Sexually transmitted infections, STIs, are a feared sequela of sexual assault. The most common sexually transmitted infections diagnosed in female survivors of sexual assault are chlamydia, gonorrhea, bacterial vaginosis, and trichomoniasis.  Survivors who develop infections are burdened with long term complications such as pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, and some cancers so prevention is highly desired. Recommendations for appropriate management after a sexual assault have changed several times over the last decade. Treatment for STI after sexual assault varies by country and sometimes within a country depending on local resistance and patterns of infections. The prevalence of certain infections and antibiotic susceptibility continues to change and evolve. New sexually-acquired infections may appear over time, like HIV in the 1980s. New medications that are effective against certain STIs, like HIV, have also been developed in the last half-century. The following information follows current recommendations made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Incidence and Prevalence
The transmission of STIs after sexual assault varies widely among populations. They range from high reported rates of 12% for trichomoniasis and 19% for bacterial vaginosis to lower estimates for chlamydia (2%) and gonorrhea (4%). Due to methodological issues, some of these positive cultures may reflect preexisting infections. The literature cannot provide reliable estimate data on the risk for transmission of herpes, hepatitis B, or HIV infection from sexual assault. However, sexual transmission of hepatitis B is common, even in the United States, among non-vaccinated individuals engaging in receptive intercourse with hepatitis B-positive partners, and both hepatitis B and HIV transmission after sexual assault have been reported.
The incidence and prevalence of all sexually transmitted infections in the local area must be considered when determining the most appropriate treatment of a patient. Sexually transmitted infections are common in the United States, particularly in those aged 15-24 years. Human papillomavirus has the greatest incidence and prevalence of any STI in the United States.
The CDC recommends selective testing for sexually transmitted infections when individuals present for evaluation after sexual assault. The majority of advanced practitioner sexual assault response team programs in the United States do not routinely perform STI testing on adults and adolescents. STI specimen collection during a sexual assault examination most often does not detect infections transmitted by the perpetrator but merely reflect infections acquired before the assault, and thus, provides no meaningful information for the criminal investigation. Child victims may be an exception if they present with signs or symptoms of an STI. If authorities suspect ongoing child sexual abuse, the discovery of a sexually transmitted infection may provide laboratory proof of the abuse.
For the vast majority of adult and adolescent routine prophylactic antibiotic treatment against Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, and incubating syphilis renders testing and discovery of preexisting infections costly as management does not usually differ.
Recommended screening for infectious disease begins with a history and physical. Providers should aim to determine an appropriate treatment while minimizing the possibility of retraumatizing the patient. All decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. Because compliance with follow-up is low, the CDC recommends antibiotics for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and trichomoniasis as well as emergency contraception, hepatitis B, HPV, and HIV evaluation.  Patients should also be counseled on symptoms of sexually transmitted infections to help them determine if they require further evaluation at a later time.
Chlamydia and gonorrhea
Standard recommendations include the treatment of gonorrhea and chlamydia at the time of the initial examination. Though we use the term "prophylaxis", the antibiotic administration for gonorrhea and chlamydia is more appropriately considered “treatment” that is given so early that the infection has yet to produce clinical symptoms assuming the perpetrator transmitted the bacteria to the victim.
The suggested evaluation includes NAATs at sites of penetration for C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae.
Currently, the CDC recommends ceftriaxone in a 250 mg dose intramuscularly (IM) as the drug of choice in for preventing active infection of gonorrhea after sexual assault. Ceftriaxone in this dose also effectively prevents incubating syphilis from becoming clinical. For chlamydia prophylaxis, give patients either a 1-gm oral dose of azithromycin or a 7-day course of oral doxycycline (100 mg 2 times a day) or oral tetracycline (500 mg 4 times a day). Since tetracyclines are relatively contraindicated in pregnancy, erythromycin may be used as an alternative.
There is increased suspicion for this condition if the patient presents with malodorous discharge or vaginal itching. The suggested evaluation includes vaginal pH measurement, wet mount, and Whiff test.
There is no specific recommendation for prophylactic treatment for syphilis, rather a serum sample should be evaluated. Prophylactic treatment for gonorrhea may prevent incubating syphilis from becoming clinical.
The CDC recommends serologic testing for hepatitis B if the victim’s vaccination status is unknown. Examiners in some settings may choose to refer patients for HIV and hepatitis B testing rather than at the time of examination as communicating positive test results and facilitating treatment may be impossible. Testing for hepatitis B is recommended as vaccination, and immune globulin treatment may fail to work, and transmission of the virus from the assault may qualify the victims for lifetime coverage of related medical expenses resulting from the viral transmission by the "victims of the violent crime compensation fund".
Testing may be omitted if the victim is known to be adequately vaccinated with an appropriate antigenic response.
In victims know to be unvaccinated, administer vaccination contemporaneous with an examination or within 24 hours of the assault. Schedule the next to vaccines in this series for 1-2 months and 4-6 months after the first dose for completion of the series.
When a perpetrator is known to be hepatitis B antigen-positive and the victim is known to be unvaccinated and tests hepatitis B antibody negative, the CDC recommends the administration of hepatitis B immune globulin (HBIG) and simultaneous vaccination at a separate site for examinations performed within 14 days of the assault.
The CDC recently recommended HPV vaccination for sexual assault survivors generally under the age of 26 who were not previously vaccinated or those who were partially vaccinated. These include female patients aged 9-26 and in male patients 9-21. MSM patients who were not previously vaccinated or incompletely vaccinated may also receive the HPV vaccine up to the age of 26. The HPV series is three doses. The second vaccine is 1-2 months after the first dose and the third vaccine is 6 months after the first dose.
Prevention of HIV Infection
There are no published studies on the effectiveness of HIV post-exposure prophylaxis after sexual assault; however, postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) for parenteral occupational exposure to infected body fluids (ex. needlestick) is believed to be effective based on case-control studies.
Although the risk for HIV transmission from one episode of unprotected consensual receptive vaginal intercourse with an infected individual is approximately 1 to 2 in 1000, the violent nature of many sexual assaults and resultant injury may increase the transmission rate. After unprotected receptive anal intercourse, the risk of transmission has been found to be greater at 5 to 32 per 1000.
Almost half of the sexual assault victims express worries about the risk of acquiring HIV after the assault. Examiners must address this concern, provide counseling, and arrange for the option of taking antiretroviral medications (termed post-exposure prophylaxis or PEP) as they may be effective. In the rare case where immediate perpetrator rapid HIV testing can be performed at the same time as the victim’s exam, this information can be used to guide PEP in the same manner used for occupational exposures. However, this is a highly unlikely scenario. The CDC recommends administering PEP to sexual assault victims within 72 hours of an assault resulting in substantial risk for transmission with a known HIV positive perpetrator. The 28-day medication course for sexual assault victims is similar to that recommended for occupational exposure. As with occupational exposure, PEP should be initiated as soon as possible post-assault. HIV seroconversion due to failures of PEP following sexual exposure has been reported. In cases where the HIV status of the perpetrator is not known, the CDC advises practitioners to decide with patients on an individual case-by-case basis. Some states in the United States legislate medical examiners to offer HIV PEP to all sexual assault victims, and practitioners must be aware of their state laws. The CDC guidelines provide a useful framework to approach individual decisions in prescribing HIV PEP. Assistance with postexposure prophylaxis decisions can be obtained by calling the National HIV Telephone Consultation Service (800-933-3413 or 888-448-4911) or accessing the National HIV/AIDS Clinician's Consultation Center online.
Though the CDC recommends routine administration of medication to prevent symptomatic trichomoniasis infection, clinicians may decline to routinely prescribe this treatment due to the significant side effects of the recommended antiprotozoal agents. Examiners may elect to offer prophylaxis for trichomoniasis with a single 2-gm oral dose of metronidazole or tinidazole as recommended by the CDC. Metronidazole often induces nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea which may prevent the absorption of other antibiotic prophylaxis and emergency contraception. If examiners choose to offer this treatment, it is recommended to give the patient the metronidazole to take at home several hours after the other medications have been taken and absorbed.
CDC Recommendations 2015
Follow Up and Medication compliance
Follow-up rates in sexual assault survivors have historically been 10-31%. Though the minority of victims complete the recommended follow-up medical care, this should be offered and discussed with the victims verbally and reiterated with explicit written instructions. Most recommend follow-up in 1 to 2 weeks for repeat STI testing if not completely treated during the initial examination, and at 4 to 6 weeks and 3 to 6 months for HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and syphilis serology testing.  When a nurse coordinator was tasked with the responsibility of contacting patients to coordinate a follow-up appointment, the follow-up rates were significantly higher (85%).  Factors associated with greater follow-up include young age, alcohol used during the assault, genital trauma, and receipt of prophylactic medications. Factors associated with decreased follow-up include homelessness, intimate partner violence, cocaine use, and psychiatric comorbidity.
Adherence to PEP is lower for victims of sexual assault in comparison to other exposures, highlighting a need for increased attention and guidelines concerning the treatment of sexual assault survivors.  This adherence rate is lower for children and adolescent survivors of sexual assault. Factors that increased compliance included health provider and peer encouragement to take PEP, HIV + perpetrator, monetary support for transportation, counseling attendance, and HIV testing/PEP offered at the initial consultation.
Guidelines set forth by the CDC for the evaluation and treatment of sexual assault victims are limited to female and pediatric patients a few of the guidelines being applicable to male victims.  Further, many of the studies regarding post-examination follow-up focus on the factors affecting female survivors. There is limited research focusing on male and LGBT survivors and factors affecting their follow-up.
The prophylactic treatment of sexually transmitted infections changes frequently. The clinicians and nurses must work together to assure the patient gets the correct therapy and follow up as this will result in the best outcome. [Level V]
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Manimahesh lake (also known as Dal Lake) is situated in the Pir Panjal Range of the Himalayas, in the Bharmour subdivision of Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh. Nestled at an elevation of 4,080 meters, it is considered only second in significance to the Lake Mansarovar in Tibet. Manimahesh literally means “Shiva’s jewels”. According to a local legend, on a full moon night, one can see the reflection of this jewel in the magnificent lake. Most of the year, it remains closed due to the snow.
The mighty Lake is situated in proximity to the virgin peak of Manimahesh Kailash Parbat, which is considered to be the holy abode of Lord Shiva. According to legends, He created both the landforms as his marital home with Goddess Parvati, and He is still believed to be residing on the mountain.
The glacial Manimahesh lake has its sources in the melted snow water from nearby peaks. As the ice begins to melt by the end of June, it breaks into numerous small streams. This streams, together with green hills and bountiful of flower give the valley a remarkable look.


Water is essential and is at times in short supply.
To make it through the good times and bad, encourage deep rooting by having loose, porous soil and keeping your garden covered with mulch to minimize water loss through evaporation. Drip irrigation, a method of trickling water from tubes slowly and directly onto the surface of the soil, is recommended for gardeners in drought-prone areas. It’s beneficial because no water is lost to evaporation or runoff.
A good rule of thumb is that gardens need about an inch of water each week. However, this measurement doesn’t take into account variations in water use due to temperature, humidity, and how close plants are spaced from each other, so you may need to tweak this to fit the needs of your garden. By regular observation, most gardeners quickly figure out which plants wilt first, which is a useful indicator when you are first learning watering cycles. Ideally, you should avoid stressing the plants: Apply water before the soil dries out. Wet the soil thoroughly to encourage deep rooting, and then avoid watering again until it’s needed. Overwatering can be just as detrimental as under-watering.
The same principle applies when watering containers, although container-grown plants will need water more often than in-ground plants. Be sure to water containers until you see water spill from the bottom of the pot to ensure the soil is thoroughly moist. When the weather is hot, they may need water daily. Mulch will also help conserve moisture in containers: Use small bark nuggets; they’re easy to turn into the soil at season’s end to enrich it further. Also, mulch herbs with small pea gravel; it protects foliage from soil splatter and is helpful in humid climates.


Renaissance is Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). We know his life better than the lives of other artists of his time. Dürer traveled, and found, he says, more appreciation abroad than at home. The Italian influence on his art was of a particularly Venetian strain, through the great Bellini, who, by the time Dürer met him, was an old man. Dürer was an extraordinarily learned person, and the only Northern artist who fully infused the sophisticated Italian dialogue between scientific theory and art, creating his exposition on proportion in 1528. Even though we know so much about his doings, it is not easy to fathom his thinking.
Albrecht Dürer was born in the imperial free city of Nuremberg on May 27,1471, at a time when the city was shifting from its Gothic past to a more progressive form of Renaissance Humanism. Dürer’s father, a goldsmith, departed Hungary to come to Nuremberg, where he met and married Albrecht’s mother — Barbara Hopkins. At age 13, Dürer accomplished an artistically precise and meticulous silverpoint, entitled “Self Portrait at age 13.” This work of art not only reveals his premature aptitude as a youth, but the unique details of northern art. Albrecht Dürer was first apprenticed to his father at age 14, during which time he learned techniques in metal working. It would be these techniques and his own intrinsic talents that provide a stable base for his future engraving masterpieces.
Dürer, who did not care for goldsmithing, was apprenticed to one of his fathers’ close friends, painter and book illustrator Michael Wohlgmuth, in 1486. While an apprentice under Wohlgemuth, Albrecht acquired the essential skills needed in painting, drawing, and the craft of woodcut. Michael Wohlgemuth’s workshop was extremely busy and was aggressively designing and fabricating woodcuts used in the making of books with detailed illustrations. It is believed that Albrecht may have assisted in the preparation of illustrations in the Nuremberg Chronicles (1493, Hartmann Schedel). This project would have allowed Dürer to view works by the leading printmasters of the period, including Martin Schogauer, the Housebook Master, and other Italian artists.
Albecht Dürer left Michael Wohlgemuth’s studio in 1490 after finishing his apprenticeship to go on Wanderjahre (wandering journey). The main purpose of Dürer’s journey was to visit Martin Schongauer in Colmar. It is believed, however, that he first went to visit the Housebook Master working in the middle Rhine area, after which he continued on to the Netherlands. In 1492 Albrecht sadly discovered that Schongauer had recently died; nonetheless, the master’s brothers welcomed Dürer.
Shortly after, Albrecht went onto Basel to work with another of the Schongauer brothers. During this time he also made many contacts. In Basel and later in Strasbourg, Dürer created illustrations for various publications, in addition to Sebastian Brant’s Das Narrenschiff (Ship of Fools, translated 1507) in 1494. At the this early period of his life, amid his apprenticeship and his return to Nuremberg in 1494, Dürer’s art exhibits his extravagant expertise with line and his astute attention to detail.
Due to a prearranged marriage, Dürer had to return to Nuremberg. On July 7, 1494, he married Agnes Frey, the daughter of a wealthy local burgher. Agnes and Albrecht appeared completely unsuited for each other; consequently, only months after their wedding, Dürer left for his first trip to Italy, accompanied by friends. While in Italy, he visited his good friend Willibald Pirckheimer; in fact, it was Willibald who introduced Albrecht to classical writings and humanist beliefs. It is believed, perhaps, that Dürer met Jacopo dé Barbari, whose geometrically constructed figures motivated Dürer to contemplate the dimensions of the human body. Also, during his yearlong stay in Venice he completed illustrations of mysterious animals and figures, as well as contemplating nature. During his stay in Italy Albrecht produced some magnificently detailed watercolor landscape studies, presumably during his return journey — for example, a view of the Castle at Trent (1495, National Gallery, London).
During the ensuing ten years in Nuremberg, from the summer 1495 to fall of 1505, Dürer generated a great abundance of works that strongly secured his notoriety. (The Apocalypse (1498), a series 15 large, full-page woodcut drawings and the engravings Fall of Man (1504)and Large Fortune (1501-1502)). On the whole, these works and others of the period demonstrate his advancing technical expertise of the woodcut and engraving media. They also demonstrate his awareness of human proportions based on passages by the ancient Roman writer Vitruvius, and reflect his dazzling ingenuity to combine the details of nature into believable illustrations of reality. His Self-Portrait of 1500 (Alte Pinakothek, Munich), in which he illustrated himself as a Christ-like figure, reiterates in visual form his lifelong preoccupation with the elevation of the artist’s status surpassing that of a mere artisan.
Albrecht left for Italy in fall 1505 after completing Crowned Death on a Thin Horse (British Museum, London). The plague epidemic in Nuremberg is quite possibly the reason Dürer left for Venice. From 1505 to 1507 he remained in Venice where he met the great master Giovanni Bellini and other artists. During his stay he secured a significant commission for a painting, the Feast of the Rose Garlands (1506, National Museum, Prague), for the German Merchants’ Foundation. Albrecht Dürer also composed the following three paintings in which there is a new gentleness of color and tonal harmony: Christ Among the Doctors (1506, Thyssen Collection, Lugano), Portrait of a Young Woman (1506-1507, Deutsches Museum, Berlin), and lastly Virgin with the Siskin (1506, Deutsches Museum, Berlin).
Upon returning to Nuremberg in February 1507, Dürer began a second period of great productivity. During this time he completed such works as: an Adoration of the Trinity panel, an altarpiece for the Dominican church in Frankfurt (1508-1509, destroyed by fire in 1729), portraits; many prints, two editions of the Passion, woodcuts for the Triumphal Arch for Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, and a series of engravings that included The Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513), Saint Jerome in His Study (1514), and Melancholia I (1514). Through the linear process of engraving, Dürer was able to produce tones of varying darkness and he used them to illustrate a three-dimensional appearance.
In 1520 Dürer learned that Charles V, Maximilian’s successor, was scheduled to be making a voyage to Aachen from Spain. Upon arrival in Aachen, Charles V was crowned Holy Roman emperor of the Habsburg dynasty. Albrecht Dürer had received a yearly stipend from Maximilian for such works as Triumphal Arch (1515-1517), an enormous woodcut measuring 11½ feet by 9¾ feet and other works of art. Albrecht was eager to meet with Charles to have his salary continued. Armed with prints and other artworks, which he sold along the way to finance his trip, Dürer journeyed to Aachen and on to the Lowlands between 1520 and 1521. His audience with Charles proved successful. Albrecht kept a silverpoint diary that consisted of sketches of the many people and places he visited on his pilgrimage to the Netherlands, the first of its kind in the history of art.
He returned to Nuremberg in July 1521, at which time he started to compose portrait engravings. The first, Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenbergwhich, was completed in 1523. The second, was a portrait engraving of an old friend, Willibald Pirckheimer (1524), and the last of his portrait engravings’ was Erasmus of Rotterdam (1526) are all remindful of the Flemish portrayals of St. Jerome. His last monumental works are two large panels depicting the Four Apostles (1526?, Alte Pinakothek), were presented originally as his gift to the city of Nuremberg. Albrecht Dürer also wrote disquisition’s on perspective (1525, Underweysung der Messung…), on fortification of towns (1527, Etliche Underricht zu Befestigung der Stett…) and lastly on human proportion (1528, incomplete, Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proprtion). On April 6, 1528 Albrecht Dürer died, but shall never be forgotten.
The quality of Dürer’s work, his astonishing output, and his influence on his contemporaries all underscore the significance of his place in the history of art. In a broader context, his curiosity in geometry and mathematical proportions, his keen sense of history, his observances of nature, and his awareness of his own individual potential demonstrate the intellectually inquiring spirit of the Renaissance.
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As a school, we believe that children should develop a sense of excitement and curiosity about natural phenomena through practical exploration. This will help them to develop a good understanding of the world around them and develop their scientific understanding. Through the use of longitudinal studies our pupils are able to explore and develop this curiosity in a real life context creating excitement and curiosity.
From Year 1 to Year 4 our pupils conduct longitudinal studies which link to their scientific learning. These run for the whole academic year. More information can be found about the different longitudinal studies we are conducting in each year group below.


Medication overuse headache
All patients suffering from a primary headache disorder such as migraine or tension-type headache run the risk of developing a so-called medication overuse headache if they use analgesic medication too often. When medication overuse headache sets in, headache attacks may last longer and longer, more and more painkillers may be necessary to reduce headache, and the number of headache days often increases progressively. Many patients complain of ongoing headache, without completely pain-free days.
Patients who regularly take simple analgesics (e.g. acetylsalicylic acid, ibuprofen, paracetamol) on more than 15 days per month, or triptans, opioids or combination analgesic medication on more than 10 days per month run the risk of developing medication overuse headache. Medication overuse headache generally develops only if frequent intake of analgesics is continued for months or even years. The day limits given above are based on the International Headache Classification. Clinical experience shows that some patients may develop medication overuse headache even without explicitly reaching these limits.
Why does frequent intake of analgesics and triptans cause medication overuse headache?
It is only partially understood how overuse of analgesics and triptans leads to headache exacerbation and increase in headache frequency. Both modification of neurobiological pain processing and psychological factors seem to contribute. Especially the strong effect of triptans on migraine headache may induce an accelerated learning process that may lead to more and more frequent intake of the medication. Studies have shown that triptans may cause medication overuse headache more rapidly and in lower dosages than other drugs. However, medication overuse headache is usually not a dependence disorder as is the case with illicit drugs.
What does medication overuse headache feel like?
With medication overuse, the pre-existing headache, most often a migraine, often changes in character. The headache may be more often bilateral, more dull than throbbing, and less frequently accompanied by additional symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and increased sensitivity to light and sounds. Sometimes the headache may thus resemble a tension-type headache or a combination of migraine and tension-type headache. To make the diagnosis it is important that the headache has developed from a primary headache disorder, with an increasing headache frequency, eventually exceeding 15 days per month, and during frequent, sometimes even prophylactic intake of acute headache medication that shows an increasing lack of effect.
What are the risks of overusing acute headache medication?
Some analgesics, if taken very frequently, can impair normal body functions (impairment of kidney function, high blood pressure) or interact with other drugs (e.g. impair the blood thinning effect of acetylsalicylic acid). Moreover, the effect of acute headache medication in patients suffering from medication overuse headache is often unsatisfactory. In addition, the high cost of triptans may be a problem for patients buying these drugs over the counter.
How is medication overuse headache treated?
It was long thought that preventive drugs do not work as long as the patient is overusing acute headache medication. In contrast, several studies have shown that withdrawal of the overused acute pain medication leads to a marked improvement in headache. However, recent studies now show that certain preventive migraine medicines (topiramate, botulinum toxin for chronic migraine) are effective even in the presence of medication overuse. It is currently not clear if this is true for all preventive migraine treatments. Therefore, the current standard procedure is to recommend withdrawal and at the same time start patients on a preventive medication. For patients who do not tolerate withdrawal, preventive medication should be started anyway.
When stopping the overused acute headache medication, withdrawal symptoms can occur. There may be an exacerbation of headache for some days, possibly with increased accompanying symptoms such as nausea and fatigue. In addition, autonomic symptoms such as restlessness, sweating and heart palpitations can occur. In most cases, these symptoms recede within a few days and patients are then markedly improved. Withdrawal of acute headache medication is usually done in an out-patient or day-clinic setting. An in-patient treatment should be reserved for patients who need special support because of psychosocial constellations (e.g. high stress load at work or at home), or who have psychological comorbidities such as depression or anxiety disorders, or who overuse not only simple analgesics and triptans but also opioids and tranquilizers or if previous attempts to withdraw acute headache medication were not successful.
One third of the patients who successfully terminate medication overuse relapse within one year. Therefore, treatment by a headache specialist should be continued even after an initially successful withdrawal. In this way, medication intake can be monitored and adapted to the patient’s needs. In addition, the patient may then benefit from other therapeutic options, including patient education and treatment of concomitant disorders. Non-pharmacological approaches and integration of these measures into daily life are important. These include training in a relaxation technique, regular sleeping times, regular breaks and physical activity. In this way, patients acquire additional strategies for managing their headache disorder, learn to use their acute headache medication responsibly, and are able to recognize impending medication overuse.
However, the most important message is that medication overuse headache can be treated effectively. In over 80% of the patients who successfully stop their overuse of acute headache medication, headache improves significantly. In most cases, after stopping medication overuse, headache reverts to its original pattern with isolated headache attacks that can be treated effectively with acute headache medication.


Conspiracy About Chemtrails And Ways To Protect Ourselves From It
Chemtrails or Chemical trails are streaks of chemicals created in the air by the spray systems of airplanes. Spray systems are widely used for crop dusting and insect and pest control. However, Chemtrails, if you are unfamiliar with the term, are not the usual cloud-like streaks we see and sometimes dismissed as a mere jet plane exhaust.
Chemtrails spraying operations began as early as 1997. It was first known as contrails, or condensation trails created in the air by planes and jets at high altitudes, but chemtrails are toxin-laden streams that exist in the sky for hours that crisscross the sky like a checkerboard.
The Chemtrail Conspiracy Theory popularized in the United States holds that some chemical trails left by aircrafts are deliberately laden with chemicals and biological agents that are very harmful to our health because it is collected in our environment in the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink. The theory speculates that the government is secretly allowing these chemical release operations for solar radiation management, population control and even biological warfare. According to reports, the heaviest chemical spraying is over North America and Western Europe, as well as some Asian countries such as Japan and Korea with the exception of China. Large amounts of barium, aluminum salts, polymer fibers, thorium, and silicon carbide are found in the chemtrails. In some reports, the chemtrails may also contain electrically conductive materials widely used in electromagnetic weaponry.
Our health and safety is at risk if these reports and the theory are proven to be true. With the government consistently denying the existence of chemtrails, it is up to the individual person to find ways to eliminate these toxins that are surely poisoning our bodies. It is shameful when the agencies that should be helping us are the ones denying us of the truth. With the food we eat and liquids we drink, the harmful chemicals are already a part of our daily diet.
Even if this chemtrail theory holds true or not, isn’t it safer if one takes extra precautions with their health? The danger of chemtrails and other harmful toxins is what causes concerned scientists to find ways on how to help eliminate toxins from our bodies. Researchers have introduced the use of two powerful zeolite minerals, Clinoptilolite and Chabazite that comes from two different zeolite mines. The product is ZeoPure Zeolite and when it is ingested into the body it will bind with the positively charged (+) heavy metals, toxins and harmful chemicals and will be immediately flushed out naturally.
What is a zeolite?
Zeopure is a cutting-edge zeolite product introduce to the market to help people that have great concern with their health to take detoxification of their bodies to the next level. It has no side-effects and since it is in a liquid form, it can be easily taken with anything you eat and drink. It is taken in small amounts of just 3 drops 3 times per day. Zeopure is the most effective cleaning and toxin eliminating product.
So why do we need something bad to happen to our health before we act when we can begin preventing problems? Instead of being reactive, be proactive and prevent health problems before the chemicals settle into your body. Look for Zeopure Zeolite and take the elimination of toxins to the next level. Don’t wait around, act now!


Sturdy corals defy global warming
So far, we’ve believed that reef-building corals around the world are hugely vulnerable to rising ocean temperatures and can suffer bleaching as a result. But, scientists recently discovered a coral species that can actually seem to adapt to warmer weather.
Remember your last trip to the sea? You probably recall how the water around you felt warmer the closer to the beach you were and colder the farther you swam out to sea. And while you can move from colder to warmer water and the other way round, corals cannot. They stay put in their surroundings. So, researchers decided to look at how the same coral species can deal with different water temperatures.
Along the coasts of American Samoa, coral Acropora hyacinthus lives and grows on the reefs. Water levels shift due to the tides, leaving the corals along the flatter beaches covered with less water during low tide. This water can be heated up more easily by the sun, periodically exposing the corals to a warmer environment.
Stephen Palumbi from the University of Stanford and his team collected both: Acropora hyacinthus corals from flatter areas and also ones from the deeper, cooler sea. Next, they put all the corals in so-called “stress tanks” where the scientists could deliberately alter water temperature.
When substantially heating the water in the stress boxes, the researchers made a crucial observation: the corals collected from the deeper, cooler sea died. But the ones collected from those exposed to periodically warmer areas survived. They were already used to warmer temperatures and changing temperatures and thus able to adapt, researchers concluded.
Palimbo states in a video: “Now, the real hope for the stress tanks is to take them elsewhere in the Pacific and find other corals that are just as strong as the ones we found here in American Samoa.”
DateApril 24, 2014
What is cryptozoology?
DateApril 23, 2014
Local biodiversity changes, but is not lost, study shows
With climate change and deforestation we typically focus on how biodiversity gets hit or disappears as a result. But a new study finds that biodiversity is not necessarily lost, but changes instead.
Maria Dornelas and her team from St Andrews University in Scotland investigated six million species living on land and in marine environments over the past 150 years. They found no distinctive pattern of species loss associated with any local community or ecosystem throughout this time. Instead they observed that species composition changed over time. The findings imply that a species is not necessarily under threat of extinction, just because it can’t be found in its “traditional” habitat any more. It may have simply been forced to migrate to another place – and not to its detriment. And this turnover of species in any given locale or community must have occurred faster than previously thought.
The researchers insist their findings do not dispute the fact that many species and habitats around the world are under threat. But they suggest that strategies to protect species should be revised to reflect the phenomenon of species turnover, which has so far been underestimated.
DateApril 17, 2014
Creating a water filter from wood
1.1 billion people in the world don’t have access to safe drinking water. In fact, even though it’s 2014, we still have 1.6 million people dying from infections caused by the lack of safe drinking water and basic sanitation – 9 out of 10 of these are children under the age of 5.
For several years Rohit Karnik, a mechanical engineer at MIT, had been working on the development of membranes for water filtration. But during a conference in Israel, listening to someone talking about fluid motion in trees, inspiration struck.
Apart from water, of course, trees transport so called “sap”, a fluid enriched with nutrients, up and down their trunks. On it’s way through the xylem, the wooden part of the tree, either fluid gets filtered at many points (circled in red). Now, why not investigate if these tree-membranes are capable of filtering water for humans as well? No sooner thought than done.
Karnik and his team started out developing a very minimalistic, low-cost filter – the problem with existing filters is often that they either need energy or are not affordable for those in need. So, Karnik’s first filters were built by peeling off the bark and plugging the piece of wood into a tube. Not suitable on a large scale, but elaborate enough for testing filter properties.
The team’ s results: These filters got 99,9 percent of pathogens out of the water. The xylem filters managed to eliminate Escherichia coli, the most common type of gut bacteria that can cause severe diarrheal diseases if present in contaminated water.
Using advanced microscope technology, the scientists even traced down, where bacteria where filtered: they all accumulated on the so called pits – membranes permeable for water – but not for the “larger” bacteria. Talking about size: the E. coli bacteria can be anything from 2 to 6µm in length. This is already quite small, but not the end of it when it comes to pathogens: viruses are almost a thousand times smaller than this. That is also where the xylem filters surrender: they don’t present an obstacle to anything smaller than 20 nm – a size comparable to that of the smallest viruses, the scientists report.
To achieve a decent flow rate of 4 litres per day, researchers applied a pressure of 5 psi: “This value approximately corresponds to the pressure at the bottom of a 3 m column of water. Filtration will also occur at lower pressures, but at proportionally lower flow rates,” Karnik says. “The pressure of water supplied to households is typically 10 times this value. A container placed a few feet above the ground with a hose coming down to ground level will be able to generate sufficient pressure for filtration.”
Questions to be solved
Having this problem solved, there are still several left. “Can we store or dry sapwood xylem filters?” is one of the questions Karnik and his team are currently investigating. So far, to perform properly, filters have to stay wet all the time – once they’ve dried, they are useless. To safely get rid of such unusable or already “overused” filters, one way would be to burn them.
Also crucial for success of this filtration method is the type of wood used. For their experiments the team used the Eastern White Pine Pinus strobus, a tree that is abundant mostly across North America but not in those regions most in need of feasible water filtration: “We used the tree because it is common here, and it was easy to access. There are so many species of plants, and the question as to which endemic plants are suitable for making xylem filters in a particular area is certainly worthy of investigation,” Karnik writes.
Low cost solution in two years
Karnik’s idea is not yet feasible on large scales but he is optimistic: “This is a very new technology with lot of work to be done. A filter could take various forms, but one that is especially appealing is a compact device that simply attaches to a faucet, with a replaceable xylem filter inside it. It may take 2-3 years to develop the first prototypes for larger scale use, but I believe that there will be many developments to follow.”
*Credits for all images: CC BY: Boutilier et al. 2014, PLoS One 2014, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0089934.g001
DateMarch 7, 2014
For what we risk biodiversity (2): Toilet paper
Author: Kerstin Schnatz
The tallest hardwood trees on earth are towering 90 meters and more in height in Tasmania. The island state 240 km South of the Australian mainland is not just famous with hikers and nature lovers – it also has a very strong timber industry. Now the Australian government wants to open more forest sites for potential logging.
Almost 50% of Tasmania’s land area is protected for a good reason: The ancient forests give a habitat to many threatened species such as the almost extinct Tasmanian devil or the endangered Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle.
Now the worst nightmare of Australian environmental activists has come true: Their government has put in a pledge to the United Nations to remove 74.000 hectares of Tasmanian forest from world heritage listing. The very land had only been protected in 2012 within a larger area of 174,000 hectares, ending a decades long conflict between the timber industry and environmental groups. The reason? The relativele new Australian government that had been elected in 2013 finds the area not so special after all. Government speakers reckon that much of the area had been logged already anyway and should not have been considered for protection in the first place.
Naturally, environmental groups think of this otherwise stating that almost 93% of the area in question consists of precious old growth forests. They fear, that their government wants to open the doors for the Tasmanian timber industry – one of the most thriving branches of the tiny state’s economy.
Large international companies such as Malaysian owned veneer manufacturer Ta Ann have wood manufacturing mills in Tasmania. Many of those mills produce woodchips used for making writing paper, tissues or even toilet paper.
To proof how precious and needy of protection Tasmania’s forest are, the Wilderness Society released pictures of the area in question.
Harsher images paints the Tasmanian Leader of the Green party with his words stating in a television report by the national TV channel ABC : “Logging in a world heritage area is akin to the Taliban dynamiting millenia old religious statues.”
We all agree, that nature’s richness is precious and needs to be protected. But at the same time it sometimes “just happens” that this precious biodiversity is set at risk. To raise awareness for this contradiction, we started this little blog series, featuring examples of this phenomenon. See part 1 here. If you know similar examples, that fit into this series, please drop us a line in the comment box below.
DateFebruary 7, 2014


A font of type is an assortment of all characters of one size and style. Additional characters are called sorts. When manual typesetters had a font that was short of characters, it was said to be "out of sorts," the origin of the slang expression.
When type was set by hand, it was kept in wooden trays called cases. The cases, which are popular among antique collectors, are about an inch deep and divided into compartments, or boxes, of various sizes. A complete font required two such trays, usually placed one above the other on a sloping frame. The upper case held the capitals, the lower case the small letters. This position of the trays led printers to refer to capital letters as uppercase and small letters as lowercase. Today type is set not from wooden trays but from film images or by means of a computer-controlled beam of electrons.
Sizes of Type - Measuring Width - Type Casting by Hand and by Machine
Invention and Spread of Type and Printing - First Designs for Roman and Italic Types
Old-Style Types by Garamond and Caslon - Bodoni Originates Modern Types
Trends in the 19th and 20th Centuries - Inexpensive Fonts
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“On average, a woman will leave an abusive relationship 7 times before she leaves for good“
|Q:||What is domestic and family violence?|
Domestic and family violence is when someone intentionally uses violence, threats, force or intimidation to control or manipulate a family member, partner or former partner. It is characterized by an imbalance of power whereby the perpetrator uses abusive behaviours and tactics to obtain power and control over the victim causing fear.
The violence is intentional and systematic and often increases in frequency and severity the longer the relationship goes on (Carrington & Phillips 2003, Tually, Faulkner, Culter & Slater 2008)
|Q:||Why they abuse?|
Abusive people believe they have the right to control their partners, and they may enjoy the feeling that exerting power gives them. They often believe that their own feelings and needs should be the priority in their relationships, so they use abusive tactics to dismantle equality and make their partners feel less valuable and deserving of respect in the relationship.
Abuse is a learned behavior. Sometimes people see it in their own families. Other times they learn it from friends or popular culture. However, abuse is a choice, and it’s not one that anyone has to make. Many people who experience or witness abuse growing up decide not to use those negative and hurtful ways of behaving in their own relationships. While outside forces such as drug or alcohol addiction can sometimes escalate abuse, it’s most important to recognize that these issues do not cause abuse.
|Q:||Who is affected by family violence?|
|A:||Family violence occurs in every culture, country and age group. It affects people from all socioeconomic, educational, and religious backgrounds and it is not gender specific. Children are also affected by family violence, even if they do not experience or witness it directly.|
|Q:||How do I know if I am being abused?|
Abusers use many ways to isolate, intimidate and control their partners. It starts subtly and may be hard to recognise. Early in the relationship, your partner may have been attentive, generous and protective in ways that later turn out to be frightening and controlling. Initially, the abuse is generally limited to isolated incidents for which your partner expresses remorse and promises never to do it again, or rationalizes it as being due to stress or something that you did or didn’t do.
Ask yourself these questions:
You cannot stop your partner’s abuse – only he/she can do that. But call us for help – 943 CICC (2422).
|Q:||What are the Mental Health Effect of Family Violence?|
For children, effects can be demonstrated as:
|Q:||Why Doesn’t She Just Leave?|
It is not as easy as it sounds. Approximately 75% of abused women who are murdered are killed after they leave their partners.


Bronchoalveolar lavage is an invaluable means of accurately evaluating the inflammatory and immune processes of the human lung. Although lavage recovers only those cells and proteins present on the epithelial surface of the lower respiratory tract, comparison with open lung biopsies shows that these constituents are representative of the inflammatory and immune systems of the alveolar structures. With the use of these techniques, sufficient materials are obtained from normal individuals to allow characterization of not only the types of cells and proteins present but their functions as well. Such observations have been useful in defining the inflammatory and immune capabilities of the normal lung and provide a basis for the study of lung disease. Lavage methods have been used to characterize inflammatory and immune processes of the lower respiratory tract in destructive, infectious, neoplastic, and interstitial disorders. From the data already acquired, it is apparent that bronchoalveolar lavage will yield major insights into the pathogenesis, staging, and therapy decisions involved in these disorders. (Am J Pathol 97:149--206, 1979).


The catalyst offers promise for liquid-fuel-cell-powered drones.
Scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory and University of Arkansas have developed a highly efficient catalyst for extracting electrical energy from ethanol, an easy-to-store liquid fuel that can be generated from renewable resources.
The catalyst, described in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, steers the electro-oxidation of ethanol down an ideal chemical pathway that releases the liquid fuel’s full potential of stored energy.
“This catalyst is a game changer that will enable the use of ethanol fuel cells as a promising high-energy-density source of ‘off-the-grid’ electrical power,” said Jia Wang, the Brookhaven Lab chemist who led the work.
One particularly promising application: liquid fuel-cell-powered drones.
“Ethanol fuel cells are lightweight compared to batteries.
They would provide sufficient power for operating drones using a liquid fuel that’s easy to refill between flights — even in remote locations,” Wang noted.
Much of ethanol’s potential power is locked up in the carbon-carbon bonds that form the backbone of the molecule. The catalyst developed by Wang’s group reveals that breaking those bonds at the right time is the key to unlocking that stored energy.
“Electro-oxidation of ethanol can produce 12 electrons per molecule,” Wang said. “But the reaction can progress by following many different pathways.”
Most of these pathways result in incomplete oxidation: The catalysts leave carbon-carbon bonds intact, releasing fewer electrons. They also strip off hydrogen atoms early in the process, exposing carbon atoms to the formation of carbon monoxide, which “poisons” the catalysts’ ability to function over time.
“The 12-electron full oxidation of ethanol requires breaking the carbon-carbon bond at the beginning of the process, while hydrogen atoms are still attached, because the hydrogen protects the carbon and prevents the formation of carbon monoxide,” Wang said.
Then, multiple steps of dehydrogenation and oxidation are needed to complete the process.
The new catalyst — which combines reactive elements in a unique core-shell structure that Brookhaven scientists have been exploring for a range of catalytic reactions — speeds up all of these steps.
To make the catalyst, Jingyi Chen of the University of Arkansas, who was a visiting scientist at Brookhaven during part of this project, developed a synthesis method to co-deposit platinum and iridium on gold nanoparticles.
The platinum and iridium form “monoatomic islands” across the surface of the gold nanoparticles. That arrangement, Chen noted, is the key that accounts for the catalyst’s outstanding performance.
“The gold nanoparticle cores induce tensile strain in the platinum-iridium monoatomic islands, which increases those elements’ ability to cleave the carbon-carbon bonds, and then strip away its hydrogen atoms,” she said.
Zhixiu Liang, a Stony Brook University graduate student and the first author of the paper, performed studies in Wang’s lab to understand how the catalyst achieves its record-high energy conversion efficiency.
He used “in situ infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy” to identify the reaction intermediates and products, comparing those produced by the new catalyst with reactions using a gold-core/platinum-shell catalyst and also a platinum-iridium alloy catalyst.
“By measuring the spectra produced when the infrared light is absorbed at different steps in the reaction, this method allows us to track, at each step, what species have been formed and how much of each product,” Liang said.
“The spectra revealed that the new catalyst steers ethanol toward the 12-electron full oxidation pathway, releasing the fuel’s full potential of stored energy.”
The next step, Wang noted, is to engineer devices that incorporate the new catalyst.
The mechanistic details revealed by this study may also help guide the rational design of future multicomponent catalysts for other applications.


- Students will use traditional and Internet resources.
- Students will make judgments about information found online.
- Students will create a visual and/or auditory presentation comparing propaganda from World War I and today.
- Students will write a bibliography.
- Bibliography handout
- Internet access
- Research materials
- Define propaganda and give examples of the most five popular techniques used by advertisers.
- Bandwagon: persuading people to do something by letting them know others are doing it.
- Testimonial: using the words of a famous person to persuade.
- Transfer: using the names or pictures of famous people, but not direct quotations.
- Repetition: the product name is repeated at least four times.
- Emotional words: words that will make people feel strongly about someone or something.
- Discuss how propaganda techniques affect our lives every day.
- Point out that propaganda was used in posters and postcards during World War I.
- Explain that students will be doing research to find examples of propaganda used both in World War I and today.
- Brainstorm with students a list of resources that they might use for this purpose. (For example, books, Internet, television, radio, encyclopedias.)
- Have students develop a list of questions about how and why propaganda was used to persuade people in World War I. Then write similar questions for current propaganda techniques.
- Help students to begin to look for similarities and differences.
- Ask volunteers to record these questions on chart paper and have students refer to them as they are doing their research.
- Encourage students to use as many resources as possible to find the answers to their questions.
- Ask students to organize their information and create a project that compares how propaganda has been used in the past with how it is currently used.
Some ideas include:
- A collage of posters from World War I and magazine advertisements from today.
- Taped recordings of speeches or leaflets from World War I and recordings of radio commercials from today.
- A reenactment of the use of propaganda in an event from World War I and in an event from modern times.
- To show that their work is authentic, students should create a bibliography. Distribute the bibliography handout.As students share their examples of propaganda, ask them to tell what effects these examples had on the people who viewed them.
Use the following rubric for evaluating students' ability to complete this lesson.
- navigates the Internet quickly and efficiently.
- evaluates online information accurately.
- produces a creative, well-organized, and complete propaganda project.
- navigates the Internet with very few problems.
- evaluates online information with occasional prompting.
- develops an accurate, but not thorough, propaganda project.
- can navigate within a site, once a specific site is reached.
- needs guidance to evaluate online information.
- creates a propaganda project that is short on detail or poorly organized.
- demonstrates enthusiasm about the Internet.
- can perform simple navigational strategies.
- needs guidance to stay on task.
- experiences difficulty producing a propaganda project independently.


Chihuahua Breeds & Varieties
The classical chihuahua breeds have evolved over the last century to please the human eye and his desire to own a unique pet.
As the understanding of genetics became commonly spread among dog breeding professionals, chihuahua breeders were able to single out specific characteristics and refine the look of their litters to show diverse traits, namely size, shape, coat length and color.
Color has been a preponderant trait in the development of many dog breeds. Not only for aesthetics, color selection has a functional purpose. For instance, hunting dogs may have a better chance at approaching their prey with a brown coat for camouflage.
As for chihuahuas, the breed does not necessarily benefit from a specific coat color, other than for the human likes. Actually, the AKC recognizes 29 different colors and combinations for chihuahuas (and 11 different markings). Of them, one of the rarest and most sought after is blue. The chihuahua blue color is a soft, grey or silverish dilution of the black color,
as defined by a recessive gene "dd". Most blue chihuahuas are perfectly healthy, but this color should never be bred to one another because the gene carries more risks of health and skin problems. The white chihuahua is very uncommon as well, and breeding two pure whites will always make white puppies without any substantial health risk. See more pictures of white chihuahua.
The AKC recognizes only one chihuahua breed, but most people categorize them into two distinct varieties. The applehead chihuahua is the "iconic" chihuahua, with its apple-shaped head and bulbous eyes, and corresponds to the ACK chihuahua breed standard. The deer chihuahua has a swifter look, and resembles a little fox.
Some people argue that the apple and deer head chis have very different temperaments, and you can have your say in the debate Is my Deer better than your Apple?
In terms of size, the teacup chihuahua (see white in pink dress above) is most likely the smallest variety of dog on earth, but "teacup" is not a distinct chihuahua breed in itself. It's nothing more than a marketing term to identify dogs that are bred to abnormally small sizes, usually under 3 pounds. Read more on the making of a tiny teacup chihuahua.
Mix, Purebred and DNA
What about the chihuahua mixed breeds? As "designer dogs" are becoming mainstream in the pet industry, chihuahua mixes can become faithful companions with added benefits. For instance, a chihuahua x beagle can have a much more robust frame for a household with kids, whereas a chihuahua x poodle can be a perfect solution for an adult with allergies.
Have you ever thought about testing your chi to find out what other breeds he carries in his DNA?
There is a really cool dog-DNA test kit available on the market, and for a fee, you can send in your chi's DNA, get it tested and receive an official certificate with your dog's "genetic content". Knowing what other breeds are running in your chi's blood might help you understand his behaviors and train him better. Click on the link below to view their video.
For those who own a pure bred chihuahua, why not volunteer a little cheek swab to the
Canine Genome Project.
Scientists from all over the world are using blood samples from registered purebreds in research to help reduce the incidence of breed-specific inherited diseases, and to understand disease patterns across breeds.
Now, that's a nice way to get your chi to work!
Back from chihuahua breeds to www.chihuahuafun.com homepage


Water is the elixir of life. Availability of water is, therefore, considered a basic human right; in economic terms, it is a public good. However, freshwater accounts for less than 1% of all the water available on earth. Increasing population and improved lifestyles have resulted in the demand for water, resulting in what is known as ‘water stress’. India accounts for 17.74% of the world’s population, merely 2.45% of the world’s land resources, and only 4.5% of its freshwater resources (Ministry of Water Resources, December 2008).
If one conducts a survey to enquire people about their average water consumption patterns, there is a high probability of them answering incorrectly. The absence of a tool to accurately measure the water consumption (e.g. water meters) results in negligence, further increasing consumption and wastage of water. The negligence is mainly due to our assumption of water being a basic human right, irrespective of the amount consume.
The negligence towards water consumption often ends in what economists would call the tragedy of commons. The tragedy of commons is a problem in economics often discussed in relation to public goods. It is a situation wherein an individual neglects the larger benefits to the society for their own, short-term benefit; the excessive consumption of a scarce resource by one resulting in consequential effects on the whole community. Recent example of the consequences of this include Cape Town, Perth, Chennai, Shimla, and Bengaluru among others. Miraculous occurrence of rainfall prevented these cities from running out of water.
As has been suggested by several experts, water must, beyond a specified level of consumption, be considered an ‘economic good’, requiring the end-user to pay for each unit consumed. This shall require installation of water meters in every household. Additionally, private extraction of groundwater must be banned.
Approximately one-third of the total population of India resides in cities. The rate of urbanisation is increasing at an unprecedented rate; the urban population is expected to cross 590 million (a CAGR of 6.4%). The rapid pace of growth shall be accompanied by an exponential growth in the water demand, increasing the stress on water resources, making it even more challenging for the urban local bodies to achieve a demand-supply equilibrium.
Water, in Indian cities, is supplied through piped municipal supply, private tankers, borewells / tube wells, wells, and water bottles. While 70% of the urban households have access to piped water supply, 12% of these receive untreated water (Census 2011). The urban water supply ranges from 37 lpcd to 298 lpcd (WaterAid India, 2018).
The Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, stipulates service level benchmarks (SLBs) as shown in Table 1. A comparison of the same with the actual scenario shows the lapses in provision of services in Indian cities.
Table 1 Service level benchmarks (SLBs) established by MoUD, Govt. of India
|Per capita water supply (litres per capita per day)||135 lpcd|
|Extent of metering||100%|
|Efficiency of collection of charges||90%|
Source: Ministry of Urban Development (2019)
Source: Ministry of Urban Development (2019)
Water supply is charged in the form of an annual water tax charged at fixed rates. These rates are insignificant compared to the operations and maintenance costs borne by the authorities. Recent studies of the water pricing in Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad found that the charges from residential uses is about â¹ 1.50 per cubic metre, which is far less than the O&M costs for the urban local bodies. The outcome is an inefficient revenue structure, resulting in poor revenue collection. The poor revenue collection reduces the municipal budget, disincentivising the implementation of any project towards O&M of water supply network. With poor maintenance, there are increased instances of water losses during transmission. Further, the number of households connected to municipal water supply is quite poor in Indian cities; thus, increasing the dependence on alternative sources such as private water tankers, water jars/bottles, and direct extraction of groundwater using borewells, tube wells, etc. This further adds to the stress on water resources.
Additionally, several other lapses in the municipal water supply add to the woes of the citizens, who are compelled to rely on private sources rather than municipal supply; resulting in even more financial losses to the authorities.
Metering of water supply shall benefit the end-users, the authorities, as well as the environment. The end-users shall benefit in the form of an increased awareness of their water consumption patterns; they will be liable to pay only for the quantity of water used. This will especially be helpful to the impoverished and lower income groups. The authorities would be able to determine the variations in water consumptions in different zones, thereby planning the quantity and duration of supply more efficiently; the future water demand can be better estimated using the latest trends in water usage; further, the excess use and wastage can be monitored and regulated; water losses in supply can be determined and fixed using the supplied and billed quantities. Metered supply of water shall also benefit the environment by way of reduced wastage and increased rate of ground water recharge.
Several cities have started levying water tax on the basis of consumption slabs. This, however, is yet to becomes a widespread practice across the country. Successful international cases like those of Manila, Israel, Singapore, etc. are cases worth studying. Key learnings from these must be adapted and incorporated to the local scenario. Several initiatives launched by the state and central governments, e.g. AMRUT, Smart Cities Mission, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, etc. can help in better implementation of the best practices.
Thus, metering water supply in cities will have a wide array of benefits, creating a win-win scenario for the authorities as well as the end-users, and also benefiting the environment. This should be combined with efforts towards provision of safe drinking water while achieving a stable duration of water supply across the city. With proper implementation and monitoring of best practices, such as charging water tariffs, would, therefore, help avert a water crisis, avoiding a tragedy of the commons.
1) Census of India 2011. (2012). Houses, household Amenities and Assets. Govt of India. Data Product No. 00-015-2011-Census Data Sheet E.
2) Ministry of Urban Development (Govt. of India). (2019). Handbook of Service Level Benchmarking.
3) Ministry of Water Resource. (Dec 2008). Comprehensive Mission Document of National Water Mission, Vol 2, pg iv/2.
4) Water Aid India. (2018). State of Urban Water Supply in India 2018.
By Sameer Kumar: Mr Sameer Kumar is an architect-urban planner. He is currently working with the Centre for Water and Sanitation (Ahmedabad). His interests lie in achieving sustainable development through interdisciplinary research and collaboration.


According to a recent scientific study, the Nile River is six times older than previously believed and its origin dates back to around 30 million years ago, according to a study by the University of Texas at Austin published in Nature Geoscience.
The recent study has revealed that had it not been for the movement of the earth’s mantle that kept the river in its course, the Nile would have turned west a long time ago, probably changing the course of history along with it.
In Ancient Egypt, the Nile River was of great importance not only for daily life but for their religious beliefs as well.
The ancient Egyptians considered the river to be the source of all life. Its constant path to the north has fed the fertile valleys of northeastern Africa for millions of years and, in doing so, shaped the course of human civilization.
“One of the big questions about the Nile is when it originated and why it has persisted for so long,” revealed lead author Claudio Faccenna, a professor at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences. “Our solution is actually quite exciting.”
The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that “Egypt was the gift of the Nile”, and he wasn’t wrong. Providing early people with unending sustenance, the Nile River certainly plaid a crucial role in the development of the ancient Egyptian Civilization.
The Nile River allowed the ancient Egyptian civilization to cultivate and trade wheat, flax, papyrus, and a plethora of other crops that allowed the civilization to flourish. Trade that flourished through the help of the Nile River allowed Egypt to become a sustaining, important regional economy.
The Nile River also made it possible to easily connect major parts of the country. The Nile is also believed to have played an important role in allowing the ancient Egyptians to transport massive stones from Lower to Upper Egypt.
These stones were used in the construction process of different monuments and buildings, and mainstream scholars theorize that some of the stones used in the construction of the Pyramid at Giza were transported via the Nile River.
Furthermore, The Nile River was also an essential part of ancient Egyptian spiritual life. Hapi was the god of the annual floods, and both Hapi, as well as the pharaoh, were thought to control the Nile’s flooding.
In a religious sense, the Nile River was thought to have been a causeway from life to death and the afterlife for the ancient Egyptians where the east was seen as a place of growth and birth, while the west the place of death, as the Sun god Ra, underwent birth, death, and resurrection each day as he crossed the sky.
Understanding the Nile River
The results of the new study should resolve a historical debate about the age of the river and provide evidence that the slow movement of the deep mantle of our planet is one of the key forces that shape the landscape and geological processes of our Earth.
The new study saw an international group of scientists connect the tilted nature of the Nile’s topography with a mantle rock conveyor belt that pushes against the highlands of Ethiopia in the south and pulling the surface to the north. From beginning to end, the gentle gradient keeps the Nile in a constant northward direction.
The new study involved experts tracing the Nile’s geological history by studying ancient volcanic rock in the Ethiopian Highlands, and then correlating it with the massive river sediment deposits buried beneath the Nile’s Delta.
The evidence researchers found suggests that after rising dramatically, the Ethiopian highlands have remained at a similar height for millions of years, a feature that experts attribute to the support of the mantle rock beneath.


These questions and answers are from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention information website on unpasteurized milk.
What is raw milk?
Raw milk is milk from cows, goats, sheep, or other animals that has not been pasteurized. Although precise data are not available, it is thought that less than 1% of milk sold to consumers in the United States has not been pasteurized.
What are the risks associated with drinking raw milk?
Raw milk can carry harmful bacteria and other germs that can make you very sick or kill you. While it is possible to get foodborne illnesses from many different foods, raw milk is one of the riskiest of all.
Getting sick from raw milk can mean many days of diarrhea, stomach cramping, and vomiting. Less commonly, it can mean kidney failure, paralysis, chronic disorders, and even death.
Many people who chose raw milk thinking they would improve their health instead found themselves (or their loved ones) sick in a hospital for several weeks fighting for their lives from infections caused by germs in raw milk. For example, a person can develop severe or even life-threatening diseases, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome, which can cause paralysis, and hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can result in kidney failure and stroke.
Illness can occur from the same brand and source of raw milk that people had been drinking for a long time without becoming ill.
A wide variety of germs that are sometimes found in raw milk, can make people sick, including bacteria (e.g., Brucella, Campylobacter, Listeria, Mycobacterium bovis (a cause of tuberculosis), Salmonella, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli [e.g., E. coli O157], Shigella, Yersinia), parasites (e.g., Giardia), and viruses (e.g., norovirus).
Each ill person’s symptoms can differ, depending on the type of germ, the amount of contamination, and the person’s immune defenses.
Who is at greatest risk of getting sick from drinking raw milk?
The risk of getting sick from drinking raw milk is greater for infants and young children, the elderly, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems, such as people with cancer, an organ transplant, or HIV/AIDS, than it is for healthy school-aged children and adults. But, it is important to remember that healthy people of any age can get very sick or even die if they drink raw milk contaminated with harmful germs.
Can drinking raw milk hurt me or my family?
Yes. Raw milk can cause serious infections. Raw milk and raw milk products (such as cheeses and yogurts made with raw milk) can be contaminated with bacteria that can cause serious illness, hospitalization, or death. These harmful bacteria include Brucella, Campylobacter, Listeria, Mycobacterium bovis, Salmonella, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, Shigella, Streptococcus pyogenes, and Yersinia enterocolitica. From 1998 through 2008, 86 outbreaks due to consumption of raw milk or raw milk products were reported to CDC. These resulted in 1,676 illnesses, 191 hospitalizations, and 2 deaths. Because not all cases of foodborne illness are recognized and reported, the actual number of illnesses associated with raw milk likely is greater.
How does milk get contaminated?
Milk contamination may occur from:
Cow feces coming into direct contact with the milk
Infection of the cow’s udder (mastitis)
Cow diseases (e.g., bovine tuberculosis)
Bacteria that live on the skin of cows
Environment (e.g., feces, dirt, processing equipment)
Insects, rodents, and other animal vectors
Humans, for example, by cross-contamination from soiled clothing and boots
Pasteurization is the only way to kill many of the bacteria in milk that can make people very sick.
What is pasteurization, and how does it work in milk?
Pasteurization is the process of heating milk to a high enough temperature for a long enough time to kill illness-causing bacteria contained in the milk. As most commonly applied, pasteurization heats milk to a high temperature for a short time, which kills the bacteria that cause illness. It was invented in a time when millions of people became sick and died of diseases like tuberculosis, scarlet fever, typhoid fever, and other infections that were transmitted through raw milk. Pasteurization has prevented millions of people from becoming ill.
Raw milk contains bacteria, and some of them can be harmful. So, if you’re thinking about consuming raw milk because you believe that it is a good source of beneficial bacteria, you need to know that it isn’t and you may instead get sick from the harmful bacteria. If you think that certain types of bacteria may be beneficial to your health consider getting them from foods that don’t involve such a high risk. For example, so-called probiotic bacteria are sometimes added to pasteurized fermented foods, such as yogurt and kefir.
Pasteurized milk products have occasionally caused illnesses and outbreaks. Usually, this has happened because of germs introduced in the dairy after the pasteurization process. Pasteurized milk that is correctly handled in the dairy, bottled, sealed, and refrigerated after pasteurization, and that is properly handled by the consumer, is very unlikely to contain illness-causing bacteria. Considering the amount of pasteurized milk consumed in the United States, illness from it is exceedingly rare.
What is the history of the recommendation for pasteurization in the United States?
Routine pasteurization of milk began in the United States in the 1920s and became widespread by 1950 as a means to reduce contamination and reduce human illnesses. It led to dramatic reductions in the number of people getting sick from diseases that had previously been transmitted commonly by milk. Most public health professionals and health care providers consider pasteurization to be one of public health’s most effective food safety interventions ever!
Many medical and scientific organizations recommend pasteurization for all milk consumed by humans; these include CDC, the Food and Drug Administration, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Veterinary Medical Association, the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians, and others.
Does pasteurization change milk’s nutritional benefits?
No. Many studies have shown that pasteurization does not significantly change the nutritional value of milk and dairy products. All of the nutritional benefits of drinking milk are available from pasteurized milk without the risk of disease that comes with drinking raw milk.
Is it true that raw milk has more enzymes and nutrients than pasteurized milk?
While it’s true that the heating process of pasteurization does inactivate some enzymes in milk, the enzymes in raw animal milk are not thought to be important in human health. Some nutrients are somewhat reduced in raw milk, but the United States diet generally has plenty of other sources of these nutrients. For example, vitamin C is reduced by pasteurization, but raw milk is not a major source of vitamin C.
Aren’t raw or natural foods better than processed foods?
Many people believe that foods with no or minimal processing are better for their health. Many people also believe that small, local farms are better sources of healthy food. However, some types of processing are needed to protect health. For example, consumers process raw meat, poultry, and fish for safety by cooking.
Similarly, when milk is pasteurized, it is heated just long enough to kill disease-causing germs. Most nutrients remain after milk is pasteurized. There are many local, small farms that offer pasteurized organic milk and cheese products.
Does milk have a “built-in” safety mechanism that prevents bacterial contamination?
No. Disease-causing organisms can only be eliminated in milk through pasteurization or by adding chemicals to the milk. Pasteurization is the best method of eliminating disease-causing organisms in milk and the only method routinely used in the United States.
Is it legal to buy or sell raw milk?
Yes, in some states. Because of the potential for serious illness, federal law prohibits dairies from distributing raw milk across state lines in final package form (packaged so that it can be consumed). This means that raw milk can only be distributed across state lines if it is going to be pasteurized or used to make aged (over 60 days) cheese before being sold to consumers. Each state makes its own laws about selling raw milk within the borders of the state. In about half of states, sale of raw milk directly to consumers is illegal. In the remaining states, raw milk may be sold to directly to consumers.
Does drinking raw milk prevent or cure any diseases, such as asthma, allergies, heart disease, or cancer?
No. There are no health benefits from drinking raw milk that cannot be obtained from drinking pasteurized milk that is free of disease-causing bacteria. The process of pasteurization of milk has never been found to be the cause of chronic diseases, allergies, or developmental or behavioral problems.
I know people who have been drinking raw milk for years, and they never got sick. Why is that?
The presence of germs in raw milk is unpredictable. The number of disease-causing germs in the raw milk may be too low to make a person sick for a long time, and later high enough to make the same person seriously ill. For some people, drinking contaminated raw milk just once could make them really sick. Even if you trust the farmer and your store, raw milk is never a guaranteed safe product. Drinking raw milk means taking a real risk of getting very sick.
My farmer performs laboratory tests for bacteria in raw milk, so isn’t it safe?
Even negative tests do not guarantee that raw milk is safe to drink. People have become very sick from drinking raw milk that came from farms that regularly tested their milk for bacteria and whose owners were sure that their milk was safe.
My farmer uses grass-fed cows and goats to produce raw milk, so isn’t it safe?
Outbreaks of illness related to raw milk have been traced back to both grass-fed and grain-fed animals.
My farmer’s raw milk is organic, so isn’t it safe?
Raw organic milk is not safe. Pasteurized organic milk is available in many places, including supermarkets, farmers’ markets, and dairies.
I’ve heard that many organic and raw milk producers are creating sanitary and humane conditions for raising animals and producing “safe” raw milk and raw milk products (like cheeses and yogurts). Does this help reduce milk contamination?
Adherence to good hygienic practices during milking can reduce, but not eliminate, the risk of milk contamination. The dairy farm environment is a reservoir for illness-causing germs. No matter what precautions farmers take, and even if their raw milk tests come back negative, they cannot guarantee that their milk, or the products made from their milk, are free of harmful germs.
Germs such as Escherichia coli O157, Campylobacter, and Salmonella can contaminate milk during the process of milking dairy animals, including cows and goats. Animals that carry these germs are usually healthy.
Can I still get a disease from raw milk and raw milk products if the cows or goats are healthy, clean, and grass-fed or if the dairy is especially careful and clean when collecting the milk?
Yes. Even healthy animals may carry germs that can contaminate milk. Milk may be contaminated with bacteria during the milk collection process. Small numbers of bacteria might multiply and grow in the milk before someone drinks it if it is raw. Dairying methods have improved over the years but are still no substitute for pasteurization in assuring that milk is safe to drink. Raw milk supplied by “certified,” “organic,” or “local” dairies has no guarantee of being safe.
Information about raw milk-related outbreaks
States that allow the legal sale of raw milk for human consumption have more raw milk-related outbreaks of illness than states that do not allow raw milk to be sold legally.
CDC collects data on foodborne disease outbreaks voluntarily reported by the state, local, territorial, or tribal health departments. The health departments conduct most outbreak investigations reported to CDC. The data reported may change frequently as reporting agencies enter new records and modify or delete old ones.
Among dairy product-associated outbreaks reported to CDC between 1973 and 2008 in which the investigators reported whether the product was pasteurized or raw, 82 percent were due to raw milk or cheese. From 1998 through 2008, 86 outbreaks due to consumption of raw milk or raw milk products were reported to CDC. These resulted in 1,676 illnesses, 191 hospitalizations, and 2 deaths. Most of these illnesses were caused by Escherichia coli O157, Campylobacter, or Salmonella. It is important to note that a substantial proportion of the raw milk-associated disease burden falls on children; among the 86 raw dairy product outbreaks from 1998 to 2008, 79 percent involved at least one person less than 20 years old.
Reported outbreaks represent the tip of the iceberg. For every outbreak and every illness reported, many others occur, and most illnesses are not part of recognized outbreaks.
For more information on raw milk see Marler Clark’s www.realrawmilkfacts.com© Food Safety News


Latin American revolutionary.
Guevara, Che, pronounced gay VAH rah, chay (1928-1967), was one of the most powerful members of the Cuban government under Fidel Castro. He served as minister of industry from 1961 to 1965 and directed much of the government's economic planning. Guevara was killed while leading a guerrilla band trying to overthrow the government of Bolivia.
Guevara was born in Rosario, Argentina. His real name was Ernesto Guevara, but most people called him by his nickname, Che. Guevara received an M.D. degree from the University of Buenos Aires. Guevara became a revolutionary because he believed that armed struggle was the only way to improve social conditions and eliminate poverty.


Barriers of health equity in the Iranian health system from the medical ethics viewpoint
In order to lessen health inequalities, the obstacles to health equity will need to be identified. This study aimed at investigating the barriers to access to health-care services from the medical ethics point of view. Data were collected through a qualitative study by performing semi-structured interviews. Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants involved in health provision and/or management. Content analysis was done using MAXQDA software. Overall, 30 interviews were conducted. The content analysis of the interviews identified two themes including “micro factors” and “macro factors”, five sub-themes including “cultural, financial, geographical, social and religious barriers”, and 44 codes. Based on our findings, differences in individuals’ perceptions, cultural control, religious beliefs and social stigmas create cultural barriers. Financial barriers consist of the financial connection between service recipients and service providers, insurance premiums, and inadequate coverage of health-care services. The most important geographical barriers identified in our study were differences in urbanization, inequality in various geographical areas, marginalization, and inequality in resource distribution. Finally, differences in the level of income, education and occupational diversity were among the social barriers. Given the wide range of barriers to access to health-care services, a comprehensive plan covering various dimensions of health equity should be implemented. To this end, innovative and progressive strategies emphasizing the principles of equity and social equality should be developed.
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Conservationists say the dreaded Ebola virus along with decades of hunting and logging are putting some ape species on the brink of extinction in Central Africa.
Ebola, which kills through massive internal bleeding, has long been known to infect primates in Africa. It was first identified in 1976 and has since killed about 1,000 people, some of whom are believed to have contracted the disease by consuming or handling infected meat from wild animals.
Most at risk are western lowland gorillas and the Central African chimpanzee, both of which live in the dense rain forests of Central Africa, Conservation International said in a statement late Tuesday.
Christophe Boesch of the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation, who worked with Conservation International on a study, said Wednesday that Ebola was reported in May for the first time in Republic of Congo's Odzala National Park, which contains the world's largest concentration of western lowland gorillas.
"The fact that it has reached this important park is extremely worrying," Boesch by telephone from Leipzig, Germany. "Ebola has been around the region, it's not something new. But it's worsening."


The Voyager 2 spacecraft is now far beyond Neptune (its last object of study back in 1989 after visiting Jupiter in 1979, Saturn in 1981, and Uranus in 1986) and is about 6.4 billionJ m from the Sun. It can look directly back at the dark side of Jupiter, but the whole of Jupiter is now only two picture elements in diameter as seen by its high-resolution camera, if that instrument were to be used. In fact the camera has been shut down for several years, and the engineers who knew how to control it have new jobs or are retired. It would be very expensive to take the camera "out of mothballs" and probably of limited scientific value. Voyager does have an ultraviolet spectrometer which is still taking data, and it will probably be used to acquire ultraviolet light curves (brightness versus time) of the impact phenomena. The possibility of using one or two other instruments is being considered, though useful results from them seem less likely.
This was exerpted from the JPL Shoemaker-Levy Educators Guide.
To see the
entire guide, click here.