recommendation sections?
· Is the content type appropriate for each section?
· Is there any unnecessary repetition.
|Quality of evidence||ü|
|Research||Are the ideas supported by a minimum of seven different credible and relevant sources? (Four from set readings?)
Have I ensured I have maintained academic integrity by paraphrasing or direct quoting other sources with references?
|Referencing||Are in-text references and a reference list provided to support ideas and consistently follow accepted referencing conventions?|
|Word processing conventions||Is the report presented with correct formatting, line-spacing, headers and footers with student name, unit code and assignment number included?|
|Word Choice, Punctuation, grammar and Spelling||ü|
|Editing||Is the report presented in a formal tone with correct word choice, punctuation, grammar and spelling carefully edited?|
Additional Tips and Information
Report writing: Use these resources to familiarise yourself with what an analytical report is and how to write one: The CUC100 handbook. Rolls, N. & Wignell, P. (2015). Communicating at University. Darwin, NT: Charles Darwin University. Available for loan from the CDU Library. Report writing: Chapter 9 What is an analysis: Chapter 1, Formal writing technique: Chapter 1.
Further report-writing information: http://www.deakin.edu.au/students/studying/study-support/academic-skills/report-writing
Academic Language and Learning Success Program (ALLSP) runs regular free workshops and drop-in consultations. http://www.cdu.edu.au/academic-language-learning/allsp
Help with referencing http://libguides.cdu.edu.au/cdureferencing/apa
Read the Report Assessment Criteria very carefully. Your lecturer will be using the Assessment Criteria. Read the comments in each row to review your own work.
Assessment 3, Part 2: Praxiography (15%)
- Once you submit the report, you will need to write a one paragraph praxiography. This small piece links the academic and research work you did to the world outside your assessment.
- You can evaluate your / your partners’ work (if completed in pairs) against the criteria with justification, and link to the learning you did and how you see is apply to the immediate world you encounter and your outlook.
Answer these 4 Questions:
- How did the concepts you learned about affect the ways you speak about culturally specific topics?
- How do you see your studies and future profession differently?
- How did the learning process (either paired or solo) help or hinder this?
- What mark should you/ and / or your partner get for this element of A3 and on what basis? Use the criteria to justify your mark.


During one of our nature walks during our Spring term topic we found a pond with tadpoles. We managed to capture some and took them back to nursery. We used the internet to find out about the best way to care for them and discovered that boiled lettuce was an excellent food source. Luckily Sue and Margaret had been growing lettuce with the children so the tadpoles were well fed until we bought some fish food. The children have been extremely engaged in watching the tadpoles grow into frogs, and it has been an excellent way to learn first hand about life cycles. The frogs will be released back into the pond the children found them in.
On our blog you can read about all the things we get up to in the nursery.


“The smallest and most isolated of the Canary Islands, El Hierro, has a way of combining hydro and wind power that may allow it, one day, to get all its energy from renewable sources. In August it went for two hours without using its diesel power station at all – but this could be the start of a bigger green transformation.
“For more than 30 years, El Hierro has been dreaming of becoming self-sufficient. And this year it took a big step forward. At the end of June its new hydro-wind facility, Gorona del Viento, came fully on stream and in July and August it provided roughly half of the island’s energy needs.
“That means the island’s 10,000 inhabitants are suddenly less reliant on supplies of diesel arriving over unpredictable seas from Tenerife, 200km away.
“In July, Gorona del Viento saved 300 tonnes of fossil fuels, but that is predicted to rise to 500 tonnes per month before long – the equivalent of saving 40,000 barrels of oil and 19,000 tonnes of emitted CO2 per year.”
Read the full story by Laura Plitt and watch the video….


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The Landlord’s Game, as it was originally called, was designed in 1903 by anti-monopolist Elizabeth Magie Phillips. It was one of the first board games to use what game designers call a ‘continuous path’, in that there’s no defined start and end point as well as the concept of players ‘owning’ spaces on a board where other players landing on that space pay a forfeit. One interesting aside about the development of Monopoly was the story of Charles Darrow. Read on to find out more about this controversial character…
Darrow was a heater salesman from Germantown, Pennsylvania who lost his job when the Great Depression hit in 1929. He took odd jobs where he could but when he saw friends and neighbours playing a property trading game, he decided to publish his own. There were similar variants of the game being played in the Midwest and on the East coast but the final version sold to Parker Brothers came from Darrow who secured a patent in 1935 which included almost all the recognisable graphics we know today.
A year on, the company was selling 20,000 copies of Monopoly a week and it made Charles Darrow the first millionaire board game designer. By the 1970s, the notion that Darrow was the game’s only designer was folklore (it was even printed in the instructions) but since new evidence of Monopoly’s early history came to light in the 1980s, it has – finally – been acknowledged by the parent company (Hasbro, at the time of writing) that Darrow was only one of the games’ many developers and NOT it’s inventor!
Here’s the story of ‘the blues’…
The Angel Islington (£100); Rent: £6; 1 House: £30; 2 Houses: £90; 3 Houses: £270; 4 Houses: £400; Hotel £550
Where the rest of the properties are roads, the Angel is a building that sits on the corner of Islington High Street and Pentonville Road. It was the site of a famous inn (known as the Sheepcote) that dates back to the late 1500s. It has been known as the Angel since 1614 and gave its name to the tube station that opened in 1901 as well as the surrounding area.
It was rebuilt in 1638 by William Riplingham who was fined for constructing ‘a new building in the Angel’s Inn in Islington’ and it’s fame was such that it was depicted in William Hogarth’s ‘Stage Coach’ as well as getting a mention in Dickens’ Oliver Twist‘…the coach rattled away and, turning when it reached the Angel at Islington, stopped at length before a neat house in Pentonville.’
It was a major inn and post-house (a place accommodating travellers with horses) with 23 hearths and offered overnight lodgings for traders coming to London. In 1903 is was rebuilt as The Angel Hotel in a Baroque style with its defining dome and in 1921was bought by J. Lyons & Co and operated as one of their famous tea shops. The story goes that in 1935 while taking tea there, an employee of John Waddington Ltd decided to include The Angel Islington as one of the Monopoly locations.
Today, the grade II listed building is a bank and if you look closely, there’s a plaque that states it’s ‘the only site on the board named after a building’
Euston Road (£100); Rent: £6; 1 House: £30; 2 Houses: £90; 3 Houses: £270; 4 Houses: £400; Hotel £550
Originally the middle section of the New Road (a turnpike built via an act of Parliament in 1756 across the fields of the City’s northernmost boundaries), Euston Road is designated the A501 and runs west to east, from Marylebone Road to Pentonville Road.
The original purpose of the road was to get sheep and cattle to the live auctions at Smithfield Market by bypassing the increasing east-west congestion around Holborn and Oxford Street. The construction was vehemently opposed by one of the city’s major landowners, the Duke of Bedford as it literally cut off his estate (now known as Bloomsbury) from the countryside.
Another reason for the construction of the Euston Road was that it offered a much faster route for army units to get to the east coast under threat of invasion so they didn’t have to pass through the busy City of London.
A walk down the road, especially on the north side from Great Portland Street down to Euston Station (opened in 1837) and you’ll notice that many of the properties that were once houses lay behind very long gardens. This is because a clause in the 1756 act stipulated that one couldn’t construct buildings within 50 feet of the road, a clause that was increasingly ignored!
Today, the Euston Road houses the world-class UCH teaching hospital, the British Library, the George Bernard Shaw-inspired Shaw Theatre and the headquarters of the Wellcome Trust.
Pentonville Road (£120); Rent: £8; 1 House: £40; 2 Houses: £100; 3 Houses: £300; 4 Houses: £450; Hotel £600
Also designated the A501, Pentonville Road was originally constructed as the eastern third of the New Road. The area known as Pentonville named for landowner Henry Penton in 1857 was a new suburb (often regarded as London’s first ‘planned’ suburb) north of the City and became a manufacturing hub for local businesses which included musical instruments, furniture, jewellery and oddly, artificial flowers. There was also a proliferation of coffee houses and dining rooms to cater for the factory and other workers in the area.
Today, Pentonville Road is a relatively nondescript street full of shops, fast-food joints and blocks of 1950s-era flats but one of the defining buildings of the area, not technically on Pentonville Road, is HMP Prison Pentonville.
Known informally as ‘the Ville’, Pentonville nick was designed by Sir Joshua Jebb, a Royal Engineer and impressively-titled British Surveyor-General of Convict Prisons who also designed Broadmoor Hospital. It was intended for the detention of sentenced convicts and those awaiting deportation. It was completed in 1842 at a cost of £84,186 12s 2d.
The list of alumni makes for impressive reading and could well be construed as a chronology of 19th and 20th century life in London –


For Family Members and Friends:
Regarding anxiety, it can be a difficult topic to discuss because everyone deals with some type of anxiety throughout their lives. Anxiety can come and go through the stress of daily jobs, relationships, events, etc. Anxiety can become a problem when it takes over your life. If your anxious thoughts take over your comfort and happiness, then your anxiety will stay constant. If you have a family member or friend dealing with stress and anxiety in a crippling way, it may be time to talk with them about getting help or just clearing their mind of all the stress they may be going through. Be there for them in their time of need.
We’re born with feelings of anxiety as a way to protect ourselves by being alert and aware that our lives are fragile. Anxiety for some is a normal feeling that occurs when something goes wrong at home or when work pressures build up. However, for those that have clinical anxiety, these feelings of fear and worry are out of proportion and do not go away after the perceived threat has passed. People affected by chronic stress and anxiety experience disproportionate fear every single day, and with every situation they encounter. Anxiety can make it difficult for those affected to live their lives since they are continually burdened with the stress and fear of what’s to come.
Imagine trying to enjoy all the wonderful, little things in life but finding that even happy moments come with a twinge of nervousness that something could go wrong. For people who struggle with anxiety, it is often too much to bear. At Cypress Lakes Lodge we see many patients enter into our recovery programs who suffer from anxiety and substance abuse. These patients usually have never been properly diagnosed or taught how to manage their symptoms of anxiety effectively. They often turned to substance abuse in an effort to avoid their anxiety, but did not recognize that addiction would present its own obstacles. They are simply looking for a way to perform daily activities without the burden of anxiety — we are here to help them find productive and healthy ways to accomplish this.
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is defined as a mental health condition where the brain is trained to hyper-focus on any situation and create stress due to an obsession with future or potential problems. These problems don’t exist at the present moment and sometimes aren’t realistic, but those with anxiety will magnify normal situations into stressful ones because their brain is wired to react this way. In many cases, this is a result of a past experience or incident, like abuse or trauma, that resulted in the patient’s innate need to protect themselves becoming overactive. In other cases, it is simply due to a prolonged high-stress lifestyle. There are many kinds of anxiety disorders that can take shape for different reasons. Some types of chronic anxieties include:
- Separation anxiety
- Generalized anxiety
- Illness anxiety/hypochondria
- Social anxiety
- Conduct disorder
- Panic disorder
- Personality disorder
Symptoms of Anxiety
Any symptoms of anxiety can take a toll on a person. The human body is not built to live in a constant state of stress. Stress is regulated by various hormones and neurotransmitters that cause increased heart rate, body tension, racing thoughts and panic. Anxiety can result in poor sleeping habits, muscle soreness and high blood pressure, affecting the immune system, the cardiovascular system and the nervous system. Over time people with anxiety feel worn down, eat poorly and cannot maintain a healthy weight. And, when these signs and symptoms are combined with substance abuse, they only become worse as a result of heightened health risks and mental imbalances. To feel healthy in both mind and body, we know it is imperative to reduce stresses significantly in all of our patients, especially those with anxiety. Some common symptoms of anxiety include:
- Worrying excessively
- Inability to relax
- Distress about decision making and changing plans
- Intense fear
- Discomfort in social situations
- Avoidance of interaction and other things that make them uncomfortable
- Chronic illness related to stress
- Trouble sleeping or insomnia
- Raised blood pressure
- Increased heart rate
- Chronic fatigue
- Digestion issues
- Headaches due to muscle tension
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Dual Diagnosis Therapy and Treatment
In our program, determining if a dual diagnosis is present is our first step after detox. Once you have begun to recover physically, we want to begin finding the best way for you to recover mentally as well. Our patients are diagnosed early through our dual diagnosis program so we can better formulate specific plans with the right counselor, physician and integrative therapies down to the exercise, nutrition plans and support groups. Anxiety and its multiple forms are one of our most common dual diagnoses, and we are more than equipped to help our patients heal from anxiety and addiction simultaneously.
Relieving Anxiety Without Medication
Unfortunately, modern medications for anxiety can be highly addictive even when they are used to treat a legitimate mental health disorder. For patients who have struggled with addiction in the past, using medication might be a dangerous decision. At Cypress Lakes Lodge, we try to focus on finding the best ways for you to manage your anxiety without needing to rely on drugs — even prescription ones. Our treatment aims to help you pick up new skills to naturally reduce anxieties and stress, giving you the inner strength and confidence you need to know that you can feel good every day while staying sober. During treatment at Cypress Lakes Lodge, every patient is given a thorough education on any mental health diagnosis made and provided with tips and tricks to manage their lives in a healthy way without drugs and alcohol. We find the cause of the issue or identify idiosyncrasies so we can find a solution, we don’t simply offer treatments that mask the underlying causes of your concerns.
Our treatment and therapy options include many different modalities, such as art therapy, meditation, writing therapy and family counseling, to help you build healthy coping mechanisms and establish important support systems. We know that every patient’s struggle with addiction and anxiety will be different from the next patient, so we encourage those in our programs to explore what works for them and find skills and hobbies that can translate into sober life. We prepare our patients for situations that can cause relapse risk and any issues that can amplify their anxiety.
In addition to concrete coping skills, we address the fact that addiction or stress condition only becomes worse if we isolate and keep the issue to ourselves. We must share our feelings with our support network, friends, family and support groups. Often, our patients forget that others experience these same worries and fears. We understand that it can be challenging to admit you have these issues; the stigma surrounding them doesn’t help. But we are here for you, and we want to help you find your spiritual network or support group to act as your base. Our patients leave our program with an active set of support options, recommendations for 12-step programs and lifestyle management skills to help make life-altering changes by removing the things in their lives that make anxiety worse.
Substance Abuse and Anxiety
Addictions often develop as a way of self-medicating for people affected by depression, anxiety and any post-traumatic stress disorder. Some people think a drink here or there to “take the edge off” is okay, but that one drink here and there can become part of their daily routine and then turn into many. The symptoms of any stress-related disorder such as anxiety are substantial and we understand that this often is where addiction often comes from. Other patients have developed an anxiety disorder as a result of their substance abuse. Long-term abuse of drugs and alcohol often leads to changes in brain chemistry that can result in paranoia, stress and worry. In all of these cases, we know we need to work with our patients to heal their anxiety as well as their addiction. If we cannot help them manage their anxiety in a healthy way, their journey to sobriety will be that much more difficult.
Each specific anxiety disorder has a different set of triggers or fears, which is why they each require an in-depth study and individualized therapy to properly diagnose. Take social anxiety as one example: according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, over 20% of the people affected by social anxiety also suffer from alcohol addiction. This type of anxiety can begin as early as kindergarten for some. These anxieties can be tough to pinpoint since they can stem from events that happened so long ago. But, the more we know about them, the easier it becomes for us to classify which type of anxiety is affecting a patient, and the easier it can be to decide on a course of treatment. At Cypress Lakes Lodge, we ensure that members of our staff can work with patients who struggle with both anxiety and addiction. Our highly qualified doctors and therapists are trained to notice when patients seem to be suffering from a mental health disorder, and our programs are inclusive of people who need treatment for multiple concerns.
Contact Cypress Lakes Lodge
Cypress Lakes Lodge offers premier treatment for addiction, anxiety and other dual diagnoses in Woodville, Texas. If you think that you or your loved one might be a good fit for our programs, we encourage you to reach out to us as soon as you are ready. Contact us at 409-331-2204 to learn more about how we can help you overcome fear, worry and anxiety in the presence of substance abuse. We know that you can live without drugs and alcohol while managing your anxiety with holistic methods, and we are ready to teach you how.


A couple of months ago, our article featured “Eagles Over Houston”, spotlighting the majestic American Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). They are unquestioningly majestic creatures, with their distinctive white head and bright yellow beak, and large size. They make quite the sight soaring above our heads in search of prey. But did you know that recently, there has been another type of raptor sighted at various locations throughout North America that almost dwarfs our national symbol? Not only that, it shouldn’t even be here, since it’s from a different continent entirely!
Meet the Steller’s Sea-eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus), a bird that has lately been taking the birding community by storm. One particular individual has been spotlighted in the news and on social media for over a year, a visitor from northeast Asia that has somehow found itself wandering from Alaska, to northeast Canada, and even down into Maine and Massachusetts! Due to certain unique markings, it is believed that it is indeed just one individual doing all of this traveling.
Steller’s Sea-eagles have a mostly brown body, with white wing tips and tails, and a very large yellow beak. On average, they have a wingspan that, at eight feet, is over a foot longer than the bald eagle’s. They can also weigh anywhere from 13 to 20 pounds, up to twice the size of its smaller cousin. They are native to northeast Asia – specifically northeast Russia – and during warmer months will migrate to Japan and North Korea. Their habitat lies along coastlines and rivers where they feast mostly on fish and ducks (salmon being a particular favorite). They prefer an environment with tall trees so they can perch and survey their surroundings in search of food.
In their native habitat, Steller’s eagles are listed as vulnerable. There are only about 4,000 of these individuals in the wild, compared to hundreds of thousands of bald eagles. Habitat loss and climate change are the primary culprits, as well as lead poisoning and nesting predation by brown bears.
As stated earlier, one of these unique critters has been sighted several times on our continent of North America, beginning with a sighting in Alaska back in August of 2020, along the Denali Highway. This really isn’t too surprising, given that Alaska isn’t that far from Russia, relatively speaking. It wouldn’t be too difficult to traverse the Bering Strait into our territory. But it is the subsequent sightings, thousands of miles away, that makes this tale even more extraordinary.
Amazingly, a Steller’s Sea-eagle was spotted in Victoria, Texas – Texas!! – in March of 2021. This was during the harsh spring freeze of that year, so perhaps the bird followed the cold front south into uncharted territory. Although it’s impossible to know for sure if it was the same bird that was seen in Alaska, the likelihood is pretty high, given the extreme rarity of the bird on this continent.
The next reported sighting, on June 28 of 2021, was in New Brunswick, Canada – 2,500 miles from the Texas sighting, and 4500 miles from the Alaska sighting. This was when interest really started to heat up, with people converging on the location from all over Canada. Comparison of feather markings on the wings confirmed that this was indeed the same bird that had been seen in Alaska almost a year earlier. After wandering around the area for about a month, it flew off everyone’s radar until November 3, when it showed up in Nova Scotia for two days before disappearing again.
Then, starting in mid-December 2021 and throughout the month of January 2022, the US birding community was treated to this rare phenomenon when the bird was seen first in Massachusetts, and then in Maine. And Maine is where it seems to be staying, at least for now.
These rare sightings of an Asian eagle in North America are an example of the phenomenon known as vagrancy. It’s a rare but regular occurrence among certain bird species. There are several possible reasons why birds wander so far from their home range. Juveniles especially like to take off on their own in search of new territory. Habitat loss and changing weather patterns, including extreme weather events, can be contributing factors. And sometimes, birds just lose their sense of direction and migrate toward a wrong turn!
The Steller’s eagle may not be from around here, but that doesn’t mean it can’t teach us something. The arrival of this lost, wandering vagrant on American soil has not only brought some unexpectedly delightful viewing opportunities; It has also afforded us a glimpse into its plight, and an awareness of why it’s so important to protect our most vulnerable species. Most American and Canadian birders wouldn’t have even known this species exists if this individual hadn’t turned up on our shores! Keep your eyes peeled. You might not see a Steller’s eagle, but who knows what other rare and wondrous gems you might see, if you only pay attention.


A report by a panel of scientific advisers to President Barack Obama on Monday presented a "plausible scenario" in which 60 million to 120 million Americans -- or 20% to 40% of the U.S. population -- contract H1N1 swine flu this fall and winter, and 30,000 to 90,000 people die of the disease.
The report by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology made clear that the projection of up to 90,000 deaths -- which it said could be mostly children and young adults -- was "not a prediction," but a planning scenario for which public-health officials should be prepared.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that a larger number of people could become ill with swine flu than contract seasonal flu because the H1N1 virus strain is new and few have immunity to it. About 36,000 people die of the seasonal flu every year, and about 90% of them are over 65 years old.
As many as half of the U.S. population could be infected, including many who wouldn't develop any symptoms, the panel said, and the vast majority of those infected wouldn't become seriously ill.
But up to 1.8 million Americans could be sick enough to be hospitalized, with 300,000 of them requiring care in intensive-care units. That would put a strain on the U.S. health-care system, the panel noted, because those patients could occupy between 50% and 100% of available intensive-care beds at the peak of the epidemic in affected regions, while ICU units normally operate close to capacity. Seasonal flu normally causes about 200,000 hospitalizations a year.
"This isn't the flu that we're used to," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Monday at a meeting at the CDC in Atlanta. "We won't know until we're in the middle of the flu season how serious this is."
The panel noted that officials faced serious time constraints. The report said peak infection of H1N1 swine flu could occur as early as mid-October -- the same time the government has tentatively planned to begin a vaccination campaign.
"The potential mismatch in timing could significantly diminish the usefulness of vaccination for mitigating the epidemic and could place many at risk of serious disease," the panel said.
The panel recommended that enough vaccine be ready as early as mid-September to vaccinate up to 40 million people so that vaccination could begin on high-risk groups such as pregnant women, health-care workers, and children and young people with underlying medical conditions could get shots as soon as the first results are available from a series of clinical trials on the vaccine. Officials said that manufacturers are already preparing some finished doses.
Write to Betsy McKay at firstname.lastname@example.org


November 29: The Day the UN Stands With the Palestinians and Demonizes Israel
On November 29, the United Nations will mark an “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.” Established in 1977, the day claims to facilitate “the attainment of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of return and the right to national independence and sovereignty in Palestine.”
It is essential to understand the history of this day in order to understand its true purpose. The day is an outgrowth of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP), established 40 years ago in November 1975, as part of the suite of General Assembly resolutions meant to demonize Israel and Jews.
The most infamous part of this effort, Resolution 3379, declared “Zionism a form of racism.” While resolution 3379 was eventually repealed in 1991, its sentiments live on through the very existence of the Committee and its activities. There is no other nation or people in the world that has a UN division dedicated to its “inalienable rights” — not the oppressed people of Tibet, the Kurds, the endangered Yazidi people in Iraq, or the Coptic minority in Egypt.
Under the guise of obtaining justice for the Palestinians, the Committee fuels the virulent anti-Israel political warfare campaign that continues to gain momentum within the corridors of the UN and contribute to the malignant rise of antisemitism worldwide. In other words, in order to promote the “inalienable rights” of Palestinians, the UN tramples on the rights of Israelis and Jews, acting in a way that shows that rights are no longer universal.
There is also ironic meaning to the date chosen to mark international solidarity with the Palestinian people. November 29 is the historic date upon which the UN adopted the Partition Plan in 1947, which paved the way for a Jewish state, and should have resulted in a parallel Arab state. Instead, the Arab population in Mandate Palestine rejected partition and, together with the neighboring Arab countries, went to war to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state.
If anything, November 29 should serve as a reminder that Palestinians had the “right to national independence” in their grasp, and that a two-state “partition” could have provided a way forward. Instead, the International Day of Solidarity embraces a supposed Palestinian “inalienable right to return to their homes and property,” endorsing a concept that contradicts the essence of the 1947 UN vote and which would geographically, politically, and otherwise mean the elimination of the Jewish and democratic State of Israel.
There is no other UN subsidiary committee or UN day of solidarity specifically designated to advance the political cause of one people over another. This committee is yet more proof such double standards against Israel persist and are sanctioned by an official UN event in New York.
The Day is also a catalyst for highly politicized non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to amplify their support for anti-Israel BDS (boycotts, divestments, and sanctions) movement and other hostile campaigns. Many of these NGOs, which receive extensive funding from European governments, also regularly exploit UN forums and judicial processes to accuse Israel of “war crimes,” “crimes against humanity,” and other alleged violations of international law.
For example, in 2013, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), which prides itself on seeking to create “a wedge” within the American Jewish community over support for Israel, marked the occasion by escalating efforts to boycott Israeli company SodaStream. Similarly, Palestinian NGO Al Mezan co-signed a letter accusing Israel of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity,” while calling on “UN member states to vote in favor of any resolution that would recognize Palestinian statehood.” Al Mezan is funded, directly and indirectly, by Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, the European Union, Norway, Germany, the UN Development Programme, and the UN Central Emergency Response Fund.
In 2012, a dozens of NGOs including Al Mezan, Al-Haq, Badil, Defence for Children International-Palestine — all of which are heavily funded by European donors — participated in a World Social Forum entitled “Free Palestine” held in Brazil. The four-day forum, which overlapped with November 29, included panels on “the right to return,” “international law and human rights,” “popular resistance,” and “the case of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.” Tellingly, the conference did not center on obtaining Palestinian statehood, but rather lamented the “narrowing of the Palestinian struggle to the West Bank only.”
While November 29 recalls the implications of UN resolutions from 40 and 70 years ago, we should also bear in mind another momentous event from the Fall of 1945. On October 24, the UN was founded at Lake Success, New York, to “reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights.” As the UN and NGOs prepare to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians by demonizing Israel and denying the Jewish people the right to self-determination, they and their donors should consider the extent to which they contribute to the exploitation of sacred and universal principles.
Anne Herzberg is legal advisor at NGO Monitor.
Rachel Hirschfeld is UN Desk Coordinator and Researcher at NGO Monitor.


World Literacy Day: How Communities Can Build a Love for Reading and Writing
World Literacy Day is September 8, and we hope Kimm’s story inspires you to explore this topic in your classroom and community.
Guest post by Kimm Murfitt
I fell in love with books long before kindergarten. I remember the steady, soothing voice of my mom as she read to my sister and me from our many books. We spent countless afternoons reading from well-worn pages until we memorized our favorite parts. Then, school brought a whole new level to my love for reading. Sitting restlessly at the edge of my seat, I would groan when my teacher would end our reading right at the very best part. I couldn’t wait for our time in the library when our librarian read aloud tales of adventure or spooky mysteries. Like many students in the United States, my love for reading and respect for authors was cultivated by my home and my school. Sadly, this is not the case for every child in the United States or around the world.
Not every student grows up in a print-rich environment with a plethora of books to grow their skills for reading and writing. However, time and time again, I’ve seen communities and colleagues band together to give students the time, support, books, and materials necessary to build even stronger communities of readers and writers. After all, reading and writing is what makes all other options outside of the classroom achievable. We know this. Students know this. The world knows this. What happens when communities are denied this access completely?
Reading and writing is what makes all other options outside of the classroom achievable.
In my journey as a reader, writer, and teacher, I realize the even larger role I fill in education. To teach my students strong skills as readers and writers, to teach them how to appreciate and admire the skills of authors, to teach them how to develop their own writing… it’s not enough. Instead, it is my responsibility to teach them the strength of writing. This begins with an understanding of communities and children around our world. It requires a study of the causes and alarming effects of illiteracy. It demands attention to this issue—illiteracy impacts all of us, not just those denied literacy education.
To teach my students strong skills as readers and writers, to teach them how to appreciate and admire the skills of authors, to teach them how to develop their own writing… it’s not enough.
My students and I are beginning to scratch the surface for what is needed to draw more attention to the issues impacting quality and balanced literacy education for both our community and communities across the world. We strive for ways to create change. We once again celebrate World Literacy Day almost as a launching pad for the important weeks and months ahead. We shared the work of authors who’ve written stories and books that serve as strong examples of perseverance, hope, and breaking boundaries. As we reflect on our own reading backgrounds, we return to the study of illiteracy. I watch their faces as I listen to them discuss the stories of people, their communities, and the future. The numbers are not just numbers—they are people. We talk about being grateful for this opportunity to learn. We talk about understanding the power of education.
These students are mine for a short while, but their choices belong to the world long after our school year ends. I hope they will continue to search for ways to create change. I hope they remember the work they complete this year, because with the gift of reading and writing, the sky truly is the limit.
If you would like to observe World Literacy Day (September 8) with your students, explore these resources:
Kimm Murfitt has been an educator for more than 19 years and is an IB coordinator, curriculum writer, and a TeachSDGs Ambassador. You can connect with her on Twitter @kmurfitt1.


|The present temple built in 8th century AD by Adi Guru Shankaracharya lies adjacent to the site of an ancient temple built bu Pandavas. Temple has a Conical Lingam - the assemblies of pilgrims and visitors. The temple is more than 1000 year old. Behind the Kedarnath temple lies the samdhi of final resting place of Adi Guru Shankaracharya. It is belived that after establishing the four dham in India he went for his Samadhi at an early age of 32 years.
The Kedarnath shrine, one of the 12 jyotirlingas of Lord Shiva, is a scenic spot situated, against the backdrop of the majestic Kedarnath range. Kedar is another name of Lord Shiva, the protector and the destroyer. According to legend, the Pandavas after having won over the Kaurava in the Kurukshetra war, felt guilty of having killed their own brothers and sought the blessings of Lord Shiva for redemption. He eluded them repeatedly and while fleeing took refuge at Kedarnath in the form of a bull.
On being followed he dived into the ground, leaving his hump on the surface. The remaining portions of Lord Shiva appeared at four other places and are worshipped there as his manifestations. The arms appeared at Tungnath, the face at Rudranath, the belly at Madhmaheshwar and his locks (hair) with head at Kalpeshwar. Kedarnath and the four above-mentioned shrines are treated as Panch Kedar.


After having learned the basics in Learning Perl ("Llama book"), Intermediate Perl takes you to the next level. It is aimed at doing more serious development work (programs of over 1000 lines of code). Hence it introduces the more advanced concepts as complex data structures, references, packages and OOP.
Disclaimer: I received a copy from O'Reilly for review.
This book covers a lot in its 21 chapters. It serves well a classroom or self-paced learning discipline with equally length chapters of approximately one hour reading time and exercises that help you practice the newly introduced concepts.
I like the introductional chapters, getting into CPAN, intermediate foundations (grep, map, eval) and references. Good prep work to start tackling more complex problems. Up until chapter 10 it expands on references concepts which was a really good read. At chapter 11 there is a turning point into software development: how to write bigger and more maintainable programs in Perl. How to create your own Perl distribution, Perl's OOP design and (Advanced) Testing, ending with Moose and contributing to CPAN. At this point, when using all these concepts in your daily work, you are probably becoming a master. The next logical step is to then read Mastering Perl, the 3rd O'Reilly Perl learning series book or the Perl bible, Programming Perl.
I found this the most complex part of the book, not as clear as the other topics (ch 1-11 and Testing). I am not sure this is inherent to Perl's design of OOP or the way Intermediate Perl presented the content and/or its samples. I probably have to start using OOP more in my work, and I am going to read Damian Conwey's OOP title on the subject which seems a good place to learn OOP Perl in depth.
I can recommend Intermediate Perl as a logical step after the Llama. If you want to build larger, more powerful/ robust programs, this gives you a jumpstart. You might as me need more material and practice on object oriented Perl but that is fine, this is still a very useful reference that brings together fundamental intermediate to advanced Perl techniques.
If you are serious about a career in Perl development this book should be on your shelf. For simple scripting needs it might be overkill, but even then you will need to pass a reference around form time to time, re-use software from CPAN, etc. Apart from that, you will learn better, faster, and more efficient coding practices in Perl from this book.


What Is The Difference Between A Galaxy And A Solar System?
Solar system consists of a Sun at its centre where as a galaxy usually has a black hole at its centre. A galaxy can contain dark matter where as the solar system does not. In a solar system planets orbit the sun on the other hand within a galaxy star systems orbit around the centre of the galaxy.
How many solar systems are in the galaxy?
Which is bigger galaxy or solar system?
From largest to smallest they are: Universe galaxy solar system star planet moon and asteroid.
What is the difference between a solar system and a galaxy quizlet?
– The Solar System contains the sun and objects that orbit it including the eight planets comets and asteroids and the Galaxy contains approximately 100 billion stars of which the sun is one as well as large clouds of gas and dust.
What is the difference between planets and galaxies?
A planet is a large body orbiting a sun. It has cleared its orbit of other objects. … A galaxy is a large number of stars orbiting about a central core.
What is the closest solar system to Earth?
The bright star system to the right is Beta Centauri. Alpha Centauri is a gravitationally bound system of the closest stars and exoplanets to our Solar System at 4.37 light-years (1.34 parsecs) from the Sun.
Is a galaxy bigger than universe?
What is the difference between the Milky Way and the galaxy?
What is the difference between the Milky Way and the Milky Way galaxy?
What is the difference between the Milky Way and the Milky Way Galaxy? And the answer was: The Milky Way is a fairly narrow band of faint diffuse light around the celestial sphere. The Milky Way Galaxy is a spiral galaxy of about 100 billion stars.
What is the biggest thing in space?
What is the difference between a spiral galaxy an elliptical galaxy and an irregular galaxy?
What is in our solar system?
Is the Milky Way a heliocentric galaxy?
Observations by William Herschel in 1785 suggested that the Milky Way was a disk-shaped galaxy with the sun in a central position. … Shapley’s research marked the transition from heliocentrism to galactocentrism placing the Galactic Center of the Milky Way Galaxy far away from the sun towards Sagittarius.
What is the difference between universe and solar system?
The solar system is 4.6 billion years old. The universe is older. The solar system has a diameter more than 40 times greater than the distance to the sun but the solar system is a tiny part of much larger galaxy. Our galaxy (Milky Way) is only one of billions of other galaxies in the universe.
Is there anything bigger than the universe?
No the universe contains all solar systems and galaxies. Our Sun is just one star among the hundreds of billions of stars in our Milky Way Galaxy and the universe is made up of all the galaxies – billions of them.
What is a galaxy vs universe?
Conclusion. There’s a vast difference between a galaxy and a universe. The galaxy consists of all the solar systems stars and planets and galaxy in different shapes. The universe is all the space where all the galaxy and other matter are current all the galaxy value is indirectly a part of the universe.
How long would it take to go 4 light years?
Last year astronomers raised the possibility that our nearest neighbor Proxima Centauri has several potentially habitable exoplanets that could fit the bill. Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light-years from Earth a distance that would take about 6 300 years to travel using current technology.
What is the closest Earth like planet to Earth?
NASA considers exoplanet Kepler-452b and its star to be the closest analog to our planet and Sun so far. Though it’s 60% larger than Earth in diameter Kepler-452b is thought to be rocky and within the habitable zone of a G-type star similar to ours.
How long would it take to get to Mars using a solar sail?
With current methods of chemical rocket propulsion—the same that have been used for some three-quarters of a century—a voyage to the Red Planet would take about five months.
Do all planets lie in the same plane?
Scientists have discovered a distant solar system very much like our own in which the orbits of all known planets lie in nearly the same plane and are aligned with the star’s rotation.
What is the biggest thing on Earth 2021?
The asteroid known as 2021 KT1 is about 600 feet the size of the New York Olympic Tower or the Seattle Space Needle. NASA classified the asteroid as a “potentially hazardous object” because it is larger than 492 feet and within 4.6 million miles of Earth.
Where is end of universe?
The end result is unknown a simple estimation would have all the matter and space-time in the universe collapse into a dimensionless singularity back into how the universe started with the Big Bang but at these scales unknown quantum effects need to be considered (see Quantum gravity).
Is the Earth in the Milky Way galaxy?
A galaxy is a huge bunch of stars clustered together in space. Our solar system—which includes the sun Earth and seven other planets—is part of this galaxy called … you guessed it … the Milky Way. The Milky Way contains hundreds of billions of stars like our sun.
What is the closest galaxy to the Milky Way?
Types of galaxies Since it is so far from us it takes light from Andromeda more than 2.5 million years to bridge the gap. Despite the immense distance Andromeda is the closest large galaxy to our Milky Way and it’s bright enough in the night sky that it’s visible to the naked eye in the Northern Hemisphere.Apr 17 2019
What is the difference between the cosmos and the universe?
The cosmos is a system or an arranged set regulated by natural law whereas the universe embraces all that exists and has been known. Cosmos means “order ” whereas the universe signifies all we know. The phrase cosmos is rooted in Greek whereas the term “universe” is rooted in Latin.
Where is Earth in the Milky Way?
Does black hole have gravity?
How long does it take light to cross the diameter of the Milky Way galaxy the diameter of the Milky Way galaxy is 80000 light years years?
The disk of our home galaxy – the Milky Way – is bigger than we previously thought.
What are the scariest things in space?
- Halloween Skull in Space. …
- Zombie Pac-Man Nebula. …
- Witch Head Nebula. …
- Eye of Sauron is Watching You. …
- The Face on Mars. …
- Ghost Head Nebula. …
- Black Widow Nebula. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. …
- Zombie Star Explodes Back to Life. NASA/CXC/Chinese Academy of Sciences/F.
What is the oldest thing in the universe?
Quasars are some of the oldest most distant most massive and brightest objects in the universe. They make up the cores of galaxies where a rapidly spinning supermassive black hole gorges on all the matter that’s unable to escape its gravitational grasp.
What is the hottest thing in the universe?
The hottest thing in the Universe: Supernova The temperatures at the core during the explosion soar up to 100 billion degrees Celsius 6000 times the temperature of the Sun’s core.Nov 12 2021
Are elliptical galaxies bigger than spiral galaxies?
Which type of galaxy is the brightest?
Although several dozen minor galaxies lie closer to our Milky Way the Andromeda galaxy is the closest large spiral galaxy to ours. Excluding the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds visible from Earth’s Southern Hemisphere the Andromeda galaxy is the brightest external galaxy you can see.
What are the three types of galaxy?
Solar System vs Galaxy vs Universe
What is the difference between the Solar System Galaxy and Universe? – SPACE(show)TIME
Solar System 101 | National Geographic
Universe Size Comparison 3D


Many people often underestimate the importance of the right food and nutrition has on our health. A lot of people start their healthy eating journey in January to help them start their year fresh, shift a few extra pounds and start to feel better after indulging over the Christmas period but sustaining these changes takes dedication and will.
There are multiple benefits that eating an abundance of different nutrients has on your body. Swapping your high carbohydrates, sugars and fatty foods for whole nutritious foods will have a significant effect on your body, health and mood. Whole, nutritious foods are packed with nutrients that are lacking in processed, refined foods.
Although our genes contribute to our health, our lifestyle factors also have a massive impact. These include our physical activity, our stress levels and our nutrition.
Studies suggest that having a diet of nutrient dense foods can reduce the risk of ageing, reduce the risk of chronic disease (obesity and type 2 diabetes), aid hormonal balance and consequently boost your mood.
Processed foods are often carbohydrate dense and high in sugar. This may lead to spikes in blood sugar levels, followed by a rapid decline, leaving us feeling sluggish and tired which can negatively impact our mood and our ability to carry out tasks throughout the day. You can replace these high sugar foods with snacks such as nuts, full fat yogurt and hummus with vegetable sticks. These snacks are not only lower in sugar but contain a variety of nutrients that have many functions in the body. Some of these include vitamins, minerals, fibre, fat and protein which are essential in your diet. These nutrients help improve health, aid satiety and stabilise blood sugar levels.
So why should vegetables play such an important role in our lifestyle? They are not always a food of choice by everyone but it essential that you provide your body with at least 5 portions of this source each day as they contribute to your health and well-being. Vegetables are not only a source of vitamins and minerals but they contain complex carbohydrates, which help to feed the trillions of bacteria in our gut boosting our digestive health and our immune system.
Although there is a controversy on how much fat we should be eating, the benefits of healthy fats otherwise known as omega 3 have been scientifically proven to improve our health at a cellular level. Omega 3 helps to restore the cell membrane, enabling nutrients to enter the cell and toxins to be excreted. This can help reduce the risk of chronic inflammation and disease. Omega 3 can be found in oily fish (salmon, mackerel), avocados, olive oil, nuts and seeds.
Fuelling your body with whole foods that have been scientifically proven to boost your health will help to support insulin regulation, reduce inflammation, optimise digestion and may even promote fat loss helping your body to function at your best.
Never underestimate the importance of food and nutrition.


The term hydroponics is derived from two Greek words, “hydros”, meaning water, and “ponos”, meaning work.
Hydroponics is the science of growing plants in water, without the use of soil.
Also known as soilless culture, the same nutrients that a plant normally obtains from soil are delivered straight to the roots as an accurately controlled solution.
Using traditional farming methods, plants often need to expend large amounts of energy to grow roots long enough to reach water and nutrients in the soil. This is because the supplies are not distributed evenly, and it prevents a plant from growing at its optimal rate.
In a hydroponic system, however, the nutrients and water are delivered directly to the roots; plants absorb nutrients as ions in the water, and rely on an accurate control of electrical conductivity and PH levels.
Hydroponic farming allows for complete control of these and other factors, ensuring that every single plant is healthy and grows quickly, resulting in higher yields and more frequent harvests.
As a result, growing plants hydroponically also requires up to 90% less water than traditional methods.
Additionally, hydroponic farms require much less land space, since plants can be stacked vertically, and the controlled environment significantly reduces the occurrence of both pests and diseases.
Agriculture plays a vital role in the development of all civilizations in history.
The Precision indoor agriculture and Vertical farming, show the character of innovation in agriculture and are a very important topic for the foreseeable future, when the resources will always be less and 4 of 5 people will live in an urban environment.
If you look at the data estimated by the UN, in fact, regarding the future growth of the world's population, you can see that the estimate sees that for 2050 the world population will reach 9 billion inhabitants.
Obviously, with today's resources, we are not able to guarantee the availability of food to such a large number of people, and in this context the innovative projects of Vertical Farm and cultivation in confined environment are inserted.
The problem lies in the fact that about 80% of the territories available for agriculture have already been used. The remaining 20% is not enough.
The idea is therefore to reintegrate within the cities that productive part that was once part of the city itself and that has undergone a process of progressive exile.
The challenge is to develop alternative food production methods that do not compromise the few still functioning ecosystems, using all resources in a sustainable way.
These techniques as well as allowing the achievement of higher production and high quality standards, allow a number of advantages such as: cultivating apart from the external environment and its contaminations, better control of the plants and better use of their genetic potential, more efficient use of space, better control of phytosanitary conditions, better control of mineral nutrition, optimization of water consumption, simplification of management, reduction of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.
It should also be stressed that this type of solution can be immune from polluted environments for chemical, bacteriological and nuclear aspects and therefore can also be used in crisis scenarios and emergency management.