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Unselfish monkeys are the unusual subject of a new published study by scientists conducting brain cell research. The surprising results showed that when given a series of particular choices, the monkeys involved willingly chose to perform gestures of kindness.
The study was conducted by a team of researchers at the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. Their findings were published on December 23 in the Nature Neuroscience journal.
News Track India reports that researchers attached sensitive electrodes to a group of rhesus monkeys to measure brain activity. Using a reward system, the team provided the animals with different possible scenario outcomes that revolved around kindness and generosity.
When given the option of giving themselves a juice reward, the monkeys naturally chose this outcome first. What may be surprising is their reaction to a second scenario. When given the choice of passing the reward to a fellow test subject or neither monkey receiving a reward, the kinder gesture was chosen.
The study also revealed the monkeys’ unselfishness was frequently displayed toward test mates it was familiar with. In addition, monkeys with a higher social status were seen to receive the award more often than those with a lower status.
An article by Live Science writes that researchers studied the individual neurons firing from areas of the brain thought to engage altruism. The orbitofrontal cortex in the brain fired when the monkeys rewarded themselves. When giving the reward to fellow animals the scientists found reaction in an area of the brain known as the anterior cingulate gyrus.
This particular part of the brain has been known to react similarly in humans as well. The current study may show a correlation between this brain region and primitive forms of empathy.
What do you think of the study finding brain cell reactions in the unselfish monkeys?
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Textile, Pillow Case, Lindbergh, King Collection
On May 20-21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh literally flew into history when he crossed the Atlantic Ocean in his Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis, thus becoming the first pilot to fly solo and nonstop from New York to Paris. This flight made Lindbergh a household name and catapulted him into fame and celebrity. The objects of popular culture in the National Collection display everything from ashtrays to wristwatches reflect the public adulation for Lindbergh and the powerful commercial response to his celebrity. More than 75 years after the Spirit's historic flight, Lindbergh's name still has the power help sell manufactured goods.
Gift of the Stanley King Family.
Square fabric with tassels around the edge with multiple images. In the upper left corner; image of Charles A. Lindbergh in flight clothing, in the upper right corner is an image of a bald eagle perched on flagpole with the American flag, across the middle in large text "New York to Paris", the bottom of the fabric has an image of the Spirit of St. Louis. This object is in a wood and glass frame.
- MEMORABILIA-Popular Culture
- Fabric, wood, glass
- 2-D - In Frame (H x W x D): 64.1 x 63.5 x 3.2cm (25 1/4 in. x 25 in. x 1 1/4 in.)
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The Sarah Palin Effect
Copyright © 2008 by Diana E. Sheets
Given the current fiscal crisis that has undermined our financial institutions, threatened the solvency of many Americans, and shaken global markets, the Obama/Biden ticket appears poised for victory. Readers may dismiss the significance of Palin's bid for the Vice Presidency. They couldn't be more mistaken. Her selection will impact party politics for years to come.
Voters mistakenly assume that the Democratic Party, with its "Nurturant Parent" policies founded on "fairness" and remedial social justice, would be more likely to select the first women as president. They are wrong. Hypocritical Democrats give lip service to having a woman on the presidential ticket. Ironically, their men vying for power are increasingly feminized while the two women who have been serious contenders for Democratic Vice President and President thus far—respectively, Geraldine Ferraro (1984) and Hillary Clinton (2008)—exhibit the manly attributes lacking in their male colleagues (www.literarygulag.com/blog/show/6). For this reason the party and its voters were reluctant to support them. By contrast, Republicans, searching for the means and the leadership necessary to attract voters to the Conservative cause are inherently more receptive to a female candidate provided she represents manly virtues while possessing the feminine magnetism necessary to attract the support of party faithful, as well as the enthusiasm of independents—e.g. Sarah Palin. Thus, the Democratic Party, that bastion of reform, is acting regressively while the Republican Party, noted for their resistance to change, is potentially more likely to select a woman as President if she excites its core conservative constituency.
This essay will demonstrate by means of two examples from British history why the Republican Party is more likely than the Democratic Party to elect the first woman as President. The essay will then discuss the Palin narrative and its significance for 21st century American politics.
The British electoral reforms of 1832, 1867, and 1884 extended voting rights to men: respectively, to those of the prosperous middle class, urban workers who met property qualifications, and subsequently to rural labors who also met comparable financial stipulations. Not until 1918 was universal suffrage effectively granted to adult men and, more restrictively, to married women over thirty who met property qualifications. Only in 1928 were women granted voting rights comparable to men.
the impact of the expanding electorate when combined with the passage
of the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act (1883), which
imposed limits on campaign expenditures and undue influence of voters,
brought change. As did the Redistribution
of Seats Act (1885), which realigned electoral districts to reflect the
changing character of voter constituencies, thereby eroding
longstanding social networks based on deference. Consequently,
these reforms prompted Lord Salisbury, who became Prime Minister in
1885, to ally the Conservative Party with the Primrose League. It quickly grew in numbers to become the most important extra-parliamentary organization in
The official membership of the Primrose League soared from a relatively modest figure of 11,366 in 1885 to 565,861 two years later. By 1891 it claimed over a million members on its rolls and by 1910 this figure had doubled. However, the Primrose League made no effort to distinguish between active dues-paying members and former participants. Consequently, the figure provided for 1888—;672,606—is more indicative of active membership during its heyday in late Victorian Britain than official tallies in later years (3, 127-8, 153-5, 157-60, 311-14).
With an array of titled nobility and gentry represented as leaders and a broad-based participation at its base, the Primrose League was the Conservative Party's response to the threat of mass democracy. Its effectiveness was largely due to the support of women within its ranks who nurtured a vibrant political subculture that provided entertainment, pageantry, canvassing of prospective voters, and a willingness to escort members to the polls on Election Day by means of horse-drawn carriages. It was through these means that the Conservative Party sought to elicit popular support while skirting the prohibitions imposed by the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act (3, 88-9, 93, 95-104, 126-36, 211-26, 240, 243-5, 247-8 252-4, 263-5).
The influence of women in the Primrose League was significant. By the 1890's, 17.4% of the offices in its Divisional Councils were female. Women constituted 25% of the senior offices of the Habitations, and nearly 30% of their Honorary Secretaries. At the base of the organization, female Wardens and canvassers predominated (126-7, 133-8).
The scope and impact of the Primrose League were without parallel. Herbert
Gladstone, youngest son to Prime Minister William Gladstone, expressed
the frustrations of Liberals when he suggested, "The League is a
curious compound of duchesses and maids of all work . . . . All the unscrupulous women of
Even as late as 1905 when the League's influence was waning, George Bernard Shaw's play Major Barbara highlighted the role of the Primrose League in converting workers to ranks of the Conservative Party.
Not by words and dreams; but by thirtyeight [sic] shillings a week, a sound house in a handsome street, and a permanent job. In three weeks he will have a fancy waistcoat; in three months a tall hat and a chapel sitting; before the end of the year he will shake hands with a duchess at the Primrose League meeting, and join the Conservative Party. (311)
While the Conservative Party gave only nominal support to women's suffrage, nevertheless,
Thus, a strong case could be made that conservative women were viewed by their fathers, uncles, brothers, husbands, sons, and nephews, as well as the party leadership overall as indispensable allies in resisting popular democracy. By contrast, the Liberals saw their women—mothers, aunts, sisters, wives, daughters, and nieces—as potential bluestocking rivals who might challenge male leadership and, by implication, the stature, prominence, and future direction of the party and the men who shaped these policies.
The Conservative Party, on the other hand, was ambivalent. The Grand Council, the governing body of the Primrose League, reflecting the views of the party, issued a Precept in 1889 prohibiting its local associations, Habitations, from publicly supporting the franchise. However, there were frequently violations, which caused the Council to issue repeatedly its prohibition. While the Ladies' executive opposed granting women the vote, the League as a whole remained officially neutral. Rank-and-file members were sharply divided, prompting individuals to endorse or decry women's suffrage at the local level (145-8, 151-3).
Fast forward to the late twentieth century. Margaret Thatcher governed as Prime Minister (1979-1990) for longer than any leader in
Now consider the 2008 Presidential Election and the significance of Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. First, her narrative. Sarah was born in
Sarah Palin served on the city council in
While in her second term, Palin introduced a ballot referendum proposing the construction of a sports complex to be financed by a .5% sales tax increase. The $14.7 million facility, although completed on time and within budget, cost an additional $1.3 million due to legal expenditures required to defeat an eminent domain lawsuit. Because of the costs associated with the construction of the sports complex, as well as street and water improvements, the city's debt rose to $25 million. Nevertheless, through a lobbying agency, Palin secured almost $8 million in earmarks and another $19 million for the greater Wasilla valley (Wikipedia, Sarah Palin).
Palin served two terms as mayor before running unsuccessfully in 2002 for lieutenant governor of
Thus far, Governor Palin's major accomplishment is the $26 billion gas pipeline to be constructed by TransCanada Pipelines. It will extend from the
What are the parallels between Margaret Thatcher and Sarah Palin? In Ross Douthat & Reihan Salam's Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream (Doubleday, 2008), they suggest that the possibility of continued success of the party rests, in the words of Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, in transforming from the "party of the country club" to the "party of Sam's Club" (2). The authors make a compelling case that electoral victory for Republicans rests on "Reagan-style Democrats," voters who have swung back and forth between the two parties while, nonetheless, embracing many conservative values. This constituency is predominantly male. Its members typically have high school degrees, although they rarely graduate from college. They uphold traditional values. They embrace an ownership society and the right to bear arms. Many are Christian and oppose abortion. They want minimum government intervention and maximum personal freedom (2-3, 6-7, 10-2). Sarah and Todd Palin fit this "Sam's Club" profile, although their assets are greater than those of most Sam's Club voters.
Just as Margaret Thatcher came from a family of modest means, so does Sarah Palin. Just as Thatcher embraced aspirational values based on a market economy, so does Palin. Just
as Thatcher was raised as a devout Methodist and retained her Christian
principles, so has Palin relied on her faith for moral sustenance. Just
as Thatcher sought to disassemble the welfare state in favor of a
neo-capitalist economy, so has Palin sought greater independence for
the political culture war and the personal nature of the Liberal press'
attacks on Governor Palin, Ross Douthat notes that she has, unlike
former conservative supreme-court nominee Robert Bork, bounced back
from "the Borking of Sarah Palin" ("Palin Fire," National Review, September 29, 2008, Vol. LX, No. 18, 38) to become the darling of her party. "She
embodies," Douthat suggests, "a right-wing archetype of the Real
America in much the way that Barack Obama embodies a left-wing
archetype of Multicultural Man" (40). Ralph
Reed, the first executive director of the Christian Coalition, has
stressed that social conservatives emphatically embraced her candidacy. "They're beyond ecstatic. This is a home run. She is a reformer governor who is solidly pro-life and a person of deep Christian faith. And
she is really one of the bright shining new stars in the Republican
firmament" (Michael Cooper and Elisabeth Bumiller, "McCain chooses
Michael J Gerson has argued in Heroic Conservatism: Why Republicans Need to Embrace America's Ideals that American's new conservative leadership needs some "compassionate conservative" proposals (HarperOne, 2007). David Frum in Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again (Doubleday, 2008) advocates policies that can prepare the party for the social and demographic changes that have ensued since the post-Reagan era. William Kristol has celebrated Palin for having "The Right Stuff" in an Op-Ed column in the New York Times following her debate with Joe Biden (October 5, 2008, A29). Only one question remains: should the McCain/Palin ticket fail to win the 2008 presidential election, will she have staying power?
Historically, conservatives welcome strong leadership and are potentially more receptive than Democrats to path-breaking women who embrace the party's ideals. With the Democratic Party poised to become the party of the disenfranchised, the Republicans must embrace women and minorities who are receptive to their values and prepared to build the foundations of a post-Reagan era. The selection, of course, need not be Sarah Palin. But she has paved the way and Republicans have been receptive to her leadership potential. Sarah Palin, despite the "Borking" of the Liberal press, has laid the groundwork for the new party. Call it what you will. It need not be "Sam's Club," although it must be receptive to those who embrace American exceptionalism and the values engendered by this ideal. The new party must not be a party of privilege, but a party of opportunity. It must embrace faith, but not a narrow sectarian faith. It must look toward the future with both hope and resilience, understanding that the path to opportunity comes to those striving mightily toward the light. Indeed, the success of Margaret Thatcher should serve as inspiration for Sarah Palin, despite their differences in temperament, in historical circumstances, and in styles of governance. What both women share, of course, are the values of a common heritage, one that fosters trans-Atlantic alliances while allowing for national and cultural divergences.
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Wisconsin may soon be in a minority of states that don't allow voters to register online.
The state, long considered a model for its high voter turnout and election administration, seems stubbornly old-fashioned as it sticks to paper registration while others move to online systems that are simpler, cheaper and less prone to errors, elections experts told lawmakers recently.
Legislators from both parties have expressed interest in online registration, but progress has been stymied by a longstanding fight over same-day voter registration and other party divisions. Two bills that would have allowed online voter registration have failed to pass in the past four years, frustrating elections officials.
"Online registration is no longer cutting-edge innovation, it is a well-established and essential tool," said Kevin Kennedy, director of the Government Accountability Board, which oversees Wisconsin's elections. "We already have in place what we need to do. We need the legislative authorization to do this."
Eighteen states have already adopted online registration, with Arizona pioneering the approach in 2002 and others following since 2007. Four states have approved the method and are working on the systems. Fifteen more states, including Wisconsin, are considering legislation, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Rep. Terese Berceau, D-Madison, has pushed to pass a bill that would allow the Government Accountability Board to create a system permitting voters to register online, with data to be checked with records in other state databases.
The system would allow voters with a driver license or other identification to update addresses or names and register to vote up to three weeks before an election.
Wisconsin lagging in online voter registrationPublished 7:19 AM CDT Apr 28, 2014
Wisconsin may soon be in a minority of states that don't allow voters to register online.Recommended
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WATER AND CHO ARE EQUALLY PREFERABLE DURING A 2-HOUR PRACTICE
Herm, L., Ficek, S., Simmons, D., Olson, A., & Bacharach, D. (2001). How effective is a sport drink in enhancing performance of football practice drills? Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 33(5), Supplement abstract 1452.
This study assessed the effect of carbohydrate consumption during football practice on selected skills. Ss (N = 67) completed two practice sessions one week apart during similar environmental conditions and with equivalent program content. Skills were sprint-agility and a 160-yd cross-field shuttle. Ss were given a bottle of fluid of either CHO or water. A post-practice recall of perceived rating of exertion during the skills was recorded.
There were no differences in performances, RPE, fluid consumption, or preference for type of fluid. After practice, flavored drinks were preferred.
Implication. Commercial fluids or water are adequate fluid replacement forms during a 2-hour football practice session.
Return to Table of Contents for this issue.
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April 6, 2012
Ice Sheet Collapse And Sea-level Rise At The Bølling Warming 14,600 Years Ago
International scientists have shown that a dramatic sea-level rise occurred at the onset of the first warm period of the last deglaciation, known as the Bølling warming, approximately 14,600 years ago. This event, referred to as Melt-Water Pulse 1A (MWP-1A), corresponds to a rapid collapse of massive ice sheets 14,600 years ago and resulted in global sea-level rise of ~14 m. These findings are published in the 29 March 2012 issue of the journal Nature (Volume 483, Issue 7391).
Collaboration between CEREGE (UMR Aix-Marseille Univ. - CNRS - IRD - College de France) and the Universities of Oxford and Tokyo, allowed an international science team to publish on research stemming from the Tahiti Sea-Level Expedition 310 of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). The Tahiti Sea-Level Expedition was carried out in 2005 by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) and the ECORD Science Operator (ESO) on behalf of IODP.Using U-Th dating of coral samples obtained from cores drilled in the Tahiti coral reefs, the researchers were able to reconstruct sea-level rise over the last deglaciation. Coral is extremely sensitive to sea-level changes and fossilized corals are therefore an excellent indicator for sea-level changes over time.
“Corals are outstanding archives to reconstruct past sea-level changes as they can be dated to within plus or minus 30 years stretching back thousands of years. Moreover, Tahitian reefs are ideally located to reconstruct the deglacial sea-level rise and to constrain short-term events that are thought to have punctuated the period between the Last Glacial Maximum and the present days. Tahiti is located at a sufficiently considerable distance from the major former ice sheets to give us close to the average of sea levels across the globe, as a non-volcanic island it is also subsiding into the ocean at a steady pace that we can easily adjust for.” Pierre Deschamps, first author based at CEREGE said.
The Nature article presents the view that most of the melting water that contributed to MWP-1A was sourced from the Antarctic ice sheet, highlighting dynamical behavior of this ice sheet in the past. The authors note that further research is needed using cored fossilized corals to better understand the sequence of events related to ice sheet collapse during the last deglaciation.
Today, half of world's population, approximately 3.2 billion people, lives within 200 km of coastline, and a tenth of the population lives less than 10 meters above sea level. Tahiti itself is, of course, at risk from modern sea-level rise. The government of Tahiti cooperated on the IODP Expedition 310 by providing the necessary regulatory clearances to drill on the fossilized coral reefs.
Pierre Deschamps says “Insights into past sea-level changes may help to better constrain future changes. Our work sheds light onto an extreme event of rise in global sea levels in which ice-sheet collapse coincided with a rapid warming. Whether the freshwater pulse was a result of an already warming word or helped to warm the climate is currently unclear. However, our finding will help scientists currently modeling future climate change scenarios to factor in the dynamic behavior of major ice sheets and finally to provide more reliable predictions of ice sheet responses to a warming climate”.
Much is yet unknown about the dynamics of sea-level change, in response to massive water discharge. However, IODP Expedition 310 has helped international scientists shed light on one of the most important climate event of the last deglaciation, the MWP-1A event, based on fossil corals obtained from off the coast of Tahiti.
References: "Ice sheet collapse and sea-level rise at the Bølling warming 14,600 yr ago," by Pierre Deschamps, Nicolas Durand, Edouard Bard, Bruno Hamelin, Gilbert Camoin, Alexander Thomas, Gideon Henderson, Jun´ichi Okuno, Yusuke Yokoyama, Nature, 2012.
Image Caption: The drillship DP Hunter on site, with Tahiti in the background (I. Pheasant © ECORD/IODP).
On the Net:
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6. SANITARY LANDFILLS
The major purpose of sanitary landfills, which are the most common waste management technology employed in the United States(1), is the storage of MSW in a way that protects human health and the environment. This section reviews two types of landfills:
All MSW management technologies addressed in this report require landfills for their residues, and the amount of that residue is affected by the technologies used to extract materials and energy from the waste. Even recycling requires landfills to dispose of: the impurities separated in materials recovery facilities (MRF) or later at smelters (i.e., slag); paper sludge containing fiber that is too short for reuse; fillers and inks; or small pieces of mixed-color glass. In general, recycling delays and/or reduces requirements for land disposal rather than eliminating them.
- MSW landfills, which contain MSW as discarded and the residues that remain after various other MSW management technologies are applied. Although some MSW landfills also receive ash, that ash is increasingly kept in separate monofills.
- Ash landfills, a type of monofill, which are limited to the ash that remains after combustion of waste.
Design of Sanitary Landfills
A new sanitary landfill is subject to many design regulations set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under "Guidelines for the Land Disposal of Solid Waste" (CFR, l991b), by states, and by local communizes. All new landfills that accept more than 20 tons of MSW per day are subject to requirements for controlling emissions to groundwater. Because all landfills that contain wet organic material produce methane, the largest of such landfills are likely to have to meet additional existing and proposed requirements for controlling emissions into the air.
State-of-the-art landfills incorporate a liner system, a leachate collection system, a leachate treatment system, a cap system, gas recovery systems to recover energy or to flare the gas, landscaping, security, groundwater monitoring wells, and a groundwater plan. The landfills require about 30 years of postclosure monitoring, care, and planning for eventual community use.
One of the most critical parts of the design is the liner at the bottom of the landfill (CEC, 1991). Figure 6.1 illustrates a design that conforms with current regulations. Regulations require that during operations the new MSW must be compacted and covered daily with an inert material that prevents litter from blowing and from providing a refuge for animals and insects. A cross-section of an approved liner design is shown in Figure 6.2. Appendix F provides a more detailed description of the requirements for constructing and operating landfills.
All new landfills that accept more than 20 tons per day of MSW must, in accordance with EPA regulations, collect and dispose of leachate and minimize the infiltration of water. Reducing water content retards biodegradation, and as a result the conversion of organic waste to methane and CO2 is inefficient. Rathje indicates that landfills preserve waste for future generations (Rathje, 1989; Rathje, 1990), and Bogner and Spokas report preliminary evidence that landfills are providing a sink for carbon by removing it from the atmospheric CO2 cycle (Bogner and Spokas, 1992).
CROSS-SECTION OF COMPOSITE LINER AND LEACHATE COLLECTION SYSTEM
Click here to expand figure.
Landfilling combines preservation of waste, low-temperature partial oxidation and reduction through biological activity, and limited dissolution of components in the waste. Traditional landfilling operations consist of a daily cycle of filling, compacting the fill with heavy equipment, and covering the fill with "earthen materials" (CFR, l991c).
Variations on this traditional method, as summarized below, are also being considered (see Appendix F for more detailed descriptions):
- Shredfill-If MSW is shredded before land filling, landfill density is increased by about 25%, fire hazards are reduced, and less leachate is produced because of the smaller volume and surface area of the shredfill compared with a normal landfill. With this method, often no daily cover is needed for litter or rodent control. Shredding is expensive, however. Two shredfill plants are now operating .
- Balefill-An alternative means of increasing the density of MSW entails baling the refuse before placing it in a landfill. When baling is feasible, density can be increased to as much as 1,700 pounds per cubic yard (compared with 1,250-1,300 pounds per cubic yard for a normally compacted landfill). Other advantages of this method include reduction of litter, dust, rodents, and leachate. If baling is handled at a separate location, traffic to the landfill could be reduced. When a landfill consisting of baled refuse is full, it can support light industrial buildings after 2 years of stabilization [2711; up to 50 years may be needed before a standard landfill can be returned to unrestricted use (Vesilind, in press). About 40 balefill installations are operating in the United States .
A new balefill technology, which is in use in Japan, Italy, Belgium, and the United Kingdom, but not in the United States, provides compression pressures ranging from 1,400 to 2,800 pounds per square inch and makes cubes 1 yard on a side that contain 2,000 pounds of MSW. It is reported that the cubes can be coated with concrete and used as construction material .
- Reusable or mining landfills-In response to difficulties in siting new waste management facilities, some communities are considering efforts to reuse old, filled landfills by mining out the old waste, separating the degraded portion from what some sources call the "fuel fraction," and adding new MSW to the reconstructed landfill. The degraded refuse is reused as daily cover. One advantage is that the costs of closure and postclosure care are avoided. New York State has identified up to 400 landfills for which mining could be considered (Thornloe, 1991). The technology works best if the new landfill contains only readily biodegradable materials and the biodegradation is accelerated, or "stimulated," by recirculating leachate into the landfill(2). With stimulation, some estimates indicate that a landfill could be mined and reused again after 910 years have passed.
Table of Contents
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Glossary | Fire
Please find a list of common "Fire" definitions:
Fire Reaction - Classification of tested material using specified laboratory procedures evaluating combustibility such as Surface Spread
of Flame and Fire Propagation.
Fire Resistance - Property of a ceiling acting as a horizontal cavity barrier either in isolation or in conjunction with other barriers.
Non combustible - A definition of combustibility defined by a specific test method. Products not meeting this requirement are defined as "combustible".
Structural Fire Protection - The use of tested systems to provide insulation to steel beams or steel lattice beams against the high temperature generated
by a fire.
Structural Fire Resistance - The use of a tested assembly to provide additional resistance to a floor which has inadequate resistance of its own.
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In recent years, the use of insect models has become an important tool in pest management. Current models help predict key seasonal events in a pest’s life history, such as adult emergence or egg hatch. Pest managers can use this information to better time monitoring activities or the application of control measures.
At present, most of the models that have been developed and are available through information delivery technology, like the Washington State University Decision Aid System (http://das.wsu .edu), are for pest insects. This led our research team to wonder: Could we develop similar models for important natural enemy species in western orchards? These models could then provide a better understanding of when natural enemies are present and aid in reducing nontarget effects of management practices, like the application of pesticides, on beneficial populations.
How do we make a model?
Models utilize the strong relationship between insect development and temperature. This means that, within limits (called lower and upper temperature thresholds), the warmer the temperature the faster the insect develops. Beyond these temperature thresholds, insect development stops. Models are based on the fact that each life stage of an insect requires a certain number of heat units called degree-days (DD) to be completed. The number of degree days required for the completion of a certain life stage is determined in laboratory experiments and/or through monitoring an insect population at several locations over two or more seasons and relating the observations to site-specific temperature data. After an insect model is developed, it needs to be validated with additional field observations to make sure that the predictions match observed events in the insect’s life history.
Over the past four years, we were able to consistently monitor certain natural enemy populations throughout the entire season using traps with herbivore-induced plant volatile (HIPV) attractants. (See part 2 of this series, “Natural enemy inventory,” in the February 15 issue).
From the monitoring data, we have developed models for two species of lacewings (Chrysoperla carnea and Chrysopa nigricornis), a syrphid fly (Eupeodes fumipennis), and the mirid bug, Deraeocoris brevis. All of these natural enemies are important predators of aphids, pear psylla, pest mites, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied insects. Over the next few years, we will work on validating these four natural-enemy models. Once we are confident in the accuracy of the models, we will begin to integrate them into the WSU Decision Aid System, where they will be readily available to decision makers.
How can the model be used to conserve natural enemies?
Once we are able to predict when a natural enemy should be present in the orchard, management practices can be adjusted to help conserve their populations and, consequently, their biocontrol services. A model tells when a specific natural enemy emerges after the overwintering period, when its peak activity occurs, and how many generations occur per season. This information can help decision makers identify windows of opportunity where they can alter spray timing or, if that is not possible, select lower-risk pesticides to avoid negative impacts on a natural enemy population. Simply put, if pest models are used to better target and treat pests, then natural enemy models can be used in a similar manner to conserve these beneficial insects.
Can natural enemy models be used to evaluate spray programs?
While collecting the data used to generate models, we also gathered spray records for each orchard location over a three-year period. We found that data in some orchards did not fit our model where sprays were used at certain times of the year or when certain pesticides were used. For example, our data showed that some pesticides strongly delayed the expected appearance of a natural enemy or, in some cases, resulted in an entire generation being missing. We also found that typical early season sprays (especially lime sulfur plus oil) in apple, pear, and sweet cherry are applied multiple times during a period when some important natural enemies are emerging in the spring. This means that the natural enemies are exposed to these pesticides throughout the adult stage, as well as during the egg and larval stages of their first generation. Traditional thinking has been that these sprays occur when natural enemies are not present, but our research has shown otherwise.
Over the next year we will be pursuing the idea of using these models to better understand the effects of pesticides on natural enemies in commercial orchards. As part of our Specialty Crop Research Initiative-funded project, we have evaluated the effect of a few different spray programs in apple, pear, or walnut orchards on natural enemies and their pests in large-plot field experiments. However, it is difficult to look at a wide variety of spray programs using this approach, as it is labor and resource intensive. With the natural-enemy models and HIPV lure traps, we now have an efficient way to sample multiple commercial orchards, allowing us to assess a broader range of pesticides and application timings.
Ultimately, once these new models and monitoring tools are available, pest management decision makers will be able to compare their own spray programs in different blocks or across different orchards to see the potential impacts on different natural enemies. The accessibility and use of natural enemy models and monitoring tools could have a tremendous impact on conserving natural-enemy populations and improving biological control in western orchards.This is the third article in an eight-part series highlighting results of a five-year Specialty Crop Research Initiative project to enhance biological control of orchard pests. The project involves researchers from Washington State University, Oregon State University, University of California Berkeley, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Yakima, Washington.
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WIKIMEDIA, MATTHIAS M.In a publishing first, the sequence of a newly discovered protein is not divulged in papers announcing the finding. Researchers at the California Department of Public Health in Sacramento discovered the protein, a new type of the extremely dangerous botulinum toxin, lurking in the feces of a child who displayed the symptoms of botulism. They published their findings in two reports on the website of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, but absent from either paper was the DNA sequence of the protein, the eighth form of botulinum toxin recovered from the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. The move represents the first time that a DNA sequence has been omitted from such a paper. “Because no antitoxins as yet have been developed to counteract the novel C. Botulinum toxin,” wrote editors at The Journal of Infectious Diseases, “the authors had detailed consultations with representatives from numerous appropriate US government agencies.”
These agencies, which included the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security, approved publication of the papers so long as the gene sequence that codes for the new protein was left out. According to New Scientist, the sequence will be published as soon as antibodies are identified that effectively combat the toxin, which appears to be part of a whole new branch on the protein’s family tree.
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As little as a century ago, a serious deformity of the bones was widespread in North America and Europe, particularly among children. Rickets, caused by too little vitamin D in the diet or too little exposure to the sun, has been documented by physicians for thousands of years. But its cause wasn't fully understood until the 20th century.
Ancient Chinese, Greek and Roman physicians wrote of a disease that warped the spine, ribs and legs. From the Middle Ages to the era of industrialization, children across Europe succumbed to a similar sickness, which caused bowlegs, knock-knees, "pigeon breast," painful spasms, convulsions and difficulty breathing.
Doctors noticed that it seemed more common in cities than in the country, and less common in sunny countries than in ones with long winters. They speculated it was caused by stagnant air, bad hygiene and cranky dispositions, and tried to treat it with splints, tourniquets and bloodletting.
But they remained at a loss to cure it. By the late 1800s, rickets was epidemic across Europe as families left farms for urban factories and as factory smoke blocked out sunlight in industrializing cities.
For the next 50 years, doctors struggled to understand the disease -- until a body of seemingly unrelated research offered up clues and, eventually, solved the mystery.
In the early 1900s, scientists were discovering substances -- in addition to proteins, fats and carbohydrates -- that were essential for good health. These "vital amines," as they were dubbed, triggered disease when missing from the diet, but cured disease when added back in.
Vitamin A (abundant in cod liver oil), was discovered in 1913 by American researchers Elmer McCollum and Marguerite Davis. Inspired by the finding, British doctor Edward Mellanby decided to see if a missing "vital amine" might be to blame for rickets.
Mellanby induced rickets in laboratory dogs by feeding them a Scottish diet: nothing but oatmeal. He then cured them with cod liver oil and concluded that a lack of vitamin A had caused the disease.
McCollum took Mellanby's experiment a step further, feeding sick animals cod liver oil that had been treated to destroy its vitamin A content. The oil still cured the sick dogs, so McCollum concluded it must contain another, still intact vitamin. He named it vitamin D.
But the finding still failed to explain why rickets was so predominant in areas of little sun. (Mellanby's dogs, in addition to eating nothing but oatmeal, had been kept indoors.)
Soon, other scientists began to show that UV light could also cure rickets by prompting the body to make its own vitamin D in the skin.
In Wisconsin, researchers found that they could cure rickets not only by exposing animals to UV light but also by exposing their food. (UV light triggers formation of a "previtamin," which the body converts to vitamin D.) By 1924, bread and milk were being irradiated throughout the U.S.
Eventually, scientists figured out how to make vitamin D in the lab, and irradiated foods were replaced with those fortified with synthetic D.
Today, D-fortified milk and infant formula have made rickets rare, but cases still occur in the U.S., mainly among dark-skinned infants who are exclusively breastfed and thus don't get supplemental D.
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news & tips
A collection of helpful articles on teachers and teaching
STEM and Girls: The Gender Gap
Getting girls involved with STEM learning has been a constant challenge for educators and a concern for policy makers for a number of years. Belinda Palmer, in her blog post for Fast Company, renewed the call for more focus on supporting girls’ interest in technology careers.
The gender gap in STEM professions remains wide, but fortunately, there are many good ideas and resources available for teachers looking for creative learning opportunities targeted to girls in STEM areas.
Policymakers often cite the concern over the growing demand for STEM-educated workers as a reason to encourage greater participation of girls in STEM programs. According to a 1999 National Science Foundation, women are disproportionately less likely to pursue science or engineering degrees. Moreover, according to the National Center for Education Statistics in 2010, women only account for 50% of the workforce but less than 20% are in science and engineering fields. Despite the need, there are a number of challenges educators face to attract girls into science-related fields.
The design of a successful STEM program for girls (especially for the middle school years) has to take into account how girls learn as well as the subject matter. In a 1992 report, the American Association of University Women found that while girls and boys initially have similar interest in STEM content, girls’ interest drops precipitously by upper elementary and middle school grades. In 2004, the National Science Foundation found that girls are drawn to math and science through cooperative settings rather than competitive learning environments. A 2004 American Association of University Women report indicated that girls respond more favorably to the social aspects of coursework. A key component of a good STEM program for girls enhances learning through teamwork and social interaction.
Peer group dynamics also have significant impact on how adolescences engage in learning – especially for girls. Teachers may want to look for instructional design that can leverage the importance of relationship building and incorporate a social aspect into the learning experience. The opportunity to take advantage of adolescent girls’ willingness to explore new ideas in pursuit of greater self-identity, while creating a comfortable group work environment, represents an opportunity for female students to learn in a deeper and more intensive manner.
There is widespread interest in this country for building and supporting STEM-centered programs for girls. To be successful however, educators need to account for the particular ways girls engage in learning. A good quality program will need to acknowledge the social aspects of learning and encourage girls to lean on their natural inclinations in pursuit of greater subject mastery.
For teachers looking for resources of high quality, girl-focused STEM programming that incorporates many of the attributes highlighted above, I recommend the following resources:
If you have, other resources or weblinks, please share them in the comments.
– – –
Solomon Menashi spent the first part of his professional life running a highly-successful, high-tech manufacturing firm. For the past 10 years, he’s been working in education — teaching, leading, and learning. He is founder and Executive Director of Mindsurfers, which focuses on building the confidence, skills and enthusiasm of underserved students in the fields of science, technology, math and engineering. Solomon holds an Ed.M from Harvard University Graduate School of Education. You can also follow him on Twitter at #mindsurfers.
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John Greenleaf WhittierJohn Greenleaf Whittier, the most active poet of the era, had a background very similar to Walt Whitman's. He was born and raised on a modest Quaker farm in Massachusetts, had little formal education, and worked as a journalist. For decades before it became popular, he was an ardent abolitionist. Whittier is respected for anti-slavery poems such as "Ichabod," and his poetry is sometimes viewed as an early example of regional realism.
Whittier's sharp images, simple constructions, and ballad- like tetrameter couplets have the simple earthy texture of Robert Burns. His best work, the long poem "Snow Bound," vividly recreates the poet's deceased family members and friends as he remembers them from childhood, huddled cozily around the blazing hearth during one of New England's blustering snowstorms. This simple, religious, intensely personal poem, coming after the long nightmare of the Civil War, is an elegy for the dead and a healing hymn. It affirms the eternity of the spirit, the timeless power of love in the memory, and the undiminished beauty of nature, despite violent outer political storms.
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A recent article from the blog Lifehacker.com comes out partially in defense of plagiarism, saying that the current rules and standards for plagiarism are too stringent.
“We can’t really own words, no matter how they’re strung together and used. Language exists because we’ve designed it together…Why should this be any different for full sentences, or even a string of dialogue?”
The author quotes famous social science writer Malcolm Gladwell to illustrate the point that plagiarism is simply copying other people’s words – and no one should own words. In Gladwell’s case he had his work plagiarized, but he considered the act to be somewhat of a compliment because the culprit didn’t attempt to rework the content at all.
Although Gladwell wasn’t particularly offended by the plagiarism, that was his choice to make. In many other cases, a plagiarized author doesn’t have the option to ‘let someone off the hook.’
Plagiarism can affect different people in different ways.
In some cases, an author like Gladwell may be confident or well-off enough to not care about one specific instance of duplicate content.
However, another author may have their career on the line to publish unique content; in this case maintaining the integrity of their intellectual property is huge. If proper attribution isn’t provided, an author could be getting their work ripped off or profited on and never even be aware of it.
Take the field of scientific research.
Research groups, academic departments and scientific companies all are built on the premise of publishing papers that come from long periods of experimentation and research. The data and conclusions that are incorporated into these papers are more than simply words – they are the form of intellectual property that support the entire research eco-system.
If we decided to make the rules more ‘laid back’ and let individuals give and take as they wanted from research papers, that eco-system could potentially collapse.
Plagiarism runs along a thin line of what is right and wrong, so why even risk the chance of it?
This doesn’t mean we can’t use other people’s ideas or words, it simply means we need to be able to attribute them to their original creators. If we follow the logic that everyone needs to properly cite authors, it allows the authors to be in control of their content by getting due credit where it is deserved.
There may be a difference between copying an article word-for-word and taking a few sentences here and there, however, both are cases of plagiarism if attribution is not provided.
It should be up to the author to determine whether a specific case of plagiarism is bad or not, not a random person who decides to copy their work.
Dachis, Adam. “What is Plagiarism, and is it Always Bad?”. 10 November 2010. http://lifehacker.com/5686165/what-is-plagiarism-and-is-it-always-bad
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Human Rights 101
The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) has produced an online learning video titled “Human Rights 101.” This educational video includes three units:
- About the Human Rights Code (history, foundations and what is covered)
- The Code (key concepts, rights and responsibilities, recognizing discrimination)
- The Human Rights system in Ontario (the Commission, Legal Support Centre and Human Rights Tribunals)
It also includes a section on policies and guidelines as well as optional pre and post-training quizzes.
To access the OHRC’s e-learning modules, go to www.ohrc.on.ca.
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2 Answers | Add Yours
Your question identifies what this short story is so famous for, and why it is so successful. One of the ways that writers create suspense is through foreshadowing, the use of clues that hint at later events in the story. Foreshadowing makes you curious, even anxious, to know what will happen next.
For me, one of the first pieces of foreshadowing that occurs in the story is in the discussion between Rainsford and Whitney. Note what they say:
"The best sport in the world," agreed Rainsford.
"For the hunter," amended Whitney. "Not for the jaguar."
"Don't talk rot, Whitney," said Rainsford. "You're a big game hunter, not a philosopher. Who cares how a jaguar feels?"
Of course, this is ironic as Rainsford himself is going to discover how the jaguar feels as he becomes the hunted rather than the hunter.
The second piece of foreshadowing I will focus on comes very close to the first. The evil reputation that the island has clearly forebodes some kind of ill, as we will later discover. Note how this is introduced:
"Yes, even that though-minded old Swede, who'd go up to the devil himself and ask him for a light. Those fishy blue eyes held a look I never saw there before. All I could get out of him was: 'This place has an evil name among seafaring men, sir.'
This clearly hints at some kind of danger that will feature in the rest of the story.
Clearly another highly significant piece of foreshadowing occurs once Rainsford is on the island and he sees the evidence of a hunt, but he is not able to work out what kind of animal was hunted:
Some wounded thing, by the evidence a large animal, had thrashed about in the underbrush; the jungle weeds were crushed down and the moss was lacerated; one patch of weeds was stained crimson.
Of course, later on Rainsford will no precisely the identity of the species of animal that was hunted.
So there you are - three examples of foreshadowing which arguably help to make this a unique story of suspense story and one which keeps the reader engaged.
Connell usese foreshadowing in several places throughout "The Most Dangerous Game." This use of a literary device that encourages the reader to feel a sense of anticipation about what will happen to Rainsford is foreshadowing.
In the beginning of the story, Rainsford and Whitney discuss the blackness of the night and the boat's close proximity to Ship-Trap Island. Whitney's insistance that sailors have a "curious dread of the place" leads the reader to wonder why they would feel that way. The reader begins to anticipate the possibilities of that night and location. Connell's use of phrases such as "thick warm blackness" and "moonless Carribean night" turn the reader's mind toward eerie suggestions. When the discussion turns to hunting, the idea of danger and death come into play.
Later in the story, General Zaroff states that his mind "is an analytical mind...Doubtless that is why I enjoy the problems of the chase." Zaroff also informs Rainsford that
...hunting had ceased to be what you call 'a sporting proposition.' It had become too easy. I always got my quarry. There is no greater bore than perfection...Instinct is no match for reason...
This information causes the reader to ask himself how Zaroff dealt with his problem of boredom. Suspense is built as the reader realizes that they prey can only be human, which Zaroff soon admits, and that Rainsford must either become the hunted or join Zaroff.
We’ve answered 328,067 questions. We can answer yours, too.Ask a question
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FRESH FRUIT AND VEGETABLE PROGRAM
A new fruit will be introduced to the students each week. Grades 4 and 5 will enjoy their fruit on Tuesdays, grades 2 and 3 on Wednesdays, and grades K and 1 on Thursdays.
|Week One: Rambuton
Rambuton is sort of like lychee. While originated in Thailand, Malaysia, Phillipines and Central America, the ones we will receive is grownn here locally on the Big Island and Kauai.
[click to read more about Rambutan]
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Presented at 1996 International Space Development Conference, New York City, May 1996Published in The Assembler, Volume 4, Number 3 Third Quarter, 1996
Primitive molecular nanotechnology (MNT) will contribute significantly to the human settlement of Space by creating flexible, human-scale active systems that can be actively reconfigured into a wide variety of useful shapes and artifacts. It appears that a very large number of identical primitive nanomachines, operating in parallel as an Active Meso-Structure (AMS), may not only meet the requirements for such a system, but might also be easier to design, build, and control than drexlerian assemblers. These systems attempt to combine the respective strengths of Von Neumann's kinetic model and cellular automata (CA). Examples such as Josh Hall's Utility Fog, Joseph Michael's Shape-Shifting Flexible Robotic System, Forrest Bishop's XY Active Cells, and Goel and Thompson's Movable Finite Automata are described and compared. The claim is made that machines can only be self-replicating if they are built using MNT. Finally, a non-self-replicating method of constructing these primitive nanoscale KCAs is described.
An early vision of molecular nanotechnology has been the creation of flexible, human-scale active structures that are actively reconfigurable into a wide variety of useful shapes and artifacts. Such medium-sized structures could essentially replace clothes, furniture, appliances, utensils, and tools. In response to our commands and to changing environments, these Active MesoStructures would provide shelter, security, entertainment, and hundreds of other household and industrial services.
Eric Drexler detailed some of the possible applications of nanotechnology in Engines of Creation. Early on, people were frightened by the "gray goo" scenario, in which out-of-control replication and evolution of assemblers destroys every protein molecule on Earth. Later, it became obvious that it is difficult to design self-replicating drexlerian assemblers that feed on a disordered mix of undifferentiated molecules. This is partially because complex pattern recognition systems seem to be necessary to identify neighboring atoms and molecules out of disordered surroundings. Also, we do not have generalized algorithms or tools for unbinding undifferentiated molecular bonds. Finally, there are many problems in achieving material and informational closure when designing a robust process for self-replication. One way around these problems, and around the problem of the consequences of self-replicating nanomachines, would be to have large numbers of more limited nanomachines that couldn't make or break molecular bonds, that didn't operate in random and surroundings, but only interacted mechanically and electronically with each other in well-defined ways. Such a technology would not only be easier to build, but it would also be safer because it could not replicate and evolve. Unfortunately, because such a limited system could not replicate itself, it would not be "as cheap as dirt and sunshine", but latter we shall examine an avenue for keeping the cost from becoming prohibitively expensive.
Each individual nanomachine would be a robot similar in some ways to John Von Neumann kinetic model (the robot in a warehouse full its subcomponents) in that it would actively move in its physical surroundings. But it would also share many of the characteristics of his cellular automata (CA), in that the legal set of interactions between individual nanomachines would be limited. Such a compromise between his theoretically approachable CA (cellular automata) and his practical, but mathematically unwieldy, kinetic model might result in a workable solution. A popular instance of CA is exemplified by John Conboy's mathematical game of "Life", now a screen saver on many computers, and it gives an idea of what shapes are possible. In ordinary CA, the individual cells cannot move -- they can only change state -- and the pattern moves across the static array. However, some innovative designs allow individual cells (not just patterns) to move with respect to each other, allowing the physical system to change shape just like the virtual patterns do. Ultimately, such Kinematic Cellular Automata (KCA) would be implemented in the real world, and would therefore be subject to gravity, tensile strength limits, Newton's laws, friction, thermodynamics, and other manifestations of Murphy's law. Ideally, such massively parallel systems would actively respond to user requests, forming medium-sized structures such as chairs and houses, and medium-sized machines such as toasters, computers, and automobiles. When viewing such devices from the point of view of their many components, KCA (Kinematic Cellular Automata) is an appropriate term to use. However, from a point of view of the final object with which humans can interact in the real world, it makes more sense to emphasize the system, its size, and its changibility -- "Active MesoStructure" (AMS).
Bothered one day by a chaffing seat belt, J. Storrs Hall imagined how nanotechnology would replace it, and he ended up inventing Utility Fog. He imagined a user-friendly, completely programmable collection of avrogadro numbers of nanomachines that could form every kind of transportation, from horses to spaceships. It could simulate any material from gas, liquid, and solid, and it could implement the ultimate in virtual reality. Finally more speculative projections envision uploading human minds into planet-sized collections of Utility Fog. Before dismissing such speculations too quickly, it may be worthwhile to examine it closely for useful concepts that may be applied in the near term.
Hall provided an important baseline examination of the issues involved in the application and design of Utility Fog. Footnote1 He envisioned Utility Fog as an active polymorphic material designed as a conglomeration of 100-micron robotic cells, or foglets, built using molecular nanotechnology. An appropriate mass of Utility Fog could be programmed to simulate, to the same precision as measured by human senses, most of the physical properties, such as hardness, temperature, light, of any macroscopic object, including expected objects such as tables and fans, but also materials such as air and water. The major exceptions would be taste, smell, and transparency. To users, it would seem like the Star Trek Holodeck except that it would use atoms instead of holographic illusions.
Utility Fog could operate in two modes -- "native", and "fog". In "naive" mode, individual foglets would move into different positions and perform certain mechanical operations depending on what object it was forming. For example, if it was formed to be part of a table, then it would be motionless and locked. If the object was a fan, then most of the structure would remain locked, and only the foglets between the two parts would need to move. If the object was a galloping mechanical horse, then significant numbers of foglets would need to move around in a coordinated fashion, in response to user commands and environmental conditions. The saddle might use accelerometers or pressure sensors to actively cushion the shock for the rider, and might provide electric heating or microfan cooling to adjust the temperature. With a suit made of Fog, you might wrestle alligators, cheating a little by having the suit amplify your movements as it protects you from the alligator's teeth.
In "fog" mode, the foglets would not move, but act more like pixels on a television screen -- they would "pixelate". The foglets would vary other properties according to which part of the object they are representing, generally transmitting information and sound. A Fog-filled room would contain 90% air, and surround its occupant with a display screen with 100 micron resolution. Meanwhile, each liter of foglets behind the display would contain about a billion times the processing power of a 286 PC, making possible some pretty impressive virtual reality simulations. Mixing the modes would allow you to ride a "native" burro down a "fog" Grand Canyon (feeling every bump along the hot, sun-beaten path), or wrestle "native" alligators in "native" liquid in the "fog" Everglades, or fly a "native" airplane into a real thunderstorm at night and make it seem to the pilot like riding a "fog" Pegasus into that same thunderstorm during the day.
Figure 1. Foglet
Compared to a drexlerian assembler, foglets would be huge (100 microns), overpowered, and imprecise -- able to control their motions to about a tenth of a micron (one micron equals a millionth of a meter) instead of a tenth of a nanometer. The other main difference is that foglets won't control chemical reactions via mechanosynthesis, as dexlerian assemblers will. Each foglet consists of a central body with twelve telescoping and swiveling arms arranged as the faces of a dodecahedron
Each arm has a three-fingered locking gripper at its end, providing four degrees of freedom and a relatively rigid mechanical connection along with a precise optical and electrical interface for information and power transfer. Foglets run on electricity, and by telescoping their arms, could vary their density from less than cork to ivory. Presumably, the foglet body would be covered with red/green/blue LED film that would be activated while in "fog" mode.
By examining many of the engineering details in his design, Hall has found many interesting limitations to Utility Fog, and some work-arounds. He found that a pure diamond structure should not be employed, even though it would result in the maximum tensile strength of the components. This is because the very high surface area of carbon would make the Fog a fuel-air explosive. The solution is to build much of the foglet's structural exoskeleton out of aluminum oxide or quartz.
In "native" mode, things just can't appear out of thin air. It takes time to form objects. Since the foglet arms can extend and retract at rates of ten meters per second, a single sheet of foglets can move no faster than that. On the other hand, there is no reason for foglets to only move one sheet at a time, so formation times for objects can still be quite fast.
Another problem results because the arms extension and retraction rates do allow Fog to move at 100 meters per second (220 miles per hour) for each millimeter of thickness. This capability would only be possible if the motions of each individual arm generated almost no heat -- otherwise you would have another explosion on your hands (well, a meltdown, anyway). The solution is to use the movement of arms as generators as well as actuators, storing the excess mechanical energy in hydrogen gas buffers.
Packed Fog would only be as about strong as aluminum, and in that packed mode (with arms completely retracted), would not be dynamically polymorphic. In other words, even at it's strongest, it wouldn't make a very good knife, and it couldn't move without expanding first.
Since Fog would not interact at a molecular level, it could not chemically alter materials as in creating food. Eating Fog would be like eating sawdust. However, Fog could mediate chemical processes, like cooking, the same way a breadmaker does -- by mixing, stirring, and heating.
The components of the foglets themselves -- motors, computers, and communications, are all within the limits of conservative engineering principles. However, there are a number of scientific unknowns regarding many of the Fog claims, not to mention considerable engineering work. Ironically, the most difficult part of Fog is something we do pretty well now: software. It is not clear, for example, whether each foglet should be individually addressable. Also, the reliability issues of individual foglets, and of the entire system, have not been examined. Current computer networks can handle most cases of malfunctioning computers, but not all of them, and certainly no protocol can handle avrogadro numbers of nodes on a network. Physical removal of broken foglets is also difficult -- one can imagine a section of Fog getting progressively worse as pieces of broken foglets interlodge between the arms of working foglets, reducing performance, creating waste heat, and damaging more foglets. Finally, engineers will need to solve the little-understood problem of how to recognize when a distributed control system goes out of control, and what do about it.
One of the major problems with fog is that foglets are so complicated. Construction of a two dimensional fog-like system with more limited functionality would be much simpler than for regular Fog, and for economic reasons may provide an important pathway to true Fog. The dynamics of flow, including foglet positional detection and control, path planning, and gripper reconnection when arms and foglets are moving relative to each other are computationally daunting, so a simple two-dimensional Utility Film would never detach from its neighbors. Such a layer of filmlets could form an active membrane that could expand and contract, grind, wave, or sift while in "native" mode, or, while in "fog" mode, act very much like regular fog, pixelating input and outputting information. The applications would still be impressive: wall-sized television and computer displays with a 40,000 DPI resolution (including screensavers for decoration and sunlit scenes to provide room lighting), adjustable active membranes for actively filtering particulate industrial waste, engineless transportation surfaces, and surgical equipment).
Joseph Michael's Shape-Changing Robots
While Hall's foglets closely resemble TinkerToys(TM), another, more conservative KCA (kinematic cellular automata) is more similar to LEGO(TM) blocks. Joseph Michael envisions flexible robots that can flow through small openings as they work on a wide variety of tasks. Like Utility Fog, Michael's concept also involves at large numbers of individual machines, but instead of dodecahedral foglets with telescoping and swiveling arms, his paradigm is a simpler one consisting of solid bricks or cubes with retractable wedges. Michael has not only patented his flexible robot, but he has also built and tested models, and demonstrated them at trade shows. Footnote2
Michael defines his shape changing robot as "a finite resolution electromechanical device that acquires dynamically programmed geometric shapes though the use of computers to within the limits of the resolution imposed by the electromechanical mechanism and/or the software running on the computers". Figure 2 shows a docking between two shape changing robot satellites. To operate this mechanism, the top system extends a capture rod through the ring. Then the bottom system contracts the ring to ensure a solid contact between the two vehicles.
Figure 2. Two Shape Changing Robots
On land, the robotic systems would change shape by extending streamers made up of individual cubes onto which they transports themselves. Many streamers could be erected simultaneously, allowing rapid transportation of material (The Assembler published an early version of Michael's article last year, so we won't go into too much detail here).
Each computer controlled cube is identical to its neighbors, and contains sensors and electromechanical devices. It can move in the x, y, and z directions, receive and act in response to external instructions or sensor data, lock any of its faces to any of its six neighbors, receive and transmit power at any of the six faces, and communicate with any of its neighboring cubes via a standard network protocol.
There should be a minimum of one master computer issuing control messages to robotic cubes. The remaining robotic cubes should be slaves, receiving and executing instructions received through the networking ports.
Ideally, the instructions from the master computer would be at a high level, with submaster cubes calculating (in parallel) the lower level sub-instructions at a local level. Ideally, the master computer should be just another cube, so that in case of failure, another cube could take over. Each active cube should have, if not a full computer, at least a minimal controller that obeys instructions directed to it. It would not do any further computations other than send back acknowledgments and sensor overloads. Such a minimal controller would probably have about 1K RAM and 10K ROM.
Figure 3. Cube Face (wedges extended)
The mechanisms of movement are straightforward, as seen in Figures 3 and 4. One part of the mechanism consists of four 45 degree wedges that push out under computer control from each face. The wedges insert into complementary slots in the opposing face of another cube. When fully inserted, these wedges maintain a separation gap between the cubes, so that when the cubes slide, friction is minimized. Michael has tested wooden models and found them to be extremely strong when locked.
Figure 4. Wedge Mechanisms
The wedges are serrated, so that when pushed into an opposing slot, they are engaged by a gear wheel (effectively forming a rack and pinion) that can be driven by the opposing cube. The point about doing it this way is that the moved cube (the one with the wedges sticking out) is not powered up when it is moved. There are no sliding electrical contacts to wear out, and in the unusual circumstance of moving a powered cube, specialized cubes connected by an umbilical cord would be used as the interface between the powered cube and the rest of the system if that was the only power source. Most systems could have more than one power source, so that there is always power, even when one power pack is switched off in order to be transported around the structure.
Limitations of Michaels Shape-Changing Robot
Movement is only in the X, Y, and Z directions, and angular directions cannot be achieved, though for most applications, shape-changing could approximate it closely. For example, ordinary cubes could form a bucket, and while the contents could not be tipped out, the bottom could move aside, emptying the contents.
As with foglets, there are a number of unanswered questions to Michael's cubes: Because of Murphy's law, connections and mechanical devices eventually fail. What specific algorithm would individual cubes use to detect open and closed electrical circuits? How would a shape-changing robot decide that one of its cubes were defective in some way, and how would it get rid of it? How will the cubes deal with the dirt and mud prevalent in the real world?
Similar to foglets, software may also prove to be a serious roadblock, since some physical and computational tasks are easy to parallelize, while others are not. If they are not, then the master computer slows down from the sheer number of calculations, and the system is further slowed down by the bandwidth of the cubes, limiting the number of cubes that can move at any one time. Michael is currently working on a fractal operating system to address some of those issues.
Bishop's XY Active Cell Aggregate
Last quarter's issue of The Assembler described an interstellar explorer application designed from KCA developed by Forrest Bishop. His robotic "Shape Shifter" is an aggregation of similar, space-filling polyhedral machines, each capable of moving with respect to its adjoining neighbors, singly and in groups. While Michael has a practical, inventor's bent on KCA cells, Bishop's major contribution is of a more theoretical bent. He quickly realized that since the cubes would never rotate, the interfacing didn't have to be universal. Second, he differentiated between surfaces that slide parallel to each other, and surfaces that separate by simply pulling apart. In doing so, he was able to define a simplified XY cell that was a subset of an XYZ cell. Finally, he was able to categorize all the trajectories of a two-dimensional five-cube configuration, an important step in designing the control software. Footnote3
Movable Finite Automata
The artificial life conferences have generally concentrated on cellular automata and robotics, but Narendara Goel and Richard Thompson have devised a KCA-like hybrid in the search of building better models for understanding biological systems. Footnote4 They explored four models for self-organization in living systems:
1. Analogous models such as L-systems,
2. Physically realistic models, ultimately (and computationally ridiculously) attempting to solve Schrodinger's equation,
3. Reaction-Diffusion-Equation based models that represent various chemicals in three-dimensional space but don't represent the three-dimensional configuration of the individual molecules, and
4. CA models that lack physical realism but are readily analyzable and simulatable.
Out of these four, they developed a new class, best described as a hybrid between CA and biophysical models. These Movable Finite Automata (MFA) are finite state automata that undergo discrete changes in a step-by-step fashion, allowing them to move and interact with each other to achieve greater biophysical realism. They simulated this model (rather easily, since each cell is a finite state machine) to analyze the T4 bacteriophage, and were able to simulate T4 construction and behavior. Detailed experimentation showed that there were three important principles of self-assembly:
1. Subassembly -- subunits must be assembled in stages. For example, a unit consisting of 1000 subunits should proceed by assembling ten subunits into an intermediate grouping, and then ten of these into a bigger intermediate group. This is what happens in the industrial world, presumably for the same reasons: efficiency (parallel operations), reliability (bad intermediate groups can be discarded), and variety (one bolt can be used in many mechanisms).
2. Minimization of Free Energy -- The thermodynamics must drive the arrangement and keep it from backing up.
3. Sequential Assembly and Conformational Switching --
The shape of the subunits naturally permits only one series of steps for assembly.
Comparing and Contrasting KCAs
All KCAs face similar design challenges, especially in mass manufacturing and software control.
Unlike foglets, cubes cannot change their density by extending or retracting telescoping arms. For the same reason, they are denser and stronger. Also, the simplified design of cubes makes it impossible for the AMS which they comprise to rotate on an axis. On the other hand, this same simplified design makes it much easier to build cubes than foglets, making it more of a near-term engineering reality. Cubes won't have to worry, as foglets must, about sharing a precise coordinate system with neighbors, or kinematically sensing twelve arm positions, or visually sensing objects that these arms may destructively or unexpectedly encounter.
Hall envisioned his foglets at a molecular level, and realized that the design would work even if the foglets were a thousand times bigger. Michael started from the macro world of flexible robots, and realized that they could be made at nanoscales.
Personally, I consider Hall foglets the DeLorean of KCA -- a great design, but too far ahead of its time. Michael and Bishop cubes, on the other hand, I consider the DOS of KCA - I hate some if their limitations, but its the one to bet on.
Currently, most machines are built out of many different parts. The classical robot, for example, consists of thousands of mechanical and electrical parts, and only a few of those are the same. In an assembly line, identical parts are manufactured that can be interchanged between the products in which the parts end up. DFM (Design For Manufacturability) tries to improve on that practice by reducing the parts count and part types count. Parallel machines simply take these concepts to the logical extreme -- they are composed of mostly identical parts. An abacus, a memory chip, a massively parallel computer, a geodesic structure, a molecular sieve, and a railroad track are some examples. Many children toys such as Lincoln Logs(TM)), Erector Sets(TM), and LEGOs(TM) are also minimal parts type examples. Note that there is a Tinker Toy(TM) mechanism at MIT that can play Tic-Tac-Toe, so even the simplest units can exhibit very complex behavior when configured properly.
It does not matter if the basic unit part is primitive. Muscle cells can only contract; they have 1/2 degree of motion, but collectively they power the human hand, which is still beyond any existing human-made machine's capability. Given the goal of a parallel machine that can actively shape itself into arbitrary three dimensional forms, what are the minimal requirements for a basic unit? Are there any other capabilities we can get for no additional cost?
Any useful AMS is going to require thousands, if not trillions, of the basic unit. This cost would greatly exceed building with normal multi-part methods. But one has to remember the economies of mass production. Designing and building the first basic units would be expensive. But once they were in mass production the cost would plummet down to the milicent level. Just like the ICs that individually would cost more than the entire computer they are a part of, the more one builds, the cheaper they are to produce. Since there would only be one kind of basic unit that could be used to build numerous different kinds of things, we would be manufacturing more of them than any part made today.
Programming such a massively parallel machine is not easy. However, software and hardware technologies have made advances that promise to harness computer power to solve problems by using many inexpensive processors instead of one extremely powerful (and expensive) processor. Three avenues have been explored: SMP (Symmetric MultiProcessors), MMP (Massively Parallel Processors), and NOW (Networks of Workstations). SMPs have enjoyed some commercial success, but they have severe scaling problems. While MMPs and NOWs have problems, it appears that a well-designed hybrid of the two would eliminate the deficiencies of both. This hybrid, known as LAMP (Local Area MultiProcessor) shares a more intimate connection than a LAN, with shared memory and very efficient message passing. A LAMP implementation must possess a number of important properties:, including salability, a standardized interface, minimum latency , coherence, atomic operations, synchronization, starvation and deadlock avoidance, interconnect independence, generalized I/O and processors, and broadcast and multicast features.
One of the promising implementations of LAMP is ANSI/IEEE Standard 1596 Scaleable Coherent Interface Footnote5. There are rumors that Silicon Graphics is working on a prototype.
Research in Artificial Life has shown that complex behavior can be generated relatively easily, though sometimes the results are unexpected. Many interesting shapes have been generated in CA arrays and related systems. In addition to Conway's Life, one of the best research areas are known as L-systems, or Lindenmayer systems Footnote6 which have "grown" very realistic looking biological structures such as plants and more efficient biological imitations (such as neural networks Footnote7) from simple mathematical algorithms. L-systems are a mathematical construct that can be viewed as a special class of fractals, and are based on a parallel string rewriting mechanism. The resulting strings, after repeatedly applying production rules on an initial axiom, can be interpreted in such a way that the results are line drawings that look like trees. Turtle graphics are a popular implementation of L-systems, in which only four commands and a stack are necessary for very complex results.
The advantages of L-systems fit in well with massively parallel systems:
1. Sparse coding: Very few rules can produce very complex behaviors and shapes.
2. Salability: Arbitrarily large architectures can easily develop from small ones.
3. Modularity: The same production rules can be applied many times in the growth process, resulting in multiple application of efficient subsystems.
4. As a blind imitation of biology, L-systems provide some unknown design principles.
Another way of thinking about parallelizing behavior in cells involves a broadcast approach. These schemes are useful if the assemblers can blindly follow linear instructions, and would work for large numbers of cells floating in a vat of an appropriate liquid. The mode of broadcast could be varied -- they may consist of chemical chains which would be dumped into the vat of assemblers, or as Drexler has suggested, acoustic signals at some reasonable data rate (a megabit per second is technically unchallenging and should suffice). Footnote8
For example, the following process could be followed: Designate a single cell, called the "seed," to have the coordinates 0,0,0. Any cell that comes into contact with the seed is given coordinates from the seed based on its location with respect to the seed. Note that it is not even necessary to determine a global coordinate system, for the cell orientation will determine the final global orientation. However, the seed could obtain its orientation from the boundaries of the system. A simplifying assumptions would be that each cell is mechanically constructed as a cube, so that it can bind to six adjacent cells that are located on the faces of a cube centered around it. It can transmit information to or receive information from these cells. When two arbitrary cells connect, they can either remain connected or disconnect again. Normally, when they are in solution, two cells will disconnect. If, however, an cell connects to the seed, it will remain connected, and obtain its coordinates from its new neighbor. These coordinates will let the newly joined cell determine its distance from the seed. Cells that are farther from the seed than this distance will then disconnect, while those that are closer than this distance will remain connected. Thus the growth of the cluster of cells will be limited as most of the cluster is filled in before the size of the cluster is increased. Periodically, the current diameter is increased and broadcast to all the cells. Note that a variety of distance metrics are feasible, so the resulting "sphere" of cells can be any of a variety of shapes.
This algorithm will permit the growth of a cluster of cells, and will assign coordinates to each cell. Broadcast transmissions can then address individual cells or arbitrary groups of cells. The obvious limitations of this algorithm are growth rate (each layer, one cell thick or on the order of one micron thick, will take some fixed period of time to grow) and the handling of errors.
The most pernicious errors are caused by erroneous coordinates that are spread throughout the cluster. Local voting algorithms, however, can reduce the probability of this sort of failure to an acceptable level. A simple voting algorithm would have each cell adopt as its own coordinate the coordinate agreed to by a majority of the cells in the vicinity. An cell in disagreement with those in its vicinity would be isolated.
Once a sufficiently large cluster has been formed, the broadcast information can be used to specify which groups of cells are to build what substructures. As each cell knows its own coordinates, it could listen to the appropriate part of the broadcast and ignore the rest. (Anyone familiar with the SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) architecture will recognize the approach). Provided that the structural complexity of the object is not excessive, the relatively slow broadcast information will be sufficient to describe it. At a megabit per second, 3.6 gigabits of data can be broadcast in an hour, so the structure would have to be very complex before this approach would fail.
If the growth rate of the cluster is too slow, multi-cluster algorithms which grow several clusters simultaneously can be adopted. Such algorithms would then have to merge clusters, just as the algorithm described was able to merge individual cells. Hierarchical algorithms that merge clusters of clusters, clusters of clusters of clusters, and so forth are feasible and should improve growth rates. Footnote9
The mega-clustering approach leads to a third way of thinking about parallel programming, convergent assembly. Such a hierarchical view is analogous to the software technique of using subroutines to handle subtasks. It is also analogous to the traditional view of an organization. The idea is to use local, semi-autonomous control (a clock is necessary for coordination purposes) to assemble small components using small positional devices, and in their turn are assembled into larger components by larger positional devices. Such a series of steps allows the construction of large systems with very high precision without the necessity of directly coordinating large numbers of autonomous cells.
All the above approaches to controlling massively parallel systems depend on deterministic, completely controllable systems. Agoric systems (see Drexler) are one example that go against this mode. Distributed building is another, for which a formal model was inspired by the observation of wasp colonies. Algorithms have been obtained that allow a swarm of simple agents, moving randomly on a three-dimensional cubic lattice, to build coherent structures.
Individual insects generally possess a limited behavioral repertoire, but social insects are collectively capable of performing complex tasks, such as nest building, through the direct or indirect interactions taking place between individuals. In many cases, the structuration of the environment caused by the colony's activities structures in turn individual behaviors, in a process that Grasse' coined stigmergy. He showed that task coordination and regulation of the building activity in termites do not depend on inter-actions between the workers themselves but are mainly achieved by the nest structure: Individual behaviors are controlled and guided by previous work. Every time a worker takes a building action, it modifies the local configuration that triggered its building action. The new configuration then automatically stimulates new actions from any worker in the colony. Footnote10
MNT vs. KCA
KCA cells would be easier to design and control than drexlerian assemblers because each KCA cell has a very restricted set of capabilities, while an assembler could recognize and manipulate any atom, in addition to making or breaking any chemical bond between any two or more atoms. Even if only a limited subset of this desired mechanochemosynthesis capability is achieved, the enormous number of possibilities are overwhelming to the control system, and the human programmer designing it. In contrast, KCA capabilities are much simpler. Therefore KCA are much easier to understand, design, and control.
The restricted capabilities of KCA form a useful intermediate layer between molecular manufacturing and macroscopic applications. KCA are more energy efficient in reshaping macroscopic structures than drexlerian assemblers because they move cells and information, and they don't form or break chemical bonds. They are also more computationally efficient than reshaping objects at the molecular level because they move atoms in cell size or multi-cell size chunks, rather than explicitly specifying the position of every atom. They have lower design costs than molecular manufacturing, though at reduced capabilities for the final product (e.g. tensile strength). KCA relates to molecular manufacturing as a field programmable gate array relates to a custom integrated circuit, or as an interpreter relates to a compiler. They all cut design costs at the cost of reducing some other desirable characteristic of the product.
KCA and Self-Replication
As far as MMSG is concerned, the goal is to build self-replicating lunar and extraterrestrial factories for developing Space for humanity. One implementation is described in the 1980 NASA/ Santa Clara Summer study. KCA is not designed to self-replicate, but an analysis of how it would need to be expanded to include that capability is instructive. Even in an environment full of large subcomponents, Michael's cells are about as useful as bulldozers, though a set of fractal cubes decreasing in size could build all but the smallest cubes. But then how are the smallest cubes built?
I believe that making KCAs self-replicate in the wild is impossible without MNT. While I was working on my master's thesis, Self-Test: From Simple Circuits to Self-replicating Automata, I found that an essential ingredient of self-testing is the hallmark of the "conquer and divide" strategy used by engineers and technicians everywhere -- before you can test an entire system, you must test its subcomponents. And the subcomponent's sub-sub-components, etc. How does one test, clean, and repair a macro-scale refining complex? In the course of writing my thesis, I found myself doing chemistry instead of electrical engineering (which is what my master's was in), so I gave up temporarily and turned to the comfortable world of self-replicating and self-modifying software. At the Houston ISDC, I complained to Eric Drexler about my problem. In his characteristic dry wit, he said, "God has pretty good quality control on atoms." The point is, mountains, rivers, and planets don't process information, metabolize matter and energy, maintain homeostasis, and self-replicate, because they can't adequately test, repair, and otherwise manipulate their smallest subcomponents. Carbon-based lifeforms from Earth can do all those things because they test and repair themselves down to the ultimate subcomponent level -- atoms. Present day factories seem to replicate, as do the robots building other robots in Japan because they are tended by atomically precise mechanisms -- humans.
On the other hand, John Von Neumann also did some work on probability automata -- i.e. robots with components that would fail occasionally. So it might actually be possible to build a macro-based self-rep system in the disordered world. But I suspect that it would be a lot more complicated than a nanoscale system.
Integrated Circuits have a concept of "scaleable device pairs" in which the imprecise masking process may make the capacitor twice as large, but there is a compensating inductor whose value (because of the configuration, geometry, and the physical dependencies) automatically becomes half as large, so the total impedance remains the same. I am uncomfortable with this concept because it means that the parts are not interchangeable, though the micromechanical people are trying to implement such a scheme. I think it will work for them because the parts that operate with each other are manufactured together. But in essence, that is really a type of craftsmanship, not manufacturing. My point is that when you start making relatively small things such as in microtech, then an extra layer of atoms can make a big difference, and these differences keep the parts from being interchangeable. The opposite tack, of achieving self-replication making the parts really big, sounds nice because then they're easier to work with, but the problem is that you're going to need about a billion subcomponents (Von Neumann's estimate). A billion of any macro object, even at 2 cents a pound, is expensive. Plus really heavy things have to start worrying about gravity effects, just as really small things have to worry about static cling and surface tension (Editor's note: Next month's issue will contain a lot of counter-arguments by Frietas and Francis on this section).
But what about actually building KCA? To build trillions of them, isn't self-replication necessary? Even at a penny each, a thimbleful of 100 micron cells would cost $1013! On the other hand, electronic switches (tubes) at one time cost a few dollars each, but you can now buy 1 MB RAMs for $50, or four thousandths of a cent per electronic switch (transistor). Unfortunately, even at that price, KCA is pretty expensive for almost all applications. However, harvesting the results of three stages of bootstrapping, none of which involve universal assemblers, may lower the cost enough for commercial viability.
The approach is to work the problem backwards in the form of a simplified needs analysis: Envision a membrane with raw materials on one side and a solid mass of KCA cells pouring out the other side. The problem reduces to designing the membrane that does this assembly process. This membrane is an array of single-purpose nanomachines -- they make only KCA cells. This array would in turn be manufactured one line at a time by a long filament of connected, single-purpose nanomachines. And each of these is in turn manufactured by a third type of single-purpose machine. Let's take a look at the process in more detail, in the actual order of manufacture.
We would start with a single master nanomachine, called a MasterMaker(MM), which would need to be built by any means possible (almost by hand, at first, but at the IBM rate of 7 atoms/hour, it could really use some pre-assembled parts, such as Merkle bearings made by bioengineered self-assembly, etched nanolithography, bulk chemistry, or some combination). MasterMakers could only do one thing: out of a supply of atomically precise raw materials, build a repetitive string of connected, limited capability, nanomachines -- an assembly line. Practically, you would need a number of these MasterMakers working in parallel, each building assembly lines, called NanoLines (NL), which you would then connect into a meter-long filament, using a small number of special-purpose LineConnecters (LC), whose only ability lies in identifying, manipulating, and connecting segments of NanoLine (NL). These LineConnectors (LC) would also need to be made by hand from pre-assembled parts, the same way MasterMakers would be.
Figure 7. Three MasterMakers (MM) are generating three NanoLine(NL) filaments toward the right (raw component feed not shown).
Figure 8. A LineConnector (LC) is connecting two NanoLines (NL) segments (raw component feed not shown).
A NanoLine (NL) would be a filament of connected nanomachines, a one-dimensional hybrid between MasterMaker (MM) and AMS cell. A NanoLine could do only one thing -- assemble atomically precise raw materials into a third type of nanomachine, a GenGrid (GG).
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Figure 9. NanoLine(NL) building a GenGrid(GG) downward.
The GenGrid (GG) would be a precise web of connected nanomachines; an atomically precise film which is also a two-dimensional network of kinetic/cellular automata -- a two-dimensional hybrid between MasterMaker (MM) and the KCA cells. To achieve any reasonable level of production, you would need a number of NanoLines(NL), each creating small patches of GenGrids that would be later pieced together (by GridConnectors(GC), of course) into any size of the membrane mentioned earlier).
Finally, the GenGrid(GG) takes atomically precise raw materials from one side of the film and extrudes a constant solid of connected KCA cells on the other side. Again, you probably want lots of GenGrids working in parallel, but connecting slices of AMS would not necessitate any connectors, since the KCA cells would already contain that programmable connection functionality.
One problem with this manufacturing method is that any design change in the KCA cells necessitates design changes in all of the machines. It means designing the MasterMaker by specifying the GenGrid and then working backwards two more steps. This means that the entire process needs to be adequately modeled before production begins.
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Figure 10. Two GenGrid (GG) patches being zipped together by a GridConnector (GC), which is moving to the right.
Unresolved KCA Issues
During KCA operation, how do we identify malfunctioning cells and how do we get rid of them?
Condition 1: Self-test fails. The unit sends out an message to surrounding units (UNCLEAN!) and they cooperate to squeeze it out like a seed from a ripe melon. Obviously this capability requires a good self test program, a neighborhood judgment program, and the ability to coordinate a rejection (the last is the most difficult technically right now - we even have problems getting a two-handed robot to shake hands with itself!).
Condition 2: Self-test passes, but the unit is not responding correctly. One way to catch this error is with handshaking algorithms that look ahead and pass back N units, and then make coordinated decisions. Again, this is a difficult technical problem, but some of the Internet message-transmission protocols might be good starting points.
Another problem has to do with the user interface. Software developers still disagree over the relative merits of keyboards and mice. Haptic interfaces, datagloves, and other devices from the VR world complexify the issue. Other than "artsy'" types who want something to stick out and grab attention, developers have found that users prefer a standardized "look and feel" for similar functionality (i.e. file selection, copy and paste, etc.). Fortunately, standardized interfaces mean that developers can use lots of pre-coded libraries of subroutines, making development of such new software much easier.
With KCA cells in the nanometer range, an AMS begins to approximate programmable material, which is the hardware equivalent of computer software. This means that, as in computers, only the software needs to be changed for different applications. Imagine buying a different computer for each piece of software you run! But that is how most machines are viewed today.
Philip Witham has pointed out that no one basic cell could handle all possible applications of an AMS. It would seem unlikely that an application requiring ultimate unidirectional strength/volume ratio and a small range of motion would be composed of the same basic units that one would use for NanofluffTM (the ultimate in pillow stuffing material! Sleep on a cloud tonight!). On the other hand, if the surface sensors were accurate enough, if there was enough raw material to reach a total range of motion measured in inches, and if the software equalized the loads fast enough, the average person probably couldn't tell the difference (but it would scare me to have a pillow fight with something that has the tensile strength of silicon carbide, even if it feels like a pillow and I could lift it). There are undoubtedly many applications in which specialization produces capability benefits that a general-purpose mechanism simply cannot attain. For example, turbine blades might change shape slowly to optimize efficiency in an oxidizing environment at red hot temperatures, while a Pluto Lander might scurry around at cryonic temperatures on ever-changing pseudo-pods. Footnote11 It is highly unlikely that they would use the same actuating mechanisms, but they might use the same mechanical geometries, data communication protocols, system architectures, and internal software.
Specialized cells could extend capabilities not found normally, though they would use the same design principles, and interface with standard cells. With these special cells, an AMS could transfer very large amounts of electric power, high pressure fluids or vacuum, bear very heavy loads, or apply very high forces. With a standardized interface, non-cell specialized tools could also be incorporated to extend the working envelope of an AMS even further, making possible the synthesis of almost any kind of machine.
Every launch of any vehicle into space could be an AMS, with any extra cells placed into parking orbits in space. When a need arises, such as the need to expand a space station, the supply of cells would be instructed to reform into an unpressurized module, with specialized cells added to enable pressurization. Or the cells could be transformed into a space vehicle (with the addition of specialized propulsion and navigation modules) and sent to the Moon. As it neared its destination, it could again change shape from an extra-orbital vehicle to one more suited to a lunar landing. On landing, it could be turned into a lunar base. Such a capability would reduce the cost of everything. If there was a rough landing, most of the cells would probably survive, with minimal impact on mission performance.
Many visionaries on sci.nanotech and in the Extropian community have come up with imaginative applications for KCA. Just as Werner Von Braun was inspired by Jules Vernes, and current cyberspace implimenters were inspired by William Gibson, so nanotech enthusiasts might be challenged into building an AMS by the imagination of storytellers who are unaware of technological details or limitations.
Applications will become limited only by the laws of physics and human imagination. The T-1000 robot of Terminator 2 may inspire possibilities. To survive the last scene, for example:
u Balance sensor and accelerometers in the undamaged areas of the robot would have sensed that it was about to fall, and a pre-programmed panic sequence would have order a lowering of the center of balance, and an extrusion of micro or macro hooks from the feet into the floor.
u The same sensors could have detected the weightlessness of falling, and the pre-programmed panic sequence could then have ordered the T-1000 cells to form into a parachute. The hot air rising from the molten steel would have lifted it up out of harm's way.
u Depending on how much central control would be required (in the director's cut, it was obvious that the T-1000 was damaged and degrading fast) -- it could have sprouted wings and glided to a safe point.
u At contact with the molten steel, temperature sensors would actuate a pre-programmed panic sequence to quickly change the silicon dioxide cells at its surface into a configuration that traps lots of air (with the same material and similar microstructure as space shuttle tiles, they would have the same heat insulation qualities).
u Significant portions of the robot's exterior cells could have been made of some refractory that could handle high temperatures, at least for a little while. Molten steel is quite dense, and that the robot was obviously not made of solid polymetal (otherwise it's weight would have broken through most transportation vehicles, second-story floors, elevators, etc.), it could have simply walked on the surface out of the vat.
u Dissipate the energy of bullets over time and distance. Force mechanisms could keep the interconnection mechanisms between cells from damage by disconnecting whenever the strain got too high. At a macro level, it would have seemed like shooting at jello. Actually, this is what seemed to be happening somewhat in the movie, though rather imperfectly, since the bullets shouldn't have deformed. In an explosion, the flame front moves faster than the speed of sound, but its still slower than electrons, so bigger explosions and bigger bullets shouldn't make much difference. A railgun, or nuclear explosion, on the other hand...
u Currently available radar could have detected the incoming explosive bullet with enough accuracy to predict its trajectory, and portions of the T-1000 in that path would have simply slid aside to allow the bullet through unimpeded (therefore, the kinetic energy of the bullet would not need to be dissipated) .
u The robot could have included a MasterMaker description as part of its structure, so it could have used the existing industrial infrastructure to build a Master Maker, NanoLines, GenGrids, to essentially self-replicate (say, a few hundred times) and overwhelmed any non-replicating force.
There is no question that some form of KCA is coming, whether of the flavor of foglets, cubes, MFAs, or some other generalized cells, is coming. There is also no question that before the development of drexlerian assemblers, they will have a tremendous impact on our lives. Almost any software made for Virtual Reality can probably be implemented physically in KCA. The cinematic dreams and horrors on movie screens can become real at the touch of a button. The Mighty Morphin Power Ranger's Dinozords and the Terminator T-1000 robots will become commonplace. In such an environment, what will be unusual? What will be safe?
At current rates of electronic miniaturization, increases in computing power and speed, and decreases in computing and memory costs, across technologies, it is reasonable to expect that 2010 will see the commercial production of tools that will enable the first MasterMakers(MM) to be built.
Thanks to Matthew Jones for asking the right questions at the right time. And thanks to J. Storrs Hall, Joseph Michael, Forrest Bishop, Jerry Aguirre, Steven C. Vetter, Philip Witham, and Jeffrey Soreff for suggestions and constructive criticism.
J. Storrs Hall, Utility Fog, Extropy, 3rd (Part 1) and 4th quarter(Part 2), 1994. (There is also a chapter about Utility Fog in Nanotechnology: Molecular Speculation on Global Abundance, B.C. Crandall, ed., MIT Press).
UK Patent #94004227.2, Joseph Michael, Shape Changing Robots, Word file confer1.doc, available via anonymous ftp from ftp.demon.co.uk in directory /pub/ibmpc/graphics/pm, compressed in file pm6.zip.
Forrest Bishop, www.speakeasy.org/~forrestb and "Shape-Shifting Matter: Self-replicating Interstellar Nanoprobes, Drexler Universal Assemblers", NanoTechnology Magazine, April 1996, Vol 2, No. 4.
Goel and Thompson, Movable Finite Automata (MFA): A New Tool for Computer Modeling of Living Systems", Artificial Life, 1987 Proceedings, Christopher Langton, editor, Volume VI, Santa Fe Institute, Addison Wesley
anonymous ftp from butler.hpl.hp.com in directory /pub/sci/ in postscript file SCIintro9502.ps.gz
P. Prusinkiewicz and A. Lindenmayer, Algorithmic Beauty of Plants.
Egbert Boers and Herman Kuiper, Biological metaphors and the design of modular artificial neural networks, Master's thesis, Leiden University, Netherlands, and E.J.W. Boers, H. Kuiper, B.L.M. Happel and I.G. Sprinkhuizen-Kuyper. ``Designing modular artificial neural networks.'' TR 93-24, Leiden University, Netherlands, September 1993.
see page 472 of Drexler's Nanosystems for an analysis of acoustic transmission schemes.
Ralph C. Merkle, Nanocritics, http://nano.xerox.com/nanotech/nanocritics.html.
Guy Theraulaz and Eric Bonabeau, "Coordination in Distributed Building", Science, Vol 269, 4 Aug 1995.
Philip Witham, personal communication via Internet, Mon, 30 May 1994 20:30:52 GMT, in response to sci.nanotech post on Active Structures.
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| 0.942303 | 11,479 | 2.765625 | 3 |
The Enforcement Acts
in the United States
were four acts passed from 1870 to 1871 that were meant to protect rights of all blacks following ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
as part of Reconstruction
, which entitled freedmen and all others born in the United States to full citizenship.
The first act protected black voting by prohibiting the use of violence to prevent blacks from voting. Another provided for federal supervision of southern elections. The Ku Klux Klan Act
passed in 1871 strengthened sanctions against those who attacked freedmen or prevented them from voting. By making such activities a federal crime, if states failed to protect freedmen, the federal government could intervene with troops on their behalf. It allowed the government to suspend habeas corpus
. Intended to suppress the Klan, the KKK act helped reduce violence against freedmen for a time.
Relates to the Supreme Court case Ex parte Yarbrough
- Facts of the Case:
The Enforcement Act of 1870, which targeted the violence caused by the Ku Klux Klan in the post-Civil War South, prohibited the use of violence or intimidation to prevent freedmen from voting. In 1883, eight Georgia men, including Dilmus, James, Jasper, and Neal Yarbrough, were charged under the Enforcement Act with intimidating Berry Saunders, an African American, to prevent him from voting in the 1882 congressional election. The eight were convicted and sentenced to two years in prison. Following... Read More
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en
| 0.95814 | 299 | 3.953125 | 4 |
Indicating that Menes was the first pharaoh of Egypt is a controversial subject and continues to be a highly debated subject. In fact, some Egyptian books mention that Narmer was the first pharaoh and this theory is also accepted today. Yet others say that Menes and Narmer was one and the same person. But due to some historical documents and more current theories, there are experts that insist on giving this title to Menes. Although there is a disagreement among experts as to which of these men was the first pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, it should be noted that there were other pharaohs before Menes and Narmer but not much is known about them. So with all this information at hand, who was the first pharaoh to rule Egypt?
It is important to note there is no real evidence of who actually ruled Egypt first, but rather it’s a conjecture from experts. It is theories that have been piecemealed from information that is minimal. There is no tomb, no monument, or no mummy that proves that Menes was the first pharaoh to rule Egypt. In fact, most of what our modern society relies upon for the first pharaoh came from the Ptolemaic time era, around 300 BC and an ancient list of pharaohs discovered in Egypt. The first pharaoh is believed to have started their reign around 3100 BC, roughly three thousand years before the Ptolemaic era. Three thousand years is a huge span of time and information could have easily been altered and changed; especially due to the fact that most pharaohs tried to erase and outdo a previous pharaoh’s accomplishments before them.
So why is Menes often given the title of being the first pharaoh? This can be attributed to the Turin King List, a document discovered in Luxor that lists all the kings in chronological order. The other account of proclaiming the first pharaoh is from Manetho, a historian of Egypt from the Ptolemaic era. According to these two sources Menes is the first king of Egypt. It is said that Menes united Upper and Lower Egypt and for this reason he becomes a prominent figure and therefore given the title of first pharaoh by many experts.
So how did Narmer become known as the first pharaoh if Menes holds this title? Narmer came to light during a major discovery in 1898 by James Edward Quibell. The discovery was a stone carving known as the Narmer Palette. Once discovered and examined, it changed many modern historians and Egyptologist’s perception about who ruled Egypt first.
The palette showcased Narmer on both sides. One side shows the king wearing the crown of Upper Egypt and defeating his enemy. On this side, the king is shown at war with his opponents. This is expressed by the king holding a battle mace and him standing over his enemies. To aid him in his conquest, Horus sits upon a bed of papyrus reeds which also gives credence to his god-like affiliation with power and deities.
On the other side of the Narmer Palette, King Narmer is depicted wearing the crown of Lower Egypt. The king is also shown taking control of Lower Egypt with his enemies being crushed. Four small men carry the insignia of Lower Egypt while walking with Narmer. This suggests that the king has control and dominance over the region.
Also, depicted on the same side, is a picture of two long-necked lions that have their heads intertwined. Two serpents are forcing them to stay intertwined which some experts interpret this as a symbol of the unification of the two lands.
This palette discovery further confused the question of who actually was the first pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. Many Ancient Egyptian documents point to Menes while this one palette points to Narmer. Both men have been attributed to uniting Egypt, and for this reason, some historians believe Menes and Narmer are the same king.
There were other kings before Menes and Narmer; however, as mentioned above, they are not as well known with the exception of the Scorpion King. These kings reigned during the first period of Egypt known today as the Predynastic Period or the Prehistoric Period of Egypt.
According to the Palermo stone, the pharaohs in Lower Egypt were Hsekiu, Khayu, Tiu, Thesh, Neheb, Wazner, and Mekh. This stone documented the kings from the Predynastic times to the Old Kingdom.
The kings of Upper Egypt during the Predynastic Period were believed to be Scorpion I, Iry-Hor, Ka, and King Scorpion. Many experts do not consider these kings as true pharaohs because of the notion that to be given this kingly title, they had to unite both the Lower and Upper regions of Ancient Egypt.
During the Predynastic Period, Egypt was divided into several regions making the region volatile and chaotic and most likely very difficult to unite. However, due to ancient texts documenting Menes as reigning in both Upper and Lower Egypt, he is then given the honor of unifier and probably why many experts consider him as the first pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.
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Almost every home gets mold. We'll show you how to identify mold and eliminate the small infestations, as well as the big ones that have gotten out of hand.
Mold is a major-league nuisance. It blackens the grout lines in your shower, discolors drywall, shows up as black spots on siding, darkens decks, and grows on and rots damp wood everywhere. Even worse, it can be bad for your health. It releases microscopic spores that cause allergic reactions, runny noses and sneezing, as well as irritating, even injurious, odors.
Almost every home gets mold infestations. The trick is to stop them before they get big and harm both you and your home. In this article, we'll show you how to identify mold and eliminate the small infestations as well as the big ones that have gotten out of hand.
You can easily remove minor mold with ordinary household cleaning products. But disturbing big infestations can be bad for your health, particularly if you are an allergy sufferer or have a weakened immune system. When you discover an extensive mold problem, we recommend that you use the rigorous protective measures we show in Photos 1 - 6, or consider calling in a professional to handle the problem. (Look under “Industrial Hygiene Consultants” or “Environmental and Ecological Consultants” in your Yellow Pages. Or call your local public health department.) And even if you hire pros, read through this article and make sure they follow similar precautions to keep the mold from spreading throughout your house.
A few types of mold are highly toxic. If you have an allergic reaction to mold or a heavy infestation inside your home, call in a pro to analyze the types. Or call tour local public heath department and ask for mold-testing advice.
Mold is everywhere. It's a type of fungus that grows from tiny spores that float in the air. It can grow almost anywhere that spores land and find moisture and a comfortable temperature, between 40 and 100 degrees F. Typically that includes about every damp place in your home.
You can easily spot the most visible type of mold, called mildew, which begins as tiny, usually black spots but often grows into larger colonies. It's the black stuff you see in the grout lines in your shower, on damp walls, and outdoors on the surfaces of deck boards and painted siding, especially in damp and shady areas. A mildewed surface is often difficult to distinguish from a dirty one. To test for mildew, simply dab a few drops of household bleach on the blackened area. If it lightens after one to two minutes, you have mildew. If the area remains dark, you probably have dirt.
Mildew is a surface type of mold that won't damage your home's structure. But other types of mold cause rot. Probe the suspect area with a screwdriver or other sharp tool (Photo 3). If the wood is soft or crumbles, the fungi have taken hold and rot has begun.
If you have a high concentration of mold, you may smell it. If you detect the typical musty odor, check for mold on damp carpets, damp walls, damp crawlspaces and wet wood under your floors, wet roof sheathing and other damp areas. Clean up these infestations right away before they get worse, and see the following photos for prevention measures.
Cut stained or musty carpet and pads into 6 x 8-ft. sections with a utility knife. Using a pump sprayer, mist the surfaces with water to control the spread of spores, and roll up the sections. Double-wrap them in 6-mil plastic and tape them with duct tape for disposal. Wear protective clothing and run an exhaust fan in the window.
Seal the room from the rest of the house. Cover the doorway with a barrier made of overlapping plastic sheeting and tape it to the wall and floor. Cover all air ducts in the room with plastic and tape.
Pry off baseboards and trim from contaminated areas with a pry bar and block of wood. Probe heavily stained or moisture-swollen walls using a screwdriver to discover and open up moisture damage and hidden mold in the insulation and wall framing.
Turn off the electrical power to the room and cut open the damaged wall with a reciprocating saw, drywall saw or utility knife. Mist the moldy drywall and insulation with the pump sprayer to avoid spreading mold spores. Double-bag moldy material in heavy-duty plastic bags and tie them shut.
You can scrub away the surface mold common to bathrooms, decks and siding in a matter of minutes with a 1-to-8 bleach/water solution. But often mold grows and spreads in places you don't notice, until you spot surface staining, feel mushy drywall or detect that musty smell.
If you have to remove mold concentrations covering more than a few square feet, where the musty odor is strong or where you find extensive water damage, we recommend that you take special precautions. You want to not only avoid contaminating the rest of the house but also protect yourself from breathing high concentrations of spores and VOCs.
Moisture damage and large mold infestations go hand in hand. Photos 1 - 7 demonstrate cleaning under an old leaky window where wind-driven rain frequently got into the wall and gave mold a foothold.
You have to open up the wall to get at the mold growing inside (Photo 4). Since you have to repair the wall anyway, don't hesitate to cut the drywall back beyond the obvious damage to find all the mold and let the wall dry out. To avoid cutting electrical wires, poke a hole through the damaged section and locate the wires first. Turn off the power to the outlets before you cut.
If the moisture damage has been neglected or gone unnoticed for long, you're likely to find rot. Where possible, remove and replace soft, spongy studs and wall sheathing. Where removal is difficult, treat the affected areas with a wood preservative (available at home centers), after cleaning the wood and allowing it to dry. Then double up rotted members with pressure-treated wood.
The key to stopping most mold is to control dampness. The worst infestations usually occur in damp crawlspaces, in attics and walls where water has leaked in from the outside, and in basements with poor foundation drainage. Stopping leaks, ensuring good ventilation in attics, keeping crawlspaces dry and routing water away from the foundation are the best defenses.
Mildewcide in paint is usually effective for controlling surface mold in damp rooms like bathrooms and outside in shady areas. Many paints already have mildewcide in them. Check with your paint dealer to be sure. You can add mildewcide, although you might void the paint warranty.
Vacuum up moldy debris with a standard wet/dry vacuum. Buy an extra length of hose and run it out the window so you can keep the vacuum outside to avoid further spore spread.
Scrub the surface mold stains from walls and wood trim with a mixture of 1 qt. water and 1/2 cup bleach to kill the mold. Use a soft brush and work until signs of the mold disappear.
Wipe off, but DO NOT RINSE these surfaces. Set trim in direct sunlight to dry. Scrub concrete with TSP or automatic dishwasher detergent.
Allow to dry, then seal all previously infested areas with a pigmented shellac- or oil-based primer. Then install new insulation and drywall and nail the trim back on.
Complete the initial cleanup by vacuuming up the debris (Photo 5). Thoroughly clean the wet/dry vac afterward by disposing of the filter and washing out the tank, hose and attachments with the bleach-and-water solution.
After scrubbing the surfaces (Photo 6), simply allow the bleach solution to continue to penetrate the surfaces and dry. Wash concrete floors with TSP, automatic dishwasher detergent or a chlorinated cleaner such as Comet.
Set out dehumidifiers and new fans to dry the now-cleaned areas for at least three days, then check them (by sight and smell) for mold. If you discover more mold, clean again with bleach.
When you're sure the mold has been eliminated, seal the wood surfaces with pigmented shellac like BIN or an oil-based primer like KILZ (Photo 7). Repaint cleaned wall surfaces with a regular latex paint that contains a mildewcide to help stop future mold growth. And keep in mind that if the moisture returns, mold will return.
Surface molds grow in just about any damp location, such as the grout lines of a ceramic tiled shower. They're easy to scrub away with a mixture of 1/2 cup bleach, 1 qt. water and a little detergent. The bleach in the cleaning mixture kills the mold, and the detergent helps lift it off the surface so you can rinse it away so it won’t return as fast. You can also buy a mildew cleaner at hardware stores, paint stores and most home centers.
Even for simple cleaning, protect yourself from contact with mold and the bleach solution by wearing a long-sleeve shirt and long pants as well as plastic or rubber gloves and goggles.
If the mold doesn’t disappear after light scrubbing, reapply the cleaning mix and let it sit for a minute or two. Then lightly scrub again.
Seal the clean surfaces when they're thoroughly dry to slow future moisture penetration. Apply a grout sealer (available at tile shops and home centers) to tile joints.
Don't mix ammonia or any detergent containing ammonia with bleach. The combination forms a poisonous gas.
Have the necessary tools for this DIY project lined up before you start—you’ll save time and frustration.
Avoid last-minute shopping trips by having all your materials ready ahead of time. Here's a list.
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<urn:uuid:1c3590e8-1664-4a73-8cab-a7b61d2ea0e3>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.familyhandyman.com/cleaning/mold-and-mildew/how-to-remove-mold/print
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en
| 0.927529 | 2,083 | 2.640625 | 3 |
This new edition of Chinese: An Essential Grammar is an up-to-date and
concise reference guide to modern Chinese (Mandarin) grammar.
Refreshingly jargon free, it presents an accessible description of the
language, focusing on the real patterns of use today. This Grammar aims to
serve as a reference source for the learner and user of Chinese,
irrespective of level, setting out the complexities of the language in
short, readable sections.
It is ideal either for independent study or for students in schools,
colleges, universities and adult classes of all types.
* A new chapter on paragraph development
* Chinese characters, as well as the pinyin Romanization, alongside all
* Literal and colloquial translations in English to illustrate language points
* detailed contents list and index for easy access to information
* A glossary of grammatical terms
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en
| 0.858391 | 188 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Lincoln preferred an overland campaign toward Richmond, but McClellan proposed an amphibious maneuver in which the Union Army would land on the Virginia Peninsula, effectively circumventing General Joseph E. Johnston’s Confederate army. McClellan put his Peninsula Campaign into action in March 1862, landing over 120,000 men on the coast and proceeding east toward the Confederate capital. The Confederates withdrew toward Richmond, and McClellan’s troops fought their way to within only a few miles of the city. Despite his strong position, McClellan failed to capitalize on his tactical advantage, once again believing that he might be outnumbered. When General Robert E. Lee took control of Confederate forces on June 1, he launched a series of bold offensives that culminated in the Seven Days Battles. Furious at Lincoln’s refusal to send him reinforcements, McClellan retreated to the base of the James River, at which point his army was ordered to return to Washington.
Aggravated at what he saw as indecisiveness on the part of McClellan, Lincoln had grown dissatisfied with his most famous general. But after Lee scored a decisive victory at the Second Battle of Bull Run in August 1862, he grudgingly called McClellan back into action in defense of Washington. Lee soon mounted an invasion of the North during the Maryland Campaign, and in September 1862 McClellan’s forces engaged the Confederates at the Battle of Antietam. After McClellan’s forces succeeded in breaching the Confederate lines, he once again stalled, keeping over a third of his army in reserve and allowing Lee to retreat into Virginia. The Battle of Antietam was the single bloodiest day of combat in the Civil War, and while it was presented as a Union victory in the Northern press, it was in effect a tactical draw. Frustrated that McClellan had again failed to destroy Lee’s army, Lincoln officially removed him from command in November 1862.
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| 0.972076 | 402 | 3.875 | 4 |
Pig in a Blanket Day
When : Always April 24th
Pig in a Blanket Day is a day to eat a sausage wrapped in a pancake. Why? Because that's what "Pig in a Blanket" is.
Somebody, somewhere decided that this was a very special treat to them. So, they created a special day to celebrate this culinary delight. Aren't you glad that they did?
How does one go about celebrating Pig in a Blanket Day? Cook up some sausage. Make some pancakes. Wrap the sausage inside of the pancake. Add maple syrup. Then, chow down.
In some areas the sausage is wrapped in a biscuit.
Whatever "blanket" you choose, have a Happy Pig in a Blanket Day!
Origin of "Pig in a Blanket Day":
Our research did not find the creator, or the origin of this day. Restaurants sometimes hold a "Pig in a Blanket" special. The roots of this day may have come from a restaurant breakfast promotion.
This Day in History April 24th
Traditional date of the fall of Troy. (1184 BC)
The first regular newspaper in British Colonial America, the News-Letter, is published in Boston, Massachusetts. (1704)
The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 USD to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress". (1800)
American sharpshooter Annie Oakley was hired by Nate Salsbury to be a part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West. (1885)
Hersheypark, founded by Milton S. Hershey for the exclusive use of his employees, is opened. (1907)
The Woolworth Building skyscraper in New York City is opened. (1903)
The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide. (1915)
Easter Rising: The Irish Republican Brotherhood led by nationalists Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, and Joseph Plunkett starts a rebellion in Ireland. (1916)
First tank-to-tank combat, at Villers-Bretonneux, France, when three British Mark IVs meet three German A7Vs. (1918)
The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield in Oxfordshire, England, and Cairo, Egypt, comes into operation. (1922)
The Treaty of Berlin is signed. Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for the next five years. (1926)
Nazi Germany begins its persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses by shutting down the Watch Tower Society office in Magdeburg. (1933)
Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. (1953)
Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission. (1967)
Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had "gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily." (1967)
Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis. (1980)
In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law. (1996)
The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction. (2004)
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI. (2005)
A building collapses near Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 1,129 people and injuring 2,500 others. (2013)
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| 0.939684 | 819 | 3.046875 | 3 |
noun (plural same or haggises)
A Scottish dish consisting of a sheep’s or calf’s offal mixed with suet, oatmeal, and seasoning and boiled in a bag, traditionally one made from the animal’s stomach: an enormous haggis was paraded through the hall [mass noun]: we had haggis for supper
More example sentences
- Modern haggis generally has beef suet rather than mutton fat, and cayenne pepper or nutmeg are usual additions.
- Toasting a haggis, reciting Scottish poetry and sampling five malt whiskies are just some of the activities planned.
- You can even pour some - following an old tradition - on top of your haggis.
Late Middle English: probably from earlier hag 'hack, hew', from Old Norse hǫggva.
For editors and proofreaders
Line breaks: hag¦gis
Definition of haggis 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.
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| 0.895962 | 238 | 2.578125 | 3 |
United Nations (1987). A Comparative Evaluation of Data Quality in Thirty-Eight World Fertility Surveys
This study, undertaken by the Population Division of the United Nations Secretariat, covers 38 World Fertility Surveys (WFS) and emphasizes the assessment of data quality. The availability of comparable survey data from so many developing countries has provided a unique opportunity to develop a simple series of data quality checks which can be used to assess age and date reporting. Those checks involve both internal data comparisons as well as comparisons with other sources of data. In addition, surveys undertaken in other countries can be examined by using the data checks developed here, and their assessment can benefit from the experience gained in this analysis - in particular, the documentation of common types of non-sampling errors that recur in countries which share similar cultural traditions and/or similar levels of socio-economic development.
Since A Comparative Evaluation of Data Quality in Thirty-Eight World Fertility Surveys is no longer available in printed form, it is made available here in electronic form in Adobe PDF format.
Preface and Table of contents (427 KB)
Part One. Comparative assessment of data quality
Part Two. Country analysis: background, age data, marriage history data, birth history data, children ever born from various surveys and censuses, cohort period rates and cumulative cohort fertility by age at survey, age-specific fertility rates from various surveys and censuses (10622 KB)
United Nations (1986). Fertility Behaviour in the Context of Development: Evidence from the World Fertility Survey (United Nations publication, Sales No. 86.XIII.5).
Copyright © United Nations
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About the Image
- NASA/JPL-Caltech/UC Irvine
About the Object
- Cosmology > Morphology > Deep Field
|Infrared||3.6 µm||Spitzer IRAC|
- Position (undefined)
- RA = 14h 31m 15.1s
- Dec = 34° 3' 3.6"
- Field of View
- 1.9 x 1.9 degrees
- North is up
Unmasking a Hidden Glow
This image shows a mysterious, background infrared glow captured by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Using Spitzer, researchers were able to detect this background glow, which spreads across the whole sky, by masking out light from galaxies and other known sources of light (the masks are the gray, blotchy marks).
The scientists find that this light is coming from stray stars that were torn away from galaxies. When galaxies tangle and merge -- a natural stage of galaxy growth -- stars often get kicked out in the process. The stars are too faint to be seen individually, but Spitzer may be seeing their collective glow.
News Release NASA'S Spitzer Sees Light Of Lonesome Stars ssc2012-14
Image Unmasking a Hidden Glow ssc2012-14a
Image Spitzer Sees Stray Starlight ssc2012-14b
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| 0.790933 | 279 | 3.09375 | 3 |
The dictionary files are lists of pairs of English and other-language
words, in the form:
where the pairs are separated by a tab character, and each pair is
terminated by a carriage return character. The "Other-language-word" is
a translation of the English word (see the Disclaimer).
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"Other-language-word". For example, in Spanish:
Any comment lines in the file will begin with a pound sign ("#"). The
files are not sorted into any particular order.
Because these files are given in plain ASCII format, accented characters
usually are not given directly. Certain conventions have been given to
people adding to the IDP files for accented characters, and most of the
time these conventions were followed.
- Spanish/Italian Accents
- A letter followed by a forward slash ("/") indicates that the letter should have an acute accent over it.
- A letter followed by a backward slash ("\") indicates that the letter
should have a grave accent over it.
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have a tilde above it.
- German Accents
- A letter followed by a period (".") indicates that the letter should
have an umlaut over it. (This is sometimes approximated by a vowel
followed by an "e" instead.)
- A letter followed by a caret ("^") indicates that the letter should
have a circonflex over it.
- Two s characters in a row usually indicates the German double-s
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ChristianAnswers.Net WebBible Encyclopedia
Rama / Ramah
(Matt. 2:18), the Greek form of Ramah
Several biblical cities were referred to by this name…
A city first mentioned in Josh. 18:25, near Gibeah of Benjamin. It was fortified by Baasha, king of Israel (1 Kings 15:17-22; 2 Chr. 16:1-6). Asa, king of Judah, employed Benhadad the Syrian king to drive Baasha from this city (1 Kings 15:18, 20). Isaiah (10:29) refers to it, and also Jeremiah, who was once a prisoner there among the other captives of Jerusalem when it was taken by Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 39:8-12; 40:1). Rachel, whose tomb lies close to Bethlehem, is represented as weeping in Ramah (Jer. 31:15) for her slaughtered children. This prophecy is illustrated and fulfilled in the re-awakening of Rachel's grief at the slaughter of the infants in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:18). It is identified with the modern village of er-Ram, between Gibeon and Beeroth, about 5 miles due north of Jerusalem. (See Samuel.)
A town identified with Rameh, on the border of Asher, about 13 miles southeast of Tyre, “on a solitary hill in the midst of a basin of green fields” (Josh. 19:29).
One of the “fenced cities” of Naphtali (Josh. 19:36), on a mountain slope, about seven and a half miles west-southwest of Safed, and 15 miles west of the north end of the Sea of Galilee, the present large and well-built village of Rameh.
The same as Ramathaim-zophim (q.v.), a town of Mount Ephraim (1 Sam. 1:1, 19).
The same as Ramoth-gilead (q.v.), 2 Kings 8:29; 2 Chr. 22:6.
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The knitting needle method ofThe knitting needle method of knitting shut hems is similar to a 3-needle bind off. The stitches in the first row of the hem or facing are knitted together with the stitches in the last row of the hem or facing.
knitting shut doubled-over
hems (and facings)
knitting shut doubled-over
hems (and facings)
Here's the TECHknitting method for this trick in 4 illustrated drawings:
1. (below) LOOSELY cast on the hem using the long tail method or the long tail method for LOTS of stitches (casting on is shown in red, below). Work the ribbing (shown in green, below) to TWICE the desired height. Arrange to finish your hem so that the long tail cast left over from the casting-on is on the left, and the running yarn (shown in blue, below) is on the right, as shown below.
2. (below) The live loops of the hem are on the purple needle. Pick up the right arm of each bottom loop onto a different needle, as shown in light blue, below. If the cast-on edge is a bit tight, use a smaller needle to catch these bottom loops. (Although this is illustrated on a ribbing hem, this also works on a stockinette hem, a seed stitch hem or any other stitch, and the action is the same--you pick up the same loop of the long tail cast on, and do everything else the same, too.)
3. (below) Hold the cast-on stitches on their light blue needle at the inside "behind" the live stitches on their purple needle. As you can see, the cast-on stitches on their light blue needle present LEFT arm forward when they are held inside-out behind the live stitches on the purple needle. Use a third needle (the golden needle in the illustration below) to knit together each live ribbing stitch with the cast on stitch held behind it, as shown below.
4. (below) The finished product: the "knitting together" row is shown in blue, the cast-on stitches which are caught into the back of the hem facing (the "inside" of the hem) are shown in red, the balance of the fabric in green. Of course, in real life, the row of live stitches in front and the cast row behind would be the same color, and the cast-on row would therefore not show on the front of the fabric, unlike the red cast-on stitches in the illustration below.
* * *
The finished product "in the wool" is shown in the photo at right.
By knitting the top and bottom of each column of ribbing together in this manner, the hem is fastened down in a folded-over manner, and no sewing is required.
However, as slick as it is, this "knitting needle method" of shutting hems and facings has a limitation.
This knitting-together method has an incurable tendency to FLIP, and this is true regardless of whether the band is in stockinette, ribbing (foldover ribbed band) or any other fabric. Therefore this trick is best on narrow tubes (socks, sleeves) where the shape of the garment counteracts the flipping. You can try this on a hat, too, but it works best with deeper, longer hats--you may get flipping on a shallow beanie-type hat. The long runs and loose shapes of a bottom band or a front band will allow a knit-shut band to get up to the kind of shenanigans it prefers: flipping straight over. (On these longer runs, the more successful method is the sewing method, the subject of the next post.)
* * *
We'll end this post with a Q and A:
Q: Why do you use a long tail cast on, instead of a provisional cast on for this trick?
A: Many knitters (most knitters, probably) DO use a provisional cast on, as follows: Remove the provisional cast on and put the live loops on the second needle (the light blue needle in the above diagrams). Holding the live loops at the back of the hem, use a third needle (the golden needle in the above diagrams) to work together a stitch from the front of the fabric (on purple needle in above diagrams) with a live loop from the back of the fabric, using the same method as shown above for long tail.
NOW: despite the fact that most knitters DO use a provisional cast on for this trick, the reason I DON'T is that the live loops created by the provisional method have a nasty tendency to run out.
To explain further: Near the end of the row, the needles holding the stitches, especially the rear needle (light blue) want to slide out because there are very few stitches left to hold them in. When the inevitable happens, and the rear needle slides out with only a few stitches to go, I don't have to worry: because my rear stitches are secured by the long tail cast-on, when those rear stitches come off the needle, they can't run because (ta da!) they aren't live stitches.
Q: What about the fold line? Are there any tricks for that?
A: Certainly there are: You can knit a simple fold-over hem as in the 4 opening drawings of this post. OR, you can knit a hem facing of stockinette, then create a single row of purl and then knit the outside of the hem--in a texture pattern if you like. The row of purl makes a lovely sharp edge for folding. The gray ladies' sock in the photo at left shows a stockinette hem facing, a purled edge row, and a ribbed outside of the hem. (For an additional image of a purl fold row, click here.)
Q: Any other tricks with a hem?
A: You bet! A knitted hem is a tube--and you can run a drawstring or an elastic through it. Socks made with an elastic garter in the hem will simply not fall down--nearly all my socks are made this way--including the one in the previous illustration. Here is an entire post about elastic in socks.
Another trick: As shown on this commercially knitted sweater, right, you can run an elastic drawstring through the hem--a good idea for a heavy outdoor sweater to be used in sporting or working conditions--shown is a ski sweater.
Next post: SEWING down the hem on the inside.
PS: Addendum October 2014: Since this post was written, some valuable comments have been left by readers...maybe take a look?
You have been reading TECHknitting on knitting shut hems.
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Sent in by:
Alexander of Alexandria, VA
Make a machine to measure movement.
- cardboard box with the flaps cut off
- plastic cup
- felt tip marker
- cup of small rocks, marbles, or bolts
- Do you know what a seismometer is? It's a machine that shows earthquakes or other movement. Here's how you make a really simple one that can measure movements that you make in your house.
- Check with a grown-up before you begin. Cutting a cardboard box can be pretty tricky.
- First, take a box and open the top. Cut off the flaps and turn the box so the open side faces you.
- Using scissors, poke two holes next to each other in the center of the top of the box. You may want to ask an adult to help with the scissors.
- Poke one hole in the center of the bottom of the plastic cup, one hole along the rim of the cup, and another hole exactly opposite that hole.
- Put the marker through the hole in the center of the bottom of the cup. The writing end should be sticking out of the bottom of the cup.
- Put some clay around the hole so that the marker won't move.
- Cut a 45cm piece of string (although if you have a bigger box, you may need a longer piece) and thread it through the two holes along the rim of the cup.
- Then, thread the string through the holes in the box, so that both ends of the string are equally in the box. Tie the ends on top of the box.
- Fill the cup 3/4 of the way with something that'll weigh the cup down. You can put anything in the cup to weigh it down-marbles, bolts, rocks, anything heavy will work.
- Cut a strip of paper that's as long as the box and approximately 5 inches wide.
- Put one end of the paper under the marker. Take the cap off the marker and make sure that it sticks out of the cup far enough so it touches the paper.
- Now have someone shake the box right and left while someone pulls the paper forward. If you do this right, you should get a squiggley line on the paper.
The more you shake the box, the wider the lines will be. Try pounding on the table and see what kind of lines it makes. Try making some changes to it so that it can detect really small movements, like singing or talking softly. You could also try making the holes in the box closer together or adding more weight to the cup. Be sure to share what you've learned with other ZOOMers around the country.
Caitly, age 12 of Durban, South Africa wrote:
My siesmometer turned out pretty well. I think I learned a lot.
Natalia, age 12 of Chicago, IL wrote:
First my teacher said to do this for homework so I did than when I began it was kinda hard but I got the hang of it! Its really cool!
Jazmin, age 11 of Chicago, IL wrote:
Its so exciting I loved it.
Leah, age 13 of Appleton, WI wrote:
Like usual, I didn't start my project until the night before it was due but this was a really fast and easy way to make a seismometer and it was a great learning experiment! So neat!!
Nathan, age 11 of Perris, CA wrote:
dear zoom, it did not work at first but when I put string side to side so now it work thank zoom
Jasdeep, age 13 wrote:
awesome... helped a lot with my school project thanks
Sammy, age 9 of New York, NY wrote:
It was so cool. It actually worked. It was moving and it made a scribbly line. It was for my class project about, "how things move."
Zoom Fan, age 14 of Windsor, ON wrote:
well the first time I tried it, it didnt work i found out why later... the box wasnt sturdy enough so I made it sturdy and the string kept falling of so I taped it. and it worked
Tori of Kitchener, ON wrote:
We needed to build a seismometer for earth and space. I was totally not into the whole idea of building one, but then I found this website and was like "Score!". this is easy and quick to build and it works.
Aelya, age 12 of Lewes, DE wrote:
this experiment was so cool! I presented it in Ancient Civilizations class and everybody thought it was awesome. We put the box on different surfaces and saw how different it was everywhere. It was alot of fun! Thanks for your help ZOOMers!!!
Joy, age 12 of Citrus Heights, CA wrote:
It's sooo frustrating! is the cup suppose to hang and swing? or stay still?! and the cup keeps leaning back and stuff! is it suppose to?!
Markus, age 6 of Gold Coast, Au wrote:
It moved when I moved the top of the box. the texter movved making the lines on the paper. I liked this experiment.
Alex, age 8 of Gold Coast, AU wrote:
The result was that on the paper was how big our pretend erthquake would have been. great experiment.
Danielle, age 11 of Mass wrote:
Hi zoom. Well when I made my seismograph, it was kinda hard at first but then I understood it more, then it worked out perfectly. well thanxxxxx!
Angel, age 11 of Dahlonega, GA wrote:
Well, me and two other friends had to do a seismograph for science. My friend had remembered about one she'd seen on the show so we checked and there it was a perfect idea!! It took us about one or two hours to build, but it was worth it! We haven't shone it in class yet, but it works and we are very glad. It was simple and a great idea!! THANKS ZOOM!!!
Katelynn of Haddon Township, NJ wrote:
I had no idea that there was so much vibration at my house. I made it for a extra credit report.
Michael, age 13 of Zebulon, NC wrote:
It did exactly what I thought it would do.
Christian, age 13 of Lexington, SC wrote:
well it didnt work out how I planned but it works.
Celaya, age 11 of Tustin, CA wrote:
it didnt work at first when I shook the box then I used a reciet paper and used then pulled it from the back of the box so that the pen would move
Alejandra of Baldwin Park, CA wrote:
It was Rreally Cool because at first we tried moving the box but it did not work. Then my friend started to move the desk and it caused vibrations and viola it worked!
Sa'Von, age 13 of Michigan City, IN wrote:
Well, for a moment it wasn't working becuse I didn't have enough pressure on the marker. So I added more marbles to add additional weight to the marker. Then it started to make little zigg zagg movement.
Meredith, Kindall, and Destiny of AK wrote:
The first time it went in circles. Then we pulled on the string to lift up the marker and it went really good. We did it 8 times most just for fun. We had lots of fun doing this project. P. s. you should do it.
Breanna, Megan, and Chantal of AK wrote:
At first it didn't work because the pen was to big and then the sting broke. Then we got a smaller pen and got a new piece of sting that we made tighter. When we were done we tested it and it worked perfectly. P. S. It was the best earthquake ever!
Hunter, Brian, Wyatt, Cody of AK wrote:
Ours was one of the best in the class it took a few times to get the pen to the right hight to have it make a good mini earthquake it worked good.
Nada, age 16 of Taif, Saudi Arabia wrote:
I wanted an idea for a science fair project of my school so I searched for it in Zoom website. I thought that the seismometer would be a great project so I made it. And used a dozen of glass marbles for the weight and used a liquid ink ball pen, and took the readings on a graph paper it worked perfectly! And I even got a prize and a certificate for it!!!
Georgina, age 9 wrote:
It actually worked I made a mini Earthquake on my desk!!!
Whittney, age 12 of Salyersville, KY wrote:
I did it in a science fair and I won. It turned out good. I even put it outside and it maid a little line but over all. I loved it.
Noami, age 13 of Tucson, AZ wrote:
When I did my project it worked really well I learned how a seismometer works in real life and how you could make one by yourself. Thank you or the great idea!!
Brookelynn, age 9 of Blackfoot, ID wrote:
I had fun making the seismomenter whean I shook it made all kinds of designs it was cool.
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Season 1, Episode 3 (Aired April 24, 1977)
In Nazca Peru, thousands of lines crisscross the region stretching in some cases over 14 miles. These lines are laser straight even though they cross through valleys and up mountains. Some form giant pictures that can only be seen from the sky. An image of a hummingbird, a monkey, a spider and at least 50 different images have been drawn. These pictures are estimated to be around 2000 years old. In some cases mountain tops have been flattened to make way for these enormous lines and drawings. The rubble from the mountains is no where to be found. How could all of this be done without the assistance of an aerial point of view? More importantly, who would create these massive works of art, if they would never be able to see the final product? It is pretty obvious that no one in their right mnind would do such a thing which means that the creators of the Nazca Lines must have also achieved the ability to fly 2000 years ago!
One researcher thought that maybe the builders of the Nazca Lines floated in some type of hot air balloons. To test this theory out he constructed a hot air balloon out of materials that were available at the time. His balloon took off, but soon crashed and along with it the hot air balloon theory. They must have had something more advanced than a balloon. While one team was able to recreate one of these giant pictures from the ground, none of them dared to try to carve one onto the side of a mountain, or create laser straight lines that extend for 14 miles through the Andes Mountains. In addition, the team DID take a plane ride to see their creation as would any artist. Therefore it seems clear that the Wright Brothers were not the first to invent flight. The Nazca People did it thousands of years ago.
Did Aliens Create The Nazca Lines?
In Search Of... Ancient Aviators (1977) (Part 3 of 3)
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The 2011 MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: Teachers, Parents and the Economy, released recently, found decreased teacher satisfaction and increased parent engagement amid economic uncertainty, among other key findings. The survey, conducted annually since 1984 by Harris Interactive, aims to give teachers a voice in the reform of education, including development of policy relating to the teaching profession.
The survey was conducted in October and November 2011 and was based on a representative sample of 1,000 K-12 public school teachers; 1,086 parents of K-12 public school students; and 947 public school students in grades 3-12. The 2011 survey probed teachers’ level of satisfaction with their careers, the effects of the economic downturn on education, and levels of parental engagement.
Key findings on teacher satisfaction
- The level of teacher job satisfaction is at it its lowest level in over 20 years. In 2011, 44% of teachers indicated they were very satisfied a down from 59% in 2009.
- The percentage of teachers likely to leave the profession is 29% compared to 17% in 2009.
- More than one-third of teachers (34%) do not feel their job is secure compared to 8% in 2006, the last time this question was asked.
- The vast majority of parents (71%) and teachers (77%) say their community treats teachers as professionals.
- Regarding salaries, a majority (53%) of parents and two-thirds (65%) of teachers say salaries are not fair for the work teachers do.
- Health insurance benefits are perceived to be fair for the work that teachers do by a six in ten parents (63%) and two-thirds of teachers (67%).
- Retirement benefits are perceived to be fair by 60% of parents and 61% of teachers.
- Driving low levels of job satisfaction are these factors: working in schools where layoff have occurred, where programs like art and music have been cut, where after school programs and health/social service cuts have occurred.
- Low levels of job satisfaction are likely among teachers who, in the past year, have seen class sizes rise, parents and students in need of health/social services, students coming to school hungry, students leaving to go to another school, and students being bullies and harassed.
Key findings on the effects of the economic downturn
- Budget cuts were reported by 76% of teachers; 66% experienced layoffs including 44% reporting classroom teacher layoffs. A majority (53%) reported an increase in staff reassignments. Parents are unsure about budget-related changes—fewer than one-third were aware of cuts in the budget or in social services.
- Six in ten (63%) reported class size increases; 36% reported program cuts in music, art, foreign language, or physical education.
- One-third (34%) say educational technology has not been kept up to date and that school facilities have deteriorated.
- Increased levels of families needing health/social services, students coming to school hungry were reported while programs targeted to those needs have been cut along with after-school programs.
- High levels of worry about families not having enough money for the things they need, and worry about parents’ losing or not being able to find a job were reported by parents and students alike.
Key findings on parent and community engagement
- There are high levels of agreement that schools are helping parents understand what they can do at home to support students although agreement declines among middle and high school parents.
- Students (64%) report they talk to their parents about school every day and that their parents visit their school at least once a month (46%)—these are much higher levels than in previous studies.
- Teachers in schools with high levels of parent engagement feel twice as satisfied with their job (57% vs., 25%).
- Parents in schools with high parent engagement are more optimistic that student achievement will be better in 5 years. They are more convinced that they and teachers are working together to support students, and give positive ratings to other parents.
- Essential information sources about schools for parents are their students (96%), teachers (92%), and written communication from school (88%).
- Parents in urban schools also rely on their principal, parent liaison, PTO/PTA , and other parents as essential information sources.
- Teachers with high job satisfaction report their school helps parents understand what they can do at home to support students and that their school has a plan for parent and community engagements linked to learning and developmental goals.
The executive summary and full report of the 2011 MetLife Survey can be found here.
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The Texas Department of Criminal Justice puts a lot of energy into saving energy. For several years, in fact, the agency has had initiatives in place to reduce the consumption of electricity, natural gas, water, and gasoline.
Still, with rising energy prices, TDCJ’s utility bills are expected to exceed $120 million this year, accounting for more than two dollars of what it costs on average to house an offender each day. That’s a big reason why the agency puts a lot of energy into its energy-saving initiatives. Reducing consumption reduces costs.
“Besides that, it’s just the right thing to do,” said Brenda Jordy, manager of planning and programming for TDCJ’s Facilities Division.
Jordy and Lee Struble, manager of the Program Administration Department within the Facilities Division, are enthusiastic about energy conservation and regularly make presentations to regional directors and wardens within the Correctional Institutional Division. And to make sure that rank-and-file employees get the message, they have produced an energy awareness pamphlet that includes an energy quiz and tips for cutting consumption. The pamphlet ends with a poignant message: “In the time it took you to read this pamphlet, the TDCJ cost for utility consumption was $764.”
Hot and cold weather, of course, affects energy consumption. Cold snaps generally cause natural gas consumption to rise because of the increased demand for heating and hot water, said Struble. Hot weather, on the other hand, tends to drive up electricity consumption because of the use of air conditioning in certain areas of a facility.
“If natural gas usage is high, electricity typically runs a little low, and visa versa,” Struble said. “Electricity drives air conditioning, primarily, and lighting. The primary driver for natural gas is hot water production for kitchens, laundries and offender showers. In the wintertime, its’ heating. Our offender count is high right now. The more offenders you have, the more showers you’re taking, the more food you’ve got to prepare, and the more laundry you’ve got to do. That drives some of our consumption data for both electricity and natural gas.”
Struble said TDCJ facilities can save energy much the same way households do. Turning off perimeter lights when not needed, limiting the times of day offenders can shower, and doing the unit laundry during off-peak hours are just a few of the practices recommended.
In an effort to further reduce energy consumption, the agency is now conducting preliminary energy audits at all its facilities and incorporating energy efficient products into repair and renovation project designs. A performance contract has been signed with a firm to conduct detailed utility audits at several units and to recommend cost-cutting measures.
In the meantime, Struble said TDCJ maintenance employees regularly replace worn equipment with modern models.
“Water heaters have become so efficient that we have removed boilers as they’ve failed and replaced them with water heaters,” he said. “They can produce hot water efficiently and quickly enough to replace the boiler. We’re doing that throughout the system.”
TDCJ also scrutinizes its utility bills in an effort to identify areas of high usage and to formulate corrective measures. And sometimes the bills themselves need to be corrected. While identifying billing errors may not reduce consumption, it does reduce energy costs.
Manufacturing & Logistics Division Director Rick Thaler said the high cost of gasoline makes it imperative that employees throughout the agency are of a mindset to practice energy conservation. Simple things like carpooling and performing multiple tasks during a single trip can make a big difference, he said.
“Gasoline consumption for the year is down, and that tells me that people are attempting to make good decisions out there in the field,” said Thaler, who oversees the agency’s fleet of approximately 2,100 vehicles, most of which are gasoline-powered. “Looking across the board, fuel consumption is down in about every division. So I think that overall, the support service divisions do a good job of trying to carpool when they go out to the facilities.”
Struble and Jordy said each TDCJ employee can make a difference in the agency’s efforts to conserve energy.
“There are a lot more men and women out there who are trying to do the right thing in reducing consumption,” Struble said. “Again, it comes back to employee awareness. Without the help of the employees within this agency, we’re never going to have any real success in reducing energy consumption.”
Energy Saving Tips That Will Make a Difference
And two more for the road
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China broke ground on its fourth space center Monday, highlighting the country's soaring space ambitions six years after it sent its first man into orbit.
The space port on the southern island province of Hainan incorporates a launch site and mission control center for slinging the country's massive new rockets into space carrying satellites and components for a future space station and deep space exploration.
The reports portrayed the center as a major stride forward for China's military-backed space program, which has launched three manned missions since 2003, including one last year that featured the country's first space walk.
China's future space ambitions include building an orbiting station and sending a mission to the moon, putting it in the forefront of the tightening Asian space race involving India, Japan and South Korea. China says its space program is purely for peaceful ends, although its military background and Beijing's development of anti-satellite weapons have prompted some to question that.
The Hainan center, located near the town of Wenchang and slated to go into use in 2013, is located at a latitude of about 19 degrees north, far closer to the equator than China's other bases in the its southwest and northern plains.
Proximity to the equator is an advantage for launching payloads such as geostationary satellites used for telecommunications because less fuel propellant is needed. Reports said rockets launched from the Hainan base will be capable of carrying up to 14% more payload than those launched from Jiuquan, the home of the manned space program in northern China.
That added capacity should aid particularly in China's space station program as well as plans to assemble the Beidou, or "Compass," navigation system as an alternative to the U.S. satellite GPS network, the dominant positioning system.
The center is also served by a nearby port, allowing for the transport by ship of components such as the new generation Long March 5 rocket capable of launching 25-ton components for a space station or future lunar missions. China's other space centers are located in remote parts of the country that rely on limited capacity rail links to transport rockets and other components.
According to media reports, the Hainan center's construction involves upgrading a small satellite launch pad already on the site and building a second pad and other infrastructure. More than 6,000 area residents are being moved to procure the 3,000 acres (1,200 hectares) needed for the base.
China is just the third country after Russia and the United States to have launched a person into space, and has long operated a successful commercial satellite launch program.
Officials say plans call for an unmanned moon landing around 2012, a mission to return samples in 2015, and possibly a manned lunar mission by 2017 — three years ahead of an initial U.S. target date for returning to the moon.
Viewed as a source of national pride and patriotism, the program's strong public support helps shield it from the public doubts and budgetary pressures that constrain such programs elsewhere.
However, cooperation in space with other countries has been inhibited by wariness over the program's close military ties. Highlighting that relationship, Chang Wanquan, a People's Liberation Army general who sits on the ruling Communist Party's powerful central military commission, joined other officers and technicians in Monday's groundbreaking ceremony, the reports said.
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A simple blood test can reveal the hidden details of your cholesterol. But knowing what the numbers mean is not so simple.
Types of cholesterol measured
You would think that a lab test for cholesterol would simply tell you how much cholesterol you have. And it does, but wait: There are several cholesterol measurements. These are:
- Total cholesterol
- HDL cholesterol
- LDL cholesterol
HDL cholesterol is the "good" cholesterol. It's carried on high-density lipoproteins. Having more of it means you're more likely to have a lower risk of coronary heart disease (CHD).
LDL cholesterol is the "bad" cholesterol. It's carried on low-density lipoproteins. You're better off with lower levels of LDL cholesterol, because it's linked to a higher risk of heart disease.
Note that total cholesterol does not equal HDL cholesterol plus LDL cholesterol. This is because there are still more types of cholesterol, which we won't talk about here.
Your cholesterol numbers
Cholesterol is measured as milligrams of cholesterol per deciliter of blood, which is abbreviated like this: mg/dL.
A lipid profile test (total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides) is done after a 9 to 12 hour fast. The HDL, total cholesterol and triglycerides can be measured and then the LDL can be calculated using these numbers.
Here is what the levels mean.
If your total cholesterol is:
|200 mg/dL or less||Desirable cholesterol level|
|Between 200 and 239 mg/dL||Borderline high cholesterol level|
|240 mg/dL or more||High|
If your HDL cholesterol is:
|Less than 40 mg/dL||Too low|
|60 mg/dL or higher||High- Beneficial|
The goal for your LDL level depends on your other risk factors for heart disease.
If you are 20 years old or older, have no heart disease and your LDL cholesterol is:
|Less than 100 mg/dL||Desirable|
|100 - 129 mg/dL||Near optimal/above optimal|
|130 - 159 mg/dL||Borderline high|
|160 - 189 mg/dL||High|
|190 mg/dL and above||Very high|
If you already have heart disease, diabetes or problems with your circulation, then your LDL cholesterol should be 100 mg/dL or less.
Triglycerides are another fatty substance in the blood that affects your risk for heart disease. Most fat in food, as well as in your body, is present in the form of triglycerides. High levels are a matter of concern and are linked to the risk of heart disease, just as with cholesterol.
Elevated triglycerides are common. Triglycerides may be elevated even if the total and HDL cholesterol are normal. So there is no way to know if a person has high triglycerides unless it is measured.
If your triglycerides are tested, here is how you can interpret the numbers, according to the Third Report of the Expert Panel on the Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults:
|Less than 150 mg/dL||Normal|
|150 - 199 mg/dL||Borderline|
|200 - 499 mg/dL||High|
|More than 500 mg/dL||Very high|
The American Heart Association now suggests that a triglyceride level below 100 mg/dL is optimal.
Screening for high cholesterol is advised for everyone 20 years or age or older. Remember, only your doctor should decide the best way to evaluate and interpret your cholesterol levels. Speak to your doctor if you have any questions about your cholesterol levels. Also discuss with the doctor the best way, given your unique needs, to reduce your risk for heart disease.
Created on 06/08/1999
Updated on 12/01/2011
- National Institutes of Health. Third report of the national cholesterol education program (NCEP). Detection, evaluation and treatment of high blood cholesterol in adults.
- Miller M, Stone NJ, Ballantyne C, et al. Triglycerides and cardiovascular disease: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association.
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Healthier School Lunches May Leave Kids Hungry
NEAL CONAN, HOST:
This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. More than 38 million kids get their lunches through the National School Lunch Program, and with more than a third of the nation's youngsters overweight or obese, the cafeteria has become a battleground.
New federal guidelines call for lighter, healthier food with fewer calories, more fruit and veggies. Put a lot of parents, doctors and dieticians on that side. But at least some kids hate it. Their cries of hunger sound like a variant of the old joke that the food tastes terrible and the portions are way too small.
Students and parents, we want to hear from you. What's changing in your lunchroom? Give us a call, 800-989-8255. Email us, [email protected]. You can also join the conversation on our website. Go to npr.org and click on TALK OF THE NATION.
Later in the program, we'll play back excerpts from U.N. speeches by Egypt's new president on free speech and religion and Israel's prime minister on Iran and red lines. But first, school lunches. Jessica Donze Black is director of the Pew Trust's Kids' Safe and Healthful Foods Project; she joins us here in Studio 3A. Nice to have you with us today.
JESSICA DONZE BLACK: Thank you.
CONAN: So what's on the lunch tray now, and how's it different from last spring?
BLACK: So the United States Department of Agriculture updated the standards for school lunches for the first time in 17 years, and those standards went into effect this fall. So that's what all the talk is about. In fact most of the standards people are really supportive of. It's more fruits, more vegetables, more whole grains, low-fat, no-fat dairy, the things we know kids need more of.
One of the pieces that also changed was historically USDA always had minimum calories that had to be provided, and now there's a range that's age-appropriate. So you have to have at least a certain number of calories so kids don't go hungry, but then you can't go over a certain level of calories so that we're careful not to overfeed kids while we're getting them all the nutrition they need.
CONAN: And who has to comply with these?
BLACK: Any school that participates in the National School Lunch Program needs to comply, which is really most of the schools across the country.
CONAN: And what happens if you don't?
BLACK: Well, actually, the good news is there's more of a carrot than a stick in this.
CONAN: So to speak.
BLACK: So to speak, right, in that schools that do comply with the new standards are actually going to receive additional reimbursement. So all schools that participate in the school lunch program get money from the federal government for each meal that they serve.
If their menus are in compliance with the new standards, they actually get an additional six cents per meal they serve this year for stepping up the quality of those meals.
CONAN: One of the things that we always heard was that fresher, healthier food is also more expensive food, and this is going to put a strain on a lot of school districts' budgets.
BLACK: Certainly one reason for the increased reimbursement is to help schools compensate for any of those changes, but what a lot of schools we've talked to have found is that by tailoring their menus so that they're not providing excess amounts of things that the kids potentially don't need, and making sure they are providing adequate amounts of those things they do need, they still can balance those budgets.
CONAN: But then there's the yuck factor from the students: I don't want to eat it. And then they get hungry.
BLACK: Well, the meals are really designed so that if students eat what is available, they will certainly get adequate nutrition, and in many places we're seeing that students are in fact eating that food and enjoying it and maybe even trying new fruits or vegetables because there's some incentive to do that.
CONAN: Hunger it's called, yes.
BLACK: Exactly. And that said, you know, to the extent that they pick around things and don't eat everything, they may be more hungry, although what's interesting is that USDA had actually done a study a couple of years ago that looked at what was actually being served and what kids were eating, and particularly in high school, as an example, the current calorie cap is 850 calories.
When we look at what students were actually eating on average a couple of years ago, it was around 790 calories in an average lunch. So it hasn't changed as dramatically as perhaps people think it has.
CONAN: So it was just about the same when pizza and hamburgers were on the menu.
BLACK: Well, there may have been more options for less healthy things in the past, whereas now all the options trend towards healthier things, which is ultimately a way to help encourage kids to try those meals and enjoy them.
CONAN: We want to hear from those of you involved in school lunch. Parents, students, what's on the lunch menu now, and how's it going where your school is? 800-989-8255. Email us, [email protected]. Eric's on the line with us from Cheyenne, Wyoming.
ERIC: Hi, how are you doing today?
CONAN: Very well, thanks.
ERIC: I love your show, and I listen to it all the time.
CONAN: Thank you.
ERIC: I am a parent of two children who eat just about everything because they didn't get a choice on what they were going to eat besides what was for dinner, no peanut butter and jelly, no mac and cheese in case they didn't think they liked it. Plus I'm a chef, and I personally cook and privately cook, and when I get children that are coddled when they're young and don't - can have whatever they want instead of what everybody else is having, it takes about three to six weeks to convince them that good food, tasty food, may come in different colors than what they're used to and that it takes about that long for them to get used to not having their choice about what else to eat.
Dinner is what's for dinner, and pretty soon they get to realize that, and they start to come around. So I applaud the school lunch program to try to do this. It's going to take time, just as the Naked Chef did when he tried it. It's going to take time for everybody to get used to eating better. And yes, there's going to be lots of complaints.
CONAN: So on that timeline, Jessica Donze Black, maybe if schools started at Labor Day, maybe we ought to wait at least until Columbus Day before we deliver a verdict.
BLACK: There is something to be said for perhaps it's too early. And there are actually a lot of schools that were ahead of the curve on this and started, as many as several years ago, starting to make changes, seeing what kids needed.
A great example is St. Paul Public Schools, and you can actually go to their Facebook page and look at their meal of the day and see what they've had. And they found that over time kids have become much more receptive to the new foods that they've tried them and started to enjoy them.
CONAN: Eric, thanks very much for the call.
ERIC: You're very welcome. Keep up the good work, bye-bye.
CONAN: Thank you. And let's go next to - this is Mary, and Mary's with us from Springdale, Arkansas.
MARY: Hi, how are you?
CONAN: I'm good, thanks.
MARY: I was just calling in because I have three children, and they eat lunch at the cafeteria, and they have been commenting this fall that they were very hungry and that they had noticed that they can't eat as much at school. And I thought it was interesting that you all are talking about it on the show. We've had to actually supplement their food with a snack. So I send them a snack every morning so they can eat and not be starving when they get home.
CONAN: So your - the calorie limits are meant to attack this obesity problem, but hunger, you're not going to have your kids be hungry.
MARY: Right, and I mean, my children are healthy eaters. They know what they're eating. They're not complaining about the flavor of the food. They think it's quite good. But they're pretty lean and active, and I guess they have high metabolisms. So they are hungry.
CONAN: And what kind of a snack do you send with them?
ERIC: It varies. I try to send a piece of fruit and something with some carbs in it, some crackers or chips sometimes, which I know is not a healthy choice, but it helps.
CONAN: It helps, OK. Thanks very much, Mary, appreciate the phone call.
MARY: Thank you.
BLACK: The standards are intended to meet one-third of the needs of the average child. So there are certainly going to be some kids who are exceptional and need more, and schools can participate in the after-school snacks program. They can participate in a breakfast program in order to help supplement the needs of those kids. Or parents can send a healthy snack, particularly if they have after-school sports or something where they may be staying at school a longer amount of time.
CONAN: Food service professionals in schools all over the country are having to rethink some of the ways they do things in order to comply with these new rules. Chef Ann Cooper is among them. She serves as food service director at Boulder Valley School District. You might know her as the Renegade Lunch Lady. Ann Cooper joins us now from her office in Boulder, Nice to have you with us.
ANN COOPER: Thanks, great to be here.
CONAN: And what's on the menu there in Boulder today?
COOPER: Well, you know, we have all kinds of great things on our menu. And during the course of - today, as a matter of fact, we had chicken pot pie, we had ribs, and we had chicken quesadillas.
CONAN: So plenty of choice there.
COOPER: That was in secondary, and in elementary school we had two of those choices. So we actually have great choices, I think, and everything in our district's made from scratch (technical difficulties) healthy. But I will say that we're in our fourth year of making these changes, so it's not as dramatic as it might seem to other people who are just starting.
CONAN: You haven't always been in the school lunch business. When did you decide to switch from fancy restaurants to school cafeterias?
COOPER: In 1999. Prior to '99 I was a white-tablecloth sort of semi-celebrity chef, cooked all over this country, on cruise ships, things like that. And now I'm a lunch lady.
CONAN: A lunch lady. Do you wear a hairnet?
COOPER: I don't. I wear a hat.
CONAN: OK, and I know that you first tried this out in Berkeley.
COOPER: I actually first, very first started at a private school in New York and then went to Berkeley, California for four years. And I'm in my fourth year here in Boulder now.
CONAN: And were you meeting any kind of resistance in Berkeley?
COOPER: Absolutely. And when I came to Boulder as well. I mean people don't necessarily want you to tell them what to eat. And so when I went to Berkeley and then came to Boulder, and I said we're getting rid of all the trans-fats and high-fructose corn syrup and no more chocolate milk, no French fries, no tater tots, no chicken nuggets, you know, there was this laundry list of things (technical difficulties).
You know, so there's initial pushback when you do that, but then there's a lot of things that we instituted, like salad bars in every school, which now with the new guidelines are really helpful because that's where all the fruits and vegetable can be. And food cooked from scratch and a lot of great items and choices for kids. So it really - it really does work once you take the time to work with the kids and educate the kids and spend time, make the kids part of the process.
CONAN: Nevertheless, I've read that you suffered a hunger strike by some fifth-graders.
COOPER: Yeah, that was quite some time ago, but that's true. That was at the Roth School in New York. And we did. And they really hated my grilled cheese sandwiches. They hated the cheese, and they hated the bread, and the reason they hated it, it was beautiful, nice aged cheddar cheese on bread we had made, and they were used to, you know, kind of Wonder, squishy bread and American cheese singles.
So but, you know, we did a cheese tasting with the kids, and we let them help bake bread with us, and then over time, you know, things changed.
CONAN: And I know you've heard these online videos, we played a bit of one a bit earlier, where kids protest they're hungry, we're hungry tonight. What's your take on that?
COOPER: You know, I - first of all, I want to say I totally support what the USDA is trying to do, and 850 calories for lunch for most children is plenty. That's not a small amount of calories for a meal that should be approximately a third of your daily calories.
The problem is there was never any maximum, so kids used to be able to have two or three pieces of pizza, chocolate milk and a cookie, and that would be lunch. And now instead of that, we're telling them you can have one piece of pizza, a big, beautiful salad, fruit, milk, some other stuff.
So what we've done here - again, we're in our fourth year of change, so I think it's a little different, but we market salad bars as endless. We have salad bars K-12. So all of our students can eat as much salad as they want. They can come back for seconds or thirds on salad. They can have as much fruit as they want, and they can have as much organic milk as they want.
So even though the portion sizes may seem slightly smaller, we give them all these other options, and we've had very, very little pushback. The other thing (technical difficulties)...
CONAN: We're going to have to wait on that other thing till we get back from a short break. So stay with us, if you would. Chef Ann Cooper, the Renegade Lunch Lady; also Jessica Donze Black is with us from the Pew Charitable Trusts. Stay with us. I'm Neal Conan. It's school lunch day on TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CONAN: This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. I'm Neal Conan. One group of students in Kansas took their frustrations with lighter school lunches to YouTube, singing "We Are Hungry." It's been viewed nearly half-a-million times. One of the students is a16-year-old football player, complained to USAToday that last year they got six chicken nuggets, this year just three.
As schools across the country work to meet new guidelines for healthy lunches, we're talking about what's changed on student lunch trays. And students, parents, we want to hear from you. What's changing in your school's lunchroom? 800-989-8255. Email is [email protected]. You can get the conversation on the website as well. Go to npr.org, click on TALK OF THE NATION.
We got this email from Michelle Closer(ph) at the West Salem School District in Wisconsin. She's the school nutrition director there. And I wanted to share this picture I took yesterday of just one our options in our high school. We made many of the changes that are now required a few years ago. Our count at high school has not decreased. Many of the schools in our area are serving very similar meals.
And I'm just flipping over to take a look at the picture. There's one of the familiar cartons of milk, looks like a half-pint, tomatoes in a cup, in a small cup, broccoli, salad, chicken, snow peas and carrots and potatoes. Doesn't look too bad.
We're talking with our guests: Jessica Donze Black, a director of the Kids' Safe and Healthful Foods Project at the Pew Charitable Trusts. Also with us, Chef Ann Cooper, director of food services at the Boulder Valley School District, author of many books, most recently "Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children." And she's with us by phone from there.
And before we went away to that last break, I had to cut you off, Chef Cooper. You were trying to make a point.
COOPER: Well, one of the things we did when we were working on the changes here in Boulder is we thought about the way these maximums work, and two of the things that happened is there's now maximums on protein and maximums on grains.
So bread sizes would get smaller, tortillas would get smaller, the portion of pasta might get smaller, and also portion of animal protein or any protein. So for instance, if we used to serve a half a cup of a taco or nacho or burrito filling, and now we might only be able to serve two ounces of protein, of beef in this case (technical difficulties) we still serve a half a cup, but we've pureed beans and vegetables and stuff.
And so from a kid's stomach point of view, how much they're eating, it feels like the same, and the flavor components are the same. So we also really worked on recipes to make sure the kids would feel like they're getting enough food.
CONAN: Let's go next to Sandra(ph), Sandra with us from Colona in Iowa.
SANDRA: Yes, hi, thank you for taking my call.
SANDRA: Well, I have an observation. My daughter is in ninth grade in this local school district, and she's coming home, she's a healthy eater at home, and - but she's complaining that the school lunches, for the most part, end up being very flavorless. And I've seen the menus, and they look like they have the potential of being good.
But then I have a friend who was recently hired at a local private school with the same guidelines, and she knows how to cook, and the teachers and all the students are just commenting every day to her of, you know, thanking her for how wonderful the food is. And it's the same recipes, same menu, but she knows how to put it together.
CONAN: And Jessica Donze Black suggests the importance of good execution, good cooking.
BLACK: Absolutely. I mean what the United States Department of Agriculture sets out, the basic nutrition standards. How that is executed is absolutely based on local decision-making. And so this is actually a great opportunity for parents to connect with their local school food service director, find out what they're doing, see if there's a way they can be supportive, what are the hurdles.
You know, are there different things we want to try? There are great tools available either through USDA or other online organizations for free, great menu options to try so that schools can engage in this a little bit differently and serve things that the kids will genuinely enjoy.
CONAN: And here's an email from Kristen(ph) on the same point: We eat reasonable, healthy food at home, and I've been making bagged lunches for my kids the last four years. They simply did not like the uber-processed school food. We recently moved to another state, and the new school is cooking on-site, has two choices each day, has fruit and salad. No more bagged lunches. The kids want to eat at school.
And so Chef Ann Cooper, that - again, you've got to do it right.
COOPER: You really do. I mean, one of the most important things as we start to make these changes is teaching people how to cook. Here in Boulder we have (technical difficulties). It's really important that they know how to cook, that you give them the skills, that you give them the ingredients, as much as the budget will allow, to produce the best possible food.
You know, without training, it's never going to work.
CONAN: We're having - being betrayed by our cell phone apps, our smartphone apps today. We're going to switch you over to the regular phone, if you don't mind. While we're doing that, let's get Tom in on the line, and Tom's with us from - excuse me, now the phone screen is acting up. Tom is with us from Turtle Lake in Wisconsin.
TOM: Hi, thanks. I have three kids in school, grade school, middle school, and this year with the new regulations plus the school farmed out their cafeteria to a commercial for-profit organization, they've been complaining that they aren't getting enough to eat.
And we've cut back on the school lunches and started sending more bagged lunches with them so they get enough to eat now. My kids are active. They're not overweight, sit in front of the TV type of kids, and they're the ones that are basically getting, well, not enough to eat, so...
CONAN: Have you talked to the school about that?
TOM: Yeah, it's been mentioned. It's just getting started. Like I said, they just switched to a commercial for-profit cafeteria organization. So that could be part of the problem. But the biggest complaint my kids have at lunch is that they're not getting enough to eat.
My one complaint too is the push for the low-fat, no-fat dairy products too, because fat is a necessary nutrient. The brain has a high percentage of fat, and these growing, developing kids need the fat. And pushing this colored water for milk is I don't think a good idea either.
CONAN: Chef Cooper, it sounds like you don't go for the low-fat milk, or do you?
COOPER: Well, actually, the new USDA guidelines say that you're only allowed to serve nonfat and one-percent milk. So this isn't something that the schools have a choice on. This is now under the new guidelines; this is mandated.
TOM: Well, then it's bureaucrats goofing things up again.
CONAN: Jessica Donze Black, I was saying, has this raised an issue of wait a minute, what are you doing here?
BLACK: Well, actually, the new standards are based on the recommendations from the Institute of Medicine, which based - which puts together dietary guidelines for Americans, which set forth sort of what kids need nutritionally. And there is still fat in the school meals, it just has to be within a reasonable level.
And the low-fat no-fat dairy requirements are really tied specifically to kids' need and then what is too much when it comes to saturated fat. So the guidelines are very much in line with what children actually need to grow and develop in a very healthy way.
CONAN: Tom, thanks...
TOM: I don't agree.
CONAN: All right, thanks very much for the call, Tom. Some school districts have their own chefs and their own food service professionals. Many choose to contract with a private food service provider. One of those is Revolution Foods. Kirsten Saenz Tobey co-founded that company in 2005. They have since contracted with schools all across the country, and she's with us on her phone from Oakland, California. Nice to have you on the program today.
KIRSTEN SAENZ TOBEY: Hi, good afternoon, Neal.
CONAN: Hi, what's on the lunch trays you provide?
TOBEY: Well, so we provide a wholesome, healthy meal for students in preschool through 12th grades. And everything we do is we really - we have chefs preparing the food every day so that it tastes great. I think what Chef Ann is saying is right on. If the food isn't prepared well and doesn't taste good, you know, no kid is going to eat it. So we really focus on chef-prepared meals.
But we do a lot of home-style kind of favorites. We do everything from, you know, chicken enchiladas on whole-grain tortillas to a great all-beef grass-fed hotdog on a whole-grain bun and, you know, everything in between. So there's a very wide range but always a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables. We've been doing that for the last six-and-a-half years now. Fresh fruits and vegetables have always been a really big part of the meals that we serve.
And so with the new regulations, it's not a huge change.
CONAN: Not a huge change for you. I was asking about the grass-fed beef, a little bit more expensive than the regular kind.
TOBEY: Well, of course bringing higher-quality ingredients into the kitchen is - can be more expensive. But the more you can make from scratch on, you know, across the board, the more you can kind of control costs in the production of the food.
We also really try to partner with our suppliers up the supply chain. So, you know, we partner with a great rice producer here in California, who has planted an entire field of rice for the schools that we serve. And it's an organic brown rice. It's a wonderful product that we found at a farmer's market originally.
So if we can - we've been really trying to build those kinds of partnerships with - you know, in some cases with small suppliers that we can help to grow and to access a more regional or a national market. You know, working with - working closely with our supply chain is the best way that we have found to reduce costs, not just kind of buying whatever the most, you know, kind of cheap, highly processed food off the shelf is.
CONAN: So that's one of the benefits of scale.
CONAN: And I wonder, though, is it important to start the kids younger? It would seem if you're switching when you're, you know, 13 or 14 years old, that could be more of a problem.
TOBEY: I think that's a really good point. And one of the most compelling things that I've heard in the last couple of weeks or in this whole debate around the new regulations is that the - we really have to count on the - we have to really consider the impact that the classes currently in kindergarten is going to see with these new regulations.
I mean, we currently have - you know, the kids who are in high school are already suffering, many of them from diabetes and early, you know, early onset conditions that normally, you know, shouldn't hit until adulthood. But the kids who are in kindergarten today are going to start out with school food that is high quality, that's whole - you know, based on whole grains. They're going to start eating more fruits and vegetables. They're going to learn that they need to fill half their plate with fruits and vegetables, and so that's how they will fill themselves up as they're eating their meals.
And the - and those kids will grow up knowing that that's what school food is. And so I just - I think it's so important that we focus a lot of our efforts on making sure that, you know, that food tastes great for those kids so that they learn that what - that the foods that they're getting in school not only tastes good and will fill them up, but will also make them feel good in the afternoon, after lunch and, you know, the next day as they're trying to get through their classes.
So I think that - it's a really - it's an excellent point, that the younger that we can start kids on a healthier, you know, healthier diet, healthier choices, the more they will continue to make healthy choices in their growing up life and adult life.
CONAN: Let's get Lorena(ph) on the line. Lorena is with us from Louisville. Lorena, you there? I guess she's left us. I'm sorry for that. Let's instead go to - this is Kirsten(ph), Kirsten with us from Lafayette, Colorado.
KIRSTEN: Hi. I was originally calling to talk about what a great school district I live in because we have the most wonderful lunch program here. And then, all of a sudden, Ann Cooper was there, and that excited me even more. I have a daughter in middle school and a daughter in elementary school. And we happen to be vegetarian, and it's really great that Boulder Valley School District offers vegetarian items also every day.
So my kids, in the morning, when I say, OK, what do you want me to pack for lunch, usually they pull out the calendar that the Boulder Valley School District makes. And they say, well, what's our option today at school? And half the time - or, actually, sometimes more than half the time - they like what school - the school offers more than what I'm going to make for them from scratch. And Ann has done such an amazing job with the Boulder Valley District's school program, lunch program, that I can't say enough about it. And they get more than enough to eat at lunch, and the food is extraordinary.
CONAN: Well, chef Ann Cooper, you couldn't ask for a nicer endorsement than that.
COOPER: I know. What a lovely surprise. Thank you for your kind words. But...
KIRSTEN: You're welcome. It's fantastic.
COOPER: Well, thank you. And I want to echo what Kirsten said, is that, you know, we're in year four. So, last year, our count in Boulder were up - our participation was at 5 percent, and we're already at 5 percent this year over last year. But a lot of that is because this is the fourth year that kids are eating the food.
And when you make these kind of changes, you have to be looking 10 years out. So the high school kids that made the video or the high school kids that are complaining are seeing changes for the very first time, and I think that that's very, very difficult to overcome.
KIRSTEN: Absolutely. My youngest is in fourth grade. My oldest is in seventh. And I remember the first year, they said, oh, we don't have those French toast sticks anymore that we can dip. And I was just, well, that is really not healthy lunch. And I don't hear any of that anymore. They're just excited about whatever is on the menu since they've gotten to taste them over the few years. And now it's - they're just excited that there are actually things they can eat at school because there are vegetarian items every day for them, and they're all really tasty. They're good.
CONAN: Kirsten, thanks again for the call.
KIRSTEN: Thank you. And thank you, Ann.
COOPER: Thank you.
CONAN: That's chef Ann Cooper, director of food services at Boulder Valley School District. Also with us, Jessica Donze Black, director of the Kids' Safe and Healthful Foods Project at the Pew Charitable Trusts, and Kirsten Saenz Tobey, co-founder and chief innovation officer at Revolution Foods in Oakland, California. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
A couple of emails, this from Meryl(ph) in Maui: Aloha from Maui, where you would think our school lunches would feature some of our readily available fresh food. They don't. A vegetable is often a few pieces of iceberg lettuce flown thousands of miles. My four children take a home lunch prepared by their vegetarian mother, and they always eat what I pack.
And this from Delano(ph) in New Orleans: As the deputy superintendent of services for the Louisiana Recovery School District, we have just implemented this healthy model in our schools, and participation from students has increased tremendously partly because we've been able to find a partner in our food service management company who meets the regional taste needs of an environment where food drives our culture, along with meeting the nutritional value that students need and deserve. This requires commitment from adults more than students, which is, at times, the hardest group to navigate.
And, Kirsten Saenz Tobey, you do lunches all over the country. You have to take that regional variance into account?
TOBEY: We absolutely do. And actually, the Recovery School District in New Orleans is one of the districts that we work with, so I appreciate the recognition there from Delano. It's incredibly important. I mean, of course, taste and, you know, quality of preparation is important, but regional palate is so critical too.
And I think the other point that you just made in the email that you read is that it takes leadership from the school's side to ensure that kids are learning in the lunchroom as well as learning in the classroom. And I think that it takes teachers, it takes faculty, it takes principals and school leaders both setting an example and encouraging kids to make healthy choices, to get kids to actually change their habits and choose to fill half their plate with fruits and vegetables because it's - if you have teachers who are coming into the lunchroom or even hiding in their classroom with a bag from a fast food restaurant or a - or, you know, junk food that they've picked up on their way to school, it shows kids that just like any other choices that teachers makes - that teachers make and faculty make...
CONAN: Has to be modeled, yeah.
TOBEY: ...kids look up to their faculty.
CONAN: Let's get Lorena. She's called back from Louisville. You're on the line, Lorena. Go ahead, please.
LORENA: Hi. Thanks for taking my call.
CONAN: Go ahead.
LORENA: Well, I always bring my lunch to school, but I've noticed problems with portion control at the school lunches.
CONAN: Some are bigger than others?
LORENA: Well, no. It's that there are a lot of kids that don't need a very big lunch. So - but they're forced to get a lot of food, and so it's wasted. But then there are other kids who need a big lunch and they don't get enough.
CONAN: So there's not enough thought given to each individual. It's all one-size-fits-all?
CONAN: And what's your favorite school lunch, Lorena?
LORENA: Probably pizza but I know it's not very healthy.
CONAN: I think you're with a lot of kids. Thanks very much for the call. Appreciate it.
LORENA: Yeah. Of course.
CONAN: And don't forget to do your homework tonight.
CONAN: All right. And thanks to all of our guests as well, to Jessica Donze Black here in Studio 3A, Chef Ann Cooper out there in Boulder, Colorado, and Kirsten Saenz in Oakland, California. We appreciate you taking the time today.
BLACK: Thank you.
COOPER: Thank you.
CONAN: And when we come back...
TOBEY: Thank you, Neal.
CONAN: ...we're going to be hearing more tape from the United Nation's General Assembly earlier in the week. We heard several world leaders speaking on critical issues, most importantly on the looming crisis with Iran. Today, the Israeli prime minister and the new president of Egypt as well. Stay with us. I'm Neal Conan. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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Trent Vale's buildings and historic features tell the story of its rich and complex past.
The built heritage throughout the Vale is of national importance and includes sites such as Gainsborough Old Hall, Torksey Castle and Newark Castle, together with the many historic churches and chapels, farm and village buildings and numerous industrial and commercial buildings within the market towns.
There are currently 47 sites designated as Scheduled Ancient Monuments in Trent Vale. Some of these are buried remains, but many structures are still visible. The Trent Vale also has some of the densest concentrations of cropmarks anywhere in the country, providing tantalising clues to how past communities lived, thrived and died.
Trent Vale's parish churches have significant historic interest with many located on sites with previous spiritual or religious importance. There is a special relationship between the Trent Vale and Christianity as it is believed the Northumbrian missionary Paulinus baptised pagan men of Lindsey and Mercia at a place called Tiowulfingacaestir, which is usually associated with Littleborough. This opened up opening these kingdoms to Christianity, which had lapsed in the post Roman period. Some Trent Vale churches may demonstrate the potential for Christianity to have actually survived and continued through the transition to Saxon kingdoms.
Today, parish churches also still play an important community role often being the sole surviving social facility. Above all, it is the undeveloped nature of the Trent Vale landscape and its villages that makes it so special, enabling people to enter into a 'forgotten time'.
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Check back for the December 21st archived webcast, Chaco Canyon (Live from the Exploratorium) !
The Ancient Observatory theme for 2005 will feature solar alignments with structures that mark the equinoxes and/or solstices. In partnership with the Exploratorium, Ideum, and NASA Connect, NASA's Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum will produce video and webcast programming that will be shared with formal and informal education audiences nationally. The programs will feature several sites including: Chaco Canyon (New Mexico), Hovenweep (Utah), and Chichen Itza (Mexico). Many of these sites present unique opportunities to develop authentic cultural connections to Native Americans, highlighting the importance of the Sun across the ages. We will involve Sun-Earth Connection scientists, their missions, and research programs to share NASA solar research with diverse audiences.
Below is more specific information about the webcasts and broadcasts Be sure to revisit this page for continued updates prior to each event.
Title: (Archive) Ancient Observatories: Chaco Canyon (Live from the Exploratorium)
Featured Location: Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
Air Time: December 21, 2004 @ 12 Noon Pacific Standard Time
Join the Live@ crew and NASA scientists as we delve into the ancient knowledge of the Chacoans, daily sky watchers who amassed a great knowledge about the movements of the sun. Find out what they knew, and how they used this knowledge to create sophisticated monuments to the sun.
Today, astronomers and solar physicists continue to watch the sun using modern ground-based observatories and orbiting space telescopes. Learn why this work is important, and why solar research is still so vital.
Title: Live from Chichen Itza
Featured Location: Chichen Itza, Mexico
Air Time: (Spring Equinox)
Production plans are currently underway for the creation of a new webcast live from the ancient pyramids of Chichen Itza, Mexico. More information will be posted as it becomes available.
Title: Ancient Observatories: Timeless Knowledge
Starts Airing: Thursday, March 17, 2005, 11:00 - 11:30 a.m. ET
NASA LIVE Event: Friday, April 22, 2005
With the use of technology (ancient, modern, and future), NASA scientists and astronomers will investigate how ancient civilizations worked to unlock the secrets of the Sun. Through the power of geometry, learn how light was used to provide a means of investigating the universe.
Mathematics concepts: Geometry
Science concepts: Space Science, History and Nature of Science
NASA Research: Sun-Earth Connection
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TickNET, a collaborative public health effort established by CDC in 2007, fosters coordinated surveillance, research, education, and prevention of tickborne diseases.
For more information:
- State and local health departments
- CDC's Division of Vector-borne Diseases and Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria
Through TickNET, CDC funds two types of extramural efforts:
- CDC's Emerging Infections Program (EIP) supports applied research in the following states:
- New York
- The Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases Cooperative Agreement (ELC) supports efforts to maintain and enhance basic surveillance in many states and several municipalities.
- Page last reviewed: December 2, 2015
- Page last updated: December 2, 2015
- Content source:
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| 0.877519 | 159 | 2.84375 | 3 |
How to Read a Stock Table
2 of 11 in Series: The Essentials of Investing in Stocks and Bonds
You can use stock tables to select promising investment opportunities and to monitor your stocks’ performance. The stock tables in major business publications, such as The Wall Street Journal and Investor’s Business Daily, are loaded with information that can help you become a savvy investor.
The table below shows a sample stock table. Each item gives you some clues about the current state of affairs for a particular company.
|52-Wk High||52-Wk Low||Name (Symbol)||Div||Vol||Yld||P/E||Day Last||Net Chg|
Here’s what each column means:
52-week high: This column gives you the highest price that particular stock has reached in the most recent 52-week period.
52-week low: This column gives you the lowest price that particular stock has reached in the most recent 52-week period.
Name and symbol: This column tells you the company name (usually abbreviated) and the stock symbol assigned to it. Financial tables list stocks in alphabetical order by symbol, and you need to use them in all stock communications.
Dividend: A value in this column indicates that payments have been made to stockholders. The amount you see is the annual dividend quoted as if you owned one share of that stock.
Volume: This column tells you how many shares of that particular stock were traded that day. If only 100 shares are traded in a day, the trading volume is 100.
Yield: This column refers to what percentage that particular dividend is to the stock price. Yield, which is most important to income investors, is calculated by dividing the annual dividend by the current stock price.
P/E: This column indicates the ratio between the price of the stock and the company’s earnings. This ratio (also called the earnings multiple or just multiple) is frequently used to determine whether a stock is a good value.
Day last: This column tells you how trading ended for a particular stock on the day represented by the table. Some newspapers report the high and low for that day in addition to the stock’s ending price.
Net change: This column answers the question How did the stock price end today compared with its trading price at the end of the prior trading day?
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| 0.924586 | 495 | 3.0625 | 3 |
In 2004 Bejerano et al. identified "481 segments longer than 200 base pairs (bp) that are absolutely conserved (100% identity with no insertions or deletions) between orthologous regions of the human, rat, and mouse genomes". These were found to be mostly in/around genes related to RNA processing, which is perhaps unsurprising given that it is such a primitive/inherent biological process.
Bejerano's paper has been cited over 500 times on Scopus, with numerous papers reporting variants in such regions that cause diseases such as colorectal adenocarcinomas.
So few conserved regions exist because there is plenty of redundancy in the genome; many genes functionally overlap with others, and many genetic variants are 'silent' - they have no effect on the phenotype. Having this variability is advantageous in Darwinian terms because this increases the evolvability of the species.
There are many regions of very high homology between individuals (protein-coding regions are highly conserved even between species), but there will still be natural variation; each mutations effect will be dependent on the rest of the genome. Genes work together to produce a working organism - they do not each code for a little 'bit', and therefore a change in one portion of the DNA may be 'balanced' by a change elsewhere.
It is only in 'ultra-conserved' sequences that mutations are presumably incompatible with life because the process is so finely-tuned and indispensable.
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Wake up really early Tuesday morning, look up in to the sky, and you'll see something that appears a little bit off.
"What we're going to have is a lunar eclipse starting tomorrow (Monday) night into Tuesday morning,” said Richard Miles, Program Coordinator at the Science Center of Iowa.
Miles is an experienced stargazer with all the big telescopes one could ever need for viewing the planets and the stars.
However, he says when viewing the lunar eclipse Tuesday morning, the best tool is the naked eye.
"Just step outside and look up. That way you'll get the full view. You will get the full picture of what's going on,” said Miles.
A total lunar eclipse was last visible from earth in 2011.
It happens when the moon slips into the shadow of the earth.
Light from the sun then bends around the earth's atmosphere making the moon appear blood red.
That is of course if the conditions cooperate.
"If you have cloudy conditions on the earth’s edge, that would block the earth's light and you won't see the moon at all,” said Miles.
Miles says if you want to see the show, be outside by 2 AM.
Between two and about 3:30 AM thirty, you're likely see to see that reddish glow.
Whether you're a passionate stargazer or just find yourself looking into the sky from time to time, it's a special sight.
"It's a rare event. It's really neat to see that,” Miles told Channel 13 News.
If you need a little expert guidance viewing the lunar eclipse, head to the Science Center of Iowa late Monday night or early Tuesday morning.
Miles will be out with his telescopes from 11 PM when the moon begins to slip into the earth's shadow until about 4 AM when the total eclipse ends.
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| 0.953036 | 392 | 2.65625 | 3 |
This week's NASA report on a near-fatal spacewalk reads like something out of your worst nightmare.
Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano spent nearly an hour floating in space as his helmet slowly filled with water—up to 1.5 liters—engulfing his eyes, nose and ears. And while his July 16 spacewalk ended safely, NASA now acknowledges the mishap could have killed him.
"[Parmitano] experienced a large amount of water collecting inside his helmet which created several hazardous conditions including risk of asphyxiation, impaired vision, and a compromised ability to communicate," the report states. "The presence of this water created a condition that was life threatening."
As the water collected, Parmitano's concerns were initially dismissed. The report says crew members were under the misperception that astronauts' drink bags leaked frequently, and reacted as if the collecting water was due to that less-serious problem.
In a 16-minute span, however, Parmitano said three times he did not believe the water was coming from the drink bag. Only after he drank the bag's remaining water did the team consider other possibilities. A fellow astronaut surmised urine or sweat may be to blame.
Meanwhile, his helmet was still filling up. Another misperception—that water in zero-gravity would cling to the inside of the helmet and not an astronaut's face—led crew members to underestimate the problem.
Twenty-four minutes after his first report of the problem, Parmitano's spacewalk was terminated. It would be another 33 minutes before his helmet would come off.
As he made his way back to the airlock, gathering water covered his eyes, forcing him to blindly feel his way toward the station. The crew inside and back on the ground were still unaware of how serious the situation was, because Parmitano's soaked communications cap was not relaying his calls—leaving him "in the blind."
One hour and 35 minutes after the start of his spacewalk, Parmitano—finally in the airlock—removed his helmet. While most of us are having a panic attack just reading about his ordeal, the Italian's "calm demeanor in the face of his helmet filling with water possibly saved his life," says the report.
NASA's 222-page document also credits the flight control team for making the correct calls in an unprecedented situation, ultimately saving Parmitano's life.
So what caused the near-fatal accident? According to the report, a blocked water separator in the suit caused the liquid to spill over and find its way into the astronaut's helmet.
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Early Anthropological Researches 123
We now turn to certain papers dealing with these points. The first paper we have to notice is entitled : "The Relative Supplies from Town and Country Families to the Population of Future Generations"; it was the first paper Galton read before the Statistical Society of London'.
"This is an inquiry into the relative fertility of the labouring classes of urban and rural populations, not as regards the number of children trought into the world, but as regards that portion of them who are destined to live and become the parents of the next generation. It is
well known that the population of towns decays, and has to be recruited by immigrants from the country, but I am not aware that statistical measurement has yet been attempted of its rate of decay. This inquiry is part of a larger one, on the proportionate supply to the population from the various social classes, and which has an obvious bearing on investigations into the influences that tend to deteriorate or to improve our race. If the poorer classes, that is to say, those who contain an undue proportion of the weak, the idle, and the improvident, contribute an undue supply of population to the next generation, we are justified in expecting that our race will steadily deteriorate, so far as that influence is concerned. The particular branch of the question to which I address myself in this memoir is very important, because the more energetic of our race, and therefore those whose breed is the most valuable to our nation, are attracted from the country to our towns. If, then, residence in towns seriously interferes with the maintenance of their race, we should expect the breed of Englishmen, so far as that influence is concerned, to steadily deteriorate." (p. 19.)
It will be seen that Galton makes two great assumptions : (a) that the population of the town decays, and (b) that the most energetic of our race are attracted to the towns. Now there is no doubt that a considerable number of energetic men do come from the country into the towns, but also many weaklings and the general human refuse also migrate, and it is not at all clear where the balance of gain may lie. If there be a large contingent of the loafing, pauper and even criminal sections of the community who have come from country to town, the want of fertility in the town may be in part due to this selection.
Captain John Graunt in his "Observations on the Bills of Mortality," 1662, was perhaps the first to assert that the town was recruited from the country, but he had the marked experience of London being rapidly refilled after great plagues. Galton got Dr Farr to provide him with the size of family of 1000 mothers between ages 23 and 40 from Coventry, and the same series of mothers from the rural districts of Warwickshire; the former were the wives of factory hands, and the latter of agricultural labourers. He does not say, however, whether the wives of the factory hands were employed or not, and he does not know whether the ages at marriage of the town wives were differentiated from those of the rural wives. Now the town returns show 510 wives under 32 and the rural returns only 466. It follows therefore that the town wives were younger in the selection made than the rural wives; or quite apart from the possibility of an evil influence of town-life on fertility, we might well anticipate that the 1000 town wives would show fewer children. Accordingly, I reconstructed Galton's table, by considering the ages of the wives and reducing the town and country.
1 Journal, March 1873, Vol. XXXVI, pp. 19-26. Galton was elected to the Society in 1860 and served on the Council from 1869 to 1879.
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en
| 0.977167 | 775 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Gender differences in the workplace typically stem from social factors, which influence the behaviors of men and women. Some organizations welcome gender diversity and encourage the inclusion of both sexes when making company decisions and offering promotional opportunities. Other organizations discourage gender inclusion and promote bias in the workplace. With most companies, gender differences add value and varying perspectives to an organization.
Gender differences involve both physical and emotional factors. They are essentially the characteristics that influence male and female behavior in the workplace. These influences may stem from psychological factors, such as upbringing, or physical factors, such as an employee's capability to perform job duties. Differences may also stem from gender stereotypes related to men and women. For instance, a stereotypical assessment is that women belong in the home while men work and provide support. Stereotypes often lead to sex discrimination in the workplace.
Men and women experience differences in perception in the workplace. According to the book, "Managing in the Age of Change: Essential Skills to Manage Today's Workforce," by Sophie Hahn and Anne Litwin, an employee's gender can illustrate differences in perception related to organizational structure, problem-solving style and view of work-related conflict. Also, differences in individual working style is notable. According to the book, women perceive that individual work styles should be collaborative, where everyone works as part of a whole. Men, on the other hand, perceive that work should be completed independently without the assistance of others. Women also tend to be more supportive managers, whereas men are more direct.
Many legal issues stem from men and women being treated differently or unfairly in the workplace. Several employment and labor laws govern sex discrimination and prohibit workplace practices that treat a particular sex unfavorably because of gender. For example, the Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination, such as hiring, firing or refusing to promote an employee because of sex or gender. Employers must also provide special accommodations for gender-related issues, such as pregnancy and nursing. Other laws such as the Equal Pay Act ensures men and women receive the equal pay for performing the same job in the same company.
Misunderstandings between genders often cause conflict within the workplace. Men and women perceive information differently, which could lead to feelings of exclusion or allegations of harassment or sex discrimination. Managers can combat this problem through training and development initiatives that focus on increased awareness of gender-related issues. Managers can also encourage change in employee behavior to strengthen the working relationship between men and women, and lead by example.
- U.S. Department of Labor: Fact Sheet #73: Break Time for Nursing Mothers Under the FLSA
- Find Law: Gender (Sex) Discrimination Basics
- WorkPlaceFairness.com: Sex/Gender Discrimination
- Anne Litwin & Associates; Publication: Women and Men -- from "Managing in the Age of Change"; Sophie Hahn and Anne Litwin
- many business people image by alma_sacra from Fotolia.com
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| 0.949123 | 600 | 3.984375 | 4 |
The phosphorus availability of feed phosphates in broilers
Thesis (MscAgric (Animal Sciences))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005.
Broiler diets are supplemented with feed phosphates to ensure that adequate available phosphorus is provided in the diet to meet the bird’s requirements. These feed phosphates make a considerable contribution to the total available phosphorus in the diet and small differences in their availability may have significant effects on whether the bird’s requirements are met or not. The variation in availability of phosphorus between feed phosphates belonging to different classes and between feed phosphates of the same generic class is well documented.
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en
| 0.907273 | 129 | 2.625 | 3 |
Definitions for DVD
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word DVD
videodisk, videodisc, DVD(noun)
a digital recording (as of a movie) on an optical disk that can be played on a computer or a television set
An optical disc, typically one holding a commercially-recorded movie.
Digital Versatile Disc, the use of which is deprecated in favor of (2)
Digital Video Disc
DVD is an optical disc storage format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than compact discs while having the same dimensions. Pre-recorded DVDs are mass-produced using molding machines that physically stamp data onto the DVD. Such discs are known as DVD-ROM, because data can only be read and not written nor erased. Blank recordable DVD discs can be recorded once using a DVD recorder and then function as a DVD-ROM. Rewritable DVDs can be recorded and erased multiple times. DVDs are used in DVD-Video consumer digital video format and in DVD-Audio consumer digital audio format, as well as for authoring AVCHD discs. DVDs containing other types of information may be referred to as DVD data discs.
The numerical value of DVD in Chaldean Numerology is: 5
The numerical value of DVD in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3
Sample Sentences & Example Usage
The DVD audience is a little older. They want the physical DVD, the bulk of our YouTube audience is younger.
A family member opened the DVD thinking it was a video of her sister’s newborn baby, then she watched it and freaked out. She had nightmares for years.
When you put people in a theater or (they watch) a blue ray DVD, they are watching in the comfort of their home, but to physically be inside a tram car and experience your favorite franchise as a theme park ride, it definitely raises the bar.
Images & Illustrations of DVD
Translations for DVD
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
Get even more translations for DVD »
Find a translation for the DVD definition in other languages:
Select another language:
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| 0.893148 | 450 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Technology B.P.S. Guidelines
The technologist is typically a practical person who is interested in the application of theoretical principles for the achievement of practical ends. A B.P.S. in technology would be appropriate for students whose focus is on the applied technologies.
The technology professions require:
- an understanding of scientific and mathematical principles
- detailed knowledge of relevant practices and procedures whereby those principles are applied operationally.
Studies in technology include the theoretical foundations of the field and an emphasis on application. Depending upon the specific technology and the scientific base of that technology, degrees in technological fields should include:
- hands-on experience with processes, methods and procedures
- working knowledge of needed techniques including data acquisition and interpretation
- familiarity with established computer applications to the particular field of interest
- facility with mathematics appropriate to the field
- knowledge of relevant scientific concepts appropriate to the field
- technical communication skills appropriate to the field
- ethical reasoning and reflection on issues such as social and professional responsibilities and environmental sustainability, both locally and globally.
Degree programs must demonstrate currency in the field and show understanding of emerging and evolving technologies and environment relevant to their individual context.
Students should explicitly discuss in their rationale essay how each of the above topics is incorporated in their degree program, how the program is designed to meet their goals and how the program meets the currency criteria discussed above. It is not necessary that the specific terms used above appear in individual study titles.
A Note on the B.P.S.
Students should be aware that the B.P.S. is a terminal degree and may not allow movement to the next higher degree without additional course work. It is recommended that students look at the B.S. and B.A. options under the science, mathematics and technology AOS as part of their research into their degree options.
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http://esc.edu/degrees-programs/undergraduate-aos/science-math-technology/technology-bps/
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| 0.93422 | 378 | 2.921875 | 3 |
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of single-seat, single-engine, fifth generation multirole fighters under development to perform ground attack, reconnaissance, and air defense missions with stealth capability. The F-35 has three main models; one is a conventional takeoff and landing variant, the second is a short take off and vertical-landing variant, and the third is a carrier -based variant.
The F-35 is descended from the X-35, the product of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. JSF development is being principally funded by the United States, with the United Kingdom and other partner governments providing additional funding. It is being designed and built by an aerospace industry team led by Lockheed Martin. The F-35 took its first flight on 15 December 2006.
The United States intends to buy a total of 2,443 aircraft for an estimated US$323 billion, making it the most expensive defense program ever. The United States Air Force (USAF) budget data in 2010, along with other sources, projects the F-35 to have a flyaway cost from US$89 million to US$200 million over the planned production of F-35s. Cost estimates have risen to $382 billion for 2,443 aircraft, at an average of $156 million each. The rising program cost estimates have cast doubt on the actual number to be produced for the U.S. In January 2011, the F-35B variant was placed on "probation" for two years because of development issues.
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http://www.upi.com/topic/F-35_Lightning_II/news/6/
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en
| 0.956499 | 314 | 2.734375 | 3 |
How Does External Modem work in Linux?
Okay I got hold of an old external dialup modem and it worked well in knoppix without any need for drivers.I just pointed it to the com port in kppp and it is detected. Contrast this with winxp which had to install a driver though it does it also automatically.
My question is-how come in linux the external modem did not need a driver?How does it work without a driver in linux?
Last edited by bongski55; 09-18-2004 at 06:33 AM.
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en
| 0.955342 | 118 | 2.578125 | 3 |
“Collaborating with Nathan on the FairTrade project has been an incredible learning opportunity which has also helped me make substantial progress on my individual research projects.”
— Raluca Dragusanu
We have been working on a project looking at the impacts of FairTrade certification on poverty in the coffee industry in Costa Rica. The FairTrade label is the most recognized ethical label globally. Ethical labeling of products aims to draw attention to the way in which goods are made such as labor and environmental practices. They aim to bring consumers closer to the production process and give them the opportunity to decide through their purchases on whether/how their dollars contribute to social and environmental impact. The volume of FairTrade sales has witnessed a dramatic increase in the last decade.
The FairTrade certification aims to offer better terms of trade to producers in developing countries and offers consumers in developed countries a way to contribute directly in lifting people out of poverty. The most important benefits to FairTrade is that it guarantees farmers a “minimum” living wage (for coffee this minimum price is around $1.35 per pound) as well as offers a price premium which is required to be put aside to “improve the quality of life for producers and their communities.” In the case of coffee, only small-scale democratically organized producer cooperatives are eligible for certification. There is little actual evidence on whether the FairTrade certification is an effective tool of lifting producers and their communities out of poverty. Because FairTrade is intended for consumers in developed countries to use their purchasing power to affect the lives of people in developing countries, we thought it would be important to understand whether this mechanism works, and quantify the magnitude of the potential benefits. Relative to existing studies on the impact of FairTrade, our research attempts to study the effects of FairTrade certification more in-depth, and bring more broad-based evidence of its impacts.
Our research focus so far has been on the coffee industry in Costa Rica. Coffee is the largest cash crop in Costa Rica. Production happens to a largest extent on small-scale family farms which will hire day laborers, particularly during harvests (2-3 times per year). Berries are picked during harvest and transported to a local processing plant for wet and dry milling. Coffee is then sold on the domestic market or exported.
While coffee is probably the most well-known FairTrade certified product, other products like cocoa, tea, sugar, bananas, and rice have witnessed an increase in the volume of FairTrade sales. We plan to expand the analysis to more countries and products in the near future.
Findings & Implications
Our results so far suggest that FairTrade Certification is an effective tool in improving people’s incomes. On average, people’s incomes increase with the amount of FairTrade exports, irrespective of the industry where they are employed. But within the coffee industry, skilled farmers tend to gain disproportionately more from FairTrade relative to unskilled workers. These results suggest that FairTrade is potentially an effective tool of poverty reduction (at least for some producers in developing countries), but that it also has distributional consequences which we will be studying in more depth in the next phase of our research.
The Collaborative Process
Raluca: Nathan and I meet often to discuss the ongoing progress on the project and the next steps. For me, collaborating with Nathan on the FairTrade project has been an incredible learning opportunity which has also helped me make substantial progress on my individual research projects. It has been great to get an insight on how he thinks about research and the steps towards writing a successful paper and making a contribution to the literature.
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en
| 0.955291 | 740 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Light, medium & heavy tanks, armored cars
Up to 300,000+ AFVs by September 1945
- Disston Tractor Tank
- H.M.C. M7 Priest
- H.M.C. M8 “Scott”
- LVT-1 Alligator
- LVT-2 Water Buffalo
- LVT-3 Bushmaster
- LVT-4 Water Buffalo
- LVT(A)1 Amtrack
- M1 Armoured Car
- M1 Combat Car
- M10 Wolverine
- M18 Hellcat
- M2 Half Track Car
- M2 Light Tank
- M2 Medium Tank
- M24 Chaffee
- M26 Pershing
- M3 Half Track Car
- M3 Lee/Grant
- M3 Scout Car
- M3 Stuart
- M36 Jackson
- M4 Sherman
- M5 Stuart
- M8 Greyhound
At the end of WW1, the US Expeditionary Force was given some 144 Renault FT French tanks, and a licence for production in the US, as the M1917 tank. But production organisation took time, and only a few were shipped to France and were operational before the capitulation. Nevertheless, this new weapon proved its ground. Embryos of the Tank Force, the Tank Corps in France and the Tank Service in USA were set, the first by Samuel Rockenbach, assisted by Georges S. Patton, the second headed by Ira Clinton Welborn, assisted by Dwight D. Eisenhower. Patton had already gained some experience, directing a squadron of three armored cars during the punitive expedition sent against Pancho Villa’s insurrection. At the end of the war, one of these units, the 301st Heavy Tank Battalion, was equipped with British Tanks Mk.IV-V. This led to a cooperation on a new design, which ultimately led to the Liberty (Mk.VIII) tank.
Along with lighter M1917 tanks, they formed the core of US Tank Force during the twenties. Georges S. Patton and Dwight Eisenhower played a great role in formulating tactical doctrines and organisation.
US tank development in the interwar
The Tank Service retained the Mark VIII Liberty and M1917, with no intermediate medium model, until 1928, when a new directive was issued for a medium tank, and a new light model, usable by cavalry. At the same time, William B. Christie, an American car engineer, devised a new, revolutionary tank suspension system, with a dual purpose train, allowing the vehicle to also run without its tracks. However, his project, quickly dubbed the “flying tank”, was never produced in the US but as a prototype, because it never fulfilled all the requirements of the Army and US Marine Corps. However, the design was not lost and served as a basis for many successful models abroad, in Great Britain (the Cruiser tanks) and Soviet Union (BT series and the T-34).
However the official bureau of ordnance delegated to the design bureau of the Mississippi’s Rock Island Arsenal (between Iowa and Illinois), which designed produced and tested tanks for the US Army. Not only it produced the Liberty Mark VIII tanks in 1919-1920, but also artillery, gun mounts, recoil mechanisms, small arms, aircraft weapons sub-systems, grenade launchers, weapons simulators… outside tanks.
(To be continued)
ww2 US Tanks Nomenclature and production:
The M2s were the operational US light tanks at the beginning of the war. The M2A4 was the sole among the four types which actually took part in combat, especially in the Pacific (like here, at Guadalcanal) with the USMC. It was removed from active duty in 1943. All the others, the pre-series M2A1, the M2A2 “duplex turret” or “Mae West”, and upgraded M2A3, were kept for training in USA.
M1 Combat Car
113 built. This early development, along with the M2, was the basis of the M3-M5 “Stuart” lineage, which formed the backbone of US light tanks. The M1A2 was upgraded with a 37 mm (1.46 in) gun in1940.
8885 built. Based on the M3A3 with a modified hull and new Cadillac engine and transmission. Armor was reinforced, but the armament did not evolve.
4731 built (and 720+ variants) Last WWII US light tank developed, it was better armored and armed, serving from 1944-45 until the late seventies.
M2 medium tank
3258 built. This long awaited model entered service as fast as possible with British units fighting in North Africa, through Lend-Lease. It was phased out in 1942, but served until 1945 in Asia. It was mobile, well armed and protected, but the high silhouette and sponson main gun were serious flaws. It was a transition model.
49,234 built. This mythical machine replaced the Lee/Grant and remains the most prolific tank of the western world. But it was a compromise and has some flaws as well, especially when facing German late tanks of 1943-45.
As pragmatic planners, the US military never seriously envisioned heavyweight breakthrough machines, as tanks were traditionally attached to the cavalry. Speed and easy production were the main concerns at the start of WW2, but after war experience in Europe the need for more penetrating power and increased protection came, advocating for all-better medium tanks, specialized tank-hunters and ultimately to the first wartime US heavy tank. The only U.S. Army super-heavy tank ever produced, was the experimental T28.
M6 Heavy Tank
Around 2000 built. Only 20 were deployed in Germany a few weeks before the end of the war. The development of this tanks started in 1942, but delays and modifications delayed the production until December 1944. It was well protected and fitted with a 90 mm (3.54 in). It was the base for Cold War US tank development, including the early T29 and T30.
T28 super-heavy tank
Two built. Experimental machine fitted with a very long barrel 105 mm (4.13 in) gun, in order to deal with the most formidable German tanks in the western European theater. The first was ready when the war ended. The second was scrapped in 1947.
War experience quickly showed the limitations of the Sherman when facing German armor, as early as the Tunisian campaign. This was epitomized both in Italy (after Italy surrendered) and in France (after D-Day). The main limitation was the lack of range and penetrating power of the regular 75 mm (2.95 in) Sherman main gun. The obvious solution was to choose the British 17-pdr (76.2 mm/3 in) (which was added later to the Sherman Firefly), and to develop a new vehicle based around this gun and especially designed as a tank-hunter.
6706 built. Ordnance “3-inch Gun Motor Carriage, M10”. Based on a Sherman chassis and drivetrain, with an open top turret fitted with a high velocity M7 76 mm (3 in)
1772 built, between 1943-45. Fitted with the 90 mm (3.54 in) M3 high velocity gun, a very effective solution, one of the few fit to deal with German armor in 1944.
2507 built between 1943-45. Conceived from scratch, with its new suspension and powerful drivetrain, it was lightning fast and fitted with the effective 76 mm (3 in) M1A2 AT gun.
Gun Motor Carriages
3490 built, between 1943-45. Fitted with the 105 mm (4.13 in) M1/M2 howitzer, its tall silhouette earned this model the nickname “Priest”.
Armored scouts & transports
M1 Armoured car
12 built (1931) by Cunningham and Rock Island Arsenal. Largely test vehicles used by the Cavalry Corps.
M3 Scout car
13,500 built (+3500 M9 Lend-Lease versions). Was used for towing the 105 mm (4.13 in) howitzer and its crew.
8523 built. Standard issue 6WD armored scout car.
Christie T3E2 prototype in testings. It was one of the last of a whole lineage of cavalry (convertible) tanks.
Convertible Combat Car T7. An early attempt in 1937-38 to develop a convertible tank in the idea first approached by Walter Christie in 1928-29. Despite some interesting characteristics the US Army decided to develop its own slower, but more sturdy and better protected type. The Christies were just too extreme for the military thinking of the day.The M1 Combat Car, the first modern tank in US service, came into production in 1937. By 1941, they were all serving as training machines.
After the M1 Combat Car, the M2 was the first model available in numbers when the war began in 1939. They existed in several variants.
Here a M2A2 “Mae West” twin turret on display at the Fort Knox museum.
M2A3 light tank at the Army Day Parade in 1939.
M2A4 light tanks being prepared for delivery in Great Britain. The M2A4 saw action in the desert with British Forces and the Philippines and Guadalcanal.
Marmon Herriginton CTLS in Surabaya, in service with the KNIL (Dutch East Indies Army), 1942. Marmon-Herrington was one of the rare private companies developing tanks chiefly for export (although the USMC tested and bough some). The first customer was the KNIL.
Marmon-Herrington CTLS in Alaska, 1942, some of the rare actions ever performed by these tanks for the USMC.
M3 Stuart training at Fort Knox Kentucky. The M3 was the first truly mass-produced wartime American Tank. With its 4-6 machine guns and 37 mm main gun it was still up to the job in 1941.
M3A3 Stuart passing by Coutances, Normandy, France, summer 1944. M3A1,A2,A3s were produced until replacement in 1942-43 by the M5.
Chinese M3A3 Stuart on the road of Ledo, 1944.
The M5 Stuarts built by Cadillac were the workhorses of the US military light tank force in 1943-44.
M22 Locust light tank at Bovington. Also produced by Marmon-Herrington it was the only model mass-produced for the Army, tailored to fit inside a heavy duty glider for airborne operations. Unfortunately too many compromises led inevitably to a tank which was desperately outmatched by everything the Germans had.
US M24 Chaffee light tank on display at Fort Lewis. This light and inaugurated a brand new design, improved in any directions and which saw service until the 1960s and even 1980s in many countries worldwide.
The M2 medium tank was the first of its kind in the USA. Only 112 were produced by the Rock Island Arsenal, but they were seen as obsolete by 1941 and phased out as training tanks for the duration of the war. They never left the territory.
The M3 Lee (Grant in British/Commonwealth service) were the first medium tanks largely available to the Allies and USA during the first part of the war, from 1941 to 1943. The British used them extensively against Rommel’s forces in Africa, and they served well in several Asian and Pacific campaigns, until 1945. On the western theater they were replaced by the M4 Sherman by 1943.
M3 Medium tank front view
The M4 Sherman was the most prolific and best all-around tank the US industry could offer in 1942. The full force of the USA’s production capabilities became obvious in late 1943, when swarms of M4s were seen in action with the US Army, USMC, British and Commonwealth forces, fighting until the end of the war. A legend in itself, with many variants and countless derivatives, and a career which spans decades into the Cold War.
M4A3R3 Ronson flamethrower tank in Iwo Jima.
The T28 super-heavy tank was the only one of the kind ever built in the United States, at Pacific Car and Foundry. With 95 tons it was indeed super heavy, originally designed to carry an exceptional gun, the 105 mm T5E1. However it was given a Ford GAF V-8 500 hp (372 kW) barely capable to move it, at 8 mph on a good road (that can support its weight). Quite a mobile blockhouse with 300 mm of armour on the glacis and mantlet it was impregnable not only to the German 88 L71 and 128 mm, but also potentially the Soviet 120 mm. To lower ground pressure, it had double tracks, with four 2×4 double roadwheels suspended on two sets of HVSS (horizontal volute spring). Autonomy was limited to 100 miles, and it was not compatible with any known railway carriage. it was tested until October 1947, when the project was terminated. Only one prototype, rediscovered in 1972 at Fort Belvoir, was transferred to the Patton Museum of Cavalry and Armor in Kentucky where it can be found today.
The T40 Tank Destroyer also called 3″ Gun Motor Carriage T40 was first defined in 1941 on the basis of the T24 prototype, rebuilt by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1941 on the M3 Lee chassis. It was to supplement the early M6 GMC Fargo and T19 GMC half-track, and was the only fully tracked proposition long before the M10 Wolverine. With the Japanese attack on december, 7, 1941, the Army rushed production and the T40 was standardized as the M9 tank destroyer, with an order for 1000.
The solution was interesting, allowing to use standardized parts from the M3 medium tank and the conversion was simple and straightforward. However, it used the 3 inches Model 1918 gun, which was in short supply at that time, as only 30 were registered by the Ordnance bureau. The others points of contention with the Ordnance Board, that pushed to reject the model, were related to the high silhouette and slow speed of the vehicle. Eventually the M9 programme was cancelled in August 1942.
The M7 had the ambition to replace both medium and light tanks in a single package… Officially it was named the M7 medium. A rare attempt to marry the light and medium tank concept in a single, cheap package that could be mass-produced easily. At the origin it was a replacement for the Light Tank M3/M5, but eventually the more innovative M24 Chaffee will be chosen fro this task. Meanwhile, it was supposed to mount the same 75mm main gun as the M4 Sherman, while still being more agile and faster. The program started in January 1941 and six prototypes were built (T7 to T7E5) plus seven pre-production M7 standardized vehicles from august 1942. However the M7 had a heavier and thicker cast hull as expected which caused significant losses in performances. Without clear advantages over the M4A3 Sherman both in protection and armour, the program was terminated. In total 13 were built, prototypes included.
Latest ww2 tanks
- Vickers Amphibious Light Tank A4E3 L1E3
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- Aufklärungspanzer 38(t)
- M24 Chaffee
- Constructora Field
- Soviet Navy Armored ADG Lorry
- FIAT AB 611
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| 0.96675 | 3,286 | 2.84375 | 3 |
From Guadalajara Jal., Mexico:
I have a 9 year old sister with Type 1 diabetes. We are looking to give her the best diet to prevent complications in the future. Do you know of any reliable research that shows if Japanese or vegetarian nutrition habits are better to prevent complications than other cultures nutrition habits?
I am not aware of any reliable research on whether Japanese or vegetarian nutrition habits are better in helping to prevent complications. There is some evidence that vegetarian diets, with adequate protein for growth, have some benefits but data is not conclusive at this time.
Original posting 16 Mar 97
Last Updated: Tuesday April 06, 2010 15:08:54
This Internet site provides information of a general nature and is designed for educational purposes only. If you have any concerns about your own health or the health of your child, you should always consult with a physician or other health care professional.
This site is published by T-1 Today, Inc. (d/b/a Children with Diabetes), a 501c3 not-for-profit organization, which is responsible for its contents. Our mission is to provide education and support to families living with type 1 diabetes.
© Children with Diabetes, Inc. 1995-2016. Comments and Feedback.
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In the Garden:
Southern California Coastal & Inland Valleys
Cold, wet February is the best time to transplant artichokes and enjoy sweet peas.
Transplant Perennial Veggies
It may still be winter, but it's prime time for starting new plantings of asparagus, rhubarb, and artichokes. Asparagus will grow and produce satisfactorily in partially shaded areas, such as next to a fence or building, especially if the plants receive morning sun. This patch can last some 15 years, so plan its location well.
Choose a new area rather than replanting an old asparagus bed with new roots. In an old bed, residues from the old plants will retard the growth of the new young ones, and the old bed may have accumulated fungal pathogens.
Dig a lot of compost and manure into the soil, and set roots at least 6 inches deep and a foot apart. Cover them with a fluffy mix of soil, manure, or other organic mulch, and water in well. In future years, maintain the bed by applying manure to the depth of an inch or two to slowly feed the plants as rain and overhead irrigation wash the nutrients down into the root zone.
Set artichoke roots with buds or shoots just above the soil line, spaced 6 inches apart. Water them in, and when new growth emerges, deeply soak the area once a week.
Rhubarb prefers partial afternoon shade in our climate. Plant the single bud of its rhizome at the soil line. The wide spread of its mature leaves requires 4 feet between plants. Water deeply once new growth begins. Restrain yourself from harvesting until the plant's second season to enable the roots to gain strength. When you do harvest, pull off (instead of cutting) no more than one-third of the stalks at any one time. Removing too much foliage at once can stress the plant.
As you go about your planting, be careful not to compact the soil while it's thoroughly cold and moist. Dig and replace the soil gently, and barely water in the transplants -- just enough to settle the roots. Don't stomp the soil with your hand or foot. Tamping the soil more than lightly will compress it and damage the soil tilth.
Care to share your gardening thoughts, insights, triumphs, or disappointments with your fellow gardening enthusiasts? Join the lively discussions on our FaceBook page and receive free daily tips!
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Summary of Quality Control Error Analysis for the Data Entry
To evaluate the effectiveness of the quality control of the data-entry process, the corresponding portion of the final integrated database is verified in detail against a sample of the original instruments received from the field. Through the years, the NAEP database has been found to be more than accurate enough to support the analyses that have been done. Overall, no statistically significant difference in observed error rates has been detected from year to year.
The purpose of a quality control analysis is to assess the quality of the data resulting from the complete data-entry system, beginning with the actual instruments collected in the field and ending with the final machine-readable database used in the analyses. The process involves the selection of instruments at random from among those returned from the field and the comparison of each entire instrument, character by character, with its representation in the final database. In this way, it is possible to measure the error rates in the data as well as the success of the data-entry system.
The observed error rate cannot be taken at face value. For example, let us say a sample of school questionnaires that were selected for close inspection contained two errors out of a total of 2,251 characters. To conclude that the entire school questionnaire database has an error rate of or .0009, would be too optimistic; we may simply have been lucky (or unlucky) with this particular random sample. What is needed is an indication of how bad the true error rate might be, given what we observed. Such an indication is provided by confidence limits. Confidence limits indicate how likely it is that a value falls inside a specified range in a specified context or distribution. In this analysis, the specified range is an error rate between zero and some maximum value beyond which we are confident at a specified level (traditionally 99.8 percent) that the true error rate does not lie. The specified context or distribution turns out to be the cumulative binomial probability distribution. The following example will demonstrates this technique:
Let us say that 1,000 booklets were processed, each with 100 characters of data transcribed for a total of 100,000 characters. Further, let j represent the number of character errors (five in this example), in a random sample of booklets that were completely checked (50 in this example). In other words, five errors were found in a sample of 5,000 characters. The following expression may be used to establish the probability that the true error rate is .0025 or less, rather than the single-value estimate of the observed rate, one in a thousand (.001):
This is the sum of the probability of finding five errors plus the probability of finding four errors plus [and so on, working the equation through to the greatest value, in this case 5,000] plus the probability of finding zero errors in a sample of 5,000 with a true error rate of .0025; that is, the probability of finding five or fewer errors by chance when the true error rate is .0025. Notice that we did not use the size of the database in this expression. Actually, the assumption here is that our sample of 5,000 was drawn from a database that is infinite. The closer the size of the sample verified relative to the size of the actual database, the more confidence we can have in the observed error rate; for example, had there been only 5,000 in the total database, our sample would have included all the data, and the observed error rate would have been the true error rate. The result of the above computation allows us to say, conservatively, that .0025 is an upper limit on the true error rate with 98.53 percent (i.e., 1 - .0147) confidence; that is, we can be quite sure that our true error rate is no larger than .0025. For NAEP quality control we use a more stringent confidence limit of 99.8 percent, which yields an even more conservative upper bound on the true error rate; with 99.8 percent confidence, we would state that the true error rate in this example is no larger than .0031, rather than .0025.
Calculations of true probabilities based on a combinatorial analysis have been done (e.g., Grant 1964). Even when the sample was as much as 10 percent of a population of 50, the estimate of the probability based on the binomial theorem was not much different from the correct probability. NAEP does not sample at a rate greater than about 2 percent. Thus, the computations of the upper limits on the true error rates based on the binomial theorem are likely to be highly accurate approximations.
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| 0.940855 | 955 | 3.265625 | 3 |
According to a study from researchers at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and Stanford University School of Medicine, the drug most commonly used to arrest preterm labor, magnesium sulfate, is more likely than another common treatment to cause mild to serious side effects in pregnant women.
Their findings suggest that, since the effectiveness of the two drugs appears similar, physicians should consider side effects more strongly when choosing which drug to prescribe.
Newborns whose mothers had received magnesium sulfate were also more likely to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit than those whose mothers had received the alternative treatment, although the data do not offer an explanation for this finding and more research needs to be conducted to rule out other causes. What is clear is that currently available treatments for preterm labor are far from perfect.
"There is no free lunch with any of these drugs," said Deirdre Lyell, MD, a specialist in high-risk obstetrics at the hospital's Johnson Center for Pregnancy and Newborn Services. "But magnesium sulfate has some particularly unpleasant side effects, including vomiting, lethargy and blurry vision. The alternative treatment, nifedipine, often leaves women feeling better."
Side effects are particularly important for women struggling with the risk of premature birth and the rapid medical decisions that might need to be made about the care of their newborn.
Lyell, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the medical school, and Yasser El-Sayed, MD, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the medical school, are the lead and senior authors respectively of the research, which will be published in the July issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology. The study is the largest multicenter trial that randomized the use of the preterm labor drugs to compare outcome.
Preterm labor is defined as labor before 37 wee
ks' gestation. Although it's not always possible to prevent premature birth, physicians strive to delay delivery for at least 48 hours. The extra time allows a doctor to arrange to transfer the woman to a medical facility experienced in treating premature infants and helps maximize the effectiveness of steroids used to help the fetus to prepare for the harsh outside world.
Magnesium sulfate, nifedipine and other preterm labor treatments, called tocolytics, are thought to work by relaxing overactive uterine muscles and halting ongoing cervical changes that may lead to delivery. But it's not been clear if one is better than the others. Force of habit has dictated the use of magnesium sulfate by many physicians in the absence of a compelling reason to choose an alternative.
Lyell and El-Sayed and their collaborators randomly assigned 192 patients at Packard Children's or Santa Clara Valley Medical Center who were in preterm labor to receive either magnesium sulfate, which is an intravenous treatment, or nifedipine, an oral treatment. They found that magnesium sulfate was more effective in achieving the study's primary outcome - preventing delivery for 48 hours with uterine quiescence.
But there were no significant differences in the treatments' ability to delay delivery, in the gestational age of the newborn or in the birth weight of the infants. The researchers speculate that this seeming contradiction could be explained if nifedipine, rather than stopping a woman's contractions, simply renders them clinically ineffective.
However, two-thirds of the women who received magnesium sulfate experienced mild to severe side effects such as shortness of breath and fluid build-up in the lungs during the treatment. In contrast, one-third of the women who received nifedipine experienced side effects of the treatment, including headaches. Nifedipine is commonly used to treat high blood pressure and heart disease.
"The take-home message is that we saw no differences in relevant outcomes between the two groups," said Lyell, "but there was a significant difference in the side effects experienced by the women, and some of these were very serious."
Lyell and El-Sayed emphasized that magnesium sulfate is still an appropriate treatment for preterm labor. It continues to be used regularly both at Packard Children's and Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. But they believe it may be time for physicians to give more weight to expected side effects when considering what to try first.
"It's been my experience that women who have had magnesium sulfate remember it; they don't like it," said Lyell. "Those who receive nifedipine don't feel as bad. These drugs are prescribed under what are already very difficult circumstances for the patients, and side effects are very important to them. Related medicine news :1
. Dental Procedure Reduces Preterm Births2
. Proteomic Profiling Can Detect Preterm Birth Risk3
. Concern Over The Rise In Preterm Deliveries4
. Rising Number of Preterm Births Cause Concern5
. Preterm Babies Benefited from a New NI Spectroscopy6
. Preterm Delivery More Common in African American Women7
. 3-D Ultrasound Identifies Women at Risk for Impending Preterm Birth8
. Vaccines Effective in Preterm Babies too9
. Multiple Course of Steroids Protects Preterm Baby’s Lung10
. Gene Variants Linked to Preterm Birth in Hispanic Women11
. Drug Therapy can Reduce Preterm Births and Decrease Lifetime Medical Costs
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Professional School Counseling
Fundamental School Counseling Program Questions:
Does your administrator know and understand the scope and vision of your school counseling program?
Have you developed data-driven results and objectives of your program?
How will your work be measured?
What defines a good school counseling program?
School counselors design and deliver comprehensive school counseling programs that promote student achievement. These programs are comprehensive in scope, preventive in design and developmental in nature. A comprehensive school counseling program is standards-based and data driven, and an integral component of the school’s academic mission. It focuses on academic, career, and social/emotional curriculum that is delivered through classroom lessons, small group, and individual consultation. (Cobb County)
In Georgia, the College and Career Readiness Performance Index (CCRPI) provides the student data necessary for accountability data.
School counselors focus their skills, time, and energy on direct and indirect services to students. To achieve maximum program effectiveness, the ASCA recommends a school counselor ratio of 1:250 and that school counselors spend 80 percent or more of their time in direct and indirect services to students. (ASCA National Model- A Framework School Counseling Programs: Third Edition, 2012).
The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) has identified four counselor skills that help to articulate the new role of school counselors. They are:
ASCA has also identified four other components of an effective 21st Century school counseling delivery system. These are:
School counseling has undergone a transformation from a program of entitlement to one of performance and continuous improvement. What is working with and for students? School counselors now focus on improved student results that measure the impact of goals and objectives. The essential question becomes” How has student academic achievement improved as a result of what counselors do”?
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| 0.938348 | 370 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Percutaneous stone surgery is usually used for larger stones. A small hollow tube is placed directly through a patient’s back into the kidney through which larger instruments can then be used to fragment and extract the stone(s). Although this approach typically requires a hospital stay and is more invasive than ureteroscopy or extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy, it is often the most effective method for treating large stones quickly and completely. For more information on comparing the surgical options for kidney stones, see our comparison chart.
Percutaneous stone surgery may also be indicated in certain situations where the ureter below a kidney is obstructed, such as in ureteropelvic junction obstructions, where a ureteroscope cannot be advanced from below.
Fast facts about percutaneous nephrolithotripsy:
- Typical operative time: 1-2 hours
- Usual hospital stay: 1-2 days
- Average number of days before going back to work: about one week
- Average number of days before feeling back to normal: about two weeks
A photograph showing a nephroscope used for percutaneous nephrolithotripsy. The gray tube around the instrument is the sheath placed temporarily into a kidney to allow access. A pen is shown for size comparison.
Video of percutaneous nephrolithotripsy procedure.
Video of percutaneous nephrolithotripsy procedure of a soft matrix stone. This type of stone is rare and primarily composed of soft tissue elements. It is usually associated with infection.
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DNA given a "voice"; award-winning research featured at OSTI
Nobel Laureate research that helps read the instructions of life is now featured at OSTI. Roger D. Kornberg of Stanford University won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his studies in transcribing DNA, the storehouse of molecular information. Dr. Kornberg noted in a PBS interview, "...the DNA by itself contains nothing more than information. The DNA alone is silent. The machinery that we have investigated for the past several decades gives the DNA information voice." A significant portion of Dr. Kornberg's research leading to this prize was performed at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL), a Department of Energy (DOE)-supported research facility located at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). Related research documents and Web sites are featured at OSTI's DOE R&D Accomplishments. DOE R&D Accomplishments is a central forum for information about the outcomes of past DOE R&D.
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Is there a simple way to show streamlines (e.g., velocity streamlines) using Autodesk Simulation CFD 2013? I did the tutorials, but did not see an example of this. Thank you.
RE: Post-Processing Streamlines
When I hear 'streamlines' I assume that you are running a 2D analysis since streamlines are only defined for a 2D flow. To plot actual streamlines you will need to do the following:
1) Make sure that 'Stream Function' is selected in your result quantities. If it is not, select it and click 'solve' for a total of 0 iterations. (I know this sounds weird but it will calculate any new result quantities for your last saved iteration).
2) In the global results page make sure that you have selected 'Stream Function' as your global result.
3) Right click on the legend, select 'Options' and place a check in the box next to 'Contours'.
4) Change your max and min legend values until you see the stream lines appear on the screen. This will take some trial and error. It also helps if you set the number of contours to 50.
Alternatively, if you are doing a 3D analysis and want to plot pathlines you can do the following:
1) In the results tab select 'Planes' and 'Add' to add a plane. Adjust the position and orientation as necessary to end up with a plane which intersects all of the points that you want to define pathlines through.
2) Select 'Traces'. This will bring up a dialog which has several methods for defining points including pick on plane, key in, rectangular grid, and circular grid. If you are doing grids make sure to set the rows and columns to achieve the desired number of stream traces.
3) Either pick points you want or select the control points for the grid. (These will vary with selection method.) Then click 'Add Points'. This should plot pathlines which pass through the points you defined.
Hope this helps.
|All times are GMT -4. The time now is 04:29.|
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| 0.899933 | 443 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Much intelligent behavior is based on the use of knowledge; humans spend a third of their useful lives becoming educated. There is not yet a clear understanding of how the brain represents knowledge.
There are several important issues in knowledge representation:
The storage and reasoning mechanisms are usually closely coupled.
Contents Page-10 Prev Next Page+10 Index
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- Date: April 25, 2008
- In This Story:
The Departmental Government of Beni (Bolivia) recently declared the Bolivian river dolphin, Inia boliviensis, as a Natural Heritage. This designation highlights the value placed on the conservation of this species and the freshwater ecosystems in the Beni province of northeastern Bolivia where it lives. The government committed to continuing its protection of this emblematic cetacean and pledged to strengthen measures to conserve the dolphin and its habitats.
This declaration is one more result of the first-ever South American river dolphin census led by WWF, Fundación Omacha and partners. Over 15 months from 2006 to 2007, scientists navigated over 2,000 miles between the Amazon and Orinoco rivers and their tributaries, surveying 13 rivers within five countries – Venezuela Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Colombia – and counting more than 3,000 river dolphins.
The Bolivian river dolphin, known locally as the bufeo, was acknowledged by the scientific community as a new endemic species for Bolivia and is considered an important indicator of the quality of the freshwater ecosystems it inhabits. Scientific studies of the dolphin help measure and evaluate threats to these freshwater systems, including pollution from hydrocarbons and mercury and the impact of infrastructure projects such as dams and waterways.
WWF and local conservation organizations are using the survey results to implement conservation measures for this species. Future plans include a detailed evaluation of its distribution and abundance, the implementation of management and sustainable use strategies at local and regional levels, and the promotion of sustainable livelihoods.
“River dolphins are seriously threatened and in danger of extinction in other continents, such as Asia. Nonetheless, South America, and particularly Bolivia, still have river dolphin populations in relatively good conservation status”, remarked Fernando Trujillo, scientific director of Fundación Omacha, and leader of the South American river dolphin census. “We still have time to implement necessary measures to prevent South American river dolphins following the same fate as the Asian species. For example, we urgently need to know the potential impact of the proposed hydroelectric dams in the Madeira River on the Bolivian river dolphin populations.”
WWF has been at the forefront of protecting the Amazon for more than 40 years. Our approach has succeeded because we engage partners at all levels, such as Fundación Omacha, and the state and local governments of Boliva. Together, we identify mutual solutions to achieve our greatest successes.
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| 0.932769 | 510 | 3.5 | 4 |
This Isn’t The First Swine Flu Outbreak We’ve Had
The above documentary by CBS’s “60 Minutes” discusses the swine flu epidemic of 1976 and the federal government-sponsored inoculations that possibly caused 500 people to get Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological disorder that causes the body’s immune system to attack the peripheral nervous system. At first, sufferers feel a tingling sensation in the legs, but weakness and the sensations can spread to the arms and upper body. These symptoms can increase in intensity until certain muscles or the whole body is paralyzed. In extreme cases, the disorder is life-threatening, because the paralysis affects breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. The patient is often put on a respirator to help with breathing and is watched closely for other problems. The government cut short its vaccination program after 10 weeks because of the public backlash that resulted after 25 people died from Guillain-Barré. This video is only the second time I’ve heard about the outbreak of swine flu in 1976. The first time was on the release form I signed in order to get a regular flu shot. While conducting a quick Google search I came across a few references to the 1976 epidemic — in Time, the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times — but all of these articles were written in late April/early May, not when people were receiving the vaccine. I’m sure there was something in fine print on the current swine flu vaccine release form about the 1976 swine flu epidemic and the cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome, but do you think the federal government should have done more to educate people about the 1976 outbreak? Maybe the insistence on it being called H1N1 was an effort to separate the current swine flu from the 1976 one, and, thereby, to assuage the fears of those who remember the inoculation debacle? Do you remember the 1976 epidemic? And what are your thoughts on swine flu and vaccinations, in general?
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| 0.955926 | 422 | 2.671875 | 3 |
March 16, 2012 > EarthTalk(r) E - The Environmental Magazine
EarthTalk(r) E - The Environmental Magazine
Dear EarthTalk: Cuba just began drilling for oil not far from U.S. shores and hopes to become a major exporter. What ramifications does this have for the environment?
Betsy Shaw, Troy, NY
Cuba recently began drilling exploratory oil wells 30 miles off of its northern coast-and just 60 miles south of the Florida Keys. Earlier this year the Scarabeo 9 oil rig finished up a long slow journey by sea from the shipyard that birthed it in China to Cuba's territorial waters off the capital city of Havana (the 50-year-old U.S. trade embargo on Cuba forbids such equipment going from or through the United States).
Geologists estimate that the rock formations off Cuba's northern coast could yield anywhere from five to 20 billion barrels of oil. American foreign policy experts are concerned that Cuba's inexperience with off-shore drilling could lead to a spill in sensitive waters not unlike the 2010 BP oil disaster. They're also worried that Cuba could yield more political and economic power if it becomes a net exporter of oil.
Although Cuba is reportedly using state-of-the-art equipment and is working with experienced international drilling contractors, some U.S. environmental groups are still troubled: "A major oil spill in Cuban waters could devastate both coastal Cuba and the United States," reports the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). "Florida's $60 billion tourism and fishing industries - as well as the Dry Tortugas marine sanctuary and deepwater corals in the Southeast Atlantic - are at stake."
Today Cuba imports half of the 200,000 barrels of oil it consumes each day from its friendly neighbor to the south, Venezuela. The other half of Cuba's oil comes from its own two existing on-shore oil facilities. Finding significant off-shore reserves could end its dependency on Venezuela and turn Cuba into an oil exporter, possibly even thawing relations with a still oil-hungry U.S. Indeed, if the find is big enough, U.S.-based oil firms may want in, and who knows how that will affect the U.S. embargo on trade with Cuba.
Given the environmental and political implications of Cuba's foray into offshore drilling, EDF led a delegation to the island nation in September 2011. The goal of the delegation, which included co-chair of the BP oil spill commission and former EPA Administrator William Reilly, was to assess Cuba's plans and to share lessons learned about the risks of offshore drilling with officials there. "The trip put the spotlight on the lack of dialogue between the United States and Cuba on how to prepare and respond to an oil spill in Cuban waters," says Lee Hunt of the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC), one of the trip's organizers. EDF, IADC and others would like to see the Obama administration initiate direct negotiations with Cuba to ensure that sufficient environmental and safety standards are in place.
"It's a sensitive political issue because if there were a spill, U.S. technology might be prevented from being quickly deployed due to the long-running U.S. embargo of Cuba," reports EDF. "The United States has more than 5,000 wells in its territorial waters in the Gulf. But none are nearly as close to the Florida coast as the proposed sites off Havana."
But with the test drilling already underway, Cuba isn't waiting around for U.S. input. No doubt, if the exploratory wells are a success, Cuban oil will become a huge political issue.
CONTACTS: EDF, www.edf.org; International Association of Drilling Contractors, www.iadc.org.
EarthTalk(r) is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: [email protected]. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe. Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.
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Across the nation, January 20th signifies the federal holiday celebrated in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s birthday. It also marks the day when President Barack Obama offically took office on that cold winter day in 2009. Now in his fifth year, President Obama has faced uncharted scrutiny for a man who was a darling of voters when he won the election back in 2008. But along with the criticism that continues to rain down, there are many notable contributions the President has made to the Black community.
Judiciary and Military Appointments
Since the time of his first election, there has always been talk of Obama’s significance to African Americans and his will to address the concerns of Black America. While the President affirms his agenda in a variety of ways that effects all Americans, his impact on the Black community is still potent although critics claim he has not done enough.
During his post, President Obama has nominated 287 persons for the bench. Of that number, 55 were African American and 41 have been confirmed. Additionally, 30 Latinos have been nominated with 27 receiving confirmation.
The President’s confirmed judiciary appointments who are Black far exceed his predecessors, dwarfing former President George W. Bush by 10 percentage points. Even President Bill Clinton, still beloved by Black voters, was beat out by two points. And the work doesn’t just end there.
Vice Admiral Michelle Howard, who was confirmed as the Navy’s new Vice Chief of Naval Operations last month, was also the first woman and Black person to be nominated for the post by President Obama. Once again, the President has diversified his appointments thus showing a willingness to pull from deserving pools of talent that include Black people.
Although plagued by a difficult roll out, the Affordable Care Act was aimed at ending the disparity in health care among African Americans and other people of color overall. The Obama administration estimates that more than 8 million African Americans will benefit greatly from the law, and the Health Department has been active in recent times in explaining the nuances of the act to that group.
The Black Family
The President has been vocal about the necessity of strong parenting in the Black community, especially the presence of fathers in the lives of their children. The two-parent household has long been considered a dwindling reality among African Americans; so the lasting images of the President, his wife, and two daughters encourage other Black families to keep their families together, making his lifestyle more of a norm rather than an exception.
As a leader of this nation, Obama has to assume positions of sternness and measured speech. Under ever-watchful eyes, the President sometimes presents a steely image depending on the situation. But that clinical coldness is melted away in photos with the First Lady, showing a man unfettered in showering his wife with love and affection. It is in those tender moments that we realize that the President is a husband and father first ahead of his responsibilities in public office.
Despite his humble beginnings, President Obama has shown tenacity and resilience in becoming the nation’s first Black president. Raised by a single parent, struggling with his identity, and ultimately finding his footing via academics, the President found a way to will himself to higher heights.
The historical weight alone of his crowning political achievement would be enough for many, but there are other factors that deserve a mention.
In the face of all the rigors of leading the country and his household, President Obama’s radiant example symbolizes that any of us can achieve what he has with the proper focus. If one needs to mull over the President’s impact, the jewels are abundant just by virtue of President Obama’s unprecedented achievements.
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Character Building Activities—
It is important for kids to experience character building activities throughout their childhood. These types of activities instill values and morals into children while they are still young. Furthermore, character building activities create foundational life-skills that last a lifetime.
Children who have their emotional intelligence enhanced through learning good character, morals and values are much more capable of coping well in life during their adolescence and into their adult years. They grow up happier because they are equipped with the right skills to deal effectively with life.
One of the most important character building activities for children to learn is to become intimately familiar with character words. When they learn the concept behind these types of words they will be able to apply this knowledge into their daily lives and will, in turn, be better developed.
Some important character building words to teach your kids are:
We suggest that you and your child explore these words in creative ways so that s/he will understand what these character traits really mean. You could create a collage or a painting about a single character word or write a creative story together themed to a few character traits. ([amazon_link id=”0976862301″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Journal Buddies[/amazon_link] is about building self-esteem and character and is another great way to explore character building with your child!)
Character Building Activities | Teaching Compassion and Understanding
When raising responsible and emotionally strong children, it is best if they are taught early on about feelings and beliefs of other people. They will be meeting a great deal of people throughout their lives and they must learn how to deal with them with respect and kindness.
Some great character building activities that you can share with children teach compassion. One way to do so is to demonstrate to your child that you are genuinely interested when interacting with other people. You can show them how to deal respectfully with others such as cashiers, storekeepers, and neighbors. When you demonstrate kindness to others and interest in others as well, it is very, VERY likely that your kids will follow your examples. You might also choose to share with your child stories about relatives, and by doing so they will see that family is important to you. Take this a step further and do some arts and crafts together about interacting with other people or about your family (maybe create a family tree!).
Character Activity Tip:
Create a keepsake book of some sort to
track the stories you share and experiences you have.
Scrapbooking would be really fun!
Another good character activity for kids to encourage compassion is to visit a library to explore materials such as books or magazines that show a child the many kinds of people who live in our world. By doing so, a child will see that the world is big and that there is a variety of nationalities with traditions and cultures that are unique and fascinating. Diversity Activity is another name for this and there are many resources online about this topic.
More Kid Character Building Activities Resources for you:
These simple kid character building activities will not only help your child learn more about values, but you will also cultivate a closer relationship with your child in the process.
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Posted 4 years ago
Iasia: Vanished in the Theatre's Dome
By Chris Berry
In 1929 magician Howard Thurston added an illusion to his show which astonished the audience at each performance. It was an illusion so effective that it was almost "too good to believe."
Late in the program the audience would see a small oriental pagoda rolled onto the apron of the stage. the skeleton cabinet was constructed with virtually no sides, just four pillars holding the roof in place. An assistant known as Princess Iasia would enter the cabinet which was quickly hoisted high over the audience. Once it reached the top of the theatre. a curtain dropped covering the cabinet and hiding the assistant. At that moment Thurston would shout "Iasia are you there?" The assistant in the cabinet would reach through the curtain and wave a handkerchief. At that point Thurston would fire a gun and the curtain would drop as the bottom of the cage would swing open. The pagoda was empty, visible from above and below.
Author Walter Gibson recounted that after the illusion was added to the show in 1929 it didn't quite produce the response that Thurston had expected. Instead of thunderous applause people were so astonished from what they had seen that they were essentially silent, unable to comprehend what had just happened before their eyes. One night Thurston made an offhand comment, he said something like, "every night I stand here and wonder myself just where did she go?" The line broke the ice and prompted laughter from the audience and would be followed each night by a tremendous ovation.
This featured attraction was one of several in the late 1920s and early 1930s for which Thurston commissioned the Otis Litho Co of Cleveland, Ohio to execute special posters. The same basic artwork was used for lithographs that were produced as half sheet panels, one sheet uprights, and as a three-sheet. As with most magic posters of this era, these images in their original form are quite scarce and highly collectible.
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Aug. 21, 2004
Poem: "Unharvested" by Robert Frost from The Poetry of Robert Frost © Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Reprinted with permission.
Literary and Historical Notes:
It's the birthday of the boy who inspired his father to write the children's classic Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), Christopher Robin Milne, born in London (1920). His father, A.A. Milne was an extremely prolific author who wrote plays, novels, mysteries, poetry, and essays. It wasn't until after Christopher Robin was born that A.A. Milne began to write for children.
His father based the Winnie-the-Pooh books on Christopher's actual toys and games and the places where he played in East Sussex, England. His toys were later copied and manufactured in the millions by the Walt Disney Co. After he grew up and bought a bookstore, parents would take their children to the counter of his bookshop to say hello to the real Christopher Robin.
He did not appreciate the attention, and in 1974, he published a memoir called The Enchanted Places about the difficulty of growing up as a kind of mythical child. He resented the fact that his father had used him for literary material, even though they'd never had a very close relationship. For much of his life, he and his father weren't on speaking terms, and he claimed to dislike the Pooh books, but, in 1980, he went back to his hometown of Sussex to help stop developers from buying the Ashdown Forest where, as a child, he'd played with his bear.
It's the birthday of poet X.J. Kennedy, born Joseph Charles Kennedy in Dover, New Jersey (1929). He added an X to his name the first time he sent out a poem for publication, because he had served in the Navy on the U.S.S. Joseph P. Kennedy, and he was tired of the association. The New Yorker published that poem, so he felt that the X had brought him luck and kept it.
He originally wanted to be a cartoonist, but he had trouble drawing the same character twice. So he switched to poetry. At a time when most poets had given up rhyme and meter for free verse, he continued to write in traditional forms, and he specialized in humorous poems. He published several collections of poetry, including Breaking and Entering (1971) and Emily Dickinson in Southern California (1973), but he wasn't having much success selling books until an editor suggested he write for children.
He is now better known for his nonsense children's poetry in books such as One Winter Night in August (1975), The Phantom Ice Cream Man (1979), and Drat These Brats! (1993). His most recent book is The Lords of Misrule (2002).
It's the birthday of novelist Robert Stone, born in Brooklyn, New York (1937). He's the author of many novels, including Dog Soldiers (1974) and Children of Light (1986).
Robert Stone said, "I think [as a writer] you have to take your work from your life, but people live intense lives in all sorts of unlikely places ... You can write a perfectly powerful novel about working in a shoe store. You don't have to shoot lions in Africa ... Desperation is universal."
It was on this day in 1858 that Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln began a series of seven debates during the Senate campaign for the state of Illinois. At the time, the country was deeply divided over the expansion of slavery. One Washington D.C. newspaper said, "The battle of the Union is to be fought in Illinois."
Stephen A. Douglas was the incumbent Senator and a nationally known spokesman for the Democratic Party, which supported expansion of slavery. Abraham Lincoln was a former state congressman who was running for Senate as the member of the brand new Republican Party, which opposed slavery expansion. Lincoln had made a name for himself in a speech that June when argued that the country's crisis would only grow worse until all the states came together in agreement about slavery. He famously said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
Each debate lasted three hours. The opening speaker addressed the crowd for 60 minutes, without notes. Then his rival offered a 90-minute reply, and finally the opening speaker returned for a 30-minute rebuttal.
The candidates met seven times, outdoors, in village squares, county fairgrounds, college campuses, and vacant lots. An estimated ten to twenty thousand people showed up at each debate. At the first debate, on this day in 1858, the huge crowd kicked up so much dust that the newspaper said the village resembled a vast smoke house. People in the audience cheered for their candidates, and occasionally fired off canons after an especially good point was made.
Most people agreed that Douglas won the first debate. He had the advantage of a loud voice, which was important in the age before microphones. Lincoln's voice was shrill and high pitched, but he spoke in simpler language, and used shorter sentences, and after that first debate the two candidates were evenly matched. By the end, many observers thought Lincoln was the winner.
Douglas ended up winning the election by a slim margin, but the debate made Lincoln a national figure. Two years later, Lincoln ran for president. His campaign collected and published the transcripts of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, which became a national bestseller and helped Lincoln win the election in 1860 that started the Civil War.
Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®
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This is a response to many inquiries I have been receiving about word “Navaho” as used in articles on this website.
I have just came back from my trip to the Navajo Nation Museum and library doing research for my articles on this website.
I also visited Saint Michael’s Historical Museum near Window Rock, AZ where the Franciscan Fathers wrote ” An ethnologic dictionary of the Navaho language (1910).
Navajo Nation Museum – Photo by Harold Carey Jr.
Saint Michael’s Historical Museum – Photo by Harold Carey Jr.
From Research on literature of the Southwest I have come up with the following:
Its origin is described in the “Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language”.
“The word Navaho, or originally, Navajo, is first mentioned and applied to this tribe of Indians by Fray Alonzo Benavides O. F. M., in his “Memorial to the King of Spain” written in 1630. After describing the Gila Apaches, Benavides says that more than fifty leagues north of these “one encounters the Province of the Apaches of Navajo.
Although they are the same Apache nation as the foregoing, they are subject and subordinate to another Chief Captain, and have a distinct mode of living. For those of back yonder did not use to plant, but sustained themselves by the chase; today we have broken land for them and taught them to plant.
But these of Navajo are very great farmers, for that is what Navajo signifies—great planted fields.”
1. Franciscan Fathers. Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language.
The Navahos call themselves: “Dine” which means men or people and in conversing with them they will tell you that “Dine” simply means “The People”.
The list below is from a search of works published by various authors interested in Southwestern archaeology and ethnology by writers using “ho” or “jo”.
Hosteen Klah: Navaho Medicine Man and Sand Painter by Franc Johnson Newcomb (May 28, 2012)
The Enduring Navaho [Paperback]Laura Gilpin (Author) Publication Date: 1987
The Navaho by Clyde & lLighton, Dorothea Kluckhohn (1974)
Navaho Witchcraft by Clyde Kluckhohn (1995)
Navaho Indian Myths (Native American) by Aileen O’Bryan (Jun 14, 1993)
The Dine: Origin Myths of the Navaho Indians (Forgotten Books) by Aileen Warner O’Bryan (May 7, 2008)
Origin Myths of the Navaho Indians by Aileen O’Bryan; BAEB 163
Navaho Myths, Prayers, and Songs by Washington Matthews; UCPAAE 5:2
Navajo Texts. by Pliny Earle Goddard (Jan 1, 1933)
Navajo Indians by Dane Coolidge and R. Mary (Jun 1930)
Navajo gambling songs – Matthews, Washington, 1843-1905
A study of Navajo symbolism (Volume v. 32 no. 3) – Newcomb, Franc Johnson
The Navajo and his blanket – Hollister, Uriah S., 1838-1929
The Navajo Indians; a statement of facts – Weber, Anselm, Father, 1862-1921
The making of a Navajo blanket – Pepper, George H. (George Hubbard), 1873-1924
The gentile system of the Navajo Indians – Matthews, Washington, 1843-1905
George Wharton James has an explanation for the use of NAVAHO and we quote the paragraph. “It will be observed that I follow the Americanized and rational form of spelling the name NAVAHO. Why people should consent to use the misleading and unnecessary form of the name NAVAJO, is beyond me.
Every stranger to the Spanish tongue—and there are millions who are thus strange—naturally pronounce this Na-va-joe, and cannot be blamed. Yet it does give the One-who-knows the opportunity to laugh at him, and perhaps this is the reason the Spanish form is retained.
Were the name one of Spanish origin we might be reconciled to that form of spelling, but as it is a name belonging to a tribe of Amerinds who were here and had been here for centuries when the Spaniards came, there is no reason why they should have fixed upon them forever a European method of spelling their name”.
For justifying the use of Navaho in the Dictionary of the English Language and find in Funk and Wagnalls: “Navaho, an important and rapidly increasing branch of Athapascan Indians dwelling in New Mexico and Arizona; employed in herding blanket making, silver smithing, and as laborers in railroad and ether public works.
“Navajo” is the preference shown in Websters New International Dictionary.
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Support provided by:
People & Ideas: Roger Williams
A young English minister with a talent for languages, Williams arrived in Boston in 1631. John Winthrop, the Puritan governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, expressed his pleasure with "Mr. Williams, a godly minister." He soon changed his mind. Williams had developed an interpretation of Scripture totally at odds with the theology that governed the holy commonwealth.
The Puritans believed they were creating a new Israel, a society modeled on the Old Testament. That society demanded religious conformity. Williams argued that Jesus Christ had inaugurated a new age, a new dispensation that demanded a break with the past. It was the New Testament, not the Old, that mattered. For Williams, the commonwealth was based on a theologically faulty foundation.
Williams argued that the Puritans were hypocrites because they remained within the Church of England rather than making a clean break, as the Pilgrims had done. He went on to assert that it was dishonest and wrong to take land from the Indians without paying them for it. Finally, he insisted that civil magistrates did not have the right to enforce religious duties like making people go to church on the Sabbath.
A restless spirit, Williams moved between Boston, Salem and Plymouth Colony, winning followers, irritating opponents and provoking controversy. Finally banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635, Williams headed south and established a small settlement at the headwaters of Narragansett Bay, in present-day Rhode Island. Named "Providence," the community officially guaranteed liberty of conscience. Baptists, Quakers, Jews and other religious dissidents, including Anne Hutchinson, soon found a haven there.
Williams believed passionately in "soul liberty" or liberty of conscience. God had created human beings and endowed them with the inborn right to make choices in matters of faith. "It is the will and command of God," wrote Williams, "that a permission of the most paganish, Jewish, Turkish, or anti-Christian consciences and worships, be granted to all men in all nations and countries; and they are only to be fought against with that sword which is only (in soul matters) able to conquer, to wit, the sword of God's spirit, the Word of God."
For Williams, religion was an inherent God-given right. Belief must never be coerced. History clearly demonstrated that subjecting the conscience to "spiritual and soul rape" had caused endless bloodshed and cost countless lives. Rulers in all ages, Williams wrote, have practiced "violence to the Souls of Men."
Williams died at the age of 81 in 1683, almost 50 years after his banishment from the Bay Colony. As his biographer Edwin Gaustad observed, there was no state funeral, no monument, no eulogy. But Williams won a more lasting memorial: His ideas about conscience decisively shaped the way that Americans understand and value religious liberty.
Published October 11, 2010
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Systematics, and Cladistics
|Page Back||Unit Home||Unit Dendrogram||Unit References||Taxon Index||Page Next|
|Unit Back||Vertebrates Home||Vertebrate Dendrograms||Vertebrate References||Glossary||Unit Next|
SARCOPTERYGII | TETRAPODA |--Ichthyostega `--+--Tulerpeton `--+--Crassigyrinus `--+--Colosteidae `--+--Baphetidae `--Tetrapoda* |--TEMNOSPONDYLI `--+--LEPOSPONDYLI `--REPTILIOMORPHA
|Quick quizz. Which of these is an amphibian?|
This unit begins with not one but two taxonomic controversies. The first of these (see quizz, right) comes about through a clash of paradigms (scientific methodologies and perspectives) and the other through how best to define things within a single methodology. Each revolve around a question, the first, what is an amphibian? and the second (considered on the following page), what is a tetrapod? If you find such taxonomic quibbling unintersting (and if you do we certainly don't blame you) feel free to skip ahead to Ichthyostega, where we return to a consideration of the procession of life through deep time (via Beowulf)
Hello to those folks still here. Now, in any biology textbook, Amphibians, Class Amphibia, are generally defined as vertebrate animals that lay their eggs in water and undergo a metamorphosis from a juvenile water-breathing tadpole or larval aquatic form to an adult air-breathing terrestrial form . They include frogs and toads, newts and salamanders, and little known animals called caecilians, limbless amphibians that resemble snakes or large earth worms), as well as a number of extinct palaeozic forms, labyrinthodonts and lepospndyls. Simple? Well, as it turns out, not really.
In the first comprehensive systematic and scientific classification of the natural world, the 18th century Systema Naturae of the Swedish botonist Linnaeus, amphibians and reptiles were grouped together in a single category. By the way, defining "Reptiles" is another taxonomic headache, which we've devoted an entire page to it as well. This is because amphibians and reptiles are pretty interesting creatures, and prehistoric amphibians and reptiles more interesting again, especially to palaeo geeks like ourselves. But because of changing paradigms, according to which emphasis switches from one methodology to another, amphibians and reptiles don't mean the same now as they used to. Normally a bit of historical background would be in order. But we'll skip the intro and go straight to the chase. By the start of the 20th century, the main lines of the the evolutionary tree of life had been sketched out. Although many details have changed since then, and will continue to do so, we had a pretty good general idea of which group evolved from which. So in the early to mid 20th century, vertebrate paleontologists such as A.S. Romer (for reptiles) and G.G. Simpson (for mammals) had developed an understanding of vertebrate evolution and phylogeny based on a system that for the sake of convenience we refer to as Evolutionary Systematics (at the time, this term was rarely used). Others such as Raymond Moore developed similar arrangements for invertebrates, and paleobotoanists did the same for plants. The books of these authors can still be read and hold their own as classic reference works today.
The diagram at the left is from Edwin Colbert's Evolution of the Vertebrates (Colbert 1969, p.90), and gives the consensus view of amphibian evolkution in the mid 20th century. This is still very much how we see the relations between the different groups now. The lungfish are a somewhat more distant branch than the rhipidistians like Osteolepis, which were ancestral to the first amphibians like Ichthyostega. From an Ichthyostega-like ancestor, or rather something a bit more advanced, there was a Carboniferous adaptive radiation not only of various Paleozoic amphibians but also of the ancestors of both reptiles and modern amphibians (Lissamphibia). Two main Palaeozoic groups (given, like Lissamphibia, the Linnaean rank of subclass) stand out, the large and diverse Labyrinthodonts (represented by the well known early Permian genus Eryops) and the small Lepospondyls (represented by the distinctive Diplocaulus). The Lepospondyls are a motley assemblage that has nothing in common other than small size and associated loss of primitive characteristics (the fact that they are considered a natural group today is in the opinion of the present author the result of confusing convergences associated with minaturisation (Carroll 2009, pp.155-6) with shared ancestral features). The Labyrinthodonts or "maze teeth", are named after the complex pattern of infolding of the dentin and enamel of the teeth, a characteristic they inherited from their fishy, rhipidistian ancestors (right) and basically include all Paleozoic amphibians apart from Leposondyls, and all Mesozoic ones not included under the Lissamphibia. This was a very diverse and indeed vaguely defined group; other than the structure of their teeth they are defined by complex vertebrae (as distinguished from the simple spool-like vertebrae of the leposondyls) and and a soild and heavily armoured and skull roof, another feature inherited from their lobe fin fish ancestors, and in turn inherited by early reptiles (captorhinomorphs and anapsids). This gives them their alternative, 19th century, name, Stegocephalia - "plated heads".
Traditionally (e.g. Romer 1933, 1954, and 1966; Colbert 1969; Carroll 1988) the Labyrinthodonts are divided into three smaller groups or orders. The Devonian Ichthyostegalia are the ancestral forms, in keeping with the evolutionary systematic tendency to posit a short-lived stem group (e.g. cotylosaurs, thecodonts, condylarths...) from which all the other lineages evolved. The Temnospondyli are the main line of labyrinthodont evolution, including both large and small types. They developed progressively more simplified vertebrae through time as they reverted to an increasingly aquatic existence, hence the distinction between the earlier, more terrestrial types, like Eyrops, who belong to the suborder Rachitomi, and the Triassic aquatic capitosaurs and metoposaurs, suborderStereospondyli, in which the vertebrae only consist of two elements., Finally, the Anthracosauria are another diverse group that include both aquatic and terrestrial forms, and were considered somewhat more closely related to reptiles.
The problem with all these sorts of definitions is that they can be somewhat vague and arbitrary. For example, modern amphibians (Lissamphibia) are probably just as distinct and specialised in relation to the heavy skulled Permo-Carboniferous labyrinthodonts as modern reptiles are. Both these groups evolved from labyrinthodonts, that is an objective phylogenetic fact, but apart from one needing to return to water to lay eggs and the other not, is there a reason why one should be included with them in the same category (Class Amphibia) and the other placed in a different category (Class Reptilia).
The cladistic revolution of the 70s and 80s was an attempt to introduce greater rigour into biological classification. It was pointed out that because the definition of Subclass Labyrinthodontia, and for that matter of class Amphibia, is simply based on primitive characteristics inherited from lobefin fish, and because Labyrinthodonts/Amphibians gave rise to creatures that are not Labyrinthodonts (to wit, Reptiles, Lepospondyls, and Lissamphians) or Amphibians (to wit, Reptiles), neither constitutes a natural group, and therefore in the interests of greater precision such terms - as well as others such as Protista, invertebrates, Reptiles, Thecodonts, Condylarths etc - should be discarded. That is why most vertebrate paleontologists now no longer say amphibian but "tetrapod", the group that includes both amphibians and their descendents; and not reptile but amniote (reptiles and their descendents). They restrict the word "amphibian" to a more limited grouping, either the last common ancestor of all recent amphibians and its descendents, or all animals more closely related to (insert here any recent species of amphibian) than to (insert here any recent species of reptile, mammal, or bird). Creatures that previously were referred to as amphibians but fall outsuide these definitions (some labyrinthodonts for example) are no simply called "tetrapods". On the other hand, zoologists, who deal with recent amphibains (a well recognisable group) happily continue to use the old Linnaean terminology and find no reason to change.
For cladistics what is important is not the taxonomic ranking (order, subclass, whatever), or the stratigraphic range in deep time, or which groups evolve into which (ancestors and decsendents), but what characters to use to define a group of organisms, and how choice of characters effects the statistical outcome of the phylogenetic relationships between these different organisms, represented diagramatically as a phylogenetic tree, or cladogram. Thus, with amphibians (or tetrapods) the question is not how did fish evolve into amphibains, but what traits do we select to define tetrapod, and also, at what point can one of the nested clades (groups nade up of a common ancestor and all its descendents) be called a tetrapod? This is shown by the following diagram, from a pdf by Dr Stuart Sumida (Biology 680 - Advanced Topics in Evolution - Evolution of the Vertebrate Limbs - left). This whole diagram could be cosnidered a zooming in or higher resolution focus on the drawing of Ichthyostega in the previous diagram. Here A constitutes the actual cladogram itself, which is a hypothesis on phylogenetic relationships, not an actual evolutionary tree (it is easy to get these two ideas confused). Note that this is only one possible cladogram out of many. B is a dendrogram, or chronogram, an evolutionary tree, based on cladogram A, but plotted against geological time. Incidentally one could reverse the position of Colosteidae and Whatcheeriidae, and even make the latter a grade - that would get rid of some of that excessive ghost lineage (the dotted lines not represented by the fossil record). The six drawings on the righta re representative early tetrapods, with the most basal (in this case the advanced sarcgopterygian fish Panderichthys) and the most derived or advanced at the bottom. Not only is it difficult to decide at what point a fish becomes a tetrapod, perhaps because the fossils may be incomplete, or there could be disagreement on interpretation, but even where there is agreement on the fossils, there is still a difference of opinion on where tetrapoda starts, according to one's preferred method of phylogenetic nomenclature.
Choice of particular methodology gives certain advantages, but also comes with disadvantages. Evolutionary systematic definitions of amphibia or reptilia may tend to vagueness or ambiguity, but cladistics can be detrimental for the oipposite reason: its formalism can be excessively restrictive. Whether having a group of animals or plants (like, say, reptiles, or gymnosperms) rendered invalid because it has descendents that are different to it, is a good or a bad thing, is up to the individual to decide. There is an interesting comment regarding this on the Wikipedia page devoted to phylogenetic nomenclature. The editors there have provided an article that does not take sides or polemically push one position as best (an attitude the present author finds all too prevalant on discussions on phylogeny, evolution, nomenclature etc). They give an analogy with chemistry. To quote:
Proponents of phylogenetic nomenclature claim that, as rank-based nomenclature does not delimit taxa precisely, its definitions will need to change as the science of biology advances. They see their approach as preferable in that their definitions are not susceptible to this kind of instability. It is a disputed matter whether such changes are characteristic of sciences outside of biology and whether, if so, biology should follow the example of such sciences. Chemistry has been used as an example.
Michel Laurin, one of the foremost advocates of phylogenetic nomenclature, considers that the concept of a chemical element has been stable ever since Dmitri Mendeleev put forth the periodic table in 1869. Biology should, on Laurin's view, follow the example of chemistry and define its terms as precisely as possible. (Laurin 2008)
The historian and philosopher Thomas Kuhn argued that changing the meaning of established concepts is central to significant advances in science (Kuhn 1962). Prior to John Dalton's work, he pointed out, the criteria for something's being a chemical compound were such as to include salt water; by new criteria adopted afterwards, this fluid was excluded. (Kuhn 1962)
Michael Benton, a prominent defender of rank-based nomenclature, regards biology as an endeavor very different from chemistry. Chemical classification, as he sees it, circumscribes entities in terms of properties that enter into knowable laws; biology, lacking such laws, must look to the usefulness of classifications. From this perspective, he argues, it is less important that the definition of a term classifying organisms remain constant than it is that the term continue to apply to most of the same organisms. As he views phylogenetic nomenclature as seeking the former kind of stability and rank-based nomenclature as seeking the latter, he considers rank-based nomenclature to be preferable (Benton 2000)
Because of these two different definitions, we can still refer to linnaean-evolutionary taxa and concepts, including similarity, evolution through deep time, supra-specific ranks, and groups that evolve into totally different groups, when the emphasis is on classification applying to particular group of organisms (in this case, Class Amphibia ). At the same time, we can also avail ourselves of the statistical and methodological rigour that cladistics provides, when emphasise is on the precise phylogenetic definition of a particular clade (in this case, Clade Tetrapoda). Even though the two systems of classifying life are incompatible, that does not mean that one is wrong and the other right. They can both be right, but in different ways
The problem with relying only on one particular methodology and paradigm can be illustrated with a simple example. In cladistic nomenclature, because of the prohibition against recognition of paraphyletic groups, there is literally no term for the group of transitional forms (Ichthyostega, Acanthostega, etc) intermediate between "fishapod" (very tetrapod-like lobe-finned fish, like Panderichthyes and Tiktilaak) and amphibian-proper (four-legged semi-aquatic animals). Sure, you can say "tetrapod", but that refers to reptiles, birds and mammals as well. The term "basal" is often used by paleo enthusiasts in a vague way to mean the same as "primitive" did under evolutionary systematics. Which is fair enough, but it has nothing to do with the precision of definition that otherwise comes with cladistics. So "basal tetrapod" does not work here either; properly speaking it refers either the node at the bottom of the tetrapod cladogram, or the first terminal to branch off. Normally stem taxon would be the right choice, but because of the ambiguity around the use of the word tetrapod, "stem tetrapod" can mean anything - fishapods, bapheitids, even (in some phylogenetic trees) temnosondyls, .... Because science is about classification, this is a curious, and indeed irritating, lack. That is why there is no simple replacement for Ichthyostegalia (link, link), which can be used to cover all these early transitional forms (not only Acanthostega and Ichthyostega, but also Sinostega, Hynerpeton, and (if it does not belong in a more advanced category) Tulerpeton.
Apart from this, and differing methodological perspectives aside, it doesn't really matter, as Shakespeare informs us, if we refer to primitive amphibians as class Amphibia or basal or stem group tetrapods. In the following pages we will consider more about these ancestors of all land-living animals (as well as of animals that returned to the sea). And here we leave Linnaean ranking in favour of cladistic trees and definitions, beginning with the rather sticky point of the definition of clade Tetrapoda. MAK111110
Images: Upper left: Evolution of lobe-fin fish and amphibians, from E.H. Colbert, Evolution of the Vertebrates, 2nd ed., 1969, copyright John Wiley & Sons. Middle right: Cross section of Labyrinthodont tooth (from the Triassic genus Mastodonsaurus), from St. George Mivart, F.R.S. On The Genesis of Species London: Macmillan and Co. 1871, public domain, Wikipedia. MAK111110
If you answered (a) you are a linnanean/evolutionary systematist
If you answered (b) you are a cladist
If you answered(c) you like flying boats
Like all such statements, this is something of a generalisation. Some amphibians, like the mexican walking fish (axotl) retain gills in adulthood, others like the Plethodontid salamanders lay eggs on land that hatch into miniature adults (Carroll 2009, p.200) but still require moist envirnments.
Using the word prehistoric in the colloquial sense - before history, before man, millions of years ago, in deep time. Ffor example the present writer as a child a collection of those wonderful How and Why Wonder Books; one of which was called Prehistoric Mammals. In the more technically correct archeological sense however, prehistoric refers to the human period before recorded history, for example the neolithic, or the late palaeolithic. While this is a long time ago, it's not yet in the millions of years (see for example our tabulation of orders of ten gradations of time)
Although the earlier classification of subclasses and orders given above no longer can accommodate modern discoveries, with only Temnospondyli (the topic of the next unit) being retained; see Benton 2005 for an updated version.
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Most physicists familiar with special relativity know that in it, the energy E and momentum p of a freely moving body are related by the equation E2 − p2c2 = m2c4 where m is the mass of the body. Alas, not all of them realize that this formula is incompatible with E = mc2. But an even smaller number of people know that it is perfectly compatible with E0 = mc2, because E0 is the value assumed by E when p = 0. This article is written for those who do not want to be lost in three pines1 of the above three formulas and who wish to attain a better understanding of relativity theory and its history.
There's a very nice history leading to the development of the equation, and beyond. A recommended reading.
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| 0.959828 | 160 | 2.796875 | 3 |
By West Virginia Superintendent of Schools Jorea Marple, Ed.D
We watched in recent weeks as athletes across the world achieved greatness at the Olympic Summer Games. Americans accomplished great things in London, bringing home 104 medals, 46 of them gold.
The Olympics carry a message about skill, hard work, pushing oneself to the limits and relentlessly pursuing greatness. That determined pursuit of greatness is not just for a talented few; it is something that we all can strive to achieve.
None exhibit that spirit more than Nathan Sorrell, a 12-year-old middle-school student from London, Ohio, who became the star of a Nike commercial that salutes fitness feats of ordinary people. At 5-feet-3, 200 pounds, Nathan doesn’t seem like someone Nike would laud in an ad campaign. Yet, there he is slowly and steadily running down a country road at dawn in an image of physical struggle and pure determination as a narrator speaks of greatness “we’re all capable of it. All of us.”
As we begin a new school year in West Virginia, the challenge is for each and every parent, guardian, grandparent, aunt, uncle, friend and community member to determine how we will support our children in finding their own greatness. Within every child there are aspirations and dreams that require nourishment. As adults and mentors, we must support our children’s aspirations through educational opportunity, encouragement and high expectations.
As I visited schools this past year and talked with students, I noted the lack of reading our children are doing outside of the school setting. We know our children must perform better academically and on standardized test measures to achieve their aspirations. Can they really accomplish their aspirations if they are not encouraged and expected to read good books every single day?
The more children read, the greater their vocabulary, the more they know and the better they perform. If we are to improve student performance, we must change this complacency about reading. This is not a job just for those within the school building!
To regain the lost pleasure and skill of reading good literature, everyone has to model and encourage children to read every day – books, magazines, newspapers – any publication. One way we are focusing on reading is through Read WV. This is our effort to encourage children and the adults in their lives to make reading a priority and to ensure that students read every day. We must have an expectation that not only do we read in school, we expect our children to read outside of school. And we as educators, parents and mentors to our children also must read.
When adults read, we set good examples for our children and we send the message that reading is expected. This expectation permeates to all subjects and helps our children find success in school, in college, in careers and in life.
It is not enough to be able to recognize words; we have to think about instilling in each and every child a love of reading that will last a lifetime. The West Virginia Department of Education has many reading resources available on our Read WV website at www.readwv.com.
Learning is a 24/7 process and what each of us do and expect can assist in making our children’s aspirations a reality. We must help our children embrace the concept that learning occurs anytime and anywhere and reading is core to achievement. Our Learn21 website at www.learn21wv.com is designed to encourage our children in learning opportunities anytime, anywhere.
The site offers learning resources to get extra help in a subject or to explore new topics in multiple subjects from preschool through 12th grade. Learn21 gives students the opportunity to take a more active role in their own education. When students take responsibility for their own learning, they become more engaged and eager to learn.
Daily our students are surrounded with unsuitable, negative messages about health, wellness, student responsibility and expectations. It is important that we become a team of adult stakeholders who are focused on sending the right message to children and that message certainly must include a belief in the greatness that exists within each and every child; an understanding that what we do and say matters to the success of our children; and an expectation that we will read every day and so will our children.
In a world where knowledge is power and literacy is the skill that unlocks the gates of opportunity, we all have a responsibility to instill in our children a love of reading so that we can give them the chance to achieve their aspirations and ultimately fulfill their dreams. Let’s begin this new school year by pledging to work together to help all of West Virginia’s children find their own greatness.
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Babesiosis is a malaria-like illness caused by the protozoan Babesia microti or other Babesia organisms. B. microti is transmitted to humans by bites from I. scapularis (the blacklegged tick or deer tick), the same vector that transmits the agents of Lyme disease, human anaplasmosis, one form of human ehrlichiosis, and a strain of Powassan virus. Babesia parasites can also be transmitted by blood transfusion.
In 2012, 41 confirmed and probable babesiosis cases (0.77 per 100,000 population) were reported, a 43% decrease from the 2011 record of 72 cases. The median number of 29 cases (range, 9 to 72) reported from 2004 through 2012 is considerably higher than the median number of 2 cases (range, 0 to 7) from 1996 to 2003. Twenty-four (59%) babesiosis cases reported in 2012 were male. The median age of cases was 57 years (range, 1 to 82 years). Onsets of illness peaked in the summer months, with 22 (55%) of 40 cases with known onset occurring from June through August. In 2012, 18 (44%) cases were hospitalized for their infection, for a median duration of 5 days (range, 2 to 26 days). At least 1 reported case died from complications of babesiosis in 2012.
- For up to date information see>> Babesiosis (Babesia microti)
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| 0.941114 | 303 | 3.40625 | 3 |
Switchwords are powerful poignant words used to connect directly to the subconscious mind, giving it direction for drawing the essence of the Switchword to you. The more a Switchword is repeated, the more it affects your energy. The more it affects your energy, the more you draw the experience, condition or response the Switchword represents to you. Switchwords are always presented in full caps to differentiate them from common English.
Say, chant, sing, think or even mentally intend a Switchword to have it work for you.
1OFF is the Switchword to go to sleep. If the child is ready for sleep, OFF will help put them to sleep.
2HO-SLOW is to relax and have patience. If the child is wound up and needs to relax to sleep, HO-SLOW will help settle.
3QUIET is to quiet the ego. If the child's mind is going wild and they are wanting to talk, QUIET will help settle them.
4END-SHUT is to close this segment and stop causing trouble. If the child is fidgeting, not wanting to settle down, END-SHUT will help stop the fidgeting.
5BE is to be in peace and wellness. If the child is feeling ill and having difficulty sleeping, chanting BE-BE-BE-BE... will help them feel better and fall asleep easier.
6ADJUST is to adjust to an uncomfortable condition. If the child is in discomfort ADJUST will help relieve it.
7CHANGE is to dispel pain. If the child is in pain CHANGE will help dispel it.
8CROWD is to dispel disobedience. If the child is not preparing for nap time, CROWD may bring them into compliance.
9Sweet Violets: In addition to Switchwords the Defusing Word Sweet Violets helps to clear insomnia, and can be used alone or in conjunction with any and all of the above Switchwords. The song Sweet Violets, sung sweetly to the child has helped children get to sleep as well.
- Cuddling and rocking help inspire sleep, and more so if a blanket is put over them.
- Cover the child with 2 or 3 blankets. When lying a sleeping child in bed, covering them with 2 or 3 blankets will assure comfort and encourage them to sleep. Often a nap is cut short because a child feels cold. Making sure blankets are tucked around them, snuggling them, helps them have a deep, restful sleep.
- Rubbing the top of the head in a circular motion 30 times also will help induce sleep.
Sources and Citations
- James T. Mangan introduced us to Switchwords in his book "The Secret of Perfect Living, first published in 1963, back in print since 2006.
- Shunyam Nirav returned focus to Switchwords in his book "Switchwords - Easily Give to You Whatever You Want in Life in 2006.
- A dynamic Switchwords list, frequently updated with newly discovered and defined Switchwords is available at http://sw.blueiris.org
- A dynamic Defusing Words list, frequently updated with newly discovered and defined Defusing Wordsis available at http://dw.blueiris.org
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Churchill's Decision to Not Bomb the Concentration Camps
(September 18-20, 1944)
In August 1944, the Jewish Agency for Palestine requested, on behalf of Jewish organizations worldwide, that the British Foreign Office green-light an attack to bomb the camps, especially Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The following, is an exchange of notes between Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his Private Secretary about the British decision not to bomb the concentration camps.
[From the Prime Minister to Private Secretary]
Please see minutes on WR 823 attached.
So far as I can discover these plans never were in fact communicated to Air Ministry.
The Minister of State on Sep 1 (on behalf of the Secretary of State) agreed in writing to the Secretary of State for Air that in view of the difficulties of the operation of bombing the camps as requested by the Air Ministry (they said they had no detailed information of the topography [layout of the camps]) the idea of bombing them might be dropped.
We are therefore technically guilty of allowing the Air Ministry to get away with it without having given them (though we had it) the information they asked for as a prerequisite.
In all the circumstances I think perhaps (though I feel a little uneasy about it) we had better let this go by. PM 189.
[From the Private Secretary to the Prime Minister]
Don’t know enough about this to form a view. Surely this information was taken into consideration when the decision was taken not to pursue the matter?
Perhaps Service Liaison Dept [Government Department whose job was to help different government departments communicate effectively] could advise as to whether this info would have made any difference to the Air Ministry’s attitude? Sec 20/9
[Prime Minister - annotation]
That’s the whole point. It looks as though it wasn’t.
Sources: British National Archives
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ALBANY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) — U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer was pushing legislation aimed at boosting research into childhood brain tumors.
The New York Democrat said brain tumors are the second most prevalent cancer for children. His National Childhood Brain Tumor Prevention Network Act would coordinate research into the causes and ways to prevent the disease.
The measure would also create a study of children who have brain tumors.
The bill would also create a central laboratory to collect and analyze the data.
Despite the frequency, Schumer says the causes of childhood brain tumors remain mostly unknown.
Is enough being done to prevent childhood cancers? Sound off in our comments section below…
(TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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William James Barrow (1904-1967) was a pioneer in the field of paper conservation and document restoration. Although he had very little formal education and training, Barrow's work was internationally respected and he was widely recognized as the leading expert in his chosen profession. His most noteworthy contribution was the development of a process preserving documents by lamination (a process that involved placing a deacified document between two sheets of reinforced cellulose acetate).
Include correspondence, reports, account books, financial records, and publications of William James Barrow concerning his activities as a document restorer, working at both the Mariners' Museum in Newport News (1935-1940) and the Virginia State Library in Richmond. To a lesser extent, they also concern his directorship of the W. J. Barrow Research Laboratory, established in 1961 at the Virginia Historical Society. Researchers should be aware that additional records of Barrow's laboratories are among the Society's collections.
Gift of the estate of Mrs. Ruth G. Barrow, through the courtesy of James A. Barrow, Williamsburg, Va., 26 September 1988.
The papers begin with a few items of general correspondence, consisting of letters about restoration and jobs performed for individuals. Four folders concerning Barrow's lamination process follow. Materials pertaining to the National Bureau of Standards consist of correspondence and test results documenting that agency's research. In the early 1950's the National Archives became concerned with the ink migration, brittleness, and discoloration of laminated manuscripts. Correspondence and reports relate to the Archives' decision to temporarily curtail its use of the process. Similar fears were later expressed by the Virginia State Library, causing Barrow in 1962 to investigate documents that were laminated twenty years earlier. The collection contains a report of his findings and samples of his lamination.
Research concerning print transfer primarily consists of letters with chemical companies requesting samples of substances to be used as ink softeners, facilitating the transfer of print to a better surface. In 1955 Barrow supervised the drying and preservation of the papers of Mrs. Henry R. Luce [Clare (Boothe) Luce], which has been damaged by a flash flood. This material primarily consists of letters with Mrs. Luce's secretary.
Beginning in 1957, Barrow received funding to work on several projects under the sponsorship of the Council on Library Resources. One project was a study of the deterioration of book stock. Correspondence, mostly with council president Verner Clapp, minutes of consultant's meetings, memoranda, test results, and reports document this research. One result of the study was an article for Science magazine, co-authored by Reavis C. Sproull. The collection contains rough drafts of the article concerning research on resizing and deacidification of books follow. Other CLR materials include reports and newsletters.
Correspondence with the University of California at Los Angeles concerns a chemical process developed to prevent the foxing (discoloration) of book pages. Letters from David Resnick, who invented the process, are also included. Notes, test results, questionnaires and preliminary reports concerning an American Library Association's binding project precede correspondence relating to items restored for Colonial Williamsburg.
Speeches and addresses concern restoration. Miscellaneous reports pertain to map lamination, migration of impurities in paper, the preparation of book paper, the effects of light on museum displays, and the care of books in libraries. A folder of miscellaneous test results and samples precedes a scrapbook of newspaper clippings, 1935-1936. Notes on ink and paper and a folder of biographical information, which consists of a vita and letters of introduction, follow. Box 1 concludes with obituaries and letters of sympathy, arranged alphabetically, concerning the death of William J. Barrow in 1967. A photocopy of a telegram from President Lyndon B. Johnson is included.
Box 2 contains a series of account books, 1934-1955, listing monthly expenses and income (restoration projects completed). Volumes from 1956 to 1968, as well as loose papers from the account books, are found in box 3. Accounts primarily pertain to Barrow's restoration shop at the Virginia State Library, although a few post-1961 entries concern the W. J. Barrow Research Laboratory, Inc., at the Virginia Historical Society. These volumes are followed by other financial records, including payroll books, income tax returns, accounts receivable, and checks. These loose financial records primarily concern the transitional period following Barrow's death, as his wife, Ruth G. Barrow, became more involved in the laboratories' operations. The restoration lab became the W. J. Barrow Restoration Shop and the research laboratory continued under Barrow's associates, Robert N. DuPuis and Bernard F. Walker.
Financial records continue into box 4. Publications and reprints of articles by William J. Barrow, all of which are also available in the Society's printed books collection, follow. Articles about Barrow's work and photocopies of books and articles on ink, paper, printing and bookbinding conclude this section.
Miscellany consists of two items of the Barrow Corporation, a California overalls manufacturer from whom WJB worked until the firm's bankruptcy in 1931, and sketches of coats-of-arms.
Series I. Loose Conservation and Restoration Records
General Correspondence, 1952-1979 National Bureau of Standards, 1938-1951 National Archives, 1952-1960 Virginia State Library, 1960-1967 Cellulose acetate study, 1962 Print transfer, 1951-1959 Mrs. Henry R. Luce, 1955
Council on Library Resources:
Deterioration of book stock, 1957-1958
Reports, 1958-1959, 1971
Resizing and deacidification of books, 1967
UCLA, 1959-1967 American Library Association, 1960-1961 Colonial Williamsburg, 1965-1967 Speeches; miscellaneous reports and memoranda; miscellaneous test results and samples; notes on ink; notes on paper; scrapbook, 1935-1936; biographical information; obituaries; letters of sympathy.
Series II. Financial Records
Account books, 1934-1968
Loose material from account books; payroll books, 1966-1969; income tax returns, 1967-1969; accounts receivable, invoices and deposits, 1967-1968
Paid bills, 1967-1968; check stub book, checks, and deposit slips (Mr. or Mrs. W. J. Barrow), 1966-1969; check stub book and checks (W. J. Barrow Restoration Shop), 1967-1968; checks, bills and receipts (Ruth G. Barrow), 1967-1968
Series III. Publications
Pamphlets, brochures, reports, and a book (arranged chronologically by date of publication); foreign language translations; reprints of articles by Barrow; articles about Barrow; clippings and articles on restoration; clippings and articles on ink and ink marking; photocopies of articles and books on ink; photocopies of articles and books on paper; bookbinding and printing.
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Chelomei's design for a lunar base, studied in 1964 to 1974 as a UR-700-launched predecessor or alternative to Barmin's DLB.
Following initial LK-700 landings the KLE Complex Lunar Expedition would be delivered to the surface. This would permit long duration investigations of the surface and a much wider range of research. Precision landings in support of the KLE and lunar base would use Ye-8 Lunokhods equipped with radio homing beacons. The complex would be delivered in two to three UR-700 launches:
The later DLB lunar base being designed by Barmin would require 80 metric tons per year of payload delivered to the surface starting in 1975, followed by 150 metric tons per year after 1980. Versions of the UR-700/LK-700 could handle this more easily than modifying the N1.
Lunar versions of the Almaz OPS would be placed in lunar orbit to conduct detailed reconnaissance of the surface using manned assistance. The OPS would also be used as a command post to co-ordinate the work of lunar surface operations and organize rescues in the case of emergencies on the surface.
Chelomei's bureau continued to study the concept until 1974, when the project was finally and definitively suppressed with the cancellation of the N1 and the lunar base projects.
Crew Size: 3.
Gross mass: 30,000 kg (66,000 lb).
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What is an orange?
The world of citrus fruit is an incestuous one.
I had long wondered what the difference is between a mandarin, clementine, satsuma and tangerine. It turns out that the answer is: ‘bad question’; clementines, satsumas and tangerines are all varieties of mandarin. Looking a little further into the convoluted family tree of the citrus fruit reveals a pretty complicated soap opera style mess of relationships, with most of the common fruits we enjoy being hybrids of other, more unusual ones.
To try and make sense of the mess I made the above ‘Citrus venn diagram’ to try and illustrate the relationships between fruit. Each circle represents a variety of citrus and those contained where others overlap signify hybrids of the two.
For example: a grapefruit is a cross between a pomelo and an orange (which is itself a cross between a pomelo and a mandarin).
It’s a rough representation, I’m not making any distinction between species and cultivars (or even a sub-genus like papeda) but at least I finally understand how mandarins, clementines, satsumas and tangerines all relate to each other. There are many more hybrids out there, but I tried to include only the more common varieties. In fact the ongoing search for a better citrus seems to be an important scientific endeavour, there is even a research centre dedicated to the exploration of citrus located, of course, in Florida.
UPDATE: You can download a higher resolution versions here.
(all data was sourced from Wikipedia)
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| 0.944924 | 344 | 2.828125 | 3 |
11.3 Raise Statements
raise_statement ::= raise
| raise exception_name
if any, in a raise_statement
shall denote an exception.
with no exception_name
(that is, a re-raise statement
) shall be within a handler, but
not within a body enclosed by that handler.
Name Resolution Rules
To raise an exception
is to raise a new occurrence of that exception, as explained in 11.4
For the execution of a raise_statement
with an exception_name
the named exception is raised. If a string_expression
is present, the expression
is evaluated and its value is associated with the exception occurrence.
For the execution of a re-raise statement, the exception
occurrence that caused transfer of control to the innermost enclosing
handler is raised again.
Examples of raise
Ada.IO_Exceptions.Name_Error; -- see A.13
"Buffer Full"; -- see 9.11
raise; -- re-raise the current exception
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| 0.779086 | 215 | 3.203125 | 3 |
In Search of the Novel: Ten Novels
Song of Solomon
by Toni Morrison
The materially successful African American businessman, Macon Dead, attempts to hide the working-class, Southern roots of the Dead family and to protect it from the life of the African Americans in his neighborhood. Macon Jr., nicknamed Milkman, rebels. Discovering heresay about the family's lost wealth, Milkman begins his journey to Pennsylvania and thence to rural Virginia to find it. There is neither gold nor land. However, after he drops some outward forms of civilization and undergoes an initiation into sensitivity and knowledge, he discovers and accepts his family's past and himself. At the end of the story, Milkman feels fully alive and human but strangely ready to die.
In this celebrated novel, Nobel Prize–winning author Toni Morrison created a new way of rendering the contradictory nuances of black life in America. Its earthy poetic language and striking use of folklore and myth established Morrison as a major voice in contemporary fiction.
Song of Solomon begins with one of the most arresting scenes in our century's literature: a dreamlike tableau depicting a man poised on a roof, about to fly into the air, while cloth rose petals swirl above the snow-covered ground and, in the astonished crowd below, one woman sings as another enters premature labor. The child born of that labor, Macon (Milkman) Dead, will eventually come to discover, through his complicated progress to maturity, the meaning of the drama that marked his birth. Toni Morrison's novel is at once a romance of self-discovery, a retelling of the black experience in America that uncovers the inalienable poetry of that experience, and a family saga luminous in its depth, imaginative generosity, and universality. It is also a tribute to the ways in which, in the hands of a master, the ancient art of storytelling can be used to make the mysterious and invisible aspects of human life apparent, real, and firm to the touch (Oprah Book Club selection).
- Anniina's Toni Morrison Page
Includes a biography, interviews, and links to Web resources.
- The Official Site of the Toni Morrison Society
Includes a bibliography of Morrison's works and writings about her work.
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| 0.936455 | 468 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Somatic cells are usually diploid, except where there is polyploidy. Either way, somatic cells have double the number of chromosomes that gametes in the same organism have. Somatic cells divide by mitosis and make identical copies of themselves, while gametes are made when germ cells divide by meiosis.
In humans, somatic cells have 46 chromosomes.
References[change | change source]
- Penguin (2004). "Somatic cell". Penguin Dictionary of Biology. http://www.credoreference.com/entry/penguinbio/somatic_cell. Retrieved 19 November, 2011.
- Macmillan Publishers Ltd (2003). "Cell". The Macmillan Encyclopedia. http://www.credoreference.com/entry/move/cell. Retrieved 20 November 2011.
- Cambridge University Press (2005). "Somatic cell". Cambridge Dictionary of Human Biology and Evolution. http://www.credoreference.com/entry/cuphbe/somatic_cell. Retrieved 19 November 2011.
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| 0.684147 | 222 | 3.734375 | 4 |
Neolithic graves in central China may hide the world's earliest writing, if the "signs" carved into 8,600-year-old tortoise shells can be deciphered by academics.
The claim, made by a team of Chinese and American researchers in the March issue of Antiquity, a journal based at Cambridge University, Britain, has triggered heated debate among the world's archaeologists.
The debate centers on the origin of writing.
The earliest writing on earth is commonly believed to have evolved in what is today's southern Iraq about 5,200 years ago. There, settlers invented the cuneiform, a way of arranging impressions stamped on clay by a wedge.
It is commonly recognized that writing didn't emerge in China until 2nd millennia BC, about 2,000 years after it appeared in Iraq.
In China, early writing known as jiaguwen consisted of pictographic inscriptions on bone and tortoise shells.
However, the Chinese and American researchers claim their findings may overturn long-held convictions about where the evolution of Chinese writing began. After studying the artifacts from a site called Jiahu, in central China's Henan Province, they have proposed that the pictograms inscribed onto animal bones and shells unearthed there predate the jiaguwen used in the Shang Dynasty (c. 16 century-11 century BC).
The Jiahu site dates back more than 7,000 years. The researchers' findings have been covered by the British Broadcasting Corporation and US television networks because, if proven correct, it would mean the Jiahu "signs" would predated the writing of Mesopotamia by more than 2,000 years.
The researchers have won support from some archaeologists but been challenged by others, who call their hypothesis "nonsense."
"There is nothing new here," Robert Murowchick, a Boston University archaeologist told Science magazine. He reportedly dismissed the notion "simple geometric signs" can be linked to early writing.
Andrew Lawler from Science magazine commented: "The research is sure to fire up a long-standing debate about how Chinese writing evolved and whether religious practices spurred its origin."
Discovery in Jiahu
The project is based in University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), winning state sponsorship. The research team was led by Li Xueqin, a renowned historian and archaeologist. It also includes archaeologists Zhang Juzhong and Wang Changsui from USTC in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, as well as Garman Harbottle, a researcher with Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.
Their work is based on the 1983-87 excavation of the Jiahu site, which was discovered in 1962. The site has been carbon dated to between 7,000 and 5,800 BC.
"Since the excavation began, we had noticed tortoise shells, which contain pebbles of various colors and shapes, in the graves. We paid special attention as similar shells appeared in Yinxu, where the oracle bones or jiaguwen were found," said Zhang Juzhong, then leader of the excavation team from Henan Institute of Archaeology.
Everyday Zhang looked through the shells newly unearthed to see if there were markings. And finally, on an afternoon in May, 1987, an intern student from Zhengzhou University, Henan, found a stone tool inscribed with a series of signs.
The next day, archaeologists opened Grave M344, and saw an adult male whose head was missing. Where his head would have been were eight sets of tortoise shells and one fork-shaped bone artifact.
Zhang picked up one nearly complete plastron -- part of a tortoise shell -- pierced with a hole.
"It felt so smooth," he recalled. "Its owners must have often held it in their hands."
He carefully brushed off the dust, and on the lower middle part of the plastron was an eye-shaped sign, which greatly resembled the later jiaguwen pictograph for "eye" in the Yinxu oracle bones.
"We were exhilarated, and bought meat and liquor for celebration," recalled Zhang.
Team member Wang Changsui said the tortoise shell was also faintly marked with a resemblance of a man holding an object with the same fork-like shape as the artifact. He believes the sign is related to ancient divination.
Another plastron was incised with two vertical strokes, fairly similar to the character for "20" in the jiaguwen inscriptions found at Yinxu, said the research paper.
Up to 16 signs were found on 14 fragments of tortoise shells, pottery, bone and stone artifacts in the excavation. The Jiahu site had already revealed a society of unexpected complexity, with 45 house foundations, 370 cellars, nine pottery kilns, and 349 graves containing objects including tools, ornaments, and ritual or musical artifacts.
The Jiahu site has revealed several important discoveries, including the earliest known musical instruments -- playable seven-hole bone flutes spanning an octave.
As soon as the excavation ended, a team of researchers with the Henan Institute of Archaeology went to Beijing "with complex feelings," said Zhang. They consulted more than 10 leading archaeologists and historians, including Hu Houxuan, Su Bingqi, Li Xueqin and Zhang Zhenglang, about the signs.
"Some of the scholars said the signs are early writings, made before the Yinxu oracles, and they interpreted several signs on the spot," said Zhang Juzhong.
"Others said they are intentionally inscribed signs but not necessarily writings, and still others said the etchings are just marks, not signs."
Clues to writings' evolution
With no consensus from the authorities, the team returned to Henan, and Zhang started to research the curious markings.
As he and fellow researchers later wrote, "while we do not challenge the primacy of Mesopotamia in human literacy, we do suggest that China, with a potential record of nine millennia, offers a unique opportunity to observe the evolutionary stages which led to the development of a script.
Co-author Li Xueqin told China Daily: "We don't say they are words or languages. We do say they are signs and the earliest evidence in the world of a long line of experimentation in sign use, which led to writing."
Yao Zongyi, professor with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who did textual research on each of the signs, supported Li. He wrote, "the carved signs of Jiahu provided new materials to solve the key problems about the origin of Chinese writing."
The researchers, who cannot decide at this stage what these signs represent, compare them with the jiaguwen inscriptions of 2nd millennia BC, from the Shang Dynasty. For instance, a sign inscribed on a broken plastron, which resembles the modern character for "sun," represents "window" in the Yinxu oracles.
But many researchers objected to the attempt to tie " the Jiahu etchings to the Shang breakthrough," said Science magazine writer Lawler.
William Boltz, professor of Classical Chinese at the University of Washington, Seattle, said: "There is a span of 5,000 years (between Jiahu and Shang period)... How can the development of Chinese writing have taken so long?"
The professor noted speculation about the links between the two based on graphic similarity alone over such a great period of time is next to meaningless.
"How does anyone know that the one graph is in fact the graph for 'eye'?'' he said.
"It may look like an eye to someone, and it may have some general approximate graphic similarity to the graph that stood for the word for 'eye' in the Shang language, but it might just as well be a graph that stands for something else, perhaps a heap of grain under a protective cover."
The span of five millennia is conspicuous because there haven't been any inscribed tortoise shells found between 6,000 BC and the Shang Dynasty in Henan or anywhere else in China.
But Zhang said while no inscribed shells were found, many potteries and pot fragments from the five millennia that followed have been unearthed carrying signs, especially in the Dawenkou, Yangshao, Longshan, Liangzhu Cultures.
In several cultures after Yangshao (6950-4950 BC), pottery signs grew more complex and began to be applied with writing brushes, wrote the researchers.
For example, a flat pot from the late Longshan Culture (2310-1810 BC) at Taosi, north China's Shanxi Province, is brush-painted with a red sign, which is identical to the modern character wen (literature).
And a jade tortoise of 5,300 years ago at Lingjiatan, east China's Anhui Province, hid a jade tablet in it, which was inscribed signs "of the same nature" as those from Jiahu.
"Neolithic men may have abandoned the use of tortoise shells as a material to write on for a certain period and turned to other materials," said Zhang. "After all, the oracle bones found in Yinxu and recently in Zhengzhou were so mature that they couldn't have appeared all of a sudden,"
Lawler wrote the genesis of Chinese writing is even harder to pin down because "many researchers assume that there were earlier writings -- about unknown subjects -- on perishable material such as bamboo."
Besides the gap of five millennia, researchers were also puzzled by the fact the Jiahu signs and others found elsewhere in China before the Longshan Culture were mostly single markings, while the jiaguwen oracles were written in sentences at Yinxu.
"That fact pushes us back to the slippery question of what writing is, and if a single character accounts for writing," said Zhang.
If the single signs from Jiahu are writing, Chinese writing could be traced back to about nine millennia ago.
More "ifs" may lie in Jiahu, where only 5 per cent of the site has been excavated, and meanwhile many other Neolithic sites remain untouched.
"The present state of archaeological record in China, which has never had the intensive examination of, for example, Egypt or Greece, does not permit us to say 'in which period of the Neolithic did the Chinese invent their writing?'" wrote the researchers.
"What did persist through these long periods was the idea of sign use."
(China Daily June 12, 2003)
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| 0.970682 | 2,193 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Windmills once dotted the Iowa landscape. Converting the energy of the wind into mechanical energy helped run pumps and other machinery on Iowa farms, and elsewhere, long before electrical power made its appearance.
A high-tech, 21st-century cousin of those windmills, so important in years gone by, could be one of the key ingredients to energy self-sufficiency for the United States.
Wind-based generation of electricity is a technology that offers the promise of vast amounts of electric power produced with few environmental downsides.
Our society has a voracious appetite for energy, and the demand for even more energy is growing fast. That makes overreliance on those energy resources that once used are gone forever both short-sighted and, ultimately, catastrophically foolish.
As our nation seeks energy sources that have long-term viability, concern about renewability has grown. The booming ethanol industry offers part of the answer to how energy needs can be met using resources that can be replenished. Wind power also has the potential to be a major part of tomorrow's energy picture.
Making use of wind to generate electricity has enormous implications for the United States. The goal of generating 20 percent of the nation's electricity from wind power by 2030 appears highly achievable. Two states - Iowa and South Dakota - already have surpassed that target.
Turning wind power into electric power is already a reality in many parts of the world, including the United States. In 2011, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 3 percent of U.S. electricity was produced from wind turbines and that capacity is increasing rapidly.
In our nation there was a 28 percent increase in the energy generated by wind in 2012, according to the American Wind Energy Association. A statement released by the AWEA in April put the contribution of wind energy to new electricity generating capacity created in the U.S. during 2012 at an impressive 42 percent. More than 6,700 new wind turbines came online last year.
Iowa is a national wind-energy leader. In 2012, 24.5 percent of the Hawkeye State's electricity was wind-generated. Iowa tops all other states in the percentage of electricity produced from wind. Clearly, Iowa is showing other states how to make this increasingly important energy source viable.
Energy can be produced in perpetuity from our fields and the gentle winds that blow across them.
It's not too hard to imagine a day - perhaps not so many decades hence - when people will think of Iowa not just as the breadbasket of the nation, but also as a critical source of the energy that makes our way of life possible.
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en
| 0.955234 | 540 | 2.953125 | 3 |
A family is a domestic group of people, or a number of domestic groups, typically affiliated by birth or marriage, or by comparable legal relationships including adoption. There are a number of variations in the basic family structure. The nuclear family consists of husband and wife and their children, while the extended family includes grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Other family patterns include polygamous (usually patriarchal) and single-parent families (usually headed by a female).
Throughout history, families have been central to human society; a key indicator of a society's well-being is the health of its families. For this reason, as stated in Article 16(3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "The [family is the] natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State." The family is the basic social unit for the expression of love between man and woman and the creation and raising of children. The family tames the wilder impulses of men to the responsibilities of fatherhood, enables young women to blossom as mothers, and cultivates morality in children. Moral virtues, empathy, and good human relationships are learned in the family.
All religions recognize the importance of the family and have moral teachings that support it. Some religions regard the family as an institution created by God for people to perfect themselves, become like God and experience oneness with God.
The family is universally formed to protect and nurture children. Although the term "dysfunctional" has often been applied to the family in modern times, in fact, the vast majorities of families produce viable, peaceable, and productive citizens. Children in average families outperform children in institutional settings according to numerous developmental measures, most importantly impulse control and pro-social behavior. The three- or four-generation extended family, including grandparents in addition to parents and children, provides a rich network for human relationships and great support for the raising of children and continuation of the lineage.
Fostering the human need for love and intimacy is an important purpose of the family. The family is generally viewed as a haven from the world, supplying "intimacy, love and trust where individuals may escape the competition of dehumanizing forces in modern society." The family protects individuals from the rough and tumble of the industrialized world. The family is where warmth, tenderness, and understanding can be expected from a loving mother and protection from the world can be expected from the father. These purposes have declined as income levels allow for economic security independent of family support and as individuals enjoy increased civil rights and opportunities to pursue happiness outside the family setting.
Nevertheless, the family remains irreplaceable as the primary locus of love and personal fulfillment. Martin Luther termed the family "the school of love." It is in the family that people can realize love in all its dimensions: children's love for parents, love among siblings, conjugal love, and parental love. As people's hearts are cultivated through their family relationships, they can find fulfillment in their lives beyond what they could attain as unattached individuals.
The family is also the primary school of virtue, where children learn manners, obedience to their parents, helpfulness to their siblings, care for their younger siblings, and so on. More lessons are learned in the school of marriage and still more in the school of parenthood. Anthropologist James Q. Wilson has called the family "a continuing locus of moral instruction…we learn to cope with the people of the world because we learn to cope with members of our family." The family provides the socialization and character education required of good citizens, who practice these same virtues in the larger contexts of society.
However, family life can also magnify people's shortcomings. Family dysfunction can cause such emotional damage that people will risk everything to escape their families. Some lose confidence in family life and choose the option of remaining single. Indeed, there has never been an ideal human family. Christianity explains that this ideal—represented by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden—was lost at the Fall of Man. Marxism holds that the family is a structure of human domination. Nevertheless, utopian attempts to replace the family with collective social structures, viz the Kibbutz, have not had long-term success.
For better or worse, human beings seem to be programmed to live in families. Research indicates that most Americans (71 percent) still idealize the traditional family even as they grow more accepting of divorce (78 percent), cohabitation (49 percent), and single-parent families. Margaret Mead, based on her anthropological research, affirmed the centrality of the family in human society:
As far back as our knowledge takes us, human beings have lived in families. We know of no period where this was not so. We know of no people who have succeeded for long in dissolving the family or displacing it.… Again and again, in spite of proposals for change and actual experiments, human societies have reaffirmed their dependence on the family as the basic unit of human living—the family of father, mother and children.
The family is the primary means through which most people cultivate their character and learn about love. The family of origin is the context for a child's lessons about love and virtue, as he or she relates to parents and siblings. The challenges of marriage and parenting bring further lessons. Precisely because of this crucial role in character development, family dysfunction is the origin of some of the deepest emotional and psychological scars. Experiences of childhood sexual abuse, parents' divorce, and so forth lead to serious problems later in life.
The family structure provides the basic context for human development, as its members take on successive roles as children, siblings, spouses, parents, and grandparents. As educator Gabriel Moran put it, "The family teaches by its form." These different roles in the family describe a developmental sequence, the later roles building upon the earlier ones. Each role provides opportunities to develop a particular type of love, and carries with it specific norms and duties.
The heart of a son or daughter develops from that of a very young child and matures through a lifetime—from the toddler who clings trustingly to his or her parents’ hand to the adult child who nurses his or her elderly parents in their last years of life. Yet the essence of the child's love for parents remains the same: a heart of attachment, veneration, appreciation, and love that deepens and becomes more conscious and responsible over time.
In the East, a child’s devotion toward his or her parents is called filial piety and is considered the root of all goodness and morality. Confucius taught that responsiveness to one’s parents is the root or fountainhead of rén (仁), empathy for human beings in general.
Attachment theory says that children form "inner working models" for all future relationships from the interactions they have with their first caretakers—usually their mothers. Empathy is learned from following and imitating the expressions and levels of emotions expressed by mothers as they play with their child, soothe their child, and respond to the infant's needs. The first developmental "crisis" of trust versus mistrust, as Erik Erikson put it, is resolved positively by a parent's caring responses to her child. This crisis can also have a negative outcome—leading to a lifetime of mistrust—when parents fail to care adequately, either because they are preoccupied with their own personal issues or are just plain self-centered.
As the child grows, he or she internalizes the parents' values. Out of love for them and desire for their approval, the child learns obedience, self-control, cleanliness, diligence in doing schoolwork, and respectful behavior towards people and property. The child's developing attitude towards his or her parents will profoundly influence later attitudes toward authority figures in society, and also, for believers, the mental image of God. Studies of altruism following World War II showed that there was but one common factor among the people in Europe who risked themselves to save Jews from Nazi horrors: each rescuer had a warm, strong bond with one or more parent.
Conversely, children who are neglected or abandoned by their parents suffer from general moral impairment. Studies of children who were raised for the early years of their lives in institutions found them to be inordinately cruel to one another and to animals and severely lacking in impulse control, especially of aggressive impulses. They were often "unable in later years to bind themselves to other people, to love deeply."
In average families there is ambivalence in the love between a child and his or her parents, especially as it develops into the adolescent years. Children are quick to pick up on any hypocrisy in their parents. Hence, there is need for parents to be exemplary in loving their children and demonstrating in their own lives the ideals that they would wish to pass on to them.
Child's love reaches a new stage of maturity when he or she becomes an adult. New comprehension and sympathy for the parents may come as the son or daughter becomes a spouse, a breadwinner, a parent, a middle-aged caretaker of others, and a responsible community member. The child recognizes his or her debt to the parents and begins to repay it with gratitude. Mature children's love may also involve taking up the parents' unfinished tasks and unrealized dreams, desiring to make the parents proud of them and leave them a legacy.
The dynamic of a family changes when a sibling arrives on the scene. The older child in a family is challenged to shed layers of self-centeredness to respond to and keep the approbation of the most significant others—the parents. His areas of self-love are further impinged upon by the presence of another on the scene. He must learn many of the most important lessons of sibling’s love—to share, to give, and to forgive. These lessons will be of major importance in later life, especially in marriage.
Parents can help an older child become more other-centered in the early days of having a sibling by including the older child in the baby’s care, thus activating altruism and its rewards in the child’s heart. Benjamin Spock explains, “One of the ways in which a young child tries to get over the pain of having a younger rival is to act as if he himself were no longer a child, competing in the same league as the baby, but as if he were a third parent." By encouraging the older child in this, "the parents can help a child to actually transform resentful feelings into cooperativeness and genuine altruism."
The natural inequalities and differences between siblings—of age, ability, and positions in a family—can be sources of friction or contexts for growth. The older sibling has had a head start on garnering the attention of the parents and has greater command of things in the home. Now he or she must learn to give a portion of these advantages to the younger one. A younger sibling, on the other hand, is born sharing. He or she necessarily becomes other-focused in order to form an affiliation with the more powerful older sibling(s). Siblings must learn to cope with disputes over the use of possessions, taking turns, physical and verbal aggression, and other moral issues.
Parents have a central role in ameliorating sibling rivalries by affirming each child’s value in a manner consistent with the naturally unequal positions of elder and younger. Yet, it may be challenging for parents to show equal regard for siblings of widely differing abilities or moral qualities.
In cultures that practice primogeniture, codifying the distinction between elder and younger siblings into the norms of family life, the eldest son receives more privileges, but he is also expected to bear greater responsibility for the family's welfare. Younger children are expected to show deference to their elder siblings, but they can expect guidance, care, and leadership from them. When there is a fight between elder and younger, the father will scold the younger, "Respect your elders!" but then in private he will punish the elder sibling, whom he holds most responsible for the incident.
A certain amount of sibling rivalry is to be expected, but whether it is channeled into constructive competition or destructive jealousy depends on how they are raised by their parents. When parents are negligent, a festering sibling rivalry can even result in fratricide, as in the Bible's story of Cain and Abel. Another biblical story, the parable of the Prodigal Son, contains a moment of parental intervention to diffuse a sibling rivalry when the father affirms his equal love for both sons, the faithful and the prodigal (Luke 15:25–32).
Sibling relationships are training for living in a world of diversity. Though born of the same parents, siblings often differ from one another widely in temperament, personality, tastes, preferences, talents, and even political leanings. Living amidst a large or extended family provides training in tolerance, charity, and acceptance of differences. It helps ingrain the lesson that although people differ, they are fundamentally related and may still treat one another with respect, appreciation, and love based on their common bonds.
Marriage encourages and requires a high degree of other-centered love. No relationship prior to marriage has the same potential for human oneness, and thus no other relationship entails the same demands for surrender of the self. In this way, marriage promotes true love, which is to live for the sake of others.
The passion of romantic love in the early years of marriage is meant to foster the habit of self-surrender and care for one's spouse. Yet few marriages survive for long on passion alone. Commitment and effort by each partner are required to make a marriage last. Marital expert Judith Wallerstein said, “A marriage that commands loyalty…requires each partner to relinquish self-centeredness.” Catholic psychologist Marshall Fightlin asserts that it is the daily task of a husband to “mortify” the impulses to act like a single man and to concern himself with his other—his wife. Thus, marriage requires renunciation of all other romantic or sexual relationships in favor of the spouse; it also means renunciation of many aspects of one’s own habits and attitudes that interfere with a life shared with someone who is physically, emotionally, and mentally "other"—a member of the opposite sex.
Paradoxically, renunciation of the self in favor of the other enriches and enhances the self. Joy and excitement are increased. Theologian Karl Barth taught, “It is always in relationship to their opposite that man and woman are what they are in themselves.”
It stands to reason that virtue or good character is the bedrock of a happy marriage. This finding is backed up by research. According to Wallerstein, "Happiness in marriage meant feeling respected and cherished…based on integrity. A partner was admired and loved for his or her honesty, compassion, generosity of spirit, decency, loyalty to the family, and fairness…. The value these couples place on the partner’s moral qualities…helps explain why many divorcing people speak so vehemently of losing respect for their former partners." Marital therapist Blaine Fowers says, "As I have observed many different couples, I have become convinced that strong marriages are built on the virtues or character strengths of the spouses. In other words, the best way to have a good marriage is to be a good person."
Religious teachings hold that marriage also brings a couple closer to God. The rabbis taught that the union of a man and a woman into one person or one flesh is the only full representation of the image of God. Karl Barth discerned a theology of marriage in the Trinity: God exists in a community of three persons, so a solitary, isolated human being without a counterpart is necessarily incomplete. Many religious teachings advise couples to put God at the center of their marriage, to provide them the strength to persevere through the vicissitudes of life together. At times when one's spouse may seem like one’s worst enemy, faith can provide couples with the emotional resources to be patient and forgiving, and to continue steadfast throughout the years.
Parenthood makes sacrifice an ordinary part of life. A father takes an extra job to afford a house with a yard or save up for his child's college education; a mother who formerly spent hours on makeup and stylish dresses sits happily with tousled hair and a stained shirt while her toddlers clamber around a messy house. Parents sacrifice their interests, plans, and dreams to attend to their children's needs. As one child psychologist said, "If it is to be done well, childrearing requires, more than most activities of life, a good deal of de-centering from one’s own needs and perspectives."
Being a good parent requires patience and forbearance, as when answering their child's 50th question in a row while trying to prepare dinner. It requires firmness and fortitude, as when their defiant 15-year-old demands to know why he or she is not allowed to stay out late when all of his or her friends are doing it. The responsibility of caring for children bring out latent moral qualities in parents, presenting "opportunities to love when I would rather be alone, to be gentle when I would rather be efficient, and to surrender when I would rather be in control." The experience spurs on the parents' growth in heart.
Becoming a parent is a life-altering transition. Being totally accountable for the welfare of one's children gives parents a different outlook on life. Eldridge Cleaver, a former Black Panther who was trained as a communist in the former Soviet Union, experienced such a transformation when his daughter was born. Surely, he thought, this beautiful child, and the love he felt for her, were not products of economic forces. It reawakened Cleaver's belief in God. Parenthood likewise affects attitudes on social issues, which now must take into account how those matters will affect the lives of the next generation. One survey found that the most marked differences of attitudes on cultural issues are between those who have children and those who do not. These differences transcend economic, political, racial, and other demographic factors.
Good parenting requires harmony between husband and wife. A harmonious partnership allows the parents to integrate the complementary dimensions of parental love—the warm supportiveness of a mother's love and the firm and challenging qualities of a father's love. Research has shown that a balanced approach to parental authority pairs high levels of compassion and care with an equally high degree of firmness. Psychologist Diane Baumrind calls this “authoritative parenting.” She found that children of authoritative parents are the most well adjusted and well behaved.
Parental love is a definition of unconditional love. Parents give and give and forget what they have given, compelled by their love to give more. Parental love is fraught with risk, for there is always the possibility of loss. Fathers and mothers cannot anticipate how their children will turn out—as children have free will. In spite of it all, parents' continual caring is the surest lifeline for even the most incorrigible child.
Grandparents are an invaluable source of rootedness for a child. Children who have relationships with their grandparents are more trusting, calmer, and quieter than those who do not. Grandparents are the link to all that has gone before and they give a sense of continuity and reassurance. Grandparents help children to know what life was like long before they were born—where they have come from and the kind of people they have sprung from. They are the family's link to the chain of history.
Grandparents can provide a safe haven when their children and grandchildren are experiencing turbulence in their relationships. Certain of who they are, grandparents stand for verities of the human experience that go beyond current fashions.
The heart of grandparents has an innate need to give from their lifetime storehouse of knowledge and experience to nurture and enrich the younger generations. Erik Erikson and his colleagues have characterized the primary challenge in old age as one of "integrity versus despair," with the possibility of culminating in a profound awareness or higher sense of self. By giving to their grandchildren, they can experience their personhood as that which "transcends time-bound identities." Those who do not have grandchildren will often seek surrogates for the same reason. By sharing their stories, insights, and values with the young generation, grandparents receive affirmation and comfort that their legacy will live on.
Despite controversies over what the "family" is, there is considerable evidence about what the consequences of family life are for individuals.
Men and women who are in their first marriages, on average, enjoy significantly higher levels of physical and mental health than those who are either single, divorced, or living together. Social scientist James Q. Wilson explains:
Married people are happier than unmarried ones of the same age, not only in the United States, but in at least seventeen other countries where similar inquiries have been made. And there seems to be good reasons for that happiness. People who are married not only have higher incomes and enjoy greater emotional support, they tend to be healthier. Married people live longer than unmarried ones, not only in the United States but abroad.
Married people, whether men or women, enjoy higher levels of sexual pleasure and fulfillment than do single people. Among the various life spheres Americans report as being sources of a "great deal of satisfaction," studies consistently show family life as the most important. Three-fourths of Americans interviewed claimed that family life was their most important value, in surveys by Yankelovich between 1973 and 1981.
All things being equal, children with married parents consistently do better in every measure of well-being than their peers who have single, cohabiting, divorced, or step-parents. Being raised by a father and mother is a stronger indicator of well-being than race, economic, or educational status, or neighborhood. According to the Center for Law and Social Policy, a child advocacy organization, "Most researchers now agree…studies support the notion that, on average, children do best when raised by their two married biological parents." Evidence points out that:
Marriage and family life have been shown in numerous studies to have a variety of health benefits for both adults and children:
In traditional societies, the family was the primary economic unit. This persists for rural families, where every family member has a role in agricultural production. This role has diminished in modern industrialized societies; nevertheless it persists. Among immigrant families, the mom-and-pop business offers economies of labor. The contemporary trend towards dual-earner households, necessitated by the decline in real wages in the United States, reinforces the importance of the family for wealth creation.
Married people are wealthier than their unmarried peers. They earn more money and are more likely to invest some of what they earn. They make more reliable employees, and so get promoted to better positions.
Strong families have long been grounded in religious values, for religion provides many buttresses to strengthen family bonds. In his letter to the Ephesians (5:25), Saint Paul likened the virtues of love in a Christian marriage to the love of Christ for the church. It is, first and foremost, a giving love, a sacrificial love that resembles the love of Jesus. Christian marital love has been characterized as “a love that seeks to give way to the other whenever possible.” Thus religion, by cultivating character virtues such as steadfastness, responsibility, and modesty, and by promoting the ethics of sacrifice, humility, and charity, provides valuable support for family members as they seek to maintain lasting love amidst the demands of family life.
The family's efficacy for personal growth is such that some religious traditions equate honorable and loving relationships in the family with a template for a person’s right relationship with God. In the Talmud, for instance, it is written, "When a man honors his father and mother, God says, 'I regard it as though I had dwelt among them and they had honored me'" (Kiddushin 30b). Confucius said, “Surely proper behavior toward parents and elder brothers is the trunk of goodness” (Analects 1.2). Jesus encouraged his disciples to relate to God as a loving father, calling him "Abba."
Furthermore, traditional religious teachings lift up the expectation that marriage should last a lifetime. They decry divorce as a moral failure. "I hate divorce," declares God through the prophet Malachi (2:16). When Muhammad was asked about divorce, he said it was "the lawful thing that God hates most" (Hadith of Abu Dawud). When Jesus was asked about divorce, he said that God only allowed it because of people’s hardness of heart, and that it was not His way "from the beginning," adding "What God has joined together, let no man separate" (Matthew 19:5–8). Religions likewise condemn sex outside the context of marriage and family, teaching that it violates the sanctity of marriage and creates difficult entanglements of soul and spirit that can interfere with a person's eventual marriage.
These normative teachings provide both resources and sanctions that predispose traditional believers to maintain and make the best of even a difficult marriage. Not surprisingly, religion and family tend to go hand in hand. A 2004 survey by the National Marriage Project (Rutgers University) found that married men are more religiously active than unmarried men. Nearly half of married men say that they go to religious services several times a month, versus less than a quarter of unmarried men. Compared to unmarried men, married men are also significantly more likely (75 percent versus 59 percent) to agree that "children should be raised in a religion." Also, unmarried men who attend religious services several times per month or more are more disposed to marry.
Nevertheless, it is not the case that religious belief is the main factor in maintaining strong families. Believing does not always translate into the morality of daily life. Religious affiliation ranks fourth among the factors that reduce the risk of divorce, as shown in the following U.S. statistics (the norm without any of these factors is a 50 percent divorce rate):
|Annual income over $50,000 (vs. under $25,000)||-30%|
|Having a baby seven months or more after marriage (vs. before marriage)||-24%|
|Marrying over 25 years of age (vs. under 18)||-24%|
|Own family of origin intact (vs. divorced parents)||-14%|
|Religious affiliation (vs. none)||-14%|
|Some college (vs. high-school dropout)||-13%|
Studies in the psychology of religion suggest that how one practices religion, or "what kind of religion," is more significant for the quality of family relationships than how strongly one believes in a religion, or "how much religion." Participants with rigid, literalistic or guilt-driven approaches to religion reported an increased emphasis on control, difficulties in communication, and lower levels of marital satisfaction. In contrast, participants who identified with and maintained an open approach to religious sentiment and tended to promote independence in their children, were more likely to have affectionate and warm relationships with their children, and experience increased marital satisfaction.
While religious faith leads some people to be less accepting of alternative family patterns, it can also promote compassion for people struggling in less than ideal family situations. In every faith, God offers forgiveness to sinners, especially those who sincerely wish to mend past mistakes. There is recognition that the ideal of the God-centered family runs up against the corruption of the human heart due to the Fall of Man, which caused widespread difficulties between men and women, parents and children ever since. Almost all the families in the Bible seem to be dysfunctional to one degree or another, and the protagonist is sometimes challenged to overcome a festering family problem—Jacob and Joseph are two notable examples. Therefore, the centering of marriage upon God and striving to practice true love—divine love—within marriage can be viewed as a redemptive act that opens the way to divine healing and personal growth. For believers who practice a life of faith, marriage and family can be a blessing, a restorative relationship to heal the most primal of human wounds and open the way to future hope.
According to sociology and anthropology, the primary function of the family is to reproduce society, biologically and socially. For children, the family plays a major role in their socialization. From the point of view of the parent(s), the family's purpose is to produce and socialize children within a culture. However, producing children is not the only function of the family. In societies with a sexual division of labor, marriage and the resulting relationship between a husband and wife is necessary for the formation of an economically productive household. In modern societies, marriage entails particular rights and privilege that encourage the formation of new families even when there is no intention of having children.
The structure of families can be classified into four major types: consanguineal, conjugal, patrifocal, and matrifocal. (Note: these are ideal types. In all societies there are acceptable deviations from the norm, owing either to incidental circumstances such as the death of a family member, infertility, or personal preferences.)
French sociologists Frédéric Le Play (1806-1882) and Emmanuel Todd have studied the connection between family type and social values. Le Play developed a four-fold typology of the family, each which inculcated a certain set of values. These values are passed on as each generation unconsciously absorbs the values of their parents. Todd added some additional types and went on to demonstrate that a country's adoption of a particular political ideology—liberal democracy or communism or fascism—correlated with its family system; and he even hypothesized "the ideological system is everywhere the intellectual embodiment of family structure."
Thus, a people's love of liberty or acceptance of authority is determined by the relationship between fathers and sons in the family. If a grown child continues to live with his parents after marriage, forming a vertical relationship within the extended family, such a family is regarded as 'authoritarian'. Within the family and within the society respect for authority has a high premium. On the other hand if a grown child leaves his family, marries and sets up an independent household, this family model is regarded as 'liberal' as it, and the society composed of such families, puts a high premium on individual independence.
Furthermore, the relationship between brothers inculcates the ideal of equality or acceptance of inequality as the natural order of things. If inheritance is by custom the equal division of the parent's property among the sons, they form egalitarian relationships. If the inheritance is by custom weighted towards the eldest son, so that brothers naturally accept the inequality among them, the values of the society include an acceptance of inequality.
Todd found a surprising correspondence between Le Play's typology of family structures with the country or region's dominant social and political values and institutions:
These findings from anthropology seem to support the view that the family is the foundation of society and its values. Todd theorized that social and political arrangements such as are found in liberal democracies or in socialist states are, "a transposition into social relations of the fundamental values which govern elementary human relations" in the family.
Today, many people tend to idealize the two-parent nuclear family as the ideal family structure. The man typically is responsible for income and support, the woman for home and family matters. Social conservatives often express concern over a purported decay of the family and see this as a sign of the crumbling of contemporary society. They look with alarm at the dramatic increase in households headed by single mothers and by same-sex couples. Yet anthropologists point out that these are merely variations on family types that have existed in other societies.
Even when people bypass the traditional configuration of father, mother, and their biological children, they tend to follow its patterns anyway, showing the fundamental need they feel for its structure. Couples live together and raise children, even children from previous relationships. Same-sex couples assume masculine and feminine roles and demand legal recognition of their unions; many seek to adopt children. Homeless children tend to congregate in gangs that serve as surrogate families. On the other hand, as families universally are built around the marriage bond and the responsibilities for raising children, there would seem to be some rationality to giving preference to the two-parent nuclear family—particularly over family structures headed by only one parent. As James Q. Wilson has stated:
In virtually every society in which historians or anthropologists have inquired, one finds people living together on the basis of kinship ties and having responsibility for raising children. The kinship ties invariably imply restrictions on who has sexual access to whom; the child-care responsibilities invariably imply both economic and non-economic obligations. And in virtually every society, the family is defined by marriage; that is, by a publicly announced contract that makes legitimate the sexual union of a man and a woman.
In other words, while single-parent and matrifocal families form a recognizable type, they are not the first choice where there is the possibility of forming stable two-parent families. However, where men are not strongly bound to the family unit, i.e., where a culture does not support lasting marriage or where economic hardships cause men to be apart from their wives for long periods of time, this family type becomes prevalent.
By the same token, societies where patrifocal families are the norm are vulnerable to movements for women's rights and human rights that attack marriage arrangements that do not give wives equal status with their husbands. This may lead, in the long run, to the decline of polygamy.
In many cultures, the need to be self-supporting is hard to meet, particularly where rents and property values are very high, and the foundation of a new household can be an obstacle to nuclear family formation. In these cases, extended families form. People remain single and live with their parents for a long period of time. Generally, the trend to shift from extended to nuclear family structures has been supported by increasing mobility and modernization.
Still, some argue that the extended family, or at least the three-generational family including grandparents, provides a broader and deeper foundation for raising children as well as support for the new parents. In particular, the role of grandparents has been recognized as an important aspect of the family dynamic. Having experienced the challenges of creating a family themselves, they offer wisdom and encouragement to the young parents and become a reassuring presence in the lives of their grandchildren. Abraham Maslow described the love of grandparents as "the purest love for the being of the other."
The emotional pull of these intergenerational encounters remains strong even for those who have split off to form nuclear families. Individuals who leave the village and their extended families for the economic benefits of life in the city may feel a sense of isolation and a longing for the thick relationships and warm love of the extended family of their origin. This suggests that, economic issues aside, people are happiest living in extended families, or in nuclear families that treasure close bonds with their kinfolk.
A strong nuclear or extended family provides a haven of love and intimacy. It offers maximum opportunities for personal growth through its matrix of relationships—with spouse, parents, grandparents, siblings, and children. A strong family provides a social support network that its members are able to rely on in times of stress. The rise of single-parent households due to the absence of husbands represents reversion to a different family structure, one that is prone to isolation and provides weaker social support.
The two-parent family is important in the development of children and beneficial to their mental and emotional health. A strong conjugal bond between the parents provides the child security and a model for conjugal love to which he or she can aspire. The father's steady and responsible provision for the family provides a positive male role model for boys and a model of an ideal husband for young girls. Thus from an early age, children gain a positive sense of self-worth, sexual identity, and confidence about their future. Divorce or the chronic absence of one parent teaches the opposite lesson: that life is insecure, that the child is not lovable, that the child cannot hope for a successful marriage, that men are irresponsible and unsuitable as marriage partners, and so on. Statistically, children of single-parent families have a higher incidence of criminality, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, and depression.
The extended family provides a superior alternative to the nuclear family in many cultures, expanding the family dynamic intergenerationally. Grandparents offer a unique form of support to the family, both to the parents and to the children. When a newly married couple moves far away from their parents, establishing their own nuclear family, isolation from their extended family may prove stressful. Families in which three generations interact in close harmony provide the greatest support for successfully raising children, connecting them to their family traditions and giving value to their lineage.
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Justice: A History of the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia
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In 1967, Australia voted ‘yes’ to equality and justice for Aboriginals, but the fatal shooting of an Aboriginal man in Laverton in 1969 demonstrated how much further there was to go. From the early 1970s, the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia has been influential in national campaigns to address the legacies of dispossession and human rights abuses. It continues to play a central role in advocating for measures to address Aboriginal deaths in custody, land rights, and the stolen generations. As a lively and multi-dimensional account, this book shows the human face of some of the Australia’s major social, political, and legal reforms during the last four decades. It is the story of individuals determined to protect and defend the human rights of Aboriginal people whose rights have been routinely abused. Engaging and sometimes dramatic, this is more than simply an educational resource. It is an important contribution to histories of social justice, law reform, and Indigenous affairs, woven with oral history accounts. Justice: A History of the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia offers a distinctive insight into the collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
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A collection of helpful articles on teachers and teaching
Increasing Childhood Poverty and Hunger
Lately there have been unsettling reports about increases in children living in poverty in the U.S. For one, a recent article out of Boston features an emergency room survey that found doctors in the city are seeing more hungry and underweight young children in the emergency room than any time in more than a decade. The survey revealed a sharp increase in the percentage of families with children who reported not having enough food each month (going from 18% in 2007 to 28% in 2010), and a 58% increase in the number of severely underweight babies under the age of one. An expert in the article points out that this level of malnourishment “is similar to what is more typically seen in developing countries.” The article relays that pediatricians in other cities like Baltimore, Little Rock, and Minneapolis are also reporting increases in malnourished children.
Indeed, a recent AP article says that research by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that child poverty increased in 38 states from 2000 to 2009—meaning 14.7 million children, 20 percent of all U.S. children, were considered poor in 2009.
All of these articles point out major consequences of childhood poverty, including sometimes permanent developmental and cognitive delays due to lack of nutrition, impairment in school achievement, and decreased productivity in adulthood. The Boston article points out that the chronic hunger many doctors are seeing “threatens to leave scores of infants and toddlers with lasting learning and developmental problems” since children’s growing brains can be severely affected by lack of nutrition. Research by the Children’s Defense Fund indicates notes that hunger and poor nutrition in children is linked to health problems and obesity later in life.
A University of Nevada researcher quoted in the AP article asserted that “What we are looking at is a cohort of kids who as they become adults may be less able to contribute to the growth of the economy. It could go on for multiple generations.”
I don’t want to be too obvious, but it seems clear that as a country we need to improve the social safety net to ensure that children have their critical needs met. Schools are serving a critical function in providing services like school-based healthcare, and meals for students that otherwise would go without. The Children’s Defense Fund report indicates that in 2010, about 20 million children qualified for and received free or reduced-price meals at school. But the current services schools provide are not enough to address the problem.
The AP article points out that “programs such as food stamps, unemployment insurance and foreclosure meditation have acted like a dam against the flood of poverty” but this critical assistance can have red tape that makes access difficult, and the funds are threatened by federal and state government budget cuts.
We’ve all heard horror stories about how the Great Depression affected our grandparents—often leaving life-long scars. The fact that many of these victims grew up in families that were solidly middle-class prior to the stock market crash is no doubt a major factor in the amount of attention brought to their plight. Let’s not ignore the poverty in the current recession, even though many of those most severely affected were poor or on the cusp of poverty to begin with. And I’m not talking trickle down economics where we hope that maybe the poor will get a cut after the rich are catered to. There are many places for federal dollars to go in the midst of our fiscal crisis, but the neediest among us need to rank as a top priority so that they can attain more—both in school and in life.
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| 0.968296 | 753 | 3.234375 | 3 |
By Terry Smith, from the Heartland News, October 2000.
Whistling Ducks, which are sometimes referred to as Tree Ducks, are an interesting tribe of waterfowl. Eight species are included in the tribe Dedrocygnini - Spotted Whistling Duck native to the equatorial South Pacific from the Philippines to New Guinea; Plumed or Eyton's Whistling Duck native to Australia and near-by islands; Fulvous Whistling Duck native to the southern United States, Central & South America, Africa and Asia; Wandering Whistling Duck native to Indonesia and the Philippines; Lesser or Indian Whistling Duck, also called the Javan Whistling Duck native to India, Sri Lanka and other areas of south-east Asia; White-faced Whistling Duck native to South America and Africa; Cuban or Black-billed Whistling Duck native to Cuba, Puerto Rico and the West Indies; Black-bellied or Red-billed Whistling Duck native to Central and South America. Fulvous, White-faced and Red-billed Whistling Ducks are often found in waterfowl collections while the Spotted Whistling Duck is not commonly found in waterfowl collections.
All Whistling Ducks share a number of characteristics. All are tropical birds with long legs which scientists feel was an adaptation for life in the trees. The various species of Whistling Ducks are monomorphic, a term used to describe birds when the males and females have identical plumage. The female is often larger in size. Both the males and females share in the incubation of the eggs and both sexes will aggressively defend their nests. Clutches are often large and "dump nesting" or the tendency for several females to lay eggs in the same nest is not uncommon. The downy young, are heavily marked and have a light stripe below the eyes extending to the nape. In captivity it is not uncommon for one female to bond with two males or a male to form a bond with two females. Although some species are more vocal than other species, all Whistling Ducks have characteristic multisyllabic calls which are emitted by both sexes. Females generally have a lower wounding call, however.
Whistling Ducks are very social. Except during the breeding season, they are found in huge flocks in the wild. Most species can be kept in groups provided there is enough pen space and cover to allow pairs to establish their indvidual territories and nest sites. In fact, some breeders feel that social interaction is the key to having a good breeding flock and that the breeding success is proportional to the number of birds kept within the aviary.
In the wild, most Whistling Ducks are either cavity nesters or nest on the ground in reeds and tall grasses. In captivity, hens will lay in thick grass, in cavity nests, in two-section ground nest boxes or a common vertical nest box with or without some cover. In most nests, there is an absence of down, but the birds bring in a sizeable amount of leaves, straw, etc. to use as nesting material.
When the breeding environment is to their liking, some species of Whistling Ducks can be very productive. Hens of some species such as the White-faced and the Fulvous can lay as many as six clutches each having ten or more eggs. When one has several pairs or trios of the same species which are kept within the same aviary, fertility can be high and a great many young can be raised. The mortality in Eyton's Whistling Ducks, however, can run as high as 30% during the first week. Inbreeding and the need for the importation of new stock is usually blamed for the duckling deaths. Whistling Duck hens normally lay between the late afternoon and early evening. Unlike other waterfowl, both the male and female will set on the eggs. Incubation for most species averages 28 days.
It is best to keep the young of the various species of Whistling Ducks in separate brooders and grow-off pens apart from other species of ducks because they seem to go through a stage where they can be "intent-to-do-damage" on other ducklings. The young can be artificially raised on starter mash with the addition of duckweed. Some breeders supplement this diet with finely ground catfish or trout pellets or dog food. Giving the young a vitamin supplement until they are fully fledged in late summer or early fall, helps keep the young healthy and in good feather. Lots of fresh drinking water must be provided for the ducklings, they need an enormous amount of water when eating. The young Whistling Ducks are capable of flight when they are about nine weeks old, unless they are pinioned when they are few days old.
Most Whistling Ducks are quite tame and can be kept with other species of ducks in a large aviary. During the breeding season, their temperament changes and they can become aggressive - usually towards other species of Whistling Ducks. Both sexes defend the nest and protect the young by making hissing and whistling sounds, by spreading the wings and by charging the intruder. A keeper soon learns the distance they must keep from the nest and the ducklings. They make good parents and keep their young in a tight group whenever they are swimming or walking so they can protect them. White-faced Whistling Ducks have even been known to stamp the ground with their feet to ward off those encroaching on their territory.
Because they are a tropical species, they will need some protection during the winter months in the northern areas of the United States. If one keeps the ponds open so birds can swim during a cold spell, there is less chance of frozen feet. Giving the birds fresh dry straw will also help to keep the birds warm. Of the species, the Eyton's and Javan Whistling Ducks are the least hardy.
If you are looking for a species to add to your waterfowl collection, consider the Whistling Ducks. Not only are they attractive ducks, but they are interesting to observe.
|© October 2000 The Heartland News, Terry Smith|
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| 0.959494 | 1,273 | 3.828125 | 4 |
Recent news has focused attention on suicides in teenagers and children, and while early deaths in this group can be harrowing, the overall rates of suicide in young people are not especially high. Rather, it is the elderly who have historically had the highest rates of self-inflicted death.
Now, new research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in Public Health Reports reveals that for some people, middle-age may be the danger zone. Data show that there were 17.2 suicides per 100,000 45-to-54-year-olds in 2006 and 2007 — up from 15 suicides per 100,000 people in this age group in 2001.
By comparison, in 2001, there were 15 suicides per 100,000 people over 65, and 17.5 suicides per 100,000 people over 85. Among youths, the suicide rate was 10 per 100,000 people in 2001. (More on Time.com: Cyberbullying? Homophobia? Tyler Clementi’s Death Highlights Online Lawlessness)
A group of sociologists and public health experts believe that there is a cultural aspect to the spike of suicides in the middle-aged. As CNN reported:
Dashed expectations, economic woes, depression or chronic medical problems — these may be factors why the suicide rates for middle-aged Americans have increased.
Surveys of baby boomers have shown a tone of disappointment.
“So many expected to be in better health and expected to be better off than they are,” said Julie Phillips, lead author of the study assessing recent changes in suicide rates. “Surveys suggest they had high expectations. Things haven’t worked out that way in middle age.”
It must be said that the age range studied represents only a cross section of the baby boomer generation, the oldest members of which are closing in on 65. But the notion that this trend in suicides may be specific to baby boomers rather than to middle-age is an interesting one. (More on Time.com: Survey: 9% of Americans Are Depressed)
Researchers have also pointed to a host of historical, generation-specific factors: elevated rates of depression among baby boomers in their teenage years, their service in Vietnam, higher rates of drug use.
Medical advances have allowed boomer moms to bear children later and boomers’ parents to survive into their 80s and 90s (though they aren’t protecting 45-to-54 year-olds from developing heart disease or breast, prostate or colon cancers more than others). As a result, boomers are sometimes referred to as the “Sandwich Generation,” because of their unique challenge of simultaneously caring for elderly parents and young (or underemployed) children. Factor in the financial crisis, and it’s no wonder that our beleaguered middle generation is having a hard time. (More on Time.com: Don’t Choke: 5 Tips for Performing Under Pressure).
While there’s no clear solution, perhaps awareness that this is a common situation among their contemporaries will help some who are struggling. It wouldn’t be the first time that coming together to identify their generational challenges helped baby boomers rise above.
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| 0.959277 | 670 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Nurturing trees and shrubs long-term requires a different approach than using fertilizers high in NPKs. Traditional fertilizers can produce excessive canopy growth, which can create a serious tree problem as trees lack the required root systems to support the extra growth. This practice can weaken trees and make them vulnerable to wind damage, attacks from tree insects and tree disease. Healthy roots help trees and shrubs withstand summer heat, drought, water restrictions and many other environmental stresses.
Most urban soils are highly compacted, low in organic matter, lacking in vital microbial life, and in very poor condition. But at Plant Preservation, our unique natural fertilization techniques can restore tree health and rebuild root systems and replenish depleted soils. We can establish viable microbial populations that generate organic matter and become a "naturally renewable" source of natural fertilizer designed to rejuvenate your trees and shrubs.
Our advanced organic tree fertilizer provides all of the essential plant nutrients to the soil. Our expert arborist will determine precise levels of organic tree fertilizers, green natural fertilizers, and specific organic nutrients based on the particular needs of your trees and shrubs. Factors such as plant species, soil conditions; age, tree diseases, tree insect infestation, location, and other factors come into play when determining the organic tree fertilizer formula that best suits your situation.
Most traditional fertilizers are spread on the surface of the ground surrounding your trees and shrubs. But spreading harsh chemicals on the ground can represent a significant health hazard to your pets and young children. At Plant Preservation, your safety is our primary concern. We use an underground fertilization technique to inject natural materials into the soil surrounding your trees and shrubs. This process has many advantages. It provides nutrients directly to the tree root systems where your plants can access it easily. In addition, it revitalizes poor soil conditions as well as aereates the soil. But the best benefit of all... Our unique organic nutrient injection system is absolutely safe for pets and children. Because the fertilizers are injected underground, your pets and children are NEVER subjected to dangerous chemicals and are never at risk of getting near or into the organic fertilizers.
Organic Fertilization Services
Don't wait until your
valuable trees are too sick
or in a state of decline
before you consider
treatments to improve their health!
Call us today for a free evaluation & estimate
At Plant Preservation, we are committed to protecting the environment. For that reason, we use nothing but natural fertilers and organic materials. We are one of the few green fertilizer companies in the area that use all natural fertilizers like compost tea, seaweed concentrate, and fish ensymes to name just a few. We are on the cutting edge of environmentally safe fertilizers that are the wave of the future.
If you are commited to doing your part to save the environment, try our all natural organic fertilizers. You'll find that they are safe for the environment and better for you plants.
Serving the following areas in Pa: Carversville, Doylestown, Langhorne, Morrisville, New Hope, Solebury, Newtown, Yardley, Bucks County, and Montgomery County. Serving the following NJ areas: Allentown, Bordentown, Cranbury, East Windsor, Florence, Hamilton, Plainsboro, Princeton, West Windsor Mercer County, Middlesex County, and Burlington County.
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| 0.928458 | 697 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Valproic acid is currently used to treat seizures, mood disorders, and migranes. Research is underway to investigate the drug as a possible prevenative treatment for neck and head cancers. A new study performed on veternans who took valproic acid to treat headaches, seizures, and PTSD demonstrated a 34% reduction in the rate of development head or neck cancer. The effects of the drug were most pronounced in smokers.
“A 34 percent risk reduction for the development of head and neck cancer with valproic acid use could result in the prevention of up to approximately 16,000 new cases and 3,000 to 4,000 annual deaths in the U.S. alone,” said Dr. Johann Christoph Brandes, who headed the study. “Head and neck cancer is an important global health crisis, and low cost and low-toxicity prevention strategies like valproic acid use have a high potential impact on pain, suffering, costs, and mortality associated with this disease.”
Researchers began to study valproic acid because medical research has proved it can affect certain tumors. Brandes’s team studied veterans who took valproic acid under brand name drugs like Epilim, Depakote, and Valpro.
Although valproic acid reduced the rates of head and neck cancer in the study, it did not affect the rates of other cancers such as lung, prostate ,or colon cancer. Researchers believe that the study could help save lives, as over 40,000 Americans are diagnosed with head or neck cancer each year. One fourth of those diagnosed with the disease die every year.
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| 0.955997 | 333 | 2.84375 | 3 |
In the past 10 years, over 2 million children have been killed in armed conflicts.
The changing dynamics of modern warfare have dramatically increased civilian casualties. Alarmingly, children are among the most vulnerable and are often the first to be harmed when conflict breaks out. As a result, special attention must be paid to the needs of war-affected children. In addition to being casualties of conflict, children are brought into wars for direct use as child soldiers and sexual slaves. The trauma of being forced to carry out, witness and endure acts of killing and torture does unspeakable physical and psychosocial damage to these children. This damage can be life-long, and interferes with children’s physical, mental, psychological, and spiritual health.
- 6 million children have been disabled as a result of armed conflicts worldwide.
- More than 1 million children have been orphaned through war.
- In countries where children are already vulnerable to disease, the onset of armed conflict may increase death rates by 24 times.
In the aftermath of armed conflict, the indirect consequences of war and the resulting long-term damage to children’s health become apparent. In refugee camps, children are often the last to be fed and clothed. Armed conflicts often force children to live in dangerous environments, have very little access to health care services, receive little or no food and water, and face an on-going fear of exploitation. These hazardous conditions have devastating health consequences and continue to interfere with children’s healing process.
- Many more children die as a result of disease and malnutrition caused by war than from direct attack.
Case Study: Iraq
Iraq has suffered more than a decade of conflict, beginning with the 1991 Gulf War and continuing with the US-led war in 2003. The consequences of war and sanctions have had a particularly harmful effect on children, who make up almost 50% of the population of Iraq.
- 1 in 8 Iraqi children dies before his/her 5th birthday
- 25% of children under five are chronically malnourished
Iraqi children are extremely vulnerable to the direct violence of conflict, but war also poses indirect threats to their health. During the 1990s, Iraq’s water and sanitation systems were severely damaged by war and sanctions. As a result, children are especially susceptible to waterborne diseases such as diarrhea and typhoid fever. Iraq’s healthcare system, destroyed by conflict, lacks the resources to cope with these problems. According to a doctor at the children’s hospital in Baghdad, in 2004, 30 young patients died because of the hospital’s deficient resources.
- In 1 month of fighting in April, 2004, at least 100 children were killed in Iraq
- 70% of child deaths occur due to preventable diseases like diarrhea and respiratory infections
Want to Learn More?
1. Graca Machel: Impact of Armed Conflict on Children.
This is Graça Machel’s comprehensive report on war-affected children, written during her tenure as Expert of the UN Secretary-General on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children.
2. Government of Canada: “War-Affected Children”
This website provides useful background information about the issues affecting children in situations of war and outlines some of Canada’s policies and projects in aid of these children.
3. UNICEF: “Health in Emergencies”
This website provides a general overview of the main threats to children’s health in times of war and conflict. It also discusses UNICEF’s child-focused approach to humanitarian aid.
4. BBC: “Children of Conflict: Wounded Children”
BBC offers some personal stories of children who have been wounded in conflicts around the world.
5. UNICEF: “At a Glance: Somalia”
This website offers a brief overview of the conflict in Somalia, with a particular focus on the effects it has had on Somali children.
6. Doctors Without Borders: “Bare Bone Facts about Somalia”
Doctors Without Borders describes in detail the health problems affecting children and society in Somalia as a result of the war. Their website contains statistics, background information on the conflict, and info on programs designed to improve the health of Somali civilians.
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| 0.937151 | 880 | 3.421875 | 3 |
fine arts - Outdoor Education
The Environmental Outdoor Education Department provides educators unique opportunities to use nature as a learning tool. This department provides students with multiple experiences connecting them to their natural environment.
This program is an educational experience that relates to the academic standards and Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). We seek to enhance the development of the individual academically, socially and physically. It is meant to be an important part of a student's educational experience, not just a fun addition or field trip.
Through this program, we offer:
- Hands-on activities and special presentations in the classroom
- School Habitats on the campus that can be used for interdisciplinary lessons on a daily basis
- Organized field studies where students have the opportunity to become immersed in a learning experience with a park or natural area.
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| 0.93707 | 165 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Migraine affects 15 per cent of UK adults, leaving these individuals incapacitated by throbbing head pains, nausea and sensitivity to light. The cause is still unclear, though abnormal brain activity is thought to be involved, in particular overexcited pain pathways. Visualising human brain activity, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (a variant of conventional magnetic resonance imaging, pictured), demonstrates how migraine sufferers respond differently to pain. A brain region called the anterior cingulate cortex controls how we perceive pain. Activity in this region was higher in migraine patients than in healthy individuals, despite both groups being subjected to and perceiving the same level of pain. Migraine sufferers may acquire this different brain response to compensate for their overexcited pain pathways, bringing their pain perception down to that of healthy individuals. Understanding how a brain under the burden of migraine copes in painful circumstances may expose new targets for migraine treatment.
Written by Lux Fatimathas
BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre the website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biomedicine. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.
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| 0.922746 | 250 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
After earning his degree, he worked as a physician in Vienna where he befriended Ludwig van Beethoven and married Wilhelmine Polborn. During that time, Troxler discovered a phenomenon of visual perception that now bears his name, Troxler's fading. In 1811 he returned to Beromünster.
Troxler represented Switzerland at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. In 1820 he became a professor for philosophy and history at the lyceum in Lucerne but had to leave after a year due to political problems. He founded an educational institution in Aarau and continued working as a physician.
In 1830, he became a professor again – this time in Basel –, and he had to leave again the next year due to political problems. In 1832 he was elected to the legislative assembly of the canton of Aargau. He became a professor at the just established University of Berne in 1834 and stayed there until 1850.
In 1848, Troxler succeeded in altering the Swiss Federal Constitution to include elements of the United States Constitution.
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| 0.969355 | 245 | 3.640625 | 4 |
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Logical Reasoning (Problem) 203 Views
Sounds logical to us!
Haven't you always wondered how much cardboard it takes to encase a trunk warmer for your pet elephant?
Good thing surface areas are as easy as they seem on the surface.
Want to figure out the area and perimeter of irregular shapes? Break them down into regular shapes. For example, a flower can be broken down into s...
It's one thing when all those shapes are sitting flat on the page. But when they start popping out and invading our personal space bubble, we get a...
Does thinking about 3D Geometry get you bent out of shape? Never fear! Watch this video and figure out some fun new shapes to bend back into. We're...
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| 0.863013 | 174 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Children's LiteratureTurn the pages of this small book and learn how to take very good care of your teeth. Part of the "Rookie Read-About Health" series, the book's simple text and full-page color photographs are certain to engage young readers and teach them the basics of good dental hygiene. Kids will learn why teeth are so important, how cavities are formed and what they need to do to have healthy teeth and gums. Excellent information on the importance of brushing, flossing, nutrition and regular visits to the dentist are included. At the end of the book readers will find a brief photo glossary as well as an index. A great choice for preschool and kindergarten classrooms as well as the dentist's office. 2005, Children's Press/Scholastic, Ages 3 to 6.
Anita Barnes Lowen
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| 0.948011 | 169 | 3.546875 | 4 |
The Ka band is an electromagnetic frequency range which covers 26.5 – 40 GHz. The Ka band is a portion of the K microwave band, which ranges from around 18 to 40 GHz. ‘Ka’ is short for ‘K-above,’ denoting that this range approximately covers the upper third of the entire K band. The term ‘Ka’ frequently refers to the band with the recommended operating frequency of the WR-28 waveguide (within 26.5 – 40 GHz) .
The IEEE K band is segmented into three secondary bands:
- Ka (K-above) band – ranging from 26.5–40 GHZ, which is primarily used in experimental communications and radar
- K band – ranging from 18–27 GHz
- Ku (K-under) band – ranging from 12–18 GHz, mainly for radar, satellite communications, and terrestrial microwave transmissions
Downlink within the 18.3–18.8 or 19.7–20.2 GHz bands, communications satellites, and high-resolution close-range targeting radar (aboard military aircraft) use the 30/20 GHz band. The uplink for the 30/20 systems are around 30 GHz. This radar range is used for vehicle speed identification required by law enforcement.
The Ka band uplink frequencies are within 27.5–31 GHz, while the downlink frequencies are within 18.3–18.8 and 19.7–20.2 GHz.
Ka band satellites usually transmit using more power than C band satellites, although C band dishes are bigger than Ka band satellites. Ka band dishes range from 2 feet to 5 feet in diameter, while C band dishes range from 7 feet to 12 feet.
C band dishes are also known as BUDs (Big Ugly Dishes) due to their relative size. Conversely, due to the higher frequency range and smaller dish size, the signals are more prone to signal disruptions and quality problems caused by adverse weather conditions such as rainfall (recognized as rainfade).
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http://www.symatech.net/ka-band
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en
| 0.952848 | 416 | 3.515625 | 4 |
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