text
stringlengths 199
648k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| dump
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 14
419
| file_path
stringlengths 139
140
| language
stringclasses 1
value | language_score
float64 0.65
1
| token_count
int64 50
235k
| score
float64 2.52
5.34
| int_score
int64 3
5
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Educators Revisit Girls’ Loss of Math, Science Interest
Some Suggest Employing Varied Teaching Strategies to Motivate Students
Researchers, psychologists, and educators have spent years trying to decipher the riddle of nature vs. nurture, and when the topic is male and female students’ abilities in math and science, the arguing never stops.
Girls’ seeming loss of interest in the subjects as they move from elementary school through graduation—even as their overall achievement in those areas has risen—has long vexed administrators, teachers, and others. Now, many educators are re-examining the issue, as the fallout persists from comments by Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers on the relationship between gender and aptitude.
In a speech at a conference on women and minorities in science and engineering in January, Mr. Summers addressed the issue of the dearth of tenured women professors in those areas at top universities. He speculated that differences in “intrinsic aptitude” between males and females, particularly among the highest-achieving performers, could be a potential cause for that shortage, among other reasons.
While his remarks were directed at the postsecondary world, they underscored the frustration of many precollegiate educators over what they see as the real issue: the tendency of girls to become less attracted to science and mathematics as they progress in school.
That topic was a theme at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ annual meeting, held in Anaheim, Calif., last month. Encouraging young women to stay interested in math—the backbone of many science disciplines—requires teachers to work to dispel stereotypes about who can do well in that subject and related fields, some at the gathering said.
“Math, as a discipline, opens and shuts more doors for men and women than any other content area we’ve got,” NCTM President Cathy L. Seeley said in an interview. “Whether it’s in science, engineering, or technology, … it’s tremendously important that a person be well-armed with math if they’re going to have options in their lives.”
The Gender Gap
Average Scores on the 2004 Advanced Placement tests show male students outperforming their female counterparts in several math and science exams, in which the maximum score is 5.
|2.91||Computer science A||2.48|
|2.96||English literature and composition||2.98|
|SOURCE: The College Board|
The waning enthusiasm among girls for math and science becomes most noticeable in middle school, many observers say. That disinterest has shown up on numerous reports, such as the Program for International Student Assessment and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, two widely publicized international studies.
At the high school level, boys achieve higher scores on several measures of academic achievement in math and science, such as Advanced Placement exams.
By the time they enter college, many young women have less appetite for the more technically oriented areas of science, data suggest. Forty-four percent of incoming male freshmen who intended to major in science chose engineering as their initial focus, compared with only 12 percent of females, federal data from 2002 show. Fifteen percent of the men chose computer science, compared with 3 percent of the women.
Women showed far more interest in the social and behavioral sciences and in the biological and agricultural sciences than their male counterparts did, according to that data.
It’s not that girls aren’t using math or high-level science skills, some academic experts say. “They’re using it for different things,” said Pamela Davis-Kean, an assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, in Ann Arbor, who has studied gender issues.
Some researchers speculate that young women may shy away from more technically oriented science fields, such as engineering, because they regard those disciplines as providing few opportunities for social interaction. Societal influences, and other factors, may lead girls to value more group-oriented activities and work, those scholars suggest.
Bias a Factor?
Studies show that girls also have less confidence in their math and science abilities, and take less enjoyment from those subjects, than their male peers. Those self-doubts emerge despite the fact that girls, on average, consistently receive higher grades than boys in both math and science.
“Why do they think they’re not good at it, even when they’re getting A’s and B’s?” said Ms. Davis-Kean, who is completing a study that examines math grades of male and female students.
JoAnne B. Rodkey, the principal of Woodward Avenue Elementary School in DeLand, Fla., noticed a lack of assertiveness among girls in math and science and took steps to correct it. After seeing boys outperform girls in the two subjects—and vice versa in reading—on standardized tests, the school, a part of the 64,000-student Volusia County district, last year divided a portion of its student population at three grade levels into single-sex classes. She reasoned that the separation might improve performance.
“They don’t take as many risks,” Ms. Rodkey said of elementary school girls. “If they don’t know the answer, they don’t raise their hands. They want to know they’re right. … The boys will raise their hands, even if they don’t know the answer.”
Some people say that girls are subtly, and often unintentionally, discouraged from pursuing careers in math and science by parents, teachers, and classmates. For years, adults suggested that girls were better suited to careers as nurses or secretaries, rather than as engineers or computer scientists, said Ruta Sevo, the program director of research on gender in science and engineering at the National Science Foundation, in Arlington, Va.
“There are unconscious biases and projections of stereotypes,” Ms. Sevo said. “Girls can internalize those—‘I don’t need math; I’m not good at math.’ ”
Those stereotypes can be conveyed even if the teachers are female, she added. About 67 percent of middle school and 49 percent of high school teachers of math and science are women, according to recent estimates.
As Ms. Sevo and others point out, many of the long-standing gaps in academic achievement between girls and boys in math and science are closing. From 1990 to 2003, girls’ math and science scores at various grade levels were generally only slightly lower than boys’ on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
In addition, girls are now more likely than boys to have taken several math and science courses by the time they graduate from high school, including geometry, Algebra 2, biology, precalculus, and chemistry, according to 2004 federal data. Boys are still more likely than girls to take physics and calculus.
But among the top-performing students on NAEP, the gap between boys and girls in math and science widened slightly. That pattern has also showed up in other research, and was noted by Harvard’s Mr. Summers in his speech.
Differences at Issue
“It’s problematic. We don’t really understand it,” said Joanne Rossi Becker, a professor of mathematics at California’s San Jose State University, who has studied gender differences in that subject. She speculated that girls tend to do better on problem-solving exercises, while boys tend to perform better on the sort of computational and multiple-choice questions found on many exams.
In trying to cultivate girls’ enthusiasm for math and science, some researchers argue, educators need to acknowledge basic genetic differences—namely, that brains are organized differently in males and females. Partly because of those differences, they say, boys and girls learn in different ways, and teachers should adjust accordingly.
Mr. Summers suggested that a “different availability of aptitude” among the highest-achieving men and women was a factor in the lack of women in tenured university science positions—perhaps more of a factor, he said, than discrimination.
Leonard Sax, a physician and psychologist, disputes that assertion. But he believes that distinct genetic differences exist in the way male and female brains function, and that educators who adhere to a gender-blind approach actually end up discouraging young women in such courses as physics, calculus, and trigonometry.
In his book Why Gender Matters, published earlier this year, Mr. Sax describes how boys, during a lesson on geometry and number theory, appear to benefit from a straightforward presentation of numbers from the beginning. But girls use a different portion of the brain to perform those exercises, one that is more connected to language and other functions, he says. Teachers should instead focus on more of a “real world” explanation of the numbers, he writes, in teaching females.
“Everything you do needs to be different, if you want to make math, physics, and computer science girl-friendly,” Mr. Sax asserted in an interview.
He suggests that teachers use other gender-specific strategies. Girls tend to benefit when teachers look them in the eye during lessons, Mr. Sax maintains—a gesture that, he says, can be regarded as threatening by boys.
To meet the different needs of the sexes in a single class, teachers have to work “twice as hard,” Mr. Sax acknowledged. That realization, he said, is part of what led him to found the National Association for Single-Sex Education, based in Poolesville, Md.
But others, such as Elizabeth S. Spelke, a Harvard University psychology professor, say there is scant evidence that differences in the structure of the male and female brains affect the way that the two sexes learn math, science, or other subjects. Ms. Spelke also discounts the idea that girls are more social than boys in their approach to learning.
A Menu of Approaches
“We don’t have a male brain or a female brain; we have a human brain,” she said, “with a whole lot of commonality.”
Some educators, meanwhile, see a need for teachers to take a strong role in keeping both boys and girls keen on math and science. Ms. Rossi Becker of San Jose State, who has helped arrange workshops at her university to encourage girls to stay interested in math and science, advises teachers to offer students a mix of male and female role models who have succeeded in those fields. They should also make sure that girls take an active part in math and science classes, she said, in light of boys’ tendency to be more assertive in such settings.
The NSF’s Ms. Sevo encourages teachers to use more hands-on experiments and group activities in science classes, and to try to show the subject’s potential to solve real problems—an approach she believes is more likely to appeal to girls.
To Ms. Seeley, the NCTM president, a diverse menu of classroom approaches is critical to drawing young women—and everybody else, too—to both subjects.
“When we teach by just telling, or lecturing, we miss a lot of people,” she said. “We don’t make math as interesting as we could.”
Vol. 24, Issue 34, Page 6 | <urn:uuid:49fdbbce-1f6e-4f0c-963f-eea972c03b7b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/05/04/34gender.h24.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00195-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957956 | 2,381 | 2.84375 | 3 |
but there is a geometrical proof i got.
Drop perpendicular from B to AD and call the foot of the perpendicular as K. Let AC meet BD at L.
then |AK|=|KD| and |AL|=|LC|.
Let AL and BK meet at G. G is the centroid since AL and BK are medians.
To prove: |AD|/|AC| < 2/3
that is, |AK|/|AL| < 2/3.
Now |AK|<|AG| since AG is the hypotenuse of triangle-AGK.(AGK is a right angled triangle).
so |AK|/|AL| < |AG|/|AL|.
we know that |AG|/|AL|=2/3 from elementary geometry because G is the centroid. which proves the result. | <urn:uuid:0c5dd4c1-d19a-446f-9a2d-33e2133a444f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mathhelpforum.com/geometry/173223-proof-verification.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00052-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.862471 | 187 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Skip to Content
by Leigh MacMillan | Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, 8:00 AM
Hepatoblastoma – a childhood liver cancer – is thought to result from embryonic cells that do not fully “mature” and remain present beyond birth.
In a search for factors involved in the persistence of these cells, Andrew Murphy, M.D., Harold Lovvorn III, M.D., and colleagues characterized the expression of CITED1. They had previously demonstrated that this transcriptional regulator was expressed during kidney development and in Wilms tumor (a pediatric kidney cancer).
In the journal Neoplasia, they now report that CITED1 is expressed in early liver development, but not in the adult. They found that hepatoblastoma tumors express CITED1, and that the factor induces proliferation of cultured hepatoblastoma cells. They also demonstrated that CITED1 is re-expressed during liver regeneration following injury in mouse models.
The findings suggest that CITED1 may have a role in keeping embryonic cells in an immature, stem cell-like state in liver and kidney. CITED1 and its associated signaling pathways may suggest new therapeutic targets for tumors with embryonic origins.
Leigh MacMillan, (615) 322-4747
Health and Medicine, Reporter, Research Aliquots, cancer, childhood cancer, Harold Lovvorn, hepatoblastoma, journal publication, liver cancer, medicine, NCI, Neoplasia, NIH, pediatric surgery, Reporter Feb 15 2013, Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center, Wilms
There are lots of ways to keep up with Vanderbilt. Choose your preferred method: | <urn:uuid:133f0e7d-8f64-41eb-9439-aa9892ce7c12> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2013/02/pediatric-liver-cancer-factor/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00152-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923798 | 339 | 2.53125 | 3 |
On pp. 218-86, the longest single chapter, the Pope will discuss the Johannine question, and it is a good sign that he takes the question so seriously. In short form the question is this—why is the Fourth Gospel so dramatically different from the other three? The Pope is well aware of the history of the discussion of the 4th Gospel in the 20th century and the radical rejection of it’s having much historical substance thanks to Bultmann and others. He also knows that with the finding of papyri from the 2nd century that include portions of John, a second century dating doesn’t work any more for this Gospel. What he also knows is the thorough and convincing rebuttal of Martin Hengel who shows that the supposed Gnostic origins of the Fourth Gospel is historically incorrect. Gnosticism in part developed from this Gospel in the second century, not the other way around. The irony is, that Bultmann’s original thesis, that the 4th Gospel was indebted to early Jewish wisdom ideas, a thesis he abandoned to pick up the Gnostic one, was right. The Fourth Gospel is Christology done through the lens of wisdom ideas and images.
The Pope stresses that the 4th Evangelist reflects a very precise knowledge of times and places in the Holy Land and can only have been produced by someone who had a first hand knowledge of these places, mainly in Judea. As Hengel went on to show, the simple Koine Greek of this Gospel was spoken by upper class Jews in and around Jerusalem, Jews like Lazarus for instance. There was a Hellenized upper class in Jerusalem for a long time before Jesus came on the scene. Hengel locates the 4th Gospel in the priestly aristocracy in Jerusalem.
The Pope gives us an interesting discussion of the authorship question, and he is well aware that there have to have been two figures involved, at least, in the composition of this document— he suggests the latter one who collected the memoirs of the Beloved Disciple, was the elder John referred to by Papias. The Pope also attributes 2-3 John to this person. He is clear enough as well that the Greek of Revelation is difference from the Gospel and 1 John, sufficiently different to suggest separate authorship. He concludes we do have the eyewitness testimony of the BD in the 4th Gospel, later assembled by his literary executor. The problem is he wants to say that John son of Zebedee was also a member of the priestly class and served in Jerusalem twice a year, all the while being a fisherman in Galilee. The historical evidence suggests nothing of the kind, and the first identification of the authorship of this Gospel with John Zebedee does not come until Irenaeus at the end of the second century who was trying to reclaim this Gospel from the Gnostics. He wants to talk about a Johannine school, following Hengel and Stuhlmacher. In addition he thinks John 1.35,40 refers to Zebedee as previously a follower of John the Baptizer, but there is no mention of the Zebedees at all in John 1. This theory creates more problems than it solves as I have shown at length in What Have They Done with Jesus. There are exactly none of the eyewitness stories about Zebedee, traditions he alone could have known that we hear about in the Synoptics, found in the 4th Gospel. This is more than strange if John Zebedee wrote these stories down and insisted it was an eyewitness testimony. Interestingly, The Pope critiques Hengel (see p. 228) for being too much of a historical minimalist when it comes to the 4th Gospel. But it is interesting how much he relies on the two great lights from Tubingen— Hengel and Stuhlmacher.
Here I find the analysis of the Pope, and his critique of his fellow German scholars right on target. Complaining about those scholars who want to say the 4th Gospel account is meant to strengthen faith and should not be seen as an historical account, the Pope rejoinds: “What faith does it ‘testify’ to if, so to speak, it has left history behind? How does it strengthen faith if it presents itself as a historical testimony—and does so quite emphatically—but then does not report history? I think we are dealing here with a false conception of faith and of the Paraclete. A faith that discards history in this manner really turns into ‘Gnosticism’. It leaves flesh, incarnation—just what true history is— behind.” (p. 228).
The Pope is familiar with the suggestion of H. Schurmann that the Sitz im Leben of the I Am discourses was Jesus’ internal discussions with the disciples, not his public teaching. The Pope counters by suggesting they reflect Jesus’ temple debates in Jerusalem with authority figures. The problem with the latter suggestion is they are not like the temple debates with authority figures we find in the Synoptics, they are more like discourses not debates.
The Pope in the end rejects Hengel’s suggestion that in John the theological reflection sometimes violates the historical facts, the Spirit sort of over-riding historical concerns and historical accuracy. The Pope ask how is the Spirit supposed to have the last word, the Spirit that leads into all truth, if in the redaction the Evangelist has already violated the historical record? This is an excellent question. (pp. 229-30). In the Pope’s reconstruction— historical reality and personal reflection form a pair, which the Evangelist knows partly from memory, and partly from church tradition (the Pope thinks the Evangelist knows the Synoptics in some form). The Pope turns to 1 John 1 to show that the witness in the Fourth Gospel stands alongside the church’s witness, as a part of a ‘we’ who have seen and heard and touched. This is a helpful emphasis indicating we should not see this Gospel as the reflections of an eccentric individualist.
On pp. 231-32, the Pope talks about what the word ‘remember’ is connected with in the Fourth Gospel— he turns to John 2 and 12, and the uses there. In the first case it is remembering a Scripture, in the second remembering something Jesus said in light of Scripture, in the third case it is both— correlating the event of Palm Sunday with the text of Zechariah which sheds light on the event, and so understanding how what Jesus did was a fulfillment of Scripture. This is more than just ‘bringing to mind’, this is correlation of event with the Word leading to comprehension of the significance of events. And it is the resurrection— the vindication and glorification of Jesus that leads to this new way of seeing and understanding both Scripture and the previous life of Jesus. Interestingly, on pp. 233-34 the Pope connects this with Mary’s remembering as recorded in Luke 2— remembering, pondering, storing up in the heart. (One wonders, in light of John 19 if Mary and the BD compared notes on the process of ‘anamnesis’ or remembering leading into grasping truth and understanding). The Pope sees the role of the Spirit as spinning out the implications and enhancing the understanding of the historical events, not in a way that violates the historical facts or substance, but in what might be called a way of making connections with Scripture and drawing out the theological significance of the Christ event further. It comports with the events, but explains them in a way that is only latent in the words and deeds of Jesus themselves. The Pope reminds us that the presentation of Jesus is given in the context of the Jewish liturgical calendar of festivals and events. The point in part is that Jesus and his ministry is the fulfillment, in himself of all the things these festivals and rituals were point to— Jesus is the Passover lamb, Jesus is the temple, Jesus is the scapegoat, Jesus is the source of everlasting life, atonement for sin, food for the soul and so on. But by being the fulfillment of all the festivals he is also the completion of them, and when he dies, as he says ‘they are finished’. In short, though the Pope does not say so, there is an implicit supercessionism in this Gospel.
The Pope then turns (pp. 238ff.) to a discussion of some of the major themes or symbols of the 4th Gospel starting with water. Not surprisingly he wants to read John 3 as saying something about baptism, and here he could have used Barrett’s commentary on John which makes clear John is not frankly offered veiled comments on Christian baptism in John 3, any more than he is offering veiled comments on the elements in the meal in John 13. The focus is rather on humble service leading to cleansing in the form of footwashing, which is no part of the Seder meal, or the Lord’s Supper for that matter, despite the later combining of things by the Brethren Church and others. John 13 is in any case not the record of the Last Supper, but a meal earlier in the week. Thus the Pope wants to see baptismal symbolism not merely in John 3, but in most all the water passages— John 4, John 9 and so on. The problem is that water is a broader symbol in early Judaism— a symbol of life, abundant life, and not merely a symbol of cleansing of sin. In John 3 water is a symbol of physical birth— the being born out of water, when the waters break. Hence the next line— flesh gives birth to flesh. Birth by water then is contrasted with the birth again by the Spirit, not equated with it. Yet (p. 243) the Pope has no doubt that the water and blood coming forth from Christ at his death is a symbol of the two sacraments— never mind that blood alone is never a symbol of the Lord’s Supper in the NT. Rather we are here in John 19 given confirmation of the reality of Jesus’ life, and his death. He was no Spirit on the cross, but rather flesh and blood. The portrayal of the death is the ultimate revelation of the depths of the incarnation— he really did take on flesh and dwell amongst us, and die amongst us as one of us. Not surprisingly the sacramental way of viewing these texts leads the Pope to think 1 John 5 is also about the sacraments, but in fact the three witnesses are— the birth of Jesus (symbolized by water) the death of Jesus (symbolized by blood) and the Holy Spirit. This comports with 1 John 1 at the beginning of the discourse where the reality of the incarnation is stressed and the true confession is said to involve believing ‘Jesus truly come in the flesh’. The Spirit’s witness comes in and through the church to the world.
One of the considerable lacunae in the Pope’s presentation here is the failure to read this Gospel in light of the Jewish wisdom tradition, for example Wisdom of Solomon. Jesus is depicted here in John as both the manna from heaven and the water of life, both of which were said of Wisdom in the earlier Wisdom tradition (see Prov. 8-9 in addition to Wis. Sol. ). Indeed, in Wis. Sol. Wisdom is said to be the rock which followed Israel around in the wilderness, from which water came. In 1 Cor. 10 the rock is said to be Christ. The point here is that what is said of Christ in John had been already said of Wisdom is earlier Jewish lit. and so there is a transference of valences here. The Pope prefers the reading of John 7.38 where the ‘body’ from which living waters flow is said to be Christ’s rather than the believer’s, but this does not comport with 1 Cor. 12 where we are told that it is within the believer that the Spirit dwells as source of drink, and in John 4 Jesus said the Samaritan woman would have within herself this unquenchable water if she accepted Him.
The Pope next turns to the symbolism of wine and the vine (pp. 248ff.) and here the discussion is somewhat less helpful. He is right to connect this with the notion of Jesus the bridegroom, and the coming messianic banquet perhaps, but the replacement motif in John 2 at Cana is hard to miss— lifeless purification water is turned into new wine, a symbol of the Gospel and its vivifying effect. John 15 presents Jesus as the vine and the Father as the vinedresser, and the Pope is right to note the echo of Isaiah 5, where the vine or vineyard is Israel. Again we have the motif of Jesus as Israel, or as replacing Israel. But the Pope does not see this or at least does not say this. In John 15 we are told that part of the mystery of the Incarnation is that Jesus did not merely become flesh, become human, he became the vine, Israel, the beloved Son, the chosen one of God, fulfilling Israel’s mission to be light of the world, amongst other things. Jesus is the genuine or authentic vine, accept no substitutes, says John 15. If Jesus is the vine however, and we are the branches, then we are God’s people only insofar as we remain in the vine, keep on abiding in Christ. Branches, can always be broken off and branches by the way, are not sap-suckers. The nutrients in the vine are force fed into the branches by the vine itself. So this imagery does not place the emphasis on our efforts to be fruitful. Our job is just to keep on abiding, remaining, persevering.
The Pope then turns to the bread symbolism in this Gospel (pp. 263ff.). One of the themes of this chapter has been that Jesus is the greater Moses, or the prophet like Moses providing manna in the wilderness. The problem of course is that Moses was no king, and in John the feeding of the 5,000 leads to the crowd seeking to make Jesus a king, not a prophet. That is, the royal overtones are stronger than any Moses overtones. Jesus is in any case a fulfillment of the whole sacerdotal, prophetic, and royal traditions all wrapped into one as this Gospel stresses but John 6.14 probably does allude to the Deut. Promise of a prophet like Moses. We need to just not highlight that at the expense of other motifs. As the Pope says on pp. 265-66 anyway, Jesus is God, the one who sees God face to face, and even Moses was not allowed to do that, so overplaying the Moses’ card in interpreting the Johannine Jesus is a mistake. Jesus, eclipses Moses. Now bread in the OT and wisdom tradition was associated with Torah or with Wisdom. One was to feed on the Word and so be nourished, and so the feeding of the five thousand also had the larger resonance of Jesus as wisdom nourishing his people not just physically but also spiritually. As the Pope stresses, the Torah God’s wisdom, has become a person, hence he says ‘I am the bread of life….’ Elaborate Eucharistic discussion follows this, even though John 6 says it is not the bread, not the flesh that gives life, but rather the Spirit (John 6.63). How this could be turned into an affirmation that life comes from taking the physical sacrament is hard to see.
The Pope is right, on pp. 272ff. to point out that ancient rulers in the ANE were indeed called shepherds, and their people their flocks. So calling Jesus the good shepherd is on one level royal imagery. However, the OT precedents (see Psalm 23) suggest and stress that God himself is his people’s shepherd. Cf. Ezek. 34-37. The Pope rightly points to Zechariah, especially Zechariah 13 to explain the background for Jesus’ calling himself a shepherd— a shepherd that would lay down his life for his sheep. John19.37 quotes Zech. 12.10. A true under-shepherd of the church must enter through Christ the door to get there.
On pp. 280-81 the Pope makes the valid point that knowing and belonging to the Shepherd are intertwined. The Shepherd knows his sheep, calls them by name because they are his. Similarly from our side of the question, knowing Jesus is part of belonging to Him. The true shepherd doesn’t merely posses the sheep, they belong to him. He draws an analogy with parents and their children. The children belong to the parents, but they are not possessions and should not be treated as possessions or possessively by the parents. The Good shepherd reunites the flock, recovers the scattered ones (see Ezek. 37). The universal mission to all is a function of the fact that there is only one good shepherd for all (see p. 284) and the key for humanity to become one, is through the good shepherd. The early image of Christ as the shepherd who recovers the lost sheep and carries it back to the fold on his shoulders was important to the Church Fathers, for it meant that God in the person of his Son cared enough to seek and to save the lost and to carry them to where they could feed and be one with the rest of the flock. It is a pastoral image, with all sorts of pastoral implications. | <urn:uuid:ac500bb6-d35f-4e34-954c-e849288e8ed4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.patheos.com/blogs/bibleandculture/2011/04/21/the-popes-first-jesus-book-chapter-eight-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00011-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966535 | 3,623 | 2.59375 | 3 |
5. Evidence of Creation Inscribed in Nature
"Mathematics is the alphabet with which God has written the universe." -- Galileo Galilei
Nature holds many evidences of God’s creation. One of the evidences of God’s creation inscribed in nature is mathematical principles. The well-known mathematical principles found in nature are golden ratio, golden angle, golden rectangle, Fibonacci sequence, logarithmic spiral, and fractal. Let’s first briefly describe what these mathematical principles are.
When the ratio of the larger length to the smaller one is equal to the ratio of the sum of the larger and smaller lengths to the larger one (a/b = (a + b)/a if expressed algebraically (see Fig. 23)), it is called golden ratio. The golden ratio is approximately 1.618 (1+sqrt(5))/2). The golden angle is the angle subtended by the smaller (red) arc when two arcs that make up a circle are in the golden ratio (Fig. 23). The approximate value of the golden angle is 137.51 degrees. The golden rectangle is one whose side lengths are in the golden ratio.
The Fibonacci sequence is the series of numbers where the next number is found by adding the preceding two numbers (ex: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, …). The logarithmic spiral is the one within which any line emanating from the origin cuts the curve under a constant angle (see Fig. 24). The fractal is an object or quantity that displays self-similarity where a fragmented geometric shape is a reduced-size copy of the whole. With these mathematical knowledge in hand, let’s start to explore where we can find these principles in nature.
Fig 23. Golden Ratio (left), Golden Angle (middle), Golden Rectangle (right)
Fig 24. Logarithmic Spiral (left) and Fractal (right)
Leaves, petals and other organs in plants are arranged orderly and follow some mathematical rules. This geometric arrangement of organs is the main topic in phyllotaxis study. In about 80% of plants, leaves are arranged along the stem tracing a helix. Suppose we fix our attention to some leaf on the bottom of a stem on which there is a single leaf at any one point. If we number that leaf "0" and count the leaves upward along the stem until we come to the one which is directly above the starting one, the number we counted becomes one of the Fibonacci sequence.
If we count how many revolutions we made when we count the number of leaves along the stem, the number of revolutions also becomes one of the Fibonacci sequence. The arrangement of leaves can be expressed as a ratio of number of leaves to number of revolutions. For example, if the number of leaves in our sample plant is "5" and the number of revolutions is "2", then our plant is said to have phyllotaxis 2/5 (see Fig. 25). Each plant can be characterized by its own phyllotaxis. Almost always the ratios encountered are ratios of consecutive or alternate terms of the Fibonacci sequence (for example, 1/2, 1/3, 2/5, 3/8, 5/13, etc.; notice here that numerators and denominators are also Fibonacci numbers). The angle formed by two adjacent leaves remains approximately constant and approaches to the golden angle (which is 137.5 deg) as the number of leaves increase. If they have golden angle, all of the leaves in the plant receive the same amount of sun light and can collect water effectively and direct it to the center of the plant to pass down to the root.
Fig. 25. 2/5 phyllotaxis (top) and 3/8phyllotaxis (bottom)
Not only for the leaves, but also for the buds, seed heads, and shoots follow mathematical rule. If seed head has golden angle, it can have the largest number of seeds in a given area (sunflower seed is a good example). If we look closely to these shoots or seed heads that have golden angle, we can find spiral patterns (logarithmic spiral) as shown in Fig. 27. Here, we can find interesting properties in these spirals. The number of spirals is two or three adjacent Fibonacci numbers. For example, the number of spirals is 21 in clockwise direction and 34 counterclockwise direction in daisy flower, 8 clockwise direction and 13 counterclockwise direction in pinecone, 5 counterclockwise direction, 8 clockwise direction, and 13 counterclockwise direction in pineapple, 5 clockwise direction and 8 counterclockwise direction in cauliflower, and 13 clockwise direction and 21 counterclockwise direction in romanesco broccoli. If the number of spirals form Fibonacci numbers, they preserve the same shape while they are growing. For example, the shape of the daisy flowers is circular when they are small and keeps the same circular shape while they are growing. The mathematical principle behind having invariant shape is that the spirals having Fibonacci numbers form logarithmic spiral and anything growing in logarithmic spiral pattern doesn’t change shape.
Fig 26. Growth pattern of the Norway spruce shoot.
Fig 27. Daisy flower, pine cone, pineapple, cauliflower, and romanesco broccoli. Numbers of spirals are two adjacent Fibonacci numbers.
The growth pattern following the logarithmic spiral can be found not only in plants but also in auricle, cochlea, fingers, seahorse’s tail, ram’s horn, and nautilus, etc. (Fig. 28). There is very important reason for these to grow in logarithmic spiral pattern. If they do, they can keep the same shape when they were young and after they were fully grown. The cochlea in your ear has nice geometric shape for best hearing. If it changing shape while you are growing-up, you will have hearing problem. Likewise, if bones in your fingers don’t grow in logarithmic spiral pattern, you will have hard time to grasp objects with your fingers when you become a grown-up.
Fig 28. Pinna (left), nautilus (middle), and finger bones (right) are grow in logarithmic pattern
Fibonacci numbers can also be found in sneezewort (Fig. 29 left). If we draw horizontal lines through axils of the sneezewort, we can see a growing pattern of the stem and leaves. The main stem produces branch shoots at the beginning of each stage. Branch shoots rest during their first two stages, and then produce new branch shoots at the beginning of each subsequent stage. The same law applies to all branches (see middle figure in Fig. 29). Now, if we count the number of branches in each section, the counted numbers are all Fibonacci numbers. Furthermore, if we count the number of leaves in each stage, they also form Fibonacci numbers (right figure in Fig. 29).
Fig 29. Sneezewort (left). The numbers of branches (middle) and leaves (right) in sneezewort form Fibonacci numbers.
Another mathematical principle found in nature is a fractal. The fractal structure can be found in fern, trees, cauliflower, etc.. If we look fern closely, we can find that a frond from a fern is a miniature replica of the whole. The circulatory, respiratory, and nervous systems in human body also have fractal structure. Human circulatory system needs to provide fresh oxygen and nutrients to every cell in the body. To archive such a task, the blood vessel system has to be designed in fractal structure. If it has a fractal structure, it can occupy minimum volume but has a maximum area to reach every cell in the body. It also reduces strong blood pressure by evenly distributing it to every end of the blood vessel.
Fig. 30. Fractal structure in fern (fern) and romanesco broccoli (right)
So far, we have seen many examples of mathematical principles in nature. How can that happen? Does the plant know high-level math and arrange their leaves in Fibonacci sequence? Does the sunflower know college level mathematics and produce its seeds in the pattern of golden angle? Does the fern know high-level mathematics and produce its leaves in the fractal form? Or all of these are designed by God just like instinct in animals?
If we found a stone age arrow in the field (Fig. 31), we know that it was made by stone age man long times ago since it's shape is different than other irregular-shaped stones and can't be made by natural process either water or wind erosion. Likewise, if humans and animals that are incomparably more complex than the stone age arrow are living on earth, then their existence themselves tell us that they were created and not evolved by natural process.
"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse" (Rome 1:20).
God created all of these living creatures on earth!
Fig. 31. Stone age arrow. The arrow was created by stone age man long times ago.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) | <urn:uuid:121e2413-1055-477f-bdf1-64d9ddda6b7c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.creationresearches.com/cr5_e.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394605.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00044-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928886 | 1,996 | 3.96875 | 4 |
Imagine a damaging rumor about a company that you own shares in is posted on Twitter. Algorithms monitoring social media feeds to gauge market sentiment and act upon news could instantaneously trade billions of dollars worth of these shares, causing the value to plummet. The rumor is entirely untrue but, in the time it takes for an explanation to be published by the company, the damage is done. The stock never fully recovers because the prevailing attitude of the day seems to be "where there is smoke there is fire."
It may sound like science fiction, but it is not. Yesterday's news headlines have been replaced by split-second 140 character Tweets containing both fact and fiction. According to an August 2011 infographic from media agency We Are Social, there are 138,888 Tweets per minute, 180 million posted each day and 1.6 billion search queries per day. There are 200 million Twitter users with 450,000 new accounts created daily.
And Twitter is just one social media site that algorithms can monitor; Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs broadcast information that can be mined to identify meaningful patterns. Layer social media on top of traditional sources of electronic news headlines and the possibilities are endless.
News coming via Twitter can beat the fastest wire service or government agency's alerts. In August 2011 when a magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck the state of Virginia, the first Twitter reports sent from people at the epicenter reached New York about 40 seconds ahead of the quake's first shock waves, said social media company SocialFlow. The flood of messages surrounding the earthquake peaked at 5,500 Tweets per second.
The first Tweets beat the U.S. Geological Survey's conventional seismometers, which normally can take from two to 20 minutes to generate an alert. The agency is now experimenting with Twitter as a faster and cheaper way to track earthquakes, according to the Wall Street Journal.
With the high frequency-obsessed trading community, speed is essential. And social media, particularly Twitter, is becoming a key source of high-speed information for feeding trading algorithms.
We have already seen that some interesting correlations can arise from algorithmic use of social media. In March 2011, Huffington Post blogger, Dan Mirvish and The Atlantic editor, Alexis Madrigal noted a funny trend: when Anne Hathaway was in the news, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway shares went up. Her appearance in the 2011 Oscars was newsworthy, hence she was in the headlines frequently. The theory? Automated, algorithmic trading programs pick up chatter on the Internet about 'Hathaway' and apply it to the stock market.
The problem with the widespread availability of this information is that it can be misused. In October 2010, U.S. prosecutors nabbed a gang who allegedly used Facebook and Twitter social networking sites to tout stocks in a classic "pump and dump" fraud of about $7 million. The fraud was uncovered during a cocaine-trafficking probe, according to Reuters.
Trading based on information from social networks is a dangerous game, and this pump and dump episode may have been the first warning shot across the bow. Danger lurks when a piece of "news" or trading advice can be posted, Tweeted and re-Tweeted online with no filter. A piece of spurious, market-moving information can be bounced around the world and traded upon by a human being or an algorithm before anyone can say "What the heck...?"
Twitter mining is becoming the next big thing in algorithmic trading with sentiment analysis being used to try to qualify and quantify the emotional chatter around a particular market. It then gauges whether the feelings for a particular stock or commodity are negative or positive, and uses the information for making trading decisions.
A study by the University of Manchester and Indiana University concluded that the number of "emotional words" on Twitter could be used to predict daily moves in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. A change in emotions expressed online would be followed between two and six days later by a move in the index, the researchers said, and this information let them predict its movements with 87.6 percent accuracy. A U.K. hedge fund, Derwent Capital, liked the idea so much it opened an algorithmic hedge fund that makes trades based on Twitter sentiment.
The question is, can markets be predicted using market sentiment algorithms? As I said in an interview with Advanced Trading in April, I think you could use a Twitter algorithm to get a sentiment reading on particular topics, whether it be revolutions or how people feel about the economy. The problem is that by the time you've got that information, it's more of a trailing indicator rather than a leading indicator. The algorithm could be successful if it were used to track consumer confidence or to gauge consumer reaction to new products and predict sales. But I think a sentiment algorithm is unlikely to be able to deal with unforeseen events, and these are increasingly common.
The biggest threat to markets coming from mining social media could be a new phenomenon known as "socialbots." These are computer-generated and controlled bots - digital "people" - who can generate and respond to messages in social media. Researchers from the University of British Columbia recently invaded Facebook with 102 socialbots. They made 3,055 friends in eight weeks, giving them access to 1,085,785 profiles, and allowing them to scrape 250GB of personal data, according to an article on ZDNet.
Because a well-designed bot can fool other social media users, they have the potential to wreak havoc. I have been warning for some time that financial terrorists could use algorithms to manipulate markets for political gain. A socialbot is a type of algorithm that could be used for such terrorism. The only way to prevent this is by using real-time monitoring and surveillance software to spot erratic or anomalous patterns in the marketplace. Exchanges, ECNs, traders, brokers and regulators are already seeing the value in monitoring trades for errors or fraud.
The next step is to monitor social media to ensure that spurious and potentially damaging information cannot influence the markets. Because, whether the information comes from a Reuters news story, exchange data, Twitter feeds or even Facebook, it can be used by an algorithm. A trading algorithm that uses a false piece of information could start an avalanche of wrong decisions cascading down through other algorithms and triggering a flash crash or even a cross-asset splash crash.
Algorithmic trading is a double-edged sword. It can be used for good - adding liquidity and lowering trading costs. Or it can be used for evil - financial terrorism or taking down a firm. Only by carefully monitoring markets and trading algorithms in tandem, and by setting concrete parameters that sniff out anomalies, can the evildoers be thwarted. | <urn:uuid:c7973875-db09-459f-bfc8-f60948a75c45> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.businessinsider.com/sniffing-out-socialbots-the-combustive-potential-of-social-media-based-algorithms-2011-12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393093.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00045-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932242 | 1,368 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Roger Beck, The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire: Mysteries of the Unconquered Sun, Oxford University Press, 2006, makes the following interesting remark on p.209-10:
… the nominal solstice on 25 December, becomes the Sun’s birthday, the ‘Natalis Invicti’, as the Calendar of Filocalus famously notes—to which phrase in Greek (heliou genethlion) the less well-known Calendar of Antiochus appends ‘light increases’ (auxei phos). According to Macrobius (Sat. 1.18.10), not only was the Sun’s birthday celebrated at the winter solstice but he was also displayed as a baby on that day:
These diverences in age [in the representations of various gods] relate to the Sun, who is made to appear very small (parvulus) at the winter solstice. In this form the Egyptians bring him forth from the shrine on the set date to appear like a tiny infant (veluti parvus et infans) on the shortest day of the year.
16. Calendar of Filocalus, Salzman 1990: 149–53; Calendar of Antiochus, Boll 1910: 16, 40–4.
Boll, F. 1910. Griechische Kalender: 1. Das Kalendarium des Antiochos, Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, philos.-hist. Klasse, Jahrgang 1910, 16. Abhandlung (Heidelberg).
The “Calendar of Filocalus” is our familiar Chronography of 354, part 6, which I placed online long ago here. As we all know, for 25 Dec. it has “Natalis Invicti” against the day. But the Calendar of Antiochus is not known to me. I wonder if it is online? Beck also tells us that this is Antiochus of Athens, an astrologer, whose works must exist — Beck references them as CCAG 4, etc, which turns out to be Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum. The CCAG turns out to be an old work, and some of it is online at Archive.org.
The only real reference to the calendar that I could find online was in D.M.Murdock (Acharya S), Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus connection, p.89, online in preview here (and I know we all wince at the standards of this source, but this new book is much better referenced). This tells me that the calendar was published indeed by Boll in 1910; that it records the solstice on 22nd December, and dates to ca. 200 AD. | <urn:uuid:b861fccb-6e26-4413-aa5b-faf973883a7a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2010/12/06/the-calendar-of-antiochus-and-the-new-birth-of-the-sun/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393463.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00178-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.894461 | 583 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Teaching Guide. By Linda Christensen. 2009. 300 pages.
Through stories, Christensen demonstrates how to draw on students’ lives and the world to teach poetry, essay, narrative, and critical literacy skills. Published by Rethinking Schools.
Through story upon story, Christensen demonstrates how she draws on students’ lives and the world to teach poetry, essay, narrative, and critical literacy skills. Teaching for Joy and Justice reveals what happens when a teacher treats all students as intellectuals, instead of intellectually challenged. Part autobiography, part curriculum guide, part critique of today’s numbing standardized mandates, this book sings with hope-born of Christensen’s more than 30 years as a classroom teacher, language arts specialist, and teacher educator.
Practical, inspirational, passionate: this is a must-have book for every language arts teacher, whether veteran or novice. In fact, Teaching for Joy and Justice is a must-have book for anyone who wants concrete examples of what it really means to teach for social justice.
“Linda Christensen creates passionate curriculum, centered on the lives and voices of her students. In Teaching for Joy and Justice she shows us how her students come to celebrate their own writing, value themselves, and stand up for others. Writing is embedded in curriculum that matters, in discussion about big ideas, and in literature rich with the full range of human experience. It’s a language arts teacher must-read!” —Allen Webb, Professor of English Education, Western Michigan University and author of Literature and Lives and Literature and the Web
“Linda Christensen gets it. She understands writing is a medium through which human beings convey their passions, hopes and dreams. Christensen provides practical advice to teachers with an understanding that when our students learn to write they experience a sense of joy and fulfillment.” —Pedro A. Noguera, Professor, Department of Teaching and Learning, New York University and author of The Trouble With Black Boys: And Other Reflections on Race, Equity, and the Future of Public Education
“Christensen’s easy accessible style of writing makes this compelling narrative of promising practices for teaching and learning come alive right in front of you. With each page, each chapter, I instantly felt I knew Michael, Ananiah, Kayla, Jessica, and so many other students from her days of teaching and learning at Jefferson and Grant High Schools. I also saw my own students, my own classrooms-different names, different cities, but the same challenges, burdens and promises tapped and untapped. Each chapter is steeped in realistic and responsible instructional practices born out of authentic experiences in real classrooms. This must have book reminds all educators that there is both joy and justice in teaching and learning when we allow ourselves to learn from teaching.” —Vanessa G. Brown, Director, Philadelphia Writing Project
“In these pages, Linda Christensen—consummate teacher and brilliant writer—shows us that, in the end, teaching well is about awakening and transformation. Through lively vignettes and stirring writing by both teacher and students, this book exudes hope and possibility.” —Sonia Nieto, Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts, Amherst and author of Why We Teach and What Keeps Teachers Going?
“Teaching for Joy and Justice gives teachers the inspiration and ‘how to’ nitty-gritty we crave. We find names of texts that compel, high school student writing that calls out to teenage reality, techniques for teaching how to write poems, narratives, essays. And everything presented sits resolutely under the social justice umbrella: issues of race, class, language, gender-oh yes, they do matter.” —Faye Peitzman, Director, UCLA Writing Project
ISBN: 9780942961430 | Published by Rethinking Schools. | <urn:uuid:49227cbf-5c60-4c27-a5e8-eb7aa304d0ec> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://zinnedproject.org/materials/teaching-for-joy-and-justice/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00193-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925264 | 791 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Careers in Diving Articles|
Dive Medicine Articles
Dive Training Articles
What is "Public Safety Diving?"|
Date:11/01/02 By Blades Robinson
Dive Rescue International
The term "Public Safety Diving" is a generic term used to describe the underwater work conducted by law enforcement, fire rescue, and search & rescue/recovery dive teams. Public safety divers (PSDs) are different from recreational divers in many aspects. Unlike a recreational diver who can plan the date, time, and location of a dive, PSDs respond to emergencies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including holidays and weekends. It is not uncommon for PSDs to dive in the middle of the night, during inclement weather, in zero visibility "black water," or in waters polluted by chemicals and biohazards.
In addition to "recreational" dive training, public safety divers receive specialized training for conducting search patterns, recognizing hazards, conducting risk/benefit analyses, diving in zero visibility, using full-face masks with communication systems, and recovering evidence that is admissible in court. Because some of the water that PSDs are required to dive in is so polluted, they wear vulcanized dry suits, dive helmets, and utilize surface supplied air. At times, the decontamination process that takes place out of the water can be longer than the actual dive time! If a conventional SCUBA cylinder was used, the air supply could easily be exhausted before the de-con process is completed.
Many public safety divers are volunteers, though it is not uncommon for career law enforcement or fire rescue personnel to assume these additional responsibilities with slight compensation in their salaries. Firefighters are natural candidates for public safety diver training because public safety diving equipment is so similar to gear worn in smoke filled environments. Because firefighters are used to working in limited visibility, wearing full-face masks and self-contained breathing apparatus, public safety diving and firefighting are complementary disciplines. Law enforcement personnel are also trained as public safety divers because of their extensive experience in handling evidence and introducing this evidence in court.
More information on public safety divers, their training, and their equipment can be obtained from International Association of Dive Rescue Specialists, Dive Rescue International, Trelleborg - Viking, and Kirby Morgan Dive Systems.
| email this page|
We need your help!
Tell us about events, news, etc.
© 2002 - 2006, SanDiegoDiving.com
About - Contribute - Contact - Legal | <urn:uuid:b73723e4-ed9b-42c6-a35b-4709432e2e06> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.sandiegodiving.com/education/items/9.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00027-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935481 | 518 | 3.25 | 3 |
SPACE SHUTTLE LAUNCH Space shuttle launched from launch pad, shown from a distance. ECU low angle of the fueling rockets as the shuttle ascends. Higher angle of the rocket ascending. Great glowing rocket explosion and smoke. "United States" logo on the shuttle as it lifts off. Picturesque view of the shuttle rising into a cloudy sky.
Date: 1980s - COLOR Source: Video: BetaSP Length: 00:00:34:00, No Audio
ROCKET LAUNCH FOR TELSTAR 1960's rocket launch pad. Men wearing helmets working at night with bright lights. The rocket and launch pad at night, dramatically lit from below. The rocket is launched amongst heavy smoke. Camera tilts upward, following the launching rocket move skyward. The rocket disappears in the glow of its burning propulsion
THE AUTOTRAM - SAFETY At the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena the experimental Autotram drives along streets unmanned. Highlighted are the safety devices of the Autotram which allow automatic stopping.
Date: 1970s - COLOR Source: Film: 16P Length: 00:00:27:00, With Audio
PERSHING MISSILE WARHEAD SEPARATION TEST A separation stage of the Pershing II rocket body is tested. The top part of the rocket that carries the warhead is shown separating from the lower rocket propulsion section at a testing facility.
Date: 1980s - COLOR Source: Video: BetaSP Length: 00:00:04:00, With Audio
eFootage is a premier HD, film and video stock footage archive (contemporary and vintage) specializing in news, industrial, and more.
We have over one million additional stock footage clips that we can search upon request.
A premier dv, film and video, digital and hd stock footage archive | <urn:uuid:f46b5cf0-a318-44e8-bc56-8f75a099237e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.efootage.com/clip_list.php?query=propulsion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00006-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.880074 | 382 | 2.6875 | 3 |
It starts innocently enough — with a sneeze here and a cough there. You try to ignore the telltale signs, but before you know it, your toddler’s nose is running, her throat is sore, and her forehead is burning up. There’s no denying when she’s got a cold — and once she has it, there’s no turning back. Whether you’re ready or not, you’re in for some tough days and sleepless nights.
Unfortunately, there is no cure for the common cold — only the passage of time, which tends to drag when your child is sick. For most kids, the worst of the cold passes after three or four days, but some symptoms can linger for ten days or beyond. In the meantime, you can offer some cold relief to your sniffling tot.
Feed her right. Scientists have proven what grandmothers have always known: Chicken soup can help relieve cold symptoms. Researchers say that the blend of nutrients in chicken soup may have an anti-inflammatory effect, which can ease swelling in the upper respiratory tract and relieve soreness in the throat. Plus, the warm broth (and its soothing steamy vapors) loosens the mucus that causes congestion. If that’s not enough, the salty soup helps prevent dehydration. If you don’t have any chicken soup handy, any type of warm broth may also help ease congestion.
What if your tot won’t eat? Don’t stress. Loss of appetite is normal when kids get colds, and it won’t cause any long-term harm. But do make sure your toddler gets enough liquids to prevent dehydration.
Focus on liquids. Speaking of fluids, don’t stop at soup. Make sure your child gets plenty to drink when she’s fighting a cold, be it water, juice, Pedialyte, Gatorade or even Popsicles. What about milk? While some people believe milk promotes the formation of mucus, most evidence shows that’s not true. So if your child wants milk, it’s probably a good way to get some liquid and calories into her. After all, it’s important to prevent dehydration in any way you can when your toddler is sick because she may lose extra fluids through sweating, and if she’s not eating well she’ll be missing the fluid contained in foods.
Help her breathe. As you well know, stuffy noses can be very uncomfortable, and they can keep your sick toddler from getting the sleep she desperately needs. To alleviate congestion, run a cool-mist humidifier (which is safer than a warm-mist humidifier should your toddler toddle too close to it) in her bedroom at night. Another good option: Try using saline nose drops to soften up crusty mucus in her nasal passages. If your toddler still has trouble sleeping, prop up her head with a pillow beneath the mattress.
Ease the fever. There’s no need to medicate every fever that comes along; a fever simply lets you know the body is waging war against an infection. But sometimes a little relief can help your child get the z’s she needs. For a low-grade fever (a fever of 103°F or higher in a child older than 6 months warrants a call to the doctor) give her either acetaminophen or ibuprofen (note that ibuprofen is approved only for children older than 6 months). Read the label carefully to make sure you give a dose that’s right for your child’s age and weight. One pain reliever to avoid: Aspirin, because when given to kids, it can cause Reye’s syndrome, a serious illness.
Beware of OTC meds. Both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) strongly advise against giving over-the-counter cough and cold medications to children under the age of 2. Studies have shown that these drugs are ineffective, and they can cause serious side effects. An FDA panel has recommended banning these medications for kids 4 years and under, and the AAP even supports extending the ban on these medications to children ages 6 and under, though no rule has been put in place yet. In the meantime, the manufacturers of over-the-counter cough and cold medications are voluntarily changing their labeling to say that these meds should not be used in children 4 years old and younger. Bottom line: Skip these medications when treating your toddler.
Don’t ask for antibiotics. Don’t be tempted to push your doctor for antibiotics to treat the cold, either. Antibiotics won’t help (colds are caused by viruses, not bacteria) and the overuse of antibiotics is contributing to the growth of superbugs (bacterium that are resistant to treatment). So skip the meds and offer your toddler some extra TLC instead.
Be careful with dosing. An estimated 70,000 kids end up in the emergency room every year because of unintentional medication overdoses. So always get dosing instructions from your practitioner in milliliters (mL), and use a dosing syringe — not a dosing cup or spoon and never a kitchen spoon — to give your child her medicine.
See all toddler health and safety tips.
3 things to read next: | <urn:uuid:132c3383-0600-415b-be33-d24361672ce7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.whattoexpect.com/toddler-health/cold-relief.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402479.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00022-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926262 | 1,115 | 2.828125 | 3 |
A Bad Day For Harold, An Important Day For the World
by Walter Russell Mead
History is so long and so many events have occurred that Via Meadia rarely takes note of particular anniversaries. But October 14 is different. The Battle of Hastings was fought on this day back in 1066. King Harold of England, fresh from defeating a Viking invasion in the north, marched through the heart of England to encounter the invasion of the Normans—a southern branch of the Vikings who had settled in a part of northern France.
King Harold died in the battle, killed by an arrow through his eye. The English were divided and the nobles were bickering; there was no other leader capable of resisting the invasion, and the Duke of Normandy went on to be crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey on Christmas of that year.
It was one of the most consequential battles ever fought. It would set England on a course that eventually led to the establishment of the British Empire—and the foundation of the United States. The Norman Conquest left its stamp on English culture and politics in ways that are still with us; its impact on the development of the English language was especially strong. The Norman conquerors brought the French language with them, and while the English of the majority would ultimately triumph, the language that emerged from the Norman dominion would be profoundly changed. For two hundred years, English disappeared as a language of learned and powerful people. In the royal court and the palaces of the nobility, French was spoken. The Church continued to use Latin. English was the language in which rich people spoke to their servants. By the time the French conquerors began to assimilate to the language and culture of the people they had conquered, English had changed.
Modern English speakers can’t make any sense out of the Anglo-Saxon dialects spoken in England before the Conquest. The vocabulary and grammar in many ways are more like modern German than anything we recognize as English. But by the time of Geoffrey Chaucer, something like modern English began to emerge and it had three traits that still mark it today: a stripped down grammar, an unusually rich and subtle vocabulary, and utterly irrational spelling.
Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, had a very Germanic grammar. Verb conjugations were complicated, nouns and pronouns had different endings depending on how they were used in a sentence, and adjectives “agreed” with their nouns in number, case and gender. (If we hadn’t cleared all this useless rubbish out of the language we would still be spouting nonsense like this: I sit on thi biggi rocki, I throw thum biggum rockum, tho rocko is bigo. Tha girla, however, is biga and I go with thai biggai girlai to thi picturi showi. And so on.) That all changed after the Conquest, and by the time Chaucer was writing, English was well on the way to becoming the sleek and simple grammatical engine that it is today, freeing up untold billions of braincells for more useful tasks.
This grammatical simplicity is one of the reasons that English has become such a global language. Spelling aside, it is much easier to learn than languages with more complicated grammatical structures. Irregularities and verbal complexities are continually being eroded as the English language continues down the path of grammatical simplification on which William the Conqueror quite unintentionally set it.
At the same time, the presence of two languages side by side not only gave English a bigger stock of words than most languages have, it made English a language of subtle connotations. Animals in the field where the peasants dealt with them were known by their Saxon names: cow, pig, sheep. Killed, dressed and served up at feasts to the nobility, they became beef, pork and mutton — all based on the French words for those animals. English had parallel sets of words for body parts and functions, the “couth” ones usually coming from French, the uncouth ones from plain Saxon. Today’s English still follows this pattern: there are more words in our vocabulary than in most languages, and word choice can mean everything in English prose. In the famous examples from Time magazine, “Truman slunk from the room to huddle with his cronies,” while “Ike strode from the chamber to confer with his advisers.” We have our blunt Anglo-Saxon epithets and our precise Norman-French euphemisms, and the habit of hospitality, the openness to loan words from many languages, continues to enrich English to this day.
Unfortunately, the Conquest struck a mighty blow against sensible spelling in English as well. With Germanic and French sounds mingling in the vocabulary and pronunciation changing from generation to generation as the two language streams reacted on one another, vowels changed their quality and consonants did strange things. The two letter combination “gh” once meant something; now we pronounce it like an “f” (tough), like a regular “g” (ghost) or like nothing at all (Hillsborough). French vowel sounds mutated into English ones, gutteral Germanic sounds got frenchified, consonant clusters rose and fell, accentuation wreaked havoc with vowel quantities and bit by bit we created the insane orthographic mess that we thrash about in today.
An ear for the difference between Saxon and Norman-French based words remains important even in popular literature. In the Harry Potter books, the good characters often have trustworthy Saxon or Celtic surnames (Weasley, Dumbledore) while you can tell the bad guys by their evil French names like Malfoy (bad faith) and Voldemort (flight of death). “Muggles” is about as Anglo-Saxon as an invented word can get, and to English ears it sounds like a word that ought to exist even if you have never heard it before.
The historical roots of modern English play an even larger role in Tolkien’s work. Tolkien is one of those rare writers who can give you good Anglo-Saxons like the Riders of Rohan (whose vocabulary and poetic meters are pure Anglo-Saxon) and good people who use a more Norman and Latinate vocabulary—like the people of Gondor and the elves. Tolkien’s own sense of the evolution of the English language influences the Lord of the Rings at almost every level.
That’s what a major historical event does; almost 1000 years later two of the biggest phenomena in our popular culture still bear its imprint. Understanding the marks that big events make on our lives is in my mind the essence of a true education in the liberal arts. That kind of education changes the way you see the world around you, it changes your relationship to the language you speak, it helps you understand the cultural structures and expectations that you and the people around you.
I certainly find that my knowledge of the history of the English language and of the relationship between linguistic history and social and political history helps me wield that language more effectively in my work—and it vastly increases my pleasure and insight when I read English poetry and prose. Knowing where your words come from and how they came to mean what they do is part of the knowledge young writers need to develop it. In English, precisely because we have such a wide choice of words, knowing how to choose your words wisely can make all the difference in the world.
[Image: King Harold is slain in one of the last panels of the Bayeaux Tapestry.]
As we are making preparations for the feast of Pentecost, don’t forget to set aside a few minutes to prepare your mind and heart for the graces the Holy Spirit has in store for you on this great feast.
Fr. Bramwell has provided some thought provoking questions to prepare us for his presentation this Sunday!
1. How does Bernini’s architecture of the Altar of the Chair capture the meaning of Pentecost?
2. Why are praying and believing so closely intertwined?
3. How do the Scriptures capture the idea of the time being ready for the descent of the Spirit?
4. What do the Scriptures explain about the way the Spirit works?
5. How do the the Scriptures explain the way the Incarnate Son works?
Do you want some extra material to think and pray about before we come together this Sunday for this exciting presentation? If so, Msgr. Charles Pope has submitted these discussion questions for your reflections. Feel free to pray through them, journal about them, and maybe even discuss them during dinner at the event this Sunday!
1. Since we should all be ready for our own death and cannot know the time, why should the details of the Last days excite or interest us?
2. Regarding Protestant interpretations, what about the Last Days do you think they are in error about?
3. Given the return of our bodies to the dust and the fact that some bodies are lost, how will the body rise?
4. What does it mean to say that Jesus will come on the clouds? Are these real clouds?
5. What are you doing to get ready to meet God?
Discussion Questions for Our Upcoming Talk – Living Bread: A Defense of Christ’s Presence in the Eucharist
Want to prepare yourself to get the most out of Tim Staples’ upcoming talk? Spend some time thinking through these discussion questions. Make sure you use your Bible for this!
1. What is the Biblical evidence for the Catholic belief in the Eucharist, beyond John 6?
2. Are there any Old Testament texts that help us understand the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist?
2. What does Jesus mean when He says in John 6:63, “My words are spirit and life”?
3. How does Christ’s teaching on the Eucharist restore us to God’s original plan for man in paradise?
4. How can we best explain the mystery of the Eucharist to those who say it is just a symbol?
For those interested in diving deeper in their adult education, we have some discussion questions for you to ponder before our talk this upcoming Sunday – On the Eigth Day: Appearances of the Resurrected with Deacon Sabatino Carnazzo. Quiz yourself and discuss what you think with a friend!
1. What does it mean that Jesus “appeared” to the Apostles?
2. How was it possible for Jesus to both eat and walk through walls after the resurrection?
3. Who did Jesus appear to first: Mary Magdalene, St. Peter, the Mother of God or the Apostles?
4. How many times did Jesus appear after the resurrection?
5. Why did the people that he appeared to “not recognize him”?
6. Where were Jesus and the apostles when Jesus ascended into heaven?
ICC scholar, Robert R. Reilly, writes in the Wall Street Journal about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East at the hands of ISIS. You can read the article here.
You can watch or listen to presentations he has given to the Institute of Catholic Culture on the subject of Islam through the links below.
Ryan T. Anderson will be speaking for the Institute of Catholic Culture on September 15 on Liberty, Religion & Matrimony: The Future of Marriage & Religious Freedom. He has also just published a new book: Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom.
There was a bit of a controversy over Dr. Anderson’s book on Amazon, with many gay activists posting negative reviews (without having previously read the book). Clearly, he has touched a nerve. Read the article here.
Make sure you mark your calendar to join the ICC for Ryan Anderson’s presentation on Tuesday, September 15! Details can be found here.
We have a number of new audio files up for your listening pleasure. Since our last update, we have posted over 50 hours of audio, but I wanted to highlight the following 6:
Spirits of Light & Darkness: A Study of Angels & Demons with Peter Kreeft
Encountering Christ: Discussion on the New Evangelization with Deacon Sabatino Carnazzo
Dream of the Rood: A Poetic Vision of the Cross of Christ with Prof. Ben Reinhard, Ph.D.
Science and Faith: The Myth of Conflict with Prof. Stephen M. Barr, Ph.D.
Pange Lingua: Celebrating the Feast of Corpus Christi with Fr. Paul Scalia
Men Should Be Men: Combating Androgyny with Our True Identity with Fr. Eric Bergman
There are many, many more newly posted as well, so please browse our Media Library for more audio recordings.
Also, we have two 3 lectures coming up, dealing with the issue of communism. For all of those history lovers out there, you wont want to miss these talks! Coming up first we have Reagan, Thatcher & the Pope: The Fall of the Soviet Union with Prof. Rafael Madan, J.D., and then the two part series Catholicism, Communism & the Common Good with Prof. Patrick Bracy Bersnak. These lectures will examine the conflict between Catholicism and Communism at the level of doctrine and politics, with special reference to their rival conceptions of the common good, as well as how three individuals — Reagan, Thatcher, and the Pope — saw beyond the deadlock of the Cold War and dared to move against an evil empire forged in blood and rejection of God.
As always, these lectures are free of charge, open to the public, and for our out of town viewers, available to watch live in our Live Broadcast Studio!
We have new audio posted! Please check out:
Kingdom of the Cults: Scientology, Baha’i, & the Masonic Lodge, with Fr. Randy Sly
From Corruption to Christ: Saving Society with the Salt of Sanctity, with Bishop Robert Morlino
Jolly St. Nick? Reclaiming Christmas for Christ, with Christopher Check
A friend of the Institute from Winchester, VA sent us a challenging article posted at the Patheos Blog about the crisis in children’s catechesis. A snippet:
When you monkey around with Church teaching, bad things happen. We’ve identified a problem — kids whose parents aren’t disciples — and we’re so busy “solving” the crisis by heroically stepping in to replace the parents, that we’ve overlooked a small detail: Doing so is contrary to the Catholic faith.
Parents, not catechists, are the people ordained by God to pass on the faith to their children. The mission of the Church is to make disciples of those parents, and equip them to teach their children. If we have to choose between programs for adults and programs for children, adults are the priority. Not because we don’t care about kids, but because we want what is best for kids.
What is best for kids is what is best for adults and what is best for the Catholic faith: Adult disciples passing on the faith within their families.
Read the whole blog post here: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jenniferfitz/2015/03/the-hero-complex-that-is-destroying-the-catholic-faith/#ixzz3VJJBSd1n
We have a number of new audio files posted to our website for your listening pleasure:
Galileo on Trial: Why the Church Was Right, with Christopher Check, President of Catholic Answers
The Armenian Death March & the Formation of the Modern Middle East, with Prof. Rafael Madan, J.D.
Born Without Sin: A Study of the Immaculate Conception, with Msgr. Charles Pope
Jews, Christians & Christians – Praying to the Same God of Abraham?, with Robert Reilly
Peace on Earth & the Sword of Christ: Understanding Authentic Peace With the Church Fathers, with Fr. Francis Peffley
Catholic Answers has a new podcast – Focus. The aim of the podcast is to highlight “in-depth conversations with Catholic leaders, newsmakers, and unsung heroes of faith.”
Deacon Sabatino Carnazzo, executive director of the Institute of Catholic Answers, was recently profiled on this great new podcast. Click here to listen to the podcast!
As we approach the end of February, I thought it would be helpful to review the education the ICC has provided over the last month. If you’ve missed any of these – visit the event pages (all the titles below are hyperlinked) to watch the videos! Since it’s Lent, what better occasion do you have to sit down and spend some time learning about Our Lord and the Faith he has entrusted to us?
Our major weekend event in February was “Confronting Attila the Hun: the Life of Pope St. Leo the Great.” This was a great event, beginning with a hearty chicken soup supper. The hall at Our Lady of Hope was packed! But once everyone was fed, Chris Check told a powerful story, outlining the life and influence of Pope St. Leo the Great, the world of the 5th century Roman Empire, including the barbarian invasions and Christological controversies occurring at the time.
We also hosted a two-part series with Professor Steve Weidenkopf on “The Baptism of Clovis & the Conversion of Europe.” (A special thanks to Prof. Weidenkopf, who filled in for Dr. McGuire at very late notice!) Prof. Weidenkopf covered an enormous amount of history, outlining the early Roman world and the other major tribes – Goths, Burgundians, Vandals, and Franks, as well as the growing Christian influence over the Roman Empire. Prof. Weidenkopf then led us through Clovis’ baptism (influenced by his wife, St. Clotilda), and how the newly-baptised Clovis led to the conversion of the tribes and the conquest of Gaul (modern-day France). Prof. Weidenkopf concluded with a reflection on why Clovis’ baptism matters – not only for the future of Europe, but for each of us as Catholics baptized into the Body of Christ.
Finally, Msgr. Charles Pope gave a beautiful Lenten retreat this past Sunday – “Carrying Our Cross: An ICC Lenten Retreat.” Msgr. Pope spoke to those present about the Cross – and how we are each called to take up our own cross and follow Christ. Msgr. Pope didn’t mince words, acknowledging the tremendous difficulties of living as a Catholic in our post-modern world, but exhorting all present to live out their faith in the midst of their struggles. Following Msgr. Pope’s remarks, the 200 attendees retired to the Church, where we prayed Compline (a special thanks to members of Chorus Sine Nomine for helping lead Compline!). At the end of the evening, about 50 young adults and Msgr. Pope returned to the hall to have a special Young Adults Reception, where Msgr. Pope answered questions about “Living Lent in a Hostile World.”
Msgr. Pope will be giving the second part of his retreat this coming Sunday at St. Agnes – so please make your plans to attend!
I hope this was a helpful review! Make sure to mark your calendars for all the phenomenal events we have coming up during Lent – please click here to view our upcoming events.
Rorate Caeli posted a translation of a recent commentary by Italian journalist Alessandro Gnocchi, who has some hard words to say regarding the state of our Church today.
Truth, with a capital T, succumbs to expediency. Pilate, who prefers to remain a friend of Caesar, never stops looking for fellow travelers….we are in a battle to preserve the Catholic faith, and all the battles being fought on various fronts, even those that are so important like moral truth, are only the terrain of confrontation in a war that is much deeper, involving metaphysics and religion. The most important thing in play is faith. But faith is preserved whole and intact or it is lost. You cannot preserve just parts of it according to taste or expediency.
As mother and shepherd of our spiritual lives, the Church places before us the holy season of Lent, opening the way for repentance and reform. How our human nature revolts against such ideas! Sitting on our comfortable couches and enjoying the luxuries of modern life, our fleshly nature cringes at the least encroachment or inconvenience. As anyone who has taken the season of Lent seriously knows well, the war between the flesh and spirit is real. In light of this war, our Holy Mother, the Church, takes steps to guide her children toward repentance and restoration of communion with God by little steps, always vigilant that she not lose even one of her little lambs.
Thus, as we enter into the great season of Lent, the Church places before her children what can only be called the “at least” goals. Having not only Saints, but also sinners in her hands, the Church guides her adherents with a gentle hand, being careful not to overwhelm the least among us with a teaching that is too difficult to follow. We must “at least” go to Church on Sundays. We must not eat food for “at least” one hour before communion. And during the Lenten season, we must “at least” abstain from meat on Fridays, and keep the sacred fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. How many of us, hearing these “at least” teachings, take them as our ultimate goal, rather than taking them for what they are? …[Continue Reading] | <urn:uuid:fda0ca60-34b7-46ed-87ea-0aaa17b05a3a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.instituteofcatholicculture.org/learning-center/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00149-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952248 | 4,558 | 3.453125 | 3 |
Roosevelt Students Embark on Coding Program
Students at Roosevelt High School, on San Antonio's northeast side, are joining a growing number students learning how to code computer programs with help from their neighbors, Rackspace. The campus and six other NEISD schools are participating in the Hour of Code.
Code.org is a national non-profit entering classrooms with its Hour of Code program. Students, or anyone, spend one hour each week learning how to write the code of games, applications and other program. In the Roosevelt Library, at least 2,000 students will take the first hour. Daniel Sherrill with Rackspace's Rack Gives Back program said the Hour of Code is an introduction into learning how to solve problems with code.
“The idea is just to spark that interest in students who may have never thought of pursuing a career in being a computer programmer."
To make coding more user-friendly, familiar characters from Angry Birds and Plants Vs. Zombies are guided through a maze using a series of commands. David, a freshman at Roosevelt HS, said he hasn’t planned on going into coding as a profession, but believes it will help him in any job.
“In the future our technology will get a lot more advanced and it will get easier to understand. It will be like solving an easy math equation,” the student said.
Steven Williford, a multimedia teacher at Roosevelt, says this program has simplified coding to it’s easy to comprehend.
“You don’t have to type in [the code], you can drag and drop it. You can get the fundamentals of what it means to do conditional statements, if-then loops, and if you’re comfortable with those if you can progress into it, you can go ahead and write it out," Williford explained.
Rackspace is also involving the six other NEISD schools, including elementary schools, that feed into Roosevelt. NEISD is not the only district incorporating code. The San Antonio Independent School District uses a similar program at Highlands High School. | <urn:uuid:2c26c1cd-ff57-42bd-945c-0e6bb2e56d15> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://tpr.org/post/roosevelt-students-embark-coding-program | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392159.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00064-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94282 | 429 | 2.625 | 3 |
San Cristobal de Las Casas was founded in 1528 by the Spanish conquistador Diego de Mazariegos with the name of Chiapa Real de los Españoles. The city adopted its current name in honour to its Patron San Cristobal and to the Spanish friar Bartolome de Las Casas who defended the native indigenous people from the conquistadores.
San Cristobal was the capital of the province of Chiapas until 1821, when it belonged to Guatemala, and it was the capital of the state of Chiapas in the Independant Mexican Republic until 1892.
The city is located in the highlands of Chiapas, where the indigenous communities descendents of the ancient Mayas, the Tzotzil and Tzeltal, survive preserving their traditions and culture.
On January 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect, and on the same day the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional (EZLN) emerged from the mountains to occupy San Cristobal and other towns in Chiapas, to fight for the rights of the indigenous people.
Since then the Mexican goverment has tried to wipe out all the native people in Chiapas, but failed due to most of the territory being in high mountains and a fierce defence by the EZLN. In more recent years, the Mexican people joined forces with the EZLN and the natives in marches and demonstrations in the city.
The Mexican goverment finally agreed to talk and try to resolve the situation peacefully. However the agreements made have not been respected by the goverment and the situation has remained the same.
There’s something about this place. I’m not sure what it is yet, but we like it here.
We’re staying for Christmas. | <urn:uuid:4c6603ad-fed8-4f37-b354-cd7a7978baa4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://wekeepgoing.com/blog/san-cristobal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396100.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00138-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943424 | 388 | 2.75 | 3 |
There are four main constituents of the living environment that form the freshwater ecosystem, they are as follows.
An ecological pyramid indicates energy passing along from autotrophic organisms to carnivores at the top of the chain. Those at the bottom of the food chain are usually the smallest in size but not always, and are almost inevitably the largest in number. Those who feed off these primary producers are less in number, usually because they are larger and require more than one portion of prey per meal as a means of fulfilling nutritional requirements for a larger organism. This situation continues to the top of the chain, where few secondary consumers are eaten by an even smaller amount of tertiary consumers.
This is typical of a food chain in a freshwater community. Sometimes the pyramid diagram of a food chain can be inversed, usually in the case of parasites and hyper-parasites, where many smaller organisms rely on much larger organisms as a means of food and survival.
The next page continues looking at the relationship between organisms and how energy is passed on in the food chains, and looks at ecological pyramids.
The previous page on producers and consumers noted the reliance that organisms have on one another to obtain energy to survive and reproduce. Energy simply moves along in a simple chain like this;
Plants > Herbivores > Carnivores
When energy is passed on, there is always a net loss in the energy that is available in the ecosystem. This is because some energy is always lost somewhere along the line due to inefficiencies and waste produced by each of the organisms that contains some of the biological energy that was created inside them. Detrivores will feed on this waste matter, and once again the energy will be re-siphoned back into the food chain.
Plants, along with other organisms will inevitably die out, and the organic material produced by these dead plants decomposes into the soil, allowing new energy to be stored in the nutrient soil for plants to re-absorb.
The food chain diagram is a simplified food chain that results from such relationships, where organisms of a species gain energy from a source and pass it on in a continuous chain.
Food chains that allow a diversity of species to survive are divided into trophic levels, with plants providing the first trophic level as they are the primary producers of most food chains. In almost all freshwater ecosystems, animals will be present, and form part of the many grazing food chains in the area. Other organisms leach the energy from dead organic matter forming detritus food chains. Such relationships allow the free flow of organic energy to be passed along from species to species, and provide an environment where food is available for them to survive.
The most important fact to be taken from this is that no matter what species occupies an area, chances are they will require another species to be in abundance in the area for feeding. The population of a particular species will depend on density dependant and density independent factors, therefore the abundance of food in the ecosystem (a density independent factor), comes into play. The prey of a particular species will also require the existence of a food source for them to survive, and so forth.
Therefore we can see how the complex interrelationships between organisms allows an ecosystem to support such a wide variety of organisms. Plants are the essential constituent for a healthy freshwater ecosystem, being the primary producers and harnessing energy from sunlight, they provide the building blocks and energy to allow the arrival of herbivores, and subsequently omnivores and carnivores into the ecosystem.
Abiotic factors are essentially non-living components that effect the living organisms of the freshwater community.
When an ecosystem is barren and unoccupied, new organisms colonising the environment rely on favourable environmental conditions in the area to allow them to successfully live and reproduce.
These environmental factors are abiotic factors. When a variety of species are present in such an ecosystem, the consequent actions of these species can affect the lives of fellow species in the area, these factors are deemed biotic factors.
This page will go into the abiotic factors of the freshwater environment which determine what sort of life would be suited to living (and adapting) to the conditions of the ecosystem.
As described in previous pages, the light from the sun is a major constituent of a freshwater ecosystem, providing light for the primary producers, plants. There are many factors which can affect the intensity and length of time that the ecosystem is exposed to sunlight;
As you can see, many abiotic factors can play a part in determining the end product, which organisms live and succeed in the freshwater ecosystem. The sun provides light for photosynthesis, but also provides heat giving a suitable temperature for organisms to thrive in. The temperature of a freshwater environment can directly affect the environment as a whole and the organisms that occupy it.
Enzymes operate best at an optimum temperature, and any deviation from this temperature 'norm' will result in below optimum respiration in the organism. All aquatic life are ectotherms, meaning their body temperature varies directly with its environments.
Temperature affects the density of substances, and changes in the density of water means more or less resistance for animals who are travelling in the freshwater environment.
The next page will continue to look at how these abiotic factors affect the way in which organisms operate in the freshwater ecosystem. The above examples of abiotic factors involve physical characteristics of the freshwater environment, which are continued, with subsequent information studying how the chemical composition of the freshwater ecosystem also affects which organisms survive in the environment and how they cope in these conditions.
Evidently, the light and heat from the sun play an important role in providing suitable conditions. However, the water conditions also inevitably have an effect on life in the ecosystem.
A still body of water will inevitably be disturbed by various factors, which will affect the distribution of organisms in the water. Wind is considered to be the prime factor responsible for disturbing water, though changes in temperature can create convection currents where temperature is evened out across the body of water via this movement.
Naturally, a river will have water movement as water succumbs to gravity and moves downstream. These are relatively constant factors that affect water movement though, for example, human intervention can also cause water movement. The surface tension of the water will also affect the organisms that occupy the area, depending on the cohesion of water at the surface, it can affect the amount of oxygen that reaches organisms living below the water surface.
These factors all affect the way of life for organisms occupying such a freshwater ecosystem. On a more molecular level, the chemical compositions of the water, soil and surrounding air also play a part in determining the face of the ecosystem.
The oxygen concentration of the water and the surrounding air will have great bearing on which organisms can survive in a particular environment. Oxygen is required for aerobic respiration in animals, and the concentration of oxygen in an area is determined by many factors, including temperature and abundance of organisms for example.
Many chemical reactions and cellular processes rely on the availability of oxygen, therefore the concentration of oxygen in the ecosystem will inevitably alter the ecosystem itself. The same applies to carbon dioxide concentration. CO2 is required for photosynthesis, and can also affect the pH of the water for example.
As you can see, many factors will affect the overall existence of organisms in an ecosystem. The chemical and physical characteristics to begin with will determine which organisms are most likely to survive in the freshwater ecosystem. In turn, these pioneers entering the environment will actively manipulate these factors and change the schematics of the ecosystem as a whole, meaning that they also play a part in determining which organisms will succeed in a particular environment.
The study of ecology in freshwater is usually divided into 2 categories, lentic (still) and lotic (running) water. These two bodies of water also have a bearing on which organisms are likely to occupy the area. The following pages will separate these two categories of freshwater and investigate as to how they affect the life which lives in them.
Lentic (still water) communities can vary greatly in appearance, anything from a small temporary puddle to a large lake is capable of supporting life to some extent. The type of life which is supported will depend greatly on the biotic and abiotic components of the freshwater ecosystem explained on previous pages of the tutorial.
The creation of many of today's long standing freshwater lentic environments are a result of geological changes over a long period of time, notably glacial movement, erosion, volcanic activity, and to an extent, human intervention.
The consequence of these actions results in troughs in the landscape where water can accumulate and be sustained over time. The size and depth of a still body of water are major factors in determining the characteristics of that ecosystem, and will continually be altered by some of the causes mentioned above over a long period of time.
One of the important elements of a still water environment is the overall effect that temperature has on it. The heat from the sun takes longer to heat up a body of water as opposed to heating up dry land. This means that temperature changes in the water are more gradual, particularly so in more vast areas of water. When this freshwater ecosystem is habitable, many factors will come into play determining the overall make up of the environment which organisms will have to adapt to.
As with osmosis, temperature will even out across a particular substance over time, and this applies to a still body of water. Sunlight striking the water will heat up the surface, and over time will create a temperature difference between the surface and basin in the body of water. This temperature difference will vary depending on the overall surface area of the water and its depth.
Over time, two distinctly different layers of water become established, separated by a large temperature difference and providing unique ecological niches for organisms. This process is called stratification, where the the difference in temperature between surface and water bed are so different they can easily be distinguished apart. The surface area is deemed the epilimnion, which is warmed water as a result of direct contact with sunlight. The lower layer is deemed the hypolimnion, found below the water surface, and due to increased depth, receives less heat from the sun and therefore results in the colder water underneath.
The next page will continue to look at how heat from the sun affects the water and how other factors also come into play.
Previous pages elaborated on the importance of light to the freshwater community. Some factors can affect the amount of light received by autotrophic organisms (organisms that perform photosynthesis) can affect their level of photosynthesis and respiration, hence affect their abundance and therefore and subsequent species that rely on them.
Man has continuously polluted water sources, especially since the industrial revolution. Litter for example, and especially non-biodegradable litter, will block out light for light dependant organisms. An oil spillage will also have the same effect, perhaps more extreme as the oil will situate itself on the surface of the water and block out light.
Organic material and sediment can enter the still water environment via dead organisms in the area, and water flowing into the area from hills and streams. Buoyant material will also block out light required by the primary producers of the ecosystem.
When water moves, the friction caused by the moving water against the water bed and its banks will result in disturbing loose sediment. Depending on the weight of this sediment, heavier particles will slowly sink back to the bottom of the body of water while lighter materials will remain suspended in the water. The lightest material will rise to the surface, resulting in less light available to organisms underneath the surface.
Naturally, the consequences of the above will result in less light for organisms that rely on photosynthesis as a means of food, and subsequently means that organisms that feed on these autotrophic organisms will soon find that their food source is less freely available.
Another major factor affecting still water communities is the oxygen concentration of the surrounding area. Oxygen concentration is primarily affected by three factors
As mentioned on previous pages, temperature can also affect the concentration of oxygen available, which in turn, means that the depth of the water will therefore also have an effect. In turn, carbon dioxide levels, which are closely related to the oxygen levels available will be required by organisms undergoing photosynthesis. The availability of these will affect the organisms in the ecosystem. Their relationships with temperature will also affect their availability.
Evidently, some of these factors vary through different conditions, and changes in one of the factors usually results in changes with the others. This is also the case of pH, for example, as an increase in carbon dioxide results in a drop of pH.
With this information, and the previous pages in hand, we can now understand how organisms survive in these habitats in relation to these conditions described.
Through millions of years of evolution, animals living in an aquatic environment have diversified to occupy the ecological niches available in the ecosystem. When studying the habitats of these particular organisms, three main areas of the freshwater environment can be distinctly classified.
Another distinctive niche for the animal community is that above (epineuston) and below (hyponeuston) the water surface. Epineustic animals receive food from the surrounding hydrosere vegetation, where small animals fall into the water from vegetation and are preyed upon by these epineustic animals.
Below these surface dwelling animals are a collective of animals called the nekton, which live in the pelagic and profundal regions, though rise to the pelagic regions to feed upon these epineustic animals. Fish are included in this nekton community, which play a vital cog in these freshwater communities. Some of these fish are only temporary members of the community, as they move between fresh and salt water. Anadromous fish spawn in freshwater, but live much of their lives in salt water. Catadromous fish are the opposite of this, and spend much of their lives in the freshwater community. Each way, the fish present in the environment at any time form the link between the upper and lower layers of the freshwater community.
Previous pages have described how plants are the primary producers of the freshwater community, harnessing new energy from the sun into the environment. The next page looks at some of the animals that rely on these plants in the community, and animals that survive in the depths of the water and along the water shore and bed.
Plants that live partially or completely submerged in water are deemed hydrophytes. A form of symbiosis occurs with these hydrophyte plants, which provide means for algae and other organisms to survive in the surrounding environment. This is because the hydrophytes provide the conditions for the likes of algae and bacteria to survive in the environment. In return,herbivore animals tend to feed on this rich blanket of algae as opposed to the plants themselves, therefore protecting them from being consumed.
Animals in this environment feed on this algae, and also upon the detritus matter, the organic material that is rich on the water bed. It is an area of abundant organic material because the plants that survive in this area provide a source of food, and also a source of shelter which can provide protection from predators or a location to hatch offspring in a closed protected area.
This energy rich environment and suitable conditions allows a wide range of aquatic animals to successfully breed an survive in the area.
Particularly, herbivores thrive in these niches of the community, as their is a rich sources of food (plants) growing from the nutrient rich soil.
Examples of still water animals will appear soon in the up and coming species database...
Plants in the freshwater community provide a means of food for herbivores, and harness new energy into the community as a whole via photosynthesis from available sunlight. Plants are usually the pioneers of a new ecosystem, and therefore a bustling freshwater environment will have an abundance of plants.
The ecological niche alongside the still water banks is occupied by plants called hydroseres, which are partially, or totally submerged by water along the banks. Some of these hydroseres are rooted in the water, though some of their leaves penetrate the water surface, while others float on the surface, one side in contact with the water, the other side in contact with the open air environment. In essence, hydroseres possess evolutionary adaptations and dithering respiration rates from land plants that have allowed them to adapt in live in such an environment. Such evolutionary adaptations in plants ha meant that their physical structure has changed to suit the environment, and therefore making freshwater plants distinctly unique in appearance.
An example of these adaptations is the lack of rigid structures in freshwater plants. This is due to the density of the water (much higher than that of an open air environment), which 'pushes' against the plant in its daily life. This allows such plants to be more flexible against oncoming water tides, and prevents damage to the plant.
As plants require a minimum concentration of gases in their diet such as carbon dioxide, they require a degree of buoyancy so that contact can be made with the open air environment. Adaptations may include;
As these plants are either partially or totally submerged in water, their transpiration rate is very different from that of land plants. Such adaptations allow the freshwater community plants to cope with these conditions and thrive. However, alterations to the transpiration rate of these plants have proved essential, as without these adaptations they would not be able to maintain their water balance. This is continued on the next page, though related information can be found in the plant water regulation page in the adaptation tutorial.
As mentioned on the previous page about still water plants, the method of transpiration as a whole is altered in freshwater plants, due to the abundance of water in their external environment, or in the case of some, uptake of water from a wet environment, but loss of water via their leaves in the open air environment.
An example of transpiration problems for such plants is as follows;
On top of the need for plants to maintain a suitable water concentration in plant cells, they also require various nutrients which are found in the nutrient rich soil and the surrounding waters. In addition to the carbon, hydrogen and oxygen required for photosynthesis, plants require a range of macro-elements, notably magnesium (Mg), nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potassium (K). Some of these elements, notably the gases, are readily available in the atmosphere, while carbon dioxide is produced from decomposing organic matter. Other elements are readily available in the soil, with nutrients becoming available from decomposing matter adding to the fertility of the surrounding soil. Oxygen becomes available from the photosynthetic activities of plants, which provide the link between oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations in the area.
Availability of such elements will affect the productivity of the plants in the freshwater ecosystem, and the combined productivity of the ecosystem as a whole. Evidently, the environmental factors of the freshwater ecosystem has great bearing on how plants survive in the community. The following page introduces flowing water communities, which bring new and dithering factors into the equation for possible species occupying the area.
Running water freshwater communities are also known as lotic communities, lotic meaning running water. Lotic communities are formed by water being introduced to the freshwater body from a variety of sources;
Their are also many other, less significant ways water can enter the stream, for example, due to man made interference such as an outlet pipe, or water transpired by plants in the nearby area.
The accumulation of this water from the areas mentioned above also introduces essential minerals and nutrients that are ideal for plant growth, the primary producers of a community. With that in hand, alongside an abundance of water, pioneers can occupy the running water environment.
One of the main differences between lotic and lentic communities is the fact that the water is moving at a particular velocity in lotic communities. This can have great bearing on what organisms occupy the ecosystem and what particular ecological niche they can exist in. Running water can bring many factors into play affecting the lives of the organisms in this particular environment:
Such factors play a vital role in determining the overall chemical, physical and biological face of the running water ecosystem. As with previous pages, we shall look at these physical and chemical differences that make up a running water ecosystem which will inevitable affect the biological make-up of the freshwater ecosystem. This is continued on the next page.
This page continues from the previous page introducing lotic (running water) communities. The following is some of the physical and chemical factors that provide the framework of a running water community in which organisms in their favoured ecological niches occupy.
Such factors all play a part in the lives of animals and plants occupying the lotic environment. The following pages look at how plants and animals exist in such an ecosystem.
In general the diversity of plant species in a lotic community is small compared to that of a still water (lentic) community although small parts of the lotic community host similar conditions to that of a lentic community. Most plants have went through evolutionary adaptations to cope with the force and different conditions that running water brings. Such adaptations have allowed a number of species to successfully take advantage of the lotic community as their ecological niche.
As these conditions are more harsh for a typical species of plant, more notably larger plants, smaller species have found the conditions of the lotic community more favourable. This is due to the fact that they are more flexible in regards to the physical conditions of the water. Algae can grow in all sorts of different places and surfaces, and therefore are a successful constituent of the running water ecosystem. Most of these algae have developed evolutionary adaptations over time that prevent the water current sweeping them away.
You may want to learn more about natural selection if you are unfamiliar with evolution and adaptation
There are many species of algae, all of which are capable of growing and reproducing at a quick rate. This consequence results in competition for niches in the freshwater environment, and in light of this, colonies of algae can heavily occupy one area at one moment in time and weeks later they can be succeeded by another species who can succeed in the conditions more favourably.
Algae are also the primary producers of this community, meaning they harness new energy into the ecosystem from the sun which provides the primary consumers with a valuable food source. With this in hand, it is apparent why algae populations and where they can be found in the lotic community is variable on a short-term basis.
More information on algae and specific references to species will be added over time. The next page continues looking at plants in the running water community, but this time looking at larger plants.
As mentioned on the previous page, larger plants (thus with larger surface areas) find it difficult to occupy the running water environment in light of the water current that thrashes against them. Of the plants that do occupy the running water environment, some are rooted to the ground while others float.
Examples of lotic community plants will be uploaded soon
As mentioned in previous pages, the running water environment offers numerous microhabitats that simulate favourable conditions for many types of animals to successfully succeed the freshwater lotic community. As with plants, animals in this ecosystem have also underwent ongoing evolutionary adaptations to better suit this running water environment.
As with plants and their rooting structure, animals have also adapted to cope with the current of the stream.
Some of these animals are sessile, meaning they are immobile and fixed to the one place. These animals are usually small, and include the protozoans and some freshwater sponges. These animals either remain attached to the mass of a plant or the water bank surface or rock. They usually obtain their food via tentacles which branch out into the flowing water and form a catchment area that can trap microscopic organisms (such as plankton) that is floating downstream.
As much as these sessile animals have developed adaptations to prevent being washed downstream, they are not thought to be one of the important pillars of the freshwater community. Over time when biotic and abiotic factors affect the landscape of the ecosystem over time, the location of these animals may not be as favourable as it once was, and they are unable to correct this due to their immobile nature. With this in light some animals have developed adaptations that allow them to travel through the water without being inhibited in same spot.
animals have developed some of the following adaptations over time that helps them cope with the conditions in hand:
Plankton are microscopic organisms that live suspended in the water environment, and form a very important part of the freshwater community. They move via convection or wind induced currents. In almost every habitat of a freshwater ecosystem, thousands of these organisms can be found, and due to their small size and simplicity, they are capable of occupying large expanses of water and multiplying at an exponential rate.
Plankton can be subdivided into two categories.
They are relatively unspecialised as their environment does not resist the large populations that can exist in within their environment. Physiologically, there are many evolutionary adaptations that can be found that assist in the buoyancy of them, and prevent their deaths by allowing themselves to be suspended in the water away from harm.
They can be found in large amounts in a small area, and as they are consumed in large numbers by herbivores (phytoplankton) and carnivores (zooplankton), they reproduce asexually to keep population numbers up. This is opposed to sexual reproduction with other organisms, which would take longer although it would increase genetic variation within the species.
Many factors can affect the distribution of plankton in an ecosystem, which has a detrimental effect on the rest of the ecosystem, because as mentioned, they form an essential part of the ecosystem. Phytoplankton harness new energy from sunlight and provide many other organisms as a means of food due to this while zooplankton are also an important source of food for many species. In light of this, a knock on effect of starvation would occur if there is a lack of plankton in a particular environment.
Here are some factors that affect the distribution of plankton in the freshwater community;
Phytoplankton are more abundant in areas with a high intensity of light, as they can convert this light energy into chemical energy while higher temperatures increase growth and multiplication of the both phytoplankton and zooplankton. Elementary, the amount of available nutrients in the environment also plays a part in the distribution and density of phytoplankton.
You may also want to look at the population regulation page in the Regulation of biological systems tutorial to look at factors which affect species in general and their population levels.
As with all ecosystems, the existence and operations of human society inevitably have an effect on the way of life in a freshwater community. Particularly in Western society, where a huge amount of resources are harnessed from the land to fund our lifestyle, there is a resulting effect on the ecosystems of our planet.
For each action that man takes in this lifestyle, there is a resultant effect on the ecosystem, and the following looks at some scenarios where human action results in a response from the ecosystem, either physically or chemically, which in the long run affects the lives of organisms that live in these communities;
As you can see, there are many environmental factors that arise due to the usage of water in one way or another by our species. The most important fact to take from this is that when we use water in the above examples, we are upsetting the fine balance of the ecosystem as a whole, which then has a knock on effect on other organisms living in that particular ecosystem.
In light of this, and more consideration towards our environment, conservation measures are used to ensure that their is no detrimental damage caused to these environments, while at the same time man can continue to harness the water as a valuable resource. | <urn:uuid:2d11641a-0111-4750-8b5e-87eb7b87b1bf> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.biology-online.org/kb/print.php?aid=21 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00038-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953238 | 5,723 | 3.9375 | 4 |
To help the children learn about Jesus’ childhood and understand that God provided witnesses to testify that Jesus Christ is his Son.
Prayerfully study Luke 2:21–52, Matthew 2, the Joseph Smith Translation of Matthew 3:24–26, and Doctrine and Covenants 93:11–14. Then study the lesson and decide how you want to teach the children the scripture account (see “Preparing Your Lessons,” p. vi, and “Teaching from the Scriptures,” p. vii).
Select the discussion questions and enrichment activities that will involve the children and best help them achieve the purpose of the lesson.
Suggested Lesson Development
Invite a child to give the opening prayer.
As the children come into class, show two or three of them the object you have brought; then hide it before the rest of the class arrives. Ask one of the children who saw the object to describe it without saying what it is. Ask the class if they know what the object is. Ask the other children who saw the object to describe it. Help the children understand that they can be more sure about something if they hear it from more than one person. Show the object to the class.
Explain that the children who first saw the object acted as witnesses because they knew about the object and described what it was like. A witness is someone who has a personal knowledge of something and shares that knowledge with others. A witness can also be something that gives evidence or proof; for example, the Book of Mormon witnesses that Jesus is the Christ. Explain that when Jesus was a child, Heavenly Father provided many witnesses to testify that Jesus was his Son.
Teach the account of Jesus’ childhood as found in the scriptures listed in the “Preparation” section. (For suggested ways to teach the scripture account, see “Teaching from the Scriptures,” p. vii.)
Discussion and Application Questions
Study the following questions and the scripture references as you prepare your lesson. Use the questions you feel will best help the children understand the scriptures and apply the principles in their lives. Reading the references with the children in class will help them gain insights into the scriptures. You could use enrichment activity 1 as a review of the previous lesson before you teach this lesson.
Why did Mary and Joseph bring the baby Jesus to the temple? (Luke 2:21–24.)
How did Simeon know that Jesus was the Son of God? (Luke 2:25–30.)
How did Anna witness that Jesus was the Son of God? How do you think she knew who he was? (Luke 2:36–38.)
How did the wise men know that Jesus was the Son of God? Why did they give him gifts? (Matthew 2:2, 11.)
How can you be a witness of Jesus Christ?
Why did Heavenly Father tell Joseph to take his family to Egypt? (Matthew 2:13–14.) What did Herod do to try to keep Jesus from becoming king? (Matthew 2:16.) How did Joseph know it was safe to return from Egypt? (Matthew 2:19–20.) Where did the family go to live? (Matthew 2:21–23.)
What do you think Jesus did as a boy to gain experience and knowledge? (JST, Matthew 3:24–26; Luke 2:40, 52; D&C 93:11–14.) What things are important for you to learn as you grow up? What goals have you set?
Show the picture Boy Jesus in the Temple. Why were the men in the temple impressed with Jesus? (Luke 2:46–47. Note that Joseph Smith’s translation of this scripture says, “And they were hearing him, and asking him questions.”) What does this tell us about how much Jesus had learned in his childhood? What can you do to learn more about the gospel? How was Jesus honoring and obeying his Father in the temple?
What did Jesus do to honor and obey Joseph and Mary? (Luke 2:51–52.) Explain that Joseph and Mary taught Jesus during his childhood just as our parents teach us during our childhoods. How can you honor your parents?
You may use one or more of the following activities any time during the lesson or as a review, summary, or challenge.
Have the children name as many people as possible from the previous weeks’ lessons who witnessed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. To help the children remember these witnesses, you could have them look up the following scriptures: Luke 1:30–32 (Gabriel), Luke 1:41–43 (Elisabeth), John 1:29–34 (John the Baptist), and Luke 2:8–17 (the angels and shepherds).
Discuss goals the children could set to help them learn more about the gospel, such as reading the scriptures every day, praying, participating in family home evening, and so on. Ask the children to write on a piece of paper two goals that will help them learn more about the gospel this year. Encourage them to keep the paper where they can see it often.
Make a copy of the map at the end of this lesson for each child in your class. Let the children find and label the places where Jesus lived: Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Egypt, and Nazareth. (Maps #13 and #14 in the LDS edition of the King James Version of the Bible can help you with this activity.)
Help the children memorize the first article of faith.
Write on the chalkboard scripture references to times when Heavenly Father witnessed that Jesus is his Son (Matthew 3:16–17; 17:5; 3 Nephi 11:6–8; Joseph Smith—History 1:17). Have the children look up the references, and discuss what happened in each instance.
Help the children memorize Luke 2:52.
Sing or read the words to
“Jesus Once Was a Little Child” (Children’s Songbook, p. 55) or “This Is My Beloved Son” (Children’s Songbook, p. 76).
Share with the children your feelings about Jesus Christ, and tell them why it is important to you that he is the Son of God. Help them understand that if they follow Jesus’ example they can be more like him.
Enrichment activity 2 could be used as a life application of the lesson.
Suggested Home Reading
Suggest that the children study Luke 2:40–52 at home as a review of this lesson.
Invite a child to give the closing prayer. | <urn:uuid:1cb2cbed-e7be-417d-b890-c8a3ad6bbce5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.lds.org/manual/primary-7-new-testament/lesson-5-the-childhood-of-jesus-christ?lang=eng&media=audio | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399117.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00079-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963167 | 1,378 | 3.9375 | 4 |
Asia- Azerbaijan Political Map
This map features the international and provincial boundaries, national and provincial capitals and major roads of the Republic of Republic of Azerbaijan. is the largest and most populous country in the South Caucasus. The country is bordered by the Caspian Sea, Iran, Armenia, Georgia, and Russia. The capital city is Baku and their official language is Azerbaijani.
Click for Printing Tips | <urn:uuid:45b1fe01-cdad-44b0-b506-630d7f5fd3ce> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.freeprintable.com/free-printable-maps/asia--azerbaijan-political-map | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403826.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00048-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.890926 | 83 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Group. Number of L. R. Time in Tests. Animal. Per cent. Seconds. III 2 2.5 97.5 46.5 40 — — — — — 4 20 80 5.5 40 16 41 59 15 49 — —— —— —— —– 21.2 78.8 22 129
Group. Number of L. R. Time in Tests. Animal. Per cent. Seconds. IV. 2 2 98 41 50 — — — — — 4 32.5 67.5 7.3 40 — —— —— —— —– 17 83 24 90
Group I., representing 163 tests, shows 59 per cent. to the right, with a time interval of 10.8 seconds (i.e., the time occupied in turning). Group II. shows 77 per cent. to the right; and so throughout the table there is an increase in the number of returnings to the right. These figures at first sight seem to indicate the formation of a habit, but in such case we would expect, also, a shortening of the time of turning. It may be, however, that the animals were gradually developing a tendency to turn in the easiest manner, and that at the same time they were becoming more accustomed to the unusual position and were no longer so strongly stimulated, when placed on their backs, to attempt to right themselves.
All the subjects were measured and weighed in order to discover whether there were inequalities of the two sides of the body which would make it easier to turn to the one side than to the other. The chelae were measured from the inner angle of the joint of the protopodite to the angle of articulation with the dactylopodite. The carapace was measured on each side, from the anterior margin of the cephalic groove to the posterior extremity of the lateral edge. The median length of the carapace was taken, from the tip of the rostrum to the posterior edge, and the length of the abdomen was taken from this point to the edge of the telson. These measurements, together with the weights of three of the subjects, are given in the accompanying table.
MEASUREMENTS OF CRAWFISH.
Carapace. Abdomen. Weight.
Left. Right. Left. Right. Median.
No. 2, 9.8 10.0 38.2 38.7 47.3 48.1 29.7 No. 4, 7.7 7.7 33.6 33.8 39.4 42.3 17.7 No. 16, 12.5 12.4 37.6 37.6 46.4 53.2 36.2
Since these measurements indicate slightly greater size on the right it is very probable that we have in this fact an explanation of the tendency to turn to that side. | <urn:uuid:38cbde55-ef3a-4fa3-91a1-b357992f0105> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/16266/415.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392069.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00133-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941103 | 586 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Located on the river Wear, in Durham, England ; a Benedictine monastery founded in 674 by St. Benedict Biscop on land given by Egfrid, King of Northumbria. Benedict dedicated it to St. Peter, and ten years later founded the sister house at Jarrow, on the Tyne, in honour of St. Paul. These two monasteries were so closely connected in their early history that they are often spoken of as one; but they were really six or seven miles apart. The founder brought workmen from France to build his church at Wearmouth in the Roman fashion and furnished it with glass windows (hitherto unknown in England ), pictures, and service-books. The abbey was thus the cradle (as Bishop Hedley has said) not only of English art but of English literature, for the Venerable Bede received his early education there. Benedict himself was the first abbot, and the monastery flourished under him and his successors Easterwin, St. Ceolfrid, and others, for two hundred years. It suffered greatly from the Danes about 860, and again, after the Conquest, at the hands of Malcolm of Scotland. Jarrow was destroyed about the same time, but both monasteries were restored, though not to their former independence. They became cells subordinate to the great cathedral priory of Durham, and were thenceforward occupied by a very small number of monks. The names of only two of the superiors (known as magistri ) have been preserved-those of Alexander Larnesley and John Norton.
In 1545 "all the house and seite of the late cell of Wearmouth", valued at about £26 yearly, were granted by Henry VIII to Thomas Whitehead, a relative of Prior Whitehead of Durham, who resigned that monastery in 1540 and became the first Protestant dean. Wearmouth passed afterwards to the Widdrington family, then to that of Fenwick. The remains of the monastic buildings were incorporated in a private mansion built in James I's reign; but this was burned down in 1790, and no trace is now visible of the monastery associated with the venerable names of Benedict Biscop, Ceolfrid, and Bede. The present parish church occupies the site of the ancient priory church. The tower dates from Norman times, and doubtless formed part of the building as restored after the Conquest.
The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed between 1907 and 1912 in fifteen hard copy volumes.
Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.
No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.
Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912
Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online | <urn:uuid:2ee4335b-502f-4ec2-b2e7-ebf0f715e6b3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=12234 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393093.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00123-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968923 | 863 | 3.390625 | 3 |
Lucinda Lewis, Principal Horn with the New Jersey Symphony and author of Broken Embouchures, explores the symptoms and treatment of embouchure overuse syndrome. She explains how the basic mechanical structure of the embouchure works while playing, and how it can become damaged and disabled by an episode of overuse.
Cindy lists the hallmark physical symptoms of embouchure overuse, and denotes the most common playing problems that result from overuse. One of the most important issues to consider is sensory feedback, which is critical to brass playing. Finally, she offers a list of clues that can indicate that you are developing embouchure overuse syndrome. The only treatment is mechanical rehabilitation, which can be frustrating but, if done correctly, can restore the embouchure to proper functioning.
Embouchure overuse syndrome is the single most common performance injury suffered by brass players. It is an enigmatic, self-perpetuating injury syndrome that defies medical diagnosis and treatment. Its symptoms include lip pain, lip swelling, embouchure weakness, loss of technical control, lack of endurance, difficulty playing in the high range, and general playing disability. Overuse syndrome does not discriminate. It disables players of every level and accomplishment. While other things, such as a medical or dental condition, can cause a player to develop overuse syndrome, embouchure overuse is almost always the cause.
Embouchure overuse occurs when a player has played too many hours or with more intensity than he is accustomed to, e.g., preparing for an audition or solo performance, a week of playing heavy orchestral repertoire, a long day of playing very high jazz charts, etc. Once a player overuses his embouchure, it goes into a state of decline from which it cannot recover without a specific kind of performance rehabilitation. The reason is that the lip pain, lip swelling, and facial fatigue that follow a large quantity of playing simply prevent the embouchure from working normally. When a player’s facial muscles are forced to work with greater effort, they get to the point where they physically can no longer set or hold the embouchure with any degree of normal muscle control or stability. In addition, when a player feels lip discomfort, his natural, unconscious instinct is to “lighten up” to protect his lips, and this reactive, protective mode gradually replaces his normal playing technique. It translates into the embouchure becoming too lax and loose to have enough structure in playing to protect a player’s lips and be productive in playing. It also leads to constant irritation to the lips being inflicted during playing. If the embouchure lacks stability, a player’s air control fails, and his tongue cannot work efficiently. Overuse also has a major impact on the normal sensation in a player’s lips and face, which often feel numb or rubbery and make everything about playing feel strange and wrong. So it doesn’t take long before one’s healthy embouchure technique begins to degrade into a weak and unproductive system.
Another way of explaining how and why a strong, healthy embouchure can fail so quickly and dramatically is to analyze the effect pain has on the body. When we injure ourselves, the body suddenly kicks into an unconscious, high-sentry mode that engages in order to protect the injured area from further trauma. Sprain an ankle, and you limp. Cut your finger, and you automatically elevate it away from the other fingers to protect it.
The way the body reacts to embouchure pain and fatigue is to try to minimize the amount of stress on the muzzle area of the face that is generated in playing. Without even thinking about it, an injured player will “back off” the amount of tension in the muscles of his face because those muscles are tired and begging for mercy, and his lips hurt and are telling him to stop. This is one reason the embouchure feels totally uncontrollable in playing. In addition, when a player feels lip pain and facial weakness, he naturally assumes that he is “doing more damage”. So it is no surprise that a player changes the way he plays to avoid putting less physical stress on his embouchure.
The impact that overuse inflicts long term on the embouchure is similar to the impact that wearing tight shoes has on one’s feet. If you wear a pair of ill-fitting shoes, you are going to develop painful blisters on your toes and heels. If you stop wearing the shoes, your toes and heels will heal (just as a painful lip will heal with rest), but if you start wearing those shoes again, the blisters will return. You could go to a doctor to get the blisters treated, but that won’t cure the problem. To cure the blisters permanently, you have to wear shoes that fit your feet. Similarly, the redundant irritation to a brass player’s lips that follows overuse is the byproduct of playing technique that has become dysfunctional. To reverse the resulting pain playing problems, a player has to retrain his embouchure to function normally again in playing.
Yet one more casualty of this protective instinct is a player’s air control. The lips and muscles of the face have to have physical integrity to resist an intense, focused column of air. In overuse syndrome the embouchure is always too tired, sore, and impaired to compete physically with normal air pressure. To accommodate the discomfort and weakness in the embouchure, an injured player “lightens up” and backs away from using a strong stream of air.
In the final analysis, embouchure overuse syndrome is perpetuated by a single, basic, underlying cause: how the facial/embouchure muscles prepare and set themselves to play. Healthy embouchures naturally and mindlessly set with an intense level of muscle control and facial stability. It is so highly trained and coordinated by the time a player reaches the level of a professional that it is often mistaken as easy and relaxed playing. In contrast, players who have developed embouchure overuse syndrome set deferentially to discomfort, weakness, and from a loss of confidence. That translates into the embouchure being set with too little grip, structure, control, and stability. It is this lack of structure which leads to severe playing problems and lip irritation and what must be retrained to restore playing.
To prevent embouchure overuse from developing into a protracted performance injury, players would be well advised to stop playing for at least a day or two after physically overusing their embouchures. If that’s not possible, they should play carefully and only when absolutely necessary–no lengthy warm ups or other non-essential playing until things have recovered. Unfortunately, once the injury has evolved into the full-blown syndrome, performance rehabilitation is the only thing which will break the cycle of injury and restore playing.
A player suffering from overuse syndrome becomes totally confused about how his embouchure is supposed to feel and function in playing; however, there is a very easy way of demonstrating to an injured player how his embouchure worked in healthier days with a technique called blocked buzzing. Here is how it works:
Stand in front of a mirror, and block the end of your mouthpiece COMPLETELY with a finger. Put your mouthpiece on your lips as though you were going to buzz, and blow against the resistance. Blow with a constant mezzo forte stream of air (no air should leak from either your lips or mouthpiece). You can see and feel how your embouchure deploys a lot of muscle energy in preparation to blow against the resistance. Tongue slow, repeated notes while block buzzing. Notice how still and stable your face and throat remain as you do this. The normal level of embouchure stability that a healthy embouchure automatically and mindlessly generates for playing is comparable to that generated by the embouchure in blocked buzzing. An injured embouchure gradually loses its ability to generate and maintain this kind of firm structure in playing.
You probably noticed that your embouchure felt great when you blocked buzzed, even though you were using a lot of mouthpiece pressure. Mouthpiece pressure has no impact on a mechanically sound embouchure, and your embouchure works perfectly in blocked buzzing not because you are blowing against resistance but because of the way it physically prepared and set itself to block buzz. When a player block buzzes, his embouchure sets with the controlled muscle tension and structure of normal, healthy playing.
Embouchure rehabilitation generally takes many weeks to many months to complete. There is no set timetable because every player is different. The good news is: every embouchure injury is reversible. | <urn:uuid:bdd8c2b1-61e5-424c-8e81-6b88b096eaff> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.polyphonic.org/article/embouchure-overuse-syndrome-in-brass-players/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396224.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00044-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962142 | 1,796 | 2.8125 | 3 |
More than three quarters of new, emerging or re-emerging human diseases are caused by pathogens from animals, according to the World Health Organization.
But a widely accepted theory of risk reduction for these pathogens– one of the most important ideas in disease ecology– is likely wrong, according to a new study co-authored by Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment Senior Fellow James Holland Jones and former Woods-affiliated ecologist Dan Salkeld.
The dilution effect theorizes that disease risk for humans decreases as the variety of species in an area increases. For example, it postulates that a tick has a higher chance of infecting a human with Lyme disease if the tick has previously had few animal host options beyond white-footed mice, which are carriers of Lyme disease-causing bacteria.
If many other animal hosts had been available to the tick, the tick's likelihood of being infected and spreading that infection to a human host would go down, according to the theory.
If true, the dilution effect would mean that conservation and public health agendas could be united in a common purpose: To protect biodiversity and guard against disease risk. "However, its importance to the field or the beauty of the idea do not guarantee that it is actually scientifically correct," Jones said.
In the first study to formally assess the dilution effect, Jones, Salkeld and California Department of Public Health researcher Kerry Padgett tested the hypothesis through a meta-analysis of studies that evaluate links between host biodiversity and disease risk for disease agents that infect humans.
The analysis, published in the journal Ecology Letters, allowed the researchers to pool estimates from studies and test for any bias against publishing studies with "negative results" that contradict the dilution effect.
The analysis found "very weak support, at best" for the dilution effect. Instead, the researchers found that the links between biodiversity and disease prevalence are variable and dependent on the disease system, local ecology and probably human social context.
The role of individual host species and their interactions with other hosts, vectors and pathogens are more influential in determining local disease risk, the analysis found.
"Lyme disease biology in the Northeast is obviously going to differ in its ecology from Lyme disease in California," Salkeld said. "In the Northeast, they have longer winters and abundant tick hosts. In California, we have milder weather and lots of Western fence lizards (a favored tick host) that harbor ticks but do not transmit the Lyme disease bacterium."
So, these lizards should be considered unique in any study of disease risk within their habitat. Or, as Salked put it, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
Broadly advocating for the preservation of biodiversity and natural ecosystems to reduce disease risk is "an oversimplification of disease ecology and epidemiology," the study's authors wrote, adding that more effective control of "zoonotic diseases" (those transmitted from animals to humans) may require more detailed understanding of how pathogens are transmitted.
Specifically, Jones, Salkeld and Padgett recommend that researchers focus more on how disease risk relates to species characteristics and ecological mechanisms. They also urge scientists to report data on both prevalence and density of infection in host animals, and to better establish specific causal links between measures of disease risk (such as infection rates in host animals) and rates of infection in local human populations.
For their meta-analysis, the researchers were able to find only 13 published studies and three unpublished data sets examining relationships between biodiversity and animal-to-human disease risk. This kind of investigation is "still in its infancy," the authors note. "Given the limited data available, conclusions regarding the biodiversity-disease relationship should be regarded with caution."
Still, Jones said, "I am very confident in saying that real progress in this field will come from understanding ecological mechanisms. We need to turn to elucidating these rather than wasting time arguing that simple species richness will always save the day for zoonotic disease risk."
Source: Stanford University | <urn:uuid:a02253f2-1fea-40ad-86d6-4dc8394c8752> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/news/2013/03/dilution-effect-linking-biodiversity-disease-challenged | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00143-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954558 | 824 | 3.265625 | 3 |
A team of scientists including faculty, graduate students, and technicians from UC Santa Cruz is in Antarctica on an expedition to explore Lake Whillans, which lies under a half-mile of ice. The team has just completed an arduous journey to haul their equipment 600 miles across the Antarctic ice from McMurdo Station, the U.S. Antarctic research center, to the drilling site on the Whillans Ice Stream.
The project, called WISSARD (Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling), will investigate one of the last unexplored aquatic environments on Earth. The team includes researchers from eight U.S. universities and two collaborating international institutions. Researchers will use specialized tools to cleanly sample subglacial lake water and sediments, survey the lake floor with video, and characterize biological, chemical and physical properties of the lake and its surroundings.
Slawek Tulaczyk, professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UCSC, leads the project's glaciology team. Subglacial Lake Whillans provides a unique window into the waterworks of the ice sheet. Studies by Tulaczyk and others have shown that subglacial water acts as a lubricant, enabling faster movement of glaciers and ice streams.
"Many Antarctic subglacial lakes, including Lake Whillans, experience floods during which hundreds of billions of gallons of water drain into, or out of, a single lake basin," Tulaczyk said. "Since subglacial water is the ultimate lubricant for ice motion, these floods may cause large parts of the ice sheet to move faster towards the ocean."
It has been difficult to investigate Antarctic water drainage systems because they are hidden under thick ice. In addition to Tulaczyk, UCSC participants in the WISSARD project include Andrew Fisher and Susan Schwartz, both professors of Earth and planetary sciences; graduate students Grace Barcheck, Marci Beitch, and Ken Mankoff; and instrumentation engineers Dan Sampson and Robin Bolsey.
Fisher, who recently returned from working on the project in Antarctica, said it is unlike any project he has worked on before. "It's sort of a cross between an oceanographic expedition, space mission, and general Earth science and biological field work, with a dash of summer camp thrown in for flavor," he said. "This was my first season working in Antarctica, and it left me impressed with the whole operation. What is being attempted has not been done before, and it will open up a whole realm of research questions and opportunities."
The samples and data collected by the WISSARD project will be used to address a range of questions about subglacial biology, climate history, and the behavior of ice sheets. Specific questions include the following: Does microbial life exist in a subglacial lake environment and, if it does, what is the metabolic and phylogenetic diversity of subglacial life? Did the Antarctic ice sheet shrink in the recent past and expose the study area? Can subglacial lakes influence rapid retreat of the Antarctic ice sheet in the future?
The WISSARD microbiology group, led by John Priscu of Montana State University, will use sophisticated chemical and genetic analyses to see if microbial life can survive beneath the Antarctic ice sheet. Subglacial Lake Whillans is part of a vast Antarctic subglacial aquatic system. Discovery of life in this isolated environment will help scientists understand the limits of life on Earth and inform the search for life on other planets. "This is one of the last unexplored frontiers on our planet. Understanding the functional role of subglacial organisms will provide us with new information on the role of Antarctic in the Earth system," Priscu said.
Geologic investigations of WISSARD samples, led by Ross Powell of Northern Illinois University, aim to verify if the West Antarctic ice sheet retreated past Lake Whillans during previous periods of warm climate. Since the lake basin itself is actually located more than 2,000 feet below sea level, WISSARD geologists will be looking for evidence of marine microfossils and isotopic tracers of seawater that may be still present in sediment cores. Powell said sediments on the lake floor not only act as the main nutrient source for subglacial microbial communities, but are also a "library" that holds records of past changes in the lake and perhaps even older actions of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
To enable clean access into subglacial Lake Whillans, a team of engineers and technicians, directed by Frank Rack of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, spent nearly two years building a new hot-water drill capable of melting through 2,500 feet of ice in just a few days. It can blast a pressurized hot-water jet at up to fifty gallons a minute. The drill is connected to a truck-size water filter that will remove cells and particles larger than 8 millionths of an inch and kill any remaining cells with a powerful dose of germicidal UV radiation. All drill parts and scientific tools entering the borehole are pre-cleaned with hydrogen peroxide and, finally, go through a microbe-killing UV chamber. Laboratory tests in the U.S. in concert with Antarctic field tests have shown that this system can reduce the number of viable cells by many orders of magnitude. Such cleaning will prevent contamination of the lake and protect the integrity of samples obtained from the subglacial environment.
The WISSARD drill, along with fuel, field laboratories, workshops, computerized control centers, and scientific instrumentation, as well as a deck and crane to support field operations, arrived at the lake on January 12. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of cargo were brought to the site on giant sleds dragged for two weeks behind powerful tractors. The traverse route paralleled the first half of the famous trek that Scott's expedition took to the South Pole in 1911.
WISSARD drillers and scientists are now waiting for favorable weather to enable them to rejoin their equipment at the drill site. They will fly out of McMurdo Station on ski-equipped airplanes operated for Antarctic research support by the U.S. Air National Guard and Kenn Borek Air. On site, and at the station, the WISSARD team is supported by many dedicated individuals working as part of the Antarctic Support Contractor, managed by Lockheed-Martin.
The core funding for the WISSARD project comes from the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs, with additional funds for instrument development provided by the NASA Cryospheric Sciences Program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. | <urn:uuid:31721d34-6b16-40d7-905b-8854c7b61f91> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://news.ucsc.edu/2013/01/wissard-update.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397797.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00104-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933432 | 1,346 | 3.234375 | 3 |
A person regarded as nonexistent or unimportant, or as having no rights; an ignored or forgotten person: these players were famous within their own communities, but nonpersons outside them Compare with unperson.
More example sentences
- Can you give us a glimpse into what it is like to have become a non-person amongst your former community?
- It was like I was a non-person and it left me feeling quite disgusted and upset.
- Widows were considered burdens upon the community and family and they became non-persons.
For editors and proofreaders
Definition of nonperson in:
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
Comments that don't adhere to our Community Guidelines may be moderated or removed. | <urn:uuid:a1647946-6725-4006-82df-dbc98ebf4712> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/nonperson | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00132-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971691 | 154 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Role of Technology
At the center of the strategic directions for Greenwich Public Schools is student learning. In order to prepare our students in an ever-changing world, we must provide the knowledge and skills for their success. It is our belief that students can not only meet the standard for excellence in education and become responsible citizens in our society with the help of technology but must be capable users of technology to succeed in our complex, global world. The use of technology is a critical 21st century skill and an integral part of a student learning and working in today's society. Students utilizing technology to exchange and collaborate on projects, access, evaluate, and master digital resources will have the means to be productive citizens in our society.
The mission of Educational Technology is to bring the higher education model for technology to the K-12 classroom by preparing all students to use technology as a learning tool and bring about a cultural change in the way technology is used by educators and students. We expect effective, competent, and purposeful use of technology by administrators, teachers, and students to establish seamless integration of technology on a daily basis throughout the curriculum and extracurricular activities.
The District's Technology staff's main responsibility is to maintain computers, networks, and servers for all stakeholders. We are here to assist and support students, staff, schools, and administration in planning for future needs and developing creative utilization of technology.
Our commitment is to provide courteous, timely, and reliable service that result in a high level of customer satisfaction and functionality for our schools and administration. We accomplish this goal by placing emphasis on teamwork dedicated to our students and staff. | <urn:uuid:10ab19cb-d654-4acd-b02e-a48312833ec7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.greenwichschools.org/page.cfm?p=53 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396224.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00003-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949876 | 328 | 2.703125 | 3 |
|January 16, 2005 |
A bone to pick with museums
Returning collections of human remains to their home countries may sound noble, but science will suffer as a result, writes Tiffany Jenkins
Museums are the storehouses of history: collections that help to shine a light on the past. Amid their myriad objects are many curiosities, including human remains, which add detail to our impressions of how people once lived on the other side of the world. They also reveal how cultures were viewed and often misrepresented by the European explorers who “discovered” them 200 or more years ago.
After lying in display cases for decades or even centuries, the future of these resources is now uncertain. Pressure groups in America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand have undertaken a large-scale repatriation of these items, and in many cases have buried extensive collections of human remains, some of which once took pride of place in museum collections.
Now this trend has come to Scotland. Last week it was revealed that two tattooed Maori heads collected by a Scottish adventurer in the 19th century are to be sent back to New Zealand.
In an echo of a case last year that saw three preserved Maori heads and a leg bone returned to New Zealand, councillors in Perth have decided that the elaborately marked heads, known as toi moko, should be handed over to the Te Papa museum in Wellington. Once returned, they will not go on display or be available to the public or researchers. They will be stored while the museum tries to trace the descendants of the dead Maoris, who, if found, will decide the fate of the two heads.
The heads were collected and brought to Perth in the early 19th century by David Ramsey, a ship’s surgeon, who had studied medicine in Edinburgh and once lived at 40 Nicholson Street.
Ramsey travelled extensively in the Pacific, acquiring objects of interest along the way. He wrote to his brother, James, about his voyages, which included stopovers in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, and Java, one of its islands, detailing his growing collection of birds and insects.
In 1825 he sent a collection of curiosities, which included the heads, to the museum of the Literary and Antiquarian Society of Perth, the predecessor of the current Perth Museum & Art Gallery. As Ramsey did not visit New Zealand, it is believed he probably acquired the toi moko in Australia, where he settled for some time.
Collecting curiosities was all the rage in Ramsey’s day, so it is hardly surprising that so many scalps, skulls and shrunken heads dating from that period are held in museums across Britain. Some were taken in dubious circumstances, others were stolen, but many were bought by Europeans simply out of interest.
Ramsey’s toi moko will now go home after almost 200 years in Scotland. Michael Taylor, head of arts and heritage for Perth council, said: “They are significant and sacred to the Maori people. They believe they connect them to their ancestors.”
But while the return of some objects may be justified, the wider clamour for the repatriation of other museum items is dubious.
Since the British Museum was founded in 1753, it has been accepted practice for museums to collect human remains — from ancient mummies to Victorian jewellery pieces containing locks of hair. These body parts can unlock secrets about our past, including patterns of human migration: who lived where, when and with whom.
Ultimately, bones can help to reveal the story of human evolution. They tell us about diet, lifestyle and the health of previous populations. So research on this material is important, both for our own knowledge and for that of future generations.
Until recently it was not possible to remove items from museum collections. Then in 2000, Tony Blair made a pledge to return aboriginal remains to Australia, and the same year Edinburgh University repatriated a large collection of remains. The Human Tissue Act of 2004 granted some of leading museums the power to transfer human remains from their collections.
Perth and Kinross council’s policy in this area states that it “acknowledges that additions to the collections . . . are made in the belief that the material will be held in trust in perpetuity” and that “there is the strongest possible presumption against the disposal of any material from the collections”.
This principle is central to the operation of all publicly funded museums in Britain and is there to guard against the influence of finance, fashion and politics — but in recent years that principle has gradually been eroded. The repatriation of remains has already had an impact, with crucial material being destroyed.
This issue is about more than burying old bones, however. Returning material to its country of origin is part of a withdrawal from the pursuit of knowledge about humanity. It is the mission to know more and to understand the past that has been lost — the very spirit that helped to establish museums in the first place.
At present the number of claims remains relatively small. A survey conducted for a working group on human remains for England and Wales found that of the 60 museums holding such remains from overseas, only 13 had received requests for their return. But the working group argued that “while the total number of requests for return perhaps seems low at first sight . . . it is essential to recognise that in many cases the beliefs and emotions leading to individual claims are strong ”.
Of course, many of these claims are keenly felt. But equally, large-scale and unique collections of valuable material could be destroyed, when very little is known about an object’s provenance.
In one case in America, a 10,000-year-old skeleton of a woman from Idaho was discovered by archeologists and then buried by local native Americans (Shoshone), even though the ancestry, beliefs and religion (if any) of the woman were unknown. That is vandalism.
The pleasure of visiting local museums is often to see oddities that reflect the very birth of the idea of a museum. And the spirit that drove Ramsey and other adventurers out into the world is no more.
I don’t want to be too romantic. Museums are full of nasty or odd things that are often in bad taste, irrelevant and dusty. And some of the adventurers who found them held ideas that are very much out of tune with our own. But the outlook that sent them across the seas was progressive.
We should try to create a new thirst to know more and understand the world today and not destroy evidence of the past.
Tiffany Jenkins is director of arts and society at the Institute of Ideas | <urn:uuid:313193d2-dc29-4ad2-ad20-b46d558e3916> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/news/museum.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397213.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00200-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974015 | 1,370 | 2.65625 | 3 |
In Norse Mythology, Thor (Old Norse: Þórr) was a widely worshipped deity among the Viking peoples and revered as the "God of Thunder." Historical evidence suggests that Thor was once understood as the "high god" of the Nordic pantheon, only to be displaced (in rather late pagan mythography) by the All-Father, Odin. Thor was the focus of numerous Norse folk tales and he was seen to be representative of the Viking lifestyle, perhaps due to his associations with physical prowess and straightforward (though at times vicious) conduct.
In the vast majority of extant mythological sources, Thor is described as the son of Odin and Jord (a giantess). His popularity is evidenced by the frequency of tales centering around his heroic exploits, where he indulges in raids and contests of wills with the giants (Jotun) and where he is also seen favorably in accounts of Ragnarök (the great battle at the end of time), where Thor and Jörmungandr (the Midgard serpent) will kill each other.
The influence of Thor still echoes in the English, German, Dutch and Scandinavian languages today. For example, the word "Thursday" in English derives from "Thor's Day." The equivalent in German (Donnerstag, meaning "Thunder's Day") was also named after Thor.
As a Norse deity, Thor belongs to a complex religious, mythological and cosmological belief system shared by the Scandinavian and Germanic peoples. This mythological tradition, of which the Scandinavian (and particularly Icelandic) sub-groups are best preserved, developed in the period from the first manifestations of religious and material culture in approximately 1000 B.C.E. until the Christianization of the area, a process that occurred primarily from 900-1200 C.E. The tales recorded within this mythological corpus tend to exemplify a unified cultural focus on physical prowess and military might.
Within this framework, Norse cosmology postulates three separate "clans" of deities: the Aesir, the Vanir, and the Jotun. The distinction between Aesir and Vanir is relative, for the two are said to have made peace, exchanged hostages, intermarried and reigned together after a prolonged war. In fact, the most major divergence between the two groups is in their respective areas of influence, with the Aesir representing war and conquest, and the Vanir representing exploration, fertility and wealth. More specifically, Georges Dumézil, one of the foremost authorities on the Norse tradition and a noted comparativist, argues quite persuasively that the Aesir / Vanir distinction is a component of a larger triadic division (between ruler gods, warrior gods, and gods of agriculture and commerce) that is echoed among the Indo-European cosmologies (from Vedic India, through Rome and into the Germanic North). Further, he notes that this distinction conforms to patterns of social organization found in all of these societies. The Jotun, on the other hand, are seen as a generally malefic (though wise) race of giants who represented the primary adversaries of the Aesir and Vanir.
Thor is one of the most prominent of the Aesir, functioning as the primary god of warriors and battle. Given the importance of such militancy in Nordic society, the prominence of Thor (in the surviving mythic corpus) is hardly surprising.
Thor features strongly in the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson (a twelfth-century Icelandic historian), in which his many conflicts with the race of giants (the Jotun) are a main source of plots. In these tales, Thor (despite his occasional romantic peccadilloes and angry outbursts) is generally seen using his superior power to protect Asgard and Midgard from the forces of chaos and disaster. For this reason, he is often seen as a morally exemplary figure possessing "unambiguously admirable qualities": a strong contrast to the more morally ambiguous Odin.
Thor is the son of Odin and the giantess Jörd (Jord, the Earth). His wife is called Sif, of whom little is known, save her golden hair, which was said to be crafted for her by dwarves (after Loki shaved off her original locks).
With Sif, Thor fathered his daughter Þrúðr (often anglicized as Thrud). With his mistress, the giantess Járnsaxa, Thor had his sons Modi and Magni. Thor also has a stepson called Ull, who was a son of Sif. Finally, Skáldskaparmál mentions a figure named Hlóra who was Thor's foster mother, corresponding to Lora or Glora from Snorre's prologue, although no additional information concerning her is provided in the poem.
In Norse mythology, Thor owned a short-handled war hammer, called the Mjolnir, which, when thrown at a target, returned magically to the owner. His Mjolnir also had the power to throw lighting bolts. To wield the Mjölnir, Thor wears the belt Megingjord, which boosts the wearer's strength and a pair of special iron gloves to lift the hammer. These three magical items were seen as essential elements to the successful performance of his giant-killing duties.
Thor travels in a chariot drawn by the goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr (Tooth-Grinder and Tooth-Gnasher) with his servant and messenger Þjálfi and his sister Röskva. According to the Prose Edda, when Thor is hungry he can roast the goats for a meal, and when he wants to continue his travels, he needs only to touch the remains of the goats ("hallowing" them with his divine hammer) and they will be instantly restored to full health to resume their duties.
Thor lives in the palace Bilskirnir (which is said to be "the greatest house" ever known) in the kingdom of Þrúðvangr.
An extensive number of Nordic myths focus on Thor's exploits (see "Norse Mythology" below). Among the most famous of these tales are the following stories:
One legend describes Thor, disguised as a young boy, visiting the giant Hymir and offering to help him in his fishing tasks for the day. The giant, convinced that the lad would merely be a nuisance, nonetheless agreed to his companionship. When they rowed out to the ocean, the giant was content to visit his typical fishing spot. The disguised god, however, chose to continue rowing, despite the giant's warnings that they would soon enter the waters of the dreaded Midgard Serpent (Jormungandr). Thor then baited his hook with an ox's head and lowered it into the immeasurably deep water. Suddenly, the line jerked to life! Using all of his strength, the god drew the serpent up until its head broke the surface of the water. When Thor was about to kill this monstrosity, Hymir (filled with mortal terror) cut the god's line, allowing the serpent to sink back into the depths. This episode was tremendously popular, both as a topic for skaldic poetry and as subject for visual art.
Despite his general role as a giant-slayer, Thor was not undefeated. In one case, Thor was outwitted by a giant king, Útgarða-Loki, who used his magical powers to outstrip the god in a variety of contests. In one, Thor was pitted in a footrace against the king's servant, Þjálfi. Though Thor lost, he was later informed that his opponent had actually been "Thought" (which is faster than any material thing). Later, Thor was challenged to a contest of strength and asked to lift up the king's cat. Though the god was only able to lift a single paw from the floor, he later found out that the "cat" had actually been the Midgard Serpent (which surrounds the entire world). Next, Thor was enticed to enter a drinking contest, which he also lost. However, he later found out that the giant king had magically connected his drinking horn to the seas - which the god had succeeded in lowering by several feet. Finally, the god was impelled to wrestle an old woman (claiming to be the king's nurse). Though he finally lost, he was told that the nurse had, in fact, been "Old Age" - who no one (human or god) will ever be able to defeat. This tale is exemplary in that it provides clear examples of the Norse understanding of Thor's potency, while simultaneously showing that he too could lose a contest.
Not all tales about Thor center on his physical exploits. For example, the Alvíssmál provides an account that speaks to the intellectual (or at least crafty) side of Thor's character. In it, Thor's daughter is promised to Alvis, a dwarf. Thor, unhappy with this union, was forced to devise a plan to interfere with this unhappy arrangement (without breaking his promise). Specifically, he told Alvis that, because of his small height, he had to prove his wisdom. When Alvis agreed, Thor bade him to enter a riddling test, which he purposefully extended until after the sun had risen. As all dwarves turn to stone when exposed to sunlight, Alvis was petrified and his daughter was saved.
It is said that Thor will do battle with the Midgard Serpent (a monstrous child of Loki) during the final eschatological age (Ragnarök): Thor shall put to death the Midgard serpent, and shall stride away nine paces from that spot; then shall he fall dead to the earth, because of the venom which the Snake has blown at him. After their father's death, Modi and Magni will emerge as the new bearers of the divine hammer, Mjolnir.
Thor appears as the central figure in the following works of Norse literature:
Thor also appears in:
Thor was the most popular of the Norse deities, with a large and active worship tradition spread throughout the entirety of the Scandinavian world. Indeed, when the Norse countries were slowly being converted to Christianity (from approximately 900 - 1200 C.E.), one of the most frequent ideological contests took place between the physical and martial power of Thor and the overtly pacifistic (though salvific) power of Christ. The continued Norse veneration for their potent storm god during this transitional period is attested to in both mythic and archaeological evidence. In the first case, some surviving poetic tributes to the god are best described as hymns - texts that address the deity using second-person pronouns and expressing thanks for "defending our world against the forces of chaos."
The cult itself (in its Swedish incarnation) is described in the writings of Adam of Bremen (an eleventh-century Christian historian):
Over and above the considerable evidence for a "cult of Thor" found in the mythic and historiographic corpus, a cursory examination of archaeological discoveries from the region yields enormous evidence of the importance of the Thunder God, from runic inscriptions, to artistic depictions, to charms and amulets. Further, the occurrence of images of Thor (or his metonymic hammer) upon gravestones and burial objects suggest that the god was also seen by these peoples as the "protector and hallower of the dead."
"Thor's Oak" was an ancient tree near Fritzlar in northern Hesse (Germany) and one of the most sacred of sites of the old Germans. In 723, Saint Boniface cut down the tree to demonstrate the superiority of the Christian god over Thor and the other Germanic/Nordic deities, an event that commonly marks the beginning of the Christianization of the non-Frankish Germans.
Numerous location names display a historical reverence for Thor, either indigenous (Scandinavia) or imported by Germanic tribes (Scotland).
Many polytheistic religions include deities that share one or more features with the Nordic Thor. First, many scholars note the parallels (both in terms of form and function) between Thor and other "Sky Gods" (Zeus, Jupiter, Indra and the Finnish Ukko): specifically, all are related to the skies and lightning, and are described in combat with forces of darkness or chaos. for some general comments and Unto Salo for a discussion of these similarities in the Finnish context.</ref> Dumézil clearly delineates some of the additional commonalities shared between Thor and Indra, including "the hammer Mjollnir … [which is] like the vajra of Indra and the vazra, which the Iranian Mithra has stripped from Indra grown archdemon"; "it is the celestial weapon, the thunderbolt accompanying the 'thunder' which has furnished its name to the god." He also notes: "there are other physical traits that make him resemble Indra: red beard and a fabulous appetite." Such parallels fuel supposition that the god could have been based upon an earlier, proto-Indo-European prototype.
In addition, Thor's tendency to do battle with various giants and monsters (and his frequent depictions within the mythic corpus) caused many early Roman commentators to liken him to the Greek hero, Heracles.
Thor, in his Germanic incarnation (Donner), appears as a central character in Richard Wagner's opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen. This tremendously influential work has led to many post-Wagnerian portrayals of the deity (though some modern uses reflect more of the classic Norse understanding as well).
Since Wagner's time, Thor has appeared, either as himself or as the namesake of characters, on television, in song lyrics, in comic books (especially Marvel's The Mighty Thor (1966-present)), and in literature (particularly, Douglas Adams' The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul).
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed. | <urn:uuid:77fd4830-424d-42b8-8e28-6a36f3adda36> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Thor | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403825.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00149-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967409 | 3,035 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Circuit design is finished after a successful simulation in Multisim or just using a manufacturer's examples or application notes. A physical board needs to be created and tested. Laying out a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) is not an intimidating, impossible option for the novice. Software is there to make the build as easy as possible.
Like Multisim, and other circuit simulation tools, PCB design software often comes packing almost every single electrical component that has a SPICE model. The industry standard, OrCAD is worth a trial. However, for this section I picked CADSoft's Eagle CAD, a free PCB program. As the name indicates, designing a circuit is just like drawing parts in a CAD-like interface. In fact, it will look quite similar to Multisim or even SolidWorks. This should make for an easy transition from circuit concept to PCB.
Lucky for those adopting Eagle CAD today, the tutorials are abundant. Everyone from affiliate sites to hacking communities has put together video series that can handhold an engineer to their first PCB in minutes. A YouTube search for "eagle cad" should do the trick. After one tutorial, drawing a simple schematic will be a hurdle pushed to the side.
Multisim showing an inductor (L) and capacitor (C) based oscillator. The circuit loaded is also known as a “Colpitts Oscillator,” invented in 1918 by Edwin H. Colpitts. Multisim does not just allow for a circuit to be drawn, but it can also simulate the Colpitts Oscillator.
The tutorials will quickly advance to the PCB layout side of Eagle CAD since this is ultimately what the applications is meant to do for the user. One click will move from the circuit design to the PCB layout. Component placement on the PCB will have an effect of operation. Don't worry -- simple circuits have a tendency to work no matter how the parts are placed. However, they may not work optimally. For the ambitious, take a look at the datasheets for the various components. Manufacturers will offer, in detail, the guidelines for PCB placement. Microcontrollers often have a few strict rules. The suggestions will often say a capacitor or an oscillation crystal can be no further than "x" from the processor leads. Different license levels of Eagle CAD will offer automatic features, like laying out the electrical traces between component leads. However, like CAD, simply drawing lines from the component pins to their matching end-points will complete traces, almost like connecting the dots.
Not every circuit is easily conquered by discrete components. Most of the time a microcontroller (MCU) is the best way to go. Although a microcontroller is an easier or cheaper option, code has to be written. Programming is not everyone's forte. One of the most intimidating aspects of engineering can be seeing 10,000 lines of the C or assembly programming language. However, writing code into the wee hours of the night after work is not necessary to break this gem out of the ever-growing bag of skills. Programs can be written visually for almost any microcontroller out there.
Matrix Multimedia's Flowcode will write software for PIC, AVR, and 32-bit ARM microcontrollers without an engineer placing one line of code. Flowcode builds programs in a graphical sense, much like a living flowchart. Once the flowchart is constructed it can simulate the program in any time frame set. If it simulates properly it should also function in real life. Of course, not following manufacturer's requirements for component placement for the processor might have an effect on its operation. If it's by the book, it will work.
If microcontrollers or coding was not a big aspect of the day job, but then suddenly starts becoming one, Flowcode is only a stopgap solution. Learning more about the language or processor in question should be a focus. Nothing is more covered than microcontroller programming and development.
Remember, a microcontroller still needs a power supply. So, defer to the circuit design and simulation section. Lay out the components in Multisim and the PCB in Eagle CAD. Design an enclosure in SolidWorks and 3D print it.
Microcontrollers are fun and their possibilities are endless. Every electrical component supplier will have evaluation and demo boards of many processors. Grab any PIC dev board and put Flowcode to use. Or even use the PCB created from Eagle CAD at this step. See the system come to life. Keep in mind: Code can change, PCBs cannot. | <urn:uuid:d6e702cd-3935-4864-9abe-c29c15e0a918> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1394&piddl_msgorder=thrd&doc_id=259597&page_number=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393146.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00031-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936446 | 938 | 3.15625 | 3 |
« Timeline Projects By Last Year's 320 Students |
| Information Is Beautiful »
Check out these! Videos and competition can be found at thefuntheory.com.
Thanks to our wonderful student Andrea B. for bringing these to our attention!
Posted by Command Save on 10/24/2009 at 10:01 AM in Persuasive Thinking, Term Long | Permalink
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.
The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.
As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.
Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.
(URLs automatically linked.)
(Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)
Name is required to post a comment
Please enter a valid email address
Information Design Source Book: Recent Projects / Anwendungen heute (German Edition)
Else/Where: Mapping — New Cartographies of Networks and Territories
Avery Gordon: An Atlas of Radical Cartography
Edward R. Tufte: Envisioning Information
Edward R. Tufte: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition
Edward R. Tufte: Beautiful Evidence
Jenn Visocky O'Grady: The Information Design Handbook
Katharine Harmon: You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination
Kim Baer: Information Design Workbook: Graphic approaches, solutions, and inspiration plus 30 case studies
Nader Vossoughian: Otto Neurath
Nato Thompson: Experimental Geography: Radical Approaches to Landscape, Cartography, and Urbanism
Peter Turchi: Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer
R. Klanten: Data Flow: Visualising Information in Graphic Design
R. Klanten: Tangible
Viction:workshop Ltd.: Stereographics: Graphics in New Dimensions | <urn:uuid:7c642971-6478-4601-8b13-ccd1451b3f57> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://gdpsu.typepad.com/320/2009/10/the-fun-theory-volkswagen-nontraditional-advertising.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00009-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.734338 | 441 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Council on Environmental Health
Prepared by: Helen J. Binns, MD, MPH
Dose-response relationship of prenatal mercury exposure and IQ: an integrative analysis of epidemiologic data
Axelrad DA, Bellinger DC, Ryan LM, Woodruff TJ
US EPA and Harvard
Environ Health Perspect 2007;114:609-15
This paper applies complex statistical techniques to estimate the relationship between maternal mercury burden and childhood IQ decrement. Bring along your biostatistician when you read this paper!
Mercury is a ubiquitous environmental pollutant, which is released naturally from geologic actions and has additional widespread dispersal through anthropogenic sources. The potential for toxicity in humans is greatest during developmental stages. Mercury accumulates within organisms (bioaccumulation) and its concentration increases as it progresses up the food chain (biomagnification). Additionally, the potential toxicity of mercury increases as it cycles through the marine environment and is transformed, commonly to monomethyl mercury. Fetal exposure to mercury, principally through maternal fish consumption, has been associated with reductions in measures of child development and behavior.
Three prospective, longitudinal studies informed the development of the US reference dose for mercury (i.e., estimate of a daily exposure to the human population that is likely to be without appreciable risk of deleterious effects during a lifetime). These studies included samples of mothers and children in areas with high fish intake: 1) the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, 2) New Zealand, and 3) the Republic of Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. The Faroe Islands study measured cord blood (parts per billion), while the other two measured maternal hair (parts per million). Two studies (Faroe Islands and New Zealand) found significant adverse effects of methylmercury, while the Seychelles study did not. Within the Faroe and New Zealand study populations there was no evidence of a threshold effect.
In 2001, the US EPA to establish the benchmark dose for mercury (i.e., the lowest dose, estimated from the modeled data, expected to be associated with a small increase in the incidence of an adverse outcome). Based on expert recommendations, they used the Boston Naming Test (a test of memory retrieval of a word that expresses a concept) results from the Faroe Island study for the modeling process. The benchmark dose level reflects the lower 95% confidence limit of the cord blood mercury level that is estimated to result in a 5% increase in the incidence of abnormal scores in the Boston Naming Test. The cord blood mercury level that fit this analysis was 58 PPB (parts per billion), which equates to an ingested dose of 1.081 mg/kg body weight/day. They then applied a total uncertainty factor of 10 to account for various aspects of the modeling process to achieve a reference dose of 0.1 mg/kg body weight/day. At this intake the whole blood mercury should be <5.0 PPB and hair <1.0 PPM (parts per million).
Bayesian statistics are used in this analysis. Bayesian statistics examine the probability of a model given the data (versus “traditional” frequentist statistics that examine the probability of the data given a model [hypothesis]). Frequentist statistics allow one to compute confidence intervals for estimated parameters, which are assumed to be fixed (nonrandom). In the Bayesian approach, model parameters are treated as random variables, which allow estimation of the most probable range of the parameter given the observed data. (Here is a link to a primer on Bayesian Statistics designed to be “easily” understood by high school students -- http://courses.ncssm.edu/math/TALKS/PDFS/BullardNCTM2001.pdf)
WHAT DID THEY DO?
They applied a Bayesian approach to estimate a dose-response relationship between maternal mercury burden and childhood IQ decrements using published summary statistics from the 3 cohorts. They focused their outcomes on cognitive endpoints—most specifically using the various study measures (which differed by study and were done at ages 6, 7, or 9 years, also depending on study). Coefficients from the 3 studies were rescaled so data from all 3 studies could be expressed in similar terms. Cord blood data from the Faroe Islands study was rescaled to maternal hair using ~200:1 relationship, as previously reported in Faroe Island analyses. They used a hierarchical random-effects model, which includes study and end point variability as random effects and assumed that variability between studies was 3 times greater than variability within a study.
WHAT DID THEY FIND?
Best estimate for the change in IQ for each 1 PPM increase in maternal hair mercury is -0.18 (probable range of -0.378 to -0.009).
Over 50% of US women have mercury concentrations below the lowest measured in these studies; dose-response relationships at such lower levels may not be linear. Neurodevelopment deficits other than IQ are not considered.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
These data can be used to estimate benefits of reducing mercury in the population. | <urn:uuid:9df37d12-0a6f-408d-a4de-3914921a3494> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www2.aap.org/visit/coeh/reviews/COEHreview-2008-01a.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396147.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00185-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9057 | 1,055 | 3.03125 | 3 |
St. Catherine of Alexandria, c. 1320-1325
egg tempera and gold leaf on wood, likely poplar
82.2 x 44.5 cm
National Gallery of Canada (no. 6430)
This work was once the left panel of an altarpiece: the saint looked tenderly towards the Virgin and Child at centre. Catherine of Alexandria was tied to the wheel (an instrument of torture) then – when it miraculously broke – beheaded. Here she bears the horrific weapons that identify her: the wheel has been reduced to a brooch; she holds the pommel of the sword in one hand and a palm branch – symbol of her martyrdom and spiritual victory – in the other. Simone was among the greatest painters of his age, forging a style that was elegant, yet rooted in a new interest in reality, and would soon come to dominate all Europe. | <urn:uuid:fa6dbde9-b8fe-4f02-b6ac-55e053211112> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artwork.php?mkey=3914 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00052-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959669 | 183 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Ad English-02Mrs. Wanda Miranda
Why Should We Respect Difference in Others
Everyone has a quality that makes them different from other people. If you don’t like or respect other’s qualities, they will do the same to you and you won’t like that. Also, if you don’t like that quality, don’t tell them. Just keep it to yourself and no one gets their feelings hurt. Others can also hate you for your own qualities because no one is perfect especially people that say that they are perfect. some qualities can be the same, but at least one thing has to be different from other people.
There are many ways to try to treat one’s differences with respect. One of those ways is trying not to insult them or make fun of them. For example, they might have a new type of hair and it may look funny, but don’t say it out loud. Another way is to listen to them when they speak. Don’t ignore them when they speak because they could do the same to you. Finally, you could respect them by being sensitive with their feelings. If you see someone crying, help them and discover why they are crying.
Some of the people you really need to respect are your friends and family. Your friends are people that respect you if you treat them well. They can be sensitive to your needs as well as you beings sensitive to their needs. They can stop being your friends if you don’t respect their differences. Your family is the group of people that respect you the most. If you have a different quality than any other of your family members, they can respect you for it and you can respect them for their qualities.
Respecting other’s beliefs is important when we talk about taste. For example: I like apple and you like peach; I like blue cars and you like red cars. We all have different types of likes and dislikes, so we have to respect that because not everyone is the same. Also, we can criticize our own opinions and other’s... | <urn:uuid:7b584ffb-7cf7-4e9c-b6ba-50d99cbdece0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.studymode.com/essays/Why-Should-We-Respect-Difference-In-1267716.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396872.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00169-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979129 | 432 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Richard Nixon is not having an easy time of late. The Washington Post alone has run at least three opinion pieces reminding us all that Nixon was a skunk who 40 years ago this month resigned the presidency and flew off to a short-lived exile in California. There the story of Nixon's nefariousness supposedly ends. But it does not. He remains to this day a major political figure.
It was Nixon who devised and pursued what came to be called the Southern strategy. This was, in the admirably concise wording of Wikipedia, an appeal "to racism against African-Americans." Nixon was hardly the first Republican to notice that Lyndon Johnson's civil rights legislation had alienated whites in the South and elsewhere — Johnson himself had forecast that Southern whites would desert the Democratic Party. But Nixon was the GOP's leader and, in January 1969, the president of the United States. The White House, it seemed, would not do a damned thing for African-Americans.
Nixon was a complex figure — virtually a screaming liberal compared to today's tea party types. He was above all a pragmatic, cynical politician. Johnson and the Democrats had wooed the black vote; Nixon would do the same for the white vote. Even-steven, you might say, except the Democrats were expanding rights while the Republicans wanted to narrow them or keep them restrictive. Nixon was being politically clever but morally reprehensible. That was, you could say, his MO.
This realignment did not exactly start with Nixon or end with him. Barry Goldwater had voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Act (although he had supported other civil rights bills), but the GOP in general then was unencumbered by a Southern constituency and its leadership often favored civil rights. After Nixon, though, there was no turning back. In 1980, Ronald Reagan — ever the innocent — went to Mississippi and the Neshoba County Fair to tastelessly proclaim his belief in "states' rights." Nearby, three civil rights worked had been killed just 16 years earlier, protesting one of those bogus rights — the right to segregate the races. Reagan never acknowledged any appeal to racism. Racists took it as a wink anyway.
At one time a good many African-Americans voted Republican — the party of Lincoln, after all. Jackie Robinson initially supported Nixon (he later got disgusted), as did Joe Louis. The former heavyweight champion had even supported a Republican in the 1946 congressional campaign against Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglas, a liberal civil rights advocate, whose district was substantially black. As late as the 1970s, there were African-American enclaves in Maryland that voted Republican. I was a political reporter back then, and it was like stumbling upon a racial "Brigadoon."
The damage Nixon did to his own party, not to mention the rights of African-Americans and the cause of racial comity, has lasted long after the stench of Watergate has dispersed. It not only persuaded blacks that the Republican Party was inhospitable to them but it in effect welcomed racists to the GOP fold. Dixiecrats moved smartly to the right.
Excuse me for extrapolating, but segregationists are not merit scholarship winners. Racism is dumb and so are racists. The Democratic Party showed racists the door. The GOP welcomed them and, of course, their fellow travelers — creationists, gun nuts, anti-abortion zealots, immigrant haters of all sorts and homophobes. Increasingly, the Republican Party has come to be defined by what it opposes and not what it proposes. Its abiding enemy is modernity.
Along with some others, the GOP has managed to aggregate bigots and fools. (Of course, there are exceptions.) But its current hostility to immigrants, its repugnant rage against children who have crossed the border often running for their very lives, is an ember that still glows from the civil rights era. The worst thing Richard Nixon ever did was tell racists they had a point and welcome them into the party of Lincoln. The best thing he ever did for the Democratic Party is give its racists a place to go.
Nixon was virtually a cinematic creation, a man of such character flaws, resentments, hatreds and insecurities that it's hard to keep your eyes off him. Watergate and the cover-up were his downfall and they were, no doubt about it, breathtaking abuses of power, as obscene as the language he so often used. But what was once drama is now history. Not so the Southern strategy. It fouls our politics to this very day.
Contact Cohen at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:5ed7f313-1f05-4d58-86c2-e3cba1e26098> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jconline.com/story/opinion/columnists/2014/08/05/richard-cohen-nixons-lasting-damage/13641369/?from=global | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00064-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984706 | 943 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Developing Political Systems
The way countries, nations or states act and base their policies on many times reflect what their past was like. This is very true in the case of Africa. The only problem is that Africa is said to have no history. This just means that Africa’s many cultures did not affect the way imperialists and other influences acted towards the huge continent. Everything was based on their interests and consequently this meant that the way of dealing with Africa in every way was based on Western traditionalists. To this we must answer the question how has the Western World affected Africa’s present stage and what must be done to undo what is wrong and hopefully correct this situation.
Africa first played a role in Europe’s and the America’s history when the U.S. and Great Britain needed labor. They needed a lot of it and they needed it cheap. There was nothing cheaper than free labor. It would require an initial investment to African “leaders” but it paid off almost instantaneously. This is what we used to call slave trading. In around the 1860’s this became an illegal act. However, like any other crime, this trading could not be stopped entirely. British Naval ships were set up as blockades but sometimes Slaves were stored in spaces that were no higher than 12 inches so not all slave carrying boats could be stopped. In fact while the Navy stopped approximately 103,000 slaves from entering the slave force about 1.7 million entered it. Since this trade was illegal it was even more profitable than before. The slaves that were stopped from being shipped all the way west were being sent to Freetown, Sierra Leone and Monrovia, Liberia and they were called recaptives. These were towns set up by the British and some liberal Americans to send former slaves and recaptives back to their home continent. It wasn’t their home but it certainly was a lot closer than before. These recaptives were not welcome with open arms because they had renounced their religions and African names and replaced them with Christianity and English names. They did this because they felt they had been betrayed when they were sold in the first place. There was even more hostility to these recaptives because they spoke English and the British, along with the rest of Europe, were the ones starting to take over Africa politically. When Europe came into power they took their English speaking, Christian modernizers and put them in charge of the newly colonized countries.
Africa was colonized by Europe by countries such as Great Britain and France, which one can still see evidence of today. This was done at the Berlin Conference. The only two countries not directly colonized where Ethiopia for somewhat religious and Biblical reasons and Liberia, which had a legitimate government and this way the West would not have to directly imperialists the country but could just tell the leaders what, they wanted. The leaders obliged in return for not being colonized. When first colonized the many cultures languages and religions were not considered. Consequentially many opposing people came to live in the same state and this resulted in bloody hatred and eventually civil wars in many of these countries. Europe did not realize how many different nations there were in Africa when they were dividing it up amongst themselves. They just wanted to colonize and wanted equal shares for each other. Possible tension did not enter the minds of these colonizers and even if did it did not severely alter any decisions. In fact it was better for them if no group had a majority in a region because this would lessen the chance of a revolution. The peripheral countries of these new African boundaries usually did what the European core countries did. They wanted to enhance their status quo. The peripheral countries were heavily exploited. Their raw materials were taken from them relatively cheaply made into sellable products and sold to the world and back to Africa at high prices. At this rate Africa’s economy would never go up and would probably even go down. Since agriculture was its only source of income not much more could be done.
Many people question why Africa did not use its raw materials to make its own processed finished products. The answer is that there was heavy discrimination against this idea by the West. If Africa tried to use their cocoa to make their own chocolate the Swiss, for example, would say the world does not want chocolate from Ghana they want Swiss chocolate. The countries would listen and be forced to sell their raw materials at cheap prices to Europe. Additionally Africa did not have the technology ready to compete with these industrial nations and leaders. They did not have the money or the education at this time to have the same resources as the imperialists.
The Europeans tried to make Africa another version of the west. They tried to set up schools, hospitals and other bureaucracies that were successful back home. Many people would argue that because of this Africa had no history. More specifically this means Europe molded Africa’s history. They did not let the African nations play out their destiny themselves. When Europe set up governments in their colonies they did not want, for the most part, the traditionalists, which consisted of the kings and chiefs, to be involved in running the show. They instead took the recaptives who were modernizers because they saw what went on in the West while they were. The British knew that the modernizers would be more loyal to them than the traditionalists, being grateful for the freedom they were granted for slavery. The modernizers would favor westernization during colonialism and eventually after it too. They were now the bourgeoisies. They believed that now, when the British were finally moving out of Africa, Africa could not go back to traditionalist values. They believed that post-colonial independence would have to bee taken care of by now the sons and grandsons of the recaptives who have since become doctors, lawyers and teachers. The traditionalists disagreed saying the British should give back what they took away from them many years ago. They agreed they had to modernize somewhat but they were still inherinent to the power of their returned independence. In the end the modernizers were the ones to be named the rulers of newly independent African countries. The only problem was that when the countries became independent they continued to run as they were during colonial times. Partitions of the states remained as they were. Instead of like in Europe where nations, cultures and ethnic groups collectively rule themselves under self-determination, African leaders self-determined that the countries where staying as they were namely as sectors that the imperial powers set up. This meant ethnic clashes continued.
Now that these African nations had become independent they wanted to start to upgrade the economy. They had seen what the Asian Tigers had done and were led to believe that nothing could stand in their way to achieve the same if not similar goals. First they relied on the dependency theory just as Latin America had in the past. This broke down in the 1980’s. This happened for a number of reasons the most important one being it was too deterministic. Africa did not have too much input in this theory. They had to industrialize in a way where the international economy could help them out but where Africa did not have to totally rely on it. This is because they don’t want to all of a sudden go into deep depression because the countries they depend on fall into a recession.
Africa cannot jump into a world market economy as quickly as it wants. It has to establish itself, industrialize and be certain it can compete with the rest of the world before it actually does. It has to forget what happened to it before, how it may have been slowed down by Europe before. It has to forget the history that people claim it doesn’t even have. It has to progress and not even look back. It cannot blame its financial state on the fact that destiny was not allowed to play itself out. Many people, including me would argue that maybe it was destiny what happened with Europe colonizing and then handing over power to the modernizers. It could have saved Africa from even worse trouble than it is now. The fact is that there could be millions of scenarios played out of what could have happened. There is no way to prove if any of these scenarios could or could not have happened so there is n point to give a second or even first look at them. Once again we must progress. Africa is a huge continent that now has many educated people whether it was from learning in Europe or not. They have to implement a system where agriculture is not their main source of income. This is because agriculture is everything Africa has relied on since anyone can ever remember and its land is suffering from it. Combined with dry summers agriculture will not always be there. The people of each individual nation have to work with each other. They have the manpower and intellect to become a superpower continent. Maybe not in my lifetime and maybe not in my children’s lifetime but these things take time. The United States did not become rich over night. They too at one point were a colony of the British. They too were exploited for their raw materials and their labor. They were not given their freedom as easily as the African nations were. This is not to say Africa did not suffer in trying to become free or did not deserve it like the U.S. It is just to say that this suffering should not last forever.
The first step should come from the government. They need to take loans. It doesn’t matter if they are high interest. Money needs to be in the economy. A federal deal such as Franklin D. Roosevelt has to be implemented. Money has to be given to the people, not the elite, so that they can spend the money on goods that are being produced. In time enough money spent will lead to more jobs, which lead to more money, which will start to pay for new technology. Africa does not have to be rich to start involving itself in the world economy it just needs an economy that is working, producing and always moving ahead. Once they land in the international trade business everything becomes a bonus.
Africa in all its existence to Europe has relied on others to decide what’s best for them. Africa is now in a Western style mode. This does not mean it should be there but it is now. The government has to start taking advantage of today’s capitalist economy. Money tends to keep people of all nations happier. With money everyone is guaranteed food, a home and a better chance at democracy.
Developing Political Systems | <urn:uuid:b8e3cee7-687f-41d6-98ff-359dc31f6f6c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://onlineessays.com/essays/history/his039.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397864.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00092-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990084 | 2,134 | 3.234375 | 3 |
China released a “white paper” on March 31st accusing the United States of making the region more “volatile.” China claims that Washington’s web of alliances and military forces across Asia pose security challenges.1 If China decides to act on them, these accusations could create potential economic problems for the U.S.
One way that China could react is by discontinuing the purchase of US treasury bonds, an action that would threaten the U.S. economy and the ability of the U.S. government to function, as it relies on the sale of treasury bonds as a source of income. If that occurred, the U.S. government would likely raise interest rates to offset the loss of debt funding. Higher interest rates would slow the U.S. economy, pushing the recession even farther “under the water.”2
This economic scenario would only happen though if China viewed American actions as threatening. China has promised only to retaliate if the U.S. threatens them3 – giving the U.S. the opportunity to back down. According to University of Kansas International Relations Professor Anna M. Cienciala, China only sees states as threatening if they threaten China’s sovereignty by trying to intervene in China’s right to govern via communism or to claim Chinese territory.4
China lists Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, and Arunachal Pradesh as three of the major problem areas.5 In Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula, China fears the U.S. will threaten China’s communism by replacing communism in North Korea with democracy, which China sees as imperialism.6 China sees American values of civil and political rights as corroding communist emphasis on economic and social rights. The U.S. remains adamant about not provoking conflict in Taiwan7 or the Korean Peninsula.8
Arunachal Pradesh, a territory that borders Tibet, is viewed as problematic as well because China believes that India originally stole this territory from China. China claims that India will want to sovereignty over Tibet as well. Because the U.S. has been supplying weapons to India, China fears a potential invasion from India.9 India though is reluctant to start a war with China, so this potential threat will likely not materialize.10 11
Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, and Arunachal Pradesh represent three potential obstacles to a strong US-China relationship. This analysis will further examine each of these threats to China’s sovereignty.
China fears the U.S. will aid the Democratic Republican Party in Taiwan, known as the Kumintang (KMT), in overthrowing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).12 China believes the KMT represents foreign imperialists, who oppressed the Chinese people.13
After the 1901 Boxer Rebellion, China opened itself to Western thought as a means to arm itself against imperialism. One school of thought that became dominate was that of the KMT,14 who ushered in an era of democratic republicanism. The weakness of the KMT was revealed after they signed the Treaty of Versailles, which gave Japan the right to rule Shantung, a territory formerly under control of China.
Chinese became disenfranchised and clung to ideas of Marxism a philosophy despised by the West. Marxism gave China the power to fight their oppressors. The leaders of the Chinese Marxist party – the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – Li Dazhoa and Mao Zedong– gave the Chinese peasant masses exactly what they wanted – a peasant revolution where the peasant became the proletariat of China. Mao fought for the masses. In contrast, the KMT failed to educate the peasants and began using bribery and blackmail to win support.
The CCP not only gave the Chinese effective national unity, real independence, and freedom from foreign domination, but social-economic reform as well, especially ending the feudal system. After the CCP drove the KMT off of mainland China, the KMT fled to an island off southern China (now known as Taiwan);15 the CCP viewed this action as occupying their territory.16 China now sees any support of Taiwan as promoting illegal occupation of territory.
The Obama administration (similar to past administrations) though supports China’s “One China” policy. The “One China” policy maintains that China and Taiwan are one. The U.S. would only get involved militarily if China coerces Taiwan into changing politically. Although the U.S. continues to sell light defense weapons to Taiwan, the U.S. is not selling more than usual. In fact, the U.S. recently refused to grant Taiwan the visa fee waiver. The U.S. has not signed a trade agreement with Taiwan either as a sign of support of China’s sovereignty in that matter.17
The U.S. knows any advancement in military affairs on Taiwan will provoke China into war because China cares about safeguarding communism. In fact, their principle to safeguard communism is so important to them that China even protects North Korea – a nuclear threat.
The sole reason China got involved in the Korean War was to protect its communism. Mao decided to ally with Russia in attacking South Korea because Mao knew the U.S. was not interested in an independent China. After the Treaty of Versailles when the U.S. gave Japan Shantung, China knew the U.S. wanted to dominate them.
China, thus, saw North Korea as the best buffer against American democracy in South Korea. China’s dealings in North Korea revolve around their fear of a foreign invasion of the Korean Peninsula.18 Yet, American policy on North Korea offers little threat to Chinese fears of losing communism in North Korea. U.S. and South Korean officials are resistant to responding militarily to North Korean provocations of a nuclear weapon and international scuttles that could spin out of control.
Former North Korea CIA analyst, Bruce Klingner describes the situation in North Korea saying, “Even if you do a tactical level retaliatory response, you have to be prepared to go all in, in that you cannot guarantee that it won’t lead to an all-out war on the peninsula. And because of that slippery slope, there is the constraint against really doing anything militarily.”19
American desire to avoid conflict in North Korea reveals that this fear of China’s will most likely not materialize. A similar situation exists for the Arunachal Pradesh threat.
China fears the loss of Tibet, which they see as a grave injustice. China feels they should get Arunachal Pradesh as part of Tibet. China rationalizes that since Britain stole Tibet from them by forcing Tibet to open relations with Britain in 1904, China is the rightful government of Tibet.20
Arunachal Pradesh region lies between Tibet and India, and China fears India’s build up of troops along the border indicates India’s intention to invade Tibet.21 China feels that Britain illegally helped India take Arunachal Pradesh by enforcing the Simla Accord, which demarcated Arunachal Pradesh to India during its independence without the KMT’s signature. China’s belief is that India wants Tibet, since it already has Arunachal Pradesh.
China uses the example of the 1962 Indo-China conflict where they claim India invaded Tibet. China also cites India’s harboring of the Dalai Lama as evidence to prove India wants Tibet.22 China fears American involvement because India uses the weapons the U.S. gives them to amass troops along the border. Nonetheless, India has not attacked China and is unlikely to engage in a costly war unless provoked, as in the 1962 Indo-China dispute.23 Again, similar to the other perceived threats, this threat will most likely not materialize.
Because the U.S. does not meet China’s definition of a threat, China is not likely to cut economic relations with the U.S. The U.S. has not violated the first part of the definition as seen in the examples of Taiwan and North Korea. Furthermore, Washington did not violate China’s second part of the definition of a threat because American ally, India, does not intend to invade Tibet.
Even if China did end economic relations with the U.S., the U.S. would rely on increased interest rates to compensate, but it would be difficult. As of now, Chinese investment in U.S. treasury bonds pay for America’s budget deficit, but the public could feel the burden of this debt should China stop investing in U.S. treasury bonds.24
China could easily do without U.S. treasury bonds. China only has U.S. treasury bonds as payment for goods they export to the U.S., which only amounted to US$296 billion in 2009 – not enough to put a huge dent in the Chinese government should China decide to withdraw their investments. This would give China the ability to withdraw their investments should they feel threatened by the U.S. and create panic in the stock market.
China could easily afford withdrawing their investments because there are other countries to place their investments.25 The crucial question remains whether China will keep its promise not to attack first.
1 Bristow, Michael. “China white paper highlights US military ‘competition.’” BBC. March 31, 2011.
2 McArdle, Meagan. “What a Crisis Looks Like.” The Atlantic. April 25, 2011.
3 “Chinese military paper lays bare fears about US.” Taipei Times, April 1, 2011.
4 Cienciala, Anna M. “The Chinese Revolution and Chinese Communism to 1949.” University of Kansas, December 5, 1999.
5 “Chinese military paper lays bare fears about US.” Taipei Times, April 1, 2011.
6 “Chinese military paper lays bare fears about US.” Taipei Times, April 1, 2011. and Bajoria, Jayshree. “The China-North Korea Relationship.” Council on Foreign Relations. October 7, 2010.
7 “Obama to retain Taiwan policy.” Asian Values. December 21, 2010.
8 Conroy, Scott. “Obama’s Tough Line on North Korea Faces Limits.” Real Clear Politics. December 1, 2010.
9 Singh, Naorem Bhagat. “Shrouded in Mystery: Indo-China Border Issues.” Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict. November 7, 2009.
10 Karl, David J. “Military Buildup: Is There a Strategic Direction?” Foreign Policy Blog. December 14, 2010.
11 Prasad, Eswar S. “U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Hearing on ‘U.S. Debt to China: Implications and Repercussions.’” Brookings Institute. February 25, 2010.
12 “Chinese military paper lays bare fears about US.” Taipei Times, April 1, 2011.
13 Cienciala, Anna M. “The Chinese Revolution and Chinese Communism to 1949.” University of Kansas, December 5, 1999.
14 Hooker, Richard. “Ch’ing China: The Boxer Rebellion.” Washington State University. July 14, 1999.
15 Cienciala, Anna M. “The Chinese Revolution and Chinese Communism to 1949.” University of Kansas, December 5, 1999.
16 “Chinese military paper lays bare fears about US.” Taipei Times, April 1, 2011.
17 Dumbaugh, Kerry. “Taiwan-U.S. Relations: Developments and Policy Implications.” Congressional Research Services. November 2, 2009.
18 Salman, Andrew. “China’s support of North Korea grounded in centuries of conflict.” CNN. November 26, 2010.
19 Conroy, Scott. “Obama’s Tough Line on North Korea Faces Limits.” Real Clear Politics. December 1, 2010.
20 Hessler, Peter. “Tibet Through Chinese Eyes.” The Atlantic Online. February 1999.
21 Naorem, Bhagat Singh. “Shrouded in Mystery: Indo-China Border Issues.” Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict. November 7, 2009.
22 Hessler, Peter. “Tibet Through Chinese Eyes.” The Atlantic Online. February 1999.
23 Singh, Naorem Bhagat. “Shrouded in Mystery: Indo-China Border Issues.” Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict. November 7, 2009.
24 McArdle, Meagan. “What a Crisis Looks Like.” The Atlantic. April 25, 2011.
25 Prasad, Eswar S. “U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Hearing on ‘U.S. Debt to China: Implications and Repercussions.’” Brookings Institute. February 25, 2010. | <urn:uuid:ea22d7a3-597d-4855-a6e1-dba433edf5d7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.globalization101.org/threats-to-the-us-china-relationship-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396224.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00043-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94156 | 2,710 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Andrew J. Connolly
Studies the universe as a whole. Overview of fundamental observations of cosmology and an introduction to general relativity. Examines theories of the past and future history of the universe, the nature of dark matter and dark energy, and the origin of ordinary matter on the large-scale structure. Prerequisite: PHYS 224; PHYS 225.
This is a self-contained course designed to introduce students to the basics of cosmology. The course has a significant mathematical content, principally geometry, algebra and calculus. The topics we will cover include: the cosmological principle, expansion of the universe, the Robertson-Walker metric, dynamics of an expanding universe, observational constraints on the expansion of the universe, the role of dark matter and dark energy, the cosmic microwave background, gravitational lensing, inflation, new probes of cosmology.
Student learning goals
Explain the physical principles that describe the expansion of the universe
Calculate distance, volume and age of the universe as a function of redshift for a range of different cosmological models
Measure the scales on which structures collapse due to gravity and how this depends on the nature of the dark matter.
Characterize the observational probes of cosmology and how they can be used to measure the properties of dark matter and dark energy
General method of instruction
Class assignments and grading | <urn:uuid:c76cb687-242e-4437-bb11-21a4a5dd56c0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.washington.edu/students/icd/S/astro/425ajc26.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00021-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.852545 | 274 | 2.671875 | 3 |
HymenochaetaceaeAristóteles Góes-Neto and Cláudia Groposo
This tree diagram shows the relationships between several groups of organisms.
The root of the current tree connects the organisms featured in this tree to their containing group and the rest of the Tree of Life. The basal branching point in the tree represents the ancestor of the other groups in the tree. This ancestor diversified over time into several descendent subgroups, which are represented as internal nodes and terminal taxa to the right.
You can click on the root to travel down the Tree of Life all the way to the root of all Life, and you can click on the names of descendent subgroups to travel up the Tree of Life all the way to individual species.close box
The hymenochaetoid clade is one of the eight major clades of Homobasidiomycetes suggested by Hibbett and Thorn (2001), and corroborated by Binder and Hibbett (2002) and Moncalvo et al. (2002). The hymenochaetoid clade probably comprises all known Hymenochaetaceae, as well as some members of at least nine different families of Homobasidiomycetes, as revealed by the aforementioned recent molecular phylogenetic studies.
Although the Hymenochaetaceae are typically represented by the yellowish to reddish brown lignicolous bracket fungi, the non-hymenochaetacean species of the hymenochaetoid clade exhibit a striking diversity of forms, colours and habits, which includes mushrooms (Fig. 1), lilac to violet bracket fungi (Fig. 2), some members of Corticiaceae s.l. that resemble a splash of paint on trunks and twigs of trees (Fig. 3), and even one species that was for a long time in the "Guinness Book of World Records" as possessing the largest known fruiting body of a fungus, Bridgeoporus nobilissimus (Fig. 4), a rare and endangered species, restricted to very large specimens of noble firs in Pacific Northwest old-growth forests in North America (Burdsall et al., 1996).
Clockwise from top left: Figure 1: Salmon basidiomata of Loreleia marchantiae (Singer & Clémençon) Redhead, Moncalvo, Vilgalys & Lutzoni on the liverwort Marchantia. © Cathy L. Cripps. Figure 2: Lilac basidiome of Trichaptum byssogenum (Jungh.) Ryv. on dead tree trunk. © Aristóteles Góes-Neto. Figure 3: Basidiome of Hyphodontia sambuci (Pers.) J. Erikss. on tree trunk. © Paul Busselen. Figure 4: Basidiomata of Bridgeoporus nobilissimus (W.B. Cooke) Volk, Burdsall, & Ammirati. © Tom Volk.
Many species of the hymenochaetoid clade, especially Phellinus s.l. are important phytopathogens, causing white rot in living trees in natural and cultivated forests of both conifers and flowering plants (Larsen and Cobb-Poule, 1990; Ryvarden, 1991, 1993): Phellinus pini is the etiological agent of red ring rot, the most economically important of the stem rotters of pines (Harrington and Wingfield, 1998); Phellinus weirii causes the laminated root rot in Douglas-fir and other commercially important species of conifers in northwestern North America (Thies and Rona, 1995); and Fomitiporia punctata and Fomitiporia mediterranea are associated with "esca" disease of grapevines (Fischer, 2002). On the other hand, some representatives of the hymenochaetoid clade have been used for medicinal purposes by traditional human societies in Asia (Lim et al., 2003.), and many metabolic compounds isolated from them have antineoplasic and antioxidant activities (Ajith and Janardhanan, 2003; Shon et al., 2003). Furthermore, because of their ability of degrading natural recalcitrant molecules (e. g. liginin, the main component of wood) they have been studied to be used for the biodegradation of xenobiotics (non-natural, man-made compounds, e. g. plastics, biocides etc.) (Wesenberg et al., 2003).
Except for only one common cytological character, this clade apparently has no morphological, physiological or ecological synapomorphy, and it is almost exclusively defined on molecular grounds. Although not confirmed for all the studied species regarded as members of the hymenochaetoid clade, they all appear to share at least one nonmolecular character in common, the dolipore septa with imperforate parenthesomes (Moore, 1985; Oberwinkler, 1985; Langer and Oberwinkler, 1993; Keller, 1997; Muller et al., 2000, see Characteristics of Hymenomycetes).
The Hymenochaetaceae are rather well-defined. They always possess clampless generative hyphae (Fig. 6) and brownish basidiomata (Fig. 5) that darken when moistened in alkali solutions (permanent positive xanthochroic reaction). Setoid structures, especially unbranched setae (Figs. 7-8), but also branched asterosetae occur frequently in several taxa (Oberwinkler, 1977). However, the hymenochaetoid species assigned to the other families not only lack this combination of characters but also have other markedly different nonmolecular characters.
Top: Figure 5: Browinsh basidiome of Phellinus palmicola (Berk. & Curt.) Ryv. Bottom left to right: Figure 6: Clampless generative and browinsh skeletal hyphae of Phellinus gilvus (Schw.) Pat. X40. KOH 5% + Phloxin stained slide. Figure 7: Photomicrograph of hymenial setae of Phellinus palmicola (Berk. & Curt.) Ryv. X40. KOH 5% + Phloxin stained slide. Figure 8: Scanning electron photomicrograph of hooked and straight hymenial setae of Phellinus wahlbergii (Fr.) D.A. Reid. X500. Figures 5, 6, 7 © Aristóteles Góes-Neto. Figure 8 © Cláudia Groposo.
Clockwise from top left: Figure 9: Ressupinate basidiome of Phellinus membranaceus J.E. Wright & Blumenf. © Aristóteles Góes-Neto. Figure 10: Effuse-reflexed basidiomata of Phellinus gilvus (Schw.) Pat. © Fred Stevens, courtesy MykoWeb. Figure 11: Pileate basidiome of Phellinus tremulae. © Dave Powell, USDA Forest Service, courtesy InsectImages.org (#0976062). Figure 12: Stipitate basidiome of Stipitochaete damicornis (Link) Ryvarden. © Cláudia Groposo.
Hymenochaetoid fungi exhibit almost all possible forms of basidiomata. Ressupinate (Fig. 9), effuse-reflex (Fig. 10) and pileate (Fig. 11) forms predominate, but stipitate (Fig. 12) forms also occur. The same is true for hymenophores, which can be smooth (Fig. 13), toothed (Fig. 14), poroid (Fig. 15), and even lamelate (Fig. 16) (Parmasto, 2001; Goes-Neto et al., 2001). They exhibit all the three main patterns of hyphal systems (mono, di and trimitic), and sterile elements (other than setoid structures) of the hymenium are often found in non-hymenochaetacean species (Hibbett and Thorne, 2001).
Clockwise from top left: Figure 13: Smooth hymenophore of Hymenochaete sp. © Heino Lepp, courtesy Australian National Botanic Gardens. Figure 14: Toothed hymenophore of Hydnochaete sp. © Cláudia Groposo. Figure 15: Poroid hymenophore of Phellinus igniarius (L.) Quél. © Marek Snowarski. Figure 16: Lamelate hymenophore of Rickenella swartzii (Fr.) Kuyper. © Mirek Junek
Most of the members of the hymenochaetoid clade predominantly consist of saprotrophic, lignicolous, white-rot species, although mycorrhizal, forming both ectomycorrhiza (Danielson, 1984), and orchid mycorrhyza (Umata, 1995), and even agaricoid bryophyte-associated species (Moncalvo et al., 2002; Redhead et al., 2002) are also found in this clade.
Although they are not restricted to the hymenochaetoid clade, styrylpyrones are found in all studied hymenochatacean members of the clade (Fiasson, 1982), which, together with other phenolic compounds, confer the typical xanthocroic reaction.
Contrary to most of the Homobasidiomycetes, the hymenochaetoid clade, as well as the cantharelloid and gomphoid-phalloid clades, include species with imperforate parenthesomes (Hibbett and Thorn 2001, Binder and Hibbett 2002). As this character is also encountered in non-homobasidiomycetous Hymenomycetes (e. g. Auriculariales and Dacrymycetales), one can argue that the presence of imperforate parenthesomes is the plesiomorphic condition in the Homobasidiomycetes, and this point of view would be in accordance with the basal position of the hymenochaetoid clade in homobasidiomycete phylogeny. Hibbett and Thorn (2001), however, suggested that this character could be potentially homoplasic, because of the apparent co-occurrence of imperforate and perforate parenthosomes in the polyporoid clade (Keller, 1997), which would be in conformity with a non-basal position of this clade. Therefore, the position of the hymenochaetoid clade in homomobasidiomycete phylogeny still is controversial (Binder and Hibbett, 2002).
Relationships among putative hymenochaetoid clades are not well resolved. According to Wagner and Fisher (2002a), there is at least some support for one less inclusive clade comprising most of the "typical hymenochaetaceae" (Inonotus s.s., Phylloporia, Fulvifomes, Inocutis, Fomitiporella, Aurificaria, Phellinus s.s., Pseudoinonotus, Fomitiporia, Porodaedalea, Onnia, Mensularia, and Pseudochaete). This group is in accordance with the classic concept of the Hymenochaetales sensu Oberwinkler (1977), and the taxa exhibit a holocoenocytic behavior of the somatic mycelium (Wagner and Fischer, 2001, 2002a), but its monophyly is still uncertain.
The remaining hymenochaetacean taxa (Coltricia, Coltriciella, Pyrrhoderma, Fuscoporia, Phellinidium, Asterodon, Phellopilus, Hymenochaete) appear intermingled with corticiaceous and polyporoid species of the genera Hyphodontia, Schizopora, Basidioradulum, Oxyporus, Bridgeoporus and Trichaptum, and, most surprisingly, also with gilled omphalinoid fungi, such as Cotylidia, Rickenella, Loreleia, Contumyces and Sphagnomphalia, as was revealed by previous studies (Hibbett and Donoghue, 1995, Hibbett et al. 1997, Ko et al., 1997, Hibbett et al., 2000; Hibbett and Donoghue, 2001; Moncalvo et al., 2002; Redberg et al., 2003; Redhead et al., 2002).
In summary, the position of the hymenochaetoid clade and the relationships among the putative more inclusive clades are definetely not well resolved. Thus, the great challenging tasks concerning this clade are (i) to discover which non-hymenochaetacean taxa are in this group and (ii) to characterize this clade more properly.
Ajith, T. A., Janardhanan, K. K. 2003. Cytotoxic and antitumor activities of a polypore macrofungus, Phellinus rimosus (Berk) Pilat. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 84: 157-162.
Binder, M.,Hibbett, D.S. 2002. Higher level phylogenetic relationships of homobasidiomycetes (mushroom-forming fungi) inferred from four rDNA regions. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 22: 76-90.
Burdsall, H. H.; Volk, T. J.; Ammirati, J. F. 1996. Bridgeoporus, a new genus to accommodate Oxyporus nobilissimus (Basidiomycota, Polyporaceae). Mycotaxon 60:387-395.
Danielson, R. M. 1984. Ectomycorrhizal associations in jack pine stands in northeastern Alberta. Can. J. Bot. 62:932-939.
Fiasson, J. L. 1982. Distribution of styrylpyrones in the basidiocarps of various Hymenochaetaceae. Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 10(4): 289-296.
Góes-Neto, A.; Loguercio-Leite, C.; Guerrero, R. T., 2001d. Morphological Cladistic Analysis of Tropical Hymenochaetales (Basidiomycota). Mycotaxon 79: 467-479.
Harrington, T. C. and Wingfield, M. J. 1998. Diseases and the ecology of indigenous and exotic pines. Pp. 3-33 (chapter 19) in: Ecology and Biogeography of Pinus (D. M. Richardson, ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Hibbett, D. S., and Donoghue, M. J. 1995. Progress toward a phylogenetic classification of the Polyporaceae through parsimony analysis of mitochondrial ribosomal DNA sequences Can. J. Bot. 73(Suppl. 1):S583-S861.
Hibbett, D. S., Pine, E. M., Langer, E., Langer, G. and Donoghue, M. J. 1997. Evolution of gilled mushrooms and puffballs inferred from ribosomal DNA sequences. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 94:12002-12006.
Hibbett, D. S.; Gilbert, L-B.; Donoghue, M. J., 2000. Evolutionary instability of ectomycorrhizal symbioses in basidiomycetes. Nature 407(6803): 506-508.
Hibbett, D. S.; Donoghue, M. J., 2001. Analysis of character correlations among wood decay mechanisms, mating systems, and substrate ranges in Homobasidiomycetes, Systematic Biology 50(2): 215-242.
Hibbett, D. S., and R. G. Thorn. 2001. Basidiomycota: Homobasidiomycetes. Pp. 121-168 in: The Mycota, vol. VII part B, Systematics and Evolution (D. J. McLaughlin, E. G. McLaughlin, and P. A. Lemke, eds.). Springer Verlag.
Keller J. 1997. Atlas des Basidiomycetes vus aux Microscopes Electroniques. Neuchâtel, Suisse: Union des Societes Suisses de Mycologie. 173 p 324 pl.
Ko, K. S., Hong, S. G., Jung, H. S. 1997. Phylogenetic analysis of Trichaptum based on nuclear 18S, 5.8S and ITS ribosomal DNA sequences. Mycologia 89: 727-734.
Larsen, M. J.; Cobb-Poule, L. A., 1990. The Genus Phellinus (Hymenochaetaceae): a survey of the world taxa. Synopsis. Fungorum 3: 1- 206.
Langer, E.; Oberwinkler, F., 1993. Corticioid basidiomycetes. I. Morphology and ultrastructure. Windahlia, 20: 1-28.
Lim, Y. W., Lee, J. S., Jung, H. S. 2003. Type studies on Phellinus baumii and Phellinus linteus. Mycotaxon 85: 201-210.
Moncalvo JM, Vilgalys R, Redhead SA, Johnson JE, James TY, Aime MC, Hofstetter V, Verduin SJW, Larsson E, Baroni TJ, Thorn RG, Jacobsson S, Clémençon H, Miller OK Jr. 2002. One Hundred and Seventeen Clades of Euagarics. Mol Phyl Evol 23: 357-400.
Moore, R. T. 1985. The challenge of the dolipore/parenthesome septum. Pp. 175-212, in: D. Moore, L. A. Casselton, D. A. Wood, and J. Frankland (eds.) Developmental biology of higher fungi. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Muller, W. H.; Stalpers, J. A.; van Aelst, A. C.; de Jong, M. D. M.; van der Krift, T. P.; Boekhout, T., 2000. The taxonomic position of Asterodon, Asterostroma and Coltricia inferred from the septal pore cap ultrastructure. Mycological Research 104(12): 1485-1491.
Oberwinkler, F. 1985. Anmerkungen zur Evolution und Systematik der Basidiomyceten. Studien an Heterobasidiomyceten, Teil 49. Bot Jahrb Syst 107(1-4):541-580.
Oberwinkler, F. 1977. Das neue System der Basidiomyceten. In Beiträge zur Biologie der Niederen Pflanzen (H. Frey, H. Hurka, and F. Oberwinkler, Eds.), pp 59-105, G. Fischer, Stuttgart, Germany.
Parmasto, Erast. 2001. Hymenochaetoid fungi (Basidiomycota) of North America. Mycotaxon 79: 107-176.
Redberg, G. L., R. Rodriguez, J. Ammirati, and D. S. Hibbett. 2003. Phylogenetic relationships of Bridgeoporus nobilissimus inferred from rDNA sequences. Mycologia 95: 685-687.
Redhead, Scott A., Jean-Marc Moncalvo, Rytas Vilgalys & François Lutzoni. Phylogeny of agarics: partial systematics solutions for bryophilous omphalinoid agarics outside of the Agaricales (euagarics), Mycotaxon 82: 151-168, 2002.
Ryvarden, L. 1991. Genera of Polypores: Nomenclature and Taxonomy. Synopsis. Fungorum. 5: 1-363.
Ryvarden, L. 1993. Tropical Polypores. In: Aspects of Tropical Mycology (S. Isaac, J. C. Frankland, R. Watling, A. J. S. Whalley, Eds.), pp. 149-170, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Shon, M. Y., Kim, T. H., Sung, N. J. 2003. Antioxidants and free radical scavenging activity of Phellinus baumii (Phellinus of Hymenochaetaceae) extracts. Food Chemistry 82: 593-597.
Thies, W. G. and Sturrock, R. N. 1995. Laminated root rot in western North America. USDA For. Serv., CFS Res. Bull. PNW GTR 349.
Umata, H. 1995. Seed germination of Galeola altissima, an achlorophyllous orchid, with aphyllophorales fungi. Mycoscience 36: 368-372.
Wagner T. and Fischer M. 2001. Natural goups and a revised systemfor the European poroid Hymenochaetales (Basidiomycota) supported by nLSU rDNA sequence data. Mycological Research 105(7): 773-782.
Wagner T. and Fischer M. 2002a. Proceedings towards a natural classification of the worldwide taxa Phellinus s.l. and Inonotus s.l., and phylogenetic relationships of allied genera. Mycologia 94: 998-1016.
Wagner, T. and Fischer, M. 2002b. Classification and phylogenetic relationships of Hymenochaete and allied genera of the Hymenochaetales, inferred from rDNA sequence data and nuclear behaviour of vegetative mycelium. Mycological Progress 1(1): 93-104.
Wagner, T. and Ryvarden, L. 2002. Phylogeny and taxonomy of the genus Phylloporia (Hymenochaetales). Mycological Progress 1(1): 105-116.
Wesenberg, D., Kyriakides, I. and Agathos, S.N. 2003. White-rot fungi and their enzymes for the treatment of industrial dye effluents. Biotechnology Adv. 22(1-2):161-187.
- The WWW Virtual Library: mycology. An index to Mycological Resources in the internet.
- Deep Hypha Research Coordination Network. Deep Hypha is a project to coordinate and provide resources for research in fungal systematics.
- AFTOL: Assembling the Fungal Tree of Life. Collaborative research in fungal phylogenetics.
Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (UEFS), Brazil
Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (UEFS), Brazil
Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Aristóteles Góes-Neto at and Cláudia Groposo at
Page: Tree of Life Hymenochaetales. Hymenochaetoid clade. Hymenochaetaceae. Authored by Aristóteles Góes-Neto and Cláudia Groposo. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.
- First online 10 June 2005
Citing this page:
Góes-Neto, Aristóteles and Cláudia Groposo. 2005. Hymenochaetales. Hymenochaetoid clade. Hymenochaetaceae. Version 10 June 2005. http://tolweb.org/Hymenochaetoid_clade/20547/2005.06.10 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/ | <urn:uuid:79f03f96-117c-4fd5-b466-c4a94b609e7c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.tolweb.org/Hymenochaetoid_clade/20547 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00124-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.712303 | 5,313 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Birds use their beaks as a tool, as well as another limb. That's why they need to be kept healthy.
A wide number of health problems can impact a bird’s beak, either directly or indirectly. The most commonly seen by veterinarians are:
Birds can injure their beaks as a result of fighting between other birds; falling onto hard floors; chewing on electric cords; flying into windows or ceiling fans; and their beak becoming trapped between cage bars. These injuries can result in fractures to the beak, puncture wounds or avulsions (the beak becoming partially or completely torn off the face). Beak injuries are almost always emergency situations that require immediate attention from a veterinarian.
Abnormal Beak Growth & Development
Some baby birds develop beak abnormalities. These can include an overgrown beak, where either the upper or lower beak grows too long; a scissor beak, which is a lateral deviation of the upper and lower beaks; and mandibular prognathism (parrot underbite), which is a condition wherein the tip of the rhinotheca rests on or inside the gnatotheca. These can be caused by genetics and nutritional deficiencies during development. Often these conditions can be fixed with dental appliances, which work similar to human braces to straighten out the beak and correct bites.
Birds can develop cancer on their beaks, primarily squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma. This can manifest itself as erosion, discoloration and masses on the beak. If caught early, tumors on the beak can normally be removed surgically.
Liver disease from excess fat and poor nutrition in the diet can cause overgrown and scaly beaks. Lack of calcium and vitamin D can cause soft, rubbery beaks, mostly in smaller birds such as cockatiels. The solution is simple: get the bird on a proper diet, and, in time, these symptoms can usually be reversed.
Many viral, bacterial, parasitic and fungal pathogens can directly infect bird beaks or infect another part of the bird’s body and cause secondary problems to the bill. Some biggies here include scaly leg and face mites, psittacine beak and feather disease (PBFD) and avian pox. The bacterial and fungal diseases are usually successfully treated with antibiotics or antifungal medications.
The key to treating any of these conditions is careful observation and quick action on your part. If you notice anything unusual about your bird’s beak, contact your veterinarian immediately. The sooner you address the problem, the sooner your bird will be treated and the more likelihood of a good prognosis.
Want to learn more about the bird beak? Check out these articles:
Everything You Need To Know About The Parrot Beak
How To Keep Your Bird’s Beak In Shape | <urn:uuid:8048ceaa-f412-43de-b9e6-50fa709e9b08> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.birdchannel.com/bird-diet-and-health/bird-care/bird-beak-health-ailments.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00096-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92316 | 600 | 3.796875 | 4 |
Has Noah's Ark Been Discovered? New Book: Noah's Ark: Ancient Accounts and New Discoveries
Contact: Jorgen Vium Olesen, Publisher, [email protected]; Henri Nissen, +45-51-31-6599, [email protected]
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Sept. 14, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- In May 2010 a Chinese-Kurdish research team released to the press that they had found a large wooden structure on Mt. Ararat at an altitude of 4,200 meters. But this spectacular discovery has been ignored -- even though it IS most probably the biblical Ark of Noah.
According to biblical records, Noah's Ark was actually stranded in "the Mountains of Ararat." And yet the media has been very silent about this find. But if it is genuine, it would shake the conventional view of prehistoric times and the generally accepted theories of evolution underlying much of modern science.
The Danish journalist Henri Nissen began in 1999 to research the topic and has made several expeditions to Eastern Turkey. His book, Noah's Ark: Ancient Accounts and New Discoveries, has now been released. Nissen unveils the great Chinese-Kurdish discovery and presents the reader with facts that allow one to decide for himself if this find is genuine or not. He also presents a historical review of the search for the Ark and describes the ancient sources, both biblical and other, such as the Sumerian clay tablets, which also describe the Flood, the Ark, and persons alluding to Noah.
Modified World History
The 320-page book also reveals scientific details that seem to confirm the Flood, from which the Ark rescued Noah and his family, is not merely a myth but in fact an actual historical event. If that is indeed the case, it seriously weakens the theory of evolution, which makes no allowance for such a catastrophic event. Likewise, a flood catastrophe would change the prerequisites for the radiocarbon 14 test and other dating methods based on geological strata. Furthermore, the author addresses the theories of people being larger prior to the catastrophe and living longer and being more intelligent due to different conditions of living, such as higher levels of oxygen.
Photos of the Ark?
The Chinese-Kurdish group has not yet been able to raise funds to fully investigate this spectacular find. But the Hong Kong Chinese have published both photos and films of the big wood structure discovered on Mt. Ararat by their Kurdish guide Parasut. The structure was covered by ice and rocks and found at an altitude of approx. 4,200 meters (an area which is normally covered by ice on the north western side the mountain). The photos -- also included in the book -- are absolutely amazing. They show a total of seven spaces with beams, doors, hooks, stairs and even rope, crystal, and hay. The wood is reddish-brown and without nails and metal fittings. Everything is tenoned as in old buildings. The wood facing the entrance is partly destroyed.
Apart from the authorities, however, no other people were granted access to the find since both the Chinese and Kurds were afraid of artifacts being stolen. Understandably, this has resulted in rumours questioning the authenticity of the find.
But Dr. Joel Klenck, an American archaeologist who graduated from Harvard University, has examined the site. His theories about the age of the find differ from those of the Chinese. Because of his belief in conventional dating, he believes it dates back to the "long dry winter" at the end of the Ice Age or approximately 9,000 years ago. But the first carbon 14 dating of the artifacts points to 4,800 years ago. Even if Dr. Kleck has different ideas about the dating, he makes it quite clear that the find is no piece of scenery but is an authentic find of a very old wooden structure.
Many indications of the Ark
Whether the find proves the existence of the Ark or not, Henri Nissen's thorough, long-standing research has convinced him that the biblical story about Noah and the Ark is more than a myth. It was an actual event that happened only 5,000 years ago. In addition, Noah's Ark: Ancient Accounts and New Discoveries presents several of the many signs of the big Flood that drastically changed the conditions of life on earth.
See more about the expedition here:
www.noahsarkmovies.com/arkmovie/eng (documentary film based on the expedition)
Trimmed Size (WxH): 165 x 240 mm
Extent: 336 pages + endpaper
Text: Inside: 4C x 4C
Cover: Jacket. Hard Cover, with spot lamination and matt lamination.
Printing: Inside: 128 GSM glossy art paper; Cover: 128 GSM glossy art paper.
Binding: Sewn, Hard Cover, Head & Tail Band, round spine.
Shrink Wrapping: Each book will be Shrink Wrapped
Hardcover with laminated jacket: USD 34.95 - The book will be released October 15, 2012.
E-book: USD 19.95 - Available on Amazon starting October 1, 2012.
About the author: Henri Nissen is a journalist and has written thousands of articles, produced radio broadcasts and television programs, and written 11 books. He has traveled extensively in French-speaking Africa for the Lutheran World Federation. He is now an independent media consultant. He is married to the artist Birthe Engedal and has a daughter and two sons.
The search for Noah’s Ark has been his passion for the last ten years, and he has visited the Ararat Mountains numerous times. This book is the result of his comprehensive research.
For media inquiries or more information, please contact Jorgen Vium Olesen, publisher by email: [email protected]
To request an interview, please contact Henri Nissen: Tel. +45 51 31 65 99 - email: [email protected]
Publisher's website: www.scanpublishing.dk | <urn:uuid:d09ed913-e59b-487c-8098-e39055e0f0a8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/580420646.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394987.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00185-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94345 | 1,272 | 2.828125 | 3 |
EU Places Holocaust Remembrance Day on Official Calendar
For the first time since its establishment, the European Union has incorporated International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jan. 27, into its official calendar.
“I am delighted that, with our partners in the European Parliament, we have managed to place such an important event on the official EU calendar,” said EJC President Moshe Kantor. “Remembering the Holocaust is a massive undertaking, not least in a time when survivors are becoming fewer and anti-Semitism and intolerance are rising.”
“Furthermore, with the political gains of the far-right and neo-Nazi parties in European parliaments, the fact that this event is warmly embraced by the most prominent European institutions sends a strong message against hate, racism and anti-Semitism,” added Kantor.
While the European Jewish Congress has for the past few years commemorated the Remembrance Day with a ceremony at the European Parliament and with the involvement of a number of EU officials, this year it was formally placed on the EU calendar.
"I am deeply touched that we are commemorating the International Holocaust Remembrance Day in the European Parliament once more, a location that is highly symbolic of peace and reconciliation between former arch-enemies," Schulz said about the event. “The Holocaust must always be fresh in our minds and souls, in the conscience of humanity, and should serve as an incontrovertible warning for all time: Never again!"
The theme of the event is a tribute to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising fighters and to Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust.
Jan. 27 was designated as a memorial day at the United Nations General Assembly in 2005, as it was the date on which Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz death camp in 1945. | <urn:uuid:30a234b5-cf3b-4348-8e94-eee9342aadf8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/164318 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397744.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00120-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953179 | 375 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Computers have been in schools for a long time, but schoolchildren in England are now the guinea pigs for one of the most ambitious computing education programs in the world.
All children between the ages of 5 and 16 in English public schools are now learning computer science — not just how to use software, but how to create it, too. Teenagers will have to master at least two programming languages: Java and Python. And then there are the kids in elementary school.
“The big change is that it’s now compulsory to teach [computer science to] our primary school children,” says Sophie Deen, head of a non-profit group called Code Club Pro that's helping to train teachers for the new curriculum.
“So [that’s] 5-years-old onwards,” says Deen. “Teaching children how to code and how to program computers, and also teaching them about computational thinking, which is the ability to look at problems, break them down into their component parts and try to think of a way to solve them using computers.”
When challenged about the wisdom of teaching algorithms to 5-year-olds, Deen says "it sounds more difficult than it actually is. An algorithm is a simple step-by-step instruction to solve any particular problem."
As an example, she uses a teacher named Philip Bagge, who stood in front of his class with ingredients for a jam sandwich. He played the part of a computer and challenged his students to "program" him to make the sandwich.
"So they might say, 'Pick up the butter with your right hand,' and he’ll pick up all of the butter — you know, he’ll get his fingers in it," Deen expains. "The kids roll around laughing ... but they really start understanding how to break down instructions so that they’re clear and simple enough, and that’s essentially what an algorithm is."
Using such methods, Deen says, "it's actually easy and fun to teach a 5-year-old an algorithm, and to get them to start thinking about the fact that computers are dumb, and that if we break things down very simply, we can get computers to do very cool and exciting things for us.”
Deen says the big picture goal is laid out “in the first sentence of the new national curriculum, which says ‘we want to equip pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world,’ which I think is so cool, because it’s such an inspiring aim.” | <urn:uuid:62f3f115-8828-49f6-abe3-ebf8d751f8f8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-09-25/reading-math-and-javascript-coding-now-mandatory-english-schools | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393146.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00174-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966574 | 542 | 3.78125 | 4 |
Accounting Basics of Inventoried Goods
Three types of businesses operate: service, manufacturing, and merchandising. Breathe a sigh of relief, because you have to worry about only two (manufacturing and merchandising) here. Service businesses don’t provide a tangible good and normally don’t have any type of appreciable inventory.
Service companies provide more of a knowledge-based work service — think dentists, family physicians, or accountants. However, if a service company keeps a large amount of office supplies or other products on hand, they may take it to the balance sheet as inventory instead of immediately expensing the purchase.
Manufacturing companies make products that merchandising companies sell. For example, Hewlett-Packard is a manufacturer of many different products, including printers; any retail outlet that sells those items is the merchandising company.
Merchandisers can be retail and wholesale. Wholesalers act as the middleman between the manufacturing company and the retailer. The retailer sells to the end-user customer.
In a nutshell, that’s the difference among service, manufacturing, and merchandising type businesses — pretty straightforward. The next section looks at special types of inventoried goods, including goods in transit, consigned goods, and special sales agreements.
Who owns goods in transit?
Inventory in transit is a big issue for both revenue and inventory valuation. Who owns goods that are neither here nor there? It’s a hot button as well if the company is undergoing a financial statement audit, when certified public accountants check to see if reports prepared by managers of companies fairly present the company’s financial position.
Two key terms spell out who owns goods in transit: FOB shipping point and FOB destination. FOB stands for either free on board or freight on board. FOB shipping point means that the sale to the customer occurs at the shipping point, or when the goods leave the seller’s loading dock. FOB destination indicates that the sale occurs only when the goods arrive at their destination, the buyer’s receiving dock.
Goods shipped to a destination point are included in the seller’s inventory until the buyer receives and accepts the goods. So the value of the inventory remains as a current asset; it doesn’t migrate to the income statement as a cost of goods sold and revenue.
Consigned goods are goods that a company offers for sale but that it doesn’t officially own. The company offering the goods for sale (the consignee) is acting as a middleman between the owner of the goods (the consignor) and the customer. The consignee is charged with safeguarding the consigned goods within its control, but legal title of the goods remains with the consignor.
In accounting for this type of extravaganza, make sure you include in your inventory any inventory for which your company is a consignor. Under no circumstances should the consignee include consigned goods as part of its inventory!
Special sales agreements
Inventory can be subject to sales transactions a bit outside the norm of a customer walking up to a cash register in a department store and exchanging cash for store merchandise. Three such sales transactions are sales with buyback agreements, sales with a high rate of return, and sales on installment.
Here is a thumbnail sketch of each:
Sales with buyback: The seller agrees to buy back the merchandise from the customer sometime in the future.
Sales with a high rate of return: Customers are afforded a liberal return policy for a full or partial refund.
Sales on installment: Purchases are made but not fully paid for at point of sale or delivery. Instead, they are paid for over time, in installments.
You may be wondering how to handle drop-shipping, or when a business sells a product shipped directly from the manufacturer. In most cases, the business taking the customer’s order doesn’t own the merchandise and thus can’t record it as inventory. | <urn:uuid:5ec1868e-a2b6-4151-a861-f0ef7ccdd952> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/accounting-basics-of-inventoried-goods.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00066-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948171 | 835 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Paracypris crispa Maddocks, 1986
Paracypris crispa: right and left valve exteriors
Taxonomic Characterization: Paracypris crispa has a medium-sized carapace that is compressed and elongate with a somewhat sinuous lateral outline. The abductor muscle-scar pattern is composed of six small, ovate-subquadrate scars arranged in an anterior column of four and posterior column of two scars. The palp of the male fifth limb is very large and slender, without pegs or setae on the basal podomere. The terminal part is much reduced, with possible distal sensory seta enormously elongated and inflated, tapering to a smooth point. The furca has two sturdy, barbed terminal claws, a tiny anterodistal seta, and two tiny hairlike setae immediately behind the claws. The hemipenis is basally constricted, tapering anteriorly. Zenker's organ has an enlarged spherical bulb and six chitinous rosettes (Maddocks & Iliffe, 1986).
Disposition of Specimens: All specimens were deposited in the United States Museum of Natural History: male holotype (USNM 216456) and paratypes (USNM 216457-216459).
Ecological Classification: Either stygophilic or accidental
Size: Length of right valve 0.74 mm.
Number of Species in Genus: Numerous
Species Range: Known from Little River Cave, Walsingham Cave, Castle Harbour, North Lagoon, Ferry Reach, Harrington Sound, and the South Slope in Bermuda (Maddocks & Iliffe, 1986). The same species has also been found in Cueva de la Cadena, an anchialine lava tube located 2 km west of Puerto Villamil on Isla Isabella in the Galapagos Islands (Maddocks & Iliffe, 1991).
Closest Related Species: Paracypris crispa is similar to P. polita found in European waters, but differs as the later species is acutely pointed posteriorly with more regularly branching radial pore canals and five long setae on the furca. Many undescribed species of the genus Paracypris exist on the Atlantic shelf of North America and in coralline environments of the Caribbean and Indian Ocean, thus it is difficult to make a clear-cut distinction between this species and the genus itself (Maddocks & Iliffe, 1986).
Habitat: Anchialine limestone caves and open waters
Ecology: P. crispa was collected from cave sediments using a fine-mesh hand net at 0-8 m water depths and from lagoonal and reef environments. It is commonly found crawling on cave floors and walls and in open-water environments (Maddocks & Iliffe, 1986).
Life History: Collected specimens included 5 live and 72 subfossil specimens. This includes the first description of a male in the genus.
Evolutionary Origins: Collected specimens were crawling on cave floors and walls, but are also common in open-water environments.
Contributor: Dr. Rosalie F. Maddocks, University of Houston, Houston, Texas USA
|Please email us your comments and questions.||Last modified:| | <urn:uuid:ddcfa3fc-cb16-4286-bc61-46a8f8d38cb4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.tamug.edu/cavebiology/fauna/ostracods/P_crispa.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399428.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00019-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.87868 | 683 | 2.875 | 3 |
This weekend a Japanese spacecraft is due to return to Earth, possibly carrying the first sample taken directly from the surface of an asteroid.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the craft—dubbed Hayabusa, or "falcon" in Japanese—in 2003. The probe rendezvoused with the small near-Earth asteroid Itokawa in 2005, where it lingered for several months before heading back toward home.
After a round-trip journey of four billion miles (six billion kilometers), Hayabusa is expected to land in Australia around midnight on June 13 (10:30 a.m. ET on June 12).
Despite a few glitches along the way—including problems with the instruments designed to take samples—it's possible Hayabusa managed to collect a small amount of asteroid dust and gas.
Hayabusa's sample container was designed to hold up to ten milligrams of material, but "we'll be very happy if we get a cubic millimeter back," said team member Trevor Ireland, a planetary scientist at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra.
"That's much smaller than a match head ... but we can pretty much tell what's going on from that amount of material." (Related: "Water Discovered on an Asteroid—A First.")
Scientists won't know for sure whether they'll be any precious cargo to study until the container is retrieved, Ireland said.
"We're literally in the dark about whether we've got something there to analyze or not."
Hayabusa's Return Will Make Twin Fireballs
With its final course adjustments now complete, Hayabusa principal investigator Junichiro Kawaguchi said things are proceeding smoothly.
"There are currently no problems. ... Everything is on course," Kawaguchi said.
If all continues to go as planned, Hayabusa's sample return capsule will separate from the main body when the spacecraft is about 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers) from Earth.
Both objects are then expected to enter the atmosphere above a sparsely populated military-testing zone in the South Australia (map) outback known as the Woomera Prohibited Area.
Roughly the size of England, Woomera "is a fairly biggish sort of landing target, but [JAXA] is narrowing it down to about 20 or 30 square kilometers [7.7 to 11.5 square miles]" within that zone, ANU's Ireland said.
As Hayabusa and its return capsule streak through the upper atmosphere, they will appear as twin, incandescent fireballs visible for about a minute to anyone within roughly 100 to 200 miles (200 to 300 kilometers) of the reentry point. The spacecraft's trajectory, however, won't take it over any heavily populated areas.
(Related: "Spacecraft Explodes Like Fireworks on Reentry" [with video].)
Hayabusa's refrigerator-size main body will most likely be incinerated during reentry. But the 16-inch (40-centimeter) return capsule is equipped with a high-tech heat shield and a parachute to help it land safely.
About an hour after touchdown, a helicopter carrying JAXA team members will try to locate the capsule from the air and record its GPS coordinates. Due to safety reasons, the return capsule will not be recovered until dawn the next day.
At that point, the helicopter will return to the site with a retrieval party, which will include Hayabusa team members as well as Aboriginal land owners.
"Native [Aboriginal] title holders will be among the first to go out and see the landing site," Ireland said.
Within 24 hours of its retrieval, the capsule will be flown to a specially-built JAXA facility in Japan to be opened sometime the following week.
"We're not really set up in Australia to ... minimize the risk of contamination and maximize the returns" of the capsule opening, Ireland said.
First "Pure" Asteroid Sample?
The sample-return part of Hayabusa's mission is also full of suspense. During the course of its seven-year trip, the spacecraft has suffered a string of mishaps.
For instance, en route to the asteroid Itokawa, the craft's solar cells were damaged by a powerful solar flare, limiting its energy supply and prolonging the time it took to reach the asteroid. Once "parked" near the asteroid, an altitude adjustment error sent the craft's exploration robot MINERVA tumbling into space.
What's more, during one of Hayabusa's few successful landings on Itokawa, a metal-projectile system crucial for collecting asteroid samples failed to deploy.
However, scientists think it's possible some gas and dust may have been funneled into the spacecraft's collection chamber during its landing. (Find out what Hayabusa has already revealed about Itokawa's "shaking rubble pile" makeup.)
And if there's anything inside the capsule, Hayabusa's cargo could give scientists a first glimpse into what asteroids are really like. The findings could offer new insight into the formative years of our solar system, scientists say, because asteroids are the rocky leftover building blocks of planets and moons.
"We don't currently have any asteroid samples," Ireland said.
Technically, what scientists have now are meteorites—usually small asteroid chunks—that have survived the passage through Earth's atmosphere but have been irrevocably scarred in the process.
"Their original surfaces are pretty much lost," Ireland said. "This will be the first time we can actually look at the surface of an asteroid and look for things such as space weathering, and how the solar wind interacts with rocky material, and so forth."
A preliminary group of international scientists, including Ireland, has already been selected to perform the initial examination of any "pure" asteroid sample inside the capsule.
"All of the inspection initially will be done in Japan," Ireland said.
If there is enough of the sample to go around, in about a year JAXA will distribute some of the precious bits of space rock to other research centers around the world.
Building a Better Heat Shield
Even if Hayabusa's sample container comes up empty, the mission could still be a success: The state of the capsule after reentry could lead to engineering advances that will benefit future space missions, said Peter Jenniskens of the NASA Ames Research Center in California.
Although not officially part of the Hayabusa team, Jenniskens and colleagues will be watching the reentry from aboard a modified NASA DC-8 research airplane flying at an altitude of about 39,000 feet (about 12,000 meters).
"We hope to have a really good view of the reentry," Jenniskens said. "The aircraft allows us to be above the weather. ... If you observe from the ground, you have a lot of dust and water vapor between you and the capsule." (Related pictures: "NASA Guts 747, Adds 17-Ton Telescope.")
The aircraft will be about 125 miles (200 kilometers) from the Hayabusa fireballs and thus in no danger of being struck.
"We're positioning the aircraft so that the capsule is coming more or less toward us," Jenniskens said. This will give the plane's instruments a good view of the capsule's heat shield, which is expected to pulsate between red, orange, and yellow during reentry.
The team will later use the exact colors to estimate the temperatures the capsule experienced during different points of the reentry process and to evaluate the heat shield's performance.
NASA's research plane will also play an important role in the capsule-retrieval process.
"We are providing eyes for JAXA in case there is [cloud] cover," Jenniskens said. "We'll be able to confirm the reentry path ... and help determine how fast the capsule penetrated into the atmosphere and where the endpoint of the trajectory is expected to be."
ANU's Ireland added that, even after seven years of anticipation, he and his colleagues will wait however long it takes to find out what's inside the capsule.
"There isn't a scientific rush" to open the capsule, Ireland said. "Everybody wants to be as careful as possible not to damage the sample. But if we get the capsule and say, Hey, this is in really good condition, I don't think we'll be hanging around too long." | <urn:uuid:e76f61df-1316-483f-808b-e96d8f4019eb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/06/100611-science-space-asteroids-hayabusa-return-sample/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393518.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00052-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947107 | 1,748 | 3.3125 | 3 |
are passed in manure and become infective larvae remaining in the egg on the grass. While
grazing, the horse swallows the larvae in the egg, which hatch and release larvae to burrow into
the walls of the intestine. From there, they are carried by the bloodstream
into the liver and lungs. The horse coughs up the larvae and swallows
them again. Larvae mature into egg-laying adults in the intestine.
How It Gets Into Your Horse: Ascarid larvae are swallowed as your
horse eats infected grass.
Dangers If Left Untreated: Ascarids are especially
dangerous to foals aged 6 months or younger. Severe infection
in horses this young can build up quickly and lead to liver
and lung damage, poor growth and even death. Larvae in
the lungs can cause coughing, fever, pneumonia, bleeding
lungs and respiratory infections. In the adult stage, ascarids
live in the small intestine where they can cause colic,
blockage, ruptured gut and death.
Bots (G. intestinalis, G. nasalis)
eggs enter the horse's mouth and develop into larvae. The larvae migrate
and attach themselves to the horse's stomach, remaining
there during the winter. After about 10 months, they detach themselves
and are passed in the feces. The larvae burrow into the ground and
mature into adult flies. Adult females deposit eggs on the horse's
legs, shoulders, chin, throat and the lips.
How It Gets Into Your Horse: The horse licks the characteristic yellow
eggs laid by G. intestinalis on its forelegs and
shoulders. The eggs hatch and enter the horse's mouth. G.
nasalis lays eggs around the horse's chin and throat.
These eggs hatch and the larvae burrow under the skin to
the mouth, wandering through the mouth before migrating
to the stomach.
Dangers If Left Untreated: Bots can cause inflammation
of the mouth and stomach irritation. Severe infestation
can cause stomach blockage, often leading to irritation and
Hairworms (Trichostrongylus axei)
hatch in the grass and the larvae are eaten by the horse. Larvae migrate to the stomach lining and mature.
Adult worms in the stomach irritate and
erode the gut, damaging the
capillaries and lymph vessels. Eggs are laid and passed in the manure.
It Gets Into Your Horse: Hairworm larvae are swallowed as your horse
eats infected grass.
Dangers If Left Untreated: When damaged, villi are
unable to digest and absorb nutrients properly. Dark, foul-smelling
diarrhea may result. Severe damage can cause bleeding from the stomach into
the intestine, leading to anemia and loss of condition.
Foals are particularly susceptible to hairworm infection.
Threadworms (Strongyloides westeri)
Lifecycles: Infection occurs by eating larvae or through the skin.
Larvae that enter through the skin migrate to the lungs, then up the
wind pipe where they are coughed up and swallowed. Larvae mature into
adults in the small intestine. Adults lay eggs that are passed in the
It Gets Into Your Horse: Larvae are swallowed as the horse eats infected
grass or larvae go through the horse's skin. Infected mares pass the
worm in their milk onto their young foals.
Dangers If Left Untreated: Threadworm larvae in
the lungs can cause bleeding and respiratory problems.
The worst damage often occurs in untreated foals who can
suffer diarrhea, weakness, weight loss and poor growth.
Strongyles (Strongylus vulgaris, S. equinus,
strongyle eggs can develop into infective larvae on pasture in as
little as three days. Once swallowed, the larvae drop their protective
coating, or "sheath", and migrate to different organs for
further development. Strongylus vulgaris larvae are very dangerous, moving through
the horse's arteries to the mesenteric artery, the main artery that
feeds the digestive system. S. vulgaris larvae continue to grow
in the mesenteric artery for about 4 months, then return to the large
intestine where they burrow into the intestinal cavity. After 6-8 months,
the worms mature and eggs are passed in the manure.
S. equinus larvae move to the liver for about 6
weeks. Then they migrate through abdominal organs to the
large intestine. After 9 months, adults mature and lay
S. edentatus larvae also move to the liver, where
they remain for about 9 weeks. Then they move to the abdominal
cavity where they form nodules in the lining and the gut
It Gets Into Your Horse: Large strongyle larvae are swallowed
as your horse eats infected grass.
Dangers If Left Untreated: S. vulgaris cause
severe damage. Migrating larvae rough up artery walls,
leaving tracks where blood clots can form. Clots break
away from the wall and lodge into other blood vessels,
blocking blood flow to the intestine. Artery walls weakened
by larval damage are also prone to burst, leading to immediate
death. In the large intestine, large strongyles literally
bite off pieces of intestinal mucosa, often leading to severe colic,
diarrhea, fever and anemia from the bleeding bite wounds. S.
equinus and S. edentatus can cause liver damage.
larvae go through intestinal walls into the circulatory system where
they are carried to the lungs and mature. Eggs are coughed up, swallowed and pass through the horse's
system in manure.
It Gets Into Your Horse: Lungworm larvae are swallowed as your horse
eats infected grass.
Dangers If Left Untreated: Lungworm larvae irritate
the small air sacs in the lungs, called the bronchioles,
which can cause the horse to have a severe cough, difficulty
breathing and loss of appetite.
Older horses usually develop a resistance
to lungworms, but foals can die from an infection because they have less immunity to the parasites.
Lifecycle: Neck threadworms have an indirect life cycle. Neck threadworm
microfilariae live under the horse's skin and are picked up by the biting
midge when it feeds on the horse. Microfilariae develop into infective
larvae in the midge's mouth and are passed when the midge bites a horse.
It Gets Into Your Horse: The horse is bitten by an infected midge.
Larvae are deposited into the bite wound, where they migrate to ligaments
in the neck, flexor tendons and suspensory ligaments.
Dangers If Left Untreated: Adult neck threadworms
in the ligaments and tendons cause swelling and pain. Microfilariae
may invade the lens of the eye, causing irritation, swelling
and sometimes blindness. Microfilariae under the skin may
Lifecycle: Pinworm larvae mature in the large intestine, feeding
off the intestinal lining. Adult females move to the anal area where
they lay eggs covered with a sticky fluid that causes severe itching.
It Gets Into Your Horse: Horses become infected with pinworms
when they ingest eggs that have dropped into feed or water.
Dangers If Left Untreated: Heavily infected horses
may be nervous and stop eating. The severe itching makes
the horse rub its tail and rump so much the tail hairs
break off. Rubbing, biting and scratching can open up the
skin to infections.
a horse swallows small strongyle larvae, they burrow into the intestinal
wall, mature and emerge into the large intestine where they feed and
lay eggs. Eggs are passed in manure and develop into infective larvae
in the grass.
It Gets Into Your Horse: Small strongyle larvae are swallowed as
your horse eats infected grass.
Dangers If Left Untreated: Horses severely infected
with small strongyles can suffer weight loss, diarrhea
worm larvae are ingested by fly maggots in manure. The worms develop
inside the maggots. Mature flies then deposit the larvae on the lips,
nostrils, wounds and other naturally moist areas of the horse.
How It Gets Into Your Horse: Stomach worm larvae are swallowed as
the horse licks the infested area, or they stay in a wound and create
oozing, expanding sores.
If Left Untreated: Stomach worm larvae can expand a
wound and prevent healing, causing "summer sores".
Larvae deposited in the eyes can cause conjunctivitis.
Larvae that are eaten can cause gastritis and tumor-like
growths which may rupture.
All trademarks are property of their respective owners.
©2011 Farnam Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:4a91b404-d7a8-4468-b362-c1fb0ecbde3b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ivercare.com/parasites.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396538.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00192-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.897 | 1,891 | 3.140625 | 3 |
|Bible Research > English Versions > Bibliography > Parallel and Interlinear|
Bagster, 1841. The English Hexapla, exhibiting the six important English Translations of the New Testament Scriptures, Wiclif 1380, Tyndale 1534, Cranmer 1539, Genevan 1557, Anglo-Rhemish 1582, Authorised 1611, the original Greek text after Scholz, with the various readings of the Textus Receptus and the Principal Constantinopolitan and Alexandrine Manuscripts, and a complete Collation of Scholz's text with Griesbach's edition of 1805, preceded by an historical Account of the English Translations. London: Samuel Bagster & Sons, 1841.
The anonymous "Historical Account of the English Versions of the Scriptures" which appeared in the first edition of Bagster's Hexapla is a substantial scholarly treatise (160 folio pages) by Samuel P. Tregelles. Unfortunately, in later editions of the Hexapla, Tregelles' treatise was replaced by a much shorter (and rather bombastic) essay, written at a more popular level.
Cambridge, 1885. The Parallel Bible. The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments: being the Authorized Version arranged in parallel columns with the Revised Version. Cambridge: The University Press, 1885.
Chadwyck-Healey, 1996. The Bible in English: Twenty-One Different Versions of the English Bible from the Tenth to the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey, 1996. CD-ROM.
This CD includes the full text of the following versions: West Saxon Gospels (10th Century); Wycliffe (Early and Late versions: 14th Century); Tyndale (Pentateuch, Jonah & NT: 1530-1534); Coverdale (1535); Great Bible (1540); Matthew's (1549); Bishops' (1568); Geneva Bible (1587); Rheims-Douai (1582-1610); King James (1611); Daniel Mace New Testament (1729); Challoner (1750-1752); Wesley New Testament (1755); Worsley New Testament (1770); Webster (1833); Sawyer (1858); 20th Century New Testament (1904); New English Bible (1970); Good News Bible (1976). The CD is quite expensive (over $2,000), currently being marketed only to colleges for their online research databases.
Comfort, 1974. Philip Comfort, ed., The Eight Translation New Testament. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 1974.
Parallel texts of the King James version, Living Bible, Today's English Version, New International Version, Phillips, Revised Standard Version, Jerusalem Bible, and New English Bible. Appended is a very useful "Guide to the Ancient Manuscripts: A Guide to Understanding Marginal Notes on Different Readings in the New Testament Manuscripts," by Philip Comfort, which gives manuscript citations and evaluations for all variant readings mentioned in the marginal notes of the eight versions.
Kohlenberger, 1995. John R. Kohlenberger, ed., The Precise Parallel New Testament: King James Version, Rheims New Testament, Amplified Bible, New International Version, New Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, New American Standard Bible, United Bible Societiesí Greek New Testament. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-19-528412-7.
Kohlenberger, 1997. John R. Kohlenberger, ed., The Contemporary Parallel New Testament: King James version, New American Standard Bible updated edition, New International version, New Living translation, New Century version, Contemporary English version, New King James version, The Message. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-19-528136-5.
Kohlenberger, 1997b. John R. Kohlenberger, ed., The Parallel Apocrypha : Greek text, King James Version, Douay Old Testament, the Holy Bible by Ronald Knox, Today's English Version, New Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN: 0-19-528444-5.
Kohlenberger, 2003. John R. Kohlenberger, ed., The Evangelical Parallel New Testament: New King James Version, New International Version, Today's New International Version, New Living Translation, English Standard Version, Holman Christian Standard Bible, New Century Version, The Message. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN: 0-19-528177-2. Includes introductory essays by Mark L. Strauss ("Understanding New Testament Translation") and Daniel B. Wallace ("The Textual Basis of New Testament Translation"), and the prefaces to the eight versions. The versions are reprinted with section headings and marginal notes of the original editions, but the editor advises that "numerous minor adjustments" were made "so that all eight translations can fit into the parallel format."
Kohlenberger, 2005. John R. Kohlenberger, ed., The Catholic Comparative New Testament. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Includes eight versions of the New Testament, some of which are of particular interest to Roman Catholics: the Rheims New Testament, New American Bible, Revised Standard Version (Catholic edition), New Revised Standard Version, Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Good News Translation, and the Christian Community Bible.
Moody, 1966. The Four Translation New Testament: King James; New American standard Bible; Williams in the language of the people; Beck, in the language of today. Chicago: Moody Press, 1966.
Oxford, 1994. The Complete Parallel Bible: containing the Old and New Testaments with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books: New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. ISBN: 0-19-528318-X
Weigle, 1962. Luther Weigle, ed., The New Testament Octapla: Eight English Versions of the New Testament in the Tyndale-King James Tradition. New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1962.
Full parallel texts of Tyndale 1535, Great Bible 1540, Geneva Bible 1562, Bishop's Bible 1568, Rheims 1582, King James version (represented by Scrivener's edition of 1873), American Standard Version 1901, Revised Standard Version 1960. Original marginal notes are not included, except for those of the KJV, ASV, and RSV which pertain to various readings.
Weigle, 1965. Luther Weigle, ed., The Genesis Octapla, Eight English Versions of Genesis in the Tyndale-King James Tradition. New York: Thomas Nelson, 1965.
Zondervan, 1999. Comparative study Bible: New International Version, Amplified Version, King James Version, updated New American Standard Bible. Rev. ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999.
Berry, 1897. George Ricker Berry, The Interlinear literal Translation of the Greek New Testament with the Authorized Version conveniently presented in the margins for ready reference and with the various readings of the editions of Elzevir 1624, Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, and Wordsworth, to which has been added a new Greek-English New Testament Lexicon, supplemented by a chapter elucidating the synonyms of the New Testament, with a complete index to the synonyms. New York: Hinds & Noble, 1897. Reprinted by Zondervan from 1967 to 1992 as The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament with Lexicon and Synonyms, and in 1995 as The Interlinear KJV Parallel New Testament in Greek and English, Based on the Majority Text, with Lexicon and Synonyms.
This interlinear is simply an American reprint of the Bagster edition prepared by Thomas Newberry (see Newberry 1877) with a different Introduction and with G.R. Berry's Lexicon and Synonyms added to the end.
Douglas, 1990. J.D. Douglas, The New Greek-English Interlinear New Testament. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 1990.
This interlinear presents the text of the Nestle-Aland 26th edition (with at least one discrepancy: In 2 Cor 5:3 the text reads endusamenoi "having been clothed" where Nestle 26 reads ekdusamenoi "having been unclothed"), and a parallel New Revised Standard Version text. Some Greek textual variants are given in the lower margin, but probably no more than 100 are given for the entire New Testament.
Farstad, 1993. Arthur Farstad, The NKJV Greek-English Interlinear New Testament. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1993.
This interlinear uses the Majority text of Hodges and Farstad (1982), and in the margin it presents in Greek and English the significant variations of the United Bible Societies' 3rd edition and of the readings presumed to underlie the KJV (from Scrivener's text of 1881). Word studies are also included in the margin. The New King James Version is printed in parallel. The interlinear translation is generally good, but it may be wondered why Farstad chose not to distinguish singular pronouns from plural in it. A mistranslation occurs in Matthew 21:7, where the Greek text reads he sat on them, rather than they set [him] on them.
Green, 1979. Jay P. Green, Interlinear Hebrew-Greek-English Bible. 4 vols. Wilmington, Delaware: Associated Publishers and Authors, 1976. Reprinted in one volume, 1979.
This book is now available in reprint from Hendrickson Publishers. Green's Greek text is a reprint of Scrivener's, first published in 1881. At the end of the New Testament volume, Green gives a Greek collation of readings compiled by William Pierpont, called "Majority Text Notes," which gives the readings of the majority of manuscripts where they differ from those of Scrivener's text.
Marshall, 1958. Alfred Marshall, The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament: the Nestle Greek Text with a literal English Translation. London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1958.
Marshall's interlinear text is the 21st edition of Nestle-Aland. No textual variants are given. This text has been reprinted with several different English translations in parallel columns, including KJV, RSV, NASB, NIV, NIV & NASB, NRSV, and NIV & NRSV. Most recently reprinted in The Interlinear NASB-NIV Parallel New Testament in Greek and English (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995).
Newberry, 1877. [Thomas Newberry], The Englishman's Greek New Testament, giving the Greek Text of Stephens 1550, with the various Readings of the Editions of Elzevir 1624, Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, and Wordsworth, together with an interlinear literal Translation, and the Authorized version of 1611. London: Samuel Bagster, 1877. 3rd ed. 1896. For an American edition see Berry 1897.
This interlinear uses the text of Stephens 1550, and gives the text of the King James version in a parallel column. Newberry gives in the lower margin of each page a complete collation of six critical editions. Most of the variants which make a difference in translation are also given in English. Because of the critical apparatus, it is the best interlinear to be had. Unfortunately, because of its age it does not give information on the three most important critical texts of our century: Nestle (1898), Westcott and Hort (1881), and the United Bible Societies' edition (1975). Most of the readings adopted in these three texts are however represented in the apparatus as the readings of earlier editors.
|Bible Research > English Versions > Bibliography > Parallel and Interlinear| | <urn:uuid:8a74bcbd-5dd8-4690-ac38-0d5651b560eb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bible-researcher.com/versbib4.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00159-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.801484 | 2,562 | 2.578125 | 3 |
How does the word sound?
History of this Word
"sept" is from "septem" (seven) spoken by ancient people in central Italy around 700 B.C.
A prefix added to the start of a word. Indicates that "seven" modifies the word. Created to expand meanings. Can be used with many words to form new words.
Examples of how the word is used
|But I'm going away for September.|
|I'm still in comparatively good health for a septuagenarian.| | <urn:uuid:c176b75a-5316-4638-af42-f5ece5695e4f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://myword.info/definition.php?id=sept_1-a | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00118-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917268 | 114 | 3.375 | 3 |
The Constitution contains several clauses referring to government “offices” and “officers.” The precise phrasing used in the different clauses is similar but textually distinct. In several recent publications, I have that argued that these fine textual distinctions were purposely drafted by Gouverneur Morris (the Committee of Style’s primary draftsperson) and by the other members of the Federal Convention and that they were also meaningful to the Constitution’s intended audience, even if such distinctions usually pass without analysis or even notice by modern commentators. The purpose of this short Article is not to rehash that debate, or even to present a further substantial defense of the ideas already presented on several prior occasions. Instead, the purpose of this Article is to explain one reason why modern scholarship in this area failed to fully engage the Constitution’s text. My answer is a simple one. Modern scholars treats the Annals of Congress as an official record of contemporaneous congressional debate. That was and is a mistake. Nor is it a mistake limited to those scholars researching obscure constitutional word-choice relating to “office” and “officer.” It is a mistake made by the widest body of scholars, left or right or center, researching virtually each and every provision of the original Constitution of 1787 and its antebellum amendments. My topic here is a narrow one, but it has implications for constitutional scholarship generally.Image credit.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Tillman on Originalism and the Annals of Congress
Seth Barrett Tillman has posted Originalism, the Annals of Congress, and the Problem of Constitutional Memory. Here's the abstract: | <urn:uuid:61f504a3-69d4-4021-90ca-813a9cd0982a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/tillman-on-originalism-and-annals-of.html?m=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00176-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959778 | 343 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Development of a Syllabus for Environmental Issues course
University of Missouri-Kansas City
This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Reviewed Teaching Collection
This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are
- Scientific Accuracy
- Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
- Pedagogic Effectiveness
- Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
- Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page
For more information about the peer review process itself, please see http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/review.html.
This page first made public: Apr 18, 2006
Used this activity? Share your experiences and modifications
Students' participation in developing syllabus for a new course "Issues in Environmental Science." Details are included in the document.
This is a 200 level required course for environmental science/studies majors
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered
Students must have already completed an introductory course titled "Understanding the Earth" (EnSc 110)
How the activity is situated in the course
Content/concepts goals for this activity
Engage students in determining course syllabus
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity
Research papers require separating facts from opinions; critical analyses of information and data
Other skills goals for this activity
Training in writing scientific papers
Description of the activity/assignment
We introduced a new required course "EnSc 210: Issues in Environmental Science" for our majors about three years ago. When I was assigned to teach this course for the first time, I struggled with developing a syllabus and recommending a text for the course. Since we also offer classes in "Environmental Geology" and an introductory course "EnSc 110 Understanding the Earth," the challenge was to avoid duplication while developing an appropriate syllabus. What I finally decided to do was to have students provide ideas. So, on the first day of class I announced that we don't have a syllabus for this course (many sighs of disappointment) and, after a brief remark on some current environmental issues, invited each student to suggest at least one topic for inclusion in the course. After some hesitation (as expected) hands went up and I began writing each topic on the white board. Pretty soon we had 20-25 topics with some overlapping themes. Some of these included: population problem, global climate change, air and water pollution, waste management, environmental health, species decline, environmental impact of large dams, and sustainability. After some discussions about relative importance of various topics and the time available to cover each during the semester, we narrowed it down to about 10 topics for detailed study. I prepared my syllabus (linked below) based on this list which worked very well because: we were able to include key topics and, very importantly, students felt a sense of 'ownership' which led to a very interesting and interactive class experience throughout the semester.
Determining whether students have met the goals
Grading of the research papers, quizzes and tests
More information about assessment tools and techniques.
Download teaching materials and tips
Several from EPA, CDC, etc. | <urn:uuid:1281f42e-98d4-4d23-9729-d0cb925a270b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/publicpolicy/activities/12848.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00046-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935556 | 663 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Facebook and Twitter attract more users every day. According to the site, Facebook has more than 500 million users, while Quantcast reports that the number of Twitter users reached 190 million by the end of 2010. This growing audience is one reason social media is quickly becoming a mainstream platform for forward-looking educators that want to establish relationships and maintain open conversations with community members.
Additionally, many schools are embracing social media sites as a way to reach out to students and parents within familiar forums in an effort to combat cyber bullying. Schools using social networks effectively and responsibly can serve to demonstrate acceptable ways for students to use such tools to communicate with other students. Being able to speak knowledgeably about social media and acknowledge real instances of bad behavior in education can help in teaching the hidden dangers of irresponsible online conduct. | <urn:uuid:2c7d40f7-85bd-409a-84c2-cfe386176ac2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.educateinnovate.com/blackboard/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00173-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955876 | 159 | 3.375 | 3 |
LocalHome interface is Invoked by EJB container to create localhome stub (who use this and why required??) and local stub with type LocalObject (contains business logic) to be used by the client such as jsp, servlet, etc.
posted 9 years ago
Hi I am not an expert in j2ee, I have just started learning it but i would like to tell you what i learnt till this time
the home interface, be it local or remote is used to invoke methods on the EJB without creating it and it also contains the DB acces methods, EJB creation methods and home methods that are common to all instances of EJB hence home methods can't access instance fields of EJB
on the other hand local and remote interfaces are used to invoke bussiness methods specific to an instance of EJB this can only be done after creating an EJB instance using ejbCreate...() in home method
and for local and remote interfaces; the clients in same jvm may use local interfaces to improve performance but just remote interfaces will also do the job with performance penalty. | <urn:uuid:b21e4ad3-5f0e-4eb0-a343-578fdd4d4349> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.coderanch.com/t/319443/EJB-JEE/java/interpret-LocalHome-interface | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00091-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.899332 | 227 | 2.875 | 3 |
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, which legalized abortion nationwide. Roe has had a dramatic impact on the health and well-being of American women; abortion is now safer and occurs earlier in pregnancy than ever before. And yet, abortion remains the subject of extensive debate in state capitols and among national policymakers.
To help ensure that our national debate on abortion is guided by facts, the Guttmacher Institute has created a series of infographics that distills a wealth of information into five snapshots about abortion in the United States today.
At the most basic level, there are many myths about women who obtain abortions. While women who have abortions come from all backgrounds and walks of life, they typically tend to be in their 20s, are often economically disadvantaged and many already have one or more children. Nearly one out of every three American women will have an abortion by age 45.
Much of the recent news coverage on abortion has been dominated by state-level abortion restrictions — and with good reason. In 2012, 19 states enacted a total of 43 laws that sought to restrict access to abortion services. And although this is a sharp decrease from the record-breaking 92 abortion restrictions enacted in 2011, it is the second highest number of new abortion restrictions passed in any year since Guttmacher started tracking these statistics in 1985 (see here for a more detailed analysis).
Most of the new restrictions enacted in 2012 concerned limits on later abortion, coverage in health insurance exchanges or medication abortion, but they also included measures requiring that women seeking an abortion first undergo a mandatory — often medically unnecessary — ultrasound or imposing strict regulations on abortion providers. The cumulative effect of these restrictions is that women have to overcome ever more barriers before then can obtain legal and safe abortion care.
One tactic that has gained steam since the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 is to restrict abortion coverage under private health insurance plans. These restrictions limit a woman’s ability to obtain a health care plan that provides for her full reproductive health care needs and treats abortion as separate from other health care services; 20 states now restrict abortion coverage available through state health insurance exchanges. These curbs on private insurance coverage of abortion come on top of long-standing restrictions that prohibit the use of federal dollars to pay for abortion care for poor women enrolled in Medicaid (except in extreme circumstances).
Abortion restrictions that aim to increase the cost of obtaining an abortion are having a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable women — especially those who are poor or low-income and women of color. Abortion has become increasingly concentrated among poor women, with more than four in 10 abortion patients now having incomes below the federal poverty line. Poor women often struggle to come up with the funds to pay for an abortion, thereby delaying their procedure and pushing it later into pregnancy when it’s more expensive and less safe. Poor women also often forego essential expenditures — like groceries or utility payments — to come up with the necessary funds.
While abortion restrictions exact a steep price on women who want to access abortion, they do nothing to alleviate the significant racial and ethnic disparities in reproductive health outcomes. Women of color have higher rates of unintended pregnancy, abortion and unplanned births than their white counterparts. These disparities in turn mirror disparities in a range of other health outcomes and broader social and economic inequities. But rather than pursuing an aggressive policy agenda to reduce such disparities, state legislatures instead remain focused on restricting access to reproductive health care.
As these infographics illustrate, there is much to reflect on as Roe turns 40. Consider that there are no women of reproductive age in the United States today who were of reproductive age prior to Roe. U.S. women of this age have never known a nation in which abortion was illegal and unsafe. Yet, keeping abortion legal and safe — and accessible to all women — is and must always remain an urgent national priority.
Today’s guest contribution was written by Sharon L. Camp, PhD, MA, President and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, the leading policy research organization in the field of sexual and reproductive health. Prior to joining Guttmacher, Dr. Camp was President and CEO of Women’s Capital Corporation, a start-up company responsible for the development and commercialization of Plan B emergency contraception. For many years the leading spokesperson in Washington, DC for international family planning programs, she was also largely responsible for bringing together the highly successful International Consortium for Emergency Contraception and served until April 1998 as its Coordinator. From 1975 to 1993, Dr. Camp was Senior Vice President of Population Action International, managing PAI’s professional staff involved in lobbying, media liaison, policy research and publications. She is a widely quoted authority on the national and international politics of contraception, a popular public speaker, and the author or co-author of more than 70 publications on family planning and related subjects, including articles on emergency contraception. | <urn:uuid:e69821a5-94ed-4abf-8421-74ef6cd3719f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.publichealthnewswire.org/?p=6267 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393518.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00069-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960462 | 999 | 2.75 | 3 |
NOACA created the Ozone Action Day Program in 1994 to inform the public about the problem of ground-level ozone pollution. Partners for NOACA's 2015 Ozone Action Day Program include:
- Akron Regional Air Quality Management District
- Cleveland Division of Environment
- Lake County General Health District
- U.S. EPA
- Ohio EPA
Ozone pollution can trigger a variety of health problems, including chest pain, coughing, throat irritation, and congestion. It can also worsen bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma. The Ozone Action Day Program (OAD) informs Northeast Ohio residents when ozone pollution reaches unhealthy levels.
Sign-up here to receive free e-mail advisories
What can people in Northeast Ohio do to reduce ozone pollution?
- Avoid unnecessary fuel consumption.
- Walk, bike, use public transportation, or drive fuel-efficient vehicles.
- Combine errands to reduce fuel use and save time.
- Carpool with family or friends, or register through OhioRideshare at 1-800-825-RIDE.
- Avoid idling your vehicle excessively. Turn off the key and be idle-free!
- Avoid using leaf blowers and other dust-producing equipment.
- Reduce energy consumption by turning off your lights and appliances when not in use.
- Keep your car, boat, and other vehicles properly tuned up.
Learn more by visiting the following links: | <urn:uuid:6a48ef49-461b-4096-900c-b8c10d9132b3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.noaca.org/index.aspx?page=114 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00172-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.866443 | 293 | 2.875 | 3 |
Scientists generally divide our little blue world into four separate yet overlapping spheres. These spheres are the lithosphere, the atmosphere, the biosphere, and the hydrosphere.
Each of these spheres consist of unique properties that separate them from the others. However, as I am sure you have noticed, there is no distinct boundary or border between them. The atmosphere extends downward into the soil, into caves and rocks, and even into water. The hydrosphere, which consists of all the water on Earth, extends high into the atmosphere and deep into the lithosphere, or rocks and soil. The lithosphere often gets carried upward into the atmosphere in the form of dust, and so forth.
In this chapter we will explore the Earth’s hydrosphere. The hydrosphere plays a very important role in the evolution of life, as well as in weather and erosion. | <urn:uuid:006c1b30-6fe6-46fc-ba06-718d077e2547> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.kidsgeo.com/geography-for-kids/0130-the-hydrosphere.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398628.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00137-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963372 | 178 | 3.9375 | 4 |
If you are worried about Global Warming Methane, it's great to know that methane is one of the greenhouse gases you as a composter can start to work to reduce. Let's have a look at the problem.
Methane is a greenhouse gas formed when organic material decomposes without oxygen being present. It's chemical composition is CH₄. As a greenhouse gas methane is about 21 times more potent at warming the earth than CO₂.
That is the bad news. The good news is that global warming methane is relatively short lived and persists in the atmosphere for about 12 years. It is the principle component in natural gas so if we were able to carefully trap all the methane that's leaking into the atmosphere we could conveniently also provide ourselves with a relatively clean source of energy.
According to the International Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) the effect on Global Warming of human generated greenhouse gases breaks down as follows:
Methane comes both from human activity and from natural sources. About 30% of Methane comes from natural sources - and most of that is from wetlands. The balance of 70% of methane production comes from human activities.
The breakdown worldwide on methane contributions is shown here in this pie chart. The biggest three contributors worldwide are:
In North America the biggest contributors are:
In Landfills methane is generated by the biodegradable waste doing its biodegrading. There are a few good strategies for coping with landfill methane:
So for each of us we can have a small but every little bit helps effect on methane generation by taking care of our own compostable waste and a larger effect by banding together to develop a full composting program in our landfills.
Naturally we have a huge population of soil creatures waiting to both help and to receive our help. Not to mention all the other benefits... And do not despair. Many brilliant minds are hard at work finding solutions for as many parts of the global warming methane, and overall climate change problem as possible. | <urn:uuid:76ab374e-948c-4833-a24e-0136f5846b79> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.the-compost-gardener.com/global-warming-methane.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00147-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95427 | 412 | 3.484375 | 3 |
A kidney scan is a nuclear scanning test that is done to check kidney function or appearance.
During a scan to look at kidney function, a radioactive tracer substance is injected into a vein in the arm and then travels through the bloodstream to the kidneys. The tracer flows through the blood vessels in the kidneys and then is excreted into the urine. A special camera (gamma) takes pictures of the tracer in the kidneys. This helps show cell activity and function in the kidneys.
Many different kinds of kidney scans can be done. The types of kidney scans include a scan that looks at how blood flows to and through the kidneys, a scan that looks at the shape and size of the kidneys, and a scan that looks at how urine is made and flows out of the kidneys. Sometimes a doctor will do multiple scans at one time (for example, a triple renal study). Different radioactive tracers are used depending on what kind of scan is being done.
Areas of the kidneys where the tracer shows up in higher-than-normal amounts, such as in some types of cancer, result in bright or "hot" spots in the pictures. Areas where the tracer does not show up appear as dark or "cold" spots. Cold spots can mean narrowing or blockage of the blood vessels, pockets of fluid (cysts), some cancers, scarring, or pockets of infection (abscesses).
The amount of time it takes for the tracer to move through the kidney, collect in the urine, and drain into the bladder can also be seen in a kidney scan . This may be done to see how well the kidneys are working.
A kidney scan may be done instead of a kidney X-ray test called an intravenous pyelogram (IVP) for people who are allergic to the special dye (contrast material) used during the IVP.
Why It Is Done
A kidney scan is done to:
- Check the blood flow through the kidneys. Abnormal flow may mean narrowed renal arteries that can cause a type of high blood pressure called renovascular hypertension.
- See how a transplanted kidney is working.
- Check the extent of kidney damage caused by an injury or infection.
- Find an obstruction in the kidney or ureter , such as from a kidney stone.
- Find growths in the kidneys (rare). | <urn:uuid:f65fee9f-ed87-4bb2-ab5e-7b42b575c7f1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/kidney-scan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397562.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00026-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947372 | 487 | 4.03125 | 4 |
Definitions Of Capital Construction Projects - Reference Guide #A.1
There are many considerations which may lead a board of education to determine that capital construction is needed. It may be to provide new facilities for increasing student enrollments, or it may be to modernize and improve existing facilities. Differing reasons may dictate differing kinds of construction projects as defined below.
New Construction -- New construction includes construction of new school buildings (erection) and additions (enlargements) to existing school buildings.
Acquisition -- Acquisition means the same as purchase.
Repair -- Repair, as used in Education Law, Section 408 refers specifically to the requirement that plans and specifications for major repairs which affect the health and safety of occupants must be approved by the Commissioner. Other repairs are occasional work of recurring nature which are intended to restore to a satisfactory condition that which has decayed, deteriorated, weathered or become broken, torn or otherwise inoperable. Maintenance is recurring work which is intended to promote the upkeep of a property in properly operating condition. Repairs and maintenance are not eligible for building aid.
Alterations -- Alterations are construction within an existing building which results in change in educational space or use; reconstruction work done in connection with an addition; and site development work. For the discussion of building aid, an alteration may be considered a reconstruction project.
Reconstruction -- Reconstruction includes replacement and/or remodeling in an existing school building. The term reconstruction is synonymous with the term capital improvement(sometimes written only as "improvement") and means to rebuild, to renovate, to remodel, i.e., to construct again. Essentially, reconstruction embodies all of the terms defined below and includes all types of work other than new buildings or additions.
Capital Improvement -- Capital improvement is defined in part by the Local Finance Law as any physical public betterment or improvement. An improvement means a valuable addition to an existing building; addition in the sense of an enhancement, not a structural addition. An improvement is permanent and is intended to increase a building's value, beauty, or utility, or adapt the building for a new or further purpose. As such, an improvement must do more than merely replace or restore to original condition.
Remodeling -- Remodeling is defined as work performed to alter, modernize, renovate, or otherwise change a building over in a different way.
Replacement -- Replacement refers to the replacement and/or installation of components
of a building which prolongs the life and/or increases the value of the building.
Examples -- replacement of a roof, windows, walls, etc., or of an element of the mechanical systems such as a boiler, temperature controls, water distribution, toilet fixtures, or electrical service.
Emergency Repairs/Recovery Work -- Key elements of the definition of a public emergency are that an emergency results from an unforeseen occurrence, and that it requires immediate corrective actions, but only in the form of emergency repairs. Mitigation measures to correct an emergency are needed immediately and are temporary in nature. They are not capital construction in the usual sense, and do not require approval of the Commissioner. Costs associated with the mitigation activities are ordinary contingent expenses. An emergency ends upon completion of the mitigation activities. Next comes the recovery period which may, and probably will, involve capital construction. Any capital construction associated with the recovery must be properly planned, developed, authorized, and advanced as any other capital construction project. As with any capital construction project affecting health and safety, approval of plans and specifications for the recovery project and issuance of a building permit by the Commissioner is required before construction starts.
Construction Costs -- Certain costs for construction and/or reconstruction work which is approved pursuant to Section 408 of the Education Law, are eligible for building aid pursuant to Section 3602, subdivision 6. To be eligible for aid, construction costs must exceed $10,000, and the various elements of the work must have received prior approval and a building permit from the Commissioner.
Incidental Costs -- In addition to aid for construction costs, certain expenditures for site purchase, grading or improvement of the site, original furnishings, equipment, machinery, or apparatus, or professional fees (design and legal) and other incidental costs (such as insurance during construction and general administrative costs) are eligible for aid. Building aid may also be available for accounting, tabulation, or computer equipment and the areas for housing such equipment when requested in accordance with Section 155.2(a) 1.vi of the Commissioner's Regulations. | <urn:uuid:8528731a-a31d-43e8-a661-6b8f0213233a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.p12.nysed.gov/facplan/articles/A01_def_capital_construct.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00177-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935903 | 917 | 2.875 | 3 |
What is virtual hard disk?
Virtual hard disk (VHD) is a disk image file format for storing the complete contents of a hard drive. The disk image, sometimes called a virtual machine, replicates an existing hard drive and includes all data and structural elements. It can be stored anywhere the physical host can access.
There are two main types of virtual hard disks: fixed-size and dynamically expanding. Both types have a maximum size value that specifies how large the disk will appear to virtual machines. However, fixed-size VHDs will automatically take up the specified amount of physical disk space on the host computer's file system, whereas dynamically expanding disks will allocate space only as needed. | <urn:uuid:e6587225-9ad4-4738-9cca-d3074e4b24c4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://searchvirtualdesktop.techtarget.com/definition/virtual-hard-disk-VHD | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00107-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.870817 | 140 | 3.84375 | 4 |
by guest contributor Tom Freeman
The mantra I have been droning to all and sundry is: ‘separate but equal isn’t equal at all’. Those of you who can remember history GCSE will recognise this idiom from segregation-era America. Derived from an act of 1880, ‘separate but equal’ became a legal principle, not overturned until 1954. Black people were entitled to public services putatively equal in quality – just as long as they were kept separate from services for white people. In Plessy vs Ferguson (1896), the landmark case in which Homer Plessy was prosecuted for riding in a white railway carriage, the majority of the court blindly refused to accept that the law implied any inferiority of black people. In reality the majority had accepted equal rights for the minority only on the condition that they were held at arm’s length. This, in my book, is not what equality is. The analogy with matrimonial law in the UK is obvious: the legal effects of Civil Partnership and civil marriage are identical, the rights and obligations are identical, yet one is for gay people only, and the other – with all the prestige that the ancient institution entails – for straights only.
This throws up a whole box full of ponders. First, is there something inherent in the nature of sexuality which dictates that long-term committed relationships between same-sex and opposite-sex couples are fundamentally different and must be recognised as such in law? In his article, Leith, using the analogy of apartheid, writes ‘the ANC weren't campaigning for the right of South Africa's black majority to call themselves white’. This implies that by seeking a Civil Partnership we are ‘calling ourselves gay’. Is this association of concepts something that can or should be broken down? Plenty of countries have managed it. While the Netherlands introduced registered partnerships in the 90s to give gay couples the benefits available to married couples, this didn’t stop them becoming, in 2001, the first nation to grant same-sex marriages. The Canadian Parliament approved the granting and recognition of same-sex marriages by redefining marriage as “the lawful union of two persons to the exclusion of all others” in 2005. Similar steps have been taken in Norway, Belgium, Spain, South Africa and Sweden.
But I’m being silly, aren’t I? This is all just semantics. Everybody, gay or straight, has the same rights, so where’s the problem? My second ponder therefore is: are labels really important? Leith goes on: The ANC ‘were campaigning for equality under the law. And that's what we've already got... things are pretty much okee-dokee in a society, I think, where the nomenclature is the only thing wrong with a law’. Are they, though? This comes down to the effect of names. Did anyone else notice that following Kevin McGee’s sad death, major newspapers used the word ‘husband’ to refer to his relationship to Matt Lucas, but put it in inverted commas? This is just one example of a trend. Civilly partnered couples are portrayed as imitating their married counterparts, but somehow falling short. I think this is a case of the media reflecting societal prejudices. But consider: how would attitudes be affected if we were no longer handed such an easy line to draw between proper couples and pretend ones? Would this eventually alter our perceptions? I genuinely don’t know. Maybe not. Maybe gay couples are glad to have their own institution and not be assimilated.
Which brings me to my final ponder. Who cares? Who actually are we representing here, except ourselves? How did we end up seeking to be a test case in the overturning of what seemed to us a gross inequality? It seemed like common sense. But if this is so self-evident why are others seemingly blind to it? There is no organised campaign in England on this issue, and a gay male friend tells me that interest in ours among gay men will be limited. I approached a certain prominent charity who were instrumental in lobbying for Civil Partnerships with my idea, and it was met with outright hostility. Does this in itself mean that what we are doing is wrong? Who gets to say? Can someone fill me in on this? I really should have checked.
Because of course we have now effectively excluded ourselves from the legal and economic benefits available to married couples – we are denied civil partnership by law, and we can’t back down now and go off and get married. If change does come, it will be very slow. I understand the Green Party has concrete plans to liberalise the law, but it looks like the Tories are on the way. Labour brought in Civil Partnerships, which is progress, but have no plans to go further. You could even say that accepting a compromise for the time being slows progress towards a goal (actually, it might even occur to a more cynical mind than mine that an understanding could have been reached with those lobbying for Civil Partnership that this would be ‘enough’). So for the time being, we’re kinda stuck.
That’s what’s been on my mind. Can separate but equal really be equal after all? What’s your view?
Click here to go to first post
Click here to go to most recent post | <urn:uuid:6b29d3f8-6c96-4201-a1a3-82170c5ed268> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ponderboxes.blogspot.com/2009/11/my-straight-gay-wedding-whats-in-name.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397567.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00032-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968742 | 1,120 | 2.59375 | 3 |
The Canterbury Tales: Novel Summary: The Monk's tale
The Monk's tale
The monk gives character sketches of many tragic figures in history and literature
Lucifer, who started as an angel, was demoted to hell because of sin and became Satan.
Adam, the work of God's hands, was banished from paradise for disobeying God.
Samson, well liked of God, committed suicide when his wife betrayed him by removing his hair, the source of his strength.
Hercules, who did many great deeds and killed many monsters, was killed by a poisonous shirt given to him by his beloved.
Nebuchadnezzar, a wealthy king who persecuted the Israelites, was stripped of his throne by God, and only allowed to live in society near the end of his life.
Belshazzar, his son, had a similar fate to that of his father, losing his kingdom and being forced to live with animals.
Zenobia, a warrior queen of Palmrya, was a strong woman. When she eventually decided to take a husband, she refused to mate with him except to try to have a child. She had two sons in this way. She and her husband ruled together, and they were feared and respected. One day, a stronger force, the Roman Empire, conquered her and she was led as a slave in that army.
Pedro, King of Spain, was driven out of his kingdom by his brother and killed.
Peter, King of Cyprus, who ruled Alexandria as well, was killed while sleeping.
Bernardo of Lombardy was imprisoned by his nephew, and died in prison.
Ugolino of Pisa was imprisoned with his children, two young boys. They were fed little food, and then they were fed no food, and his children cried and asked their father to eat them so that he could live, but in the end, they all died. The story is told in more detail in Dante's Divine Comedy, the monk says.
Nero, a hedonistic emperor of Rome, killed his brother, destroyed Rome and the Senate, and many other despicable things. Seneca taught Nero when he was young, and Seneca died of shame when Nero started his persecusetion and destruction. Angry subjects chased Nero in the night, and he had no one to help him, and hid in a garden, where he committed suicide by making two men decapitate him so that his body could not be desecrated.
Holofernes, an army captain, who conquered many countries, was killed in his sleep by a woman named Judith, who decapitated him.
Antiochus, a king, was overconfident in his power and decided to attack Jerusalem. However, God afflicted him with a terrible illness, but Antiochus decided to attack anyway. He died of his rotting wounds, and no one would bury the body because it was so disgusting.
Alexander, who had conquered the entire known world, who was the greatest soldier and leader that ever lived, was poisoned by his friends.
Julius Caesar, The emperor of Rome during the highlight of the Roman Empire, was betrayed and murdered by his friend, Brutus Cassius.
Croesus, a king of Lydia, was spared from death from a fire, but did not change his attitudes, and when he decided to start war again, he had a dream that prophesied that he would die by hanging, and he did.
The Canterbury Tales Study GuideChoose to Continue
- The Prologue of the Wife of Bath's Tale
- The Canterbury Tales
- Novel Summary
- General Prologue
- The Knight's Tale
- The Miller's Prologue
- The Miller's Tale
- Prologue of the Reeve's Tale
- The Reeve's Tale
- Prologue of the Cook's Tale
- The Cook's Tale
- Introduction to the Sergeant-at-law's tale
- The Sergeant-at-law's tale
- Epilogue of the Sergeant-at-law's tale
- The Sea captain's tale
- The Prioress' tale
- The Prologue to Sir Topaz
- Sir Topaz
- The Prologue to the tale of Melibeus
- The tale of Meleibeus
- The Prologue of the Monk's tale
- The Monk's tale
- Prologue of the Nun Priest's Tale
- The Nun Priest's Tale
- Epilogue to the Nun Priest's Tale
- The Wife of Bath's Tale
- The Prologue to the Friar's Tale
- The Friar's Tale
- The Prologue to the Summoner's tale
- The Summoner's Tale
- The Prologue of the Scholar's Tale
- The Scholar's Tale
- The Prologue of the Merchant's Tale
- The Merchant's Tale
- Epilogue to the Merchant's Tale
- The Squire's Tale
- Epilogue to the Squire's Tale
- The Franklin's Tale
- The Doctor's Tale
- The Prologue of the Doctor's Tale
- The Prologue to the Pardoner's Tale
- The Pardoner's Tale
- The Prologue of the second Nun's Tale
- The Second Nun's Tale
- The Prologue of the Cannon Assistant's Tale
- The Cannon Assistant's Tale
- The Parson's Prologue
- The Parson's Tale
- Author's Valediction
- Character Profiles
- Metaphor Analysis
- Theme Analysis
- Top Ten Quotes | <urn:uuid:9f7277b5-eb54-4b84-abd6-ff03558e2d0a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.novelguide.com/the-canterbury-tales/summaries/chap19.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402699.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00092-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986282 | 1,152 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Uruguay debates bill to allow abortion; passage expected
In a marathon session Tuesday that stretched more than eight hours, Uruguayan lawmakers argued passionately over whether to legalize abortion in the earliest stages of pregnancy, a controversial step that would make it a rarity among Latin American nations.
Under the measure, Uruguay would allow abortions within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, 14 weeks in cases of rape, and decriminalize later abortions to protect the life of the mother or carried out when a fetus isn’t expected to survive.
The legislation would require women to explain why they are seeking to abort to three professionals -- a gynecologist, a mental health professional and a social worker -- and hear information about abortion risks and alternative options, such as adoption. Afterward, they would have to wait five days “to reflect” before being allowed an abortion.
The bill, which proponents said was created in hope of reducing the number of abortions, was seen as likely to pass and be signed by President Jose Mujica. The Associated Press reported Tuesday afternoon that the measure appeared to be headed for a narrow passage by 50-49 votes.
But Uruguayans on both sides of the debate were displeased by the bill. Abortion opponents showed a National Geographic video of a fetus in its earliest weeks as they argued against the measure on Tuesday. Roman Catholic and evangelical groups have opposed any legalization.
Yet the final version of the bill also disappointed groups that had lobbied to legalize abortion, arguing that it stigmatized and harassed women in violation of their rights.
The legislation "treats them as if they weren’t capable of responsible decisions about their lives and their health; this isn’t just a lack of respect, it’s discriminatory,” Amnesty International Uruguay director Mariana Labastie said.
Only a few Latin American nations, including Cuba, allow abortion, according to information published last year by the Center for Reproductive Rights, headquartered in New York. Most countries in the region allow abortion only for health reasons, if at all, its research shows.
-- Emily Alpert in Los Angeles
Photo: People march against abortion in Montevideo on Monday before Tuesday's vote in parliament on a bill that would legalize some abortions. Credit: Miguel Rojo / AFP/Getty Images | <urn:uuid:12ae32e9-3143-43eb-85f4-e2d8c92e33ec> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/09/uruguay-debate-law-abortion-bill.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399106.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00115-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96183 | 467 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Purple (11/05/09)
TITLE: The Color of Grace
By Bill Schwan
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
Things had begun so well. He and Barnabas had traveled throughout Asia sharing the gospel and founding churches in every community they visited. But they returned to Jerusalem to harsh criticism for sharing the good news with and even baptizing Gentiles. And then he and Barnabas had a falling out over John Mark, had separated, and he and Silas had become a missionary team. So much drama for such a simple message, he thought. And then, each time he felt a desire to return to Asia to confirm that the small communities of faith he had played midwife to were remaining true to the gospel, circumstances changed so that it became impossible to follow through. The reversals had been so sharp that it almost seemed as though God himself was preventing Paulís return.
He learned in a dream that God had other plans for him when a man of Macedonia had asked Paul for help. And so he was here, in Philippi. He rounded a stand of trees and saw nothing more than a small group of women by the river. Most of the women were Jews and had gathered for prayer, but they were happy to introduce Paul to a woman who had some time ago been accepted into their worship.
ďThis is Lydia. She is a woman who fears God,Ē an elderly matron said by way of introduction.
By referring to her as a woman who feared God, Lydia was automatically identified as a Gentile, albeit a Gentile who had a healthy regard for the God of the Hebrews. Further discussion revealed that she was a merchant from Thyatira who dealt in purple fabrics, and Paul was impressed that the business was her own. Far from being an ornament on the arm of a successful husband, Lydia was involved from start to finish in the processing of the shellfish that provided the pigments, the application of this organic dye, making business contacts and then delivering the finished product.
As a seller of fabric that was affordable only to the rich, it was obvious that Lydia was also well off, and Paul thought it odd for him to be in her company. Here he was, a man who had never been rich, talking with a woman who was both rich and confident in her abilities while he seemed to have every reason to doubt his own, especially given the melodramatic nature of his own ministry in recent days.
Over the next week he had several occasions to speak with Lydia, who maintained a residence in Philippi as well as in Thyatira. At some point he decided to risk stretching her understanding of the religion of the Jews by introducing her to the Jewish Messiah. And to his astonishment, she received the news with such readiness that he felt certain the Holy Spirit had been preparing her for this very discussion.
As the days and weeks passed and Lydia became the lynchpin of the emerging church in Philippi, Paul got a sense of the next stage of Godís plan. Thus far his story had been one of a journey. He took the gospel from Jerusalem to Asia, to Greece, and now to Macedonia where he met this seller of purple, the color of the elite, and in particular the Imperial elite of Rome. Senators adorned themselves with purple but only the emperor could wear a toga made entirely of purple. Was this the direction God was leading him in his ongoing journey?
The conflict between the gospel and the power of Rome began here. Not on the battlefield but in the heart of a woman who sold luxury goods to the powerful and the elite, but who also knew there was something more to life. In the heart of a woman who was prepared by the spirit to receive the gospel and who sold a color that to Paul would now forever represent the color of Godís grace.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be right now. CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel. | <urn:uuid:35f8daf6-941e-4b67-b723-16674889180b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.faithwriters.com/wc-article-level2-previous.php?id=32834 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00145-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988501 | 881 | 2.984375 | 3 |
If you are the parent of a struggling reader, received a school evaluation with the label of Specific Learning Disability, or you have received a diagnosis of Dyslexia through an independent evaluator — and you need assistance navigating the education system or you want to be part of the change needed for children with dyslexia – you have come to the right place!!
Decoding Dyslexia PA is a grassroots movement driven by PA families concerned with the limited access to educational interventions for dyslexia within our public schools. We aim to raise dyslexia awareness, empower families to support their children and inform policymakers on best practices to identify, remediate and support students with dyslexia in PA public schools.
Our group is made up of parents of children who are dyslexic. We are not experts, nor are we a business or educational organization. We offer parents the benefit of our collective experiences. We encourage parents to meet with their local policymakers to tell the story of their child, and ask for policies and legislation to identify and support dyslexic children in our public schools.
We are advocating for PA to implement:
• A universal definition and understanding of “dyslexia” in the state education code
• Mandatory teacher training on dyslexia, its warning signs and appropriate intervention strategies
• Mandatory early screening tests for dyslexia
• Mandatory dyslexia remediation programs, which can be accessed by both general and special education populations
• Access to appropriate “assistive technologies” in the public school setting for students with dyslexia | <urn:uuid:e9995acd-d4ee-46a0-bea2-d827fc1e8530> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://decodingdyslexiapa.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403825.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00027-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951126 | 320 | 2.5625 | 3 |
By Justin Jones, Editorial Assistant
We continuing digging into the Quest Rare Minerals Strange Lake Project, a proposed mining development in Quebec
with an access road to the Labrador coast. As we've reported before, our concern is that this development would impact the recovery of the George River herd of migratory caribou.
As Hunting Report
readers know, the George River herd is in decline and estimated to number only around 20,000 animals. While it is natural for migratory caribou populations to cycle (the herd numbered only an estimated 3,500 animals in the late 1940s), we are concerned that mining developments may threaten the caribou at a critical stage in their recovery. We reported the proposed road from the mine site to Voisey's Bay on the Labrador coast cuts through the George River herd's migration routes and, more significantly, the calving grounds where they return during summer...... | <urn:uuid:96adfef9-511e-44f1-803b-e5bc76632333> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.huntingreport.com/current_issue.cfm?id=1269 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00055-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938763 | 184 | 2.75 | 3 |
Biomass Sweet Spot
Biomass generates 20 percent of all energy consumption in Sweden and wood-fired district heating systems satisfy more than half of the residential heat demand. The industry became robust because of a combination of factors and has evolved since its beginning 40 years ago.
Sweden has no domestic fossil fuels so when the first oil crisis hit in the 1970s, the country began to move toward a more environmentally friendly and cheaper energy alternative. Given the fact that about 60 percent of Sweden is covered in forests, woody biomass seemed the obvious choice. “We have a lot of forest,” says Gustav Melin, CEO of the Swedish Bioenergy Association (SVEBIO). “We have a strong forestry industry. We have no domestic fossil fuels and we have had politicians with good knowledge and a clear view for the future and for market conditions for biomass.”
In the dismantling of fossil fuel use, the Swedish government enforced carbon taxation for oil and coal consumers at a much higher rate than other countries, currently equaling $150 per ton of carbon dioxide. “That high taxation led to oil prices going higher than biomass,” says Thomas Levander, head of the policy analysis unit for the Swedish Energy Agency, the central administrative authority for matters concerning supply and use of energy. So a combination of the punishment for using fossil fuels and state subsidies incentivizing the research into use of forest fuels gave the biomass industry a jump start. Since then, the country has taken away the subsidies, instead relying on general economic instruments such as the carbon tax, as well as the polluter pays principle, which mandates that the polluter or industry pays for any damages it causes to air, water or soil. “We don’t subsidize the system anymore,” Levander says. “We have before, but it wasn’t a good idea.”
In addition, the country’s pulp and paper industry is well-developed, as is the sawmill industry, providing a framework for a thriving biomass industry. About half of the forest fuel is actually used within the forest industry, Melin says. In fact, the country-wide switch began with substituting forest wood as an energy source within forest industries, according to Rolf Björheden, program leader of the National Forest Energy Technology program at Skogforsk, Sweden’s forestry research institute. “We’ve been doing this about 30 years longer than most of the world and about 15 years longer than the Finns, who are the second nation in the world to use forest biomass for energy,” he says. “We’ve built up the infrastructure needed for a functional market.” Levander adds that the country has also been ahead of the curve in the development of residue harvesting machinery.
While its extensive district heating networks are well-known, most of Sweden’s biomass plants primarily generate electricity, Björheden points out. Only the small district heating plants are exclusively heat producers, he adds. The biomass industry gets a portion of its timber residual feedstock from pulp and paper producers, as that industry can’t use certain types and grades of wood. “So they expanded their interest in that direction rather than creating new industries,” Levander explains.
Competition and Prices
But with an increase in demand for woody biomass, concerns have been swirling about competition between the biomass and pulp and paper industries, as well as price hikes for wood fiber. “For more than 20 years, there was continuous arguing between the bioenergy people and the pulp industry foresters,” Melin says.
Pellet manufacturers in Sweden, as in many other countries, started with the cleanest wood, which is sawdust, according to Hakan Ekstrom, president of Wood Resources International LLC. Then when pellet capacity was expanded, not enough sawdust was generated to satisfy demand and other types of raw material were necessary. “That’s when you start to see competition between pulp mills and pellet manufacturers,” he says. Previously, competition was fierce between board and pellet manufacturers, but eventually the biomass industry won the battle with its willingness to pay more for the raw material and the board industry was forced to step aside. “That industry has mostly disappeared from Sweden,” Levander says.
Similar to the change in pellet feedstock sources, raw biomass supplied directly to energy plants traditionally comes from sawmills, but increasingly from forests as demand climbs. “It’s the same thing there,” Ekstrom says. “That’s starting to be more expensive. You start to see pulp mills and energy plants competing for the same product.” In some instances, it pushes up prices, but in others it means prices won’t go down. “I think you see this more in Sweden because they’re ahead of most other parts of the world,” Ekstrom says. The cost of forest fuel materials has risen since 2005 because of increased demand, Björheden says, having been nominally static for the previous 25 years. “In real terms, that means a very, very strong decrease in price actually,” he adds.
But the competition between the pulp and paper and biomass industries is not an issue all over the country. In fact, some, such as Levander, argue it’s not an issue anywhere in the country, but recognize that changes in certain factors could make it one. Björheden says it hasn’t been an issue because the energy sector has not bought significant amounts of pulpwood. Ekstrom, however, says it is becoming a concern in the central portion of the country, where landowners are demanding more money from pulp and paper producers. “You see landowners starting to tell pulp mills, ‘If you don’t pay more for the pulp wood, we’re going to sell it to the energy plants instead,’ which forces prices up in some regions,” he says.
Even with possible competition, significant price increases will be slow to mature. “That won’t happen overnight,” Ekstrom clarifies. “Initially, the energy companies will go out and look for, at least right now, less expensive biomass than round wood.” But the demand and competition hasn’t hurt the energy industry, Ekstrom says, and prices for biomass material are not at risk of approaching that of oil and coal, due primarily to the carbon tax. In addition, Sweden’s experience and longevity in the biomass energy industry means demand will not likely increase exponentially. “They’re starting to get to a level where the problem might not expand on the demand side dramatically over the next 10 years,” Ekstrom says.
Although Melin acknowledges there’s been a long-standing argument about supply and pricing between the two industries, he says now the energy wood demand is a good thing. “Today, the pulp industry is happy about the bioenergy development since they actually gain money on the power production that is done at every site,” he says. “I believe they also have started to understand the possibilities of better management of forests.”
From a forest owner’s perspective, demand and price increases for wood fiber isn’t bad. “If we have an industry that develops and starts to pay more for the products of forestry, according to market principles, that must mean that this new industry can do better things and provide better services,” Björheden says.
Melin agrees. “The use of bioenergy is actually a way for the foresters to get paid for better management of their forests, so to me there are only benefits to the industry,” he says.
Besides, biomass harvesting is not the most significant thing that happens in land management sectors in Sweden, Björheden emphasizes. “The big change is that we clearfell areas normally after 70 to 100 years of management,” he says. “That’s the really big event in the life of that forest.” The country has maintained its forestlands this way for the past 800 years.
It goes without saying that good silvicultural practices don’t include the removal of biomass from delicate areas, and the country also does not remove biomass material from national forests. Sweden’s forest practices are constantly monitored and have not remained the same throughout the biomass industry’s 40-year history. The country spends more resources on monitoring and sustainability than on technology research and development, Björheden says. Sweden implements a host of measures to ensure sustainability and forest health in the wake of its intensified forestry. “Our governmental board of forestry has a balanced view and the mission to take both environmental and production goals into account,” Melin says.
“We can see that when you pick up residues, it might even be good for the environment,” Levander explains. For the most part, he adds, citizens and environmentalists trust in the policies implemented by the government and view them as responsible. For instance, laws mandate that ash from burning forest residues must be applied back to the forest. “That’s the secret behind counteracting the negatives,” Björheden says. “Any lasting success in this is that you have to counteract as many of the negatives as possible.”
Much like in the U.S., some Swedish citizens oppose residue removal, even with policies in place to prevent over-utilization, Björheden says, recognizing that many citizens are not particularly well informed. Even though the municipal veto does permit a community to halt development, no plant in Sweden has been shut down or development stopped in response to citizen opposition, he says. On the contrary, citizens in municipalities with extensive woody biomass use are proud of their vision and approach to a fossil fuel-free existence. Residue removal has not been a large issue in the general public, Björheden says, but it is between forest industries and the Forest Stewardship Council. “They’re constantly talking about this and I think in general, cooperation has been good and both parties have benefitted.”
And like the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences study that evaluated forest biomass carbon neutrality and sustainability in Massachusetts, Sweden’s government-funded research into woody biomass use for electricity and heat has found that it is only carbon neutral after a period of time, not instantly, Levander says.
Further research in the country is geared toward development of gasification systems for biomass and a pilot combined-heat-and-power plant operated briefly in Värnamo. Chemrec has also established a black liquor gasification plant for liquid biofuels production in Piteå.
With such up-and-coming research, and the fact that Swedish forests capture more carbon dioxide than goals dictate, Björheden says the country is proud of its progress. “Presently, our conscience is fairly good,” he adds. “But we can do better. We can do more. We can’t stop global warming in Sweden, but we can do our part.”
Author: Lisa Gibson
Associate Editor, Biomass Power & Thermal | <urn:uuid:52d1e0f7-6c91-42ef-9439-1c3c6654bc39> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/5146/biomass-sweet-spot | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00120-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958563 | 2,349 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Dried coconut kernels, from which oil is obtained.
- Since the 19th century, Mafia islanders have depended upon copra, or dried coconut, as their primary export to world markets.
- She was raised in a large two-story house that had a grocery store and a scale for weighing rice and copra and was shared with relatives.
- The organisation, formed by the State Government in 1987, is engaged in procuring coconuts and copra and processing them.
Late 16th century: via Portuguese and Spanish from Malayalam koppara 'coconut'.
For editors and proofreaders
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
Comments that don't adhere to our Community Guidelines may be moderated or removed. | <urn:uuid:aa2bf66c-1ef5-4dd2-9425-9c33fb558f18> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/copra | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00064-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961341 | 158 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Back to Psychiatry Diseases
In psychiatry, histrionic personality disorder is a personality
disorder which involves a pattern of excessive emotional expression and
attention-seeking, including an excessive need for approval and
inappropriate seductiveness, that usually begins in early adulthood.
The essential feature of the histrionic personality disorder is a
pervasive and excessive pattern of emotionality and attention-seeking
behavior. These individuals are lively, dramatic, enthusiastic, and
flirtatious. They may be inappropriately sexually provocative, express
strong emotions with an impressionistic style, and be easily influenced
The cause of this disorder is unknown, but childhood events and genetics
may both be involved. It occurs more frequently in women than in men,
although some feel it is simply more often diagnosed in women because
attention-seeking and sexual forwardness is less socially acceptable for
People with this disorder are usually able to function at a high level
and can be successful socially and at work. They may seek treatment for
depression when romantic relationships end. They often fail to see their
own situation realistically, instead tending to overdramatize and
exaggerate. Responsibility for failure or disappointment is usually
blamed on others.
The symptoms include:
- Constant seeking of reassurance or approval
- Excessive dramatics with exaggerated displays of emotions
- Excessive sensitivity to criticism or disapproval
- Inappropriately seductive appearance or behavior
- Excessive concern with physical appearance
- A need to be the center of attention (self-centeredness)
- Low tolerance for frustration or delayed gratification
- Rapidly shifting emotional states that may appear shallow to others
- Opinions are easily influenced by other people, but difficult to back up
- Tendency to believe that relationships are more intimate than they
Are you a doctor or a nurse?
Do you want to join the Doctors Lounge online medical community?
Participate in editorial activities (publish, peer review, edit) and
give a helping hand to the largest online community of patients.
Click on the link below to see the requirements:
Doctors Lounge Membership
The person's appearance, behavior, and history, and a psychological
evaluation are usually sufficient to establish the diagnosis. There is
no test to confirm this diagnosis. Because the criteria are subjective,
some people may be wrongly diagnosed as having the disorder while others
with the disorder may not be diagnosed.
Treatment is often prompted by depression associated with dissolved
romantic relationships. Medication does little to affect this
personality disorder, but may be helpful with complications such as
depression. Psychotherapy may also be of benefit.
Histrionic personality disorder does not usually affect the person's
ability to function adequately in a superficial work or social
environment. However, problems often arise in more intimate
relationships, where deeper involvements are required. Histrionic
personality disorder may affect a person's social or romantic
relationships or their ability to cope with losses or failures. They may
go through frequent job changes, as they become easily bored and have
trouble dealing with frustration. Because they tend to crave novelty and
excitement, they may place themselves in risky situations. All of these
factors may lead to greater risk of developing depression. | <urn:uuid:9aadd8ef-0426-4eec-ad03-7e106c114bf8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.doctorslounge.com/psychiatry/diseases/histrionic_personality.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00029-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921217 | 680 | 2.734375 | 3 |
When a friend’s doctor recommended he drink a beer a day to help raise his HDL (the good cholesterol that helps clear plaque from the arteries), he jokingly asked if the doctor could write a prescription so he could show his wife.
Based on a new study, however, that prescription should add a daily dose of exercise if better heart health is the goal. Released in August, results from the In Vino Veritas study, led by Milos Taborsky of the Olomouc University Hospital in the Czech Republic, adds to the body of knowledge that surrounds the surprising benefits of alcohol on heart health.
Though you won’t often see beer or wine on a list of “super foods” that claim to reduce the incidence of disease, the healing properties of alcohol were first discovered almost a century ago when pathologists noted the arteries of people who died from alcohol-related cirrhosis were surprisingly free of harmful plaque.
But it wasn’t until the 1990s, when the so-called “French paradox” was coined, that the positive effects of a glass of wine became public knowledge. The French, known for their love of wine and a high-fat diet, had a lower rate of cardiovascular disease as compared to the U.S. and several other European countries known for their consumption of fatty foods. So with the blessing of the medical community, a daily dose of wine or beer has since been quietly prescribed by physicians — with Canadians agreeably raising their glass in the name of a longer life and a healthier heart.
To be clear, we’re talking about a moderate dose of alcohol, which translates into one glass daily for women and two glasses a day for men — not the kind of imbibing that results in a few empty bottles at the end of the night. The “if a little is good, more must be better” philosophy doesn’t pertain to alcohol, which is associated with serious health issues when consumed in excess.
What is it about the moderate consumption of wine or beer that reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease? For years, researchers cited the antioxidants found in red wine and dark beer as the reason for its heart healthy effects. But lately, that theory has become uncorked. A study of subjects from the Chianti region of Italy, whose diets are high in wine and other antioxidant rich foods, had incidence of cardiovascular disease and cancer similar to those whose diets consisted of fewer antioxidants.
Richard Semba, lead researcher of the Chianti study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Health, was quoted as saying the health benefits related to the antioxidants found in wine and other foods don’t warrant the kind of hype they’ve been getting in recent years — a statement that must have made wine lovers wince.
Despite this blow to red wine’s reputation as heart healthy, news of the In Vino Veritas study has allowed wine to inch back into the realm of super foods. The Czech research team announced during the European Society of Cardiology’s annual meeting that wine is, indeed, deserved of its healthy reputation, but only among those who exercise regularly.
The results were garnered from 146 subjects who consumed moderate amounts of red and white wine for a year. Asked to make no changes to their diets over the course of the study, subjects were also required to keep a journal that included what they ate and drank as well as how often they exercised.
At the end of 12 months, there was an increase in healthy HDL levels among only the red or white wine drinkers who exercised regularly.
“The only positive and continuous result was in the subgroup of patients who took more exercise, which means regular exercise at least twice a week, plus the wine consumption,” Taborsky said. “In this group, HDL cholesterol increased and LDL (the bad cholesterol that leads to heart disease) and total cholesterol decreased in the red and white wine groups.”
So while exercisers have reason to rejoice, the news isn’t good for wine drinkers who have yet to embrace an active lifestyle. But for those of us on the lookout for more incentive to get people moving, this news might be the proverbial carrot needed to lure people off the couch.
That said, the link between alcohol and heart disease still isn’t clearly understood. But that shouldn’t stop exercisers from enjoying a glass of their favourite alcoholic drink every now and again. Better yet, why not get your doctor to write a prescription for a cycling tour of wine country and present it to your boss the next time you need a few days off. A little wine and a little exercise is just what the doctor ordered. | <urn:uuid:ba7c314a-f425-4953-a2c5-3986001d0107> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/fitness+glass+wine+with+your+exercise/10223487/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00171-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976504 | 971 | 2.546875 | 3 |
A kitten growth chart based on weight gain is presented below. The best test as to whether a kitten is doing well is through a steady increase in weight.
If the kitten fails to gain weight the situation needs to be appraised. Several kittens not gaining weight may be because the mother is not getting enough calories. Three times the normal amount of calories are required by the nursing mother. Her diet needs to be balanced.
“Inadequate milk is a common cause of death in kittens.” The major cause of inadequate milk from the mother is a poor diet for her. Toxic milk from her and acute metritis are other possibilities1.
|This is an A1 Savannahs Savannah kitten – photo copyright Kathrin Stucki
An accurate gram scale is required. This is one example on the USA market:
When things look wrong:
|One kitten in a litter is 75% (three quarters) the weight of his or her litter mates||Place this kitten in an incubator and raise by hand|
|Kittens gain weight “steadily during first 7 days”1.||Do nothing different|
|Kitten loses no more than 10% of body weight at birth over first 48 hours and then gains weight.||Watch this kitten closely|
|Kitten loses no more than 10% of body weight at birth over first 48 hours and then does not gain weight within a further 72 hours.||Supplemental feeding of this kitten is required urgently|
Kitten Growth Chart — Note: | <urn:uuid:b223263b-cf2c-4955-927d-1863e3b390cc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://pictures-of-cats.org/kitten-growth-chart.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396029.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00044-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9398 | 311 | 2.78125 | 3 |
The importance of exercise in the fight against osteoporosis cannot be underestimated. Changing to a healthier diet can have little effect on bone mass when not combined with regular exercise. Starting the right kind of exercise in combination with other preventive measures like appropriate calcium intake, can help build bone mass especially in high risk fracture sites like the wrist, hip and spine.
Putting Stress on the Bones Fights Fractures
The key here is weight bearing exercise – which means exercise one performs while on their feet that works the bones and muscles against gravity. Popular forms of weight bearing exercise include:
- Stair climbing
- Certain types of weight lifting/resistance exercises (e.g., squats)
The particular form of exercise will depend on the person’s overall physical health, the extent of bone loss, and whether the person already regularly engages in physical activity. It is recommended that individuals speak with their physician about the appropriate types of exercise to include in their osteoporosis treatment plan, especially people who have been sedentary most of their adult life or who are already diagnosed with low bone mass (termed "osteopenia") or osteoporosis. Certain movements, like those that require twisting of the spine or bending forward from the waist (like sit-ups or toe touches), and most high-impact exercise, can put certain people at risk for fracture and should be avoided.
In This Article:
- Osteoporosis: 4 Proven Steps to Prevent Osteoporosis Fractures
- Physical and Lifestyle Risk Factors for Osteoporosis
- Bone Density Testing
- Individualized Osteoporosis Treatment Plan
- Osteoporosis Medications
- Calcium and Vitamin D Requirements
- Regular Weight-Bearing Exercise
- Stopping Smoking, Alcohol Abuse
- Monitoring Osteoporosis
- Osteoporotic Fractures of the Spine Video
More Osteoporosis Info
Recommendations on frequency of exercise needed to increase bone density vary. Depending on one’s diagnosis and doctor-recommend activity restrictions, typical exercise routines that are recommended may range from:
- 20-30 minutes of aerobic exercise 3 to 4 times weekly, to
- 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day plus strength training 2 to 3 times per week.
Many patients benefit from working with an exercise specialist (trained in exercise physiology, physical education, physical therapy, or a similar specialty) to learn the proper progression of exercise, how to stretch and strengthen muscles safely, and how to correct poor posture habits. This is particularly true for those with relatively advanced osteoporosis (who are most at risk for a fracture) and those who are starting a new exercise program. The exercise specialist should be familiar with the special needs of people with osteoporosis. | <urn:uuid:427b8c96-9853-424b-a81c-77dfb643a396> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.spine-health.com/conditions/osteoporosis/regular-weight-bearing-exercise | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393332.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00078-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918479 | 579 | 3.28125 | 3 |
- a large, tropical Asian plant (Colocasia esculenta) of the arum family, with shield-shaped leaves: it is cultivated for its edible corms, which are the source of poi
- the tuber of this plant
Origin of taro; from a Polynesian language ; from Proto-Polynesian an unverified form talo
- a. A widely cultivated tropical Asian aroid plant (Colocasia esculenta) having broad peltate leaves and large starchy edible tubers.b. The tuber of this plant.
- a. Any of several similar plants of the South American genus Xanthosoma, having sagittate leaves.b. The starchy edible tuber of this plant. Also called cocoyam.
Origin of taroProbably Tahitian. | <urn:uuid:3938cedd-4b2f-46f0-b817-3529b4e9b632> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.yourdictionary.com/taro | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397864.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00109-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.873152 | 170 | 2.796875 | 3 |
PCR Related Products >
25021 (250 Units)
25022 (500 Units)
[We are pleased
to offer unpublished higher discounts on
large volume purchases.]
PCR (polymerase chain reaction)
is developed by Kary Mullis in mid 1980's
and it has made development of modern molecular
biology possible through DNA oligo sequence.
The commonly used DNA polymerase in PCR
method is Taq DNA polymerase. In the beginning,
the enzyme used in PCR method was E.
coli DNA polymerase, but the
enzyme had to be added at every step of
the process due to its thermal instability.
Therefore, DNA polymerase is developed from
Thermus aquaticus bacteria which thrives
in hot spa. Taq DNA polymerase optimally
compose DNA at 72, therefore
it could stably amplify a specified oligo
sequence without adding enzyme at every
cycle due to its thermal stability even
polymerase is the recombinant form of the
enzyme from the thermophilic Thermus aquaticus,
expressed in E. coli. The enzyme is highly
purified and is free of non-specific endonuclease
or exonuclease. Taq DNA polymerase consists
of a single polypeptide chain with a molecular
weight of approximately 95kD. It is a highly
processive 5'-3' DNA polymerase lacking
3'-5' exonuclease activity.
efficiency of the amplification
Not contaminated with E.coli
Format : i-Taq(TM)
DNA polymerase, PCR buffer (w/ 15mM MgCl2),
MgCl2 free PCR buffer, 10mM dNTPs, and 25mM
i-Taq(TM) DNA polymerase
definition: One unit is defined as
the amount of enzyme required to catalyze
the incorporation of 10nmol of dNTP into
an acid-insoluble form in 30 minutes at
74. The reaction conditions
are in upper PCR working buffer, and 200mM
dNTPs, and radiolabeled dTTP, and 150mg/ml
activated calf thymus DNA.
at -20, and then stable
for over 1 year.
in this kit
; reagents, and a manual.
PCR process is covered by patents issued
and applicable in certain countries. iNtRON
Biotechnology does not encourage or support
the unauthorized or unlicensed use of the
PCR process. Use of this product is recommended
for persons that either have a license to
perform PCR or are not required to obtain | <urn:uuid:6ccd6c1b-68cc-483f-83b4-9b8e601f482a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://eng.intronbio.com/product/i-Taq.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403823.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00104-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.861969 | 563 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Marey's Flip Book
[Marey, Étienne Jules]. n.d. [Flip book, depicting Angelo Mosso, Hugo Kronecker, and others].
94 Photographs. (Università di Torino, Biblioteca Angelo Mosso)
Étienne Jules Marey was a scientist, as Marta Braun has put it in her biography, not an artist or entertainer. Marey recorded series of chronophotographies in order to analyze sequences of movements. His principal aim was not to provoke feelings of visual pleasure or to amuse any given audience by means of dancing images. On the contrary. When Marey's assistant Georges Demeny began his flirt with the cultural industry of the fin de siècle, he was immediately dismissed. In the papers of Marey's friend and colleague, Angelo Mosso, we have found a document showing the master in a moment of greater ease. Photographs taken by Marey are assembled to form a flipbook, i.e. one of the little machines that set images in motion during the 19th Century. In 1868, the flipbook, then called kineograph, received a patent in Great Britain. But nothing is known about its scientific use.
Here, we see a group of experimental physiologists, their spouses and a dog. In the center, Angelo Mosso, the famous fatigue researcher from Torino, is shaking hands. Marching past Mosso are Marey himself (the first in line) and the gifted, Leipzig- and Bern-based experimenter Hugo Kronecker (the third, with white hairs). The other ladies and gentlemen are hard to identify. It also remains unclear, where the images were taken. Engraved on the clip that holds the images together is Station physiologique, since 1882 the name of Marey's Paris institute for chronophotography. But since Mosso is acting as the host, the shots were probably taken in Torino.
What do we see, then? A "cinematic physiology" of shaking hands, or simply hand-shaking physiologists? The sequence is bound to some peculiar recursiveness. It shows experts for animal movement in movement and – thanks to our digital animation – the physiological emergence of motion pictures as pictures in motion. No one else than Marey indicates this loop. After having shaken hands with Mosso, he turns around behind him. His eyes seem to look in our direction – addressing the spectators. But in reality, Marey is watching his assistant besides the camera. The experimenter monitors his apparatus.
Reference: Felsch, Philipp. 2005. Marey's Flip Book. The Virtual Laboratory (ISSN 1866-4784), http://vlp.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/references?id=art31 | <urn:uuid:206c6950-26b9-4168-bfaf-dffa4094eda7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://vlp.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/essays/data/art31?p=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00114-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940777 | 588 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Although it is possible to have an hallucination involving almost any kind of imagery, it has long been known that there are remarkable similarities between the hallucinations of different people, under different circumstances. Hallucinations were first classified during the last century during a period when many artists and writers experimented with hashish and opium as an aid to experiencing them. In 1926 Kluver began a series of investigations into the effects of mescaline and described four constant types. These were first the grating, lattice or chessboard, second the cobweb type, third the tunnel, cone or vessel, and fourth the spiral. As well as being constant features of mescaline intoxication in different people, Kluver found that these forms appeared in hallucinations induced by a wide variety of conditions.
In the 1960s, when many psychedelic drugs began to be extensively used for recreational purposes, research into their effects proliferated. Leary and others tried to develop methods by which intoxicated subjects could describe what was happening to them. Eventually Leary and Lindsley developed the 'experiental typewriter' with twenty keys representing different subjective states. Subjects were trained to use it but the relatively high doses of drugs used interfered with their ability to press the keys and so a better method was needed.
A decade later Siegel gave subjects marijuana, or THC, and asked them simply to report on what they saw. Even with untrained subjects he found remarkable consistencies in the hallucinations. In the early stages simple geometric forms predominated. There was often a bright light in the center of the field of vision which obscured central details but allowed images at the edges to be seen more clearly, and the location of this light created a tunnel-like perspective. Often the images seemed to pulsate and moved towards or away from the light in the center of the tunnel. At a later stage, the geometric forms were replaced by complex imagery including recognizable scenes with people and objects, sometimes with small animals or caricatures of people. Even in this stage there was much consistency, with images from memory playing a large part.
On the basis of this work Siegel constructed a list of eight forms, eight colors, and eight patterns of movement, and trained subjects to use them when given a variety of drugs (or a placebo) in controlled environment. With amphetamines and barbiturates the forms reported were mostly black and white forms moving aimlessly about, but with THC, psilocybin, LSD and mescaline the forms became more organized as the experience progressed. After 30 minutes there were more lattice and tunnel forms, and the colors shifted from blue to red, orange to yellow. Movement became more organized with explosive and rotational patterns. After 90 - 120 minutes most forms were lattice-tunnels; after that complex imagery began to appear with childhood memories and scenes, emotional memories and some fantastic scenes. But even these scenes often appeared in a lattice-tunnel framework. At the peak of the hallucinatory experience, subjects sometimes said that they had become part of the imagery. They stopped using similes and spoke of the images as real. Highly creative images were reported and the changes were very rapid. According to Siegel [Sie77] at this stage 'The subjects reported feeling dissociated from their bodies.'
The parallels between the drug-induced hallucinations and the typical spontaneous OBE should be obvious. Not only did some of the subjects in Siegel's experiments actually report OBEs, but there were the familiar tunnels and the bright lights so often associated with near-death experiences. There was also the 'realness' of everything seen; and the same drugs which elicited the hallucinations are those which are supposed to be conducive to OBEs.
There have been many suggestions as to why the tunnel form should be so common. It has sometimes been compared to the phenomenon of 'tunnel vision' in which the visual field is greatly narrowed, but usually in OBEs and hallucinations the apparent visual field is very wide; it is just formed like a tunnel. A more plausible alternative depends on the way in which retinal space is mapped on cortical space. If a straight line in the visual cortex of the brain represents a circular pattern on the retina then stimulation in a straight line occurring in states of cortical excitation could produce a sensation of concentric rings, or a tunnel form. This type of argument is important in understanding the visual illusions of migraine, in which excitations spread across parts of the cortex.
Another reasonable speculation is that the tunnel has something to do with constancy mechanisms. As objects move about, or we move relative to them, their projection on the retina changes shape and size. We have constancy mechanisms which compensate for this effect. For very large objects, distortions are necessarily a result of perspective, and yet we see buildings as having straight wall and roofs. If this mechanism acted inappropriately on internally generated spontaneous signals, it might produce a tunnel-like perspective, and any hallucinatory forms would also be seen against this distorted background.
In drug-induced hallucinations there may come a point at which the subject becomes part of the imagery and it seems quite real to him, even though it comes from his memory. The comparison with OBEs is interesting because one of the most consistent features of spontaneous OBEs is that the experiencers claim 'it all seemed so real.' If it were a kind of hallucination similar to these drug-induced ones then it would seem real. Put together the information from the subject's cognitive map in memory, and an hallucinatory state in which information from memory is experienced as though it were perceived, and you have a good many of the ingredients for a classical OBE.
But what of the differences between hallucinations and OBEs? You may point to the state of consciousness associated with the two and argue that OBEs often occur when the person claims to be wide awake, and thinking perfectly normally. But so can hallucinations. With certain drugs consciousness and thinking seem to be clearer than ever before, just as they often do in an OBE. An important difference is that in the OBE, the objects of perception are organized consistently as though they do constitute a stable, physical world. But such is not always the case; there are many cases which involve experiences beyond anything to be seen in the physical world.
Consideration of imagery and hallucinations might provide some sort of framework for understanding the OBE. It would be seen as just one form of a range of hallucinatory experiences. But (and this is a big but) if the OBE is basically an hallucination and nothing actually leaves the body, then paranormal events ought not necessarily to be associated with it. People ought not to be able to see distant unknown places or influence objects while 'out of the body'; yet there are many claims to such an effect.
Don't see what you need? Psych Web has over 1,000 pages, so it may be elsewhere on the site. Do a site-specific Google search using the box below. | <urn:uuid:cd8eb6dd-f38b-4235-99fd-09bb3aa73285> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.psywww.com/asc/obe/faq/obe21.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00135-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974547 | 1,421 | 2.984375 | 3 |
GCMS 8th graders got a dose of “reality” at the annual Reality Store, a cooperative program sponsored by 4-H Extension, FRC and Chamber of Commerce. It’s an early step in financial literacy and learning the importance of making smart financial choices on their way to adulthood. It also emphasizes the value of education and skills training, since these factors figure in to income levels.
The middle-schoolers are randomly assigned a job, income and family size. They visit booths representing typical monthly expenses such as housing, transportation, groceries, healthcare, childcare and all the others that make up a budget. As they go through the process they learn to make their ends meet and, in some cases, even wind up with something left over at the end of the “month”. Many, however, find themselves forced to take on extra jobs and forego many of the “luxury” items they may now consider “necessities”, such as entertainment.
There were also some real life “surprises” - fines for texting or driving without a seatbelt – as Resource Officer Bryan Hammons issued a fair share of citations. And many students were visited by “Lady Luck” which could be extra money good or yet another, and unexpected, bill to have to juggle.
Students reactions to the experience revolved mainly around education (“You need a good education for a good paying job.”), making good choices (“Even if you have a good paying job you still have to watch how you spend your money.”), and being prepared for the unexpected (“Surprises happen and they could hurt you.”)
Community volunteers help guide 8th graders make wise decisions as they experience the “reality” of working through monthly budgets, expenses and surprises. | <urn:uuid:3050a0b2-b65b-4821-8659-610275644a5a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.k105.com/pages/15992558.php?imageGalleryXRefId=3180356 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00147-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974771 | 382 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Transition Studies 47
Perhaps a simpler arrangement would be to replace the linkage by pins at a and b running in a slotted bar turning about a pivot C. We reproduce (page 46) an illustration of the final apparatus; the pencil or style could be replaced by a drill'. With this instrument for twelve years the continuous automatic weather records for seven stitions (velocity and direction of wind, dry and wet bulb thermometers, barometer, vapour-tension and rain) were reduced to manageable dimensions and published. Of this publication Galton remarks
"It surprises me that meteorologists have not made much more use than they have of these comprehensive volumes. But there is no foretelling what aspect of meteorology will be taken up by the very few earnest and capable men who work at it. Each of them wants voluminous
data arranged in the form most convenient for his own particular inquirya."
Probably the use has not been made of these graphical charts that might well have been made; but Galton's own results indicate that we need simultaneous data for a far wider range than Great Britain, and further modern methods of multiple correlation, which seem likely to be most productive of result in present day meteorology, demand numerical values, and these are hard to obtain from the graphs; not only can they scarcely be read off with the requisite accuracy, but to reconvert the graphs into any numbers whatever is in itself a most arduous task.
Galton's compound- pantagraph has indeed a far wider field of usefulness than reducing automatic weather returns. The difficulty is that it is not made commercially and procurable at a moderate cost.
A second - instrument devised by Galton about this time will be found described in the Report of the Meteorological Committee, 1871 (p. 30). It was devised for obtaining mechanically the vapour-tension curve from the curves of dry and wet bulb thermometers, but again it can be used to serve a much more general purpose, namely to obtain the curve of a variate whose ordinate is a given function of the ordinates of two other curves-all three curves having the same abscissa. The machine depends upon the construction of a surface corresponding to the function the variate is of the two other ordinates (i.e. in Galton's case the vapour-tension in terms of wet and dry bulb thermometer readings). By fine screw adjustment the cross-hairs in two microscopes are brought into accordance with the tops of the ordinates in the two curves, but the screw which adjusts one microscope moves the surface parallel to one axis, and the screw which adjusts the other microscope moves the surface perpendicular to this direction. Thus a vertical style resting on the surface raises to an adequate height a scriber which marks the ordinate or function-value of the compound variate3. It would be out of place here to give a more complete account of the instrument, but my more mechanically minded readers will grasp the general idea from the
' The theory is fully described in the Minutes of the Meteorological Committee, 1869, p. 9. It is also figured in the Katalog mathematischer Modelle, Apparate and Instrumente, of the Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung, 1892, p. 232. 2 Memories, p. 236.
s In Galton's actual instrument (see our p. 48) the required curve was recorded on a zinc plate (partly removed in figure to show scriber R). The scriber received when adjusted a blow from the hammer H worked by the action of the operator's foot on a treadle. | <urn:uuid:d59561dd-eebc-4dd2-8f5a-2777ccfb2156> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://galton.org/cgi-bin/searchImages/galton/search/pearson/vol2/pages/vol2_0066.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394987.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00068-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935602 | 740 | 2.53125 | 3 |
What Sons Learn from Their Mothers
Boys learn their earliest lessons about love and trust from their mothers. According to William Pollack, Ph.D., "Far from making boys weaker, the love of a mother can and does actually make boys stronger, emotionally and psychologically. Far from making boys dependent, the base of safety a loving mother can create—a connection that her son can rely on all his life—provides a boy with the courage to explore the outside world. But most important, far from making a boy act in 'girl-like' ways, a loving mother actually plays an integral role in helping a boy develop his masculinity."
The Importance of Loving Refuge
In the early years of a little boy's life, he is torn between two choices: He longs to explore, climb, jump, and run, and he needs to stay close to the adults who allow him to feel secure. In fact, when boys begin to walk and exercise some autonomy, their activity mirrors this dual need. They wander away from Mom (into the backyard, across the playground, or to the neighbor's house) and then return for a quick conversation or a hug, just to be sure she's there.
Some mothers, absorbing cultural messages about "real masculinity," believe that they should push their sons away emotionally, often as early as the age of two or three. Your son needs connection with you all the way through adolescence. Be sensitive about invading privacy, but separating yourself from your son will do him more harm than good.
Your son will learn self-respect and confidence when you provide a loving and secure home base for him. When you can create a sense of belonging and significance for your boy, teach him life and character skills, and practice kind, firm discipline, he learns to trust, to face challenges, and to move freely into his world. When you take time to listen to him and to focus on solutions to the problems he faces, you teach him emotional awareness and good judgment. A strong and loving relationship with a good mother can help a boy learn the skills of intimacy, support him in developing respect for other women, and prepare him for a satisfying relationship someday.
Knowing When to Let Go
Even the wisest mother can find it hard to let go in appropriate ways when her son begins to exercise his independence. Your son's desire to do things for himself, from dressing himself to reading his own bedtime story to dating, can feel like a personal rejection. One of the paradoxes of parenting is that if you do your job as a mother well, your son will eventually leave you.
As your son grows, you will learn to find the balance between offering support and stepping back to let him learn from his own experiences-and his own mistakes. Clinging too tightly can create unnecessary power struggles, especially during adolescence (a rather bumpy period for even the closest mothers and sons). Teach skills and listen well and often; then have faith in your son and let go.
From The Everything Parent's Guide to Raising Boys Copyright © 2006, F+W Publications, Inc. Used by permission of Adams Media, an F+W Publications Company. All rights reserved.
To order this book go to Amazon. | <urn:uuid:85d375da-e73d-4228-b515-b57509888fb2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://life.familyeducation.com/boys/mothers/55775.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396029.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00100-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962797 | 657 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Peter Yanczer's Pages
The Eidophor Television System
Another form of innovative television...
Note: The information presented here is based on articles or papers by the following; E. Labin, S. M. P. T. E. Journal, April 1950; Earl I. Sponable, S.M.P.T.E. Journal, April 1953; E. Baumann, S. M. P. T. E. Journal, April 1953; Eidophor Training Manual and brochures, supplied by Bernhard Merk, Switzerland.From the earliest days of television, large theater size screen images were a goal for most, if not all of the television pioneers. Some companies in the movie industry such as Twentieth Century Fox were also very interested at the time, because this might provide addition income from their theaters. So they actively promoted and supported the development of suitable systems that might accomplish large screen theater television.
The Eidophor system was an example of this and it was in use extensively from the early 50s, until well into the 80s. EIDOPHOR is a Greek word combination meaning "Image Bearer". Invented in 1939, the actual development work began in the early 40s in Zurich, Switzerland, under the direction of Professor Dr. Fritz Fischer. After considering the many problems, he soon came to the conclusion that a very powerful arc light source would be necessary to provide sufficient brightness on a theater size screen. The next problem was how he could efficiently modulate such an intense source of light.
Dr. Fischer reviewed all of the light modulators previously used, particularly the Kerr cell, as was used by Dr. Alexanderson in his large screen television work. He found the efficiency of this cell to be much too low for his purposes and so continued his search. Undoubtedly, Dr. Fischer would also have considered the Jeffree cell, used in the Scophony theater systems. Unlike the Kerr cell, which exhibits no memory characteristics whatsoever, the Jeffree cell was able to store as many as 200 to 300 picture elements, providing a significant increase in image brightness on the screen. But even this amount of improvement was not enough to satisfy Dr. Fischer's goal for brightness.
Dr. Fischer went on to review some work done by Foucault on the optics of telescopes and also by Toepler who had described an optical system referred to as the "Toepler Schlieren" (in German, Schlieren means "streaks" or "striae").
His earliest design based on their work was similar to the drawing shown here on the right. This is a light control system based on the phase contrast principle and is a variation of the Schlieren optical arrangement.
The arc lamp at A, together with the condenser lens B, produces a uniform illumination of the plane C. A light-modulating or controlling medium is placed in this plane, between the bar-and-slit systems at F and G. A field lens is placed so that it images bar system F upon the opaque bars of system G. The image point at H is located in the image plane C of the objective lens D. This projection lens would therefore image the point H at point H' on the projection screen E.
But this cannot happen because the light beams are being completely blocked off by the bars of system G. It should be noted that the incident illumination of every image point at H, is blocked by the strips of the bar system G. However, if a control medium of some sort, is located at the image plane C and could be deformed in a suitable way, diffraction of the light beams would occur. Those diffracted parts of the beams could pass through the slits in system G and on to the projection screen as image forming light.
The next drawing here on the right, shows a control medium, consisting of a liquid oil film of approximately 0.02mm thickness at the image plane C. For the sake of this illustration, consider this oil film as being supported on a thin, flat glass plate.
This layer of liquid is called the Eidophor liquid. It takes the place of an emulsion on the usual motion picture film in the film gate, as one would find in the usual projector. If the layer of Eidophor oil is of uniform thickness and homogeneous, light passing through the oil film will not be diffracted anywhere in the image plane C and all of the light passing will be blocked by the bars of G. No light can reach the screen.
The next step is to create a form of optical inhomogeneity in the oil film, point by point, that will diffract the light beam past the bars and through the slits of system G. This is done with a beam of electrons from an electron gun, scanning an approximate 3 by 4 inch raster directly on the the oil layer. The electron gun operating at a 15 kilovolt level, deposits electric charges point by point, corresponding to the scanned picture. These charges cause minute wave-shaped corrugations in the surface of the oil layer. Where the oil surface is corrugated as at H1 on the surface C in the drawing, those light rays passing through this point are diffracted and no longer blocked at G, instead passing through the slits and on to the screen. The more the Eidophor surface is distorted, the more intense is the light reaching the screen. A brightness range of 1:300 has been obtained.
The drawing to the right shows the relationship between the brightness A, along a line of the image and the amount of the wave-shaped deformation B, in the surface of the Eidophor liquid. The amount of deformation on the Eidophor surface is proportional to the desired brightness level for a corresponding point on the screen.
The Eidophor principle of modulation is for the cathode beam to scan the Eidophor surface, controlled by a video signal in such a way that the resulting deformations are proportional to the instantaneous values of the controlling signal. The actual controlling element is the spot size of the electron beam. The smaller the spot size is, the deeper the deformation of the Eidophor will be, causing more diffraction of light to take place, in turn producing a brighter spot on the screen.
The wave-shaped deformations are caused by electrostatic forces in the oil film, due to the electrical charges placed on the Eidophor surface by the scanning electron gun. The wavelength of these deformations is constant, but their height is proportional to the level of the video signal. As the illumination of the image points on the screen are always proportional to the height of the waves at the corresponding point on the Eidophor, the distribution of light over the projection screen corresponds to the video signal and thus to the object being reproduced.
The deformation commences at the moment that the electron beam scans a particular point of the image. By a suitable choice of the conductivity and viscosity of the Ediphor oil, the deformation can be preserved for a considerable part of the image scanning period, so that it disappears shortly before the next scan of that point. In the ideal case, the deformation of the oil should remain for the duration of one picture period, but then decay as quickly as possible. In practice, 70% of the ideal is achieved. Since the screen illumination is maintained for this part of the scanning period, a substantial increase in screen brightness occurs due to this light storage effect.
After considerable testing, the results were encouraging. A simplified compact prototype model was developed. This is illustrated in the figure below . Notice that it uses only one bar and slit assembly, which is reflective and actually does double duty.
Another change in this prototype was the addition of a color wheel, developed especially for the Eidophor system by the Columbia Broadcasting System, using its field sequential color knowledge and techniques. But before this unit could be completed, Dr. Fischer had died and his work was carried on by his associates, directed by Professor Baumann and Dr. Thiemann.
Since there is an electron gun in this system, it might be well to point out that the electron gun and the Eidophor oil can only operate in a vacuum. The Eidiphor oil characteristics are subject to change with temperature, so the system includes a means to stabilize the temperature of the spherical mirror and Eidophor oil in contact with it. This is accomplished with a small external refrigeration system.
This photo to the left shows a complete system, including the two upright cabinets (6), containing the low level electronic circuits and their power supplies.
In the main assembly, the projection arc lamp (5) is located at the top left and the vacuum pump and auxiliary services equipment (4) are directly below it. The color wheel (3) is located at the top center. The Eidophor projector (1) is at the lower and center left. The projection light beam hood (2) is at the top right.
In later models like the one pictured below, the arc light was abandoned in favor of hi-intensity Xenon lamps rated at either 3000 or 5000 watts. A color dot sequential system was also incorporated, replacing the CBS field sequential method and the purchaser was then given the choice of using the NTSC, PAL, SECAM or HDTV color systems.
The over-all specifications of the more recent models of the Ediophor systems were most impressive. They included these:
Screen sizes up to approximately 40 by 50 feet; 80 times brighter than than the best three tube CRT systems; up to 1250 lines horizontal, 120 Hz vertical; Video bandwidth, 50 Mhz; all digital control; white field brightness levels of over 10,000 lumens; projection throws of over 650 feet.
What a fantastic system! An engineering marvel, if there ever was one!! Fabulous!!! (Editor's comment)
In spite of it though, the Eidophor is becoming obsolete. It looks as if it will undoubtedly be replaced by the LCD and/or the DLP device, manufactured by Texas Instruments, basically an integrated circuit with teeny, tiny little movable mirrors, (pardon the scientific terms).
Peter F. Yanczer | <urn:uuid:fb1baa35-4498-4384-9e6e-52da25825ef3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.earlytelevision.org/yanczer_eidophor.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397795.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00104-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959532 | 2,101 | 2.859375 | 3 |
This is a photograph of a patch of hard-bottom habitat in the Gulf of Mexico. In this small area, there are several species of anemones, sponges, a black coral, stony corals and a crab, illustrating the extremely high diversity possible in these ecosystems. Click image for larger view and image credit.
NOVA Southeastern University
Coral reefs--the simple mention of the words conjures images of dazzling seascapes in clear turquoise waters, winding hills and meadows of stony trees and undulating fans somewhere on the vague border between plant and animal, and populated by a bewildering variety of strange and beautiful creatures: bristling lobsters and urchins, boldly-patterned snails, and a dizzying variety of fishes from tiny jewels to sleek, ominous sharks. A further step in our knowledge tells us that such reefs grow only in shallow, warm tropical waters, their coral architects bound to the sun by internal fellow-travelers--microscopic single-celled symbiotic algae that contribute to their coral hosts' nutrition by trapping sunlight via photosynthesis and transferring the energy-rich chemical products of that process to the surrounding coral tissue.
All well and good. But, it turns out that these coral reefs are just the well-known and easily accessible face of a much larger world of reefs--hidden from popular view by cold and often very deep ocean waters. Coral reefs actually occur throughout much of the world's deep oceans: on elevated areas of seafloor where bottom currents are frequent or strong enough to supply enough food and prevent burial by accumulating sediments. We find them along the slopes of continents and islands, on seamounts, and in submarine canyons and glacial fjords. At high latitudes, they may develop as shallow as 50 meters below the surface. Elsewhere, and especially in the tropics, they occur over a mile deep.
Lophelia pertusa can form thick branching colonies over large areas, providing hiding places for many different types of animals. Click image for larger view and image credit.
These deep reefs are built by coral species that lack symbiotic algae. As a consequence, they grow much more slowly than their shallow, tropical relatives, and do not recover as easily from the effects of fishing or dredging. Although constructed by relatively few coral species (unlike tropical reefs), these deep reefs are home to an enormous variety of associated creatures--sponges, worms, crustaceans, echinoderms, mollusks and fishes, to name a few--that may rival the diversity of some shallow reefs. It is this associated diversity in particular that challenges us to find out more about these reefs--how and where they grow; what species they harbor, and how these inhabitants interact. Some of these denizens are important food fishes, others may produce pharmaceutically important chemicals, and still others may hold in their skeletons keys to understanding climate changes.
Crossroad in the Sea
The Florida Coast Deep Corals expedition has targeted the deep reefs of the Strait of Florida, the reversed-L-shaped channel that separates Florida, the Bahama Islands and Cuba. We are particularly interested in this region for two reasons. First, deep reefs at low latitudes under tropical waters are poorly known relative to their northern counterparts. Second, the Strait of Florida is unique; it contains numerous distinctly different environments where northern and southern fauna meet to create what may be the greatest diversity of deep-water life in the Atlantic Ocean. Previous expeditions have begun to outline the range of deep-reef habitats in the Strait of Florida. Among other expedition goals, we plan to build on this sparse data by looking at several different deep-reef environments in the Strait to understand how the distributions of corals and other organisms relate to each other and to environmental conditions. To do this, we will photograph, count, map and collect as many species as possible. Our expedition will range from northern Florida to the Florida Keys.
These look like sea fans at first glance, but they are actually a type of sponge that also has a flattened fan shape. The large surface is oriented facing the current to take advantage of food flowing in the water. These types of animals give us an idea of the prevailing current in an area. Click image for larger view and image credit.
A Coral Menagerie
The main players that form the complex three-dimensional habitats of deep reefs represent several different groups of organisms. All belong to the Phylum Cnidaria--the great branch of the animal kingdom that includes medusae (jellyfishes) and anemones as well as corals. All have a basically sac-like body with a mouth surrounded by tentacles equipped with stinging cells. Any cnidarian with a firm or rigid, mineral or organic skeleton can be called a coral, although usage is not consistent (e.g., in soft corals the skeleton consists of small limestone bits imbedded in their tissues). Stony, or true, corals have solid calcium carbonate skeletons and anatomical structures arranged in multiples of six; they are the primary architects of deep (and shallow) reefs. Octocorals, which include the sea fans, sea plumes, soft corals and bamboo corals, have anatomical structures arranged in eight parts; their skeletons combine organic and mineral components. Black corals have an organic skeleton covered with fine thorns. Like stony corals, lace corals have a solid calcium carbonate skeleton, but they are anatomically much simpler and, unlike all the others, have a planktonic medusa stage.
The East Coast Pinnacles
Between Jacksonville and Jupiter, FL, nearly 300 mounds from 8 to 168 meters in height (25-550 ft) crowd the seafloor at depths reaching about 700 meters. Submersibles and ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles) have confirmed the presence of deep-sea corals on many of these mounds. The northern sites off Jacksonville appear to resemble what are called lithoherms--deep-water rocky mounds built up by corals, skeletons of other organisms and sediments all cemented together--while further south, the mounds are muddier and capped with coral thickets. In both areas, the dominant habitat-forming species are the branching stony corals Lophelia pertusa, Madrepora oculata and Enallopsammia profunda, bamboo corals and other octocorals, black corals and sponges. Much of what we know about these pinnacles and the biology of the next two study areas was first discovered by a group of researchers headed by John Reed, one of the scientists on our current Florida Coast Deep Corals expedition team (Reed et al., 2005; Reed et al., in press).
These are black coral sea whips - another type of coral often found in patches on deepwater hard bottom surfaces. They do not create the intricate habitat formed by corals like Lophelia, but every little bit of shelter is precious if you are small and tasty. Click image for larger view and image credit.
The Miami Terrace
The Miami Terrace is a long rocky platform that lies between Boca Raton and South Miami at depths of 200-400 meters. It consists of limestone ridges, scarps and slabs that provide extensive hard bottom habitat. At its eastern edge, a rugged escarpment is capped with Lophelia pertusa, lace corals, bamboo and other octocorals, and sponges. In May 2004, John Reed observed dense aggregations of 50-100 wreckfish here.
The Pourtalès Terrace
Named after Count Louis de Pourtalès, one of the pioneers of American marine geology, this triangular limestone platform parallels the Florida Keys from Key Largo to Key West, and its apex extends half way to the Bahamas. Its unusual geology includes deep-water sinkholes up to 180 meters deep and tall mounds up to 120 meters high. Some of the latter are well-known to sport fishers for their rich gatherings of gamefish. Although the lithoherm-type mounds support many different species of octocorals, black corals and one colonial stony coral (Solenosmilia variabilis), many of the species found to the north are absent here. Instead, the mounds support dense thickets of lace corals. In addition, trawl collections suggest that the Terrace supports a unique bottom community of invertebrates rarely found elsewhere in the Strait of Florida. | <urn:uuid:97ee711f-194f-4b84-96af-2cbd124d340a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/05deepcorals/background/habitat_differences/habitats.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00198-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933693 | 1,771 | 3.734375 | 4 |
At some point, engineering professor Brianno Coller realized he didn't like slogging through dry math problems as an instructor any more than he had as a student. So he thought about what could liven things up — animation! interactivity! — and it hit him: video games.The jury is still out on the general effectiveness of video games as active learning tool.
He designed one, and now his third-year students at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb build virtual race cars, complete with roaring engines and screeching tires, that must maneuver an increasingly challenging course. Along the way, they're exposed to computational math, a basic building block of engineering.
"I use games to, in some sense, throw away the textbook," says Coller, 42, who played Lunar Lander and other video games as a kid. "My philosophy is that learning can be a burdensome chore or it can be an interesting journey."
Around the country, pockets of faculty have been adding games to their courses as a way to stimulate learning.
Coller's research, supported by the National Science Foundation, found that students using his video games spent roughly twice as much time doing homework and demonstrated deeper learning compared with students who learned through traditional lectures and textbook. "I got kind of addicted to it, like I would other games," engineering major Alex Raz, 25, says of a game created by Coller called Spumone. "It's like really learning, not like just going through the motions on paper."There are differing schools of thought about whether to do the simulation or the concept first. I sometimes use a deck of playing cards to illustrate price discovery in a competitive market, before a supply-and-demand graph ever goes up.
University of Southern California education professor Richard Clark remains skeptical. "There is no compelling evidence that serious games lead to greater motivation to learn than other instructional programs," he says. Better, he says, to teach the concept, then let students practice in a game-like environment.
[Mercyhurst's Kristan] Wheaton, too, cautions against overselling the value of games. "There's a lot of promise there," he says. "But right now the hype meter is pretty high." | <urn:uuid:d1c83690-5230-4173-bbb9-3137c3b9aac7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://coldspringshops.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397213.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00138-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975631 | 457 | 3.0625 | 3 |
1 Answer | Add Yours
Throughout the allegory of The Pearl, John Steinbeck employs animal imagery to suggest the predator/prey relationships of the Indians with the European conquerors. In addition, because the Indians are so closely connected with the land and the earth, metaphoric comparisons of them to animals are often employed to add to the metaphoric sentiments of the novel.
In Chapter VI, for instance, after Kino and his family retreat to the high rocks in an effort to hide from their pursurers, Kino realizes that he must defend his family. So he goes out into the dark in order to get to the man with the gun who watches over the two other men who sleep curled like dogs, animal of prey, certainly. Kino "edged like a slow lizard down the smooth rock shoulder." After he leaves, Juana creeps to the entrance and looks out. "She peered like an owl from the hole in the mountain...." and she prays for her husband summoning spirits, too, to protect Kino against the "black unhuman things."
Certainly, the animal imagery heightens the danger of the situation in Chapter Vi as well as figuratively describing the relationships and their meanings in Steinbeck's "parable."
We’ve answered 328,297 questions. We can answer yours, too.Ask a question | <urn:uuid:4ffcd0cf-21df-4b6b-9e30-afd854507a82> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-two-animals-similes-used-describe-kino-juana-304367 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404405.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00127-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961828 | 273 | 3.140625 | 3 |
You who have iman! remember Allah much, and glorify Him in the morning and the evening. (Surat al-Ahzab, 41-42)
In the Qur'an, features of morality are the same for men and women
The superior morality of Muslim women differ than that of the common females in the societies where Qur’anic morality is not practiced. This is because women -who live in the societies where Qur’anic morality is not practiced- share a common character that is instructed to them by the society and that passes on from one generation to the other. In that kind of societies, there are different characteristic features determined for men and women.
However, in the Holy Qur’an, Allah does not announce two different characters as men and women; instead, He calls everyone to follow “a single Muslim character”. According to Qur’anic morality, men and women have the same responsibilities. In this character, women are responsible for all the characteristic features that men are obliged to perform. Each person doing good deeds will be granted with Allah’s blessing and His will; no matter what their sexuality is. In a Qur’anic verse, Allah announces the common Islamic morality both Muslim women and Muslim men are obliged to live:
Men and women who are Muslims, men and women who are believers, men and women who are obedient, men and women who are truthful, men and women who are steadfast, men and women who are humble, men and women who give charity, men and women who fast, men and women who guard their chastity, men and women who remember Allah much: Allah has prepared forgiveness for them and an immense reward. (Surat al-Ahzab, 35)
As Our Lord announces, according to Qur’anic morality, the character of women and men is not based on the society’s values or its traditions; yet it is based on “the ideal morals of Islam” announced in the Quran. Muslim women and men practicing this morality have a very strong and sedate personality. Besides, the most important of all, they live this personality not for the sake of gaining superiority upon people but for the sake of attaining Allah’s will and love. The reward for the believers who truly practice this sense of morality is announced in the Quran:
Anyone, male or female, who does right actions and is a believer, will enter the Garden. They will not be wronged by so much as the tiniest speck. (Surat An-Nisa, 124)
The Microscopic living being that forms the oil fields: Diatom
Diatoms are a major group of algae and are one of the most common types of phytoplantktons. These algae of microscopic dimensions are the fundamental nutrient of many living beings. They have major vital functions from the production of oxygen to the formation of oil, which is a very important source of energy.
Diatoms are the algae that generally live in water and are the organisms that carry out photosynthesis to acquire energy. There are approximately 10 thousand of these tiny organisms the biggest of which has a diameter of 1 mm in 1 cc sea water. Although these organisms make up 90 percent of living beings in oceans not all diatoms live in water. Some of them live on soil, attached to moss, on trees and even on brick walls if there is sufficient moisture. Diatoms can exist anywhere where there is water, carbon dioxide and nutrients, and they are an essential part of life on earth.
Some of the enormous features of these micro beings are as follows:
Why diatoms are so important for life?
Oxygen production: Diatoms have vital importance for almost all living beings since they produce some of the oxygen needed by all living beings by means of photosynthesis. These miraculous beings that work like oxygen fabrics has a very detailed mechanism. They have many pores on their surface that enable gas exchange. The total output of gas exchange of trillions of diatoms ensure the build-up of oxygen production very much above their own needs. Such great amounts of oxygen make an important contribution to the oxygen rate in the atmosphere.
Diatoms’ Contribution to the nutrient chain: Diatoms have an important role in the nutrient chain in oceans. They are the fundamental sources of nutrients of zooplanktons which are consumed by species like herrings that are the primary food source of bigger animals in oceans.
Filtering Function: These micro beings can also be used in the industrial field for filtering and insulating various materials. Diatoms are particularly efficient in making especially silica, nitrate and phosphate usable for living beings. Even under certain circumstances they can be used to disinfect contaminated water.
D Vitamin source of people: Diatoms is a primary food source for many marine animals like fish and whales. As is known fish oil is a precious nutrient for the development of human body. Diatoms also provide the D vitamin in fish oil. Allah creates this tiny being as a food for fish which in return becomes very beneficial for human beings.
The role of diatoms in oil production: The food of diatoms themselves is also very important. These living beings keep their food in the form of fat particles they produce by means of photosynthesis in their cells. These tiny fat particles congregate in time and form the oil beds under the influence of geological and biological forces. A great part of oil we use today originate from the diatoms which died under sunlight in prehistoric oceans.
Diatomite’s are used for industrial purposes: Diatoms have an ideal filter structure with its light weight and pores which enable it to be used in space industry. This aside they are used in a wide range of fields from the production of acaricidcs to paints fills.
The existence of such enormous details reveal perfection in Allah’s artistry. Such attributes of living beings are each instrumental in making us grasp Allah’s infinite might. In one verse Allah relates thus:
You who have faith! have fear of Allah and seek the means of drawing near to Him; (Surat al-Ma’ida, 35)
Anas relates: "The Messenger of Allah (saas) said:
"Before the Day of Reckoning there will be fitna like parts of the darkness of night. (AT THAT TIME) A PERSON WILL SEE THE MORNING IN AS A BELIEVER BUT WILL BE AN UNBELIEVER BY THE EVENING. HE WILL SEE THE EVENING IN AS A BELIEVER BUT WILL BE AN UNBELIEVER BY THE MORNING. MANY PEOPLE WILL SELL THEIR RELIGIONS FOR A PALTRY WORLDLY GAIN." (Tirmidhi, Fitan 30, (2196).
People will live in such a time that, IN THAT TIME, HAVING FORTITUDE IN RELIGION WILL BE AS HARD AS HOLDING FIRE IN ONE’S HAND. Because in that time believers (will be exposed to such insults that they will be less esteemed than sheep or goats. MANY PEOPLE WILL BE UNABLE TO WITHSTAND THIS DEFAMATION AND PRESSURE. THE WEAK WILL SUFFER LOSSES AND SELL THE RELIGION AND SACRED MATTERS FOR A PALTRY WORLDLY GAIN. The course of day and night will bring in such an age that one will rise and ask, “who will sell his faith (and sacred matters) to us for a platry gain?” That question is not in vain. Many will sell their religions for a very small worldly possession.
Abu Umayya ash-Sha'bani relates:
"Cling to the lawful and avoid the unlawful! Whenever you see an act of parsimony followed, an act of whim obeyed, earthly gain preferred (over religion and Hereafter), when you witness opinion holders being satisfied with their own opinions (without listening to those who went before), then look at yourself. Cease to deal with people. Because (when you reach that stage) the days of fortitude will be behind you. Those days will be troubles, like holding fire in your hands. In those days, people capable of good deeds such as yours will receive the reward of fifty people." (Abu Dawud, al-Malahim 17, (4341); Tirmidhi, Tafsir, Mâide, (3060); Ibn Majah, Fitan 21, (401)
Age: 1.8 million to 11,000 years old
Location: LA Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles, California
This insect, no different from those living today, is evidence that all living beings have been created.
Our Prophet (saas) is a blessed person to whom Allah (God) revealed the Qur’an, the last righteous Book, and made an example to humanity with his moral perfection, taqwa and closeness to Allah. Our Prophet (saas) fulfilled the great responsibility he was given in the best way possible, summoned people to Allah’s path and became the one who guided all believers to Allah’s path. As is known, All-Mighty Allah supported our Prophet (saas) with many miracles from His Sight. Our purpose in this book is to remind people of some of the miracles Allah granted to our blessed Prophet (saas) He made exemplary to all people with his superior morality, profound faith and all his manners and words. By Allah’s leave, throughout his life, our Prophet (saas) showed many miracles to people. Some of these miracles were witnessed only by his followers while some others by a great majority of unbelievers. Some of the miracles of our Prophet (saas) are conveyed in the Qur’an while some others in our Prophet’s (saas) sayings and in various explanations of Islamic scholars. Our purpose is to show our blessed Prophet’s (saas) miraculous aspects to people and to summon them to make the Qur’an and our Prophet’s (saas) Sunnah a guide to themselves. | <urn:uuid:76a0d00e-fbc4-435e-99ba-8c758baaaf76> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.harunyahya.com/en/works/43684/Ramadan-2011---The-11th-Day | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00142-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948762 | 2,107 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Noah shows the Bible is still relevant, say biblical scholars
The Hollywood epic Noah set for release later this month has been causing controversy ever since it began production.
Many Christian and Jewish faith communities have expressed concern about the film's ability to stay true to the original Scriptures, and some have therefore criticised its integrity.
Christian Today discussed the ongoing debate with two biblical scholars, who each contend that Hollywood's portrayal of Noah may well take some liberties from the original text, but that it will also open up conversation about the enduring significance of the Bible in contemporary culture.
"No Bible movie, no matter how 'faithful' to the biblical story it tries, or claims, to be, can truly be accurate," explains Dr Adele Reinhartz of the University of Ottowa, who specialises in the impact of the Bible on popular cinema and television.
"The translation of the story from a literary medium to a cinematic medium means that filmmakers will have to exercise their imagination: how did people look and sound? What did the surroundings look like?
"Obviously Noah and his family did not speak English! And in the case of the flood story there are two versions of the same story included in the Bible itself, yet a film can generally only choose one, which, in turn, means it is not being entirely faithful to the original text.
"Although many viewers hold Bible movies to a standard of accuracy, I think this is inappropriate. All works of historical fiction, including films that base themselves on biblical or historical events, must rewrite history to some extent in order to turn it into cinema."
Dr Katie Edwards, lecturer in the Bible and Contemporary Culture and Society at the University of Sheffield agrees: "The biblical story [of Noah] isn't very long; you'd struggle to make a Hollywood epic out of it if you don't extrapolate on it or add a few details, but clearly the flood story is already controversial because of the fact or fiction debate surrounding it."
This controversy has kept Noah at the forefront of a heated conversation about the power of the Biblical narrative and its place within an increasingly secular culture.
Dr Reinhartz believes that although Western culture is indeed "highly" secular, the Bible remains "an important cultural touchstone" as a result of its key role in our cultural history, regardless of how many of the population now identify with the Christian faith.
Dr Edwards concurs, noting that "popular culture is engaging with biblical texts and biblical iconography all the time". She has written extensively on the role of biblical imagery in advertising, with particular emphasis on the use of Eve and Mary, which she contends is prevalent in post-modern advertising from high fashion to perfume ads.
The Bible, she says, has an influence on much of our culture, irrespective of whether we are aware of it or not.
"I'm really quite unsurprised by another Bible epic. If anything, I'm surprised that one hasn't already been done in the time since the Passion of the Christ," she adds.
Dr Edwards also contends that Noah will go some way to addressing and connecting with the ongoing debate surrounding Biblical literacy.
"Every year there's some kind of controversy about biblical literacy – last year it was RE teachers not knowing enough about the Bible and this year it's children – and I think that's part of a bigger discourse," she says.
"It feeds into anxieties about Christianity as well as biblical literacy itself. I think there's a much bigger debate that surrounds that, but I also think we have a tendency to buy into the mainstream idea that Bible literacy is in decline and no one cares about it, and then Hollywood makes an epic which underlines that view in itself."
In Dr Edwards' view, Biblical literacy is an umbrella term and while everyone jumps into the debate on it, there are lots of different ideas about what it actually is and what it should be.
"I think that's an important part of this debate, to be really clear about what exactly is in decline," she says.
"From my research, interest in the Bible and use of the Bible isn't in decline at all, it's prevalent. But there are different levels of literacy, and they might not be in the package that you expect or want them to be. That's the issue with the Noah film.
"I do think there's a much bigger conversation to be had, and the thing about Noah is that it forces that conversation to be had - it's an impetus for it."
Noah is set for release in the US on 28 March and 4 April in the UK. | <urn:uuid:cd14e7a4-3f8c-4060-b830-02725fdede46> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.christiantoday.com/article/noah.shows.the.bible.is.still.relevant.say.biblical.scholars/36117.htm?email=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398075.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00026-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97471 | 938 | 2.609375 | 3 |
13. Cirsium engelmannii Rydberg, Fl. Rocky Mts. 1069. 1917.
Blackland or Engelmann’s thistle
Cirsium virginianum (Linnaeus) Michaux var. filipendulum A. Gray, Manual ed. 2, 233. 1856, not C. filipendulum Lange 1861; C. terrae-nigrae Shinners
Biennials or monocarpic perennials, 40–200 cm; taproots and clusters of coarse fibrous roots that often have tuberlike thickenings. Stems single, erect, often branched above middle, thinly arachnoid-tomentose, ± glabrate; branches few, ascending. Leaves: blades elliptic or ovate, 5–20 × 1–10 cm, usually deeply pinnatifid, lobes narrowly to broadly triangular, sinuses broad, rounded (basal and distal cauline sometimes less divided, lobes linear-lanceolate), margins revolute, spreading, entire or spinulose to remotely few-toothed or sharply lobed, main spines slender, 1–5 mm, abaxial faces white-tomentose, adaxial green, villous with septate trichomes or glabrate; basal usually absent at flowering, winged-petiolate, bases tapered; principal cauline well distributed, gradually reduced, bases narrowed, sometimes weakly clasping; distal reduced, widely separated, distalmost bractlike. Heads 1–10+, borne at tips of main stem and branches. Peduncles 2–20+ cm, essentially naked with much reduced bracts. Involucres ovoid to broadly cylindric or campanulate, 2.5–3.5 × 2–3 cm, thinly arachnoid. Phyllaries in 10–12 series, strongly imbricate, greenish with subapical darker central zone, ovate (outer) to lanceolate (inner), abaxial faces with narrow glutinous ridge; outer and middle entire, bodies appressed, spines abruptly spreading to deflexed, slender, 2–4 mm; apices of inner phyllaries narrow, flexuous, flattened, entire or finely erose. Corollas pink to purple (white), 32–38 mm, tubes 15–20 mm, throats 6–9 mm, lobes 8–11 mm; style tips 5–6 mm. Cypselae brown, 5–6 mm, apical collars yellow, ca. 1 mm; pappi 25–30 mm. 2n = 18 (as C. terrae-nigrae), 20 + 1B.
Flowering spring–summer (May–Jul). Tallgrass prairies, old fields, roadsides, oak savannas, forest edges, in calcareous clay or rarely sandy soils; 50–200 m; La., Okla., Tex.
Cirsium engelmannii occurs mostly in the blackland prairies of eastern Texas. It ranges northward into southeastern Oklahoma and eastward to northwestern Arkansas. | <urn:uuid:2ec3f17b-7c30-47dc-b3dc-d96c0bff676d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=250066370 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00192-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.821998 | 663 | 2.515625 | 3 |
6 August 2010 Standing shoulder to shoulder with survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima, a deeply moved Secretary-General on Friday paid respect to all those who perished there 65 years ago and stressed that the time has come to realize the dream of a world free of nuclear weapons.
“A more peaceful world can be ours,” Ban Ki-moon said in remarks to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony held in Japan.
Mr. Ban, the first UN Secretary-General to take part in the ceremony, was one year old when the atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, resulting in the deaths of more than 200,000 people.
More than 400,000 more people have died – and are continuing to die – since the end of the Second World War from the impacts of those bombs.
“Only later in life could I begin to understand the full dimension of all that happened here,” said the UN chief.
Mr. Ban has made nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation a top priority, and put forward a five-point plan in 2008 that includes recommendations on increasing security, verification, establishing a legal framework for nuclear disarmament, transparency and conventional weapons.
“Our moment has come,” he said, noting recent progress on the issue, including new leadership from the most powerful nations, new engagement in the Security Council, and new energy from civil society.
At the same time, it is vital to keep up the momentum, he said, adding that he will convene a Conference on Disarmament in New York in September, where he will push for negotiations towards nuclear disarmament.
He also highlighted the need for disarmament education in schools, including translating the testimonies of the survivors in the world's major languages, as well as teaching that “status and prestige belong not to those who possess nuclear weapons, but to those who reject them.”
The Secretary-General arrived in Hiroshima after spending what he described as “a profoundly moving day” in Nagasaki, where he toured the Atomic Bomb Museum and met with a number of survivors. He also laid a wreath at the monument located at ground zero, and visited a separate memorial for Korean victims.
He said his visit to Nagasaki had strengthened his conviction that nuclear weapons must be outlawed, and he urged all nations to support his five-point action plan and agree to negotiate a nuclear weapons convention at the earliest possible date.
“Together, we are on a journey from ground zero to Global Zero – a world free of weapons of mass destruction. That is the only sane path to a safer world?
“Let us realize our dream of a world free of nuclear weapons so that our children and all succeeding generations can live in freedom, security and peace,” Mr. Ban stated.
In both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he met with hibakusha, or victims of the bombings.
The Secretary-General told reporters in Hiroshima that those meetings “have strengthened my determination to work even harder” to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.
“The suffering was unimaginable and the courage and fortitude had been extraordinary,” he said, describing their devotion to ridding the world of the weapons as inspirational.
Mr. Ban also stressed today in remarks at a welcome ceremony in Hiroshima that abolishing nuclear weapons is “more than our common dream; it is common sense policy.”
There have been some encouraging new commitments made by the world’s nuclear powers, he said, including the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) reached by the United States and Russia, under which they pledged to cut back on their stockpiles by a third.
The Secretary-General also pointed to progress made at both the high-level Washington Summit on Nuclear Security and the recent review conference of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) held at the United Nations.
“Above all,” he said, there has been a “rising chorus of conscience from civil society,” such as the Mayors for Peace movement, bringing together more than 4,000 mayors from around the world, as well as representatives of the world’s religions, lawyers, doctors, environmentalists, labour leaders, women, human rights activists, parliamentarians and others.
“Even former military officials are speaking out: statesmen once responsible for nuclear weapons policies,” Mr. Ban noted.
While governments bear the primary responsibility for peace, he also underscored the key role that business can play in an address to the Global Compact Network.
A company’s investment and employment decisions, its relations with communities, and its actions on the environment and security “can create or exacerbate the tensions that fuel conflict… or they can help a country remain at peace,” he emphasized.
News Tracker: past stories on this issue | <urn:uuid:9fad927f-217a-4f6e-bd24-dd535c57370a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35546&Cr=Hiroshima&Cr1= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404405.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00094-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958607 | 1,004 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Dissemination of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium var. Copenhagen clonal types through Contract Heifer Raising Operation
Posted: December 4, 2005
In June of 1998, a heifer raising operation in Pennsylvania with recurrent problems associated with calf mortality sought the assistance of the Field Investigation Group at Pennsylvania State University to address the issue.
Beginning of August of 1998, the veterinarians attending the heifer raising operation and 18 dairy herds that received heifers from the heifer raising operation were asked to submit samples (fecal and tissue samples) for bacteriological analysis from all clinical cases suggestive of Salmonellosis. Between September 1998 and October 2000, samples from of 324 calves, heifers and lactating cattle from the heifer raising operation and 11 dairy herds were cultured for Salmonella using the protocol followed by Pennsylvania Animal Diagnostic Laboratory for isolation and identification of Salmonella. Salmonella isolates were serotyped at the National Veterinary Services Laboratory, Ames, Iowa.
A total of 62 Salmonella isolates belonging to 6 serotypes including S. Typhimurium, S. Typhimurium var Copenhagen, S. Muenchen, S. Newport, S. Heidelberg, and S. Montevideo were isolated. Salmonella Typhimurium var Cophenhagen (STC) accounted for 42 of the 62 (68%) Salmonella isolates.
These isolates have been previously isolated from calves, heifers and lactating cows in Pennsylvania. Statistical analysis showed that on the dairy farm, the likelihood of isolating STC from a sick heifer was 2.6 fold higher than from sick calves. With regard to STC, the likelihood of isolating STC from calves on the heifer raising operation was 5.3 fold higher than from heifers, while on the dairy farm STC was more likely (2.3 fold higher) to be isolated from heifers than from calves.
Transition of animals from one environment to another (e.g., dairy farm to heifer raising operation and vice-versa), change in nutrition (protein and energy content), and interaction with other animals (access to stall, and water and feed troughs) in the cohort could result in a cascade of events that could induce stress making the animal more susceptible to infectious diseases.
These sets of complex interactions could perhaps explain the higher Salmonella infection rates of calves that were transferred to the heifer raising operation and in heifers that returned to their dairy herds. An indepth genetic analysis based on DNA fingerprinting revealed that STC isolates shared similar genetic profiles.
Contract heifer raising requires meticulous planning and implementation of rigorous biosecurity practices. Biosecurity deals with management practices that protect the herd from entry of new diseases and minimize the spread and/or adverse effects of diseases in the herd. A contract heifer raising operation acquires calves from several farms that are co-mingled. This is the single most important risk factor for introduction of new diseases on the premises.
More importantly, the organisms may leave the premise, healthy heifers serving as vehicles. Biosecurity is one of the major issues facing professional heifer growers who have multiple clients. Most contract raising operations include biosecurity practices to address brucellosis, persistent bovine viral diarrhea disease and Johne’s disease. Based on the findings of our study it is felt biosecurity practices focused on prevention and control of enteric pathogens yet remain to be addressed adequately.
In summary, Salmonella Typhimurium var. Copenhagen isolates from a heifer raising operation and 11 dairy herds that contracted their calves to the heifer raising operation were examined for their characteristics. Results of the study showed that the heifer raising operation could serve as a clearing house of S. Typhimurium var Copenhagen and perhaps other Salmonella serotypes.Bhushan Jayarao and David Wolfgang, Veterinary Science Extension | <urn:uuid:438c2b1e-823d-4f16-af10-89ae1c9f28f5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://extension.psu.edu/animals/dairy/news/2005/dissemination-of-salmonella-enterica-subsp.-enterica-serovar-typhimurium-var.-copenhagen-clonal-types-through-contract-heifer-raising-operation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397213.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00200-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941368 | 829 | 2.625 | 3 |
News-Antique.com - Nov 30,-0001 - Blown glass orbs coated on the inside with a mysterious silvering liquid first appeared in the late 17th century, but mercury glass as we know it was first made around 1840. Appearing almost simultaneously in Bohemia, England and the U.S., it created an instant sensation.
Author Diane Lytwyn writes,"Created in a wide variety of shapes and styles, silvered mercury glass was crafted into beakers, compotes, curtain tie-backs, figures, gazing globes, goblets, pitchers, salts, tableware and vases. Many pieces were subject to an astonishing variety of decorating techniques, including hand painting, acid-vapor matting, enameling, etching, engraving, overlay casing cut to silver and even the application of glass “jewels.” Mercury glass can be colorful and elegant or simple and austere, depending on the maker, and collectors may focus on a particular shape or decorative style.
"For most collectors, mercury glass made in Bohemia is most often found since great quantities were produced there from about 1840 to at least 1920. Silvered glass was made in the United States for about 30 years, from approximately1851 to around 1880. The production of English silvered glass, however, lasted only about six years, from 1849 to 1855, and examples are difficult to find. Edward Varnish and Fredrick Hale Thomson of England were granted a joint patent for silvering glass, issued in 1849. These signed pieces are extremely rare, and therefore, highly sought after."
Read a sensational article about this mysterious glass on Southeastern Antiquing Magazine’s website at www.go-star.com/antiquing. | <urn:uuid:a7861ac7-4ba9-4add-943c-10975d968540> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://news-antique.com/?id=781680&keys=mercury-glass | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00078-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963646 | 362 | 2.828125 | 3 |
A branch of medicine dealing with disorders of the endocrine system and its specific secretions called hormones. Hormones are molecules that act as signals from one type of cells to another. Most hormones reach their targets via the blood. Although every organ system secretes and responds to hormones (including the brain, lungs, heart, intestine, skin, and the kidney), the clinical specialty of endocrinology focuses primarily on the endocrine organs, meaning the organs whose primary function is hormone secretion. These organs include the pituitary, thyroid, adrenals, ovaries and testes, and pancreas. | <urn:uuid:e0f95fc6-900f-4079-8d8b-0d65fb5aa738> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.frendo.us/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00147-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937781 | 122 | 3.140625 | 3 |
|Bible Research > Bible Quiz|
This test is designed for Bible teachers who want to get an idea of how much their students know about the Bible. Print it out and ask your students to write in the answers without looking at their Bibles. An answer sheet is provided, together with Scripture references where appropriate.
1. Name the four Gospels.
2. What is the longest book in the Bible?
3. Who wrote the Acts of the Apostles?
4. Which book says, "The wages of sin is death"?
5. How many people were on Noah's Ark?
6. What is the Golden Rule?
7. Put in chronological order: Daniel, Noah, Paul, Moses and David.
8. How many books are there in the Bible?
9. Who were the first two people?
10. Name the Ten Commandments.
11. Angels are: ghosts of dead people, children who died in infancy, genies, or invisible beings created by God?
12. Who was the brother of Jacob?
13. Who wrote Psalm 23?
14. Name three of Jesus' parables.
15. How many epistles were written by John?
16. Was Luke: a fisherman, an apostle, a doctor or a shepherd?
17. Which tribe did Moses belong to?
18. Is Daniel in the Old or the New Testament?
19. In what language was the New Testament written?
20. Faith is: a leap into the dark, trust in what God says, believing in something you know isn't true, or a religious feeling?
21. Who said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive"?
22. True or false: The apostles James and John were brothers.
23. Who were the three patriarchs?
24. Put in chronological order: Temple, Church, Tower of Babel, Tabernacle.
25. What did Jesus say were the two greatest commandments?
26. Name the first three kings of Israel.
27. Is Santa Claus in the Bible?
28. Give the name of at least one angel.
29. Who wrote the Book of Deuteronomy?
30. Did Jesus feed 4,000 or 5,000 people with the loaves and fishes?
31. How many Minor Prophets are there?
32. Which book says, "I am the resurrection and the life"?
33. Was Matthew: a carpenter, a centurion, a tax collector, or a priest?
34. Which Gospel records Jesus turning water into wine?
35. Is the Book of Hezekiah in the Old or the New Testament?
36. Name the twelve tribes of Israel.
37. Who was the oldest person in the Bible?
38. A saint is: a sinless person, an apostle, a pope, a Christian, an angel?
39. What is the longest chapter in the Bible?
40. Name the Five Books of Moses.
41. Who wrote the Book of Revelation?
42. Give three names or titles for Satan.
43. What kind of meat was eaten at the Passover?
44. Hallelujah means: I believe, hosanna, wow, praise the Lord, or amen?
45. Which book tells us the life of Samson?
46. What was the first language that Scripture was translated into?
47. What is the shortest verse in the Bible?
48. Name the twelve apostles.
49. Put in chronological order: the Crucifixion, the Flood, the Babylonian Captivity, and the Exodus.
50. Name someone who went to Heaven without dying.
51. Who will be raised from the dead: all men, Christians only, or angels?
52. True or false: We are saved by being baptized in water.
53. Name the Books of the New Testament.
54. Will we see God in Heaven?
55. Original Sin means: demon possession, Adam and Eve having sex, Eve eating the Forbidden Fruit, or our inheriting Adam's Sin?
56. Name three of Christ's miracles.
57. Which book says, "Spare the rod and spoil the child"?
58. In what language was the Old Testament written?
59. Is the Book of Hebrews in the Old or the New Testament?
60. Put in chronological order the nations that held Israel captive: Greece, Egypt, Babylon, Rome, Assyria, and Persia.
61. Christ means: Master, High Priest, Annointed, Savior, Lord, or Redeemer?
62. True or false: God will save someone if he has more good works than sins.
63. Where are the 10 Commandments located in the Bible?
64. Who wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes?
65. Which book says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth"?
66. Which tribe of Israel did Jesus belong to?
67. Name 3 of Israel's feasts or festivals.
68. Who was the greatest man before Jesus: David, Abraham, Solomon, John the Baptist, Moses or Adam?
69. Which book mentions the handwriting on the wall?
70. Who was the Emperor of Rome when Jesus was born: Herod, Caesar Augustus, Pilate, Nero, or Julius Caesar?
71. True or false: Moses led Israel into the Promised Land.
72. Being born again means: reincarnation, regeneration, redemption, or restitution?
73. Which book says, "God helps those who help themselves"?
74. Quote a Bible verse that proves Jesus is God.
75. Which Gospel mentions the Star of Bethlehem?
76. Was David: a prophet, a shepherd, a soldier, a musician, or a king?
77. What is the "New Jerusalem"?
78. What are the three divisions of the Old Testament?
79. Election means: God chose only some people to be saved, our parents dedicated us to God, or God chose those He knew would believe in Jesus?
80. Does the Bible contain many, a few, or no errors at all?
81. Is the Book of Enoch in the Old or the New Testament?
82. Put in chronological order: Jeremiah, Elijah, Samuel, Peter, Isaiah.
83. Church means: Temple, Christian building, called-out assembly, or nation?
84. Quote a Bible verse that teaches justification by faith alone.
85. Which is the greatest: hope, love or faith?
86. Which Gospel has the Parable of the Good Samaritan?
87. Hell is: a real place, a myth, here on Earth, Purgatory, or nowhere?
88. Put in chronological order: Sarah, Ruth, Mary, Eve, and Esther.
89. Which book says, "I am the Good Shepherd"?
90. Who could enter the Holy of Holies: the pope, Moses, a priest, an apostle, the High Priest, only angels?
91. Paul says we are justified by: faith, good works, or faith and good works?
92. What is the Pentateuch?
93. Which Gospel records the Parable of the Prodigal Son?
94. Where is it written, "Wives, submit to your husbands. Husbands, love your wives"?
95. Demons are: goblins, fallen angels, ghosts of dead people, or myths?
96. Who was Jesus' mother?
97. Which book says: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved"?
98. Whose wife was Jezebel?
99. Who baptized Jesus?
100. Quote a verse that teaches the doctrine of the Trinity.
|Bible Research > Bible Quiz| | <urn:uuid:78f998bd-7523-47d5-9e07-36cba8346963> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bible-researcher.com/quiz1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399106.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00104-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927859 | 1,633 | 3.265625 | 3 |
As they reach the surface one at a time, entering into the warm embrace of family and friends, the miners leave behind the darkness and isolation of the past 69 days in a Chilean mine. But they won't return to life as they once knew it.
The 33 men will be under the watchful eye of doctors and medical specialists who will study them for any signs of mental or physical stress, as the world looks on. Mind you, the results of their experience deep underground won't all be negative to their health.
Dehydration and lack of sunlight
The miners were trapped in stifling heat, without any sunlight. They worked with a trainer to keep fit with exercise, and one miner reportedly ran each day through the winding shafts of the mine. But doctors wonder if that was enough.
Marc Siegel, an associate professor of medicine at the NYU Langone Medical Center, said a lot of them were likely running on adrenaline during the rescue effort. But when fatigue catches up, dehydration can exasperate other health problems and cause damage to internal organs, such as the kidneys, the liver and the brain. "I don't know the exact details of how much fluid they got, but they clearly had to be dehydrated," Dr. Siegel said. "The chances that they got enough hydration, it's not possible."
Dehydration, coupled with a lack of sunlight, could potentially cause problems with muscles, bones and other organs. Jane Aubin, scientific director of the Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis at the Canadian Institute for Health Research, said the miners will have to be monitored closely. "They haven't been as physically active as you would want to be, so they have undoubtedly experienced some muscle loss. Probably after that extended period of time, in both a confined space and in relative darkness, they've also probably experienced some bone loss," she said.
Exposure to poor air quality
Even the physically fit can't help but feel the negative effects of being trapped underground for two months. Doctors worry about air quality and the effect it has had on the lungs of the 33 men. "Was there methane gas? Was there carbon monoxide? Were there any other toxic chemicals?" asked Dr. Siegel. "That all going to have to be screened for very carefully."
It didn't appear the miners were suffering as they were pulled to the surface. And Dr. Siegel said that if anything, he doesn't believe that their bodies will experience any permanent damage from the air quality in the mine.
Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder
Sleep disturbances, anxiety attacks and nightmares will become all too common in the days after being lifted from the mine. The miners will receive counselling. But symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder may disappear for a while, only to be triggered in a few months when one of the men enters a dark room or a mine, for example. That could set off anxiety and phobic reactions, even for a miner who is seen as physically fit and psychologically strong.
Nick Kanas, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, who has studied the psychology of astronauts, said that critical evaluations need to be conducted on the miners over a long period of time. "They should be evaluated carefully for that because it can appear immediately or even weeks or months after that," Dr. Kanas said.
Returning home and fame
Research has shown that men who leave their families behind to go off on tour have trouble reinserting themselves back into the family unit. That, in many cases, has resulted in depression. Dr. Kanas said that care needs to be take to re-integrate these miners, and "to get them back into things in a slow way, without a lot of heavy intrusion from the media or politicians."
International fame needs to be balanced, as well. Too much stimulation can be stressful, doctors say. "Fame and glory is not easy even for people who are used to it. It can be fun, but it can be stressful. Moderation has to be the key here," Dr. Kanas said.
For the miners, life underground has not been all negative to their well-being. Their struggle in a highly challenging environment will likely increase their self-confidence and strengthen bonds with each other and with their families.
"When people are deprived ... it can be really adverse, it can really mess up a person. With these guys, they were together," said Charles Nelson, a psychologist with the operational-stress-injury clinic at Parkwood Hospital in London, Ont.
Peter Suedfeld, a professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia, said many, especially the veterans, won't have trouble returning to their jobs in time.
"People in other occupations who have a parallel disastrous experience, like sailors who have been shipwrecked, for example, if they are professional sailors with a lot of experience, many of them go back to sea," he said. "So they'll feel that they can cope with anything that comes up."Report Typo/Error | <urn:uuid:3fb1616d-cad5-4233-be0d-4ade4f5332da> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/as-the-rescue-unfolds-in-chile-the-hard-work-begins-above-ground/article1214851/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391766.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00034-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978259 | 1,041 | 3.125 | 3 |
At Oberlin, Ohio on May 24, 1893 a new American temperance organization was formed. The organization was to work for unification of public anti-alcohol sentiment, enforcement of existing temperance laws, and enactment of further anti-alcohol legislation. A resolution was passed to elect the Rev. Howard Hyde Russell state superintendent of this new organization - the Ohio Anti-Saloon League.
The same year, a similar organization was founded in the nation's capital. These two organizations formed the nucleus for the National Anti-Saloon League which was officially founded on December 18, 1895 in Washington, D.C. The name of this national organization was later changed to Anti-Saloon League of America. Howard Hyde Russell was named as the first superintendent of the national league.
A leader of the League said of his organization, "It has not come...simply to build a little local sentiment or to secure the passage of a few laws, or yet to vote the saloons from a few hundred towns. These are mere incidents in its progress. It has come to solve the liquor problem." Its motto was "The saloon must go."
The leadership had definite ideas of how this was to be accomplished. They used local churches as the vehicles to carry their message to the people and solicit the funds to run the attack on the nation's saloons. They were interdenominational.
The church in action against the saloon.
Ernest Cherrington in writing about the history of the League said that " the movement was dependent upon the church, first of all, for financial support. It was also dependent upon the church for the necessary influence and power to turn the tide..."
The League also was committed to working through the two party system with a nonpartisan approach. It chose to put its efforts into getting individual politicians elected who supported its cause. If both candidates for public office supported the anti-alcohol or dry cause the league would not get involved in the race. If one candidate were dry and the other wet the League would throw its power and influence into defeating the wet candidate. If both candidates were wet it would attempt to find its own dry candidate to run on one party ticket in the primary.
Initially the League chose to use local option as the tool to make the country dry rather than pushing for national prohibition. It would sway the country precinct by precinct.
9 a.m. - 9 p.m.
9 a.m. - 6 p.m.
9 a.m. - 6 p.m.
1 p.m. - 6 p.m. | <urn:uuid:438c2024-aafd-4a10-9fc8-8120f11b7005> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://westervillelibrary.org/antisaloon-history-saloon | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408840.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00133-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982018 | 526 | 3.140625 | 3 |
We would like the Tricki to become a 'living' resource, with lots of participation from the mathematical community. This participation may come in one of several forms, including authoring articles or setting up navigation pages. Another way to contribute is by helping articles to develop by commenting on them. Something that is clear to one person may very well not be clear to another, so if you find yourself unable to understand something that is written in an article, then you should feel free to comment on it, asking for clarification. Or perhaps you may want to suggest that an article should be restructured; you can do so by adding a comment. Commenting allows you to interact with content without actually editing any articles, and is fairly unobtrusive. This page contains information on how you can go about adding comments.
Adding comments: standard and inline
The first thing to notice is that there are two kinds of comments on the Tricki: comments at the end of an article and inline comments. Comments at the end of an article will most likely be familiar to you if you have visited blog sites. To add one of these, simply scroll down to the bottom of the page, type in a subject-line for your comment, the comment itself, and click "Save". (If you are not logged in, the site may ask you to verify that you are human in order to cut down on spam submissions.) This comment will then appear at the bottom of the article.
While ordinary comments may be useful on occasion, we strongly encourage the use of inline comments, which are comments that will appear in the article itself. To add one of these, click on the text "Turn commenting on" in the Tricki toolbar at the bottom of the browser window. (If this text does not appear, it means that you cannot add an inline comment to the page.) When inline commenting is switched on and you move your mouse cursor over sections of the article, these sections will be highlighted, allowing you to click on them. If you click on a section, a form similar to the one at the bottom of the page will appear, allowing you to submit a comment. This comment will then be added to the article in such a way that the symbol ◊ will be displayed directly after the section on which you clicked. Clicking on this symbol will display any comments associated with the preceding section.
Hiding inline comment traces
If you find the inline comment symbols distracting while reading an article, you can click on the "Hide inline comment markers" link in the Tricki toolbar at the bottom of the page to hide them. Should you wish to read only the comments that were made at the bottom of the article, and not the inline ones, then you can click on the link to "Hide inline comments". | <urn:uuid:720086dd-f39f-4624-8fda-6d7ec17d4be1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.tricki.org/tricki/help/commenting | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397842.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00171-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929839 | 563 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Vegetables crops are grouped into families.
Crop rotation simply means that related annual vegetables are grown together in their families and their positions moved around the plot once a year (or more).
Why Rotate Crops?
There are a number of reasons for doing this:
· It helps to prevent pests and diseases that live in the soil.
For example, two major worries in vegetable growing are clubroot disease in brassica crops (cabbage type plants) and the nematode known as eelworm in potatoes. If the crops are grown in the same place each year, the chances of these problems occurring are much greater. By moving them around annually and only growing them in the same ground every four years of so, the pest and disease lifecycles should be broken.
· It stops the soil becoming drained of nutrients that the same plants would use every year.
· Crops can follow each other that will benefit each other. E.g., bean and pea roots hold lots of nitrogen. If their disease free roots are left in the ground once the crops have been harvested, the brassicas that will follow in the next rotation will reap the rewards by producing lots of leafy greens. Also brassicas like soil that’s consolidated so by leaving the legume roots behind and thus causing little disturbance to the soil, the brassicas that follow will root better.
· If vegetable families are grown together, it’s likely that the soil for each will need to be treated in the same way and that they will be prone to the same pests and diseases so can be treated together easily.
Important Families: (That are likely to be grown outdoors in a cooler climate)
Potato: Potato, tomato
Legumes: Peas, beans
Brassica: Cabbage, broccoli, swede, turnip & radish
Alliums: Onion, garlic, shallot, leek
Others: Carrot, parsnip, parsley, and celery
Anything else can be fitted in such as sweetcorn, squashes, salads etc.
The main rule is to keep families together; if a section is to hold more than one family, try and keep those with similar growing requirements together e.g., potatoes and pumpkins like lots of organic matter.
Using a bed system can make planning a rotation easier. Takes lots of photos too and make notes as it's easy to forget where you grew something a year or to ago!
A Four-Year Rotation
The following is a guideline. You may not want (or need) to follow this rotation at first. However, after a couple of seasons you may start to wonder what can be planted in the gaps. This should help with your planning. It's a popular plan that many people use and has worked well for us.
People Like Bunches of Roses is an acronym I heard recently that may help you to remember the rotation.
Year 1: Potato crops
Year 2: Legumes (peas, beans)
Year 3: Brassicas (cabbage type crops)
Year 4: Root crops/others.
In this four year rotation the potatoes and squashes are planted first (Bed 1) as the potatoes break up the soil nicely. In year 2 the legumes (peas & beans) will be planted in Bed 1 as they will fix nitrogen into the soil for the brassica (cabbages) that will follow. Therefore in year 3 the leafy crops (brassica) will be planted in bed 1 and lastly in year 4 the roots and others can be planted in bed 1 as they are the least demanding of the crops.
You may also find it useful to use a five year rotation, rotating the allium (onion) family separately. Whichever you decide, avoid leaving the soil empty. Either cover it when not in use with carpet or similar or plant a green manure or a crop into it.
Bed 1: (Early, maincrop potatoes, pumpkins, courgettes, and tomatoes)
These are the biggest feeders. In the autumn months (once the root crops have been cleared), apply well-rotted manure or compost or grow a green manure such as grazing rye. In spring, dig in the green manure (grazing rye) and if you didn’t have the opportunity to manure, or have sandy soil, apply manure or compost now, leaving a few weeks between manuring and sowing if you can. After harvesting the potatoes, plant anything from the legume family.
Bed 2: Legume Family (beans, peas, french beans and runner beans)
The Legumes. These fix nitrogen themselves so do not require extra manure. They will benefit from leaf mould mulch once they’ve been planted out however (to improve soil structure). Once harvested, sow a nitrogen fixing green manure such as winter tares, check the soil pH and add lime in the autumn if necessary.
Bed 3: Brassicas (cabbage, swede, turnips, broccoli, and radish)
Leafy veg (brassicas & salads) like to follow peas & beans. Dig in the green manures (winter tares) or add compost (or well-rotted manure) in the spring prior to planting. Mulch with leafmould in the autumn.
Bed 4: Others (carrots, beetroot, parsnips, celery and sweetcorn, onions, garlic, shallots )
Mostly comprises of root crops but miscellaneous crops fit in well here too.
They don’t need much feeding, as they’ll use up everything that’s leftover from previous crops. Apply compost in the spring where alliums, celery, leafbeet and sweetcorn will grow.
Sow a green manure (such as grazing rye) over winter, ready for the potatoes in the spring.
If you only have one small bed, don’t worry. Just divide it into four with a bamboo stick and plant your families in the different squares or rectangles. You may also find for instance, that you plant more alliums (onions) than brassicas. It doesn’t matter. As long as you aim to keep the vegetable families apart for as long as possible, you’ll have done your best.
For a very easy to follow and simple visual explanation check out this great video from Monty Don on Gardeners World. | <urn:uuid:64f50e54-852c-4eb5-be7a-6151dde307aa> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://greensideupveg.blogspot.com/2011/03/crop-rotation-what-does-it-mean.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00180-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933052 | 1,339 | 3.59375 | 4 |
Fennel, an aromatic plant native to Europe and Asia, is in the same plant family as carrots. The uses for this yellow, flowering plant range from flavoring food to repelling insects, specifically fleas. The herb may help promote lactation for breast-feeding women and may help ease digestive discomfort. While the stalk of the fennel plant is traditionally eaten as a vegetable, the seeds are crushed and used for medicinal purposes. People often make a tea or chew the seeds to help relieve gastrointestinal distress such as flatulence and infantile colic.
Fennel seeds may decrease the painful effects of abdominal gas, bloating, cramping and acid indigestion, according to Drugs.com. Fennel seeds may help soothe the irritated smooth muscle of the intestines and also expel excessive amounts of gas from the gastrointestinal tract, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. The seeds also serve as a laxative and can help treat and prevent bouts of constipation.
Babies suffering from infantile colic may cry for several hours a day on at least three days a week but are otherwise healthy. Symptoms of infantile colic include frequently spitting up after eating and signs of gas pain, such as pulling legs close to the body and crying. Easing gastric distress may help a baby suffering from colic. Products containing fennel seeds, such as gripe water, may help relieve the painful symptoms, according to a study published in the "Archives of Disease in Childhood" in 2008. Making a tea from fennel seeds and administering 1 teaspoon before and after eating could help relax the gastrointestinal tract and relieve gas for the baby, according the University of Maryland Medical Center. Breast-feeding mothers can also make a tea from fennel seeds and pass along the benefits to their babies.
To make a soothing tea, boil 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds in 1 cup of water for five to 10 minutes. Strain the seeds and allow the tea to cool before drinking it. The seeds have a taste compared to anise or black licorice. A common practice in India is to chew fennel seeds to help aid in digestion following a meal. Younger, greener seeds from the fennel plant are better options for chewing, while older, yellow seeds are best for cooking.
Fennel seeds are herbs and are not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. No research exists confirming the effectiveness of using fennel to treat digestive problems. Using fennel seeds may cause side effects or alter the effectiveness of medications. Possible side effects include hallucinations, nausea, skin rashes and sun poisoning; people suffering from epilepsy may be at a greater risk of seizures when using fennel, according to Drugs.com. Consult a health care professional before using any herbal supplements to treat a medical condition.
- Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images | <urn:uuid:8caf9489-cf65-4718-8a22-30f0e80897db> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://woman.thenest.com/fennel-seed-good-digestive-system-4296.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00036-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938906 | 593 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Near Canea and Suda Bay
On 20 May 1941, some anti-aircraft guns south of Canea were captured by the Germans who landed nearby. The 1/Rangers and some carriere from the 1/Welch were eventually reinforced with two platoons of Royal Marines and some Greek troops from the 2nd Regiment. They were able to recaptured the guns. By late on 20 May, only small groups of Germans were left near Suda Bay and Canea. By late afternoon, reinforcements arrived from Georgioupolis, in the form of the 2/8th Battalion (presumably Australians). They were in line west of Mournies with the Composite Battalion, the 2/2nd Field Regiment, and the 2nd Greek Regiment. Further west, the Greeks were holding the harbor at Kastelli. During the attack, Germans landed nearby and were attacked by the Greek unit. The Greeks were largely successful with only one small German group resisting. A New Zealand platoon that was nearby captured the remaining Germans. This is based on the account in Vol.II of the Australian Official History. | <urn:uuid:c1f03480-41c0-490f-9bbe-a690aefd6e9f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://panzer-abwehr.blogspot.com/2013/02/near-canea-and-suda-bay.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402479.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00044-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990953 | 236 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Learn something new every day
More Info... by email
The March of Dimes is the name of an annual charity event sponsored by the organization of the same name. The fundraiser, now called the March for Babies, is an annual walk to raise money to help fight birth defects and infant mortality. The organization is a non-profit health charity organization geared toward improving the health of babies.
Today, the March of Dimes is one of the largest and most successful not-for-profit organizations in the United States. It relies on contributions to further its goals, including those raised through events such as the March for Babies. In fundraisers like these, participants walk fixed amounts for pledges of money and contributions from others to the foundation.
The organization uses its status as a health charity organization to promote awareness and education among mothers and families. It teaches about prenatal and child care and attempts to educate mothers and healthcare professionals to prevent birth defects. This group runs community services and seminars and spreads knowledge about the possibilities of infant mortality. The foundation also funds research worldwide, giving tens of millions of dollars to scientists in fields researching birth defects, prenatal health, and genetics.
The organization was started in 1938 as a non-profit organization fighting the onslaught of what was then a serious and deadly disease, especially for infants: poliomyelitis. The disease, once known as infantile paralysis but better known as polio, had stricken thousands around the country, leaving many paralyzed and another many dead. The disease caused 6,000 deaths in 1916 in 26 states, many of these children under the age of five.
"March of Dimes" was originally just the name for the charity walk sponsored by the foundation. An original radio ad asked listeners to donate just a dime to help the cause. The organization soon began to be known by its event, and its name was eventually officially changed. The polio vaccine was discovered in 1955, however, meaning that the original goal had been reached.
Three years later, the foundation decided to continue in the arena of health charity. After combating a disease that inflicted infants so heavily, the foundation decided a new mission: fighting birth defects. Into the 21st century, using a program of outreach and education, supporting scientists including 10 Nobel Prize winners, and garnering contributions from every corner of the country, the March of Dimes has much work left to do.
what is the annual compensation of the ceo of the march of dimes?
One of our editors will review your suggestion and make changes if warranted. Note that depending on the number of suggestions we receive, this can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Thank you for helping to improve wiseGEEK! | <urn:uuid:118d9833-030d-42c1-add6-d9e71391ec81> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-march-of-dimes.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00093-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975267 | 548 | 2.671875 | 3 |
literature is about exploring universal human experiences, such
as love, the power of life, relationships, death, success, and
readers, no matter what their reading ability, can engage in
the envisionment-building process.
instruction must involve discussion and questioning.
in an envisionment-building classroom provides opportunities
for respectful challenges and conflict.
community members help one another to develop their own understanding
through dialogue and questioning, pushing along one another's
interpretations," or ones that are widely known in the literary
community, are still important in the envisionment-building
process, as long as students are first allowed to develop their
are "misreadings" where students create a faulty understanding.
In these cases, students must be asked to back up their interpretations
with logical reasoning and with textual examples. The community
often reins in the misunderstanding through dialogue.
questions teachers ask in an envisionment-building classroom
are key to the process. These questions need to help students
enter the text, move around in it, take lessons from it, and
then objectify their responses from a critical perspective. | <urn:uuid:2fba0c83-4055-41bd-ad92-1d925522fc33> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://learner.org/workshops/conversations/conversation/returning/key_points.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395548.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00176-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910835 | 234 | 4.15625 | 4 |
Neat Facts about the Flying Gecko
The flying gecko is one of the most interesting creatures in the animal kingdom out there today. Why? Because when you see this creature in action, it is hard to believe that a lizard can fly! This little green fellow is a favorite of wildlife observers and pet owners alike, since it is at home both in the rain forest and in someone’s living room in a terrarium. If you have ever been curious about a flying gecko, then this article is for you.
Before we talk about this particular type of gecko, let us first cover the gecko in general so that we understand what kind of creature we have on our hands. A gecko is a small lizard, which is a type of reptile (which is a class in the chordata phylum in the animal kingdom). Geckos are a bit distinct in that they do not have eyelids; rather, they have a mucous membrane over their eyes that they regularly lick to keep clean. Most of these small creature are well-known for their adhesive pads they have on their feet, which allows them to climb over just about any surface and scamper to and from tree to tree. This actually helps the flying gecko do what it does to get its name.
I know the question that you must be asking yourself by this point: Can the flying gecko actually fly? In reality, unfortunately, this little creature cannot really fly. At least, it cannot soar through the air like a bird or flying insect. It gets its name from its ability to leap from tree to tree through the air, as if it is actually flying. In this respect it is similar to the Atlantic flying fish – which does not actually fly, and just leaps out of the water at high speeds. Thus, this type of gecko does not have the ability to fly but is an amazing jumper. The little folds of skin – almost like webbing – on their bodies actually gives them this ability to “glide” through the air, much like a flying squirrel.
These geckos tend to live around three years and are average in size as far as lizards are concerned, capable of growing up to eight inches in length. The color of their skin varies based on their habitat but usually is green or brown. They are native to the Malaysian peninsula, yet can be found in a variety of tropical rainforests around the world (the humidity and temperature of these tropical regions are a must for most cold-blooded reptiles like the gecko, who cannot warm themselves up). Their habitat is also conducive to their living conditions – they are arboreal creatures, which means they spend most of their time in trees. For food, the flying gecko prefers insects and will eat a variety of them for dinner.
You can actually own one of these geckos yourself. They do particularly well in large terrariums that have large branches in them to mimic or replicate their natural environment (although they will also stick to the glass and jump around the walls). Do not keep one of these creatures in a small terrarium, though; the shortage of space will make it unhealthy because it will not be able to move about. A high, 15 to 20-gallon terrarium is a good choice for a gecko because it offers ample living space for these active lizards.
If you want a gecko of your own, or just want to see them outdoors, then I encourage you to look into keeping and observing exotic pets so you know what to do and what to look for. The next time you are in a tropical environment, look up. You may just see a lizard flying by! | <urn:uuid:ed70227c-8879-4e2d-ba0a-03afe185ed3e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.interestinganimals.net/flying_gecko/flying_gecko.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00155-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975281 | 752 | 3.125 | 3 |
Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
Biological: Behavioural genetics · Evolutionary psychology · Neuroanatomy · Neurochemistry · Neuroendocrinology · Neuroscience · Psychoneuroimmunology · Physiological Psychology · Psychopharmacology (Index, Outline)
In physiology, an electrolyte disturbance is an abnormal change in the levels of electrolytes in the body, usually constituting a medical emergency. Severe or prolonged electrolyte disturbance can lead to cardiac problems, neuronal malfunction, organ failure, and ultimately death, such as with water intoxication.
Electrolytes play a vital role in maintaining homeostasis within the body. They help to regulate myocardial and neurological function, fluid balance, oxygen delivery, acid-base balance and much more. Electrolyte imbalances can develop by the following mechanisms: excessive ingestion or diminished elimination of an electrolyte or diminished ingestion or excessive elimination of an electrolyte. The most common cause of electrolyte disturbances is renal failure.
The most serious electrolyte disturbances involve abnormalities in the levels of sodium, potassium, and/or calcium. Other electrolyte imbalances are less common, and often occur in conjunction with major electrolyte changes. Chronic laxative abuse or severe diarrhea or vomiting can lead to electrolyte disturbances along with dehydration.
There is a standard nomenclature for electrolyte disorders:
- The name starts with a prefix denoting whether the electrolyte is abnormally elevated ("hyper-") or depleted ("hypo-").
- The word stem then gives the name of the electrolyte in Latin. If no Latin equivalent exists, then the corresponding term in English is used.
- The name ends with the suffix "-emia," meaning "in the blood." (Note, this doesn't mean that the disturbance is only in the blood; usually, electrolyte disturbance is systemic. However, since the disturbance is usually detected from blood testing, the convention has developed.)
For instance, elevated potassium in the blood is called "hyperkalemia" from the Latin term for potassium, "kalium".
Table of common electrolyte disturbancesEdit
|Electrolyte||Ionic formula||Elevation disorder||Depletion disorder| | <urn:uuid:78ca352a-1fa7-4443-aa1f-51425c7462b2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Electrolyte_disturbance | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404826.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00015-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.790601 | 468 | 3.28125 | 3 |
FLAGSTAFF -- Theirs was a hearty band, all professional female artists who came from big cities in the East and settled in Arizona during its territorial period.
They came for a variety of reasons: on their honeymoon, to accompany a famous writer (Zane Grey), to paint on commission for the Santa Fe Railroad, to work in the Grand Canyon, to live with the Hopis and to seek a healthier climate to cure tuberculosis. Undeterred by the challenges of settling in early Arizona, they sought to make a living depicting the beauty of the Southwest with its intriguing people and wide-open spaces.
A new exhibit at the Museum of Northern Arizona, “Arizona’s Pioneering Women Artists,” pays tribute to the lives and work of 10 women who came West between 1905 and 1940 and made this area a creative home.
Arizona was the final territory to join the United States by 1912, before the much later addition of Alaska and Hawaii. Coincident with that position, Arizona was also one of the last territories to receive significant visits and depiction by artists.
Although more men came here to paint, female professional artists outnumbered male professional artists in the area and boldly explored a wild region that was largely unknown to the rest of the country around the turn of the century.
“These artists were among the first Anglo women to see this region and experience its cultures, riding to painting locations on horseback and living among the landscapes and people they painted,” said Robert Breunig, director of the museum.
The majority of works of art and design objects in the exhibit come from the collection of Fran and Ed Elliot of Sedona. As a collector, Fran has also followed an independent path. After moving to Arizona in 1988, she began collecting the work of the overlooked and unappreciated women artists of the state.
“I collected art in the East before,” she said. “I tried to collect the Hudson River School here, but that didn’t work well, so I decided to focus on Anglo women who had come out West, but 100 years before. So, it was sort of a no-brainer to collect these women. They had been well-known during their time period, but after they passed, they faded into obscurity.”
The women featured in the exhibit are Marjorie Thomas, Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton, Kate Thomson Cory, Nora Lucy Mowbray Cundell, Jessie Benton Evans, Susan Ricker Knox, Erna Lange, Claire Dooner-Phillips, Marjorie Reed and Lillian Wilhelm Smith.
“It wasn’t easy to get around, and it wasn’t easy to do what they did,” said Alan Petersen, the museum’s curator of fine art. “They were very courageous and determined people. Arizona was a rugged place into the 1920s.”
The exhibit, produced in collaboration with the Arizona Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, opened Nov. 17 and will be on display through Sunday, May 12, 2013. It has been designated an official Arizona Centennial Legacy Project, which accurately portrays a significant educational and lasting aspect of Arizona history.
“The show actually coalesced as a real show when the Legacy Project came into play,” Fran Elliott said. “Alan was really the support to get the show at the Museum of Northern Arizona.”
She said the museum is a particularly appropriate venue for the collection of works by these female artists, because “it was co-founded by a wonderful woman artist, Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton.”
As part of the Legacy Project, the museum is publishing a catalog and directory, “Arizona’s Pioneering Women Artists — Impressions of the Grand Canyon State,” for release with the exhibit.
One of the unique aspects of the 105-page catalog is the inclusion of a directory of more than 450 female artists, all of whom worked in Arizona prior to 1945.
The catalog, with contributions by Petersen; Betsy Fahlman, professor of art history at Arizona State University; and Lonnie Pierson Dunbier, co-founder of AskArt, is encyclopedic in nature, Breunig said.
“I’m very excited about the breadth and scope of the exhibit and the number of artists included,” he added.
Elliott said the directory will be vital to serious collectors.
“This listing, cross-referenced to other references and listings, is what adds value to these women artists. No collector, dealer or even garage-sale picker will buy art unless the artist has a listing somewhere attesting to their importance,” she said.
The pioneering female artists kept their lifelong commitment to the arts through writing, teaching and exhibitions, especially the annual Arizona state fairs, but they also looked back to their original Eastern homes.
“There was no market for art at that time in Arizona, and no museums or big homes to decorate,” Elliott said. “All these women were classically trained artists, so they continued with their connections back East and were still having shows there.”
The exhibit includes 82 oil paintings, etchings, watercolors, pastels and book-cover illustrations. Included is a collection of dinnerware and drinking glasses with Western motifs, as well as a worn traveling-wardrobe trunk used by Lillian E. Wilhelm during most of her Arizona travels.
“She originally came to Arizona as an illustrator for Zane Grey in 1913,” Elliott recounted. “On the trunk, her initials, ‘L.W.,’ were apparently painted over after her marriage to Hash Knife cowboy Jess Smith in 1924, with whom she traveled and worked for the next 35 years.”
The long run of the show will give a great number of people a chance to learn a lot more about a group of talented women who braved harsh times and places in the name of artistic expression. “A great thing about this exhibit is it gives exposure to a group of women artists who have been forgotten in the course of history,” Petersen said. “I’m really happy to present this show and put them back before the public eye.”
The Museum of Northern Arizona is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults, $9 for seniors (65+), $7 for students, $6 for American Indians and $6 for youths (ages 10-17). More information on Arizona’s Pioneering Women Artists or the museum is available at musnaz.org or 928-774-5213. | <urn:uuid:ce602b49-d3fb-4177-87e4-f091a02e2784> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20121121arizona-pioneer-female-artists-showcased.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00157-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969856 | 1,403 | 2.984375 | 3 |
IPCC Dogmatists Under Fire: Little Ice Age May Be Due To Changes In Solar Activity: Swiss scientists now say that the Little Ice Age most certainly could have been triggered by variations in solar activity’
IPCC Dogmatists Under Fire: Little Ice Age May Be Due To Changes In Solar Activity
Swiss scientists now say that the Little Ice Age most certainly could have been triggered by variations in solar activity.
There’s been criticism for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) over its latest AR5 report from many quarters for many reasons. But today there’s new research focusing on one particular aspect of that criticism.
The particular part of the IPCC’s science in question is its accounting for the effects of changes in the Sun on the climate of planet Earth. Many climatologists have long sought to suggest that the effects of solar variability are minor, certainly when compared to those of human-driven CO2 emissions. Others, however, while admitting that the Sun changes only a very little over human timescales, think that it might be an important factor.
This matters because solar physicists think that the Sun is about to enter a “grand minimum”, a prolonged period of low activity.
The current 11-year peak in solar action is the weakest seen for a long time, and it may presage a lengthy quiet period. Previously, historical records suggest that such periods have been accompanied by chilly conditions on Earth – perhaps to the point where a coming minimum might counteract or even render irrelevant humanity’s carbon emissions. The “Little Ice Age” seen from the 15th to the 19th centuries is often mentioned in this context.
There are certainly plenty of scientists to say, along with the IPCC, that this isn’t so. For instance climate physicist Joanna Haigh has this to say, in tinned quotes offered alongside the AR5 release by the UK’s Science Media Centre:
“Even if the Sun were to enter a new ‘grand minimum’ state within the next century, [solar variation] would be very unlikely to provide more than a small, temporary, partial compensation for likely anthropogenic warming.”
And yet the Little Ice Age appears to have affected the climate powerfully. IPCC-leaning scientists, however, say that the Little Ice Age couldn’t have been caused by solar variability – not even solar variability combined with sky-darkening volcanic eruptions – as the effects would have been too weak.
That school of science would often suggest that the Little Ice Age was actually caused by a sequence of unusually powerful North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) atmospheric phenomena – or, in other words, that it was just a blip: rather like the current 15-year hiatus in global warming, so often pointed up by climate sceptics. Indeed, a hefty paper published in 2009 stated as much, that the Little Ice Age was caused by powerful NAO effects (and the Medieval Warm Period before it, another awkwardness for the IPCC camp as it is thought by many to have seen a warmer world than we have now, without any carbon emissions).
That paper, as is normal in science, stimulated other scientists to see if they could show it to be wrong. In this case, a group of top climate boffins at the University of Berne set to work with a supercomputer, databases and models – and apparently, yes, the idea that the NAO could have been responsible for the Medieval Warm and Little Ice Age periods was found to be wrong. A Berne university statement just issued tells us:
Another research team had postulated a persistent and very pronounced positive NAO during this warm period based on reconstructed precipitation data. Moreover, the researchers identified a clear transition to an oscillating, more negative NAO at the beginning of the Little Ice Age. Based on their results, they concluded that the NAO had a major influence on the Medieval Climate Anomaly and its transition to the Little Ice Age.
When the Bernese researchers failed to confirm these conclusions in their climate model simulations, they began to search for the plausible mechanism …
The Swiss team now say that in fact the Little Ice Age most certainly could have been triggered by variations in the Sun.
Sent by gReader Pro | <urn:uuid:83443c7a-2da2-44a3-851c-df864151ac7f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.climatedepot.com/2013/10/04/ipcc-dogmatists-under-fire-little-ice-age-may-be-due-to-changes-in-solar-activity-swiss-scientists-now-say-that-the-little-ice-age-most-certainly-could-have-been-triggered-by-variations-in-solar-act/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00109-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96631 | 879 | 2.625 | 3 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.