Contents: Preface/ N K Jangira. I: Perspectives on National Curriculum Framework-2005: 1. Organizational Structure/Mahabir Yadav. 2. Teacher Education in India: Issues and Concerns/S. K. Yadav. 3. Learning Together to Achieve Excellence/N K Jangira. 4. Teacher's Empowerment via National Curriculum Framework/Nakhat Nasri and Sarwat F. Usmani. 5. Trends in Teacher Education Curriculum/M.S. Chhikara. 6. Changing Needs of Teacher Education Programme/Sushil Dhiman. 7. Reflection on Present Day Teacher Education Curriculum/Nasrin and Afshan Anees. 8. Opportunities of Reflective Practice in Pre-Service Teacher Education Programme: As Projected by National Curriculum Framework-2005/Arti Srivastava. 9. A Plea for Two Year B. Ed. (Regular) Program/L.C. Singh and Sudarshan Mishra. II: Innovative Practices in Teacher Education. 10. Evaluation Practices in Teacher Education in the Context of NCF-2005/Sudarshan Mishra. 11. Innovations in Teacher Education/Aashim and Bhawna Sharma. 12. Preparation of Science Teachers in View of NCF-2005/Subhash Chandra. 13. Innovative Practices and Ideas in Teacher Education: In the Light of National Curriculum Framework-2005/Talat Jamil. 14. Role of Constructivist Pedagogy in Teacher Education Programme/S.K. Mohanty. 15. Role of Educational Technology: Towards the Management of Learning Disabilities in the Classroom/Amita Puri and Mahabir Yadav. 16. Somatic Inkblot Series (SIS): An Introduction/Amita Puri and Mahabir Yadav. 17. Implementing the NCF-2005: Vision of Teacher Education/Vandana Ghai. 18. Constructivist Classroom Activities for Biology Learning/Bharti Dogra. III: Curriculum Transaction: 19. Integration of ICT in Pre-Service Secondary Teacher Education Curriculum/Susanta Kumar Pathy. 20. Curriculum Framework for Quality Teacher Education in Indian Scenario/Rekha Rani. 21. Dynamic Assessment of the Evolving Cognitive Functions in Children/Amita Puri and Mahabir Yadav. 22. Gender Issues in Education/Gouri Srivastava. 23. Construction and Standardization of Pupil Classroom Learning Behaviour Observation Schedule/Mahabir Yadav. 24. Characteristics of Good Grammar Presentation/Amita Puri and Mandeep Bhalla. 25. Relationship of Pupils-Classroom Learning Behaviour of High and Low Achievers in High Schools of Delhi/Mahabir Yadav. 26. Contextual Learning in Biology/ Bharti Dogra. IV: Reflections on the Current Curriculum: 27. Privatization and Secondary Teacher Education: Issues and Challenges/Bhanu Pratap Pritam. 28. Population Education: Role of Teacher Education/Saroj Bala Yadav. 29. Reflection on Teacher Education and NCF-2005/Rubina Shahnaz, Anjum Ahmad and Aftab A. Ansari. 30. Teacher Education Curriculum in the Context of Globalization, Liberalization and Privatization (GLP)/Shineh Suri. 31. Need for Change in Roles and Perceptions of Teacher Education with Reference to NCF-2005/J. N. Baliya. 32. Beyond Cognition/ Sushma Sharma and Amita Puri. 33. Enhancing Understanding of the Terms Commonly used Clinically/Amita Puri. 34. Digital Language Laboratory and the Teaching of English in India Pranita Gopal. Index. Index.
The book provides a holistic view of the National Curriculum Framework developed through consultations held with public, employers, educational experts and practitioners in the field of education and development in general, and school education in particular. The coverage includes all aspect of the school curriculum ranging from conceptualization of school education with its link to the task of national development, its implications for school practice, and the challenge preparing efficient teaching force. The ideas presented in the book are the outcome of individual thinking of the professionals and practitioners tempered by interaction with experts in respective field. Synthetic view presented in the beginning and towards the end adds value to the book. Implications for practice of school education and teacher training will be quite helpful to teachers and teacher educators to refine their thoughts and practice. The outcome will be the well equipped citizens of tomorrow. (Jacket)


Combatting Climate Change in the New Space Frontier
This year marks the 75th anniversary of our first foray into space.
On March 22, 1946, directly on the heels of the official introduction of the U.S. outer space research program, the first American-built rocket, the WAC Corporal, was launched out of the Earth’s atmosphere. The rocket soared to an altitude of 50 miles from the earth’s surface and into a new space frontier. It was a momentous event, but the launch of the NASA Bumper 2 two stage rocket in July 1950 truly marked the next chapter in space flight. Its mission was to support research on the earth’s upper atmosphere to better understand its importance to humanity on earth. The Bumper 2 reached altitudes of almost 250 miles. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first satellite into Earth orbit, the Sputnik 1. One short year later, the U.S. reciprocated by successfully getting Explorer 1 to orbit.
The first race to space was on. When President Kennedy famously challenged America to send a man to the moon, he fueled the global competition. Space became a matter of national pride and security in the 1960s. Government entities were driven by a spectrum of reasons — fear, rivalry, conflict, curiosity, responsibility, and hope for humanity. Neil Armstrong’s famous 1969 moon landing represented some of our very first steps into the future we now know, though the world is vastly different. Over 70 countries have some kind of space program. More than a dozen countries boast space launch capabilities.
Wonderment and Wealth
Our eyes have been fixed on the sky since the middle of the twentieth century. The U.S. first ventured into space because we could, because we had to, and because our government — through military, intelligence, and civil sectors — drove us in that direction. The combination of human wonderment and the pursuit of opportunity has motivated powerful innovation. As government and private sector organizations have pushed each boundary, we have moved deeper into the Information Age and raised the level of discussion about the possibilities of space.
History shows us that whatever can be commercialized will be commercialized. And space is no exception. Since the late 1990s, we’ve seen the commercialization of space has taken precedence over government pursuits. New space communication structures that lack hierarchy and boundaries are opening up traditionally untouchable spheres of power, influence, and association.
As individuals and organizations grow to recognize the tremendous opportunities presented by space, a new kind of race has ignited. We are poised to take another giant leap, this time with the promise of immense economic gains. A handful of companies, including SpaceX, Amazon, OneWeb, and TeleSAT are racing to build and launch thousands of communication satellites. If they are successful in the intent to bring the internet to even the most remote and rural corners of the world, these organizations will connect “the other three billion” disadvantaged users. They also are scrambling to claim their place as a leader in the competitive ‘internet of things’ by satisfying humanity’s insatiable demand to connect people and things.
Financial institutions such as Bank of American and Morgan Stanley project that revenues for the global space industry could exceed $1 trillion by 2040. If this happens, it will mean almost tripling the size of today’s space industry. Much of this growth appears to be coming from investments in satellite broadband capabilities — investments in earth observations from space seem to be flat or minor at best.
This commercial focus raises the question of what we might miss if we put too much focus on the possibilities of space to support growth in consumer markets.
The New (Normal) Space Frontier
Only 25 years ago, the idea of connecting eight billion people across the globe to one another via a “world-wide-web” provided by a fleet of communication constellations was the pipedream of entrepreneurs and space visionaries. With the blistering pace of advancement and adoption, that vision is close to becoming a reality. Its impact on humankind is almost beyond measure.
In 2020, almost 60% of the world’s population had access to the Internet. On any given day, more than four billion people actively use some form of social media. This number is incredible, considering that only 68% of the world's population uses modernized sanitation facilities or that globally, at least two billion people use a drinking water source contaminated with feces. Almost 800 million people still don’t have access to clean water through a household connection, public standpipe, borehole well, protected dug well, protected spring, or rainwater collection.1
If the burning question of the 1960’s was: how and when will we get into space, today’s question is what we can do in space (and with space) now that we have gotten there?
As we witness the increasing ubiquity of this new normal of space, it raises a necessary question — as our businesses work to expand markets, are we considering the point of this effort? What critical global issues must be addressed to create and sustain the very markets we are attempting to create? How are we thinking about those issues with regard to our own corporate growth strategy? How will we ensure execution of our plans doesn't have unintended consequences that threaten to create negative impacts to the communities we want to interact with?
Earth and Space Convergence
Let’s use climate change as an example of how this commercialization of space could play out. Space-based technologies and space-derived information play a key role in climate knowledge, science, monitoring, and early warning systems that help assess how vulnerable communities are to climate change. They also can help monitor the effectiveness of adaptation strategies. Because of these potential upsides of the convergence and collaboration between space technology, space industry, and those addressing the issue of climate change on earth, we expect the relationships should be strengthened.
And they are. We’re seeing new partnerships consisting of the space industry, financial investment community, and commercial industries. These new entities are focused on addressing climate change, working together in support of joint environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives to address the impact of climate on humanity.
With that foundation laid for the next step into our relationship with space, we can begin to ask questions including:
- How should space companies address ESG (specifically climate) as they accelerate production for new launch and satellite capabilities?
- How are VCs, angels, and PEs incorporating ESG and sustainability into their space investment strategies?
- What financial gain incentives could be applied to greatly accelerate the development of sustainability in space companies and across the larger future space infrastructure?
We have to address these questions with careful, human-centric leadership. Our long view of the value of new space-based capabilities must go beyond connecting humans, it must also consider solving the hard problems humanity faces now and as we look past the immediate horizon.
Government and commercial leaders of space entities must accept the pressure of changing to a new normal that takes into account social and environmental issues on earth. These forces are necessary fuel for the potential of a vastly different, more commercially viable space. Business and government goals will be achieved only through collaboration, which likely will happen outside traditional organizational boundaries. If leaders resist or oppose such pressures or their intended outcomes, they will jeopardize the very things that will secure space’s potential. Space leaders must unify their efforts to effectively embrace the unique pressures that foster innovation and create sustainability that can support the earth and all of mankind.
We’ve traveled billions of miles since Kennedy gave us the imperative to make space exploration a ‘matter of national pride and security.’ Space is no longer a far-off frontier. It is an ever awe-inspiring but tangible and present reality that is shaping how we process information, imagery, and communication across the world. And just as it was in the 1960s, it is those who lean into the future that will be the ones to drive us forward.


What is Solar Technology?
Solar technologies harness and use the energy from the sun to create power. While several different types of these technologies exist, at Quantum we focus on two because they have proven to be reliable and effective: solar photovoltaic and solar thermal water heating.
Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems work by converting the sun’s energy into DC (direct current) electricity through a process known as the PV effect. This DC energy can then be used to charge batteries, in an off-grid application, or go directly into a grid-tied inverter to produce AC power that feeds into the grid.
Most of our systems are either grid connected in a net metered arrangement, off-grid systems for homes, cottages, and boats.
Solar Thermal Water Heating
Although there are a variety of solar thermal applications, the most cost effective type is a solar domestic hot water heater which preheats the water used for your home’s hot water needs. A typical four-person household usually requires a 2 panel flat plate system. The more hot water used, the better the payback, therefore large scale commercial systems have the best economics.
Find out more about what we do:
If you want to learn more about solar technology and its benefits, there are several links listed below to help expand your knowledge.


A cook's knife needs to be sharp.
- Sharp means having a point or edge that is good for cutting or a sudden change.
- An example of something sharp is a knife.
- An example of sharp used as an adjective is the phrase a sharp turn which means a turn that suddenly changes direction.
- Sharp is defined as exactly.
An example of sharp used as an adverb is to arrive somewhere at a certain time, like two o'clock sharp.
- The definition of a sharp is something with a pointed end.
An example of a sharp is a needle.
- suitable for use in cutting or piercing; having a very thin edge or fine point; keen
- having a point or edge; not rounded or blunt; peaked: a sharp ridge, sharp features
- not gradual; abrupt; acute: a sharp turn
- clearly defined; distinct; clear: a sharp contrast
- made up of hard, angular particles, as sand
- quick, acute, or penetrating in perception or intellect; specif.,
- acutely sensitive in seeing, hearing, etc.
- clever; shrewd
- showing or having a keen awareness; attentive; vigilant: a sharp lookout
- crafty; designing; underhanded
- harsh, biting, or severe: a sharp temper, sharp criticism
- violent or impetuous; sudden and forceful: a sharp attack
- brisk; active; vigorous: a sharp run
- having a keen effect on the senses or feelings; specif.,
- severe; intense; acute; keen: a sharp pain, grief, appetite, etc.
- strong; biting; pungent, as in taste or smell
- high-pitched; shrill: a sharp sound
- brilliant; intense: a sharp flash of light
- cold and cutting: a sharp wind
- Slang attractively or stylishly dressed or groomed
- higher in pitch by a half step: C sharp (C?)
- out of tune by being above the true or proper pitch
Origin of sharpMiddle English ; from Old English scearp, akin to German scharf, Old Norse skarpr ; from Indo-European an unverified form (s)kerb(h)- ; from base an unverified form (s)ker-, to cut from source shear, harvest, Classical Latin caro, flesh
- in a sharp manner; specif.,
- abruptly or briskly
- attentively or alertly
- so as to have a sharp point or edge
- keenly; piercingly
- Music above the true or proper pitch
- precisely; exactly: used postpositively: one o'clock sharp
- a sewing needle with an extremely fine point
- Informal an expert or adept
- Informal shark, sharper
- Slang any sharp medical device, as a hypodermic needle: usually used in pl.
- a note or tone one half step above another
- the sign (?) indicating such a note
- Having a thin edge or a fine point suitable for or capable of cutting or piercing.
- a. Having clear form and detail: a sharp photographic image.b. Terminating in an edge or a point: sharp angular cliffs; a sharp nose.c. Clearly and distinctly set forth: sharp contrasts in behavior.
- Abrupt or acute: a sharp drop; a sharp turn.
- a. Intellectually penetrating; astute: was sharp in his analysis of the problem.b. Marked by keenness and accuracy of perception: sharp hearing.
- Crafty or deceitful, as in business dealings: sharp selling practices.
- Vigilant; alert: kept a sharp lookout for shoplifters.
- a. Briskly or keenly cold and cutting: a sharp wind.b. Harsh or biting in tone or character: sharp criticism.
- Fierce or impetuous; violent: a sharp temper; a sharp assault.
- Intense; severe: a sharp pain.
- a. Sudden and shrill: a sharp whistle.b. Sudden and brilliant or dazzling: a sharp flash of lightning.
- Strongly affecting the senses of smell and taste: a sharp pungent odor; a sharp cheese.
- Composed of hard angular particles: sharp sand.
- Music a. Raised in pitch by a semitone.b. Being above the proper pitch.c. Having the key signature in sharps.
- Informal Attractive or stylish: a sharp jacket.
- In a sharp manner: hit me sharp on the brow.
- Punctually; exactly: at three o'clock sharp.
- Music Above the true or proper pitch.
- Music a. A sign (♯) used to indicate that a note is to be raised by a semitone.b. A note that is raised a semitone.
- a. A slender sewing needle with a very fine point.b. A hypodermic needle: a canister for disposing of used sharps.
- Informal a. An expert.b. A shrewd cheater; a sharper.
verbsharped, sharp·ing, sharps Music
Origin of sharpMiddle English, from Old English scearp; see sker-1 in Indo-European roots.
- A surname.


May 10th, 2012
Human Hormones Are Being Eclipsed By Synthetic Chemicals
Sayer Ji GreenMedInfo.com
A new study published in the Journal of Applied Toxicology has raised some disturbing possibilities regarding the dangers of common hormone-mimicking preservatives found in thousands of consumer products on the market today. Titled "Parabens detection in different zones of the human breast: consideration of source and implications of findings," researchers discussed the role that parabens -- a class of estrogen-mimicking chemicals widely used in drugs, foods and cosmetics -- may have in breast cancer and childhood disease.
The report focused on the findings of The Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Centre at the University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust published last month (March, 2012), which discovered five paraben esters in human breast tissue samples collected from 40 mastectomies from women with primary breast cancer. The report revealed three things:
1) The ester form of parabens found within the breast tissue samples indicated a dermal route of exposure, as would occur through skin care products and underarm deodorants.
2) The paraben residues were found at concentrations up to 1 million times higher than the estrogen (estradiol) levels naturally found in human breast tissue.
3) Propylparaben was found in the highest concentration in the underarm area (axilla), where underarm deodorants are most used and breast cancer prevalence is at its highest.
While the World Health Organization considers the estrogenic properties of parabens to be a low toxicological risk due to it being 10,000-100,000 less potent than estradiol (E2), the 1 million-fold higher levels found within breast tissue sampled clearly indicate the magnitude of exposure more than compensates for the reduction in potency.
Also noted in the new study was a highly disturbing possibility: “For exposures in children, concern has already been raised that ‘the estrogenic burden of parabens and their metabolites in blood may exceed the action of endogenous estradiol in childhood and the safety margin for propylparaben is very low when comparing worst-case exposure’ (Boberg et al., 2010).”
In other words, synthetic hormones from chemicals like parabens may actually be eclipsing the activity of endogenously produced (natural) hormones in our children. Given that 99.1% of the US population’s urine samples (ages 6 or older) contain methylparaben, this issue has broad-ranging implications.


THE CONSTITUTIONAL MANDATE
The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines, as in past constitutions, vested the power of government on the legislative, executive, and the judiciary.
The Legislative Power is vested in the Congress of the Philippines which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives, except to the extent reserved to the people by the provision on initiative and referendum.
The Executive Power is vested in the President of the Philippines, and;
The Judicial Power is vested in one Supreme Court and in such lower courts as may be established by law.
The Constitution provides that the House of Representatives shall be composed of not more than two hundred and fifty (250) members, unless otherwise fixed by law, who shall be elected from legislative districts apportioned among the provinces, cities, and the Metropolitan Manila area in accordance with the number of their respective inhabitants, and on the basis of a uniform and progressive ratio, and those who, as provided by law, shall be elected through a party-list system of registered national, regional, and sectoral parties or organizations. The party-list representatives shall constitute twenty per cent (20%) of the total number of representatives including those under the party list.
A Member of the House of Representatives should be a natural-born citizen of the Philippines and, on the day of the election, is at least twenty-five (25) years of age, able to read and write, and, except the party list representatives, a registered voter in the district in which he shall be elected, and a resident thereof for a period of not less than one year immediately proceeding the day of the election.
The Members of the House of Representatives shall be elected for a term of three years, and shall serve for no more than three consecutive terms.


From her diary. In October 1847, at the age of twenty-nine, Mitchell discovered a comet, becoming the first American woman to do so; the following year she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, becoming its first female member. When Vassar College opened in 1865, Mitchell accepted an appointment as director of the observatory and professor of astronomy, positions she held until a year before her death, in 1889. Her two favorite planets, according to her successor, were Jupiter and Saturn.
They were wonderful men, the early astronomers. That was a great conception, which now seems to us so simple, that the earth turns upon its axis, and a still greater one that it revolves about the sun (to show this last was worth a man’s lifetime, and it really almost cost the life of Galileo).
Somehow we are ready to think that they had a wider field than we for speculation, that truth being all unknown, it was easier to take the first step in its paths. But is the region of truth limited? Is it not infinite? We know a few things which were once hidden, and being known, they seem easy; but there are the flashings of the northern lights—“Across the lift they start and shift”; there is the conical zodiacal beam seen so beautifully in the early evenings of spring and the early mornings of autumn; there are the startling comets, whose use is all unknown; there are the brightening and flickering variable stars, whose cause is all unknown; and the meteoric showers—and for all of these, the reasons are as clear as for the succession of day and night; they lie just beyond the daily mist of our minds, but our eyes have not yet pierced through it.


Creamer's Field was originally part of Creamer's Dairy.
Charles and Belle Hinckley
started the dairy on Fourth Avenue in 1904, serving boomtown Fairbanks south of the Chena.
By 1915, they had moved to a bigger place across the Chena, where Creamer's
stands today. In 1928, the Hinckleys sold the dairy to Charles and Anna Creamer--Charles
was the son of close friends living nearby, and Anna was Belle Hinckley's younger sister.
From then on, the dairy was known as Creamer's.
During the 1930s and 1940s, the Creamer's worked hard to modernize and
expand the business. They built two large "Louden'' barns--designed by the Louden
Machinery Co. of Iowa--which still give Creamer's its distinctive visual appeal. The first
and largest barn cost $13,700--more than the entire dairy was worth 10 years earlier. Its
hayloft held 165 tons of hay, enough to feed 55 cows through the winter.
To celebrate the opening of the new barn and its state-of-the-art
equipment in 1938, the Creamers threw a huge dance and invited the whole town. According
to the report in the News-Miner the next day, nearly everyone in Fairbanks attended.
War and After
The 1940s and early 1950s Creamer's Dairy prospered, selling milk,
ice cream, sherbet, cottage cheese, whipping cream, buttermilk, chocolate milk, and even a
non-dairy orange drink. World War II was good for business at first, because it enabled
them to secure a lucrative contract to sell milk and ice cream to Ladd Air Force Base. But post-war changes in shipping
(air and the newly opened Alaska Highway) allowed outside competitors to enter the local
market. These and other economic factors were taking their toll by the late 1950s. The
dairy ended production in 1966.
The town rallied to help purchase the land for preservation, and in
the early 1970s the state acquired it for use as a waterfowl sanctuary, which it has been
the major buildings still standing at Creamer's Field are the family residence/visitor's
center, the barn complex, processing building, and the bunkhouse/potato storage shed. The
entire site is on the National Register of Historic Places. The buildings are still owned
by the state and operated by the Fish and Game Department. [Photo courtesy of Julie Coghill].
Waterfowl Wildlife Refuge
Watching the birds at Creamer's Field on their annual pass
through Alaska is one of Fairbanks' most popular spring and fall pastimes. But the
1,800-acre refuge has much more to offer. Three nature trails wind through a variety of
natural habitats common to the Interior: forest, shrub, muskeg and wetlands. The loop
trail starting by the parking lot begins a leisurely two-mile stroll through the refuge.
Free guided nature walks, sponsored by Friends of Creamer's Field, are offered several
times a week from June 1 to September 1. They begin at the College Road parking lot, and
subjects will vary between history, wildlife and the forest, depending on the guide.
Tours are Wednesdays and Saturdays at 9 a.m. and Tuesdays and Thursdays at
7 p.m. Allow 1-2 hours. Call (907) 452-5162 for more information. The web site mentioned
at the bottom of this page has an excellent map of the trails.
The Creamer's Field visitor center contains informative displays and
souvenirs. The center is located in the lower floor of the Creamer's original farmhouse,
which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Trail
guide books are available there with information keyed to posts placed along the path.
Visitors are required to keep their dogs on leashes, and mosquito repellent is
recommended. The trails are used by mushers, skiers and skijorers in the
winter, and they connect to trails leading to the dog mushers hall on Farmers Loop. Sprint
teams competing in the Open North American Sled Dog Championships race their dog teams
over these trails each spring.
The Creamer family's practice of plowing the field in the spring
and fertilizing it with manure, combined with leftovers from the fall harvest, drew
migrating waterfowl. The birds' annual arrival continues to be looked forward to as one of
the first signs of spring. A local Kiwanis club spreads grain over the plowed field each
spring to welcome returning birds.
Substantial numbers of Canada geese and ducks can be seen in spring
and fall during their migrations through Alaska, while Sandhill Cranes may be seen from
mid-April to mid-September. Songbirds, some from as far away as South America, pass
through or nest on the refuge as well. Moose are commonly seen by those who walk the
nature trail system. The late Wayne Nelson, then serving as Fairbanks mayor, proclaimed
the arrival of the Canadian geese as the Golden Heart city's official "herald of
spring." He dubbed the last Saturday in April "Goose Day."
Radio stations KFAR-AM and KWLF-FM. sponsor a Goose Watchers contest,
following a tradition begun by the late "Wee Willy Wally", station owner and
another former city mayor and councilman. In this contest, the prize ($660 after the call
numbers of the AM station) is awarded the first one to spot a goose at Creamer's Field, as
well as others "caught" wearing their "goose watchers buttons" which
are distributed free at sponsor locations throughout the area. If you
follow the link above, you can see a vintage page explaining the
contest, but it has only been offered sporadically in recent years. In
2014, it would have been won by an employee of Fish and Game, who was
walking the grounds at least a week before any geese where expected, and
saw the first two geese to arrive.
Sandhill Crane Festival
Creamer's Field is the site of the annual Sandhill Crane Festival. See
their website for dates. There are two distinct
groups of sandhill cranes in Alaska. 200,000 belong to a group that
breeds on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, and the smaller 20,000 group breeds
are the Pacific Flyway Population. A few nests have also been found in
Southeast Alaska, belonging to birds who winter in the Central Valley of
The festival in the past have included an opening reception and art
show, multimedia presentations, demonstrations such as bird banding,
crafts for kids, a crane calling contest, workshops, tours, "Brunch with
the Cranes" including healthy food and live music, crane watches
(spotting scopes and binoculars available) and bird research talks. In
2009, it closed with a Tex-Mex dinner and fundraiser for Camp Habitat.
The visitor center's winter hours are noon to 4pm. Summer hours (at least in
1999) were 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday
through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Call (907) 452-5162 for more
current information or go to the
site of the Friends of Creamer's Field.
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Industrial design job description sample, including tasks, skills, and responsibilities to edit to attract top candidates for your business.
This role involves actualizing ideas for automated manufactured products like such toys, automobiles and home systems. Industrial designers are articulate in merging creative arts, engineering, and business to produce useful day-to-day items for people’s needs. Industrial designers concentrate more on the feedback from users and clients and use the gathered reports to design modules and feature of certain gadgets.
Industrial designers usually deal with one product type like household furniture, cars, and housewares. Some designers specialize in the production of medical equipment, some deal in electronics gadgets like computers or mobile phones. Meanwhile, others work on coming up with fine concepts for unique snowboards and bicycles. Designers that work in manufacturing companies design the physical aspects of a brand.
They are equipped with broad imaginative instincts and the ability to express their imaginations in the new product they manufacture. They also produce several industrial products after accurate sketching on paper to get solutions for mechanical processes.
Designers make the selection of the right materials and tools, color and finishing for the product about to be produced.
Designers need computers to carry out their work. They usually include computer-aided- design (CAD) in their production. The two most common ones are two-dimensional CAD software useful for sketching imaginations and three-dimensional CAD software used to turn two-dimensional designs into models through the use of three-dimensional printers.
Industrial Design Job Description Sample
Position: Industrial Design
Degree: A bachelor’s degree in industrial design, architecture, or engineering. A Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) is also a valuable criterion.
Working condition: Has to be in the office, testing sites, centers for design works, exhibition grounds, manufacturing factories and clients’ homes or offices,
- Must possess analytical skills needed for logical thinking. Reasoning skill is also required to produce consumer-appeal products.
- You must be artistic and creative in expressing your imaginations and ideas in your illustrations.
- You must be proficient in computer usage and CAD adaptation to create your models.
- You must be unique in your creations and know how to incorporate modern technologies into your designs.
- Interpersonal skills are essential in working with co-workers and clients to share their professional ideas.
- You must possess sufficient mechanical skills before applying for the job because wide knowledge on the internal engineering formulas of some products you will work on must be well understood.
- Should be adept at recognizing broad design issues like size, need and cost of a product, predict complications, bring up options, examine alternatives, and proffer solutions.
- Required to provide industrial designs for old and new products, the performance of research for the available designs, document maintenance and ensure strict adherence to all design benchmarks.
- Responsible for the preparations of all available models for industrial products and coordinate the performance of all programs needed for field investigations.
- Required to take part in all research programs and make ready the needed project plans. Collaborate with other designers and engineers to create excellent consumer satisfaction products.
- Responsible for amassing all needed details to work out front end plans and give out guidelines for programs.
- 3D, ISO, GMP and Olympus Corporate Product Design will require optimum expertise maintenance by the designers. Strict compliance with the technical usage of these softwares must be monitored as well.


|SCIENCE AND RELIGION|
If science is defined as that body of knowledge about man and the universe that is based on observation, experiment, and measurement, while religion embodies teachings that are based on faith, then it follows that these two domains are bound to come into conflict with one another if they are treated as epistemological equivalents.
One reason this is inevitable is that most religions contain both a cosmology and a biology, that is, they include an account of the origin of the universe and of life on the planet. In this sense, most religious teachings include scientific claims. However, as it took many centuries for science to emerge as a distinct and organized human activity, this conflict did not become apparent in the West until the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The "warfare" that developed at that time between an emergent science and religion is epitomized by Galileo's epic struggle with the Catholic Church over the Copernican heliocentric theory of the heavens. Although eventually forced to recant by the Inquisition, Galileo was influential in developing the rational scientific method by his refusal to accept without question statements that were not based on direct evidence but that merely derived their authority from others.
This warfare has continued to the present day, reaching something of a climax in the nineteenth century in the battle between creationism and the Darwinian theory of human evolution. It should be noted, however that, although science could not emerge until intellectual inquiry was freed from the dogmatic constraints of an ecclesiastically imposed theology, it was developments in religious thought that eventually gave birth to modern science. For, as Robert Merton (1938) has suggested, following Max Weber's lead, it was developments in Protestantism that led to the emergence in seventeenth-century England of a culture of individualistic rationalism conducive to scientific modes of thought.
In the contemporary world, it is science and not religion that tends to possess the greater cultural status and significance. One index of this is the extent to which new religious movements, such as Christian Science and Scientology, try to appropriate this prestige to themselves by incorporating the word science into their titles. However, it cannot be assumed that science is complete master of the battlefield. Although the set-piece battles of the nineteenth century may have been won by science, skirmishes continue. Indeed, some have claimed that a fresh round of fighting is about to begin, following the growing popular disenchantment with science and technology that marked the decades of the 1960s and 1970s as well as the more recent crisis of confidence in secular thought represented by the "turn to postmodernism."
Certainly the 1980s and 1990s have seen a spate of books that purport to demonstrate that modern scientific thought, and especially modern cosmological thinking, is consonant with, if not actually supportive of, a religious position. This movement began in 1984 when Paul Davies, professor of mathematical physics at the University of Adelaide, published God and the New Physics (Cambridge University Press 1984), only to receive a further (and unintended) boost from the sensational success of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time (Oxford University Press 1988), a book that ends with the sentence, "If we find the answer [to the problem of a complete theory of the universe] . . . it would be the ultimate triumph of human reasonfor then we would truly know the mind of God." It was this comment that prompted Paul Davies to write The Mind of God (Heinemann 1992) in which he tries to prove logically and scientifically that God, or some sort of supreme being, must exist. Other writers have followed Davies's lead and tried to show that it might be scientifically possible for a God to intervene in the universe without breaking the laws of nature, while more recently Frank Tipler, in The Physics of Mortality: Modern Cosmology, God and the Resurrection of the Dead (Macmillan 1995), has tried to argue that the universe was created so that we could be here to observe it, and consequently that theology should be conceived as a branch of physics.
Against these attempts to incorporate scientific cosmology into a religious worldview, and in a manner somewhat reminiscent of T. H. Huxley's defense of Darwinian evolutionary theory, the biologist Richard Dawkins has sprung to the defense of an atheistic science. Dawkins, in The Blind Watchmaker (Longman 1986) and The Selfish Gene (Oxford University Press 1989) observes that the term God , used in this sophisticated, physicist's sense, bears no relation to the God of the Bible or of any other religion. If a physicist says God is another name for Planck's constant, or God is a superstring, we should take it as a picturesque metaphorical way of saying that the nature of superstrings or the value of Planck's constant is a profound mystery. As Dawkins observes, the God hypothesis explains nothing; rather, it amounts to postulating what one is trying to explain, which is complexity. Science has been very successful in explaining complexity, whereas "God" is merely an improbably complex hypothesis invoked in an attempt to explain the complex.
It is too early to say whether this most recent attempt to represent science as supportive of theism constitutes a serious and lasting movement or is simply a publishing phenomenon, one in which theological references serve as little more than a marketing ploy, with the word God being employed by scientists and God apologists alike simply as a means of drawing attention to their work. It is also possible that the flirtation by cosmologists with the god hypothesis tells us more about the increasingly speculative nature of their theorizing than it does about the relationship between religion and science in general. In any event, these books provide little comfort for the supporters of any particular religious tradition. They support no specific religious claim and provide no comfort for hard-pressed clergy confronted with the hostility and indifference of a secular world.
See also Social Science and Religion
R. K. Merton, Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth Century England (New York: Harper 1970 ).
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I recently read a story attributed to the book Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland. It recounts an experiment by a ceramics teacher, who divided his class into two groups. The first group was to be graded on quantity. They were to focus on making as many pots as possible by the final day of class. The second group was to be graded on quality. They only had to make one pot, so they could pour all their time and focus and energy into this one pot--but yes, it had to be of utmost quality to get an "A."
Now, my first thought upon reading this was to think, Well, of course, the students focusing on quality are going to have the better pots. They get to spend the entirety of their class time getting their one pot just right. But the curious thing is that by the end of the class, the students focusing on quantity were actually the ones producing the pots of the best quality. It turns out that even though they were focused on making as many pots as possible, these students couldn't help but learn from the process of doing so. They had the benefit of making mistakes and learning from trial and error. In the end, this was enough to put them ahead of the group focused on quality.
As writers, we face the equivalent of a lot of lousy pots. How many times do you end up tossing paragraphs, pages, chapters, or even entire manuscripts that just aren't making the grade? But the simple fact that we're writing means we're learning and honing our skills. Quantity leads to quality, which is why we must write, write, write.
So . . . go, write, fail! Fail a lot if that's what it takes. There is great value in mistakes. The most important thing is to keep writing.


When something is artificial (or man-made), it has been made by humans, not nature. For example, an artificial satellite is one made by humans, while a natural satellite is a satellite that was not made by humans. Many artificial things imitate or copy things found in nature. The imitation may use the same basic materials as those in the natural object; or it may use quite different materials. These are concepts in defining reality. There are different ideas about what can be considered artificial and what is natural.
Artificial does not necessarily mean synthetic (that is, created by synthesis). An artificial sweetener imitates sweetness using a chemical formula that is not found in nature; it is therefore both artificial and synthetic.
References[change | change source]
|The Simple English Wiktionary has a definition for: artificial.|
- Herbert A. Simon (1969). The Sciences of the Artificial. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. p. 4. ISBN 9780262264495. http://books.google.com/books?id=k5Sr0nFw7psC.
- Syed Mustafa Alisection (January 1999), "4: Artificiality" (PDF), The Concept of Poiesis and Its Application in a Heideggerian Critique of Computationally Emergent Artificiality, Brunel University, pp. 198–216, http://mcs.open.ac.uk/sma78/thesis/pdf/4.pdf
- Klaus Krippendorff (2007), "An Exploration of Artificiality" (PDF), Departmental Papers (University of Pennsylvania, Annenberg School for Communication), http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1246&context=asc_papers


Last September 10th marked the 30th anniversary of the arrival in Spain of Picasso’s most famous painting. But do you know which was the real origin of this painting? If you fancy knowing about it, please keep on reading this post…….
The history of "Guernica" began in January 1937 when the Government responsible of the Republic asked Picasso for a large painting of 11x4 meters for the Spanish pavilion at the Universal Exposition to be held that year in Paris. Since May 1st, he spends several days in a penthouse at 7 rue des Grands Augustins Paris, making many preparatory sketches (a total of 62), before boarding the blank canvas. On May 10 he began to paint his masterpiece of 3.51 x7, 82. It was his most well thought-out painting.
A few days earlier, on April 26, the Basque town of Guernica was bombed and devastated by the German Condor Legion. The news runs among the Spaniards in Paris and the French press also reflects this. All experts agree that the popular commentaries and the black and white images that newspapers publish about the indiscriminate attack on civilians and the devastation of the city led to the malagueño artist to start his master work.
While the Stalin’s Soviets helped the Republic Stalin, Franco got plentiful human and material support of Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany. Aviation of the latter took the initiative to bomb Guernica on their own, without asking permission or notify Franco. The German Junkers aircraft of the Luftwaffe carried out a bombing-carpet against the unprotected village. The reason for the attack could not be the existence of weapons depots or barracks or troops, or strategic objectives and that the town was a junction. Guernica was devoid of any military or strategic importance.
The shameful reason was live fire test on the new aircraft and weapons to the looming World War II. The horror that made this episode was very high in international public opinion, not only by the sacrifice of innocent nonsense, but above all, be the first time in history of an air attack from the city. Soon, British, German and Japanese cities would be wiped off the map with this method.
"Guernica" is one of the very few occasions in which Picasso is involved in social issues leaving apart his personal life, which is what usually inspires him more frequently. The work, an universal plea against violence and barbarity, traveled throughout Europe and the U.S. for sympathy and funds for the Republican cause, silenced after Franco's victory in 1939. Picasso expressed his wish that the picture was not, under any circumstances, returned to Spain until democracy was restored. And it took more than four decades for the 'Guernica' to foot on Spanish soil. A receipt for 150,000 francs served the Government to prove ownership of their order to Picasso. And in September 10th, 1981, the "Guernica" landed at Madrid-Barajas airport.
On February 21st, 1981, his lawyer, Roland Dumas, signed the approval for repatriation. Two days later, the coup was called into question our political maturity, but the performance of King dispelled doubts. The Guernica came on September 10. Like thousands of Republicans, Picasso lived nearly half a century of exile and unfortunately he couldn’t watch it at home, he already had died in April 1973.
Technically, Guernica has features Cubist (reduce natural forms to geometric shapes) but also uses the expressions in the extreme gestures of the characters and great purity and definition of lines reminiscent of the neoclassicism.
The Guernica is a cry against the horror and savagery of war, of any war, of all the wars. In this painting there are no bombs, no planes or anything like that because it is a war or another war, neither this nor that it is the way in which Picasso shows his rejection to any kind of violence of war.
It is a painting with "noise", the characters shout, gesticulate and die under the bombs blind just yet. The denunciation of the violence here is timeless and has always been used as a song against the injustice of the destruction and death in any war. And the bull symbols shown here the essence of Spain and their suffering. Picasso resigned color to stress the drama and only used shades of gray, white and black, this is what in art is called grisaille.
Currently the Guernica is at the National Museum Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, in Madrid. Picasso wrote for his desire to see Guernica hanging in the Prado Museum, the picture is alluding to the war in Spain and, like any work of art is universal, alien to nationalism and sectarianism.


Hair Conductivity Tests
Conducted March 17-26, 1998
The actual electrical conductivity of human hair is a factor that has
been the subject of some controversy in the field of permanent hair
removal. Some proponents of electric tweezer and home hair removal devices rely on the assertion that
hair is a conductor or semiconductor, allowing small DC (direct) currents to pass into the follicle,
producing effects similar to needle-type Electrolysis. Critics state that hair is essentially an insulator and therefore cannot conduct usable electrical currents.
To provide some insight into this issue, R.A. Fischer Company has performed in-house testing of
human hair conductivity under controlled conditions to
determine what levels of direct current flow can be measured.
METHOD OF TESTING
Four samples of human hair taken from two sites on two male subjects
were each placed into a test jig which applied DC voltages ranging from 100
volts to 5000 volts using two high-voltage electrodes. Tests were also
performed at AC (60 Hz) voltages ranging from 100 to 5000 volts for comparative
The jig was designed to minimize electrical leakage between the
electrodes and consisted of two stainless steel plates fastened to a section
of 1/16 inch thick type 94V-O printed circuit board substrate. A gap of 1/4 inch
separated the plates and one drop of Signa brand electrode cream was placed
on each plate as a conductive medium to ensure good electrical contact
between the electrodes and test hairs.
Measurements were made at 100 DC volts, 500 DC volts, 1000 DC volts,
2000 DC volts and 5000 DC volts with a series digital microammeter to first
determine the inherent leakage of the test jig. No DC leakage (measurable
above 0.1 DC microamperes) was detected during these tests, except at
the 5000 volt setting. The jig was then tested with a 1 Megohm carbon film
resistor at the 100, 500 and 1000 volt settings to verify that the measuring
apparatus was working properly.
Hairs taken from the scalp and forearm of the subjects were measured
and inserted into the jig, and then tested at the 5 preset DC voltages while
current measurements were made. The voltage was allowed to settle for 5
seconds before readings were taken at each setting.
Following the dry hair tests, all measurements were repeated with
hairs pre-soaked in each of several solutions, including:
1) Tap water
2) A 10.0 pH buffer solution
3) A solution of 50% tap water and 50% wetting agent
In each case, the hairs were immersion soaked in the test solution for 30 minutes. After soaking, each hair was taken from the immersion bath and excess solution remaining on the hair surface was removed to ensure valid measurements. (This is necessary since any solution residue remaining on the outside surface of the hair could provide a conductive path within the solution itself along the outside of the hair surface.)
Either of two methods was used to remove the excess solution on the hair surface:
1) Pre-soaked hairs were allowed to air dry for 5 minutes, OR
2) Pre-soaked hairs were gently wiped or blotted once with tissue
The test hairs were then immediately placed into the test jig and measured in each instance.
TEST EQUIPMENT USED
Copyright © 1998 R.A. Fischer Co., Inc.
- Kikusui Model TOS 8750 Withstand Voltage Tester
- Beckman Model Tech 310 Digital VOM
- Mitutoyo Dial Thickness Guage No. 7300
- Omega digital temperature meter
May not be reproduced or distributed without permission


Pathophysiology and Clinical Laboratory Diagnostics
Semmelweis University, Faculty of Medicine
The aim of the hematology practicals is to introduce the students to the basic diagnostic methods of hematologic diseases, especially to the traditional examination of blood and bone marrow smears using a light microscope.
You will have a midterm at the end of the hematological practicals. It is organized by your tutor. The result will not influence your final exam, however, you are required to pass it.
You get a blood or bone marrow smear at the final exam. You need to form an opinion about it after examining it by a light microscope. You are expected:
- to tell if your smear is made of a peripheral blood or a bone marrow sample
- to be able to identify individual cells in the smear (cell line and stage of development)
- to describe the morphological characteristics of the cells using proper medical terms
- to recognize the abnormal morphological signs
- to tell what may have caused the abnormalities (diagnosis)
- to know the clinical background information related to the diagnosis at least at a basic level
It is especially important to know the malignant diseases of the bone marrow!
Advice for study
Our advice is practically the same as the one we gave for studying ECG, and there is a reason. Actually, those ideas described for the ECG apply a lot more to the hematology part of the exam. Those students are the most likely to get a good hematology mark at the exam, who learn the morphological aspects of hematology at the beginning of the course, and then study as many smears at the practicals as possible, with the guidance of their tutor. The method of getting prepared for the exam that may have been successful from other subjects (that is: learning nothing during the semester, then studying very intensively in the exam period) may prove very dangerous: even if you learn very well the things described in the hematology books, your chance of recognizing the smear at the exam are very slim without actually studying many different smears using the microscope. So please make a good use of your time and the help of your tutor at the practicals!
Last change: 2011.06.29 17:14


Prior to starting school in September, you will have to introduce yourself multiple times: first to your co-workers at your Board of Education (BOE), to the staff at each of your schools, and then again for each class you teach.
If you have little or no Japanese, don’t worry. This page will give you some ideas for a basic introduction in front of your colleagues, as well as ideas for your more thorough self introduction lessons for students.
Self Introduction Speeches (自己紹介/Jiko shoukai )
As you will probably be taken to your office and schools in just the first few days after you arrive, you should prepare a short self introduction in advance.
In Japan, establishing relationships is very important, and you can’t really interact with people from your school/town/etc. until they know who you are. However, you don’t have to give a long introduction! Your name, hometown, and a positive greeting will go a long way toward establishing your new relationships.
If you can’t speak Japanese you can say it in English. Keep in mind, though, that a good faith effort in Japanese will open up a lot more doors at your schools and BOE! Here is a (rather long) sample:
Nice to meet you, everyone.
Mina sama, hajimemashite.
My name is ~ .
Watashi wa ~ to moushimasu.
I come from (city) in (country). (City) is in the north / south / east / west of (country).
Watashi wa (country) no (city) kara kimashita. (City) wa (country) no kita / minami / higashi / nishi no hou desu.
I came to Japan in July / August.
Watashi wa shichi-gatsu / hachi-gatsu ni nihon ni kimashita.
This is my first time in Japan. / I have been to Japan before.
Nihon wa hajimete desu. / Watashi wa mou Nihon ni kita koto ga arimasu.
My hobby is ~ and I am also interested in (and would like to study) ~ while here in Japan.
Watashi no shumi wa ~ desu ga, Nihon ni iru aida wa ~ ni kyomi motte benkyo shitai to omoimasu.
I am proud to be working with you and I look forward to meeting as many of you as I can. I hope that our relationship will be a happy one.
Mina sama to issho ni oshigoto ga dekiru koto o kouei ni omoimasu. Ouku no katagata to oshiriai ni nareru koto o tanoshimi ni shite orimasu. Douzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu
In addition to your short speech in front of your teachers (which will probably take place in the staffroom at school), you may be asked to give a short introduction in front of all the students in the school gymnasium (if you work in an elementary school). You can choose whether to give this in English or Japanese or a bit of both, but again something quite short is fine.
Keep in mind you will be giving self introduction lessons for each of your classes, so there is no need to make your intro to the students lengthy. Save something for the lesson!
Self Introduction Classes with Students
The good news about your self introduction classes is that you should have tons of time on your hands to prepare whatever it is you intend to say and do before classes start in September.
Planning your self introduction lessons is probably one of the best ways to use your time during August, since no matter what school level you are teaching at you will definitely need to give some kind of introduction.
Once September rolls around, things can start to get busy very quickly with the start of the school semester, and you will most likely deliver your self introduction ‘spiel’ anywhere from 6 times (a conservative estimate in the case of just one small school with 2 classes per grade) to as many 50+ times if you work at multiple schools. Needless to say, it definitely gets easier and better with practice, but how do you engage and delight that first classroom of students?
Get ideas: First, get ideas from other sempai (senior) ALTs if you can. It’s easy enough to read the tips below, but seeing a demonstration of another ALT’s introduction can really show you how it works in practice. Usually at Saga’s New JET Welcome Orientation there is a session on self introduction lessons which will hopefully give you some insight into how other JETs go about their introduction. You may also have a chance to attend a session at Tokyo Orientation when you first arrive in Japan.
Timing: Second, think about how you can vary the length of your introduction to suit the class. In some cases, you may be asked to just to give a quick 5-10min intro, whereas in other classes (especially at elementary school and senior high school) you are likely to be asked to fill the entire 45-50min class period. So depending on the length of time you have, you may like to prepare several different versions, or think about what are the extra things you will say or show if you have more time.
Audience: Third, consider your audience. Regardless of the level you are teaching, pictures, flags, regalia from your home country or anything the students can touch is likely to go down well. If you can, try to get them involved somehow in your lesson, rather than just passively listening (see below for more ideas on ‘getting students involved’). Find common ground with your students – they will likely respond well if you show them similarities between your country and japan or examples of Japanese culture that you enjoy/are known/popular in your country e.g. Ghibli movies, Pokemon, Japanese food, etc.
Keep the English simple: Fourth, try to look through your textbooks and talk to your JTEs to get a feel for the ability of your students; often the biggest mistake new ALTs make is over-estimating the English level of their students, which leads to confused and bored classrooms. The biggest turn off for your students will be if they want to know about you but can’t understand anything you are saying. Also bear in mind that while games might be appropriate for elementary and junior high school, at senior high school the teacher may want you to incorporate some kind of writing activity, quiz, or other more ‘educational’ component to the lesson.
Why English? Fifth, consider including a slide/activity about why students should study English. Often this isn’t covered, students are just expected to take English because English. Talking about yourself is great, but also try to chip away at the idea that English is hard/impossible/boring/not useful to a Japanese person. Doing so could help focus some students or give others reasons to engage more fully than before.
At a basic level emphasis the greater opportunities to meet and communicate with more people, see the world, gain a better understanding of Japan and its place in the world and the chance to better enjoy things like foreign boy bands, foods, pop stars and other aspects of foreign cultures.
Depending on your class’s level/age you could also highlight things like:
- the increasingly competitive job market and University entry
- English as a common global language (1.2 billion speakers)
- the English proficiency of Japan and other countries
- Japanese corporations like UNIQLO, Honda, Bridgestone, and Rakuten moving to make English their primary language of business and English ability a key component of job progression
- international events in Japan like the 2020 Olympics
- opportunities to study abroad during senior high school (note that Saga Prefecture and other organizations have financial assistance available)
- greater access to information and resources on the internet
- showcasing well-known Japanese people who have a good grasp of English and use it in their day-to-day lives could provide some helpful role models e.g recent Noble Prize winners, Kei Nishikori, musicians like Miyavi, and sportspeople like Keisuke Honda and MBL baseball players.
Content: Ultimately, you can include whatever you like in your introduction and decide how you will present it, but it should basically be about you and/or your country.
Here are some ideas:
- your name, age, country
- your family
- pets you have
- your likes, dislikes
- your hobbies/interests
- your house
- your friends
- your home town
- your country
- why you like Saga prefecture (or your town).
Getting Students Involved
Whatever content you choose for your self introduction, try to make it interactive somehow to involve your students. Consider using a game, quiz, or some other kind of activity. This is an area that may change depending on your year level.
Some ideas for ways to involve your students include:
- Jeopardy game
- True/False quiz
- Numbers quiz – put random numbers up on a screen and have students ask questions to guess what the numbers mean (your age, height, # of times visiting Japan, CDs you own, etc)
- Comprehension quiz – spoken question/answer or on a worksheet
- Question time – students can ask you questions either in English or Japanese depending on the grade level
- Name card introductions – prepare simple meishi students can fill in with their name, age, hobbies and have them walk about introducing themselves to you and other students
- Pass around tactile items such as money (or pictures) for students to touch and see up close.
If you can’t or don’t want to fill the whole lesson with just stuff about you, another alternative is to tack on a short (possibly related) lesson at the end of your self introduction, or have the students introduce themselves to you, either verbally or on a prepared worksheet.
- Be enthusiastic. Bring your genki!
- Speak slowly and clearly. Especially if you are from a different country from your predecessor, your students may have trouble understanding your accent at first and will take some time to get used to your English, even if you are using words they understand
- Try and show your JTE or HRT your presentation before so they can give feedback and decide what they might need to help translate
- Include things for students to look at or touch. If you haven’t brought anything with you, don’t worry. Most schools have very good printers that you can use and probably laminators too!
- Whatever pictures you show, make them BIG! At elementary school, use bright colors
- Hang on to your self-intro lesson and materials. Not only will you be giving it A LOT, but each time you get fresh students (i.e. new 1st grade students) you will need to pull it out, dust it off, and give it again
- Be flexible about the timing and flow of your intro depending on the class. Always have something up your sleeve in case it doesn’t go according to plan
- Download any videos/songs you want to share in class on to a USB stick incase you don’t have internet access on the day, or the internet you do have is incredibly slow. Just Google to find websites you can use to achieve this. It will save a lot of time and you can keep a few videos up your sleeve incase classes want to see more or if you have time to fill, etc
- Learn from your first few classes and don’t be afraid to modify the intro for subsequent classes if something isn’t working.
- Just talk at students for the whole lesson. This will be boring, no matter how cool or funny you think you are
- Rely on technology (see note below).
A Note About Technology
Although smartboards and interactive TV screens (denshikokuban) are now installed in many classrooms throughout Saga prefecture, there are many that still rely on just a standard old-school blackboard. Even in cases where you have access to technology, remember that many computers in Japanese schools use older versions of software and you may find yourself with compatibility issues if you try to bring a presentation on a USB stick. You could be lucky enough to find yourself in a language lab with computers and internet, but of course there could always be some kind of technology malfunction that leaves you high and dry if that is your only prepared option.
So, be sure to check beforehand to see what kind of technology may be available for you to use in your classrooms, but ALWAYS have a back-up plan. For whatever presentation or game element you want to include in your lesson, consider having both a hi-tech and lo-tech version. For a jeopardy game, for example, you might have a PowerPoint file on a USB, but it would be wise to also take a paper version that could be used.
Similarly, you might want to prepare a PowerPoint (or similar) presentation with transitions, animations, embedded video etc, but as a lo-tech back-up you could also carry a set of printed and laminated pictures (that would normally be shown in the presentation) with stick-on magnets on the back (ask at your school or BOE office for these little gems).


What? Wait a minute. What’s going on here? I know what you’re thinking. “Dude, Macs don’t get viruses.” Well, that’s kind of true. True in relation to how many viruses show up on Windows PCs vs. Macs.
Here’s the real truth. Macs don’t have many viruses, yes, but Macs can carry viruses in email attachments from Windows users. And, it’s very important to understand this distinction– Macs get Malware. Fortunately, there are ways to protect a Mac from malware.
Malware? Not Virus?
Before digging into a list of solutions, let me explain the whole virus vs. malware thing. All viruses are malware. Not all malware are viruses.
A computer virus is a type of malicious software that, when executed, replicates itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own code. When this replication succeeds, the affected areas are then said to be “infected” with a computer virus.
Viruses replicate. Not all malware replicates.
In our office we’ve been testing a number of anti-virus and anti-malware utilities for both Windows and Mac. Here’s another one that has both a free version and a subscription version. It’s called Bitdefender. This one has been around awhile and gets good marks when compared to competition from Kaspersky (are they still headquartered in Russia?), and a few others.
Bitdefender scans for viruses and other Mac malware, and, as is the case with such anti-virus utilities, the interface is ominous looking (dark charcoal is all the rage among professional level apps these day) but simple to manage.
Also included in Bitdefender are options that make the paid version more palatable, including a built-in VPN (virtual private network; but with a daily limit on total data usage) which is almost always extra cost on separate applications, a background Autopilot, and an adware blocker. Unfortunately, advertising buzzwords like “absolute protection against all Mac related threats” is a claim that is hard to test.
If and when Bitdefender runs into a file or files that trigger the alarms, you get, well, an alarm of sorts.
The paid version of Bitdefender AntiVirus for Mac works on up to three Macs and seems relatively easy to use. There are a couple of other Bitdefender products on the Mac App Store, including Bitdefender Virus Scanner, which is free, and Bitdefender Virus Scanner Plus which has a price tag, but not all the features found in the above Bitdefender AntiVirus for Mac.
In short, more features, more money. Do you need an anti-malware utility? It depends. If you use your Mac at home or in a small office and don’t have much contact with the outside world, your Mac may need less security. If you’re in a large environment with an IT department, such utilities are common.


“My hormones are off.”
Probably more than 50% of my intake forms for new female patients have this kind of sentence written in the “Reason for Appointment” section. There are a wide variety of hormonal problems that women experience and aside from PMS, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common.
What is PCOS actually?
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is an inadequately named condition that affects much more than just a woman’s ovaries. Women with PCOS can experience a wide variety of symptoms including those of having high testosterone such as hair growth in abnormal places and acne, symptoms of insulin resistance such as weight gain and high blood sugar and, of course, menstrual irregularities. It is very important to understand the whole-body effects of PCOS because, without appropriate treatment, it can put a person at higher risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes, cardiovascular disease and endometrial cancer. While all of these issues can cause distress, menstrual problems leading to difficulties getting pregnant is likely to be the most upsetting for women wanting to start a family. 1
Why is it so hard to get pregnant with PCOS?
Simply put, the reason some women with PCOS can’t get pregnant is because they don’t ovulate. Often we see high levels of luteinizing hormone (LH), which in normal amounts causes the ovary to produce testosterone and releases the mature egg during ovulation. There are also lower levels of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), which in normal amounts converts testosterone to estrogen and causes eggs in the ovary to mature prior to ovulation. This means that when the time comes for ovulation, there is no mature egg to release. I also mentioned insulin resistance above. Insulin acts in the ovaries to increase the action of LH and having high levels of insulin is probably another main cause of keeping eggs from maturing completely. So, no ovulation, no mature egg for the sperm to fertilize, and no pregnancy. 2
So, is it still possible to get pregnant with PCOS?
YES! Working with a doctor who understands the complex metabolic and hormonal effects of PCOS is important especially because many of the symptoms associated with PCOS can be minimized or even reversed with diet and exercise.
Conventional medicine uses two main medications to help induce ovulation:
- Metformin is used to normalize insulin-resistance and may reduce risk of miscarriage early in pregnancy.
- Clomiphene (clomid) makes the ovary produce more mature eggs. 3
Naturopathic medicine encourages the body to start ovulating on its own by regulating the hormonal imbalances with:
- Blood sugar regulation and insulin sensitization through diet and exercise and natural products
- Encouraging a balanced ratio of testosterone, estrogen and progesterone in order to ovulate
- Improving egg health and quality
- Addressing emotional health and stress 4
Small changes with a big impact.
By using one or a combination of both of the above approaches, studies have shown a significant increase in pregnancy rate for women with PCOS. Diet and exercise are essential to successful treatment for both pregnancy and long-term outcomes as they can decrease, or even reverse, insulin resistance and development of Type 2 Diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Weight loss alone has been shown to be very effective. For example, in one study, a weight loss of 7% of body weight was associated with 63% of participants regaining their menstrual cycle after 3 months. 5
Some natural products that may also be recommended include myoinositol, cinnamon, flaxseed, Gymnema sylvestre, Black Cohosh and n-acetyl cysteine among others. Click on the hyperlinks to read more information about these individual herbs and nutrients. Some of these therapies may take time (several months to a year) for hormones to balance and to improve egg quality (an egg takes 3 months to mature before ovulation), but overall health improvement will likely be experienced very quickly. 6
Emotional stress is also just as important to address as physical health since stress is directly related to ovulation, insulin sensitivity and weight gain.
Lastly, adopting new habits for the purpose of a successful pregnancy will also help you raise healthy kids who start off life with healthy habits and grow up to healthy adults who produce healthy kids. Like the butterfly effect, your healthy habits will ripple through all your generations to come.
For more information on a naturopathic approach to PCOS you may want to check out Dr. Tori Hudson’s Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome overview.
- (J Obstet Gynaecol Can. 2010 May;32(5):423-5, 426-8; Nat Rev Endocrinol. 2011 Apr;7(4):219-31; N Engl J Med. 2005 Mar 24;352(12):1223-36.)
- (Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am. 1999 Jun;28(2):361-78; Am Fam Physician. 2000 Sep 1;62(5):1079-1088)
- (Hum Reprod. 2002 Nov;17(11):2858-64; Diabetes Care June 2013 vol. 36 no. 6 1477-1482; J Hum Reprod Sci. 2009 Jan-Jun; 2(1): 18–22)
- (J Acad Nutr Diet. 2013 Apr;113(4):520-45, Gynecol Endocrinol. 2015 Feb;31(2):131-5, Iran J Reprod Med. 2013 Aug;11(8):611-8, m J Obstet Gynecol. 2011 Apr;204(4):352.e1-6, Gynecol Endocrinol. 2015 Aug 4:1-4, N Am J Med Sci. 2015 Jul;7(7):310-6)
- (N Am J Med Sci. 2015 Jul;7(7):310-6).
- (Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. May 2013;168(1):60-63, Diabetes Care. 2003;26:3215-3218., Gynecological Endrocrinology 2014; 30(3): 205-208, European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Biology. 2011;159:127-131


The Causes of Greece's Debt Crisis
October 2, 2013
The entry of Greece into the eurozone in 2001 was widely expected to mark a transformation in the country's economic destiny. Then, beginning in 2009, everything changed as Greece became the center of a major financial crisis, say Harris Dellas, director of the Institute of Political Economy at the University of Bern, and George S. Tavlas, a member of the Monetary Policy Council of the Bank of Greece.
Dellas and Tavlas draw two main suggestions as to why this happened to Greece.
First, the durability of a monetary union is crucially dependent on the existence of a well-functioning adjustment mechanism.
- In Greece, there was no mechanism to adjust money and credit growth, causing it to run large current account and fiscal deficits without taking remedial policy measures. This behavior resembled that of the Latin American countries and of European countries (such as Greece) that were not members of the gold standard.
- Under the gold standard, European peripheral countries ran current account deficits, but the size of those deficits was small relative to those experienced by Greece under the euro.
- They were small because fiscal shocks were smaller and, more importantly, because the adjustment mechanism while imperfect, worked to mitigate the buildup of external imbalances.
Second, adherence to a hard peg is no panacea and cannot be sustained without the support of credible fiscal institutions.
- In the eurozone, the market's perception that Greek sovereign debt represented a safe investment -- probably founded on the expectation of a bailout by core countries -- suppressed the effect of sovereign credit risk on Greek interest rates.
- At the same time, low interest rates greased the wheels of fiscal expansion by sending the message that there was no price to be paid for the buildup of sovereign debt.
- Hence, while external imbalances were essentially self-correcting under the gold standard, they were self-perpetuating in the eurozone due to the perception of an absence of credit risk.
Source: Harris Dellas and George S. Tavlas, "The Gold Standard, the Euro and the Origins of the Greek Sovereign Debt Crisis," Cato Journal, Fall 2013.
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The bushfires that tore through the Australian state of Victoria in February 2009 incinerated over a million acres of land including key mountain ash forest ecosystems. Fire is a natural force of nature that spurs regeneration but the immediate aftermath of this giant firestorm was devastation. Kangaroos and koalas wombats and wallabies endangered possums and gliders lizards echidnas birds of all kinds and even fish that lived among these eucalypts were overcome by the flames. Millions died. But burned and traumatized survivors tenderly nursed back to health at wildlife hospitals showed a remarkable ability to bounce back and the damaged environment demonstrated an extraordinary capacity for healing itself. Narrated by Chris Morgan.


While we are waiting to eventually resume traveling once the global pandemic will be over, why not use this time to start thinking about ways to travel more responsibly?
Many passionate digital nomads and location-independent workers may be quick to share the benefits of travel on the mind, body and soul. Traveling certainly helps broaden our views of the world as we experience new cultures and meet new people.
But from all the excitement and rejuvenation that we get from traveling, how often do we think about sustainability or the effects of traveling to our planet?
In this post, we will share 9 eco-travel tips for more responsible travel.
How To Travel More Responsibly
- Visit Destinations with Tourism Management Plans
Before your trip, do some research on whether your choice’s destination has a concrete tourism planning strategy in place.
- Respect The Local Culture
Whichever destination you’ll be traveling to, one of the first things you should research about is the customs and traditions of the country.
- Travel by Land
Wherever you decide to go, opt for traveling by land, using buses or trains instead of flying.
- Support the Local Economy
Skip the malls or big food chains and head to a local village or market instead.
- Stay in Eco-Friendly and Local-Run Accommodations
Opt to stay in resorts, hotels, and eco-friendly accommodations that are green certified, or book through third-party operators that feature some kind of environmentally friendly program.
- Think Green
Apply the same basic rules of what should do the eco-friendly living globally to when you are traveling.
- Leave No Trace
Be conscious of minimizing your environmental impact when traveling.
- Don’t Spend All Your Cash in One Place
Take a conscious effort to try out different restaurants and establishments when you visit a new place, both to spread the economic benefit the community will receive, and to give you the chance to discover a variety of different food, stores, and even people.
- Respect Animal Boundaries
Be conscious of animal abuse by local tourist businesses, and avoid activities that involve the exploitation of local animals.
Eco-Travel Tip #1: Visit Destinations with Tourism Management Plans
Not many people know that almost half of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites don’t have any tourism management plans in place – or at least available to the public on the Internet. However, monitoring the number of visitors to these important tourist places is a crucial element for sustainable tourism management.
So here’s our first eco-travel tip for traveling more responsibly: before your trip, do some research on whether your choice’s destination has a concrete tourism planning strategy in place. Find out how (and if) they deal with growing tourist numbers and what are their concrete plans for maintaining the sites and preserving them in the future.
You can Google “tourism management plan” along with the destination of your choice. You may also want to get in touch with the visitor or tourism center to ask for more information.
Eco-Travel Tip #2: Respect The Local Culture
Whichever destination you’ll be traveling to, one of the first things you should research is the customs and traditions of the country.
By learning more about local customs, you’ll be aware of things that might come off as offensive or inappropriate, like what clothes to wear and whether you should take off your shoes when entering a building, how to communicate appropriately, how to behave yourself in sacred locations and so on.
Doing all of this will not only make you more socially responsible as a traveler, but it will also enrich you as an individual and make you feel more integrated with the locals wherever you go.
Eco-Travel Tip #3: Travel by Land
Another great eco-travel tip to keep in mind for being a more responsible traveler: wherever you decide to go, opt for traveling by land, using buses or trains instead of flying.
We often think that traveling by land requires more time, but in many cases, bus or train journeys might not be much longer than the equivalent plane ride. Especially if you consider the time spent to go to the airport, at the airport, and then traveling from the airport to your final destination.
Of course, there will be cases that this option isn’t always possible. If you need to fly, you can still reduce your carbon footprint through a carbon offset program. This will allow air passengers to invest in the airlines’ carbon reduction project, aimed to reduce the environmental impact of air traveling.
Eco-Travel Tip #4: Support the Local Economy
A lot of money is spent on tourism every year. However, most of that money often goes to tourism operators and big international companies, whereas little is spent supporting the local small businesses.
When traveling, try to skip going shopping in usual malls or eating at big food chains because it feels more ‘familiar’. Head to a local village or market instead, and eat at the small local restaurants.
Rather than buying magnets and souvenirs that are often massed produced, choose locally made products, like handmade crafts, clothing, and jewelry to take home from your trip.
By doing so, you’ll not only be supporting the local economy but also increasing your chances to make local friends. After all, you’re not traveling to feel at home, but to explore places that are different from your usual environment!
Eco-Travel Tip #5: Stay in Eco-Friendly and Local-Run Accommodations
If you want to take sustainability to the next level, opt to stay in resorts, hotels, and eco-friendly accommodations that are green certified by organizations like Green Globe, Green Seal, or Earth Check.
If you are normally booking through third-party operators, check whether they feature some kind of environmentally friendly program. Expedia for example offers a “Green Hotel Program”, listing hundreds, if not thousands of green properties worldwide and making it is easy for people to search for eco-friendly accommodations.
Eco-Travel Tip #6: Think Green
This eco-travel tip sounds almost obvious for the more environmentally-conscious travelers, as the same basic rules should apply to eco-friendly living globally. For instance:
- Don’t leave the lights on when you leave your hotel room
- Save water by not leaving it running in the bathroom
- Take public transport whenever you can
- Don’t pick up the seashells or remove sands from the beaches
- Don’t leave any forest traces and pick up your trash when hiking
- Bring a reusable water bottle with you, instead of buying disposable plastic bottles. Or if you have to buy water, opt to purchase large water jugs (from the local grocery store of course), or bring along a water sterilizing tool.
Eco-Travel Tip #7: Leave No Trace
We all know the effects littering will have on the natural environment, but nonetheless, it’s worth reminding ourselves to be conscious of minimizing our environmental impact when traveling.
To keep it short and simple: whether you’re spending your time at the beach, or you brought your hiking poles for your next mountain adventure, don’t leave any physical trace that you’ve been there.
Also, when packing your things before your trip, try to leave out any unnecessary stuff. Chances are you won’t be able to recycle some stuff that you’ll bring on your journey in certain parts of the world, so better to leave them at home.
Eco-Travel Tip #8: Don’t Spend All Your Cash in One Place
When traveling to new unfamiliar places it’s easy to get used to one or two places that we really liked the first time we tried them. Especially if staying in a place for a longer period of time, we tend to end up going back to the same places. We are humans and we like familiarity and routines after all!
However, next time you’ll be staying in a new place for a few weeks, take a conscious effort to try out different restaurants and establishments. Doing so will help spread the economic benefit the community will receive, and also give you the chance to discover a variety of different food, stores, and even meet new people.
Eco-Travel Tip #9: Respect Animal Boundaries
Our last-but-not-least eco-travel tip for responsible travel is: be respectful of the local fauna.
If you’re asked not to touch or feed the animals or maintain your distance from them, then do so. Providing animals with unwanted attention can sometimes alter their behavior and disrupt their natural environment.
Moreover, beware of tourist establishments that offer any kind of experience or encounter with local animals. This includes riding elephants, taking photos with tigers or crocodiles, swimming with dolphins, and so on.
Doing so will likely encourage animal abuse and exploitation by local tourist businesses, so make sure to avoid these kinds of activities or at least do a lot of research before considering doing them.
If you liked this post, you might also like this one: Mindful Travel: 9 Ways to Travel Mindfully.


Last updated on June 13, 2021
People usually evaluate diamonds based on how much they sparkle. Although choosing a stone this way is still legit, the sparkle is not just one thing. Diamond fire, brilliance and scintillation are the three components that make a stone shine brightly with flashes of light.
What Is Diamond Fire, Brilliance and Scintillation?
Diamond fire, also known as dispersion, is the coloured sparkle that you can see when the stone is exposed to light. It is caused by the light that is broken down into spectral hues when it enters a diamond. Diamonds with small tables and steep crown angles, such as old cut stones, produce more fire because this combination also produces less light return. In other words, less light return makes it easier to see colourful flashes that might otherwise be outshined by bright white sparkles (brilliance).
Diamond brilliance is the white light emitted from the stone, which is the foundation of a diamond’s beauty. Brilliance has two main components – brightness and contrast. Bright diamonds perfectly return light to an observer. Diamonds with deep or shallow cut have less brightness because the entering light leaks out of a stone. However, to be brilliant a diamond needs more than just brightness. It should have a good amount of light contrast. For example, a sheet of white paper appears less lively than a chessboard, although it has only half of the light return of a white paper.
Diamond scintillation refers to the blinking flashes of light from facet to facet towards the centre of a diamond when you move the stone. An ideal diamond has many blinking flashes that spread across the surface of the stone. For example, a chessboard looks more “fiery” than a sheet of white paper when moved.
How Diamond Cut Affects Fire, Brilliance and Scintillation
A diamond’s cut quality can make or break its fire, brilliance and scintillation.
Facets make up the surface of diamonds. When light enters the facets, it bounces around, like it would do if hit a series of mirrors, where the light bounces will be determined by the proper cut of the gemstone.
If a diamond is cut in ideal proportions, the stone will bend and reflect light in such a way that fire, brilliance and scintillation will be maximized. On the contrary, the further away from the ideal cut proportions, the less fire, brilliance and scintillation the diamond will show. For example, if a diamond is cut too deep or too shallow, the light will leak out of the bottom of the stone and not return to the observer. As a result, the diamond will appear dull and less lively.
When a diamond is mined, professional diamond cutters evaluate the rough to determine the best cut/shape to maximize its size and natural properties. Whatever the cut, a triple-X stone (stands for triple excellent, meaning excellent cut, excellent symmetry and excellent polish) is the best choice. However, if you want to save some money and get a good amount of fire, brilliance and scintillation, you may go for Very Good or Good cuts but do not settle for Fair and Poor grades.
Can Light Affect Diamond Fire, Brilliance and Scintillation?
Have you ever noticed that in jewellery stores, the lights are arranged and combined in such a way that diamond’s fire, brilliance and scintillation are all enhanced? That is because the type of light a diamond is exposed to is another important factor that affects how much fire, brilliance and scintillation you will see in the stone.
Not all forms of lighting are equal. Different types have varying concentration, which affects specific diamond features. A good combination of light sources maximizes the beauty of a diamond.
For example, a direct beam of incandescent light on a diamond draws out its fire because the beam suppresses white light in the stone. The gemstone darkens, drawing attention to coloured sparkle, while diffused or scattered fluorescent lighting brings out diamond brilliance, due to the light entering the diamond from multiple directions.
Always keep in mind that lights in the store make the diamond you are looking at seem more brilliant and fiery than it would be in daylight. That is why it is very important to see the diamond in natural light before buying.
How Clarity Affects Diamond Fire, Brilliance and Scintillation
Clarity has a great impact on a diamond’s fire, brilliance and scintillation. While clarity is a part of a diamond’s physical properties, fire, brilliance and scintillation are optical effects that can be blocked by inclusions.
The bigger and more numerous inclusions a stone has, the more likely they are to stop light from moving inside and bouncing around properly. A diamond that is heavily included will always look dull even if it has an ideal cut quality.
While diamond fire, brilliance and scintillation are mostly used as indicators of the diamond’s cut quality, they are also an indicator of its clarity.


Revered as one of the most influential people of
the twentieth century, Rosa Parks is best known for her role in the Montgomery Bus
Boycott in 1956. Parks was born on February
4, 1913 to Leona and James McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama. Leona worked as a teacher and James as a carpenter. Parks was schooled by her mother until the age
of 11 when she moved to Montgomery with an aunt and started attending the Montgomery
Industrial School for girls. She even took
a job as a janitor to support her private school education. Though Parks began to attend Alabama State Teacher’s
College High School, she dropped out to care for ill family members.
Image Ownership: Public Domain
After marrying barber and local political activist Raymond Parks in 1931, Rosa became
an active member of Montgomery’s NAACP where she served as youth director and later
as the secretary. She also participated in
the organization’s voter registration drives.
Parks became an advocate of desegregation and took pride in being a member
of the national organization that won the Brown
v. Board of Education case.
On December 1, 1955, following the end of her shift as a seamstress for the Montgomery
Fair department store, Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue city bus. Passengers filled the bus; Parks and other African
American riders were asked to give up their seats once the “whites only” section
had filled. Parks refused. Like other advocates of desegregation, Parks placed
herself in danger by refusing to follow Montgomery’s segregation laws. She was arrested and received a $14 fine. This was Parks’s second encounter with the bus
driver James Blake (he had kicked Parks off a bus many years prior to this incident).
Parks called local NAACP president E.D. Nixon, and informed him of her arrest. Within
hours, the Women’s Political Council (WPC)—which was formed in 1946 to address the
grievances of black bus patrons in Montgomery—sprang into action. The WPC printed flyers and brochures, phoned potential
supporters, and created carpools, marking the beginning of the 381-day Montgomery
Bus Boycott. After a long protest, the US
Supreme Court declared bus segregation unconstitutional in 1957.
Following the boycott, Parks moved to Detroit, Michigan with her husband and worked
as a seamstress before taking a job as an assistant to Detroit Congressman John
Conyers. In 1987, she founded the Rosa and
Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, which teaches students about the Civil
Rights movement and encourages them to strive for success.
Parks received numerous honors, including over 40 honorary degrees, the Medal of
Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, and two NAACP image awards. The State of Michigan honors Parks each February
4 on Rosa Parks Day. Troy State University
in Alabama honored Parks by constructing a museum and library that bears her name. The Henry Ford Museum in Michigan also preserved
Parks’ legacy by purchasing the Cleveland Avenue bus she rode on December 1, 1955. In addition to authoring several books about her
story, in 2002, Parks teamed up with CBS to produce a biographical film titled “The
Rosa Parks Story.”
On October 5, 2005, Rosa Parks passed away in Detroit. She was 92 years old. Later that month she became one of only 30 Americans
and the first woman to lie in state below the Rotunda in the nation’s Capitol building. In 2013 her statue was added to Statuary Hall
in the same building. She was the first African
American woman so honored.
Edna Chappell McKenzie, “Rosa Parks” in Black Women in America: Social Activism, edited by Darlene Clark Hine (New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1997); Lisa Hill, “Rosa Parks” in African American Women: a Biographical Dictionary, edited by Dorothy C. Salem (New York: Garland Publishing, 1993); Rosa and Raymond Parks Institution for Self Development http://www.rosaparks.org/bio.html (accessed November 11, 2007); E.R. Shipp, “Rosa Parks, 92, Founding Symbol of Civil Rights Movement Dies,” New York Times, October 25, 2005; Patricia Sullivan, “Bus Ride Shook a Nation's Conscience,” Washington Post, October 25, 2005; Andrea James, “Rosa Parks Biography,” PBS NewsHour, October 25, 2005, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/remember/july-dec05/parks_biography.html (accessed December 29, 2013).
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*The birth of Diana Fletcher is celebrated on this date in 1838. She was a Black Native American Seminole historian, and teacher.
Born in Oklahoma (Indian Territory), her Black father was born in Virginia as a slave. While still a young child he was sold to a man who lived in Florida. He ran away and lived with the Seminole community. Though still a slave, they treated him better than his former master. He married a Seminole woman who died during the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the forced relocation of Indians to Oklahoma. Young Fletcher learned traditional Kiowa crafts from her stepmother: sewing, cooking, tanning buffalo hides, making teepees, and basket weaving. When the members of the tribe raised enough money, they built a small school and hired her as a teacher. The African Native American schools were operated by The Five Civilized Tribes: The Creek, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Choctaw, and Seminole.
Fletcher's main success was valuing and preserving her family's history, culture, and values while learning to adjust and adapt to white American society. Because of ignorance, prejudice, and racial hostility, there was an attempt to force Black Indians to reject their heritage. Fletcher’s main accomplishment was valuing and preserving her family's history, culture and values, while, at the same time, learning to adjust and adapt to white American society. Because of ignorance, prejudice, and racial hostility, the U.S. government attempted to force Black Indians, as well as all Native Americans, to reject their heritage.
Because people like Diana maintained their traditions, we can now learn about their important contributions to the history of America. Some sources say Diana attended the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia (later called the Hampton Institute), although listings of students do not reflect this. Because people like Fletcher maintained their traditions, we can now learn about their important contributions to the history of America. The details of the death of Diana Fletcher are unknown. Reference: