Why are poor people offered financial inclusion products? One answer to this question is that the poor have unique financial needs and require financial institutions and instruments tailored for their particular conditions. This explanation sees poverty as the driver of demand for inclusive finance, but engages only superficially with the question of why mainstream financial institutions are unable to accommodate the poor.
The alternative explanation, which I examine in my research, is that the demand for inclusive finance is driven by practices known as ‘financial infrastructure withdrawal’: this is the very same process behind the rise of predatory lending in the Anglosphere (Leyshon and Thrift, 1995) and reveals that financial systems have inbuilt tendencies to be exclusionary (Dymski and Veitch, 1992). Given these tendencies, scholars of financial exclusion in advanced capitalist countries, have argued for a concept of financial citizenship which notes that like countries, financial systems have an inside and an outside (Leyshon and Thrift, 1995). Those who can access finance only in the form of, for instance, high-cost loans and not through mainstream banking institutions are relegated to the outside and are hence not financial citizens. The processes that underlie this relegation include the tendency of mainstream banks to cross-sell products within groups, privileging ‘blue-chip’ clients by offering them subsidies in exchange for brand-loyalty. Less wealthy clients, as a result, inevitably pay more for the same products and services than their more affluent counterparts.
How Is Shadow Banking Linked to Financial Inclusion?
These practices may be attributed to shifting models of banking, as practices of disintermediation mean that lending and borrowing activities are no longer closely linked. Whereas in the past the dominant model was one in which banks relied on depositors to provide funds that could be loaned to borrowers, newer approaches to banking focus more on the ‘slicing and dicing’ of loans (Chick and Dow, 1988). These have pushed a departure from the branch-oriented approach to banking and allowed banks to overcome geographical constraints. In poor countries disintermediation has occurred in the inclusive finance segment, mostly because of the ready availability of finance from private sources and the ‘philanthropy-finance-development complex’ (Gabor and Brooks, 2017). This arrangement is not only a manifestation of shadow banking in the Global South but also an extension of shadow banking in the Global North.
Shadow banking refers to credit intermediation activities carried out by entities outside of the regular banking system. Commonly associated with the global financial crisis of the last decade, the institutions and practices of shadow banking wield immense influence over the shape of inclusive finance in the Global South. The two key mechanisms that drive shadow banking in rich countries are the same as those in poor countries. One of these arises from regulatory avoidance and arbitrage, and the other arises from the demand for yield from institutional investors (Nesvetailova, 2017; Pozsar, 2011).
The issue of regulatory arbitrage and avoidance was among the earliest explanations suggested for the rise of the shadow banking industry: commentaries from Pozsar (2008) and Adrian and Shin (2009) note the role of regulatory burdens in creating gaps in traditional banking that are filled by shadow banks. This view of shadow banking is sometimes described as the supply side explanation in which the focal point is the behaviour of financial institutions in response to regulatory and legal constraints. In many countries of the Global South, financial institutions face an even more expansive set of constraints which create the space in which inclusive finance operates formally. For instance, the capital adequacy and leverage limitations imposed by institutions such as Basel, and the know-your-customer (KYC) requirements of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to counter money laundering and terrorist funding (de Koker, 2014). As a result of these constraints it is difficult for both enterprises and individuals lacking extensive documentation to obtain credit and at times, even a traditional bank account.
The second explanation for the growth of shadow banking is described as the demand side view, in which the focus is on the decision of institutional investors to place their cash in wholesale funding instead of deposits. Thus, a key role of shadow banks in the global financial crises was to create ‘safe, short-term, liquid instruments to cater to the safety preferences of institutional cash investors and a deficit of US Treasury bills in general’ (Pozsar, 2011). These practices have carried over to the Global South and are a component of the inclusive finance industry for instance in form of microfinance investment funds and the involvement of global banks in impact investing and social ventures. This form of shadow banking is also being described as ‘market-based finance’ and many scholars of international development have expressed deep concern over the increasingly commercial and privatised nature of developmental strategies (Gabor, 2018). While funds from global investors may be seen as useful for meeting the borrowing needs of the poor, the practices of specific lending institutions for the poor reproduce inequalities because they are a corollary of the exclusionary practices of the mainstream banks. As a result the poor always pay more, not only for their loans but also for other services such as remittances and payments.
In this light, I argue for a concept of shadow financial citizenship, which builds on the work of Leyshon and Thrift (1995) to describe the grey area between financial exclusion and full financial citizenship. When inclusive finance is presented as a remedy to financial exclusion or to the circumstance of being ‘unbanked’ or even ‘underserved’, shadow financial citizenship emerges because of exclusionary practices. This is so because these exclusionary practices that obstruct financial citizenship are embedded in the financial landscapes of poor countries. These practices arise from the shadow banking and inclusive finance nexus that is a focal point of my research.
Adrian, T., & Shin, H. S. (2009). Money, liquidity, and monetary policy. American Economic Review, 99(2), 600-605
de Koker, L. (2014). The FATF’s customer identification framework: fit for purpose?. Journal of Money Laundering Control, 17(3), 281-295.
Chick, V., and Dow, S.C. (1988). A Post Keynesian Perspective on the Relation Between Banking and Regional Development. In P. Arestis (ed.), Post Keynesian Monetary Economics. Aldershot, UK: Edward Elgar, 219–250
Dymski, G., & Veitch, J. M. (1992). Race and the financial dynamics of urban growth: LA as Fay Wray. Department of Economics, University of California, Riverside.
Gabor, D. (2018) Goodbye (Chinese) shadow banking, hello market-based finance. Development and Change, 49 (2). pp. 394-419.
Gabor, D., & Brooks, S. (2017). The digital revolution in financial inclusion: international development in the fintech era. New Political Economy, 22(4), 423-436.
Leyshon, A., & Thrift, N. (1995). Geographies of financial exclusion: financial abandonment in Britain and the United States. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 312-341.
Nesvetailova, A. (Ed.). (2017). Shadow Banking: Scope, Origins and Theories. Routledge.
Pozsar, Z. (2011). Can shadow banking be addressed without the balance sheet of the sovereign?. IMF Working paper.
Pozsar, Z. (2008). The rise and fall of the shadow banking system. Regional Financial Review, 44, 1-13.
Juvaria Jafri is a PhD Student in the Department of International Politics at City University, London.
This blog post is a part of the blog series Inclusive or Exclusive Global Development? Scrutinizing Financial Inclusion, in which a new perspective on financial inclusion is published every #FinanceFriday of February, March and April 2019.


Telepathy may be defined as the transference of thoughts from the Mind of one person to the Mind of another person, or several other people, usually subconsciously, but in the case of those with high telepathic abilities can also be intentional. Telepathy often occurs spontaneously whereby a person might suddenly receive a “thought” from someone standing nearby, and might even respond to that though verbally much to the surprise of the originator of the thought. This happens much more often than people might realise, but very often such received thoughts are dismissed as a “figment of the imagination” originating in the Mind of the person who “received” the thought.
There are people who can communicate telepathically over great distances and with complete accuracy. Space and time are no barriers to telepathy, as the communication process is taking place upon the Mental Plane beyond the confines of space and time, and is therefore instantaneous, being a projection of Energy in the form of vibration.
Although telepathy is an ability that can be learned, there are people who inherently exhibit a very high level of telepathic ability, as sometimes happens in the case of identical twins for example. It should be noted that when a person passes from this world at the time of physical death, all communication in the inner spheres of life, the Astral and Spirit worlds takes place by means of telepathy, in other words by thought transference in the form of words, images and symbols. In the level of the Astral planes where most people arrive after physical “death”, communication is almost the same as telepathic communication would be on the physical plane, but as a person progresses to the inner planes of life, telepathic communication becomes much more sophisticated and “compressed” so that vast amounts of information can be transferred between two or more beings almost instantly as “packets” of communication. This is a subject for discussion later in this book, but such communication in the inner planes is almost entirely symbolic, a sort of “picture language”, and therefore “language” in the form of words simply does not apply. Likewise, languages spoken in the physical world are not relevant, and are no barrier to communications in the inner spheres of life.
Everyone in the Astral and inner worlds can therefore communicate regardless of the country or even planet from which they originated. Among humans still living on Earth, the physical plane, telepathy can be much more subtle than the transfer of words or even sentences, and people can, and frequently do influence each other at a much more subconscious level. For example when a person is in a good mood, that mood can be transferred to people around him or her, or even at a great distance. Whole crowds of people can influence each other in this way, and it can often be noted that whole families or groups of office workers might be feeling happy or depressed at exactly the same time, or any one of a number of other states of Mind. This is a more subtle but nevertheless important aspect of telepathy, where emotions are being transmitted rather than intentional communications.
So how exactly does telepathy work? There are several laws in operation here conforming in particular to the great Universal Laws of Mentalism and Correspondence. We already know from the principle of Mentalism the entire Universe is mental in nature, being infinite Mind and Consciousness, with everyone being a seamless part of the whole. An infinite possible number of direct lines of communication are therefore possible. It should be noted at this point that as thought transference is a mental process, it takes place between the Minds of two or more people upon the Mental plane. From the Mental plane a thought is then transmitted to the Astral Body through the Mental matrix, and finally to the physical human Mind through the Astral matrix where it is interpreted in the form of native language. Again, these communications are still Energy that is vibrating, transmitted and subsequently received by one or more people who are “in tune” with the same Energy vibrations.
This then is a brief overview of the inner workings of telepathy. Everyone will routinely communicate in this manner upon departing the physical world and entering the Astral and later Spirit worlds. It is also quite likely however that as the human race further evolves, telepathy will become increasingly more common as a means of communication in the physical level of the Earth life system as well.


Jonathan Samet, M.D., professor and Flora L. Thornton Chair of the Keck School's Department of Preventive Medicine
by USC Health Sciences Public Relations and Marketing Staff
New research published in the medical journal The Lancet reveals alarming trends in tobacco use from a nationally representative survey of 3 billion people in 16 countries, with nearly half of adult men in developing countries still using tobacco products; women increasingly starting to smoke at younger ages; and low quit rates in most countries. The study is the largest tobacco use prevalence study ever reported.
“The new Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) data provide a picture of tobacco use globally and will be a benchmark for tracking the continuing epidemic of tobacco use,” said Jonathan Samet, M.D., an author of the study and professor and Flora L. Thornton Chair of the Keck School of Medicine of USC’s Department of Preventive Medicine. “Hopefully, as GATS continues it will document a decline in tobacco use resulting from global efforts to slow the epidemic.”
The study focused on adults (aged 15 years or older) from 14 low- and middle-income GATS countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay and Vietnam), making comparisons with the United States and the United Kingdom. GATS was created by major national and international health agencies to improve the ability of countries to design, implement and evaluate anti-tobacco efforts.
The nationally representative surveys were conducted in GATS countries from 2008 to 2010, via face-to-face interviews with 248,452 respondents. Data on another 188,895 respondents from the U.S. and UK were also included.
The research reveals:
- 49 percent of men and 11 percent of women in the GATS countries used tobacco (smoked, smokeless, or both)
- although women’s tobacco use rates remain low, women are beginning to smoke as early as men, around age 17 instead of in their 20s
- while tobacco is consumed in various ways, from chewing tobacco and snuff to waterpipes and hand-rolled bidis, most tobacco users (64 percent) smoked manufactured cigarettes
- China had the highest number of tobacco users at 301 million people (including 52.9 per cent of men) followed by India, with 274 million people (47.9 percent of men).
- Quit ratios were highest in the U.S. and the UK as well as in Brazil and Uruguay, where tobacco control activities are strongest; they were lowest in China, India, Russia and Egypt.
The survey results paint a disturbing picture of global tobacco use influenced by powerful and manipulative pro-tobacco forces, says lead author Gary A. Giovino, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Community Health and Health Behavior at the University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions in New York.
While 100 million lives were lost prematurely due to tobacco use in the last century, the study notes that the World Health Organization estimates that if current trends continue, the number of preventable, premature deaths in this century will be far greater.
“In the absence of effective actions, about 1 billion people worldwide will die prematurely in the next century from tobacco use and most of those deaths and the healthcare and economic costs that come with them, will be borne by lower- and middle-income countries,” Giovino said.
What is needed, Giovino adds, is the deliberate allocation of more resources to fully implement tobacco control strategies, such as the MPOWER strategies of the World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/tobacco/mpower/en/) that monitor tobacco use, protect nonsmokers and offer help with quitting.
The research was funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Brazilian and Indian governments. Other authors include Samira Asma, DDS, Sara A. Mirza, Ph.D., Jason Hsia, Ph.D., Jeremy Morton, and Krishna M. Palipudi, Ph.D. of the CDC; Prakash C. Gupta, Sc.D., of the Healis-Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health in Mumbai; Martin J. Jarvis of University College London; Neeraj Bhala and Richard Peto of the University of Oxford and Witold Zatonski, M.D., of the Maria Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology, Warsaw; and the Institute of Rural Health, Lublin, Poland.


Individual differences |
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Due to its importance to life, blood is associated with a large number of beliefs. One of the most basic is the use of blood as a symbol for family relationships; to be "related by blood" is to be related by ancestry or descendance, rather than marriage. This bears closely to bloodlines, and sayings such as "blood is thicker than water" and "bad blood", as well as "Blood brother".
Among the Germanic tribes (such as the [Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings), blood was used during the sacrifices, the Blóts. The blood was considered to have the power of its originator and after the butchering the blood was sprinkled on the walls, on the statues of the gods and on the participants themselves. This act of sprinkling blood was called bleodsian in Old English and the terminology was borrowed by the [Roman Catholic Church becoming to bless and blessing. The Hittite word for blood, ishar was a cognate to words for "oath" and "bond", see Ishara.
Chinese and Japanese cultureEdit
In Chinese culture, it is often said that if a man's nose produces a small flow of blood, this signifies that he is experiencing sexual desire. This often appears in Chinese-language and Hong Kong films. This is also evident in Japanese culture and is parodied in anime and manga. Male characters will often be shown with a nosebleed if they have just seen a female nude or in little clothing, or if they have had an erotic thought or fantasy.
Religious beliefs about bloodEdit
- Main article: Religious beliefs about blood


During the course of the 19th century merchants from Zanzibar, commonly referred to as Swahili-Arabs, penetrated into Central Africa in their search of slaves and ivory. They settled in what is now the Maniema Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a combination of trading, raiding and intimidation began. Their major objectives were to accumulate large stocks of ivory to satisfy global demand and to supply porters for transporting the ivory back to the coast. Kasongo on the Lualaba River (the headstream of the Congo River) became one of their principal trading posts. In the mid-1870s the most famous of these traders, Hamed bin Muhammed el Murjebi, better known as Tippu Tip, moved into the region. He established his headquarters in Kasongo, which soon boosted a population of around 20 000. Due to their possession of firearms and their use of force in mobilizing labour on a large scale, the Swahili-Arabs soon succeeded in dominating vast stretches of the eastern Congo. The Zanzibari domination of the eastern Congo was ultimately crushed in 1894 by the troops of King Leopold II’s Congo Free State. Their socio-cultural legacies however, which involve the adoption of Swahili as lingua franca, the spread of Islam, the introduction of new agricultural crops and influences in architecture and clothing persist to this day.
Sidney Langford Hinde, who participated in the Arab Campaign, wrote the following on the fall of Kasongo (184-6): “Kasongo was a much finer town than even the grand old slave capital Nyangwe…. The room I took possession of was eighty feet long and fifteen feet wide, with a door leading into an orange garden, beyond which was a view extending over five miles. It was hard, on waking, to realise that I was in Central Africa, … The granaries throughout the town were stocked with enormous quantities of rice, coffee, maize, and other food; the gardens were luxurious and well planted; and oranges, both sweet and bitter, guava, pomegranates, pineapples, and bananas abounded at every turn.”
The principal sources that have so far been used in examining this chapter in history are the accounts of 19th century explorers - including David Livingstone, Verney Lovett Cameron and Henry Morton Stanley - of colonial agents and the Zanzibarite merchants. Our knowledge has thus been shaped by the views of outsiders, who were agents of the civilizing mission and/or in competition for the global trade in ivory and slaves.
In contrast, no examination of the Arab site, known as Vieux Kasongo/Kabondo or Tongoni has ever been undertaken. Although most of it was demolished as a result of the Arab Campaign, colonial administrators decided to ‘protect’ a handful of key locations within the site by putting up concrete panels. Other commemorative monuments were built in the new town of Kasongo and its surrounding territory. Since its abandonment the site has suffered from considerable natural and human induced impacts. The relative isolation of the Maniema Province, as well as underdeveloped and dilapidated infrastructure and political instability, also explain why the area has so far stayed off limits for archaeological research or any other efforts in heritage preservation. However, the cultural and historical significance of the Swahili-Arab heritage in the Congo is widely recognized, not only by local authorities but also by national decision-makers and international scholars.
In 2018, Dr. Noemie Arazi was awarded funding by the Gerda Henkel Foundation’s Patrimonies Programme to lead a comprehensive research project on the study and preservation of Vieux Kasongo. Through Groundworks, her non-for profit organization based in Brussels, she assembled a team of Congolese and Belgian archaeologists and historians to carry out systematic surveys and excavations at Vieux Kasongo and its surrounding territory. These investigations are complemented with the collection of oral histories and memories. By focusing on the region’s physical cultural resources and oral histories the project attempts to shed new light on the Swahili-Arabs in the Congo in order to produce new and more nuanced data sets. The investigations also include the use of maps, photographs and the aformentioned textual sources. Noemie Arazi also invited Georges Senga, a photographer from Lubumbashi into the project. Their objective is to co-author a book, which takes Kasongo’s cultural landscape as a point of departure through which they will explore the divergent and entangled meanings of history, decay, memory and identity. Their collaboration will lay the foundation for diffusing Kasongo’s history and cultural heritage into a wider network of public circulation.
The project’s first field season took place during July and August 2018. Archaeological surveys and excavations were focused on Vieux Kasongo in order to identify visible surface remains. Despite the site’s abundant vegetation cover the team succeeded in identifying the concrete panels erected during the Belgian Congo period. They designate specific landmarks such as the Piste des Caravanes (the caravan track), the Place du Marché (the market place) and the structures that once belonged to the Arab merchants. The latter include those of Tippo Tip and Sefu, Mwenyi Katomba, Musongela Puya, Adamu Makongo and Lippens and De Bruyne (two colonial agents stationed at Kasongo during the Congo Free State). Lots of effort went into the clearance and burning of the site’s abundant vegetation in order to get a better understanding of its topography and to figure out where to place the test trenches.
At numerous occasions surveys were carried out with the farmers who work in and around the site and who might have stumbled across archaeological features during ploughing. On other occasions the team was accompanied for locating specific remains such as the bomas as marked on colonial era military maps. These bomas were either used as palisades around houses and/or as defensive structures during the Arab Campaign. One such boma, testified by an imposing circular earthen rampart, might have been identified but time constrains did not permit to fully clear the entire feature.
Interviews were mainly held with village and grouping chiefs (Chefs de Village and Chefs de Groupement). They represent the traditional authority and act as sort of advocates of village interests within a collective or vis-à-vis other authorities/collectives. They are usually instructed in the founding history of their village(s) and territories and on a more personal level on family genealogies. Women, who live in Kasongo's Quartier 18 and identify themselves as Arabisé were also interviewed. They share a history as descendants of the Swahili-Arabs or as freed slaves, who became Muslim. These testimonies provide significant narratives on individual family histories, clan histories and the role of women among the Arabisés.
For the 2019 field season it is planned to carry out systematic surveys along the Lualaba and Lulindi Rivers for the identification of defensive structures and refuge sites used during the slave raids. The team will also continue excavations at Vieux Kasongo and carry out a photogrammetric investigation with the use of a drone. The relative isolation of the Maniema Province and the country’s on-going political and economic instability do not provide favourable circumstances for physical on-site conservation activities. However drone images and a 3D model of Vieux Kasongo will allow to record and render a visual illustration of the site and its topography, which can be kept for future generations.
Team: Olivier M. Luna (University of Lubumbashi), Clément Mambu (Institut des Musées Nationaux du Congo) Dr. Igor Matonda (University of Kinshasa), Dr. Alexandre Smith (Africa Museum, Tervuren), Georges Senga (Picha, Lubumbashi)


A tuna tail will save us? Maybe, if the tuna tail power generator works as hoped.
The good people at BioPower Systems hope to gain inspiration from tuna tails and kelp fronds to produce energy from the motion of the ocean.
The idea is to use natural structures as models for effective power generation from the low intensity but high power present in slowly-moving water. Since tuna tails are so efficient at converting energy into motion, why not reverse the process and convert motion into energy?
A great innovation if it works.


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News articles on saving rainforests
Mongabay.com news articles on saving rainforests in blog format. Updated regularly.
(08/09/2007) High-resolution satellite monitoring of the Amazon rainforest in Peru shows that land-use and conservation policies have had a measurable impact on deforestation rates. The research is published in the August 9, 2007, on-line edition of Science Express.
Australia funds first global deforestation monitoring system
(07/23/2007) At a High Level Meeting on Forests and Climate being held in Sydney, Australia today announced a series of measures to slow deforestation and fight global warming.
An interview with author and eco-lodge pioneer Jack Ewing
(06/12/2007) In 1970 a young man went to Costa Rica, a place he initially confused with Puerto Rico, on an assignment to accompany 150 head of cattle. 37 years and several lifetimes' worth of adventures later, Jack Ewing runs a eco-lodge that serves as a model for a country now considered the world leader in nature travel.
World Bank to raise $250M for avoided deforestation in tropics
(06/11/2007) The World Bank will soon launch an "avoided deforestation" pilot project that will pay tropical countries for preserving their forests, reports The Wall Street Journal. The $250 million fund will reward Indonesia, Brazil, Congo and other tropical forest countries for offsetting global warming emissions. Tropical deforestation accounts for roughly 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but slowing deforestation slows emissions of heat-trapping emissions. Researchers estimate that "avoided deforestation" schemes may be one of the most cost effective ways to slow climate change. Further, avoided deforestation offers simultaneous benefits including preservation of ecosystem services and biodiversity.
Google helps protect Amazon rainforest
(06/10/2007) Google is working with a indigenous tribe deep in the Amazon rainforest to protect their lands from illegal encroachment, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. For the first time, Google has confirmed details of the project. Working in conjuction with the Amazon conservation Team, Google Earth's technology is being used to monitor illegal mining and logging that threaten the lands of the Surui tribe in Brazil. Google is working with satellite providers to significantly improve image resolution in some of the most remote parts of the Amazon basin.
Can cattle ranchers and soy farmers save the Amazon?
(06/06/2007) John Cain Carter, a Texas rancher who moved to the heart of the Amazon 11 years ago and founded what is perhaps the most innovative organization working in the Amazon, Alianca da Terra, believes the only way to save the Amazon is through the market. Carter says that by giving producers incentives to reduce their impact on the forest, the market can succeed where conservation efforts have failed. What is most remarkable about Alianca's system is that it has the potential to be applied to any commodity anywhere in the world. That means palm oil in Borneo could be certified just as easily as sugar cane in Brazil or sheep in New Zealand. By addressing the supply chain, tracing agricultural products back to the specific fields where they were produced, the system offers perhaps the best market-based solution to combating deforestation. Combining these approaches with large-scale land conservation and scientific research offers what may be the best hope for saving the Amazon.
Globalization could save the Amazon rainforest
(06/03/2007) The Amazon basin is home to the world's largest rainforest, an ecosystem that supports perhaps 30 percent of the world's terrestrial species, stores vast amounts of carbon, and exerts considerable influence on global weather patterns and climate. Few would dispute that it is one of the planet's most important landscapes. Despite its scale, the Amazon is also one of the fastest changing ecosystems, largely as a result of human activities, including deforestation, forest fires, and, increasingly, climate change. Few people understand these impacts better than Dr. Daniel Nepstad, one of the world's foremost experts on the Amazon rainforest. Now head of the Woods Hole Research Center's Amazon program in Belem, Brazil, Nepstad has spent more than 23 years in the Amazon, studying subjects ranging from forest fires and forest management policy to sustainable development. Nepstad says the Amazon is presently at a point unlike any he's ever seen, one where there are unparalleled risks and opportunities. While he's hopeful about some of the trends, he knows the Amazon faces difficult and immediate challenges.
Reducing tropical deforestation will help fight global warming
(05/10/2007) Scientists have lent support to a plan by developing countries to fight global warming by reducing deforestation rates. Tropical deforestation releases more than 1.5 billion metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year, though in some years, like the 1997-1998 el Nino year when fires released some 2 billion tons of carbon from peat swamps alone in Indonesia, emissions are more than twice that. Writing in the journal Science, an international team of scientists argue that the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation (RED) initiative, launched in 2005 by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is scientifically and technologically sound, and that political and economic challenges facing the plan can be overcome.
Military technology uses satellite signals to catch poachers
(05/02/2007) Wild animals sought by poachers for their skins, meat and bones have a new means of protection developed by a visiting scholar at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF). Steve Gulick, an electrical engineer who calls himself a biologist wannabe, has designed a metal detector specifically to pick up the presence of poachers' weapons and send an electronic signal, via satellite, to law enforcement authorities.
Commercial hunting may be biggest threat to tropical rainforests
(05/01/2007) Commercial hunting is decimating wildlife populations across the tropics and may be one of the gravest threats presently facing rainforests, reports a series of studies published in the May issue of the journal Biotropica. The research reveals that large-scale loss of wildlife is already affecting forest health and regeneration.
Ecuador: pay us not to develop Amazon oil reserves
(04/27/2007) Ecuador says it will wait a year to see whether the international community takes its offer to forsake development of a giant oil field in the Amazon rainforest in exchange for compensation, reports the Environmental News Service.
Indonesia's Aceh, Papua pledge to protect forests
(04/26/2007) Governors from three Indonesian provinces which are home to most of the country's rainforests pledged on Thursday to conserve them as part of efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change.
Indonesia urges rich countries to ban illegally logged wood products
(04/25/2007) Indonesia has urged rich countries not to buy products made from illegally logged timber, echoing a similar call from Malaysia last month, according to the International Tropical Timber Organization's (ITTO) April 1 Tropical Timber Market Report.
China to push for sustainable logging overseas
(04/25/2007) In a surprising move, China has developed guidelines for the establishment of sustainable forest plantations abroad by Chinese firms, according to the International Tropical Timber Organization's (ITTO) April 1 Tropical Timber Market Report. The move comes as China faces increasing criticism from environmental groups for pillaging the world's forests to feed its rapidly growing economy.
How to stop haze and forest fires in Indonesia
(04/19/2007) In recent years, annual forest fires in Indonesian have destroyed millions of hectares of forest and caused billions of dollars in economic damage. After each episode of fires the Indonesian government, facing criticism from neighboring governments, promises it will crack down. Nothing happens and the fires burn again the next year.
Australia puts $200M toward rainforest conservation
(03/30/2007) Australia has committed A$200m ($160m) to global forest conservation efforts to help fight illegal logging and slow global warming. The fund is one of the largest ever established by a government for reducing tropical deforestation. The new fund, known as the Global Initiative on Forests and Climate, aims to cut deforestation rates and promote reforestation schemes.
Brazil to give Amazonian tribes Internet access to fight deforestation
(03/30/2007) Brazil will offer free satellite Internet connections to indigenous tribes in the Amazon according to a report from Reuters. It says that the plan will help reduce illegal logging by enabling natives to monitor and report on illicit activities.
Rainforest education site recognized with community award
(03/29/2007) Mongabay.com, a leading environmental science web site, was awarded as this week's Cingular Spotlight community hero.by San Francisco-based radio station Energy 92.7 FM. The $500 cash prize was donated to the Amazon conservation Team, a group doing pioneering work in protecting the Amazon rainforest.
Important Congo basin parks get funding
(03/28/2007) A network of national parks and protected areas spanning three nations in Central Africa's Congo Basin, has received long-term funding through the establishment of a trust fund, thus ensuring further protection of the region's wildlife, according to the Wildlife conservation Society.
Malaysia to use certification to crack down on illegal logging
(03/27/2007) Malaysia will ask its timber suppliers in other countries to provide certification on the origin of wood according to a report from the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). The move will help Malaysia fight allegations that its timber processors are complicit in the illegal logging industry.
Britain invests $100M to protect Congo rainforest
(03/23/2007) Britain will invest nearly $100 million in a initiative to protect the Congo rainforest, the second largest tropical forest in the world. Ten other countries are also supporting the project.
Timber industry teams with greens on new anti-illegal logging bill
(03/15/2007) A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced a bill to ban the use of illegally-harvested timber and wood products. Led by Congressmen Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Robert Wexler (D-FL), and Jerry Weller (R-IL) the legislation would make it a crime to import, export, possess, purchase or sell illicit timber.
Can new loan really bring sustainable cattle ranching to the Amazon?
(03/12/2007) Brazil's second largest exporter of beef has won approval of a controversial loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private equity lender of the World Bank, according to a report from the Associated Press. Environmentalists say the deal will drive further deforestation in the biologically rich Amazon rainforest. Cattle ranching is responsible for more than half of forest loss in the region.
Biodiversity extinction crisis looms says renowned biologist
(03/12/2007) While there is considerable debate over the scale at which biodiversity extinction is occurring, there is little doubt we are presently in an age where species loss is well above the established biological norm. Extinction has certainly occurred in the past, and in fact, it is the fate of all species, but today the rate appears to be at least 100 times the background rate of one species per million per year and may be headed towards a magnitude thousands of times greater. Few people know more about extinction than Dr. Peter Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden. He is the author of hundreds of scientific papers and books, and has an encyclopedic list of achievements and accolades from a lifetime of biological research. These make him one of the world's preeminent biodiversity experts. He is also extremely worried about the present biodiversity crisis, one that has been termed the sixth great extinction.
Billion Tree Campaign gets pledges totaling 562M trees since January
(03/06/2007) The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced that its 'Billion Tree Campaign' has so-far achieved commitments to plant 562,769,095 trees, following a pledge of 250 million trees by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of Mexico.
Farming in the rainforest can preserve biodiversity, ecological services
(03/05/2007) While conversion of tropical forest for agriculture results in significant declines in biodiversity and carbon storage, an analysis of Indonesian rainforests shows that farming cacao under the partial shade of high canopy trees can provide a way to balance economic gain with environmental considerations.
New park in French Guiana creates largest Amazon protected area
(02/28/2007) Environmental group WWF has applauded the creation of a new national park in French Guiana, a department of France located in northeaster South America. WWF says the 2 million-hectare Guyana Amazonian Park will link to protected areas in neighboring Brazil, including the Tumucumaque National Park, Grao-Para Station and Maicuru Reserve. In total, the protected areas network will encompass 12 million hectares of tropical forest, making it the world's largest rainforest park.
Philosophical shift in conservation reintegrates humans in nature
(02/28/2007) Humans are among the most successful of Earth's organisms. Living in every habitable, and sometimes uninhabitable, space, humans dominate the planet's surface and have become a global force that alters natural ecosystems, species distribution, and climate. Virtually no wilderness areas have escaped man's influence. While past conservation efforts have focused on preserving "pristine" wilderness, it is increasingly apparent that few such areas exist. Recognizing this, present conservation efforts are increasingly looking at how human use fits into protected areas management. A new paper published in Biodiversity conservation traces this shift in conservation philosophy since the 19th century. Reviewing the history of four main conservation approaches, Michelle Kalamandeen, a biologist at the University of Guyana, and Lindsey Gillson, a botanist at the University of Cape Town, conclude that current conservation efforts are integrating elements of each philosophy, resulting in a new conservation ethic that uses alternative criteria for designating and managing protected areas, and recognizes the importance of man's influence in wilderness areas.
Brazil to allow large-scale monitored harvesting of the Amazon
(02/23/2007) The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) reports the Brazilian government plans to allow large-scale monitored harvesting of the Amazon rainforest. The new plan expands on an initiative proposed last year by Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that would allow sustainable logging across 3 percent of the Amazon rain forest.
Borneo's rainforest protected
(02/12/2007) An agreement to protect large areas of forest in central Borneo was officially signed by three governments that share the island. Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia will 'conserve and sustainably manage' the so-called 'Heart of Borneo', one of the most biodiverse, and threatened, tropical rainforests in the world. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) played a critical role in the initiative's creation.
Indonesia wants to be paid for slowing deforestation
(01/31/2007) Indonesia voiced support for a proposal by a coalition of developing countries seeking compensation for forest conservation, according to a report from Reuters. Rachmat Witoelar, Indonesia's minister of the environment, told Reuters that poor countries should be paid for conserving forests and the services they provide the world.
Paraguay extends deforestation law that has cut forest loss by 85%
(12/20/2006) The government of Paraguay has extended a law has helped deforestation rates in the Upper Parana Atlantic Forest by more than 85 percent according to environmental group WWF.
New Zealand implements 'green timber' policy
(12/19/2006) New Zealand's government will only buy timber and wood products only from legally and sustainably managed forests according to a new policy paper put out Monday by the minstry of forestry.
President Museveni needs to do what's best for Uganda
(12/15/2006) In recent months Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has moved to destroy some of Uganda's last remaining primary rainforests to give land to politically-connected plantation owners. Personally intervening in two disputes, one in Mabira Forest Reserve and the other on Bugala island in Lake Victoria, Museveni has argued that his country urgently needs such projects to industrialize and bring a better quality of life to Ugandans. He would be wrong.
Brazil creates world's largest rainforest reserve
(12/05/2006) Brazil created the world's largest expanse of protected tropical rainforest in Para, the state where American nun Dorothy Stang was murdered after trying to protect land rights of rural poor. The network of seven new protected areas covers an expanse of 15 million hectares (57,915 square miles) -- or an area larger than England -- and links to existing reserves to form a vast conservation corridor in the northern Amazon, one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet.
Nairobi talks made progress on forest conservation for global warming emissions credits
(12/05/2006) Tropical deforestation is one of the largest sources of human-produced greenhouse gases yet it has no place in existing climate agreements. This has been a point of contention in negotiations as the United States has objected to some developing countries -- notably Brazil and Indonesia -- to be getting an apparent "free ride" on deforestation-related emissions in addition to emissions from fossil fuel sources. Recent negotiations have looked at this issue from a different perspective, one where developing countries would be paid by industrialized countries for reducing their deforestation rates. Globally the payoff could be immense, extending well beyond helping mitigate global warming emissions to safeguard biodiversity and important ecological services. Leading scientists have called such plans a "win-win" scenario for all parties and even the World Bank and U.N. have voiced support for the concept.
Are old-growth forests storing more carbon than before?
(12/04/2006) Old-growth forests in China are storing more carbon than previously believed. The finding could have implications for fighting global warming through forest conservation, though some researchers caution that the results may not be representative of tropical forests as a whole.
Canopy research is key to understanding rainforests
(11/28/2006) Home to perhaps half the world's terrestrial species, rainforests are the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. However, when one strolls through the forest, this biodiversity is rarely apparent for the simple reason that most activity in the rainforest occurs in the canopy, a layer of overlapping branches and leaves some 60-120 feet off the ground. Here, a wealth of ecological niches creates opportunities for plants and animals, including species generally considered to be ground-dwellers: crabs, kangaroos, and even earthworms. Beyond housing biodiversity, the canopy is the power source of the rainforest, with billions of tree leaves acting as miniature solar panels to convert sunlight into energy through photosynthesis. Since the rate of photosynthesis of canopy trees is so high, these plants generate higher yields of fruits, seeds, flowers, and leaves which attract and support a wide diversity of animal life. Further, as the principal site of the interchange of heat, water vapor, and atmospheric gases, the canopy also plays an important role in regulating regional and global climate.
Mexico's rainforests depend on government conservation efforts
(11/21/2006) Few people realize that Mexico is home to the northernmost extent of rainforests that once extended clear down to the Amazon Basin. Though diminished in extent to about 30 percent of their original range, these rainforests are still characterized by high levels of biodiversity, including such charismatic species as jaguar, howler and spider monkeys, and macaws. These forests are also inhabited by indigenous people who live in ways largely unchanged since the arrival of Columbus in the 15th century. While still threatened by encroachment and illegal activities, in recent years the Mexican government and an assortment of environmental organizations has made progress in protecting these forests. Particularly active in these conservation efforts is the Los Tuxtlas Biological Station (Estacion de Biologia Tropical Los Tuxtlas del Instituto de Biologia Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico) based in Veracruz (southern Mexico). In November 2006, Dr. Alejandro Estrada, senior research scientist at Los Tuxtlas and a leading authority on these forests, answered some questions on Mexico's remaining rainforests and conservation efforts in the country.
Indonesia may seek rainforest conservation compensation to fight global warming
(11/16/2006) Indonesia may soon join the Coalition of Rainforest Nations in seeking compensation for rainforest conservation, according to a report from the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), a timber industry group.
Amazon Indians use Google Earth, GPS to protect forest home
(11/15/2006) Deep in the most remote jungles of South America, Amazon Indians are using Google Earth, Global Positioning System (GPS) mapping, and other technologies to protect their fast-dwindling home. Tribes in Suriname, Brazil, and Colombia are combining their traditional knowledge of the rainforest with Western technology to conserve forests and maintain ties to their history and cultural traditions, which include profound knowledge of the forest ecosystem and medicinal plants. Helping them is the Amazon conservation Team (ACT), a nonprofit organization working with indigenous people to conserve biodiversity, health, and culture in South American rainforests.
Billion tree campaign launched in Nairobi
(11/13/2006) The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has launched a campaign to plant a billion trees within a year. The campaign was announced last week at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Nairobi, Kenya.
Conserving wildlife in Tanzania, Africa's most biodiverse country
(11/09/2006) With ecosystems ranging from Lake Tanganyika to Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania is the most biodiverse country in Africa. Though Tanzania is world famous for its safari animals, the country is also home to two major biodiversity hotspots: coastal forests of Eastern Africa and the montane forests of the Eastern Arc Mountains. Tanzania has set aside nearly a quarter of its land mass in a network of protected areas and more than one-sixth of the country's income is derived from tourism, much of which comes from nature-oriented travel. Despite these conservation achievements, Tanzania's wildlands and biodiversity are not safe. Fueled by surging population growth and poverty, subsistence agriculture, fuelwood collection, and timber extraction have fragmented and degraded extensive areas that are nominally protected as parks. Hunting and unsustainable use of forest products have further imperiled ecosystems and species. In the near future, climate change looms as a major threat not only to Mt. Kilimanjaro's glaciers, which are expected to disappear within ten years, but also to Tanzania's many endemic plants and animals found in its montane forests. Working to better understand these threats and safeguard Tanzania's biodiversity for future generations is Tim Davenport, Country Director for the Wildlife conservation Society (WCS) in Tanzania.
Stopping deforestation could net Burma $1 billion
(11/06/2006) Its status as a pariah state aside, Burma could earn hundreds of millions of dollars for cutting its deforestation rate under a carbon-trading initiative proposed by a coalition of developing countries and under discussion this week at U.N. climate talks in Nairobi, Kenya.
Rainforest conservation could yield more cash than logging in PNG
(11/06/2006) Papua New Guinea (PNG) could earn hundreds of millions of dollars for cutting its rainforest destruction if a carbon carbon-trading initiative it proposed last year makes headway this week at U.N. climate talks in Nairobi, Kenya.
Forest protection could earn tens of millions for Ghana
(11/06/2006) Ghana could earn tens of millions of dollars for reducing its deforestation rate under a carbon-trading initiative proposed by a coalition of developing countries and under discussion this week at U.N. climate talks in Nairobi, Kenya.
Cameroon could make millions of dollars under emissions deal
(11/06/2006) Cameroon could net tens of millions of dollars under a carbon-trading initiative proposed by a coalition of developing countries and under discussion this week at U.N. climate talks in Nairobi, Kenya. The key: cutting deforestation rates.
Central African Republic could make millions under carbon-trading deal
(11/06/2006) The Central African Republic could earn tens of millions of dollars under a carbon-trading initiative proposed by a coalition of developing countries. The proposal will likely be discussed this week at U.N. climate negotiations in Nairobi, Kenya.
Carbon finance could mean billions for Indonesia
(11/06/2006) Indonesia could earn billions of dollars for reducing its deforestation rate through a carbon finance mechanism under consideration this week at U.N. climate negotiations in Nairobi, Kenya.
Carbon finance could net Guyana and Suriname tens of millions of dollars
(11/06/2006) Guyana and Suriname -- two of South America's least known countries -- could earn tens of millions of dollars through a global warming deal that may be proposed this week at U.N. climate talks between 189 countries in Nairobi, Kenya.
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For more than a century, electric power has been produced and distributed using alternating current technology. But the DC system, pioneered by Thomas Edison in the 1880s, could have particular benefits for buildings that use solar photovoltaics, according to Edison Revisited: Should we use DC circuits for lighting in commercial buildings?, published in the journal Energy Policy.
CMU researchers examined the economic feasibility of operating several lighting technologies and scenarios in a 48,000-square-foot building using either a central DC power supply or traditional AC grid electricity.
They found that using DC instead of AC for fluorescent lighting yields the same or slightly higher costs. But if LEDs are installed instead of fluorescent lamps, the CMU researchers found a savings of $24,000 per year using DC. If the LEDs are powered with solar PV power augmented with grid electricity, even bigger savings can be gained by using DC, according to the research.
And as the cost of LEDs decrease, the savings from transitioning to an LED-DC combination will improve, according to CMU researchers. By 2015, projections from the Department of Energy show use of LEDs in a 48,000-square-foot commercial building with traditional alternating current could see cost savings of $10,000 per year compared to fluorescent lamps. The researchers found that decreasing the capital and operating costs of using LEDs – especially when used with solar PV, a technology that produces DC electricity and usually requires an AC converter to feed it back to the grid – are key factors to make a dedicated DC strategy worth considering.
However, the research shows that current DC wiring still has higher installation charges than an AC system. Researchers also pointed out that further work is needed to better understand potential safety risks with DC distribution and to remove design, installation, permitting and regulatory barriers.
In February, power and automation technology group ABB won an order from ship owner Myklebusthaug Management to supply the first direct current power grid on board a ship, in an installation ABB says should reduce fuel consumption and emissions by up to 20 percent.


French President Jacques Chirac’s decision to resume testing this month marked the first such test by one of the western powers since the US announced a moratorium in late 1992.
Opponents of the Mururoa tests have asked the European Commission to invoke Article 34 of the Euratom Treaty.
This would force Paris to delay the tests until it can be proved whether or not they constitute ‘particularly dangerous experiments’.
As Jacques Santer has stressed, the Commission “does not have the competence to give the green or red light to a nuclear test”.
It can only insist additional health and safety measures are taken when an experiment is deemed ‘particularly dangerous’. The Commission must then give its assent where tests might affect other member states’ territory.
The problem the Commission faces is that, in the words of one official, “there has never been a test case, so there is no legal justification for declaring a test ‘particularly dangerous’ “.
Although the French carried out such a test in the Sahara in 1959, Paris accepted in advance that extra precautions would be needed. There was, therefore, no need for safety criteria to be defined.
The Commission also has the right of access to monitor facilities. However, it must generally rely on the member state in question to provide it with most of the data required.


Gender is one of the most important topics in the field of sociology, and as a system of social practices it inspires a multitude of theoretical approaches. The Sociology of Gender offers an introductory overview of gender theory and research, offering a unique and compelling approach. * Treats gender as a multilevel system operating at the individual, interactional, and institutional levels. * Stresses conceptual and theoretical issues in the sociology of gender. * Offers an accessible yet intellectually sophisticated approach to current gender theory and research. * Includes pedagogical features designed to encourage critical thinking and debate. Closer Look readings at the end of each chapter give a unique perspective on chapter topics by presenting relevant articles by leading scholars.
Table of Contents
Introduction To The Sociology Of Gender:.Introduction.Sociological Vantage Points.A Brief History Of The Sociological Study Of Gender.What Is Gender?.A Working Definition Of Gender.Three Frameworks For Understanding Gender.Gender Matters.Who's To Blame: Understanding Gender Inequality.Chapter Summary.For Further Reading.A Close Look."What's In A Name?" Harbour Fraser Hodder.Part I: Conceptual Approaches:.2. The Gendered Person:.Chapter Objectives.Sex And Gender.Sex And Sex Category.The Gendered Person.Gender As Traits, Abilities, Or Behavioral Dispositions.Sex Difference Research.Sex Differences And Gender Inequality.Becoming Gendered.Chapter Summary.For Further Reading.Key Terms.A Closer Look."Evolution, Males, And Violence" David P. Barash."Ambiguous Genitalia And The Construction Of Gender" Suzanne J. Kessler."The Science And Politics Of Comparing Men And Women" Alice H. Eagly.3. The Gendered Person:.Chapter Objectives.Interactionist Views Of Gender.Gendered Organizations.Gendered Institutions.Toward A Multilayered Conception Of Gender.Chapter Summary.For Further Reading.Key Terms.A Closer Look."If You Let Me Play:' Nike Ads And Gender" Robert Goldman And Stephen Papson."Resources For Doing Gender" Candace West And Don Zimmerman.Part II: Gender In Context:.4. Work And Family As Gendered Institutions:.Chapter Objectives.The Division Of Labor.Gender, Work, And Family In Historical Perspective.The Post-Industrial Era: Married Women's Rising Labor Force Participation.Portraits Of Family And Work.A Broader View: Gender And Social Organization.Work And Family Revisited.Chapter Summary.For Further Reading.Key Terms.A Closer Look."Constructing Jobs As Women's Work In World War II" Ruth Milkman."Work-Family Arrangements In Four Countries" Laura Den Dulk.5. Gender, Childhood, And Family Life:.Chapter Objectives."Is It A Boy Or A Girl?" Gender Construction In Children.The Household Division Of Labor And The Family.Marriage, Families, And Their Consequences For Women And Men.Chapter Summary.For Further Reading.Key Terms.A Closer Look."Raising Gender-Aschematic Children" Sandra Lipsitz Bem."The Meaning Of Motherhood In Black Culture" Patricia Hill Collins."The Wage Penalty For Motherhood" Michelle J. Budig And Paula England.6. Gendered Jobs And Gendered Workers:.Chapter Objectives.Explaining The Sex Segregation Of Jobs And Occupations.Gender-Typing Of Jobs, Occupations, And Hierarchies.The Wages Of Gender.Chapter Summary.For Further Reading.Key Terms.A Closer Look."Women As Emotion Managers" Arlie Russell Hochschild."Hegemonic Masculinity In Female Occupations" Christine L. Williams.Part III: Epilogue:.7. Deconstructing Gender Differences And Inequalities:.Chapter Objectives.Gender Distinctions And Inequalities.The Reproduction Of Gender Inequality.Challenging Gender Inequality.Making Gender Matter Less.Chapter Summary.For Further Reading.Key Terms.A Closer Look."Privilege As Paradox" Allan G. Johnson."Gender Vertigo" Barbara J. Risman
Amy S. Wharton is Professor of Sociology at Washington State University. She is the author of Working in America: Continuity, Conflict, and Change (second edition, 2002).


What are the main types of phobias?
Specific phobia is an extreme fear of an object or situation that typically isn't harmful.
Examples may include a fear of:
Flying (fearing the plane will crash)
Dogs (fearing the dog will bite or attack)
Closed-in places (fear of being trapped)
Tunnels (fearing a collapse)
Heights (fear of falling)
What causes specific phobia?
People with specific phobia know that their fear is extreme. But they can't overcome it. The problem is diagnosed only when the specific fear interferes with daily activities of school, work, or home life.
There is no known cause, although they seem to run in families. They are also found slightly more often in women. If the object of the fear is easy to avoid, people with phobias may not seek treatment. Sometimes, however, they may make important career or personal decisions to avoid a situation that includes the source of the phobia.
Treatment for specific phobia
When phobias interfere with a person's life, treatment can help. For specific phobias, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) with exposure treatment is advised. In exposure therapy, people are gradually exposed to what frightens them until the fear starts to fade. Relaxation and breathing exercises also help to ease symptoms.
Social phobia is an anxiety disorder in which a person has significant anxiety and discomfort related to a fear of being embarrassed, humiliated, or scorned by others in social or performance situations. Even when they manage to confront this fear, people with social phobia usually:
Feel very anxious before the event or outing
Feel intensely uncomfortable throughout the event or outing
Have lingering unpleasant feelings after the event or outing
Social phobia often happens with the following:
What causes social phobia?
Although this disorder is often thought of as shyness, they are not the same. Shy people can be very uneasy around others, but they don't have the extreme anxiety in anticipating a social situation. Also, they don't necessarily avoid circumstances that make them feel self-conscious. In contrast, people with social phobia are not necessarily shy at all, but can be completely at ease with some people most of the time.
Most people with social phobia will try to avoid situations that cause distress.
Diagnosing social phobia
Social phobia is diagnosed when the fear or avoidance significantly interferes with normal, routines, or is excessively upsetting.
Social phobia disrupts normal life, interfering with career or social relationships. It often runs in families and may be happen along with depression or alcoholism. Social phobia often starts in early adolescence or even younger.
Treatment for social phobia
People with social phobia often find relief when treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy, medicine, or a mix of both.
Agoraphobia involves the fear of having a panic attack in a place or situation from which escape may be hard or embarrassing.
The anxiety of agoraphobia is so severe that panic attacks are not unusual. People with agoraphobia often try to avoid the location or cause of their fear. Agoraphobia involves fear of situations like the following:
People with agoraphobia typically stay out of crowded places like streets, crowded stores, churches, and theaters.
What causes agoraphobia?
Most people with agoraphobia get it after first suffering a series of panic attacks. The attacks happen randomly and without warning, and make it impossible for a person to predict what will trigger the reaction. This unpredictability of the panic causes the person to anticipate future panic attacks and, eventually, fear any situation in which an attack may happen. As a result, they avoid going into any place or situation where previous panic attacks have happened.
People with the disorder often become so disabled that they literally feel they can't leave their homes. Others who have agoraphobia, do go into potentially "phobic" situations, but only with great distress, or when accompanied by a trusted friend or family member.
People with agoraphobia may also have depression, fatigue, tension, alcohol or drug abuse problems, and obsessive disorders, making treatment crucial.


Alaria esculenta on exposed sublittoral fringe bedrock
Image Roger Mitchell - Exposed sublittoral fringe bedrock with Alaria esculenta, Isles of Scilly. Image width ca 1 m.
Image copyright information
Ecological and functional relationships
Alaria esculenta is able to out compete other Laminarians in wave exposed sublittoral fringe due to its rapid growth rate and ability to withstand wave exposed conditions. It is particularly successful in exposed areas due to its flexible stipe and narrow, streamlined, blade.
Grazers are relatively rare in the sublittoral fringe and canopy interactions may be the most important structuring agency (Hawkins & Hartnoll 1985). The sweeping action of Laminaria digitata, and presumably Alaria esculenta, in wave exposed conditions prevents colonization by ephemeral algae by abrasion (Hawkins & Hartnoll 1985).
The understory is dominated by encrusting corallines and Corallina officinalis turf. In wave exposed sites the erect coralline turf grows very compactly reducing the interstitial space (exacerbated by presence of small Mytilids) and affecting the interstitial fauna. Dommanses (1968) showed that the coralline turf fauna varied with wave exposure. Wave exposed sites were dominated by amphipods and short legged isopods capable of grasping the fronds firmly. Interstitial fauna consists of grazers and suspension feeders (Dommaneses 1968) that probably remove ephemeral algae and epiphytes from Corallina officinalis.
On Rockall, the extreme wave exposure results in Alaria esculenta forest dominating both the sublittoral and infralittoral zone in the deeper areas. In the Rockall Alaria forest the holdfasts of Alaria esculenta become covered in a thick layer of encrusting coralline algae and, after the death of the alga, the holdfast rots leaving a space under the coralline crust that is a habitat for several mobile species that would most likely not survive on the open rock in such a wave exposed situation (K. Hiscock, pers. comm.).
Barnacle species are suspension feeders, that probably take algal spores and larvae that would otherwise settle within the community. Birkett et al. (1998b) point out that active suspension feeding by Mytilus edulis probably removes large numbers of settling algal spores and also compete for space. However in the wave exposed sublittoral fringe, the small size of individual mytilids suggests that larger individuals are removed by wave action.
Patellids are active grazers, however, they lack the necessary enzymes to digest Laminarian tissue (Birkett et al. 1998b) and probably do not graze Alaria esculenta extensively. However, they probably graze other algae and are important in keeping coralline turf and encrusting corallines free of ephemeral algae. Grazing activity of patellids probably remove Alaria esculenta and other kelp germlings as the limpets pass over them; a bulldozing effect (T. Hill pers. comm.).
Helcion pellucidum may graze Alaria esculenta but prefers Laminaria digitata when present.
Chitons were reported to be an important controlling agency in Alaria sp. populations allowing a otherwise weaker competitor to dominate in the north east Pacific (Paine 1980).
Seasonal and longer term change
is quite ephemeral in nature and will settle on bare surfaces, including mobile boulders and in deeper water than the infralittoral fringe. Alaria esculenta
releases spores between November and March with new sporophytes appearing in early spring (Birkett et al.
Growth of Alaria esculenta
slows in June and July and the lamina becomes eroded and torn in the following months. In extremely wave exposed conditions, especially in winter months, the blade may be reduced to just the midrib. Similarly, in wave exposed areas Laminaria digitata
is stunted and may be removed by storms and appears tattered in the winter months.
Habitat structure and complexity
dominates the sublittoral fringe in areas exposed to severe wave action or where water surges along the sides of gullies (Lewis, 1964). Such wave exposed shores are also characterized by pink encrusting and erect corallines, including Corallina officinalis
. This biotope (EIR.Ala) can be divided into two sub-biotopes depending on the degree of wave exposure EIR.Ala.Myt and EIR.Ala.Ldig. Alaria esculenta
support few epizoics (e.g. Audouinella alariae
on older specimens) and holdfasts yield few species (Lewis 1964; Birkett et al.
In areas of extreme wave exposure, on steeply sloping rock, exposed to oceanic swell EIR.Ala may extend up to 3 m above and below chart datum (Hiscock 1983).
As the wave exposure decreases the width of the Alaria esculenta
zone narrows and Laminaria digitata
is able to invade the sublittoral fringe resulting in a mixed macroalgal stand and increased species richness, characteristic of EIR.Ala.Ldig.
EIR.Ala.Ldig usually occurs above Laminaria hyperborea
forest although a narrow zone of Laminaria digitata
(MIR.Ldig) may intervene. EIR.Ala.Ldig biotopes probably represents and intermediate community between very wave exposed shores dominated by EIR.Ala.Myt and more wave sheltered shores dominated by MIR.Ldig.
On the extremely wave exposed steep and vertical rock faces of Rockall Alaria esculenta
replaces Laminaria hyperborea
as the dominant kelp and extends to down to 35m in depth. Above 13m the biotope resembles EIR.Ala.Myt. However, from 14 - 35 m the understory is covered by a dense turf of anemones and encrusting sponges. Cryptopleura ramosa
dominates horizontal surfaces. Between 30 -35m the Alaria esculenta
thins and the rock surface bears a dense red algal turf.
Kelp biotopes are highly productive and contribute up to 90 percent of their primary productivity to the detrital food webs of coastal areas in the form of drift algae, particulate and dissolved organic matter. For example primary productivity of Laminaria hyperborea
kelp beds were estimated at 1225 gC/sq. meter/year (Mann 1982 cited in Raffaelli & Hawkins 1999). However, no estimates were found for Alaria esculenta
biotopes, though figures are likely to be similar for all kelps (Tim Hill pers. comm.).
Laminarians, such as Alaria esculenta
, exhibit alternation of generations. The sporophytes releases meiotic haploid spores from sori located on sporophylls (born at the top of the short stipe) between November and March. Laminarian spores need to settle at high density so that the resultant gametophytes are close enough to cross fertilise. Laminarians produce vast numbers of spores and are expected to disperse over considerable distances. However, Sundene (1962) noted that germlings colonized within 10 m of adults in a Norwegian fjord, and Norton (1992) suggested that Alaria esculenta
would exhibit less dispersal than other kelp species due to the basal location of the sporophylls. Experiments on algal re-colonization in kelp beds (Kain 1975; Hawkins & Harkin 1985; Hill 1993) show that Alaria esculenta
is an opportunistic colonizing species, appearing early in the algal succession (c. 3 months after clearance of dominant algae; especially in areas cleared in the winter months) before being out competed by other kelp species (on moderately exposed shores). Corallina officinalis
produces spores over a protracted period and can colonize artificial substratum within one week in the intertidal (Harkin & Lindbergh 1977; Littler & Kauker 1984). The crustose base enables Corallina officinalis
to survive extreme exposure and damage (loss of fronds), and to take advantage (colonize) of space left after winter storms have removed competing macroalgae (Littler & Kauker 1984).
The mobile interstitial fauna of the coralline turf is reduced by trampling (Brown & Taylor 1989) but is likely to recruit to or recolonize the turf from the surrounding communities. Encrusting and erect corallines are also known to stimulate the settlement of a variety of marine invertebrate larvae and algal spores (e.g. Helcion pellucidum
Time for community to reach maturity
is an opportunistic and rapidly colonizing species (see above) capable of growing 20 cm/month in optimal conditions. In canopy removal experiments in the Isle of Man, Hawkins & Harkin (1985) found that areas cleared of Laminaria digitata
(moderately exposed) Alaria esculenta
became the dominant canopy algae within 9 months (October - June). Corallina officinalis
is capable of colonizing new substratum rapidly. In experimental plots 15 percent cover of fronds returned within 3 months (Littler & Kauker 1985) and Brown & Taylor (1999) noted that the articulated coralline algal turf community on a New Zealand shore returned to normal levels within 3 months of trampling events, although they suggested that a return to its previous cover may take longer.
Little information on the sublittoral fringe communities was available. Therefore the material presented in based on the general ecology of the key and important characterizing species.
This review can be cited as follows:
Alaria esculenta on exposed sublittoral fringe bedrock.
Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme [on-line].
Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom.
Available from: <http://www.marlin.ac.uk/habitatecology.php?habitatid=165&code=1997>


February 1, 1920
Legislation takes effect, merging the Royal North West Mounted Police and Dominion Police into the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
February 2-3, 2002
The first large contingent of regular troops begins landing in Afghanistan.
February 4-5, 1963
Defence Minister Douglas Harkness resigns after Prime Minister John Diefenbaker refuses to arm Canada’s Bomarc missiles with U.S. nuclear warheads. The next day the government falls after two non-confidence motions over nuclear weapons policy.
February 6-7, 1813
Taking advantage of the frozen St. Lawrence River, U.S. Army Captain Benjamin Forsythe crosses into Canada and attacks Brockville.
February 7, 1867
The first draft of the British North America Act is introduced in the House of Lords in Britain. Effective July 1, it creates the Dominion of Canada as a parliamentary democracy.
February 8, 1945
First Canadian Army joins the Allied Rhineland Campaign, piercing the Siegfried Line in the first two weeks.
February 9, 2004
Canadian Lieutenant-General Rick Hillier takes command of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
10 February 1946
Four hundred war brides arrive in Halifax on the ocean liner Mauritania. By 1948, more than 44,000 women and nearly 21,000 children came to Canada, mostly from Britain.
February 11, 1978
A Pacific Western Airlines flight crashes at Cranbrook, B.C., killing 42 of 49 people on board.
February 12, 1947
Canada and the U.S. sign an agreement to collaborate in defence planning. One result was development of a radar system in northern Canada, later dubbed the DEW (Distant Early Warning) Line.
February 13, 1945
The German city of Dresden is destroyed by Allied bombers.
February 14, 1826
Lieutenant-Colonel John By arrives in Hull to plan construction of the Rideau Canal.
February 15, 1839
A dozen leaders of the Lower Canada Rebellion are publicly hanged in Montreal.
February 16, 1968
No. 434 Tactical Fighter Operational Training Squadron is formed at Cold Lake, Alta.
February 17, 1932
The Mad Trapper of Rat River, Albert Johnson, is killed in a shootout with RCMP following a 240-kilometre, 48-day manhunt in the Yukon.
February 18, 1942
Newfoundlanders rescue 185 from U.S. warships driven onto the rocks in a storm; 203 perish.
February 19, 1945
U.S. Marines land on Iwo Jima Island in the Pacific.
February 20, 2004
Canada pledges $5 million in aid and joins a multinational mission to stabilize growing violence in Haiti.
February 21, 1916
The Battle of Verdun begins. There will be nearly a million French and German casualties.
February 22, 1951
C Company of 2nd Bn,, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry sustains the battalion’s first casualties in Korea.
February 23, 1959
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first heavier-than-air powered flight in Canada, Royal Canadian Air Force members build a flight-capable replica of the Silver Dart.
February 24, 1986
Former Saskatchewan Premier Tommy Douglas, best known as the Father of Medicare, dies at 81.
February 25-26, 1945
Sergeant Aubrey Cosens braves intense fire near Mooshof, Holland, to attack and capture enemy strongpoints and take prisoners. Killed by sniper fire, he is awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously.
February 27, 1900
Moving silently through the darkness and under fire, the Royal Canadian Regiment secures a commanding position over Boer trenches, and opens fire at sunrise. The Boers shortly surrender, ending the Battle of Paardeberg.
February 28, 1991
During the month of February, CF-18 pilots from the Desert Cats Squadron based in Doha, Qatar, (formed from the 416 and 439 Squadrons) carry out 56 bombing missions against Iraqi forces.


23 June 2016 Current Affairs: The International Widow's Day 2016 was celebrated across the world on 23 June 2016. The day was celebrated to raise awareness on the troubles of widowed women.The day throws light on the situation of widows which is sometimes neglected due to absent in statistics, unnoticed by researchers and is mostly overlooked by civil society organizations.
Generally, widow women have to suffer complete social exclusion. Abuse of widows and their children constitutes one of the most serious violations of human rights and obstacles to development.
Millions of the world’s widows endure extreme poverty, ostracism, violence, homelessness, ill health and discrimination in law and custom.
To give special recognition to the situation of widows of all ages and across regions and cultures, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) declared 23 June 2011 as the first-ever International Widows’ Day to be celebrated annually.
Since 2011, International Widows Day is observed to sensitize the global population for the misery of the widows.
FreshersLive - No.1 Job site in India. Fresherslive Current Affairs 2017 section offers informative quiz questions with answers regarding latest current affairs today for all sorts of competitive exams like UPSC, TNPSC , IFS, IAS, IPS, railway exams (RRB) and banking exams like IPBS PO, IPBS clerk, Federal Bank PO, ICICI, SBI, RBI legal officer & Grade officer posts and much more. Register with us to get latest Current Affairs Updates. Also get latest Current Affairs news and quiz Updates for free alerts daily through E-mail


During the course of an evaluation, it is common to note a relative shortening of one leg to the other. You can pick up almost any chiropractic publication and see ads marketing products to help you evaluate, measure and treat a short leg.
The problem we now face is that the mere finding of a short leg causes many doctors and therapists to default to a single treatment option, such as a heel lift. As the chiropractic profession grows in respect and acceptance, we should not trivialize relevant biomechanical findings - they may often make the difference in defining a subluxation. Medical physicians, insurance companies, and attorneys may all be looking over our records at some point in time. It is critical that what is documented is both credible and understandable. If, during the course of your examination, you suspect that one of your patient's legs is shorter than the other, you must be able to validate that finding and rule out other more serious possibilities. It is important to recognize the different causes of a shortened leg, and what that finding may mean to that particular patient. Often the treatment for a true short leg is a corrective lift or surgery, while a functional short leg may be effectively treated with chiropractic. Clearly, the practitioner must be able to identify the different causes of the short-leg finding.
When a difference in leg length is suspected, the textbook protocol is to measure and compare the extremities. Anatomical length is measured from one fixed bony landmark to another. Leg length is measured from the lower ASIS to the top of the medial malleolus of the ankle, crossing the knee on the medial side. (Up to 1 cm difference is considered anatomically within normal limits.)1 Unequal distances between these fixed points indicate that one lower extremity is shorter than the other. To determine where the discrepancy lies (tibia or femur), have the patient lie supine with his or her knees flexed to 90 degrees and the feet flat on the table. If one knee projects further anteriorly than the other, the femur of that extremity is longer. If one knee appears higher than the other, the tibia of that extremity is longer.2 Femoral portion deficiency suggests congenital dislocation of the hip joint, while tibial deficiency suggests bony dysplasia. This finding is often referred to as Allis' Sign or Saleazzi's Sign.3 If there is any question of true leg-length discrepancy, further radiographic evaluation is required to define the inequity. The lower extremities may be viewed on a single radiograph (both legs from above the hips to below the feet); then measure the bones to compare. Such findings warrant referral to an orthopedic specialist for further evaluation and management.
It must be determined that there is no true leg-length discrepancy before you can test for an apparent discrepancy. Short-leg syndrome may be characterized as arising from structural, pathological, or functional etiologies. Functional causes refer to leg-length differences not attributed to an anatomical deficiency - including foot pronation, adduction or flexion deformity of the hip secondary to muscular contraction, and pelvic and sacral subluxations. The majority of apparent leg-length discrepancy is due to pelvic torsion.4 Appropriate evaluation is necessary if you are going to document and treat the patient for a short-leg syndrome or a related pelvic torsion. It should be obvious that unless all of the possible causes of leg-length discrepancy are considered, a diagnosis will be reached either on historical dogma or ritual, rather than by applying the appropriate rules of differential diagnosis.5
During inspection, pelvic obliquity manifests itself as unleveling across the ASIS or PSIS while the patient is standing. If this is noted, have the patient lie supine with his or her legs in as neutral a position as possible, and take a measurement for the umbilicus or xiphisternum to the medial malleoli. An unequal measurement signifies an apparent leg-length discrepancy, particularly if the true leg-length measurements are equal.6
During the course of an examination, several simple maneuvers may be used to define the biomechanical root of the shortened leg. These are collectively referred to as the Derifield (deer - field) Maneuver. Have the patient lie prone on the table, and evaluate the relative leg length using the internal malleoli, calcaneous, or where the heel of the shoe joins the shoe as reference points. (The base of the heel is not a good reference, as this may not be even due to shoe wear.) The examiner will then ask the patient to turn his or her head to one side and then the other. With cervical rotation, the examiner may note that the leg discrepancy has now resolved or reversed, thus indicating that the leg imbalance is due to compensation for cervical dysfunction. The examiner may palpate the contralateral cervical spine for taut and tender fibers, and will often find C5 rotated posterior on that side. This finding is referred to as a Derifield Cervical Syndrome. (For example, if turning the head to the left causes the legs to be equal, you could note a positive left cervical syndrome.) The patient is then asked to return his or her head to midline/neutral. The knees are flexed to 90 degrees relative to the table and the examiner notes any changes in the short leg relative to the long. There are three possible findings at this time:
- The short leg stays short. If there is an anatomical shortness in the tibia, and there are no pelvic involvements, the pivot points remain constant and the short leg will remain short.
- The short leg gets shorter. If there is sacral involvement, the muscles of the thigh will tend to shorten the leg in appearance as it is flexed.
- The short leg gets longer. When the ilium drops posterior and inferior, it pulls the femur up, thus bringing the knee on that side farther up the table. When the short leg is flexed to 90 degrees, it reaches the highest point on the arc traveled by the foot. However, since the long leg's pivot point is the knee, it is farther down the table, and it reaches its highest peak in the arc before the other side; it is actually going down the arc formed by the motion when it is "taken an equal distance." With the above in mind, we can see how a posterior-inferior ilium may cause a short leg to cross over and become longer.7 However, this does not mean that every time this test is positive, the patient has a PI ilium, you still have to pursue additional examination to document a subluxation.8
While the patient is in this position, it is also advantageous to drop the heels to the buttocks to see if one leg falls farther than the other. When noted, the heel that falls farther indicates posterior rotation of the sacrum on that side. This finding is noted as a positive Webster's Sign.
The practical problem with the above information is that the one finding quickly becomes the deciding factor in a diagnosis. Many chiropractic techniques have defined algorithms connecting specific examination findings to specific adjustive procedures. For example: "If the short leg stays short, adjust with a particular maneuver; but if it becomes long, then you must adjust some other way." Rules such as this become overly simplistic and denegrate the art of chiropractic to a brainless therapy. Clinical pearls are a fantastic tool when applied with understanding, but the practitioner must always keep the big picture in mind as they follow through the course of the examination.9 What is outlined in a textbook is great foundation, but most patients have never read the textbook. Dogmatic dedication to a single technique system is of no clinical value if it does not serve the needs of the patient.
As professional members of the health care community, we are obligated to keep the big picture in mind. There are many other causes for the finding of a short leg, and we are responsible to define what is going on with that patient at that time. Beyond subluxation, there are possible traumatic and pathologic causes as well. Slipped femoral capital epiphysis (SFCE) is a serious orthopedic condition requiring radiographic evaluation and orthopedic surgical assessment.10 Scoliosis may cause torsion in the spine and pelvic imbalance. Soft-tissue congestion or adhesion may also contribute to both pelvic torsion and leg-length inequity.11 Sometimes, the problem may be traced to a patient sitting on a fat wallet. If the short leg is caused by factors such as these, the issue won't be corrected with the best adjustment or the newest type of heel lift on the market - you can bet the patient will back with the same pain very soon.
So, what have I learned from all this? When a patient presents with a short leg, I need to think a little bit. The initial finding of short leg is an indicator of imbalance requiring further evaluation. First, I must rule out anatomic or pathologic causes, especially in the patient with lower back pain. Then, I may consider musculoskeletal causes. While there are many ways to evaluate a short leg, none of them is adequate to fully assess all the possible causes. Derifield is a great test, and may indicate the root problem, but it will not always tell me what is going on in the spine and pelvis. Other testing is reasonable and necessary.
As my instructor in diagnosis taught, you should have at least three positive orthopedic indicators before confirming a musculoskeletal diagnosis. Basing a diagnosis or treatment plan on the finding of one screening maneuver is below the standard of care for any practitioner. There is no quick shortcut in a good examination; if you find a leg-length discrepancy, take the time to fully evaluate the patient so that your diagnosis is correct and your treatment is appropriate. Your patient will thank you for your quality care.
- Seidel, H.M., Ball, J.W., Dains, J.E., Benedict, G.W. Mosby's Guide to Physical Examination, 2nd ed. St. Louis, Missouri: Mosby, 1991.
- Hoppenfeld, S. Physical Examination of the Spine and Extremities. San Mateo, CA: Appleton & Lange, 1976.
- Evans, R.C. Illustrated Essentials in Orthopedic Physical Assessment. St. Louis, Missouri: Mosby, 1994.
- Innes, K. Leg length discrepancy, its causes, and its importance. Dynamic Chiropractic, Oct. 7, 1996; vol. 14, issue 21.
- Hoppenfeld, S. Physical Examination of the Spine and Extremities San Mateo, CA: Appleton & Lange, 1976.
- Bovee, M.L. The Essentials of the Orthopedic & Neurological Examination. Davenport, IA: Palmer College, 1977.
- Kurnik, J.D. Let's get something straight! Dynamic Chiropractic, May 5, 2003; vol. 21, issue 10.
- Cooperstein, R. Derifield and me. Dynamic Chiropractic, June 30, 2003; vol. 21, issue 14.
- Yochum, T.R., Barry, M.S. Short leg syndrome: a hidden cause. Success Express; vol 18, no. 4.
- Laws, S., Franklin, D.J. The Receptor-Tonus Technique (Available from: Holistic Health Enhancement, 1210 N. 24th St., Quincy, IL 62301).
Douglas R. Briggs, DC, Dipl. Ac.
Click here for more information about Douglas R. Briggs, DC, Dipl. Ac. (IAMA), DAAPM, EMT.


People often ask me how I became the Sultan of Standardized Tests, the Baron of the Bubble, and the Prince of POE, or they just ask how I got so good at taking tests. It’s taken me a bit but after ruminating on the question I think I’ve arrived at not only an answer but advice that will let others try to develop some of the same talent. The answer I’ve arrived at is “I was a smartass as a kid.” Now I know that sounds crazy but keep reading and I promise it will make sense.
Consider the skills that define a proper smartass:
- Attentiveness to detail (in order to point out flaws and oversights made by others).
- Precision of language usage (in order to take, twist, or make fun of what others say).
- Strict adherence to rules but in odd or unusual ways (in order to make those rules work for him).
Looking back, my misspent youth (and my record 39 detentions in my freshman year of HS for being a “smartass”) was merely training for my future career. Let me illustrate for you a day in the life:
In high school I actually used to call it “Specific Day,” it was my personal holiday from listening to what people meant to say and instead focused on literal meaning.
In both of these “incidents” I was completely accurate but probably wasn’t “right,” and certainly wasn’t well-behaved, since I was being purposefully bothersome to my teachers.
Now consider the skills tested by the major standardized tests (ISEE, SSAT, SAT, GMAT, LSAT, GRE, and to a lesser extent ACT):
- Attentiveness to detail and precision of language usage.
- Utilization of rules (or math formulas) in new or unusual ways.
- Connection of information presented in unusual, atypical, or disaggregated format.
One should be able to clearly see the close connection between the skills needed for test success and those needed for proper smartassery. The ability to discern fact from fiction, meaning from interpretation, and assertion from assumption allows for true excellence in testing, school, and word games of all types. Most smartasses are criticized for this very skill. Most smartasses are taught that they are being “too picky” or “overly specific” (whatever that means). Because most social interaction is based on “understanding” of what someone means rather than on listening to what they say and responding precisely to that and nothing else. The greatest problem with this “understanding” is that it’s rooted in habit rather than logic or comprehension. Most test are specifically designed to force the test-taker to overcome habit and apply rules ruthlessly, appropriately, and in a context that they have not applied most of those rules before.
Let’s look at the following typical admissions test reading comprehension question answer choices:
A large part of getting this question right stems from an understanding of the distinction between the words fault, criticize, evaluate, and compare. The ability to evaluate the dictionary meanings of those words rather than common usage (which often blurs nuance) produces a more clear understanding of what makes an answer choice right or wrong. It’s these subtle distinctions that most smartasses have owned for their personal pleasure. Here’s one more example, from our favorite whipping boy of a standardized test, the SAT. This question was answered correctly by 17% of the people who answered it:
This version, on the other hand (where only choice A is different), was answer correctly by 89% of the people who answered it:
Now, I completely understand how one might expect the answer to relate to art since the topic of the sentence is an artist, however that would completely ignore the context of the sentence and the definitions of the words “different” and “diverse.” These two versions of this question show key points about doing well on standardized testing. First, to do well on a standardized test, a test-taker must be able to avoid distractions and focus on the things that truly impact the answer (critical reading and analysis of information). Secondly, a test-taker must be attentive to the literal meaning of the words on the page rather than the social implications (attention to detail and distinguishing between interpretation and inference).
So how does all of this help you or your child? To excel on standardized tests, test-takers have to learn to bond with their inner smartass, have to embrace the idea that while the use of words in most social context is fairly fluid definitions, are not, and have to understand how and when to critique and how and when to criticize. If you’re a parent and you want to help your child develop an appreciation – nay joy (possibly a perverse joy, but joy nonetheless) – in language, embrace the smartass in your child, encourage the word play, and enjoy the ride. The next time your child tells you “I can get the remote but I won’t” embrace the challenge and reply “That’s completely fine, I still might give you your allowance this week.”


An article this week in the Los Angeles Times reminded me that children's programs in our libraries help keep their skills sharp, especially during the summer when they are not in school. According to the article ("Keeping pupils' skills sharp," LAT Extra, July 7), a new study by the Rand Corporation has documented that children lose two to three months of reading and math skills while on break, and that the problem is particularly acute for lower-income children with limited access to travel, museums, libraries and other enriching experiences. Though people often think that this refers only to children in the lower grades, it in fact applies to some extent to all young students.
To help combat this problem, summer programs are sometimes held in schools and museums, often funded by grants from various foundations. Most public libraries have yearly summer programs for children, ranging in age from toddlers to teens. Costa Mesa's two full-service libraries have regularly had outstanding children's programs, funded by the Friends of the Costa Mesa Libraries.