AYSRH ToolkitDelivering Services for Youth
Out-of-Facility Service Delivery
What is it?
Youth-friendly health services can be provided in a health facility (such as a health center, clinic, or hospital), or in an “out-of-facility” setting. Young, poor, or hard-to-reach people have many challenges reaching a traditional facility. An out-of-facility setting or approach may serve them better. TCI’s Hubs have used the following approaches:
- Mobile outreach services
- Community-based services
- Drug shops and pharmacies
- Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services in non-health settings (such as workplaces or youth centers)
- School-based health clinics
What Are the Benefits?
- Reaches more marginalized, vulnerable groups of young people: Young people may be apprehensive of traditional facility-based health services for many reasons (for example, lack of trust, feeling judged or unwelcome, the cost of travel, or isolation). Some groups of urban young people—like young people who use drugs, are homeless, or those residing in slum areas—are even more likely to feel unwelcome at traditional facilities. Providing out-of-facility services can be a means of reaching them.
- Addresses issues like long waiting times, lack of privacy, and limited awareness of service availability: Research reveals that even for less-marginalized groups, health service facilities are difficult to access. Long waiting times, lack of privacy, and lack of awareness of service availability (especially among recent migrants) prevent many young people from seeking health services. Providing out-of-facility services can address these barriers. Innovative models such as vouchers and social franchises increase adolescents’ knowledge of and access to reproductive health services. Vouchers have shown success in increasing privacy and confidentiality of services. In Union des Communes du Zou, Benin, TCI provides vouchers to married youth via community health workers (referred to locally as community relays) and unmarried youth via youth associations.
- Increases access to a range of contraceptive methods: Out-of-facility service delivery channels, including mobile services and social marketing, can broaden the method mix available to young people. Social marketing programs complement the public health system by tapping into private providers and pharmacies that provide more anonymity, so underserved young people tend to prefer them for accessing contraception. TCI’s East Africa Hub is currently working to increase adolescent and youth access to family planning via pharmacies and drug shops.
How to Implement?
Step 1: Understand the context and realities of the target group to decide which service delivery model to use
Health services can be delivered through schools and workplaces, youth centers, households, streets or markets, and drug shops and pharmacies. There is varying evidence on the effectiveness of all of these locations when it comes to health service uptake. For example, some data show that a youth-specific community-based condom and contraception distribution strategy is more effective than youth centers or school-based services. Pharmacies have also been seen as effective in increasing uptake of contraceptive services among young people. Marie Stopes International has experience from Bangladesh, Nepal, and Zambia indicating that appropriate services, activities and community engagement all improved uptake. It is important to adopt a service delivery mechanism that is best suited to your context.
Evidence to Action (E2A) has a useful decision-making tool to guide program designers in choosing youth-friendly service delivery model(s). It covers country context, target population, desired behavioral and health outcomes, SRH services to be offered and needs and objectives for scalability and sustainability.
Example: Population Services International in Africa
PSI has done a review of its programs that provide sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) products and services via different models in several countries: From innovation to scale: Advancing the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people. A review of PSI programming approaches and experiences
Step 2: Identify community members, private-sector providers, and/or informal services that young people trust
Conduct a landscaping exercise: What kinds of services are already available to young people in your program context? Which services do they access? Certain groups of young people—such as those living in slums, homeless, or engaging in transactional sex or drug use—may trust some community members more than others. Knowing who the trusted community members are, and where youth already go for services, enables your program to tap into existing, credible resources for increasing contraceptive uptake or other SRH services.
Example: Building the capacity of pharmacists in Tanzania to serve youth
In Arusha, Tanzania, like in many other cities in East Africa, youth frequent pharmacies for short-term methods. Their visits to pharmacies are critical touchpoints with the health system and offer an opportunity to provide them with helpful information about contraceptives and, in some cases, refer them to a health facility for counseling. In January 2019, the TCI Tanzania team decided to work with the District Pharmacists in Arusha to improve young people’s experiences when accessing pills and condoms at local pharmacies and connect them with TCI-trained health facilities. Following the training of 300 high-volume, registered pharmacies in Arusha, pharmacists are more motivated to counsel youth, provide high-quality data, refer to TCI health facilities, and report stockouts.
Step 3: Establish partnerships with the government or private sector to enable non-traditional service delivery
Based on the model of service delivery you choose, you will need to establish partnerships to reach youth and train the right service delivery staff on providing youth-friendly services.
What Is the Evidence?
- In East Africa, a total of 327 integrated outreaches have been conducted by local governments with TCI’s coaching and technical assistance support. The approach was particularly successful at recruiting first-time users among youth—60% of the family planning acceptors at these integrated outreaches were new users of family planning.
- Successful approaches to out-of-facility service delivery include mail-based STI screening, condom distribution through street outreach in higher-income countries, and promoting pharmacy-based over-the-counter access to emergency contraception.
- Mobile services in urban areas can reach a range of young people at carefully-chosen locations, such as a marketplace or mall, school or workplace, or neighborhood corner or youth club. MSI has several examples of reaching young married girls (in community settings), boys and young men (in marketplaces, youth clubs and sports groups), in-school young people (in schools or universities), and young migrant women (in factories).
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Work with the young people you want to reach to map their current service access and identify their trusted community members.
Engage youth in implementing out-of-facility service delivery and linking their peers with services.
Ensure that staff are provided with supportive supervision.
Harmonize data collection from out-of-facility service provision with facility-based service data, and use both to inform further strategies for service uptake.
- Partner with innovative and non-traditional entities that urban youth will be more likely to access.
- Reaching special groups (like married girls and first-time parents) with services may take additional effort, as they often have more barriers to overcome. In Francophone West Africa, TCI has defined roles and target populations for different community actors. Community relays map and provide outreach (and in some cases, family planning methods) to married adolescents, while youth associations focus on those youth who are not married.
- One key barrier is cost—the cost involved in going to a place that delivers services, taking time off from housekeeping or employment, and paying for contraceptives.
- Another barrier is isolation. Home visits by community health workers to provide contraceptive services and information about the importance of delaying first birth and spacing is a promising approach.
- An out-of-facility approach cannot provide comprehensive services without strong referral links to facility-based services. Some services (like IUD insertion, sterilization, and post-abortion care) need to be provided in a static facility; this may be mandated by law. Ensuring that out-of-facility staff are prepared to refer patients to a traditional facility is crucial for fully meeting the SRH needs of urban youth. TCI’s work with pharmacies in Tanzania dramatically increased referrals to TCI facilities.


by Lisa DePiano
When teaching permaculture I often start out by doing a giant problems mind map. I ask students to brainstorm all of the major “problems” they see in the world to reflect on what brought them to study permaculture. Nine times out of ten the idea of overpopulation as a root “problem” in the world comes up.
Overpopulation describes a situation where there are too many people for the amount of resources available. It puts the blame of the environmental crisis on the sheer number of people on the planet.
Natural scientist and former senior manager of the BBC David Attenborough sums up this sentiment when he said, “We are a plague on the Earth. Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us[.]”
This cultural narrative, that human beings are the root cause of the environmental crisis is everywhere, especially among environmentalists. We also see this belief within permaculture design. The third ethic of permaculture reads:
Setting limits to population and consumption: By governing our own needs we can set resources aside to the above principles.
Not only is the idea of overpopulation as the cause of the environmental crisis oversimplified and inaccurate, it upholds a de-generative paradigm of scarcity, fear and competition that goes against the core teachings of permaculture. It also perpetuates problematic thinking that leads to ineffective and unjust public policies and global solutions. As permaculturalists, it is important that we contradict this notion that simply more people on the planet equals less resources and more pollution. We need to engage in dialog around the true roots of environmental, social and economic degradation. In this way, we can begin to shift mental models and design more effective and just solutions that take into account the real root causes of degradation and injustice.
In his book Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability, David Holmgren reframed the third ethic as “fair share” or “redistribute the surplus.” He points out the paradox of permaculture’s core belief of abundance and this ethic. He states that, “Except in extreme famine and other natural disasters, scarcity is a culturally mediated reality; it is largely created by industrial economics and power, rather than actual physical limits to growth.”
Although the third ethic has been reframed, there has been little discussion about this shift in the permaculture community or literature on how to address and refute the myth of overpopulation in the first place. I created the following talking points that we can use when having discussions around overpopulation.
6 TALKING POINTS FOR PERMACULTURALISTS TO DEBUNK THE MYTH OF OVERPOPULATION:
• Overpopulation is defined by numbers of people, not their behaviors: Industrialized countries, who make up only 20% of the worlds population, are responsible for 80% of the carbon dioxide build up in the atmosphere. The United States is the worst offender with 20 tons of carbon emission per person. Therefore it is not just the amount of people that leads to degradation but what they are doing. Permaculture design illustrates how humans can be a keystone species and have a positive impact on the health of our ecosystems, bringing greater health and equity. We can depave the way for industrial retrofits and regenerative development.
• Overpopulation justifies the scapegoating and human rights violations of poor people, women, people of color and immigrant communities: Often times the subtext of “too many people” translates to too many poor people, people of color and immigrants. In the 1970’s Puerto Rico, under the control of and with funding from the US government , forced the sterilization of 35% of women of child bearing age . This is a human and reproductive rights violation. It also prevents us from dealing with the real social, political and economic origins of our ecological problems and places the blame on communities with less institutional power. This perpetuates a fear mindset, keeps people divided and blaming each other rather than being able to come together to organize for true self determination and security.
• Overpopulation points the finger at individuals not systems: This lets the real culprits off the hook. When we look at the true causes of environmental destruction and poverty it is often social, political and economic systems, not individuals. We see militaries and the toxic legacy of war, corrupt governments, and a capitalist economic system that puts profit over people and the environment. The founder of Social Ecology, Murray Bookchin said, “If we live in a grow or die capitalistic society in which accumulation is literally the law of economic survival and competition is the motor of progress, anything we have to say about population being the cause of ecological crisis is meaningless.
• Supports a degenerative mental model of scarcity: Much of this ideology was created by Thomas Robert Malthus, an 19th century english scholar, whose work influenced the fields of political economy and demography. Malthus gave us the idea that the reason there is famine is because there are too many mouths to feed. In his 1798 essay, An essay on the principle of Population, he goes on to say that it was human population that causes food prices to rise and therefore is the root cause of famine. Malthus was extremely influential to Charles Darwin in his thinking around “Survival of the Fittest.” His work was also used as the philosophical bedrock to justify many human rights violations such as the eugenics movement, forced sterilization, and even the Holocaust.
• Focusing on overpopulation prevents us from creating effective solutions and building movements for collective self determination: We know from the permaculture design process how we define a problem determines how we design solutions. How does viewing overpopulation as a root problem impact the way we think of and design solutions? What would solutions look like if we viewed people, all people, as an asset? The myth of overpopulation has lead to solutions of population control and fertility treatments, rather than overall health care and women’s rights. . The more we blame humans, think we are bad and evil, the harder it is to believe in ourselves, count on each other, and build a collective movement for jus-tice and self determination. Scholar, scientist and activist, Vandana Shiva said, “Hunger and malnutrition are man-made. They are hardwired in the design of the industrial, chemical model of agriculture. But just as hunger is created by design, healthy and nutritious food for all can also be designed, through food democracy.”
Together we can dispel the notion that overpopulation is a root cause of environmental degradation and deepen the discussion about the switch of the third ethic from setting limits to growth and population to fair share/redistribute the surplus. We can form new mental models that can lead to widespread, lasting social change and more effective and just solutions for collective health and abundance.
Thomas, Trevor, “The Myth of Overpopulation”, American Thinker, February 10, 2013
Mollison, Bill, Permaculture A practical Guide for a Sustainable Future (Covelo: Island Press, 1990).
Holmgren, David, Permaculture Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability (Hepburn: Holmgren De-sign Services, 2002).
“WORLD POPULATION TO 2300.” The Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations (2004): https://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/longrange2/WorldPop2300final.pdf
Hartman, Betsy. “10 Reasons Why Population Control is Not the Solution to Global Warming,” https://popdev.hampshire.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/u4763/DT%2057%20-%20Hartmann.pdf
The Chicago Womens Liberation Union. https://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/CWLUArchive/puertorico.html
10 Reasons to Rethink Overpopulation. https://popdev.hampshire.edu/projects/dt/40
Lisa DePiano is a certified permaculture designer, teacher and practitioner with over 15 years of experience. She is a lecturer in Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Massachusetts and a research fellow at the MIT media lab. She runs the Mobile Design Labwhich specializes in participatory permaculture design and education and is author of Permaculture FEAST principles flash cards.


Newswise — Imagine this: A tiny, fast switch that uses water droplets to create adhesive bonds almost as strong as aluminum by borrowing a mechanism found in palm beetles.
The new beetle-inspired switch, designed by Cornell University engineers, can work by itself on the scale of a micron -- a millionth of a meter. The switches can be combined in arrays for larger applications like powerful adhesive bonding. Like the transistor, whose varied uses became apparent only following its invention, the uses of the new switch are not yet understood. But the switch's simplicity, smallness and speed have enormous potential, according to the researchers.
"Almost all the greatest technological advances have depended on switches, and this is a switch that is fast and can be scaled down," said Paul Steen, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Cornell and co-author of a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Vol. 102, No. 34).
Steen dreamed up the idea of the switch after listening to Cornell entomologist Tom Eisner lecture on palm beetles, which are native to the southeastern United States.
Like the beetle, which clings to a palm leaf at adhesive strengths equal to a hundred times its own body weight -- the human equivalent of carrying seven cars -- the switch in its most basic form uses surface tension created by water droplets in contact with a surface, in much the same way as two pieces of wet paper cling together.
When attacked, the palm beetle attaches itself to a leaf until the attacker leaves. It adheres with 120,000 droplets of secreted oil, each making a bridgelike contact between the beetle's feet and the leaf. Each droplet is just a few microns wide. Whereas the beetle controls the oil contacts mechanically, Steen's switch uses water and electricity.
For the switch to make or release a bond created by surface tension, a water droplet moves to the top or bottom of a flat plate surface using electricity from electrodes. The electricity moves positively charged atoms, called ions, in the water through the minute capillaries of a thin disk of porous glass embedded in the plate. The water moves and wells up into a micrometer-sized droplet on the plate surface. The exposed droplet can then stick to another surface. To break the bond, electricity pulls the exposed water back through the capillary pores.
With millimeter-sized water droplets and micron-sized pores, 5 volts can turn the switch on in one second. At the same time, the researchers predict that smaller droplets will require less energy to move and have faster switching times. Steen and his colleagues believe that a switch as small as hundreds of nanometers, close to a billionth of a meter and one-tenth the size of the beetle droplets, is within reach. Researchers could also create large effects from many tiny switches by connecting them in various arrangements, Steen said.
"This new technology bridges the gap between scales as large as our hands and nanoscales," said Steen. "We need devices that allow us to communicate between the two scales."
Co-authors include Michael Vogel, a postdoctoral researcher in Cornell's Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and researcher Peter Ehrhard at the Institute for Nuclear and Energy Technologies in Karlsruhe, Germany. Since much of this work was conducted while the three scientists were at the German institute, the patent application was filed in Germany.
The study was supported by NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe and the Deustcher Akademischer Austausch Dienst.


Can you guess what increases your risk of death by as much as 52% with every two hours of recreational time using it? The answer is digital screens. This is due to the impact of digital screens on our cardiovascular health and our weight.
From your computer screen, your smartphone or your tablet, these seemingly innocuous devices are actually not so innocuous after all. The research on the effects of digital screens continues to emerge and results are rather startling given that the average American adult spends 11 hours in front of screens every single day.
South Texas Eye Institute created the below infographic to present the alarming research on the topic.
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Josse Lieferinxe’s ‘Saint Sebastian Interceding for the Plague Stricken’ (c. 1498). Wikimedia Commons
The Conversation (4/16/20)
The coronavirus can infect anyone, but recent reporting has shown your socioeconomic status can play a big role, with a combination of job security, access to health care and mobility widening the gap in infection and mortality rates between rich and poor.
The wealthy work remotely and flee to resorts or pastoral second homes, while the urban poor are packed into small apartments and compelled to keep showing up to work.
As a medievalist, I’ve seen a version of this story before.
Following the 1348 Black Death in Italy, the Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio wrote a collection of 100 novellas titled, “The Decameron.” These stories, though fictional, give us a window into medieval life during the Black Death – and how some of the same fissures opened up between the rich and the poor. Cultural historians today see “The Decameron” as an invaluable source of information on everyday life in 14th-century Italy.
In our own pandemic – with some of the most well-off now clamoring for the economy to re-open, despite the ongoing spread of the disease – these issues are strikingly relevant.
Boccaccio was born in 1313 as the illegitimate son of a Florentine banker. A product of the middle class, he wrote, in “The Decameron,” stories about merchants and servants. This was unusual for his time, as medieval literature tended to focus on the lives of the nobility.
“The Decameron” begins with a gripping, graphic description of the Black Death, which was so virulent that a person who contracted it would die within four to seven days. Between 1347 and 1351, it killed between 40% and 50% of Europe’s population. Some of Boccaccio’s own family members died.
The ruthless wealthy
In this opening section, Boccaccio describes the rich secluding themselves at home, where they enjoy quality wines and provisions, music and other entertainment. The very wealthiest – whom Boccaccio describes as “ruthless” – deserted their neighborhoods altogether, retreating to comfortable estates in the countryside, “as though the plague was meant to harry only those remaining within their city walls.”
Meanwhile, the middle class or poor, forced to stay at home, “caught the plague by the thousand right there in their own neighborhood, day after day” and swiftly passed away. Servants dutifully attended to the sick in wealthy households, often succumbing to the illness themselves. Many, unable to leave Florence and convinced of their imminent death, decided to simply drink and party away their final days in nihilistic revelries, while in rural areas, laborers died “like brute beasts rather than human beings; night and day, with never a doctor to attend them.” …
Massive Crisis Spending Brought Corruption & Bloody Consequences In Ancient Athens
Everything began with enormous spending in response to an urgent crisis. Actions that seemed necessary at the peak of the emergency ended up as cover for misappropriations of public money.
By Mark Munn
The Conversation (4/17/20)
The jump in federal spending in response to the crisis of the coronavirus pandemic is not a new idea. Nearly 2,500 years ago, the people of ancient Athens had a similar plan – which succeeded in meeting the major threat they faced, but then tore Athenian society apart in a tangle of political recriminations after the crisis had passed.
As a historian of ancient Greece, the most telling parallel I see between current events and that long-ago past is not the plague that broke out in Athens in 430 B.C. I’m more worried by the example of extreme partisan politics that befell Athens a couple of decades later, which I detail in one of my books, “The School of History: Athens in the Age of Socrates.”
A massive mobilization
In 406 B.C., Athens, a mega-power of the ancient Mediterranean that had built its economy on maritime trade, faced a crisis. Despite recent successes in battle, deep partisan divisions over military leadership had left Athenian forces momentarily vulnerable to attack. Meanwhile, rival city-state Sparta had gained the backing of Persia and was building a navy that could challenge Athens’ control of the sea.
When the Spartans struck, they put the weakened Athenian fleet on the defensive, threatening to crush it and bring Athens to its knees.
In the face of near-certain disaster, the Athenians rallied to respond, accelerating a shipbuilding program already underway by mobilizing all the resources of their Aegean empire. A new tax was passed on personal wealth, and additional money was raised by melting down the golden statues of Victory that had been dedicated on the Acropolis. The resulting coins were spent buying Macedonian pine to make oars to power the triremes, the most advanced naval fighting ships the world had yet seen.
To pull the oars, all able-bodied Athenian men, including knights who normally did not serve in the navy, were called up. Even that was not enough. The Athenians offered citizenship to all resident foreigners and slaves who were willing to serve.
In a little more than a month, the Athenians had assembled a fleet of triremes powerful enough to challenge the Spartan fleet and regain control of the sea.
In midsummer, 406 B.C., the Athenian and Spartan fleets met in battle in the waters between the island of Lesbos and the coast of Asia Minor. It’s known as the battle of Arginusae, after the small islands off the Asian coast that served as a base for the Athenian fleet; today they are the Turkish islands of Garip and Kalem near the city of Dikili.
Athens won decisively, killing the Spartan commander and destroying nearly half his fleet. The victory was costly …


The park was established in 1935 during the French Colonial period but was extended in 2001, in consultation with the local communities, to its current expanse. Odzala-Kokoua is one of three signature areas of the 191,541km2 trans-boundary mosaic known as the Tridom project. Declared a UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve in 1977 and nominated in 2008 to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Odzala as a conservation priority is unattested. Odzala is also recognised as an Important Bird Area by Birdlife International. African Parks took over the management of Odzala-Kokoua in November 2010 under the terms of a partnership agreement with the Government of the Republic of Congo. This agreement provides for the creation of a dedicated non-profit entity, the Odzala Foundation, which will have overall jurisdiction over the park.
Odzala-Kokoua is a ‘frontier forest' which harbours some of the last extensive blocks of contiguous forest ecosystems that are capable of supporting viable populations of large mammals. The southern part of the park is predominantly a savannah-forest mosaic and forest gallery ecosystem. The centre of the park is dominated by Marantaceae Forest where a high density of gorilla and elephant are found. Further north, the park is covered by mature rain forest.
One of the unique aspects of this park is its numerous clearings, called ‘bais', that provide an opportunity to observe the forest wildlife easily where it is normally difficult to see through the dense vegetation in a tropical forest. The majestic Mambili River provides one of the few access routes to the park. The Ekoutou escarpment (80km) with its lichen forest, and Djoua swamp in the north west of the park remain some of the most remote areas in which only a few scientific expeditions have been conducted.
The biological diversity is exceptional, including more than 400 bird species, 114 mammal species and in excess of 4,400 varieties of plants. Of the 16 primate species, it is the gorilla and chimpanzee populations on which OKNP's reputation rests. Odzala also boasts numerous herbivore species. These include elephants, numbering in the thousands, and a few populations of hippopotamus.
The pressure on the fauna by the local populations (around 10,000 people living in approximately 70 villages along the periphery of the park) is considerable as hunting represents a critical source of revenue and protein for the local people. The major threats include commercial and subsistence hunting for bushmeat, elephant poaching for ivory and the construction of roads on the periphery of the park, which exacerbates the problem of poaching as it provides easy access to previously isolated forest. Diseases such as ebola also threaten in particular the great ape populations.


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Bishop, founder of the See of Glasgow, b. about 518; d. at Glasgow, 13 January, 603. His mother Thenaw was daughter of a British prince, Lothus (from whom the province of Lothian was called); his father's name is unknown. According to Jocelyn's life of Kentigern, the saint was born at Culross in Fife, and brought up until manhood by St. Serf (or Servanus) at his monastery there; but Skene shows that this connection between the two saints involves an anachronism, as St. Serf really belongs to the following century. At the age of twenty-five we find Kentigern (the name means "head chief", but he was popularly known as Mungo — in Cymric, Mwyn-gu, or "dear one"), beginning his missionary labours at Cathures, on the Clyde, the site of modern Glasgow. The Christian King of Strathclyde, Roderick Hael, welcomed the saint, and procured his consecration as bishop, which took place about 540. For some thirteen years he laboured in the district, living a most austere life in a cell at the confluence of the Clyde and the Molendinar, and making many converts by his holy example and his preaching. A large community grew up around him, became known as "Clasgu" (meaning the "dear family ") and ultimately grew into the town and city of Glasgow.
About 553 a strong anti-Christian movement in Strathclyde compelled Kentigern to leave the district, and he retired to Wales, staying for a time with St. David at Menevia, and afterwards founding a large monastery at Llanelwy, now St. Asaph's, of which he appointed the holy monk Asaph superior in succession to himself. In 573 the battle of Arthuret secured the triumph of the Christian cause in Cumbria, and Kentigern, at the earnest appeal of King Roderick, returned thither, accompanied by many of his Welsh disciples. For eight years he fixed his see at Hoddam in Dumfriesshire, evangelizing thence the districts of Galloway and Cumberland. About 581 he finally returned to Glasgow, and here, a year or two later, he was visited by St. Columba, who was at that time labouring in Strathtay. The two saints embraced, held long converse, and exchanged their pastoral staves.
Kentigern was buried on the spot where now stands the beautiful cathedral dedicated in his honour. His remains are said still to rest in the crypt. His festival is kept throughout Scotland on 13 January. The Bollandists have printed a special mass for this feast, dating from the thirteenth century.
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For the most part, if you are eating varied sources of protein, you probably don’t have to worry about experiencing a shortage of amino acids. But if you regularly cut out certain food groups or tend to always eat chicken or fish, you need to determine if supplementation is necessary.
Here are the eight essential amino acids relevant to athletes and those who are involved in intense physical activity.
HistidineHistidine helps the body with the growth and repair of bodily tissues like muscles, as well as with the production of the myelin sheath, a protective covering that forms around nerve cells and helps produce gastric juices.
Food sources: Dairy, meat, poultry, fish, rice, wheat
PhenylalaninePhenylalanine is an amino acid that enhances your mood and improves your memory, hence making it important for proper brain function. It also increases the levels of neurotransmitters in the body, which are essential for proper operation of the nervous system, as well as increases the absorption rate of UV rays by the sun, thereby facilitating the production of vitamin D in the body.
It should be noted, though, that you can reach toxic levels of phenylalanine, which is why there is a large amount of controversy regarding its use in artificial sweeteners containing aspartame. However, you really have to overdo the intake of phenylalanine to reach these toxic levels.
Food sources: Dairy, almonds, avocados, nuts, seeds
LysinePotentially the most critical role this amino acid plays is in the absorption of calcium and bone development. Lysine also helps maintain a good nitrogen balance in the body, which is critical for maintenance of lean muscle mass and the avoidance of fatigue. It also helps the body produce antibodies and regulates the various hormones that act as messenger signals.
Food sources: Cheese, potatoes, milk, eggs, red meat, yeast products
LeucineLeucine is important in regulating blood sugar levels in the body; therefore, it is particularly important for those who suffer from hypo- or hyperglycemica, or for those looking to maintain lower body fat percentages. It also works to keep human growth hormone levels where they should be, which really enhances muscle tissue development.
Food sources: Soybeans, lentils, egg yolks, almonds, milk, fish, peanuts, shrimp
More amino acids you should be loading up on…
MethionineMen looking to build muscle should be especially concerned with their methionine intake as it breaks down and uses fats, and boosts testosterone levels. It also helps with the treatment of depression, arthritis and liver disease.
Food sources: Meat, fish, beans, eggs, lentils, onions, yogurt, seeds
IsoleucineThis amino acid plays a pivotal role in recovery after your workouts and also helps regulate blood sugar levels. It also aids in forming hemoglobin and is responsible for healthy blood-clotting.
Food sources: Chicken, fish, almonds, cashews, eggs, liver, lentils, beef
ThreonineThe main role of this amino acid is to form collagen and elastin, which are essential binding materials for the body’s cells. It also plays a role in liver function and promotes a healthy immune system. In addition to this, threonine improves the overall absorption of nutrients within the body.
This is one amino acid vegetarians need to watch out for as it is most commonly found in meat sources. If you opt to eat dairy, it can be found in cottage cheese, otherwise alternate sources of threonine include wheat germ, nuts and beans. However, the quantity of amino acids in these sources are lower, so consider taking a supplement.
Food sources: Meat, fish, eggs
ValineThis amino acid repairs muscle cells and grows new ones, and it also keeps the nitrogen balance where it needs to be. Furthermore, it spares glucose use in the body — meaning you’ll have more reserved for when you really need it (i.e., during exercise).
Food sources: Dairy, meat, grains, mushrooms, soy, peanuts
amino acid amountsAmino acid intake is just as important to regulate as protein intake when you’re dieting and exercising. It is especially important for fussy eaters to make sure they’re getting proper amounts. So, have a good look at your current diet and ensure you are eating a variety of the sources listed here.


We, the Ahnishinahbæótjibway are among the Aboriginal Indigenous peoples of this Continent. Our written history includes stone inscriptions[i] and birchbark scrolls which are part of our Midé religion, and describe our origins on this Continent early in the Pleistocene geological age. Before the European invasions, the Ahnishinahbæótjibway Nation was composed of inter-related communities which centered around the Great Lakes, and along the network of water routes of the Great Lakes watershed,[ii] the upper Mississippi watershed, and the upper Hudson's Bay watershed. Since the beginning of Aboriginal time, we lived in harmony with our neighbors. The Ahnishinahbæótjibway are a non-violent people who lived by gardening in conjunction with a permacultural subsistence base so closely in harmony with nature that the Europeans thought that our grain fields and orchards, and most of our other crops were wild. In the midst of carefully maintained abundance, we tended our homes, our gardens and our forests, fished and hunted, developed a profound oral literature, and traveled to trade or just to visit.
The Ahnishinahbæótjibway have always been here. The Western Europeans have written many mythologies explaining their Indians: that they came over the Bering Strait, that they came from outer space, that they came from the East Coast, that they ate up all the Hairy Mastodons (and then presumably went back to Europe to eat up the Hairy Mastodons there). The underlying assumption in even the most culturally sensitive history textbooks that children are forced to read in compulsory-education schools is that Columbus, the Vikings, and possibly Hwui Shan the Chinese discovered America[iii], although some books try to mollify their ethonocentricism with disclaimers such as, "many scholars believe that it was the Indians who discovered the New World."
Some textbooks portray their mythological pre-Columbian Indians as living in extremely scattered settlements. A map in one such book shows 127 small Indian villages in the entire U.S., then the same books adds, "warfare had an important place ... there were great battles involving many men[iv]." College science textbooks[v] uncritically accept the unfounded assumption that "American Indian populations migrated from Asia," discounting any evidence to the contrary with explanations like "we could interpret this to mean that the [type B blood] mutation arose after the ancestors of the American Indians had left the Asian mainland. Through these kinds of analysis patterns of human migration and other anthropological interpretations have been made."[vi] Even acclaimed defender of Indians Jack Weatherford has to have "... human flesh in many of the tacos, tamales, and enchiladas,"[vii] although in a 1992 telephone conversation with us, he denied having written this.
The Western Europeans created the allegory of Indians, and whatever tall tales they want to tell in their fictions are their business. But--concealed behind the illusion of Indians is the archetype of modern ethnic cleansing: the near extinction of more than forty percent of the world's[viii] peoples; and these heinous crimes obscured by the nearly complete extirpation of the Aboriginal Indigenous peoples from the annals of Western civilization. We are consigned to the terra incognita of their linguistic maps: there is not a single word in the English language which means "the Aboriginal Indigenous peoples of this Continent." Neither the Euro-Americans nor their Indians know who the Aboriginal Indigenous people really are, and they will not say our real names. The Indians know that they have a dishonest identity, and that they are trying to steal what belongs to the Aboriginal Indigenous people. Inescapable evidence of our very real past and present existence is masked by the Indian mythology, reinterpreted to fit the Indian stereotype, distorted, destroyed,[ix] and denied. The Indians serve the convenience of Western Civilization: by deliberately confusing the Ahnishinahbæótjibway and other Aboriginal Indigenous people with their figment of Indians, the Euro-Americans hope to fill the void of exterminated peoples, deny the genocide of many millions of Aboriginal Indigenous peoples, evade the responsibility for the rape and plunder of our Continents, and justify their theft of this land.
The Ahnishinahbæótjibway are among the peoples speaking an Aboriginal Indigenous language which European linguists have defined in their abstract taxonomy as Algonquin, which is not who we are. Anthropologists categorized us and our relatives as Woodland or Algonquin people. The Euro-Americans invented artificial Indian tribes, and gave these tribes names: Potawatami, Menominee, Secotan, Salteur, Sauk and Fox, Cree, Blackfoot, Chippewa, Pillager, Pembina ... . Then, they tried to force the Ahnishinahbæótjibway into their abstract and artificial tribal structure.
Since time immemorial, the land of the Ahnishinahbæótjibway and our close relatives stretched from the land now called North and South Dakota, to the Atlantic Ocean; from the sub-Arctic, south to where St. Louis is. There were no sharp borders between one group of people and the next. If a person's native language is one of the languages misnamed Algonquin, they can understand their relatives who speak other such languages.
Ahnishinahbæótjibway understanding of space, place, and land is different from that of the Euro-Americans. We have a permanent relationship with specific places, defined partly in terms of our permaculture. My people of the Bear Dodem had a certain sugarbush, where we tapped our trees, made our sugar, and then stored everything we needed to make maple sugar from one year to the next. We harvested and processed our mahnomen in the same place, century after century. Our permanent residences--our community of longhouses--had been in the same place for millennia. There were specific places where we fished, where our gardens were, where we hunted, where our fruits and nuts and medicines and everything else that we needed were maintained by our people. We did not go roaming around stealing from others, and what we took from our land was replaced. The Ahnishinahbæótjibway have a very long-term, harmonious and balanced relationship with the places and being of this land. This land, right here, is where my many-times-great-grandfather of the Bear Dodem was born about 27,000 B.C., where he lived and died, and where he was buried and went back to Grandmother Earth. This land is the land of his great-grandfathers back more than 40,000 more generations, and it is the land of his great-grandsons through about 900 more generations to myself. This land is the open, living textbook of Ahnishinahbæótjibway history, values, philosophy and religion, and my identity and my existence as Ahnishinahbæótjibway is a part of it. The Ahnishinahbæótjibway have a relationship to this land that the Euro-Americans do not understand.
The Euro-Americans define land as abstract, boxed into compartments of quarter-sections and town lots; eminent domain with militarily defended borders, survey grids, and property taxes. Their cultural definition of land is hierarchical: those at the top of their artificial structure claim ownership of city blocks with skyscrapers, exurban estates, country homes, and rental properties; and those at the bottom are urban nomads renting tenements or going homeless. The Euro-Americans' culture defines land by the abstract edges, as exploitable resources, space and chattel circumscribed by violently enforced lines. The Ahnishinahbæótjibway see land as life.
Rather than borders, we have always had links connecting peoples. Ahnishinahbæótjibway are born into the Dodem of their fathers. People of a particular Dodem are close relatives, related to all the other human beings of their Dodem and also related to their Dodem being. I am of the Bear Dodem, related to every other Aboriginal Indigenous person of the Bear Dodem (whether they are Ahnishinahbæótjibway or not), and also related to the Bears. The word Dodemian or Dodem means "my relations." According to Ahnishinahbæótjibway values, a person cannot marry anybody to whom they are even remotely related: anyone of the same Dodem, or anyone who is even distantly "somehow related." The elders knew, and some still know, back for quite a few generations, who is related. Ahnishinahbæótjibway men have always married women from outside their birth communities. The Red Lake Ahnishinahbæótjibway genealogies include women who married into this community from the so-called Blackfoot, Cree, Inuit, Lakota, and other Aboriginal Indigenous Nations, as well as European and other immigrant women. Aboriginal Indigenous exogamy is very different from the in-breeding encouraged by the U.S. Government's Indian blood quantum.[x]
A woman who marries an Ahnishinahbæótjibway man comes into the Dodem of her husband (somewhat analogous to an European woman taking her husband's surname), and lives with him on the land of which he is a part. This creates a network of relatives through each person's mother's side of the family and through the Dodems, which extended across the Continent in all directions. (Inheritance of the Dodems through the male line is very different from patriarchy, which along with patrilineal heirship, is defined in the glossary.)
As a part of the process of colonization, the United States turned the Ahnishinahbæótjibway traditional social structure backwards for their Chippewa Indians, and enforced this reversal with U.S. Statutes. Forcing occupied peoples into matrilineal definitions of themselves is a Lislakh colonizing strategy, expressed in Judeo-Christian Biblical admonitions such as, "And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east; and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed."[xi] Judeo-Christianity prescribes the elimination of all patrilines except that of Adam of Eden.
The technical anthropological terms for Ahnishinahbæótjibway social organization are patrilineal and patrilocal. The geographic power of the men was balanced by the political and social power of the Clan Mothers, the women elders. Everyone in the family respected and listened to the wisdom of these Gi-ma-mâ-nan. We remain a matriarchal society. This kind of balance and linking of related groups of people generated a very harmonious foundation for Aboriginal Indigenous society as a whole. Because of the continual movement of women in marriage, all of the Aboriginal Indigenous people of this Continent are related.
Red Lake is at a crossroads, as can be seen clearly from any topographic map. The Continental Divide between the Hudson Bay watershed (Red Lake is the headwaters) and the Mississippi watershed is about twenty miles to the south of Red Lake: there is a lake on each side of the Divide, and a short portage between them. It is also easy to travel by water into the Great Lakes watershed from here. Red Lake is the junction of Aboriginal Indigenous trade routes that went from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains and beyond.
The ecological base of the Ahnishinahbæótjibway was permaculture: agriculture based on perennial crops, so closely in harmony with natural systems that the European upper class was terrified of it. Such permacultural subsistence bases are remarkably efficient. Very little labor was required for subsistence in our intact ecology.[xii] Traditional Ahnishinahbæótjibway crops include mahnomen, maple trees, fruits, nuts and berries, fish and game, along with annual garden crops. We traded for salt, tropical shells (including migis cowries), and certain dye plants, among other things. We made jewelry and some tools from copper; as well as stone tools sharper and more durable than the finest steel. We had writing.
Our forests were pine and mixed hardwoods, some of the trees thousands of years old, stretching as far as a person could travel in a month or more. The ground soft like a carpet; the water so clean you could drink it anywhere. There was plenty of everything a person might need right here in the lakes, forests and meadows. Friends and relatives would welcome a visitor with hospitality everywhere--this is what the land of the Ahnishinahbæótjibway and our relations was like. There were deer and moose and wood-buffalo and caribou; there were passenger pigeons and turkeys and geese and so many ducks a person could hear the air rustle through their wings for miles, a whooshing sound that lasted long into the night as millions and millions of birds settled onto the lakes. Early European explorers remarked on the "abundance of game," which was an understatement considering the impoverishment of their own plundered homeland. There are a very few places on Red Lake Reservation and elsewhere in Northern Minnesota where a person can still see the ancient trails of the deer: some are worn nearly two feet deep into the ground. We were all part of a larger, inter-connected whole. Our land was a paradise.
Our elders, both male and female, have always been deeply respected in the Ahnishinahbæótjibway community. This is very different from European culture, in which age and gender polarization makes families more amenable to state control, and creates discontinuity in oral history. Our family relationships are harmoniously balanced, there is no authoritarian head of the family, and so there is no need for role reversal. The foundation of our egalitarian family inter-relationships includes mutual respect and a language which is both male and female. Because we have no hierarchy, there is no competition for authority in the family. We acknowledge each person's interests, abilities, and knowledge; and as a person ages, their experience and broader perspective becomes increasingly valuable to the community. Our elders were wise and loving teachers who knew our history and genealogy, and who knew about medicines and other herbs. They had clear and useful understanding of community dynamics and practical psychology. We did not warehouse our old people, nor segregate them away from the rest of their Dodemian.
The relationship between men and women was complementary and based on respect for one another. The women have their own areas of expertise, and it is not my place to write about them. There are Aboriginal Indigenous women writers who will explain.
An Ahnishinahbæótjibway is born into their father's Dodem, and a woman marries into her husband's Dodem. The Dodems, the Midé and Grandmother Earth are all part of a totality which includes religious philosophy, identity, values, life and death, and our inter-relationship with the land. The Midé goes beyond Western Civilization's definitions of religion and philosophy. It deals with harmony and reality, rather than with abstractions. There are parts of the Midé which are so profound that they are beyond human comprehension, and will always remain a Great Mystery. The Midé also goes beyond Western Civilization's Science. It cannot be explained in English. The Midé is so vast, it's impossible to describe how it makes me feel, but one of the words which comes to mind is humility. The Midé is a compilation of the wisdom of my people over the course of about a million years, as well as the tools for understanding reality. I see nothing that I would want to change, even if I could. I am just a translator for my people.
In the years when I was growing up, anthropologists and other social scientists were studying the Indians. When they asked about Aboriginal Indigenous religion, the Indians would say that "outsiders are not allowed" to know about the Midé, because they would exploit and commercialize it. The Indians used this strategy to hide their own ignorance of the Midé. This was before Indian Religion was enacted by Congress. The so-called Indian religions established under the Indian Freedom of Religion Act have nothing to do with the Aboriginal Indigenous religions, although policy-makers are pretending they are the same thing. The Midé is not secret--but enculturation into Western European civilization usually prevents people from seeing or understanding it. I have been present when Midé elders told interested and open-minded White people things about the Midé, in English, and the person to whom the elder was talking did not realize they were being told anything.Grandfather Midé encompasses a Sovereign Ahnishinahbæótjibway's personal relationships with the both the male and female aspects of the universe, in concert with Grandmother Earth. Ahnishinahbæótjibway are named through the Midé, which is inseparably all of life. Ahnishinahbæótjibway patrilineal Dodems are one of the religious mysteries I cannot change--and the United States Government cannot change or destroy them either, although they have tried.
[i].These have been referred to by an occasional White writer as petroglyphs. For example, The Minnesota Explorer, Spring, 1989, page 2, refers to the "Jeffers Petroglyphs" on County Road 45, three miles east of Highway 71, northeast of Windom; where interpretative perspective is provided by the Minnesota Historical Society.
[ii].A watershed was defined by W.M. Davis in 1899:
Although the river and the
hill-side do not resemble each other at first sight, they are only
members of a continuous series, and when this is appreciated,
one may fairly extend the "river" all over the basin and up to its very divides. Ordinarily treated, the river is like the veins of a leaf; broadly viewed, it is like the entire leaf.
(Quoted in The Essential Whole Earth Catalog, The Point Foundation, Doubleday, 1986.) The shallow draft of Ahnishinahbæótjibway canoes, and the deeper water in many waterways before the decimation of beaver populations, meant that even small streams were navigable for us. Maps of what remains of the Ahnishinahbæótjibway highways are available from the Map Department of the U.S. Geological Survey, which calls them topographic maps.
[iii].Of many possible examples, Holt, Rinehart & Winston's Inquiring About American History.
[iv].Ibid, page 61.
[v].For one example, Charlotte J. Avers' Genetics, 1984.
[vi].Ibid, page 536.
[vii].Jack Weatherford, Indian Givers, How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World, Fawcett Columbine, 1988, page 107.
[viii].From about 30° W. longitude to 180°.
[ix].For example, Theodore C. Blegen, in Minnesota, a History of the State, Minnesota Historical Society, 1963 reprint, cites (pages 18-19) the destruction of about 10,000 known burial mounds and "effigy [sic] mounds, shaped in the form of birds, buffaloes, bears or snakes, with ... religious meanings, but these unhappily have since  been plowed under by farmers who cared more about crops than about archaeology."
[x].The French Métis' genealogies show patterns of endogamy and marriage of close relatives back into the 1600's. This is exacerbated by the way the U.S. Government has structured definition of Indians by blood quantum. The inbreeding of Lislakh people who are defined as Indians and want to maintain their blood quantum identity, has become so pronounced that forensic scientist Terry Laber of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension mentioned in another context:
Greater genetic similarity
among ethnic subpopulations, such as American Indians living on the
Reservation, would bring [previously cited 1 in 100 quadrillion odds
of DNA fingerprints matching] down, ...
(reported by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, January 10, 1994, p. 8A.) Laber's colleague Dr. Jim Iverson explained in a subsequent telephone conversation that the B.C.A.'s gene frequency database was compiled largely from a commercial blood center in south Minneapolis. The socio-economic conditions are such that there is a significantly higher ratio of Aboriginal Indigenous people to Indians among the population who frequently sells their blood, than in the Indian Reservation population in Minnesota, i.e. the inbreeding among Métis and Euro-Indians is even more pronounced than Dr. Laber observed.
[xi].The Holy Bible, King James Version, Genesis 29:14.
general, the farther the ecology has degenerated from natural harmony,
labor is required per calorie of food produced. The
inefficiency of "modern" agriculture is masked by
the use of fossil fuels, but in fact much mechanized agriculture
substantially more energy input than is produced by the crops
the corn used for gasohol). Dr. John
Martin, of Arizona State University in Tempe, studied Indigenous
bases extensively during the 1970's, and the reader is referred to his
detailed information, and to Esther Boserup's meticulous measurements
energy required for subsistence in a range of human inter-relationships
variously altered ecosystems.


Known as the "Emerald Isle of the Caribbean," Montserrat has the distinction of being the only nation outside of Ireland to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day as a national holiday.
|Montserrat has the distinction of being the only nation outside of Ireland to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day as a national holiday.|
Showcasing a unique mix of Irish and African heritage, the destination comes alive with week-long events that will take place around March 17 at various locations throughout the island.
Residents and visitors alike have the chance to participate in feasts, parades, concerts, cultural exhibitions and outdoor theater productions to commemorate the planned slave uprising that occurred on the island during St. Patrick’s Day in 1768.
Activities include national exhibitions showcasing history, art and literature, a kite festival, Junior Calypso Monarch Competition, Freedom Walk and Run, Heritage Day & Feast and annual St. Patrick’s Day church service and dinner.
Of all the Caribbean islands, Montserrat is the only one to offer a noticeable Irish heritage. The island was the home for indentured Irish Catholic servants in the British West Indies, and the influence of their culture is still felt today. There is even a village named St. Patrick’s, which is located in the exclusion zone.
Visitors also receive a green shamrock stamp in their passport upon arrival. Goat water, the national dish made of kid or mutton and spiced with cloves and rum, hails from the original Emerald Isle. The Irish legacy is present in the folklore, surnames and even the local speech, which is laced with Irish brogue.


Quarter ♏ Scorpio
Moon phase on 14 February 2039 Monday is Waning Gibbous, 20 days old Moon is in Scorpio.Share this page: twitter facebook linkedin
Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 5 days on 9 February 2039 at 03:39.
Moon rises in the evening and sets in the morning. It is visible to the southwest and it is high in the sky after midnight.
Moon is passing about ∠5° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.
Lunar disc appears visually 1.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1966" and ∠1943".
Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2039 after 24 days on 10 March 2039 at 16:35.
There is low ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at big angle, so their combined tidal force is weak.
The Moon is 20 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the middle to the last part of current synodic month. This is lunation 483 of Meeus index or 1436 from Brown series.
Length of current 483 lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 41 minutes. It is 1 hour and 1 minute shorter than next lunation 484 length.
Length of current synodic month is 57 minutes longer than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 6 hours and 6 minutes shorter, compared to 21st century longest.
This New Moon true anomaly is ∠51.2°. At beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠83.5°. The length of upcoming synodic months will keep increasing since the true anomaly gets closer to the value of New Moon at point of apogee (∠180°).
12 days after point of apogee on 2 February 2039 at 01:38 in ♉ Taurus. The lunar orbit is getting closer, while the Moon is moving inward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next day, until it get to the point of next perigee on 15 February 2039 at 17:30 in ♏ Scorpio.
Moon is 364 602 km (226 553 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves closer next day until perigee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 370 230 km (230 050 mi).
9 days after its ascending node on 5 February 2039 at 05:55 in ♋ Cancer, the Moon is following the northern part of its orbit for the next 3 days, until it will cross the ecliptic from North to South in descending node on 18 February 2039 at 09:34 in ♐ Sagittarius.
9 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♋ Cancer, the Moon is moving from the beginning to the first part of it.
8 days after previous North standstill on 6 February 2039 at 03:54 in ♋ Cancer, when Moon has reached northern declination of ∠23.931°. Next 4 days the lunar orbit moves southward to face South declination of ∠-24.002° in the next southern standstill on 19 February 2039 at 06:19 in ♑ Capricorn.
After 8 days on 23 February 2039 at 03:18 in ♓ Pisces, the Moon will be in New Moon geocentric conjunction with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy.


At quite uncertain times and
-- James Clerk Maxwell
In the Pleiades lab you learned about H-R, or color-magnitude, diagrams. A color-magnitude diagram is a plot of apparent magnitude versus the (B-V) color index of a group of stars. An H-R diagram is usually a plot of absolute magnitude versus spectral type or color index. Note that they are basically the same thing, a plot of brightness versus stellar temperature, measured in different ways. When you plot these values for stars that are in a cluster, a close spatial group of stars, you can safely assume that these stars have roughly the same distance modulus, similar ages and similar initial chemical composition. The last two come from the fact that these stars formed out of one clump of interstellar material, all at roughly the same time. The location of stars in the color-magnitude diagram is then primarily due to the mass of the individual stars. This is useful for astronomers because color-magnitude diagrams of clusters then can be used to check theories of how stars evolve, i.e. change over time.
For example, consider a very young cluster. We know that the more massive stars go through their lifecycles faster than the lower mass stars, including the time they take to contract from the interstellar gas cloud into stars burning hydrogen into helium at their cores. This young cluster then should have more massive stars on the zero-age main sequence or ZAMS (the starting point where the stars begin burning hydrogen in their cores) than low mass stars, which haven't made it to the main sequence yet. Those stars are still contracting and heating up (e.g. protostars), so they are bigger and cooler than the cluster's main sequence stars. This corresponds to being to the right of the main sequence, but below the turn-off point. As the cluster ages, the low mass stars reach the main sequence but in the meantime the most massive stars have burned up all the hydrogen in their cores and begin to evolve to the right of the main sequence and into supergiants. The point on the main sequence where stars begin to leave and evolve into giants is called the turn-off point. As more time goes by, more stars peel off the main sequence and move toward the giant region to the upper right corner of the color-magnitude diagram. Armed with this idea, we can find a cluster which we think is young (due to the presence of hot blue stars or some other indicator) or old (due to lack of blue stars), and see if the color-magnitude diagram looks like we think it should to test our theories. Conversely, you can try and tell the age of a cluster by looking at the color-magnitude diagram and comparing it to your theoretical predictions.
Your instructor will give you a set of color-magnitude diagrams. Eight of these are color-magnitude diagrams for clusters in our galaxy. Notice that these are quite a bit messier than the main sequence we plotted in the Pleiades lab, because they are snapshots of real clusters at a single point in their lifecycle. When you get them, take a moment to examine the diagrams. Notice that the diagram plots apparent magnitude, V, versus the (B-V) color index on the bottom x-axis. Whereas at the top x-axis is a quantity labeled (B-V)o, which is the color index corrected for interstellar reddening. A color index is a measure of the color of a star. The smaller the value of (B-V), the bluer the color of the star.
You will also receive a transparent H-R diagram with a theoretical ZAMS printed on it. This ZAMS will be used to determine where the ZAMS lays on the eight cluster diagrams. There is also one graph that relates cluster age to cluster turn-off point color index. Please don't write on any of these materials.
Finding the age of a cluster of stars can actually be fairly accurate for clusters where there is a well-defined turn-off point. The turn-off point is the spot on the main sequence where stars are just starting to move up into the supergiant region. Below the turn-off, stars are still burning hydrogen in their cores, happily living on the main sequence. Above the turn-off point, stars have exhausted their core hydrogen. For a younger cluster, the turn-off point is closer to the blue (high mass, bright and heavy stars) end of the main sequence. For older clusters, the turn-off point is closer to the red end of the main sequence.
The turn-off point is probably also one of the first things you will notice about the cluster color-magnitude diagrams. To be sure that the turn-off is where you think it is, use the ZAMS transparent overlay. First, match up the upper x-axis of the overlay and the upper x-axis of diagram, at (B-V)o = 0.0 and also keep the sides of the diagrams parallel and square with each other. Then slide the overlay up/down until you get what you consider to be the best match between the star data points and the ZAMS line. When fitting clusters with a lot of scatter, try to match the narrower parts of scatter to the curve, and generally try to keep the ZAMS to the lower left of the scatter since objects not on the main sequence are probably in that direction from ZAMS. When you've got a match, you will be able to see where the star data 'peels off' from the ZAMS -- this is the turn-off point. Read off the values of (B-V)o from the ZAMS transparency, and record these in Table 1.
The turn-off point's (B-V)o can be turned into an estimated age for the cluster using some theoretical calculations. Luckily, you don't have to do any calculations. Use the graph of cluster age vs. turn-off point color included at the end of this introduction by matching your (B-V)o to the value on the x-axis. Follow straight up to the solid line in the graph, and then over to the left to find the age. The labels on the y-axis should be read as the little number (1.5, 2, 3, etc.) times the large number that is labeled every ten spaces (107, 108, etc.). For example, you could have an age of 4 x 107. Record the age in Table 1.
Hopefully you remember distance modulus from the Pleiades lab. If not, or if the concept is unclear, look it up in your textbook and ask your instructor to explain distance modulus again. Briefly, the distance modulus is the quantity (m-M), the difference between the apparent and absolute magnitudes. To find the distance modulus on these color-magnitude diagrams, keep your transparency lined up as before so the ZAMS matches the star data points. Then look for MV = 0 on the ZAMS transparency, go over horizontally to the color-magnitude diagram apparent magnitude axis and read off the value of the apparent magnitude (labeled as V).
Now the value for the distance modulus, apparent magnitude minus absolute magnitude, is (V-MV) using the labels we have here. Since we were cunning enough to match up a place in the graphs where MV = 0, we find (V-MV) = (V - 0) = V, the value you just read off the color-magnitude diagram axis. Record this for the distance modulus in Table 1.
To convert this into the distance of the cluster, we must invert the distance modulus equations.
(V-MV) = -5 log( d/10)
d = 10 (V-Mv+5)/5)
Record the distance (in parsecs) in Table 1 as well.
There is another thing that we can learn from these color-magnitude diagrams, after the age and distance of the cluster. This last quantity doesn't have much to do with the cluster itself however, but rather it tells us about what it is between us and the cluster. That is, the interstellar dust.
Interstellar dust acts in similar ways to dust in our planet's atmosphere. You have probably noticed how the sun or bright full moon can appear orange or even red at sunset or sunrise. The reason is that at those times you are looking through a lot of dust in the air. Dust tends to absorb and selectively scatter blue light more effectively than red. The red light can pass by the dust grains more easily than the blue, so we end up receiving a higher fraction of the red light that is emitted than of the blue. This applies to dust in our atmosphere (resulting in a redder, dimmer sun at sunset) and also applies to dust between the stars (resulting in much the same thing).
So two things occur due to interstellar dust: starlight reddening (redder light) and extinction (less light).
The color index (B-V) that we observe is redder than the true color index of the stars because of the reddening effect of the dust. We can make an estimate of how much reddening has occurred by using the spectral type to calculate an intrinsic, un-reddened color index. This is labeled (B-V)o. The difference between the observed color index (B-V) and the intrinsic color index (B-V)o is called the color excess, or E(B-V), of the star. This is defined as:
E(B-V) = (B-V) - (B-V)o
If you look at the upper and lower x-axes on the cluster color-magnitude diagrams, you will notice that in each case the (B-V) and (B-V)o scales are offset such that the (B-V)o scale is shifted to the right with respect to the lower scale (to the right corresponds to a lower value of the color index, and thus is bluer). This should make sense to you, in light of the reddening effects of dust. Measure the color excess for each diagram by using a ruler to project the value of (B-V)o straight down to the bottom (B-V) axis. As E(B-V) = (B-V) - (B-V)o, setting (B-V)o = 0 causes E(B-V) to be equal to the value of (B-V) read off the bottom axis. Record the color excess in the Table 1.
Stars also appear dimmer due to interstellar dust. This is called extinction. Extinction affects our measurement of a star's brightness and therefore our determination of the star's distance if we use the distance modulous equation. Let's find out how extinction has affected our data.
In Table 2 are actual, carefully-measured distances to these star clusters. Rewrite your distances in the column marked d' (your measured distance) and calculate the ratio d'/d for the third column. Notice the errors.
Now answer the questions contained within the worksheets (Note: #3 asks you to fill in Graph 1, so don't worry about that until you get there).
Copyright Regents of the University of Michigan.


Last Updated: 2009-12-28 20:51:44 UTC
by Joel Esler (Version: 2)
The Internet Storm Center directly traces it's roots back to the year 1999. A SANS Project called the Consensus Internet Database was created as part of the infamous Y2K effort. On March 22, 2001, intrusion detection sensors around the globe logged an increase in the number of probes to port 53, the port that supports the Domain Name Service. Over a period of a few hours, more and more probes to port 53 were arriving - first from dozens and then from hundreds of attacking machines.
Within an hour of the first report, several analysts, all of whom were fully qualified as SANS GIAC certified intrusion detection experts back then called "Track 3", now named "503", agreed that a global security incident was underway. They immediately sent a notice to a global community of technically savvy security practitioners asking them to check their systems to see whether they had experienced an attack. Within three hours a system administrator in the Netherlands responded that some of his machines had been infected, and he sent the first copy of the worm code to the analysts.
The analysts determined what damage the worm did and how it did it, and then they developed a computer program to determine which computers had been infected. They tested the program in multiple sites and they also let the FBI know of the attack. Just fourteen hours after the spike in port 53 traffic was first noticed, the analysts were able to send an alert to 200,000 people warning them of the attack in progress, telling them where to get the program to check their machines, and advising what to do to avoid the worm.
The Li0n worm event demonstrated what the community acting together can do to respond to broad-based malicious attacks. Most importantly, it demonstrated the value of sharing intrusion detection logs in real time. Only in the regional and global aggregates was the attack obvious. The technology, people, and networks that found the Li0n worm were all part of the SANS Institute's Consensus Incident Database (CID) project that had been monitoring global Internet traffic. CID's contribution the night of March 22 was sufficient to earn it a new title: the SANS Internet Storm Center. Today the Internet Storm Center gathers millions of intrusion detection log entries every day, from sensors covering over 500,000 IP addresses in over 50 countries. It is rapidly expanding in a quest to do a better job of finding new storms faster, identifying the sites that are used for attacks, and providing authoritative data on the types of attacks that are being mounted against computers in various industries and regions around the globe. The Internet Storm Center is a free service to the Internet community.
The work is supported by the SANS Institute from tuition paid by students attending SANS security education programs. Volunteer incident handlers donate their valuable time to analyze detects and anomalies, and post a daily diary of their analysis and thoughts on the Storm Center web site.
What we would like to hear from you, the readers is, in the past 10 years. What are the memorable moments? What are the highs and lows of the past ten years (information security/ISC wise)? Rather a 'decade in review'. What we are going to is put these all together and on January 1st of 2010, we'll post a diary showing these. The past 10 years in review, submitted by you, the readers, whom without -- The Internet Storm Center, would not function.
Please give us feedback via the Contact link at the top of the page on http://isc.sans.org.
Last Updated: 2009-12-28 16:08:41 UTC
by Joel Esler (Version: 4)
In case you were spending time with your family this weekend and not watching the news, there was an attempted Terrorist attack on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, USA on December 25th. From what I understand this "terrorist" was on the flight, and as the plane was getting ready to land, tried to ignite something in his lap to catch the plane on fire, or cause it to explode. (DHS is looking into which one it was supposed to be).
As a result, the US Gov't (and several foreign Gov'ts) stepped up security. Adding more Air Marshalls, increasing security screening at checkpoints, explosive sniffing dogs, and not allowing people to use PED's during portions of the flight. (PED = Portable Electronic Devices).
So, how does this relate to Information Security?
#1) Stepping up the security that didn't work in the first place
It's not enough to ramp up the security that obviously didn't work. This suspect was able to get on board, with some type of incendiary device. (Notice I said "Incendiary device", not PED. I don't know why Gov't regulators and Airlines insist on punishing things like DVD players and iPhones, (etc) when something bad happens.) In the normal reactionary mode, you would say "how did 'x' device get on board the plane and why didn't we catch it?" Obviously, it's impossible to look for everything that people will invent to circumvent security policy, it's impossible to make your air travel 100% safe. Anytime you have that many people that want to do that many bad things, there is a way that the "Bad guys" will find a way to do something "Bad". It's inevitable. The answer is compensating controls. Ramping up more of the same isn't going to do it. But doing additional things that are different that focus on different areas will help. You can't lock down port 80 because there are too many attack vectors. But you can force people through a proxy and keep them from doing bad things using tools like Websense, (etc). But all of that doesn't matter if you allow external proxies and can SSH out of the network. If you lock down one area, you have to lock down them all. At the end of the day, how much trust do you have in your users? Some, none?
#2) Playing the Blame Game.
Oh, it was PED's. Oh, it was because we let the suspect out of their seat to retrieve something from the overhead bin. Oh, it's because this person is running a non-standard configuration of IIS. Oh, it's because this person is running Firefox instead of IE. Stop blaming and fix the problem. Don't sit in a meeting and say "Oh, well, it's because he was running that evil Mozilla and not our precious IE, that's how we got hacked!" Don't blame the tool, blame the person for not patching the tool. How can you get Firefox to update? How can you keep people from installing it in the first place? It's not about placing blame, it's about finding what went wrong and fixing the problem in a way that YOU CAN CONTROL. Not allowing people to get up during a flight isn't going to work, because people are going to NEED to get up on a flight. Not allowing people to use their iPods on flights isn't going to work, because people are going to do it anyway. The big question is, what is the device the guy had and tried to ignite, and how did it get on the plane?
#3) Incorrect allowances.
In the words of the comedian Louis Black "...you can't bring a lighter on board the plane, but you can bring matches. You can bring matches.. That's what is wrong with this country, your brain can't cope with that kind of logic." We don't allow you to bring a lighter on board, to you know, ignite things with, but you can bring matches on board. I know I'll catch flack from the Smokers who are reading this, and I understand, but listen.. you can't smoke on a plane anyway. There is no need for anyone to have anything that ignites past security. "So how do we smoke in the airport", well.. 1) Don't. 2) Quit, (Yes, you can do it, I did) or 3) I am sure we can figure out some kind of electronic ignition device that we place in the smoking rooms in the airports. All of today's modern technology, and we can't figure out how to NOT let people carry something that causes FLAME on a plane. Allowing people to bypass one security control by compensating with an equally damaging one kinda defeats the purpose doesn't it? You don't allow people to run Firefox, but you allow them to run Safari. You don't allow people to run OSX because you "can't control it" (yes I've heard this), but you allow people to run Linux. Poor examples, and I welcome more if you'd like, but you get my point.
From my armchair quarterbacking spot, how did the flame get on the plane? How did the device get on the plane? What was the device?
From Reuters: Information on the explosive device:
"The device consisted of a six-inch (15-cm) packet of powder and a syringe containing a liquid, which were sewn into the suspect's underwear, according to media reports."
Last Updated: 2009-12-28 15:36:57 UTC
by Joel Esler (Version: 3)
Microsoft has put up a response on their security blog concerning the IIS "0day". They say that only installations in a specific "non-default" and "unsafe configuration" are vulnerable to the condition. Also they note that if the administrator had not altered the default configuration and followed best practices in the securing of the webserver, then this exploit wouldn't work.
Unfortunately, we know that doesn't always wind up being the case. Read more of their blog post here.
Check out Patrick's Post here.


Strengthening the Paris Agreement by supply-side climate policies
To reach the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees, much of the world’s deposits of oil, gas and coal must be left permanently in the ground. In an article published in Science in 2020, we present key economic mechanisms through which an international treaty directly limiting the supply of fossil fuels would help reach this goal.
Less carbon leakage
The Paris Agreement reduces greenhouse gas emissions by imposing CO2 taxes and other instruments, thereby weakening the demand for fossil fuels. However, the resulting lower international fossil fuel prices increase fuel use in countries that free ride by not implementing demand-side measures. This is carbon leakage.
If a coalition of countries agree to reduce their supply of fossil fuels, they will contribute to higher global fuel prices. By reducing both their own demand (as pledged in the Paris Agreement) and supply of fossil fuels, they can counteract changes in international fuel prices and thereby diminish carbon leakage.
Stimulating investments in green technology
A producer treaty will raise the expected future prices of fossil fuels, also in countries without climate policy. This makes investments in climate friendly technologies more profitable. Such increased investments in green technology lower the costs of tomorrow’s climate friendly society, enhancing thereby the realism of such a society – which in turn strengthens the prospects that green investments will in effect be profitable.
Insurance against a failed Paris Agreement
If the Paris Agreement turns out to be successful in preventing excessive climate change, then future international fossil fuel prices will be low due to low demands. This undermines the profitability of extracting fossil fuels and ensures that a sufficient amount of resources will remain in the ground. Hence, the producer treaty becomes inexpensive as deposits pledged to remain untouched will end being unprofitable anyway. It might even avoid stranded assets by preventing investors with false beliefs to undertake unprofitable exploration and development of deposits.
If the Paris Agreement turns out to be a failure, then a producer treaty will impose real costs on producers with deposits that the treaty has earmarked for conservation. But it will also provide considerable – probably much greater – benefits in terms of a more stable global climate.
Thus, a producer treaty will insure against the serious consequences if the Paris Agreement fails, while being inexpensive – or even beneficial – if it succeeds.
Bringing producers on the team
A successful Paris Agreement will reduce the value of resources that are still in the ground. Hence, big producers of oil, gas and coal have been among the most strident opponents of the agreement.
However, they would benefit if a treaty limits fossil fuel supply. Why? Producers will of course lose on deposits that will remain untouched but gain on the fossil fuels that are nonetheless produced since fuel prices will be higher. Groups that traditionally have worked hard to undermine climate policies might therefore be expected to support a producer treaty.
Practical steps towards supply-side climate policies
A supply-side treaty will be more effective if participation is wide. However, the advantages sketched above do not require full participation.
As a first step, rich, well-organized fossil fuel-producing countries could announce moratoria on fossil fuel exploration in areas like the Arctic. As a next step, these countries could invite all fossil fuel producers to prepare supply-side pledges, in the form of exploration moratoria and extraction caps.
Like demand-side measures, supply-side policies will face resistance – from fossil fuel-importing countries and fossil fuel-reliant firms. Nevertheless, the fact that demand- and supply-side policies distribute costs and benefits differently suggests that both approaches should be applied in tandem.
Geir B. Asheim 1, Taran Fæhn 2, Karine Nyborg 1, Mads Greaker 3, Cathrine Hagem 2,
Bård Harstad 1, Michael. O. Hoel 1, Diderik Lund 1, Knut Einar Rosendahl 4
1 Department of Economics, University of Oslo, Blindern, Oslo, Norway
2 Statistics Norway, St. Hanshaugen, Oslo, Norway
3 Oslo Metropolitan University, St. Olavs plass, Oslo, Norway
4 Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway
The case for a supply-side climate treaty
Asheim GB, Fæhn T, Nyborg K, Greaker M, Hagem C, Harstad B, Hoel MO, Lund D, Rosendahl KE
Science. 2019 Jul 26


In a study carried out by European Southern Observatory (ESO) scientists, it was found that asteroids are susceptible to sunburn. By comparing the material found inside meteorites here on the ground with the colour of asteroids floating in space, there is a huge difference; the asteroids in space are redder.
So far, this might not be too surprising, after all, the surface of Mars is red with ferrous oxides (rust), why shouldn’t asteroids be red too? Actually, asteroids aren’t necessarily made of the same stuff as Mars, and they aren’t getting tanned due to the Sun’s ultraviolet rays; asteroids are bathed in ionizing solar wind particles, causing the asteroid’s surfaces to redden over a period of time. And that period is short when compared with Solar System time scales. It only takes a million years for the surface of young asteroids (born from energetic asteroid collisions) to weather under the constant barrage of particles from the solar wind.
This has some interesting implications for asteroid studies. Possibly the most striking factor this study uncovers is the nature of near-Earth asteroids that have been observed exhibiting comparatively “young” surfaces, apparently free from solar wind reddening. Previously, astronomers have agreed that these young surfaces were down to recent asteroid collisions. However, the period of the solar wind tanning effect is much shorter than asteroid collision frequency. So even if two asteroids collided, in all likelihood, if we observed one of these asteroids, the solar wind would have weathered the surface back to its reddened state.
It turns out that some near-Earth asteroids have “young” surfaces due to gravitational interactions with planets as they pass. When this happens, the red dust is “shaken off”, revealing the untouched rock beneath.
For more, check out my article Young Asteroids Age Fast with a Solar Wind Tan on the Universe Today.


Pre-history is the time before people began to write. The word comes from the Ancient Greek words προ (pre = "before") and ιστορία (historia = "history"). Paul Tournal first used the French word Préhistorique. He found things made by humans more than ten thousand years ago in some caves in France. The word was first used in France around 1830 to talk about the time before writing. Daniel Wilson used it in English in 1851.
The term is mostly used for the period from 12,000 BC – 3000 BC, roughly speaking, the Neolithic. Sometimes the term "prehistoric" is used for much older periods, but scientists have more accurate terms for those more ancient times.
Less is known about prehistoric people because there are no written records (history) for us to study. Finding out about pre-history is done by archaeology. This means studying things like tools, bones, buildings and cave drawings. Pre-history ends at different times in different places when people began to write.
In the more ancient stone age pre-history, people lived in tribes and lived in caves or tents (houses made from animal skin). They had simple tools made from wood and bones and cutting tools from stone such as flint, which they used to hunt and to make simple things. They made fire used it for cooking and to stay warm. They made clothing out of animal skins, and later by weaving. Society started when people began doing specialized jobs. This is called the division of labour. The division of labor made people depend on one another and led to more complex civilizations.
Some important sciences that are used to find out more about pre-history are palaeontology, astronomy, biology, geology, anthropology, and archaeology. Archaeologists study things left over from prehistory to try to understand what was happening. Anthropologists study the traces of human behavior to learn what people were doing and why.
After people started to record events, first by drawing symbols (called pictographs) and then by writing, it became much easier to tell what happened, and history started. These records can tell us the names of leaders (such as Kings and Queens), important events like floods and wars, and the things people did in their daily lives. The time when prehistory ended and history started is different in different places, depending on when people began to write and if their records were kept safe or lost so they could be found later on. In places like Mesopotamia, China, and Ancient Egypt, things were recorded from very early times (around 3200 BCE in Ancient Egypt) and these records can be looked at and studied. In New Guinea the end of prehistory came much later, around 1900.
Timeline of Earth
- 4.5 billion years ago – Earth formed out of smaller rocks flying around the sun
- 3,500 million years ago – first very simple and tiny forms of life in the seas
- 600 million years ago - first animals, also in the seas
- 500 million years ago - first plants and animals on land
- 230 million years ago – first dinosaurs appear
- 65 million years ago – dinosaurs disappear; mammals take their place as dominant animals
- 30 million years ago - first apes
- 2.5 million years ago - first humans
Timeline of people
- 2.5 million years ago – Start of Lower Palaeolithic age, during which a type of early pre-human called Australopithecus lived. These people made tools out of bones and stones and made shelters out of branches.
- 1 million years ago – A type of early human called Homo erectus lived. People made hand axes and wooden spears.
- 250,000 years ago – First Homo sapiens (modern people). People make fire. People use bolas. People hunt elephants.
- 100,000 years ago – Middle Palaeolithic age. Neanderthal people lived. People live in caves and make cave drawings. People begin to bury dead people.
- 40,000 years ago – Upper Palaeolithic age. Cro-Magnon people lived. People make spears from antlers. People make houses from hides (animal skins). People paint cave drawings and make things out of clay. People make needles out of antlers. People make jewellery.
- 10,000 years ago – The last Ice age ends.
- 10,000 BC – 4000 BC – Mesolithic age. In North-west Europe people make bows and arrows. People use dogs to hunt and to carry things.
- 9,000 BC – Neolithic age. People in the Near East start to change from hunting and gathering food to growing crops and using farm animals.
- 7,000 BC – People in South-west Europe begin using copper to make tools.
- 6,000 BC – British Isles move away from Europe.
- 2,580 BC – The Egyptians build the Great Pyramids in Giza. People in the Middle East use iron and make plows.
- 2,400 BC – People make Stonehenge in England.
- 3,300 BC – 1,200 BC – Bronze Age (in Britain). People make tools out of bronze.
- 1,200 BC – 400 AD – Iron Age (in Britain). People make tools out of iron. Roman Empire rises and falls.
Massive stone pillars at Göbekli Tepe, in southeast Turkey, erected for ritual use by early Neolithic people 11,000 years ago.
Artist's impression of a Copper Age walled city, Los Millares, Iberia
Chalcolithic copper mine in Timna Valley, Negev Desert, Israel
Entrance to the Ġgantija phase temple complex of Hagar Qim, Malta, 3900 BC.
Pre-history Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.


Elephant females and young spend most of their time in small family groups of ten to fifteen related individuals, ruled and guided by a matriarch. She is the equivalent of the institutional memory, and her role is to keep the family safe. These small groups gather into larger herds during the rainy season as they search for fresh vegetation. Adult elephants consume up to 400 pounds/180 kilos of vegetation a day. The two youngsters in the picture, however, will still be suckling – when they’re not busy playing that is.