“I think Lester Brown is one of the sharpest minds out there in terms of identifying the broad spectrum of ecological issues we face, and promoting practical, sensible solutions that are both environmentally and economically sound.” – Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, Sustainablog.
Chapter 13. The Great Mobilization: Shifting Taxes and Subsidies
The need for tax shifting—lowering income taxes while raising levies on environmentally destructive activities—has been widely endorsed by economists. For example, a tax on coal that incorporated the increased health care costs associated with mining it and breathing polluted air, the costs of damage from acid rain, and the costs of climate disruption would encourage investment in clean renewable sources of energy such as wind or solar. 4
A market that is permitted to ignore the indirect costs in pricing goods and services is irrational, wasteful, and, in the end, self-destructive. It is precisely what Nicholas Stern was referring to when he described the failure to incorporate the costs of climate change in the prices of fossil fuels as “a market failure on the greatest scale the world has ever seen.” 5
The first step in creating an honest market is to calculate indirect costs. Perhaps the best model for this is a U.S. government study on the costs to society of smoking cigarettes that was undertaken by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2006 the CDC calculated the cost to society of smoking cigarettes, including both the cost of treating smoking-related illnesses and the lost worker productivity from these illnesses, at $10.47 per pack. 6
This calculation provides a framework for raising taxes on cigarettes. In Chicago, smokers now pay $3.66 per pack in state and local cigarette taxes. New York City is not far behind at $3 per pack. At the state level, New Jersey—which has boosted the tax in four of the last five years to a total of $2.58—has the highest tax. Since a 10-percent price rise typically reduces smoking by 4 percent, the health benefits of tax increases are substantial. 7
Tax restructuring can also be used to create an honest pricing system for ecological services. For example, forest ecologists can estimate the values of services that trees provide, such as flood control and carbon sequestration. Once these are determined, they can be incorporated into the price of trees as a stumpage tax. Anyone wishing to cut a tree would have to pay a tax equal to the value of the services provided by that tree. The market for lumber would then be based on ecologically honest prices, prices that would reduce tree cutting and encourage wood reuse and paper recycling.
The most efficient means of restructuring the energy economy to stabilize atmospheric CO2 levels is a carbon tax. Paid by the primary producers—the oil or coal companies—it would permeate the entire fossil fuel energy economy. The tax on coal would be almost double that on natural gas simply because coal has a much higher carbon content. As noted in Chapter 11, we propose a worldwide carbon tax of $240 per ton to be phased in at the rate of $20 per year between 2008 and 2020. Once a schedule for phasing in the carbon tax and reducing the tax on income is in place, the new prices can be used by all economic decisionmakers to make more intelligent decisions. 8
For a gasoline tax, the most detailed analysis available of indirect costs is found in The Real Price of Gasoline by the International Center for Technology Assessment. The many indirect costs to society—including climate change, oil industry tax breaks, oil supply protection, oil industry subsidies, and treatment of auto exhaust-related respiratory illnesses—total around $12 per gallon ($3.17 per liter), slightly more than the cost to society of smoking a pack of cigarettes. If this external or social cost is added to the roughly $3 per gallon average price of gas in the United States in early 2007, gas would cost $15 a gallon. These are real costs. Someone bears them. If not us, our children. Now that these costs have been calculated, they can be used to set tax rates on gasoline, just as the CDC analysis is being used to raise taxes on cigarettes. 9
Gasoline’s indirect costs of $12 per gallon provide a reference point for raising taxes to where the price reflects the environmental truth. Gasoline taxes in Italy, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom averaging $4.40 per gallon are almost halfway there. The average U.S. gas tax of 47¢ per gallon, scarcely one tenth that in Europe, helps explain why more gasoline is used in the United States than in the next 20 countries combined. 10
Phasing in a gasoline tax of 40¢ per gallon per year for the next 12 years, for a total rise of $4.80 a gallon, and offsetting it with a reduction in income taxes would raise the U.S. gas tax to the $4–5 per gallon prevailing today in Europe and Japan. This will still fall short of the $12 of indirect costs currently associated with burning a gallon of gasoline, but combined with the rising price of gasoline itself it should be enough to encourage people to use improved public transport and motorists to buy the plug-in hybrid cars scheduled to enter the market in 2010.
These carbon and gasoline taxes may seem high, but there is at least one dramatic precedent. In November 1998 the U.S. tobacco industry agreed to reimburse state governments $251 billion for the Medicare costs of treating smoking-related illnesses—nearly $1,000 for every person in the United States. This landmark agreement was, in effect, a retroactive tax on cigarettes smoked in the past, one designed to cover indirect costs. To pay this enormous bill, companies raised cigarette prices, bringing them closer to their true costs and further discouraging smoking. 11
A carbon tax of $240 per ton of carbon by 2020 may seem steep, but it is not. If gasoline taxes in Europe, which were designed to generate revenue and to discourage excessive dependence on imported oil, were thought of as a carbon tax, the $4.40 per gallon would translate into a carbon tax of $1,815 per ton. This is a staggering number, one that goes far beyond any carbon emission tax or cap-and-trade carbon-price proposals to date. It suggests that the official discussions of carbon prices in the range of $15 to $50 a ton are clearly on the modest end of the possible range of prices. The high gasoline taxes in Europe have contributed to an oil-efficient economy and to far greater investment in high-quality public transportation over the decades, making it less vulnerable to supply disruptions. 12
Tax shifting is not new in Europe. A four-year plan adopted in Germany in 1999 systematically shifted taxes from labor to energy. By 2003, this plan had reduced annual CO2 emissions by 20 million tons and helped to create approximately 250,000 additional jobs. It had also accelerated growth in the renewable energy sector, creating some 64,000 jobs by 2006 in the wind industry alone, a number that is projected to rise to 103,000 by 2010. 13
Between 2001 and 2006, Sweden shifted an estimated $2 billion of taxes from income to environmentally destructive activities. Much of this shift of $500 or so per household was levied on road transport, including hikes in vehicle and fuel taxes. Electricity is also picking up part of the shift. Environmental tax shifting is becoming commonplace in Europe, where France, Italy, Norway, Spain, and the United Kingdom are also using this policy instrument. In Europe and the United States, polls indicate that at least 70 percent of voters support environmental tax reform once it is explained to them. 14
Environmental taxes are now being used for several purposes. As noted earlier, landfill taxes adopted by either national or local governments are becoming more common. A number of cities are now taxing cars that enter the city. Others are simply imposing a tax on automobile ownership. In Denmark, the tax on the purchase of a new car exceeds the price of the car itself. A new car that sells for $25,000 costs the buyer more than $50,000. Other governments are moving in this direction. New York Times reporter Howard French writes that Shanghai, which is being suffocated by automobiles, “has raised the fees for car registrations every year since 2000, doubling over that time to about $4,600 per vehicle—more than twice the city’s per capita income.” 15
Some 2,500 economists, including eight Nobel Prize winners in economics, have endorsed the concept of tax shifts. Harvard economics professor N. Gregory Mankiw wrote in Fortune magazine: “Cutting income taxes while increasing gasoline taxes would lead to more rapid economic growth, less traffic congestion, safer roads, and reduced risk of global warming—all without jeopardizing long-term fiscal solvency. This may be the closest thing to a free lunch that economics has to offer.” 16
Cap-and-trade systems using tradable permits are sometimes an alternative to environmental tax restructuring. The principal difference between them is that with permits, governments set the amount of a given activity that is allowed, such as the harvest from a fishery, and let the market set the price of the permits as they are auctioned off. With environmental taxes, in contrast, the price of the environmentally destructive activity is incorporated in the tax rate, and the market determines the amount of the activity that will occur at that price. Both economic instruments can be used to discourage environmentally irresponsible behavior.
The use of cap-and-trade systems with marketable permits has been effective at the national level, ranging from restricting the catch in an Australian fishery to reducing sulfur emissions in the United States. For example, the government of Australia, concerned about lobster overharvesting, estimated the sustainable yield of lobsters and then issued catch permits totaling that amount. Fishers could then bid for these permits. In effect, the government decided how many lobsters could be taken each year and let the market decide what the permits were worth. Since the permit trading system was adopted in 1986, the fishery has stabilized and appears to be operating on a sustainable basis. 17
Although tradable permits are popular in the business community, permits are administratively more complicated and not as well understood as taxes. Edwin Clark, former senior economist with the White House Council on Environmental Quality, observes that tradable permits “require establishing complex regulatory frameworks, defining the permits, establishing the rules for trades, and preventing people from acting without permits.” In contrast to restructuring taxes, something with which there is wide familiarity, tradable permits are a concept not widely understood by the public, making it more difficult to generate broad public support. 18
Each year the world’s taxpayers provide an estimated $700 billion of subsidies for environmentally destructive activities, such as fossil fuel burning, overpumping aquifers, clearcutting forests, and overfishing. An Earth Council study, Subsidizing Unsustainable Development, observes that “there is something unbelievable about the world spending hundreds of billions of dollars annually to subsidize its own destruction.” 19
Iran provides a classic example of extreme subsidies when it prices oil for internal use at one tenth the world price, strongly encouraging car ownership and gas consumption. If its $37-billion annual subsidy were phased out, the World Bank reports that Iran’s carbon emissions would drop by a staggering 49 percent. This move would also strengthen the economy by freeing up public revenues for investment in the country’s economic development. Iran is not alone. The Bank reports that removing energy subsidies would reduce carbon emissions in India by 14 percent, in Indonesia by 11 percent, in Russia by 17 percent, and in Venezuela by 26 percent. Carbon emissions could be cut in scores of countries by simply eliminating fossil fuel subsidies. 20
Some countries are already doing this. Belgium, France, and Japan have phased out all subsidies for coal. Germany reduced its coal subsidy from $2.8 billion in 1989 to $1.4 billion in 2002, meanwhile lowering its coal use by 38 percent. It plans to phase out this support entirely by 2018. As oil prices have climbed, a number of countries have greatly reduced or eliminated subsidies that held fuel prices well below world market prices because of the heavy fiscal cost. Among these are China, Indonesia, and Nigeria. 21
A study by the U.K. Green Party, Aviation’s Economic Downside, describes the extent of subsidies to the U.K. airline industry. The giveaway begins with $18 billion in tax breaks, including a total exemption from the federal tax. External or indirect costs that are not paid, such as treating illness from breathing the air polluted by planes, the costs of climate change, and so forth, add nearly $7.5 billion to the tab. The subsidy in the United Kingdom totals $426 per resident. This is also an inherently regressive tax policy simply because a part of the U.K. population cannot afford to fly, yet they help subsidize this high-cost travel for their more affluent compatriots. 22
While some leading industrial countries have been reducing subsidies to fossil fuels—notably coal, the most climate-disrupting of all fuels—the United States has increased its support for the fossil fuel and nuclear industries. Douglas Koplow, founder of Earth Track, calculated in a 2006 study that annual U.S. federal energy subsidies have a total value to the industry of $74 billion. Of this, the oil and gas industry gets $39 billion, coal $8 billion, and nuclear $9 billion. At a time when there is a need to conserve oil resources, U.S. taxpayers are subsidizing their depletion. 23
Just as there is a need for tax shifting, there is also a need for subsidy shifting. A world facing the prospect of economically disruptive climate change, for example, can no longer justify subsidies to expand the burning of coal and oil. Shifting these subsidies to the development of climate-benign energy sources such as wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal power will help stabilize the earth’s climate. Shifting subsidies from road construction to rail construction could increase mobility in many situations while reducing carbon emissions. And shifting the $22 billion in annual fishing industry subsidies, which encourage destructive overfishing, to the creation of marine parks to regenerate fisheries would be a giant step in restoring oceanic fisheries. 24
In a troubled world economy, where many governments are facing fiscal deficits, these proposed tax and subsidy shifts can help balance the books, create additional jobs, and save the economy’s eco-supports. Tax and subsidy shifting promise energy efficiency, cuts in carbon emissions, and reductions in environmental destruction—a win-win-win situation.
4. Redefining Progress, The Economists’ Statement on Climate Change (Oakland, CA: 1997).
5. Nicholas Stern, The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change (London: HM Treasury, 2006), p. 27.
6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Sustaining State Programs for Tobacco Control: Data Highlights 2006 (Atlanta, GA: 2006).
7. Cigarette death toll from World Health Organization, “Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD),” fact sheet (Geneva: November 2006); Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, “Top Combined State-Local Cigarette Tax Rates,” fact sheet (Washington, DC: Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, 1 July 2007); Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, “Raising Cigarette Taxes Reduces Smoking, Especially Among Kids (And the Cigarette Companies Know It),” fact sheet (Washington, DC: Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, 11 June 2007).
8. Carbon content of fuels from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Bioenergy Conversion Factors, at bioenergy.ornl.gov/papers/ misc/energy_conv.html, viewed 15 October 2007.
9. Gasoline indirect cost calculated based on International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA), The Real Price of Gasoline, Report No. 3 (Washington, DC: 1998), p. 34, and updated using ICTA, Gasoline Cost Externalities Associated with Global Climate Change: An Update to CTA’s Real Price of Gasoline Report (Washington, DC: September 2004), ICTA, Gasoline Cost Externalities: Security and Protection Services: An Update to CTA’s Real Price of Gasoline Report (Washington, DC: January 2005), Terry Tamminen, Lives Per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2006), p. 60, and Bureau for Economic Analysis, “Table 3—Price Indices for Gross Domestic Product and Gross Domestic Purchases,” GDP and Other Major Series, 1929–2007 (Washington, DC: August 2007); U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Energy Information Administration (EIA), This Week in Petroleum (Washington, DC: various issues).
10. American Petroleum Institute, State Gasoline Tax Report (Washington DC: August 2007); DOE, EIA, “Weekly (Monday) Retail Premium Gasoline Prices, Selected Countries,” at www.eia.doe.gov/emeu, updated 9 July 2007; Gerhard Metschies, “Pain at the Pump,” Foreign Policy, July/August 2007.
11. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, “Cigarette Price Increase Follows Tobacco Pact,” Agricultural Outlook, January–February 1999.
12. DOE, op. cit. note 10; carbon tax equivalent calculated using DOE, EIA, Emissions of Greenhouse Gasses in the United States 2001 (Washington, DC: 2002), p. B–1; DOE EIA, Annual Energy Review 2006 (Washington, DC: 2007), p. 359.
13. Markus Knigge and Benjamin Gorlach, Effects of Germany’s Ecological Tax Reforms on the Environment, Employment and Technological Innovation: Summary of the Final Report of the Project (Berlin: Ecologic Institute for International and European Environmental Policy, August 2005); German Wind Energy Association, A Clean Issue—Wind Energy in Germany (Berlin: May 2006), p. 4; Donald W. Aitken, “Germany Launches its Transition: How One of the Most Advanced Industrial Nations is Moving to 100 Percent Energy from Renewable Sources,” Solar Today, March/April 1005, pp. 26–29.
14. Estimate of Swedish tax shifting based on Paul Ekins and Stefan Speck, “Environmental Tax Reform in Europe: Energy Tax Rates and Competitiveness,” in press, 2007; Ministry of Finance, Sweden, “Taxation and the Environment,” press release (Stockholm: 25 May 2005); household size from Target Group Index, “Household Size,” Global TGI Barometer (Miami: 2005); population from U.N. Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision Population Database, at http://esa.un.org/unpp/; Andrew Hoerner and Benoît Bosquet, Environmental Tax Reform: The European Experience (Washington, DC: Center for a Sustainable Economy, 2001); European Environment Agency, Environmental Taxes: Recent Developments in Tools for Integration, Environmental Issues Series No. 18 (Copenhagen: 2000); environmental tax support from David Malin Roodman, The Natural Wealth of Nations (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998), p. 243.
15. “New Hampshire Town Boosts Recycling with Pay-As-You-Throw,” Environment News Service, 21 March 2007; Tom Miles, “London Drivers to Pay UK’s First Congestion Tax,” Reuters, 28 February 2002; Energy Council, Energy Efficiency Policies and Indicators (London: 2001), Annex 1; Howard W. French, “A City’s Traffic Plans Are Snarled by China’s Car Culture,” New York Times, 12 July 2005.
16. N. Gregory Mankiw, “Gas Tax Now!” Fortune, 24 May 1999, pp. 60–64.
17. Australia in John Tierney, “A Tale of Two Fisheries,” New York Times Magazine, 27 August 2000; South Australian Southern Zone Rock Lobster Fishery Management Committee, Southern Zone Rock Lobster Annual Report 2005–2006 (Adelaide, South Australia: October 2006), p. 2.
18. Edwin Clark, letter to author, 25 July 2001.
19. André de Moor and Peter Calamai, Subsidizing Unsustainable Development (San José, Costa Rica: Earth Council, 1997); Barbara Crossette, “Subsidies Hurt Environment, Critics Say Before Talks,” New York Time, 23 June 1997.
20. World Bank, World Development Report 2003 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 30, 142; International Energy Agency (IEA), World Energy Outlook 2006 (Paris: 2006), p. 279.
21. Belgium, France, and Japan from Seth Dunn, “King Coal’s Weakening Grip on Power,” World Watch, September/October 1999, pp. 10–19; coal subsidy reduction in Germany from Robin Pomeroy, “EU Ministers Clear German Coal Subsidies,” Reuters, 10 June 2002; DOE, EIA, International Energy Annual 2005 (Washington, DC: June–October 2007), Table E.4; Craig Whitlock, “German Hard-Coal Production to Cease by 2018,” Washington Post, 30 July 2007; China, Indonesia, and Nigeria subsidy cuts from GTZ Transport Policy Advisory Service, International Fuel Prices 2007 (Eschborn, Germany: April 2007), p. 3.
22. John Whitelegg and Spencer Fitz-Gibbon, Aviation’s Economic Downside, 3rd ed. (London: Green Party of England & Wales, 2003); dollar conversion based on August 2007 exchange rate in International Monetary Fund, “Representative Exchange Rates for Selected Currencies in August 2007,” Exchange Rate Archives by Month, at www.imf.org/external, viewed 16 August 2007; U.N. Population Division, op. cit. note 14.
23. Doug Koplow, Subsidies in the U.S. Energy Sector: Magnitude, Causes, and Options for Reform (Cambridge, MA: Earth Track, November 2006).
24. Fishery subsidy value includes “bad” subsidies and fuel subsidies as estimated in Fisheries Center, University of British Columbia, Catching More Bait: A Bottom-Up Re-Estimation of Global Fisheries Subsidies (2nd Version) (Vancouver, BC: The Fisheries Center, 2006), p. 21.
Copyright © 2008 Earth Policy Institute


Groundwater Is Drought Lifeline for California Farmers
By the end of this year, the California drought will have cost the state about 3.25 million Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of surface water.
That’s 2.15 trillion gallons — enough water to supply 18.4 million average homes with water for an entire year — lost to drought, and resulting in $2.2 billion in economic losses and more than 17,000 jobs losses across the state.
Drought-stricken Folsom Lake from Beal's Point in Granite Bay, Calif., in February.
Credit: University of California-Davis
Those numbers come from a University of California-Davis report released Tuesday on the economic impacts of the drought in California, the conclusions of which UC-Davis Center for Watershed Science professor and report co-author Richard Howitt summed up this way during a news conference Tuesday:
“There are pockets of extreme deprivation where they’re out of water and out of jobs,” he said. “In certain parts of the Central Valley, it’s extremely bad.”
Agriculture by itself is taking a $1.5 billion economic hit as the drought has forced 428,000 acres of farmland out of production, according to the report.
Farmers in California are suffering their greatest water loss in history because of the drought as river water used for crop irrigation has been reduced by one-third, according to the paper.
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California is neck-deep in its third-worst drought on record, with drastically reduced snowpack and water supplies across the state. The drought is generally forcing the state to do some soul searching and thinking about how it plans to store, consume and conserve water in the coming years.
Today, 100 percent of the state is at least severely drought-stricken, with more than 78 percent either in extreme drought or exceptional drought, the worst stages of water scarcity according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
California is surviving the drought this summer because it is using its water “bank account” — groundwater. The problem for the state is that nobody knows how big that bank account is because California is the only Western state that doesn’t measure its groundwater, Howitt said.
About 5.5 million acre-feet of the 6.6 million acre-foot loss in surface water is made up for with groundwater pumping, which means that the state is really only feeling a water loss of about 1 million acre-feet, or enough to fill roughly 543,089 Olympic swimming pools.
But groundwater pumping comes at a cost to farmers — $454 million statewide — mainly because of the electricity required.
It’s anybody’s guess how long that use of groundwater can go on for because the state doesn’t know how much groundwater is being used, preventing the state from managing its groundwater effectively, according to the report.
“We’re like somebody who is so rich, they don’t have to balance their checkbook,” Howitt said. “We still think we’re in a groundwater-rich era.”
Report co-author and UC-Davis professor Jay Lund said more groundwater is being pumped for agriculture this year than has ever been delivered by the State Water Project in an entire year. (The Project is in charge of storing and delivering water across the state, with most water going to urban users.)
The report calls on the state of California to more effectively manage groundwater and allow it to replenish in wet years.
Dry fields in February near San Joaquin, Calif.
Credit: University of California-Davis
But when the next wet year will come is anybody’s guess, because there’s more than a 50 percent chance that the drought will drag on at least another year, Lund said
He said the length of the current drought may not be affected by a possible El Niño currently brewing in the Pacific, he said.
El Niños do not correlate with higher stream flows in California, so the state can’t plan on an unusually wet period coming up if an El Niño develops, Lund said.
Climate change's role in California's drought is unclear, and the National Climate Assessment projects that the state is unlikely to see the significant changes in soil moisture, precipitation and the annual number of dry days that are expected in Arizona, New Mexico and other areas of the Southwest.
California has always had droughts and probably always will, Lund said.
“The climate is becoming warmer,” he said. “We are seeing a shift — less runoff in the spring and more in the winter. That makes it harder to manage water because water is running off at a time further from when we want it.”
The state has a long history of drought, with some lasting only a few years and others lasting centuries.
The bottom line for California and water scarcity is that climate change will likely make it costlier and less convenient to capture water for human and agricultural consumption, but it’s unclear yet if climate change alone will mean less water overall for the state, Lund said.


As you complete the rest
of the introductory module, you will:
Apply the rationale for change in designing adult learning
Define the word design as it is used in this course.
Recognize the steps in the design process.
Apply adult learning principles to design problems.
Identify your design project.
Are your adult learning experiences producing results?
Focus on student outcomes requires different staff development approaches.
Results are a must today!
What do adults need to know and be able to do?
Staff development for adults should be linked to student needs.
Learning should be part of long term plan.
No more one shot experiences for adult learners.
What is learned must be transferred and applied to the work setting.
Staff development must get RESULTS.
need the opportunity to apply new knowledge in the workplace, to practice
and get feedback when they try out new skills. For real learning to result,
what is learned must be successfully transferred and applied in the work
How staff development has changed is described in an article that has
become a classic. Print, read, and highlight the key points in the article
A Paradigm Shift in Staff Development Journal of Staff Development,
Fall, 1994 Vol. 15, No. 4, pg. 26
Author: Dennis Sparks
Activity Intro - A:Reflect
and write a brief paragraph response to each of the questions.
Please submit your activity by email to your facilitator. If you
are unable to access email, you may print out the PDF and
US Mail or Pony Mail
it to your facilitator.
To show what you currently do to develop an adult learning experience,
complete the next activity. Create
a flowchart as a word document illustrating the step-by-step process you
adult learning experience or staff development opportunity for which you
have responsibility. Or you may sketch out the process off-line using
paper and colored pencils or markers. Be honest about how you currently
Designing Staff Development
Design is a step-by-step process for the assessment
and analysis of learner needs, the development of specific objectives,
the development of learning strategies, materials and content, and
the evaluation of the effectiveness of the adult learning experience.
To learn the steps in the design process, review the Flow Chart.
STEPS IN THE DESIGN PROCESS
on the similarities on your flow chart and the flow chart provided. Reflect
on the differences. Write a few notes about the similarities and differences.
Bring the flowchart you created for this activity along with your notes
to the first meeting of the study group for discussion.
Please review the
Adult Learning (PDF) presentation.
As we begin to design staff development experiences, these principles
will guide our thinking.
To gain more insight about adult learning, you may consult additional
resources. For additional information about Adult Learning, you may choose
to read one of the following “classics” in adult education.
Brookfield, S.D. (1986) Understanding and facilitating adult learning.
San Francisco: Jossey Bass
Knowles, M.S. (1998) The modern practice of adult education: From
pedagogy to andragogy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
Merriam, S.B.,& Caffarella, R.S. (1991). Learning in adulthood.
scenario and determine if the designer's approach is consistent or inconsistent
with adult learning principles.Click
your choice for each scenario to receive feedback.
If you were able to answer the questions
correctly, continue with the module. If you were not, go back and review
Adult Learning (PDF) presentation
and select additional resources on adult learning to expand your understanding.
If you would like to print the PDF, simply click on the PDF link and print
The Broward County Schools approach to designing quality staff development
is aligned with the best available knowledge at the national, state and,
local levels. To understand more about the rationale for the changes,
explore the national, state and local district policies driving the changes
in the design and delivery of staff development in the school district.
Each link will take you to more information. Be prepared to discuss these
national, state, and local policies at the first study group meeting.
The National Staff Development Council has developed twelve Standards
for Staff Development relating to context, content, and process.
PDF: The State of Florida has developed
a Protocol System for Evaluating Professional Development
PDF: The Broward County School District
"Pathways Policy" directs staff development in the district
to include the national and state standards of effective professional
PDF: The Broward County Staff Development
Model addresses all the components necessary for effective staff development
and ensures “change” takes place. The model is also linked
to the Sterling Criteria used in the district.
A video-tape based program titled, A Paradigm Shift: Staff Development
for Improved Learning is available for check out from the Myron Ashmore
Center in Broward County Schools HRD Department. This program is produced
by Video Journal. This video provides additional rationale for the shift
to results-driven, impact focused staff development approaches and examples
of what is happening in other districts around the country.
To identify your project, think about a “real world” learning
experience you need to design or re-design. As you proceed through this
course, you will demonstrate your learning by preparing pieces of the
design you have identified. For now, you will simply identify your design
project and e-mail it to your learning facilitator. At the first study
group meeting be prepared to share a preview of your design project. You
will receive helpful feedback from your learning facilitator and peers.
Activity Intro - B: Please submit your activity by email
to your facilitator. If you are unable to access email, you may print
PDF and fax or
US Mail or Pony Mail
it to your


Kodiak Bear is the largest of all the brown bears of the Alaskan coast and islands,
which weight up to 685 kilogram. Also known as the Big Brown (because of the size) and the Alaskan brown bear
these giants fatten on everything from mountain blueberries to washed-up whale carcasses, but their
particular prey is the big
Pacific salmon that come up the coastal rivers each summer to spawn.
Seeing a Kodiak bear rearing its monstrous bulk in the air to spot a likely
fishing hole, one finds it hard to realize that it was born blind and helpless, an
infant the size of a rat and weighing less than a pound
Kodiak Bear (Ursus arctos middendorffi) is also commonly referred to as the Alaskan Brown
or simply the Brown Bear. Native to the Kodiak Archipelago region in Alaska, the Kodiak Bear is plentiful
Since there have been many Kodiak Bears throughout Alaska, their genetic pool is strong and
they rarely are affected by the health conditions associated with species that must rely upon inbreeding
for survival. Male Kodiaks are referred to as boars while the female is known as a sow.
As with other bears, baby Kodiaks are referred to as cubs. The Alaska Department of Fish and Wildlife
has declared the Kodiak Island to be protected, and under this protection, the Kodiak population
has flourished, there are approximately 3,500 Kodiak Bears throughout Alaska.
When viewing the Kodiak Bear, you might notice a striking similarity to the Grizzly Bear,
however they have several differences. The Kodiak Bear is larger than the Grizzly Bear and is known for
having a wider or broader face as well as fur that is longer than the Grizzly Bear.
The Kodiak’s coat may range from shades of tan or blonde, to a dark chocolate brown, and baby bears tend
to have a pure white ring that remains around their neck for the first several years of the cub’s life.
They are very large creatures and though it is difficult to get an exact weight on any wild Alaskan Brown Bear,
there have been estimates made in regards to their size. It is believed that the male Kodiak can range
between 800 and 1500lbs. while females range between 500 and 700lbs.
It’s important to realize that Kodiak bears in captivity often weigh extremely more than those
in the wild, even reaching weights of 2,500 lbs.
Other distinguishing features include a very small tail that measures between 2 and 8 inches,
and flat feet with claws that are continually exposed. The Kodiak Bear is also known for having very large claws
as well as a coat of long, shaggy fur. The Kodiak has very poor eyesight and relies almost exclusively upon its
well-developed sense of smell and hearing. The height of the Kodiak can range between 5 ˝ to 9 ˝ feet.
The shoulder span of the bear is also very wide and ranges between 3 to 5 feet. Kodiak Bears are also identified by a
very noticeable, protruding hump on the shoulders.
Kodiaks begin breeding between the ages of 4 and 6 years old.
The breeding period is between the months of May and July and their gestational period last between 180 and 270 days
or between 6 and 9 months. The sow delivers her cubs between the months of January and March.
The typical number of bear cubs delivered is 2, and cubs are known to stay with their mothers for the first two years of life.
The main diet of the Kodiak Bear is fish, and it is due to this excessive amount of protein that the Kodiak grows to such
a large size, making the Kodiak the largest bear worldwide.
Kodiaks live an average of 20-40 years, with those in captivity living the longest.


Many express hesitation when it comes to the idea of taking cholesterol medication, or “statins.” This is despite their well documented record of efficacy and safety in the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Guidelines for the treatment of high cholesterol are based on one’s LDL (or “bad cholesterol”) level in combination with one’s determined CVD risk.
According to the National Cholesterol Education Program’s most recent Adult Treatment Program Report (ATP III) for those at lowest risk, medication may not be indicated until the LDL cholesterol is greater than 160 to 190. However, for those at highest risk, medication may be suggested when the LDL level is over 100, or even lower for some.
Who is at highest risk and how should asymptomatic adults be screened for CVD?
Recent guidelines by ACCF and AHA have been issued in 2010. Those with existing cardiovascular disease (history stroke, aortic aneurysm, coronary artery disease or peripheral vascular disease) are at highest risk for future events. Certain diseases are also considered “coronary artery disease equivalents,” because of the very high rates of cardiovascular disease in those affected. Diabetes and chronic renal insufficiency are the two most common conditions that fall into this category.
One widely used CVD risk calculator is called the Framingham Risk Score (FRS). Use of this tool is endorsed by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, and numerous other medical professional groups. The FRS uses traditional cardiac risk factors to calculate a score of one’s ten year risk of having a cardiovascular event. The major risk factors for CVD are:
- Cigarette smoking
- Hypertension (BP greater than or equal to 140/90 mm Hg or on antihypertensive medication)
- Low HDL cholesterol (less than 40 mg/dL),
- Family history of premature CHD (CHD in male first-degree relative less than 55 years; CHD in female first-degree relative less than 65 years)
- Age (men greater than or equal to 45 years; women greater than or equal to 55 years)
High risk is defined as a person whose likelihood of having a cardiovascular event is over 20% within ten years. Low risk is defined as a person whose likelihood of having a cardiovascular event is less than 10 %. Those at intermediate risk have a 10 to 20% chance of having a cardiovascular event within 10 years. Some further stratify intermediate risk into moderate risk (FRS of <10% but two CHD risk factors) and moderately high risk (FRS >10% and two CHD risk factors). Furthermore, some use a cut-off of 6% as the upper limit of “low risk.”
The Framingham Risk Score works well for those over 40 years old, and may work better for men than women. The key is to identify those who are at higher risk and to take action to modify that risk—lowering their blood pressure and treating their cholesterol. There are supplementary tests that can be particularly useful in patients who are intermediate risk and might benefit from more intense monitoring and intervention.
Here some tests that have clinical utility:
“HS-CRP” (C-reactive protein) is an inflammatory marker that may be helpful to guide decision-making for men over 50 and women over 60 who are at intermediate cardiac risk. CRP can be lowered by interventions that improve other cardiovascular risk factors, such as exercise, weight loss, smoking cessation, statins, and antihypertensive treatments. In the JUPITER trial rosuvastatin (Crestor) 20 mg/d versus placebo was studied in the primary prevention of cardiovascular events in men and women without diabetes with LDL cholesterol > 130 mg/dL and CRP > 2 mg/L. After a median follow-up of 1.9 years, rosuvastatin was associated with a significant reduction in cardiovascular events.
Hemoglobin A1C is a measure of glycemic control over several months. It is most commonly used to diagnose and monitor diabetes. However, studies have shown that in non-diabetic patients increased hemoglobin A1C levels (even within normal range) are associated with increasing risk of cardiovascular disease.
Urinalysis for the detection of microalbumin
Urine microalbumin detection is recommended annually in diabetic patients. The test is inexpensive and easy to perform. The presence of microalbuminuria has also been linked to increased cardiovascular risk in patients with hypertension and in asymptomatic adults who are at intermediate risk of cardiovascular disease.
Carotid Intima Media Thickness (IMT) by Ultrasound
This is the thickness of the vascular lining of the carotid artery. The risk of CHD events increases in a continuous fashion as carotid intima media thickness increases (RR increases approximately 15% per 0.10-mm increase in carotid IMT). This test is not performed at all centers.
Ankle Brachial Index (ABI)
The ABI is performed by doppler measurement of blood pressure in all 4 extremities at the brachial, posterior tibial, and dorsalis pedis arteries. The highest lower-extremity blood pressure is divided by the highest of the upper-extremity blood pressures, with a value of < 0.9 indicating the presence of peripheral arterial disease, which is defined as > 50% blockage. When defined in this way, the ABI has both a high sensitivity and specificity for anatomic blockage. An abnormally low ABI has also been shown to be a predictor of cardiovascular events.
An Exercise ECG, a form of cardiac “stress test,” may be useful for risk assessment in intermediate-risk asymptomatic adults (including sedentary adults considering starting a vigorous exercise program). Probably the most powerful risk marker obtained during routine exercise testing is exercise capacity; studies have consistently found that depressed exercise capacity is associated with increased cardiovascular risk.
Computed Tomography for Coronary Calcium
A cardiac CT or EBCT may be used to detect and quantify coronary calcium (CAC), a marker of atherosclerosis. It may be useful in persons at intermediate risk (6 to 20%). This test is not recommended for men less than 40 or for women less than 50 due to the very low prevalence of detectable calcium in these demographics.
In pooled data from six clinical trials, study subjects who had calcium scores of zero were found to have a low rate of cardiovascular events (0.4%) over the subsequent 3 to 5 years after testing. In subjects with high calcium scores, 400 to 1000 and >1000, the rates of cardiovascular events over the 3 to 5 year period were 4.6% and 7.1% respectively.
The recently released EISNER study found that study subjects who received cardiac CT for coronary artery calcium score were more likely than control subjects who received counseling alone to modify their cardiovascular risk profile over a 4 year period. In contrast study subjects who received calcium scoring by CT were not found to incur higher downstream medical testing or health care costs. The implication being that the test could be an effective strategy for early detection, without increasing overall cost.
Cardiovascular disease remains the most common cause of death in the American population. In the last century we have developed effective therapeutics that help prolong life, reduce and delay the risk of cardiovascular illness. Doctors should help patients understand their individual risk profiles, which are not static, but worsen with age, so that appropriate behavioral change or medication is prescribed when it is indicated.


Students can get in on the action with this exciting series that explores the world of making art. Each title looks at a different aspect of making art, such as painting or sculpting, as well as what materials are used in each type of activity. Students will enjoy taking part in fun art activities.
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How Do People Make Paintings?
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Lent has 40 days - ever wonder why?
Lent is the 40 day long penitential period in the Catholic Church, immediately prior to the Paschal Feast (Easter) the greatest feast in the Church. The Eastern Catholic churches call this period Great Lent.
There is a strong Biblical foundation for observing a 40 day period of penance and/or anticipation. The Scriptures are full of the significance, perhaps known only to God, of the number 40.
In the Old Testament, God punished mankind by sending a flood over the earth for 40 days and nights. The people of Nineveh repented of their sins with 40 days of fasting. The Prophet Ezekiel lay on his right side for 40 days as a precursor to the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. The Prophet Elijah fasted and prayed for 40 days on Mount Horeb. Moses fasted 40 days and nights while on Mount Sinai. Moses and the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 penitential years until they entered the Promised Land.
In the New Testament, the Lord fasted for 40 days and nights in preparation for the beginning of His public ministry.
We model our 40 day season of Lent today on this holy tradition, established throughout Salvation History, the story of God's relationship with humanity. Most importantly we observe these 40 days of Lent in imitation of Our Lord - the example for us all.
Very early in the history of the Church, the practices and duration of Lent became more regulated with the Church Fathers encouraging the practice of the 40 day period of fasting prior to the more intense fasting of Holy Week. By the end of the fourth century, it was well established in the Church that Lent’s duration was 40 days and that prayer and fasting constituted its primary spiritual exercises.
Unto this very day, we observe 40 days of penitential practices, typically of prayer and fasting because we take Jesus as our model, to prepare ourselves for the Paschal feast, that is, Easter. The Catechism tells us “By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.” (Catholic Catechism #540).
This article brought to you by Aquinas and More Catholic Goods. Written by Mike Davis.


Abstract and Keywords
The beginnings of German national identity were not political but rather cultural. Already in the eighteenth century, Germans had begun to react against the intellectual domination of the French Enlightenment and against the idea of a purely rational and universal definition of human nature. Instead, German thinkers began to develop the idea that humanity consists of different peoples (in German, Volk, people or folk) who share a common language, culture, and history. This idea was picked up on and carried forward by the Romantic movement, which emphasized emotion and particularity as opposed to the reason and universality of the Enlightenment.
Against this backdrop of growing German cultural self-identity, the military and political humiliation of the crushing Prussian defeat at Jena by Napoleon in 1806 flashed like a bolt of lightning. Prussia was forced to surrender all of its territory west of the Elbe River, and Napoleon even occupied Berlin. This defeat led to reforms of the feudal system in Prussia in 1807, not wholly unlike the changes in Japan after the Meiji Restoration. It also inspired one of the most important statements of German nationalism, a series of lectures delivered in Berlin in 1807–1808 by the most important German philosopher of the time, Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814).
Despite his success as an academic philosopher, Fichte’s best-known work derived from a series of lectures inspired by the nationalist awakening he experienced as a result of Napoleon’s defeat and occupation of Prussia, the leading German state. He gave the lectures, entitled Addresses to the German Nation (1807), to raise morale and inspire patriotism among Germans.
Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Addresses to the German Nation (1807–1808), trans. R. F. Jones and G. H. Turnbull. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press (1979): 3–4, 12–13, 15, 131, 132, 135–36, 138, 143–44, 145, 146–47, 151, 153, 223–24, 264, 266, 268.
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WHAT GOES DOWN, HAS TO COME UP
“The COVID-19 pandemic has spread with alarming speed, infecting millions and bringing economic activity to a near-standstill as countries imposed tight restrictions on movement to halt the spread of the virus.
As the health and human toll grows, the economic damage is already evident and presents the largest economic shock the world has experienced in decades,” was the starting paragraph of a June 2020 article published on TheWorldBank.org. However, in September 2021, eighteen months since the dreaded coronavirus pandemic first unsettled us all, the sentiment shared by executive respondents to a McKinsey Global Survey revealed that “the economy is on track towards a recovery”.
Seventy-one percent of respondents predict that conditions in the global economy will improve within the next six months, just slightly down from an all-time high of the 81 percent who made this estimation in the previous quarter. Sixty-five percent of respondents still expect improvements in their own countries’ economic prospects, down just slightly from 73 percent who expressed this belief in March 2021.
But before we go back and analyze what happened on the global economic stage between these two dates (i.e., June 2020 and September 2021), it’s worth noting that concerns about the pandemic’s effects seem to have reared their ugly head again. As a result of the appearance of a new variant (e.g., the Delta variant) – with 49 percent of respondents citing these mutations as a risk to domestic growth, at least over the coming year, up from 42 percent in July and 36 percent in June, said the report.
Yes, back in June 2020, when the World Bank brought out their publication “Global Economic Prospects”, the organization’s baseline forecast envisioned a 5.2 percent reduction in the global gross domestic product (GDP) over that year, which they described as “the deepest global recession in decades” despite the efforts made by governments to work against this state of affairs through a variety of fiscal and monetary support policies. Major long-term concerns that would “leave lasting scars” included: lower investment rates, eroded human capital through lost time at work and school, and fragmented global trade and supply chains.
Particular issues cited in the paper, which were also shared via the World Bank’s Twitter account, ranged from the contraction of per capita income to the greatest degree since 1870, an unprecedented collapse in oil demand, to a simultaneous crash in oil prices. Many emerging and developing countries were experiencing weaker growth before this crisis took hold; the shock of the pandemic rendered the challenges that these economies now face even more severe.
NOT ALL BAD NEWS
But a BBC News report in January 2021 revealed that not all global market sectors were in the doldrums. With many governments pledging billions of dollars towards vaccine and treatment options, shares in a selection of pharmaceutical companies were showing an upwards trajectory – including Moderna, Novavax, and AstraZeneca. Just Pfizer saw its share price fall, potentially because of the high cost of production of their vaccine and doubts about the management of its vaccination program.
The same report revealed that with consumers still feeling largely anxious about their full-on return to bricks-and-mortar stores and in-person shopping, retailers were reporting the growth in popularity of smaller satellite stores versus the former crowded shopping mall craze seen in the big centers.
A study by accountancy leader EY, “Can in-store digital experience transform the future of shopping?”, said as many as 67 percent of customers were not willing to travel more than 5km to do their shopping. Another winner, of course: online retail, which saw a global revenue of US$3.9 trillion last year, according to EY.
Other positive news? Major stock markets showed a brilliant recovery between November 2020, when the first vaccine was announced, and the January news report – with the Nikkai up 22.9 percent, the Shanghai up 16.1 percent, and the Dow Jones up 7.1 percent. Was it just the “January effect”, or a result of slashed interest rates in many countries, making borrowing cheaper and encouraging more spending? Either way, unemployment rates remained a worry across many countries, especially when compared to their 2019 figures.
The proportion of individuals out of work hit a yearly total of 8.9 percent in the US, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The number of job opportunities, in general, remains rather low among most of the countries surveyed (i.e., Australia, France, Italy, Spain, the US, India, Japan, and the UK). Also, on the negative side of things, the IMF estimated that the global economy had shrunk 4.4 percent over 2020 as a whole: “The worst decline since the Great Depression of the 1930s”, it said. Of interest was the fact that China continued to experience economic growth, to the tune of 2.3 percent.
And this year? IMF estimates suggest we’ll hit global growth of 5.2 percent in 2021, driven mainly by the growth shown in India (8.8 percent) and China (8.2 percent). Big, services-reliant economies such as the UK and Italy would still not be out of the doldrums by year-end.
TOURISM AS RECOVERY BENCHMARK
A sector we certainly can’t omit from any piece on the pandemic’s effect on the global economy is that of tourism. While the 13 October 2021 statistics from the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) show that global tourism is on the rise this year, these patterns vary radically and are still below the levels of tourism experienced on the global stage in 2019.
UNWTO Secretary-General, Zurab Pololikashvili, commented in the update: “There is clearly a strong demand for international tourism, and many destinations have started welcoming visitors back safely and responsibly. However, the true restart of tourism and the benefits it brings remain on hold, as inconsistent rules and regulations and uneven vaccination rates continue to affect confidence in travel.”
The sentiment here is a mixed bag – it shows how, probably, the most heavily affected industry is making a concerted effort at recovery, with 54 million tourists crossing international borders in the summer (i.e., over July 2021). The figure is up from the 34 million international arrivals recorded in July 2020, a promising comparison, but not yet anywhere near the benchmark of 164 million international travelers recorded in July 2019 – the figure we want to get back to.
One can’t help wondering how long the recovery to 2019 levels will take, despite the rise in consumer confidence resulting from the need to show a negative test or vaccination certificate before leaving one country and entering the next. Let’s hope a panel of global tourism industry experts, who predict 2023/2024 for the latest, are 100 percent correct and that the recovery of the global economy follows closely behind that of tourism as the savviest benchmark out there.


Published: Jan 1966
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The thermal properties of hardened concrete that are of engineering significance are thermal conductivity, specific heat, thermal diffusivity, and coefficient of thermal expansion. Thermal conductivity is the measure of rate of heat flow; specific heat is the measure of heat capacity; thermal diffusivity is an index of the facility with which the temperature can change; and coefficient of thermal expansion governs change in volume, or as usually measured, change in length with change in temperature. Adiabatic temperature rise, or the heat of hydration of the cement, may well be considered as another, although transient, thermal property of the concrete. This property and proper control of it is of vital consideration in the design of modern, massive, concrete structures [1–4]. Knowledge of these properties is used in designing and predicting the behavior of all types of structures, from the building of lightweight concrete in which insulation is a major factor to large massive structures in which artificial cooling may be employed. Stabilizing the structure thermally and volumetrically is of prime importance. An accurate knowledge of these properties or the ability to predict them with reasonable accuracy can do much to bring about better design and more efficient construction of all concrete structures.
Mitchell, L. J.
Supervisory engineer, Bureau of Reclamation, Denver, Colo.


On my Teachers Pay Teachers page, I made a set of blank calendars! They have multiple uses!
The blank calendars can be used as citizenship documentation in which each child colors a square in corresponding to his or her behavior that day (e.g. green, yellow, or red).
They can be used to track weather, teach calendar skills, document how the students are feeling that day.
You can even use them to write down your instructional focus for the week and the daily objectives.
The can be used as a testing schedule or to mark which days your students go to various pull out programs (such as speech or ESL).
They are great for creating your own homework calendars. These are useful if you have children that need more challenging work or extra reinforcement at home. If you take the time to make one of these special calendars, you can use it for improving the home/school connection. You could create summer calendars to the children do not lose what they have learned over the summer.
These calendars can help extend circle time where the children apply what they have learned.
The possibilities are endless!


Corruption in Oceania
Oceania consists of an enormous region containing Australia, New Zealand, and hundreds of thousands of islands scattered across the Pacific Ocean. It contains some of the world’s most developed and democratic countries as well as some of its most impoverished (Papua New Guinea). Although it comprises a very small share of the world’s population, it exhibits a great diversity of cultures, economies, and political systems.
- Andrews, S. (2016, April 22). Corruption and chaos in Papua New Guinea. The Diplomat. https://thediplomat.com/2016/04/corruption-and-chaos-in-papua-new-guinea/.
- Heron, L. (2018). Rising corruption costs Australia up to 4% of GDP, says think tank. Global Government Forum. https://www.globalgovernmentforum.com/rising-corruption-costs-australia-4-gdp-says-think-tank/.
- Human Rights Watch. (2010). Gold’s costly dividend human rights impacts of Papua New Guinea’s Porgera gold mine. https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/png0211webwcover.pdf.
- Larmour, P. (1997). Corruption and governance in the South Pacific. Pacific Studies, 20(3), 1–14.Google Scholar
- Larmour, P. (2012). Corruption and the concept of culture: Evidence from the Pacific Islands. In M. Barcham, B. Hindess, & P. Larmour (Eds.), Corruption: Expanding the focus (pp. 155–177). Canberra: Australian National University Press.Google Scholar
- Laurance, W., Kakul, T., Keenan, R., Sayer, J., Passingan, S., Clements, G., et al. (2011). Predatory corporations, failing governance, and the fate of forests in Papua New Guinea. Conservation Letters, 4(2), 95–100. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1755-263X.2010.00156.x/pdf.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- New York Times. (2001, December 6). Tiny Pacific Island is facing money-laundering sanctions. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/06/world/tiny-pacific-island-is-facing-money-laundering-sanctions.html.
- Perry, P. (2001). Political corruption in Australia: A very wicked place? New York: Ashgate.Google Scholar
- Pitts, M. (2001). Crime and corruption: Does Papua New Guinea have the capacity to control it? Pacific Economic Bulletin, 16(2), 127–133. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/278e/3192ddb9df82bd25c4ca6ca642283e4ad548.pdf.
- The Economist. (2013, February 16). Onshore financial centers: Not a palm tree in sight. https://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21571554-some-onshore-jurisdictions-can-be-laxer-offshore-sort-not-palm-tree-sight.
- The Guardian. (2001, June 22). Pacific atoll paradise for mafia loot. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jun/23/jonhenley.
- Wilson, C. (2015). Tackling corruption at its root in Papua New Guinea. Inter Press Service News Agency. http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/02/tackling-corruption-at-its-root-in-papua-new-guinea/.


Published Apr 20, 2018Believe it or not, today marks the 20th anniversary of Massive Attack's landmark 1998 album Mezzanine. And to celebrate, Robert Del Naja and co. will be re-releasing the album on a very innovative format — DNA.
With the help of technology developed by scientists at Swiss university ETH Zurich, the digital audio files of Mezzanine are set to be converted into "920,000 short DNA strands," which will then be stored in "5,000 tiny (nanometre-sized) glass spheres," according to university researchers.
This will mark the first time an entire album has been converted to DNA via such a process, said a press release from the university, which added "it could be an answer to the problem of archiving the increasing amount of information that the world is creating."
To get a bit more technical, the audio is being compressed using Opus, with the beads then being stored in water. The DNA then can be removed at any point, meaning the album will be archived for hundreds if not thousands of years, explained ETH professor Robert Grass. By comparison, CD are said to only last for about 30 years.
"While the information stored on a CD or hard disk is a sequence of zeros and ones, biology stores genetic information in a sequence of the four building blocks of DNA: A, C, G and T," explained Grass.
Over here you can hear a sound sample of Mezzanine highlight "Teardrop," as well as learn more about the project.
While this marks the first time a full album has been encoded into DNA, individual songs have gone through a similar process in the past.


And now for a more objective look at the IUD:
The IUD - or "Intrauterine Device” – is an inert device placed inside of a woman’s uterus and is used to prevent pregnancy. The actual mechanics of pregnancy prevention are unknown – while it is entirely possible that the IUD does not allow a fertilized egg to implant on the wall of the uterus, it is also possible that it creates an environment especially hostile to the sperm or egg, killing them before fertilization occurs, or it could thicken the cervical mucous which would keep the sperm and egg from meeting. However, if you are concerned about preventing a fertilized zygote from implanting, an IUD would probably not be the best choice for you.
IUDs are generally small devices about the size of a quarter made out of long lasting materials like plastic and copper and are produced in a variety of shapes. Today those sold in the US are generally a “T” shape – the arms of the “T” fold down for easier insertion through the cervix. Attached to the bottom of the “T”is a monofilament (think fishing line) that hangs out of the opening of the cervix so that it can easily be removed later by the physician (the filament generally cannot be felt by the woman or her sexual partner).
The IUD is not very widely used in the United States because of the Dalkon Sheild, an IUD produced in the 1970’s that caused 12 deaths. It is believed that the string that hung outside of the cervix (used for removal) acted as a wick for bacteria because it was braided. It is for this reason that the strings are made of monofilament today.
The cost of an IUD is around $300 but they remain effective for 5-10 years and the pregnancy prevention rate is +99% - even higher than the pill with perfect use . Five years is how long a progesterone-treated IUD is expected to last, and 10 is for a copper IUD. The advantages to having a progesterone IUD (like Mirena) is a decrease in menstrual pain and bleeding, and the advantage to a copper one is long-lasting birth control without the hormones – however one disadvantage is that the main side effect is increased menstrual flow and cramping.
A doctor’s visit is required to have the IUD inserted, and it is inserted through the cervix using a tube, which is predictably painful – but not enough to require more than a few ibuprofen. However, some feel this is a very small price to pay for hassle-free birth control for the next decade. After the given amount of time another doctor’s visit is required for the removal of the IUD.
Possible complications include the IUD expelling itself from the uterus (it is recommended the woman check the string after every period to see that the IUD hasn’t moved or been expelled), becoming imbedded in the uterus, or puncturing the uterus. The latter two complications are pretty rare, thankfully. If these side effects sound shocking, consider that one of the rare side effects of the pill is heart attack and stroke. It is also likely that if you become pregnant with the IUD in (remember, no birth control method is 100% effective - except abstinence of course) the fetus may be aborted, or you might experience an ectopic pregnancy, and IUDs do not protect from sexually transmitted diseases (STDs or STIs) - period.
However, scary as it sounds, the IUD is successfully used by millions of women around the world as a long-lasting, cheap (in the long run) alternative to hormonal birth control or more permanent solutions like tubal ligation.
Information was cultivated from:
Planned Parenthood: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/files/portal/medicalinfo/birthcontrol/pub-contraception-iud.xml
Personal reveiws can be found here:
This is a site from the perspective of those who beleive IUDs cause abortions:


Court of Appeal(s) has multiple meanings:
- First, the Court of Appeal(s) could be an intermediate appellate court. In this instance, it would be any state or federal court that hears appeals from rulings and judgments of lower trial and appeals courts. Specifically, a “court of appeal(s)” is also a “court of record” within statute. This means that the court has “court of record” power to penalize lawyers for any duty violation, willful neglect, or disobedience of any lawful court order. An attorney’s refusal or neglect to obey a court order from a court of appeal(s) is considered an act of contempt.
- Another meaning of the Court of Appeals is that it is the highest court in some states. Simply put, it would be equivalent to the State Supreme Court. In New York, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky (before 1976), the highest state court in those states was called the Court of Appeals.
- Finally, a branch of the English Supreme Court of Judicature is called the Court of Appeal.
[Last updated in June of 2020 by the Wex Definitions Team]


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Each year about 1 in 10 adults nationwide has an episode of tinnitus that lasts longer than 3 months. Tinnitus is not a disease. Instead, it is a symptom that something is wrong with your auditory system. The problem may exist somewhere in your ear, in the nerve that connects the inner ear to the brain or in the parts of the brain that make sense of sounds. Because tinnitus can arise from so many conditions, ranging from hearing loss to high blood pressure to medications, diagnosing the cause or causes can be a challenge. For many people, the ringing in their ears begins for no obvious reason.
Often, people are told by their physician that they “have to live with it” and “there’s nothing we can do for it.” While it is true that there is no known cure for tinnitus, there are ways to help people manage it and provide relief. Tinnitus affects everyone differently, and our goal is to learn about you and your unique situation. Our treatment options include education and counseling, hearing devices and sound therapies that are specifically designed for each individual patient.
We start off with a comprehensive tinnitus evaluation which includes a thorough case history, a comprehensive evaluation of your auditory system, tinnitus testing and educational counseling. Together, we can determine the best course of action to provide you with relief for your tinnitus.
What is tinnitus?
Tinnitus is commonly described as a ringing in the ears, but it also can sound like roaring, clicking, hissing, or buzzing. It may be soft or loud, high pitched or low pitched. You might hear it in either one or both ears. Roughly 10 percent of the adult population of the United States has experienced tinnitus lasting at least five minutes in the past year. This amounts to nearly 25 million Americans.
What causes tinnitus?
Tinnitus (pronounced tin-NY-tus or TIN-u-tus) is not a disease. It is a symptom that something is wrong in the auditory system, which includes the ear, the auditory nerve that connects the inner ear to the brain, and the parts of the brain that process sound. Something as simple as a piece of earwax blocking the ear canal can cause tinnitus. But it can also be the result of a number of health conditions, such as:
- Noise-induced hearing loss
- Ear and sinus infections
- Diseases of the heart or blood vessels
- Ménière’s disease
- Brain tumors
- Hormonal changes in women
- Thyroid abnormalities
Does having tinnitus mean I have hearing loss?
Tinnitus is sometimes the first sign of hearing loss. It also can be a side effect of medications. More than 200 drugs are known to cause tinnitus when you start or stop taking them.
People who work in noisy environments—such as factory or construction workers, road crews, or even musicians—can develop tinnitus over time when ongoing exposure to noise damages tiny sensory hair cells in the inner ear that help transmit sound to the brain. This is called noise-induced hearing loss.
Service members exposed to bomb blasts can develop tinnitus if the shock wave of the explosion squeezes the skull and damages brain tissue in areas that help process sound. In fact, tinnitus is one of the most common service-related disabilities among veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Pulsatile tinnitus is a rare type of tinnitus that sounds like a rhythmic pulsing in the ear, usually in time with your heartbeat. A doctor may be able to hear it by pressing a stethoscope against your neck or by placing a tiny microphone inside the ear canal. This kind of tinnitus is most often caused by problems with blood flow in the head or neck. Pulsatile tinnitus also may be caused by brain tumors or abnormalities in brain structure.
What is the source of the sounds in my head?
Although we hear tinnitus in our ears, its source is really in the networks of brain cells (what scientists call neural circuits) that make sense of the sounds our ears hear. A way to think about tinnitus is that it often begins in the ear, but it continues in the brain.
Scientists still haven’t agreed upon what happens in the brain to create the illusion of sound when there is none. Some think that tinnitus is similar to chronic pain syndrome, in which the pain persists even after a wound or broken bone has healed.
Tinnitus could be the result of the brain’s neural circuits trying to adapt to the loss of sensory hair cells by turning up the sensitivity to sound. This would explain why some people with tinnitus are oversensitive to loud noise.
Tinnitus also could be the result of neural circuits thrown out of balance when damage in the inner ear changes signaling activity in the auditory cortex, the part of the brain that processes sound. Or it could be the result of abnormal interactions between neural circuits. The neural circuits involved in hearing aren’t solely dedicated to processing sound. They also communicate with other parts of the brain, such as the limbic region, which regulates mood and emotion.
Can I prevent tinnitus?
Noise-induced hearing loss, the result of damage to the sensory hair cells of the inner ear, is one of the most common causes of tinnitus. Anything you can do to limit your exposure to loud noise—by moving away from the sound, turning down the volume, or wearing earplugs or earmuffs—will help to lessen the likelihood that you will experience tinnitus.
Treatments for Tinnitus
Hearing aids often are helpful for people who have hearing loss along with tinnitus. Using a hearing aid adjusted to carefully control outside sound levels may make it easier for you to hear. The better you hear, the less you may notice your tinnitus.
Counseling helps you learn how to live with your tinnitus. Most counseling programs have an educational component to help you understand what goes on in the brain to cause tinnitus. Some counseling programs also will help you change the way you think about and react to your tinnitus. You might learn some things to do on your own to make the noise less noticeable, to help you relax during the day, or to fall asleep at night.
Tabletop Sound Generators
Used as an aid for relaxation or sleep. Placed near your bed, you can program a generator to play pleasant sounds such as waves, waterfalls, rain, or the sounds of a summer night. If your tinnitus is mild, this might be all you need to help you fall asleep.
Wearable Sound Generators
These are small electronic devices that fit in the ear and use a soft, pleasant sound to help mask the tinnitus. Some people want the masking sound to totally cover up their tinnitus, but most prefer a masking level that is just a bit louder than their tinnitus. The masking sound can be a soft “shhhhhhhhhhh,” random tones, or music.
What’s Next in tinnitus treatment?
Neuromonics, Inc. is a medical device company dedicated to helping people with its treatments for ringing in the ears, clinically known as tinnitus.
Neuromonics manufactures and distributes the only FDA-cleared, patented and clinically proven medical devices designed for long-term, significant relief of tinnitus. The company also has received regulatory approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in Australia.
Beginning with the work of Paul Davis, Ph.D., inventor of the Neuromonics Tinnitus Treatment, and research and development since the early 1990s, Neuromonics has helped thousands of tinnitus sufferers around the world improve their quality of life and overcome the daily challenges associated with tinnitus.
The company’s global operations are located in Westminster, CO., and in Sydney, Australia.
A tinnitus treatment with long-term relief
Neuromonics OasisPro ™ is a clinically proven medical treatment with documented long-term relief of tinnitus. Using this customized tinnitus treatment, you can be on your way to
significant relief from ringing in your ears.
MUCH MORE THAN A TINNITUS RETRAINING THERAPY
The Neurominics OasisPro ™ is prescribed by a trained audiologist and is easy to use. It is an applicatoin which can be downloaded to an Apple iPhone, iPad or iPod. Your Audiololgist programs the applicatno through the Neuromonics Oasis Pro website based upon your audiogram. Once programmed, the website settings sync to the application on the iPhone, iPad or iPod. The applicatoin on your device is then set with a customeized tone that desensitizes you to the sounds of your tinnitus. The program helps the brain overcome the initial damage caused to the auditory system and reduces the brain’s interpretatoin of the tinnitus sounds as harmful. This is a comprehensive program that can provide
longterm relief under the care of a trained audiologist.
Find out if this would be a good option for you. Call today to schedule your consultation.
Noise-Induced Hearing Loss
What is Noise-Induced Hearing Loss?
Every day, we experience sound in our environment. Normally, these sounds are at safe levels that don’t damage our hearing. But sounds can be harmful when they are too loud, even for a brief time. These sounds can damage sensitive structures in the inner ear and cause noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL).
NIHL can be immediate, take a long time to be noticeable, temporary or permanent, and it can affect one ear or both ears. Even if you can’t tell that you are damaging your hearing, you could have trouble hearing in the future. Regardless of how it might affect you, noise-induced hearing loss is something you can prevent.
Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL)
What are the Signs of NIHL?
When you are exposed to loud noises you may slowly start to lose your hearing. Over time, sounds may become distorted or muffled, and you might find it difficult to understand other people when they talk or have to turn up the volume on the television. Extremely loud bursts of sound can rupture the eardrum or damage the bones in the middle ear.
Loud noise exposure can also cause tinnitus, a ringing, buzzing, or roaring in the ears or head. Tinnitus may subside over time, but can continue constantly or occasionally throughout a person’s life. Hearing loss and tinnitus can occur in one or both ears.
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An ischemic stroke is the most common kind of stroke, when a blood clot
blocks blood flow to the brain. It can often be treated with intravenous
tissue plasminogen activator (IV tPA), a clot-busting drug, but the
drug ideally should be given within four-and-a-half hours of the start
of symptoms to improve chances of recovery.
When experiencing a stroke, people who are brought to the hospital in an ambulance with a CT scanner and telemedicine capabilities are evaluated and treated nearly two times faster than people taken in a regular ambulance, according to a study published in the online issue of Neurology®
, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
‘Stroke patients who are brought to the hospital in an ambulance with a CT scanner and telemedicine capabilities are evaluated and treated faster.’
"The sooner someone is treated for stroke, the better chance they have for survival and an improved recovery," said study author Muhammad S. Hussain of the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, and member of the American Academy of Neurology. "Telemedicine makes it possible for a neurologist to see a stroke patient, and possibly treat them, before they even arrive at the hospital."
To improve treatment times, the Cleveland Clinic created a mobile stroke treatment unit, an ambulance equipped with a mobile CT scanner and telemedicine technology. It was first used in the city of Cleveland in 2014. The medical team on board includes a registered nurse, a paramedic, an emergency medical technician and a CT technologist.
For the study, researchers compared the stroke care of the first 100 people transported by the mobile stroke unit to the stroke care of 53 people brought to the hospital by a regular ambulance in 2014. People in both groups had similar stroke severity.
A vascular neurologist evaluated each person transported in the mobile stroke unit on the way to the hospital. A neuroradiologist and vascular neurologist also assessed CT scan images taken during the ride.
Researchers found there was a significant reduction in the time from the initial call for help to getting a CT scan, an average of 33 minutes for those transported by the mobile stroke unit compared to 56 minutes for those transported by regular ambulance. Average time from the first call for help to receiving clot-busting drugs was 56 minutes compared to 94 minutes. Average time between arrival at hospital to treatment with clot-busting drugs was 32 minutes compared to 58 minutes. Average time from the start of symptoms to receiving clot-busting drugs was 97 minutes compared to 123 minutes.
Of those evaluated in the mobile stroke unit, 16 people received clot-busting drugs and 25% of them received the drugs within an hour of the start of symptoms.
"Overall, people transported by the mobile stroke unit received clot-busting drugs nearly 40 minutes faster," said Hussain. "Also, 44% of them received clot-busting drugs within an hour-and-a-half, compared to just 8% of other patients. More people were given the treatment they needed, faster."
Limitations of the study include its small sample size and that those transported by regular ambulance were taken to facilities in just one hospital system. Questions remain about the cost-effectiveness of mobile stroke units, especially in rural areas, as well as their feasibility since fast wireless networks are needed to transmit images quickly.
In an accompanying editorial, Andrew M. Southerland of the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville and member of the American Academy of Neurology, said, "Ongoing efforts are needed to streamline mobile stroke unit costs and efficiency before achieving road-readiness for widespread health system deployment."


Strontium isotope ratios (87Sr / 86Sr) of biogenic material such as bones and teeth reflect the local sources of strontium ingested as food and drink during their formation. This has led to the use of strontium isotope ratios as a geochemical tracer in a wide range of fields including archaeology, ecology, food studies and forensic sciences. In order to utilise strontium as a geochemical tracer, baseline data of bioavailable 87Sr / 86Sr in the region of interest are required, and a growing number of studies have developed reference maps for this purpose in various geographic regions, and over varying scales. This study presents a new data set of bioavailable strontium isotope ratios from rock and soil samples across Israel, as well as from sediment layers from seven key archaeological sites. This data set may be viewed and accessed both in an Open Science Framework repository (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/XKJ5Y, Moffat et al., 2020) or via the IRHUM (Isotopic Reconstruction of Human Migration) database.
- Stontium Isotope


|Lake type||Rift lake|
|Primary inflows||Ruhuhu River|
|Primary outflows||Shire River|
|Basin countries||Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania|
|Max. width||75 km|
|Surface area||29,600 km2 (11,400 sq mi)|
|Average depth||292 m|
|Max. depth||706 m|
|Water volume||8,400 km³|
|Surface elevation||500 meters above sea level|
|Islands||Likoma and Chizumulu islets|
Lake Malawi (or Lake Nyasa) is a lake in Africa. It is the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system. It is shared between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. Before Malawi became independent in 1964, the territory was called Nyasaland. For this reason, Mozambique and Tanzania call the lake Lake Nyasa.
Lake Malawi is the third largest and second deepest lake in Africa. It is the ninth largest lake in the world.


Why are so many creative types plagued with depression?
It’s not creatives alone who suffer from overwhelming bouts of sadness or uncontrollable episodes of doubt and lack of motivation to do much of anything. As of 2008, 1 in 10 Americans have claimed to suffer from some form of depression, according to the CDC.
Every year that equates to more than 7% of us having to suffer from agonizing loneliness, mental and emotional darkness, and numerous other symptoms of varying degrees all attributed to this singular, albeit broad by definition, disorder: depression.
But creatives – the writers, musicians, inventors, dancers, scientists, architects, students and teachers, and any other creative type you can think of – are singled out more often than not when it comes to depression. Van Gogh being a primary example of the tortured creative. Why? Is there really a link between the two?
To find out, we turn to the science of the mind and the theory of human evolution.
Of course, throughout history many world-leading thinkers have suffered from depression, including historical Naturalist and evolutionary expert Charles Darwin.
Darwin’s depression not only impacted his theoretical and scientific work, but it also became a primary topic of his very work.
Because of depression’s wide reach on the global population (as one, if not the one, of the most common mental illnesses, set apart from other, less common, disorders including personality and eating disorders), Darwin had to explore it in order to make sense of his evolutionary theories.
Because Darwin’s theory of evolution claimed that “only the strong survive,” depression seems to be a gigantic mistake.
From a macro perspective, depression typically leads to a lack of motivation (often motivation to eat, exercise, or do much of anything) and can lead to thoughts of suicide. How could such a health and population-hindering disorder find it’s way through hundreds of years of evolution if evolution’s end-game is survival? And what does this all have to do with creativity exactly?
The answers may surprise you. So let’s look at the facts.
There is a link between creativity and depression, but it’s not what most people think it is.
To start: if depression affects so many diverse groups of people, why are creative types singled out? What’s the link between the two?
While the possible solutions are many (the mind is a very complicated subject, after all), countless psychologists and psychiatrists tend to agree that major depression is amplified in those who tend to ruminate on their thoughts.
Think about this.
Rumination, if you’ve been paying attention, is one of the major keys of thinking like a creative genius. To be creative is to make sense of and connect the small details of everything we experience, the good and the bad.
Creatives naturally tend to think more, and think about their very thoughts too.
When we ruminate, however, our brains are naturally drawn to things that are vital to our health. Pain and suffering are such immense experiences, even if they’re short-lived, that those who ruminate tend to loop through those painful experiences more often than those who don’t (are you starting to see the evolutionary link yet?).
For example: someone who doesn’t take the time to think about their thoughts regularly may have a stressful day at work or school, but when they come home from it all it’s easier to forget than not.
On the other hand, there are certain types of thinkers who naturally are drawn to play the stressful events over and over again, thinking about what happened, what they could have (or should have) done differently, how the details of what occurred will affect the rest of their lives, and so on. Creative thinkers tend to fall into the latter group, re-playing events over and over again to better understand them.
A result of focusing on these thoughts then, according to Yale psychologist Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, is immense depression or a feeling of hopelessness.
Aha! Now we’re onto something.
This rumination to depression process is evident not only in creatives, of course, but everyone. If the average (not powerfully creative) person finds themselves in a moment of deep reflection – particularly about a stressful event – they too are likely to encounter a state of depression, though it may not last as long as someone who continues to ruminate on the event(s).
For creatives, that depressive state happens to be longer-lasting and more intense, due to their innate desire to simply keep thinking on it.
Creativity is all about thinking, so it only makes sense that all of that thinking would lead to manic episodes of feeling hopeless, alone, or like a failure. Maybe you’ve felt those emotions a lot yourself.
Our first answer is then clear.
It turns out that depression doesn’t make you creative, per se. In-fact, the opposite is more often the case: the creative person, who spends his or her time ruminating on thoughts is likely to suffer from major depression.
The link is an effect of the creative’s ability to think with more intent than other types of personalities.
We’re not quite done yet though. We still haven’t answered why bouts of depression have made their way through evolution and into so many people’s lives.
From an evolutionary standpoint we could now say that depression is a psychological desire to be better, to be stronger, to reflect on where we’ve made mistakes, and to find ways to improve ourselves overall. Research from Andy Thomson and Paul Andrews confirms this approach, stating that depression is an evolutionary way for us to tightly focus our attention on what needs changing in our lives.
Depression, while seemingly a hinderance to a healthy and happy life, is really a balancing act that helps us focus on the areas where we need to improve most.
For creatives, this depression is what amplifies motivation to do their work better. It’s not enough to keep doing what you’ve been doing as a creative, you have to do more, and do it well. That’s empowering, if you can make it through the initial dip in energy.
It’s not just an evolutionary way to sort through what’s broken though.
While depression serves as a reflection of thought and those who ruminate tend to suffer the most, it also has a secondary upside that helps explain why creatives experience more depression than any other individual type.
Once whatever initially caused the depressed feelings to rise up have been sorted through in the mind, the shift into more positive thoughts (e.g. “That wasn’t so bad,” or “I know what I have to do now”) helps to drive even more motivation to do more creative work (or really more of anything at all).
The upswing of coming out of a creative slump, according to Shelley Carson, an instructor on creativity and psychology at Harvard University, is enough motivation to produce immense amounts of work. And it’s a very real boost, identical to one you would get if you received a random gift or really great news.
It’s not just creatives who experience the productive, post-depression boost either.
Say you’re an avid tennis player who suddenly falls into a temporary state of depression. Once the thoughts you experienced through those few days or that week of depression are counseled internally, you may find yourself more motivated than ever before to get out and practice your backhand stroke. To the point where you go above and beyond where you were before the depressed state.
Of course, the motivational boost is often an inverse of the level of depression. So if you’re in a truly deep funk and start coming out of it, you can expect your motivation to be equally as high as the low.
For creatives this is excellent news.
After much rumination, creative types tend to fall into the deeper states of depression, but that also means they’re more likely to experience the higher rises. Because of this effect, their work is more prominent and their behavior more recognized.
You can see how this shift (from overwhelmingly depressed and being unable to do much of anything, to a dynamic state of productivity and livelihood) can mislead people into believing that depression fuels creativity, but that’s not really the case.
Creativity is what can drive depression, a signal that there’s a lot of thinking going on. Which, in return, is great for creativity once the initial slump has been combatted and the motivation returns.
If you find yourself depressed, don’t expect to be more creative. However, if you’re often suffering from depression, you may just be doing so because you’re just that much more creative.
Important! I am not a psychologist or doctor and do not give this information as medical or professional advice. If you are seriously depressed and need someone to simply listen to you, call 1-800-273-8255 today.
I also highly recommend seeking professional help in the form of a psychologist or other experienced professional. You are great, the world needs your ideas, please get help if you feel out of control in any way.
Thanks for reading and sharing.