But what fats should you have in your diet?
Mainstream nutrition convinced us for decades that we needed to cut back on fat. Fat was the bad guy, they said, when it came to cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, and a number of other modern ailments.
Recent studies, though, have shown that the low-fat diet hasn’t done what we thought it would do. In one 2006 study, a low-fat dietary pattern did not reduce risk of colorectal cancer. Another study that same year showed that reduced total fat intake did not significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), stroke, or coronary heart disease (CHD).
In a 2010 meta-analysis of 21 studies, researchers concluded, “there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD.”
Another meta-analysis published in March 2014 involving over 600,000 participants concluded: “Current evidence does not clearly support cardiovascular guidelines that encourage high consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids and low consumption of total saturated fats.”
Meanwhile, there is evidence that avoiding fat, particularly healthy fats, can be detrimental to your health. In 2011, for example, researchers reported that women with high blood pressure who ate 20 grams or less of saturated fat per day had double the risk of a hemorrhagic stroke as women eating moderate amounts (between 25 and 36 grams a day).
Eating a diet too low in fat can also interfere with vitamin and mineral absorption and increase risk of depression, cancer, heart disease (when the diet is too low in fat, HDL “good” cholesterol goes down), and even obesity, since low-fat alternative foods are often high in sugar and carbohydrates.
Researchers have cautioned, though, that these studies don’t mean everyone should go out and tank up on bacon, butter, and cheese. So what fats do we need in our diets?
Time to Feel Good About Healthy Fats
The truth is that we need fat for the body to function right. Here are just some of the benefits of fats:
- Support healthy membranes in the brain
- Help the body absorb nutrients
- Help create the membrane that surrounds every cell
- Help make hormones
- Provide for healthier skin
- Deliver energy
- Help prevent many diseases
- Help you feel full after a meal
- Can lower blood pressure
- Fight inflammation
- Make things taste good
We already know from recent studies that eating plant-based fats is good for us, and may help prevent heart disease. A 2010 study found that healthy polyunsaturated fat (PUFA)—in plant-based foods and oils—instead of “harmful” saturated fat (mainly from red meat and full-fat dairy), reduced risk of coronary heart disease.
Eating so-called “good” fats has also shown in some studies to lower LDL “bad” cholesterol and improve levels of HDL “good” cholesterol. It may also help prevent insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes.
How to Tell if You’re Eating Too Little Fat
If you’re not getting enough fat in your diet, you may develop symptoms including the following:
- Weight gain: Hard to believe? The problem is that often when people shun fat, they eat too much sugar and too many carbohydrates. Fat helps us feel full. Without it, we may experience more cravings, causing us to eat more.
- Blood sugar ups and downs: Fats help keep your blood sugar levels stable, as they tend to take longer to digest. Without enough, you may experience spikes and dips.
- Brain fog/mental fatigue: Can’t remember things? Finding it hard to focus? Always mentally tired? Could be you’re not getting enough fats. They feed the brain and improve brain function.
- Dry, dull skin: Fats help support healthy skin and hair. They support oil-producing glands, which help keep skin and hair hydrated.
- Depression or the blues: Healthy fats support good mood neurotransmitters in the brain. Studies have found that low intake of essential fatty acids can increase risk of depression.
- Cold chills: Fats help regulate body temperature. If you’re not getting enough, you may always feel cold.
- Abnormal menstrual schedule: If you have too little fat in your diet, you could suffer hormonal imbalances, which could disrupt your monthly schedule.
Two Main Types of Fat—and What You Need
Experts recommend we make sure about 20-35 percent of our daily calories come from fat. (Children need more—up to 40 percent of daily calories.) So if we think of an average of 2,400 calories a day, that would be about 80 calories. Not much.
Still, with all the focus on low-fat diets, some of us may not be getting enough—or not getting the right kinds. Here’s a simple breakdown of the two main types of fats:
- Unsaturated fat: This type of fat is the most common. Sources include nuts, vegetable oils, fish, olive oil, and flaxseed. These are considered the “healthy fats” as they contain fewer calories than other fats, they help reduce risk of heart disease, and they may also reduce risk of type 2 diabetes. Both polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are in this category. Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fats—both contribute to health, though in our modern diet we consume too many omega-6s and not enough omega-3s. Good sources of omega-3s include oily fish, eggs, lean meats, flaxseed, walnuts, and soybeans. Sources of omega-6s include sunflower and sesame seed oils, sunflower seeds, pecans and Brazil nuts.
- Saturated fat: Saturated fats are often solid at room temperature. They’re typically found in animal products. Sources include meat, eggs, butter, cheese, whole milk, cream, avocadoes, and some oils like coconut and palm kernel. Moderate amounts can help increase HDL “good” cholesterol and help you feel full.
Though research is ever-evolving, modern wisdom suggests the following:
- Eat both types: The body needs both types of fats on a regular basis for optimal health.
- Avoid bad sources: When choosing saturated fats, avoid those with other things that may hurt your health. Go for grass-fed beef, for example, rather than conventionally grown (with antibiotics and hormones). Real butter, as opposed to synthetic margarines with potentially harmful ingredients.
- Stay away from trans fats: These have been found to definitely increase the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. They’re present in typical donuts, cookies, cakes, muffins, potpies, frozen pizzas, and the like. Look for those with “0 trans fat” on the label, and then check the ingredient list. Avoid any with “partially hydrogenated oils.”
- Consume more healthy fats, like the unsaturated types listed above.
- Don’t be afraid of fat. We’ve been taught to avoid fat at all costs. It’s time to rewire our brains. Some fat is good for us, and important for overall health. Eggs, dark chocolate, some meats, coconut oil, butter, cheese, and dairy are okay in moderate amounts.
What do you think of the latest research on fat? Have you changed your diet?
* * *
Shirley A. Beresford, et al., “Low-Fat Dietary Pattern and Risk of Colorectal Cancer: The Women’s Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Dietary Modification Trial,” JAMA, Febraury 8, 2006, 295(6):643-654, http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=202340.
Howard BV, et al., “Low-fat dietary pattern and risk of cardiovascular disease: the Women’s Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Dietary Modification Trial,” JAMA, February 8, 2006; 295(6):655-66, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16467234.
Patty W. Siri-Tarino, et al., “Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease,” Am J Clin Nutr, January 2010, http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2010/01/13/ajcn.2009.27725.abstract.
Rajiv Chowdhury, et al., “Association of Dietary, Circulating, and Supplement Fatty Acids with Coronary Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis,” Ann Intern Med., 2014; 160(6):398-406, http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1846638.
American Heart Association, “Risk of rare stroke highest in women with lowest saturated fat intake, study finds,” Press Release, February 11, 2001, http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-02/AHA-Rors-1102101.php.
Mozaffarian D, et al., “Effects of coronary heart disease of increasing polyunsaturated fat in place of saturated fat: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials,” PLoS Med, March 23, 2010; 7(3):e1000252, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20351774.


TIPS FOR PARENTS
How to help your teen develop the skills they need to create healthy relationships.
One of the best ways to “relationship-proof” our young people is to teach them the following four key skills for creating healthy relationships:
1. Assertive Communication
2. Conflict Resolution
You are your child’s first, best teacher! Here are some tips for helping your teen to learn and practice these skills, and to demonstrate them yourself as role model.
1. ASSERTIVE COMMUNICATION is the ability to express yourself effectively and share your thoughts and feelings while respecting others.
Why does it matter?
Voicing your opinion helps boost self-esteem and gain respect from others. It even helps you to manage your stress.
|Here are some simple ways to explain to your teenager the difference between passive and aggressive responses, using the scenario of asking them: “Could you please do your homework?” PASSIVE||Not saying what you think, not telling people when you have a different opinion, not responding when you are criticized, and going with the flow instead of expressing your needs or desires.||“Hmmm.” (not looking at you)|
|AGGRESSIVE||Ignoring the wishes of others, telling people what to do, dominating conversations, interrupting. People sometimes make aggressive remarks in an outwardly “respectful” way, making it difficult to realize the underlying aggression.||“No. I hate homework and school.”|
|ASSERTIVE||The middle ground between passive and aggressive communication: sharing your thoughts and feelings without being defensive or disrespectful.||“I will, but I don’t understand my English assignment. Can you please help me with it?”|


“Genius does what it must and talent does what it can.”
– The Earl of Lytton
Genius is an endowment. A few people are born with it. Some fraction of those people find themselves in a family or field where their genius is recognizable and applicable.
The rest of us can be inspired by the likes of Shakespeare, Ben Franklin, Mozart, Einstein, Martin Luther King, Michael Jordan, Mother Teresa, Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey, and others. We may learn something from observing aspects of their behavior, but we ought not to compare ourselves to them.
Their colossal accomplishments are due to a unique combination of inherited genes, phenomenal luck and superhuman appetite for hard work. This is amazing, but it is not gumption.
Mark Twain tells us to forget the idea that “Ben Franklin acquired his great genius by working for nothing, studying by moonlight, and getting up in the night instead of waiting ’til morning…these execrable eccentricities of instinct and conduct are only the evidences of genius, not the creators of it.”
Genius, by the way, is usually not transferable outside its field:
• Michael Jordan retired from basketball and joined minor league baseball’s Birmingham Barons. He had a poor batting average and low on-base percentage in his one season. He returned to basketball and won three more NBA championships.
• Linus Pauling won the 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962. In the 1970’s he advocated loudly for vitamin C as a cure for colds, flu, and even cancer. He wrote a bestselling book on the subject. In the words of physician Paul Offit, Linus Pauling was “a man who was so spectacularly right that he won two Nobel Prizes and so spectacularly wrong that he was arguably the world’s greatest quack.” But still a genius.
• Sir Isaac Newton lost a fortune speculating on stock in the South Sea Company.
Genius is not gumption.
i. “Genius does what it must and talent does what it can.” Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, English dramatist, novelist, and politician (1803–73) http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_BulwerLytton,_1st_Earl_of_Lytton. Retrieved August 13, 2014. ii. “…these execrable eccentricities of instinct and conduct are only the evidences of genius, not the creators of it.” Mark Twain, The Late Ben Franklin, 1870, quoted in Blooms Classic Critical Views: Ben Franklin, Edited by Harold Bloom (New York: InfoBase Publishing, 2008), 56. iii. Pauling was… “arguably the world’s greatest quack.” Paul Offit, “The Vitamin Myth: Why We Think We Need Supplements,” The Atlantic, July 19, 2013; http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/07/thevitamin-myth-why-we-think-we-need-supplements/277947/.
How will you make the most of your talents? Gumptionade – The Booster for Your Self Improvement Plan will show you how.


The impact of the invasive comb jelly Mnemiopsis leidyi in the North Sea
Although the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS) is a very well studied ecosystem, the knowledge on jellyfish and more specifically ctenophores is poorly documented. Zooplankton research in the BPNS shows that several ctenophore species are facilitated by higher summer and autumn water temperatures. Recently it became obvious that these ‘primitive’ invertebrates are able to alter and control complete food webs.
The American comb jelly, Mnemiopsis leidyi, is one of the most notorious invasive species in the world. It caused massive ecological and economical damage to the Black Sea ecosystem. In 2007, it was observed for the first time in the BPNS.
To assess the impact of M. leidyi on different human activities (fisheries, energy providing industries and tourism) a detailed study will be carried out on the spatial and temporal distribution and the role of M. leidyi in the food web of the BPNS and the Westerschelde estuary. A Standard Operational Protocol (SOP) for sampling, conserving and fixating these fragile organisms for different analysing purposes, will be further developed.
Mnemiopsis leidyi is known to predate on fish eggs and larvae, and zooplankton. As such, it can be seen as a potential competitor and predator of zooplanktivorous fish. The position of M. leidyi in the food web will be assessed using stable isotopes and fatty acid analyses, and through the use of a genetic probe to identify M. leidyi at a larger North Sea & North Atlantic Ocean scale.
The obtained information will be useful to formulate national and international policy advice towards various sectors, including fisheries, energy providers and tourism.


Accessibility to the internet is necessary for every household and business, meaning everyone needs to have a wired or wireless router setup. Wired is the more traditional choice and is still a go-to choice for many homes and offices. In fact, BlueGadgetTooth put together a list of the best wired routers that you can get to meet your individual needs. But wireless routers are also coming more onto the scene, making it hard to know which the best choice is.
How Wired Routers Work
Wired routers use LAN Ethernet ports to connect to a modem and access the ISP, running a cable between a computer to the router then the router to the DSL or Ethernet port. Even though the line is connected to one central computer, the router easily allows sharing of the connection to any device that is connected to the network.
How Wireless Routers Work
Wireless routers utilize a Wi-Fi connection to communicate between the ISP to the router, then the wireless frequency to connect to any wireless devices that log onto it. This allows multiple users to access the network easily using a password, much like the wired connection.
Wired vs Wireless Performance
When you are looking at the performance between a wired and wireless router, wired routers provide the best performance possible. Most wired connections offer 10/100/1000 Mbps bandwidth, where a wireless router offers a theoretical bandwidth of much less. Wired routers have a consistent connection as well since they are literally plugged into the router, whereas wireless connections are distance sensitive, meaning the connection will degrade the further you get from the access point.
In theory, the wired router is safer than the wireless router since wireless communication can be intercepted as it travels. Realistically, however, the wireless transmissions do not travel very far and are just about as secure as a wired connection. The security of your network has more to do with your firewall than it has to do with the router type. For the best security, you should make sure that your firewall has been properly configured and its users know how to be safe online.
To compare the wired to wireless routers, thinking about how they are setup and installed could be a factor in deciding the right choice for you. Wired routers use Ethernet cables to run connections from the computer to the router. This can mean a lot of cables running in between rooms. For wireless routers, you will need a wireless network card (WLAN) with an access point centrally located so all of your devices can connect to the wireless connection easily without interference.
When it comes down to it, whether you need a wired or wireless router depends on what you are doing with it. If you just have a simple home connection, a wireless router can work well for you. If you are running a business where you need a reliable connection, wired routers are a must. It all depends on the speed and connection that you need.


What is Compound Ankle Fracture?
A compound or an open fracture is a type of fracture in which the broken bone fragments protrude through the skin from the surface of the wound and gets exposed to the atmosphere and can be seen visibly. Such fractures occur mainly due to extremely high impact forceful motor vehicle collisions, severe assault, or severe injuries caused due to a gunshot or other sharp object. An example where a Compound Fracture can occur is when a pedestrian is hit by a moving car and the tire of the car moves over the pedestrian’s ankle. In such cases, the individual is likely to suffer a Compound Ankle Fracture where the bones fragments of the ankle may stick out of the surface of the skin through the wound.
A Compound Ankle Fracture is definitely a serious injury with the bone sticking out and exposed to the environment which makes it prone to infections which may complicate the injury further. Additionally, Compound Ankle Fracture may also result in injuries to other nerves or soft tissues in the adjoining areas. As Compound Ankle Fracture tends to damage surrounding tendons and ligaments, they have a higher risk for complications and take much more time to heal than closed fractures.
What are the Causes of Compound Ankle Fracture?
As stated, Compound Ankle Fracture occurs only because of some type of high energy collision such as an automobile running over the ankle. Falling from a good height on uneven surface on to the ankle may also result in Compound Ankle Fracture. A gunshot wound to the ankle region may also cause a Compound Ankle Fracture.
Elderly people may also suffer from Compound Ankle Fracture as their bones become brittle and weak with age and even a simple penetrating injury to the ankle may result in a Compound Ankle Fracture.
Another cause for a Compound Ankle Fracture is when an individual is assaulted and hit by a sharp object on the ankle region.
What are the Symptoms of Compound Ankle Fracture?
In a Compound Ankle Fracture, there will be a deep wound in the ankle through which bone fragments will be protruding out. The affected individual will be unable to move the ankle to any significant degree. There will be significant swelling and excruciating pain on the affected ankle. The ankle in Compound Ankle Fracture may also look deformed. There will be profuse bleeding from the wound due to Compound Ankle Fracture. The individual will also not be able to stand up or ambulate to any significant degree after sustaining Compound Ankle Fracture.
How is Compound Ankle Fracture Diagnosed?
The diagnosis of a Compound Ankle Fracture is quite easy as there will be visible bone fragments jutting out through the skin when the individual presents to the emergency room. Radiological studies in the form of x-rays, MRI, and CT scans may be done to look at the extent of the fracture and also assess the damage that has been done to the surrounding structures.
How is Compound Ankle Fracture Treated?
Any type of Compound Fracture is best treated with surgery and same is the case with Compound Ankle Fracture. In fact the treatment for Compound Ankle Fracture begins as soon as the patient presents to the emergency room. The physician will first place the affected ankle in a splint so as to maintain alignment of the bones as much as possible. The patient will be given pain medications for pain relief. The next step towards treatment will be surgery to fix the fracture. The surgery performed to fix a Compound Ankle Fracture is called as External Fixation.
External Fixation for Compound Ankle Fracture: In this procedure, metal pins or screws are placed in the bone above and below the fracture site. These pins and screws are attached to a metal bar outside the skin to hold the pins and screws in place and keep the bones aligned so that they can heal. This is normally a temporary measure in cases of Compound Ankle Fracture and is done to align the bones while the patient recuperates and gets ready for the main surgery which is to permanently fix the fractures.
Plates and Screws: In this procedure, the bone fragments are first repositioned into their normal alignment and are held together with special screws and plates which are attached to the outer surface of the bone to fix the Compound Ankle Fracture.
What is the Recovery Period for Compound Ankle Fracture?
Normally, for Compound Ankle Fracture, it takes roughly 6 to 8 months for an individual to recover and get back to normal activities. In some cases, it may even take longer depending on the severity of the injury and the complexity of the procedure to fix it. Postsurgery, the patient will be nonweightbearing on the affected leg for a period of at least six weeks to allow proper healing of the fracture.
The patient will then be sent to physical therapy for strengthening and range of motion exercises as prolonged immobilization will cause the ankle to become stiff. During physical therapy, the patient will be asked to put some weight on the affected leg to check for any chances of instability and once the patient is able to bear weight on the injured leg pain free then gradually the patient will be asked to weight bear with support of a crutch or cane.


Jack Kerouac's profound meditations on the Buddha's life and religion
In the mid-1950s, Jack Kerouac, a lifelong Catholic, became fascinated with Buddhism, an interest that had a significant impact on his ideas of spirituality and later found expression in such books as Mexico City Blues
and The Dharma Bums
. Originally written in 1955 and now published for the first time in paperback, Wake Up
is Kerouac's retelling of the life of Prince Siddhartha Gotama, who as a young man abandoned his wealthy family and comfortable home for a lifelong search for enlightenment. Distilled from a wide variety of canonical scriptures, Wake Up
serves as both a penetrating account of the Buddha's life and a concise primer on the principal teachings of Buddhism.


Dream together: seeing and thinking (learn it!) and acting and becoming (live it!).
As one student wrote recently: “Hopefully, after this course we are ‘dragged out of our cave’ (Plato) and have a better toolkit for framing the world around us. Truth would then not be something adopted out of convenience or molded for us by someone else, rather it would be a quest to see the world around us with more open eyes.”
While this student is pursuing a particular program, she realizes the importance of being exposed to general studies courses (being dragged out of the cave), and also developing soft skills which complement her program skills. Einstein says it well:
“The school should always have as its aim that the young leave it as a harmonious personality, not as a specialist…The development of general ability for independent thinking and judgment should always be placed foremost, not the acquisition of special knowledge.”
This student challenges us to inclusively search for the Dream together: seeing and thinking (learn it!) and acting and becoming (live it!). Let us turn to select philosophers, educators, scientists, and psychologists for their wisdom and guidance in searching for the Dream and pursuing the Truth.
Seeing – Learn It! “Everyone looks at what I look at, but no one sees what I see.” – Beaudelaire
In a book I read entitled, The Biology of Belief Dr. Bruce Lipton ( 2006, best book award in science ) our search for truth is further complicated. Dr. Lipton demonstrates that we as individuals are not programmed to discover the truth because we are victims of outside forces that prevent us from finding the truth or reaching our goals for that matter. He writes, “The conscious mind runs the show, at best, only about 5 percent of the time. It turns out that the programs acquired by the subconscious mind shape 95 percent of our life experiences…..our lives are essentially a printout of our subconscious programs, behaviors and patterns of thinking that were fundamentally acquired from others before we were six years old…these programs are limiting and disempowering….once we accept the perceptions of others as “truths,” their perceptions become hardwired into our own brains, becoming our truths…in such cases, our brains are then down-loaded with misperceptions.” Thus, we are living out myths we have grown to live by as true and certain. Consequently we enter grade school preprogrammed, and we become students of the walking dead which is reinforced generally by an educational system that produces passive learners.
However, our updated beliefs can control our biology and those subconscious beliefs we learned by age 6. Henry Ford perhaps was on to something when he said, “If you believe you can or if you believe you can’t…you are right.” Our beliefs and our truths act like a filter on a camera, says Dr. Lipton, changing how we see the world. And our biology adapts to those beliefs. When we recognize that our beliefs are that powerful, we then hold the key to our freedom as lived in our conscious mind. While we cannot change the codes of our genetic blueprints, we can change our minds, and in the process, switch the blueprints used to express our genetic potential. Therefore, we need to be active, interactive, and questioning learners. We need to unlearn and relearn.
Thinking – Learn It! – “I am thinking, therefore I am.” – Descartes
Descartes went to some extent to show how easily the mind could be misled by data from the senses, and from this wondered how anything could be said truly to exist. Even if we are constantly deceived about what we perceive to be fact it cannot be doubted that we perceive. We are conscious ( 5% of the time) and unconscious ( 95%) of the time of what we are thinking, doing, and what we will do next. Descartes did say, “I think, therefore I am.” Beyond that, he probably operated more often than not in the unconscious modality.
Dave Hume and John Locke believe we are more a bundle of experiences and perceptions, while certainty and knowledge remain elusive. As Marcus Aurelius writes: “Everything we hear is more opinion than fact, and everything we see is more perception than truth.”
In his essays, Michael de Montaigne concluded the following: “The self is a mystery and human knowledge is limited to such an extent that we barely know anything about ourselves, let alone the world at large. We are continually thinking, but rather than the rational beings we suppose ourselves to be, we are a mass of prejudices, quirks, and vanities.”
Daniel Kahnerman won a Nobel Prize for his work into biases and mistakes we make in everyday thinking. In “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, he argues that we are a “machine for jumping to conclusions,” wired more to keep alive and respond to threats than to perceive accurately.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb notes that we understand more of what’s going on in the world than we actually do; we often ascribe meaning to events after they have happened, creating a story; and we overvalue facts, statistics, and categories which make us feel comfortable that we can predict the future. Despite our mental fumblings, paradoxically, our defects can become our glory and our ability to think in a vaguely logical way which makes us unique in the animal world.
(50 Philosophy Classics, Tom Butler-Bowdon, 2013), pp. 4 – 5.
Acting – Live It! – “It is impossible to live the pleasant life without also living sensibly, nobly, and justly.” – Epicurus
Immanuel Kant said it well in his categorical imperative: “Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” Before I throw cigarette butt on the ground I should ask myself, “What would happen if everyone would do what I am about to do?”
Cicero believed that every individual is a spark of a greater reality, and so treating another human being badly is like doing the same to ourselves. This is a simple fact of a universal law and as Cicero says: “to contribute to the general good by an interchange of acts of kindness, by giving and receiving, and thus by our skill, our industry, and our talents to cement human society more closely together, ’human being to human being.’”
Plato believed that doing the right behavior has its own rewards, since it brings the three parts of our soul (reason, spirit, and desire) into harmony. Confucius noted that although we are born human, we become human through fulfilling responsible roles in society in a selfless way. Iris Murdoch argued that if we seek good first, everything else worthwhile will come to us naturally.
(50 Philosophy Classics, Tom Butler-Bowdon, 2013), pp. 8-10.
Being and Becoming – Live It! “We are condemned to be free, because once thrown into the world, we are responsible for everything we do.” Sartre
Being is becoming. We are human beings rather than human doings – don’t just do something, sit there – or is it don’t just sit there, do something? Are we becoming good or evil? Epicurus believed that when we live a virtuous life, this makes for a pleasant and happy life, because doing the right thing naturally puts our mind at rest. Instead of being anguished about the consequences of our bad actions, we are liberated to enjoy a simple life of friends, philosophy, nature, and small comforts. It was Emerson who commented that “if I always tell the truth, I will not have to remember anything.”
Aristotle promoted “virtue ethics”, that is, to live a good life, live a virtuous life. Happiness comes from expressing what we have rationally decided is good for us over time and for service to the community. Aristotle believed that “Activities in accord with virtue control happiness.” Bertrand Russell in his “Conquest of Happiness” states that a focus on the self is a cause of unhappiness, while joy comes from directing our interests outward, throwing ourselves into life.
On the other hand, how free are we because philosophers such as Spinoza, Schopenhauer and Montaigne argued that we are the subject of causes and larger forces of which we can only dimly be aware. How discouraging is that? On a more positive note Hannah Arendt argues that our deeds are never quite predictable, and every birth carries with it the possibility of a changed world; thus, in short, we matter.
(50 Philosophy Classics, Tom Butler-Bowdon, 2013), pp. 6-7.As Dreamers: (Seeing and Thinking) – Learn It! (Acting and Becoming) – Live It! the search for truth is never-ending, boundless, elusive, and evasive yet, omnipresent in all the various facets of our human nature.
It is imperative that general studies courses co-mingle with program courses so as to push back the horizons of truth; to enhance one’s understanding of the self, society, and the world; and as expressed in the words of one student who had the following to say about one of the general studies courses:
“I feel this class has revealed to me my cognitive flaws and opened my mind to a clearer way of thinking, which I intend to focus on from here on out. I may have graded myself a little low on the first assessment, not really understanding that I was already a critical thinker.
Now however, I feel poised to take on any issue with an understanding mind and thoughtful consideration of others’ views that I may have discounted more readily in the past. I am cognizant that I need to take the time to come to thoughtful conclusions, to not leap to incorrect conclusions based on little evidence, and to remain open-minded to what I may disagree with on first consideration.
This class definitely will help me the rest of the way in my schooling and life. I no longer feel that I may not be smart enough to finish what I started when I took the chance at returning to school. In fact, I feel that I will surely accomplish my goals and have the mindset that any problem that arises, I will utilize the correct processes to determine the proper course of action. I truly enjoyed this class. Thank you.”
Roger J. Vanden Busch


Same-sex marriage was legalized in for five months until voters approved a ban in November of the same year. San Francisco Chronicle. The Census tells us how many same-sex couples live together, as well as the information about characteristics of people in same-sex couple relationships, such as their age, education, income levels and cultural diversity.
Search for: Submit search query:. I n the 20 years tothe reported number of same-sex couples has more than quadrupled.
Partners in same-sex couples were in general younger than partners in opposite-sex couples. Same-sex marriage was introduced in March Founded inthe Movement Advancement Project MAP is an independent, nonprofit think tank that provides rigorous research, insight and communications that help speed equality and opportunity for all.
Children may have been conceived in the context of previous heterosexual relationships, or raised from birth by a co-parenting gay or lesbian couple or single parent. A separate question on each person's registered marital status is included on the Census Household Form but this is not used to classify people into families.
The move came less than a year after Australia legalized same-sex marriage, in December Australian Bureau of Statistics. Decision comes amid fraternity-related coronavirus outbreaks at many universities. Ina new law was passed which requires any official responsible for completing a transgender person's death certificate to ensure it represents the deceased person's gender expression, as documented in other government-issued documents or evidenced by gender confirmation medical procedures.
It was signed on August 17, by Governor Jerry Brown. Inshortly after having joined the United StatesCalifornia adopted a criminal code prohibiting sodomy, both heterosexual and homosexual, with 1 to 14 years' imprisonment.
The Yokuts recognize similar terms. Thus, high rates of suicide death among LGBT populations cannot be assumed from elevated reports of non-fatal suicide attempts. Proposition K establish domestic partnerships . This accumulated literature suggests the limitations of studies using inconsistent samples and methodologies to produce definitive information about the prevalence and patterns of suicide in LGBT populations.


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Using wire and semi-precious stones and other materials, we'll learn to create jewelry components that can then be made into rings, pendants and earrings.
Using a heating element and solder, we will learn how to enclose images between glass to create pendants and other jewelry. You are welcome to bring your own little (1" x1" or smaller) images to create highly personalized pieces!
You'll have fun learning about wire and how to wrap and twist it, using simple techniques, into finished rings.
Learn how easy it can be to fashion your own ear wires. And truly make your creations uniquely your own. We will practice new skills with craft wire and then perfect two pairs with sterling material.
Together we will explore many options for redefining metal rings, including hammering, texturing and making our own. We will work with and learn about various types of materials, and how they respond to opaque ink patinas. Transforming our rings into jewelry will be fun. You can choose your necklace style, bib-style or long.
Working with various gauges of wire, we will create a coil frame and then weave with wire and your choice from a collection of beads to create work you will then transform into a piece of jewelry. Your creation can become a pendant, pin or even an earring! You may chose from silver, gold or copper color materials.
You will design a stunning pendant, starting with the coiled creation of a coiled frame, and then adding wire and beads. We will practice with craft wire, and then move on to sterling materials to create our pendant. In this class, you will learn how to coil and wrap wire, as well as how to attach a clasp. Material costs are $25 for sterling or $15 for copper or brass. Weds., 1/22, 10-noon
Bring your favorite stones, sea glass or othr baubles to class where we will use a variety of methods and materials to wire wrap them. (Don't fear.. if you don't have any, there are plenty to choose from at the store). From simple to ornate.. craft wire to silver. You'll have a chance to use your imagination and creativity and end the class with wearable art! Skill level: intermediate Price includes a $20 materials fee for sterling silver or $25 for gold-filled wire.


Toddler are wonderful companions for museum explorations!
Here are a few tips to help make your visit a successful one.
Check the museum site for stroller rules before you go.
Bring a snack!
Don't try to see everything, pick a small area or a few artworks to focus on.
While exploring art focus on finding recognizable images, patterns, and colors. Remember, be silly and imagination never fails!
Here are a few prompts to get you looking, thinking and talking about art with your toddler.
- Tell a story about an artwork
- Look for triangles
- Find an artwork that is funny. How so?
- Find animals
- Look for lines: long, short, thin, fat, straight, curvy. Trace them with your finger in the air
- Think about what characters in artworks are saying or thinking
- Stand like someone in an artwork or a sculpture
- Find a rainbow – find each color as you walk through the art space
- Whats the most beautiful artwork? why?
- Find an artwork that makes you happy, talk about it
- Find an artwork that is sad, how so?
- How many circles can you count in a single artwork? Can you find a piece with no circles


Question: "What does the Bible say about lying? Is lying a sin?"
Answer: The Bible is clear that lying is a sin and is displeasing to God. The first sin in this world involved a lie told to Eve. The Ten Commandments given to Moses includes “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16).
In the early church, Ananias and Sapphira lied regarding a donation in order to make themselves look more generous than they really were. Peter’s rebuke is stern: “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?” God’s judgment was sterner: the couple died as a result of their sin of lying.
Colossians 3:9 says, “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices.” Lying is listed in 1 Timothy 1:9-11 as something practiced by the lawless. Furthermore, liars will be among those judged in the end (Revelation 21:8). In contrast, God never lies (Titus 1:2). He is the source of truth. “It is impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18).
Jesus called Himself the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6), and He expects those who follow Him to be people of truth. The truth is to be expressed in love (Ephesians 4:15), offering hope to those seeking redemption from the lies of the world.
For an explanation of the instances in the Bible in which lying appears to be acceptable, please see our "Is it ever right to lie?" article.


Prompted by a discussion with my daughter’s sensei I felt a need to review some violence against women stats. All images in this post are by fotografer.ru.
Check this out:
in Canada, from WAVAW:
- One half of all Canadian women have experienced at least one incident of sexual or physical violence. Almost 60% of these women were the targets of more than one of these incidents. (Statistics Canada, “The Violence Against Women Survey,” The Daily, November 18, 1993.)
- One in four Canadian women will be sexually assaulted during her lifetime. In BC this number is almost double(47%). ( J. Brickman and J. Briere, “Incidence of Rape and Sexual Assault in an Urban Canadian Population,” The International Journal of Women’s Studies, Vol. 7, no. 3, 1984.)
- Sexual assault is not most often committed by strangers who jump out of bushes or wait in alleys for their victims. Over 80% of sexual assaults are committed by someone known to the victim.
- Most assaults occur in a private home (60%) and the largest percentage of these occur in the victim’s home(38%). (D. Kinnon, “Report on Sexual Assault in Canada,” Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women, Ottawa, 1981.)
- Studies of rapists show that rapists are “ordinary” or “normal” men. The majority of convicted rapists assaulted for the emotion gratification they received from the violent act, not out of sexual frustration. (Helen Lenskyj, “An Analysis of Violence Against Women: A Manual for Educators and Administrators,” Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 1992.)
- Men who commit sexual assault come from every economic, ethnic, racial, age, and social group. As well, women who are sexually assaulted are from every economic, ethnic, racial, age, and social group.
- Legally, women have the right to say ‘no,’ to any form of sex with anyone, including their spouse or the person they are dating. Sexual assault within relationships has been illegal in Canada since 1983, however many people still do not recognize it as a crime. Even within a relationship, each partner must give consent each time sexual relations occur.
- Legally, a woman has the right to change her mind about having sex at any point of sexual contact. If her partner does not stop at the time she changes her mind and says ‘no,’ this is sexual assault. As well, just because a woman is in a relationship with someone or has sex with a person before, does not mean that person cannot assault her. Consent must be given every time two people engage in sexual contact.
- According to Statistics Canada, in the year 2000, sexual assault came in third for the highest number of violent crimes committed in Canada. The number of assaults committed accounted for the highest number of violent crimes.
- Anyone can be sexually assaulted. However, most sexual assaults that occur are against women and are perpetrated by men.
and in the United States, from the Kansas District Attorney’s office website:
- Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 and 44 in the United States; more then car accidents, muggings and rapes combined.
“Violence Against Women, A Majority Staff Report,” Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 102nd Congress, October 1992, p. 3
- About 1 out of 4 women are likely to be abused by a partner in her lifetime.
Sara Glazer, “Violence Against Women” CQ Researcher, Congressional Quarterly, Inc., Volume 3, Number 8, February, 1993, p. 171
- One women is beaten by her husband or partner every 15 seconds in the United States
Uniform Crime Reports, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1991.
Three to four million women in the United States are beaten in their homes each year by their husbands, ex-husbands or male lovers.
“Women and Violence,” Hearings before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, August 29 and December 11, 1990, Senate Hearing 101-939, pt. 1, p. 12.
- Women of all cultures, races, occupations, income levels and ages are battered by husbands, boyfriends, lovers and partners.
For Shelter and Beyond, Massachusetts Coalition of Battered Women Service Groups, Boston, MA 1990.
I’ve seen these state before. And I figured someone who teaches defense classes would be familiar with them too. But sometimes, just when you think someone is all enlightened and that there’s hope for the planet you talk to them and you find out that enlightenment is categorical. They may be great at meditating and teaching traditional techniques but when it comes to applying it to the contemporary world maybe it’s more abstract and theoretical than useful in a practical way. I’ve discovered that there’s a divide between the theory and practice of aikido…
My daughter has been doing aikido for about a year and a half now. She loves it. There are lots of girls in her class of age 10-13 kids and although most of the adults are male there are 2 adult-late teens women with black or brown belts who assist and make good role models along with the men who are also great at what they do. I’ve talked to the sensei on several occasions and he’s got a great philosophy of teaching and the kids love him. I think the classes are valuable for her. It’s just really unfortunate that sensei’s knowledge about the type of violence women face isn’t all that current.
Actiongirls has been talking about the various self-defense courses available around campus and nothing has really caught our fancy yet. I knew that sensei had started teaching some self-defense classes for women for the parks and rec department and approached him about maybe doing an one day workshop for our club. We specifically want strategies for dealing with the most common type of attacks that women face – not the ones that are perpetuated in myths. So I told sensei that the members of the club want to learn to protect ourselves for real life situations, for example, in a car or in bed — to which he replied “woooahh what are you doing in bed with someone then?” Uh duh?? most women do not planned to be raped. I mean, if we did, maybe we could just change our plans and stay home and bake.
So sensei told me about purse snatching strategies and parking garages and walking down the street defense techniques, saying women need to use their brains and not put themselves in dangerous situations, this being the best way to not get attacked. Good grief. Blame the victim and disregard that the majority of attacks take place in the home with someone the woman knows.
So no, sensei wasn’t arguing with me but just telling me what he teaches. Too bad it’s not going to be useful to the majority of women and ignores the violence against women stats. The problem is that a sensei is an authority figure. People listen to him – especially his students. If a woman takes his self-defense class and he tells her to avoid walking down the sidewalk, going to parking garages, and other “dangerous places” she might do this. But it tells her it’s her own fault for being a woman, perpetuates stereotypes of women needing protection, and gives her a false sense of security that now that she can escape a purse snatcher she is “safe”. It’s not going to help her at all for the types of attacks she is most likely to face. In this regard, sensei is misleading.
We’re still looking for a useful self-defense class. One that doesn’t blame women and prepares them for the type of violence they are actually likely to face. If anyone has a recommendation I’d be happy to have it. Maybe there are materials so we could do our own?
Thanks again to fotografer.ru for the great CC-licensed photos.


SSAT Preparation Course
2019 SSAT Prep Course - Enrollment is NOW OPEN!
What Is The SSAT?
The Secondary School Admission Test (SSAT) is a standardized admissions test used by many unaffiliated independent schools, non-parochial Catholic schools, and boarding schools. The exam was designed as an aptitude test to measure a student's ability in core subject areas independent of a student's school record. It is administered on three levels: Elementary Level (grades 3-4), Middle Level (grades 5-7) and Upper Level (grades 8-11).
Who Should Take The SSAT?
Students interested in attending private boarding schools, or independent secondary schools in the U.S., will need to take the SSAT. Admission officers will use SSAT score to judge the current and potential ability of the students to handle their school curriculum.
What Makes Kaplan's SSAT Program Unique?
The SSAT Exam at a Glance
SSAT administrated in Elementary Level (Grades 3-4, available in the U.S. only), Middle Level (Grade 5-7) and Upper Level (Grade 8-11). It is designated to measure the students’ verbal, quantitative and reading skills acquired in and out of school.
|Section||Time / Format|
|Writing Sample||25-min section with one question|
|Section 1: Quantitative||30-min section with 25 questions|
|Section 2: Reading||40-min section with 40 questions|
|Section 3: Verbal||30-min section with 60 questions|
|Section 4: Quantitative||30-min section with 25 questions|
|Section 5: Experimental||15-min section with 16 questions|
To register, please contact the Official Examination Body: http://ssat.org/
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Remarks : Electronic devices, including cell phones, are not permitted in the test center, and the use of any electronic device is strictly prohibited.
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Although many of us are aware that coral reefs around the world are threatened by various factors, the fact seems fairly unrelated to most of our daily lives. However, the truth of the matter is that globally, although in some regions more than others, coral reefs can be major contributors to the economy. This may not be such a surprise when we think about an image of a bright and healthy coral reef ecosystem, which tends to be very visually busy with all of its living and non-living members.
It makes sense then, that coral reefs are actually able to provide us with quite valuable and widely used resources. For example, there are many kinds of seafood which can be gleaned from coral reef environments, with reef-related fisheries making up about 9-12% of the total fisheries worldwide¹. Additionally, many pharmaceutical companies are taking advantage of the high biodiversity found in coral reef ecosystems which includes many organisms that possess beneficial medicinal properties¹.
Coral reefs also are responsible for providing us with services such as protection from erosion. In the Pacific Island countries and territories, for example, the reefs in the area not only protect the coast, but also is home to some of the largest tuna fisheries in the world². In the Southern Ocean region, coral reefs are important fisheries, as well as sources for the growing market of health supplements, and are major attractions for tourists².
The economic contributions of coral reefs is so vast in fact, that initiatives have been put in place to restore reefs in various places, including Florida and the Caribbean³ (Image 1). Several organizations have partnered together to ensure the longevity of coral in these areas in the future (Image 2). To put some numbers with it, the value of one hectare of coral reef has been calculated to provide an average of $130,000 worth of services with the highest calculated value resting around $1.2 million¹. In other words, coral reefs have so much more to offer than simply being aesthetically pleasing, and whether we are aware of it or not, they provide us with resources that help our economies flourish, and allow for us to live the lives we do.
¹ Moberg, Fredrik, and Carl Folke. “Ecological goods and services of coral reef ecosystems.” Ecological economics 29.2 (1999): 215-233.
² Cavanagh, Rachel D., et al. “Valuing biodiversity and ecosystem services: a useful way to manage and conserve marine resources?.” Proc. R. Soc. B. Vol. 283. No. 1844. The Royal Society, 2016.
³ “The Nature Conservancy.” The Nature Conservancy. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2017. <http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/florida/newsroom/initiative-to-restore-one-million-corals-launches-in-florida-and-the-caribbe.xml>.
¹ Diversitas. “What Are Coral Reef Services Worth? $130,000 To $1.2 Million Per Hectare, Per Year.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 28 October 2009. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091016093913.htm>.


Banks and Banking
Types Of Banks
The term bank is generally used to refer to commercial banks; however, it can also be used to refer to savings institutions, savings and loan associations, and building and loan associations.
A commercial bank is authorized to receive demand deposits (payable on order) and time deposits (payable on a specific date), lend money, provide services for fiduciary funds, issue letters of credit, and accept and pay drafts. A commercial bank not only serves its depositors but also can offer installment loans, commercial long-term loans, and credit cards.
A savings bank does not offer as wide a range of services. Its primary goal is to serve its depositors through providing loans for purposes such as home improvement, mortgages, and education. By law, a savings bank can offer a higher interest rate to its depositors than can a commercial bank.
A SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATION (S&L) is similar to a savings bank in offering savings accounts. It traditionally restricts the loans it makes to housing-related purposes including mortgages, home improvement, and construction, although, some S&Ls have entered into educational loans for their customers. An S&L can be granted its charter by either a state or the federal government; in the case of a federal charter, the organization is known as a federal savings and loan. Federally chartered S&Ls have their own system, which functions in a manner similar to that of the Federal Reserve System, called the Federal Home Loan Banks System. Like the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Home Loan Banks System provides an insurance program of up to $100,000 for each account; this program is called the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC). The Federal Home Loan Banks System also provides membership options for state-chartered S&Ls and an option for just FSLIC coverage for S&Ls that can satisfy certain requirements.
A building and loan association is a special type of S&L that restricts its lending to home mortgages.
The distinctions between these financial organizations has become narrower as federal legislation has expanded the range of services that can be offered by each type of institution.
- Banks and Banking - Bank Financial Structure
- Banks and Banking - Categories Of Banks
- Other Free Encyclopedias
Law Library - American Law and Legal InformationFree Legal Encyclopedia: Autopsy to Bill of LadingBanks and Banking - Categories Of Banks, Types Of Banks, Bank Financial Structure, Bank Officials, Bank Duties


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The World Health Organization (WHO) says it will start referring to monkeypox as "mpox" simultaneously, before phasing out the original name within a year.
- WHO to start using a new preferred term, "mpox", as a synonym for monkeypox
- Both names will be used simultaneously for one year as "monkeypox" is phased out
- Concerns over racist language during outbreaks earlier this year prompted the change
It said the move had been prompted by concerns over racist and stigmatising language online during outbreaks earlier this year.
"In several meetings, public and private, a number of individuals and countries raised concerns and asked WHO to propose a way forward to change the name," it said.
Monkeypox originally received its name because the virus was first identified in monkeys kept for research in Denmark in 1958, but the disease is found in a number of animals, and most frequently in rodents.
The WHO said when making the decision it considered scientific appropriateness, its use in different languages, the absence of geographical or zoological references and the ease of retrieving of historical scientific information.
"Mpox will become a preferred term, replacing monkeypox, after a transition period of one year," the organization said.
"This serves to mitigate the concerns raised by experts about confusion caused by a name change in the midst of a global outbreak."
Outbreak a global emergency
In August, WHO began consulting experts about renaming the disease, shortly after the UN agency declared monkeypox's spread to be a global emergency.
To date, there have been more than 80,000 cases identified in dozens of countries that had not previously reported the smallpox-related disease. Until May, monkeypox was not known to trigger large outbreaks beyond central and west Africa.
Scientists believe monkeypox triggered outbreaks in Western countries after spreading via sex at two raves in Belgium and Spain.
Vaccination efforts in rich countries, along with targeted control interventions, have mostly brought the disease under control after it peaked in the summer.
In Africa, the disease mainly affects people in contact with infected animals such as rodents and squirrels. The majority of monkeypox-related deaths have been in Africa, where there have been almost no vaccines available.
US health officials have warned it may be impossible to eliminate the disease there, warning it could be a continuing threat mainly for gay and bisexual men for years to come, with many cases coming in the male LGBTQI community.
First attempt to rechristen a disease
Assigning names to new and to existing diseases is the responsibility of WHO under the International Classification of Diseases and the WHO Family of International Health Related Classifications through a consultative process.
Although WHO has named numerous new diseases shortly after they emerged, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS and COVID-19, this appears to be the first time the agency has attempted to rechristen a disease decades after it was first named.
Numerous other diseases, including Japanese encephalitis, German measles, Marburg virus and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome have been named after geographic regions, which could now be considered prejudicial. WHO has not suggested changing any of those names.


Antibiotics describe the various substances that fight bacteria and hinder their growth. Harmful bacteria can cause illnesses in every part of the body, especially your mouth. Many people may not know this, but bacteria are one the basic causes of gum diseases like periodontitis and gingivitis. Bacteria accumulate in the mouth due to inadequate cleaning, and when food particles are not removed completely from the teeth.
There are many ways to reverse the build-up of bacteria. For many years, dental experts have been researching the effectiveness of antibiotic medication in treating gum disease. They are probing the question, “Is it viable to use antibiotics for gum disease?” Dentists have been using antibiotics in treating gum disease along with surgery, curettage – removing tissue by scraping – and even on their own. These medications are either taken in the usual form, i.e. orally, or they are directly applied to the surface – topically. Dental practitioners have lauded the effectiveness of antibiotics in treating gum disease as they can also avoid the chances of the patient being taken for surgery. Whether using antibiotics in treating gum disease can work as an alternative to dental surgery is still under consideration.
Treating Gum Disease With Oral Antibiotics:
Some of the most common antibiotics for gum disease are:
- Tetracycline hydrochloride
These medicines are given as standard doses for periodontal disease. Tetracycline medicine, which includes antibiotics like doxycycline, is the essential medicines used for fighting bacteria, inflammation and collagenase. Collagenase is a protein that damages the supporting bone and gum tissue severely. That makes tetracycline highly effective against diseases and infections even apart from its antibacterial properties. Other medications also possess great potential for repelling various forms of harmful bacteria. A combination of these drugs – like Metronidazole with penicillin – can also be used for treating serious gum disease. You may have heard of Flagyl. It is a metronidazole. Periostat is a chemically modified tetracycline. It is doxycycline, but the dose is given at significantly lower levels, almost 20 milligrams. That is why periostat is called sub-antimicrobial dose doxycycline. It may not counter bacteria effectively, but it helps to keep the bone and tissue strong. Matrix metalloproteinase are enzymes that destroy the gum disease tissues, and a daily dose of periostat hinders them. Besides oral intake, applying a limited dose of these antibiotics to gums directly is highly beneficial. This method ensures that the medications do not affect the rest of the body. That is why dentists use this option whenever possible. Topical application is also effective when used with advanced procedures like scaling and planting.
Long-Term Use Of Antibiotics:
We have discussed how the oral and topical usage of antibiotics is helpful for curing gum disease, even in small doses. We will now talk about the continuous use of these drugs. This sustained application is recommended if the patient has prepubertal, rapidly progressing, juvenile, and prepubertal periodontitis. However, a sustained intake of these drugs can possibly make bacteria resistant to their effect. In the short term, dangerous bacteria may be killed. But as they reproduce, the next generation may have genes that are able to repel the influence of these antibiotics. With the passage of time, the rebellious bacteria will increase in number, causing infections and diseases on which the antibiotics may not work. But experts also say that since the medicines are applied in low doses, even a continuous intake may not be too risky.
We have concluded that antibiotics are effective against gum disease as they not only kill germs, but make the gum structure firm as well. However, we have indentified that a long-term use may not be a good idea as there is no clear cut decision from the dental world about its benefits or dangers. That means if you have contracted advanced gum disease, you will have to go for complex dental procedures, even surgery. Surgery always has some risks attached to it. The best thing that you can do is to take care of your gums on a personal level. It is far better to go the dentist for a regular checkup to prevent gum disease, then to visit after you have begun to lose teeth!
Please Leave Your Comments Below:
Hopefully this information about antibiotics for gum disease is helpful to those interested in reversing the build-up of bacteria. We would appreciate your views and feedback on this post in the Leave Your Comments section below.
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Revue D'histoire Des Sciences
Science, Technology and Society
Beginning with the essential planetary phenomena to be explained, we examine the functions of the equant point and the eccentric deferent circle in Ptolemy's theory. We show that the necessity of the equant point becomes evident as soon as one attempts to save the lengths of the retrograde arcs, and the distances between them, particularly in the case of Mars. Finally, we propose a hypothesis concerning the line of investigation that led Ptolemy to discover the equant.
Evans, James C. 1984. "Fonction et origine probable du point équant de Ptolémée." Revue D'histoire Des Sciences 37(3-4): 193-213.


From Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax and his Chief of Staff Larry Roberts. Why on earth does Virginia still observe “Lee-Jackson Day” in the year 2019? Does that make any sense whatsoever? And yeah, those were rhetorical questions…the answer is clearly “no.”
First, see below for some thoughts from Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax, whose ancestors Lee and Jackson fought to keep enslaved, and who is only the second African American elected statewide in Virginia (the other being L. Douglas Wilder, elected governor in 1989).
History repeats itself. I will be stepping off the dais today in protest of the Virginia Senate honoring Robert E. Lee. I’ll be thinking of this June 5, 1798 manumission document that freed my great-great-great grandfather Simon Fairfax from slavery in Virginia. #WeRiseTogether
And now from Lt. Gov. Fairfax’s Chief of Staff, Larry Roberts:
Pleased to see that Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax renew his protest of the Senate of Virginia adjourning in honor of a Confederate general. Much better that the Senate started its day with a pledge of allegiance to our nation — indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Appreciation to Senator Stuart for expressing that his request to adjourn was not an honor of slavery and taking time to highlight General Lee’s efforts to heal the nation’s wounds after the Civil War.
Much better, however, to relegate the tradition of honoring Confederate generals to the historical dustbin and to focus on moving Virginia forward together to a brighter and more inclusive future.
There are many better ways to honor and celebrate our Commonwealth than to highlight the times when we have been on the wrong side of history.
Fortunately, the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice.
— Laura Vozzella (@LVozzella) January 18, 2019


WIKIMEDIA, BO LIInjecting stem cells into mouse embryos is standard practice to examine how well the cells incorporate and aid in tissue development, but previous attempts to get human stem cells to contribute normally to embryo development have failed. Reporting in Cell Stem Cell last week (December 17), researchers from the University of Cambridge successfully implanted human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into developing mouse embryos and observed them becoming all types of tissue layers.
The University of Cambridge-based authors suggest that their recent success comes from their decision to inject the stem cells at a later stage of embryo development. The hiPSCs and hESCs “have the capacity to participate in normal mouse development when transplanted into gastrula-stage embryos,” they wrote in their study.
The human stem cells differentiated into each of the three primary tissue layers—endoderm, ectoderm, and mesoderm—of the developing mouse. The researchers found no difference between the differentiation abilities of hiPSCs and hESCs. “We conclude that transplanted [human pluripotent stem cells] and their progeny proliferate and contribute normally to the developing embryo, irrespective of transplant stage, site, or cell type,” the authors wrote.
The mouse embryos were cultured for two days, not long enough for differentiation into final tissue types—but the embryos appeared normal during this time period. “The Cambridge team has shown definitively that when stem cells are introduced into early mouse embryos under the right conditions, they multiply and contribute in the correct way to all the cell types that are formed as the embryo develops,” Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, which helped fund the study, said in a press release.
“Our finding that human stem cells integrate and develop normally in the mouse embryo will allow us to study aspects of human development during a window in time that would otherwise be inaccessible,” study coauthor Victoria Mascetti said in the press release.


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Open Directory - Kids and Teens: School Time: Social Studies: Geography: South America: Ecuador
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[ Kids/Teens/Mature Teens ] - Found out where the Ecuadorian Amazon is, how much rain a rainforest receives, who lives there, and how the native people earn a living.
Banknotes of Ecuador
[ Kids/Teens ] - Pictures of banknotes from Ecuador along with country specific information.
BBC News - Country Profile: Ecuador
[ Teens/Mature Teens ] - Provides overview, key facts and events, timelines and leader profiles along with current news.
Charles Darwin and the Galapagos
[ Kids/Teens/Mature Teens ] - Tells about the voyage that shaped Darwin's theory of evolution.
CIA - The World Factbook: Ecuador
[ Teens/Mature Teens ] - Features map and brief descriptions of the geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military and transnational issues.
Embassy of Ecuador in Wasington, DC
[ Teens/Mature Teens ] - Official site provides news, information and photos about the country and its culture, tourism, trade and foreign affairs along with consular services.
Evan's Ecuador - A Learning Adventure
[ Kids ] - Join 5 year old Evan on his special journey to Galapagos, Andes and Amazon of Ecuador.
Fact Monster - Ecuador
[ Kids ] - Fast facts and information for kids about the country's geography, government, history, economy, land and people.
[ Kids/Teens/Mature Teens ] - Illustrated look at the geography, history, and culture of the region.
Journey with CARE to Ecuador
[ Kids/Teens/Mature Teens ] - Explore Ecuador through this virtual field trip and learn about the culture, history, and people. Includes journal entries, a photo album, recommended books and related links.
Lonely Planet - Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands
[ Kids/Teens/Mature Teens ] - Facts and advice for traveling along with background material on the culture and history of the smallest country in the rugged Andean highlands.
University of Colorado - GovPubs: Ecuador
[ Mature Teens ] - Links to resources from the country's own government, the United States, the United Nations and international sources.
University of Texas Libraries - Ecuador Maps
[ Kids/Teens/Mature Teens ] - Country, city and thematic maps from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas, along with links to maps on other web sites.
US Department of State - Ecuador
[ Teens/Mature Teens ] - Country portal offers a map and links to Background Notes, Country Study, the US embassy and the current ambassador, press releases, fact sheets, annual Human Rights Reports and other major reports including Industry Market Reports.
US Library of Congress - Country Study: Ecuador
[ Teens/Mature Teens ] - 1989 country profile provides information about its historical setting, society and environment, economy, government and politics, and national security.
[ Teens/Mature Teens ] - Features an actual journey through the 21 major and many smaller islands of the archipelago. Includes a history, information about marine, coastal zone and island wildlife, and environmental issues.
World Health Organization (WHO) - Ecuador
[ Teens/Mature Teens ] - UN health agency provides news, information and statistics on the country's public health issues and services, professional health workers, disease outbreaks, and government legislation and expenditures.
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The α (alpha), ε (epsilon) and θ (theta) subunits make up the core enzyme to perform polymerization and proofreading.
The γ (gamma) complex is involved in "loading" the enzyme onto the template at the replication fork.
The β (beta) subunit serves as a "clamp" and prevents the core enzyme from falling off the template during polymerization.
The τ (tau) subunit functions to dimerize two core polymerases allowing simultaneous synthesis of both strands of the helix.
The holoenzyme and several other proteins at the replication fork together form a huge complex called the replisome.


An innovative new language app, Key Word Kids, was recently launched globally on iTunes.
Designed to help kids learn early English language skills through key word association, it will particularly come in handy for helping those experiencing language and learning difficulties.
Language professionals, Janet Eales, a special education teacher and guidance counsellor and Sue Park, a speech pathologist are the heroines behind this ground-breaking Key Word Kids app.
Together, they developed the app with the support of Queensland start-up incubator, ilab.
It is suitable for use by all children including young learners of ‘English as a Second Language’ but has been specially designed to help those with language disorders, apraxia, learning difficulties or autism, while making the entire process fun for the kids.
How does the Key Words Kids app work?
It supports English language development through instructions using key words.
Using the app, children visit various scenes to listen, retain information from increasingly complex sentences and follow instructions to improve their language skills. They also practise their language expression and play with additional rewarding mini-games.
Park said the app is based on the globally recognised Key Word approach and is suitable for 1 – 12 year old children with language disorders or learning difficulties.
“The app for speech pathologists, teachers, parents, occupational therapists to use both in therapy sessions and for parents to use at home,” added Eales.
The app is now available to purchase on iTunes. Take a look at how exactly it works below.


By Bhikhu Parekh
Marxist interpretation of Gandhi contains important and valid insights; it is however oversimplified, and that the picture is complex and messy. The Congress under Gandhi’s leadership was not a party of the big bourgeoisie. Although it did not reject the institution of private property, it assigned the State a considerable regulative and redistributive role, stressed the pursuit of social justice, and was not an advocate of unrestrained capitalism. To say, as some Marxists do, that since the Congress did not advocate the abolition of the capitalist mode of production, it was therefore its spokesman, is to take too simple-minded a view of the range of political possibilities open to radicals. The Congress was essentially a middle class party, constantly reaching out to new groups and interests on both sides of the economic consensus that was neither wholly capitalist nor fully socialist and not heavily biased towards a particular group. Right-wing and left-wing ideas grew up around its petty, bourgeois core and both shaped and were in turn shaped by it. Nehru put the point well: “Even our more reactionary people are not so rigid in their reactions as they are probably in Europe and America. And even our most advanced people are somehow influenced by Gandhiji. He created connecting links between conflicting interests.”
The flow of political influence and the process of moral sensitization between the different groups proceeded in both directions. The big bourgeoisie did influence the Congress and enjoy a measure of political power as the Marxists argue, but they were also required to recognize the legitimate demands of the poor and the oppressed. The middle and upper class peasantry did from time to time link up with the big bourgeoisie, but it also retained its independence, threw up leaders of status and class loyalty, and influenced Congress policies on important matters. Many of these leaders were not created by or in any way indebted to the big bourgeoisie, and had come to power on the basis of their personal sacrifices and leadership of peasant struggles. They had constituencies which they could not lightly ignore and whose interests they could not subordinate to those of some other class. The Marxist commentators exaggerate the situation when they claim t hat Gandhi delivered the peasantry to the capitalists.
Thanks to the logic of that nationalist movement under Gandhi’s leadership, the Congress contained mutually regulating pro-bourgeois as well as pro-poor, pro-industrialist as well as pro-peasantry, tendencies within its overall middle-class framework. Since Gandhi failed to mobilize the poor, the pro-capitalist tendency was stronger, but the anti-bourgeois tendency was neither absent nor too weak to offer strong resistance. Thanks to its middle-class bias, the Congress did not allow itself to be taken over by either tendency. From its relatively secure and autonomous ideological point of balance, it arbitrated between them. It knew that it could not pursue pro-capitalist policies for long without feeling morally troubled, provoking internal resistance, and loosing its inner balance. As Bipan Chandra puts it: “Indian National Congress was a popular, multi-class movement. It was not a movement controlled by the bourgeoisie, not did the bourgeoisie exercise exclusive control over it.”
Any interpretation of Gandhi must also take full account of his complex personal and political relationship with the Left. Although some of his beliefs and actions were strongly and rightly criticized by the intellectuals of the Left, it is striking that most of them never left him, that some of those who did such as J.P. Narayan eventually returned to him, and that even his fiercest critics such as M.N. Roy later changed their view of him. It is, of course, true that his hold over the Indian masses was so great that no one dared challenge him, and in any case he was shrewd and determined enough to outsmart anyone who did, as Subhas Bose and even Jawaharlal Nehru painfully realized. Many Left-wing leaders with political ambitious therefore thought it prudent not to fall foul of him. The Left also knew that its best hope of propagating its relatively unfamiliar radical ideas and policies lay in securing his patronage by means of quiet persuasion and persistent pressure.
All this, however, represents only part of the story. Although Gandhi and the Left needed and used each other, they were also bound by deeper bonds. The bonds were not entirely personal and emotional, for many of the Left did not enjoy the kind of intimacy with Gandhi that Nehru, Narayan, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Aruna Asaf Ali and others did. It would seem that many of them were morally overwhelmed by the fact that while they were content to preach their doctrines, Gandhi actually lived by his, and that his concern for the poor and the oppressed was no less sincere and deep than theirs. They also seem to have felt that he had raised basic questions about the nature of modernity, the dangers of revolutionary violence, and the character of Indian society which they had long ignored and with which they needed to come to terms. Even as Marx discovered a radical kernel underneath Hegel’s apparently conservative vocabulary, many of the Left seem to have thought, rightly in my view, that Gandhi’s apparently conservative form of thought had a strong radical content which they should lease out and build upon.
Though Marxist commentators rightly point out that Gandhi did not provide a realistic alternative to capitalism, they are wrong not to appreciate that his thought had enough resources to criticize and transform it fairly radically. His endorsement of the Dantwala draft is a good starting point. Its proposals for a socially regulated and accountable system of production, minimum income differentials, the severely restricted right to property, a minimum decent wage, war on poverty, etc. have a genuinely radical thrust. This is also the case with Gandhi’s ideas of heavy death duty, a national plan that gave agriculture its due importance and did not exploit the villages, and nationalization of key industries. Even his otherwise elusive concept of trusteeship opens up new possibilities if creatively interpreted on the basis of Gandhi’s own remarks. It is widely accepted that the government is a trustee of the interests of society and may be legitimately disobeyed or removed if it violates its trust. In many other areas of life too we appoint trustees and hold them accountable for the way they run their organizations. Once we challenge the moral basis of the right to property in the means of production, there is no obvious reason why industries and businesses should not be conducted along similar lines. That would involve such things as denial of absolute right of ownership, the owner’s accountability to his or her workers and the society at large for the way he or she runs his or her business, worker’s councils, and industrial democracy. All this is, of course, vague but it indicates how Gandhi’s thought could be interpreted and applied in practice. Thanks to the constraints of the nationalist struggle, he did not fully exploit the radical tendencies of thought. No such constraints existed in independent India. Had his followers mobilized these tendencies, creatively reinterpreted them in the light of the country’s needs, mounted a carefully planned campaign of peasants’ and workers’ satyagrahas, and in these and other ways compelled the Nehru government to adopt a more egalitarian and just path of development, Gandhi would have been the patron saint of a very different India and the Marxists would then have most probably read him differently.
The question as to why Gandhians did not mount a radical movement does, of course, remain. Since it is too large and complex to answer here, a few words should suffice. The answer to the question would seem to lie in a combination of such factors as Nehru government’s unwillingness to harness the radical component of Gandhi’s moral and economic thought in its battle with the conservative forces within the Congress, Gandhians’ failure to rethink their role and strategy in independent India especially the place of satyagraha in a democratic State, their early acquiescence in Nehru’s attempt to turn Gandhi not just into the Father of the Indian Independence but of the nation itself and use him to legitimize the kind of State he was busy creating, and their inability to throw up leaders with the skill and patience to build up a nationwide alternative to Congress and mobilize the excluded groups around clearly defined issues.
Gandhi’s own ambivalence and confusions also played a part. Nehru was rightly his chosen political heir, and Gandhi spent the last few months of his life urging his followers to leave Nehru and his colleagues alone in their task of designing and consolidating the Indian State. When, for example, they complained that the Constituent Assembly had made no provision for Panchayat Raj, he urged them to be patient, stay away from political activity, and concentrate instead on the constructive programme. He intended the programme to encompass much more than its conventional content and to include encouraging voter registration, highlighting local grievances, and even peaceful satyagrahas. However, he did not have the time or the energy fully to spell out all this, with the result that many of his followers took his advice to imply a neat division of labour between politics and social work, one to be left to the government and his ‘political’ heir, the other to his ashrams and voluntary workers led by his ‘spiritual’ heir Vinoba. Since Gandhi drew no distinction between politics and spirituality, this was an understandable but wholly misguided interpretation of his post-Independence project.
The consequences of the misinterpretation for which Gandhi bears at least some responsibility soon became obvious. Since the Nehru government was naturally unsure as to how the Gandhians would respond to its actions and policies and could not afford to risk a direct confrontation with them, it was anxious to neutralize some (for example, J.P. Narayan), marginalize some others (for example, Dr. Lohia) and to win over and even incorporate the rest into the Indian State. It did so partly for obvious political reasons and partly because it genuinely believed that rebuilding India required the co-operation of all available talents and political and non-political organizations. Its belief was correct but wrongly articulated. Rather than seek their co-operation on State’s terms and within the limits set by it, the Gandhian and other organizations should have been left, as they were best able to make their vital contribution if allowed and even encouraged to act as the State’s critic conscience and unofficial opposition. Since, thanks to its statist approach, the Nehru government did not see things this way, it took over the constructive programme as part of its political project, gave it financial support, even helped raise public funds for it, and patronized Vinoba and his associates. Over time, the bulk of the Gandhians involved in Vinoba’s movement built up embarrassingly close alliances with the local Congress leadership, worked closely with the government at State and national levels, remained confined to the reformist task set by the State, and virtually lost their identity, autonomy, and radical impulse.
There was still the awkward question of satyagraha, a critical constituent of Gandhi’s legacy. Vinoba obligingly redefined it to exclude all forms of conflict and to man nothing more than gentle moral appeals to the government and vested interests. When urged by some of his colleagues to turn his campaign into a mass movement rather than restrict it to his chosen workers by mobilizing landless workers and peasants and leading their marches from one village to the next, he rejected the idea as a recipe for ‘class war’. Even within his self-imposed limits, his movement could have been radical if, as advised by his colleagues, he had not distributed the land but used it for model co-operative farms, or concentrated on developing select villages in each district and set examples to the rest of the country rather than dissipate his energy by failing prey to the ‘quantification complex’ and counting the amount of land donated to him as opposed to the quality of work done on and with it.
When the Gandhians realized how much they had become an appendage to the State and how little economic and social impact they made on India’s appalling problems, they felt deeply confused and disorientated. Vinoba had no answer. He went into a year of silence and then told his followers to do what they liked. Some left his movement, some others half-heartedly continued with it, a few fell for J.P. Narayan’s desperate and misguided revolt against the Indian State itself. Since the revolt was conducted in the name of a naively moralistic and politically unrealistic idea of an ill-defined ‘total revolution’, by means that bore little relevance to Gandhi’s satyagraha, and with the support of such groups as the R.S.S. and Jan Sangh who shared nothing in common with Gandhi and who or whose likes he had bitterly fought most of his active life. J. P.’s movement was as un-Gandhian as Vinoba’s, albeit for very different reasons. It is difficult to say which of the two did the Gandhian heritage more damage.
What I have said so far is only intended to indicate broadly how we might go about explaining the Gandhians’ failure to live up to his legacy and not provide a full explanation, which would have to include such factors as the politics of Post-Independence India, the social groups that were available for mass mobilization, the available space for Gandhian intervention, the constraints of India’s mixed economy, and the quality of Gandhian leadership. Whatever the full explanation might turn out to be, the fact remains that there is far more to Gandhi than what his followers have done with it. ‘Gandhism’ is not an abstract, static, and historically frozen body of thought but a cluster of tendencies, some conservative, others radical, yet others a dialectical blend of both. It is nothing more or less than how we read Gandhi and what we do with him, a product of our praxis. By continuing to read and treat him as a bourgeois apologist, Marxist commentators reject a valuable ally and waste a vital political and rhetorical source. Paradoxical as it might seem, by using his still considerable moral authority to legitimize and propagate their project of a long overdue radical transformation of India, Marxists might do more justice to his legacy than his self-proclaimed followers.


Schloss Hof, an Austrian stately home open to the public, just over the border from Slovakia.
Photos by Jana Liptáková
For two countries that are so physically close, Slovakia and Austria have an oddly distant relationship.
Their two capitals may be just an hour's drive apart but history has conspired to consign them - until very recently - to different worlds.
During the Middle Ages, Slovakia fell within Hungary's orbit. Even after the Hungarian and Austrian royal houses merged in the sixteenth century, modern-day Slovakia continued to come under Hungarian and not Austrian administration.
During the twentieth century, despite a celebrated tramcar connection between Vienna and Bratislava (it terminated near the Hotel Carlton), Austria's international relations with Czechoslovakia were conducted via Prague.
During the wartime period that Slovakia was briefly independent Austria was not (having been absorbed into Nazi Germany in the Anschluss of 1938), and Bratislava dealt with - or rather, received its orders from - Berlin.
With Nazi Germany's defeat and the reconstitution of Czechoslovakia in 1945 the situation reversed itself again.
Then as Czechoslovakia proceeded to fall within Moscow's post-war orbit Austria somehow escaped it. Even when the Iron Curtain finally came down in 1989, Slovakia had become a federal republic but not yet an independent state.
Relations with the newly independent state after 1993 remained awkward over issues like Slovakia's nuclear power stations, to which Austria objected - and continues to object - prompted by its strong anti-nuclear lobby and concerns about the safety of its neighbour's Soviet-designed reactors.
Nevertheless, Austrian investors and visitors have long been an important source of income for Slovakia, and Slovaks an important source of labour and skills for the Austrian economy. Many Slovak families - especially in Bratislava and the west of the country - relied on income earned in Austria to maintain their standards of living during the 1990s and into the twenty-first century.
Despite this, Austria continues to maintain some of the restrictions on the free movement of labour for citizens of the 'new' EU member states - Slovakia included - which most of the rest of the union's members have erased. In terms of bureaucracy, it's still easier for the average Slovak to go and look for work in Dublin, say, than it is for him or her to go and do the same in Vienna.
Even tourist travel is occasionally disrupted. An incident at the border in March 2009, during which everyone on a newly inaugurated city bus line from Bratislava to Hainburg, the nearest town in Austria, was hauled off the admittedly overcrowded bus and subjected to ID checks by Austrian border police, helped rekindle unhappy memories of earlier border delays. Things calmed down, but only after the matter had escalated to ministerial level.
Other intergovernmental relations are generally good and travel between the two countries is normally smooth. In fact, as Slovak roads and other public infrastructure have improved, the superficial differences between the two countries have become gradually fewer in recent years.


Astronomers studying the remnants of a well-known stellar explosion
discovered a blisteringly fast shock wave that is rushing inward at 1,000 times the speed of sound, lighting up what remains of the powerful cosmic explosion.
When a star reaches the end of its life, it explodes in a supernova
that can briefly outshine entire galaxies. Typically, these blasts fade away after a few weeks or months, but the material left behind from these violent explosions can continue to glow for hundreds or thousands of years. Scientists have now observed a formidable inward-racing shock wave that keeps one of these stellar corpses glowing.
"We wouldn't be able to study ancient supernova remnants without a reverse shock to light them up," study leader Hiroya Yamaguchi, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., said in a statement.
SN 1572, otherwise known as Tycho's supernova, was a star that erupted in a brilliant explosion in November 1572. The supernova — named for Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe
, who studied it extensively — is located about 10,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia.
The blaze from Tycho's supernova was so luminous it could be seen with the naked eye, and the appearance of this "new star" in the sky confounded many people at the time who believed the heavens were fixed and unchanging. At its brightest, the supernova blast rivaled the planet Venus, and the explosion remained visible for 15 months before eventually fading from sight.
Tycho's supernova was a Type Ia supernova, which occurs when a white dwarf star in a close binary system accumulates matter from its neighbor until a runaway nuclear reaction ignites. The resulting cataclysmic explosion spewed elements, such as silicon and iron, into space at speeds of more than 11 million miles per hour (17.7 million kilometers per hour), the researchers said.
As this expelled material impacted the surrounding interstellar gas, it created a shock wave that functions similar to a cosmic sonic boom
. This shock wave is still expanding today, swelling outwards at 300 times the speed of sound, according to the researchers. These dynamics also triggered a reverse shock wave that is traveling inward at Mach 1000.
"It's like the wave of brake lights that marches up a line of traffic after a fender-bender on a busy highway," study co-author Randall Smith, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a statement.
The ultrafast reverse shock wave is heating the gases within the burnt-out husk of the former star, causing it to glow. This process is similar to how fluorescent light bulbs work, except the supernova remnant glows in X-rays instead of visible light, the researchers explained.
As such, the shock wave from Tycho's supernova helps astronomers study the remains of this famous cosmic explosion hundreds of years after it occurred. "Thanks to the reverse shock, Tycho's supernova keeps on giving," Smith said.
The researchers intend to search for signs of similar reverse shock waves in other supernova remnants.
Related on SPACE.com and MNN:
This story was originally written for SPACE.com and was republished with permission here. Copyright 2014 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company.