Accidental pollution? Sure, s**t happens. But what about intentional pollution?
When we think of electric power plants and pollution, we often think of air pollution and climate change, and especially when it comes to coal-fired power plants. But power plants are also huge polluters of our waterways -- our streams, rivers, and lakes. In fact the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that
"Steam electric power plants contribute over half of all toxic pollutants discharged to surface waters by all industrial categories currently regulated in the United States under the Clean Water Act."
Not only that. It’s also estimated [pdf] that of all the country’s surface waters that receive power plant discharges
- 25 percent are impaired for a pollutant that is discharged by the plant and
- 38 percent of surface waters are under a fish advisory for a pollutant associated with combustion wastewater.
The sources of that pollution are myriad. Our topic for today is the flow of pollutants from coal ash ponds.1
Catastrophic Failure of a Coal Ash Pond: Outrage, Calls for Action, and Then...?
Pollution from coal ash ponds has been front and center in the news of late. Especially in North Carolina where the failure of two ponds operated by Duke Energy sent some 30,000 to 39,000 tons of highly toxic slurry into the Dan River. (See more here and here.)
The last time coal ash reached such a high level of notoriety was probably back in December 2008 when a pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant in Harriman, Tennessee, ruptured, spewing more than a billion gallons of toxic ash into the Emory and Clinch Rivers and surrounding areas.
Catastrophic failures like those just cited have focused the American public's attention on the problem of coal ash for a time. And calls for reform have followed. The Tennessee spill was so bad that even before she officially became EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson promised to tackle coal ash regulations to prevent such spills from recurring (details in previous post). The current crisis in North Carolina has spurred public outcry and protests and investigations into possible malfeasance and corruption.
But unfortunately, crises don't necessarily lend themselves to effective rulemaking -- often a new crisis erupts, turning eyes elsewhere and causing the fervor for reform to fade. A case in point: today, more than five years after the Tennessee spill, we still await EPA's promised new regulations.2 It will be interesting to see if all the outrage in the Tar Heel State is anything more than political posturing that will fade as soon as North Carolinians become focused on the next crisis.3
Intentionally Dumping Pollution -- Where's the Outrage?
While catastrophic failures of coal ash ponds can grab headlines and attention in a powerful way, there are other pathways for power companies to douse our waterways with pollution that gets far less attention, but at our own folly. Here are two.
When Rules Are Insufficient
Most coal ash ponds are not forever sanctuaries of pollution that never gets released into our waterways. Quite the contrary. The vast majority have permits that allow them to discharge their wastewater under specific conditions and limitations. In "Closing the Floodgates" [pdf], a joint report by the Environmental Integrity Project, Sierra Club, Clean Water Action, Earthjustice and the Waterkeeper Alliance, it is estimated that "at least 274 of the 386 coal plants [reviewed for the report] discharge coal ash and/or scrubber wastewater" to waterways.
Here's one of the problems: The rules governing wastewater discharges from utilities to surface waters -- last updated in 1982 -- are outdated. What's more, while these rules are designed to limit the amount of solid or particulate material that can be released into waterways,4 the bad stuff in coal ash is not just solid.
With the advent of air pollution controls, the coal ash wastestream now contains growing amounts of soluble and often toxic pollutants such as arsenic, selenium and mercury. Because they are dissolved, settling action does nothing to remove them. And while state permits often set maximum allowable levels of some soluble toxic pollutants in the wastewater that can be released, these regulations are often lax, and for some toxins the regulations are nonexistent. For example, according to "Closing the Floodgates":
"Of the 274 power plants in this review that discharge coal ash or scrubber wastewater, only 86 had at least one limit on arsenic, boron, cadmium, lead, mercury, and selenium discharges."
So while power companies and state agencies often point to the existence of permits as evidence that pollution from coal ash ponds is carefully regulated (see here for example), the wastewater from most coal ash ponds that is legally discharged into our rivers and streams is almost certainly loaded with a cocktail of dissolved heavy metals and other toxic substances.
There may be good news of the horizon. EPA is expected to finalize rules that would establish the first federal limits on the levels of toxic metals in wastewater. Just when that will happen remains to be seen. A deadline of May 2014 has been pushed back [pdf] indefinitely.
When Rules Allow Pollution
As lax as most permits may be for coal ash pond discharges, they at least provide some limitation on what can be released. But even this weak system of pollution control has a safety valve ever at the ready for power companies to exploit. Simply put, the safety valve allows power companies to intentionally divert wastewater from a coal ash pond -- directly into our rivers and streams.
I first learned about this from a New York Times story that reported on a system set up by Duke Energy that pumped wastewater from two coal ash ponds directly into canals that feed the Cape Fear River. The discharge, which was discovered by the Waterkeeper Alliance at a plant near Moncure, North Carolina, about 25 miles outside of Raleigh, has apparently been taking place since last fall.
While I, and perhaps you, might be inclined to refer to the practice of intentionally diverting wastewater into surface waters as “dumping pollution,” regulators prefer a kinder, gentler term -- a euphemism sterile enough to make George Carlin cringe. Instead of dumping, regulators call it a “bypass” [pdf] -- "an intentional diversion of wastestreams from any portion of a treatment facility."
Now, the specific rules under which a plant might exercise a bypass are governed by the permitting state. However, EPA also provides rules and guidelines [pdf] for these permits. Bypasses, according to federal government, are allowed under such circumstances as "to prevent loss of life" and when there are "no feasible alternatives to the bypass." However, the regulations are qualified such that
"this condition is not satisfied if adequate back-up equipment should have been installed in the exercise of reasonable engineering judgment to prevent a bypass which occurred during normal periods of equipment downtime or preventive maintenance."
With words like "feasible" and "reasonable" these guidelines are probably intentionally vague, giving the states some latitude to interpret and enforce them. It would appear that some states have given power companies lots of wiggle room to justify their dumping.
For example in the case of pumping as much as 61 million gallons of coal ash wastewater up and over the pond embankment into a canal draining into the Cape Fear River, Duke Energy claims that the discharge was part of "routine maintenance." Now, it might just be me, but an action that lasts for six months would seem to have had time to install "adequate backup."
In another case of dumping, this one by Louisville Gas and Electric into the Ohio River from 1993 to the present, the Kentucky Division of Water claims the discharges are "legally permitted." And how's this for double speak:
"While the permit ... describe[s] [i.e., restricts] the direct discharge ... to the Ohio River as 'occasional', the permit effluent requirements do not restrict the frequency of the discharge. Consequently, there is no violation of the permit for frequency of discharge."
Those are two documented cases of using the bypass rule to circumvent regulations intended to protect our waterways from direct toxic discharges. How many more of them are there I wonder? Whenever there is talk of tightening federal regulations of coal ash disposal, for example by treating it as a hazardous substance, the coal industry promptly calls foul, claiming there is a "war on coal." But with all the pollution from coal ash fouling our rivers and streams one has to wonder who's the warrior and who's the victim.
1 There are approximately 676 coal ash ponds across the country in 41 states. (See map of coal ash waste sites.) Dozens of toxic metals such as arsenic, lead and selenium are found in coal ash. (Details here [pdf].) Currently there are no federal rules on how to dispose of this waste although one has been promised by the end of the year. Some of the ponds are unlined and some are associated with impaired groundwater and surface water. ↩
3 While the leak at both plants appears to be the fault of the utility, circumstances surrounding the leak at the Dan River plant are different because the federal government had cracked down, in an agonizingly slow way, on potentially risky coal ash containment ponds. And the Dan River was one of the watch list.↩
4 This is why coal ash ponds are often referred to as settling ponds -- they are ponds where solid pollutants settle out before the water is released.↩


The English long bow was the weapon that decided the outcome in both encounters. Henry set out to retrieve a situation that had deteriorated seriously since Edward's day, and by August 1415 he had amassed an army consisting of 2 500 men-at-arms, including many great lords; 80 knights and over 1 200 squires; 8 000 archers, of whom half were mounted; 10 000 horses; 200 specialist gunners and miners; and various non-combatants numbering about 1 000. The English already held Calais and Bordeaux, but Henry decided his landing would be adjacent to the busy port city of Harfleur at the mouth of the Seine, a spot which combined the advantages of easy supply links to the English coast with a short line of march to Paris. His plans for a rapid capture of Harfleur were frustrated by determined resistance and his army was soon decimated by disease, mainly dysentery. By the time Harfleur surrendered on 23rd September over 2 000 of Henry's men had died, and another 2 000 had been sent home to recuperate. After providing for a garrison at Harfleur, only about 900 men-at-arms and 5 000 archers were left to continue the campaign.
Henry decided to seek the safety of Calais before the French forces could combine against him. He believed the distance was 100 miles. It was in fact 160 miles, and involved crossing 10 rivers, of which the Somme provided the most serious obstacle. It rained constantly. The combined French force that faced Henry's army after it crossed the Somme outnumbered it at least 3:1 and probably nearer 5:1, and it blocked the road to Calais. Its effectiveness was, however, weakened by divided command, and circumstances which restricted its ability to manoeuvre. Henry adopted a defensive position with his men-at-arms flanked by archers drawn up in wedge formation. The French were formed up in three waves, but were slow to attack. Henry moved forward to provoke a response, and soon the arrows were raining down on the first wave of French men-at-arms. The subsequent chaos disrupted action by the second wave, while the third wave melted away, only to reappear in a threatened attack on the English baggage train. The danger this represented caused Henry to order the killing of all except his most valuable prisoners. Altogether between 7 000 and 10 000 of the French died, with a further 1 500 or so taken prisoner. English casualties numbered no more than 500, the majority of those being wounded.
The forces that Napoleon assembled for the invasion came from all over Europe, and were truly massive. Between June and November 1812 about 530 000 troops crossed the River Niemen, with over 1 000 guns, 30 000 carts and wagons, and 150 000 horses. The three Russian armies, which were deployed in an arc behind the Neimen, comprised around 212 000 troops with 752 guns. The subsequent Russian withdrawal in the face of Napoleon's advance soon ended his hopes of decisive victory, and the two main forces were not to meet until the Battle of Boradino on 7th September. By now the two armies were more evenly matched, and the battle, although excessively bloody, was indecisive. Once again the Russians withdrew, and Napoleon's road to Moscow was now open.
Moscow's fall did not bring Tsar Alexander to the negotiating table, however. Instead, the Russians extended to Moscow the scorched-earth policy they had followed during their withdrawal, and it soon became clear to the emperor that his army could not winter in a devastated city. The retreat began only five weeks after Moscow had fallen, and at first the going was easy. But the first snowfall on 6th November heralded the arrival of the Russian winter, and the much-denuded French army, constantly harried by Cossacks and the main Russian force, was soon reduced to a disorganised, freezing, starving rabble. Of the huge army that had invaded less than six months before, barely 50 000 escaped over the River Berezina, around 25 000 being lost in the attempt to cross. Napoleon's disastrous adventure marked the beginning of the end of his military supremacy, although not necessarily his ability to win battles. He was finally forced into abdication only two years later.
George Barrell (Chairman/Scribe) (011) 791-2581


An illustrated children's story whose character discovers she is dyslexic
This illustrated children's story explains what it feels like to be a child who finds it difficult to read. When Azzie, the main character, discovers she has Dyslexia, life begins to get easier for her and everyone around her. This book can be used to gently discuss Dyslexia and related learning difficulties with children.
Paperback ISBN 9781909320659
21.6 x 0.2 x 21.6 cm
Colour illustrations on every page
Published Jan 2017
Aimed at 6-8 year olds
Years 2 to 3 in Key Stage 2 in the UK
Grades 1 to 2 in the US
Azzie doesn't really like school. If she could spend every day drawing, painting and making stuff, things would be great. But she can't. The teachers make her do other stuff. This nearly always means she has to read from the board, a worksheet or a text book. The trouble is, she really really struggles to read letters, words and numbers. This makes her feel stupid. But she knows she isn't. If only she could tell someone ...
This book has been written from the point of view of a child who feels misunderstood. She finds it very difficult to read, which makes school life a struggle. She feels stupid, even though she is clever and creative. She gets told off for messing around, when the truth is she can't do what is asked of her because she has a specific learning difficulty.
This illustrated book helps parents, teachers, and other adults who support children, have a non-threatening discussion about dyslexia with children of primary school age. Children find it easier to relate to, and discuss, the character in the story rather than have all the attention focused on them.
Using the book as a catalyst for discussion, adults can use the illustrated story at home or in school with children who have dyslexia, or exhibit dyslexic tendencies. Teachers can use the book to help classmates better understand their peers who may struggle reading. Similarly, parents can use the book to help children better understand family members.
This book was written and illustrated by someone who is herself dyslexic, and is based on her own life. She wanted to do something to help children who, years later, are still facing the same lack of understanding in school.
As with all of its books, the publisher - Your Stories Matter – aims to help people know they are not alone with what makes them different. If a young person or adult can relate to a story, it gives them hope and encourages them to share their concerns. The publisher aims to provide free teaching resources for all of its books that can be used in schools, to help improve understanding and celebrate differences.
Currently under development
Most bookshops throughout the English-speaking world and of course Amazon. Contact us for a discount if you are an educational or support organisation wishing to purchase in bulk for resale or otherwise.


Add Photo to KidBlog Post
Category : Tips
Photos can be added to blog posts in different ways. In this post I’ll explain how to add a photo as a linked image on a free (and ad-free) KidBlog.org site.
To reduce the amount of time students spend (and possibly waste) searching for Internet images to use in a blog post or other digital project, it’s a good idea to have them find and identify their photos before class. These image links can be saved in student email, as comments to a blog post, in a Google Document, or in another way.
By creating a photo gallery of images using a free web service like Picasa or Posterous, a teacher can create a designed place / website for students to obtain their images for a project. Students can link to this photo gallery site from the teacher’s homepage, and/or a direct link to the photo gallery can be created on student desktops or a screen of the iPad / tablet device students use.
I recommend both teachers and students use the free Chrome web browser from Google for these steps. Chrome is the fastest web browser on both Windows and Macintosh computers, and also has helpful features (like a “copy URL” option when right clicking / control clicking images) which is very helpful for these steps.
STEP 1: Copy the Image URL
The first step is to find the image you want to insert into your blog post and copy the direct URL or link to the image. In Chrome, do this by right clicking (control-clicking on a Mac) and choosing COPY IMAGE URL.
STEP 2: Click Insert Image
Press enter or return to create a blank line where you want to insert the image. Then click the INSERT IMAGE button above the post format tools.
STEP 3: Paste the Image URL
Click in the field next to image URL and paste the full link address you copied in step 1. Click below it so KidBlog can “verify” the link works. If desired, choose an alignment option. Click INSERT INTO POST.
STEP 4: Publish
Add additional text as desired to your post, along with additional images. When finished, click PUBLISH.
It is a good idea to give attribution credit to the original source of the image you are linking by including a direct link to the source website at the bottom of your post. Image websites like Wylio create attribution links right below images using Creative Commons license terms. If you want to create a properly formatted image citation, consider using a free web tool like Bibme.org. At a minimum, include the direct link to the original website at the bottom of your post to give credit to the original source website. It is better from a copyright perspective to use this technique of direct linking / embedding images you use in blog posts rather than downloading and re-uploading a copy of an image to your original website. With the method described in this blog post, you are NOT making an actual copy of an image when including it in a blog post. Not all websites permit images to be embedded in this way. School librarian Joyce Valenza has a good list of copyright-friendly image sites to use.


Henry Kellen, Holocaust survivor and founder of the El Paso Holocaust Museum & Study Center died on July 3 two days short of his 99th birthday.
Kellen, whose original surname was Kacenelenbogen, was born July 5, 1915, in Lodz, Poland. After attending school in Paris, France, to study textile and mechanical engineering. Kellen returned to his family's home in Lithuania in 1937. By 1941, the Germans had invaded Lithuania, and Kellen's family, along with 30,000 other Jews, were forced into the Kovno Ghetto. After witnessing a "Kinder-Action" in the Ghetto, where Nazi and Ukrainian soldiers took Jewish children from their families, eventually to be murdered. Kellen and his family made the decision to flee the ghetto and go into hiding. Kellen survived the Holocaust with his wife Julia and their eight year old nephew, Jerry, thanks to the kindness of the Andrius Urbonas family who hid them on their farm for the remainder of the war. The rest of his family, both parents, brother and sister and their children perished in the Holocaust.
In 1946, Kellen, along with his wife and nephew, immigrated to the United States, settling in El Paso where his wife had family. Kellen, who was very adept with languages, soon learned English and Spanish and became a leading salesman for Rio Grande Sales Company. His success was such that he opened his own business, including Henry's Men Store in Five Points and the Hollywood Store for Men downtown.
Like many survivors, at first, Kellen rarely spoke about his Holocaust experiences. However, in the 1980's when he learned of the existence of Holocaust deniers, he knew that he had to respond. Angry that anyone would deny his family's fate, Kellen began collecting Holocaust memorabilia, artifacts and education materials, which he housed in a conference room at the El Paso Jewish Federation.
Eventually, the sheer number of artifacts and the growing number of visitors to the conference room necessitated a separate museum. The generosity of Miriam and Louis Rosenbaum provided the resources for the construction of the original museum on the grounds of the Federation. When that mysteriously burned, shortly after 9/11, the current museum on Oregon and Yandell was built. Today, the El Paso Holocaust Museum and Study Center is an important community resource for educating the public about the Nazi Holocaust and teaching tolerance as a way of ensuring that similar acts will not be repeated. The city of El Paso presented Kellen with a Conquistador Award for his contributions to the community.
Henry Kellen is preceded in death by his first wife Julia Kellen, his nephew Jerry Kellen, his parents Moses and Helena Kacenelenbogen, his brother, Moniek Kacenelenbogen, and his sister Sonia Grinberg. In 1985, Kellen married Regina Rosen Reisel, who passed away in 2008.
He is survived by his adopted son, Saul Yannai, two step daughters, Dr. Mimi Gladstein (Jay) and Mrs. Holli Berry (Bill). Finally, he leaves behind an adoring Museum "family" and his many lifelong friends. In addition, the family would like to thank Rafaela, Maythe, Paty, Lulu, Graciela, Irene, Susana and Francis Leon for their devoted care-giving. Juan Ibarra's attentions are also appreciated. Instead of flowers and food, the family is sure that Henry would have preferred donations to the El Paso Holocaust Museum in his memory.
Funeral Service will be held on Friday, July 4, 2014 at 11:00 AM at the B'nai Zion Synagogue, 805 Cherry Hill Ln., El Paso, Texas 79912. Interment will follow after the funeral services at B'nai Zion Cemetery, El Paso, Texas. Services entrusted to Martin Funeral Home West, 128 N. Resler Dr., El Paso, Texas 79912. www.MartinFuneralHomeWest.com.


12 minutes estimated total reading time
Are we being JERFed Around?
JERF, for the uninitiated, stands for Just Eat Real Food.
This is a very popular concept within the nutrition world.
Paleo, Vegan, Weston Price, Mediterranean Diet, Mayo Clinic, Registered dietitians, the WHO, the one thing they can all agree on is that the more unprocessed, or natural, a food is, the better it is.
Pieces of advice such as:
- Avoid Processed Foods
- Don’t Eat Tinned foods or Microwave Meals
- If you can’t pronounce an ingredient, don’t eat it
- If the use by date has more than a week, don’t eat it – real food rots
- Shop the periphery of the supermarket
Indeed, I myself have made all these recommendations.
Is there any basis behind these recommendations, however, or are we all falling trap to a logical fallacy?
The Appeal to Nature Arguement
In sceptical circles, the Appeal to Nature Argument is recognised as an oft used logically fallacy (also sometimes referred to as the Naturalistic Fallacy).
Essentially, it involves claiming that something is good because it is natural, or that something is bad because it is “unnatural”.
That which is natural, is good.
N is natural.
Therefore, N is good or right.
That which is unnatural, is bad or wrong.
U is unnatural.
Therefore, U is bad or wrong
From the Fallacy Files
Organic Tomatoes are good, because they are natural, GMO tomatoes are bad because they are unnatural, for example.
It’s a Fallacy Because?
Side stepping the much more complex question of exactly how (or even if) we can define natural vs unnatural, we can very quickly demonstrate the faulty thinking behind the appeal to nature argument with some concrete examples.
First – That Which is Natural is Good.
Well, if we are thinking about food (or perhaps I should say things we eat), there are literally millions of perfectly “natural” things out there which will kill you pretty swiftly.
The Death Cap Mushroom, for example, is 100% natural, organic, GMO free, hasn’t been cultivated or tampered with in any way by humans, but eating just half of one will deliver enough amatoxins to kill most adult humans through fatal liver and kidney damage.
I think we can pretty safely say then, that just because something is “natural”, does not give any assurance that it is “good” or “healthy”.
So how about That which is Unnatural is Bad?
So, there are various different interpretations about what is natural, and what isn’t natural.
A common view, however, would be that our ancestors lived a more natural life, living “in harmony with nature”, hunting and gathering wild plants and animals. Modern humans, on the other hand, live “unnaturally” in cities, surrounded by technology, disconnected from nature and the food chain.
Overall though, this unnatural life doesn’t seem to be working out too badly: Life expectancies have more than tripled, we’ve cured countless diseases, can repair broken limbs and suture wounds.
I love a good camping trip to the wilderness to disconnect once in a while, and yes, there are plenty of things wrong in the modern world that we could do with sorting out, but I wouldn’t want some catastrophic event to send civilisation back to the paleolithic, nor any other “more natural” era.
If we look at food specifically, personally, my view would be that for a food to be truly “natural” it would need to be a wild species eaten raw – i.e. uncultivated and totally unprocessed by human hands.
By this definition, however, probably nothing you’ve ever eaten could be classed as natural, except perhaps breast milk when you were a baby (Or an adult possibly if you’re into that kind of thing).
Every grain, seed, fruit, vegetable, or legume that you eat has been cultivated by humans over 1000s of years to be more nutritious, easier to digest, lower in toxins, more resistant to disease, drought and pests, and more productive. This process has been going on since the dawn of agriculture via selective breeding, the last century via irradiation, and during the last 20-30 years via genetic engineering.
The meat you eat, comes from animals that have been selectively bred to give more meat, more milk, and be more passive and obedient.
Even if you buy “organic”, heritage, pesticide free produce from small local farms, there is no way it can be considered natural.
There is also no way that one consider a food “natural” if you have processed it by cooking, fermenting, soaking, sprouting or juicing/blending/mashing.
Though of course there are raw foodists, who believe we should eat everything raw, they are in the minority, and for very good reason!
In his book “Catching Fire: How Cooking Made us Human” Richard Wrangham makes a very convincing argument, that these techniques were actually developed by our pre-human ancestors, and it was thanks to these “unnatural” processing techniques that we were able to develop our larger, energy hungry brains. Without them, we’d be like our ape cousins, with huge digestive tracts, having to spend most of our days chewing down on huge quantities of raw plants and animals.
While the above may be debatable, what we do know for sure, is that food preparation techniques, such as cooking, fermenting, and soaking increase our foods digestibility, and the bioavailability of the nutrients within.
A raw food diet will very likely result in rapid weight loss – It’s often much harder for your body to extract the calories from raw food (and it tastes like crap so you don’t eat as much). This might have beneficial short-term effects on body composition and health for someone who has excess body fat, but it is not a good long-term strategy. Ultimately it will lead to deficiencies in both calorie and essential nutritent intakes.
The Food Processing Paradox
Now, this is where things get a bit murky.
With the exception of the raw foodists, who are a relatively small voice in the big world of nutrition, the vast majority of different food ideologies tend to agree that processing your food via traditional techniques is a good thing:
- Cooking (Especially slowly at low temperatures) is good.
- Fermenting is good
- Soaking and Sprouting is Good.
As mentioned before, there is no question that these techniques can enhance the digestibility of our food and the bioavailability of the nutrients within them. It’s also very plausible that it was the development of these techniques that enabled our guts to shrink and our brains to grow, enabling us to evolve into modern humans.
The same nutritionists and dietitians, however, recommend that we should try to limit our consumption of “highly processed foods” – avoid the things in the supermarket that come in packets and tins, the microwave meals, products made with refined flours and sugar, foods with added ingredients and preservatives.
Why should it be that traditional food preparation techniques improve nutritional value, while modern, industrialised food processing compromises it?
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
As you may have gathered, I do not subscribe to the Appeal to Nature argument. I do not believe that just because something is more natural, it is necessarily healthier, and just because something is “less natural”, more processed, or man-made, it is less healthy.
That said, I do personally avoid most processed foods, and cook and prepare the vast majority of my own meals at home using traditional techniques – slow cooking, fermenting and so on. I choose whole grains rather than refined, and avoid foods with added sugars and industrial seed oils.
Have I Fallen for the Fallacy?
No, as unless you are listening to a really far out guru who’s telling you to eat raw only what you can forage from the woods, I don’t believe anything you are eating is “Natural”. (I don’t believe anything you are eating is unnatural either, but I digress).
Whether you are following a “Real Food” diet, Weston Price, or Paleo, eschewing everything from the supermarket, buying all your food from farmer’s markets, or even growing it yourself, still by no stretch of the imagination can cooked, cultivated produce, be considered as “natural” (at least not by the conventional definition), as it only exists thanks to human intervention.
The question should not be whether or not a food is “natural”, but what effects a specific food processing technique has on a food, and in turn how this affects the health of the person eating it.
Standing the Test of Time
Generally speaking, the food processing techniques widely considered as “Good”, are the traditional ones – Baking, fermenting, soaking and sprouting have been done since the dawn of agriculture, perhaps even long before.
Is this due to some special, magical, ancient wisdom? A cook book sent from the Gods or left by extraterrestrials?
No, it is simply due to trial and error!
(This brings to mind another common logical fallacy – survivorship bias).
We believe that our ancestors had special wisdom because their food preparation techniques have survived the test of time… What we fail to consider, is that in reality our ancestors tried all manner of different foods and preparation techniques, the vast majority of which were abysmal failures.
It is not as if someone saw a grain of wheat, and thought – Hmm, let’s make some sourdough bread, that will surely maximise it’s nutritional value!
The traditional food preparation techniques that we still use today are the result of thousands and thousands of years of trial and error.
The processes of deep-frying and the ability to highly refine flour, for example, were developed in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, and quickly became widespread and highly popular. It’s taken us the best part of a century to learn that both of these food preparation techniques can be seriously damaging to human health if such foods comprise a significant proportion of the diet. (Both techniques of course continue to be widely used, which we’ll look at again in a second).
(All that said, the test of time cannot be relied upon too greatly. We’ve been eating grains and dairy for millenia, and red meat for millions of years, and yet there’s still no firm consensus on any of these foods in terms of optimum health and longevity).
It’s All About Motivation
- Traditional Food Processing Techniques were Motivated by Nutrition
- Industrialisation and Capitalism Changed Everything
- The Motivation Required to Drive A Person to Eat has been Reduced
The motivation behind our oldest food preparation techniques came out of necessity – we needed to get the maximum nutrition, both calories and essential nutrients, from the little food we had available to us.
People grew, harvested, processed and prepared from scratch all of their own meals for thousands of years.
This was hard work, and it was important to get the maximum return on your investment of time and effort, especially when crops were seasonal and unreliable.
We no longer labour to produce our own food to nourish ourselves and our families.
Instead, large corporations mass produce food to generate profit.
When it comes to the mass production of food by corporations, the main motivation is to maximise profits, not nutritional value.
The maximisation of profits can be achieved through the reduction of costs to the absolute bare minimum, typically done by the use of cheap, nutritionally void ingredients.
90% of the products on the supermarket shelves are predominantly some kind of amalgam of corn and soy extract – high fructose corn syrup, (often hydrogenated) vegetable oil, a bit of flour and salt. If you’re lucky you’ll get some sawdust and pink slime too.
Now, many will be quick to point out that none of the legally permitted food ingredients (or should we say fillers) are going to kill you, they have been tested and found as non toxic (well depending where you live – Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils probably will kill you, are banned in many places, but not all).
This may well be true, but while saw dust can both be considered natural, and a better snack than a death cap mushroom, it can hardly be considered as a nourishing foodstuff.
The food industry is hardly open, transparent and ethical in its operations either. That ingredients get approved thanks to solid science, rather than effective palm greasing is worryingly doubtful, nor is it assured that companies are going to abide by the laws they are supposed to.
In short, the problem with most processed foods on the supermarket shelves, and why I still choose to avoid them, is not because there is anything inherently wrong with food processing, or that they are unnatural, but that the companies making them do not care what they put in their foods, nor the effects that they have on your health.
The maximisation of profits is also achieved by increasing sales.
Food sales only increase, if customers eat more food.
Food corporations employ teams of scientists and researchers to design foods that you will want to eat more and more of, regardless of whether you are actually hungry or in need of the calories. I won’t go into detail now, as I’ve written about the science of food reward before here.
Fancy a cheese and tomato sandwich?
What if you had to mill the flour, knead the dough, bake the loaf, culture the cheese, churn the butter, and pick the tomatoes?
You’d probably have to be really hungry.
If you just had to slice the bread, cheese and tomatoes, spread some butter and put it together, you’d still probably need to be reasonably peckish to make the effort.
If the sandwich is sitting in front of you, ready to eat, be it in a vending machine or sitting behind a coffee shop counter, however, you might eat it just because it’s there.
Studies into motivation have shown that the tiniest things can make a huge difference to your behaviour.
Want to go to the gym? Having your kit bag ready by the door vastly increases the probability that you’ll go. Want to learn a language? Installing an app on your phone that sends you reminders to practice 10 mins a day will keep you on track.
Unfortunately, these same psychological tricks can be used on us in reverse. Making foods cheap, ready to eat, and easily available can have the effect of us eating more of the things we don’t really need to that we would do otherwise.
In all of these cases, the issue is not that a food has been processed, but rather that the food has been processed by someone else – Someone who’s motivation is not to nourish us, but to make profit from us.
Eat Food Made for Love Not (just) Money
We live in a capitalist world, therefore I don’t expect anyone to produce and/or process food purely for love (Though perhaps with the economic singularity looming, we’ll get there again one day…).
Farmers, bakers, chefs, cooks, and anyone else who works in the incredibly important sector of food production need to make a living (I make a living in this sector myself via the sale of Grass Fed Beef!).
I’m not by any means “anti-capitalist” either – on paper, it’s a great idea, until unethical, greedy, dishonest people come and mess everything up… (just as with communism and anarchy!)
In theory, capitalists invest their time, money and energy into producing something of real value.
The consumer benefits from the created value, the capitalist is rewarded by making a profit.
Unfortunately, all too often, this ideal is far from the reality. The capitalist creates a false need, makes sales based on lies, conceals the true costs of their products, or fosters unhealthy addictions to get people to keep coming back for more, rather than generating real value.
Not that all the blame can be placed on the producers – Consumers demand low prices, don’t ask questions about what is in their products, where they came from, or at what cost they were produced.
Personally, when I buy a product, I don’t care whether it is “natural” or not.
I do want to know however, what is actually in it? Does it have nutritional value? Were the workers exploited? Did animals suffer? Were rainforests destroyed? How big was it’s carbon footprint?
Your best bet to ensure this, is finding local, artesian produce, ideally where you can meet and speak with the producers. Go to farmer’s markets, independent bakeries, butchers, fish mongers and green grocers.
Avoid supermarkets like the plague!
Make Food with Love
If you want a job doing well, do it yourself!
Not only is making your own food the only real way to know what’s going into it, there is also a great deal of pleasure to be gained from it.
Though I would certainly enjoy a really good ready-made sandwich that was made with sourdough bread and artisan cheese, there is a satisfaction that comes from making food yourself from scratch which just can’t be purchased.
We’ve been conditioned into believing that cooking is an unwanted inconvenience. We’re so busy, we don’t even have time to pour milk on cereal, better to buy a cereal bar!
Reality check – If you don’t have time to pour milk on your cereal, you have to seriously address your life.
There’s no need to spend hours in the kitchen every day, there are plenty of delicious healthy meals you can cook up from scratch in under 10 mins, but the more you do it, the more you’ll enjoy it and want to do more, especially when you see how much your friends and family appreciate it, and how much better it is than the mass-produced supermarket rubbish.
Just Eat Good Food
So at the end of the day, while I acknowledge that the appeal to nature argument is a logical fallacy, I’d have to agree with the majority of nutritionists, dietitians, and even the gurus, that if you value your health, your best bet is to avoid the aisles of processed junk in the supermarket, and eat mainly fresh produce, whole foods, minimally processed, prepared using traditional techniques.
Thanks for reading, I hope you found this post of interest.
I would love to hear your thoughts and comments below, or feel free to tweet me at @Simon_Whyatt
This article was written by Simon Whyatt and first appeared on the blog Live Now Thrive Later.


The workshop's main goal was to explore design thinking principles and processes that can be used for reenvisioning our courses and curriculum. We were tasked and pushed to rethink the familiar more deliberately in order to generate innovative ideas for change. We were provided a number of tools and processes, which we got to test out. All of them are guides for making observations and insights. They included:
- Journey map - where to look? The journey map (an IDEO tool) charts the experience of a user through time and across place.
- AEIOU - activities, environments, interactions, objects and users - what are you looking at?
- Look-ask-try - how to look?
- Pain points - can be explicit or latent (unrecognized by the user)
- Design principles - the attributes that a solution needs to have to respond effectively to the identified pain points.
The sweet spot for something to be innovative, it needed to get desirable, feasible and viable. (IDEO)
When we design we need to empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test and repeat.
Concept poster contains:
- Background and insights - pain points, design principles
- Basic concepts - description, functional benefit, emotional benefit
- Key assumptions - desirability, feasibility, viability
Throughout the workshop, each table turned its attention to a course, including:
- Describing the anatomy of a course.
- Putting ourselves in the shoes of the student. (In the real world, we would need to take in account numerous stakeholders.)
We were asked to frame the problem - how might we...? - and then design a possible solution. We were asked to consider the design principles in relation to the problem. In addition to:
- Go far! Go for wild ideas.
- Stay close - "break fixedness" - SIT - systematic innovative thinking
There was a quick mention of the IDEO's guidelines for brainstorming from "10 Faces of Innovation"
Interesting idea of having students do their "plan of study" as part of their introductory courses, after interviewing professionals in the field and talking to their advisor? Perhaps also have them attend a career fair, where they can hear from professionals talk about their careers?
Design Thinking for Libraries, http://deaignthinkingforlibraries.com - three parts freely accessible.


Adolescent Girls Report Dance Has Positive Influence
By guest blogger Gina Cairney
Parents looking for worthwhile activities for their children may want to consider dance classes, especially for daughters who don't seem interested in sports that come off as "too physical," or may be experiencing low self-esteem or lack confidence.
Researchers found that dance intervention had a positive influence on self-rated health for adolescent girls in Sweden, which lasted up to a year after the program ended.
Some 140 girls, ages 13 to 18 years, participated in the study, published in JAMA Pediatrics. The girls selected for the study had visited the school nurse with complaints often associated with stress or low self-esteem, symptoms not serious enough to warrant a mental health referral. About half of the girls were randomly assigned to the intervention group, where they were given dance classes twice a week for 8 months. Each class lasted 75 minutes with an emphasis on the joy of movement, rather than performance, the study says, with various themes like African dance and jazz.
By the end of the program, 48 girls remained and were surveyed on their experience, with 43 of the girls rating it as a positive experience, three girls rating it neutral, and only one girl who found it to be a negative experience.
Adolescence is the time of life where everything seems awkward, and all that can go wrong, seems to go wrong. This and other stressors have an effect on how young people perceive themselves, and according to Statistics Sweden, girls are three times more likely than boys to rate themselves to have poor health.
This study's suggestion to use dance as a preventative health measure is also supported by another study which looked at the prevalence of dance participation in the United States, and its contribution to total moderate-to-vigorous physical exercise in adolescents.
The Swedish study does acknowledge some limitations to its research however, noting that evaluating self-rated health is very subjective and the participants may have reported higher values to please their instructors.
Regardless, the potential influence dance has on young girls who are experiencing emotional problems appears to be significant. It's also important to consider the factors that make dance an appealing physical activity to girls.
Based on survey responses, the study found three possible key factors explaining why the girls reported feeling better:
• The dance intervention was enjoyable and undemanding,
• There were opportunities for girls to offer input in music selection and dance choreography, and
• The opportunity allowed them to make new friends who had similar interests, which may be the most critical factor in maintaining interest in the program or activity.
While all physical activity of some kind is important for the overall well-being of a child, dance programs may be the ideal ticket for some parents who have children—daughters and sons—who want to participate in a social activity without the overbearing competitive nature of sports like soccer and basketball.
Want all the latest K-12 sports news? Follow @SchooledInSport on Twitter.


Abel Niels Henrik
(05.08.1802 - 06.04.1829)
The Norwegian mathematician is one of the most outstanding mathematicians of all mankind.
Born in Finney in the family of a pastor. Abel's childhood was overshadowed by poor health, as well as drunkenness and constant discord of his parents.
At school, thanks to teacher Bert Michael Holmboe, the boy became interested in mathematics. In his service report of 1819, Holmboe wrote about his 17-year-old student: With a superior genius, he combines insatiable interest and math to mathematics, so if he lives, he is likely to become a great mathematician.
In 1820 Abel's father died, and the family (six children) was on the verge of poverty. His older brother, Hansa-Mathias, was found to have a mental breakdown. Responsibility for the family fell on the shoulders of 18-year-old Niels Henrik.
In 1821 Abel entered Christiania University (now Oslo), where the teachers, having familiarized themselves with his early work, decided to establish a scholarship from his personal funds, “in order to preserve this rare talent for science”. To make life easier for his mother, Nils Henrik took one of the brothers to him and began to earn money by tutoring.
In 1822 Abel received the degree of "candidate of philosophy".
In the winter of 1822-1823, he presented the university with the first significant scientific work on the integrability of differential equations. The manuscript was not published and was subsequently lost, but for her, Abel was finally assigned a state scholarship.
In 1823 Abel completed a brilliant study of an ancient problem: he proved the impossibility of solving the equation of the 5th degree in general terms (in radicals).
During a trip to Copenhagen, he met Kristina ("Krellie") Kemp and young people began to make plans for living together, for which you need to take a well-paid position. Krellie was poor, like himself, and earned a living by tutoring.
In 1824 the university allowed Abel a paid trip abroad to continue his education.
First, Abel went to Berlin, where he lived from September 1825 to February 1826. There he met Augustus Krell, who arranged for Niels to work for the journal Mathematical Journal for Children and Teenagers. The work of Abel in this period related mainly to the theory of elliptic functions, which he significantly advanced simultaneously with Carl Gustav Jacobi. The competition of these two prominent mathematicians for several years has brought significant benefits to science.
He was interested in the problem of solving algebraic equations. After reading Girolamo Cardano's book “Great Art, or the Rules of Algebra”, Abel came up with the modern formulation of the problem: “The equation of the fifth degree cannot be solved in radicals”. It was brilliant. Now these equations are called Abelian. However, the report of Abel on the theory of functions, sent to the Paris Academy of Sciences, French mathematicians simply "did not notice." This work has long collected dust in the Paris archives and was printed only after the death of the author.
Abel’s next trip abroad covered Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Graz, Trieste, Venice, Padua, Verona, Bautzen, Paris, Brussels, Berlin. It was not tourism in the usual sense, but rather a “foreign scientific mission”. Nils worked a lot, wrote 6 articles. "I discovered so many wonderful theorems that I just can not believe it".
Abel worked, mined countless mathematical treasures, created theorems, but his manuscripts were lost. No money, a terrible mood, the sick Nils is returning to Christiania. “I am poor as a church rat”, he wrote. Some debts and no clearance. Permanent work, permanent earnings Niels Abel did not receive. The only official recognition of the merits of a scientist is his election as a member of the Royal Scientific Society of Norway.
Autumn 1828 Nils met in bed. He is sick. His health, already weak, has been completely undermined. Constant need and malnutrition, grueling work did their job. Doctors suspect he has tuberculosis. During a trip to Florand in December of the same year (his bride worked there), Niels caught a bad cold. Severe pneumonia superimposed on tuberculosis. He died at the age of only 26 years.
A few days after his death, the long-awaited news came from Berlin - Niels Abel was invited to a highly paid and prestigious job at the University of Berlin.
The great mathematician lived a very short life. His theorems, integrals, formulas and groups are still used today. He never knew that. The cold country was icy to her great son.
“Abel left mathematics so rich a legacy that he will have something to do in the next 500 years” - Charles Hermite is an eminent French mathematician.
Abel erected monuments in Oslo and Erstad. His portrait was placed on a Norwegian banknote 500 CZK (1978). In 2002, in honor of the 200th anniversary of Abel, the Norwegian government established the Abel Prize in Mathematics.
Buried in Frolande at the local cemetery.
The northernmost island in the archipelago of King Charles Land, Spitsbergen. The coordinates are 79°N 30°E.
Mountains on Dixon Land, Svalbard. The coordinates are 78°50'N 16°E.
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The New Student's Reference Work/Bechuanaland Protectorate, The
Bechuanaland Protectorate, The, has an area of about 275,000 square miles, about that of British Columbia, and a population (1905) of 137,832, only 1,000 being whites. It is bounded west and north by German Southwest Africa, north by Zambezi River and British Central Africa, east by Matabeleland and Transvaal and south by British Bechuanaland and Molopo River. The chief tribes are the Bamangwato, Bakwena and Bangwaketse. These and the others are governed by a resident British agent responsible to the High Commissioner of South Africa, but Khama and two other chiefs rule their peoples in subordination to the resident. No licenses for the sale of spirits are granted. Herding and farming are the chief industries. Much of the land is held by native chiefs, who also collect the hut-tax, but the people are peaceful and contented. The Cape-to-Cairo Railway passes through the protectorate, and the telegraph connects it with Cape Town, Portuguese East Africa, Rhodesia, Ujiji and the whole world. In 1905-6 the income was almost $143,265; the expenditure about $373,915; and the grant-in-aid for 1906-7, $220,000.


At the outbreak of the Second World War an ambitious scheme was set up to employ artists on the home front to record the changing landscape of Britain. Sir Kenneth Clark commissioned artists to paint ‘places and buildings of characteristic national interest’, documenting rural and urban environments and precious buildings under threat, not only from bombs but from the effects of ‘progress’ and development. The result was a collection of more than 1500 watercolours of which 49 are on display in this exhibition.
Now held by the Victoria and Albert Museum, Recording Britain features many beautiful watercolours by prolific artists such as John Piper, Kenneth Rowntree and Barbara Jones along with a number of lesser-known contributors. By focusing on quiet corners and local scenes, Recording Britain takes us off the beaten track of iconic British landmarks and postcard images.
In addition to works from the original collection, the exhibition will feature a selection of contemporary works including paintings and photographs by Conrad Atkinson, Richard Long, David Nash and Laura Oldfield Ford.
Due to popular demand, the exhibition’s stay at Towner has been extended and will now be running until 26 June.
Exhibition organised by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Kenneth Rowntree, Grainfoot Farm, Derwentdale, Derbyshire, 1940, Watercolour, Given by the Pilgrim Trust copyright Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Barbara Jones, Savages Yard, Kings Lynn, Norfolk, 1942, Watercolour and bodycolour, Given by the Pilgrim Trust copyright Victoria and Albert Museum, London
John Piper, The Tithe Barn, Great Coxwell, Berkshire c. 1940, Watercolour, Given by the Pilgrim Trust copyright Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Tony Ray-Jones, Glyndebourne 1967, Gelatin silver print, copyright Victoria and Albert Museum, London


Even people who brush their teeth twice daily as recommended by the American Dental Association might find a cavity in one of their teeth. Most cavities are detected during an annual examination at the new york dental office, but pain and tooth sensitivity send many patients to the dentist well before this time. Tooth sensitivity and pain can both indicate a cavity. Waiting to schedule an appointment with the dentist could cause serious complications to your oral health.
Cavity Treatment Options
Small cavities are usually repaired with a filling material after the decayed enamel and infection are removed. Several types of fillings exist, including those made from amalgam, gold, composite resin, and/or gold. The material the dentist chooses for the filling is determined by the function of the tooth and the exact location of the cavity. If the cavity is visible and affects your smile, the dentist will use a natural composite material that matches closely the tooth.
Larger cavities usually cannot be repaired by filling them. The dentist does have other treatment options available, however. Crowns are usually placed over a tooth that has a large cavity that a filling cannot repair. Porcelain or porcelain fused to metal crowns are most commonly used on cavities that are visible to other people. Back teeth usually respond better to crowns made using base metal alloys or gold material.
How to Prevent Cavities
Preventing cavities before they erupt is the best line of defense against this common tooth problem. As noted, even people who meticulously brush and floss may experience a cavity, but they’re certainly more common when poor oral health is noted. There are a few cavity-fighting strategies that you can use to minimize risks, however. Good oral hygiene is the easiest manner in which to keep cavities out of your mouth.
Good oral hygiene has you brushing and flossing your teeth twice per day, as recommended by the ADA. Use a quality toothbrush with medium-strength bristles for best results. Also use a fluoridated toothpaste to brush with, using a pea size amount of paste. Choose an equally efficient mouthwash and tooth floss to remove trapped food particles between the teeth.
Regular dentist visits are also necessary to keep cavities out of your mouth. Schedule a dental visit at least once per year. The dentist will examine the teeth and the mouth and clean the teeth during this annual visit. It’s the absolute best manner in which to keep cavities away and to keep your mouth fresh and feeling and looking great.
Cavities are a common dental problem that patients of all ages experience, but there’s many ways to prevent and treat them. What’s most important is that you visit the dentist if symptoms of a cavity occur, and that you maintain regular dental visits to keep problems away. It’s a little bit of effort but worth its weight in gold and then some. Don’t take any risks when it comes to the health and beauty of your teeth!


Generally speaking, gear material design in gear motors often involves carburizing steel, powder metallurgy units, plastic, etc. The following details are the characteristics of various gear materials of gear motors:
1. Gear motors are designed with carburizing steel, which has the following performance requirements:
1.1 Strong ability to absorb carbon. Faster permeability and flat carbon gradient are accessible. The retained austenite content is appropriate. The mass, amount, size, and even distribution of carbides work together to ensure that the layer is hard and tough enough.
1.2 Low overheating sensitivity. Austenite can still maintain a fine-grain state when heated for a long time at the carburizing temperature, achieving direct quenching, and preventing the mechanical properties from getting worse after quenching due to the large grain size of martensite.
1.3 Sufficient hardenability is required to ensure that the center has a higher yield strength and toughness after quenching. In addition, a mild cooling medium can be used to greatly reduce the possibility of deformation and cracking of carburized parts.
1.4 With low-alloy carbon steel, severe banded structure, coarse inclusions, and cracks are not permitted. The surface of the carburized layer should focus more on these factors.
2. Powder metallurgy gear (metal gear and powder gear) is a commonly used powder metallurgy part via once-forming and finishing process without any other post-processing technology, which can better meet the dimensional accuracy requirements, especially the tooth profile precision. Powder metallurgy gears are usually used in miniature low-power gear motors with the following main features:
2.1 The powder metallurgy tooth is made through a recrystallization process in which metal powder is formed at a high temperature. There is no rolling process and no metal fiber flow is formed, which is a non-oriented mechanical property. Therefore, the bending resistance and shear strength of the tooth is not as good as that of traditional machinery.
2.2 The precision of powder metallurgy gear is relatively low because it is impossible to control this aspect in the process of high-temperature sintering and forming. The uncontrollable factors include burning bricks, shaping of the burnt brick, and its precise dimensions. For this reason, transmission stability is poor.
2.3 The tooth contact strength of powder metallurgy gears is also relatively low, so high torque cannot be transferred.
2.4 The surface roughness of the powder metallurgy gear tooth is also relatively large, which produces noise during transmission.
2.5 Although it can be made into an oil-bearing gear tooth, the effective duration of oil lubrication is relatively short. To expand normal use, it is important to consider the external application of lubrication (bath lubrication is most suitable).
3. Plastic gears are mainly used in miniature precision gear motors. The common characteristics are as follows:
3.1 The precision of injecting plastic gears, to a large extent, depends on the precision of the mold and plastic performance.
3.2 Good chemical stability helps to resist acid, alkali, and organic solvent erosion.
3.3 Good wear resistance and self-lubrication allows for smooth transmission with no noise.
3.4 Good electrical insulation and poor thermal diffusivity.
3.5 Due to small plastic density, plastic gears can reduce the weight of the product.


- Category: Computer
- Author: Tim Love
Read and download free eBook intituled ANSI C for Programmers on UNIX Systems in format created by Tim Love.
This document aims to introduce C by providing and explaining examples of common programming tasks, and to enable the reader to learn from available source code by clarifying common causes of incomprehension. The first part of the document is an informal introduction to C.
If you are already using UNIX, here’s the perfect opportunity to learn how to program with the ANSI C standard in the UNIX environment. Basic C concepts are presented in detail, the focus then shifts to intermediate and more advanced programming techniques. Feibel emphasizes the creation of small, specialized functions and programs and on making them work together. In addition, special-purpose libraries, such as creating windows, are discussed.
Read and Download Links:


Good morning Year 1's. I hope today finds you safe and well. We have had some lovely sunny weather again this week, so make sure you enjoy it while it lasts. Most of our work today is on our 'Everybody week 5' page. Below I include a link to Mrs Armstrong-Boyle's Wednesday Word video and this week's newsletter and your maths work for today.
Our learning is as follows;
The Wednesday Word
Is today led by Mrs Armstrong-Boyle. Follow the link below...
Our Maths Learning
Today we wil be working practically to put objects into equal groups of either 2's, 5's or 10's. You will need some practical objects to group with; perhaps pasta, counters, lego bricks, raisins, sweets (I'd probably end up eating these!)
Watch the PowerPoint presentation below; you may like to use your counting objects to predict the answers before revealing them.
Using your counters and the task cards included on the sheets below to share your objects into equal groups. The one star challenge is based on sharing into 2 groups. The two and three star challenges look to share larger groups of objects in to groups of 2, 5 and 10. My recommendation would be that you stick to the one star challenge today, unless you are feeing very confident.
When you have solved the question on your task card, you could draw your sets in your green books and record as follows;
There are _____ objects
We need _______(2,5,or 10) in each group
There are _____ groups.
There are 10 objects
We beed 2 groups
There are 5 groups.
Below are the task cards and example of how to lay out your work.
Is on our 'Everybody Week 5' page. Follow the link below to take you there...


An interesting article about a (rare) useful study of the risk of heart disease. The bottom line: even in people with genetic risk factors for heart disease, healthy lifestyle (exercise, normal body weight, not smoking, moderate alcohol consumption) is a powerful tool to reduce risk.
If you have high genetic risk AND an unhealthy lifestyle, you have over a 10% risk of an adverse coronary event over 10 years. A healthy lifestyle reduces this risk by about half, to around 5%, which is roughly the same someone who has an unhealthy lifestyle and NO genetic risk factors.
Healthy lifestyle — not doctors, not medicines, not surgeries — wins again as the most important tool for living longer and better…even if your inherited raw materials are less than perfect.
The New York Times: The Power of Simple Life Changes to Prevent Heart Disease. http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIwiYjL9jA


We’ve chosen 4 decades from the 20th century upon which to base the challenges for 2021, and the first challenge to all felters, spinners, weavers, stitchers, knitters, crocheters and mixed media fibre artists is …
… to make something inspired by the decade 1900 – 1909.
At the beginning of the 20th century the Wright brothers achieved the first powered flight; Australia became a Commonwealth; the first silent movie was made; Marconi made the first trans-Atlantic wireless transmission; Einstein proposed his Theory of Relativity; the Suffragette Movement became strong and the North Pole was discovered!
We hope the public domain photos below will help to kick-start your imagination.
Alexander Graham Bell (better known for his work on the telephone) developed many tetrahedral kites of varying designs (1903-1909) – here are two of them.
In Australia someone had an unusual pet! Photo dated 1900.
Wilson Bentley photographed raindrops and snowflakes most of his life This photo of a snow crystal was taken in 1905. Below it are more of his photos but they are undated.
A First Nation Group near Lethbridge, Alberta, 1909.
Arthur Smith’s photos were featured in a book “Nature through Microscope and Camera” 1909 – here are just a few of them.
Beckett and Hadfield took these Lantern slides in Norway.
Dr Julius Neubronner developed a miniature pigeon camera to photograph the earth from above. The patent for his invention was granted in 1908.
The images were processed and sold as postcards at expositions in Dresden and Paris 1909-11.
There is a lot of inspiration to be had from the art world.
“Vetheuil” by Monet, 1901
“Anenomes” by Renoir, 1907
“La jetee a L’Estaque” by Derain, 1906
Buildings and statues can be inspiring too.
The Flatiron Building – an iconic skyscraper in New York – completed in 1902.
Statue – a bronze replica of Michelangelo’s ‘David’, Buffalo in the USA, 1903.
Handmade cards were popular. This valentine card was made in 1900 (maker unknown).
Wealthy ladies had some impressive clothing !
We hope you feel inspired to take part in this challenge. It looks like there was a lot of really interesting things going on back then offering all sorts of exciting ideas for fibre projects. Please post your photos in the Studio Challenges section on The Felting and Fiber Forum, we’d love to see them.


“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold guiltless anyone who takes his name in vain” (Exod. 20:7 NET).
The Word “LORD” in the scripture above is a translation of the Hebrew word for God’s Name, “Jehovah,” or “Yahweh,” or even “Yehovah.” Scholars and Hebrew rabbis are not 100% sure what the exact rendering of this name should be. What happened? Why this confusion?
This is a great example of the dangers of a religious spirit. God gave the commandment above to the Jews that “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.” The Israelites took this commandment and made another commandment out of it, somewhat out of “reverence for God.” They interpreted this commandment as meaning they should not even call the name of God; that is, verbally mention Jehovah. This might seem wonderful because it appears to show much reverence for God, but it was a terrible error, a dangerous trap of the religious spirit. God’s command was clear; nothing needed to be added or removed from it. You will be surprised that the same Israelites had more respect for their own commandments, created out of God’s commandments, than God’s direct commandments. Jesus called it their “traditions” (Matt. 15:6). If we are not careful, we will create a religion out of God’s commandments, which I typically call “Christian religion,” for ourselves. Watch out for manmade commandments and doctrines in Christianity!
What is the meaning of taking God’s name in vain? See a few examples in Lev. 19:12, 24:11.
APPLY THE WORD
Your best protection against Christian religion is to know the truth. Learn to study the Word of God yourself and take it as it is without the coloring of different denominations and ministries. Until you are established in the truth, you will remain a victim of human additions to God’s Word (Eph. 4:14).
Ask the Lord to help you escape the commandments of men that may appear as commandments of God.
Recommended Read: Grow in the knowledge of God
Must Read!: What is a Daily Devotional?


Raises the GotFocus event.
Assembly: System.Windows.Forms (in System.Windows.Forms.dll)
When the user selects text in a TextBox control, the control saves the selection. When a TextBox control gets focus, the selection is the same as when the TextBox loses focus. When the TextBox gets focus for the first time, the entire text is selected.
Raising an event invokes the event handler through a delegate. For more information, see Raising an Event.
The method also allows derived classes to handle the event without attaching a delegate. This is the preferred technique for handling the event in a derived class.Notes to Inheritors
When overriding in a derived class, be sure to call the base class’s method so that registered delegates receive the event.
Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows 7, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core Role not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core Role supported with SP1 or later; Itanium not supported)
The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.


How to deal with cyberbullying
Chances are you know of someone who has been victimised by an anonymous bully online. Or perhaps it has happened to you?
Earlier this year, a 13-year-old girl from Pretoria North took her own life after being bullied on WhatsApp for over a week. And this tragedy is not an isolated incident.
According to a 2015 Vodafone global survey, one in five teens has experienced cyberbullying and 43% believe cyberbullying is a bigger problem than drug abuse.
But there are steps you can take to protect yourself.
How to avoid being bullied in cyberspace
- Keep inappropriate or embarrassing messages, photos, text and videos to yourself. As soon as you post something online, it’s not private. So if you wouldn’t show it to your parents or teachers, don’t share it with the digital world.
- Use privacy settings on all your social media accounts. Remember that restricting who can see your posts is still not 100% secure.
- Be discerning about who you choose as an online friend. You don’t have to accept every invitation.
- If an online friend makes you feel uncomfortable, judged or attacked, block or defriend them immediately.
How to cope with cyberbullying
If you become a victim of cyberbullying, there are steps you can take to empower and protect yourself. Remember that it is normal to feel anxious and isolated. The situation is not your fault and this hurtful behaviour has more to do with the bully’s sense of insecurity and his or her need to feel accepted.
- No matter how difficult it might seem, tell someone you trust about what is going on.
- Take screenshots of any offensive messages. Don’t keep the nasty emails or texts where you can see them all the time. Rather ask your parent, teacher or school counsellor to store them on their computer. If you or your parents decide to take the matter further, all evidence will help.
- Don’t retaliate. Getting into a virtual argument will only escalate an already sensitive situation.
- Switch off for a bit. Spend time doing things you enjoy that don’t involve technology. The more time you spend on hobbies, sports or hanging out with real-life friends, the less impact cyberbullying will have on your life.
Need someone to talk to? If you believe you are being bullied, contact Childline South Africa on 0800 55 555. The most important step you can take is to tell someone.


Despite 'certified cocoa' label from chocolate companies, some farms still use child labor, harm forests
The leading organization responsible for policing standards in the world's cocoa industry has regularly approved cocoa from West African farms that use child labor or have contributed to deforestation of the region, interviews and research show.
Utz, a Dutch organization responsible for the audits covering hundreds of thousands of cocoa farms, has had significant lapses in its compliance reviews, casting doubt on the claims by major chocolate companies that the monitoring efforts are eliminating those abuses.
For years, the world's largest chocolate companies - including Mars, Nestlé, Hershey and others - have advertised that their supply chain has been cleared of abuses because they had been "certified" by one of three auditing organizations: Utz, Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance.
Many consumers willingly pay more for chocolate made from certified cocoa, and most of the large companies have pledged to certify most or all of their supply. But problems at Utz, which has approved more cocoa than any other auditing organization, undermines those claims, according to interviews and records reviewed by The Washington Post.
While the Utz guidelines are supposed to prevent environmental degradation, a former employee told The Washington Post that many Utz farms were located inside nationally protected forests in Ivory Coast and, in response to questions, an Utz spokesperson confirmed that it has recently discovered more than 4,900 Utz farms located there.
Though Utz has rules against child labor, research reports co-sponsored by the organization in 2013 and 2017 found that Utz certified farms in Ivory Coast were more likely than other farms to have child laborers, with children putting in more work deemed dangerous, such as working with machetes and insecticides.
And earlier this year, Utz discovered significant problems at four auditing firms responsible for approving a large portion of the world's certified chocolate. The auditing firms cited for problems had conducted audits for most of the farms in Ivory Coast, the world's largest single source of certified cocoa.
In 2017, Utz certified 1.5 million tons of cocoa, or about two-thirds of the world's supply of certified cocoa, according to industry statistics. Every year, it certifies the crops from hundreds of thousands of West African farmers.
"Consumers believe that by buying certified cocoa they are doing something good for the environment, or children, or farmers," said François Ruf, a researcher based in Ivory Coast and a co-author of a 2013 study co-sponsored by Utz. "But that is a fiction."
A Post article in June documented widespread child labor on West African cocoa farms, including working with machetes and pesticides, despite years of promises by the chocolate industry to eradicate it. The industry also has been blamed for a role in the region's epochal deforestation. The certification programs, which the major chocolate companies embraced several years ago, were supposed to address those problems.
"You now have to ask, 'what is the point of "certification" of cocoa?' " said Etelle Higonnet, senior campaign director for Mighty Earth, an environmental group trying to stop deforestation. "They're trashing the forests, and they don't pay farmers a living income."
She said the group had asked Utz officials before about certified farms being carved out of protected forests, but didn't get an answer. The admission that more than 4,900 certified Utz farms were located inside protected forests is outrageous, she said.
Utz declined to offer specifics about the problems at each of the four auditing firms in Ivory Coast, citing confidentiality agreements. But in a March letter, a portion of which was disclosed to The Post, Utz found that one inspecting firm had "insufficient audit activities, repetitive bad audit management practices, and poor certification decisions which are alarming."
The problems, the Utz letter said, "put at risk the credibility of the certification decision and therefore the credibility of the UTZ program."
Deficiencies found at two other auditing firms were deemed of equal severity - described as a "yellow card" - and the infractions at the fourth were categorized as even graver by Utz officials, a so-called "red card."
In response to questions regarding these troubles, officials with Utz, which last year merged with Rainforest Alliance, emphasized that the problems were discovered during "normal monitoring." The monitoring did not lead to sanctions of any farmers or co-ops, and no approvals for any batch of cocoa were rescinded. In April, to revamp its auditing practices, Utz stopped issuing new cocoa certifications in Ivory Coast.
Regarding the finding of more child labor on its farms, Utz said: "The whole picture is a bit more complicated." It said that there were more reports of child labor on Utz farms because those farmers have "more awareness" of the problem. Researchers who conducted the survey, however, said that they took steps in their questionnaire to eliminate any such effects.
Utz officials also noted that while the organization had approved 4,900 farms located inside nationally protected forests, those farms are no longer certified and represent only a small portion of its roughly 423,000 farms in Ivory Coast. The map review that identified Utz farms inside the protected forests, however, is only partially complete.
Finally, asked about reports from former Utz employees who said auditors are sometimes solicited with bribes, and other times threatened with violence, the Utz officials indicated that corruption in the system was limited.
"In its fifteen-year history, UTZ Certified has investigated only isolated cases of corruption," the organization said in a statement.
"We acknowledge that things must change," the organization said in a statement to The Post, and accordingly, it is adopting a new approach to child labor. "A certification system must adapt and innovate in order to create more impact and provide more value to producers and companies. We have worked consistently to improve our standards, assurance mechanisms and associated interventions - and will continue to do so."
The chocolate companies that have boasted of their commitment to buying certified cocoa emphasized, in response to this story, that the certification efforts have helped in less measurable ways - they've trained farmers, for example - and that their efforts to halt environmental and labor abuses go beyond certification. Three of the companies issued statements in response to this story:
Hershey: "Auditing cocoa farms in West Africa, which represents millions of farmers spread across more than 100,000 square miles, is unquestionably a challenge. Before certifiers went into West Africa several years ago, it had never been attempted. The fact that it is a challenge and the processes aren't perfect doesn't mean the work is not worthwhile."
Ferrero: In addition to certification efforts, "Ferrero Group has monitoring and control systems . . . and invests in community-based initiatives that address the systemic issues driving deforestation and child labor: poverty, lack of basic necessities, and other social problems."
Mars: "Our aim is to ensure 100 percent of our cocoa is responsibly sourced and traceable by 2025 and we will continue to work with farming communities, suppliers, governments and others to do so. In 2018, Mars launched its Cocoa for Generations strategy, calling for more demanding standards than certification sets today."
Officials with Nestlé declined to comment.
The chocolate industry began to embrace certification programs about 10 years ago as a response to two nightmarish public relations issues: First, more than 2 million child laborers were reported to be working on cocoa farms in West Africa, and second, satellite images suggested that those farms were responsible for some of the region's cataclysmic wreckage of tropical forests.
"We think that this is what we are supposed to do as a responsible world citizen," a Mars official said in April 2009 as it announced that it was moving toward 100 percent certified cocoa. Mars and most of the other companies continue to tout similar certification goals.
Cocoa is considered certified if one of three nonprofit organizations - Utz, Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade - are willing to grant it their label - their seal of approval. The organizations set out rules for farms to follow and then authorize independent auditing firms to check for compliance. In the end, certification offers a little to everyone: Farmers who comply with the rules can advertise that their cocoa is certified and fetch a price premium of as much as 10 percent or more; companies pay a little extra for the cocoa, but it adds some oversight to their cocoa supply chain; and consumers feel better about their chocolate.
Of the three certification groups, Utz, the Dutch label, rapidly became the leader in cocoa, at least in part because the organization had aimed at making Utz attractive enough to reach beyond the niche markets.
The organization began as a certification label for coffee - the original name was Utz Kapeh, a phrase that means "good coffee" in a Mayan language. It moved into cocoa in 2008.
The goal was to bring sustainability to mainstream cocoa production, with chief executive Han de Groot saying, "making a meaningful impact would only be possible if we could reach massive volumes." Accordingly, the organization took several steps to entice big companies.
For one thing, the price of Utz cocoa was right: The "premium" that cocoa buyers paid for Utz certified cocoa was significantly lower than what buyers paid for Fairtrade cocoa - sometimes just half as much, according to figures published by the labels. Several food industry executives served on the Utz board, among them two former executives from Cargill, a major cocoa buyer.
Last year, about 65% of the world's certified cocoa bore the Utz label.
While the word "certification" may suggest rigorous enforcement, however, the inspections are patchy and the incentives for fraud considerable, according to interviews with former Utz employees.
The recent trouble in Ivory Coast highlighted just how critical these problems can be.
Ivory Coast is the main source of Utz certified cocoa, and the four auditing firms cited by Utz for auditing problems were responsible for about 90%of the Utz farms there, according to figures provided to The Post.
Two of those auditing firms are based in Africa - AfriCert and Bureau Norme Audit; two others, Control Union and Bureau Veritas, are based in Europe. The auditing companies involved revealed little about why they received warnings from Utz.
Utz "found that our local auditors had failed to investigate thoroughly the non-compliances found," Udi Gabay, regional manager in Africa for Control Union, the auditing firm received the most severe warning from Utz, said in a statement. "This was the result [of] a lack of supervision by local management."
Control Union is seeking to be reauthorized as an Utz inspector.
A representative of AfriCert referred questions to Utz.
A Bureau Veritas representative, said that there had been "weaknesses at the auditors level."
A representative of Bureau Norme Audit said the firm remains a fully certified auditor for Utz.
The sanctions do not "mean that all activities (audits, certification decisions) were conducted incorrectly," Utz said in a statement.
Even when the auditing firms are operating properly, however, the inspection system allows many farms to go unchecked.
At Utz - as at other certifiers - when a group of farmers seeks certification, only a small sample of the farms are inspected. For a typical co-op of 1,000 farmers seeking Utz certification, for example, auditors might only inspect about 32. Audits are generally announced in advance, a practice that allows farmers to hide evidence of any deviations from the rules.
Once at the farm, inspectors often face an array of challenges, according to former employees, beginning with the fact that farmers have a substantial financial incentive to fool the auditors: If they pass muster with Utz, they may receive about $80 extra per metric ton of cocoa they sell.
Lenneke Braam, who until June was head of standards and assurance at Utz and Rainforest Alliance, noted that the pressures on auditors can be extreme, including not just enticements such as bribes, but also death threats.
"How many I cannot say," she said of the death threats. "But it happens."
At the root of the problem is the desperation of the farmers, said Lucas Simons, who was global program director at Utz in 2008. The question, he said, is whether the high-minded certification guidelines drafted in Europe or the United States can be enforced in a setting where illiteracy and poverty are widespread, and where basic infrastructure - roads and electricity - are often missing.
"These people are poor - for them it's a matter of survival," Simons explained. "If people cannot read or write, if they make just 70 cents a day, and we come with 35 pages of requirements that they must meet, we are not creating a sustainable economy."
Even some of Utz's own research provides further evidence that the inspection system is weak: In key ways, the farms that it approves in West Africa are little different from those that are not certified.
Twice, in 2013 and again in 2017, researchers from Wageningen University & Research surveyed hundreds of farmers in Ivory Coast and compared farmers certified by Utz to those who were not certified.
The results were not flattering.
On the issue of child labor, the Utz-certified farmers had more child laborers than farmers who lacked certification. About 14% of noncertified farmers told surveyors they had child labor; about 16% of Utz-certified farmers did.
On environmental issues, the researchers studied general practices, planting of shade trees and waste management. There were some ways that Utz farms looked better: Utz farmers were more likely to have planted shade trees, which are a recommended means to counter deforestation. The researchers also credited the certification program with disseminating agricultural knowledge beyond Utz farms.
But overall, the studies found, the "levels of impacts have generally been marginal for certified farmers."
"There remains a gap between what certification alone has been expected to deliver and [what] actually has been delivered," according to an academic paper the researchers published.
Other researchers were more blunt.
Charity Ryerson, co-founder of the nonprofit Corporate Accountability Lab, visited five cocoa villages in Ivory Coast over the past year and found little evidence of anyone checking that "certified" farms were operating according to standards. For example, she said, a checklist requiring clean bathrooms was fully checked in one report even though none of the farms have bathrooms.
"From our experience talking to farmers, it was clear that certification meant almost nothing," Ryerson said. "It's an open secret in the Ivory Coast that almost no one checks the certified farms for compliance."
"Certification misleads consumers to believe that farmers earn a living wage, their children go to school, and labor conditions are decent. From the perspective of a farmer living in abject poverty, this is morally outrageous."


This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2009)
Mambo is a Latin dance of Cuba which was developed in the 1940s when the music genre of the same name became popular throughout Latin America. The original ballroom dance which emerged in Cuba and Mexico was related to the danzón, albeit faster and less rigid. In the United States, it replaced rhumba as the most fashionable Latin dance. Later on, with the advent of salsa and its more sophisticated dance, a new type of mambo dance including breaking steps was popularized in New York. This form received the name of "salsa on 2", "mambo on 2" or "modern mambo".
In the mid-1940s, bandleaders devised a dance for a new form of music known as mambo (music), taking its name from the 1938 song Mambo, a charanga composed by Orestes Lopez which had popularized a new form of danzon which later was known as danzon mambo. This style was a syncopated, less rigid form of the danzón which allowed the dancers to more freely express themselves during the last section, known as the mambo section.
Mambo dancing in Mexico and Rumberas filmsEdit
From Havana Pérez Prado moved his music to Mexico, where his music and the dance were adopted. The original mambo dance was characterized by freedom and complicated foot-steps. This style was prominent in the Rumberas films. Popular dancers of the era include Ninon Sevilla, Maria Antonieta Pons, Tongolele, Meche Barba, and Resortes.
The mambo dance that was spearheaded by Pérez Prado and was popular in the 1940s and '50s in Cuba, Mexico, and New York is completely different from the modern dance that New Yorkers now call "mambo" and which is also known as salsa "on 2". The original mambo dance contains no breaking steps or basic steps at all. The Cuban dance was not accepted by many professional dance teachers. Cuban dancers would describe mambo as "feeling the music", in which sound and movement were merged through the body. Professional dance teachers in the US saw this approach to dancing as "extreme", "undisciplined", and thus deemed it necessary to standardize the dance to present it as a salable commodity for the social and ballroom market.
In the 1940s, Puerto Rican dancer Pedro Aguilar, known as "Cuban Pete", and his wife became popular as the top mambo dancers of the time, dancing regularly at The Palladium in NY. "Cuban Pete" was named "the greatest Mambo dancer ever" by Life magazine and the legendary Tito Puente. Pedro Aguilar was nicknamed "Cuban Pete" and el cuchillo ("The knife") for his mambo dance style.
The modern mambo dance from New York was popularized in the late 1960s into the 1970s by George Vascones, president of a dance group known as the Latin Symbolics, from the Bronx, New York. George Vascones continued the mambo dance tradition which started two decades earlier during the "Palladium era". It was followed in the 1980s by Eddie Torres, Angel Rodriguez of RazzM'Tazz Mambo Dance Company, and others, many of whom were 2nd generation New York Puerto Ricans. This style is sometimes danced to mambo music, but more often to salsa dura (old-school salsa). It is termed "mambo on 2" because the break, or direction change, in the basic step occurs on count 2. The Eddie Torres and Razz M'Tazz schools each have different basic steps, even though they share this same basic feature. Eddie Torres describes his version as a "street" style he developed out of what he saw on the Bronx streets. The RazzM'Tazz version is closer to the Palladium Mambo (from the Palladium ballroom in the 1950s), whose basic step was in turn derived from Cuban son, with which it shares its timing (234 - 678, with pauses on 1 and 5) both styles derived from the American Mambo with the freestyle steps based on jazz and tap steps.
- Garcia, D. F. (1 December 2006). "Going Primitive to the Movements and Sounds of Mambo". The Musical Quarterly. 89 (4): 505–523. doi:10.1093/musqtl/gdm006.
- Terry Monaghan (25 May 2009). "Pedro 'Cuban Pete' Aguilar". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
- Hutchinson, Sydney (Fall 2004). "Mambo on 2: The birth of a new form of dance in New York City". Centro Journal. XVI (2): 108–137. ISSN 1538-6279. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 11, 2012.
- "Luis Oliveira And His Bandodalua Boys - Chihuahua", YouTube, track 04 from Ultra-Lounge, Vol. 2: Mambo Fever. Uploaded 2009-08-31.


The United Nations has proclaimed 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity. "Biodiversity" is shorthand for the variety of life on Earth, from genes to ecosystems, and is often quantified by the number of species in a specified area. If biodiversity seems a bit arcane to you, you're not alone.
Of the many environmental crises going on today — global warming, air and water pollution, invasive species, and so on — the biodiversity crisis might have the lowest profile. But it might well be the most critical to human well-being. It is certainly a factor in our increasing risk of contracting Lyme disease here in the Hudson Valley.
Right now we are losing species at rates at least 100 times faster than the fastest extinction rates documented in the fossil record — and this includes the extinction pulse that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
The main culprit is the destruction of natural habitats on which species rely. Clearing a swath of tropical forest to graze cattle or grow soybeans, bulldozing a mountaintop to mine coal, damming a river to irrigate cornfields, can cause dozens or even thousands of species to disappear for good. Biodiversity loss is often seen as unfortunate but necessary collateral damage from economic development.
Many who are concerned about species loss have argued it is our ethical and moral responsibility to protect our fellow inhabitants of Earth from extinction. Such a stance, however, has rarely slowed down development projects likely to drive species extinct, because protestors are easily cast as a fringe element — tree-huggers who care more about plants and animals than about people.
Now we know better.
That's because ecologists have discovered that biodiversity provides humanity with many "ecosystem services" that can't otherwise be engineered. Natural ecosystems clean the air, filter water, suck greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, provide genetic stock for agriculture, contribute chemicals that cure cancer, and so on. We might pay to filter water, for example, but ecosystems do it free of charge. And more diverse ecosystems are better at providing these services than less diverse ones.
More recently we have discovered that biodiversity protects us against exposure to Lyme disease, West Nile virus, and other diseases. Of these illnesses, Lyme disease has been best characterized, so I'll focus on it. We get exposed to this potentially debilitating disease when a blacklegged tick infected with the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi bites us. The more infected ticks roaming around in places we hike, garden, watch birds or walk the dog, the greater our risk of exposure.
My laboratory has spent more than 10 years learning what regulates the abundance of infected ticks in Dutchess County habitats. Ticks have four life stages — egg, larva, nymph and adult — and nymphs are responsible for the vast majority of Lyme disease cases. And we have found the number of infected nymphs is determined by which mammal and bird hosts are available for larval ticks to feed on.
Larval blacklegged ticks are not picky eaters and will feed on pretty much anything with fur or feathers, from mice to raccoons to robins to deer. But tick larvae feeding on white-footed mice are at least twice as likely to survive and become infected as are those feeding on any other hosts. Some hosts — such as opossums and gray squirrels — groom off and kill ticks by the hundreds and are unlikely to infect them with the Lyme disease bacterium.
Mice thrive in disturbed, degraded, fragmented forests where their predators are scarce or absent. Forest fragmentation also tends to eliminate the species such as opossums and squirrels that protect us by killing ticks. But the same fragmentation boosts mice populations, which are excellent at feeding and infecting ticks. If we can avoid land-use practices that fragment our forests, we will have a more diverse community of mammals and birds and fewer infected ticks crawling around in the woods.
In this International Year of Biodiversity, it's important to realize the disappearance of species is not limited to far-away tropical places with limited direct bearing on our daily lives. Biodiversity loss is also a concern for us in the Hudson Valley, and managing our landscapes to support many species can help protect our health.