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Welcome to the South Asian Student Association at Texas Tech University.
The Indian subcontinent forms an inverted triangle extending from the snow-bound Himalayan ranges of Asia toward the equator. Known also as South Asia, the area includes the country of India and its surrounding neighbors: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan. Between these countries there is an incredible amount of diversity in terms of cultural traditions. There are however some overall similarities. Within South Asia the main religions consist of Hinduism, Islam, and Sikhism. These religions manifest in similar religious traditions across the region. Religions aside, each South Asian region has its own unique traits. Essentially, the people of South Asia have many cultural differences in addition to cultural similarities. It is through celebrating these differences and similarities that SASA encourages an overall healthy understanding of this rich and diverse region.
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In case you haven't noticed, kids have gotten bigger recently. In fact, according to the CDC, obesity rates have tripled in the past 30 years with nearly 20 percent of children aged 6-11 and 18 percent for those aged 12-19. This adds up to 12.5 million children that are obese in the U.S.
Washington is noticing, too.
In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama acknowledged his wife's new focus on addressing childhood obesity in the US. Michelle Obama's commitment will help to give this issue the priority that it deserves in Washington and in communities nationwide. The Obamas took it even further, with the President recommending $1 billion increase in spending for childhood nutrition initiatives in his 2009 budget.
This is serious and it's a major health issue facing our nation. While Michelle Obama's new initiative will help to raise the profile of this national problem and hopefully bring additional resources and energy to combating it, there are options now that will make a big difference.
Congress should be reauthorizing the Childhood Nutrition Act this year. It's a bill that is reauthorized every five years and provides funding for all federal nutrition programs, including school lunches. There's a proposal to ban all soda and junk food from these programs. This won't end the obesity epidemic but it will make a big dent and will help to further galvanize this issue. Millions of school children are gulping sugary drinks and consuming high-sugar, high-fat foods with no nutritional value. It's dangerous to their hearts and their heads. It impedes them from learning in classes and is significant factor in the obesity epidemic.
A California study found that 41 percent of children aged two to 11 and a whopping 62 percent of those aged 12-19 are having at least one soda a day (the largest soda consumers in the US). And, with our economy still in a recession, school meals are often the primary source of food for many children. According to Feeding America, in 2008, nearly 17 million children lived in households that were food-insecure, meaning they didn't have regular access to food.
Despite the message from the White House that this issue is a priority, the reauthorization of the bill hasn't happened yet. While you might roll your eyes and just assume that this is business as usual in the government, millions of kids' health is at stake.
It is urgent that our government reauthorize the act and provide healthy foods, not junk foods. It's commonsense. California already did it and the rest of the nation should follow suit. You can make a difference today with these simple actions.
1. Sign this petition asking Congress for better school foods.
2. Call the US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and urge him to make the Child Nutrition Reauthorization a priority. His office is at 202-720-3631.
3. Call the White House to thank President Obama for his commitment to childhood nutrition and urge him to make the bill a priority. The White House telephone number is 202-456-1111.
Sarah's Social Action Snapshot originally appeared on Takepart.com
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Officials at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in Japan have shown an underground wall of ice they are building to stop radioactive water from leaking from the facility.
Tepco, the owner of the station, which is still crippled three years after an earthquake and tsunami set off nuclear meltdowns in the region, has been fighting a continuous battle to deal with hundreds of thousands of tonnes of contaminated water.
The utility company is planning to build a 1.4km underground wall of ice around four reactor buildings at Fukushima to prevent underground water from flowing in, and stop radioactive water seeping into the Pacific Ocean.
Experts have to flood the damaged reactors with huge amounts of water to keep them cool. That water then becomes radioactive.
Tepco said it had already tested the technique at the site, but ran into trouble when it failed to cool the earth enough to freeze it.
However, Akiro Ono, the plant's manager, said the latest effort to construct the ice wall was succeeding.
"The ice wall itself has been tested. And in those cases we've seen that the ground itself does freeze so I myself am not that worried that it will not go well," Ono said.
But as Al Jazeera's technology reporter Tarek Bazley reports, some experts say the project is flawed, and could create more problems than it solves.
John Large, a nuclear analyst, has said that keeping the ice wall as a long-term solution is too difficult because it requires constant powering.
He described it as a "short-term solution for a long-term initiative".
Source: Al Jazeera
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One hundred years ago today, Britain declared war on Germany, thereby entering World War I. The day before, Germany had declared war on France. Before long, the world's nations would be pitted against each other in a grueling conflict that would eventually take the lives of more than nine million soldiers.
The iconic trenches of World War I were themselves an "unforeseen enemy," though. The unceasing machine-gun fire led to a fate that was, at the time, almost as bad as death. Western front soldiers who popped their heads above their trenches would come back down with a nose, jaw, or even an entire face missing.
When these so-called mutilés returned home, surgeons were met with the overwhelming task of treating scores of men who were barely recognizable to themselves or their families, at a time when the most advanced cosmetic procedure was repairing a cleft lip.
It didn't help that the prevailing sentiment a century ago was that losing part of one's face meant, in a way, a change of identity. In the U.K., "very severe facial disfigurement" was one of the few injuries for which a soldier received the full pension—the thinking being that it compromised one's "sense of self and social existence," as the historian Suzannah Biernoff explains. Newspapers at the time said the veterans "are almost condemned to isolation unless surgery can repair the damage."
According to a great Smithsonian magazine article on the subject, in Sidcup, England, a town that was home to a hospital for WWI soldiers, the nearby benches were painted blue, "a code that warned townspeople that any man sitting on one would be distressful to view."
"The psychological effect on a man who must go through life, an object of horror to himself as well as to others, is beyond description," recalled Fred Albee, an American surgeon working in France. "It is a fairly common experience for the maladjusted person to feel like a stranger to his world."
In a time before transplants, the task of repairing these broken faces was largely left to masks. And the person who made some of the best masks, by all accounts, was a sculptor named Anna Coleman Ladd. Along with Francis Derwent Wood, an artist and captain working in London hospitals, Ladd is credited with helping hundreds of maimed veterans re-adjust to society.
In her Studio for Portrait Masks in Paris, Ladd would take plaster casts of a soldier's face in an attempt to re-create an identical cheekbone or eye-socket on the opposite side. Ladd then crafted a full or partial mask out of copper, which she painted to match the skin while the soldier was wearing it. The entire piece, weighing roughly half a pound, was either tied to the head with strings or hung from a set of eyeglasses.
Eventually, she honed her technique to the point where she could create the casts from images or photos of the men before their disfigurement. Of the nearly 3,000 or so French soldiers requiring such masks, Ladd made about 185. In 1932, the French government made her a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
Despite her patients' seeming gratitude—one wrote Ladd to say that he was thankful that his wife no longer found him repulsive—Ladd noticed that the masks would fall apart after just a few years. None of her masks survived to the present day.
The recent GQ piece on Richard Norris, a man who had a full-face transplant in 2012 after a shotgun accident, shows just how far facial reconstruction technology has come. The stigma and psychological wounds these individuals encounter, though, remains similar: Just as in the facial-reconstruction hospitals of early 20th-century France, prior to his surgery Norris had reportedly covered all the mirrors in his house.
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Q: We want to use a large root ball from a downed tree as a centerpiece for our front yard. What kinds of flowers, or hanging vegetation, would grow well on the root ball? It is about six feet across and five feet high. It also receives a lot of sunlight. Right now, some plants are growing on the ball, but we would like to add more color on the bare spots.
A: What a good idea! My guess is that you’ll need a selection of tough, drought-tolerant plants since the soil on the rootball is not likely very rich.
I might start with seeds of nasturtium near the top. This trailing plant can grow in the toughest situations. If you can make some pockets in the soil into which annuals can be inserted, I’d try portulaca (moss rose). This plant blooms all summer and needs only occasional watering.
If the top of the rootball is flat, you could plant some ornamental sweet potato vines. The foliage of either ‘Margurite’ (chartreuse leaves) or ‘Blackie’ (deep purple leaves) would cascade down the mound of stump, soil and roots. Come to think of it, common morning glory could grow there as well.
Your big challenge will be to water the root ball without washing off the soil. I’d suggest a coil of soaker hose on top of the mound. When watering seems warranted, set the flow of water very low so moisture gradually seeps into the soil without dislodging it.
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Divine Law is that which is enacted by God and made known to man through revelation. We distinguish between the Old Law, contained in the Pentateuch, and the New Law, which was revealed by Jesus Christ and is contained in the New Testament. The Divine Law of the Old Testament, or the Mosaic Law, is commonly divided into civil, ceremonial, and moral precepts. The civil legislation regulated the relations of the people of God among themselves and with their neighbours; the ceremonial regulated matters of religion and the worship of God; the moral was a Divine code of ethics. In this article we shall confine our attention exclusively to the moral precepts of the Divine Law. In the Old Testament it is contained for the most part and summed up in the Decalogue (Exodus 20:2-17; Leviticus 19:3, 11-18; Deuteronomy 5:1-33).
The Old and the New Testament, Christ and His Apostles, Jewish as well as Christian tradition, agree in asserting that Moses wrote down the Law at the direct inspiration of God. God Himself, then, is the lawgiver, Moses merely acted as the intermediary between God and His people; he merely promulgated the Law which he had been inspired to write down. This is not the same as to say that the whole of the Old Law was revealed to Moses. There is abundant evidence in Scripture itself that many portions of the Mosaic legislation existed and were put in practice long before the time of Moses. Circumcision is an instance of this. The religious observance of the seventh day is another, and this indeed, seems to be implied in the very form in which the Third Commandment is worded: "Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day." If we except the merely positive determinations of time and manner in which religious worship was to be paid to God according to this commandment, and the prohibition of making images to represent God contained in the first commandment, all the precepts of the Decalogue are also precepts of the natural law, which can be gathered by reason from nature herself, and in fact they were known long before Moses wrote them down at the express command of God. This is the teaching of St. Paul — "For when the Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature those things that are of the law; these having not the law [of Moses], are a law to themselves: who shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them" (Romans 2:14, 15). Although the substance of the Decalogue is thus both of natural and Divine law, yet its express promulgation by Moses at the command of God was not without its advantages. The great moral code, the basis of all true civilization, in this manner became the clear, certain, and publicly recognized standard of moral conduct for the Jewish people, and through them for Christendom.
Because the code of morality which we have in the Old Testament was inspired by God and imposed by Him on His people, it follows that there is nothing in it that is immoral or wrong. It was indeed imperfect, if it be compared with the higher morality of the Gospel, but, for all that, it contained nothing that is blameworthy. It was suited to the low stage of civilization to which the Israelites had at the time attained; the severe punishments which it prescribed for transgressors were necessary to bend the stiff necks of a rude people; the temporal rewards held out to those who observed the law were adapted to an unspiritual and carnal race. Still its imperfections must not be exaggerated. In its treatment of the poor, of strangers, of slaves, and of enemies, it was vastly superior to the civilly more advanced Code of Hammurabi and other celebrated codes of ancient law. It did not aim merely at regulating the external acts of the people of God, it curbed also licentious thoughts and covetous desires. The love of God and of one's neighbour was the great precept of the Law, its summary and abridgment, that on which the whole Law and the Prophets depended. In spite of the undeniable superiority in this respect of the Mosaic Law to the other codes of antiquity, it has not escaped the adverse criticism of heretics in all ages and of Rationalists in our own day. To meet this adverse criticism it will be sufficient to indicate a few general principles that should not be lost sight of, and then to treat a few points in greater detail.
It has always been freely admitted by Christians that the Mosaic Law is an imperfect institution; still Christ came not to destroy it but to fulfil and perfect it. We must bear in mind that God, the Creator and Lord of all things, and the Supreme Judge of the world, can do and command things which man the creature is not authorized to do or command. On this principle we may account for and defend the command given by God to exterminate certain nations, and the permission given by Him to the Israelites to spoil the Egyptians. The tribes of Chanaan richly deserved the fate to which they were condemned by God; and if there were innocent people among the guilty, God is the absolute Lord of life and death, and He commits no injustice when He takes away what He has given. Besides, He can make up by gifts of a higher order in another life for sufferings which have been patiently endured in this life. A great want of historical perspective is shown by those critics who judge the Mosaic Law by the humanitarian and sentimental canons of the twentieth century. A recent writer (Keane, "The Moral Argument against the Inspiration of the Old Testament" in the Hibbert Journal, October, 1905, p. 155) professes to be very much shocked by what is prescribed in Exodus 21:5-6. It is there laid down that if a Hebrew slave who has a wife and children prefers to remain with his master rather than go out free when the sabbatical year comes round, he is to be taken to the door-post and have his ear bored through with an awl, and then he is to remain a slave for life. It was a sign and mark by which he was known to be a lifelong slave. The practice was doubtless already familiar to the Israelites of the time, as it was to their neighbours. The slave himself probably thought no more of the operation than does a South African beauty, when her lip or ear is pierced for the lip-ring and the ear-ring, which in her estimation are to add to her charms. It is really too much when a staid professor makes such a prescription the ground for a grave charge of inhumanity against the law of Moses. Nor should the institution of slavery be made a ground of attack against the Mosaic legislation. It existed everywhere and although in practice it is apt to lead to many abuses, still, in the mild form in which it was allowed among the Jews, and with the safeguards prescribed by the Law, it cannot be said with truth to be contrary to sound morality.
Polygamy and divorce, though less insisted on by Rationalist critics, in reality constitute a more serious difficulty against the holiness of the Mosaic Law than any of those which have just been mentioned. The difficulty is one which has engaged the attention of the Fathers and theologians of the Church from the beginning. To answer it they take their stand on the teaching of the Master in the nineteenth chapter of St. Matthew and the parallel passages of Holy Scripture. What is there said of divorce is applicable to plurality of wives. The strict law of marriage was made known to our first parents in Paradise: "They shall be two in one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). When the sacred text says two it excludes polygamy, when it says one flesh it excludes divorce. Amid the general laxity with regard to marriage which existed among the Semitic tribes, it would have been difficult to preserve the strict law. The importance of a rapid increase among the chosen people of God so as to enable them to defend themselves from their neighbours, and to fulfil their appointed destiny, seemed to favour relaxation. The example of some of the chief of the ancient Patriarchs was taken by their descendants as being a sufficient indication of the dispensation granted by God. With special safeguards annexed to it Moses adopted the Divine dispensation on account of the hardness of heart of the Jewish people. Neither polygamy nor divorce can be said to be contrary to the primary precepts of nature. The primary end of marriage is compatible with both. But at least they are against the secondary precepts of the natural law: contrary, that is, to what is required for the well-ordering of human life. In these secondary precepts, however, God can dispense for good reason if He sees fit to do so. In so doing He uses His sovereign authority to diminish the right of absolute equality which naturally exists between man and woman with reference to marriage. In this way, without suffering any stain on His holiness, God could permit and sanction polygamy and divorce in the Old Law.
Christ is the author of the New Law. He claimed and exercised supreme legislative authority in spiritual matters from the beginning of His public life until His Ascension into heaven. In Him the Old Law had its fulfilment and attained its chief purpose. The civil legislation of Moses had for its object to form and preserve a peculiar people for the worship of the one true God, and to prepare the way for the coming of the Messias who was to be born of the seed of Abraham. The new Kingdom of God which Christ founded was not confined to a single nation, it embraced all the nations of the earth, and when the new Israel was constituted, the old Israel with its separatist law became antiquated; it had fulfilled its mission. The ceremonial laws of Moses were types and figures of the purer, more spiritual, and more efficacious sacrifice and sacraments of the New Law, and when these were instituted the former lost their meaning and value. By the death of Christ on the Cross the New Covenant was sealed, and the Old was abrogated, but until the Gospel had been preached and duly promulgated, out of deference to Jewish prejudices, and out of respect for ordinances, which after all were Divine, those who wished to do so were at liberty to conform to the practices of the Mosaic Law. When the Gospel had been duly promulgated the civil and ceremonial precepts of the Law of Moses became not only useless, but false and superstitious, and thus forbidden.
It was otherwise with the moral precepts of the Mosaic Law. The Master expressly taught that the observance of these, inasmuch as they are prescribed by nature herself, is necessary for salvation — "If thou wouldst enter into life keep the commandments", — those well-known precepts of the Decalogue. Of these commandments those words of His are especially true — "I came not to destroy the law but to fulfil it." This Christ did by insisting anew on the great law of charity towards God and man, which He explained more fully and gave us new motives for practising. He corrected the false glosses with which the Scribes and Pharisees had obscured the law as revealed by God, and He brushed aside the heap of petty observances with which they had overloaded it, and made it an intolerable burden. He denounced in unmeasured terms the externalism of Pharisaic observance of the Law, and insisted on its spirit being observed as well as the letter. As was suited to a law of love which replaced the Mosaic Law of fear, Christ wished to attract men to obey His precepts out of motives of charity and filial obedience, rather than compel submission by threats of punishment. He promised spiritual blessings rather than temporal, and taught His followers to despise the goods of this world in order to fix their affections on the future joys of life eternal. He was not content with a bare observance of the law, He boldly proposed to His disciples the infinite goodness and holiness of God for their model, and urged them to be perfect as their heavenly Father is perfect. For such as were specially called, and who were not content to observe the commandments merely, He proposed counsels of consummate perfection. By observing these His specially chosen followers, not only conquered their vices, but destroyed the roots of them, by constantly denying their natural propensities to honours, riches, and earthly pleasures. Still it is admitted by Catholic theologians that Christ added no new merely moral precepts to the natural law. There is of course a moral obligation to believe the truths which the Master revealed concerning God, man's destiny, and the Church. Moral obligations, too, arise from the institution of the sacraments, some of which are necessary to salvation. But even here nothing is added directly to the natural law; given the revelation of truth by God, the obligation to believe it follows naturally for all to whom the revelation is made known; and given the institution of necessary means of grace and salvation, the obligation to use them also follows necessarily.
As we saw above, the Master abrogated the dispensations which made polygamy and divorce lawful for the Jews owing to the special circumstances in which they were placed. In this respect the natural law was restored to its primitive integrity. Somewhat similarly with regard to the love of enemies, Christ clearly explained the natural law of charity on the point, and urged it against the perverse interpretation of the Pharisees. The Law of Moses had expressly enjoined the love of friends and fellow-citizens. But at the same time it forbade the Jews to make treaties with foreigners, to conclude peace with the Ammonites, Moabites, and other neighbouring tribes; the Jew was allowed to practise usury in dealing with foreigners; God promised that He would be an enemy to the enemies of His people. From these and similar provisions the Jewish doctors seem to have drawn the conclusion that it was lawful to hate one's enemies. Even St. Augustine, as well as some other Fathers and Doctors of the Church, thought that hatred of enemies, like polygamy and divorce, was permitted to the Jews on account of their hardness of heart. It is clear, however, that, since enemies share the same nature with us, and are children of the same common Father, they may not be excluded from the love which, by the law of nature, we owe to all men. This obligation Christ no less clearly than beautifully expounded, and taught us how to practise by His own noble example. The Catholic Church by virtue of the commission given to her by Christ is the Divinely constituted interpreter of the Divine Law of both the Old and the New Testament.
ST. THOMAS, Summa theologica (Parma, 1852); SUAREZ, De Legibus (Paris, 1856); PESCH, Prælectiones dogmaticæ, V (Freiburg, 1900); KNABENBAUER, Commentarius in Evangelia (Paris, 1892); GIGOT, Biblical Lectures (New York, 1901); PALMIERI, De Matrimonio (Rome, 1880); PELT, Histoire de l'ancien Testament (Paris, 1901); VON HUMMELAUER, Commentarius in Exodum, Leviticum, Deuteronomium (Paris, 1897, 1901); VIGOUROUX, Dict. de la Bible (Paris, 1908); HASTINGS, Dict. of the Bible (Edinburgh, 1904).
APA citation. (1910). Moral Aspect of Divine Law. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09071a.htm
MLA citation. "Moral Aspect of Divine Law." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09071a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter. Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster at newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.
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The US space agency (Nasa) has issued the first contracts to develop a new generation of space craft to explore deep space that will herald a revolution in the exploration of the outer Solar System.
By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor
As part of the newly established Project Prometheus, the aerospace company Lockheed Martin has been given a $6m (£4m) contract for a design study of the proposed Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (Jimo).
All these worlds are within reach...
Project Prometheus is part of Nasa's Nuclear Systems Initiative to develop nuclear propulsion technology for the exploration of the Solar System.
The nuclear-powered Jimo mission will allow for the first time a single space craft to reach the Jupiter system with a large complement of scientific equipment along with the propulsive power to visit each of Jupiter's moons in turn for a sustained study.
Currently, the limiting factor in the exploration of the outer Solar System is the lack of power available for a space craft to travel to the region and manoeuvre when it gets there.
For example, one mission uppermost in the minds of most planetary scientists is a space craft to orbit Europa, the ice-crusted moon of Jupiter under which there may reside primitive forms of life. At the moment, engineers can develop a space craft to fly past Europa but they have not got the technology to enter orbit.
To get to the outer Solar System, space craft have used the time-consuming technique of gravitational flybys, whereby space craft gather velocity by flying close to a planet and receiving a gravitational impulse. The technique has severe limitations on what space craft can do when they reach the outer planets.
Operating energy for the few craft that have ventured that far out has been provided by nuclear power - in which heat from a decaying radioactive source provides a trickle of energy. Conventional solar panels are inefficient beyond the orbit of Mars because sunlight is too weak.
All this means that astronomers need a new generation of technology if they are to truly explore what lies in the cold, outer reaches of the Solar System.
Science otherwise unachievable
To overcome these problems and develop a new generation of deep space explorers, Nasa is planning to develop new nuclear power sources for use where solar energy is too weak, as well as the new fission reactor power sources for much higher power requirements.
The study phase of Project Prometheus will evaluate many different technologies for the reactor, power conversion, electric propulsion, and other aspects of the Jimo spacecraft and follow-on missions. Once the technologies are identified and selected, the next stage will be to prepare more advanced designs.
Nuclear power allows new missions
With new power technology it will at last be possible to achieve the appealing scientific objectives of orbiting the three icy moons of Jupiter - Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa.
The Jimo mission would be able to observe each of the moons for long periods then move to the next having unprecedented electrical power available to its sensors.
From such a space craft, it would be possible to determine whether the moons do indeed have sub-surface oceans. It would also be possible to map the location of organic compounds and other chemicals of biological interest, determine the thicknesses of ice layers, with emphasis on locating potential future landing sites.
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Communication in Children after Brain Injury: FAQs
Communication in Children after Brain Injury
By Roberta DePompei, Ph.D.
Lash & Associates Publishing/Training, Inc
I often hear the term cognitive communication. What does that really mean?
Communication is much more than words. It involves listening, speaking, and reading, writing and gesturing. Cognitive communication is the combination of thinking skills and language. It is the ability to use language and all the underlying skills for communication. This includes attention, memory, self-awareness, organization, problem solving and reasoning. When these thinking skills are combined with language, the result is communication.
Our son was doing pretty well in school until he went to junior high school. Now he has a lot more reading assignments and homework. Even though he spends much more time on his homework, he can’t seem to keep up and is falling behind.
As students enter middle, junior high and high school, school work becomes more complex. The student with a brain injury may face new difficulties with reading, writing and thinking. Much of school work now requires abstract reasoning and problem solving. This places new demands on different parts of the brain than were used in earlier grades. Multiple classes and teachers mean different teaching styles and homework assignments.
Any difficulty with these changes is an indication that a student’s cognitive communication abilities need to be reevaluated.
Our son’s speech was really slow and difficult to understand for several months after his brain injury. As he made physical progress, his speech also improved. Is there any reason to have him followed by a speech pathologist now he is back in school?
The ability to speak and hold conversations can be misleading. Language skills often return after a brain injury, but communication can still be affected. While conversation may seem normal in non-stressful situations, this can change when the child or adolescent is tired or under stress.
Changes in communication in youths are mostly likely to show up in school under the pressures of time, being graded, completing assignments and keeping up with classmates. A speech and language pathologist can evaluate ongoing progress, identify problems and help the student develop compensatory strategies. As part of the educational team, the speech pathologist can help others recognize and respond to changes in cognitive communication.
What are some of the changes or warning signs that parents and educators can watch for?
Too often, parents and teachers aren’t concerned until the student is failing or has lowered grades. It is important not to wait until the student is in trouble to get help. Early warning signs that an evaluation by a speech and language pathologist is needed are:
- speaking or writing that is disorganized
- difficulty concentrating and paying attentionconfusion when new ideas are introduced
- confusion when new ideas are introduced
- slower rate of handling information, and
- difficulty learning new vocabulary or grasping ideas.
By evaluating these areas every three months during the two years following a brain injury, difficulties can be spotted early and help provided before the student fails.
How do we find a speech and language pathologist who has experience with students with brain injury?
Speech and language pathologists may be licensed in their state and may also be certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. When choosing any professional, it is important to ask questions to make the right fit between a specialist, your child and your family. Look for a speech and language pathologist who has experience with brain injury and who has worked with children of similar age. If your child is in school, look for a speech and language pathologist who regularly works with schools and is familiar with special education.
For more information by Dr. DePompei, see:
By Roberta DePompei Ph.D. and Jean Blosser Ed.D.
Brain injury can affect a child’s speech, language and communication. Tip card gives information for parents, educators and therapists to identify changes in language development and learning in school.
By Roberta DePompei Ph.D. and Bob Cluett
Interactive booklet helps elementary school age children identify the physical, cognitive, and behavioral effects of traumatic brain injury and describes help needed in school.
By Roberta DePompei Ph.D. and Janet Tyler
Manual with teaching strategies for students with acquired brain injury and challenges with behavior, attention, cognition and language.
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"Build capacitors that really pack a punch for high voltage fun!"
Rewritten by Tony van Roon (VA3AVR)
As one who supplies parts to those who experiment with high voltage, I get
a lot of letters and phone calls from frustrated builders that go like: "Can you supply an inexpensive xxx microfarad
capacitor at a working voltage of YYY? My only source wants $249 for one."
Sometimes, a high price is justified; other times, a seller has the only capacitors of a special value available, and
will soak you for the maximum dollar.
It is feasible to build your own capacitors of any voltage and energy storage size for either AC or DC use. The process
involves a step-by-step logical approach that we'll present here. We'll explain how to plan and construct a capacitor,
where to get materials, safety considerations, tips and hints, and include a few simple projects.
A Capacitor's Description:
A capacitor consists of two or more plates of a conductive material separated by an insulating substance called a dielectric.
A dielectric may be solid, gel, liquid, or gas. A capacitor's ability to store energy is measured in either microfarads (uF),
nanofarads (nF), or picofarads (pF). Micro means one millionth, nano stands for one billionth, and pico for on trillionth
(farads are also used, but in high voltage work they are impractically large units). Several factors affect capacitance.
The formula for determining capacitance is: C=(0.224KA/d)(n-1)
Where C is the capacitance in picofarads, K is a constant that depends on the insulator (or dielectric)
between the plates (called the dielectric constant), A is the area of one conductive plate in square inches,
d is the separation between adjacent plates in inches, and n is the number of plates. As you may know,
different insulators have different dielectric constants. Table 1 shows the values of K for some common materials and
the peak voltage they can withstand per 1/1000th inch (called a mil) of thickness. This rating
is called the puncture or breakdown voltage.
The better the insulating property of the dielectric, the higher its resistance, and the less dielectric leakage loss
present. In low current, high voltage power supplies, minimizing all sources of loss is important to prevent undue
power-supply loading. For that reason, plastics are by far the best materials for large capacitors. A serious project
should involve one of the plastics.
Lexan, Polystyrene, and Plexiglas in particular are easy to glue, and can be cut with a table saw using a plastics blade,
or a carborundum impregnated all-purpose cutting blade like Zippity-Do (which is cheaper). A saber saw (also called
Jig Saw) with a really coarse wood blade will also work (other blade types clog or chip). Such plastics may be drilled
with high quality steel drill bits or special plastic bits. They must be drilled at 300 RPM or slower to prevent
chipping and melting, and be sure to leave the protective film or paper on the plastic when working with it.
Mylar, Polyethylene, Nylon, and especially Teflon are difficult to work with as they are very slippery. The best way to
attach plates to any of those materials is to use a glue specifically designed for the material. Polyvinyl chloride (or
just PVC) is moderately slippery. It can be glued with a PVC cement, or foil plates can be attached using silicone RTV.
Glass is, in principle, an even better dielectric. It also has th advantage of being easy to glue to with Silicone
RTV or Krazy Glue(Cyanocrylate Ester, or just 'Cyano' for short), and is readily available and cheap. However, it is
fragile, and may contain impurities that allow conductive paths for destructive arcs. Contradictorily, for your first
capacitor or two, we suggest that you try a type made with glass to gain experience, since they go together easily and
Many industrial capacitors are oil filled. Oil has an extremely high resistance, so it does not measurably increase
leakage. Silicone transformer oil is the best liquid insulator, but is rather hard to obtain. Mineral oil, on the
other hand, is readily available from most pharmacies. Although it has a low dielectric constant, it can be used in a
variety of simple ways to make very good high voltage capacitors.
For example, a dandy variable DC capacitor can be made by immersing a junked AM-radio tuning capacitor of the
movable-plate type in mineral oil so its shaft and connection leads come out of the container's top. If you wish to
try this idea, make absolutely certain the "cold" plates of the capacitor (the moving plates) are at ground potential.
Use a good, large non-metal knob for adjustment. A 100 to 365pF variable capacitor with a 1KvDC breakdown voltage
(i.e. a plate spacing of 1mm) becomes a 270- to 985pF unit wit 7500 VDC breakdown rating. Try pricing a 7500 volt
variable capacitor sometime, and you'll see the advantage to this approach!
You can use mineral oil in designs of your own, too. Immersion of a homemade capacitor in mineral oil will greatly
improve its voltage rating and lifetime.
Paper is an excellent dielectric when saturated with mineral oil. Try 20lb bon computer paper which has a 4 mil
thickness. Prepare this inexpensive capacitor by interleaving layers of dry paper with aluminum foil, and then
immerse the capacitor in oil until the paper gets saturate.
One disadvantage to using oil in home-made capacitors is that the tape or glue used to bond the assembly must be
oil-resistant. Silicone RTV is the best glue for these purposes.
There are several things to consider when designing and constructing your own capacitor. Let's point out each one
before moving to the construction details. The first and most important thing to concern yourself with is safety.
Despite the romance of high voltage, it' foolish to needlessly risk your life. Since you will probably be working
with lethal voltages, observance of all safety practices for high voltage (or HV) is absolutely essential.
For some guidelines, see the boxed text entitled "High Voltage Safety".
The next aspect to consider is capacity. If you have a specific capacitance in mind, you can design a capacitor
using the information provided elsewhere in this article. Try one of the designs described later. Or perhaps you
prefer experimenting instead. Either way, when building for the first time, we suggest making small designs first to
get used to techniques and quirks before you invest lost time and money.
Your must also take into consideration the voltage that will be applied to the capacitor. That will affect your
choice of a dielectric and thus its required thickness. Should you use an inadequate dielectric or thickness, sparks
or arcs can result. A spark is a temporary breakdown that a lot of capacitors will survive, but an arc is serious:
it is a path burned into the dielectric or other component. Arcs carbonize materials, producing a highly constructive
channel that often renders an apparatus useless and very likely dangerous. Except in special cases where the
insulator is a "self-healing" type (like air, oil, and some plastics), a single arc will ruin the capacitor.
To compensate for the impurities that often appear in materials that are not highly refined for capacitor use, we must
add a safety margin to the thickness of the dielectric. In the case of DC, a good rule of thumb is a 50% margin. For
example, say you need a 500Volt DC capacitor using polystyrene. Consulting Table 1, note polystyrene's breakdown is
500 volts per mil, thus 1 mil is required. Adding 50% gives you 1.5 mils, which is adequate for pure DC. You can
always use a thicker dielectric it if's expedient, providing that you adjust the number of plates or their size to
accommodate the wider plate separation. It should be mentioned that when making a paper capacitor, you should use a
healthy safety margin since paper is not always uniform in thickness.
In comparison to AC, DC puts relatively little stress on a capacitor. By contrast, AC reverses the dielectrics'
polarity every cycle. So the dielectric in an AC capacitor must have twice the thickness required in an equivalent
DC capacitor. Further, when considering dielectrics in AC applications, you must deal with the peak voltage--
not rms (Root Mean Square) voltage--that they will be exposed to. If you wish to convert an rms
voltage to its equivalent peak sinewave value, multiply it by 1.414
So, to roughly calculate the proper voltage rating needed for an AC capacitor, you first double its required rms
voltage rating then multiply by 1.414. To further simpli8fy this calculation, all one needs to do is multiply the AC
(rms) voltage in question by 2.828. Now divide the voltage by the puncture-voltage rating to get a preliminary
thickness value. Finally, you must add a safety margin of 50% to 100%. The actual percentage depends on the
characteristics of the applied AC voltage. For a pure sinewave AC, we suggest a 50% safety margin whereas high
frequency, non-sinusoidal applications such as Tesla coils require a full 100% extra thickness.
If one is available, equip an oscilloscope with a high voltage probe to visually observe exactly what the circuit is
doing so you can determine the proper safety margin. An oscilloscope will also enable you to detect destructive
voltage spikes and superimposed AC (also called AC ripple) so you can design a capacitor to handle those harmful
Of course physical size, weight, and fragility are also important characteristics of capacitor design. If you have
size limitations, Mylar is the best dielectric material to use since it has a very high puncture voltage per mil, and
thus makes a very compact capacitor. Plastics are light, so most capacitors will weigh less than ten pounds. The
toughest plastic is Lexan, which is difficult to crack even with a hammer and is often used for vandal proof windows.
Glass is the worst material for a lightweight, durable capacitor, and can even crack under its own weight when lifted.
Take all this into account when selecting your materials.
Of course, the overall cost in labor and materials should also be considered before constructing a capacitor.
Calculate beforehand the cost of your materials. Paper and polyethelene are the cheapest. Glass is the next higher
price. Labor time is about the same with Plexiglas, Lexan, and glass sheet capacitors. Exotic plastics such as
Teflon are not needed unless your application demands extreme chemical and thermal deterioration resistance.
Polyethelene has excellent chemical resistance, but breaks down gradually upon exposure to ozone gas (always present
around high voltage) becoming brittle and less resistant to arc puncture.
That brings us to another important consideration: the capacitor's useful life. To enhance a capacitor's life keep
the working voltage at or below the rated specification in both DC and AC applications. We discovered that charging
at no more than 70% of a capacitor's working voltage resulted in an amazing 10-fold increase in life time for one type
of commercial capacitor. Also, for DC capacitors, watch out for voltage reversals. If your system has a lot of
inductance, reverse voltage swings are always produced. Increase the safety margin if a lot of inductance is in the
circuit. Furthermore, the temperature should be kept below 120°F. As mentioned earlier, watch out for
superimposed AC, voltage spikes, and ringing. These types of AC waves can drastically shorten lifetime. Tesla coils
have notorious ringing. To repeat: if feasible, use an oscilloscope to visually analyze your circuit. Often a power
resistor inserted in the current path to the capacitor quenches ringing. With this criteria under our belts, let's
look at some problems your design and construction methods should prevent.
Signs of Trouble:
Your assembly techniques should seek to minimize the likelihood of a few possible problems. Luckily, all of them can
be prevent3ed at least in part by using ample amounts of insulating material such as No-arc or Corona Dope and/or high
voltage putty on all exposed areas. A plastic case to enclose the apparatus is also recommended (more on that later).
Still and all, you should know what problem insulation is preventing. The first problem insulation relieves is the
possibility of electrical shock.
Insulation also minimizes the production of ozone--a gas created when high voltage causes three oxygen atoms to join
together. Ozone has a tart, sweet "electrical" smell, and is 100 times as poisonous as carbon monoxide. Beware: it
quickly causes headache, nausea, vomiting, and respiratory irritation. In addition to insulating all the exposed HV
areas, you should also operate your equipment with good ventilation if it produces any ozone.
Closely linked to ozone generation is corona leakage. It is produced by a charge being leeched off a highly charge
object by the air. That typically produces ozone. However, sometimes a device (such as a Van de Graaff generator) is
constructed specifically to display corona discharge, and insulating it would defeat that purpose. In such cases,
good ventilation is the only practical means of hazard prevention.
Ozone can also be created by arcing, which can occur anywhere. However, ozone production is not the greatest hazard
arcing presents. At 50Kv, a spark can arc between an uninsulated contact and your body if you come within 2 inches of
the contact. Arcing commonly takes two forms; directly through a capacitor's dielectric (as mentioned earlier), or
across the edges of a capacitor's plates to an adjacent plate. A snapping sound indicates the presence of arcing, so
keep your ears open.
Arching from the edges of a capacitor plate, or anywhere the shape of a conductor changes abruptly (such as the tip of
a nail) is called point discharge. It can be readily observed in a dark room at very high voltages,. Small, bright
blue pinpoint(s) are seen leaking electrons into the air, accompanied by a hissing sound and copious ozone production.
Once again, insulation and proper ventilation are the proper solutions to all these problems, and there are some
specialized techniques to insulate your capacitors and otherwise improve the safety of your high voltage projects.
Let's get to those now.
A key ingredient in a good assembly is a proper case. Your capacitor's housing must protect it against moisture, dirt,
and accidental discharge. Plastic cases for dry capacitors are easy to make with acrylic sheets glued at all corners
with Silicone RTV. Oil-proof cases can be made for immersed models, but you will need to rough-up the plastic at the
sealing edges with sandpaper and use both a bonding and a second fillet glue coating for a liquid-proof seal. Metal
cases can be made from PC boards cut on a shear or large paper cutter and soldered at the edges. Copper roof flashing
(available at hardware stores) works well too. However when using metal always beware of contamination by solder
rosin, solder bits, and other crud, which can short out plate or otherwise reduce efficiency.
Whether a capacitor is enclosed or exposed, discharge paths must be wide enough to avoid arcs to the case, adjacent
plates, terminals, connections, or components. That is especially important in situation where conductors must be
left uninsulated. Note that the space from each plate to the edge of the dielectric must be wide enough to stop any
spark from "crawling" over the edge of one plate to another.
Power leads must be capable of withstanding the full voltage of the charge plus at least a 50% safety margin. TV
anode wire, which comes rated up to 40 Kilo Volt DC, makes great leads. Vinyl tubing or aquarium air hose may be
slipped over leads to increase their voltage rating.
Make sure the plates are securely mounted or they will tend to shift, or make a noisy rattle when used with AC. Glue
or compress the assembly to hold it secure. With regard to mounting, keep in mind that glues that dry by evaporation of
a volatile chemical might not set properly if "buried" inside an assembly away from air, and could thus become a
Rolled-up capacitors may be held securely by wrapping the interleaving layers of foil and insulator tight around an
insulating mandrel and then taping with a clear PVC tape. Where necessary, coat the ends with Silicone RTV. That
will eliminate end-arcing flash-over and corona loss. Alternatively, although is is somewhat brittle, paraffin
(with a a puncture voltage of 250 volts/mil) is an excellent insulator for the ends of rolled-up capacitors and the
edges of flat-plate type capacitors. If you want to use melted paraffin wax, heat the wax only in a double-boiler
pan, since if it gets too hot it can catch fire. Be sure to apply several coats, allowing the wax to harden between
each coat. Liquid electrical tape also makes a great end seal, however it is somewhat hard to find. Try mail-order
distributors for that product.
High voltage terminals for your projects can be made from plastic rods drilled through to accept connection wires. You
may add a nut and bolt on top for convenience. However, beyond about 3,000 VDC this method suffers from point
discharge. Metal balls make good terminals. Clean them up with a wire brush or steel wool to eliminate rough spots.
The author uses fishing floats covered with aluminum foil or nickel print paint for up to 10KvDC. Split the bobbin
first with a razor blade, remove the line holder and spring, and glue it together again with epoxy.
Furthermore, as you work, keep all materials as clean as possible. Not only will your work have better appearance,
but arcs and burn-throughs due to contaminants will be prevented. High voltage easily tracks along dust, surface
contamination, and even finger oil (which contains salt). Also, we shall refer to a "section" as consisting of two
conducting plates with an insulating dielectric between them.
By now, we hope you have a good understanding of the principles and techniques involved in making your own capacitors.
Without forgetting safety, let's talk about how to build some simple capacitors, any of which can be modified for
A Leyden Jar Capacitor:
Leyden Jars are one of the first types of capacitors made, having been invented nearly two and a half centuries ago.
Their development was first recorded in 1745 by Ewald von Kleist. In 1746, Pieter van Musschenbroeck of Leyden,
Holland, experimented further with the invention. We can build our own modernized units with a gallon-size
wide-mouthed mayonnaise jar. The project only cost about $2.00 and is good to at least 10 KvDC at 2.5 nF. Units we've
tested at 15 KvDC did not fail; at that voltage, the capacitors stored just under 1/3 joule each.
First select a jar without bubbles, cracks, or blemishes and that has a mouth large enough to comfortably slip your
hand through. Next, carefully clean it out. You'll use aluminum foil inside and out as the conductive plates (see Fig.1).
Cut a foil disk 1-inch bigger that the bottom of the jar. Now coat the dull side of the foil and inside jar bottom
with a thin, even layer of rubber cement. Let both dry for 10-minutes, and press together. Smooth with firm hand
pressure. Avoid excess wrinkles. Do the rest of the inside except the top inch of the bottle using three of four
pieces of foil. (It is easiest to do the plate in pieces instead of all at once, since rubber cement "grabs" and it is
difficult to reposition the foil once contact has been made.) Now do the outside foil plate in pieces, leaving the
top inch bare. Check the foils with a continuity tester to determine if the pieces are in good electrical contact.
Areas of foil not in contact can be bridged with strips of foil or nickel-print paint.
For the top cover, cut two disks of clear plastic, one slightly smaller than the rim, the other 1/4-inch larger than
the rim. Glue the two pieces together to form a plug. Drill a 1/4-inch hole through the plug's center. Cut and
insert a length of 1/4-inch (outer diameter) metal rod or tubing through this hole. Attach a ball to its top, and
solder a wire or small-link chain to its bottom. The wire must make good electrical contact with the foil. Let the
assembly dry for a day with the cover off, to allow vapors from the rubber cement to dissipate, then cement the cover
on with silicone or Krazy Glue.
Some nifty low inductance capacitors can be made from pieces of copper-clad epoxy circuit board (see Fig.2). For a
simple two-plate capacitor, you can use one double-sided sheet. For multiple sections, use single-side board.
To prepare each board, start by etching away a 1-inch strip from around all its edges. That process can be simplified
by first masking off the strip, spraying the bare copper with an etch-resistant paint, removing the masking tape, and
Clean the board after etching, and rinse with de-ionized or distilled water. Thoroughly air-dry the sections, or use
a blow dryer. Attach strips of aluminum foil to each plate.
If you are building a multiple-section capacitor, connect the aluminum foil strips together as shown in Fig. 3 and
secure them using glue or nylon bolts at each corner. Spray the finished assembly with several coats of an insulating
product, or paraffin.
If you use the dimensions shown in Fig. 2and a 0.060-inch gap between plates, you can achieve a capacitance of 1.94nF
(1940pF) per section. When deciding on the gap width to use, keep in mind that the greater the space between
successive plates the lower the chance of arcing. For example, a 1-inch spacing gives you a 30% larger gap than a
20-Kv spark can jump. Insulation will further improve that margin.
The Stacked Sheet Design:
This type is virtually identical to our PC board capacitor, but it can be designed to handle considerably more voltage.
You simply substitute sheet plastic or glass dielectrics, and glue aluminum foil in place of the copper for each
section (refer to the PC board capacitor drawing in Fig. 3 as needed). All in all, it's an easier design to build,
as it does not involve the effort of etching copper, and you can continue to add sections to your original prototype
to increase its capacity as future demands require.
When building a large capacitor of this type, we suggest that you use nylon bolts at the corners to hold it all
together. The bolt holes should be pre-drilled before assembly, and all chips cleared away. Make sure the
plate-to-edge spacing is adequate for the voltage you will subject the capacitor to. Add extra spacing if you intend
to use bolts at the edges.
Glue foil carefully to the top of the first plate using a small amount of spray adhesive, Krazy Glue, or RTV
silicone. Press it smooth and let it dry. A photographic finishing roller is hand for flattening foil. Repeat the
procedure for the second sheet, orienting the foil connection tab in the opposite direction. Keep the plates and
dielectrics aligned as assembly proceeds. Repeat this procedure for as many sections as you want. Always keep the
final number of plus and minus plates equal.
Put an insulating sheet above and below the last plate and secure the assembly with nylon bolts. Do not over tighten
or the center of the assembly will "bow". Finally, clean the ends with a very small amount of isopropyl (rubbing)
alcohol and wipe dry. Smear a coating of silicone RTV over all the edges.
The kind of capacitor depicted in Fig. 4 can provide large capacitance in a small size. They are a little trickier to
make than stacked-section type capacitors, so you might want to try a few small prototypes first. The design uses a
layered approach (as shown), and we suggest using only one section as it is difficult to align and wrap multiple
sections. By contrast, a single section several feet long is not too unwieldy.
Aluminum foil works great in these capacitors. You'll find the oven/broiler type, with is heavy-duty foil, far easier
to work with than the plain variety. Polyethylene and Mylar are the most common dielectrics, but you can experiment
with other materials.
Looking at the figure, note the orientation and shape of the foil plated (A) and (C). They can be easily secured to
the dielectric (B) using double-sided Scotch tape. Note also the edge spacing. An outer covering of dielectric (D)
will prevent the finished capacitor from having a "hot" case, which might be a hazard. With those points in mind, lay
the foil out on a smooth sheet of paper, which in turn should be laid out on a smooth, hard surface to prevent
wrinkling. Carefully assemble the four layers as shown in the drawing. Strive to make them flat and smooth.
Warp the capacitor "sandwich" around a non-conductive mandrel or spool--ideally made of plastic or a glass rod
(be careful not to break a glass rod). Try to make the roll straight and free of lumps and wrinkles. When it's all
rolled up, secure it with plenty of tape. The author uses clear package-sealing tape for this. Now secure the
positive foil tab (assuming it's going to be for DC) to the mandrel using tape. Finally, coat the exposed ends with
an insulating product like silicone RTV.
The remaining foil connection tab may be reinforced by rolling it around a small metal dowel. A nail, or a cut-off
piece of 1/8-inch uncoated brazing rod is suggested. Apply glue to hold the assembly tog ether.
Foil tabs can be strengthened by adding "ribs" of adhesive from a hot glue gun. Similarly, the tabs can be made
tear-resistant by applying hot glue where they enter the capacitor.
Note most problems with this design come from particle contaminants that stretch a dielectric thin in spots where
they are trapped by the tightly rolled dielectric. Another trouble is inadequate edge spacing, causing arcing across
the ends. Careful planning and assembly will eliminate both headaches.
High Voltage Safety and Warning Label:
High voltage is considered any value over 500 volts AC or DC. When you attach a capacitor to
high voltage, you are multiplying its hazard many fold. There fore, experimenters must take extra precautions to avoid
painful shocks and possible electrocution. Here are a few guidelines to follow when working with high voltage:
Label your project in several location with: "Danger, High Voltage" where appropriate. Such
a warning label is provided here for you to copy (See Fig. A). Keep children, pets, and curiosity seekers away from
the apparatus. Cover all bare leads, wires, connection terminals, and possible points of contact with high voltage
putty or a cover fabricated from thick clear plastic.
Work in a dry location. Working in a damp basement of workshop courts disaster. Wear
rubber-soled boots or sneakers. Stand on a thick rubber mat.
Never put your body in a position to become a conductor. Locate your apparatus away from
appliances, metal doors and windows frames, heating ducts, vents, radiators, sinks, or water-pipes. All these items
can become a deadly ground if your body comes between them and high voltage.
Always pull the plug when working on a high voltage circuit unless you must test it. When
testing a live circuit, use the utmost caution. Keep one hand in your pocket. Use clip-on test leads that are rated
twice the voltage of the live circuit. Use a high voltage probe whenever possible--its insulating handle will help
Use NE-2 neon lamps to indicate live or stored high voltage. Bleed off the charge on
capacitors with a power resistor before performing adjustments.
Adequate ventilation must be provided for circuits that produce large amount of ozone such as Jacob's Ladders or Tesla Coils.
Copyright and credits:
This article was originally written by Anthony Charlton and the editors of "Electronics Now" and "Popular
Electronics" magazines and published by Gernsback Publishing, 1992(Gernsback Publishing is no longer in business).
Editor's note and Disclaimer:
The device carries lethal high voltage and carelessness can be dangerous to your health. Build and/or use at your own risk.
The Sentex Corporation of Cambridge Ontario, host of "Tony's Website", or Tony van Roon himself, cannot be held liable or
responsible or will accept any type of liability in any event, in case of injury or even death by building and/or using or
misuse of this device or any other high-voltage device posted on this web site. By accessing, reading, printing, or building
the unit in this article you agree to be solely responsible and agree with the above stated disclaimer.
Back to High Voltage Projects Index
Copyright © 2005 - Tony van Roon
Last Updated July 24, 2010
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This is a photograph by Herbert Basedow of two women, each carrying a basket suspended by a rope around her head. One of the women also holds a child. A dog is at the right of the frame, facing away from the camera. The ground is sandy, but in the background is vegetation, including several trees.Educational value
These women and a child were photographed by Basedow in 1928 when he came upon a camp of people next to the Liverpool River in Arnhem Land. Neither he nor his Aboriginal assistants could communicate fully with the Arnhem Land people and Basedow could do little more than photograph them and observe what he saw while he was with them for a few hours.
The baskets are probably woven from pandanus leaves and used for carrying food.
The dog in this image might be a dingo. Aboriginal people would sometimes take dogs to help with hunting, or keep them for companionship.
Herbert Basedow was a doctor, anthropologist and explorer. From 1903 to 1928 he ventured to remote regions of central and northern Australia - places rarely seen by Australians even today. Aboriginal people often feature in his photographs. Basedow wanted to document Aboriginal cultures as they had been before British colonisation, and often went to some lengths to craft his photographs to appear as such.
This photograph was taken during a four-month exploration of Arnhem Land, south-east of Darwin in the Northern Territory.
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Before we get to the charts, we had some other global warming related news this week. A bit of background first. In the last 20 years billions of dollars have been spent on a whole new array of scientific instruments which the scientists who push the global warming agenda felt would confirm their view that global warming was an emergency and that man was to blame. Much of this is satellite technology. The irony is that the data coming from these technologically advanced instruments have led to the opposite conclusion.
This week, data from another new satellite, Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment or GRACE satellite launched in 2002 as a joint project between NASA and Germany in 2002. GRACE was designed to study the problem of melting polar ice. Remember that Al Gore warned that the coastline of the United States might soon be underwater because it would get so hot the North Pole would melt. So-called "scientists" have repeated this charge over the years.
The problem is that the time they said the Pole would melt has long ago come and gone and the North Pole still has ice. Santa and the elves won't drown! Of course that hasn't stopped the alarmists from trying to scare children as they did last Christmas in this fundraising drive.
And the GRACE satellite discovered that the rate of ice melting was substantially less than previously hyped by the global warming crowd. As Gomer Pyle used to say "surprise, surprise, surprise!" As far as predictions for the future, researcher John Wahr of the University of Colorado who compiled the data said:
It's important to realize that melting patterns are hard to predict.Got that?
"Even with an eight-year estimate, it's not clear how far into the future you can project," he says. "A lot of people want to predict into the end of the century, but I think it's too dangerous to do that … We don't have enough info to know what'll happen. There's some ebb and flow to these things."
The Sun to blame for global warming
Something so obvious like the statement above can get you in a lot of trouble if you are a scientist trying to get a grant to study the sun's influence on climate. Time and again we've seen how the global warming alarmists will seek to use their clout within the scientific community to punish those who do not support the theory that man is to blame. We saw that happen in the research concluded recently in Europe where scientists from the Danish Space Research Institute had to work for years just for the chance to do their experiments on sun related climate change. Despite attempts by the alarmists to block their research they were finally allowed to do their proceed and found that the sun did play a key role. Again, cue Gomer Pyle.
The explanation of their findings is complicated which brings me to the first chart. From Der Spiegel:
The chart above from Der Spiegel is a graphic companion to an interview the German magazine conducted with Fritz Vahrenholt the author of a new book called "The Cold Sun." Der Spiegel quotes Vahrenholt in the title of the article: "I feel duped on Climate Change:"
Vahrenholt: Many scientists assume that the temperature changes by more than 1 degree Celsius for the 1,000-year cycle and by up to 0.7 degrees Celsius for the smaller cycles. Climatologists should be putting a far greater effort into finding ways to more accurately determine the effects of the sun on climate. For the IPCC and the politicians it influences, CO2 is practically the only factor. The importance of the sun for the climate is systematically underestimated, and the importance of CO2 is systematically overestimated. As a result, all climate predictions are based on the wrong underlying facts.Another graphic companion to the interview is a chart showing cycles of solar activity over the last 500 years.
Global warming heretics have been saying similar things for years only to be dismissed by those with a clear bias in favor of the climate change political agenda and a self interest in preserving the idea that we are in a global emergency which requires drastic measures (measures which end up profiting those who advocate them).
Besides, the blind faith that CO2 is somehow the dominant factor in climate change isn't borne out by the facts. After Al Gore won the Nobel Prize for his global warming hysterics, another Nobel winner, came out with the following chart which compares rising CO2 levels to steady or dropping global temperature models (and that is using the suspect global temperature data which we learned about in Climate Gate).
The alarmists predictions for catastrophe are based on computer models for climate change which were developed decades ago. They have been refined over the years but are still deeply flawed. Dr. John Christy, an award winning NASA scientist testified before Congress in 2009 and shared the following chart which tracked temperature observations and compared them to the computer models upon which the alarmists doom and gloom scenarios are based:
Not only is the expected temperature increase not occurring despite an increase in CO2, another study of new NASA satellite data finds that the "greenhouse effect" which was supposed to be the telltale signature of global warming is absent.
UPDATE: Get Rich Quick with Climate Scares!
For those on the left who haven't caught the brass ring yet on global environmental scaremongering there is still a chance to get your piece of the action. A new book: Cold Cash, Cool Climate: Science-based Advice for Ecological Entrepreneurs written for entrepreneurs and investors, this book describes how to profit from tackling climate change."
Profit is a dirty word when you are talking about oil companies. But apparently investing in soon to be bankrupt solar firms and other green companies who take hundreds of millions in Obama grants and loans is the new way to get rich quick and do no work for it! And not one of these enterprises will impact climate change in any appreciable way whatsoever.
But act quick and get your "green" quick before the jig is up!
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Nobody expects militants to take over vacant government buildings, but there they were—20 or so armed men from Idaho, Montana, Utah, and adjacent states seizing the headquarters of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon in early January.
They were led by Ammon Bundy, son of the Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who participated in an armed standoff with federal authorities in 2014 to successfully avoid paying $1 million in grazing fees.
The occupiers say they won’t leave until their demands are met. They want the refuge and other federal lands to be turned over to local residents to use “without fear … as free men.” And they insist the United States doesn’t have the constitutional right to own the land, even though federal courts long ago rejected this position.
At first glance, those demands (and the reasoning behind them) may seem pretty strange. But for the region, these arguments are not unusual. Indeed, they’ve long been articulated at high levels of government. In this expanse of the country, Bundyism isn’t a fringe ideology, it’s part of a longstanding political tradition.
Parks, Protection, and Protests
The expanse I’m referring to is east of the Sierra and coastal mountain ranges, and west of the 100th meridian, which divides the Dakotas roughly in half and continues southward.
Ranchers and logging interests in this region have lobbied to privatize or radically deregulate federal lands for almost as long as those lands have been under federal control. The protests started in 1891, when Congress created the first reserves to stop the wholesale destruction of U.S.-owned forests. These public lands had previously been exploited without restraint, and locals weren’t happy with the restrictions. In Colorado, editorialists called on citizens “to arise in your might and protest this damnable outrage.” One cattleman told a packed hall in Denver that the reserves were a tyranny “not equaled since the days of William the Conqueror.”
The expansion of the national park and refuge systems in the early 20th century triggered another wave of opposition. The proposed Glacier and Grand Canyon National Parks were reduced in size to allow mining and ranching. The Malheur refuge—which was set aside in 1908 as a bird sanctuary—was itself at the center of a legal dispute in the 1930s, whereby the Oregon state government sought to seize the area, drain its wetlands, and sell the land. After World War II, ranchers lobbied Congress to sell federal grazing land for about ten cents an acre. They were not successful.
But dissent didn’t die down. In 1979, the State of Nevada sued the federal government to seize control of nearly 50 million acres—an area larger than the state of Washington—held by the federal Bureau of Land Management,
The same year, Utah senator Orrin Hatch proposed a federal bill that would have turned virtually all federal lands over to the states, including national forests and monuments. Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming all passed laws making similar claims, triggering what became known as the Sagebrush Rebellion. Campaigning for president in 1980, former California governor Ronald Reagan was asked about the rebellion and famously replied “Count me in.” He went on to win every state in the region.
The rebellion fizzled when the courts rejected Nevada’s suit and state officials began tallying the steep cost of managing the lands, but it never truly died. When President Bill Clinton created the 1.7 million acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996, locals in southern Utah hanged Interior Secretary Bruce Babitt in effigy before filing lawsuits claiming federal overreach.
In 2012, Utah legislators passed a law demanding authority over millions of acres of federal land. The following year, Colorado’s Republican gubernatorial nominee, Bob Beauprez, made the expropriation of federal lands in his state a central campaign issue. “This is supposed to be Colorado’s land, not the federal government’s,” the former two-term congressman said.
A Colonial Legacy
These attitudes are rooted in the experiences of the area’s mid-19th century settlers and a 150-year legacy of federal dependency.
High, dry, and remote, the region—not including the Spanish-settled portions of New Mexico and southern Texas, California, and Arizona—was the last to be colonized by Europeans, and only then via the deployment of vast industrial resources: railroads, heavy mining equipment, ore smelters, dams, and irrigation systems.
Unlike other parts of the country, the settlement of this area was largely directed by big corporations based in New York, Boston, Chicago, or San Francisco, or by the federal government itself, which owned much of the land. Even today, the U.S. owns about a third of Colorado and Montana, half of Utah, Wyoming, Arizona and Idaho, two-thirds of intermountain Oregon, and about 85 percent of Nevada.
In the Gilded Age, some of these corporations and government officials conspired to exploit the region as an internal resource colony. Senators and congressmen aligned with business interests to help ensure federal lands were logged, mined, or prospected for next to nothing. Morris Garnsey, an economist at the University of Colorado, described the outside world’s attitude toward the region in 1945: “Get control of the raw material, get it out as cheaply as possible, and haul it away as fast as possible,” he wrote. “The interests of the local area are a secondary consideration.”
In the past, local ire was often focused on the region’s corporate tormentors. Westerners supported Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932 and sent progressives like Idaho’s William Borah and Burton Wheeler of Montana to the U.S. Senate.
But whenever the government has limited how federal lands can be used—through the creation of parks, forest reserves, wildlife refuges, or the enforcement of the Endangered Species Act—resistance has followed. Residents have had little control over much of the landscape, but their lives are profoundly affected by changes in leases, recreation fees, irrigation allowances, or logging contracts. While they often depend on federally subsidized infrastructure, many Westerners have longed for local control of land, believing it will lead to better local economies
So it’s not really surprising to hear Ammon Bundy declare that the area around the wildlife refuge “will begin to thrive again” once his protest succeeds in “getting the ranchers back to ranching and the miners back to mining, putting the loggers back to logging … and not be afraid of this tyranny that has been upon them." It’s just his method of getting the control that ups the ante.
"We're the point of the spear," he explained. “We need you to bring your arms."
- Colin Woodard is a Polk-Award-winning journalist and author of five books including American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America and the forthcoming American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good.
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Public Markets Bring Together Diverse People
Many cities and towns across the country are experiencing notable demographic shifts as immigrant groups move to the U.S. and establish new families and communities. Public markets have often been the most socially diverse public places in a community, bringing people of different ages, genders, races ethnicities, and socioeconomic status together around the experiences of food, shopping, music and conversation. While markets vary in their degrees of social interaction, few are homogenous and many are represent the diversity of 21st century American communities.
Many of the markets awarded funding from PPS, through the W.K. Kellogg Foundation grant program, were located in communities with growing immigrant populations. Market organizers saw an opportunity through their markets to bring together different and new members of the community. They developed strategies to create spaces of inclusion by having non-English speaking individuals on their staff, recruiting new growers from immigrant communities, and transformed their market spaces into places where cultural barriers were dissolved, marginalized residents were empowered and differences were celebrated. Increasing cultural diversity became an asset that brought new products, customers, vendors and social programming to their markets.
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Title IX turns 40 years old
Title IX, the landmark 1972 law that banned sexual discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funds, turns 40 years old. It helped clear the way for girls to participate in sports on an equal footing with boys.
In 1972, there were 295,000 girls who competed in high school sports and 3.67 million boys. In 2010-11, girls' participation had risen to 3.2 million and boys' to 4.5 million.
The National Women's Law Center has put together a state-by-state rundown on participation of girls in sports.
California ranks No. 35 in a survey looking at participation gaps of 10 percentage points or higher as reported by high schools, according to the law center.
Though equality with boys hasn't been reached, the gap has clearly narrowed and there's more work to be done.
-- Eric Sondheimer
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The Speaker’s rostrum is the focal point of the Chamber. From here, the proceedings of the House are directed and recorded, so it has both practical and symbolic importance. The details and materials have changed over the course of the space’s history, but the symbols and images surrounding it have remained consistent. Victorian taste was practically synonymous with “old and outdated” by the time the Chamber needed extensive repairs in the 1940s. So, when the Chamber underwent a complete overhaul beginning in 1947, a fresh look was in order. The new décor was influenced by the classically inspired and restrained Federal style—as seen in the oldest parts of the Capitol.
The Marble Rostrum
The original rostrum was made entirely from marble, decked out in high Victorian style. The wall behind it was adorned with painted cast iron and plaster, and included fasces—a Roman symbol of authority composed of an axe surrounded by a bundle of rods—and floral motifs.
By 1938, an engineering survey noted that “the roof framing of... the Capitol, constructed in the 1850s, was obsolete and far short of present-day safety requirements, and should be replaced without delay.” This 1940 photograph shows a scaffold—which was constructed that year and remained in place until the repairs were finished in 1949—supporting the failing structure while Congress continued to meet in the room.
The Renovated Rostrum
The official 1952 report on the new look for the Chamber stated that it was intended to “provide a meeting room for the House in keeping with the importance of the deliberations of the legislative branch.” The new rostrum was more spacious, providing additional work space for clerks and official reporters in addition to its more modern look.
The House Chamber Rostrum
The new rostrum and desks were made from walnut, with decorations of hand-carved wreaths and inscriptions reading “Union,” “Justice,” “Tolerance,” “Liberty,” and “Peace” on its front. Relief carvings of laurel branches are on the front of the upper level. The white cast-iron decorative panels behind the rostrum were replaced with grey marble. The fasces motif was retained on either side of the U.S. flag, though the new versions were cast in bronze.
Fasces are a symbol of civic authority originating in ancient Rome. Fasces—axes surrounded by a bundle of rods, which were bound together by red straps—were carried by guards before processions of Roman lawmakers. The United States adopted fasces as a symbol of the authority of Congress and as a reference to Republican Rome. The Founding Fathers consciously cultivated this association during the formation of the United States. Fasces also refer to the philosophy of American democracy. Like the thin rods bound together in fasces, the small individual states achieve their strength and stability through their union under the federal government.
Relief carvings enhance the clean-lined walnut rostrum. Stars surrounded by laurel wreaths, a traditional symbol of victory, alternate with single-word inscriptions across the front. The inscribed words—Union, Justice, Tolerance, Liberty, and Peace—emphasized what the nation hoped to promote in its then-new role as a major world power in the post–World War II era.
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India's Caste System
Many Westerners have heard of India's caste system, but a thorough understanding of its ins and outs is still relatively uncommon. The following sections reveal the nitty-gritty of the caste system.
What's the caste system?
Broadly speaking, a caste system is a process of placing people in occupational groups. It has pervaded several aspects of Indian society for centuries. Rooted in religion and based on a division of labor, the caste system, among other things, dictates the type of occupations a person can pursue and the social interactions that she may have. Castes are an aspect of Hindu religion. Other religions in India do not follow this system.
Castes are ranked in hierarchical order (originally, the system wasn't to have a hierarchy based on occupation or birth but purely on personality; this has been skewed somehow over time), which determines the behavior of one member of society over another. Even in a modern business setting, where caste isn't openly acknowledged, there may be subtle observances of village or family-style ranking. For instance, a young official may address a senior person, not necessarily his superior, as chachaji, a respectful term for a paternal uncle.
How it's structured
India's caste system has four main classes (also called varnas) based originally on personality, profession, and birth. In descending order, the classes are as follows:
- Brahmana (now more commonly spelled Brahmin): Consist of those engaged in scriptural education and teaching, essential for the continuation of knowledge.
- Kshatriya: Take on all forms of public service, including administration, maintenance of law and order, and defense.
- Vaishya: Engage in commercial activity as businessmen.
- Shudra: Work as semi-skilled and unskilled laborers.
The most obvious problem with this system was that under its rigidity, the lower castes were prevented from aspiring to climb higher, and, therefore, economic progress was restricted.
Mahatma Gandhi, the father of modern India, made the lower castes and untouchables a fifth, lowly class with the name Harijan, or "children of God." You see many references to SC and ST in India, in newspapers, government notifications, and so on. These initials refer to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes — scheduled is what Harijan is translated into today. The government is sensitive about reserving seats in colleges and job opportunities for them. But the government has legislation to make up for the past suppression and oppression of the lower castes.
How it works
Castes still rarely intermarry and are definitely not changeable. In urban India, though, people of all castes meet socially or for business. Discriminating against anyone because of their caste for things like club memberships and so on is against the law.
Though caste and community are facts of Indian life, foreigners are not expected to behave differently toward any caste.
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Career Guide: Medical Records and Health Information Technicians
U.S. Department of Labor, BLS
• Job prospects should be very good; technicians with a strong background in medical coding will be in particularly high demand.
• Entrants usually have an associate degree.
• This is one of the few health occupations in which there is little or no direct contact with patients.
Every time a patient receives health care, a record is maintained of the observations, medical or surgical interventions, and treatment outcomes. This record includes information that the patient provides concerning his or her symptoms and medical history, the results of examinations, reports of x rays and laboratory tests, diagnoses, and treatment plans. Medical records and health information technicians organize and evaluate these records for completeness and accuracy.
Technicians assemble patients’ health information, making sure that patients’ initial medical charts are complete, that all forms are completed and properly identified and authenticated, and that all necessary information is in the computer. They regularly communicate with physicians and other health care professionals to clarify diagnoses or to obtain additional information. Technicians regularly use computer programs to tabulate and analyze data to improve patient care, better control cost, provide documentation for use in legal actions, or use in research studies.
Medical records and health information technicians’ duties vary with the size of the facility where they work. In large to medium-size facilities, technicians might specialize in one aspect of health information or might supervise health information clerks and transcriptionists while a medical records and health information administrator manages the department. (See the statement on medical and health services managers elsewhere in the Handbook.) In small facilities, a credentialed medical records and health information technician may have the opportunity to manage the department.
Some medical records and health information technicians specialize in coding patients’ medical information for insurance purposes. Technicians who specialize in coding are called health information coders, medical record coders, coder/abstractors, or coding specialists. These technicians assign a code to each diagnosis and procedure, relying on their knowledge of disease processes. Technicians then use classification systems software to assign the patient to one of several hundred “diagnosis-related groups,” or DRGs. The DRG determines the amount for which the hospital will be reimbursed if the patient is covered by Medicare or other insurance programs using the DRG system. In addition to the DRG system, coders use other coding systems, such as those required for ambulatory settings, physician offices, or long-term care.
Medical records and health information technicians also may specialize in cancer registry. Cancer (or tumor) registrars maintain facility, regional, and national databases of cancer patients. Registrars review patient records and pathology reports, and assign codes for the diagnosis and treatment of different cancers and selected benign tumors. Registrars conduct annual followups on all patients in the registry to track their treatment, survival, and recovery. Physicians and public health organizations then use this information to calculate survivor rates and success rates of various types of treatment, locate geographic areas with high incidences of certain cancers, and identify potential participants for clinical drug trials. Public health officials also use cancer registry data to target areas for the allocation of resources to provide intervention and screening.
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A new company featuring some familiar faces is planning to develop a high altitude balloon system that will carry passengers to the edge of space on multi-hour flights, but be treated as a launch vehicle by federal regulators.
Tucson-based World View Enterprises is formally unveiling its plans today for developing a system that will transport eight people in a pressurized capsule up to an altitude of 30 kilometers (98,400 feet), where they will remain for up to several hours before descending to Earth under a parafoil. The company expects to begin these flights no earlier than 2016, charging $75,000 a ticket, considerably less than rocket-powered suborbital space tourism ventures like Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace.
The announcement is tied to the expected publication today by the FAA of a determination that World View’s vehicle is considered a launch vehicle, and thus would be regulated by the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) and not the aviation side of the FAA. That determination means that World View flights would take place under a launch license, just like commercial suborbital and orbital rocket launches.
That determination is based on the FAA’s interpretation of the definition of a launch vehicle under federal law (specifically, 51 USC § 50902). The law defines a launch vehicle as being either “a vehicle built to operate in, or place a payload or human beings in, outer space” or “a suborbital rocket.” (The term “outer space” is not explicitly defined in federal law.) The second definition doesn’t apply to World View, since it is not a rocket, but FAA lawyers noted that the capsule will be designed to operate as if it was in orbit, and that humans could not survive in the environment at an altitude of 30 kilometers without the protection the capsule provided. “Regardless of whether 30 kilometers constitutes outer space—and the FAA renders no opinion on that question—a person would experience the same physiological responses at 30 kilometers as if exposed to the environment of low-Earth orbit (LEO),” the FAA letter states. Because of that, and also because the vehicle spends most of the time of each flight at that altitude, the FAA considers it a launch vehicle and thus will be licensed as such.
“This would not be possible without the spaceflight regulatory regime,” Taber MacCallum, chief technology officer of World View Enterprises, said in an interview on Monday. “On the aviation side, the regulations don’t fit.” Specifically, he said FAA regulations for balloons only cover those with wicker gondolas and require much higher levels of structural safety in the balloon than what’s feasible with World View’s design.
“Fundamentally, the capsule is a spacecraft, and it will be qualified like a spacecraft,” said Jane Poynter, the CEO of World View.
Poynter and MacCallum are familiar faces in the space industry, co-founders of Paragon Space Development Corporation, a company that specializes in life support systems; Poynter is president and chairwoman of the company and MacCallum is CEO and CTO. MacCallum is also CTO of the Inspiration Mars Foundation, the project announced earlier this year to design a crewed Mars flyby mission for launch in 2018. A third co-founder of Paragon, chief engineer Grant Anderson, will also be supporting World View, while Alan Stern, a former NASA associate administrator who is involved with multiple commercial ventures, including Golden Spike, will be World View’s chief scientist.
World View in funded for its current development phase, Poynter said, from sources like the VegasTech Fund and others involved in resorts. “We didn’t feel the need to go to the space or aerospace technology world for funding,” she said. “The luxury experience world is where a lot of our funding came from.”
The company is marketing the balloon flights on the experience of seeing the Earth from (near) space, offering views for far longer than possible on suborbital rocket-powered flights. “We want to be able give people access to the experience of seeing the Earth from space,” Poynter said, perhaps giving passengers the experience of the “Overview Effect” that many astronauts have experienced on orbital flights. MacCallum noted that James May, one of the stars of the British show Top Gear, found a high-altitude flight on a U-2 aircraft to be a particularly transformative experience, giving them confidence that the even higher and longer World View flights can have a similar effect on passengers.
The company doesn’t see itself in competition with Virgin, XCOR, or others planning rocket-powered suborbital flights that will go to altitudes of 100 kilometers or more and offer several minutes of weightlessness. In fact, Poynter and MacCallum believe the balloon flights may encourage people to then go on suborbital rocket flights. “I really think we’ll end up being a feeder, helping the other suborbital folks,” MacCallum said.
A company they will be in much closer competition with is Spanish company zero2infinity, which is planning similar high-altitude passenger balloon flights under the “bloon” name. That company is proposing slightly higher flights (to 36 kilometers) in a pressurized capsule that can carry four passengers and two pilots. (World View is initially planning to carry six passengers and two pilots, later going to seven passengers and one pilot.) Neither Poynter nor MacCallum said they knew enough about zero2infinity to comment on how they were different, but noted the presence of two companies offering similar experiences helped validate the market in the eyes of their investors.
For now, World View is working on smaller scale tests of the complete flight profile through early next year, after which they’ll move on to development of the full-scale system and tests that they expect will take two years. Commercial operations would begin in 2016 at the earliest, a schedule MacCallum acknowledged required everything in the development process to go smoothly. While the FAA determination specified Spaceport America in New Mexico as the launch site of the flights, the company is looking at multiple locations, perhaps rotating the system though several on a seasonal basis.
“I’m personally very excited about this,” said Poynter, who noted she would be cutting back on her responsibilities at Paragon to focus on World View. “We’re really bringing something new into this incredibly exciting time in commercial spaceflight.”
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| 0.954439 | 1,383 | 2.671875 | 3 |
The Spec Sheet
The first thing you should do is get a hold of the specification
sheet from whoever will be printing the final job. This
specification sheet will list the print parameters for the
particular file you be working on.
Figure 9-2. Spec sheet from a carton printer
A spec sheet typically looks like Figure 9-2.
Figure 9-2 is a typical
spec sheet from a printer that prints on various kinds packaging
material. Here's the information we should be concerned with:
The printer has indicated a curve; we will investigate this
They can print a variety of colors; this would mean that a
number of special colors could be used. It is very typical to use
special colors in packaging work because companies that sell goods
on store shelves want to attract your attention to their boxes and
The print process is flexo, or flexographic, which is a type of
press that can print on various packaging material, folding
cartons, plastics, and bags.
Substrates indicate the material to print on, such as a bread
bag. You probably won't care what material the image is going on,
but you will want to know what the specifications are for the image
so that it prints properly.
If we skip through the rest of the specifications in this
example, you will want to be aware of the following things:
What the press does to the image; this is very important.
The dot gain curve. We'll cover the dot gain curve in a
The minimum dot required for an image. If you have anything less
than the minimum dot anywhere in the image, the press will drop any
dots less than the minimum and they will not print. If you have a
soft gradation in a shadow or vignette, you may be disappointed to
find out that it breaks off where the minimum dot drops off.
You may or may not be concerned with the trap values. If you are
doing the trapping in Photoshop then yes, you would be concerned
with trapping. Trapping is typically done with specialized software
designed for trapping or packaging. Trapping is covered in Tutorial
The line screen required for the image. No point working on a
very large file at a high resolution if you're only going to be
using the image for the one job. You'll save processing time and
move around a little faster in Photoshop if your file is smaller as
Bleeds will be a concern for you. Bleed is the amount of extra
image you will need to have around the perimeter of the image that
extends out beyond the "live" area of an image, or what will be
seen when the final job is done. Extra image or bleed allows for
any shift when the printed job is cut or die-cut out of a printed
sheet. For example, when you see an ad in a magazine, it probably
had 1/8 inch or so of bleed around it, and the final magazine you
see was trimmed back or cut to the final magazine page size. If no
bleed is added, the page is trimmed to the correct size by a
cutter, and the cutter happens to trim the sheet or paper just
outside your image area, you'll have a line where the printed
material or paper pokes out along the edge where the cut was off or
where the image was offset when it was printed.
The rest of the specifications have more to do with the film
output or running the file directly to the printing plate and are
directed to the people who will be outputting the final files.
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en
| 0.916123 | 749 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Why do you suppose Hesse places such emphasis on the Magic Theater? What is the relation between magic and spectacle in the novel, and why should this relation be of interest to Hesse?
One way of understanding the Magic Theater is as the stage upon which Harry can encounter or give life to all the different manifestations of his personality. Pablo introduces Harry to the Magic Theater by saying that all he will do is make the world of Harry’s soul visible. After the self-dramatizing spectacle in the splintering mirrors of the Magic Theater, Harry will be put back together again in a new, rejuvenated configuration.
Magic, magical thinking, and the role of the magician are important in Steppenwolf. Magical thinking is a kind of inspired vision that borders on madness, which is why the Magic Theater is advertised as being “for madmen only.” Madness and magic involve the ability to arrive at a deeper truth by transcending the material and the everyday. To Hesse, madmen are those who have seen through the morass of social and moral conventions, penetrating to the realm of eternity of the immortals. The figure of the magician is key, because the magician allows a transition into the madness and magic of heightened perception. While Pablo and Hermine are the novel’s most obvious magicians, Hesse himself is also such a magician. After all, the power of the author to use symbol and metaphor to give voice and vision to interior life is a kind of analogous magic.
Think of all the ways in which mirrors function in the novel. What significance do they have in the Steppenwolf’s quest for himself and the writer’s quest for artistic form?
Reflection is one of the novel’s main concerns. The image of the city is reflected in the wet asphalt streets in the opening scene, and as we proceed in the story, reflections and mirrors become increasingly important. Hermine uses a pocket mirror, Harry sees himself and his doubles in mirrors, and the novel climaxes in Pablo’s Cabinet of Mirrors, the Magic Theater. In addition, characters also mirror one another: Hermine describes herself as Harry’s looking glass. Even the text employs complicated reflections, mirroring both Harry and itself. The “Treatise on the Steppenwolf” is a verbal mirror held up to Harry’s psyche, and the editor’s preface is echoed by Harry’s records, which themselves reflect the words of the Treatise.
Each time a mirror is presented, it does not merely reflect a pure mirror image but corroborates, extends, or draws out other insights. Mirrors are ever-present to remind us of the possibility of double perception, apprehending doubles and opposites at the same moment. This notion of the double or opposite is a useful device for portraying the mind-body split with which Hesse is concerned. Mirrors also raise the question of the writer’s role—especially in a novel such as Steppenwolf, in which characters such as Harry and Hermine are clearly reflections of the author.
Using Steppenwolf as evidence, why do you think Hesse was so popular with the hippie counterculture of 1960s America?
Hesse’s novels, particularly Steppenwolf, resonate with groups of people who find themselves struggling against a system to which they feel they do not belong. As the landlady’s nephew expresses in the preface, Harry’s illness is not “the eccentricity of a single individual,” but instead the illness of the era itself, a “neurosis” of Harry’s generation. It is not surprising, then, that the hippies, who felt the stress of the cultural crisis in the 1960s, saw Hesse as a countercultural sage. A key figure in the movement, Timothy Leary, called Hesse his hero and encouraged his followers to read him—especially the Magic Theater segment of Steppenwolf, which Leary called a “priceless manual”—before embarking on a hallucinogenic LSD trip. Evidently, Leary felt that he and Hesse had the same mission to achieve a “transpersonal, unitary consciousness.”
1. The critic Eugene Stelzig calls Harry Haller the “Hessean psychonaut par excellence.” The image of the Steppenwolf as a voyager of the inner world is an apt one. How do the spaces through which Haller physically travels in the novel match the psychic stages through which he passes? (Consider, for example, the bourgeois space of the landlady’s lodging house in contrast to the subterranean dens of dancers and musicians.)
2. How are we to understand the character of Hermine? Is she a mother, a friend, a sister, a lover, or every one of those things? What is her significance in relation to Harry? Is she an other, or a part of the same?
3. At the Fancy Dress Ball, Harry considers that the event is “all a fairy tale,” “fanciful and symbolic,” and endowed with “a new dimension, a deeper meaning.” In what ways does Steppenwolf conform to the structure and logic of a traditional fairy tale, and in what ways does it not?
4. From what we know of Hesse’s background and history, much of Steppenwolf clearly stems from real events in his life. What are the implications of this for the novel? Does it alter our sense of Steppenwolf’s genre? How does the confessional nature of the work influence our reception of it?
5. By the end of the novel, Harry has learned to approach the modern world with humor, though not with acceptance and contentment. Do you think his earlier concerns and criticisms have been borne out in the intervening years? What aspects of the second half of the twentieth century do you think Harry—or Hesse—would have felt most conformed to his predictions?
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http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/steppenwolf/study.html
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en
| 0.949463 | 1,270 | 2.6875 | 3 |
In the April 18 issue of Science, scientists from the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy and the Neuroscience Centre at the University of Helsinki, Finland, provide new information about the mechanism of action of antidepressant drugs. In addition, the study suggests that antidepressants could also be used for the treatment of amblyopia. However, to produce a functional effect, antidepressant treatment also seems to require environmental stimuli, such as rehabilitation or therapy
According to Professor Eero Castrén at the University of Helsinki, the original objective of the study was to learn more about why the antidepressant effect of fluoxetine (also known as Prozac) and other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors develops so slowly, many weeks after starting treatment.
Castrén's research group has approached this question by examining the growth factor, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which influences plasticity of the nervous system or in other words, the ability of brain cells to change their structure or function in response to stimuli. Antidepressants seem to act through BDNF, thus enhancing the plasticity of the nervous system, at least in certain brain areas. However, it has been unclear how antidepressant-induced increases in BDNF could relieve depression.
Neuronal plasticity of the developing visual cortex has been well characterised. Therefore, this classical model of the visual cortex was utilised to examine the effect of fluoxetine on neuronal plasticity, although there was previously no evidence that antidepressants would act on the visual system. During early childhood, if one eye remains weaker than the other eye, the neuronal connections of the stronger eye take over the visual cortex while the connections of the weaker eye retract. During a critical period of early childhood, neuronal connections are in a highly plastic state, and the vision of the weaker eye can be strengthened by covering the better eye, thus reinforcing the connections of the weaker eye to the visual cortex. In adolescence however, after the critical period has closed, plasticity is reduced and covering the better eye no longer strengthens the connections of the weaker eye which remains poor in vision throughout adulthood.
The experiments, mainly conducted by the research group of Professor Lamberto Maffei in Pisa, showed that treatment with the antidepressant, fluoxetine reopened the critical period of plasticity in the visual cortex of adult rats. In experiments where one eye of a young rat was covered during the critical period and reopened only in adulthood, vision improved in the weaker eye to finally equal that of the healthy eye when fluoxetine treatment was combined with covering the healthy eye. This fluoxetine-induced enhancement of plasticity was associated with increased BDNF and reduced cortical inhibition in the visual cortex, which advanced reorganisation of the neuronal connections.
Since fluoxetine, when combined with covering the better eye, improved vision in the weaker eye of adult rats, it is possible that antidepressants could be similarly used in amblyopic humans. The results suggest that the improved plasticity induced by antidepressants leads to a functional neuronal reorganisation in the cerebral cortex. The ability of an antidepressant to facilitate the reorganisation of neuronal connections in a brain area not associated with mood, suggests that similar treatment strategies might also be useful in the treatment of other brain disorders.
It is important to note that fluoxetine improved vision in the weaker eye only if the better eye was covered. This suggests that while antidepressants provide the possibility of rearranging cortical connections, environmental stimuli are required to guide the rearrangement to produce the desired effect.
It is possible that defective neuronal connections in cortical areas related to mood regulation might predispose people to depression. The enhanced plasticity provided by the antidepressant might allow reorganisation of cortical connections and function. However, Castrén emphasises that antidepressants do not repair the network on their own, but that functional recovery also requires environmental guidance, such as social interaction, rehabilitation or therapy.
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<urn:uuid:62b638e0-803f-46cd-8e25-26c5a81b186f>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-04/uoh-aen041708.php
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en
| 0.947304 | 792 | 3.25 | 3 |
Spatial distribution and abundance of bud galls caused by eriophyoid mites among host trees Carpinus tschonoskii
Differences in spatial distribution and abundance of bud galls caused by eriophyoid mites (Acari: Eriophyoidea) among Carpinus tschonoskii (Betulaceae) were studied. This mite preferentially induces galls on terminal buds. Four factors influencing gall abundance were examined: host tree size, host tree's reproductive status, altitude and study site. As tree size increased, the number of galls increased to an apparent asymptote. This result suggests that tree size-dependent characteristics such as number of terminal buds, temporal pattern of shoot elongation and reproductive status influence gall abundance.
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: September 1, 2007
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/jen/2007/00000131/00000008/art00015
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en
| 0.874119 | 177 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Peptic Ulcer (Stomach Ulcer)
A peptic ulcer is a sore in the lining of your stomach or upper small intestine. Ulcers form when the protective layer in the lining has broken down, often because of a bacterial infection or frequent use of aspirin or similar medicine.
Peptic ulcers can cause pain in the belly, above the belly button. Ulcers can also bleed.
eMedicineHealth Medical Reference from Healthwise
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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en
| 0.880569 | 101 | 3.0625 | 3 |
for National Geographic News
The elephant-size dinosaur Aerosteon riocoloradensis lived 85 million years ago during the Cretaceous period.
The fossil provides the first evidence of dinosaur air sacs, which pump air into the lungs and are used by modern-day birds, said Paul Sereno, the project's lead researcher and a National Geographic explorer-in-residence. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)
Scientists have known dinosaurs used the pumplike apparatus to breathe, but the new find cements the connection between dinosaur and avian evolution, said Sereno, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago.
"This leaves little discussion that air sacs existed and that meat-eaters really do have lung structures that resemble birds," Sereno said.
(Related story: "Dinosaurs Had Supercharged Breathing Like Birds" [November 8, 2007])
Building a Case
Verifying that dinosaurs had bird-like breathing systems has been difficult because lungs do not fossilize, according to Sereno.
In Argentina, Sereno's team found the wishbone, hipbone, and stomach ribs of the newly found dinosaur species hollowed out—a telltale sign of air sacs.
Aerosteon had a sophisticated and extensive breathing system, said Brooks Britt, a paleontologist at Brigham Young University who studies birdlike dinosaurs and is familiar with Sereno's research.
Britt studies Allosaurus, the new dinosaur's closest relative, which lived 150 million years ago during the Jurassic period.
The two giants had something in common when it comes to birdlike features.
SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES
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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080929-new-dinosaur-missions.html
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| 0.924483 | 348 | 3.4375 | 3 |
|Lisbon Travel Guide|
Lisbon has cultural diversity, laid-back feel and architectural time warp, and you have one of the most enjoyable cities in Europe and also one of the most economical. Lisbon's position on seven low hills beside a river once lured traders and settlers, and it's still a stunning site.
Lisbon´s heart are wide, tree-lined avenues graced by Art Nouveau buildings, mosaic pavements and street cafes. Seen from the river - one of the city's many great viewpoints, Lisbon is an impressionist picture of low-rise ochre and pastel, punctuated by church towers and domes.
Facts in a glance
205 BC: the Romans began their two-century reign in Lisbon, and it became the most important city in the western Iberian region, renamed Felicitas Julia by Julius Caesar.
714: the powerful Moors arrived from Morocco, replacing a succession of northern tribes. They fortified the city and held out against Christian attack for an impressive 400 years.
1147: the Moors' luck had turned and the Christians finally recaptured Lisbon. In the mid-13th century Lisbon replaced Coimbra as Portugal's capital and developed rapidly on the back of booming maritime and inland trade.
15th century: It was the Age of Discoveries, Portugal's golden era of sea exploration. Not satisfied with repelling the Moors from Portuguese soil, Prince Henrique "the Navigator" decided to sap Islam's economic power by finding a way around it by sea. He put to work the best sailors, map makers, ship builders and astronomers he could find.
1434: The Prince was rewarded with gold and slaves from West Africa. One of his ships sailed beyond the much-feared Cape Bojador on the West African coast, breaking a maritime superstition that this was the end of the world.
1497: Vasco da Gama's makes famous discovery of the sea route to India. It also spawned the extravagant Manueline architectural style, best typified in the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos in Belém. The wealth from these expeditions transformed Lisbon into the opulent seat of a vast empire.
1580: Lisbon's glory days as the world's most prosperous trading centre were short lived. The cost of expeditions, maintaining overseas empires and attempting to Christianise Morocco brought Portugal to its knees. In a bitter blow to national pride, Felipe II of Spain claimed the throne, and it took 60 years for fed-up nationalists to overthrow their traditional rival and return Portugal to its people.
17th century: The discovery of gold in Brazil saw Lisbon enjoy another period of profligate expenditure. Again, however, this extravagance was cut short.
1755: A massive earthquake reduced the city to rubble and Lisbon never recovered its power and prestige. After Napoleon's four-year occupation of the city Lisbon, fell into political chaos and military insurrection for over a century.
20th century: A 16-year period brought 45 changes in government. Yet another coup in 1926 brought António de Oliveira Salazar onto the scene. Quickly rising from finance minister to prime minister, he ruled Portugal for 36 years, heading an authoritarian regime that lasted until 1976. During his rule, political parties and strikes were banned. Censorship, propaganda and brute force, exemplified by a feared secret police force, kept the country in order.
1974: The revolution in response to the continued unpopular military suppression of Portuguese colonies, brought a a slow road to democracy. With the injection of funds, Lisbon (and Portugal) finally began to shake off its depressed Salazar-era looks and lifestyle. More political turbulence gradually changed to stability and ultimately membership of the European Union in 1986. In recent years, more stable government combined with massive funding (especially welcome in Lisbon after a major fire in 1988 destroyed the Chiado district) has led to the city's rejuvenation.
1994: Lisbon has now regained some pride in its past and, with a revitalised and vibrant urban life and more huge infrastructure projects planned, looks forward to a future firmly within Europe. It returned to the limelight as European City of Culture. The following years of spectacular economic growth were boosted by major infrastructure projects such as the Ponte de Vasco da Gama, the longest river crossing in Portugal. Redevelopment schemes throughout the city have included restoration of historic neighbourhoods such as the Alfama. Lisbon was given a further sprucing for its role of host to Expo '98. In the run-up to the Expo, the metro was expanded, port facilities extended, hotel construction went into high gear and leading architects created some stunning monuments.
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<urn:uuid:76d69604-2d39-4482-8fa4-d628573b87f0>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.bestcitiestravel.com/lisbon/
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| 0.958645 | 967 | 2.75 | 3 |
Sun will 'flip upside down' within weeks, NASA says
- From: News Corp Australia Network
- December 21, 2013
NASA expects the sun to "flip upside down" within weeks, a significant event that could cause major storms throughout the Solar System.
But there’s no need to run for cover: The sun switches its polarity, flipping its magnetic north and south, once every eleven years, scientists told the Independent.
The transfer, which happens via a mysterious internal mechanism, could however cause intergalactic weather fronts such as geomagnetic storms, which can lead to radio blackouts due to interference with satellites.
Todd Hoeksema, director of the Wilcox Solar Observatory at Stanford University, told the newspaper the polarity change is built up throughout the eleven year cycle through areas of intense magnetic activity known as sunspots which gradually move towards the poles, eroding the existing opposite polarity.
Eventually, the magnetic field reduces to zero, before rebounding with the opposite polarity.
"It's kind of like a tide coming in or going out," Mr Hoeksema said. "Each little wave brings a little more water in, and eventually you get to the full reversal."
"It’s not a catastrophic event, it’s a large scale event that has some real implications, but its not something we need to worry about," he said.
The most noticeable effect on Earth will likely be much brighter auroras, also known as the Northern Lights.
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<urn:uuid:d49b2d72-53d2-453a-9658-bec837d85f00>
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http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/sun-will-flip-upside-down-within-weeks-nasa-says/story-fn5fsgyc-1226787869847
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| 0.956032 | 312 | 3.34375 | 3 |
In December, the National Congress voted to remove four of the five Supreme Court judges who comprise the Constitutional Section of the Supreme Court. The judges had earlier set down a judgement that blocked a law proposed by Congress intended to facilitate a clean-up of the police force. The judges found some aspects of the law to be unconstitutional. The controversial dismissal of the judges was criticized by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which urged the government to respect and guarantee the independence of the judiciary.
Amnesty International visits/reports
- Honduras: Public letter to the Honduran government: No more killings, attacks or threats against journalists and human rights defenders (AMR 37/009/2012)
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<urn:uuid:87021b0b-2742-4846-9b6f-468b94372cf3>
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http://www.amnestyusa.org/research/reports/annual-report-honduras-2013?page=2
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| 0.953069 | 138 | 2.53125 | 3 |
The Good Darknessby Hakim Sanai
English version by Coleman Barks
Original Language Persian/Farsi
There is great joy in darkness.
in the half-light
but a scorched, blackened, face
can laugh like an Ethiopian,
or a candled moth,
coming closer to God.
Brighter than any moon, Bilal,
Muhammed's Black Friend,
shadowed him on the night journey.
Keep your deepest secret hidden
in the dark beneath daylight's
uncovering and night's spreading veil.
Whatever's given you by those two
is for your desires. They poison,
eventually. Deeper down, where your face
gets erased, where life-water runs silently,
there's a prison with no food and drink,
and no moral instruction, that opens on a garden
where there's only God. No self,
only the creation-word, BE.
You, listening to me, roll up the carpet
of time and space. Step beyond,
into the one word.
In blindness, receive what I say.
Take "There is no good..."
for your wealth and your strength.
Let "There is nothing..." be
a love-wisdom in your wine.
|-- from The Hand of Poetry: Five Mystic Poets of Persia, with Lectures by Inayat Khan, Translated by Coleman Barks|
/ Image by TheBroth3R /
Wow. What is there to say about a poem like this? Just reading it works its alchemy on the awareness. But I'm a talkative fellow, so I think I'll say a few things anyway...
What is this "Good Dark"? Light is so often considered one of the attributes of the Divine, but we forget that dark too is also a metaphor for God. The Eternal is sometimes called dark because It is beyond the ability of the limited intellect to see. It is the realm where there are no longer separations; nothing is seen as separate from That. When the individual encounters such immensity, perception in a sense collapses; there is merging and awareness, but the faculty of seeing distinct objects and beings, even a distinct self, is overwhelmed. It can feel like a shining darkness.
So the Sacred Dark, the Good Dark, is God vast beyond comprehension, Being that gathers everything, even light, even perception, into Itself. This is the darkness where there is "great joy." This is the immense Mystery.
But what does Sanai mean when he says "blushing embarrassments / in the half-light / confuse"? And he follows with, "but a scorched, blackened, face / can laugh like an Ethiopian, / or a candled moth, / coming closer to God." What is he saying here?
First, why does a "blackened face" allow us to laugh and come closer to God? Because, if we understand the Divine to be that living, mysterious darkness, then when we become "blackened," we finally recognize ourselves as the same as that darkness. In the "half-light," where we are still distracted by our own faces, we are confused, more aware of ourselves than the holy mystery we touch. We become like a young lover too nervous and self-conscious to simply lose oneself in the embrace of the Beloved.
Sanai is telling us we must be burned like a "candled moth," "blackened" until we have no face of our own separate from the "Good Dark," and then we can melt silently into the darkness and mystery of the Divine One. This is what he means when he later speaks of "Deeper down, where your face / gets erased, where life-water runs silently..."
What do you think Sanai is talking about when he speaks of a place where "there's a prison with no food and drink, / and no moral instruction," but that place surprisingly "opens on a garden / where there's only God"?
The prison is for the false self, the little self, the ego. There is "no food and drink" to satisfy the ego's desires, not merely its sensual desires, but it's intellectual desires go unfed, as well. This is the place where concepts fail, where reality is no longer parceled out into dichotomies of good and bad, right and wrong, making even "moral instruction" a hollow thing. The ego-mind is no longer able to say 'this is separate from that.' In the ego's starvation, in the mind's deep stillness, reality is perceived as one, whole, unsegmented, pure. That "prison with no food and drink" thus leads you to the garden "where there's only God."
This awareness is what Sanai is asking of us when he tells us to "roll up the carpet / of time and space" (both belonging to the ego's attempts to segment reality), to "step... into the one word" (rather than the ego-mind's many words). This is what it means to say "There is no good..." (or bad, no division of opposites), "There is nothing..." (except the Divine Wholeness that is all things, emptying individual 'things' of their substance). If you can settle deeply into this awareness, with supreme poise and balance, then you will find yourself drinking the ecstasy of true love-wisdom!
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<urn:uuid:7a9c4070-bf03-4d25-9691-23454efb3a6a>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/S/SanaiHakim/GoodDarkness/index.html
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en
| 0.947789 | 1,124 | 2.59375 | 3 |
The terrible weather was perfect for our next postcard, the site of a French tragedy.
While matching our postcard we looked out over the English Channel above Étretat with admiration and astonishment.
Here two brave Frenchmen flew into history in a small wood and fabric covered biplane.
Last flight of the white bird
‘L’Oiseau Blanc’ The White Bird, was a custom built Levasseur PL.8. On Sunday 8 May 1927 it took off from Paris Le Bourget airfield headed for New York and a prize of $25,000.
New York hotel owner Raymond Orteig had offered this outrageous award for the first non-stop transatlantic flight between the two cities.
What happened next is one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time.
François Coli and Charles Nungesser
Pilots François Coli and Charles Nungesser were confident of success as they skimmed the white cliffs of Étretat at 6.45am and said goodbye to their military air escort.
François Coli, 45, was a WWI veteran and recipient of the Legion of Honour. He had made record-breaking flights across and around the Mediterranean and had been planning a transatlantic flight for some years.
His co-pilot was 35 year old Charles Nungesser, a highly experienced flying ace with over 40 victories, ranked third highest among French pilots.
Last sightings of The White Bird
On that grey Sunday in May the next official record of their journey was made by the commanding officer of British submarine H.50 who logged a sighting 20 nautical miles southwest of the Isle of Wight.
A short time later a priest in Ireland reported seeing them sail over the village of Carrigaholt. After Ireland the brave pilots faced a long, cold and treacherous passage across the Atlantic.
New York New York
The prize money had whipped the media and the public into a frenzy and on Monday 9 May tens of thousands of people crowded Battery Park, Manhattan to see François and Charles arrive. They were scheduled to touch down with a dramatic water landing by the Statue of Liberty.
Suddenly reports were telegraphed across the world that L’Oiseau had been sighted from New York. In Paris excitement and patriotism exploded on the boulevards.
But the report was a mistake, François, Charles and L’Oiseau never arrived.
‘Vanished, like midnight ghosts’
Unconfirmed reports were later received of a biplane above Newfoundland and Long Island.
Other reports suggested L’Oiseau had been shot down over Maine by rum-runners with tommy guns, or that Charles and François were alive and living with Red Indians in Canada.
Was a crash covered up to make Lindenbergh’s successful attempt a short time later possible?
As late as 1989 the French government made an official investigation but the mystery continues. Did they reach America? If this could be proved it would change the history books.
But as American aviator Charles Lindbergh said, they had ‘vanished, like midnight ghosts’.
Two weeks after the last sighting of L’Oiseau, Lindbergh successfully crossed from New York to Paris and was given an immense hero’s welcome by the French, even as they mourned the losses of Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli.
If you are in Étretat
On top of the cliffs along Avenue Damilaville (either walk up from the beach or park), you cannot miss the dazzling white spike that looks across the sea and honours Charles, François and their extraordinary bravery.
Even in the rain the view across the sea and down to Étretat is beautiful. For pilots François Coli and Charles Nungesser this was their last view of France.
- visit the Monument Nungesser et Coli on the Cliffs at Etretat
- Don’t get caught out, check out the Tide times for Etretat
- L’Oiseau Blanc on Wiki
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| 0.961248 | 856 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Crickets are omnivorous and will eat nearly anything. One of the biggest components in breeding crickets is a nutritious diet. Thus food like grass, fruit, meat, plant waste, fungi and even seedlings or tiny plants can be used as fodder for the crickets. Most pet shops also carry cricket food. On the more exotic side, food like oats, fish, bread, breakfast cereal and fresh vegetables and fruits can also be given to crickets. Some of their favorite food are fruits, such as grapes and apples.
Crickets, depending on their species, can vary in size. Some of the best known species of this insect are snowy tree crickets, house crickets, field crickets, ground crickets and cave crickets. There also are camel crickets and mole crickets. The cricket is an insect and belongs to the Order Orthoptera and Class Insecta.
What benefits or uses do crickets have? Plenty if one were to consider that they are useful in breaking down plant material. They are also an important part of the food chain and small and medium sized animals and birds like owls, mice, frogs, snakes and shrews feed on them. They are also the food source for bigger insects. Human beings use crickets as a food source too. The Chinese believe these insects have medicinal property. They are used in sport and are believed to be harbingers of good luck.
As with any other living species, food supplements are useful too. Calcium supplements and alfalfa help the crickets with additional nutrition. If there are a large number of mouths to feed in the cricket enclosure, consider feeding them some chicken mash. This is a cost effective option for feeding crickets. Crickets are also known to eat things like rubber, plastic and leather – which can be found in almost every household. With the other healthier options though, this need not be considered as part of the regular diet for crickets! One important aspect of the cricket’s diet is water. It is thus important to include water troughs or containers for the crickets. A small but important detail here is that the water container should not be too deep or the insects will drown. So placing cotton swabs inside the water vessel can also help in preventing this.
Given the vast list of food they can eat and the minimum amount of care they need, raising or breeding crickets is an easy task, if you want to use them as bait.
More Articles :
- Do Crickets Molt ?
- Fun Facts About Crickets
- How Do Crickets Make Noise ?
- Types Of Crickets
- What Do Crickets Eat ?
Want To Know It: What Do Crickets Eat?
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| 0.960611 | 558 | 2.875 | 3 |
(also virtual storage)
Memory that appears to exist as main storage although most of it is supported by data held in secondary storage, transfer between the two being made automatically as required.
- By introducing integers into memory lookups, more precision is gained, enabling more flexibility in storing graphics data in places such as virtual memory or main system memory.
- Block-level storage virtualization distributes blocks of data to virtual storage pools across multiple storage devices, which helps to manage space and control devices at the hardware level.
- I haven't run out of memory in more than a decade, ever since virtual memory appeared in Windows 386.
For editors and proofreaders
Syllabification: vir·tu·al mem·o·ry
Definition of virtual memory 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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| 0.915755 | 188 | 3.28125 | 3 |
1 Answer | Add Yours
Two phrases--“more important” and “a person’s life”—need clarification here. Importance is a measurement against some standard, some benchmark. More important to…? A person’s athletic abilities? A person’s ability to reason? A person’s moral code? Etc. And a person’s life—do you mean Success? Longevity? Happiness? Helpfulness? etc. But the two elements that make us who we are—the genes we were born with (nature) and the upbringing we experienced (nurture)—work hand-in-hand. An athlete, for example, may have been given natural abilities—size, strength, mobility—but in order to excel in this area, he or she must be taught (nurtured) to work on those muscles, sinews, etc, as well as become nurtured to work hard, to avoid instant gratification, to bring intelligence to the sport, etc. Without nurture, the natural gifts are wasted; without the natural gifts, nurturing good habits will only bring the athlete so far. This is an oversimplification of how the two influences work together. “A person’s life” is more than physical or financial success. And moral/ethical values are not given at birth (unless you count survival instincts). So the answer to your question: these are pairs of influences whose important can only be discussed once values are in place.
We’ve answered 327,877 questions. We can answer yours, too.Ask a question
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| 0.927106 | 330 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Called DC’s “forgotten river,” the Anacostia flows from Maryland’s Prince George County into the Potomac basin, and it borders Washington, D.C.’s most poverty-stricken neighborhood. More than 20 years ago, Children’s Health Fund established a program here, and today it provides medical and dental care as part of a thriving and robust fixed-site pediatric health center dedicated to improving the health of the area’s children.
THE IMPACT OF POVERTY
Isolated from the economic, educational, cultural and medical infrastructure of the nation’s capital across the river, the children and youth of Anacostia experience a high degree of socioeconomic and environmental risk factors that often give rise to developmental delays and long-term health problems. These factors include high incidences of infant mortality, infant morbidity, teenage pregnancy, low birth weights, prenatal exposure to drugs and alcohol and child abuse and neglect.
The mobile clinic provides comprehensive primary care at sites situated near public housing that are within walking distance of schools. Additionally, to address the increasingly unmet dental needs of its patients, the program provides full dental services via a mobile dental unit.
A FAMILY-CENTERED APPROACH
Because the families in the community have so many needs, the health care team provides more than typical primary care. “Here at the clinic, we connect patients from our mobile clinics with case workers, support groups, nutrition and fitness opportunities, and health education,” says Dr. Marcee White, who was just beginning her residency with a rotation on the mobile clinic when Katrina struck. Seeing the mobile team pack up and head to New Orleans to respond to the disaster, she remembers thinking, “These are the kind of people I want to work with.”
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| 0.939278 | 379 | 2.578125 | 3 |
The soft appearance of Dione's wispy terrains belies their true nature. They are, in fact, complex systems of crisp, braided fractures that cover the moon's trailing hemisphere.
(See PIA06162) for a closer view of the fractures.)This view shows the western potion of the wispy terrain on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across). The craters Dido and Antenor can be seen near the terminator at lower left.
In the rings above, the dark Cassini Division between the A and B rings is visible.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini narrow-angle camera on Oct. 9, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 52 degrees. The image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
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| 0.873818 | 337 | 3.15625 | 3 |
You are viewing a printer-friendly page from the Climate Change Institute website, online at http://climatechange.umaine.edu.
The primary objective of our project is to use glacial geology to reconstruct both the timing and magnitude of past climate events in the Andes of Peru. This record, ultimately, will span the last glacial maximum, the late-glacial period, and the current Holocene interglacial, and will help us address questions relating to the role of the tropics in climate change. Our approach combines geomorphic mapping with cosmogenic surface-exposure dating (both 3He and 10Be methods) and radiocarbon dating. Moreover, to assess how different tropical regions responded to global forcing, we’re employing this methodology at sites in both the wet and arid Andes.
Gordon completed his PhD at UMaine in 2010 and is now a postdoctoral fellow at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
Kurt is in the final stages of his PhD at Maine, where he’s focusing on the peopling of the high Andes after the last ice age.
Matt is an undergraduate at Pacific Lutheran University, WA. We’ve been working on this project with his advisor, Claire Todd, since 2006 and so his participation in this season’s work will form part of his dissertation.
This 2011 season saw our small field group – Gordon, Kurt, and Matt – visit the eastern, wetter end of our transect. Laguna Aricoma and Minas Tira both lie in the Cordillera Carabaya, overlooking the Amazon Basin and prone to tempestuous weather even during the dry season. The region is also difficult to access due to local bureaucracy – something we could not navigate successfully without Kurt’s superior Spanish and diplomacy skills. In all, we spent about five weeks exploring this rugged yet populous landscape, identifying and mapping glacial deposits and collecting a large number of boulder samples for surface-exposure dating. At Aricoma, we were fortunate enough to extract a number of sediment cores from moraine-dammed bogs, which should enable us to augment the cosmogenic chronology with radiocarbon data. There’s also a possibility that the faunal record preserved in these cores will provide palaeoecologic data, though it’s early days yet. During our time in the Cordillera Carabaya, the weather turned from typical sunshine and frosty nights to a more wintery mix: high winds, building cloud, and snow. Apparently, this sort of weather is common on the tail end of a La Niña event, such as this year. Whatever the reason, sampling boulders in driving sleet was less than desirable.
Once work was completed in the east, our team headed west towards the desert of Arequipa, the stormy weather hot on our tails. We spent a few days on Nevado Ampato, the statuesque, ice-capped volcano from which the Inca Ice Maiden was plucked in the 1990s, and a short time sampling lavas near Coropuna for cosmogenic calibration work. By the end of the trip, we’d put over 2000 km on the odometer and collected more than one hundred rock samples for analysis. It was, by far, our most successful season yet. Next year, in June-July 2012, we will continue this field work, focusing on Nevado Coropuna in the dry western cordillera.
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Arkaim (Russian: Аркаим) is an archaeological site situated in the Southern Urals steppe, 8.2 kilometres (5.1 mi) north-to-northwest of
Amurskiy, and 2.3 km (1.4 mi) south-to-southeast of Alexandronvskiy, two villages in the Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, just to the north from the
The site is generally dated to the 17th century BC. Earlier dates, up to the 20th century BC, have been proposed. It was a settlement of the
The site was discovered in 1987 by a team of Chelyabinsk scientists who were preparing the area to be flooded in order to create a reservoir, and
examined in rescue excavations led by Gennadii Zdanovich.
Although the settlement was burned and abandoned, much detail is preserved. Arkaim is similar in form but much better preserved than neighbouring
Sintashta, where the earliest chariot was unearthed. The site was protected by two circular walls. There was a central square, surrounded by two
circles of dwellings separated by a street. The settlement covered ca. 20,000 m2 (220,000 sq ft). The diameter of the enclosing wall was 160 m (520
ft). It was built from earth packed into timber frames, and reinforced with unburned clay brick, with a thickness of 4–5 m (13–16 ft). and a
height of 5.5 m (18 ft). The settlement was surrounded with a 2 m (6 ft 7 in)-deep moat.
There are 4 entrances into the settlement through the outer and inner wall with the main entrance to the west. The dwellings were between 110–180 m2
(1,200–1,900 sq ft) in area. The outer ring of dwellings number 39 or 40, with entrances to a circular street in the middle of the settlement. The
inner ring of dwellings number 27, arranged along the inner wall, with doors to the central square of 25 by 27 m (82 by 89 ft). The central street was
drained by a covered channel. Zdanovich estimates that approximately 1500 to 2500 people could have lived in the settlement.
Surrounding Arkaim's walls, were arable fields, 130–140 m by 45 m (430–460 ft by 150 ft), irrigated by a system of canals and ditches. Remains of
millet and barley seeds were found.
Since its discovery, Arkaim has attracted public and media attention in Russia, from a broad range of the population, including esoteric, New Age and
pseudoscientific organizations. It is said to be the most enigmatic archaeological site within the territory of Russia.
The similarity of latitude, date, and size led some archaeoastronomists (Bystrushkin 2003) to compare Arkaim with Stonehenge in England. According to
their claims, the Neolithic observatory at Stonehenge allowed for observation of 15 astronomical phenomena using 22 elements, whereas the
contemporaneous observatory at Arkaim allowed for observation of 18 astronomical phenomena using 30 elements. The precision of measurements in
Stonehenge is estimated at 10 arc-minutes to a degree, that in Arkaim being put at 1 arc-minute. Such a precision of astronomical observations was not
repeated until the compilation of Almagest about 2 millennia later. The interpretation as an observatory for either Stonehenge or Arkaim is not
The ancient Ural fortress Arkaim located in the Chelyabinsk region is called “Russian Stonehenge.” In addition to streets and buildings ruins
scientists found remnants of the water system, metallurgic furnaces, and mines. It is also believed to be one of the strongest anomaly zones in
It is worth mentioning that Arkaim, a fortified settlement of the Bronze Age was built with four entrances to the city strictly oriented at cardinal
points. It was built according to a previously designed plan, with a high level of precision. All circumferences have one center where all radial
feeders meet together. This circular structure is star-oriented, and the design itself looks like a model of the Universe.
According to the research conducted by archeologist Konstantin Bystrushkin, Arkaim tracks 18 astronomical events. They include sunsets and sunrises on
the days of equinox and solstice, as well as sunsets and sunrises during low and high Moon.
The famous Stonehenge, a mysterious circle of upright stones, has fewer astronomically traceable events. Interestingly enough, both architectural
structures are located at the same geographical latitude.
Arkaim is interesting not only as a historic monument. There is a great deal of evidence suggesting that it is one of the strongest anomaly zones in
Russia. UFOs were observed in the area on several occasions shaped as light flashes, moving circles and fog clusters.
Locals believe it to be a sacred place. Pilgrims come here all year round to get some healing water from the Bolshaya Karaganka River, and in the
summer they coat themselves with clay. They say it helps treating skin diseases
The mountains surrounding the fortress are also unusual. The most famous one is Shamanka (or Bold Mountain). People climb to its top to get some
positive energy, pray or meditate. People in serious medical condition are brought there for healing.
Visitors come to the top of Repentance Mountain to ask for forgiveness. Love Mountain is believed to bring personal luck. The nearby Male Forest is
visited by women who have relationship problems. The rumor has it, a walk in this forest will make a woman popular with men.
The growth near Grachinaya Mountain (also called Blessed) is infamous. Birch trunks there are abnormally crooked at the bottom. They say people cannot
stay there for too long, otherwise they risk losing their mind.
Once during archeological excavations a female student heard a voice that called her to the center of the structure. She went there alone, and cried
for a long time when she came back. She said she met ghosts of ancient Arkaim residents. She had to be sent to a psychiatric facility.
There are at least two places that should be called Arkaim. The first, conventional Arkaim, is the ruins that are shown to tourists today.
The second Arkaim is located a little further, in a place where excavations are still going on and where visitors are not allowed. And finally, the
third Arkaim, where for some unknown reasons even locals do not go to.
Perhaps 100,000 years ago or more, so the hypothesis runs, a great star-gazing Ice Age people lived in the Arctic region, at that time a temperate
zone, before migrating south to Inner Asia as conditions changed and the great ice sheets melted. There, in a fertile, paradisaical land, these
unknown sages became the core of a Ural-Altaic race that continued to evolve over the millennia, improving the stock of primitive humanity by
intermarriage, developing cosmological sciences and political structures that sowed the seeds of our present civilised state, migrating across the
earth and then disappearing, leaving immortal legends about itself behind.
The British author John Michell cites the massive evidence for such a civilisation, which he regards as essentially magical, and still faintly visible
across the earth for those who care to look:
The entire surface of the earth is marked with the traces of a gigantic work of prehistoric engineering, the remains of a once universal system of
natural magic, involving the use of polar magnetism together with another positive force related to solar energy. Of the various human and superhuman
races that have occupied the earth in the past, we have only the dreamlike accounts of the earliest myths. All we can suppose is that some
overwhelming disaster… destroyed a system whose maintenance depended upon its control of certain natural forces across the entire earth.2
Michell is one voice among many claiming that in the archives of prehistoric peoples a forgotten race has left traces of an advanced body of
knowledge, seemingly both spiritual and technological, which can guide us, if we will, into a viable future.
Despite being ignored by mainstream historians and anthropologists, this theory is being ever more insistently put forward by highly accredited
researchers as evidence for the enormous age of our species continues to be found not only in the legends of races in every part of the planet but
also in the thousands of technological anomalies being unearthed in unlikely geological strata.
The ancient Greek historians had much to say on this subject, especially concerning the legends of Asia Minor which told of the descent thereto, in
the depths of the Ice Ages, of the Hyperboreans, a mysterious race of superior beings from polar regions whose Pillar works on earth sought to mirror
the starry heavens above. Yet it is Central and Inner Asia further to the east, a vast land of steppes, mountains and sandy deserts, whose people
preserve the most significant memories of a time beyond telling when cities populated the deserts and an Elder race walked tall on the earth. And it
is these Ural-Altaic regions that are now taking centre stage as the search continues for the roots of homo sapiens and the path into a viable future.
Constructed on a circular principle around a central square, with about sixty semi-dugout houses built within its ramparts, the settlement was
situated in the southern Urals, near the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. It was defended by two concentric ramparts of clay and adobe blocks on a wooden
frame, and could only be entered via four intricately constructed passageways that would have made the entrance of enemies extremely difficult. The
inhabitants and the common central square were thus well protected by Arkaim’s defensive, inward-turned ground plan. The town was found to be
closely aligned to several celestial reference points, and is therefore believed to have been an observatory as well as a fortress, an administrative
and a religious centre.
Dubbed “the Russian Stonehenge,” this Bronze age settlement was about 3,600 years old and was contemporaneous with the Cretan-Mycenaean
civilisation, with the Egyptian Middle Kingdom and with the Mesopotamian and Indus valley civilisations, and older by several centuries than Homer’s
fabled Troy, whose circular layout it so closely resembled. Arkaim was inhabited for 200 years and was then mysteriously burned down and deserted.
The Russian team’s explorations showed that Arkaim enjoyed an advanced technology for its time. It was equipped with a drainage gutter and storm
sewage system and had actually been protected from fire: the timbered flooring of the houses and the houses themselves were imbued with a fireproof
substance – a strong compound the remnants of which can still be found in the ruins. Each house gave onto an inner ring road paved with wooden
blocks; and in each house there was a hearth, a well, cellars, an oven and provision for a cooled food storage system. The oven was such that it may
have been possible to smelt bronze in it, as well as to fire pottery.
Subsequent to this exciting excavation, more than another twenty fortified settlements and necropolises were unearthed in the Arkaim Valley, some
stone-built, larger and more impressive than Arkaim. With Arkaim possibly its capital, the complex came to be called the Land of Cities and presented
scientists with many mysteries. It was the first concrete evidence of a lost neolithic civilisation in southern Russia, confirming what had long been
believed, that the southern Urals and northern Kazakhstan, situated at the junction of Asia and Europe, was an important region in the formation of a
complex Aryan society.
Ar-ka means sky, and Im means earth, says Alex Sparkey, a Russian writer. He explains that this means Arkaim is a place where the Sky touches the
Earth. Here the material and the spiritual are inseparable
The truth is that Arkaim was a troy town, so-called after the city in Asia Minor that the Greek king Agammenon destroyed during the Trojan Wars. Built
on the same circular principle as Troy, as described in Homer’s Iliad, but at least six hundred years older, Arkaim finds its prototype in Plato’s
Atlantis with its three concentric circles of canals; in legendary Electris, the Hyperborean city some said was built under the Pole Star by the
sea-god Poseidon; and in Asgard, the sacred city dedicated to the Norse god Odin that is described in the Icelandic saga, the Edda. All these
legendary troy towns have the same circular ground plan. They have gone down in history as neolithic Wisdom centres and the seats of ancient
god-kings, and this undoubtedly throws light on the cultic function of Arkaim in its day, as we shall see.
In Russia’s more mystical quarters there is intense interest in the ancient town, seeing it as the city temple built by the legendary King Yama,
ruler of the Aryans in the Golden Age, which will once again become the centre of the world.
Note: Please find below our recognition of and great gratitude to only a few of the scientists who have brought this information to public
G.B.Zdanovich – Gennady Borisovich Zdanovich, Doctor of Historical Sciences, chairman of History and Ethnography of Chelyabinsk State University,
director of Arkaim reserve, the person who discovered Arkaim.
K.K.Bystrushkin – Konstantin Konstantinovich Bystrushkin, Astro-archeologist.
Ludmila Koryakova – Ural State University; Institute of History and Archeology
This format on Arkaim, by Paulo Riven, Tribes of Atlantis.
[edit on 3-7-2010 by AeJor_Mn]
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| 0.959236 | 2,955 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Maine Gov. Paul LePage has signed a bill aimed at promoting Lyme disease awareness. The bill signed on Tuesday requires the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention to include certain information on its website about Lyme disease diagnosis and treatment. Among other things, the website must say that a negative result for a Lyme disease test doesn’t necessarily mean Lyme disease isn’t present. The International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society Physicians says false-negatives for Lyme disease occur 54 percent of the time. The bill also mandates that patients get full results when tested. The bacterial infection is carried by the deer tick. It can be prevented by wearing protective clothing, using insect repellent, performing daily tick checks and using caution in tick habitats.
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Kangaroo paw, or Anigozanthos, is usually grown from seeds. Although it's technically a perennial, it only grows well for three to five years, with some species growing for even less time. Therefore, gardeners treat kangaroo paw plants as annuals. [source: ANBG]
Here's how to grow kangaroo paw plants.
- Plant your kangaroo paw seeds in pots in spring or summer. The seeds should sprout in about four weeks.
- Keep the soil moist, but don't overwater. Kangaroo paw needs well-drained soil.
- Transplant your kangaroo paw in the ground once it's a few inches (at least 5 centimeters) tall -- it won't survive if you transplant it when it's too small. However if you live in a cold climate, keep the kangaroo paw in a pot so you can bring it indoors in the winter.
- Keep the plants exposed to plenty of indirect natural sunlight while indoors.
- Divide your full-grown kangaroo paw into clumps in early summer, and replant the clumps. This will help ensure that your kangaroo paw grows vigorously.
- Do not touch the sensitive roots when replanting.
- Move your kangaroo paw inside if the temperature drops below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4.4 degrees Celsius).
- Water your kangaroo paw once a week in spring and summer and less frequently in the fall [source: Garden Guides].
- Don't water the plant in the winter, when it's dormant [source: Gardening Central].
Kangaroo paw is susceptible to a fungus called ink disease, which presents on the leaves as black blotches. Ink disease is more common in cool, moist climates. Remove and burn any leaves that are badly affected. You may apply fungicide if you wish, but replacing the plants with healthy ones is probably your best option [source: ANBG].
Kangaroo paw is also susceptible to snails and slugs. Remove these pests if you find them on your plant.
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Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
Developmental Psychology: Cognitive development · Development of the self · Emotional development · Language development · Moral development · Perceptual development · Personality development · Psychosocial development · Social development · Developmental measures
Marcel Proust and In Search of Lost TimeEdit
Involuntary memory (fr. mémoire involontaire) is a concept articulated by the French writer Marcel Proust in his novel In Search of Lost Time, although the idea was also developed in his earlier writings, Contre Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve and Jean Santeuil. Proust contrasts involuntary memory with voluntary memory. The latter designates memories retreived by "intelligence," that is, memories produced when we put conscious effort into remembering events, people, and places. Proust's narrator laments that such memories are inevitably partial, and do not bear the "essence" of the past. Involuntary memories, on the other hand, function similarly to the phenomenon known as déjà-vu: they possess a vivid and plenary sensory immediacy that seems to obliterate the passage of time between the original event and its re-experience in involuntary memory. The most famous instance of involuntary memory in Proust is known as the "episode of the madeleine," but there are at least half of a dozen in In Search of Lost Time, including the memories produced by the scent of a public lavatory on the Champs-Élysées.
The function of involuntary memory in the novel is not self-evident, however. It has been argued that involuntary memory unlocks the Narrator's past as the subject of his novel, but also that he does not begin writing until many years after the episode of the madeleine, for example. Other critics have suggested that it is not the recovery of the past per se that is significant for the Narrator, but rather the happiness produced by his recognition of the past in a present moment. Maurice Blanchot in Le Livre à venir points out that involuntary memories are epiphanic and pointed, and cannot effectively support a sustained narrative. He notes that the difference between Proust's uncompleted Jean Santeuil and In Search of Lost Time is the voluntary memories that provide the connective tissue between such moments and make up the vast bulk of the narrative of the later novel.
A contemporary influence on Proust's conception of involuntary memory may have been the French philosopher Henri Bergson, who in Matter and Memory (1906) made a distinction between two types of memory, the habit of memory as in learning a poem by heart, and spontaneous memory that stores up perceptions and impressions and reveals them in sudden flashes. However, Proust criticism of the last quarter century has tended to discount the influence of Bergson on Proust's ideas.
Developmental psychology Edit
In psychological research, involuntary memory was systematically studied by Soviet psychologists who investigated primarily the interrelation between specific human activity (other than deliberate remembering), the place of the material to be remembered in it, and qualitative and quntitative characteristics of recall. The pioneer of the research in this field was the student of Vygotsky and Leont'ev and one of the leading representatives of the Soviet school of psychology Pyotr Zinchenko, who published the results of his ingenious study as early as in 1939. The distinction between involuntary and voluntary memory (i.e. such memory that results from deliberate memorization as opposed to memory as a by-product of other, non-mnemonic activity) was subsequently developed by such Soviet psychologists as Smirnov, Istomina, Shlychkova, particularly, by such representatives of Kharkov School of Psychology as P. Zinchenko, Repkina, Sereda, Bocharova, Ivanova, etc. to mention but a few.
Soviet research on involuntary memory significantly influenced psychological research in the West. A wide range of European and North American studies on involuntary remembering in children (e.g. by Meacham, Murphy and Brown, Sophian & Hagen, Schneider, Reese, Ivanova & Nevoennaya, Mistry, Rogoff & Herman) demonstrated viability and promisingness of the activity-based model of human memory.
Literature on involuntary memory Edit
- Proust, Marcel. In Search of Lost Time.
- Zinchenko, P. I. (1939/1983-84). The problem of involuntary memory. Soviet Psychology XXII, 55-111.
- Zinchenko, P. I. (1961). Neproizvol'noe zapominanie [Involuntary memory] (in Russian). Moscow: APN RSFSR. -- Chapter 4 (pp. 172-207) is published in English as --
- Zinchenko, P. I. (1981). Involuntary memory. In J.V. Wertsch (ed.) The Concept of Activity in Soviet Psychology (pp. 300–340). Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe, Inc.
- Smirnov, A. A. & Zinchenko, P. I. (1969). Problems in the psychology of memory. In M. Cole & I. Maltzman (eds.), A handbook of contemporary Soviet psychology. New York: Plenum Press.
- Istomina, Z. M. (1948/1977). The development of voluntary memory in preschool-age children. In M. Cole (Ed.), Soviet developmental psychology (pp. 100–159); -- the same as: Istomina, Z. M. (1975). The development of voluntary memory in preschool-age children. Soviet Psychology, 13, 5-64.
- Meacham, J. A. (1972). The development of memory abilities in the individual and society. Human Development, 15, 205-228. Reprinted in J. G. Seamon (Ed.), Recent contributions in memory and cognition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980. Pp. 415-430.
- Meacham, J.A. (1977). Soviet investigations of memory development. In R.V. Kail & J.W. Hagen (Eds.), Perspective on the Development of Memory and Cognition (Vol. 9, pp. 273–295). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
- Murphy, M. D., & Brown, A. L. (1975). Incidental learning in preschool children as a function of level of cognitive analysis. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 19 (3), 509-523.
- Sophian, C., & Hagen, J. W. (1978). Involuntary memory and the development of retrieval skills in young children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 26, 458-471.
- Van der Veer, R., Van IJzendoorn, M. H., & Valsiner, J. (Eds.) (1994). Reconstructing the mind. Replicability in research on human development. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
- Ivanova, E. F. & Nevoyennaya E.A. (1998). The historical evolution of mnemonic processes. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 36 (3), May-June, 1998, p.60-77.
- Reese, H. W. (1999). Strategies for replication research exemplified by replications of the Istomina Study. Developmental Review, 19, 1—30.
- Mistry, J. Rogoff, B., & Herman, H. (2001). What is the meaning of meaningful purpose in children’s remembering? Istomina Revisited. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 8(1), 28-41.
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What's the best way to do a parasitic cleanse and how?
This is a great question. We do have diseases in Alaska which you should be aware.
Giardia: a parasite obtained through drinking unfiltered water from streams and lakes in Alaska. It can cause painful bouts of diarrhea, stomach cramps, gas and nausea.
Tularemia: bacteria obtained from contact with handling infected rodents, rabbits, hares and pigs.
Trichinosis: a parasite acquired from eating under cooked walrus, seal, bear and pigs. It can cause nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, fatigue, fever and abdominal pain.
Paralytic shellfish poisoning or PSP: A toxin in shellfish. Tingling to lips, finger and toes progressing to numbness. This is an emergency, you can develop respiratory paralysis within 3 to 12 hours after ingestion of infected clams. Eat only shellfish which has been tested for PSP.
For further information: http://cdc.gov/parasites
Other parasites, such as tape worms, round worms, hook worms, and pin worms are possible to acquire; but, usually with travel outside of Alaska.
Symptoms of these may include: constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating, aches, pains, anemia, and fatigue.
1. Cook your food.
2. Wash fruits and vegetables prior to eating.
3. Wash your hands before eating and after using the bathroom.
4. Filter or treat water from lakes and streams prior to drinking.
4. Have a travel consult with your health care provider prior to international travel for tips and preventative measures.
If you believe you may have a parasite or other disease, contact your health care provider for an evaluation. You want to identify the organism which is causing the symptoms and then treat the disease.
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Mare Nostrum is an EU-funded cross-border project exploring new ways of protecting the Mediterranean coastline. Mare Nostrum, has a budget of EUR 4.32 million, of which 90% was funded by the EU.
Mare Nostrum (our sea) was the name used by the ancient Romans to refer to the Mediterranean.
Today, the 22 countries of the Mediterranean Basin share a number of challenges to their shores, including strong development pressures, vulnerability to sea-level rise and other impacts of climate change and other threats to an already-degraded coastal environment.
The project’s primary goal is to contribute to bridging the policy-implementation gap between the ideals of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) and its effects on the ground. The project will develop new tools for realistic implementation of ICZM and is expected to lead to improved dialogue and cooperation across national borders.
Mare Nostrum is comprised of 11 partners from Malta, Greece, Israel, Jordan and Spain, including leading research institutes, local municipalities, environmental NGOs and port operators. The project builds upon existing international efforts, such as the Barcelona Convention and the Protocol on Integrated Coastal Zone Management in the Mediterranean of 2008.
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3. Outcome (a) assessment
Outcome (a): An ability to apply knowledge of computing and mathematics to solve problems
Assessment of Outcome (a) was assessed at the Advanced Level in CS 146 in all sections taught (Sections 2, 3, 4 and 5).
Note: Section 1 was not offered.
The percentage of students achieving at least satisfactory performance on each indicator is:
Indicator 1: 85.6%
Indicator 2: 76.9%
Indicator 3: 60.6%
Indicator 4: 77.9%
Overall, the students did well.
The only indicator of concern is Indicator 3: Calculate running time of an algorithm given in pseudo-code. Only 60.6% of students were able to achieve at least satisfactory performance on this indicator. According to one instructor, finding the correct running time of a recursive algorithm is hard for students at this level. Many of them confuse it with the special case where the Master Theorem can be applied or fail to 'guess'/prove correctly the running time. One way to improve this outcome is to devote more explanation and practice questions to this topic in future.
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Italy has historically been a Catholic nation for nearly two thousand years even though a small minority of people from other religions is found within the populace. It was “normal” for Italian children to attend schools in which classrooms displayed a crucifix. But, in recent years the country has become religiously mixed as millions of non-Catholics enter and challenge norms. However, being a member of the European Union adds a complication in dealing with individual rights. A parent brought a case to the European Court of Human Rights because her children attended a public school in which a crucifix was found in every classroom. The Court ruled display of religious artifacts violated EU human right standards. “The compulsory display of a symbol of a given confession in premises used by public authorities restricted the right of parents to educate their children in conformity with their convictions.”
The question of religious symbols in public places also raises issues as to why must they be displayed outside of churches or mosques or synagogues. What is the purpose of a crucifix in a classroom, given that students can not use it to pray? Frankly, such items are a crutch for those who lack faith in their own religion.
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Sum of An Infinite Series
Date: 07/08/98 at 13:39:37 From: Melissa May Subject: The sum of an infinite series- how is it possible? Hello, Dr. Math. Isn't adding up all the terms of an infinite series not possible? How can one take infinity, something so endless and flowing with continuity, and box it up in something so simple as a sum? And yet we are presented with a formula for this very task, adding up infinity. Please explain this concept to me, if you can.
Date: 07/08/98 at 15:44:15 From: Doctor Rob Subject: Re: The sum of an infinite series- how is it possible? You are right that the way addition is defined, we can only add up a finite number of numbers. Any attempt to add up an infinite number of numbers must rely on a new definition or concept. As an example, let's take the following infinite series: S = 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + ... + 1/2^n + ... Consider the sequence of finite sums gotten by taking the first n terms: P(n) = 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + ... + 1/2^n P(1) = 1/2, P(2) = 3/4, P(3) = 7/8, P(4) = 15/16, and so on. It can be easily proved by mathematical induction that P(n) = 1 - 1/2^n for all n > 0. Now as n grows without bound, we define the sum S to be the value (if any) that P(n) approaches more and more closely. In the study of calculus, you will learn that this is called a limit. Series for which this limit exists are called "convergent" series. S is the limit as n grows without bound of P(n), written: S = lim P(n) n->infinity The formal definition of a limit is not important here. You will learn it in calculus. In this case, P(n) approaches 1 as n grows without bound. If you tell me how close to 1 you want to get, I can tell you the value of n you will have to take so that for that n and all larger ones, P(n) is that close or closer to 1. Thus we write S = 1. Now it turns out that defining S that way makes a lot of sense. Such a definition allows one to make sense of some infinite sums, and furthermore, convergent series obey the usual laws of arithmetic. Convergent series include as a special case all finite sums, by appending to the end an infinite string of the form: + 0 + 0 + 0 ... and the value obtained by the above process on the infinite sum agrees with the value obtained by the usual methods of adding finite sums. Some infinite series have no sums. They are called "divergent" series. There are two kinds of divergent series. First there are the kind where P(n) grows beyond all bounds, as in 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + ..., for which P(n) = n. Then there are the kind where P(n) oscillates, such as -1 + 2 - 2 + 2 - 2 + ..., for which P(n) = (-1)^n. In the first case, we can write S = infinity, but have to be very careful with that kind if we try to manipulate them using the laws of arithmetic. After all, infinity is not a number in the same way that 4, -17, 3/2, sqrt(2), or pi is! In the second case, we cannot assign any sensible value to S at all. In this particular example, we could compute the value of S in a different way. Multiply the sum by 2, to get: 2*S = 2/2 + 2/4 + 2/8 + 2/16 + ... + 2/2^n + ... = 1 + 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + ... + 1/2^(n-1) + ... Now subtract the original series from this one. Note that almost all of the terms cancel, such as 1/8 - 1/8, and 1/1024 - 1/1024 (is it okay to cancel infinitely many of these pairs?), and you are left with: S = 2*S - S = 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 + ... = 1 I hope this helps clarify what we mean by the sum of an infinite series. - Doctor Rob, The Math Forum Check out our web site! http://mathforum.org/dr.math/
Search the Dr. Math Library:
Ask Dr. MathTM
© 1994-2015 The Math Forum
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Cactus and Succulents, Easy and fun for the family:
Looking for an easy and fun way to garden indoors this winter. How about creating a nice cacti and succulent garden collection. Easy to care for and very long lasting these plants are fun for the whole family. As long as you know how to care for them.
The difference between Cacti and Succulents:
The difference is actually quite easy to describe, once you are aware of it. The word succulent is a descriptive term for all the types of plants that store water in their leaves or stems. A cactus is in a large family of plants that are all succulents. There are other types of succulents besides cacti. So, a good rule to remember is that all cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are Cacti.
Watch Gardening with Gutner
Caring for Cactus and Succulents:
During the active growth season cacti need to be watered more often than during the dormant season. There is no set watering specifications for cacti, as it depends on the pot,
the soil, the climate and several other factors. The best way to learn how much water your cactus needs and how often is to observe it. When watering the cactus, add water until
there is only about a half inch of dry soil on the surface. Be sure that the drainage holes in the pot are not blocked so the water can run out. Do not water the cactus again until the soil is completely dry. The easiest way to check the soil moisture is to carefully stick a pencil or a similar object to the bottom of the soil and check for any damp soil clinging to it.
During the dormant season (winter months), the plant should be watered no more than every few weeks.
From spring to fall, you should only fertilize your cactus once every eight to ten weeks. A low nitrogen fertilizer works best, like 5-10-10. You can also use a time release
fertilizer, but they only need to be used once in the spring. You can buy specific cactus fertilizer at your local garden supply store. Do not fertilize during the winter months.
Cacti need bright light and inside, southern facing windows are best. If the cactus does not receive enough light, artificial light should also be supplemented.
Cacti can tolerate heat up 90-100 degrees Fahrenheit during their active growth season. During the dormant season, cacti do best in temperatures from 45-55 degrees, which they
would encounter in their natural habitats. Studies have also proven that low temperatures during the dormant season encourage flower growth.
Next you will need soil for your cactus. The best kind is cactus soil, made specifically for cacti, which you can find at home improvement centers and gardening stores. If you
cannot get cactus soil, then you can make your own with one part potting soil and one part sand. Adding a little gravel to the mixture will also aid in drainage.
When repotting your cactus, break the old pot if possible and remove the pieces. Digging the cactus out of the pot can cause root damage and should be avoided. Put some of
the fresh cactus soil into the bottom of the pot and placethe cactus on top. Then fill in the sides with more soil. The cactus should not be heavily watered or placed in direct
sunlight for about a week after repotting to allow it to adjust to it’s new “˜home.’ After the initial repotting, the cactus should only be transferred to another pot when
absolutely necessary. After the repotting is over, caring for your cactus is a breeze. The most important thing to remember is that cacti have two seasons, the active growing season during the spring and summer and the dormant season during the fall and winter, when they go into hibernation so to speak.
Issues with Cactus:
Over watering is the biggest problem which faces cactus owners, but can be easily be avoided with proper care. Over watering can cause root and stem rot. Unfortunately, once a
cactus’ roots or stems start to rot, there is nothing you can do to save it. Relatively few pests bother cacti but there are a few, such as aphids, red spider mites and mealy bugs. When you purchase a cactus, make sure it is free of insects before bringing it home. If your cacti at home have insects, treat them with an insecticide. As you now see, growing cacti can be fun easy. Just follow the rules and especially remember, DON’T OVER WATER.
If you would like more information on Cactus and Succulents you may email me directly at [email protected] or check out the Massachusetts Cactus and Succulent Society Blog.
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Observatory Unfurls its Unique Mast
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has successfully deployed its lengthy mast, giving it the ability to see the highest energy X-rays in our universe. The mission is one step closer to beginning its hunt for black holes hiding in our Milky Way and other galaxies.
"It's a real pleasure to know that the mast, an accomplished feat of engineering, is now in its final position," said Yunjin Kim, the NuSTAR project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Kim was also the project manager for the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which flew a similar mast on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 2000 and made topographic maps of Earth.
NuSTAR's mast is one of several innovations allowing the telescope to take crisp images of high-energy X-rays for the first time. It separates the telescope mirrors from the detectors, providing the distance needed to focus the X-rays. Built by ATK Aerospace Systems in Goleta, Calif., this is the first deployable mast ever used on a space telescope.
On June 21 at 10:43 a.m. PDT (1:43 p.m. EDT), nine days after launch, engineers at NuSTAR's mission control at UC Berkeley in California sent a signal to the spacecraft to start extending the 33-foot (10-meter) mast, a stable, rigid structure consisting of 56 cube-shaped units. Driven by a motor, the mast steadily inched out of a canister as each cube was assembled one by one. The process took about 26 minutes. Engineers and astronomers cheered seconds after they received word from the spacecraft that the mast was fully deployed and secure.
The NuSTAR team will now begin to verify the pointing and motion capabilities of the satellite, and fine-tune the alignment of the mast. In about five days, the team will instruct NuSTAR to take its "first light" pictures, which are used to calibrate the telescope.
Why did NuSTAR need such a long, arm-like structure? The answer has to do with the fact that X-rays behave differently than the visible light we see with our eyes. Sunlight easily reflects off surfaces, giving us the ability to see the world around us in color. X-rays, on the other hand, are not readily reflected: they either travel right through surfaces, as is the case with skin during medical X-rays, or they tend to be absorbed, by substances like your bone, for example. To focus X-rays onto the detectors at the back of a telescope, the light must hit mirrors at nearly parallel angles; if they were to hit head-on, they would be absorbed instead of reflected.
On NuSTAR, this is accomplished with two barrels of nested mirrors, each containing 133 shells, which reflect the X-rays to the back of the telescope. Because the reflecting angle is so shallow, the distance between the mirrors and the detectors is long. This is called the focal length, and it is maintained by NuSTAR's mast.
The fully extended mast is too large to launch in the lower-cost rockets required for relatively inexpensive Small Explorer class missions like NuSTAR. Instead NuSTAR launched on its Orbital Science Corporation's Pegasus rocket tucked inside a small canister. This rocket isn't as expensive as its bigger cousins because it launches from the air, with the help of a carrier plane, the L-1011 "Stargazer," also from Orbital.
NuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission led by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Va. Its instrument was built by a consortium including Caltech; JPL; the University of California, Berkeley; Columbia University, New York; NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; the Danish Technical University in Denmark; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif.; and ATK Aerospace Systems, Goleta, Calif. NuSTAR will be operated by UC Berkeley, with the Italian Space Agency providing its equatorial ground station located at Malindi, Kenya. The mission's outreach program is based at Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, Calif. NASA's Explorer Program is managed by Goddard. JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA.
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Typically known as part of the Wisdom Literature category, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes provide insight into the process of obtaining and keeping wisdom. Interestingly enough, these books point out that pursuing wisdom on one's own is uselss because wisdom is a gift from God. Wisdom that is described in these two books is wisdom that is sought out, not in solitude, but in community with God and other human beings.
Two aspects of wisdom are described in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. In Proverbs, we see that "lower wisdom" is what the author primarily describes. Lower wisdom deals with wisdom that is gleaned from the observation of day-to-day events; it is the more experiential and practical wisdom, and it is optimistic in nature. Bland describes the search for wisdom as a journey and describes the journey in Proverbs as a search for "the order by which creation and society live." Ecclesiastes, on the other hand, describes "higher wisdom" and is more cynical in nature. Ecclesiastes and Job, the other book in the Wisdom Literature category, as the "why" questions. These books deal with the difficult situations in life, for which there are no easy answers. Bland describes this journey for wisdom as "the search for the meaning of life."
Song of Songs is unique in nature to the biblical canon. Though its poetry format is not uncommon, its content is, for the Song of Songs is a book of love poems. Within the pages of this inspired book is the description of a deep and abiding love between a man and a woman. Scholars have long debated its interpretation. Should we look at the love relationship described as allegorical, that is, as a story which describes divine love between God and his people? Or should we take a more literal approach and simply accept it for what it is: a celebration of love and physical intimacy? Whatever the conclusion some may reach, Bland points out that one fact cannot be denied; Song of Songs describes a theology of intimacy. The physical aspect of the love described within should be seen as an important dimension of humanity that is designed by God himself. The characters in Song of Songs celebrate their physical love for one another. The emphasis of their relationship focuses on the commitment they have to one another and the exclusivity of that relationship.About the Series:
College Press NIV Commentary Series is formatted with a verse-by-verse explanation of the text. It was developed for both the scholar and the average Bible student. The Colllege Press NIV Commentary Series is the only full commentary set in print from the Restoration Movement. Each volume (41 volumes for the Old & New Testament) contains the following helpful features:
- Biblically sound exegesis
- Clear exposition
- Objective approach
- Concise introduction
- New International Version of the Bible
- Key word translation
- Easy to use design format
- Practical footnotes
- And more!
Have a question about this product? Ask us here.
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| 0.950901 | 612 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Submitted to: Plant and Animal Genome Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: November 26, 2010
Publication Date: January 17, 2011
Citation: Bassett, C.L., Glenn, D.M., Wisniewski, M.E., Norelli, J.L., Farrell, Jr., R.E. 2011. Apple root, bark and leaf genes responding to water deficit [abstract]. Plant and Animal Genome Conference. p. 174. Technical Abstract: Plants respond to environmental stress conditions by altering the expression of suites of genes, many of which are associated with defense. Perennial plants, including woody shrubs and trees, have to deal with numerous cycles of environmental extremes in order to survive. We are using apple as a model system for woody plant stress resistance with focus on 'Royal Gala', a cultivar of commercial importance. Since most critical plant processes are limited by inappropriate water status, our initial studies have emphasized water deficit stress to mimic frequently encountered drought conditions (periods). Suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) was used to isolate genes that were up- or down-regulated in response to a two-week severe drought condition (40 percent of saturation). We identified genes with altered expression in roots, bark and leaf compared to water-saturated control plants. Several novel genes were observed in the subtraction representing up-regulated water deficit-responsive root genes; these included BYPASS1 (associated with aerial architecture), a putative leucine zipper homeobox gene of unknown function, and a mitochondrial import receptor subunit. There was little overlap between water-deficit responsive genes from the three tissues and, as expected, a number of photosynthetic genes were down-regulated in leaves. The data are discussed in comparison to other plant systems undergoing water restrictions and other stress treatments.
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| 0.946928 | 385 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The coming cassava harvest is increasingly threatened by flooding as about 25 per cent of the crop in prime growing provinces is or has been submerged, according to authorities.
Taking up more cultivated area than any other crop in Cambodia except for rice, cassava is especially vulnerable to flooding because it can’t hold up very long against water.
As a result, farmers can expect a much-reduced yield this season when they harvest the crop in late December and early January.
“It is a serious issue for many farmers,” Heng Bunhor, director of the agriculture department in Banteay Meanchey province, said. “Many fields were under water for 20 days.”
Bunhor said that farmers planted a total of 47,100 hectares of cassava in the province, and floods affected some 12,000 hectares.
Although it is difficult to say how much of these crops is beyond salvaging, odds are not good.
Cassava, a root plant, needs just five days submerged under water before it is considered damaged.
Production is centred in heavily flooded areas of the northwest, in Battambang, Banteay Meanchey and Pailin provinces.
“The extent of damage is very wide and is difficult to fix,” said Cambodian Economic Association president Srey Chanthy, who has been visiting flood-affected areas. It will be difficult to cover production costs with revenue from plants that can be salvaged, Chanthy added.
Authorities in the provinces estimate that between 20 and 30 per cent of cassava crops are at risk.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, rice paddy fields took up 2.9 million hectares last year, cassava were planted across 337,000 additional hectares, while corn accounted for 215,000 hectares.
In Battambang province, where cassava farmers are growing 61,000 hectares, Chem Vichara, director of the agricultural department, said that 17,000, or about 27 per cent, was doomed.
“The production this year will be decreased. It is unlikely to be fixed because the harvest time is nearly here,” Vichara said yesterday. Chev Tav, a cassava farmer in Banteay Meanchey province, said that even though flooding has damaged five of his 50 plots so far, he’ll continue to plant the same crop next season.
“It is unlikely that I’ll plant another crop as a substitute. I will still plant it next year.”
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| 0.962352 | 526 | 2.625 | 3 |
Venetia (vənēˈshə) [key], Ital. Veneto or Venezia Euganea, region (1991 pop. 4,380,797), 7,095 sq mi (18,376 sq km), NE Italy, bordering on the Gulf of Venice (an arm of the Adriatic Sea) in the east and on Austria in the north. Venice is the capital of the region, which is divided into the provinces of Belluno, Padua, Rovigo, Treviso, Venice, Verona, and Vicenza (named for their capitals). Venetia falls into two geographic zones, a mountainous and hilly area in the north, which includes parts of the Dolomites and Carnic Alps (Alpi Carniche), and the fertile Venetian Plain in the south, which is partly marshy near the Adriatic. Venetia's main rivers are the Po (which forms the boundary with Emilia-Romagna in the south), the Mincio (which forms part of the boundary with Lombardy in the west), the Adige, and the Piave. The region borders on Lake Garda in the west. Many of Venetia's workers are engaged in agriculture; the leading crops are cereals, fruit, sugar beets, and hemp. Mulberry trees are grown for use in sericulture. Manufactures include textiles, chemicals, paper, processed food, wine, and ships. Chioggia is a major fishing port. Tourism is important, especially at Venice, and Cortina d'Ampezzo is a well-known winter-sports center. Venetia derives its name from the Veneti, a people who settled the region c.1000 B.C. and who came under Roman rule in the 2d cent. B.C. Emperor Augustus joined Venetia and Istria to form a separate province, whose capital was Aquileia. Venetia was devastated by Attila, king of the Huns, in the mid-5th cent. A.D. About the 10th cent., the towns of the region began to reacquire importance. They were ruled at first by their bishops, and later developed into free communes. Some towns (including Verona and Padua) grew powerful under the rule of noble families, but the republic of Venice gradually became dominant, and by the early 15th cent. its territories included virtually all of present-day Venetia. By the Treaty of Campo Formio (1797), Venetia passed to Austria, and by the Treaty of Pressburg (1805) it was made part of the Napoleonic kingdom of Italy. In 1814, Venetia was restored to Austria, which held it to the end of the Austro-Prussian War (1866), when it was ceded to Italy. After World War II, Udine prov. in the east was detached from Venetia and was combined with that part of Venezia Giulia not ceded by Italy to Yugoslavia to form the region of Friuli–Venezia Giulia. Venetia suffered severe flooding in 1966. There are universities at Padua and Venice.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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| 0.958942 | 686 | 3.28125 | 3 |
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) In response to the growing need for a way to easily access and analyze massive amounts of heterogeneous data in the fields of earth and environmental sciences, UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), a core partner in a joint effort to streamline such research, presents DataONE, the Data Observation Network for Earth. DataONE is capable of providing researchers access to globally distributed, networked data from a single point of discovery.
"People have been gathering and synthesizing ecological data for decades," said NCEAS Director of Informatics Research and Development and DataONE co-investigator Matthew Jones. Much of the problem an issue that NCEAS has been working to address since its inception in 1995 is the time and effort spent on locating, gathering, checking, and transforming data of interest for synthesis.
It's an effort that can take researchers nearly a year to complete, as they examine and analyze various forms of information, from remotely sensed data, to hundreds of published papers, to historic observational field data. Simultaneously, these researchers search remote repositories, check for duplicates, and integrate the information, as they try to find answers to complex problems that affect both science and society.
"Right now researchers have a hard time even finding the right data to answer complex environmental questions, and when they do, the work necessary to integrate really different types of data can be overwhelming," said NCEAS Deputy Director and DataONE co-investigator Stephanie Hampton. "DataONE provides the type of platform we need, to propel environmental science into the digital age."
DataONE, through the knowledge and infrastructure provided by library, computer, and environmental science experts, currently integrates information held by South Africa National Parks; the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity; the Ecological Society of America; Dryad; Oak Ridge National Laboratories Distributed Active Archive Center, the United States Geological Survey, the Long Term Ecological Research Network; the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans; and the California Digital Library. In the coming months, more organizations are joining as members to make their data accessible.
"In addition to broad data accessibility, DataONE also provides an interoperability framework that allows these diverse repositories to work together, share tools, and preserve data," said Jones. DataONE is an open network and encourages institutions and projects with data to share to become members of the federation.
Scientists and other users, meanwhile, will experience massive gains in efficiency, ease of access, and reductions in redundancy, as the data submitted to one repository will be easily available from multiple participating repositories. Users will also have the security of data persistence, thanks to better data curation and institutional diversity, which ensure that data do not disappear when organizations shift priorities or lose funding.
The data will also be available to a wide variety of audiences, Jones added. K-16 educators, those who could use the information as the basis for policy and management decisions, funders, and stakeholders will also have access to data from DataONE.
NCEAS is one of three national coordinating nodes, housing large data storage and computing resources in the UCSB data center at the California Nanosystems Institute. The two other coordinating nodes are located at University of Tennessee and University of New Mexico. With the sponsorship of the Davidson Library, NCEAS plans to move its data center to the North Hall Data Center on the UCSB campus.
DataONE is an outgrowth of a series of repository efforts, starting with the creation of the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB) in 1998, which is the repository housing output from NCEAS' synthesis efforts. The KNB repository is open to submissions from ecologists and environmental scientists throughout the world, and represents a streamlined way for investigators to preserve and share their data with colleagues. As a participating node in DataONE, any data added to the KNB is automatically accessible.
DataONE is supported by a $20 million award, made as part of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) DataNet program.
|Contact: Sonia Fernandez|
University of California - Santa Barbara
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City of Fairfax Historic Markers – Preserving the past for the future.
Visit the rolling hills of our historic City, where mature trees exist as they did in 1714 when nearly half of the existing City land was granted to George Mason II. Absorb yourself in our rich history and relive the times as you read one of our many historic markers.
City of Fairfax Certified Historic Markers and historic markers placed by others are located in the City. City of Fairfax Markers meet the stringent source requirements of the State of Virginia.
Certified Historic Markers placed under the Virginia Department of Historic Markers program and implemented by City of Fairfax and Historic Fairfax City Inc. include:
- Richard Ratcliffe’s Mount Vineyard Plantation: Richard Ratcliffe was the founder of the Town of Fairfax. The marker is located at the site of Ratcliffe’s Mansion home at Oak and Main Streets.. The building was destroyed by fire in 1872.
- Draper House, 1821: marker describes the history of the building, the second oldest residence in the City, and the history of the Draper family that built it. Located on Main St. at East St.
- Arlington-Fairfax Electric Railway: marker describes the history of the old Trolley and the commercial center that developed near the old terminal located near this spot. Located at Railway Ave. and Main St.
- Fairfax Rosenwald School: marker at University Drive and School St. near where the first Julius Rosenwald sponsored school in Fairfax County was built in 1924-25.
- Old Baptismal Area: marker commemorates the place where, in the 1930s, Mount Calvary Baptist Church, the first African-American church in the City, regularly conducted baptismal services. Located on Chain Bridge Rd. at Rust Curve
- Old Fairfax High School: marker located on Lee Highway at Paul VI commemorates the opening in 1935 of the original 4 year Fairfax High School, then the largest consolidated high school in Fairfax County.
- Ratcliffe Family Cemetery: marker located on Moore Street, east of Keith Avenue. The marker provides historical information on Ratcliffe’s Mount Vineyard Plantation, the family believed to be buried in the Cemetery, and the historic Cemetery itself.
- Manassas Gap Railroad: this marker, located on Manassas RR bed as it crosses Judicial Drive, provides historical information on the “Unfinished Line” of the Manassas Gap RR as it passed through the now City of Fairfax.
Virginia State Markers in the City of Fairfax include:
- Capt. John Quincy Marr, First Confederate Officer Killed: located at the site where Marr fell on June 1, 1861; on grounds of the Fairfax County Courthouse at West St. in front of the Massey Building.
- Birth of the Confederate Battle Flag: marker denotes the location of General Beauregard’s Headquarters where the Battle Flag, now referred to as the Confederate Flag, was born in late September, 1861 and where President Davis’ “Fairfax Court House Conference” was held on October 1, 1861. Located on Main St. and Oak St.
- Mosby’ Midnight Raid: Marker describes actions of March 9, 1861 when Colonel Mosby’s band of 29 men captured Union General Stoughton, two captains, thirty enlisted men and 58 horses in the downtown area, never firing a shot. Marker located on Chain Bridge Rd. near Armstrong St.
Other Historic Markers in City of Fairfax include:
- Old Fairfax Court House, DAR plaque
- Old Fairfax Court House, CWT marker describes Civil War events.
- Fairfax Court House, OTF plaque describing events at or near the old Court House,
- Ratcliffe-Allison House, Main St near University Dr;
- Peyton Anderson, First Soldier of the South to Shed His Blood, UDC sponsored stone marker, Lee Highway at the Econo Lodge;
- Marr Monument Stone placed by Warrenton Riflemen in 1905, at Old Court House;
- Ford House, OTF plaque, Chain Bridge Rd. and North St.;
- Moore House, (originally the Nelson Conrad House), OTF plaque, Chain Bridge Rd. at North St.;
- Joshua Gunnell House, OTF plaque, Chain Bridge Rd. at Sagar Ave.;
- W. P. Gunnell House, OTF plaque, at Truro Church.
- Mosby, UDC placed Stone and Plaque, Truro Chapel, describes Mosby capture of Stoughton;
- Historic Blenheim, CWT Marker, Old Lee Highway at Interpretive Center;
- First Elementary School, presently the City Museum on Main St; Old Town Hall, Main St. and University;
- Fairfax Herald Building, OTF plaque, Main St. at University;
- The Donohoe House, OTF plaque, near Chain Bridge Rd. and North St..
Be a Sponsor:
You can help relive our great history by sponsoring a certified historic marker. Markers under consideration include the Death of Union General Corcoran, First Confederate Volley, 5th New York Cavalry, The Farr Houses, and many others. Begin the process by contacting Dr. Christopher Martin, City of Fairfax Director of Historic Resources, at [email protected] or at 703.273.5452 and request the “Procedures Document, Fairfax City-Historic Fairfax City Inc.”
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| 0.945209 | 1,135 | 2.5625 | 3 |
6.1.2. Aircraft-Induced Climate Change
Figure 6-3: CO2 concentration over the past 1000
years from ice core records (D47, D57, Siple, and
South Pole) and (since 1958) from Mauna Loa,
Hawaii, measurement site.
Aircraft emissions are expected to modify the Earth's radiative budget and
climate as a result of several processes (see also Figure
6-1): emission of radiatively active substances (e.g., CO2
or H2O); emission of chemical species that produce or
destroy radiatively active substances (such as NOx, which
modifies O3 concentration, or SO2,
which oxidizes to sulfate aerosols); and emission of substances (e.g., H2O,
soot) that trigger the generation of additional clouds (e.g., contrails).
The task of detecting climate change is already difficult; the task of detecting
the aircraft contribution to the overall change is more difficult because aircraft
forcing is a small fraction of anthropogenic forcing as a whole. However, aircraft
perturb the atmosphere in a specific way because their emissions occur in the
free troposphere and lower stratosphere, and they trigger contrails, so the
aircraft contribution to overall climate change may have a particular signature.
At a minimum, the aircraft-induced climate change pattern would have to be significantly
different from the overall climate change pattern in order to be detected.
The climatic impact of aircraft emissions is considered on the background of
other anthropogenic perturbations of climate. The present assessment is based
on the IS92 scenarios used to represent alternative futures in the Second Assessment
Report (IPCC, 1996); it does not incorporate recent observed trends in methane
(Dlugokencky et al., 1998), nor any implications from the Kyoto Protocol. The
scenarios for aircraft flight patterns, fuel burn, and emissions are described
in Chapter 9. Atmospheric perturbations are taken from
detailed atmospheric models (Chapters 2, 3,
and 4), except for CO2 accumulation
(which is discussed in this chapter).
The largest, single, known radiative forcing change over the past century is
from the increase in CO2, driven primarily by the burning
of fossil fuel. Figure 6-3 shows the change in CO2
over the past 1,000 years; the CO2 concentration increased
from about 280 ppmv in 1850 to about 360 ppmv in 1990. Figure
6-4 shows six IPCC projections for anthropogenic emissions of CO2
(labeled IS92a-f) and predicted atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
We take the central case, IS92a, as the future scenario with which to compare
aircraft effects. The central aircraft scenario (Fa1) assessed here matches
the economic assumptions of IS92a. Radiative forcing for IS92a is shown in Figure
6-5a, including total radiative forcing and individual contributions.
Figure 6-4: a) Total anthropogenic CO2 emissions
(Gt C yr-1) under the IS92 emission scenarios.
Figure 6-4: b) the resulting atmospheric CO2
concentrations (ppmv) calculated using the "Bern" carbon cycle model (IPCC,
1996, Figure 5).
Figure 6-5: a) Radiative forcing components resulting
from the IS92a emission scenario for 1990 to 2100.
The "Total Non-CO2 Trace Gases" curve includes the radiative forcing from
CH4 (including CH4-related
increases in stratospheric water vapor), N2O,
tropospheric O3, and the halocarbons (including the
negative forcing effect of stratospheric O3 depletion).
Halocarbon emissions have been modified to take
account of the Montreal Protocol and its Adjustments
and Amendments. The three aerosol components are
direct sulfate, indirect sulfate, and direct biomass
Figure 6-5: b) Non-CO2
trace gas radiative forcing components. "Cl/Br direct" is the direct radiative
forcing resulting from Cl- and Br-containing halocarbons; emissions are assumed
to be controlled under the Montreal Protocol and its Adjustments and Amendments.
The indirect forcing from these compounds (through stratospheric
O3 depletion) is shown separately (Strat.
O3). All other emissions follow the IS92a scenario.
The tropospheric O3 forcing (Trop.
O3) takes account of concentration changes resulting
only from the indirect effect from CH4 (IPCC, 1996,
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| 0.878469 | 978 | 3.765625 | 4 |
From Leiden University in the Netherlands:
Texel gown belonged to member of royal court of Queen Henrietta Maria
20 April 2016
Archival research has revealed that the wardrobe discovered near Texel belonged to the royal court of the English Queen Henrietta Maria. In March 1642 the queen was travelling to the Netherlands on a secret mission when one of her baggage ships sank in the Wadden Sea. This discovery was made by cultural historians Nadine Akkerman from Leiden University and Helmer Helmers from the University of Amsterdam.
Divers had found the gown in a shipwreck off Texel in 2014.
The now famous silk gown is still remarkably well preserved and is the showpiece of a larger archaeological find near Texel. It probably belonged to Jean Kerr, Countess of Roxburghe (approximately 1585-1643), lady-in-waiting and confidante to Queen Henrietta Maria (1609-1669). There was also a younger lady-in-waiting whose clothes were being transported in the ship, but the more outdated style and size of the gown indicate strongly that it belonged to Kerr, the elder of the two.
Cultural historians Nadine Akkerman and Helmer Helmers are experts on the British Royal House of Stuart. Their findings are based on a letter written by Elizabeth Stuart (1596-1662), the Stuart princess who found refuge in The Hague after being exiled from the Kingdom of Bohemia. In this letter to the English diplomat Sir Thomas Roe, dated 17 March 1642, Elizabeth describes how her sister-in-law lost a baggage ship during the crossing. In addition to the clothing of two ladies-in-waiting and their maids, the queen herself lost the chalices from her private chapel in the shipwreck.
A secret mission
The official story behind Henrietta Maria’s trip to the Dutch Republic was one of royal connections: she was delivering her 11-year-old daughter Mary to the court of William II, Prince of Orange and future stadtholder, whom the girl had married the previous year. This was only a ruse, however: her real mission was to sell the crown jewels and use the proceeds to buy weapons. These were essential for King Charles I to take on Parliament in the English Civil War. According to Akkerman and Helmers, the find at Texel represents a tangible reminder of the strong Dutch involvement in this conflict.
Akkerman, Assistant Professor of Early Modern English Literature at Leiden University, and Helmers, Assistant Professor of Early Modern Dutch Literature and Culture at the University of Amsterdam, were able to solve the mystery of the unknown owner of the gown reasonably quickly. Akkerman: ‘Once Helmer alerted me to the find, it took us about five minutes to unearth the relevant letter, as I remembered transcribing and deciphering it in 2006. We are still finding even more references.’ Akkerman is the editor of the Correspondence of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, while Helmers is the author of The Royalist Republic, on Anglo-Dutch relations in this period.
The mystery and speculation in the Dutch press surrounding the origin of the wardrobe were unnecessary. With the discovery of the family crest, the evidence quickly started pointing towards the Stuarts. Helmers: ‘It’s a pity we weren’t consulted sooner – the puzzle would have been solved much earlier. The archaeological experts have focused primarily on the material side. That’s important, of course, but the historical texts also tell a thrilling story.’
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| 0.959542 | 738 | 2.6875 | 3 |
We can’t necessarily say that one system of the body is more important than the other, as we need all of them to operate optimally. However, special props can be given to the human digestive system. In this set of organs, mucosa, secretions, and nerves lies the ability to turn nutritious food, which is completely unusable in its whole form, to molecules tiny enough for the body to assimilate and use for various functions.
However, unless something goes wrong it’s easy to stop thinking about the food that goes into your mouth until it comes out the other end, hopefully 12 – 24 hours later. Digestion is largely involuntary, meaning that, after you’ve done the conscious act of chewing and swallowing, your amazingly intelligent body takes over (Read more about the Digestive System Anatomy here).
In many forms of traditional medicine poor digestion is seen as the root of many diseases. Below we'll explore some steps for you to maintain a healthy human digestive system.
One person’s food is another person’s poison!
I know that wading through contemporary dietary information is confusing. One dietary dogma says to avoid all meat, another to eat only meat! The most important concept to understand is that we are all different and what works for Aunt Jane doesn’t necessarily work for you.
To determine which foods work best for you I highly recommend the book by William Wolcott:
Rather than proclaiming dietary dogma or that everyone should eat in one specific way, it teaches self awareness to help you figure out what foods work for you. Chris Kresser also has a great product, the Personal Paleo Code, that really guides you through this process.
Some people are deathly allergic to certain foods. A tiny piece of shellfish or peanuts can induce anaphylactic shock and close up someone’s throat. It doesn’t take long for a person to discover they have these severe allergies.
Another type of food allergy is more appropriately called a food sensitivity or food intolerance. These foods incite a systemic inflammatory response and can rear their head as digestive difficulties or skin blemishes, and even play a role in autoimmune disease.
The best way to determine if you have a food sensitivity is to do an elimination diet. For six weeks you eat a simple diet with no common allergens. Meat, vegetables, rice, and quinoa are good examples of this elimination diet. During those six weeks note any changes you experience. After six weeks you slowly add in those common food allergens. I choose one a week. Wheat, gluten, dairy, corn and soy are common food allergens.
Each section of our human digestive system has a particular role. Your teeth are there to physically breakdown the food you consume. Do you stomach a favor by letting your teeth do their job! There’s no need to count to 100, just be sure that your food is well mashed before swallowing.
Large amounts of liquids right before a meal can dilute your digestive juices, impairing the breakdown of your food. Iced beverages are especially problematic!
Physical exercise puts your body in a sympathetic nervous system state, sometimes referred to as the flight or fight state. Once there, the body’s non-critical functions shut down, digestion being one of them.
A common analogy used in many systems of traditional medicine is our digestive system being associated with fire. Sometimes this is called our metabolic fire. The digestive process needs warmth in order to operate optimally. Frozen and iced beverages hamper the human digestive system.
Eating slowly and enjoying your meal helps you to realize when you’ve had enough. Oftentimes people use a feeling of overt fullness such as bloating to signal they are done eating. This leads to sluggishness and chronic overeating.
Fermented foods help your body maintain a healthy gut flora and they are ideally eaten with every meal. Some common fermented foods include miso, sauerkraut, kefir, yogurt, beet kvass, etc.
Bitter foods and herbs stimulate the digestive process, creating a cascade of digestive secretions from your salivary glands to the expulsion of bile and pancreatic enzymes. Bitter herbs include dandelion leaves, orange peels, gentian, yellow dock, and hops.
Eating is a sacred time. Turn off the rest of your life and focus!
These emotions have direct effects on your nervous system, which in turn affects digestion.
In Ayurveda it is said that singing helps to promote digestion.
Prioritize your digestion. You may feel that a little heartburn or a little constipation is normal or not a big deal, but since our ability to digest lies at the heart of our wellness it needs to be operating optimally! It is far better to prevent disease by adopting healthy digestion habits than attempt to cure a disease that has already taken root in the body.
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Kernel rootkits are the tools that run in the kernel, hence making it really hard to detect. The entire operating system would be altered in the process, which would help in the process of hiding the fact that the system is compromised.
Kernel rootkits are of the most malicious nature -- they completely undermine a systems integrity and capacity for self-diagnosis. Essentially any tool that could be used for detecting such a rootkit is susceptible to false results due to syscall hijacking. Some tools however does not have to run in memory of the target system itself may benefit from running on a remote machine to avoid certain syscalls (i.e over NFS) -- this can be explained in more detail sometime. There are a many ways to subvert.
Here are some of them:
-- Directly modifying the syscall table
-- Syscall jump
-- IA32 Debug
To understand the working of kernel rootkit, it is important to understand how a kernel works. Though we talk a lot more about Linux related samples at most cases, all kernels behave the same way. Kernel is a mediator between user apps and the hardware. Hence, kernel should interact/talk-to both the user-mode apps and the hardware. To do this in a secure way, operating systems has ensured that all processes communicate with the kernel through system libraries and the system libraries sends system calls to the kernel mode, which reaches the system call table. The system call table then interacts with the text or data segment of the kernel depending on the nature of Syscall or the function to be performed. Once that is processed in the kernel, the kernel then interacts with the hardware accordingly. The following figure shows a simple interaction diagram:
In the ring terminology, kernel rootkits run on ring0. Since, ring0 is under all the other layers, monitoring kernel rootkits is almost impossible if the monitoring software is run on the same system, except for certain detection techniques that compares the different states or interacts with kernel using different stimulus signals and compares the response. Though once again, since the kernel rootkit modifies the entire operating system properties, functions and anything and everything possible to deceive a user from noticing the compromise by completely hiding itself, detection is quite hard in case of kernelland rootkits.
As said in the ring terminology section, ring0 has the highest privilege and ring3 has the least privilege. Most anti-rootkit tools that are created to detect kernel rootkits, really do not do the stuff that they were created for if the kernel rootkit does its job as it was meant to.
Kernelland rootkits are known for overwriting the entire operating system. They do this by modifying the kernel. Loadable Kernel Module [LKM] is used to expand the kernel for adding new hardware or Filesystem without a system reboot. LKM is used only when required and when they are used, they run in the memory and when done they are removed. In this process, an attacker/rootkit can run the infected process that would load the EVIL_LKM to modify the kernel. LKM runs in ring0 of the system as it is running on the kernel itself, which means that it is running on the highest privilege. To do this, the EVIL_PROCESS loads the EVIL_LKM. There are several ways to do this and there are several things that can be done once this is done. Syscall hijack is one way that we talk about in our other paper and also the Syscall modification too. Once this is loaded, the rootkits can alter the Syscall to EVIL_SYSCALL or intercept the good Syscall with EVIL_FUNCTION, depending on the technique that the rootkit chooses to use. Once this is done, the kernel access is obtained by running the code that the rootkit tries to access in the Text segment.
Another way to subvert the kernel is to alter kernel memory. /dev/kmem is used for mapping the kernel memory at run-time in Linux. In Windows systems, Hence to change the kernel at runtime, direct memory I/O could alter kmem. Even though there are patches to protect kmem, there are other ways to override the patches for the rootkits to do what they were meant to.
The syscall table is generally an array of function pointers; these function pointers can be redirected to point to functions implemented in the rootkit, often times an LKM. This type of kernel rootkit is easy to detect compared to other kernel rootkits. A hands on approach is to analyze /proc/kcore with gdb and verify the syscalls against the System.map file (A file created at kernel compilation time for debugging purposes). A simpler approach is to run a tool like ktraq, which also has the benefit of disabling this type of rootkit by resetting the syscall function pointers.
This is a more stealth method of syscall hijacking without having to directly modify the syscall table; instead the first 7 bytes of the syscall are overwritten with a jump to the new code -- i.e "movl $0x0, %eax; jmp *%eax". Keep in mind the original 7 bytes are saved and copied back into the original syscall so that it may be called within the evil syscall. This type of syscall hijacking cannot be detected by tools like ktraq, however a tool like ElfStat which analyzes the text segment of the running kernel and compares it to vmlinux can detect this method. This method is also used in kernel function hijacking (Not only syscalls).
NOTE: Our tools are listed in many sites and torrents, which makes it hard for us to track all downloads. Hence, we are listing only the total installations from our website.
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Too many children in Michigan are losing their baby teeth to tooth decay, putting their future dental, nutritional and overall health at risk, according to a recent University of Michigan study.
To address this problem, the Early Childhood Investment Corporation has created a public service campaign urging parents to take their children to the dentist for a first visit by age one.
The project is part of the Early Childhood Investment Corporation's commitment to help raise awareness of the importance good dental hygiene plays in children's overall health and the need to make a dental visit by a child's first birthday.
"The time from birth to age 5 is marked by incredible growth and development. Children's learning depends on physical health and social-emotional health, as well as their relationships with others and daily experiences," said External Affairs Director Sean Neall.
"Children who receive dental care by age one have the best chance of growing up cavity-free, yet dental disease in early childhood is considered a national and statewide health problem," Neall added. "One of the best thing families can do for children's overall health is to follow the advice of the American Academy of Pediatrics and have their children seen by a dentist by age one."
At the urging of the Head Start-State Collaboration Office, the Early Childhood Investment Corporation commissioned a dental study that showed two out of three parents of young children are waiting too long to prevent oral health problems in their infants and toddlers.
The study, "Oral Health Care for Young Children 0-5 Years: From Research to Recommendations," was conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan.
Children who see a dentist by their first birthday typically have dental costs 40 percent lower than those who don't see a dentist in the first five years, according to the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. The National Centers for Disease Control warn that there has been an alarming rise in tooth decay among 2- to 4-year-olds.
The Early Childhood Investment Corporation is an independent, publicly owned nonprofit helping Michigan rebuild its economy by delivering better education, health and economic outcomes through effective early childhood development.
To read more about "The Case for Infant Dental Care" and the health innovations work of the Early Childhood Investment Corporation, visit greatstartforkids.org/content/case-infant-dental-care.
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An outbreak of Salmonella that sickened 44 people highlights the need for consumers to follow all directions when it comes to microwaving food — including letting food "stand" after cooking, according to a new investigation of the outbreak.
During the outbreak, which occurred in summer 2010, people in 18 states fell ill with a type of bacteria called Salmonella enterica. The outbreak was later linked with consumption of Marie Callender's frozen chicken-and-rice meals, which were subsequently recalled.
Most of the people who fell ill in the outbreak reported cooking their meal in the microwave, but not all of them let the meal stand for the recommended time in the microwave before they dug in, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [5 Things You Shouldn't Do with a Microwave Oven]
"Microwave standing time is part of the cooking process," the report said. "Consumers should not only follow instructions for microwaving, but should also allow the product to stand for the recommended time before consuming," the CDC said.
A common feature of foodborne-illness outbreaks linked with frozen meals is the misconception that these foods are ready to eat, and just need to be reheated, the CDC said. But often, microwave cooking is a "critical control point to ensure raw and uncooked ingredients ... reach a sufficient temperature to render them safe from microbial hazards," the report said.
To prevent future outbreaks, manufacturers should clearly label products as "not ready to eat," and provide step-by-step cooking instructions on frozen meals that account for variability in microwave wattage, the report said.
In addition, consumers should know the wattage of their microwave and carefully follow instructions on how to prepare their frozen meals, the report said.
The CDC also recommended using a food thermometer to ensure that frozen meals are fully cooked and that all components reach 165 degrees Fahrenheit (74 degrees Celsius).
The report was published in the Dec. 6 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
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Recent media coverage of mixed martial arts has been uncharacteristically positive. So far in 2011, the sport, once referred to as human cockfighting, is credited for stopping an alleged mass murderer on the New York City subway and a robbery suspect in New Jersey.
For years, MMA athletes have claimed that their sport is not as primal as sometimes perceived by the untrained eye. Gym owners often open their doors to those who doubt the integrity and intricacy of the sport. They insist that respect and discipline, which are commonly associated with traditional martial arts, also run deep within the soul of this modern form. The sport holds a nearly flawless safety record, and annual economic gains estimated in the tens of millions.
Yet opponents in New York's capitol uphold the ban. So, why can't the athletes and fans reconcile these differing views with their political counterparts? An answer is difficult to formulate with any degree of certainty, but many proponents of legalization point to a failure among MMA's opposition to distinguish its violent past from its recent transformation and emergence as a professional sport.
The Gracie family of Brazil introduced mixed martial arts to the U.S. market nearly twenty years ago. As founders of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, they set out to showcase the efficacy of their unique style of martial art, known as Gracie Jiu Jitsu, against practitioners of various other fighting styles. In those days, the Brazilians referred to the sport in Portuguese as "vale tudo," meaning "anything goes." Accordingly, competitors were allowed to do almost anything to win, including groin strikes and hair pulling. However, the MMA of the 90s is a far cry from today's iteration, which Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White calls the "the most highly regulated sport in the world."
Despite a turbulent beginning, mixed martial arts competitions are currently legal in 45 states. New York is one of three remaining holdouts (New York, Connecticut, and Vermont have yet to legalize it; Alaska and Wyoming lack the governing bodies necessary to do so.) This wasn't always the case for The Empire State, which hosted its first major MMA event in 1995 at Buffalo's Memorial Auditorium. Despite successful attendance numbers, subsequent events faced mounting resistance, and many were shut down. In 1997, after two years of political pin-balling, New York issued a statewide ban on the sport. Due to similar bans and national scrutiny, UFC suits looked to revive MMA by seeking comprehensive government oversight. This regulation came by way of the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts.
The Unified Rules, drafted by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board in 2000, mandated a number of regulations to ensure a safe competitive environment for athletes. They called for weight classes, protective equipment and prohibition of dangerous attacks. As such, the Unified Rules transformed MMA, producing the sport that is now widely accepted in the U.S. and around the world. In fact, the Unified Rules have had such a profound effect that many opponents have since expressed their approval of modern MMA. Notably, Arizona Senator John McCain, who famously referred to MMA as human cockfighting, now acknowledges that the sport has "grown up." Governor Pataki, who held office in '97 when MMA was banned, has also converted. Most recently, Men's Health Magazine editor David Zinczenko has professed his acceptance of MMA. In his aptly titled New York Times article "It Only Looks Dangerous," Zinczenco attributes his epiphany in part to the results of a Johns Hopkins University Medical School study.
The study finds that MMA athletes sustain less traumatic brain injury than other combat sports, such as boxing, which are legal. The explanation for this is simple: whereas boxers primarily target the head of their opponent, MMA competitors have a broader spectrum of techniques at their disposal. Many of these techniques involve no impact to the head, thus reducing the occurrence of brain trauma. A testament to Zinczenko's new-found appreciation, this month's cover of Men's Health features UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre.
Despite the sport's rapid maturation and impeccable safety record, opponents in Albany have repeatedly stonewalled the MMA bill from reaching an assembly vote, and have recently excluded legalization language from the 2011 state budget. They argue that the sport's violent nature is a bad example for young New Yorkers. Banning live events in the state, however, will hardly shield New York's youth from exposure to MMA, which now regularly airs on network television. In reality, the ban perpetuates violence in the state by limiting its athletes' ability to partake in regulated competition. As a result, underground, and under-regulated, brawls take place in New York that often provide inadequate protection to uninsured athletes. State regulation, on top of creating jobs and generating revenue in local economies, would end these dangerous events.
Whether the opposition is misinformed, or simply too fearful to take an affirmative stance on a controversial issue, the price is ultimately paid by the athletes, gym owners, and fans in New York. The 2011 MMA bill has moved successfully through New York's relevant senate committees, and is expected to gain senate approval when it reaches the floor for a vote. However, the deciding factor will come in the Assembly, where Speaker Sheldon Silver has the final say as to whether the bill will even go to a vote, regardless of committee approval. In years past, he has not allowed the bill to reach the floor for a vote, where some
Assemblymen are increasingly confident that it may win a majority vote. While 45 U.S. states and international venues such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia welcome MMA with open arms, thousands of New Yorkers are left wondering if they will ever see the names of their favorite fighters across the marquis at Madison Square Garden.
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"Woman's chief discontent
is not with her political, but with her social, and particularly her
- Laura Bullard in The Revolution, suffrage journal, United States,
the family has been the primary sphere within which most women have lived
their lives. It is often regarded as the most important unit in society
with women usually regarded as the "glue" that holds the family together.
In the modern world, however, the family has also been identified as the
location for women's greatest oppression. News items describe disturbing
realities: families who sell daughters for sex or servitude, honor killings,
female genital mutilation, female dowry burning, forced or prevented abortions,
and alarming worldwide domestic violence.
reason such problems continue is the perception that regulation and government
intervention are inappropriate within the private sector of the home and
family. Another is the reality that the family is the area in which assumptions
about gender difference are most solidly entrenched and can be most powerfully
enforced. International and local agencies have a hard time trying to
implement uniform human rights standards or finding equitable answers
to questions such as: Should a woman have the right to choose whether
to marry or not? Choose whom she wants to marry? Choose to live in plural
or monogamous marriages? Choose whether or not to have children, and to
decide how many? Should wives have equal rights with husbands to divorce?
Have access to their children after divorce? Have the right to remarry?
Share equally in inheritance? Own businesses and property in their own
name? Be protected from physical and psychological abuse by family members?
recently have laws regulating the status of women in the family incorporated
the modern norm of equality between the sexes found in such documents
as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW, 1979), and the Declaration on Elimination
of Violence Against Women (1993).1
Such documents are seen by some as threats to cultural standards or national
sovereignty. Opposition along these lines prevented the ratification of
CEDAW in the United States (making it the only developed country not to
do so). Fierce debates continue between those who contend that human rights
standards should differ from one group to another and those who advocate
the equal application of international human rights standards to all human
current debates and the prevalence of sensational reports about human
rights abuses offer a unique opening to explore historical attitudes about
women in the family. Taking time to investigate mandated roles in the
family in the past helps uncover what might be considered human rights
way to open such discussions is to use primary sources. Described here
are some from commonly taught world history periods. Any one of them will
make clear the extent to which the position of women in the family was
an integral part of the large patriarchal structures in society, and also
will indicate how deep beliefs about inherent male/female difference resulted
in the assignment of gender roles. What is described in these sources
did not necessarily reflect the reality of people's lives. Restrictive
laws and teachings did not apply to women in all social classes, were
followed unevenly, or were sometimes simply ignored. Sometimes family
control was harsh, sometimes not.
sources could be used in a variety of ways. They could be used to analyze
differences and similarities among civilizations, or changes and continuities
over time. Students could be asked to think about what the source suggests
a good wife should do in order to achieve power within her family, or
what the possible effects family restrictions might have had on the lives
of women in the period. The sources can also be read to note areas where
women were held in some esteem or were protected. After examining the
sources, students might find out what the larger situation for women in
that particular culture was. (All the source readings mentioned here are
found on the Internet with their web addresses listed in the endnotes.)
and codes often establish the extent to which gender difference was embedded
in concerns about marriage. "Marriage is the basis of all disputes," proclaims
the first sentence of the chapter "Concerning Marriage and Women" in the
Indian Arthashastra by Kautilya (c. 250 BCE).2 Most codes illustrate the truth of this comment.
Prevalent are concerns about property rights. They also provide details
of wifely duties, inheritance, sexual intercourse, and punishments for
- The Code of Hammurabi,
(c.1780 BCE).3 This code is too often taught with no reference
to its significant amount of information on women and marriage. The
Internet Ancient History Sourcebook site includes a full scholarly comment
along with laws dealing with marriage.
- The Code of the Assura
Assyrians (c.1075 BCE) 4 is a much harsher set of laws that refers to
physical abuse and the oft-noted stipulation regarding the veiling of
women in public. It might be compared to both the Hammurabi and other
Assyrian codes to demonstrate variety between laws in similar regions
- Selections from Middle
Assyrian Codes give further insights into the power accorded to
fathers.5 All marriage arrangements apparently did not go smoothly prompting
the need for this law: "If a man either has poured oil on the head of
the daughter of a man or brought dishes for the banquet, and then the
son to whom he assigned the wife either died or fled, he shall give
her to whichever of his remaining sons he wishes from the oldest to
the youngest aged (at least) ten."
- The Roman Twelve Tablets
(c. 450 BCE) introduces that civilization's ancestral harsh patriarchal
- The Augustus Period
(27 BCE-14 CE), on the other hand, produced a series of laws that
eased the granting of divorce, choice of partner, and punishments regarding
adultery.7 Emperor Augustus, desirous of increasing the Rome's population,
also made marriage a duty for Roman patricians.
- A site dedicated to The
Code of Justinian (533 CE) can be explored to see the impact of
law on the lives of women in Byzantium.8 There are short descriptions rather than a listing
of the laws. Of interest are comments about betrothal requirements,
the reasons given for a husband and a wife to divorce, stipulations
regarding concubinage, and the economics of marriage.
- The Laws of Manu, a
Hindu code compiled sometime during the first to fourth century, is
arguably the most restrictive of Indian laws regarding women.9
The Laws of Manu became the standard source of Brahman elite authority
in later orthodox Hindu tradition. They appear to have restricted women
from activities they had undertaken in early Vedic India. Women's participation
in religious rites was forbidden, and their legal independence sharply
limited. The concept that women are married for eternity to one man
was affirmed, and widow remarriage was forbidden. Indian women today
often refer to the dictates of the Manu Laws with disdain, particularly
the law that states: "A wife, a son, and a slave, these three are declared
to have no property; the wealth which they earn is (acquired) to him
to whom they belong."
- In medieval Europe, The
Magdeburg Law of 1261 sheds light on marriage and property rights
among wealthy and middle-class families in the growing urban center.10 The laws, developed in the German
city of Magdeburg, were used as a model in other cities in today's Germany
and elsewhere in central Europe. In most places, they remained in force
up to the nineteenth century. Basically, the legislation gave the man
the sole powers of property disposal and right of guardianship. "When
a man takes a woman, he takes into his possession and acquires disposal
right over all her property."
Prose sources are a particularly
engaging way to learn about women's marriage duties.
- A selection from Xenophon's
"Oeconomicus" (c. 430-355 BCE) brings life to the Athenian habit
of marriage between older men and younger women.11
In the piece, the gentleman farmer Ischomachus explains to Socrates
how he educated his young wife for her duties. His long list of her
responsibilities reveals details of a woman's household tasks ending
with his caution that she "bide tranquilly at home rather than roam
abroad," a situation, he says, that for a man would be a contrary to
his nature and "a thing discreditable."
- Nujie (Lesson for a
Woman), by Ban Zhao (c.48-120 CE), is another type of instructional
thesis, this time written by the author for her daughters who were on
the verge of marriage.12 Ban Zhao was a renowned Han
dynasty historian whose work is full of Confucian principles regarding
gender. For example, she describes the female function of the Yin as
a way to support the correct harmonious relationship between husband
- It is useful to compare
Ban Zhoa's work with the much harsher view of women in the legend of
Written by the orthodox Confucian scholar Mencius in the Warring
States Period (475 BCE-221 CE), NeoConfucian scholars of the Song dynasty
(960-1279 CE) used the story as part of their efforts to reassert stricter
controls on women. The phrase most often repeated is the admonition
the mother gives her son about what he should expect from the wife of
a "superior man." "A woman is subject to the rule of the three obediences.
When young, she has to obey her parents; when married, her husband;
when a widow, her son."
- The Greater Learning
for Women (1762, Japan) is another vigorous promotion of NeoConfucian
values about the proper roles for women.14
Widely influential in the later Edo Period, at least among the Samurai
class, the treatise's doctrine of female submission and support for
a rigid physical separation of the sexes was never applied to peasants
since the labor of both female and male peasants was essential.
- For medieval Europe, a
concise, short reading is the letter from Peter of Boise sent
to Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1173.15 In it he chastises her for her part in the revolt of her sons
against her husband, King Henry II. "The woman is at fault who leaves
her husband and fails to keep the trust of this social bond," wrote
Peter whose patron, the Archbishop of Rouen, was in turn a patron of
- The works of Christine
de Pizan (1364-1430) present a woman's perspective on many issues. De
Pizan was a learned and successful writer who valiantly defended women
against some contemporary misogynistic writers. She was, nonetheless,
influenced by traditional views on marriage. Her practical and moral
advice in "The Mirror of Honor" reminds women of their duties
toward their "lord and master."16 A lady above all should avoid dishonor, she
cautions. A wife should exhibit humility in deed, word, and attitude
and obey her husband without complaint.
- Elizabeth I's Marriage
Homily, while not written by the famous queen herself, presents
views of marriage that were probably accepted by Elizabeth as it was
issued under her authority as governor of the church in 1562.17
Late sixteenth century marriage homilies, read in place of sermons by
Anglican ministers, became a common way to advocate the authority of
the husband, who was to be both the spiritual and actual head of the
family. This lengthy homily includes phrases such as "Man is as the
king in his own house," and "Man is to his wife in the place of Christ
to his church." Women also should be obedient, silent, and keep their
heads covered in public as a sign of their subjugation. This reading
might gainfully be compared to India's Laws of Manu and Japan's
"Greater Learning for Women."
- William Gouge's Of Domesticall
Duties (1622), and selections from other writers of this period,
bring attention to the proliferation of popular marriage advice or good
conduct guides directed at the growing middle-class readership in Tudor
and Stuart England.18
The reading might encourage student research into the works of seventeenth-century
female writers, some of whom created angry responses to the period's
and Natural Rights
Europe, the eighteenth century saw continued discussions of women's subjugation
and challenges to male supremacy. Both men and women used concepts of
reason and natural rights to mount their arguments. Questions were raised.
Were women equal to men? Could they be emancipated from familial control?
What about the transmission of property, and love and sexual liberty?
- Mary Astell in "Reflections
Upon Marriage" (1700, England) begins the period by lamenting women's
lack of choice in marriage and their required submission.19 "If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born
- Mary Wollstonecraft, author
of "Vindication of the Rights of Women" (1792), wrote a sharp
response to the famous French writer Jean-Jacque Rousseau, who glorified
a woman as wife and mother but thought that nature had made her "to
submit to man and to endure even injustice at his hands."20
Wollstonecraft acknowledged women's important role as mother, but she
also urged an education that would allow them to become "rational creatures
and free citizens; and they will quickly become good wives and mothers,
that is - if men do not neglect the duties of husbands."
- The French Revolution put
women's claims to citizenship and desire for public participation to
the test. As the Women's Petition to the National Assembly in 1789
boldly states, "All privileges of the male sex are irrevocably abolished
throughout France."21 And, "In the household, both parties should
enjoy the same authority."
- Olympe de Gouges' "Declaration
of the Rights of Woman and (Female) Citizenship" (1791) should be
read for the extent of those rights she considered to be women's natural
due.22 In her list
of rights, she calls for recognition of illegitimate children and in
a rather odd postscript writes a "Form for a Social Contract Between
Man and Woman."
- The 1803 French Civil
Code, (the Napoleonic Code) is a classic example of reaction to
women's push for public involvement.23 The revolution had spurred the
creation of women's organizations with many using the concept of patriotic
motherhood to justify their political activities. Men, suspicious of
the clubs, claimed that women's public involvement distracted them from
their domestic duties. By 1793, the clubs were banned and government
leaders insisted that women should be content in the heart of their
families. Napoleon's code ended women's hopes by stating in no uncertain
terms that the wife owed her husband obedience. Wives also were forbidden
from selling, mortgaging, or buying property. Within France and its
colonies, the Code survived virtually unaltered for more than 150 years,
for women perhaps the most enduring legacy of the French Revolution.
the nineteenth century, there were calls in many nations for reforms to
benefit women. Questions regarding suffrage were of course raised, but
the idea of more equitable marriage rights took pride of place. The United
States managed the first successful campaign to undermine common law principles
concerning the dependence of married women.
- America's Declaration
of Sentiments and Resolutions (1848), passed at the first Women's
Rights Convention, included concerns about the deprivation of married
"In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience
to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master--the
law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty and to administer
- Ernestine Rose's Speech
at the 1850 National Woman's Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts,
is another statement of American concerns.25 Rose, a Polish born Jew, petitioned
the state of New York as early as 1836 to let married women hold their
own property. In her dramatic and widely circulated 1850 speech, Rose
noted that in marriage a husband "keeps her, and so he does a favorite
horse; by law they are both considered his property." She also referred
to the international nature of reform, saying, "We are not crusading
for the rights of the women of New England, or of old England, but of
- In England, well known
writer Caroline Norton, in her "English Laws for Women in the
Nineteenth Century" (1854) and her "Letter to the Queen" (1855)
wrote confessional accounts of her struggles with her husband.26
In 1824, she was pressured into marrying an older abusive husband. She
left him but failed in her efforts to secure a divorce and gain access
to her children whom her husband had handed to his mistress to raise.
This ignited her writing and lobbying efforts for reform. Partly as
a result of her very public voice, Parliament passed the Custody of
Children Act in 1839 and in 1857 the Marriage and Divorce Act. It was
not until 1882, however, that a comprehensive marriage property act
was passed; not until 1923 that women could divorce on the same ground
as men; and not until 1925 that mothers were given equal rights with
fathers over their children.
- John Stuart Mill's "The
Subjection of Women" (1869) lends a strong male voice to the call
for reform.27 In it he proclaims his renunciation of the "odious powers" given
him as a male upon marriage. Mill also acknowledged that much of the
source of his intellectual development came from his long association
with Harriet Hardy Taylor, whom he later married.
colonized countries and those engaged in efforts to compete with the industrialized
West, calls for women's rights were complex and varied widely from place
to place. Egypt and Japan offer two case studies. In both regions by the
later nineteenth century, middle class and elite women were emerging from
household restrictions. The argument that women should be educated not
necessarily for their own sake but for their capacity to improve the nation
became a major rational for these new freedoms. Often this was in response
to attitudes of the colonizers who considered non-western cultural practices
regarding women as "barbaric," while ignoring women's demands for reform
- In Egypt, Qasim Amin's
"The Liberation of Woman" (1899) is thought by some to be that country's
first work to address the question of women's new roles in society.28 Although he believed the proper
role of women to be wife and mother, Amin wrote against polygamy, the
harem, veiling in public, and for women's education.
- Some came to see Amin as
too influenced by European ideas, and many Egyptians preferred Malik
Hefni Nassef's (pen name Bahithat al-Badiyya) more accommodating
approach for women's rights.29 In 1909, she began a series of public lectures delivered to
women-only clubs. Her strong views on the rights for women within marriage
reflected her own experience; she had been married by her family to
a man who was already a husband and father though she did not know this
at the time of the wedding. She argued that Islam guaranteed rights
to women though customs and traditions stood in the way. She said that
women could regain their basic rights with a "middle way between two
extremes" that did not violate what Islam prescribes. In 1911, she presented
ten modest demands to the Egyptian Legislative Assembly, which were
rejected by the all male Assembly. Nassef's stance presents a useful
parallel with the ideas of those in the Muslim world today who support
changes for women within the context of their religion and culture.
- In Japan, Kishida Toshiko
(1861-1901) was an exciting and talented public speaker who was heard
by thousands of women.30 During the early Meiji Restoration, nationalists
were arguing that improving the status of women was essential if other
technologically advanced nations were to accept Japan as an equal. This
gave women a chance to introduce ideas for change. When Toshiko was
a teenager she served the Empress at court, but left, describing the
court as a symbol of the concubine system which "was an outrage to women."
She also felt that the present family system turned girls into "maidens
in boxes" and that the only appropriate box should be one "as large
and as free as the world itself." Toshiko was among women, now labeled
Japan's "first feminists," who saw their views as logical responses
to rapid change in their country. They organized women's groups, made
public speeches, and created, at least for a while, a journal.
- Japanese Civil Codes
of 1898. 31By the end of the century,
however, the ruling elite in Japan reacted negatively to women's pressure.
Even the male supporters of women's rights were reluctant to back changes
in the traditional family structure. Like the French under Napoleon,
they reinstated the most conservative and oppressive model of the family.
Men were enshrined as head of the family with absolute authority over
family members; married women lost some of the rights they had gained.
One provision stated: "Cripples and disabled persons and wives cannot
undertake any legal action." The Codes also attacked traditional means
of birth control in order to promote high birth rates especially after
the losses in the 1905 war with Russia. The patriarchal family thus
became a part of state policy, and NeoConfucian principles were extended
to all women, not just to the upper class.
Russia and China, old beliefs had enshrined practices in which wives were
sharply controlled. The communist revolutions in these countries attempted
measures to radically alter the old family structure. Such changes were
deemed necessary ways to support women's abilities to work in their new
society. Some fundamental changes were accomplished, but over time reaction
and sometimes outright rejection limited their effectiveness.
- In Russia, in her writing
Communism and the Family, Alexandra Kollontai called for improvements
in conditions for women after the revolution of 1905.32 The only woman to hold a cabinet
post in the new Bolshevik government, Kollontai said that the revolution
had to first start with the family and establish a new idea of sex and
gender. She envisioned the "proletarian family of the future" as one
which would liberate women from "domestic slavery," making life richer
and happier. Under the workers' state, society as a whole would take
on all the tasks that before the revolution fell to individual parents.
She received a certain amount of support for her measures, but by the
1920s Party support weakened. Kollentai's push to free women not only
to work but also to have access to all levels of political and economic
power, plus her moral views about sexuality and a free union between
partners, were bitterly contested. By Stalin's era only a few of her
longed for reforms had gained solid ground.
China, the Communist party also made a conscious effort to free women
from age-old family restraints. Peasant women, considered to be at the
bottom of the social heap, were targeted as early as the 1930s. Women's
groups were created to give poor women a place where they could gain confidence
and express their grievances against, the Party hoped, their bad treatment
by local landlords. In these "speak bitterness" sessions, however, many
of the women aimed their attacks at husbands and in-laws who had physically
- The Marriage Law of
1950 was passed soon after the establishment of the Communist government
in China in 1949.33 It gave women full legal equality with men inside the family.
Polygamy, the sale of women as wives, arranged marriages, and all forms
of child marriage were prohibited. The provision for divorce simply
said, "when one part is determined to claim a divorce, it shall have
immediate effect." Opposition to the new law developed rapidly when
it came into conflict with the realities of the lives of the peasants.
The surge in divorces created the most attention. Since the code had
also given women equal rights to the land as part of the requirement
for their emancipation upon divorce, the woman kept her land allotment
and equal share of any property gained during marriage. Men complained
that they stood to lose both their wives and their property. Women,
who returned to their families after finding it hard to live independently,
often faced incredible abuse. In the face of this disruption, the Party
hesitated. By 1953, divorce became more difficult to get and many cadres
simply neglected all applications for divorce by poor women. Traditional
practices persisted and were supported by many women, including older
women who felt the new law threatened their relationship with their
sons and lessened their expected privileges as mothers-in-law.
- In Jan Myrdal's book,
Report from a Chinese Village, Li Kuei-ying, an official in a village
commune, tells of her efforts to educate families who still practiced
By 1958, the government needed women's labor as it tried to increase
industrial production during the Great Leap Forward. In rural areas,
farmers were mobilized into communes, and Li Kuei-ying was charged with
bringing families in line with the expectations of the changing society.
Following the reading, research could be done on recent circumstances
in China, including revisions in the 1950s Marriage Code, the recent
surge in divorces caused by China's rapid economic growth, and a relaxation
of the one child policy.
sources not only provide information about the history of women and men
in families but also raise questions about the struggle for women's rights
today: To what extent have beliefs about gender differences in many societies
changed? How have they remained the same? What obstacles have women around
the world identified as the hardest to overcome? The multiple international
and local women's rights organizations with Internet sites provide places
to locate current concerns.35 For example, there is a discussion
on the Human Rights Watch site on inheritance customs in Kenya
where, in some areas, the equal rights of widows to their property are
the importance that groups like Human Rights Watch give to the
status of women will help students understand why the position of women
within their families remains an important contemporary as well as historical
Lyn Reese founded and directs Women in World History Curriculum.
She also consults for the International Museum of Women in San Francisco.
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The USA has eaten low hanging economic fruit since the 1700s.
1. Free land (Homestead Act, etc.)
2. Technological breakthroughs (electricity, motor vehicles, telephone, radio, television, computers etc.)
3. Smart, uneducated kids (who were made productive through excellent public education).
4. Cheap fossil fuels.
In his book The Great Stagnation Cowen says Tyler says his grandmother saw greater changes. She lived during the birth of airplanes, skyscrapers, suspension bridges, radio and television, antibiotics, atomic bombs and energy, interstate highways, jet travel and a moon landing.
In contrast, a child born in 1970, a year after the first moon landing and the Boeing 747’s first flight, has seen the personal computer, biotechnology, cellphones, Web browsers, search engines and nanotechnology (the current weak version of nanotechnology and not full blown molecular nanotechnology).
I would note that we have layers of technology (civilizations technology and solution stacks) that exist from different times which make up the stack of technology that we use today. This can be thought of the way archeologists will dig through layers of history, except this is the layers of living technology. This can also be related to the stack of hardware and software that exists in a computer solution (an example is LAMP - Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP).
We have the bodies and minds from evolution that have existed for tens of thousands of years.
We have clothes, agriculture and language that have been around for many thousands of years.
We have electricity, engines, cars, planes, television and highrises from the time of our grandparents.
We have computers and the internet and biotechnology.
Usually when new technology comes along there is some shift from old technologies and some other technologies are adapted. We collectively will resist changing technologies and structures that are deeper in the stack. Many older ways and processes have been perfectly adapted into how people live. There is no desire to change. This can be seen in the regulations in France or in Palo Alto, California to changing buildings and landscape. The owner may want to change something but the neighbors or the workers resist change. There is also the resistance to changing anything that is "good enough" with anything different.
So progress should not just be measured by how powerful is the next layer of technology that we add on top. We also need to look at how well we can innovate and upgrade the heck out of the older layers. Also, the best versions of the older technology may not be distributed to everyone to enable maximum productivity.
Some examples are:
the creation of $40 android smartphones that should enable everyone to have a very powerful computational device.
South Korea and Hong Kong have affordable (about $40/month) gigabit per second internet and there is technology to get to tens of gigabits per second and even terabits per second
Factory mass produced deep burn nuclear fission reactors with 100 year lifespans could bring the cost of energy to less than one cent per kwh. It would not be energy too cheap to meter but we can work and coordinate and enable energy to be five times cheaper even without a "super breakthrough". We also need to work towards super-breakthroughs.
Policies and planning to achieve faster economic growth
Accelerating the economy while maintaining or improving safety will require coordination and effort. Just like being able to have trains move faster and with fewer delays requires planning, coordination and effort.
Each of the levels of faster speed would require consideration.
10 times faster construction would mean - less time for various checks from weeks to days.
100 times faster means minutes for turnarounds or everything pre-checked and approved.
1000 times means all interested parties must have their issues pre-thought out for work in the pipeline up to one year in advance. A pre-planned city wide wiki of intersection projects. New software and new project planning may be required to enable each level.
Plans would be going into a queue for simulation, software-agent first pass comments and validations.
How modularized and disconnected can things safely be? The more compartmentalized things can be then the more simplicity and speed can be retained. There is value to higher safe development speeds.
20% growth - 1997-98 Internet time across the whole economy
There are a lot of inefficient processes that are making things relatively stagnant.
Capturing higher GDP from Megacities - better planning
Computer driving technology is basically within reach of doubling (or more) the capacity of a road lane to pass cars. Pundits don’t seem to realize just how big a deal this is – it could let cities be roughly twice as big, all else equal. Doubling the population of any city requires only about an 85% increase in infrastructure, whether that be total road surface, length of electrical cables, water pipes or number of petrol stations. This systematic 15% savings happens because, in general, creating and operating the same infrastructure at higher densities is more efficient, more economically viable, and often leads to higher-quality services and solutions that are impossible in smaller places.
China has noticed one-city GDP growth effects from high speed rail linking cities. According to initial research and estimations, upon the completion of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway, the "dumbbell effect" will lift the GDP growth rates of the regions along the railway by about 19 to 21 percentage points.
China is building the enhanced infrastructure to more effectively integrate cities into megacities and regions to capture 20-50% more GDP.
Upgrading Infrastructure can be done faster than upgrading people
Until we get major transhumanist technology it will be faster to upgrade infrastructure to make people more productive and to enable greater wealth and welfare. However, there should be DARPA like efforts to revamp education and to find ways to enable people to rapidly get new and improved skills.
Is it possible to instantly load complex skills training ?
Boston University post-doctoral fellow Kazuhisa Shibata designed and implemented a method using decoded fMRI neurofeedback to induce a particular activation pattern in targeted early visual areas that corresponded to a pattern evoked by a specific visual feature in a brain region of interest. The researchers then tested whether repetitions of the activation pattern caused visual performance improvement on that visual feature.
The result, say researchers, is a novel learning approach sufficient to cause long-lasting improvement in tasks that require visual performance.
Is hypnosis or a type of automated learning a potential outcome of the research?
"In theory, hypnosis or a type of automated learning is a potential outcome," said Kawato. "However, in this study we confirmed the validity of our method only in visual perceptual learning. So we have to test if the method works in other types of learning in the future. At the same time, we have to be careful so that this method is not used in an unethical way."
At present, the decoded neurofeedback method might be used for various types of learning, including memory, motor and rehabilitation.
DARPA has explored the development of immersive holodeck like rapid training.
More Tyler Cowen and Peter Thiel Videos
If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on ycombinator or StumbleUpon. Thanks
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- Hospitalizations for children under 12 with eating disorders increase 112%
- A psychologist sees third- and fourth-graders who are worried about being fat
- Watch for a child who is cutting his or her portion sizes or avoiding fat calories
Swimming outdoors, playing with the family pet and enjoying an ice cream cone -- that is the summer life of a typical 9-year-old girl.
Not for Sarah Smith. As a child, Smith (whose name has been changed to protect her privacy) formed habits that would eventually lead her to develop both bulimia and anorexia nervosa, both of which she is still dealing with today.
Smith remembers her parents using food in a reward-punishment system. When she was good, she got treats; if she was bad, snacks were forbidden.
"I think there was a mixture of ... intentionally restricting my food and then going to try to find the food my parents were hiding," Smith said. "Even in childhood, it became sort of obsessive."
When Smith was born in 1989, child eating disorders were a rarity. Today, they are far more commonplace.
A study conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality showed that hospitalizations for eating disorders in children under 12 increased by 119% between 1999 and 2006. More recent numbers are unavailable, but experts say the problem isn't getting any better.
Children will come in to her office already showing signs of malnutrition, dietician Page Love says. They often have low energy levels and low iron counts and are reporting hair loss because of their extreme weight loss.
Most, like Smith, do not recognize that their restrictive habits are actually an eating disorder that could ultimately be fatal.
Dina Zeckhausen is a psychologist and founder of the Eating Disorder Information Network. She sees kids in third and fourth grade who are already worried about being fat.
"There is so much emphasis on obesity," Zeckhausen said, "that there's a danger that we are going to produce a lot of anxieties in kids around weight."
Zeckhausen says that starting overweight kids on diets can trigger an obsession with food that could lead to an eating disorder. She recommends putting overweight children in a sport or becoming more active as a family and providing healthier food options.
Children at risk of an eating disorder share similar personality traits: high anxiety, perfectionism and obsessive-compulsive tendencies, according to Zeckhausen. They are also often subject to external pressures such as school bullying, abuse or a divorce. Restricting food intake is a way for a child to feel in control of their life.
"The eating disorder is the voice," said Love. "The eating disorder is a way to communicate (and say) 'I'm struggling. I'm hurt. I need help.' "
Smith's parents did not realize there was something going on until she was 13; her eating disorder was not professionally addressed until she was 17. As a result, Smith has been in and out of treatment facilities practically her whole life.
Experts say that getting help at a young age is the key to effective treatment.
"The longer an eating disorder goes on, the more potential physical and psychological damage can occur," Zeckhausen said. "It's particularly important to be in recovery before puberty begins so the child can accept and cope with the normal weight gain of puberty."
Love says that a lot of the time, she meets parents who say, "I didn't realize my child had lost this much weight until I saw them in a bathing suit."
"Unfortunately, some of these parents don't notice this weight loss until it's already significant," Love added.
A sudden change of portion size, cutting out foods the child enjoyed in the past, avoiding fat calories and sudden weight loss are all warning signs that a child is developing an eating disorder.
Smith said her family did not recognize her eating disorder as a problem. Now, a decade and a half later, she is still struggling.
"I think what I would tell them is to do their very best not to fool themselves," Smith said of her advice for children suffering with an eating disorder. "There are people out there, even if they aren't in their direct surroundings, who are filled with compassion and want to help."
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TECHNOLOGY IN CONTEXT
To Defrag or Not to Defrag–That Is the Question for SSD
Solid-state disks are becoming a popular storage medium in embedded applications. In real use, SSD suffers from file system fragmentation just like HDD. While defragmentation can restore performance, care must be taken not to incur too many write cycles in clearing file and free space fragments.
YU HSUAN LEE, APACER TECHNOLOGY
Page 1 of 1
Although the solid-state disk (SSD) is not new and has a long history of its own, it has only recently received quite a bit of media hype that makes it outshine other NAND flash products such as flash-based media players or memory cards. As big computer brand names like Apple, Acer and Asus introduced their portable computers with built-in solid-state drives, people began to really notice the existence and the importance of this technology.
The SSD is a true replacement technology for the traditional hard disk drive (HDD). Yes. It is fast. Really fast. It has no mechanical moving parts that slow down read/write. It endures shocks and vibration to a greater extent. It operates without a sound. It tolerates a larger range of temperature. And it is tiny and lovely.
But those who are more skeptical only consider SSD to be a technology that competes with HDD in certain niche applications. The so-called netbook market, for example, is such a niche application requiring a disk drive as small and lightweight as possible that SSD serves as a better solution than HDD. The trend is there, obviously, but the price per Gigabyte is still too high for SSD to become mainstream. For the time being we see SSD and HDD versions coexist and compete with each other in the netbook market. As SSD’s price is dropping and its capacity is increasing rapidly, it won’t be long before SSD finds its place in your offices and home desktops. But SSD isn’t perfect. We can still find room for improvement, and costs will continue to drop.
Fragmentation Not Just for Hard Drives
Anyone with experience in computers knows that a computer just gets slower and slower after the day you first turn it on. Depending on how you use it, your computer can become sluggish in just weeks or months. The main reason for this aging phenomenon is not in hardware but in software. Or, more precisely, it is file system fragmentation that slows down your computer.
One might say that this is true for HDD because the read/write head needs to position itself to the right place during read/write operation and it takes time to do that. As a file is cut into pieces and stored in different memory area of the HDD, the read/write head travels to the locations of each file piece and spends one seek time to read and write each piece of data. Thus the read/write time naturally multiplies by a factor in proportion to how fragmented the file is. One might then conclude that file fragmentation will not cause a slowdown in an SSD because there is no read/write head and therefore the mechanical seek time is zero. In an SSD, every file tends to be broken up into pieces and stored in different physical locations of the flash memory cells because the logical-to-physical (L2P) mapping used in managing the flash memory seems to scramble the relationship between logical addresses and physical addresses of data. Since everything is done electronically, not mechanically, one might conclude that file fragmentation is not a problem for SSD at all.
The above statements are right about HDD, but only half correct for the SSD part. It is a misconception that SSD does not suffer from file system fragmentation. A large part of system slowdown can indeed be attributed to the read/write head spending too much mechanical seek time for highly fragmented files in HDD, and SSD does reduce that to zero. While this is a significant improvement, mechanical seek time only makes up a part of total access time, or I/O time, of any single input/output request made to the disk. I/O time is the time a computer system takes to complete a request cycle all the way from application, OS and driver down to disk hardware, memory cells, and then back again.
Zero mechanical seek time certainly does not mean zero I/O time. No matter how fast an SSD can be, its I/O time can never be zero. File system fragmentation affects I/O time in an SSD even when the mechanical seek time is zero. To put it another way, the misconception that SSD does not suffer from file fragmentation derives from seeing the performance degradation as a problem of the storage device alone, a problem of whether there is mechanical moving part or not, but not as a problem concerning the system as a whole. The question at issue here is I/O time, not seek time.
Here we must distinguish between two different types of fragmentation under the name “file system fragmentation.” They are file fragmentation and free space fragmentation. File fragmentation is the cause of slow read because the file is stored as a bunch of noncontiguous smaller pieces scattered around. Free space fragmentation, on the other hand, is the cause of slow write. It happens when there is no contiguous free space available for storing a file in one write such that the file system allocates a bunch of non-contiguous smaller slices of free space to store this file in several writes. Free space fragmentation leads to file fragmentation during write operations. File fragmentation leads to free space fragmentation–this happens when fragmented files are deleted. It is obvious that the two types of fragmentation form a vicious circle.
Kicking seek time out of our equation, one can understand that for an SSD the main factor that causes performance drop is file system fragmentation. This is a problem at the level of file system and MFT table (NTFS), where files become fragmented such that one access request for one file turns out to be several or more access requests for pieces of file fragments that make up the file. This “I/O multiplication” effect found in a fragmented file system is particularly noticeable during write cycles. The reason is the erase-before-write characteristics of NAND flash: data can be written into a memory block only after existing data has been erased. Since the erase/write speed is slow compared to read, a write multiplication due to free space fragmentation can slow down I/O time severely.
Defragmentation Comes to the Rescue
In September, Apacer introduced its first SSD bundled with optimization software to address, among other things, the problem of file system fragmentation. By applying defragmentation algorithms specially tailored for SSD, the Optimizer software can restore read operation 5.9x faster, write operation 19.5x faster, random read 3.9x faster, and random write 9.0x faster. Notice how file system fragmentation can degrade system performance in this test case. In a severely fragmented file system, sequential read can degrade to the level of random write, and sequential write and random write become extremely sluggish. Here we see to what extent SSD may suffer from file system fragmentation, and how defragmentation can bring performance back (Figure 1).
Now comes a problem. Since the defragmentation routine will move file fragments in trying to consolidate files and free space, it causes additional write operations to the SSD’s NAND flash. However, NAND flash can only allow for a limited number of erase/write cycles for each memory unit–a lifetime issue. If you write too often, your flash will soon die out. It appears that, by shuffling files, defragmentation will increase the erase counts and shorten the life span of SSD.
Indeed, having limited erase/write cycles is an SSD’s weak spot. The problem of how to minimize erase count in flash has been one of the key research areas for flash vendors. It concerns, at the level of memory controller and L2P table, how efficiently the memory controller manages data among memory cells. No matter how good the memory controller may be in reducing its “write amplification” factor, using whatever kind of wear-leveling algorithms, memory controllers in their present architecture seem incapable of doing anything to cope with the increase of erase/write cycles caused by the I/O multiplication in a fragmented file system.
Thus we face a dilemma. On the one hand, we need to defrag our SSD to improve its performance. On the other hand, we cannot defrag too much lest too many writes shorten SSD’s longevity. Traditional defragmentation aims to clear all fragments found in a target disk. But this strategy cannot work for SSD because of the life time issue. The solution to this dilemma is certainly one of balance and compromise. That is, how to devise a defrag strategy that will improve throughput while at the same time not incurring too many erase counts?
It appears that the better defrag strategy is to prevent free space fragmentation from occurring without being too aggressive in consolidating files. Since free space fragmentation leads to file fragmentation, if free space fragments can be minimized, the chances of creating fragmented files can also be minimized. If such a defragmentation strategy is applied at the initial stage of an SSD, then the file system can be optimally maintained in a less fragmented state. This helps to turn the vicious circle of fragmentation into a virtuous one. On the other hand, by consolidating files only when needed, erase counts used in consolidating files are minimized.
Figure 2 shows a test case done by Apacer where cumulative erase counts of an SSD test sample going through a series of procedures are documented. In this case fragmented free space is artificially created at stage 2 and stage 5. The optimization algorithm is applied at stage 6. HDBENCH is first run in a fragmented free space at stage 3, and then in an optimized, defragmented, space at stage 7. Defragmentation does incur erase count increase for 4. Running HDBENCH incurs 4 counts in a fragmented space, but only 1 in a defragmented space. That is, the optimization algorithm reduces HDBENCH erase count from 4 to 1.
Based on the test, we can argue that although optimization will use some erase counts in consolidating fragments, it reduces erase counts incurred by other write activities that are done after it because fragments are already cleared. The total erase counts incurred in the case with optimization are only a fraction more than the total erase counts incurred in the case without optimization. It is as if applying optimization saves a number of erase counts from later write activities only to use them in advance. Since erase counts accumulate differently in different user scenarios, it is conceivable that the total erase counts incurred in the case with optimization can be the same as, or even less than, the total erase counts incurred in the case without optimization. This means a well-designed defrag algorithm can extend an SSD’s life span.
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The apartment complex I care for has a terrible infestation of chipmunks. They have tunneled under some of the patios and around rock walls, in addition to tunneling through flowerbeds. I'm worried the sidewalk and patios will start to shift or collapse. Do you know of a reliable method for controlling them? — Baltimore, Md.
Chipmunks, sometimes known as ground squirrels, are cute to watch but can be destructive in your landscapes. Chipmunks and ground squirrels are members of the rodent family and there seems to be some related species causing joy and havoc all over the country. It's helpful to determine the species you are trying to control, in order to better target your efforts. In general, they dig tunnels to live, breed and hibernate (or something similar) and for protection. They may eat seeds, fruit, flower bulbs, seedlings or insects. Controlling chipmunks can be a challenge and should include a variety of tactics. The Eastern Chipmunk (EC) tends to be active in the morning and late afternoon; however, some related species prefer to run around during the middle of the day. Take time to observe their habits and identify tunnel entrances. EC prefer closely mown areas, so leaving a strip of vegetation that grows tall and dense may help prevent new EC from moving in. Fencing may work in some situations. Use ½-inch or smaller wire mesh, where possible. You will need to bury the fence at least 6 to 8 inches deep. Plant tulips and other spring bulbs encased in wire mesh, buried in the ground. The bulbs will need 1-inch wire mesh so that they can grow up and out of the ground. Once up, you may need to spray them with pepper wax to prevent nibbling. Traps can be effective if used correctly. Bait traps with peanut butter, cracked corn or nuts, without actually setting the trap for two to three days to get the EC comfortable with the new metal monster. The trap should be hidden or partially covered if you're using it where kids, pets and ground-feeding birds could roam. If possible, set the trap into a burrow; if that's not possible, set the trap opening perpendicular to a runway. Once the EC are comfortable, set the trap and inspect often. Traps intended for a live catch present the problem of disposal. If you transfer the chipmunk to a new location, it may introduce a disease to a healthy population of chipmunks or the released chipmunk may be so stressed that he is more susceptible to attack by predators in the new location. There may also be poisons and fumigants labeled for your particular situation and in your state. Check with your local wildlife control agent for a list of labeled products.
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© 2016 Penton Media Inc.
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Revisiting Disasters Natural and Man-made / Returning the rule of law to Sudan
Published 4:00 am, Monday, December 26, 2005
Next month marks two important anniversaries for Sudan, Africa's largest country: It has been 50 years since colonial independence (Jan. 1) and one year since the signing of Sudan's comprehensive peace agreement (Jan. 9), which formally ended one of the world's longest and deadliest civil wars. The international community heralded this peace accord as the first major step Sudan had taken in more than two decades toward building the rule of law.
But the rule of law cannot be constructed by putting down guns. The rule of law means that government officials and judges make and apply laws fairly. In Southern Sudan -- a region half the size of Western Europe -- there exist only 22 trained judges to help people resolve their disputes nonviolently. Without independent, educated judges and citizens' confidence in government, the regime rules against the will of the people. Trust is crucial to establishing democracy.
But trust has been a rare commodity in Sudan. In the last 50 years, Sudan has had two civil wars, three military governments, three currencies, four transitional governments, five constitutions, decades-long experiments with socialist rule and Shariah law, and a period during the 1990s of accommodating the world's notorious terrorists, including Osama bin Laden. These periods of violence and arbitrary laws have eroded citizens' trust in government and government's ability to construct the rule of law.
What can Americans do to help build trust in the Sudanese government that has participated in so much of this complex history?
First, the U.S. State Department must step up its diplomatic pressure on the new Sudanese Government of National Unity to focus more on how to build the rule of law by providing basic services to its people, such as schools and independent courthouses. Trust in government generally will translate into trust in its legal institutions -- indirectly bolstering the rule of law.
Second, Congress must reconsider its recent decision not to renew a $50 million-aid package for African Union troops in Sudan. These peacekeepers work tirelessly to curtail lawlessness and what Congress itself has called genocide in Darfur. Without these troops, aid agencies could not provide the humanitarian assistance that is necessary to building Darfur's rule of law.
Third, Congress should earmark an additional $15 million to the United Nations for disbursing long-term grants to Sudanese legal-aid organizations. Despite adversity, lawyers in these organizations are training poor people across Sudan to assert their human rights under both international and new Sudanese laws. War-displaced persons living in desert camps in Sudan told me that they never knew about human rights before these trainings.
But lawyers in Sudan face major constraints from their government in their work -- constraints Congress can pressure Khartoum to abandon. Public-interest lawyers in Sudan face harassment by Sudan's national security police and work under the threat of being arbitrarily detained or having their organizations shut down.
The financial base of these public-interest legal groups is at best tenuous and insecure -- they spend on average more than half their time applying for short-term grants from the international community. Long-term grants from the United States, disbursed by a trusted international organization such as the United Nations, will alleviate this tension and enable Sudanese organizations to work within their communities to build the rule of law from the ground up.
The evening before I left Sudan in 2005, a local bank celebrated the arrival of its first ATM. A few months earlier, a Sudanese company unveiled the first escalator in Sudan. The country is slowly rebuilding after the war. The challenge now for the international community is to modernize Sudan's government by developing the capacities of Sudanese grassroots legal organizations. By pressuring the Sudanese government and by increasing aid to peacekeepers in Darfur and organizations that strive to build the rule of law in Sudan, America can help curtail violence in Darfur while also strengthening human rights throughout the country -- helping to make Sudan one day a global model for transitional justice.
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Table of Contents | Message Board | Downloadable/Printable Version
PLOT SYNOPSIS AND NOTES FOR NIGHT BY ELIE WIESEL
The prisoners are taken to Birkenau, the reception or holding center for Auschwitz. Immediately, the men and women are separated. Elie and his father go to the men's line on the left. Elie's mother and sisters join the women's line on the right. This is the last time ever that Elie will ever see his mother and youngest sister.
While Elie and his father are waiting in line, they are secretly told by one of the Jewish residents that they should lie about their age, saying that they are eighteen and forty. He explains that these are ideal ages to the Nazis, and the lie will help them to survive the selection process. Also while they are waiting, one of the German SS officers comes out and screams at the Jews; he shouts that they are all going to Auschwitz to be burned. The Jews scream their objections in an exchange of foul words.
Dr. Mengele, a cruel SS medical officer, examines the deportees and questions them about their age and occupation. Elie, claiming to be eighteen and a farmer, is allowed to join the group of healthy men, along with his father. The sickly men, however, are separated; they will be sent to the crematorium.
Wiesel sees a wagon full of babies arriving in the camp. They are all unloaded and thrown into a ditch of fire. The sight terrorizes Elie and all other deportees; they grow fearful that the same fate awaits each of them. Elie tells his father that he would rather run through an electric wire and be shocked to death than suffer the slow agony of burning to death.
Elie and several other Jewish deportees are ordered to march towards the ditch of fire. When they are only two steps away from the fiery furnace, the soldiers order them to turn away and head for the barracks. It is the first of many tortures that Elie will have to face at Auschwitz. The men are then assigned their work detail. Elie and his father are assigned to Block 17 in Auschwitz. When they arrive there, they are threatened with machine guns and vicious dogs.
Elie recalls the misery of his first night in the concentration camp. He pledges, "Never shall I forget the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never."
At roll call the next morning, there is a band playing martial music. In the afternoon, Elie receives his tattoo - A7713. Endless days then pass by in a blur of roll call, work, meals, and sleep. Elie and his father do, however, encounter a relative, Stein from Antwerp. He is terribly worried about his wife and sons. Elie tries to calm him by saying that his own mother has been receiving letters from Stein's wife, Reisel. The news cheers Stein.
The Jews endure daily torture. Elie's father is beaten and knocked to the ground for asking where he can find a lavatory. Elie is so shocked at the brutality that he does not even try to intervene. He simply comes to his father's aid after the incident.
After several weeks in Auschwitz, Elie, his father, and about a hundred other prisoners are ordered out of the block. They are forced to march through the streets for a period of more than four hours. In the end, they find that they have been led to a new camp called Buna.
The scene at Birkenau, the reception center, is very touching. The fourteen-year-old Elie and his father are separated from Elie's mother and sisters. Elie will never see his mother or youngest sister again. Even though Elie and his father survive the selection process, they immediately must witness and endure horrendous torture. They are told, along with the other Jews, that they all will eventually be burned to death. Then they must watch as the old, weak men are lead away to the crematorium. They also witness a wagonload of babies being thrown into a ditch of fire. Elie is also told to march towards the ditch; when he is only two steps away from burning to death, he is told to turn away and go to his barracks.
In the morning at roll call, Elie notices that spring is in the air. It is ironic that the season of new life and new beginnings is the time when Elie's misery begins. Elie also notices the electric fence that surrounds the camp; its danger is marked by a skull, "a death's head." Elie tells his father that he would rather be electrocuted by the fence than endure a slower death by fire. He also realizes that he will never be able to escape from death in the concentration camp; it will perpetually surround him.
Elie's days are filled with a dull routine: roll call, work, meals, and bedtime. He finds that in order to endure the torture that he sees and experiences, he must steel himself against it, becoming less sensitive. When his father is beaten and knocked to the ground for asking to go to the bathroom, Elie does not try to intervene; he simply helps his father after the incident. After a week in camp, Elie has already learned the rule of self-preservation above all; he hates that he is becoming dehumanized.
On the eighth day of prison life, Elie's softer side is seen again. He tries to cheer a relative, named Stein, by telling him that his mother has been receiving letters from Stein's wife, who is her cousin. Although this is a lie, the news is a blessing to Stein. It also proves that Elie has not become totally insensitive.
At the end of the chapter, Elie, his father, and about one hundred other prisoners are led from Auschwitz. They are marched through the streets for more than four hours and finally find themselves at a new camp called Buna.
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|Prof. Goluboff: “We’ve
lost the ability to address the labor and economic claims that the
Department of Justice was trying to address in the 1940s.”
Posted April 21, 2004
Goluboff Wins Law and Society
Award for Scholarship on Civil Rights in the 1940s
When looking at the history of civil rights, scholars tend to zero
in on one significant moment—Brown v. Board of Education (1954)—but
the 1940s offer a rich foundation as well, as law professor Risa
Goluboff discovered while writing her doctoral dissertation in history, “The
Work of Civil Rights in the 1940s: The Department of Justice, the NAACP,
and African-American Agricultural Labor.” Goluboff’s scholarship
was recently awarded the Law and Society Association’s annual
Prior to Brown, civil rights leaders “didn’t
know what civil rights was going to look like,” Goluboff explained.
By focusing on the 1940s, Goluboff examines what lawyers and claimants
thought civil rights should do to redress injustice, before Brown declared
segregated schools unconstitutional and became the basis for future
civil rights claims.
She studied African-American workers in particular, since “they
don’t show up much in most of our histories of civil rights.” Goluboff
wanted to uncover why labor—central to rights in the 1930s and
1940s—came to play so little a role in Brown and civil
Goluboff specifically highlights the differing strategies used by
the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Section and the NAACP.
Formed in 1939, the Civil Rights Section took complaints from agricultural
workers concerning involuntary servitude and peonage seriously. “They
pushed [claims] quite far,” Goluboff said. “In doing so,
their civil rights cases combined labor issues and race issues together.
“On the other hand, the NAACP increasingly pursued cases that
didn’t come from laborers and raised questions only on race,
and not on labor or economic inequality. In the end the NAACP cases
were the ones that became the basis for the current civil rights doctrine.”
The NAACP’s alternate perspective may have emerged in part from
the particular perspective of their lawyers, who inhabited a distinctive
middle-class black world, and the civil rights they pursued spoke to
Goluboff said the current civil rights doctrine’s focus on colorblindness
and racial classification is an unintended consequence of the successful
NAACP cases. “We’ve lost the ability to address the labor
and economic claims that the Department of Justice was trying to address
in the 1940s,” she said. “We don’t have constitutional
ways of talking about that problem.”
A New York native, Goluboff has been interested in questions of social
justice since high school. “My family always emphasized such
issues,” she said. Her interest in law and race grew while taking
courses on the 1920s and 1930s at Harvard. She took a semester off
from college to work on her undergraduate thesis on the Sea Islands
in South Carolina, an isolated black community where residents are
descended from slaves and speak Gullah, a Creole blend of Elizabethan
English and African languages. While African Americans from the mainland
thought the Sea Island residents were backwards, they in fact developed
a strong sense of political independence. Their voter-registration
drive in 1948 became the basis for the southwide voter registration
program of the 1960s. Goluboff’s thesis on the subject was published
in shortened form in the Journal of Southern Legal History.
During her summers at Yale Law School, Goluboff worked for a migrant
farm worker advocacy group in southern Florida; at the Southern Center
for Human Rights in Atlanta, focusing on prisoners’ rights litigation
and capital punishment appeals; and at the NAACP Legal and Educational
Defense Fund, on civil rights litigation, a split summer she shared
with law firm Jenner & Block. After law school Goluboff clerked
for the Hon. Guido Calabresi of the United States Court of Appeals
for the Second Circuit and for Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer.
Prior to law school, she taught at the University of Cape Town as a
Fulbright Scholar in South Africa.
Goluboff has also written on the changing tone of letters written
to President and Eleanor Roosevelt in a Law and Social Inquiry article.
The letters, in the National Archive, were from farm workers claiming
they were in peonage. Through the 1930s, the letter writers complained
of their helplessness and looked to the President as a paternal figure.
By the 1940s a sense of entitlement had developed, as service in World
War II gave African Americans a sense of citizenship and belief in
Goluboff’s research into these letters led her to her dissertation
topic. One sugar company in Florida had lured African-American teenagers
under false pretenses and essentially enslaved them. The teenagers’ mothers
had complained to the FBI, which after more research led Goluboff to
the broader topic of the Civil Rights Section’s role.
“It’s still the case that people of color are more likely
to be poor,” she said—and there’s no system to address
the problems that they face.
Goluboff is currently considering presses to publish her dissertation
as a book, and she thinks she may revise the title to The Lost
Origins of Modern Civil Rights.
• Reported by M. Wood
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An international group of scientists on Sunday called for all adults who test positive for HIV to be treated with antiretroviral drugs right away rather than waiting for their immune systems to weaken.
The recommendations by the International Antiviral Society are the first by a global group to make such a call, and were released at the 19th International AIDS Conference in Washington, the world's largest meeting on HIV/AIDS.
Other major groups, such as the World Health Organization, currently urge treatment after the disease progresses to a certain point, or when the body's T-cells, or CD4 count, reaches or falls below the level of 350 cells/mm3.
"These guidelines are aspirational," said Melanie Thompson, a doctor with the AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta, urging increased testing and better care of those who test positive for HIV.
The guidelines are based on new trial data and drug regimens that have become available in the last two years which warrant an "update to guidelines for antiretroviral treatment in HIV-infected adults in resource-rich settings."
Some 34 million people in the world are living with HIV, according to the latest UNAIDS report issued last week. However, about one in five people are not aware of their status and are most at risk of spreading the disease.
Some eight million people in low and middle income countries are now on antiretroviral treatment, making up about half of those in the world who need it, the UNAIDS report said.
"Unfortunately most people in the world are not going to benefit from our guideline recommendations," Thompson said, noting that most people seek care too late, by the time they already have full-blown AIDS.
Asked by a reporter if the guidelines were realistic in the current global cash-crunch environment, Thompson replied: "I actually reject the idea that there is not enough money for care and for drugs for antiretroviral therapy.
"I think it is a matter of political will. I think it is a matter of prioritizing and recognizing that treatment of HIV is cost-effective. It may be cost-saving as well," she said.
"The science should drive the allocation of resources and guidelines can play an important role in that respect."
The full guidelines are published in Sunday's theme issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, which focuses on HIV/AIDS.
Explore further: Hope for more options in couples where one partner is HIV positive
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| 0.964401 | 505 | 2.671875 | 3 |
The Sierra Club and its allies celebrated on December 9 when the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approved a plan by Xcel Energy, the state's largest utility, to retire seven coal-burning power plants by 2017. The plan will phase out all coal plants in the Denver area.
The seven plants, which between them generate more than 900 megawatts of coal-fired electricity, will be retired starting in 2011 and replaced by natural gas energy, which is cleaner than coal and flexible enough to allow easy incorporation of renewable energy into the mix.
The plan puts into action the Clean Air, Clean Jobs Act, passed by voters this March, that charged Xcel and the PUC with forging a comprehensive, cost-effective strategy get out in front of anticipated federal clean air and greenhouse gas regulations.
"What happened in Colorado will will establish a clear pathway for other states and progressive utilities to move from coal to cleaner, healthier energy sources, even as Washington, D.C., sits paralyzed," says Sierra Club organizer Roger Singer, below.
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WATCH: NASA Discusses Why The World Is Not Ending This Year
According to an ancient Mayan prophecy, the world is supposed to come to an end on December 21, 2012. This has been an urban legend for a long time. Dr. John Carlson said that this has been a misconception from the very beginning. The Mayan calendar did not end on December 21, 2012 and there were no Maya prophecies for telling the end of the world on that date. Carlson is a radio astronomer that studied distant galaxies. He had become interested in the 2012 phenomena 35 years ago when he attended a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The Mayans studied astronomy and developed an elaborate written language. Carlson was particularly intrigued by the way that the Mayans had an expansive sense of time. The Mayans tracked time in a way that is similar to an odometer on a car. Once it hits a maximum number like 999999, it will reset itself to a number like 0000000. According to Maya theology, the world was created 5,125 years ago on a date that we would write as August 11, 3114 B.C. At that time, the Maya calendar looked like 13 0 0 0 0. On December 21, 2012, the calendar would be exactly the same. This is a significant interval in Maya theology but it is not a destructive one.
Archaeologists have examined thousands of Mayan tablets and ruins and none of them foretell the end of the world. NASA also found that no known asteroid comets or a rogue planet coming anywhere near Earth. If there was an object coming for the Earth, you would see a very bright object in the sky by now — just go outside and see for yourself. The sun is also at it’s lowest solar cycle too.
Check out the video below:
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| 0.974961 | 373 | 3.1875 | 3 |
- freely available
Agriculture 2014, 4(2), 96-112; doi:10.3390/agriculture4020096
Abstract: The effect of soil drought (10 days) on the growth of plants, the accumulation of water and leakage of electrolytes, gas exchange, the contents of chl a + b and carotenoids in leaves and photochemical activity of photosystem II was studied at the seedling stage by transient fluorescent analysis in 20 of the popular varieties of polish spring wheat. Drought caused a particularly strong reduction in vigor of growth of seedlings, net photosynthesis rate and triggered an increase in electrolyte leakage from the leaves. Certain varieties during the drought demonstrated relatively intense CO2 assimilation at low water loss through transpiration. The varieties tested were significantly different in terms of tolerance to drought of the processes of gas exchange and seedlings development. Photochemical processes in PSII showed high tolerance to drought and at the same time low differentiation among varieties. The results obtained suggested that tolerance of growth parameters to drought and CO2 assimilation at the seedling stage may alleviate consequent depression of final yield of the grain.
Wheat is the most important cereal crop; it is common diet for more than one third of the world population and contributes more calories and proteins to the world diet than any other cereal crop . Water deficit is the most severe stress and the main cause of significant losses in growth and productivity of crop plants [2,3]. Water deficit is particularly dangerous for spring cereals, which do not use winter reserves of water in the soil. Spring wheat has additionally particularly high water demands. This is caused by the poor development of root system, a shorter growing season, and the fact that these plants are sown in partially dried soil by the spring tillage. What is more, the initial growth of spring wheat is slow, which further increases their vulnerability to drought. This period of high sensitivity to drought occurs in the spring during the tillering phase and later during the shooting and heading stages.
Drought tolerance is not an easily quantifiable plant attribute, because it is a combination of complex physiological, morphological and molecular traits. Physiological traits affected by drought can be correlated with the rate of CO2 assimilation [4,5,6], PSII photochemical activity [7,8,9,10,11], leaf water potential (stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, relative water content—RWC) [11,12,13], plasma membrane integrity and chlorophyll content .
The improvement of tolerance to drought has been a long-lasting principal goal of the majority of breeding programs as water deficit in certain stages of wheat growth commonly occurs in many wheat growing regions of the world . In the studies on watering plants, increased emphasis is being placed on understanding reactions to drought, not only in species, but also their particular varieties . Different varieties can display various requirements in terms of environmental conditions . The plant varieties with lower water requirements and/or higher resistance to drought could be useful in the areas with limited access to water, and thus compensate the losses associated with reduced yields .
For some genotypes, the seedling response is apparently a good indicator of the plants’ reaction to drought stress later in their life cycle. The objective of this research was to verify more reliably some of the physiological traits used for screening the performance on a set of popular Polish wheat genotypes under restricted water conditions in the soil and to correlate the tolerance of seedlings of these varieties with the depression of final grain yield.
2. Results and Discussion
2.1.1. Water Content and Electrolyte Leakage
The mean values obtained for all varieties tested indicate that soil drought in wheat seedlings resulted in only a low reduction in the water content in leaves (3.1%), and a higher decrease in RWC (20.3%), while simultaneously causing a significant increase in electrolyte leakage (EL) from the cells (38.8%) compared to control (Table 1).
|Water Content and Electrolyte Leakage|
|water content (%)||control||86.5||1.2||83.6||88.0|
|Growth and Accumulation of Biomass|
|leaf area (cm2)||control||30.0||8.8||25.5||34.5|
|dry weight of seedling (mg)||control||92.2||11.1||73.5||108.2|
|RGRa (m2 m−2 day−1) × 102||control||9.0||11.0||6.9||11.0|
|NAR (g m−2 day−1) × 10||control||31.7||11.2||25.4||38.8|
|PN (μmol CO2 m−2 s−1)||control||13.1||7.7||11.6||15.9|
|WUE (μmol CO2 × mmol H2O−1)||control||5.6||21.6||4.2|
|Leaf Pigment Content|
|chlorophyll (a + b) (mg m−2)||control||415.5||11.3||348.7||507.2|
|carotenoids (mg m−2)||control||32.3||8.4||28.9||40.0|
|Weight of Seeds|
The diversity of the set of varieties tested in the conditions of optimal watering (control) depended on the analyzed trait/parameter of the plant. Differences in the water content in the leaves and RWC were at extremely low levels (coefficient of variation CV was respectively 1.2% and 2.5%), but the EL was significantly higher (CV ca. 30%). Application of drought stress caused a significant increase in differences between particular wheat varieties only with respect to RWC. When water content in the tissues is considered, the increase in the CV value at this growth conditions was low, and the reduction of the EL ratio was also observed, indicating disappearance of the differences between varieties.
Detailed statistical analysis revealed that under drought conditions, none of the varieties tested in this study, except for the cv. Bryza, were able to maintain RWC at the level of controls (Table 2). In contrast, the stability of cell membranes under stress, estimated on the basis of EL measurements, proved to be high for some varieties (“Jasna”, “Katoda”, “Parabola”, “Zadra” and “Żura”), as evidenced by the stress index value, which was close to 100%.
|Variety||Water Content||RWC||EL||Leaf Area||Dry Weight of Seedling||RGRa||NAR|
|Banti||95.0 *||72.4 *||130.6 *||54.5 *||75.5 *||38.5 *||92.6|
|Bombona||95.8 *||70.3 *||248.0 *||78.1 *||91.8||65.0 *||99.7|
|Bryza||99.5||93.8||198.9 *||81.8 *||78.7 *||77.7 *||77.2 *|
|Cytra||98.5||87.9 *||173.8 *||73.5 *||86.4 *||66.8 *||95.3|
|Hewilla||98.7||89.3 *||246.9 *||67.6 *||79.9 *||64.5 *||92.1|
|Jasna||97.7||80.3 *||105.0||82.4 *||91.9||75.8 *||98.3|
|Katoda||96.6||81.9 *||109.8||76.7 *||85.4 *||70.0 *||92.1|
|Koksa||98.3||80.9 *||142.3 *||74.4 *||81.9 *||67.9 *||88.3 *|
|Korynta||97.2||91.7 *||228.4 *||82.1 *||80.3 *||78.6 *||80.3 *|
|Monsun||96.2 *||82.2 *||142.5 *||57.9 *||65.6 *||44.6 *||68.3 *|
|Nawra||93.3 *||65.5 *||118.6 *||55.1 *||74.9 *||28.7 *||86.3 *|
|Parabola||95.9 *||81.6 *||107.8||67.1 *||85.1 *||60.1 *||99.6|
|Radunia||96.5||84.6 *||138.6 *||83.4 *||89.7||80.7 *||95.5|
|Raweta||100.0||78.0 *||135.5 *||53.9 *||77.4 *||38.4 *||95.0|
|Torka||96.5||77.3 *||124.2 *||71.5 *||83.1 *||61.0 *||90.7|
|Vinjet||95.9 *||69.2 *||115.1 *||72.8 *||83.6 *||54.2 *||89.8 *|
|Waluta||98.7||81.5 *||132.8 *||80.6 *||83.1 *||75.6 *||85.3 *|
|Zadra||96.9||79.2 *||105.1||60.9 *||72.1 *||45.7 *||79.1 *|
|Zebra||95.3 *||67.1 *||156.9 *||64.8 *||84.3 *||47.1 *||97.8|
|Żura||96.4||79.1 *||104.7||65.7 *||77.5 *||52.7 *||86.1 *|
The significance of differences in varieties was determined by the analysis of variance using the F-test and probability p. Asterisks indicate significant differences (p < 0.05) between control and drought treated plants according to F-test.
2.1.2. Growth and Accumulation of Biomass
Drought stress resulted in significantly lower growth vigor of seedlings (Table 1). Growth measured as leaf area and mass accumulation of whole plants were inhibited. The mean value of relative growth rate of leaf area (RGRa) decreased in the varieties tested during the period of stress by nearly 40%, while the intensity of net assimilation (NAR) by about 10%. Drought caused differences in the varieties tested in all parameters of growth measured. This effect was most pronounced for RGRa, for which the variation coefficient (CV) was more than 27%. None of the varieties were able to prevent the inhibition of the growth process of leaf area under drought conditions (Table 2). However, some of them retained the ability to intensively increase the weight of the seedlings (cv. “Bombona”, “Jasna” and “Radunia”) under stress and to maintain a high net assimilation rate (NAR), because the values of these parameters were similar to controls and did not differ statistically from them. The growth of leaves of cv. “Raweta” and “Banti” was particularly sensitive to drought. This is reflected in the low values of the SI index for RGRa, reaching about 38%. Relatively, net assimilation was inhibited by stress most significantly in varieties “Monsun” (SI = 68.3%) and “Zadra” (SI = 79.1%).
2.1.3. Gas Exchange and Leaf Pigment Content
The growth under drought conditions reduced the rate of photosynthesis (PN) in all varieties by an average of about 89%, the content of chl a + b by about 12% and carotenoid content of 8%, while WUE index was elevated by almost 16% (Table 1). In relation to the control, soil drought increased variation in varieties in terms of PN and WUE indices. The coefficient of variation of both parameters was the highest in drought from all the tested plant traits and amounted to more than 46% and 59%, respectively. In contrast, the differences between the varieties in terms of the content of chl a + b and carotenoids slightly narrowed down in drought conditions. None of the varieties tested could maintain PN at the control level after 10 days of drought (Table 3). Coefficient of water use efficiency was either increased or decreased under stress depending on the variety.
2.1.4. Photochemical Efficiency
Activity of photochemical processes in PSII was subject to slight inhibition in the absence of water in the soil (Table 1). The reduction of energy absorption by the antenna system, the energy flux transported to the center and outside the center of PSII, energy dissipation and the concentration of active reaction centers, did not exceed an average of 8% when compared to the well-watered plants. Diversification of varieties in terms of photochemical activity was also low. At both levels of water content in the soil, CV coefficient did not exceed 8% for the photochemical parameters (Table 3).
2.1.5. Consequent Effect on the Yield of Grain
Drought at the seedling stage caused a reduction in the final yield of wheat varieties by an average of 18% (Table 1). For most varieties, a decrease of grain yield was statistically significant compared to the properly watered controls (Table 3). The varieties “Jasna” and “Radunia” did not show a significant change in the yield compared to control, which indicated their tolerance to stress. Good tolerance to drought was demonstrated by “Zadra”, “Cytra”, “Bombona” and “Torka” varieties. The highest decrease in yield was recorded for “Koksa”, “Monsun” and “Zebra” varieties.
|Odmiana||PN||WUE||Chl (a + b)||Carotenoids||ABS/CS||TRo/CS||ETo/CS||DIo/CS||RC/CS||Weight of Seeds|
|Banti||13.3 *||79.2 *||77.3 *||85.7 *||93.9 *||93.9 *||94.9||93.7 *||96.7||73.3 *|
|Bombona||4.8 *||54.8 *||89.0 *||93.6||94.8 *||95.8||98.6||91.8 *||95.4||87.3 *|
|Bryza||15.8 *||180.6 *||92.0||95.3||93.7 *||92.8 *||91.0 *||96.9||89.3 *||75.5 *|
|Cytra||11.7 *||192.3 *||97.3||98.3||97.8||96.1||92.0 *||103.4||92.5 *||89.7 *|
|Hewillia||21.3 *||121.3 *||91.9||94.9||95.3||94.6 *||97.9||97.3||92.7 *||81.2 *|
|Jasna||13.3 *||76.4 *||97.1||98.4||96.4||96.0||99.1||97.6||96.3||98.8|
|Katoda||15.7 *||266.9 *||80.8 *||88.3 *||97.6||98.1||101.6||95.7 *||96.7||93.8 *|
|Koksa||7.3 *||260.4 *||83.7 *||89.5 *||87.1 *||84.8 *||82.7 *||95.2||83.1 *||71.0 *|
|Korynta||10.4 *||85.8 *||85.2 *||90.9 *||88.6 *||86.3 *||78.7 *||96.3||83.2 *||74.8 *|
|Monsun||4.3 *||48.7 *||86.9 *||91.2||92.7 *||92.1 *||92.8||94.5 *||91.8 *||72.3 *|
|Nawra||6.3 *||92.1 *||93.7||86.8 *||92.0 *||92.0 *||92.7||92.0 *||92.2 *||78.5 *|
|Parabola||13.6 *||124.6 *||97.7||98.7||99.1||97.8||99.9||103.4||97.8||84.8 *|
|Radunia||12.5 *||240.9 *||89.3 *||93.4||89.9 *||88.0 *||84.3 *||96.2 *||86.1 *||96.2|
|Raweta||11.5 *||48.8 *||93.2||95.6||98.6||98.8||100.7||98.1||102.6||85.3 *|
|Torka||19.5 *||118.1 *||93.1||95.9||95.1 *||94.8 *||98.4||96.1||93.5||86.3 *|
|Vinjet||4.5 *||97.3 *||88.8 *||93.0||90.0 *||90.4 *||94.7||88.5 *||92.4 *||85.3 *|
|Waluta||4.3 *||35.5 *||81.6*||88.4 *||93.2 *||92.5 *||92.1||95.6 *||92.1 *||78.8 *|
|Zadra||19.5 *||125.0 *||79.8*||87.1 *||93.5 *||93.0 *||94.9||95.1 *||91.0 *||91.5 *|
|Zebra||4.1 *||512 *||81.6*||88.1 *||91.9 *||91.7 *||94.1||92.5 *||92.8 *||71.3 *|
|Żura||15.4 *||79.6 *||93.1||96.2||97.1||96.9||93.9||98.0||102.2||80.9 *|
The significance of differences in varieties was determined by the analysis of variance using the F-test and probability p. Asterisks indicate significant differences (p < 0.05) between control and drought treated plants – according to F-test.
2.1.6. Correlation between Seedlings Tolerance, Final Yield and Drought
There was a relatively small number of statistically significant linear correlation coefficients between the relative tolerance to drought of plant traits studied (Table 4). SI index of the final yield of grains was rather poorly related and showed correlation only with the weight of seedlings and NAR. The weight of seedlings was correlated with the leaves area and RGRa. Since the correlation coefficients between the single traits of the seedlings and the final yield were low, multiple correlations were calculated, providing an opportunity to measure the collective impact of seedlings’ traits on yield (Table 5). Calculations carried out stepwise, revealed a steep increase of the determination coefficient (R2) when fourth trait was introduced to the regression equation. SI values of the yield calculated on the basis of this equation (theoretical yield) were compared with the respective data of the actual yield (Figure 1). The equation indicated seven most tolerant wheat varieties, which stayed in agreement with experimental observations. An analysis of discrimination carried out for the same data also confirmed the possibility of predicting the tolerance of wheat varieties to drought based on SI of selected traits of seedlings (Table 6).
2.2.1. Water Management and Growth of Seedlings
Growth processes are generally very vulnerable to water deficit . Keeping a high value of water content provides an opportunity not only to better protect physiological processes during drought, but also to improve recovery of plants after re-watering. Maintaining a high value of this parameter during drought provides an opportunity not only to better protect physiological processes, but also to improve recovery of plants after re-watering. In our work, variation observed in varieties with respect to RWC under stress, measured by the coefficient of variation, was about four-fold higher than the variation observed in well-watered plants (Table 1). It probably reflects considerable variation resources among varieties of wheat tested. The water shortage in the soil causes a reduction in the growth of leaf area by an average of 30%, and a reduction in the dry weight of seedlings by 19%, the restriction in RGRa and NAR. Under the adopted criterion, the majority of plant’s growth features were highly diversified between the varieties (Table 2).
Soil drought has caused a significant increase in electrolyte leakage from leaves, similarly as in the study by Bajji et al. . Unfortunately, in our work, the drought pressure has contributed to the reduction of differences between varieties, which might indicate their inability to more effectively protect the membranes against dehydration.
Only statistically significant values (p < 0.05) are shown; ns, not significant (N = 20); 1–water content; 2–RWC; 3–EL; 4–leaf area; 5–dry weight of seedling; 6–RGRa; 7–NAR; 8–PN; 9–WUE; 10–chl (a + b); 11–carotenoid; 12–ABS/CS; 13–TRo/CS; 14–ETo/CS; 15–DIo/CS; 16–RC/CS; 17–weight of seeds.
|1||dry weight of seedling||0.546||7.63||7.28|
|Wilkins’s lambda||Partial lambda||F Removal||p|
|dry weight of seedling||0.686||0.433||19.60||0.000|
F(4,15) = 8.86, p < 0.0007.
2.2.2. Gas Exchange
Reducing the intensity of net photosynthesis by drought nearly by 90% proved to be stronger than the NAR (Table 1). This is understandable, since the NAR index is the average of the initial and final (after 10 days of drought) state of plant’s growth and PN measurements recorded only consequences of stress at the end of the period. Some varieties of wheat (Table 3) had a relatively good ability to maintain high intensity of net assimilation and/or net photosynthesis (“Hewilla”, “Torka”, “Zadra”). It is known that soil drought occurring over several days can cause both stomatal and non-stomatal inhibition of photosynthesis. With a sudden decrease in water supply to plants, the stomata closed resulting in rapid reduction of water losses in the transpiration process and increased diffusion resistances to CO2 . The process of photosynthesis is very sensitive to changes in water supply to leaves and responds quickly to water deficit [4,22]. This depends not only on the increase in the diffusion resistance towards CO2, but also on damaging the structures in the chloroplasts, mainly PSII . As a result, the rate of CO2 assimilation decreases markedly during drought conditions. In C3 plants, closing of stomata is considered as the most important mechanism for protecting against dehydration of tissues, but at the same time it results in reduced CO2 assimilation. The rate of decrease of transpiration and PN in drought was not uniform in the varieties studied in this work. The effect of this phenomenon was both a reduction and an increase of the WUE value in some varieties under drought conditions. The diversity of wheat varieties in this regard has already been observed, but on a very limited number of varieties . The ability to assimilate CO2 at relatively low transpiration losses was observed in this study in the varieties “Katoda”, “Koksa” and “Radunia”. High value of WUE is desirable because of the possibility of higher biomass accumulation without large losses of water compared to other varieties. Considering the high drought tolerance of photosynthetic electron transport process , the high intensity of the absorption of CO2 prevents the transfer of electrons to O2 molecules, which, in turn inhibits the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) . Generation of ROS has adverse consequences, causing lethal damage to the tissues . The reduction of chlorophyll and carotenoid pigments was rather low, which may be indicative of a moderate intensity of drought stress. On the other hand, chlorophyll content in the wheat leaves during drought is dependent on the type of N ions present in the nutrient solution . An initial increase of the chlorophyll content during drought took place in the presence of NH4+, which was followed by a decrease in severity of the drought. By contrast in the presence of NO3−, the chlorophyll content in leaves decreased immediately at the initiation of the drought until the end of the experiment.
2.2.3. PSII Photochemical Activity and the Final Yield
The analysis of photochemical efficiency of PSII showed that the described changes in wheat are not very sensitive to moderate soil drought (Table 1). This observation is consistent with the opinions of other authors [27,28]. Our study confirmed a slight decrease in the absorption of energy by the antenna system and reduction of the size of energy streams reaching PSII photochemical reaction center and beyond the center. An undesirable effect of stress detected was also a low diversification of responses to drought of studied varieties. Therefore, it seems that the attempts to select wheat genotypes resistant to drought based on the analysis of photochemical activity are likely to be unsuccessful.
The inhibition of the rate of photosynthesis causes a drop in productivity and agricultural yield [29,30]. The rates of biomass growth do not increase to the level observed prior to the stress, which usually results in a reduced yield. After the stress is overcome, the resulting agricultural yield represents the balance between damage, regeneration and post-stress compensation . In our work, due to the application of drought at the seedling stage, the final reduction in grain yield varied depending on the variety, because some of the genotypes were distinctly tolerant to this stress (Table 3).
2.2.4. The Relationship between Seedlings Traits under Drought and the Final Yield
The regression equation derived on the basis of an index value of stress demonstrated a correlation of some traits of seedlings and the final yield of grain (Table 5). Traits of seedlings were related to the tolerance of the trait of growth vigor (weight and size of seedling leaves) to drought and the intensity of assimilation throughout the whole period of drought (NAR) and its transient value at the end of the drought period (PN). Repeating the calculations with the discrimination analysis (Table 6), confirmed the accuracy of the selection of these traits of seedlings for predicting the tolerance of varieties. The presented value of Wilks’ lambda test statistics can range from 0 (perfect discrimination) to 1 (no discrimination), while the value of the partial statistics of Wilks’ lambda test is related to the individual contribution of the variable to the discriminatory power of resulting model. F and p removals are statistics related to the corresponding value of the partial lambda test. A good illustration of the use of data to predict the tolerance is squared values of Mahalanobis distances from the centroids (Table 7).
The greater the distance, the farther apart the respective groups of varieties (tolerant/sensitive), resulting in higher power of the model applied. Data obtained in this work indicate a relatively high probability of correct classification of varieties to the appropriate group of sensitivity to drought stress.
Measurements carried out in this experiment revealed differences of wheat varieties studied in terms of consequent effect of soil drought at seedling stage on the final grain yield. Tolerant to stress in this regard were varieties “Jasna” and “Radunia”, as well as “Zadra”, “Cytra”, “Bombona” and “Torka”. Drought caused a particularly strong reduction in the growth vigor of the seedlings, net photosynthesis rate and caused an increase in the leakage of electrolytes from the leaves. Varieties tested were highly variable in terms of the stress response of processes of gas exchange and growth of seedlings, which may indicate potential variation resources to drought. Photochemical processes in PSII showed high tolerance to drought and simultaneously low variation between varieties.
|Variety *||Sensitivity to Stress||p = 0.65 |
|p = 0.35 |
* variations ordered by increasing stress index value calculated for grain yield.
3. Experimental Section
3.1. Plant Material
The study was performed on 20 varieties of spring wheat (Triticum aestivum). Seeds were obtained from following Polish breeding companies: DANKO Plant Breeders Ltd. (cv. “Bombona”, “Katoda” “Vinjett”, “Waluta”, “Zebra”), Strzelce Plant Breeders Ltd. (cv. “Cytra”, “Koksa”, “Korynta”, “Nawra”, “Torka”, “Zadra”), Nasiona Kobierzyc Crop Breeding Station Ltd. (cv. “Banti”, “Hewilla”, “Jasna”, “Parabola”, “Radunia”, “Żura”), Institute for Plant Breeding Radzików (cv. “Raweta”) and Lochow Petkus Bergen (cv. “Bryza”, “Monsun”). In our experiment, we have used the most popular varieties currently grown in Poland.
3.2. Plant Growth Condition
Plants were grown in a growth chamber in nine dm3 pots (six pots per genotype with 12 plants each) filled with mixture of sieved soil and sand (1:1, v/v) . Vegetation was held at a 15 h photoperiod, an irradiance of 400 μmol (photon) m−2 s−1, temperature of 20/17 °C (day/night) and in 50% air humidity. Plants were watered and fertilized with Hoagland nutrient solution as required . Up to the third leaf stage (18 days after emerging), soil water content was kept at 75% maximum water capacity (MWC) by adding an appropriate amount of water each day. The drought treatment started by discontinuing the watering of plant, and reaching 30% of MWC (four days). This level of soil humidity was maintained during next 10 days. After this time, symptoms of visual drought as turgor loss of leaves became apparent. At this time, the control plants were grown at 75% of MWC.
Physiological measurements were performed (a) after reaching 30% of MWC (only the leaves’ area and seedlings’ mass associated with the RGRa and NAR measurements at time t1); and (b) after 10 days of drought stress (all other measurements at time t2).
3.3. Plant Measurements
For every variety, the measurements were taken on plants subjected to drought and control plants. According to Bouslama and Schapaugh , stress index (SI) was calculated for some of the parameters measured where:
3.3.1. The Rates of Growth and Accumulation of Biomass
The analysis of growth included measurements of mass (seedlings and leaves) and area of leaves. The following different growth indices were used: relative growth rate—area (RGRa) and net assimilation rate (NAR). The surface of leaves was measured using a ScanMaker3880 (Microtek, Hsinchu, Taiwan), and Delta-T Skan 2.03 software (Delta-T Devices, Cambridge, UK). The plant material was dried for 48 h at 65 °C. The following formulas were used :
10—number of days of drought (30% MWC)
W—dry mass of plant, W1; W2 at the time t1 and t2, respectively
A—leaves area, A1; A2 at the time t1 and t2, respectively.
The measurements were taken in 12 replicates.
3.3.2. The Integrity of Plasma Membrane and Water Balance
Plasma membrane integrity was determined by means of an electrolyte leakage (EL) test [36,37]. For each genotype, 12 segments (three per leaf) 1 cm in length were cut from the third leaf. Samples were washed in deionized water and immersed in 5 cm3 of deionized water. After 24 h (EL1) of shaking at room temperature, samples were frozen at −40 °C for 24 h, then heated and shaken again (24 h, room temperature, EL2). EL was calculated as follows:
Measurements of electrical conductance were performed by means of a microcomputer conductivity meter CC-317 (Elmetron, Warsaw, Poland) with a platinum electrode at a frequency of 3 kHz.
The water balance in seedlings was determined by measuring the water contents of all leaves and the relative water content (RWC) on the third leaves. RWC was determined according to Barrs :
Where FW is fresh weight, DW is dry weight and TW is turgid weight. To measure TW, leaves were placed in darkness for 24 h in vials containing water, which permitted complete rehydration. All these measurements were performed in 12 replicates (plants).
3.3.3. Gas Exchange
Net photosynthetic (PN) and transpiration (E) rates were measured using an infrared gas analyser (Ciras-1, PP Systems, Hitchin, UK) with a Parkinson leaf chamber (PLC6, PP Systems, Hitchin, UK). The flow rate of air with constant CO2 concentration (400 μmol (CO2) mol−1 (air)) through the assimilation chamber was 350–400 cm3 min−1. The measurements were made in the middle part of the second leaf at 22 °C (the leaf temperature), where irradiance was equal to 500 μmol (quanta) m−2 s−1 and RH equal to 30%. The measurements were performed in 12 replicates. WUE was calculated as (PN/E).
3.3.4. Photochemical Efficiency
Photochemical efficiency was measured in the middle part of the second leaf by a Plant Efficiency Analyzer PEA (Hansatech, Kings Lynn, UK). Before measurements, the LED-light source of the fluorimeter was calibrated using an SQS light meter (Hansatech Ltd, Kings Lynn, UK). The excitation irradiance had an intensity of 3000 μmol (quanta) m−2 s−1 (peak at 650 nm). Measurements were taken after 30 min of leaves adaptation to darkness. Changes in fluorescence were registered during irradiation between 10 μs and 1 s. During the initial 2 ms, data were collected every 10 μs with 12 bit resolution. After this period, the frequency of measurements was reduced automatically. The following equations were used for the quantification of PSII :
The energy fluxes (per active cross section of leaf, CS) for absorption, ABS (ABS/CS), trapping (TRo/CS), electron transport (ETo/CS) and dissipation (DIo/CS):
In this work, we used the proportionality ABS/CS ≈ Fm,
Fo is the fluorescence intensity at 50 μs, Fm is the maximum fluorescence intensity,
F2ms is the fluorescence intensity at 2 ms.
The amount of active PSII reaction centers per CS (RC/CS):RC/CS = ABS/CS × φPo × (VJ/Mo)Mo = 4 × (F300μs−Fo)/(Fm−Fo)
F300μs is the fluorescence intensity at 300 μs.
The measurements were performed in 20 replicates.
3.3.5. Leaf Pigment Content
For the extraction of chlorophyll and carotenoids, 0.25 g of the second leaf was homogenized with 80% (v/v) acetone then crude extract was centrifuged at 3000 g for 5 min, at 4 °C. The absorbance of supernatant was measured spectrophotometrically at 450, 645 and 663 nm. The formulas of Arnon and Jaspars were used to calculate chlorophyll and carotenoids levels, respectively. The measurements were performed in 12 replicates on the second leaf.
Drought caused a particularly strong reduction in vigor of growth of seedlings, net photosynthesis rate and triggered an increase in electrolyte leakage from the leaves. In some varieties, drought induced ability to assimilate CO2 at a relatively low loss of water through transpiration.
Varieties tested showed high variations in terms of the stress response of processes of gas exchange and growth of seedlings, which may indicate the existence of potential variability resources to drought. Photochemical processes in PSII showed high tolerance to drought and at the same time low differentiation among varieties.
The results obtained suggest that tolerance of seedlings to drought with respect to certain growth parameters and CO2 assimilation may alleviate subsequent depression of the final yield of grains.
This research was supported by the program of COST ACTION project (Acronym TRITIGEN) N0 192/N-COST/2008/0.
Jolanta Biesaga-Kościelniak, Agnieszka Ostrowska, Maria Filek and Janusz Kościelniak designed the research; Jolanta Biesaga-Kościelniak, Agnieszka Ostrowska, Maria Filek, Michał Dziurka, Piotr Waligórski, Magdalena Mirek and Janusz Kościelniak conducted the research; Jolanta Biesaga-Kościelniak, Agnieszka Ostrowska and Michał Dziurka analyzed the data; Jolanta Biesaga-Kościelniak, Agnieszka Ostrowska and Janusz Kościelniak wrote the paper; Jolanta Biesaga-Kościelniak has primary responsibility for the final content. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
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People today are becoming increasingly aware that a proper diet is the foundation of good health. If we don't have a regular diet of wholesome food and the essential trace minerals which it provides, we don't have the fuel or the formula to perform at our best. We cut corners with our health, we try to run on empty and to tell ourselves that it's OK, but all the while our bodies know something different. We keep taking from ourselves, but what are we giving back? What does our diet consist of?
There are appropriate diet plans for whatever shape we happen to be in. There is also an appropriate level of nutrition for every diet, one which ensures that our bodies are not only receiving the essential ingredients for good health, but are receiving those in quantities and in ratios which enable us to attain our lifestyle goals. We might be eating plenty of food, but that doesn't mean that we are getting the nutrients which we need.
Like us, diet plans come in all shapes and sizes. Some of the most common forms of diet plans are:
- Diet plans for good nutrition;
- Diet plans for weight loss;
- Diet plans for exercise regimes;
- Diet plans for medical conditions;
- Diet plans for infants and the aged;
- Diet plans for pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Diet pills are playing an increasingly important role to consumers in helping them regulate the components of diet and the nutrients which our bodies absorb. But do they really work? In cases where diet pills are used as a substitute for reduced portion sizes, poor diet choices and a lack of physical exercise, diet pills tend not to work at all. It can be a tempting thought, but diet pills are not a shortcut to long-term weight reduction or a proper diet. Remember, if it sounds too easy or too good to be true, it probably is.
Take time to explore the resources available through this site, and to learn the essentials of a proper diet and good nutrition.
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You can help save bees—a central part of our ecosystem—by giving them a home.
—Photo by Jen Judge
Buzzing bees aren’t just a semi-annoying part of the soundtrack at your summer picnic; they’re also responsible for helping create the smorgasbord. The insects pollinate $200 billion worth of crops each year—roughly a quarter of the American diet. Sadly, these six-legged sous chefs are being threatened by colony collapse disorder, a poorly understood epidemic that has wiped out more than 30 percent of U.S. hives. Now, thanks to Denver-based Open Source Beehives (OSBH), you can help save these creatures by giving them a home. In partnership with Spain’s Fab Lab Barcelona, OSBH offers free blueprints for two beehives online. Interested beekeepers take the designs, along with a four-foot-by-eight-foot slab of CARB Phase 2–certified plywood, to a CNC (computer-controlled) router; try Club Workshop in Denver. Forty minutes and about $50 later, they can slot the resulting pieces together—think Ikea furniture without the missing screws—into a pollinator penthouse. OSBH eventually will help backyard beekeepers monitor their colony populations with sensors (currently in the beta stage). People can then upload the information to a global database—while collecting their own honey stash (if they have honeybees). Now that’s a sweet deal.
5280.com Exclusive: Some guidance on where to find bees to stock your new hive.
So you’ve built your beehive and now you need the bees to populate it. First step: Check your county’s municipal code to make sure it allows urban beekeeping. Once you verify that you’re within the law, Open Source Beehives’ co-founder Tristan Copley Smith says locating bees can be as easy as doing a Google search online for bees for sale. If you want a more reliable option, call the folks at the Colorado State Beekeeper’s Association. They’ll have tips on how to sign up for swarm lists. A swarm takes place when a colony gets too large, and the old queen and about a third of the hive leave to find a new home. If you’re at the top of the list, you can connect with a beekeeper looking to sell his or her backyard pollinators. Denver Urban Homesteading (DUH) also helps keep people informed about local swarms, so you can stock your hive and support Colorado beekeepers. It's too late this year, but you can pre-order through the organization for bee pick-up in late April or early May.
Bonus: DUH hosts beekeeping classes from January through April. As of last month, the public can now watch bees in action through a glass-walled observation area at DUH's facility at 200 Santa Fe Drive.
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If you think the holidays are a busy season you should trade places with a high school athlete who is juggling their studies, family life, and multiple competitive sports. The transition from fall to winter sports can be overwhelming. For many high school athletes they play a fall sport such as football and then transition right into the next sport during the winter season. These athletes are showcasing their versatile athletic abilities as well as learning valuable life skills such as time-management skills, discipline and commitment.
Even though many young athletes think they are invincible, it is important to prepare them and their growing bodies for the rigors of changing sports and using new muscles in order to prevent injuries.
As a physician at Emory Sports Medicine, I recommend the following:
- Take a short mental break for a few days to ensure your mind is ready to begin the rigors of a new sport and intense practice sessions. Many injuries occur when a student athlete is being careless and not following the coaches instructions.
- Build a strong cardiovascular base by running, biking or doing other cardio exercises at least 2 times a week year round. The amount of cardio workouts you need to do is dependent upon the sport you play.
- Build Core Strength by doing some simple core exercises such as crunches and planks.
- Make sure the athlete has the proper footwear for the sport. Transitioning from football cleats to basketball shoes can be a big adjustment. The transition in surface (outdoor grass to wood floor) can in some cases lead to shin splints. Proper shoes along with stretching can help prevent this from happening.
- Maintain proper nutrition all year round – in-season as well as off-season.. Although having a balanced diet is most important, all young athletes should make sure to eat a size appropriate amount of complex carbohydrates when participating in cardio intense sports. Doing so will ensure enough energy is present during the times when they are most needed!
Ensure your young athlete is ready to hit the ground running in winter sports by sharing these words of wisdom with them!
Brandon Mines, MD, is an assistant professor of orthopaedics. Dr. Mines started practicing at Emory in 2005 after completing his Sports Medicine Fellowship at University of California – Los Angeles. Dr. Mines is board certified in both family practice and sports medicine. He has focused his clinical interest on sports injuries and conditions of the shoulder, elbow, wrist/hand, knee, foot and ankle. He is head team physician for the Women’s National Basketball Association’s (WNBA) Atlanta Dream and Decatur High School. He is also one of the team physicians for the Atlanta Falcons. His areas of interest are diagnosis and non-operative management of acute sports injuries, basketball injuries, tennis injuries, golf injuries and joint injections.
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Nearly a half-century ago, Peter Higgs and a handful of other physicists were trying to understand the origin of a basic physical feature: mass. You can think of mass as an object’s heft or, a little more precisely, as the resistance it offers to having its motion changed. Push on a freight train (or a feather) to increase its speed, and the resistance you feel reflects its mass. At a microscopic level, the freight train’s mass comes from its constituent molecules and atoms, which are themselves built from fundamental particles, electrons and quarks. But where do the masses of these and other fundamental particles come from?
When physicists in the 1960s modeled the behavior of these particles using equations rooted in quantum physics, they encountered a puzzle. If they imagined that the particles were all massless, then each term in the equations clicked into a perfectly symmetric pattern, like the tips of a perfect snowflake. And this symmetry was not just mathematically elegant. It explained patterns evident in the experimental data. But—and here’s the puzzle—physicists knew that the particles did have mass, and when they modified the equations to account for this fact, the mathematical harmony was spoiled. The equations became complex and unwieldy and, worse still, inconsistent.
What to do? Here’s the idea put forward by Higgs. Don’t shove the particles’ masses down the throat of the beautiful equations. Instead, keep the equations pristine and symmetric, but consider them operating within a peculiar environment. Imagine that all of space is uniformly filled with an invisible substance—now called the Higgs field—that exerts a drag force on particles when they accelerate through it. Push on a fundamental particle in an effort to increase its speed and, according to Higgs, you would feel this drag force as a resistance. Justifiably, you would interpret the resistance as the particle’s mass. For a mental toehold, think of a ping-pong ball submerged in water. When you push on the ping-pong ball, it will feel much more massive than it does outside of water. Its interaction with the watery environment has the effect of endowing it with mass. So with particles submerged in the Higgs field.
In 1964, Higgs submitted a paper to a prominent physics journal in which he formulated this idea mathematically. The paper was rejected. Not because it contained a technical error, but because the premise of an invisible something permeating space, interacting with particles to provide their mass, well, it all just seemed like heaps of overwrought speculation. The editors of the journal deemed it “of no obvious relevance to physics.”
But Higgs persevered (and his revised paper appeared later that year in another journal), and physicists who took the time to study the proposal gradually realized that his idea was a stroke of genius, one that allowed them to have their cake and eat it too. In Higgs’ scheme, the fundamental equations can retain their pristine form because the dirty work of providing the particles’ masses is relegated to the environment.
While I wasn’t around to witness the initial rejection of Higgs’ proposal in 1964 (well, I was around, but only barely), I can attest that by the mid-1980s, the assessment had changed. The physics community had, for the most part, fully bought into the idea that there was a Higgs field permeating space. In fact, in a graduate course I took that covered what’s known as the Standard Model of Particle Physics (the quantum equations physicists have assembled to describe the particles of matter and the dominant forces by which they influence each other), the professor presented the Higgs field with such certainty that for a long while I had no idea it had yet to be established experimentally. On occasion, that happens in physics. Mathematical equations can sometimes tell such a convincing tale, they can seemingly radiate reality so strongly, that they become entrenched in the vernacular of working physicists, even before there’s data to confirm them.
But it’s only with data that a link to reality can be forged. How can we test for the Higgs field? This is where the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) comes in. Winding its way hundreds of yards under Geneva, Switzerland, crossing the French border and back again, the LHC is a nearly 17-mile-long circular tunnel that serves as a racetrack for smashing together particles of matter. The LHC is surrounded by about 9,000 superconducting magnets, and is home to streaming hordes of protons, cycling around the tunnel in both directions, which the magnets accelerate to just shy of the speed of light. At such speeds, the protons whip around the tunnel about 11,000 times each second, and when directed by the magnets, engage in millions of collisions in the blink of an eye. The collisions, in turn, produce fireworks-like sprays of particles, which mammoth detectors capture and record.
One of the main motivations for the LHC, which cost on the order of $10 billion and involves thousands of scientists from dozens of countries, was to search for evidence for the Higgs field. The math showed that if the idea is right, if we are really immersed in an ocean of Higgs field, then the violent particle collisions should be able to jiggle the field, much as two colliding submarines would jiggle the water around them. And every so often, the jiggling should be just right to flick off a speck of the field—a tiny droplet of the Higgs ocean—which would appear as the long-sought Higgs particle.
The calculations also showed that the Higgs particle would be unstable, disintegrating into other particles in a minuscule fraction of a second. Within the maelstrom of colliding particles and billowing clouds of particulate debris, scientists armed with powerful computers would search for the Higgs’ fingerprint—a pattern of decay products dictated by the equations.
In the early morning hours of July 4, 2012, I gathered with about 20 other stalwarts in a conference room at the Aspen Center for Physics to view the live-stream of a press conference at the Large Hadron Collider facilities in Geneva. About six months earlier, two independent teams of researchers charged with gathering and analyzing the LHC data had announced a strong indication that the Higgs particle had been found. The rumor now flying around the physics community was that the teams finally had sufficient evidence to stake a definitive claim. Coupled with the fact that Peter Higgs himself had been asked to make the trip to Geneva, there was ample motivation to stay up past 3 a.m. to hear the announcement live.
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December 24, 2009 at 11:02 AM
Null pointer exceptions are errors thrown by the Java compiler when we use a variable that hasn't been defined or access a field or invoke a method of a null object.
You can handle it by using null object like this:
String f = null ;
System.out.println("Length is:"+ f.length());
If you run the above code, you will not get the Exception as we have used the null object otherwise you will get the Exception.
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Did you know that more than 780 million of the world’s adults (nearly two-thirds of whom are women) do not know how to read or write, and between 94 and 115 million children lack access to education? September 8th is International Literacy Day—a day to celebrate reading and raise awareness about how far we need to go in the U.S. and abroad.
In the U.S., according to the NCES, only 53 percent of children aged 3-5 years old are read to daily and less than half of high school students read 10 books a year.
On International Literacy Day, pick up a book to read to your child and one to read on your own. If you're unsure what book to read, check out what books inspire these 10 celebrities.
(Photo: Getty Images)
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Introduction to Wave Winding:
While the finishing end of the first coil is connected to the starting end of the next one coil, as displayed in the diagram below that starts from the next adjacent pole in which the first coil started is termed as wave winding.
Through the below diagram, for wave winding, the front pitch, Yf =Y -Yb
Illustration: Find out the back and front pitches for a 4 pole wave winding with 25 slots.
Diagram - Wave winding
Solution: P = 4, C = 25, winding type = wave
The back pitch, Yb = (2C/P) + K = [(2 x 25)/4] + K = 12.5 + K = 13 (Odd integer)
The winding pitch, Y = (2C + 2)/(P/2) = (2 x 25 +2)/(4/2) = 26 (Even integer)
Through the above diagram or from equation, front pitch, Yf = 26 - 13 = 13 (odd integer).
Latest technology based Electrical Engineering Online Tutoring Assistance
Tutors, at the www.tutorsglobe.com, take pledge to provide full satisfaction and assurance in Wave Winding homework help via online tutoring. Students are getting 100% satisfaction by online tutors across the globe. Here you can get homework help for Wave Winding, project ideas and tutorials. We provide email based Wave Winding homework help. You can join us to ask queries 24x7 with live, experienced and qualified online tutors specialized in Wave Winding. Through Online Tutoring, you would be able to complete your homework or assignments at your home. Tutors at the TutorsGlobe are committed to provide the best quality online tutoring assistance for Electrical Engineering homework help and assignment help services. They use their experience, as they have solved thousands of the Electrical Engineering assignments, which may help you to solve your complex issues of Wave Winding. TutorsGlobe assure for the best quality compliance to your homework. Compromise with quality is not in our dictionary. If we feel that we are not able to provide the homework help as per the deadline or given instruction by the student, we refund the money of the student without any delay.
Start Excelling in your courses, Ask an Expert and get answers for your homework and assignments!!
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Food Safety at Fairs and Festivals
A fun summer activity is attending fairs, festivals, carnivals, and rodeos. Follow these tips to have a safe cooking, eating, and drinking experience at those events.
A big part of summer for many people is attending fairs and festivals. There are always fun things to see and experience, including art work, music, games, and rides. One of the biggest draws to these events is the many different types of foods and drinks available.
Foodborne illnesses increase during the summer months, making it even more important to follow food safety steps. There are several reasons that foodborne illnesses increase in summer; one is that people are cooking and eating outside more often. Sometimes the usual safety controls that a kitchen provides, like monitoring of food temperatures, refrigeration, workers trained in food safety and washing facilities, may not be available when cooking and dining at fairs and festivals.
Remember that food safety practices should be the same at fairs as they are at restaurants and at home: Clean, Separate, Cook, and Chill. Learn more about these steps here, and reduce the chance you’ll get a foodborne illness this summer.
Learn how to avoid foodborne illness at fairs and festivals.
Foodborne illnesses increase during the summer months.
Wash your hands often.
What should you consider before buying food from a vendor?
- Does the vendor have a clean/tidy workstation?
- Does the vendor have a sink for employees to wash their hands?
- Do the employees wear gloves or use tongs when handling food?
- Does the vendor have refrigeration on site for raw ingredients or pre-cooked foods?
- Has the vendor been inspected? Is a recent inspection report available? Requirements vary by state, but in general temporary and mobile vendors, like those at fairs and carnivals, should have a license to sell food and beverages in a particular state or county for a specific time period. You can check with the local health department to see if the vendors are licensed and if a food inspection has been completed.
Are there healthy food alternatives to consider at fairs and festivals?
When purchasing food from a vendor, look for healthy options first. If they are not available, consider bringing your own food to save money and calories. Bringing food from home allows you to eat a healthy meal or snack as a family, while still enjoying the festive atmosphere around you. Don't forget to keep safe food storage practices in mind. Always remember to keep cold foods cold and hot foods hot.
If bringing food from home, what are proper food handling and storage practices?
If you bring food to a fair or festival from home, be sure to keep food handling and storage times in mind. Don't let food sit out for more than two hours. On a hot day (90°F or higher), reduce this time to one hour. Be sure to put perishable items in a cooler or insulated bag.
What steps can you take to protect you and your family?
Wash Hands Often:
- Find out where hand washing stations are located.
- Always wash your hands right after petting animals, touching the animal enclosure, and exiting animal areas – even if you did not touch an animal.
- Always wash hands after using the restroom, after playing a game or going on a ride, before eating and drinking, before preparing food or drinks, after changing diapers, and after removing soiled clothes or shoes.
- Bring hand sanitizers or disposable wipes in case there aren't any places to wash your hands.
- Wash your hands with soap and clean running water for at least 20 seconds. Directions for washing hands can be found here.
Anytime you think you may have gotten a foodborne illness, report it to your local health department, even if you have already recovered. The local public health department is an important part of the food safety system. Often, calls from concerned citizens are how outbreaks are first detected. If a public health official contacts you to find out more about an illness you had, your help is important. Information from healthy people can be just as important as information from sick people in public health investigations. Your help may be needed even if you are not sick.
Food Vendors, Community Organizations, and Fair Organizers
Requirements differ by state, but in general temporary and mobile food vendors should apply for a food license with the fair's state or county health department. Many community-based organizations set up booths to sell various foods at local festivals and fairs too. There are special exceptions, but it is better to be safe than sorry—get a license! Contact information for local and state health departments can be found here.
Fair organizers should try to include a person trained in food safety throughout the planning process, as well as have them present at the fair.
It is important that food safety steps are followed so the food served doesn't make anyone sick. Try to limit the amount of food preparation preformed off-site, a practice known as cook-serve. Also follow the four basic food safety steps: CLEAN, SEPARATE, COOK, and CHILL.
Now you're on your way to a safe and healthy summer!
- Page last reviewed: June 22, 2016
- Page last updated: June 22, 2016
- Content source:
- National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases
- Page maintained by: Office of the Associate Director for Communication, Digital Media Branch, Division of Public Affairs
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A chemical spill in West Virginia that has put drinking water off limits for 300,000 people highlights an enduring problem in the United States – chemicals don’t need to be tested for safety in order to enter commerce.
According to the Charleston Gazette newspaper, that void in information has left government scientists to estimate safe levels of the chemical based on a single, proprietary study conducted by a manufacturer.
The chemical, 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol, is part of a mixture used to clean coal. Last week, a storage tank containing the substance was found to be leaking just upstream from the intake for Charleston’s drinking water supply.
According to the Gazette, public health officials in West Virginia are estimating what is safe for people based on a study that tested how much of the chemical mixture it takes to kill lab rats. Adding in some fudge factors for extra caution, the researchers have declared 1 part per million as acceptable for the region’s water supply. But chemical safety data sheets – see this one and this one — cite no studies backing that estimate.
The lack of testing for toxic effects of chemicals is not the only one hole in U.S. practice for handling hazardous chemicals. As The Dallas Morning News found following the explosion in West, when chemical accidents happen, they are recorded haphazardly by the federal government. An analysis by The News found that federal data on chemical accidents is wrong 9 out of 10 times.
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Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a unique type of breast cancer that often starts within the soft tissues of the breast and causes the lymph vessels in the skin of the breast to become blocked. As a result, the breast can become firm, tender, itchy, red, and warm due to increased blood flow and a build-up of white blood cells.
Inflammatory breast cancer, or IBC, is rare, accounting for one to three percent of all breast cancers. This type of cancer is distinct from other types, with major differences in symptoms, prognosis, and treatment.
IBC occurs when cancer cells block the lymph vessels in the skin. As a result, the breast can become firm, tender, itchy, red, and warm due to increased blood flow and a build-up of white blood cells. The term “inflammatory” refers only to the appearance of the breasts. When breasts become inflamed due to an infection or injury, they often become tender, swollen, red, and itchy. However, the underlying cause of IBC is unrelated to inflammation.
Because of the similar symptoms, IBC may at first be diagnosed as a breast infection, such as mastitis. However, although antibiotics will resolve a breast infection, they cannot treat IBC. If your doctor prescribes antibiotics and your symptoms do not resolve within seven to 10 days, this may be a sign that you have IBC.
IBC tends to grow quickly and aggressively, and is usually diagnosed when it is already in an advanced stage, typically stage IIIB or stage IV.
Inflammatory breast cancer treatment options
Treatment of inflammatory breast cancer typically includes chemotherapy, followed by surgery (breast-conserving surgery or total mastectomy) and radiation therapy. Additional therapy, such as hormone therapy and/or additional chemotherapy, may also be given.
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Novels by serious writers of genius often eventually become best-sellers, but most contemporary best-sellers are written by second-class writers whose psychological brew contains a touch of naivety, a touch of sentimentality, the story-telling gift, and a mysterious sympathy with the day-dreams of ordinary people.” This quote by Leonard Woolf depicts the realm of best-selling lists: they are filled with badly-written prose that does not help readers establish lasting impressions and values. Throughout the history of literature, the system of values has been clearly set: “populist readers” did not bother to comprehend the complex hidden meanings, sound theories and sophisticated uses of language present in masterpieces. All academic debates depict such culture as bad taste and proven manner of manipulating the masses. The contemporary literature, with 50 Shades of Grey and Twilight as some if its most notable representatives, is brought down to the moral and political values of popular consumerism.
People have always relied on literature when they wanted to replace the mundane experiences with a world of heroes, adventure, and romance. Popular literature reflects contemporary culture and life, which is a rapidly changing category full of contradictions. However, there are certain generalizations that can be made, mainly because authors who intend to produce best-sellers do not dare to create anything new. In his book Cultural Populism, Jim McGuigan defines this term as “the intellectual assumption, made by some students of popular culture, that the symbolic experiences and practices of ordinary people are more important analytically and politically than Culture with a capital C.” With this definition, McGuigan emphasizes the uncritical general conception of the study of popular culture, which reinforces the strategies of interpretation at the expense of promoting real literary values. Fifty Shades of Grey, as one of the most popular publications in recent years, degrades women’s values and character. Nevertheless, millions of women from all around the world are thrilled by the story, mainly because the male character is powerful, rich, and dominant.
Popular contemporary literature, as a factor that depicts the cultural values of society, is characterized by consumerism and strives for entertainment, marketable efforts aiming towards mass consumption, misinterpretation of historical facts, and clichés. The novels written with the intention to become best-sellers are light, exciting and entertaining, but lack worth that would make them valuable for future generations. The man is imperfect, and contemporary authors are trying to depict that characteristic through their work. However, the best-selling books are not a representation of reality; on the contrary, they the lives of common people into a parody. Writers adapt to readers’ needs, and their work is formed by the expectations of the masses. Due to the increased working hours and the tendency to spend most of the free time online, today’s readers don’t have time to analyze complex characters. Those are the main reasons why people prefer “light reads” that do not necessarily encourage critical thinking and reassessment of one’s values.
The general Goodreads community has voted The Hunger Games as “the best book ever”. Although there are some literary classics on this list, such as Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Orwell’s Animal Farm and Hugo’s Les Miserables, readers’ preferences are dominated with pleasurable reads, whose writers don’t intend to produce intellectually and emotionally stimulating prose. The prevalence of bad literature on the shelves of bookstores does not imply that agents and editors lack sophistication and knowledge of what good writing is made of. This fact inevitably leads us to the conclusion that contemporary publishing is driven by marketing and sales. If millions of readers are willing to spend their money on a particular type of literature, the publishers are ready to popularize it, and many writers are motivated to follow the trends. In the world of publishing, the criteria for “good books” are not equalized to those for “well-written books”. The main function of today’s fiction is to comply with the hedonistic values of the masses.
Instead of dealing with serious literature, populists seek the pleasure of mainstream culture, which requires minimal effort on the part of the consumer. The overall reading preferences of our generation are contributing towards the trend of misshaping moral and cultural values. The writers who aim towards modeling their readers’ contemplations and understanding of the world are a minority. Through its intention to meet the preferences of the general reading audience, contemporary literature is promoting mass consumerism, cultural populism, and lack of critical evaluation. More than a hundred million people have bought Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James. Since a great number of writers are focused on reaching such success and selling more copies of their work, we come to the conclusion that the trends in literature are characterized with corroded ethical values, determined by the fact that most people who are willing to read are rejecting traditional literary authorities and incline towards shallow narratives.
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| 101 Technologies - From the South for the South |
In Malaysia, as in many other countries, testing the quality of drinking water is essential to protect people from water-borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery, polio, and hepatitis. Standard methods to test bacteriological water quality are costly, time-consuming, and require well-trained staff and laboratory facilities. This makes it difficult to routinely test water sources in remote areas.
Researchers in Malaysia have now developed a prototype portable water-quality testing kit that is inexpensive, easy to use, and effective under field conditions. The kit uses an adapted version of a test called APHA 919C, for the detection of coliphages in water samples. Standard tests measure the presence of coliforms in the water, which is a more complex process. Coliphage testing is simpler, less expensive, and has been shown to be a useful indicator of the level of fecal contamination in the water. The test involves incubating the sample in a host culture. Various changes to the test have simplified the process and allow for incubation at ambient temperatures (25 to 35°C).
The method is useful for testing water in open wells, tube wells, rivers, and other surface waters, and small-scale water supply systems. The quality of untreated surface waters can be determined rapidly with a 6-8 hour incubation time. Standard water quality tests need a 24-hour incubation time for an accurate assessment.
The prototype kit consists of a styrofoam box in a canvas sheet, which protects the contents from sun and rain, and maintains a constant temperature inside the box. With a capacity for eight tests, each kit contains: media in bottles in stainless steel trays; the bacterial host in dried form; petri dishes; syringes; receptacles; a camping gas burner; a lighter; and a pair of tongs. It can be carried by hand, on a bicycle, or in a vehicle. It measures 38 cm x 25.5 cm x 33.5cm and weighs 6.4 kg.
The kit has proven to be reliable. The design is currently being modified for mass production. Further improvements may include: reducing the weight by using plastic bottles instead of glass; replacing syringes with pipettes; finding a less expensive gas burner. A manual and training course are also being prepared. The kit has the potential to develop self-sufficiency of communities in testing their own water.
Health and environment government departments and other organizations involved in monitoring water quality.
About half a day of training is all that is required to use the kit.
Cost and availability
The kit is still at the prototype stage. It is estimated that it will cost about US $95 for an 8-test unit, and US $175 for a 24-test unit. This amounts to US $7 per test with 44 cents per test for replacement items (media and syringes). This compares favourably with existing field kits which cost US $1000 to $1700 for a 24-test unit or about $50 to $75 per test.
Dr Wang Chee Woon Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine University of Malaya Pantai Valley, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tel.: 03-574 422; Telex: UNIMAL MA 39845
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Principles of Accounting contains an introduction to business accounting. Topics include accounting concepts and principles, financial statements, internal control design, and accounting for partnerships. Students will acquire and demonstrate knowledge and comprehension of the foundational theories and methodological tools utilized in accounting. The usefulness of theoretical constructs will be applied to solve real world accounting applications.
* Disclaimer: Textbooks listed are based on the last open revision of the course.
Prior revisions and future revisions may use different textbooks. To verify textbook information,
view the course syllabus or contact Student Services at
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Gresham Lecture, 20 October 2010
The First Christian Art and its Early Developments
Nearly all the earliest Christian art that has survived is now in the Roman Catacombs and dates from the 3rd to the 5th Century. The catacombs are under the streets of present-day Rome but they were not places where Christians huddled away from persecution; they were Christian burial places, and it is therefore not surprising that, above all, we have inscriptions. About 45,000 inscriptions have survived from that very early period, more than half in Rome, 75% are of a funeral nature, and 13% of these have an unambiguous Christian symbol.
For example, one unambiguous Christian symbol from the 3rd Century was the alpha, the omega and the “P” for pax on a cross.
Of course, symbolism developed and became more sophisticated. On a burial plaque to a lady called Antonia there were the letters for the OINIA of Antonia. There was an anchor there which was a symbol of hope in the Roman world, and it was taken over by the Christians as a symbol of hope, but also, it forms a rough cross.
Another image is of two little fishes. The meaning for this seems to be connected with what Tertullian, a theologian, said in the 2nd Century, when he described “Christians like little fish, swimming in the waters of baptism and holding on to the cross of Christ.” A very famous early Christian symbol from the Catacombs was the fish. The word “fish” in Greek, icthus, forms the first letters of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. In one image it was linked with the multiplication of the loaves, or the loaves of the Eucharist, or a combination of both.
Now, what characterised this earliest Christian art was that it simply reflected the style of Roman art at the time, and very often, Roman imagery. Take, for example, a fresco of Christ as the good shepherd. The good shepherd was an image in Roman art as well as Christian art, and you can imagine how Christian eyes lit up when they saw that, because it obviously fitted so well with what is said in St John’s Gospel, “I am the good shepherd”, and there are lots of images of Christ as the good shepherd. We have very famous and rather lovely carvings of Christ the good shepherd which were done in the style of any other Roman statuary of the time.
I will now show a non-Christian, pagan image - the apotheosis of the emperor; the emperor being changed and rising to heaven. It reflects the period in the Roman Empire when the emperors were adopting Sol, the Sun God, shown by rays around their heads. This was the beginning of some sort of feeling for monotheism in the Roman world and amongst popular religion. Thus, imagine the extraordinary surprise when, last century, digging underneath the great Church of St Peter’s in Rome, they saw, dating from AD 250 to 275, am image of Jesus, depicted in the form of an apotheosis. Instead of having the stars of the sun god, the star-like forms make a vague form of halo – or so scholars believe. The foliage was very typical of a Roman mosaic of the time – the Christian image is a mosaic. This shows how far those early Christians were prepared to go in taking over and baptising Christian imagery.
Now, obviously, one of the themes, above all, which Christians in the Catacombs wanted to convey, was the idea of God as a protector. Remember that, at that time, the scriptures referred to the Old Testament scriptures, and therefore Christians ransacked the Hebrew Scriptures in order to find imagery which would express their beliefs. A frequently occurring image is that of Daniel in the Lion’s Den. It emanates from Daniel Chapters II and III, when Daniel refused to obey King Nebuchadnezzar and worship idols, and for that, he was thrown into a den of lions, but, because of God’s protection, he was kept safe. That is a very familiar image in the very earliest Christian art. Again, in the Book of Daniel, Chapters II and III, Nebuchadnezzar ordered people to worship idols. Three boys, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, refused to do so. They were thrown into a burning fiery furnace, but miraculously protected and this was used. So the Christians wanted to express, through these images, the idea of God protecting them, through the spasmodic persecution of the time and through death. The Church was persecuted from time to time, and very intensely when it was persecuted, which made this image endure.
Now, in the Catacombs, after a period, towards the end of the 2nd, early 3rd Century, there began to be images of Jesus, such as those showing Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Jesus said, in connection with that story in St John’s Gospel, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Jesus was raised from the dead, he raised Lazarus from the dead, and he could raise those Christians who were buried in the Catacombs.
After a time, the Christians began to develop narrative stories as well as individual images, and one familiar narrative was the Jonah cycle. One example shows Jonah being thrown off the ship; swallowed by the whale; regurgitated up; and a very interesting symbol - Jonah relaxing in paradise. Of course the biblical story does not say anything about Jonah resting under a lovely vine. It tells a story of a gourd which grew up quickly and then shrivelled away, and he got very fed up with it because it shrivelled away. So they twisted the story, and focused on this. Now, this is in fact the exact image of the Roman myth of Endymion and Selene, the Moon Goddess. Endymion was a very beautiful youth. The Moon fell in love with this youth, as Endymion was sleeping, and performed some kind of trick in order to keep him sleeping happily forever, so the Moon could continue looking. This was a Roman myth, which was depicted in art, and again, the Christian eyes lit up and decided that this would make a wonderful end to the Jonah cycle. So it was another very dramatic example of how those first Christians had no qualms about taking over non-Christian imagery that they felt expressed felt their beliefs. There is another image of the Jonah cycle and there are various other images. This brings out a point: that not only did Christians express their beliefs in frescos on the walls of the Catacombs, but as soon as they were able, they carved them on sarcophagi, great stone coffins, and here is a stone coffin for an early Christian, probably late-3rd, early-4th Century.
This, again, brings out another point that very little Christian art from the 9th Century has survived. This is because there was this terrible period of Iconoclasm that ruled and raged, on and off, for two centuries, from the 7th to the 9th Century. The Iconoclasts smashed all Christian art that they could get their hands on. Obviously, as a result of that, only if the materials were very durable or hidden away did they survive, and one of the reasons we have a good number of sarcophagi of course is because they are stone and they survive well.
Here is another sarcophagus, a very famous one, called the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, which is in the papal museum in the Vatican. I am not going to talk about all the scenes in detail this morning because I shall do that on one of the sarcophagi in another of my talks, but this is just to show that when Christians began to get a little bit wealthier and a little bit more respectable in society, they too could have the same kind of sarcophagi when they died as did Pagans. This is Junus Bassus, who was a Christian, who had a sarcophagus carved in the same way as any Roman gentleman or nobleman, but with Christian themes rather than with Roman Pagan imagery. Here is another sarcophagus, just to give you an example. You can see – Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. The scenes of Christ’s life and death are told there in carvings on stone. Here is another one, from Ravenna, which still used very basic Christian imagery. There is Christ, with the halo, being surrounded and followed by Christians. Palm trees were a ubiquitous symbol of paradise for the early Christians, so that is their significance.
Now, here is a non-Christian image - one of the Fayun portraits. Those of you who have been to any great museum and looked at Egyptian mummies will have noticed that on mummies from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Century, particularly in Egypt, there is piece of wood where the face would have been on which was painted a portrait of the person. This is a Fayun portrait of a young man from a mummy, who obviously died relatively young, and you can see that kind of Roman style from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Century, the same sort of style as those of the portraits at Pompeii.
This of course is St Peter, one of the very few early icons that survived. This is from the 6th Century, and it survived because it was kept at Sinai. There is a very strong stylistic resemblance between the Fayun portrait and Peter; so again, it reflects the artistic style of the time. Also in Sinai, there is a wonderful mosaic of Moses receiving the law and Moses taking off his feet before the burning bush. They depicted Moses because St Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai is built on the place where they thought Moses both saw the burning bush and also received the law. Also in Mount Sinai, there is a wonderful Apse mosaic of the transfiguration. This is the familiar transfiguration imagery which has persisted virtually unchanged from that time, right through to the present, and this is the first very good early example, dating from the 6th Century. Other icons have also survived at Sinai. This is another one, perhaps from a little bit later of the boys in the fiery furnace. These images persist, though interestingly, “Daniel in the lion’s den” and the “boys in the fiery furnace” eventually die out. They were not so relevant to later Christians.
Here, it shows an angel there, because the Book of Daniel says that there was a mysterious angelic figure who was there protecting them. The boys seem to be dressed in Persian dress, and they were taken by the early Christians to be a kind of foretaste of the three magi who came from Persia in order to worship Jesus. The image of the angel there was interpreted by Christians not just as an angel who would protect us in times of difficulty, but is an image of Christ himself, who would rescue our souls from limbo.
Here is another example of an icon which has survived from a little bit later, the 9th to the 10th Century, and shows Palestinian influence. It is less classical in its lines, but has its own particular charm of Christ’s ascension. There is another icon which has survived from there, dating from the 6th Century, of Mary surrounded by her two soldier saints, showing that, in the 6th Century, the person of Mary had begun to receive very great significance and prominence.
Ivory also survived iconoclasm. We have quite a lot of ivory from the first thousand years, and this is known as a consular diptych. When a person was made a consul in Rome, they had an ivory diptych made for them for their time of office, and this image obviously reflects the time when that consul was a Christian, and so, it shows a cross and an angelic figure.
Now, one of the places where there is a magnificent treasury of early Christian art is Ravenna. There are three great churches, two dedicated to Sant’Apollinare - Sant’Apollinare in Classe or by the port, which is this one, Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, and San Vitale. They have the most wonderful collection of 6th Century mosaics, from when the great Justinian was the emperor. This is Apse of Sant’Apollinare in Classe. It shows the saint, some sheep, representing Christians, a figure of Christ, and heaven. A close-up gives a better view and feel for the wonderful colours. Again, trees and flowers reflect paradise just as green is the colour of paradise in Islam today.
Now, that is all relatively straightforward, but now, when we come to San Vitale, we get some even more interesting imagery. It shows the great Emperor Justinian, surrounded by Bishop Maximus and various deacons and priests. Of course, it is Justinian at the Eucharist, bringing the Eucharistic bread as an offering at the Eucharist. Church and state were highly intertwined at this time – it was a form of Ceasaropapism. The emperor was seen as God’s vice-regent on Earth and he worked hand-in-hand with the patriarch of Constantinople. They expressed this by great processions in the great Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, at which the emperor would bring forth the bread for the Eucharist.
No less remarkable was his wife, Theodora, once a showgirl, if not something even more disreputable. She was a remarkable lady who saved Justinian’s life and indeed the whole Byzantine Empire at that stage, simply by her bravery when her husband was beginning to show cowardice.
A wonderful mysterious thing that sometimes appears in Christian depictions at this time is a curtain being drawn across, indicating there is some kind of ultimate mystery behind. So, Theodora also appears in the great procession at Hagia Sophia for the Eucharist, with her husband.
Now, at that time, people did not read the Bible in a straightforward, literalistic way. The idea of reading the Bible in a straightforward, literalistic way would have been totally foreign to most Christians for most of Christian history. They thought the bible had at least four different kinds of meaning – allegorical, moral, spiritual, and goodness knows what else, and therefore, when they read the bible stories they were always looking for these other kinds of meaning.
This is from the Church of St Vitale in Ravenna. It obviously reflects a time when the Eucharist was of fundamental importance to Christians, because there is a Eucharistic table. This is above the Eucharistic table in the Church. It is a mosaic. There are also two Old Testament: Abel, who brought forth his offering to God, which is what he is doing here; and Melchizedek, this strange who we know virtually nothing about. He appears in the Old Testament very suddenly, after Abraham had won a battle, and he is referred to as “Melchizedek the king, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the most high God” which is a wonderful, mysterious statement. It seems to have very little context. Again, it is obvious how Christian eyes and minds lit up when they saw that and said, “Ah yes, this is pre-figuring of the Eucharist,” and so Melchizedek appears with his offering, foreshadowing Christ, our great high priest.
This is another one of those wonderful symbolic scenes. It is in a mosaic arc and it depicts a Eucharistic table, and on one side, you have Abraham, bringing forth his hospitality to three angelic figures and on the other side, you have Abraham about to slaughter his son Isaac, but being prevented from doing so by God. Now, Abraham was a very important figure for early Christians, pre-figuring Christ in all sorts of ways.
Now, this scene, on the one side, strings from the Old Testament story where three strangers, apparently divine strangers, appeared before Abraham who offered them hospitality, and they revealed their divine provenance. The early church took this as a foreshadowing of God as Holy Trinity. So this was a very important image for the early Christians, because it is also an image of the Holy Trinity which invites us to share the Eucharist, which is to share in the divine life. Some of you will know the wonderful 14th Century icon of this scene by Andrei Rublev, perhaps the greatest icon that has ever been painted. It is deeply moving, with three angels behind the table, so graceful and, as it were, inviting the viewer in to share the divine life and to do so through sharing in the divine banquet at the Eucharist.
Now, this imagery here, of Abraham, and of Abel and Melchizedek, is still reflected in the words of the Tridentine Latin Mass of the Roman Catholic Church, words themselves which were derived from the old Roman rite. This is what the prayer in that Eucharist says: “Accept, as you agreed to accept, the offerings of Abel, your just servant, and the sacrifice of Abel, our patriarch, and that which your chief priest, Melchizedek, offered to you, a holy sacrifice and a spotless victim.” As so often in Christian art and Christian history, there is this a wonderful sense of continuity that these figures, which were very early interpreted as foreshadowing Christ, were depicted in art from an early stage, get reflected in the words of the Eucharistic prayer, and continue to emerge in Christian art down the ages.
When I showed this image before, I concentrated on Justinian and his Eucharistic prayer. This is his bishop, Maximianus, and he has a wonderfully bejewelled bible. One of the important points to bring out from this period –3rd to the 5th Century – is that Christianity emerged as a book religion. Early Christian books are called codices, or a codex, coming from the word “caudex”, meaning a wooden block. Judaism was seen as a religion of the scroll, and Christianity as a religion of the book. Obviously, having books rather than scrolls meant illustration possible. If you illustrate scrolls, they very quickly get rubbed off and damaged, but books can contain and safeguard and conserve illustrations in a much more possible way.
During this period there was what has been well described as the physicalisation of the bible. Expensive materials were used – note the jewels there and the expensive cover. It was used liturgically – it is being brought forward into the Eucharist. The Old Testament and New Testament were seen as a whole, with the New Testament superseding the Old, so there was Supersessionism, a view which most Christians today are very unhappy with. Thus, in one illustration, Moses appears with the book of the law, Mary with Jesus, and Ecclesia, or the Church, with the bible, and on this expressed the view that the revealed word of God in Judaism is fulfilled in Jesus, the word. This is brought to us by the church through the bible, the words of which point to Jesus, the word. There we have this physicalisation of the bible, and a close-up gives an even better view of the jewels there and its value.
There are some wonderful copies of early bibles. This one is known as the Sinope Gospel and it has sheer wealth of gold on the page, wonderful calligraphy, and at the bottom of the page, there is always a gospel scene - for example, Jesus healing the blind man. Here is another wonderful gospel from the 6th Century, the Rossanno Gospels, and this shows Jesus raising Lazarus.
Here are Old Testament prophets, who are named, and pointing, through the scriptures with which they are associated, to Jesus, the resurrection, the life, as the one who would raise the dead. So Old Testament, New Testament are seen as one with the one superseding the other. These were wonderfully rich and valuable bibles. They could only really be commissioned by emperors. Of course, they also had wonderful covers.
I am now moving slightly further to the West, because most of the art that I have shown you so far comes from the Christian East, centred on Constantinople, the Eastern Roman Empire. Well, of course the West had fallen into a state of disarray because Rome fell to the Vandals in 410. Tribes moving across Europe – Goths, Vandals, Visigoths - from the East moved down all the way to Spain, and there was pressure from Islam coming up from the South. It was a very difficult period for the West. However, under Charlemagne, who was crowned the first Emperor of the Christian Roman Empire in the year 800, the Christian West began to recover, and it also had an opportunity therefore to express its faith in art which was likely to survive.
Now, this is Aachen, where Charlemagne built his church, in the same architectural style as San Vitale in Ravenna. This is the ivory book cover that also came from this period and which survived. This is Matthew writing because, on these gospels, they also liked to show the different gospel writers. Here is a water bucket, dated from 860 to 880, from the period of Carolingian art. It is decorated with wonderfully carved figures which are highly valuable, but it also had a liturgical use. Here is another ivory book cover of Christ and the Apostles, dating from 850-890. Here is another water bucket, again from this period of Carolingian, and then, later on, Ottonian art, because there was another revival of Christian art under the Ottonian Empire, emperors who came after Charlemagne. Here is another ivory plague, or book cover, of the women at the tomb. You can see what wonderful works of art these are.
I will be talking more about Christian art in the West in subsequent talks, but I wanted to give a glimpse of some of the things which were going on in the West, under Charlemagne and Otto. They were trying to revive the classical Christian art of the time of Justinian and Constantine. There was a classical revival under Charlemagne and also under Otto. As so often in the past, they went back to classical prototypes in order to revive their own art, as of course we did in the West in the time of the Renaissance as well. However, the classical art that they went back to was not the art of Pagan Rome; it was the art of Christian Constantine and his empire and, perhaps even more, the art of Justinian, in the 6th Century, and his great Byzantine Empire. So you have this classical revival from those earlier Christian periods, but it was a very great period for art, both under Charlemagne and the Ottonians. This book of St Egbert is typical of the books that were being produced in the West at this time.
Charlemagne was King of the Franks before he was first Holy Roman Emperor so we need to discuss the state of art from even further west. This is from the Book of Kells, dating from about 800. It is an initial letter which has been elaborately decorated – this was one of the ways in which they made these books works of art. Here, we have an eagle’s head, from the same Book of Kells, with a very characteristic Kelltic style.
Now we come on to the last sort of period that I want to deal with today. After this terrible fight between the iconodules, the lovers of icons, and the iconoclasts, the destroyers of icons, eventually, those who loved icons prevailed in 843, and this was a huge triumph for the church. It is still celebrated as a great feast in the Orthodox Church. In the apse of the Church of Hagia Sophia there is this apse mosaic of Mary, like an empress, sitting on a throne, with the Christ child on her lap. We can date this very exactly because we actually have the sermon, in full, which was preached on the occasion of the unveiling of this on Holy Saturday in the year 867 by patriarch Photios. Although of course it was covered up for a long time, when Hagia Sophia was simply an Islamic monument, it has now been uncovered, and you can see something of its glory.
Thus, the triumph of orthodoxy in 843 was a hugely significant marker in the development of early Christian art.
Also in the Hagia Sophia, there is this little mosaic, in an arc, and this is significant because this is how they saw themselves. It shows Constantine, who built the walls of Constantinople, and Justinian, who built the great Church of Hagia Sophia in the 6th Century, and both are making their offerings to the Christ child, on the lap of Mary, who is seen very much there as an empress. Constantine is offering the great city of Constantinople, with its wonderful walls, and Justinian the church he built to Christ.
In the post-iconoclastic period, the settled iconographic scheme for the church in the East which we still have today began to develop. They saw the church, with its decoration, as an entrance into paradise. For instance, there is a church in Rome, the Church of St Cosmas and Damian, in which this apse mosaic is kept. That mosaic has the inscription on it: “God’s residence radiates brilliantly in shining materials; the precious lights of the faith in it glow even more.”
At the entrance to the church in a place called Nola, the Bishop Paulinus wrote: “Christ’s worshipers take the path to heaven by way of this lovely sward” that is this lovely green grass. “An approach from bright gardens,” he went on,” is fitting, for from here is granted to those who desire it their departure to holy paradise.” So it is that in so many of these churches we find flowers, animals, hunting scenes and fish - everything that will be in heaven.
This is the Church of St Cosmas and Damian, and it shows Christ set in a cloud of wonderful splendour. There is the word “Jordan”, and this is trying to indicate that it is the River Jordan, and we go through the River Jordan of death in order to achieve the splendour, the brightness and the glory of heaven, where Christ is reigning in glory.
The patriarch Germanus said: “The church is the earthly heaven in which the heavenly god lives and moves.” That is why orthodox churches are most wonderfully decorated when they are at their best – in the apse, in the dome, on the west door, frescos and mosaics around the walls – because the congregation is entering into a foretaste or a path through to heaven, and the Church is a foretaste of heaven.
If we move actually beyond iconoclasm, then a very good example of what we have is this little church at Osios Loukas, dating from the year 1020. It has a classic architectural design which emerged at that time, a cross in a square. Inside these little churches, the apse will contain a mosaic or a fresco of Mary with the Christ child. Now, this one is one of my favourites. It is actually from the apse of a little church of Torcello, which is an island on the Venetian lagoon, and it is interesting because many Byzantine craftsmen, mosaicists and so on, from Constantinople, went, in the 10th, 11th and 12th Century, to work in Venice and this is clearly the work of Byzantine craftsmen, with fundamentally Byzantine imagery.
Between the apse and the main body of the church would be a chancel screen though not the great kind of iconostasis which may be familiar from Russian churches, which run from ceiling to floor and are covered with panels. Those were a significantly later development. In the early stages of the church, there was simply a stone panel with some Christian imagery on it. These are peacocks, drinking from the fountain of the water of life. It was just a low screen to separate the chancel from the nave. In the dome, there would be a picture of Christ Pantocrator, Christ the ruler of all things, who is usually a rather severe figure. This is from the Church of Daphne, also in Greece, dating from about the year 1100. Round the frescos, just below and around the dome, there would often be angels and archangels.
Now, this is one of my favourites. In Cyprus there are these wonderful gems of churches in the Troodos Mountains. Outside, they look nothing. They are hidden away, with great sloping roofs, because they needed to hide away from the time of Turkish occupation, but inside, you get entry into paradise, and this is one of my favourite churches, the Church of Lagoudera, dating from the 12th Century. It has wonderful flowing lines. One of the characteristic features of Byzantine art was the successive classical revivals, and this clearly was the result of another classical revival in the 12th Century. This is especially shown by the wonderful flowing lines of that most beautiful angel.
The corners, the squinches, those devices which enable the dome to go on the cross in the square, there are often the main scenes of Christ’s life. Here, obviously, is the nativity scene. I am not going to talk about that in detail because I shall be doing so in another one of my talks, but, at the moment, I am just showing the classical scheme of iconography which grew up.
Then, just to give an example of what was slightly outside the Byzantine world, this is a Georgian enamel icon - quite early, 12th or 13th Century - of the presentation of Christ in the temple. Now, you can see that, in some way, it is classical Christian imagery, but the style is not classical; it is more a form of folk art – it has lovely colours and rather attractive faces of the people. In a way, it is quite simple, but very appealing. Just to remind ourselves that, although the influence of the Byzantine world did spread very far, there were areas outside it which were Christian and reflected their Christian faith in their own style.
In the church, as you went out of the west door, you may very well have seen a fresco like this. So we get: in the apse, the Virgin and Child; the dome, Christ Pantocrator; the angels and archangels, the whole company of heavenly host in the band round the dome; in the squinches, the main scenes of Christ’s life; perhaps round the wall various scenes of Christ’s life; and as you go out of the door, in a classical scheme, the falling asleep of the Virgin Mary. In Greek, it is the Koimesi; in Latin, the Dormition and it appears because the Eastern Church prefers this to the Ascension. It has been described as the loveliest creation of all orthodox art. Mary is shown lying dead with St John bending over her and St Paul at the other end. Christ is coming down in order to take the soul of the Virgin up to heaven, and there are the angels going to help him. Christ comes down and takes the soul of the Virgin up to heaven. The Virgin Mary of course, in Christian thought of the time now was a fully ordinary human being in some sense, and therefore, if she could have her soul taken up by Christ into heaven, so could everyone else under the grace of God. This is another example of that same scene, the Koimesis. At one end of the Koimesis, there is always St Paul. St Paul always has a big domed head.
I have tried to cover quite a big sweep, mainly showing the East, and the development of the settled scheme of iconography in the 10th and 11th Centuries.
©Lord Harries, Gresham College 2010
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Key: "S:" = Show Synset (semantic) relations, "W:" = Show Word (lexical) relations
Display options for sense: (gloss) "an example sentence"
- S: (n) aftermath, wake, backwash (the consequences of an event (especially a catastrophic event)) "the aftermath of war"; "in the wake of the accident no one knew how many had been injured"
- S: (n) Wake Island, Wake (an island in the western Pacific between Guam and Hawaii)
- S: (n) wake, backwash (the wave that spreads behind a boat as it moves forward) "the motorboat's wake capsized the canoe"
- S: (n) wake, viewing (a vigil held over a corpse the night before burial) "there's no weeping at an Irish wake"
- S: (v) wake (be awake, be alert, be there)
- S: (v) wake up, awake, arouse, awaken, wake, come alive, waken (stop sleeping) "She woke up to the sound of the alarm clock"
- S: (v) inflame, stir up, wake, ignite, heat, fire up (arouse or excite feelings and passions) "The ostentatious way of living of the rich ignites the hatred of the poor"; "The refugees' fate stirred up compassion around the world"; "Wake old feelings of hatred"
- S: (v) wake (make aware of) "His words woke us to terrible facts of the situation"
- S: (v) awaken, wake, waken, rouse, wake up, arouse (cause to become awake or conscious) "He was roused by the drunken men in the street"; "Please wake me at 6 AM."
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The Obama administration wants to spend as much $650 million to improve urban- and local-government service delivery, which includes the development of strategies to adapt to climate change and respond to natural disasters.
The endeavor will target cities and towns around the globe – with the exception of those in the United States.
Many coastal cities around the world are ill-prepared to deal with rising sea levels and extreme weather events that the administration expects from “climate change.”
The Helping Access Basic Infrastructure Technical Assistance and Training, or HABITAT, initiative therefore hopes to improve the ability of such places to withstand flooding, earthquakes and other events.
WND revealed HABITAT in a report last year, when the U.S. Agency for International Development released a presolicitation notice containing limited information about the program, which it had not yet officially launched.
Within months, Hurricane Sandy battered municipalities along the U.S. Eastern seaboard, causing an estimated $50 billion damages, primarily in the New York City metropolitan area. USAID for unstated reasons delayed releasing a detailed Request for Proposals from interested contractors until this week.
WND located the RFP, which is dated July 8, through routine database research.
The RFP claims that cities are responsible for producing about 78 percent of “greenhouse gas emissions.” Consequently, the 600 million people who live fewer than 10 meters above sea level – 360 million of whom live in cities – are “highly susceptible to the risks posed by climate change, including flooding, storm surges, and rises in sea levels.”
In light of the rapid urbanization of the globe, the U.S. must step in to help, USAID contends.
“Urban areas must become better prepared for disasters before they strike and to rebuild stronger and smarter after a disaster,” the agency says in the RFP.
“Urban areas need to be able to identify risks are prepare action plans towards mitigating those risks and providing safer places to live and work.”
Other areas for which the HABITAT program will seek targeted improvements include:
- Public service delivery with an emphasis on transportation, water and sanitation;
- Autonomy, transparency, responsiveness and accountability of urban and local governments; and:
- Urban and local government finance, creditworthiness and borrowing.
HABITAT is the most recent metamorphosis of similar programs that existed under President Bill Clinton and continued with President George W. Bush.
President Obama, through USAID, has more than doubled the cost of previous endeavors.
The contract ceiling for the Sustainable Urban Management II, or SUM II initiative – HABITAT’s predecessor program under Bush – had been set at $300 million over five years.
Unlike HABITAT under Obama – which delayed release of the RFP for one week short of a full calendar year – availability of the SUM II RFP came within days of the initial presolicitation notice.
Recently obtained procurement documents do not provide an estimated total cost of related Clinton-era programs, such as Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade/Urban Programs, or EGAT/UP, and those falling under the Making Cities Work strategy.
HABITAT over the next five years is scheduled to award contracts for individual work orders ranging from $1 million to $5 million each, capped at a $650 million total.
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Scientists design earthworm-like robot
WASHINGTON: Researchers have engineered a soft robot that inches ahead with earthworm-like peristalsis, crawling across surfaces by contracting segments of its body.
The robot, made almost entirely of soft materials, is remarkably resilient: even when stepped upon or bludgeoned with a hammer, it is able to inch away unscathed.
Sangbae Kim, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), says such a soft robot may be useful for navigating rough terrain or squeezing through tight spaces, the journal IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics reports.
The robot is named "Meshworm" for the flexible, meshlike tube that makes up its body. Researchers created "artificial muscle" from wire made of nickel and titanium, a shape-memory alloy that stretches and contracts with heat, according to an MIT statement.
They wound the wire around the tube, creating segments along its length, much like the segments of an earthworm. They then applied a small current to the segments of wire, squeezing the mesh tube and propelling the robot forward.
Besides Kim, other co-authors are graduate student Sangok Seok and post-doctoral researcher Cagdas Denizel Ona, MIT; associate professor Robert J. Wood, Harvard University; assistant professor Kyu-Jin Cho, Seoul National University, and Daniela Rus, professor of computer science and engineering at MIT.
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WASHINGTON -- Hundreds of industries, groups, and even some states have taken the Environmental Protection Agency to court in an attempt to block it from regulating carbon dioxide.
Since the EPA declared CO2 a harmful pollutant, by law it must treat it like other toxins, meaning the agency may have to regulate more than 6 million sources of CO2.
Heritage Foundation economists predict such a move will cost the economy almost $7 trillion by the year 2029, in some years more than $600 billion.
If that happens, the Cato Institute's Patrick Michaels said it would be "the most sweeping and intrusive regulatory effort in the history of this country."
Some fear CO2 will cause so much global warming, they believe the government should regulate the gas. That's what Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., told EPA administrator Lisa Jackson at a congressional hearing this week.
"They understand that stalling action on climate change means more intense and frequent heat waves, more droughts, more flooding, more loss of coastline," Waxman said.
Opponents worry the EPA may soon be sticking its nose into almost every American's life, and many of them took on the agency in a federal court in the nation's capitol this week.
"There were literally hundreds of petitioners challenging these regulations," Ted Hadzi-Antich, with the Pacific Legal Foundation, told CBN News.
Some protested labeling CO2, one of nature's most common elements, harmful.
"Carbon dioxide of course, as everybody knows, is a ubiquitous natural substance that's absolutely essential to life on earth," Hadzi-Antich said.
"CO2 makes plants grow better," Michaels said.
"You and I are major emitting sources of carbon dioxide," Hadzi-Antich noted.
And because it comes from almost everything, "This is the first EPA regulation that's casting its net to virtually every nook and cranny of the national economy," he explained.
The regulation is likely to cost 800,000 jobs a year, and in some industries, more than 50 percent of the work force will be wiped out.
The EPA realizes the public's not ready to put up with that. Consequently, the agency changed the Clean Air Act so, at least at the start, it only has to go after huge CO2 emitters, like power plants and big factories.
But that move has led many to complain that only Congress can legally revise the Clean Air Act.
"That's a sweeping change in the law that the people would have to approve, not some faceless bureaucrat in the Environmental Protection Agency," Michaels said.
Influential forces are pushing for radical action by EPA.
"If the world doesn't change course on climate now, within just 10 years, we will have built enough high carbon energy infrastructure to lock our planet into an irreversible and devastating amount of global warming," Waxman said.
If the courts do force the EPA to regulate most carbon-emitters, it won't just hit producers and manufacturers, but even 37,000 places of worship.
"I mean if they run a kitchen -- they're going to be regulated," Hadzi-Antich said.
And what do proponents of regulating CO2 believe all this will accomplish?
During the next 50 years, scientists figure the temperature will only drop about 8-hundreths of a degree Celsius.
"That's an amount that's too small to measure, but the costs are enormous," Michaels noted.
--Published Mar. 2, 2012.
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... is simply the area of the 'trapetium' of the figure and it can be computed with a simple geometric approach...
A car is traveling on a straight road. For seconds, the cars velocity , in meters per second, is modeled by the piecewise-linear function defined by the graph below.
a.) Find . Using correct units, explain the meaning of .
b.) For each of and , find the value or explain why it does not exist. Indicate units of measure.
c.) Let be the cars acceleration at time , in meters per second per second. For , write a piecewise-defined function for .
d.) Find the average rate of change of over the interval . Does the mean value theorem guarentee a value of c, for , such that is equal to the average rate of change. Why or why not?
For a.) I came up with the answer 360 meters, I'm pretty sure that is correct.
For b.), I think the acceleration would be zero, correct me if I'm wrong.
I don't know what to do for c.) and d.) any help is appreciated, thanks.
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Doctrine of lapse was withdrawn. The policy towards Indian states changed from Subordinate isolation to Subordinate Union.
Indigo revolt 1859-1860
White mutiny by European troops in 1859
Establishment of three universities at Calcutta,Madras and Bombay.
Indian Council Act 1861.The imperial legislative council came into existence after the act.
Indian High court Act 1861 introduced judicial reforms and reorganized the police department.
The recommendations of the Police Commission led to the Indian Police Act of 1861.
Indian Civil Services Act 1861 theoretically opened the services to all subjects but exams only in London.
1863 Satyendra Nath Tagore became the first Indian to qualify for the Civil Services.
Introduced the portfolio system of cabinet in the Indian Council Act of 1861.
Set up forest dept for utilization of forest resources.
General Service Enlistment Act was passed in 1856.
Issued the Queen’s Proclamation at a durbar in Allahabad on Nov 1 1858 by which the British crown assumed direct responsibility for the administration of the country.
The proclamation restored the right of the Princes to adopt their heirs.
The Bengal Rent Act removed some of the defect of the Permanent Settlement.
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Understanding Knowledge Management: Developing a Foundation for Future Advising Practices
Understanding knowledge management and its utilization within the organizational structure is an important first step toward developing a foundation for future techniques. Although the concept of knowledge management is not new, it is a topic which needs to be discussed within the advising area. This is especially true as new advisors are introduced into the academic environments and current advisors move toward other professions or retirement.
The knowledge obtained through the years needs to be collected, stored, and made available to the incoming group of new advisors. However, the use of the knowledge can also be beneficial for any current advisor as processes are continually being reviewed and updated. Even before the invention and implementation of computer systems and other electronic devices, knowledge was being obtained and utilized by both individuals and institutions. Creating a culture of knowledge management techniques is essential step toward ensuring existing knowledge is passed on to new members of the organization in appropriate manners(Manton, 2009)
What is knowledge?
Knowledge can be a challenging term to truly define given the nature of the human mind and it can take on multiple forms which can either be tangible or intangible in nature. In one sense, knowledge may be defined as the result of the mind’s processing which is triggered by some sort of external stimulation(Alavi & Leidner, 2001). With this perspective, these external stimulations can exist in the form of the data and information provided and as the mind processes these external stimuli, the data and information is transformed into knowledge. This newly formed knowledge can then be expressed in various forms such as text, graphics, audio, or video which can be then be shared with other individuals.
Alavi and Leidner(2001)further explain the different types of knowledge and provide several categories to provide definition; however, two main categories can be dealt with initially. Tacitand Explicit knowledge are two areas which can be defined in order to build a foundation. Although both types of knowledge represent different perspectives, it should also be noted these two areas exist together and are dependent on each other. Where tacit knowledge exists within the actions and experiences; explicit knowledge exists in forms which can be communicated. Tacit knowledge, in essence, is challenging to disseminate via documentation; however, tacit knowledge can be shared and exchanged via training exercises and experiences. Unlike tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge can be presented in various printed or even electronic documentations.
Even though different types of knowledge exist, it is also possible to convert one type to another. Tacit knowledge takes the form of individual actions and experiences; however, these experiences can be converted to explicit knowledge by sharing the experience through written communications and expressing the results in a tangible manner in which other individuals within the organization can then access. The same is true when converting explicit knowledge into tacit knowledge. Advisors can be given manuals and documents outlining the policies and procedures of the office and organization; however, these advisors convert the knowledge into tacit knowledge through the use of training exercises such as role-playing or through direct contact with those in which the knowledge can be used.
Sharing the knowledge
As new advisors begin to transition into academic institutions, it is important for these new individuals to obtain the knowledge collected and stored by the current advisors within those institutions. Throughout the years, advisors and organizations have collected, processed, and stored information related to student records, academic policies, and other general areas. With new advisors entering the academic support arenas, it is necessary for these prior knowledge components to be shared and exchanged.
In regards to tacit knowledge, new advisors can obtain the expertise and knowledge of existing advisors through various tactics such as structured interviews, observations, and even through stories of organizational culture. Explicit knowledge can be easier to share due to the nature of how the knowledge exists. Through various documents such as manuals, written policies and procedures, informational brochures, new advisors can gain the necessary foundation to begin building their own informational base needed to complete their tasks. Each individual obtains knowledge differently so it can be beneficial to utilize various aspects of knowledge dissemination. Part of the sharing of knowledge is the inclusion of continuous learning within the advising field(Key, Thompson, & McCann, 2009).
In the article by Key et al(2009), the concept of promoting a learning culture needs to be a continuing effort among organizations and individuals. In their research, it was noted many organizations recognize the need for knowledge management techniques which promote the sharing and exchanging of knowledge among its individuals and the push to increase these practices are needed within the upper levels of the organizations. If advisors are to make appropriate connections with their students and faculty members, having access to the explicit and tacit knowledge of the organization is necessary.
The use of knowledge is not a new concept; however, the challenge to appropriately share and exchange the knowledge will always exist. Reviewing the current relationships between the various members of the campus (students, staff, and faculty) and the goals set forth by the campus will allow for a better understanding of overall processes and roles of these entities. With this better understanding, opportunities for improvement in better communication and sharing of knowledge. The sharing of knowledge becomes very important as new advisors enter the field and appreciate the necessity to collect, store, and share knowledge before it is lost(Brewer & Brewer, 2010)
The process of knowledge management begins with the identification and classification of the types of the knowledge which currently exist in the organization followed by the understanding of where and how the knowledge exists. What knowledge can be obtained from faculty, staff, administrators, and students? Can this knowledge be collected and stored? Where or how can it be stored? Is the use of printed documentation or electronic folders more appropriate? There are several questions which can be asked and the challenge exists in how to best answer these questions.
Knowledge can be viewed as an intangible asset for any organization and it is an asset which can be utilized in various forms and exists in every individual. There is a difference between information and knowledge since the processes in our day-to-day lives are determined by each individual’s knowledge. It is the knowledge obtained which dictates the action to perform on the information given. The challenge then exists in how to utilize the knowledge toward better decision-making processes(Steyn, 2004).
Another challenge exists in how organizations utilize technologies. The use of technology will allow for more efficient means of disseminating knowledge among individuals; however, it does not mean the use of technology will make the process more effective. Establishing appropriate knowledge management techniques and processes still need to focus on the goals and objectives of the organization itself without technology driving the decision-making processes. The technology should be utilized as a tool or resource with organizational strategies determining the proper path toward accomplishing goals.
As training new advisors and providing ongoing professional development needs to occur, it is important for individuals and organizational leaders to recognize the importance of disseminating the knowledge collected over the years. The knowledge management practices to support advising techniques needs to be part of the culture of the campus and offices. Campus leaders are encouraged to promote the use of professional development activities which promote the exchange of knowledge and continuous learning. By providing these opportunities to current and new advising individuals, knowledge can be shared and exchanged in such ways which will only be positive and beneficial for those within the institution.
Hawley Academic Resource Center
Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa
Alavi, M., & Leidner, D. (2001). Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues. MIS Quarterly, 25 (1), 107-136.
Brewer, P., & Brewer, K. (2010). Knowledge Management, Human Resource Management, and Higher Education: A Theoretical Model. Journal of Education for Business, 85 (6), 330-335.
Key, M., Thompson, H., & McCann, J. (2009). Knowledge Management: A Glass Half Full. People & Strategy, 32 (4), 42-47.
Manton, S. (2009). Manage Your Knowledge, Protect Your Intelletual Property. Managing Intellectual Property, Oct 2009 (193), 76-79.
Steyn, G. M. (2004). Harnessing the Power of Knowledge in Higher Education. Education (124), 615-631.
the above resource using APA style as:
Little, T. (2010).
Understanding Knowledge Management: Developing a Foundation for Future Advising Practices.
Retrieved from NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources Web site: [insert url here]
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| 0.933276 | 1,734 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Views of President Lincoln, 1861
Lyndon Johnson once remarked that: "Being president
like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There's nothing to do but to stand there
and take it." Abraham Lincoln's presidency epitomizes this sentiment.
Today, Lincoln is considered one of America's greatest leaders. Two of his speeches - the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address - are among the most revered in the country's history. So great is
our appreciation that the words of his second inaugural address are etched in stone on the walls of his memorial in Washington, D.C. However, this present-day adulation was not widely held in 1861.
in February 1861
Lincoln's physical attributes, including his extraordinary six-foot-four-inch height, large hands, over-sized ears, prominent nose and ungainly gait, provided easy targets for ridicule. His lack of formal education (he spent only one year in school) supplied his detractors the ammunition to attack his intelligence and deride his mental abilities.
These negative attitudes subsided during the course of Lincoln's first administration. By the end of his first term he began to receive credit for his leadership during the nation's most troubling time. This reversal of attitude is reflected in the fact that he was elected to a second term - a feat that had not been accomplished by eight previous Presidents. His popularity was such that many newspapers predicted he would be elected for an unprecedented third term in 1868. However, Lincoln had to suffer through a "hailstorm" of criticism through much of his first term.
William Russell was a reporter for the London Times
and kept a diary of his impressions as he covered the war in both the North and
South. We join his account three weeks after Lincoln's inauguration. The Southern
states have seceded and established the Confederacy but open warfare would not
commence until April 12 when the Confederates bombard Fort Sumter in Charleston
harbor. Russell sits in an anteroom as the new President enters:
"March 27, 1861
Soon afterwards there entered, with a shambling, loose, irregular, almost unsteady gait, a tall, lank, lean man, considerably over six feet in height, with stooping shoulders, long pendulous arms, terminating in hands of extraordinary dimensions, which, however, were far exceeded in proportion by his feet. He was dressed in an ill-fitting, wrinkled suit of black, which put one in mind of an undertaker's uniform at a funeral; round his neck a rope of black silk was knotted in a large bulb, with flying ends projecting beyond the collar of his coat; his turned-down shirt-collar disclosed a sinewy muscular yellow neck, and above that, nestling in a great black mass of hair, bristling and compact like a ruff of mourning pins, rose the strange quaint face and head, covered with its thatch of wild, republican hair, of President Lincoln.
The impression produced by the size of his extremities, and by his flapping and wide projecting ears, may be removed by the appearance of kindliness, sagacity, and the awkward bonhomie of his face; the mouth is absolutely prodigious; the lips, straggling and extending almost from one line of black beard to the other, are only kept in order by two deep furrows from the nostril to the chin; the nose itself - a prominent organ - stands out from the face, with an inquiring, anxious air, as though it were sniffing for some good thing in the wind; the eyes dark, full, and deeply set, are penetrating, but full of an expression which almost amounts to tenderness; and above them projects the shaggy brow, running into the small hard frontal space, the development of which can scarcely be estimated accurately, owing to the irregular flocks of thick hair carelessly brushed across it.
One would say that, although the mouth was made to enjoy a joke, it could also utter the severest sentence which the head could dictate, but that Mr. Lincoln would be ever more willing to temper justice with mercy, and to enjoy what he considers the amenities of life, than to take a harsh view of men's nature and of the world, and to estimate things in an ascetic or puritan spirit.
A person who met Mr. Lincoln in the street would not take him to be what - according to the usages of European society - is called a 'gentleman;' and, indeed, since I came to the United States, I have heard more disparaging allusions made by Americans to him on that account than I could have expected among simple republicans, where all should be equals; but, at the same time, it would not be possible for the most indifferent observer to pass him in the street without notice. . . .
In the conversation which occurred before dinner, I was amused to observe the manner in which Mr. Lincoln used the anecdotes for which he is famous. Where men bred in courts, accustomed to the world, or versed in diplomacy, would use some subterfuge, or would make a polite speech, or give a shrug of the shoulders as the means of getting out of an embarrassing position, Mr. Lincoln raises a laugh by some bold west-country anecdote, and moves off in the cloud of merriment produced by his joke. . . ."
Calling on the General [McClellan - commander of the Army
of the Potomac] the other night at his usual time of return, I was told by the orderly, who was closing the door, 'The General's gone to bed tired, and can see no one. He sent the same message to the President, who came inquiring after him ten minutes ago.'
This poor President! He is to be pitied; surrounded by such scenes, and trying with all his might to understand strategy, naval warfare, big guns, the movements of troops, military maps, reconnaissances, occupations, interior and exterior lines, and all the technical details of the art of slaying. He runs from one house to another, armed with plans, papers, reports, recommendations, sometimes good humoured, never angry, occasionally dejected, and always a little fussy. The other night, as I was sitting in the parlour at headquarters, with an English friend who had come to see his old acquaintance the General, walked in a tall man with a navy's cap, and an ill-made shooting suit, from the pockets of which protruded paper and bundles. 'Well,' said he to Brigadier Van Vliet, who rose to receive him, 'is George in?'
|Lincoln meets with General
McClellan (left) after the Battle
of Antietam, Oct. 2, 1861.
Lincoln's gangly frame provided
critics ammunition for ridicule
'Yes, sir. He's come back, but is lying down, very much fatigued. I'll send up, sir, and inform him you wish to see him.'
'Oh, no; I can wait. I think I'll take supper with him. Well, and what are you now, - I forget your name - are you a major, or a colonel, or a general?' 'Whatever you like to make me, sir.'
Seeing that General McClellan would be occupied, I walked out with my friend, who asked me when I got into the street why I stood up when that tall fellow came into the room.
'Because it was the President.'
'The President of what?'
'Of the United States.'
'Oh! come, now you're humbugging me. Let me have another look at him.'
He came back more incredulous than ever, but when I assured him I was quite serious, he exclaimed, 'I give up the United States after this.'
But for all that, there have been many more courtly presidents who, in a similar crisis, would have displayed less capacity, honesty, and plain dealing than Abraham Lincoln."
William Russell's account appears in: Russell, William Howard, My Diary, North and South (Fletcher Pratt, ed) (1954, originally published in 1863); Kunhart, Phillip B., Jr., et. al., Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography (1992).
How To Cite This Article:
"Views of President Lincoln, 1861" EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2005).
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| 0.97719 | 1,762 | 3.5 | 4 |
Chronic joint disease is common in older dogs and cats. Poorly formed joints (dysplasia), injury, or overuse may cause degenerative joint disease (osteoarthritis). Chronic joint disease may also occur secondary to previous infections with bacteria or the Lyme disease organism, or immune-mediated inflammation. Joint disease may cause muscle loss, limping, slowness on rising, reluctance to jump, climb stairs or play. Dogs rarely cry with chronic joint disease even if quite painful.
Diagnosis of joint problems is based on a thorough history and examination. X-rays are often indicated and may require sedation. Special studies such as joint fluid analysis, bone scan, MRI or arthroscopy may be recommended.
Puppies born with hip dysplasia who receive limited food have significantly better hips than similar puppies allowed to become overweight. Maintaining your pet at an optimum weight is important to avoid excessive stresses on the joints.
Regular exercise such as walking, jogging, and swimming helps maintain strength and flexibility. Excessive, infrequent exercise may cause fatigue and potentially damage muscles and joints. If your pet has been diagnosed with joint disease, avoid jumping, vigorous ball-playing and excessive stair climbing.
Some premium dog foods have included the nutritional supplements, glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate, to help preserve joint function. The amounts of these supplements are too low to treat active joint disease but may be useful to slow the progression of very minor joint problems.
Weight loss is imperative for any obese animal. Gradual, consistent weight loss may be accomplished by feeding less of the regular food or switching to a controlled amount of a diet food, and eliminating high calorie treats.
Rest is prescribed for pets with sudden, painful joint problems to allow for recovery. Otherwise, consistent and controlled exercise is recommended (see prevention.)
Physical therapy may be demonstrated by your veterinarian and may include massage, passive range of motion exercises, and heat or cold therapy.
Surgery is indicated for certain joint problems and may be very effective at relieving pain and improving function.
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are used to reduce pain. Aspirin is useful in mild cases but causes stomach and intestine ulceration. Deramaxx and Metacam are prescription pain medications specifically formulated for the sensitive stomach and liver of dogs. These drugs are very effective and usually well-tolerated by dogs. Metacam may be used safely for cats. For chronic use of any NSAID, an initial and periodic blood testing is recommended to identify potential problems, such as underlying liver or kidney disease. All NSAIDs may have harmful side effects when combined with certain other drugs, especially corticosteroids. Do not use any pain medication not prescribed by your veterinarian. Most over-the-counter and human prescription pain medications are harmful and potentially deadly to dogs and cats.
Corticosteroids are used occasionally in dogs to reduce sudden inflammation and may be used chronically in cats.
Chondroprotective agents are nutritional supplements used to help preserve cartilage health and reduce pain and inflammation. These formulations are helpful in treating painful dogs and cats, and also in slowing cartilage damage due to injury, surgery, or abnormal joint formation (elbow and hip dysplasia.) Purified pharmacy grade glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate has been shown to be effective in treating osteoarthritis. Unfortunately, since these products are considered nutrients and not drugs, no claim to effectiveness, actual content, lack of contaminants, availability or even safety is required.
Adequan is the most effective chondroprotective agent. It is given by injection twice weekly for 1 month then once every month. Chondroflex is the best oral form available at this time. Other brands, although much less expensive, may use inferior or unavailable forms of the nutrients. It has been found that 70% of the products tested did not contain the amount of the nutrients stated on the label. Improvement due to chondroprotective agents may be noted after 2 to 6 weeks of the initial loading dose. If there is no improvement after the initial 6 weeks, this form of therapy will probably be ineffective. Gradually reduce the amount of supplement given every 4 to 6 weeks to the lowest effective dose and continue long term.
Nutritional supplements for joint health have been added to some higher quality dog foods. These foods have a much lower dose of the nutrients than is available in the capsules. The diets may be helpful to slow disease progression in dogs predisposed to joint conditions but not yet stiff or lame.
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| 0.938684 | 943 | 2.96875 | 3 |
A study by Harvard-affiliated researchers published in the Archives of Internal Medicine challenges the notion that you can be fat and fit. They found that being active can lower, but not eliminate heart risks faced by women who are fat or obese.
This new study involved nearly 39,000 women, average age of 54, who filled out a questionnaire at the beginning of the study detailing their height, weight and amount of weekly physical activity in the past year, including walking, jogging, bicycling, and swimming. They were then tracked for approximately 11 years.
Women were considered “active” if they followed government-recommended guidelines, and got at least 30 minutes of moderate activity most days of the week. Women who got less exercise than that were considered “inactive.” Weight was evaluated by body mass index (BMI): a BMI between 25 and 29 is considered overweight, and 30 or higher is considered obese.
Compared with normal-weight active women, the risk for developing heart disease was 54% higher in overweight active women, and 87% higher in obese active women. By contrast, the risk for developing heart disease was 88% higher in overweight inactive women and 2 1/2 times greater in obese inactive women.
About two in five American women at age 50 will eventually develop heart attacks or other cardiovascular problems according to the Associated Press report (4/29/08). Excess weight can raise those odds in numerous ways, such as increasing blood pressure and increasing the risks for diabetes, as well as increasing “bad” (LDL) cholesterol. Exercise counteracts all three.
If there’s one place in the world where there is no excuse for being inactive, it’s southern California. Between the glorious weather, the hiking trails in the mountains, marked bicycle lanes and more, it’s almost impossible to excuse or explain being out of shape.
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| 0.968497 | 387 | 2.890625 | 3 |
ABOUT THE DISEASE
TB is an infection caused by a bacterium called mycobacterium tuberculosis.
It usually affects the lungs however it can spread to other parts as well such as the joints, bladder, spine, brain (tubercular meningitis), bones and many others.
TB that affects the lungs is the only form of the condition that is contagious, however usually only spreads after prolonged exposure to someone with the illness.
In most healthy people, the immune system (the body's natural defence against infection and illness) kills the bacteria. However, sometimes the immune system cannot kill the bacteria, allowing it to remain in body but manages to prevent it from spreading. This is known as latent TB.
If the immune system fails to kill or contain the infection, symptoms will develop within a few weeks or months. This is known as active TB.
Latent TB could develop into an active TB infection at a later date, particularly if the immune system weakens due to any reason.
Some of the symptoms associated with active TB are:
- • Cough that lasts 3 weeks or longer, and can bring up blood
- • Chest pain
- • Fever
- • Fatigue
- • Unintended weight loss
- • Loss of appetite
- • Chills and night sweats
- • Joint Pain (if TB affects the joints)
- • Blood in urine along with pain during urination (If TB affects the bladder)
- • Headache and nausea (Brain TB)
- • Back pain and leg paralysis (TB of the spine)
Bacteria that cause the disease are inhaled in the form of microscopic droplets expelled into the air, that come from a person with tuberculosis, while coughing, speaking or sneezing. They dry out quickly, but the bacteria itself can remain airborne for hours.
However, the tuberculosis bacteria are killed when exposed to ultraviolet light, including sunlight.
Non-Lung TB can be caused due to ingestion of infected milk or dairy products which set up infections in the gastro-intestinal tract and also affect the reproductive systems in men and women.
- Montaux test
- Chest x-ray
- Sputum examination
- Quantiferon-TB Gold test
This disease is completely curable by taking a course of antibiotics, usually for six to nine months.
Several different antibiotics are used in combination, mainly Isoniazid, Rifampicin, Ethambutol and Pyrazinamide. No medicines should be skipped in between. If the treatment is stopped in between it can lead to a drug-resistant form of TB, extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR- TB) or Mult drug resistant i.e MDR-TB, which is a very serious situation for which treatment can last as long as 18 months.
Side effects include a skin rash, an upset stomach or liver disease.
Alcohol consumption or taking acetaminophen while taking this treatment is to be avoided because this can damage the liver. Always check with your doctor before you take any other medicine because some drugs interact with these drugs and can cause side effects.
BCG Vaccination can provide effective protection against the disease.
You may also like to learn about:
Interstitial lung disease
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
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| 0.94499 | 677 | 3.625 | 4 |
Award: Carl B. Allendoerfer
Year of Award: 1982
Publication Information: Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 54, (1981), pp. 227-243
Summary: Early mathematicians gave some puzzling answers to the question: today the problem is not completely solved.
About the Author: (from Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 54 (1981)) Marjorie Senechal grew up in Lexington, Kentucky. She received her B.S. degree from the University of Chicago in 1960 and her Ph.D. from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1965. The following year she began teaching at Smith College, where she is now Professor of Mathematics and chair of the department. At Smith she met the crystallographer Dorothy Wrinch who helped to focus her interests in number theory, algebra, and geometry on the theory of regular spatial arrangements and its applications. Among other things this has led to an unusual interdisciplinary course on symmetry, the book Patterns of Symmetry (co-edited with the chemist George Fleck) and extended research visits at the crystollagraphic institutes of the University of Groningen in The Netherlands and the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. She is a member of the Five-College Committee on Applied Mathematics and the Smith College Committee on the History of Science.
Early mathematicians gave some puzzling answers to 'Which Tetrahedra Fill Space': today the problem is not completely solved.
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| 0.946839 | 288 | 2.546875 | 3 |
3 Bible Tips: The Day of the Lord
In previous studies we have looked at the Great Tribulation and the heavenly signs that lead up to the Day of the Lord.
1. Though we greatly desire Jesus Christ’s return, the Day of the Lord that precedes His return will be dreadful.
"Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! For what good is the day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness, and not light" (Amos 5:18).
2. The Day of the Lord usually refers to the time when God powerfully intervenes in the world to punish evil.
"Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and He will destroy its sinners from it...
"I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible" (Isaiah 13:9, 11).
3. In Revelation, the Day of the Lord is covered in the seventh seal, which includes the seven trumpet plagues.
"When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets" (Revelation 8:1-2; Revelation chapters 8, 9 and 11 describe the terrible effects of these plagues and the ultimate return of Christ after the seventh trumpet).
To learn more about the Day of the Lord that will climax in the return of Jesus Christ to rule the world, see the Bible Study Guide lesson "Armageddon and the Day of the Lord."
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| 0.918292 | 358 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Reduce Child Mortality: MDG 4
- Between 1990 and 2008, child mortality in developing countries dropped from 100 to 72 deaths per 1,000 live births.
- Of the 67 countries defined as having high child mortality rates, only 10 are currently on track to meet the MDG target.
Since 1990, child mortality has been cut by more than half in North Africa, East and West Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Yet in other regions, notably sub-Saharan Africa, little to no progress has been made in recent years.
In 2009, the Council held its Annual Ministerial Review on the theme of global public health. Ministers from 7 countries ― Bolivia, China, Jamaica, Japan, Mali, Sri Lanka, Sudan ― delivered “National Voluntary Presentations”, which detailed their countries’ recent efforts to improve public health (including child health), while offering case studies on successful initiatives. Countries also adopted a strong “Ministerial Declaration”, highlighting key policies to promote healthier societies.
- In 2010, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, together with leaders from governments, foundations, NGOs and business, launched the “Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health”, a series of simple steps to improve women’s and children’s health ― measures which, if implemented, could save 16 million lives by 2015.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in partnership with governments, provides high-impact, cost-effective health and nutrition interventions to reduce the number of neonatal and early childhood deaths from preventable and easily treatable causes. UNICEF purchases vaccines, negotiates favourable prices and forecasts vaccine requirements to ensure sustainable supplies. When delivering vaccines, UNICEF adds micronutrient supplements to offset malnutrition, another critical factor in child survival.
- Working with governments, health providers and communities in the field, UNICEF also helps families learn essential skills and basic health knowledge, such as best practices in breastfeeding and complementary feeding, hygiene and safe faeces disposal.
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| 0.912715 | 434 | 3.625 | 4 |
The production and working of metals as fine powders which can be pressed and sintered to form objects.
- Originally, niobium metal was produced by powder metallurgy methods which involved high temperature vacuum sintering and carbon reduction.
- For certain products, such as those produced by powder metallurgy or from small ingots, it may be possible to significantly alter the distribution of insoluble particles.
- Alloys prepared by powder metallurgy, in which often very large amounts of alloying elements are incorporated, naturally reach much higher strengths, usually at the expense of ductility and stress corrosion resistance.
For editors and proofreaders
Line breaks: pow¦der me¦tal|lurgy
Definition of powder metallurgy in:
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| 0.93976 | 187 | 3.65625 | 4 |
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