The purpose of screening is early diagnosis and treatment. Screening tests are done for people without current symptoms, but who may be at an average or high risk for certain diseases or conditions.
There are no screening guidelines specifically for arrhythmias. However, if you are over the age of 50 and have a history of heart disease, it is recommended that you have regular check-ups, which should include an evaluation of your overall cardiovascular health.
An electrocardiogram (EKG) records the heart’s activity by measuring electrical currents through the heart muscle. It can detect arrhythmias and damaged areas of the heart.
- Reviewer: Michael J. Fucci, DO
- Review Date: 12/2015 -
- Update Date: 12/20/2014 -


The interseptal distance (ISD) is a measurement used to assess septal area atrophy as a marker for neurodegenerative conditions in patients with memory problems 1.
It is proposed that atrophy of the septal nuclei can commonly be seen in conditions associated with hippocampal atrophy, particularly in Alzheimer disease (AD) 2. It can also be seen following head injury or in chronic alcohol excess.
A widening of the interseptal distance, defined as the minimal distance between the septal nucleus of each hemisphere, has been shown to act as a surrogate marker for atrophy within core regions implicated in Alzheimer disease 1.
The interseptal distance can be accurately measured at the level of the AC-PC (anterior commissure to posterior commissure) line, i.e. the distance between the medial convexities of the septal nuclei, posterior to the anterior cerebral arteries.
It has been demonstrated that an interseptal distance greater than or equal to 4 mm has a good predictive power for patients with memory problems. A cut-off of 4 mm gives a sensitivity of 85.7% and a specificity of 85.8%. The interseptal distance can be used to help select patients for further investigation 1.
- Gan, C., O'Sullivan, M., Metzler-Baddeley, C. and Halpin, S. (2017). Association of imaging abnormalities of the subcallosal septal area with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment.
- Callen, D., Black, S., Gao, F., Caldwell, C. and Szalai, J. (2017). Beyond the hippocampus: MRI volumetry confirms widespread limbic atrophy in AD.


Robot handshaking with Child
Technology really has changed pretty much everything we do these days. The way things have been done in the past really has changed so much from today. It seems that everything that we do can now be done electronically and it's really shaping the society that we live in. The internet has also been something which has massively changed the world today and really has affected pretty much everything we do.
One thing that has really come about in recent years is the rise in not only mobile phones but smart phones too. Mobile phones are something that we all feel that we could not live without. This is because we have become so dependent on them, meaning that we all have one. In the past, if you were going to meet someone it meant that you had to be there, but now it seems that it does not matter as you can easily give them a call or a text and let them know the change of plan. Also, it means that you are easily able to be in contact with people everywhere, no matter where in the world it is that they are. Smart phones are also something which has really come about in recent years and it seems that you can now do pretty much anything with your phone. You can even use it as a sat nav, meaning that when you are out in your car and you are unsure of where to go you can easily use your phone to help you find your way. They are also able to do things such as book a holiday, sort out your finances and even put some bets on the football, all just by clicking a few buttons on your phone.
The way lessons are being taught in schools has also changed massively in recent years since the new advancements in classroom technology. Students are able to visually take part in lessons through the help of such things as interactive whiteboards. It seems that now no classroom is without an interactive whiteboard and they really help the way lessons are being taught and students are learning. In the past, a teacher would have to rely on writing things on a board which could end up being a great pain when you had to keep worrying about wiping things off. Now you can easily prepare something on the computer and have it projected onto the interactive whiteboard.


A successful student uses effective strategies
Being a successful student is far more about being a smart user of effective strategies than about being 'smart'. In fact it is possible to predict how well a student will do simply on the basis of their use of study strategies.
Mnemonics is one class of study strategy that is of proven effectiveness, but (like only too many effective strategies!) is used far too little. Despite many studies showing the effectiveness of mnemonic strategies, they remain the least frequently used formal memory aid used by students.
Perhaps the main reason for this is that their effectiveness is not intuitively obvious -- truly, no one really believes that these 'tricks' can so remarkably improve memory until they try them for themselves.
But while mnemonics do not help you understand your material, they do help you remember those many details you need to achieve expertise in a topic -- details such as the names of things, technical words, lists of principles.
Moreover, mnemonics can help you remember tags or labels that allow you to access clusters of meaningful information -- for example, headings of a speech or main points for exam essays. For both these reasons, mnemonics are a valuable assistance to building up expertise in a subject, as well as in helping you 'cram' for an exam.
This concise book covers
- acronyms & acrostics
- rhythm & rhyme
- keyword strategies (including the face-name association method)
- the story method
- the loci or journey method
- the pegword method
- the link method
- coding mnemonics
While you can find basic information on these various mnemonic strategies in many books and websites, Mnemonics for Study goes far beyond the same tired descriptions, using the latest research to explain exactly how these strategies work and are best used.
The hardest part of permanently improving your memory is changing your habits and becoming an effective user of effective strategies. The best way to do this, research has shown, is through understanding how different strategies work, and when and how to use them. Through examples and exercises, that is what this book aims to teach you.


They are used in plenty of different industrial applications but are also supplied thousandfold as corrugated tubes with special endings to connect solar thermal panels.
Piping design or other equipment is often subject to
- thermal expansion
- mechanical vibration
- cyclical movements in multiple directions
that are caused for example by weather, motors, turbines, pumps, or compressors. Other reasons to be named include inertial forces, misalignment or foundation settlement. In such cases, metal expansion joints are needed to preserve the system’s integrity.
Since 1956 Mera Bellows has been a pioneer and continues today to be a leader in the design and large-scale manufacturing of hydroformed metal bellows and expansion joints. The company is specialized in the high-precision processing of small- (to 70mm ID) and thin-walled (less than 0,4mm) metallic compensators.
In order to design – and decide for a metal expansion joint, many parameters must be considered
- Which material is suitable? – Stainless steel, Inconel or Hastelloy expansion joints for extreme temperatures (Aerospace)
- Is the surface of particular interest? – e.g. when using corrugated tubes as flexible connector in vacuum components
- Does the expansion joint have a sealing function? – Two-ply bellows design to withstand high pressure peaks and guarantee safe use.
- What is the expected stroke that the metal expansion joint is supposed to perform?
After discussing the dimensional parameters, also the type and length of the bellows neck need to be specified – e.g. weld ends or weather a bellows- assembly with flanges is needed.
Stainless steel expansion joints for solar thermal systems
Compensators for industrial applications are differentiated on the basis of three basic types of movement: axial, lateral and angular. Mera Bellows provides axial and universal expansion joints, especially for the field of solar thermal energy.
Solar thermal energy systems can get very hot, as they are exposed to the sun. On the other side, in many climate zones, the surrounding temperature of the system is also getting very low (day/night, summer/winter). Thermal expansion occurs, a common problem in piping systems due to the physical properties of metal. Installers need a time-saving possibility to build up a whole Solar thermal system (on roof or solar field) that is withstanding all meteorological effects (wind, sun, rain). Mera Bellows is able to supply formed stainless steel bellows in seam-welded design for this purpose. They are manufactured with a convenient and time-saving “plug-in” system and O-Ring sealing elements on both sides. These stainless steel expansion joints are reliably connecting the solar panels and compensating movements.
Advantages of metal expansion joints manufactured by Mera Bellows
- High quality standards within our German group
- Manufacturing facilities in Poland enable us to offer competitive prices
- On-time delivery
- Customized solutions
- Superior and personalized customer service
- Seamless and welded constructions
- Manufacturer with cutting-edge industry expertise
- 100% leak testing for all bellows and metal expansion joints
- Wide variety of materials


There are many opportunities during this time of life for you to talk to your child about what she's experiencing. Your child needs to understand the physical changes that will occur in her body during puberty.
Parent and child alike experience certain sexual anxieties as the youngster enters and moves through puberty. Keep the lines of communication open.
© Copyright 2009 American Academy of Pediatrics. All rights reserved.


8 Ways to Strengthen and Keep Your Heart Healthy
Living a heart-healthy life requires knowing the risks associated with unhealthy lifestyles and understanding your own individual risk factors for different heart diseases. Some individual risk factors can't be changed, such as your age, sex, or if you have a family history of previous heart disease. However, many habit-based lifestyle choices can be adjusted to decrease the chance of developing heart diseases like coronary heart disease, which is the most common heart condition that causes heart attacks.
It's important to start living a heart-friendly lifestyle before any signs of wear and tear begin to show. But how do you know if your heart healthy?
Here are some reliable signs that you have a healthy heart:
If you happen to have the opposite of the prior healthy heart signs, the following ten ways can help you as you look to becoming healthier and fitter.
1. Stay Hydrated
Did you know that if your heart beats on average 72 times a minute, it pumps approximately 7,600 liters per day?1. Because the heart is continually pumping blood, staying well hydrated helps relieve muscle strain by thinning out the blood. This makes it easier for the blood to move through your vessels and allows your heart to work more effectively.
If you are dehydrated, your heart tries to offset the lack of blood by beating faster. This increases your heart rate and ends up making your heart work harder than it has to.
2. Put down the cigarette
The swarm of chemicals that enter your body when you inhale in tobacco smoke damages and decreases your heart's ability to function properly. This damage that your heart takes from your smoking then increases your risk of atherosclerosis.2
Atherosclerosis is a condition when plaque, a waxy substance, has built up in the body's arteries. This happens over time. The more you smoke, the more the plaque accumulates and hardens. Your arteries become narrowed because of this plaque, which means your blood has a harder time reaching parts of your body. 2
TIP: Though difficult, with the proper support system and mindset, quitting smoking is possible. If you quit smoking and avoid secondhand smoke, it can help reverse heart damage and reduce your risk of heart disease.
3. Skip the alcohol
Heavy drinking is linked to several health conditions, including heart disease. Most notably, excessive alcohol consumption can lead to high blood pressure. If your blood pressure stays high (a condition called hypertension) for an extended period, you increase your risk of cardiovascular disease, which could lead to a heart attack or a stroke.
4. Minimize your salt intake
A diet that's high in sodium isn't good for anyone. But excessive salt intake over time could potentially produce high blood pressure (a condition called hypertension). High blood pressure increases your risk of developing different types of heart diseases and other health conditions such as strokes or kidney failure3.
To reduce the risk of these diseases, it's important to eat a diet that's low in sodium as it will lower or even prevent high blood pressure.
5. Manage your stress
Can stress cause heart disease? Short answer, yes (but mostly chronic stress).
Stress is known to cause an increase in inflammation in the body. It's this inflammation that is more closely linked to heart damage and various heart diseases as it is connected to factors like high blood pressure.4
Chronic stress and anxiety can also harm your heart more indirectly. When you're concerned and your stress levels rise, many people tend to sleep poorly, choose to eat healthy foods, and skip working out. These lifestyle choices may be correlated to your anxiety and stress levels, leading to a higher risk of heart disease.4
6. Stay Active
The best exercise for heart health is aerobic exercise, also known as cardio. Running, walking, cycling, jump roping, and swimming are all great exercises to keep your fitness levels up and your heart pumping strong. Tracking your activities and metrics (such as your resting heart rate (RHR), Maximum Heart Rate, daily steps, and calories burned) is a great way to have an accurate view and understanding of where you are in your fitness journey. It can also help you understand how well your heart is working and if improvements are needed.
7. Control your Cholesterol and Blood Pressure
Getting your cholesterol and blood pressure checked by your family doctor is key to early prevention and reducing your risk for heart disease.
If you have high blood pressure or unhealthy cholesterol levels, your doctor could suggest that you make significant lifestyle changes and/or prescribe medication to help manage them. Understanding your body and having the numbers you need is the best start to getting your levels into a healthy range.
8. Eat heart-friendly foods
Your diet and what you choose to eat and drink can increase or decrease your risk of heart diseases, high blood pressure levels, harmful cholesterol levels, weight gain, and your risk for diabetes.5
Eating a heart-healthy diet doesn't take as much effort as you may think.
The best heart healthy food list includes foods such as5:
It's also important not to over-eat. How much food you eat is almost just as important as what you're putting in your body.
You don't have to change all of your unhealthy habits at once. But starting to gradually create a healthier lifestyle and make better decisions that center around your heart health will help you live happier and healthier for longer. Follow these tips to strengthen and keep your heart healthy for long-term success!


My troops are poor Swedish and Finnish peasant fellows, it’s true, rude and ill-dressed; but they smite hard and they shall soon have better clothes.
GUSTAV II ADOLF [Gustavus Adolphus]
The early campaigns of Gustav Adolf and the beginning of Sweden’s rocky rise to power. This was a time when some of his innovations in weapons and tactics were in the embryonic stages and he fought the campaigns with a mixture of old and new. It was therefore a training ground and educational experience for the young king. We see the widespread improvements in armaments and tactics, the products of a military genius, which were to ultimately make Sweden a formidable military power.
The transition from the Middle Ages to the modern era that took place mainly in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries brought momentous changes to almost every aspect of life. These changes affected the arts, literature, politics, economics, science, technology, and the military.
Our main concern is with the military changes—or the military revolution as it is most frequently called in the literature. It can be argued persuasively that military changes were the driving force behind the political.
War was almost continual during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This state of affairs resulted, as was to be expected, in developments in weaponry, tactics, and extended durations of wars. The military changes, primarily in technology and weapons, started in the mid-fifteenth century on an evolutionary scale. However, as John Childs points out, changes that took place over several centuries cannot be labeled as revolutionary. It is only when these changes picked up speed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that they became revolutionary in nature.
The advances in technology in the late middle ages led—gradually at first—to modifications of all aspects of war by the early 1700s. During this period military operations devastated the population and countryside, and, as the monopoly of violence rested securely with the Crown, the accompanying increase in the size of armies and costs led to the rise of absolutism and autocracy across the continent.
THE MILITARY REVOLUTION
The armies prior to the Thirty Years War were relatively small and they were primarily mercenary based. Because of the expenses involved in training, nations increasingly moved toward permanent military establishments and away from the use of militia forces which were disbanded during the winter. Roberts has pointed out that the quick spread of technology was influenced by the use of mercenary forces that learned new technology in the service of one nation and then took that knowledge with them when they shifted employers.
Rapid growth in the size of armies characterized the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This stemmed from a number of factors such as the proliferation of wars, rise in population, sophisticated armament, increased specialization, and a large expansion of the support base.
The imperial forces numbered approximately 20,000 at the beginning of the Thirty Years War while the Protestant opposition amounted to some 12,000. A little more than a decade later the Catholic forces numbered over 150,000 and those under Swedish command were even larger.
New armaments, the move toward large standing military establishments, growing requirements for a large and sophisticated support base, and prolonged wars resulted in a steep rise in military expenditures and this led to major political changes in most countries. Downing has pointed out that the cost of a single cannon was equivalent to the feeding of 800 soldiers for a whole month. The whole transition in armament involved large expenses.
Economic considerations, then as now, dictated strategy. Countries were unwilling to risk the destruction of their armies—expensive investments— and therefore wars were for the most part short and indecisive in nature. Major engagements were avoided. The rare attempts to mount rapid and decisive campaigns usually failed because of poor communications and consequent lack of speed.
The solution adopted by most continental powers to deal with the steep increase in the costs of war was to raise standing armies. This transition took place in most countries in the last half of the seventeenth century. This did not mean that mercenaries disappeared from the scene. They continued to account for a sizable portion of a nation’s army, even into the nineteenth century. In the Thirty Years War, Sweden switched the burden of maintaining its armies to the territories in which they operated through what became known as the “contribution system.”
Since the 1950s we have entered a similar period with respect to advances in technology. The standing armies in most Western countries have been severely curtailed in size since the 1970s as we went to an all-voluntary system where personnel costs increased at the same time as there was an explosion in high cost technology. The cost of most military hardware has skyrocketed. The cost of a modern fighter or ground support aircraft as compared to similar aircraft in World War II tells the story, and this problem is prevalent across the board. It seems evident that we are now facing changes similar to those of the seventeenth century—increased centralization, heavy tax burdens, and the possible loss of individual freedoms.
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed a decline of the cavalry arm of most armies (Russia, Poland/Lithuania, and Turkey being notable exceptions). This change had been in progress well before that time period. The battlefield became more and more infantry dominated as the weapons of foot soldiers improved and became more effective. This required organizational and tactical changes.
In grappling with this problem in the early 1500s, Spain opted for an organizational structure resembling the Greek phalanx. The troops were armed with a mixture of pikes and firearms. The infantry, which gained prominence on the battlefield, was organized into units of 3,000 men (tercio), perhaps better known to the English reader as the “Spanish square.” It was devised, partially, as a means of making the matchlock handgun a more effective infantry weapon. Like the Greek phalanx, the “Spanish square” was expected to sweep everything before it.
The pikemen were in the center of these 100 by 30 man squares and the musketeers on the flanks. However, these formations reduced tactical flexibility because of their unwieldiness on the battlefield. Despite these shortcomings the Spanish square dominated the battlefields of Europe for over a century.
The heavy cavalry which had been in decline for centuries underwent a further decline as infantry weapons and artillery became deadlier. In the seventeenth century the ratio of cavalry to infantry had declined to about 25 percent. The light cavalry, however, was still very useful for pursuit, skirmishing, screening, and the interdiction of lines of communication.
MAURICE OF NASSAU’S REFORMS
It gradually became obvious that the Spanish system needed to be modified to make it more flexible and to make better use of manpower. The first important steps in the modification process were taken by Maurice of Nassau and Prince of Orange (1567–1625) who was a general in the United Provinces in their ongoing rebellion against Spain. He had an excellent theoretical and practical knowledge of warfare, and used the Roman legion as the model for his organizational reforms. The reforms that Maurice initiated resulted in a revolution of military organization and tactics during the seventeenth century.
Maurice’s primary contribution to the art of war can be found in the tactical employment of manpower. He sought battlefield flexibility by a reduction in both the size and depth of the infantry formations. Maurice modified the tercios by subdividing them into units of 580 men in ten ranks.
This new formation became the beginning of the modern linear formation. The companies were organized into battalion-size units with pikemen in the center and musketeers on the flanks. The objective was to allow the musketeers to deliver continuous fire by ranks before countermarching to the rear to reload. We thus see that the musketeers and pikemen were still linked in one unit but were no longer mixed so that a large number of soldiers were ineffective. With a maximum battalion front of about 250 meters this formation avoided the waste of manpower found in the Spanish square. The number of soldiers who could effectively use their weapons was virtually doubled.
While the pikes were supposed to protect the musketeers from cavalry attacks, the smaller units were more vulnerable to attacks on their flanks and rear than in the Spanish square. Maurice attempted to avoid this danger by adopting a checker-board battle formation, the spaces between battalions of the first line covered by echeloned battalions in the second line and by trying to rest the flanks on natural obstacles. If this was not possible, the flanks were protected by cavalry. The battalions were grouped into “brigade” formations in three distinct lines.
As Childs notes, the army reforms of Maurice of Nassau required extensive training and a high level of discipline—contributing factors leading to standing national forces. The success of the system required intensive training over all kinds of terrain and this is one of Maurice’s most important contributions. This training also made officers adept at handling and changing formations, and it was an effective way to keep troops busy between campaigns. Such practices as marching in step date from this period.
Maurice was also ahead of his time in experimenting with new weapons such as explosive shells. He insisted on the use of field fortifications, and developed new innovations that would reduce the time of sieges. He adopted field glasses for observation and had a great interest in mapmaking.
Maurice’s innovations did not solve all the problems associated with the Spanish square. The pikeman’s role was the same as before and the musketeers were still wed to the pike formation. In some ways, the new linear formation was not much more effective in defense than the system it replaced. The changes that Maurice brought about can be viewed as a transition between the earlier gunpowder era and the system adopted by Gustav Adolf. Gustav’s modifications to Maurice’s system basically lasted to the French Revolution, with minor modifications. Together, Maurice and Gustav’s fundamental concept of linear formation and mobility lasted until the twentieth century.
The science involving fortifications and sieges was also transformed. The old medieval stone walls were quickly demolished by cannon firing iron ammunition. New fortifications capable of withstanding cannon fire were expensive and beyond the means of most small states.
Geoffrey Parker mentions some other changes that took place in this period such as the emergence of military academies, the enactment of an embryonic form of “laws of war,” and the proliferation of writings on the art of war.
GUSTAV ADOLF’S REFORMS
It is easy to both overstate and understate the achievements of Gustav Adolf. There are examples of both extremes in the literature covering the period. It is true, as pointed out by Colonel Dupuy that many of Gustav’s innovations were adopted from others and, furthermore, he was not the only one during the period who sought to improve the military system. And Lynn Montross observes that with few exceptions, Swedish military reforms owed in some measure to the experiments by others … . A talented organizer, Gustavus began where his predecessors left off, taking the best of their ideas and combining them with his own.
Maurice of Nassau and Gustav Adolf were not simply military theorists but military practitioners. However, it is hard to find anyone who so successfully bridged the gap between concept and practice or fitted the pieces together in an integrated system as did Gustav. Aside from Genghis Khan, Gustav Adolf is the only great captain who won fame on the battlefield using an instrument mainly of his own design. Liddell Hart, who accords Gustav the title of “Father of Modern War,” writes that His outstanding achievement is in fact the tactical instrument that he forged, and the tactical “mechanism” through which this worked its triumphs.
Gustav’s accomplishments were many. He created mobile field artillery, made combined arms operations possible, restored the role of cavalry, and developed the modern role of infantry. He was more than the author of the linear tactics of the eighteenth century—he laid the foundation for the infantry tactics of the twentieth century. He organized the first national army and created the first effective supply service, imposed a system of discipline, and laid the foundation of military law.
Dupuy describes the army Gustav Adolf inherited thus:
At the time Gustavus Adolphus assumed the Swedish throne in 1611, the Swedish Army was in deplorable condition: poorly organized, under strength, short on pikes, musketeers equipped with the obsolete arquebus, and badly led. Administration was virtually nonexistent, recruitment at low ebb, morale poor …
To this can be added Sweden’s dire financial straits and a sense of weariness after nearly a century of almost continuous wars.
Gustav Adolf was not merely a copier or product improver; he introduced many changes of his own. We shall now look at some of these, both refinements and those based on originality.
The basic Swedish infantry tactical unit was the battalion or squadron consisting of 408 troops. This organization was still slightly pike heavy. There were 216 pikemen to 192 musketeers. Both pikemen and musketeers were arranged in three rectangular formations, each with a depth of six ranks. The difference was that all the pikemen were located in the center of the battalion formation with a frontage of 36 men while the musketeers were formed into two equal groups, one on each side of the pikemen. The frontage of each musketeer formation was 16 troops. Dupuy notes that an additional 96 musketeers were often attached to the battalion, performing out-posting, reconnaissance, etc. This formation enabled the battalions to deliver formidable firepower.
While Lord Reay, a contemporary English observer, among others, has left diagrams, there was no standard formation for the brigades, which were tactical units. They were “task organized.” Both size and formation depended on the battlefield, the enemy, strength of the battalions, and the experience of the troops. However, they usually consisted of between one full-size two-battalion regiment, and two reduced strength regiments. The numerical size usually varied between 1,000 and 2,000 men but this larger number strained the span of control. The three-battalion brigade in Figure 2 had 1,224 troops. Two regimental guns were usually attached and cavalry was often found in the rear, between the lines of infantry.
FIGURE 1: Standard Swedish Battalion Formation.
FIGURE 2: One Possible Swedish Brigade Formation.
Gustav Adolf also introduced “volley firing,” since the inaccurate match -locks and flintlocks were more effective when fired simultaneously. The volley fire was normally obtained by advancing the rear ranks of musketeers into the three-foot intervals between the musketeers in the front of them. This became the basis for European infantry tactics. According to a Scottish colonel, Robert Monro, who fought in the Swedish army as a mercenary for about six years, Gustav adopted a somewhat different method for delivering volley fire. According to Monro, Gustav had his first rank advance ten paces before the troops fired. The first rank then stopped in place to reload while the next rank passed through them to deliver its volley. This procedure was repeated for each rank. It had the advantage of always closing on the enemy and shortening the distance to the targets with each rank delivering increasingly accurate fire. Gustav had in effect changed the countermarch into an offensive operation.
There is some conflict or confusion in the literature when it comes to the Swedish use of volley fire. Dupuy writes:
Further, the countermarch was so executed that the whole formation moved forward, and the fire was, in effect, a small-arms rolling barrage. During this movement, the musketeers were protected by the pikes while they reloaded. Later, Gustavus introduced the salve, or salvo, further increasing the firepower of his line. In the salvo, three ranks fired simultaneously. This made continuous fire impossible, but it proved effective just before a climatic charge by producing a volume of fire in a few minutes at close quarters that in the countermarch would have taken a half-hour or more.
I have found that the full salvo by three ranks of infantry was used sparingly. The musketeers would be rather helpless after delivering such a salvo since they all had to reload at the same time and offensive action by the pikemen to cover the infantry after a full salvo was problematic unless the second line of three ranks had closed up to the first.
Robert Frost writes that on the third day of the Mewe engagements, the first line of Swedish musketeers had fired a salvo at the Polish infantry when they were swept off the high ground by hussars before they could reload. On the previous page he writes that the hussars, after driving the first Swedish line off the high ground were stopped by a salvo from a second line of Swedish infantry.
There are others who doubt that a full salvo was ever used. David Parrott contributed an article to Michael Roberts’ book Military Revolution Debate and on page 35 of that book Parrott questions both the effectiveness of the salvo and whether it had ever been used. Frost recognizes Parrott’s disagreement in a note. In that note he labels Parrott’s comment as unfounded and goes on to give an accurate description of a salvo: The salvo was specifically designed for use against cavalry attack, where two salvos in quick succession by two lines each three ranks deep was all that the defenders had time to deliver. The two lines of Swedish infantry at Mewe appear to have been more separated than was customary, and the two salvos were therefore not delivered in quick succession.
Gustav also made important changes in infantry weapons and equipment. Despite the fact that body armor was fast disappearing, the Swedish pikemen wore breastplates and greaves. A problem with the pike was that it was frequently severed by enemy cavalry using swords. To overcome this problem, Gustav sheathed the upper portion of the pike with a thin layer of iron. To compensate for the increased weight this caused, the pike was shortened from sixteen to eleven feet.
The arquebus was done away with and replaced by the matchlock musket. However, the earlier matchlock was also a heavy piece of equipment and required a fork rest to fire, adding to the weight a musketeer had to carry. In 1526, while engaged in his Polish campaigns, Swedish manufacturers invented a lighter musket with mechanical improvements permitting quicker loading. The heavy iron fork was also replaced by a thin double ended pike, known as a “Swedish feather.” It had a dual purpose. In addition to serving as a rest for the musket, it was also useful as a palisade stake in presenting an obstacle for enemy cavalry. The consequent reduction in the weight that a musketeer had to carry allowed him to be armed with a saber. Both the saber and the Swedish feather gave the infantry some defense against cavalry attacks.
By the end of the seventeenth century the flintlock had almost completely replaced the matchlock. The flintlock was generally less accurate and had a slower rate of fire than the improved matchlock. These were undoubtedly the reasons for the resistance by many practitioners to its adoption. However, the advantages were also great. First, it was less vulnerable to weather. Second, it removed the intrinsic and obvious danger of a lit match. Third, by the removal of the danger of accidents with lit matches, troops could be placed closer together, thus increasing the volume of fire delivered from a given space. To that can be added another important advantage of the improved musket: its increased penetration; the ball could penetrate some of the body armor of the day.
The introduction of the bayonet also took place during the seventeenth century. The plug bayonet appeared first in France in 1647. Forty years later the plug bayonet was replaced by the socket bayonet, where the bayonet is fastened to a socket on the musket barrel. By the first quarter of the eighteenth century the bayonet had replaced the pike.
The Swedes also standardized the caliber and the powder charge. Although the paper cartridge was apparently not a Swedish invention, they seem to have been the first to put it to full use as standard infantry equipment. The cartridge contained a carefully measured fixed charge with a one ounce ball attached. Each soldier carried fifteen cartridges in a cloth bandolier across his chest. When reloading all a soldier had to do was to bite off the end of the cartridge and push it into the musket with the ramrod. This saved many motions in reloading and represented a significant increase in fire power. In large measure due to constant training in the 1620s, the Swedish army improved reloading speed to the point where the six ranks of musketeers could maintain a continuous barrage.
The Swedish battalion bore a clear resemblance to those of Maurice. However, without the attached musketeers, it was slightly smaller. Both organizations were primarily defensive in nature but could be used offensively if properly reinforced and supported. To acquire an offensive capability several battalions had to be combined into a brigade adequately supported by cavalry and artillery.
The weaknesses of the linear formation were that it was no longer able to adequately defend its own flanks and rear. This problem increased with progressively fewer ranks in order to maximize firepower to the front. Gustav Adolf’s triangular and checkerboard brigade formation compensated for this weakness since the flank units could turn to present the enemy with a new front.
The Swedish cavalry was manned by volunteers, and most were light cavalry. The Swedish horses were small but performed well against the bigger horses in the continental armies. By 1630 Gustav Adolf had a cavalry force of 8,000 native Swedes and Finns. A high morale was maintained by regular pay supplemented with bonuses in the form of land or rental income.
Gustav realized, under the conditions then prevailing, that battles could not be won by firepower alone, and that he needed the shock power that only cavalry could provide. He discarded both the caracole and the customary deep cavalry formations. He formed the cavalry in six ranks as he used for the infantry but later changed that to three ranks. Although he had done away with the caracole the riders still carried pistols, but only the first rank fired and the others used them for emergencies. The main weapon was the saber. Firepower support was provided by musketeer detachments deployed between the cavalry squadrons. After an initial salvo to disrupt the enemy line, the musketeers reloaded while the cavalry charged. The reloading exercise was primarily to be ready for a second charge or to cover a cavalry retreat. The light regimental artillery guns could also lend fire support if needed.
The Swedes, like other armies of the period, employed dragoons. In the case of the Swedes, these were basically mounted infantry armed with carbine and saber. They were useful for a variety of tasks such as quick raids, skirmishing, and foraging. Through the employment of small units in this manner, Gustav Adolf was able to concentrate the organization and training of his regular cavalry for shock tactics only. A company of cavalry consisted of 115 men and a cavalry regiment had an average strength of 800 to 1,000.


Literature's Living Room is the return invitation into the homes, architectural and natural, of classic authors whose writings we, as listeners, invite into our own homes. In this first book of the series, we explore houses (now open for public view) and natural environments of many novelists who resided throughout England: Jane Austen, the Brontë Sisters, Lewis Carroll, Agatha Christie, Winston Churchill, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, Thomas Hardy, C. S. Lewis, A. A. Milne, William Morris, Beatrix Potter, and Virginia Woolf, among many others.
The book has an extensive glossary that deals with, authors, authors' families, other artistic figures, and royalty. Since environments inspired many writers, from Emily Bronte in Wuthering Heights and Beatrix Potter in The Tale of Peter Rabbit to J. R. R. Tolkien in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the book features a nature section by horticulturist Robbie Honey, raised in Zimbabwe and now working globally as a lecturer, a floral creative in the fashion industry (client brands Hermès, Dior, Armani, and Vivienne Westwood), and a writer for such publications as The Wall Street Journal.
The series has been created by lead author Mary Lee Costa, a graduate of Oxford University. Influenced in her formative years by such outlets as PBS, Mary Lee, who struggled with learning to read, came to value alternative approaches to education, such as coming to understand aspects of literature and history by touring house museums: the houses where great characters were created, from Oliver Twist to Alice in Wonderland, from Winnie-the-Pooh to Sydney Carton, from Mr. Darcy to Mrs. Dalloway, and from Jane Eyre to Miss Jane Marple.


WASHINGTON — A chemical used to make the nonstick substance Teflon is being considered by the Environmental Protection Agency as a potential health risk.
The EPA on Wednesday said that exposure to even low levels of perfluorooctanoic acid and its salts, known as PFOA, or C-8, could pose “a potential risk of developmental and other adverse effects.” Officials emphasized their draft risk assessment was not conclusive.
“We’ve not offered any determinations of risks,” said Charles Auer, director of EPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics.
Auer said the draft report, based on animal studies, would be sent to a science advisory board for helping determining the risks.
DuPont and EPA have been sparring over PFOA, used to make many of the company’s most popular products, which range from auto fuel systems, firefighting foam and phone cables to computer chips, cookware and clothing.
EPA states its 'concerns'
The agency said in a statement it “has concerns with respect to the potential nationwide presence of PFOA in blood and with the potential for developmental and other effects suggested by animal studies.” But it also said there are “significant uncertainties in the agency’s quantitative assessment of the risks of PFOA.”
Chemical maker DuPont Co., which is based in Wilmington, Del., and produces the chemical at a plant in Fayetteville, N.C., said Wednesday it welcomed EPA’s report and was trying to minimize people’s exposure to the chemical.
“Although, to date, no human health effects are known to be caused by PFOA, the company recognizes that the presence of PFOA in human blood raises questions that should be addressed,” DuPont officials said in a statement.
Initial research by EPA suggests that PFOA could be carcinogenic in rats — but the cancer hazard for people is less certain. It also indicates the chemical targets the liver and is present in the breast milk of rats.
The Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization that brought DuPont’s record on PFOA to EPA’s attention, said it believes EPA ignored its own scientific advice on defining the cancer-causing potential of the chemical to benefit DuPont.
“At every turn in this important process, EPA officials favored DuPont,” said Ken Cook, EWG’s president.
DuPont said its own study, based on 62 blood and urine tests among 1,000 employees at its Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, W.Va., showed “no human health effects known to be caused” by PFOA. It showed elevated levels of total cholesterol and fats called triglycerides among workers exposed to PFOA, but noted that the study data “did not indicate that PFOA was or was not the cause of the increases in serum cholesterol and triglycerides.”
Sol Max, DuPont’s chief medical officer, said “no association would be seen in the general public” for cholesterol and triglycerides, because exposure to the chemical was minimal outside a work setting.
In September, DuPont and residents around the Ohio Valley Teflon-making plant entered into a proposed legal settlement to resolve complaints that PFOA contaminated private wells and water sources in West Virginia and Ohio. DuPont has agreed to pay as much as $343 million to settle those claims.
At an EPA administrative court hearing last month, DuPont battled charges by EPA that it did not fulfill its obligation to release PFOA information to EPA. DuPont said it did and maintained that PFOA was harmless.
© 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


Possessive tense can be really confusing for young children. My students had a terrible time distinguishing between possessive vs. the plural form of a word. Boys vs. boy’s, houses vs. house’s, Moms vs. Mom’s proved to be too much for their tender brains. Just TELLING the kids to use an apostrophe for possession didn’t cut it either for some reason. Oh, that’s right. Just telling a child a rule to remember doesn’t work a lot of the time. A child would think, “I remember you are supposed to use the apostrophe for ONE of them, but I can’t remember which!”
That’s when we resort to our little list of rules:
1. Use a story to explain elements of learning
2. Relate each part of the lesson to known objects
3. Act it out whenever possible
4. Practice being lightPlural Means….
…More than one. Show the children a visual that shows the plural of a word. In our example, we are showing what “boys” and “Moms” mean – more than one of them. Our visual shows four boys and three moms.
…Belonging. In our visual, we see a boy and a dog. The word is “boy’s” and the boy’s arm reaching toward the dog is the visual for the apostrophe. In the second instance, Mom’s arm represents the visual for the apostrophe as well.
Act It Out
Have each child find something to “possess.” If Rosanna picks up a doll, she will say, “This is Rosanna’s doll.” Her arm would be around the doll showing she possesses the doll. If you have three children, you could put the doll on the rug and have one child pick it up as though finding it laying there lost. He would ask, “Whose doll is this?” One of the other children would answer, “It’s Rosanna’s doll.” Then the child who found the doll would give it to Rosanna who would wrap her arm around it, showing it belonged to her.One Sticking Point
It gets a bit tricky when it comes to “its” and “it’s.” In this case, “its” shows possession, while “it’s” is a contraction of “it” and “is.” A clue to share with the kids is that when reading the sentence, if it makes sense to change “it’s” to “it is,” then they are dealing with a contraction.
Example: “Look, it’s Tom!” or “Its foot.” It makes perfect sense to say “It is Tom” but it doesn’t make sense to say “It is foot.”Play a Game
To let children practice writing the possessive, write the names of the children in the class on the board, or if the names are displayed on the word wall, instruct the class to choose a name of a classmate, and then choose an object that will belong to that person. They can write “Jane’s bear” and illustrate it. Next they will choose another name and another object to write and illustrate. Depending on the amount of time you have, children could cut pictures of objects out of old magazines and use them in their illustrations.


+44 1803 865913
Concentrates on the origins and history of this landscape, tracing them from wood-pasture through royal forests and deer parks to the C18 landscape park and finally to the Victorian parks of urban areas. This is followed by a chapter outlining the conservation value of parklands and what their likely future is.
There are currently no reviews for this book. Be the first to review this book!
Your orders support book donation projects
Your quick and straightforward service saved the fieldwork for my PhD project in Kerala.
Search and browse over 110,000 wildlife and science products
Multi-currency. Secure worldwide shipping
Wildlife, science and conservation since 1985


What is the story behind the origin of Guptakashi? What are the legends mentioned in Puranas about Guptakashi near Kedarnath in Uttarakhand? As per the Hindu Scriptures, Guptakashi is one of the Sapta Kashis, Seven prominent Temples or holy places dedicated to Lord Shiva.
The legend holds that subsequent to the Kurukshetra war of the epic Mahabharata, the Pandavas on the advise of god Krishna and other sages wished to atone for their sins of fratricide and Brāhmanahatya committed by them during the war by seeking pardon from Shiva and also pray for his blessings before attaining salvation. But Shiva was not willing to meet them since he was annoyed with them for the unjust events of the war. He, therefore, avoided meeting them at Kashi and went incognito as the bull Nandi to Guptakashi in Uttarakhand.
But Pandavas pursued him to Guptakashi and recognized him in the disguised form of Nandi. When Bhima, the second Pandava brother tried to hold the bull by its tail and hind legs, Nandi vanished from Guptakashi, into the ground (into a cave for hiding), but reappeared later as Shiva in five different forms namely, hump at Kedarnath, face at Rudraprayag, arms at Tungnath, navel and stomach at Madhyamaheshwar and the locks at Kalpeshwar. The vanishing act of Shiva gave the name Guptakashi (hidden Kashi) to this place on the bank of the Mandakini River. In the upper reaches of the Bhagirathi River, there is another Kashi, called the Uttarkashi (North Kashi).
Hindu Religious History also states that Shiva proposed to Parvati at Guptakashi (on the road to Kedarnath) before they got married in the small Triyuginarayan village at the confluence of Mandakini and Sone-Ganga rivers.
According to Puranic literature, Kashi and Kanchi (Kanchipuram) are considered as two eyes of Shiva. Keeping this connotation in view, six more “Kashi”s have been prescribed to be as sacred and spiritual as the main Kashi – Varanasi. Pilgrims, who cannot undertake the long journey to the main Kashi, can travel to the closest Kashi.
The six other “Kashi”s cover all the regions of the country. These are: Uttarkashi and Guptakashi in Uttarakhand in Northern Himalayas, Dakshinkashi in southern India, the Guptakashi in eastern India is at Bhubaneswar, the Kashi at Nashik (also Paithan) in western India and a Kashi in Mandi in Himachal Pradesh in Western Himalayas. The Puranas state that all the Kashis have the same degree of sanctity and reverence as the main Kashi – Varanasi.
Another legend declares that when the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb demolished the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in 1669, and constructed Gaynvapi Mosque (he had even renamed Varanasi as Mohammadabad), the Shiva Linga was shifted to Guptakashi for safe keeping. But the original linga of Kashi Vishwanath is stated to have remained here from the time it was shifted.


When you are on assignment, often even with extensive research, there are variables you cannot prepare for. Challenges you find on assignment include:
- Light conditions
- Having to search for vantage points that work
- People are always moving around
Also even if you studiously pore over maps of the place you will be photographing, you still have the challenge of composing based on what the layout of the area really looks like when you encounter it with the light, weather, people, etc when you get there. You still have to search for vantage points that work for the story you are shooting.
To be a successful travel photographer, you have to become a successful visual problem solver. A visual problem solver takes the existing conditions of where she is shooting, and finds ways to arrange those conditions into a harmonious image.
Like many artistic skills, visual problem solving is actually made up of a complex subset of skills. Here are 10 practical ways to practice your visual problem solving.
Â Ways to practice visual problem solving
1. One lens or focal length.
Making images with one focal length is a limitation, but it is a limitation that allows you to free up your creative problem solving skill of composing with a constraint. Constraints like simply using a 50mm for an entire story is something that can help â€˜forceâ€™ you to compose in creative ways. You have to zoom with your feet with one focal length. You have to move around. What this does is simply get you into the habits that allow for creative visual interpretations of whatâ€™s in front of you. If you have a zoom lens on, like your kit lens, donâ€™t worry. Simply tape the lens to the desired focal length you want to work with for the week, and donâ€™t change it!
2. Tell a story using a theme.
Themes can do wonders for your creativity because it is another constraint that you can impose on your image making that will challenge you to discover ways of solving a visual problem. Interpreting the theme you choose can hone your observation skills, composition skills, and all the other discrete skills demanded of a creative shooter. For example, you could shoot the theme â€˜blueâ€™ today! There are many ways to interpret this theme. It could be the color blue, the many hues of blue, or it could be the metaphorical blue, interpreted by images that show abandonment, sorrow, etc.
3. Crop in camera.
If you tell yourself that every frame must contain only whatâ€™s necessary to tell the story, you are giving yourself an opportunity to become a great visual problem solver.
Copyright Aloha Lavina.
These days with humungous digital RAW files, itâ€™s easy to just snap away and crop your compositions later. But what this does is make for a lazy visual problem solver. If you ever want to be a photographer on assignment, you want to get the compositions right in camera; often your editor will expect the files as they are when itâ€™s time to submit a story. Practicing this composition in-camera skill will enhance your visual problem solving skill and improve your photos dramatically. You might even find that you donâ€™t need to spend hours in post-processing because your straight-from-camera pictures are already breathtaking as they are. Imagine that: less time on the computer, more time to shoot!
4. Look at things in fresh ways.
Take a page from poetry. Wallace Stevens has a great poem called â€œ13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbirdâ€ where he explores how to see in 13 very short stanzas. Looking at things in fresh ways means to move not just your feet, but your mindâ€™s eyeâ€”what can you see if you look at a subject in a different way? Given a theme, what would be a list of ways you could look at it? Changing up your point of view not just physically but also mentally can change the way you interpret the subject.
5. Using design principles.
Line, form, color, balanceâ€”these are always great themes to shoot. Spending some time composing using graphic design themes can inject freshness into your imagery. These are also elements you can find in every setting, so you will never run out of things to photograph.
6. Photograph the light.
There is no more beautiful way to interpret a place than by recording the way the light falls on it. A tree is a tree is a tree, but a tree in great light is a beautiful photo.
Copyright Aloha Lavina.
Â 7. Vary your exposure.
Changing your exposure subjectively is a great way to interpret scenes and give them mood and atmosphere. You can try high-key images, or images that are overexposed to give them a bright, cheerful mood. Or you can underexpose to change the mood and give it a bit of mystery. You can spend a lot of time photographing one scene, and vary the exposures with which you capture it. Then you would have a lot of images to choose from, to tell the story. Making subjective exposures gives you a way to bring emotion into your images.
8. Vary technique.
There are some themes commonly used in travel photography that would work to help you vary the techniques you use to capture a place. Panning, light painting, and slow shutter work are some of the techniques you can use to creatively interpret your vision while on assignment. Practicing these techniques wherever you go can give you a variety of images that might give you more insight into a place.
9. Use color in various ways.
Color is everywhere, so this is a great way to explore a new place. But making color work for your image is a skill that can help you move beyond just making eye candy, into making expressive images.
Seeing how colors complement each other, or how it affects the mood of an image, is a great skill and can help you in visual problem solving. For instance, a spot of blue in an otherwise all-yellow-and-green landscape might make a better photo.
Copyright Aloha Lavina.
You can also influence color in your images by changing up your white balance settings. (You can change white balance in RAW, so if you shoot in RAW the white balance setting is quite irrelevant. But if you need a visual feedback system for the â€˜feelingâ€™ color produces in an image, try shooting in a different white balance just to be able to see the effect on your image on the LCD screen.)
10. Use contrast to add interest to an image.
Iâ€™ve discussed some techniques for using contrast in images over at LightStalking. Spotting contrast is another way to add interest to your images. Practicing seeing contrastâ€”in content, color, values, size, lines, textureâ€”hones your observation skills and gives you a whole new way of seeing.
With some patience and perseverance, you can train yourself to be an effective visual problem solver. Practice will make these skills part of your natural workflow, so start on them today!
Which of these 10 have you tried? What have you done to produce an image you loved?
Welcome back and thanks for reading Imagine That!
If you like whatâ€™s on the blog, let us know by commenting! Even if you donâ€™t like whatâ€™s on the blog, leave a comment any way, but please keep it nice. To keep updated with new posts, subscribe to Imagine That! by clicking on the RSS Feed button on the upper right of the Homepage. It would also be cool to be friends with you on Facebook, or connect with you on Twitter.
You might also like:
Confessions of a Photoshop User
Are You Paying Attention?
Finding Good Photos where they Hide
Why You Should Shoot Like Johnny Depp
Sell an Experience, Not Just Photos


Such therapies might have the potential to protect against anthrax during the late stages of the disease, after antibiotics have lost their therapeutic value, they added.
The team found that human cells deficient in the so-called LDL receptor-related protein (LRP6) become resistant to anthrax toxin. Furthermore, antibodies against LRP6 protected cells from anthrax toxicity, reported study authors Wensheng Wei and Stanley Cohen of the Stanford University School of Medicine in collaboration with others at Stanford and the National Institutes of Health. The level of anthrax protection afforded by the antibodies rose with increasing dose.
Anthrax is a lethal disease of humans and other animals caused by the spore-forming bacteria Bacillus anthracis, which has been the focus of biological interest and bioterrorism concern. The virulence of the bacteria depends on separate complexes formed by interaction of a carrier protein, protective antigen, with lethal and edema factors responsible for the toxic effects and swelling that impairs the host's immune response.
In the current study, the researchers inactivated genes randomly in human cells. They then examined the mutated cells for resistance to anthrax toxin in an effort to identify host genes that have important roles in infection, with the hope of finding possible new targets for therapies aimed at the host instead of the bacteria. The method allows for the identification of required host cell genes without pre-conceptions about their potential to play a role, the study authors said.
The study revealed that LRP6 acts as a co-receptor, enabling cells to take up anthrax toxin through its interactions with two distinct cell- surface proteins earlier shown to bi


In our recent article about paid leave in Japan, we mentioned the importance of public holidays in supplementing the – some would say – meager statutory leave entitlement available to workers in Japan. One of these national holidays is Labour Thanksgiving Day (勤労感謝の日 – Kinrō Kansha no Hi), observed on November 23rd.
Labour Thanksgiving Day was established by law back in 1948, along with many of Japan’s national holidays, and was described as an occasion for commemorating labour and productivity, and giving each other thanks. However, November 23rd (and its pre-Gregorian equivalent) had been a notable date on the Japanese calendar for several centuries as an agricultural festival known as Niiname-sai (新嘗祭).
The history behind national, public, and bank holidays around the world is often one of ancient traditions being supplanted by a pre-eminent authority. The spread of Christianity in Europe as both a spiritual and political force, saw many then existing, and far older pagan festivals and observances hijacked, if you will, for the church’s purposes. Christmas, for example, replaced several pagan winter festivals in Northern Europe and the British Isles, as well as the Roman Saturnalia festival.
So it is with Niiname-sai (sometimes read as Shinjō-sai), a fairly innocuous Shinto harvest festival in which farmers gave thanks for an abundant rice harvest (or other cereal crops) and recognised everyone’s hard work over the year. The festival has been traced back to at least the 7th Century AD, but was likely to be several centuries older, depending on which source one consults. It was also closely linked to the Japanese Imperial household since the time of Emperor Tenmu (667-686 AD), and this was a problem for the post-war authorities.
In drafting the new Japanese constitution and revising the country’s legislature, the occupation forces were careful to exclude or alter almost anything related to Shintoism or Emperor worship. Thus, Niiname-sai was replaced with the current Labour Thanksgiving Day along the lines of the United States’ Labor Day, though on a different date.
From Niiname-sai to Kinrō Kansha no Hi
The meaning of Niiname-sai is something like Festival of the First Taste, which relates to a tradition of the Emperor taking the first taste of the rice harvest and dedicating it to the gods. Indeed, the Imperial household still observes the festival privately and some Shinto shrines and temples may hold modest observances on that day. But few ordinary people give it any thought at all, or indeed have any real familiarity with Shinto traditions; interest in the official state religion has waned considerably throughout the post war era.
It’s tempting to compare this with near empty churches in some ostensibly Christian countries, such as the UK during the same epoch, but that would be a mistake. Religion in Japan is never simply a matter of believing or not believing, rather it is a state of mind that pervades everything from daily life choices to the arts, from aesthetics to philosophy, and more. And in this respect, Buddhism seems a much better fit for the Japanese psyche, particularly in this modern era. But this is another discussion altogether, one we may return to at a later date.
The point is, it wasn’t hard for Japanese people to put aside the Festival of the First Taste for a more accessible and generally relevant Labour Thanksgiving Day, especially if it guaranteed them a day off work. For a while, the spirit of the festival was actively observed, and older people may remember a time when school children designed posters or wrote letters for their local koban (police box) or fire brigade to thank them for keeping them safe and secure during the year; and when families honoured hard working fathers, perhaps with a special meal or a bottle of his favourite shōchū. But this is rare these days.
Labour Thanksgiving Day
Although most often described as an Autumn festival, Labour Thanksgiving Day is not so much a seasonal celebration as a societal one. In view of improved workers rights that were introduced around the time of the holiday’s establishment, it’s not surprising that the principal celebrants are industry, trade unions and city councils. Besides, ordinary Japanese people celebrate Autumn throughout mid October to late November by flocking to the parks, temples and countryside to marvel at the vivid orange hues of changing leaves; they don’t need a special holiday to do that!
In my experience, there are few Labour Thanksgiving Day events per se, certainly very few that might interest tourists, journalists or casual visitors, with the possible exception of the Nagano Labour Festival. You will see a lot of references to the Nagano Labour Festival on the internet, and how it aims to increase awareness of issues such as world peace, human rights, the environment and so on, though I suspect the writers are simply repeating what they’ve read elsewhere and have not actually attended it themselves.
As one who has attended Nagano Labour Festival, I have to say I found it to be a rather dry affair, of more interest to the already-converted than to the average day tripper. Fortunately for the organisers – mostly local labour organisations – the festival coincides with the Nagano Ebisuko fireworks display, the only Autumn fireworks display in Japan, so at least some important messages will get across to those visitors who choose to kill time at the Labour festival before the evening’s attraction.
However, irrespective of the historical basis for Labour Thanksgiving Day, or the somewhat egalitarian flavour of its precept, the majority of working Japanese won’t be celebrating much beyond the chance to catch up on some shut-eye. And because the shops are all still open, teenage girls, like my daughter, will be able to indulge in their favourite pastime: shopping. Whether they thank their parents for making it possible or not is another thing entirely.
What About May Day?
For those of us born out of an enduring socialist tradition, May Day has long been an important date for remembering workers’ struggles to achieve an 8 hour working day, better working conditions, and the right to union representation. May 1st, if I’m not mistaken, was the date of another of those early European Pagan festivals… a Spring time fertility rite… but I digress.
As for Japan, May Day is not a national holiday as it is in the UK or US (as Labor Day), but because it occurs during Golden Week (between Shōwa Day on April 29th, and Constitution Memorial Day on May 3rd) many employers give it as a day off, or employees simply use a day of paid vacation in order to extend the holiday period. However, trade unions in all the major cities organise May Day marches and rallies, if only to express solidarity with their brothers and sisters in Japan and around the world.
The Labour Movement in Japan
As you might imagine, Japanese workers had their fair share of struggles historically, with significant disputes throughout the late 19th and early 20th Centuries in pursuit of an 8 hour working day, etc. But it was not until 1945 that the Trade Union Act finally allowed Japanese workers to openly unionise, bargain collectively and even strike. Since then, there’s been a tradition of activism within the trade union movement, and not all of it solely for the benefit of Japanese workers.
Consider, if you will, the 1995-1998 Liverpool dockers dispute and the solidarity shown them by dockers’ unions around the world. From the Western seaboard of the United States, right across Europe to Russia, to Australia and New Zealand, and to Asia, dockers’ unions were organising protests and refusing to handle cargo to or from Liverpool, none more so than in Japan. The then Assistant General Secretary of the Japanese Dockers’ Union, Akinobu Itoh, even travelled to Liverpool to address the Liverpool dockers and show solidarity.
A Final Thought
Whether it’s November 23rd or May 1st, a day off is a day off, right? But what we must all remember on days such as Labour Thanksgiving Day, and May Day, is the terrible price that so many of our forefathers paid so that we could enjoy the rights and privileges we have today. It is our duty, therefore, to ensure that those rights are not usurped or abrogated, and to continue to fight on behalf of those whose rights are under threat, wherever they may be.
By Bill Ambler
?Read more TalentHub blogs: https://talenthub.jp/blog/


The lawsuit was filed against the local government near Rio Vilcabamba in Marchwho were responsible for a road expansion project that dumped debris into the river, narrowing its width and thereby doubling its speed. The project was also done without the completion of an environmental impact assessment or consent of the local residents.
To the diversity of life: Change must begin somewhere, sometime; perhaps Bolivia is inventing the social model and role of governance that will demonstrate how globally we can transcend the divisions and conflicts, beyond the destruction and despair that we feel, toward an harmonious, effective, efficient, and equitable society connected by the true value of nature as sustainer.
Nature shall be the subject of those rights that the Constitution recognizes for it. These funds would be used to fund other economic initiatives to alleviate poverty and develop the renewable energy sector. Develop balanced forms of production and patterns of consumption to satisfy the needs of the Bolivian people to live well, while safeguarding the regenerative capacity and integrity of the cycles, processes and vital balance of Mother Earth.
Instead of treating the Earth and all nonhuman life as a collection of objects, we must recognize a community of subjects. The right to maintenance or restoration of the interrelationship, interdependence, complementarity and functionality of the components of Mother Earth in a balanced way for the continuation of their cycles and reproduction of their vital processes.
In both countries, extractive industries continue to expand into indigenous territory, pursuing oil in Ecuador and mining in Bolivia. Demand international recognition of environmental debt through the financing and transfer of clean technologies that are effective and compatible with the rights of Mother Earth, among other mechanisms.
There are those who call this "progress". Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects. Neither living systems nor processes that sustain them may be commercialized, nor serve anyone's private property. But even this might not be far enough. The right to preserve the quality and composition of air for sustaining living systems and its protection from pollution, for the reproduction of the life of Mother Earth and all its components.
But this moves forward nonetheless, as an endeavor initiated and supported by Bolivian political groups representing some three million voters, is on its way to finalization and implementation as national law, supported by the local and national government, with an already existing ministry to implement revisions to the legal system and to continue the applicable programs already underway.
This differs from traditional systems that see nature as property, giving landowners the right to damage or destroy ecosystems that depend on their land. Its representatives in court were an American couple with riverfront property, who sued the provincial government of Lojaarguing that a planned road project would deposit large quantities of rock and excavation material into the river.
Controversially, it will also enshrine the right of nature "to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities". This restoration shall be apart from the obligation of the State and natural persons or legal entities to compensate individuals and communities that depend on affected natural systems.
Looking toward the future, one can easily despair over the scale of change required, the intractability of vested interests and governments, and the human energy and imagination required to make any change for the better.
Persons, communities, peoples, nations and communities are bearers of rights and shall enjoy the rights guaranteed to them in the Constitution and in international instruments. Participate actively, individually or collectively, in generating proposals designed to respect and defend the rights of Mother Earth.
Exploiting and harming the rest of life is as perverse as if we thought we could enhance one part of our body by destroying the rest.
The binding principles that govern this law are: Margil and other members of the Defense Fund were invited as a result of their environmental litigation and legislative work with municipalities in the United States. Guarantee of the regeneration of Mother Earth.
Respect and defend the rights of Mother Earth. Nature has the right to be restored. This is the first constitution that has incorporated indigenous concepts of sumak kawsay and Pachamama, as well as recognized the plurinationality of Ecuador. We indigenous people can contribute to solving the energy, climate, food and financial crises with our values," he said.
The Plurinational State, at all levels and geographical areas and across all authorities and institutions, has the following duties: Around the world many people are coming to see the present world system as a form of suicidal madness.
The proceedings also confirmed that the burden of proof to show there is no damage lies with the defendant. Human activities, within the framework of plurality and diversity, should achieve a dynamic balance with the cycles and processes inherent in Mother Earth.
This Act is intended to recognize the rights of Mother Earth, and the obligations and duties of the Multinational State and society to ensure respect for these rights. But the abstract new laws are not expected to stop industry in its tracks. The State shall give incentives to natural persons and legal entities and to communities to protect nature and to promote respect for all the elements comprising an ecosystem.
The Bolivian economy does rely heavily on natural resource export activity, earning a significant part of its foreign exchange thereby. The importance of keeping the oil in the ITT area in the ground has been argued as of international importance to mitigate the effects of global climate change by preventing CO2 emissions and the local environmental devastation the extraction would cause.
The indigenous of the world are not a homogenous group that inherently cares for nature. In the indigenous philosophy, the Pachamama is a living being. We don't agree with all he says. Establishing the Office of Mother Earth, whose mission is to ensure the validity, promotion, distribution and compliance of the rights of Mother Earth established in this Act.
RIGHTS OF NATURE ECUADOR& BOLIVIA Cynthia Navarrete • Ecuador: President Rafael Correa • Bolivia: President Evo Morales • Ecuador and Bolivia are increasingly admired on the international scene for their opposition to U.S. interference in the democratic processes of the 21st-century.
Bolivia is set to pass the world's first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans. The Law of Mother Earth, now agreed by politicians.
Is it possible to justify resource extractivism to provide progressive welfare politics and still respect the constitutional rights of nature? The Indigenous concept of Sumak Kawsay on human beings living in harmony with each other and the environment is the fundamental framing of the new constitutions of Ecuador and Bolivia.
Ecuador is the first country to recognize Rights of Nature in its Constitution. A great first step for humanity towards a change of paradigm! Ecuador rewrote its Constitution in and it was ratified by referendum by the people of Ecuador in September Ecuador’s approach to nature’s rights, which was soon emulated in Bolivia, were notable in two ways.
First, it grants nature positive rights – that is, rights to something specific. Today, CELDF’s International Center for the Rights of Nature is working in India, Nepal, Australia, Cameroon, Colombia, the United States, and other countries, assisting people, communities, and groups to advance the Rights of Nature.
InBolivia hosted the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth.Rights of nature ecuador and bolivia


NANJING, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- A joint research project by scientists from China, the U.K. and the U.S. has discovered how the earliest trees on earth grew.
Cladoxylopsida, technically a species of fern, appeared around 390 million years ago.
Researchers from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Cardiff University and the State University of New York conducted the research based on well-preserved fossils of tree trunks unearthed in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
The species became common more than 100 million years before dinosaurs existed. The density of carbon dioxide in the air dropped at that time, allowing tetrapod vertebrates to transition to living on land.
The scientists found that the early tree trunks were composed of numerous individual strands of xylem, the plant's water-conducting cells. The structure allowed the tree to have several sets of annual ring networks, compared to just one set in modern trees.
Xu Honghe, from the Nanjing institute and chief scientist on the project, said each of the xylem strands could expand to add additional annual rings, or divide to produce a new xylem strand system.
"The extinct fern was the earliest tree species that formed forests. Its multi-xylem strand structure was capable of producing trees of large size that cannot be found today," Xu said.
He said the research would help scientists better understand the early evolution of the terrestrial ecosystem, and allow for further comparative study of early and modern trees.
The research was published in the science journal PNAS on Tuesday.


Did you know that, by law, a web hosting company has to disclose who owns the site? Pertinent contact information must also be included.
Why is this necessary? Well, if someone comes across a site that they deem questionable, they can report the site for its future removal from the internet.
Think of a domain name like your cell phone contact list. You probably don't dial numbers for your close friends and family. Instead, you choose a name from your list of contacts. When you choose the name and select “dial” or “call,” the number stored under that contact is dialed for you. A domain name is like the contact name, relating directly to IP address of the corresponding computer, like the phone number related to that contact in your list.
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) regulates these requirements, assuring that proper information is listed for each web hosting company. The data related to this contact information is called “Whois data/ who owns the site” and is actually public record information. It includes not only registrar contact information such as phone number, fax, and email, but creation date and server information as well.
Whois Data must be updated annually, and any false information provided by the registrar can result in the cancellation of the associated domain name. It is up to the registrar to keep this information accurate and up to date. It is also important to note that registrars must be accredited by ICANN in order to register any domain name.
Here is how you can determine who hosts the website you are visiting.
Who's Hosting: InterNIC
InterNIC, run by the US Department of Commerce, is a site built to store information available to the public regarding web hosting companies and the sites they host. Simply head to the InterNIC website, and click “Domain.” Type in the address of the website in question minus the “http://” and “www,” click submit, and InterNIC displays every detail about the site: “Registrar” is the web hosting company in charge of managing the site; “Whois Server” is the web address of the hosting company.
To display contact details, head to the web hosting company's site directly, or use the “Search Again” box at the top of the page by copying and pasting the registrar's name inside, assuring you select the “Registrar” option rather than “Domain.”
Who's Hosting: Whois.net
Whois.net is another big name in the world of revealing website hosting company details. As with InterNIC, type the domain name (everything that comes between the “www.” and “.com”) directly into the “WHOIS” search box. Click “Go,” and if you scroll down to “Registrar Name,” you'll be treated to the name of the web hosting company. Along with the name of the company, you'll see phone number, address, and email address for the registrar.
Other sites out there provide a comparable service, such as the Whois page on NetworkSolutions.com, whois.domaintools.com, and Who.is.
Who's Hosting: What To Do With The Information
So you've discovered who hosts the site in question. Now what? Use the provided contact information and bring your problem directly to the registrar, so that they may correct the problem.
What if it's a serious offense? Issues like theft of content, spamming, or a site committing identity theft will lead to the web hosting company shutting down the site.
If you just cannot get in touch with the registrar directly, or worse — the registrar is not following Whois policy (the Registrar Accreditation Agreement) or complying with ICANN — bring your problem directly to InterNIC. They will investigate and take action to correct the inaccurate data.


In an average year, the U.S. sees only seven human cases of the rare and severe neurologic disease Eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE. But so far this year about 30 cases have been reported nationwide, and a pair of deaths this week brings the number of 2019 EEE fatalities up to 11, highlighting continuing risks associated with the mosquito-borne illness.
On Oct. 1, Connecticut health officials announced that a person in their 60s had died from EEE, the state’s third such death this year; another person in the state remains hospitalized due to EEE, officials said. The next day, Michigan health officials announced that a fourth person in that state had died from the disease, bringing the national death count up to an estimated 11.
Here’s what to know about the rare but serious illness EEE.
What is EEE?
EEE virus is transmitted to humans by the bites of infected mosquitoes, but it cannot be spread person-to-person. Symptoms begin with headache, fever, chills and vomiting, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and can progress in serious cases to include neurologic issues such as brain inflammation (encephalitis), disorientation, seizures and coma. About one third of those who get EEE die, the CDC says.
Where has EEE been detected?
The disease is most common in Atlantic and Gulf Coast states, though it does sometimes pop up in other regions, according to the CDC. This year, cases have been reported in Michigan, Tennessee, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Jersey, according to provisional estimates from the CDC. Four people have died from EEE in Michigan, three people have died in both Connecticut and Massachusetts and one person has died in Rhode Island.
When does EEE season end?
EEE cases are most commonly reported from late spring to early fall, according to the CDC—so incidence should begin to decline soon, despite the pair of recent deaths. However, the CDC warns that rare cases of the disease do occur into the winter in warmer climates, such as in the Gulf States. An unseasonably warm late summer and early fall may also extend mosquito season in some parts of the country.
Can you prevent EEE?
The best and simplest way to prevent EEE is to prevent mosquito bites by wearing insect repellent on skin and clothes; maintaining screens on doors and windows to keep mosquitoes out of indoor spaces; and avoiding letting water collect in places like flower pots, buckets and barrels, since mosquitos are drawn to standing water.
Prevention is the best medicine, since there is no specific treatment for EEE, according to the CDC.


As the years go by, more and more of us find it increasingly important to protect the environment by changing our habits. In most cases, the biggest way to contribute to a healthy planet is to cut our reliance on carbon-based fuel sources that can pollute the environment and increase our carbon footprint. Thankfully, there are many eco-friendly alternatives for generating power, but only a few of them are practical enough to fit into a home.
In fact, one of the only renewable sources of energy that we can recommend for the home is solar. As the technology improves over time, it’s becoming clear that solar will be the go-to source of energy generation in the future for many different reasons.
Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/_XxvXRdacDo (CC0)
It reduces your electricity bills
Solar isn’t good enough to power your entire home just yet, but it can offer immediate savings to your energy bills. They’re efficient enough to power certain parts of your home and will contribute to your overall power usage. These savings might seem insignificant at first, but as solar technology improves over time, we can expect to see even greater energy savings. In the future, we’ll likely see more solar panels that produce more energy and are far more efficient, so it’s never a bad idea to adopt the technology now.
It’s surprisingly space-efficient
One of the best places to put solar panels is on your roof. This is a part of your home that you’re rarely ever going to use. Your roof protects your home and suffers general wear and tear which requires maintenance. This means you’ll eventually need to climb up and clean it, but other than that, there’s no real use for your roof and there’s no downsides to having a couple of solar panels on it.
It’s easy to install and maintain
You could try and install solar panels on your own, but it’ll require you to have some electrical knowledge and the tools required to fix them onto your roof. The alternative is to contact Iowa Solar or another local solar panel company to help you install it. They’ll likely perform a quick site inspection before offering different solar panels choices, then they’ll be hooked up to your local electricity grid and you’ll instantly start saving money. Maintaining them is also simple. All they need is a quick wash every couple of months to clean off any debris or dirt which could prevent them from working correctly. They have no moving parts which mean they won’t suddenly stop working due to wear and tear.
It has many different applications
You’d be surprised at just how diverse the applications of solar in the home are. Solar is typically just integrated into your home’s electrical grid, but you can also set up solar panels so they power specific parts of your home. For example, if you carry out important work at home and are worried about a power outage affecting your productivity, then you could route all of the solar energy to your home office to ensure that you can continue working even during adverse weather conditions.
If you like what you’ve read here, please let others know of this post, blog, and site.
And thanks for reading! 🙂


World Statistics Day
Table of Contents
The 20th of October 2010 will be the first ever World Statistics Day (WSD), a day created to recognize the achievements the global statistics systems at both national and international levels. The day, which was created by the United Nations Statistics Division, will advocate the work of many statisticians across the world who work within different settings, cultures and domains.The three key words chosen to highlight WSD are Service, Professionalism and Integrity.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated “Let us make this historic World Statistics Day a success by acknowledging and celebrating the role of statistics in the social and economic development of our societies and by dedicating further efforts and resources to strengthening national statistical capacity”
The OECD is also celebrating World Statistics Day, centering the day around “Better Data for Better Policies”. After Mr. Marcos Bonturi, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Secretary-General, opens the meeting, Statisticians from throughout the OECD will showcase how they use statistics in innovative ways in their day to day work. After the presentations, interactive displays will show some of the innovative methods for using and disseminating statistics.
Wikigender and World Statistics Day
Discover some of the gender statistics-related articles available on Wikigender, edit them or add your own!
- Gender statistics
- Gender Statistics: 1975 and Beyond
- Use of Gender Statistics
- United NationsECE Gender Statistics Database
- United NationsECE/WBI Statistics Training
- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Institute for Statistics
- Composite indicator
- Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base
- 2009 Social Institutions and Gender Index
- Gender Statistics of Chinese Taipei
- Global Rape Statistics
Wikiprogress and World Statistics Day
Wikiprogress is also planning on celebrating World Statistics Day. This page will be updated throughout the day with interesting data and comments. If you would like to support Wikiprogress and celebrate with the wikis, please feel free to use the flyer below.
See also, in Wikiprogress
- List of national statistics office websites by country
- Progress eXplorer
- New ProgBlog post
- 11-13 October 2010: 3rd Global Forum on Gender Statistics
- World Statistics Day Official site
- OECD World Statistics Day site
- UNStat Calender of Events for WSD
- National Statistics Day


Consequences of Runaway and Thrownaway Experiences for Sexual Minority Health during the Transition to AdulthoodJournal of LGBT Youth (2017)
Sexual minority youth are more likely to run away from home or experience homelessness, leaving them at increased risk of victimization and negative health outcomes. In this study, the authors use a developmental perspective that considers both vulnerable beginnings in families and the risky trajectories that follow to explore the connections between running away or being thrown out by parents and sexual minority women's and men's health in adulthood. Using four waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), the authors consider multiple dimensions of health and several potential intervening mechanisms. Findings suggest that runaway and thrownaway experiences have persistent negative effects on health into adulthood, in part because of their association with sexual victimization, educational attainment, and relationships with parents. Sexual minority men who have been thrown out by parents report a greater likelihood of suicidal ideation, smoking, and substance use into adulthood. Sexual minority women with runaway experiences have poorer health and increased depressive symptoms, while women with thrownaway experiences engage in more health risk behaviors. Sexual victimization stands out as a key mechanism for sexual minority women's health, as more than half of these young women report experiences of sexual victimization.
- Sexual minorities,
- runaway youth,
- transition to adulthood
Publication DateFebruary, 2017
Citation InformationJennifer Pearson, Lisa Thrane & Lindsey Wilkinson (2017) Consequences of runaway and thrownaway experiences for sexual minority health during the transition to adulthood, Journal of LGBT Youth, 14:2, 145-171, DOI: 10.1080/19361653.2016.1264909