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Visit our Re-post guidelines
A groundbreaking study published this month in Nature challenges a century old assumption about the innate pathogenicity of these extremely small, self-replicating particles known as viruses.
Titled, "An enteric virus can replace the beneficial function of commensal bacteria," researchers found that an "enteric RNA virus can replace the beneficial function of commensal bacteria in the intestine." Known as murine (mouse) noravirus (MNV), researchers found that infecting germ-free or antibiotic-treated mice infection with MNV "restored intestinal morphology and lymphocyte function without inducing overt inflammation and disease."
The researchers found:
"Importantly, MNV infection offset the deleterious effect of treatment with antibiotics in models of intestinal injury and pathogenic bacterial infection. These data indicate that eukaryotic viruses have the capacity to support intestinal homeostasis and shape mucosal immunity, similarly to commensal bacteria."
Despite the commonly held belief that viruses are vectors of morbidity and mortality that must be vaccinated against in order to save us from inevitable harm and death, the new study dovetails with a growing body of research showing that our own genome is 8% viral in origin.
Reporting on the new study, in an article well worth reading, the Science Daily states:
"The new findings are the first strong evidence that viruses in the gastrointestinal tract can help maintain health and heal a damaged gut."
They summarized the study's findings as follows:
"The team infected germ-free mice and antibiotic-treated mice with MNV and found that the infection triggered the repair of intestinal tissue damaged by inflammation, restored intestinal cell numbers, restored intestinal cell function, and normalized tissue architecture. The results were apparent after just 2 weeks of MNV infection.
Infection with MNV also helped restore the gut's immune system. The investigators do not yet know how the virus supports the immune system. They did find, however, increased signaling by antiviral type 1 interferon proteins, suggesting the virus was playing a key role in driving the immune response.
The investigators also documented a doubling of T-cell levels in the blood and detectable levels of antibodies in the gut and blood of antibiotic-treated mice after MNV infection. These measures were consistent with a normalization of the immune response. The authors conclude that viral infection of the gut may be helpful once antibiotic treatment has wiped out intestinal bacteria.
Treatment with MNV was also able to improve survival in antibiotic-treated mice receiving the damaging chemical dextran sodium sulphate."
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<urn:uuid:479f0ec4-21e7-4208-87c1-179ebf1b71c3>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/why-we-may-need-viruses-more-vaccines-2
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en
| 0.933051 | 524 | 3.765625 | 4 |
Coastal erosion concerns in Southern New England
Southern New England’s coastline — the region’s economic engine — is under siege, and this relentless enemy is gaining force. It can't be subdued by 20-foot-high seawalls or controlled by old-school hay bales. It's allies include parking lots, beachfront development and climate change.
Coastal communities here are increasingly experiencing the impacts of an encroaching ocean. Storm waves are eroding beaches and flooding developed areas. Rising sea levels are taking land. The ocean's power even when it’s seemingly tranquil is unmatched, but when it's angry our continued disrespect proves costly.
State and local officials are now asking how they can protect people, property and vital infrastructure such as drinking water supplies, utilities and roads from the advancing sea. There are no simple solutions, but there’s also no reason to panic. The sky isn't falling, but the ocean is creeping in; our coastline is changing, and smart decisions must be made.
During the past few decades, sections of the Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut shoreline have experienced an average rate of retreat of between 1 and 4 feet, depending on storm frequencies and intensity. A single storm, for example, can wash away some 30 feet of beach in an instant.
"Shoreline changes are the most pressing issue facing Rhode Island," said Laura Dwyer, the public educator and information coordinator for the state’s Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC). "We're planning for the worst and hoping for the best. Our coastline is changing very quickly."
Beach erosion image via Shutterstock.
Read more at EcoRi.
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<urn:uuid:c50d211a-5990-4c05-b0be-7c2b63950636>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.enn.com/environmental_policy/article/46918
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| 0.934238 | 344 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Press brief: What are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube doing about violence against women?
, August 2014
What is the issue?
Women visit social media sites more often than men and spend more time on them. Women send more tweets and share more posts. Women drive content, advertising and engagement, but by simply showing up on these platforms, they also face violence, with little support on the part of companies that profit from them.
Although Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have made some effort to respond to user concerns, they do not do enough.
Violence online is just as real as violence offline. We strongly advocate that women’s rights are human rights ‒ offline and online. We consider online violence against women (VAW) to restrict women’s freedom of expression. We refuse to consider that hate speech is free speech. We affirm that cyber harassment is violence.
What does the campaign do?
Take Back the Tech! (TBTT) is a collaborative campaign to reclaim information and communication technologies (ICTs) to end violence against women. Launched in July 2014, the latest TBTT campaign targets the three biggest social media platforms to take a clear stand on violence against women in their terms of service, and to engage with diverse civil society to find solutions for safer platforms.
We engage Facebook, Twitter and YouTube with questions and demands:
- What laws and norms do Facebook, Twitter and YouTube use to define violence?
- Who is reporting abuse? Who is committing abuse? Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have numbers and we want them.
- Why aren’t they responsive to the needs of women in all the countries they serve?
- Why not develop policies that specifically address gender-based violence?
- International law requires them to respect human rights. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube need to make a clear commitment.
- It is urgent that they take a stand on violence against women in their terms of service.
- It is critical for them to engage with civil society to find solutions for safer platforms.
Take Back the Tech! calls all users to join us in demanding change:
- Ask: “What are you doing about violence against women?” Users can use our questions to engage companies on Twitter with #WhatAreYouDoingAboutVAW.
- Rate: We will compile user report cards survey to rate social media on various aspects related to violence against women:
Transparency on procedures for reporting abuse
Ease of reporting abuse
Responsiveness to needs of non-US/European women
Overall approach to violence against women
Commitment to human rights, including women’s rights.
- Share: Users are called to tweet, film, post and blog their stories and to add them anonymously to our map of tech-related violence against women.
- Demand: Users are invited to tell these companies what they want and to share solutions.
Who experiences online VAW?
APC’s Women’s Rights Programme (WRP) has worked for 20 years with networks of women from all over the world. This has made it a key point of reference for women experiencing online violence.
“Our research and our work with women around the world has shown us that many social media platforms do not respond adequately to women facing violence online. With this campaign, we want to amplify women’s voices on this issue and find solutions that work,” explains Sara Baker, Take Back the Tech! campaign coordinator.
WRP encouraged people to map incidents and carried out research on internet intermediaries with respect to violence against women online. Cases from all over the world were collected, showing the continuum between offline and online violence against women, which is not being addressed informedly, consistently and seriously enough by these social media platforms.
Some of the real-life cases collected in our research speak for themselves:
A 16-year-old girl agreed to be photographed naked by her ex-boyfriend. A few days later, the pictures were published on his Facebook account and the news circulated in the community: everyone knew about it. His family told him to remove the photos, to which he replied saying he did not post the photos, and suspected that someone hacked his Facebook account. The girl believed that he was lying but could not prove it.
A student teacher was subjected to hacking and photomontage in a pornographic video labelled with her city and occupation. On two occasions, she was accosted by men on the street who said they had seen her naked. One of her friends contacted the porn website and had the video removed; however, there are still images of her circulating on similar web pages.
The life of this 13-year-old girl was turned upside down when her older sister’s boyfriend began to sexually harass her and threaten her by cell phone, ultimately abducting her. For three months, she was deprived of her liberty, beaten and sexually abused. When she was finally able to escape, she and her mother registered a complaint for kidnapping and corruption of a minor with the prosecution service. The latest news was that the aggressor had not been found.
The research on the big three internet intermediaries revealed that while approaches to VAW differ between the three companies, there are a number of overarching themes and trends, such as:
- Reluctance to engage directly with technology-related violence against women, until it becomes a public relations issue.
- Lack of transparency around reporting and redress processes.
- Failure to engage with the perspectives of non-North American/European women.
- No public commitment to human rights standards.
Additional resources for press
- Research results about Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
- Report card
- Campaign kit
- Campaign flyer
- Articles on VAW and ICT
- Campaign graphics
- Digital story ‘It is ‘only’ love’
- Map of tech-related VAW
About the Take Back the Tech! campaign
Take Back the Tech! is a collaborative campaign to reclaim information and communication technologies (ICT) to end violence against women (VAW). The campaign calls on all ICT users – especially women and girls – to take control of technology and strategically use any ICT platform at hand (mobile phones, instant messengers, blogs, websites, digital cameras, email, podcasts and more) for activism against gender-based violence.
About the Association for Progressive Communications
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is an international network and non-profit organisation founded in 1990 that wants everyone to have access to a free and open internet to improve lives and create a more just world.
Take Back the Tech! campaign coordinator
Tel: +1 865 567 4157
Tel: + 55 02477 640312
- Related projects
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| 0.95701 | 1,392 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Japanese Haiku, by Peter Beilenson, , at sacred-texts.com
THE hokkuor more properly haikuis a tiny verse-form in which Japanese poets have been working for hundreds of years. Originally it was the first part of the tanka, a five-line poem, often written by two people as a literary game: one writing three lines, the other, two lines capping them. But the hokku, or three-line starting verse, became popular as a separate form. As such it is properly called haiku, and retains an incredible popularity among all classes of Japanese.
There are only seventeen syllables in the haiku, the first and third lines contain five, the second line seven. There is almost always in it the name of the season, or a key word giving the season by inference. (This is a short-cut, costing the poet only one or two syllables, whereby the reader can immediately comprehend the weather, the foliage, the bird and insect-lifeand the emotions traditional to the season: factors which almost always are important in the poem.) But there is also, in a good haiku, more than a mere statement of feeling or a picture of nature: there is an implied identity between two seemingly different things.
The greatest of haiku-writers, and the poet who crystallized the style, was Basho (1644-1694). In his later years he was a student of Zen Buddhism,
and his later poems, which are his best, express the rapturous awareness in that mystical philosophy of the identity of life in all its forms. With this awareness, Basho immersed himself in even the tiniest things, and with religious fervor and sure craftsmanship converted them into poetry. He was ardently loved by his followers, and by later poets, and his Zen philosophy has thus been perpetuated in later haiku. It is, indeed, a key to the completest appreciation of most haiku.
Following Basho in time and fame was Buson (1715-1783)a little more sophisticated and detached than his predecessor, and an equally exquisite craftsman. The third great haiku poet was unhappy Issa (1763-1827), a continual butt of fate. He is less poetic but more lovable than Basho and Buson. His tender, witty haiku about his dead children, his bitter poverty, his little insect friends, endear him to every reader. Other masters are of course represented here too.
It is usually impossible to translate a haiku literally and have it remain a poem, or remain in the proper seventeen-syllable form. There are several reasons for this. Haiku are full of quotations and allusions which are recognized by literate Japanese but not by us; and are full of interior double-meanings almost like James Joyce. And the language is used without connecting-words or tenses or pronouns or indications of singular or plural
almost a telegraphic form. Obviously a translation cannot be at once so illusive and so terse.
In the texture of the poems there is a further difficulty: Japanese is highly polysyllabic. The only way to reproduce such a texture in English is to use Latinized wordsnormally less sympathetic than the Anglo-Saxon. For all these reasons, the following versions make no pretense to be literal or complete, and some variations in the five-seven-five syllable arrangement have been allowed.
Alterations and interior rhymes, which are common in Japanese because every syllable ends with one of the five vowel sounds (sometimes with the addition of the letter "n") have been freely used; but as in the originals, there are no end-rhymes except some accidental ones.
Although the haiku is a three-line poem, the use of a decorative Japanese design alongside each example in this edition has required (in almost every case) the doubling-up of the longer second line. The reader's indulgence is requested for this unorthodox typography.
One final word: the haiku is not expected to be always a complete or even a clear statement. The reader is supposed to add to the words his own associations and imagery, and thus to become a co-creator of his own pleasure in the poem. The publishers hope their readers may here co-create such pleasure for themselves!
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en
| 0.973467 | 899 | 3.140625 | 3 |
represents a Fisher distribution with n numerator and m denominator degrees of freedom.
- The probability density for value in a Fisher distribution is proportional to for all real .
- FisherZDistribution allows n and m to be any positive real numbers.
- FisherZDistribution allows n and m to be dimensionless quantities.
- FisherZDistribution can be used with such functions as Mean, CDF, and RandomVariate.
- FisherZDistribution[n,m] represents a continuous statistical distribution defined over the set of real numbers and parameterized by two positive real numbers n and m that represent degrees of freedom. The probability density function (PDF) of the Fisher distribution is smooth and unimodal, and the parameters m and n determine its overall height and steepness. In addition, the tails of the PDF are "thin", in the sense that the PDF decreases exponentially for large values of . (This behavior can be made quantitatively precise by analyzing the SurvivalFunction of the distribution.)
- Fisher's distribution is obtained as the distribution of the random variable , where XFRatioDistribution, and was first presented in the mid-1920s by English statistician Robert Fisher. Fisher's distribution was devised as a tool for analyzing the errors of widely used distributions of the time and can be utilized in many of the same applications as FRatioDistribution. However, because FRatioDistribution is mathematically simpler, it has become somewhat uncommon to use FisherZDistribution to model real-world scenarios, though one example in which FisherZDistribution is preferable is in modeling the so-called -statistic among variates that are binormally (BinormalDistribution) distributed.
- RandomVariate can be used to give one or more machine- or arbitrary-precision (the latter via the WorkingPrecision option) pseudorandom variates from Fisher's distribution. Distributed[x,FisherZDistribution[n,m]], written more concisely as , can be used to assert that a random variable x is distributed according to Fisher's distribution. Such an assertion can then be used in functions such as Probability, NProbability, Expectation, and NExpectation.
- The probability density and cumulative distribution functions may be given using PDF[FisherZDistribution[n,m],x] and CDF[FisherZDistribution[n,m],x]. The mean, median, variance, raw moments, and central moments may be computed using Mean, Median, Variance, Moment, and CentralMoment, respectively.
- DistributionFitTest can be used to test if a given dataset is consistent with Fisher's distribution, EstimatedDistribution to estimate a Fisher's parametric distribution from given data, and FindDistributionParameters to fit data to a Fisher's distribution. ProbabilityPlot can be used to generate a plot of the CDF of given data against the CDF of a symbolic Fisher's distribution and QuantilePlot to generate a plot of the quantiles of given data against the quantiles of a symbolic Fisher's distribution
- TransformedDistribution can be used to represent a transformed Fisher's distribution, CensoredDistribution to represent the distribution of values censored between upper and lower values, and TruncatedDistribution to represent the distribution of values truncated between upper and lower values. CopulaDistribution can be used to build higher-dimensional distributions that contain a Fisher's distribution, and ProductDistribution can be used to compute a joint distribution with independent component distributions involving Fisher's distributions.
- Fisher's distribution is related to a number of other distributions. As previously noted, FisherZDistribution is obtained as a transformation of FRatioDistribution, so that the PDF of FisherZDistribution[n,m] is precisely the same as that of TransformedDistribution[Log[u]/2,u FRatioDistribution[n,m]]. FisherZDistribution approaches normality, in the sense that FisherZDistribution[n,m] approaches NormalDistribution[μ,σ] as m and n tend to Infinity for and . Finally, ChiSquareDistribution and StudentTDistribution can be derived as transformations of FisherZDistribution. FisherZDistribution is also related to ParetoDistribution, BinormalDistribution, and LogNormalDistribution.
Introduced in 2010
(8.0)| Updated in 2016
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FisherZDistribution.html
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en
| 0.855366 | 907 | 3.125 | 3 |
Security experts are warning that ransomware is going to become a big problem this year. And that means you should really be taking steps to protect yourself now, if you haven’t done so already.
Ransomware, which is a form of malware, works by either holding your entire computer hostage or by blocking access to all of your files by encrypting them. Once infected, you will generally receive a message stating that you must pay a certain amount of money, usually $500 or more, to get the key that will decrypt your data. An LA hospital was the victim of a ransomware attack last week and ended up paying $17,000 to a hacker group to get its data back.
Tech Insider spoke with Liviu Arsene, a senior security researcher at the security firm BitDefender, to get some tips on how to avoid ending up in a situation where all of your data is taken hostage.
Here’s what he recommended.
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http://www.techinsider.io/how-to-protect-against-ransomware-2016-2
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| 0.956835 | 193 | 2.515625 | 3 |
AN illustrated talk on Sunday will follow the footsteps of dinosaurs along the Rye and Fairlight coast.
The talk on dinosaurs and local fossils takes place at the Shipwreck Museum at Rock-a-nore, Hastings, on Sunday May 25 at 2.30pm by local geologist Ken Brooks.
The talk will be followed, at 3.30pm, by the launch of Ken’s new book Geology and Fossils of the Hastings Area.
Most of the fossils illustrated were collected and photographed by the author in the local area and reconstruct a vivid picture of South-East England around 140 million years ago. It covers where to find fossils and how to recognise them.
Specimens discovered in local rocks include the bones and teeth of sharks, crocodiles, turtles, dinosaurs and flying reptiles.
There are also footprints which provide evidence that dinosaurs actually walked here.
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| 0.955079 | 177 | 2.59375 | 3 |
A dead sparrow brought back to life by robotics scientists has been having a terrible time getting beaten up by its living relatives. They attack it. They fear it. But that was all part of the experiment.
Students at North Carolina's Duke University teamed up with a local taxidermist to re-animate the wings of a dead sparrow, sticking a small motor inside the poor dead bird's body cavity to move the poor little thing's limbs about. The idea behind it was to see how much wing-flapping is used as an aggressive act by the birds, monitoring the responses of real birds to the various movements of the Frankensparrow.
The robot bird survived two months of wing-flapping experiments and being attacked by other males on a daily basis, before "the head fell off and the wing stopped moving." [BBC]
Image credit: Sparrow from Shutterstock
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| 0.9655 | 178 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Our newspaper archives contain issues from Dakota Territory as early as 1864 and many from 1872 to the present. The North Dakota Newspaper Law of 1905 required official newspapers to provide two copies to the State Historical Society of North Dakota. Newspaper titles may be searched using ODIN (Online Dakota Information Network) or they may be found by clicking on the links below. The State Historical Society of North Dakota also has a small collection of newspapers from Minnesota and South Dakota which document aspects of North Dakota history. Frontier Scout, the first newspaper published in northern Dakota Territory, is available online.
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded a grant to the State Historical Society of North Dakota to participate in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). The project, which runs from 2011-2013, funds digitization of 100,000 pages of newspapers from microfilm. The Library of Congress will make these newspapers available on its Chronicling America website. The titles selected are:
Bismarck Tribune - 1873-1875; 1878-1884; 1916-1922
Bismarck Weekly Tribune - 1875-1878; 1884-1900
Bismarck Tri-Weekly Tribune - 1877-1878
Bismarck Daily Tribune - 1900-1916
Jamestown Weekly Alert - 1882-1904
Ward County Independent (Minot) - 1903-1921
Weekly Times Record (Valley City) 1912-1922
Williston Graphic - 1895-1898; 1902-1919
In 1905, the Legislative Assembly enacted the North Dakota Newspaper Law, requiring official newspapers to send copies of every issue to the State Historical Society of North Dakota. In addition, the agency has attempted to collect as many earlier extant North Dakota newspapers as possible. This compilation of newspapers spans the period from early territorial days to the present.
Newspapers contain a great deal of information for the genealogist and the historical researcher. For genealogists, newspapers may include birth and marriage announcements and death notices and obituaries. Individual newspapers provide information concerning local events throughout the ancestor's lifetime, and state and national events that were instrumental in shaping lives.
Newspaper editorials permit the historical researcher to uncover the dynamics of an area. Information concerning the social and cultural history, economics, politics, and individualism of members of the community can be found. City and county commission minutes and other official records were printed in the newspaper. Advertisements provide information concerning businesses that were a part of the community. Biases in reporting and information in articles on historic events also can supply attitudes, etc.
Publishing History in North Dakota
The first newspaper known to have been published in northern Dakota Territory was the Frontier Scout issued at Fort Union on July 7, 1864. Nine years later, The Bismarck Tribune published its trial run on July 6, 1873. This was soon followed by the Fargo Express, The Grand Forks Plaindealer, and The Jamestown Alert. Within a period of ten years, 160 newspapers were distributed throughout Dakota Territory, and by 1910, more than 344 newspapers documented the hopes, dreams, and events of the developing state. The Brinton Newspaper Law of 1919 limited the number of newspapers publishing official notices. As a result, many newspapers were unable to survive on local community advertising. Other factors also entered into the demise of publications, and more than 200 newspapers ceased to circulate within a five-year period. Presently, fewer than 100 newspapers are published in North Dakota.
Looking for newspapers in other states? Check out United States Newspaper Program participants: National Endowment for the Humanities U.S. Newspaper Program
612 East Boulevard Ave.
Bismarck, North Dakota 58505
State Museum and Store: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. M-F; Sat. & Sun. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
We are closed New Year's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.
State Archives: 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. M-F, except state holidays; 2nd Sat. of each month, 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
State Historical Society offices: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. M-F, except state holidays.
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http://history.nd.gov/archives/whatnewspapers.html
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en
| 0.932361 | 893 | 2.640625 | 3 |
My dad is a big history buff, and used to love to take us to Civil War battlefields whenever we traveled in the South. Sadly, I think his good intentions were lost on us – but if we went back today, I’d take my own kids to some! As I was putting together a list of the most important people of the Civil War, I learned a few things myself. I didn’t know that the American Red Cross grew out of Clara Barton’s work as a war nurse, nor that Harriet Tubman single-handedly saved so many people in the Underground Railroad.
A new website has been created recently that I think is a fantastic learning tool about Abraham Lincoln. It is a database of the daily chronology of his life – on any given day of the year, you can find out what Abe Lincoln was doing between 1809 and1865, aptly named The Lincoln Log. For example, on today’s date – August 23, 1864, it states:
At a cabinet meeting, President Lincoln asks each member to sign “the back of a” memorandum. Lincoln does not reveal the contents of the document, which reads,”This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he can not possibly save it afterwards.”
Not only is the information fascinating, but it will give kids a bit of a personal connection to one of our greatest presidents of all time!
There are so many (l-o-n-g) lists of famous people from the Civil War – but I wanted to make it a little simpler for kids. So I chose 12 diverse important people to feature on these printable Civil War fact cards.
These same people facts are repeated in the crossword puzzle worksheet below, which will make them good study tools that work together.
Here’s a Confederate states word search, major Civil War battles word scramble, and influential Civil War people crossword puzzle.
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.classroomjr.com/civil-war-for-kids/
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en
| 0.971827 | 452 | 2.9375 | 3 |
If you're asking yourself about the individual responsible in obtaining a sample of your blood each time you get sick, they are known as phlebotomy technicians or phlebotomists. After being delivered to the laboratory for testing, results will then be labelled, showing the nature of the patient's sickness. Because of its utmost value, the job demands accurate and correct drawing of blood samples without hurting patients by any means. Technicians are also required to label the specimens and then transfer them to the correct laboratory destination for testing.
Not all medical jobs need certification before being able to practice the career and phlebotomy is a good example of that, meaning so long as you have completed a phlebotomy training program, you will be considered for the position. It is even interesting to notice that some cities like Texas have this not so stringent policy on training programs, as they allow those without any proper education and learning to work as a phlebotomist. However, one can find states just like Texas with higher level of standards; strictly hiring only those with certification and not permitting those who do not have a license to legally work inside the state.
If you're one of those who have an interest in becoming a phlebotomy technician some day, it's important to take note of the several agencies capable of offering phlebotomy certification. The American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), American Society of Phlebotomy Technicians (ASPT), and American Medical Technologists (AMT) are among the several certifying bodies which grant certification to individuals who are deserving. Each body has their very own specific qualifications; and it is now the responsibility of the student to choose which body offers the requirements very easy for him to accomplish.
If you are one of those inexperienced phlebotomy students planning to get certified, ASCP is a body that offer certification upon finishing of the following: 40 hours of classroom discussion on theories and concepts, 120 hours of rigid hands-on clinical activities, 100 successful blood retrievals, and a high school diploma or its equivalent. APT has qualifications of their own as well that include the following: a regular membership to the APT family, completion of an accredited phlebotomy training program, 5 successful skin punctures, and 100 cases of excellent venipunctures. Lastly, NPA automatically certifies all those who have practiced at least one year of phlebotomy. For not experienced candidates to get certified, they are expected to complete hands-on laboratory training sessions along with 160 hours of in-depth classroom discussions.
Phlebotomy certification requirement common to these three bodies is the attendance to an accredited phlebotomy training course which covers classroom and clinical training hours. This training program aims to teach basic and advanced knowledge and skills to be able to prepare students for the challenge ahead. Texas is known to be home to most numbers of community universities and training centers that provide this type of program. Most training programs have a duration of twelve weeks in which you can find observed variations in training costs varying from one school to another. It was revealed that in Texas, trainees usually shed around $1,000 for a proper training of twelve weeks inclusive of training books, clinical fees, along with other add-ons.
There's nothing to be afraid of, as long as you have a Certified Phlebotomy Technician title below your name, opportunities will be endless for you.
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The Maya civilization was a Mesoamerican civilization developed by the Maya
peoples, and noted for its hieroglyphic script—the only known fully developed ...
2000: The rise of the Olmec civilization, from which many aspects of Maya culture
are derived. Village farming becomes established throughout Maya regions.
Mayan Timeline from 11,00 B.C. to the present. See when Copan, tikal and the
other great Mayan city states thrived.
the maya civilization *. 1200-1000 olmec 1800-900 early preclassic maya 900-
300 middle preclassic maya 300 b.c. - a.d. 250 late preclassic maya. 250-600 ...
Jan 1, 1999 ... 2000, The rise of the Olmec civilization, from which many aspects of Maya culture
are derived. Village farming becomes established throughout ...
The Maya civilization peaked around 800 A.D., but it had been around for a long
time before that...and is still there today!
The Maya were an ancient civilization in Mesoamerica noted for writing,
mathematics and astronomy, as well as art and calenders with its mysterious ...
234. MAYA TIMELINE. Overview: Ancient Maya civilization is divided into three
periods. Dates differ among sources, but generally these periods and dates are:.
This timeline will focus on the three main civilizations: the Mayans, Aztecs and ...
Much like in Ancient Greece, the Mayan civilization was a set of city-states.
www.ambrosevideo.com/resources/documents/Ancient History - the Maya Timeline.pdf
Maya Timeline circa 15,000 - 12,000 BC – Asiatic hunter-gatherers cross from
Asia to North America circa 12,000 BC – Hunter-gatherers enter South America.
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Contents - Previous - Next
This is the old United Nations University website. Visit the new site at http://unu.edu
Yellow Sea Rim and Japan Sea Rim areas
North-East Asia can be divided into two distinctive subregions: the Yellow Sea Rim and the Japan Sea (East Sea) Rim regions, as shown in figure 14.1. Compared with the Japan Sea Rim area, where urban and industrial development is lagging, the Yellow Sea Rim is relatively well endowed with quality labour resources and industrial infrastructure. In terms of industrial structure, the Yellow Sea Rim reveals a mixture of resource-oriented and market-oriented activities, whereas the Japan Sea coastal areas are heavily resource oriented. Major industrial bases in China and Korea are also located along the Yellow Sea Rim, adding to the importance of this region in the national economies of both countries (Kim, 1991b).
In contrast, there are few urban centres that act as trading and managerial hubs in the Japan Sea Rim area, although the countries around the Japan Sea have recently been preparing ambitious plans, including the development of urban centres with infrastructural facilities (Vladivostok in Russia, Hunchun in China, Niigata and other medium-sized cities in Japan, the Chongjin-Najin-Seonbong conurbation in North Korea, and Pohang in South Korea). The Japan Sea region has been treated by Japan as its backyard compared with the Tokaido megalopolis and has never been highlighted in the mainstream of Japanese history. Likewise, Korea's east coast has been ridiculed as "the land of potatoes and rocks," which symbolizes severe poverty and a lack of arable land. North Korea's east coast was historically a place of political exile and is cut off by rugged mountains from the heart of the country.
Fig. 14.1 The Yellow Sea Rim and the East Sea Rim
China's north-eastern region wants to have a gateway to the Japan Sea through the Tumen River and the development of Hunchun as an entrepôt. Infrastructure development in the Russian Far East, north-east China, the east coast of the Korean peninsula, and the west coast of the Japanese archipelago lags far behind that in the Yellow Sea Rim area and thus poses a serious obstacle to integrated rimland development. However, the regions are preparing to take advantage of a newly evolving dynamics of North-East Asia.
Informal exchanges between South Korea and China have been gaining momentum since the Asian games in 1990. It was reported that about 30,000 South Korean tourists visited China in 1990. Ferries for passengers and cars are already running between Pusan and Shimonoseki and between Yosu and Fukuoka to accommodate increasing demand for passenger traffic between South Korea and Japan across the Korea Strait. Cargo shipping routes between major ports in South Korea (Pusan, Pohang, Ulsan) and Japanese (Kitakyushu, Niigata, Muroran) and Soviet ports (Vladivostok, Nakhodka, Vostochny) are becoming some of the busiest in the world. With the growth of cargo and passenger traffic they will become even more congested.
The accord between South and North Korea has given momentum to the flow of information and commodities. It was reported that the Korean government was going to raise the issue of reopening the disconnected railroad line between Seoul and Pyongyang at the 48th meeting of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in 1992 in Beijing. Although the agenda would not be formally discussed until North Korea became a member of ESCAP, the reopening of the Seoul-Pyongyang railroad seems only a matter of time. If it goes well, it will certainly facilitate passenger and freight movement between five countries, including the two Koreas, China, Russia, and Mongolia. It will eventually become a land bridge for Japan to reach the Trans-Siberian and the Trans-China railroads. However, it has not yet been realized because of a strained relationship between the two Koreas concerning the issue of the non-proliferation treaty over the North Korean nuclear reactor.
Since the western end of the Lanzhou-Xinjiang railroad in China was connected to the Soviet railroad at Ala pass in 1990, another Euro-Asian continental bridge of 10,800 km (Trans-China railroad, TCR), in addition to the existing Trans-Siberian Railway of 13,000 km from Nakhodka in the east to Brest in the west, has been opened to traffic. In recent years, owing to the rapid economic development of the Asia-Pacific region, trade with Europe has quadrupled for Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The reopening of the Seoul-Pyongyang railroad line and the TCR will reinforce the existing spatial agglomeration along the corridor extending from Tokyo to Beijing through Pusan, Seoul, and Pyongyang in the Korean peninsula.
Table 14.4 Air passenger traffic from Seoul, 1980-1989 ('000 passengers)
Source: Bureau of Aviation, Ministry of Transportation, Republic of Korea, 1990.
People in North-East Asia have found themselves living in a global age, in the sense that countries are increasingly interdependent and are diversifying their roles in a global society. The explosive growth in the volume of international trade and tourism and the broadcasts of television networks such as CNN of America and NHK of Japan in the late 1980s are accelerating the globalization of Asian countries, especially the countries in North-East Asia. An important indicator of this trend is the increase in air passenger traffic. As shown in table 14.4, the number of air passengers in the region originating from Seoul doubled between 1980 and 1989. The increasing trend is most visible between Seoul and the South-East Asian cities, and trip distance is becoming much greater than before.
Another indicator of the space-time collapse in the Asia-Pacific region is the flow of information. Because it is not easy either to measure the volume of information flows or to trace their pattern, and statistics are not readily available, the volume of international telephone calls is used as a proxy of information flows (Yoon and Lee, 1990). Table 14.5 shows how rapidly information flow is taking place between Seoul and other Asian mega-cities, although city-specific data are not available. There are many reasons to assume that mega-cities are information hubs in their respective countries. During the 1980s the volume of international telephone calls had increased 14 times between Seoul and Japan and 54 times between Seoul and Thailand. The heaviest flow was between Seoul and Japan, followed by Seoul-Hong Kong and Seoul-Taiwan. Table 14.6 lists the five most frequently called countries in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. It is a strong indication that there are invisible flows of ideas and information among the countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Only the United States is an exception as the most frequently called country in Japan, Thailand, and the Philippines. Japan is dominant as a centre of information flows as it is the most frequently called country for Korea, Taiwan, and Malaysia.
Table 14.5 International telephone calls (in and out) between Seoul and other Asian countries, 1980-1989 ('000 calls)
Source: Korea Telecommunication Corporation Yearbook, 1990.
International labour migration is tending to increase within Asia because of uneven economic growth and wage and unemployment differences. Labour shortages have appeared in Japan, Korea, and Malaysia. As structural changes in Asian economies and labour markets continue, cross-national labour migration in North-East Asia will surely be on the rise in the years to come, especially among the countries that have strong ethnic links and do not pose great language difficulties. Korean-Chinese mainly living in north and northeastern China are returning to their homeland as visitors and are quite visible in the menial labour market in South Korea. Although South Korea receives labourers from China and the Philippines, it also sends young female workers to Japan. The North-East Asian region is an important integral part of the whole Asia-Pacific region, and is becoming a dynamic region with great potential in the world economy.
Table 14.6 The countries most frequently called by the countries of the Asia-Pacific region, 1985 (%)
Countries most frequently called
Source: AT & T. The World Telephone, 1988.
Abbreviations: HK - Hong Kong; Sing - Singapore; Indo - Indonesia, Phil - Philippines; Thai Thailand; Malay - Malaysia.
Contents - Previous - Next
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How can you keep your lawn healthy during the summer?
“In July and August the secret is proper mowing and watering,” says Peter Bugden, owner-operator of Nutri-Lawn Nova Scotia and president of Landscape Nova Scotia. You want to mow regularly but keep the mowing height high. Three inches is a good height.
“If you have a three-inch mow height for your grass, it keeps the soil shaded, which reduces the weed-seed germination and also reduces how quickly your soil surface dries out, and it keeps the roots of the turf deep,” says Bugden. “That will keep your lawn healthier in periods of lack of rainfall. If you have deep roots, the grass will resist yellowing up longer.”
It’s a good idea to leave the clippings on your lawn when you mow. There is a lot of fertilizer value in the clippings and a lot of moisture too — all helpful for keeping your lawn and soil healthy. You should try to mow when the lawn is dry, not soaking wet, so the clippings don’t clump together.
“It’s important to keep an eye on your lawn for stressful situations, including insect problems. In most areas of Nova Scotia, chinch bug is a fairly major insect problem during the summer months, particularly in areas that are south-facing slopes that don’t hold water and take sun. I would suggest proper watering and proper mowing during the summer would reduce the amount of stress more than anything.”
He recommends watering deeply, applying one inch of water, once a week. Giving your lawn a good soaking and then allowing the grass to dry out in between can help keep the roots deep, and you won’t have weed seeds germinating in your soil.
“If you give your lawn a good watering once a week, that is good use for water versus turning on the sprinkler every night when you come home,” says Bugden.
“Watering also will reduce the likelihood of an insect problem. It doesn’t eliminate it. But if you’re watering your lawn, the likelihood of a chinch bug invasion is greatly lessened. If you’re leaving your lawn to go dormant, you’re increasing the likelihood of chinch bug invasion plus making it harder to observe. Sometimes it is difficult for a homeowner to identify whether the lawn is brown because of a lack of water or a chinch bug problem. Sometimes people don’t find out until it’s too late that they have an insect problem.”
If your lawn turns brown from a lack of water, don’t panic.
“When a lawn goes dormant it normally does not suffer permanent damage. You can see new sods die from dormancy but an established lawn would not die from dormancy. It might look ugly but it will come back. But keep an eye out for bugs during that time frame.”
It is important to have a balanced fertility program, which sets up the grass to survive the summer.
“Kelp extract is a nice product to put on in the mid-summer if you want to avoid too much stress,” says Bugden. “It’s a natural organic product, and it’s full of potassium and other micronutrients and minerals. It’s good tonic for heat and drought stress.”
If you’re thinking about overseeding, you may want to wait.
“I wouldn’t recommend people seed in July, in the heat of summer. It’s seldom successful. Fall is a better time to seed than the middle of the summer.”
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In a recent talk at TEDx Midwest, bioprinting expert Benjamin Harris stated that he believes the day when we see transplantable, full size 3D printed organs isn’t that far off.
Over the course of the last decade Dr. Harrison and his colleagues at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine have been developing a 3D printer that can print both artificial scaffolds and living cells simultaneously for use in the replacement of ears, noses and even bones.
While that printer represents a major advancement in the state of bioprinting, a second machine in development at the Institute has been used to print skin cells onto burn wounds. Through the use of 3D mapping technology researchers can determine the size and depth of cellular material needed to cover a wound and print a precisely tailored skin graft.
In a third endeavor, Institute researchers have also been able to print micro-organs that work like human heart, liver, lungs and blood vessels. In the future scientists will connect all of these organs together into a single system and use sensors to monitor its overall health. If successful, researchers will then begin scaling up their printed organs. In fact, Wake Forest scientists say they’re already “working on creating solid organ implants.”
With well over 120,000 people on the US organ transplant list, long waits and increasing demand are making the current organ transplant system look like a farce. If the work of Dr. Harrison and his colleagues around the globe were to be successful, however, waiting for organ transplants might not take months or years. Organs custom built for each patient could be printed in a matter of hours or days, saving lives and quickly improving patients’ quality of life.
Image and Video Courtesy of TEDx
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Sunburn and Other Sun Reactions of the Skin
People with photosensitivity have an immunological response to light -- most often sunlight. They can break out in a rash when exposed to sunlight. The amount of exposure required to cause a reaction varies from person to person. Some people with photosensitivity are also affected by indoor fluorescent lighting.
Photosensitivity has been linked to:
Symptoms of photosensitivity
Symptoms of photosensitivity may include a pink or red skin rash with blotchy blisters, scaly patches, or raised spots on areas directly exposed to the sun. Itching and burning may occur and the rash may last for several days. In some people, the reaction to sunlight gradually becomes less with subsequent exposures.
Some types of photosensitivity may respond to specific treatments such as oral beta-carotene, steroids, or other medications.
Polymorphous Light Eruption
Polymorphic light eruption (PMLE) is a condition in which skin rashes can develop after fairly limited sun exposure. PMLE usually affects females between ages 20 and 40. The condition also can affect children and less commonly, men.
Symptoms of PMLE
The term 'polymorphic' refers to the fact that the rash can take many forms. A common kind of PMLE resembles groups of pink or red raised spots on the arms. Other areas, including the legs and chest, also may be affected. Sometimes the rash has blisters and larger dry, red spots. The rash is accompanied by burning or itching that can last for several days.
In severe cases, a doctor may recommend oral steroids to treat PMLE. Hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to treat skin conditions, sometimes is recommended.
Skin Care Tips
To protect your skin from the sun, consider these tips:
- Avoid the sun during peak UVB hours (usually 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.)
- Dress sensibly. The tighter the weave and darker the colors of the fabric, the more sun protection it will offer. Wear a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses.
- Avoid deliberate sunbathing, including tanning beds.
- Use a sunscreen of at least 30 SPF with a physical blocker such as zinc oxide every day, even on cloudy days. Sunscreens should be applied about 20 minutes before going outdoors. Even water-resistant sunscreens should be reapplied about every 80 minutes, after swimming, or after strenuous activity.
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Scientific Discovery: Steps Toward Possible HIV Vaccine
Posted July 14, 2010
Researchers found 3 key proteins that neutralize 91% of the strains of HIV...making leaps in the search for HIV vaccine.
An estimated 33 million people worldwide are infected with HIV, and researchers at The National Institute of Health have recently released research describing an antibody that may combat the virus. The researchers discovered 3 powerful antibodies that neutralized 91% of the HIV strains. “The antibodies attach to a virtually unchanging part of the virus, and this explains why they can neutralize such an extraordinary range of HIV strains” says Dr. Mascola, a research director of the Vaccine Research Center.
This is a significant contribution because by neutralizing 91% of the HIV strains, they no longer damage the immune system. The speed at which HIV strains tend to mutate has always been a struggle for researchers searching for a vaccine in the past. However, since these antibodies attach to an unchanging part of the virus, it is more likely to be successful.
Although this is a great leap in the right direction, there is no way to tell when (or if) a vaccine may happen. A great deal of work remains to actually turn these newly discovered antibodies into a vaccine. The scientists would have to craft a vaccine after training the body to naturally produce the antibodies (called VRC01 and VRC02) and isolate the part of the virus that the antibodies latch on to.
A vaccine is certainly closer now that it has ever been. Dr. Nabel, one of the researchers involved in the study, says “these antibodies can serve as guides to make vaccines for HIV and will be tools to try and block infections in some clinical studies and develop new prevention strategies.” This discovery will be used to accelerate efforts to find a preventative HIV vaccine for use around the world. Also, the methodology this research team used to find these antibodies was novel and can be applied to designing vaccines for other infectious diseases.
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“THE MOST EXCITING OBJECTIVE OF AMS IS TO PROBE THE UNKNOWN; TO SEARCH FOR PHENOMENA WHICH EXIST IN NATURE THAT WE HAVE NOT YET IMAGINED NOR HAD THE TOOLS TO DISCOVER”
Cosmos is the ultimate laboratory, where cosmic rays can be observed at energies higher than any accelerator. AMS-02, the first large magnetic spectrometer to be launched in orbit, will use the unique environment of space to advance the knowledge of the universe and to contribute to the understanding of its structure and origin by searching for the missing antimatter, by exploring the origin of dark matter and by measuring with the highest accuracy the composition of cosmic rays in the multi TeV region of energy. In addition, it will search for strangelets, a possible new form of matter made out the so-called strange quarks.
Experimental evidence indicates that our galaxy is made of matter; however, there are more than 100 hundred million galaxies in the universe and the Big Bang theory assumes that equal amounts of matter and antimatter were present at the origin of the universe. Theories which try to explain the present matter antimatter asymmetry are not compatible with other measurements. Whether or not nuclear antimatter still exists in the universe is a fundamental question in modern astroparticle physics and cosmology. The observations of just one antihelium nucleus would provide evidence for the existence of large amount of antimatter somewhere in the universe. In 1998, AMS-01 established an upper limit of 10−6 for the antihelium/helium flux ratio in the universe. AMS-02 will reach a sensitivity of 10−9, three orders of magnitude better than AMS-01, hugely extending the volume of the Universe which can be tested for the existence of primordial antimatter.
.» In Depth: The Antimatter Academy at CERN
“NEVER IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE WE WERE SO AWARE OF OUR IGNORANCE: WE KNOW THAT WE DO NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT WHAT MAKES 95% OF OUR UNIVERSE”
The visible matter in the universe, such as stars, adds up to less than 5 percent of the total mass-energy balance of the universe. The other 95 percent is dark, either dark matter, which is estimated at 23 percent of the mass of the universe, or dark energy, which makes up the balance. The exact nature of both dark components is still unknown. One of the leading candidates for dark matter is the neutralino. If neutralinos exist, they could collide with each other producing excesses of charged or neutral particles which can be detected by AMS-02. Anomalous peaks or structures in the energy spectra of positron, anti-proton, or gamma ray could signal the existence of neutralinos or other dark matter candidates.
Six types of quark (up, down, strange, charm, bottom and top) have been found experimentally, however all matter on Earth is made of only two types, up and down. It is a fundamental question whether there is matter made of three quarks (up, down and strange). Predicted theoretically such matter is known as strangelets. Strangelets can have extremely large mass and very small charge-to-mass ratios. It would be a totally new form of matter. During its operation on the ISS, AMS-02 might detect the existence of this exotic form of matter.
Cosmic rays composition and fluxes
AMS-02 will be operative on the ISS for 10+ years, gathering a huge amount of data and determining long term variations of the cosmic rays fluxes and composition, from protons to iron, and over a wide energy range. These data will improve our understanding of the interstellar propagation and of the mechanisms at the origins of cosmic rays. In addition, accurately understanding cosmic radiation is required for manned interplanetary flight: for example, Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) represent a significant obstacle to a manned space flight to Mars, and accurate measurements of the flux and composition of primary cosmic rays are needed to plan appropriate countermeasures.
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Israelis prepares for Passover festival (AP) Associated Press) BNEI BRAK, Israel 04/05/12 11:06 am ET)
AP} ASSOCIATED PRESS
AP} ASSOCIATED PRESS Articles-Index-Top
BNEI BRAK, Israel – Passover celebrates the biblical story of the
Israelites´ escape from slavery and exodus from Egypt. The story
recounts that God killed the first-born boys of Egypt after the
pharaoh refused to release the children of Israel from bondage,
but "passed over" the houses of the Israelites.
Distraught over the death of his own son, the pharaoh let the
Israelites go. They were then given the Ten Commandments at Mount
Sinai and wandered in the desert for 40 years before arriving in the
Land of Israel.
The holiday begins with a traditional meal called a seder, in which
extended families gather to retell the story of the exodus. For the
next week, observant Jews do not eat bread, and instead eat
unleavened crackers called matzoh.
The tradition of eating matzoh comes from the Bible´s account that
the Jews left Egypt in such a hurry that there was no time to allow
the bread to rise.
Passover is a major Jewish festival and also the unofficial beginning
of spring in Israel. In the days before the holiday, Israelis
frantically clean their homes and cars, schools go on vacation, and
supermarkets and marketplaces enjoy some of their busiest days of the
year. (© 2012 The Associated Press 04/05/12)
Return to Top
MATERIAL REPRODUCED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY
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Bulimia Nervosa Statistics
The statistics for bulimia are shocking. Although this illness is often well hidden by those who suffer from it, the health consequences are serious and may be life threatening. The prevalence of bulimia, especially among young female women, is an indication of a society overly focused on weight and body image.
- According to research, approximately 1.1 – 3.7 percent of all females suffer from bulimia nervosa in their lifetime.
- Bulimia affects as many as 25 percent of college aged women in the US who use binging and purging as a means of weight control.
- 5.1 percent of women who attend college struggle with bulimia.
- Women are much more likely than men to develop an eating disorder. However, it is estimated that between 10 – 15 percent of people with bulimia are men.
- Nearly 14 percent of gay men are coping with bulimia.
- Men are less likely to seek treatment for an eating disorder such as bulimia, as it is perceived to be a “woman’s illness”.
Bulimia can also affect children.
As the average age of puberty has decreased, awareness of society’s preoccupation with dieting and slimness has increased.
- It is estimated that the average age of bulimia onset among children is 9 – 12 years of age.
Eating disorders (including bulimia) have the highest rates of mortality of all mental illnesses.
- According to a 2009 study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, crude mortality rates for bulimia were 3.9 percent. Anyone suffering from this devastating condition is urged to seek counselling and get professional treatment.
Source of statistical information: National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD).
Additional statistical information available from:
http://www.anad.org/get-information/about-eating-disorders/eating-disord... and http://www.empoweredparents.com/1eatingdisorders/bulimia.html
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Consumer choice is not going to deliver the goods to combat climate change, argues Dr Matt Prescott. In this week's Green Room, he says the world needs strong political leadership, not just market forces, because there is no sale-or-return guarantee for the planet.
During World War II, a large share of humanity stared into the abyss.
A whole generation survived without the luxury of choice
In the unforgiving conditions, traumatised by their collective experience, almost everyone wanted to build a better, safer and fairer world.
They accepted this meant sharing some of their wealth and freedoms with others for the common good.
Public hospitals and schools were built, living standards were deliberately raised and ancient class divisions were broken down.
Later, as the developed world came to feel more comfortable and less vulnerable, many started to begrudge the spending of their money on such intangible, long-term benefits; the post-war contract between citizens and their states started to break down.
By the 1980s, politicians such as Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan had even started to suggest that there was "no such thing as society". Investors could single-handedly make the world a better place and any constraint on trade, such as a nasty old law, was quickly labelled as a burdensome hindrance.
Why should consumer choice be treated as sacrosanct?
The rhetoric proved to be hugely successful electorally in many countries; and while Reagan and Thatcher once stood at the fringes of political thought, their view of personal and consumer choice as an article of faith has become mainstream.
Even financial disasters such as Enron, the looming pensions "time-bomb", and Hurricane Katrina do not seem to have fundamentally shaken the widespread belief that the market will one day, somehow, mystically solve our problems.
But why should consumer choice be sacrosanct?
Are consumers best placed to make informed choices? Are there not situations where a bit of straightforward regulation might be more effective?
It was as far back as 1951 that Sir Richard Doll first showed the link between smoking and lung cancer; yet consumers still choose to buy cigarettes.
Information alone does not always produce the informed choice
Clearly, having a good evidence base is not enough on its own to produce sensible decisions.
In the case of climate change, our scientific understanding is increasingly robust, and it is becoming inevitable that we will have to reduce our carbon emissions drastically.
But we simply do not like the implications; we have become emotionally attached to our fossil fuel lifestyles and status symbols.
Governments and businesses, of course, need to remain popular. For businesses this means selling as cheaply as possible; for governments, giving us jam today as well as promising it tomorrow.
So who will take responsibility for unleashing the potential solutions to global climate change?
In the view of many, leadership from our elected representatives is essential.
This is especially true when it comes to changing the rules under which individuals and businesses compete, and making the hard choices for the long-term good of society.
By contrast, maintaining a business-as-usual approach merely encourages consumers to continue buying cheap, inefficient, technologies.
Shoppers make choices based on price not environmental profile
Another insidious side effect of governments not giving leadership is that businesses fear being undercut and losing market share, should they ever incur discretionary yet responsible costs which are being avoided by their competitors.
Undoubtedly, breaking this paralysis will require immense moral courage. For courage, leaders of today need only to look back in time a little and see what their predecessors did.
For example, the hard-won ban against slavery deliberately went against what was considered economically justified.
Prior to this ban, people had been free to own slaves for hundreds of years, and many could see nothing wrong with continuing to do so.
Now it will never be reversed, and the world economy has adjusted to operating in ways which do not require the exploitation associated with slavery.
Similarly, markets now need to be forced to address, and to assimilate, the environmental and social costs associated with climate change, and to move on to a higher playing field.
Act now or pay later
Today's competitive pressures and short-term profits simply should not be allowed to justify emissions standards and carbon prices being kept permanently low, at untold long-term cost.
Insurance firm AXA has recently estimated that, without action, climate change could be costing the UK economy in excess of £42bn per year by 2080.
If we started now, spreading the costs and inconvenience over the coming decades, preventing catastrophic climate change could be relatively affordable.
Alternatively, if we continued to delay action or suddenly decided to do everything we could in a panic, the costs and disruption could be enormous.
Crucial technologies or economic activities that are dependent on fossil fuels might be impossible to replace at short notice, and this could be disastrous for our entire civilisation.
It will not be easy, but we must learn to accept that consumer choice cannot be expected to solve complex, large-scale problems. Governments have to step up to the plate and to step in with legislation when it is needed; giving all the responsibility to markets and consumers is not good enough.
Actor Jennifer Saunder's fictional comic fashion guru and arch-consumer, Edina Monsoon, once wisely said, "I don't want more things, I want better things", and she was right.
We must find the courage to remove the worst products from the market, to build environmental costs into prices, and give the low-carbon alternatives a half-decent chance of getting established.
Consumers will then take care of the rest.
Dr Matt Prescott is an environmental consultant and director of banthebulb.org, an online campaign encouraging greater energy efficiency
The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website
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We have know for years that many people with diabetes have too little magnesium in their bodies. So why don’t all of us take supplements of this magical mineral?
Everyone seem to recommend magnesium, mostly to reduce the insulin resistance and hence help counteract diabetes. But how much magnesium we have in our bodies is almost impossible to test, because most of it resides in our bones and very little in our blood, according to Dr. Barkat Charania in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He practiced orthopedic surgery for more than 30 years, now blogs at Dr. Barkat Charania, and helped me research this article.
Since our blood levels of magnesium don’t tell us if we have enough, researchers have reported few human studies, he told me. Still, he brought to my attention 41 studies of magnesium, most of them in relation to diabetes.
Citing just three of these studies is enough to make my point:
1. “Magnesium deficiency is not uncommon among the general population: its intake has decreased over the years especially in the western world [emphasis added]. The magnesium supplementation or intravenous infusion may be beneficial in various diseased states. Of special interest is the magnesium status in … diabetes.” This comes from “Magnesium: An update on physiological, clinical and analytical aspects” in Clinica Chimica Acta.
2. Mean serum magnesium levels were significantly lower in participants with prevalent cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and diabetes than in those free of these diseases. This comes from “Associations of serum and dietary magnesium with cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, insulin, and carotid arterial wall thickness: The aric study” in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.
3. “A reduced intracellular magnesium content might contribute to the impaired insulin response and action which occurs in Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus.” This comes from “Hypomagnesaemia in Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus is not corrected by improvement of long-term metabolic control” in Diabetologia.
Even so, the Institute of Medicine has standard age- and gender-related recommended levels of magnesium. In its Dietary Reference Intatkes for Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Vitamin D, and Fluoride the IOM sets the Recommended Dietary Allowances of magnesium for males 19 to 30 at 400 mg/d, males 31 and up at 420, females 19 to 30 at 310, females 31 and up at 320, and pregnant or lactating women somewhat higher.
Even worse, the fact that it’s almost impossible to tell how much magnesium we have in our bodies hasn’t stopped some so-called authorities, like Celeste Robb-Nicholson, M.D., Editor in Chief, Harvard Women’s Health Watch,
from writing that “magnesium deficiency … is rare in the United States” and that we get most of the magnesium we need from “whole grains, legumes, and dark-green leafy vegetables.”
But that doesn’t work for us when we follow a very low-carb diet that excludes whole grains and legumes. One cup of spinach, for example, has only 24 mg of magnesium, according to the USDA’s National Nutrient Database.
But even Dr. Robb-Nicholson admits that magnesium deficiency “can cause muscle weakness, cramping, or heart rhythm disturbances.” Leg cramps are what it took to bring me back to magnesium supplements after skipping them for years.
Getting enough magnesium on a very low-carb diet isn’t easy. One correspondent wrote me recently that she takes one tablespoon of molasses a day, “since it is high in magnesium.” I replied that since molasses is also very high in fructose, it’s hard on our liver, as I wrote here in “The Trouble with Fructose.” Besides, it ranks only No. 135 in Nutrition Data’s list of “Foods highest in Magnesium.”
In The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living, which I reviewed here at “Low Carbohydrate Living,Stephen Phinney and Jeff Volek recommend taking magnesium for leg cramps, which I had at the time. They focus their recommendation taking the magnesium supplements for just 20 days, unless the leg cramps return, which they did for me.
They recommend slow-release tablets, although not the expensive proprietary brand-name product, “Slow-Mag.” “Mag-64 or Mag-Delay” are “equally effective generics at a fraction of the brand-name price.”
But I couldn’t find either of these recommended brands. When I wrote Dr. Phinney for advice where to buy one of them, he instead sent me two bottles of 120 capsules of Mag 64. Subsequently I found it on Amazon.com at “rising mag64.”
I have been taking two tablets daily ever since and now almost never have leg cramps. I am continuing to take this magnesium supplement to prevent the common leg cramps that I once had, because my diabetes indicates that I probably need more magnesium than most people, because I follow a very low-carb diet, and because of a chronic muscle weakness I have in my left leg. That started when I took statins many years ago and has never disappeared, although I am still hopeful that magnesium will eventually overcome this side effect of that drug.
Most people who have diabetes probably do need to take supplemental magnesium. But not everyone.
Like any drug or supplement, magnesium can have those unintended consequences that we call side effects. In the case of magnesium the only known contraindication is severe renal failure. So if you have any history of kidney problems or know of any loss of kidney function, be sure to check with your doctor before taking any magnesium supplement.
For the rest of us, however, the mineral known as magnesium might well be magical.
This article is based on an earlier version of my article published by HealthCentral.
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- Historic Sites
The Death Of A Hero
Mortally ill as his century dwindled to its close, Washington was helped to his grave by physicians who clung to typical eighteenth-century remedies. But he died as nobly as he had lived
December 1969 | Volume 21, Issue 1
When Washington formed his administration, there were no political parties. But by 1793 the Democratic-Republicans, led by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, were supporting the radical French, while the Federalists, led by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, supported England and her conservative coalition. The Jeffersonians accused the Hamiltonians of wishing to establish an American monarchy; and the Hamiltonians accused the Jeffersonians of wishing to set up a guillotine in Philadelphia’s Centre Square.
It was to prevent this breach from tearing the nation asunder that Washington had reluctantly agreed to a second term. He did achieve a major objective—to keep the United States from becoming involved in the war on either side—but he failed to still the domestic conflict. Instead his cabinet flew apart, and he himself was pushed into a partisan position. Because he supported Jay’s Treaty, which by making certain concessions extinguished the casus belli with Great Britain, he was accused by the Jeffersonians of wishing to undermine the American republican forms which, in fact, he had done more than any other man to foster. The hero, who had become habituated to adulation, was attacked with almost incredible ferocity. His enemies even revived forgeries which had been trumped up some twenty years before by the British propagandists to discredit the American Commander in Chief.
During the Revolution, the British slanders had passed Washington by untouched. Then he was laboring mightily and effectively to prevent the infighting between the conservative and radical patriots from splitting the cause and also from weakening his position as the universal leader. But years had since furrowed his brow. Had he been younger and more active during his second term, he might well have been more successful in lulling the new political storm; he would surely not have become the semicaptive of the Federalists. Jefferson noted that Washington, in explaining during 1793 why he did not want to run again, had said that “he really felt himself growing old, his bodily health less firm, his memory, always bad, becoming worse, and perhaps the other faculties of his mind showing a decay to others of which he was insensible himself.”
The hero who returned to Mount Vernon in March, 1797, was according to our contemporary counting not a very old man—he was only sixty-five—yet the evidence is clear that he had left his mental prime behind him. The necessary facts for a true scientific explanation do not exist. It can only be pointed out that in those days men did grow old younger and die younger; that (although his own mother was an exception) he came from very short-lived families; that he believed that he had worn himself out by the strains of his years in public service; and that, although he had been an athletic man, he had suffered from many serious illnesses. He may well have had tuberculosis as a young man; he certainly had recurring attacks of malaria, and he almost died of anthrax during his first presidential term. His step-grandson tells us that during those last years at Mount Vernon he often read extracts from the newspapers aloud in a voice “the tones of which had been considerably broken by a pulmonary affection in early life, and which, when [he was] greatly excited, produced a laboring of the chest.” Now, when Washington read to himself, his lips would move, and he would sometimes silently raise a hand as if in admonition or despair.
Although on the surface much the same—“revolving days [as he put it] producing similar scenes of domestic and rural occurrences”—this retirement was in its essence quite different from his retirement after the Revolution, when he had been fourteen years younger. He still rode round his farms, but much less rapidly, less far in one clay. He began his agricultural experiments with less hope and anticipated the results less eagerly. Cultivating the land, he observed, was still my favorite amusement, [but] I have made very little proficiency in acquiring knowledge either in the principles or practice of Husbandry. My employments through life, have been so diversified, my absences from home have been so frequent, and so long at a time, as to have prevented me from bestowing the attention, and from making the experiments which are necessary to establish facts in the Science of Agriculture.
It was now, he mourned, too late to start what would be a really “scientific course of experiments.”
During his previous retirement, one of Washington’s principal joys had been fox hunting: he had bred a pack of hounds and taken them along with him on his rides in the hope of starting a fox. Now his kennels were silent. Instead of bounding on horseback through woods and fields, he sat quietly on his porch watching the nearby thickets for the shy appearance of deer with black horns. While he had been absent on affairs of state, the paddock surrounding his tame English deer had been neglected. The animals had escaped and crossbred with the natural inhabitants of Virginia forests. Washington had banished his hounds and forbidden all hunting on his estate so that his former pets would not be hurt. “The old ones are now partly wild, and partly tame,” he explained; “their descendants are more wild, but associate with them.” On lucky evenings, they came close enough to Mount Vernon’s great porch to be fed.
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At the risk of turning Boston 1775 into “all Major Pitcairn, all the time” (and we still haven’t addressed the whereabouts of his body), I return once more to the question of the pistols on display in Lexington that were said to belong to that British Marines officer.
As I reported earlier this week, the heraldic emblem on those pistols is actually that of the Crosbie family, and a Capt. William Crosbie was listed among the British army’s wounded officers that spring.
Nat Taylor, who’s been trying to nail down the family history of Capt. Crosbie, asked about the story behind the pistols. How good is the evidence that they really came from a British officer unhorsed on 19 Apr 1775? How did they come into the hands of descendants of Gen. Israel Putnam, who wasn’t in Massachusetts that day? How did they come back to Lexington?
The evidence for the traditional provenance looks quite solid. The first mention of those pistols that I could find appeared in Samuel Swett’s 1818 addition to David Humphreys’s An Essay on the Life of the Honourable Major General Israel Putnam. The very same paragraph that discusses how “a black soldier named Salem” killed Pitcairn then goes on to say:
It was he [Pitcairn] who caused the first effusion of blood at Lexington. In that battle his horse was shot under him, while he was separated from his troops; with presence of mind he feigned himself slain; his pistols were taken from his holsters, and he was left for dead, when he seized the opportunity and escaped.A footnote then adds, “This trophy afterwards belonged to General Putnam, and yet remains in his family, from whom we have the above anecdote.”
Nine years later, Ezra Ripley supplied more detail in A History of the Fight at Concord:
From this time, there was a general though not entire cessation of firing, until the enemy had entered the bounds of Lexington, when Capt. [John] Parker’s company attacked the British from the woods on the south of the road. When the enemy were rising Fiske’s hill in the west part of Lexington, they were very hardly pressed, the Americans having run forward and placed themselves advantageously behind trees and fences. The British faced about, and a very spirited and bloody contest ensued. Here Maj. Pitcairn was wounded and unhorsed: his horse, pistols, &c. were taken.And Ripley has his own footnote:
The horse was taken to Concord and sold at Auction. Capt. Nathan Barrett bought the pistols, and afterwards offered them to Gen. [George] Washington, but he not accepting them, they were given to Gen. Putnam.We know the Barrett family, headed by Col. James Barrett, was deeply involved in the events at Concord that day. And it makes sense that the Putnam family didn’t know or preserve the detail that their ancestor wasn’t the first choice to receive the pistols. We appear, therefore, to have independent sources corroborating each other. (Note, however, that the Ripley account means Putnam did not have the pistols at Bunker Hill, as some later authors say; Washington didn’t arrive in Boston until July 1775, so Barrett couldn’t have tried to give him the guns until then.)
William Cutter’s Life of Israel Putnam, published in 1859, reported of the guns: “They are still in the possession of one of his grandsons, John P. Putnam, Esq., of Western New York. They are represented as being of exquisite workmanship.” So Cutter learned about them but didn’t see them.
John P. Putnam’s widow Elizabeth loaned the pistols to Lexington for its centennial observance of the battle in 1875. According to Mary E. Hudson, writing in 1900, she had no children to pass them on to. The Secretary of War made noises about buying the pistols, and in 1880 the Lexington historian Charles Hudson [father of Mary?] said Elizabeth Putnam had “several liberal offers in coin” to buy the guns. But she decided to donate them to the town of Lexington, and there they remain.
So the only doubtful part of the pistols’ legend was the most questionable part from the start: how people could be so sure that they came from Maj. Pitcairn as opposed to some other, less notorious British officer unhorsed in the battle. After all, the man didn’t stick around to give autographs.
Speaking of autographs, though, I came across another detail of those pistols while researching this post. Yankee Magazine‘s July/August 2007 issue reported: “These foliate-engraved, ram’s-head-butted pistols bear Pitcairn’s monogram or initials amid the scrollwork.” Or is that wishful looking?
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A. The short answer is, you may need to buy a brighter bulb. Here's why: Those suggested CFL equivalences, which say that a 27-watt CFL equals a 100-watt incandescent, for example, are based on the overall light output of the bulbs. But because CFL light appears more diffuse, the same output isn't always enough. You may need to up
the ante by replacing a 100-watt incandescent with a 150-watt equivalent CFL, for instance. That brighter light is only 42 watts in incandescent-speak and therefore safe for a fixture with one of those 60watt-maximum warning labels. And it's still cheaper to use.
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Why the scientific case against fracking keeps getting stronger
On the political right, it’s pretty popular these days to claim that the left exaggerates scientific worries about hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” In a recent National Review article, for instance, a Hoover Institution researcher complains that 53 percent of Democrats in California support a fracking ban “despite the existence of little if any credible scientific evidence of fracking’s feared harms and overwhelming scientific evidence of its environmental benefits, including substantial reductions in both local and global pollutants.”
Three or four years ago, a statement like that may have seemed defensible. The chief environmental concern about fracking at that time involved the contamination of drinking water through the fracking process—blasting water, sand, and chemicals underground in vast quantities and at extreme pressures to force open shale layers deep beneath the Earth, and release natural gas. But the science was still pretty ambiguous, and a great deal turned on how “fracking” was defined. The entire mega-process of “unconventional” gas drilling had clearly caused instances of groundwater contamination, due to spills and leaks from improperly cased wells. But technically, “fracking” only refers to the water and chemical blast, not the drilling, the disposal of waste, or the huge industrial operations that accompany it all.
How things have changed. Nowadays, explains Cornell University engineering professor Anthony Ingraffea on the latest installment of the Inquiring Minds podcast (stream above), the scientific argument against fracking and unconventional gas drilling is more extensive. It involves not simply groundwater contamination, but also at least two other major problems: earthquake generation and the accidental emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
On the show, Ingraffea laid out the science on these issues—and it is certainly not something a reasonable person can ignore. Take earthquakes, for instance. According to Ingraffea, “there is now, in my opinion, scientific consensus that human-induced seismicity does occur” as a result of a particular aspect of unconventional gas drilling (namely, disposing of chemically laden “flowback water” in underground wastewater injection wells).
Ingraffea isn’t the likeliest scientific foe of fracking. His past research has been funded by corporations and industry interests including Schlumberger, the Gas Research Institute, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman. His original doctoral work, in the 1970s, involved the study of “rock fracture mechanics”—in other words, how cracks in rock form and propagate, a body of knowledge that is crucial to extractive industries like oil and gas. “I spent 20, 25 years working with the oil and gas industry … helping them to figure out how best to get oil and gas out of rock,” Ingraffea explains.
But he has since become an outspoken critic of unconventional gas development. He recently appeared in the HBO film Gasland II, and was recognized in 2011 by Time (alongside his Cornell colleague Robert Howarth and actor Mark Ruffalo) for his work highlighting the environmental risks of shale gas development.
So what happened? In a word: science. On Inquiring Minds, Ingraffea laid out the developing science on earthquakes and methane emissions as they relate to unconventional gas development—and even if you don’t fully agree with everything he said, you still will find it unnerving. Let’s take these topics in turn:
Fracking and earthquakes. Somewhat surprisingly, the earthquake issue may actually be the least contentious scientific topic in the fracking debate. As Mother Jones has extensively reported, it now seems clear that wastewater injection—the underground storing of the chemical-laced water that comes back out of wells after fracking—can contribute to seismic activity. In fact, in a study published just last month in Science, researchers suggest that a dramatic increase in recent seismic activity in Oklahoma—including a 5.7 magnitude earthquake in 2011—is partly linked to the proliferation of wastewater disposal wells.
Granted, it may seem hard to understand (at least if you’re a non-geologist) how underground disposal wells can cause an earthquake. Let Ingraffea explain: “We’ve mobilized pre-existing, stable faults,” he says. Underground water from waste disposal “lubricates those faults and changes the pressure on them.” Naturally, the waste injection wells at issue are the ones that are closest to faults. Here’s a visualization — click to see it in action:
As for the fracking process itself? That, too, can cause earthquakes, Ingraffea says, although earthquakes related to fracking (as opposed to injection wells) have been smaller (“so far,” as Ingraffea puts it). When you think about what we’re doing to the Earth, maybe that’s not so surprising. Fracking water, after all, is blasted underground at “pressures approaching what you would get if you put, say, 10 SUVs on your fingertip,” says Ingraffea.
Fracking and fugitive methane emissions. Perhaps we can manage the earthquake issue. Certainly, it would help to stop injecting wastewater near faults. “That would be a design objective, yes,” deadpans Ingraffea. (Such injection happens, he contends, because of a lack of EPA regulation.)
But there’s a potentially even graver issue—fugitive methane emissions from shale gas operations. This is the topic on which Ingraffea made his name in the fracking debate, and it’s probably the most momentous one of all.
In 2011, Ingraffea and two other Cornell researchers published a highly discussed scientific study in the journal Climatic Change, arguing that between 3.6 and 7.9 percent of methane gas from shale drilling operations actually escapes into the atmosphere, where it contributes to global warming. If true, then considering the unique atmospheric potency of methane—“methane is about 80 to 90 times … more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide” over a two-to-three-decade time period, says Ingraffea—the implications could be dramatic. Natural gas could swing from being a net climate benefit (because it burns cleaner than oil or coal) to a climate harm, because of all the escaping methane.
Granted, it all depends on the leak rate from natural gas operations, across all the myriad stages of the process, from the initial release of the gas from the earth all the way through to its transportation. And that’s where the debate lies. “Every single measurement has concluded that the percentage of methane leaking into the atmosphere from oil and gas operations is far greater than two and a half percent,” says Ingraffea. “I think the best estimate right now is somewhere around 5 percent”—an amount, he says, that would be more than big enough to doom the idea of natural gas as a “bridge fuel” to a clean energy future.
Ingraffea isn’t the only researcher suggesting that methane leakage is troublingly high. In a 2013 study published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers from both U.S. universities and national labs found that the EPA is currently underestimating methane emissions from the energy industry (including both conventional and shale gas drilling). However, in another paper in Science earlier this year (covered here by Mother Jones), researchers again faulted EPA’s methane measurements, but nonetheless concluded that natural gas can still contribute to a cleaner future if methane emissions are policed adequately. (The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has reached a similar conclusion.)
The bottom line? It is certainly not the case that every expert agrees with Ingraffea. For instance, both publicly and in print, Ingraffea has regularly debated Terry Engelder, a professor of geosciences at Penn State University, who argues that the benefits of shale gas development still outweigh the risks.
Engelder certainly doesn’t deny the problem of fugitive methane emissions. Rather, his view is that “by fixing leaks, green completions and what not, that can take care of the methane leaking into the atmosphere.” (“Green completions” refers to a new EPA rule that will require natural gas operators to capture volatile organic compounds on site rather than allowing them to escape to the atmosphere—a process, the EPA says, that would also “significantly reduce” methane emissions.)
But Ingraffea counters that that’s not enough. The new regulation, he says, only covers “one part of the whole supply train for natural gas, and it only applies to new gas wells, not the old ones.” Plus, it only applies to gas wells, not oil wells that also release methane.
With mounting scientific evidence behind him, then, Ingraffea makes a pretty strong case today that natural gas is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The methane issue may not be settled fully, but it is undoubtedly grave—and certainly not something that we can afford to be wrong about. To still support President Obama’s “all of the above” approach to energy (which favors renewables, but also natural gas), you have to assume we can mitigate the methane leakage problem somehow. And you shouldn’t assume that without first listening, hard, to Ingraffea’s warning. As he concludes the Inquiring Minds interview:
For those who say we can regulate our way around this, just give us time and we’ll fix the problems—I’m sorry. We’ve had 100 years of commercial oil and gas development at very large quantities, around the world. Time is over. We’ve damaged the atmosphere too much, and it would take too long, it would take decades and billions of dollars, to begin to fix the problems that we know have existed for decades. And by then, it will be too late.
This episode of Inquiring Minds, a podcast hosted by neuroscientist and musician Indre Viskontas and best-selling author Chris Mooney, also features a discussion of the science on racial prejudice and guns, and, in the wake of the suicide of the beloved actor Robin Williams, the science of depression.
To catch future shows right when they are released, subscribe to Inquiring Minds via iTunes or RSS. We are also available on Stitcher. You can follow the show on Twitter at @inquiringshow and like us on Facebook. Inquiring Minds was also recently singled out as one of the “Best of 2013” on iTunes — you can learn more here.
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| 0.943425 | 2,249 | 2.625 | 3 |
Freedom of Belief, the Unity of Islamic Nations and the Backwardness of
some Islamic nations.
(I) Is Islam opposed
to the freedom of belief ?
guarantees the freedom of belief and this is verified in the following
Quranic verse :"Let there be no compulsion in religion''
(2/256).Accordingly,no one is forced to renounce his religion in
favour of another faith. One's freedom to adhere to the religion
of one’s choice establishes the base of his belief. And this is emphasized
in the following Quranic verse:"Let him who will,
believe, and let him who will, reject (it).” (18/29).
2-Declaring the freedom of belief means accepting that there is
more than one religion .This was stressed by the prophet in the first Constitution
of the Islamic state in Al Madina when he acknowledged Judaism and declared
that the Jews and the Muslims in Al Madina formed one nation. An example
of Islam's granting freedom of belief is Omar ben Al khattab’s treatment
of the Christians of Jerusalem whom he guaranteed the safety of their lives.
Their churches, and their crosses assuring them that none of them would
be harmed on account of his religion.
3- Islam also
grants freedom of thought and opinion provided that discussions on religion
are of an objective nature and are not a pretext for abuse and ridicule.
This is referred to in the following Quranic verse:“
Invite (all) to the way of your creator with wisdom and beautiful preaching
; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious.” [16/125]
In the light of this tolerance, discussions may take place between
Muslims and Non – Muslims. The Quran invites the Muslims to discuss matters
with the people of the Book in the following Quranic verse: “O
people of the Book, come to common terms as between us and you : that we
worship none but God; that we associate no partners with him; that we elect
not from among ourselves lords and patrons other than God, If they turn
back say you :
”Bear witness that
we (at least) are Muslims (bowing to the will of God ).” [3/64] This
verifies that should the discussion between both parties fail to
accomplish its aim , each person is entitled to adhere to the faith in
which he believes. This is also what the following Quranic verse expressed
concerning the prophet Muhammad’s final remarks to the pagans of Mecca
namely:“You have your religion and I have mine.”
Belief is based upon one’s conviction, and sincere belief is therefore
based on indisputable conviction and is not the result of blind imitation
or compulsion. Every individual is free to choose or adopt the faith in
which he believes and to exercise his free thought even if he is an atheist.
No one has the right to interfere with his beliefs provided that he keeps
his beliefs to himself and does not spread them among the people in order
to confuse them regarding their moral values. If he deliberately does so,
and spreads his false beliefs which reject the beliefs of the people, he
will have opposed the regime of the state in which he lives and will have
stirred sedition in the hearts of the people. Any person who acts in such
a manner will be accused of treason and condemned to death. The execution
of a person who renounces his faith in Islam is not just due to the renouncing
of his religion in which he had believed of his own free will,but also
the punishment for inciting sedition against the established religious
authority of the Islamic state.
If he should renounce his religion without spreading
his views among the people and without shaking the peoples belief, he is immune
against all harm. Some Muslim scholars are of the opinion that the person who
renounces his faith does not meet his punishment in this world but would be
punished in the Hereafter on the Day of Judgement . They also declared that
the execution of those who renounced Islam according to the sayings of the prophet,
was not for renouncing Islam, but for being enemies of Islam who had fought
the Muslims on the battle ground . 1
(II) Is the Muslims’
attitude towards Salman Rushdy a manifestation of Islam’s opposition to
the freedom of thought?
1- Freedom of thought and expression is one of the rights guaranteed
by Islam, since the entire universe with the heavens and the earth and
all that lies between them inspires thought and meditation as is expressed
in the following Quranic verse:
"And He has subjected
to you, as from Him, all that is in the Heavens and on earth : behold,
in that are signs indeed for those who reflect” (45/13).
The Quran reproaches those who do not employ
their mental and intellectual faculties and considers them to be of a level
lower than that of animals. The Quran contains many verses urging people
to acquire knowledge and to exercise their intellectual faculties and their
powers of reasoning . The Quran also orders people to populate the earth
and to do their utmost to let it prosper for the welfare of all mankind.
People are religiously obliged to think and reflect and meditate upon the
universe that surrounds them. Islam encourages freedom and expression of
thought provided that it promotes the welfare of humanity.
2- Every nation has its own sacred values which it reveres and its
inherent beliefs to which it adheres, all of which leave a decisive
mark upon the nation’s culture. Ridiculing these values and beliefs is
the same as ridiculing the whole nation and its regime. Every nation is
entitled to protect its values and beliefs and to defend itself against
any form of sacrilege. This explains the hostile attitude of Muslims towards
Salman Rushdy, for they believe that he has trampled upon their sacred
beliefs which they value and that he has insulted their prophet. Naturally
their attitude towards Salman Rushed is fully justified.
3- It is therefore
evident that the issue concerning Salman Rushdy has no bearing whatsoever
upon principle of the freedom and expression of thought but that it is
the manifestation of the freedom of slandering, abusing and insulting if
we are to give it its true name, and no nation would accept such slander.
We Muslims would be equally indignant if the prophets Moses, Jesus or any
other prophets of God were slandered. This does not mean that we approve
of or agree to the idea of executing Salman Rushdy or even trying him in
court, for the simple reason that he does not live in a Muslim country.
4- The press
and media of the western world have confused and are still confusing the
issue by not differentiating between the freedom and expression of thought
and the freedom to slander abuse and insult when it is essential to differentiate
between them. The fact that Salman Rushdy chose to slander and abuse the
sacred beliefs and the Islamic holy values is proof that he has run out
of inspiration and it is a well known fact that when a writer lacks inspiration,
he chooses a delicate issue that is related to sacred beliefs and
values which attracts many readers in order to regain his previous
fame. It would have been wiser for the Muslims to have ignored Salman Rushdy’s
slander, for he is not the first person to attack the sacred values and
beliefs of Islam, nor will he be the last. None of Salman Rushdy’s works
or any body else’s works will have any effect upon the Faith of Islam,
which has endured for over fourteen centuries and still endures the hostile
and unjust attacks upon it.
(III ) Is the Islamic
code of punishment brutal ?
Islam is not a religion that advocates brutality. On the contrary it calls
for mercy, clemency and toleration. Nevertheless it insists on establishing
law and order in the community so as to safeguard the freedom and the rights
of its members, and to protect their lives, their belief, their wealth
their possessions and their families. When Islam imposes a certain punishment
for a specific sin, it takes into consideration two factors :
Man is not infallible, but is constantly exposed to temptation. Thus the
door of repentance is always open to those who regret having committed
sins and repent and desire to atone.
Every member of the community is entitled to live a life of safety and
to feel that he, his family and his property are not exposed to any kind
of danger. Thus the depraved or corrupted behaviour of criminals should
be dealt with accordingly, so that the peace loving members of the
community would not live in a state of fear and apprehension.
Islam has made laws to punish crimes, it calls for decisive proof of the
guilt of the accused person before passing sentence on him and does not
enforce the punishment if there is any possibility of doubt concerning
his guilt. Also if any guilty person repents sincerely of his sin, the
sentence can be suspended if the judge is convinced of the sincerity of
the accused. The prophet said:“Try to prevent enforcing
the penalty on Muslims whenever it is possible to do so, and should there
be the slightest doubt as to the guilt of the accused person, set him free.
It is far better that a judge errors in remitting the penalty than erring
in enforcing it”.
Such an authentic saying from the Traditions
of the prophet is the essence of mercy and tolerance.
penalty for adultery in Islam depends on a certain condition that makes
it almost impossible to enforce. The condition is that the act of adultery
must be witnessed by four people who must swear that they saw the act committed.
Accordingly the two incidents in the history of Islam when this penalty
was enforced were the result of the confession of the guilty parties and
not of the evidence of witnesses. The Prophet did his utmost to try and
persuade the guilty persons to change their statements in which they confessed
their guilt but they confirmed them and the prophet was accordingly compelled
to order enforcing the penalty, in spite of his profound grief. In view
of the condition stipulated and the extreme difficulty of fulfilling it,
such a punishment never occurred again in the history of Islam.
does not cut off the hand of a starving person who steals to feed himself or
to feed his starving children. Islam punishes the thief who steals the money
or possessions of hard working people who earn their living honestly. Such a
thief spreads evil in the community and deserves no sympathy or mercy from any
body for he himself had no mercy or sympathy for the people whom he robbed.
In fact the victim might have been in dire need of the money stolen from him,
and every community is entitled to have laws enforced that ensure its safety
and stability . When this penalty was imposed in Islamic communities, the crime
of theft occurred so infrequently that merchants left their goods unguarded
and people did not lock the doors of their house. On the other hand, theft is
widespread and rampant in communities where lenient measures are taken
against it, with the result that theft has become a serious problem in many
5- The reason for imposing the penalty for theft is to ensure social
justice and to abolish poverty , which would prevent people from resorting
to theft. It is significant to note that the second Orthodox Caliph, Omar
ben Al khattab, suspended the penalty incurred by theft in the year that
famine struck the Islamic states . During the first years of Omar ben Al
khattab’s reign, the penalty for theft was justly enforced with the result
that the crime of theft and highway robber were so rare that the people
who travelled from Mecca to Syria were perfectly safe and feared no one
but God Almighty and the possibility that their sheep might be attacked
by wolves. This state of stability existed because every thief knew what
his punishment would be and thought a thousand times before committing
the crime of theft or any other crime with the result that the punishment
for theft was very rarely enforced. Which then is preferable? A law abiding
community that lives in peace without fear even if a few criminals are
punished, or a community that lives in fear while its prisons are crowded
with criminals? With whom should we sympathize? The criminal or the members
of the community?
(IV) Why are Muslims
disunited despite Islam’s call for unity?
1- There is
no denying that Muslim nations are currently disunited. However, this is
a stage in the history of Muslim nations and this stage, which
all nations have experienced in the course of their history, is not permanent
by any means. The nations of Europe have been able to overcome the factors
that led to the contention and disunity of Europe which resulted in two
world wars during this century. The Muslim nations will similarly be able
to overcome their problems and differences and create a system of
fruitful cooperation for the welfare of all Muslim communities. Many continuous
attempts have been made and are still being made in this respect, although
their effectiveness is limited, such as in the Islamic conference Organization
which includes all Muslim states. Nevertheless it is possible to promote
the performance of this and other Islamic organizations in order to achieve
an advanced stage in the cooperation of the various Islamic states. Islamic
principles and teachings concerning unity, cooperation, affinity and solidarity
are the greatest guarantee of the success of all these endeavours in the
2- The main
sources of Islam, namely the Quran and the Traditions of the Prophet, call
for unity, cooperation, compassion and sympathy for others and warn us
against disunity and disputes. This is clearly expressed in the following
Quranic verses:” And hold fast, all together, by
the Rope which God (stretches out for you) and be not divided among yourselves.”(3/103)
Also: “And obey
God and His Apostle; and fall into no disputes lest you lose heart and
your power depart.”(8/46)
Islam calls for sympathy for others and
alleviating the pain of others and compares a nation to a human body, and
the prophet Muhammad said that one part of the body suffered any pain or
illness, the rest of the body would respond in sympathy by falling into
a fever and being unable to sleep. Islam considers all Muslims to be brothers:“
The Believers are but a single Brotherhood .” (49/10).When
the prophet emigrated from Mecca to Al Madina, he joined the Emigrants
and the inhabitants of Al Madina, Al Ansaar into one brotherhood and they
became sincere affectionate brothers who shared their hopes and their sorrows
as they listened together to the verses of the Quran. The verses of the
Quran and the Traditions of the Prophet present us with innumerable examples
of their cooperation, affection and unity.
3- Many external factors, outside the boundaries of the contemporary
Muslim nations have led to dispute and disunity between them. These factors
originated during the era when the Muslim nations were dominated by the
colonization enforced by the western world. Even after the occupation by
these countries came to an end, numerous problems arose such as the problems
of the borders between the various states. The policy adopted by the foreign
power was based on the principle of “Disunite and
dominate" and this created ethnic factions
among the natives of the colonies .Furthermore, the foreign ruler exploited
the country which led to its poverty and backwardness, the results of which
still exist. In fact most of the Islamic nations, that were once colonies,
are still suffering from the aftermath of colonization and foreign rule
and the problems that have their roots firmly planted in the earth.
Muslims in the countries that had been colonized concentrated upon the
problems created by foreign rule and neglected to follow the principles
of Islam which advocate unity and cooperation. Nevertheless Islamic nations
still yearn to unite their efforts to achieve the welfare of all Islamic
nations. Any Muslim in any Islamic state feels for and sympathizes with
any other Muslim who is exposed to any form of injustice or suffering wherever
he may be for he is part of the large Islamic nation. This will lead to
the establishing of a solid foundation which will encourage attempts
to reinstate unity, coordination and cooperation between the Islamic states
. United efforts in the field of culture, economy, politics and security
and the exchange of expertise and of all that benefits the Muslim world
may help these nations to be more efficient and effective in playing a
positive and constructive role in establishing the principles of peace
and security all over the world.
(V) Is the Faith
of Islam responsible for the backwardness of some Muslim nations ?
History verifies the fact that Islam was able to establish a great civilization
in a very short period after its advent. This civilization was one of the
most lasting civilizations in history. Proof of this can still be witnessed
in the various branches of the Islamic heritage which is manifested in
the arts and literature that exist up to this very day .Libraries all over
the world exhibit thousands of Islamic manuscripts written in Arabic which
illustrate the extent of the great civilization that was inspired by the
Faith of Islam and which extended from the Eastern boundaries of Persia
bordering on India in the East to Andalusia which is known as Spain in
the West . The influence of the grandeur of the Islamic civilization in
Spain can still be seen and cannot be denied in the twelfth and thirteenth
century Europe initiated an organized movement of translating Islamic works
in all subjects and these works which were the outcome of the Islamic civilization
formed the foundation upon which Europe’s modern civilization was established
2- The Quran contains many verses which express the greatest respect
for knowledge and those who acquire knowledge. The Quranic verses urge
Muslims to look at the universe and meditate upon creation and how the
earth was prepared for habitation. The very first five verses inspired
to the prophet emphasized the importance of knowledge, reading and meditation.
This matter was understood by the Muslims to be of the greatest significance
and they accordingly followed the Divine Command .
3- The backwardness
of some Muslims today cannot be blamed on Islam, since Islam is against
all forms of backwardness. When Muslims fail to understand the true spirit
and teachings of Islam they will be unable to keep peace with the progress
of the world that increases daily. The reason for this situation was explained
by the famous Algerian intellectual, the late Malek ben Nabi who said that
the backwardness that Muslims suffer today is not any way caused by Islam
but that it is a penalty deservedly inflicted by Islam upon Muslims for
forsaking its teachings and not for adhering to it, as is believed by many
people who are ignorant of the truth of the matter. Thus there is absolutely
no connection between Islam and the backwardness of some Muslims.
4- Islam keeps peace with every aspect of the development of civilization
and will continue to do so for the benefit of mankind. When Muslims search
for the real cause of their backwardness, they shall realize that no way
Islam is to blame. There are many other factors, which date back to the
aftermath of colonization which hindered the development and progress of
the Islamic World. This factor, in addition to the internal problems of
these lands, led the Muslims to neglect and forget the constructive elements
that are essential for development and progress as advocated by Islam.
Under no circumstances should Islam be held responsible for the backward
state of some Muslim countries in the world of today. This can be considered
a stage in the history of these nations which will not continue for ever.
Likewise Islam cannot be accused of being responsible for the backwardness
of Latin America. Academic objectivity in judging Islam's attitude towards
civilization should be based on a fair and unbiased study of the principles
of Islam and not upon rumours, false allegations and preconceived opinions
that have no bearing whatsoever on the truth of the matter.
Is Islam opposed to
the freedom of belief ?
Is the Muslims’ attitude
towards Salman Rushdy a manifestation of Islam’s opposition to the freedom
Is the Islamic code of punishment
Why are Muslims disunited
despite Islam’s call for unity?
Is the Faith of Islam responsible
for the backwardness of some Muslim nations ?
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In a message dated 8/2/2007 6:47:12 AM Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
Gary here. I attend an informal class in a friends home and we are confused. Diabetes, sugar, cute, sweet. The differences?
signs are more encompassing than other signs. Which is to say, certain
signs are more general, they have more interpretations, and depend more
on context (the signs or sentences preceding or following the sign),
syntax (the word order of the sentence), or pragmatics (the environment
or situation in which the communication takes place) to determine their
meaning. "SWEET" is such a sign.
The "flat hand" that rubs/bends twice downward on the chin is can be interpreted as:
and, when combined with the sign "SOUP," can be interpreted as "pudding."
It seems to me that "older" people use the SWEET sign to also mean "sugar." Coffee drinkers often use the SWEET sign to mean "sugar" too. (Just like they use the sign "MILK" to mean "cream.")
The modified "U/H" handshape (thumb alongside) that rubs/bends twice downward on the chin can be interpreted as:
CANDY-(rare_version: off the chin or cheek using a "U-handshape)
Note: If a guy or girl is "hot" as in "very good looking" the above sign can be modified to use a single downward movement that is much more exaggerated and held longer at the end of the sign than the standard sign for CUTE. If used, the facial expression tends to look as if you were doing a "whistle." I'm sure that expression is simply how your lips look when you pronounce the letter "U."
American Sign Language University ™ ASL resources by Lifeprint.com © Dr. William Vicars
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| 0.920334 | 416 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Back to 1st Screen | Return
POW Contours and Regions
POW can create contour maps of images and read/write/create standard SAO regions files.
The image below shows a set of contours overlain on top of an image. The blue contours were made from a separate radio map image and then moved to this graph containing an optical image of the same object. The dialog box shows the options available for creating contours.
Region shapes supported are circle, ellipse, box, polygon, point, and line. Shapes can be inclusive ('+' shapes drawn in grey) or exclusive ('-' shapes drawn in red). All shapes can be moved and reshaped with the mouse by dragging the green handles drawn on the current shape.
Pages maintained by Bryan Irby Send bug reports or feature requests via the FTOOLS help desk.
HEASARC Home | Observatories | Archive | Calibration | Software | Tools | Students/Teachers/Public
Last modified: Tuesday, 20-Jul-2004 13:38:34 EDT
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| 0.854205 | 222 | 2.6875 | 3 |
One of the controversial points Mesoamerican Theorists like to claim is that the emigrants sailing northward in Hagoth’s ships (Alma 63:6) in 56 B.C., landed in the Land Northward, somewhere in the general vicinity of those who went north overland in 46 B.C. through the narrow pass or neck of land (Helaman 3:3-4).
But is that fact substantiated by scripture?
First of all, those emigrants who traveled through the narrow pass into the land northward of the land of promise mentioned in Helaman went far to the north. The scriptural account says:
“There were an exceeding great many who departed out of the land of Zarahemla, and went forth unto the land northward to inherit the land. And they did travel to an exceeding great distance, insomuch that they came to large bodies of water and many rivers” (Helaman 3:3-4).
These were the old Jaredite lands, and as far north in the Land of Promise as anywhere in scripture indicated. Once there, these emigrants “did spread forth into all parts of the land, into whatever parts it had not been rendered desolate and without timber, because of the many inhabitants who had before inherited the land. And no part of the land was desolate, save it were for timber, but because of the greatness of the destruction of the people who had before inhabited the land it was called desolate” (Helaman 3:5-6).
Mormon, in his insertion into this account, writing some 430 years later, claims that those who went by ship “were never heard from more” (Alma 63:8), and assumed they were drowned in the sea. That is, none of the large cache of Nephite records (Helaman 3:13,15) available to Mormon (Mormon 1:3;6:6) during his abridgement (Words of Mormon 1:3), had any mention of the emigrants who went north in Hagoth’s ships, which may well have totaled 5,400 men, plus women and children—or as many as 20 to 25 thousand (Alma 63:4), were ever heard from again. And since at least one of the ships that went northward returned and went northward a second time (63:7), not all would have been lost at sea. Thus, we can only conclude, since none were heard from again as late as 385 A.D., they must have gone somewhere not within the Land Northward, since the Nephites spread across that land from the north to the south seas and from the east to the west seas (Helaman 3:5,8).
So where did these emigrants go?
Since Mormon was in possession of all the many records and books kept by the Nephites, and knew nothing of the Hagoth emigrants, it must be concluded that those emigrants did not settle in the same area that those mentioned in Helaman occupied, since this latter group spread throughout the entire face of the earth, "from the south sea to the north sea, from the west sea to the east sea," it can only be concluded that the Hagoth immigrants settled in an area not physically connected at all to the land northward.
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| 0.9837 | 687 | 3.171875 | 3 |
1. A thin cake made of flour and other ingredients. Wafers piping hot out of the gleed. (Chaucer) The curious work in pastry, the fine cakes, wafers, and marchpanes. (Holland) A woman's oaths are wafers break with making (B. Jonson)
3. An adhesive disk of dried paste, made of flour, gelatin, isinglass, or the like, and colouring matter, used in sealing letters and other documents. Wafer cake, a sweet, thin cake. Wafer irons, or Wafer tongs, a pincher-shaped contrivance, having flat plates, or blades, between which wafers are baked. Wafer woman, a woman who sold wafer cakes; also, one employed in amorous intrigues.
Origin: OE. Wafre, OF. Waufre, qaufre, F. Qaufre; of Teutonic origin; cf. LG. & D. Wafel, G. Waffel, Dan. Vaffel, Sw. Vaffla; all akin to G. Wabe a honeycomb, OHG. Waba, being named from the resemblance to a honeycomb. G. Wabe is probably akin to E. Weave. See Weave, and cf. Waffle, Gauffer.
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| 0.887289 | 289 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Volume II of the Forrest Mims Engineer's Mini Notebook series includes three popular notebooks: Science Projects; Environmental Projects; and Communications Projects.
These Mini Notebooks include wonderful science project ideas for students and hobbyists alike. Forrest's little books have stimulated many science fair projects and also have been popular with hobbyists of all ages. Even professional scientists have recommended them as a fun way to learn about electronics.
You can use the plans in this volume to make a simple seismometer by hanging a magnet over a coil; build a sun photometer and make accurate measurements of haze in the atmosphere; study rain, lightning, clouds, sunlight, water, temperature, and other topics; and build a wide variety of lightwave and radio communication circuits.
Build Projects to Detect:
124 Pages 5.25" x 8.25" Softcover
Also available as a set of 4 Volumes (Engineer's Mini Notebook Compendium)
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When the bodies were discovered in the grounds of the college in 2008 by Thames Valley Archaeological Services, archaeologists speculated that they could have been part of the St Brice’s Day Massacre in Oxford – a well documented event in 1002, in which King Aethelred the Unredy ordered the killing of ‘all Danes living in England’.
However, a new research paper, led by Oxford University, has thrown up a new theory – that the skeletons may have been Viking raiders who were captured and then executed.
The skeletons were found in the ditch of a previously unknown Neolithic henge monument during excavations. They are mostly of men aged between 16 and 25 who were robust and taller than average. There is evidence that each individual was stabbed many times shortly before he died and severe wounds show they were brutally slaughtered. Some of the men also appear to have older scars, which could suggest that they were professional warriors. There is also evidence of charring on some of the skeletons, showing they may have been exposed to burning before burial.
Researchers from the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art at the University of Oxford carried out a chemical analysis of collagen from the bones and the teeth of some of the individuals and concluded that they had had a substantial amount of seafood in their diet. It was higher in marine protein than that found in the local Oxfordshire population, as recorded in existing data.
Testing was done using strontium isotope analysis of tooth enamel, a technique which provides evidence of where an individual lived when the tooth formed. Strontium, a naturally occurring element in rocks and soils, is absorbed by plants and animals, and can be found in trace amounts in mammalian teeth. Strontium isotopes reflect the particular geological conditions so even small traces can be revealing of that individual’s location.
They also looked at data relating to previous research in which an isotopic analysis of dismembered skeletons found in a burial pit at the Weymouth Ridgeway in Dorset identified the individuals as Scandinavian Viking raiders. The decapitated skeletons in Dorset, dated at between 890 and 1030 AD, and were thought to be a group of young men from different countries across Scandinavia. The isotopic analysis of the Dorset group and the individuals found in the mass burial site at St John’s College show similarities.
Lead author Professor Mark Pollard, Director of the Research Laboratory in the School of Archaeology, said: ‘Our latest research suggests that it is possible that the grisly remains at St John’s College are the outcome of the documented massacre at St Frideswide’s Church in AD 1002. Evidence of knife wounds and the burning of the bodies are consistent with the story of the burning of the church. However, following the chemical analysis of the teeth and bones, we are presented with an alternative interpretation: that they could have been a group of professional warriors, rather than a group of residents of Danish origin who were later rounded up and massacred.’
The paper “Sprouting like cockle amongst the wheat: The St Brice’s Day Massacre and the isotopic analysis of human bones from St John’s College, Oxford’ by Mark Pollard et al is published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology, Volume 31, Issue 1 (February 2012). Click here to access this article.
Source: Oxford University
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an idea they had and it fits with my 9th grader global collaborative curriculum requirements and some new objectives I’d written into the curriculum this year for some gamification elements of the classroom.
Here’s the premise.
Can students co-create serious games? What will that look like?
We want to work on some serious games with high school students and highered education students. (See Jane McGonigal’s Gaming Can Make a Better World TED Talk) but our question is, can we integrate crowdsourcing (we’re calling it student sourcing) so that students select the ideas that go forward and create their own teams as the work towards a final objective? Can we truly co-create a game that has a serious purpose?
Phase 1: Ideation and Creation of Multimedia based upon the Educurious Hunger Games Module
Verena Roberts came across a scenario called the Educurious Hunger Games Module [PDF] that is the starting point for the project. Anyone can participate and really, the technology and time requirements aren’t that much. Read the Educurious Overview. This will be Phase 1 of the project and aligns with Common Create Reading, Writing, and Listening Standards (see the PDF) and Student NET-S 1, 3, and 4.
This is a fantastic idea and students will produce a multimedia artifact of their choice with their vision along with backup information shared on the project wiki. (The curriculum suggests a glog but it could be anything.) Students will also earn Educurious badges through this module. (Educurious is a nonprofit, you can learn more about them.)
Anyone can participate at this stage and there will be a Squirrel Chaser OOC to help with literacy and gamification skills.
Phase 2: Video Creation
To begin this phase, all multimedia ideas will be put into a list.ly (or other voting platform) and students (all 13+) will vote on the best. These student sourced ideas and teams will move to the Video Creation Phase.
We are going to co-create here and students will collaboratively edit their video at this phase. This is something that most students have never done and is the next step in true co-creation.
You’ll only need Internet access and a way to capture and upload video to participate in this phase.
Again, theses videos will be compiled into a student sourced voting mechanism so that the final idea can be selected for the creation of the game using Minecraft. Not all teachers who participate to this point have to go onto Phase 3 but only those in Phase 3 will vote because they are the one creating the mod.
Phase 3: Gamification using Minecraft
This is where it gets really exciting. Dr. Graham’s University, the University of Alaska Southeast is supporting a Minecraft server and IT Integrator and Masters in Education Technology Student Colin Osterhout has agreed to be the Game Maker for a community he has dubbed the “Squirrel Chasers” as the students work together to create a serious game to promote sustainability and build upon the vision of the final student sourced concept for “preventing the path to panem.”
The students will be co-creating a Minecraft mod taking forth their vision. We’re ready to try it but are still working to recruit volunteers to help see how this will work.
The highered students will have a research and supporting role throughout the entire project.
Phase 4: Presentation and Reflection
When we’re done, all of the participants will reflect and share what they’ve learned and how to improve cocreation of videos, student sourcing, and cocreation of serious games in the future.
The goal is to try to do this based upon what we already know and to share everything we learn transparently so that others can build upon the model in new, powerful ways.
How can I join in?
The timeline is here. The project is free but we do ask that you have some experience with collaborating with your classroom. I have 35 students in the project and we’ve sized it so we can run it with just that but have agreed to take up to 5 more teachers into the project if there is interest.
If you’re a teacher, you can apply for any phase of the project but let us know what you can bring to the table in terms of expertise. We’re looking for teacherpreneurs who are willing to experiment and push co-creation to the next level.
If you’re in highered, or a Minecraft fanatic, or any other thing we haven’t dreamed of yet, read our homepage and contact the appropriate gamemaker.
We plan to push the envelope about what education can and should be by creating the Gamifi-ED community and hope that some of you creative educators out there might join us to push the envelope too.
My thanks to Verena and Lee for reaching out and including me. I talked to my students about this in December and they are pumped.
I will be responding to all inquiries in January but meanwhile, wanted to go ahead and let you know about it.
Download a Free Sample of Jennifer Gonzalez's Technology for Teachers 2016
Here's a PDF with some favorite apps and new ones too. Thanks Jennifer Gonzalez for creating this freebie just for Cool Cat Teacher Readers.
This PDF includes Storybird, Kahoot, Google Drive, Formative and Trello. See if the Teacher's Guide to Tech is Right for You!
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Labile hypertension is a subcategory of hypertension (high blood pressure). It is characterised by abrupt and repeated fluctuations in blood pressure levels. At times this fluctuation can range from 119/76 mm Hg in the morning to 170/104 mm Hg in the afternoon.
Is the Threat Real?
The threat posed by labile hypertension is real. Though unlike others individuals suffering from labile hypertension never show symptoms of suffering from it, the fact still remains that they continue to silently suffer from it. Even otherwise the surge in blood pressure seems to be insignificant (as it is gradual) but in reality it is dangerous.
People who get regularly affected by labile hypertension (from different types of causes) can experience the same type of damages suffered by those with resident hypertension (hypertension as a part of their life).
Causes of Labile Hypertension
There are different causes of labile hypertension. These include factors such as anxiety attacks, too much consumption of caffeine, salt sensitivity, or stress overload. The causes might be different but the health implication of labile hypertension is the same in all cases- it poses a serious threat to the life of the individual. Hence, it is absolutely necessary to treat this condition.
How to Treat Labile Hypertension
Treatment of labile hypertension would base upon the fluctuation in blood pressure and pulse readings. Hence, to begin with, it is imperative that a 24 hour report of blood pressure variation is prepared. A portable blood pressure monitor could be used for this purpose. Once the readings are recorded at different moments in the day, it becomes easy to find out the way to formulate a treatment method.
Medications is one of the ways of treating labile hypertension. However, the usual medicines available in the market for treating blood pressure would fail to give the desired results. Those who suffer from labile hypertension can check out the effectiveness of anti-anxiety medications though. If they do not work then stress-relieving medications may be tried.
Prevention is the Best Cure
It seems that prevention is the best way to treat labile hypertension. Individuals first need to figure the exact reason for the occurrence of labile hypertension in them and need to individually address the cause of labile hypertension. Some measures which could be adopted are as follows:
* Managing stress and different stress-inducing agents
* Reducing fat intake
* Reducing salt intake
* Losing weight
* Quitting smoking
* Getting regular exercise
* Reducing alcohol consumption
Labile Hypertension-Some Myths
If you think that exercising would result in labile hypertension and thus you need not do it, then you are wrong. The fact is that exercising is not related to labile hypertension in anyway. On the contrary, it can help you get rid of the stress which you so otherwise suffer from.
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This activity introduces Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and poses questions that help students answer questions that require spatial data. Students examine questions about communities and populations from local to state to national scales. Six... (View More) GIS, math and mapping activities are identified in this resource. This resource is from PUMAS - Practical Uses of Math and Science - a collection of brief examples created by scientists and engineers showing how math and science topics taught in K-12 classes have real world applications. (View Less)
In this lesson plan students use temperature data to look at the measures of central tendency. By using mean, median, and mode, students will gain a better understanding about weather patterns from several locales throughout Virginia.
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| 0.902656 | 162 | 3.9375 | 4 |
Our bodies are made of all kind of genetic patterns and molecules and researchers are honing in on certain markers when it comes to ovarian cancer. “Tumor markers traditionally have been a blood test known as CA-125,” explains Dr. Edward Grendys, a gynecologic oncologist on the Lee Memorial Health System medical staff.
CA-125 is a protein marker that has recently made headlines. High levels of this protein have been associated with ovarian cancer but Dr. Grendys says the tests are not always accurate. “The traditional way to use tumor markers is after the diagnosis of ovarian cancer. The problem is that the marker is very non-specific. Even with negative markers, patients can still have evidence of the disease. There can also be disease of ovarian cancer types, about 1 out of 5 or 20 percent which don’t produce the marker at all. So herein lies the problem.”
At the same time, physicians, oncologists, and researchers are looking at what they call “risk marker” for any genetic components that could lead to ovarian cancer. “Really, the major risk factor we have is family history. We get a very detailed analysis of history. How many people, especially in the first and second generations have had either gynecologic cancers or breast cancers or related diseases,” adds Dr. Grendys.
Aside from these two markers, researchers are currently experimenting with new blood tests and various genetic analysis techniques to lead them down the right road in diagnoses and treatment of ovarian cancer.
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America’s coal industry employs hundreds of thousands of workers in the United States. If you were to trace your electricity all the way from your electrical socket back to the mines that extract the coal, you would encounter a diverse group of skilled workers and learn some interesting facts along the way.
For instance, in 2012, the average U.S. coal miner was 44 years old and earned more than $80,000 annually. This is far higher than the average annual wage across the country. Also of interest, coal miners receive specialized training that allows them to do their jobs well and to do them safely.
Coal is mined in 25 states and is responsible for more than 800,000 jobs right here at home. Around one-third of these jobs are directly tied to coal mining, while two-thirds represent indirect jobs. When a mine shuts down, it unleashes a domino effect of lost jobs, lost hours and lost wages for all those workers who support our electricity generation—from start to finish.
Kentucky alone saw a 40 percent drop in coal-based employment between July 2011 and July 2013. Additional jobs were lost in the second half of last year. Bill Bissett, Kentucky Coal Council president, recently told us that in Eastern Kentucky, seven thousand direct mining jobs have been lost. Yet, as staggering as this figure may sound, it fails to include the thousands of other jobs that are in jeopardy—not only indirectly tied to mine operation and power generation, but also from businesses that depend on affordable power from coal.
These skilled, well-paying, American jobs are vanishing before our eyes due to President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) overzealous actions to regulate carbon emissions, irrespective of the real-world costs. .
A recent report by the Nebraska Public Power District concluded that coal transportation and power generation, contribute $1.4 billion in labor income and more than 22,800 jobs in Nebraska. It’s hard to fathom how President Obama and his EPA can claim that their rules won’t uproot American jobs or cause economic harm when we know firsthand that the opposite is true.
It is readily apparent that the EPA and environmental groups continuously ignore the collateral damage of their climate agenda. Help us protect American jobs, America’s economy and America’s energy future today by filing a comment with the EPA.
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New for SIGGRAPH 2010: Disney Research sponsors the Learning Challenge, based on the principle that fun and learning shouldn't be contradictory. The Learning Challenge is designed to show that sophisticated concepts can be conveyed via entertaining interactions on computers that will impart Active Knowledge of Learning Concepts. The challenge is to develop an engaging Learning Widget that will delight, inspire, and reveal key learning concepts for children ages 7-11.
For the first Learning Challenge, the Learning Concepts are key areas of mathematics, art, science, music, reading, and writing.
Active Knowledge is the application of knowledge to various situations that provides more than simple memorization and recall
A Learning Widget is a layered activity that moves a learner from minimal knowledge to active knowledge in one or more learning concepts.
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"It is Augustine who gave us the Reformation." So wrote B. B. Warfield in his assessment of the influence of Augustine on church history. It is not only that Luther was an Augustinian monk, or that Calvin quoted Augustine more than any other theologian that provoked Warfield's remark. Rather, it was that the Reformation witnessed the ultimate triumph of Augustine's doctrine of grace over the legacy of the Pelagian view of man.
Humanism, in all its subtle forms, recapitulates the unvarnished Pelagianism against which Augustine struggled. Though Pelagius was condemned as a heretic by Rome, and its modified form, Semi-Pelagianism was likewise condemned by the Council of Orange in 529, the basic assumptions of this view persisted throughout church history to reappear in Medieval Catholicism, Renaissance Humanism, Socinianism, Arminianism, and modern Liberalism. The seminal thought of Pelagius survives today not as a trace or tangential influence but is pervasive in the modern church. Indeed, the modern church is held captive by it.
What was the core issue between Augustine and Pelagius? The heart of the debate centered on the doctrine of original sin, particularly with respect to the question of the extent to which the will of fallen man is "free." Adolph Harnack said:
There has never, perhaps, been another crisis of equal importance in church history in which the opponents have expressed the principles at issue so clearly and abstractly. The Arian dispute before the Nicene Council can alone be compared with it. (History of Agmer V/IV/3)
The controversy began when the British monk, Pelagius, opposed at Rome Augustine's famous prayer: "Grant what Thou commandest, and command what Thou dost desire." Pelagius recoiled in horror at the idea that a divine gift (grace) is necessary to perform what God commands. For Pelagius and his followers responsibility always implies ability. If man has the moral responsibility to obey the law of God, he must also have the moral ability to do it.
Harnack summarizes Pelagian thought:
Nature, free-will, virtue and law, these strictly defined and made independent of the notion of God - were the catch-words of Pelagianism: self-acquired virtue is the supreme good which is followed by reward. Religion and morality lie in the sphere of the free spirit; they are at any moment by man's own effort.
The difference between Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism is more a difference of degree than of kind. To be sure, on the surface there seems like there is a huge difference between the two, particularly with respect to original sin and to the sinner's dependence upon grace. Pelagius categorically denied the doctrine of original sin, arguing that Adam's sin affected Adam alone and that infants at birth are in the same state as Adam was before the Fall. Pelagius also argued that though grace may facilitate the achieving of righteousness, it is not necessary to that end. Also, he insisted that the constituent nature of humanity is not convertible; it is indestructively good.
Over against Pelagius, Semi-Pelagianism does have a doctrine of original sin whereby mankind is considered fallen. Consequently grace not only facilitates virtue, it is necessary for virtue to ensue. Man's nature can be changed and has been changed by the Fall.
However, in Semi-Pelagianism there remains a moral ability within man that is unaffected by the Fall. We call this an "island of righteousness" by which the fallen sinner still has the inherent ability to incline or move himself to cooperate with God's grace. Grace is necessary but not necessarily effective. Its effect always depends upon the sinner's cooperation with it by virtue of the exercise of the will.
It is not by accident that Martin Luther considered The Bondage of the Will to be his most important book. He saw in Erasmus a man who, despite his protests to the contrary, was a Pelagian in Catholic clothing. Luther saw that lurking beneath the controversy of merit and grace, and faith and works was the issue of to what degree the human will is enslaved by sin and to what degree we are dependent upon grace for our liberation. Luther argued from the Bible that the flesh profits nothing and that this "nothing" is not a little "something."
Augustine's view of the Fall was opposed to both Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism. He said that mankind is a massa peccati, a "mess of sin," incapable of raising itself from spiritual death. For Augustine man can no more move or incline himself to God than an empty glass can fill itself. For Augustine the initial work of divine grace by which the soul is liberated from the bondage of sin is sovereign and operative. To be sure we cooperate with this grace, but only after the initial divine work of liberation.
Augustine did not deny that fallen man still has a will and that the will is capable of making choices. He argued that fallen man still has a free will (liberium arbitrium) but has lost his moral liberty (libertas). The state of original sin leaves us in the wretched condition of being unable to refrain from sinning. We still are able to choose what we desire, but our desires remain chained by our evil impulses. He argued that the freedom that remains in the will always leads to sin. Thus in the flesh we are free only to sin, a hollow freedom indeed. It is freedom without liberty, a real moral bondage. True liberty can only come from without, from the work of God on the soul. Therefore we are not only partly dependent upon grace for our conversion but totally dependent upon grace.
Modern Evangelicalism sprung from the Reformation whose roots were planted by Augustine. But today the Reformational and Augustinian view of grace is all but eclipsed in Evangelicalism. Where Luther triumphed in the sixteenth century, subsequent generations gave the nod to Erasmus.
Modern evangelicals repudiate unvarnished Pelagianism and frequently Semi-Pelagianism as well. It is insisted that grace is necessary for salvation and that man is fallen. The will is acknowledged to be severely weakened even to the point of being "99 percent" dependent upon grace for its liberation. But that one percent of unaffected moral ability or spiritual power which becomes the decisive difference between salvation and perdition is the link that preserves the chain to Pelagius. We have not broken free from the Pelagian captivity of the church.
That one percent is the "little something" Luther sought to demolish because it removes the sola from sola gratia and ultimately the sola from sola fide. The irony may be that though modern Evangelicalism loudly and repeatedly denounces Humanism as the mortal enemy of Christianity, it entertains a Humanistic view of man and of the will at its deepest core.
We need an Augustine or a Luther to speak to us anew lest the light of God's grace be not only over-shadowed but be obliterated in our time.
R. C. Sproul is now the distinguished visiting professor of systematic theology and apologetics at Knox Theological Seminary.
Used by permission of Ligonier Ministries, copyright 1996. Review postings to a discussion forum on this article's subject at Ligonier Ministries' previous Web site location: http://www1.gospelcom.net/HyperNews/get/tt/ttsubrc-06-96.html.
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Want to know more about a specific term? Read on
Autogen- The name of Microsoft's method for quasi-randomly populating areas of a ground texture with sets of buildings or trees. Because each model is very simple, a large number of them can be added to a scene to add realism. For performance reasons, the density of autogen objects can be set within FSX.
Flatten- A term used in FSX to denote a polygon that contains elevation information for the area under an airport. Since FSX only supports flat runways, airport data needs to sit on a 'flatten' to make the underlying terrain smooth.
FSX - The common name for the tenth version of Microsoft Flight Simulator.
GIS- Geographic Information System. A set of computer software used for creating, analysing and presenting geographic data.
Ground texture- Repeating sets of image tiles created from aerial photography which are draped on the mesh. Each image set relates to a landclass and contains seasonal and diurnal (day/night) variations to enable a realistic representation of the earth without using actual geo-referenced aerial photography. It also relates to autogen objects such as trees and buildings.
Mesh-Files that contain information about the shape of the terrain. Each pixel in these files represents a height above sea level and these are rendered as hills and valleys on which other information, such as ground textures and airports are placed.
Landclass- Files that contain information on the type of landcover an area has such as farmland, city or forest. Each landclass type is related to a ground texture set. There are two methods for displaying landclass information in FSX: Raster land class and Vector Land Class
Polygon- An enclosed shape with a number of sides.
Raster- A spatial image where data is represented rows and columns of pixels, each covering an area.
Texture- An image applied to a 3D object or surface to make it appear more real. VLC includes custom textures which make trees and terrain in FSX match more closely to their real-worldl counterparts.
Vector- A combination of distance and direction. Vectors, unlike rasters are infinitely scalable.
VLC- The short name for the Vector Land Class addon scenery package covering New Zealand for FSX.
X-Plane- A flightsim developed by Laminar Research systems. It uses a totally different approach to flight simulation so addon products designed for FSX are not compatible.
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Le Morte D'Arthur Theme of Strength and Skill
In Le Morte D'Arthur, knights win acclaim and honor by proving themselves on the battlefield, and in tournaments and jousts. It's all about skill, and the knights who get the most praise are the talented ones, like Launcelot and Trystram. That is, until the "Tale of the Sankgreal." Suddenly, Arthur's knights are thrown into a world with a different values-system, in which religious practices like chastity, fasting, and prayer are more important than success on the battlefield. This puts knights like Launcelot out of their element since, as a good knight should, he's devoted himself to his lady and to bulking up for the next big battle. And there's yet one more skill that can trump knightly prowess: sorcery. At this, characters like Nenyve, Merlin, and Morgan le Fay excel, and with their skills are either a great help or a great thorn in the side of Arthur and his knights.
Questions About Strength and Skill
- Which of Arthur's knights are the best on the battlefield, and in tournaments and jousts? How do they prove it?
- To what kinds of uses do Arthur's knights put their strength and skill in feats of arms?
- What causes Launcelot to lose his status as "the best knight in the world" during the "Tale of the Sankgreall"? Who gets this title instead? Why? What skills does this new knight possess?
- What other skills besides knightly ones are important in Le Morte D'Arthur? Which characters possess these skills, and how do they use them?
Chew on This
The "Tale of the Sankgreall" proves that in the end, skills in combat aren't worth all that much, so Camelot's value system needs to undergo a chance.
Arthur's gradual shift away from performing feats of arms to providing the opportunity for others to do so signals his transition from warlord to ruler.
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March 18, 2014
8:00 am - 5:00 pm
$250 per person
Location: Drew Hall, Room 117
ABOUT THIS COURSE
Metals and alloys are used in plant applications. They are indispensable in refineries, chemical plants, and utilities. As such, it is of importance for those involved in engineering, manufacturing and construction to understand how metals behave, and how chemical makeup, manufacturing processes such as forging, casting and welding and their respective microstructural changes affect mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. This course is designed for those who are not metallurgists and provides basic knowledge on several commonly used alloy systems.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
Engineers, QA Managers, Technicians, Machine Shop Superintendents, Inspectors, Individuals with no metallurgy background who wish to understand metallurgy
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Spiros Bamiatzis has experience in the steel mills where he worked for six years in mechanical maintenance as a millwright for cold strip and hot strip steel plants. For the past six years he has been working as an adjunct instructor at the School of Science and Engineering Technologies at Houston Community College. He has studied corrosion issues at the Purdue University Corrosion College at Gilmer, Texas. He has attended a symposium in theory, design, application, maintenance, and repair in rectifiers, at Universal Rectifiers, Inc., in Rosenberg, Texas, a NACE approved class, and also attended an ASM Teachers Materials Camp, sponsored by the ASM International, at the University of Houston Downtown. He is an OSHA Certified H2S Trainer, member of the ASM International, and member of NACE International. He is also a Certified Trainer for PVC coated conduit. With his practical and academic experience in the steel industry, he developed and introduced a Basic Introduction to Metallurgy and Corrosion/Corrosion Troubleshooting, series of lectures for Plant Equipment Operators, at Houston Community College. Spiros Bamiatzis has studied Process Technology at Houston Community College, and Public Finance at Indiana University Northwest.
Blast Furnace, the making of iron
Making of steel
Crystal nature of metals
Categories of metals based on crystal architecture
Shaping of metal, strengths and weaknesses
Role of heat in quality of metal
Alloys and their impact on metal quality
Major case analysis: The class will work in groups to determine the reasons for the metal behavior of a structure
Introduction to corrosion
What is corrosion? How does it work?
What causes corrosion? How can it be controlled?
Forensic analysis of metal failures (hands-on)
Attendess should bring working gloves and safety glasses. Materials with sharp edges will be circulated.
- $250 per individual. Cost includes lunch, refreshments and parking
- 0.8 CEUs and 8 PDHs awarded to participants
- Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover accepted
- Checks should be made payable to McNeese State University and mailed to the following address:
Institute for Industry-Education Collaboration
Lake Charles, LA 70609
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, CONTACT THE OFFICE OF CONTINUING EDUCATION:
To download a registration form, click the link below. Please return the completed form via email to: [email protected] or fax to: 337-562-4272
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Blogging on EARTH linkfest: More on the Iceland eruption
Blogging on EARTH: Iceland links and Volcanoes 301
There's a lot of great info out there about the Iceland eruption's geology, if you know where to link.
An invaluable source of information on the geologic evolution of the eruption at Eyjafjallajokull has been the Eruptions blog at Scienceblogs. Geologist Erik Klemetti has a great post up today describing in detail how the volcanism there is now changing, including lava flows from the new crater and a smaller ash plume. He suggests that at least at the moment the volcano is displaying Strombolian activity (see below).
Klemetti also discusses the importance of water in an eruption. Water has probably played a key role here: This volcano might appear to have the wrong chemistry for an explosive eruption, but because it is subglacial, glacial meltwater — converted to steam — may be helping to produce more explosiveness. Klemetti does include a few volcano terms, most of which have to do with different eruption styles (more/less explosive, more/less water and so forth), with which you might be unfamiliar.
So here's a quick glossary:
These are mildly explosive eruptions; there are periodic lava bombs and glowing ash, but smaller ash plumes. The milder explosiveness also suggests less water in the lava — at least temporarily.
These are named after a shallow Icelandic sea, because they occur in shallow seas or lakes. The shallow part is key: The combination of a lot of heat and less pressure helps transform any dissolved water into steam, which can make for a more explosive eruption.
Still want more? USGS has more on the types of volcanic eruptions, including Hawaiian, Vesuvian and so forth.
And, for context, if you're wondering about the potential for eruption/damage from other volcanoes around the world ... USGS has an interesting list of "Decade Volcanoes," the 16 volcanoes around the world that might do the most damage should they erupt, based on their history of powerful eruptions and proximity to people.
Those volcanoes were identified by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) as being particularly important to study. The criteria: The volcanoes can produce more than one volcanic hazard (e.g. ash fall, pyroclastic flows, lava, lahars, lava dome collapse); recent geological activity; proximity to a populated area; and accessibility to researchers for study.
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| 0.937149 | 533 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Media, Race and Obama’s First Year
As a group, African Americans attracted relatively little attention in the U.S. mainstream news media during the first year of Barack Obama’s presidency — and what coverage there was tended to focus more on specific episodes than on examining how broader issues and trends affected the lives of blacks generally.
Lost Income, Lost Friends – and Loss of Self-respect
Long-term unemployment takes a much deeper toll than short-term unemployment on a person’s finances, emotional well-being and career prospects.
Interactive: How the Great Recession Has Changed Life in America
Interactive graphic that charts the impact of the “Great Recession” on Americans. Polling data with breakdowns by age, education, race, gender and political affiliation.
How the Great Recession Has Changed Life in America
Of the 13 recessions that the American public has endured since the Great Depression of 1929-33, none has presented a more punishing combination of length, breadth and depth than this one.
Childlessness Up Among All Women; Down Among Women with Advanced Degrees
Nearly one-in-five American women ends her childbearing years without having borne a child, compared with one-in-ten in the 1970s. While childlessness has risen for all racial and ethnic groups, and most education levels, it has fallen over the past decade for women with advanced degrees.
Minorities and the Recession-Era College Enrollment Boom
The recession-era boom in the size of freshman classes at four-year colleges, community colleges and trade schools has been driven largely by a sharp increase in minority student enrollment.
The Typical Modern Mother: There Isn’t One
Today’s mothers of newborns are more likely than their counterparts two decades earlier to be ages 35 and older, to have some college education, to be unmarried or to be nonwhite — but not all at once.
One-in-Seven New U.S. Marriages is Interracial or Interethnic
This dramatic increase has been driven in part by the weakening of longstanding cultural taboos against intermarriage and in part by a large, multi-decade wave of immigrants from Latin America and Asia.
The New Demography of American Motherhood
Today’s mothers of newborns are older and better educated than their counterparts in 1990, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the National Center for Health Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau. They are less likely to be white and less likely to be married.
U.S. Birth Rate Decline Linked to Recession
There is a strong association between the magnitude of fertility change in 2008 across states and key economic indicators including changes in per capita income, housing prices and share of the working-age population that is employed across states.
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| 0.942464 | 579 | 2.59375 | 3 |
||Editors Note: This
is the one in a series of articles that explains different financial indicators
used to measure how efficiently a company is operating from a Lean perspective.
Each article will explain the metric, its use, how to calculate it, what
good performance on the metric is (or where you can locate current information
on good performance), and what the pitfalls are in using the metric. We
look forward to your feedback on these articles and to your suggestions
for which metrics we should address next.
- Jacob J. Bierley, Jr., MBA
Your Business's Inventory Turnover
Inventory turnover reflects how frequently a company flushes inventory from
its system within a given financial reporting period. The measure can be computed
for any type of inventory—materials and supplies used in manufacturing
or service delivery, work in progress (WIP), finished products, or all inventory
combined. With the exception of finished product inventory, the measure applies
to service and manufacturing businesses. The guidance below addresses whatever
type of inventory you choose to measure—however, the benchmarks for good
performance will vary by type of inventory and industry.
How to Compute Inventory Turnover
Calculate Inventory Turnover by dividing the cost of goods sold (COGS) for
the reporting period by average value of inventory on hand during the period.
The reporting period can be any time interval you select—monthly, quarterly,
or annually, for example.
Inventory Turnover = COGS / Average Dollar
Value of Inventory On-hand
If your cost of goods sold 1 during the period is $100 and your average finished
products inventory during the month is $10, then your finished products inventory
turnover ratio is 10 ($100 / $10 = 10). This implies that you are able to sell
out your inventory ten times during the reporting period.
Counting the units sold and multiplying them by the cost to produce one unit
could compute COGS. However, accountants may compute COGS in a different manner
that approximates the same result but is simpler to execute. They take the dollar
value of inventory on hand at the beginning of the period, add purchases of
production materials and supplies, and subtract the dollar value of inventory
remaining at the end of the period.
Turnover for Different Types of Inventory
As you know, inventory may consist of raw materials and supplies used in production,
work in progress (WIP), and finished goods. We recommend the same approach to
calculating turnover for each of these. Always compute the average dollar values
of the type of inventory whose turnover you seek to measure and divide it into
COGS. Some people use total sales, not COGS to measure turnover in WIP. We recommend
against that. In our opinion, sales can distort ratios due to the profit margin
built into the selling price. The inclusion of profit in the value of sales
inflates the size of the numerator in your ratio. That means that you can get
a larger turnover rate based on how large your profit margin is, not how rapidly
you flush inventory from your system. Whenever computing turnover on a dollar
basis, use COGS as your numerator, not sales.
Desired State of Turnover
In a truly Lean system, there is no inventory as raw materials flow in and
through the production system to produce finished products that are flushed
continuously—meaning that as a product is produced, a customer buys it.
This outcome is consistent with a production system that produces outputs to
takt time, the rate at which a customer demands them. Given this understanding,
what then is the ideal inventory turnover rate?
If we assume that the average inventory is zero, then the average dollar value
of inventory is zero dollars ($0). When zero divides any number, the result
is infinity (bigger than big!). Since turnover is the result of COGS (any number)
divided by the average dollar value of inventory (zero), inventory turns in
a truly Lean Enterprise are infinite. This would mean that each day, all raw
materials are transformed into finished products that are bought by a customer.
According to the Industry Week/Manufacturing Performance Institutes 2003 Census
of Manufacturers, the top 25% of all manufacturers achieved only 25 inventory
turns for finished product inventory in a year. Clearly, there is a very long
way to go before any company claims to be truly Lean. Also, as you will read
later, there are ways you can get high inventory turnover that would not be
considered waste free. Perhaps the best way to state goal for this measure is:
To achieve infinite inventory turnover in a business
that is waste free and profitable.
Interpreting Inventory Turnover
Generally, a higher inventory turnover ratio is considered a positive indicator
of operating efficiency, since inventory that remains in place produces no revenue
and increases the cost associated with maintaining those inventories. However,
a higher inventory turnover ratio does not always mean better performance. You
need to analyze it in conjunction with other trends within the financial statements
to ensure that operations are truly business beneficial.
|| Advanced sales – An increase in sales
in a given reporting period usually results in increased inventory turnover,
but that increase in sales (and turnover) may be due to a temporary factor.
If it were, then you would be wrong to conclude that the increase in inventory
turnover means you are operating more leanly. For example, a sales jump
in one period may reflect advanced purchase of items that are usually bought
in the next reporting period.
||Failsafe: Check several reporting
periods to be sure that the increase in turnover resulting from increased
sales is not due to advance sales or some other temporary factor. If the
increased sales and improved turnover rate hold over several reporting periods,
then it is probably not due to advance sales.
|| Phantom sales – Sales made to a customer
with the understanding that they will be returned for credit before payment
||Failsafe: To avoid this danger,
you need to take two steps. First, check several reporting periods to be
sure that the increase in turnover is not due to phantom sales. Also look
for improvements in turnover in one period that are offset by a decrease
in turnover in a subsequent reporting period as goods sold in the prior
period are returned and re-entered into inventory. In addition to abnormal
inventory turnover fluctuations, these phantom sales will typically result
in an increase in accounts receivable as a percentage of sales. Thus, the
improved inventory turnover will be offset by a decrease in accounts receivable
turnover or the ratio of accounts receivable to sales.
|| Discount-driven sales - Offering large discounts
may also generate a boost in sales. Such discounts erode the company’s
profit margins, but will boost revenue and rate of inventory turnover. The
company might look like it is becoming more Lean, when in fact it may simply
be pushing products into the marketplace using artificially low pricing.
||Failsafe: Watch the gross margins
reported by the business. Gross margin is the difference between the dollar
value of sales and cost of goods sold (also termed cost of sales). If inventory
turnover is increasing, but gross margins as a percentage of sales are decreasing,
then this may indicate a problem.
|| Supplier-financed inventory – It is
possible to reduce materials and supplies inventory and show improved inventory
turnover by forcing your supplier to carry the inventory for you. The supplier
assumes the cost of maintaining inventory and passes that cost on. Or, you
may reduce inventory by use of express shipment or other costly means of
delivery to ensure the availability of materials and supplies when you need
them. Improved materials and supplies inventory turnover, in these cases,
would not mean that you were operating more leanly.
Failsafe: To detect this shift
of cost to suppliers, monitor changes in the unit cost of products that
result from the increased cost of materials and supplies. Solutions to
maintaining inventory that simply shift cost to suppliers return the cost
in added mark-ups to the materials and supplies you purchase. This results
in a rise in your product's unit cost.
|| Customer financed inventory solutions –
Depending on your marketplace, it is possible to maintain low finished product
inventory at the expense of your customer. In many marketplaces, competition
is still not keen. You can survive— even grow, based on not being
worse than your competitors. You can, for example, maintain low finished
product inventory by having your customer wait for products forcing your
customer to maintain higher inventory so he or she can sustain operations
while waiting for your deliveries. In essence, you produce to order, not
to need. When you are done, the product ships.
||Failsafe: Use information on customer
satisfaction with the availability of products and timeliness of delivery
to balance your judgment about whether improving inventory turnover reflect
true lean operations. If it is leanness that has produced the improvement,
then customer satisfaction with availability and timeliness will remain
|| Waste inflated COGS – The cost of
goods sold can increase due to total sales or because of increased rework
or scrap. In other words, the same number of sales occurs but the cost associated
with producing the products sold increases due to waste (defects, scrap,
spoilage). When finished products are discarded because defects are discovered,
the cost associated with that waste is captured in COGS. Consequently, the
numerator of the Inventory Turnover ratio increases. Since the defective
products are not in inventory, this waste also decreases the average cost
of inventory, the denominator of the Turnover ratio. As the numerator increases
and the denominator decreases, the ratio goes higher. It looks like you
are operating more Lean— yet, you are actually operating LESS Lean.
remedy for this distortion is to extract from the COGS any expense due
to manufacturing wastage. The formula would be as follow: (Cost of Goods
Sold – Cost of scrapped and damaged items due to manufacturing)
/ average dollar value of inventory.
How to Improve Inventory Turnover
First, take an end-to-end view in addressing inventory. You need to optimize
your supply chain, make your production processes lean, and optimize your relationship
to your customers. When you solve the inventory turnover issue correctly from
a Lean perspective, everyone benefits in real terms. Your supplier is enabled
to produce and deliver materials in a timely, low cost fashion that allows you
to minimize your inventory and cost of materials while elevating your supplier’s
competitiveness as a business. When you establish partnering relationships with
your customers, you can enable them to make their demand for products more predictable
thereby allowing you to minimize finished product inventory without failing
to meet their needs for volume and timeliness.
Second, perfect your value stream operation by following the precepts of Lean.
Define value from your customer’s perspective, map your value stream,
flow the process, establish pull by the customer, and perfect all operations
by eliminating waste from the value stream. These steps shrink lead-time, minimize
inventory at every point, and drive wastage out. Margins improve, not shrink,
as unit cost is reduced. If you follow these guidelines, your improvements in
inventory turnover will truly reflect efficient management and the emergence
of a Lean enterprise.
About the Author
Jacob J. Bierley, Jr. received both his MBA in Finance and BS in Accounting
from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. He has 14 years in auditing
and accounting management. Mr. Bierley is currently the Controller for Bunge
Oils for Bunge North America where he coordinates all aspects of accounting
controls, practices, processes, and policies in support of Bunge Oils. Bunge
North America is a primary supplier of high-quality agricultural commodities
and value-added, specialized food and feed ingredients and food products to
the global marketplace.
1You compute the cost of goods sold (COGS)
using the following formula: COGS = Dollar Value of Inventory at the Beginning
of the Reporting Period + Dollar Value of Purchases During the Reporting Period
- Dollar Value of Inventory at the End of the Reporting Period. "Purchases"
refers to materials and supplies bought for producing new outputs.
Revised February 2008
Help Us Provide
You Better Content.
Tell us your thoughts about this
Be sure to name the article in your
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| 0.911412 | 2,652 | 2.75 | 3 |
February 20, 2014
Rutgers Scientists Identify Structure Of Virus That Could Lead To Hepatitis C Vaccine
Infection is a major global health problem affecting 160 million people worldwide
Rutgers University scientists have determined the structure of a hepatitis C surface protein, a finding that could assist in the development of a vaccine to halt the spread of the the deadly disease that has infected 3.2 million Americans.Joseph Marcotrigiano, associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology, says this new research – published online today in Nature – describes an outer region of hepatitis C that enables the virus to evade the body's natural immune system response, causing persistent, chronic infection.
Hepatitis C is constantly mutating, allowing it to infect a host cell and evade the immune responses, causing chronic infection that can be difficult to treat. By identifying the structure of virus's outer protein, Marcotrigiano, the study's lead author, says scientists will be better able to develop a vaccine that targets the immune system to vulnerable regions of the virus in order to prevent infection.
"Viruses are smart and it is a constant battle to keep them out," says Marcotrigiano who collaborated on the research with colleagues from the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine at Rutgers and Emory University School of Medicine. "That's why the development of a vaccine is so important. It's always better to prevent infection through an effective vaccine then to treat after a chronic infection has been established."
Hepatitis C virus is a major global health problem with 160 million people infected throughout the world, about four times more individuals than those with HIV. Most of those infected do not show symptoms until the virus – the number one cause of liver transplantation – has caused severe liver damage.
The virus is mainly spread through contact with an infected person's blood, such as sharing of needles. Prior to 1992, when donated blood began being tested, the virus was also spread through blood transfusions and organ donation.
Recently, the Food and Drug Administration approved several new drugs that could cure many patients infected with hepatitis C in as little as 12 weeks. However, at about $1000 per pill, this may not be a cost-effective solution to hepatitis C virus.
Developing a vaccine against hepatitis C would not only prevent people from acquiring the disease, Marcotrigiano says, but would also be the most cost-conscious health intervention.
Michael Houghton, a researcher at the University of Alberta in Canada, has been developing a vaccine that is currently being tested clinically. Houghton, who led a team that discovered the hepatitis C virus in 1989, says the Rutgers finding is important because knowing the structure of the virus will help in the development of a vaccine that enables the immune system to produce more infection-fighting antibodies that can neutralize the virus.
On the Net:
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http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1113076136/rutgers-scientists-identify-structure-of-virus-that-could-lead-to-hepatitis-c-vaccine/
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| 0.949719 | 584 | 3.625 | 4 |
Christmas is just around the corner and what better way for geeks to celebrate than by decorating their tree with these cool Pokemon ornaments. Here's something you may not know: the modern-day mold-blown colored glass Christmas ornament was originally invented in the small German town of Lauscha in the mid-19th century. Continue reading to see more.
In the early days, Christmas ornaments were made by artisans who heated a glass tube over a flame and then inserted a tube into a clay mold, blowing the heated glass to expand into the shape of the mold. After the glass cooled, a silver nitrate solution was swirled into it, a silvering technique developed in the 1850s by Justus von Liebig. After the nitrate solution dried, the ornament was hand-painted and topped with a cap and hook.
[Sources 1 | 2 | 3]
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http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/18-cool-pokemon-christmas-ornaments-for-geeks
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| 0.969866 | 182 | 2.9375 | 3 |
"According to the Environment Protection Agency, the average American throws away about 4.4 pounds of trash each day," Moran said. "The results of this waste can be found in our oceans, now home to floating landfills ten times the size of Virginia.
The bill mirrors a tax that the District of Columbia imposed on disposable bags back in 2009. Moran credits that tax with a reduction in the average monthly use of plastic bags from 22.5 million to just 3 million.
Moran's statement said that according to a U.S. International Trade Commission report, 102 billion plastic bags were used in the United States. He said toxic additives in the bags can be released into the environment and can disrupt the hormones of fish and other living things.
Moran proposed his bill in conjunction with Earth Day, which was Monday.
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| 0.965849 | 168 | 2.609375 | 3 |
This page describes how to add a scheduled task to
Windows. It shows Windows XP (slightly edited), but the principles apply
to all versions of Windows. As an example, we want to add a task to update
some statistics every 30 minutes, and we want the task to run at 5 minutes and
35 minutes past the hour. It is assumed that you have already written and
tested a command (batch) file which contains all the commands you need to run to
perform the required task, and that this file is named UpdateMrtgStats.cmd.
this information as a guide, you can also add scheduled tasks to Windows Vista
and Windows-7. Rather than re-invent the wheel, I point to some external
the Windows Control Panel
Start button, Control Panel. Select Scheduled
Tasks. You should get a list of the existing tasks (e.g.
AppleSoftwareUpdate in the screenshot below) and an Add Scheduled Task
option. Double-click on Add Scheduled Task.
This should invoke the Scheduled Task Wizard...
The wizard will prompt you which program you want to run. However, as
you want to run your own command script, click Browse to allow you to
locate your command file.
Select your command file and click Open.
You now need to tell the computer when to run this task. In this case,
you want the task to run every day, and at 30-minute intervals during the
day. At this point, we can define the "daily" part of the
schedule, and the 30-minute part will come later. Select Daily and
We now need to define the start time for the task. Change the Start time
field to 00:05. This will run the task at five minutes past
midnight. There are other options such as only running on weekdays etc.
but we don't need those. Click Next.
We are now required to give the user name an password to run the task.
Once this is done, click Next.
That completes creating the task, although we still need to set the 30-minute
repeat. To do this right away, make sure that the "Open advanced..."
box is checked. If you forget to do this, you can always right-click the task
and select Properties to edit these details later. Click Finish.
You now see the schedule you have already created - daily at 00:05.
Now you can click on the Repeat task box, which
enables the settings in the box. The Every setting should be
changed to 30 minutes (or whatever interval you want). As you want
the task to repeat throughout the whole 24 hours, in the Duration
field, select 24 hours. Click OK.
You are now back with the main Properties, Schedule
dialog and you can now see that the task is shown as repeating every 30
And that's it!
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http://www.satsignal.eu/software/scheduled-tasks.html
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| 0.892111 | 611 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Introduction: The aim of the present study was to compare two obturation techniques, i.e. Thermafil® and cold lateral condensation, in order to determine which one was most easily and rapidly learnt and applied by dental students.
Methods: Fifty single-rooted teeth were instrumented by the crown-down technique. Five students were requested to obturate five teeth using the Thermafil technique and five using lateral condensation. A microleakage study was performed using a 2% aqueous methylene blue dye solution. The apical portion of teeth was sectioned into six sections and evaluated under a stereomicroscope. The presence of dye microleakage was considered when assessing every section.
Results: Results were processed statistically by frequence of distribution and the Mann-Whitney test. A highly significant difference (P < 0.0001) was observed between Thermafil and cold lateral condensation techniques, the former resulting in lower leakage.
Conclusion: The present study, though limited and only referring to a small group, suggested that characteristics of operators and the early repeated use of a technique may influence performance.
Keywords: education, filling techniques, lateral condensation, Thermafil
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http://www.quintpub.com/journals/endo/abstract.php?iss2_id=716&article_id=8533&article=6&title=A%20study%20on%20undergraduate%20learning%20of%20two%20obturation%20techniques:%20Thermafil%20versus%20lateral%20condensation
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| 0.959191 | 253 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Definition of googol
: the figure 1 followed by 100 zeros equal to 10100
Did You Know?
Around 1930, American mathematician Edward Kasner found himself working with numbers as large as 10 to the 100th power - that's a one followed by 100 zeroes. While it is possible to write that number using standard scientific notation, Dr. Kasner felt that it deserved a name of its own. According to his own account, Dr. Kasner asked his nine-year-old nephew, Milton Sirotta, to pick a name, promising the boy that he would use the word in the future. Milton made up the word googol, and so the enormous number was christened. Dr. Kasner kept his promise, and the word has spread and been widely adopted by mathematicians and the general public alike.
Origin and Etymology of googol
coined by Milton Sirotta b ab 1929 nephew of Edward Kasner †1955 American mathematician
First Known Use: 1938
Rhymes with googol
ALGOL, and all, Antall, appall, Argall, argol, air ball, ashfall, at all, atoll, AWOL, baseball, beach ball, beanball, befall, Bengal, best-ball, birdcall, blackball, Bokmål, bookstall, box stall, bradawl, brick wall, broomball, catcall, catchall, cell wall, COBOL, cold call, cornball, Cornwall, crown gall, cue ball, cure-all, curveball, deadfall, de Gaulle, dodgeball, downfall, downhaul, drywall, duck call, eight ball, enthrall, eyeball, fair ball, fastball, fireball, fire wall, foosball, football, footfall, footwall, forestall, forkball, foul ball, four-ball, fourth wall, free-fall, gadwall, game ball, glycol, golf ball, Goodall, goofball, guildhall, hair ball, handball, hardball, headstall, heelball, highball, holdall, house call, icefall, infall, install, John Paul, jump ball, keelhaul, know-all, landfall, Landsmål, line-haul, line squall, lowball, Maillol, meatball, menthol, mess hall, miscall, mothball, Naipaul, naphthol, Nepal, nightfall, nutgall, oddball, outfall, outhaul, paintball, pinball, pitfall, plimsoll, pratfall, prayer shawl, pub crawl, puffball, punchball, pushball, rainfall, rainsquall, recall, rial, Riksmål, rockfall, roll call, rorqual, Saint Paul, save-all, screwball, seawall, short-haul, shortfall, sick call, sidewall, sleazeball, slimeball, snowball, snowfall, softball, sour ball, speedball, spitball, stickball, stonewall, stone wall, stoopball, strip mall, T-ball, tea ball, tell-all, three-ball, toll call, town hall, trackball, Tyrol, Udall, Walsall, what all, whip stall, Whitehall, whitewall, windfall, windgall, withal, you-all
Seen and Heard
What made you want to look up googol? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).
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| 0.871343 | 754 | 3.484375 | 3 |
1. The author, Carlos Castaneda, is a/an ____________from the University of California, Los Angeles.
2. Who is NOT one of the three sisters with whom Carlos is reunited in the story as told in the book?
3. Who is NOT one of the Genaros with whom Carlos is reunited in this story as told in the book?
4. Which of the apprentices is Carlos closest to? Which one is the one with whom Carlos feels and shares the greatest affinity?
5. Carlos has visited ________ where there are stone ruins where colossal figures are said to walk at night.
6. Which of the apprentices is the one who has lived in the area where the stone ruins rest?
This section contains 4,113 words
(approx. 14 pages at 300 words per page)
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| 0.941675 | 170 | 2.890625 | 3 |
In addition to being virulent, plague is adaptable. It can live in the bodies of rodents, cats, fleas and humans. Plague can also cause different symptoms depending on how it enters a person's body. These abilities all come from the bacterium's DNA, which carries all the instructions it needs to multiply and make people sick.
Sometimes, plague-infected material enters the body through broken skin. For example, someone might touch infected blood while skinning a dead rodent. This can lead to septicemic plague, which does not always produce buboes. Plague bacteria and toxins in the blood overwhelm the body's immune defenses. This causes a high fever, abdominal pain and exhaustion. If left untreated, or if the immune system is irreparably damaged, septicemic plague leads to multiple organ failure and death. Septicemic plague can also occur as a complication of bubonic plague.
If someone inhales droplets of moisture containing plague bacteria, the result can be primary pneumonic plague. This can happen when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Cats can contract pneumonic plague, and they can transmit the disease to humans when they cough or sneeze. As with septicemic plague, pneumonic plague can be a complication of bubonic plague -- in this case, it is known as secondary pneumonic plague. Pneumonic plague causes the typical symptoms of pneumonia, including high fever and a cough that produces bloody sputum.
Generally, secondary pneumonic plague is not as contagious as the primary variety. This is because people who contract primary pneumonic plague tend to be healthy and active when they become infected. They can produce a cough that's strong enough to propel infected droplets of moisture through the air. Victims of secondary pneumonic plague, however, are usually very sick by the time the infection reaches their lungs. They can't always cough forcefully enough to expel infected particles into the air. Either way, without antibiotic treatment, pneumonic plague is almost always fatal.
Pneumonic plague is the least common form of plague, but it's the one most likely to be used as a biological weapon. This is because pneumonic plague is highly contagious, highly lethal and easy to spread. In the past, other forms of plague have also been used as weapons. According to some accounts, the Black Death started after invading forces tossed plague-ridden bodies over the walls of a besieged city. The Japanese military also reportedly dropped bombs containing infected fleas over mainland China during World War II [source: CNN].
In addition to causing pneumonic and septicemic plague, Yersinia pestis can infect other parts of the body when it comes into contact with them. If blood carries plague to the cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord, the result can be plague meningitis. Plague can also infect the tissues of the throat, causing plague pharyngitis.
Before the discovery of antibiotics, all of these forms of plague could be fatal. But today, prompt treatment, particularly in cases of bubonic plague, makes survival much more likely. In spite of these advances, plague still thrives in many parts of the world. Next, we'll take a look at why.
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| 0.943419 | 657 | 3.65625 | 4 |
World Organization of Volcanic Observatories
Kusatsu-Shirane Volcano Observatory
Tokyo Institute of Technology
Kusatsu, Agatsuma-gun, Gunma 377-17
|Director:||Prof. Youkoh Kaizu|
Dr. Y. Kaizu - Inorganic Chemistry
Dr. J. Hirabayashi - Geochemistry
Dr. T. Ohba - Geochemistry
Dr. K. Nogami - Geochemistry
Dr. Y. Ogawa - Geomagnetism
Kusatsu-Shirane Volcano is situated close to the sharp bend of the volcanic front at the junction of the Northeastern Japan Arc and the Izu-Mariana Arc. The top of the volcano is made of a group of pyroclastic cones. All recorded eruptions of Kusatsu-Shirane Volcano have been steam explosions occurring in and around "Yugama" crater except for the steam explosion at "Yumiike" crater in 1902 and at "Mizugama" crater in 1976. There are many fumaroles and hot springs around Kusatsu-Shirane Volcano.
Kusatsu-Shirane Volcano Observatory (KSVO), the one Observatory belonging to Tokyo Institute of Technology, was established in 1988 and is located 8 km from the summit.
According to a national project for prediction of volcanic eruption, the Observatory mainly takes charge of geochemical observations of Kusatsu-Shirane Volcano and other active volcanoes.
- Water temperature, conductivity and water level monitoring at crater lake "Yugama", telemetry link to KSVO,
- Monitoring of fumarolic activity at the crater lake bottom with hydrophone, telemetry link to KSVO,
- Near surface geothermal temperature monitoring at "Mizugama" crater and "Sesshogawara" geothermal field,
- Two component tiltmeter and three component seismograph observation in a borehole (depth 110 m), telemetry link to KSVO,
- Water temperature monitoring at hot springs around the volcano,
- Geochemistry; gas and water analyses (periodically), study for geothermal water systems.
- Monitoring of volcanic gas (HCl, SO2) from the summit crater and of hot spring gas (H2, CO2) from boreholes.
(Usu, Tarumai, Tokachi, Meakan, Shiretoko-Iwo, Hokkaido-Komagatake, Esan, Akita-Komagatake, Bandai, Azuma, Kiso-Ontake, Izu-Oshima, Miyake, Aso, Suwanosejima, Ogasawara-Iwojima, Satsuma-Iwojima)
- Geochemistry; volcanic gas analyses, fumarole temperatures, soil gas analyses, analyses of volcanic ash leachate,
- Flux of SO2, using COSPEC.
- Near surface geothermal temperature.
Information submitted November 1990
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| 0.772789 | 627 | 2.890625 | 3 |
How to exchange data between View Controllers
If you have two view controller classes you probably want to exchange data between them. Thanks to two methods we can do that, provided one view controller is presented via a modal segue. Here’s how it works step by step.
Imagine you had two labels on each View Controller. We’ll call them myLabel1 and myLabel2 (1is on ViewController, 2 on MyViewController). Both View Controllers need to be connected as described previously via a segue. You can access properties on ViewController from MyViewController like so:
self.myLabel1.text = ((MyViewController *)self.presentedViewController).myLabel2.text;
Likewise, if you’re in MyViewController you can access properties from ViewController like so:
self.myLabel2.text = ((ViewController *)self.presentingViewController).myLabel1.text;
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| 0.822286 | 200 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The South Pacific Kingdom of Tonga (population 106,000) doesn't have the loudest voice at the climate change negotiations, and it isn't known for pulling stunts like underwater Cabinet meetings to draw attention to the grave threats islands face from global warming.
But over the past five years the archipelago of 176 scattered islands with less than one-third the surface area of Rhode Island has done something analysts say will have a far more lasting impact. Quietly and methodically, the Tonga government has transformed its bureaucracy to become a model for attracting -- and smartly using -- millions of dollars in clean energy aid. Now, leaders said, it hopes to use that same model to prepare for climate change.
"If you have a good plan, people will put money into it," said the Honorable 'Akau'ola, adviser to the Tonga Energy Road Map Government Committee. It helped reorganize the government approach to clean energy and created a path for winning millions of dollars in international funding.
"What we are trying to suggest, rather boldly, is that this tiny little island in the middle of the Pacific has used this Tonga Energy Road Map which can be applied to climate change," 'Akau'ola said. At meetings with other island nations, he said, "our colleagues say to us, 'How did you get this?' It's not because people love Tonga or we're so good-looking. We got this through hard work."
It is, to be sure, unsexy work: coordinating ministries, conducting sectoral analyses, writing grant proposals. But before sea walls get built, reefs are restored or any of the other labor of preparing communities for the onslaught of climate change can happen, Tonga officials said the lesson they have learned is how important it is to be prepared bureaucratically.
With an avalanche of climate change dollars on the horizon -- $100 billion annually by 2020, assuming the promises of wealthy nations materialize -- experts say it will be up to recipient countries, often poor and understaffed, to figure out whether available funding truly meets their national needs and, when necessary, have the fortitude to say no. Tonga, many say, is ahead of the curve.
"There's so much work on climate change in the Pacific and on small islands now that in some instances it's very prone to people coming in and actually doing something that someone else has already done," said Taniela Faletau, safeguards officer of the Pacific Subregional Office of the Asian Development Bank. "The country needs a strategic program to build capacity and coordinate efforts on what's really a priority for the country. We're trying to do a lot with limited resources."
Weaning itself from diesel oil
The country's transition began in 2008, when an oil crisis peaked just as democratic reforms swept through the islands. With imported petroleum accounting for 75 percent of the country's energy supply and prices spiking with every passing day, just running the schools and hospitals was nearly wrecking the country's budget.
Under enormous pressure to make changes, leaders set a clean energy target of having 50 percent of electricity from renewable sources within three years.
"It had no meat behind it," 'Akau'ola said of the ambitious target. Not an energy expert himself but rather a self-described "problem-solver," 'Akau'ola said he helped the government launch an examination of the country's energy sector.
What they uncovered was stark: Tonga had received more than $50 million for renewable energy over the previous 40 years but didn't have a single kilowatt coming from renewables.
Realizing that more than 70 percent of the money coming in was actually going toward software and feasibility studies -- with a few rooftop solar panels here and there -- government leaders came to see their energy problem as an aid management problem.
In constructing a new energy strategy, the government took the unusual step of opening up its books to the public. It streamlined energy work that previously had been spread out over seven ministries and opened the government up to an honest assessment of weaknesses and strengths.
Most importantly, government leaders said, they designed an entirely new process whereby any government or entity that wanted to donate or invest in Tonga's energy sector worked via one plan, under a uniform set of standards, managed by the World Bank.
The new goal: a 50 percent reduction in diesel imports by 2020 and half of all power supplies coming from renewable energy sources by that year as well.
"When we started this process, it was very scary and extremely embarrassing for the government," 'Akau'ola said. "But the actual results speak for themselves. Where in the past we had a project developed but nobody looked at how it was going to contribute to our energy goals, now we have this definitive goal, and every energy project that we look at, we consider how it will help the 50 percent target."
Last year Tonga celebrated the opening of the country's first solar farm, a $7.9 million project funded by New Zealand. It is expected to provide about 1.8 megawatts of electricity per year and meet about 4 percent of the main island's electricity demand, reducing annual diesel consumption by 470,000 liters. It also is working with Masdar, the clean energy firm of the Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, government, to build a 500-kilowatt solar photovoltaic project on the island of Vava'u, projected to provide about 13 percent of the island's energy requirements.
Meanwhile, the Asian Development Bank and Australia are funding a $6.8 million plan to develop solar power systems for nine of Tonga's outer islands that currently rely on oil and kerosene.
"They may not meet their goal, but Tonga has figured out what its systems need. Now they can say to donors: 'This is the plan. If you want to get involved in our energy sector, this is how you get involved,'" said Cleo Paskal, an associate fellow at Chatham House in the United Kingdom who has worked extensively with Tonga.
Protecting food supplies from storms
She said Tonga's ability to streamline and prioritize its energy funding, and help others to do the same, is critical because South Pacific island nations are in the spotlight like never before.
"As the world becomes increasingly multipolar, small island nations that were marginal are now pivots," Paskal said. Calling the small islands "weather vanes of geopolitical systems," she argued that energy funding has become a major new component of political engagement in the region, with China as eager to offer aid as traditional Western donors, often in exchange for backing on issues at the United Nations.
From writing grant proposals to organizing bureaucracies, Paskal said, "Tonga has been very generous about sharing that information, because Tonga understands it has a large value of being a leader in the Pacific because there they can deliver the Pacific bloc of nations."
Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether Tonga can do with climate change aid what it's done with energy. Recently the Asian Development Bank held a series of consultation workshops to help the government identify priorities for funding in what will become its Strategic Program for Climate Resilience. That's a pilot program under the World Bank's Climate Investment Fund, and Tonga is one of only three Pacific Island nations selected for it.
"At the moment we are dealing with land erosion and dramatic changes in the climate which affect our food supply," said Natalia Latu, an economist in Tonga's Ministry of Finance. "If we were hit by a cyclone tomorrow, we stand to lose 50 percent of our resources."
But she said Tonga has learned the value in acting deliberately and hopes to apply that same method to climate change -- especially because in addition to the burgeoning Green Climate Fund, there is a dizzying array of other climate change funders.
"We need to decide what's going to give Tonga the biggest impact," Latu said. "Then we'll focus maybe on accessing just one or two."
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| 0.965906 | 1,649 | 2.71875 | 3 |
A New View of Statistics
Actually, when you take the mean or average of the squares, you have to divide by n - 1 (one less than the sample size). Dividing by n gives you a biased estimate. Obviously for large n it doesn't matter whether you use n or n-1, but for n<20 it starts to make a difference. When using a calculator to work out a standard deviation, press the sn-1 button, not sn.
The figure shows how big one SD looks on a frequency distribution for a normally distributed variable like height. I've shown the frequencies (number of subjects) as a continuous curve rather than as discrete points for each value of height. The best way to think about the SD is that about two-thirds of the values of a variable are found within one SD each side of the mean.
The standard deviation is sometimes expressed as a percent of the mean, in which case it's known as a coefficient of variation. When the SD and mean come from repeated measurements of a single subject, the resulting coefficient of variation is an important measure of reliability. This form of within-subject variation is particularly valuable for sport scientists interested in the variability an individual athlete's performance from competition to competition or from field test to field test. The coefficient of variation of an individual athlete's performance is typically a few percent.
A measure of spread closely related to the SD is the
variance, which is simply the square of the SD. I can't show
you variance on a diagram. Statisticians prefer it to the SD, but
it's not much use for researchers.
Go to: Next · Previous · Contents · Search · Home
webmaster=AT=sportsci.org · Sportsci Homepage
Last updated 4 July00
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| 0.953641 | 364 | 3.8125 | 4 |
- Which are C# 4.0 programming paradigms?
- In what category does extension methods fall into?
A programming language can support multiple paradigms. For example, programs written in C++ or Object Pascal can be purely procedural, or purely object-oriented, or contain elements of both paradigms.
In object-oriented programming, programmers can think of a program as a collection of interacting objects, while in functional programming a program can be thought of as a sequence of stateless function evaluations. When programming computers or systems with many processors, process-oriented programming allows programmers to think about applications as sets of concurrent processes acting upon logically shared data structures.
Just as different groups in software engineering advocate different methodologies, different programming languages advocate different programming paradigms.
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| 0.895118 | 159 | 3.046875 | 3 |
English musician, organist, choirmaster, and producer of plays. Richard Farrant was attached to the Chapel Royal, though not continuously, from the reign of Edward VI until he died in 1580. In 1564, he was appointed master of the Choristers and organist at St George's Chapel. In 1576 he was appointed deputy to William Hunnis, Director of the Children of the Chapel Royal. His Morning, Communion, and Evening service (à 4) in A minor survives also in G minor. The fine short anthems Call to remembrance and Hide not thou thy face help to give Farrant a place in the musical history of the period out of proportion to his small output. Lord, for thy tender mercies'sake, sometimes ascribed to Farrant is more likely by Tye, or the elder John Hilton (d. 1608).1 Two keyboard pieces survive in MS.
Farrant converted Blackfriars, the old monastery, into a private theatre in 1574.
1. Hilton was a lay-clerk and member of the choir at Lincoln Cathedral in 1584, and became assistant organist there before he left in 1594 to be organist at Trinity College, Cambridge. Like Farrant, he wrote a Call to remembrance Return to Text
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| 0.973404 | 269 | 2.625 | 3 |
Unknown artist, Roman
Funerary wreath, 4th century CE
Length: 26 cm (10 1/4 inches) (right)
Museum Appropriation Fund 32.007
Wreaths held an important place in the classical world. They were awarded as prizes to victors at athletic contests or festivals, offered to the gods in temples and sanctuaries, and given to the dead at funerals. Gold wreaths were most often grave gifts, as was this one, and there are many extremely elaborate examples representing known varieties of trees in precious metal. This funerary wreath appears to be a naturalistic representation of an olive branch, perhaps connecting it with athletics, as olive wreaths were placed on the heads of victors at the ancient Olympic games. Although gold wreaths as funerary gifts were more common in fourth-century BCE Greece, the construction of this wreath points to the late Roman period.
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| 0.98493 | 191 | 3.453125 | 3 |
This document provides definitions for the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption methods and describes how they are used.
SSL and TLS Overview
The SSL and TLS encryption methods are the two most highly-used methods for data encryption over a network stream or transport session.
The SSL encryption method was originally developed by Netscape in order to secure HTTP communications that traversed the Internet during its widespread adoption in the 1990's. The SSL Version 2.0 was the first public release, followed shortly by SSL Version 3.0, which was updated in order to address some serious security flaws in the previous version.
The TLS Version 1.0 was the successor to the SSL Version 3.0. It offered security algorithm, alerting, and specification enhancements. Although the changes were subtle, they were drastic enough to make the two protocols incompatible with one another. The TLS encryption method has since been improved with additional cipher suites, such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), and more secure key generation algorithms. The most current version at this time is TLS Version 1.2.
Note: As of AsyncOS 8.5.6, only TLS v1 is supported. TLS v1.1, 1.2 are not yet supported. Please review sslconfig from the CLI, and choose GUI, INBOUND, or OUTBOUND to view cipher methods available.
SSL and TLS Usage
Today, most client-server programs that utilize secure transports, such as Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and HTTPS transactions, are based on SSL Version 3.0 and TLS Version 1.x. Although many applications have built-in support for secure transports like SSL and TLS, any program can be carried over secure tunnels. Many new applications have evolved for this reason, such as secure phone communications like the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and VPNs, which make use of a modified TLS encryption method that is carried over UDP-type IP packets (dTLS).
While the terms SSL and TLS are sometimes used interchangeably, the protocols are not identical. The primary differences revolve around the cipher suites (encryption types) that are negotiated by client and server, as well as the methods by which they select those ciphers. Essentially, TLS is the preferred means for network communications encryption, as its development is more open and robust and has been standardized by the IETF.
Note: Refer to RFC 5246 for details on the TLS Version 1.2 specifications and the SSL Internet Draft for SSL Version 3.0 information.
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| 0.949075 | 523 | 3.671875 | 4 |
Portion of dissected terrain southeast of Parana Valles (MOC 7705). This heavily gullied landscape (25.9°S, 8.3°W) shows the highest "drainage density" yet seen in MOC images. This image is somewhat lower in resolution (downtrack scale = 21.4 m/pixel, crosstrack = 14.3 m/pixel) but in other parameters comparable to Figures 1 and 2 (incidence angle = 27.5°, emission angle = 14.5°).
Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO.
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| 0.822336 | 192 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
Several tests are used to diagnose prostate cancer.
Digital Rectal Examination (DRE)
In a DRE, the physician inserts a lubricated, gloved finger into the rectum to feel the surface of the prostate gland. Healthy prostate tissue is soft, like the fleshy tissue of the hand where the thumb joins the palm. Malignant tissue is firm, hard, and often asymmetrical or stony, like the bridge of the nose. However, as many as one-third of patients diagnosed with prostate cancer have a normal DRE.
Transrectal Ultrasound (TRUS)
TRUS is used to measure the size of the prostate and visually identify tumors. A probe inserted into the rectum emits ultrasonic impulses against the prostate. The images are projected on a monitor, so the physician can examine the gland and surrounding tissue for tumors.
TRUS and the digital rectal examination are effective prostate-cancer screening tools.
Blood tests taken to check the levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA) and prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) in a patient who may have benign prostatic hyperplasia help the physician eliminate or confirm a diagnosis of prostate cancer.
Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is produced by the cells of the prostate capsule (membrane covering the prostate) and periurethral glands. Patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) or prostatitis produce greater amounts of PSA. The PSA level also is determined in part by the size and weight of the prostate.
The test measures the amount of PSA in the blood in nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL). A PSA of 4 ng/mL or lower is considered normal; 410 ng/mL, slightly elevated; 1020, moderately elevated; and 2035, highly elevated. Most men with slightly elevated PSA levels do not have prostate cancer, and many men with prostate cancer have normal PSA levels. A highly elevated level may indicate the presence of cancer.
The PSA test can produce false results. A false positive result occurs when the PSA level is elevated and there is no cancer. A false negative result occurs when the PSA level is normal and there is cancer. Because of this, a biopsy is usually performed to confirm or rule out cancer when the PSA level is high.
Free and Total PSA (also known as PSA II)
PSA in the blood may be bound molecularly to one of several proteins or may exist in a free, or unbound, state. Total PSA is the sum of the levels of both forms; free PSA measures the level of unbound PSA only. Studies suggest that malignant prostate cells produce more bound PSA; therefore, a low level of free PSA in relation to total PSA might indicate a cancerous prostate, and a high level of free PSA compared to total PSA might indicate a normal prostate, BPH, or prostatitis.
Evidence suggests that the PSA level increases with age. A PSA of up to 2.5 ng/mL for men age 4049 is considered normal, as is 3.5 ng/mL for men age 5059, 4.5 ng/mL for men age 6069, and 6.5 ng/mL for men 70 and older. The use of age-specific PSA levels is not endorsed by all medical professionals.
Prostatic Acid Phosphatase (PAP) test
Prostatic acid phosphatase is an enzyme produced by prostate tissue. The level of PAP increases as prostate disease progresses.
Prostate Health Index (PHI)
The prostate health index is a blood test that can provide more information about elevated PSA levelsinformation health care providers can use to determine if prostate biopsy is necessary. Studies have shown that PHI may be up to 3 times more accurate than PSA for detecting prostate cancer. Talk to your health care provider about this diagnostic test.
Updated by Remedy Health Media
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Subscribe To our E-Newsletter
A Clearly Articulated Message: Grant Full Access to the Deaf
The Conservative movement, through its Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, has taken a historic step in acknowledging that deaf and hard-of-hearing people are entitled to stand with the Jewish community as equals. Not only did the law committee vote to recognize the users of sign language as equals, it also issued a mandate, or teshuvah, that synagogues and organizations must strive to be accessible to all.
"The new teshuvah, which passed on May 24, reads in part:
The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards rules that the deaf who communicate via sign language and do not speak are no longer to be considered mentally incapacitated. Jews who are deaf are responsible for observing mitzvot. Our communities, synagogues, schools and camps must strive to be welcoming and accessible, and inclusive. Sign language may be used in matters of personal status and may be used in rituals. A deaf person called to the Torah who does not speak may recite the brachot [blessings] via sign language. A deaf person may serve as a shaliach tzibbur [prayer leader] in sign language in a minyan whose medium of communication is sign language."
The Jewish Deaf Resource Center applauds the law committee, notably Rabbi Pamela Barmash, for taking on this responsibility, writing the teshuvah and recognizing its importance in approving it.
Such a mandate is historic in that it grants full access to a marginalized group of Jews. The concept of providing access to those who are deaf or hard of hearing is new for many organizations.
"Communication access," as this is called, includes qualified sign language interpreters trained in Jewish liturgy, real-time captioning in which someone types the spoken message on a large screen, or auditory systems that amplify what is said and either works with hearing aids or a headset system worn by users.
Many organizations often are hesitant to provide communication access due to costs that are not anticipated in their budgets. But there are ways to minimize such costs and maximize this needed access.
More important, many organizations do not realize the great number of people affected by a lack of such access. Most deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals have immediate family members who are hearing. When one person in the family is without access, the entire family often is deprived of the opportunity to share Jewish communal experiences together.
Deaf children who become parents, generally to children who can hear, are unable to share positive Jewish memories with their kids. The cycle repeats when the hearing children become parents.
The Jewish experience created by these hearing parents for their children often is similar to the one they experienced with their own parents -- one of limited or no participation in communal life. Denying access has a ripple effect.
To create a culture in which all Jews are welcome, organizations must develop policies that require communication access throughout the organization. Having such policies in place helps the organization respond appropriately to a request for communication access at all levels.
In order to implement the mandate set forth by the Conservative movement, the larger community must work with the deaf community to create appropriate communication policies and access.
Only with such collaboration can we end the adverse ripple effect and create an accessible Red Tent that is a welcoming home to all. u
Alexis Kashar is president and Naomi Brunnlehrman is a co-founder of the Jewish Deaf Resource Center, a national advocacy organization.
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|Central coordinates||15o 12.00' East 27o 1.00' South|
|IBA criteria||A1, A4i, A4ii, A4iii|
|Altitude||0 - 5m|
|Year of IBA assessment||2001|
Site description Possession Island is located 1.6 km from the Diamond Coast of south-western Namibia, just south of Elizabeth Bay, c.40 km south of Lüderitz. This rectangular island is the largest of Namibia’s guano islands. It extends 4 km from north to south and is at most 1 km wide. Low rainfall (less than 10 mm per year) and frequent storms inhibit vegetation growth, and isolated bushes are scattered around otherwise barren and somewhat sandy ground. Old diamond diggings have broken much of the sandy surface. The island still holds a main jetty and the remains of a small village. Like the other guano islands it was stripped of its guano cap in the 1840s and has never regained it. It is permanently manned to keep seals from settling on the island.
Key Biodiversity See Box for key species. As Possession Island is the largest of the Namibian coastal islands, it has the potential to hold the most seabirds. This honour, however, goes to Ichaboe (IBA NA016) which is 14 times smaller than Possession. Despite the relatively low seabird densities, Possession Island is a vitally important coastal seabird breeding island, supporting over 20,000 seabirds in total. Important species include decreasing numbers of Spheniscus demersus, Morus capensis, Phalacrocorax capensis, P. coronatus and P. neglectus (10 pairs). Some of these breeding seabirds have been in decline since the island was first surveyed in 1956. Numbers of Spheniscus demersus decreased by 92% and numbers of Morus capensis by 68% over the next 40 years. While some colonies have disappeared altogether, others remain at much-reduced densities. Single pairs are unusual, scattered haphazardly over barren portions of the island. Large areas which were once occupied by breeding birds, now stand unused. This is the only island breeding site of the normally mainland-breeding Sterna balaenarum. Small colonies of Sterna balaenarum, that once bred between dunes on the adjacent mainland, have largely disappeared since the early 1970s. Sterna bergii are said to have nested on the island, but now no longer do. Haematopus moquini are common on the island.
Non-bird biodiversity: Of great significance was the birth of a calf of Eubalaena australis (LR/cd) in Elizabeth Bay in 1996, the first breeding record of this whale on the Namibian coast for over 100 years.
|Species||Season||Period||Population estimate||Quality of estimate||IBA Criteria||IUCN Category|
|African Penguin Spheniscus demersus||resident||-||300-900 breeding pairs||-||A1||Endangered|
|Cape Gannet Morus capensis||resident||-||800-3,000 breeding pairs||-||A1, A4ii||Vulnerable|
|Cape Gannet Morus capensis||winter||-||2,000-10,000 individuals||-||A1, A4ii||Vulnerable|
|Cape Cormorant Phalacrocorax capensis||resident||-||2,000-4,000 breeding pairs||-||A1, A4i||Endangered|
|Cape Cormorant Phalacrocorax capensis||winter||-||5,704 individuals||-||A1, A4i||Endangered|
|Bank Cormorant Phalacrocorax neglectus||breeding||-||10 breeding pairs||-||A1||Endangered|
|Crowned Cormorant Microcarbo coronatus||resident||-||20-280 breeding pairs||-||A1, A4i||Near Threatened|
|Crowned Cormorant Microcarbo coronatus||winter||-||50-500 individuals||-||A1, A4i||Near Threatened|
|African Oystercatcher Haematopus moquini||resident||-||66 breeding pairs||-||A1, A4i||Near Threatened|
|African Oystercatcher Haematopus moquini||winter||-||200-300 individuals||-||A1, A4i||Near Threatened|
|Kelp Gull Larus dominicanus||winter||-||2,864 individuals||-||A4i||Least Concern|
|A4iii Species group - seabirds||winter||-||10,000-19,999 individuals||unknown||A4iii|
|A4iii Species group - seabirds||breeding||-||10,000-19,999 individuals||unknown||A4iii|
|Protected area||Designation||Area (ha)||Relationship with IBA||Overlap with IBA (ha)|
|Namibia Islands||Marine Protected Area||955,525||protected area contains site||80|
|Land-use||Extent (% of site)|
|nature conservation and research||-|
References Cooper et al. (1980), Cordes et al. (1999), Crawford et al. (1982, 1989), Hockey (1982), Noli-Peard and Williams (1991), Pallet (1995), Rand (1963), Swart (1987, 1988), Williams (1993).
Contribute Please click here to help BirdLife conserve the world's birds - your data for this IBA and others are vital for helping protect the environment.
Recommended citation BirdLife International (2016) Important Bird and Biodiversity Area factsheet: Possession Island. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 02/07/2016
To provide new information to update this factsheet or to correct any errors, please email BirdLife
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In a familiar world of solids, liquids and gases, we find the fourth state of matter, the plasmas of lightning to the aurora borealis and fluorescent tubes at the office. Further out, minor phenomena becomes the big event in space, our shining stars are plasma being fused producing light. Not until 1924 was a fifth state of matter considered possible. Intrigued by quantum statistics, invented by the Bengali physicist, Satyendra Nath Bose from observations of light, Einstein applied Bose’s work to matter. The Bose-Einstein Condensate(BEC) was born. Was there any truth to the theory, Einstein himself wondered, that matter that could condense at ultracold temperatures into something new?
Einstein’s theory was left hanging, as a mathematical artifact, until 1938. Fritz London, a German theoretical chemist and physicist, working on helium at the same time as the Russian Pyotr Kapitsa who discovered its superfluid state at just under 2.2 K, found it behaved like Einstein’s theoretical BEC. Subsequent research confirmed London’s insight. Both stable isotopes, ordinary helium-4, and the rare helium-3 at much lower temperatures, are quantum superfluids, behaving like matter-waves or superatoms, undifferentiated matter with vastly different properties from their gas state or their ordinary bottled fluid state. Now scientists had a way of studying laboratory tabletop quantum physics. These, the only two superfluids known with zero viscosity, have sparked intense interest, helium-4 a bosonic superfluid and helium-3, a fermionic superfluid. Bosons are force carriers like photons of light and fermions are the matter we can touch. A gateway opened which eventually led to the laboratory production of other BECs when finally ultracold states could be induced, starting in 1995.
Viewing superfluid helium in action, demonstrates the baffling counter-intuitive nature of quantum fluids and other BECs. Some of the stunning properties of superfluid helium were observed if not understood back in 1908 when the Dutch physicist, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, cooled helium-4 to -269 Celsius. Not only was there no resistance to flow, the superfluid could climb the walls of the vessel, like a film, always 30 nanometers thick, defying gravity, or pour through the smallest hole or fissure, or leak through some apparently non-porous matter.
Further studies showed that this superfluid, now called Helium II, behaved as a two-fluid model, partly in a low energy ground state, and partly in an excited state. With a little added heat and manipulation of the superfluid, an interaction of the two states was enhanced, producing a fountain effect, as though 2 fluids existed.
In our own Sun and countless other stars, hydrogen fusion produces helium, the second most abundant element, and is in turn eventually fused by steps into carbon-12. On Earth there isn’t much, a trace atmospheric gas but found in quantity up to 7 percent in some natural gas. It’s produced by nuclear decay, as from radium and polonium, dangerous alpha radiation releasing, in fact bare nuclei of helium that eventually pick up electrons and form stable helium isotopes.
Given an electric charge, helium can fluoresce like neon. Even rarer molecules of helium-3 have been produced in helium-4 during ionization. Superfluid helium is also a superconductor, 30 times more efficient than copper as well as a thermal conductor 300 times that of copper. And both helium-3 and helium-4 have been cooled to near absolute zero, helium-4 retaining its superfluidity, helium-3 crystallizing, yet still capable of movement like other BECs. Adding enormous pressure of 25 atmospheres and more, forces even helium-4 to act like other BEC ‘solids’.
If superfluid helium can tell us a lot about other ultracold BECs now being studied and produced by over 200 research teams worldwide, then BECs that also appear to be superfluids and have two coexisting states like the two fluid state of superfluids, could show us how superfluids behave. It’s more than satisfying the curiosity of pure research. BECs have been turned into atom lasers and BECs have produced bosenovas, an inexplicable phenomenon where BECs explode, releasing more than the energy present in the system and where about half of the BEC sample literally vanishes without a trace. Fascinating and worrisome in any lab working with small amounts of BECs, but superfluid Helium II BEC is being used in great quantities as a coolant in certain nuclear reactors and particle accelerators.
The possibilities of a giant BEC bosenova produced in superfluid Helium II haven’t been investigated. The matter is urgent as 120 T of superfluid Helium II are being used at the Large Hadron Collider at Geneva, whose energies far surpass any other collider’s, not only beam energies, but RF applied, extreme Tesla Fields by superconducting magnets, and electrical energies equivalent to the consumption of Geneva, powering the 27 km ring system. Startup of the LHC at 5 TeV per proton beam has been delayed to this September but for other technical reasons.
The problem too, is that BECs are new and strange. It wasn’t until 1995 that an ultracold BEC was produced by new methods of supercooling, in this case applied to a gas of Rubidium-87 to bring it near absolute zero. For physics it was a sudden explosion in the quantum world. A new field of study, Condensed Matter Physics, a new state of matter positively confirmed, but far from understood. Matter acting as one giant atom with the properties of a superfluid. Shared Nobel Prizes awarded in 2001went to the team leaders at JILA, the joint NIST project with CU-Boulder, Carl E. Weiman and Eric A. Cornell. A third share in the Nobel for a sodium-25 BEC developed independently went to Wolfgang Ketterle now at MIT. Research at MIT is on a massive scale with several big BEC labs, working in part on BEC atom lasers. Don’t worry, Ketterle has said, atom lasers only work in a vacuum and would only travel a meter without one. Nevertheless matter-wave lasers are bound to be improved. There’s always military interest and funding.
What astonished some physicists was another BEC event in 2001, well beyond anything anticipated. The BEC discovery team at JILA produced a new rubidium-85 BEC. While an electromagnetic field was applied to cause a stronger attraction among the BEC atoms, the BEC started to shrink and then exploded like a supernova. The result was a release of particles in various streams, leaving behind a much smaller BEC remnant. The thermal energy released was greater than the energy in the BEC and about half of all the thousands of atoms of the rubidium-85 disappeared. The effect was at first nicknamed the bosenova, and still a total puzzle to this day. After 7 years of study, the latest research on whatever goes on in a bosenova, now referred to as a BEC loss, needs a “new microscopic BEC physics” to explain it, says N.R. Claussen et al of a joint BEC team at the U of Colorado at Boulder, in a paper published in February this year. A second team at UC-Boulder led by Elizabeth A. Donley published the following month, also could not account for the bosenova phenomenon nor the apparent loss of atoms.
Though the bosenova effect is staggering in its repercussions for the Standard Model, none of the more than 200 teams experimenting with BECs appear interested. The only study groups working seriously on bosenovas are those at JILA. Other research teams are looking for new BECs and a few are looking for applications of BECs to create things like better atomic clocks, interferometers or even studying light by teasing BECs with lasers to slow light down or stop it! In the future, quantum computing might use BECs and lasers. BECs could be big business.
What happens next at the LHC will be the next big experiment in a superfluid Helium II BEC. It’s not part of the design parameters, as physicists assume that the helium will be stable based on its use in the much smaller, much less powerful, up to 250 GeV per beam, RHIC collider in Long Island, NY. CERN’s interests lie in producing the Higgs boson at the LHC, perhaps micro black holes and quark-gluon plasma. Even in the much awaited CERN safety study released last month, there’s absolutely nothing on a possible bosenova implosion/explosion. Of course to test the safety of the enormous LHC to handle foreseen and unforeseen events you’d need another disposable one. But at least it is possible to subject Helium II to some of these high energies and hadron beams as a test. Not at the low energies of the RHIC, but at Fermilab’s Tevatron, currently the most energetic collider with 0.9 TeV per beam, though still far short of the power of the monster LHC at ordinary operating conditions of 7 TeV and ultimately 1,150 TeV collisions of lead ions at nearly twice light speed. Helium II could simply be used as a target by Tevatron beams to see what would happen, besides being exposed to high and fluctuating Tesla fields, ionized by electrical currents, subjected to some of the extreme conditions anticipated at the LHC.
The LSAG safety review at CERN, even their new report, is still a 4/5 majority internal assessment, and with an independent SPC Report/review of that review that’s still a CERN committee of 5 physicists, though the mainstream media is content with the CERN press releases, ‘No Danger That The LHC Will Destroy The Earth’, about everywhere. Though now black holes are now unlikely, but previously predicted to occur rapidly by CERN in the ‘LHC black hole factory’, but initially ignored, until a physicist wrote about the possibility in a letter to Scientific American that sparked the initial 2003 CERN safety assessment. There’s hard science and there’s French farce. Which one are we getting? Pushing the LHC big button as a test is a risky way to go. CERN has always insisted that small amounts of hadrons can’t do very much, but there’s an enormous amount of energy in the LHC and 120 T of BEC superfluid. There’s still a suit in the Hawaii courts to delay LHC startup because of safety concerns like black hole and strangelet production. Lately and since I first considered the possible dangers of superfluid helium in my article of March 7, 2008, ‘The Almost Thermonuclear LHC’, the plaintiffs, Dr Walter Wagner and Luis Sancho have announced they will seek an addendum to their suit to include bosenova risks at the LHC.
Seven years after the rubidium-85 BEC produced the first bosenova, we still don’t know what happened to half of the Rubidium-85 atoms that disappeared.
Baum, Michael. From Supernova to Smoke Ring: Recent Experiments Underscore Weirdness of the Bose-Einstein Condensate, NIST 2001
Boyle, Alan. Doomsday Under Debate, Cosmic Log, MSNBC 2008
Braun-Munzinger, Peter, et al. SPC Report On LSAG Documents, CERN SPC 2008
Claussen, N.R. et al. Microscopic Dynamics in a Strongly Interacting Bose-Einstein Condensate, JILA 2008
Donley, Elizabeth A. et al. Dynamics of collapsing and exploding Bose-Einstein condensates, JILA 2008
Ellis, John, et al. Review of the Safety of LHC Collisions, CERN LSAG 2008
Gillis, Alan. The Almost Thermonuclear LHC, The Science of Conundrums, 2008
Ketterle, Wolfgang. Ch 9, Bose-Einstein Condensation: Identity Crisis for Indistinguishable Particles, in “Quantum Mechanics at the Crossroads”, Springer Berlin, 2006
Schewe, Phil et al. Supersolid, Quantum Crystal, A Bose-Einstein Condensate in Solid, Physics News Update, The AIP Bulletin of Physics News, 2004
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Treatments for eye cancer
The aim of treatment is to destroy the cancer cells, stop the cancer coming back, and to save as much of your sight as possible. The treatment you will receive will depend on:
- The type of eye cancer you have
- The size of the tumour
- Which part of the eye is affected
- How far it has spread
- Your age
- Your general state of health
- If the cancer has come back after treatment
The treatments for eye cancer include surgery, laser treatment, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Some of the treatments are very specialised and you may need to travel to a special hospital or centre to receive treatment.In some cases, you may be transferred to a hospital in the UK.
The type of surgery you have will depend on the location and size of the tumour. You may only need to have part of your eye removed, for example, the iris and ciliary body, or all of it. Removing all of your eye is called an enucleation. Your surgeon will discuss with you which type of surgery you need.
If you have a small melanoma of the eye, you may be suitable for laser treatment. Laser therapy uses a high-energy light beam to burn tissues. A special form of laser treatment is transpupillary thermotherapy. This uses infrared light to heat the tumour and kill it. For laser therapy, you will need a local anaesthetic. The therapy may need to be repeated several times before the cancer is cured. You may be transferred to a hospital in the UK for specialised treatment.
Radiotherapy uses high-energy rays to kill cancer cells. It may be the only treatment for eye cancer or it may be given after surgery. It can be given from inside your body or from outside .
With internal radiotherapy, radioactive seeds are attached to a disk called a plaque and put directly on the wall of your eye containing the cancer. External radiotherapy uses a special machine to aim tiny, invisible particles called protons at the cancer cells to kill them, with little damage to nearby normal tissues.
Please see our booklet Understanding Radiotherapy, which you can download from our "Important cancer information booklets" list on the right hand side of this page, for more about radiotherapy, or learn more about radiotherapy here.
Chemotherapy uses drugs to cure or control your cancer. It can be useful for treating intraocular lymphoma but it is used less often for intraocular melanoma.
Chemotherapy can be used alone or with radiotherapy to treat eye cancer. You are most likely to have chemotherapy if your cancer has already spread to other parts of your body. This treatment can often relieve symptoms and may shrink a cancer or slow its growth.
The drugs used can be given as drops into your eye or injected into a vein or as tablets. Some of the drugs used to treat eye cancer include gemcitabine and treosulfan. Please contact the National Cancer Helpline at 1800 200 700 for a copy of our booklet Understanding Chemotherapy, download it from our "Important cancer information booklets" list on the right hand side of this page, or learn more about chemotherapy here.
How is secondary eye cancer treated?
Sometimes a cancer can spread to the eye from another part of your body. A cancer that has spread to the eye is called a secondary eye cancer. In women this is most likely to happen with breast cancer and in men lung cancer. The treatment you will receive will depend on where the cancer has spread from and your general state of health. Surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy can be used.
The side-effects of treatment depend on the type of treatment you have.
If you have part of your eye removed, you may get some loss of vision. If you have your whole eye removed , you will not be able to see with that eye. Usually the surgeon will put an eye implant into the empty socket during surgery. Some weeks later you will have a false eye fitted over your implant. If you have lost the sight in one eye, you must let your car insurance company know, as you will have to pass an eye test to make sure it is safe for you to drive. Surgery to the eye may change the way you look as well. It may take time to accept your new appearance.
Laser therapy can sometimes damage parts of your eye and cause a loss of vision.
Radiotherapy may cause cataracts, skin changes, loss of eyelashes and some loss of eyesight.
Chemotherapy may cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, loss of appetite, sore mouth or hair loss. Many treatments cause fatigue. Your doctor will discuss any likely side-effects before treatment. For more information on side-effects, please see our booklets Understanding Chemotherapy, Understanding Radiotherapy, Understanding Cancer and Complementary Therapies, Coping with Fatigue and Diet and Cancer, which you can download from the "Important cancer information booklets" list on the right hand side of this page.
If a treatment looks like it might be helpful, it is given to patients in research studies called clinical trials. Trials may be taking place at the hospital you are attending. If you are interested in taking part, talk to your doctor. He or she can tell you if the trial would suit you or not.
Call our National Cancer Helpline
Freephone 1800 200 700 to talk to a specialist cancer nurse
It's open Monday-Thursday from 9am to 7pm and Friday from 9am to 5pm
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English classes enable people to improve their written and verbal communication. English classes help you learn rules of grammar and usage. As you brush up on your speaking skills you master the vernacular. A course in advanced English gives you exposure to well known works of literature. English is taught all across the world. It is taught on all academic levels from kindergarten to the PhD level. English classes are a prerequisite for every high school diploma, associate's degree, and an undergraduate degree.
University of Southern California
Southern New Hampshire University
English classes also have different levels of coursework. English classes for beginners concentrate on the alphabet, basic grammar, basic communication styles, and punctuation. High school English 101 curriculum is also different than the high school English101 courses taken at the college level. High school English classes concentrate on providing a basic understanding of English literature, communication styles, verbal communication, and getting the students geared up to qualify for the high school certification examination. Basic college level English classes are an advanced form of the high school classes and help expand the knowledge of communication and grammar.
At the college level, students can choose from a variety of different English classes. These English classes are in addition to the core English curriculum required to obtain an Associates or bachelors degree. Students can certainly take extra English classes to gain extra credit hours and even have a major or minor in English. Certain English coursework only specializes in training and developing the communication style of students. Other English classes focus on the development of prose. English classes also educate you about the tradition of English literature across the English speaking world.
Graduate level English classes are advanced courses in English literature and English language. Students who are pursuing a major in English will only be enrolling in a majority of different levels and classes of English language and linguistics. At the Masters level, students have a variety of English topics to study. All colleges and universities across America have English classes available at different levels. Community colleges and junior colleges would have English courses that cater to students who are pursuing an associate's degree. Online universities and colleges are also offering English classes. Many of the local schools and vocational institutes also offer English classes.
In fact, many other corporations and industries promote their employees to enroll in English classes to further improve their communication and verbal skills. Students who graduate in English have a vast and versatile job market. Graduates can Work as teachers and professors at the various institutions and colleges in America. Others pursue exciting careers in the entertainment world writing scripts and editing manuscripts. Students who graduate with an English major are also inclined towards graduating in another language and become translators in the United Nations.
Irrespective of the fact that you were born in America or not and that English is a mother language or not, learning English is a life long journey to excellence. There is always room to improve your verbal and written skills and further develop your skill set.
english classes was rated
Q:Where to find college level online English classes?
A:You are at the correct website if you are looking for college level online English classes. We offer various English class options allowing students self-paced courses so they take the content slowly and understand the basics other than rushing through the course. Students can take these classes from the ease of home. Choose any listed institute on our website and get started!
Q:Are there any self paced college english literature classes online or will I have to follow a given schedule?
A:If you are looking for a self-paced college education in English Literature then online education is your best bet. The whole point of online classes is that the schedule is extremely flexible and can be adapted to fit your existing schedule. You can pace your studies as you like and take your time to complete your degree as you please.
Q:What are the contents of the course on English Composition in the English classes online?
A:The English classes online have dedicated course in the United States, titled English Composition. This course is of roughly 4 credits in total and is designed to offer the students with the basics of critical thinking techniques and the basics of English writing and proofread as well as compose reports of English.
Q:As I was reading about teaching english extra classes, I find out that these classes can be taken online. How?
A:English classes can be taken online easily. There are a number of online schools that offer these classes to students. The curriculum comprises of various subjects and exercises. Students study through online lectures, notes, video conferencing, classroom conferencing, and video tutorials. Online classes can be studied at any time of the day. All that is required is a laptop and an internet connection.
Q:Can I take English program classes online?
A:Yes, it is possible for you to take English classes online. These classes are offered at various levels. Some classes are for beginners, while others are for students who wish to acquire advanced education in English. You will learn English with the help of video lectures, discussion threads, practice exercises, assignments, and online exams.
Q:Can you tell me about the online English classes for beginners?
A:Online English classes for beginners are for students who have little or no knowledge of English language. The curriculum for beginner classes focuses on alphabet, basic grammar, basic communication styles, pronunciation of words, and punctuation. Online classes also allow students to learn at their own pace and have a study schedule of their own.
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Scientists claim to be a step closer to reversing the ageing process after rejuvenating worn out organs in elderly mice. The experimental treatment developed by researchers at Harvard Medical School turned weak and feeble old mice into healthy animals by regenerating their aged bodies.
The surprise recovery of the animals has raised hopes among scientists that it may be possible to achieve a similar feat in humans – or at least to slow down the ageing process.
An anti-ageing therapy could have a dramatic impact on public health by reducing the burden of age-related health problems, such as dementia, stroke and heart disease, and prolonging the quality of life for an increasingly aged population.
“What we saw in these animals was not a slowing down or stabilisation of the ageing process. We saw a dramatic reversal – and that was unexpected,” said Ronald DePinho, who led the study, which was published in the journal Nature.
“This could lead to strategies that enhance the regenerative potential of organs as individuals age and so increase their quality of life. Whether it serves to increase longevity is a question we are not yet in a position to answer.”
The ageing process is poorly understood, but scientists know it is caused by many factors. Highly reactive particles called free radicals are made naturally in the body and cause damage to cells, while smoking, ultraviolet light and other environmental factors contribute to ageing.
The Harvard group focused on a process called telomere shortening. Most cells in the body contain 23 pairs of chromosomes, which carry our DNA. At the ends of each chromosome is a protective cap called a telomere. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres are snipped shorter, until eventually they stop working and the cell dies or goes into a suspended state called “senescence”. The process is behind much of the wear and tear associated with ageing.
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It is no secret that divorce can be a huge mess; however, it doesn’t have to be this way if parents are willing to go about it in a professional-like manner. This is even more important when children involved. A child conflict divorce is one which parents should avoid at all costs.
The only person who wins in a divorce is the lawyers. Everyone else loses, but it is the children in a child conflict divorce who lose the most. Children are affected differently depending on their age level, but in general, here are some of the common ways in which children handle their parents’ divorce.
They express anger towards themselves, often feeling that they are to blame for the divorce
They become angry and act out, often misbehaving and rebelling in school, which could lead to harmful behavior down the road, such as drug abuse and sex
Some children develop abandonment issues which inhibit their ability to form trusting friendships, as well as intimate ones because they are always convinced that people will leave them
Some children actually change their behavior for the better, believing that it will help keep their parents together.
This is just a short list of symptoms children exhibit, but each age group varies a little bit in the amount of symptoms exhibited, as well as severity.
To help ease the intensity of child divorce conflict parents should take the following steps:
- Never use the children as a bargaining chip with their spouse
- Never discuss the particulars of the divorce with their children
- Reassure the children that the divorce has nothing to do with them
- Parents should not speak negatively about one another to the children
For further advice parents should visit the National Network for Childcare, HYPERLINK “http://www.nncc.org” www.nncc.org, for more information. Divorce can be a messy event all by itself, which is why parents need to take care to keep it from becoming a child conflict divorce. Always keep the welfare of your children first and foremost in your mind.
Resource:HYPERLINK “http://www.nncc.org/Parent/childview.html” http://www.nncc.org/Parent/childview.html
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The New York Times ran this story today about the effect technology is having a students’ attention spans. Even though you may feel like you’ve read this line of research before, this story is worth a close reading. The focus is on the various ways in which technology can be distracting and offers anecdotal evidence such as a students who send hundreds of text messages a day. There is some finger-pointing here, as one researcher says “when adults were not supervising computer use, children ‘are left to their own devices, and the impetus isn’t to do homework but play around’”. To me, this is the same story of students trying to get out of doing homeroom that goes back years before computers. Left to their own devices, students have always found ways to procrastinate doing their homework. As one student says “video games don’t make the hole; they fill it.” Most of the other technologies being criticized, such as cell phones and Facebook, are natural extensions of the students’ preference to socialize over doing their work.
The article’s related video feature, Teachers’ Views on Technology in the Classroom, is definitely worth a look. I especially recommend the third video in which the teacher discusses the concept of the “backwards classroom”.
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The Tale of Tommy Fox is a story about the adventures of the mischievous Tommy Fox and his escapades with the Farmer, his dog, and his boy.
Source: Bailey, A. S. (1917). The Tale of Tommy Fox. New York: Grosset and Dunlap.
- Chapter 1: “Tommy Enjoys Himself”
- Tommy Fox plays with a feather and runs in circles to distract a dog’s scent trail. On his way home, he gets hungry and picks up the scent of Old Mother Grouse.
- Chapter 2: “Johnnie Green Goes Hunting”
- Tommy sees Old Mother Grouse and tries to eat her but she flies away just in time. He hears Johnny Green and runs home.
- Chapter 3: “Tommy Fox Learns to Hunt”
- Mrs. Fox teaches Tommy how to hunt by using a woodchuck.
- Chapter 4: “Mother Grouse’s Children”
- Tommy learns a lesson about cleverness when he is fooled by Old Mother Grouse and is unable to catch her or her children.
- Chapter 5: “Tommy Fox is Hungry”
- When Tommy Fox plays ill, a squirrel is fooled.
- Chapter 6: “Mr. Gray Squirrel’s Mistake”
- Tommy Fox opens one eye a little bit to see the squirrel. The squirrel saw this and Tommy missed catching the squirrel.
- Chapter 7: “Tommy Chases Mr. Woodchuck”
- Tommy Fox plays a cat-and-mouse game with Mr. Woodchuck and Mr. Woodchuck escapes down a hole.
- Chapter 8: “Something Makes Tommy Very Proud”
- Tommy hunts Mr. Woodchuck and brings him home.
- Chapter 9: “Tommy Fox in Trouble”
- Despite a warning from his mother, Tommy tries to steal one of Farmer Green’s hens.
- Chapter 10: “Mrs. Fox Outwits Dog Spot”
- When Tommy is chased by Farmer Green’s dog for trying to steal a hen, he runs straight for home. His mother fools the dog and loses him.
- Chapter 11: “Tommy Grows Too Careless”
- Tommy was older now and loved to have Spot, the dog, chase him. When Spot almost catches him, Tommy runs home. Spot discovers Tommy’s home and Tommy is worried.
- Chapter 12: “Old Mr. Crow Is Pleased”
- When Mrs. Fox returns home, she finds a trap outside her house. She warns Tommy not to step on the trap, but when Mr. Crow yells out something, Tommy is frightened and steps in the trap.
- Chapter 13: “Johnnie Green and His New Pet”
- When Tommy is caught in a trap, Farmer Green’s son wants to keep him as a pet.
- Chapter 14: “Tommy Fox Makes a Strange Friend”
- Tommy and Spot become friends. Farmer Green discovers hen feathers near Tommy.
- Chapter 15: “Johnnie Green Feels Sad”
- When Farmer Green discovers that Tommy was stealing his hens, he wants to kill Tommy. Johnnie feels sad for Tommy, but luckily Tommy escapes.
- Chapter 16: “Tommy Becomes Boastful”
- Johnnie lets Tommy loose. Tommy runs to his new home with his mother. He tells the forest animals his adventures with Farmer Green.
- Chapter 17: “Paying a Call on a Friend”
- Mr. Crow tricks Tommy into paying a call on his new friend Spot. When Tommy sees that Farmer Green has a new dog, he runs home.
- Chapter 18: “The World Turns White”
- Tommy and his mother are chased by Farmer Green’s new dog. They try to outwit and outrun him.
- Chapter 19: “Tommy Fox Learns a New Trick”
- Tommy and his mother outwit and outrun the farmer’s dogs.
- Chapter 20: “The Drummer of the Woods”
- Tommy makes up his mind to catch a grouse and chases Mr. Grouse.
- Chapter 21: “The Biggest Surprise of All”
- Tommy tries to catch Mr. Grouse. Mrs. Fox has five babies.
Bailey, A. (1917). The Tale of Tommy Fox. (Lit2Go ed.). Retrieved June 25, 2016, from
Bailey, Arthur Scott. The Tale of Tommy Fox. Lit2Go Edition. 1917. Web. <>. June 25, 2016.
Arthur Scott Bailey, The Tale of Tommy Fox, Li2Go edition, (1917), accessed June 25, 2016,.
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XBT Analysis - Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
During the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (April-July 2010), several oceanographic cruises were carried out in the region to obtain hydrographic data, including XBT. The products obtained provide information about the large scale circulation in the Gulf of Mexico. They describe the surface temperature as well as the structure of oceanic thermal features at different depths. They also provide information about ocean heat content and can be used in the validation of numerical models utilized in the Gulf of Mexico monitoring.
Location of XBT (circles) and CTD (triangles, most CTD deployments coincide in position with XBT deployments) observations carried out by NOAA/AOML scientists on board the NOAA ship Nancy Foster between July 1-18, 2010. The map also shows the mean sea surface temperature (SST, °C) for the aforementioned dates, superimposed on the regional bathymetry (in meters). The location of the Deepwater Horizon is denoted by a star.
Additional information about this and other products using XBT data from the Gulf of Mexico during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill can be found here.
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Arrays are a fundamental tool but there is another… the record or “structure”.
A record can be thought of as a mixed collection of data whereas an array composed of data all of the same type – e.g. a table of ages.
You can see the problem with the record - its Storage Mapping Function is going to be complicated because each element isn't going to be the same size. However the record isn't generally accessed by index and we need a more sophisticated SMF anyway.
The archetypal record is the name and address card.
Here you have a data structure which is composed of a name, an address and a telephone number, say, and these are three different types of data, not the same thing repeated three times as in an array.
Usually a record is defined using qualified names or fields rather than an index. For example, the record JOHN might consist of three “fields”:
You can think of this as a sort of array made up of three variables. The entire record is just called “JOHN” and you can refer to a specific field by adding the field name to the record name:
You can see that the record is just the computer equivalent of the old-fashioned card record that you would find, in fact do still find, in almost any office.
You may notice that you can’t simply run through all of the fields of a record like you can an array, but this doesn’t usually matter in practice because as each field is different you generally don’t want to do the same thing to each one. That is you don't often want to iterate though a record and you don't want to enumerate a record either.
Record fields are generally processed within a program one at a time by name. You can think of this as "random access only" if it helps. It is also worth saying that often the ability to process a record in sequential fashion is highly desirable and its a big pain when the language in use doesn't support it.
Records started off life as part of business-oriented languages such as Cobol but slowly they moved into mainstream general programming as ways of storing complicated items of data.
For example, instead of using two variables, x and y to store the co-ordinates of a point on the screen, it is common practice to define a record to do the same job:
This allows you to write statements such as:
There is also another important innovation in the way that the records were used. Before you could use a record you had to provide a definition. That is if you wanted to work with a point record you first had to declare that it had two fields - one called x and one called y both integers. Once you had the definition you could use this to create as many instances of the record as you wanted.
record pointType int x int y end
might be used to define the new record type. Then when you needed an example or an instance of the type you would write something like
and after this you can write:
and so on. You can use pointType to create as many instances of the record as you like.
This is directly analogous to having a float or int variable type and then stamping out as many float or int variables as you needed. In other words you had to declare a record type before you could create instances of the type - this is the first place that the idea of extending the data types a language supported was introduces and it is a very important idea. It is also important that it split the use fo a custom record into two steps - first define the new record type and then create instances of it.
As long as the language that you are using makes full use of records, or structures as they tend to be called, when used in this way, this can be a very useful way of working but what you might not realise is that this simple idea leads on to probably the most important concept in 21st century computing – even if it was thought up in the 20th century!
The idea is based upon the desire to integrate structures into the language and programs as if they really were part of the original language.
For example, if you define a point structure then you might well want to define an operation of showing a point on the screen. Something like:
In traditional programming terms this corresponds to having a command “show” which can work with the new type of data you have just introduced, i.e. the point structure. The problem is how do you add a “show” command that knows what to do with “points”.
There are a number of possible answers but the best one that we have thought up to date is to let the “point” structure know how to show itself. To do this we have to extend the idea of what a record is.
We are going to allow a record field to be a procedure and not just a chunk of data. In simple terms a procedure is a list of instructions or a small chunk of program.
runs the small chunk of program defined as part of “point” that changes the colour of the pixel at point.x, point.y and hence “shows” it.
This idea can be elaborated so that there is no need for any code that doesn't live outside of a struct - all of the code in a program can be made part of a set of data structures.
This is a very clever idea and it was first thought of in the early 1960s by Ole-Johan Dahl and Krysten Nygaard as part of a new computer language called Simula. The language may not have caught on but the idea most certainly did.
If you haven’t recognised it then I’d better tell you that a record with procedural fields or "method" is called “an object” and the whole idea is called “object-oriented programming”.
You might also recognize the way that the definition of the record and the instance of the record are generalized. We tend to call a record definition that has methods, i.e. fields that are code, a class and an instance of the type is and object or instance fo the class.
So the record, today more commonly called a struct, is the start of not only of object oriented programming but the particular approach to it based on classes and on extending data types. This is not the only possible approach but it is the dominant one we encounter today.
So the truth is that objects are just records that allow code and data to be stored on an equal footing - I told you data structures were important.
There can't be a more central concept than “the computer”, but it is such a commonplace that we tend to take it for granted and miss how truly amazing it is. It might just be that computers are ev [ ... ]
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Smarter Balanced Testing Resources
Practice and Training Tests The Practice and Training Tests mirror the types of items students will see on the upcoming Common Core assessment.
Sample items and Performance Task Samples The samples include nearly 50 assessment items and performance tasks, including examples of technology-enhanced items that take advantage of computer-based testing. In addition, sample performance tasks showcase the extended classroom-based activities students will experience as part of the Smarter Balanced assessment system.
Practice Test How-To Screen Shots (updated 1.30.2014)
Step-by-Step Student Directions for SBAC Practice Test (updated 2.24.2014)
Students Accounts Portal
Secondary students can change their password to make it more secure and enroll in the Self Service Reset Password Management in case they forget with the links below.
Clever Single Sign On Portal - Student Application Portal for access to Manga High and Benchmark Universe
typingclub.com (login with Google account)
What started out as Sal making a few algebra videos for his cousins has grown to over 2,100 videos and 100 self-paced exercises and assessments covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history.
Since the Khan Academy videos are streamed from Youtube/Education they are available to be viewed by students on the PVUSD network without the need to override the content filter. Teachers may need to use their override to unblock Youtube.com in order to play the videos.
Intel® Teach to the Future is a worldwide effort to help teachers integrate technology into instruction and enhance student learning.
Student Login for thinking tools
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WATER CRISIS IN MEXICO PORTENDS THE SAME IN THE USA
By Frosty Wooldridge
May 7, 2009
In a scorching report from the desert bowl of Mexico City, Mexico, we find water shortages at desperate levels. In many places in Mexico, because of terrific toxic pollution of existing water supplies, mothers feed their babies Coca Cola in order to make sure their children do not suffer poisoning.
Dry Taps in Mexico City: A Water Crisis Gets Worse by Ioan Grillo April 11, 2009
Why do you think this happens in Mexico? First, that nation fails to uphold clean water laws. It fails to maintain safe sewage systems. It fails to maintain clean rivers.
“The reek of unwashed toilets spilled into the street in the neighborhood of unpainted cinder block houses,” Grillo reported, “Out on the main road, hundreds of residents banged plastic buckets and blocked the path of irate drivers while children scoured the surrounding area for government trucks. Finally, the impatient crowd launched into a high-pitched chant, repeating one word at fever pitch: "Water, Water, Water!"
“About five million people, or a quarter of the population of Mexico City's urban sprawl, woke up Thursday with dry taps. The drought was caused by the biggest stoppage in the city's main reservoir system in recent years to ration its depleting supplies. Government officials hope this and four other stoppages will keep water flowing until the summer rainy season fills the basins back up. But they warn that the Mexican capital needs to seriously overhaul its water system to stop an unfathomable disaster in the future.”
I have traveled throughout Mexico. Their water systems make a train wreck look tame, make Hurricane Katrina look like a summer breeze, make?well, you get the idea.
Eleanor Roosevelt said 50 years ago; “We must prevent human tragedy rather than run around trying to save ourselves after an event has already occurred. Unfortunately, history clearly shows that we arrive at catastrophe by failing to meet the situation, by failing to act when we should have acted. The opportunity passes us by and the next disaster is always more difficult and compounded than the last one.”
Do you think Mexico’s leaders will take action to prevent a catastrophe? After you laugh or groan, think again!
"It is perhaps unsurprising that the biggest metropolis in the Western hemisphere is confronting problems with its water supply — and becoming an alaarming cautionary tale for other megacities," Grillo reported. "Scientists have been talking for years about how humans are pumping up too much water while ripping apart too many forests, and warning that the vital liquid could become the next commodity nations are fighting over with tanks and bombers."
“Housewife Graciela Martinez, 44, complains that the smell of her bathroom — uused by her family of eight ? had forced them all outside.”We have got no toilets, I can't wash my children, I can't cook, I can't clean the mess off the floor," Martinez said. "And the worst thing is, we have got almost nothing to drink."
Grillo continued, “With its own supplies evaporating, Mexico City relies on the Cutzamala system, a network of reservoirs and treatment plants that pump in water from hundreds of miles around. However, this year Cutzamala itself is running dry amid low levels of rainfall in the area. Its main basin is only 47 percent full, compared to an annual average of 70 percent for early April. "This could be caused by climate change and deforestation. These are difficult factors to understand and predict," says Felipe Arreguin, under director of the National Water Commission.
On top of their conditions, Mexico adds 1.2 million annually to its population on its way to adding nearly 50 million by mid century.
Let’s fast forward to California. That state adds 1,700 people daily via immigration from bankrupt and overpopulated countries like Mexico. It adds 400 vehicles to its roads 24/7. Do you see Governor Schwarzenegger proposing a grand vision or strategic plan for the moment California adds another 20 million people in 30 years?
California stands as the perfect example of a state with leaders that walk onto the railroad tracks to see a train coming their way, but turn around to walk the other way so they won’t see it when it runs them over.
To show you how arrogant or how stupid we are, I inquired to radio talk show hosts around the country to interview with my new book: America on the Brink: The Next Added 100 Million Americans”--
Kathy Weppner, host for ‘Straight Talk’ WBEN in New York wrote back, “Most of Europe as well as the United States are not even replacing themselves today. Overpopulation is no longer an issue. For every one child that we are having, Muslims have seven children. There would be no reason for people here to restrict their fertility when we are not even having enough children to replace themselves.”
I can hardly believe the sheer stupidity of people in high places! Another piece published in USA Today titled “Bring on the Baby Boom” by Laura Vanderkam. She celebrated unending population expansion and the editors of USA Today supported her.
I wrote an immediate rebuttal and I invite you to write one to flood their offices with a reality check. You may use mine as a template. Send to: [email protected]
Dear USA Today:
Re: Bring on the Baby Boom by Laura Vanderkam
Which century do you live in to publish such an irresponsible article like “Bring on the Baby Boom”? The US faces horrific water shortages from California to Georgia. We suffer energy crises, toxic air over our cities, climate change and gridlock. What do you use for brains?oatmeal? With over 306 million people in the USA devouuring resources and as the third fastest growing first world country, we wreak upon the natural world. We pollute our land, air and water with 72,000 chemicals 24/7. For every American added, we destroy 12.6 acres of land to support that person. With a projected population increase in the US of 100 million in 30 years, we will see 1.26 billion acres of habitat destroyed. Where, pray tell, will the animals find a place to live and procreate? If USA Today publishes such insane articles, you need to publish someone with a brain to write a rebuttal. We need to face up to facts that we cannot keep expanding the USA out of its ability to feed, water and house its own citizens.
Your phone number
If we keep turning our backs to the oncoming population train, it’s going run over us as surely as it’s crushing Mexico. Why do you think 15 million Mexicans migrated to the USA? Can you imagine another 15, 20, 30 or more millions from other countries around the world dying of thirst—as they migrate to the USA?
Listen to Frosty Wooldridge on Wednesdays as he interviews top national leaders on his radio show "Connecting the Dots" at www.themicroeffect.com at 6:00 PM Mountain Time. Adjust tuning in to your time zone.
� 2009 Frosty Wooldridge - All Rights Reserved
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Eat them cooked: An investigation finds that raw flour may be to blame for… (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles…)
An investigation of a 2009 outbreak of E. coli traced back to raw cookie dough finds the culprit may be raw flour.
A report released Friday in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases provides the details of the analysis, from the first outbreaks of E. coli to interviewing patients to tracking the illnesses to raw cookie dough and trying to determine which ingredient cause the illnesses. In all, 77 patients from 30 states were affected; 35 people were hospitalized but there were no deaths.
In May 2009 a foodborne disease surveillance system found a 17-case cluster of E. coli infections in 13 states, prompting an investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local public health officials. To help pinpoint the cause of the outbreak the patients were matched with controls who had non-E. coli intestinal illnesses such as salmonella. Patients were interviewed and answered questionnaires about foods they had recently eaten.
Among the foods eaten frequently were strawberries, ground beef, poultry, apples, leafy greens--and raw, pre-packaged cookie dough. Studying 36 patients and 36 controls from 18 states, researchers found that eating a particular brand of cookie dough was the only thing significantly linked to illness. Although not named in the study, news reports at the time identified Nestle Toll House cookie dough.
After some cookie dough product samples turned up positive for E. coli after testing there was a voluntary recall.
But what ingredient in the dough was to blame for the outbreak and how did it become contaminated? Despite investigations and testing, that's still not known. After ruling out the likelihood of being caused by factors such as food handling, safety violations or intentional contamination, the study authors considered ingredients like molasses, unpasteurized eggs, sugar, margarine, chocolate chips and baking soda. But each of those was also ruled out.
That pretty much left flour, which, the authors noted, is a raw product. Although no conclusive evidence was found to pin the illnesses on flour, they made the case that flour is purchased in large quantities and could have been distributed to a number of lots. Also, it's not processed to kill pathogens.
"Consumption of cookie dough," the authors wrote, "appears to be a popular practice, especially among adolescent females." Need some proof of that? Among the patients who contracted E. coli from eating cookie dough, 66% were under 19 years old, 71% were female, and some told investigators they bought the stuff never intending to bake it.
So let's review: Don't eat raw cookie dough. The study noted that several cookie dough manufacturers told the FDA they started using heat-treated flour, and suggested all companies consider making their product safe to be eaten raw. Because we all know people are going to do it anyway.
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What is in this article?:
- It’s the time of the year to start thinking about managing whitefly nymphs on spring melons.
- Spring and summer crops are being planted and grown. Powdery mildew can develop on wheat, melons, and landscape plants.
- More diverse, minor acreage specialty crops are grown in the Desert Southwest region every year so managing some of these crops can be difficult without local experience.
The latest Arizona Vegetable Integrated Pest Management Update from the University of Arizona (UA) Cooperative Extension in Yuma, Ariz., released April 18, 2012.
Whitefly management on spring melons
By John Palumbo, UA Research Scientist and Extension Specialist
It’s the time of the year to start thinking about managing whitefly nymphs on spring melons. It seems within the last week whitefly adults have become increasingly abundant on melons of all sizes.
As temperatures continue to increase, feeding damage from whitefly nymphs in the next several weeks should be a concern on all melon types.
Honeydew and sooty mold contamination on fruit of cantaloupes, mixed melons, and watermelons can significantly reduce quality and marketability.
Although whitefly numbers have been low up to now, pest control advisers should not be complacent in their monitoring and sampling. With the warmer weather, numbers are likely to increase rapidly in the next few weeks.
Our research has shown that to prevent melon yield and quality loss a foliar insecticide treatment should be applied when a threshold of two adult whiteflies per leaf is exceeded. By timing sprays based on the adult threshold, immature populations should just be starting to colonize.
Applying foliar sprays at this stage in population development has been shown to significantly reduce the chance of yield and quality losses during harvest.
This threshold applies for the insect growth regulators Courier, Knack, and Oberon; the neonicotinoids including Assail and Venom; and synergized pyrethroids.
Note, CYSDV is not generally known to limit yield on spring melons. However, research to date suggests that fall melons may be at greater risk of CYSDV infection when planted in areas where CYSDV symptoms were found on late spring melons.
When practical, it is advisable to keep whitefly populations low on spring melons. This will also prevent potential dispersal in cotton later in June and July.
Remember: “When in doubt - Scout.”
Contact Palumbo: (928) 782-3836 or [email protected].
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Books about Bullies and Bullying for Teens
Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard : Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying by Sameer Hinduja (2009)
Focusing on how technology can facilitate or magnify bullying behavior, this resource provides proactive strategies, current research, and legal rulings to protect students from cyberbullying.
A guide for parents and educators offers advice on recognizing bullying behavior while making suggestions on how to appropriately discipline bullies, protect children, and formulate constructive school and community practices.
Bullying: Deal With It Before Push Comes to Shove By Elaine Slavens (2003)
Offers advice on how to deal with bullying, for targets, bullies, and witnesses.
Bullying : Replies, Rebuttals, Confessions, and Catharsis : an Intergenerational and Multicultural Anthology edited by Magdalena Gómez and María Luisa Arroyo (2012)
Springfield community leaders and activists Gómez and Arroyo worked with children, teenagers, and parents—both the victims and the bullies—to put together this searing anthology of original essays, poetry, plays, and commentary on how bullying has affected their lives.
Cyberbullying by Lauri S. Freidman (2011)
Explores the issues surrounding cyberbullying–bullying through the Internet–by placing opinions from a wide range of sources in a pro/con format.
Cyber Bullying : Protecting Kids and Adults from Online Bullies by Samuel C McQuade (2009)
Before the advent of the widespread use of the internet, bullying was confined to school grounds, classrooms, and backyards. Now, the virulence of bullying has taken on new meaning, as bullies take to the web to intimidate, harrass, embarrass, and offend others. Through email, cell phones, text messaging, and social networking sites, bullies can carry out their bullying in many cases without ever having to confront their victims, and often without consequence.
Dear Bully: Seventy Authors Tell Their Stories edited by Carrie Jones and Megan Kelley Hall (2011)
A timely and moving collection of personal stories about bullying from authors as varied as Lauren Kate, Jon Scieszka, Alyson Nöel, Lauren Oliver, Mo Willems and many others.
Girls against Girls : Why We are Mean to Each Other and How We Can Change by Bonnie Burton (2009)
This guide for teenage girls explains why girls can sometimes be mean to each other, what to do if you are a victim of bullying, and the importance of treating other girls with respect.
Hey, Back Off!: Tips for Stopping Teen Harassment by Jennie Withers with Phyllis Hendrickson (2011)
Offers tips, strategies, and explanations about what harrassment is; discusses how the behavior originates from personality types; and examines how to deal with the harassers.
I Wrote on All Four Walls: Teens Speak Out on Violence Edited by Fran Fearnley (2004)
Nine teens share their experiences with violence and bullying.
Letters to a Bullied Girl: Messages of Healing and Hope By Olivia Gardner with Emily and Sarah Buder (2008)
Draws on the correspondence between an epileptic victim of bullying and a pair of sisters who started a letter campaign on her behalf, in a volume that presents more than one hundred letters of encouragement received by the author.
Life at School and in the Community (Teens: Being Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, or Transgender Series) by Richard Worth (2010)
Strategies for coming out to ones friends, interacting with school personnel, and dealing with bullies. Advice is also given on how to organize groups such as gay-straight alliances.
Masculinity, Bullying, and Aggression: a Guy’s Guide by Sam Navarre (2012)
Explores the best and worst ways to handle aggression, the facts on bullying and cyberbullying, and how best to handle anger in everyday situations.
School Violence (Contemporary Issues Companion) Edited by Kate Burns (2005)
Varied perspectives on violence and bullying.
Teen Cyberbullying Investigated: Where Do Your Rights End and Consequences Begin? by Tom Jacobs (2010)
Presents a collection of landmark court cases involving teens and charges of cyberbullying–including sending threatening emails, spreading hateful comments on blogs and sending threatening messages using a false identity–urging readers to think about how the computer can change their lives and hurt others.
Understanding Girl Bullying and What to Do about It : Strategies to Help Heal the Divide by Julaine E. Field, et al. (2009)
This book covers the causes and characteristics of girl bullying; outlines assessment, prevention, and intervention methods; and provides an original 10-session curriculum for small groups. (Annotation from Amazon.com)
Vicious: True Stories by Teens about Bullying edited by Hope Vanderberg (2012)
Essays by teens address bullying: physical, verbal, relational, and cyber. These stories will appeal to readers because the cruelty and hurt are unmistakably real—and the reactions of the writers are sometimes cringe-worthy, often admirable, and always believable.
We Want You to Know: Kids Talk About Bullying by Deborah Ellis (2010)
Presents interviews with students who have been bullied, as they describe their experiences with peers, parents, teachers, and school administrators, along with advice on the best methods that can be used to stop bullying behavior.
Why Good Kids Act Cruel : The Hidden Truth about the Pre-teen Years by Carl E Pickhardt (2010)
Why Good Kids Act Cruel is the first book to give parents the tools they need to understand why cruelty happens at this age and how to help their child through this difficult stage. This highly informative and useful book explains the psychology of early adolescent change, the short and long term effects of social cruelty, what parents can do, what the school can do, and much more.
Adam Canfield, Watch Your Back! by Michael Winerip (2007)
A much-welcomed snow day turns into an embarrassing nightmare for middle-grader Adam Canfield when, after being mugged by high school bullies for his snow-shoveling money, he becomes the focus of major media attention just as his co-editors at The Slash are launching a contest to out bullies at their school.
The Beckoners By Carrie Mac (2004)
When Zoe moves to a new town, she finds the line between victim and tormentor is easily crossed.
Boy Girl Boy by Ron Koertge (2007)
Larry, Teresa, and Elliot, three bullied high school seniors who plan to run away together from Illinois to California after graduation, try to figure out who they are and who they want to be.
Buddha Boy by Kathe Koja (2003)
Justin spends time with Jinsen, the unusual and artistic new student whom the school bullies torment and call Buddha Boy, and ends up making choices that impact Jinsen, himself, and the entire school.
The Bully (Bluford Series) By Paul Langan (2002)
Darrell Mercer, a 9th grader at Bluford, is at the center of this story. Darrell and his mother move to the Bluford area in the middle of the school year. Physically smaller than his peers, Darrell quickly becomes a target for Tyray Hobbs, the freshman class bully.
Bullyville By Francine Prose (2007)
After the death of his estranged father in the World Trade Center on 9/11, thirteen-year-old Bart, still struggling with his feelings of guilt, sorrow and loss, wins a scholarship to the local preparatory school and there encounters a vicious bully whose cruelty compounds the aftermath of the tragedy.
Burn by Suzanne Phillips (2009, c2008)
Bullied constantly during his freshman year in high school, Cameron’s anger and isolation grows, leading to deadly consequences.
By the Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters (2010)
High school student Daelyn Rice, who has been bullied throughout her school career and has more than once attempted suicide, again makes plans to kill herself, in spite of the persistent attempts of an unusual boy to draw her out.
Bystander by James Preller (2009)
Thirteen-year-old Eric discovers there are consequences to not standing by and watching as the bully at his new school hurts people, but although school officials are aware of the problem, Eric may be the one with a solution.
Charlie’s Story By Maeve Friel (2004)
After being abandoned by her mother at the age of four, living for ten years with her somewhat distracted father in Ireland, and being mercilessly bullied by her cruel classmates, Charlie Collins almost gives up on life.
Cracked by K.M. Walton (2012)
A teen takes a bottle of pills and lands in the psych ward with the bully who drove him to attempt suicide in this gripping novel.
Crazy Beautiful by Lauren Baratz-Logsted (2009)
In this contemporary retelling of "Beauty and the Beast," a teenaged boy whose hands were amputated in an explosion and a gorgeous girl whose mother has recently died form an instant connection when they meet on their first day as new students.
Crossing Lines by Paul Volponi (2011)
High school senior Adonis struggles to do the right thing when his fellow football players escalate their bullying of a new classmate, Alan, who is transgendered.
The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin by Josh Berk (2010)
When Will Halpin transfers from his all-deaf school into a mainstream Pennsylvania high school, he faces discrimination and bullying, but still manages to solve a mystery surrounding the death of a popular football player in his class.
Defying the Diva by D. Anne Love (2008)
During Haley’s freshman year of high school, a campaign of gossip and bullying causes her to be socially ostracized, but after spending the summer living with her aunt, working at a resort, making new friends, and dating a hunky lifeguard, she learns how to stand up for herself and begins to trust again.
The Devil’s Toenail By Sally Prue (2002)
When he finds a strange weathered stone on the beach, thirteen-year-old Steve decides to pretend that it has mysterious powers that can protect him from bullying and can help him impress the gang he wants to join.
Dog Sense by Sneed B Collard (2008)
After he and his mother move from California to Montana to live with his grandfather, thirteen-year-old Guy gradually adjusts to the unfamiliar surroundings, makes a friend, and learns to deal with a bully, with the help of his Frisbee-catching dog.
Don’t Call Me Ishmael By Michael Gerard Bauer (2007)
Fourteen-year-old Ishmael Leseur is certain that his name is the cause of his unhappy school life as the victim of the worst bully in his class, but when a new boy arrives, he shows Ishmael that things could be different.
Dough Boy By Peter Marino (2005)
Overweight, fifteen-year-old Tristan, who lives happily with his divorced mother and her boyfriend Frank, suddenly finds that he must deal with intensified criticism about his weight and other aspects of his life when Frank’s popular but troubled, nutrition-obsessed daughter moves in.
Endgame By Nancy Garden (2006)
Fifteen-year-old Gray Wilton, bullied at school and ridiculed by an unfeeling father for preferring drums to hunting, goes on a shooting rampage at his high school.
Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King (2012)
Experiencing vivid dreams about meeting his long-lost POW/MIA grandfather, Lucky Linderman struggles to fit into a home life marked by a distant father, a weary mother and a cruel bully who compromises Lucky’s grasp on reality.
Exposure By Patricia Murdoch (2006)
Frustrated with being constantly bullied, Julie decides to get her revenge by taking compromising photos of her tormentor, but when the initial success of her plan takes an unexpected wrong turn, Julie must decide whether to be the bigger person and do what she knows is right with the evidence she has gathered.
Freak By Marcella Fleischman Pixley (2007)
Twelve-year-old Miriam, poetic, smart, and quirky, is considered a freak by the popular girls at her middle school, and she eventually explodes in response to their bullying, revealing an inner strength she did not know she had.
Freak Show by James St. James (2007)
Billy, a budding drag queen, survives bullying that would reduce most people to quivering jelly — and falls in love with a football player.
The Girls by Amy Goldman Koss (2002)
When girls want to be in a very exclusive middle school clique, they are at the mercy of popular, but dangerous Candace, who constantly tests their loyalty with games and tricks.
The Guardian By Joyce Sweeney (2009)
When thirteen-year-old Hunter, struggling to deal with a harsh, money-grubbing foster mother, three challenging foster sisters, and a school bully, returns to his childhood faith and prays to St. Gabriel, he instantly becomes aware that he does, indeed, have a guardian.
Indigo’s Star By Hilary McKay (2003)
Spurred on by his youngest sister Rose, twelve-year-old Indigo sticks up for himself and an American boy who has replaced him as the primary target of the school bullies.
Jumped By Rita Williams-Garcia (2009)
The lives of Leticia, Dominique, and Trina are irrevocably intertwined through the course of one day in an urban high school after Leticia overhears Dominique’s plans to beat up Trina and must decide whether or not to get involved.
Kiss Me Kill Me by Lauren Henderson (2008)
Longing to be part of the in-crowd at her exclusive London school, orphaned, sixteen-year-old Scarlett, a trained gymnast, eagerly accepts an invitation to a party whose disastrous outcome changes her life forever.
Leverage by Joshua Cohen (2011)
High school sophomore Danny excels at gymnastics but is bullied, like the rest of the gymnasts, by members of the football team, until an emotionally and physically scarred new student joins the football team and forms an unlikely friendship with Danny.
The Misfits by James Howe (2001)
Four students who do not fit in at their small-town middle school decide to create a third party for the student council elections to represent all students who have ever been called names.
Mousetraps by Pat Schmatz (2008)
When Maxie’s best friend from elementary school returns years later after a horrible act of violence against him, Maxie feels guilty about how she treated him and conflicted over whether or not she wants to befriend him again.
Names Will Never Hurt Me by Jaime Adoff (2005)
Several high school students relate their feelings about school, themselves, and events as they unfold on the fateful one-year anniversary of the killing of a fellow student.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind (Gifted Series, Vol. 1) by Marilyn Kaye (2009)
"Amanda Beeson is Queen Bee at Meadowbrook Middle School. If you’re not friends with Amanda, you’re nobody. But one morning gorgeous, popular Amanda looks in the mirror and sees a very diifferent face staring back at her. The Queen Bee is about to get a taste of life in someone else’s shoes." (From the cover)
Payback by James Heneghan (2007)
Newly arrived from Ireland, Charley Callaghan is relieved when the school bullies stop picking on him and find a new target in Benny Mason, but when Benny doesn’t defend himself and ends up committing suicide, Charley is overcome with guilt.
Poison Ivy by Amy Goldman Koss (2006)
In a government class three popular girls undergo a mock trial for their ruthless bullying of a classmate.
Racing the Past By Sis Boulos Deans (2001)
After his cruel father’s death, Ricky Gordon, still haunted by the brutal beatings and harsh arguments, realizes that he can no longer fight with the kids that torment him on the bus, and decides to run to school, which leads him on a new path of hope, in a dramatic story of determination and survival.
Revelación by Paticia Murdoch (2008)
For most of her life, Julie felt powerless whenever Dana entered her space, whether it was inside or outside school. Dana thrived on making Julie feel less than human by subjecting her to vicious verbal comments that went beyond the normal high school taunts. Then it all changed when Julie sneaked into her brother’s backpack and downloads photos of a sleazy party where Dana exposed more than personality. Now Julie has to decide how far she’ll go to get even with all the nastiness that Dana has dished out to her. Translation of Exposure by Patricia Murdoch, above.
Scrawl by Mark Shulman (2010)
When eighth-grade bully Tod and his friends get caught committing a crime on school property, his penalty, staying after school and writing in a journal, reveals aspects of himself that he prefers to keep hidden.
Shooter By Walter Dean Myers (2004)
When his friend goes on a shooting rampage at school, misfit Cameron has to rethink his views on his life and his place in the world, in a powerful tale told through interviews, diary excerpts, and newspaper articles.
Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers (2010)
Regina, a high school senior in the popular–and feared–crowd, suddenly falls out of favor and becomes the object of the same sort of vicious bullying that she used to inflict on others, until she finds solace with one of her former victims.
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (1999)
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda’s freshman year in high school, as classmates torment her through rumors and exclude her from clubs and gatherings.
Stuck on Earth by David Klass (2010)
On a secret mission to evaluate whether the human race should be annihilated, a space alien inhabits the body of a bullied fourteen-year-old boy.
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (2007)
When high school student Clay Jenkins receives a box in the mail containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded by his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide, he spends a bewildering and heartbreaking night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah’s voice recounting the events leading up to her death.
This Is What I Did by Ann Dee Ellis (2009)
Bullied because of an incident in his past, eighth-grader Logan is unhappy at his new school and has difficulty relating to others until he meets a quirky girl and a counselor who believe in him.
Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson (2007)
After finally getting noticed by someone other than school bullies and his ever-angry father, seventeen-year-old Tyler enjoys his tough new reputation and the attentions of a popular girl, but when life starts to go bad again, he must choose between transforming himself or giving in to his destructive thoughts.
White Girl By Sylvia Olsen (2004)
After her mother marries a Canadian Indian man, fourteen-year-old Josie finds herself living on a reserve outside of town and becomes a target of bullies for being white.
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Nanoparticles are small enough to penetrate cell membranes and defenses, yet they are large enough to cause trouble by interfering with normal cell processes, researchers at the University of Massachusetts say. Such nanoparticles are currently in use in electronics, cosmetics, and chemical manufacturing, among others industries. Because of their extremely small size, they can be difficult to isolate from the larger environment, as they are much too small for removal by conventional filtering techniques.
When nanoparticles find their way into cancer cells, they can wreak havoc, according to Sara Pacheco, an undergraduate researcher at the University of Massachusetts. Yet very little is known about how they behave in the environment or how they interact with and affect humans.
"Unfortunately, only a very small portion of research on nanoparticles is focused on health and safety risks, or on threats to the environment," Pacheco said. "I am concerned because so many new nanoparticles are being developed and there is little regulation on their manufacture, use and disposal."
Pacheco and her colleagues looked at how two different types of nanoparticles could cause DNA damage in the MCF-7 line of breast cancer cells.
She and her team examined the genotoxicity of silica and C60 fullerene nanoparticle suspensions using the alkaline single-cell gel electrophoresis assay (Comet assay) to quantify breaks in single and double stranded DNA. The team chose these particular nanoparticle types because they are commonly used commercially ?in electronics, textiles and sporting goods ?and easy to work with in the laboratory setting.
"We observed both dose-dependent and time-de pendent increases in DNA damage in breast cancer cells exposed to either aqueous colloidal silica or C60 fullerenes," Pacheco said. "The DNA damage could potentially lead to mutations and ultimately increase the risk of cancer."
One problem is that, while it’s clear that some nanoparticles can be more toxic than others, there’s not enough data as yet to determine the most dangerous types.
"A lot is unknown about nanoparticle function, but clearly both size and composition are important," Pacheco said. "Several studies have shown that smaller particles are more likely to enter cells and cause more toxicity."
According to Pacheco, what makes matters worse is the fact that so far, aside from preventing their release, there are no known ways to prevent the harmful effects of environmental nanoparticles.
"It is important to know whether the nanoparticles are entering the cell and causing DNA damage directly or if they are acting on the membrane and inducing a cascade of events resulting in DNA damage," Pacheco said. "Once we understand the mechanisms by which nanoparticles induce their toxicity, we will be better able to prevent or mitigate their harmful effects."
In the meantime, the experimental team suggests that great caution should be taken in handling such nanoparticle suspensions and that any uncontrolled release should be avoided.
"Until we understand which types of nanoparticles are harmless and which have the potential to be harmful, I think it is prudent to limit their introduction into the environment," recommended Pacheco.
Source:American Association for Cancer Research
Related biology news :
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4. Fox Chase Cancer Center scientists identify immune-system mutation
5. Breakthrough Microarray-based Technology for the Study of Cancer
6. Yale Scientists Find MicroRNA Regulates Ras Cancer Gene
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11. Estrogen-like Component of Plastic Stimulates Growth of Certain Prostate Cancer Cells
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The seat calculator is a rough way of converting percentage support for political parties into numbers of seats in parliament.
It allows you to get an idea of what the next parliament might look like, and what sort of percentage support a party will need to win a majority.
How it works
Party seat totals are calculated by applying a uniform national swing. This assumes that for every seat in the country, each party's vote share changes by the same amount.
So this is a crude model - in reality every seat is unique. For past elections, it's also important to remember that only the proportions of each party's seats is being shown.
- where seats are created, abolished and merged - the total number of seats in the House of Commons has changed over time.
In the past therefore, parties have required different numbers of seats to win a majority and form a government.
To make comparison easier we have taken the % vote share from these historic elections and shown what would happen if that result occurred with today's 650-seat House of Commons. Northern Ireland appears as grey because its 18 seats are all held by parties grouped within the "other" category.
If you are wondering how it is possible a party can win an election but get fewer votes than other parties read this simple guide to a
More interactive guides
Check out opinion polls going back to the Thatcher years with the interactive
Start swinging with the Jeremy Vine
and see which constituencies could change hands.
Or find out about what a
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DGF On Line Series Volume 1
Terrestrial trans-Tethyan dispersals: An overview
Laboratoire de paléontologie des vertébrés (URA 1761 du CNRS), case 106, Université Paris 6, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris cedex 05, France
Prior to its final opening, the Tethys appeared as a gulf which separated the eastern parts of Laurasia and Gondwana. At that time, dispersals of land vertebrates perhaps occurred across the Tethyan gulf, but data are very poor and this part of the history is not dealt with here. The western advance of the Tethys led to the completion of its opening during the late Jurassic, apparently during the Kimmeridgian ( Cecca et al., 1993). However, before this completion, epicontinental seas linked the Pacific Ocean and the Tethys on the site of Central America; they permitted exchanges of marine faunas between these two realms. In other words, as far as terrestrial faunas are concerned, the Tethys barrier was in place before the Kimmeridgian, at least as early as the Callovian (Enay et al., 1993).
Although fully opened, during the latest Jurassic the Tethys was still very narrow in its western part. After the opening, crossings occurred several times on various places. Four stages may be distinguished in the history of these crossings: (1) after the final opening, up to the Santonian, the Tethys acted as an efficient barrier, (2) from the Campanian to the Palaeocene, trans-Tethyan crossings occurred on three sites, (3) no crossing occurred during the Oligocene, and (4) from the early Miocene onward, present trans-Tethyan connections have arisen. It should be noted that from seemingly the latest Cretaceous, the Tethys has progressively broken up and it has been no longer recognizable as such. However, marine areas have still separated Laurasian from Gondwanan continents.
Campanian-Palaeocene: trans-Tethyan land routes
Trans-Tethyan dispersals by land vertebrates: the main events
The Tethys barrier (Kimmeridgian-Santonian)
During this period, rare faunas are reported to be common to Laurasian and Gondwanan areas. The record of terrestrial vertebrates from the late Jurassic is poor. Nevertheless, four dinosaur genera are shared by latest Jurassic faunas from both Gondwana and Laurasia (Russell, 1993). In North America, they come from the Kimmeridgian or Tithonian of the Morrison Formation (U.S.A.) whereas in Africa they are known in the Kimmeridgian of Tendaguru, Tanzania. A mammal family, the Peramuridae is also known on both sides of the Tethys during the Jurassic: at Tendaguru and in the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian of Europe. However, because of the age of these fossils, which is very close to that of the final opening, these distributions may result from vicariance, more especially as Peramuridae were possibly present in the middle Jurassic of Europe. But, if dispersal events were implied, various land routes appear to have been possible in the western Tethyan area: Africa-South America-North America, Africa-Europe-North America, or even a direct route Africa-North America. Anyhow, the direction of the dispersals, if any, remains unknown.
A similar problem, either vicariance or dispersal, muddles the early Cretaceous history (Le Loeuff, manuscript). During the Berriasian and Valanginian, only mammals, the Spalacotheriidae give evidence of possible trans-Tethyan dispersals (Berriasian of Morocco and Berriasian or Valanginian of England). But, Spalacotheriidae are also known from the late Jurassic of Laurasia; therefore, vicariance cannot be ruled out.
From the Hauterivian to the Albian, a few possible dispersals are documented by rare dinosaurs. A few dinosaurs from the Hauterivian-Barremian interval could argue for dispersals. They are a titanosaurid from England (the family is of Gondwanan origin), iguanodontids known in North America and Europe at that time and which also occur in the Aptian of Africa, spinosaurids present in the Barremian of Europe and later in Africa (Cenomanian). However, Titanosauridae are known as early as the late Jurassic, that is as far as they are concerned vicariance cannot be excluded. As for Iguanodontidae and Spinosauridae, dispersals appear more probable (but they are not ascertained), apparently from Europe to Africa owing to the Mediterranean seuil (a seuil is a narrow oceanic zone partly occluded by small parts of continents, platforms...; Vrielynck et al., 1994).
As mentioned above, the presence of Spinosauridae in the Cenomanian of Africa could result from a dispersal of northern origin which took place during the early Cretaceous. Caudate amphibians from the Cenomanian of Africa apparently represent a Gondwanan subgroup of Sirenidae (Evans et al., 1996) which are primarily Laurasian (North American). Their presence in Africa is seemingly the result of a dispersal which could have taken place during either the Cenomanian or the early Cretaceous.
From the Turonian to the Santonian, there is no evidence of interchanges across the Tethys.
From the Campanian to the Palaeocene, the Tethys was crossed by terrestrial forms on three sites: between South and North America, between Eurasia and Africa, and between India and Eurasia.
(1) During the Campanian, an important period of interchanges began between South and North America; it ended during the Palaeocene. Rather numerous terrestrial taxa were involved (Gayet et al., 1992). Dispersals from the south markedly outnumbered dispersals of northern origin. These interchanges did not take place on the Panamanian bridge which was not in existence at that time. The terrestrial connection probably comprised the Greater Antilles, the Bahamas platform, the Aves Ridge which is submerged today, and perhaps the site of the present Lesser Antilles. Apparently, this route was not absolutely continuous.
(2) At the same period, various land vertebrates of Gondwanan origin reached southern Europe (Buffetaut, 1989; Le Loeuff, 1991). During the Campanian and Maastrichtian, these immigrants from the south were reptiles. Some mammals also dispersed between Europe and Africa during the latest Maastrichtian and the Palaeocene (Gheerbrant, 1990). As for mammals only, some interchanges extended in the Eocene. Whereas dispersals of reptiles were only of southern origin, mammals dispersed in both directions. These interchanges took place on the Mediterranean seuil which afforded a probably discontinuous route.
(3) By the late Maastrichtian, a terrestrial connection linked India to Asia. This is evidenced by the presence in the late Maastrichtian of India of taxa of Laurasian origin (Rage and Jaeger, 1995). Among them, Amphibia (Pelobatidae and Discoglossidae) appear to be highly significant because salt water forms a full barrier to their dispersals. Palaeomagnetic data corroborate that India was already connected to Asia by Cretaceous/Tertiary times (Klootwijk et al., 1992). This has been a final connection, although geographically different from the present one. The main part of the connection was seemingly made by the present Southeastern Asia which occupied a more western position (Rage, 1988) and the structure of which was different from the present one (Jaeger et al., 1989).
It may be wondered whether the Asia-India route reached Madagascar at that time. This hypothesis rests only on the distribution of a few living reptiles (Iguanidae and Boinae); it remains flimsy. A pachycepalosaurid dinosaur is the only fossil evidence of a Cretaceous dispersal of Laurasian origin to Madagascar (Sues and Taquet, 1979); if this fossil actually comes from the late Cretaceous of Madagascar, neither the route nor the age of the dispersal can be established.
Oligocene: Absence of interchanges
After the last interchanges of the Eocene, no crossings of the Tethys can be evidenced during Oligocene times.
The modern connections
(1) The final Eurasia-Africa connection: The collision between Eurasia and the Arabo-African plate was initiated by the Oligocene, but interchanges of terrestrial faunas between these two continents have begun only during the early Miocene, on the site of the present Middle East (Bernor et al., 1987). (Another miocene connection, of very short duration, linked Europe and Africa on the site of Gibraltar, during the Messinian. The interchanges were of limited geographic range, the dispersants remained in restricted areas on both sides).
(2) The collision between Autralia and Southeastern Asia has apparently begun during the middle Miocene. At the same time, the Indonesian-Australian seuil appeared which provided a possible route between Australia and Asia. Prior to the collision, continental fragments were scattered between Asia and Australia, they apparently permitted the first exchanges (from Asia to Australia only). The first Asian immigrant into Australia was a bat from the early Eocene of Australia (Hand et al., 1994); obviously this is not significant. The first true terrestrial immigrants in Australia appear to have been pythons (boid snakes), known in the late Oligocene or early Miocene of Australia. Exchanges between Asia and Australia have never been important; only dispersals from Asia to Australia are recorded. The Asia-Australia connection is still in its initial stages.
(3) Finally, the last trans-Tethyan route, the Panamanian land bridge, appeared during the Pliocene. South America and North America were separated since the Palaeocene. Here, the first terrestrial interchanges have begun during the middle/late Pliocene. They were heralded by a few immigrants (in both directions) during the middle/late Miocene which probably crossed through water gaps.
Bernor, R.L., Brunet, M., Ginsburg, L., Mein, P., Pickford, M., Rögl, R., Sen, S., Steininger, F. & Thomas, H. 1987: A consideration of some major topics concerning Old World Miocene mammalian chronology, migrations and paleogeography. Geobios 20, 431-439.
Buffetaut, E. 1989: Archosaurian reptiles with Gondwanan affinities in the Upper Cretaceous of Europe. Terra Nova 1, 69-74.
Cecca, F., Azema J., Fourcade E., Baudin F., Guiraud R. & De Wever P. 1993: Early Kimmeridgian palaeoenvironments (146-144 Ma). In Dercourt J., Ricou, L.E. & Vrielynck, B. (eds.): Atlas Tethys palaeoenvironmental maps. Maps. BEICIP-FRANLAB, Rueil-Malmaison.
Enay R., Guiraud, R., Ricou, L.E., Mangold, C., Thierry, J., Cariou, E., Bellion, Y. & Dercourt, J. 1993: Callovian (162 to 158 Ma). In Dercourt J., Ricou, L.E. & Vrielynck, B. (eds.): Atlas Tethys palaeoenvironmental maps. Explanatory notes. Gauthier-Villars, Paris, 85-95.
Evans, S.E., Milner, A.R. & Werner, C., 1996: Sirenid salamanders and a gymnophionan amphibian from the Cretaceous of the Sudan. Palaeontology 39, 77-95.
Gayet, M., Rage, J.C., Sempere, T. & Gagnier, P.Y. 1992: Modalités des échanges de vertébrés continentaux entre l'Amérique du Nord et l'Amérique du Sud au Crétacé supérieur et au Paléocène. Bull. Soc. géol. Fr. 163, 781-791.
Gheerbrant, E. 1990: On the early biogeographical history of the African Placentals. Historical Biol. 4, 107-116.
Hand, S., Novacek, M., Godthelp, H. & Archer, M. 1994: First Eocene bat from Australia. J. Vertebr. Paleontol. 14, 375-381.
Jaeger, J.J., Courtillot, V. & Tapponnier, P. 1989: Paleontological view of the ages of the deccan Traps, the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary, and the India/Asia collision. Geology 17: 316-319.
Klootwijk, C.T., Gee, J.S., Peirce, J.W., Smith, G.M. & McFadden, P.L. 1992: An early India-Asia contact: Paleomagnetic constraints from Ninetyeast Ridge, ODP Leg 121. Geology 20, 395-398.
Le Loeuff, J. (manuscript). Evolution paléobiogéographique des faunes de vertébrés continentaux du Jurassique supérieur au Paléocène. Mém. Sci. Terre Univ. Paris VI.
Le Loeuff, J. 1991: The Campano-Maastrichtian vertebrate faunas from southern Europe and their relationships with other faunas in the world; palaeobiogeographical implications. In Buffetaut, E. & Riegel, W (eds.): Nonmarine Cretaceous correlation. Cretaceous Res. 12, Spec. Issue, 93-114.
Rage, J.C., 1988: Gondwana, Tethys, and terrestrial Vertebrates during the Mesozoic and Cainozoic. In Audley-Charles, M.G. & Hallam, A. (eds.): Gondwana and Tethys. Geol. Soc. spec. paper 37, Oxford Univ. Press, 235-273.
Rage, J.C. & Jaeger, J.J. 1995: The sinking Indian raft: A response to Thewissen and McKenna. Syst. Biol. 44, 260-265.
Russell, D.A. 1993: The role of Central Asia in dinosaurian biogeography. Can. J. Earth Sci. 30, 2002-2012.
Sues, H.D. & Taquet, P. 1979: A pachycephalosaurid dinosaur from Madagascar and a Laurasia-Gondwanaland connection in the Cretaceous. Nature 279, 633-635.
Vrielynck, B., Dercourt, J. & Cottereau, N. 1994: Des seuils lithosphériques dans la Téthys. C.R. Acad. Sci. Paris 318, II, 1677-1685.
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Computer Number Systems
binary - octal -
decimal - hexadecimal
All computers do the amazing things that they do by simply manipulating
ones and zeros. Computers can only do binary (base 2) arithmetic. You must be able to use
the binary number system in order to appreciate how the computer works. Since the computer works with the binary number system and since it is relatively easy to convert hexadecimal (base 16) and octal numbers (base 8) into binary, computer scientists need to be familiar with the octal and hexadecimal number systems.
I. Numbering Systems
- Decimal System
- base 10
- valid digits - 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
- Binary System
- base 2
- valid digits - 0, 1
- Octal System
- base 8
- valid digits - 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
- Hexadecimal System
- base 16
- valid digits - 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F
- A refers to decimal 10, B refers to decimal 11, etc.
II. To convert a number in a base other than 10 to base 10
- Easy way: If you need to convert 345 (base 8) to decimal, you would label
the three columns as the 1's, 8's, and 64's columns from right to left.
Then, you would multiply the digits by these column labels and compute the
sum of the 3 products. Since a 3 is in the 64's column, you multiply to obtain
192. Since 4 is in the 8's column, you multiply 4 x 8 to get 32. Then add
32 to the 192 from the step before to get a running total of 224. Finally,
since a 5 is in the 1's column, multiply 1 x 5 to get the product of 5 and
add it to the running toal of 224 to get 229. That final value, 229, is the
decimal equivalent to the original number 345 (base 8).
View an example - binary to decimal
: octal to decimal : hex
- Formal way: Expand the number 345 (base 8) into expanded form. Expanded
form is written as
(3 x 82) + ( 4 x 81)
+ (5 x 80) = 229
View an example: binary to decimal
- octal to decimal -hex
III. To convert a decimal number into a base other than 10
- Write out the powers in the other base starting at the power of 0 until
you reach a number higher than the given number.
- Divide the highest power of the base that can divided at least once into
the given number.
- Put the quotient of that division into a column that will eventually be
the leftmost digit of the final answer.
- Continue steps 2 & 3 using the remainder of the previous division but
add each successive quotient to the right of previous quotients in the final
View an example: decimal to binary -
decimal to octal - decimal
Computer Number System Worksheets
CNS Worksheet #1 (addition)
CNS Worksheet #2 (bin/oct/hex to decimal conversion)
CNS Worksheet #3 (decimal to bin/oct/hex conversion)
CNS Worksheet #4 (addition, subtraction, conversion,
& bin/hex conversion)
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Twenty Reasons for Total Abstinence from Slave-Labour Produce
An undated post-1852 tract published in London by US social activist Elihu Burritt concerning reasons to support the Free Produce movement against consumption of goods produced by slave labor. Digitized by the Antislavery Literature Project.
Elihu Burritt (1810-1879) was a blacksmith, grocer, linguist, lecturer, writer, journalist, social activist, anti-war organizer, and US consul to England. Massachusetts governor Edward Everett dubbed Burritt “the learned blacksmith” – a title he disliked – and he reputedly memorized some 30 languages. Burritt originally emerged as a New England working-class wunderkind and model of tireless self-education. He became deeply involved in abolitionism, temperance, and peace activism. He joined and began working with the American Peace Society in 1843.
For a decade beginning in 1846 Burritt lived in England. In 1847, Burritt established the League of Universal Brotherhood as an international peace organization. The ‘peace conventions’ he organized in England and Europe drew large attendance and Burritt came to enjoy considerably more stature abroad than in the United States. His ideas, expressed in dozens of books and essays, have been credited as providing impetus to the development of modern international jurisprudence. Burritt was rare among social reformers of the era for achieving a sustained career on both sides of the Atlantic. He died in retirement in New Britain, Connecticut.
The journals Burritt edited or co-edited included The Literary Geminae (1839-1840), The Advocate of Peace and Universal Brotherhood (1846), Bond of Brotherhood (1846-1850), Burritt’s Citizen of the World (1855-1856), and a pacifist antislavery journal The North and South (1858-1859).
This undated brief tract was published in London sometime after 1852, based on internal evidence. The tract supports the Free Produce movement, which sought to provide antislavery consumers with goods that did not rely on slave labour (see also Elias Hicks, Observations on the Slavery of the Africans and Their Descendants and on the Use of the Produce of Their Labour). Burritt argues that all products of slave labor bear a taint of crime and guilt. For a Christian, he states, these products represent sin, so that practice must square with profession. A boycott of the products of slavery does not involve government action, but rather “It involves nothing but the free, voluntary legislation of the individual conscience upon articles of household or personal consumption.” (1) Burritt was convinced that the operation of conscience on the market would solve the issue of slavery. Were this boycott to be successful in Great Britain, he suggests, three-fourths of US slaves would lapse into unemployment and cause their owners bankruptcy. (2) He optimistically views US slavery as being in decline and the Free Produce movement as growing in its ability to provide British consumers with goods from free labour. Burritt concludes by observing that with the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a book “that seems to bear the impress of a Divine mission” (4), there has been a rise in public sentiment against slavery such that will result in its quick overthrow.
For further on Burritt, see Elihu Burritt: Crusader for Brotherhood, Peter Tolis (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1969), and The Learned Blacksmith: The Letters and Journals of Elihu Burritt, Merle Curti (New York: Wilson-Erickson, 1937).
- Joe Lockard
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The Effects of Third-Hand Smoke
Third-hand smoke is a new name for an old problem: smoke particles that linger on hair, skin, clothes, furniture, carpet and toys, long after the smoker has butted out. Third-hand smoke contains the same toxic chemicals – such as lead and arsenic – as second-hand smoke.
Third-hand smoke can harm infants and babies
Even if a person makes an effort to avoid second-hand fumes by smoking alone or out a car window, they are still endangering others, especially kids. Small children are exposed to third-hand smoke when they are held by someone who was smoking, through breathing in smoke particles on hair and clothes. When they crawl or play on contaminated surfaces, their hands may pick up toxic residue, which ends up in their mouths.
Babies and children are particularly vulnerable to third-hand smoke because they breathe faster than adults and thus absorb more of the harmful chemicals. Their immature immune systems also make small children less able to fight off toxic pollution.
The term “third-hand smoke” garnered media attention when it appeared in a 2009 study published in the journal Pediatrics.
Study authors surveyed 1,500 U.S. households to learn about attitudes toward the health risks of third-hand smoke. They found that 65 per cent of non-smokers and 43 per cent of smokers surveyed agreed that this kind of residual smoke can harm children.
Third-hand smoke avoidance
• Don’t allow smoking in your home and car. Remember that opening a window, running a fan or air purifier, or smoking near the chimney will not get rid of second- or third-hand smoke.
• Keep your child away from any place where people usually smoke – even if they don’t smoke while your child is there.
• If you smoke – quit. Your child will be healthier if you do.
• If you won’t quit smoking, smoke outdoors. Wash your hands after smoking.
• If you live with a smoker, support the person’s efforts to quit.
First published in Breathing Space, a supplement of Allergic Living magazine, Spring 2009.
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As if to highlight the recent anti-nuclear sentiments – politicians who will no longer have anything to do with nuclear energy – Japanese tech giants Kyocera opened on Monday what is currently the biggest solar power facility in Japan. The Kagoshima Nanatsujima Mega Solar Plant is 1.27 million square meters of solar panels – 290,000 of them, to be exact – which will be able to generate 70 megawatts of power, able to supply electricity for about 22,000 local households, making it the biggest solar generation plant in Japan.
Kagoshima City, in the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima, is one of the few areas in Japan where the sky is clear around 40 days and is perfect for solar energy collection and generation. At the opening of the plant on Monday afternoon, Nobuo Kitamura, the president of plant operator Kagoshima Mega Solar Power Corporation, gave due honor to the location. “We would like to contribute to new development and improvement for human societies through a new type of energy production from Kagoshima, the place where many courageous samurai challenged the ancient political and social regime in the 1860s to reform the country,” Kitamura said. The city government is pleased with this new development, and was quick to say that there are other such resources in the city. “In addition to solar, Kagoshima City and surrounding areas, with their major volcanos and islands, have many possible energy resources, such as geothermal power, wind power and tidal current power. We must promote their use as tools to revitalize the country and local economy,” a city official said.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster has placed a glaring spotlight on the dangers of atomic energy, and many are beginning to see the sense of going zero nuclear. Most of Japan’s nuclear reactors are mothballed right now due to the arguments regarding local safety. This new solar energy plant can be counted as one of Japan’s possible resources in attempting to replace nuclear energy with renewable sources.
[via PC Authority]
Comments Off on JDP Startup Corner: Pros & Cons of Working with a Partner in Japan
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USGS Washington Water Science Center
|Project Home | Publications and Products | News Releases | Data | Maps | Project Summaries | Partnerships ||
9722-9F8 - Characterization of the Geohydrology, Ground-Water Flow System, and Ground-Water Quality of SUBASE Bangor, Kitsap County, Washington - Completed FY2003
Background - SUBASE Bangor is a 6,785 acre Navy installation located on Hood Canal in Kitsap County, Washington. Currently it serves as the home port to eight Ohio-class TRIDENT missile submarines, but historically the site served as a Naval Ammunition Depot. As a result of the historical activities at Bangor, numerous contaminated sites have been identified. Contaminants include ordnance chemicals, trace metals, chlorinated hydrocarbons, petroleum hydrocarbons, pesticides, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB's). The ground-water flow system at SUBASE Bangor is not understood well enough on a base-wide scale to effectively manage and plan the use of the resource. A major problem is that the effects of contamination from hazardous-waste sites on the quality of the base-wide ground-water system are unknown because the base-wide ambient water-quality and flow system are not well known. Consequently, the potential effects of proposed and ongoing remedial activities are also unknown. Other base-wide ground water issues are centered on projected demands for ground water due to residential and commercial growth on and around Bangor. Developing large water supplies may induce seawater intrusion, alter recharge to deeper aquifers, lower ground-water levels, and/or decrease flow in streams and creeks. The magnitude of these impacts and the effects of such development on contaminant migration are unknown.
Objectives - A study is proposed with the broad objective of developing a better understanding of the ground-water flow system in order to effectively manage this important resource and to address existing ground-water protection and emerging ground-water supply issues.
Approach - This would be accomplished by; 1) defining the site geohydrologic framework; 2) defining the ambient ground-water chemistry; and 3) constructing a three-dimensional ground-water flow model to describe how future pumping scenarios will change ground-water levels, how these changes will affect the migration of contaminants on a regional scale, and what effects future pumping scenarios may have on the location of the freshwater/saltwater interface.
WA183 - Water Resources of the Kitsap Peninsula and Adjacent Islands - Completed FY1980
Problem - An influx of about 50,000 people is expected on the Kitsap Peninsula in the next few years as a result of the new Trident Nuclear Submarine Base. This development will require new water supplies, and may increase the potential for induced salt-water intrusion.
Approach - Phase I of this study (preliminary appraisal) will include utilization of the existing data on rainfall, evapotranspiration, water use, ground water, and surface water. Phase II of the investigation involves test drilling, geophysics (resistivity) and additional data collection. These data will be analyzed to determine the present water use, estimate the projected water use, and determine if the local ground-water resource will be adequate to meet the demands of the Trident development.
WA172 - Movement Of Contaminants In Ground Water At Keyport Naval Training Station, Bangor, Washington - Completed FY1975
Problem - At the U.S. Naval Ammunition Depot in the vicinity of Bangor, Washington, the effluent from washing operations which contains RDX/TNT has been lagooned and ultimately leached into the soil and ground-water aquifer. The disposal site is in a recharge area of an aquifer used for domestic water supplies. Samples of the aquifer materials at the disposal site have shown concentrations of RDX and Tnt as have water samples from wells in the surrounding area. An extremely dry winter and spring has caused the navy concern over increased contamination of the aquifer. Phase II--at the U.S. Naval Ammunition Depot in the vicinity of Bangor, Washington, the effluent from washing operations which contains RDX/TNT has been lagooned and ultimately leached into the soil and ground-water aquifer. The disposal site is in a recharge area of an aquifer used for domestic water supplies. Samples of the aquifer materials at the disposal site have shown concentrations of RDX and TNT as have water samples from wells in the surrounding area.
Objectives - A three-phase investigation of the hydrologic regime in the area: Phase I - define the problem and design the work to be carried out in Phases II and III; Phase II - identification of the geohydrologic system and the movement of RDX/TNT in the system using only available data; Phase III - detailed investigation of the geohydrologic system and movement of RDX/TNT with predictions of the ultimate disposition of the pollutants. Data collection, research, and a mathematical model may be carried out as the needs have been defined in Phases I and II. Phase II--confirmation or negation of the presence of TNT/RDX in the disposal pit area and, if confirmed, determine the general direction and area of contamination and method of movement.
Approach - This investigation (Phase I) is a design project, and as such, will concentrate on a definitive examination of the problem and the formulation of the investigation. The resultant of the Phase I will be an administrative report which: (1) defines the problem within the reference frame prescribed by the available data, and (2) contains detailed project plans to be implemented in Phases II and III. Phase II--(1) drive coring of 6-8 holes about 60 feet deep in and near the disposal pit; (2) drive coring a hole 100-150 feet deep somewhat removed from the pit, for tests of aquifer characteristics; (3) analysis of cores for tnt/rdx and nature of materials; (4) sampling and analysis of ground water; (5) measurement of ground-water levels; (6) evaluation of methods of determination of TNT/RDX in water samples; and (7) intensive literature search on all facets of the investigation.
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Humanism and Transhumanism
The name of the movement known as “transhumanism” may suggest that it arises out of humanism. At the very least, it is a descendant of what was once known as humanism, and could be seen as just one more utopian humanism. But the “trans” is the operative part of the term, and it should be taken seriously. Transhumanism is not simply utopian in the same way as the humanisms of Marx or B.F. Skinner; rather, it is qualitatively different in that it “goes beyond,” avowedly disregarding and leaving behind human beings themselves — the very beings that were the central concern of all previous humanisms.
The history of these humanisms is extraordinarily rich and complex. But because transhumanism cheerfully “transcends” all of it, we can cheerfully omit much of the detail here. In brief, humanism meant looking at the world from the point of view and the interests of the human being, as opposed to the subhuman (that is, the material or natural) or the superhuman (that is, the divine).
In its most utopian forms, inspired by the technical possibilities of applied natural science, humanism sought the utter transformation of the world to fit human needs. Marx’s communism, however much he denied that it was utopian, is a good case in point. Marx understood that human beings would change in the new communist world — but he believed that the change would be of their own choice and in their own power. The world of communism would in fact be a realm of freedom instead of one in which external necessity ruled: a freely developed culture that would put an end to class war.
But once it was taken seriously and developed further, the prospect of fully using human freedom to conquer nature evolved into another, and in some ways opposite, prospect: the perfect accommodation of human beings to nature. Consider the utopian vision of B.F. Skinner, the mid-twentieth century father of behaviorist psychology. In his 1948 novel Walden Two, Skinner depicted a community of that name completely controlled by operant conditioning. Everyone in it, without exception, is happy. They have all been conditioned so as to respond perfectly to their constraints, and they only face constraints that are necessary. Living in what reminds one of Rabelais’s fictional aristocratic abbey of Thélème, they pursue knowledge, art, culture, and leisure in perfectly governed harmony (rule by experts, no democracy here).
There is an unintentional creepiness about Walden Two — not just because the universal sunniness of the testimonials makes one wonder about drugs in the water or inquisitorial dungeons beneath the ground, but, above all, because of the apparent absence in any of the happy Waldensians (with the possible exception of the maladjusted founder) of what we might call “inwardness.” For Skinner, it appears that the demands of the body can be met by comfort, and the demands of the soul by interesting things to do and find out about. Not just democracy, but also capitalism, the family, and formal education are considered antiquated. Institutional religion, needless to say, is absent as well. Remarkable also in its absence is the whole realm of reflection about one’s self, one’s expectations of oneself, one’s feelings as they conflict with one’s reasonings, and so forth, giving the book and its project an air of the overly bright, overly defined unreality that one finds in some of the stranger genres of animated film and TV.
Perhaps this absence of inwardness is just what you would expect from this exponent of behaviorism — the basic premise of which is to ignore the existence of inwardness. It seems doubtful, however, that this absence in itself played much of a role in the failure of Skinner’s particular brand of utopian humanism. Marx’s utopianism never got far because the historical process that was to lead to it never materialized: the proletariat just wasn’t up to its assigned mission of becoming the salvific, universal class (as Lenin ruefully discovered, its consciousness never got beyond trade unionism). By contrast, the reason that almost nobody attempted Skinner’s brand of utopia was perhaps because its unnerving creepiness hinted at a violation of normal notions of freedom and dignity — notions that Skinner considered outmoded, as he argued in his famous 1971 book Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Moreover, it seems likely that behavioral conditioning might not have had the power to alter people as deeply as Skinner thought. Stronger tools were needed.A New Science, A New Utopia
Today, stronger tools than were dreamt of in Skinner’s philosophy are not only imagined but in common use. Mind control through chemistry is a commonplace. The infertile bearing children — sometimes genetically their own, sometimes not — raises no eyebrows, and seems to most like unambiguous good news. Mammals can be cloned, and so, in principle, humans may be too. Some crucial bodily fluids, like insulin, can already be synthetically produced. The possibility of advanced nanotechnological machines going inside human bodies, the possibility of linking human brains and nervous systems to computer networks, the possibility, in short, of the complete overcoming of the distinction between the human and the mechanical — all of these may be on the horizon, and the most enthusiastic proponents of such projects, like the eminent inventor Ray Kurzweil, keep emphasizing how soon it is all coming. After all, as Kurzweil (whose name in German literally means “short time,” seeming to imply not only imminence but impatience and mortality) likes to point out, the rate of technological change keeps increasing; we cannot go by our old timelines.
In one sense, the new science is merely a continuation of the old. It continues the Baconian project of control over nature for human betterment. But at the point that it becomes “transhumanism,” the name indicates that this science has changed its object in the process. When the original humanism allied with science, it did so in order to transform the world to make it suitable for human life. But what if we could, following Skinner, change human beings to fit the world? Even conceiving of this project would, of course, mean treating human beings as material for transformation.
The famous Frankenstein story emerged out of the Romantic, originally Rousseauian, horror at the implications of treating man as mere matter. But the failure of the post-Rousseauian project of “moral freedom,” by which Kant and others sought to overcome the “merely empirical” through the power of the will, ultimately seems to have made possible a new science that accepts reductionist materialism as a matter of course, both as an account of nature and of man. Its followers are remarkably free of the kinds of concerns that plagued those who, from the eighteenth century on, were horrified by the notion of L’homme Machine (man as a machine), popularized by a 1748 book of that title by La Mettrie.
A bit of the flavor of the clash between the older view and the new reductionism can be found in an exchange in Commentary magazine. As part of an April 2007 essay called “Science, Religion, and the Human Future,” Leon R. Kass, a University of Chicago professor and former chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics, challenged the materialist conception of the human being that denies the immateriality of the soul. One of those criticized, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, replied in a letter published in the July/August 2007 issue alongside a rebuttal from Kass. Pinker denies Kass’s charge that he reduces mind to brain; mind is, however, “what the brain does” (his emphasis). Therefore, on Pinker’s account, what needs to be studied is the brain, and so is material. Nothing is gained by emotive talk of the “soul,” he says; if all that archaic term refers to is “the software of the brain,” then why not say so and be done with it? If we are computers, then so be it.
This reductionism is not in and of itself transhumanism, but it paves the way for it. The new science isn’t squeamish about man as machine; transhumanism goes a step further and embraces man’s becoming a different machine, or any number of kinds of machines. If that were to come to pass, even if only among elites, it would be a change of world-historical proportions, because it would mean that the new science was no longer merely seeking to transform the world to suit human beings, but rather transforming human beings into whatever they chose.Liberty and Limitation
Contemporary libertarians, viewing society as composed of transactions between autonomous actors, seem to expect that these transformational choices will be individual in nature. But as has been cogently argued by a number of critics, individual choice will probably not be decisive. Once the enhanced set the standards, it will pretty much be impossible for the unenhanced not to have to try to keep up, if only because their life chances, and ultimately even their continuing recognition as members of society, will be at stake. So rather than choices made by independent rational actors, the decisions about radical enhancement are more likely to be either collective or to be imposed from above by an elite, as predicted by Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis, among others. Or it may be that the choice will not be made intentionally at all, but simply imposed by realized technological possibility — a progression hinted at by the spread of steroid use among athletes today.
The attachment of some libertarians to transhumanism is deeply misguided, for at least two reasons. First, the phenomenon that Richard J. Herrnstein got so much grief for pointing out in his 1973 book I.Q. in the Meritocracy — namely, that true egalitarianism and meritocracy tend to produce, through the marriage of the smart with the smart, a genetic aristocracy, almost a genetic caste — would likely deepen dramatically in the future the transhumanists desire, with consequences for the liberty of the unenhanced. At some point, those who celebrate the liberty of human beings will have to face the fact that liberty will look very different when we are no longer merely human. Second, our enhanced offspring might have to confront novel existential threats, such as the problem of an artificial intelligence bent on the destruction of humanity, or of self-replicating nanobots run amuck — guarding against which would likely require the governance of some massively powerful and intrusive entity like the World Controller in Huxley’s Brave New World. The rule of bureaucrats and experts, which has already started small in Europe and which elites seem to be pushing for throughout the West, would probably evolve apace with the rapidly expanding new science into the rule of experts at all levels.
Still, however one reacts to the transhumanist project — and it is probably only a technical question as to how far it can go and how fast — it means that the most powerful weapon in the traditional anti-utopian arsenal may no longer have much power. Every utopia that came before was a “no-place” (the literal meaning of the word “utopia”) because it abstracted to some degree from human nature as it had always been, and so the perfect world it imagined could not exist. Thus, utopias could be divided, as Leo Strauss has suggested, into two kinds. There were the philosophical and theological utopias, those which knowingly described an impossible world but nevertheless used the narrative to focus on certain aspects of humanity in order to clarify goals and to offer moral encouragement to improve. And then there were the ones like Skinner’s, modern utopias of social engineering that naïvely bought into the possibility of radically changing human life by simply ignoring crucial aspects of it as it exists now. Both of these kinds of utopias could be reliably predicted to fail (were they to be tried in practice) because they were contrary to human nature.
Given that limitation, the Baconian scientific project in its liberal form can be considered the most successful of the latter kind of utopia, perhaps because it did not emphasize its potentially utopian ends, but also in large part because it was satisfied with incremental (though unending) gain. Indeed, its dependence on the gradual progress of science required concentrating on the next step rather than the end of the road. But quantitative change can become qualitative, and now the Baconian project offers us the serious prospect of changing humanity in ways that can be seen as beneficial to the beings we are now, but that would likely turn us into quite different beings over time — and not necessarily such a long time.
Why not, then? Why not be the best we can be? The reply to this question used to be that the notion of “the best human being,” by definition, implies limits to what one can seek — the limits of the human. But that reply is increasingly regarded as meaningless. The new answer is that the best we can be means the best at doing what we want to do. And what we want will itself be a mixture of what our restless desires want and what the wanting of others compels us to want.
So it is worth looking at the kinds of things that the transhumanists are anticipating us being able to do. For Kurzweil, posthumanity is about extending power and control to the point where we merge into everything non-human. He says, in his 2005 book The Singularity Is Near, that “the essence of being human is not our limitations — although we do have many — it’s our ability to reach beyond our limitations.” Along the way to the realm outside our limitations, this will mean things like being able to participate in a business meeting in one place while simultaneously participating in group sex in another. But Kurzweil’s true interest lies in his conviction that the pace of technological growth will explode so rapidly that it will bring about a transformation dubbed the “Singularity” (after the mathematical point at which a function quickly shoots up to infinity). In this unbounded future, we will increase our power “until the entire universe is at our fingertips”:
the matter and energy in our vicinity will become infused with the intelligence, knowledge, creativity, beauty, and emotional intelligence (the ability to love, for example) of our human-machine civilization. Our civilization will then expand outward, turning all the dumb matter and energy we encounter into sublimely intelligent — transcendent — matter and energy. So in a sense, we can say that the Singularity will ultimately infuse the energy with spirit.
Kurzweil’s fantastical vision may in fact belong less to science than to a kind of humanistic theology, reminiscent of the last act of George Bernard Shaw’s 1921 play Back to Methuselah, where humans become mere vortices of pure thought. But the goals of power and of knowledge — understood, in a Faustian way, as a means to power — are common to the general forecasts of technological evolution. Infertile people want to have babies, unattractive people want to be loved by attractive ones, old people want to live longer and be youthful, sick people want to be cured; all limitations are to be overcome. And this is not to be thought a problem, because it is just our nature to overcome any and all limitations.
Again, as with Skinner, there is in Kurzweil’s ideology precious little of “inwardness.” This claim might seem quizzical, given Kurzweil’s obsession with maximizing the pleasures available to consciousness, and his rhetorical overtures to “intelligence, knowledge, creativity, beauty, and emotional intelligence,” not to mention “spirit.” Yet inwardness arises from reflection on the self; from struggling with the challenges the world presents to you and you present to yourself; from meeting those challenges or failing to meet them; from working to make sense of them; and from the result of all these things: the progressive unfolding of the self over time. Inwardness, then, requires necessities, and arises in no small part from accepting them and reflecting on the difficulties inherent in them. Even the outward push to change the terms of a problem so that it no longer exists as a problem requires accepting that the change will produce new problems. This lesson underlies the latent utopianism of the good-old American pragmatism that directs us forever outward, solving ever new problems. This sort of utopianism can thus present itself as — and can indeed mostly just be — ordinary, sensible, practice.
And it is just this fact, that a latent utopianism is already a matter of ordinary practice in American society, that makes the intellectual argument about preserving the soul, or the self, or inwardness, or something about us that is more than just control of the outside, so very difficult to make today. If one can no longer insist on the necessity of certain limits, then dialogue over such matters invariably begins to look like a rehash of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, with the transhumanists as the sensible, enlightened Yankee, and the traditionalists as the superstitious, cowardly Merlin. (Indeed, it is striking that in C.S. Lewis’s 1945 novel That Hideous Strength, his polemic against the transhumanists of his day — whom he identifies as agents of the Devil, and to whose think tank he gives the wonderful acronym of N.I.C.E., the National Institute for Co-ordinated Experiments — he brings Merlin back from the dead as the wreaker of divine vengeance, as though he were refuting and reversing Twain.)The Challenges That Shape Us
The incremental character of the changes moving us towards the transhumanist horizon is not a reason for relief but for greater concern. It may seem to be all very well and good to say that we don’t want to go to Kurzweilian extremes but would just like to improve man’s lot concretely. But it is nearly impossible to stop short when every further step promises convenience, pleasure, and greater physical well-being. Once you say, “What’s wrong with curing diseases?,” you will be tempted to add, “Anyway, isn’t a man with a hearing aid already a cyborg?” That is, you will have taken the stance of transhumanism while defending some humane application. Moreover, there are always prices to be paid that, however justifiable, nonetheless become increasingly invisible as technologies grow and spread, even as that growth means the prices become ever greater. Thus it is hard to oppose anything that may result in curing diseases, and techniques that once seemed very novel and strange, such as replacing defective organs, become the new normal.
But, again, following Marx, at some point quantitative change becomes qualitative — and qualitative change is the professed goal of the self-proclaimed transhumanists, who want us to change into beings entirely different from what we are now. What is the likely nature of this change? And what is the price to be paid for technological growth? Among other things, as our lives become more free and less determined by nature, there is a certain cost that gets paid in terms of the value necessity has for us. (As James Boswell purported Samuel Johnson to have said, if perhaps more pointedly than quite needed for this discussion: “When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”) At a certain point, the relation one has to one’s self — which is certainly in large part a matter of one’s vulnerable, mortal, finite body, its moods and appetites and physical capacities, and these things as they come into harmony and conflict with our reasons and longings — would necessarily change if it became a consumer option, one that could be ordered up like a car from a dealer. Our progress would loosen that relation and ultimately our sense of our own identity.
Virtual reality and neuroelectronics likewise involve eliminating the limitations that shape our selves. Aside from the narrow therapeutic case for virtual reality and brain implants to help the disabled, the case for these technologies is mainly based on the satisfaction of desires, the overcoming of boredom, and maybe even, once our nervous systems are hooked into computers, increased calculating powers and the ability to multitask like crazy (in perhaps both senses of the word). We may someday approach becoming what George Orwell called, in The Road to Wigan Pier, a “brain in a bottle,” a being that can ever more control all its feelings and outcomes. Today’s video gamers aren’t there yet, but for those of them who spend most of their waking hours immobile and immersed in their screens, it’s not for lack of trying.
Today, of course, it is still the case that students need to get away from video games and get to class, and adults need to head off to work, at least if they want to graduate or keep their jobs. But if those requirements can become optional, if reality and virtual reality become increasingly indistinguishable, then that Orwellian dreamlike state will become real — long before such Kurzweilian fantasies as a single self inhabiting multiple bodies, or multiple selves inhabiting one body, become real (or virtually real: by that point there will be no difference). It seems certain that this indistinguishability would involve a flattening out, or a relaxation of the tension — to use Nietzsche’s image of the bow — that constitutes peculiarly human existence. To be sure, there are challenges in virtual reality, as there are in video games. But they all have the quality that the late sociologist Philip Rieff already notes as present in modern culture: they are heroic myths enacted as diversions, ironically. They divert boredom from itself and thereby paradoxically increase it. And while they do, through this hasty pattern of boredom and distraction, they simultaneously make it almost impossible to transform the time on your hands into the leisure required for serious reflection about the world or the self. This is not only because distraction has an addictive character, but also because — as anyone familiar with the phenomenon probably knows — it creates a kind of feeling of helplessness and despair.
As an example, I am struck by the enthusiastic descriptions of devotees of the computer game World of Warcraft. Underneath all the Tolkien-esque, quasi-feudal adventure fantasy apparently lies an utterly mind-numbing program of bourgeois accumulation of commercial credits, made all the more tedious by the fact that there are apparently no meaningful risks in the game: death itself just means starting to accumulate all over again, and so amounts to less than bankruptcy. Here is another of the ironies of the transhumanist tomorrow: we are promised that vaunted ability of multitasking, but many of the tasks we will be engaging in will be empty of any meaningful purpose.
The contrast between what we are and what the world around us demands of us, rightly or wrongly, and the question of what we are from moment to moment as we act and fulfill and betray ourselves — these make up much of the intellectual life of the human being. That inner life depends on a fairly clear sense of the separation between self and world. The absence of this inwardness, the lack of the capacity for serious self-reflection, characterizes many of the symptoms of what psychologists call narcissistic personality disorder. So it is perhaps not so hard to understand why the incapacity for serious self-reflection is so often accompanied by a lack of consideration for others. If the success of transhumanism means the perpetual expulsion of the self into ever further immersion into the world, then inwardness would be in peril. However great our powers could become, would it really be an improvement for humanity to lose that inwardness, to become narcissistic? Would that really amount to progress? We would be very good at doing things to ourselves and to the world — but ultimately in the name of what, other than the doing of them?Four Arguments (And Why They Don’t Connect)
For various reasons, the case against these new utopians has had little effect; few people seem to see that our technological motion ought to have some sensible guidance rather than continuing its relentless and blind inertia forward. In order to strengthen that case, let us first examine four of the kinds of arguments often leveled by critics of the transhumanist project — and why each of those arguments has less effect than it might deserve. First there is what we might call the practical argument, which seeks to highlight inconsistencies, contradictions, and other failings in the transhumanists’ vision. For example, reviewing in these pages John Harris’s book Enhancing Evolution (see “Beyond Mankind,” Fall 2008), Charles T. Rubin argues that enhancement will not remain a free choice; or that, if it does, it will lead to a stratification of society between the enhanced and the unenhanced that will make the gulf between Brahmin and untouchable seem like an Elks picnic. Then, he cautions about Harris’s claim that we have a moral obligation to participate in enhancement research, showing the opening that Harris allows for experimentation on the non-consenting. Finally, he examines with some psychological care the likely consequences of the extension of the lifespan to millennia, which Harris calls “the Holy Grail of enhancement.” What would bodily continuity of “multiple personalities over time” really mean? And if it came down to choosing some arbitrary limit to our lifespan, which Harris calls “fair innings” and suggests might be in the realm of 5,000 years, would we be any readier to go after 4,990 years than after 70?
Rubin’s approach of asking the reader to bring the specific consequences to mind has the great merit of slowing down the sense of inevitability for some of the goals of the transhumanist movement. But it faces the classic pragmatist response: “We can fix that.” The transhumanist will confidently assert that we will somehow work out the practical problems of near-immortality — after all, if we’re smart enough to make those problems, surely we’ll be able to fix them. The effect of this response is to reinstate the sense of inevitability, pushing the hard questions further off toward the bright horizon.
The critics’ second approach is the appeal to orthodoxy. Here my example comes from political science professor Robert Kraynak of Colgate University. In a volume entitled Human Dignity and Bioethics, published in 2008 by the President’s Council on Bioethics, Professor Kraynak has an exchange with Daniel Dennett, the Tufts University philosophy professor known for his writings about evolution, the mind, and atheism. In the essay kicking off the exchange, Dennett attempts to deal with the problem that the purely scientific understanding of human beings tends to loosen our grip on our understanding of and adherence to morality. And while Dennett is firm in his contempt for belief in the immortal soul, arguing that there is no more scientific justification for believing in it “than there is for believing that each of your kidneys has a tap-dancing poltergeist living in it,” he grants that our “belief environment” is important for human morale and shouldn’t just be shattered. Thus he is willing to try to understand what human nature is. Ours is, Dennett writes, “the only species with language, and art, and music, and religion, and humor, and the ability to imagine the time before our birth and after our death, and the ability to plan projects that take centuries to unfold, and the ability to create, defend, revise, and live by codes of conduct, and — sad to say — to wage war on a global scale.” Somehow, those qualities, when affirmed reassuringly by “life sciences,” are supposed to establish the basis for a humane morality that science needs to respect.
Professor Kraynak begins his response by contrasting Dennett’s scientific materialism with his idealistic moral principles. Dennett claims that “the universe has no purpose, but [that] man still has a moral purpose”; if only Dennett had the “humility” to recognize that he is actually assuming something like a “rational soul.” Then Kraynak draws out, with great clarity and erudition, the classical Greek account of the rational soul, and updates it by referring to a contemporary scientist, Paul Davies, who thinks that “nature is directed toward intelligent life.” He then goes on to outline the Biblical account of “man as a rational creature made in the image of God.” His conclusion points to a preference for that account. “Philosophy tells us about the rational soul united to the body; but religion takes us into the mysterious realm of the divine image of eternal destiny in each human being.”
In his rejoinder, Dennett says that his acceptance of the “rational soul” is, contra Kraynak, “no problem.” Aristotle is just fine by him, it appears. And then Dennett, with a certain glee, launches into a familiar attack on religion, using Kraynak’s introduction of the concept of mystery to claim that Kraynak must believe that freedom “cannot be natural, must be a sort of magical abridgement of the laws of nature” (his emphasis). Dennett here seems to be misunderstanding Kraynak by conflating his separate accounts of Aristotelian thought and the Bible into one, and one might expect that Kraynak would correct this in his final rebuttal. Instead, Kraynak offers the very insightful point that Dennett’s “materialist humanism is ... a residue of Christian humanism.” And he gets later to what it seems that he really wants to ask: “Why is [Dennett] so sure that belief in the human soul is discredited? And what alternative does Dennett offer?” It seems that Kraynak chooses to pursue the discussion in terms of the soul, rather than by taking up Dennett’s claim that we can base morality in the “life sciences,” because he agrees with Leo Strauss that between reason and revelation, philosophy and faith, “tertium non datur”: that is, there is no third possibility. To take the clear stand for faith is a position of great intellectual clarity and integrity. In fact, it may well preserve the seriousness of a faith which otherwise becomes diluted to the point of unrecognizability by those who seek to engage in dialogue with hardline atheists.
This choice of revelation over reason was what historically always characterized orthodoxy. The effect of this choice, as Strauss observed in Philosophy and Law, was to create impregnable fortresses that withstood the tide of the Enlightenment. But if they withstood the tide, they did not much impede it. In fact, by a polemic against those silent fortresses, which could by design hardly be answered by those who were within, members of the Enlightenment were able to make their cause appear victimized and heroic. Indeed, as Strauss also said, the mockery of orthodoxy did not follow upon its refutation; it was its refutation. And it seems likely that some of the tart tone of Professor Kraynak’s responses to Dennett, a mocker if ever there was one, is because Kraynak knows that full well.
When it comes to the prospect of transhumanism, however, the maintenance of a saving remnant in the fortress may not either be sufficient to answer its attackers, or even be possible. If the orthodox refuse to accept “enhancement,” they may simply become the slaves — or, perhaps worse, the pets — of their (avowedly) soulless, enhanced former fellows.
Dennett’s apparent openness to classical views might appear to provide an opportunity for finding common ground with those critics of transhumanism who contest philosophically with the moderns by means of the ancients. This is, in fact, the third line of argument some critics take up. These are powerful and compelling Aristotelian arguments on behalf of the human — and yet there is a worrisome sense that these arguments are not having the effect they should. One example is Leon Kass’s case for “the wisdom of repugnance,” the famous “yuck factor” argument. It is an attempt to appeal to that substrate of our humanity that is easily ignored because, as substrate, it is simply taken for granted, never paid attention to. The trouble is twofold, however, as Kass and others have themselves acknowledged from the outset. First, the “wisdom of repugnance” is heavily culturally conditioned. It is easy for its progressive opponents to show, with some moral indignation, that in previous generations people found interracial marriage or the eating of raw fish yucky. Why should we, they ask, be in the least bothered by the fact that certain things offend our tastes now? We’ll get used to them. The second problem is that these critics are in a sense right about that last point — after all, if we couldn’t overcome our innate horror of human cloning (the focus of Kass’s original essay) then there wouldn’t be much need to invoke the “yuck factor.”
Properly understood, what the “wisdom of repugnance” is getting at is that there is some inarticulate wisdom in our tastes and that if we reason them away or habituate ourselves against them, we may well lose what we are. The problem is that this will have no effect on people who say (to borrow a line from one of Bertolt Brecht’s characters), “I don’t want to be a human being!” Furthermore, the Aristotelian language which classical philosophy uses is qualitative and as such has a hard time getting through to people who have absorbed — if not with their mother’s milk, then at least from their high school science classes — scorn for qualitative language. Such language, the average educated Westerner thinks, is superstitious, unscientific, and even embarrassing. It is hard for him to give the very form of such talk a serious hearing. Yet the whole argument is precisely about the importance of qualities, so that mere incremental, quantitatively increased control over nature can be seen at some point to pose a qualitative and fundamental problem. It is precisely the power of Aristotelian thought that it makes us aware of quality, not just quantity. But it is hard to get past Cartesian prejudices in making the case that way. Arguments like the wisdom of repugnance will only persuade — indeed, will only be intelligible to — those people not scornful of qualitative language, but they probably don’t need convincing anyway.
A fourth line of argument, which also has its difficulties, is the appeal to human dignity. And here, paradoxically, the problem is one of apparent agreement. It isn’t exactly as if the transhumanists and their critics are arguing about whether or not there is such a thing as human dignity. In fact, in the view of the transhumanists, they are advocating enhancing not just human capabilities but thereby dignity of a sort that many would still consider human. Taken to its most extreme conclusion, as in the vision of Kurzweil, man will morph into the whole of the universe, now made intelligent. That is, our mission is to become God — whether the Biblical one before He creates the world or some Platonic deity that moves in a perfect motion while thinking itself. What greater dignity could one imagine?
Even aside from Kurzweil’s far-out idea, it is striking that even at the level of contemporary technology, advocates of the new science seem to speak as if they believe they are promoting human dignity. To do this, however, they have to alter older views of human dignity. For Kant, human dignity meant the capacity to transcend the merely empirical by the force of moral will — as when Schiller sees the moral “sublime” depicted in the statue of Laocoön, maintaining his poise even while being torn apart by a sea monster. But for the Euthanasia Societies of Great Britain and America, relief is required from “the indignity of deterioration, dependence, and hopeless pain.” The demand for a dignified death of the body, understood as a death without suffering, is actually predicated on an understanding of man that makes the true dignity of “suffering accepted” impossible. This is a point made eloquently by Paul Ramsey in his 1974 essay “The Indignity of ‘Death with Dignity.’” Ramsey shows that indignity has come to mean the suffering of the body rather than the defamation of the spirit. There is a concomitant rise of talk of death as “a natural part of life,” along with the proviso that it be as little unpleasant as possible — the same talk parents give their children when the family dog is put down — indicating that our understanding of dignity is becoming more about ourselves as bodies and less about what is essentially human. Arguments appealing to older conceptions of human dignity will fail to convince transhumanists, and may sound archaic even to non-transhumanists.Remembering the Human Being
If these four approaches to criticizing the transhumanist project are likely to have little effect, perhaps there may be another way in, via the apparent contradiction pointed out by Robert Kraynak — namely that scientific materialists like Daniel Dennett who wish us to think of ourselves as mere potential for transformation still somehow cling to a certain moral idealism, at once denying and affirming human dignity. To draw out this point, we may reflect on the thought of Michel de Montaigne, a non-utopian humanist. As David Lewis Schaefer has shown, Montaigne was very sympathetic to modern science, especially biology and medicine. But he was also deeply interested in understanding what it is to be human. Of course, Montaigne is a notoriously cryptic writer whose Essays can be read in widely differing ways, and so what follows is but one possible (but hopefully useful) interpretation of him.
In the third essay of his first book, “Our Feelings Reach Out Beyond Us,” Montaigne points out that we human beings are never simply present with ourselves. We are always elsewhere: thinking about the future, about how we look to others, about our past and what it means for our future. We are never “in the moment” the way an animal is. (We need self-help gurus to teach us to live in the moment; dogs always do.) Montaigne’s first book of essays explores the implications of the fact that we self-conscious beings are always both what we are and what we are not — because in formulating what we are to ourselves, we are also the formulator and as such not formulated in the formulation. The main implication of this idea is for our mortality. Montaigne engages in what seems to be a spoof of the Stoic opinion that we can take a rational view of our own death. Even as one seeks to conceive of the point in time when one no longer exists, one still implicitly imagines the conceiver as the thing in the future grasping at its own nonexistence; the conceiver continues to exist as a given in the mind, and so we fail, and all the Stoic consolations fail to console.
Yet, by the beginning of Montaigne’s third book, he says that while he is never at home, he is never far from it. We may understand the Montaignean project to be about learning how to come back, to return to the home base of the human situation, while acknowledging that we cannot stay there entirely — that we will always, through reason and imagination, go outwards from it. That is, Montaigne acknowledges the inevitability of that pressing eternally outwards that we find in the new science, but he teaches how to return as well. That this is a life’s project, that it is possible for very few, and that it is in many ways dependent on an aristocratic life devoted to contemplation rather than labor, are all true. Nor can or should we all aspire to become Montaignes. His is a version, and a rather Socratic one at that, of the philosophic life, and it is not for most of us. But in Montaigne’s understanding that we are always, as human, double — that we are always problematic in ways that no other being, subhuman or superhuman, is — there is a starting point for pushing back against transhumanism.
Like the Aristotelian approach, Montaigne’s also seeks to reveal and describe the substrate, the part of us that is essentially human, which we all know about because we are human. Yet it does so not by using the sort of qualitative language that Aristotle found appropriate for addressing noble Athenians, but through psychological observation and specific examples that are graspable by contemporaries without much translation from one rhetoric to another.
Moreover, Montaigne’s approach gives an initial answer to that cheerful historicism of scientific progress which denies there is such a thing as human nature, and which is happy for us to transform ourselves in any way that “works.” That answer is that, yes, human beings are in part about pushing outwards and struggling with limits, but we are also inward beings that reflect on, worry about, imagine about, and at root understand ourselves in relation to those limits. Indeed, Montaigne enables us to comprehend at least the bare minimums of limitation that are necessary for us to function in the world as humans. Without necessities like death, being one person rather than another, and doing one thing rather than anything, life becomes truly dreamlike: a state of being where all reality is virtual, capable of being changed at will, but where nothing really tells the will what to change. One student of mine said that such a prospect caused him vertigo. It is a different form of nausea than “yuck,” but it will perhaps do for starters.
In addition, Montaigne’s teaching about the duality of human beings perhaps provides a clue as to how to take advantage of the scientific materialists’ lingering high-minded moral idealism. It is one thing to show that their moral idealism contradicts their materialism. But it might be altogether more productive to encourage them to think seriously about their ideals — to ask those who still believe in dignity why they are so eager to assure us that we are not simply machines for the accumulation of pleasurable experiences. Perhaps if one could get past the simplistic Enlightenment propaganda about freedom of choice and maximization of control, it might be possible to begin to show how the overcoming of limits is indeed one element of human dignity, but that therefore they themselves in the end really want there to be limits.
It is worth juxtaposing Montaigne’s humanism with Leo Strauss’s argument, in Thoughts on Machiavelli, that humanism is impossible because man is the being that transcends himself or falls below himself. Montaigne’s humanism seems to begin where Strauss’s rejection of humanism is at its most decisive. It is as though he were to say to Strauss, “Your remark makes a wonderful photograph, but an inadequate movie. You are right; man is the being who always transcends, so man cannot be the measure. But man is also the being who always comes back to the original situation of being in-between, semi-determined, of seeking through knowledge or control to free himself from control. Humanism as traditionally conceived — the remaking of the world to suit man — is, as you say, an impossibility. Pursued in full seriousness, it will actually produce the opposite: It will transform man to suit the world, thereby taking us away from that equivocal, double position that is characteristically human. But humanism properly understood is not a project of world transformation but of human self-understanding.”
Montaignean humanism is Socratic but differs from Plato’s humanism. Montaigne says that, whereas Plato feared our hard bondage to pain and pleasure because it attaches the soul too much to the body, Montaigne himself fears it “because it detaches and unbinds it.” That is, Montaigne wanted to bring body and soul together into a whole being: the human being. Such a humanism can seemingly be (as it traditionally was) directed against the excesses of spirituality — against a Christianity that went further even than Plato in denying the body for the sake of the soul. But it also may be useful against the excesses of the body, the body theorized and mutated, the body seeking to transform the world and thereby transforming itself into mere world.
Curiously, from the point of view of the original humanism, the project of transhumanism looks remarkably theological. After all, Kurzweil’s ultimate dream is of men made into gods. In this it shares much with the modern, stridently secular humanism that followed Hegel’s discovery of God in history. And, perhaps more than any of its predecessors, the transhumanist vision makes clear what is at least implicit in all those earlier utopias, even in Marx’s apparent celebration of human emancipation and possibility: namely, how profoundly hostile such ambitions are to human life — even when they present themselves as liberating, improving, or merely assisting it. Human beings, by their very nature, are never entirely at home in a world of things, much less in a world ruled by gods. To make the world wholly safe for man, as the earlier utopian humanisms sought, turns out to be impossible because man is not univocal and, as Montaigne says, isn’t where he is and doesn’t believe what he believes. To make human beings wholly suitable to the world, and ultimately to make them merge into each other, all in the name of human liberation, is in fact to reduce man into a beastly godhead. To clearly see that transformation for what it is — to see the degradation in the divinization — we need to remind ourselves of who we really are and what we really need.
Fred Baumann is a professor of political science at Kenyon College. This essay is adapted from a lecture given at Colgate University’s Center for the Arts and Humanities.
Fred Baumann, "Humanism and Transhumanism," The New Atlantis, Number 29, Fall 2010, pp. 68-84.
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NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has captured its first look at the starry sky that it will soon begin surveying in infrared light.
Most searches for planets around other stars, also known as exoplanets, focus on sun-like stars.
The most earthlike planet yet found around another star may be the rocky remains of a Saturn-sized gas giant.
Radio astronomers have uncovered 17 millisecond pulsars in our galaxy that could be used as a kind of "galactic GPS" to detect gravitational waves passing near Earth.
All together, NASA's Science Mission Directorate supports over 60 operating space missions. These missions are of great value to the nation and help us meet national needs in science, education, and technological innovation.› View PDF (23 Kb)
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|Part of the series on|
Tu quoque (pronounced "too kwoh-kway"), is a form of ad hominem fallacy that occurs when it is assumed that an argument is wrong if the source making the claim has itself spoken or acted in a way inconsistent with it. The fallacy focuses on the perceived hypocrisy of the opponent rather than the merits of their argument. This is a fallacy regardless of whether you really did it or not, but it helps if you really didn't do it.
Alternate names
- appeal to hypocrisy
- ad hominem tu quoque
- you too!
The usual structure of the fallacy is:
- Person A makes claim X about Person B.
- Person B points out that claim X is also true of Person A.
- Therefore, X is irrelevant/false and A is a hypocrite.
This kind of reasoning is fallacious because criticism or objection to the person making the claim does not apply equally, if at all, to the argument itself. Certainly, if the premises are indeed true then source A is likely a hypocrite and should also be included in the guilty party, but this bears no relevance or relationship to the validity or factual-ness of the claim X. In essence, the claim X is being dismissed on grounds of a criticism of A, which is a non sequitur.
However, while this response does not prove that the person's position is false, it can sometimes be a valid counterargument, especially if A makes a universal claim. For instance, if someone says "Engaging in homosexuality is wrong. Homosexuality is not an inborn characteristic, and anyone who feels homosexual urges can overcome those urges and live a happy, fulfilled life without engaging in homosexuality," it would be valid to say "Well, seeing as how you have a gay lover, it appears that it isn't as easy as you make it out to be."
Ann: "Bob is a murderer!"
Bob: "You're a murderer too!"
The response is only blaming the claimer for the same thing he/she did as well. This doesn't refute the fact Bob is a murderer, but only draws away the attention by involving another person.
A conversation between rival politicians:
Politician 1: Is it true that you were at a brothel last night?
Politician 2: You should know better than I do, I was with you last night!
The fact that Politician 1 was also present at the brothel in no way absolves any of the moral blame for Politician 2 (unless P1 dragged P2 there against P2's will). If P2 is lying, he is making a pathetic attempt to switch blame. If P2 is telling the truth, P1 is being a massive hypocrite who should also go down with P2 — but he's a politician, so no surprises there.
Tu quoque in response to criticism
The first common variant of the fallacy is the "you criticize X, but you use something related to X" argument:
Alice: "But you yourself smoke and drink a lot! You're wrong!"
The fact that Bob is a smoker and drinker doesn't mean that he is wrong about the effects of those habits. Still confused? A better rebuttal would be to accept the premise that alcohol and smoking really are cancer risks, but then ask why Bob continues to do them. Perhaps Bob knows full well about the dangers of such addictions, but he may or may not be a hedonist with no sense of self-preservation, or it's just because he cannot or is yet to break from his very own addiction, hence why he continues to do it. Or because he is consciously or unconsciously suicidal, which makes his self-harm a logical consequence.
Another example is how (former) drug addicts who have suffered for their drug usage can also be very well qualified in admonishing others to not get started in harmful, expensive, illegal and addictive substances — sometimes due to personal experience and physical proof of the damage incurred by the drug addiction.
Tu quoque in response to support
The second common variant is "you support X, but you do not totally embrace X" argument, which is often doubly wrong:
Bob: If you like them so much, why don't you go live there?
This argument fails for two reasons: firstly, whether Alice moves to Canada does not affect the validity of the statement in any way; and secondly, health care policies are not the only factor in choosing one's place of residence. For instance, Alice might be unwilling to leave her family behind regardless of the chance for better health care. Therefore not only is this argument a tu quoque, but also Alice's actions are not even inconsistent with her claims.
Guilt by association
This fallacy is very frequently paired with the guilt by association fallacy, so that the person engaging in the fallacy need not even show that the other person's actions are inconsistent with their position; rather, it is merely shown that the actions of some other person somehow associated with that person did something inconsistent with that person's position. For instance, if someone criticizes Bill Clinton for his dishonesty, the common rejoinder is to bring up Bush's dishonesty.
See also
- See the Wikipedia article on Tu quoque.
- "Tu Quoque", Fallacy Files
- "Tu Quoque", Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Your logical fallacy is tu quoque, YLFI
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The large grid of herbicide research plots across the highway from the Arkansas State University campus isn’t always clean and pretty. But aesthetics don’t matter in this outdoor classroom, say the Arkansas Extension researchers running the Jonesboro, Ark.-based program. All that matters is that visitors leave with a fuller grasp of herbicide symptomology.
“We’ve been at this for a long time,” says Cal Shumway, ASU associate professor of agronomy who has overseen the operation since its inception 11 years ago. “This started as a training opportunity only for employees of the Arkansas State Plant Board, a way of ensuring they understood herbicide symptomology.”
Originally, the training lasted for only one day. Then, the Arkansas Crop Protection Association thought the plot work would help fulfill its educational mission. With such backing, the research work has grown from the original 30 plots to the current 140-plus.
“(The ACPA) has really supported our work and we’ve opened the training up to the public. Many consultants, Extension agents, chemical and seed companies all take advantage of it.”
The effectiveness as a teaching tool begins to fade after a few weeks. While viable, tours and classes visit frequently.
“We leave out plot plans (through early July). After a couple of weeks, the plots begin to lose their impact. Non-lethal dosages — like on the yard plots — grow out of any damage. And any susceptible crops are probably dead by then. But the public is welcome at anytime.”
The researchers try to get new chemistries into the plot mix as soon as possible. When a new herbicide comes in — whether fully labeled or a Section 18 — “we put it in immediately,” says Shumway. “We usually don’t go with numbered compounds but as soon as they’re registered, they’re added.”
Researchers from across the Mid-South visit the plots. This year, even a team from New Mexico made the trip.
“Representatives from the Arkansas Highway Department have come in the last couple of years. You’ll see the department employees spraying a lot of medians, roadsides and whatnot to keep weeds down. So they’re interested in what we’re doing. The plots really do provide answers and examples for a lot of different jobs.”
In the project’s early days the plots’ purpose was to ensure Plant Board inspectors were using similar terminology. One man’s “yellowing” is another man’s “chlorosis.”
“What can happen is a mix of confusing terminology that’s not terribly enlightening. A term used in the coffee shop to describe something doesn’t always translate well in a written report.
“An example would be the phrase ‘burnt leaves.’ That’s very general and, depending on the situation, ‘necrosis’ or ‘desiccation’ would be better. Even though most producers would know what was being talked about, it’s better to be more precise.”
That’s especially true since the Plant Board inspectors so often deal with drift incidents.
“We had a bit of Newpath and glyphosate drift earlier this year,” said Bob Scott, Arkansas Extension weed specialist, who spoke at the June 22 field day at the plots. “Thankfully, it hasn’t been nearly as bad as it was last season. I don’t know if we’re doing everything right or if the wind hasn’t been blowing as hard. Maybe both. Regardless, we haven’t had as many concerns.”
Scott, who has also worked on the ASU plots from the beginning, said DD-50s are a little behind on rice this year. Much of the crop has “moved into green-ring, quarter-inch/half-inch internodes.
“That means we really need to be careful about spraying Roundup around rice. Rice is sensitive at two-leaf to three-leaf stage. Then, while tillering and pre-flood/early-post, it gets sort of bullet-proof.”
But once the crop hits green-ring — “and really anytime from then until panicle emergence and development” — glyphosate drift can damage seedheads. And there may be no symptomology until the heads emerge.
“As you’re out driving around, you’ll see growers with late beans and second applications going out,” said Scott. “Be diplomatic but, if possible, make sure everyone understands how sensitive to drift rice is right now.”
With the inspector program a success, the researchers wondered if others would find the plots useful.
“So much work goes into putting this together, we decided we should maximize the resource. For the last eight years, or so, the plots have been open to the public.”
The plots typically feature a wide range of spray dates so visitors will see herbicide symptomology in various stages.
“This year, we also have soil-applied,” says Scott. “There’s been more interest in those. There are over 20 plots out there with only one early-post product.
“We had been doing the soil-applied plots every two or three years. That was done when there was a little bit of a transition away from soil-applied to more foliar applications in Roundup Ready and Clearfield crops. Obviously, that technology placed more emphasis on foliar-applied products.”
With the possibility of soil-applied products being used as a resistance management tool, “we added around 25 soil-applied plots this year. And that may be expanded in 2008.”
There are also plots representing standard yards (mostly bermudagrass with perennial flowers), gardens and trees that are sprayed with chemicals the Plant Board receives the most complaints on. “It isn’t the ‘Dirty Dozen,’” says Shumway. “More like the ‘Dirty Six or Seven.’
“Recently, we’ve expanded the number of plant types in the program. We’ve always had a few garden crops. But lately, we’ve tried to include all major garden crops to see the different modes of action.”
Shumway and Scott try to get at least a couple of planting dates in the plots. The type of chemistry determines when a herbicide is applied.
“Something that’s fast-acting like paraquat — spray it in the morning and there are symptoms two hours later — will be applied one or two days before the tours. For ALS-inhibitors, we apply four or five days prior.”
The researchers are trying to develop symptomology at different stages of a crop’s development.
Towards that goal, “we spread out the spray dates. Again, when an inspector gets a call, the application could have come just days after application or, it could be two weeks. So we want them to have examples of both. Some materials go out with a single application in the crop section. Others go out with two applications.”
A Web site documenting the symptomology plots has been up since Jan. 3.
“Right now, we have 1,200 images that can be downloaded for study. Those are good-sized and high clarity. We didn’t cut back on the size because everyone needs to see the symptoms clearly.”
Shumway, who says the EPA was very helpful in getting the site running, promises new images will be added regularly. “In the last week, I’ve had 27 rolls of film developed. Those photos will be added to the site in a couple of months. Also on the site are several presentations open for downloading. Those are public domain and hold good information. The site even has a 44-page manual that folks can access.”
More than herbicides cause crop damage, says Shumway. “Maybe we’ll want to add diseases that mimic herbicide injury. Maybe we can look at certain nutrient deficiencies or toxicities that may produce herbicide-type symptomology. That’s where the operation is weakest. Hopefully, we’ll be able to fix that soon.”
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The concepts and theories behind the issue of climate change are complicated. Several University of Maine scientists and professors are hoping, however, to demystify, enlighten and perhaps even engage the public in the different ways they claim climate change affects our lives.
The UMaine-based Climate Change Institute will hold “Climate Change on Planet Earth,” a monthly lecture series that will feature specialists in areas related to climate change discussing their research as it relates to life in the 21st century.
The lectures will be held in the Bangor Public Library’s Lecture Hall and are free and open to the public. The talks start at 6:30 p.m. and usually wrap up by 7:45 p.m. The library is at 145 Harlow St.
Next up is a Jan. 14 talk by the coordinator of the series, Gregory Zaro, an assistant professor in the Climate Change Institute and anthropology department. Zaro will talk about his research in a lecture titled, “Ancient Civilizations, Archaeology and Environmental Change in South America.”
Zaro, who spends several months of the year in remote spots in Bolivia and southern Peru, will discuss how archaeology can reveal long-term ecological change and humans’ role in that change.
“[There is] so much focus on industrial nations and pollution, but people don’t understand there are thousands of years of human history before the industrialized era when people have had huge impacts on landscape and environment,” Zaro said.
While Zaro will transport his audience to South and Central America, the February lecture will hit much closer to home next month when Joe Kelley, an earth sciences and Climate Change Institute professor, will deliver a lecture called “The Rise and Fall of the Maine Coast: People and a Drowning Shoreline.” The date has not yet been set.
Paul Mayewski, a UMaine professor and the Climate Change Institute director, gave the opening lecture. He was followed by Steve Norton, a professor of geological sciences who is a specialist in atmospheric pollution.
Although several of the lecture topics are very specific, the goal is to get the public interested in a complex issue.
“We hear all these competing ideas and arguments about climate change,” Zaro said. “I don’t think the general public really understands what climate change is about and how we measure it. This presents an opportunity for people to come hear thoughts about particular subjects, ask questions and hear responses.”
For information on the lecture series, call 581-1857 or e-mail [email protected].
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Relationship counseling is the process of counseling the parties of a human relationship in an effort to recognize, and to better manage or reconcile, troublesome differences and repeating patterns of stress upon the relationship. The relationship involved may be between members of a family or a couple (see also family therapy), employees or employers in a workplace, or between a professional and a client.
Couple's therapy (or relationship therapy) is a subset of relationship therapy. It may differ from other forms of relationship counseling in various regards including its duration. Short term counseling may be between 1 to 3 sessions whereas long term couples therapy may be between 12 and 24 sessions. An exception is brief or solution focused couples therapy. In addition, counseling tends to be more 'here and now' and new coping strategies the outcome. Couples therapy is more about seemingly intractable problems with a relationship history, where emotions are the target and the agent of change.
Marriage counseling or marital therapy can refer to either or some combination of the above.
The methods may differ in other ways as well, but the differences may indicate more about the counselor/therapist's way of working than the title given to their process. Both methods also can be acquired for no charge, depending on your needs. For more information about getting the care that may be required, one should make a call to a local hospital or healthcare professional.
Marriage counseling originated in Germany in the 1920s as part of the eugenics movement. The first institutes for marriage counseling in the USA began in the 1930s, partly in response to Germany's medically directed, racial purification marriage counseling centres. It was promoted in the USA by both eugenicists such as Paul Popenoe and Robert Latou Dickinson and by birth control advocates such as Abraham and Hannah Stone who wrote 'A Marriage Manual' in 1935 and were involved with Planned Parenthood. Other founders in USA include Lena Levine and Margaret Sanger.
It wasn't until the 1950s that therapists began treating psychological problems in the context of the family. Relationship counseling as a discrete, professional service is thus a recent phenomenon. Until the late 20th century, the work of relationship counseling was informally fulfilled by close friends, family members, or local religious leaders. Psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors and social workers have historically dealt primarily with individual psychological problems in a medical and psychoanalytic framework. In many less technologically advanced cultures around the world today, the institution of family, the village or group elders fulfil the work of relationship counseling. Today marriage mentoring mirrors those cultures.
With increasing modernization or westernization in many parts of the world and the continuous shift towards isolated nuclear families the trend is towards trained and accredited relationship counselors or couple therapists. Sometimes volunteers are trained by either the Government or social service institutions to help those who are in need of family or marital counseling. Many communities and government departments have their own team of trained voluntary and professional relationship counselors. Similar services are operated by many universities and colleges, sometimes staffed by volunteers from among the student peer group. Some large companies maintain a full-time professional counseling staff to facilitate smoother interactions between corporate employees, to minimize the negative effects that personal difficulties might have on work performance.
Increasingly there is a trend toward professional certification and government registration of these services. This is in part due to the presence of duty of care issues and the consequences of the counselor or therapist's services being provided in a fiduciary relationship. See also alienation of affection.
Before a relationship between individuals can begin to be understood, it is important to recognize and acknowledge that each person, including the counselor, has a unique personality, perception, set of values and history. Individuals in the relationship may adhere to different and unexamined value systems. Institutional and societal variables (like the social, religious, group and other collective factors) which shape a person's nature and behavior are considered in the process of counseling and therapy. A tenet of relationship counseling is that it is intrinsically beneficial for all the participants to interact with each other and with society at large with optimal amounts of conflict. A couple's conflict resolution skills seems to predict divorce rates.
Most relationships will get strained at some time, resulting in a failure to function optimally and produce self-reinforcing, maladaptive patterns. These patterns may be called "negative interaction cycles." There are many possible reasons for this, including insecure attachment, ego, arrogance, jealousy, anger, greed, poor communication/understanding or problem solving, ill health, third parties and so on.
Changes in situations like financial state, physical health, and the influence of other family members can have a profound influence on the conduct, responses and actions of the individuals in a relationship.
Often it is an interaction between two or more factors, and frequently it is not just one of the people who are involved that exhibit such traits. Relationship influences are reciprocal: it takes each person involved to make and manage problems.
A viable solution to the problem and setting these relationships back on track may be to reorient the individuals' perceptions and emotions - how one looks at or responds to situations and feels about them. Perceptions of and emotional responses to a relationship are contained within an often unexamined mental map of the relationship, also called a love map by John Gottman. These can be explored collaboratively and discussed openly. The core values they comprise can then be understood and respected or changed when no longer appropriate. This implies that each person takes equal responsibility for awareness of the problem as it arises, awareness of their own contribution to the problem and making some fundamental changes in thought and feeling.
The next step is to adopt conscious, structural changes to the inter-personal relationships and evaluate the effectiveness of those changes over time.
Indeed, "typically for those close personal relations there is a certain degree in 'interdependence' - which means that the partners are alternately mutually dependent on each other. As a special aspect of such relations something contradictory is put outside: the need for intimacy and for autonomy."
"The common counterbalancing satisfaction these both needs, intimacy and autonomy, leads to alternately satisfaction in the relationship and stability. But it depends on the specific developing duties of each partner in every life phase and maturity".
Two methods of couples therapy focus primarily on the process of communicating. The most commonly used method is active listening, used by the late Carl Rogers and Virginia Satir, and recommended by Harville Hendrix in Getting the Love You Want. More recently, a method called "Cinematic Immersion" has been developed by Warren Farrell in Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say. Each helps couples learn a method of communicating designed to create a safe environment for each partner to express and hear feelings.
When the Munich Marital Study discovered active listening to not be used in the long run, Warren Farrell observed that active listening did a better job creating a safe environment for the criticizer to criticize than for the listener to hear the criticism. The listener, often feeling overwhelmed by the criticism, tended to avoid future encounters. He hypothesized that we were biologically programmed to respond defensively to criticism, and therefore the listener needed to be trained in-depth with mental exercises and methods to interpret as love what might otherwise feel abusive. His method is Cinematic Immersion.
After 30 years of research into marriage John Gottman has found that healthy couples almost never listen and echo each other's feelings naturally. Whether miserable or radiantly happy, couples said what they thought about an issue, and "they got angry or sad, but their partner's response was never anything like what we were training people to do in the listener/speaker exercise, not even close. "
Such exchanges occurred in less than 5 percent of marital interactions and they predicted nothing about whether the marriage would do well or badly. What's more, Gottman noted, data from a 1984 Munich study demonstrated that the (reflective listening) exercise itself didn't help couples to improve their marriages. To teach such interactions, whether as a daily tool for couples or as a therapeutic exercise in empathy, was a clinical dead end.
By contrast emotionally focused therapy for couples (EFT-C) is based on attachment theory and uses emotion as the target and agent of change. Emotions bring the past alive in rigid interaction patterns, which create and reflect absorbing emotional states. As one of its founders Sue Johnson says,
Forget about learning how to argue better, analysing your early childhood, making grand romantic gestures, or experimenting with new sexual positions. Instead, recognize and admit that you are emotionally attached to and dependent on your partner in much the same way that a child is on a parent for nurturing, soothing, and protection. From the book, "Hold Me Tight" by Sue Johnson, Page 6.[this quote needs a citation]
Research on therapy
The most researched approach to couples therapy is behavioral couples therapy. It is a well established treatment for marital discord. This form of therapy has evolved to what is now called integrative behavioral couples therapy. Integrative behavioral couples therapy appears to be effective for 69% of couples in treatment, while the traditional model was effective for 50-60% of couples. At five-year follow-up, the marital happiness of the 134 couples who had participated in either integrative behavioral couples therapy or traditional couples therapy showed that 14% of relationships remained unchanged, 38% deteriorated, and 48% improved or recovered completely.
Relationship counselor or couple's therapist
Licensed couple therapist may refer to a psychiatrist, clinical social workers, psychologists, pastoral counsellors, marriage and family therapists, and psychiatric nurses. The duty and function of a relationship counselor or couples therapist is to listen, respect, understand and facilitate better functioning between those involved.
The basic principles for a counselor include:
- Provide a confidential dialogue, which normalizes feelings
- To enable each person to be heard and to hear themselves
- Provide a mirror with expertise to reflect the relationship's difficulties and the potential and direction for change
- Empower the relationship to take control of its own destiny and make vital decisions
- Deliver relevant and appropriate information
- Changes the view of the relationship
- Improve communication
As well as the above, the basic principles for a couples therapist also include:
- To identify the repetitive, negative interaction cycle as a pattern.
- To understand the source of reactive emotions that drive the pattern.
- To expand and re-organize key emotional responses in the relationship.
- To facilitate a shift in partners' interaction to new patterns of interaction.
- To create new and positively bonding emotional events in the relationship
- To foster a secure attachment between partners.
- To help maintain a sense of intimacy.
Common core principles of relationship counseling and couples therapy are:
- Evidence based
- Certification, ongoing training and
In both methods, the practitioner evaluates the couple's personal and relationship story as it is narrated, interrupts wisely, facilitates both de-escalation of unhelpful conflict and the development of realistic, practical solutions. The practitioner may meet each person individually at first but only if this is beneficial to both, is consensual and is unlikely to cause harm. Individualistic approaches to couple problems can cause harm. The counselor or therapist encourages the participants to give their best efforts to reorienting their relationship with each other. One of the challenges here is for each person to change their own responses to their partner's behaviour. Other challenges to the process are disclosing controversial or shameful events and revealing closely guarded secrets. Not all couples put all of their cards on the table at first. This can take time.
A novel development in the field of couples therapy has involved the introduction of insights gained from affective neuroscience and psychopharmacology into clinical practice. There has been interest in use of the so-called love hormone – oxytocin – during therapy sessions, although this is still largely experimental and somewhat controversial.
Although results are almost certainly significantly better when professional guidance is utilized (see especially family therapy), numerous attempts at making the methodologies available generally via self-help books and other media are available. In the last few years it has become increasingly popular for these self-help books to become popularized and published as an e-book available on the web, or through content articles on blogs and websites. The challenges for individuals utilizing these methods are most commonly associated with that of other self-help therapies or self-diagnosis.
Using modern technologies such as Skype voip conferencing to interact with practitioners are also becoming increasingly popular for their added accessibility as well as discarding any existing geographic barriers. Entrusting in the performance and privacy of these technologies may pose concerns despite the convenient structure, especially compared to the comfort of in-person meetings.
Some resources include:
- John Gottman's What Makes Marriage Work
- The Five Love Languages - what spouses respond to.
- Please Understand Me - determining personal psychological makeup.
- Sue Johnson's Hold Me Tight - 'Love demands the reassurance of touch. Most fights are really protests over emotional disconnection. Underneath the distress, partners are desperate to know: Are you there for me?
- Love & Respect - emotional needs of spouses.
- Divorce Busting - solutions for saving and restoring relationships.
- Men Are Like Waffles — Women Are Like Spaghetti
- Marriage Fitness
Relationship counseling with homosexual/bisexual clients
Differing psychological theories play an important role in determining how effective relationship counseling is, especially when it concerns homosexual/bisexual clients. Some experts tout Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as the tool of choice for intervention while many rely on Acceptance and commitment therapy or Cognitive analytic therapy. One major progress in this area is the fact that "Marital Therapy" is now referred to as "Couples Therapy" in order to include individuals who are not married or those who are engaged in same sex relationships. Most relationship issues are shared equally among couples regardless of sexual orientation, but LGBT clients additionally have to deal with heteronormativity, homophobia and both socio-cultural and legal discrimination. Individuals may experience relational ambiguity from being in different stages of the coming out process or having an HIV serodiscordant relationship. Often, same-sex couples do not have as many role models of successful relationships as opposite-sex couples. In many jurisdictions committed LGBT couples desiring a family are denied access to assisted reproduction, adoption and fostering, leaving them childless, feeling excluded, other and bereaved. There may be issues with gender-role socialization that do not affect opposite-sex couples.
A significant number of men and women experience conflict surrounding homosexual expression within a mixed-orientation marriage. Couple therapy may include helping the clients feel more comfortable and accepting of same-sex feelings and to explore ways of incorporating same-sex and opposite-sex feelings into life patterns. Although a strong homosexual identity was associated with difficulties in marital satisfaction, viewing the same-sex activities as compulsive facilitated commitment to the marriage and to monogamy.
- Counseling psychology
- Family therapy
- Interpersonal psychotherapy
- List of basic relationship topics
- Relational disorder
- Relationship education
- Social work
- List of counseling topics
|Library resources about
- Wendy Kline, Building a Better Race: Gender, Sexuality, and Eugenics from the Turn of the century.
- Wendy Kline Building a Better Race: Gender, Sexuality, and Eugenics from the Turn of the century
- Lorna L. Hecker, Joseph L. Wetchler An introduction to marriage and family therapy
- History of family therapy movement
- Timeline of family therapy
- Nichols & Schwartz, Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods. Fourth edition. Allyn & Bacon
- Stewart v Layton (1992) 111 ALR 687
- Sternberg, J. "Satisfaction in close relationships", Guilford Press, 1997, p. 344
- Kaiser-Wienhoff Couples Direct Analysis CDA
- Gottman, J The Marriage Clinic: A Scientifically Based Marital Therapy (Norton, 1999)
- Smart Marriage Archives
- Chapman and Compton: (2003) From Traditional Behavioral Couple Therapy to Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy: New Research Directions The Behavior Analyst Today, 4 (1), 17 -25 BAO
- O'Donohue, W. and Ferguson, K.E. (2006): Evidence-Based Practice in Psychology and Behavior Analysis. The Behavior Analyst Today, 7(3) 335- 347 BAO
- Christensen A, Atkins DC, Yi J, Baucom DH, & George WH. (2006). Couple and individual adjustment for 2 years following a randomized clinical trial comparing traditional versus integrative behavioral couple therapy.J Consult Clin Psychol. 74(6):1180-91
- Christensen, A., Atkins, D.C., Baucom, B., & Yi, J. (2010). Marital status and satisfaction five years following a randomized clinical trial comparing traditional versus integrative behavioral couple therapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 78, 225-235.
- Couples Therapy.The Harvard Mental Health Letter.Gale Group Inc.2007
- "Marriage Counseling with Sister Fancy Shmance - episode 2". YouTube. 2014-02-16. Retrieved 2014-02-20.
- "Marriage Counseling with Sister Fancy Shmance". YouTube. 2014-01-15. Retrieved 2014-01-30.
- Atkinson, B., Atkinson, L., Kutz, P., et al. (2005). Rewiring Neural States in Couples Therapy: Advances from Affective Neuroscience.Journal of Systemic Therapies. 24 (3): 3-16.
- Resnikoff, R. (2002). Couples Therapy and Psychopharmacology. Psychiatric Times. 19 (7).
- Smith, D. Clashing couples to get a spray of love. Sydney Morning Herald May 26, 2007.
- "Psychotherapies". www.nimh.nih.gov. Retrieved 2015-11-27.
- Jerry J. Bigner (Editor), Joseph L. Wetchler (Editor), Relationship Therapy with Same-Sex Couple 2004
- Relationship therapy with same-sex couples
- Wolf TJ (1987). "Group psychotherapy for bisexual men and their wives". J Homosex. 14 (1-2): 191–9. doi:10.1300/J082v14n01_14. PMID 3655341.
- Coleman E (1981). "Bisexual and gay men in heterosexual marriage: conflicts and resolutions in therapy". J Homosex. 7 (2-3): 93–103. doi:10.1300/J082v07n02_11. PMID 7346553.
- Schneider JP, Schneider BH (1990). "Marital satisfaction during recovery from self-identified sexual addiction among bisexual men and their wives". J Sex Marital Ther. 16 (4): 230–50. doi:10.1080/00926239008405460. PMID 2079706.
This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia. A portion of the proceeds from advertising on Digplanet goes to supporting Wikipedia.
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| 0.923856 | 3,944 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Philosophy as theory:
Other views of philosophy: therapy, analysis, politics, history, poetry.
Beliefs are graded, with levels of confidence expressed by probabilities between 0 and 1.
To be rational, beliefs must be consistent with the laws of probability. Otherwise, the Dutch book argument shows that they will lose.
Bayes theorem: the probability of a hypothesis given the evidence is equal to the probability of the hypothesis times the probability of the evidence given the hypothesis, all divided by the probability of the evidence.
Bayesian confirmation: evidence E supports hypothesis H if P(H/E) > P(H).
Learning is changing probabilities in accord with Bayes theorem.
Beliefs do not have probabiliies: few grades.
Probability is useful for statistical phenomena (frequencies), but not for subjective degrees of belief.
Hence the Dutch book argument is irrelevant.
Bayes' theorem is a mathematical truth, but hard to apply in real life.
Explanatory coherence provides a more plausible account of scientific inference.
Human learning is non-probabilistic.
Bayesian epistemology is normative, not descriptive.
Agents do and should make decisions that maximize expected utility.
Expected utility (action) = SUM Probability (outcome) * Utility (outcome).
People rarely have information about probabilties and utilities.
People's preferences do not conform to the axioms of utility theory.
Decision making uses multiple criteria, not just utility.
Decision theory promotes immoral decisions: Kant vs. utilitarianism.
Well-behaved preferences can be represented by utility functions, and rationality is maximizing utility.
Games have players, strategies, and payoff functions. E.g. prisoner's dilemma.
Game players jointly maximize expected utility, seeking equilibrium.
Game theory can explain morals by agreement.
Rationality isn't maximizing utility.
The games described in game theory are highly artificial.
Social interactions are appropriately emotional, e.g. the ultimatum game.
The social contract is historically and psychologically irrelevant.
Computational Epistemology Laboratory.
This page updated Oct. 7, 2005.
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| 0.892835 | 459 | 3.171875 | 3 |
But, after all, it is not as archbishop or statesman, persecutor, papalist or antipapalist that Chicheley is remembered, but for his educational foundations.
In 1613 he led a large army against his persecutor, on whose murder by two of his officers that year Bethlen was placed on the throne by the Porte, in opposition to the wishes of the emperor, who preferred a prince who would incline more towards Vienna than towards Constantinople.
A zealous Calvinist, whose boast it was that he had read the Bible twenty-five times, he was nevertheless no persecutor, and even helped the Jesuit Kaldy to translate and print his version of the Scriptures.
The first part of Mihiragula seems to be the name of the Persian deity Mithra, but his patron deity was Siva, and he left behind him the reputation of a ferocious persecutor of Buddhism.
How would you define persecutor? Add your definition here.
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| 0.990318 | 202 | 3.09375 | 3 |
By Noah Arre
When It Comes To Hygiene And Sanitation, Did You Know That
- Nearly all so-called waterborne diseases, from quick-killing cholera to uncomfortable stomach-ache, are really spread through poor hygiene and sanitation practices. But water is unfairly blamed?
- Diarrhea (a waterborne disease) in its various forms is a killer, and causes pain and suffering?
- Diseases from poor sanitation are also passed on in other ways?
- A lack of water causes many diseases and water scarcity is the villain of diseases like trachoma which blinds millions?
- Hygiene is the first line of defense against the spread of many diseases?
- The aim of sanitation is to block all unhygienic pathways that facilitate the spread of diseases?
- Washing of hands is so important in preventing the spread of infection because many of them are passed from hand to mouth?
- Washing with soap or ashes is best, and an essential thing for good health is to have enough water?
- Water for washing does not have to be of the same quality as drinking water?
- Flies are responsible for the spread of many diseases (the real villains), but cockroaches are sometimes to blame too? …the reason is because flies like feeding on feces.
- Flies can travel miles and may have spikes (dirt) on their legs so particles of whatever they feed on are carried away with them?
- If flies’ food was feces of someone suffering from a diarrhea-type disease such as cholera or gastroenteritis, these particles may pass on the disease to others?
- Same flies’ next meal is quite likely to be your food. So if bits of feces are left behind on food or drink and eaten by people, the disease is passed on?
- One route for intestinal worms to spread diseases is through the soil too and this is especially so for children when crawling or playing in an unpaved compound?
- Feces are likely to contain worm eggs and even if you clean your compound, some eggs may remain in the ground?
- Did you know that eggs from worms may wait months if not years to hatch and take their destructive roles when conditions become favorable?
- Did you know that your body provides the best conditions for disease causing microorganisms to multiply and hence prevention is better?
- A tiny amount of feces is enough to cause sickness and a healthy person may excrete millions or even billions of microorganisms every time he defecates?
- Fortunately, most microorganisms are harmless, but it only it requires a few of the villainous ones to cause infection?
- Did you know that different pathogens differ when it comes to their infective dosages (how many of them can make you sick)?
- Did you know that people differ when it comes to resistance to diseases and hence a few pathogens can make someone sick but not another?
- It is often wrongly assumed that the feces of young children are harmless?
- When people do not have latrines and relieve themselves in the open – in fields or the bush, on the roadside and canals or vacant lots, diseases can be propagated?
- As villages and towns grow when there are no latrines, it becomes increasingly difficult for one to find places to defecate in private?
- Privacy is usually more important for women than for men?
- Till today, a common method of dealing with excreta in many places like Somaliland towns is the dry latrine but if run well, the system is reasonably satisfactory for the user?
- For most people the best sanitation solution is to have a pit latrine?
- The pit latrines are simply a hole in the ground to hold feces and properly handled, there is no pollution to above-ground water.
- Disease from pit latrines can be transmitted through other routes such as ground water contamination?
- Feces decompose and are converted to gases and liquid, leaving solids behind?
- The gases escape to atmosphere or into the soil but solids remain, gradually filling latrines?
- Your own health and wellness depend a lot on your community's ability to properly meet the challenges of public health such as hygiene, trash, and sewage disposal?
- When you feel sick, it may be because you have something in your body that is causing you to feel sick, and that something can be germs or parasites?
- If pit latrines have a rough surface (non smooth surface wood or mud) it may provide a suitable place for hookworms that cause diseases?
- Those worms can live in your body and can be passed through in your urine and fecal matter to others making them sick?
- You should wear shoes to protect your feet when using the toilet or when walking in mud or soil with wastes?
- Toilets and bathing areas are places where you may come in contact with germs and illness?
- Diseases that are spread through contact with human waste include: cholera, dysentery, hepatitis, measles, polio, typhoid fever, amoeba, hookworm, roundworm, tapeworm etc?
- Toilets should be built away from wells or other water sources?
- Fly-breeding in pits is a major public health hazard?
- There are different ways of controlling fly nuisance; but the cheapest one is to make a lid that exactly fits in the latrine hole and ensuring always replacing when the latrine is not in use?
- Emptying a recently filled pit with buckets exposes the workers to great health risks?
- One can make two small pit latrines or to divide one into two sections and used for a few years, then the other; and by the time the second pit is full, the excreta in the first pit will be quite safe to take out by hand?
- You can use regular chlorine bleach (Clorox) to sanitize your latrine (kill pathogens)?
- It is better you use only boiled or otherwise purified water for brushing your teeth in the morning or cleaning your contact lenses?
- You can have hot water (disinfected water) by painting jerry cans black, filling them with water, and putting them in the sun’s heat for enough time?
- It is good to paint pit latrine vent pipes black and place on the sunny side of the latrine because this heats the air inside the pipe, causing it to rise and drawing air out of the pit thus reducing odor?
- For toilets, you may pour 1 cup of Clorox into the bowl, brush, let it stand for 10 minutes; but you need to change solutions when doing heavy cleaning?
Basic sanitation and human excreta disposal in latrines (GTZ)
On plot sanitation in urban areas (WEDC)
Small scale community sanitation
Emptying pit latrines (WEDC)
Management of onsite wastewater treatment systems (USEPA)
How to construct a brick VIP latrine
Making VIP Latrines succeed (Waterlines, 1995)
SANEX Compendium 2002
Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems -a brief overview of technical issues
The Blair Latrine builders manual
A Guide to the Development to On-site Sanitation
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| 0.942536 | 1,515 | 3.53125 | 4 |
Sunday, February 25, 2007
On Sept. 23, 1957, nine black high school students were greeted by an angry mob of more than 1,000 Little Rock residents protesting the integration of Little Rock Central High School. Before long, police had to escort the students to safety . This fall, Little Rock will celebrate the 50th anniversary of that pivotal moment. We asked Eddie Gonzalez, a senior program director for the National Park Foundation, to give us the lowdown on the anniversary.
WHEN: Sept. 23, with events leading up to the anniversary throughout the year.
THE BACK STORY: For nearly five decades, Little Rock Central High School has been an icon of the civil rights movement.
In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Over the next few years, schools across the country developed plans for integration; for Little Rock, high schools were to integrate by September 1957. But a few weeks before school was to begin, the governor ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prohibit African American students from entering Central High.
The governor's orders were overturned by a federal judge, but public opinion was still strongly against integration. With the arrival of the first day of school, Central High became a part of history.
THE SCHOOL: In addition to being part of the National Park Service, Central High (above) is a fully operating high school with more than 2,300 students. If you visit today, you'll see that the school looks much as it did 50 years ago. Across the street, the Park Service has turned a Mobil gas station into an interim visitor center; it offers ranger-led programs, interpretive displays and publications, exhibits and programs.
Free tours of the high school are by reservation only and can be made by contacting the visitor center. Info: 501-374-1957, http://www.nps.gov/chsc.
THE ANNIVERSARY: The highlight will be the opening of a new visitor center that will serve as a gateway for the Central High School experience. Personal accounts, photos, a theater, artifacts and artwork will be included.
The days surrounding the September anniversary will be marked by a festival and a ceremony on Central High's front lawn. Check http://www.centralhigh50th.org/ for more information.
March 10-11, the Park Service will present the Reel Civil Rights Film Festival at the Market Street Cinema (1521 Merrill Dr.). This free event will include such films as 2001's "Journey to Little Rock: The Untold Story of Minnijean Brown Trickey." Trickey was one of the Little Rock Nine. Info: http://www.nps.gov/chsc/planyourvisit/events.htm.
May 17-19, the NAACP will hold the Daisy Bates Educational Summit with the theme "Little Rock Central High 1957: Honoring the Legacy, Facing the Challenge." Go to http://www.naacp.org/ for fees and registration info.
Sept. 6-8, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock will host a symposium on "The Little Rock Crisis: A 50-Year Perspective."
EATS/SLEEPS: Sparked by a convention center and the neighboring Peabody Little Rock hotel, the River Market district and downtown area offer a wide range of budget, midlevel and historical hotels.
Offerings include the Peabody (3 Statehouse Plaza, 501-906-4000, http://www.peabodylittlerock.com/; from $140 a night double) and the Courtyard by Marriott Little Rock Downtown (521 President Clinton Ave., 501-975-9800, http://www.marriott.com/; from $149). The Legacy Hotel and Suites (625 W. Capitol Ave., 888-456-3669, http://www.legacyhotel.com/; from $90) began as the Hotel Freiderica in 1913 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Experience Arkansas barbecue and local catfish cuisine in one of the city's many restaurants, including the Flying Fish of Little Rock (511 President Clinton Ave.), serving fried, steamed and grilled seafood in a family-friendly environment. Dinner for two is about $25 to $35.
GETTING THERE: Round-trip fares from the Washington area to Little Rock start at about $240. Once there, taxis and shuttle buses provide inexpensive transport to downtown hotels. Downtown serves as a great home base, with a variety of shops, restaurants and markets within walking distance of many hotels.
INFORMATION: Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau,800-844-4781, http://www.littlerock.com/.
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| 0.938227 | 979 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Astypalaia is one of the smallest islands in the Dodecanese archipelago - only 13 kilometres across and with a permanent population of around 1,400 people.
During Classical times, it was an independent city state with extensive trading links through the Aegean. Still thriving in Roman times, it was described by Pliny the Elder in his Natural Histories and a treaty between the Astypalaians and Rome still survives. The ancient city was sited where the main island town, Chora, is located today; on top of a rocky peninsula. Outside the city limits were large ancient cemeteries which are being excavated by the 22nd Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities. Since 2000, Professor Simon Hillson of the UCL Institute of Archaeology at University College London has collaborated with the 22nd Ephorate in a bioanthropological study of human remains from these cemeteries.
The Astypalaia Bioanthropology Project is directed by Professor Simon Hillson. The 22nd Ephorate archaeologist in charge of Astypalaia is Mrs Haroula Fantaoutsaki.
Each year the project runs the Astypalaia Bioanthropology Field School.
** THE 2016 FIELD SCHOOL IS NOW FULL **
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| 0.954822 | 262 | 2.59375 | 3 |
On May 9, 1754, a political cartoon in Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette depicted a snake cut into eight pieces, each section representing a part of the American colonies; the caption read, "JOIN, or DIE."
On this date
- 1712, the Carolina Colony was officially divided into two entities: North Carolina and South Carolina.
- 1936, Italy annexed Ethiopia.
- 1945, U.S. officials announced that a midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted immediately.
- 1951, the U.S. conducted its first thermonuclear experiment as part of Operation Greenhouse by detonating a 225-kiloton device on Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific nicknamed "George."
- 1958, "Vertigo," Alfred Hitchcock's eerie thriller starring James Stewart and Kim Novak, premiered in San Francisco, the movie's setting.
- 1961, in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton N. Minow decried the majority of television programming as a "vast wasteland."
- 1962, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology succeeded in reflecting a laser beam off the surface of the moon.
- 1974, the House Judiciary Committee opened public hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.
- 1978, the bullet-riddled body of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro, who'd been abducted by the Red Brigades, was found in an automobile in the center of Rome.
- 1980, 35 people were killed when a freighter rammed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay in Florida, causing a 1,400-foot section of the southbound span to collapse.
- 1987, 183 people were killed when a New York-bound Polish jetliner crashed while attempting an emergency return to Warsaw.
- 2003, a camouflage-clad gunman fired hundreds of rounds as he roamed the halls of Case Western Reserve University's business school in Cleveland, killing one person (Biswanath Halder was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison). The U.S. and its allies asked the U.N. Security Council to give its stamp of approval to their occupation of Iraq. The Republican-led House approved, 222-203, a $550 billion tax cut package. Louisiana Democrat Russell B. Long, who'd greatly influenced tax laws during nearly four decades in the Senate, died at age 84.
- 2008, Democrat Barack Obama picked up the backing of nine superdelegates, all but erasing Hillary Rodham Clinton's once-imposing lead. Jury selection began in the Chicago trial of R&B superstar R. Kelly, accused of videotaping himself having sex with a girl as young as 13. (Kelly was later acquitted on all counts.) Journalist-feminist Nuala O'Faolain, who'd gained international fame with her outspoken memoir "Are You Somebody?" in 1966, died in Dublin, Ireland, at age 68.
- 2012, President Barack Obama declared his unequivocal support for same-sex marriage in a historic announcement that came three days after Vice President Joe Biden spoke in favor of such unions on NBC's "Meet the Press." Hair stylist Vidal Sassoon, 84, died in Los Angeles.
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| 0.947727 | 660 | 2.515625 | 3 |
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