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Development of creativity: these 5 exercises will help you to acquire creative abilities!
Develop creative abilities? It can be any. There are many special Exercises to increase creativity. Except that they really teach you to think creatively, to engage in such training - it's very interesting. This can and do together!
Take a smart dictionary and at random choose twoRandom concepts. Just point your finger at any page. Compare them, try to find something in common between them. Think of a story in which these two concepts are connected in an amazing way.
Take a clean sheet of paper and a felt-tip pen. It's very good if you do not know how to draw, because beauty and result are absolutely irrelevant here. The main thing is the process. Draw a creature that will combine in itself as many signs of animals known to you - horns, hooves, tails, claws, and so on. Exercise for those who are used to thinking very logically. Sometimes logic should be able to be set aside.
From animals we pass to architecture, giveDraw a house. Write on the sheet any 10 words. This will be the requirements for the house that you have to draw. For example, the sea - and the house will be the color of the sea wave. When you draw, imagine this house is quite real.
Choose any word, it must benoun. Now write 5 adjectives, which, in your opinion, are the most suitable for him. For example, "socks" - black, warm, woolen, winter, clean. Now write five adjectives that do not fit at all! This is entertainment.
Train to invent capacious and accurate namesFor things you like. When you practice in inventing names - the brain works best. The main thing is that these counsels give you positive emotions.
Let your creativity Never runs out! Train your brain, imagination, memory, and you will not be equal among the fans to invent something fantastic.
Tell your friends about these original exercises for brain development! They definitely need to find out. |
Ore milling equipment production line are based on the site site survey or customer actual requirements for the customer design, fully reflects the design of the rationality, effectiveness, applicability, processing capacity, low wear and low operating costs is its significant features. According to the different process requirements, various types of ore milling equipment to meet the different requirements of customers.
Finished stone grain size uniform, grain shape is good, in line with national high-speed materials requirements.
How does the sand production line be configured?
Sand production line is a set of gravel sand production line, used in the production of gravel aggregate for construction. A set of ore milling equipment production line configuration can not be achieved overnight, is to combine the user's raw materials, site conditions, production capacity, investment budget, quality requirements for the user to design a preliminary program, but also to gradually communicate with the user, one after another All aspects of the production line to change or improve, and ultimately achieve the user's identity.
1. Determine the rough crushing link: Crushing part is the beginning of a production line, mainly to solve how to feed and how to crush. General gravel production line of coarse crushing equipment (head break), we choose jaw crusher. Coarse crushing hoist and jaw crusher, we should be seen as a whole. The overall throughput of the combination directly affects the choice of the subsequent production line.
2. Two broken links: two broken links on the choice of more, limestone soft rock we can choose the impact crusher, granite hard rock we can choose cone crusher, of course, the optional cone broken species is also a lot, including hydraulic Conical broken, spring conical broken, composite conical broken, hydraulic cone broken can be divided into single-cylinder hydraulic, multi-cylinder hydraulic and so on. Yield, the choice of two broken to combine the production capacity of coarse crushing, in principle, must be greater than or equal to the crushing capacity. In addition to the use of conical broken also take into account the material to the full situation. It may be necessary to design a small bin and feeder for each cone, or a large transit silo and one or more hanging feeder.
3. Screening links: Screening can be used screening group, a lot of salesman has been very much at home, the key is to combine the site to a reasonable layout. So that back to the finished product, the belt can be better placed, work.
4. Return to the material link, back to the material and the two broken equipment can be put together, more land-saving, as long as the choice can eat the vibrating screen over the back of the material on the line, in the choice of more use of plastic machine, including PF counter-crushing Machine, JYS new efficient sand making machine, used to optimize the grain shape.
5. Return material after screening, back to the material after the break, but also to return to the vibrating screen screening, sieving the finished product into the finished product area, if there is material to continue to return to the material back to the broken material broken.
Gravel production line design should be combined with the user's wishes and on-site field conditions reasonable layout. As a mine machinery and equipment manufacturers, our company for many users designed sand production line, production capacity ranging from 50-3000t / h. |
This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Isaac Morehouse. Isaac is creator and founder of Praxis, a really unique startup that has created a solution for the new world of an old and tried and true path to success - apprenticeship. Praxis connects potential employers with people to apprentice with them starting their careers and getting them a full time job in 12 months or less with no degree required.
In the information age, the old advice of go to college, get good grades, find a safe-secure job, and work for 40 years just doesn’t fly any more. We are in the age of the entrepreneur and being an apprentice is one of the best ways to learn the systems and path to success where you can eventually go out on your own. When you think of the word apprentice, it probably conjures up visions of blacksmiths and bricklayers with their apprentice in tow, but in reality, they are mentorships - a sort of one of one mastermind.
And in today’s world, it’s not blacksmiths anymore, it’s is building businesses and systems online, creating new solutions, apps, and a host of other things.
And that is why Dave wanted to have Isaac on the show. Praxis is bypassing college as the best way to get from student to career. They train young people with an intensive 6-month professional bootcamp, then place them in startups for a 6-month paid apprenticeship.
Praxis grads have a 98% employment rate out of the program, with average pay over $50k. And most of them do not have degrees entry level roles like sales, marketing, and operations.
It started for Isaac while he was in college. Isaac worked for a telecommunications company installing cable 3 days a week while going to school. And while in school he was hit with a realization. He was making good money in his work and turning around and spending it all on school to get a piece of paper that basically says because you have it, you are statistically better than someone without it to higher. You can get all of the things that go into the piece of paper for free – just not the paper. He thought, there has to be a way to be able to do the same thing without the cost of getting the piece of paper and that is how the idea for Praxis was born. Over the next decade, he brought it to fruition.
At the 7 min mark, Isaac talks about the mental journey and the winding random road that weaves through the way to creating and bringing an idea to reality. He goes into the way the subconscious helps us to achieve the goals we give it.
Most of the things you learn are just in case and you never need it.
What would happen if you focused on the things you know you need to learn to solve a real problem just in time to solve it?
You can learn anything and do it so fast when you are interested in it and have a use for it in your life.
What should people know about apprenticeships today?
Companies want people who take an interest in the overall success of the company – essentially those that think like an entrepreneur and owner.
Isaac finds that young, raw talent is the best fit. He uses the “sleep in your car” test. If you are willing to sleep in your car and do what it takes to get what you want in life, you are the type of person that is most successful in an apprenticeship role.
At the 27 min mark Isaac and Dave talk about the shift happening with the way jobs are viewed and how we approach work.
The internet has given people a way to learn anything that you can learning an institution, but also provide a vehicle for them to showcase their talents like never before.
Showing is better than telling and now you can see what people are capable of by what they have created about themselves on all the different platforms that exist today.
You can be your own credential and don’t need 3rd party validation to succeed like was needed not too long ago.
You don’t have to wait any more for a degree to showcase yourself and that changes everything.
What have you learned about taking effective action and overcome fear and inertia?
This causes you to do something every day 7 days a week and not being afraid to ship it out to the world.
This helps turn creativity into a discipline which is critical for success in today’s age.
You are always overcoming challenges. Isaac early found his model was actually illegal and was totally defeated – but played a game on how to change the model and make it work. That is the key – to always be looking for the way to overcome and get around the obstacles.
Focus on getting one good paying customer over perfection or little things like having your website all set or your product even finished. Once you find 1 paying customer, you are business.
Don’t do stuff you hate. Period. And there is a difference between hate and hard. Don’t be afraid of hard work or things you want to do. The things you truly hates drain your energy and stifle your growth. Removing them forces you to find things or people to better fill the gaps and take on the areas that you are not fond of. This allows you to focus better and maximize your talents.
At the 44 minute mark, Isaac talks about overcoming the challenge of going a different direction than people think you should go.
Don’t have goals in the traditional sense. Instead, focus on one thing you can do every day to add value to yourself or your company or any area of your life.
Don’t have a lot of beliefs. Instead choose a very small amount of beliefs that you truly believe and are core to you and who you are. Be open, but don’t compromise those core beliefs. |
But listen to that man who acts from a mere sense of duty: "I have been to meeting twice to-day. I went because I thought it to be my duty." You did, indeed! And is this the spirit of God's requirements? Where is the faith and love of the gospel in this act! It is not there. There is not a particle of evangelical obedience in such doings. No man ever assigns as a reason for true love to God--I did it because I thought it was my duty! To be sure, a man who does right from love to God is conscious of conforming to his conscience; but he does not act because he is lashed up to duty by a scourge he dare not resist and can not endure.
Christ understood their enquiry, and saw that they fell exceedingly short of the truth; therefore He for the time being left out of view, utterly and purposely, all which they called works. No doubt they esteemed this a most marvelous answer. To them his answer must have seemed equivalent to this: Do not anything at all. You ask, says Christ, what acts you shall do that you may work the works of God. I see that you have infinitely misapprehended the case. This is the work--that you believe God--exercise faith. 'Faith? what is that?' they answer. "Do tell us what we shall DO!" Do none of those things which you have in your minds.
2. But it is trust or confidence in the character of God. There can be no such thing as a rational belief of what God says, only as we believe him to be trustworthy. We never have confidence in the declarations of any being only as we pre-suppose confidence in his character. In faith therefore, we voluntarily cast ourselves upon and confide in the truthfulness, wisdom, love and power of God. Confidence in God is the same sort of thing as confidence in man. In exercising confidence in man, we really repose in the character of those whom we trust. Take for example the case of a student. He has no means of support. It is but natural, therefore, that he should be anxious, restive, and distressed lest he shall be obliged soon to abandon the pursuit of an education. To all human probability he must soon turn away from his books and his studies, and seek some means of livelihood in other pursuits. But to-morrow the mail brings him a letter from a friend--a man of great generosity, integrity and wealth. His letter says--"I have heard of your case, of your anxieties, of your embarrassments, and of your strong desire to go on with your education. It gives me pleasure to say to you that you may draw on me at sight for any amount you need."
So of faith in God. You want faith that God loves both yourself and every body else; for if you believed that He loves you, and yet did not believe that He loves every body else, you might have trouble. So if you admit that He loves others but not yourself, you will find that more faith than this is needful before you can have universal peace.
Some of you have seen the power of this faith illustrated in the dying saints of God. In talking with them you found it impossible to name a thing which gave them any anxiety. "God," said they, "will keep all in his hand of love." You speak to that dying wife and mother;--"Are you going to leave your husband? How can you bear to go?" God will take care of him. "But how can you leave all your children?" God will take care of them. "But your youngest one--that dear feeble thing?" God will take care of that. "Are you not afraid that you may die under a cloud?" God will take care of that. "But you may dishonor God, and may sin against his name in the last struggles?" Aye, God knows how to take care against that. This is the universal answer. Everything is committed to God.
Press this dying mother yet farther. Say--you are to leave your children in a wicked world--a world full of temptations and snares. Your husband may marry badly and your children may suffer for want of a mother's sympathy; you know not how many dangers and evils may befal them. What does she reply? God, she says, will take care of that. This is the antidote for all cares and anxieties. God's immutable character and promises are a great sheet anchor to her soul. Stayed upon them, she is not afraid to leap over hell itself--making the entire sweep over its burning crater.
So in regard to God. When you have perfect confidence in his character and sympathy with his ends, you will need only to know his will and obedience will not be forced, but entirely spontaneous,--not less so with you than with an angel, so far as you have real faith in God.
3. Absence of all fear that hath torment. You see this beautifully exemplified in the case of many saints on their death-beds, when you can not name a thing which they do not cheerfully and sweetly commit to God, so as to have no anxieties remaining on their minds.
4. Dominion of the peace of God in the soul. This is the inevitable result of faith. God's faith in Himself, (if I may thus speak,) is the ground of his own peace. He has perfect confidence in his own integrity, and in all his attributes, both moral and physical. Having devoted these attributes to the great work of doing good with the assurance of success, He can not fail of enjoying perfect peace of mind. Now let a Christian believe what God believes, and he will have the very peace which God has. God does not tremble through fear of the future, neither will he.
8. Divine cheerfulness of temper.
This is the natural and inevitable result of faith, even as sourness and moroseness of temper are of unbelief. Before my conversion I could realize that if I had universal confidence in the present agency, wisdom and goodness of God, it could not fail to make me calm and cheerful under all circumstances. I saw that Christians were the only persons who had any right to be cheerful.
1. Many look only to the letter.
They have substantially the Jewish notions of religion. All they think of is, doing, doing, without ever falling back upon faith as the main-spring of all.
How remarkable that men should have such a conscience! A conscience not developed at all toward the real things of religion; but all their ideas of right and wrong relate to matters in which there is not a particle of right and wrong whatever! Shall I call this a conscience? It is not worthy of the name; yet it may answer my present purpose to use the name, for this thing of which I speak supplies to them the place and executes the functions that conscience ought to fill and execute. The delusion often remains unshaken even to death, that religion refers to nothing more or other than to the outward life. For instance, a woman is absent from prayer-meeting because her children are sick, and her conscience is exceedingly troubled. What ails that woman? O she has committed so great a sin! Does she not know that she may have committed more sin in her unbelief than she ever could commit under any circumstances in being absent from prayer-meeting?
Often it is the case that their class of persons are not only dissatisfied with themselves, but with every body else. They look upon the religious state of their brethren through jaundiced eyes and see nothing as they think it should be. How is it, say they, that you can be satisfied with your present state, or have any peace of mind at all? I am in as good a state as you are, but I am not by any means satisfied with myself. I live as near right as you do, but I am surely far from being right. You must be altogether deluded. You think yourself nearly, or quite free from sin; but I know you are not, for if you are, I am too; but I know that I am not, and therefore know that you are not. |
Cellulose is mainly associated with the textile and paper industry. But it is also fiber, also known as fiber tract. Dietary fiber is not just one substance, but the entire group with a common name. Functions and characteristics of the fiber fraction is not identical. It's part of natural foods, resistant to digestion in the human digestive tract. This fiber is not digested and do not dissolve in water and still plays an essential role in the proper functioning of the whole organism. Its operation is substantially different than that of other food products. Food fiber does not increase the amount of nutrients needed by the body for energy production. Until recently, it was considered as the so-called fiber ballast substance, or unnecessary body. However, now its great importance and a beneficial effect on the general state of our health is appreciated. Fiber and cellulose contained in it improves the digestive process. It moves quickly absorbing all waste from metabolic process, cleanses the colon of undigested food debris and lingering toxins. This "cleaning" restricts weight gain, constipation and prevents the formation of colon cancer.
Eating foods rich in fiber ceased to be fashionable and became a conscious choice, so that we avoid frequent visits to doctor’s surgeries and hospitals. |
Buying a car seat for your baby or toddler can be stressful and tiring. There are so many things to consider. Here are 10 useful tips on how to choose the best car seat for your child.
1. Instead of choosing a brand, style or colour you really like, it is important to decide what type of car seat is best for your child. As your child grows you will have to buy more than one car seat but with making the right decision you are likely to save some money.
2. Decide if you want an infant or an infant/toddler car seat, which is installed rear-facing for an infant and grows together with your baby until he/she reaches 18kg or 3-4 years.
3. Rear facing group 0+ CRS should be used until the child reaches 13 kg (or until the top of the child’s ears are above the top of the seat).
4. Rear-facing CRS should be used until the child is approximately 4 years old.
5. Make sure that car seat is the right size for your childs height, weight and age.
6. For infants make sure that the car seat has proper head support to prevent head from flopping to either side.
7. Make sure that it is easy for you to adjust and fasten, yet too difficult for your child to unbuckle.
8. If possible use Isofix connection, as it will reduce misuse.
9. Never buy a used car seat if you do not know its full history, car seats have expiration date.
10. Never use a car seat that has been in a crash. |
That creaking noise you hear comes from ruptures within the Worldwide Anglican Communion that this General Convention could deepen. On matters of biblical interpretation and polity, particularly as they relate to such issues as same-gender blessings and the proposed Anglican Covenant, it’s clear that provinces within the communion are heading down different paths.
Perhaps that division is inevitable. But any break in the communion should be a matter of grave concern for U.S. Episcopalians. The Anglican Communion is not just a messy mix of churches claiming roots in Canterbury. It’s a richly diverse communion of faith united, not just by our English traditions, but by the prayer-book liturgies at the heart of our worship, as well as the blend of sacramental worship and accessibility that have helped define our “middle way.” From the Solomon Islands to Africa, Argentina and Nevada, we are a communion of Christians whose diversity offers wonderful opportunities for spiritual growth and for collaborative partnerships.
Two other members of the Diocese of Virginia and I are about to see the richness of that communion firsthand. We are heading to the Diocese of Bukavu, amid the lakeside hills of eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda. We will talk and pray with Anglicans from the Democratic Republic of the Congo about initiatives that might make a difference in a part of the world that too many have written off as a lost cause. These are the kinds of opportunities offered by our Worldwide Anglican Communion.
To many, “the Congo” suggests jungles, wars, poverty, violence, anarchy, death—none of it positive. It’s as if Joseph Conrad’s 1903 novel, “Heart of Darkness,” with its setting in the colonial-era Congo and its theme of the evil within us, has forever marked this land. Refugees from that part of the world have a mix of emotions about their homeland. Still others would see any trip to a poverty-wracked failed state that desperately needs friends and support as a kind of pilgrimage.
What’s clear is that, unless you have a personal connection to this immense swath of central Africa, your knowledge of the Congo is likely to be hazy at best. That’s the main reason I feel so fortunate to have an opportunity to go there, and why I’m so grateful that our Episcopal Church shares a bond with the Anglican Province of the Congo.
The Congo already seems to me to be the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world about which the American public knows so little. Clearly, there are stories to be told and shared.
The opening round included the horrible genocide in Rwanda, with its spillover of refugees into the neighboring eastern Congo. The restiveness continues today, with armed militias roaming the country and the basic infrastructure barely sustained. Corruption, sickness and violence are widespread.
Out of this humanitarian morass come church-backed proposals to offer relief to those who have borne so much, particularly the children. Hope survives. There’s much to be done. And the toughest challenge, as Stearns observes, is to offer the kind of help that doesn’t impose the West’s vision on the country but that helps provide an environment for growth and stability among the Congolese themselves.
I give thanks for the bonds of the Anglican Communion that sustain this hoped-for collaboration between the Dioceses of Virginia and Bukavu. I will tell many stories from this trip. I hope they will be the kind of stories that offer a more nuanced view than our simplified shorthand for “the Congo.” And I hope that they address in some small way what Stearns calls the West’s biggest sin of omission when it comes to the Congo: We simply don’t care enough. |
An American education means guiding the whole individual–intellectually, socially, and civically. Learning takes place in the classroom, on the playground, on the sports field, during student government meetings, during fundraisers, and in every corner of the school.
A day in the life of an AOSR student is filled with the personal support from teachers and administrators, the laughter of friends in the quad, and the cafeteria, and the guiding hand of coaches, directors and conductors and more. Whether solving an equation in the classroom, filming an edition of “Falcon News”, or giving direction to fellow actors in the amphitheater, AOSR students are given the chance to grow as multi-faceted individuals with a sense of self and a sense of purpose that informs their school work but also informs their lives in the AOSR community and the greater community of Rome and beyond.
... AOSR students are given the chance to grow as multi-faceted individuals with a sense of self and a sense of purpose that informs their school work but also informs their lives in the AOSR community and the greater community of Rome and beyond.
Students at the American Overseas School of Rome spend every day in a vibrant, stimulating, multicultural campus and AOSR offers a great variety of opportunities for students to engage socially, practice leadership, experience teamwork, and to develop their creative side. AOSR offers a diverse range of after school activities, a strong athletic program, myriad clubs and organizations, and a burgeoning performing and fine arts program. Learn more about these opportunities through the links to the left. |
Google’s computing resources and technological innovations have been nothing short of astounding over the past several years, and perhaps no more so than in the area of AI called deep learning. Deep-learning software looks to replicate the activity of neurons in the brain in an effort to recognize patterns in digital representations in the forms of sound, images and other communicative data.
Thanks to advancements in mathematical formulas and increasingly powerful computers, computer scientists are able to build many more layers of virtual neurons than ever before, which means reading people’s minds isn’t as far fetched as one would think.
Advancements in speech and image recognition have improved exponentially. According to a report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a Google deep-learning system that had been shown 10 million images from YouTube videos proved almost twice as good as any previous image recognition effort at identifying objects. Google also used the technology to cut the error rate on speech recognition in its latest Android mobile software.
Other leading technology companies such as Microsoft have also made great strides in developing deep learning. Microsoft chief research officer Rick Rashid was in China last year where he astounded the audience in a demonstration using speech software that successfully and very efficiently transcribed his spoken words into English text. The error rate was less than 7 per cent. Keep in mind this is translating from English into Chinese text, and then his own voice simulated to utter the audio in Mandarin.
Google has without doubt become a leader in deep learning. Last year the world’s largest search engine (amongst many other things) bought a startup co-founded by Geoffrey Hinton, a University of Toronto computer science professor. Hinton, who will split his time between the university and Google, plans to take ideas out of this field and apply them to real problems such as image recognition, search, and natural-language understanding.
Concepts that were once discounted as mere science fiction earlier in our lives is now becoming stark reality before our very own disbelieving eyes. Humans have developed computing machines to the point we are able to transform communications, manufacturing, medicine and transportation, to name a few. Fans of the television show Jeopardy! will recall watching IBM’s Watson computer, which uses deep-learning techniques in order to function. The advanced AI methodology allowed the computer to not only answer questions, but win as well. Microsoft has made use of deep learning in its Windows Phone and Bing voice search.
The incredible aspect of all of this is that computer scientists maintain they have just begun to scratch the surface when it comes to deep learning in terms of what the future can and will hold. As time goes on, extended applications beyond speech and image recognition will be made possible, but in order to achieve that there will be a much greater input of conceptualizations and software innovation. Let’s also not forget that as more and more commands are placed within the software making it mind-bogglingly complex, the need for advanced hardware to handle this increased production in processing must also be addressed.
Advancements have come a long way from the simple mathematical output between 0 and 1—to a digitized feature such as an edge or a shade of blue in an image, or a particular energy level at one frequency.
By the mid 1980s there was a revival of interest in so-called neutral networks that in effect made better use of many layers of software neurons. But the technique still required heavy human involvement: programmers had to label data before feeding it to the network.
Within the past few years, researchers have made a number of crucial, fundamental conceptual breakthroughs.
By most accounts, about 80 per cent of the recent advances in AI can be attributed to the availability of more computer power. That is why Google has invested so much in its data centers since about 2009. Deep learning has also benefited from the company’s method of splitting computing tasks among many machines so they can be done much more quickly.
Big Data consists of data with sizes far beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to capture, curate, manage, and process the data within a tolerable elapsed time.
Big data sizes are a constantly moving target in terms of size and content, ranging from a few dozen terabytes to many petabytes of data in a single data set. It becomes difficult for many companies to process using on-hand database management tools or traditional data processing applications in order to effectively carry out the full expectations of their enterprise. Cloud computing alleviates a lot of stress by hosting immense levels of data from a centralized location.
In early 2014, deep learning has noticeably improved voice search on smartphones. Until last year, Google’s Android software used a method that misunderstood many words. But in preparation for a new release of Android in July 2013, the old system was replaced with another based on deep learning. The efficiency rating was quickly recognized with the amount of errors dropping by almost 25 per cent.
But despite the many undeniable advancements in computer technology, by no means is everyone convinced that deep learning as a core method will be the salvation and the answer that can ultimately rival human intelligence. One of the main criticisms from skeptics is that deep learning and AI don’t take in all the brain’s activity, leaving a number of gaps that will invariably skew the results of artificial intelligence computing.
Perhaps the most common criticism is that deep learning fails to account for the concept of time. Brains process streams of sensory data, and human learning depends on our ability to recall sequences of patterns. Heaping more data onto a sophisticated program will help lessen the gap, but not erase it entirely.
It’s hard to say where future software applications will gain the most traction. Wearable computing devices is something Chris O’Neill has gone on record as saying he believes will become more prominent in the very near future. From Google’s perspective, stronger image search would help the likes of YouTube, for example. Perhaps we’ll soon be at the point where advancements in image recognition will enhance the efficiency of self-driving vehicles. |
Calamus Swamp is ringed with trees that require seasonally moist soils. American Elm, Green Ash and, in places, Red and Silver Maples make up the swamp forest here. Breeding birds attracted to this habitat include Great Crested Flycatcher, Red-bellied Woodpecker and Warbling Vireo. The uncommon and beautiful Prothonotary Warbler also nests here.
Buttonbush belongs to the same family as the plants that produce coffee. At Calamus Swamp, Buttonbush is the most characteristic shrub. It grows in deeper water than other shrubs and often forms dense colonies. When in bloom, Buttonbush is easily identified by the ball-like clusters of white flowers.
Swamp Loosestrife forms dense tangles that grow in deeper water than the other plants at Calamus Swamp. It plays a critical role in the growth of plant life in an open-water environment. When the tips of the drooping Swamp Loosestrife branches touch the water, they form small pads of a special biological structure called “arenchymous tissue.” The pads float atop the water and serve as hosts to other plants. Ultimately this process fills in the open water with burgeoning plant life. While it belongs to the same family, this valuable plant should not be confused with the non-native, invasive Purple Loosestrife.
One of the mysteries of Calamus Swamp is how it got its name. Acorus “Calamus” is the scientific name of Sweet Flag, a common wetland plant related to the Jack-in-the-pulpit. The mystery comes in when you consider that Sweet Flag has never been documented at Calamus and that the habitat is not right for Sweet Flag to grow. One likely explanation is that certain cattail-like plants occurring at Calamus were mistaken for Sweet Flag. These plants actually are Bur-reeds. They are unrelated to Sweet Flags, but their leaves are similar. Bur-reeds are important food plants for waterfowl and provide valuable nesting cover for birds like the Virginia Rail and Least Bittern. With its spiky balls of fruit, Bur-reed is sometimes called Mace-plant, after a metal-headed, spiked club of the same name that was used as a weapon during the Middle Ages.
Hidden beneath the large expanses of open water are fascinating plants not easily seen by visitors to Calamus Swamp. The Bladderwort is one of the most unusual plants in this “submergent” zone. Bladderworts are miniature, free-floating carnivores. Instead of getting their nutrients through roots anchored in the ground, these hungry plants are free-floating and use “snap traps” to capture small animals. In summer, their tiny, bright yellow flowers are held above the water’s surface and resemble violets. Other plants found in the deep water include Coontail, Duckweeds and one of the world’s smallest flowering plants, Water-meal, which looks like tiny, green grains of sand.
With the Scioto River located just 1.5 miles east, Calamus Swamp is an appealing resting area for the many water birds that migrate through the Scioto corridor. In spring and fall, watch for ducks, geese, grebes, and the occasional loon or cormorant. Unusual nesters recorded for this region include American Coot, Pied-billed Grebe and Common Moorhen. |
Have you ever wondered how some people are able to bounce back from what seems like insurmountable difficulties and setbacks, while other are severely burdened by what appears to be trivial challenges? What causes a person to face some of the most daunting of life’s challenges, such as loss of a job, divorce, loss of a loved one, or severe illness, and still persevere and maintain a positive attitude? On the other hand, what causes a person to allow such trivial matters, such as something someone said, or the traffic or weather, to ruin their day?
The answer is an easy one. It is because of resilience. Now that’s obvious. The more resilient someone is, the better he or she will be able to handle challenges, difficulties, tragedies, and setbacks. But let’s dig a little deeper. The real question is, what causes an individual to be more resilient than others? Also, how can one develop the skills to become more resilient?
The answer to the variability of our degree of resilience is due to our explanatory style. Explanatory style is a psychological attribute that determines how we explain to ourselves why we experience a particular event, either positive or negative. It is basically how we interpret our lives and the events that occur in our lives. We are often not aware of our explanatory style because it is unconscious, as most of our belief systems have been in place since young childhood.
Explanatory style is described by Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D., as a concept in the field of Positive Psychology, the branch of psychology that is the scientific study of human flourishing, and an applied approach to optimal functioning. Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and a past president of the American Psychological Association is a leading motivational expert and an authority on learned helplessness. He is the director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
He describes three dimensions of explanation – the three P’s – permanence, pervasiveness, and personalization. With regards to the first dimension, permanence, people who give up easily believe the causes of the bad events that happen to them are permanent. They believe the bad events will persist, and will always be there to negatively affect their lives. This leads to a pessimistic explanatory style. Individuals with an optimistic explanatory style toward bad events believe that the event is temporary and has a temporary cause. The opposite is true when explaining good events. People who believe good events have permanent causes are more optimistic than people who believe good events have temporary causes.
With regards to pervasiveness, people with a pessimistic explanatory style believe that life’s difficulties are universal attributes of their lives whereas those with an optimistic explanatory style believe that the bad event has a specific, rather than a universal, cause. The opposite is true for good events. The optimist believes that good events will enhance everything he does, while the pessimist believes that good events are caused by specific factors.
The final aspect of explanatory style is personalization. When bad things happen, the pessimist tends to blame himself (internalize) while the optimist blames other people or circumstances (externalize). Once again, the opposite is true for good events. Optimists believe that they personally cause good things to happen in their lives, and pessimist believe that good things come from other people or circumstances.
Now that you have an understanding of explanatory style and difference between optimistic and pessimistic views, I would like to ask you a few questions. First, when a bad event happens to you, how do you explain it to yourself? Do you feel it is permanent, a consistent presence in your life, or a temporary struggle that will eventually pass? Do you think it is pervasive, effecting every aspect of your live, or just a specific part of your life? And finally, do you take it personally, believing that you bring the bad events to your life, or are they caused by external events?
To return to the question earlier, how do you become more resilient? First, it starts with the conscious awareness of your explanatory style. Second, actively change your explanatory style to an optimistic view and apply this for both bad events, as well as good ones. |
At this point of time I have 4 mobile phones on me, my colleague has two and my boss has about 5 (he changes them regularly). Now that is not an amazing stat in itself, however, as you can see we have a huge mobile penetration amongst ourselves.
Now, did you know that in African regions there is only one phone used by around 2.4 users or 4 phones for every 10 persons. In Europe the penetration is 0.8 people per mobile or 13 phones every 10 people. In Italy almost all users have 2 phones whereas in US there is 1 mobile for every 1.1 person.
These stats come from the latest data made available from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) which breaks down and tracks the number of people for every SIM card subscription across different continents.
The folks at Nokia Conversations created an infographic that shows mobile phone distributions across several continents from this data. You can see the infographic below.
So how many phones do you own? Do let me know through your comments.
Higher the figure, lesser is the mobile phone penetration. So a penetration of 0.8 in Europe and CIS is better than Asia-Pacific’s 1.5.
Mobile phones are now a need for every human being. Without mobile phone life seems so dim and seemed to stop at one place. I have been using nokia e7 and its well helping me in daily life. |
Excerpt: “He did not succeed to the title; he was born Earl of Cairnforth his father having been drowned in the loch a month before the wretched countess herself beholding the sight from her castle windows.
Many years ago, how many need not be recorded, there lived in his ancestral castle, in the far north of Scotland, the last Earl of Cairnforth.
You will not find his name in Lodge's Peerage, for, as I say, he was the last earl, and with him the title became extinct. It had been borne for centuries by many noble and gallant men, who had lived worthily or died bravely. But I think among what we call heroic lives—lives the story of which touches us with something higher than pity, and deeper than love—there never was any of his race who left behind a history more truly heroic than he.
Now that it is all over and done—now that the soul so mysteriously given has gone back unto Him who gave it, and a little green turf in the kirk-yard behind Cairnforth Manse covers the poor body in which it dwelt for more than forty years, I feel it might do good to many, and would do harm to none, if I related the story—a very simple one, and more like a biography than a tale—of Charles Edward Stuart Montgomerie, last Earl of Cairnforth.
He did not succeed to the title; he was born Earl of Cairnforth, his father having been drowned in the loch a month before, the wretched countess herself beholding the sight from her castle windows. She lived but to know she had a son and heir—to whom she desired might be given his father's name: then she died—more glad than sorry to depart, for she had loved her husband all her life, and had only been married to him a year. Perhaps, had she once seen her son, she might have wished less to die than to live, if only for his sake; however, it was not God's will that this should be. So, at two days old, the poor little earl —as from his very birth people began compassionately to call him—was left alone in the world, without a single near relative or connection, his parents having both been only children, but with his title, his estate, and twenty thousand a year.
Cairnforth Castle is one of the loveliest residences in all Scotland. It is built on the extremity of a long tongue of land which stretches out between two salt-water lochs—Loch Beg, the little, and Loch Mhor, the big lake. The latter is grand and gloomy, shut in by bleak mountains, which sit all round it, their feet in the water, and their heads in mist and cloud. But Loch Beg is quite different. It has green, cultivated, sloping shores, fringed with trees to the water's edge, and the least ray of sunshine seems always to set it dimpling with wavy smiles. Now and then a sudden squall comes down from the chain of mountains far away beyond the head of the loch, and then its waters begin to darken—just like a sudden frown over a bright face; the waves curl and rise, and lash themselves into foam, and any little sailing boat, which has been happily and safely riding over them five minutes before, is often struck and capsized immediately. Thus it happened when the late earl was drowned.
The minister—the Rev. Alexander Cardross—had been sailing with him; had only just landed, and was watching the boat crossing back again, when the squall came down. Though this region is a populous district now, with white villas dotted like daisies all along the green shores, there was then not a house in the whole peninsula of Cairnforth except the Castle, the Manse, and a few cottages, called the clachan. Before help was possible, the earl and his boatman, Neil Campbell, were both drowned. The only person saved was little Malcolm Campbell— Neil's brother—a boy about ten years old.
In most country parishes of Scotland or England there is an almost superstitious feeling that the minister, or the clergyman, must be the fittest person to break any terrible tidings. So it ought to be. Who but the messenger of God should know best how to communicate His awful will, as expressed in great visitations of Calamity? In this case no one could have been more suited for his solemn office than Mr. Cardross. He went up to the Castle door, as he had done to that of many a cottage bearing the same solemn message of sudden death, to which there could be but one answer— Thy will be done.
But the particulars of that terrible interview, in which he had to tell the countess what already her own eyes had witnessed—though they refused to believe the truth—the minister never repeated to any creature except his wife. And afterward, during the four weeks that Lady Cairnforth survived her husband, he was the only person, beyond her necessary attendants, who saw her until she died.
The day after her death he was suddenly summoned to the castle by Mr. Menteith, an Edinburg writer to the signet, and confidential agent, or factor, as the office called in Scotland, to the late earl.
Thus saying, the minister quitted his sunshiny manse garden, where he was working peacefully among his raspberry-bushes, with his wife looking on, and walked, in meditative mood, through the Cairnforth woods, now blue with hyacinths in their bosky shadows, and in every nook and corner starred with great clusters of yellow primroses, which in this part of the country grow profusely, even down to within a few feet of high-water mark, on the tidal shores of the lochs. Their large, round, smiling faces, so irresistibly suggestive of baby smiles at sight of them, and baby fingers clutching at them, touched the heart of the good minister, who had left two small creatures of his own—a bit girlie of five, and a two-year-old boy—playing on his grass-plot at home with some toys of the countess's giving: she had always been exceedingly kind to the Manse children.
He thought of her, lying dead; and then of her poor little motherless and fatherless baby, whom, if she had any consciousness in her death-hour, it must have been a sore pang to her to leave behind. And the tears gathered again and again in the good man's eyes, shutting out from his vision all the beauty of the spring.
He reached the grand Italian portico, built by some former earl with a taste for that style, and yet harmonizing well with the smooth lawn, bounded by a circle of magnificent trees, through which came glimpses of the glittering loch. The great doors used almost always to stand open, and the windows were rarely closed—the countess like sunshine and fresh air, but now all was shut up and silent, and not a soul was to be seen about the place.
Mr. Cardross sighed, and walked round to the other side of the castle, where was my lady's flower-garden, or what was to be made into one. Then he entered by French windows, from a terrace overlooking it, my lord's library, also incomplete. For the earl, who was by no means a bookish man, had only built that room since his marriage, to please his wife, whom perhaps he loved all the better that she was so exceedingly unlike himself. Now both were away—their short dream of married life ended, their plans and hopes crumbled into dust. As yet, no external changes had been made, the other solemn changes having come so suddenly. Gardeners still worked in the parterres, and masons and carpenters still, in a quiet and lazy manner, went on completing the beautiful room; but there was no one to order them—no one watched their work. Except for workmen, the place seemed so deserted that Mr. Cardross wandered through the house for some time before he found a single servant to direct him to the person of whom he was in search.
Mr. Menteith sat alone in a little room filled with guns and fishing rods, and ornamented with stag's heads, stuffed birds, and hunting relics of all sorts, which had been called, not too appropriately, the earl's study. He was a little, dried-up man, about fifty years old, of sharp but not unkindly aspect. When the minister entered, he looked up from the mass of papers which he seemed to have been trying to reduce into some kind of order—apparently the late earl's private papers, which had been untouched since his death, for there was a sad and serious shadow over what otherwise have been rather a humorous face.
The two gentlemen sat down together. They had often met before, for whenever there were guests at Cairnforth Castle the earl always invited the minister and his wife to dinner, but they had never fraternized much. Now, a common sympathy, nay, more, a common grief—for something beyond sympathy, keen personal regret, was evidently felt by both for the departed earl and countess—made them suddenly familiar.
Is the child doing well? was Mr. Cardross's first and most natural question; but it seemed to puzzle Mr. Menteith exceedingly.
I suppose so—indeed, I can hardly say. This is a most difficult and painful matter.
It was born alive, and is a son and heir, as I heard?
For some things; since, had it been a girl, the title would have lapsed, and the long line of Earls of Cairnforth ended. At one time Dr. Hamilton feared the child would be stillborn, and then, of course, the earldom would have been extinct. The property must in that case have passed to the earl's distant cousins, the Bruces, of whom you may have heard, Mr. Cardross?
I have; and there are few things, I fancy, which Lord Cairnforth would have regretted more than such heir-ship.
You are right, said the keen W.S., evidently relieved. It was my instinctive conviction that you were in the late earl's confidence on this point, which made me decide to send and consult with you. We must take all precautions, you see. We are placed in a most painful and responsible position—both Dr. Hamilton and myself.
It was now Mr. Cardross's turn to look perplexed. No doubt it was a most sad fatality which had happened, but still things did not seem to warrant the excessive anxiety testified by Mr. Menteith.
I do not quite comprehend you. There might have been difficulties as to the succession, but are they not all solved by the birth of a healthy, living heir—whom we must cordially hope will long continue to live?
I hardly know if we ought to hope it, said the lawyer, very seriously. But we must 'keep a calm sough' on that matter for the present—so far, at least, Dr. Hamilton and I have determined—in order to prevent the Bruces from getting wind of it. Now, then, will you come and see the earl?
The earl! re-echoed Mr. Cardross, with a start; then recollected himself, and sighed to think how one goes and another comes, and all the world moves on as before—passing, generation after generation, into the awful shadow which no eye except that of faith can penetrate. Life is a little, little day—hardly longer, in the end, for the man in his prime than for the infant of an hour's span.
And Thou hast made him—Thou are just."
Thus musing, Mr. Cardross followed up stairs toward the magnificent nursery, which had been prepared months before, with a loving eagerness of anticipation, and a merciful blindness to futurity, for the expected heir of the Earls of Cairnforth. For, as before said, the only hope of the lineal continuance of the race was in this one child. It lay in a cradle resplendent with white satin hangings and lace curtains, and beside it sat the nurse—a mere girl, but a widow already—Neil Campbell's widow, whose first child had been born only two days after her husband was drowned. Mr. Cardross knew that she had been suddenly sent for out of the clachan, the countess having, with her dying breath, desired that this young woman, whose circumstances were so like her own, should be taken as wet-nurse to the new-born baby.
So, in her widow's weeds, grave and sad, but very sweet-looking—she had been a servant at the Castle, and was a rather superior young woman —Janet Campbell took her place beside her charge with an expression in her face as if she felt it was a charge left her by her lost mistress, which must be kept solemnly to the end of her days—as it was.
The minister shook hands with her silently—she had gone through sore affliction—but the lawyer addressed her in his quick, sharp, business tone, under which he often disguised more emotion than he liked to show.
Na, na, sir, I didna try, answered Janet, sadly and gently.
That is well. I'm a father of a family myself, added Mr. Menteith, more gently: I've six of them; but, thank the Lord, ne'er a one of them like this. Take it on your lap, nurse, and let the minister look at it! Ay, here comes Dr. Hamilton!
Mr. Cardross knew Dr. Hamilton by repute—as who did not? Since at that period it was the widest-known name in the whole medical profession in Scotland. And the first sight of him confirmed the reputation, and made even a stranger recognize that his fame was both natural and justifiable. But the minister had scarcely time to cast a glance on the acute, benevolent, wonderfully powerful and thoughtful head, when his attention was attracted by the poor infant, whom Janet was carefully unswathing from innumerable folds of cotton wool.
Mrs. Campbell was a widow of only a month, and her mistress, to whom she had been much attached, lay dead in the next room, yet she had still a few tears left, and they were dropping like rain over her mistress's child.
No wonder. It lay on her lap, the smallest, saddest specimen of infantile deformity. It had a large head—larger than most infants have—but its body was thin, elfish, and distorted, every joint and limb being twisted in some way or other. You could not say that any portion of the child was natural or perfect except the head and face. Whether it had the power of motion or not seemed doubtful; at any rate, it made no attempt to move, except feebly turning its head from side to side. It lay, with its large eyes wide open, and at last opened its poor little mouth also, and uttered a loud pathetic wail.
It greets, doctor, ye hear, said the nurse, eagerly; 'deed, an' it greets fine, whiles.
A good sign, observed Dr. Hamilton. Perhaps it may live after all, though one scarcely knows whether to desire it.
I'll gar it live, doctor, cried Janet, as she rocked and patted it, and at last managed to lay it to her motherly breast; I'll gar it live, ye'll see! That is God willing.
It could not live, it could never have lived at all, if He were not willing, said the minister, reverently. And then, after a long pause, during which he and the two other gentlemen stood watching, with sad pitying looks, the unfortunate child, he added, so quietly and naturally that, though they might have thought it odd, they could hardly have thought it out of place or hypocritical, Let us pray.
But what ought we to do? said the Edinburg writer, when, having quitted, not unmoved, the melancholy nursery, he led the way to the scarcely less dreary dining-room, where the two handsome, bright-looking portraits of the late earl and countess still smiled down from the wall —giving Mr. Cardross a start, and making him recall, as if the intervening six weeks had been all a dream, the last day he and Mr. Menteith dined together at that hospitable table. They stole a look at one another, but, with true Scotch reticence, neither exchanged a word. Yet perhaps each respected the other the more, both for the feeling and for its instant repression.
Whatever we decide to do, ought to be decided now, said Dr. Hamilton, for I must be in Edinburg tomorrow. And, besides, it is a case in which no medical skill is of much avail, if any; Nature must struggle through—or yield, which I can not help thinking would be the best ending. In Sparta, now, this poor child would have been exposed on Mount—what was the place? to be saved by any opportune death from the still greater misfortune of living.
But that would have been murder—sheer murder, earnestly replied the minister. And we are not Spartans, but Christians, to whom the body is not every thing, and who believe that God can work out His wonderful will, if He chooses, through the meanest means—through the saddest tragedies and direst misfortunes. In one sense, Dr. Hamilton, there is no such thing as evil—that is, there is no actual evil in the world except sin.
There is plenty of that, alas! said Mr. Menteith. But as to the child, I wished you to see it—both of you together—if only to bear evidence as to its present condition. For the late earl, in his will, executed, by a most providential chance, the last time I was here, appointed me sole guardian and trustee to a possible widow or child. On me, therefore, depends the charge of this poor infant—the sole bar between those penniless, grasping, altogether discreditable Bruces, and the large property of Cairnforth. You see my position, gentlemen?
It was not an easy one, and no wonder the honest man looked much troubled. |
Blepharoplasty is the cosmetic or therapeutic removal of excess skin of the upper and/or lower eyelids. As they get older, many people will find that their upper eyelids will begin to droop. They will become so heavy that the skin will visibly cascade over the eyelashes causing a loss in the visual field. For people experiencing this sort of visual defect, insurance will often cover upper eyelid surgery. In order to determine whether a significant visual field defect exists an optometrist or opthalmologist can perform a simple test which will determine how much can be seen by the patient. The results of this test along with other factors of the physical examination will usually determine whether a medical condition exists for insurance coverage of this type of corrective surgery.
Surgery of the lower eyelids is usually determined to be cosmetic only; however, a physical examination is necessary to make a determination.
Q: My upper eyelid skin is hanging down and droopy. It makes me look like my eyes are closed. Both my mom and I have this family trait. I am in my 40's and my mom is 65. Is there anything that can be done for this and will my insurance cover it?
A: There is a medical term for what you are describing which is dermatochalasia. It is a condition where the upper eyelid skin hangs down toward the eyelashes and may even droop over the eyelashes. Excess skin on the upper eyes can give you the feeling of heaviness and can make your eyes look smaller. When this condition is severe, there can be some loss of peripheral vision because the excess skin blocks the full range of vision. When the severity of the condition reaches this point, most insurance carriers, including Medicare, will usually cover the cost of the surgery to correct this problem. There is a simple and painless test that can be performed by your regular vision care specialist that can help determine whether you are experiencing vision loss. As a general rule, if your examination reveals that your eyelid skin rests on your eyelashes when your eyes are open, there is a chance that you are experiencing some peripheral visual field loss. Surgical correction of this problem is perfomed on an outpatient basis and takes about an hour. You will need to limit activities for about ten days and there is little or no pain for most patients. As for the ideal time to perform this surgical correction, if there is a loss of peripheral vision, the time is now. For most patients, the results are long lasting and will typically not need to be repeated. For many patients, this procedure will not only improve vision, but will also improve ant aesthetic appearance of the face.
Q: Can my surgery be performed in the office under a local anesthetic? I am nervous about being put to sleep.
A: In some cases, yes. Much of this decision-making process is between the patient and the physician and Dr. Kiesnowski can give you an opinion on whether or not your are good candidate for an in office procedure vs. a procedure performed in the operating room. |
“Blogging” has made our life more intentional, meaningful and easier. Blogs from various niches like technology, gadgets, fashion and health have impacted our lives in a great way. Being a blogger I have been asked so many times why do I blog and what are the biggest benefits of blogging? Such questions clearly show that people are still not aware of advantages of blogging. In this article, I am going to outline “biggest benefits of blogging” that will help you to understand the awesomeness of blogging.
Writing is about recording thoughts on a paper and makes other people believe in what you have written. If you are planning to become a blogger then it does not mean that you will have to be a good writer. You will improve gradually. You just have to write what you think. Look for resources online and find ideas on how to represent your thought on paper in the form of words. You will gradually find that your writing is improving. The key part is you won’t even realize how you became a good writer.
Once you start blogging and start writing articles for your blog, you will automatically begin to think with more intent. It will make you think more intentionally towards your life. These changes will not happen overnight rather you will gradually develop an intent to excel in what you do.
Bloggers have their own world! Once you enter into the world of blogging, you meet lots of new people. You might find them through comments, newsletters, or social media. If you are helpful and write useful content, you will notice that you have build quality circle of people. You will learn lots of new things every day. You will also develop new skills and learn about their culture. You can share your ideas and also grab some ideas from your audience and put those on your blog.
You need to find few hours in a week, maybe on weekends for your hobbies. Whether your hobby is writing, cooking, music or whatever it is. Write about it and share it with your audience on your blog. You can write about what interests you, even while having tea or coffee or travelling. You don’t have to find extra time, specifically for your blog. 4-5 hours in a week should be more than enough to write one or two blog post and promote it on social media.
This part-time hobby can result into a full-time income source for you. Yes! People are making hundreds to thousands of dollars a month by just working as a part-time blogger. If you dedicatedly work on your blog even you could start making a couple of dollars initially. Bloggers are making $10 to even $2,00,000 a month! But to generate such a huge income you will have to devote more time to produce awesome content and engage with the people. I don’t think anyone of you would mind generating such a handsome amount of money from your hobby.
Once you enter into the world of blogging, every day you learn something new. You might not be knowing much about technology, but in a span of 3 to 6 months, you will notice the change and you will become more familiar with technology.
You wouldn’t not only learn new technology skills but also develop writing and thinking skills which are required for blogging. You won’t even realise this evolution in becoming a person who influences others to read your blog. Eventually, you become an influencer as well.
Blogging not only changes the life of the blogger but it also changes the life of the reader who is reading the blog. You might get distracted by some people, but many will cheer for you, and support you. People will get inspired by your persona, skills, and knowledge. It is a wonderful feeling everyone would want to have. You’re this selfless act of serving time, effort and ideas may inspire other people to start blogging.
Blogging will help you discover to Self-Confidence in you. You will quickly realize about your strengths. You will start to believe in yourself that you have something unique to you. You have skills and unique ideas to offer to the society.
Blogging is an effective way to showcase your skills and expertise. No matter what your industry is, just pick your niche related to your industry and start blogging and showcase your skills. Many people have started believing that blogging is the new resume.
Blogging develops creativity in you. Once you start blogging, you start to think better and you learn new skills. Blogging demands you to keep learning new things regularly pushes you to find creative ideas and finding resources.
It teaches you time management.
It develops leadership skills in you.
It develops your writing skills.
Moreover, it develops public speaking skills in you. You develop your speaking skills by doing podcasts and while participating in summits.
The blogging community is awesome. You build a network of people, you learn new skills every day, and generate revenue for your efforts. Most importantly, the blogging community is so friendly and helping that everyone would help you to get succeed—the only thing is missing is you.
It will help you understand what blogging is all about and what are the misconceptions amongst the bloggers. |
What Happens to Vehicles at Hypersonic Speeds?
A vehicle designed to fly at hypersonic speed (more than five times the speed of sound) or to reenter the atmosphere must be able to withstand searing heat due to friction and shock waves. Special materials must be used to protect it and insulate the people and instruments on board from the heat.
What Happens to Air at High Speeds?
A fast-moving vehicle compresses the air in front of it, causing the air’s temperature to rise.
Combined with friction, this heat becomes tremendous at extremely high speeds. The Apollo 11 spacecraft reentered the atmosphere traveling about 11 kilometers (7 miles) per second. The air just in front of it made a fireball hotter than the surface of the Sun!
How Do Astronauts Survive the Heat of Reentry?
Insulating materials, like the tiles on the Space Shuttle, shield a spacecraft from the heat of reentry. A spacecraft’s shape also plays a role. Besides slowing the vehicle by creating drag, a blunt shape helps to maintain an insulating cushion of air between the spacecraft and the shock wave it creates.
Another way to protect a vehicle from reentry heating is by using an ablation shield, like those on the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft. These shields were covered with a material that burned off (ablated) at extremely high temperatures and dissipated the heat. Unlike the tiles on the Shuttle, ablation shields can only be used once.
Space Shuttle tiles are made of a lightweight, ceramic material. They are used on the Shuttle to insulate the vehicle from the searing heat of reentry.
Why isn’t aluminum used for the skin of fast-moving aircraft or spacecraft?
Meteors are bits of rock or dust that fall into Earth’s atmosphere at high speed. The heat of entry causes their surfaces to ablate, or burn away, causing the streaks of light commonly known as “shooting stars.” Most of them burn up entirely; those few that reach the ground are called meteorites. A real meteorite can be found in the Mars section of the Museum’s Exploring the Planets gallery.
How hot did the space shuttle get during atmospheric reentry?
The space shuttle's thermal protection system (TPS) protected the space shuttle during the searing heat of atmospheric reentry, which could reach temperatures as much as 1,650° C (3,000° F). |
From the Council Floor we descend by the north-east staircase to the basement of the Tower, now lighted by electricity and divided into three rooms popularly known as the DUNGEONS. In the old days these were unlighted and could be reached only by the north-east staircase. The Mortar Room contains old bronze mortars and two Burmese guns. At the south end is the Sub-Crypt of St. John's Chapel, entered by a doorway erroneously regarded as the cell called 'Little Ease,' where Guy Fawkes was confined, tied by his ankles and wrists to a ring in the floor. Edward I. is said to have imprisoned 600 Jews (men, women, and children) in the sub-crypt. In the Cannon Room are old iron and brass guns and a grotesque Lion of St. Mark, taken from a Venetian fort at Corfu. On the right is a well, 40 feet deep, dating from the 12th century. Turning to the left, as we quit the White Tower, we pass some old cannon (mostly captured in the French wars) at its north-west angle, and arrive at the north end of TOWER GREEN, once the burial-ground of St. Peter's. A brass plate marks the Site of the Scaffold, used for the comparatively few executions within the Tower. Here suffered Anne Boleyn (1536), the Countess of Salisbury (1541), Catherine Howard (1542), Viscountess Rochford (1542), Lady Jane Grey (1554), and Robert Deyereux, Earl of Essex (1601). To the north is the church of St. Peter ad Vincula (shown on application to the warder on duty; closed on Saturday afternoon), rebuilt by Edward I. in 1305, probably on an earlier foundation of Henry I. (12th century), and restored after a fire in 1512. It has a good open timber roof and contains monuments to Constables of the Tower, a font of Edward I.'s time, and an organ brought from the Chapel Royal in Whitehall. Most of those executed on Tower Hill were buried in the church or the adjoining burial-ground, though in many cases the bodies were removed elsewhere. Within the altar rails are buried Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey and her husband Lord Guildford Dudley, the Dukes of Somerset, Northumberland, and Monmouth, the Earls of Arundel and Essex, the Countess of Salisbury, Viscount Rochford and his wife, and Sir Thomas Overbury. Elsewhere in the church lie Bishop Fisher, Sir Thomas More, and the Jacobite lords executed in 1747. Visitors are freely admitted to the service on Sunday at 11 a.m., during which the great entrance and the Byward Tower are closed and a yeoman warder mounts guard. On Christmas Day, Easter, and Whitsunday the yeoman warders parade and march into the chapel bearing their halberds. |
During the question and answer portion of a speech given before the Strategic Data Project, College Board President David Coleman is asked, “Where is the Common Core right now amidst the controversy from the Tea Party?” The answer stretches from minute 39:48 through minute 44:16 and involves an anecdote about close reading. In shot, if people understand that the Common Core allows for “work worth doing” and enables students to go deep with great literature and founding documents, detractors will understand why the CCSS has been a successful bipartisan effort. You can view the answer and the entire clip here. |
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A news website that has regularly updated articles and reports about the Swiss economy, business and finance. With links to the FDEA, the OSEC and many other important government and economic websites.
Webscout provides a free online service to find available office space in Geneva and throughout the rest of Switzerland.
ECoSwiss is a non-profit organisation that is committed to conserving Switzerland’s rich cultural heritage and natural resources. This website contains information on the local wildlife and natural history, updates on the organisation’s activities as well as environmental news.
The Swiss National Park is Switzerland’s only National Park and it covers an area of 174.2 km² which makes it the largest protected region in the country. The website has updates about accommodation, how to get there, activities, events and also general information about the natural history of the park.
As the Swiss Portal for research and innovation, this website provides resources for business, economics and engineering along with medical and natural sciences. With articles about developments and breakthroughs in all aspects of research within the country and internationally.
The SNF is one of the most important and influential Swiss agencies in the scientific field. The organisation promotes scientific research, philosophy, biology, medicine, nanosciences and much more.
The Swiss National Museum is comprised of the National Museum Zurich, the Forum of Swiss History Schwyz and the Castle of Prangins. The website provides information about the current special exhibitions, opening hours and contact details.
This is the Swiss portal for the arts and culture; with current news updates, country art guides and other resources.
This is the official tourism website for Switzerland and it provides travel information, accommodations, destination ideas and points of interest in the area. Also with links to flight and hotel bookings along with special offers and current news updates.
Visit Switzerland is an up to date and user friendly travel guide to Switzerland. The website provides information on the area, geography, climate and places to visit. |
Studies have shown that giving your brain new experiences can help produce natural brain nutrients and help prevent Alzheimers. As youngins we were active and curious and awakening our senses. As adults sometimes we have to try a little harder to be curious.
High on the list of cool activities in Santa Fe, we discovered Meow Wolf. This place is an artist collective with art that is guaranteed to stimulate all of your senses. Consider this museum a playground for all ages that allows you to touch everything. Open the doors around you and see where they lead. Question and test EVERYTHING. If you want to take your time to understand this place, you will need to open the mailbox and read the letter before you enter the house. There is a mystery for you to solve while you visit, but you will be just fine if you just decide to go through the place feeling, seeing, taking pictures and even walking into a refrigerator that leads to a secluded room. |
Vision - what will your business look like 5 years from now? Probabilistic Modeling is largely based on application of statistics for probability assessment of uncontrollable events or factorsas well as risk assessment of your decision.
Many business owners just jump into creating a business without researching and making a concrete plan. Intelligent and critical inferences cannot be made by those who do not understand the purpose, the conditions, and applicability of the various techniques for judging significance.
Direct competition involves other poultry businesses offering similar products as yours to the same target market. This is applicable to any agribusiness structure selected. To operate according to the canons of decision theory, we must compute the value of a certain outcome and its probabilities; hence, determining the consequences of our choices.
This could include such factors as: It is necessary to have a defined source of supply for your chicks. However, the steps are the same. For example, ever since the Web entered the popular consciousness, observers have noted that it puts information at your fingertips but tends to keep wisdom out of reach.
To remain on the payment plan, you must remain current with installment payments and future utility bill charges and make all payments on time. You might have already noticed that the above criteria always result in selection of only one course of action.
Product Packaging and Design This is essential for poultry egg and meat business growth and attracting customer patronage. Location Your choice of location for your poultry farming business should be clearly stated.
Analyzing each of these types of competition is necessary for proper market entry. So what are these documents you need to include anyway?
Think of how you may want to expand it to include other branches or extra employees. General Payment Plan To participate: Therefore risk assessment means a study to determine the outcomes of decisions along with their probabilities.
Inevitably, they soon find that they are out of money and have no time or clear strategies how to market their business. The location selected should be such that supports this type of poultry business. This should be extended to what is provided by your competitors as well as the generally acceptable product quality.
For nearly a century, Arizona has been a national leader in the development of clean energy resources to power our state’s rapidly growing economy, from the deployment of hydropower on the.
6. Strategic action plan - this is the most critical step of your business plan, because without it, your business will not get off the ground.
This should include your sales and marketing. Save time, improve discussions, think more deeply about the business- what's not to like about the Canvas?
This tutorial walks through it in 10 steps. Running out of space?
In an area that's headed downhill? Need an upgrade?
It might be time to move your business to another location. 6. Strategic action plan - this is the most critical step of your business plan, because without it, your business will not get off the ground. This . |
Cunningham's 'Young Men's Holiday Camp' at Douglas, Isle of Man, is often considered to be the first 'holiday camp' by definition, even though accommodation was provided in the form of tents. It was conceived by Joseph Cunningham, a Liverpool flour dealer, and his wife Elizabeth when they moved to the Island in the mid-1890s and it was still operating, averaging about 50-60,000 campers a year, at the time Billy Butlin opened his first holiday camp in 1936. At the start of the 20th century, other camps were beginning to be constructed with more permanent hut-based accommodation, such as the Caister Camp, (actually 'Caister Socialist Holiday Camp') opened in 1906 by John Fletcher Dodd, a former grocer and a founder member of the Independent Labour Party, at Caister-on-Sea, Norfolk and that was to advertise itself as 'The Oldest Established Camp'. In 1906 when it first started, the camp was still very basic with holidaymakers staying in tents and assisting with camp chores.
It was the Caister Camp that inspired 'Pa' Potter to open a similar establishment in Hemsby, Norfolk, called Potters Camp, which was to move to Hopton-on-Sea in 1925 with a further site relocation within the same village in 1933. By the 1930s holiday camp 'chains' were being established at multiple locations. Warner, founded in 1931 by Harry Warner at the Northney site on Hayling Island, opened a further three camps before World War II.
Billy Butlin, a South African who was originally a funfair entertainment entrepreneur, became a Warner board member and presided over the construction of their camp in Seaton, Devon in 1935 before starting his own enterprise at Skegness, Lincolnshire in 1936 (employing the same workers who had constructed the Seaton camp) to provide affordable holidays for ordinary families. Clacton followed in 1938 and, by 1939, Butlin had a third camp under construction at Filey preparing to join the already existing 200+ camps at various holiday locations throughout the UK.
In the same year, Thomas Cook also opened the 58-acre 'Tower Beach' camp in Prestatyn, where week-long 'all in' stays were offered for £3/3/6d (£3.18p). By 1965 the price for a week at the camp had risen to £9.
During the first World War the Cunningham's camp had been used for internment and, at the start of WWII, the government soon viewed the burgeoning holiday camp sites as an opportunity to save money and co-opted many of them for a variety of uses, including war worker and refugee housing, military camps and troop training facilities, rather than build their own.
Billy Butlin actually sold his incomplete Filey camp to the government, self-contracting the work to finish the camp and including an option that allowed him to buy it back at the end of the war. Known as RAF Hunmanby Moor it was used as a military establishment, as were other camps constructed at Pwllheli and Ayr, the latter which was to become 'Wonderwest World' (now operated by Haven Holidays / Bourne leisure). Filey re-opened in 1945, Skegness and Clacton in 1946, Ayr and Pwllheli in 1947 and the East Ireland resort of Mosney in 1948. Red Island, an Irish holiday camp located on Red Island in Skerries, North County Dublin, was established by Eamonn Quinn in 1948 as a family-run business, similar to that of Butlins. Also in 1948, Billy Butlin acquired two hotels in the Bahamas, with a view to extending his marketing into America, but this particular project was doomed to failure and by 1950 he was again concentrating on the UK market. He continued opening a number of hotels and camps during the 1950s including Saltdean and Brighton in 1953), Blackpool in 1955 and five in Cliftonville during 1955/56.
Camps were opened at Bognor Regis in 1960, Minehead in 1962 and Nell’s Point headland on Barry Island in 1966. Fred Pontin also benefited from the war, becoming manager of a camp that was used to house sugar beet and steel workers. With this experience he later bought the 'military' camp at Brean, Somerset, the site of buildings that had been used by US forces practising for the Normandy landings, turning it into his first holiday camp in 1946. At its peak, Pontins operated 25 holiday 'villages'. The holiday camp industry really started to thrive after the end of WWII, continuing through the 50s and well into the 1960s. Pontins, with their 'Go Pontinental' policy, had started to offer holidays in Mediterranean countries by 1963, Warner had 14 camps by 1964 and Billy Butlin opened his 10th holiday camp in 1966. In the 1970s and 1980s, Butlins also operated a number of large hotels, now including one in Spain, and several smaller holiday parks in both England and France. They also operated the 'Top of the Tower' revolving restaurant at the top of the Post Office Tower in London.
Butlins 'typified' the view of Sixties holiday camps where accommodation took the form of 'holiday chalets', with toilets and washing facilities in a separate block. You would wake up in the morning to 'Radio Butlin's' broadcast over a PA system with the almost legendary 'Good morning, campers!' clarion call.
Children could be looked after by the 'Butlin's Beaver Club' where friendly Redcoats would entertain them in safety while mum and dad enjoyed the rest, or more adult-oriented activities. These were fairly highly organised events at specific times and days, such as sports and other (possibly not now quite 'politically correct') competitions such as Knobbly Knees, Best Head of Hair, Talent, Glamorous Granny, Holiday Princess, Miss Chubby Charming and Cheerful etc. There was plenty of other indoor entertainment and facilities to allow typical British weather to do its worst without spoiling your enjoyment. There were also extensive shopping arcades as well, so you didn't have to leave the site at all.
One particularly interesting feature in the camps, although also available elsewhere, was the availability of coin-operated Calibre Auto Recording booths in the late '50s and early '60s, where you could create your own recordings, or aural postcards, on vinyl. For around one shilling you could get about ninety seconds of airtime. In some camps aerial views of the site could be gained aboard a chair lift or even a monorail.
Meals were served in communal halls (usually in two sittings) and were no small affair. The larger Butlins sites might need to cater for anything up to 10,000 people at one time, serving 200,000 meals a week with an annual consumption of 100 tons of sausages, 3.5 million eggs, 20 million cups of tea (34 tons), 1,570 tons of potatoes, 120,000 gallons of soup and 240 tons of pork chops (8,000+ pigs). Chinese food was also gaining popularity in the late 1950s and 1960s and Billy Butlin introduced chop suey and chips into his holiday camps in 1958!
Holidaymakers would pay a fee for their accommodation and decide whether to go full board (all meals would also be included in the price), half board (only the main meal would be included) or self-catering (no meals provided).
In the evenings, children could be left in the chalets, patrolled by redcoats, while mum and dad went to play bingo, see a show or just have a drink and a dance. Hawaiian-themed bars were a popular feature where the bar staff wore grass skirts.
All the entertainment and activities necessarily had to be fairly strictly organised which led to the impression that these holidays were quite 'regimented'. Although camp staff encouraged participation, nobody forced you to do anything - you could choose what you wanted to do, but not necessarily exactly when you could do it and, if all you wanted was a quiet, peaceful holiday, you were in the wrong place! That being said, once you were there, everything was free if you had booked the 'full board' option. Holidaymakers had the choice whether to go full board (all meals included in the price), half board (only the main evening meal included) or self-catering (provide your own meals, possibly cooked in your chalet).
Without doubt, much of the success of the camp depended on the quality of its staff and, for many, it was the staff who provided the best holiday memories. They were generally uniformed (Butlins staff wore red trimmed with blue, Warner staff green and Pontins blue trimmed with white) and had many and varied duties to perform, including the entertainment of both the children and their parents. The song with which ballroom entertainment ended each evening in every Butlins holiday camp was 'Goodnight Campers', when the Redcoats would line up in front of the stage with the campers facing them, in lines across the ballroom floor, arms linked in a 'singalong' with their legs gently kicking in time to the music. The very first 'redcoat' was a chap called Norman Bradford at Skegness in 1936. As the story goes, Billy Butlin noticed his popularity with the customers and asked him to 'liven them up a bit'. Such was his success that Billy chose five men and five girls as a team to perform that function all the time, gave them red coats to wear to make them identifiable to the punters, and the rest is history.
Many top stars started their careers as 'coats' in the holiday camps. Ex-Butlins Redcoats include Dave Allen, Moira Anderson, Johnny Ball, Jimmy Cricket, Clinton Ford, Russell Grant, Charlie Drake, Roy Hudd, Des O'Connor, Jimmy Tarbuck, Michael Barrymore, Rod Hull, Russ Hamilton, Freddie Davies, Terry Scott, Jimmy Perry, Colin Crompton, Cliff Richard, Isla St Clair, Ted Rogers, Tommy Boyd and many others. Ex-Pontins Bluecoats include Shane Richie, Brian Conley and Lee Mack while Roger deCourcey and Joe Pasquale wore the Warner green uniforms that were supposedly based on the school blazer and tie worn by Captain Harry Warner when he was at school.
Billy's son, Robert 'Bobby' Butlin, took over the company management in 1968 but the business had peaked at ten holiday camps and it was sold to the Rank Organisation in 1972 for £43 million. The business continued, but the perception of 'organised' and 'regimented' holidays proved to reduce their appeal and the Butlins brand name was hardly used at all by the end of the 1980s. During that period of the late 60s and early 70s the domestic holiday market began to decline as more people started to take advantage of cheap holiday 'packages' offering the opportunity to holiday abroad, in warmer climates. Pontins were not too affected by this as they had already moved into the package holiday market and, in any case, their UK holiday camp was a smaller business than some of the others. The 1973 film 'Holiday on the Buses', a spin-off from the ITV sitcom On the Buses, was filmed at the then brand new Pontins Prestatyn Sands camp in North Wales.
Butlins followed suit in downsizing their assets and started purchasing smaller camps, including caravan parks, that they marketed under the name 'Freshfields'. By 1980 the larger holiday camps, with their high running costs, were doomed and the 'Top of the Tower' restaurant lease expired. The Butlins camps at Clacton and Filey closed in 1983 and continuing rises in costs and the number of cheap package holidays available forced further closures. The camp at Barry Island was sold off in 1986 and eventually closed in 1996. Ayr and Pwllheli became 'Haven Parks' in 1998, the same year as most of the company's hotels were sold off. In September 2000, the remaining resorts and brand were sold to Bourne Leisure, under which the Butlins brand name now survives and thrives. As of 2015, only three of the original camp sites remained in use, at Bognor Regis, Minehead and Skegness, under the management of Butlins Skyline, a subsidiary of Bourne Leisure that also operates Warner Leisure Hotels and Haven Holidays. |
Everyone has heard of bankruptcy. Sounds like the solution to all our money problems! Unfortunately, it can be a little more complicated than it seems. In recent years, well over half a million Americans file for bankruptcy. However, many people do not realize that there is a separate court system to handle bankruptcy cases.
The U.S. Constitution authorizes laws regarding bankruptcy and Congress has duly passed and repeatedly amended those laws. Bankruptcy courts have been set up to help administer these bankruptcy laws. Bankruptcy courts are part of the federal court system.
There are nearly 100 federal districts across the United States. Each district maintains its own bankruptcy court. Bankruptcy court judges have the authority to decide any matter connected to a bankruptcy case. These can include a person’s eligibility to file bankruptcy and whether a debtor should be able to discharge their debts.
Filing for Bankruptcy can do more harm than good if not done correctly. Those bills you were hoping to be rid of may very well fall into an exception, depending on what type of bankruptcy you file. Most cases are filed under the three main chapters of the Bankruptcy Code, which are Chapter 7, Chapter 11 and Chapter 13.
Chapter 7 (Liquidation) – A court procedure where a trustee takes over the assets of your estate and pays your creditors. You may be able to keep certain exempt property. However, beware that certain exceptions apply where your debt will not be discharged. For example, your debts won't be discharged if you engage in fraudulent behavior such as concealing financial records. Also, your student loans, spousal support and child support, and some taxes will not be discharged.
Chapter 13 – A program that allows an individual with a regular income to make a plan to pay back their debt. It allows the possibility to keep one’s home and repay their debts over a period of time.
Chapter 11 (Reorganization) – A process that is usually used by commercial enterprises to pay their debts. It allows for reorganization of an entity to continue their business. They have the leeway to possibly withdraw from some contracts and obligations.
Chapter 9 – A program that is similar to the reorganization in Chapter 11, but only applies to municipalities, which includes cities and towns.
Chapter 12 – A program that helps farmers and fisherman who maintain a regular income to keep their business and repay their debts over a number of years.
Chapter 15 – A program that helps with cross-border insolvency. Military personal who live abroad would qualify under Chapter 15.
As with any other court, it is a good idea to hire an attorney to represent you. Bankruptcy laws are detailed and confusing, and having an experienced bankruptcy lawyer increases your chances of success. |
“My hand shall ever abide with him, my arms also shall strengthen him” (Ps 89:21).
This is what the Lord means when he says: “I have found David, my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him” (v. 20). It is also what our Father thinks whenever he “encounters” a priest. And he goes on to say: “My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him… He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father, my God and the rock of my salvation”’ (vv. 24, 26).
It is good to enter with the Psalmist into this monologue of our God. He is talking about us, his priests, his pastors. But it is not really a monologue, since he is not the only one speaking. The Father says to Jesus: “Your friends, those who love you, can say to me in a particular way: ‘You are my Father’” (cf. Jn 14:21). If the Lord is so concerned about helping us, it is because he knows that the task of anointing his faithful people is not easy, it is demanding; it can tire us. We experience this in so many ways: from the ordinary fatigue brought on by our daily apostolate to the weariness of sickness, death and even martyrdom.
The tiredness of priests! Do you know how often I think about this weariness which all of you experience? I think about it and I pray about it, often, especially when I am tired myself. I pray for you as you labour amid the people of God entrusted to your care, many of you in lonely and dangerous places. Our weariness, dear priests, is like incense which silently rises up to heaven (cf. Ps 141:2; Rev 8:3-4). Our weariness goes straight to the heart of the Father.
Know that the Blessed Virgin Mary is well aware of this tiredness and she brings it straight to the Lord. As our Mother, she knows when her children are weary, and this is her greatest concern. “Welcome! Rest, my child. We will speak afterwards…”. “Whenever we draw near to her, she says to us: “Am I not here with you, I who am your Mother?” (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 286). And to her Son she will say, as she did at Cana, “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3).
It can also happen that, whenever we feel weighed down by pastoral work, we can be tempted to rest however we please, as if rest were not itself a gift of God. We must not fall into this temptation. Our weariness is precious in the eyes of Jesus who embraces us and lifts us up. “Come to me, all who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). Whenever a priest feels dead tired, yet is able to bow down in adoration and say: “Enough for today Lord”, and entrust himself to the Father, he knows that he will not fall but be renewed. The one who anoints God’s faithful people with oil is also himself anointed by the Lord: “He gives you a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit” (cf. Is 61:3).
Let us never forget that a key to fruitful priestly ministry lies in how we rest and in how we look at the way the Lord deals with our weariness. How difficult it is to learn how to rest! This says much about our trust and our ability to realize that that we too are sheep: we need the help of the Shepherd. A few questions can help us in this regard.
Do I know how to rest by accepting the love, gratitude and affection which I receive from God’s faithful people? Or, once my pastoral work is done, do I seek more refined relaxations, not those of the poor but those provided by a consumerist society? Is the Holy Spirit truly “rest in times of weariness” for me, or is he just someone who keeps me busy? Do I know how to seek help from a wise priest? Do I know how to take a break from myself, from the demands I make on myself, from my self-seeking and from my self-absorption? Do I know how to spend time with Jesus, with the Father, with the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, with my patron saints, and to find rest in their demands, which are easy and light, and in their pleasures, for they delight to be in my company, and in their concerns and standards, which have only to do with the greater glory of God? Do I know how to rest from my enemies under the Lord’s protection? Am I preoccupied with how I should speak and act, or do I entrust myself to the Holy Spirit, who will teach me what I need to say in every situation? Do I worry needlessly, or, like Paul, do I find repose by saying: “I know him in whom I have placed my trust” (2 Tim 1:12)?
Let us return for a moment to what today’s liturgy describes as the work of the priest: to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom to prisoners and healing to the blind, to offer liberation to the downtrodden and to announce the year of the Lord’s favour. Isaiah also mentions consoling the broken-hearted and comforting the afflicted.
These are not easy or purely mechanical jobs, like running an office, building a parish hall or laying out a soccer field for the young of the parish… The tasks of which Jesus speaks call for the ability to show compassion; our hearts are to be “moved” and fully engaged in carrying them out. We are to rejoice with couples who marry; we are to laugh with the children brought to the baptismal font; we are to accompany young fiancés and families; we are to suffer with those who receive the anointing of the sick in their hospital beds; we are to mourn with those burying a loved one… All these emotions…if we do not have an open heart, can exhaust the heart of a shepherd. For us priests, what happens in the lives of our people is not like a news bulletin: we know our people, we sense what is going on in their hearts. Our own heart, sharing in their suffering, feels “com-passion”, is exhausted, broken into a thousand pieces, moved and even “consumed” by the people. Take this, eat this… These are the words the priest of Jesus whispers repeatedly while caring for his faithful people: Take this, eat this; take this, drink this… In this way our priestly life is given over in service, in closeness to the People of God… and this always leaves us weary.
I wish to share with you some forms of weariness on which I have meditated.
There is what we can call “the weariness of people, the weariness of the crowd”. For the Lord, and for us, this can be exhausting – so the Gospel tells us – yet it is a good weariness, a fruitful and joyful exhaustion. The people who followed Jesus, the families which brought their children to him to be blessed, those who had been cured, those who came with their friends, the young people who were so excited about the Master… they did not even leave him time to eat. But the Lord never tired of being with people. On the contrary, he seemed renewed by their presence (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 11). This weariness in the midst of activity is a grace on which all priests can draw (cf. ibid., 279). And how beautiful it is! People love their priests, they want and need their shepherds! The faithful never leave us without something to do, unless we hide in our offices or go out in our cars wearing sun glasses. There is a good and healthy tiredness. It is the exhaustion of the priest who wears the smell of the sheep… but also smiles the smile of a father rejoicing in his children or grandchildren. It has nothing to do with those who wear expensive cologne and who look at others from afar and from above (cf. ibid., 97). We are the friends of the Bridegroom: this is our joy. If Jesus is shepherding the flock in our midst, we cannot be shepherds who are glum, plaintive or, even worse, bored. The smell of the sheep and the smile of a father…. Weary, yes, but with the joy of those who hear the Lord saying: “Come, O blessed of my Father” (Mt 25:34).
There is also the kind of weariness which we can call “the weariness of enemies”. The devil and his minions never sleep and, since their ears cannot bear to hear the word of God, they work tirelessly to silence that word and to distort it. Confronting them is more wearying. It involves not only doing good, with all the exertion this entails, but also defending the flock and oneself from evil (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 83). The evil one is far more astute than we are, and he is able to demolish in a moment what it took us years of patience to build up. Here we need to implore the grace to learn how to “offset” (and it is an important habit to acquire): to thwart evil without pulling up the good wheat, or presuming to protect like supermen what the Lord alone can protect. All this helps us not to let our guard down before the depths of iniquity, before the mockery of the wicked. In these situations of weariness, the Lord says to us: “Have courage! I have overcome the world!” (Jn 16:33). The word of God gives us strength.
And finally – I say finally lest you be too wearied by this homily itself! – there is also “weariness of ourselves” (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 277). This may be the most dangerous weariness of all. That is because the other two kinds come from being exposed, from going out of ourselves to anoint and to do battle (for our job is to care for others). But this third kind of weariness is more “self-referential”: it is dissatisfaction with oneself, but not the dissatisfaction of someone who directly confronts himself and serenely acknowledges his sinfulness and his need for God’s mercy, his help; such people ask for help and then move forward. Here we are speaking of a weariness associated with “wanting yet not wanting”, having given up everything but continuing to yearn for the fleshpots of Egypt, toying with the illusion of being something different. I like to call this kind of weariness “flirting with spiritual worldliness”. When we are alone, we realize how many areas of our life are steeped in this worldliness, so much so that we may feel that it can never be completely washed away. This can be a dangerous kind of weariness. The Book of Revelation shows us the reason for this weariness: “You have borne up for my sake and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first” (Rev 2:3-4). Only love gives true rest. What is not loved becomes tiresome, and in time, brings about a harmful weariness.
The most profound and mysterious image of how the Lord deals with our pastoral tiredness is that, “having loved his own, he loved them to the end” (Jn 13:1): the scene of his washing the feet of his disciples. I like to think of this as the cleansing of discipleship. The Lord purifies the path of discipleship itself. He “gets involved” with us (Evangelii Gaudium, 24), becomes personally responsible for removing every stain, all that grimy, worldly smog which clings to us from the journey we make in his name.
From our feet, we can tell how the rest of our body is doing. The way we follow the Lord reveals how our heart is faring. The wounds on our feet, our sprains and our weariness, are signs of how we have followed him, of the paths we have taken in seeking the lost sheep and in leading the flock to green pastures and still waters (cf. ibid., 270). The Lord washes us and cleanses us of all the dirt our feet have accumulated in following him. This is something holy. Do not let your feet remain dirty. Like battle wounds, the Lord kisses them and washes away the grime of our labours.
Our discipleship itself is cleansed by Jesus, so that we can rightly feel “joyful”, “fulfilled”, “free of fear and guilt”, and impelled to go out “even to the ends of the earth, to every periphery”. In this way we can bring the good news to the most abandoned, knowing that “he is with us always, even to the end of the world”. And please, let us ask for the grace to learn how to be weary, but weary in the best of ways! |
I work out in a weight lifter’s gym. There are rows of machines and racks after rack of free weights. Whether you’re sweating it out at home or at the gym, you’ve got to decide whether you want to use free weights, machines or a combination of both.
We’ve probably all heard that if you’re serious about weight lifting, you should be using free weights. However, there’s a place for machines in the life of every bodybuilder!
For the purposes of this article, machines are defined as objects that move on two planes, whereas free weights move in all three dimensions. A pec deck is a machine. A dumbbell, weight plate, kettlebell, and a gallon jug of water are examples of free weights. One’s own body weight is the ultimate free weight!
There are two popular types of weight machines, stacks and plate loaders. We’ll discuss cable/pulley machines later.
Stacks generally have labeled plates, each of which has a hole bored through the middle to hold a pin. The pin’s placement determines how much weight you lift. You’ll grab the handle, bar, or strap and proceed with your chosen exercise.
Plate loaders are the more primitive machine, and are also significantly more customizable. They supply only the moving apparatus, and you load up the plates with whatever you’re using. They’re best employed after you have some idea of what weight you need on the stacks to avoid injury.
1. Machines are generally safe, and you develop good habits using them. You don’t have to worry about straying significantly from the proper range of motion (ROM)—making them ideal for beginners and those recovering from injuries. There’s also no concern about dropping a bar on your toes.
2. They isolate specific muscles for more work. When you use free weights, many muscles are recruited to maintain balance and allow the targeted muscle to work. When you use a machine, you’re less likely to use other muscles because the purpose of the machine is to single out one muscle for work.
In particular, biceps are great for machine work because standing or even sitting biceps use the abs and back significantly. When we take that aid away, the work becomes harder, which causes the muscle to tear more, meaning it gets bigger as it repairs itself. And that, folks, is the whole point of weight lifting.
If you have lower back problems, leg presses are great because you’re still getting the work of a squat without the back strain. While squats are one of the best exercises on Earth, they’re useless if you injure yourself more doing them.
3. If you’re really working in the gym and getting big, you’re eventually going to run out of weight. The sad truth is that 400 pounds of weight on calf raises won’t cut it forever. Heck, I know guys who add plates atop the machine and then use it for shoulder work!
4. You develop uneven strength when you only use machines. Since you’re not engaging the smaller stabilizer muscles and are adding progressively more weight to larger muscles, you can injure yourself easily over time.
1. Free weights allow you to develop greater overall fitness. One thing we often fail to realize is just how many muscle groups are engaged when lifting weights.
For example, when you do bench presses, you’re using your pecs, shoulders, triceps, and forearms to push. You’re using your abs to stabilize the body on the bench, and often the hamstrings will give a little push at the top when you’re burning out reps.
Consider that if most exercises allow you to engage many muscle groups, you’re getting a significantly better muscle overload many times over and keeping the heart rate higher for the duration, affording you a shorter overall workout for at least the same results.
You’re also placing a greater load on your joints, tendons and ligaments, thereby strengthening them. As they get used more, they necessarily become stronger (if done moderately and safely).
2. You can easily change the ROM for any given exercise. If you’re working biceps head on, you may choose to angle the weights out at any point in your workout. These small changes engage the muscle fibers from a different direction, causing two wonderful things to happen.
First, you’re working previously unused muscle fiber, which means more muscle growth in the new area. Second, your system becomes confused, waking it up from its comfortable sleep as it’s required to hone in on the new movement. Muscle confusion is a beautiful thing.
3. One problem people have with free weights is using proper form. It’s imperative that you have either a personal trainer or a gym employee show you how to execute exercises well to avoid injury. I can promise you that you do not want to rip a bicep due to ignorance or bravado.
4. It can be inconvenient to lift when you need a spotter. When I started doing bicep curls with a bar, I moved to a new weight. Besides the motivation my spotter provided to get that additional rep done, he also kept me from dropping that thing onto my soft pink toes when my muscles were just dead at the end of my third set.
Just imagine if you’re trying to do a bench press without someone and you’re trying something new. We’ve seen what can happen even to experienced lifters, and it can be deadly. It’s just not worth the risk to go it alone!
Bowflex Extreme 2 SE: 210 lbs of standard resistance and 70+ possible exercises.
Bowflex Extreme SE: 210 lbs of standard resistance and 65+ possible exercises.
Bowflex Classic: 210 lbs of standard resistance and 30+ possible exercises.
This guy is sort of the best of both worlds. The most popular at-home system is probably the Bowflex, though the early Nautilus machines were cable weights, too. At the gym, you may see FreeMotion branded products which are cable weights.
1. You get the flexibility and ROM of free weights with just a bit of control with a cable weight machine. Because of this, you can customize a workout in a controlled way, but still engage in the motions that suit you well.
2. You still use the stabilizer muscles that you fail to engage during a machine workout.
3. Probably the best reason to use a cable machine is that you’re getting continuous tension in the muscle. The force is working against you in both directions, so you’re getting a greater challenge with every single rep.
4. The one issue I have with the Bowflex and similar machines is the variability of the weight. When you’re at the top of the exercise, you’re at the top of the rod, and are therefore lifting less weight than you are at the peak of the movement.
As such, it’s impossible, without a degree in higher math, to determine exactly what you’re lifting at any given time and throughout an exercise. With free weights, you’re applying even resistance from the beginning of the motion until the end.
You can get a great workout with any combination of these methods. In fact, I’d recommend using all three, if possible!
I personally like to use free weights for just about everything. I like to go back and do hamstrings, quads and biceps on a machine to target those areas and get some extra size, as well as giving my back a break from the pain of squatting.
My gym only uses cables for chest and triceps, and I use those frequently because those are harder areas to develop and I like the extra workload I get from them. When used properly, you can get quite the burn in a very short time! |
So far, Qatar Biobank has collected samples from more than 7,000 volunteers, and QGP has sequenced more than 6,000 genomes.
The Kyocera QGP 6035 smartphone is a Palm-OS powered combination that has a CDMA digital wireless phone, Web access, and a PDA in a single device.
The other accomplishments of QGP since its inception include the conduct of two public surveys, launch of Qatar research consortium, hosting three summer internships and plans to partner with Hamad Medical Corporation and Weill Cornell Medicine to develop Qatari Gene Chip that will incorporate local gene variants to be used for screening, pre-marital testing, disease diagnosis/ risk and pharmacogenomics.
A survey of 837 adult Qatari nationals found that an overwhelming majority would be willing to participate in the QGP by contributing biological samples and their medical history to Qatar Biobank.
Said Ismail, Manager, QGP, said: "In Qatar, we aim to create a medical community that is ready to integrate with genomic advancements, to provide optimal and specialized healthcare, based on our belief that the efforts of all medical institutions should be combined to practically apply precision medicine.
QGP likely existed immediately after the Big-Bang, and this extreme form of matter is today created in Little Bangs, which are ultra-relativistic collisions of heavy nuclei at the LHC and RHIC experiments.
In order to recreate the conditions in the universe, when QGP existed for a fraction of a second, massive ions - in this case, lead - were made to collide head-on, creating a miniscule fireball in which everything melted to form the plasma.
Dr Said Ismail, manager at QGP, said: "In Qatar, we aim to create a medical community that is ready to integrate genomic advancements to provide optimal and specialised healthcare based on our belief that the efforts of all medical institutions should be combined to practically apply precision medicine.
QGP was announced by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, during WISH 2013 and aims to map the genome of the Qatari population in order to support the development of personalized healthcare in Qatar. |
This guest post by Robert Dillon, who recently presented at Transitions North America, asks Does nature know the answers surrounding how we should design spaces? Is nature, even in its most violent moments, speaking to us about how we should design spaces for learning?
Every step we take in nature holds clues to the types of learning habitats that can support the learning habits that we desire for students. Consider some of these ideas and questions about how biomimicry (the answers that nature provides us) can impact our thinking and design of innovative learning environments.
Many artists have spent their career exploring biomimicry. From Georgia O’Keefe’s communing in New Mexico with the essential aspects her surroundings to the amazing work of Andy Goldsworthy, who brings us sculptures that are baked in the wisdom of his surroundings, these artists and others felt that nature could bring inspiration and answers. How can we also learn like the artists and scientists before us that have explored the nature’s spaces for answers?
Dr. David Thornburg’s work around promoting communication and a sense of community in classrooms can help us see the power of biomimicry. His work explores the idea of a campfire being a gathering place, the water hole filling us with ideas and conversation. He also looked at the importance of the cave and quiet space and the idea that a space needs to feel alive and energizes us. All of these metaphors are baked in concepts of biomimicry.
Learning spaces need time to breathe just as nature allows its ecosystems the space that they need to reshape themselves into healthy places. Learning space also need time for the mental models of its past to fade and the possibility of what could be surface.
We can also look for solutions and ideas from nature in the following ways.
Erosion is nature’s way of letting us know that gravity is strong. Where are the nature places where gravity impacts our learning spaces? Does this support learning or inhibit it?
Sunsets are moments that allow for connection, reflection, and a knowledge that we are part of something bigger. These are all traits that we want in our modern learners.
We can consider the power of the waterfall, and how it is noisy with purpose. It is also a place where you can feel nature’s power, and we want our classrooms be places where you can feel that same power.
Does nature have all of the answers? It is doubtful, but if we take time to notice the wisdom of nature, then as scholars, teachers, leaders, and students, we can build the solutions needed to help all students love learning, feel whole, and know that their ideas and voice matter.
I can’t hear myself think – lessons learned in Melbourne! |
Chromo genic substrates are used in colorimetric detection. They are simple and easy to use. Suitable for most immunotechniques – from immunohistochemistry to Western blotting and ELISA, they offer a very cost-effective method of detection.
Chromogenic substrates can be used in a number of immunohistochemical applications from staining tissue with IHC through to Western blotting. Chromogenic substrate is added to a blot or tissue previously incubated with an enzyme-conjugated antibody (typically horseradish peroxidase (HRP) or alkaline phosphatase (AP)), which converts the substrate to a colored precipitate. Signal development is arrested by simply washing off the substrate. The precipitate is visible to the naked eye, and on a Western blot it can be detected without special equipment as a colored band. Chromogenic precipitate can be seen on tissue under a normal light microscope when used for immunohistochemistry (IHC). Colorimetric detection is easy to use, although it may require optimization or additional staining to improve signal over background in samples expressing low antigen.
Figure 1: Indirect colorimetric detection. A. Reporter enzyme-conjugated secondary antibody detects the primary antibody for the protein of interest. B. Chromogenic substrate is added to the antibody-antigen complex. C. The reporter enzyme conjugate catalyzes the conversion of the chromogenic substrate to a colored insoluble precipitate, visible by eye on the blotting membrane.
Chromogenic reagents are available for the different reporter enzymes, HRP, AP, GOD (Glucose oxidase) and β-Gal (β galactosidase). The substrates are available in different colors and sensitivities. Depending on the assay, a soluble or insoluble substrate can be chosen.
Alcohol insoluble chromogens are appropriate for Western blotting and IHC where counterstains or mounting media are used. The soluble dyes are better suited to ELISA and plate based assays.
When used in Western blotting or dot blotting, the chromogenic substrate appears as colored band or spot on the membrane at the locations of the immobilized antigen – antibody complexes (Figures 2 & 3). The blot can be developed until the signal of the bands reach the intensity required, this allows for a good level of sensitivity as the development of the blot can be observed directly and the reaction halted immediately by washing off the substrate. The developed membrane can then be imaged or stored for subsequent use. Samples with low sample concentration (low antigen) may require extended development, which may lead to higher background, obscuring bands.
Figure 3: Dot blot showing the specificity of Goat anti-Mouse IgG Fcγ subclass specific antibodies. 100 ng of mouse IgG subclass were applied to 5 nitrocellulose membranes and blocked with 5%(w/v) BSA in PBST. Each membrane was probed with individual HRP goat anti-mouse subclass specific antibodies (115-035-205 IgG1, 115-035-206 IgG2a, 115-035-207 IgG2b, 115-035-208 IgG2c, 115-035-209 IgG3). The blot was developed using TMB substrate (Moss, Inc.).
Colorimetric ELISA measures the optical density of a soluble colored product which is usually proportional to the amount of analyte present in the sample, allowing relative quantification of the analyte. Like other immunotechniques, ELISA requires optimization of timing and development conditions to obtain accurate and reproducible assays.
Figure 4: Chromogenic substrates can be used for ELISA, the colour change can be detected by a plate reader which measures light absorbance of the sample. Sample concentration can be determined by comparison to a standard curve generated with a with a positive control. The 96 well microplate format lends itself to automation and replicates.
Colorimetric detection can be a very sensitive method for the immunostaining of tissue and cells. Different substrates offer different sensitivities and colors to aid identification, multiple antigen recognition is possible as colours can be distinguished from one substrate and another. A number of counterstains are available which can be used to increase contrast so that the IHC staining appears stronger. Figure 5 shows the brown color of 3,3’ diaminobenzidine (DAB staining) in combination with haematoxylin counter-staining of nuclei.
Figure 5: Anti-GFP immunohistochemical staining using Biotin-SP conjugated Donkey anti-Rabbit IgG (H+L) Secondary antibody followed by HRP streptavidin: (A) At 4 weeks post-transplantation, no GFP signal could be detected in the in vivo specimens. (B) GFP expressing cells were visualized by brown staining in the positive control; Signal was visualised using the chromogenic substrate 3,3’ diaminobenzidine (DAB) substrate (Envision kit; DakoCytomation, Glostrup, Denmark) for 10 min at room temperature. Nuclei were counter-stained with haematoxylin.
The most commonly conjugated reporter enzymes are horseradish peroxidase (HRP) from the horseradish plant Armoracia rusticana, and alkaline phosphatase (AP) from calf intestines, although Glucose oxidase (GOD) and ß-D-Galactosidase from E.coli can also used. HRP and AP both offer different benefits depending on the application requirements. HRP is a small 40 kDa molecule which usually binds to an antibody in a ratio of 4:1. It’s small size means good intracellular penetration and it’s less likely to cause steric hindrance with the antigen/antibody complex. AP is slightly larger (86 kDa) which may cause steric interference but the substrate-converting reaction is linear, which may mean the detection incubation could be extended and potentially be more sensitive. AP also removes the possibility of non-specific staining of tissues with high levels of endogenous peroxidases – a limiting factor in HRP.
Each reporter enzyme can be used with a number of different chromogenic substrates which are available in a variety specifications and formats offering different sensitivities, some common ones are summarized in the table below.
Table 1: Commonly used colorimetric substrates.
TMB in the presence of peroxide and HRP can be precipitated into membrane.
T-NBT may be used in combination with BCIP. |
On May 21, 2018, an eighth-grade student from Warren, New Jersey, had a message for the Warren Township Board of Education. During the public comment section of the Board’s meeting, Johannes Wellerding rose to address the members and others in attendance. This twice-exceptional honor roll student, who participates in both the gifted and talented program at his school and special education, had an important message for attendees; and he supported it with examples, relevant quotations, and his own life experiences as a person whose diagnoses include autism. The message was this: Different is not synonymous with deficient.
This wasn’t the first time that Johannes came to address school board members. During the summer of 2017, he was moved to craft a message about the lack of acceptance and sensitivity that he saw on the part of both students and teachers in the school district with regard to individuals on the autism spectrum. From early middle school, Johannes heard the term autistic used in a derogatory way — as a name kids would call one another throughout the hallways, at lunch, and even in the classroom. To his frustration, teachers took no action to curb this inappropriate use of the term. When bringing the issue to the school’s attention brought no changes, Johannes decided to follow his mother’s suggestion to go right to the top — to the board of education.
Following the meeting, the superintendent came to personally thank Johannes for his input and assured him that things would change. Unfortunately, they did not.
When asked if he sees advocacy as something he will pursue in the future, Johannes replies, “I’m always going to be an advocate. I have to be. It’s like my autism. I’ll always have that. I always want things to be better than they are now for people like me.
Good evening, President Allocco, Superintendent Mingle and the Board of Education. I’m an 8th grader at Warren Middle School. As part of my 9 years of education in the Warren Township School District, I have continuously received services through Special Education as I am on the Autism Spectrum.
Part of your Whole Child initiative concerns the emotional and mental wellbeing and growth of all your students. However, many students have been denying those on the Spectrum the chance to undergo said growth, by using Autism as a slur in the hallways and classrooms. By doing so those students are making a joke and an insult of the term Autism and taking a serious disorder and making it something to be embarrassed about.
As a student who has Autism, it is severely disappointing that the staff who overhear this language don’t really do anything about it. It is my belief that developing self-advocacy of special needs students is an important part of both education and the Whole Child initiative. But, due to Autism being used as an insult, it becomes nearly impossible to practice self-advocacy skills because to do so would be dangerous. If I were to disclose my diagnosis, I would risk being a target for bullying.
It affects me less, as I have been able to emotionally distance myself, and tolerate their verbal jabs, but I cannot guarantee the same for others who have Autism. I feel it is important to speak on their behalf as well as mine, because there are those who have special needs and are unable to communicate effectively. But they still recognize harassment and they still feel hurt by cruelty.
There are many effects of this verbal harassment. Students with autism may become fearful of stimming which is a standard physical part of the diagnosis, because that would make it obvious that they are on the Spectrum. Stimming is important because it is one of the ways we who are on the spectrum have to reduce our stress and help us to better focus.
Those students with special needs may fear being singled out and feel that, since students are throwing the term around as an insult, that they are an embarrassment. They may also fear that they are being stereotyped and judged by their peers, and that their peers are unaware that the Spectrum includes all types, low-functioning to high-functioning.
In my opinion, school should be comprised of education, growth, open-mindedness, experience, safe exploration, positive socializing, inclusion, and developing effective communication. Most, if not all, of these aspects are removed when students use the Autism Spectrum as a way to insult one another.
I hope that you will consider the seriousness of what I have shared and act upon this. Thank you for your time. |
Lizards are the most species among extant reptiles, comprising about 60% of all living species. Lizards rely heavily on body language, using specific postures, gestures, and movements to define territory, resolve disputes, and entice mates.
What attracts the Lizards to enter into Home?
Crawling Insects: The common house lizard is, of course, insectivorous, insects area unit one in all their favourite things to eat. They usually eat spiders, snails, caterpillars, and everyone forms of insect that they realize locomotion concerning. If your house encompasses a secondary pesterer infestation of those locomotion insects, they’re what attracts lizards in your home.
Flying insects: Aside from creep insects, lizards wish to target flying insects like flies, mosquitoes, winged termites, and crickets. Since lizards square measure capable of scaling walls because of their ability to stay and climb walls, they’ll catch flying prey, particularly people who fly on the brink of light-weight sources.
Fruits and Plants: Lizards are not limited to eating insects — they eat fruits and plants, too. Some lizards, like the bearded dragon, eats vegetables and other vegetation as a substitute for insects. Plant-eating lizards can become problematic for people who have gardens, especially when their population grows and begin eating your garden plants. Reducing the number of insects around the area is one way of deterring lizards from going to your garden.
Water: Like most reptiles, lizards need water to stay alive. Water comprises roughly two-thirds of the body weight of reptiles and amphibians, making it essential for their health and well-being. A house with water, food and shelter are what attracts lizards in your home.
What is the average lifespan of a lizard?
Are house lizards harmful to humans?
These small geckos are non-venomous and not deadly to humans. Medium to large geckos may bite if distressed; however, their bite is gentle and will not pierce the skin. A tropical gecko, Hemidactylus frenatus thrives in warm, humid areas where it can crawl around on rotting wood in search of the insects it eats.
Can pest control get rid of lizards?
To get rid of lizards it is necessary to get rid of the insects. Sticky tapes are effective against lizards once their food sources have been deprived, sticky traps will easily catch lizards. Naphthalene balls are very effective for Lizard Control. They keep bugs and insects away and in turn drive away lizards. |
Kinder Morgan: Trouble in the Pipelines?
The $500 billion master-limited-partnership sector is the sausage maker of the investment world. Buyers love the yields -- now averaging about 6% -- but many know little about how the yields are generated. And Kinder Morgan, the country's largest energy-infrastructure company, may be the biggest sausage maker of them all. The publicly traded companies in the Kinder Morgan family own or operate 80,000 miles of pipelines carrying natural gas and petroleum products, and 180 terminals that store oil and other commodities. The company also produces oil from mature fields in Texas.
In all, the Kinder Morgan complex -- Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (ticker: KMP), Kinder Morgan Management (KMR), Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI), and El Paso Pipeline Partners (EPB) -- has an enterprise value (market value plus net debt) of over $100 billion, ranking it third behind only ExxonMobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) in the entire U.S. energy business. Last year, the company distributed more than $4 billion to public shareholders.
The bull case for the Kinder Morgan companies is that they offer a high-yielding way to participate in the booming U.S. energy infrastructure build-out. Bulls invoke the toll-road analogy, saying Kinder Morgan and its peers generate the bulk of their revenues from stable, government-regulated returns on their pipeline assets.
With a motto of "run by shareholders, for shareholders," Kinder Morgan has generated superior returns since 1997, when CEO Richard Kinder took over. Those gains could be difficult to sustain.
The largest piece of the Kinder Morgan complex, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, is a master limited partnership that is widely owned by retail investors. It trades for about $79 and yields 6.9%. Its twin, Kinder Morgan Management, which is structured as a corporation for tax purposes, pays a comparable dividend, but in stock not cash. Kinder Morgan Inc. is the general partner, which controls the Kinder Morgan MLP and El Paso Pipeline Partners. It's headed by Rich Kinder, whose 23% stake is worth $8.1 billion. It trades at about $33 and yields 4.9%.
Kinder Morgan MLP, it bears noting, is burdened by an unfavorable financial relationship with Kinder Morgan Inc. It foots the bill for virtually all new capital projects, but pays nearly half of its distributions to the general partner.
LIKE MOST PIPELINE MLPS, Kinder Morgan is expensive based on conventional measures. It trades at 33 times 2013 earnings per partnership unit and 16 times estimated 2014 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, after factoring in payments to the general partner.
That's about double the valuation of electric utilities, telecom, and cable TV companies, whose expected annual growth is comparable to or better than the projected 5% growth in Kinder Morgan's distributable cash flow over the next few years. Distributable cash flow -- the cash an MLP calculates is available for dividends -- is the industry's preferred earnings metric.
Kinder Morgan looks unattractive compared with other big MLPs, as well. A key issue is the way it calculates its distribution. Calculating payouts based on distributable cash flow is where the sausage-making occurs. The MLP's calculation of DCF uses some aggressive assumptions about how much it takes to sustain some of the company's businesses, particularly its oil-production division, which generates almost 20% of annual cash flow. Use more conservative assumptions, and DCF would be lower, and so likely would the distribution and the price of the MLP units.
To be clear, Barron's isn't questioning Kinder Morgan's financial reporting based on generally accepted accounting principles. Distributable cash flow, however, is a non-GAAP measure that is calculated based on the MLP's own financial assumptions.
Kinder Morgan MLP incurs significant capital expenditures to maintain and expand its energy infrastructure, spending a total of $3.3 billion last year and a projected $3.5 billion in 2014. Those expenditures fall into two buckets: sustaining, or maintenance, capital, and expansion, or growth, capital. The key difference between the two is that sustaining capital reduces distributable cash flow, while expansion capital does not.
Kinder Morgan's expansion capital is almost entirely financed with new debt and equity from the MLP, making it vulnerable to higher interest rates and dislocations in the capital markets. Reflecting its ongoing needs, the Kinder Morgan MLP sold $540 million of equity at $78.32 last week.
One danger of the MLP industry: It's valued primarily based on yield. When Boardwalk Pipeline Partners (BWP) recently slashed its distribution by 80% due to setbacks in its natural-gas-pipeline business, its shares collapsed by 46%.
MLPS TYPICALLY CALCULATE distributable cash flow by taking net income, adding depreciation, and then subtracting sustaining capital expenditures. What constitutes sustaining versus expansion capex is based on a "good faith" determination by the general partner, in this case Kinder Morgan Inc. That distinction, however, can create an incentive to minimize sustaining capital expenditures, which in turn maximizes DCF and results in a higher distribution to MLP investors and a higher annual incentive payment made to Kinder Morgan Inc.
Last year, the Kinder Morgan MLP's sustaining capital expenditures of $327 million were just 10% of total capital expenditure of $3.3 billion. The sustaining capex in Kinder Morgan's CO2 division, which is dominated by an oil-production operation that uses CO2 to extract crude from mature wells, was just $14 million last year; growth capex in that division was $676 million. But despite the heavy expansion capex in recent years, Kinder Morgan's oil production is little changed since 2009. Last year's modest production gain reflected an acquisition and a big boost in capital spending, which is expected to rise about 60% this year.
"Kinder Morgan's valuation is crazy," says Kevin Kaiser, an energy analyst at Hedgeye, an independent Connecticut research firm and the company's most visible critic. "The distributable cash flow is overstated because the maintenance capital is understated." He thinks Kinder Morgan MLP units could drop below $50 and the GP below $20 -- both roughly 40% lower than the current quotes.
Kaiser has also been bearish on Boardwalk Pipeline and Linn Energy (LINE), the subject of critical Barron's articles last year, including "Twilight of a Stock Darling" (May 6).
What's Kinder Morgan's rationale for allocating so little of the capital expenditures in its oil exploration-and-production business to the sustaining bucket? On a September conference call, Kinder Morgan's chief operating officer, Steve Kean, said, "I think the focus on whether or not the base business is growing or not is an inapt focus. That's how we've been doing it for years. It's well known. It's discussed. It's the right way to do it."
Kinder Morgan expanded on that in a statement to Barron's, citing the narrow terms of its partnership agreement. "The sustaining capital we spend is not to 'sustain cash flows,' it is those we spend to maintain throughput and capacity."
Further, it appears that the company is interpreting its partnership agreement, which was created for the pipeline business, and applying it to a wholly different business.
"We fundamentally disagree with Kinder Morgan on its E&P capex policy," wrote Kaiser in a note after the Kinder Morgan conference call. "In our view, it's misleading to call capex incurred just to keep production and reserves flat, 'expansion capex,' because what exactly, is this capex expanding?"
The result, he wrote, is "an enormous transfer of wealth from KMP [the MLP] to KMI [the GP]." Kaiser thinks the oil-production business' sustaining capex was understated by $500 million in 2013. That pushed distributable cash flow higher by the same amount. The MLP financed the entire capital investment, but got back half -- $250 million -- because it had to split the DCF with the GP.
The company says there's been no wealth transfer because the categorization of sustaining and expansion capex adheres to the partnership agreement.
Kinder Morgan's fans say the company's oil-production accounting is an old issue. But that doesn't make it appropriate.
A class action suit recently was filed against Kinder Morgan, alleging that Kinder Morgan MLP investors are being "improperly" disadvantaged by the GP through understated sustaining capital. "KMI has ensured that, quarter after quarter, hundreds of millions of dollars exit KMP and are therefore not available for needed maintenance or other operations purposes," reads a suit by KMP investor Jon Slotoroff in Delaware's Chancery Court.
"We believe this lawsuit is based on a complete misreading of the partnership agreement and is without merit, and we will defend against it vigorously," the company said in a statement.
OTHER ENERGY COMPANIES operate more conservatively. Denbury Resources (DNR), a Texas company that uses the same CO2 technique for extracting crude, rejected the idea of forming an MLP last year and therefore refused to play the sustaining/expansion capital game. "Our goal here is to fund capex and dividends with cash flow. That's a little bit unique in today's environment," said CFO Mark Allen on a November conference call. Denbury's dividend is 2%, although it expects to raise the payout in the coming years. Barron's published a positive profile of Denbury last month ("The Eco Oil Producer," Jan. 20).
Kinder Morgan argues that it has excellent growth potential from the continued build-out of U.S. energy infrastructure. It has a project backlog of $14 billion over the next five years after completing $18 billion of projects and $24 billion of acquisitions since inception.
At its analyst day last month, CEO Kinder cited 13% annualized growth in the KMP distribution per unit since 1996 and a consistent record of meeting or beating annual distribution targets. However, the distribution rose 7% last year, and the company projects it will increase by just 5% in 2014.
The Kinder Morgan MLP (including Kinder Morgan Management) is valued at about $35 billion; the GP, Kinder Morgan Inc., has an equity value of $34 billion. The combined debt of the two companies is about $29 billion.
The MLP is projecting DCF this year of $2.6 billion, or $5.61 per unit, up 4% from 2013, and it expects to pay a 2014 distribution of $5.58 per unit, up 5%. Using more conservative assumptions about the split between sustaining and expansion capex, Kaiser comes up with a projected 2014 MLP DCF of about $4 per unit. But a 15 multiple on $4 of DCF would have Kinder Morgan MLP trading at about $60. Kaiser argues that the Kinder Morgan MLP deserves a lower multiple.
AN EXAMINATION of the quality of distributable cash flow isn't an arcane accounting matter. The subject is getting increased attention from institutional investors and analysts, including those who participated in the Barron's MLP Roundtable last week ("New Strategies for MLP Investors").
While none of the sell-side analysts on Wall Street are as bearish as Kaiser, there isn't a lot of enthusiasm for the Kinder Morgan MLP. Fewer than half the 19 analysts that cover it have Buy ratings. Morgan Stanley's Stephen Maresca, a panelist on last week's Roundtable, has an Underweight rating. By contrast, Enterprise Products Partners (EPD), the largest MLP by market value, boasts Buy ratings from 20 of 24 analysts, and MarkWest Energy Partners (MWE) has Buys from all 14 analysts, Bloomberg data show.
Investors seem to be recognizing Kinder Morgan's challenges because the MLP's units have lagged the benchmark Alerian MLP index, returning a negative 1% in the past two years, versus 26% for the index.
And the widely invoked toll-road analogy is applicable only to a point. The challenge for the MLP industry is that growth in energy production is occurring unevenly in the U.S., which puts older pipelines in areas where production is flat or declining at a disadvantage. Boardwalk Pipeline cited narrowing regional natural-gas price differentials for its earnings shortfalls. Put another way, production growth in areas like the Marcellus shale in the Northeast has made transporting gas over some routes less profitable.
There are other negatives. The Kinder Morgan MLP's distribution coverage ratio (DCF divided by distributions) is wafer thin at a projected 1.01 this year. This means Kinder Morgan MLP has virtually no cushion for unexpected setbacks (though, like any MLP, it can pay whatever distribution it desires, whether it's supported by DCF or not). The average coverage ratio is about 1.1 among large MLPs and Enterprise Products has a projected coverage ratio of 1.5.
Then there's the relationship between the Kinder Morgan MLP and the general partner, Kinder Morgan Inc., which takes 43% of total distributions from the MLP and 50% of distributions generated on new capital spending. While other MLPs suffer from big GP takes, Kinder Morgan's is by far the largest among major MLPs, according to Morgan Stanley research.
This financial arrangement is designed to incentivize the general partner to expand the MLP. But it also can create a conflict with the general partner. The GP may decide to grow with little regard for the economics of new deals since it receives half of the cash flow on new deals. And the GP calls the shots on capital expenditures and acquisitions; MLP investors have little or no say. Kinder's MLP lacks an independent board.
This structure puts the Kinder Morgan MLP at a disadvantage to some rivals when making acquisitions. Enterprise Products, for example, has no general partner, so it doesn't have to share its distributions. As a result, it can afford to pay more.
In order to try to make acquisitions work financially for the MLP, the Kinder Morgan GP has decided to forgo part of the incentive payments known as incentive distribution rights (IDR), to which it is entitled on two acquisitions, the $5 billion purchase last year of Copano Energy, a natural-gas services company, and a $962 million recent deal for a group of oil tankers. IDR forgiveness boosts the MLP's reported distributable cash flow in the near term, and is spun as a sign of the GP's "supportive" role, but it also demonstrates the inferior position of the MLP. "As IDR forgiveness amounts to nothing more than a temporary wealth transfer from GP to LP; we see it as a very low-quality form of cash flow," wrote Jefferies analyst Christopher Sighinolfi in report last September. "We believe it highlights the longer-term structural friction between LPs and their respective GPs."
In a response to Kaiser's report, Rich Kinder said on the September conference call that the MLP has not cut maintenance spending; rather, a large portion of it is included in the MLP's operating expenses. He also stated that the company has a superior safety record.
Kinder Morgan's latest deal, to pay $962 million to an investor group for five oil tankers, offers an example of aggressive DCF accounting. Many shipping companies set aside an annual reserve to pay for new vessels in calculating DCF, since ships ultimately need to be replaced. Tankers generally don't last more than 30 years. Kinder Morgan is setting aside an estimated $2 million this year for maintenance, but nothing for ultimate replacement.
It's notable that the investor group planned to set aside $11 million this year for ship replacement when calculating DCF in preparation for a possible initial public offering. That figure may understate the amount to replace the ships, but it contrasts with Kinder Morgan's allocation of zero.
The company argues that its approach is appropriate, saying it's a large diversified company, not a shipping specialist.
Kinder Morgan has delivered for investors over the past 17 years, but that doesn't mean the trend will continue. Increased investor scrutiny into how the sausage is made could prompt the company to reevaluate its distribution. If the distribution ever gets cut, look out below.
The $500 billion master-limited-partnership sector is the sausage maker of the investment world. |
Research data show that environmental factors, rather than genetics, play a role in affecting type 2 diabetes mellitus and depression as a comorbidity in middle- aged patients.
A convergence has been found between insulin resistance, depression, reward-seeking behavior, obesity, and diabetes.3 Brain insulin plays a role in modulating dopaminergic pathways in the brain and therefore impairments in insulin signaling lead to disruptions in dopamine signaling, further affecting the brain’s reward and motivation mechanisms. This can lead to symptoms of depression.2 For example, people with depression and insulin resistance have shown disruptions in the brain’s ability to signal satiation, exhibiting increased levels of anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure) and food-seeking behavior.
1. Intranasal insulin. Clinical studies have shown improvements in mood and memory, as well as in HPA axis response, in people administered intranasal insulin. According to Dr Mansur, “There has been interest on the intranasal approach to drug delivery, as it is a noninvasive, user-friendly delivery method. It also offers rapid absorption and avoids drug degradation in the gastrointestinal tract and subsequent liver metabolism.” However, there remain concerns regarding bioavailability. “Intranasal delivery tends to be more inconsistent than oral or intravenous administration, which [this has an] impact [on] how much of the drug you are getting; and this is one of the main reasons why, until recently, intranasal medications were more in the realm of scientific investigation than regular clinical practice. At this point, we need more research to translate potential into actual empirically supported treatments for depression,” Dr Mansur explains.
2. Liraglutide. Dr Mansur’s team has also been investigating liraglutide, which is an injectable antidiabetic medication that can penetrate the blood-brain barrier and enhance insulin signaling.
3. Metformin. This is a diabetes treatment affecting regulators of cellular energy status such as mitochondrial proteins and the adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase, potentially leading to improvements in depressive behavior.
4. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma agonists. These are antidiabetic drugs that augment insulin. Examples include rosiglitazone, which has shown antidepressant like effects, and pioglitazone, which has shown higher antidepressant effect in persons with insulin resistance than in those without.
According to Dr Mansur, the use of brain insulin resistance medicine as a treatment for depression is still experimental. “Treatments for major depressive disorder that involve insulin and/or metabolic targets still need more testing before being used in clinical settings,” he says.
As healthcare providers and patients await further research on this subject, physicians can continue to rely on therapies that are known to be effective in treating depression and diabetes separately. Cognitive behavior therapy is one such solution. According to Dr Thalia Robakis, who is a clinical assistant professor in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences department at Stanford University, “Cognitive behavior therapy is a highly flexible treatment modality, and its form that has demonstrated the most benefit for treating [type 2 diabetes] is focused on promoting treatment adherence and self-care, helping them stick to diet and exercise regimens.” Adherence to healthy behaviors has been shown to reduce insulin sensitivity and moderate depressive symptoms.2 “Although not a treatment in the traditional sense of a medication, physical exercise is repeatedly shown to improve depressive symptoms in multiple populations,” says Dr Mansur. Exercise can therefore be used either as a preventive measure or therapeutic agent for depression.
The relationship between depression and diabetes underscores the need for screening for diabetes in people with depression and screening for depression in those with diabetes. Diagnosing for possible co-occurrence of the 2 conditions is important, as many cases remain undiagnosed, leaving patients to suffer with the burden of 2 diseases without adequate clinical support.1 Indeed, there is a general lack of objective criteria for diagnosing depression. Given the relationship between depression and insulin resistance, however, could diabetes metabolic markers play a role in diagnosing depression?
According to Dr Robakis, people with depression exhibit higher levels of biomarkers that are associated with insulin resistance (eg, lower adiponectin) and inflammation (eg higher C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α levels). “However, there is currently no single biomarker that is consistently different enough between individuals with depression and healthy controls that it could be diagnostically useful. The gold standard for diagnosis of depression remains the clinical interview,” she explains. Nonetheless, diabetes biomarkers offer some hope toward improving depression diagnostics. “Identifying markers of variation in metabolic activity between depressed vs healthy individuals may help us better understand the mechanisms that link the mind and body and identify new targets for treatment,” Dr Robakis adds.
Understanding the impact of brain insulin resistance in depression has opened a window into the depression-diabetes relationship, but understanding of the overlapping mechanisms between the 2 conditions is still emerging. What remains clear is that continued research into these mechanisms will be of tremendous value in optimizing existing antidiabetic medicines to treat major depressive disorder.
2. Hamer J, Testani D, Mansur R, Lee Y, Subramaniapillai M, McIntyre R. Brain insulin resistance: a treatment target for cognitive impairment and anhedonia in depression. Exp Neurol. 2019;315:1-8.
3. Lyra e Silva NM, Lam MP, Soares CN, Munoz DP, Milev R, De Felice FG. Insulin resistance as a shared pathogenic mechanism between depression and type 2 diabetes. Front Psychiatry. 2019;10:57.
4. Arnold SE, Arvanitakis Z, Macauley-Rambach SL. Brain insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes and alzheimer disease: concepts and conundrums. Nat Rev Neurol. 2018;14(3):168-181.
5. Sripetchwandee J, Chattipakorn N, Chattipakorn SC. Links between obesity-induced brain insulin resistance, brain mitochondrial dysfunction, and dementia. Front Endocrin (Lausanne). 2018;9:496.
6. Kullmann S, Heni M, Hallschmid M, Fritsche A, Preissl H, Häring HU. Brain insulin resistance at the crossroads of metabolic and cognitive disorders in humans. Physiol Rev. 2016;96(4):1169-1209.
7. Singh MK, Leslie SM, Packer MM. Brain and behavioral correlates of insulin resistance in youth with depression and obesity. Horm Behav. 2019;108:73-83. |
I was a student in graduate school at the University of Illinois. It was the first year of its master’s program in acting and, consequently, they didn’t have a handle on who would teach what. They lassoed in a woman in her late 70s or early 80s to teach acting.
Mary Arbenz was an actor from a long-gone era. She arrived in New York in 1927 and was almost immediately cast in the world premiere of Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra. As students in 1976, acting meant Marlon Brando and the Actors Studio, not Mary Arbenz and her performance tips from the Pleistocene Epoch. Unfortunately, as a group we didn’t take her class very seriously.
That was almost 40 years ago. Mary would be happy to know that some of her advice landed in fertile soil. Mary said one of the best exercises for the actor can be done when you are not working: reading plays. Read the great plays. Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ibsen, Shaw, and of course O’Neill.
Mary said she used to invite her actor friends over to her apartment for a “reading party.” She would open a bottle of wine, people would bring over a copy of the play for the evening, and they would read.
No one played a part. You went around the circle, in order, reading whatever speech was next. That way everyone had a turn playing Othello, Iago, or Lodovico. Men read Desdemona. Women played Cassio.
We learn in many ways. Speaking and listening use different parts of the brain. Using Mary’s method, you absorb a play in a completely new and comprehensive way.
We tried it with Henry IV, Part 1. Everyone had the best time taking a crack at Falstaff and Hotspur. Everyone played extras. Actors who never got a chance to play leads got to read Hal. The play flew by. (The wine may have helped.) Tuesday night became play-reading night. We took on new plays by Pinter. We read Sophocles and Euripides.
Our readings uncovered larger patterns. We began to understand the elements of storytelling, a critical skill for all directors and writers. By moving through plays of different eras, we got a historical perspective on structure and we saw the transforming views on morality. On man’s desire for freedom. What changed. What stayed the same. It became a tutorial on civilization.
We learned different approaches to comedy and drama. We saw how great writers created suspense and delivered exposition, which became a critical skill in improvisation. We learned all of this in ways you cannot learn in an acting class or even doing eight shows a week on Broadway.
And you do it all while drinking wine!
One of the hardest parts of being an actor is how to manage your time when you are not working. Mary Arbenz would say never turn your back on your creative self. Always be a student. Keep learning. Keep taking steps forward. Revelation may come in a moment, but it doesn’t come overnight. |
1. A hospital and a nursing education program form a partnership to recruit more nurses to the region. This organizational structure is: a. b. c. d.
Being responsive to changes in the environment. Being bureaucratic. Creating permanent professional boundaries. Delineating structures for all decision making.
ANS: A Shared decision making across organizations can lead to growth and responsiveness in meeting emergent needs.
2. A hospital is working toward becoming a Magnet™ hospital. The chief nursing officer is aware that professional nursing departments of the future will: a. b. c. d.
Not be directed by nurses. Be virtual organizations. Be designed to maintain nursing standards of practice. Be entitled to have client care departments.
ANS: C Professional nursing departments of the future will be focused on patient care outcomes and delivery of services.
3. The chief nursing officer and the dean of the School of Nursing believe that by establishing rules and regulations and controlling the environment, this partnership will: a. b. c. d.
Promote professional medical authority, autonomy, and responsibility. Need a degree of flexibility to engender success. Be essential for self-governance. Provide for the establishment of medical committees.
ANS: B Centralized decision-making structures that emphasize high control and rules and regulations that lay out expectations can be slow to respond to emergent trends.
4. In matrix organizational structures, a nurse manager understands that this type of structure: a. b. c. d.
Is a simplified organizational structure. Has both a functional manager and a service or product-line manager. Arranges departments strictly according to function. Promotes harmony in organizational decision making.
ANS: B Matrix structures are complex, integrated organizational structures that involve both functional and service or product-line managers. In this structure, team members or teams from various functional departments may combine to complete a project or program, thereby becoming responsible to both their functional department manager and their product-line manager. Harmony or disharmony cannot be assumed.
5. Collaborative partnerships between hospitals and schools of nursing are examples of hybrid organizational structures. A hybrid organizational structure: a. Has many divisions of labor.
b. Best fits long-term care units. c. Has a mixture of the characteristics of various organizational types. the authority for decision making closest to the places where d. Places workers perform.
ANS: C Hybrid structures include characteristics of various organizational types and reflect the needs of the situation and the environment.
6. In opening a new dialysis unit, the nurse manager has to develop a philosophy for the unit. This philosophy needs to: a. b. c. d.
Reflect the culture of the unit and its values. Be developed by the nursing manager on the unit. Identify the clients that will be served on the unit. Replicate the organization’s philosophy.
ANS: A The philosophy needs to state what the nurse manager and staff believe is the vision for nursing management and practice and sets the stage for establishing goals to make the vision a reality. It is complementary to the organizational philosophy but reflects the values of nursing. Shared governance enables staff and management to develop a vision and is congruent with contemporary views of management. The identification of clients to be served reflects a mission statement.
7. The hospital administration gives approval to the chief nursing officer to hire clinical nurse specialists in staff positions rather than in administrative positions. A clinical specialist who has staff authority but no line authority typically is able to: a. Function through influence. b. Take complete responsibility for the care of clients. c. Interview and hire staff nurses for designated nursing units. granted functional authority to determine standards of nursing care and d. Be enforce them.
ANS: A Staff positions provide support to line positions but have no direct accountability for staff or patient outcomes and therefore, function through influence.
ANS: D In traditional structures, decision making authority is held by a centralized decision-making body, so that staff members have responsibility for certain functions but do not participate in decisions related to those functions.
9. The chief nursing officer is given the task of reviewing and revising the organization’s mission, philosophy, and technology. In reviewing them, the chief nursing officer understands that they should be reflected in: a. b. c. d.
The organizational structure. Line and staff responsibilities. The policies and procedures. Government regulations.
ANS: A The mission statement is an important foundation for the organizational structure and defines technology and human resources required for the organization.
10. The facilities department is experiencing some challenges and is undergoing reorganization. Because of your familiarity with systems theory, you: that this challenge is their issue and that it has nothing to do with your a. Know unit. that such events are localized and do not have an impact on the b. Understand organizational culture. that the nature of challenges and reorganization in facilities will have an c. Know impact on other areas. that your prior experiences with facilities have no effect on the d. Anticipate current situation.
ANS: C By nature, a system such as an organization is an interacting collection of parts that together make up the whole. Changes to one part will affect other parts and the system as a whole.
11. “Georgia Hospital will provide care that is a national example of consumer service� is a: a. b. c. d.
Vision statement. Statement of philosophy. Mission statement. Rationale for care.
ANS: A A vision statement is an articulated goal that provides an inspirational target to which the organization aspires.
REF: Page 140 TOP: AONE competency: Knowledge of Healthcare Environment 12. “At Thoroughcare, we provide healthcare for women and children in transition” is an example of a: a. b. c. d.
Vision statement. Mission statement. Goal statement. Statement of philosophy.
ANS: B Mission statements provide a reason or rationale for the existence of the organization and are indicative of the structure of the organization and of who consumes the services provided.
ANS: D The mission statements of nursing centers are oriented toward achieving optimal health status for a defined group of patients or consumers.
14. Which of the following most influences the organizational structure of the organization? a. b. c. d.
ANS: A Mission statements lay out the reasons for the organization and include the population served and services offered, which, in turn, influence the technologies and human resources that will be required.
research. The organization has tried to implement a strong campaign to attract leading nurse researchers but has experienced difficulty in doing so.
ANS: C Although frustration may occur with external factors that affect ability to act on values and aspirations, lack of congruence between what is espoused as a value within the organization, such as promising advancement as an incentive to join the organization, and what is actually done, such as restricting advancement to internal candidates with much organizational history, can cause low morale and confusion.
16. At Orangetown Hospital, the nursing department is developing a mission statement for nursing. Which would be a suitable mission statement?
ANS: D A nursing mission statement within an organization needs to establish the reason for nursing within the organization and lays out relationships with clients, the community, and other disciplines.
17. At Hospital XYZ, staff members on Y3 have dealt with the third head nurse in three years. Donna, the current head nurse, lacks confidence in patientnurse relationships, and scheduling and other processes are routinely left to the last minute. Staff members approached Donna first and then administration with their concerns about Donna’s effectiveness as a leader. The staff was told that the problem is likely staff related, that it is simply an unhappy group, and that there is nothing that will be done further about their concerns. The philosophy of the organization indicates that “open, transparent communication between staff and management is desired and supported,” and that “innovation and creative thinking are the foundation of the organization’s progress.” In assessing this situation as a newly hired senior executive, you anticipate that: a. Staff members will resolve the conflict on their own.
b. The situation will lead to ongoing disgruntlement and attrition. c. No further discussion or concerns will come out of the situation. d. The head nurse will be able to resolve the conflict on her own.
ANS: B Lack of congruence between the stated philosophy of the hospital and the experienced organizational culture does not support either the staff or the head nurse and likely will result in ongoing frustration and increased attrition.
18. In Valley Hospital, there is a great deal of discussion about the balance between hospital-wide budget decision making and unit-based decision making. This discussion represents: a. A search for the “sweet spot.” between the values of nursing and those of the healthcare b. Conflict organization.
c. Traditional organizational values. d. Differences between bureaucratic and nonlinear thinking.
Decreased patient satisfaction. Increased efficiency in costs. A more positive perception of managers. Little change to manager-staff relationships.
ANS: A When a span of control becomes too large, supervision can become less effective, which can have a negative effect on staff-manager relationships and on the overall quality of patient care.
20. Taylor Hospital has well-defined organizational units that provide maintenance, financial services, care for cardiac patients, care for surgical patients, and so on. The organizational chart indicates that surgical units report to a surgical manager, and that all nursing units report to a vice president of nursing; financial services to an accountant and then to a business executive; and so on. The primary disadvantage of this organizational structure is: a. b. c. d.
Breakdown in function and communication across specialties. Lack of congruence in culture and organizational values. Highly centralized decision making and authority. Wide span of control.
ANS: A In a functional organizational structure, departments and services function according to specialty. This model supports professional expertise but can lead to silos in communication and decision making and discontinuity in patient services.
21. In the Unity Healthcare organization, decisions, including those at the unit level, are made by a group of senior executives. Rules for employees are clear, and nursing care is delineated by procedures and protocols. This exemplifies: a. b. c. d.
Transformational leadership. Transactional leadership. Bureaucratic organization. Chaos theory.
ANS: C Organizational structure refers to the organization of a work group, rather than to its leadership, and includes where decisions are made and relationships between groups. In the example given, power is centrally located, with all decisions regarding policies and procedures flowing from this central location, which is characteristic of bureaucratic organizations. In organizations where chaos theory is exemplified, decision making and accountability are decentralized.
22. In the Unity Healthcare organization, communication flows: a. b. c. d.
Laterally. Bottom to top. Top to bottom. Intermittently.
ANS: C In a bureaucratic organization, communication flows vertically top to bottom.
Direct responsibility for patient care. Direct accountability for patient outcomes. An authority relationship to staff. An influence over patient outcomes.
ANS: D In a staff position, Sarah supports line positions in accomplishing the primary goals and objectives of the unit and provides support, counsel, and advice, but she has limited or no authority for decision making.
24. A statement such as “We believe in the right of patients to make choices and to have care that is sensitive to their preferences and needs� is a _____ statement. a. b. c. d.
ANS: D Philosophy statements capture significant beliefs and values of the organization.
1. Organizational culture includes (select all that apply): a. b. c. d.
ANS: A, B, C, D Organizational culture, the reflection of the norms or traditions of the organization, is exemplified in behaviors that illustrate values and beliefs. |
(Proverbs 21:11 KJV) When the scorner is punished, the simple is made wise: and when the wise is instructed, he receiveth knowledge.
This seems to be contrary to the traditional wisdom that you can’t have your cake and eat it too. This proverb tells us that we can learn two ways.
First we can learn from the mistakes of others. I am sure you have watched other people self destruct. We observe procrastination, sloth, waste, vanity, selfishness and such every day. The really “wise” (7919a) person sees it and decides to do different. The slightly wise person sees the way the “scorner” (scoffer NASB) (3917b) is “punished” (6064) and still learns enough to decide to do different.
Have you ever been in a car with a drunk driver or experienced a close call? Did that teach you to control your drinking? Did it take a tragedy for you to get the message? That is an easy illustration. You could find more subtle examples of that every day. Watch and learn.
The other part of the promise is where we should be. When we are where we should be spiritually we can learn from the teaching of the Holy Spirit. That is why I read the Bible daily. Not just to look at the words, but to let the Word look at me.
So? Learn from the mistakes of others, yes. Learn from your own mistakes, yes. But the best is when we can learn from the truth that is offered to us and avoid the mistakes. Take it any way you can get it. Read, think, pray, listen, grow. |
Mold Hazards and Safeguards for Workers | Markhoff & Mittman, P.C.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy that pounded the East Coast, cleanup efforts are still ongoing and OSHA has recently issued a reminder about the dangerous effects of mold on workers during the cleaning process.
Due to the large amount of water flooding various areas during and after the flood, mold exposure is a big concern for cleanup crews. Encountering mold on building materials, in carpeting, and personal belongings soaked in the floods will be common and in order to safely remediate affected areas, workers must understand the hazards mold poses.
OSHA released a Mold Safety Fact Sheet for workers to understand better the potential hazards to one’s health and how to prevent contamination while cleaning flooded areas. Personal protective equipment will be necessary to protect workers from breathing in mold and contamination during the remediation and cleanup process.
OSHA administrators stress that even with the fact sheet information, employers still have an obligation to provide workers with the equipment, safeguards, and training to work safely around mold and other hazards hurricane cleanup involves. OSHA has also said crews are working with employers to ensure proper training and avoidance of hazards on the job.
As for OSHA’s work, the agency has been working daily to provide outreach services and briefings for those in the field. The agency has been very proactive about protecting workers from Hurricane Sandy cleanup efforts and providing appropriate training for workers. OSHA’s work in the field has been reaching over 50,000 cleanup workers that are still working in Sandy-affected regions of the East Coast. |
This reflux occurs due to the relaxation of the lower oesophageal sphincter triggered usually by poor diet and lifestyle.
Although heartburn is a common discomfort experienced by most people by the time of adulthood, its ignorance can lead to a chronic version called gastro oesophageal reflux disease.
There are several ways to take care of heartburn when it is at initial stages they include home remedies, change in food habits and lifestyle changes.
In this article, we will evaluate how probiotics can help in heartburn.
How Do Probiotics help in Heartburn?
Probiotics are the live bacteria and yeasts that are called the good microorganisms, because they benefit the body, specifically the digestive system.
The microbes present in the probiotic compounds and food supplements are similar to those present naturally in the gut.
The body normally does not need the external probiotic supplements because the gut supports the growth of such microbes naturally.
However, probiotics assist the job of these good microbes and promote their growth which improves the efficiency of digestion and keeps the gut healthy.
The probiotic microorganisms, that are naturally present in the gut include the yeast Saccharomyces boulardii bacteria of Lactobacillus and Bifobacterium families. Outside the body, Lactobacillus acidophilus is a probiotic, found in yogurt.
The probiotic supplements contain these strains of microorganisms in the medium that promotes their growth and the ones which are present already in the gut.
Probiotics may play a role in reducing the symptoms of GERD and heartburn by various mechanisms. Some are listed below.
Helicobacter pylori are highly prevalent pathogenic microorganisms that colonize in the upper gastrointestinal tract.
It is a major causative agent of ulcers and inflammations which are the major risk factors for GERD.
Although there has been described that GERD occurrence is inversely related to H. pylori infection, meaning that this pathogen protects the LES from relaxing and thus preventing acid reflux, it nevertheless causes mucosal infections and ulcers which are the major pain causing conditions in gut disorders including heartburns.
Data suggests that antibiotics successfully treat H. pylori infection up to 90% but it is expensive and causes side effects such as antibiotic resistance.
A cheaper and healthier way of reducing this infection is by the use of probiotics.
Research has demonstrated that consumption of probiotics reduces the number of H. pylori and the resulting inflammation in the gut successfully.
Although probiotics cannot totally eradicate the infection, they are successful in reducing the infection associated side effects and pain to a greater extent.
Regular consumption of probiotics works to inhibit the prevalence of this infection in the first place.
Ulcers are a major cause of pain in heartburns. These ulcers are caused by the burns as a result of prolonged acid exposure in the oesophagus.
A study in rats has shown that probiotics containing a strain of lactobacillus called Lactobacillus rhamnosus colonized on the boundaries of the ulcers and reduced the death rate of the affected cells.
Apart from that, these bacteria also induced the expression of genes such as bcl-2 and certain growth factors such as VEGF which promote the development of vasculature in the affected area and the growth and healing of the damaged tissue.
These results suggest that probiotics may play a major role in reduction of ulcerative damage in heartburn and GERD.
Inflammation is a result of severe damage of the mucosal tissue in the gut due to acid exposure. This further leads to chronic ulcers, pain and other diseases.
Inflammation is a result of the damage induced over-expression of cyclooxygenase gene (COX), the product of which mediates the formation of prostaglandins or the hormone which promotes inflammation and increased immune response in the affected area.
H. pylori infection also enhances the expression of COX gene product.
Probiotic supplements have been shown to reduce the expression of COX and the resulting death of the tissue due to increased inflammation in experimental species of rats. This might be considered as a mechanism to reduce the complications induced due acid reflux in the oesophagus by the consumption of probiotic supplements .
Another mechanism suggested in the reduction of inflammation by probiotics is by induction of cytokine- interleukin 10 and interleukin 10 dependent T regulatory cells. Interleukin 10 is a type of chemical signal that activates a regulatory immune cell called T regulatory cell.
These cells check the level of other attacker immune cells and protect the body from inflammation.
Increase in interleukin 10 levels directly increases T regulatory cells which maintain the level of destructive immune cells and prevent them from causing inflammation.
A major cause of heartburn is poor digestion which is marked by the increased transit time of the food in the gut.
A controlled study on elderly humans suggested that probiotics are successful in significantly reducing the gut transit time of the food in a dose-dependent manner by virtue of enhanced digestion of the food.
The results also showed that the beneficial effects of probiotics last long after the consumption of probiotics is totally stopped.
Thus probiotics reduce the susceptibility to the diseases caused by increased gut transit time which includes heartburns.
Probiotics are widely available in pharmacies in different forms including capsules, powders, syrups, chocolate bars and tablets.
As an example, a commonly used supplement is acidophilus which is available from several supplement manufacturers.
Probiotics are also a major constituent of dairy products such as yogurt, fermented and unfermented milk, buttermilk, and some soft cheeses.
Fruit juices, fermented products, soy drinks and pickles among many other products are an active source of probiotics.
Over the counter probiotics contain a specific microbe which has a different beneficial effect in different diseases.
If the doctor has prescribed a probiotic, all the given instructions of purchase and consumptions should be followed.
If the probiotics are to be taken without a prescription, certain tips must be kept in mind.
Firstly, the label should be read and followed thoroughly. The label contains the information about the strain and its benefits for a particular body ailment.
The label should be familiar and if not known, the pharmacist should be consulted before purchasing.
Secondly, if you are unsure about the strain and the manufacturer, it is safer to first call the company and inquire about the specifications of the strain.
Thirdly, it is better to stick to well-known companies because probiotics contain live organisms.
If at all, they contain any pathogenic contamination, an adverse effect might occur with severe consequences.
Lastly, the storage of probiotics should be done strictly according to the instructions given in the package.
The microorganisms are affected by a specific temperature with respect to growth and development along with various other stages of their lifecycle. So storage should be of prime concern.
The dosage of probiotics differs depending on the manufacturer of the product. Each product lists its own dosage instructions on the packet that should be strictly followed.
The effects of probiotics vary from person to person depending on the health conditions.
For instance, it is not advisable for pregnant women or women nursing babies to consume over the counter probiotics without prescription since there has been very little or no research to support the beneficial effects of probiotics in pregnancy.
In a case of serious health issues, the effects of taking probiotics as a complementary medicine should be closely monitored for any negative consequences.
It is better to first take natural probiotic foods such as soya milk and yogurt before moving on to the probiotic supplements such as tablets, syrups, and capsules.
It appears that most people consuming probiotics over the counter do not experience any side effects. However, there have been some reports of severe adverse effects for which research is still going on.
Probiotics may cause hypersensitivity, diarrhoea, flatulence and bloat in some individuals who have consumed the product without a prescription, in a wrong dose or for the first time.
Studies show that these adverse effects can also arise from consumption of probiotics in case of allergy and in the condition of severe health issues for with the probiotics couldn’t agree with.
The long-term effect of probiotics in healthy individuals, people with less severe gut problems and inflammation and in children are beneficial but there exists very little scientific evidence to support the same.
Concerns about the quality of these products have also come into the light, where the product doesn’t contain enough microbes as listed on the pack or contains different strains that might not show any benefits or cause adverse effects.
Thus natural food products with probiotic activity such as curd, fermented milk, soya, and cheese are considered best with respect to safety issues.
If at all, over the counter medications are to be taken, they should be of a well known and trusted manufacturer to avoid any future discomforts.
As far as effectiveness is concerned, probiotic food products, unlike medications, don’t need any FDA approval and are most beneficial and safe for consumption.
This means the manufacturers can sell the product just by claiming that they are beneficial and safe.
There has been no research done on which type of probiotic affects what part of the body.
It still is unclear if they provide a benefit at all or is it just psychological.
Despite all these issues, the overall probiotic consumption shows positive results.
Probiotics are not a well-researched area of complementary medicine to treat several common discomforts and gut problems such as acid reflux, but the overall effects of these supplements have turned out to be positive.
Probiotics have been assumed to reduce heartburn and its associated concerns such as inflammation and ulceration to a considerable extent.
There are a few safety concerns about the consumption of probiotic medications without a prescription and thus first time users should be more careful about the same.
More so, it is always better to consult a physician or the pharmacist before taking probiotics to avoid any future complications. |
Argrichar n. A byproduct of synfuel production resulting from heating biomass in an oxygen-free environment. Agrichar retains much of the carbon normally released as CO2 during combustion, so it represents a decrease in CO2 emissions and an increase in the yield of crops fertilized with it.
Passive Obesity n. Flabbiness caused by physical inactivity rather than caloric excess. Recent studies blame much of the obesity epidemic on the increasing amount of time people spend seated — at desks, in cars, and on couches. Corpulence, the theory goes, is the fault of modern lifestyles, not individual behavior.
iBricking n. What it's called when Apple's 1.1.1 system up date detects third-party software and disables an iPhone. By rendering the product useless, Apple punishes disloyal customers — and protects itself from the threat that they'll ever be Apple customers again.
Social Advertising n. Involuntary product endorsement on Facebook by users whose online purchases are automatically broadcast to friends. The social networking site created its service, Beacon, as an alternative to mass marketing, but it caused mass revolt by users wary of privacy invasion. |
We have all heard that physical fitness is an important factor in health, but how important a factor? And is it ever too late to get fit?
A study published earlier last month in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests that becoming fit in middle age, even if you haven’t previously exercised, can stave off illness later in life.
In the study, researchers collected medical records for more than 18,000 healthy middle-aged men and women who’d visited the Cooper Institute in Dallas, Texas for a check-up since 1970. Each subject took a treadmill test to determine their aerobic fitness at their first check-up. Then the researchers checked their Medicare records from 1999 through 2009.
The study found that people who were least fit at the time of their initial check-up were the most likely to developed chronic conditions such as heart disease and cancer early in the aging process. Those who were most in middle-age developed the same conditions, but significantly later in life compared to the less fit.
The take-home message of this study actually parallels a lesson shared in Karl’s book 30 Lessons for Living, which shares advice from America’s elders. The lesson is: It’s not dying you should worry about – it’s chronic disease.
This study provides evidence that you can actually do something to help prevent chronic disease later in life – exercise!
The study is backed up by several systematic reviews. One published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport found physical activity helps prevent heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Another published in Obesity Reviews found individual who are overweight but have good aerobic fitness are at lower risk of cardiovascular disease compared with individuals with normal weight and poor fitness.
The bottom line: Physical fitness can help you lead a healthier, happier life no matter what your age.
During undoubtedly the biggest shopping week of the year, several major retailers – including Walmart, Sears and Toys R Us – are bringing back a purchasing tool of by-gone days: layaway.
The concept is simple. If you can’t afford a purchase, the store will set it aside for you (for a fee, or course) and allow you to make payments on it. Once you’ve paid off the item, you’re free to take it home. The system was set up before credit cards were common-place in American homes.
“Imagine a mother going to Walmart on Oct. 17 and buying $100 worth of Christmas toys. She makes a down payment of $10 and pays a $5 service fee. Over the next two months she pays off the rest. In effect, she is paying $5 in interest for a $90 loan for two months: the equivalent of a credit card with a 44 percent annual percentage rate, a level most of us would consider predatory.
“In comparison, even a card with an 18 percent A.P.R. would charge only half as much interest — and she could take those presents home the same day.
The bottom line is that most layway program don’t pay. Instead, it’s better to save up for your holiday presents.
During this week of Thanksgiving, we’d also like to remind you that the feeling of thankfulness or gratitude is actually good for you. Before you head out the door for those Black Friday sales, take a few minutes to remember what you’re grateful for.
There are some problems we can’t do much about — hurricaines and earthquakes, for example. But a vast amount of things that make life tough — and sometimes miserable — relate to the choices human beings make and the way we behave. For this reason, a whole science of behavior change has grown up, focusing both on theoretical models and empirical studies of how to change damaging human behaviors, ranging from smoking, to crime, to overeating, to taking excessive risks. |
Chronic kidney disease is a progressive disease, which will decrease patient’s kidney function gradually. There is no cure for CKD so far, and patient will have kidney failure eventually.
Thereby, once people get CKD, it seems their condition will become severer and severer. As a result, patients with CKD may have this question and expectation: is there any possibility for them to reverse CKD?
Why CKD has no cure so far?
chronic kidney disease is divided into five stages according to patient’s GFR, and kidney disease will cause inflammation in kidney, which will damage patient’s kidney structure, and cause patient’s kidney function to be reduced gradually.
As we know, kidney is an important organ for our body, and it is in charge of our internal metabolic balances. While CKD can be caused by many factors, like infection, virus, autoimmune disorder, gene mutation, etc. These factors can cause inflammatory reaction in kidney, and there is no effective medicines to cure the inflammation in kidney, and patient’s condition can only be controlled. Then, patient’s condition will become severer and severer.
CKD stages are divided according to patient’s GFR, which indicates how much blood has be filtered by kidney in unit time. When nephrons in kidney are damaged gradually by kidney disease, that will cause patients to have lower and lower kidney function.
In fact, even patient’s kidney function has been damaged severely, lots of nephrons are just in a damaged state. With appropriate treatment and nursing care, these nephrons can be repaired, and then patient’s kidney function will be improved. However, there is no cure for CKD at present, and patient’s condition will be aggravated continuously, but if patient’s kidney function can be improved, that will contribute to a better prognosis.
Kidney is very important for our body health, and kidney disease is very dangerous. Thereby, patients with kidney disease should do their best to improve their condition. If you have any trouble in dealing with your condition, you can send your details and problems to [email protected]. We can provide the guidance you need or do what we can to help you. |
Understanding Arctic glacier sensitivity is key to predicting future response to air temperature rise. Previous studies have used proglacial lake sediment records to reconstruct Holocene glacier advance–retreat patterns in South and West Greenland, but high‐resolution glacier records from High Arctic Greenland are scarce, despite the sensitivity of this region to future climate change. Detailed geochemical analysis of proglacial lake sediments close to Zackenberg, northeast Greenland, provides the first high‐resolution record of Late Holocene High Arctic glacier behaviour. Three phases of glacier advance have occurred in the last 2000 years. The first two phases (c. 1320–800 cal. a BP) occurred prior to the Little Ice Age (LIA), and correspond to the Dark Ages Cold Period and the Medieval Climate Anomaly. The third phase (c. 700 cal. a BP), representing a smaller scale glacier oscillation, is associated with the onset of the LIA. Our results are consistent with recent evidence of pre‐LIA glacier advance in other parts of the Arctic, including South and West Greenland, Svalbard, and Canada. The sub‐millennial glacier fluctuations identified in the Madsen Lake succession are not preserved in the moraine record. Importantly, coupled XRF and XRD analysis has effectively identified a phase of ice advance that is not visible by sedimentology alone. This highlights the value of high‐resolution geochemical analysis of lake sediments to establish rapid glacier advance–retreat patterns in regions where chronological and morphostratigraphical control is limited. |
Parents have the better opportunity and responsibility for nurturing their children. This nurturing process take place in several areas of development like physical, emotional, intelligence and intellectual. Like reading any other subjects, mathematics is a subject that is indeed necessary for functioning adequately in society. More than that, mathematics is a subject that is more enjoyable except all these. Many parents assume that mathematical ability is just some kind of ability, some children have it and some children don’t have this ability. So, results shows that most of the children don’t do really well in math subject.
Math is a skill that takes a lot of brain power to master. Your children can be experienced this as hard work. Many studies shows that some people experiencing physical pain while doing math. These parents tend to tell their children that mathematics is hard as they relieve their own experience as their children struggling with formulas, exponents, and equations. So the children pick up this assertiveness and live their lives believing that mathematics is tough and they have to face their academic lives.
Parents think that if their children survive in modern life, they should being skillful or at least competent in math. They use math as daily as figure out personal finance, construction projects, cooking and shopping, engineering, high technology and other in demand careers requires above average math skills. Even today, non-math careers also requires that employees have sharp analytical and reasoning skills that are developed when brains are trained in math.
Children’s first teachers are their parents which play an important role in children’s attitude in learning math. Parents who engage in mathematical talk will provide their children with a solid mathematical foundations for later achievements. Parents who explain to their children about numbers and altitudinal relationships by way of gestures and words tend to instill better mathematical skills at early age.
Children are more amenable to The learning lab when it is associated more with play other than with work, so it is a good idea for parents to expose their children to do math in fun and interesting ways. This is the challenge for the parents to figure out ways on how to create simple interactions and early learning activities to serve as foundations of their children to enjoy.
There are some tips which parents can follow to make math interesting and more enjoyable for their kids.
Math is game:As parents, make children reflectthat math is not work but it is a game that can be played like computer games, sports games, fun board games and many others. So parents should use digital games, apps and many websites as resources for making math a game.
Mathematical activities:Parents need to find out what activities that your children enjoy and integrate math into it. For example, if your children are sports fun, teach them about the numbers used in sports such as scores, batting average, percentage of wins etc.
Appreciation and rewards:Give appreciation and rewards of your children when they are mastered in the mathematical skills like counting, doing addition, multiplication, subtracting and division the numbers. |
Our children are hurting emotionally, physically, sexually and verbally.
Every day in Grant County and across the nation, children are being exposed to acts of violence, which in turn affect how they develop and what they perceive as normal.
In December 2012, a report from the Attorney General’s National Task Force reported that approximately two out of every three of our children have their lives touched by violence, crime, abuse and psychological trauma.
In 1979, U.S. Surgeon General Julius B. Richmond declared violence a public health crisis of the highest priority, and yet 40 years later that crisis remains.
Nearly 700,000 children are abused in the U.S annually. An estimated 683,000 children (unique incidents) were victims of abuse and neglect in 2015, the most recent year for which there is national data, according to the National Children’s Alliance.
No matter where the child is experiencing this violence, the fact that it is occurring has the potential to profoundly derail the child’s security, health, happiness and ability to grow and learn – with effects lasting well into adulthood.
In addition, according to Futures Without Violence, more than 60 percent of kids in the U.S. have been exposed to crime, abuse and violence – many in their own homes. Repeated exposure to trauma and violence can disrupt brain development and increase the risk of serious illness, psychological issues and dangerous behavior later in life.
Sexual abuse places children at high risk for serious and chronic health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, suicidality, eating disorders, sleep disorders, substance abuse and deviant sexual behavior. Sexually abused children often become hypervigilant about the possibility of future sexual violation and experience feelings of betrayal by the adults who failed to care for and protect them.
Physical abuse puts children at high risk for lifelong problems with medical illness, PTSD, suicidality, eating disorders, substance abuse and deviant sexual behavior. And children who live in homes where domestic violence takes place experience these issues, plus they often times personalize the situations and take responsibility for their parent’s actions, believing they are somehow the cause of the problem.
So, now that you have learned how devastating and destructive we are to our children, what can we do to stop the violence and give these children hope as we work this month of April to empower our children and stop the abuse?
First and foremost we can strive to make our homes a place of safety and security, filled with love and accountability. We need to ensure that our homes are a sanctuary for our children. A place that they can truly be themselves, without fear or judgement. A place that they learn what appropriate boundaries are and learn how to cope in today’s society while still receiving appropriate discipline.
Then, we can look outside ourselves and empower our neighborhoods to be the same safe and secure environment that our homes have become. We can talk to our neighbors and encourage the children to be all they can be.
We can take the time to do the small things in life that make the most difference in the end, like learning our neighbor’s names and helping each other out – role modeling healthy relationships to all children.
And we can reach beyond our neighborhoods to our schools, our churches and our youth-serving organizations. We can each strive to assist either through our time, talents or treasure to build up and support organizations that empower youth and families, such as Family Service Society, Inc.
It has been said over and over again that children are our future. But until we truly put that sentiment into action, the statistics around child abuse and how it relates to sexual violence and domestic violence will not change and the Office of the Attorney General and U.S. Surgeon General will continue to report how trauma is silently killing our future. |
In this Home & Garden video tutorial you will learn how to identify problems with the cotton wood and aster tree. Curtis Smith, extension horticulturist, presents this video along with Judy Nickell, master gardener. Female Junipers make berries and male Junipers make pollens. Lot of people are allergic to the pollens. So, you will be better advised to avoid male junipers in your landscapes. On the other hand berries of female junipers attract birds and are good for increasing bird activity. For increasing flowering on asters, cut the stocks so they grow more branches which will produce more flowers. This will also help the tree remain more compact and less affected by wind. |
Mutton Boneless - Goat meat, or mutton as it is also known, is the most commonly consumed red meat in the world. Apart from its unique taste, mutton also has a range of health benefits to offer. The amount of saturated fat in goat meat is less than the total amount of unsaturated fats it contains, which improves blood cholesterol levels, eases inflammation and stabilizes heart rhythms.Goat meat reduces the risk of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Goat meat contains Vitamin B, which helps you burn fat. Considering that goat meat contains high amounts of lean proteins and low amounts of saturated fat, it helps control weight and reduces the risk of obesity. Mutton contains selenium and choline, which are beneficial in warding off cancer. Due to its high content of Vitamin B12, goat meat helps you get healthy skin. Goat meat is rich in calcium, which helps strengthen bones and teeth. The meat of a goat enhances the production of new cells, thereby delaying ageing. |
Discussion topics in the divorce world often include”dating, starting over and finding our new selves. But the topic that seems to always gets glossed over is motherhood – not the motherhood that helps us our children navigate this new world, not the motherhood where we feel sad and broken for our children and the pain they’ve had to experience so young. I’m talking about real mothering – the kind that makes you cry out of frustration, the kind that makes you hate yourself for not being enough, the kind that makes you not want to see your kids, the kind that society expects mothers will never experience, let alone discuss. Like an Instagram filter, motherhood is white washed with positivity, polished with the occasional expression of comedic frustration for a realistic balance between the “good kale feeding screen time limiting mom’ and the ‘I want to drop my kids at the fire station mom”.
But motherhood is so much more than that and the expectations are so much higher. The other day I had a meeting with my daughter’s teacher during which she praised my daughter’s father for mentioning to her that “my ex-wife takes care of everything- she’s amazing.” I’m not sure if he said I was amazing or I inserted it myself but it has a nice ring to it, so we’ll keep it. The teacher was so impressed at an ex-husband’s ability to recognize the efforts and work of his ex-wife. Not to take anything away from the father of my children (because it was a very nice thing to say), but as the teacher was speaking all I could think was, “What the what?!Why is he getting praised for recognizing my efforts?, Who praises me for actually doing it all in the first place?” It’s just expected that a mother will do it all; drop a school course because her son needs her home, sacrifice her social life because she won’t go out when the kids are home, restrict her dating life based on the needs of her children. Because after all, sacrifice is what being a mother is all about, right?. Nobody said motherhood would be easy but you asked for it, right?
The paradigm of motherhood we have ascribed to today’s mothers is downright stifling. Our children are extensions of us and define our status and value to and in society. If they are doing poorly in school, it’s because we aren’t doing homework with them as opposed to them being lazy asses. If they’re misbehaving it’s because we didn’t cuddle them enough as infants as opposed to them being cesspools of preteen hormones. If they’re getting sick all the time it’s because we didn’t breastfeed them or maybe it’s because our houses are too clean and our kids aren’t exposed to germs but of course it has nothing to do with the fact they wear shoes without socks in the dead of winter. The finger always points back at the mother and in the shoes of the single mom, it’s the whole damn hand.
Last week I lost it on my kids. My kids had been with me for nearly a month straight and I was going crazy. I came down in the morning to see my kitchen ransacked by my four year old. A milk and grape juice concoction floating on the counters, cereal lightly sprinkled but somehow also stuck in the grout of the floor tiles. Unbeknownst to me there was a squishy cupcake and a ¼ of an orange in the oven that I would only discover a few days later when I turned on the oven and my house smelled like a Mattel factory drowning in Mimosas. All the while, my older kids were watching TV, the Switzerland’s of this home invasion, they waved their white flags claiming ignorance as their defense. I saw all this and lost it. I mean F-bomb dropping, shouting and yelling kind of losing it. It’s the kind of losing it we convince ourselves will put our kids in therapy for life; the kind that makes us feel miserable to our core; the kind that puts the fear of god in our children’s eyes; but mostly the kind that has us feeling isolated and alone because we aren’t supposed to talk about it. We pretend it’s the Spanx of motherhood – something we all know is there but no one wants to see or admit to because people will think we are bad mothers, kids won’t want to come for playdates and men will run even further then they already do.
Lately society has enveloped a self-care philosophy and has extended it to motherhood. But even self care is cloaked in the guilt of motherhood. Take care of yourself so long as your manicure doesn’t cut into time with your kids.Treat yourself to something new so long as you’re still able to buy your child the 30-dollar Swell water bottle their life just isn’t complete without. Take care of yourself but not at the expense of anyone else is the message. But how about at the expense of everyone else, take care of yourself.
I will not feel guilty that my children have their father as an active part of their life simply because others don’t. I feel for the women and children who don’t but that doesn’t make me any less entitled to it. It’s the same idea as someone who is happily married feeling guilty for their happy marriage because I am divorced. We can express empathy for others misfortunes without condemning our blessings.
To the women whose initial retort was the statement above, this is exactly the problem. We see a mother in need, a mother asking for help and all we can say is, “well you think that’s bad, you should see my life.” It’s like a child who says their stomach hurts and is told, “You want stomach pain? Try being pregnant”. This not so imaginary scenario can often result in a child who refuses to talk about their pain, even though it’s excruciating, and finally after a 3am trip to the ER has their appendix removed.
I don’t have the answer. Not a clue what it is really. I started yoga to calm myself, have an online shopping cart full of self-help books waiting to be purchased and have taken my before pictures for a month long cleanse program (consider this a public warning). I may not know what the solution is, but I do know this.- We need to start listening to one another. We need to listen to mothers when they say they’re at their end. We need to listen to women when they say they need help without saying those words but mostly, we need to listen to ourselves. We need to hear our inner compass and listen to it when it tells us we are breaking, we can’t take it. We need to safeguard ourselves to avoid getting to that point. We need to protect ourselves and our well beings with the same tenacity we do our children.
The greatest gift we can give our children is the best version of us. Even as I type this I’m wondering how the hell do I do that?. I’m not a thousand percent sure but I know that forsaking my needs and emotional and mental well being is definitely not the way. Basically, when mama bear is fed and doing well, so are the cubs. |
Net Neutrality: What consequences will the end of Internet neutrality have in the United States (and how will it affect the rest of the world)?
The digital world shuddered this Thursday in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of that country announced the total repeal of the net neutrality standards approved by the Barack Obama government in 2015, which prevented providers from charging additional fees for access faster to certain content on the network.
Basically, they were obliged to treat the entire digital universe equally, which, in political terms, meant that the authorities ensured that the companies that provide the service did not block, slow down or discriminate in any way any content or applications.
With the new law, everything will change.
What is the net neutrality and why does it matter that the United States has finished with it?
The government of Donald Trump puts an end to the rules that ensured the net neutrality in the United States.
The companies that provide the service will now have the freedom to experiment with new prices, prioritize or block content, without having to render accounts.
This could have great benefits for the suppliers, explains Ryan Singel, an expert in net neutrality at the Center for Internet Studies and the Society of Stanford University.
And this is due, he says, to that traditionally the telephone market in the United States has been very uncompetitive.
“We have only four large companies that provide wireless and broadband internet, which is terrible, and 51% of Americans have only one option to choose their Internet service,” he adds.
With this new model of net neutrality, it is estimated that these companies will be able to raise much more money from the netizens and also invest in improvements for their services.
“By removing the restrictions, these suppliers will be the main beneficiaries, increase their profits, become more competitive and this will allow them to expand and improve the service or take it to smaller communities,” says the expert.
But if for companies net neutrality will bring benefits and in theory will help small communities to have greater access to the network, what will be the consequences that this could have for the vast majority of users or for companies that use Internet services in the United States? ?
And how can this affect the rest of the world?
According to Singel, one of the first effects will be a rise in connection prices.
However, the specialist explains in an interview with BBC World that the main consequences will not be visible immediately and that they will not have a “direct” effect on current users, although they will be the most affected.
Until now, any company that wants to use the network could do it regardless of its power or size.
Had the same right a young programmer from a town in Massachusetts who wanted to open a blog or create an application on the benefits of beekeeping that a giant like Google.
But from now on, companies will be able to discriminate which users give more bandwidth or who will limit or cut services.
“It is good to say that the first consequences will not fall directly on individuals. The fastest way to make money is behind the companies that are in the network, which in turn, will be reflected in the internet experience of ordinary users “says Singel.
The problem, he adds, is that the above will make the services we use online, such as streaming services (to watch videos or listen to music), become much more expensive as well.
“Netflix, for example, will become more expensive, as they will have to pay higher fees for using better quality internet to offer their services, they will need to charge their users more to maintain it, so we will see that the Internet will become much more expensive in the services for which you pay “, explains the specialist from Stanford University.
Other services, such as online sales, may also experience a price increase: when you have to pay more for internet service, the prices on the products will also rise.
Similarly, as some companies will benefit over others, the largest, like Amazon, would benefit, while small entrepreneurs will see their sales possibilities reduced.
Also, the specialist believes that, in general, it could generate a “differentiated internet” for those who can pay more and for those who pay less.
“As it happens in some countries we can find that Internet services are sold in” packages “, as it happens with telephone plans or television channels, grouped according to the provider,” he says.
Singel warns that there will also be fewer free services: since the companies that now offer this type of utilities will have to pay more, if they do not charge more they will become unviable from the economic point of view.
This, he says, will not affect the big companies that can pay for this.
However, it could mean the end of smaller companies or the failure of new projects in the network.
“Given that the prices to have a better internet will rise and the suppliers will be able to control it at will, there will be fewer new companies in the network, there will be less variety and will keep the power concentrating on the internet giants and that there will be less possibilities for innovation and for plurality, “he says.
Another of the most controversial points of this new law is that Internet service providers may block or censor content for any reason.
“If Comcast and Verizon, for example, decide that we do not want to have sites that sell weapons, they can block those sites.” In the previous rules, companies were obligated to keep any page on their servers regardless of whether they were in favor or against their Now all that changes, “says Singel.
During the previous law, any service and any application were legal under US law and no one could interfere in that without a judicial or federal order. Now this prerogative belongs also to service providers.
“Any company or blogger, for example, who advocates controversial speeches or controversial opinions could see their website censored or blocked,” he says.
But since the Internet is a global phenomenon, the consequences will not be left only for the United States.
According to Singel, the lack of Internet variety and a “more boring” network will be one of the main global consequences of the elimination of net neutrality in the United States.
Other losers will be companies or even foreign users that host information on servers in that country.
The possibilities of entering the US digital market, says the expert, will become more difficult, bureaucratic and will take processes in which it will be the Internet providers who will have the last word.
“If a foreign company wants to use American Internet services to reach more users in that country, it can be found that it will not have the same capacity to distribute its contents as a local company or an Internet giant,” he says.
A similar effect for companies, innovators, small businesses or applications that seek to host information on American servers: they may find that the speed to access them slows down or increases.
From now on, the nature or size of the company will guarantee that it has a better or worse internet service.
“There are companies that are outside the United States that may be asked to pay more if they want to reach Verizon or Comcast customers, for example, if they want to reach users of those companies,” he says.
On the other hand, the expert points out that the consequences are not only on the practical level.
“For a long time, the United States had been a leader in Internet neutrality, an international example, and the law signed by Obama to regulate the Internet in 2015 has become an international milestone,” he says.
The new law, according to Singel, is “a very bad message for the rest of the world, because they show how the big telephone companies can dictate to governments what they have to do”.
But, according to Singel, it could also have political consequences within the American society.
“It is good to clarify that it is a measure that is taken despite widespread opposition from public opinion, from experts and that transcends even the classic division of opinion between Republicans and Democrats,” he says.
A survey published this week by the University of Maryland indicated that 83% of Americans opposed the change in the law. Only among Republicans, the level of opposition was 75%.
“This, logically, is also negative for the image of the government, because it is something that the people did not want, but they did not listen to it and approved it anyway, that is not a good way to make people believe in democracy. and in democratic processes, “he concludes. |
There have been increasing concerns about the burgeoning use of pharmaceutical opioids in Australia including related hospitalisations, iatrogenic dependence, adverse physical effects and deaths. Currently, there is no single resource available for prescribers about the quality use of opioid medicines as well as advice on evidence-based approaches to respond to patients experiencing opioid-related harms. NCETA is developing a resource to fill this gap.
From February 1 2018, medicines containing codeine are no longer available without a prescription in Australia. This is due to concerns about the inappropriate use of these medications and increases in related harms such as hospitalisations, iatrogenic dependence, adverse physical effects and deaths.
As a result of this regulatory change, many patients will need support to move to alternative non-pharmacological or non-opioid pain relief approaches. Others will find it difficult to stop their opioid use and may require alternative, more complex, treatment approaches. These approaches will require careful consideration, planning and dialogue with patients.
Identify the most effective approaches to distribute the resources and to encourage innovation dissemination.
Over the past fifteen years there has been a significant increase in the prescribing of Schedule 8 opioids in Australia. Use of over-the-counter codeine-containing medicines has also increased . However, harms associated with these trends have become increasingly apparent. These include iatrogenic dependence, overdose and inappropriate use for persistent non-cancer pain . In addition, there is growing awareness of the potential side effects of long-term opioid use including endocrine and sexual dysfunction, osteoporosis and hyperalgesia .
In Australia, more than twice as many people die from pharmaceutical opioid overdose than from heroin overdose. Rates of fentanyl, oxycodone, and methadone deaths all increased significantly between 2001 and 2012, by an average annual rate of approximately 40%, 16% and 3% respectively .
However, many prescribers are unfamiliar with contemporary evidence-based opioid prescribing guidelines and best practice responses to patients experiencing harmful use. Many lack sufficient knowledge, skills and confidence to address this issue and/or circumvent problems developing.
Preventing and responding to harmful patterns of pharmaceutical opioid use can therefore represent a significant challenge for many prescribers. Even when aware of appropriate prescribing practices, some prescribers may experience pressure from patients to receive scripts for, or increased dosages of, opioids. This can place prescribers in a difficult position when they do not believe that this is in a patient’s best interest .
Consequently, there is a pressing need to enhance the skills and knowledge of prescribers to prevent, identify and respond to patients experiencing pharmaceutical opioid use problems, and in particular iatrogenic dependence .
In order to address the above issues, NCETA has undertaken a comprehensive literature review of the trends, patterns, and prevalence of pharmaceutical opioid use in Australia, as well as an evidence-based resource for prescribers.
The role of opioids in the treatment of persistent non-cancer pain.
Using opioids for pharmaceutical opioid cessation or reduction.
This project represents an important step in gathering the available international evidence on approaches to preventing and responding to pharmaceutical opioid use problems and applying it to the Australian context. It is the first nationally consistent approach taken to achieving practice change in detecting and responding to pharmaceutical opioid-related harms.
The resource will be made available to prescribers shortly and the literature review will be available for public download in coming months. |
Can we change Youth Crime hearts?
Phrases trigger memories – well, they do for me. Recently, I took part in the WEP August Challenge and the theme was ‘Change of Heart’ and that clicked through to this memory-post. Before I revisit that memory, I want to congratulate everyone that took part in the Challenge and created such amazing pieces, especially the winners announced here.
In the early 1990s, Gaia Productions Ltd produced a short film and documentary entitled ‘Change of Heart’ that looked at the various means for tackling youth crime within Greater London.
Initiated by film editor, Gordon Greenaway, the focus of this production was the involvement of young ex-offenders and kids at risk from youth crime at all levels, from the cast to the editing.
The plot and script were workshopped with a young offenders’ rehabilitation group that worked with drama as a means of tackling the issues behind youth crime. The plotline that the group developed was to present a young offender that was struggling to choose the right life path but was plagued by his inner self. The final filming script was drawn up by the director, my ex-wife, Joanna Lehmann, and I was involved as the producer.
The group ‘auditioned’ for the parts and a number took roles, including the protagonist who was played by Louis, a black guy with natural talent. We ended up with a mixture of professional and non-professional – and some of the non-professionals had been convicted in the past. The parts played by professionals included the ones representing the dark tempter and the light conscience, portrayed by Dexter Fletcher (Band of Brothers, Dir. Bohemian Rhapsody) and Ian Dury (Raggedy Rawney, singer-songwriter of The Blockheads), and the protagonist’s parents.
‘Change of Heart’ was shot on 16mm film at various locations in London, with scenes varying from a family argument, to a petrol station hold-up and a ram-raid. For the crew, we had film industry head-of-departments – such as director, cameraman, designer and makeup – with youngsters assisting and learning. Some were ex-offenders, like the acting group, while others were from inner city groups tackling youth crime issues in their neighbourhoods. Gordon Greenaway edited the film with a trainee.
This ‘apprenticeship’ was also reflected in the documentary crew that shot their segment on Betacam. They covered behind the scenes of the film, and interviewed groups involved with rehabilitating young offenders such as a soccer club and a motor mechanic project, as well as Feltham Young Offenders Institution.
For many of the ex-offenders ‘Change of Heart’ proved a unique experience. For instance, Louis went on to become a professional actor with the help of Dexter and his agent mother. Another one in the cast, who had been convicted of armed robbery, played the petrol station attendant and found being on the ‘receiving end’ was a valuable lesson – better than any in prison. Some of the crew trainees worked for their ‘mentors’ on other productions.
As for the finished product, that was shown around community centres and also taken by a distributor. But the distributor failed to promote it – even when Ian Dury died a few years later of cancer and there were retrospectives on his creative work. Tragically, the final product was mislaid by the distributor, although most of the edited footage still exists – somewhere in London – and there are VHS copies.
However, for some it was still a change of heart. |
Look up on a clear night, far away from city lights, and you will see thousands of stars. If you look closer, you might notice that the stars shine with an amazing variety of colors. Some glow dull red, some blue, some yellow like the sun, and some bright white. The picture to the right shows three stars – red, blue, and white – as seen by SDSS.
But what exactly is color? Why do stars have different colors? And what can you learn by studying the colors of stars, galaxies, and other objects? Click “Next” to find out. |
This scripture I relate to when I was coaching soccer teams centred on having a game plan that utilised every players skills and talents so my team could achieve at the optimal level. Furthermore, like Jesus with his discipleship of missionaries, the team I assembled was comprised of varying abilities and backgrounds which meant for both Jesus and me crafting a role for everyone that will produce the best outcome to achieve our goals. Additionally, the disciples were vehement about Jesus’ mission as my team were passionate about the game. The question is how did the disciples and my team maintain their commitment to the game plan?
Firstly, I believe a great game plan allows everyone to play a role in carrying out Jesus’ ministry? Jesus aimed to instil a belief in the disciples that they could contribute to Jesus’ mission. Sure, it was hard to continually uphold what Jesus was asking them to do through his teachings has it may have challenged their own set of values and beliefs however, they could see that what Jesus was imploring all people to do would create a more compassionate and just society. This was evident through his own personal witness, his empathy for the marginalised and his healing of the afflicted. Therefore, the teachings and miracles inspired the disciples to say I want to make a difference in the world. While for me, has coach it is finding the best fit for each player in my team. Furthermore, imparting them with the skills and opportunities to showcase their ability and how they will provide value to the team. If I can achieve that I am setting up my players to be team orientated which will give my team the utmost opportunity to achieve success. Thus, Jesus and myself through our different styles of learning want people to have a mindset that seizes the prospect to change the status quo with a focus on team rather than self.
Secondly, the game plan needs everyone engaged in the process. Jesus through his teachings and miracles provided the template for the mission the disciples had to continue after Jesus’ death. However, there were times when his apostles were challenged by the responsibility of discipleship. For example, Peter’s denial of Jesus three times. Matthew 26:69-75 In this case Peter’s faith was tested under the fear of suffering the same fate of Jesus so self-preservation prevailed. Nevertheless, later Peter was able to pledge his love for Jesus three times as he was commissioned to take leadership of his mission. I believe this demonstrated Jesus’s willingness to forgive and allowed Peter to understand and take ownership of his failings which empowered him to be a great leader of the Christian faith. Similarly, as a Coach it is trusting that each player, I send to deliver my game plan will sacrifice their own game for team success. Sometimes, players can put their own selfish interests above the team’s goals. For example, it might be that they are not happy with the position they have been selected in or when they could pass the ball they choose to shoot instead. It is important to realise that every player reflects both on their achievements as well as their mistakes and for those players they become better players in the future. Additionally, for Jesus and myself it is about not only having disciples and players but producing leaders who don’t seek personal glory.
Finally, when devising a game plan there needs to be expectations. For example, when Jesus sent the disciples out in pairs to every town, he requested them to go without purse, bag or sandals. Luke: 10-1-12Hence, he was trusting them to fulfil the game plan and overcome the obstacles placed in their way. The fact that they returned home with joy, Luke 10-17, acknowledges they relished their assignment and demonstrated their agency in continuing Jesus’ mission.Conversely, as a coach I have thought as long as they play their role, showcase their skills and take a few risks without fear of making a mistake they will be able to have fun. Consequently, I believe with the proper sustainable structure in place it creates an atmosphere where both the disciples in pairs and players in the team will feel they were supported in their endeavours no matter the end result. At the end of the day a humble person and humble teams accomplishments are a powerful witness of Jesus’s life and my coaching prowess acknowledging the many gifts the disciples and my team’s players had been given by God in their lives.
In John 5:30 – “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.” What I gain from this scripture verse when I read it is that all decisions that I make should not be influenced by what is best for me but for both parties. The question is what guides me in my decision-making process? The bottom line being does it please the one who sent me.
The first point in my decision-making process is not to be emotional. For example, in Jesus’ first miracle changing the water into wine, Jesus was reluctant to perform the task requested my Mary, his mother when she anticipated that the wedding banquet was running out of wine for the guests. However, Jesus put aside his own unwillingness by providing 10 more barrels of wine for the reception. Therefore, this example, reminds me of always trying to focus on what I believe to be is the right thing to do in any situation. If I allow my feelings to get in the way then it would cloud my judgement and impede my ability to reach a successful outcome for all.
The second point is reserve judgement as relationships are always are evolving. For example, “Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem”, John 12: 12-19 suddenly becomes “The Crucifixion of Jesus”, John 19:17-30”, in the matter of a week. I still find it hard to comprehend how Jesus can go from being lauded has a King to being tried and convicted as a criminal in a week. When I reflect on these two events, I compare to the interaction of the continual relationships I have daily in my own life. The key I believe is the way people react to an event. In Jesus’ case the significant verses that underlined Jesus ’anointing as King were that crowd had seen Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead and told other people of his miracle powers hence the glorification. John,19:17-19. Thus, was Jesus’ deification based on him continuing to go throughout life performing miracles or the values that he espoused through his teachings? Like the crowd’s reaction to Jesus as he was entering Jerusalem how many times are our relationships formed by how people interact with us that lays the foundation for an ongoing relationship? Do I just reflect on how many times my relationship with other people is formulated by how people are acting towards me in the present? However, I should think about how people have acted towards me previously and will in the future.
The third point is often a hasty judgement can lead to dire consequences such as Jesus being sentenced to death? Is it because the people who feted him as he entered Jerusalem thought he was the solution to all their problems and when he didn’t provide them with the outcomes, they wanted they became frustrated and angry? Perhaps I need to question if that is my first reaction when people’s words and actions aren’t what I hoped for? I believe it is important to refrain from a snap judgement and arrive at a conclusion before you are across all the facts. Sometimes such a supposition can make me look foolish and regret my part in what has occurred. For example, like Pilate when he washed his hands after sentencing Jesus to death failed to realise his part in Christian history for his adjudication. Matthew 27-24. How often to I fail to realise the impact on others because of my words and actions in the heat of the moment.
The final point is that you have to trust your judgement. This is illustrated, when Pilate asks Jesus, “What have you done? “Jesus replies, “My kingdom is not from this world if it was my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.” John, 18:35-37. Jesus’ judgement was that his focus was carrying out his Father’s will for the greater good and to act beyond self. I believe that when I experience challenges, I need to have the faith that my response, firstly, is for a positive outcome for others and maybe not in three days as it was for Jesus through his resurrection but eventually there is a learning experience for me. So, ultimately, when I am faced with a dilemma, I need to realise that not everything is irretrievable but sometimes there are road blocks along the way that prevent a quick solution. More importantly, that on the journey is that I understand that my words and actions have hopefully resulted in assisting others in their lives.
In Mark 10:27, Jesus states, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God, for God all things are possible.” So how does God make things possible?
I often think when I am in a challenging situation where seemingly is not a quick fix I pray even more earnestly to God for a possible solution. However, I find that solution is more of a process.
Step one of the process is that I know that the final solution will not be the result that I originally sought. After all I seek to do God’s will not mine. So, bearing that in mind, I need to come to a satisfactory outcome that requires a change in how I approach the issue. Therefore, I need to analyse all the factors that are contributing to the problem and just not from my point of view.
Step two, God is asking me to take into account how the other parties are reacting to the dispute and are they interested in changing their position in dealing with the matter. Furthermore, I must differentiate my perceptions from their actual words and actions.
Step three, I think sometimes God provides a solution where things just take care of themselves. This means if I continue to pray for answers, act in a conciliatory manner towards other parties and allow the issues to take their natural course things do improve. Why? because as a mere mortal I don’t focus on the issue negatively but instead look at the possibilities with the view that God makes all things possible.
In Monday’s Gospel this week, “some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” Matthew 12:38. Why did they want a sign? I would argue whatever sign Jesus chose to display would that have been sufficient to acknowledge that he was God’s son?
Secondly, why did Jesus need to yield to their demands? It would seem to me the Pharisees and teachers of the law were treating Jesus like a magician wanting him to deliver a bag of tricks. However, that was not Jesus’ purpose to make people believe because of the miracles he performed but through the proclamation of the Gospel message that encourages everyone to be selfless in their words and actions.
Finally, why should you have to second guess yourself. I believe when try to please others you start to compromise yourself and fail to fulfil what you have set out to achieve. I am inspired by Jesus that he refused to entertain the Pharisees and teachers of the law and focussed on achieving his end goal. That was extolling the Good News and dying and rising again so that have everyone has the opportunity for eternal life. Jesus’ selfless act and commitment to his mission has changed many lives since, including mine.
In John 2:1-11, The Wedding at Cana, Mary tells Jesus they have no wine left at the Wedding. Jesus replies, “What concern is that to me my hour has not come yet?” However, Mary ignores the comment and instructs the servants to, “Do whatever he tells you.” So, Jesus asks them to fill six stone jars with water and through the power of the Holy Spirit it turns into the best tasting wine at the Wedding.
For me Jesus’s unwillingness to change the water into wine is like the young sportsperson doubting their belief to successfully achieve their full potential. Mary according to the scripture just told the servants to do what Jesus told them. There was no time for contemplating the situation. Similarly, the coach of the young sportsperson asks them to perform to the best of their ability that enables the team to win. The bottom line was that both Mary and the Coach had the belief that Jesus and the young sportsperson would be successful.
Secondly, what is going through the mind of Jesus’ and the young sportsperson has they are presenting for the first time under the public eye? Maybe, like Jesus the player is reluctant to take on the task the coach has asked for, however when the realisation kicks in that it is best for the team, they both attempt to fulfil their assignments to the best of their ability. When they have successfully achieved what they have been asked to do they experience elation about contributing to the team and the end result.
Finally, Jesus and the young person by carrying out what they have been asked to do show they are team players who will do what is best for others rather than thinking of themselves. So, now people have witnessed Jesus’ first miracle and the young sportsperson’s first game now how do they deal with the scrutiny to go on to achieve their ultimate goals? That is Jesus doing God’s will and the young sportsperson having a successful career. Additionally, I would argue that would be always putting others before themselves and empowering them to utilise their talents to serve in a similar capacity. That is what I would call sticking to the game plan.
In Luke 3:3 John the Baptist proclaims what I believe to be an important Christmas message that of hope and forgiveness. As family members celebrate with one another all over the world whatever differences they may have they need to be put aside so everyone can celebrate this great day. So, what must be done to prepare?
John goes on to say “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” Luke, 3:4. I would consider when facing an encounter of needing to interact with people who challenge you the last thing that should occupy my mind is another possible conflict. I think if I go on with the mindset there are going to be issues then I miss out on the opportunity to positively engage not only in the celebration but with the people who make the occasion enjoyable. Thus, the first part of my Christmas preparation is having an affirmative mindset.
“And the crooked shall be made straight and the rough ways made smooth.” Luke 3:5 Therefore, what do I bring to the table when I arrive at the celebration? It is not only the delicious food and worthwhile presents I bring that enhance the atmosphere but also the welcome greeting, listening and engaging in the conversation and the final goodbye. Hence, make each person feel like they are part of the celebration.
“And all people will see God’s salvation.” Luke 3:6. That Jesus’ birth is celebrated by people all over the world and is underpinned by a message of hope and forgiveness. So, I reflect on those words when I celebrate Christmas with my family. Thus, realising Christmas is more than just the food and presents it is the meaning that we should aspire today everyday of our lives.
In Luke, 18:35-43 we have the story of the Blind Beggar who despite being asked by the crowd to be quiet persists in calling out to Jesus to ask for mercy.
“Son of David have mercy on me.” Luke, 18:39.
The inspiration I gain from the narrative of “Jesus heals a Blind Beggar near Jericho” is not only the courage and persistence of the blind beggar to ask for a healing but also Jesus despite his busyness displayed a willingness to help.
So, how does the blind beggar motivate me in my life? Well he seizes the opportunity. I wonder how many times in my life have I regretted not taking the opportunities I have been offered. When I think back, I hid behind the excuses of it wasn’t for me, not the right time or just I am happy at the moment. God is asking us to be courageous people not risk aversive.
Such a person was Jesus. Now Jesus could have ignored the voice and went on his way but instead he wanted to know who was crying out to him. Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” To which the blind beggar asks, “Lord let me see you again.” Luke, 18:42. Immediately, Jesus responds, “Receive your sight your faith has saved you.” Luke, 18:43. Therefore, Jesus saw a need and acted upon it because he had the capacity to help. Thus, Jesus challenges me not to walk past situations but to lend assistance wherever possible.
Ultimately, I continue Christ’s mission giving of my time and energy to assist others in their lives. Furthermore, to act when offered the chance and to give guidance to others when I can. Maybe in those situations I am actually stirring the faith of others and bringing them closer to God.
In Mark 12:41-44 Jesus tells the story of a poor widow that puts all the money she has to live on into the Church treasury. When I read this story, I continually reflect on why did the poor widow contribute so selflessly?
My reflection begins with trying to define the character traits of the widow through her generous act. Firstly, I believe her kind act demonstrates humility. A modesty that exhibits that by giving all her money she is focussed on contributing to Jesus’ mission and doing God’s will. Hence, the widow’s action causes me to reflect on how often I fail to let go of what is important which compromises my desire to act selflessly.
Secondly, the widow trusts in the process because of utmost belief that God will provide. Her faith is so unswerving that she does not question God’s providence. How often do I allow doubts to creep into my mind when circumstances force me into positions that take me out of my comfort zone? Sometimes when faced with such dilemmas I react instinctively instead of taking a step back and seeking God’s assistance.
Finally, I believe we can all learn from the widow’s strong faith. Her generosity of heart gives her a freedom and happiness that allows her to put in the two copper coins without hesitation not thinking about the hardship that they may cause to her quality of life. For me it is the constant struggle of finding a balance between the material and the spiritual needs in my life. However, I am continually inspired by the poor widow to give all I have to support others through my words and actions. Furthermore, she models a faith that trusts in God in all situations without wavering a character strength that I must continue to develop daily.
When we encourage others when encountering challenging situations to Trust in the Lord what are really saying? In Matthew 14:22-34 we read about the story of Jesus walking on water and Peter trying to emulate him. Unfortunately, Peter’s attempt to walk on water fails. I believe the key to Peter failing encompasses the meaning of placing our trust in the Lord.
I would argue that the circumstances that led up to Peter trying to walk on water planted the self-doubt in his mind. Jesus asked the disciples to go ahead of him in the boat while he dismissed the crowd. Jesus, then was unable to make it back to the boat and the disciples did not see him again until he was walking on the lake. At first, they thought they saw a ghost, but Jesus reassured them saying, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” (Matthew:14-27) Peter responded taking a leap of faith by getting out of the boat and walking towards Jesus however, when the wind blew a gale he became afraid and started to sink. I would consider that when any semblance of trepidation enters our mind it prevents us from completely carrying out our objectives to our full capabilities. Hence, we are selling ourselves short and not backing ourselves in to achieve our goals the way that we would like to have initially.
Furthermore, I believe Trust in the Lord reveals itself in our relationship with other people. To accomplish what we need to do in our everyday lives we must rely on others to help and guide us along the way.I would deem that when we put ourselves in a situation we have no control over if uncertainty creeps in we lose focus and become compromised which usually ends up with us being unsuccessful. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. “But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” (Matthew:14-30) In my life however with my family, good friends and work colleagues there is always someone willing to help. “Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” (Matthew:14-31) Likewise, we can pray to God to overcome the challenges we face and trust that he can assist us through these times.
Moreover, by trusting in our own abilities and support from our family, friends and work colleagues I would argue that this manifest itself in us Trusting in the Lord. Additionally, the Lord has utilised our knowledge and skills and those of our family, friends and work colleagues to bring glory to his kingdom.
Sometimes you meet people in life and you think to yourself they are Modern-Day Saints. The impression they make on your life is profound because what they do doesn’t require thanks; rather they gain appreciation of how they have helped in some way. One person who met that selflessness in my life that I had the privilege to know was my work colleague, Raelene.
So, what makes a Modern-Day Saint? I believe it is a person who sees a need and assists without being asked. Raelene if she saw a need she would go out of her way to assist you.
For me it was washing the church corporal, a white small tablecloth & the sanctifier, small finger towels when they receive wine stains after masses. I never asked her to do it, she just offered; such was the extent of her kindness.
Furthermore, a Modern-Day Saint extends aid beyond work needs without looking to be affirmed. When I told Raelene about my son, Simon and how he ripped so many of his clothes she gave me some of her two sons’ clothes. Such generosity wasn’t done as a grand gesture but a recognition that her assistance would bring joy to others. In this case, my son, Simon and my family has allowed us to spend money for Simon on his other requirements and improve his quality of life.
Moreover, a Modern-Day Saint would make you feel genuinely comfortable in their presence. Every time I saw her, she would always enquire how my family and I were going. She made you feel important when engaging in conversation with you and her laughter would fill a room. Additionally, she would strongly share her ideas and opinions with you but it was always positive and the emphasis placed on the best possible outcome for all.
In Matthew 6:21 Jesus says, “Forwhere your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”When I think about Raelene I reflect that her treasure was helping others to achieve the best possible outcomes and she gave that assistance with all her heart every day of her wonderful life. |
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Whether thats truth or fiction many people have been asking me, is going veggie. foods like cookies, chips, and high fat cheeses can help promote weight loss. Not only did I lose 100 pounds in 10 months, I have also been able to inspire many people to become vegan by allowing them to watch my 128 pound weight. To Read More How Does Being a Vegetarian Make You Lose Weight. And not only how do i lose weight under can being a vegetarian help me lose weight belly button vegetarians lose weight more effectively, theyll reduce. 8 Quirky Vegan Burritos To Make You Rethink Your Favorite Meal. |
BS6551 has now been replaced with a combination of new standards based on the recently introduced CENELEC (European) standards. BSEN 62305 protection against lightning is substantially larger than its predecessor and has been written and compiled by experts from around the world. Containing some 475 pages it is more complex and covers a wider range of issues.
BS EN 62305 Is a series of publications in four parts, all of which have to be taken into consideration when designing for lightning protection.BS EN6230 (Part 1) General Principles. This is an introduction to the other parts of the standard and covers the General principles involved in the design.
The sources and types of damage that need to be evaluated are clarified together with the types of loss / risk that are possible due to lightning. It defines the relationship between damage and loss that are the basis for the risk assessment calculations in part 2 and also introduces the concepts Lightning Protection Zones (LPZs) and separation distances used when preparing a lightning protection scheme.
The definitions of lightning current parameters are also provided and these used in selection and implementation of protection measures as detailed In parts 3 and 4.BS EN 62305-2 (Part 2) Risk Management. This is significantly more detailed than in previous standards and details the process for determining the risk of lightning damage to structures and their contents.
The results of the risk assessment determine the level of Lightning Protection System (LPS), both internal and external, required.BS EN 62305-3 (Part 3) Physical Damage to Structures and Life Hazard. This part of the new standard relates most closely with BS6651 and deals with the protection measures to be used in and around a structure. It gives guidance on the design of both internal and external Lightning Protection Systems. An external LPS consists of an Air Termination System, a Down Conductor System and an Earth Termination System the parts of which require to be connected by components complying with BS EN 50164 series.
Our Suppliers range of products are tested by Independent testing facilities and comply with the BS-EN 50164 series of standard for the manufacture of lightning protection components. BS EN 62305-4 (Par 4) Electrical and Electronic Systems within Structures. This standard covers the protection of electrical and electronic systems within structures. Using the concept of Lightning Protection Zones (LPZs) it covers the design, installation, maintenance and testing of an LEMP – Lightning Magnetic Impulse Protection system within a structure.
Previous standards for Lightning Protection recommended the use of specific materials for lightning protection components. Now with the release of BS EN 50164 series of standards the focus is on performance and testing. |
What is kyutoshin and ondan (moxa head needle technique)?
The general term moxibustion means the burning of the herb mugwort near or on acupuncture points. In the case with kyutoshin, it refers to the mugwort being placed on top of the needle head and then lit. The medicinal property of the herb in combination with the heat that is generated has the effect to penetrate down the needle shaft and go to a deeper level.
Traditional medicine looks at the body as having a number of energetic layers including the wei and ying levels. The wei level could be referred to as the external or protective level and the ying as the nutritive level which lies somewhat deeper to the skin. The deepest level is at the bone level.
In some instances the practitioner will aim to supplement the energies at a deeper level and does this by encouraging the warming and penetrating actions of the kyutoshin technique.
Depending on what the body requires, techniques to reduce areas of excess energy or supplementing areas of defiiency and weakness are required. Kyutoshin technique is primarily used for supplementing and adding energy to weak and deficient conditions.
What is an example of a weak and deficient condition?
Imbalanced lifestyle and long term unprotected exposure to cold and damp can cause a weakness in the kidney energy leading to low back pain and stiffness. Other symptoms such as urination problems and tiredness may also arise and the treatment is tonify and supplement and warm the kidneys. Specially selected kidney acupuncture points on the low back are needled and then the mugwort is placed on the head of the needle.
Can you use the kyutoshin method in the treatment of musculo-skeletal disorders?
Injuries are often a mix of deficient and excess imbalances. Often there is an underlying weakness in one organ system that has created a susceptibilty for an injury to occur. The treatment for example, could involve reducing the pain and inflammation at the injury site whilst at the same time supplementing the spleen energy to help the body produce more energy and blood.
This where the herb mugowrt has been specially prepared into small charcoal pieces which are placed into small baskets and put on the head of the needle.
A small guard is placed on the skin to prevent burning. Patients end up feeling a very enjoyable slow,penetrating warm bake and often remark they can feel the heat penetrating very deeply. The effect is often felt for some time after the treatment. |
(1884–1948). Edvard Beneš was a statesman, foreign minister, and president, as well as a founder of modern Czechoslovakia. He forged its Western-oriented foreign policy between World Wars I and II but capitulated to Adolph Hitler’s demands during the Czech crisis of 1938.
Edvard (also spelled Eduard) Beneš was born on May 28, 1884, in Kozlany, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary. After studying at Prague, Czechoslovakia, Paris, France, and Dijon, France, Beneš received a doctorate of laws in 1908 and taught at the Prague Commercial Academy and the Czech University of Prague before World War I. Influenced by the nationalist ideas of Tomáš Masaryk, who wished to liberate the Czechs and Slovaks from Austrian rule, Beneš followed his mentor to Switzerland during World War I and then established himself in Paris. With Masaryk and the Slovak leader Milan Štefánik, Beneš formed a propaganda organization that eventually became a Czechoslovak provisional government on October 14, 1918. With the collapse of Austria-Hungary in November 1918, a new Czechoslovak state was quickly formed. As foreign minister, a post he was to retain until 1935, Beneš headed his country’s delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and championed the League of Nations throughout the interwar period, serving as its Council chairman six times. Opposed to plans for union between Austria and Germany (after World War I and again in 1931), which he deemed a threat to Czechoslovakia’s continued existence, he attempted to reestablish a balance of power in eastern Europe. To fill the partial power vacuum created by the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, Beneš negotiated the treaties with Romania and Yugoslavia (1921) that formed the Little Entente, originally aimed at revisionist Hungary. France joined in 1924, and thereafter the alliance became a bloc against Germany and, to a lesser extent, the Soviet Union. In 1935, however, he signed a mutual assistance pact between his country and the Soviet Union.
With the resignation of Masaryk as president in 1935, Beneš was elected to that office. Relations with Poland and Germany, never amicable, steadily worsened. Though he granted substantially the first Sudetenland German autonomy demands in 1938, he was nevertheless unable to avert the crisis that led to the destruction of the Czechoslovak state. Abandoned by his allies, Beneš capitulated before the German ultimatum, and his country lost the Sudetenland in September 1938. Poland soon occupied the disputed Teschen area. Resigning on October 5, 1938, Beneš went into exile. After the outbreak of World War II he established in France a Czechoslovak national committee, which moved to London in 1940. Reestablishing a government on his native soil on April 3, 1945, Beneš entered Prague on May 16 to the enthusiastic welcome of the population. His was the only eastern European exile government to be allowed to return after the war. Nevertheless, Beneš realized that Czechoslovakia had to cooperate closely with the Soviet Union. Increasingly ill, he suffered two strokes in 1947. When his Communist prime minister, Klement Gottwald, demanded on February 25, 1948, that Beneš accept a Communist-dominated cabinet, he again had no choice but to capitulate. Refusing to sign the new constitution, he resigned on June 7, 1948. Having witnessed the apparent suicide of his lifelong friend Jan Masaryk (son of Tomáš Masaryk) a few months earlier, Beneš died a broken man in 1948. His unfinished Memoirs: From Munich to New War and New Victory appeared in English in 1954. He died on September 3, 1948, in Sezimovo Ústí, Czechoslovakia. |
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As we approach the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, students of history will revisit the causes, conduct and aftermath of the war. In each of these, Sir Eyre Crowe played a very significant role. Yet, outside academic and diplomatic circles, his name is little known. An ",outsider", in the Foreign Office, he neither attended an English public school nor university. He was born and educated in Germany. Yet he rose because of his unique expertise to be the Permanent Under-Secretary from 1920 until his death in 1925, during which time he worked, not always amicably, with prime ministers and foreign secretaries such as Lloyd George, Curzon, Ramsay Macdonald and Austen Chamberlain. On his death, Stanley Baldwin called him ",our ablest public servant.",Eyre Crowe was a participant in events that led to the 1914-1918 war, was one of the main organisers of the blockade of Germany, helped to end the Ruhr crisis of 1923-24, and played a major role in the acceptance of the Dawes Plan at the 1924 London Conference. Shortly before he died, he persuaded a sceptical Cabinet to accept a policy that culminated in the Locarno Pact. Yet, Crowe played a strange role at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Britain's most knowledgeable expert on Germany, he was marginalised by Lloyd George prior to the signing of the Versailles Treaty, but then played a leading part as Ambassador Plenipotentiary.Crowe's Memorandum of 1907 had a profound influence upon Foreign Office perceptions of Germany for more than forty years. The ",Crowe line", on Germany was opposed by Neville Chamberlain and the British Ambassador in Berlin, Neville Henderson, prior to the Second World War. Crowe had believed that Germany was a great nation, but that Britain had made too many concessions to its government when it needed to stand firm. Foreign Office diplomats were even seen waving copies of the memorandum (by then a published document) in the faces of journalists from the pro-appeasement Times newspaper.This book focuses mainly on the 1907 Memorandum and Crowe's career after the war, but it provides many insights into the characters, talents and failings of a number of players in this extraordinary period of history. |
The last week has been very busy for New Jersey Audubon’s Cape May Bird Observatory (CMBO) in partnership with Cellular Tracking Technologies (CTT), Cornell University and The Nature Conservancy (TNC). Our first deployment of LifeTags™, tiny solar-powered radio transmitters weighing about 0.35g (less than a dollar bill cut in half). These tags do not have a battery and can operate over many years allowing for long-term monitoring of songbirds over their “life”. The ground-breaking design was developed by Cornell University researchers and engineers and then licensed and improved by Cellular Tracking Technologies. The first deployments took place over the Columbus Day weekend and the following week, at TNC’s South Cape May Meadows Preserve. These transmitters are attached to birds using 3D-printed harnesses developed by CTT and Cornell, and prototyped last year right here in Cape May on Sanderlings (read about this project in the 2018 Peregrine Observer).
As of today, they have now been deployed on two resident species (Northern Mockingbird and Carolina Wren) and one short-distance migrant (Yellow-rumped Warbler). These transmitters will allow us to determine such things as habitat usage, home range, and migration decisions of these species and more. These transmitters communicate with an array of receivers distributed across our banding area, as well as a broader network throughout the Cape May Peninsula and the Delaware Bay region. It’s also possible that our birds will be detected by base stations anywhere between the Canadian Maritimes and South America, and with more stations being deployed every day, the chance of a long-distance data point is ever increasing!
These data will provide us important information on habitat usage throughout the annual cycle, and used to make informed conservation decisions about issues such as protecting stopover habitat, evaluating habitat quality, and measuring the effect of habitat restoration.
Example showing the ability to calculate home ranges of animals using LifeTag™ data. These data are from Diamondback Terrapin turtles tagged by The Wetlands Institute in nearby Stone Harbor. Data courtesy of Cellular Tracking Technologies.
Our partnership with Cellular Tracking Technologies means that we’re working with the latest cutting-edge technology, from their new base stations that can communicate with each other and the web, to small nodes used to refine bird locations, to the tiny tags that weigh less than 0.4 grams.
But why stop there? For the last 10 years Cornell and CTT have been dreaming of getting larger birds involved in tracking smaller birds and started to put that to the test right in Cape May this weekend with the first two “stars” in the new VultureNet constellation. So whereas base stations and nodes are fixed to the ground by a mast or pole, these two birds represent mobile base stations that take to the skies each day, not only collecting high-resolution GPS data on their own movements, but also picking up signals from all of the other birds in the region wearing LifeTag™ transmitters and transmitting them back to base stations or over the cellular network!
Cellular Tracking Technologies and Cornell University team with the first two “stars” in the VultureNet constellation!
Yes, that’s correct, our Northern Mockingbirds, yellowrumps, and any other birds wearing LifeTags™, will talk to each of these vultures when they’re in range of each other, and together with the base stations and nodes, they will triangulate the location of our birds wherever they go. This is truly science fiction, realized! CTT has dubbed the larger system that VultureNet is part of, the Internet Of Wildlife, where all the animals tagged can talk to each other and relay data back to the researcher.
We will have much more to share on these and other studies happening at the banding station in the coming weeks and months so be sure to follow this blog regularly. In the meantime, keep your eye to the sky above Cape May and you might just see one of our newest stars. |
"What is your most precious memory of childhood?" The other day I saw one character in a TV serial, ask another. This set me thinking and I took a stroll down memory lane. And the result of my ramblings was this vignette: It is a midsummer night. The moon is bright. In the courtyard of a fairly big house is a cot. On the cot a seventy four-year lady is sitting with her rosary beads and chanting softly. She is thin and frail, her face wreathed in wrinkles. Her skin thin as parchment paper. But her eyes are very bright and there is calm and serene expression on her face. Just then, there is a patter of little feet. Two girls and one boy all between the ages five to eight come rushing and jump on the cot. The youngest lands straight in the old woman’s lap.
"Dadiji, dadiji, kahani". All three of them shout.
Dadiji smiles. Gently places the rosary in a small box and pulling all three of them close, she begins, "Once upon a time, long long ago there was a king………"
All three listen in rapt attention.
I was the five-year-old and the other two girls were my cousins. We lived in a joint family. Every evening after dinner we would rush into the courtyard where our grandma would be waiting to take us on a new journey every day. Brave kings, handsome princes, beautiful princesses, huge giants, gods and goddesses, rakshasas and sadhus - her stories had all these and a lot more. She introduced us to the world of wonder and fantasy, which seemed so much more real than our own. In her stories, invariably honesty, truth, love, courage and goodness triumphed over falsehood, hatred, cowardice, and evil.
My Grandma was not a writer; in fact, she couldn’t even read. She used to tell stories from Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchatantra, Jataka tales, et al. Often she would add a few of her own experiences and try to make a heady concoction of fun, fact and fantasy. The result was hugely entertaining and for us kids the moments spent with her were the very best.
Now I wonder how many of today’s children are fortunate to have experienced this pleasure – the unadulterated joy of listening to stories. Today, with the nuclear family becoming more the norm, than the exception, grandchildren very rarely get the chance to enjoy the company of their grandparents. In nuclear families, because of compulsions of economics as well as aspirations, in most cases, both the parents are working. In such a situation, where time is at a tremendous premium, the question of mama or papa-spending time with children to tell them stories doesn’t arise. And the substitute for stories is the omnipresent idiot box, the internet or video games.
I was telling Mohit, a friend, some time back how my kids miss me if I have to go on tour even for a day.
"You are lucky, I guess. My son is not even bothered when I come or go. All Monty wants is his monthly quota of video games and chocolates."
"But that means you are not spending much time with him. Why don’t you tell him stories?"
"Stories? Are you crazy? If I had the time wouldn’t I teach him Maths or computers or something useful."
"You think telling stories is a waste of time?"
"Of course. If he wants entertainment, there are scores of channels on the TV. Why I should be the substitute for the idiot box?"
"When you tell a child a story, you create a bond with him. You give him your undivided attention and also get his. You share something which is very valuable to you - your time - with him. Through your stories you can help your son enhance his imagination and creativity. And most important, you can teach him the value of values.
"Sounds impressive! But, it is easy for you to conjure up stories - you are a writer. I am a businessman. I sell pipes and tubes the whole day. Even when I was a child, I never read any other books except my class books. From where do I get stories to tell my son?"
"You are literate aren’t you? Well, read aloud stories to him. Try to make them a bit more interesting by showing him the pictures in the book. See Mohit, if you are interested in bonding with your child, becoming his friend, you will think of far better ways than I can. But if you are interested in only being a disciplinarian, a provider and nothing more, than continue as before. But then don’t complain, ‘You are lucky I guess. Monty is not even bothered when I come or go’," I said imitating him.
That was six months ago. The other day I bumped into Mohit in the library.
"Hey what are you doing here?" I asked. I was surprised since the library was the last place I would expect to find Mohit.
"It is all because of you," he said smiling. "I decided to follow your advice. I bought some books – fairy tales, stories from Indian Mythology, Arabian Nights and Panchtantra and read them. Then one Sunday after dinner I read out a story to Monty. He liked it. I read out a few more. He loved them all. This soon became a regular practice. And funny enough I too started enjoying reading aloud stories to him. I found that his face reflected every emotion in the story. His eyes would widen with surprise when I would describe the Selfish Giant to him, his face would split into smiles when told about the monkey who lost his tail, he would have a look of utter wonderment when I would tell him about the vivshwarupa of Lord Krishna. Sometimes I would just stop for a couple of seconds and watch with fascination the myriad expressions on his face. Now, I really can’t say who waits for bedtime more eagerly - me or Monty."
"Hey! That’s terrific, yaar," I said slapping him on his back.
"And you know what! Monty made me postpone my recent tour by a day."
"Because I had told him only half the story of Alibaba and he wanted to know what happened to Kasim!" Mohit said laughing. |
Teaching & Learning with Monarch Butterflies workshop is proudly offered by the Monarch Teacher Network of Canada, in collaboration with the Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory.
This immersive workshop has been designed to give participants the knowledge, skills, and resources to create outstanding learning experiences for their students, nature clubs, and community.
Delivered by experts from the Monarch Teacher Network of Canada, the session will give participants the chance learn about the life cycle, migration and habitat requirements of the Monarch butterfly, and to build two enclosures for rearing caterpillars and butterflies.
Training on appropriate handling and care protocols, tagging and tracking of migrating Monarchs and ethical considerations related to species conservation will also be covered.
Hosted at the Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory, this special workshop allows participants to experience a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse into the operations of this unique attraction. |
The video tells about the exhibition Dialoghi 3.0 which compares the practice by Pino Pascali, focusing much more on Art Povera works, with Claudio Cintoli’s art. The show is curated by Rosalba Branà.
The Museum Pino Pascali awarded Hans Op De Beeck with Pino Pascali Prize 2017. The belgian artist tell us about his work and the show he presented in Polignano.
ArtMovie – the cycle of talk about art and cinema – curated by Alessandra Mammì e coordinated by Santa Nastro – presents a special event with Gilbert and George. They were in Polignano a Mare talking about their art and practice. Also the museum exhibited an artwork from a famous apulian collection in a project curated by Lia De Venere.
A sculptor and a photographer together in an exhibition that work on the idea of “white” – supernatural, conceptual and spiritual -. Curated by Antonio Frugis.
Curator Christian Caliandro tells about the amazing art of Cristiano De Gaetano who died when he was only 36 years old. The exhibition is the first organized 4 years after his death and show his incredible practice.
The video tells about the exhibition of the XIX Pino Pascali Art Award granted to the german artist Christiane Löhr. Born in Wiesbaden, Christiane Löhr lives and works between Cologne and Prato. She studied with Jannis Kounellis at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf. Her work has recently been shown at the Kunsthaus Baselland in Basel, where she granted an important solo exhibition. Her work has been show in the 49. Venice Biennale curated by Harald Szeemann. Her works of art can be found and was exhibited in prestigious both private and public collections.
Some days with the artist: “Miki Carone”, reportage, 26 minutes long, with Miki Carone and Roberto Lacarbonara, curator. The natural element, the Mediterranean sea, the arabic tales, the comics heroes are always present in Carone’s artwork. Through his own words, Miki Carone explains the developments of his poetics.
“A day with artist”, a long documentary (26′) about Francesco Schiavulli. The artist and Mirella Casamassima, critic and curator, take us into his artistic and everyday life by showing us how and where he works and telling us about the story of many of his artworks. During the movie, the artist also describes his own research and through his own words, Francesco Schiavulli explains the developments of his poetics.
The video tells about a retrospective exhibition dedicated to Gianni Leone and curated by Rosalba Branà and Antonio Frugis. Inventory: 1979 – 2015, is an exhibition that retraces the career and life of the artist through over 100 shots taken from the 1970s to today and which portray the urban landscape that stretches from Bari over the whole Apulian territory. After having donated more than 1000 photographs to the CSAC – Centre for Studies and Archive of the Documents of the University of Parma- the artist made an important donation to the Pino Pascali Museum.
Rosalba Branà, director of the Pino Pascali Museum and the curator Anna d’Elia talk about the show “Il Mare e il Cielo” (the sea and the sky) which brought for the first time to Puglia one of the most important artworks by Pino Pascali “32 mq di mare circa”, completely restored. This was also compared with “the sky” by Luigi Ghirri, 365 photographs of the sky, as with the days in a year. The artist, from Emilia Romagna, is one of the most well known, influential and inspiring photographers of the last century: the relationship with Pino Pascali’s poetry – ideal and not real – was very lyrical in the landscape of Polignano a Mare.
To be an artist in residence is an opportunity to understand new artistic contexts, meet artists and curators from all over the world, and set up new project. This was also the aim of SAC – Mari tra le Mura and experience run by the Municipalities of Polignano a Mare, Mola di Bari, Conversano, and Rutigliano which hosted 20 artists who came from all over Europe, inviting them to work in beautiful territories and to participate in an itinerant show in the various venues of the programme.
A documentary about Iginio Iurilli. The artist take us into his artistic and everyday life by showing us where he works, how he spends his spare time and telling us about the story of many of his artworks. One of them, the purple sea urchin was, during the filming, the main attraction of a show at the Museum Pino Pascali.
The Contemporary Art Museum “Pino Pascali” hosts a project room dedicated to a young Apulian artist: the show described here was created by Daniele D’Acquisto, who lives in Taranto and is already well known nationwide. In this video, the young Apulian artist presents his work, curated by Lorenzo Madaro.
In this video, seven artists (part of a wider corps of 16) talk about a show mixing Art and Nature together: the second asks the first to reflect on the relationship with the environment. This actually happens in two beautiful contexts in Puglia, at the centre of this video: the Castle in Carovigno and the nature reserve of Torre Guaceto, a protected area which for the first time becomes the location of an Art show, curated by Rosalba Branà. The video was granted in Venice with the first arTVision movie award.
A French scholar, Valérie Da Costa, is carrying out research on the artist Pino Pascali. She has already written a book on the subject of Lucio Fontana and his sculptures, and now she is “walking” in Pino Pascali’s footsteps. In the documentary we follow her steps and listen to a conversation with the journalist Pietro Marino, who met the artist at her last Biennale and curated the opening show of the Pascali Foundation in Polignano a Mare, in cooperation with the critic Achille Bonito Oliva and the director Rosalba Branà. Branà and Marino tell us about that experience.
Pino Pascali’s work was often presented – during the numerous exhibitions dedicated to the artist following his premature death – as isolated from the context in which he found himself working, namely the city of Rome in the period between the late 1950s and 1968. The exhibition Compagni di strada (Fellow Travellers) aims at keeping the memory of the artist’s work alive and documenting what happened around him during his life through a selection of works by his “Fellow Travellers” who are internationally famous artists who are still very active today, such as: Kounellis, Ceroli, Fioroni, Lombardo, Mambor, Tacchi; and others who are no longer with us such as Schifano, Angeli, Festa.
For the third appointment of the art fair “The Museum and its surroundings”, the Pino Pascali Museum Foundation hosts Maria Grazia Carriero’s solo exhibition At home 1578 curated by Nicola Zito.
The artist’s strong personal and cultural experience in Marrakech is the foundation of At home 1578, exhibition in which the artist presents two series of her works, Nature and Circle that she has created with durum wheat pasta that she has previously burned and, by using resins, fixed on forex panels. This cycle of works is the result of an artistic and creative study that lasted 1578 hours.
The art fair “The Museum and its surroundings – idea and substance” continues with the solo exhibition of the works of artist Fabio Mazzola entitled Sull’autobus n. 4 ho incontrato chi ha sognato di tagliarmi la testa (On bus number 4 I met the person who dreamt of beheading me) curated by Edoardo Trisciuzzi. With his performance the artist brings the routine of city life in the Pino Pascali Museum.
The concept of territory, especially in so far as it is conceived as “non-places” – term created by Marc Augé to refer to the anonymity of certain gatherings of today’s society – is essential to Fabio Mazzola’s artistic research. As a matter of fact, he sees territory as a screen on which to project his reflections on the relationship between individuals and their surroundings, thanks to a sharp experimental and technical versatility.
The exhibition offers a selection of artworks belonging to Douglas Andrews. He owns one of the most interesting and widest international private collection. The critics and curators Guido Orsini and Mary Angela Schroth, have selected the following artists: Donald Baechler, Robert Beck, Paolo Canevari, Jessica Carroll, Elmgreen & Dragset, Giuseppe Gabellone, Robert Gober, Arturo Herrera, William Kentridge, Jeff Koons, Sarah Lucas, Marepe, Olafur Eliasson, Tom Sachs and Andrea Zittel.
The art fair “The Museum and its surroundings – idea and substance” designed by the Pino Pascali Foundation, investigates and presents to the public the works of young artists in Apulia. The aim of the 2013 edition is to produce monthly exhibitions and workshops during which young emerging artists will give a “live” presentation of their artistic background, ad of how they personally transformed their ideas into substance. The fair opens with the solo exhibition Nella coda sta il veleno (Poison is in the tail) by the Apulian artist Pierpaolo Miccolis curated by Isabella Battista.
“Entering Nathalie Djurberg‘s territory is like crossing the threshold of our own subconscious. Eros and Thanatos chase each other, taboos are visually explored in a perfect synchrony between images and Hans Berg’s music. She has created tales for adults, in the dramatic tension between humour and horror, perversion and psychosis, which represents the allegoric context in which the young Swedish artist reveals the collective dynamics of our time, the obsessive rhythms of our actions, our difficulties in establishing a serene balance between man and nature”.
Bertozzi & Casoni guide viewers through the realm of hyperrealism, where everything is fake, a Disney world which is, however, cruel and void of anything fantastic. Men’s surroundings are just a pile of their own waste. The exhibition, curated by Carlo Berardi and Jason Lee, shows works from 1999 to 2011. A common theme shared by the exhibited works is the homage to the simulation of everyday activities, the representation of waste, urban waste and man-made destruction of nature. These are the basic elements of the poetic language adopted by the two famous artists.
Leslie Deere’s sound installations are ideally connected to the linguistic and musical experiments led by the Fluxus movement, and are accompanied by a mise-en-scène that is at times spectacular or more intimate and poetic. The works have been realised especially for the Pino Pascali Museum following a series of trips to Apulia the young artist made in order to “collect” sound and visual material and get acquainted with “Pascalian” surroundings.
“The Chapman brothers have been able to inspire in the language of contemporary art a new aesthetic vitality that is suspended between tragical beauty and harsh reality. Therefore, they have shifted art onto the symbolical level represented by the irrationality of life and death, and have stripped naked the false consciousness of time and the turmoil of the human soul“.
This exhibition is held within the Educational Section and is curated by Yamuna J. S. Illuzzi and Serena Specchio, in collaboration with the Apulia Region – Mediterranean Culture and Tourism Division and the regional Multimedia Library. This project aims at analysing the possible influences between Pino Pascali’s artwork and cinema, through the exhibition of posters of films produced and distributed in cinemas between 1960 and 1968, the year in which the artist passed away.
“Video zoom: Japan. Re-frame daily life: Japanese video art over the last ten years”, art fair curated by Kenichi Kondo, associate curator at Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. The exhibition includes the videos of ten young Japanese artists who tell us about new scenarios of Japanese daily life dictated by the economic crisis that has done away with all social and political guarantees and has shifted people’s attention on those minor events that might turn an ordinary day into a special one. This has been visually narrated with intensity, as well as a critical and humorous eye.
This exhibition is the fruit of the collaboration between the Pino Pascali Foundation and the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro, with the support of the Apulia Region, the Consulate of Montenegro in Bari and the Gramsci Foundation in Apulia.
The project, curated by Rosalba Branà with the collaboration of Antonio Frugis and Mariapaola Spinelli, is held in Cetinje, with a collective exhibition of Apulian artists and a selection of video artworks from the Pino Pascali Museum collection. The main aim behind this project is to create a common cultural network among the countries that overlook the Adriatic Sea. |
This course aims to provide the basic knowledge about extracellular vesicles (EV) a generic term including exosomes, microvesicles, microparticles, ectosomes, oncosomes, prostasomes, and many others. It covers areas such as EV history, nomenclature, biogenesis, EV cargo as well as the release and uptake mechanisms, collection and processing prior to isolation, different isolation methods, characterization and quantification techniques. This course is divided into five modules. Module 1 is an introduction to the field and will cover the nomenclature and the history of EVs. Module 2 will focus on the biogenesis, release and uptake mechanisms of EVs as well as the different EV cargos (RNA, protein, lipids). In Module 3, we will focus on the collection and processing of cell culture media and body fluids such as blood, breast milk, cerebrospinal fluid and urine prior to isolation of EVs. Module 4 and 5 will present different isolation methods and characterization/quantification techniques, respectively. Here differential ultracentrifugation, size exclusion chromatography, density gradient, kit based precipitation, electron microscopy (EM), cryo-TEM, flow cytometry, atomic-force microscopy and nanoparticle tracking analysis will be presented. The recommended prerequisites are college-freshman-level biology and biochemistry. After a completed course you should be able to: + Discuss the nomenclature and subgroups of extracellular vesicles. + Describe the RNA, protein and lipid content of extracellular vesicles. + Describe the basic concepts about the most common isolation and characterization techniques and how these techniques are used in the EV field. + State the benefits and limitations of the most common isolation and characterization techniques for extracellular vesicles. + Explain the considerations that are important during the collection and isolation of EVs from different body fluid. + Describe the release and uptake mechanisms of extracellular vesicles All lectures are given in English. Each of the five modules will be followed by an exam. All exams will be in the format of multiple choice questions. The course is organized in collaboration between the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV), University of California Irvine (USA), University of Gothenburg (Sweden) and Pohang University of Science and Technology (South Korea).
This module highlights some of the different techniques used to characterize extracellular vesicles. Here the basic concepts for techniques such as electron microscopy (EM), cryo-TEM, flow cytometry, atomic-force microscopy and nanoparticle tracking analysis will be covered and some guidelines will be presented. Furthermore, this module will cover how the techniques are used in the field of extracellular vesicles as well as their limitations and benefits.
That we will start within the outline of this part.
So I was start with the short introduction on vesicles.
I will give some examples of light scatter and fluorescence triggered EV detection.
And a load on pitfalls of single EV- based analysis.
In the end I will show an example of sorting of vesicle subsets.
And I will end with the prospects and needs.
isolation of clinical grade vesicles and a good quality control method.
Also in the vesicle-based biomarker fields.
often the vesicles of interest, a present in a very low number.
move bulk-based to single vesicle based analysis.
to perform rare event analysis and to isolate specific EV subsets.
So, that brings me to flow cytometry.
high throughput, multi-parameter analysis of individual cells.
This technology is routinely used in clinical diagnostics and research labs.
And allows the analysis of thousands and thousands of cells per second.
which flow cytometry was designed.
would like to bring forward a quote of a paper of John Nolan in 2015.
limitations of the instrument are ignored.
So what is the problems?
the limit for detection of polystyrene beads is around 200 nanometer.
Is below 200 nanometer in size.
is used as a trigger channel because all particles scatter light.
to take in account that this particles are very small.
the more background interference kicks in.
Furthermore, forward scatter light is not just a measure for vesicle size.
silica beads, and extracellular vesicles.
relative to water will scatter more light than the silica beads.
And the silica beads will scatter more light than the extracellular vesicle.
scattering dependent on their refractive index.
fluorescent detection of proteins, for example, surface proteins.
at 1x10 to the fifth copies on the surface of the cell.
not incorporated preferably in this vesicles.
it will roughly have around ten copies.
targeted bio antibody that's flourescent group.
also sample preparation is crucial for flow cytometric analysis.
and the different contents, that are present in these body fluids.
in which the vesicles are present can influence your analysis dramatically.
the matrix you are measuring your vesicles, particles of interest in.
cytometry based analysis of single vesicles.
building a high end open architect.
Flow so it would be the influx.
I do not go into all the different details and the in the machine.
Because it has been described in [INAUDIBLE] this course.
that is because you have so few photons.
You would like to detect as much as possible photons on the detector.
that you can think on lowering the sheath pressure and use large bore nozzle.
increased well time of the particle, to collect these photons.
and to have an increase on the obscuration bar.
And of course, the filter sheath fluid.
But you can take all this preventions and optimizations that are really needed.
You will never get rid of all noise.
So either you will always have optical and electronic noise during your measurement.
flourescent labeled small particles you can't stop to measurements.
you have to helot and 2 helot nanometer beads.
forward light scattering as the noise generated during the measurements.
full enough threshold you can see that on the right panel.
Then we will lose signal of the 100 nanometers beads.
really eliminates the signal of the 100 nanometers beads.
because this is an example of polystyrene beads.
The prediction is that he handoff nanometer exercised vesicles.
so the problem will be much bigger for vesicle analysis.
A way to come around this problem is to use florescence-triggered detection.
200 nano-meters in which the Is the pick sets and fluorescence.
from fluorescent signal of your 100 nanometer beads.
noise without losing the signal of the 100 nanometer beads.
This is really an elegant way to reduce the problems of the noise.
quantitative analysis of these fluorescent 100 nanometer polystyrene beads.
And that's also a very good test in your system.
is exactly what you measure on the number of events in your flow cytometry.
when you have such a course that you are really analyzing individual particles.
So the examples I showed was that polystyrene flourescent beads.
of course we need to have a generic label for the vesicles to put a threshold.
And, how to get that generic labeling for the vesicles.
example isolated from body fluids need to be labeled.
which intercalates in the membranes of these vesicles.
so inside the vesicles, to have the generic labeling.
Once you start the labeling, so after belting your vesicles of interest.
to see whether you can have a certain proteins expressed on your vessels.
aggregates of antibodies because they disturbed your analysis.
gradient and a real bottom up rotation.
is bright enough to be discriminated from the noise.
vesicles are well above the threshold of the noise.
rely that you can go further with the analysis.
A good generic labeling of EVs.
and you can see a nice distribution of the density gradient.
as depicted on the left panels below.
In this case, we have dendritic cell derived vesicles.
We either activate the dendritic cell or with LPS.
And we compare them within a cell with non-light degraded cells.
MEC class two and mass GEA like people are used to do for cells for cell photometery.
subsets based on the two markers Interesting.
So you can do qualitative analysis based on markers.
that you can also do qualitative analysis based on light scattering.
In the right panel, you can see T cell derived vesicles.
we clearly see three different populations of vesicles.
vesicles during different triggers of the t cells.
vesicles on their confectioner flow cytometer.
And that is really always a big question.
what does the signal mean?
before, you go back to the 100 nanometer polystyrene beads.
of the dilution rates, in which we can measure this particles.
and even goes dark, so that is really unexpected.
So what's going on there?
the fluorescence of the vesicles In the linear range look like.
more lines and become higher flourescent in the red area.
So in the higher concentrations.
So, keep in mind, we're looking to exactly the same beads.
Exactly the same 100 nm beads.
The only thing that changes here, is the concentration of the particles.
has a big affect on those scatters and the fluorescence.
in the proper dilution, we do a true single vesicle analysis.
they are not derived from a single bead, it's so called swarm detection.
is a kind of term which means coincidence.
then you say, there is coincidence.
a lot of particles together we call it swarm.
when you analyse the real vesicle sample?
The sample detected here is a Marcel derived vesicle sample.
It is stained for CD63 and CD9.
In the left dot plots.
these vesicles is double positive for CD63 and CD9.
exactly the same sample, just generates complete other results.
CD6 and CD1 In fact we have single CD63 posted vesicles.
vesicles on which we cannot detect CD63 and CD9.
and the other is measured in single vesicle detection mode.
most software cells are regenerated in the swarm.
you need to go to the single visicle analysis.
And also if you think on sorting or vesicles.
from the single vesicle analysis mode.
analysis of nano-sized particles and not the optimal settings for the sorting.
low sort speed, long sorting times and large sort volumes.
in order to sort small particles.
But here I show an example that it is possible.
the resolution was good enough to distinguish the two different populations.
So again, I have [INAUDIBLE] vesicles.
CD63, CD9 and we sort CD63 single positives.
Let's see the non single positive vesicles.
On the right, you can see the rerun of the sort of vesicles.
Indeed, we have CD63 single positive vesicles, we have CD9 positive vesicles.
And not only on florescence, you can see that there is a different subsets.
screen post the kept the less light than the CD9 positive vesicles.
that sorted different vesicle subsets in this way.
So that it is possible to sort vesicle subsets.
high throughput multiparameter single vesicle-based analysis.
limitations of the instruments are not ignored.
Of course, we are not yet there.
and that is of course the standardization of sample preparation.
Instrument calibration and definition of resolution limits.
EV-like references to calibrate, compare, spike in.
enhanced fluorescent signals and fluorescence detection.
I have to say that three big international societies have really joined forces.
all things done in the coming years.
that you learnt about great possibilities flow cytometry offers in EV field. |
Henry Plantagenet, the Young King was born on the 28 February 1155 and was the eldest surviving son of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. An elder brother, William, Count of Poitiers, who should have been his father's heir, had been born in Normandy, over a year before Henry on 17 August 1153, but died of a seizure at Wallingford Castle in April 1156 and was buried in Reading Abbey at the feet of his great-grandfather Henry I.
Henry was described by contemporaries as a charming youth of striking beauty, tall, well proportioned and broad-shouldered, pale freckled skin, bright and blue eyes and the reddish-gold hair characteristic of the Plantagenet family. He was sent to live in the household of Thomas Becket, with whom he formed a strong attachment. The young Henry was reported to have said Becket showed him more fatherly love in a day than his father did for his entire life.
At Montmirail in Maine in January 1169 King Henry II announced his intentions for the division of his vast dominions. The Young Henry, as his eldest son, was to receive England, Normandy, and Anjou, while Richard, the second surviving son was to inherit his mother's Duchy of Aquitaine. At the age of fifteen, during his father's lifetime, Henry was crowned King of England in June, 1170, to avoid a disputed succession. On 27 August 1172, he was married to Margaret of France, daughter of King Louis VII of France and his second wife, Constance of Castile, the couple had been betrothed since their infancy, in an an attempt to finally settle the quarel between the Counts of Anjou and the Kings of France over possession of the frontier district of the Norman Vexin, which Louis VII had acquired from Henry II's father, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou.
By the terms of the marriage agreement, Margaret would bring the castles of the Norman Vexin to her new husband. Henry II took advantage of Pope Alexander III's political difficulties to secure the Pope's permission for the children to be married. The marriage was hurried through by the acquisitive Henry II, he then characteristically seized the castles, resulting in a bitter border war between the two kings.
The marriage had been officiated by Archbishop Roger of York, who in doing so usurped a prerogative of the exiled Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, which exacerbated the dispute between the Becket and Henry II, which culminated with the muder of Becket at Canterbury Cathedral six months later.
At the marriage, Henry was crowned king of England a second time, this time together with Margaret of France. One child was born of the marriage, a son, named William, in 1177. The child arrived prematurely, and died shortly afterwards.
The newly crowned young King possessed a passion for tournaments, spending much of his adult life traveling between tournamennts, achieving fame and renown in the process. His friend and mentor through his early days was William Marshal, a former tutor, but his lack of power and lands still rankled and frustrated him and in 1173, only a year after his second coronation, he rebelled against his father.
Henry, "A restless youth born for the undoing of many", was dissatisfied, he possessed grand titles but no real power. When King Henry II tried to negotiate a marriage for his youngest son, John, the prospective father-in-law asked that John be given some property. The King responded by granting John three castles in Anjou. The young Henry promptly objected and demanded either England, Normandy or Anjou to rule in his own right and fled to the French court. Led on by his father-in -law, the King of France, who had his own axe to grind, the young Henry openly rebelled against his father. He was joined at the court of France by his equally turbulent brothers, Richard, Duke of Aquitaine and Geoffrey, now Duke of Brittany since his marriage to the heiress Constance of Brittany.
Further disputes arose between young Henry and his equally fiery tempered brother, Richard. (The future Richard I 'the Lionheart') The Young King objected to a castle Richard had built on what he claimed to be his territory. Henry, aided by his brother Geoffrey, attempted to subdue Richard and the affair provided a further excuse to rebel against their father. Richard allied himself with their father. The Young King began to ravage Aquitaine.
The Young King plundered the rich shrine of Rocamadour, after which he fell mortally ill of dysentry. When he knew death was inevitable, he asked his followers to lay him on a bed of ashes spread on the floor as a sign of repentance and begged his father to forgive and visit him, since he had taken a crusader's vow which he was now unable to fullfill, he gave his cloak to his friend William Marshal with the plea that he should take the cloak to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
The King, who suspected a trap, refused to visit his son, but sent a sapphire ring, once owned by his grandfather Henry I, to the young Henry as a sign of his forgiveness. A few days later the Young King was dead, Henry and Eleanor mourned the loss of their errant son sincerely.
Henry had left instructions that his entrails and other body parts should be buried at the abbey of Charroux, but the rest of his body should lie at Rouen Cathedral, where his tomb is situated on the opposite side of the altar from the tomb of his younger brother, Richard the Lionheart. The Young King popularity was such that Le Mans and Rouen quarreled bitterly for the custody of his body, and in Aquitaine he was immortalized in the 'Lament for the Young King' by the troubadour Bertran de Born. These views however, were not shared by all, Walter Map, a clerk at the court of Henry II, wrote soon after the Young king's death -" ''Truly, he left nothing unprobed, no stone unturned; he befouled the whole world with his treasons, a prodigy of unfaith and prodigal of ill, a limpid spring of wickedness, the attractive tinder of villainy, a lovely place of sin . the originator of the heresy of traitors . a false son to his father . the peaceful king'. |
These findings assist researchers in identifying humans most likely to suffer negative effects in at-risk situations and develop behavioral and drug therapies to improve negative outcomes early in development [Questions raised about mental health studies on baby monkeys at NIH labs (CBS News, 9/8/14)].
It is also important to note that a high-reactive temperament protects the child from engaging in risky behavior -whether drugs, driving at high speeds, or temptation for delinquent, behavior. Thus, the child with a high-reactive temperament has some advantages in our society and parents of such infants might decide not to change their child's behavior when the next set of pharmacological advances permits them that choice [from National Center for Biotechnolgoy Information: Childhood predictors of states of anxiety].
Thus, a sustained amygdala response to newly familiar people may be one cause of social anxiety in inhibited individuals. This finding may also have implications for prevention or intervention. For individuals with temperament-based risk for social anxiety, increased exposure to human faces through traditional exposure therapy or through computer-based training may enhance amygdala habituation and reduce social anxiety [from National Center for Biotechnolgoy Information: Sustained amygdala response to both novel and newly familiar faces characterizes inhibited temperament]. |
History fires the curiosity of our pupils, helping to cultivate an interest in the past. As they consider how the past influences the present, they develop a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant people and events. This also improves skills of enquiry, investigation, analysis, evaluation and presentation.
History is taught throughout the School, beginning in Reception with the introduction of the past through family and friends. Pupils then move on to basic vocabulary and terminology in Forms 1 and 2 through to causation in the Prep Forms. The Schemes of Work for History are broadly in line with the National Curriculum.
Throughout the School, the acquisition of historical knowledge and skills plays an important part in teaching. Children are given the opportunity to use a variety of data, such as diaries, maps, and artefacts, and the use of ICT is particularly encouraged to aid research and to enhance further learning. There are also trips arranged to Museums and exhibitions where appropriate. We are fortunately located, being close to places such as the Imperial War Museum Manchester, Blists Hill Victorian Village, Lyme Park, Quarry Bank Mill and The Beatles Story...all of which enhance the learning of History at Edenhurst. |
Katherine Longly - To tell my real intentions, I want to eat only haze like a hermit.
To tell my real intentions, I want to eat only haze like a hermit.
A book questioning the relationship with food and the body in the specific context of Japanese society: mixes testimonies, photographs, illustrations, archive pictures. Handmade and self-published book.
* Maho Isono, Japanese cultural anthropologist, on her blog.
Eating is never just a technical act.
A source of pleasure or a control tool over one's body, a way to connect with people or solitary delight, uninhibited or generating anxiety, our relationship with food can take different faces. It is intimately connected to our emotions, and acts as a subtle revealer of our social and family history. But where does it lay its foundations?
Katherine Longly was overweight when she was a child. Between control and pleasure, her link with food is always occupied by the ghost of those childhood memories, which shape the image of oneself with force and persistence. She questioned these issues beyond her own experience, in the particular context of Japanese society, where the pressure held on people's bodies seems more intense than elsewhere.
During several residencies in the archipelago, the artist interviewed various people on the subject of their relationship with food and their bodies and recorded their stories. We can thus understand how Yuki sank into anorexia, little by little, to end up being only able to swallow liquids; how Ren managed to protect herself from the outside world thanks to her mother's bentos; how Kenichi reacted when he was categorized "metabo" after having his waistline measured by the municipality; how Mina managed to reconnect with a missing mother while cooking with her brothers; or how Rika has been able to hide his bulimia from everyone for more than twenty years.
Then Katherine asked these individuals to illustrate this relationship from their own point of view, using a disposable camera. This specific tool was chosen by design, because it doesn't allow any control over the final image, contrasting with the apparent perfection of images posted on social media. As a result, the pictures are filled with a certain kind of photographic freshness and lead to the possibility of being surprised by images of upsetting sincerity.
At the crossroads of art and anthropology, this book, made in close collaboration with all the interviewees, invites everyone to dig to discover where their relationship with food and their body is rooted.
Concept, edit and art-direction developed by Katherine Longly in the 2018 Atlas lab photobook making workshop by Alex Bocchetto and Yumi Goto, in collaboration with AKINA and Reminders Photography Stronghold. |
School gardens are a great way to get involved in extracurricular activities. They teach children how to eat healthy, grow and identify healthy foods, and work in a teams. Find out if your school has a garden and get your child involved. Want to practice gardening with your kids at home? Check out our growing green fundraiser. Fifty percent of you order goes toward helping families find quality child care.
Did you know that head lice infestations most commonly occur in preschool children attending child care and in children attending elementary school. (CDC). Learn the signs and symptoms of head lice, how to check for head lice , and how to prevent the spread of lice.
Does it feel like something is moving around in your head?
Check for red bumps on their neck, head, and shoulders.
Adult Lice begin as nits and are usually found in the hair behind the ears or on the back of the neck. When searching, you can see nits with the naked eye. Ask yourself these questions when looking for nits.
Do I see nits on the hair behind the ears or on the back of the neck?
When I wash, condition, and part my child's hair (with a detection comb), can I see nits or something moving in my child's scalp?
Do not send them to school or to their child care facility.
Consult a medical professional especially if there has been an outbreak at the child care center or school.
Remember ! The best ways to prevent the spread of head lice are to avoid sharing personal items and to avoid head to head contact. |
Abstract: In a sampling problem, we are given an input x, and asked to sample approximately from a probability distribution D_x. In a search problem, we are given an input x, and asked to find a member of a nonempty set A_x with high probability. (An example is finding a Nash equilibrium.) In this paper, we use tools from Kolmogorov complexity and algorithmic information theory to show that sampling and search problems are essentially equivalent. More precisely, for any sampling problem S, there exists a search problem R_S such that, if C is any "reasonable" complexity class, then R_S is in the search version of C if and only if S is in the sampling version. As one application, we show that SampP=SampBQP if and only if FBPP=FBQP: in other words, classical computers can efficiently sample the output distribution of every quantum circuit, if and only if they can efficiently solve every search problem that quantum computers can solve. A second application is that, assuming a plausible conjecture, there exists a search problem R that can be solved using a simple linear-optics experiment, but that cannot be solved efficiently by a classical computer unless the polynomial hierarchy collapses. That application will be described in a forthcoming paper with Alex Arkhipov on the computational complexity of linear optics. |
Clean Image function in the Document Imaging SDK can be used to completely clean a fax (image) received with the well-known communication “noise". This “noise" is represented on the received image as black dots and lines. A noisy or low quality phone line usually causes this telecommunication “noise". The new “Clean Image" function will completely clean the noise from the received image. The new feature will work for both monochrome (1 bit) images and 256 color (8 bit) grayscale images. The following image was received with 80% noise and it is an extreme condition. The received image is practically unusable; but look at the results after using the new “Clean Image" feature!
The face is now recognizable on the image. After applying the Clean Image function a second time, almost all of the remaining noise was removed and the resulting image is clear. Please note, that 80% communication noise is a very extreme situation. Usually the communication noise on an image is under 5%. In this case, applying the Clean Image function only a single time will completely clear the noise on the image that was received! |
The Natural History Museum Basel's fish collection includes a global mixture of individual examples of species. The main collection dates from the early 20th century.
The type collection of fish at the Natural History Museum Basel is modest. It dates primarily from the first half of the 20th century. A larger series from 1983 comes from Saudi Arabia.
The type collection includes a total of 45 taxa. The current taxa designations are based on Bill Eschmeyer's 'Catalog of Fishes' from 1998, with updates until 2000 from 'FishBase'. |
Stories are important. They force us to look beyond the things we can only see on the outside, aid us as we build relationships, and help us understand each other.
But maybe the most powerful aspect of stories is that we all have one.
Whether you’re a high school student or a grandfather, all of our experiences, decisions, personality, and social circles come together to form a unique journey through life that is all our own.
For a follower of Jesus, the narrative of how the gospel of Jesus has intersected your life is the defining chapter of your story.
By faith every follower of Jesus Christ has been rescued by God’s grace, brought from death to life, and now lives with an eternal hope in a reconciled relationship with God. How you came to believe that truth, what your life was like before Christ, and how you’re living out your faith today are all integral parts that comprise the story of you.
But sadly, many Christians downplay their stories, feeling that they don’t measure up or may even bore people. They think that if their story isn’t dramatic enough, it isn’t worth telling.
In reality, everyone’s story is significant.
Even if you weren’t a drug dealing gang member at the age of seven, your story of being rescued by God’s grace is still beautiful and significant. It’s a grand story because it’s the telling of how the Creator of the universe, and the author of the greatest story ever told, saved you, made you alive, rewrote your story, and continues to walk with you in this life. What could possibly be unimportant, boring, or insignificant about any of that?
You see, telling your story plays a major role in declaring the gospel to the world around us. It leads to deeper conversations about the message and meaning of Christ.
Many stories begin the same. But because of the way the gospel narrative has intersected your own, the rest of your story will look much different from many others, intriguing, and maybe most importantly, hopeful to the world around you.
As you develop closer relationships with people who are not followers of Jesus in your circles, ask them good questions, and get to know their story, their hopes and their dreams. And then ask God to give you opportunities to share your story. |
Around the World tests your ability to hit shots from designated spots.
Want to improve your shooting skills? Then Around the World is your game. Designed for two or more participants, Around the World requires players to make various shots from the key -- the area in a basketball court that's under the basket and bordered by the end lanes, foul lines and free-throw line -- with the winner being the first person to successfully complete all shots.
First, players decide how many spots, or stops, to mark for shots. Five to seven is typical, with one being at the top of the free-throw line and the others arranged to create a semicircular shape [source: Lifetime]. Player No. 1 begins by taking a shot from the first stop, which is to the right of the basket near the corner. If she makes the shot, she moves to the second stop and shoots, continuing to advance every time she completes a shot. If she misses a shot, she has two choices. She can stay where she is and it becomes Player No. 2's turn. Or she can call "chance" and take a second shot. If she completes the second shot, she continues shooting. But if she misses it, she has to return to the first stop and start over when it's her turn again. The first player to complete all shots in order -- around the arc and then back again -- is the winner [source: Games ... For All Reasons!].
Finally, if Player No. 1 happens to make every shot right away, she isn't immediately crowned the winner. The other players all get a chance to start. If two players should happen to make all shots in a row, then they're tied as winner, and you can leave it at that or have a shoot-off [source: Gels]. |
A virtual woman explains the universe of microbes inside us.
The Health Museum has a brand new exhibit that highlights recent advances in understanding the complicated relation humans have with the trillions of microorganisms that live inside us. The Secret World Inside You is a small but fascinating installation, much like its subject matter.
Most of us are familiar enough with Germ Theory and how microorganisms invade us and make us ill. As Harris County nervously watches a possible outbreak of measles, we’re all getting a refresher course in how vaccinations train our bodies to kill unseen tiny buggers. However, those infectious agents make up a tiny fraction of the amount of microorganisms in our bodies, most of which are helpful or necessary.
The dominant feature of the exhibit is a massive interactive table featuring a young woman in workout gear. The dark ceiling and black walls are dotted with colored lights to simulate being in an environment full of organisms, but also gives everything a "human spaceship among the stars" vibe. On the table, the woman has various points of interaction that are activated by putting your flat palm on, say, a shoulder or a knee.
At first it is a little uncomfortable. I almost asked the recording for consent because, well, she is staring at you like a painting in an old horror movie. Once you get past that, though, it’s an incredible piece of educational technology. Everything from cuts to breathing is affected by the menagerie of organisms that inhabit our body, and the display uses superb computer graphics in order to explain the processes.
The entrance to The Secret World Inside You at The Health Museum.
That’s not the only hands-on piece. There are several video game tables scattered around. They use simple pinball controls to let you chose good food that promote microorganism health. It’s not going to replace Fortnite any time soon, but it does add a tactile aspect to the learning experience that gives it some oomph.
Aside from the technology, the rest of the exhibit is passive, though there has been some great effort to personalize the information presented. For instance, one wall is backdropped with the Houston skyline, helping to give the installation a homey touch.
If you’re not up to date on the latest medical science, microorganisms are the subject of a lot of the new theories about health. For instance, scientists are starting to see connections between levels of certain symbiotic organisms and mental illness like depression. Autism and obesity also have connections to microorganism health according to the factoids available along the walls of The Secret World.
“We want to make the cutting edge of medical research available to people in an accessible way,” said spokesperson LaTanya Miles as she guided me through the exhibit. She explained how science is coming to understand just how much of a role microorganisms play in our well-being.
The exhibit is not without controversy. Possibly linking autism to anything is always going to bring up the “should we seek a ‘cure’” debate. There’s also a big chunk of information about birth and whether or not babies born via Cesarean section acquire the important microorganisms present in the birth canal. While The Secret World makes no definite case on the subject owing to its very concise presentation of all its data points, it made me bristle thinking about how many parents are already dealing with anti-C-section bias from a variety of sources.
The important thing, though, is that The Secret World Inside You is a conversation starter. Understanding that microorganisms are an essential part of human health is a science that is just getting started, and we live in a world where technology is being used to spread misinformation about medical issues at an alarming and possibly deadly rate. The Secret World is a chance to harness interactive media to enlighten with the best real information we have available, and that makes it worth the trip. Tell the giant table lady I said "hello" when you go to touch her feet. |
Some health experts have warned the public to prevent themselves from viral infections attributed to the rainy season by clearing the bushes around them and keeping their surroundings hygienic.
They also advised them to always discard pools of water in their environments usually caused by downpour to prevent such from breeding germs and bacteria.
They said that such unhygienic environments were perfect breeding grounds for germs and bacteria that could cause infections on human beings.
They told the News Agency on Friday in Lagos that prevention would stop the virus from breeding, spreading and causing severe clinical manifestations among the public.
Dr Bamidele Iwalokun, a medical researcher at the Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR),Yaba, Lagos, said: “The common preventive measures against viral infections in children include good hygiene.
“This should be through personal hygiene, as well as cleaning of personal, household and environmental areas.
“Vaccination, good nutrition, contact prevention and vitamin A supplementation are also preventive measures against the spread of infections in children, at all times.
“Parents and guardians should note that children with febrile and other viral symptoms such as cough, rash, running nose and nasal congestion should not go to school, but stay home until these symptoms disappear.
“These measures will further minimise the spread of the viruses they harbour,” he said.
Iwalokun also highlighted the symptoms of some of these infections.
He said: “ They include fever, running nose, sore throat, wheezing, mouth sore, rash of different kinds, cough, conjunctivitis, headache, irritability, stiff neck, seizures and coma.
“The viruses responsible for these symptoms are numerous and they include herpes simplex virus, coronavirus, enteroviruses, enterovirus, polio virus, measles virus, rotavirus, respiratory syncytial virus, adenovirus and influenza virus.
“They use multiple routes to spread; they can spread through contaminated food and water, secretions, air droplets and faecal-oral routes,’’ Iwalokun said.
Also, Dr Oluwatosin Olowojebutu, the Medical Director, Liberty-Life Hospital, Ogudu in Lagos State, told the news agency that most viral infections had no cure.
He advised the public to prevent contacting them.
He said that a good number of the infections in children were highly contagious and they could spread easily in impoverished, crowded households and communities.
“Most times, infections cause outbreaks and lead to death.
“Some children are still alive but living with disabilities such as polio, blindness, deaf and intellectual disabilities due to infections that are not treated, poorly treated or defied treatment.
“Most symptoms of viral infections are non-specific and are shared by bacteria infections; also, majority of the viruses are poorly diagnosed and treated,’’ Olowojebutu said.
Olowojebutu advised parents, guardians and pregnant women to always get necessary vaccines for their children to prevent them from contacting viral infections. |
Archaeologist. She was born in Washington D.C. on December 5, 1921. She studied anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania and Michigan University. She earned her doctoral degree at Columbia University in 1952 after presenting her dissertation, which was based on a study of the cultural sequence of Marajó Island in Brazil.
Along with her husband, archaeologist Clifford Evans, she conducted various archaeological research projects in different parts of Brazil, Guyana and Ecuador. In Ecuador, she helped with studies of pottery, settlement patterns and environmental and economic aspects, which established a classification system and chronological sequence of the development of human societies on the country’s coast. This work is still considered enormously important for understanding the region’s archaeology.
As part of her research, she excavated findings at Valdivia, Ecuador, where some of the oldest pottery in the Americas was documented and dated. Meggers and Evans considered the site to be a center of origin and expansion for this art, which spread to the rest of the continent. From their perspective, also shared by other specialists, the cultural development was connected via trans-Pacific movements to the Jomon site in Japan.
Meggers established ties with archaeologists in South America, particularly in Ecuador, Chile, Argentina and Peru. She has supported and promoted the development of archaeology in Venezuela and Brazil. She played an important role in Brazil by promoting the PRONAPA project for researching the Varzea forests of the Amazon. Her work in that region, which is considered essential, emphasized the decisive role of environmental factors, especially the climate, in creating cultural complexity and diversity. Meggers sees the Amazonian societies of the Orinoco in Venezuela and the Antilles as an example of the process of dispersion from the formative area of northeastern South America.
In the Caribbean, Meggers had close relationships with specialists affiliated with the group Latin American Social Archaeology and the Vieques Group, which in the 1980s brought together researchers from the Antilles, Colombia, Venezuela and Costa Rica. She has also made significant contributions to support archaeology in Cuba, as one of the researchers from the United States who has most frequently collaborated with colleagues from the island over the past four decades.
Her use of the method of pottery seriation as a tool for determining chronological order and a resource for integrating diverse archaeological data has had important applications in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
Meggers has worked at the American University, the American Anthropological Association and the National Science Foundation. She has worked as a consultant and as a member of important committees for various publications. Since 1954, she has been associate researcher for the National Museum of Natural Sciences at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. She is considered one of the most important archaeologists on the continent and has been honored in the United States and numerous Latin American countries for her contributions to science and culture. Her published works include more than two hundred titles. |
Americans are living longer, with our average life expectancy now surpassing 78 years, up from less than 74 years in 1980. But we are not necessarily living better. The incidence of a variety of chronic diseases, like diabetes and heart disease, has also been growing dramatically, particularly among people who are not yet elderly.
The convergence of those two developments has led to what some researchers have identified as a “lengthening of morbidity.” That means we are spending more years living with chronic disease and ill health — not the outcome that most of us would hope for from a prolonged life span.
For the study, researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the Cooper Institute in Dallas gathered medical records for 18,670 middle-aged men and women who’d visited the Cooper Clinic (the medical arm of the Cooper Institute) for a checkup beginning in 1970.
The 18,670 men and women, with an average age of 49, were healthy and free of chronic diseases at their first checkup, when they all took a treadmill test to determine their aerobic fitness. Based on the results of this initial fitness test, the researchers divided the group into five fitness categories, with the bulk of the people residing, like most Americans, in the least-fit section.
While this finding might not seem, on its face, altogether positive — the fit and the unfit alike generally became infirm at some point, the Medicare records showed — the results should be viewed as encouraging, says Dr. Benjamin Willis, a staff epidemiologist at the Cooper Institute who led the study. “I’m 58, and for me, the results were a big relief,” Dr. Willis said.
That’s because, he points out, the results show, in essence, that being physically fit “compresses the time” that someone is likely to spend being debilitated during old age, leaving the earlier post-retirement years free of serious illness and, at least potentially, imbued with a finer quality of life.
Interestingly, the effects of fitness in this study statistically were greater in terms of delaying illness than in prolonging life. While those in the fittest group did tend to live longer than the least fit, perhaps more important was the fact that they were even more likely to live well during more of their older years.
Of course, aging is a complicated process and extremely individualized, with the onset or absence of illness representing only one element in quality of life after age 65 or so. But it is a big element, says Dr. Jarett Berry, an assistant professor of internal medicine at U.T. Southwestern and an author of the study. “And since it appears to be associated with midlife fitness, it is amenable to change,” he continues.
While aerobic fitness is partly determined by genetics, and to that extent, the luck of the universe, much of a person’s fitness, especially by middle age, depends on physical activity, Dr. Berry says.
So, exercising during midlife, especially if you haven’t been, can pay enormous later-life benefits, he says. “Our study suggests that someone in midlife who moves from the least fit to the second-to-the-least-fit category of fitness gets more benefit,” in terms of staving off chronic diseases, than someone who moves to the highest fitness grouping from the second-highest.
And moving out of that least-fit category requires, he says, “only a small dose of exercise,” like 20 or 30 minutes of walking on most days of the week. |
Number 926056791 has 9 digits. Number 926056791 can be formatted as 926,056,791 or 926.056.791 or 926 056 791 or in case this was a phone number 926-056-791 or 92-605-6791 to be easier to read. Number 926056791 in English words is "nine hundred and twenty-six million, fifty-six thousand, seven hundred and ninety-one". Number 926056791 can be read by triplets (groups of 3 digits) as "nine hundred and twenty-six, zero fifty-six, seven hundred and ninety-one". Number 926056791 can be read digit by digit as "nine two six zero five six seven nine one". Number 926056791 is odd. Number 926056791 is divisible by: three, nine. Number 926056791 is a composite number (non-prime number).
Number 926056791 in binary code is 110111001100101000000101010111. Number 926056791 in octal code is: 6714500527. Number 926056791 in hexadecimal (hexa): 37328157.
The sum of all digits of this number is 45. The digital root (repeated digital sum until you get single-digit number) is 9. Number 926056791 divided by two (halved) equals 463028395.5. Number 926056791 multiplied by two (doubled) equals 1852113582. Number 926056791 multiplied by ten equals 9260567910. Number 926056791 raised to the power of 2 equals 8.5758118015722E+17. Number 926056791 raised to the power of 3 equals 7.9416887571839E+26. The square root (sqrt) of 926056791 is 30431.181229127. The sine (sin) of 926056791 degree is -0.1564344652774. The cosine (cos) of 926056791 degree is 0.98768834055757. The base-10 logarithm of 926056791 equals 8.9666376208738. The natural logarithm of 926056791 equals 20.646446120104. The number 926056791 can be encoded to characters as IBFJEFGIA. The number 926056791 can be encrypted to chemical element names as fluorine, helium, carbon, neon, boron, carbon, nitrogen, fluorine, hydrogen.
220844082, 789136410, 9511909983, 867602482, 212821692, 7688188897, 133820171, 508136674, 7084485506, 296670163, 917115481, 726702439, 142631294, 101231182, 614432940, 8524133441, 381833341, 851453077, 200580305, 588102212, 955354269, 114803217, 8117796857, 113569186, 3322189, 196796838, 297589452, 464356609, 941164680, 314903018, 601957076, 3908746433, 808866116, 3168147588, 9613832798, 422848421, 261838073, 5911991, 1605915310, 5938459965, 5297205275, 84351391. |
Vocational basic education qualifies the student for a specific vocation. The states and territories are chargeable for offering funding for government subsidised supply in their jurisidiction and the Commonwealth Authorities, through the Australian High quality Expertise Authority , gives regulation of registered training organisations besides in Victoria and Western Australia.
The core subjects (which occupy round one-third of total instructing time in both vocational and academic programmes) embrace English, inventive activities, physical schooling and well being, mathematics, pure science, social studies, Swedish or Swedish as a second language, and non secular research.
It was urged that publicly subsidised technical training should be delivered under not-for-profit arrangements and that new authorities funding must be prioritised in the direction of colleges and training suppliers who intend to reinvest all surpluses into training infrastructureâ€.
There may be additionally a perception, deriving from centuries of social stratification and selectivity within the standing and provision of various kinds of training in England, that vocational training is inevitably more narrowly utilitarian, less influential and less essential than its more tutorial cousin: superior (‘A’) ranges.
In response to estimates within the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Growth of Financial Growth in Indonesia (MP3EI), it’ll want 113 million expert workers by 2030 (some additional 3.eight million per 12 months on average for subsequent 14 years) which is an enormous challenge for the training and coaching sector. |
St. Peter's Episcopal Church is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places for under criterion C for its local significance in architecture. It is one of only a few churches remaining in Sheridan designed in the Gothic Revival style, and is one of the finest examples of the style found in the city. The building was completed in 1912 with additions built in 1958. The original portion was designed by architect Edward Ellsworth Hendrickson of the Frank Miles Day firm in Philadelphia. The building is a notable example of English Gothic Revival architecture in Sheridan, Wyoming. It features a stone foundation, arched stained glass windows, engaged buttresses, parapet walls, and a grand tower. The interior is distinguished by darkstained woodwork, decorative beams with carved dentils, and original oak pews. Stained-glass windows designed by the prominent Charles Connick Studio of Boston were added beginning in 1958. Connick was a well-known and prolific designer of stained-glass windows, however St. Peter's is one of only three churches in the state of Wyoming known to contain windows produced from his studio. |
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study shows men are good at noticing angry faces, with women good at noticing surprised, sad or joyful expressions.
Brilliant technological innovation is good, but only as good as the market. New technologies fail financially when they fail to take into account how users will react to them.
Devices comparable in sensitivity to human fingers, enabled by a novel film embedded with nanoparticles, could offer the first step toward giving robotics hands the delicacy of the human touch, experts told UPI's Nano World.
Wicked, Evil, Foul, Bad -- all words meaning essentially the same thing, yet we don't talk about "evil weather," "foul witches" or the "forces of bad." |
For the first time in Europe, an interdisciplinary approach will be used to tackle this question. A scientific project, funded for a three-year period by the European Union, and, in France, involving researchers and engineers from CNRS, the CEA(1) and INERIS, will endeavor to quantify the effects of such change on allergies in order to propose recommendations and preventive action at European level.
Pollen allergies constitute a serious public health problem. In Europe, around 20% of children are affected. To better understand how climate and environmental change impacts human health, especially certain allergic diseases, a research project dubbed Atopica(2) and funded by the European Commission for a three-year period has just been launched. This interdisciplinary project brings together biologists, immunologists, allergists and dermatologists as well as physicists, climatologists, air quality experts and land use specialists(3).
Atopica aims to better understand the extent to which global and regional climate, land use and air quality impact pollen-related allergies. More specifically, the mission of the two French laboratories involved, the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (CNRS/CEA/UVSQ) and the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (CNRS/UPMC/ENS/Ecole Polytechnique) will be to develop statistical and physical models of changes in the pollen content of Europe’s air. INERIS’s job will be to model concentrations of air pollutants (ozone, nitrogen dioxide, particulates, etc). The model will be used to study the impact of pollutants on pollen allergenicity and assess the exposure of populations to the combined effect of pollen and air quality levels. The ultimate aim is to make an assessment of health risks, especially for populations at risk such as children and the elderly. In addition, Atopica will provide a retrospective analysis of various allergens over the past twenty years in Europe as well as their relationship to climate and land use change.
One of the key areas that Atopica will focus on is a new and highly allergenic invasive species in Europe, Ambrosia artemisiifolia L., commonly known as Common Ragweed, and the ways in which it spreads. This is a plant that grows on abandoned farmland and roadsides. In France, it is already proliferating in the Rhône valley, where its pollen is causing numerous health problems. It may also have an economic impact on tourism.
The conclusions of the Atopica project will serve as recommendations to policy makers, who will thus be able to contemplate preventive measures while taking into account the ratio of the cost of treatment to the benefits in terms of public health.
(1) Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE, CNRS/CEA/UVSQ) and Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD, CNRS/UPMC/ENS/Ecole Polytechnique), which both belong to the Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace. Both laboratories belong to the GIS Climat Environnement Société (Climate-Environment-Society Consortium), which enabled them to take part in the project (the existence of a coordinated French consortium making it possible to participate in a European project).
(3) These scientists study alterations to the natural environment caused by human activity such as farming practices and management of forests and urban areas. |
Pain is a part of life. Most people have had strained muscles, headaches, or backaches at some point in life. Lots of folks hate taking medication, and chiropractors are ideal for them. Chiropractors don’t immediately run to medicine. They make assessments and adjustments to the spine and neck, getting things back into a natural state of alignment.
Your immune system can benefit from chiropractic care. Spinal misalignment impacts the nervous system, which negatively affects your immune system in some cases. When a chiropractor aligns your spine, the blood increased to your nervous system. This increase aids the body in fighting off infection.
As you can see, chiropractors do more than you knew. Similar to doctors, they have a lot of training. So in the future, if you experience a strained muscle or chronic pain, make an appointment with a chiropractor to begin the healing process. |
Comprehensive reference grammar of Ingush, a language of the Nakh branch of the Nakh-Daghestanian or East Caucasian language family of the central Caucasus (southern Russia). Ingush is notable for its complex phonology, prosody including minimal tone system, complex morphology of both nouns and verbs, clause chaining, long-distance reflexivization, and extreme degree of syntactic ergativity.
Johanna Nichols is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Affiliate Professor of Linguistics, UC Berkeley. She works on languages of the Caucasus, typology, and the linguistic prehistory of the steppe periphery. |
The Colonial Revival manor house built at Mt. Cuba in 1935 by the Lammot du Pont Copelands.
For Mother’s Day my family surprised me with a visit to Mt. Cuba Center in Hockessin, Delaware. Although I had visited this garden in the early 1990s before it was open to the public, I haven’t been there since. What a mistake! I was so enthralled by what I saw that I went back three days later to explore the gardens more thoroughly.
The courtyard in front of the manor house as well as the gardens surrounding it are all very formal.
Mt. Cuba Center is the former home of Mr. and Mrs. Lammot du Pont Copeland. Mr. Copeland was the President and Chairman of the Du Pont Company while Mrs. Copeland was a pioneer in the movement to protect and appreciate US native plants. In the 1960s, the Copelands began installing extensive native, woodland gardens on their 582 acre property. In the 1980s, they focused their efforts on developing a private botanic garden to study native plants of the Appalachian Piedmont. When Mrs. Copeland died in 2001, Mt. Cuba became a public garden with limited access. In 2013, it was opened for general admission in the spring, summer, and fall.
The house is beautiful from every angle, here the terraces in the back.
With that goal in mind, the Copelands developed the 50 acres surrounding their home into display gardens highlighting native plants in formal and informal settings. All of it is spectacular, and I hope to write two more posts on the woodland gardens and the trillium collection. This post will focus on the use of native plants in the formal gardens directly around the house.
The view from the terraces.
Oakleaf hydrangea as a foundation planting.
Goldenstar, Chrysogonum virginianum, as a groundcover.
Containers filled with native plants decorate the terraces.
If you would like more information about using native plants in a formal design, click here for an interview on this subject with Travis Beck, Mt. Cuba’s Director of Horticulture. He states that native plants were chosen to achieve the character of an English garden without staking, fertilizing, or watering. The all-native redesign of the formal gardens has resulted in a very significant increase in pollinators.
I hope that you will have a chance to visit Mt. Cuba Center and its amazing display of East Coast native plants. I found it inspirational and a source of many ideas for my own gardens. |
ROBOTIC RESPONSE—Students at the Galileo Academy of Science and Technology in San Francisco USD learn how to program humanoid robots to help boost their coding skills.
Introductory computer science classes at four high schools in San Francisco USD use humanoid robots to drive interest in coding and robotics.
“The goal is to provide the right amount of coding scaffolding so students can be creative, by starting with specific and discrete programming skills,” says Bryan Twarek, a computer science supervisor. Each Pepper robot, donated by SoftBank Group Corp., can be programmed to move its arms, feet and head. Robots also respond to verbal cues and can mimic human emotions.
Teams from the California district, Boston Public Schools and SoftBank collaborated to design a curriculum that includes human-computer interaction. For example, San Francisco USD’s after-school girls coding club programmed a robot to deliver personalized presentations about different CTE pathways at school. One class had a robot provide details and pictures about the items in a school’s trophy case, while another coded its robot to direct families at a parents night.
Other students turned a robot into an actor. They programmed verbal cues that guided it to play a role in a skit.
The plan is to have 30 robots in the district’s 15 high schools by 2021. In addition, Boston Public Schools will receive close to 50 Pepper robots.
although credit recovery may allow kids to “recover” credits needed to graduate, it often delivers little in terms of actual learning. If a high school diploma is to be more than a “certificate of attendance,” state and local officials must take responsibility for how schools award credit. Until then, Nevada’s record-setting graduation rate deserves the scrutiny it has thus far received. |
There is compelling evidence that dietary patterns that include processed foods and animal products, even in moderation, are the leading cause of modern diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. The evidence that plant based diets are health supporting is consistent across all types of research, particularly in regard to whole plant foods. The whole foods plant-based diet has a wide breadth of benefit, in that the same dietary approach that will prevent or even reverse one disease is beneficial to the management of others.
We share the views and follow the research of WFPB experts such as Dr Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr John McDougall, Dr Neal Barnard, Prof. T Colin Campbell and dietitian Jeff Novick. We use the term WFPB rather than vegan because a vegan diet can include processed foods and those choosing to eat a WFPB diet do not necessarily embrace the full vegan lifestyle. The focus of WFPB is on the health supporting effects of whole plant foods.
The whole foods plant based community, mainly based in USA, has now reached a size and activity level that clearly demonstrates that a WFPB diet is both satisfying and sustainable. Interest in WFPB is growing in Australia, with a strong support community and an increasing number of health professionals incorporating it into their practice.
The environmental impact of world livestock production makes it imperative that we urgently downsize this industry. Adopting a WFPB diet is the most significant contribution individuals can make towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Eggs and health – what does the research show? |
Modeling of the centerless through-feed grinding … A computer simulation method for investigating the form generation mechanism in the centerless through-feed grinding process is described.
Cascading grinding effect in ball mill - Crusher Unit. Grinding in ball mills modeling and process control cybernetics the main task of a small ball mill is grinding raw material from the top of the ball charge because of its own gravity and presents a cascading state, mill not only 21 . |
My father’s words might have sounded a little harsh and I really did not appreciate it at the time. However, long after they were said, his words continue to resonate within me and until now still become the yardstick by which I measure my attitude towards health and keeping healthy.
Being sick means not taking responsibility for your own health and not looking after yourself. It is a sign of weakness in your character. Being sick makes you a bother to other people who have to take care of you. To be sick is to be selfish. And who wants to be a selfish person?
Meanwhile, during my student years, when canned food, cheap take-aways and greasy fry ups were the main staple for a cash-strapped student, I happened to live with a couple who taught me to read the food labels before I purchased anything from the supermarket, to avoid consuming anything that had additives, colourings and preservatives and who grew their own vegetables in a nearby garden allotment. I was already on home grown vegetable, wholemeal bread and meat-free diet long before the word Organic became a trend in Jakarta socialite’s grocery carts and global warming a household word.
I gave up white sugar in my tea not out of choice but because my landlady refused to stock the evil stuff in the pantry. It was a case of learning to live without, that is to say, to kick the habit, plus the understanding why it was a bad habit. It was hard in the beginning but her persuasion was something for which I’m eternally grateful. In the process, I learned that not only is sugar the cause of many lifestyle-induced illnesses; this source of the world’s greatest addiction also has a history that was steeped in slavery, racism and global injustice. Plus, my tea tasted a lot better without it.
My attempt to more or less control what I put in my mouth and how I feed my body is not just to put myself in position where I would not be a bother to other people by being sick. I also had no wish to give up the responsibility of looking after my own body to a doctor whose idea of a cure is to prescribe medications but had no interest in or could not influence my life style.
The few times that I did get sick, I was careful not to have the same illness twice. This I did by making sure that I learned about what caused it and how to avoid it. I’m not saying that I’m a health freak or an example of perfect health. Nor do I hope that I’m committing hubris by flaunting my dietary wisdom. However, taking care of what you consume is not that difficult or requires a great deal of discipline and self-restraint. Actually a lot of it is just common sense and a willingness to listen to one’s body and cater to its needs.
It’s also just a matter of showing an interest in and learning about what things are good for one’s health and what are not. And with the amount of information available on practically anything and everything these days, ignorance is no longer an excuse for illnesses and diseases caused by life style and diet. It’s also about making better choices and being aware the impact that the things we do have on the condition of our health and the state of our bodies.
It always amazes me to see the lengths people go to pamper their cars and decorate their houses, or spend a lot of money on expensive clothes, fancy accessories and exotic spas and yet refuse to invest anything to keep their insides in clean and in good working order until it’s often too late or too expensive.
I’ve met too many people who think they could live on cigarettes and coffee, eat junk and processed food, do hardly any exercise and get away with it, despite being told to change; and then expect other people to sympathise with them and take care of them when they get sick. I’ve seen too many people treat their bodies with disregard and disrespect until a life-threatening disease forces them to pay attention. I’ve also known those who were not lucky enough to learn their lesson and given a second chance to make amends with their bodies until it is too late. |
The USS Frank Knox (DD-DDR-742) was a 2200 ton, long hull, FRAM II, Radar Picket Destroyer. Her primary mission was to provide fast carrier attack groups with an effective early warning capability. She was secondarily concerned with anti-submarine warfare and employment as a surface action or naval gunfire support unit. She was a Gearing-Class destroyer with a standard displacement of 2425 tons; full load displacement was 3520 tons.
Regular overhaul periods changed the ship's characteristics during her 26 years of active service. In 1967 her armament included a main battery of three twin 5"/38 gun mounts., two 7.2" anti-submarine rocket launchers forward and two triple-tube torpedo mounts amidships. In addition, she was equipped with a large number of sophisticated radar detection, sonar, communication and fire control equipment.
The Frank Knox was built in Boston Naval Shipyard, Boston Massachusetts in 1944 and received the name of the World War II Secretary of the US Navy and well known publisher William Franklin Knox. She is 390 feet long, 41 feet wide and carries a crew of 16 officers and 260 enlisted men. During World War II Frank Knox participated in Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet Operations against Japanese home islands and was present in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese Surrender document was signed on September 2, 1945. She was stationed in Tsingtao, China from 1948 until shortly before the communist revolution in that country on October 1, 1949. On March 18, 1949 she was redesignated as DDR-742. The ship returned to the Western Pacific waters during the Korean Conflict (1950-1953) to serve as an original unit of "Task Force 77" in actions at Inchon, Hung Nam and Wonsan Harbor. In February 1955 Frank Knox took part in the Nationalist Chinese evacuation of the Tachen Islands. From late 1961 until September 1964 Frank Knox was homeported in Yokosuka, Japan along with USS Midway, CV-41 as part of the US Seventh Fleet. During this period, she served in a variety of supporting roles throughout the Western Pacific, from the Phillippine Sea to the Gulf of Tonkin. Late in 1963 Frank Knox was named "Ship of the Year" and awarded the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award. In early Spring 1964 she participated in the First Concord Squadron Indian Ocean cruise to Madagascar, Kenya and Aden. Later in 1964 she visited Eastern Australia prior to proceeding to her new homeport San Diego, California.
Frank Knox deployed from her new homeport on June 4, 1965. While in transit from South China Sea to Taiwan she grounded on Pratas Reef on July 4, 1965. Extensive salvage operations pulled the ship clear of the reef and on August 24, 1965 the ship was towed to Kaohsiung, Taiwan. She later was transferred to US Naval Ship Repair Facility Yokosuka, Japan for extensive repair and upgrading. Frank Knox was refloated on August 22, 1966. She put to sea October 18, 1966 and after sea trials returned to her home port San Diego, California in late 1966 and took her place in Destroyer Division 172 resuming her duties as an operational unit of the Pacific Fleet.
Frank Knox deployed July 1967 to the waters of Southeast Asia and began a climb tha brought her to the level she previously held as one of the most distinguished ships in the Pacific Fleet. During the competitive year 1968 she walked off with the Battle Efficiency "E" for Destroyer Squadron 17 plus individual awards in Gunnery, Engineering and Anti-Submarine Warfare. On November 20, 1968 Frank Knox was formally awarded the Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy. January 1, 1969 she was re-designated DD-742, her original designation. On January 4, 1969 Frank Knox again deployed to the Western Pacific. Following a highly successful second deployment she returned to San Diego California. She was decommissioned as an active unit in January 1971 and struck from the records on February 3, 1971. She was transferred to the Greek Navy on February 3, 1971and renamed Themistocles D-210 and served until decommissioned by the Greeks on August 31, 1992. |
Children enjoyed an interactive workshop where actors used boxes, colours, and masks to vividly portray what bullying is, what can be done about it, and how every child has the power of one, the power to report and deal with bullying when they see it. The workshop also explained the different roles in bullying: Bully, Target, and Bystander and showed examples of different types of bullying: Physical, Verbal, Exclusion, and Cyber bullying. Children were introduced to the Anti-Bullying Charter which included the 'Power of One Oath'. This will be signed during Circle Time. |
In honor of the upcoming Easter holiday, an Everglades bunny for you!
True to its name, the marsh rabbit is found in the marshes and swamps of the Eastern and Southern United States. Our marsh rabbits — not to be confused with the larger swamp rabbits of Alabama through Texas — are delicate little things. Those on the Florida peninsula, and in South Florida in particular, weigh only 2-3 pounds, reaching a total length of 17 inches. “Mainland” (non-Florida) marsh rabbits run noticeably larger.
Florida’s marsh rabbits have shorter ears, and smaller legs than the swamp rabbits and cottontails — and instead of a bushy, cottonball-tail, the tail forms a tuft. They’re also darker in coloration than eastern cottontails.
What’s so interesting about our marsh rabbits, as their name signifies, is their proclivity to water — swimming often and well, sometimes for long distances. It’s common to see them in the shallow waters of our wetlands scrounging for food (note the wet legs of the guy above). Another interesting feature of marsh rabbits is that they walk on all fours, like a cat — ensuring easy and swift negotiation of the dense marshes and the surrounding vegetation. Their preferred habitats are the brackish and freshwater marshes, mangrove swamps, and sandy islands. These rabbits must have access to water, remaining on high ground and in the thick vegetation for protection from predators including alligators, snakes, bobcats, foxes, coyotes, and birds of prey. They’re most active at dusk and at night, eating the abundant wetland and aquatic plants.
There honestly couldn’t be anything more adorable than a Marsh rabbit baby. Just try.
They’re truly adorable little things…. And the baby marsh rabbits? Cuteness factor through the roof. I like to call them *all* swamp bunnies though, much to the chagrin of uptight naturalists who may be listening in on my insanity. But it’s hard not to envision fae around these critters, helping us occasionally close-minded humans love and appreciate their, and Nature’s beauty, all the more.
How interesting that they swim and yes, that baby is cuteness deluxe – adorable!
That baby is just too much, honestly!!
Ah, a companion cottontail! Did you feed him/her?
When I was in Scotland I saw “beach bunnies” — probably regular bunnies who just happened to be on the beach. Anyway they were munching away at seaweed on the beach which struck this landlocked Ohioan as odd.
They really do negotiate the swamps and wetlands like a cat…. I watch them often. There’s no possible way they could *hop* around that muck!
Ah, interesting!! Well, these guys are often in beach-y environments too. I wonder if what you saw is a similar sub-species as our Marsh rabbit!!
I need to get one in motion in the swamps to show you… I haven’t SEEN many this year, though! Very odd. 😦 But I’ll make a concerted effort to get one creeping for you, like a kitty.
Sorry I’ve not been around here much, haven’t been well. Hope to do better later.
Ah, I hope you return to health soon enough! Sending good vibes your way….
These guys are such an interesting species — there are many fascinating sub-species down here, and this is a perfect example.
Hmmmm … no cotton tail and short ears…. hoppy Easter to you.
Heh, but they’re still the most adorable little critters! 🙂 Hope you’re having a hoppy Easter too, thank you!!
So very sweet! 🙂 Hoppy, happy Easter!
They’re SO incredibly sweet. 🙂 Hope you’re having a hoppy happy Easter, too — THANK you!!
Such cute bunnies ! I want one !!!
I love your handle… At first, upon waking up, I read it as “my kid shave 4 legs.” Caffeine obviously hadn’t hit! |
A beloved favorite and popular choice from beginners to houseplant enthusiasts, the spider plant or Chlorophytum comosum is typically an easy one to care for. With the proper light, temperature and watering conditions, your plant will thrive for years to come. Follow these quick and easy steps to care for your spider plant and keep it looking and feeling great.
Place the spider plant in an area of the home that is not hit by direct sunlight. Spider plants thrive in bright, natural light environments common in the home. Keep yours in an area such as a living room or dining room, away from a window with direct sunlight, but light enough for adequate nutrition. |
Many people justify 7 bullet points per slide by citing the George Miller article, but what’s always missing in the arithmetic is the total number of bullet points across all of the slides; e.g., 7 bullets per slide times 20 slides equals 140 bullet points. Any single slide is part of a whole experience in which you’re trying to help someone understand something, so to get the whole picture you really have to add up all the bullets.
If our short-term memory can hold 3 or 4 items and we’re seeing 140, you’re probably not surprised that there is a scientific validation for those times you’ve felt overwhelmed, confused or bored by an information presentation approach.
We can move forward by figuring out the 3 or 4 most important things out of those 140 bullet points. One effective technique is a classical logic tree, which is built-in to the story template and can help you create a hierarchy out of your ideas. |
The Epstein-Barr virus frequently referred to as EBV, is one of the most common human viruses, and it occurs world-wide. The Epstein-Barr virus is in the herpes family of viruses, and most people will become infected with EBV sometime during their lives. In the United States, as many as 95% of adults between 35 and 40 years of age have been infected. Infants become susceptible to EBV as soon as the maternal protection present at birth disappears. Many children are infected with EBV and these infections usually cause no symptoms or are indistinguishable from the other mild, brief illnesses of childhood.
In the United States and in other developed countries, many persons are not infected with EBV in their childhood years. In these people, infection with Epstein-Barr virus during adolescence or young adulthood commonly causes infectious mononucleosis.
Symptoms of infectious mononucleosis are fever, sore throat, and swollen lymph glands. Sometimes there is also a swollen spleen or liver infection. Heart problems or involvement of the central nervous system occur only rarely, and infectious mononucleosis is almost never fatal. There are no known associations between active Epstein-Barr virus infection and problems during pregnancy, such as miscarriages or birth defects. Although the symptoms of infectious mononucleosis usually resolve in one or two months, the Epstein-Barr virus remains dormant in cells in the throat and blood for the rest of the person's life. Periodically, the virus can reactivate and can be found in the saliva of infected persons. This reactivation usually occurs without symptoms of illness.
EBV also establishes a lifelong dormant infection in some cells of the body's immune system. A late event in a very few viral carriers is the emergence of Burkitt's lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma, two rare cancers that are not normally found in the United States. EBV appears to play an important role in these malignancies, but is probably not the sole cause of disease.
Most individuals exposed to people with infectious mononucleosis have previously been infected with EBV and are not at risk of developing infectious mononucleosis. In addition, transmission of EBV requires contact with the saliva (found in the mouth) of an infected person. Transmission of this virus through the air or blood does not normally occur. The incubation period, or the time from infection to appearance of symptoms, ranges from 4 to 6 weeks. Thus persons with infectious mononucleosis may be able to spread the infection to others for a period of time. However, no special precautions or isolation procedures are recommended since the virus is also found frequently in the saliva of healthy people. In fact, many healthy people can carry and spread the virus intermittently for life. These people are usually the primary reservoir for person-to-person transmission. For this reason, transmission of the virus is almost impossible to prevent.
The diagnosis of infectious mononucleosis is suggested on the basis of the clinical symptoms of fever, sore throat, swollen lymph glands, and the age of the patient. Usually, laboratory tests are needed for confirmation.
Blood findings with infectious mononucleosis include an elevated white blood cell count, an increased percentage of certain white blood cells, and a positive reaction to a "mono spot test."
There is no specific treatment for infectious mononucleosis, other than treating the symptoms. No antiviral drugs or vaccines are available. Some physicians have prescribed a five day course of steroids to control the swelling of the tonsils. The use of steroids has also been reported to decrease the overall length and severity of illness, but these reports have not been published. |
Everyone knows you need to wait 30 minutes after eating before jumping into the pool. But did you know you also need to wait that long before brushing your teeth?
I know. All this time you thought you were being a little whitening hot shot by running to the bathroom and scrubbing away those Pepsi stains before they settled. Turns out, you were actually scrubbing the acids in the soda further into your teeth. Yikes, right?
Luckily, your body is a lot smarter than you and will neutralize those acids on its own. You just have to give it time. "Waiting 30 minutes allows for the saliva to disintegrate the acids in the mouth," says New York City cosmetic and restorative dentist Nancy Rosen. "You can also rinse with water so the acids aren't bathing the tooth." But don't think that just sodas are to blame. Red wine, white wine, sports drinks, and even some foods (tomatoes—who knew?) are also high in acids that erode enamel. And here's the worst part: Once it's gone, it's gone. "Enamel doesn't grow back," Rosen says. "When it breaks down, the teeth will begin to look yellow, they will lose any shine or luster they once had, and some can even have depressions in them." The only solution at that point is to bleach the teeth or have veneers or crowns put in, she says.
So unless you want to take the pH of everything you put into your mouth (if you even know how to do that), Rosen recommends playing it safe and avoiding your toothbrush until at least 30 minutes after every meal. And if you really want to save your smile, cut down on acidic foods altogether, switch to a soft-bristle toothbrush, and use a toothpaste high in fluoride to keep your teeth healthy and stain-free. |
It’s that time of year again, when millions of spiders are sighted crawling around in people’s homes – mostly in search of love.
It’s spider mating season, which means that lovestruck males crawl into British homes in search of company… and they have several distinctive habits.
That’s based on data from a new app, Spider in da House, where British people were encouraged to record where and when they saw spiders.
The researchers found that most spiders are spotted in the early evening, peaking at 7.35pm.
The researchers collected data on 10,000 sightings based on 250 locations in Britain.
Up to 80% of spiders sighted during ‘spider season’ are male, with male spiders looking for female partners, who tend to spin webs on door and window frames indoors.
There is also a slight peak in sightings between 6 and 8am, perhaps due to spiders becoming trapped in sinks and baths overnight, the researchers say.
‘The main message is like to convey is that UK spiders are basically totally harmless and that spiders are incredibly important predators – natural pest controllers and their predation encourages higher biodiversity. |
Documentaries have become a dime a dozen over the last few years; the increased availability of technology, a growing acceptance of low production values and the myriad subjects that are out there to be investigates making it the genre of choice for many filmmakers. It’s only the very best of them, however, that either introduce their audiences to something new or revisit something familiar in an original, interesting and entertaining way. And Ondi Timoner’s fascinating film We Live in Public can certainly be counted amongst these.
Despite its small size, the common honey bee is of central importance to humanity. Responsible for the pollination and successful growth of various fruits, crops nuts and seeds on which we rely, the tireless work of the bees goes way beyond producing the honey for our morning toast. So the fact that across the United States and Europe honey bees have been vanishing without trace in their droves should be a cause for concern for us all, and director George Langworthy’s documentary attempts to present the facts along with firsthand accounts from those working in the industry.
On the face of it, John Maringouin’s film following Slovenian endurance swimmer Martin Strel’s attempt to swim the Amazon River is a straightforward documentary, combining interviews with Strel and his team along with footage of him training and his past triumphs. Yet as the film progresses you realise that this is part doc, part art installation and part experimenta, with dreamlike sequences and mesmeric narration weaving through the footage; some of it seemingly staged. As you get to know the hulking figure at the centre of the film, you begin to understand why Maringouin has taken this approach. |
Today, I’m thinking about all the people in Las Vegas and throughout our country who have personal connections to those wounded or killed on June 8th. I’m also thinking about the medical teams, the first-responders, and members of law enforcement who, running on pure adrenaline, took action to save and protect the victims. All of these people, most importantly the victims themselves, deserve our continued support and prayers.
I’m also thinking about you. National tragedies like the Las Vegas Massacre are so horrific they force us all to deal with sadness, shock, grief, and feelings of fear. For people with a history of trauma, it can trigger old symptoms under control before the news of this tragedy spread.
Bad memories of the traumatic event keep bothering you.
Sleep Problems: Reoccurring nightmares, restless sleep, night terrors.
Flashbacks: Feeling like you are going through the event again and again.
Triggers: You see, hear, or smell things that cause you to relive the event. News reports, movie scenes, old pictures, videos, seeing something, or hearing a related sound are all examples of triggers.
You avoid people that trigger memories of the traumatic event.
You avoid crowds, places, or situations that remind you of the trauma.
You avoid certain necessary activities like driving or shopping.
You avoid watching movies that remind you of the trauma.
You avoid seeking help because you don't want to think or talk about the trauma.
You think about yourself and others in negative ways because of the trauma.
You may not have positive or loving feelings toward people and may stay away from relationships.
You may forget about parts of the traumatic event.
You may think the world is completely dangerous and no one can be trusted.
You see yourself as damaged or uncurable.
You have developed what's called: hyperarousal—anxious, jittery, always alert feelings.
You're always on the lookout for danger. Some people call you paranoid.
You might suddenly become angry or irritable.
You are startled by loud noises or surprises.
If you think you are suffering with symptoms of trauma, don’t keep it to yourself. Let your loved ones know. Share your struggles with a good friend. And, if you feel you need additional support, please contact me. I’m here to help. |
28th March 2015 – As we discussed earlier in part one, indoor plants can help remove harmful toxins from the air. They can also help change the mood of the office bringing the outside in.
Boston Fern (Nephrolepsis Exaltata) – Ferns are recognized to be one of the oldest groups of plants. Producing no flowers the Boston Fern is grown strictly for its foliage. As the plant ages the foliage will droop downwards, therefore it is best displayed on a pedestal or in a hanging basket. Remember hanging baskets can be used both inside and out and are a great way of adding greenery without taking up ground space. This type of fern is excellent at adding humidity to an indoor area, however it in comparison to some other indoor plants it is fairly high maintenance. It does require regular misting and watering to make sure the foliage does not turn brown and droop before it should. The ideal positioning for the Boston Fern is a shady to semi-sun area.
Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum) – Adding some extra colour, this plant produces beautiful white flowers. It is a great indoor plant and is renowned for being one of the best for the removal of toxins such as alcohols, acetone, trichloroethylene, benzene and formaldehyde. The Peace Lily requires a large water reservoir and a mid-light to shady area to be sat.
Rubber Plant (Ficus Elastica) – This plant grows upwards rather than out. It is very robust and can with stand cool conditions and dim light. The maintenance of this plant is low and it fabulous at removing formaldehyde along with other air pollutants. Since the leaves are large, they are easy to wipe and means they can easily be kept to be immaculate.
Ficus Alii – This plant will grow into a large plant so please remember this if purchasing for a certain area or if you have minimal room. The Ficus Alii likes to remain in a sunny spot and is not very adaptable to new conditions. If moving the location of this plant then do not panic if some of the leaves start to drop. This is the plant adjusting to its new surroundings. This plant has long slender leaves making it very attractive and it is great at air purification. It also does not attract insects, which in an office environment can be very helpful in keeping the bugs out.
Remember there are many more plants out there that can look and achieve great results within an office. Before you buy remember to read up on the plant to make sure it is suitable to the conditions of your office, and that you can maintain it.
Along with everything in else in an office, plants are best shown off when they have been maintained properly and are dust free. Want to reap the benefits for you whole office then why not invest in a cleaner today. A reduction in sick days may help to cover the cleaner’s cost. Remember getting a quote cost nothing. |
Maryland (/ ˈ m ɛr ɪ l ə n d / ( listen)) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C. to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east.
Employees of City agencies and quasi-City agencies* with six months of experience are eligible for $5,000 when purchasing their first home in Baltimore City.
A Montana County Map that you can view and print. Reference Map of Montana Counties.
This Maryland map website features printable maps of Maryland, including detailed road maps, a relief map, and a topographical map of the State of Maryland.
Maryland County Map. Easy to use map detailing all Maryland counties. Links to more Maryland maps as well.
Counties; Counties & County Seats. Bicycle Maps: Central Maryland & Eastern, Southern, & Western Maryland A new map of Maryland and Delaware with their canals, roads, & distances, by Henry Schenk Tanner, Philadelphia, 1833 (Map Collection, Maryland State Archives, MSA SC 1427-1-108).
An Iowa County Map that you can view and print. Reference Map of Iowa Counties.
There are twenty-four counties and county-equivalents in the U.S. state of Maryland.Though an independent city rather than a county, the City of Baltimore is considered the equal of a county for most purposes and is a county-equivalent.
New to the Planning Website A Better Maryland. Governor Larry Hogan signed Executive Order 01.01.2017.18 in August 2017 directing the Maryland Department of Planning to coordinate with local governments and other stakeholders to prepare a new state development plan. |
Subsets and Splits