Mapping New Healthcare Infrastructure After Genocide
In July 1994, the Great Lakes region in Central Africa was in tatters as mass genocide marred the land. “No people, no nation” was a common call; the Tutsis who represent 14% of the region’s population were deemed worthy of death by the government.
Of survivors, widows and orphans were traumatized. Repatriates and refugees became disoriented. As for the nation’s civic infrastructure, there were no markets, no food, no hospitals, and no schools.
From the days of horrific tragedies to the present, pieces of the broken country had to be rebuilt by this shattered, vulnerable society.
As a result, epidemics in the form of HIV/AIDS, meningitis, tuberculosis, measles, malaria, and malnutrition, among others, led to decades of unimaginably high child mortality rates and low life expectancies throughout the region. Inadequate healthcare coverage and poor health system performance resulted in the deaths of nearly 9 million children under the age of five each year.
The most devastating, yet at the same time promising, fact is that the primary causes of these diseases and deaths are now preventable. The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that even though the health resource base has been steadily climbing for decades, mainly in developed areas of the world, “The health sector remains massively under-resourced in far too many countries.”
For instance, for every 1,000 people living in Central Africa, there is one doctor. Despite ample resources in the developing world, the WHO calls the international response to struggling nations “inadequate and naïve,” not to mention “too little, too late” or “too much in the wrong place.”
Last year, both the Healthcare Initiative in The Design School and the College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University had the incredible opportunity to offer students a traveling design studio experience focused on addressing some of the critical health and wellness issues facing people in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, specifically child mortality.
Led by professors James Shraiky and Gerri Lamb, this traveling studio utilized the skills and expertise of an eager, multidisciplinary team of 12 students from architecture, landscape architecture, healthcare innovation, social sciences, and design research.
During fieldwork in Rwanda, as well as back on campus in Tempe, Arizona, students worked tirelessly to propose the design of a new multifunctional clinical facility, plan a healthcare campus, develop a comprehensive site plan template, create a suitable and sustainable landscape program, and conceptualize an effective and efficient healthcare delivery model.
As the program for this research experience is highly uncommon in today’s academia, so, too, was it unique and exciting for all participants. The unusual class structure united students from varied academic disciplines to collaborate in an effort to solve a healthcare problem from a design research perspective while under the direction of two professors with distinct backgrounds: one a nurse scientist and the other a design researcher.
Team members arrived to the first day of class worlds apart in perspective and focus. The following represents the diverse ways of thinking, processing, and understanding that they brought to this project.
Healthcare innovation and nursing
Arriving in a design studio for the first time, the healthcare and nursing students did not know what to expect. In accordance with traditional healthcare environments, they anticipated structured schedules; pre-set, incremental semester plan rollouts; and innovative uses of technology, not only for all presentations and renderings, but also in the documentation of the healthcare system design.
Online collaboration and discovery is the natural mode of study for this group of students. They assumed that classwork and teamwork would be performed during daylight hours. A patient-centered, holistic focus is foundational to this group.
On the first day, the term “pin-up” conjured up thoughts of colored photos of women. The suggestion that the class spend time doing pin-ups had them frozen in their chairs in confusion, wondering what sort of world they entered.
Most of them were full-time graduate students and had full-time jobs. Being that they are so highly structured, timing of class projects was considered mandatory in order to accomplish the goals of this class.
Architecture and landscape architecture
A holistic approach is fundamental to these groups, as well, but from a different perspective. Their architecture and landscape architecture academic roots were well-established in design studio settings, which appeared to be an advantage from the beginning in that an orientation to a new learning methodology was not required.
This group valued a flexible, creativity-based approach over a structured environment with reports and hard timelines. All were full-time students with part-time jobs whose best work was often produced between midnight and 4 a.m.
Architects and designers learn and communicate visually. As such, pin-ups are common to the practice, and the students often utilized them in formal presentations as well as casual conversations. Three-dimensional miniature models of structures are as natural to these students as laboratory specimen tubes and syringes are to the healthcare innovation group.
Their conversations centered on functionality of design, accessibility to materials, holistic concepts of air flow and seasonal lighting patterns, and the relationship of Rwandan rural family lifestyle characteristics to the necessary components of a functional healthcare facility.
Social innovation and design research
These students added yet another component to the complexity of this interdisciplinary team. The importance of multiple data collection methods, accurate and extensive documentation of data, unlimited investigation, and tireless striving toward the perfection of the final documented recommendations of this study drove their efforts.
The students also had jobs outside of their academic commitments, but were somewhat familiar with the design studio environment and therefore served as a bridge for communication and translation between the other two extremely diverse groups.
Their investigative nature and structure connected them to the healthcare innovation group. Their familiarity and ease with design perspectives related directly to the big-picture, holistic view of people and how they interact with design and physical structures, which the architecture students hold so dear.
The students also added the facets of family member roles and how historical cultural impacts on the current Rwandan society should factor into the final design and recommendations.
Introductions and ice breakers opened the kickoff discussion for the class. Instructors asked students about their academic background relating to the project, their motivation to participate, and what they hoped to accomplish. They led the group of varied and unique individuals through a brainstorming session to begin to identify pre-travel research, using the instructors’ preliminary research as a launching point.
The team determined probable stakeholders using mind-mapping to facilitate the identification of relationships and themes. This, in turn, led to the development of a tentative schedule of research activities to occur during the 11-day Rwanda trip.
The research identified government agencies, families, healthcare professionals—both urban a
nd rural, mental health workers, and indigenous healers—as key stakeholders in the Rwandan healthcare system. At the end of the trip, the team organized a charrette with the stakeholders to present their findings and validate the collected data.
The professors conducted literature reviews on the health and wellness needs of children in Central Africa for more than a year prior to the beginning of this course. For the first three weeks of class, during the travel prep period, students conducted their own literature reviews on the same topic but each through the lens of their perspective disciplines.
After synthesizing the instructors’ research with the students’ research, the collective team developed a methodology based on the following hypothesis: High child mortality rates can be greatly reduced in the Great Lakes region of Africa through the development of a self-sustaining and culturally adaptable mobile medical clinic that delivers healthcare and healthcare training for the community.
To test this hypothesis in the field, the team generated a series of design questions to assess the current healthcare system. Questions sought to define the availability of and access to healthcare, the barriers to receiving it, and who is most affected by the lack of resources. Additional questions looked to identify where the delivery of healthcare occurs, and the level of public awareness of healthcare treatment and the causes of serious health problems.
In Rwanda, students and instructors divided into interdisciplinary teams to collect data. Data collection occurred through stakeholder observation, shadowing, storytelling, and interviews. It was recorded through field notes, photos, videos, and audio recordings. Research teams visited various locations, including nursing schools, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), medical schools, the Ministry of Health, rural community health workers’ homes, villages, urban and rural hospitals, the Rwanda Development Board, and a refugee camp.
Upon return to the United States, data processing took center stage and was painstakingly carried out. The research and social innovation students took the lead of this process by transcribing all notes to assure accuracy and verify sources.
The revised problem statement
After synthesizing and reviewing all data collected, the research team concluded that the original hypothesis did not fully address the high-priority health and wellness needs for children in central Africa. Though lack of access to adequate healthcare facilities and technologies affects public health in Rwanda, the research pointed to even greater gaps in wellness, prevention, and health education for the community.
Based on these findings, the team developed a new hypothesis, which focuses on education and awareness for both healthcare providers and patients on healthcare accessibility.
The preliminary literature reviews, field work in Rwanda, and data analysis uncovered underlying and unified themes that are critical to the success of future design interventions. The team concluded that the design solutions must facilitate community engagement, be designed for flexibility and adaptability, support existing infrastructure, incorporate technology, and focus on prevention, detection, and referral.
Utilizing the design themes to support the revised hypothesis, the team established three final design solutions. The first solution focuses on the region’s overall healthcare system, the second on a campus scale, and the third on a specific clinical environment. The students divided into three interdisciplinary teams, each tasked to investigate one of the three final design solutions.
The system template
A systems approach to develop a holistic solution was utilized because research identified numerous interconnected issues that were collectively impacting public health. Many health ailments were not being addressed until they had progressed into severe acute stages, requiring immediate attention and maximum resources.
The data suggested that public health in Rwanda is currently affected by the lack of access to adequate healthcare facilities and technologies, as well as prevention-based education. Additionally, healthcare providers are in need of continuing educational opportunities to further improve their knowledge and skills. To further complicate the problem, access to clean water is a daily challenge for many Rwandan citizens, causing numerous health problems for individuals and families.
The proposed system template involves stakeholders from the community, health workers, healthcare professionals, and the Rwandan government, and consists of multiple, interconnected, operational models. An education and knowledge transfer model delivers prevention-based education for community members as a bottom-up and top-down organizational learning tool. A mobility/connectivity model provides bicycles, Internet, smart phones, and telemedicine options to community health workers and staff.
A transitional patient care model aims to increase efficient patient movement across the healthcare system while also providing for return patient care support. A partnerships model improves the communication among the NGO and foreign aid efforts and resources, as well as local government and universities, and thus increases their overall effectiveness.
A facilities model addresses access to clean water that is necessary for public health and can be incorporated into the funding model. The team devised a water social entrepreneurship model to provide such funding.
Tuition from a residency program may also support operation costs.
The campus template
The final solutions address a needed shift in the healthcare delivery system to bridge the gaps at the early stages of treatment and prevention. This concept occurs at the community health center level, between the clinical facility (also referred to as a health post in Rwanda) and district hospital.
In Rwanda, healthcare tends to be perceived as acute care only, a way to manage illness when it progresses to the point of being intolerable or even life-threatening. This fact was validated in a small district hospital in Munini, Rwanda, where the team interviewed several patients who waited to the point of severe health problems before seeking treatment.
The campus design structure allows the community to take ownership of its local wellness system. It redirects the health system to a more holistic, wellness model through education at all levels and a gradual redirection toward prevention and healthier lifestyles. Major dysfunctional aspects are revised using local resources, skilled labor, and working elements of the current system’s structure as a framework.
The intention is to enhance the strengths of the current system rather than present a complete system overhaul. This new typology of a wellness campus provides minimal yet preventative services to include primary care, counseling, family planning, maternity care, pharmacy, laboratory, screening, referral, telehealth education, and traveling specialists.
The flexibility of this campus design allows for continued growth in size to meet the needs of the community. The development is planned in three phases to accommodate gradual implementation while addressing the high-priority areas first. Phase one involves the immediate local infrastructure deficiencies and educational processes.
Phase two establishes the design implementation and construction strategies developed in conjunction with the community. Phase three expands the functions of the community health center within a campus concept, assessing the completed system prior to turning over facility operations to the community.
The clinical template
Field research indicated that a typic
al community health worker delivers care from his or her home, and is compensated and trained by the Ministry of Health and NGO partners. During interviews, the community health workers indicated that a new work facility would be needed due to the inadequate conditions of their homes. Health posts are intended to support the limited capacity of the community health worker, whose primary responsibilities are detection, referral, and serving the basic needs of care delivery.
As the clinical team focused on supporting the role of the community health worker through improved facilities, technology, and education, the goal was to maintain the current physical scale of the village home through the creation of a new health post typology. The health post design solution would offer the community health worker a new environment that maintains the current scale of the home and is respectful of the culture, social structure, and local vernacular.
In order to achieve a scale for the facility representative of the village, a density study was first used to establish an approximate number of community members currently and potentially served by a community health worker.
The resulting design of the studio is not only a valuable outcome, but also represents the students’ growth through complex, collaborative efforts. The interdisciplinary model, introduced at an elementary level during the first class, evolved and adapted to support the planning and implementation of a powerful charrette in Rwanda, and carried through to the development and presentation of the final design.
Research team: instructors/students
Gerri Lamb, James Shraiky, Allison Magley, Al Peyketewa, April Ward, Denise Santiago, Linda Voyles, Lisa Santy, Matt Krise, Mary Villarreal, Rhoda Collie, Sheila Wakelam, and Taylor Gloeckler
James Shraiky, M.Arch, MA, is the director of the healthcare design initiative at The Design School, part of Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org. Linda Voyles, MHI, RN, BSN, CNOR, is a holistic perioperative nurse, author, speaker, and certified Dream Coach with more than 30 years of nursing experience. She can be reached at email@example.com.


For all our talk on "the future now," there is one future we'd prefer to delay for the next five billion years, and that's the inevitability of our planet's destruction. Mankind's speculated on the end of the world for thousands of years, but it wasn't until recent centuries that people began attaching scientific possibilities to doomsday scenarios, instead of blaming the gods for our demise.
During the first half of the 20th century, we focused our imaginations on cosmological disasters. Billions of years from now, the sun will explode, vaporizing the Earth in a ruthless inferno. Or perhaps a swarm of asteroids would bombard our cities and crash into our oceans, resulting in a series of megatsunamis. Other scenarios included one where the Earth's surface would shrink so tightly, that its core would explode with the pressure, turning our beloved planet into just another asteroid belt. The most bizarre theory was that a rogue star would cross into our solar system, swallowing our planet within streams of deadly solar rays.
More terrifying, however, than the prospect of getting zapped by cosmic rays is the possibility that mankind will bring about its own destruction. Between the end of World War II and the early 1970s, sections of Popular Science essentially functioned as guides to surviving nuclear fallout. Nowadays, "Doomsday machine" sounds like an antiquated sci-fi myth, but type those terms into our archives and see if you don't feel unsettled by the paranoia surrounding this hypothetical weapon.
At any rate, we lived through the Cold War, although there's no telling which impending disaster will scare us quite as badly. In the meantime, click through our gallery for more creepy scenarios for how our world will end.
Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.


UT students organize exhibition about artists’ depictions of diseaseBy Staff : April 21st, 2011
How human disease has been represented in art through the ages is the subject of the exhibition titled “What’s Wrong With Me? Art and Disease,” which will open Friday, April 22, in the Toledo Museum of Art Hitchcock Gallery.The University of Toledo students curating the exhibition are enrolled in an art history class that provides them with hands-on training in the design of art exhibitions. The course is part of a curriculum developed collaboratively by UT and the museum that prepares students in museum practices.
“After learning about the history of disease, students get to know related objects in the Toledo Museum of Art’s permanent collection in the process of designing their own exhibition,” said Dr. Mysoon Rizk, UT associate professor of art history, who is teaching Exhibition: Art and Disease.
“The class has taught me so much — that the existence of disease played an integral part of our history, culture and art,” said John DuVall, a UT student taking the class. “By studying the way people afflicted with disease have been stigmatized and isolated throughout history and in our lifetime, society as a whole still has much to learn regarding compassion for the sick.”
Visitors in the early weeks of this exhibition will see an “installation in progress” as the eight students continue their work through the remainder of spring semester. The completed exhibition will remain on view through Sunday, Aug. 7.
Three themes emerge from the selected works: disease is part of life; isolation and social stigma have accompanied various diseases at different times in human history; and disease can inspire hope, faith and compassion for one another.
Thirty-one works of art, including prints, three-dimensional objects and a video, are shown. All but one object are from the museum’s collection.
Some of the artists have had firsthand experience with disease, and their works express emotions that include anger, grief, compassion and hope, resulting from their encounters with illness.
“Sterbezimmer” (“The Death Chamber”), an 1896 print by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, was created after the artist’s sister died from consumption, now is known as tuberculosis.
A series of woodcuts by German artist Käthe Kollwitz relates to World War I and World War II. Kollwitz lost a son and a grandson in battle. Her work, “The Parents” from the “Krieg (War)” series, connects to everyone’s losses through war.
“The Good Samaritan,” an 1861 print by Rodolphe Bresdin, is a reminder of the strength of human compassion.
Art relating to disease can be found from every period and reflects common beliefs of those times, Rizk said. For instance, bloodletting was prescribed when people believed illnesses were caused by one’s body being “out of balance.” Bloodletting was thought to remedy the imbalance.
Stigmas associated with some illnesses, such as cancer, have decreased over time as our understanding of the diseases and effective treatments have grown. The stigma associated with AIDS, particularly in the 1980s when the syndrome was little understood and before treatments were developed, is gradually abating, she said.
“A Fire in My Belly” (1986-87), a 13-minute video version of an unfinished film by American artist David Wojnarowicz, is part of the exhibition. Visually powerful with images some may find disturbing, the video depicts the inevitability of death as well as the artist’s anger and grief after losing many friends to AIDS-related illnesses, of which he, too, would die. The work is on loan from the PPOW Gallery in New York.
The free exhibition is made possible by members of the Toledo Museum of Art and supported in part through the sustainable grant program of the Ohio Arts Council.
The Toledo Museum of Art is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, and from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.


vendredi 25 mars 2016
SOFIA Releases New Map of Orion’s Horsehead Nebula
NASA & DLR - SOFIA patch.
March 25, 2016
Image above: NASA's SOFIA airborne observatory pictured in flight with the door open to its 2.5-metre infrared telescope. Image Credit: NASA.
NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, has released a new map of the interstellar cloud called the Horsehead Nebula, located in the constellation Orion.
This new map is made of 100 separate views of the nebula, each mapping carbon atoms at different velocities. When combined, these different views create a multi-faceted representation of the nebula. Each location on this new SOFIA map of the nebula contains a far-infrared spectrum of the gas and dust there, allowing astronomers to examine the dynamics, chemistry, temperatures, and velocity within the nebula.
“We are pleased to provide this data to the world and greater scientific community,” said Erick Young, SOFIA science mission operations director of NASA Ames Research Center, at Moffett Field, California. “Orion’s Horsehead Nebula is an iconic interstellar feature and a prime laboratory for studying star formation processes.”
Animation above: Animated map of Orion's Horsehead Nebula showing 100 separate views in sequence. The yellow and white areas have the most intense radiation from carbon atoms.
Image Credits: NASA/DLR/USRA/DSI/SOFIA/GREAT Consortium.
Scientists made the observations using an instrument called upGREAT – the upgraded German Receiver at Tereherz Frequencies. It uses 14 infrared detectors simultaneously, which increases the efficiency of observations. An equivalent map created prior to the upgrade would have required more than 200 hours, but took only four hours of observing time, thanks to upGREAT’s sensitivity.
SOFIA is a Boeing 747SP jetliner modified to carry a 100-inch diameter telescope. It is a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center. NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, manages the SOFIA program, science and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, and the German SOFIA Institute (DSI) at the University of Stuttgart. The aircraft is based at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center's hangar 703, in Palmdale, California.
The full data set can be downloaded from the SOFIA Science Center’s data archives from:
For more information about SOFIA, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/SOFIA/index.html
Image (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA's Ames Research Center/SOFIA Science Center/Kassandra Bell.
Publié par Orbiter.ch à 17:19


|Quotes • Headscratchers • Playing With • Useful Notes • Analysis • Image Links • Haiku • Laconic|
Common title convention. Somewhere in the title will be the words "age of (insert age here)". "The" is optional.
A subtrope of The X of Y.
Examples of Age of Titles include:
- The Ages of Super Hero Comics
- The Age of Innocence by Edith Warton.
- The Age of Reason: Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology by Thomas Paine.
- The Age of American Unreason, by Susan Jacoby.
- The books of James Lovegroves Pantheon series: The Age of Ra, The Age of Odin,' The Age of Zeus and The Age of Aztec.
- Iron Maiden's "Age Of Innocence"
- Turbonegro's The Age Of Pamparius
- Blind Guardian - "Age of False Innocence"
- Dark Age of Camelot
- Age of Empires
- Warhammer: Age of Reckoning
- Age of Conan
- Fall From Heaven Age of Ice
- The Age of Decadence
- Age of Wonders
- Remember 11: The Age of Infinity
- Hair: "This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius..."
- Commonly used to describe time periods to emphasize certain elements of the time period. (Age of Sail, Age of discovery, etc.)
- To wit: Age of Austerity.
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.


Other Botanical Collections
Plate from Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (1731-1743).
Mark Catesby (24 March 1682/83 – 23 December 1749) was an English naturalist. Between 1729 and 1747 Catesby published his Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, the first published account of the flora and fauna of North America. It included 220 plates of birds, reptiles and amphibians, fish, insects, and mammals, as well as plants.
Catesby spent the next seventeen years preparing his Natural History. Publication was financed by an interest-free loan from one of the fellows of the Royal Society, the Quaker Peter Collinson. Catesby was the first to use folio-sized colored plates in natural history books. He learned how to etch the plates himself. The first eight plates had no backgrounds, but from then on Catesby included plants with his animals. He completed the first volume in 1731, and in February 1733 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. The second volume was completed in 1743, and in 1746-1747 he produced a supplement from material sent to him by friends in America, particularly John Bartram. Catesby’s original preparatory drawings for “Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands” are in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, and a selection was exhibited in USA, Japan and at the Queen’s Gallery, London, in 1997-1998. On 5 March 1747, Catesby read a paper entitled “Of birds of passage” to the Royal Society in London, and he is now recognized as one of the first people to describe bird migration. Mark Catesby married Elizabeth Rowland on 2 October 1747. He died just before Christmas 1749 on Saturday 23 December in his house behind St Luke’s Church, Old Street, London. Catesby’s “Hortus britanno-americanus …” was published posthumously in 1763, and a second edition, entitled “Hortus Europae americanus …” was issued in 1767.
“The natural history of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands:containing the figures of birds, beasts, fishes, serpents, insects, and plants: particulary the forest-trees, shrubs, and other plants, not hitherto described, or very incorrectly figured by authors. “ London :printed for C. Marsh 1754.


Colors and Styles
You can control the appearance of graphical elements in schematics and symbols in a number of ways.
Colors of objects in a schematic or symbol are set using a limited color palette, with the various colors having particular meanings. To change which color an object is drawn in, select it and select Edit→Color. This will display the “Color Edit” window, where you can choose the color to use from a drop down menu which shows a preview of each color and color name.
Remember that other users may view your schematics and symbols using a different color map to the one you used to create them, so they may not appear in the same way that they do to you. See also Viewing schematics
Line width and dashing
Lines, arcs and the outlines of boxes, circles and polygons have an adjustable line width and dash pattern. Select the items to be modified, and use Edit→Line Width & Type to show the “Edit Line Width & Type” window. There are several supported dashing patterns:
“Solid”. Continuous solid line (this is the default).
“Dotted”. In this case, the line is drawn with a series of dots spaced by the “Dash Space”, and the diameter of the dots is controlled by the line width.
“Dashed”. The line is drawn with a series of dashes; the length of the dashes is controlled by the “Dash Length”, and the space between dashes by the “Dash Space”.
“Center”. The line is drawn with alternating dashes (of length “Dash Length”) and dots. The spacing between the dashes and dots is the “Dash Space”.
“Phantom”. The same as “Center”, except with two dots between each pair of dashes (i.e. “dash-dot-dot-dash” instead of “dash-dot-dash”).
Fill patterns for shapes
Boxes, circles and polygons can have their interiors filled with a variety of patterns. Use Edit→Fill Type… to show the “Edit Fill Type” window. The available patterns are:
“Hollow”. The shape is unfilled (this is the default).
“Filled”. Fill the shape with a solid color.
“Hatch”. Fill the shape with hatching. You must specify the angle for the hatching lines (“Angle 1”) and the spacing between them (“Pitch 1”).
“Mesh”. Fill the shape with hatching in two directions. Like “Hatch”, you must specify angle and spacing, but once for each hatching direction.
For both the “Hatch” and “Mesh” fill patterns, you must provide the “Line Width” for the hatching lines.


Similarities and Differences
Great work so far. By Friday it was more clear to me how inquiry is common to all human understanding/exploration/generation of meaning. Each domain can be characterized by a process of inquiry that continues to give birth to revised and novel stories, some about ourselves, our emotions our hopes and fears, some about the external material world that we live in as well as stories about our emotions, hopes and fears. Many comments to this effect in the online forum as well.
But what about the differences between the Humanities and the Sciences.
Let's Compare and Contrast:
|Understanding, Creation of Meaning||Understanding, Creation of Meaning
Exploring Human emotions, artifacts and self
|Exploring material world, mostly outside of self and human emotions ( some overlap with humanities particularly with cognative sciences).|
|Self reflection on emotions, human artifacts.||
Reflections on subject using controled, repeatable, falsifiable methods.
| Priveledges self expression and the subjective.
||Priveledges interpretations that minimize subjective points of view. All interpretations are subjective, but science strives for explanitory narritives that remove as much interpretation as possible.
What needs work in the above table? Additions? Subtractions?
Both are story telling, but about different "things". The only difference is the content.
Another difference is the tools each domain primarily use.
What about the similarities and differences between a Bacteria, a Strawberry and a Human?
List as many similarities as you can between a singled-celled Bacteria, a Strawberry and a Human:
- - dna or rna (nucleic acids)
- - alive
- - perform complex chemical rxs
- - bounded: membranes, lipid/liquid fats
- - cells
- - made of parts
- need food, source of energy
- need water
- respire/metabolize - break down energy
- produce outputs
- hold 'em
crime scene investigation
Let's isolate and look at the stuff of life. Click - here - for the written procedure for strawberry DNA extraction.
Click - here - for overview, images and a useful metaphor for DNA


- Federal Status: Not Listed
- FL Status: State-designated Threatened
- FNAI Ranks: G5/S4 (Globally: Demonstrably Secure/State: Apparently Secure)
- IUCN Status: LC (Least Concern)
The little blue heron is a small wading bird species that can reach a length of up to 29 inches (74 centimeters), with a wingspan of 41 inches (104 centimeters) and a weight of 14 ounces (397 grams). Little blue herons have a grayish-blue body and a dark red head during breeding, and a purplish head and neck during non-breeding periods (Rodgers et al. 1995).
The diet of the little blue heron primarily consists of fish, insects, shrimp, and amphibians. Little blue herons feed alone, usually along freshwater systems and on floating vegetation.
The little blue heron nests in colonies, often with other species of long-legged waders. Nests of sticks are placed in trees and shrubs on islands, thickets near water, or emergent vegetation over water. Little blue herons will lay three to five blue-green eggs that hatch in 20 to 24 days. The young are able to leave the nest and fly (fledge) at 28 days of age.
Little blue herons inhabit fresh, salt, and brackish water environments in Florida including swamps, estuaries, ponds, lakes, and rivers (Rodgers et al. 1995). In the U.S., the little blue heron can be found from Missouri, east to Virginia, down to Florida, and west to Texas. In peninsular Florida they are relatively common and widespread but somewhat rare in the Panhandle. Outside of the U.S, the little blue heron can be found in Cuba, both coasts of Mexico and Central America, down into central South America.
The current threats to the little blue heron are not well understood. Threats may include coastal development, disturbance at foraging and breeding sites, environmental issues, degradation of feeding habitat, reduced prey availability, and predators. Other threats may include exposure to pesticides, toxins, and infection by parasites (Rodgers et al. 1995).
Conservation and Management
The little blue heron is protected by the U.S. Migratory Bird Treaty Act and as a State Threatened species by Florida’s Endangered and Threatened Species Rule.
Rodgers, Jr., James A. and Henry T. Smith. 1995. Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online.


La Silla - For the first time, dark galaxies — an early phase of galaxy formation, predicted by theory but unobserved until now — may have been spotted. These objects are essentially gas-rich galaxies without stars. Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope, an international team thinks they have detected these elusive objects by observing them glowing as they are illuminated by a quasar.
Dark galaxies are small, gas-rich galaxies in the early Universe that are very inefficient at forming stars. They are predicted by theories of galaxy formation and are thought to be the building blocks of today’s bright, star-filled galaxies. Astronomers think that they may have fed large galaxies with much of the gas that later formed into the stars that exist today.
Because they are essentially devoid of stars, these dark galaxies don’t emit much light, making them very hard to detect. For years astronomers have been trying to develop new techniques that could confirm the existence of these galaxies. Small absorption dips in the spectra of background sources of light have hinted at their existence. However, this new study marks the first time that such objects have been seen directly.
“Our approach to the problem of detecting a dark galaxy was simply to shine a bright light on it.” explains Simon Lilly (ETH Zurich, Switzerland), co-author of the paper. “We searched for the fluorescent glow of the gas in dark galaxies when they are illuminated by the ultraviolet light from a nearby and very bright quasar. The light from the quasar makes the dark galaxies light up in a process similar to how white clothes are illuminated by ultraviolet lamps in a night club.”
The team took advantage of the large collecting area and sensitivity of the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and a series of very long exposures, to detect the extremely faint fluorescent glow of the dark galaxies. They used the FORS2 instrument to map a region of the sky around the bright quasar  HE 0109-3518, looking for the ultraviolet light that is emitted by hydrogen gas when it is subjected to intense radiation. Because of the expansion of the Universe, this light is actually observed as a shade of violet by the time it reaches the VLT.
“After several years of attempts to detect fluorescent emission from dark galaxies, our results demonstrate the potential of our method to discover and study these fascinating and previously invisible objects,” says Sebastiano Cantalupo (University of California, Santa Cruz), lead author of the study.
The team detected almost 100 gaseous objects which lie within a few million light-years of the quasar. After a careful analysis designed to exclude objects where the emission might be powered by internal star-formation in the galaxies, rather than the light from the quasar, they finally narrowed down their search to 12 objects. These are the most convincing identifications of dark galaxies in the early Universe to date.
The astronomers were also able to determine some of the properties of the dark galaxies. They estimate that the mass of the gas in them is about 1 billion times that of the Sun, typical for gas-rich, low-mass galaxies in the early Universe. They were also able to estimate that the star formation efficiency is suppressed by a factor of more than 100 relative to typical star-forming galaxies found at similar stage in cosmic history.
“Our observations with the VLT have provided evidence for the existence of compact and isolated dark clouds. With this study, we’ve made a crucial step towards revealing and understanding the obscure early stages of galaxy formation and how galaxies acquired their gas”, concludes Sebastiano Cantalupo.
The MUSE integral field spectrograph, which will be commissioned on the VLT in 2013, will be an extremely powerful tool for the study of these objects.
This deep image shows the region of the sky around the quasar HE0109-3518. The quasar is labelled with a red circle near the centre of the image. The energetic radiation of the quasar makes dark galaxies glow, helping astronomers to understand the obscure early stages of galaxy formation. The faint images of the glow from 12 dark galaxies are labelled with blue circles. Dark galaxies are essentially devoid of stars, therefore they don’t emit any light that telescopes can catch. This makes them virtually impossible to observe unless they are illuminated by an external light source like a background quasar.
This image combines observations from the Very Large Telescope, tuned to detect the fluorescent emissions produced by the quasar illuminating the dark galaxies, with colour data from the Digitized Sky Survey 2.
ESO, Digitized Sky Survey 2 and S. Cantalupo (UCSC)
 Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance illuminated by a light source. In most cases, the emitted light has longer wavelength than the source light. For instance, fluorescent lamps transform ultraviolet radiation — invisible to us — into optical light. Fluorescence appears naturally in some compounds, such as rocks or minerals but can be also added intentionally as in detergents that contain fluorescent chemicals to make white clothes appear brighter under normal light.
 Quasars are very bright, distant galaxies that are believed to be powered by supermassive black holes at their centres. Their brightness makes them powerful beacons that can help to illuminate the surrounding area, probing the era when the first stars and galaxies were forming out of primordial gas.
 This emission from hydrogen is known as Lyman-alpha radiation, and is produced when electrons in hydrogen atoms drop from the second-lowest to the lowest energy level. It is a type of ultraviolet light. Because the Universe is expanding, the wavelength of light from objects gets stretched as it passes through space. The further light has to travel, the more its wavelength is stretched. As red is the longest wavelength visible to our eyes, this process is literally a shift in wavelength towards the red end of the spectrum — hence the name ‘redshift’. The quasar HE 0109-3518 is located at a redshift of z = 2.4, and the ultraviolet light from the dark galaxies is shifted into the visible spectrum. A narrow-band filter was specially designed to isolate the specific wavelength of light that the fluorescent emission is redshifted to. The filter was centered at around 414.5 nanometres in order to capture Lyman-alpha emission redshifted by z=2.4 (this corresponds to a shade of violet) and has a bandpass of only 4 nanometres.
 The star formation efficiency is the mass of newly formed stars over the mass of gas available to form stars. They found these objects would need more than 100 billion years to convert their gas into stars. This result is in accordance with recent theoretical studies that have suggested that gas-rich low-mass haloes at high redshift may have very low star formation efficiency as a consequence of lower metal content.
This research was presented in a paper entitled "Detection of dark galaxies and circum-galactic filaments fluorescently illuminated by a quasar at z=2.4", by Cantalupo et al. to appear in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The team is composed of Sebastiano Cantalupo (University of California, Santa Cruz, USA), Simon J. Lilly (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) and Martin G. Haehnelt (Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Cambridge, United Kingdom).
The year 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive astronomical observatory. It is supported by 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is the European partner of a revolutionary astronomical telescope ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. ESO is currently planning a 40-metre-class European Extremely Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.


Every organisation will have different practices for storing information. It is important that you fully understand how information is stored by your organisation, and why. Workplace policies and procedures for storage and access of information provide a guide for workers to follow, and if you are conscientious in adhering to these, information can be kept secure and in good order, and will be easily accessible to those who need it.
In this section you looked at:
- keeping information in accordance with organisational guidelines
- providing access to information to appropriate individuals
- maintaining confidentiality and security of information
- reporting breaches of confidentiality to the appropriate person.


December 3, 2011
People with disabilities face challenges in the workplace that often go unnoticed by co-workers. Everyday tasks that many people take for granted can present great obstacles for those of us with disabilities. Worse still, people with disabilities can face discrimination and even harassment at work because of their disability.
That’s why marking the International Day for Persons with Disabilities is so important. Our members who face these challenges need our support and our solidarity to ensure that employers provide the accommodations our members need to do their work. Days like this are crucial to raising awareness about this important issue.
In recognition, delegates at CUPE’s national convention passed an important resolution that opens the door for a new six-month disability rights awareness campaign. Such a campaign would not only raise the profile of disability issues, but also help produce new materials and tools for education, compile collective agreement language related to disability issues, and improve access to courses with disability rights components.
CUPE is also planning to launch a series of fact sheets on disability rights issues in the new year. Keep an eye on CUPE.ca for more details.
What can you do in your local?
On this date last year CUPE highlighted the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to which Canada is a signatory.
This year we are asking CUPE locals and divisions across the country to consider ways in which CUPE can implement the UN Convention principles of accessibility, inclusiveness, freedom from discrimination, and equality of opportunity. We need to educate, negotiate, arbitrate and agitate.
EDUCATE: CUPE has been very active in education, creating full courses and shop steward training modules on disability rights and duty to accommodate. Projects from CUPE’s Persons with Disabilities National Working Group have included an electronic disability rights game called “The Wheel of Chance,” and a primer on “How to Communicate with Our Brothers and Sisters with Disabilities.” Duty to accommodate courses are available to CUPE members in most divisions.
NEGOTIATE: Negotiation is an important tool for disability activists. At the division and local level, we must work to ensure that every bargaining committee has a person with a disability on it or, if this is not feasible, that a member with a disability is given an opportunity to provide input to the committee. Through dogged and creative collective bargaining, CUPE locals across the country have achieved some very beneficial language dealing with the establishment of joint accommodation committees and processes to ensure fairness to everyone involved, as well as improved benefit language.
In addition to collective bargaining, CUPE servicing representatives, sometimes with the assistance of legal and equality representatives, are successfully and creatively negotiating workplace accommodations for members with disabilities every day, whether those disabilities are physical or mental, permanent or temporary, visible or invisible, easy or challenging.
ARBITRATE: When necessary, CUPE arbitrates disability issues, including denials of short and long-term disability benefits, appeals of benefit denials, workers’ compensation issues and accommodations and much more. It is clear that a wide range of disability issues now form part of CUPE’s mainstream work, but there’s still plenty more to be done.
AGITATE: CUPE’s Persons with Disabilities National Working Group provides advice to the union on a number of disability-related campaigns. The incorporation of disability issues into collective bargaining and educational materials provides our members with tools to advocate for change and to lobby governments for better laws, better pensions, and better benefits for all people with disabilities.
Whether the struggle is at the bargaining table, negotiating accommodations with the employer, lobbying for legislation, or raising awareness and education about the protection and advancement of disability rights, CUPE can assist you with resources and expertise to fight these battles.
This year, to mark this important date, we must resolve to ensure that our union and our workplaces are accessible, inclusive, respectful and accommodating so that CUPE and the communities we work in are strengthened by the contributions of all CUPE members.


More than one-third of American households will put up a Christmas tree during the holiday season. Shortly there- after, many may begin experiencing suspicious symptoms mimicking seasonal allergies. This can include sneezing, a runny nose, and itchy, watery eyes. If you have any of these symptoms, don’t panic, you’re not allergic to Christmas, although it may feel as though you are. You might, however, be allergic to your Christmas tree. Enter Christmas Tree Syndrome.
Can Christmas Tree Syndrome Be Prevented?
The good news is that the effects of Christmas tree syndrome can be prevented by limiting exposure to the allergens found on the trees. Here are some tips for minimizing allergens on your tree so that you can enjoy the holiday season!
- keep hands and arms covered to prevent touching the sap.
- Prior to putting it up, shake and wash the tree with water to remove any mold.
- The tree stump should also be soaked in water to prevent future mold.
- If you have allergies but can’t resist having a live tree, keep it in the house for no more than a week.
Yep, you could also, though not as often, be allergic to an artificial tree. Here are some tips:
- Be sure to store your artificial tree properly during the off season – wrap the tree securely, store in a cool and dry place and avoid storing in places that accumulate dust, dirt or mold.
- Wipe or vaccuum down the tree before putting it up in your home.
- Wipe down any ornaments before decorating the tree.
- Go easy on the spray snow to frost your windows —, or the “fresh pine smell”. Any aerosol chemical can cause irritant reactions in the eyes, nose or lungs as well.
Symptoms of Christmas Tree Syndrome
- Itchy Nose
- Watery Eyes
- Problems Sleeping
What Causes Christmas Tree Syndrome?
Christmas Tree Syndrome is an allergic reaction to your Christmas Tree. Researchers at the State University of New York found that 70 percent of the molds found on live Christmas trees can cause severe asthma attacks, fatigue, sinus congestion and more. Now you might be thinking that can’t be because I have an artificial tree, however, both live and artificial trees can cause Christmas Tree Syndrome. See above.
Christmas Tree Syndrome can be prevented by limiting exposure to the allergens found on the trees. This procedure differs for both artificial and real Christmas trees.
Contact Us Today!
If you’re Christmas season is off to a miserable start because of your Christmas tree, there are options besides going directly from Thanksgiving to New Years.
Call us at 860-986-6440 or come in, no appointment needed. We are located at 1030 Boulevard, West Hartford, CT. We’re open 7 days a week and will be happy to help you! You can save time by checking in online and we accept most insurances!


The liner shipping industry generated $436.6 billion in direct and indirect benefits to the world economy in 2007 and provided 13.5 million jobs, according to a new study commissioned by the World Shipping Council.
The study by IHS Global Insight was conducted for the relaunch of the WSC’s Web site as part of its 2-year-old campaign to increase public awareness of the shipping industry’s contribution to the global economy.
The Web site, www.worldshipping.org, is part of the Container Shipping Information Service the WSC initiated in 2007 to provide the public with a more comprehensive explanation of the industry, its contribution to trading nations’ economic health, and the status of current policy issues, such as the environment and security.
Using 2007 as a base year, the study found cargo transported by the liner shipping industry represents about one-third of the value of total global trade, equating to more than $4.6 trillion worth of goods.
The shipping industry made a direct contribution to global GDP of $183.3 billion, invested $29.4 billion in capital projects and provided 4.2 million jobs, with total compensation of $27.2 billion.
Workers at ports worldwide loaded and unloaded cargo for more than 10,000 liner vessel calls a week, with the average ship making 2.1 port calls a week.
Liner shipping companies deployed more than 400 services providing regularly scheduled service, usually weekly, connecting all countries of the world. In mid-2008, there were more than 17.8 million containers in the global fleet, which cost the industry $80.1 billion to purchase.
In the U.S. alone, the industry spends $869 million a year to operate the fleet of chassis used to move containers over land.
The liner shipping industry has spent more than $236 billion in more than a dozen countries on the purchase of new vessels.
The results of the study are used throughout the WSC Web site. A copy of the full report can be downloaded at: www.worldshipping.org/pdf/Liner_Industry_Valuation_Study.pdf.


IT took several years of negotiations for fastjet, a low-cost private airline based in Tanzania, to get the traffic rights to fly between Harare and Bulawayo this July. The flying distance between these two major cities in Zimbabwe is only about 228 miles—a 45-minute trip. Worse still, it had originally taken three years for fastjet to even begin its operations in Zimbabwe, let alone dare to expand its domestic flights in the country.
This isn’t unique to Zimbabwe, either. Many African countries restrict their airspaces to prop up state-owned air carriers. That’s why it is notoriously difficult for private airlines to succeed in Africa. They are quite literally dewinged before they’ve even had a chance to explore the skies due to protectionism, high taxes, and restrictive regulations. New airlines are prevented from entering markets, existing companies are unable to offer flights of their choice, routes are predetermined, and prices are inflated. These restrictive policies originated in the early 1960s when many newly-independent African states created national airlines to assert their status as nations.
But these national airlines offer little to be proud of. The majority of state-owned airlines have failed, not being able to make enough revenue to cover their costs. Today, there are only three major sub-Saharan intercontinental airlines: Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, and South African Airways. The only profitable one is Ethiopian Airlines (it’s not managed by the government), but the others incur hundreds of millions in losses every year, and survive on government bailouts.
Besides the overwhelming evidence that state-owned airlines waste resources, costing the continent millions of jobs and billions in revenue, the dream just won’t die. There are initiatives to re-boost defunct carriers across the continent, including in Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia. The worst part of the disastrous state of African skies is that for the last fifty years, there have been multilateral agreements in place that could transform aviation on the continent. They only need implementation.
Fifty years ago, the newly-independent African nations founded the African Airlines Association (AFRAA). Created to facilitate the integration of African skies and make African airlines more globally competitive, AFRAA is no closer to that goal today than it was in 1968. African governments just can’t seem to be able to stop getting in their own way.
Indeed, African politicians are particularly skilled at attending summits on the urgent need for freedom in aviation, while having no will to implement them.
In 1988, twenty years after the creation of AAFRA, African states signed the Yamoussoukro Decision, a multilateral agreement with 44 signatories, to liberate African skies. In 2018, this agreement has not yet been implemented. In fact, earlier this year, the Yamoussoukro Decision was replaced by yet another agreement that will likely not be implemented, the so-called Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM). Launched in January 2018, SAATM has the same noble goals of opening up Africa’s skies. Except this time, instead of the 44 signatories from 30 years ago, only 23 states bothered to make the commitment.
While generations upon generations of African leaders continue to shake hands, sign agreements and smile for the cameras, the continent pays dearly for it.
Air transport plays a critical role in facilitating business, international trade and tourism. When governments regulate airline industries to buttress national carriers, private sector innovation is hampered. In African skies, safety is subpar, sometimes deadly, routes are circuitous—one often has to fly through Europe or the Middle East just to get from one African city to the next, fares are expensive, and airport landing costs are incredibly high. Africa as a whole only has about two percent of global passenger traffic. Regulations might prop up national carriers and buttress some misguided sense of national pride, but they tear down African economies.
The lack of freedom in African aviation costs the continent millions of jobs and billions of dollars are lost in investment every year. With deregulation, there would be increased competition and improved connectivity leading to lower transport costs and encouraging smoother trade flows. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), air cargo represents more than 35 percent of global trade by value. Africa only captures 1.9 percent of air freight market.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Africa already has the policies written out. If nations would only implement them, it would be a transformative experience for passengers and businesses, as it was for Europe and the USA.
In 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act, which somewhat freed the American airline industry, hitherto regulated like a public utility. Through deregulation, Southwest, which had been forbidden from flying outside Texas, was free to offer its then-unique shorthaul, low-priced service on an interstate basis, paving the way for the development of low cost carriers. In Europe, Ryanair was only able to compete freely and inspire new carriers to enter the market, because the EU completed the “open skies” deregulation in 1997.
Today, a typical European or American traveler, has a range of options for air travel. They could choose the low-cost, no-frills service of carriers like Southwest, JetBlue or Ryanair, or the more luxurious services of a Virgin Atlantic or Delta Airline. Air travel is no longer confined to the wealthy because deregulation helped create affordable and efficient options for everyone.
If African states want to be competitive in a modern economy, they’d do well to let go of such vanity projects as national airlines, and implement fifty years worth of liberalization accords.
After that, they’d have nothing to do besides step back and let entrepreneurs finally do the work that states have been blocking.


Using Microbes to Biodegrade All Waste
Since the discovery of microbes, mankind has always wondered about their functions and possible uses. Scientists already understand most of the reasons why and how microbes sustain life, but scientists are now able to manipulate particular types of bacteria to biodegrade particular types of wastes. Using this procedure, scientists are now able to reduce some of the environmental waste problems. Scientists are still unable to biodegrade all types of wastes with microbes and bacteria, however scientists are also now able to mutate or modify some species of bacteria to create new species that hopefully will one day result in bacteria that will safely consume and breakdown any undesirable waste.
In 1675, Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), a Dutch draper, was the first man to discover microbes. Antony van Leeuwenhoek discovered these microbes due to the fact, that he had some sort of tooth problem that caused him intense pain. He therefore quite painfully removed the problem tooth. Once the tooth was removed, he noticed that the tooth was unusually hollow with tiny holes throughout it (Sagan 3). Leeuwenhoek using his own hand-made microscope, discovered living organisms which moved at phenomenal fast speeds that lived inside his hollow tooth. He later called these organisms "animalcules," because he thought of these microbes as minute animals (Sagan 4). Once called "animalcules" by Leeuwenhoek, scientists quickly changed this name to what is now called "microorganisms" or "microbes", which today means microscopic living life forms not visible to the naked eye (Gamlin 35). It was later I earned that these microbes, could be used in medicine, industry, science, and in biosphere technology (Sagan 4). Blue-green and other forms of nitrogen fixing bacteria fertilize soil for agriculture. Most photosynthetic organisms (like plants, algae, some bacteria, and fungi) break down solid rock, turning them into fertile soil (Sagan 5). Leeuwenhoek was also the first person to notice that these microbes could be either docile or destructive organisms, to the other microbes surrounding it, but other scientists took little note of this discovery (Sagan 4).
Microbes have been in existence for millions of years, and also the most dominant and abundant lifeform in this biosphere (Sagan 5). Bacteria is known to be located everywhere there is life, because of their ability to live more comfortably than protoctists and fungi in extreme conditions that appear all over the Earth. Bacteria can handle greater heat, greater cold, more acidity, more alkalinity, and more pressure, than any other known living thing (Sagan 105). Most bacteria have a high rate of reproduction and mutations, thus enabling them to quickly adapt in changing environments (Gamlin 36). They are also capable of living inside rocks, between sand grains in a desert, in scalding springs, in the stratosphere, in plants, in animals, and at the bottom of dark oceans. Bacteria can affect the environment by being neutral, negative as in causing diseases or illnesses, or positive helping the continuation of the biosphere, at any point during their lifetime (Sagan 105). Bacteria is also very useful in genetic research, physiology, cytology, and biochemistry, because they are able to live short lives, have large amounts of offspring, only need minimal laboratory space, grow fast, and are quite easy to control, but some preparation must be done, such as: sterilizing tools, glassware, and the culture before and after use because the culture or outside environment may be contaminated (Hauser 3).
Nitrogen fixers are capable of taking inert nitrogen from the air and making it accessible to all living organisms, therefore making it one of the most important life forms on Earth. These types of bacteria are found all over the Earth, in both soil and water, but mostly in garden soils on leaves or roots, turning them into fertilizer. The most common nitrogen fixing bacteria are known as the Azotobacters, which are aerobic, cyst-forming, rapidly growing, and oval-shaped cells that exude profuse amounts of slime. They also produce tiny black pigments which are insoluble in water. These types of nitrogen bacteria are easily found, by digging up a leguminous plant (like a radish or carrot), cleaning the soil off the roots gently with water and observe the pink root nodules on the roots (Sagan 120). For example, soil scientists at Ohio State University have discovered a pollution-eating bacteria, which eats quinoline, a very toxic poison given off by factories and industries. This type of bacteria could help clean up industrial wastes that might seep into the underground water supply. This bacteria is being investigated if it could be used in future oil spills, since quinoline is found in crude oil. The researchers at Ohio State University still do not know why this bacteria consumes quinoline or what by product it makes from consuming the quinoline. The researchers have many theories why, but the most logical theory is that enzymes are involved in degrading the quinoline, but the problem is finding which enzyme. These scientists believe that future geneticists will be able to make new types of bacteria using this bacteria to biodegrade some of the toxic substance produced by factories (USA Today 3).
In conclusion, future scientists and geneticists will eventually have the power to create all new species of bacteria to biodegrade any substance that they believe to be harmful to the environment.
- Eating "Bug" to the Rescue, USA Today, Vol.118, June, 1990, p. 3.
- Gamlin, Linda, The Evolution of Life, New York, USA, Oxford University Press, 1987, pp. 33-35.
- Hall, Stephen S., Invisible Frontiers, USA, Morgan Entreships, 1987.
- Hauser, Juliana T., Techniques for Studying Bacteria and Fungi, USA, Carolina Biological Supply Company., 1986, pp. 3-27.
- Sagan, Dorion, Garden of Microbial Delights, USA, Harrcourt Brace Jovenovich, Inc., 1988, pp.3-5, pp. 105-120.
by Phil for Humanity


The Washington Examiner cited Senior Fellow Michelle Minton on the prohibition mindset.
Michelle Minton for the Competitive Enterprise Institute: On December 5, 1933 the federal government’s nationwide prohibition against alcohol ended. Eighty-five years later, the beer market seems to have finally recovered. Today, there are more than 6,000 breweries — more than at any time before or since Prohibition — making a seemingly endless variety of beer for us enthusiasts to enjoy. But, while we may be living in the “golden age” of beer, the specter of Prohibition remains. Its effects continue to influence how beer is made, how it can be sold, and how much it costs. More worrisome, the mindset that led to Prohibition has never fully changed — it’s simply become more sophisticated. And, unless those who make and enjoy alcoholic beverages take a unified stance on principle, we could soon be living under Prohibition 2.0.
What few people realize about Prohibition is that it was not the product of some larger cultural movement that recognized the harms of alcohol on society. It was a lobbying campaign by a small group of moralists that succeeded by playing on growing xenophobic and racist sentiments. The beer industry was dominated by German immigrants, while distilling was largely run by Jewish families (considered foreign no matter where they were born). Together, these immoral foreign influences — according to the temperance movement — corrupted black men who, under slavery had been “protected” from alcohol and, as a result, “developed no high degree of ability to resist its evil effects.” Some, like Rep. John Newton Tillman, D-Ark., even argued that banning alcohol would bring an end to the southern lynching of black men and boys because it would cause them to commit fewer crimes.
Modern prohibitionists are not so crude as to believe that advocating for total bans of alcohol will ever be successful, nor are their arguments as crass as they once were. Instead, they now advocate for an ever-increasing number of small, sensible limitations to protect “vulnerable” individuals in our society from the evils of alcohol. These may include bans on certain products deemed too dangerously high in alcohol or, more commonly, making sure that alcohol prices are high and availability low.


Every foreign traveler in Japan is delighted by the verdant forest-shrouded mountains that thrust skyward from one end of the island chain to the other. The Japanese themselves are conscious of the lush green of their homeland, which they sometimes refer to as "the green archipelago." Yet, based on its fragile geography and centuries of extremely dense human occupation, Japan today should be an impoverished, slum-ridden, peasant society subsisting on a barren, eroded moonscape characterized by bald mountains and debris-strewn lowlands.
In fact, as Conrad Totman argues in this pathbreaking work based on prodigious research, this lush verdue is not a monument to nature's benevolence and Japanese aesthetic sensibilities, but the hard-earned result of generations of human toil that have converted the archipelago into one great forest preserve. Indeed, the author shows that until the late 1600s Japan was well on her way to ecological disaster due to exploitative forestry. During the Tokugawa period, however, an extraordinary change took place resulting in a system of "regenerative forestry" that averted the devastation of Japan's forests. The Green Archipelago is the only major Western-language work on this subject and a landmark not only in Japanese history, but in the history of the environment.
Conrad Totman is Professor of History at Yale University and author of Japan Before Perry: A Short History (California, 1981) and Politics in the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1600-1843 (California, 1988).
"This is a superb book on an important subject: the pulling back of Japan beginning in the late 17th century from the utter destruction of her forests—a course on which the country seemed bent in 1600—and from the ecological, economic, and social catastrophe that would have followed. The immense importance of the subject for Japanese history is obvious."—Thomas R. Smith, University of California, Berkeley


Tue, 17 Dec 2013 15:42:32 GMT — The upcoming political debate on immigration reform is expected to be a heated one. As for now, citizen hopefuls are required to take a naturalization test in which they must answer a series of questions about the U.S. correctly and in English. Do you think you could pass the test without any outside help? 1. How many justices are on the Supreme Court? a. ten (10) b. eleven (11) c. nine (9) d. twelve (12) 2. What did Susan B. Anthony do? a. founded the Red Cross b. fought for women's rights c. made the first flag of the United States d. the first woman elected to the House of Representatives 3. The Federalist Papers supported the passage of the U.S. Constitution. Name one of the writers. a. George Washington b. James Madison c. Thomas Jefferson d. John Adams 4. Name one branch or part of the government. a. United Nations b. legislative c. parliament d. state government 5. Who vetoes bills? a. the Speaker of the House b the President Pro Tempore c. the Vice President. d. the President
6. Who was President during the Great Depression and World War II?
a. Harry Truman
b. Calvin Coolidge
c. Franklin Roosevelt
d. Herbert Hoover
7. What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution?
a. the Bill of Rights
b. the Articles of Confederation
c. the Declaration of Independence
d. the inalienable rights
8. What is one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for?
a. third President of the United States
b. U.S. diplomat
c. youngest member of the Constitutional Convention
d. inventor of the airplane
9. Name one war fought by the United States in the 1800s. a. Korean War b. Civil War c. World War I d. World War II 10. If both the President and the Vice President can no longer serve, who becomes President? a. the Secretary of the Treasury b. the Secretary of State c. the Speaker of the House d. the President Pro Tempore


Mathematician:Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac
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Also known as Claude (Gaspar) Bachet.
First member to hold Seat 13 of the Académie Française.
- Born: 9 October 1581 in Bourg-en-Bresse, Savoy (now France)
- Died: 26 February 1638 in Bourg-en-Bresse
Theorems and Definitions
Believed to have provided a proof of what is now known as Bézout's Identity.
- 1612: Problèmes plaisans et delectables qui se font par les nombres, a collection of arithmetical tricks and questions
- 1621: A translation from Greek to Latin of the Arithmetica of Diophantus. It was in the margin of this edition that Fermat stated his famous "last" theorem
- 1624: Problèmes plaisans (2nd edition)
Les éléments arithmétiques, which exists in manuscript form
- John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive


XAML Attribute Usage
|Public||The exact string you pass to specify TypeAttributes.Public versus TypeAttributes.NotPublic varies, depending on the code-behind programming language that is used. See Remarks.|
If a XAML production uses
x:FieldModifier anywhere, the root element of that XAML production must declare an x:Class Directive.
x:FieldModifier is not relevant for declaring the general access level of a class or its members. It is relevant only for XAML-processing behavior when a particular XAML object that is part of a XAML production is processed, and becomes an object that is potentially accessible in the object graph of an application. By default, the field reference for such an object is kept private, which prevents control consumers from modifying the object graph directly. Instead, control consumers are expected to modify the object graph by using standard patterns that are enabled by programming models, such as by obtaining the layout root, the child element collections, the dedicated public properties, and so on.
The value for the
x:FieldModifier attribute varies by programming language, and its purpose can vary in specific frameworks. The string to use depends on how each language implements its CodeDomProvider and the type converters it returns to define the meanings for TypeAttributes.Public and TypeAttributes.NotPublic, and whether that language is case sensitive.
For C#, the string to pass to designate TypeAttributes.Public is
For Microsoft Visual Basic .NET, the string to pass to designate TypeAttributes.Public is
For C++/CLI, no targets for XAML currently exist; therefore, the string to pass is undefined.
TypeAttributes.NotPublic is the default behavior because it is infrequent that code outside the assembly that compiled the XAML needs access to a XAML-created element. WPF security architecture together with XAML compilation behavior will not declare fields that store element instances as public, unless you specifically set the
x:FieldModifier to allow public access.
x:FieldModifier is only relevant for elements with an x:Name Directive because that name is used to reference the field after it is public.
By default, the partial class for the root element is public; however, you can make it nonpublic by using the x:ClassModifier Directive. The x:ClassModifier Directive also affects the access level of the instance of the root element class. You can put both
x:FieldModifier on the root element, but this only makes a public field copy of the root element, with the true root element class access level still controlled by x:ClassModifier Directive.
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In order to internally broach a metal part, a pre-existing hole must be made. The broach then changes the shape and size of the starter indent into a hole with a keyway, spline, hexagonal, square or custom designed profile. A broaching tool that has successively larger and larger teeth pierces through the pre-existing hole by pulling or pushing through the metal part.
Internal broaching machines are automated, often CNC operated and able to quickly and efficiently produce holes in metal parts and products. Sometimes called shell broaches, internally cut broaching is done mostly for holes with large diameters that are to be mounted on an arbor.
Broaching is most effective on softer metals, including aluminum, brass, bronze and graphite. Many different tools and machinery parts are formed by the broaching process, including key holes, gears, pulleys, screw heads and other hardware. Because the broaching machines can get pricey but the tools and parts they produce are necessary in so many industries, broaching job shops are facilities that provide a variety of broaching services.
Particularly when going to a broaching shop, it is cost effective, highly repeatable and able to produce large volumes of metal parts with little to no variance or error. Broaching tools may become dull over time if used often, and are therefore periodically reground to retain their original sharpness.
Drilling the pre-existing starter hole is referred to as blank prepping. During this process, a simple, shallow hole is drilled and must be .005 to .015 inches larger than the smallest diameter of the broach. There are two main types of internal broaching; push broaching and pull down broaching, each with their own methods of forming a wide hole in metal.
Push broaching is done with vertical machines, and the broach tool is pushed linearly either up or down through the metal work-piece. Short broaches are used to avoid buckling, which limits the amount of metal that is able to be removed.
This type of internal broaching is suitable for light work and low runs, and the machinery is less expensive than pull down broaching. Pull down broaching, on the other hand, is only able to push the tool down on a vertical machine.
It keeps the tool in tension and prevents buckling, and is used with long, thin broaches to make deep holes.


Learning Advantage Quizmo® Money
Reinforce money value and recognition from 1¢ to $1.00. Uses actual-sized coin graphics on game cards. Coin recognition. Numeration by ones, fives, tens. Recognition of equivalent values. Addition and subtraction of money. Auditory/visual association. By playing Money Quizmo® students will: 1. Distinguish between the pictured pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. 2. Associate the correct value with each coin. 3. Demonstrate skill in counting the values of various sets of coins. 4. Improve their ability to add mentally. 5. Recognize that several different combinations of coins can have the same money value. 6. Determine the kind and number of coins that constitute a given value. Requires no reading. May be used as a class activity or in cooperative learning groups. 36 card set can accommodate large groups. Includes 40 large, double-sided game boards, 60 calling cards, plastic markers, and instructional guide. 2-36 players.
WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD Small parts. Not for children under 3 yrs.