By Amanda N. Chastain, M.A., BCBA
California State University, Sacramento Alumni
Program Director at FirstSteps for Kids, Inc.
Senior Research Associate at the University of Southern California
July 2, 2020
For Your Child
In The Covid World
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but 2020 has been one for the books. We are living through a pandemic and a historical civil rights movement at the same time, and it is only July! For many people these events have led to changes that may be difficult to cope with. Changes that have required much adjusting (wearing masks, working from home, being laid off of work, home schooling our children). I have yet to meet another human who wasn’t struggling in some capacity with what is going on in our country and in the world. Even in typing that, I am in disbelief that this is actually reality.
When humans experience distress or discomfort, we have a tendency to try and escape or avoid it. Part of this means that we are also trying to avoid the difficult thoughts and emotions that correspond with the actual event, and this can get in the way of doing the things we really care about. I bet everyone reading this can think of at least one time that they did not do something meaningful because of the stories their mind was telling them and the very real fears that they were experiencing. I know I have! And guess what? Children experience distress too.
Kids Are Having A Hard Time Too
For a child in these challenging times, they might not fully understand why so much has changed, why schools have shut down, why classes are at a different time than they should be, why they cannot see their friends. Like other human beings, children might be experiencing anger, frustration, confusion, and sadness. Like other human beings, children might be getting lost in their thoughts about the “What if’s” of the future that we just don’t have the answers to. Like other human beings, children are unsure of what to do when the rules and routines they have followed no longer seem to apply. Focusing too much on these thoughts and emotions can get in the way of doing things that are important to them, too.
There Are Tools to Help
So what do we do? These difficult private experiences are part of what makes us human. We are built to create and solve problems, and we hurt where we care. AND we have tools that can help us to interact differently with these experiences while moving forward with living a meaningful life. Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT; read as the word) is composed of a set of tools used to help people interact more flexibly with difficult private events (thoughts, visual images, physical sensations, or emotions) so that they can live more meaningful lives. It is made up of six core processes which, together, promote psychological flexibility, or improving a person’s ability to be mindfully aware of their private events, contact the present moment, and live in service of their values (Hayes at al., 2006).d
The six processes which collectively promote psychological flexibility are
- Present moment awareness
- Self as context
- Committed action.
Defusion helps people to unhook from their difficult thoughts so that they can observe them with a sense of dispassionate curiosity instead of falling into a trap of continuously struggling with them.
Acceptance teaches people to be present with their difficult experiences and accept them fully, rather than trying to avoid feeling them.
Present Moment is the practice of bringing your attention to the here and now. While it can be helpful to analyze the past and plan for the future, it can also become maladaptive when it leads to loss of contact with the now at times when the now really matters. For example, if a child is so worried about what is going to happen when school starts again that it takes her focus off of her current work, leading her to fall further behind. By bringing our attention to the present moment with our values in mind, it allows for us to respond to the here and now, and keep moving forward.
Self as context is a complex one, but essentially means “flexible selfing”. For example, if a child defines herself as the smartest kid in her class, and then she struggles with Zoom learning, this might challenge her identity and create conflict. Flexible selfing involves teaching that these verbal descriptions of self are ever-changing, context dependent, and that there is a part of you (the noticing part) that can simply notice these definitions of self or others.
Values and committed action bring it all together. Values point you in the direction of what you care about and set motivation for action. Values are not tangible things. They can never be “achieved” and can always be lived. My values, for example, are education, prosocial, effective leadership, and creating a better world. These are ways that I try to live every single day. And I live these values by setting committed actions (goals) that I can achieve.
ACT is read as the word because action towards what you care about is the point of all of this. It is recommended that you start by setting a goal for one thing that you can do immediately to take action towards your values. For a child who values learning, this might look like setting a goal to ask the teacher more questions even if she believes it might be uncomfortable to admit that she doesn’t understand the material.
Using ACT to Help Children
I work with children with autism, which is a population that tends to struggle with flexibility and rule-following. The recent changes in the world have been particularly challenging for that population, and it has been a major adjustment for practitioners, parents, and the children that we serve. So, of course I said yes when one of my favorite people in the entire world, Courtney Tarbox M.S., BCBA, asked me to help write an article to promote psychological flexibility with the autism population in the current crisis.
A small army of us wrote Taking ACTion: 18 Simple Strategies for Supporting Children with Autism During the COVID-19 Pandemic for the purpose of giving people some quick ACT tools that might help their children live a meaningful life even with the extra challenges that the world has thrown at us this year. While this article was written for the audience of autism, the exercises and rationale presented in the article apply to humans with complex language (i.e., anyone who can experience a private world that can get in the way).
There is substantial research on ACT, and it has proven effective for a number of situations with various populations. It is based on research on human language and cognition within the science of human behavior. So, while the article was written for a specific population, the exercises provided can be used to promote psychological flexibility with neurotypical kids. It is important to note that if your child is seriously struggling, you are strongly encouraged to seek out professional support. This article is not a treatment for serious psychological concerns.
ACTivities for Children
Below are examples of ACT exercises and supplemental worksheets created by the amazing Erin Silverman, M.S., BCBA, to make the ACTivities easy and more fun for children to engage in. I have provided an example exercise of each core process below. It is important to remember that every child is different, so be flexible when you are teaching flexibility!
Help your child defuse or unhook from difficult thoughts or rules that use to apply but no longer do, such as following their daily schedule from the pre-Covid world, or living up to the “should do’s” or “should be’s” of before. One action that a child can take to help unhook from difficult thoughts and rules is to say that thought in a silly voice (Hayes, et al., 1999). Try it! Pick your favorite silly sounding character and say the thought in their voice. It sort of feels different after you try this, doesn’t it? You can also say the phrase in super-slow motion, super-fast motion, or just repeat it as fast as you can for about 30 seconds.
Teach your child acceptance of difficult feelings such as feeling sad that they cannot see their friends, feeling frustrated that they no longer have as much access to their teachers, or feeling scared about the dangers of Covid-19. One of my absolute favorite acceptance exercises is Hands as Thoughts (Harris 2009). In order to visualize how our challenging thoughts and feelings get in our way, have your child imagine those challenging things written on their hands (e.g., “I feel mad,” “This is so frustrating!” “I am really sad that I can’t see my best friend.”) Now ask them to place their hands in front of their face so that their eyes are covered, and tell them to go do something they enjoy (play video games, play with their siblings, read a good book). Remind them to leave their hands (their challenges) in front of their eyes. It won’t be long before they notice that they can’t actually do the things they want to with their hands covering their eyes. Ask them to move their hands down and try again. Much easier! Point out that they were now able to do it even with those fingers (difficult thoughts and emotions) present in the room with them. In fact, those hands are a part of their body and will probably always be there in some capacity. But they don’t have to be our focus and we can continue to have fun even while they are there. How cool!
Bring your child into the present moment if they are stuck worrying about the past or the future. One strategy that I teach the kids I work with to bring them back from their mental time travel is the 5-senses exercise (Harris, 2009). As with the other ACTivities, this can be done flexibly and can be adapted for your child. Start by asking your child to take a deep breath and look around the room. Have them notice 5 things in the room that they can see. Then have them close their eyes or focus on a point on the floor and notice 4 things that they can hear. Move slowly onto noticing 3 things they can smell, 2 things they can feel, and one thing they can taste. This brings their focus to stimuli in their current environment.
Teach your child to engage in flexible selfing with regards to the roles and identity of self and others. All for One and One for All exercise (Adapted from Dixon & Paliliunas, 2017) is a fun game for kids to practice seeing that a single thing can have many different roles, even though it never changes its true form. Have your child select an item in the room. For example, they might select a bucket. Then set a timer and ask your child to come up with as many different uses for that item as possible (e.g., something to fill with water when you need to carry water, a drum when you want to play music, something to stand on when you need to get a high up item, a hat when you’re feeling silly, a place to store toys when you need to clean your room, etc.). The worksheet provided in our article has some follow up questions attached that walk your child through a conversation about how they might be able to be lots of different things as different situations arise, just like the bucket, encouraging flexible selfing. This can be applied to the child’s roles as well as the roles of others in their world (teachers, parents, siblings).
Help your child get in tune with their values, and link everything back to that. It’s All Strung Together is a wonderful values exercise that Courtney Tarbox came up with for her own children during the pandemic. It asks children to place a paper circle with their name on it at one end of a string. Next to their name, they place other paper circles, each with thoughts about fun and challenging parts of staying home and practicing social distancing. On the other side of the string, opposite to their name, the children place paper circles with their values / reasons why it is important for them to stay at home and practice social distancing. These values should be unique to the child so that they can truly see that staying home is in service of something that they truly care about (e.g., keeping grandma safe, helping people get back to school sooner, etc.). It may be challenging, but this should be based on your child’s values, and not on the things that you think your child should value. In other words, they should come up with their own values. A detailed description of this exercise can be found inside of our article.
Help your child commit to taking ACTion. In order to put it all together and take ACTion, our team provided a worksheet that walks your child through their struggles, challenges, values, things they can do when these challenges come up, and committed actions that the can take to live a life of meaning and purpose. Check out the attached worksheet titled My ACTion Plan!
Psychological flexibility through ACT is a practice and not something that can be achieved. For me and many other ACT researchers and trainers that I know, ACT is a way of life. It is also important to note that the goal is not to stop having the difficult thoughts and feelings, but rather to be with them and interact with them more flexibly so that they no longer get in the way of doing what is important to you. I am excited for anyone who is ready to begin this journey for yourself or for the people you serve. I have provided resources below for those of you who are interested to get started!
Citation for our article (click the link to check it out!)
Tarbox, C., Silverman, E. A., Chastain, A. N., Little, A., Bermudez, T. L., & Tarbox, J. (2020, April 30). Taking ACTion: 18 Simple Strategies for Supporting Children with Autism During the COVID-19 Pandemic. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/96whj
Dixon, M.R. & Paliliunas, D. (2017). AIM: A behavior analytic curriculum for social-emotional development in children. Shawnee Scientific Press.
Hayes, S. C., Stosah, K.D., & Wilson, K.G. (1999). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. New York: The Guilford Press.
Harris, R. (2009). ACT Made Simple. California: New Harbinger Publications.
ACT therapists in Sacramento
Resources for Children:
Get out of your mind and into your life for teens: A guide to living an extraordinary life by Anne Bailey, Joseph Ciarrochi, and Louise Hayes
The Happiness Trap (the illustrated version) by Russ Harris
Resources for Adults:
Doing What Matters in Times of Stress World Health Organization 2020
A Liberated Mind by Steve Hayes
The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris
Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life By Steve Hayes and Smith Spencer
ACT Made Simple (2nd edition) by Russ Harris
The Big Book of ACT Metaphors by Jill Stoddard & Niloofar Afari
AIM (Accept. Identify. Move.): A Behavior Analytic Curriculum for Social-Emotional Development in Children by Mark Dixon and Dana Paliliunas
About The Author
Amanda Chastain, M.A., BCBA proudly completed her undergraduate work and Master’s degree at California State University, Sacramento, where she studied verbal behavior. She received her clinical experience for her BCBA from H.O.P.E. Consulting, LLC in Fair Oaks, California. In 2019, Ms. Chastain joined the ABA lab at the University of Southern California, where she now serves as a Senior Research Associate focusing on research in Acceptance and Commitment Training. She also works as a Program Director at FirstSteps for Kids, where she provides early intervention support for children with developmental disabilities and actively participates as a member of the research team, helping to expand ACT literature into the autism population. Her primary areas of interest are Acceptance and Commitment Training, human language and cognition, rule-governed behavior, motivation, and private events.


Published: July 17, 2018
By Kristin Nord
OLD LYME, CONN. – If landscape is language, then the New England farm has long been its poetic expression. The region’s rugged topography has mirrored how we identify as Yankees; its hills and valleys – and rocky outcroppings – continue to shape our sense of place. Abandoned farmsteads loom as keepers of hidden stories. And in “Art and the New England Farm,” an exhibition curated by Amy Kurtz Lansing and running through September 16 at the Florence Griswold Museum, we see how artists from the Eighteenth through the Twenty-First Centuries have weighed in.
“I sometimes think that one could write the whole human history of my state in terms of the ‘glacier’ alone,” Connecticut’s one-time Lieutenant Governor Odell Shepard wrote. “The stones of the place whetted the wits of Connecticut inventors, turned us from agriculture toward the industrial life, drove our young men forth…with peddler’s packs on their shoulder…and propelled thousands of pioneers from our rock-strewn valleys into the rich and stoneless lands of the Middle West.”
For Puritans, the family farm, nestled near tidy villages, proclaimed self-sufficiency and a non-hierarchical new order. Never mind that colonists were not dealing with untrammeled wilderness. The fertile Connecticut River Valley had been cultivated by Native Americans for thousands of years. But settlers would impose their own ideas upon this landscape. Soon enough, the tidy town and farm as an integral unit would be but one passing expression of an ever-changing way of life. If British and Scottish settlers originally duplicated the land use patterns of their home regions, over time they expanded upon their pastures, meadows and woodlots, and situated their farmhouses farther from town centers.
The Connecticut River Valley boasted both rich glacial till and a distinctive microclimate ideal for the production of shade tobacco and vegetables. Elsewhere, the clearing of land for planting could be a truly arduous process. The stone walls were built out of necessity, the end result of the routine harvesting of “stone potatoes” and carting them to the edges of the property.
As early as around 1800, leaders in agriculture were engaged in research and experimentation, as seen in Michele Felice Corné’s portrait of the 110-acre endeavor on Ezekial Hershey Derby’s farm in Salem, Mass. Similar impulses would lead Connecticut to establish a land-grant college and the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station by the late 1800s. At the same time, factories, like the woolen mills and cotton mill in an 1836 woodcut by John Warner Barber, suggest that industrialization was underway.
“I like to think of Connecticut not as the Nutmeg State, but as the ‘Provision State,'” Kip Kolesinskas, a conservation scientist, commented recently. “We would not have won the American Revolution without it.” Kolesinskas asserts that the imported traditions of succession had a greater effect on the declining family farm than the challenges of working the land. The completed construction of canals and railroads opened up markets to farmers in the West. This in turn proved fatal to Connecticut’s sheep, apple and salt-hay cultivation. New England farmers, in other words, needed to be nimble. And as Ellsworth Grant asserts in The Miracle of Connecticut, it would appear that settlers were up to the task. “In winter, every farmhouse had to be a domestic workshop, with a spinning wheel and a loom. Grist, saw and fulling mills, as well as blacksmith shops, were common in most villages. Clever artisans turned out tin pots, pans, shoes, hats, buttons and wooden clocks. The state became the leader in the number of patents granted per capita until 1930, he reports.
The farm as pastoral idyll was promulgated in the wildly popular hand-colored prints published by Currier & Ives in the 1860s. These featured sunny scenes by George Henry Durrie of Connecticut farm life insulated from the outside world. For a war-weary country, the appeal of these prints, costing between 50 cents and $3 each, was universal.
By the start of the Twentieth Century, American Impressionists flocking to the Lyme Art Colony were captivated by the beauty of Florence Griswold’s property, with its bounteous flower and vegetable gardens, its orchards and riverfront pastures. “Depictions of the ideal,” according to J.B. Jackson, author of Discovering the Vernacular Landscape, “were preferred to images of drudgery. Most non-farmers preferred to imagine a simple yet noble calling rather than a struggling economic endeavor.”
Both Everett Warner and Breta Longacre captured scenes of converted outbuildings; Carleton Wiggins and Edward C. Volkert were drawn to aspects of the rural farm life that were vanishing. Wiggins saw the allure of his subject matter as part of a homing instinct, for “country-bred people who live in cities, towns or villages but recall their boyhood and the farm surroundings.” Volkert’s emphasis on field hands and a hay wagon and livestock in “Ox with Hay Wagon” resonated with viewers during the 1920s, when physical labor was rapidly being replaced by machines.
Genre paintings romanticized aspects of farm life even as these pursuits were no longer viable. American Impressionist artists Benjamin H. Coe, George Glenn Newell and Mathias Alten painted lyrical compositions that celebrated the hand harvesting of salt hay, a seasonal chore that pressed flat-bottomed scows into service. William Henry Howe, trained in the European tradition of animal portraiture, focused to stunning effect on the manifest otherness of cows.
J. Alden Weir, Childe Hassam and John Henry Twachtman found inspiration on individually owned farm properties which placed them, Twachtman said, “nearer to nature.” And several artists who painted en plein air in Old Lyme set down roots there, creating works that championed verdant fields, vernacular buildings and livestock.
Into this evolving story, the Griswold Farm in Old Lyme followed the regional pattern. The property was purchased in 1841 by the youngest of many Griswold sons in a family that grew up on an ancestral estate nearby. While other siblings went West, lured by the prospects of land, Captain Robert Harper Griswold spent his career as a transatlantic packet-ship captain who transported immigrants and cotton. He bought his property as a wedding gift, intending it to support small-scale farming. At the turn of the century, when the Lyme Art Colony was created, the farm’s natural attributes provided prime subject matter. En plein air artists captured the lushness of the property’s gardens, orchards and meadows, as well as the farm’s converted outbuildings.
Summers were replete with fresh fruits and vegetables. One cannot help but connect today’s farm-to-table movement with the ecstatic renderings of Miss Griswold’s veranda laden with bounteous tables.
“Art and the New England Farm” ends with a poignant coda. Photographic excerpts and text from the book A Year at Tiffany Farms chronicle a final year of a nearby dairy farm that ceased its dairy operations last year. The Tiffany farm had been in operation since 1841, and Judy Friday, an artist who lives nearby, immersed herself in the farm’s story as it moved from season to season. In 1940, she tells us, Connecticut still boasted 6,233 dairy farms. By last year that number had dwindled to 117. Economic and regulatory uncertainties have made it exceedingly difficult for the small dairy farm to survive. As the viewer takes in the beauty of this farm, one must acknowledge that this way of life is no longer sustainable. We may wish to cling to these places, every bit as evocative as those brought to us in Ox-Cart Man, Donald Hall’s award-winning children’s book, but such farms must make room for a new order.
“Perhaps no regional type has attracted to itself more myths and libels than the sensible, self-dependent, God-fearing, freedom-loving, conservative, industrious, stubborn, practical, thrifty, inventive and acquisitive Yankee,” Shepard writes, in Connecticut: Past and Present. The haunting beauty in the remnants of abandoned farmsteads looms and lingers. These elements continue to exert an impact upon our imaginations and remain embedded as fossils a geologist might encounter. For artists Henry Pember Smith, Nelson A. Moore, Chauncey Foster Ryder and Charles Ethan Porter, these remnants underscore the region’s resilience, while for the photographer Walker Evans and artist Thomas Nason we absorb their works as poetic symbols. Milton Avery trumpets the vestigial vitality of farmland in “East Hartford Meadows” with bright color and exuberant brushstrokes.
Today, Connecticut agriculture boasts thriving greenhouse, floriculture, nursery and sod sectors, with annual sales of $252.9 million. Egg, poultry and dairy come next, and shade tobacco, grown under cloth, still produces some of the world’s finest cigar wrappers.
“Americans have come to expect ‘cheap food,'” Kolesinskas notes, observing that moving toward locally grown sustainable agriculture will require education and rethinking. “Someone driving a $50,000 car will give a farmer a hard time about the price of a tomato.” Yankee nimbleness is once again helping Connecticut farmers recast their futures. Long-abandoned land is being farmed again under farmland preservation initiatives. New technologies and value-added products are creating new markets.
“The challenge will be to develop sustainable agricultural models and to protect the ecosystems and mosaic of critical habitat afforded by these lands,” Kolesinskas says.
Florence Griswold Museum is at 96 Lyme Street. For information, www.florencegriswoldmuseum.org or 860-434-5542.
Kristin Nord is a journalist who divides her year between Connecticut and Nova Scotia.
5 Church Hill Road / Newtown, CT 06470
Mon - Fri / 8:00 am - 5:01 pm


Consider a typical examination question: “What are the biological kingdoms?” The expected answer is: “monera, protista, fungi, plantae, animalia.” What a learner needs in order to answer the question is mere familiarity with the terminology and correct spelling. He doesn’t have to understand the meanings of the words. A university graduate who vaguely remembers the expressions ‘laws of motion’, ‘gravity’, ‘acceleration’, and ‘mass’ is familiar with the theory of gravity and motion, but may not understand it. Familiarity with terminologies, taxonomies, or facts as unconnected trivia does not count as understanding.
Mechanically applying a set of concepts and procedures to solve textbook problems involves superficial understanding. Given the initial position and velocity of a canon ball, calculating its terminal position needs only a rudimentary understanding of the theory. Likewise, learners can successfully calculate the positions of planets in the solar system without necessarily understanding the distinction between the concepts of rotation and revolution. The vocabulary of Freudian psycho-analysis can be applied to ‘analyze’ a short story without any understanding of the human mind.
In contrast, applying the concepts and propositions of knowledge to novel and unfamiliar problems calls for conceptual understanding. Solving textbook problems in geometry does not need a conceptual understanding of points, lines, straight lines, and parallel lines. However, proving that a circle is a regular polygon in certain discrete geometries but not in Euclidean geometry does call for a conceptual understanding of the relation between points and lines.
Similarly, teasing apart the different meanings of ‘democracy’ in terms of voting, selection of representatives, self-government, and ‘swaraj’, and figuring out the differences in their consequences, calls for conceptual understanding. It calls for noticing similarities and distinctions, perceiving analogies, making connections, and unifying apparently unrelated ideas. These processes lead to a holistic grasp of the concepts, a feel for what they mean and of how they are connected to one another, and a sense of their relative significance in the larger picture.
Deeper than even conceptual understanding is critical understanding, the understanding of the evidence and arguments for and against a given concept or proposition. Critical understanding calls for an exploration of questions like: “Why should we believe that the earth revolves around the sun?” and “Why should we believe that there was a time when humans lived in nomadic bands, or in tribes of hunter gatherers?” Critically evaluating knowledge claims requires deep understanding at this level. Understanding at the deepest level is the result of a process of critical thinking, inquiry, and integration. It involves developing a sense of plausibility and of what is reasonable, a sense of relevance and of proportion, all leading to the ability to gauge or judge the acceptability of a claim within the norms and criteria that experts use.


Days in the 60s and 70s, and nights in the 50s, all year long…
Rich, black, crumbly, well drained soil…
No winter freezes or brutal summer heat waves…
Plenty of fresh, clean water.
It’s the stuff of a gardener’s dream – the conditions that we clay-infested, erratic-weather-stressed central-Pennsylvania gardeners don’t have.
But there is a place where this plant nirvana exists.
It’s called Salinas Valley, Calif., and the people living there have had the good sense (so far) to exploit most of the acreage for astounding vegetable production.
This 90-mile stretch of Pacific Ocean coastline, about 2 hours south of San Francisco, produces a whopping 50 to 90 percent of many of America’s most-eaten vegetables.
Monterey County, where the Salinas Valley is located, churned out nearly 5 billion dollars worth of crops last year, making it the top-producing agriculture county anywhere in the world.
It’s where America gets the majority of its leaf and head lettuce, strawberries, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, spinach, artichokes, cabbage, and peas.
In short, it’s America’s vegetable garden.
See video of workers harvesting broccoli in California’s Salinas Valley:
Without it, we’d be hurting at the produce section – especially from winter through mid-spring.
This part of the central California coast specializes in cool-season crops, ones we have to cram into that narrow window between winter-frozen soil and early-summer heat.
But in the land of eternal pleasantry, crops such as lettuce, broccoli, spinach and celery can be grown all year. One crop follows another.
Fields of veggies sprawl like oceans of green for mile after mile – a football field of cabbage, then lettuce, then spinach, then cauliflower, then more lettuce, and on and on and on.
The only brown you’ll see are blocks just harvested and getting ready to receive the next crop.
“The goal is three crops per field per year,” says Evan Oakes, a Monterey County Extension educator.
What makes that possible is the fortunate geography of the Salinas Valley. Mountains flank both sides of the valley, which opens up into the cool waters of the Pacific at its northern mouth.
The moist, moderating Pacific air funnels into the valley, which is essentially a nature-made walled garden.
“It never gets hot here,” says Oakes. “We can have days about 80 degrees and nights about 50 degrees for nine months of the year. Winter rarely drops below 40.”
The soil is also magnificent.
“There’s such amazing soil here that we don’t have to use much fertilizer,” Oakes says. “It’s so fertile. Topsoils are close to 100 feet deep in a river valley like this.”
The third key ingredient is water. That one is a little dicier since a single head of lettuce takes more than 3 gallons to grow and a crown of broccoli takes 51/2 gallons.
Monterey County gets only about 15 to 20 inches of rain per year, and most of that falls in the winter. Twelve inches of rain a year or less qualifies as a desert.
That forces Salinas growers to tap underground water and rely almost solely on irrigation to water the plants.
But the Salinas Valley is blessed again there with the Salinas River. Although 90 percent of it is underground, wells start hitting plentiful, clean supplies just 5 to 6 feet down.
The neighboring Carmel Valley with its Carmel River isn’t as fortunate. That source has been sucked down to the point where there’s now a moratorium on new wells.
Getting the crops from field to our tables is done with military-logistics efficiency.
Some crops, such as spinach, lettuce and broccoli, are harvested with a combination of machines and people. Others, such as strawberries, asparagus and artichokes, are harvested by knife-wielding workers who bend over for 8 hours a day, 6 days a week.
It’s hard work, and few Americans are interested in doing it despite the pleasant weather and pay that can approach $20 an hour (plus full benefits).
Almost all of the labor is Mexican.
“This is the first time in our history where we’re having trouble getting enough labor,” says Oakes. “The Latino people are scared to death about coming over the border.”
He says companies typically find American workers do one day and decide that’s enough.
Assuming enough hands are on deck when a crop is ready, most veggies are picked and packed right in the field.
Those boxed strawberries you bought, for example, were touched only once before you opened them – by the picker/packer.
Lettuce and other small greens are the exception. They’re washed three times in chlorinated water before being packed.
“The goal is to pick the crop, pack it by hand in the field, get it to a cooler within an hour or two, and get it on the road,” says Oakes.
Cooling facilities throughout the valley are able to cool picked produce down to 33 degrees in as little as a half-hour. Refrigerated trucks line up outside these plants to haul it throughout the United States as fast as it can be boxed.
Besides cool-season veggies and strawberries, the Salinas Valley produces more than 44 million pounds of mushrooms a year, grows nearly 67,000 acres of assorted organic crops and 44,000 acres of wine grapes a year, and is California’s second-biggest producer of flowers, ornamental plants, and potted plants.
The variety is astounding, mainly because pretty much everything is happy growing in the Salinas Valley.
“When you have water, good soil and this climate, you can go crazy,” says Oakes.
On – 15 Jun, 2017 By George Weigel


Fish population records show that important fish species are collapsing. Will this lead to a famine between the years 2022-2032 as predicted by Mayan Katun Prophecies? I discussed these prophecies in my book Mayan Calendar Prophecies: Predictions for 2012-2052. Read the news article below:
By Dave Mosher, Wired Science, November 19, 2010
By digging up and poring over old books and records of Mediterranean marine life, scientists have filled a 200-year gap in fish population data.
The data, generated from from naturalists’ accounts and fish-market records published between 1818 and 2000, shows the clear decline of fishes in the Adriatic Sea (east of Italy) and provides a crucial baseline comparison for the ongoing collapse of today’s fisheries.
“The understanding of fish communities’ changes over the past centuries has important implications for conservation policy and marine resource management,” the authors wrote in a study published Nov. 17 in the journal PLoS ONE. Ignoring old records, they added, has led to a “historical myopia” in fishery science that underestimates the loss of natural resources.
It’s no puzzle why. Prior to the mid-20th century, large-scale surveys of marine life didn’t happen and, for that matter, there wasn’t the modern-day level of concern about natural resources or the impetus to conserve them. Back then, there were only fish-catch records and naturalists’ qualitative descriptions of life beneath the waves.
[This story continues at: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/old-fish-populations ]


When looking at the recently released SANS/FBI Top 20 list of Internet security vulnerabilities, one is struck by how many items on the list are related to system configuration mistakes.
Many of the vulnerabilities on the list, which is broken down into the top 10 Windows and top 10 Unix vulnerabilities, are flaws caused by operator error.
The Apache Web server, for example, made the Unix half of the list, even though SANS noted its "well-deserved reputation for security."
"[N]o Web server can be considered secure until it is considered in the context of its interaction with Web applications, especially CGI programs and databases," SANS reported. A malicious or poorly written CGI script can prove as dangerous to the server as an actual flaw in the server, SANS said.
The Apache Web server, however, does come quite secure, with its services and functionality turned off.
"Yet all kinds of holes are created when you run, say, a Java application server on top of it," said David Litchfield, a well-known vulnerability-finder and co-founder of Next Generation Security Software, which is based in Sutton, England.
The list also includes other vulnerabilities that result from configuration blunders, including open network shares, missing passwords for services and incorrect permissions and security settings for the Windows Registry. The Windows Registry is a central hierarchical database for managing software, device configurations and user settings.
The genesis of many of these vulnerabilities is that functionality and services are often turned on by default. As such, users have to actively shut off services they don't use.
In actuality, software should come with all services turn off by default; that way users will only have to worry about services that they need, Litchfield said. "It's actually sad in a way. It is cool being able to get down to business right away," he said.
Microsoft Corp. used to follow this strategy, enabling a bunch of functionality out of the box. The company is getting better, but it's not alone in enabling services by default. "Solaris, for example, has a bunch of services turned on including some that can contain buffer overflows and remote access vulnerabilities," Litchfield said.
Yet there seems to be an odd disparity between how one views an unsecured Unix or Linux box and a Windows system. If someone sets up a Linux box that is unsecured and it gets comprised, then people would call that person an idiot, said Tim Mullen, CIO and chief software architect for AnchorIS.com, a developer of secure, enterprise-based accounting software.
By contrast, if it was an unsecured Windows machine then "people would scream Microsoft is evil," Mullen said. One explanation for the difference might be that there is an expectation that people installing Unix or Linux have a higher level of technical knowledge. "Your level of experience has the most to do with how secure a system will be," he said.
For example, Mullen can make a Windows machine very secure, even without service packs, because he knows the system so well. While he can configure a Unix box, it probably wouldn't be as secure, as he doesn't know the platform so well.
Still, security isn't a one-time thing but a continuous process.
"You can have secure software but then a new class of vulnerability emerges that you never thought of, and your software then become insecure," Litchfield said.


Avoid repeating the same idea in different ways the essay also reveals what works cited mla template you can do when you have time to think and work on a writing project. plus, you’ll have to easy homework maintain an adequate style of academic writing. do world hunger essay outline not make a general essay, which simply has different names of sponsoring organizations so here’s what how do you write a essay you should do: how to write a www.homeworks.org literature review writing a literature review is perhaps the sample of sample essay writing best piece how to do a writing sample of literature that a student can work with. this type of paper needs a specific format. how do you write a essay don’t dr faustus essay just recount—reflect! care about what you’re writing. sep 26, 2017 · your essay’s body paragraphs should include topic sentences followed by an explanation of the point with how do you write a essay textual evidence. you need to help on essay writing cite your sources properly so you how do you write a essay can acknowledge the things that these essay why do i write documents …. aug 15, 2019 · an argumentative essay is a piece of writing that takes a stance on an issue. jan 16, 2019 · how to write a good essay introduction? Ending an essay with the same scenario might prediction. the example essay is one of the most basic essays in academic writing, but can be extremely difficult if you’ve never written one or do not know what to write about. writing …. sep 04, 2018 · in order to make a point, you have to have martin luther king jr.letter from birmingham jail summary one.


This body fat calculator measures the fat percentage and the lean body weight but also the BMI and BMR values to maintain a healthy body. You can read below the form about the body fat values and what these can indicate.
How does the body fat calculator work?
This weight tool can estimate the level of fat in the body, the lean body weight as well as offer values for the two important indicators: BMI (body mass index) and BMR (basal metabolic rate).
All you have to do is enter the data required then the body fat calculator will do the work and return you an estimate for your body status. You need to input the age and gender then some basic measurements, whether you like to use English or metric, you are asked for height, weight and neck and waist dimensions. This form uses the U.S Navy Method to estimate the fat percentage. Its formula is:
Body fat men=495/(1.0324-0.19077(Log(waist-neck))+0.15456(Log(height)))-450
Body fat women=495/(1.29579-0.35004(Log(waist+hip-neck))+0.22100(Log(height)))-450
Let’s take for instance the case of a 34 year old female, weighing 165 lbs at a height of 5ft 4in, with a waist of 35 in and neck dimension of 13 in. We also need to add the hip measurement that is in this case 47 in and the level of activity which is sedentary. The result is:
■ Your Body Fat is 44.7%;
■ Body Fat: 33.46 kg;
■ Lean Body Weight is: 41.39 kg;
■ Your Weight is: Overweight;
■ Your BMI is: 27.5;
■ Your BMR is: 1,510.9 calories/day;
■ Minimum Calorie requirement is: 1,813 daily calories/day.
What is the body fat percentage?
This is a measure of fitness level or an indicator of the body shape and it can be obtained by dividing the estimated amount of body fat to the total body mass.
The range of the body fat percentage released by The American Council on Exercise:
Measurement techniques for body fat
- Using BMI
- Using height and circumference
- Underwater weighing
- Body average density
1) Jackson AS, Stanforth PR, Gagnon J, Rankinen T, Leon AS, Rao DC, Skinner JS, Bouchard C, Wilmore JH. (2002) The effect of sex, age and race on estimating percentage body fat from body mass index: The Heritage Family Study. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord;26(6):789-96.
2) Siri WE. (1961) Body composition from fluid spaces and density: Analysis of methods. In Brozek J, Henzchel A. Techniques for Measuring Body Composition. Washington: National Academy of Sciences. pp. 224–244.24 Dec, 2014


This game reviews the diphthong NG. Words that follow the ing, ang, ong, and ung spelling pattern are included.
Looking for more NG Activities?
Rock, Paper, Scissors NG Games
NG Spelling Printables
Find the Star Game
How to play:
Print the cards. Cut them out. You could laminate or print on card stock for durability. Lay the word cards flat on a table hiding one of the stars behind one of the word cards. Do not let students see you hide it. Students will take turns reading the cards one by one. After they read a card correctly they can lift the card and see if they found the star. Whoever finds the star first is the winner! Could be played whole group using a pocket chart. Students will love practicing /ng/ words with this game!
Read and Write the Room
How to Play:
Print out the word cards. Hang the cards around your classroom. You can make them as easy or hard to find as you would like. Give students a recording sheet. Students will look around the room and find the words. As they find them they record them on the recording sheet. You could leave the pictures up for a week, and have students work on finding them throughout the week as they finish up independent work, or just use it as a one time activity. Either way it is a great way to practice reading and writing /or/ words, and is aligned to the Common Core. Enjoy!
Reading Fluency Game
How to Play:
This is card game. Print and laminate or print on cardstock for long-term use.
To Play: Players will take turns picking and reading a word. If a special card is drawn, follow the
directions on the card. (go again, lose a turn) The game is over when the cards are gone or when time is up. Winner has the most word cards.


Since we always want websites to load as fast as possible, this is a great thing. But what if a resource changes? How does the browser know whether to load its cached version or to load it all over again?
Websites can tell browsers how long to store different types of resources using HTTP headers. Here’s an example of an expires header:
The above code is telling the browser to store CSS and Javscript files for one year after they were accessed. Then it tells them to store images for one month, and the HTML will always be loaded fresh from the server.
So, what if one of those files changes before time is up?
If the browser is loading an outdated resource, things could start to look crazy on your page. When this happens, all bets are off. Images could be stretched or compressed, the colors and sizes of elements on the page could be wrong, or expected interactions could be broken.
Should things go haywire, it’s time to bust your cache. Busting your cache will force your browser to re-download all the resources from the server again, ensuring it gets the most up to date versions. You might delete all cached files that your browser is storing from all over the Internet, but chances are you would rather just download the files from the site you’re trying to view right now. You can do this by performing a ‘Hard’ or ‘Force’ Refresh on the current page.
On Windows, you’ll want to press
Ctrl + F5 (in Chrome it can also be done by pressing
Ctrl + Shift + F5). You can also hold down the
Ctrl key while you click on the refresh button in your browser.
On a Mac, you can hard refresh with
Cmd + Shift + R. Again, you can perform the same action by holding
Cmd + Shift while clicking the refresh button.
That’s all there is to it. After that, your browser will reload the page and download all the resources again, this time saving the new files to its cache for quicker loading next time.


. Distribution of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) can be viewed from geospatial perspective elaborating temperature, rain fall, humidity, and certain land uses information. Remote sensing and GIS approach can be used as effective tool on dengue prevention and control policies. The aim of this study was to identify vulnerable dengue areas in Banjar, West Java through image verification. This study is an observational study with cross sectional analysis conducted in Banjar in March to October 2012 with a sample from the entire population suffering from dengue at all ages as well as environmental conditions. As for the single sample larvae method. Results showed that the area of DF high vulnerability zones in Banjar was 18.29%,, moderate zone (63.45%) and less vulnerable zone (18.27%). The map verification was done high and moderate vulnerability zones were classified into dengue-prone classes, while low vulnerability zone was grouped into dengue-free zone. In conclusion, the accuracy was reached 94.74% and it was indicated that dengue cases was mostly spreaded in dengue-prone areas.


With the discovery of the world’s largest cave early last year, international visitors have been putting down huge sums of cash to explore its forests and waterfalls.
Vietnam’s beaches and mountains are popular draws for tourists visiting Vietnam but there’s one attraction that takes the cake – Son Doong (which literally translates to Mountain River), the world’s largest known cave.
The Son Doong cave was discovered in 1991, but the steep drop into its mouth scared locals away. According to lore, locals were afraid of the cave because of the shrill whistling sound made by its fast-flowing underground river.
British cavers were the first to explore the cave in 2009. And what they found was like nothing they’d ever seen — not only does the 5 mile-long cave sport numerous waterfalls and even a forest, but at one point it’s tall enough to fit a 40 story skyscraper.
As one can imagine, the forest within the mouth of the cave supports a web of life and the cave itself contains many unique geological features. Monkeys enter the cave to eat snails and poisonous centipedes are found in abundance throughout. Abnormally large cave beads the size of baseballs have been found on its floor, and huge drops and unusually sharp rock formations are plentiful.
Small tour operators now have government approval to guide travelers through the Son Doong cave. Last August, the first group of individuals from Australia, Norway, Russia, the United States and the UK paid $3000 each to trek through the cave.
The beauty and diversity within the cave adds to the appeal as well as the risks of exploring. In spite of the risks, the remoteness and high cost, there’s a long waiting list explore the cave. Or maybe these are the things that explain its newfound popularity.
Vietnam is truly full of surprises.


As Canadian democracy becomes more mythological every day, I find myself cheering for Fair Vote Canada even more. Our electoral system is antiquated and grossly unfair, because, of course, it was established in the 18th Century. Before automobiles, telephones or television.
Things have changed. A lot. There have been occasional changes to our electoral system, but it seeme to me that they have all been made in the spirit of bolstering the ruling political party that has made them. The elements that were supposed to provide oversight (such as Governor General, Lieutenant Governor, Senate) have all been disempowered to the point where Canadian voters mostly have even less say in our government than we did back in 1867.
So I very much support Fair Vote Canada. This is the second year for Fair Vote’s Democracy Week. It began this year on September 15th, the International Day of Democracy. Fair Vote held a Democracy Fair on King Street in Waterloo, yesterday as part of Open Streets.
Tonight Waterloo Region’s Fair Vote Chapter presents:
Electoral Reform 101
7 PM at the Lyle S. Hallman School of Social Work
120 Duke Street West, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
“Wondering what the talk of electoral reform is all about? Why do we need it? What does proportional representation mean? Come learn the basics with this presentation and bring your questions!”
Hope to see you there!


"...sounds that span the diapason from tempest to tinkling raindrop, from cataract to bubbling fountain."— John Wesley PowellIn his poetic description of sounds, Powell used the word diapason, a musical term denoting the interval of an octave.
The Powell Geographic Expedition of 1869 chronicled the first recorded passage through the the Grand Canyon by men of European origin.
|The Boats in Marble Canyon|
John Wesley Powell's 2nd expedition, 1872
Diapason is a word also used in the metaphoric sense of a grand swelling of harmony.
Harmony with nature is a popular human construct. The General Assembly of the United Nations established International Mother Earth Day in 2009 to recognize "the Earth and its ecosystems are our home." The General Assembly resolved that "it is necessary to promote harmony with nature and the Earth."
Promoting harmony is a compelling, but idealized fiction. Organisms, and in particular humans, follow few if any altruistic rules. Organisms exist within dynamic constraints like predation pressure and food supply.
The biosphere is made up of dynamic and inter-dependent constraints. Constraints in the biosphere are more complex but not unlike the consumer economics concept of supply and demand. As early as the first agricultural revolution, humans have sought to defy constraints from an unpredictable food supply to the force of gravity.
Since the transition from mobile scavenging communities of hunter gatherers to the more predictable and geographically stationary communities of crop cultivation around 10,000 BC, humans have been shedding constraints and burning up resources with little recognition of the consequences.
To humans, the available resources to exploit seemed limited by ingenuity, rather than by the recognition of finite supply. Animals often act against their interests when constraints diminish. When predation pressure from foxes diminishes, herbivores like rabbits might spike in population, then overgraze a finite range of plants.
Dispassionate examination of ecological dynamics is more instructive and essential to our viability than the romantic allure of proposing to live in harmony with nature. Our existential plight depends on our recognition of the consequences of pursuing our desires with few constraints beyond the degradation of the biosphere and the hard stop of finite resources.
|The Derelict (The Lost Boat)|
by Arthur Wesley Dow
The challenge of our time is recognizing the grand swelling of harmony in each moment with the full range of our senses, while simultaneously recognizing the compass of consequences of self-serving behavior.
- Diapason, Wikipedia.
- Why is the human race unable to live in harmony with nature and itself, like animals?, Steven McQuinn, Quora.com, 17 April 2015.


What is Reuse?
Reduce-Reuse-Recycle, is a slogan that has been around for years, but the “re-use” part is often overlooked. Reuse is different from recycling because materials and products are used “as is” without needing to be processed or re-manufactured. By seeking out opportunities for others to reuse your materials you will reduce the volume and associated costs of waste disposal, preserve raw materials from unnecessary production, and provide a benefit to your community. “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
How can you make it happen?
For businesses and institutions, there are a mix of resources available to help make reuse happen. Some are focused on business materials. Others have a more traditionally residential base, but also accept business-generated materials. In all cases, materials should meet the recipient’s specifications. Please check the details of what is accepted, operating hours, and handling requirements in order to have a smooth transaction.
Building materials have high reuse potential. Learn more.
Check out the Northeast Reuse Marketplace to post materials online through a regional exchange.
Many charitable organizations accept materials such as furniture, office equipment, appliances, books, and clothing for donation and reuse. You could also set up an in-house “take it or leave it” area for things your business may generate that employees may find useful. Surplus office supplies or furniture, packing supplies, crates, pallets, or 5-gallon pails are some examples of materials that can be used by employees for personal use.
Check out our Reuse Resources for more ideas that can help your business maximize re-use opportunities.


The diamonds on earth are very rare and small in size, but diamonds found in space are present in abundance. These diamonds are also known as extraterrestrial diamonds.
Have you thought of a planet where it rains diamonds? In our solar system, ice giants Neptune and Uranus have ample of diamonds. Even meteorites have nano diamonds. An alien planet known as Super - Earth is made up of diamond. It is situated nearby our Milky Way. A space has numerous diamonds found in meteorites, interior of planets, stars and cosmic dust. They are a billion year old.
Every natural diamond found on earth has a unique internal structure, that makes diamonds valuable and forever. Diamonds with different colours always have a great value. They create perfect stones for high value jewellery. Carbonado or black diamonds are the examples of extraterrestrial diamonds. These black diamonds may come from outer space. They were found in Brazil and Central African Republic.
In outer space, diamonds are formed when meteorites collide with asteroids. The age of diamonds on earth is roughly 3.5 billion years. They are formed in the earth’s crust as deep as 500 to 600 miles down. They come to the earth’s surface due to volcanic eruptions. Diamonds on any planet is an evidence that water. Every year there are 1000 tons of diamonds created on the Saturn. Chunks of diamonds float in the atmosphere of Jupiter. At high pressure, they melt and rain liquid diamond on Jupiter’s surface.


This Broadstar's AeroCam turbine design (pictured) is a head-turner. We can't describe it any better than our source:
[the] new design is based on principles first established by the French aeronautical engineer Georges Jean Marie Darrieus (1888-1979), who invented a wind turbine capable of operating from any direction and under adverse weather conditions. Darrieus machines typically have a vertical axis, whereas the AeroCam design has a horizontal axis with multiple blades, giving it the appearance of a water wheel. The major innovation in the design, however, is the ability to automatically and interactively adjust the pitch or angle of attack of the aerodynamic blades as the turbine rotates, thereby optimizing its performance for much the same reasons a bird changes the shape of its wing in flight.The Broadstar website page for media downloads has some very helpful depictions of how the device might be integrated into conventional windfarms, on building roofs, and so on.
Via::Energy Daily, BroadStar Achieves Breakthrough In Low-Cost Energy Production With New Generation Wind Turbine Image credit::Broadstar


A study by Alexandra L. C. Martiniuk, M.Sc, Ph.D., of The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney, Australia, and colleagues suggests less sleep per night is associated with a significant increase in the risk for motor vehicle crashes for young drivers. (Online First)
Questionnaire responses were analyzed from 19,327 newly licensed drivers from 17 to 24 years old who held a first-stage provisional license between June 2003 and December 2004. Researchers also analyzed licensing and police-reported crash data, with an average of 2 years of follow up.
On average, individuals who reported sleeping 6 or fewer hours per night had an increased risk for crash compared with those who reported sleeping more than 6 hours. Less weekend sleep was significantly associated with an increased risk for run-off-road crashes. Crashes for individuals who had less sleep per night (on average and on weekends) were significantly more likely to occur between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.
"This provides rationale for governments and health care providers to address sleep-related crashes among young drivers," the study concludes.
JAMA Pediatr. Published online May 20, 2013. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.1429


The British Isles are home to two species of the Pinnipedia order, and both are members of the Phocidae (or earless seal) family. They occupy an almost unique place in the human psyche; we may be astounded by whales, impressed by dolphins, excited by badgers and childlike about rabbits, but there seems to be genuine affection for the blubbery pinnipeds. They have become perfectly adapted to the marine environment at the expense of mobility on land. Their bodies are a wonderfully-streamlined torpedo shape, the hindlimbs are short to act as rudders, and the forelimbs have become perfect flippers for swimming with. Skin between the digits of hands and feet is stretched to make swimming more efficient. These adaptions have made movement on land difficult, however. The short hindlimbs do not give much traction, and the forelimbs are unable to move forward far enough to properly support the body. It is little surprise that they spend most of their lives in the water, even sleeping in it!
Seals have, however, often had a fraught relationship with fishermen, with whom they have to compete for food sources. They are often caught in nets (one study in the year 2000 suggesting that the Cornish grey seal was dying in monkfish nets more quickly than it could reproduce) and, though it may be hard to believe, occasional culls were only stopped in 1983 in response to public outcry. It is legal to kill a seal if it is found near a fishery.
Common or Harbour seal Phoca vitulina
The common seal is not an endangered species and is believed to be the most widespread of all pinnipeds. It is found around most of the north and east of the country from East Anglia and the Wash right around the Scottish Islands to Northern Ireland – and occasionally turns up in larger estuaries, even being recorded in the Thames every now and then.
It spends most of its time in the shallows and is at its most active in the daytime, making the common seal's regular appearances around human habitations popular events. In June and July, it forms breeding colonies. Although common seals are believed to be monogamous, it seems that they are not territorial and there is no particular social structure. While the colony rests, the bulls will take turns to keep a look-out for predators.
Grey or Atlantic seal Halichoerus grypus
This species is rather different in behaviour to its common cousin. It is endangered, and it has been estimated that the British Isles are the breeding ground for around two-thirds of the world's population. It can be found anywhere from the south Devon coast, through Cornwall, the Scillies, Lundy, south Wales and western Ireland and as far round the Scottish coast as the Orkneys and Hebrides. Their activity is variable depending on factors such as weather and tide, and with no apparent preference for day or night. It is only occasionally found in estuaries, and even then only in those that are free of any pollution.
The grey seal breeds in October and also forms colonies, usually on rocky shores, and in this species a bull will take control of a territory with breeding rights over a number of female 'cows'. Colonies may take over some smaller islands completely, and stray further from the sea than common seals – the highest altitude recorded is a mighty 85 metres!
Other seals have been recorded around the British Isles. All are polar species who have on rare occasions made it to the north of Scotland, and are not considered to be 'native'. They are:
- Harp seal, Phoca groenlandica - has been spotted on ice floes out to sea.
- Ringed seal, Phoca hispida - the world’s smallest seal, usually found off Greenland and in the Baltics.
- Bearded seal, Erignathus barbatus - occurs all around the Arctic Circle and has occasionally been found on Scottish islands.
- Hooded seal, Cystophora cristata - a North American species that very rarely arrives on British coasts.


Dyscalculia: News from the web:
Dr Kinga Morsanyi and the team from the School of Psychology studied the mathematics performance of 2,421 primary school children over a number of school years.
The researchers said they expected the number of pupils with dyscalculia to be similar to those with dyslexia, however from the children studied, 108 children had received an official diagnosis of dyslexia, but just one child had officially been diagnosed with dyscalculia.
Based on the results of the study, the researchers found 112 children who are likely to have the condition.
Dr Morsanyi said: “In society, there is sadly a widespread notion that you need a special talent to be good at maths, and that struggling with maths is normal for some people, but this is not the case and it’s not something we would accept if a pupil was unable to read.”
The study, which was funded by The Nuffield Foundation, found that in almost all cases children who appear to have dyscalculia are not being diagnosed.
Read all about it: HERE


Answered By: Daren Mansfield Last Updated: 04 Aug 2021 Views: 132
The University provides the mind mapping tool Inspiration 8. Mind mapping tools are great for any student, especially dyslexic students, wishing to organise their thoughts and visually plan their assignments. You can choose diagrams, pictures, symbols and colours that work for you. Every new idea may be added as branches, and you can select symbols or pictures from the left-hand side of the screen before adding your text underneath the symbol or picture.
To use Inspiration 8:
- Click 'Start' on the task bar
- Select 'All Programs'
- Click 'Accessories'
- Select 'Inspiration 8' folder


A small, attractive, docile and easy to rear species of Cyriocosmus, found in Colombia.
|Adult Size||Up to 5cm|
A small species of tarantula with a maximum legspan of 5cm. What they lack in size they make up for in colour. The carapace base is orange to tan with a black triangle similar to that of Brachypelma emilia. Noticably, they also have an irregular black patterning running down the flanks of the carapace near to the abdomen join. The abdomen itself is black overall and has the same orange to tan tiger striping; side to side. This is joined by another irregular circular type pattern in the centre. The legs are dark in colour, but after the patella (knee joint) a white to cream striping forms in the centre of the leg.
This species originates from Colombia (northern tip of South America) which lies between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn and close to the Equator line. Exact location data isn't available for this species or is very difficult to find. The landscape of Colombia consists of Amazon rainforest, tropical grasslands, Andes mountains, coastlines and coffee plantations.
House this species in a terrestrial style plastic tank or glass enclosure with enough height to allow them to burrow. Keep spiderlings in plastic vials or deli containers until they are of a size that prevents them from escaping.
Heat the enclosure by space heating the area in which the tank is situated (e.g. oil filled radiator) or use a heat mat placed against the side of the enclosure which is connected to a thermostat. Aim to maintain temperatures between 24-26ºC daytime, with a night-time drop to 20ºC. Maintain humidty at 75-80% by lightly misting the enclosure with a hand sprayer, but avoid the substrate becoming saturated. The use of a water bowl is optional, but don't use one too large.
For substrate provide a minimum layer of 7-10cm of loose coir, peat or one of the specialist invert blends. This will encourage natural burrowing behaviour.
Create a simple hide by using cork bark sunken into the substrate, this encourages burrowing behaviour and helps them feel secure. Don't be alarmed if your spider ignores the retreat and sits out in the open.
Larger specimens won't usually eat more than a couple of suitable sized prey items per week. Offer a variety of suitably sized live food including crickets, mealworms, cockroaches and locusts.


11 Feb Watch a TV show episode involving crime and personalit
Watch a TV show episode involving crime and personality disorders. Examples of shows include Criminal Minds, CSI, Law and Order, or something similar.
1,400- to 1,750 analysis of the episode. Include the following:
- Summarize the episode you watched.
- Outline the personality disorders that were present.
- Describe the symptoms of the personality disorders.
- Describe possible treatment interventions for the criminal displayed in the show.
- Describe possible difficulties that may be faced during treatment.
- Address challenges the offender or offenders in the show might reentering society after their incarceration.
- Suggest steps that could be taken to reduce recidivism for the offender or offenders.
Our website has a team of professional writers who can help you write any of your homework. They will write your papers from scratch. We also have a team of editors just to make sure all papers are of HIGH QUALITY & PLAGIARISM FREE. To make an Order you only need to click Ask A Question and we will direct you to our Order Page at WriteDemy. Then fill Our Order Form with all your assignment instructions. Select your deadline and pay for your paper. You will get it few hours before your set deadline.


Fri., June 25 5:08 8:20
Sat., June 26 5:08 8:20
Sun., June 27 5:08 8:20
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Tues., June 29 5:09 8:20
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Thurs., July 1 5:10 8:19
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Tonight’s full moon, the Summer Moon, resides in the zodiacal constellation Sagittarius. This moon is the southern-most full moon of the year.
While the sun may rise at its highest in the ecliptic this week, the full moon tonight is as far south as it gets. Sagittarius is a summer constellation. It is also known as the location of the center of the Milky Way, our spinning galaxy.
The night is filled with planets. The brightest planet of the night, Venus, hangs high in the western sky after sunset. Venus appears just above the tree line for most.
The red planet Mars is higher in the west, a short distance along the zodiac from Venus. Mars is near the bright star Regulus in the zodiacal constellation Leo. Mars is as distant from the Earth as Venus, but it is dramatically dimmer than our nearest neighbor. Venus is bigger and covered in a never-clearing blanket of clouds, making it brighter.
Higher still in the western sky is the bright planet Saturn. Saturn is in the zodiacal constellation Virgo. Saturn is about the same magnitude as Mars, but seems to shine slightly brighter. The reason? Our eyes aren’t as accustomed to red objects as to a yellowish white planet like Saturn.
The largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, rises in the east after midnight. Jupiter is in the zodiacal constellation Pisces.


How is it possible that one twin of a monozygotic twin pair develops cancer or depression and the other twin remains free of physical or mental illness? The answer is simple: if identical twins have spent large part of their adult lives exposed to different environments they are not identical anymore. Their genome undergoes epigenetic (Greek epi=’above’ the genome) modifications that impact gene expression without actually changing the sequence of the DNA letters. ‘Epigenetics’ can be defined as the study of biochemical modifications of the DNA influencing gene expression without altering the structural base-pair sequence itself. The epigenome is not a stable entity but is designed to dynamically interact with the environment. Although during the life course changes in structural DNA sequences (mutations) occur rarely, epigenetic changes resulting in permanent alterations in gene expression, including silencing of genes, occur more frequently than we ever had imagined. Child development might be conceptualized as experiences becoming sculpted in the organism’s DNA through methylation, one of the major epigenetic mechanisms of change.
The application of epigenetics to the study of child development is a fascinating next step in unraveling the intricate interplay between rearing environment and the child’s genome shaping child development. New questions about intergenerational transmission of epigenetic changes, and reversibility of DNA methylation in children through psychosocial intervention or pharmacological treatment emerge. From an epigenetic perspective divisions between genes, brain and behavior are artificial as the environment becomes embodied in the epigenome. It is the epigenomic modified DNA sequence that results in protein synthesis which in turn canalizes development. In fact, to a large extent nature is nurture. Methylation matters if one wants to understand how the early environment leaves its lasting imprint on the child.
Although the number of studies on methylation in humans have increased quite dramatically in recent years, little is known about its stability across time and similarity across tissues, or its validity as marker of human behavior. Some recent studies of our team are the following.
An epigenome-wide association study of maternal prenatal stress and neonatal methylation patterns in cord blood revealed some suggestive hits in the Generation R sample (N = 912) that did not replicate in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC, N = 828). Combining data from the two population-based samples in a meta-analysis, we found no large effects of prenatal maternal stress exposure on neonatal DNA methylation. Epigenetic results might be difficult to replicate because of various confounding influences that differ between studies.
In two other studies we examined the role of methylation in modulating the correlates of OXTR genotype. The OXTR rs53576 (G/A) variation was targeted to explain variation in children’s autistic symptoms and adult depressive disorder. In Generation R main and interactive effects of OXTR rs53576 genotype, prenatal maternal stress exposure, and OXTR methylation on child autistic symptoms were studied in N = 680 6-years old children whose cord blood was used for genotyping and assessment of methylation. Prenatal maternal stress exposure, but not OXTR rs53576 genotype or OXTR methylation, was related to child autistic symptoms. In addition, we found a significant OXTR rs53576 genotype by OXTR methylation interaction effect: OXTR methylation levels were positively associated with autistic symptoms for OXTR rs53576 GG children but not for A-allele carriers.
In a sample of 43 clinically depressed women recruited from a psychosomatic inpatient unit and 42 healthy female control subjects, DNA methylation profiles of the OXTR gene were assessed from leukocyte DNA. Depressed female patients had decreased OXTR exon 1 DNA methylation compared to non-depressed women. The association between depression and methylation level was moderated by OXTR rs53576 genotype. Exon 2 methylation was associated with OXTR rs53576 genotype but not with depression.
Our results highlight the promises of incorporating epi-allelic information in study designs, but they also show the slow progress and various pitfalls and problems facing researchers in this field.
Rijlaarsdam, Pappa, Walton et al (2016).Epigen. An epigenome-wide ass Meta-Analysis prenatal maternal stress in neonates
Rijlaarsdam, Van IJzendoorn, Verhulst et al (2016). Autism_Research prenatal stress OXTR methylation autism Proofs
Reiner et al (2015). Methylation of the Oxytocin receptor gene
VanIJzendoorn, Bakermans-Kranenburg, Ebstein 2011 Methylation Matters in Child Development, pdf file
VanIJzendoorn, Caspers, Bakermans-Kranenburg, Beach, Philibert 2010 Methylation Matters: Interaction Between Methylation Density and Serotonin Transporter Genotype, pdf file


Aims and Ethos
“To prepare its pupils to make a meaningful contribution to the global society in which they now live through developing an extraordinary blend of social responsibility, character development, academic excellence and a passion for learning and Jewish literacy.
To be respected and valued in a safe and nurturing environment that is dedicated to developing the wisdom, knowledge and joy of learning.”
The motto, written on the school crest, is from the book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) chapter II v 26. “Chachma, Ve Daat Ve Simchah” which translates as: Wisdom, Knowledge and Joy.
The educational vision of Rimon has five key values that underpin the entire curriculum:
- Rigorous pursuit of academic achievement
- Thorough and inspiring approach to the teaching of Judaism
- Encouraging international awareness in our students
- Creating and developing environmental awareness
- Personalised Learning through a commitment to excellent SEN provision


The dynamics of Chironomidae (Insecta: Diptera) assemblages in response to environmental change during the past 700 years on Svalbard
Peer reviewed, Journal article
MetadataShow full item record
Original versionJournal of Paleolimnology 2004 31 (4): 483-498 https://doi.org/10.1023/b:jopl.0000022547.98465.d3
The impact of recent natural and human-induced environmental change on chironomid faunas on Svalbard has been investigated. The modern chironomid fauna was studied from surface-sediment samples collected from 23 lakes in western Svalbard. A total of 18 taxa was found, of which three had not been recorded previously from Svalbard. The influence of water chemistry and physical variables on the distribution and abundance of the modern chironomid assemblages was investigated using correspondence analysis (CA) and multiple regression. The chironomid assemblages fall into four groups, which are primarily influenced by pH, nutrient concentrations, water temperature, and water depth. Sediment cores were taken from three lakes to investigate changes in chironomid assemblages over the last 700 years. At two of the sites there is evidence for a response to regional climatic change occurring about 200 years ago and may have been associated with the ‘Little Ice Age’. At the third site there is a response to local catchment changes, probably brought about, initially, by the establishment of a human settlement close to the lake 70 years ago, and subsequently, as a result of the abandonment of this settlement in 1988.
This is the sixth in a series of nine papers published in this special issue dedicated to recent environmental change on Svalbard. H.J.B. Birks, Vivienne J. Jones, and Neil L. Rose were guest editors of this special issue.


Fry with a Post-It note (his invention) on his forehead
|Born||August 19, 1931|
|Known for||The Post-it|
Arthur Fry (born 19 August 1931) is a retired American inventor and scientist. He is credited as the co-creator of the Post-it note, an item of office stationery manufactured by 3M. As of 2006, Post-it note products are sold in more than 100 countries.
Fry was born in Minnesota and subsequently lived in Iowa and Kansas City. He received his early education in a one-room rural schoolhouse. In 1953, while still enrolled in undergraduate school, Fry took a job at 3M (then called Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company) as a new product development researcher. He worked in new product development throughout his career at 3M until his retirement in the early 1990s.
The item for which he is best known was born in 1974. That year, Fry attended a seminar given by another 3M scientist, Spencer Silver, on a unique adhesive Silver had developed in 1968. Silver's innovation had an unusual molecular structure, yielding an adhesive strong enough to cling to objects but weak enough to allow for a temporary bond. At the time, Silver was still searching for a marketable use for his invention.
As the legend goes, Fry was at school when he came up with the perfect application. Fry sang in his church choir on nights, and he used slips of paper to mark the pages of his work book. When the book was opened, however, the makeshift bookmarks often moved around or fell out altogether. On a Sunday in 1973, it occurred to him that Silver's adhesive could be put to use to create a better bookmark. If it could be coated on paper, Silver's adhesive would hold a bookmark in place without damaging the page on which it was placed.
The next day, Fry requested a sample of the adhesive. He began experimenting, coating only one edge of the paper so that the portion extending from a book would not be sticky. Fry used some of his experiments to write notes to his boss. This use led him to broaden his original idea into the concept that became the Post-it note.
It took a few years for the concept to come to fruition, due to both technical problems with production and management's doubts about the product's saleability. Post-it notes were released to the national market in 1980. In 1981, 3M named Post-it notes its Outstanding New Product. In 1980 and 1981, the Post-it note team received 3M's Golden Step Award, given to teams who create major new products that are significantly profitable. 3M named Fry a corporate researcher in 1986. He is also a member of 3M's Carlton Society and Circle of Technical Excellence.
In 2003 the Post-it Note was a central role in a new play titled Inside a Bigger Box that premiered in New York at the 78th Street Theatre Lab (written by Trish Harnetiaux and directed by Jude Domski.) In conjunction with the show Harnetiaux, Domski and the artist non-profit NurtureART curated an International Post-it Note Art exhibit and a panel discussion took place with various artists. Post-it Note inventor Arthur Fry participated in the panel which was curated by current MOMA head of design Paola Anton.
During the summer of 2004, Fry acted as a judge for eCybermission, an Army sponsored Math and Science competition.
In 2008 Post-it helped sponsor a drama series in Taiwan, Fated To Love You, a romantic comedy about a hard-working young woman who would complete any task left to her on a Post-it. The drama constantly features Post-it notes in the story line, and in episode 9 the lead male character cited Art Fry as creator of Post-it Notes as well as the success the product had for 3M.
- Century of Innovation: The 3M Story (PDF) - From the 3M United States website.
- Art Fry and the Invention of Post-it Notes - From the 3M United States website.
- Inventor of the Week Archive: Art Fry & Spencer Silver - From the Lemelson-MIT program websent Bio of Art Fry, 3M] - From the innovateEurope conference website.
- Fated To Love You official website from TTV


Below is the abstract of a recent working paper I have uploaded on my academia page which studies living standards and labour market decisions in Lower Canada in the early 1830s when the timber trade was beggining its boom. It can be consulted here on my academia page.
ABSTRACT: From 1800 to 1840, the economy of Quebec (then called Lower Canada) is normally described as experiencing either a “malaise” or an outright crisis. Yet, the data do not support a decline in living standards. Such claims result from a fixation on agricultural production, and a failure to notice the interaction between agricultural production and other – chiefly rural – industries. I propose that peasants attempted to optimize the use of their factor endowments, hence exhibiting no signs of irrationality, by shifting their supply of labour between different activities at the expense of agricultural activities. Using parish-level data from the 1831 census of Lower Canada, I conclude that the timber trade had a large and negative effect on agricultural production. This indicates that peasants diverted labour inputs away from agriculture when the timber trade became a more remunerative alternative. Variables linked to ethnicity are not significant. These results have serious implications on estimates of living standards in the colony prior to Confederation and suggest that they may have been underestimated. The economic approach used and the results generated also has important implications for the study of the institution of seigniorial tenure and suggests that it may have hindered industrial development.


…a novel, inexpensive, stereoscopic technique for generating 3D images from cellophane on a liquid crystal displays which are most typically used for a laptop screen or a camera phone screen. Stereoscopy requires independent manipulation of the left and right eye views. Our technique takes advantage of two facts; the first is that the light from the liquid crystal display of either a laptop computer or a camera phone is polarized light, and therefore we can easily manipulate its transmission with a polarizer sheet. The second fact is that a cellophane half-waveplate can change the direction of polarization of light. [via] Link.


Philippine politics is largely controlled by the economic elite. Electoral competition did not revolve around class differences. Instead, politics was a game played within the elite classes, who manipulated and controlled the political process. The election process is the main mechanism where people participate to select those who will pass laws, formulate policies and govern. Patronage politics and "guns, goons and gold” thwart the people's There is no substantial people's participation in decision-making and governance.
The unequal distribution of wealth, unequal participation in decision-making and political power does not contribute to a stable peace and order situation. Communist rebels, Muslim groups, Christian vigilante groups and the Armed Forces of the Philippines still continue their armed conflicts, causing the displacement of thousands of families every year (internal refugees). Most vulnerable in these situations of armed conflict are women, children and elderly - especially those from indigenous tribes.
Many rich people in the Philippines lack social responsibility, poor people have been conditioned that they do not have the resources required to help themselves or that change for the better is not possible since these are how things have been done ever since. It has always been this way with many political administrations in the past to the present. Limited development opportunities and options and living daily on a survival mode also breed negative attitudes such as "bahala na” (fatalism), "kapit sa patalim” (living on the edge), and crab mentality (pulling others down in an effort to go ahead).
The combination of low prestige, incompetence, lousy pay, and inadequate resources is demoralizing and the opportunities for graft are many. And for that, the result of corruption should not be surprising. For the majority of Filipino people, disasters have become part of their "normal” life. They experience ...
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ISON has showing signs of activity lately, not that I would know thanks to poor skies, but in this excellent image from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research seems to confirm what I’ve been reading.
Now the question becomes: will ISON survive the trip around the sun which will be happening next week? I know I took issue with everyone that was predicting ISON’s demise months ago and I still do. The fact is simply even the experts do not know what is going to happen.
ISON if you didn’t know is considered a sungrazing comet. Here’s a video explaining sungrazers.
I of course want the comet to survive, if it does it should be fairly easy to see. Imagine this too, should it survive ISON will most likely be flung out of the solar system never to return.
Here’s the press release from MPS:
One or more fragments may have detached from comet ISON in the past days, as two wing-shaped features in the comet’s atmosphere suggest.
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany and the Wendelstein Observatory of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich (Germany) discovered these features in images taken at the end of last week. The fragmentation may offer an explanation for the comet’s recent outburst of activity.


CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA: The US government should leave the business of launching cargo and people into Earth orbit to private commercial space transporters, members of a presidential panel said on Wednesday.
A subcommittee of the Human Space Flight Review panel said turning over transport services to the International Space Station to private firms would allow the US space agency NASA to focus on new challenges, such as extending human presence beyond low-Earth orbit.
The International Space Station, a $100 billion project involving 16 nations, orbits about 225 miles above the planet. "My god, great NASA has been to the moon ... Let's turn (shuttle flights) over to newcomers," Bohdan "Bo" Bejmuk, a former Boeing Co executive, told panel members.
"I think you will find out there are a lot of people who will rise and compete," Bejmuk told the meeting broadcast by NASA. "Some of them will fail, some of them will succeed, but you will have essentially created a new industry."
NASA currently spends about half of its budget, $18 billion in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2009, on human space programs.
Its future plans include completing construction of the space station with seven final shuttle missions, retiring the shuttle fleet in 2010 and developing new spacecraft that can travel to the space station, the moon and other destinations.
NASA has provided seed funds for privately-funded Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), and Orbital Sciences Corp, to develop commercial spaceships to haul cargo to the space station.
SpaceX, founded by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, also has a contract option to upgrade its capsule with an escape system and other equipment needed for passenger service.
The government's own new Orion spaceship is scheduled to debut in 2015. A review conducted for the panel by The Aerospace Corp shows an additional two-year delay is likely based on current budget plans and the program's technical status.
The human space flight review panel, headed by former Lockheed Martin chief Norm Augustine, is scheduled to issue its report by August 31. NASA meanwhile prepared on Wednesday for the homecoming of the shuttle Endeavour and its seven-member crew.
The astronauts used the ship's robot arm to reinspect Endeavour's heat shield to make sure it was intact for Friday's descent through the atmosphere and landing. Touchdown is scheduled for 10:48 a.m. EDT at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.


Supporting the use of geospatial data and technologies in research and teaching on Auraria Campus and beyond.
What is GIS? Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a technological field that incorporates geographical features with tabular data in order to map, analyze, and assess real-world problems in a dynamic, digital environment. Many tools exist for integrating querying and analyzing a wide variety of data types, such as scientific and cultural data, satellite imagery, and aerial photography, as well as data collected by individuals. Read about Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Research Guides.
ArcGIS Online Account Request - Go to this page to read about an online software with further analysis and data access capabilities beyond the free/public ArcGIS online accounts. A link to a request form is there.
ArcGIS Online - For accessing the Auraria Library‘s ArcGIS online instance
DATA - The Colorado GeoLibrary data portal
Email a geospatial question - Use this link to ask a quick question or request help finding data. For in-person help, schedule a consultation
These are sessions that can be requested for in-class instruction or hosted at the library for various groups.
For one-on-one help with GIS data and methodologies.
Software and Tools
- GIS software in the library
- ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Pro
- See recommended technologies in our guide
- Online: explore our databases with “maps“ as a keyword
- Paper Collection: housed in the map cabinets on the 2nd floor
Resources Beyond the Library
Campus Geospatial Computer Facilities
- FAST Lab (Facility for Advanced Spatial Technology) – for classwork and tutoring (24 seats), controlled access
- GAM Lab (Geospatial Analysis and Mapping)
– for research (14 seats), controlled access
- NORTH 5033 – Instructional lab (30 seats),
part of FAST
- SI 2011 – Instructional Lab (24 seats)
- SI 2007 – Student Work & Tutor Lab (30 seats), controlled access
Geospatial Organizations and Groups


The corn rootworm was found last year on a variety of corn that had been genetically engineered to resist the pest. Panic ensued, and now farmers are using more pesticide than ever. Chemical companies are reporting 50 to 100% increases in sales of corn field specific pesticides over the last two years. This is in spite of scientists urging farmers to simply rotate crops with wheat or beans to starve the invasive pests out.
The Environmental Protection Agency reports that 5.1 billion pounds of chemicals are dumped onto agricultural fields every year. One farmer admits that when pesticides were frequent practice (before the genetically modified seeds came into play) it was common for field workers to vomit by midday, and that using them again has made him feel sicker. Studies have shown that pesticide residue can lower children’s IQs and increase occurrences of hyper activity and attention deficit disorder. Another study linked Alzheimer’s disease to pesticides. Exposure to pesticides can sometimes give precursors to obesity in unborn children.
Even though genetically modified crops were designed to reduce pesticide usage, we are spraying more than we have even before the seeds were introduced. Pesticides are found in every tested stream, over 90% of water wells and in the body fat of every person tested. The Department of Agriculture estimates that Americans are exposed to ten or more pesticides every day through diet and drinking water.
Because of this, it is imperative now more than ever to buy organic food as much as possible. It can be more expensive, but so can diseases caused by exposure to toxic chemicals. Buying organic will also help increase demand and move the food economy in the right direction.


Land management agencies face the need for effective strategic conservation actions for the conservation and restoration of sagebrush ecosystems. For nearly a century, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service Research and Development (USDA-FS R&D) has studied sagebrush ecosystems and sagebrush obligate species such as sage-grouse with a focus on threats such as invasive annual grasses and wildfire, and management strategies, including conifer removal and restoration. In 2014, the USDA-FS R&D became part of a synergistic interagency collaboration for conservation and restoration of sagebrush ecosystems that began with development of two General Technical Reports published by the Rocky Mountain Research Station on using resilience and resistance concepts to manage threats to sagebrush ecosystems and sage-grouse. This collaboration was expanded with development of the U.S. Department of Interior’s Integrated Rangeland Fire Management Strategy, and led to publication of RMRS-GTR-360: Science Framework for Conservation and Restoration of the Sagebrush Biome: Linking the Department of the Interior’s Integrated Rangeland Fire Management Strategy to Long-Term Strategic Conservation Actions.
To learn more about this see the Science Spotlight: Conservation and restoration of the sagebrush biome.
(Click on an image to see it in full view.)


Project Tektite I
Seafloor Program: February 15 to April 15, 1969
In November 1966, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sponsored a one-day meeting to discuss problems associated with human isolation and confinement in future space missions. James W. Miller, Office of Naval Research was asked to speak at this meeting to discuss psychological problems associated with living in the sea and whether these same problems might arise during extended space missions.
As a result of this presentation, a series of meetings between the U.S. Navy and NASA was held to develop a rationale for validating the hypothesis that psychological data obtained in undersea programs could be used to predict and understand problems associated with behavior and effectiveness of space crews. By December 1967, the Navy and NASA were considering an undersea space station program and several proposals subsequently were submitted to the Office of Naval Research. A proposal from the General Electric Company to build an undersea habitat was selected. Construction funds were to be provided by General Electric in return for government support for the operation of the system once it became seaworthy. Other supporting agencies included the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, University of the Virgin Islands and the Government of the Virgin Islands.
The combined efforts of NASA, the Navy and General Electric formed the nucleus of the Tektite I program. Denzil Pauli and James W. Miller, then employed by the Office of Naval Research were named as program director and deputy program director, respectively. It was essential that a meaningful scientific program be conducted on the seafloor to provide NASA with a realistic assessment of crew behavior (by kristopher tests forge online). In response to this need, the Department of Interior provided the necessary personnel and marine scientific expertise to conduct a seafloor program.
The purpose of Tektite I was threefold:
1) The U.S. Navy was interested in further studies of diving
physiology, the behavior of small crews in isolated conditions
and ocean technology;
2) NASA's interests were centered around small-crew behavior with respect to long-duration space missions; and
3) The Department of Interior was interested in the use of conduct scientific work on the bottom of the sea. More specifically, the goal of the Interior Department was to extend bottom time and depth in a safe and cost-effective manner and Tektite I was to be the first long-term use of a nitrogen-oxygen breathing mixture in the open sea.
DATES AND LOCATION
Tektite I took place from February 15 to April 15, 1969, in Greater Lameshur Bay on the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The duration of the seafloor program was to be 60 days, equivalent to space missions planned for the future and by far the longest saturation dive to date.
Generally the marine science missions were completed, although alternate programs were inserted due to various equipment difficulties. Tektite I aquanauts spent 432 man-hours in the water during the 60-day mission. The overall daily average was about two hours per man. Toward the end, the aquanauts were spending as many as five hours per day in the water.
Tektite Underwater Habitat Museum
Web page text edited and revised with permission from James W. Miller and Ian G. Koblick's book: Living and Working in the Sea, 1995.