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CANTON, Ill. -- Within weeks, if not days, nature will quietly snuff out a killer in Illinois.
The first hard frost will put West Nile in the deep freeze, halting a statewide scourge that has infected 691 people in Illinois and killed 43 - by far the deadliest outbreak since the virus was first detected in the United States in 1999. The cold will kill the mosquitoes that carry the virus.
But health officials know the relief could be as fleeting as frost on an autumn morning. So they will spend the winter studying everything - including the outbreak's geography, its timing and its victims - that might help them ward off the virus next year.
As of Tuesday, 3,242 human cases of West Nile virus and 176 deaths had been reported in the United States this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Experts are uncertain why the problem is so bad in Illinois, but their theories include bird migration patterns, a heavy concentration of mosquito-infested cemeteries, and a landscape that includes lots of forests and marshes.
Elsewhere around the country, Michigan was the hardest hit state behind Illinois. It has had 455 cases and 33 deaths, followed by Ohio with 371 cases and 17 deaths, and Louisiana with 310 cases and 16 deaths. But even in warm Louisiana, cases are tapering off with the arrival of fall and could drop to zero or close to it by the end of November.
"Unless the weather is rather warm, we don't expect many cases in the dead of winter," said Dr. Raoult Ratard, Louisiana state epidemiologist,
Over the winter, experts will analyze where in Illinois the disease hit hardest. The Chicago area has logged more than two-thirds of the cases, while downstate Canton, a city of just 14,000, had two deaths.
They will also look at the timing of the outbreak, which registered its first human case in early August, peaked in early September and began tapering off in early October.
And they will research West Nile's victims. Horses proved most vulnerable, with nearly 1,000 confirmed cases and a 42 percent mortality rate. For reasons that are still a mystery, other livestock and pets were virtually unscathed.
In the meantime, health officials are hoping history repeats itself. In 1975, a mosquito-borne outbreak of St. Louis encephalitis in Illinois rivaled this year's West Nile crisis, with 578 confirmed cases. The next year, that fell to 19, then to zero by 1977.
One theory is that birds - a primary carrier of the virus - develop an immunity and no longer pass the disease to mosquitoes.
Even if nature fails, Tom Schafer, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Public Health, said he expects West Nile numbers to drop next year. They key to prevention is public awareness, which increased as the toll climbed, he said.
"I think next year it won't be as hard to get Illinoisans' attention," he said. "I don't think that happened this year until August."
Public awareness is key because the best defense against West Nile is a community that mobilizes to stamp out mosquito breeding grounds, said Rex Still of the Fulton County Health Department in Canton.
Some people there and across Illinois are cleaning up their back yards, emptying bird baths and turning over wheelbarrows. Neighbors and watchful public officials have turned in some homeowners, who have been ordered to get rid of standing water.
Still said most people respond voluntarily, but the threat of $500-a-day fines proved convincing in at least one case where a property owner balked.
Such preventive measures may be key, because state money might be tight next summer.
Illinois provided about $3.5 million in emergency funding this year, which local governments used for such things as educational campaigns and pesticides. But with the state facing a budget crisis, Schafer said, "the likelihood of the state having a large pool of money available next year is fairly slim."
Some parts of the state, mostly in the Chicago area, already have mosquito-abatement districts that can levy taxes to raise money to fight mosquitoes, but most of the state's 102 counties are not covered by such districts. Some, like Fulton County, are considering starting them.
© 2016. All Rights Reserved. | Contact Us | <urn:uuid:c9ac36ef-4f74-4a7d-b88a-6aea7e9ba531> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2002/10/25/tec_360577.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408840.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00156-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965794 | 889 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Abington, PA (PRWEB) August 01, 2014
For years, proponents have praised breast-feeding as being more beneficial than bottle-feeding. A recent study conducted by the Ohio State University, suggests that bottle-fed babies may not lag too far behind in terms of their health and development, raising questions among mothers who simply want to know what’s best for their baby. So does this new research change the game?
According to Dr. Steven Shapiro, chair of Pediatrics at Abington Memorial Hospital, not at all. “Mother’s milk is without question [the] best for infants. Cow’s milk-based formulas, regardless of how professionally and thoughtfully they are prepared, are still derived in their entirety from cow’s milk.”
During the study, researchers compared siblings who were fed differently during infancy in order to look at the health benefits in both breast-feeding and bottle-feeding. Based on their data, the benefits of breast-feeding appear to be overstated. As a result, researchers have suggested that the way in which a mother feeds her baby isn’t as significant as the internal family unit. This entails looking into other factors that affect a child’s health and development, such as childcare, maternity leave, school quality, housing and employment.
While there is little question that environmental stress will influence competence, intellect, behavior, and attachment of the infant, Dr. Shapiro stresses that breast-feeding provides more nutrition for an infant during her first few months, which is the most significant time of growth and development.
“The content of breast milk as it applies to the newborn’s immune system has been well chronicled and includes many elements including lymphocytes [white blood cells] and immune globulin[antibodies that protect the body against diseases],” said Dr. Shapiro. “Proteins and essential fats are structured for optimal absorption, which results in deposition of brown fat (as opposed to yellow fat) in the newborn. Brown fat has been shown to be essential for the proper and most efficient absorption of fats in the newborn.”
In some cases, however, a mother might have no other choice but to bottle-feed her baby. This often happens when a mother’s milk supply is insufficient for proper growth, which can occur if the infant is large or if she has twins or triplets.
“In any situation such as this, my advice to the mother is to develop a schedule that makes sense for her and her family's needs and supplement with an appropriate formula when necessary,” said Dr. Shapiro. “I make it crystal clear that the infant benefits from any amount of breast milk that it can receive whether it’s 50 percent or 99 percent.”
Abington Health has lactation consultants on staff to assist new moms with breastfeeding and to address any concerns. To speak to a lactation consultant, please call 215-481-6104.
About Abington Health
Abington Health is the umbrella organization that encompasses its flagship hospital, Abington Memorial Hospital, in Abington and Lansdale Hospital in Hatfield Township. Abington Health also includes four convenient outpatient facilities, Abington Health Center - Schilling in Willow Grove, Abington Health Center - Warminster in Bucks County, Abington Health Center – Blue Bell, Abington Health Center – Montgomeryville and Urgent Care Centers in Flourtown and Feasterville. Together, these facilities serve more than 39,000 inpatients, 134,000 emergency patients and over 653,000 outpatient visits annually.
More than 1,400 physicians are on staff at both Abington Memorial Hospital and Lansdale Hospital. Additionally, Abington Health Physicians is an employed network of primary care physicians and specialists. Abington Health has more than 6,100 employees, making it one of the largest employers in Montgomery County.
Cynthia Colen, David Ramey (February 25, 2014) Breast-feeding Benefits Appear to be Overstated, According to Study of Siblings.
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/08/prweb12064022.htm.
Copyright©2014 Vocus, Inc.
All rights reserved | <urn:uuid:35c71ec0-71a0-47f9-9493-42effad01a90> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-1/Despite-Recent-Study--Abington-Health-Expert-Encourages-Breastfeeding-129926-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397795.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00081-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957077 | 881 | 2.65625 | 3 |
The most comprehensive introduction to environmental ethics available, ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS offers students a current look at the issues and topics that dominate the field today, organized into two main parts that take students seamlessly from theory to application. This Fifth Edition of the Pojmans' popular anthology, like its predecessors, includes numerous topic areas not covered in other anthologies-including an all-new section on Climate Change. Featuring articles carefully selected for clarity and accessibility, the text follows a dialogic pro-con format presenting divergent positions on each topic, ensuring that students are both exposed to and understand both sides of every topic so they can develop their own informed positions. The bulk of royalties for this book are donated to groups dedicated to protecting the environment, such as the Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club.
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Book Description Wadsworth Publishing, 2007. Book Condition: New. Brand New, Unread Copy in Perfect Condition. A+ Customer Service! Summary: Part I: THEORY. 1. Perspectives. 1. Genesis 13. 2. Lynn White: The Religious Roots of Our Ecological Crisis. 3. Lewis W. Moncrief: The Cultural Basis of Our Environmental Crisis. 4. Patrick Dobel: The Judeo-Christian Stewardship Attitude to Nature. 5. Karen Warren: The Power and Promise of Ecological Feminism. 6. Martin Schonfeld: The Green KantNatural Dynamics and Sustainable Policies. 7. Freya Mathews: The Ideological Implications of Atomism. 2. Animal Rights. 8. Immanuel Kant: Rational Beings Alone Have Moral Worth. 9. Holly Wilson: Kant''s Treatment of Animals. 10. Peter Singer: A Utilitarian Defense of Animal Liberation. 11. Tom Regan: The Radical Egalitarian Case for Animal Rights. 12. Mary Ann Warren: A Critique of Regan''s Rights Theory. 13. Dale Jamieson: Against Zoos. 3. Philosophical Theories of Nature, Biocentric Ethics, Ecocentric Ethics, and Deep Ecology. 14. Holmes Rolston, III: Naturalizing Values: Organisms and Species. 15. Ned Hettinger: Comments on Holmes Rolston''s "Naturalizing Values." 16. John Stuart Mill: Nature. 17. Albert Schweitzer: Reverence for Life. 18. Paul Taylor: Biocentric Egalitarianism. 19. Kenneth Goodpaster: On Being Morally Considerable. 20. Aldo Leopold: Ecocentrism: The Land Ethic. 21. J. Baird Callicott: The Conceptual Foundations of the Land Ethic. 22. Ned Hettinger and Bill Throop: Refocusing Ecocentrism: De-emphasizing Stability and Defending Wildness. 23. Michael Nelson: The Great New Wilderness Debate: An Overview. 24. Roger Paden: Two Kinds of Preservationist Ethics. 25. Arne Naess: The Shallow and the Deep, Long-Range Ecological Movement. 26. Arne Naess: Ecosophy T: Deep Versus Shallow Ecology. 27. Bill Devall and George Sessions: Deep Ecology. 28. Richard Watson: A Critique of Anti-Anthropocentric Ethics. 29. Murray Bookchin: Social Ecology Versus Deep Ecology. 30. James Sterba: Environmental Justice: Reconciling Anthropocentric and Nonanthropocentric Ethics. 4. Preservation of Species, Nature, and Natural Objects. 31. Donella H. Meadows: Biodiversity: The Key to Saving Life on Earth. 32. Lilly-Marlene Russow: Why Do Species Matter? 33. Martin H. Krieger: What''s Wrong with Plastic Trees? 34. Robert Elliot: Faking Nature. 35. Christopher D. Stone: Should Trees Have Standing? Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects. 5. Non-Western Voices. 36. O. P. Dwivedi: Satyagraha for Conservation: A Hindu View. 37. Lily De Silva: The Buddhist Attitude Towards Nature. 38. Mawil Y. Izzi Deen: Islamic Environmental Ethics, Law, and Society. 39. Segun Ogungbemi: An African Perspective on the Environmental Crisis. 40. Ramachandra Guha: Radical Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique. 6. Obligations to Future Generations. 41. Robert Heilbroner: What Has Posterity Ever Done for Me? 42. Garrett Hardin: Who Cares for Posterity? 43. Martin Golding: Limited Obligations to Future Generations. 44. Derek Parfit: Energy Policy and the Further Future: The Identity Problem. 7. Population and Consumption. 45. Bill McKibben: A Special Moment in History: The Challenge of Overpopulation and Overconsumption. 46. Garrett Hardin: The Tragedy of the Commons. 47. Jacqueline Kasun: The Unjust War against Population. 48. Gary Gardner, Erik Assadourian, and Radhika Sarin: The State of Consumption Today. 49. Hugh LaFollette: Licensing Parents. 50. Clark Wolf: Population and the Environment. 8. Food Ethics. 51. Garrett Hardin: Lifeboat Ethics. 52. William Murdoch and Allan Oaten: Population and Food: A Critique of Lifeboat Ethics. 53. Mylan Engel, Jr.: Hunger, Duty and Ecology: On What We Owe Starving Human Beings. 54. Jonathan Rauch: Can Frankenfood Save the Planet? 55. Mae Ho: Unholy Alliance. 56. Tristram Coffin: The World Food Supply: The Damage Done by Cattle-Raising. 57. Michael Fox: Vegetarianism and Planetary Health. 9. Pollution: General Considerations. 58. Hilary French: You Are What You Breathe. 59. George B. Bookseller Inventory # ABE_book_new_0495095036
Book Description Wadsworth Publishing, 2007. Paperback. Book Condition: New. book. Bookseller Inventory # 0495095036
Book Description Cengage Learning, 2007. Paperback. Book Condition: New. Bookseller Inventory # P110495095036
Book Description Paperback. Book Condition: BRAND NEW. BRAND NEW. Fast Shipping. Prompt Customer Service. Satisfaction guaranteed. Bookseller Inventory # 0495095036BNA | <urn:uuid:0903361e-2008-434f-9514-76598eeb33f7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.abebooks.com/products/isbn/9780495095033/Louis+P.+Pojman/Environmental+Ethics%3A+Readings+in+Theory+and+Application/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395613.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00181-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.700085 | 1,461 | 2.625 | 3 |
The XXVI Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics, organized by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC), focuses on the application of Bayesian methods to inference in Astrophysics. The WS welcomes a maximum of 50 PhD students and young Post-Docs, and provides a unique opportunity for the participants to broaden their knowledge in this field of Astrophysics.
Our goal as scientists is to decipher the secrets of nature. We do this by developing physical models based on our current knowledge of the Universe. These models are used to make testable predictions, which are then compared with all kinds of observations. Due to the inherent specificities, a large fraction of the work in Astronomy and Astrophysics occurs just at this border, where one has to carry out the comparison between the observations and the models. Observations are always limited in number and accuracy, and the comparison has to be done very carefully. Fortunately, a set of mathematical tools, currently known as “Bayesian inference” have been developed in the last centuries to facilitate and formalize this work at the interface between data and models.
Our view of the Universe is imperfect, because information from observations is always incomplete and uncertain. The presence of noise and limitations in our measurement apparatus, together with our limited knowledge of the phenomena under study produce that comparing models and observations is not an easy task. Uncertainty, degeneracies and ambiguities plague our results and one has to be fully aware of them to give reliable results that help advance the science. The most important consequence of the previous points is that inference has to be carried out probabilistically: we will not be able to be sure of a conclusion with 100% certainty. Additionally, we are not completely blind during inference: we always have some a-priori knowledge about the parameters of the model that we need to make explicit in our line of reasoning. All the previous points are natural part of Bayesian inference and its extreme power has been and is being put in operation in the latest years.
This Winter School aims to bring together in a relaxed working atmosphere a number of the leading scientists working in this field and PhD students and recent postdocs. It will tackle many aspects of Bayesian Astrophysics, covering the fundamentals, the tools and applications to observations in different fields. The School is particularly designed to introduce young researchers in the use of Bayesian inference as a tool in their current work. According to this objective, several laboratory sessions are planned for students.
- Andrés Asensio Ramos
- Íñigo Arregui
- Antonio Aparicio
- Rafael Rebolo | <urn:uuid:78a81c8f-356c-4484-a570-56241bf83132> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.iac.es/winterschool/2014/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00104-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950053 | 539 | 2.5625 | 3 |
NetWellness is a global, community service providing quality, unbiased health information from our partner university faculty. NetWellness is commercial-free and does not accept advertising.
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
|Yeast are a normal fungus found throughout the body--commonly in the intestines and mouth, but also in the air. A change in the vaginal environment (such as acidity) can cause a yeast infection.|
The bacteria normally found in the vagina usually keep this from occurring, but when changes brought about by pregnancy, menstruation, diabetes, or antibiotics occur, too many yeast cells may grow in the vagina. This can cause itching and irritation in the vagina. Approximately 75% of all women will experience at least one yeast infection during their lifetime.
|The most frequent symptoms in women are itching, burning, and irritation of the vagina. Painful urination and/or intercourse are common. Abnormal vaginal discharge is not always present and may be minimal.|
You may want to see your health care provider to make sure what you have is a yeast infection. If you are experiencing frequent recurrences, you should also see your physician. This is to make sure that a yeast infection is truly the cause.
|[T]here are many over-the-counter vaginal creams. There is also a medication that comes in a pill form, but you must have a prescription from a physician to get it.|
There is also a medication that comes in a pill form, but you must have a prescription from a physician to get it. The medication Diflucan (fluconazole), given at a dose of 150mg one time will provide relief of vaginal yeast infections in 2-3 days. All treatments, whether in pill or cream form, appear to be equally effective. However, creams can provide relief for vaginal itching and irritation. Chronic (reoccurring) infections may require more long-term treatment (up to 6 months). Diabetes should be ruled out in women with frequent yeast infections.
Several factors are linked to increased rates of yeast infections in women, including pregnancy, uncontrolled diabetes, and the use of birth control pills or antibiotics. After a course of antibiotics it may take weeks for the vagina to grow back the population of bacteria necessary to keep yeast under control. Other factors that may put you at risk include the use of douches, perfumed feminine hygiene sprays, and tight, poorly ventilated clothing and underwear. So far, there is little scientific evidence to show that a change in diet can impact the treatment of recurrent infections, although diets high in sugar may promote yeast growth and one study demonstrated that daily consumption of yogurt helped reduce recurrence of yeast overgrowth.
There is no direct evidence that yeast infections can be transmitted through sexual intercourse. However, it is possible that some women may have repeat infections because her partner carries the organism on his penis/in her vagina. It isn't necessary for your partner to be treated for a yeast infection just because you have one, unless your partner is also experiencing symptoms.
It is safe for you to treat a yeast infection with the topical antifungal medications discussed above, but not Diflucan. However, as is true with most drugs, the effect of antifungals on pregnancy has not been studied in detail. Most OB/Gyn's recommend treatment for symptomatic infections. Yeast infections pose no threat to the fetus or newborn.
Last Reviewed: Apr 26, 2006
Margery Gass, MD
Formely, Professor, Clinical Obstetrics & Gynecology
College of Medicine
University of Cincinnati | <urn:uuid:8ccc10fd-4d66-40b3-92fb-579e4a37b26d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://netwellness.org/healthtopics/pregnancy/faq3.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00102-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957 | 743 | 2.765625 | 3 |
The Challenge of Siphonous Green Algae
One imagines that an organism composed of one big cell would prove quite fragile. Yet these single-celled marine plants are surprisingly robust
Although some siphonous green algae (order Bryopsidales) can stand three feet tall, each is composed of a single, huge cell. Within, millions of nuclei, chloroplasts and mitochondria move about freely. This single-compartment architecture might suggest that such plants are particularly vulnerable to injury. In fact, these algae are quite robust: A plant can plug a wound in seconds and will in short order regenerate the lost tissue. Many species can even use a small bit of excised tissue to regenerates the rest of the plant. The ability to reproduce in this way offers these algae considerable competitive advantage over other marine organisms. In some settings where they have been accidentally introduced, notably the Mediterranean Sea, certain species of siphonous green algae have proved all too successful, displacing native marine flora over large areas.
Go to Article | <urn:uuid:f188940c-0549-4578-86e3-46486c32ce8b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/the-challenge-of-siphonous-green-algae | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00112-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938613 | 211 | 3.640625 | 4 |
Some try to argue that the days of Genesis were much longer periods of time than 24 hours each.
In this production, the bible skeptic Brett Palmer, tackles the topic of the days of Genesis in much more detail than was given in his original What Genesis Got Wrong series, to finally lay to rest the question of whether or not the days of Genesis were likely conceived of by the original author of the text to be periods of a literal 24 hours each.
When Moses, under the inspiration of God, compiled the account of creation in Genesis 1, he used the Hebrew word 'yom' for 'day'.
He combined yôm with numbers (first day, second day, third day, etc.) and with the words 'evening and morning', and the first time he employed it he carefully defined the meaning of yom (used in this way) as being one night/day cycle (Genesis 1:5).
Watch the full documentary now | <urn:uuid:a2c811d8-9069-42e3-a7a3-cd5e28305de6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/days-genesis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393332.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00073-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962099 | 195 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Learn more about Gujarati language
|Spoken in:||India, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Pakistan, USA, UK, Australia, Fiji, Canada|
|Total speakers:||46 million|
|Language family:|| Indo-European|
|Writing system:||Gujarati script|
|Official language of:||Gujarat (India)|
|Regulated by:||Language Academy|
Gujarātī is an Indo-Aryan language, part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is one of the 22 official languages and 14 regional languages of India, and one of the minority languages of neighboring Pakistan. There are about 46 million speakers of Gujarati worldwide, making it the 23rd most spoken language in the world. Of these, roughly 45.5 million reside in India, 150,000 in Uganda, 250,000 in Tanzania, 50,000 in Kenya and roughly 100,000 in Pakistan. Gujarati is the chief language of India's Gujarat state, as well as the adjacent union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. It is also the language of the large Gujarati community in Mumbai, India. A considerable population of Gujarati speakers exists in North America and the United Kingdom as well. Gujarati was the first language of Mohandas K. Gandhi, the "father of India", Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the "father of Pakistan" and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the "iron man of India".
The history of the language can be traced back to 12th century CE. A formal grammar of the precursor of this language was written by Jain monk and eminent scholar Hemachandra-charya in the reign of Rajput king Siddharaj Jayasinh of Anhilwara (Patan). This was referred to as an Apabhransa grammar, signifying a "corrupted" form of the formal languages of the time, Sanskrit and Ardhamagadhi Prakrit. The earliest literature in the language survives in oral tradition and can be traced to the Krishna devotee and great egalitarian Narsinh Mehta. The story of Narsinh Mehta himself was composed in the 17th century as a long narrative ballad by Premananda, accorded the title mahakavi or "great poet" by modern historians of the language. Other than this, a large number of poets flourished during what is now characterised as the bhakti ("devotional") movement in Hinduism, a movement of the masses to liberate the religion from entrenched priesthood.
Premananda was a vyakhyan-kar, or traveling storyteller, who narrated his subject in song and then perhaps elaborated on the lines in prose. His style was so fluent that his long poems, running into hundreds of lines, were nonetheless memorised by the people and are still sung today. In this sense, the oral tradition of the much more ancient Vedas was clearly continuing in India till late. Premananda's famous poetic stories deal with epic themes couched in stories of mythical kings, and the Puranas. He also wrote a drama based on Narasinh Mehta's life capturing his simplicity and his disregard for worldly divisions of caste and class.
Modern exploration into Gujarat and its language is credited to British administrator Alexander Kinloch Forbes. During the nineteenth century he explored much of the previous thousand years of the history of the land and compiled a large number of manuscripts. Farbas Gujarati Sabha, the learned body devoted to the Gujarati language, is named after him, with headquarters in Mumbai.
Geographic distribution
Official status
Gujarati is officially recognized in the state of Gujarat, India.
As with most languages, Gujarati comes in numerous regional dialects that differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, and/or grammar. Some dialects have many Arabic and Persian borrowings, while others, such as the southern dialects, take more from Portuguese and English, while others take more from Hindi.
Selected dialects of Gujarati are listed below along with subdivisions.
- Standard Gujarati
- Saurashtra Standard
- Bombay Gujarati
- Ahmedabad city
- Eastern Broach Gujarati
- Persian-influenced Gujarati
- East African Gujarati
Closely related languages
Kutchi, also known as Khojki, is often referred to as a dialect of Gujarati, but most linguists consider it closer to Sindhi. There are many regional dialects within the language of gujarati. For instance people from Mahesana district speak much differently than Ahmedabadis.
Gujarati possesses no definite or indefinite articles. The word "one" (એક ek) can sometimes be used for 'a'. Gujarati does have demonstratives, proximal and distal. An unusual feature of Gujarati, as compared to other Indo-European languages, is that it displays the inclusive and exclusive we feature, that is common to the Dravidian languages.
This section will overview the grammar of standard Gujarati. It will be written in Gujarati script, along with according romanizations.
Word Order
The word order of Gujarati is SOV. Though since Gujarati has more of an agglutinative character, there is considerable flexibility in word order, such that SVO can be used for stylistic or complex constructions, and OVS for short replies. OSV is also acceptable for a set of "passive-type" verbs. Personal pronouns can also be omitted in conversational speech and instead inferred from context as well as through unique verbal conjugations that render the pronouns redundant.
However to say that Gujarati's word order is SOV compared to English's SVO does not relay enough information. A better summation would be that like English, Gujarati starts with S, but all that follows is reversed. Thus with an order of A verbs and B objects the English formation of (S)(V1...VA)(O1...OB) would be (S)(OB...O1)(VA...V1) in Gujarati.
|SVO → SOV||He is a teacher||એ શિક્ષક છે e śikṣak che||He (a) teacher is|
|SV1V2 → SV2V1||We were running||આપણે દોડતા હાતા āpṇe doḍtā hatā||We running were|
|SV1V2O1O2 → SO2O1V2V1||They're phoning me||તેઓ મને ફોન કેરે છે teo mane fon kere che||They me phone doing are|
|SV1V2V3O1O2 → SO2O1V3V2V1||I shall be going to give a letter to her||હું એને કાગળ આપવા જતો હઈશ huṃ ene kāgaḷ āpvā jato haīś||I to her (a) letter to give going shall be|
Gender and number
Gujarati has three genders and two numbers possessed by its nouns. They are masculine (પુલ્લિંગ pulliṃg), neuter (નપુંસકલિંગ napuṃsakliṃg), feminine (સ્ત્રીલિંગ strīliṃg), singular (એકવચન ekvacan), and plural (બહુવચન bahuvacan).
As such, with three genders and two numbers, there are five gender markers and two number markers in Gujarati. Gender and number markers may find themselves on the ends of nouns, and gender (but not number) markers may find themselves on the end of adjectives, verbs, adverbs, possessives, and pronouns that agree with those nouns.
- Number markers
- ∅ Singular
- ઓ o Plural
- Gender markers
- ઈ i Feminine
- ઓ o Masculine singular
- ઉં uṃ Neuter singular
- આ ā Masculine plural
- આં āṃ Neuter plural
Non-nouns that have a gender marker, made for agreeing with the noun, are called 'variable'. They are marked by default as neuter singular, ઉં, when there is nothing there for them to agree with. Non-nouns without gender markers, ending in consonants, are called 'invariable'.
Honourables are plural. Honourable and plural feminine animates take આં āṃ instead of ઈ i.
Common Nouns
Common nouns come in the form of Noun Stem + (Gender marker) + (Number marker) + Case Marker.
Dealing with gender and number markers first, in the case markerless nominative case, we can say that nouns can have...
- Both GM and NM: સંદેશો, સંદેશાઓ (message, messages)
- Only the NM: આંખો (eyes)
- Only the GM: વીજળી (electricity)
- Neither: ઘાસ (grass), પાણી (water)
Since masculine and neuter already have distinct gender markers for the plural form, the pluralizing ઓ is often dropped in the direct case.
No other words can have a gender marker except for common nouns.
- Case Markers
- ∅ Nominative
- ને Accusative / Dative (1)
- એ Ergative, Locative, Accusative / Dative (2)
- નું Genitive
Out of the direct case, when being appended with a marker, the noun takes the oblique form, which is made by using the plural form of the gender marker.
Becoming a Noun
Certain non-noun words can become nouns if isolated. In the French language, for example, vieux is an adjective for old. However, when not attached to a noun, it becomes a noun itself, old one. The similar follows in Gujarati.
For example, possessive determiners can become pronouns if left alone.
- મારી ચોપડી છે mārī copḍī che / It's my book
- ચોપડી મારી છે copḍī mārī che / The book is mine
|Case||Marker||First Person||Second Person||Third Person|
|Singular||Plural||Singular + Informal||Plural / Formal||Proximal||Distal|
|Nominative||∅||હું huṃ||આપણે āpṇe||અમે ame||તું tuṃ||તમે tame||આ ā||તે te||તેઓ teo|
|Accusative / Dative (1)||ને ne||મને mane||આપણને āpṇne||અમને amne||તને tane||તમને tamne||આને āne||આમને āmne||તેને tene||તેઓને teone, તેમને temne|
|Accusative / Dative (2)||એ e||મારે māre||આપણે āpṇe||અમારે amāre||તારે tāre||તમારે tamāre||આણે āṇe||આમણે āmṇe||તેણે teṇe||તેઓએ teoe, તેમણે temṇe|
|Ergative||મેં meṃ||અમે ame||તેં teṃ||તમે tame|
|Genitive||નું nuṃ||મારું māruṃ||આપણું āpṇuṃ||અમારું amāruṃ||તારું tāruṃ||તમારું tamāruṃ||આનું ānuṃ||આમનું āmnuṃ||તેનું tenuṃ||તેઓનું teonuṃ, તેમનું temnuṃ|
The third person (last three columns) works differently than in English and must be explained. Both આ and તે are demonstrative pronouns, meaning this/these (proximal) and that/those (distal). Therefore, આ ગાડીઓ is these cars and તે બિલાડી is that cat, and so on. When આ and તે are not put before specific nouns, they become this/these one(s) and that/those one(s). In this way they can move from being demonstrative pronouns to being personal pronouns. "That one" or "this one" may be used for He/She/It and "these ones" and "those ones" for They. One does not have the ability to specify gender like in English, but unlike in English one does have the ability to specify whether the referred to He is a proximal ("this") or a distal ("that") He. Most of the time, the He/She/It's we use in English are distal, so grammars generally just stick the label of He/She/It to તે, rather than go through this lengthy explanation. And finally, when used as a personal pronoun, તે can get the pluralizing ઓ as a number marker to make "they", which is the only instance where a word that isn't a common noun gets a number marker.
Further things to note for personal pronouns:
- For boxes with two entries, the underline denotes the more frequently used.
- તેઓ is almost never spoken. Instead, it's તે લોકો (lit. those people).
- As there are no આઓ, તમેઓ, and આપઓ, લોકો can added to specify plurality.
- The ત્ in તે, તેમ-, and the other (correlative) pronouns that start with it is mostly dropped in speech, for એ, એ લોકો, એમનું, એટલું, etc.
- હ્ is also dropped in હું for ઉં.
- આપ is borrowed from Hindi and is much more formal in Gujarati than in its original Hindi. It is very rarely used.
- Accusative/Dative (1) is the primary form; (2) is a special form used for specific circumstances: expressing want, need, possession, obligation, and intention.
- Though Accusative/Dative (2)'s third person forms match those of Ergative, modern usage tends to match Accusative/Dative (1)'s.
|Variable||શું śuṃ||What||શેનું śenuṃ|
|કયું kayuṃ||Which||કયાંનું kayāṃnuṃ|
|કેવું kevuṃ||What kind|
|કેટલું keṭluṃ||How much||કેટલાંનું keṭlāṃnuṃ|
|કેવડું kevḍuṃ||How big|
|Invariable||ક્યાં kyāṃ||Where||ક્યાંનું kyāṃnuṃ|
|કોણ koṇ||Who||કોનું konuṃ|
|ક્યારે kyāre||When||ક્યારનું kyārnuṃ|
In speech, શું is most often not variable. The underlined genitive forms deviate from their nominative.
How and Why
These two are not so clear-cut. From a more archaic and grammatically consistent point of view, these are the words for how and why:
- કેમ | How ("કેમ છો?" means "How are you?", and its relative-correlative of જેમ...તેમ is suited for "how")
- શા માટે | Why (lit. for what, "pourquoi")
However this is the general modern usage:
- કેવી રીતે / કયી રીતે | How (lit. in what kind of way / in which way)
- કેમ | Why
So basically, don't use કેમ as 'how', except in certain rare phrasings.
|શું śuṃ||What||જે je||What||તે te||That|
|કેવું kevuṃ||What kind||જેવું jevuṃ||As (noun)||તેવું tevuṃ|
|કેટલું keṭluṃ||How much||જેટલું jeṭluṃ||As much||તેટલું teṭluṃ||That much|
|કેવડું kevḍuṃ||How big||જેવડું jevḍuṃ||As big||તેવડું tevḍuṃ||That big|
|ક્યાં kyāṃ||Where||જ્યાં jyāṃ||Where||ત્યાં tyāṃ||There|
|કોણ koṇ||Who||જ je, જેઓ jeo||Who||તે te, તેઓ teo||He/She/It/They|
|ક્યારે kyāre||When||જ્યારે jyāre||When||ત્યારે tyāre||Then|
|કેમ kem||જેમ jem||As (verb)||તેમ tem|
The formation of the infinitive is: Root + વું. Remember, the ઉં is the variable gender marker, shown right now in default neuter form. If the verb is paired with a direct noun, it will agree with it. Otherwise, if it is alone, or paired to an adjective, it will remain neuter.
- કરવું To do
- ગાવું To sing
- ખાવું To eat
- કહેવું To say, to tell
- ફોન કરવો To phone
- વાત કરવી To talk
- Present: તું
- Past: એલું
- Conjunctive: ઈને
The conjunctive is the form, "Having (past participle)". Also, where in English two verbs are separated by an "and", the conjunctive form is frequently used Gujarati. "Go upstairs and sleep!" → "Having gone upstairs, sleep!"
There are three ways of expressing the passive voice. Verbal agreement is with the direct object.
A transitive verb's passive counterpart is made by modifying the root as such:
- If there is an આ ā vowel, it becomes અ a.
- If ending in a vowel, હ ha or વ va is suffixed.
- Final suffix of આ ā.
"To come in" suffix
A passive counterpart can be equally made by suffixing માં આવવું maṃ āvvuṃ to the infinitive. The infinitive is of course obliqued.
A third way is simply to use the active, 3rd person, and just omit the subject. This would be like English's generalized "They... ", or "One... ", but even slightly more so.
|Gujarati||English||Root Modification||"To come in" suffix||English||Root Modification||"To come in" suffix|
|Present||He's doing (the) work / He does (the) work||એ કામ કરે છે e kām kare che||કરવું karvuṃ||To do||કરાવું karāvuṃ||કરવામાં આવવું karvāmaṃ āvvuṃ||To be done||એનાથી કામ કરાય છે enāthī kām karāy che||એનાથી કામ કરવામાં આવે છે enāthī kām karvāmaṃ āve che||(The) work is being done by him / (The) work is done by him|
The post-position થી thī marks the agent ("by"). The major meaning is underlined.
The distinction between intransitive and transitive is very important in Gujarati. It effects two things: first being is verb form, discussed here; the second, subject case and verb agreement, discussed in the section on Past Tense.
Take these three English verbs: "to tear", "to spoil", and "to crack". Here are some phrases using those three:
- "The paper is tearing... ", "Did you tear the paper?... "
- "Make sure the food doesn't spoil... ", "You're really spoiling him... "
- "I noticed that the glass has cracked... ", "I think I cracked it yesterday... "
However, these three English verbs represent six Gujarati verbs. For each pair of phrases for a single verb, the first phrase is the intransitive usage, and the second the transitive. Oftentimes, a single English verb can cover for both intransitive and transitive usage, but not the case in Gujarati: the intransitive and transitive have a different verb for each.
|The paper is tearing||કાગળ ફાટે છે kāgaḷ fāṭe che||ફાટવું fāṭvuṃ||To tear → to be torn||Did you tear the paper?||તેં કાગળને ફાડયું? teṃ kāgaḷne fāḍyuṃ?||ફાડવું fāḍvuṃ||To tear → to cause to be torn|
|Make sure the food doesn't spoil||જોઈજો કે ખાવાનું ન બગડે joījo ke khāvānuṃ na bagḍe||બગડવું bagaḍvuṃ||To spoil → to be spoiled||You're really spoiling him||તમે એને ખરેખર બગાડો છો tame ene kharekhar bagāḍo cho||બગાડવું bagāḍvuṃ||To spoil → to cause to be spoiled|
|I noticed that the glass has cracked||મારાં ધ્યાનમાં આવ્યું કે કાચ ફૂટયો છે mārāṃ dhyānmāṃ āvyuṃ ke kāc fūṭyo che||ફૂટવું fūṭvuṃ||To crack → to be cracked||I think I cracked it yesterday||મને લાગે છે કે મેં ગઈ કાલે ફોડયો mane lāge che ke meṃ gaī kāle foḍyo||ફોડવું foḍvuṃ||To crack → to cause to be cracked|
As at a basic level, "to cause to... " is being added to transitivize these verbs, they are also called causatives. An English example: the intransitive "to fall"'s causative would be the transitive "to cause to fell", or conveniently, "to fell". That's one example where the verb is modified, like in Gujarati, instead of using auxiliaries. Also, to note, the definitive "to cause to... " is a rare phraseology, often in spoken English amounting to either nothing at all (as the examples above show) or "to get to (root)" or "to get to be (past participle)"..
Furthermore, that causative can be causativized again, for a double causative ("to cause to cause... "). Also, many transitive verbs are not causatives - an intransitive counterpart does not exist. Conversely, a few intransitive verbs don't transitivize.
The so-called "distinct" category of compound verb formation is when verbs are simply in conjunction, retaining their distinct meanings. Here are some English examples: "I like acting", "He's coming to eat", "They started to speak Gujarati". With these we can make the observation that English verbs are strung together in two ways: using the "to" and the "ing". "To" can be placed before the root of the second verb (infinitive), or "ing" appended on (present participle). They also have different meanings; the usage of "to" links the subject to the verb, while "ing" posits the verb as a general concept. To be shown below are the Gujarati equivalents of "to" and "ing": the declensions made when verbs are put together.
This category has to do with instances where verbs are in conjunction and do not retain their distinct meanings. This is an important feature of modern Indo-Aryan languages and is not found in English. Oftentimes, instead of a verb being used by itself, a second verb from a set of common auxiliaries can be added to colour or nuance the meaning of the verb it has been added to. Again, this added verb does not to act as a new, second, stand-alone verb, but instead an auxiliary or helper verb. Also, the meaning of the auxiliary itself often does not seem to have a logical connection with the way in which it colours and nuances.
- જવું To go
- આવ્વું To come
- લેવું To take
- દેવું To give
- કાઢવું To remove
- નાખવું To throw
- આપ્વું To give
Tenses and Conjugation
The general scheme of Gujarati verb conjugation involves the verbal root appended with tense marking information, further appended with some sort of a person marker.
Verbs agree with subjects, and the subjects are in nominative case, except for in the transitive past tense, where verbs agree with objects and the subjects are in ergative case.
- હોવું hovuṃ, To be
હોવું hovuṃ should be dealt with first, due to its importance. In English, "to be" can in simple tenses be just like any other verb; in continuous tenses it becomes unique as an auxiliary verb. Gujarati follows the latter to an even higher degree by having હોવું hovuṃ as an auxiliary in almost every verb form, even when it wouldn't mean anything in English. As it would in the English continuous, and more so overall in Gujarati, the હોવું hovuṃ auxiliary has an important role as a tense marking particle.
હોવું hovuṃ has three roots: છ્ ch, હ ha, and હો ho. છ્ ch and હ ha are auxiliary forms, while હો ho is a non-auxiliary form. છ્ ch is for the present, હ ha for the past and future, and હો ho is used for conditional statements and general statements. Here is the conjugation table for the present tense of "to be":
|First||હું છું huṃ chuṃ / I am||આપણે, અમે છીએ āpṇe, ame chīe / We are|
|Second||તું છે tuṃ che / You are||તમે છો tame cho / You are|
|Third||તે છે te che / He-She-It is||તેઓ છે teo che / They are|
- Non-હોવું hovuṃ verbs, and continuous vs simple
With all other verbs, they are added, with હોવું hovuṃ acting as the auxiliary. The verb comes before હોવું hovuṃ, in between the subject and હોવું hovuṃ. Its root takes the same vowel suffix as its auxiliary છ્ root. Here is the conjugation table for the present tense of ઘસવું ghasvuṃ, "to scrub":
|First||હું ઘસું છું huṃ ghasuṃ chuṃ||આપણે, અમે ઘસીએ છીએ āpṇe, ame ghasīe chīe|
|Second||તું ઘસે છે tuṃ ghase che||તમે ઘસો છો tame ghaso cho|
|Third||તે ઘસે છે te ghase che||તેઓ ઘસે છે teo ghase che|
While the header says the ambiguous "Present (Tense)", one may infer that what is being referred to above is specifically the continuous present tense, as "to be" is the auxiliary, just as it is in the English continuous present tense. This is not the case. હું ઘસું છું huṃ ghasuṃ chuṃ can mean "I am scrubbing" or "I scrub", depending on the context. This is one present tense, covering both continuous and simple present (though in other grammatical situations, the distinction between continuous and simple can be cleanly made). However, this present tense is nonetheless more skewed towards the continuous ("I am scrubbing"), and for ease, now and later, it is best to go with that logical inference, that literal analysis, and make the reduction that this present tense is the continuous present tense, and that the છ્- ch- forms are "am/is/are" and the ઘસ્- ghas- forms are "scrubbing". The formation of present tense general statements (partly involving હોવું's હો root) will be elucidated later.
|તેઓ ઘસે છે teo ghase che||They are scrubbing||They scrub|
There are two words in Gujarati that are equivalent to English's "not". They are ન na and નહિ nahi. When ન na is used, it comes before the negated verb; નહિ nahi comes after. In some cases either can be used (future tense) and in others only one (imperfect tense, present tense). The present tense requires નહિ nahi. On top of that, whenever a છ્- ch- is followed by નહિ nahi, they combine to make an invariable નથી nathī. They are often separated back for emphasis.
If નથી nathī is not alone and is an auxiliary to a non-હોવું hovuṃ verb, then the root of that verb is appended with તું tuṃ. Remember, ઉં uṃ is a variable gender marker. Gender marker vowel suffixes are different from the less logical vowel suffixes shown for the affirmative present tense so far (ઉં uṃ/એ e/ઈએ īe/ઓ o). Refer to the gender section for the appropriate appended vowel endings.
The subjunctive is the affirmative present tense without the છ્- ch- auxiliary, negateable by either ન na or નહિ nahi.
It is a broad form with many functions, used essentially when expressing something less than firm fact. The specific grammatical forms it manifests for different situations:
- Conditional sentence, If clause: Simple Present Tense
- Conditional sentence, Then clause: Conditional Tense
- Interrogative mood: Adds, major- "should" / minor- "can"
- Indicative mood: Generalized statement, Conditional Tense, "weakened" Future Tense
- હોવું hovuṃ, the હ ha root
If છ્- ch- is the present root for હોવું hovuṃ and accounts for "am/is/are", then હ ha is its past counterpart accounting for "was/were". હ ha is suffixed with તું tuṃ.
The imperfect is made by the root taking તું tuṃ, with હતું hatuṃ as auxiliary.
|તું નાચતી હતી tuṃ nāctī hatī||You (f) were dancing||You (f) danced (as in, You used to dance)|
This tense is negated by placing ન na in front of હતું hatuṃ. In speech, the હ ha sound is almost always neglected.
|અમે રમતા હતા ame ramtā hatā||અમે રમતાતા ame ramtātā|
|મને ગમતું ન હતું mane gamtuṃ na hatuṃ||મને ગમતું નતું mane gamtuṃ natuṃ|
With this, there may be some ambiguity between the feminine નતી natī and the present tense's નથી nathī. This may be resolved by replacing the spoken નતું natuṃ with નહોતું nahotuṃ, as some speakers do.
The perfective is made by adding the gender-variable યું yuṃ onto the root; though minus the ય્ y in feminine. The auxiliary હોવું hovuṃ with its many forms acts as tense marker.
Also, here the distinction between transitive and intransitive comes into play:
|Tense (Active)||Subject Case||Verb Agreement|
|Transitive Perfective||Ergative||Direct Object|
These are the suffixes to the verbal root to form the simple future tense:
|First||ઈશ īś||ઈશું īśuṃ|
There is no હોવું hovuṃ auxiliary. The sentence can be negated by placing ન na before the verb or નહિ nahi after.
More on "To be"
હોવું hovuṃ was introduced as the word for "to be". However, there are actually two verbs dealing with two connotions of meaning in "to be". હોવું hovuṃ deals with the state of being, while થવું thavuṃ deals with the act of being. In this way, થવું thavuṃ also means "to happen".
In situations where "become" would be equally valid in place of "be", થવું thavuṃ is to be used. In these two Gujarati sentences, which mean both "I will be a writer"...
- હું લેખક થઈશ huṃ lekhak thaīś
- હું લેખક હઈશ huṃ lekhak haīś
... the first can stand alone, relating to the future movement from non-writer, to writer. The second cannot stand alone, and is used in reference: "At age _____, I will be a writer". Again, હોવું hovuṃ "to be" concerns state, while થવું thavuṃ "to be" concerns act.
હોવું hovuṃ is the ubiquitous tense-marking auxiliary, and just as છ્- ch- marks present, હ- ha- marks future.
- તે વાંચે છે te vāṃce che / She is reading → તે વાંચતી હશે te vāṃctī haśe / She will be reading
The future of હોવું hovuṃ has a second meaning. It creates the word "must", as in probability or likeliness; not compulsion. So તે વાંચતી હશે te vāṃtī haśe could either mean "She will be reading" or "She must be reading", depending on context.
The imperative in Gujarati is similar to English, where the subject is dropped, but sometimes left on for emphasis. Word order is OV. There are three levels of time(?), corresponding to three levels of politeness. Added to the verbal root:
|તું tuṃ||તમે tame|
|Near Future||જે je||જો jo|
|Distant Future||ઈશ īś ?||શો śo ?|
Interrogative pronouns find themselves after the subject: S(i)OV. For Yes-No questions, which lack an interrogative pronoun, "What" (શું śuṃ) may be placed before the subject to designate it a question, though this is not done to the extent that it is in Gujarati's cousin language of Hindi.
The word order is not changed, nor is there an insertion of a "do"-type word; both are redundant. Similarly redundant, but used in Gujarati, are rising intonation and question mark punctuation. Gujarati makes a complete distinction between interrogative-relative pronoun counterparts. Relatives start with જ્ j and and interrogatives start with ક્ k (except for શું śuṃ). None of these four things are needed when there is a word being used that could only ever be used in the context of a question.
Though, a Yes-No question without "What" (શું śuṃ) at beginning would need rising intonation in speech and a question mark on paper to mark it as a question.
The words for If and Then are જો jo and તો to. Where in English the If is mandatory, with the Then optional, in Gujarati it is the જો jo that is optional and the તો to that is mandatory.
Furthermore, in both clauses, these changes are made:
- હોવું hovuṃ છ્- ch- forms become હો- ho- forms
- હતું hatuṃ becomes હોત hot
Quoting Speech
Referring to someone else's speech may be done in two ways:
- 1. "... He said, 'I... '"
- 2. "... He said that he... "
In Gujarati, number 1 is the common form. Gujaratis often will say it in its original language too, making it even more of a "direct quote".
Common Words and Phrases
|કેમ છો?||How are you?|
|તમે ગુજરાતી બોલો છો?||Do you speak Gujarati?|
|તમારું નામ શું છે?||What is your name?|
|મારું નામ ______ છે||My name is ______|
|હં, હા, હાંજી||Yes||In increasing formality|
|ના, નાજી||No||In increasing formality|
|શું થયું?||What happened?|
|કેટલાં વાગ્યા?||What time is it?||lit. How many did it strike?|
|મારું માથું ન ખા||Don't bother me||lit. Do not eat my head|
Modern Gujarati includes vocabulary from Arabic and Persian due to the more than five centuries of Islamic rule, as well as the influence of Zoroastrian Persian immigrants known as Parsis. The influence of English and Portuguese is also notable in modern spoken Gujarati due to the legacy of European colonisation.
- બૅન્ક Bank
- ફોન Phone
- બસ Bus
- ટેબલ Table
- સ્ટેશન Station
Writing system
Gujarati is written using the Gujarati script, an abugida (alphasyllabary) very similar to Devanagari (the script used for Sanskrit, Marathi and Hindi), but without the characteristic horizontal line (matra) running across the top of the letters. There are also some other minor differences between the two scripts.
See also
- Languages of India
- List of national languages of India
- List of Indian languages by total speakers
- Gujarati people
External links
Dictionaries and linguistic resources
- જયદીપનું જગત Jaydeep's World - Read Gujarati Liteature Online
- સિદ્ધાર્થનું મન Siddharth's Mind - Gujarati blog
- ઝાઝી સમાચાર Gujarat News
- Gujarati Wiktionary
- Chandaria's Gujarati Dictionary
- Gujarati News
- Gujarati English Dictionary from Webster's Online Dictionary - the Rosetta Edition
- Online Gujarati Type Pad
- Free Gujarati Tutorial - Learn Gujarati
- Useful Gujarati phrases in English and other Indian languages.
- Website for reading Gujarati Literature Online
- Gujarati script and alphabets
- Gujarati Editor
- Rachel Dwyer's Teach Yourself Gujarati
- Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavat, Ramayan, Mahabharat, Upanishad, Yog Sutra, Bhajans and more in Gujarati
- Religious and Spiritual Texts in Gujarati (islam)
- Gujarati Language and Literature
- Gujarati Samaj of Minnesota - An organization of Gujaratis in Minnesota, U.S.A. teaching values of our culture.
- Gujarati Samaj of Western Australia - Formed to celebrate the language and traditions of Gujarat in Western Australia.
- A brief history of the Gujarati language
- The UK Gujarati Teachers Association
|Indo-Aryan||Sanskrit: Vedic Sanskrit - Classical Sanskrit | Prakrit: Pāli - Magadhi | Hindustani (Registers: Hindi, Urdu) | Bengali (Dialects: Chittagonian, Sylheti) | Angika | Assamese | Bhojpuri | Bishnupriya Manipuri | Dhivehi | Dogri | Gujarati | Konkani | Mahl | Maithili | Marathi | Mitanni | Nepali | Oriya | Punjabi | Romani | Sindhi | Sinhala|
|Iranian||Avestan | Persian: Old Persian - Middle Persian (Pahlavi) - Modern Persian (Varieties: Farsi, Dari, Tajik) Bukhori | Bactrian | Balochi | Dari (Zoroastrianism) | Gilaki | Kurdish | Mazandarani | Ossetic | Pamir | Pashto | Saka | Sarikoli | Scythian | Shughni | Sogdian | Talysh | Tat | Wakhi | Yaghnobi | Zazaki ||
|Dardic||Dameli | Domaaki | Gawar-Bati | Kalasha-mun | Kashmiri | Khowar | Kohistani | Nangalami | Pashayi | Palula | Shina | Shumashti|
|Nuristani||Askunu | Kalasha-ala | Kamkata-viri | Tregami | Vasi-vari|
br:Goudjarateg ca:Gujarati da:Gujarati de:Gujarati es:Idioma guyaratí fa:زبان گجراتی fr:Gujarâtî gu:ગુજરાતી ભાષા ko:구자라트어 hi:गुजराती भाषा id:Bahasa Gujarati it:Lingua gujarati he:גוג'ראטית ka:გუჯარათული ენა nl:Gujarati ja:グジャラート語 nn:Gujarati pl:Język gudźarati pt:Gujarati ru:Гуджарати simple:Gujarati sr:Гуџарати језик fi:Gudžarati sv:Gujarati ta:குஜராத்தி th:ภาษาคุชราต | <urn:uuid:f0465ea5-1cd3-4144-963e-abfe0b461f11> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.worldwizzy.com/learn/index.php/Gujarati_language | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394605.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00105-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.83504 | 13,517 | 3.390625 | 3 |
steps and problems for 3-D structure determination
AEVDOKIMOZ at cinci.rr.com
Wed Sep 18 18:42:36 EST 2002
There is a number of books related to X-ray structure determination and NMR
structure determination. In order to fully grasp the issues your best bet
would be to take several courses - the material is extensive in both variety
of subjects and scopes of subjects.
In general, X-ray structure determination for macromolecules has two major
problems these days:
1) how to find conditions for diffraction-quality crystal growth
2) how to phase the data
Problem number 2 is well-studied and there are numerous methods to solve
it - while possibilities for improvement remain, they are constantly being
reviewed by a host of dedicated professionals.
Problem number 1 is VERY complex. Predicting of the 3D packing of an unknown
partially dynamic three-dimensional shape is, essentially, impossible.
Various empirical methods such as random and sparse-matrix semifactorial
screens, etc. give useful answers but not with 100% probability of success.
On top of this, not all proteins are initially purified in a form that is
crystallization-competent, so multiple cycles of protein engineering,
bio(physico)chemical characterization and purification are often necessary.
Hope this helps,
"Marc Parisien" <parisien at iro.umontreal.ca> wrote in message
news:3D8798A5.310593D1 at iro.umontreal.ca...
> Hi All!
> Where could I look for the steps involved in 3-D structure
> determination (either X-Ray or NMR), and also where in these steps are
> problems that could be resolved by computer and/or better algorithms. I
> would guess that the steps/problems are the same for either RNA or
> thanks for your time,
More information about the Proteins | <urn:uuid:4de48c62-0f38-491f-b59c-624a298f537a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/proteins/2002-September/010631.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397748.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00103-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912319 | 427 | 2.53125 | 3 |
What is Pollution Prevention?
Pollution prevention is the practice of reducing or eliminating the generation of waste while avoiding shifting the hazards from one medium to another (e.g., from water to air, from hazardous waste to solid waste, or from environmental concerns to fire safety concerns) . Although the pollution prevention concept is traditionally associated with hazardous chemicals, it is also applicable to energy consumption and natural resource use (e.g., water, minerals, and wood). Generally speaking, pollution prevention strategies reduce the overall use of waste- or hazard-generating material by: a) substitution with a lower-hazard alternative material or chemical; b) process reformulation, product redesign, or process modernization; c) improved housekeeping or operation and maintenance practices; or, d) extending the useful life of the material, product or process through reuse and recycling. The strict definition of pollution prevention excludes the treatment of wastes prior to disposal, since treatment methods typically involve the addition of hazardous chemical, energy, and natural resource inputs. Toxics use reduction refers to pollution prevention efforts that focus on processes with hazardous material inputs. | <urn:uuid:4ffdfba9-a8d1-496f-a9ed-6b98cc032ceb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ehs.mit.edu/site/content/pollution-prevention | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391634.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00003-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.893883 | 223 | 3.953125 | 4 |
In 10 Global Trends in ICT and Education , I included gaming as a trend to keep an eye on. The gaming industry has been growing faster than the movie industry in the past number of years and is occupying an increasing number of hours of time in a young person’s day. Educational games it can be argued have the potential to reach students outside of the classroom where some traditional educational methodologies are failing. This genre of “serious games” has indeed mushroomed over the past number of years. A number of “serious games ” have been developed in the fields of education, business, health, politics, engineering, defense, etc. In order to better understand the impact and potential of such games, we decided to develop and evaluate an educational game focused on youth social innovation and development – Evoke : a crash course in changing the world.
Evoke emerged from discussions with universities in Africa who increasingly wanted to find avenues to encourage their students to engage in local communities and develop innovative solutions to local development challenges. The universities were searching for ways to engage students in real world problems and to develop capacities for creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial action that many believe will be the engine for job creation now and in the future.
Evoke therefore is designed to empower young people all over the world, and especially in Africa, to start solving urgent social problems like hunger, poverty, disease, conflict, climate change, sustainable energy, health care, education, and human rights.; to collaborate with others globally; and to develop real world ideas to address these challenges.
Players will be challenged to complete a series of ten missions and ten quests -- one per week, over the course of the ten-week game. The "text book" for this course is an online graphic novel written by Emmy-award nominated producer Kiyash Monsef. Art for the graphic novel is by Jacob Glaser, who Monsef describes as "an extraordinary visual storyteller who has been working at the leading edge of the comic world doing motion comics for Stan Lee."
Set in the year 2020, the story follows the efforts of a mysterious network of Africa’s best problem-solvers. Each week, as players unravel the mystery of the Evoke network, they will form their own innovation networks: brainstorming creative solutions to real-world development challenges, learning more about what it takes to be a successful social innovator, and finding ways to make a difference in the world.
Players who successfully complete ten online missions in ten weeks will be able to receive a special distinction: World Bank Institute Social Innovator – Class of 2010. Top players will also earn mentorships with experienced social innovators and business leaders from around the world, and scholarships to share their vision for the future at the EVOKE Summit in Washington DC.
The game's creative director, alternate reality pioneer Jane McGonigal , is debuting the game at this week's TED conference in Long Beach, California. As she describes the game, "An evoke is an urgent call to innovation. When we evoke, we look for creative solutions. We use whatever resources we have. We get as many people involved as possible. We take risks. We come up with ideas that have never been tried before. That's what we're asking players to do in this online game. To learn how to tackle the world's toughest problems with creativity, courage, resourcefulness and collaboration."
For the World Bank Institute and our partners infoDev and the Korean Trust Fund for ICT and Development, we very much hope to learn from this game. The evaluation component will try to better understand how serious games such as Evoke could help develop 21st century skills, encourage young people to learn about local development issues, foster social networks and collaboration to brainstorm creative solutions to development challenges, think critically about the future and what actions are needed today to create tomorrow's world; and create an engaging learning environment that is interactive, engaging, and well.....fun.
Evoke will launch on March 3, 2010 and the site is now open for pre-game registration at www.urgentevoke.com . Please join us in this adventure! | <urn:uuid:03ce0dcd-16f3-435f-945f-3fc2f5a34fb1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/print/evoke-a-crash-course-in-changing-the-world | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00167-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953602 | 849 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Thomas Eugene Kurtz, the co-founder of the BASIC programming language celebrates his birthday today. Kurtz once commented that if FORTRAN was the lingua franca (common language) of the computer world, BASIC was the "lingua playpen."
Together with John G. Kemeny, with whom he collaborated on many projects, Thomas E Kurtz designed and developed the Dartmouth Time Sharing System (DTSS) and the computer programming language, Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, or BASIC.
Thomas E Kurtz, born February 22, 1928
There were many implementations of BASIC, the most widely used being Microsoft's MSBASIC and later QBASIC, and True BASIC, Kurtz and Kemeny's original basic, is one of the few still being developed commercially. It is available from true.basic.com
For more on how BASIC came about see:
Kemeny & Kurtz, inventors of BASIC | <urn:uuid:8a288a71-4ec6-4506-bd4d-85f46cef57ef> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://i-programmer.info/news/82-heritage/2021-on-this-day-in-1928-thomas-eugene-kurtz-co-founder-of-basic-born.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395613.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00152-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962318 | 205 | 3.25 | 3 |
435-835-2117 or 435-668-2068 cell [email protected]
Utah Fire Info & Restrictions
Wildland Urban Interface Community Survey
The Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands is asking the public to take the above survey. Click on the link.
Careless debris and agricultural burning is a major cause of wildfires every year in Utah. Most people never intend to start a wildfire, but unsafe burning practices can produce disastrous results. Anyone wishing to open burn between June 1st and October 31st must first obtain a permit from the Fire Warden.
Open Burning Procedures
- PERMIT- Get a Permit from the Fire Warden.
- NOTIFY- Notify the Sheriff’s dispatch (835-2345) so they can inform callers.
- PREARE- Be prepared to douse the flames with a shovel or water.
- OUT COLD- Stay near the burn until the coals are cold. (English/Espanol Brochure)
Building Safe Campfires
- Clear campfire site down to bare soil.
- Circle pit with rocks.
- Build away from overhanging branches, steep slopes, dry grass, & leaves.
- Keep a bucket of water and a shovel nearby.
- Never leave a campfire unattended.
- When putting out a campfire, drown the fire, stir it, and drown it again.
- Always have adult supervision.
- Be careful with gas lanterns, barbeque grills, gas stoves, and anything that can be a source of ignition for a wildfire. (English/Espanol Brochure) | <urn:uuid:b62e66a8-6503-4d55-9df1-6315b8dd340e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://sanpete.com/pages/fire | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393518.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00078-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.826195 | 348 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Science is the effort to discover and objectively describe natural phenomena and their functioning within systems. Most science entails collection and analysis of quantitative data, and some work includes designing and carrying out experiments or construction of models. Biology focuses specifically on living systems. Students seeking to undertake independent research (BIOL399) should wish to complement their growing "book knowledge" with experience in the actual conduct of biological science.
There is much to be gained from independent research. After a credit or two of research, one should better understand whether s/he should target a career as a practicing scientist (after further training in graduate or professional school). Independent research should help one to hone his or her abilities in logical analysis and in writing. Some independent research leads to such well-documented and original findings that publication of a peer-reviewed scientific article results. These are only some of the valid reasons to pursue independent research credit.
I. How to Arrange for Credit in Independent Research
The possibility of independent research begins when a student investigates the kinds of research conducted by different faculty members. One approach is to explore the Biology Department web site (http://www.departments. bucknell.edu/biology/faculty). Students will also benefit from talking to others already engaged in independent research, perhaps in a laboratory of particular interest. Next, the student will initiate discussions with one or more faculty members about possibilities for independent research in their laboratories. Ultimately, the student's work will take one of the following forms: (a) assistance of the faculty member with his or her ongoing research, (b) collaboration with the faculty member on research of mutual interest, or (c) guided initiation of a novel project of the student's own conception. In any case, the student is expected to conduct work in every characteristic phase of research -- from presentation of hypotheses in a formal proposal, through the development of research design, on to data collection, and finally written and perhaps oral communication of results.
Most faculty are willing to advise more than one research student in a given semester, but also most faculty accept only promising students for research mentoring. What is generally most important to faculty is the degree to which the individual student shows a commitment to succeed in research. For particular projects, some faculty may require the prospective research student to plan for their independent research effort to span two consecutive semesters and/or have taken specific courses.
Pending faculty approval, students can enroll for independent research projects (BIOL399) in a given semester worth 0.5, 1.0, or 2.0 course credits. As for all full-credit Bucknell coursework, the basic expectation of students enrolled for one full credit of research is approximately 12 h of work weekly. Naturally, half-credit projects anticipate students spending half as much time weekly on their work, while two-credit projects anticipate twice as much time investment. Two-credit projects would only be appropriate for the most advanced research students. Half-credit research might be appropriate for a student wishing primarily to investigate the background literature pertaining to a specific area of research, perhaps to determine whether they might be interested to pursue actual empirical work in that area. Alternatively, a half-credit of research might enable a student to learn a specific technique in the laboratory or some particular method of data collection in a naturalistic or true field setting. In any half-credit scenario, however, students are expected to produce a term paper, present a poster, or undertake an oral presentation similar to those produced for full-credit projects (see below).
II. Requirements of Your Research Activity
The first requirement is for the student to discuss with a particular faculty member the possibilities for a research mentorship in his or her lab and the general scope of the student's interests. The student may want to have this discussion one to two semesters ahead of time. These discussions will enable the prospective mentor and student to determine whether the student is interested more to assist the faculty with an ongoing project or to initiate relatively new research related to primary thrusts of the faculty member's ongoing research program. This planning for independent research should occur during the semester prior to the one during which the independent research is meant to occur. Once the general domain of intended research is understood between mentor and student, the student is in position to begin reviewing pertinent literature and methods and outlining his or her research proposal.
B. Proposal and proposal revision
Every formal effort in independent research (BIOL399) must be founded on a clear and complete written proposal. A proposal generally contains an introduction, a section on methods, a section describing anticipated analyses and results, a section outlining the significance of the intended research, and a bibliography (literature cited in proposal). Typically, a student generates an initial draft of a proposal for review and criticism by the faculty mentor. Thereafter, the proposal is revised in accord with the written criticism and further discussion. Revised proposals should be completed no later than the third week of the semester of research.
C. Weekly work
The most diligent student researchers often invest more than 12 hours in a given week, whereas some weeks might see slightly less time spent directly on research activity. However, because research is so multifaceted (see sections II. E. and III., below) and the fullest possible success with any research relates directly to the time invested by the investigator, weeks during which fewer than 12 h are spent on research should be rare. Ultimately, this is a matter that will depend most on the individual student's organizational skill, foresight, and resourcefulness. The student's particular activities will be planned during regular meetings throughout the semester with the faculty mentor. All undergraduate research students are required to attend all Friday afternoon seminars organized by the Department.
D. Regular meetings with the faculty mentor
Most independent researchers benefit from regular communication with primary colleagues. For student researchers this means weekly meetings with one's faculty mentor. Meetings might be scheduled for a particular day and time or rather occur at frequent but irregular intervals. Most important, students should not expect their faculty mentors to run them down to determine their state of progress. Instead, the reliability with which a student schedules and attends meetings with his or her mentor can be expected to be one major element of the faculty member's ultimate evaluation of the student's performance. Some professors organize weekly lab-group meetings at which all students conducting research in their lab discuss ongoing activities, journal articles, or recent findings of interest. Often, students take turns leading discussion by making brief presentations describing progress with their project.
E. Communication of data
Written communication is an essential element of virtually every meaningful effort in science. Anyone with appropriate insight, precision, and commitment can discover something by implementing "the scientific method." But, a contemporary project remains incomplete until one submits their methods, results, and interpretation to full evaluation, which is normally achieved via written reports. Most faculty will ask student researchers to draft their report in the form of a manuscript that might be accepted at a particular professional journal in one's field. This requires that the paper be drafted in precise accord with the format specified by the given journal for all manuscripts submitted for potential publication. Regardless of whether the student's results may be publishable, this practice offers invaluable experience with the process of formal scientific writing. Typically, mentors offer to critically review first and sometimes second drafts of a student's article. Final versions are normally due just before or during the week of final exams.
Poster or oral presentation
In lieu of or possible addition to a written report, students may be asked to give an oral or poster presentation. This activity may occur locally, such as the Kalman Symposium every March, or at regional and national meetings. Students will be expected to be actively involved in the drafting of the presentation. It is also expected that students presenting an oral report rehearse the talk in front of their advisor and lab group for constructive comments.
III. Criteria for Evaluation of Independent Research Projects: Effort and Quality
The faculty mentor evaluates and grades the student's performance. Both the effort a student invests and the resulting quality of scholarship determine the degree to which excellence is achieved with an independent research project. But, it is important to remember that excellence in research, as with any coursework, is judged somewhat indirectly in relation to effort. Outcomes are generally evaluated more directly in relation to the actual quality of scholarship that emerged. The student researcher should be sure to engage his or her mentor in a discussion of this issue during the planning stage of the project. That discussion will help the student decide whether to conduct independent research and guide his or her approach to solicitation of feedback and assistance throughout the project.
Mentors will determine in advance how each project will be evaluated in relation to effort and quality of scholarship. For example, 30-40% of a grade for independent research may be based on the mentor's assessment of the effort that the student advanced while 60-70% is based on the actual quality of the scholarship, especially as reflected by the content, organization, and clarity of the final paper.
Faculty mentors monitor the many dimensions of effort expected of research students. One essential aspect is the level of initiative exhibited. A student applying high initiative achieves progress with the current literature pertaining to his or her investigation relatively independently after beginning stages, sometimes bringing to the mentor's attention more than one relevant article of which the mentor is not yet aware. Mature correspondence with scientists in the particular research area might be undertaken, sometimes leading to receipt of yet-unpublished manuscripts or additional leads to relevant literature. High initiative could include development of required skills in data tabulation, graphical analysis, and/or statistical analysis without undue exhortation on the part of the primary mentor (e.g., use of SPSS, SigmaPlot, or similar software). Appointments might be made with other students, Bucknell staff, or faculty with particular expertise in these areas to make essential progress. Most important, initiative entails taking full and primary responsibility for arranging when and how often information is exchanged with one’s mentor, so that the supervising faculty member is easily able to offer appropriate advice. The faculty mentor cannot be expected to locate the student to determine whether appropriate progress is being made along all dimensions of the project.
B. Quality of Scholarship
There are also many dimensions to the quality of scholarship. One is how comprehensively the student has dealt with the scientific literature pertaining to his or her research. The student should show awareness of both important seminal publications and recent books and journal articles that are influencing the work of investigators in their sub-discipline. Some high-achieving students might also discuss in their paper how their own results suggest that consideration of literature rarely or never before cited by investigators in their field may be important to achieve fullest possible insight. In other words, mentors will read student papers with an eye toward determining how well their students understand "the big picture:" i.e., how the results of their own research fit into existing knowledge.
The clarity and precision of written reports are also essential aspects of scholarship. As with manuscripts submitted by established researchers for potential publication, student reports will generally be evaluated regarding how well they conform to the format required for manuscripts submitted to a particular journal in their field. Unless particular variances are agreed upon in advance, the paper should be organized in a way that would make it completely ready, after final revisions of content and wording, for submission to the journal targeted by the student. The number of significant revisions of content, wording, and format that would be required will reflect the degree to which the student succeeded in producing a clear and complete manuscript that lacked superfluous information.
Finally, it is important in assessing all scientific projects to determine whether the empirical work represents an original effort, with regard to methodology or to generating new information about the world around us. If so, and clearly communicated findings are well interpreted in relation to existing knowledge, the research student may be on the threshold of actually submitting a final revision of his or her research article for potential publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
In summary, the faculty mentor will evaluate performance in independent research along many dimensions that indicate the degree to which the student applied diligence, resourcefulness, and creativity in their effort. These guidelines should help prospective research students decide whether to undertake independent projects and help guide the efforts of those who do from the start to finish of their projects.
The following links are virtual breadcrumbs marking the 27 most recent pages you have visited in Bucknell.edu. If you want to remember a specific page forever click the pin in the top right corner and we will be sure not to replace it. Close this message. | <urn:uuid:de455d9e-af2c-44a4-8044-b5021158c2e9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.bucknell.edu/majors-and-minors/biology/research/independent-research.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393332.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00023-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952166 | 2,557 | 2.59375 | 3 |
• nostrum •
Pronunciation: nah-strêm • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. A patent medicine or other questionable remedy prepared by someone who is not a doctor. 2. A pet scheme, someone's favorite remedy, especially one for solving some economic, social, or political problem.
Notes: Here is a word that is becoming rarer as medical science progresses. However, it is still needed for people who are taking nostra (or simply nostrums). I myself am taking cinnamon to help with glucose regulation and turmeric (pronounced [têr-mêr-rik]) for pain regulation on my wife's recommendation.
In Play: The primary sense of today's word is "quack medicine": "Ivan Oder wears a bag of garlic around his neck as a nostrum he thinks wards off evil spirits." (It actually wards off all souls approaching him.) The other meaning of this word is usually used sarcastically: "Siddy Hall is now running for congress on that old nostrum that lowering taxes on the rich creates jobs."
Word History: Today's Good Word is the neuter form of the Latin word for noster "our". The English word resulted from a shortening of the phrase nostrum remedium "our remedy" in the early 17th century. We find noster little disguised in all Romance languages, which descended from Latin. In French it became notre, in Spanish, nuestro, in Portuguese, nosso, and in Italian, nostro. Believe it or not, the Germanic languages still use the remnants of it. English us came from an original word closer to German uns "us", which reverses the order of the N and the vowel (metathesis). We also find this word in many phrases commonly heard in English, such as the name of the French cathedral Notre Dame "Our Lady", and words like paternoster "our father" = the Lord's Prayer. (We now thank Rob Towart for recommending today's Good Word, and wish him a working nostrum for all his pains.) | <urn:uuid:daa9f0c3-b61e-4998-9e6a-61d680da5169> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.alphadictionary.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7170&p=43954 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00110-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942853 | 436 | 2.59375 | 3 |
U.S. researchers trace HIV's origins .Guess where?
U.S. researchers trace
HIV's origins to wild chimpanzees
WASHINGTON (AP) - Twenty-five years after the first AIDS cases emerged, scientists have confirmed that HIV, the virus plaguing humans, really did originate in wild chimpanzees, in a corner of Cameroon.
Solving the mystery of HIV's ancestry was dirty work. Scientists employed trackers to plunge through dense jungle and collect the fresh feces of wild apes, bagging more than 1,300 samples in all.
Before that, it took seven years of research just to develop the testing methods to genetically trace the primate version of the virus in living wild chimps without hurting the endangered species.
Until now, "no one was able to look. No one had the tools," said Dr. Beatrice Hahn of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She led the team of international researchers that reported the success in Friday's edition of the journal Science.
"We're 25 years into this pandemic," Hahn said. "We don't have a cure. We don't have a vaccine. But we know where it came from. At least we can make a check mark on one of those."
Scientists long have known that non-human primates carry their own version of the AIDS virus, called SIV or simian immunodeficiency virus. But with one exception, it had been found only in captive chimpanzees, particularly a subspecies that in the wild populates mostly West Africa.
It was not known how prevalent the virus was in chimps in the wild, or how genetically or geographically diverse it was, complicating efforts to pin down the jump from animal to man.
Hahn's team tested chimp feces for SIV antibodies, finding them in a subspecies called Pan troglodytes troglodytes in southern Cameroon.
Chimps tend to form geographically distinct communities. By genetically analyzing the feces, researchers could trace individual infected chimps. The team found some chimp communities with infection rates as high as 35 per cent, while others had no infection at all.
Every single infected chimp had a common base genetic pattern that indicated a common ancestor, Hahn said.
There are three types of HIV-1, the strain of the human virus responsible for most of the worldwide epidemic. Genetic analysis let Hahn identify chimp communities near Cameroon's Sanaga River whose viral strains are most closely related to the most common of those HIV-1 subtypes.
"The genetic similarity was striking," Hahn said.
The first human known to be infected with HIV was a man from Kinshasa in the nearby country of Congo who had his blood stored in 1959 as part of a medical study, decades before scientists knew the AIDS virus existed.
Presumably, someone in rural Cameroon was bitten by a chimp or was cut while butchering one and became infected with the ape virus. That person passed it to someone else.
The Sanaga River long has been a commercial waterway, for transporting hardwood, ivory and other items to more urban areas. Eventually, someone infected made it to Kinshasa.
"How many different transmission events occurred between that initial hunter and this virus making it to Kinshasa, I don't know. It could have been one, it could have been 10, it could have been 100," Hahn said. "Eventually, it ended up in an urban area, and that's where it really got going."
Somewhere in all that spread, the virus became more deadly to people than it is to chimps, who seldom are bothered much by SIV.
The research seems to settle any question of HIV's origin, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the National Institutes of Health's AIDS chief.
When tracing a virus's evolution, "it's important to get as close to the source as you can," he said. "It's of historic interest."
I win in reading things the first time they're posted.
Warrior of Red Earth does your avatar count as a spoiler?
Single Sign On provided by vBSSO | <urn:uuid:1410f8b0-0532-435f-a7db-b4f75c3c4ef7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthread.php?t=34968 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00198-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971711 | 854 | 3.40625 | 3 |
If-Then-Else, VBA statement.
Syntax Select Case test_expression Case condition_1 result_1 Case condition_2 result_2 ... Case condition_n result_n [ Case Else result_else ] End Select Key test_expression An expression returning a string or numeric value. This value will be compared to the list of conditions. condition_n Conditions are evaluated in the order listed. Once a condition is found to be true, the corresponding code will be executed and no further conditions will be evaluated. result_n The code to be executed when a condition is met.
Comparison operators: Less than <, Less than or equal to <=, Greater than >, Greater than or equal to >=, Not equal <>, Equal =
Range comparison can also be done: 1 To 10 or 500 To 600
or the comparison can be a comma separated list of items: 2,4,6,8,10 or "Jan", "Feb", "Mar"
Dim intVoltage as Integer Dim strDescription as String intVoltage = Me.txtVoltage Select Case intVoltage Case 110 strDescription = "Domestic" Case 220,240 strDescription = "European" Case 600 strDescription = "Industrial" Case Else strDescription = "Unknown" End Select MsgBox strDescription
“You see things; and you say 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'why not?'” ~ George Bernard Shaw
Nz - Detect a NULL value or Zero Length string. | <urn:uuid:11f64fe0-b610-4ee5-9961-166820414b77> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ss64.com/access/case.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00019-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.740378 | 321 | 2.703125 | 3 |
What is an ombudsman?
An ombudsman is someone who handles complaints and attempts to find mutually satisfactory solutions. Ombudsmen can be found in government, corporations, hospitals, universities and other institutions. The first ombudsman was appointed in 1809 in Sweden to handle citizens’ complaints about the government. The word is pronounced “om-BUDS-man” and is Scandinavian in origin.
What is a news ombudsman?
A news ombudsman receives and investigates complaints from newspaper readers or listeners or viewers of radio and television stations about accuracy, fairness, balance and good taste in news coverage. He or she recommends appropriate remedies or responses to correct or clarify news reports.
Why should a newspaper or broadcaster have an ombudsman?
- To improve the quality of news reporting by monitoring accuracy, fairness and balance.
- To help his or her news provider to become more accessible and accountable to readers or audience members and, thus, to become more credible.
- To increase the awareness of its news professionals about the public’s concerns.
- To save time for publishers and senior editors, or broadcasters and news directors, by channelling complaints and other inquiries to one responsible individual.
- To resolve some complaints that might otherwise be sent to attorneys and become costly lawsuits.
How do news ombudsmen work?
No two ombudsmen work exactly alike. But typically, they monitor news and feature columns, photography and other graphic materials for fairness, accuracy and balance. They bring substandard items to the attention of the appropriate members of the news staff.
They investigate and reply to comments and complaints concerning published or broadcast news and feature material. They obtain explanations from editors and other staff members for readers, viewers or listeners.
Some supervise the preparation of corrections. Others write internal newsletters about readers’ views and complaints. Many news ombudsmen write regular columns that deal with issues of broad public interest, or with specific grievances. Where appropriate, columns may criticize, explain or praise.
Other ombudsmen initiate or coordinate public forums or reader advisory boards in an effort to connect more closely with readers. Many speak before various public and private groups to help explain media practices. Some send accuracy questionnaires to persons whose names have appeared in news stories and ask for comments.
In some smaller news organizations ombudsmen find it necessary to assume other news-related duties. But in any event, news ombudsmen generally function in an advisory capacity only, not as disciplinarians.
How does the public benefit?
An ombudsman helps to explain the news-gathering process to the public, a process that often is mysterious and, therefore, suspect to many readers.
Having a contact person can help overcome the belief that news media are aloof, arrogant or insensitive to concerns of the public and generally inaccessible to average citizens.
An ombudsman’s column provides still another useful forum for readers, particularly in one-newspaper cities.
Most ombudsmen are selected from within the senior staff of the newspaper or broadcaster they monitor. A few are on fixed-term contracts. In any case, they typically have deep experience in journalism and are chosen also because they have the ability to relate easily and openly to readers.
Is this a new idea?
Relatively speaking, yes — at least in the United States and Canada. The first newspaper ombudsman in the U.S. was appointed in June 1967 in Louisville, Kentucky, to serve readers of The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times. The first Canadian appointment — at The Toronto Star — was in 1972. The concept was in place much earlier in Japan. The Asahi Shimbun in Tokyo established a committee in 1922 to receive and investigate reader complaints. Another mass circulation Tokyo paper, The Yomiuri Shimbun, set up a staff committee in 1938 to monitor the paper’s quality. In 1951 this group became an ombudsman committee which today hears reader complaints about the paper and which meets daily with editors. News ombudsmen today are found throughout North and South America, Europe, and parts of the Middle East and Asia.
Are they always called “ombudsmen?”
No. Some newspapers use titles such as “readers’ representative,” “readers’ advocate,” or “public editor.” Others have an assistant managing editor or an assistant to a senior editor act as an ombudsman.
What is the Organization of News Ombudsmen (ONO)?
Formed in 1980, ONO is a nonprofit corporation with an international membership of active and associate members. It maintains contact with news ombudsmen worldwide, and organizes annual conferences, held in a member’s city, for discussion of news practices and a wide range of issues connected with ombudsman work.
What is the “mission statement” of ONO?
- The news ombudsman is dedicated to protecting and enhancing the quality of journalism by encouraging respectful and truthful discourse about journalism’s practices and purposes.
- The news ombudsman’s primary objective is to promote transparency within his / her news organization.
- The ombudsman works to protect press freedom and promote responsible, high-quality journalism.
- Part of the ombudsman’s role is to receive and investigate complaints about news reporting on behalf of members of the public.
- The ombudsman recommends the most suitable course of action to resolve issues raised in complaints.
- The ombudsman is an independent officer acting in the best interests of news consumers.
- The ombudsman strives to remain completely neutral and fair.
- The ombudsman refrains from engaging in any activity that could create a conflict of interest.
- The ombudsman explains the roles and obligations of journalism to the public.
- The ombudsman acts as a mediator between the expectations of the public and the responsibilities of journalists.
What happens at the organization’s annual conference?
ONO’s yearly meetings are usually held over 2 1/2 working days, and include seminars, panels and speakers on current journalistic topics of special interest to ombudsmen. In addition, ample program time is allotted for shoptalk discussions. Members share their experiences and counsel about how to handle difficult situations.
Conference speakers have included David Shaw, Los Angeles Times media critic; British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper; Ben Bradlee, former Washington Post editor; ethicist Michael Josephson; Dr. Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies; and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Steve Benson.
Among conference topics have been: coverage of minorities; coverage of sex crimes; the ombudsman’s relationship to the news department; the use of anonymous sources; invasion of privacy; plagiarism; conflicts of interest; and a plethora of ethical issues.
In addition to attending ONO’s annual meeting, many ombudsmen participate in regular mini-conferences conducted by four-way conference telephone calls throughout the year. During these calls — coordinated by an ONO office — views are swapped and problems are shared, all with the aim of providing participants with support, counsel and problem-solving ideas.
Who may join the Organization of News Ombudsmen?
The organization welcomes all news ombudsmen. Others from the media, press councils, journalism schools or journalism publications may apply for associate membership.
For information about membership, please contact Kirk LaPointe, ONO’s executive director. His address is: 6336 Hawthorn Lane, Vancouver, BC V6T 2J6, Canada. You may telephone him at 604-353-6228, or email [email protected]. Annual dues are US$500 for major market newspapers/network broadcasters, $250 for all other media organizations, US$150 for associate membership and US$75 for ex-ombudsmen. | <urn:uuid:f223cf0f-53df-410e-89be-e1e7dffb7fff> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://newsombudsmen.org/about-ono | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00095-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931256 | 1,626 | 3.359375 | 3 |
Teachers know that not all students respond to the same instruction with the same degree of understanding. Effective teachers know how to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of each learner. Whether you are a traditional classroom teacher or a teacher of students with special needs, Reading Horizons Discovery was designed with you in mind!
This webinar will address:
Title: Reading Horizons Discovery: Enhanced Differentiated Instruction
Date: Thursday, September 20, 2012
Time: 3:00 PM EDT
This is a free webinar. Sign up today so you don't miss it! | <urn:uuid:0a19acf9-eb8f-47df-b9c6-13488b3e8b15> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.virtualschoolresources.com/2012/09/free-reading-horizons-webinar.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396100.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00030-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939359 | 114 | 2.75 | 3 |
We get to make a living; we give to make a life.
For more inspirational quotes,
The Convention on the Rights of the Child
Children have rights as human beings and also need special care and protection.
Protecting and Ensuring Children's Rights...
The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the first legally binding international instrument to incorporate the full range of human rights—civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. In 1989, world leaders decided that children needed a special convention just for them because people under 18 years old often need special care and protection that adults do not. The leaders also wanted to make sure that the world recognized that children have human rights too.
The Convention sets out these rights in 54 articles and two Optional Protocols. It spells out the basic human rights that children everywhere have: the right to survival; to develop to the fullest; to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation; and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life. The four core principles of the Convention are non-discrimination; devotion to the best interests of the child; the right to life, survival and development; and respect for the views of the child. Every right spelled out in the Convention is inherent to the human dignity and harmonious development of every child. The Convention protects children's rights by setting standards in health care; education; and legal, civil and social services.
By agreeing to undertake the obligations of the Convention (by ratifying or acceding to it), national governments have committed themselves to protecting and ensuring children's rights and they have agreed to hold themselves accountable for this commitment before the international community. States parties to the Convention are obliged to develop and undertake all actions and policies in the light of the best interests of the child.
Please click here to read the 54 Articles of The Convention of the Rights of the Child set forth by The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
UNICEF’s mission is to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. UNICEF is guided in doing this by the provisions and principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The Convention of the Rights of the Child Turns 20. Please click here to read more.
Please click here to read more about UNICEF's mission to aid children worldwide.
Target Gives $1 Million
Read about Ken Fredman, web developer and marketing executive in Manhattan.
Read about Pam Cope, co-founder of the Touch A Life Foundation, in Dallas, TX.
The Denise Amber Lee Foundation
Coaltion to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers
FINCA International provides financial services to the world's lowest-income entrepreneurs. | <urn:uuid:5c7746b4-3aff-4484-86ca-4f1a1583579c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.angelrockproject.com/arp/giving/the_convention_on_the_rights_of_the_child.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397567.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00074-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927044 | 566 | 3.40625 | 3 |
1A deciduous North American and Asian tree with maplelike leaves and bright autumn colors, yielding aromatic resinous balsam.
- Genus Liquidambar, family Hamamelidaceae: several species, including L. orientalis of Asia, which yields liquid storax, and the sweet gum of North America.
- Saplings do look small when you buy them from the garden centre, but avenue trees such as liquidambars, Pinus radiata, Magnolia grandiflora and the like develop into enormous specimens with extensive root systems.
- But the judicious placement of plants - a strawberry tree in the planter and several liquidambars screening a corner - makes the space surprisingly private.
- In front of a small house in Clyde the leaves on a liquidambar are a bright orange.
1.1Liquid balsam obtained chiefly from the Asian liquidambar tree, used medicinally and in perfume. Also called storax.
Late 16th century: modern Latin, apparently formed irregularly from Latin liquidus 'liquid' + medieval Latin ambar 'amber'.
For editors and proofreaders
Definition of liquidambar in:
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
Comments that don't adhere to our Community Guidelines may be moderated or removed. | <urn:uuid:b617be00-8063-445f-b3ae-0309ac52b13a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/liquidambar | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00152-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.859895 | 273 | 2.609375 | 3 |
UW Science Posse Rides Again
August 31, 2011 — Science teachers from around Wyoming gained valuable insights on incorporating science into their classrooms during a recent workshop at the University of Wyoming.
The Science Posse, a group of UW graduate students whose primary goal is to raise awareness and understanding of science, offered the workshop to 19 teachers and 20 UW graduate students.
Workshop sessions related to integrating inquiry-based teaching into curriculum. Participants joined group discussions, took several tours and learned ways to encourage inquiry within students.
Participants were unanimous in praising the opportunity to discuss teaching methods and styles with others. One participant said, "I enjoyed the process by which we learned about inquiry. The activities were very useful and effective in demonstrating the process skills involved with inquiry."
Another said, "The course opened my mind to new ideas and ways of teaching. It created enthusiasm to start another school year."
With this workshop, the Science Posse challenged itself to expand its offerings to schoolchildren across the state. The group has worked with some 70 teachers and 2,500 students in 12 Wyoming counties since its creation in 2006.
The group's goals are to increase public appreciation and awareness of science, improve students' understanding of science, inspire students to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and develop and enhance partnerships between UW and the Wyoming energy industry.
Science teachers attending the Science Posse workshops, listed by town are:
Aurora, Colo. -- Lorry Getz.
Cheyenne -- Barbara Marquer, Amber Martens, Margaret Nicholls and Patricia Urasky.
Douglas -- Mark Steward.
Gillette -- Katie Brunson, Jodi Crago-Wyllie.
Glendo -- Samantha Schwessinger.
Greybull -- Victoria Collingwood.
Kemmerer -- Cody Hartung.
LaBarge -- Ann Wimp.
Lander -- Monte Else.
Laramie -- Kim Burkhart and Pamela Stalder.
Lusk -- Damian Paulson.
Mountain View -- Kimberly Williamson.
Yoder -- Lonna Schmick.
Science Workshop - Gillette teachers Katie Brunson, left, and Jodi Crago-Wyllie were among participants in a recent Science Posse workshop at the University of Wyoming. Teachers from throughout the state learned new skills to improve science teaching in their classrooms. (UW Photo) | <urn:uuid:a561d6c5-317d-4a4f-802a-01756a52f1ca> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.uwyo.edu/uw/news/2011/08/uw-science-posse-rides-again.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00068-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923778 | 494 | 2.609375 | 3 |
|Supporting public health practice in New South Wales|
Surveillance has a fundamental role during public health emergencies to provide accurate and relevant information to guide decision making. For each phase of the NSW response to the pandemic H1N1 (2009) influenza there were significant differences in the public health surveillance objectives and response mechanisms. Consequently each phase placed a different emphasis on the various sources and types of surveillance information which were collected and reported upon. We examine whether the NSW public health surveillance systems were able to inform effective public health management throughout all phases of the pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza.New South Wales Public Health Bulletin 21(5428) 19–25 http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/NB09046
Published online: 8 April 2010
Australian health authorities have for many years undertaken extensive planning for an influenza pandemic. The Australian approach to pandemic influenza has always had as its centrepiece the goals of delay and containment of spread through border control coupled with the active follow-up of early cases, their isolation and treatment with oseltamivir, together with the quarantining and prophylaxis of close contacts of those cases. For the success of these plans, importance was attached to the timely identification of early cases, both those arriving from affected areas overseas, and those arising from early local transmission. Implicit in the plans was the existence of efficient and high capacity mechanisms to effect the public health control measures of isolation, quarantine and antiviral treatment or prophylaxis for each case or contact.1
In April 2009, a new influenza A virus (pandemic [H1N1] 2009 influenza) was isolated in California2 and subsequently linked to earlier cases of respiratory illness beginning in March in Mexico City and February in Veracruz.3,4 On 27 April the World Health Organization (WHO) declared pandemic phase 4. Within a matter of weeks the virus was known to have spread to at least two other countries. On 25 April, in response, the NSW Department of Health opened its Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (PHEOC) and on 28 April announced the commencement of the DELAY phase of the National Pandemic Action Plan. Three weeks later, sustained community transmission of the virus within Australia was confirmed, and on 22 May a move to the CONTAIN phase was announced nationally. On 17 June, less than 2 weeks later, Australia moved to the PROTECT phase, which had not been foreshadowed in prior plans. There were significant differences in the public health surveillance objectives and response mechanisms for each of these phases.
In this article we examine whether NSW public health surveillance systems provided the information required to effectively drive public health action and inform critical public health policy decisions during each of these phases. Our approach to this task is to ask the following questions: What did we want our surveillance systems to tell us? Did they tell us what we wanted to know? What was missing or what could we have done better?
The surveillance systems used during the pandemic (H1N1) influenza response are described in Box 1. The surveillance findings for pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza in NSW have been reported in detail elsewhere5 and will not be repeated here.
The initial surveillance and control case definition for suspected cases, adopted on 30 April 2009, was: a person with an acute febrile respiratory illness, with onset within 7 days of close contact with a person who is a confirmed or an influenza A-positive suspect case of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza virus infection; or onset since 15 April 2009 and within 7 days of travel to Mexico, the USA or Canada. Japan and Panama were added to this list of affected regions on 23 May, and Chile, Argentina and greater metropolitan Melbourne were added on 15 June.
Surveillance methods used
The primary method for operationalising this case definition during the DELAY phase was through the use of border health declaration cards, first issued on 6 May to incoming international aircraft passengers who were required to self-declare symptoms and relevant potential exposures. Thermal imaging scanners had also been introduced at all international airports in Australia and were used to detect passengers with a raised temperature. Sydney International Airport handles an average of 4000 passengers each hour,6 making the individual clinical assessment of every incoming passenger infeasible. Incoming passengers who self-declared symptoms or relevant exposure, and passengers who were detected by thermal imaging scanners were assessed at the airport by public health staff to determine whether they met the case definition. If they did, nose and throat swabs were taken, followed by home isolation of the case and quarantine of close contacts until the diagnosis was excluded based on a negative swab result or until the potentially infectious period had passed.
Extensive media warnings for the general public were also issued asking people who had symptoms to call their local doctor and if necessary, were referred to an Emergency Department for assessment. During the DELAY and CONTAIN phases, the relevant identifying, demographic, exposure and health assessment data were captured in real time in NetEpi,7 using wireless internet connectivity available at the airport. NetEpi was also used to record epidemiological, laboratory result and case management details of both suspected and confirmed cases of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza, as well as relevant details of their close contacts.
NetEpi is an open-source, web-based database system designed for public health response and fieldwork, which was originally developed by NSW Health in response to the global severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003. It has been incrementally enhanced and refined since then. It allows several hundred authorised personnel in many locations to simultaneously enter and update person-based epidemiological and public health response information in a single, shared database, thus providing instant access to the most recent data at all times. During later response phases, when quarantining of contacts ceased, only the details of confirmed cases were captured.
Public health real-time emergency department surveillance system
The public health real-time emergency department surveillance system (PHREDSS) was used throughout the response to pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza to provide the number of presentations to emergency departments with an influenza like illness. PHREDSS is an existing electronic, syndromic surveillance system which receives and analyses data from the clinical information systems of 52 hospital emergency departments across NSW in near real time. A summary report was produced each day of possible H1N1cases which was then sent to public health units to investigate.
The existing laboratory surveillance system provided data on the total number of respiratory samples tested and total samples positive for pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza. These data were entered onto NetEpi and were available to all public health staff. Entering results directly into NetEpi allowed for enhanced management of cases and contacts who were under quarantine. Laboratory surveillance has been described in detail in this issue by Adamson and colleagues (pp. 36–38).
Outcome of DELAY phase surveillance
During the DELAY phase, from 28 April to 22 May, there were 599 incoming passengers assessed at the airport: of these, 43 met the suspect case definition and were entered into NetEpi and placed in isolation. During the same period, details of approximately 280 additional people who also met the suspect case criteria were notified from various sources in the community, including general practitioners (GPs), emergency departments and via a NSW Health enquiry line/call centre, which also used NetEpi to capture the details of callers. Approximately 40 people who were close contacts of suspect cases were placed in quarantine during this phase, at least until laboratory results cleared the relevant cases.
In retrospect, the number of incoming air passengers who met the case definition during the DELAY phase appears small. It is unclear whether very few incoming passengers had the infection during this early phase; whether passengers with the infection were failing to declare symptoms or recent travel to affected countries, or both; or whether the case definition itself was overly restrictive. In particular, the case definition required a measured fever of 38°C, or a good history of fever.8 It has been reported recently that only a minority of subjects infected experimentally with seasonal influenza viruses develop fever,9 and during the DELAY phase, a WHO report from a school outbreak in Canada suggested that fever was not a defining characteristic of infection by the pandemic virus.10
An example of an alternative approach to surveillance and containment is offered by the handling of the arrival of the Pacific Dawn cruise ship in Sydney, as reported in greater detail by Binns and co-authors in this issue (pp. 10–15). In brief, an outbreak of respiratory illness onboard this ship was, post disembarkation in Sydney, identified as pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza, and an extraordinary effort was made to prevent further spread of the virus by any of the 3000 passengers and crew. The steps taken included voluntary home isolation or quarantine for 7 days of all ship passengers and crew, with daily automated telephone follow-up to encourage the reporting of symptoms of any illness. Close contacts of all suspected and presumed cases, and of 62 confirmed cases, were also quarantined. This response was extremely resource-intensive, but was also extremely successful in preventing transmission to the wider community.
Application of a public health response, at this level of intensity, at short notice, to a significant fraction of incoming air passengers would not be feasible due to the size of the standing public health workforce and the laboratory capacity required. However, the surveillance and response information management tools proved to be scalable, and with further development could potentially help co-ordinate the actions of the massive workforce required.
The Communicable Diseases Network of Australia (CDNA) Guidelines for the CONTAIN phase11 stated that the surveillance objectives were:
As in the DELAY phase, these surveillance objectives were operationalised in the form of a suspect case definition which then drove clinical assessment, laboratory testing, and case registration in NetEpi. This surveillance activity in turn informed the public health actions of isolation, quarantine and, to a lesser extent, school-based interventions.
The suspect case definition employed was relatively unchanged from the DELAY phase. By this stage the case definition had been expanded to include contacts with a confirmed case with more minor symptoms. As previously noted, as the number of cases in Victoria increased in June, the case definition was again changed to include travellers returning from Greater Metropolitan Melbourne.
Limitations of the case definition
The case definition did not account for the possibility of new introductions of the virus from other countries, nor for possible early community transmission – that is, second or later generation cases which had no connection with overseas travel. This would have required a suspect-case definition without any necessary reference to overseas travel, allied with a suitably specific, sensitive and rapid method of diagnosis, and backed by sufficient clinical assessment and laboratory capacity. To effectively contain (aside from the DELAY phase goal of isolation or quarantine post arrival), we needed to detect very early community transmission. However, the case definitions for the CONTAIN phase sought to detect imported cases rather than detecting early transmission in the community. As mentioned, there were good reasons for this approach, but nevertheless there was a mismatch between the goals for the CONTAIN phase and the case definition actually used. This was, however, unlikely to have had much impact on the epidemic in NSW, since the case definition was also unable to detect infectious people who had no symptoms regardless of their place of origin. Although, in recognition of the potential for community transmission occurring in NSW, sentinel surveillance for cases presenting at emergency departments (PHREDSS) with an influenza-like illness without overseas travel was already in place and being actively monitored.
Community transmission was first reported by GPs in Victoria and then South Australia.12,13 In NSW, advice to suspect cases was that they should call their GP or self-present to emergency departments rather than presenting to GPs’ surgeries.14 The reasons for advocating this approach were to discourage the inappropriate collection of swabs as there were scarce laboratory resources, and to protect GPs and practice staff from infection. However, this did not stop GPs from requesting tests for influenza and the volume of tests ordered by GPs was two-fold greater than that ordered by emergency departments.4
Surveillance methods used
The surveillance systems put in place for the DELAY phase were continued during the CONTAIN phase and public health responses focused on tracing cases in the community linked to cases who had travelled, resulting in containment efforts in schools and community settings. The CONTAIN phase lasted a little under 4 weeks, before the PROTECT phase began.
Mapping where cases lived
During the CONTAIN phase, for the first time ever in NSW, the addresses of cases were geocoded (assigned to exact geographical co-ordinates) in near real time, counts of cases aggregated in small areas (Census Collector Districts of about 200 households each, much smaller than postcode or local government areas) and the results made available via an internal web page to authorised personnel as animated high-resolution time-series maps viewable with the popular and free Google Earth software. All these steps were entirely automated, running several times each day without intervention. The animated maps showed the appearance of sporadic cases across NSW, and also showed clear evidence of gradual local spread between contiguous Collector Districts in several locations across rural and regional NSW and in the Sydney metropolitan area. There is potential for such high-resolution, near real-time information to help target surveillance and response efforts more precisely. A future challenge will be to integrate this type of very detailed surveillance information into core public health practice.
The focus for the PROTECT phase was identifying people who were at greatest risk of severe infection with the aim of providing medical care and interventions to prevent poor outcomes. These were people with: chronic respiratory symptoms, pregnant women, people with morbid obesity, Indigenous people, patients with moderate-to-severe disease with rapid deterioration; and people who had chronic respiratory conditions, cardiac disease, chronic metabolic disease, chronic renal and liver disease, haemoglobinopathies, immunosuppression or chronic neurological conditions. These people were advised to go to emergency departments for assessment.
People who reported only mild symptoms, and who did not meet the vulnerable group criteria were advised to stay at home until better and to consult their local doctor if needed.
In response to evidence of widespread community transmission in Victoria and later elsewhere, a number of measures were discontinued in the PROTECT phase: border screening was abandoned, quarantining of contacts ceased, and laboratory confirmation and treatment of pandemic influenza was reserved for those with severe illness or predisposing underlying conditions. To better use laboratory resources, testing was primarily recommended when it would directly affect patient management or for sentinel surveillance (e.g. GPs and patients admitted to hospitals).
Surveillance methods used
Surveillance of hospital presentations
In order to measure community spread of clinically-detectable pandemic (H1N1) 2009 infection, different surveillance strategies were needed. PHREDSS continued to be a vital source of surveillance information. It was anticipated that during the PROTECT phase, people with more severe illness would attend emergency departments and thus be captured by the existing emergency department surveillance mechanism.
In pre-pandemic planning, flu clinics were to have been the primary point of contact with the health-care system, and thus the main point of collection for surveillance and monitoring information. However, due to the relatively mild nature of the disease, flu clinics tended to see only an intermittent overflow of patients who presented to emergency departments. Planning had envisaged that a standardised set of data items would be collected about each flu clinic patient, and these data would be collated and analysed promptly to inform health system planning and response. In reality, although a standard paper-based data collection form was made available for use by flu clinics, no mechanism was established to collect the data recorded, and analysis of the data was only able to proceed several months later. However, a web-based system (‘FluPut’) was successfully established at very short notice to collect daily throughput data from each flu clinic. Data included: whether the clinic was operating, and if so, the total number of patients assessed, the proportion referred to emergency departments or for admission, and the number of courses of oseltamivir dispensed.
Intensive care surveillance
Although the disease proved to be relatively mild in most of those with infection, anecdotal reports indicated that intensive care units (ICUs) were caring for an extraordinarily large number of relatively young patients, many of them pregnant, with severe and very rapidly progressing respiratory failure requiring advanced mechanical ventilatory support or even extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). The need for surveillance capabilities for sicker patients admitted to hospital wards and ICUs had been anticipated in pre-pandemic planning, but mechanisms to collect such data in a timely fashion had not been established. An existing near real-time general and ICU-bed occupancy monitoring system did not collect adequate information describing the reason for admission to allow influenza patients to be distinguished from all other patients.
However, a new web-based system to collect a daily aggregate census of the numbers of patients admitted to each NSW ICU with influenza and influenza-related complications, as well as numbers of pregnant patients and patients requiring ECMO support was found to be valuable. A separate existing register, established and operated by the Australia and New Zealand Intensive Care Society, was used to collect clinical information on ICU patients with confirmed influenza.
Paediatric hospital surveillance
A similar clinical register of children admitted to the three children’s hospitals in NSW was also established. Clinical information and follow-up outcome information was collected by a small team of nurses at each hospital for all patients admitted with a laboratory-confirmed test of influenza.
Deaths data were available by direct follow-up of hospitalised cases, from information supplied by NSW coroners and from death certificate data. The surveillance of death certificates uses the medical certificate cause of death information from the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages to assess all-cause mortality and excess pneumonia and influenza deaths due to circulating influenza viruses.
General practice-based surveillance
Given the relatively mild nature of the disease, and public health messages that encouraged people with mild symptoms to remain at home, it was necessary to rapidly institute some additional forms of surveillance data in order to address otherwise very limited knowledge of the level of illness and degree of spread in the wider community. A GP sentinel surveillance system covering approximately 30 practices was established in just 2 weeks during July. The principle behind sentinel surveillance is that collection of data by a relatively small number of GPs is able to provide a representation of the number of people attending their GP. Selected general practices across NSW were invited by local public health units to participate in limited data collection. Each participating practice recorded the total number of patients and the number presenting with influenza-like illness on a selected day each week. Of the 660 patients who attended one of the participating GPs, 140 had a nose and throat swab collected. These data were collated using NetEpi.
This surveillance system revealed that at its peak in the third week of July, approximately 10% of all presentations to participating GPs were for influenza-like illnesses, and nearly one-third of the swabs taken from these patients confirmed infection with pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza. In the final week of July and the first week of August, the GP sentinel surveillance system data showed a dramatic drop in influenza presentations, which was mirrored by a slower but nevertheless pronounced drop in presentations to emergency departments and flu clinics.
Work place surveillance
Arrangements were also made for a major Australian employer with a very large and distributed workforce to forward daily counts of workers absent for more than 3 days, by postcode of place of employment. Because of the restriction on days absent, this reporting appears to show the incidence of somewhat more serious illness-causing longer absence. It is also restricted to the working age population. Within those constraints, 2009 information suggested a similar degree of absenteeism to the 2007 seasonal influenza epidemic. This information source needs further evaluation over a longer period.
A role for record linkage
Record linkage (matching) between the surveillance and laboratory test data contained in the NetEpi database, and non-real-time data on hospital-admitted patients, death certificates and the clinical registers mentioned above was carried out. During future public health emergencies, it would be both feasible and desirable to carry out such matching and consolidation of data about individuals from multiple data sources on a continuous and near real-time basis.
Each phase of the pandemic response placed a different emphasis on the various sources and types of surveillance information which were collected and reported upon: in the DELAY phase, border surveillance and control were deemed most important, while also maintaining vigilance for signs of local community transmission. During the CONTAIN phase, rapid identification of and response to localised outbreaks were paramount, and during the PROTECT phase, the primary requirement was monitoring the impact of the virus on the health-care system, particularly the demand for scarce and highly specialised ICU treatment facilities. Throughout there was a need to gauge the spread of pandemic virus infection in the wider community, and the impact the illness caused on the workforce and other aspects of societal function.
In the initial DELAY and CONTAIN phases, particularly before tests specific for the pandemic virus were developed, a reliable case definition was of paramount importance. The case definition initially only allowed for identification of cases coming into the country; it was later adapted to include the possibility of community transmission. Throughout all phases, case definitions required the presence of fever in the absence of clear contact with confirmed cases. However, relaxation of these case definitions would have resulted in many hundreds more suspect cases, all of whom would have required follow-up.
Communication of surveillance findings remains a challenge. High-level decision makers typically require only high-level summary information, except when dealing with specific issues, when they tend to need highly detailed information about specific issues. Conversely, those responsible for managing smaller regions or more specific aspects of the public health response require summary information at much higher levels of granularity, while those implementing public health interventions tend to need highly-detailed operational ‘line listing’ reports, rather than aggregated information. Distribution of such low-level, disaggregated information also carries privacy concerns, and it is necessary to ensure that only those staff with a need to know have access to such information.
No single form of situation report can simultaneously satisfy all these requirements, and thus communication of surveillance information must be able to be tailored to each recipient’s needs. Currently available web technologies, many of them originally developed to facilitate social networking, could be adapted for such purposes. However, implicit in such an approach is the need to automate surveillance reporting as far as possible. This remains a challenge, with the majority of public health emergency situation reports still being assembled by hand. Automatic reporting takes time and very high-level skills to establish, and may not be able to adapt to rapidly changing requirements with sufficient speed. The solution is to develop mechanisms and tools which make the setting up and modification of automated reporting and analysis of surveillance data much faster and easier than it is at present, and to ensure that a skilled cadre of staff familiar with these tools is always available.
Despite the relatively mild nature of the disease which the pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza virus caused in most people, and despite some as yet unmet challenges in the way surveillance is carried out in public health emergencies, there were good returns on the effort and resources invested in planning and capability development prior to and during the emergency. For the first time, we demonstrated that it was possible to organise and effectively orchestrate a large-scale response to a public health emergency, and that that response was effective in delaying and containing the spread of a highly communicable disease. It is important that we continue to make appropriate and sustained investments in public health surveillance, to close the gaps identified during the 2009 influenza pandemic, and to consolidate gains already made. This is important because there will inevitably be other major threats to the public health.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Swine influenza A (H1N1) Infection in two children – Southern California, March–April 2009. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2009; 58(15): 400–2.
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Cohen J. Swine flu outbreak. Out of Mexico? Scientists ponder swine flu’s origins. Science 2009; 324 700–2.
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Fraser C, Donnelly CA, Cauchemez S, Hanage WP, Van Kerkhove MD, Hollingsworth TD, et al. Pandemic potential of a strain of influenza A (H1N1): early findings. Science 2009; 324 1557–61.
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NSW Public Health Network. Progression and impact of the first winter wave of the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza in New South Wales, Australia. Euro Surveill 2009; 14(42): ii–19365.
Novel Swine-Origin Influenza A (H1N1) Investigation Team. Emergence of a novel swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus in humans. N Engl J Med 2009; 361 1–10.
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Carrat F, Vergu E, Ferguson NM, Lemaitre M, Cauchemez S, Leach S, et al. Time lines of infection and disease in human influenza: a review of volunteer challenge studies. Am J Epidemiol 2008; 167(7): 775–85.
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Fielding JE, Higgins N, Gregory JE, Grant KA, Catton MG, Bergeri I, et al. Pandemic H1N1 Influenza Surveillance in Victoria, Australia, April-September, 2009. Euro Surveill 2009; 14(42): ii. | <urn:uuid:716a9203-7515-4769-a2c8-2b52818d4c6e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.publish.csiro.au/view/journals/dsp_journal_fulltext.cfm?nid=226&f=NB09046 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396959.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00054-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961445 | 5,357 | 2.734375 | 3 |
A scientist doesn’t often fret that his research subjects might clog the ventilation system of his office. But Chad Widmer, 37, a senior aquarist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium just south of San Francisco, studies jellyfish, and along the world’s coasts, jellies seem to be exploding in size and number, pulsing through waters they haven’t ventured into before. In places like the Gulf of Mexico—where 60-pound blobs with 80-foot tentacles have appeared in recent years—the increasingly abundant creatures provoke mostly fear and disgust. To Widmer, though, everything about the jellies is fascinating. (He has a crystal jelly, the Aequorea victoria, tattooed on his left leg.) He especially wants to be able to predict their “blooms,” sudden spurts in the jelly population that can wreak havoc on fishermen’s nets or snarl a building—like the Monterey Bay Aquarium—whose operations depend on running seawater through it.
The aquarium stands on a part of the waterfront where John Steinbeck famously described boats brimming with fish. Within a decade of Cannery Row’s 1945 publication, though, the bay had been emptied of silver sardines, and now, a half century later, amid the jellyfish boom, something dire is happening to the bay once more. Over the past several years, Widmer says, salmon catches have “gotten worse and worse and worse,” while leatherback sea turtles, in order to find their food, have had to go “farther and farther offshore.” And the mola, a large sunfish that was once so abundant in Monterey Bay? “They’re just not here,” Widmer says. At first glance, even jellyfish would seem to be vanishing; in recent years the creatures have been more or less disappearing from the bay’s surface. Look deeper, though, and you’ll find a staggering diversity of these spectacular, tentacular creatures.
Along with the worries comes a rich set of scientific questions: Does the rise of the jellies (pdf) have something to do with the decline of the fish? What can jellyfish tell us about the health of the oceans? How will they fare as the oceans absorb more carbon dioxide from the air and become more acidic? Right now, no one knows. Across town at Monterey Peninsula College, Kevin Raskoff, who has investigated jellies in the Arctic, argues that for all their abundance, they are “probably the most alien life-form on the planet.” He still sees the animals as being, to a great extent, “a big black box. We know they’re there, but we don’t necessarily know what they’re doing.” Yet everything we have managed to learn about jellies in recent years “keeps pointing to how much more important they are than we thought,” Raskoff says. “There’s a long history of jellyfish really coming into huge numbers, big blooms, with a big effect on ecology, when you have perturbations to the system.” While perturbations can be part of a natural cycle, humans have been jostling the ocean ecosystem with dismaying gusto. We’ve been overfishing tuna and swordfish—some of the jellies’ predators—and the jellies seem to be responding.
At the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), founded in 1987 by computer pioneer David Packard, veteran scientist Bruce Robison isn’t ready to make a primary-level link between jelly increases and global warming, but he’s certainly intrigued by the “second-, third-, or eighth-level connections.” Jellies, he says, “show us how the seas are changing, both naturally and in response to our own meddling.” We may not be putting jellies in charge of the oceans, but “we are giving them their shot at playing a bigger role by wiping out much of their competition,” he says. It’s their “broadly adaptable physiology” that will allow them “to outcompete more complicated animals for niches that become available because of warming, or acidification, or any number of reasons.”
So don’t blame the jellies. However many intake valves they clog or swimmers’ legs they sting, jellies aren’t turning the oceans acidic or warming them up. We are.
Jellyfish are not fish at all. They lack brains and spines, and yet they seem to exhibit a curious superiority, generating their own light and taking on guises almost ridiculously beyond classification. Siphonophores are jellyfish linked together to form what look like weaponized space platforms, while among the discrete medusae, moon jellies can appear both vegetal and artificial—purple pansies trapped under gauzy, throbbing petticoats. Brainless and bloblike though they may be, jellyfish “make a lot of different choices,” Widmer says: to seek the light or the dark; to spawn or not to spawn. They can sense food—zooplankton or fish larvae—in the distance and then cast out their tentacles to catch it.
Any scientist hoping to study jellies must reckon with a distinct set of obstacles. The creatures are too fragile to tag and monitor, so it’s hard even to know how long they live. Some probably last only several weeks, though Widmer has managed to keep a cohort of moon jellies alive for more than five years in one of the aquarium’s tanks. Only in the past two decades has what he calls “a revolution in collection techniques”—involving manned and remote-operated submersible vehicles—allowed researchers to bring intact specimens, instead of undifferentiated goo, back to their labs.
Yet for all that can be learned there, how much better it would be to know how jellies live and breathe, not in the glass tanks of human laboratories but in the ocean, where they actually reside. Knowing how much oxygen they use, for example, would indicate how much energy jellies require, how much prey they need to consume, and thus how big a player they are in the underwater food web.
To learn just how much jellies breathe in their native habitat, scientists from MBARI are setting off this morning in the Point Lobos, one of the institute’s three research vessels. Leading the team is Robison, a native Californian who still bears traces of his surfer-boy youth beneath the lines of weathering. He has watchful blue eyes, an easy, cackling laugh, and an undiminished enthusiasm for the work he’s been doing for more than three decades. | <urn:uuid:3c8e12f6-a575-47d7-a105-fbc4844323ff> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://discovermagazine.com/2007/sep/do-jellyfish-rule-the-world | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398216.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00157-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951665 | 1,457 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) represent one of the most diverse animals groups. Yet, the phylogeny of advanced ditrysian Lepidoptera, accounting for about 99 per cent of lepidopteran species, has remained largely unresolved. We report a rigorous and comprehensive analysis of lepidopteran affinities. We performed phylogenetic analyses of 350 taxa representing nearly 90 per cent of lepidopteran families. We found Ditrysia to be a monophyletic taxon with the clade Tischerioidea + Palaephatoidea being the sister group of it. No support for the monophyly of the proposed major internested ditrysian clades, Apoditrysia, Obtectomera and Macrolepidoptera, was found as currently defined, but each of these is supported with some modification. The monophyly or near-monophyly of most previously identified lepidopteran superfamilies is reinforced, but several species-rich superfamilies were found to be para- or polyphyletic. Butterflies were found to be more closely related to ‘microlepidopteran’ groups of moths rather than the clade Macrolepidoptera, where they have traditionally been placed. There is support for the monophyly of Macrolepidoptera when butterflies and Calliduloidea are excluded. The data suggest that the generally short diverging nodes between major groupings in basal non-tineoid Ditrysia are owing to their rapid radiation, presumably in correlation with the radiation of flowering plants.Ditrysia is the largest single taxon within Lepidoptera, with its name reflecting the two sexual openings of females. Both moths and butterflies fall into Ditrysia.
The point that interests me the most is that butterflies (the clade containing typical butterflies and skippers) are more closely related to micromoths than macromoths. That is not at all a result I would have expected. | <urn:uuid:86d099a9-88e4-4172-be21-4dd3b906f3a9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://dendroica.blogspot.com/2010/08/lepidopteran-taxonomy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00173-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938836 | 424 | 3.328125 | 3 |
FoodFacts.com ran across some very important information today that we wanted to share with our community. It’s especially pertinent for diabetics or anyone with diabetics in their family or circle of friends and warrants attention.
Many diabetics and folks who know and love them have considered diet food products as an answer to keeping their sugar levels down. In addition to understanding how carbohydrates affect their disease, and adjusting their diets accordingly, they can also consider sugar-free diet, light, or low fat food products acceptable choices. After all diabetes is a disease that is directly related to sugar … right?
There’s been new research released that point to two additives in foods that can actually cause an increase in fasting blood glucose levels and have been found to be linked to the onset of type 2 diabetes. This is the most common form of the disease, affecting anyone from young children to older adults. And it turns out that the foods that some people think may actually be safe to eat for diabetics really may not be at all.
The study involved mice and its results showed that both aspartame and MSG are actually increasing fasting blood glucose levels and reducing insulin sensitivity … not a good combination for folks with dietabetes.
The presence of aspartame as a product ingredient was shown to have both these effects. When both aspartame and MSG are included in product ingredients a dual effect was discovered – both the spike in fasting blood glucose levels and reduced insulin sensitivity along with weight elevation. As double whammy for diabetes.
This study is fairly ground breaking as it is the first one published that illustrates a hyperglycemic effect from chronic exposure to a combination of food additives that are incredibly common in the food supply. Just take a look at products labeled “sugar-free”, “diet”, “light”, “low-calorie” or “low fat”. And it’s especially important to remember that looking for MSG isn’t just a simple search for monosodium glutamate on an ingredient list. MSG is hidden in many ingredients that are added to processed food. The dual effects described in this study show that this combination can actually spur the development of diabetes.
As with all studies, more research is needed. But since FoodFacts.com understands how many of the products in stores across the country contain both of these ingredients, we felt it especially important to inform and educate our community. Whether you have diabetes or there’s someone in your family who does, it’s more important than ever to read and understand the ingredients of food products. Once again, the ingredient list can tell us what we need to know to keep our families safe and healthy.
Read more: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22697049 | <urn:uuid:b0ab17c9-7ad5-4584-b80a-9bf3821577e5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.foodfacts.com/2012/07/31/important-nutrition-news-for-diabetics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396222.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00172-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960378 | 588 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Childhood cancer strikes about one out of 300 children before the age of 19. When the cancer patient is a child, normal life stops for the whole family — parents need to be away from work, siblings are separated. For caregivers of children with cancer, the diagnosis may be numbing, with parents feeling confused and shocked. Although it may seem like life is at a standstill, important decisions need to be made quickly about the cancer patient's treatment.
Cancer in Children: Handling the Diagnosis
If you don’t believe the cancer diagnosis and go into denial, it’s okay — these are normal first reactions, a defense mechanism that helps people cope with the initial shock. But you will still need to respond to the situation and take action. These strategies will help you focus on your child’s needs:
- Take notes. When parents first talk about the cancer patient's diagnosis and treatment, it may be hard to concentrate and remember what was said. It's a good idea to take notes and bring along friends or family members to doctor visits.
- Anticipate emotions. Understand that shock, disbelief, fear, and anxiety are normal reactions you will experience. Knowing to expect these emotions and talking about them openly will help keep them from clouding your judgment.
- Consider getting a second opinion. Childhood cancer is a rare disease. Your family doctor or pediatrician will usually refer you to a nearby medical center. You have the right to get a second opinion and it is important to be confident in the cancer patient's treatment team. But remember that time is important. Sometimes parents' denial can lead them to doubt any opinion, and that can delay treatment, and how well the child responds to that treatment.
- Take care of yourself. Make sure that you eat properly, get enough sleep, and pay attention to your appearance. Parents and other caregivers who maintain normal routines can better support the child with cancer, and the child will be reassured to see that you are acting normally.
Cancer in Children: Starting Treatment
Once you have settled on a treatment plan, the most important decision is to find the best treatment available. In almost all cases, this will be at a childhood cancer center. The American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute both recommend children's cancer centers because they provide a team approach for childhood cancer patients. The team usually includes doctors and nurses who have special training in treating cancer in children, as well as social workers, teachers, psychologists, nutritionists, and recreation therapists. Here are some other things you should know:
- Take an active role. As the caregiver, you are responsible for giving consent and making important treatment decisions. This means learning as much as you can, asking lots of questions, and developing positive relationships with the treatment team members.
- Consider participating in a clinical trial. Most children's cancer centers are members of the Children's Oncology Group. This group, which is supported by the National Cancer Institute, offers cancer patients the latest treatment options. Clinical trials are always optional and you will need to carefully discuss the benefits and risks with your treatment team. About 55 to 65 percent of children with cancer under age 14 participate in a clinical trial.
- Keep up with schoolwork. Children's cancer centers have education coordinators and teachers specially trained to help children with cancer continue their schooling during treatment. School provides them with a normal world apart from cancer.
- Take advantage of support services. Children's cancer centers are aware that when a child is the cancer patient, the whole family is affected. Your family will benefit from the education, support, and counseling offered at the cancer center. Many treatment centers offer support groups for parents, siblings, and children with cancer.
While you may feel that your world is spinning out of control, the support available to families of children with cancer can help you make it through the initial shock and be in a better frame of mind to participate in your child's treatment decisions.
The most important thing to know is that treatment of childhood cancers has improved dramatically in the past 25 years. The five-year survival rate for all childhood cancers — the percentage of youngsters still alive five years after diagnosis — is about 80 percent.
Last Updated: 2/9/2010 | <urn:uuid:cd9e90f6-6dd0-4fb9-8986-1c08e6754983> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.everydayhealth.com/cancer/when-a-child-has-cancer.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00097-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955853 | 864 | 3.0625 | 3 |
While on this theme we will add another anecdote of an adventure with a grizzly bear, told of John Day, the Kentucky hunter, but which happened at a different period of the expedition. Day was hunting in company with one of the clerks of the company, a lively youngster, who was a great favorite with the veteran, but whose vivacity he had continually to keep in check. They were in search of deer, when suddenly a huge grizzly bear emerged from a thicket about thirty yards distant, rearing himself upon his hind legs with a terrific growl, and displaying a hideous array of teeth and claws. The rifle of the young man was leveled in an instant, but John Day’s iron hand was as quickly upon his arm. “Be quiet, boy! be quiet!” exclaimed the hunter between his clenched teeth, and without turning his eyes from the bear. They remained motionless. The monster regarded them for a time, then, lowering himself on his fore paws, slowly withdrew. He had not gone many paces, before he again returned, reared himself on his hind legs, and repeated his menace. Day’s hand was still on the arm of his young companion; he again pressed it hard, and kept repeating between his teeth, “Quiet, boy!—keep quiet!—keep quiet!”—though the latter had not made a move since his first prohibition. The bear again lowered himself on all fours, retreated some twenty yards further, and again turned, reared, showed his teeth, and growled. This third menace was too much for the game spirit of John Day. “By Jove!” exclaimed he, “I can stand this no longer,” and in an instant a ball from his rifle whizzed into his foe. The wound was not mortal; but, luckily, it dismayed instead of enraged the animal, and he retreated into the thicket.
Day’s companion reproached him for not practicing the caution which he enjoined upon others. “Why, boy,” replied the veteran, “caution is caution, but one must not put up with too much, even from a bear. Would you have me suffer myself to be bullied all day by a varmint?”
Mountain Travelling.—Sufferings From
Hunger and Thirst—Powder River.—Game in Abundance.-A
Hunter’s Paradise.—Mountain Peak Seen at a Great Distance.—
One of the Bighorn Chain.—Rocky Mountains.—Extent.—
Appearance.—Height.-The Great American Desert.—Various
Characteristics of the Mountains.—Indian Superstitions
Concerning Them.—Land of Souls.—Towns of the Free and
Generous Spirits—Happy Hunting Grounds.
For the two following days, the travellers pursued a westerly course for thirty-four miles along a ridge of country dividing the tributary waters of the Missouri and the Yellowstone. As landmarks they guided themselves by the summits of the far distant mountains, which they supposed to belong to the Bighorn chain. They were gradually rising into a higher temperature, for the weather was cold for the season, with a sharp frost in the night, and ice of an eighth of an inch in thickness. | <urn:uuid:1b2ca986-31fe-4924-8449-a2b744ca8012> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/1371/144.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399106.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00173-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980158 | 682 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Mauzy, Mauzey, Mauze, Moze
For many years, Genealogical Record of the Descendants of Henry Mauzy, A Huguenot Refugee, the Ancestors of the Mauzys of Virginia and Other States from 1685 to 1910, by Richard Mauzy, 1911, was the definitive work on this family. It boasted responses from Mauzys all across the U.S., 105 pages on the descendants of Henry Mauzy. But it was only breadcrumbs showing the way, none of it supported by documents. Still, it was something.
Since then other researchers have taken up the search. It is generally thought that John Mauzé, born in England about 1675 to Michael Mauzé of France, is the common ancestor for the Mauzys of the U.S.
Dr. Armand Jean Mauzey published his research in 1950 in an excellent article for the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography1. He believes the Mauzé name might have come from the Arabian word “Mauz”, a plantain tree, and may have been adopted during the Crusades. He documents 10 Mauzé families that left France for the British Isles between 1681 and 1724, Huguenots who fled France on the repeal of the Edict of Nantes. The family appears to have come from lands near LaRochelle.
The Mauzys undertook the hardship of escape from France, travel to the British Isles and then to the New World in search of religious tolerance and freedom. How proud and grateful we should all be for their courage.
1. Armand Jean Mauzey, M.D., D.S.C., “The Mauzey-Mauzy Family”, Virgina Magazine of History and Biography 58 (1950), 112-119. | <urn:uuid:11453d02-3c56-4872-8d7f-3e0d2397c2f6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ancestortracking.blogspot.com/2009/10/surname-saturday.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00029-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938406 | 392 | 3.078125 | 3 |
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THINGS FALL APART (1958)
Study Guide: Reading & Study Questions
Part I, Chs. 1-13 (pp. 3-88) |
Part II, Chs. 14-19 (pp. 91-118) |
Part III, Chs. 20-25 (pp. 121-148)
URL of this page:
References to page numbers below are from the edition used in
HUM 211 Cultures
& Literatures of Africa:
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. [First published 1958.]
Expanded edition with notes.1996. London: Heinemann, 2000.
Part I, Chs. 1-13 (pp. 3-88)
- Achebe takes the title for his novel from a line in a
classic Western modernist poem "The Second
Coming" (wr. 1919; pub. 1921), by William Butler
Yeats (1865-1939; Irish). Paul Brians explains the
background of Yeats poem: "Yeats
was attracted to the spiritual and occult world and
fashioned for himself an elaborate mythology to explain
human experience. 'The Second Coming,' written
after the catastrophe of World War I and with communism
and fascism rising, is a compelling glimpse of an inhuman
world about to be born. Yeats believed that history in
part moved in two thousand-year cycles. The Christian
era, which followed that of the ancient world, was about
to give way to an ominous period represented by the
rough, pitiless beast in the poem." Read "The
Second Coming" (below) and consider why Achebe might chose to take
the title of his novel from Yeats’ poem.
Consider how Achebes literary allusion to
Yeats poem might deepen or extendby comparison and/or
contrastthe meaning(s) of Achebes title and
Turning and turning in the
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation
is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words
When a vast image out of Spiritus
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands
of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all
Reel shadows of the indignant desert
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking
And what rough beast, its hour come at
Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?
- Describe Okonkwo, the protagonist of Things
Fall Apart. Consider him as an Igbo heroic character: how
does he work to achieve greatness as defined by his and
culture? How does he differ from Western heroes whom you
are community familiar with? What are strengths and
- Describe Unoka, Okonkwos father. What are
Okonkwos feelings toward Unoka, and why? How does
the (negative) example of his father shape Okonkwos
character and actions? What do the early descriptions of
Okonkwos success and Unokas failure tell us
about Igbo society? How does one succeed in this cultural
context? What do we learn from the system of the taking
of titles? Who seems to be excluded from opportunities to
gain such success?
- Describe the narrator of Things Fall Apart, the
"voice" telling us the story of Okonkwo,
Umuofia (Igbo for "people of the forest," per
Brians), and the Igbo world of the nine villages. How
would you describe this narrative voice, its point of
view, its values and perspectives? In the introductory
essay to our edition, Simon Gikandi calls the
novels storyteller a "witness"
(xiii)to what does Achebes narrator bear
- Consider the impact of Achebes use of "African
English." Describe who Achebes intended
audience(s) might be. What is the effect on you, as a
Western reader and outsider to Igbo culture? Consider how
Achebes language choices contribute to the novel.
For example: (a) Achebes use of Igbo words like egwugwu
and iyi-uwa, untranslated in the novel itself, but
briefly explained by the glossary on pp. liii-lv. (note
that many editions of Things Fall Apart have been
published without such translations; (b) his selection of Igbo character names like
Unoka ("Home is
supreme"), Nwoye (from nwa =
"child") and Okonkwo (from oko =
attributes of masculinity + nkwo = the third day
of the Igbo 4-day week, the day on which Okonkwo was
born); and (c) his integration of proverbs and folktales,
oral art forms characterizing key elements of Igbo thought
and speech. For example, "proverbs are the palm-oil
with which words are eaten." What does this mean?
Palm oil is rich yellow oil pressed from the fruit of
certain palm trees. The glossary explains it is used in
food preparation and cooking, and later became a major
cash crop exported to Europe (p. lv). Note ch. 3s
proverb about proverbs, and look for other proverbs as
you read. Ch. 9 offers the story of the mosquito, one of
several West African tales that explain why these insects
buzz irritatingly in people's ears. Can you think of any
similar folktales told in your culture? What is the moral
of the fable of the tortoise told in Ch. 11? (We may do another tortoise fable in class.) What values do these
stories reflect? Note that some stories are womens
stories, and others are mens stories.
- Describe the setting (time, place, culture) of the
novel. Try to apply what you have learned from reading
the essay "Igbo Culture and History" (pp.
xix-xlix in our text). Attend to Achebes
presentation of the details of everyday village lifeways
in Umuofia, the values and beliefs of the Igbo people, and
the importance of ritual, ceremony, social hierarchy, and
personal achievement in Igbo culture. How is social life
organized?. What are the important celebrations? What is
the role of war, of religion, and of the arts? What is
the role of the individual in relation to the community
of Umuofia? Compare /contrast Igbo lifeways, customs,
perspectives, beliefs, and values to those of your own
- What do we learn from the kola ceremony of hospitality?
Paul Brians explains, "Kola is a mild stimulant,
comparable to tea or coffee, which is served on most
social occasions in this culture. It is also one
ingredient after which Coca-Cola is named. Note how the
ritual for sharing kola is described without being
explained [although in our edition, the Glossary, p. liv,
explains that kola nuts are "offered to guests on
special occasions"]." Palm-wine is a naturally
fermented product of the palm-wine tree, a sort of
natural beer. How is awareness of rank observed in the
drinking of the palm wine? Note how Achebe
introducesbut does not fully explain--Igbo customs,
rituals, and ceremonies in the novel. Think about why
Achebe chooses to do this, considering that he wrote for
an international non-African audience as well as his own
- Note the means of exchange--cowry shells threaded on
stringscommon in many African cultures. "The
villages' distance from the sea makes cowries
sufficiently rare to serve as money," according to Paul Brians; "cowries from as far away as Southeast
Asia have been found in sub-Saharan Africa."
- What effect does night have on the people in Ch. 2? What
do they fear? How do they deal with their fear of snakes
- What is the cause and nature of the conflict with Mbaino?
Review "Homicide," pp. xxxvii-xxxviii, and keep
this discussion in mind when you read Ch. 13, where a
serious incident has tragic consequences for Okonkwo,
though it would be treated as a accidental manslaughter
under our law.
- What are the important crops? What are the seasons? How
does sharecropping work? What are the male and female
designated crops, and why? What is the relationship of
women to agriculture? Review the discussion of Igbo
"Womens Associations" pp. xxviii-xxx. In
contrast to other (e.g. Biblical) representations of
locusts as a terrible plague, how does the village react
to the coming of the locusts in Ch. 7?
- Consider the dual roles in the human and spiritual worlds
played by the egwugwu and Chielo, the priestess of
Agbala. Review "Igbo Religion" (pp.
xxxii-xxxix), including the discussion of "Igbo
Oracles." Chielo, the priestess of Agbala is
introduced in Ch. 3. What does her power and status in
Umuofia suggest about womens roles in Igbo culture
and religious beliefs? Later in the novel, note
Chielos roles in the village (e.g., in Ch. 6). What
are those roles? What does the Ch. 11 incident involving
the priestess of Agbala tell us about the values of the
culture? What side of Okonkwo is revealed by his behavior
during that long night?
- The chi or personal spirit is a recurring theme in
the novel, a spiritual belief important to understanding
the main character Okonkwo. Review the discussion of the
chi on p. xxxv. Interpret this proverb, spoken of
Okonkwo: "When a man says yes his chi says yes
also." Trace further references in the novel to the
chi. What role does Okonkwos chi play in shaping
his destiny? Note, however, that "The Igbo people
did not believe that a mans chi controlled his
entire destiny" (Ohadike p. xxxv). Trace the other
factors at work in Okonkwos case
- Compare Obierikaa man "who thinks about
things"--to Okonkwo. Consider Obierika as a kind of foil—a
parallel or contrasting character--to Okonkwo: Note
the instances when Okonkwo fails to heed the advice of
others, especially of Obierika: what are the
consequences? Three times in Part I, Okonkwo breaks Igbo taboos: what drives him to do so in each case, and what
are the consequences to Okonkwo, to his family, and to
- Family Life: Examine family life and living
arrangements in Okonkwos home. Describe
Okonkwos relationships to his wives and children,
especially to Ekwefi, Ezinma, and Nwoye. What differing
roles and functions do men and women have in Igbo society?
Paul Brians points out "that it is women who are
chiefly responsible for decorating the houses. In many
African cultures they are also the chief domestic
architects, and the mud walls are shaped by them into
pleasing patterns." What is Okonkwos attitude
toward women? I n this polygamous culture, men may take
more than one wife and each household is enclosed in a
compound. Review the section on "Igbo Marriage
Customs," pp. xxx-xxxii. Each wife lives in a hut
with her children, and the husband visits each wife in
turn, though he has his own hut as well. Children are
often cared for more or less communallyanother
African proverb states, "It takes a village to raise
a child." Compare/contrast the advantages and
disadvantages of this social structure to our own family
arrangements in the U.S.
- What is the crime that causes Okonkwo's to be reprimanded
in Ch. 4? What does it tell you about the values of the
culture? Why, according to Ezeani, is wife beating
considered wrong even at times other than Peace Week?
- Briefly summarize the story of Ekwefi given in Ch. 5.
What kind of a woman is she? What do you think is the
significance of women having to sit with their legs
together? Ezinma is believed to be an ogbanje,
meaning those who "come and go" (see p. xxxvi).
Child mortality rates were high, the majority of children
dying in early childhood. If a series of such deaths took
place in a family, it was believed that the same wicked
spirit was being born and dying over and over again,
spitefully grieving its parents. What is done to break
the cycle of birth and death (Ch. 9)? Why does Ekwefi
prize her daughter Ezinma so highly? What attitudes
toward children does it reflect? How does the Igbo belief
in ogbanje and the efforts to break the cycle of birth
and death contrast to the "enigma" of
"throwing away" of twins. Does Achebe seem to
validate the belief in ogbanje?
- Consider the case of Ikemefuna, "What is the purpose
of the taking of Ikemefuna? How does he come to stay in
Okonkwos home? What is Okonkwo's relationship with
Ikemefuna? Compare Okonkwos feelings to
Nwoyes affection for Ikemefuna? ? Why is Okonkwo
disappointed with his son Nwoye?" How has Nwoye
begun to "act like a man" (Ch. 7)? What values
does Okonkwo associate with manliness? How does Nwoye
relate to these values? What are the reasons and
circumstances of Ikemefunas death? Why does Okonkwo
act as he does, despite the advice of others not to
participate in the killing of Ikemefuna (Ch. 7)? How does
Nwoye feel and (re)act? Compare Okonkwos attitude
toward Nwoye to Okonkwos attitude toward his
daughter Ezinma (presented in Ch. 8).
- Most traditional African cultures have considered twins
magical or cursed: see the discussion pp. xxxvi-xxxvii.
Twins are in fact unusually common among the Igbo, and
some subgroups value them highly. However, the people of
Umuofia do not and "throw" twins
"away," though children are valued highly by
the Igbo. We learn this shortly after Ikemefuna's death is
recounted. What do Nwoye and Obierika think of these
aspects of Umuofia culture?
- Consider the marriage customs of the Igbo depicted in Things
Fall Apart. Paul Brians points out that Bride-price
or bridewealth is "the converse of dowry. Common in
many African cultures, it involves the bridegroom's
family paying substantial wealth in cash or goods for the
privilege of marrying a young woman. . . . Young women
were considered marriageable in their mid-teens. Why do
you think this attitude arose? It is worth noting that
European women commonly married between 15 and 18 in
earlier times. There is nothing uniquely African about
these attitudes." Review the discussion of
"Igbo Marriage Customs," pp. xxx-xxxii: what is
suggested about the value of women in such a system?
Compare Igbo marriage customs to ours in the U.S.: what
are the advantages and disadvantages of each system? In
Ch. 12, how is the importance of family emphasized in the
Uri ceremony, when the bridewealth is paid?
- How are white men first introduced into the story? Why
might Africans suppose that they have no toes? What sorts
of attitudes do the Africans express about white men?
- The egwugwu ceremony of the Igbo is dramatized in Ch. 10.
Paul Brians believes that "the women clearly know on
some level that these mysterious beings are their men
folk in disguise, yet they are terrified of them when
they become egwugwu": why? Review "Social and
Political Structures," pp. xxii-xxx, including
"The Acquisition of Titles and the Council of
Chiefs" and "Secret Societies." Who are
the egwugwu and what are the functions of the ceremony?
Compare the Igbo system of judgment in domestic affairs
with that of the U.S.
- Notice that the song sung at the end of the chapter 12 is
a new one: "the latest song in the village." As
Paul Brians points out, Achebe may be reminding us that
even "traditional" Igbo culture is not frozen or
timeless, but dynamic and constantly changing .
- Having shown us an engagement ceremony in Ch. 12, Achebe
depicts a funeral in Ch. 13. Paul Brians notes that we
seem to be "systematically introduced to the major
rituals of Igbo life. How does the one-handed egwugwu
praise the dead man?" What do we learn from the
depiction of the funeral ceremony? What tragic incident
forces Okonkwo into exile?
- Already in Part I of the story, internal rivalries and
disagreements have begun to erode the unity and integrity
of the village. What are these internal conflicts? What
part does the village leader Okonkwo play in the
dissension? How does Okonkwo jeopardize his own authority
within his community?
- Part I presents Igbo life and culture before the coming of
the white man and colonialism. In what way(s) can Things
Fall Apart be considered a "response" to
depictions of Africans in Western literature such as
Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness--or other
images of Africa as portrayed in the Western media, film,
books, etc., that you are familiar with? How does
Achebes novel "correct" such European
depictions of Africa and Africans, and offer you an
Afrocentric (Africa-centered), rather than a Eurocentric
(or Western-centered), perspective? (See
Image of Africa:
Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness")
- Even as Achebe works to educate his readers about African
culture and to combat demeaning stereotypes, he does not
present Igbo society as ideal or perfect. The portrait of
this culture on the eve of its "falling apart"
in Part I of Things Fall Apart is complex,
sometimes contradictory and critical. What aspects of
pre-colonial Igbo culture does Achebe seem to question or
criticize? How does Achebe use characters like Obierika,
Okonkwo, and Nwoye to offer such social criticism of Igbo society? How do the people of Umuofia react to change?
- Describe your initial reading experience and response(s)
to Things Fall Apart Part I as a cross-cultural
encounter: how are you responding to this exposure to
traditional Igbo culture and people? Why do you think you
are responding as you are? What seems most different
and/or foreign to you? What seems most similar and/or
familiar to you?
Photo of Band playing for Mmau Masquerade, Amuda village, featuring Isu Ochi instruments:
an udu (pot drum), two small membrane drums, a
small ogene (iron bell) and a whistle.
Chs. 14-19 (pp. 91-118)
- At the beginning of Part II, Okonkwo has fled his
"fatherland" Umuofia for committing a
"female" ochu, and he has taken his
family to his "motherland" Mbanta. Why? And why
does Okonkwo despair? How does his mothers brother
Uchendu respond to Okonkwo in his despair?
- In his speech to Okonkwo and other family members,
Uchendu cites a song (a dirge) sung when a woman dies
very like the closing lines of Oedipus Rex, the
great classical Greek tragedy. Many literary critics have
noted several similarities between Things Fall Apart
and classical tragedies like Oedipus and Hamlet
in the European tradition.
asked in one interview: "How do you respond to
critics reading Okonkwo as a hero in terms of Aristotle's
concept of tragedy?"
Achebe replied: "No. I don't think I was responding
to that particular format. This is not, of course, to say
that there is no relationship between these. If we are to
believe what we are hearing these days the Greeks did not
drop from the sky. They evolved in a certain place which
was very close to Africa ... I think a lot of what
Aristotle says makes sense" (Rowell 97; see also n. 15 in
description of Western tragedy and the tragic hero below,
based on Aristotle's definition, then consider these
questions: In what ways do you see the plot of Things
Fall Apart and the character of its protagonist
Okonkwo as adhering to the conventions of Western
tragedy and the tragic hero? In what ways do
they depart from the Aristotelian model?
Tragedy may be defined
as dramatic narrative in which serious and
important actions turn out disastrously for the
protagonist or tragic hero. The classical
Western tragic hero is the main character of
great importance to his state or culture and is
conventionally of noble birth and high social
station, the ruler or an important leader in his
society. The moral health of the state is
identified with, and dependent on, that of its
ruler, and so the tragic heros story is
also that of his state. Such heroes are mixed
characters, neither thoroughly good or thoroughly
evil, yet "better" or
"greater" than the rest of us are in
the sense that they are of higher than ordinary
moral worth and social significance. The plot of
tragedy traces the tragic fall of the
hero, when a disastrous change of fortune, or reversal,
catapults him (classical tragic heroes are often
male) from the heights of happiness to the depths
of misery. This fall usually comes as a
consequence of a tragic flaw in the
heros character and/or an error of
judgment, although the fall may also be a product
of the heros pre-ordained destiny or fate.
The gods may have prophesized this fall, and the
heros tragic flaw, sometimes in the form of
a ruling passion (classically, hubris or
overweening pride and self-confidence), may cause
the hero to disregard divine law and/or try in
vain to escape his fate. The tragic hero may
experience a supreme moment of recognition
of the truth of his situation and/or of his
identity. The tragic hero is supposed to move us
to pity, because, since he is not an evil man,
his misfortune is greater than he deserves; but
his story may also move us to fear or terror,
because we recognize similar possibilities of
flaw in our fallible natures or of errors of
judgment in our own lesser lives. In the Poetics,
ancient Greek theorist Aristotle also asserts
that these feelings of pity and fear are purged
or purified through katharsis: tragic
representations of suffering and defeat leave an
audience feeling, not depressed, but relieved and
- What has happened to the Abame clan? Review "The
Igbo People Meet the Europeans: The Era of Informal
Empire," pp. xxxix-xliv. How do Uchendu and Okonkwo
account differently for the "foolishness" of
the Abame? Whose reaction seems wiser in responding to
new challenges to old ways of living? What does Uchendu
mean when he says, "There is no story that is
not true"? (ch. 15, p. 99)
- Why does his friend Obierika visit Okonkwo in exile the
first time? And the second time? What are Nwoyes
motives for converting to Christianity? Trace the stages
in the Africans reactions to the Christian
missionaries coming to Umuofia and Mbanta, and to the
missionaries evangelical efforts to convert the
Africans. What are the sources of misunderstanding
between the Igbo and the missionaries? What kinds of
Africans are attracted to the new religion and why? Why
does Nwoye convert to Christianity? How does Okonkwo
react to Nwoyes conversion?
- "The young church in Mbanta had a few crises early
in its life" (ch. 18; p. 110). What are these
crises? Why are the people of Mbanta largely content to
allow the Christians to remain in their midst at this
point--the end of Part II? Review "the Missionary
Factor," pp. xli-xliv. What are the differences
between the religion of the Mbanta people and that of the
- Uchendu and a speech by an elder of the umunna
(ch. 19; p. 118) give us insight into the changes that
they have seen in recent generations of their people.
What are these changes and why do they cause the elders
to fear for the younger generation and the future of the
clan? How might these changes prepare the way for the
white mans success in imposing his rule in Africa?
Chs. 20-25 (pp. 121-148)
- Why does Achebe choose to bring in the European colonial
presence only in the last third of the novel?
- How has Umuofia changed over the seven years while
Okonkwo has been in exile?
- What function do the kotma, or court messengers,
serve in the new society? Contrast the white mans
law and system of justice with that of traditional
Umuofia society. Review "The British Annexation of
Igboland: The Era of Formal Empire," pp. xliv-xlvii.
- Okonkwo says that they should fight the white men and
"drive them from the land."
Obierika responds sadly, "It is already too
late" (ch. 20; p. 124)--why? How has the white
man been "very clever," according
to Obierika? In what ways might Obierika be considered a
transitional figure between the old and the new Igbo societies?
- Compare the missionaries Mr. Brown and Mr. Smith. What do
we learn from Akunna and Mr. Browns discussion of
religion (ch. 21, pp. 126-128)? How does Enoch set off
"the great conflict between church and clan"
(ch. 22, p. 131), the consequences of which lead to
Okonkwos death? What sources of misunderstanding
seem to make the conflicts between the Europeans and the
- Why do many in Umuofia feel differently from Okonkwo
about the white mans "new dispensation"
(Ch. 21, p. 126)? In what ways do "religion and
education" go "hand in hand" (p. 128) in
strengthening the "white mans medicine"?
- When the egwugwu destroy Mr. Smiths church,
"for the moment the spirit of the clan was
pacified" (Ch. 22, p. 135). Consider the ironic
implications of this statement later when we learn the
title of the book that the District Commissioner intends
to write: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of
the Lower Niger (p. 148). [If you have read
of Darkness, note the parallels between this title
and Mr. Smiths vision of the "world as a
battlefield in which the children of light were locked in
mortal conflict with the sons of darkness" (p.
130)--to Mr. Kurtzs "eloquent" 17-page
pamphlet and its postscript in Heart of Darkness.]
- How does the District Commissioner trick the six leaders
of Umuofia into jail? What is Okonkwos reaction?
Why does Okonkwo kill the messenger? Why does Okonkwo
afterwards commit suicide, "an offence against the
Earth" (Ch. 25, p. 147)? Why is Okonkwo isolated in
the end? Do you consider Okonkwo a tragic hero?
- The District Commissioner decides that "The story of
this man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself
would make interesting reading," if not for a whole
chapter, at least for "a reasonable paragraph"
(p. 148). How do you think the District Commissioner
would write Okonkwos story in this paragraph? In contrast, Achebe has made Okonkwos story the
subject of a whole novel: why?
Now that you've finished reading Things
Fall Apart . . .
How and why did things fall apart?
Identify what you interpret to be major theme(s) and/or messages of Things
Simon Gikandi suggests that the narrator's
and "Achebe's sympathies...are not with the heroic character (...Okonkwo),
but the witness or storyteller (Obierika) who refuses to endorse Okonkwo's
commitment to the central doctrines of his culture or the European
colonizer's arrogant use of power" (xiii). Do you agree?
Why or why not?
- Consider where and under
what circumstances Achebe learned to write in the
colonizers language--English--and use Western
literary genres like the realistic novel and tragedy. (See "Chinua
Achebe: A Biographical Note," "Chinua Achebe and the Invention
of African Literature," and "Conclusions," pp. vii-xvii
& xlviii-xlix, in our text.)
Bruce King comments in Introduction to Nigerian Literature:
"Achebe was the first Nigerian writer to successfully transmute the
conventions of the novel, a European art form, into African
literature. Achebe makes Western literary forms serve African
values. For example, King notes, in an Achebe novel "European
character study is subordinated to the portrayal of communal life;
European economy of form is replaced by an aesthetic appropriate to the
rhythms of traditional tribal life." Do you agree?
Read the quotation of literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin
below, and consider for what different purpose(s) Achebe has
"appropriated"* the white mans
education, language, and literary forms in order to make them his
"Language, for the individual
consciousness, lies on the borderline between oneself
and the other. The word in language is half someone
elses. It becomes "ones own"
only when the speaker populates it with his own
intention, his own accent, when he appropriates
the word, adapting it to his own semantic and
expressive intention. Prior to this moment of
appropriation, the word does not exist in a neutral
and impersonal language (it is not, after all, out of
a dictionary that the speaker gets his words!), but
rather it exists in other peoples mouths, in
other peoples contexts, serving other
peoples intentions: it is from there that one must
take the word, and make it one’s own."--Mikhail
"Discourse in the Novel" in The
Consider, too, critic Susan Gallagher's account below wherein
Achebe discusses why he chose not to write or translate Things
Fall Apart into "Union Igbo." What does Achebe use the
"weapon" of the English language to accomplish in Things
"In response to the now
infamous declaration of Kenyan writer
wa Thiong'o that
African writers should write in African languages,
Achebe commented [in a talk at West Chester Univ.]: 'The
British did not push language into my face while I
was growing up.' He chose to learn English
and eventually to write in English as a means of 'infiltrating
the ranks of the enemy and destroying him from
within.'....'It doesn't matter what
language you write in, as long as what you write is
good,' Achebe stated....Yet Achebe fully
recognizes that English is symbolically and
politically connected with the despoiler of
traditional culture with intolerance and bigotry. 'Language
is a weapon, and we use it,' he argued. 'There's no
point in fighting a language'" (qtd. in
"When someone asked if Things
Fall Apart had ever been translated into Igbo,
Achebe's mother tongue, he shook his head and
explained that Igbo exists in numerous dialects,
differing from village to village. Formal,
standardized, written Igbo -- like many other African
languages -- came into being as a result of the
Christian missionaries' desire to translate the Bible
into indigenous tongues. Unfortunately, when the
Christian Missionary Society tackled Igbo,...they
brought together six Igbo converts, each from a
different location, each speaking a different
dialect." The resulting 'Union Igbo' bore little
relationship to any of the six dialects--"a
strange hodge-podge with no linguistic elegance,
natural rhythm or oral authenticity"--yet the
missionaries authorized it as the official written
form of the Igbo languages. Achebe would not consent
to have his novel translated into this
"linguistic travesty" Union Igbo.
"Consequently, one of the world's great novels,
which has been translated into more than 30
languages, is unable to appear in the language of the
very culture that it celebrates and mourns. This
irony seems an apt symbol for the complex ways
Western Christianity has both blessed and marred the
cultures of Africa" (Gallagher ).
- Achebe has integrated traditional Igbo/African elements in
his novele.g., proverbs, parables, and stories from Igbo oral tradition and
culture--and, as noted earlier, created a kind of "African
English." What effect(s) does this cross-cultural combination of Western literary
forms and Igbo/African creative expression produce?
- Achebe rejects the Western notion of art for its own sake in essays he
has published (e.g. in the collections Morning Yet on Creation
Day and Hopes and Impediments). Instead Achebe embraces the
conception of art at the heart of African oral traditions and values:
"art is, and always was, at the service of man," Achebe has
written. "Our ancestors created their myths and told their
stories with a human purpose;" hence, "any good story, any good
novel, should have a message, should have a purpose." How,
then, would you interpret the human purpose(s) and message(s) of Things
- Consider how Achebe envisions his role as African
storyteller, drawing upon the statements Achebe has made on the value and
functions of literature and storytelling, as well as other sources
available to you. These statements guide us to understanding the authors intentions in writing a novel like Things
Fall Apart. Select some statements that seem
particularly relevant and helpful to understanding the
novel, and explain why.
Achebe, Chinua. "An Image
of Africa: Racism in Conrad's
Heart of Darkness."
The Massachusetts Review 18.4 (Winter 1977): 782-94.
Chinua. Hopes and Impediments: Selected
Essays.1988. New York: Anchor-Doubleday, 1990. 1-20.
Rpt. Heart of Darkness: An
Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Essays in Criticism. 3rd
ed. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New York: W. W. Norton, 1988. 251-262.
Rpt. Novels for Students,
Vol. 2. Rpt. Gale Literature Resource Center. 2003. Central
Oregon Community College, Bend, OR. 23 May 2003.
Cora's Online Reserve
Achebe, Chinua. Hopes and Impediments:
Selected Essays. 1988.
New York : Anchor-Doubleday, 1990.
[COCC Library: PR9387.9.A3 H6
Achebe, Chinua. Morning Yet on Creation Day: Essays.
London: Heinemann, 1975.
NOTE: Morning Yet on Creation Day is
currently out of print, but five of its important essays are
reprinted in Hopes and Impediments, which is still in print:
“The Novelist as Teacher” (1965), “Language and
the Destiny of Man” (1972) “Named for Victoria, Queen of England” (1973),
“Thoughts on the African Novel” (1973), and “Colonialist Criticism”
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. [First published 1958.]
Expanded edition with notes. 1996. London: Heinemann, 2000.
Bakhtin, Mikhail. The Dialogic Imagination. Eds.
Michael Holquist and Caryl Emerson. Austin, TX: U of Texas P,
Richard. "Achebe's Sense of an Ending: History and Tragedy
in Things Fall Apart." Studies
in the Novel 29.3(Fall 1997): 396(16pp). Rpt. Infotrac 2000
Expanded Academic ASAP: Article A20503127; and EBSCOHost Academic
Search Elite: Article No. 9712126215.
Brians, Paul (Dept. of English, Washington State University,
[email protected]). "Things Fall Apart
Study Guide." 2002. 11 August 2004 <http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/anglophone/achebe.html>.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. [First
published: 1899, 3-part
serial, Blackwood's Magazine; 1902,
NOTE: Conrad's Heart of Darkness, esteemed a
classic of Western literature, is widely reprinted and frequently appears in
anthologies of English and Western world literature. Cora Agatucci's
study guide for Conrad's Heart of Darkness, referencing one anthology
in which the novel appears, may be accessed at:
Gallagher, Susan VanZanten. "Linguistic Power: Encounter with Chinua
Achebe." The Christian Century
12 March 1997, 260(2pp). Infotrac 2000 Expanded Academic ASAP: Article A19241297.
Charles H. "An Interview with Chinua Achebe." Callaloo
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31 August 2008
Authors: Chinua Achebe
in His Own Words: Quotations, Interviews, Works
Things Fall Apart: Reading & Study Questions |
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If you experience technical problems with this web, please contact: | <urn:uuid:3d34e8ac-c622-4f6f-8b53-a22be36a2910> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/achebTFA.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403825.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00156-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915853 | 8,833 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Remote-controlled robotic crop scouts in the sky? Tiny helicopters with HD aerial video capabilities for recording weed infestations in a field? Yes, it’s happening.
By Mike Karst, Senior Partner, Entira
I know a few farmers who have high-tech gadgets on their holiday wish lists this year—perhaps a multirotor crop scouting kit with thermal image capture…or maybe a quadcopter with an attached HD video camera…or a fixed-wing autonomous plane with on-board wi-fi.
Unmanned aerial vehicles—UAVs, for short—are becoming a widely talked about topic in the agriculture industry. Their appeal as “something to play around with” is on the rise. Farmers who purchase UAVs are doing so largely out of curiosity about what kind of data they can capture on their farm; however, a lack of regulation around the commercial use of UAVs puts strict limitations on how much farmers can actually do with them.
Though the mindset today may be, “let’s see what these birds can do,” in the future these sky robots are predicted to be a useful and cost-saving tool in the farmers’ precision technology toolbox. The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) is leading a global advocacy effort around improving humanity through the use of robotic technology. According to a March 2013 AUVSI report, UAVs have the potential to generate $82 billion in economic activity between 2015 and 2025. The organization predicts the agriculture sector will be the leading user of unmanned aerial systems, totaling 80 percent of all commercial usage (with public safety coming in as a distant second).
Given these numbers, as of late AUVSI is focusing squarely on agriculture.
“We’ve all heard those numbers predicting what it’s going to take to feed people in 2050,” says Gretchen West, executive vice president of AUVSI . “We look at UAVs as an extra asset that farmers can use to be more efficient. One of our goals is to help put together a compelling picture that shows how UAVs can help improve crop yields and productivity on the farm.”
Regulation is in the works, but it’s moving slowly. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is writing regulations on how UAV technology can be used commercially, and that isn’t expected until September 2015. Public safety and privacy concerns have impeded progress in moving this legislation forward.
“AUVSI is already active on Capitol Hill, and next year we’ll be focusing more of our work on getting the attention of the Agriculture Committee,” West says, with hopes there could be allowances for agriculture earlier than that 2015 deadline. We will talk more about the regulatory hurdles in next month’s issue of Strategic Agribusiness Review.
What can UAVs do on the farm?
The same technology used by the military for reconnaissance missions can be used to scout diseased crops or irrigation issues. In a matter of hours, UAVs can capture images and collect data on field conditions—data that would take days to gather by walking through a field. Used the right way, they can help farmers more strategically and efficiently plan when they plant, fertilize, water, and even harvest their crops. That can mean big cost savings over thousands of acres.
Here are a few specific ways UAVs could be used in farming:
- Up-close surveillance, generating high-resolution data of crops
- Planning for improvements in drainage systems
- Making crop yield estimates
- Inspecting buildings and fields for hail damage
- Locating missing livestock
- Spraying for pests and diseases
There aren’t many limits on recreational uses of UAVs, meaning a farmer can fly it over his own operation and take pictures and video of anything he wants, adhering to the standards set forth by the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA). What he can’t do is outsource the equipment for use on other farm operations, or by crop scouts or insurance companies to do the work for him.
Going from hobby to indispensable tool
Today any farmer can go to a hobby store and buy a simple unmanned aerial device for as low as $300 and fly it over his property. Regulatory obstacles aside, how do we take UAVs from “cool gadget” to indispensable tool? How can it become an extra asset to protect crops and increase yields, and part of a lucrative business for other ag organizations?
Here’s what we know for sure: UAV technology will give farmers more data, more quickly than any other precision ag technology. And also like any other precision ag technology, the potential mountain of data coming from these machines is immense. Knowing what to do with the data and how to put it to work for their operation will be farmers’ greatest challenge. What equipment can it carry? What data can it collect? What analytic systems could be used or created to make sense of the data? By making this kind of data analytics part of their business capabilities, ag companies can help influence and answer some of these questions for the industry.
In the future, as commercial restrictions loosen up, organizations will undoubtedly be clamoring to create business plans that integrate UAVs. We have an opportunity now to prime the industry and help build energy and momentum around this issue—supporting what AUVSI is doing, partnering with equipment manufacturers who have little agriculture experience, preparing farmers for how to make UAVs a key component of their precision technology practices. These are just a few of the ways we can have influence, and it’s certainly worthwhile to consider where your business fits in. If you’d like to discuss those opportunities, please give me a call at 901.734.3245 or email [email protected].
Read our second article on this topic, "UAVs in Agriculture: Rules of the Sky." | <urn:uuid:ada6c463-5820-4681-b242-d70641192025> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://entira.net/news-insights/entira-insights/uavs-flying-soon-above-a-field-near-you/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396875.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00094-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938962 | 1,240 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Polychlorinated biphenyls (often shortened to PCBs) are organic chemical compounds that contain chlorine atoms. They were used in industrial chemistry, and to make certain transformers, capacitors, and cooling fluids. The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants declared them to be among the worst chemical polluants. Their use has been banned worldwide, since 2001. The mode of action of these substances is similar to that of dioxin.
Polychlorinated biphenyls were widely used, and they can be found in the atmosphere, the soil, and the bodies of water anywhere on the earth. In the short term, these substances are not very toxic, but they accumulate in the body. They are teratogens, and may cause cancer. | <urn:uuid:f4c8f0b1-b317-49df-9b7d-7cf540e9c532> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polychlorinated_biphenyl | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396872.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00010-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958539 | 156 | 3.4375 | 3 |
View Full Version : Working Needle
02-18-2010, 04:02 PM
Can someone tell me which needle is referred to as the "working needle"? Does this consistently mean the left needle that holds the stitches, or the right needle that "does the knitting"?
02-18-2010, 04:28 PM
Can you type out the sentence how they are using the term?
I would think the right hand needle is the working needle if you're only referring to 2 needles.
I think it might more commonly be used when talking about using 4 or 5 dbl pt needles to knit circularly - and then I'd say the 2 needles you are using are the "working needles."
02-18-2010, 04:52 PM
The working needle is the one you are using to create the stitches. If you are knitting right handed, the work flows off the left needle, onto the right one as stitches are made. So the right needle would be the "working" needle in that example.
02-18-2010, 05:06 PM
I always wondered about that. Thanks for the information!
02-18-2010, 06:24 PM
The left needle is essentially "the holder".
The right hand needle is "the worker". :thumbsup:
02-19-2010, 10:24 AM
I've always thought of it that way. Nice to know I was on the mark for once. :aww: | <urn:uuid:fd2b5b11-e764-4636-8385-115caeb95c92> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.knittinghelp.com/forum/archive/index.php/index.php?t-97813.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397744.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00124-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92224 | 304 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Cataracts are a common age-related vision problem that involves clouding of the lens in the eye. About 22 million Americans age 40 and older have cataracts. The older a person gets, the greater the risk for developing cataracts. Women are more likely to develop cataracts than men, and African-Americans and Hispanic Americans are at particularly high risk.
In addition to age, other factors may increase the risk of cataract development. These include:
- Overexposure to sunlight
- Certain medications, such as steroids
During the early stages, cataracts may have little effect on vision. Symptoms vary due to the type of cataract in the eye (nuclear, cortical, or posterior subcapsular). Depending on the type and extent of the cataract, people may experience the following symptoms:
- Cloudy vision
- Double or blurry vision
- Glare and sensitivity to bright lights
- Colors appear faded
- Difficulty reading due to reduced black-white contrast
- Difficulty driving at night
Cataracts never go away on their own, but some stop progressing after a certain point. If cataracts continue to grow and progress, they can cause blindness if left untreated. Fortunately, cataracts can almost always be successfully treated with surgery. Millions of cataract operations are performed each year in the United States, and there is a very low risk for complications. However, before opting for surgery, people need to consider on an individual basis how severely a cataract interferes with their quality of life. Cataract surgery is rarely an emergency, so people have time to consult with their doctors and carefully consider the risks and benefits of surgery.
Cataract Removal Surgery
Surgery involves removing the cataract and replacing the abnormal lens with a permanent implant called an intraocular lens (IOL). The operation takes less than 1 hour and is performed on an outpatient basis. The procedure is generally painless and most people remain awake, but sedated, during it. If you have cataracts in both eyes, doctors recommend waiting at least 1 to 2 weeks between surgeries.
A cataract is an opacity, or clouding, of the lens of the eye.
The lens of an eye is normally clear. If the lens becomes cloudy or is opacified, it is called a cataract.
How Cataracts Form
The likelihood of developing cataracts increases with age. Cataracts typically develop in the following way:
- The lens is an elliptical structure that sits behind the pupil and is normally transparent. The function of the lens is to focus light rays into images on the retina (the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye).
- In younger people, the lens is elastic and changes shape easily, allowing the eyes to focus clearly on both near and distant objects.
- As people reach their mid-40s, biochemical changes occur in the proteins within the lens, causing them to harden and lose elasticity. This loss of elasticity causes presbyopia, commonly called far-sightedness, and creates the need for reading glasses in almost everyone as they age. At this same stage there can be other changes in the lens that can affect the vision, such as reduced ability to see in dim light, but that don't have much effect on the ability to read the eye chart. When considered together, these changes, including presbyopia, are called dysfunctional lens syndrome.
- Cataracts develop when proteins in the lens clump together, forming cloudy (opaque) areas. The lens can also change color from transparent to a yellowish or brownish tint, which further worsens visual sharpness.
- Depending on how dense they are and where they are located, these cloudy areas can block the passage of light through the lens and interfere with the formation of images on the retina, causing vision to become cloudy.
- Age-related cataracts usually develop slowly over several years. With cataracts due to other causes, loss of vision may progress rapidly.
Some cataracts stop progressing after a certain point, but they never go away on their own. If extensive and progressive cataracts are left untreated they can cause blindness. In fact, cataracts are the leading cause of blindness among adults age 55 and older. Fortunately, cataracts can nearly always be successfully removed with surgery, greatly improving vision.
Types of Cataracts
Cataracts can form in any of three parts of the lens and are named by their location:
- Nuclear sclerotic cataracts: form in the nucleus (the center) of the lens. This is the most common type of cataract associated with the aging process. Nuclear cataracts increase nearsightedness and may initially improve close-up reading vision. As the cataract progresses, the lens color may darken, making it more difficult to distinguish colors and see clearly.
- Cortical cataracts: first form in the cortex (the outer edges of the lens) and then progress inwards to the center of the eye. They have a striped or spoke-like appearance. This type of cataracts can cause glare and also affect night vision and the ability to see contrast.
- Posterior subcapsular cataracts: form toward the back of the capsule that surrounds the lens. They can cause glare or halos and tend to affect near vision more than distance vision.
Most cataracts are due to age, but there are other causes as well. Doctors categorize cataracts based on their cause:
- Age-related (cataracts due to the aging process)
- Secondary (cataracts caused by other medical conditions or treatments)
- Radiation (cataracts caused by exposure to ultraviolet or other radiation)
- Traumatic (cataracts caused by injury to the eye)
- Congenital (cataracts that appear at birth or early childhood caused by inherited disorders or infections that occurred during pregnancy)
Aging is the most common cause of cataracts. Doctors are still not certain about the exact biological mechanisms that tie cataracts to aging. Oxidative stress may play a role in damaging the proteins in the lenses of the eye, and causing them to clump together.
Oxidative stress is an imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants:
- Oxygen-free radicals (also called oxidants) are molecules produced by natural chemical processes in the body. Toxins, smoking, ultraviolet radiation, infections, and other factors can create reactions that produce excessive amounts of oxygen-free radicals.
- When oxidants are overproduced, these chemicals can be very harmful to cells throughout the body.
- Protective antioxidants, such as glutathione, help fight oxidants.
- Cataract formation is one of many damaging changes that can occur from overproduction of oxidants, possibly in combination with deficiencies of glutathione.
One theory is that in the aging eye, barriers develop that prevent glutathione and other protective antioxidants from reaching the nucleus in the lens, thus making it vulnerable to oxidation.
Secondary cataracts refer to cataracts that result from another medical condition or medical treatment. Causes of secondary cataracts include:
- Medications: Long-term use of oral corticosteroids (steroids) is a well-known cause of cataracts. It is unclear whether inhaled and nasal-spray steroids increase the risk for cataracts. Several studies have linked statin drugs (used for cholesterol treatment) to an increased risk for cataracts. Other types of medications can also increase the risk for cataract development.
- Medical Conditions: Medical conditions that increase the risk for cataracts include diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and skin conditions such as atopic dermatitis (a type of eczema). Medical conditions that require long-term use of oral steroids are associated with secondary cataracts.
- Eye Conditions and Eye Surgery: The inflammatory eye condition uveitis is strongly associated with cataracts. Glaucoma does not increase the risk for cataracts but certain types of surgery (trabeculectomy) and medications (miotics) used to treat glaucoma do increase cataract risk. Other types of eye surgery associated with cataract development are vitrectomy and peripheral iridectomy.
Cataracts can develop from overexposure to radiation, including sunlight. A common cause of radiation cataracts is the ionizing radiation used during treatment for head and neck cancer. Cataracts are also a side effect of total body radiation treatments, which are administered for certain cancers.
Traumatic cataracts are caused by blunt or penetrating injury to the eye. This type of cataract can develop immediately after the injury or many years later.
In rare cases, a baby is born with cataracts or develops them during infancy. Causes of congenital cataracts include:
- Genetic disorders (Down or Marfan syndrome)
- Prenatal infections (rubella or herpes simplex)
- Maternal abuse of alcohol or drugs during pregnancy
Aging is the primary risk factor for cataracts, but other factors are also involved.
Nearly everyone who lives long enough will develop cataracts to some extent. Some people develop cataracts during their middle-aged years (40s and 50s), but these cataracts tend to be very small. It is after age 60 that cataracts are most likely to affect vision. Nearly half of people age 75 and older have cataracts.
Women face a higher risk than men.
Cataracts tend to run in families.
Race and Ethnicity
African-Americans have nearly twice the risk of developing cataracts as Caucasians. This difference may be because African-Americans are also more likely to have diabetes, which is a risk factor for cataracts. African-Americans are much more likely to become blind from cataracts and glaucoma than Caucasians, mostly due to lack of access to medical care.
Hispanic Americans are also at increased risk for cataracts. In fact, cataracts are the leading cause of visual impairment among Hispanics.
Medical Conditions and Treatments
Certain medical conditions and treatments increase the risk for cataracts:
- Diabetes (type 1 or type 2) poses a very high risk for cataracts and the likelihood of developing them at a younger age. Cataract development is significantly related to high levels of blood sugar (hyperglycemia). (Cataract prevention is one of the many important benefits of controlling blood sugar.) Obesity, which is associated with diabetes type 2, and high blood pressure are also risk factors for cataracts.
- Long-term use of oral corticosteroids (commonly called steroids) increases the risk for cataracts. Medical conditions that use oral steroid medications for treatment include autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus. Other types of medications (such as statin drugs) may also pose a risk.
- Radiation therapy for head and neck cancer is a risk factor for cataracts.
- Eye injuries and certain types of eye surgeries (such as trabeculectomy for glaucoma) increase the risk for cataracts. Uveitis is an inflammatory eye condition that is a significant risk factor for cataracts.
- Nearsightedness (myopia) may be associated with increased risk for certain specific types of cataracts although it is uncertain whether it increases the general risk for age-related cataracts. Myopia does increase the risk for complications from cataract surgery.
Excessive exposure to ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation from sunlight increases the risk for cataracts. The risk may be highest among those who have significant sun exposure at a young age. People whose jobs expose them to sunlight for prolonged periods are also at increased risk.
Sunglasses or a wide-brimmed hat can help block the harmful effects of ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Protective sunglasses do not have to be expensive but it is important that they block 99 to 100% of UV light. Polarized, mirror-coated, or blue light-blocking lenses do not protect against UV radiation.
Smoking: Smoking a pack a day of cigarettes doubles the risk of developing cataracts. Smokers are at particular risk for cataracts located in the nuclear portion of the lens. Quitting smoking can help reduce the risk, although the risk will remain higher in former smokers than those who never smoked.
Alcohol: Chronic heavy drinkers are at high risk for a number of eye disorders, including cataracts.
Nutrition: Although it is not clear how much of a role nutrition plays in age-related cataracts, there is evidence that antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables may offer some protection. The antioxidants most studied for cataract prevention are lutein and zeaxanthin, which are a type of antioxidant called carotenoids. Lutein and zeaxanthin are found in the lenses of the eyes.
Some research suggests that foods that contain these carotenoids, such as green leafy vegetables, may help slow the aging process in the eye and protect against cataracts. However, studies indicate that dietary supplements that contain lutein and zeaxanthin, or antioxidant vitamins, such as vitamin C or E, do not reduce the risks for cataract formation.
Antioxidants found in food, not supplements, appear to offer the best protection. Kale, collard greens, and spinach are the main food sources for lutein and zeaxanthin.
During the early stages, cataracts have little effect on vision. People who have small cataracts can often see well enough around the clouded areas to function normally. But as a cataract grows larger and increasingly clouds the lens, it can interfere greatly with daily activities such as reading and driving.
As a cataract progresses, symptoms may include:
- Cloudy, blurry, or dim, vision. You may feel as if you are seeing objects through a fog or veil. It can become difficult to see clearly even in brightly lit environments, and may be extremely difficult to see at night.
- Glare, halos, and sensitivity to bright lights. You may notice halos of light around streetlights or the headlights of oncoming cars, which can make it difficult or impossible to drive at night.
- Muted or faded colors. Images may take on a yellowish tint as color vibrancy diminishes.
- Reduced contrast. Reading may become difficult because of a reduced contrast between letters and their background.
- Double vision or "ghost" images in a single eye. A cataract can cause you to see multiple images or to see faint shadow copies of an image.
- Frequent change in corrective lenses. As the cataract grows, it can affect both near and far vision (and even cause temporary improvement). You may find that you often need new prescriptions for eyeglasses or contact lenses.
- Symptoms may vary depending on the part of the lens that is affected. For example, posterior subcapsular cataracts, which cloud the center of the back of the lens, can make it difficult to read and to see in bright light when the pupil of the eye gets smaller. Cortical cataracts can worsen problems with glare. Nuclear cataracts, because of their brownish tint, typically cause problems seeing colors correctly, although this may not be detectable until the first eye has cataract surgery, causing the brownish tint in the un-operated eye to become obvious.
This photograph shows a cloudy white lens (cataract) seen through the pupil. Cataracts are a leading cause of decreased vision in older individuals, but children may have congenital cataracts. With new surgical techniques, the cataract can be removed, a new lens implanted, and the person can usually return home the same day.
Either an ophthalmologist or an optometrist can examine people for cataracts, but only ophthalmologists are qualified to treat cataracts.
- An ophthalmologist is a medical doctor (M.D.) who specializes in the medical and surgical care of the eye.
- An optometrist is a doctor of optometry (O.D.) who diagnoses eye diseases and prescribes corrective lenses but does not perform surgery.
The main tests used by an eye care professional to diagnose cataracts are:
- Visual acuity
All of these tests are quick and painless.
Visual Acuity Tests
Visual acuity tests evaluate how clearly a person can see. The Snellen eye chart is often used, with rows of letters decreasing in size:
- From a specified distance, usually 20 feet, a person reads the letters using one eye at a time.
- If a person can read down to the small letters on the line marked 20 feet, then vision is 20/20 (normal vision).
- If a person can read only down through the line marked 40 feet, vision is 20/40; that is, from 20 feet the person can read what someone with normal vision can read from 40 feet.
- If the large letters on the line marked 200 feet cannot be read with the better eye, even with glasses, the person is considered legally blind.
The visual acuity test can be performed in many different ways. It is a quick way to detect vision problems and is frequently used in schools or for mass screening.
Ophthalmoscopy is performed to examine the back part of the eye (fundus), which includes the retina, optic nerve, and blood vessels. This test can help detect cataracts as well as other eye diseases such as glaucoma. The eye doctor may give you eye drops before the test to dilate (widen) the pupils of your eyes.
There are several ways that ophthalmoscopy can be performed:
- Direct ophthalmoscopy: The eye doctor uses a handheld device (ophthalmoscope) to shine a beam of light through the pupil.
- Indirect ophthalmoscopy: The eye doctor wears a head lamp (like a miner's light) and a handheld lens to view the eye.
- Slit-lamp ophthalmoscopy: The doctor has you rest your chin and forehead on a support to keep the head steady, and then uses a special microscope and vertical beam of light to examine the eye.
Tonometry measures the pressure inside your eye. It is used to find out if glaucoma is contributing to your symptoms, although glaucoma rarely causes visual symptoms unless it is advanced. The clinician will first give you anesthetic drops to numb your eye. Next, a small device is gently pressed against your eye to measure intra-ocular (inside the eye) pressure. Eye pressure may also be evaluated in different ways such as with a hand-held electronic device or a gentle puff of air to indent the eye.
Other tests that may be used to diagnose cataracts or to determine if surgery is needed include:
- Contrast sensitivity: A chart similar to the Snellen chart is used to test contrast sensitivity. The chart has the same size letters, but in different contrasts with the background.
- Glare sensitivity: Glare sensitivity is tested by having the patient read a chart twice, with and without bright lights shining into the eyes.
- Potential acuity: Potential acuity evaluates the eye's acute vision center by testing macular function. It can help the ophthalmologist determine the expected improvement from cataract surgery.
- Endothelial cell count: The corneal endothelium, a layer of cells lining the inside of the cornea, is sensitive to normal surgical trauma and should be evaluated before any intraocular operation.
- People with other eye disorders may need other pre-operative tests.
Surgery is the only cure for cataracts, but it is almost never an emergency. Most cataracts cause no problem other than reducing a person's ability to see. Except for injury due to falls or unsafe driving. Usually, there is no harm in delaying surgery, except for an increased risk of injury from falls or unsafe driving. Sometimes delaying surgery will cause a moderate (easy to perform surgery on) cataract to progress to an advanced (difficult to perform surgery on) cataract. People usually have plenty of time to carefully consider options and discuss them with an ophthalmologist.
There is no constant rate at which cataracts progress:
- Some cataracts develop to a certain point and then stop.
- Even if a cataract does progress, it may be years before it interferes with vision. Your doctor may recommend "watchful waiting" and delaying surgery while monitoring your condition on an on-going basis.
- It is very rare for people to need immediate cataract surgery.
The following measures may help manage early cataracts:
- Stronger eyeglasses or contact lenses
- Stronger indoor lighting
- Use of a magnifying glass during reading
Choosing Cataract Surgery
Cataract removal is one of the most common types of eye surgeries performed in the United States, especially for people over age 65. In the past, cataract surgery was not performed until the cataract had become well developed (ripe). Newer techniques, however, have made it safer and even more efficient to operate in earlier stages. Cataract surgery improves vision in up to 95% of people and prevents millions of people from going blind.
Nevertheless, some cataract surgeries that are performed may be unnecessary, or at least, premature. In general, even if cataracts are diagnosed, the decision to remove them should be based on the person's own perception of vision difficulties and the effect of vision loss on normal activity or independent living. However, since progression is often gradual and subtle, it may not be apparent how they have affected vision and your activities of daily life. Those considering cataract surgery should be made fully aware of all the potential risks and benefits of surgery.
Questions for the Ophthalmologist
You should ask the ophthalmologist the following questions before deciding to have cataract surgery:
- Is my cataract surgery an emergency?
- Are the cataracts the only cause of my poor vision?
- How much experience do you have with this procedure?
- Do I have other eye diseases that might complicate surgery or reduce my benefit?
- Do I have other health problems that might further complicate eye surgery?
- What type of lens will you implant?
- What type of procedure will you use?
- What are my chances of having poorer vision after surgery?
- How well should I ultimately be able to see out of the operated eye?
- How long will it take to heal?
- What precautions should I take during the healing process?
- How long will it take to achieve my best eyesight?
- Will I have to wear glasses or contact lenses after surgery?
- When will I get my final eyeglass prescription?
- How soon after surgery will I be able to see well enough to go back to work? Drive a car? Return to full activity?
If you have further questions or doubts about the procedure, you may want to get a second opinion from another ophthalmologist.
Treatment for People with Accompanying Eye Conditions
Cataracts in the Second Eye: If a person has a cataract in a second eye, the issues for decision making are the same as for the first eye. In general, surgery for a second cataract is usually performed at least 1 to 2 weeks after surgery for the first eye. Although not common, in some circumstances surgery may be performed on both eyes at the same time.
Cataracts and Glaucoma: There are various approaches to treating people who have both cataracts and glaucoma. Your doctor will recommend an approach based on your individual condition. Some options include:
- For people who have mild glaucoma, the doctor may recommend performing only cataract surgery and controlling the glaucoma with medication.
- For people who have moderate-to-severe glaucoma, the traditional approach has been combination cataract-glaucoma surgery (phacotrabeculectomy). This combination surgery involves performing both trabeculectomy (glaucoma filtration surgery) and phacoemulsification (cataract extraction).
- Newer techniques and devices are being developed for MIGS (minimally invasive (or micro-invasive) glaucoma surgery), most of which can be combined with cataract surgery. They have the advantages of generally being safer and more effective than trabeculectomy. For example, the iStent is a tiny tube that is implanted in the eye during cataract surgery. The stent helps improve the outflow of aqueous humor which is a fluid, and thereby lower intraocular pressure (IOP) in the eye.
Treating Cataracts in Children
Infants. Treatment of infants first depends on whether one or both eyes are affected:
- For infants born with cataracts in one eye, the American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends surgery as soon as possible, by age 4 months or ideally even earlier. The procedure is followed by contact lens correction and patching of the unaffected eye. Although this approach is successful in many cases, some children still become blind in the affected eye. There is also a high risk for glaucoma after surgery.
- For infants with cataracts in both eyes, surgery is not always an option. Sometimes surgery may be performed sequentially, with the second eye operated on a few days after the first. Phacoemulsification appears to pose a much higher risk for secondary cataracts than standard lens removal.
Toddlers and Older Children. Intraocular lens replacement is now standard treatment for children age 2 years and older.
Preparing for Cataract Surgery
Cataract surgery is usually done as an outpatient procedure under local anesthesia and takes less than an hour. Preoperative preparations may include:
- A general physical examination for people with medical problems, such as diabetes. Diabetes can cause damage to the blood vessels of the eye's retina, a condition called diabetic retinopathy. If you have diabetes, discuss with your doctor how your blood sugar level may affect the surgery.
- A review of all your medications. In particular, men who take tamsulosin (Flomax), or similar drugs for prostate problems, require special surgical techniques to prevent complications.
- A painless test to measure the length of the eye and determine the type of replacement lens that will be needed after the operation.
- Topical antibiotics (for example, ofloxacin or ciprofloxacin), which may be applied for a day or two before surgery to protect against postoperative infection.
All cataract procedures involve removal of the cataract and replacing it with an artificial lens.
Anesthesia for Cataract Surgery
There are three methods of providing anesthesia for cataract surgery. Depending on the surgery and the patient, one or more of these techniques may be used:
- Topical anesthesia
- Local anesthesia
- General anesthesia
Topical anesthesia involves topical drops that numb the surface of the eye, and a tiny amount of anesthetic that is injected directly into the eye at the beginning of the actual surgery. Nothing specifically blocks the nerves of the muscles that move the eye. Sedation in the form of an injection through a vein or occasionally as a pill, will help the patient hold the eye still.
In local anesthesia, a sedative injection through a vein is given, followed by injections of anesthetic around the eye to numb the eye and block the nerves to the eye muscles.
General anesthesia is the method of choice for babies, children, and adults who are not able to cooperate.
Phacoemulsification (phaco means lens; emulsification means to liquefy) is the most common cataract removal method in the United States.
The procedure generally involves the following:
- The surgeon makes a small incision at the edge of the cornea.
- The phacoemulsification probe is inserted into the eye. This probe has a hollow vibrating needle attached to a vacuum source. The needle is surrounded by a silicone sleeve.
- Cataract fragments are drawn to the tip of the needle where ultrasonic vibrations break them up so they can be sucked out through the core of the needle.
- To keep the eye inflated during this process, irrigation fluid flows around the needle under the silicone sleeve and back into the eye.
Most phacoemulsification procedures take about 15 minutes, and the patient is usually out of the operating room in under an hour. There is little discomfort afterward, and complete visual recovery usually occurs within 1 to 5 days.
Phacoemulsification is sometimes combined with glaucoma surgical procedures, for people who have both glaucoma and cataracts.
Extracapsular Cataract Extraction
Extracapsular cataract extraction, the precursor to phacoemulisification, is now generally used only in people who have an extremely hard lens.
The procedure generally involves the following:
- The surgeon makes a larger incision at the edge of the cornea.
- The hard center (nucleus) of the lens is lossened from the rest of the cataract.
- The nucleus is removed in one piece through the larger incision.
- The incision is partially closed with stitches.
- An irrigation/aspiration probe (similar to a phacoemulsification probe but without the ultrasound) is used to remove the remaining, softer parts (cortex) of the cataract.
Laser Cataract Surgery
Newer technologies have been developed so that the incisions used in cataract surgery can be made with a femtosecond laser rather than a blade. (The femtosecond laser was originally developed to make the flap in LASIK surgery. It has since been modified to be useful in cataract surgery.) The laser can also soften the lens nucleus so that phacoemulsification will be easier. It still remains to be seen whether laser cataract surgery presents clear advantages over more conventional methods.
Regardless of which technique is used to remove the cataract, a lens implant is almost always inserted to correct the optics of the eye, which now has no natural lens.
Replacement Lenses and Glasses
With the clouded lens removed, the eye cannot focus a sharp image on the retina. A replacement lens or eyeglasses are therefore needed.
Intraocular Lenses (IOLs). An artificial lens, known as an intraocular lens (IOLs), is usually inserted after the cataract is extracted. Most IOLs are made out of acrylic, although other materials, such as silicon, are also used.
IOLs are designed to improve specific aspects of vision. In the U.S., there are currently 3 choices:
- Monofocal IOLs. These have been used since the 1980's They can correct either distance vision or near, but not both. Glasses will be needed for the range that is not corrected by the IOL; for example, if the eye can see at distance with the IOL, then glasses will be needed for reading.
- Multifocal IOLs. These have been available since about 2004 and can focus at different points for both reading and distance vision. However, contrast may be reduced, and some patients experience glare and halos, particularly at night.
- Toric IOLs. These were FDA-approved in 1998 but did not see widespread use until about 2005. These lenses are designed to correct pre-existing astigmatism in patients having cataract surgery.
The patient and the doctor must make these decisions based on specific visual needs. Many people also need eyeglasses after cataract surgery for reading or to correct astigmatism.
Complications of Cataract Surgery
Cataract surgery is one of the safest of all surgical procedures. Most complications are not serious. They can include:
- Swelling and inflammation. A small amount of inflammation in the area where the cataract surgery took place is common for a day or two after the surgery. Swelling and inflammation can occur elsewhere in the eye; although the risk is about 1%, this complication can be particularly harmful for people with a prior history of uveitis (chronic inflammation in the eye, which can be due to various medical conditions).
- Retinal detachment. In rare cases, the retina at the rear of the eye can become detached from the inside of the eye. If this happens, it needs to be treated rapidly.
Glaucoma. This is suspected when the eye pressure is elevated. If this occurs after cataract surgery, it is usually one of three forms:
- 1) Rapid onset, usually seen on the first day after surgery, with high pressures; this is a response to one of the agents used during cataract surgery; treatment rapidly lowers the pressure and it is usually completely resolved within a week.
- 2) Elevated pressure that results from the corticosteroid drops used during the post-operative period; this occurs in "steroid responders" and goes away when the drops are stopped.
- 3) A more gradual increase in pressure that occurs over weeks to months; this is more likely to develop into true glaucoma, but is rare.
Glaucoma is a disorder of the optic nerve that is usually marked by increased fluid pressure inside the eye. The increased pressure causes compression of the retina and the optic nerve which can eventually lead to nerve damage. Without treatment, glaucoma can cause partial vision loss, with blindness as a possible eventual outcome.
- Infection. This is very rare (0.2%) but may be serious if it does develop.
- Bleeding inside the eye.
- Posterior capsular opacification. This condition is also known as a secondary cataract that involves clouding of the lens capsule, and is one of the more common complications of cataract surgery.
Preventing Infection and Reducing Swelling
The ophthalmologist may prescribe the following medications after surgery:
- A topical antibiotic for protection against infection.
- Corticosteroid eye drops or ointments to reduce swelling. They may also pose a risk for increased pressure in the eye.
- Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as diclofenac, ketorolac, naproxen, and voltaren. NSAIDs also reduce swelling and do not have the same risks (increased eye pressure) as steroids. Newer NSAIDs approved to treat pain and swelling after cataract surgery include bromfenac (Xibrom) and nepafenac (Nevanac).
- Some ophthalmologists may inject antibiotics and corticosteroids into the eye at the end of the surgery, reducing the number of medications that must be used during the post-operative period.
Factors that Increase Risk for Complications
The risks of complications are greater if you have:
- Other eye diseases.
- Diabetes. Cataract extraction can pose a high risk for the development or worsening of retinopathy, a known eye complication of diabetes.
- Taken tamsulosin (Flomax) or other alpha-1 blocker drugs. Tamsulosin is a muscle relaxant prescribed for treatment of several urinary conditions, including benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Tamsulosin may cause intraoperative floppy iris syndrome (IFIS), a loss of muscle tone in the iris that can cause complications during eye surgery. Problems have been reported both for people who were taking the drug at the time of surgery as well as those who had stopped taking the drug for several weeks or months before surgery. Men who have taken tamsulosin or similar drugs should inform their eye surgeon. The surgeon may need to use different techniques to minimize the risk of complications from IFIS.
Returning Home and Follow-up Visits:
- You will probably leave the surgical site about an hour after surgery. Cataract surgery almost never requires an overnight hospital stay.
- You will need someone to drive you home and stay with you for a few days until your vision improves.
- You will be examined a day or two after surgery and then during the following month. Additional visits occur as necessary.
- Vision has usually recovered by day 5, often sooner. Rarely the vision may remain up to 6 weeks. If it takes longer than that, there may be complications.
- When your doctor decides the condition has stabilized, you will receive a final prescription for glasses or contacts.
Protecting the Eye
Postoperative protection of the eye typically involves the following actions:
- The ophthalmologist usually tapes a bandage and a rigid eye shield over the eye at the end of surgery. Depending on the type of anesthesia, even this may not be necessary.
- Most surgeons don't require any bandages after the first post-operative visit except to wear just the rigid eye shield at night for the first week.
- It is important to avoid rubbing the eye.
- Dark glasses should be used whenever in bright sunlight.
Treatment of Posterior Capsular Opacification (Secondary or "After Cataract")
About 15% of people who have cataract surgery develop a secondary or "after-cataract" called posterior capsular opacification. Posterior capsular opacification is a clouding of the lens capsule that was intentionally left behind, (it is used to initially hold the IOL in place) when the original cataract was removed. It generally occurs because some cells of the natural lens remain after surgery and can regrow onto the capsule.
The standard treatment for posterior capsular opacification is a type of laser surgery known as a YAG capsulotomy. (Capsulotomy means making an opening in the capsule, and YAG is an abbreviation of yttrium aluminum garnet, the laser most often used for this procedure.) This is an outpatient procedure that involves no incision and can help improve vision and reduce glare.
YAG capsulotomy involves the following:
- The Yag laser has a chinrest and forehead bar for the patient, similar to what is used for a slit lamp exam. Some surgeons use a contact lens to help aim the laser, but if not, nothing will touch the eye.
- There is no pain and the procedure is usually complete within a minute or two.
- After the procedure, the patient may remain in the doctor's office for an hour to make sure that pressure in the eye is not elevated.
- The doctor will usually prescribe anti-inflammatory eyedrops for the person to take at home.
- Most people will find that their vision improves within a day.
- An eye examination for any complications should follow within 2 weeks.
YAG laser capsulotomy is generally a safe procedure. Serious complications are rare, but can include retinal detachment.
- www.aao.org -- American Academy of Ophthalmology
- www.nei.nih.gov -- National Eye Institute
- www.geteyesmart.org -- Eye Smart
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Reviewed By: Franklin W. Lusby, MD, ophthalmologist, Lusby Vision Institute, La Jolla, CA. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Isla Ogilvie, PhD, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team. | <urn:uuid:bd609ffd-fb60-4506-9f44-a8c6f72922e0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://westernbaptist.adam.com/content.aspx?productId=10&pid=10&gid=000026 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00067-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920275 | 10,036 | 3.453125 | 3 |
Wind energy. Renewable energy. Alternative energy. The amount of energy Michiganders use that has been produced by wind and other renewable sources has increased substantially in recent years.
When someone flips a switch to turn on a light in their home in Petoskey or Charlevoix, a portion of the power to that light will have come from a wind farm.
Where power consumed in Northern Michigan comes from and whether there is an alternative to paying a monthly electric bill to the power company are questions that have fairly simple answers.
According to the Michigan Public Service Commission, the power used by Michigan residents and businesses comes from a wide variety of sources, mostly coal, but in recent years has come increasingly from renewable sources.
There are plans for further expansion of renewables in the next three years.
Public Act 295 set the state renewable energy standard in 2008, requiring electric providers to meet a 10-percent renewable energy standard based on retail sales by the end of 2015. The act includes interim compliance steps for 2012 to 2014.
Looking forward, the public service commission found that electric providers are on pace to hit the interim targets as well as the 10 percent by 2015 renewable energy standard.
Of all the renewable energy in the state in 2012, about 94 percent came from wind.
Great Lakes Energy, based in Boyne City and Consumers Energy, a very large company with customers across the state, are the only two private energy companies that provide power to Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
Great Lakes Energy increased the amount of power it uses from renewable sources from about 9,000 kilowatt hours in 2009 to about 66,000 in 2011. That's five percent of its total fuel mix, which means that amount will more than double by 2015. Most of the renewable power for Great Lakes Energy was sourced from a wind farm in the state's Thumb and the rest came from solar, biofuel, biomass, wood and solid waste incineration.
Currently, about four percent of the energy sold by Consumers Energy comes from renewable sources. That means Consumers generated or purchased more than 1.5 million kilowatt hours of renewable energy in 2011.
But, not everyone in Northern Michigan purchases their power from Great Lakes Energy or Consumers Power. There are those who have chosen an alternative to paying a monthly electricity bill.
Several residents and businesses in the area have opted to purchase their own wind turbines or other renewable energy generators and have had them installed and connected to the existing power grid.
John Ochs, who owns Central Drug Store in Charlevoix, installed a 120-foot, 10-kilowatt wind turbine at his home on Marion Center Road at the end of December.
"I've been thinking about it for a while," said Ochs, "I'm happy I did it."
The turbine generates about 80 to 90 percent of the energy Ochs and his wife use at their home during the winter. They do not have natural gas or propane connected to their home.
They don't use air conditioning in the summer, so, said Ochs, he expects to use less power and actually come out ahead over the warmer months when heating his home is no longer necessary.
The couple's home is connected to the power company's grid, meaning they are attached to existing power company infrastructure and have established a net metering system where any extra energy produced is converted to credits to be used toward future energy use.
"I just think it's a good idea," said Ochs, "I was intrigued by it. I like the idea of renewable energy."
Lake Effect Energy Corporation, a company based in Harbor Springs, engineered and installed the turbine in Charlevoix.
The company has installed 14 wind turbines throughout the state for residential, municipal, commercial and agricultural customers since it was founded in 2009.
The structures vary in size and shape and can produce anywhere from one kilowatt to one megawatt of electricity. Costs range from $14,000 to $2.5 million for the turbines themselves as well as engineering and installation. Often, tax credits and sometimes state grants are available to those who purchase the generators.
A one kilowatt turbine would produce about 800 to 1,600 kilowatts a year of power in a good wind area, according to Chris Stahl, co-owner of Lake Effect Energy.
The average residence in Michigan uses about 12,000 kilowatts of power per year.
Their most popular turbines for residential customers are the 10 kilowatt turbines, like the one the John Ochs installed, said Stahl.
"For most, it takes eight to 10 years to pay back (generate enough electricity to cover the cost of purchasing the system), then at that point, they're making free electricity," he said.
Not every property is right for a wind turbine, though.
Average wind speeds should be at least 10.5 miles per hour, said Stahl, in order for enough power to be generated by a turbine. Also, the bottom of the turbine's blade must be at least 30 feet higher than nearby obstructions such as trees or buildings.
Whether residents in Northern Michigan choose to purchase and install their own renewable energy systems or to purchase energy from the power company, it is inevitable they will use at least some energy that has come from renewable sources within the state when they turn on the lights. And the portion of that power coming from renewable sources will continue to increase.
Follow @aebracoe on Twitter. | <urn:uuid:41cb8dbd-4dea-421c-a6bd-efc183330e59> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://articles.petoskeynews.com/2013-03-01/renewable-energy_37378373 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00036-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963814 | 1,130 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Scientists working with the long-lived Hubble Space Telescope say that the intrepid eye on the sky could continue functioning through 2020, and even beyond.
Hubble is currently in good shape. The instruments repaired during the last Hubble servicing mission in 2009 have operated longer since the repairs than they did with the original hardware, Kenneth Sembach of the Space Telescope Science Institute said during a news conference in January at the 225th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
Many of the other systems on Hubble are functioning well, even with the telescope reaching its 25th year in space in 2015. NASA did a study in 2013 evaluating Hubble's engineering and subsystems that ultimately showed a good likelihood that the telescope would continue functioning at least until 2020, Sembach said. [See amazing images taken by Hubble]
Operating the telescope through 2020 is an important goal for NASA. Hubble's successor — NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) — should launch in 2018, creating a one-two punch of space telescope observations for at least a couple years before Hubble's mission ends.
And officials are doing all they can to be sure that the spacecraft keeps working through at least that target date.
"We're conducting what we're calling the '2020 vision' for Hubble, and that is to make sure that the observatory is ready to run for at least five or six years to get at least a year of overlap with James Webb, if not more," Sembach said. "We're lucky in that we have very proactive engineering that's been going on over the last few years and continues to go on both at the [Space Telescope Science] Institute and at [NASA's] Goddard [Space Flight Center] to make sure that we're operating the observatory as safely and as effectively as we can. So, we're going to get to 2020."
JWST and Hubble are designed to observe somewhat different cosmic spectacles. JWST will extend Hubble's reach into the early universe, allowing scientists to potentially learn more about how the earliest galaxies formed.
If the two telescopes do function simultaneously, scientists might be able to observe one target using both observatories, giving researchers a more detailed spectrum of science from the cosmic target.
"The Hubble Space Telescope mission office and the James Webb Space Telescope mission office are discussing ways that we can allow people that have excellent science ideas that require both facilities to take data of the same targets to get those data sets on both missions," Jason Kalirai of the Space Telescope Science Institute said during the news conference. "We're in the process of putting together policies that are going to ensure that's possible." | <urn:uuid:ea6b3101-2017-4ea0-9b98-6958a1a390d3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.space.com/28422-hubble-space-telescope-mission-2020.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396875.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00186-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958179 | 535 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Taking Learning Beyond Textbooks and Tests
More than just a place to earn a degree, Miami Dade College strives to be a destination for students to learn how to become responsible global citizens and successful, lifelong learners. Its most important tool for accomplishing this goal is the College’s 10 Learning Outcomes, also known affectionately as the “Big 10.”
This list of fundamental knowledge and skills is instilled in students through curriculum and co-curricular activities in all academic disciplines, which help ensure students emerge from MDC as well-rounded graduates who can succeed in the real world. This nationally recognized and award-winning initiative has become a model for other institutes of higher education around the country.
Surveys of MDC grads show the lessons are working. Graduates’ perceptions of the College’s contribution to their ability levels on the 10 Learning Outcomes continues to increase, rising to 79 percent from 77 percent in 2009-10.
Students’ ratings of their own mastery of the Learning Outcomes also is steadily rising (see chart below), especially in the areas of:
- Critical thinking
- Information literacy
- Global, cultural and historical perspectives
- Civic and social responsibilities
- Ethical thinking
- Computer usage
- Appreciation of creative activities
These categories have seen the most improvement, but students’ self-ratings stand impressively at more than 94 percent or higher in every single Learning Outcome, with many approaching 99 percent.
“The Learning Outcomes are at the heart of all that we do to improve student learning,” said Dr. Lenore Rodicio, vice provost for student achievement. “They build a foundation for student success and provide learning that leads to empowered and responsible citizens. Ensuring that our students have ample opportunity to acquire these essential outcomes is a shared responsibility among all faculty, staff and administrators here at MDC.”
Outside the Classroom Walls
Many of the College’s professors have developed innovative ways to incorporate these skills into their teaching, whether it’s math students exploring geometry in hands-on activities during a visit to Miami International Sculpture Park or architecture students tasked with designing an environmentally responsible kindergarten building for a local site. These types of activities get students out of the classroom and help accelerate their analytical and communication skills.
“When the College came up with the 10 Learning Outcomes, part of what we wanted was to touch on the idea of educating the whole person,” said MDC Associate Professor Carlos González Morales, who teaches communications. His students were able to focus on social responsibility, expand their cultural perspectives and develop their communication skills with weekly visits to a local elementary school in one of the city’s most underserved neighborhoods, where they helped the kids works on their literacy, writing and language skills.
“These activities remind students that the community is an essential part of the educational experience and that giving back and being involved in the community is a very important part of being an educated human being,” he said.
The 10 Learning Outcomes
- As graduates of Miami Dade College, students will be able to:
- Communicate effectively using listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.
- Use quantitative analytical skills to evaluate and process numerical data.
- Solve problems using critical and creative thinking and scientific reasoning.
- Formulate strategies to locate, evaluate and apply information.
- Demonstrate knowledge of diverse cultures, including global and historical perspectives.
- Create strategies that can be used to fulfill personal, civic and social responsibilities.
- Demonstrate knowledge of ethical thinking and its application to issues in society.
- Use computer and emerging technologies effectively.
- Demonstrate an appreciation for aesthetics and creative activities.
- Describe how natural systems function and recognize the impact of humans on the environment.
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- Making All the Right Connections
- Fulbrighters Start U.S. Journeys at MDC
- Univision Honors an MDC Superhero
- A Twin Commitment to Academic Excellence | <urn:uuid:88d5f840-c1d2-49ef-bb83-beda4523e8ad> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mdc.edu/main/collegeforum/archive/vol17-04/features/l1000_lo.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391766.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00093-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936866 | 902 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Supreme Court justices, court of appeals judges, and district court judges are nominated by the President and confirmed by the United States Senate, as stated in the Constitution. The names of potential nominees often are recommended by senators or sometimes members of the House who are usually but not always of the President's political party. The Senate Judiciary Committee typically conducts confirmation hearings for each nominee. Article III of the Constitution states that these judicial officers are appointed for a life term. The federal Judiciary, the Judicial Conference of the United States, and the Administrative Office of the U. S. Courts play no role in the nomination and confirmation process. | <urn:uuid:083ced69-818a-4f9a-b7d0-98b37a12c016> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.laborlawtalk.com/showthread.php?t=147494 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00146-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970654 | 124 | 2.96875 | 3 |
May 18, 2010
at 57th Street Books
Date & Time: Tuesday, May 18th at 6.00pm
Location: 57th Street Books, 1301 E. 57th Street
For more than two centuries, the ranks of feminists have included dreamy idealists and conscientious reformers, erotic rebels and angry housewives, dazzling writers, shrewd political strategists, and thwarted workingwomen. Well-known leaders are sketched from new angles by Stansell, with her bracing eye for character: Mary Wollstonecraft, the passionate English writer who in 1792 published the first full-scale argument for the rights of women; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, brilliant and fearless; the imperious, quarrelsome Betty Friedan. But figures from other contexts, too, appear in an unforgettable new light, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who in the 1970s led a revolution in the constitutional interpretations of women’s rights, and Toni Morrison, whose bittersweet prose gave voice to the modern black female experience.
Stansell accounts for the failures of feminism as well as the successes. She notes significant moments in the struggle for gender equality, such as the emergence in the early 1900s of the dashing “New Woman”; the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the right to vote; the post–World War II collapse of suburban neo-Victorianism; and the radical feminism of the 1960s—all of which led to vast changes in American culture and society. The Feminist Promise dramatically updates our understanding of feminism, taking the story through the age of Reagan and into the era of international feminist movements that have swept the globe. Stansell provocatively insists that the fight for women’s rights in developing countries “cannot be separated from democracy’s survival.”
A soaring work unprecedented in scope, historical depth, and literary appeal, The Feminist Promise is bound to become an authoritative source on this essential subject for decades to come on. At once a work of scholarship, political observation, and personal reflection, it is a book that speaks to the demands and challenges—individual, national, and international—of the twenty-first century.
Posted in Past Events | <urn:uuid:a38eb9fb-b855-44af-9496-0abbb5506e02> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.semcoop.com/2010/03/25/may-18-2010christine-stansellat-57th-street-books/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00066-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930221 | 454 | 2.53125 | 3 |
- Tips & Tricks
- Windows Tools
- System Utilities
- Keyboard Shortcuts
In this tutorial I will show you how to make your printer work with Windows Vista. It doesn't matter if it's a brand new printer or an old one - by the end of this tutorial you will have a working printer. In this tutorial I will talk only about local printers. Network printers will be covered in a separate article.
Local printers are those which you have at home/office, connected directly to the computer on which you are working. After installing the local printer, you can share it with other people that are in your network. They will be able to print but will have to come to your printer to get the pages they printed.
How to plug the printer
First, start your computer and then plug in the cables that came with your printer. You must have at least one cable which connects the printer to your power outlet and one which connects the printer to your PC. After you plugged all the cables, start the printer. To start the printer, you will either find a button that does this or it starts automatically. When it does start, it might do a "warming-up" sound or it might light a led so that you will know that is working.
Installing the printer
Now you have to install the appropriate drivers for your printer. Drivers are programs that drive the communication process between applications and devices such as your printer. If your printer is not detected and installed automatically by Windows Vista, then you will need to install the drivers yourself. They can be found on the site of your printer's manufacturer or on the CD that comes with the printer. If you do not have or cannot install the drivers, then follow this procedure:
Click on the Start button and go to Control Panel.
In Windows 10 click the little Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of your screen and then click "Settings". Now click "Devices" and then "Add a printer or scanner". Windows will then guide you through the installation process.
In the Control Panel window, beneath Hardware and Sound, click on Printer.
In the Printers window click on Add a printer.
In the new window, select Add a local printer.
Now you have to choose the type of connection between your printer and your PC. Choose the type from the scroll down list and click on Next.
If you are not sure what to choose, read the printer's manual. Most modern printers use USB cables to connect to your PC. Older models may use LPT. If the cable looks like the one shown in the picture below, select LPT1.
Now you must go to your printer and check the name of the company that made it (e.g. Lexmark, HP, etc) and the model name & number (e.g. Lexmark Z52, Hp LaserJet 4250, etc). In the next window you will see two columns. Go to the Manufacturer's column and select the name of the company that produced your printer and in the Printers column, select the model. Once you've found it, select it and click on the Next button.
If you cannot find your printer, insert the CD that came along with it, click on Have Disk and Browse to your CD and then click on OK. Windows Vista will search for drivers and try to install them. Another option is to click on Windows Update and have Windows Vista search for drivers on the internet.
Now you can change the printer’s name and assign it as a default printer by checking the appropriate option. When done, click on Next.
The printer will now be installed. At the end you will receive a notification. Click on Finish and you are done.
If it hasn't said "You've successfully added ..." then click on Finish and read the Troubleshooting section of this tutorial.
If Windows Vista warns you that the driver you are planning to install can't be verified, click on 'Install this driver software anyway'. However, you should select this only if the driver you have downloaded is created by the manufacturer of your printer, specifically for your model.
If Windows Vista doesn't automatically recognize your printer even after you have installed the driver, the problem might be with the connection cable. Try to plug the printer to another computer and test it there, to be sure that the connection cable is not damaged. | <urn:uuid:7a7bd406-98e1-44b4-a09e-7c8b201b244e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wintuts.com/How-to-install-local-printer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394987.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00037-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925206 | 900 | 3.09375 | 3 |
The modern brainstorm was invented in the 1930s, and then officially inked onto paper in 1953 in the book Applied Imagination, by Alex Osborn, the "O" in ad agency BBDO. We all know how a brainstorm goes down. Minds gather in a room to freely associate, banter, collaborate. There are no wrong answers, only sparks of ideas.
It sounds a lot like, say, a conversation. Which begs the question: How is a brainstorm something that could be invented? No one invented talking to each other or sharing ideas. But what Osborn identified was a need for a focused group activity with enough gusto to produce something wild and inventive within a defined period of time. And like any activity or game, a brainstorm allows for player advantages and disadvantages.
"There’s always a dynamic based on people’s personalities, based on whether they’re introverted or extroverted," says Carla Diana, head of Smart Interaction Lab, part of Smart Design, a global design firm that’s adding some physicality to the brainstorm with the toylike objects of their Totem series. "It’s very common for one or two people to dominate a brainstorm. It also makes those people who feel timid feel more timid."
Smart Interaction Lab decided to use the recent Maker Faire in Barcelona as a testing ground for Totem—and to introduce some introvert-extrovert equality to brainstorming sessions. They’ve designed three physical tools to help guide social cues and unlock new ways of thinking.
The first piece is called Baton. It’s basically a talking stick that, like a Bop It, is timed to vibrate and buzz after about four minutes. Like the talking sticks used everywhere from aboriginal tribes to Girl Scout troops, it’s designed to prevent any one person from bulldozing a conversation.
The second Totem prop is a listening machine called Echo, which is meant to be listened to later, in the hopes that forgotten bits of conversation or additional audio will jumpstart new ideas after brains are refreshed. "The philosophy of non-linear thinking is about forcing yourself to think about something completely different," Diana tells Co.Design. "This idea of randomness is very common in ideation to get you out of your comfort zone." She offers the example of designing a chair while listening to Echo playing the sound of running water. "I’ll hear the water, and think, ‘I never thought about water, or the form of a cascade.’"
The third tool is a three-piece set of rings, dubbed Alter Ego. Based on theories in the conceptual-ideation expert Edward De Bono’s book, Six Thinking Hats, the Smart Interaction team built the rings to provoke people out of personal biases. They come equipped with lights, so if the green light is on, the thinker is cued to take a positive point of view—even if he or she is opposed to an idea. The red light asks the user to play devil’s advocate, and the blue light denotes the group moderator.
Totem is an unproven concept, and Smart Interaction Lab doesn’t have plans to manufacture the series (yet). Brainstorming itself has of late come under siege from critics at advertising firm Saatchi and Saatchi to writer Jonah Lehrer. A survey of these criticisms will elucidate at least one thing: It’s a fragmented process that isn’t done right in any one way. And there are plenty of approaches out there. Musician Brian Eno created the Oblique Strategy, which calls for a deck of cards printed with questions or commands like, "Ask your body."
Totem, like Oblique Strategy or even self-help books, "is really intended as provocation," Diana says, citing the key to any successful ideation session—or conversation.
Read more about Totem here. | <urn:uuid:0ad19362-0095-4f6e-a7aa-81b70744705c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.fastcodesign.com/1673341/can-these-blocks-unblock-brainstorming | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391766.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00100-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94645 | 813 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Have you ever wondered what it takes to be an astronaut?
NASA has an engaging new program that brings the excitement of space exploration to kids learning to live a healthy lifestyle! In partnership with the White House Let's Move! initiative, NASA's Train Like an Astronaut program aims to increase opportunities both in and out of school for kids to become more physically and mentally active. This program uses the excitement of space exploration and astronaut training to challenge, inspire, and educate kids to set physical fitness goals and to practice physical fitness and proper nutrition. Kids will explore mission challenges, learn the science behind nutrition, and learn to train like an astronaut!
Train Like an Astronaut physical activities are modeled after the real-life training that astronauts do to prepare for exploring space. Kids will experience hands-on science that relates the needs of our bodies on Earth to the needs of an astronaut in space.The activities used in the Train Like an Astronaut program were developed in cooperation with NASA scientists and fitness professionals who work directly with astronauts. Although designed for 8-12 year olds, this program is for anyone and everyone who is curious about space exploration and what it takes to be an astronaut.
Make family time, active time! Set goals and work together as a family team to train like an astronaut and learn to live a healthy lifestyle. How does this work for my family? Decide as a family which activities you will do, for how long, and how often. Write down your schedule and make family goals. Once you've made a plan, watch the videos and follow the activity guides to learn the proper techniques, procedures and ways the activities are like real astronauts training for a mission. Want to challenge your kids? Use the points rubric and challenge every member in your family to try to earn the most points. A little friendly competition can be fun!
Challenge students to train like astronauts. Connect the science classroom to physical education while learning about living a healthy lifestyle, the science of physical fitness and nutrition, and the excitement of space exploration.How does this work in my classroom? Download the physical and educational activities and complement your learning plan while meeting National Education Standards. Watch the videos for a step-by-step guide on the activities and how they relate to the human body in space. Prepare the students to take on mission assignments by setting goals and creating Mission Journals. Want to take it a step further? Feeling competitive? Create a challenge between classrooms and compete for points!
Bring fun, fitness and nutrition to your neighborhood. Bring the excitement of space exploration to after-school programs and extracurricular programs. How does this work in my community? Visit the website and choose activities that will fit with your existing program. Consider what can be accomplished in the location and time period available. Have your instructors follow the activity guides and view the videos to prepare for teaching the community. Make a plan, get the word out and watch the kids get excited and have fun learning about space exploration! Want to involve more of the community? Consider creating a fitness and nutrition day with local partners that care about the health of your community!
NASA's Train Like an Astronaut program includes hands-on science activities designed to help students understand how physical activity and nutrition affect the human body on Earth and in space. These activities are based on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) concepts and are correlated to the National Education Standards. The Student Handout contains step-by-step instructions for following the scientific method as kids investigate the importance of hydration, maintaining bone health, how calories are converted into energy, formulating a balanced meal, and more.
The Instructor Guides provide the information needed to lead each activity. A NASA background is provided so instructors can understand how the activity relates to space exploration. Each guide also provides information and hints on explaining the activities to the kids and how to work towards content objectives. Monitoring and assessment questions, material lists, preparation instructions, NASA vocabulary, safety guidelines, and additional resources are also included. Information on the NASA scientists and engineers that helped create each of the activities is available too!
NASA's Train Like an Astronaut program includes a variety of physical activities called "Missions". The Mission Handouts contain instructions for kids to complete their "mission assignment". These missions involve physical activities that use the same muscles and body systems as NASA astronauts do when they train for space exploration. Just like NASA astronauts, kids will practice muscle endurance, hand-eye coordination, heart and lung endurance, balance, spatial awareness, aerobic and anaerobic activity, communication and more. They will learn how these things are important to keep themselves and astronauts fit and healthy.
The Train Like an Astronaut activities each have a video with step-by-step procedures for the instructor. NASA astronauts joined in the adventure by explaining how each activity relates to their experiences in training for space exploration.
The Points Rubric is for tracking kids' progress. Use the rubric to challenge each team to train hard and get a high score. The scores are based on combined activity completion, fitness accelerations, space application, teamwork, and of course fun!
The Mission Journal, or mission notebook is for collecting data and keeping activity progress, documenting research, and learning reflections. Although not required to complete the program, they are a great tool to keep kids motivated.
Q: How can I register for the Train Like an Astronaut program?
A: No registration necessary! Everything you need is available to anyone on the website.
Q: How much does it cost?
A: This program is provided to you by NASA and is absolutely free! All content is available for download on the website. The only thing you may need to purchase is education activity materials.
Q: How long does it take to complete the Train Like an Astronaut program?
A: Train Like an Astronaut is a flexible program. How long it takes to complete, depends on how you use it! Activities can be completed as individual lessons or a challenge.
Q: Is adult supervision required to run this program?
A: We recommend that each of the activities be led by an adult. This helps to ensure that all safety precautions are followed correctly. We also look to the adult to help keep the excitement of space exploration at the forefront of these activities. Instructor guides are available on the website.
Q: What language is Train Like an Astronaut program available in?
A: All Train Like an Astronaut activities are currently available in both English and Spanish.
Q: Are there other opportunities beyond Train Like an Astronaut?
A: If participants would like to take the next step in the Train Like an Astronaut program, consider becoming a part of the Mission X: Train Like an Astronaut Challenge. Mission X is an international challenge for kids worldwide that are training like astronauts! Visit the website for information on registration, challenge dates, and participating countries. Learn more about the Mission X: Train Like an Astronaut Challenge at www.trainlikeanastronaut.org. | <urn:uuid:43b75f9a-1c21-4922-98b4-cae50bd6d18c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/trainlikeanastronaut/home/about.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396027.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00179-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922483 | 1,426 | 3.71875 | 4 |
Ready Set Explore teaches kids the science behind staying healthy
witf.org, | 04.14.14
Recently, WITF and the Byrnes Health Education Center helped kids and adults to explore the science behind staying healthy.
At this free, fun, family event specifically designed for children, whole families were encouraged to get moving and learning together. They made arts and crafts, played games and learned about different ways to keep a body healthy.
WITF's Ready, Set, Explore program links families, PBS characters, and learning together. With support from community agencies and sponsors, these family play dates allow children, aged 3-8, to engage with their families around meaningful, interesting content in fun, age-appropriate ways. Themes for the Ready, Set, Explore events are tailored to meet the needs of community partners and include the arts, connections to nature, science topics like weather, animals and space, literacy and health.
You can find additional “Ready Set Explore” event information here. www.witf.org/ready-set-explore | <urn:uuid:9a4f459d-46e6-4572-83f4-fb6f14d5b7df> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.transforminghealth.org/stories/2014/04/ready-set-explore-teaches-kids-the-science-behind-staying-healthy.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397748.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00136-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95473 | 220 | 3.1875 | 3 |
How to Raise an Ox - Introduction
The zen of Dōgen is the Zen of practice. Whatever else may be said about the ninety-five chapters of his Shōbōgenzō—and there is so much that has been said!—it is clear that the main theme that runs through these chapters is that of the necessity for daily, diligent, and continuous practice of Zen. To understand what it means to say that Dōgen’s Zen is the Zen of practice is to understand something of that remarkable man’s place in the development of Buddhism, as well as something of the nature of Buddhism itself. It is my earnest hope that these translations of nine chapters from Shōbōgenzō and of Fukan zazengi will help to clarify for us Dōgen’s Zen of practice.
Western students of Buddhism these days are perhaps not quite so prone to making the same errors of interpretation that characterized earlier generations, but there still remains a tendency to misunderstand certain aspects of Buddhism. For instance, it is generally said that the goal of Buddhism is enlightenment. In a sense, this is true, but it is misleading when it is claimed without qualification; it might be more accurate to say that in Mahayana Buddhism, enlightenment is the doorway through which one must necessarily pass in order to reach the true goal. Enlightenment is sometimes imagined as a sudden, dramatic, transformational event that occurs only after a long preparatory period of moral self-cleansing and hard meditation, the prize that is finally claimed after much practice, and that is the culmination and termination of that practice. For if practice exists for the sake of enlightenment, why practice once the prize is won? Yet this is precisely what Dōgen and the masters of old did. They tell us repeatedly that there is nothing to attain. But in reality, this “nothing” is attained many times and in varying degrees of intensity and depth.
To characterize Dōgen’s Zen as the Zen of practice is not to suggest that his form of Buddhism is the only one concerned with practice. All forms of Buddhism necessarily involve some kind of practice because Buddhism is mainly practice. Buddhism is a markedly experiential religion inasmuch as the true life in the Dharma involves a realization (i.e., a making real) of those doctrines taught by Shakyamuni, and this making real does not happen in the absence of constant effort—the continual and conscious direction of the will toward realization. Without this effort, Buddhism would degenerate into mere philosophy, into a mechanical profession of faith, or into vague, warm feelings directed toward some remote, mysterious Other.
Dōgen’s unique Zen of practice can be seen clearly in certain phrases in the Shōbōgenzō. Honshō myōshū means “wonderful practice based on intrinsic enlightenment.” It is an important phrase because it embodies two ideas that are central to Dōgen’s understanding of Buddhism. Honshō (“intrinsic enlightenment”) refers to the idea that all living beings are already Buddhas. This does not mean that beings possess a Buddha nature, or that beings are containers in which a seed form of Buddha can be found, as if there were two realities: beings and Buddha. All beings are Buddhas, but they are Buddhas who are ignorant of their true nature. Second, the whole phrase, honshō myōshū, points to the manner in which beings should proceed to make this hidden nature manifest and functional. Practice should not be undertaken in the mistaken notion that it has a purely instrumental value, as a means to a separate—and presumably greater!—end. To believe that one does zazen now in order to acquire enlightenment later is to merely perpetuate the very dualities that lie at the root of the human problem. This mistaken view tacitly assumes that there is a difference between beings and Buddha, means and ends, now and then—and thus practice becomes just one more attempt to achieve ego-gratification. The belief that practice culminates in enlightenment is a denial of what was for Dōgen the basis for his own achievement—the conviction that all beings just as they are are Buddhas.
The second phrase highlighting the uniqueness of Dōgen’s Zen is shūshō ittō, which means “the oneness of practice and enlightenment.” Shūshō ittō points the way to correct practice by cautioning us not to think of enlightenment as a future event that will result from present practice. Instead, practicing shūshō ittō, we proceed in the knowledge that we are already that which we hope to become, and that our practice is the manifestation of this inherent enlightenment. Actually, it is not even we as sentient beings who engage in practice, it is the Buddha who practices. Consequently, there is no sequence of ignorance followed by enlightenment. When we practice Zen, we are Buddhas. Practice and enlightenment are the same; to practice is to be a Buddha.
When Dōgen returned to Japan after his trip to China, the first thing he wrote was Fukan zazengi (“General Recommendations for Doing Zazen”), and in it he said, “Do not sit [i.e., do zazen] in order to become a Buddha, because that has nothing to do with such things as sitting or lying down.” We recall the famous dialogue between Master Huai-jang and Ma-tsu. Huai-jang found Ma-tsu doing zazen, and when asked why he was doing it, Ma-tsu replied, “To become a Buddha.” Thereupon, Huai-jang sat down and began to polish a piece of brick. “Why are you polishing that brick?” asked Ma-tsu. “I’m going to turn it into a mirror,” was the master’s answer. “But,” said Ma-tsu, “no amount of polishing will turn that brick into a mirror.” “That is true,” replied Huai-jang, “and no amount of zazen will turn you into a Buddha.” This story is not meant to deny the necessity of practice—practice is essential; it is the heart of Buddhism and the key to learning the Way—but it is not a means to an end. True practice is the enlightened activity of the Buddha we already are.
Dōgen’s understanding of practice turns the older, traditional Buddhist sequence of morality, meditation, and enlightenment (Skt. shīla, samādhi, prajñā) upside-down. In the Buddhism prior to Dōgen’s time, a proper observance of moral and ethical injunctions was emphasized as the necessary, preliminary basis for the central practice of meditation. The rationale for this apparently is the obvious one: a person who is careless in his interpersonal relationships is just not the kind of person who can meditate effectively. Thus, the order of morality preceding meditation seems ultimately to have had a practical basis; and then in turn meditation leads to insight and enlightenment. However, Dōgen places enlightenment first, as the basis of both meditation and ethics, which themselves are in turn manifestations of enlightenment. Dōgen’s views on the matter of ethics and morality led him to the conclusion that the real, practical observance of the precepts had to be an organic unfolding of a mode of conduct that was itself an expression of an enlightened nature. In fact, Dōgen says that ethics and meditation are the same thing: “When one does zazen, what ethical precepts are not being observed?” he asks. Both ethics and meditation are thus “wonderful practice based on intrinsic enlightenment.” This is the life of a Buddha.
The idea that meditation, ethics, and enlightenment are all the same thing was not exactly Dōgen’s innovation. The story about Huai-jang polishing a brick indicates that Dōgen’s Chinese predecessors had already understood this relationship. The doctrine of “intrinsic enlightenment” is in fact one of the most obvious characteristics of Chinese Buddhism. This doctrine of intrinsic enlightenment is, in Dōgen’s teaching, raised up to the status of the central and crucial fact, and it explains his whole approach to training in the Dharma. For Dōgen, it is not even really correct to say that it is the ordinary human being who is performing the practice; it is the Buddha who instigates the practice and maintains it. “No ordinary being ever became a Buddha,” he says in Yuibutsu yobutsu, “only Buddhas become Buddhas.”
Historically, the first clear statement of this insight occurs in the Platform Sutra of Hui-neng, the sixth ancestor of Chinese Zen. It is clear that there is continuity between Hui-neng’s Zen and Dōgen’s Zen. In the Platform Sutra Hui-neng says,
Good friends, my teaching of the Dharma takes meditation and wisdom as its basis. Never under any circumstances mistakenly say that meditation and wisdom are different; they are a unity, not two things. Meditation itself is the substance of wisdom; wisdom itself is the function of meditation. At the very moment when there is wisdom, then meditation exists in wisdom; at the very moment when there is meditation, then wisdom exists in meditation. Good friends, this means that meditation and wisdom are alike. Students, be careful not to say that meditation gives rise to wisdom, or that wisdom gives rise to meditation, or that meditation and wisdom are different from each other. To hold this view implies that things have duality.
Hui-neng says clearly that what seem to be two things are in fact one. For Dōgen, too, wisdom and meditation are identical, and thus the duality of means and ends is overcome and the way to correct practice is shown. To sit upright with straight back, with mind and body unified, empty and unattached to internal and external events—this is itself Buddha wisdom; this is Buddha mind.
“Buddha-Tathāgatas,” says Dōgen, “all have a wonderful means, which is unexcelled and free from human agency, for transmitting the wondrous Dharma from one to another without alteration and realizing supreme and complete awakening. That it is only transmitted without deviation from Buddha to Buddha is due to the jijuyū samādhi, which is its touchstone.” Jijuyū samādhi is another important term. It is in a way synonymous with zazen. Ji means “self ” or “oneself,” and ju and yū mean “receive” and “use,” respectively. The samādhi called jijuyū, therefore, is meditation that one enjoys and uses oneself. It is contrasted with tajuyū samādhi, which is samādhi performed for some other purpose, such as for other beings or in order to acquire Buddhahood. Dōgen teaches that, rather than do zazen for some purpose, one sits quietly, without expectation, in jijuyū samādhi, simply to enjoy one’s own inherent nature, without question of means and ends. This zazen practice is, according to Dōgen’s Fukan zazengi, zazen in which we “gauge our enlightenment to the fullest.”
According to Dōgen, Shakyamuni himself first enjoyed this samādhi while sitting under the bodhi tree for several days after his own realization. There was no question of using the samādhi for some ulterior purpose, because he had already obtained everything there was to obtain. Then why did he continue to sit in jijuyū samādhi? Because he was just manifesting and enjoying his Buddhahood. Yet eventually he rose and went on to teach his Dharma for the next forty-five years, for ultimately jijuyū samādhi is not separate from tajuyū samādhi; samādhi used for the benefit of others is not separate from samādhi enjoyed oneself. Sentient beings are numberless, and Buddhist practitioners, if they truly follow the Mahayana Way, must arouse the determination to do whatever they can to emancipate all these sentient beings by leading them to the other shore, to enlightenment.
Again we come to the following question: If one is in fact a Buddha right now, why practice at all? Isn’t it enough that we are told by scripture and the personal testimony of masters that we are, always have been, and always will be Buddhas? This question plagued Dōgen in his younger years and eventually led him to China in search of answer. The answer itself is not really difficult to find, but it is vitally important that we understand it. We may know that we are Buddhas, but for most of us, this is not real knowledge. It is only hearsay, something we are told and that we may (or may not) accept on faith. However, our unrealized Buddha nature does not illuminate and transform our everyday lives. It is somewhat like having talent for music. We may be told we have this talent, and the knowledge may be gratifying, but we are still unable, for instance, to play the piano. The potential is real, but remains unactivated and unrealized. If the individual begins to practice, the talent itself will become evident in the practice. The ability to play the piano is a latent talent now realized. But if a talented person does not begin to practice, he might as well not have the ability. Our Buddha nature is like this. Dōgen tells us, “To disport oneself freely in this [jijuyū] samādhi, the right entrance is proper sitting in zazen. This Dharma is amply present in every person, but unless one practices, it is not manifested, unless there is realization, it is not attained.”
Dōgen Zenji himself speaks often of realization. The Japanese word that is translated as “realization” literally means “proof,” “evidence,” “certification,” and “witnessing.” All these words carry the sense of authenticating and bringing out into the open. The English word “realization” literally means “making real,” which is close to the meaning of the Japanese term. Thus, realization of Buddha nature means making real for ourselves what otherwise is only hearsay. Buddhism is an experiential religion in which this real-making process actualizes Buddha nature as a concrete, lived reality.
Therefore, because practice is absolutely necessary for making our inherent Buddha nature a lived reality, practice never ends. As long as we imagine that practice is only a means to a greater end, we tend to think that once we have acquired some small insight, we no longer need to practice. But if in fact we are each a perfect and complete Buddha, then there can never be an end to the realization of this nature, for there is no limit to its ability to encompass more and more of experience. Indeed, a person who desires enlightenment ardently may for that reason be unable to acquire it, since by definition enlightenment is essentially desireless. In fact, Dōgen says that all that is required is simple faith in one’s intrinsic Buddha nature, and elsewhere, in Shōji (“Birth and Death”) he says:
You only attain the mind of Buddha when there is no hating and no desiring. But do not try to gauge it with your mind or speak it with words. When you simply release and forget both your body and mind and throw yourself into the house of Buddha, and when functioning comes from the direction of Buddha and you go in accord with it, then with no strength needed and no thought expended, freed from birth and death, you become Buddha. Then there can be no obstacle in any man’s mind. There is an extremely easy way to become Buddha. Refraining from all evils, not clinging to birth and death, working in deep compassion for all sentient beings, respecting those over you and pitying those below you, without any detesting or desiring, worrying or lamentation— this is what is called Buddha. Do not search beyond it.
This faith in one’s intrinsic Buddha nature is the life of endless practice. To “throw ourselves into the house of the Buddha” is to have deep faith in the reality of this nature, and practice is simply allowing this nature to actualize or realize itself in our daily lives. It is practice forever. From time to time there may be flashes of satori insight, sometimes grand and overwhelming, sometimes small and modest, but practice goes on and on. The master may test the depth of our insight from time to time by means of judiciously chosen kōans, and may certify our understanding, but the practice continues. “When Buddhas are truly Buddhas,” says Dōgen, “there is no need to know that we are all Buddhas, but we are realized Buddhas and further advance in realizing Buddha.” If, like Methuselah in the Hebrew scriptures, we were able to live for 900 years, we would continue to practice and continue to realize the Buddha. The horizons of Buddha vision are boundless and limitless, and the depths to which it can penetrate are fathomless.
This practice is very simple, but also very difficult. It is our human nature to pick and choose, to desire and loathe, to form myriad attitudes and judgments toward the events of our lives. This practice is difficult because it demands of us that we simply cease the picking and choosing, desiring and loathing. A contemporary Zen master has said that “Zen is picking up your coat from the floor and hanging it up.” Nothing could be simpler. Yet how difficult! There is no fun in “picking up your coat.” Tasks like this do not seem at all self-fulfilling and enriching. Even worse, “picking up your coat” doesn’t seem to be a very “spiritual” kind of practice—unlike, we imagine, prayer, meditation, fasting, or developing a meaningful relationship. There is nothing more ordinary and unspecial than “picking up your coat.” Yet, it is really the essence of practice, for “picking up your coat” is exactly what Dōgen means by meditation.
Just how is “picking up your coat” the essence of practice? It is particularly important for Western people to understand this, because we have all been raised in a culture where it is usually assumed that religious activities are of a special nature; indeed, that religion is a sphere separate from the mundane world. From this perspective, the statement that religious practice—meditation—consists of “picking up your coat” may seem absurd. We almost always pick up the coat, or wash the dishes, or perform any other task of that sort with regret or dislike, yearning to be elsewhere doing better things. We are bored, impatient, and perhaps even somewhat resentful. Doing things in this manner—our minds filled with likes and dislikes—is not Zen. But the rest of our lives will be made up of countless situations of this kind. Will we continue to approach them with irritation and regret, hoping for better things elsewhere, later, or will we begin to see this ordinary life as Buddha sees it? Possibly our ordinary life can in time come to seem good enough, even beautiful, to us, if we begin to practice meditation in Dōgen’s way.
Unfortunately, most choose not to practice. Non-practice means continuing to approach every situation with self-centered attitudes. “Is it going to benefit me?” we ask, or “Is it a threat to me?” All about us we see things that we imagine are “good” or “bad,” but these goods and bads are only good and bad for me. Our hierarchy of self-oriented values often becomes more complex and deep-rooted the older we become, and it is just this mesh of attitudes and valuations that obscures our Buddha nature. To realize our Buddha nature, we need to remove this mesh and come to see that dishwashing is not inherently “bad” and becoming, say, chairman of the board of directors is not inherently “good,” for the good and bad we constantly perceive about us are only reflections of our selfconcern. Dōgen’s zazen, the jijuyū samādhi, is a way to eliminate this obscuring veil, for by its very nature it is the experience of events without subjective judgments. But it is not a preparation for the sake of a future realization; in jijuyū samādhi we begin to realize ourselves as Buddha right here and now. As we live this samādhi, we live the life of Buddha.
Ideally, this samādhi comes to be our everyday consciousness, wherever we are, at all times. It is not a special consciousness reserved for an hour in the meditation room in the morning and evening. Nor does it mean going about in a dreamy, semi-wakeful state, as if we were anesthetized or drugged. In samādhi we know pain as pain and pleasure as pleasure; the alert and receptive mind reflects all events clearly and without distortion. The only difference between samādhi and our ordinary self-consciousness is that in samādhi we do not correlate our experiences with some idea or judgment such as “good” or “bad.” We live an experience one-hundred percent, without adding any subjective judgment to it.
Hui-neng defines this zazen practice in the following way:
What is it in this teaching we call sitting in meditation? In this teaching, sitting means without any obstruction anywhere, outwardly and under all circumstances, not to activate thoughts. Meditation is internally to see the original nature and not become confused.
To sit, then, means to stop correlating external events with ideas such as “it is this,” or “it is that,” “right,” “wrong,” and so on, endlessly. Sitting has nothing to do with anesthesia or with escaping anything, for when the snow falls, we will still shiver and get our hair wet; when the pangs of disease strike, we will suffer the pain; and when the voracious tiger of old age springs, we will be devoured like everyone else. Dōgen says that the secret is not to hate these things nor desire their alternatives, but to to realize that these things— exactly as they are—are all there is. When the great Chinese Zen master Ta-mei was dying, his students asked him for a final helpful word. “When it comes, don’t try to avoid it; when it goes, don’t run after it,” he said. Just then, a squirrel chattered on the roof. “There is only this, there is nothing else,” said Ta-mei, and then he died. Can we conceive of what this is? Can this be enough for us? Is there another reality more real or more wonderful than this? To know that there is only this is to “see the original nature and not become confused.”
The key to practice is the development of jijuyū samādhi and its expression as tajuyū samādhi in all activities. Daily formal sitting in zazen will establish a model for this samādhi that we can in time learn to retain and use to illuminate our ordinary life. When we “pick up the coat” as a Buddha activity, two things occur. First, it is no longer a profane or lowly act, but the very functioning of Buddha nature. Second, this and every act become ceaseless training through which this Buddha activity grows to include more and more within its scope. Because there are no limits to the amount of experience that can be illuminated by this activity, there is also no end to practice.
The practice I have been discussing might also be called the practice of the art of doing just one thing at a time. It is wonderful to learn to do one thing at a time. When we do formal zazen, we just sit; this means we do not add to the sitting any judgments such as how wonderful it is to do zazen, or how badly we are doing at it. We just sit. When we wash the dishes, we just wash dishes; when we drive on the highway, we just drive. When pain comes, there is just pain, and when pleasure comes, there is just pleasure. A Buddha is someone who it totally at one with his experience at every moment. This practice is simple, but difficult. And the difficulty lies in not adding something extra to the events of our life.
In practicing Dōgen’s Zen, there is really no big graduation day when the training stops, because we are already that which we seek, and practice is learning day-by-day to be what we are. The starting point is intrinsic Buddhahood. Real meditation is the alert, clearminded attention to the details of daily life that emerges when we “do not activate thoughts.” To attain this even to some slight extent is to realize one’s Buddha nature to that extent. To realize this nature fully requires one to practice forever. This is what it means to follow Dōgen’s Way.
Practice must therefore include all activities; it cannot be limited to the formal activities of the zendō, when we chant, bow, offer incense, and do zazen. Zazen must begin when we open our eyes in the morning and not even end when we close them at night, so that all the activities of the day become practice. Sometimes many or most of these other activities do not feel like practice. Earning money to eat, maintaining the buildings and grounds in which we practice and live, keeping our living quarters neat and clean, treating food and clothing with respect and gratitude, following the many regulations of any community of people—these are often thought of as distractions from real practice, nuisances, or at best necessary concessions that support real practice. Dōgen reminds us that it is not hard to desire to practice, to seek out a teacher, and to enter the activities of the meditation hall, but harder to do all the other things that we do not associate with practice. “Entering the deep mountains and thinking about the Buddha Way is comparatively easy, while building stupas and making Buddha images is very difficult,” he says. These things are difficult because unless a person has a very real commitment to following the Way and understands this commitment as a total response to all events and all activities, ordinary activities feel like a burden.
All our activities are ideally gestures of respect toward the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Learning the Way must therefore include niceties of etiquette between individuals who practice together, for this is nothing nmore than respect for their Buddha nature.
Many things that need to be done are not for ourselves but for our successors, like Lin-chi planting cedars for those who would come after him. The Mahayana emphasis on helping all living beings thus includes not only those living now but also those who will come after us. All these activities become practice for the person who has what Dōgen called “the mind that seeks the Way.” When one has dropped off mind and body and no longer hankers for fame and profit, when one lives one’s life just as do the birds that sing in the trees, when one is truly grateful to the Buddha and his descendents, then all activities become practice. When there is no distinction of sacred and profane, profitable and nonprofitable, practice and nonpractice, then every gesture is practice in learning the Way. This is learning to raise an ox.
The most impressive aspect of Dōgen’s Way is the insistence on utter seriousness and utter commitment. It is inspiring to read any of the writings of Dōgen, for he tolerates no half-hearted, self-serving, or dilettantish involvement in the Way. One must pursue the Way in the single-minded and earnest manner of a person trying to extinguish a fire in his hair. Anything less than this is only a waste of our time, for we will never succeed unless learning the Way is the most important thing in our lives. How can anyone hope to measure up to Dōgen’s demanding requirements? Practice exacts our full effort at all times. To read the various chapters on practice in the Shōbōgenzō is to become aware of what a rare person Dōgen was, and why there is no grander conception of the religious life to be found anywhere.
The ten chapters I have translated are all about this ceaseless practice, though philosophy is not entirely absent. I have chosen these ten chapters for several reasons. They represent the various dimensions of practice, they are powerful and beautiful in their spirit and rhetorical force, they exhibit so well Dōgen’s stern and uncompromising spirit, and they are among the most moving I have encountered. There are surely other chapters of Shōbōgenzō that could have been included. For instance, any collection ought to include Genjō kōan, which is pertinent to practice and is surely one of the most brilliant, profound, and moving religious documents in world religious literature. I have not included it because it has already been well translated by others, and I cannot improve on these translations. Also, I might have included a chapter on atonement, which, perhaps surprisingly, is very important in Dōgen’s ideas about practice.
The following expository chapters are included here in the earnest hope that they will help to clarify just what Dōgen Zenji means by practice, although just what the essence of that practice is, is beyond my powers to express. Dōgen uses several expressions to indicate the same thing. For example, we might say that the essence of practice is shinjin datsuraku, which means “mind and body dropped off.” It is synonymous with “emptiness,” and denotes a state in which one is no longer motivated by self-concern. But it seems clear from the essays translated here that, in a very real way, shinjin datsuraku is the same as shukke, which means “home departure.” Consequently, to really leave home, or the world, is the same as dropping off mind and body. However, again, both terms can be seen as identical with hotsu mujō shin, “arousing the supreme thought,” or “arousing the determination to attain the supreme.” Continuous practice (gyōji) is none other than the whole of daily activity performed by one who embodies these things. If we grasp such interconnections among Dōgen’s terms, we will find the essence of practice is enunciated clearly in all the chapters of Shōbōgenzo translated here. They allow us to obtain some idea of what it is that Dōgen’s Way requires.
How to cite this document:
© Zen Center of Los Angeles, How to Raise an Ox (Wisdom Publications, 2002)
How to Raise an Ox by Francis Dojun Cook is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://www.wisdompubs.org/book/how-raise-ox.
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PHILADELPHIA — Learned optimism can be beneficial, helping to minimize feelings of depression, reduce stress levels and possibly improve physical health.
According to a controlled study by the University of Pennsylvania’s Martin Seligman, Ph.D., and Gregory Buchanan, Ph.D., incoming university freshmen who participated in a workshop on cognitive coping skills reported fewer adverse physical problems over time and retained their physical and mental health better than those who were not in a coping skills group.
This isn’t the first evidence that optimism can have profound benefits. In a retrospective study of 34 healthy Hall of Fame baseball players who were on teams between 1900 and 1950, the known optimists lived longer.
Survival rates for optimistic cancer patients are higher than for those who are hopeless. Optimists are also better equipped to handle stress and manage incidents that would incite anxiety. Although there are plenty of people who seem to be eternally optimistic, optimism is not an inherited trait.
Changing perceptions and teaching oneself to be more optimistic is possible. Being an optimist doesn’t mean turning a blind eye to problems or expecting everything to be easy. Being optimistic means learning from situations and recognizing that obstacles are there for a purpose.
Men and women hoping to become more optimistic can employ the following strategies.
– Stop and embrace a positive event. Take time to mull over something good that has happened and take credit for your involvement. Mentally categorize this feeling for later when you need an example of the way optimism makes you feel.
– Surround yourself with optimists. Hang out with people who have a sunny view on life rather than those who bring you down or commiserate. Learning from example can help you develop more positive thinking patterns.
– Believe you can and will succeed. When approaching something new, don’t set yourself up for failure. Go into it with the vision that you will thrive. Even if you don’t succeed as planned, you can use the opportunity as a learning experience and set a new plan to tackle.
– Erase negative phrases from your vocabulary. Using the terms “I can’t” or “It’s impossible” is a recipe for failure.
– Avoid complaints. Complaining does little more than make the person complaining feel even worse and could bring down the people around you. Because it won’t solve anything, there really is nothing productive about it. If you must get your feelings out, write them in a book and then tuck that book away.
– Take care of your body. You certainly can’t be positive if you aren’t feeling 100 percent. A well-balanced diet, routine exercise, sufficient rest, and finding time to go outdoors and get some fresh air and sunshine can help keep a person on a positive path.
– Get involved. Spending too much time isolated and alone can eventually degrade anyone’s feelings of well-being. Take the time to meet with people outside of your family and engage in different activities that take your mind off of stressors. People who are busy in a good way are more inclined to see the brighter side of life.
– Practice positive affirmations. Tell yourself good things. Receiving praise is something that instantly can put a person in a good mood. Instead of waiting for praise from others, give yourself a pat on the back every day.
– Realize that things don’t happen overnight. Becoming more optimistic will take time, but it can be done. Don’t be discouraged if it takes a little more time than you expected. Living longer and more productively comes partially from being an optimistic person and making the best of every situation. | <urn:uuid:448304e8-b8ef-4952-b059-6ac43fce8761> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.farmanddairy.com/news/optimism-is-good-for-your-health/48845.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00023-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947145 | 761 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Teaching (a pedagogical framework)4/04/2010 09:47:00 pm
When I'm asked, in email or face to face, to explain how I use < web based tool > (blogs, wikis, podcasts, what have you) with my students I usually begin by saying: "That's not a short answer." While knowledge of how a particular tool works is important, it's really a distant second to the questions:
What do I have to teach?
How can I best help my students learn this?
This is the first in what I hope will be a series that explains how I think about answering those questions.
The slidecast and the videos are best watched in Full Screen mode.
A higher quality video is available via my blip.tv channel.
Audio (8 min 4 sec)
Download 7.4 Mb
Years of research into teaching and learning have uncovered some basic fundamental principles of how all people learn. This will just be a quick overview of how I've tried to bridge that research with my practice and what I'm calling a pedagogical framework.
But first an excursion into the world of photography. The photographic technique of framing involves finding something that draws the eye, that sits around an object to draw the viewers' attention to that thing. Here's an example.
The lady is the object of this picture the eye is naturally drawn to see her there in the centre as she's framed by the windows of the subway car.
This is a strong example of framing as we see this man walking through the arches and those arches form a frame. The eye is inexplicably drawn towards the centre of the picture where we see the man.
In this case, a more subtle frame. And yet nonetheless it's clear that the horse is the object of the picture because the tree — which we don't really look at, it kind of sits in the foreground, the eye is really drawn towards the horse — provides a frame to see the horse.
What does this have to do with teaching and learning? Just bear with me.
First the three pedagogical principles, drawn mainly from this book: How People Learn. It was written in ... I believe it was 1999 and then it was updated again in 2000. Studying years and years of research they pulled out three fundamental principles of how people learn. As an outgrowth of that book another one was written called How Students Learn, specifically in the areas of History, Mathematics, and Science. These books have been absolutely seminal in forming my thinking and providing the pedagogical framework around which I structure all the teaching that I've done.
Typically when kids come to school they think of the world as flat. They have no reason to think of it as round and they come to school and we tell them the world is round. What studies have shown is that once kids leave school and they're asked to explain what they've learned: "Well the world is round." And their conception of the world is that it's a giant pancake. That's an interesting preconception that kids bring with them when they come to the classroom and teachers need to know that. Because the first principle out of the book is that "students errors and misconceptions based on previous learning" are the first thing that teachers have to try to connect with when they're trying to teach new content.
In this example, one drawn from mathematics, kids are often taught that multiplying is repeated addition. Multiplying is not repeated addition (although that's a good place to start) and they think that the answer to any question, when they multiply, has to be bigger than any of the numbers they started off with. Given a problem like this, fractions, well kids find that really hard, they just mul... they see the two the three and they know they have to have an answer that's bigger than either of them. If we know that that's the preconception that kids bring to the classroom then that can inform our teaching in constructive ways.
The second principle out of the book is that understanding requires not only factual knowledge, knowledge of basic facts, but an understanding of the basic ideas or big ideas of the discipline, whatever the discipline is that happens to be that you're teaching. Because knowledge isn't actually built in hierarchies knowledge is actually built in networks. For example, take something simple like three quarters. It seems like a pretty simple idea. But the number three quarters can be represented in a variety of ways. All of these are equivalent ways to write three quarters. It might have meant money, seventy five percent, it could be the ratio of three to four, point seven five or another way to write the fraction three quarters. Now even this extends beyond that because, "three quarters", well I could have been saying the money, three coins, three twenty five cent coins, which is seventy five cents. You see all these ideas are connected one to the other.
I might have been talking about a piece of cake; that I have three quarters of a cake. And it's implicit in that idea that each of those quarters is the same size. That each piece of cake has to be equivalent in size. But that's not always true with all ratios.
For example the ration of three red Smarties to four blue Smarties. I've got seven Smarties in total. And those Smarties don't all have to be the same size for my ratio of three red to four blue to be true.
These implicit assumptions make learning this material difficult for kids, and we as teachers make assumptions because we understand from the context that these things are clear. It could be seventy five percent off everything. That these ... All of these ideas actually live a network all one related to the other. The underlying assumptions that we make as experienced learners is that we take, from the surrounding context, what the meaning of each of these numbers is. And yet each one is related to the other.
That network has to be made explicit. That network of concepts has to made explicit to students. No matter what fundamental idea you're trying to get across to the students. In this case, the idea, the big idea, is really one of proportion.
The third principle out of the book is that "learning is facilitated through the use of meta-cognitive strategies". The degree to which we can get kids to think about what they're learning as they're learning it will deepen that learning. And they found that this made only moderate increases for high performing students, but for low performing students the use of meta-cognitive strategies made for dramatic increases in their performance.
Error analysis is a great example of this kind of thing; you've probably caught that one really quick. But as you look at this picture and try to find the error look how you're thinking about it. Look how you're paying attention to certain details; finding what's the same, what looks exactly identical? Where is the difference? Where is the thing that stands out one different from the other? And if you pause to reflect even as you're thinking about this now you'll notice that you've deepened your own thought as you look for the error in just something simple, like a picture of three Mounties.
So that's the framework. That's the framing. That's the ... Those are the ideas that sit around any pedagogical approach that you want to take in class. Any time you want to structure or design a learning experience for students these three principles:
Connect with kids preconceptions.
Learning should be networked. Ideas are networked. You need to understand basic facts but also the big ideas around which knowledge is structured.
And engaging kids in meta-cognition as they're learning.
This provides the framework for how we teach.
There's one last thing not to exclude in any of this and that's "community". It's alluded to in that book but not listed as one of the fundamental principles; but "community" is a pretty big deal. Because the degree to which we can get kids working with each other and collaborating and helping each other in their learning, which is what genuine learning looks like, is the degree to which they can deepen and accelerate their own learning.
This provides a wonderful example of exactly what I'm talking about: Why do geese fly in this "V" shape? It seems quite distinctive to see the Canadian geese flying in that pattern. It happens in the Fall, around October, and then again in the month of March as when ... as the geese leave in October and return in March. Why the "V" pattern? Because the flapping of the wings of the lead goose actually provides a little lift for the geese just behind them. And that's true for each goose behind every other goose. And so they're able to fly greater distances. Of course this puts undue pressure on the lead goose. So throughout the flight the geese are constantly shifting positions and rotating their spot in the "V" shape flight pattern. So that different geese take the lead at different times. And by working together the geese are able to fly for much greater distances than any of them would be able to fly on their own. And together they accomplish great things which is the very distant migration patterns of the Canada geese. Of course over short distances, if everybody goes their own way, well, yeah, you could have some success, and when they all land that's what it looks like. And they all kind of come down and each one chooses their own pattern and the "V" is broken up. And occasionally, you know, you need to do that, but by and large, for the most part, it's through that collaboration that great things become possible. And that's part of that framework that I talked about.
It's just like we learned in kindergarten: When you go out into the world, hold hands and stick together. | <urn:uuid:92f3bff3-ef19-4a18-a41e-c13c3008022d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://adifference.blogspot.ca/2010/04/teaching.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403826.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00091-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974043 | 2,033 | 2.9375 | 3 |
The Early History of Seismometry (to 1900)
James Dewey and Perry Byerly
The Invention of a Seismograph in Italy
The research begun by Cavalleri and Palmieri was vigorously continued by Italian seismologists in the 1870's. 1874 saw the publication of the first journal devoted to solid-earth geophysics, the Bulletino del Vulcanismo Italiano, founded and edited by M. S. De Rossi. In spite of the high seismological activity, however, relatively few instrumental advances emerged from this period, and the instrument which to us is most significant seems to have been little noticed at the time it was invented. This was Cecchi's seismograph, which we will describe in the next paragraphs. The great majority of the other instruments designed by Italian seismologists at this time were seismoscopes of the same general type as had been invented earlier by Palmieri.
Cecchi's instrument has been described by later Italian seismologists as the first true seismograph (Agamennone, 1906, p. 91). The machine was apparently built in 1875 (Cecchi, 1876). Unlike any of the instruments we have discussed so far, the Cecchi seismograph was expected to record the relative motion of a pendulum and the Earth as a function of time. For horizontal vibrations, two common pendulums were used, one vibrating in a north-south plane and the other vibrating in an east-west plane. The pendulums "beat seconds"; their motion was magnified three times by a thread-and-pulley apparatus. For vertical motions, a mass on a spiral spring was used. Finally, a machine which was expected to record rotary motions, was incorporated into the seismograph. This consisted of a cross bar with weights at both ends, much like a dumbbell, which was pivoted at its center of mass so as to rotate in a horizontal plane. Restoring force was applied to the dumbbell by springs, so that it oscillated with a period of one second.
Cecchi arranged a seismoscope to start a clock and to start into motion the recording surface at the time of an earthquake. The recording surface would translate under the indicating needles at a speed of one centimeter-per-second for twenty seconds. From the time on the clock, an observer arriving at the seismograph would determine how long before his arrival the earthquake had occurred.
Unfortunately, the subsequent history of Cecchi's earliest seismograph is unclear. A modified form of the instrument was reported to have been installed in Manila (Du Bois, 1885). This instrument and the later Cecchi seismographs reported by Agamennone (1906) are not so interesting to us because, by the time these instruments were built, better seismographs were being used by British scientists in Japan. The early form of the Cecchi instrument was apparently installed in several observatories. One might think that one of these seismographs would have recorded an earthquake in the five years between 1875 and 1880, the latter being the year of the earliest seismogram obtained by the British in Japan, who also claimed the first real seismograph. But the earliest date we have found for a seismogram obtained with the early Cecchi instrument is February 23, 1887, when one of these seismographs recorded a large earthquake which occurred in the French-Italian border region (Denza, 1887). In that earthquake, only the east-west component was recorded, although the seismograph was located in a zone of strong shaking. The instrument must have been most insensitive. The seismogram is reproduced in Figure 6. The record appears to us to be as accurate a representation of earth movement as was obtained by the early seismographs in Japan. Assuming that the recording instrument had not been significantly altered between 1875 and 1887, it would seem that Cecchi indeed deserves credit for the construction of the earliest seismograph, insensitive though it might have been.
Figure 6. The record obtained by a Cecchi seismograph at Moncalieri, Italy, on February 23, 1887 (reproduced from Fouqué, Tremblements de Terre, Bailliére, p. 79).
Cecchi's seismograph had relatively little impact upon Italian seismology. The insensitivity of the instrument must have discouraged others from building seismographic devices (De Rossi, 1887). In addition, Cecchi's apparatus would have been costly and unsuitable for an observatory of modest means. Finally, many Italian seismologists seemed to believe that an earthquake could be satisfactorily described by seismoscopic data (De Rossi, 1877, p. 9). We won't discuss in detail any more of the Italian seismoscopes. Descriptions of many are given by Agamennone (1906) and Ehlert (1897a). A review in English of the Italian instruments was given in The Electrical World (anon., 1887). Some of these seismoscopes depended on the fall of a delicately-balanced object to trip a time-recording device and sound an alarm. Many were modifications of Palmieri's seismoscopes. The microphone was used by some Italian seismologists to listen to "earth noises" (De Rossi, 1883).
An example of the use of seismoscopes in Europe is the experiment of von Lasaulx (Hoernes, 1893). He constructed an apparatus in which the fall of a poised weight caused a pendulum clock to be stopped. About one hundred and fifty of these devices were installed at telegraph stations in Germany. The sensitivity of the installed seismoscopes was deliberately kept low, so that human disturbances would not cause the clocks to be stopped frequently. Nevertheless, two earthquakes were large enough to be detected by many of the seismoscopes. Time and "direction of motion" were determined from each instrument. The data were contradictory and seemed only to indicate that most of the clocks at the telegraph stations were not sufficiently accurate for seismological work.
From the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. Vol. 59, No. 1, pp. 183-227. February, 1969. | <urn:uuid:22d00431-55f2-44ba-b7a9-6b3445e6c858> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/seismology/history/part07.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00124-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971891 | 1,256 | 4.09375 | 4 |
Advances in Fetal Surgery Raise Many Issues
By Wendy Pulliam, J.D., LL.M. Candidate
The Wall Street Journal recently printed an article about fetal surgery on fetuses diagnosed with spina bifida. Children born with spina bifida can suffer from physical disabilities such as weakness or paralysis in the legs as well as mental disabilities. Surgeons at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have operated on a number of fetuses in utero in order to close the opening of the spine and minimize further physical and mental damage. Even if malformation of the brain has begun, fetal surgery allows the malformation to correct itself.
When fetal surgery was first attempted, it was only used in cases where fetal death would result if surgery were not performed. Because the effects of spina bifida vary in intensity and it is not a fatal disease, questions have been raised about the use of fetal surgery in cases of spina bifida.
Critics say that parents are willing to ignore the risks of fetal surgery in an effort to have a perfect child. The risks include injury to the mother, injury to the fetus, premature birth, or even fetal death.
Parents counter critics by saying that before the use of fetal surgery for spina bifida, parents were given just two options. These options were abortion or giving birth to a disabled baby. Fetal surgery gives parents more options. Parents also argue that upon birth babies diagnosed with spina bifida have immediate surgery to close the opening in the spine. Fetal surgery simply alters the timing of the surgery to minimize the physical and mental affects of the disease. What parent would not want to allow his/her child to live a life as free from physical and mental impairment as possible?
Another issue raised by fetal surgery is that some insurance companies have called this type of surgery experimental. Parents hope that insurance companies will realize that fetal surgery makes fiscal sense and begin to approve the procedure. Fetal surgery for spina bifida typically costs $25,000 to $30,000. An insurance company can spend that in the first year of the life of a baby born with spina bifida.
Critics also worry that as fetal surgery becomes more routine and medical technology continues to advance, doctors will make the fetus a patient at the expense of the mother's autonomy. There are already cases in which physicians have attempted to force women to have cesarean sections against their will for the good of the baby. Will women be forced to have fetal surgery against their wishes for the good of the baby? Does the women have to offer reasons for her refusal or can she simply refuse? If she has to offer reasons, the physician is then placed in the position of having to evaluate the mother's reasons. How can one person objectively evaluate such highly personal and subjective reasoning? Does a fetus have an interest in being born as free from physical and mental disabilities as possible?
Fetal surgery to correct and minimize medical problems is a fascinating field. It offers hope to many, but it also raises important issues that need to be further examined in detail. | <urn:uuid:91f92fc8-31f5-43fb-8f37-3cb9b4930b4f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.law.uh.edu/healthlaw/perspectives/Reproductive/990614Advances.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399117.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00081-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966528 | 630 | 2.78125 | 3 |
The fig is an ancient tree native to western Asia. It loves the hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters of the Mediterranean climate. It's not a frost hardy tree, but the cool climate gardener can still enjoy the lovely fig. Plant it in a large pot and keep it in a sunny, airy spot in your house. The large, lush leaves create a beautiful focal point in any room.
Mix 2 parts pine park, 1 part perlite and 1 part aged and composted cow manure and 1 cup of ground limestone in a bucket or bag.
Select a 5 gallon planting pot that has several drainage holes in the bottom. Lay pieces of pottery shards loosely over the holes.
Fill your planting pot half full with the potting mix you created.
Turn your fig sapling on its side and, grasping the base of the stem, wiggle it free from the nursery pot.
Hold your fig in the planting pot so that the base of the stem is 2 inches lower than the rim of the pot. Add or remove soil until the tree can stand on its own.
Fill in the soil around the root ball a few handfuls at a time, patting it down as you go. Water the pot until water begins to seep out from drainage holes.
Spread a 1 inch thick layer of bark mulch on top of the soil around your fig. Keep the mulch 1/2 inch from the base of the stem.
Place the fig next to a sunny window or on a covered porch where the temperatures do not drop below freezing.
Water the pot once a week or whenever the soil under the mulch begins to feel dry to the touch.
Wipe down the leaves with a damp cloth or mist them with a spray bottle to keep them free of dust.
Fertilize using 1/2 pound of nitrogen split up into four applications. Fertilize once in late winter, early spring, late spring and in early summer.
Move your fig into a 10 or 15 gallon pot when you notice roots beginning to grow over the edge of the pot. | <urn:uuid:d4e494dc-59d8-48ff-bb1b-2128ef004598> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.gardenguides.com/107660-grow-fig-trees-indoors.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00181-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.897804 | 430 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Cambridge Bay, located on the south coast of Victoria Island, is the transportation and administrative centre of the Kitikmeot Region. The community is well-serviced and most modern conveniences are readily available. Kitikmeot Foods Ltd., one of three primary processing plants in Nunavut, operates year-round and mainly offers local Arctic char and muskox.
The traditional language of the region is Inuinnaqtun, which is written in the Latin alphabet rather than the syllabics used in the Inuktitut system. The Inuinnaqtun name for Cambridge Bay is Ikaluktutiak, or “good fishing place,” as the surrounding lakes and rivers are known for outstanding fishing. Guided hunting and fishing are available, and the community is the gateway to one of Nunavut’s nature lodges. Ovayok (Mount Pelly) Territorial Park, located approximately 15 kilometres east of Cambridge Bay, provides camping, hiking trails, muskox viewing, and interpretive panels detailing the site, which is an important landmark and source of Inuit legend.
Potential non-renewable resources in the region include: gold, diamonds, uranium, precious metals, base metals, and nickel-copper platinum group elements (PGEs).
Population figures based on Statistics Canada 2006 Census | <urn:uuid:4a022876-315a-4733-ad1a-1a3ee536e7f8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nunavut.ca/en/communities/kitikmeot/cambridge-bay | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392159.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00021-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927692 | 278 | 2.609375 | 3 |
This is "Allais' Paradox".
Which choice is rational depends upon the subjective value of money. Many people are risk averse, and prefer the better chance of $1 million of option A. This choice is firm when the unknown amount is $1 million, but seems to waver as the amount falls to nothing. In the latter case, the risk averse person favors B because there is not much difference between 10% and 11%, but there is a big difference between $1 million and $2.5 million.
Thus the choice between A and B depends upon the unknown amount, even though it is the same unknown amount independent of the choice. This violates the "independence axiom" that rational choice between two alternatives should depend only upon how those two alternatives differ.
- options are
- nothing, the options are
In this case, the choice of B is rational. The Allais Paradox then results from the limited ability to rationally calculate with such unusual quantities. The brain is not a calculator and rational calculations may rely on things like training, experience, and analogy, none of which would help in this case. This hypothesis could be tested by studying the correlation between paradoxical behavior and "unusualness" of the amounts involved. | <urn:uuid:b12c9363-c791-4550-ad91-1650499ffa45> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.rec-puzzles.org/index.php/Allais%20Solution | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397562.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00040-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955697 | 254 | 3.21875 | 3 |
In January, EPA proposed the Carbon Pollution Standard, a regulation that requires new coal-fired power plants to install carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology. Because CCS is not yet commercially viable, it is prohibitively expensive. As a result, EPA’s Carbon Pollution Standard effectively bans the construction of new coal-fired power plants.
Without further ado, here are the top six reasons that EPA’s proposed Carbon Pollution Standard is illegal:
#6. EPA’s Carbon Pollution Standard increases conventional pollution.
Capturing, transporting, and sequestering greenhouse gases from a power plant is an energy-intensive process that leads to a general energy penalty varying on the order of 15-25%. This energy penalty requires the additional consumption of fuel, which increases conventional pollution. While there are technologies to mitigate increases in nitrogen oxides and particulate matter pollution, nothing can mitigate a precipitous increase in emissions of ammonia pollution (see chart below) caused by use of carbon capture and sequestration. Also, because CCS-outfitted power plants use more fuel, they generate greater volumes of combustion wastes, primarily coal ash and boiler slag. Increases in conventional pollution, per se, don’t sink the Carbon Pollution Standard, but the Agency must address these adverse environmental impacts, at the very least. See Sierra Club v. Costle, 657 F. 2d 298, at 331. The proposed Carbon Pollution Standard fails to do so.
The Clean Air Act requires that the Carbon Pollution Standard be based on an “adequately demonstrated” technology, which the courts have interpreted as being “commercially demonstrated.” In a recent post for Master Resource, I compared the state of CCS technology today to past pollution control technologies whose commercial viability was adjudicated by the courts. The results of this analysis are summarized in the chart below and demonstrate that CCS is not “adequately demonstrated.”
In addition to requiring that the Carbon Pollution Standard be based on an “adequately demonstrated” (i.e., commercially viable) technology, the Clean Air Act requires that the regulation must be “achievable.” The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, in turn, has interpreted “achievability” to mean that the regulation is capable of being met in all parts of the country. See National Lime Association V. EPA, 627 F. 2d 416 at 443. This is a problem for the EPA, because the types of geological formations that are capable of storing vast volumes of greenhouse gases for sequestration are distributed unevenly throughout the country. Indeed, the agency identified only 12 States that practice the type of sequestration (enhanced oil recovery) that EPA believes will meet the requirements of the Carbon Pollution Standard.
#3. EPA’s Carbon Pollution Standard violates the 2005 Energy Policy Act. This is a subject I discussed in detail in a previous post; suffice it to say for the purposes of this post, EPA relied on three CCS projects (in varying stages of development) to make the case that the technology is “adequately demonstrated.” However, in a November 15th letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, Reps. Fred Upton (R-Michigan), Ed Whitfield (R-Kentucky), Joe Barton (R-Texas), and Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) brought to her attention a little-known provision of the 2005 Energy Policy Act that prohibits the agency from basing an “adequately demonstrated” determination on CCS projects that received subsidies pursuant to the law. As they helpfully note, each of the CCS projects on which EPA had relied were beneficiaries of such subsidies, and are, therefore, inappropriate foundations for the Carbon Pollution Standard. The letter is available here.
#2. EPA’s Carbon Pollution Standard is “exorbitantly” expensive. Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA must take costs into account when the agency sets the Carbon Pollution Standard. The D.C. Circuit has interpreted this provision such that only “exorbitant” costs are impermissible Essex Chemical Corp. v. Ruckelshaus, 486 F. 2d 427 at 433 (D.C. Cir. 1973). As such, if the costs of carbon capture and sequestration are in fact “exorbitant,” then the regulation is illegal. While the courts have never put a precise number on what constitutes impermissible, “exorbitant” costs, the largest compliance cost considered by the court was “approximately 12 percent of the investment for the total facility”. See Portland Cement Association v. Ruckelshaus, 486 F. 2d 375 at 387 (D.C. Cir. 1973). By comparison, carbon capture and sequestration evidently adds at least 500 percent to the investment for a new coal-fired facility*.
#1. EPA’s Carbon Pollution Standard would increase greenhouse gases! Due to the high cost of capturing, transporting, and sequestering carbon dioxide, EPA expects that any new coal-fired power plants built in the foreseeable future will defray the costs of CCS by selling its carbon dioxide to oil companies, which can use the gas to help extract oil by displacing liquid fuels deep underground, in a process known as CO2 enhanced oil recovery (or CO2-EOR). In the proposed rule, EPA states that, “as a practical matter, we expect that new fossil fuel fired EGUs that install CCS will generally make the captured CO2 available for use in EOR operations.” But there’s a HUGE problem with EPA’s proposal. It completely fails to take into account the expanded carbon footprint of the oil industry caused by its power plant rule. By my calculation, a typical coal plant in compliance with EPA’s Carbon Pollution Standard would result in the emission of 1.3 million more kilograms of CO2 than the plant would “save” per megawatt capacity annually. Of course, any rule that worsens the problem it set out to solve is patently ridiculous.
*Consider, for example, the only “clean coal” CCS project now being constructed in the U.S., the 580 megawatt Kemper power plant in Mississippi. After many cost-overruns, the current project tab is $5.2 billion. This is well more than 5 times the cost of a comparably-sized coal-fired power plant equipped with the most advanced controls for conventional pollutants. | <urn:uuid:579d1f4c-8f34-4233-9200-b74b1fbc1c00> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.globalwarming.org/2014/04/17/the-top-six-reasons-epas-carbon-pollution-standard-is-illegal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00093-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930159 | 1,362 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions
Promoting Public Health: Sandcastle worm’s secrets could yield new medical adhesive
October 26, 2009
The sandcastle worm uses its natural adhesive to
make a home from beads of zirconium oxide in a
lab. University of Utah scientists have developed
a synthetic version of this glue for possible use
in repairing fractured bones.
Credit: Fred Hayes
Click for high-resolution version Watch a narrated video of the sandcastle worm
building a home in a lab using bits of silicon.
SummaryScientists have copied the natural glue secreted by a tiny sea creature called the sandcastle worm in an effort to develop a long-sought medical adhesive needed to repair bones shattered in battlefield injuries, car crashes and other accidents. Russell Stewart, Ph.D., and colleagues duplicated the glue that sandcastle worms (Phragmatopoma californica) use while building their homes in intertidal surf by sticking together bits of sand and broken sea shells.
You probably know people who have broken bones and had screws or pins inserted in their bodies to repair the fractures. These treatments have been used for years to help bones heal. But they are far from perfect in repairing certain kinds of fractures.
For more precise reconstruction of compound fractures and shattered bones, a team of bioengineers have looked to Mother Nature for an alternative to metal hardware. Russell Stewart and colleagues of the University of Utah have duplicated a natural glue secreted by a tiny sea creature called the sandcastle worm. The hope is to fix small bones broken in battlefield injuries, car crashes and other accidents.
Here is Dr. Stewart explaining how the sandcastle worm uses the glue to construct its underwater home:
“In the wild they glue together sand grains, sea shells and whatever sort of mineral particles they can get a hold of. They use these tentacles to gather those particles, and they bring them in towards their mouth. If they like the size and the texture and the shape, they’ll put a couple of little tiny dabs of glue on it and press it on to the end of the tube… Our interest is in studying that natural adhesive and understanding what it’s made out of, how it works and then copying that with synthetic polymers that we hope to use as medical adhesives.”
An adhesive for use in the body is not your ordinary substance. In order to be effective, it must bond to wet objects. And it cannot dissolve in water — instead it must displace it. The glue must also solidify in a timely fashion — otherwise it’s useless. The success of Dr. Stewart’s new glue hinges on how well it can mimic these properties of the sandcastle worm’s. Here again is Dr. Stewart:
“It’s a very challenging problem to glue things together in the wet environment, like in open surgery, and the same problems that a surgeon has that would want to glue bones together in open surgery is very similar to the problems that this sandcastle worm faces when it’s gluing sandcastles together underwater.”
Still the adhesive has passed initial toxicity studies in cell cultures, and its strength exceeds that of Super Glue. For a more colorful description of the glue’s grabbing power, here’s Dr. Stewart again:
“On a 1 square centimeter bond we can hang a 40-pound bag of potatoes…
It might already be adequate for repairing bones that are in non-loadbearing situations, particularly the cranial facial bones.”
Although Dr. Stewart has reached certain objectives with his adhesive, he sees additional challenges on the horizon.
“I think the biggest problems are still ahead of us in being able to use this in medicine because of biocompatibility issues, and we want it to degrade, and we need to tune the degradation rates. We’d like for them to be the same roughly as the natural healing process. I think those are going to be bigger problems than we’ve faced so far.”
Smart Chemists/Innovative Thinking
Smart chemists. Innovative thinking. That’s the key to solving global challenges of the 21st Century. Be sure to check our other podcasts on promoting public health [Promoting Public Health and Redefining DNA: Darwin from the atom up]. Today’s podcast was written by John Simpson. I’m Adam Dylewski at the American Chemical Society in Washington. | <urn:uuid:36b328e6-4eda-4a9f-9500-c052b02619be> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/podcasts/globalchallenges/publichealth/sandcastle-worms-secrets-could-yield-new-medical-adhesive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00017-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924916 | 932 | 3.4375 | 3 |
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIORBUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
What threatens sage-grouse and their habitats?
No single factor is the cause of declining sage-grouse populations. But the WAFWA Assessment and the BLM National Strategy identify a number of factors that, since the beginning of settlement in the West, have adversely affected the number of birds and the amount, distribution and quality of sagebrush habitats:
The BLM National Sage-Grouse Habitat Conservation Strategy contains 48 actions the help maintain, enhance and restore sagebrush habitats on the public lands. Through State-level strategies and Resource Management Plans, BLM State and Field Offices integrate these actions with other approved uses of public lands, such as livestock grazing, recreation, mining, fire management and energy development.
The Department of Interior's Healthy Lands Initiative would further support sage-grouse habitat conservation and restoration in key landscapes across the West. The Initiative undertakes landscape-level restoration to enhance sensitive wildlife habitat and ensure continued multiple use of public lands. Many of the factors impacting sage-grouse in the fast-changing West also adversely affect other uses of public lands.
The BLM Vegetation Treatment Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement and Programmatic Environmental Report will guide the use of herbicides to treat vegetation on approximately 932,000 acres annually in 17 western states in the United States (including Alaska), and treatment of 5.1 million acres by other means, including prescribed fire and manual, mechanical, and biological methods. Vegetation management directly addresses a number of the conditions that adversely affect sage-grouse habitat.
|Last updated: 03-05-2010|
|USA.GOV | No Fear Act | DOI | Disclaimer | About BLM | Notices | Social Media Policy| | <urn:uuid:d3965ada-a81e-4507-b53f-75e7e60b2613> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/more/fish__wildlife_and/wildlife/threats_to_habitat.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408840.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00144-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.867289 | 363 | 3.640625 | 4 |
Film / The Amazing Mr. Blunden
Classic children's ghost story, adapted by Lionel Jeffries from Antonia Barber's The Ghosts
In Camden Town, 1918, Mrs. Allen and her three children, Lucy, James and baby Benjamin, are met by the mysterious Mr. Blunden, a kindly but mysterious old man who offers them a caretaker's job at a burnt-down old mansion. Upon their arrival, Lucy and James encounter two children, around their own age, who may or may not be ghosts. And just what do they have to do with the mysterious, and amazing, Mr. Blunden?
This story provides examples of:
- Adapted Out: The junior partner, Smith, is absent from the film, and his appearance at the end is given to Mr. Clutterbuck.
- The Alcoholic: Mrs. Wickens, Bertie. In the original book, Mr. Wickens is too.
- Amoral Attorney: The original Mr. Blunden.
- Arc Words: "We three Kings of Orient Are..."
- Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop: Blunden and Bertie in the original timeline.
- Brainless Beauty: Bella Wickens.
- Cats Are Mean: Averted, Georgie refuses to test the potentially poisonous potion on Mrs Wickenses' cat because it hasnt done them any harm.
- Dead Person Conversation
- Disappeared Dad: Mr. Allen has died in a car crash/during the war (in the book and film respectively) sometime before the story, as have Sara and Georgie's parents.
- Dumb Muscle: Mr. Wickens.
- Establishing Character Moment: The Wickenses, Mr. Wickens' mental problem is soon set-up when a patron of the pub taps on a glass (reminding him of the boxing bell) whilst Mrs Wickens reigns him in with a few sharp punches.
- Foreshadowing: James sees a lot of himself in Sara, even describing it as like looking into a reflection.
- Ghostly Goals: Sara and Georgie want to escape from their evil guardians whilst Mr Blunden wants to make it up for allowing the children to die in the first place.
- Handsome Lech: Bertie.
- Haunted House: Although one of the "ghosts" doesn't realise they're dead...
- Heel–Face Turn: Mr. Blunden has spent the past 100 years attempting this.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Mr. Blunden dies to save Georgie and Jamie.
- Invisibleto Adults: All the ghosts. Bella can see them as apparitions because she has the mind of a child.
- Karmic Death: The Wickenses die in their attempt to kill the children.
- Large Ham: Mrs Wickens.
- Our Ghosts Are Different
- Pensieve Flashback: Most of the finale.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Poor Mr. Wickens. He's not evil by nature, but brain damaged from his days as the wrestler "Wrecker" Wickens. In the book, he is much more villainous, and actually speaks on occasion, instead of just grunting.
- The Scrooge: The original Mr. Blunden.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong
- Stable Time Loop: By saving the children in the past, Lucy and Jamie unwittingly save their own ancestors.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Mr. Blunden's good at these.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Lucy contemplates Bella and Bertie's eventual fates in the book. In the film Bella almost certainly dies, but that still leaves Bertie.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Wickenses, oh so much. | <urn:uuid:020a62a5-173e-4f70-afe0-666d9074e1e2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/TheAmazingMrBlunden | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393533.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00037-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905351 | 783 | 2.625 | 3 |
Blog Posts, Opinion Piece Address HIV Vaccine Awareness Day
On May 18, the world recognized HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, which “commemorates the global effort to develop a safe and effective vaccine that will protect against HIV,” according to a USAID email alert. “While there have been some disappointing recent results in the HIV vaccine field, the stalwart march to discover this critical tool is evident in the over 40 clinical trials that are ongoing or planned to begin in 2013,” the alert states. The following bulletin, blog posts and opinion piece address HIV Vaccine Awareness Day and vaccine research efforts.
- AIDS.gov: The AIDS.gov blog spoke to researcher Carl Dieffenbach at NIH, who said, “(On Vaccine Awareness Day) we can take a moment to acknowledge the study participants who have given their time, their energy, … to the study of HIV vaccines.” A video of the interview is available online (Gomez, 5/17).
- NIH News: “Developing a safe and effective HIV vaccine has been a long and difficult process largely because HIV has proven to be an especially tough target,” this NIH bulletin states and summarizes multiple HIV vaccine research projects. “On this HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, NIAID thanks the thousands of men and women who have selflessly volunteered for clinical studies and the scientists and clinicians working to find an effective HIV vaccine. NIAID shares your commitment and will continue the important research needed to make a protective HIV vaccine a reality,” the bulletin concludes (5/17).
- Margaret McGlynn, USAID’s “IMPACTblog”: Despite recent disappointing news in HIV vaccine research, “history has taught us that such setbacks are par for the course in vaccine development,” IAVI President and CEO McGlynn writes in a post on the USAID blog. “With the support of donors, especially USAID and [PEPFAR], IAVI and its partners are contributing to [research] efforts on several fronts, focusing primarily on vaccines against HIV subtypes that circulate in developing countries and emphasizing novel vaccine strategies,” she states, adding, “All the evidence today suggests that, if we persevere, it is just a matter of time before HIV vaccines become available” (5/17).
- Colonel Nelson Michael, AIDS.gov: “Despite [recent] setbacks, the scientific basis for developing vaccines has never been better, and the current level of collaboration among scientists, private industry and research institutions is unprecedented,” Michael, director of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program, writes in the AIDS.gov blog. “We will need a broad array of prevention tools — many of which are available today — to overcome HIV,” he states, adding, “An effective vaccine remains a critical component of any long-term strategy. Now is not the time to give up, but to redouble our efforts” (5/17).
- Mitchell Warren, Huffington Post’s “Impact” blog: “The road to an effective AIDS vaccine remains a long one, but we can reach that goal,” AVAC Director Warren writes, highlighting several HIV vaccine trials. “This year, in the midst of both disappointments and successes, we are reminded that the contribution of trial participants is the most essential element of HIV vaccine research and development,” he states, adding, “Their shared commitments and sacrifices demand that we continue working toward the breakthroughs that will ultimately bring the epidemic to an end” (5/16). | <urn:uuid:f0063c03-3dc2-4686-83f5-bcfaaad008a1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://kff.org/news-summary/blog-posts-opinion-piece-address-hiv-vaccine-awareness-day/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00043-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930961 | 753 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Creating white space with the <hr> tag
The standard <hr> tag looks like this:
whereas the truncated tag, using <blockquote><hr></blockquote>
extends across less of the page:
The line will still resize with the window, but gives horizontal white space. It has the secondary advantage of creating white space above and below the line as well. (I have used this where I want to create a less cluttered, more open look to a writeup, as in my homenode.) It allows the eye to continue scanning down more easily, by making the break less challenging, encouraging the reader to continue past the rule.
Multiple <blockquote></blockquote> pairs may be used to create shorter lines.
<blockquote><blockquote><hr></blockquote></blockquote> gives you:
By adding more pairs, the line can be shortened considerably.
Finally, a <p> before and after a rule gives vertical white space without truncating the line:
Very short lines
This works well for longer lines, but becomes clumsy if you want a very short line, for example:
There an attribute to alter the length of the rule, which was pointed out to me by Blue_Bellied_Lizard. For lines of absolute length, E2 accepts <hr width=100>, for example, which is what was used for the line above. Please note that the <hr width=50%> method for getting a line as a percentage of the window or frame width, does not work in E2!
Care has to be taken, as making the line too long will mangle the window, as the browser does not size it with the window. This will upset your readers. Blue_Bellied_Lizard says "...width is only good for very short lines, because it is absolute" (i.e. a number of pixels width), and he is right. If you need a short, short line, use width=xxx, but keep the numbers low. I tend to use 150. | <urn:uuid:a738be35-734d-440e-9e63-3d742ac38c26> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://everything2.com/title/hr | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403825.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00167-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915976 | 424 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Reproduced with permission from the neOnbubble Know You Some Science series of student learning guides.
What Is A Vaccine?
The name "vaccine" comes from the latin word vacca meaning "cow". A vaccine is a microscopic, biological crib note written on leather that includes diagrams of a disease along with suggestions for defeating it in glorious intracorpus battle. The vaccine is introduced to the body in any of a number of ways (orally, by injection, osmosis, gentle persuasion, etc.) and the body files the information on the crib note away for later use.
Are Vaccines Good?
Good is a subjective term. Vaccines help your body cheat death or crippling illnesses. If you would rather be alive than dead then you should conclude that they are good.
If you would rather that more people – possibly yourself included – spent their lives in pain, defecating themselves, drooling, and being pushed around in wheelchairs then you should conclude that they are bad. Antivaxxers think that vaccines are bad.
What Is An Antivaxxer?
There are two types of people who can properly be labelled "antivaxxers".
The first type is those who harbour a grudge against the manufacturers of a particular type of carpet cleaner, quite likely as the result of misuse and subsequent trips to hospital emergency rooms. These people, despite their fondness for air pressure-related sexual shenanigans, are at least somewhat scientifically-minded, embracing the use of technology and experimentation in order to facilitate personal pleasure.
The second type of people are not scientifically-minded. These people associate vaccinations with infant death or disability through the tried-and-tested (-and-rejected by fans of the brain) method of putting two and two together and getting three.
Do Vaccinations Cause Autism?
A vaccination caused me to take a day off school once but I can assure you after an extensive search of Wikipedia that a throbbing arm and nausea are not symptoms of autism.
Why Do Some People Associate Vaccinations With Autism?
The brain is very good at pattern-matching, predicting future events based on experience – touch fire, fire make hand go ouch, not touch fire again because fire is ouchy – and this process of observation and deduction is the cornerstone of good science. But it’s not all of good science.
Good science involves repeated tests and predictions to corroborate findings or rule theories out in order that the scientific finding is not one borne of bad luck, good luck, or improper test conditions.
Antivaxxers engage in bad, amateur, scientificish science ("New Improved Sciencique™") which makes sweeping declarations of assurety based on – occasionally – one observation, but more often far fewer than that. These same people, however, are very selective in their pattern-matching; they don’t – for instance – demand an end to beds when somebody dies in one in his or her sleep.
The answer, then, to the question of why do some people associate vaccinations with autism is simply that they’re imbeciles.
What If We Stopped Vaccinations?
Once a certain threshold of the population are immunised against a disease it becomes difficult for that disease to spread among the individuals. Stopping vaccinations reduces that threshold and allows diseases to spread putting money in the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry. Without vaccinations we would lose our herd immunity.
What Is Herd Immunity?
There are far more cows on the planet than you realise. Killing them for their tasty meat and the leather they supply for our wonderful fashion industry has caused them to evolve a hatred of mankind. Fortunately, vaccines – which are written on microscopic leather – exude a cow-like pheromone which keeps the bovine species confused as to our evil origins. Without vaccines and the herd immunity they provide it is us who would be worn on a cow’s hooves and served up in delicious McHomoburgers. | <urn:uuid:931e4f67-fdac-4021-a91f-312187b49e00> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.neonbubble.com/article/do-vaccines-cause-autism | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00039-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952257 | 826 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Inactivity 'kills more than obesity'
- 15 January 2015
- From the section Health
A lack of exercise could be killing twice as many people as obesity in Europe, a 12-year study of more than 300,000 people suggests.
University of Cambridge researchers said about 676,000 deaths each year were down to inactivity, compared with 337,000 from carrying too much weight.
They concluded that getting everyone to do at least 20 minutes of brisk walking a day would have substantial benefits.
Experts said exercise was beneficial for people of any weight.
Obesity and inactivity often go hand in hand.
However, it is known that thin people have a higher risk of health problems if they are inactive. And obese people who exercise are in better health than those that do not.
The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, attempted to tease out the relative dangers of inactivity and obesity.
Obese v inactive
Researchers followed 334,161 Europeans for 12 years. They assessed exercise levels and waistlines and recorded every death.
"The greatest risk [of an early death] was in those classed inactive, and that was consistent in normal weight, overweight and obese people," one of the researchers, Prof Ulf Ekelund told BBC News.
He said eliminating inactivity in Europe would cut mortality rates by nearly 7.5%, or 676,000 deaths, but eliminating obesity would cut rates by just 3.6%.
Prof Ekelund added: "But I don't think it's a case of one or the other. We should also strive to reduce obesity, but I do think physical activity needs to be recognised as a very important public health strategy."
Prof Ekelund, who is based in Norway, is into cross country skiing and clocks up at least five hours of vigorous exercise each week.
However, he says all it would need to transform health, is brisk walking.
"I think people need to consider their 24-hour day.
"Twenty minutes of physical activity, equivalent to a brisk walk, should be possible for most people to include on their way to or from work, or on lunch breaks, or in the evening instead of watching TV."
The diseases caused by inactivity and obesity were largely the same, such as cardiovascular disease. However, type 2 diabetes was more common with obesity.
Commenting on the findings, Barbara Dinsdale, from the charity Heart Research UK, said: "This study once again reinforces the importance of being physically active, even when carrying excess weight.
"Changing your lifestyle is all good news for heart health, but physical activity is always easier to achieve and maintain without carrying the extra 'body baggage' of too much weight."
Prof John Ashton, president of the Faculty of Public Health, said changes were needed to make exercise easier.
"We need substantial investment in cycling infrastructure to make our streets safer.
"If more people cycled or walked to work or school, it would make a big difference in raising levels of physical activity." | <urn:uuid:38e3daf9-3128-483b-a938-36cbbe8628c8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bbc.com/news/health-30812439 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403826.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00108-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977579 | 625 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Alfalfa is reportedly in good condition throughout the state with little winter injury and surprisingly few reports of leaf disease problems. But frequent April rains provided good conditions for leaf disease development, and significant levels of spring black stem and leaf spot were reported last week by extension field specialist Brian Lang in northeastern Iowa. The ISU Plant Disease Clinic also has received several samples with either spring black stem, common leaf spot, bacterial leaf spot, or stem blight.
A survey of alfalfa fields around Ames revealed several diseases. In most fields, spring black stem was found in many of the plants, but it was limited to the lower leaves. Fields in this condition should be monitored so that they can be cut if the disease starts to cause significant defoliation.
Downy mildew and Leptosphaerulina leaf spot were observed in other fields around Ames, but they were at low severity levels. Remember, the occurrence of foliar diseases is determined by last year's disease and local precipitation, so disease levels can differ tremendously around the state. Scouting can help you determine if you should be concerned about foliar diseases. Use the following information to help you identify the diseases if you find that leaf spots are a problem in your alfalfa.
Spring black stem produces numerous small, dark brown-to-black spots that first occur on the lower leaves and petioles, and later on stems. Irregularly shaped lesions on leaves increase in size and coalesce. Lesions on stems and petioles enlarge and may blacken sizable areas near the base of the plant. The fungus that causes this disease (Phoma medicaginis) is dispersed by splashing rain. Severe infection can result in defoliation; thus, early cutting generally is recommended so that defoliation can be avoided. Cutting as early as mid-bud stage may be necessary when the disease is severe.
Common leaf spot looks similar to spring black stem, but it appears only on the leaves and has larger, dark brown spots. This disease often does not appear until later in the season than spring black stem, but we have diagnosed it on clinic samples already.
Downy mildew is caused by the fungus Peronospora trifoliorum. This fungus infects alfalfa in the spring when temperatures are low and moisture is high. Symptoms of this disease are chlorotic blotches on the upper leaf surface and a white-to-gray mold on the lower leaf surface. Only young tissues are susceptible to infection. The fungus survives in shoots over the summer and spreads in the fall.
Leptosphaerulina leaf spot (Leptosphaerulina medicaginis) attacks mainly leaves. Both young and old leaves are susceptible to infection. Lesions often start as small, black spots and either remain small or enlarge to lesions with light brown-to-tan centers, darker brown borders, and a yellowed "halo." The mechanism of spread of this disease is similar to that of spring black stem.
The bacterial diseases typically do not cause detectable yield loss, but can do so occasionally. Bacterial leaf spot is caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. alfalfa. Symptoms are initially diffuse, yellowed areas on leaves, within which tiny water-soaked spots develop. Later, the areas die and dry out, leaving irregular, papery, tan lesions. Defoliation can follow. Bacterial stem blight is caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae, and its symptoms include water-soaked lesions on the stems. Severely affected stems die, with the leaves turning water-soaked and pale yellow. Eventually entire leaves die and dry out. This problem often is associated with early-spring freeze injury, although that would not be the case this year.
The best management option for the foliar diseases is to keep a close eye on symptom development and harvest the first cutting early (mid-bud stage or possibly early-bud stage) if defoliation is occurring.
This article originally appeared on pages 59-51 of the IC-482(10) -- May 17, 1999 issue. | <urn:uuid:4bc18b64-d636-4c23-ad96-c84f49701fdf> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/icm/1999/5-17-1999/alfappear.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397797.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00179-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956352 | 857 | 2.984375 | 3 |
(students' performance, their socio-economic background, their approaches to learning, organisation of schooling and trend data from 2000)
- Technical Report describing the methodology underlying the PISA 2009 survey. It examines additional features related to the implementation of the project at a level of detail that allows researchers to understand and replicate its analyses. The reader will find a wealth of information on the test and sample design, methodologies used to analyse the data, technical features of the project and quality control mechanisms
- Manuals and guidelines
- Reading test questions - paper-and-pencil and computer-based (static version)
- Computer-based reading test questions (interactive). Username: public, password: access
PISA - Untapped Skills: Realising the Potential of Immigrant Students
Public and Private Schools: How management and funding relate to their socio-economic profile
'Public and Private Schools' examines the socio-economic profiles of the public and privately managed schools that participated in the PISA 2009 survey.
Let's Read Them a Story! The Parent Factor in Education
This report examines how and whether parents' involvement in their child's education is related to his or her proficiency in and enjoyment of reading.
Strong performers, successful reformers series
Greece: Education Policy Advice for Greece
Japan: Lessons from PISA for Japan
United States: Strong performers successful reformers: Lessons from PISA for the United States | <urn:uuid:f1b518e7-5641-4d16-abf0-59af66ba08f6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa2009.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404405.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00191-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905867 | 291 | 2.765625 | 3 |
You probably don't think about tuberculosis much. Why would you? The number of cases in the U.S. is at an all-time low.
But TB has returned with a vengeance in some parts of world, and there have been some troubling outbreaks here at home, too.
Many of the cases come with a deadly twist. They're resistant to standard drugs and can take years of painstaking treatment to bring under control.
Over the past few months, we've been chronicling the heavy toll TB takes on people, including serious side effects from medications, isolation from communities and the social stigma that often accompanies infection.
People who spend their time thinking about how to fight the disease want everyone to know more about the growing public health challenge. "TB is not at all treated with the diligence that it should be," Dr. Mel Spigelman, who leads the nonprofit TB Alliance, tells Shots. "If Angelina Jolie had TB instead of the BRCA1 mutation, it would probably get more attention."
That surely wasn't the case a hundred years ago. "TB was the No. 1 killer in the U.S.," Spigelman tells Shots.
In fact, TB was such a problem that overcoming it helped lay the groundwork for modern medicine. The disease also inspired some of the great plays, books and operas of the 19th century. Think Victor Hugo's epic novel Les Miserables and Giacomo Puccini's heart-wrenching masterpiece La Boheme.
Some historians estimate that the so-called white plague caused about 25 percent of all deaths in Massachusetts and New York during the 19th century. TB wiped out nearly a quarter of Europe's population around the same time.
When the German scientist Robert Koch discovered the TB bacterium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, in 1882, he also figured out a way to identify the culprit for any infectious disease. Scientists still use Koch's postulates today when new pathogens emerge.
Sixty years after Koch's discovery, British doctors conducted what's thought to be the first large-scale, randomized drug trial to test the effectiveness of the antibiotic streptomycin against TB.
While scientists were searching for TB under the microscope, artists were busy expressing how it felt to live with what was euphemistically called "consumption."
"It was the fashion to suffer from the lungs; everybody was consumptive, poets especially," wrote Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, in his memoir. "It was good form to spit blood after each emotion that was at all sensational, and to die before the age of 30."
From the works of John Keats and Lord Byron to Charles Dickens and Fyodor Dostoevsky, references to TB pervade art and literature in the 19th and early 20th centuries. "George Orwell's Animal Farm is probably based on his experience living in a sanatorium," Spigelman says.
Although TB isn't as contagious as the flu or chickenpox, the bacteria spread through sneezing and coughing. So by the early 19th century, governments had built large hospitals or sanatoriums across the U.S. and Europe to isolate patients and offer a place to provide the top treatment of the day: fresh air, sunlight and a good diet.
Sanatoriums' doors closed by the 1960s, as antibiotics wiped out infections and TB cases in the U.S. steadily declined.
Now the number of new U.S. cases each year — about 10,000 — is low compared with many other common diseases. But the known TB cases are just the "tip of the iceberg" when it comes to the total number of people infected, Spigelman says.
Only a small percentage of people who catch TB actually get sick. In the other cases, the bacteria take up long-term residency in the lungs and don't cause any harm — but these people still need to be treated, Spigelman says.
"With TB, there really is a mushrooming effect," he adds. And it can get expensive, quickly.
Just take a look at the high cost of a small TB outbreak in Sheboygan, Wis., where nine people have been diagnosed with drug-resistant infections. Stopping the outbreak is expected to cost nearly $5 million.
Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. | <urn:uuid:cbf7cf36-abf7-4555-acab-525248141d95> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://wamu.org/news/13/07/19/medicines_to_fight_white_plague_are_losing_their_punch | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00113-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971163 | 905 | 3.078125 | 3 |
John E Toews
Selected topics in intellectual history up to 1890. The philosophical consequences of the French Revolution, the development of idealism, conservatism, romanticism, and early socialist theory; positivism, the problems of historicism, new forms of Christian apologetics, utilitarianism in decline, liberalism as philosophy, the early Marx.
The Course will examine the historical fate of the three major frameworks of thought (Scientism, Romanticism and Dialectical Theory) whose development and interaction shaped intellectual production in nineteenth century Europe. Of central concern will be the relation between secular historical consciousness and the desire to establish secure foundations for ethical values and cultural meaning. We will attempt to construct a viable historical genealogy for the course's conclusion- Nietzsche's proclamation of the "Death of God" and the "Death of Man"--extending back to the period of the French Revolution.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
A course in modern European History, like HST 113 or HSTEU 303, or an introductory course in Western Intellectual history, like HST 207.
Class assignments and grading
Weekly response papers to the assigned Reading, collected at the mid-term and at end of course, an 8-10 page term paper, and participation in a small, unsupervised student discussion circle.
Texts by Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, G.W.F. Hegel, Karl Marx, Rene Chateaubriand, Gustave Flaubert and Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as a number of shorter selections from other writers.
Mid-term 30% Term Paper 30% Final exam 40% | <urn:uuid:9dd71f26-e507-4395-b49a-8a4a76022ffc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.washington.edu/students/icd/S/modeuro/406toews.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399106.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00035-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.83822 | 333 | 3.109375 | 3 |
The Manitoba Wildlife Act provides for the designation of Crown lands as wildlife Management Areas (WMA's) for the "better management, conservation and enhancement of the wildlife resource of the province."
The first WMA, named after Watson P. Davidson, was established in southeastern Manitoba in 1961. Since the n, the system has grown to encompass almost 2 million hectares (5 million acres) of valuable wildlife habitat throughout the province.
Wildlife Management Areas exist for the benefit of wildlife and for the enjoyment of people. They play an important role in biodiversity conservation and provide for a variety of wildlife-related forms of recreation, including birding and wildlife watching. Hunting and trapping are generally permitted in WMA's, but these activities may be prohibited or restricted in a few areas. The use of vehicles, off-road vehicles, watercraft, power boats, or airboats, may be restricted in some areas. WMA's are open year round and have no entrance fees, but each site has its own set of restrictions in place to protect the integrity of the area.
Consult the annual Manitoba Hunting Guide or contact the nearest Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship office to see which restrictions, if any, may apply to the area you intend to visit. Certain activities may require a WMA Use Permit, and applications for these permits are available on this web site.
Click here to see the interactive Wildlife Management Area Map, which includes detailed descriptions of each WMA and a list of game species that are known to occur there. | <urn:uuid:726c44b6-e0d5-4060-afc0-0b1d4846ac32> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/wildlife/habcons/wmas/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397795.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00008-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942624 | 308 | 2.875 | 3 |
New study suggests that being smarter is a defense against extinction
|July 18, 2012||Posted by News under extinction, News|
In “Mostly the Big-Brained Survive” (Scientific American, July 17, 2012), Emma Marris and Nature magazine report, “Animals’ brain-to-body size ratio predicts their likelihood of extinction, a new analysis finds”:
Brain size relative to body size is fairly predictable across all mammals, says Eric Abelson, who studies biological sciences at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. “As body size grows, brain size grows too, but at slower rate,” he says. Plotting brain size against body size creates a tidy curve. But some species have bigger or smaller brains than the curve would predict for their body size. And a bigger brain-to-body-size ratio usually means a smarter animal.
Abelson looked at the sizes of such deviations from the curve and their relationships to the fates of two groups of mammalian species — ‘palaeo’ and ‘modern’. The palaeo group contained 229 species in the order Carnivora from the last 40 million years, about half of which are already extinct. The modern group contained 147 species of North American mammals across 6 orders. Analysis of each group produced similar results: species that weighed less than 10 kilograms and had big brains for their body size were less likely to have gone extinct or be placed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list for endangered species.
Perhaps this information might help predict the ability of a life form to adapt to an urban environment. | <urn:uuid:8f22b6ea-b8b1-4e7f-826d-13298f6ab314> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.uncommondescent.com/extinction/new-study-suggests-that-being-smarter-is-a-defense-against-extinction/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00062-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934506 | 336 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Mental Stress May Lead To Heart Disease
PITTSBURGH, January 11, 2006 — Most people believe that stress plays a role in heart disease. A study published in the latest issue of Psychophysiology finds that large rises in blood pressure during mental stress are associated with higher levels of activity in the regions of the brain associated with experiencing negative emotions and generating physiological responses in the rest of the body.
The research suggested that exaggerated activity in the cingulate cortex during mental stress may generate excessive rises in blood pressure that may place some individuals at a greater risk for heart disease.
Most of what is known about the brain and its links to stress and heart disease has been taken from research on animals. This study on humans used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI ), a non-invasive technique for imaging brain activity. While they were inside an MRI scanner, twenty healthy men and women performed a computer task to create mental stress that, consequently, increased their blood pressure. This allowed the researchers to correlate simultaneous changes in blood pressure and brain activity during stress.
Psychophysiology reports on new theoretical, empirical and methodological advances in: psychology and psychiatry, cognitive science, cognitive and affective neuroscience, social science, health science and behavioral medicine, and biomedical engineering. It is published on behalf of the Society for Psychophysiological Research.
Lead author Peter Gianaros, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He has published on the physiology of stress in several scientific journals
Blackwell Publishing is the world’s leading society publisher, partnering with more than 600 academic and professional societies. Blackwell publishes over 750 journals annually and, to date, has published close to 6,000 text and reference books, across a wide range of academic, medical, and professional subjects. | <urn:uuid:4905de5f-e5ed-40aa-aa16-f513e8483fe2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.upmc.com/media/NewsReleases/2006/Pages/mental-stress-heart-disease.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394987.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00182-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945609 | 371 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Marsh, Othniel Charles, 1831–99, American paleontologist, b. Lockport, N.Y., grad. Yale, 1860. He studied abroad, and from 1866 served at Yale as the first professor of paleontology and as curator of the Peabody Museum. From 1882 he was also connected with the U.S. Geological Survey. He made many expeditions to the West, especially to the Rocky Mt. regions, and gathered a large collection of fossil vertebrates, now at Yale and in the Smithsonian. Among his discoveries were Allosaurus, Apatosaurus, and other dinosaurs, Cretaceous toothed birds, swimming and flying reptiles, and the fossil ancestors of the horse. His rivalry with E. D. Cope over acquiring and identifying fossil remains was bitter, at times unscrupulous, and ultimately notorious. Marsh's writings are chiefly included in the monographs and reports of the Geological Survey.
See biography by C. Schuchert and C. M. LeVene (1940); studies by U. Lanham (1973), D. R. Wallace (1999), and M. Jaffe (2000).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:78531a33-d5ff-4762-99a7-13c61c90c288> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.factmonster.com/encyclopedia/people/marsh-othniel-charles.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398628.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00080-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952501 | 262 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Children's speaking, reading, and writing skills are closely connected, and this engaging text guides preservice and practicing teachers in choosing instructional strategies that promote the integrated development of these skills. The authors explore the foundations of language in the developing brain and show how language acquisition in early childhood influences later literacy and language use. Chapters cover phonological skills, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, comprehension, and writing, as well as instructional techniques and programs. The book examines why some students struggle with particular language and literacy tasks and how motivation and sociocultural factors affect proficiency. Rich classroom vignettes and examples of effective teaching strategies are accompanied by accessible explanations of relevant research.
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Rent Language and Literacy Development 1st edition today, or search our site for other textbooks by James P. Byrnes. Every textbook comes with a 21-day "Any Reason" guarantee. Published by Guilford Publications.
Need help ASAP? We have you covered with 24/7 instant online tutoring. Connect with one of our tutors now. | <urn:uuid:0ed4478c-f61d-4be6-972f-ce3f41d9d12e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.chegg.com/textbooks/language-and-literacy-development-1st-edition-9781593859909-1593859902 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00045-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923748 | 212 | 3.796875 | 4 |
Set your child on the road to beginning subtraction mastery with this colorful math worksheet. As he completes these eight problems, he'll learn basic subtraction facts and begin honing his mental math ability. For each problem, he'll express the answer two ways: numerically and visually with tally marks.
This printable is #30 in the Subtraction Surprise series. Download the rest for more subtraction help! | <urn:uuid:87b4231c-cf0d-4808-bb1a-152a476aeed7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.education.com/worksheet/article/subtraction-surprise-30/?coliid=144355 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396538.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00079-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920774 | 85 | 3.296875 | 3 |
October 10, 2005
De Bry’s Alphabets
Among the few dozen books I was recently reunited with after having left them in storage when I left the UK in ’00 was one entitled The Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in History and Imagination. As a history, it is only intermittently interesting, but its many illustrations are often beautiful and fascinating. It was in this book that I first learned of Johann Theodor de Bry’s 1595 Neiw Kunstliches Alphabet. I subsequently discovered that de Bry’s engraved alphabet had been reprinted in one of a series of volumes by the alphabetologists Joseph Kiermeier-Debre and Fritz Franz Vogel (whose book Menschenalphabete I could have used when compiling my entry about figurative alphabets.) I ordered a copy of this reprint, published by Ravensburger in 1997: the present images are all scanned from its pages.
In the Neiw Kunstliches Alphabet there are twenty-four engravings of decorated letters. Most of them relate to biblical personages: ‘A,’ for example, is for Adam (who is accompanied—see the first image above— by Eve, and, aptly, given the triangular shape of his initial, by his first wife, Lilith). While it follows that ‘C’ is for Cain, ‘B’ (immediately above) is made (presumably for the sake of narrative neatness), to represent Abel. ‘H’ (below) is personified by Holofernes, whose martial, greedy and lustful nature is suggested by the armour & weapons, the pelican, and the decidedly phallic arrangements of fruit & vegetables respectively. Holofernes shows his face again in the ‘I’ engraving, (the 2nd image, below), whose subject is Iuditha (Judith).
The ‘X’ engraving, below, represents Christ (‘Xhristus:’—see the fifth comment below), whereas that for ‘Y’ is one of a few in the series which do not represent a specific person, but which is instead more generally emblematic, in this case apparently portraying a parting of the ways between virtue and vice. As with the other letters, it is festooned with decorative and symbolic elements in the form of birds & beasts, fruit & flowers, weapons & armour, musical instruments, and the ubiquitous putti.
Theodor de Bry (1528-98, Johann’s father) had been a goldsmith in Liège who found himself obliged, as a Protestant, to leave that Catholic city in 1570. After living in Strasbourg for several years, he relocated again, to Frankfurt, in 1588, where he established himself as a book-seller and publisher, many of his volumes being illustrated with engravings by his own hand. He was aided in this enterprise by his sons Johann Theodor (1561-1623) and Johann Israël (ca. 1570-1611). The de Bry firm issued almost two hundred books, including a renowned series of illustrated accounts of the Americas, emblem-books, and the mystical & alchemical works of Robert Fludd and Michael Maier.
The year after the publication of the Neiw Kunstliches Alphabet, another alphabetical work was issued by the de Bry presses, this time a joint venture of Johann Theodor and Johann Israël, which claimed to present all of the world’s known alphabets. Its global ambitions notwithstanding, their book Alphabeta et Characteres… was (not surprisingly) focussed for the most part on Europe and the Near East…
Click on the images above to see them enlarged…
Posted by misteraitch at October 10, 2005 12:23 PM
That's excellent thanks. I had no idea alphabetology was a such a speciality field, nor that it was so jam packed with symbology. I'd actually read the Giornale entry you linked here, the other day. Fascinating stuff.
Actually, I made the ‘alphabetologist’ part up: it’s just that this pair have written half a dozen alphabet-related books, which is enough to qualify them as honorary alphabetologists in my eyes.
These are interesting; I can't fathom the "Y," and it tells me how profoundly ignorant I am of a plethora of interesting things. Isn't it possible that you have a reference to St. Sebastian on the upright of the "Y"? It certainly suggests his identity as captain and as patron saint of soldiers and, of course, archers. The torso has that same little "twist" that one sees in many paintings of him, bound to a post or pillar. (Or perhaps the gear is a reference to the "whole armor of God" on Y, letter of Yahweh. Though I don't guess so.) Ichthus? Fishing seems clear enough, though again it also suggests the zodiac, just as the fruits and flowers suggest a seasonal round. The little puttinski is "fishing for men," I suppose. The lobster makes me think of Renaissance references to "Cancer." Parrots are in Durer and elsewhere, but I'm clueless about meaning. Is the iconography linked to the letter? In the way that some alphabets are connected to their decorations via the first letter of names in Hebrew?
What is really interesting to reflect on is how rich and complex in symbols these are--and how deficient in the same our own times appear in contrast.
Marly—I neglected to mention that, for each of the letters in this book there are accompanying verses in Latin and German. Here’s the Latin verse for the letter Y: if you can read Latin (I only know enough to be able to pick out the odd word) it might cast some light on the image. Kiermeier-Debre & Vogel’s commentary on this engraving just says that “Græco-Pythagorean tradition saw the letter ‘ypsilon’ as the parting of the ways between vice and virtue, for which reason it was also called the ‘Litera Pythagoræ’ and regarded as the philosophical character par excellence.” They also concede that the letter could represent coupling just as well as parting. Alas, they don’t elaborate on the significance of the pictorial elements.
You might be right about the significance of the armour. The parrot certainly carries some iconographical baggage, being one of the birds included in mediæval bestiaries, etc., but I don’t know what meaning, if any, it is supposed to supply here.
Loxias kindly e-mailed me to explain that “X would stand for ‘Xristos’ or ‘Khristos’ (should we like to transcribe the first letter), but definitely not ‘Xhristos’”—as I had at first written it above. When I checked the book, I saw that it had originally been printed as ‘XHRISTVS’ in the title but ‘XRISTE’ in the body of the accompanying Latin verse. I changed the spelling above to match the title as given by De Bry, incorrect or obsolete as that may be.
Ah, well, graece est, non legitur, anyway.
Mr. H- thank you for all the fascinating entries in your blog- I look forward to every one!
Just my two cents worth:
My recollection from medieval art history professor
was that the parrot supposedly squawked "ave Maria" untrained and was therefore associated with images of Madonnas.
Not sure if that has any association with the images you have posted though...
Hypsilon (Y), next to its 'parting between virtue and vice' significance, looks like a three-way crossroads, the domain of the godess Hecate, hence laden with 'mystical significance'.
Btw, does anyone know whether there is any research on the function and significance of the ubiquitous putti from Michelangelo onwards?
Loxias—with regard to putti, a quick look around turned up this title, which looks pretty interesting…
I like the squawky, devout parrot and the uncanny crossroads. As for naked ones, surely some of these must be angelic cherubs (Christian cherubim) rather than true putti (Greek/Roman assistant-to-Eros seducers.)
Little Latin, alas.
e' da diversi mesi che visito il tuo splendido sitoweb. Sono molto interessato dai tuoi lavori di ricerca di arte, grafica, incisioni, miniature. etc.
Mi piace ringraziarti per quello che fai, perche' in questo modo metti a disposizione dei tuoi lettori immagini e suggestioni di forte impatto emotivo ed estetico.
Grazie, misteraitch. Volevo da tempo lasciarti questo messaggio. Ora e' arrivato il momento di farlo.
Tanti auguri per il prosieguo dell'attivita'.
A truely wonderful website. It is what the web was meant for, the exchange of ideas. Bravo!
I could see the alphabetical buildings coming to fruition, perhaps a ghetto of the idle rich who like to bask in caligraphic comfort. Stroll in antique gardens and stop to rest on cushy commas.
Since writing this I happened to read the following passages on the significance of the letter ‘Y’ in Sir Thomas Browne’s book Pseudodoxia Epidemica:
The heart of a wise man is in the right side, but that of a fool in the left; for thereby may be implied, that the heart of a wise man delighteth in the right way, or in the path of vertue, that of a fool in the left, or road of vice; according to the mystery of the letter of Pythagoras…
We should be too criticall to question the letter Y, or bicornous element of Pythagoras, that is, the making of the hornes equall: or the left lesse then the right, and so destroying the symbolicall intent of the figure; confounding the narrow line of vertue, with the larger roade of vice; answerable unto the narrow door of heaven, and the ample gates of hell, expressed by our Saviour, and not forgotten by Homer, in that Epithete of Pluto’s house.
As a mixed media artist, I would be extremely interested in the Baroque and Rococo Pictorial Imagery: The 1758-1760 Hertel Edition of Ripa’s Iconologia, published by Dover Books. Should you choose to bestow me with this wonderful book I would be more than happy to create a piece for you from its imagery as a token of my appreciation! Thanks so much!
a.k.a. Adrianna D'Este
hey! i love this stuff it's soo cool!! | <urn:uuid:75d74e25-2708-476a-a78e-0699ca8698af> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.spamula.net/blog/2005/10/de_brys_alphabets.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00060-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949761 | 2,369 | 2.53125 | 3 |
This is a list of symbols found within all branches of mathematics to express a
formula or to ... Symbols based on equality "=": Symbols derived from or similar to
the equal sign, includin...
List of all math symbols and meaning - equality, inequality, parentheses, plus,
minus, times, division, power, ... inequality, greater than or equal to, 5 ≥ 4 ... |x-y|,
distance, distance between points x and y, | x-y | = 5 ..... there does not exists.
Explains how to find and recognize x- and y-intercepts, and some of the ... The x-
intercepts are where the graph crosses the x-axis, and the y-intercepts are ... ...
and ask you to find the "solutions", you'll know that they mean "find the x-
intercepts", ... in their use of the mathematical terms, and they never g...
If 10y=1 and 10x=1, what is the value of x+y? ... Think about what that means. If
you read it out loud, you'll say "ten times y equals one." In other ...
f(x). We say "f of x equals x squared". what goes into the function is put inside
parentheses () after the name of the ... And we usually see what a function does
with the input: f(x) ... means that every element in X is related to some element in
www.ask.com/youtube?q=What Does X Equals Y Mean Maths&v=t4gqZXJNm2w
Jul 14, 2011 ... In this video I try to explain what a function in maths is. I once asked myself, why
keep writing y=f(x) and not just y! ... It's a placeholder - it doesn't do anything but it
does represent something. ... So, f can represent very many different things. f=2x
+2y means an operation where you add each x & y va...
... ratio directly vary. Learn more about direct variation with this free math lesson.
... The equation y x = 6 states that y varies directly as x, since the ratio of y to x (
also written y:x) never changes. ... What does this mean? ... The equation y = k x
is a special case of linear equation ( y = m x + b ) where the y-intercept equal...
... 1 + 1 = 2. So, being equal, does not necessarily mean being the same. ... For
example, (x + y)² = x² + 2xy + y² is a statement that is not supposed to be solved.
That equation says: what is on the left (x + 2) is equal to what is on the right (6) ...
A Coefficient is a number used to multiply a variable (4x means 4 times x, so 4 is
a coefficient) ... Example: y<sup>4</sup>z<sup>2</sup> is easier than y × y × y × y × z × z, or even yyyyzz ... | <urn:uuid:8b16a995-f299-4f49-bd7e-8a1987fc293d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ask.com/web?qsrc=3053&o=102140&oo=102140&l=dir&gc=1&qo=popularsearches&ad=dirN&q=What+Does+X+Equals+Y+Mean+Maths | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396100.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00022-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.884046 | 672 | 3.765625 | 4 |
A main road in the downtown area of Fagatogo, American Samoa is flooded by water on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009. (AP / Fili Sagapolutele)
Three tragic natural disasters have happened within the span of 48 hours. A powerful 7.9 earthquake struck western Indonesia today, triggering landslides and trapping thousands under collapsed buildings. 75 have been confirmed dead, but the death toll is expected to be much higher, according to the AP News Release.
An 8.1 magnitude earthquake struck the South Pacific Islands of Samoa and American Samoa yesterday, killing at least 113 people. Villages and resorts were completely washed away, but even more terror barreled through the islands as the powerful earthquake triggered a series of massive tsunamis reaching anywhere from 10 to 15 feet.
These are truly horrific and tragic events and even though I have a passion for severe weather/storms, I would not want to be face to face with a tsunami and I can’t imagine the terror and sorrow many in these disaster-stricken areas are feeling. But after I heard about these natural disasters, I began to wonder: what if an earthquake struck off the coast of Washington? Could that trigger a tsunami as well?
It’s very possible.
According to a Seattle P.I. post on February 8th, 2005, scientists say “If a magnitude-7.3 earthquake rumbles out of the recently discovered Seattle Fault, Harbor Island would tilt toward the bay and the Duwamish River estuary would drain. But within two minutes the water would ricochet off the north shore of the bay and wash back eastward, flooding three square miles of low-lying areas.”
Not only that, but “a tsunami generated by an earthquake in the Seattle Fault could send up to 16 feet of water roaring ashore, swamping two marinas, inundating the Seattle Aquarium, Ivar’s Acres of Clams, Myrtle Edwards Park and the state ferry dock in what used to be tidelands downtown.”
And it wouldn’t take long to move. “Scientists say the tsunami could move from the west side of the bay to the city waterfront in as little as two minutes”.
And while Seattle hasn’t had such an earthquake-related wave strike the area in over 1,000 years, scientists say it will happen again, despite evidence that a magnitude 7.3 earthquake occurs once in every 2,500 years.
While all this speculation is frightening, it is best to be prepared if such an event were to happen, which is what scientists are and have been studying vigorously ever since the December 2005 tsunami that hit Southern Asia. They have been busy at work drawing up maps and projections which would predict the path of major tsunami’s in order to give residents all along the west coast time to evacuate if necessary. In fact, moments after the tsunami struck the the South Pacific, the National Weather Services in California and Oregon issued “Tsunami Advisories”, keeping the public on their toes just in case something were to happen here in the states.
To read the whole Seattle P.I. article, click here.
I wouldn’t get too worked up about something that dramatic happening, but it sure is comforting there are people out there working hard to warn us ahead of time if it does.
Keep all the disaster-affected families in your prayers! We ought to be thankful for the weather we have here…
Questions? Comments? E-mail me at: [email protected]
7 DAY FORECAST | <urn:uuid:f5d37e78-e6bf-4b0a-a151-9364844bc145> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://pugetsoundblogs.com/forecasting-kitsap/2009/09/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00127-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962687 | 746 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Geminids Meteor Shower Caused by Rock Comet
The Geminids are a fast, bright, and reliable meteor shower that can be observed every December (with the morning of the 14th usually marking the peak of highest intensity.) During this time, the sky fills with flashes of light shooting out of the constellation Gemini. But where exactly do the meteors come from?
Meteor showers are supposed to come from comets, yet there is no comet that matches the orbit of the Geminid debris stream. Instead, the orbit of the Geminids is occupied by a thing called "3200 Phaethon" - a five-kilometer diameter asteroid. Resembling a rocky asteroid, Phaethon swoops by the sun every 1.4 years, much like a comet would, but it never sprouts a dusty tail to replenish the Geminids.
That is, until now.
A group of astronomers led by Dave Jewitt of UCLA have been using NASA's STEREO probes to take a closer look at 3200 Phaethon when it passes by the sun. The twin spacecraft were designed to monitor solar activity, so they get a good view of sungrazing comets and asteroids. In 2010 one of the STEREO probes recorded a doubling of Phaethon's brightness as it approached the sun, as if sunlight were shining through a cloud of dust around the asteroid. The observers began to suspect 3200 Phaethon was something new: a rock comet.
A rock comet is, essentially, an asteroid that comes very close to the sun--so close that solar heating scorches dusty debris right off its rocky surface. This could form a sort of gravelly tail.
In further STEREO observations from 2009 and 2012, Jewitt along with colleagues Jing Li of UCLA and Jessica Agarwal of the Max Planck Institute have spotted a small tail sticking out behind the "rock."
"The tail gives incontrovertible evidence that Phaethon ejects dust," says Jewitt.
Jewitt's team believes that the dust is launched by thermal fracturing of the asteroid's crust. A related process called "desiccation fracturing" may play a role too.
Seeing 3200 Phaethon sprout a tail, even a small one, gives researchers confidence that Phaethon is indeed the source of the Geminids--but a mystery remains: How can such a stubby protuberance produce such a grand meteor shower?
Adding up all of the light STEREO saw in Phaethon's tail, Jewitt and colleagues estimate a combined mass of some 30 thousand kilograms. That might sound like a lot of meteoroids but, in fact, it is orders of magnitude too small to sustain the massive Geminid debris stream.
Read more at NASA.
Meteor shower image via Shutterstock. | <urn:uuid:9caf485b-4115-4b58-a02d-fca6a47017f1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/46749 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00166-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932227 | 593 | 3.828125 | 4 |
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Shakespeare relied heavily on translations of Plutarch's The Life of Julius Caesar, The Life of Brutus and The Life of Antony for his play Julius Caesar. Most of Plutarch's description of the assassination is contained in The Life of Julius Caesar, and most of Shakespeare's information about that historic event comes from the same source. Plutarch himself gathered information from numerous sources but does not claim that all of it is reliable. In describing the assassination of Julius Caesar, Plutarch writes:
And the pedestal was drenched with his blood, so that one might have thought that Pompey himself was presiding over this vengeance upon his enemy, who now lay prostrate at his feet, quivering from a multitude of wounds. For it is said that he received twenty-three; and many of the conspirators were wounded by one another, as they struggled to plant all those blows in one body.
Shakespeare, however, indicates that there were thirty-three wounds in Caesar's body. For example, his chafracter Octavius says:
Look, I draw a sword against conspirators;
When think you that the sword goes up again?
Never, till Caesar's three and thirty wounds
Be well avenged, or till another Caesar
Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors.
The exact number of wounds will never be known. It is impressive that so many men delivered so many blows because it shows not only how mucn they hated the man but how much they feared him. According to Plutarch, most of the blows would not have been fatal. Caesar defended himself against all those assassins until he saw Brutus approaching with his drawn dagger. At that point he pulled his toga over his head and sank down. It may have been Brutus who delivered the actual death blow. It was a scene of such panic and confusion that objective accuracy was out of the question.
According to Shakespeare, 33 times.
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Time for a Change
No need to throw the dirty diapers out with the bathwater! Santa Clarita, Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles, is the first municipality in the United States to institute a diaper-recycling program, which will transform the soiled, disposable sacks of goodies into oil filters, roof shingles, and vinyl siding. Some 20 billion diapers are buried in U.S. landfills per year, representing about 7 billion pounds of garbage. Santa Clarita’s $500,000 program may set an example for other California cities, which were required by a state law to cut in half the amount of garbage being sent to landfills by 2000. Many cities have yet to meet that target.
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Welcome to Geography
At Tibshelf, students learn Geography in years 7, 8 and 9 and can opt to study the subject in years 10 and 11 for GCSE. Geography is one of the most exciting, adventurous and valuable subjects to study today and is recognised as an important and essential part of the curriculum, especially in light of the introduction of the English Baccalaureat.
Students get the chance to get to grips with some of the big questions which affect our world and understand the social, economic and physical forces and processes which shape and change our world. Geography is about instilling in students, the attitude to go out and see for themselves, rather than be told by others and the variety of topics covered, deal with some of the great challenges facing the next generation of geographers. Students will improve their literacy through report writing and written work and make practical use of their numeracy skills when interpreting data and constructing graphs. The skills, knowledge and understanding gained, makes students highly desirable by employers and further education establishments who recognise the subject for its academic ‘robustness’.
Fieldwork, or working outside the classroom is a really important part of geography and is integrated within the course where possible. They are enriching opportunities which enable students to experience some of the things they learn about in class, see things differently and of course have fun. | <urn:uuid:f6d7465d-3d89-41cf-ab38-94d64b2c5f87> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.tibshelf.derbyshire.sch.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31&Itemid=22 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00114-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96626 | 279 | 3.5 | 4 |
Mathematics and Architecture
|Alphabetical list of History Topics||History Topics Index|
Although many readers of this archive might find an article on mathematics and architecture a little surprising, in fact architecture was in ancient times considered a mathematical topic and the disciplines have, up to the present time, retained close connections. Perhaps once one realises that mathematics is essentially the study of patterns, the connection with architecture becomes clearer. Salingaros writes in :-
Historically, architecture was part of mathematics, and in many periods of the past, the two disciplines were indistinguishable. In the ancient world, mathematicians were architects, whose constructions - the pyramids, ziggurats, temples, stadia, and irrigation projects - we marvel at today. In Classical Greece and ancient Rome, architects were required to also be mathematicians. When the Byzantine emperor Justinian wanted an architect to build the Hagia Sophia as a building that surpassed everything ever built before, he turned to two professors of mathematics (geometers), Isidoros and Anthemius, to do the job. This tradition continued into the Islamic civilization. Islamic architects created a wealth of two-dimensional tiling patterns centuries before western mathematicians gave a complete classification.
The first mentioned type of architecture Salingaros mentions in this quote is the pyramid and here we have marked disagreement between experts on the how much geometry and number theory the architects used. For example the Great Pyramid was built at Giza in Egypt around 2575 BC for King Khufu. Much has been written on the measurements of this pyramid and many coincidences have been found with , the golden number and its square root. There are at least nine theories which claim to explain the shape of the Pyramid and at least half of these theories agree with the observed measurements to one decimal place. This is a difficult area, for there is no doubt about certain astronomical alignments in the construction of the pyramid. Also regular geometric shapes were sacred to the Egyptians and they reserved their use in architecture for ritual and official buildings. That they had a goddess of surveying, called Seschat, shows the religious importance placed on building. However, no proof exists that sophisticated geometry lies behind the construction of the pyramids.
One has to make decisions as to whether the numerical coincidences are really coincidences, or whether the builders of the pyramids designed them with certain numerical ratios in mind. Let us look at just one such coincidence involving the golden number. The golden number is (1 + √5)/2 = 1.618033989 and an angle based on this will have size arcsec(1.618033989) = 51° 50'. Now the sides of the Great Pyramid rise at an angle of 51° 52'. Is this a coincidence? F Röber, in 1855, was the first to argue that the golden number had been used in the construction of the pyramids. Many authors have followed Röber, or produced even more elaborate versions of how and the golden number have been utilised by the Egyptians. The authors of , however, suggest reasons for the occurrence of many of the nice numbers, in particular numbers close to powers of the golden number, as arising from the building techniques used rather than being deliberate decisions of the architects. Arguments of this type have appeared more frequently in recent years.
Even if deep mathematical ideas went into the construction of the pyramids, I think that Ifrah makes a useful contribution to this debate in when he writes:-
I once knew a professor of mathematics who ... tried to persuade his students that abstract geometry was historically prior to its practical applications, and that the pyramids and buildings of ancient Egypt "proved" that their architects were highly sophisticated mathematicians. But the first gardener in history to lay out a perfect ellipse with three stakes and a length of string certainly held no degree in the theory of cones! Nor did Egyptian architects have anything more than simple devices -- "tricks", "knacks" and methods of an entirely empirical kind, no doubt discovered by trial and error -- for laying out their ground plans.
The first definite mathematical influence on architecture we mention is that of Pythagoras. Now for Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans, number took on a religious significance. The Pythagorean belief that "all things are numbers" clearly had great significance for architecture so let us consider for a moment what this means. Taken at face value it might seem quite a silly idea but in fact it was based on some fundamental truths. Pythagoras saw the connection between music and numbers and clearly understood how the note produced by a string related to its length. He established the ratios of the sequence of notes in a scale still used in Western music. By conducting experiments with a stretched string he discovered the significance of dividing it into ratios determined by small integers. The discovery that beautiful harmonious sounds depended on ratios of small integers led to architects designing buildings using ratios of small integers. This led to the use of a module, a basic unit of length for the building, where the dimensions were now small integer multiples of the basic length.
Numbers for Pythagoras also had geometrical properties. The Pythagoreans spoke of square numbers, oblong numbers, triangular numbers etc. Geometry was the study of shapes and shapes were determined by numbers. But more than this, the Pythagoreans developed a notion of aesthetics based on proportion. In addition geometrical regularity expressed beauty and harmony and this was applied to architecture with the use of symmetry. Now symmetry to a mathematician today suggests an underlying action of a group on a basic configuration, but it is important to realise that the word comes from the ancient Greek architectural term "symmetria" which indicated the repetition of shapes and ratios from the smallest parts of a building to the whole structure. It should now be clear what the belief that "all things are numbers" meant to the Pythagoreans and how this was to influence ancient Greek architecture.
Let us look briefly at the dimensions of the Parthenon to see how the lengths conform to the mathematical principles of proportion of the Pythagoreans. In 480 BC the Acropolis in Athens was totally destroyed by the Persians in the Second Persian War. To understand the timescale, let us note that this was about the time of the death of Pythagoras. After the Greek victory over the Persian at Salamis and Plataea the Greeks did not begin the reconstruction of the city of Athens for several years. Only after the Greek states ended their fighting in the Five Years' Truce of 451 BC did the conditions exist to encourage reconstruction. Pericles, the Head of State in Athens, set about rebuilding the temples of the Parthenon in 447 BC. The architects Ictinus and Callicrates were employed, as was the sculptor Phidias.
Berger, in , makes a study of the way that the Pythagorean ideas of ratios of small numbers were used in the construction of the Temple of Athena Parthenos. The ratio 2 : 3 and its square 4 : 9 were fundamental to the construction. A basic rectangle of sides 4 : 9 was constructed from three rectangles of sides 3 and 4 with diagonal 5. This form of construction also meant that the 3 : 4 : 5 Pythagorean triangle could be used to good effect to ensure that right angles in the building were accurately determined.
The length of the Temple is 69.5 m, its width is 30.88 m and the height at the cornice is 13.72 m. To a fairly high degree of accuracy this means that the ratio width : length = 4 : 9 while also the ratio height : width = 4 : 9. Berger took the greatest common denominator of these measurements to arrive at the ratios
height : width : length = 16 : 36 : 81
which gives a basic module of length 0.858 m. Then the length of the Temple is 92 modules, its width is 62 modules and its height is 42 modules. The module length is used throughout, for example the overall height of the Temple is 21 modules, and the columns are 12 modules high. The naos, which in Greek temples is the inner area containing the statue of the god, is 21.44 m wide and 48.3 m long which again is in the ratio 4 : 9. Berger notes the amazing fact that the columns are 1.905 m in diameter and the distance between their axes is 4.293 m, again the ratio of 4 : 9 is being used.
We mentioned above that F Röber believed that the Egyptians had used the golden number in their construction of the pyramids. In the same work of 1855 he also argued that the golden number was used in the construction of the Temple of Athena on the Parthenon. Perhaps this work was very persuasive, or perhaps it presented a romantic idea which people wanted to believe. Whatever the reason, it appears as essentially an accepted fact today by most people that indeed the buildings of the Parthenon achieved their undoubted exceptional beauty through the use of the golden number. There appears little hard evidence to support this view, while Berger's 4 : 9 theory, on the other hand, appears well established.
Plato was much influenced by the ideas of Pythagoras. Plato's theory of ideas makes meaning and concepts as fundamental and real, while the physical realisation of these ideas was not real and of lesser importance. For example the idea of a flower is real and permanent while the physical examples of flowers are only seen as apparent and temporary. Although buildings are not permanent, Plato saw that they were long lasting and therefore more beautiful to him than flowers. He saw mathematics as providing the most fundamental of all ideas and therefore buildings should be designed on mathematical principles. Plato writes in Philebus:-
What I understand here by beauty ... is not what the common man generally understands by this term as, for example the beauty of living things and their representation. On the contrary, it is sometimes rectilinear ... and circular, with the surfaces of solid bodies composed by means of the compasses, the chord, and the set square. For these forms are not, like the others, beautiful under certain conditions; they are always beautiful in themselves.
We are fortunate to know quite a bit about the mathematical methods of ancient architecture through the work De architectura by Vitruvius. This is a Latin work on architecture in ten books, dedicated to Octavianus, the adopted son of Julius Caesar, shortly before 27 BC. Vitruvius was himself an architect and engineer, being in charge of building projects in Rome. The ten books are as follows:
- Principles of architectural.
- History of architecture, and architectural materials.
- Ionic temples.
- Doric and Corinthian temples.
- Public buildings, theatres, music, baths, and harbours.
- Town and country houses.
- Interior decoration.
- Water supply.
- Dials and clocks.
- Mechanical engineering with military applications.
If some of these topics, for example music, seem completely out of place in a book on architecture, then it is worth noting that Vitruvius did see his book as providing an education for young architects so he provided some topics of a more general educational nature. However, it is worth noting that engineering and building were definitely seen as necessary skills for an architect to possess.
It is interesting, particularly given the details above on how the Temple of Athena on the Parthenon was constructed, to look at what Vitruvius says in Book 3 on designing temples. The book begins with an essay on symmetry and then describes the use of symmetry and proportion in the design of temples. For Vitruvius the proportions of the human body were fundamental in achieving beauty and he says that the proportions of the temple should follow these human proportions. He suggests that the circle and the square are perfect figures for generating architectural designs because they approximate the geometry of the spread-eagled human body. There is a religious significance here, since Vitruvius believed that the human body was made in God's image and was therefore perfect. Of course many have argued that the golden number can be found in the proportions of the human body so it may be that the evidence found today for the golden number in ancient Greek temples is explained by its relation to human proportions.
One of the remarkable parts of De architectura is Book 5 where Vitruvius discusses acoustics. Sarton writes :-
Vitruvius explains sound as a displacement of air in waves which he compares with the waves that can be observed on the water's surface when a stone is thrown into a pond. What is more remarkable was Vitruvius' application of the wave theory to architectural acoustics. The wave theory of sound was Greek, its application to the acoustics of a hall typically Roman. ... Vitruvius analyzes the acoustics of a theatre and the phenomena that may spoil it, which we call interference, reverberation, echo.
The mathematical content of Book 10 is also interesting. In it Vitruvius describes :-
... hoisting machines, engines for raising water, water wheels and water mills, water screws, Ctesibios's pump, water organs, odometers, and he passes from peace engines to war ones, catapults or scorpiones, ballistae, stringing and tuning of catapults, siege engines, tortoises for filling ditches, Hegetor' s ram and tortoise ...
Before we leave Vitruvius's De architectura it is worth noting that, although today we see Vitruvius more as a practical man rather than as a scholar, nevertheless Cardan included him in his list of the twelve leading thinkers of all time.
In Europe there was little progress in mathematics and architecture until the 14th and 15th Centuries. Architecture was modelled on the teachings of Vitruvius and on the classical architecture which was still plentiful, particularly in Greece and Italy. The next person we want to mention is Brunelleschi who was trained as a goldsmith. There were really no professional architects at this time and Brunelleschi learnt his skills in architecture by visiting Rome:-
He made drawings of a great many ancient buildings, including baths, basilicas, amphitheatres, and temples, particularly studying the construction of architectural elements, such as vaults and cupolas. The object of his architectural researches, however, was not to learn to reproduce Roman architecture, but to enrich the architecture of his own time and to perfect his engineering skills.
Brunelleschi made one of the most important advances with his discovery of the principles of linear perspective. Classical scholars had understood some of the principles of perspective but no text seems to have been written on the topic. We think of an understanding of perspective as being essential for a realistic two dimensional representation of a three dimensional scene when painting on a canvass. However Brunelleschi's understanding of perspective was used in his design of buildings as he created his designs to ensure that the visual effect he wanted was visible from all positions of the observer. Following the rules of proportion and symmetry of the ancients was important to Brunelleschi but he wanted these mathematical principles of beauty to be those seen by all observers. In some sense he was trying to achieve a certain invariance of proportion, independent of the angle of view, and to ensure that it was the apparent proportion which was right rather than the actual proportion. Argan writes :-
Perspective neither uncovers, creates, nor invents space. Rather, it is an essentially critical method or process that can be applied to the spacial data of architecture, reducing it to proportion or to reason. The Platonic influence predominates over Aristotelianism, in the synthesis of longitudinal and central diagrams into a perspective of contemplation, a perspective that leads theoretically to a single point.
Many of the famous mathematicians from the time of Brunelleschi made contributions to architecture. Alberti wrote a text on the topic, as well being the author of an important text on perspective in which he wrote down Brunelleschi's brilliant discoveries for the first time. He was one of a number of mathematicians to develop a general theory of proportion which, of course, was motivated by his architectural studies.
Although the name of Leonardo da Vinci makes one think of his stunning paintings rather than mathematics, in fact he was fascinated by mathematics. Architecture was another of his specialities and he learnt about it, in particular the mathematical principles behind it, from studying Alberti's texts. He was a man of wide ranging abilities and interests and, at one stage in his career, earned his living advising the Duke of Milan on architecture, fortifications and military matters. He was also considered as a hydraulic and mechanical engineer. He also worked for Cesare Borgia as a military architect and general engineer. Later the French King Francis I appointed him first painter, architect, and mechanic to the King.
Another mathematician from Renaissance times was Bombelli who was taught by Pier Francesco Clementi, himself an engineer and architect. With this training Bombelli was soon working himself as both engineer and architect employing his mathematical skills both in his work and in his deep investigation of complex numbers. Another to combine his skills in both mathematics and architecture was Bramer who was employed directing constructions of fortifications and castles. He published a work on the calculation of sines, prompted by the practical work in which he was involved. He followed Alberti (1435), Dürer (1525) and Bürgi (1604) when in 1630 he constructed a mechanical device that enabled one to draw accurate geometric perspective.
La Faille was a contemporary of Bramer who taught mathematics and military engineering. He worked as an architect advising on fortifications and he wrote an architectural treatise as well as important works on mechanics. Later in the 17th Century lived the English architect Wren, in many ways the best known architect in English history. A well rounded scientist, he solved a number of important mathematical problems before taking up architecture as a profession. Although he is better known as an architect than as a mathematician he was considered one of the leading mathematicians of his day by Newton. It was clear that Wren saw mathematics as being a subject which had applications to a wide variety of scientific disciplines and his mathematical skills played an important role in his architectural achievements. One of the architects with whom he worked, Robert Hooke, is better known as a mathematician than as an architect. Again that mathematics and architecture were closely related disciplines was considered natural at this time.
Another 17th Century mathematician was La Hire whose interests geometry arose from his study of architecture. In 1687 he was appointed to the chair of architecture at the Académie Royale. His interest in geometry arose from his study of perspective and he went on to make important contributions to conic sections. In the 19th century Poleni made contributions to hydraulics, physics, astronomy and archaeology. He held university chairs in astronomy, physics and mathematics as well as working as an architect.
The nineteenth century saw a change of attitude which led to a separation in people's minds of the scientific and the artistic. From this period the roles of mathematicians and architects were seen as distinct in a way that did not happen in say the seventeenth century. This is not to say that the connections between mathematics and architecture vanished, just that the scientific and artistic aspects were seen as complementary skills not to be found in the same person. Of course there were still those who did excel in mathematics and architecture; it was only perceptions which changed. An example of a person who excelled in architecture and mathematics was Aronhold who taught at the Royal Academy of Architecture at Berlin from 1851. Aronhold was appointed professor at the Royal Academy of Architecture in 1863. He made outstanding contributions to geometry.
Others from this period who combined the two skills include Brioschi and Wiener. From 1852 to 1861 Brioschi was professor of applied mathematics at the University of Pavia. There he taught mechanics, architecture and astronomy. Wiener studied engineering and architecture at the University of Giessen from 1843 to 1847. With this training he went on to become a teacher of physics, mechanics, hydraulics and descriptive geometry at the Technische Hochschule in Darmstadt.
There are a number of late 19th Century, and 20th Century mathematician who began their careers as architects before turning to mathematics, for example the Frenchman Drach and the American Wilks. Drach worked as an architect before turning to mathematics. Wilks studied architecture at North Texas State Teachers College. He received a B.A. in architecture in 1926. However his eyesight was not too good, and he feared that this would be a handicap if he pursued architecture as a profession so he decided on a career in mathematics.
Two unique talents from the 20th Century were Escher and Buckminster Fuller. Escher was never a mathematician, despite his fascination with the subject and the deep mathematical ideas which underlay his art. He trained at the School of Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem and only at age 21 did he give up architecture in favour of art. Buckminster Fuller was an engineer, mathematician and architect who applied geometric principles to design a totally new concept in buildings in the second half of the 20th Century. He made an art out of structural purity, using simple geometric forms for aesthetic as well as functional purposes.
References (31 books/articles)
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson | <urn:uuid:e39ab30c-e578-42b4-87e0-fe2f6f0698ba> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Architecture.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00001-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974175 | 4,442 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Breast cancer is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer in women. Although breast cancer is usually found in women, it can affect men, too. About 200,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and more than 40,000 men and women will die from the disease. However, breast cancer death rates are declining due largely to early detection and improved treatments.
Whether you have a family history of breast cancer, are facing breast cancer for the first time, or are a breast cancer survivor -- you are not alone. There are many resources and support groups available to help you cope and share your experiences as well as offer information on preventing and treating this disease.
Here are links to some additional resources:
American Cancer Society on Breast Cancer: The American Cancer Society on Breast Cancer is a national organization that provides more information on the risk factors, diagnosis, and treatment of breast cancer. It also provides a list of support groups within your state.
Susan G. Komen for the Cure: Susan G. Komen for the Cure is a national network of survivors and activists that raises awareness through fundraising events for research with the ultimate goal of finding a cure for breast cancer.
Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation: The Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation is a national organization that provides information and expert advice on women's health issues, including breast cancer.
National Cancer Institute: The National Cancer Institute is a government organization that provides educational material on prevention and treatment options for breast cancer, as well as information on clinical trials. The NIH is part of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered (FORCE) is a nonprofit organization that builds a community of individuals with a high risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer due to hereditary genetic mutations.
Breast Cancer Network of Strength: Breast Cancer Network of Strength is an online community of breast cancer patients and survivors that offers support and provides a venue to share experiences.
Breastcancer.org: Breastcancer.org is a nonprofit organization that serves as an online informational resource. Breastcancer.org connects with its web users by discussing the latest research news and answering questions through online conferences. | <urn:uuid:9c5e7987-9d29-4145-a4bc-dc44d8af03e0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://[email protected]/Health/OnCallPlus/story?id=3666505 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00140-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947603 | 450 | 3.03125 | 3 |
BY DR EMILY BALDWIN
Posted: 9 June, 2009
A rare and often overlooked type of star – cepheid variables – could allow astronomers to measure cosmic distances three times further than previously possible, to 300 million light years and beyond.
Cepheid variables – giant stars that pulse in brightness – have long been used by astronomers as reference points for measuring distances in the nearby Universe, but beyond 100 million light years from Earth, their signal gets lost among other bright stars. Now, a new study of a special type of cepheid – one that pulsates very slowly with a period of a month or longer – could allow astronomers to measure distances up to three times farther.
The ULP cepheids were located in nearby galaxies such as the Small Magellanic Cloud. Image: Credit: NASA, ESA and A. Nota (STScI/ESA).
There are already several methods for calculating the distances to stars, but astronomers often have to combine methods to indirectly determine a distance. The method of determining distances is often referred to as the cosmic distance ladder, with each new method a higher rung above another, but with errors adding up at each rung. Therefore, any single method that can skip rungs on the ladder is a prized tool for probing the Universe.
In a press briefing at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Pasadena on Monday, astronomers announced that a slowly pulsing bright class of cepheid might aid the effort to calculate the size and age of the Universe with greater precision than ever before achieved. Principal investigator Krzysztof Stanek’s new technique uses so-called “ultra long period cepheids” (ULP cepheids). “We believe they could provide the first direct stellar distance measurements to galaxies in the range of 50-100 megaparsecs (150 million - 326 million light-years) and well beyond that,” he says.
Until now, researchers have paid little attention to this type of cepheid, because it wasn’t certain how well they conformed to the period-luminosity relationship. But, says Stanek, the fact that they are larger and brighter than most stars means they stand out from the crowd, making them good distance markers after all.
The Ohio State group have started using the Large Binocular Telescope to search for more ULP cepheids in order to help measure the Universe and also learn more about how very massive stars evolve. Image: Aaron ceranski.
Stanek, with Ohio State doctoral students Jonathan Bird and Jose Prieto, uncovered 18 ULP cepheids from the literature, each located in a nearby galaxy, such as the Small Magellanic Cloud. Since the distances to these nearby galaxies are well known, they were used to calibrate the distances to the ULP cepheids with a 10-20 percent error – a rate typical of other methods that make up the cosmic distance ladder.
“We hope to reduce that error as more people take note of ULP cepheids in their stellar surveys,” Bird said. “What we’ve shown so far is that the method works in principle, and the results are encouraging.”
Astronomers have long suspected that ULP cepheids don’t evolve the same way as other cepheids, but in this study the Ohio State team found the first evidence of a ULP cepheid evolving as a more classical cepheid does, growing hotter and cooler many times over its lifetime. In between these cycles the outer layers of the star become unstable, which causes the changes in brightness. ULP cepheids are thought to go through this period of instability only once, and going in only one direction from hotter to cooler. But in the new study it turns out that one of the ULP cepheids – a star in the Small Magellanic Cloud dubbed HV829 – is clearly moving in the opposite direction, pulsing every 84.4 days compared with 87.6 days forty years ago. If the period is shrinking, the star itself is also shrinking and getting hotter.
The Ohio State group have started using the Large Binocular Telescope to search for more ULP cepheids in order to help measure the Universe and also learn more about how very massive stars evolve.
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word became light (from the Gospel of St. John)
1. Sound and the Moving Image: Foundation
The moving image is always accompanied by a chaotic or organized sound. In terms of acoustics, the image reflects its form of life, its direction and its intervention on the world’s surface through sound. The matrix of this agitation is always sound. The fact that this agitation is the foundation of life in each observer indicates not only the fluid and invisible form of sound but also the territory from where it starts and through which it passes. The central dilemma in the first two decades of the 20th century on the issue of sound and image was especially constituted in the relationship between cinema and art and in cinema as a visual representation of the event, i.e., as a narrative that approaches everyday narratives that can be either individual or collective. The transition from silent to sound films or the insertion of sound into a moving image, music or natural sounds, deviated film from the constitution of another point of view on the real and erected the urban or rural quotidian to a fictional narrative. But for this to happen and for it to be immersive, that is, for it to create an illusion or metaphor that the event had occurred or is occurring, it had to move closer to life, and this, as we know, is sound. Sound is then thought, in its synchrony with the image as the vital element of construction of this simulation, through its tangibility to life and immersion, which is the quality of any sound. Hearing differs qualitatively from the vision on that quality: how the waves propagate and expire obstacles produces in each listener the spectrum of the form, including its volume. The sound object is therefore immersive, by affecting us and making us focus on the event being listened to. The initial foundation is the same that leads to the capture and reproduction of 3D images. 1 Stereoscopy wants to produce not only immersion but some kind of interaction in the event.
The root of this problem in constant technical resolution, ever since technology was constituted and especially since the 18th century, was the ideology of eliminating that which separates the subject from the world and the reconstruction of the modes of how to access that subject. We can find this ideology with greater force with the invention of recording and sound reproduction equipment, such as the phonograph and the gramophone. The possibility of listening to the past, i.e. the possibility of listening to the event in the present, erects new layers of access to the real and bounds it to the subject. The event becomes a time without the indication of being past but of something that is happening. Of course this is only realized while we listen, through immersion, by distancing ourselves from the sound source that we could only “recognize” through the appearance of recording and reproduction devices. The narrative time is precious here, because when we talk about sound we must also speak about time. However, time here is not a linear time but composed of different layers. If we listen carefully, it was not only film that has changed with synchronization, but all images and, especially, literature. The great works of the first half of the 20th century reflect this twisting of time and this ability to rebuild the event in the present. Listen, for example, to À la recherche du temps perdu by Proust, Ulysses by James Joyce, Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Doblin, or The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner, just to name a few. In these works what we find are not linear times, from a point in the past up to the present or future, but layers of time that succeed one another and that we as readers access as if they were extensions, passages and, therefore, living things. What these authors did in literature also happened in other arts, and continues to happen, now constituting the fragment as an aesthetic category.
2. What Sound Prompts Us to See
Unlike the image or its representation that is positioned in a field for “harvesting” lines of visibility and, in these, objects, sound potentiates an aggregation of territories with objects to rebuild or create sound masses. The separation between the lines of field and sound in “mute” film, since sound was carried out in a room through live music or the absence of it, constituted an impasse to the recognition of visual perception, and of what we understand as real, the place of experience and existence. From the 1920s onwards everything changed: the desire to make the moving image as an analogy of existence and not a metaphor or metonymical artistic reference, is grounded in the early work of Edison on the synchronization of image and sound. Synchronization is nothing more than uniting, in the same space of utterances, the time that is simultaneous to a given action and its sound production.
In the passage from the 20s to the 30s in the past century, there was a growing interest in listening and in the ear, that is, they became themes that did not disregard the technical advance in these areas. The first causes may be the radio, as a medium, and new technology was understood as a mutant within the communities, as well as the “soundtrack” now linked to film. Several philosophers or scientists who continued to be interested in listening and music published the first texts on the subject. Those that stand out are Adorno, Gunther Anders (as well as Stern) and Georg von Békésy 2, just to name a few. The central issue originated in the phenomenological element of the sound object, which was also important for the progress of the synchronization of image with sound: the immersion caused by music, in itself, constitutes a landscape that is “exterior” to the world. This concept of the landscape unrelated from the world was important in handling sound as an image since it was important to associate the soundtrack to not only natural sounds or the scene but also to music. The first would constitute identity reactions, thereby avoiding a subjectification over musical listening that would make the general meaning chaotic. Thus, word resonance becomes important here, as it was understood by Veit Erlmann, in its relationship with reason: “resonance was inextricably linked with presence – the presence of an idea, emotion, or object”.3 For Erlmann, Gunther Anders’s response to a question formulated decades later by Peter Sloterdijk (also linked to another important question by Hannah Arendt: “Where are we when we think”, in The Life of the Mind), “Where are we when we listen to music” will be: when listening to music we are out of the world and in music 4, or “the indication of the place remains vague; it is true that you can never be completely in the world when one is listening to music”. 5 This means that the subject is founded, from an early age, in his ability to listen to himself and therefore to constitute an inner voice, that secures his or her identity. 6 We have therefore a double situation derived from listening to sounds: a subjectification from listening to music, and an outlet from this interior space to the world from other sounds that have a general hermeneutics, based on predefined mappings. In light of this confrontation of situations, the moving image could only make progress if there was a balance between the aesthetic ear and the ethical ear (as a political ear or agent). Any theory on listening, as a theory of experience thus appropriates itself of the modes of human reception and reaction to different sounds, without forgetting silence. We should, however, introduce the situation of man at that time: if on the one hand man began to think about the world from technical reproduction (the famous text, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, by Walter Benjamin appears in its 1st version in 1936), on the other hand, these devices began to modify the notions that we had of space and time: it is a distinct experience of objects from their exposure on the world’s surface, the experience of objects reproduced, as it happens with sound. And it is above all, in this case, that space which gains “visibility”: space is a “body” in expansion, ubiquitous not from itself but from devices such as the radio. For this reason, film would sooner or later have to introduce these notions of space and time and this could only have been done from the synchronization of sound with the moving image. The being of ubiquity is ontologically distinct from the use and reception of playback devices. And it becomes more “evident” when sound, music or noise is pasted on a strip of celluloid or on a disk (vinyl or other support). We all feel that we are finally ubiquitous when we can access applications and means of communication in a particular place (which remains unchanged at the time) that bring us closer or make us fall into other places, making us omnipresent or related to multiple layers of time and space. The qualities that founded these new perceptions of the real and which are also in the area of synchronization are the same as those we find in new entertainment and communication devices: deterritorialization, the real presence of the distant and the dissolution of physical and material structures as well as meaning (such as the move of the book to hypertext).
3. Sound, Voice and Media
3.1 Critical Elements
Two critical elements that have always been linked to sound are raised here either separate or together: music and voice. In fact what unites these elements in constant dispersion is sound which, as we have seen, founds the being with an active object. But sound in human creation, in film or in music, wants to be more than an agglomeration of waves coming from a sound source on its path to an ear. It wants to be the sign of an experience with meaning or the founding of an experience with meaning. The first situation makes a sound object the activator of a memory, in the opinion of Freud, and the second transforms sound into an active meaning that regulates the hermeneutics of the image. If in the first instance sound or a sound expression (voice, music, or both) can only be considered as a process of involuntary knowledge, since it is outside of the intentionality of the subject but not the “author” of the work; the second by a voluntary process, or not, founds the meaning for the image, conducting a priority meaning to a possible hermeneutic of visibility. The unlikelihood of communication is here the domain of memory or of experience, as sound affection can trigger “phantom images” that were not foreseen at the outset. This effect is only eliminated when sound, properly tested, is always projected in certain emotions or situations that have already and actually been experienced.
There is an old dilemma in western civilisation between sound (voice) and image: you hear it in St. Paul in the assertive function of listening and of faith. There are many more examples on the relationship of sound with action and human experience, but in the age of technical reproducibility what importance does listening still have in a screen illuminated by images that reground the real? And what differences are installed when sound ceases to be the real analogue and becomes a musical insertion or a song that moves the scene to other sensory experiences in the viewer? And when do you install silence, understood here as time to be completed, in the same way that you fill space with painting?
3.2 The Sonorous Voice
For a history of sound, then, epic tales of the ancient world like the Iliad are crucial. They remind us that civilization can be sculpted not only from the written or printed page, but also from something as democratic and free as the noise of human speech.
David Hendy, A Human History of Sound and Listening, (London: Profile Books, 2013), pg.54
Hearing even constitutes the primary and authentic openness of Da-sein for its ownmost possibility of being, as in hearing the voice of the friend whom every Da-sein carries with it. Da-sein hears because it understands.
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, (Albany: State University of NY Press, 1996), pg.153.
For being accustomed as we are to projecting our eyes on the real, the sounds in us are turned off involuntarily, as if they had fallen into a soundtrack matrix that keeps them in memory for future mappings or significant evidence. We did not significantly realize what the future of the auditory would be after the Industrial Revolution; we also did not gain, in time, any teleology on the invention of equipment for recording and reproduction or its electrification from instruments and the body. Having reached this point, it might be important to find in the past some signs of changes that are today voracious (for us). It does not matter to know the importance recording and sound reproduction equipment had for the standardization of a linguistic phonetics and the fading of the margins where dialects and regionalisms once lie, but rather realize what changed in the human in the passage of a pre-phonography immersion, to an emersion where it is possible to “hear” all sounds and identify with them sound sources or “phantoms”.
The urban environment, since the creation of industrial belts, has come to constitute itself as the place of communities. The depopulation of rural areas that gave way to industrialization and the significant increase of service areas in large cities emptied small communities and eroded much of what was considered to be the oral tradition of peoples. From a community guided by the construction of time and space based on an auditory judgement, we passed on to a polis covered by layers of mechanical, electrical and protocol (such as those of vociferation) sounds. Noise, or what we here understand by this word, was above all an aspiration of the city, between the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, since this noise meant progress based on the industrialization and mechanization of life and actions. No politician wanted to see their city removed from this development which should reach all its inhabitants. Only with the creation of tympanic machines such as Edison’s, and through emersion, did we discern that machine noise was powerful and, above all, that it alters the modes in which we communicate and get to know each other.
Understanding that at this time was impossible. But the use of the phonograph in the academy and in the study of languages, linguistic expressions and ways of talking, warned us to the dissolution of both linguistic and territorial borders, which we came to understand, and it was less than a century ago, with the functionalities of the radio and later with other means of communication, normally on a network, such as the internet. The most wonderful thing that happened with the invention of the recording and reproduction apparatuses (which today exist in all devices) was the possibility for us to distance ourselves from the event at the time in which it is produced so that we can analyse it as a phenomenon. Of course, there is a huge difference between the analysis of a sound object and a visual one. Sound, linked to the movement of an object or being in a given area, does not cease by imposition or human will; it dies at the surface of the world. As for the image as an apparition of light that reveals opacities that are easily killed and dissected: phenomenology here can be total but only partial in sound objects. And perhaps it is because of this partiality, to which we can add invisibility, that the world of sound is made “fantastic”.
There is an immense bibliography that has been compiled since the end of the 19th century around the technique, with a particular focus in recent years on the technology of sound. Two issues of vital importance stand out here for the contemporary individual: the voice (and vociferation) and identity (territorial or other) from sound. Since the end of the 19th century we have witnessed a transfer and erosion of some senses that in the evolution of man were very important. If the erosion of the tactile worsened considerably with the appearance of writing and even more so with the invention of writing reproduction devices, in the case of hearing there was a transfer between sound matrices: the plan of the oral transferred from presence to absence with the means of distance communication. The deviation to oral writing is not inapplicable here. Edgar Allan Poe in one of his tales had already examined the urban man as one who is both included and excluded from the city community. In “The Man of the Crowd” (1840), Poe approaches the urban man recognizing in him movements and gestures, the occupation of space or diversion of obstacles but does not confer him a voice. However, we know that voicing was never as intense as in the city, both at that time and now. In voicing we recognize the liveliness of the city, which by the action of resonance mimics the interior of homes or the exterior of services. By listening to these voices we become aware of our presence in a section tangent to the street, at a meeting point between the public and private space. The new Babel which are our cities can be analysed from this voicing that can also be mapped not only for the understanding of the urban city but as future memory.
We are in a time in which it is possible to think of Sound Studies as being inserted in a theory of experience. Any of the words that emerge in these studies (territory, landscape, sound, identity, urban, devices) composes singularly, or in a network with others, a theory of experience from the sense of hearing. I call to this discussion Walter Benjamin 7, also stressing the primordial relationship of sound with time: if there is anyone who can verify a particular theory of experience, it can only be a writer. And if any writer took to the novel this “Bergsonian theory of experience” it was Proust with his À la Recherche. And it continues: Proust puts at stake in his work, from the first volume, the pure memory of Bergson, as involuntary memory, which is opposed to voluntary memory directed by intelligence. What we remember is a drawing of the past under the guidance of many mental faculties and qualities, and that which appears new from other sensory elements is the real past time. It is therefore a matter of chance or luck that we achieve this time from elements of the present. These are fragments of life that come to us not from the usual paths, of obstinacy or their evocation, but by means of other elements that serve as “passages” for that time. In Proust’s reading of Baudelaire, there was already an assertion that time in this French poet does not appear as continuous but “dismembered”. We have already seen this idea in narratives of the 20th century as an impulse of the modern and contemporary man: the union of the problems of the city, sound equipment and the human relationship with time. All of them, of course, with different narratives to access another time, but all, in one or another part of their writing, insert “correspondences”, a term fixed by Baudelaire, and that Benjamin confirms: “The correspondences secure a concept of experience that includes elements of worship (…) Correspondences are the data of rememory. But they are not the data of history but of pre-history”. In the sense that they are not connected to a marked time, a linear point in the past. They are outside logical order, outside of wilful discourse, as is pre-history in relation to history. Benjamin states: “If Bergson has credit, it is the remembrance of the ‘durée’ that relieves the human soul from its obsession with time”. The time line could be changed, even if only mentally, and even if only in writing do we have this memorial deviation by fragments. Proust closely follows Bergson, saturating a past of “all the reminiscences” that escaped to the unconscious. There are, however, many, who do not consider the existence of similarities between the two positions with respect to time and memory. In Proust time is fragment, reminiscences that awaken him for a specific period, character or geography. A time of the modern man, the time of Baudelaire. As for Bergson’s time, its duration is a stream that is evoked to increase the “volume” of time. Fernando Pessoa sometimes has a relationship with memory and memories that is similar to Proust: an element gives rise to a time, and this time “appears” in the same way as it was. Indeed this was the range of time (in the narrative) in Proust: to make time appear as if it were today, a spacialized time. And this spacialized time is a virtue or a quality of what is audible and sound itself. The concept of space, as it is understood in the West, is a reconstruction of the vision from the coercion of hearing, especially of audible indications whose sources are not visible. We can, however, agree that narrative time and its meaning is always changing appearing later under another light and fulfilment, thus increasing the thickness of time, as understood by Bergson. Nonetheless, to describe this time he could not put it in motion but rather needed to stop it, photograph it, as if he wanted to kill it. And with this action what happens is the death of the event in representation. However, when we speak of time coming from sound its dissection is impossible since the evocation of what lives or relives, in recording, may not be suspended. We are speaking of Thomas Mann, in his Magic Mountain:
Can time be narrated, time in itself, as such and in itself? No, in fact it would be a crazy enterprise. A narrative where it would say: “Time passed, flowed, time followed its course” and so forth, a man of spirit could never consider it history. It would be more or less as if someone had the baroque idea of maintaining the same note during an hour, or only one chord and want this to be considered music. Because narration resembles music in the sense that it “performs” time, “fills it conveniently”, “splits it” and makes it so that “something happens in it” (…) Time is the element of narration, as well as the element of life; it is inseparably connected to it, as to bodies in space. Time is also the element of music, which measures and divides time making it, simultaneously, interesting and valuable, in that, as has already been said, resembles narration, which is also (and in a way very different from the immediate presence and brilliance of plastic art, which is only connected to time as body) it is nothing more than a succession. It is incapable of presenting itself only as fluency, and has the need to resort to time even if it still tries to be fully present in a given moment. 8
The sequence of facts or that which occurs would be insubstantial if its background were not noise, a sound matrix that elevates and reveals. The contemporary desire to archive everything finally opted for the background sound from where life and the living being grow. Only this sound matrix makes mimetization possible, in the origin of languages, as well as the urban cacophony that makes the city dense and rich.
In the view of the narrator of À la Recherche, noise or sounds are linked to movements, that is, they are linked to a space where objects and beings circulate. For this reason it is necessary to be careful and make the sound experience as an experience of life, as important as that of vision. This means that many times, as notes the narrator 9, the obstruction of the ear canal deregulates the creation of this important atmosphere for life. The main quality of hearing is to get used to background noises that are constituted as landscapes. As the mind gets accustomed to these noises, its disappearance causes substantial changes. However, if you withdraw the cotton from the ear, “suddenly the light, the sun at the pin of sound, once again becomes blinding, reborn in the universe; it returns to the population of exile noises at full speed; we are witnessing, as if they were chanted by angelic musicians, the resurrection of voices”. 10
Proust wanted to constitute with this derivation on sounds, new ways of finding worlds. That is, we should not neglect any of our senses. Hearing, linked to movement, time and life is important to form a passage for that atmosphere that vibrates inside with us: “an atmosphere of tranquillity”, which brings us back to the constitution of the being in the world as proposed by Heidegger in his work Sein und Zeit.
There is, however, a passage in the cited book by Proust where we would like to expand a little. It only becomes important if we think back to the time of its writing, in the second decade of the 20th century. The telephone as a means of communication would not be widespread in France, with only some cities having a post office with a telephone. By the described dimension of the event (Marcel speaking with his grandmother who is in Paris 11), Proust does not have the habit of calling, or at least kept a strong memory of the first times that he used the device. What occurs in these pages is a qualitative description of the telephone and the innovations that concentrate on the qualities of immersion, even today reproduced in other media, such as the telephone, the radio and the internet. We have an interest in “looking” at the type of description that he draws up, diverted many times to Greek mythology and to magic. Faced with disbelief in the technique, the narrator slowly realizes that as if by magic (“a fairy tale”), what is far away, the city, is quickly put next to us through sound. But even more: “what appears next to us, invisible but present, is the person to whom we wanted to speak”, and that remains, deduces the interlocutor, in the usual position and in the house they dwell in. Those with whom we speak are transported near us, “them and the entire environment in which it is steeped”. This idea consolidates the foundation of invention that is the transmission of voice between two distant places. And the voice brings with it, not just an identity, but a body and the landscape in which it moves. Proust repeatedly finds an echo of this invention within the stories of magic (especially children’s stories) in which what happens is beyond the natural order. For “this miracle to be performed” it is enough to call the Vigilant Virgins, the Graces, the Danaides (who were penalised in mythology to fill a bottomless barrel with water, drain it, and then fill it again and transmit here “the urns of sounds”, they who are in Tartarus, at the bottom of the Underworld), the Furies: the priestesses from the invisible who are the “girls of the telephones”. They are those figures of mythology: in them we associate the different mythological functions. And in the “night full of apparitions”, open only to our ears, a noise, which in the opinion of Proust is due to the suppression of distance, and the presence of a voice that we want to hear. It is still in the place outside of time that we have contact between voices, using the telephone device as a mediator. What was rosin is, after tuning (as in the radio after distance was removed), clarity, geography, affection and landscapes. A real presence, stresses the French writer, in “effective separation”. This real presence marks a phenomenological deviation from the terminology used until then, until the invention of the devices of distance communication. They introduce a new time and in it a new space, that is, a new territory. More than once Proust associates this contact to the concept of death (as advocated by Edison: it is now possible to hear the dead), if we think about the ghost that appears, or a voice without a body. That voice is in Proust that of an “impalpable ghost”, just as the voice of a dead person.
What changed was not only the evocation and convocation of a body from a voice. As we have seen this body is not only a ghost, as more meaning to the action should be added: the problem of emersion, which begins with the equipment for recording and reproducing sound, allows for the constitution of another, from a distance, that is not the same. From a distance I am no longer immersed in the sound that I hear from a body in front of me. I accompany “the open score of its face”. For the first time, the voice is total, and in this situation the face earns less expression, it does not accompany the speech, but instead transports that which was impossible to be revealed in face-to-face dialog: “viewed without the mask of the face, I noticed for the first time the despondency which had flagellated her through life”. By emersion voice is a record of time in the body that holds it. The voice transmitted by distance creates a new presence and unbalances the previous real image. Much like a face in film: the face goes out by immersing the viewer in the landscape and in the voice.
When the telephone call ends, “we cease to face each other, and to be audible to one another”.
3.3 Post Vox
The human voice is, in effect, a privileged place (eidetic) of difference: a place which escapes all science, because there is no science […] which exhausts the voice.
Roland Barthes, O Óbvio e o Obtuso (Lisboa: Edições 70, 2009), pg. 266
By linking urban voicing to the human voice, even in communication by distance, we can consolidate the enigma of the voice.
The human voice is not only pneuma, breath, but, and using a term by Barthes, it is also “grain”, or “the materiality of the body speaking its mother language”. 12 As a place of difference, the voice is entwined in its saying thus composing a body and this body is in a time. For this reason, the voice is also desire, in the sense that it is never presented as empty to the ears of others, “neutral”, but bright or brutal. And what we say to a voice of everyday life can also be said of a voice in mastery, in song or in fiction. The physical voice should, in all its expression, contain the body that sustains it as well as the language of this body. And the language of that body is not only words or meanings in voice. It is, above all, a signifier, since it also involves the movement of the body itself and the semantics of language in time. Listening to someone or reading someone’s speech is distinct. In the first case, we know that we cannot distance ourselves from the face that conceives the voice and the body that projects it; but in the second case (a novel, for example) that which is said is embodied in the whole activity of recognizing the voice of the other, including a face and a landscape. The mediation of the voice promotes in anyone who reads or listens (through a communication device) the interaction of the faculties of imagination and memory, sketching at the same time those who listen to a voice in the distance (without a source) or read what is written. If in a face that is near, the voice is a physical element linked to a larger unit that is a body, and here, especially a face (where it spends some time of its life), in the distance the voice becomes that unit which triggers other operations of self-recognition for those listening or reading.
“Listening to the voice inaugurates the relationship with the other”13, in that which is “singular information”, conveying a “bodily image” (which we have detected theoretically but also fictionally in Proust’s work). The characters have different ways of speaking and in each voice we see the birth of social classes, education, styles and desire. The dissociation between voice and body, that exists, is the cause of strangeness, as in listening to our own recorded voice. But there will also be no surprise when, even in a novel, the image that we have created for a character suffers from mistakes in its dialogues, as if it were masked or constantly undressing an identity and going towards the path of another. In a short story by Karen Blixe 14, a famous opera singer, Pellegrina Leone, having lost her voice at a fire in Milan, while inducing the scene, spent the rest of her life up until her death-bed, winning new identities, and always forgetting the others. The loss of her musical voice enabled her to incorporate other identities and professions: the voice was the only element that linked identity and body, and without it she could become whomever she wanted. The actor knows well, even in substantive identity, that their voice is not only breath (which can be only a technique) but “a materiality of the body which has arisen from the throat, a place where the metal phonic hardens and segments itself”.15 This phonic material that “appears” there expresses the subject’s story and his time (or age, in the example of the child’s chant or echo) in full mediation, and partially in immediacy. The hand that writes is also a voice that is linked to a body, but unlike those who say that writing tends towards the creation of an internal phantom that should be just as much or more precise depending on the author’s ability to invent a voice for him. And that makes all the difference. What the body in listening does, without a natural sound source, is assign a body that moves their identity throughout the landscape, which is also founded on what is written or in memory. The body is always a place of drawing and it is this place from the voice.
With the help of the musician and Canadian theoretician Murray Schafer, author of The Tuning of the World, let us now revisit some of his concepts that establish the importance of sound and the sense of hearing in that which we see. Neuroscience, after psychology, has produced a comprehensive set of tests on perception from the sense of vision. The contrast between opaque light, colours and shadows promotes the creation of figures that are formations. The world is, to our eyes, and with more or less light, since darkness does not allow the existence of stable formations, a surface on which objects do not all appear in the same visual mode but are formed and change during the day. For those formations to occur there has to be light and, above all, a means (the ground). It is this means that makes the real possible, since it is the background that makes the forms possible. This ground from where the forms emerge does not fall, normally, into visual perception, only on the speciality. What we see is an environment, a field that is an urban or rural landscape.
According to Murray Schafer we associate some of these terms to the field of aural perception. The figure that represents the finished formation can be understood as a sound mark or sign. Something that is systematic and audible marks a given territory. The background from where these sounds arise, that help its formation, can be understood here as that which makes the production of sound possible. Multiple layers of sounds that we can access in specialization, framing that background to find the key sounds of multiple layers.
Finally, there is the field and the landscape itself where all sounds occur, either audible or non-audible, and that is the soundscape. A significant change in how we work our hearing in relation to vision, and that is proven in how we hear and see, relates to the reconstruction/identification of these figures/formations and the means to make it possible. As vision is segmented and located it does not have the possibility of reconstructing, simultaneously, the background and the form. As for hearing, it promotes the (re)creation of form and the background. Sound always behaves, in listening, as language, in that for it to be meaningful there must be the presence of an acoustic image that links the background and formation in the sound expression.
The matrix sound represents here, as memory, a fundamental role in creating the source, the background and often times the landscape of that sound. This therefore achieves all the axes of the constitution of the real: verticality, horizontality and depth. Most notable is the “history/memory” of a sound than any “physical” object. Perhaps because this, aggregated to light, is instantaneous, while sound is slower in its form of expression and meaning, generating, in its wandering, a general contour that is more precise, and can be the source of sound and its context.
Sound always drags a background that is obliterated in vision, since this always repeats successive cuts up to the focus. The lightning speed with which the image is fabricated makes us “forget” the background from where it starts, as well as the field. The sound object comes to us bringing in its trail a detail – illusory or not – of the source and its landscape. The background and formation are in sound, part of the same object and that is given to the fact, as we have seen, of not only the mode of transmission of sound waves, but also of mechanics and live sounds, as well as the circular flow that is its expression. The detail of the sound is the construction of the source (nature and characteristics) and of its surroundings, while in vision it is just the contrast of light that is “fabricated”.
Whenever a reproduced or real image is captured by the eye we make of it a solidity that does not allow it to abandon space. The materialities do not derive nor win the atmosphere where they are revealed. Actually, what is gaseous but without sound remains in the field of the fixed, or the screen, something solid, or a revelation. With voices and music the image earns a flexibility and a movement that is specific to being alive. Hearing is thus the meaning, which synchronized with vision, since we are talking about moving images (film, video, illustration or games), produces the revelation, highlighting and separating the different spaces (colour and movement) and times that make up the image. Without sound everything remains mute, not belonging to the world of what is intended to be revealed as living, but of the always imperfect human artifice.
- It is in the 40s and 50s of the last century – still far from the technology capable of performing this action – that the first 3D tests in film began. And just as it happened with the inclusion of sound, the idea here was also rejected by undermining the notion of spoken film. An example: 3 D Film and Cyclopic Effect, by Gunther Anders-Stern, published in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 15, No. 2. (Dec., 1954), pp. 295-298. ^
- Theodor W. Adorno: “On the Fetish-Character in Music and the Regression of Listening”(1938), in Essays on Music, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002); Gunther Anders: Philosophische Utersuchungen zu musikalischen Situationen (Philosophical Inquiries into Musical Situations), 1929-1930, quoted in Veit Erlamann, Reason and Resonance, (New York: Zone Books, 2010), pg. 308 and following pages; Martin Heidegger: Sein und Zeit (Being and Time); Georg von Békésy: “Zur Theorie des Horens: die Schwingungsform der Basilarmembran” (1928), Experiments in Hearing, (New York; MacGraw-Hill, 1960). ^
- Veit Erlmann, Reason and Resonance – A History of Modern Aurality, (NY: Zone Books, 2010), pg. 311. ^
- Ibid, pg. 312. ^
- Peter Sloterdijk, O Estranhamento do Mundo, (Lisboa: Relógio d’Água, 2008), pg.179. All translations from non-English sources are my own, unless otherwise noted. ^
- Sloterdijk, in the same article, actually calls on the notion of audible cogito in order to found the being with the existing. A cogito that coerces with the Cartesian cogito of logic. ^
- Sur quelques themes baudelairiens, Oeuvre I—II, (Paris: Gallimard, 2000). ^
- Thomas Mann, Montanha Mágica, (Lisboa: Edição Livros do Brasil, s/d), pg. 565. ^
- O Lado de Guermantes, pg.75. ^
- O Lado de Guermantes, pg.76. ^
- O Lado de Guermantes, pg.133-136. ^
- Roland Barthes, O Óbvio e o Obtuso (Lisboa: Edições 70, 2009), pg. 258. ^
- Roland Barthes, O Óbvio e o Obtuso (Lisboa: Edições 70, 2009), pg. 243. ^
- “Os Sonhos”, in Sete Contos Góticos, Vol. II, (Lisboa: Ed. D. Quixote, 1987). ^
- Roland Barthes, O Óbvio e o Obtuso (Lisboa: Edições 70, 2009), pg. 244. ^
- Adorno, Theodor W., (2002), Essays on Music, Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Barthes, Roland, (2009), O Óbvio e o Obtuso, Lisboa: Edições 70.
- Békésy, Georg von, (1960), Experiments of Hearing, NY: McGraw-Hill.
- Benjamin, Walter, (2000), Oeuvre III, Paris: Gallimard.
- Erlmann, Veit, (2010), Reason and Resonance – A History of Modern Aurality, NY: Zone Books.
- Hendy, David, (2013), A Human History of Sound and Listening, London: Profile Books.
- Heidegger, Martin, (1996), Being and Time, Albany: State University of NY Press.
- Mann, Thomas, Montanha Mágica, Lisboa: Edição Livros do Brasil.
- Proust, Marcel, (2003), O Lado de Guermantes, Lisboa: Círculo de Leitores
- Schafer, R. Murray, (1977), The Tuning of the World, New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
- Sloterdijk, Peter, (2008), O Estranhamento do Mundo, Lisboa: Relógio d’Água.
Luís Cláudio Ribeiro is professor of Sound Studies and head of Communication Sciences Department at Lusófona University, in Lisbon. PhD in Communication Sciences, develops research activity in the field of media epistemology and sound. His recent publications focus on the medium, identification and characterization of changes by the use of sound mediators in contemporary society: O Mundo é uma Paisagem Devastada pela Harmonia (Lisboa: Vega, 2011) e O Som Moderno – Novas formas de criação e escuta (Lisboa: Edições Lusófonas, 2011).). He is the main investigator of the project Lisbon SoundMap, supported by the Portuguese Government (FCT): www.lisbonsoundmap.org and lisbonsoundmap.wordpress.com. In addition to the academic activity, he is also a poet and novelist. The most recent books are Sucede no entanto que o Outono veio (Lisboa: 2013) and Um Jardim Abandonado que Desbota (Lisboa:2014).
Posted: 27 June 2014
Short URL: http://neme.org/1701
TEXT: Luís Cláudio Ribeiro | <urn:uuid:94bbada3-4d1c-488c-a152-07ee08627d31> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.neme.org/1701/a-sound-projectile-behind-the-light | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394987.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00111-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961687 | 9,440 | 2.921875 | 3 |
China on Thursday began its first saturation diving experiment in sea, aiming to reach 300 metres under water surface as part of its efforts to enhance expertise in deep sea exploration.
Six divers have began to pressurise a compression chamber in preparation for the dive near Shenzhen in south China, the Shanghai Salvage Company under the Ministry of Transport said.
Divers are scheduled to begin diving toward 300 meters under the sea on January 12 and stay under water for about 17 days, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Guo Jie, head of the experiment project, as saying.
Saturation diving was developed to allow divers to stay under water for a longer time and at a deeper sea level than with conventional techniques.
It is commonly used in deep sea exploration, in rescue operations at sea and in engineering construction at the bottom of the sea.
China had previously only conducted such experiments in laboratories.
The new experiment was part of China’s effort to develop expertise in underwater exploration.
Last October, China tested its underwater vehicle in the eastern Pacific.
According to China’s State Oceanic Administration the research vessel, “Haiyang-6,” conducted the tests near Hawaii. The autonomous underwater vehicle can travel 6,000 metres beneath the sea’s surface.
China has already developed its own manned submersible and remotely operated underwater vehicle.
The manned submersible “Jiaolong” set a record in June 2012 by reaching 7,062 meters deep in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench. | <urn:uuid:90abef30-ef30-48cb-8fd4-607a67992c84> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://indianexpress.com/article/world/china-begins-first-saturation-diving-experiment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00023-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961414 | 321 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
German-born American physicist and Nobel laureate, best known as the creator of the special and general theories of relativity
and for his bold hypothesis concerning the particle nature of light. He is perhaps the most well-known scientist of the 20th
Einstein was born in Ulm on March 14, 1879, and spent his youth in Munich, where his family owned a small shop that
manufactured electric machinery. He did not talk until the age of three, but even as a youth he showed a brilliant curiosity
about nature and an ability to understand difficult mathematical concepts. At the age of 12 he taught himself Euclidean
Einstein hated the dull regimentation and unimaginative spirit of school in Munich. When repeated business failure led the
family to leave Germany for Milan, Italy, Einstein, who was then 15 years old, used the opportunity to withdraw from the
school. He spent a year with his parents in Milan, and when it became clear that he would have to make his own way in the
world, he finished secondary school in Arrau, Switzerland, and entered the Swiss National Polytechnic in Zrich. Einstein
did not enjoy the methods of instruction there. He often cut classes and used the time to study physics on his own or to play
his beloved violin. He passed his examinations and graduated in 1900 by studying the notes of a classmate. His professors
did not think highly of him and would not recommend him for a university position.
For two years Einstein worked as a tutor and substitute teacher. In 1902 he secured a position as an examiner in the Swiss
patent office in Bern. In 1903 he married Mileva Mari, who had been his classmate at the polytechnic. They had two sons
but eventually divorced. Einstein later remarried.
Early Scientific Publications
In 1905 Einstein received his doctorate from the University of Zrich for a theoretical dissertation on the dimensions of
molecules, and he also published three theoretical papers of central importance to the development of 20th-century physics. In
the first of these papers, on Brownian motion, he made significant predictions about the motion of particles that are randomly
distributed in a fluid. These predictions were later confirmed by experiment. The second paper, on the photoelectric effect,
contained a revolutionary hypothesis concerning the nature of light. Einstein not only proposed that under certain
circumstances light can be considered as consisting of particles, but he also hypothesized that the energy carried by any light
particle, called a photon, is proportional to the frequency of the radiation. The formula for this is E = hu, where E is the
energy of the radiation, h is a universal constant known as Planck's constant, and u is the frequency of the radiation. This
proposal-that the energy contained within a light beam is transferred in individual units, or quanta-contradicted a
hundred-year-old tradition of considering light energy a manifestation of continuous processes. Virtually no one accepted
Einstein's proposal. In fact, when the American physicist Robert Andrews Millikan experimentally confirmed the theory
almost a decade later, he was surprised and somewhat disquieted by the outcome.
Einstein, whose prime concern was to understand the nature of electromagnetic radiation, subsequently urged the
development of a theory that would be a fusion of the wave and particle models for light. Again, very few physicists
understood or were sympathetic to these ideas.
Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity
Einstein's third major paper in 1905, "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", contained what became known as the
special theory of relativity. Since the time of the English mathematician and physicist Sir Isaac Newton, natural philosophers
(as physicists and chemists were known) had been trying to understand the nature of matter and radiation, and how they
interacted in some unified world picture. The position that mechanical laws are fundamental has become known as the
mechanical world view, and the position that electrical laws are fundamental has become known as the electromagnetic world
view. Neither approach, however, is capable of providing a consistent explanation for the way radiation (light, for example)
and matter interact when viewed from different inertial frames of reference, that is, an interaction viewed simultaneously by an
observer at rest and an observer moving at uniform speed.
In the spring of 1905, after considering these problems for ten years, Einstein realized that the crux of the problem lay not in a
theory of matter but in a theory of measurement. At the heart of his special theory of relativity was the realization that all
measurements of time and space depend on judgments as to whether two distant events occur simultaneously. This led him to
develop a theory based on two postulates: the principle of relativity, that physical laws are the same in all inertial reference
systems, and the principle of the invariance of the speed of light, that the speed of light in a vacuum is a universal constant.
He was thus able to provide a consistent and correct description of physical events in different inertial frames of reference
without making special assumptions about the nature of matter or radiation, or how they interact. Virtually no one understood
Early Reactions to Einstein
The difficulty that others had with Einstein's work was not because it was too mathematically complex or technically obscure;
the problem resulted, rather, from Einstein's beliefs about the nature of good theories and the relationship between experiment
and theory. Although he maintained that the only source of knowledge is experience, he also believed that scientific theories
are the free creations of a finely tuned physical intuition and that the premises on which theories are based cannot be connected
logically to experiment. A good theory, therefore, is one in which a minimum number of postulates is required to account for
the physical evidence. This sparseness of postulates, a feature of all Einstein's work, was what made his work so difficult for
colleagues to comprehend, let alone support. Einstein did have important supporters, however. His chief early patron was the
German physicist Max Planck. Einstein remained at the patent office for four years after his star began to rise within the
physics community. He then moved rapidly upward in the German-speaking academic world; his first academic appointment
was in 1909 at the University of Zrich. In 1911 he moved to the German-speaking university at Prague, and in 1912 he
returned to the Swiss National Polytechnic in Zrich. Finally, in 1913, he was appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm
Institute for Physics in Berlin.
The General Theory of Relativity
Even before he left the patent office in 1907, Einstein began work on extending and generalizing the theory of relativity to all
coordinate systems. He began by enunciating the principle of equivalence, a postulate that gravitational fields are equivalent to
accelerations of the frame of reference. For example, people in a moving elevator cannot, in principle, decide whether the
force that acts on them is caused by gravitation or by a constant acceleration of the elevator. The full general theory of
relativity was not published until 1916. In this theory the interactions of bodies, which heretofore had been ascribed to
gravitational forces, are explained as the influence of bodies on the geometry of space-time (four-dimensional space, a
mathematical abstraction, having the three dimensions from Euclidean space and time as the fourth dimension).
On the basis of the general theory of relativity, Einstein accounted for the previously unexplained variations in the orbital
motion of the planets and predicted the bending of starlight in the vicinity of a massive body such as the sun. The
confirmation of this latter phenomenon during an eclipse of the sun in 1919 became a media event, and Einstein's fame spread
For the rest of his life Einstein devoted considerable time to generalizing his theory even more. His last effort, the unified field
theory, which was not entirely successful, was an attempt to understand all physical interactions-including electromagnetic
interactions and weak and strong interactions-in terms of the modification of the geometry of space-time between interacting
Most of Einstein's colleagues felt that these efforts were misguided. Between 1915 and 1930 the mainstream of physics was
in developing a new conception of the fundamental character of matter, known as quantum theory. This theory contained the
feature of wave-particle duality (light exhibits the properties of a particle, as well as of a wave) that Einstein had earlier urged
as necessary, as well as the uncertainty principle, which states that precision in measuring processes is limited. Additionally,
it contained a novel rejection, at a fundamental level, of the notion of strict causality. Einstein, however, would not accept
such notions and remained a critic of these developments until the end of his life.
"God," Einstein once said, "does not play dice with the world."
After 1919, Einstein became internationally renowned. He accrued honors and awards, including the Nobel Prize in physics
in 1922, from various world scientific societies. His visit to any part of the world became a national event; photographers and
reporters followed him everywhere. While regretting his loss of privacy, Einstein capitalized on his fame to further his own
political and social views.
The two social movements that received his full support were pacifism and Zionism. During World War I he was one of a
handful of German academics willing to publicly decry Germany's involvement in the war. After the war his continued public
support of pacifist and Zionist goals made him the target of vicious attacks by anti-Semitic and right-wing elements in
Germany. Even his scientific theories were publicly ridiculed, especially the theory of relativity. When Hitler came to power,
Einstein immediately decided to leave Germany for the United States. He took a position at the Institute for Advanced Study at
Princeton, New Jersey. While continuing his efforts on behalf of world Zionism, Einstein renounced his former pacifist stand
in the face of the awesome threat to humankind posed by the Nazi regime in Germany.
In 1939 Einstein collaborated with several other physicists in writing a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, pointing out
the possibility of making an atomic bomb and the likelihood that the German government was embarking on such a course.
The letter, which bore only Einstein's signature, helped lend urgency to efforts in the U.S. to build the atomic bomb, but
Einstein himself played no role in the work and knew nothing about it at the time.
After the war, Einstein was active in the cause of international disarmament and world government. He continued his active
support of Zionism but declined the offer made by leaders of the state of Israel to become president of that country. In the
U.S. during the late 1940s and early '50s he spoke out on the need for the nation's intellectuals to make any sacrifice
necessary to preserve political freedom. Einstein died in Princeton on April 18, 1955. Einstein's efforts in behalf of social
causes have sometimes been viewed as unrealistic. In fact, his proposals were always carefully thought out. Like his scientific
theories, they were motivated by sound intuition based on a shrewd and careful assessment of evidence and observation.
Although Einstein gave much of himself to political and social causes, science always came first, because, he often said, only
the discovery of the nature of the universe would have lasting meaning.
His writings include
Relativity: The Special and General Theory (1916);
About Zionism (1931);
Builders of the Universe (1932);
Why War? (1933), with Sigmund Freud;
The World as I See It (1934);
The Evolution of Physics (1938), with the Polish physicist Leopold Infeld;
Einstein's collected papers are being published in a multivolume work, beginning in 1987.
Text contributed by: Samuel Glasstone, "Einstein, Albert" Microsoftš Encarta. Copyright © 1994 Microsoft Corporation.
Copyright © 1994 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation. | <urn:uuid:2a36cb10-be23-4b92-b4e6-2f64da0e33fd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Eszwetch/Stamps.of.Israel/18.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396029.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00096-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973816 | 2,516 | 3.71875 | 4 |
The Dew Nettle is an easily overlooked plant. It's leaves are tri-form and have a slick and glossy appearance. The plant produces small black berries that are moderately poisonous, and small blue flowers that have a slightly bitter smell.
Dangerous When Wet
The Dew Nettle is normally a safe plant to handle, despite being poisonous, and a nettle. The plant remains safely inert so long as it is dry. If the leaves are wet, the nettle becomes dangerous to handle, its poisons seeping out. This adaptation protects the plants from herbivores as one mouthful of the plant is enough to blister the inside of a cow's mouth and cause it gastro-intestinal distress.
In Game Use
The Dew Nettle can be a local menace that local folk know to avoid, and when they can deal with it. Travelers are less likely to know about this plant. Seeing the locals pushing through a field of nettles would give them no warning of the plants danger. They could then be exposed to the plant's poison during a rainstorm, passing through a field wet with mornging dew and the like. The plant could also be used as a deterrent, a spray of water turning a nettle hedge into a stinging barrier. | <urn:uuid:4cbe6045-0609-4c06-82b5-a25cfdda8c3f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://strolen.com/viewing/Dew_Nettle | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00037-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964647 | 258 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Dr. Marc Maury
Ancien médecin-chef du CRM de Fontainebleau; vice-président de l'APF (Association des paralysés de France)
Poliomyelitis is a viral infectious disease leading to relatively more or less severe and diffuse forms of paralysis. It can rapidly lead to death mainly in cases of 'great' damage of respiratory nature, or to complete recovery or remain undetectable, which do not hinder its contagious potential. In its paralytic form, this condition leads to motor impairment. This disease, which used to be a scourge in the 1940s and 1950s, has almost completely disappeared from industrialized countries and most part of the world. This disease is possibly the second viral disease to be eradicated through vaccination after smallpox.
What is poliomyelitis?
The disease name was derived from two Greek terms: polios, meaning 'grey', and muelos, meaning 'marrow'. It indeed affects the grey matter of the anterior part of the bone marrow, the anterior horns, that is controlling motor function. Poliomyelitis is also referred to as acute anterior poliomyelitis (AAP), Heine-Medin's disease, infantile spinal paralysis, etc.
The poliomyelitic infection primarily involves an extreme attraction of the virus for the large motor cells of the anterior horn (sometimes also for cranial nerve motor nuclei). Some of the affected cells will never reach the inflammatory stage, which explains why spectacular remissions occur in some conditions, but many will not be spared. In addition, the pool of nerve cells cannot be renewed if damaged. This explains the extremely high variability of the paralysis, most frequently of asymmetric nature or even completely irregular, reflecting random distribution of the viral attacks and impaired motor units (unit of muscle fibres innervated by a single motor neuron, the cell body of which is the anterior horn).
Existing since the old times, poliomyelitis has long been considered a sporadic disease (in some isolated cases) primarily affecting young children. This condition had showed high epidemic potential for more than a century, sparing no age groups and considered in the 1940s and 1950s as one of the most dreadful calamities (up to 4,500 cases annually in France). The first vaccination campaigns started in the 1950s against three known types of viruses, at first with a killed vaccine (Salk – 1954, injectable) followed by a live attenuated vaccine (Sabin – 1957, orally).
In 1988, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a global initiative to eradicate poliomyelitis by the year 2000. The number of cases has not ceased to decrease ever since, which proves that the WHO team has been able to deliver the goods. In 1992 and 1993, the number of reported cases of poliomyelitis shrunk again by half (from 16,000 to 8,000) and the number of countries in which no cases were reported has constantly increased. While Western Europe and Australia had not reported any cases for several years (except for those reported by some sects refusing vaccination), the American continent had also been completely spared in 1993. The disease has lost ground in nearly every country of the world, even in Northwest Africa where no new cases were reported. However, poliomyelitis vaccination remained highly recommended.
How does poliomyelitis occur?
The onset is most frequently sudden, influenza-like (resembling a simple flu) with back and neck pain. A few days later, paralysis sets in when the fever has gone down.
Complementary examinations provides guidance for diagnosis: lumbar puncture shows an inflammatory response; traces of the virus can be found in feces when the examination is performed at an early stage.
How is it progressing?
Three aspects can be distinguished: the disease itself, its deforming potential, and the controversial existence of a post-polio syndrome.
The disease itself
The stage of regression of paralysis is ill defined in terms of both cause and duration. Some anterior horn cells only experience temporary difficulties in their functional relationships. But how can be explained the reactive oedema and vascular disorders? What is certain is that an 'orphan' motor unit, which has lost its cell, is sometimes almost brought back to life by a neighbour cell that the virus has spared. This is called the capture phenomena, which is revealed on the EMG by abnormally large motor units.
The disease's progression is monitored, including the progression of certain muscles under the effect of an active physical therapy treatment based on manual muscle testing, which is a simple grading system that enables the grading of each muscle on a scale ranging from zero, for total paralysis, to five, for normal strength.
A functional prognosis of recovery may then be established early enough: it is common knowledge that muscles remaining at the zero level after one month have very poor chance of becoming useful again, and none at all after six months. Knowledge of the key muscles involved in lower limb stability allows looking at the paralysis map to get a sufficiently good idea of the functional prognosis. They are the gluteus maximus, the triceps surae, and the quadriceps; the gluteus medius acting in the pelvis balance; the abdominal spinal and respiratory muscles at the trunk level; depressor muscles of the shoulder and triceps involved in the support necessary in using a cane; and radial biceps, as well as muscles of the thumb-index grip for prehension.
Final impairments may vary a lot according to variations in the viral attack: from total independence without respiratory aid, every clinical presentation is possible.
Life expectancy is surely very close to normal and many individuals have lived beyond 80 years old, even in cases of very severe disabilities.
At the outset, disability caused by deformities can be more disturbing than paralysis per se. This is particularly true if the onset of the disease occurred at a young age.
What are the causes of deformities?
- Painful muscle shortening: a long time underestimated, muscular pain is yet relatively common in the initial phase and exacerbated by tensioning the muscle concerned. This results in disturbance of the mobilization and engages the individual in resting his muscles (most often feet in extension, knees or hips in flexion, hips in abduction, elbows in flexion, etc.) and musculotendinous shorthening will develop on these painful structures.
- Imbalances caused by paralysis: each body part is usually equipped with tension bands ('strings') enabling joints to move in different directions. The most common example is the flexor-extensor antagonistic couple. Whether one of the two muscle groups is paralyzed, for example extensors, the body part will most frequently be in flexion and most likely to remain more or less completely in this position.
- Effects of early weight-bearing exercises mobilizing muscles that have not sufficiently recovered and joints for which tension bands are not sufficiently strong.
- Growth is virtually always a powerful aggravating factor. According to the old Wolff's law, growth will slow down where there are excessive joint constraints, but on the contrary be enhanced on the side in which the joint tends to open. In other words, as soon as a deformity takes shape during childhood, osseous asymmetry is formed and can only aggravate spontaneously.
There is a vast range of possible deformities: clubfeet of all kinds, hip flexum and luxation, pelvic obliquity, clubhand with ulnar or radial deviation, thoracic deformities, etc. Back deformities, cyphosis and scoliosis can also be mentioned, as they often used to be aggravated to the point of causing a respiratory, and sometimes cardiac failures in the long run. Today, treatments that are more refined are performed earlier and prevent this progression. However, it is also common knowledge today that the natural progression of scoliosis does not stop after the child's growth is completed. In fact, the angulation will increase by a mean of one degree and a half annually during adulthood, which explains the need to monitor during a prolonged period and the development of more or less late surgical stabilization.
Finally, slowdown in growth of paralyzed muscles sometimes leads to significant and disturbing shortenings and tend to be combined with circulatory and trophic disorders in extremities: atrophy, cyanosis, coldness, sometimes ulceration, and oedemas. In the latter case, wearing compression stockings may be indicated (put in the morning after the swelling has gone in decubitus).
Controversial existence of a post-polio syndrome (PPS) or post-polio muscular atrophy (PPMA)
Why is it controversial?
Signs and symptoms on which the diagnosis is based are allegedly not typical of the condition: atrophy and/or early and relatively sudden onset of muscular impairment, fatigability, signs of recent enervation reflected by EMG. However, the initial condition of the muscle is unknown, while strength is considered normal with only 50% of motor units recruited, it can still be useful with 5 to 10%. On the other hand, initial damage may affect more muscles than showed clinically and the latter are weaker.
Post-polio syndrome can be influenced by many factors known to precipitate malfunctioning. These factors include trauma, weight gain, excessive muscular effort, prolonged bedrest, immobilization due to fracture, increased deformity or inappropriate bracing increasing constraint and effort levels, onset of an arthropathy such as hip arthrosis and cervical arthrosis most likely to lead to impairments of the upper limbs, change of place to live (less stairs), purchase of a car reducing opportunities to walk, etc. How is aging involved? If a number of PPS are reported before age 60, it is just a matter of localized wear or aging of a specific organ, and not generalized aging. The motor unit capital of the normal individual hides unavoidable small physiological losses, which the individual with poliomyelitis cannot afford in terms of functioning.
Finally, the most credible explanation of PPS, which is otherwise rare, would currently be the following: some neurons weakened by a clinically undetectable impairment or receptor neurons responsible for abnormally large motor units would cease to ensure the proper metabolic needs of their axonal branching pattern after a number of years. This would result in enervation of a number of muscular fibres and in neuromuscular conduction disorders, the first sign of which might be the excessive fatigability observed in these patients.
Why is the PPS so discussed and what did it achieve?
In the early 1960's, the rapid trend towards the use of vaccination in western countries put an end to the development of outbreaks of poliomyelitis. The number of new cases dropped to the point that, from that time, rehabilitation physicians were not trained for treating poliomyelitis anymore. Consequently two or three decades later, when these physicians had ceased to practice, the 'old poliomyelitis patients' could not find anyone to consult about their condition anymore. They became alarmed, came together to express their needs for training and information. The second generation of physicians became interested, and books and journals dedicated articles or entire issues to this topic. A real network was increasingly formed which ensured advice provision and reassured former patients who no longer felt abandoned. The pattern of this knowledge network could be an example for other disabling diseases as they will be on the verge of disappearing.
What are the suggested treatments and management strategies?
No medical treatment has any effect on either viral infection or pain. When pain is so intense that it causes insomnia, only the ingestion of sufficient doses of coffee can help getting back to sleep again. The combination of pain and shortening is the enemy against who are used hot packs and baths, passive mobilization combining soft and resistant techniques, as well as positioning with cushions and straps. This shows the importance of the early detection of shortening trends and the high hazard of nursing errors that generate improper alignments by authorizing patients to seat too early or for prolonged periods.
At the initial stage, one cannot disregard the problems raised by acute respiratory diseases by indicating the use of intubation, tracheotomy, or even iron lung, the availability of which was scarce during the height of the epidemic.
This stage has always been part of the physician's purview; surgeons would intervene often, but only later, and there was a long transition period during which no one was appointed responsible for monitoring. The rehabilitation spirit introduced precocity, continuity and coordination concerns in treatments, which were desperately needed. This was a new dimension added to treatments actually based on very simple principles: based on an exhaustive muscle and joint testing regularly performed, facilitating the awakening and progress of deficient muscles, preventing deformities by fighting shortening trends and positional asymmetry, spacing the exercises of seating and standing positions, as well as walking. According to those assessments and to attitudes observed during testing with or without temporary aids, these principles become: seeking to achieve maximum independency in activities of daily living for patients, with technical aids if necessary, addressing psychosocial, school or occupational dimensions early in the process, as well as the eventual home conversion in order to reduce to a minimum the 'disruption shock' caused by the paralyzing insult.
As bracing and technical aids are discussed in other articles of this encyclopedia, this topic will not be treated exhaustively. They are an important part of the treatment of poliomyelitis, which has actually contributed a lot to their development. It appears useful to remind that bracing in individuals with poliomyelitis does not generally go along well with modern kit trends and their making should remain traditional. As for the other techniques, they range from small thumb opposition slings made of tissue or thermoformed to the most sophisticated computerized aids that allow, for example, to fit a respirator on a powered wheelchair, or environmental controls enabling the use of a telephone or a tape recorder, as well as the control of door openings, etc.
In this vast program directed by the rehabilitation physician, physical therapists play an important role, but occupational therapists, artificial limb fitters, educators and facilitators, as well as social workers and nurses also have a role to play in the team spirit where information and guidance of the patient and his/her family are not forgotten. After a certain while and for a long time, the use of orthopedic surgery may be necessary to re-establish segment-specific balance, for muscle graft or tendon lengthening, to straighten a spinal curvature or stabilize a joint, etc.
Is maintenance treatment necessary?
'Medicalizing' what cannot be is futile. However, once rehabilitation is deemed over, the following reasons may lead to go on with or reinitiate the maintenance treatment:
- In the face of reduced respiratory capacity, it is recommended to undertake respiratory rehabilitation two or three times per week. Brief episodes of suspended breathing during the night, insomnia, shortness of breath while talking, morning fatigue, should lead to an assessment. In cases of respiratory failure, it is recommended to masticate slowly and talking only in between swallowing in order to avoid chocking on food. Finally, influenza vaccination before each winter is highly recommended to all individuals with poliomyelitis who have respiratory conditions.
- When some key muscles get weaker, because they were not sufficiently used despite having recovered enough to ensure function, for example, by limited walking. Functional electrostimulation is not performed without some hazards, as it may cause exhaustion of the muscle, which is intended to be reinforced. This is why this method is not undertaken until the physician has given his/her advice based on muscle testing, which provides a better knowledge of the muscle's condition.
- Every time complications arise and result in immobilization (fracture, intercurrent diseases), it is necessary to resume the rehabilitation treatment in order to bring muscles back to their previous condition.
- If the patient is to be hospitalized without emergency, it is appropriate to discuss previously with the physician about modalities in order to ensure greater comfort to the patient. Home care service should be given the authorization to pursue care at the hospital.
- Can risk of deformities justify maintenance treatment? In children, surely, but less likely in adults for whom it is generally desirable to plan natural postures that will go against the deforming trend, if possible. Thus, the paralyzed individual who cannot walk and find himself/herself seating in a wheelchair all day and lying on the side with flexed legs all night is facing risks of hip or knee flexum as he/she never works out these parts in extension. If the individual lies prone to sleep or performs only one hour of weight-bearing exercises in extension per day, the risk of flexum will vanish.
As in the case of physicians and for the same purpose, there are only a few physical therapists who have a strong knowledge of poliomyelitis. It is thus appropriate to rely upon rehabilitation centers every time it is possible, because they usually have outside associates whose competence in that matter is well known.
Living with poliomyelitis
Nearly all individuals who had poliomyelitis need rehabilitation during their lifetime. Steps are not always easy to accomplish. After many efforts deployed in resuming gait without aids, the individual is forced to use them, or yet, canes are tossed aside at the cost of many hip swings and significant efforts to resume walking, but one or two canes must be used in the end. The individual might have been spared to use a wheelchair, but this is something that must be achieved in the end. The use of manual wheelchairs might have been considered in particular, but now the individual must choose between a more restrictive life inside and the use of a powered wheelchair. Assisted ventilation might have been abandoned, but the individual must use a respirator at night. These examples might be coupled with decisions that were postponed to the fullest extent possible. Opting for a mixed solution, even if it is transient, facilitates habilitation: for instance the use of a cane indoors and wheelchair outdoors.
Poliomyelitic women are able to carry a pregnancy to term with a few precautions according to their anatomical distribution of paralysis.
As for personal health practices, they are a matter of common sense: find a good balance between activity and rest, avoid gaining weight, fatigue cramps or prolonged exertional pain, protect oneself against cold conditions, practice swimming in warm water a few times per week if possible, avoid postponing habilitation measures that are required, be wary of any persistent muscular weakening following intense prolonged activity, reduce the occupational activity related to fatigue if necessary (or compatible with one's employment), have spare aids or wheelchair, constant projects and humor.
For more information
APF: Association des Paralysés de France, 17 bd Auguste Blanqui, 75013 Paris.
Suggested readings (French only)
Grossiord A., Poliomyélite. In : Médecine de rééducation. A. Grossiord, J.P. Held (eds). Paris, Flammarion, 1981.
Laurie G., Maynard F.M., Fischer D.A., Raymond J., éffets à long terme de la poliomyélite, manuel pour les médecins et les post-polios. Traduit de l'anglais, APF, 1991.
Revue Le Point carré (rubrique " Polio "), Club de loisirs et d'entraide : Hôpital Raymond Poincaré, 92380 Garches. | <urn:uuid:2e3aa46b-e5bc-411f-bfa8-e1a41146b431> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cirrie.buffalo.edu/encyclopedia/en/article/354/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398075.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00017-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947706 | 4,050 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Othello Act V Questions
Answer in your Journals!
Answer 6 of the following 9 questions:
- In Scene 1, list two ways that Iago sheds doubt on others in order to
remove it from himself.
- What happens when Roderigo attacks Cassio (5.1.23-27)? Who actually wounds
Cassio? What does Othello assume has happened (5.1.28)? Is he correct?
- Describe the interaction between Iago and Bianca at the end of Scene 1.
- In scene 2, find an example of an allusion (allusion = brief, usually indirect reference to a person, place, or event--real or fictional—usually from classical literature
or history). Copy it into your journal.
- What happens to Emilia at the end of the play?
6. What is in Roderigo's pockets that conveniently help to clarify much of what happened?
7. What has happened to Desdemona's father (5.2.211-213)?
8. Who gets Othello's estate? Why? (See 5.2.375-377)
9. Is Iago dead at the end of the play?
Paraphrase 3 of the following quotations:
- Iago: “No, whether
he kill Cassio, / Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other, / Every way makes my gain” (5.1.13-15).
- Othello: “ So sweet
was ne’er so fatal. / I must weep, / But they are cruel tears. This sorrow’s
heavenly: / It strikes where it doth love.” (5.2.22-24)
- Othello: “If you bethink
yourself of any crime / Unreconciled as yet to heaven and grace / Solicit for it straight” (5.2.30-32).
- Othello: “No. His mouth
is stopped. / Honest Iago hath ta’en order for ‘t” (5.2.91-92).
- Othello: “Methinks
it should be now a huge eclipse / Of sun and moon, and that th’ affrighted globe / Should yawn at alteration”
- Emilia: “Good gentlemen,
let me have leave to speak. / Tis proper I obey him, but not now. / Perchance, Iago, I will ne’er go home” (5.2.232-234). | <urn:uuid:a9037cb7-b07a-421f-9ca1-9b3ecde429d8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://katesportfolio.tripod.com/id194.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393093.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00049-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.829088 | 555 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Cancer leaves patients isolated
Published 11/02/2013 | 00:11
Around 700 newly diagnosed cancer patients in Northern Ireland each year lack support from friends and family during their treatment, new research has indicated.
The number who said they experienced isolation represented almost 10% of the 8,000 who are diagnosed with the disease every 12 months, according to the study by Macmillan Cancer Support.
Around 400 of those patients said they received no help whatsoever and had to face cancer completely alone.
Common explanations provided by those questioned included family members and friends living too far away or having other commitments. Many patients said they felt they had no-one to turn to.
Elsewhere in the UK the issue appears even more acute, with the nationwide study by Macmillan finding that almost one in four (70,000) of 325,000 newly diagnosed patients lack support from family and friends, with around 20,000 of those saying they had faced cancer completely alone.
Macmillan's General Manager in Northern Ireland, Heather Monteverde, said: "It's encouraging that cancer patients in Northern Ireland are significantly less likely to feel isolated than the UK average, however we don't want anyone to face cancer on their own.
"There is a lot of help out there for cancer patients from charities like Macmillan whether it's face to face, over the phone or online, but often people don't know about it.
"We want all cancer patients to know there is support available and I'd urge anyone in need of help to get in touch with Macmillan.
"It's also vitally important that medical professionals understand the impact isolation can have on people with cancer and direct them to sources of support including Macmillan.
"I would also ask those who know someone going through cancer to take the time to ask them how they are feeling and if they need some help. That could make a big difference to how they feel." | <urn:uuid:a6a8cc71-8b6d-4552-b192-d9e5aee12b8b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/cancer-leaves-patients-isolated-29060156.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398216.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00002-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982159 | 396 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Visual pollution is the term given to unattractive and man-made visual elements of a vista, a landscape, or any other thing that a person does not feel comfortable to look at. Visual pollution is an aesthetic issue, referring to the impacts of pollution that impair one's ability to enjoy a vista or view. The term is used broadly to cover visibility, limits on the ability to view distant objects, as well as the more subjective issue of visual clutter. In other words, pollution is the contamination of the environment as a result of human activities. The term pollution refers primarily to the fouling of air, water, and land by wastes (see air pollution; water pollution; solid waste). In recent years it has come to signify a wider range of disruptions to environmental quality. Thus litter, billboards, and auto junkyards are said to constitute visual pollution; noise excessive enough to cause psychological or physical damage is considered noise pollution; and waste heat that alters local climate or affects fish populations in rivers is designated thermal pollution.
Public awareness that the environment could not absorb limitless amounts of waste came with the Industrial Revolution. By the latter part of the 19th century, many industrial areas were experiencing severe air pollution caused by the burning of coal to run mills and machinery. The quantities of fly ash, smoke, carbon and sulfur gases, and other wastes had become too great for local environments—like those of London and Pittsburgh—to disperse rapidly. Similarly, industrial effluents and sewage were polluting river systems. Not until after World War II, however, was pollution generally viewed as more than a nuisance that blackened buildings and sullied streams, i.e., as a pervasive threat to human health.
By the 1960s, the threat had become great enough, many believed, to challenge the integrity of the ecosystem and the survival of numerous organisms including humans. Population explosion, industrial expansion, and burgeoning truck and automobile use were producing wastes in such gigantic quantities that natural dispersing and recycling processes could not keep pace.
THE CLEAN WATER ACT- Water Pollution became a serious and widespread problem with the tremendous industrial and population booms of the last hundred years. The population quickly increased and the problem grew worse in the years following World War II, when use of man-made chemicals became more widespread and began to assume tremendous importance in our daily lives. For that reason, industries and cities increasingly used rivers as a dumping grounds for their waste, and many of the Nation's screams began to run heavy with pollution. So by the mid- 1960s, there were no tolerance for water in many areas of the United States. However, by the mid-1970s, the nationwide attack on the problem was beginning to turn a tide. In 1972 Congress passed a major amendment to the Federal Pollution Control Act. This Act, which is now known as the Clean Water Act, gave the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) board responsibility and the authority to oversee all cleanup of the Nation's water. Under the Act, every point source of industrial or municipal pollution must have a permit limiting its discharge. When permits are issued, limitations are placed based on the amount of pollution that may legally be discharged. The problem here is that, when massive pollution control efforts after a century or more quickening municipal and industrial water pollution, attention was focused on high levels of primary bacteria and viruses entering the Nation's water largely through municipal sewage (disease causing organisms) and low levels of oxygen-so low that fish are unable to breathe (it can cause extensive fish kills).
The Penobscot River in Maine (New England) once teemed with the Atlantic salmon, powerful silvery fish who would return to their freshwater birthplace after two or three years of feeding and maturing in the ocean. Then came the revolution, population growth, pollution, dams that blocked the return of the salmon to their upstream spawning grounds, fluctuating water temperatures and levels, and overfishing. Then came the growth of the pulp and paper industry and pollution. Between 1873 and 1890, salmon catches dropped to an average of 12,000 a year. In 1947, commercial salmon catch on the Penobscot was only 40, and in 1970, only one salmon was taken from the Penobscot. Blast fishing/Over-fishing pollution from the pulp mills and other industries all contributed to what seemed to be the end of the Atlantic salmon in the Penobscot.
In the Connecticut River, salmon were also numerous during 1819. In fact, one observer noted that salmon had scarcely been seen in the river for twenty years, since the last known catch of salmon was recorded around 1874. Even though there were more fish caught during 1977, and more salmon were seen in the Connecticut River, there were still problems with fish returning from the Atlantic into the river because of continued pollution problems. In subsequent years, however, increasing pollution controls began to take effect. After the 1972 amendments to the Clean Water Act, more and more salmon began to return to the river. In 1967, Connecticut's Clean Water Program established water quality standards for all of its waters. The program required that the Naugatuck and the lower Housatonic River be upgraded to fishable-swimmable status. Thus, the state ordered industries on both rivers to install pollution controls, including pretreatment facilities for plants discharging into municipal sewer systems. As a result, the amounts of heavy metals and organic wastes going into these rivers have decreased dramatically.
In the last ten years, two important urban river systems in New Jersey—the Hackensack and Navesink systems—have experienced observable improvements in water quality. By the mid-twenty century, the Hackensack River and the Meadowlands suffered from nearly every environmental problem to be found in a major urban setting. For over fifty years, the 22-mile (35 km)-long tidal portion of the Hackensack constituted a swampy, mosquito-infested jungle, where rusting auto bodies, demolition rubble, industrial oil slicks, and cattails merged in a stinking union. Trash collectors dumped a huge mountain of municipal refuse from all counties of New Jersey on 2,000 acres (810 ha) of tidal wetlands. Then, rain soaked through those huge mounds of garbage, becoming contaminated with toxic substances in the process. The contaminated rainwater then seeped into the river. At this point, the Hackensack received heavy metals and organic pollutants from the wastes dumped by oil and chemical companies, coke plants, and ink printing manufacturers. Fish were killed by the industrial chemicals, or driven out by the growth of oxygen-demanding algae fed by the nutrients in inadequately treated municipal wastes.
As a result, in response to this environmental disaster, the New Jersey Legislature in December 1968 created the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission to help promote environmental cleanup and industrial, recreational, and residential development. In 1971, the commission began a massive effort to clean up the Hackensack and its tidal meadowlands by reducing industrial and municipal pollution, first by diking and eventually eliminating landfills, and by preventing any new waste discharges from entering the Hackensack estuary. Since 1971, there have been far fewer fish kills in the Hackensack estuary. The number and extent of oil slicks have reduced as have the amount of pollutants discharged into the estuary.
Of all waters, maybe none are as vulnerable to pollution as those where the land meets the sea-the Nation's bays, harbors, and estuaries. They are the home of the most delicate of marine ecosystems, and many have been ravaged by pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the States, Local Governments, and other citizen groups have repeatedly allied themselves into a force of cleanup. Their impact on reducing pollution in these important waters has clearly been felt.
Afer the Second World War, ocean dumping of sewage sludge and industrial wastes increased rapidly in the United States because for some reason, it was the cheapest way to get rid of those waste. In fact, there was evidence that those wastes, which included toxic chemicals and disease organisms, had become a bigger threat to marine life and through every other food chain, to humans. Therefore, in 1972 in response to increasing that evidence and all the concerns about the dangers of ocean dumping, congress passed the Marine Protection, Research, and sanctuaries Act (Ocean Dumping Act). It required EPA to limit and eventually stop all ocean disposalS of sewage sludge and industrial wastes. To act quickly, the EPA focused on two of the areas that ocean dumping were taking place the most: the Mid-Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. As for the Atlantic coast, however only the part above or near the east side was quite vulnerable to restricted ocean dumping based or its size and circulation because of the water's relative shallowness and because the pollution generated along the shore. As for the Gulf of Mexico, although it was ranked the fifth by how threatened the pollution had overcome, it was still vulnerable to wastes, especially toxic wastes, disposed of in its waters. Although, several companies were still dumping their industrial wastes into the Gulf of Mexico under "Letter of No Objection" from the U.S. Corps of Engineers, which allowed the dumping of industrial wastes, but when the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972 came into effect, everything was regulated and put into stop.
This river was a perfect example of some success in cleaning up pollution from the mines. By 1950, the Monongahela River had become a aquatic wasteland. Drainage from acid mines brought LOW PH Levels, severe turbidity, bottom deposits of chemicals, rains, and high concentration of iron on so forth. Not only were fish unable to survive, but boats, dams, and bridges were being attack by the river's corrosive waters. By the 17 and 18 of December 1963, a major turning point in the campaign about saving the Monongahela River came about. It was agreed by conferees that all of the mines be inventoried. So, in 1965, all active coal mines were required to treat their discharges, and they were to contain no more than seven milligrams per liter of waste. As a result, water quality monitoring records from the late 1960s and the early 1970s showed high PH Levels and less acidity.
In Hobbs, New Mexico, public health problem and environmental problems were turning into economic asset. The city's wastewater treatment plant, built in 1938 and modified in 1953, was adding unsafe levels of nitrates to groundwater. Since there were no waterways in that area to receive discharges, the plant used a trickling filter process followed by discharge into percolation pounds. As the treated effluent percolated into the ground, it carried nitrates to the groundwater.
In response to the problem of high nitrate levels, the city decided to improve the wastewater treatment process it was using and sold part of the effluent which was bought by oil producers to inject it into petroleum formation as part of their secondary oil recovery operations. So, with the Environmental Protection Agencies and States Grants, Hobbs completed the land application facility in 1976, which allowed the city to begin restoring the quality of underground water supply. Since oil companies were using groundwater for their secondary recovery operations, if effluents were not available, Hobbs was also helping in conserving water through the sale of its treated wastewater. Therefore, the city's arrangement was not only based on saving money, but also conserving water. | <urn:uuid:ba2635e2-f5a3-4ee1-9fa3-7455e0a3b803> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thefullwiki.org/Visual_pollution | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00026-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969265 | 2,347 | 3.390625 | 3 |
CARE OF THE CATTLE
To preserve their sheep and cattle,--and acting on the principle, that a division of labor promotes the general good,--the town authorities appointed shepherds and herdsmen, to whom was committed the care of the flocks and herds. The first herdsman mentioned in the records is Moses Coxe, who was appointed in the spring of 1640. From a contract made with him by the selectmen, we are informed as to his compensation and duties. "All the other beasts wthin the town, except such as have calves sucking them," were to be entrusted to his care, and he was to keep them from doing and receiving hurt by day till "foddering time" in the succeeding autumn. It was no part of his business too collect the cattle from their owners in the morning nor to return them in the evening. The town had caused a fence to be built around that portion of the Green near the Meeting-house, and to a considerable distance along the roads proceeding from it, and gates to be set up across these roads. To the Green, or common, the cattle were driven by their owners in the morning, and delivered into the care of the herdsman, who returned them to the same place in the evening, and was then released from all care of them for the night.
In full compensation for his services for the season, Goodman Coxe was to receive £20 to be paid in three instalments, viz.: 12d. per beast in hand; a like sum at the end of seven weeks, and the remainder when his work was done. The records give no information as to the number of cattle under his care.
The same year, May 4, by an agreement made with William Palmer, the care of the calves was committed to his son Christopher, a young man then in his minority. His management seems to have been satisfactory to his employers, for the next year, in May, the engagement was renewed for that season: "It is agreed betwixt the towne and Wm Palmer yt Chr: Palmer shall keepe the calves every working day & every 4th Lord's day, 20 weeks from the tenth of this moneth; for wch he shall have 8s pr weeke, to be payed in worke & other commodityes. This agreemt to continue unless three owners of calves come on that day--in the morng--and give notice of another keepr."
As the cattle must be cared for on the Sabbath as well as on other days, so also should their keepers be cared for. The people were not willing that they should be entirely deprived of the privilege of attending public worship. An arrangement was therefore made to have the care of the cattle committed to other hands, on some of the Sabbaths of each month. Thus, Christopher Palmer was required to spend but one Sabbath in four in taking care of the calves. So also the town agreed with Thomas Jones and Moses Coxe to have the care of the cows by turns on the Lord's day, after having joined a while at the beginning, "to go forth aboute half an hour after sunrise" each Sabbath.
At a meeting, April 13, 1640, the town passed the following vote: "No man shall suffer any of his beasts to feed in the meadow or corne-ground belonging to other men, after the [--] of this month, under payne to forfeit for every beast so [feeding] 12d for every tyme."
At the session of the General Court in the spring of this year, John Moulton, Thomas Moulton and John Crosse were appointed to appraise the "horses, mares, cowes, oxen, goats, and hoggs," belonging to the inhabitants, and by law they were required to value them below rather than above their worth.
The court also "ordered that there should be a levy of 1200£ raysed," to be laid "upon every towne proportionably and paid within two months." The proportion for Hampton was £10 or the one hundred twentieth part of the whole sum ordered to be raised.
At a town meeting, July 20, it was "agreed or declared," that the grants of land, made on the 24th of December in the preceding year, should stand good to the persons to whom they were then made, and that each of them should have the same, although it had been proposed that the grants should be annulled. It was also voted "yt the prsent country Rate of 10£ shall be made by the Towne Clarke, according to the quantity of upland and freshm[eadow] of those portions & of the rest sithence [An old word meaning since] granted, together wth the land that some have wthout this Towne; wch latter land shall be rated but after ½d per acre; the former, more, so as the 10£ may be raised."
The Court had ordered that in payment of this rate, "silverplate should passe at 5s the ounce; good ould Indian corne growing here being clean & marchantable, at 5s the bushell; summer wheate, at 7s the bushell; rye at 6s the bushell." | <urn:uuid:dacb3399-5fe8-4fb4-8927-af4ad60db21f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/history/dow/chap1/dow1_11.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00014-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986635 | 1,088 | 3.09375 | 3 |
CHARDON, JEAN-BAPTISTE, priest, Jesuit, missionary; b. 27 April 1671 in Bordeaux, France; d. 11 April 1743 in Quebec.
Jean-Baptiste Chardon was admitted into the Jesuit noviciate in Bordeaux on 7 Sept. 1687. He studied at Pau in 1689–90, taught the three classes, grammar, classics, and rhetoric, at the Jesuit college in La Rochelle from 1690 to 1695, and completed his studies at Poitiers in the period 1695–99. Subsequently he sailed for New France, arriving at Quebec in the summer of 1699. Chardon then undertook the study of Indian languages, for which he displayed “a rare talent,” according to Pierre-Gabriel Marest*; he was to learn those of nearly all the tribes in the region of the Great Lakes and even mastered that of the Illinois, whom he was to encounter only occasionally.
In the spring of 1700 the new missionary was sent to the Saguenay country, and by the beginning of July he had been as far as Lac des Mistassins (Lac Mistassini), at that time almost unknown. Chardon perhaps returned to the Saguenay country before the winter; he was certainly there at the end of July 1701, for he officiated at a baptism on 24 July. Shortly afterwards, named a missionary to the Ottawas, he went to stay among them, at the time when peace with the Iroquois was being signed in Montreal [see Louis-Hector de Callière*]. Around 25 Sept. 1701 Chardon went to Michilimackinac on his way to the Baie-des-Puants (Green Bay, Wis.) region, where he was to help Father Henri Nouvel*, who was nearly 80. The closing of the Michilimackinac mission was already foreseen then. Missionary labours in these regions were considered to be sterile, as Bishop Pontbriand [Dubreil] noted, not because of lack of zeal on the part of the missionaries, struggling against the Indian customs, but because of the demoralization of the neophytes by the coureurs de bois, soldiers, and fur-trading commandants, who supplied spirits to the Indians and let discipline become slack in the posts [see Joseph-Jacques Marest*; Koutaoiliboe*].
Chardon remained 32 years in the region, living as a rule at Baie-des-Puants until 1728. In turn he visited the Foxes, Menominees, Mascoutens, Kickapoos, Ottawas, Potawatomis, and Miamis. In 1711 he stopped at the post on the St Joseph River, temporarily replacing Father Claude Aveneau*, who was worn out through illness. In 1721 Father Charlevoix encountered him at Baie-des-Puants.
In 1722 Chardon replaced Father Joseph-Jacques Marest as superior of the Ottawa mission. At this time New France had for some years been seeking in the west what it had lost by the treaty of Utrecht in the east and north [see Philippe de Rigaud* de Vaudreuil]. The French wanted to found a post in the Sioux country, counting upon the missionaries’ support to obtain the right to pass through the territory of the Foxes, who opposed the plan; “the trade,” they said, “which the French would carry on there would reduce considerably” what they themselves carried on with the Sioux. They had already killed several Frenchmen. Father Chardon was chosen to direct the founding of this mission, and from 1725 to 1727 he worked at making peace between the Indian tribes [see Charles de Beauharnois]; he even suggested a plan of action and in August 1727 accompanied for a time the first convoy led by René Boucher de La Perrière.
In 1728 Chardon was no longer living permanently at the post at Baie-des-Puants, which was burned by Constant Le Marchand* de Lignery on his return from his expedition against the Foxes, and little is known about the missionary’s activities until 1733. As the registers of the Society of Jesus mention, he was “among the Indians, in various places.” During 1734 and 1735 Chardon lived in Montreal, and after that he retired to Quebec.
In 1740, when he was 69, Chardon went to the Saguenay country to initiate Father Jean-Baptiste Maurice into the life of a missionary. He spent the summer at Tadoussac, and from there he went to La Malbaie; he finally left his companion on 7 September to return to Quebec. He died there on 11 April 1743.
ASJCF, 567; 579bis; 784; Fonds Rochemonteix, 4016; 4018; 4020. Découvertes et établissements des Français (Margry), VI, 543, 554–55. JR (Thwaites). Antonio Dragon, Trente robes noires au Saguenay, texte revu et corrigé par Adrien Pouliot (Publication de la SHS, 24, Chicoutimi, Qué., 1971). J. G. Shea, History of the Catholic Church in the United States (4v., New York, 1886–92), I, 622, 625, 627, 629. | <urn:uuid:079a6471-53d4-4616-a49e-ed1dd52e68f9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/chardon_jean_baptiste_3E.html?revision_id=819 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394987.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00189-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957759 | 1,174 | 2.9375 | 3 |
A Polish man who settled in Britain with the deeds of the home he lost in Poland when he was sent to a concentration camp during the war. ©Tim Smith
News: Polish People in Britain after WW2 is one of the latest TPYF2 funded, free teaching and learning resources from the My Learning website.
Polish People in Britain after WW2 uses personal stories and archive photographs to explore why Polish people have settled in Britain since WWII. It was created in consultation with the Polish community, Saturday Schools and secondary schools as part of the Bradford Museums & Galleries exhibition Z Polski Do Anglii. The resources are also available in Polish.
Cross-curriculum links: KS3 History, Geography, Citizenship and PSHE.
TPYF2 stands for Their Past Your Future 2. Launched in 2004, Their Past Your Future is a Big Lottery funded nationwide scheme, administered by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). It uses historical sources, sites, museums, veterans and eyewitnesses of war to increase young people’s understanding of history, commemoration, national identity and civic participation today. Find out more at www.culture24.org.uk/tpyf. | <urn:uuid:a0033531-315e-449f-ad98-fa9a826e3269> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.culture24.org.uk/teachers/ideas%20and%20resources/art75544 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397873.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00134-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937082 | 251 | 2.984375 | 3 |
From the eighteenth century onward, modern Jewish thinkers have been concerned with the question of whether or not Judaism can fit into the modern category of religion. After all, Judaism has historically been a religion of law, and hence of practice. Adherence to religious law, which is in some measure public in nature, does not seem to fit into the category of faith or belief, which by definition is individual and private. In this advanced institute we will see that the clash between the modern category of religion and Judaism as it has been traditionally practiced gives rise to many of the creative tensions in modern Jewish thought as well as to the question of whether Judaism of Jewishness are matters or religion, culture, or nationality.
Led by Princeton professor and modern Jewish intellectual Leora Batnitzky, we will ask the challenging big questions: How and why did Moses Mendelssohn invent the idea of Jewish religion? How does the subsequent development of Reform, Orthodox, and Conservative Judaism relate to Mendelssohn’s invention? How have Zionist thinkers reacted to the introduction of a Jewish religion? How does the American regime mold the contours of a Jewish religion in the United States? Does Haredi Judaism represent a rejection of Judaism’s religious dimension?
The writings of Mendelssohn, Hermann Cohen, Joseph Soloveitchik, Ahad Ha’am, Leo Strauss, and others, will allow us to consider how Jewish arguments about religion anticipate contemporary debates about religion and state, tolerance and pluralism, and religion’s place in the public square. | <urn:uuid:b2aa05d6-9f4c-44e0-ac8c-981032877df1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://tikvahfund.org/advanced-institutes/-is-judaism-a-religion/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400572.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00194-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939726 | 317 | 3.140625 | 3 |
In a fascinating example of vocal mimicry, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and UFAM (Federal University of Amazonas) have documented a wild cat species imitating the call of its intended victim: a small, squirrel-sized monkey known as a pied tamarin. This is the first recorded instance of a wild cat species in the Americas mimicking the calls of its prey.
The extraordinary behavior was recorded by researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society and UFAM in the Amazonian forests of the Reserva Florestal Adolpho Ducke in Brazil. The observations confirmed what until now had been only anecdotal reports from Amazonian inhabitants of wild cat speciesincluding jaguars and pumasactually mimicking primates, agoutis, and other species in order to draw them within striking range.
The observations appear in the June issue of Neotropical Primates. The authors of the paper include: Fabiano de Oliveira Calleia of Projeto Sauim-de-Coleira/UFAM; Fabio Rohe of the Wildlife Conservation Society; and Marcelo Gordo of Projeto Sauim-de-Coleira/UFAM.
"Cats are known for their physical agility, but this vocal manipulation of prey species indicates a psychological cunning which merits further study," said WCS researcher Fabio Rohe.
Researchers first recorded the incident in 2005 when a group of eight pied tamarins were feeding in a ficus tree. They then observed a margay emitting calls similar to those made by tamarin babies. This attracted the attention of a tamarin "sentinel," which climbed down from the tree to investigate the sounds coming from a tangle of vines called lianas. While the sentinel monkey started vocalizing to warn the rest of the group of the strange calls, the monkeys were clearly confounded by these familiar vocalizations, choosing to investigate rather than flee. Four other tamarins climbed down to assess the nature of the calls. At that moment, a margay emerged from the foliage walking down the trunk of a tree in a squirrel-like fashion, jumping down and then moving towards the monkeys. Realizing the ruse, the sentinel screamed an alarm and sent the other tamarins fleeing.
While this specific instance of mimicry was unsuccessful, researchers were amazed at the ingenuity of the hunting strategy.
"This observation further proves the reliability of information obtained from Amazonian inhabitants," said Dr. Avecita Chicchn, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Latin America Program. "This means that accounts of jaguars and pumas using the same vocal mimicry to attract prey--but not yet recorded by scientists--also deserve investigation."
WCS is currently monitoring populations of the pied tamarinlisted as "Endangered" on the IUCN's Red Listand is seeking financial support to continue the study, which aims to protect this and other species from extinction. Next to Madagascar, the Amazon has the highest diversity of primates on Earth.
These behavioral insights also are indications of intact Amazon rainforest habitat. WCS works throughout the Amazon to evaluate the conservation importance of these rainforests, which have become increasingly threatened by development.
|Contact: John Delaney|
Wildlife Conservation Society | <urn:uuid:997130f4-db20-4024-89fa-e883eba8fa96> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bio-medicine.org/biology-news-1/Wildlife-Conservation-Society-finds-wild-cat-mimicking-monkey-calls-14317-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00087-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925502 | 668 | 3.515625 | 4 |
The Color Purple Race Quotes
How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Millions and millions of Africans were captured and sold into slavery—you and me, Celie! And whole cities were destroyed by slave catching wars. Today the people of Africa—having murdered or sold into slavery their strongest folks—are riddled by disease and sunk in spiritual and physical confusion….
Why did they sell us? How could they have done it? And why do we still love them? (57.4-5)
Nettie reflects on how evil done in Africa by Africans has brought evil back on themselves.
They are the blackest people I have ever seen, Celie. They are black like the people we are talking about when we say, "So and so is black than black, he’s blueblack." They are so black, Celie, they shine. Which is something else folks down home like to say about real black folks. But Celie, try to imagine a city full of these shining, blueblack people wearing brilliant blue robes with designs like fancy quilt patterns. Tall, thin, with long necks and straight backs. Can you picture it at all, Celie? Because I felt like I was seeing black for the first time. And Celie, there is something magical about it. Because the black is so black the eye is simply dazzled, and then there is the shining that seems to come, really, from moonlight, it is so luminous, but their skin glows even in the sun. (58.1)
Nettie begins to revel in the color of black skin, to feel the pride of her heritage.
The president [of Monrovia] talked a good bit about his efforts trying to develop the country and about his problems with the natives, who don’t want to work to help build the country. It was the first time I’d heard a black man use that word. I knew that to white people all colored people are natives. But he cleared his throat and said he only mean "native" to Liberia. I did not see any of these "natives" in his cabinet. And none of the cabinet members’ wives could pass for natives. (58.3)
For the first time, Nettie observes prejudice against Africans from a black man. Instead of distinctions set up between black and white people, it’s between black former descendants of slaves and the black original inhabitants of Liberia. | <urn:uuid:9056e7c0-cdfa-42e3-af00-a85db4ca62d5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.shmoop.com/color-purple/race-quotes-3.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396959.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00165-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973219 | 520 | 2.890625 | 3 |
What’s Happening This Week
There is much more to explore in our calendar. Find other important events in literary history, authors' birthdays, and a variety of holidays, each with related lessons and resources.
Looking for age-appropriate book recommendations, author interviews, and fun activity ideas? Check out our podcasts.
Veterans Day is celebrated in the United States today.
|Grades||3 – 12|
|Calendar Activity Type||Holiday & School Celebration|
Today, the United States honors those soldiers who have fought for their country in military service. Across America, ceremonies are held to commemorate the efforts of our armed forces past and present, and to remind us of both the strength and the compassion of our country.
Have students write biographical poems about a soldier by completing each of the following lines of the poem. This classroom activity is adapted from a lesson plan by Nancy Haugen of Arizona.
- Line 1: Soldier
- Line 2: Four words describing what a soldier is expected to do (teachers can specify that the words be adjectives, gerunds, etc.)
- Line 3: Who feels . . .
- Line 4: Who needs . . .
- Line 5: Who fears . . .
- Line 6: Who loves . . .
- Line 7: Who thinks . . .
- Line 8: Who believes . . .
- Line 9: Synonym for "soldier"
- Veterans History Project
This project, from the Library of Congress's American Folklife Center, is a collection of interviews and documentary materials highlighting veterans' experiences over much of the 20th century.
- Veterans Day
This page, from the Department of Veteran Affairs, provides links to resources on the history of the holiday, photographs of past celebrations in our nation's capital, and other media used to promote the holiday.
- Veterans of Foreign Wars
This site provides information about the VFW's programs and activities around the country. The VFW's stated mission is to "honor the dead by helping the living."
- Veterans Day
Students can use these resources to research veterans and discuss the concept of patriotism.
Grades 5 – 12 | Calendar Activity | May 30
Observed on the last Monday of May, Memorial Day honors the men and women who died while serving in the United States military. In addition to having celebrations with family and friends, many people visit cemeteries and memorials and place flags on the grave sites of fallen servicemen and women.
Grades 9 – 12 | Calendar Activity | October 1
After reading O’Brien’s story “A True War Story” from The Things They Carried, students choose a powerful event from their own lives and map it using the Timeline Tool. They then create a fictional version of this event. | <urn:uuid:9649fd5e-fc16-42e1-9290-9426de76b61e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/calendar-activities/veterans-celebrated-united-states-20339.html?tab=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00112-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.897376 | 587 | 3.65625 | 4 |
Severe Winter Storms
Winter Storm Hazards
During the winter, it is important to remember that winter storms can create personal safety issues. Paying attention to weather forecasts and making sure you have taken the appropriate preparedness measures will help to ensure your personal safety.
Hazards and risks associated with winter weather include:
- Car accidents due to slippery roadways
- Slips and falls on slippery walkways
- Falls from heights (eg: cleaning the gutters or roof)
- Hypothermia and frostbite due to exposure
- Being struck by falling objects such as tree branches
- Risks due to downed power lines or downed objects in contact with power lines
- Roof collapse or property damage under weight of snow or falling trees
- Exhaustion, exposure or dehydration
- Isolation and lack of basic supplies including prescription medications
- Stranded motorists
- Injuries while shovelling snow
- Melting snow or storm surges causing flooding
Although most power outages last for just a few minutes, in extreme cases such as during severe weather events, outages can last for longer periods of time. Extended power outages do happen from time to time, so it makes sense to be prepared.
Think ahead and have a flashlight, extra batteries and candles on supply. Remember to use candles with caution and with proper candle holders. Never leave burning candles unattended, as they can be a potential fire hazard. It is recommended to use flashlights instead. Prepare for possible isolation in your home and consider an alternative safe heating system. Also ensure that you have sufficient heating fuel for fire places or wood burning stoves. Every home should have smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, sprinklers and families should have a fire escape plan in place.
It is a good idea to assess the trees on your property and trim dead branches to reduce the danger of them falling onto power lines or your house during a storm.
Stay away from fallen power lines. A hanging power line could be charged (live) and you may run the risk of electrocution. Also remember that ice, branches or power lines can continue to break and fall for several hours after the end of the storm.
Most home-heating systems depend on electric power. To prepare for a power failure, you may consider installing a non-electric standby stove or heater. Choose approved heating units that do not depend on an electric motor, electric fan or other electrical devices to function. If the standby heating unit uses the normal house oil or gas supply, ensure that it is connected and vented properly.
Before considering the use of an emergency home generator during a power outage, check with the dealer or manufacturer regarding power requirements and proper operating procedures. Use caution and follow directions when operating generators, ensuring they are in a proper well-ventilated area. Do not connect your home portable generator directly to a house wiring system without the proper installation of an approved transfer switch and inspection and approval by an electrical inspector.
Furnace and fireplace maintenance considerations are very important in preparing for winter weather. Never use a camp stove, barbecue, or propane or kerosene heater indoors. A build-up of carbon monoxide gas in unventilated areas can be deadly.
If your home heating system fails, the following precautions may be considered:
- Remain calm - your house may remain warm for several hours
- Avoid opening doors unnecessarily
- During a power failure, turn off all electrical appliances
- If you have a safe, approved alternate heat source, begin using it before the house cools down
- Ensure that you maintain adequate ventilation
- Stay warm by dressing in layers and bringing out extra blankets
- Consider closing off one room for primary heating and use
- If concerned over pipes freezing--opening a tap even a small amount may keep water moving through the system enough to keep pipes from freezing.
For information about power outages and estimated power restoration in your area, visit the BC Hydro website
Remember, stairways and sidewalks may be icy and increase the risk of falls. Keep these areas clear and snow free. Consider using some salt, sand or other material to provide traction in these areas.
Wind-chill is a combination of cold temperatures and wind conditions which may cause rapid loss of body temperature. Excess wind-chill may require special precautions for outdoor activities. If frostbite or hypothermia is suspected, know how to begin warming the person slowly and seek immediate medical assistance.
In extreme conditions, some people may want to make arrangements to stay with relatives, friends or neighbours. Listen to weather forecasts and instructions from local officials, as reception centres may be set up to assist residents. Keep an eye out for neighbours who may be at-risk in severe conditions. Always follow the instructions of first responders and local emergency officials.
Ensure a supply of basic essentials in your home for at least 72 hours. If you must leave your home on short notice, remember to take your emergency "grab and go" kit. This should include:
- Flashlight and battery powered radio
- Extra clothing
- Essential medicines and toiletries
- Essential emergency supplies including water and food
- First aid kit
- Important documents, cash and family identification
In addition to our website, we also recommend referring to the following helpful websites:
- Emergency Management BC
- Environment Canada
- BC Hydro
- Ministry of Transportation, DRIVE BC
- Terasen Gas | <urn:uuid:014f1503-c84b-4823-9ed1-2cf7cfba42fa> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.saanich.ca/sep/emergencies/severeWinterStorms.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00151-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904755 | 1,109 | 2.875 | 3 |
There are three primitives that create a new subprocess in which to run
a program. One of them,
start-process, creates an asynchronous
process and returns a process object (see Asynchronous Processes).
The other two,
create a synchronous process and do not return a process object
(see Synchronous Processes). There are various higher-level
functions that make use of these primitives to run particular types of
Synchronous and asynchronous processes are explained in the following sections. Since the three functions are all called in a similar fashion, their common arguments are described here.
In all cases, the function’s program argument specifies the
program to be run. An error is signaled if the file is not found or
cannot be executed. If the file name is relative, the variable
exec-path contains a list of directories to search. Emacs
exec-path when it starts up, based on the value of
the environment variable
PATH. The standard file name
constructs, ‘~’, ‘.’, and ‘..’, are interpreted as
exec-path, but environment variable substitutions
(‘$HOME’, etc.) are not recognized; use
substitute-in-file-name to perform them (see File Name Expansion).
nil in this list refers to
Executing a program can also try adding suffixes to the specified name:
This variable is a list of suffixes (strings) to try adding to the
specified program file name. The list should include
"" if you
want the name to be tried exactly as specified. The default value is
Please note: The argument program contains only the name of the program; it may not contain any command-line arguments. You must use a separate argument, args, to provide those, as described below.
Each of the subprocess-creating functions has a buffer-or-name
argument that specifies where the standard output from the program will
go. It should be a buffer or a buffer name; if it is a buffer name,
that will create the buffer if it does not already exist. It can also
nil, which says to discard the output, unless a custom filter function
handles it. (See Filter Functions, and Read and Print.)
Normally, you should avoid having multiple processes send output to the
same buffer because their output would be intermixed randomly.
For synchronous processes, you can send the output to a file instead
of a buffer.
All three of the subprocess-creating functions have a
argument, args. The args must all be strings, and they are
supplied to program as separate command line arguments. Wildcard
characters and other shell constructs have no special meanings in these
strings, since the strings are passed directly to the specified program.
The subprocess inherits its environment from Emacs, but you can
specify overrides for it with
process-environment. See System Environment. The subprocess gets its current directory from the
The value of this variable is a string, the name of a directory that
contains programs that come with GNU Emacs and are intended for Emacs
to invoke. The program
movemail is an example of such a program;
Rmail uses it to fetch new mail from an inbox.
The value of this variable is a list of directories to search for
programs to run in subprocesses. Each element is either the name of a
directory (i.e., a string), or
nil, which stands for the default
directory (which is the value of
The value of
exec-path is used by
start-process when the program argument is not an absolute
Generally, you should not modify
exec-path directly. Instead,
ensure that your
PATH environment variable is set appropriately
before starting Emacs. Trying to modify
PATH can lead to confusing results. | <urn:uuid:b3bbc3da-ca51-43f2-b9ca-934981ae58cf> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Subprocess-Creation.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397797.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00005-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.858561 | 825 | 3.53125 | 4 |
PARACHUTE, Colo. - On top of Cathedral Bluffs, Royal Dutch/Shell is quietly trying to revive one of the West's biggest and most disappointing energy booms. If Shell's scientists and engineers are right, the petroleum wealth locked into oil shale here may, at long last, be profitably exploited.
That possibility is being welcomed warily in northwest Colorado, which still remembers the heyday of the 1970s and 1980s, when the shale reserves here were described as "the next Saudi Arabia." People also remember the crash that followed, as oil firms bolted after collecting tens of millions of dollars in federal subsidies but failing to produce a single profitable barrel of petroleum.
The research project here has been conducted intermittently since 1996 on three small drill pads at 8,000 feet by Shell Exploration & Production Company of Houston, and it is still only a test, says spokesman Rich Hansen. But he adds, "We wouldn't be doing this research if we didn't dream of building a commercial project some day."
Northwestern Colorado has been viewed for a century as a potential oil treasure. By some calculations, the Piceance (pee'-awnce) Basin alone contains 300 billion barrels of recoverable petroleum, equal to 48 percent of Middle Eastern reserves. Yet no one has been able to extract profitably the keragen, a waxy petroleum, from the shale.
In 1974, the first Arab oil crisis sparked a boom here, as oil companies decided shale might finally pay. Workers streamed in. Shale would be mined and heated in large ovens, or retorts, to cook the keragen out, then condensed and refined. The process used enormous amounts of energy and water. New towns were drawn up to house thousands of expected workers. Plans were made to suck up vast quantities of water and to dump vaster quantities of waste rock.
But in the early 1980s, several oil companies canceled their projects. The collapse culminated in Exxon's 1982 closure of the Colony Oil Shale project in Parachute, which threw 2,500 people out of work. Unocal was the last to fold, closing its plant in 1991, despite a federal contract to buy shale oil for $41.50 per barrel, about twice the market rate. No matter how high the price of crude oil went, shale oil always seemed to cost more.
Shell executives think they now will be able to produce shale oil at a cost that can compete with $15-$25 per barrel crude oil. Their proprietary extraction technology uses electricity to heat the oil shale underground. They then pump out the liquid keragen with traditional oil-drilling techniques. This approach still uses water and energy, but not as much as the retorting process, and it leaves a much smaller environmental footprint, Hansen says.
It is too early to say when a commercial production facility might be built here, or how big it would be, and Hansen insists Shell is sensitive to the oil shale boom.
"The boom-and-bust cycle of oil shale is not necessarily a pretty picture," he says. "We're working with community leaders to try to understand what went wrong 20 years ago and what can be learned from that."
Shell is planning to use existing oil pipelines and the Union Pacific Rail line to ship its crude to refineries in Salt Lake City or Denver. The keragen would be a feedstock for gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel.
"In the Unocal-Exxon oil shale boom, Parachute was impacted the most and got the least out of it," says Parachute Mayor John Loschke. "I think Parachute is not going to be walked on again."
Loschke lived through the first boom and bust, and says that the town's present growth rate of 3-5 percent annually is plenty. Today his town of 1,200 is a bedroom community for workers in Aspen and Glenwood Springs, and sits across the Colorado River from Battlement Mesa, built by Exxon to house oil shale workers but then sold. It has been turned into a golf and retirement community.
In Meeker, 20 miles northeast of the Piceance Creek project, Mayor Bill Dunham is more optimistic.
"Any time we can get some kind of industry in here and more jobs for people, it helps the economy," Dunham says. "We've got a water system and a sewer system that was built back in those days designed to handle 10,000 people." The town's population is 2,200 now, he says, "and the rest of us are trying to pay for those things."
Agriculture, especially sheep ranching, used to be the number one economy in Rio Blanco County, Dunham says, but that business is hurting. "Energy is the number one industry here."
Sixty-five miles to the southwest, in the city of Grand Junction - which jumped over 100,000 in population in the 1990s as retirees flooded in - Mayor Cindy Enos-Martinez thinks oil shale development must be done right.
"It's going to have to be done in a different manner," says Enos-Martinez. "It hurt a lot of people. Losing everything was really tragic for those people."
Any oil company that wants to get back into the oil shale business had better come to Grand Junction with a plan, Enos-Martinez says.
For now, Hansen is trying to downplay Shell's work. "Every time I talk to a reporter, I get scared he's going to write this is the second coming," he says. "We're not going to buy up every acre here and build a zillion facilities. The real question is how many barrels can you economically recover from this area. Up to now, zero. Our technology works in some (shale) formations and not others. I think from an environmental standpoint, that's a good thing. We think it's responsible to do this slowly and see where it fits."
Hal Clifford contributes regularly to High Country News and Writers on the Range from Telluride, Colorado.
YOU CAN CONTACT ...
- John Loschke, Parachute mayor, 970/285-7936;
- Bill Dunham, Meeker mayor, 970/878-4466;
- Cindy Enos-Martinez, Grand Junction mayor, 970/244-1887;
- Rich Hansen, Shell Exploration & Production Company, 281/544-2020. | <urn:uuid:630e6330-e309-48da-8e13-8afeab778c53> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.hcn.org/issues/221/11056 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403826.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00042-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972485 | 1,318 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Click through the slideshow to view beautiful temples that are World Heritage Sites:
Hindu places of worship range from small shrines under trees, to temple complexes that contain thousands of smaller temples. Depending on the time period, region or philosophical school, the sacred sites can be simple with bare walls or meticulously detailed with ornate art and intricate carvings on the walls.
Some temples are dedicated to one deity, while others are dedicated to multiple deities with one presiding. The Khajuraho temple complex, famous for erotic sculptures on temple walls, contains temples that sacred to Hindus, Buddhists and Jains.
The earliest Hindu temples are dated to right after the Vedic period, which is roughly from 1500 to 500 BCE.
Since 1976, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has designated close to a 1000 outstanding, endangered places as World Heritage sites of cultural and natural significance. There are several temples on that list.
Despite some of these temples no longer being used as places of worship by Hindus (either because the temple is in ruins, or because it is used as a place of worship by another religious group, like the Theravada Buddhists in the case of the Angkor Wat temple), most Hindus continue to consider these temples sacred.
Most of the Hindu temples on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list are dedicated to widely worshiped Hindu deities, Shiva, Vishnu and Shakti, in their varied forms.
The Sun temple (pictured right) in Konark is unique among the World Heritage Site temples in that it is dedicated to Surya, the sun deity. The temple is designed as a chariot drawn by seven horses on 12 pairs of wheels. The spokes of the wheels serve as sundials, and can be used to tell the precise time of day. The Sun temple is one of the most exquisite temples of India, and of this temple, Rabindranath Tagore, the great Indian poet, is believed to have said, "Here the language of stone surpasses the language of man."
Have you been to any of the Hindu temples on the UNESCO World Heritage site list? Do you have a favorite? Share your thoughts and experiences with us in the comments section.
If we failed to include a temple, let us know by emailing us at [email protected].
Want to test your knowledge of Hinduism, the world's third largest religion? Take our quiz here.
Want to test your knowledge of Hindu deities? Take our quiz here.
Interested in visiting a temple, but not sure how? Read more here. | <urn:uuid:953c1a81-6a4e-445c-9a2c-72aac373db87> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/09/hindu-temples-world-heritage-site_n_1647183.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00133-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943897 | 531 | 2.859375 | 3 |
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