- Introduction to Brazil Time Zones: Overview and Background
- How to Determine What Time It Is in Brazil Right Now?
- Step-by-Step Guide for Exploring Brazil’s Time Zones
- FAQs About Exploring Brazil’s Time Zones
- Top Five Facts You Need To Know About Brazilian Time Zones
- Conclusion: Reflections on Exploring Brazil’s Time Zones
Introduction to Brazil Time Zones: Overview and Background
Brazil, a country of stunning beauty and cultural diversity, is home to many unique time zones. Located in the northern and western hemispheres, Brazil covers a total of five different time zones which all make up what is known as Brazilian Time. In this article, we’ll provide a brief overview of Brazil’s time zones and delve into their history as well.
Brazil follows its standard three-time zone model: UTC -3 (Brasília Time), UTC -2 (Fernando de Noronha Standard Time) and UTC -4 (Amazon Standard Time). These are referred to collectively as “Brazilian Time” and are followed closely by the majority of the population in the country. UTC +4 (Sapezal Zone), however, does not adhere to these standard times, but rather sets its own schedule according to daylight hours during the year.
The history of Brazilian time can be traced back centuries when cities across the various regions began marking their own respective day/night cycles based on their local conditions – such as sunrise/set times and lengthier periods of darkness or lightness depending on seasonal weather patterns. With advancements in travel technology during the Industrial Revolution that allowed people to navigate between regions more quickly, it became necessary to standardize city hours in order for travelers arriving from outside locations to easily coordinate their activities upon arriving at destinations across Brazil.
Urban planners in Belém do Pará spearheaded this process in 1858 by synching their regional clock with those set by clocks located nearby – thus creating what is now known as Official Brazilian Time; a uniform system used throughout most parts of Brazil today.
In recent years Brasilia has become more effective at managing its business operations against commercial foreign companies by properly leveraging longitude differences through incorporating successful strategies such as daylight savings changes or “Out-of-Sync Zones”; which allow certain areas within Brazil like Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro a slight advantage over traditional marketplaces using Daylight Savings events that occur outside other parts of South America – giving them exclusive access to an edge when conducting international trades or deals with customers who may live in entirely different timezones themselves!
How to Determine What Time It Is in Brazil Right Now?
Determining what time it is in Brazil right now can be easily done by consulting a website or application that tracks time zones and observing the local time zone for Brazil. Specifically, the time zone for the majority of Brazil is GMT-3:00 (Brasília Time Zone). This can mean discrepancies between various locations within certain states however as they may observe different regional times. For example, Mato Grosso do Sul and Goiás in central west Brazil observe GMT-4:00 due to their close proximity to Venezuela, who observes GTM-4:00 permanently throughout the year.
If you’re looking for a quick website to reference, sites like GMTStandalone.com provide you with an intuitive graphical display that lays out the current local time in relation to other cities around the world – perfect for keeping track of relatives and scheduling meetings across multiple countries. Additionally, there are applications such as World Clock that offer similar features; though these typically come at a price.
Knowing how many hours ahead or behind your own local time zone is essential for proper communications with those living abroad – either for business , personal relationships or simply just curious travelers! And determining what time it is in Brazil right now requires nothing more than referencing reliable online resources to answer this simple inquiry – no matter where you are!
Step-by-Step Guide for Exploring Brazil’s Time Zones
Exploring Brazil’s time zones is an absolute must for anyone planning a visit to this beautiful South American country. From the tropical setting of Brasília in the north to the small towns that dot its lengthy coastline, understanding how times are determined in each area will make your travels more enjoyable. In this step-by-step guide, you will learn about the three main time zones of Brazilian territories and how they work together, as well as some essential tips for making sure you’re always on time during your stay in this welcoming nation.
The country of Brazil is divided into three distinct time zones: Brasília Time (UTC-3) in the north, Amazon Standard Time (UTC-4) in the center, and Acre Standard Time (UTC-5) along its southern border. Put simply, Brasília Time covers approximately half of Brazils territory – extending from Brasília itself all the way over to Manaus – while Amazon Standard Time encompasses most of Brazil’s western interior and Acre Standard Time accounts for its southeastern portion. When traveling within any one of these separate areas, it might be useful to think of them separately; although all parts of Brazil observe Daylight Saving Time (DST), changing times can vary depending on which region you are located in.
When transitioning between two of these different regions, it’s important to be aware that there is a one hour difference between each zone when crossing their boundaries. For example; if you plan on catching a late night flight out of Belém – located within Amazon Standard Time Zone – then you should set your watch or other clock device one hour ahead before departing from Recife or Fortaleza located within Brasilia’s time zone. This same pattern applies for when travelling southwards out of Amazonia into Acre state too: remember to adjust your internal clock by one hour when venturing across those boundaries! After familiarizing yourself with the offset hours between respective regions, all that remains is making sure you show up at your destination on time and enjoy everything this remarkable Latin American locale has to offer!
To summarize: Different parts of Brazil have three distinct time zones based respectively around UTC -3, UTC -4 and UTC -5 including Daylight Saving Time variations between them respectivley too Hence it’s important to understand that while travelling backwards/forwards through over these boundaries an adjustment must be made with respective clock devices accordingly so travellers don not get lost amid these slight differences!
FAQs About Exploring Brazil’s Time Zones
Exploring Brazil’s time zones can be a daunting task for travelers and those unfamiliar with the country. To help you navigate your way through the complexities of time differences and other considerations, here are some frequently asked questions aboutBrazilian time zones:
Q: How many time zones are there in Brazil?
A: There are four distinct Brazilian time zones in total, including UTC-3 (Brasilia standard Time), UTC-2 (Amazon Stanard Time), UTC-5 (Fernando de Noronha Standard Time) and UTC-4 (Central West).
Q: Does daylight savings affect Brazilian time zones?
A: Yes, daylight savings does apply to certain parts of Brazil each year. While it is not observed in the Amazon region, it is used in Brasilia during the summer months from November to February. If you plan on traveling within these regions during this time period, it’s important to make sure that you adjust your schedule accordingly.
Q: What should I consider when planning a trip within Brazil?
A: Travelers exploring multiple regions of Brazil should take into account the varying clock times between provinces. For example, Rio de Janeiro is 2 hours behind Brasilia while Fortaleza is 4 hours ahead. This can add confusion and complexity to your journey if not properly accounted for! It’s also useful to know what activities are supported or common place based on regional customs as they may vary significantly between locations.
Top Five Facts You Need To Know About Brazilian Time Zones
Brazil is the largest country in South America, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Amazon Basin and including several time zones. Timekeeping in Brazil can be a bit confusing due to its many time zone divisions, but here are the top five facts you need to know about Brazilian time zones:
1. There Are Four Time Zones
Brazil is broken up into four different official timezones – Brasília Time (BRT), Amazon Time (AMT), Fernando de Noronha Time (FNT) and Acre Time (ACT). The rest of the country follows BRT.
2. Daylight Savings Are Observed by Most States
Most areas observe daylight savings, meaning clocks are shifted forward one hour for 6 months out of the year between October and March. This is known as Horário de Verão in Portuguese or “Summer Hour” in English.
3. Days Start at Midnight
In Brazil, days start at midnight rather than at 12am like they do in some parts of the world, so if you’re planning a visit make sure you adjust your watch appropriately!
4. Offsets Differ Between States
Even though all four time zones have their own unique offsets relative to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), there can still be variations within states themselves so it’s important to ensure you’re aware of local offsetting times when traveling around Brazil..
5. Clocks Don’t Get Adjusted on Traveling Between Zones
When traveling between two different Brazilian time zones your clock will remain constant – unlike what would happen when crossing over from PST/EST in North America – so make sure you check your timings carefully before leaving! It’s easy get lost or miss important connections if your times are wrong!
Conclusion: Reflections on Exploring Brazil’s Time Zones
Brazil is quite a large country, with a time zone system that affects both its people and those who travel there. For the traveler, understanding Brazil’s multiple time zones can help them to plan their stay in each region more accurately. Knowing which cities fall into which time zone makes it easier to recognize when activities and events will begin and end, as well as other appointments or meetings that may occur.
For the Brazilian people, this complex time system helps keep their lives and businesses running smoothly without interruption. Because of the diversity and quality of Brazil’s postal service and communications networks, knowing which time zone a far-off city falls into can save significant amounts of resources by ensuring that important letters or packages arrive at the intended recipient on schedule. Additionally, this knowledge allows for entire businesses to run on different schedules within one nation due to their complex network of internal clocks.
Overall, having an awareness of the inner workings of Brazil’s complicated clock system pays off in numerous ways when visiting or attempting to understand the culture and habits of the people living there. Exploring Brazil through its timestamps allows us to better appreciate all aspects of life within its busy borders while recognizing just how important such a seemingly small element truly is.
The importance of properly researching one’s destination should never be underestimated; however in particular when travelling to Brazil it is especially pertinent. Understanding Brasil’s diverse set of multiple time zones is fundamental for anyone looking to make use out their travels efficiently and effectively – not only will you get a good idea about what times events are being held but also about when things need delivering – whether it’s physical items such as post or electronic data sent over Skype; you’ll want this crucial information for connections across multiple regions within Brazil at your fingertips!
With so many cities stretching from north east Sul (Foz do Iguazu) all the way south east Bahia (Salvador): A competent level of knowledge surrounding these ranges is essential if individuals would like to stay informed on every aspect available during their experience among Brasil’s various spaces – providing insight into regards when “working hours” end/begin due to clock alterations, events taking place during vacation dates & ultimately whatever arises during travelling experiences associated coming back here year after year!
In essence: Transversing through Brazil isn’t just exemplified through climatic moments but moreover defined by intellectual visualizations brought forth described initially by observing structure associated under respective locales throughout this remarkable land – thank you ever so much for taking the time digesting part one before continuing reading biographical impressions appearing soon after commenting below! ????


Browse the Plays
- Experience Chronicled
- Allegoric or Metaphoric Representations
- Concentration and Extermination Camps
- Deniers and Denial
- Germany, Hitler and the Growth of Nazism
- European Jewry Before the Holocaust
- The Ghettos
- Righteous Gentiles
- Nazi War Crimes and Judgement
- Other Victims of Nazi Persecution
- Perpetrators, Bystanders and Collaborators
- Survivors and Subsequent Generations
- Theater During Holocaust
- Women and the Holocaust
- Experience Chronicled
This play describes the effects of the Holocaust on the next generation. Adam is a Holocaust survivor and famous scholar who finds it difficult to talk about his experiences in the camps. His daughter, Natalie, struggles to discover her own identity and must cope with the overpowering shadow of her family’s history.
An opera based on Nava Semel's novel And the Rat Laughed, composed by Ella Milch-Sheriff. When a child asks her grandmother about her childhood for a school paper, the grandmother tells her story for the first time. She was born in Poland, and was given by her parents to a peasant family so that they would keep her safe. The peasant family takes away her name and identity, forcing her to become Christian. They starve her, and the family's young boy rapes her. Her only companion is a rat she calls "Stash". After a year, she's given to the catholic priest to be killed as revenge for Jesus’ crucifixion. But the priest hides her in his church and helps her rebuild her crushed body and soul. In the year 2099, two researchers are studying the myth of a "girl and rat" who survived the Holocaust.
A teenager learns to accept and honor her Jewish heritage. Daisy is visiting her grandmother at her home. Daisy is unhappy with herself and and her family life. Her grandmother provides her with emotional stability by providing her with grandmotherly advice and support but, most importantly, by recounting her experiences in Auschwitz where she lost her two sisters.
The Man in the Glass Booth, by Robert Shaw who was a well-known actor and writer, is somewhat influenced by the capture and trial of Adolf Eichmann. The lead character is Arthur Goldman, a very wealthy Jewish businessmen living in Manhattan in 1965. Israeli secret service agents kidnap him and transport him to Israel, put him in a bulletproof glass booth, and prosecute him, charging that Goldman is not a Jew, but in reality a significant Nazi war criminal, guilty of horrific genocidal crimes. The play has a shocking final dramatic twist.
A portrait of a group of people who are unwilling to give up Germany as their home, despite the Nazi threats. Wolfgang, a hat maker, is forced by others to flee Germany for England, leaving his mother behind, who refuses to go. Filled with love for his homeland, he is unable to accept that she has probably been interned in a death camp, and he staunchly refuses to give up his German identity in front of his new British neighbors. Wolfgang's struggle of adamant denial sheds light on the agony of losing the only home ones knows and loves.


Religious and Cultural Desecration
Mosques, dargahs, small shrines and other Muslim
religious and cultural places were system
In all, over 270 mosques and dargahs have been thus destroyed. In many cases ‘Jai Shri Ram!’ was scrolled all over the desecrated shrines. In many shrines, idols of ‘Hulladiya Hanuman’ (translated, it means ‘Riot Hanuman’) were installed. This shows the cynical abuse of caste Hindu religious symbols as instruments of domination and subjugation of Muslims. When the Tribunal members visited and inspected some of the damaged shrines in May, they were still in their ramshackle state.
One mosque, which was rebuilt through the efforts of a Muslim religious organisation, was pulled down in July by officials of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, a body that is, ironically, controlled by the Congress(I). The Noorani Masjid at Naroda Gaon was blasted using gas cylinders. Witnesses appearing before the Tribunal complained that, while desecrating the mosque at the Naroda Fruit Market, the Koran was urinated upon. The Tribunal shudders to think which religion could ever sanction such vile desecration of the sacred texts and places of worship of people of another faith.
Detailed evidence was recorded by us regarding the desecration of the tomb of Wali Gujarati, a renowned poet remembered as the founder of Urdu poetry. On March 1, his tomb, located not more than 10 metres from the office of Ahmedabad’s commissioner of police (also the police headquarters) was demolished and a saffron flag hoisted on the site. It is believed that the shrine was torn down by marauding mobs under the directions of Gujarat’s revenue minister, Shri Haren Pandya. On March 8, a tarred road was constructed at the site, leaving no trace whatsoever of the tomb that had stood there for nearly three centuries. It is shocking that a callous government and an unprincipled administration participated in the utter obliteration of this cultural monument and allowed a road to be constructed over it.
On the night of March 3, a 400–year–old mosque owned by the Wakf Board, and located near Anjali Cinema in Ahmedabad, was broken down in the presence of state ministers Shri Haren Pandya and Shri Amit Shah. As in many other cases, a ‘Hulladiya Hanuman’ idol was installed there, followed by darshans and artis.
The mosque of Malik Asin (Asas, Imadul Mulk) at Ahmedabad, built in the reign of Sultan Mahmud Begada (1458–1511), was also destroyed in the initial round of violence. A protected monument built in stone, this structure was destroyed within hours, with military precision, using a bulldozer and cranes.
Also targeted was the tomb of Ustad Faiyaz Khan in Vadodara, which was attacked and wreathed in burning tyres in early March. Extensive damage was inflicted on the façade of the structure commemorating a man who, in 1912, was acclaimed as one of the greatest among classical singers by the then ruling dynasty of Vadodara.
The underlying motive behind these attacks is obviously to obliterate all symbols of India’s composite heritage. Article 25 of the Indian Constitution, which upholds the fundamental right of every citizen to preach, practise and propagate his/her faith, was utterly and contemptuously violated during the state–sponsored carnage in Gujarat.
The Hague Convention of 1954, the ‘Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict’ stipulates that the preservation of "cultural heritage is of great importance for all peoples of the world" and that "damage to cultural property belonging to any people whatsoever means damage to the cultural heritage of all mankind." India is a signatory to this convention.
In 1972, a protocol to this Convention was adopted, which identified "cultural heritage" as, among other things, "monuments, architectural works, works of monumental sculpture and painting, elements or structures of an archaeological nature, inscriptions, cave dwellings and combinations of features, which are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science."
Every State that had acceded to the Hague Convention, it held, recognised that "the duty of ensuring the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and transmission to future generations of the cultural and natural heritage situated on its territory, belongs primarily to that State."
At its general conference meeting in 2001, UNESCO adopted a resolution that sought to define the circumstances under which an act could be construed as a "crime against the common heritage of humanity." It reiterated the need for all member-states to accede to and observe the various conventions it had evolved over the years. And it authorised the director–general of the organisation to formulate for the next session of the general conference, a ‘Draft Declaration’ that would define the circumstances under which the "Intentional Destruction of Cultural Heritage" could be deemed to have taken place.
Evidently, besides being guilty of crimes against humanity, the chief minister of Gujarat is also guilty of crimes against the common heritage of humanity. And in its reluctance or refusal to intervene, the BJP–led government at the centre stands charged with flagrant violation of international conventions to which India is a signatory.
Copyrights © 2002, Sabrang Communications & Publishing Pvt. Ltd.


Bivalves are usually not the kind of animals which are regarded as potentially dangerous. But they can actually cause a lot of trouble or even fatal accidents if they accidentally grasp other beings with their shells. One of this cases is shown here, a quite unfortunate black-headed gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) which had its feet caught between the shells of a freshwater mussel. The mussels in question could be a swan mussel (Anodonta cygnea) or another Anodonta species. Like so many other cases from the „shit happens“- series, this photo was taken at the Danish Museum for Hunting and Forestry at Hørsholm.
I sadly don´t know more about the background of this case, for example if the gull was found dead or if it managed to come somehow out of the water with the mussel crasped on its legs. Similar cases of birds getting caught with their bills in mussels are well recorded, and Darren Naish wrote a very interesting blogpost about this topic at Tetrapod Zoology, including hypothetical accidents involving pterosaurs and giant prehistoric clams like Platyceramus.
Besides waterfowl, newts can be also highly affected by clam-related accidents. In one study which involved the alpine newt (Ichthyosaura alpestris) population of a pond in Austria, 78 of 182 caught specimens had clams attached. In most cases this clams, which belonged to a Sphaerium-species, were attached to the limbs, in one case even on the mandible. Of the 78 clam-plaqued newts 18 had even two clams attached at once, and two other specimens had even three. This clams were so tightly attached on the newts that it was not possible to remove them without crushing the shells or harming the newts. One try resulted in the accidental amputantion of a newt´s phalange. In 15 newts missing toes were recorded, which were most probably also a result of clam-accidents.
There are also stories of giant clams of the genus Tridacna, which involve lethal accidents of pearl divers. The question remains how many of them are true and not just legends, but it seems really not fully unreasonable that such accidents could have happened on occasion. The famous diving pioneer and marine biologist Hans Hass once made an experiment to test this idea. He used the leg of a window dummy which was filled with plaster and pushed it between the shells of a giant clam. The shells of the giant bivalve closed immediately, and it was fully impossible to remove the artificial leg. They had to haul the whole giant clam out of the water and cut the closing muscles to get the leg free. Something like this could theoretically really happen to people wading in the shallow water of coral reefs. Here are some photos of this experiment from the book In unberührte Tiefen (1971) by Hans Hass:
So possibly the now somewhat outdated German synonym „Mördermuschel“ (killer clam) for the large Tridacna species is not fully inappropriate.
See more about giant clams on Bestiarium here.


The world of technology is constantly evolving and changing, and one of the most exciting developments of the last few years has been the emergence of Web3 and blockchain technology. These innovations will revolutionize the way we interact with the internet and each other and are already changing the landscape of many industries.
What exactly are Web3 and Blockchain and what makes them so important?
Web3 refers to the third generation of the Internet, which focuses on decentralization and peer-to-peer interactions. It is a vision for a new internet that is more open, transparent, and decentralized, with greater control and ownership of data for users.
At the heart of Web3 is blockchain technology, a distributed ledger system that enables secure and transparent transactions without intermediaries. Essentially, it is a digital ledger maintained by a network of computers rather than a single entity. This means transactions can be verified and processed much more quickly and securely than traditional methods and without the need for intermediaries such as banks or other financial institutions.
One of the main benefits of blockchain technology is its transparency. Every transaction that takes place on the blockchain is recorded and visible to all participants, making it extremely difficult to tamper with or corrupt the data. This makes it an ideal technology for a range of applications from finance and banking to supply chain management and reconciliation systems.
Another major benefit of blockchain is its security. Because the data is stored over a network of computers rather than on a central server, it is much more difficult for hackers to break into the system and steal sensitive information. In order to hack the blockchain, a hacker would need to gain control of a majority of the computers on the network, which is practically impossible.
One of the most exciting applications of Web3 and blockchain technology is in the area of decentralized finance (DeFi). DeFi refers to a new type of financial system that is built on blockchain technology and works without intermediaries such as banks or other financial institutions. Instead, transactions are processed directly between individuals or organizations using digital currencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum.
One of the main advantages of DeFi is that it is much more accessible than traditional finance. Anyone with an internet connection can participate in DeFi, regardless of their location or financial situation. This is a marked departure from traditional financing, which is often inaccessible to many people due to barriers such as high fees, minimum balances, and geographic restrictions.
Another major advantage of DeFi is its transparency. Because transactions are recorded on the blockchain, they are visible to all participants, making fraud or corruption much more difficult. This is in stark contrast to traditional finance, which is often kept secret and can be difficult for the average person to understand.
However, it is worth noting that DeFi is still a relatively new and untested technology and there are many risks associated with it. For example, there is a risk of smart contract bugs or exploits that can lead to significant financial losses for participants. There is also a risk of market volatility as the value of digital currencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum can fluctuate rapidly.
Despite these risks, the potential benefits of Web3 and blockchain technology are too great to ignore. As more and more applications are built on the blockchain, we can expect major changes across a wide range of industries, from finance and banking to healthcare, energy and beyond.
Perhaps the most exciting thing about Web3 and blockchain technology is that we are still in the early stages of development. As technology evolves and matures, we can expect even more innovative applications and use cases to emerge, creating a truly decentralized and democratized internet, accessible to all.
So, if you are interested in staying ahead of the curve in the world of technology, it is important to learn about Web3 and blockchain. There are many online resources that can help you learn more about these technologies, including blogs, podcasts, online courses, and more.


Bell’s palsy is a form of temporary facial paralysis resulting from damage or trauma to the Facial Nerve. The Facial nerve (also called the cranial nerve 7 or CN VII) travels through a narrow, bony canal in the skull, beneath the ear, to the muscles on each side of the face.
Each facial nerve directs the muscles on one side of the face, including those that control eye blinking and closing, and facial expressions such as smiling and frowning. Additionally, the facial nerve carries nerve impulses to the tear glands, the saliva glands, and the muscles of a small bone in the middle of the ear called the stapes. The facial nerve also transmits taste sensations from the tongue.
When Bell’s Palsy occurs, the function of the facial nerve is disrupted, causing an interruption in the messages the brain sends to the facial muscles. This interruption results in facial weakness or paralysis.Bell’s palsy afflicts approximately 40,000 Americans each year. It affects men and women equally and can occur at any age, but it is less common before age 15 or after age 60.
Because the facial nerve has so many functions and is so complex, damage to the nerve or a disruption in its function can lead to many problems. Symptoms of Bell’s Palsy can vary from person to person and range in severity from mild weakness to total paralysis. Most often these symptoms, which usually begin suddenly and reach their peak within 48 hours, lead to significant facial distortion. These symptoms may include:
Typical Presentation of Bell’s
Bell’s Palsy, along with Trigeminal Neuralgia, Facial Palsy and Hemifacial Spasm belong to a group of disorders called Cranial Nerve Compressive Syndrome. The current research shows a strong correlation to these disorders and prior head/neck trauma. Due to the structural relationship between the head and neck it is virtually impossible to suffer trauma to the head and for the upper cervical (upper neck) region to come out unscathed. According to Dr. Michael Burcon, a Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractor out of Michigan, more than 90% of those diagnosed with one of the Cranial Nerve Syndromes has experienced some sort of trauma to the head and/or neck. Dr. Burcon goes on to state, “Although a case study is limited in its ability to provide conclusions, this study is a typical representation of over three hundred cases researched at Burcon Chiropractic over the past ten years, where the same protocol is used for all one sided brain stem disorders, including Bell’s palsy, migraine headaches, Meniere’s syndrome, trigeminal neuralgia, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.”
Bell’s Palsy or any Cranial Nerve Compressive Disorder can be daunting, for the both the sufferer, and the doctor. While diagnostic equipment and testing oftentimes pinpoints dysfunction; Bell’s Palsy and its solution often elude even the most persistent sufferer and doctor. The link between injury/trauma to the head/neck and Bell’s Palsy has never been as strong as it is today. The injuries can be a fall onto one’s head, a concussion, slip and fall in shower or a whiplash injury to the neck from a seemingly small rear-end accident. It’s important to note that whiplash can be experienced by any of the above traumas and not simply from a rear-end collision. Although symptoms can begin almost immediately, they can, and often do, take many years to begin. About 40% of our patients can’t initially recall any type of injury to their head/neck. After some time, they often recall the trauma to their head that preceded the onset of their Bell’s Palsy. These types of injuries often cause damage to one’s upper cervical spine (upper neck), which consists of the top two vertebrae in a person’s spine, which is more susceptible to injury than other parts of a person’s spine. Pressure on the brainstem and spinal cord can result when the neck is damaged and the top two vertebrae in a person’s neck are out of alignment -by less than a millimeter!
The goal of our office is to find the structural misalignment in the upper neck and to address it. We take a series of 6-8 digital x-rays of the upper neck to find the exact misalignment and use this as a blueprint for your custom correction that is unique to your anatomy -with no twisting, cracking or popping. Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractic isn’t a cure-all but we do know that we’ve been able to help thousands of people with a wide array of issues – including Bell’s Palsy, right here in Los Angeles.
Dr. Alex Bello is a Los Angeles Upper Cervical Chiropractor and uses the Blair Upper Cervical Technique exclusively. Our Blair Clinic has helped many people find natural relief from migraines, trigeminal neuralgia and post-concussion syndrome in Los Angeles, California. We are uniquely trained to correct problems in the upper cervical spine. This vital area is intimately connected to the central nervous system and problems in this area have been shown to be an underlying cause of a variety of different health problems.
The Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractic Technique is a specific system of analyzing and adjusting the upper cervical vertebrae of the spinal column. These vertebrae can misalign in such a way as to interfere with the brainstem and spinal cord as they exit through the floor of the skull into the neural canal.


Manifest Destiny & Mexican-American War
Ralph Waldo Emerson in Manifest Destiny & Mexican-American War
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was a prominent lecturer, poet, and essayist. He was a mentor and friend to Henry David Thoreau. Known as the "Sage of Concord" for his place of residence in Massachusetts, Emerson was a major literary figure and an important spokesman for transcendentalist philosophy, the New England movement that flourished until the Civil War, primarily among intellectuals. Transcendentalism was in part a reaction against Unitarian Church orthodoxy.
Emerson proved prophetic when he wrote that America's swallowing up of over half of Mexico would be analogous to a man who swallows arsenic, "which brings him down in turn. Mexico will poison us."_CITATION_UUID_66934F6DA1FB4E81B9CF3D07961D64B4_ He was openly against the war and thought that the spectacle of it all had sucked the country into a dangerous state of delirium.


Use this worksheet (.pdf) to help children learn the major bones in the skeletal system. They can match each bone to the correct name and then make a paper skeleton model by cutting out each bone and putting the pieces together and coloring them if they wish to.
Did you know that your bones will continue to grow until you are around 25 years old? Bones can also repair themselves. Small cracks form in bones all the time from bumping into objects and doing strenuous activities like running and jumping. But these cracks are rarely noticed by us because they are repaired quickly by special bone cells.


The Japanese phrase, Ueki no Te Ire (also pronounced Niwaki no Te Ire), translates literally to "the care of shrubs or ornamental landscape trees." In common usage, the phrase usually refers to the Japanese arboriculture process of shaping landscape trees into enormous works of art.
Eric Lee-Mäder has degrees in Japanese Language and Horticulture. He has lived and traveled extensively across Asia, documenting gardening and agricultural practices. He lives in the Pacific Northwest and works as a full time ecologist with Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.
When Westerners see beautifully crafted Japanese street and garden trees, they often think of them as "giant bonsai trees," even though the term "bonsai" refers specifically to potted plants. Like bonsai, Japanese art trees have formal classifications based on their style of pruning. Terms like Matsu Zukuri, or Kuruma Shitate are used to describe particular pruning styles. These styles often evoke the image of mountains off in the distance, or a large windswept tree clinging to an ocean-side cliff.
Art trees are ubiquitous in the Japanese landscape and Asian-style pruning is becoming increasing in popular in the West. While many North American nurseries are attempting to re-create authentic Japanese styles, the results often fall short of the real thing. Mass-produced "Hindu-pan" trees and "Pom-pom" junipers usually do not conform to actual Japanese styles, and are often awkward and gangly in appearance.
Ueki no Te Ire: The Japanese Art of Giant Bonsai was the first ever English-language book to deal specifically with the subject of Japanese art trees.
Several formal tree styles are introduced in the book, along with color photos, and step-by-step instructions to create authentic Japanese-style landscape trees. In addition, the biological effects of pruning are discussed with a special emphasis on maintaining plant health. Throughout the book traditionally used Japanese tree species are listed for each formal style, along with species recommendations for North America.
Ueki no Te Ire, is a resource for Western bonsai enthusiasts, landscape designers, arborists, and specialty nursery growers. The book can be purchase or previewed HERE, at Lulu.com, an independent publishing marketplace.
Eric Lee-Mäder has extensive experience managing public gardens and private estates. He provides consulting and custom pruning services to arboretums, public gardens, and homeowners.


Drop bags are for low-level airdrops beneath radar. These are a combination of safety bag and gas propelled retro rockets. Use is primarily for clandestine missions and as safety bags for rotary wing aircraft where parachutes cannot be operated.
The airbags are made from a very durable, soft Dyneema UD-SB. for ‘soft ballistic’ armor to protect against handgun ammunition and shrapnel. Unlike normal auto safety bags, Drop bags look more like a cream filled donut of giant bubble wrap, with a large elliptical double walled bubbles on the bottom and top. Rather than air, helium is used and the bags explode into position after sufficiently clearing the aircraft. A small chute is used to make sure the package does not flip over when the bag triggers. When the package comes in contact with the ground, the impact causes ports to open in the bottom of the double wall bag forming the base. When the ports are blown open gas escapes quickly like a deflating balloon, propelling the package upward like a retro rocket the rate of release is determined by micro-computer based upon the velocity at impact, the weight of the item. When the outer bag is deflated the package comes to rest on the inner cushion, at which the contents can be unloaded. The bags themselves being made of bullet resistant Dyneema UD can be reused as bullet resistant barriers for immediate protection in case the landing proves “hot.”
When used at tree top level it allows delivery aircraft to get in and out fast. Drop bags Makes possible drops in water as articles float in bullet resistant cocoons. Life saving in hot zones, as they provide protection not only for equipment but personnel as well.
While more expensive than chutes they can be used for covert missions where chutes cannot be deployed. They allow the delivery of heaver gear quicker then landing. Especially useful in hot zones, as they provide cover or in water landings as they float. Also a lot cheaper than replacing air craft.
These products are designed for high volume low cost manufacturing. Dyneema is now product available in large quantities. These can be easily produced using current technology Dyneema is relatively easy to work with and can be molded in complex shapes. Fabricators have had years of experience making various Mil Spec. Pillow Bag Bladders, Inflatable Air Bladder and crash proof fuels cells and inflatable chemical and water tanks.
(4) Operational Capability
The micro-sensing system, which is powered by the micro-fuel cell, can easily be worn by personnel in field operations without experiencing either significant weight or bulk. The sensing system will allow wireless communications to near-by personnel or remote command centers.
Resistant to both high and low temperatures, such as those occurring in vehicles or in extreme climates. Performance unaffected by moisture. Positive buoyancy in water (ideal for marine operations). Aging-resistant (no effect on performance after 24 months at 90°C). Highly resistant to solvents (e.g. oil, gasoline).


The issue arises in a challenge to patents held byMyriad Genetics, a Utah-based diagnostic testing and research firm that developed a way to detect genetic mutations (called BRCA1 and BRCA2) that scientists associate with a higher risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
The process is described by the company’s lawyers as akin to locating a particular grain of sand in a space the size of the Empire State Building. The tests have helped over a million patients identify risks and develop treatment strategies.
But the American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation charge that Myriad Genetics is actually hindering scientific innovation and undercutting access to medical care for patients who need it.
They charge that the company is using its patents to prevent other researchers from developing new tests and that the company has prevented thousands of women from obtaining more accurate screening tests.
Kathleen Maxian is a patient undergoing treatment for Stage-4 ovarian cancer. Her doctors told her after surgery that she had a 20 percent chance of living for five years.
She said two years earlier her sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the time, the sister went to Myriad to determine whether the disease might be genetically-based. The results suggested it was not.
What Maxian and her sister did not understand was that Myriad only performed one test. There is a second test that can be performed, but Myriad only performs it on women with a family history of breast or ovarian cancer. Since no one in Maxian’s family had that history, her sister did not receive that test.
Later, after Maxian’s own diagnosis, the sister qualified for the second test and was identified as positive for the genetic mutations.
Maxian told her story to reporters during a recent ACLU teleconference. She said if her sister had been tested more thoroughly by Myriad, her own cancer might have been prevented.
Other laboratories are willing and able to provide the extra testing, but Myriad threatened them with patent-infringement lawsuits, she said.
“I can’t stand up to take my genes back,” she said. “I stand up to help you take your genes back. And until my last breath I will tell this story for all the other women and families like me who want to be able… to make lifesaving decisions based on the best scientific information available.”
ACLU lawyers said it was improper for the government to issue patents that allow Myriad exclusive control over the mutated genes.
Since Myriad Genetics did not invent the genes, the company should not enjoy monopoly power over them by virtue of a patent, they argue.
“Myriad has a monopoly on clinical testing of its genes in the US, dictating the type and terms of BRCA genetic testing,” wrote ACLU lawyer Christopher Hansen in his brief to the court.
Mr. Hansen says the patents allow Myriad to block avenues of scientific research and stop the development of new types of clinical testing of BRCA genes that seek to utilize newer innovations.
“Myriad can even prevent scientists from looking at their own genes,” Hansen said.
At the center of the case is whether the process developed by Myriad is a man-made invention or just recognition of a natural process, a law of nature.
Patent protection is authorized by federal law and the US Constitution. Article I, Section 8 empowers Congress to “promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”
The idea is to offer a strong incentive for individuals or companies to undertake the difficult work of innovation and discovery.
Modern research firms must convince investors that their labor will eventually bear fruit – and profits.
But to qualify for patent protection, the innovation must be a product of human ingenuity rather than merely a product of nature.
That’s the essence of the dispute in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics (12-398).
Myriad says its process uses a newly-created chemical composition that does not occur in the natural world. The company “isolates” the targeted DNA molecule in a way that permits the identification of the mutation on the gene that researchers say is predictive of a higher incidence of breast or ovarian cancer.
Hansen disputes this. “Myriad defends its [patent] claims on the grounds that a gene becomes a human invention when removed from the human body (‘isolated’),” he said.
“Under this rationale, a kidney ‘isolated’ from the body would be patentable, gold ‘isolated’ from a stream would be patentable, and leaves ‘isolated’ from trees would be patentable,” he said in his brief.
He said the company’s argument defied common sense and violated the prohibition on issuing patents to protect claimed innovations demonstrating nothing more than the laws of nature.
In a friend of the court brief, a research scientist at the University of Illinois, Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty, argued that there was a substantial difference between “isolated” kidneys, gold, and leaves and Myriad’s system of molecular diagnostics.
“A human kidney that has been removed (isolated) from the body does not have any utility apart from that which existed in nature,” Mr. Chakrabarty said in his brief. “Neither does a polished diamond, nor gold taken from a stream, nor a leaf snapped from a tree.”
“But the Myriad patents… allow for genetic testing and drug screening for a permanent cure for cancer that would be impossible with non-isolated mutation-harboring DNA as it exists in the genome of a vulnerable woman,” he said. “For that reason, they should be patent-eligible.”
Chakrabarty said courts examining patents granted for gene research should weigh whether the innovation provides “specific, substantial, and credible utility” different from what is found in nature.
Chakrabarty speaks from experience. In 1980, the US Supreme Court upheld the patent for his discovery of how to increase the ability of a bacterium to help degrade crude oil. The innovation held great promise to speed cleanup after environmentally-devastating oil spills.
“Even though I had used natural materials to build my invention, the court found it patent-eligible based on its new, significant utility,” he said.
Hansen of the ACLU said in his brief that offering patent protection for Myriad’s process of isolating DNA “ties up all basic uses of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, foreclosing more future innovation than the underlying discovery could reasonably justify.”
“The patents exclude using the genes for research, clinical genetic testing, and the development of therapies,” he said. “And these fears are not hypothetical; in practice, Myriad has used it patents to shut down clinical care and impede research.”
Hansen added that unjustified patent protection raises First Amendment issues. “Such restrictions on an entire field of knowledge give control over thought and pure information, in violation of the Constitution,” he said.


Jonathan Bate describes how Shakespeare emphasises the convergence of opposites in Romeo and Juliet: youth and age, day and night, poison and medicine, and of course: love and hate.
This article first appeared in the show programme for the our 2006 Romeo and Juliet.
The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb.
What is her burying, grave that is her womb...
Within the infant rind of this small flower
Poison hath residence and medicine power.
(Friar Lawrence, Act 2 Scene 3)
Day and night, the earth as both womb and tomb, herbs and flowers that are simultaneously poisonous and medicinal, virtue and vice, God's grace and our own desires:
'such opposèd kings encamp them still
In man as well as herbs.'
Give Shakespeare an idea and he is equally interested in its opposite. Opposition is indeed the key to Romeo and Juliet: the lovers are doomed because they are from the two opposed houses of Capulet and Montague. In a violent world, violent delights have violent ends. Youthful passions boil over not only into poetry and embraces, but also into insult and sword-fight.
Friar Laurence's soliloquy cuts to the quick of the play's double vision. It is structured around the rhetorical figure of oxymoron, the paradox whereby opposites are held together. Versions of the figure recur throughout the play, from Romeo's 'heavy lightness, serious vanity' to the duet of nightingale and lark in the great scene of lovers parting at dawn.
At the beginning of the play, Romeo is in love with Rosaline. Or rather, he is in love with the idea of being in love. We never actually see Rosaline: she exists solely as the idealised love-object of Romeo. She is nothing more than a literary type, the beautiful but unavailable mistress of the sonnet tradition that goes back to the Italian Renaissance poet Petrarch. The Petrarchan lover thrives on artifice and paradox. The fire in his heart is dependent on his lady's icy maidenhood
'Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still-waking sleep that is not what it is!'
As the Friar recognies, this is mere 'doting', not true loving. And so long as Mercutio is around, the bubble of poetic language keeps on being pricked - is it not just a matter of rhyming 'love' with 'dove'? Romeo still poeticises on seeing Juliet, though he speaks in more richly textured imagery:
'It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
As a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear.'
When the lovers meet at the Capulet ball, they weave a verbal dance that answers to the motions of their bodies and hands: their initial dialogue is wrapped into the form of a sonnet. But over the next few scenes their language evolves into something more fluid and more natural. You can hear Shakespeare growing as a poet even as you see the love between Juliet and Romeo growing from infatuation at first sight to the conviction that each has found the other's soul-mate.
Love is a chemistry that begins from a physiological transformation - Romeo is 'bewitched by the charm of looks' - but it becomes a discovery of the very core of human being:
'Can I go forward when my heart is here?
Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out.'
What haunts the lover is the suspicion that it might all be a dream. Mercutio spins a tale of how love is but the mischief of Queen Mab, midwife of illusion. Romeo blesses the night, but then acknowledges his fear that:
'Being in night, all this is but a dream,
Too flattering-sweet to be substantial.'
Juliet has to deal with another fear. For a girl in Shakespeare's time, chastity was a priceless commodity. To lose her virtue without the prospect of marriage would be to lose herself. In the speech that begins 'Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face', Juliet reveals quite remarkable self-understanding. She is acutely aware that in love the stakes for a woman are far higher than those for a man. Here Shakespeare's poetic language becomes the vehicle of both argument and emotion. The artifice of rhyme is replaced by blank verse that moves with the suppleness of thought itself.
In the original production, the lines would have been spoken by a young male actor of perhaps around the same 13 years as the character of Juliet. By highlighting extreme youthfulness (in the source, Juliet is 16), Shakespeare makes a bold implicit claim for his poetic drama. Both actor and character are speaking with maturity far beyond their years: such, the dramatist implies, is the metamorphic potency of the mingled fire and powder of love and art.
Though younger than Romeo, Juliet is more knowing. She senses the danger in his talk of idolatry. In the soaring love-duet that is their final scene together before Romeo's exile, she wills the song to be that of the nightingale rather than the lark because she knows that the break of day will mean the end of their night of love and the dawn of a harsh reality in which she will be reduced to the status of a bargaining chip in the negotiations between Verona's powerful families.
According to the social code of the time, it is the duty of the young to obey the old. Marriage is a matter not of love, but of the consolidation and perpetuation of wealth and status. Arthur Brooke, author of the Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet which Shakespeare had before him as he wrote, told his readers that the moral of the story was that young lovers who submit to erotic desire, neglecting the authority and advice of parents and listening instead to drunken gossips and superstitious friars, will come to a deservedly sticky end.
Shakespeare's play, by contrast, glories in the energy of youth. It does not seek to advance a moral, but offers instead the tragic paradox that the heat in the blood that animates the star-crossed lovers is the same ardour that leads young men to scrap in the street and to kill out of loyalty to their friends.
The kinship of love and revenge, the perpetual war between the generations: Shakespeare will return to this territory in later plays such as Hamlet and King Lear. The final scene takes place in an ancestral tomb, but those who lie dead are the flower of a city's youth - Mercutio, Tybalt, Paris, Juliet and her Romeo.


Learning rooted in self-discovery
Following the quiet summer break, the teachers and I were eager to have the students return this week. It brings a big smile to my face to once again be in classrooms alive with the voices and activities of children exploring, discovering, thinking, and creating.
In many of the classes I visited, students were taking the time to think more about their own interests and talents, and to learn more about what makes each member of the classroom unique. One class of upper elementary students conducted interviews with their peers. The other class designed their own name labels to put on their desks, using drawings and colors to help illustrate something unique about themselves. In middle school, students were given the assignment of creating an object out of clay to best express their own unique identity. These quick-sculptures, conceived and molded in less than an hour, conveyed amazing insight into each student’s unique interests and passions. Examples included gymnastics, music, dance, plants, and animals. Later in the day, each student stood in front of the group to present and explain their design, and finally created a printed label explaining their sculpture in writing, both in English and Spanish.
On the surface, these classroom activities may look simply like a technique for children to get to know each other better. But at Oak Meadow School, the intent goes much deeper. It represents an ongoing commitment to root a child’s learning experience in a growing self-understanding of the child’s own identity–each child’s unique talents, values, and qualities of character. When education is built on a foundation of honoring the child’s unique identity, the child develops a growing understanding that learning (and school) can be an empowering process of self-discovery and self-expression. This enables a child to develop an intrinsic motivation to learn, including challenging oneself to master complex academic subjects. And that matters enormously. Research shows that students who possess greater self-awareness and self-motivation are more likely to develop into being people who are caring, healthy, intellectually curious, creative, and productive. We owe it to our children to ensure they have an educational experience that brings out the best in who they are.


Okay, enough procrastinating and creating charts! It’s time to get to Noach because the rest of the world has already moved on to the next portion, Lech-Lecha.
The Noach portion, named for Noah’s name in Hebrew, covers Genesis 6:9, the beginning of the Noah story), to 11:32 the beginning of the Abraham story. That includes three main “tales”: the story of Noah and the Ark, the story of Noah and his drunkenness, and the Tower of Babil.
For me, the story of Noah has always been one of the more difficult for me to wrap my brain around. It’s not that the story is complex – it isn’t. My problem with the story is that it feels too much like mythology, like something that would happen to Odin, Zeus, or Heracles, rather than a story that we should take any great meaning from. It doesn’t help that God acts “out of character” and lots of innocent lives, human and animal, are lost. And, like all great mythology, it aims to explain in a supernatural way a natural phenomenon: the rainbow. This isn’t something that fits well in modern Judaism or Christianity, but still it’s an important story, certainly one of the most well known, and here it is already in week #2.


What is Glycerine Used For?
Glycerine is a very versatile compound that can be used in a wide variety of products. It should only be handled by qualified personnel and safety precautions should be adhered to in all cases. Glycerine is a byproduct of biofuels and is 95-99% pure when separated. Some possible uses include:
- Compost Activator. Glycerine mixed with water can be added to a compost heap to increase heat and speed up the decomposition of the pile. Other additives like potassium phosphate and ammonia can also be added to raise the pH and increase the heat of the pile. The Glycerine cocktail should not be fed to manure worms as it will kill them.
- Detergents / Hand Cleaners / Soaps. Glycerine can be a powerful degreaser and is a common additive in detergents and soaps. It only takes a small amount to cut through grease. It can work wonders on cleaning machine parts to remove oil and grit. Glycerine is also beneficial in dish soaps for cutting grease.
- Lotions and Creams. Glycerine is an additive in lotions and creams to increase their ability to hold moisture close to the skin.
- Sweetener. Glycerine is a sweet alcohol based product. It used as a food preservative and sweetener. It is an acceptable sweetener for Candida suffers.
- Health Supplements. Glycerine can be added to health supplements to increase exercise performance in the heat. It is said to hydrate the body by increasing blood volume levels. If used over a long period of time, delayed dehydration can occur coupled with exhaustion.
- Preservation. A 50/50 solution of glycerine and water can be used to preserve green leaves. This process does not work for preserving flowers.
- Paint Brush Cleaner. Small amounts of glycerine can be used instead of turpentine to clean oil based paints out of paint brushes. Brushes should be rinsed with water to remove all milkiness from the Glycerine. The process can be repeated until there are no signs of paint in the brush.
- Explosives. When added to sulfuric and nitric acids, Glycerine can be extremely powerful. It can expand up to 10,000 times and be extremely volatile. It is susceptible to explode when dropped, jarred or heated; it has even been known to explode at rest in a cool temperature.
- Erectile Dysfunction. Nitroglycerine has also been used as a topical cream to treat erectile dysfunction. The cream has an immediate result that can last up to 45 minutes. It should not be used in conjunction with other oral medications like Viagra as the combination could cause death.
- Heart Medications. Nitroglycerine was one of the first man-made drugs. Even today it is the most common method for treating angina, chest pain and heart disease. It works by relaxing blood vessels which reduces pressure on the heart. It is used in extremely low doses but can produced headaches, dizziness and low blood-pressure. It may have adverse reactions to other medications.
These are just a few uses for Glycerine. It is used in products we use every day. It has many characteristics that make cleaning easier, products taste better and skin feel softer.


Mark Wiegardt and Sue Cudd have each dedicated about 30 years of their lives to bringing oysters to our tables. Now the two have found themselves in the forefront of one of the newest, most pressing environmental issues of our time: ocean acidification.
It all began with the oyster larvae at their Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery in Tilamook, Ore.
"It first started in 2007. We had a situation here when all of a sudden, our larvae started dying," said Wiegardt.
"At first we started wondering, what is wrong? Bacterial problems? What are we doing wrong?" Cudd said.
Desperate, Wiegardt and Cudd turned to expert oceanographer Burke Hales and his team from Oregon State University to study the new and alarming enigma. They learned that the Pacific waters piped into their hatchery from nearby Netarts Bay were the cause of the dying larvae.
Dying Larvae Depleting Oysters and Other Shellfish
Whiskey Creek's 8,000 gallon water tanks take in water from the Pacific Ocean and Netarts Bay. The water used in the hatchery is rough-filtered and heated, and pumped into the tanks that house roughly 48 million swimming larvae. If the larvae stop swimming, that's a problem.
The scientists went to work and learned that something was making the oceans too acidic and preventing the oyster larvae from growing shells. No shells means certain death.
When winds blew the ocean's deep carbon-rich waters onto the surface, hatcheries up and down the Northwest Pacific Coast began to suffer the same fate as Whiskey Creek.
"The chemistry is very simple. It is 101. Carbon dioxide makes the water more acidic, that is irrefutable," said Burke Hales, Oregon State University professor of oceanography.
Oceans act as sponges. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the oceans soak up one-quarter to one-third of all CO2 from fossil fuels. About 500 billion tons have been absorbed by the seas. Close to 22 million tons of C02 a day mix with the natural carbon of the ocean. But too much carbon and water makes the ocean too acidic.
Plants need carbon to grow, and animals exhale it with every breath. But too much carbon creates a problem. Where will it be stored, and how will it affect the chemistry of the planet?
Carbon Dioxide -- CO2 -- a Mixed Blessing
"At first, scientists thought, Oh, isn't this great, the ocean's taking up carbon dioxide that's resulting in less greenhouse warming. And it's only later that scientists realize this carbon dioxide in the oceans forms carbonic acid, and that attacks the shells of marine organisms," said Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist at the Carnegie Institute at Stanford University.
According to the NRDC, ocean acidity has increased by 30 percent since the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. Scientists have used mathematical models to demonstrate that if we continue to pollute, ocean acidity will double by the end of the century, compared with what it was in preindustrial times.
"While the effects are just beginning to be seen in our hatcheries, the oceans are now changing faster than they have ever changed over the last 200 million years," said Richard Freely of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who has been studying ocean acidification for 20 years.
"The effects can be seen in the weaker shells of oysters, clams, mussels, lobsters and shrimp. Smaller-shelled creatures, such as those at the bottom of the food chain, which most fish eat, are also dwindling away," said Freely. "Corals have a hard time forming too." Ocean acidity, said Freely, threatens the entire $2 billion U.S. shellfish industry.
According to the United Nations Environmental Program, if carbon emissions continue on a path of business as usual, scientists predict vast areas of the Pacific, Arctic and Antarctic Oceans will become so corrosive that shellfish will dissolve, causing ripple effects throughout the food web.
"We're risking something that will really change the way the oceans are for the rest of human civilization," said Standord's Caldeira.


The MESH-Atlantic project aims to compile information on marine habitats in the Atlantic Area and produce harmonised maps to promote their use and serve the community at large. Therefore, the starting point will be the progress made in Europe in terms of mapping marine habitats.
This knowledge will be adapted to the specific characteristics of the Atlantic Area, enabling the different regions to achieve the same level. The main objectives of the project is the production of 3 sets of homogeneous maps for the whole Atlantic Area: a map based on modelling through the integration of oceanographic data and types of seabed available, enhancement and harmonisation of existing maps; creation of detailed maps of pilot areas in the Natura 2000 network.
All of these outputs will be freely accessible on an interactive web mapping system. Based on a multi-faceted communication plan, the project will be carried out in close collaboration with marine environment users, particularly fishermen, conservationists and managers who must take action aimed at spatial planning for the sustainable use of marine space and its resources.
The Member States and the EC are seriously lacking information on the marine environment, in which the mapping of the seabed habitats is vital for the appropriate implementation of the Habitats Directive.


|Humor, a common element of everyday life, has certain powerful potentials frequently not recognized. These potentials lie in the applications of humor to mental and physical health issues.
The uses of humor in various forms of psychotherapy has received recent attention. The contemporary view of this subject offers several opinions. (1) Humor is a powerful element of interpersonal relationships. (2) Humor has the capacity for initiating therapeutic insights. (3) Humor can be an experience positively shared between patient and therapist, and thus can contribute to enhancement of the therapeutic partnership. (4) Humor can have negative, destructive effects in therapy and must be used judiciously, with careful attention to countertransference situations. (5) In any case, humor should not be introduced into therapeutic situations until a warm and positive rapport has begun to develop between patient and therapist.
Physical health issues also have importance in evaluating the significance of humor. This importance can be recognized in considering certain facts about the three major life-threatening disease conditions in the contemporary Western World. These conditions are statistically identified as: heart disease, cancer, and cerebral vascular accidents (strokes).
Acute heart attacks (myocardial infarctions) and related heart pathologies have been, during the recent era, the foremost medical cause of death in our civilization. Seven major factors in the heart disease picture have been identified and well publicized: cigarette smoking, diabetes, lack of exercise, stress, hypertension, and hypercholestremia. Humor and laughter have specific antagonistic relevance to several of these factors. Mirthful laughter has a scientifically demonstrable exercise impact on several body systems. Muscles are activated; heart rate is increased; respiration is simplified, with increase in oxygen exchange- all similar to the desirable effects of athletic exercise. Stress is antagonized by humor in both its mental or emotional aspect and its physical aspect. Emotional tension, contributing to stress, is lowered through the cathartic effects of humor. Mirthful laughter is followed by a state of compensatory physical relaxation, diminishing physical tension. Cigarette smoking and eating (perhaps contributing to obesity) are not possible while laughing and are thus directly countered by laughter.
Another factor has been identified by medical observation and folk tradition as being associated with the occurrence of potentially fatal heart attacks. This factor is the onset of sudden, intense anger in the heart attack-susceptible person. Humor and rage are antithetical. Mirth defuses rage; it diminishes the impulse of hostility. Anger demands a serious attitude; humor banished the tightness and severity which are necessary for anger. If mirth is experienced, rage is impossible.
Cancer, in its many forms and manifestations, is a second major killer disease. The cancer picture is an extremely complicated one, with only indistinct definition and understanding by our present science. Humor and mirth have relevance to at least two considerations in the cancer picture.
The presence of cancer in a human being results in pain and other suffering, and produces a depressed and anguished state of mind. Humor, in this regard, is neither preventative nor curative; but it is palliative, resulting in temporary diminution of suffering and mental anguish. Mirth can lift cancer-oppressed spirits. One is taken momentarily from discomfort into a more pleasant state.
Repeated studies, over the years, have suggested an etiologic substrate role played by depression in the onset of cancer. It is suggested that the presence of emotional depression contributes to susceptibility to development of cancer.
Humor and depression are incompatible. With only the exception of the most severe degrees of depression, humor relieves the devitalizing grip of depression. It offsets, opposes, diminishes depression. At times of tragedy, humans turn instinctively to comedy for its depression-lifting effects. We seek to laugh, rather than cry. Perhaps our impulse to enjoy mirth opposes vulnerability to developing cancer.
Regarding the third major fatal disease strokes the contribution of humor and laughter is a mixed one. Several strokes some fatal have been reported as occurring during mirthful laughter. This occurrence may be associated with temporary increase of blood pressure during laughter. These strokes would be of the type resulting from hemorrhage into the brain through ruptures in the walls of cerebral arteries. Many other strokes result from brain artery blockage, produced by thrombosis or clotting associated with stasis or sluggishness of blood circulation . These strokes are the source of that insidious life-nibbling disease widely known under the diagnosis «little strokes.» Mirthful laughter prevents conditions necessary for circulatory sluggishness. Laughter quickens pulse rate, stimulates circulation of blood, does not lower blood oxygen content.
The values of humor in physical health are illustrated in these three major diseases. When we expand the concept of physical health beyond that of specific disease conditions, humor takes on an enormously greater importance. This importance is derived from the warfarepreventing role humor can play in society.
During the history of humanity, the all time greatest killer- and especially of the young, the strong, the young and the healthy- has been warfare. One of the results of our evolving civilization has been the development of ever more effective methods of destroying he lives of ever larger masses of people. Many learned people have debated the issue of whether this apparently insane tendency to warfare is a genetic characteristic of the human being, inherent in the fact of being human.
Explosions of passionate absurdity are ubiquitous. The impulse to violence is commonplace in both human time and place. Contemporary society manifests this tendency not only in actual warfare, but also in its tremendous preoccupation with the equipment and strategies of violence. During 1976, across the world, the equivalent of one dollar in every six of national productions, was spent on military purposes. Relationships between nations is defined in terms of power and control factors, rather than in terms of cooperation and mutual efforts.
Since the beginning of the 19th century, the USA has been involved in some form of significant warfare approximately every 26 years. It would seem that there is a «war generation« which comes into authoritative maturity on this 26 year cycle. This phenomenon can be understood by considering that member of this «war generation« have learned, and have adopted, direct violent action as their ultimate response to frustration and stress. Instead of utilizing complex, intellectual methods of resolving intricate and conflicting human inter-relationships, their preferred primary mode of action is a simplistic giving vent to primitive impulses of reflex violence.
The generational nature of the warfare phenomenon derives from the learning of this characteristic, within families, by younger generations through exposure to the use of violence as the primary coping mechanism of their parents. This learning from parental models of behavior produces a warfare horizon every 26 years the average interval between generations during which reflex violence has highest priority among many mechanisms available for coping with challenge.
Humor offers an alternative to violence. For those geared to aggressive behavior, humor may contain intellectual aggression. Wit, satire, caricature and irony are available instead of bloodshed, murder, destructive violence. But humor goes beyond this level of reflex reaction; it is intellectually creative in its very nature. Inherent in humor is the element of discovery. Humor teaches and reveals new understanding. Its creativity opens new realizations and opposes the dead-ending constricting and defeating results of violence and warfare. Mirth opens our minds and raises us above slavery to archaic reflex. Humor precipitates a complex. Thoughtprovoking experience shared with other humans. Humor gives us a choice.
**Abstracted from an address given at the Annual Convention of the American Orthopsychiatric Association, Washington, D.C., April 1979


The harnessing and utilization of renewable energy remains a key strategy to provide energy supply for the country. Started in the late 1970s’s the country has actively pursued increasing power generation from geothermal and hydro resources has lessened the country’s dependency on imported and polluting non-renewable fossil fuels.
Some rural areas have created power independence by using renewable energy sources such as solar, micro-hydro, wind and biomass resources on a local scale. Successes on these fronts have initiated the wide-scale use of these technologies, expanding the electrification of remote and isolated areas of the archipelago.
It is the government’s policy to facilitate the energy sector’s transition to a sustainable system as an increasingly viable and competitive fuel option in a world too dependent on oil imports. This competitive advantage is driven by the rich availability of various clean and renewable energy resources all throughout the country, from hydroelectric, to solar, to wind and of course, geothermal.
Moreover, active and future-planned initiatives in the pursuit of this policy are directed towards the creation of a free market-based environment that encourages the investment and participation of the private sector, from both local and foreign entrants. Such a climate also calls for collaborative research and development and technology transfer protocols. Countries, companies or businesses that have made advances in the harness, generation and distribution of renewable energy sources will enjoy incentives for entering the power industry in the Philippines.
Back in 2033, the Philippines’ Department of Energy (DOE) projected that renewable energy shall provide up to 40 percent of the country’s primary energy requirements over the next ten years. Renewable energy is estimated to grow at an average annual rate of 2.4 percent. Results have validated these estimates and in 2007, our dependency on local renewable energy stood at 55.7%. While hydroelectric and geothermal remain to be significant sources of power in the Philippines, biofuel, solar, wind and micro-hydro are expected to increase their contribution to the renewable energy mix.
In an aggressive move to accelerate renewable energy research and development, the DOE has identified long-term goals: (1) to double renewable energy capacity by 2013 and (2) to increase non-power involvement of renewable energy to an equivalent of 10 million barrels of fuel oil in the next ten years. To achieve the vision of a sustainable energy system, the Philippine government has named four concrete renewable energy targets to meet in the next four years:
- Become the number one geothermal energy producer in the world;
- Be the number one wind energy producer in Southeast Asia;
- Double hydro capacity by 2013; and
- Expand contribution of biomass, solar and ocean by about 131 MW
Aside from the big cities in the country, there remains a large swath of rural areas where foreign investors from Switzerland can tap into by using renewable energy technologies. According to DOE targets, 90 percent of all rural households should have electricity by 2017. Already, some 1,500 barangays in the provinces of the Philippines are being targeted to be electrified using sustainable and local energy resources.
Of course, challenges remain to be overcome. If the competitive goals are to be met, fiscal and financial incentives for businesses must be improved and better applied. To address these barriers, the government is formulating initiatives to stimulate greater private-led investments in the sector, promote renewable energy technologies as competitive energy options.


Tips for Avoiding Halloween Cavities
Halloween is right around the corner, and with it comes candy, lots of candy. Americans will spend over $2 billion on Halloween candy this year alone. Unsurprisingly, much of that candy will contribute to trick-or-treaters getting cavities. You may be surprised to learn that not all candies are created equal in terms of causing cavities.
“Cavities are caused by sugar having prolonged exposure to the teeth,” says Scott Asnis, DDS, CEO and Director of Dentistry at Dental365. “Parents can help their kids fight cavities by decreasing the amount of candy they consume, as well as the amount of time sugar comes in contact with their teeth.”
Sugar has long been identified by dentists and oral health experts as a major cause of tooth decay and cavities. Naturally occurring bacteria in the mouth feed on sugar in candy and other foods and turn it into acid. This acid attacks tooth enamel and causes cavities. So how can you make sure Halloween candy doesn’t harm your child’s teeth? Read the tips below to find out.
- Avoid sticky candies like gummy fruit snacks, caramels, taffy, popcorn balls and other candies that expose the teeth to sugar for long periods of time.
- Choose candy that can be eaten quickly and easily to limit the amount of time sugar is in contact with the teeth. Dark chocolate is a good option.
- Avoid sour candies that may contain acids (such as citric acid) to intensify the sour flavor. These acids can contribute to dental erosion and cavities.
- Limit the amount of candy that is consumed in one sitting.
- Candy consumption should be followed by a thorough tooth brushing.
- Encourage children to eat a good meal prior to trick-or-treating, so there will be less temptation to fill up on candy.
- Consider purchasing non-food treats for those who visit your home, such as coloring books or halloween toys.


- 54%: The percentage of the world’s population living in urban areas, as of 2014
- 1.4 billion: The number of people living in cities that are at high risk of exposure to a natural disaster (cyclone, flood, drought, earthquake, landslide or volcanic eruption)
- $380 billion: The estimated cost of natural disasters in 2011
For most of humanity’s long and illustrious history, people predominantly lived in rural areas, but a few centuries ago the tide began to turn towards urbanisation. Economic developments starting around the 19th century have attracted ever increasing numbers of people to live in towns and cities, and we have now reached a tipping point. As of 2007, more than half of the global population live in urban areas. It’s an upward trend that shows no signs of abating — by 2050 it is estimated that an incredible 66% of people will be living in urban areas.
As more and more people are attracted to live in towns cities, it presents a multitude of challenges, especially for large cities. Natural disasters can have devastating effects — cyclones, earthquakes, floods, drought, landslides and volcanic eruptions are all dangers for the inhabitants of a huge number of cities. The UN World Cities Report puts the number of people living in cities that are considered at high risk of exposure to such a natural disaster as 1.4 billion. Climate change is increasing the frequency of natural disasters and extreme weather events. The three hurricanes that hit the US and the Caribbean in September of 2017 are an example of the devastating impact that weather can have on cities.
It isn’t just natural disasters that are a threat to urban areas. As populations grow in size, the resources needed to sustain them become more stretched and strained. Supplying energy, food, transport, healthcare, employment and more are all ongoing concerns, especially for cities that are growing exponentially in size.
In order for cities to thrive and survive, it is becoming increasingly important to take into account and consider how ‘resilient’ they are, and how the concept of resilience can be understood and applied to the development of cities.
Withstanding shocks and stresses
Resilience can be defined as the ability of a city’s economic, social, political and infrastructure systems to absorb and recover from shocks and stresses and still retain their basic functions, structures and identity. Natural disasters and terrorist attacks are examples of shocks, whereas stresses can be issues such as food shortages, high unemployment and an overstretched transport system.
The importance of making cities more resilient is enshrined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal. The 11th SDG is to ‘make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’. This is of key importance for the developing world. Cities are developing rapidly in areas of Africa, China and Nigeria, for example. A sharing of knowledge, skills and outlooks are key tools in helping emerging cities cope with the challenges of rapid growth.
As resilience is a broad and wide ranging concept, no two cases will be exactly alike, but there are opportunities to learn from each one. The 100 Resilient Cities project aims to address the question of how we can help cities increase their resilience by funding a Chief Resilience Officer for 100 different cities. These CROs receive logistical guidance and support to develop resilience strategies that are tailored to the specific needs of the their urban area, and gain access to services to assist in the implementation of the strategies. Through this initiative a network of cities is being formed that can share knowledge with each other and improve best practice.
The results of the scheme are still emerging. We can expect future years to reveal telling data about how best to manage the growth of cities and what initiatives can be applied to different areas. How can we best make use of a local food supply? What flood protections work best for coastal cities? What systems and technology can developing cities employ to provide early warnings for earthquakes? The questions of how we can improve life in cities and make them more resilient are almost endless. Given that in the future the vast majority of people will be living this way, they are also questions that we need to keep answering now.
Further Reading and Resources: http://www.100resilientcities.org/
This series of articles has been prepared with the support of our partner Viessmann — they’re celebrating 100 years of their company this year (2017) and are actively involved in positively shaping the next 100 years.


The Road to Restoration A Guide to Identifying Priorities and Indicators for Monitoring Forest and Landscape Restoration
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Resources Institute have created a new guide, The Road to Restoration, to help governments, businesses, communities and anyone actively restoring land identify priorities and set up goals grounded in reality. Using real data, they can create systems that support and keep track of their efforts. By measuring progress, countries like El Salvador, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Malawi have followed the road to restoration to craft customized and implementable strategies to fight climate change and rural poverty.
The tool guides users through basic questions about the process to restore land: Why is restoration needed in the first place? What will the restored land be used for? What are the barriers that could prevent sustainability (including drivers of degradation and enabling factors)? What are the constraints and priorities for monitoring restoration?
These questions help people establish goals, identify quantitative data, and track progress.


17-2081.00 - Environmental Engineers
Green occupations will likely change as a result of the green economy. Green economy activities and technologies are increasing the demand for occupations, shaping the work and worker requirements needed for occupational performance, or generating new and emerging occupations.
This is a Green Enhanced Skills occupation — green economy activities and technologies are likely to cause significant change to the work and worker requirements. New tasks, skills, knowledge, credentials may be needed. Employment demand remains the same, but there is potential for an increase.
Environmental engineers work in the following green economy sectors:
- Environment Protection — This sector covers activities related to environmental remediation, climate change adaptation, and ensuring or enhancing air quality.
- Governmental and Regulatory Administration — This sector covers activities by public and private organizations associated with conservation and pollution prevention, regulation enforcement, and policy analysis and advocacy.
They perform these tasks important to the green economy:
- Advise corporations or government agencies of procedures to follow in cleaning up contaminated sites to protect people and the environment.
- Advise industries or government agencies about environmental policies and standards.
- Assess the existing or potential environmental impact of land use projects on air, water, or land.
- Assess, sort, characterize, or pack known or unknown materials.
- Assist in budget implementation, forecasts, or administration.
- Collaborate with environmental scientists, planners, hazardous waste technicians, engineers, experts in law or business, or other specialists to address environmental problems.
- Coordinate or manage environmental protection programs or projects, assigning or evaluating work.
- Design or supervise the design of systems, processes, or equipment for control, management, or remediation of water, air, or soil quality.
- Develop or present environmental compliance training or orientation sessions.
- Develop proposed project objectives and targets and report to management on progress in attaining them.
- Develop site-specific health and safety protocols, such as spill contingency plans or methods for loading or transporting waste.
- Develop, implement, or manage plans or programs related to conservation or management of natural resources.
- Direct installation or operation of environmental monitoring devices or supervise related data collection programs.
- Inform company employees or other interested parties of environmental issues.
- Inspect industrial or municipal facilities or programs to evaluate operational effectiveness or ensure compliance with environmental regulations.
- Monitor progress of environmental improvement programs.
- Obtain, update, or maintain plans, permits, or standard operating procedures.
- Prepare hazardous waste manifests or land disposal restriction notifications.
- Prepare or present public briefings on the status of environmental engineering projects.
- Prepare, maintain, or revise quality assurance documentation or procedures.
- Prepare, review, or update environmental investigation or recommendation reports.
- Provide administrative support for projects by collecting data, providing project documentation, training staff, or performing other general administrative duties.
- Provide assistance with planning, quality assurance, safety inspection protocols, or sampling as part of a team conducting multimedia inspections at complex facilities.
- Provide environmental engineering assistance in network analysis, regulatory analysis, or planning or reviewing database development.
- Provide technical support for environmental remediation or litigation projects, including remediation system design or determination of regulatory applicability.
- Request bids from suppliers or consultants.
- Serve as liaison with federal, state, or local agencies or officials on issues pertaining to solid or hazardous waste program requirements.
- Write reports or articles for Web sites or newsletters related to environmental engineering issues.


One of the potentially positive results of digitisation is that electronic documents hold the promise of substantially increasing access to material for people who are blind or have limited vision. Through a collaboration with the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind we have now generated DAISY Books for the majority of titles in the NZETC collection. The work was funded through a grant from the Community Partnership Fund and the books are now freely available to download. To try out a DAISY book click on the logo when you see it in the right hand tool bar for a text like this. You will also need a reader — here is a list of readers and here is a free one to download.
The DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) standard describes an open data format for the representation of interactive books that are accessible to those with print-related disabilities. Daisy books may have both a textual and an audio component and allow for an active reading experience. To read a Daisy book, a reader needs a hardware or software playback system. Unlike a book on a cassette tape that users typically listen to from start to finish, readers using a Daisy book player can easily move backward and forward in the book; they can move to chapters, sections, pages, or bookmarks they have created.
We worked with Brett Challacombe-King from the University Disability Support Services to understand how DAISY books would worked best for students. This was particularly important as some of the books now available in DAISY format are prescribed reading for courses. Examples include “Forest vines to snow tussocks : the story of New Zealand plants” (BIOL219) and “Everything is possible to will” (GEND409). Brett advised that most students here have their own hardware with built in text-to-speech synthesizer which they will have adjusted to suit their particular needs and preferences. There was therefore no real advantage in providing our DAISY books with a generated audio component that would be little used and result in the books themselves being very large and time consuming to download.
We will monitor the use of the new format and if it proves popular extend the delivery to other titles in the collection. Tell us if you have other good ideas for improving the usability of digital content!


Why Sisters Are Scientifically Better Than Brothers (and Other Important Discoveries)
If you're keeping tabs on the score between robots and humans, you've probably heard about the robot named Adam who made a scientific discovery back in April without any human assistance. Well, sort of. He made the discovery after some human scientists gave him a specific project to work on. And while the event was chalked up as a win in the artificial intelligence column, we're here to tell you that Adam's still got a lot of catching up to do before he's doing the work of real human scientists. Need proof? From definitive proof on why sisters are better than brothers to the reasons we itch and scratch, here's our monthly round-up of (human!) scientific discoveries you ought to know about.
Science Proves Sisters are Way Better than Brothers?!
New research from the University of Ulster confirms that girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice. Tony Cassidy, the lead researcher on the project, found sisters make their siblings more optimistic and help families deal with problems in emotionally healthy ways. Families with at least one sister are more cohesive and communicate more often. Girls who grow up with a sister are more independent and achieve more than girls who have brothers. Cassidy surveyed 571 young adults between 17 and 25. He found that sisters have the most positive impact on broken families. Only children scored in the mid-range for happiness while boys who had only brothers were the least happy.
Tony Cassidy, University of Ulster; presentation at the British Psychological Association Annual Conference.
Reducing Autism Cases by 15%
There's good news in the fight against autism: Hakon Hakonarson's new research may drastically reduce the number of autism cases in the world. Hakonarson, a scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, has been running the largest and most exhaustive genetic study on the disorder. He's analyzed DNA from 2,600 autistic children, 2,000 of their family members, and 7,000 healthy controls. Hakonarson's team has found several variations in chromosomes, but one of the most important might be the variation on gene CDH10, which was found in 65 percent of autistic participants. Amazingly, researchers hypothesize that by fixing this variation they could reduce the number of autism cases by 15 percent. They also found that autism was linked strongly to 30 genes, which produce proteins that help brain cells migrate to the correct location and connect to neighboring cells. While it will be years before autism is completely understood, Hakonarson's results have given scientists a foothold since they can now point to 133 genes which directly contribute to the disorder.
Hakon Hakonarson, et al. "Common genetic variants on 5p14.1 associate with autism spectrum disorders," Nature.
Poverty Can Affect Your Memory
Social scientists have long understood that poorer children don't perform as well as their more affluent peers. Researchers know that inadequate schools, infrequent access to health care, and low quality diets contribute to lower academic and career achievement—the so-called income-achievement gap. But two child development experts have also found that the stress of poverty changes brain functioning. Cornell University's Gary Evans and Michelle Schamberg studied 195 poor and middle class Caucasian students. By measuring their stress hormones and blood pressure at age 9 and 13, the researchers found a direct link between poverty and stress. The duo also tested 17-year old students on their memory-- a reliable indicator of reading, language and problem-solving abilities. Children who grew up in poverty recalled 8.5 items while children who were more affluent remembered 9.44 items. The duo theorizes that stress hormones damage grey matter leading to the deficiencies in working memory.
Gary W. Evans and Michelle A. Schamberg "Childhood poverty, chronic stress, and adult working memory," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Science of Scratching
The next time you complain about your itchy back and feet, remember that you don't have it that bad. In one of the more disturbing accounts we've ever read (if you're squeamish, don't read ahead), a June 2008 New Yorker article by author Atul Gawande introduced the world to M, a woman who had recently suffered from shingles. M, who is also HIV positive, could not stop scratching the right side of her head. She complained to her doctor who prescribed the normal anti-itching remedies, but the feeling wouldn't cease. Her doctor suggested it was a form of OCD, yet OCD medications didn't quell the itch either. Worse still, the condition got so bad that M actually scratched through her skull.
For people suffering from serious itching conditions, scratching does little to stop the sensation. But now, thanks to Glenn Giesler Jr. and Steve Davidson's recent study, we might understand what's going on when you need to itch. Here's how it works: When a mosquito bites your arm, your sensory neurons respond to the histamine by carrying the itch message through the spinal cord to the thalamus in the brain. The thalamus passes the itch message to the cerebral cortex, which produces the itching sensation at the bite. That's what makes you want to scratch the bite. But Giesler and Davidson did something clever. By using primates, Giesler applied histamine to the animals' feet. If the researchers itched the foot after applying the histamine, the message was disrupted in the spinal cord, meaning the brain didn't get the order to create the itching feeling. The hope is that by understanding how scratching and itching works, it will allow researchers to find better solutions soon.
Steve Davidson, Xijing Zhang, Sergey G Khasabov, Donald A Simone and Glenn J Giesler Jr. "Relief of itch by scratching: state-dependent inhibition of primate spinothalamic tract neurons," Nature Neuroscience.


Master the 2014 Curriculum with Scholastic's 100 Lessons. The new National Curriculum has landed ...and Scholastic's acclaimed 100 Lessons series is back to help your school prepare. Trusted by teachers for 15 years and selling more than one million copies, 100 Lessons has now been completely rewritten and is fully in line with the 2014 objectives. Our new 100 Lessons and Planning Guides will make planning and teaching the new requirements simple and stress-free. * Teach a whole year's lessons carefully matched to the new objectives * Flexible pick-up-and-use format containing over 100 ready-made lesson plans * Use the lessons as a complete plan for the year, or as a flexible filler when there's a gap in your planning. * Inspire pupils with photocopiable activities * Includes a CD-ROM full of interactive resources and media resources * View sample resources at www.scholastic.co.uk/100lessons Praise for Scholastic's 100 Lessons-Planning Guides: "With a radically different curriculum just around the corner, I was looking for something that would help ease the burden of increased paperwork. These books answer my prayers!
Having access to long and medium term plans, as well as clear advice concerning progression and key concepts has already helped me to plan ahead. The inclusion of digital content that can easily be personalised is a real bonus, and completely welcome. Thank you, Scholastic for a fantastic resource.' Steven Gibson, Hyde Park Junior School, Plymouth