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Dredging up an ugly religious division
“I believe in an America,” Kennedy said, “… where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president — should he be a Catholic — how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote … and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him or from the people who might elect him.”
The religious issue never went away — and undoubtedly affected the election. But Kennedy’s speech won him many new Protestant and Jewish voters. More important, he strengthened the First Amendment’s separation of church and state. His efforts to defuse the religious issue lowered the temperature of the campaign and persuaded many doubters to look past religion as a major factor in the race.Continue Reading
Kennedy’s statements about his faith, and his careful efforts to keep religion out of government, were an important step forward for American Catholics and, indeed, for all Americans. His speech won over many voters who might have voted against him because of his religion. Many Catholics began to think that their religion should not, and would not, affect his presidency. Many Protestants, Jews and others came to believe that Catholicism was not an alien faith.
In the aftermath of Kennedy’s presidency, Catholics emerged as a much larger part of the political mainstream. Catholic governors, members of Congress and presidential candidates began to play important roles in politics and government much more easily, as they continue to do.
Few people in recent decades have paid any attention to the Catholicism of such figures as Pat and Jerry Brown, governors of California; Edmund Muskie, senator and presidential candidate, or Joe Biden, senator and vice president. Few Americans took note of their religion.
But with Santorum’s presidential campaign comes the possibility of returning to a version of the dark years of religious bigotry — anti-Catholicism, anti-Semitism, anti-Mormonism and other once-reviled faiths that experienced hatred and often violence.
Using personal faith to determine public decisions would harm our politics and government. But it is much more likely to harm religion itself.
Alan Brinkley, the Allan Nevins Professor of History at Columbia University, is author of “John F. Kennedy,” due out in May.
Get reporter alerts | <urn:uuid:0cf8d4cc-8698-4c7a-ae23-5ed2e06f6e0d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/73784_Page2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397864.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00162-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975896 | 492 | 2.890625 | 3 |
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Collections : Paleobotany collection
UCMP cleared leaf collection
Cleared leaves are modern leaves that have been bleached and stained to make their venation patterns more visible. Leaf shape, venation, and features of the margin, base and apex constitute important taxonomic and physiognomic characters. For more information on leaf terminology, download the Manual of Leaf Architecture. For the paleobotanist, cleared leaves aid in identifying fossil leaf compressions. To learn more about the use of fossil leaves in inferring paleoclimate, visit the Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program (CLAMP) website.
UCMP houses the Daniel I. Axelrod and the Berkeley collections, comprising over 2000 slides of modern leaf taxa. Leaves of the Axelrod collection are mounted in plexiglass and are in good archival condition. However, the Berkeley collection is mounted between glass with the mounting medium Permount and is unfortunately deteriorating due to oxidation of this medium. Therefore, putting the cleared leaf images online is in part a conservation measure, with the ultimate goal of having the entire cleared leaf collection available online and CD to serve as teaching and research tools.
Data records for both collections are now available in the online database. JPEG images are being incorporated with the specimen records, beginning with the Axelrod collection. Some images are also available in higher resolution "Zoom and pan" mode (all eventually will be), which gives finer detail of the venation, epidermis and margin areas and in many cases insect and fungal damage, information vital for paleoecological studies.
Locality information: For leaves in the Axelrod collection, the locality data, if any, appear directly on the slide label. The Berkeley collection generally has good locality information, since many of the cleared leaves are from herbarium specimens housed at UC Berkeley's University and Jepson Herbaria.
Additional information: The Berkeley cleared leaves are linked directly to their UC Berkeley Herbarium online records using the UC Herbarium Accession ID number. Clicking on this number will bring up all information the herbaria have for a particular specimen, but please note that only the herbaria's California collection is currently web accessible.
In addition, cleared leaf specimen images are linked to the ITIS report, the USDA plants database, CalPhotos database, and Google image search, providing additional images, taxonomic and geographic information for the taxon of interest.
Please note that light and dark areas of the leaves are due to differences in stain concentration on the actual specimen and not an effect of the image capturing process.
Western redbud scan by Michael Thomson © 2002 UCMP.
HOME | SEARCH | GLOSSARY | SITE MAP | FREQUENTLY-ASKED QUESTIONS | <urn:uuid:e2deb53a-c310-4a28-8288-c8d08a7fa746> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ucmp.berkeley.edu/science/clearedleaf.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00191-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.896118 | 596 | 3.140625 | 3 |
The Family Radio Service (FRS) is a radio system that uses walkie talkies. As the name implies, it is specifically for families or small groups to use because of its short range capability. Communication is easier on this service than on other frequencies, such as citizens’ band (CB) or cordless phones that do not have an ultra-high frequency (UHF) band like the FRS does.
FRS was proposed in 1994, but many people were against it. It was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1996. There are seven other Citizens Band Radio Services besides FRS that operate on UHF. The General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) is at 460 MHz and is one of these. All are part of the Personal Radio Services according to the FCC. Family Radio Service (FRS) channels range from 462.5625 to 467.7125. These numbers represent MHz. One of the great things about the UHF band is that it does not have interference that citizens’ band radio at 27 MHz or 49 MHz that is used by baby monitors, cordless phones, and other radio-operated devices.
A permanent antenna must be attached to the walkie talkie or radio, although base stations that sit on a desk or table are available. These have whip antennas that can pick up many channels. A license is not required unless a user is representing a foreign government, but the FCC can take away a person’s right to use the FRS. The federal Communications Act allows citizens to use the service, and Family Radio Service users are obliged to adhere to the rules for operators.
Businesses may also use Family Radio Service, and some small businesses do use it for interoffice communication purposes. Their ability to use the FRS is controversial, however. Some believe that businesses should use only channels that are reserved for their particular communication rather than those assigned to the FRS.
Certain communications are prohibited over the FRS such as broadcasting music over the radio. It must be used only to communicate with another person or to provide traveler assistance, send a message in an emergency, or for brief tests.
Channels on FRS are shared with others, much like old-fashioned party lines that were used in the U.S. 50 years ago. When you turn the walkie talkie on, you need to first listen to see if another user is currently on. If so, you are obligated to get off the line until the current user is finished. If a person is on the walkie talkie and an emergency message comes over the line, emergencies always take priority.
In addition, Family Radio Service may be operated only from certain areas that the FCC has assigned. You should never operate an FRS walkie talkie on an airplane because it could interfere with communication necessary for the pilot with ground control stations.
FRS radios are fairly inexpensive and range from $10 to $100 in most places. Manufacturers often claim that their radios have wider ranges than are possible to get when there are trees and building in the way. If you happen to live in a clear area or on the top of a hill, it is possible to communicate with someone up to 40 miles away. This is the exception, and most people can expect to have a range of one-third of a mile to one mile.
It is possible to buy Family Radio Station radios or walkie talkies at specialty stores or websites that sell radio devices. | <urn:uuid:ca236b85-ae81-4bdd-881d-9a55785d767e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.frsradio.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397213.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00086-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960907 | 710 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Adult Education for Health and Wellness: New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, Number 130
July 2011, Jossey-Bass
Editor Lilian H. Hill, associate professor of adult education at the University of Southern Mississippi, and contributing authors assemble a comprehensive review of the critical issues involved including
- How adults learn while coping with chronic illness
- Health education within adult literacy, adult basic education, and English as a Second Language classes
- Approahces to help adults evaluate and learn from online information
- The influence of globalism on health
- and more.
This is the 130th volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education. Noted for its depth of coverage, New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education is an indispensable series that explores issues of common interest to instructors, administrators, counselors, and policymakers in a broad range of adult and continuing education settings, such as colleges and universities, extension programs, businesses, libraries, and museums.
EDITOR’S NOTES 1
Lilian H. Hill
1. The Role of Adult Learning in Coping with Chronic Illness 7
Lisa M. Baumgartner
Beginning with one patient’s story, this chapter discusses the research regarding the role of adult learning in coping with chronic illness and provides recommendations for health care workers.
2. Curriculum Design in Health Education 17
Simone C. O. Conceição, Holly Colby, Anne Juhlmann, Sarah Johaningsmeir
A collaborative curriculum design model was used to develop a program for parents of special needs children. The planning process involved four institutions and engaged the work of varied health professionals and one adult educator knowledgeable of curriculum and program design.
3. Health Literacy Education Within Adult Literacy Instruction 29
Sandra J. Diehl
The classroom can be a valuable setting for health education for those with limited proficiency in English who are engaged in literacy, family literacy, adult basic education, and English as a Second Language classes. Curriculum, teacher training, and infrastructure are discussed, and several case study examples are provided.
4. Health Literacy: An Opportunity to Improve Individual, Community, and Global Health 43
This chapter describes the evolving meanings of the term health literacy and describes the results of one detailed program example using health literacy as a theory of behavior change that produced positive health gains.
5. Adult Educators and Cultural Competence Within Health Care Systems: Change at the Individual and Structural Levels 55
Linda Ziegahn, Hendry Ton
Increasing diversity has challenged health institutions to provide care that is responsive to patients with varied health beliefs and practices based in culture. This chapter defines cultural competence, and describes the efforts of the staff of a university hospital to learn about and implement different practices that would improve care for diverse patients.
6. Adult Learning, Community Education, and Public Health: Making the Connection Through Community Health Advisors 65
Local community health workers are able to provide training and linkages to available health services and, because they are accessible and trusted, can serve as change agents in the lives of their communities.
7. The Role of the Adult Educator in Helping Learners Access and Select Quality Health Information on the Internet 79
Melissa Wright, Adelia Grabowsky
When people turn to the Internet to learn about health conditions and issues, many are unable to understand the information they obtain. This chapter documents the gap between what is available online and many learners’ reading abilities, reviews criteria for evaluating Web-based information as well as good sources of information, and examines what adult educators can do to assist learners with locating, evaluating, and using Web-based information.
8. Globalism and Health 89
Michael L. Rowland
Our health connects us with others across the globe through international travel and results in rapid transmission of disease, importation of products, migration of health professionals, global climate change, and increasing
inequities prompted by globalism. Adult educators need to become more engaged in research regarding communicating health information in accessible ways, health promotion, and health policy.
9. Health Education as an Arena for Adult Educators’Engagement in Social Justice 99
Lilian H. Hill
Patients are increasingly being asked to take more responsibility for self-care in a complex health care system, and this can be a challenging prospect for even the most educated. Adult educators need to be involved in health education, not only because of the skills and knowledge our training enables us to contribute, but because it is an issue of social justice. | <urn:uuid:a2ad83a3-b9a5-4231-82d7-26c8e02b3411> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118152808.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00043-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925294 | 940 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The leading text for the Adolescence Psychology course, Adolescence, 9th edition is the most accurate and up to date text available. Applauded by adopters as eloquently written and intelligently presented, this text bears John Santrock's trademark balance of accurate, current content for faculty and effective pedagogy for students. Learning goals have been incorporated into this edition to help students focus on the big ideas in adolescent development. The learning goals also serve as the organizing mechanism for the chapter review, student study guide, and on-line resources. A rich collection of media resources support the text and bring the critical experiments/concepts in adolescent development to life.
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Rent Adolescence 9th edition today, or search our site for other textbooks by John W. Santrock. Every textbook comes with a 21-day "Any Reason" guarantee. Published by McGraw-Hill Education.
Need help ASAP? We have you covered with 24/7 instant online tutoring. Connect with one of our Sociology tutors now. | <urn:uuid:10b2838d-2dde-43c3-8d72-d63182142546> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.chegg.com/textbooks/adolescence-9th-edition-9780072558456-0072558458?ii=24&trackid=2678ffe9&omre_ir=1&omre_sp= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00160-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92866 | 215 | 2.578125 | 3 |
T1 not implies Hausdorff
This article gives the statement and possibly, proof, of a non-implication relation between two topological space properties. That is, it states that every topological space satisfying the first topological space property (i.e., T1 space (?)) need not satisfy the second topological space property (i.e., Hausdorff space (?))
View a complete list of topological space property non-implications | View a complete list of topological space property implications |Get help on looking up topological space property implications/non-implications
Get more facts about T1 space|Get more facts about Hausdorff space
Example of cofinite topology
Consider a countable set, say the set of natural numbers, equipped with the cofinite topology. In the cofinite topology, the nonempty open subsets are precisely the cofinite subsets -- the subsets whose complement is finite. With this topology:
- The space is : Every point is closed, because its complement is an open subset. Equivalently, if are two natural numbers, the complement of is an open subset containing but not .
- The space is not Hausdorff: it is not possible to separate two points with disjoint open subsets, because any two nonempty open subsets have an infinite intersection. This is because the union of their complements is a union of two finite subsets, and hence is not the whole space. (Another way of phrasing this is that the space is an irreducible space and hence, since it has more than one point, it is not a Hausdorff space).
Example of line with two origins
Further information: line with two origins
Consider the line with two origins. This is the real line with two copies of the point . Alternatively, it is the quotient of two copies of the real line where we identify all the nonzero points on the first real line with the corresponding nonzero point on the second real line.
This is a space, but is not Hausdorff, because the two origins cannot be separated by disjoint open subsets. | <urn:uuid:91030a65-1422-4163-96b9-459ff1e77e9e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://topospaces.subwiki.org/wiki/T1_not_implies_Hausdorff | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404826.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00060-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.890052 | 457 | 2.625 | 3 |
YIGDAL (Heb. יִגְדַּל; "May He be magnified"), opening word of a liturgical hymn based upon the Thirteen Articles of Faith enumerated by Maimonides. Its authorship is attributed to Daniel b. Judah, a dayyan in Rome in the first half of the 14th century. It is also ascribed to Immanuel (b. Solomon) of *Rome, the author of the Maḥbarot (see: Maḥbarot Immanu'el ha-Romi, ed. by D. Yarden, 1 (1957) 90–93; esp. 90 no. 422). Yigdal is metrically constructed and has a single rhyme throughout. Although other poetical renditions of these principles of faith were composed during this period, only Yigdal became incorporated into the daily liturgy. In the Ashkenazi ritual, it is usually printed at the start of the daily Shaḥarit service, but recited as in the Sephardi, Italian, and Yemenite rituals only at the conclusion of the Friday and festival evening services. Hasidim do not recite this hymn at all. The Ashkenazi hymn consists of 13 lines, one for each creed. The Sephardi version, on the other hand, contains 14 lines; the final line of this version is: "These are the 13 bases of the Jewish faith and the tenets of God's law."
English translations of Yigdal, retaining the rhyme, have been composed, such as that of Alice Lucas (1852–1935). Her rendition begins:
The living God we praise, exalt, adore!
He at the last will His anointed send,
The many melodies for Yigdal seem to have been composed, evolved, or adapted more or less independently in each local
One Yigdal melody has achieved particular fame – the so-called "Leoni Yigdal". It is attributed to Meyer Leon, called Leoni, who was ḥazzan at the Duke's Place synagogue in London (Ashkenazi). Thomas Olivers, a Wesleyan minister, heard Leoni sing this Yigdal there; he decided to render the hymn into English and to introduce it into Christian worship together with its melody. (In another version of the story Olivers first translated the text and then went to Leoni to ask for "a synagogue melody to suit it.") Olivers' version, The God of Abraham Praise, first published in 1770, became popular immediately, and is sung to this day in the Anglican service as a processional or general-purpose hymn (Hymns Ancient and Modern Revised, no. 637, pp. 868–70). It has also been taken into the hymnals of several other English-speaking Protestant denominations. A.Z. *Idelsohn attempted to relate the Leoni Yigdal in a large comparative table to a number of Spanish, Basque and Polish folk songs, to a Sephardi melody for the piyyut Lekh le-Shalom Geshem u-Vo le-Shalom Tal, and also to the melodies of the Zionist hymns Dort wo die Zeder and Ha-Tikvah, together with the well-known motive from Smetana's Moldau. Not all of the comparisons in the scheme are musicologically valid. In any case, Idelsohn's main objective here, which was to prove the "Jewish roots" of Ha-Tikvah, has been invalidated by the discovery of its true antecedents (see *Ha-Tikvah).
Idelsohn, Liturgy, 74: Elbogen, Gottesdienst, 87f.; Davidson, Ozar, 2 (1929), 266f. MUSICAL RENDITION: Idelsohn, Melodien, indices: A. Baer, Baal T'fillah (18833), no. 432 (4 versions); Levy, Antologia, 1 (1965), nos. 43–62: Idelsohn, Music, 220–5; J. Picciotto, Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History (Rev. ed. 1956), 139–40; J. Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1892), 1149–52; A. Haeussler, Story of Our Hymns (1952), index; M. Frost (ed.), Historical Companion to Hymns Ancient and Modern (1962), 475–6.
Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:8debe2c2-9c30-4220-bb5a-cf9aaa9bec10> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0021_0_21270.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00133-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910606 | 984 | 2.984375 | 3 |
British Go Journal No. 10. December 1969. Page 6.
Masayoshi Fukuda, 6p
The following article is intended for relatively experienced players, who frequently have difficulty in determining how a fight will turn out because they dont know some of the formulae that more skilful players use.
Diagram 1a |
Let us first consider Dia 1a. The two chains of 3 stones cannot both survive. In this simple example it is fairly easily seen that whoever attacks first will win. The least experienced player has learned that in simple situations like this he need only count the number of vacant points to which each group connects, and that the first play wins if the number is equal.
Diagram 1b |
He should also know that, if his group has one more liberty than his opponents, then he can play elsewhere - there will be enough time if his opponent attacks first. Thus in Dia 1b, the white three stones are lost; Black can play elsewhere and need not take action here until White plays at one of the 4 liberties of the 7 stone black group. All Black needs do is count the liberties - he has 4, White has 3.
Although in simple situations the fighting power of a group is determined by the number of vacant points to which it connects, this is no longer valid in more complicated positions. From now on the tern "liberties" will be used to denote the fighting power of a group. An example will serve to clarify this point.
Diagram 1c |
Consider Dia 1c. The cut-off black chain cannot live except by capturing the three white stones to the right - the capture of the three other stones does not lead to two eyes, since White will play back inside. Similarly, the three white stones to the right can only survive by killing the cut-off black chain. These whites have three liberties; how many has the black chain? If we play the sequence out, assuming that White starts, it will go as in Dias 1d & 1e.
Diagram 1d ||
Diagram 1e |
Black 2 captures 3 white stones. White 7 captures 9 black stones. - Since Black came out just one move behind, we conclude that he too must have had three liberties. The reader can check this by playing the situation through giving Black the first move - in which case he wins.
Diagram 2a, b, c & d |
In Dias 2a thru 2d we see four positions in which white chains enclose black stones, and are themselves enclosed by black groups. In Dia 2a, which is similar to the situation we have just been considering, three stones are enclosed; in B, four; in C, five; in D, six. In each case white cannot make two eyes against opposition after capturing the inside black stones. Such formations are painfully familiar to all beginners; the reader should be able to recognise them at once. How many liberties does the inside white group have in each case?
For the positions in Dia 1a thru 1c this inquiry is academic, since for simplicity these white stones have no fighting chance, but academic inquiries can be instructive.
Let us play through the sequence for Dia 2c (in Dias 2e thru 2j), with Black playing first and indicating the White opportunities to counter-attack, as distinguished from forced plays inside the group.
Diagram 2e |
2 captures 5 stones.
Diagram 2f |
4, 6, 8 elsewhere. 10 captures 4 stones.
Diagram 2g |
12, 14 elsewhere. 16 captures 3 stones.
Diagram 2h |
18 elsewhere. 20 captures 2 stones.
Diagram 2i |
22 elsewhere. 23 captures 14 stones.
Diagram 2j |
Position at end of sequence.
We count seven missed moves before the death of the white stones; adding one we conclude that white had 8 liberties. If we go through a similar sequence for each position, we arrive at the table below. A few minutes spent in memorislng this table will save many anxious minutes of mental gymnastics during games.
It should be noted that in each case the trapped white stones have one inside and one outside vacant point to which they connect, and that each sequence starts with a play by the attacker filling the outside liberty followed by the defender capturing the attacker's stones on the inside.
Let us now consider some of the applications of the table, and then discuss the situations where, appearances to the contrary, it does not apply.
Diagram 3a, b, c & d |
Dias 3a thru 3d show four positions where knowing the above table permits us to say after a very brief examination that first play wins, since in each case the fighting groups have an equal number of liberties. Dia 3a we have already analysed (in Dia 1c to 1f). Three captives, giving three liberties for Black; three obvious liberties for White.
In Dia 3b the 4:5 rule applies. White starts at 1, Black replies 2. These two plays are like the first two plays in preceding examples. From our table, then, we know that the Blacks have five liberties; the Whites also have five. Whoever plays first wins.
In Dia 3c, the situation is similar, illustrating the 5:8 rule - eight liberties for the Whites, and eight for the Blacks. In Dia 3d the 6:12 rule holds and the first player wins twelve liberties for the Whites, twelve for the Blacks. How many players could reach this conclusion about Dia 3d without knowing the 6:12 formula? | <urn:uuid:c7d363ec-2d76-4862-a3d4-02106e16569f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.britgo.org/bgj/01006.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397695.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00036-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938571 | 1,155 | 3 | 3 |
Keep a True Lent, by Charles Fillmore, , at sacred-texts.com
Charles Fillmore was an innovative thinker, a pioneer in metaphysical thought at a time when most religious thought in America was entirely orthodox. He was a lifelong advocate of the open, inquiring mind, and he took pride in keeping abreast of the latest scientific and educational discoveries and theories. Many years ago he wrote, "What you think today may not be the measure for your thought tomorrow"; and it seems likely that were he to compile this book today, he might use different metaphors, different scientific references, and so on.
Truth is changeless. Those who knew Charles Fillmore best believe that he would like to be able to rephrase some of his observations for today's readers, thus giving them the added effectiveness of contemporary thought. But the ideas themselves--the core of Charles Fillmore's writings--are as timeless now (and will be tomorrow) as when they were first published.
Charles Fillmore was born on an Indian reservation just outside the town of St. Cloud, Minnesota, on August 22, 1854. He made his transition on July 5, 1948, at Unity Village, Missouri, at the age of 93. To get a sense of history, when Charles was eleven, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated; when Charles died, Harry Truman was President.
With his wife Myrtle, Charles Fillmore founded the Unity movement and Silent Unity, the international prayer ministry that publishes Daily Word Charles and Myrtle built the worldwide organization that continues their work today, Unity School of Christianity. Through
Unity School's ministries of prayer, education, and publishing, millions of people around the world are finding the teachings of Truth discovered and practiced by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore.
Charles Fillmore was a spiritual pioneer whose impact has yet to be assessed. No lesser leaders than Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and Dr. Emmet Fox were profoundly influenced by him. Dr. Peale borrowed his catchphrase of positive thinking from Charles Fillmore. Emmet Fox was so affected by Fillmore's ideas that he changed his profession. From an engineer, he became the well-known writer and speaker.
Charles Fillmore--author, teacher, metaphysician, practical mystic, husband, father, spiritual leader, visionary--has left a legacy that continues to impact the lives of millions of people. By his fruits, he is continuously known. | <urn:uuid:0e023d5b-2b3e-48ae-bd45-360c6ad57213> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://sacred-texts.com/nth/unity/ktl/ktl22.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00195-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979481 | 491 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Migrations of Salmon and Trout in Puget Sound: New Approaches to Old Questions
MetadataShow full item record
The migrations of salmon and trout are an integral part of their basic biology and are also important for their conservation because migrations define critical habitat and control patterns of fishery exploitation. Decades of tagging with a variety of techniques has yielded many insights but the ability to follow individual fish is of special value. This presentation describes a collaborative project involving many entities in the Puget Sound region, using ultrasonic tracking to describe the movements of individual salmon and trout. Tracking includes species that differ in their hypothesized reliance on Puget Sound as habitat: steelhead (believed to migrate directly to the ocean as smolts), Chinook and coho salmon (some infividuals reside in Puget Sound and other inland waters whereas other migrate to the coastal ocean), and cutthroat trout and bull trout (believed to remain near their natal streams during their period in marine waters). Examples of the kinds of data are presented to illutrate some of the patterns that we are seeing, including diel activity rhthms, home range, and exploratory behavior.
- The Water Center | <urn:uuid:5d185014-2927-41b4-9083-94a1bde22806> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/16558 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397562.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00063-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92363 | 244 | 3.5 | 4 |
GRAZING and AGRESTIC CUSTOMS of the Outer Hebrides, by ALEXANDER CARMICHAEL. GEOGRAPHICAL. The Long Island comprehends a series of islands 116 miles in length. The breadth varies from one mile to twenty-six miles. In shape the Long Island resembles an artificial kite—Lews being the body, and the disarticulated tail trending southward and terminating in Beamarey of Barra. A range of glaciated hills, rising from the centre of Lews, and at intervals cut into by the Minch, runs along the east side of the islands. Along the west side, washed by the Atlantic, is an irregular plain of sandy soil, locally called Machair. These islands are called the Outer Hebrides, being the most westerly islands of Scotland, except those of Saint Kilda. They form a breakwater against the Atlantic, from Cape Wrath on the north to Ardnamurchan on the south. The Outer Hebrides were of old called Innse Gall, the Isles of the Gall, the Isles of the Strangers, from the Norse Occupation. The ancient name of the Long Island, and still traced among the people, was Innis Cat;-the Island of the Cat, or Catey. Who the Catey were is uncertain, though probably they were the same people who gave the name of Cat Taobh, Cat Side, to Sutherland, and Cat Nis, Cat Ness, to Caithness. May not the modem Clan Chatan be of these people ? They are called the descendants of the Cat or Catey, and have a cat for their crest. The present inhabitants of the Long Island are essentially Celtic, with some infusion of Norse blood. They are a splendid race of people, probably unexcelled, mentally and physically, in the British Isles. The populations of the different islands form an aggregate of over 40,000 souls. Of these, forty families occupy about two-thirds of the whole land of the islands, the numerous crofters occupying the other third. These crofters retain pastoral and agrestic modes of life, now obsolete elsewhere. To describe these modes of life is the object of this paper. All the crofters throughout the Outer Hebrides occupy and work their lands on the Run-Rig System, more or less modified. They work under this system in three different modes, two of these being stages of decay. An example from each of these three modes will be given from each of three parishes where they are in operation. This the writer thinks is preferable to any general description which he could devise. These parishes are Barra, South Uist, and North Uist, which form the Southern Division of the Outer Hebrides. The term Run-Rig seems a modification of the Gaelic, Roinn Ruith—' division run.' In this case the word * run' is used in the sense of common. In Gaelic the System of Run-Rig is usually spoken of as Mor Earann—' great division’ or Mor Fhearann, ' great land.' Occasionally, however, an old person calls the system Roinn Ruith. This seems the correct designation ad the origin of the English term Run-Rig. The system of Run-Rig prevailed of old over the whole British Isles and the Continent of Europe. It was common in Ireland, it is extinct in England, and obsolete in Scotland, except to a limited extent in the Western Isles. There the system still lives in three different forms, more or less modified—two of these being gradations of decay. Township The English word Township represents the Gaelic word Baile, as applied to a rural locality and to a country community. I, however, prefer the word townland to township, having already used it in the paper which Mr Skene asked me to write for his Celtic Scotland, and which your Lordship was pleased to commend. The word Baile, townland, often appears in Origines Pastorales. This invaluable work is a compilation, by Cosmo Innes, from ancient charters and other historical documents affecting the Highlands. The word Baile occurs also in Martin's Western Isles, published in 1703. Dr Johnson says that it was this book that gave him a desire to see the Highlands of Scotland, and, therefore, to this book the world is indebted for Johnson's famous Tour to the Hebrides. A copy of Martin, which Johnson and Boswell had with them in the Highlands and Islands, the writer has seen in the Signet Library, Edinburgh. I think the word Townland is recognised by law. I have certainly seen it used in law documents. The townland has a collective existence in various ways,—by tradition, by usage, by the condition of the people, by the consensus of public opinion, and by the treatment of the proprietor. I shall endeavour to show this, and in doing so shall confine my observations to the Long Island. Maor. The word Maor is old, and is used in several languages. Before and after the tenth century it carried a territorial title equal to Baron among the Highlanders and to the Jarl of the Norwegians. The name was then applied to the governor of a province, whose office was hereditary, like that of the king. The term Maor is now applied to a petty officer only. Maor-Gruinnd is a ground officer. He is appointed by the Factor—Gaelic, Baillidh—and acts under him. On large properties the Maor is practically a sub-factor, and, being the eye, the ear, and the tongue of the Factor in his district, he is often more feared than the factor himself. Where the Factor is a non-Gaelic speaking man, as has been the case on the Gordon properties, the people look on the Maor with suspicion. ' The tongue of the people being then in another man's mouth/ as one of themselves graphically said to me, they know not what the Maor says or leaves unsaid concerning them. Nevertheless, there are and have been ground-officers who were far from giving cause for such suspicion, who, on the contrary, devoted their time and energies to the interests of proprietor and people to the neglect of their own. Among these have been some of the kindliest men I have ever known. The Constable. There is a Constable (Gaelic, Constabal) in every town, and in some two—one representing the proprietor, the other the people. Occasionally the Factor and the crofters elect the Constable conjointly. More often, however, the Factor alone appoints the Constable. When this is the case, the crofters murmur that the man thus appointed and paid by the Factor alone is, unconsciously to himself probably, too subservient to the Factor and too remiss in their concerns. For this reason they elect a man to look after their own special affairs. When a Constable is to be elected for the townland, the people meet, and this and all kindred meetings are called Nabac, ‘neighbourliness’. If presided over by the Maor the meeting is called Mod, Moot. If the people meet during the day they probably meet at a place locally known as Cnoc Na Comhairle—' The Council Hill,' or at Clach Na Comhairle—* The Council Stone.' If they meet at night they meet in some central house on the farm. Almost invariably these meetings are held at night, so as to avoid losing time during the day. The meetings are orderly and interesting. Not infrequently the man proposed for the Constableship by his fellow-crofters of the townland declines the office. Then another is proposed, and perhaps with like result. Ultimately the people may have to cast lots all round before they get a man among themselves to accept the ofhce, the duties of which are distasteful to them. In some townlands the Constable is elected or re-elected yearly, in some for a term of years, and in others for life. The crofter having been appointed Constable, takes off his shoes and stockings. Uncovering his head, he bows reverently low, and promises, in presence of heaven and earth, in presence of God and of men , — Am fianuis uir agus adhair, am hanuis De agus daoine,—that he will be faithful to his trust. In some places the elected Constable takes up a handful of earth instead of uncovering his feet. The object is the same—to emphasise, by bodily contact with the earth, that he is conscious of being made of earth, to which he returns. These and similar simple and impressive customs are disappearing, to the regret of the old people and the antiquary. The services of the Constable appointed by the Factor are paid in money ; those of the Constable appointed by the crofters in kind—Fiar am beinn, agus peighinn air machair—grazing on hill and tillage on machair. The duties of the Constable are varied and troublesome—requiring much firmness and judgment. The Constable, however, can always rely upon the assistance of one or all of his fellow-crofters as occasion requires. The peat banks (Gaelic, Staill, Poill of the townland' having become exhausted, the Factor or his Maor marks out a new peat moss. The Constable divides this into the necessary number of stances or haggs, according to the number of tenants in the townland. For these stances the crofters cast lots, as they do for their rigs of land. Lest a man should be placed at any advantage or disadvantage from his neighbours, these stances are again subjected to the lot (Gaelic, Crann), in the course of three, five, seven, or nine years, as the people consider advisable. A peat road (Gaelic, Utraid Moine) has to be made to this new peat moss. Probably the road requires to be made over one, two, or three miles of rock, bog, and moorland. It is the duty of the Constable to see that every crofter in the townland gives the necessary number of days of free labour, with his horses and carts, spades and pickaxes, to construct this new road. The Constable must see that all the roads of the townland are kept in repair by the mutual co-operation of the crofters ; that no unnecessary traffic is carried over these roads during or immediately after wet weather; and that the side and cross drains of the roads run free. To insure equal distribution of labour, these bye-roads are divided into Pegihinnean, ' Pennis.' The good and bad, the soft and hard, the steep and level parts of the road are thus divided and allotted. Each crofter must keep own portion in repair. Should he neglect, he is taken to account by his neighbours, and his portion of road repaired at his expense. The Constable engages the Herdsman and Shepherd of the townland, apportions them ground for potatoes and bere, collects and pays their wages. These wages are self-levied on the crofters according to their rent, as they have a whole croft, a half croft, or a quarter croft. Every townland has a cattle fold on the machair, and another on the gearry—Gaelic, Gearruidh. In wet weather the Constable instructs the Herdsman to keep the cows to the machair, where the fold, from the nature of the soil, is less wet and comfortless to the cows and the women who milk them, than the fold on the gearry The Constable must see that the dyke enclosing the cattle-fold is repaired in early summer before being used, and that the gate is good and strong—Cadha-Chliadh na Cuithe. The term Cadha-Cliath, literally signifies the gorge or pass wattle. In wooded districts throughout the Highlands, where materials can be found, doors, gates, partitions, fences, barns, and even dwelling houses, are made of wattle-work In the case of dwelling houses and their partitions, the wattling is plastered over on both sides with boulder clay, and whitewashed with lime, thereby giving an air of cleanliness and comfort to the house. Of old this wattle-work was largely used by the Celts. It is believed that many of their early houses and churches were made of wattling, and Mr Skene thinks that Saint Columba's first church in Iona was so constructed. One of the Gaelic name of Dublin—Gaelic, Dubhlinne, ' blacklinn'—is Bailath-cliath, * the town of the ford of wattles,' the first bridge over the River Liffey having been constructed of wattle-work. Probably the interlacing so much used and so much admired in ancient Celtic art and sculpturing had its origin in this wattle-work, occasionally called Celtic basket-work. In carting sea-weed up the shore, which is extremely trying upon horses, the Constable sees that no man works his horse too heavily nor too long. When he orders the people to stop work they must stop. In some places there was a latent superstition among the people that the spirits of their horses were in communication with the spirits of heaven. Probably this gave rise to their saying— Am fear bhitheas trocaireach ri anam Cha bhith e mi-throcaireach ri bhruid.' He who is merciful to his soul Will not be unmerciful to his beast.' The Constable must see to Cuartachadh a Bhaile, ' rounding the townland.' There being no fences round the fields, there is danger that cattle or horses of their own or neighbouring farms may break loose during night and damage the corn. To guard against this, two of the crofters make a circuit of the townland at night, each two and two of the crofters taking this watching in turns during summer and autumn. This precaution is called Cuartachadh, ' circuiting.' Should the watchers be remiss and damage to result, the two crofters responsible must make good the loss. The damage to the corn being appraised, the two crofters in fault pay it to the Constable, who adds it to the general fund of the townland. Should cattle or horses from a neighbouring farm cause loss, the owners have to pay the loss. The people are exacting in recovering these valuations. 'Is e an cunntas goirid a dh-fhagas an cairdeas fada,' they say. It is the short accounting that shall leave the friendship lasting, and they act accordingly. Those, however, who are thus exacting in pecuniary matters are, nevertheless, kind and considerate to one another in other things. Should a crofter or his family be laid up ill, his fellow-crofters help on his work. If a man's horse dies, his neighbours bring on his work concurrently with their own, and, if necessary, help him to buy another horse. In connection with their watching, the people speak of a time when they had to kindle fires to scare away wild beasts from their flocks, as they do now in some localities to scare away deer and geese from their crops. These fires look picturesque at night, and remind one of Campbell's beautiful poem of the Soldier's Dream'—' By the wolf-scaring faggot that guarded the slain.' There is a tradition in Lews of the last wolf slain there, and the place is pointed out. Traditions of this nature are elsewhere. I asked the crofters who said that they were in the habit of sitting up at night to watch their com from deer, if they mentioned this hardship to their Factor. Yes,' said they,' but he told us that if we complained to him again he would clear us all out of the place, so as to be out of the way of the deer. Therefore, we keep quiet, but suffer.' The Constable buys fresh stock, for the infusion of new blood for his townland, and sells the old. He will not allow a crofter to cart sea-weed from the shore till his neighbours have reasonable time to be there, nor will he allow a crofter to cut sea-weed when and where he likes. He must see that the Run-Rig land, Imire, of one man is not allowed to lie under water to the injury of the man to whose lot it may fall at next allotting. The man must cut a drain to allow the surface water to escape. Should the crofters of the townland have occasion to complain of a fellow crofter to the Factor, a deputation from the crofters go to the Factor to prefer the complaint. The deputation is represented by the Constable alone or in company. The Factor confers with the Constable, giving instructions, and possibly removes the recalcitrant crofter from his holding, should he continue to offend against the customs of the community. The Constable gives information to the people from the Factor as to days on which the Factor is to collect rents and rates, as to new rules which the Factor wishes enforced, or old ones which he wishes more strictly observed, and various other things. These are some of the duties devolving on the Farm Constable for the orderly management of the Townland. In the past he had to assist the Maor in evicting crofters, sometimes in evicting and pulling down the houses of near and dear relatives. There have been no large evictions in recent years in the Western Islands, nor will there probably be. Proprietors now visit their properties, taking a kindly interest in their people, and Factors are more considerate. One of these, indeed, is a man endowed with more excellency of head and heart, without faults, than ordinarily falls to the lot of man, a man possessing the implicit confidence of proprietors and tenants alike, who daily injures himself to benefit them. Mr John Macdonald, Tacksman, Newton, North Uist, and Factor for Sir John Orde, will not forgive my mentioning his name, but others will throughout the Highlands and Islands, where his name is honoured among all classes. But things were not always so in the Western Isles. Where a factor, in many ways capable and excellent, in those days wished to acquire more land for himself, relations, or friends he seems to have felt no more compunction in destroying the well-being of scores of comfortable crofters, than were they so many sheep. This was the common occurrence of the times. Nor, incredible as it may seem, was it till years afterwards that some of those absentee proprietors came to know, and that accidentally, of these wholesale removals of scores of their peaceable, loyal, industrious tenants, and of this practical destruction of hundreds of their crofter population. That these and many similar proceedings should have paralysed the whole crofter population of the Western Islands was only natural. Nor does it need a man to live and travel among the islands for a quarter of a century to see and to be convinced that the people of those Western Isles have not yet recovered from the effects of that paralysation. BARRA. The Islands of Barra form an oblong group. Of these islands, eight are inhabited. The Southern Isles of Barra were of old called the Bishop's Isles, because they belonged to the bishop of the see. The head of this wild precipitous chain of islands is still called Bearnaraidh an Easpaig, Beamarey of the Bishop, occasionally Barra Head—Gaelic, Ceann Bharraidh. The Southern Isles of Barra are famed for birds. These are principally the Puffin, Razorbill, and the Guillemote, Gaelic, Buigire, Dui'-eineach, and Langaidh. The Manx Shearwater, Gaelic, Scrab, was extremely abundant there at one time ; but since the advent of the Pumn , it is now practically extinct. Both these last are burrowing birds. The Pumn is vicious to a degree, his wonderfully strong, sharp, coulterneb bill cutting keenly as a lance. Of old the crofters of Miuley paid their rents in birds to Macneill of Barra. These birds were principally the young of the Shearwater, and called by the people Fachaich, 'fatlings.' The land was divided into crofts called Clitig, Feoirlig, Leth-Pheighinn, and Peighinn. The Clitig is half the Feoirlig, the Feoirlig is half the Leth-Pheighinn, and Leth-Pheighinn is half the Peighinn, ' Penny/ The Penny Croft paid two barrels, the Halfpenny Croft one barrel, the Farthing Croft one half barrel, and the Clitig Croft one fourth barrel of Fachaich to Macneill. Probably not less than twenty barrels of these birds went to Macneill yearly, and all from the small island of Grianamal, behind Miuley ! The proprietor came over to Miuley a fortnight before, and remained till a fortnight after Lammas Day—Gaelic, La Lunastain. The people were not allowed to go to the rocks till he came ; when be left, they had the free range of the cliffs. The people of the Southern Isles do not now kill many birds, being too much occupied otherwise. The people of Miuley do not seem to have used ropes as they do in Saint Kilda, but to have clambered among the rocks like goats. These rocks are wonderfully grand. Mr Campbell of Islay and the writer measured the highest of these in October 1871, when the barometer showed nearly 800 feet above the sea. The place is named Aonaig, and this particular rock is called Biolacreag. The face of the cliff is as smooth and perpendicular as the wall of a house, and goes sheer down into the Atlantic. This precipice was the crest of the ancient Macneills of Barra, and ' Biolacreag formed the rallying cry of the clan. There is probably no more interesting island in Britain than this Island of Miuley, with its wonderful precipices, long narrow sea galleries, several hundred feet high in the perpendicular sides, and marine arcades, winding their gloomy subterraneous ways under the precipitous island. To boat through these galleries and arcades needs a calm sea, a good crew, and a steady nerve. The writer was the first to discover, and the first and the last to go through much the longest, largest, and gloomiest of these wonderful sinuous sea arcades. The Macneills of Barra lived in a castle on a tidal rock called Ciosmal, in Baile Mhicneill, Macneilltown, now called Castlebay. There are two wells within the walls of this old castle. The people say that the water of these wells comes in pipes under the sea, the pipes being overlaid with large flags. Some fifteen years ago the then Factor let the castle as a herring-curing station, when the principal well, in the centre of the court, was tilled up, and the chapel in the west corner carried away piecemeal as ballast for boats and vessels. The native people, who still fondly cling to the memory of their once proud chiefs, were grieved at the destruction they were powerless to prevent. The site of Ciosmal Castle had been the site of a magazine, wherein the Norsemen kept war materials during the Norse Occupation of the Western Isles. Ciosmal was abandoned by the Macneills during the first quarter of last century. They built houses in these other places, finally settling at Eoligearry, on the north end of the island. The family became extinct in the direct male line in Lieut.-General Roderick Macneill. It is said that so symmetrical in person was General Macneill that' no eye looked at him without looking at him again’. He was adored by his people, who, with the fidelity of their race, ruined themselves in trying to save him from ruin. They gave him their all. To Dr Macgillivray, the people of Barra are much indebted, and this they gratefully acknowledge. Since he became tacksman of Eoligearry, some fortyfour years ago, probably he has given in one form or another some £7000 in work to the people of Barra, while his skill and his medicine are ever at the disposal of all. The eminent naturalist of that name was brother to Dr Macgillivray. A curious custom prevails among the people of Barra of apportioning their boats to their fishing banks at sea, much as they apportion their cows to their grazing grounds on land. The names, positions, extent, characteristics, and capabilities of these banks are as well known to them as those of their crofts. The people meet at church on the 1st day of February—Gaelic, La-Fheill Bride—the Festival of Saint Bridget; and having ascertained among themselves the number of boats engaging in the long line fishing, they assign these boats in proportionate numbers among the banks according to the fishing capabilities of each bank. The men then draw lots, each head-man drawing the lot for his crew, and thus the boats are assigned to their respective banks for the season. Should a bank prove unproductive, the boats of that bank are considerately allowed to distribute themselves among the other banks, the boats of which are then at liberty to try the deserted banks. The fishermen say that the ways and migrations of the fishes of the sea arc as unaccountable as those of the fowls of the air—here to-day and there to-morrow. They say also that fishes resemble birds in their habits ; some fishes, as the Cod and the Conger, in being solitary, like the Raven and the Skua ; while some other fishes, as the Saithe and the Herring, are gregarious in their habits, and live in communities, like the Razorbill and the Guillemote. I am indebted to the intelligent and observant fishermen throughout those islands for much interesting and curious information regarding fishes and sea birds. Having completed their balloting, the fishermen go in to church, accompanied by fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, wives and children, and sweethearts. The good priest says a short service, wherein he commends those ' who go down to the sea in ships' to the protection of the holy Saint Barr, after whom Barra is named, of the beautiful Saint Bridget, * virgin of a thousand charms *—' Bride bhoidheach oigh nam mile beus'—on whose festival they are met, of their loved Mother, the golden-haired Virgin, and to the protection, individually and collectively, of the Holy Trinity. The people disperse, chanting— Athair, A Mhic, A Spioraid Naoimh, Biodh an Tri-aon leinn, a la 's a dh-oidhche ; 'S air chul nan tonn, no air thaobh nam beann, Bith'dh ar Mathair leinn 's bith'dh A lamh mu'r ceann. Bith'dh ar Mathair leinn 's bith'dh A lamh mu'r ceann.' Father ! Son ! and Spirit's Might! Be the Three-in-One with us day and night; On the crested wave, when waves run high, Oh ! Mother ! Mary ! be to us nigh. Oh ! Mother ! Mary ! be to us nigh. Having dispersed, the people repair to their homes, on the way thither eagerly and simultaneously discussing the merits and the demerits of their respective banks. To hear their loud and simultaneous talk, one would think that the people were quarrelling. But no, this is only their way—the Barra people being peaceable and gentle, and eminently well-mannered and polite. This habit of the Barra fishermen of apportioning their fishing banks may seem antiquated to modern views. The fishermen themselves advance good reasons for its retention, some of these being that it prevents overcrowding of boats on the banks, with the consequent entanglement of lines, resulting sometimes in the loss of temper and friendship. In the Inverness Courier seventeen years ago, or so, the writer suggested converting the strait between Barra Head and Miuley into a harbour of refuge, by throwing a break-water across the west end. A harbour there would be of inestimable benefit to shipping and fishing. The arable land of the crofters of Barra is all divided into crofts, no part being in common. The grazing grounds only are held in common, each townland being confined to its own grazing limits. The crofters of each townland have their own herdsman, and regulate their own townland affairs with no interference from without. SOUTH UlST. The Island of South Uist forms an oblong, with a range of high hills on one side, and long level low-lying moors and machairs dotted with shallow lakes on the other side. The people live on this side. In the time of the Clanranalds, the crofters had the hills for their sheep and cattle, and they say that they were very comfortable. Since then the greater and best part of the machair has been cleared of crofters, and their town.ands converted into large farms, with the whole of the hills added thereto. Some of the evicted people were chased among the hills, caught, tied, and shipped like felons to Canada, against which the Canadian press of the day raised a strong protest.The rest of the evicted crofters were thrust in here and there among the other crofters, who were made to share their rocks and morasses with them. And there they are—'Na biasta mora g-itheadh nam biasta beaga, agus na biasta beaga deanamh mar a dh fhaodas iad'—The big beasts eating up the little beasts, and the little beasts struggling as best they can—' the survival of the fittest.' One acquainted with these islands is struck with the coincidence, possibly accidental, that the large farms are made from the best crofter townlands, while the crofters are huddled together, generally among rocks and bogs. No crofters have been removed for the present highly respectable and intelligent tacksmen of the Long Island. When the crofters had the hills, they migrated to them every summer season with their flocks. They remained in the hills till their corn was ripe for shearing when they and their cattle returned to the townland—Gaelic, Baile. Apart from the benefit derived by the Hocks from the change of grass, the grass * at home' thus left free was of inestimable advantage to the stock during autumn and winter. The stock needed but little house feeding, and that mostly during spring. The crofters say that the change from the malaria of the plains to the bracing air of the hills was of benefit to themselves, and that as a consequence complaints common among them now were then unknown. They talk with delight of the benefit they derived in mind, body, and substance from their life among the hills. I entirely agree with them, and believe that these shrewd people are quite equal to their critics. There is one place of which the old people speak with particular favour. It is on the Factor's farm of Ormacleit, out at the mouth of Lochaoineart, and at a place called Airi-nam-ban, the ' shealing of the women/ There had been a religious house here in the olden times, and from this circumstance the place is named. These holy sisters had always the good taste to select or get selected for them the best situations for their dwellings. This place is no exception. One of the many beautiful descriptions of a beautiful place, in the old Gaelic tales, runs thus— Grianan-aluinn aona chrainn, Air chul gaoithe, air aodan greine, Far am faicemid an saoghal uile, 'S far nach faiceadh duin idir sinn.' A lovely summer shealing of one tree, Behind the wind, in front of the sun, Where we could see the world all, But where no man could us see. Here the good nuns had such a place to their heart's desire. Behind rises Benmore 2030 feet high, the base of it winding round this beautiful spot, and sheltering it from the west, north, and east. In front is the Minch and the sea away as far as the eye can reach beyond Coll and Tiree, dotted with white sails bending in various directions. On the left is Skye, with the snow-capped Coolin Hills, their serrated peaks piercing the ever changing clouds; while ranged away to the south are the hills of Arasaig, Ardnamurchan, and of Mull, in the foreground of which he, stretched in broken chain, the peaks of the Small Isles and the low-lying Islands of Coll and Tiree. Right below this beautiful summer shealing are ivy-clad sea precipices of great height, the home of the king of birds —Righ-nam-Ian, the Golden Eagle. The fine anchorage, close below to the right, is the sporting ground of varieties of fish. The bent back of the old man who spoke of this place to me first straightened up; the dim blue eyes, which had seen the changes of ninety-nine years, sparkled with light, and the weak voice trembled with animation as he graphically described the place to me, and the joyous life they lived at the shealing there, In life's morning march, when his bosom was young.' The smoke of the whole people, nuns and all, now ascends through the chimney of a single shepherd. Highlanders are essentially musical. Of old they had songs for all the avocations in which they engaged, particularly for love, war, and the chase. Many of these are beautiful—all are chaste. They had labour songs, with which they accompanied themselves in rowing, shearing, spinning, fulling, milking, and in grinding at the quern. If they sing less now, their silence is due to repression from without. The tendency of modern cultured life is to have prayers and hymns for special occasions. These old people, whom it is the fashion for those who know them least to condemn, had special prayers and special hymns for every occasion. Correctly speaking, the hymns and prayers were one, the prayers being rendered into rhyme to help the memory. There was a special prayer on going to sea, a special prayer on going to the shealing, a special prayer for resting the fire at night, for kindling it in the morning, for lying down at night, for rising up in the morning, for taking food, for going in search of sheep, cattle, and of horses, for setting out to travel, and for other occasions. These hymns having been asked for by members of the Commission during their Inquiry, a few are given at the end of this paper. Lying across the north end of South Uist Proper, and separated by a ford nearly a mile wide, is the Island of Benbecula—Beinn-nam-faothla—' hill of the fords.' Stretching out from the south end of the Island, and across the east end of the Sound of Barra, is the rocky island of Eirisgey, whereon Prince Charles landed from France when he came to claim the crown of his fathers in 1745. These Islands are in the parish of South Uist. On a rock above water mark is a sandy knoll whereon he scattered, on landing, the seed of a Convolvulus Major. The seed grew, and the plant has spread over the place. The flower is pink, with a mauve tinge, and is very pretty. A patriotic gentleman from Harris, Dr Robert Stewart, built a wall round Coilleag a Phrionns, the ' Knoll of the Prince,' as the place is called. Seven miles north from the south end of South Uist, at Airi-mhuillinn—the 'Mill Shealing'—are the ruins of the house where Flora Macdonald was born. In the neighbourhood is a boulder where she met the Prince by appointment when she undertook to take him to Skye. Should not these places be marked and held sacred for all time coming ? Six miles further north is Houbeag, where was bom NeiM MacEachain, father of Marshal Macdonald, Duke of Tarentum. This tribe of the Macdonalds is locally called Mac Eachain. Neill Mac Eachain was the son of a small farmer at Houbeag. He had been educated for the priesthood, but did not take orders. He had been schootmaster for the parish and was acting as tutor in the family of Clanranald, when Lady Clanranald sent him to Skye with Flora Macdonald and her Irish spinning maid ' Betty Burke,' the Prince. Neill Mac Eachain followed the Prince to France, where he changed his name back to Macdonald. He married, and his son entering the army, rose to the rank of Marshal of France and Duke of Tarentum. In 1825 Marshal Macdonald came to South Uist to sec his relations. On coming in sight of the river, near which his father was born, he raised his arm, and exclaimed ' That is the River of Hough. I know it from my father's description. Many a salmon my father killed there/ On meeting his blind old uncle, he embraced him affectionately, and granted him and his daughter an annuity, and gave to various other relatives sums of money. He took potatoes with him from the garden his father's father had, and earth from the floor of the house wherein his father was born. This earth was, by his orders, put into his coffin when he died. He parted with his relatives with many mutual regrets. That was a great day in Houbeag ! Right across the hills from Houbeag, after a two hours' walk, is Corradal, in which is the small cave where Prince Charles lived in hiding, Fo Choill, ' under the wood,' as the people say, for six weeks. The cave is in the face of a rock on the north side of a narrow glen. Chambers says that about ninety persons knew that the Prince was in Corradal. He might safely have said nine hundred, yet no one attempted to betray him. The place was full of crofters then, though there are none now within many miles. The Rev. John Macaulay, grandfather to Lord Macaulay, was minister in the parish at the time. Intermediate Run-Rig The low-lying district of Iocar, ' nether,' is a narrow strip lying across from sea to sea on the extreme north end of South Uist. It is bounded on three sides by the sea, and on the fourth by a large farm. This district comprehends nine townlands, and an aggregate of eighty-eight crofters. Each of these crofters has a distinct croft of his own in his townland, and a share in the arable land common to the whole crofters of the district. The crofts of the townlands lie towards the middle of the district. On the east, between the ragged townlands and the Minch, lies a moor interspersed with rocks, bogs, and water. Where the land is not rock it is heath, where not heath it is bog, where not bog it is black peaty shallow lake, and where not like a is a sinuous arm of the sea, winding, coiling, and trailing its snake-like forms into every inconceivable shape, and meeting you with all its black slimy mud in the most unexpected places. The crofters of the district send cattle here in spring and early summer, if driven by necessity from want of provender, not otherwise. The moss, particularly at one place, contains much Sundew, Drosera Rotundifolia and this the people affirm causes Red Water—Gaelic, Burn Dearg— in their cattle. The various names the old Highlanders had for this plant indicate that they understood its carnivorous nature before Darwin's discovery. The plant was called Lus a Ghadmuin, in reference to its qualities as a hair wash, Lus an Deoghail, from its sucking qualities, and Lus an Dioglain, from its titillating, tickling nature. The crofters themselves cultivate no part of this moor, but numerous squatters sent and settled there do. Between the rocky, boggy, water-logged townlands and the Atlantic, is an extensive plain, locally called Machair. This Machair, like the moorland, is held in common by all the crofters of the district. Some portions of the Machair are cultivated, some are under grazing, and much is incapable either of cultivation or grazing, being simply sterile sand. For economic purposes, the eighty-eight crofts of the district are divided into four sections of twenty-two each. These sections or wards are presided over by Constables, and the whole district is presided over by a Maor. The cultivated parts of the Machair are periodically allotted among the eighty-eight crofters. This is done at Hallowmas—Gaelic, Samhuin. The Scat, Clar, or Leob, as the undivided ground is called, is divided into four quarters. These quarters are ballotted for by the Constables of the Townlands for their respective constituencies. This accomplished, the Constables, aided by the people, the whole supervised by the Maor, subdivide their respective sections into the necessary number of rigs or ridges—Gaelic, Imirean, or Iomairean. The crofters cast lots in their respective wards, and the rig which then falls to a man he retains for three years. At the end of that time the whole cultivation is again let out in grass, and fresh ground broken in as before. During summer and autumn, the nocks of the whole community graze over these Machairs, herded by one or two herdsmen as occasion requires. While each crofter sends more or less stock to the district grazing of the machair, he probably grazes fewer or more cows and horses on the uncultivated portions of his croft at home. These are tethered or tended by a member of the crofter's family. There being no fences in the district of Iocar, except those built by the late Rev. Father James Macgrigor, the gaunt cattle and horses of the crofters roam at will when the crops are secured. In their intense struggle for existence, these crofters keep far more stock than their crofts can at all adequately maintain. They do not act upon their own proverb, * Is fearr aon laogh na da chraicionn,' One calf is better than two skins. They give the food to their cattle and horses that they so sorely need for themselves. Considering the quantity and quality of their land, that the cottars living upon them are nearly as numerous as the crofters themselves, while many of these keep nearly as much stock, that practically they support their own poor, and several other considerations that must be taken into account, probably these crofters pay four times the rent paid by the large farms; not that the large farms are under-rented; that as a whole they are not. That the Iocar crofters exist at all is only an evidence of the tenacity of their race. As one of themselves said—* We take a deal of killing, or we would have been killed out long ago.' Of the dykes built by Mr Macgrigor no praise is too good. Mr Macgrigor was the priest of probably the most depressed congregation in Scotland. Yet during his incumbency of over forty years he showed a more admirable example to the people how to improve their crofts than all the proprietors, factors, and tacksmen put together. He built several miles of the most excellent enduring stone dykes round and across his croft, while it is computed that more stone is hid underground in drains made by him than appears in these dykes. And all these stones, together with those that went to build his chapel, chapel-house, and outhouses, Mr Macgrigor quarried from the rocky hillocks and erratic boulders that literally studded the face of the land when he came to the place. This land, so well laid out in parks, is now equal to any in the Western Isles for cropping and grazing. Mr Macgrigor lived on the plainest fare in order to improve his place. He personally superintended the digging and the Riling up of every drain, the building of every dyke, and the constructing of every house, while nothing delighted him so much as to see boulders and rocks breaking down before his fire, gunpowder, and crow-bars. The good works that this poor priest accomplished above and below ground, and as a skilful medical man among all denominations, and in social life, are marvellous. Nor are they ' all interred with his bones.' Mr Macgrigor was the last professor in the Catholic College of Lismore. In that island he is still remembered. Mr Macgrigor was warmly loved and welcomed wherever he went, and now here more warmly than by the excellent family of the then minister of the parish, the Rev. Roderick Maclean. Mr Maclean, being an excellent classic, as well as an excellent man, read from the Greek and Hebrew Texts to the last he and Mr Macgrigor were warm friends, and perhaps no more graceful act was ever done by the minister of one denomination to that of another, than was done by the parish minister to the priest. The then factor was depriving Mr Macgrigor of his croft and confiscating his improvements. The minister of the parish, the only man who could do so with safety, used his good offices with the absentee proprietor, and Mr Macgrigor, to the relief of every person, was let alone. A subsequent factor nearly took the place from Mr Macgrigor's successor, not because this lamb himself was accused of disturbing the water, but because, as the factor alleged, erroneously, however, that another lamb of the same kind, in a distant fold, was. Better counsel prevailed, however. These and similar cases show the need of security against arbitrary evictions, at the hands of men whose own despotic will is their law. When men so offenceless, so respected and beloved by the whole community, so narrowly escaped, what chance had obscure crofters who had no one to speak for them ? What improvements on lands or on houses can be expected under such conditions, and in the absence of proprietors or proprietrixes if misled, however well meaning. Dr Alexander Macleod, commonly called An Dotair Ban, from his fair hair, was factor over the South Uist estates for a few years. During his altogether too brief factorship, Dr Macleod conceived and executed many schemes of great originality and utility for the improvement of the estates. Among other things he placed stones along the strand for growing sea-weed; he planted bent, Gaelic, Muran, over hundreds of acres of sterile sands that are now smiling machairs ; and he cut canals—Gaelic, Ligeadh—from lakes to the sea, whereby he drained vast tracts of land hitherto under water. On these canals he placed ingeniously constructed self-acting flood-gates, to let out the fresh and to keep out the salt water. Instead of draining the estates of their money, like others, Dr Macleod endeavoured to drain them of their water, while the many wonderful improvements he effected over these estates testify to his success, and indicate what the estates would have become under his management. When Colonel Gordon of Cluny heard of his death, he wept, though not much given to weeping, and said :—* I have had many halflins, but never a whole factor except Dr Macleod’. The people of the Western Isles still speak with admiration of Dr Macleod's head and heart, and of his medical skill. The people of the Gordon estates had great faith in the ability and integrity of Mr James Drever, now of Orkney, for the improvement of the impoverished estates and people, and they still regret his resignation of the factorship. NORTH UlST. All the crofter land in North Uist, except that of three farms, is held and worked on the Intermediate System of Run-Rig. This system has been described in South Uist. The three farms in question are those of Hosta, Caolas Paipil, and Heisgeir. These three are still used and worked entirely on the Run-Rig System, and probably they are the only examples now remaining in Scotland, if not in the British Isles, of this once prevalent System of holding the land and tilling the ground. And, perhaps, it is in the fitting order of things that these, the last lingering footsteps of this far-travelled pilgrim from the eye of day, should here sink down on the bosom of endless night, where the last rays of the setting sun sink and disappear in the mysterious fading horizon beyond. But this is a practical age, and these are day dreams. I am no advocate for the retention of a system now effete, and yet I cannot help heaving a sigh of regret on seeing a system, once and for ages, the land system of millions of the human race, now disused, discarded, and disowned, disappearing, and for ever, on the shores of those eerie Western Isles, washed by the Atlantic tide, whose waves pour their dirge-like strains over the dying, while the voice of Celtic Sorrow wails on the lonely ear of Night— Cha till, cha till, cha till mi tuille !' I return, I return, I return nevermore !' The townlands of Heisgeir, Caolas Paipil, and Hosta are worked alike. The first contains ten, the second six, and the third four tenants. These three farms were of old occupied by one tenant in each. When they were let, one after another, some years ago to small tenants, these new tenants adopted the Run-Rig System in its entirety, as the system best adapted to the circumstances of their position. Nor must they be condemned in this without taking all the circumstances of their position into consideration. Moreover, these men are probably as well qualified to judge of their own requirements as any person likely to sit in judgment upon them. Heisgeir. Heisgeir is a low-lying sandy island in the Atlantic. It is three miles in length, and a mile and a third in breadth at its broadest. When the tide is in, the island is divided into three by two fords that cross it; while beyond it lies the Island of Seiley, separated by a strait a third of a mile wide that never dries. Heisgeir lies four and a half miles from North Uist, to which it belongs. The island is variously called Heisgeir, Teisgeir, and Aoisgeir. The last form is the key to the meaning of the name, but the first being the most common form I shall adhere to it. Aoi is a Gaelic name for isthmus. An isthmus, Aoi, connected the island of Heisgeir with the mainland of North Uist. The isthmus was called Aoi, as similar places are still called. But, partly through the gradual subsidence of the land, and partly owing to the gradual dislodgment of the friable sand forming the isthmus, the isthmus by degrees gave way to fords, and the fords broadened into a strait four and a half miles wide and four fathoms deep. Tradition still mentions the names of those who crossed these fords last, and the names of persons drowned in crossing. As the isthmus gradually disappeared, the name Aoi disappeared with it, and became attached to the peninsula beyond it, now an island. A similar process is going on elsewhere, and under precisely similar conditions. And this I take it is the way in which the island of Iona acquired its present Gaelic name. This sacred isle is called in Gaelic, I Chalum Chille, and which is usually translated ' Isle of Columba of the Churches.' But there is no such word in Gaelic as I for an island. Therefore, I take it that I is simply a malpronunciation of Aoi, and that the correct Gaelic name of Iona is, Aoi Chalum Chille. Iona was called Aoi in the year 1088. That Iona became an island as Heisgeir became an island is extremely probable. Perhaps there was lees subsidence of land, but that a sandy isthmus connected Iona with the opposite shore of Mull must be evident to any person who examines the place at low water. Nor does it militate against this theory that the formation on the Mull side is granite, while that of Iona is gneiss. That the heavy Atlantic surf, ceaselessly beating against a bank of friable sand should ultimately destroy it is only natural. The process is going on at various places along the West Coast. I know men who ploughed and reaped fields now under the sea. The island of Heisgeir is called Heisgeir Nan Cailleach—' Heisgeir of the Carlins.' A community of Nuns lived here in connection with Iona. These good Nuns lived there far into Reformation times, and only died out from natural decay. The site of their house was pointed out to me by a lonely old woman who lived on the spot, and who, from her aged appearance, might almost have been the last remaining link between them and us. Divided by a strait a third of a mile wide, and beyond Heisgeir Proper, is Heisgeir Nam Manach—'Heisgeir of the Monks.' The whole extent, rocks included, is half a mile long and half a mile wide. A monastery stood in the olden times where the lighthouse now stands. And I think it is but simple justice to the memory of those good monks of old to believe that they were actuated from pure motives of humanity to build their house on that wild bare bluff to warn passing vessels of their danger. The lighthouse serves the same purpose now. This is the nearest island to Saint Kilda, and is known to mariners as Monach, but to the natives as Seiley-Seal-isle—Norse. Before the lighthouse was built the island and the rocks around it were much frequented by seals. They have now deserted the place. Shipping is indebted to Mr John Macdonald, Newton, for having drawn the attention of the Lighthouse Commissioners to the need of a lighthouse on this highly dangerous coast. One summer day long ago, all the men and women in Heisgeir went to Seiley to shear sheep. Having landed their wives on Seiley, the men went to a tidal rock near hand to kill seals. In their hurry to club the seals on the rock they omitted to secure their boat properly, and the boat drifted away before the wind. The women had no boat with which to rescue their husbands, and the tide was flowing rapidly. The cries of the distressed women were heard by a woman on the opposite side of the strait. End by end this brave woman took down from above water mark a large boat and pulled it across to her agonised sisters. But alas, too late ! The Atlantic waves rose mountains high, as they can rise only round this coast, and the men were swept off the rock one by one and drowned before the eyes of their wives. Some of the wives lost their reason, some lost their health and strength, and died of broken heart. Such is the tradition in the place. The flesh of the seal is called Carr in Gaelic. This is probably the root of Cardhus—Lent—from Carr-Dhiosg, Resh-weaning, or Carr-Thraisg, Hesh-fasting. The flesh of the whale is also called Carr, but the Hesh of no land animal is. It would be curious to trace the cause of this distinction. The people of Uist used to eat seals. One of their proverbs is— Is math am biadh femanaich Aran seagail agus saill roin.' Good food it is for sea-weed worker Rye bread and blubber of seal.' The seal blubber was cut into long thin strips. These were placed on a table. A board, with heavy weight on the top, was placed over the strips of blubber to press out the oil. The people's tastes have changed, and they do not now eat seals. Probably the monks of Monach used seal flesh for their table, and seal oil for their beacon lights. The hapless Lady Grange lived in Heisgeir before she was sent to Saint Kilda. All the land in Heisgeir is held in common by all the tenants of the island. There are no crofts, and consequently no portion of the land is permanently held by an individual tenant. There are ten tenants, and two of these having two shares each, the land is divided into twelve shares. About Hallowtide—Gaelic, Samhuin—the ten tenants of the island meet for nabac, 'neighbourliness.' Probably the only thing to be done at the neighbourly conference is to decide upon the piece of ground to be broken up for cultivation. This foregone conclusion decided, the men proceed at dawn of day to divide the ground. The land to be divided is called Scat, Clar, or Leob. The Constable takes a rod and divides the Scat into six equal divisions. At the boundary of each division he cuts a mark—Gaelic, Beum—in the ground, which is called by the curious name of Tore. The Tore resembles the broad arrow of the Ordnance Department. The word Tore signifies a notch, and is applied to cattle whose ears are notched. These notch-eared cattle—' Torc-Chluasach '—are frequent in the Western Isles, and are spoken of as ' Shoe a Chroidh Mhara,' the descendants of the fabled sea cattle. The Constable, having marked off the Scat or Clar into six divisions, with the willing aid of his fellow-crofters, sends a man out from the people. Probably the man sent out of the way is the herdsman, who has no personal interest in the matter. Each of six men then put a lot—Gaelic, Crann—into a bonnet. The man sent out is then recalled, and the bonnet is handed to him. From this the man takes the lots, and places them one after one on a line on the ground. The order in which the lots stand on the ground is the order in which the owners of the lots stand to one another in the shares. Each man knows his own mark, and care is taken when putting them into the bonnet that no two be alike. The two tenants who have double shares, retain their two shares each. The other four tenants subdivide their divisions with the other four men whom they represent. These subdivisions are called, Imirean or Iomairean, rigs or ridges. Each two tenants cast lots again for the two subdivided rigs. These arrangements are carried out quickly and quietly, and as the people themselves correctly say—' Gun ghuth mor gun, droch fhacal'—without a loud voice, without an evil word. The tenants set apart a piece of ground for their herdman, and this is called in Gaelic, Imir a Bhuachaille, the rig of the herdsman. This is generally the outside ridge bordering on the grazing, aud called the ' Imir Ionailt,' the browsing rig. The reason of giving this ridge to the herd is obvious. The man will take care to keep his own ridge safe, and if that ridge be safe the others are sure to be safe, because they lie behind it. The crofters also set apart pieces of ground for the poor among them. These are called ' Imirean nam boc,' the ridges of the poor, and ' Canag nam boc' The kindness of the poor to the poor throughout these islands is wonderful. This arrangement of the land lasts for three years, at the end of which time the ground is let out under grazing as before, and new ground is broken in. This is the Roinn Ruith. Run Rig System, pure and simple. When the townlands are reclaiming moorland, the crofters divide the ground into long narrow strips, about five feet wide. In English these narrow strips are called "lazy beds"—why, I do not know. In Gaelic they are called Feannag. The name is in allusion to the flaying and turning over of the surface. This is an admirable way of reclaiming land, especially wet land. The deep frequent furrows allow the warmth of the sun to reach the seed in the ground from the top and both sides of the ' bed,' while the drains dry the land. The crops produced by this mode of tillage, especially in damp ground, is better than that produced by the plough. The extent of ground which strong bodies of crofters can reclaim in a few years is surprising, and not less so the improved appearance of the land under their operations. In this manner vast tracts of country have been reclaimed, and the aspect of nature converted from repulsiveness to attractiveness. Too often, however, others than the crofters have reaped the benefit. Long stretches of the west coast of the Outer Hebrides are low and sandy. Upon these low-lying sandy shores the Atlantic storms drive great quantities of sea-weed, principally fuci. With this fuci the people manure their lands and produce their crops. The people of Saint Kilda sing, or used to sing, a joyous song on the arrival of their birds. The song begins— Bui'cheas dha 'n Ti thaine na Gugachan Thaine 's na h-Eoin-Mhora cuiderin Cailin dugh ciaru bo 's a chro ! Bo dhonn ! bo dhonn ! bo dhonn bheadarrach! Bo dhonn a ruin a bhlitheadh am baine dhuit H o ro ! m o gheallag ! ni gu rodagach! Cailin dugh ciaru bo 'e a chro— N a h-eoin air tighinn ! cluinneam an ceol! Thanks to the Being, the Gannets have come, Yes ! and the Great Auks along with them. Dark haired girl !—a cow in the fold ! Brown cow ! brown cow ! brown cow, beloved ho ! Brown cow ! my love ! the milker of milk to thee ! H o ro ! my fair skinned girl—a cow in the fold, And the birds have come !—glad sight, I see !' In like manner the people of the Outer Hebrides are pleased when they see their wild shores strewn with their thrice welcome sea-weed. In order to apprise them of the arrival of the sea-weed, most farms have a man living near the shore, whose duty it is to hoist a bundle of ragged sea-weed on the top of a pole. This man is called Am Peursair, the perchman, and his services are paid in sea-weed and land. Men and girls, with horses and carts and creels, labour assiduously in removing the sea-weed beyond reach of the tide. If they did not, perhaps the next tide might sweep the whole away. In their eagerness to secure the sea-weed, the people often, with the sea above their knees, work themselves and their horses altogether too much day after day. When sea-weed is abundant on the shore, there is no restriction, but when not abundant, the sea-weed is divided into Peighinnean, ' pennies,' like their land into rigs, ridges. Should other work be pressing, perhaps the landed sea-weed is allowed to lie above the shore for a time. If so it soon heats and putrifies, and the smell arising from these innumerable heaps of corruption is strong and offensive to degree. However, the bountiful ozone from the Atlantic counteracts it all, and no harm arises. If possible, however, the people remove the sea-weed to the ground without delay, and spread it on their fields. The people are aware that much of the substance of the sea-weed is thus lost to them. But they cannot do better. Throughout the Long Island the crofters keep stock -according to recognised long-established regulations among themselves. These vary to some degree in, various districts. In Lews and Harris the crofters keep stock according to every pound of rent they pay. This is called Coir-Sgoraidh, grazing-right. Every cow is entitled to her progeny—Bo le h-al. But the number of progeny to which a cow is entitled is not the same everywhere. In some districts the cow is entitled to her calf only, in some to her calf and stirk; in some to her calf, stirk, and two-year-old quey; while in some other districts the cow is entitled to her calf, stirk, quey, and three-year-old heifer. This is called Suim, soum, and a man is entitled to send so many soums to the grazings of his townland. A man's whole stock is called Leibhidh, and the amount of stock he is allowed to the grazing of his community is called Suniachadh, souming. Of this Leibhidh he sends so many soums to the townland grazing, while he keeps more or less stock of cows and horses at home on his croft. In the three townlands of Heisgeir, Hosta, and Caolas Paipik the tenants are unable to keep any stock at home, being on the Run-Rig system pure and simple. The people make what they call a Sumachadh Souming twice a year. The first takes place at Bealltain, 1st May , and the second, after the last of the markets are held, when they have sold all the stock they care to sell for the year. In the Uists and Barra the people keep stock according as they have a whole croft, a half croft, or a quarter croft. Each croft in the particular townland is entitled to so many soums. If the stock of a tenant be incomplete it is called Leibhidh Briste,' Broken Levy.' In that case the tenant may dispose of his grazing-right to a neighbour who may have an overstock. The tenants of a townland will not willingly allow a fellow-tenant to sell his grazing outside the townland. There are various things which a tenant can do and which he cannot do ; and all these things, so intricate to a stranger, so easy to themselves, are well defined. All these stock and land arrangements of the people show that they could not have been devised by fools; nay, that the framers of these regulations must have been shrewd intelligent people. Should a tenant have an overstock of one species of animals and an understock of another species, these species are placed against one another. This is called Coilpeachadh, which for want of a better term may be called 'equalizing/ In like manner, if a tenant has an overstock of the old and an understock of the young of the same species of animals, the young and the old are placed the one against the other and equalised. After the Coilpeachadh is done, should there still be a balance against the tenant, he must provide for it specially. This is done by buying grass from a neighbour who is short of stock, or from a tenant in a neighbouring townland. Or perhaps his fellow-tenants may allow the man to retain the extra cow, horse, heifer, stirk, or sheep, as the case may be, on the grass till he can dispose of it at the market. If so, they will exact payment for the grazing, and this payment is added to the general fund of the community towards purchasing fresh stock. In these and all other matters the people are forbearing and considerate towards one another, and a man placed in any difficulty is aided to the utmost by his community. If, however, a man is obstinate, he is denounced as Fiacail Gaibhre, gaber tooth, goat tooth, standing out against the customs of the community. The Coilpeachadh varies in some slight degree in some of the islands. The following table, however, may be accepted as fairly representing the whole Outer Hebrides :— One horse is equal to: 8 foals, 4 one-year-old fillies, 2 two-year-old fillies, 1 three-year-old filly and 1 one-year-old filly. 2 cows. One cow is equal to: 8 calves. 4 stirks. 2 two-year-old queys. 1 three-year-old quey and 1 one-year-old stirk. 8 sheep. 12 hoggs. 16 lambs. 16 geese. Three one-year-old hoggs are equal to two sheep; one two-year-old hogg is equal to one sheep, and other modifications. The young of the horse and the cow arrive at maturity at four years of age. The old Highlanders never worked nor bred their horses or cattle till they had arrived at maturity. They said that the horse, the mare, and the cow lasted twice as long when thus treated. In Kintail of old an entire horse was not allowed to work before he was seven years of age. Probably now-a-days that would be considered waiting too long. The young of most animals are changed to a new name on the first day of winter. The foal becomes a Loth or lothag, filly ; the lamb became an Othaisg. For these things, and for most, if not indeed for all things of this nature, ' the old people * had rhymes to assist the memory. These rhymes are invariably expressive and pithy, although now becoming obsolete. The calf changes to a stirk— La Sainhna theirear gamhna ris na laoigh, La 'Illeain theirear aidhean riu na dheigh.' At Hallowtide the calf is called a stirk aye, At Saint John's the stirk becomes a quey. The young are separated from their mothers, and the new name is applied to them at Hallowmas, Gaelic, Samhuin. Having finished their tillage, the people go early in June to the hill-grazing with their Rocks. This is a busy day in the townland. The people are up and in commotion like bees about to swarm. The different families bring their herds together and drive them away. The sheep lead, the cattle go next, the younger preceding, and the horses follow. The men carry burdens of sticks, heather-ropes, spades, and other things needed to repair their summer huts (Sgitheil, Bothain). The women carry bedding, meal, dairy and cooking utensils. Round below their waists is a thick woollen cord or leathern strap (Crios-f heile, kilt-band), underneath which their skirts are drawn up to enable them to walk easily over the moors. Barefooted, bareheaded, comely boys and girls, with gaunt sagacious dogs, flit hither and thither, keeping the herds together as best they can, and every now and then having a neck-and-neck race with some perverse animal trying to run away home. There is much noise. Men—several at a time—give directions and scold. Women knit their stockings, sing their songs, talk and walk as free and erect as if there were no burdens on their backs nor on their hearts, nor sin nor sorrow in this world of ours, so far as they are concerned. Above this din rise the voices of the various animals being thus unwillingly driven from their homes. Sheep bleat for their lambs, lambs for their mothers ; cows low for their calves, and calves low for their dams ; mares neigh for their foals, and foals reply as they lightly trip round about, little thinking of coming work and hard fare. All who meet on the way bless the ' Trial/ as this removing is called. They wish the Trial' good luck and prosperity, and a good flitting day, and, having invoked the care of Israel's Shepherd on man and beast, they pass on. When the grazing-ground has been reached and the burdens are laid down, the huts are repaired outwardly and inwardly, the fires are rekindled, and food is prepared. The people bring forward their stock, every man's stock separately, and, as they are being driven into the enclosure, the constable and another man at either side of the gateway see that only the proper souming has been brought to the grazing. This precaution over, the cattle are turned out to graze. Having seen to their cattle and sorted their shealings, the people repair to their removing feast Feisd na h-imrig; or shealing feast, Feisd na h-airidh. The feast is simple enough, the chief thing being a cheese, which every housewife is careful to provide for the occasion from last year's produce. The cheese is shared among neighbours and friends, as they wish themselves and cattle luck and prosperity. Laoigh bhailgionn bhoirionn air gach fireach Piseach crodh na h-airidh. Every head is uncovered, every knee is bowed, as they dedicate themselves and their Rocks to the care of Israel's Shepherd. In Barra, South Uist, and Benbecula, the Roman Catholic faith predominates; here, in their touching dedicatory old hymn, the people invoke, with the aid of the Trinity, that of the angel with the cornered shield and flaming sword, Saint Michael, the patron saint of their horses ; of Saint Columba the holy, the guardian over their cattle ; and of the golden-haired Virgin Shepherdess, and Mother of the Lamb without spot or blemish. I. A Mhicheil nihin ! nan steud geala, A choisin cios air Dragon fala, Air ghaol Dia' us Mhic Muire, Sgaoil do sgiath oirnn dian sinn uile, Sgaoil do sgiath oirnn dian sinn uile. II. A Mhoire ghradhach ! Mathair Uain-ghi), Cobhair oirnne, Oigh na h-uaisle; A rioghainn uai'reach ! a bhuachaille nan treud ! Cum ar cua ach cuartaich sinn le cheil, Cum ar cuallach cuartaich sinn le cheil. III. A Chalum-Chille! chairdeil, chaoimh, An ainm Athar, Mic, 'us Spioraid Xaoiinh, Trid na Trithinn ! trid na Triath ! Comraig sinne, gleidh ar trial, Comraig sinne, gleidh ar trial. IV. Athair ! A Mhic ! A Spioraid Naoimh ! Bi'eadh an Tri-Aon leinn a la's a dh-oidhche ! 'S air machair loim, no air rinn nam, beann, Bi'dh an Tri-Aon leinn 's bith A lamh mu'r ceann, Bi'dh an Tri-Aon leinn, 's bi'th A lamh mu'r ceann.' [Iasgairean Bharraidh] Athair ! A Mhic ! A Spioraid Naoimh ! Bi'eadh an Tri-Aon leinn, a la's a dh-oidhche ! 'S air chul nan tonn, no air thaobh nam beann, Bi'dh ar Mathair leinn, 's bith A lamh fo'r ceann, Bi'dh ar Mathair leinn, 's bith A lamh fo'r ceann. THE SHEALING HYMN. I. Thou gentle Michael of the white steed, Who subdued the Dragon of blood, For love of God and the Son of Mary, Spread over us thy wing, shield us all! Spread over us thy wing, shield us all! II. Mary beloved ! Mother of the White Lamb, Protect us, thou Virgin of nobleness, Queen of beauty ! Shepherdess of the Rocks ! Keep our cattle, surround us together, Keep our cattle, surround us together. III. Thou Columba, the friendly, the kind, In name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit Holy, Through the Three-in-One, through the Three, Encompass us, guard our procession, Encompass us, guard our procession. IV. Thou Father! Thou Son ! Thou Spirit Holy ! Be the Three-One with us day and night, On the machair plain, on the mountain ridge, The Three-One is with us, with His arm around our head, The Three-One is with us with Hits arm around our head. [Barra Boatman’s Version of last verse] Thou Father! thou Son ! thou Spirit Holy ! Be the Three-One with us day and night, And on the crested wave, or on the mountain side, Our Mother is there, and Her arm is under our head, Our Mother is there, and Her arm is under our head. In North Uist, Harris, and Lews, the Protestant faith entirely prevails, and the people confine their invocation to, The Shepherd that keeps Israel, He slumbereth not nor sleepeth. Feuch air Fear Coimhead Israeil, Codal cba'n aom no suain. As the people sing their dedication, their voices resound from their shealings here literally in the wilderness, and as the music floats on the air, and echoes among the rocks, hills, and glens, and is wafted over fresh-water lakes and sealochs, the effect is very striking. The walls of the shealings in which the people live are of turf, the roof of sticks covered with divots. There are usually two shealings together; the larger the dwelling, the smaller the dairy. This style of hut (Sgithiol) is called Airidh' or shealing, and ' Both cheap,' or ' Bothan cheap,' turf bothy; to distinguish it from the ' Both cloiche' or ' Bothan cloiche,' stone bothy. This is entirely constructed of stone, the roof tapering to a cone more or less pointed. The apex of the cone roof is probably finished off with a flag, through the centre of which there is a hole like that through an upper millstone, the opening for the egress of smoke and the ingress of light. There is a low doorway with a removable door, seldom used, made of wicker work, wattles, heather, or bent. In the walls of the hut, two, three, or four feet from the floor, are recesses—Gaelic, Buthailt, Scottish 'bole'—for the various utensils in use by the people, while in the bosom of the thick wall low down near the ground are the dormitories wherein the people sleep. The entrance to these dormitories, slightly raised above the floor, is a small hole, barely capable of admitting a person to creep through. This sleeping place is called ' Crupa, from ' Crupadh,' to crouch. It was a special feature in the architecture of the former houses of St Kilda, the houses themselves being called ' Crupa' from this characteristic. These beehive stone houses are still the shealings of the Lewis people. Some are also to be seen in the forest of Harris, but none in either of the Uists or in Barra. In these places the people have practically ceased going to the summer shealings. Invariably two or three strong healthy girls share the same shealing. Here they remain making butter and cheese till the com is ripe for shearing, when they and their cattle return home. The people enjoy this life at the hill pasturage, and many of the best lyric songs in their language are in praise of the loved summer shealing.* [The writer has a small primitive stool, upon which Prince Charlie sat in one of these summer shealings during his wanderings after the disasters of Culloden. The people spoke and sung of the Prince as, Am Buachaille Ban, Am Buachaille Buidhe, ' the fair-haired 'Herdsman,' ' the yellow-haired Herdsman.' The allusion was understood without committing themselves.] Considerable changes are now taking place among the people of the Outer Hebrides as to the rearing and the disposing of stock. Markets are more open to them, and they can sell their stock early, and of this they take advantage. But under their old conditions, and considering all their circumstances, which must be weighed before judging, probably none better than their old systems were ever devised. In various localities and on various occasions I made minute inquiries of old people as to the detailed farm stock and domestic substance of their fathers. The people then had more land and of better quality ; they had more horses, sheep, and cattle ; they had more crop, and of better quality ; they had better nourishing food, and they had better bed and body clothing. They had also more constructive ingenuity in arts and manufactures, and they had more mental and physical stamina, and more refinement of manners. Therefore go back to the old order of things under improved conditions. Unloosen their cords, and allow the people to expand by Ailing up the central rungs in the land ladder, all of which are at present absent, rendering it impossible for a crofter, however industrious, to rise higher than he is. To my thinking it is impolitic, as well as unjust, to hem the people into a comer, thereby impoverishing the many to enrich the few. The people of the Outer Hebrides are admirable workers by sea and land, and if they are less persevering than they might be, it is the fault of circumstances. OLD HYMNS. The oral lore of the old Highland people is rapidly dying out with the old people themselves. There is an essential difference between the old and the young people. The young people are acquiring a smattering of school education in which they are taught to ignore the oral literature which tended to elevate and ennoble their fathers. In his anxiety to rescue what he could of this unwritten literature of various kinds, the writer has sacrificed promotion several times offered to him. A few hymns from this mass of old lore are given in this paper at the desire of the noble Chairman of this Commission, Lord Napier and Ettrick. URNUIGH SMALAIDH AN TEINE.—PRAYER ON ‘SMOORING ' the FlRE. The following beautiful little prayer is said by women in South Uist while putting up their me for the night. And the people believe that those mentioned in the prayer do watch over themselves and their households and shield them from harm while they sleep. Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood.' The Scotch word * Smooring,' smothering, is the nearest equivalent of the Gaelic word Smaladh that occurs to me. Tha mi smaladh an teine Mar a smalas M a c Moire Gu mu slan dha'n taigh 's dha'n teine Gu mu slan dha'n chuideac uil Co siod air a lar ? Peadair agus Pal, Co air a bhi'eas an fhaire noc ? 'Air Moire mhin-gheal 's air a Mac. Beul De a thuradh aingeal De a labhradh Aingeal an dorus gach taighe Ga'r conihnadh's ga'r gleidheadh, Gu'n tig la geal a maireach.' Translation— I smoor the fire, As it is smoored by the Son of Mary. Blest be the house, blest be the fire, And blessed be the people all. Who are those on the floor ? Peter and Paul. Upon whom devolves the watching this night ? Upon fair gentle Mary and her Son. The mouth of God said, the angel of God tells. A n angel in the door of every house, To shield and to protect us all, Till bright day-light comes in the morning. AN T-ALTACHADH LEAPA.—THE BED BLE8SÌNG. The following prayer is said or sung by Catholics in South Uist, in going to bed. The old man from whom I first took it down, told me that he said it every night since he was fifteen years of age, and that it had been taught him by his father. I. Tha mise laidhith noc, le Moire 's le' Mac, Le Mathair m o Righ, tha ga-m' dhion o gach loc; Cha laidh mi lois an olc, cha laidh an t-olc liom, Ach la'idh mi le Dia, 'us la'idh Dia liom. II. Lamh dheas D e fo m'cheann, Soillse an Spioraid os m o chionn ; Crois nan naogh aingeal tharam sios, 0 mhullach m o chinn gu iocar m o bhonn. III. Crois Mhoire 's Mhicheil, ma-rium ann an sith, M' anam a bhi 'm Arinn, gu'n mhi-run am chom. IV. O Ios gu'n loc, a cheusadh goirt, Fo bhinn nan olc a sgiursadh Thu ; A liuthad loc, a rinn m o chorp, Nach faod mi noc a chunntachadh (1). V. A Righ na Fola Firinnich, Na dibir mi o d' mhuinntireas ; Na tagair orm mo mhi-cheartan ; Na di-chuimhnuich ad' chunntadh mi (1). VI. Guidheam Peadair, guidheam Paul, Guidheam Moir Oigh agus a Mac, Guidheam an da ostal deug, Gu'n mise dhol eug a noc. VII. A Dhia agus a Mhoire na glorach, Ios a Mhic na h-Oighe cubhraidh, Cumaibh sinne o na piantaibh ; ; 'S o'n teine dhorcha dliuinte. ! 'S o'n teine shiorraidh mhuchta. VIII. M anam aig fear shorchar na frithe (2) Michal Geal an codhail m o anama. (1). The IV. and V. verses were not in the first version I obtained of this beautiful hymn. I am not sure that they originally formed part of it. This, however, can only be a matter of conjecture. Not infrequently in old Gaelic poetry, sacred and profane, the measure, rhyme, assonance, and even subject, change in the same poem. Old English poetry is the same. (2). I am not satisfied that I have correctly translated this line. -Sorch means " light," in contradistinction to dorch " dark." iSorc7Mtr, I take it, is the man or being of light, as dorchar is the man or being of darkness. Sorch, " Light," is the name of a woman in the Long Island. A. C. THE BED BLESSING.—CLOSE TRANSLATION. I. I lie down this night, with Mary and with her Son, With the Mother of my King, who shields me from harm; I shall not lie down with evil, nor shall evil lie down with me, But I shall lie with God, and God will he down with me. II. The right hand of God under my head, The light of the Spirit Holy shining over me, The cross of the nine angels along me, down From the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. III. Be the cross of Mary and of Michael with me in peace, May my soul dwell in truth, and my heart be free of guile. IV. O Jesus without offence that wast crucified cruelly Under sentence of the evil ones, Thou wert scourged; The many evils done by me in this body That cannot this night be numbered! V. Thou King of the Blood of Truth, Omit me not from thy covenant, Exact not from me for my sins, Nor forget me in thy numbering. VI. I pray Peter, pray I Paul, I pray Mary, Virgin, and her Son, I pray the Apostles twelve That I may not die this night. VII. Oh, God! Oh, Mary of Glory! Oh, Jesus ! Thou Son of the Virgin fragrant, Keep ye us from the pains, And from the dark hidden fire, And from the everlasting suffocating fire. VIII. My soul is with the Light of the mountains, Archangel Michael shield my soul! BEANNACHADH BUACHAILLEAC—THE HERDING BLESSING. This invocation used to be sung by old men and women while tending their cattle among the hills of South Uist. I. Cuireamsadh an epreidh so romham, Mar a dh-ordnich Righ an domhan Moire ga'n gleidheadh, ga'm feitheadh, ga'n coimhcad, Air bheann, air ghleann, air chomhnart, Air bheaun, air ghleann, air chomhnart. II. Eirich a Bhride mhin-gheal, Glacsa do chir agus d'fholt, O rinn thu daibh eolas gu'n aura Ga'n cumail o chall 's o loc, Ga'n cumail o chall's o loc. III. chreag, o chabhan, o allt, chara cam, o mhille sluic, shaighde nam ban seanga sith, O chridhe mhi-ruin, o shuil an uilc, O chridhe mhi-ruin, o shuil an uilc. IV. A Mhoire Mhathair ! cuallaichs an t-al gu letr! A Bhride nam basa-mine, dionsam o spreidh ! A Chalum chaoimh, a naoimh is fearr buadh, Comraig-sa crodh an ail, bairig am buar, Comraig-sa crodh an ail, bairig am buar. THE HERDING BLESSING.—CLOSE TRANSLATION. I. I place this Rock before me, As 'twas ordered by the King of the world, Mary Virgin to keep them, to wait them, to watch them, On ben, on glen, on plain, On ben, on glen, on plain. II. Arise thee, Bridget, the gentle, the fair, Take in thine hand thy comb and thy hair ; Since thou to them madest the charm, To keep them from straying, to save them from harm, To keep them from straying, to save them from harm. III. From rocks, from snow-wreaths, from streams, From crooked ways, from destructive pits, From the arrows of the slim fairy women, From the heart of envy, from the eye of evil, From the heart of envy, from the eye of evil. IV. Mary Mother ! tend thou the offspring all, Bridget of the white palms ! shield thou my Rocks, Columba, beloved ! thou saint of best virtues, Encompass the breeding cattle, bestow thy protection on the herds. Encompass the breeding cattle, bestow thy protection on the herds. XCTX. RANN BUACBAILLEAC—THE HERDING RUNE. This parting blessing used to be sung by old people in South Uist when sending their cattle away to the pastures in the morning. I. Siubhal beinne, siubhal baile, Siubhal gu re fada farsuinn; Buachaille Mhic De m'ar casaibh, Gu m u slan a thig sibh dachaidh, Buachaille Mhic D e m'ar casaibh, Gu m u slan a thig sibh dachaidh. II. Comraig Dhia agus Chalum-Chille, Bhith m'ar timchioll a fabh 's a tilleadh, Agus Banachaig nam basa-min-gheal, Bride nan or-chiabh donn ! Agus Banachaig nan basa min-gheal, Bride nan or-chiabh donn ! HERDING RUNE.—CLOSE TRANSLATION. ADDRESSED TO THE CATTLE. I. Travel ye moorland, travel ye townland, Travel ye gently far and wide, God's Son be the Herdsman about your feet, Whole may ye home return. God's Son be the Herdsman about your feet, Whole may ye home return. II. The protection of God and of Columba, Encompass your going and coming; And about you be the milkmaid of the smooth white palms, Bridget of the clustering hair, golden brown. And about you be the milkmaid of the smooth white palms, Bridget of the clustering hair, golden brown ! TALADH NAM BANACHAG.—THE LULLABIES OF THE MILKMAIDS. These lullabies are sung by the milkmaids of Uist to soothe their cows. They are varied in tone and measure, while not infrequently these change in the same song to suit the different actions of milking. The cows become so accustomed to these milking lilts that they will not give their milk without them ; nor, occasionally, without their own favourite airs. Hence a milkmaid Who has no music in her soul' succeeds but indifferently among a fold of Highland cows. Owners of stock prefer as milkmaids those who are possessed of some voice and ' go ' to please the cows, this being to them a matter of considerable importance. BANACHAIG NAM Bo.—THE MILKMAID OF THE CoWS. The following air, one of many, is sung by milkmaids in South Uist as they milk their cows. I. O m' adhan ! ho m' adh min ! M' adhan cri', coir, gradhach, An' ainm an Ard-Righ, Gabh ri d' laogh (1) ! II. An' oidhche bha am Buachaille muigh, Cha deachaidh buarach air boin, Cha deachaidh geum a beul laoigh, A caoineadh Buachaille chruidh ! III. Thig a Mhoire 'us blith a bho, Thig a Bhride 's comraig i; Thig a Chalum Chille chaoimh, 'Us iadh do dha laimh m u m' bhoin ! IV. M o bho lurach dhugh, bo na h-airidh, Bo a bhathaiche ! mathair laogh ! Luban siamain air crodh na tire, Buarach shiod air m' adhan gaoil! V. 'Sa bho dhugh sin ! 's a bho dhugh ! 'S ionan galar doimhs 'us duits— Thus a caoidh do cheud laoigh caoin, Mise 'us m' aona mhac gaoil fo'n mhuir ! Mise 'us m' aona mhac gaoil fo'n mhuir ! (1) Occasionally a calf dies, and the mother cow is restive, and will not give the milk. To quiet her, and obtain her milk from her, the skin of her dead calf is placed on a skeleton frame calf, made for the purpose. This is placed before the cow, and the deception has the desired effect. The skin, however, must be that of the cow's own calf. That of another cow's calf, however much like her own in colour and size, is disdainfully tossed aside and kicked away by the cow. In wooded districts, where rods are got, the frame calf is made of wickerwork. This sham calf is variously called Laoicionn, Loircean, Lulagan, Tulgan, and Tulachan. The first two names refer to the skin and appearance of the sham calf, while the last three names refer to the rocking, fretting motion of the calf when sucking under its mother. A boy near moves the tulachan now and again, to make the cow believe that all is right, while the maid is busy the while taking away the milk from the pleased cow! This is the origin of the term ' tulchan,' as applied to a bishop who draws the stipend but does not perform the work of a bishop—a term sumciently known in Scottish ecclesiastical history. THE MILKING SONG.—CLOSE TRANSLATION. I. O ! my heifer, ho ! my gentle heifer, My heifer so full of heart, generous and kind. In the name of the High King, Take to thy calf (1). II. That night the Herdsman was out, No shackle went on a cow, Nor ceased a low from a calf, Wailing the Herdsman of the Rock. III. Come Mary (Virgin) and milk the cow ; Come Bridget and encompass her ; Come Culum Cille, the l)enehcent, And wind thine arms around my cow. IV. My lovely black cow, thou pride of the shealing ! First cow of the byre, choicest mother of calves ! Wisps of straw round other cows of the town land, But a shackle of silk on my heifer so loved. V. Thou black cow mine! own gentle black cow ! The same disease afHicts thee and me ; Thou art grieving for thy beautiful first calf ! And I for mine only beloved son under the sea ! And I for my only beloved son under the sea ! One touch of Nature makes the whole akin.' TALADH N A BANACHAIG.—THE MILKMAID'S LULLABY. The following poem is interesting from the three chiefs introduced at the end. Although these lilts were meant only to soothe and quiet the cows in being milked, they yet show, unconsciously, much that is interesting of the past, it not of the present, life of the Highlands and Islands. [Fonn.]—Ho m' adhan ! ho m' adh min ! H o m' adhan ! ho in' adh min ! H o m' adhan ! ho m' adh min ! A chrigheag chri, is toigh loni thu. Fhaic thu bho ud air an liana, 'S a laogh mear aic air a bialaobh Dean thusa mar a rinn i chiana Thoir am bain a laoigh na Fianaich Ho m' adhan, &c. II. Thoir am baine bho dhonn ! Thoir am baine gu trom 's gu torrach Thoir am baine bho dhonn, 'S na h-uaislean a tigh'nn an bhaile H o m' adhan, & c III. Thoir am baine bho dhonn ! 'S gu'n ann daibh ach an t-aran ! Thoir am baine bho dhonn,— Macneill' Macleoid ! MacAilean ! Ho m' adhan. THE MILKMAID'S LULLABY.—CLOSE TRANSLATION. Chorus.—Ho my heifer ! ho my heifer fair ! Ho my heifer ! ho my heifer fair ! Ho my heifer ! ho my heifer fair ! Thou heartling, heart I love thee ! I. Behold that cow on the plain, With her frisky calf before her ; Do thou as she did a while ago— Give thy milk thou calf of Fianach. H o my heifer, ho my heifer fair. II. Give thy milk brown cow, Give thy milk so abundant and rich; Give thy milk brown cow, And the gentles coming to the townland. Ho my heifer, &c. III. Give thy milk brown cow, And that there is nothing for them but bread. Give thy milk brown cow, Macneill! Macleod ! Clanranald ! Ho my heifer, &c. MAR CHIREIN NAN STUAGH. The following verses are said to have been composed in Benbecula in the time of bows and arrows. They are singularly chaste, beautiful, and elevated. They indicate, I think, the wonderful natural refinement of the people who could appreciate, preserve, and repeat these, and whole libraries of similar oral literature, throughout the past ages. The oral literature of the Highlands and Islands is singularly pure in tone and poetical in expression. I have taken down large quantities of this Literature, probably a small library in the mass, and I have never heard, either in this or among the people, an unbecoming word or an impure story. I went much among the very poorest of the people, among a people whose pinched features betrayed their poverty, yet during nearly seventeen years in Uist I was never once asked for charity. Their proprietor in South Uist, the late Mr John Gordon, did not exaggerate when he said—' The Uist people are all born gentlemen—every man of them.' Yet, these are the people so often misrepresented, and sometimes so cruelly maligned by me n who do not know them. The Uist people are excellent workers, and for the farming best adapted for their country infinitely before the best farming representatives that have been brought against them from the south. All these successively have had to adopt the native system of farming, after proving the unsuitableness of their own. 1. Mar chirein nan stuagh uaine, tam o ghao!, A h-eugasg tlath, mar dhearsa speuran ard; Mar sheudan loinneireach, a da shuil chaoin ; Mar arradh air bharr sleibh, fo ghiein nan trath. II. O ! càit am facas bean is aille snuagh, Cà'in facas riabh air cluain, le ceumaibh seirnh, Do shamhuil fein, a ghcug nam mile buadh, Mar chlacha, a buadha, 'san or is aille sgèimh ! In the following translation I have endeavoured to adhere closely to the original. THE WHITE CREST OF THE WAVE. I. To the white crest, of the green wave, I liken my love, Her countenance warm, like the beaming sky above: Like brilliant jewels, are her two blue sparkling eyes, Like the glancing sunbeams, all radiant from the skies. II. Oh ! where has eer been seen, a lovelier form or face ? On lawn, or plain, or held, of statelier mein or grace . Thou branch of thousand beauties, in thy pride of beauty's joy, Thou gem in purest gold, yea, gold without alloy ! | <urn:uuid:771c3903-576c-447c-a1a8-bc74e9355088> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://napier-outerhebrides.blogspot.com/2012/04/appendix-xcix.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00130-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960501 | 22,238 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Vermiculite is a hydrous, silicate mineral that is classified as a phyllosilicate and that expands greatly when heated. Exfoliation occurs when the mineral is heated sufficiently, and the effect is routinely produced in commercial furnaces. Vermiculite is formed by weathering or hydrothermal alteration of biotite or phlogopite. Large commercial vermiculite mines currently exist in Russia, South Africa, China, and Brazil.
Although not all vermiculite contains asbestos, some products were made with vermiculite that contained asbestos until the early 1990s. Vermiculite mines throughout the world are now regularly tested for it and are supposed to sell products that contain no asbestos. The former vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana, did have tremolite asbestos as well as winchite and richterite (both fibrous amphiboles) — in fact, it was formed underground through essentially the same geologic processes as the contaminants. A vermiculite mine in Virginia has also been found to be contaminated by asbestos.
The largest and oldest vermiculite mine in the United States was started in the 1920s, at Libby, Montana, and the vermiculite was sold under the commercial name Zonolite. The Zonolite brand and the mine was acquired by the W.R. Grace Company in 1963. Mining operations at the Libby site stopped in 1990 in response to asbestos contamination. While in operation, the Libby mine may have produced 80% of the world's supply of vermiculite.
After a 1999 Seattle Post-Intelligencer story claimed that asbestos-related disease was common in the town, the EPA, in response to political pressure, made cleanup of the site a priority and called Libby the worst case of community-wide exposure to a toxic substance in U.S. history. To date, approximately 1,200 residents of the Libby area have been identified as suffering from some kind of asbestos-related abnormality. On June 17, 2009, the EPA issued a public health emergency in and near Libby, thereby allowing federal agencies to provide funding for health care, and for removal of contaminated insulation from affected homes. | <urn:uuid:5dfb4b74-3eb6-42e3-a74d-2aed2c7a7059> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.latag.org/index.php/superfund-site/what-is-vermiculite | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00075-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972355 | 459 | 3.65625 | 4 |
National Museum of Natural History Opens Marine Biodiversity Exhibit
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History has opened an exhibit in the Sant Ocean Hall that highlights a decade-long investigation of the biodiversity in Earth’s oceans. The exhibit, “Census of Marine Life: A Decade of Discovery,” honors the research done by the Census of Marine Life and includes the 2011 International COSMOS Prize awarded to the Census for its outstanding achievements in conservation and environmental biology. The exhibit is located in the Sant Ocean Hall on the first floor of the museum and will be on display through September 2013.
“The Smithsonian is thrilled to not only be able to celebrate the accomplishments of the Census through this display in the Sant Ocean Hall, but also through the global reach of the Ocean Portal website,” said Sant Chair for Marine Sciences Nancy Knowlton.
The Census of Marine Life resulted in the creation of a vast database of information collected by an international network of scientists. The project, officially completed in October 2010, is the most comprehensive inventory of known marine life ever compiled and cataloged. This effort to assess the diversity, distribution and abundance of marine life includes the work of several Smithsonian scientists from the Natural History Museum, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in addition to more than 2,700 researchers from 80 different nations. As a result of the Census, 1,200 new species have been described so far, and many of the type of specimens on which the descriptions are based are housed at the Smithsonian.
The results of the Census have great significance for humanity to understand the amount of change that has already occurred within the planet’s oceans—as a baseline from which future change can be measured and as a thorough examination of the present condition of marine habitats.
Along with the COSMOS prize, the exhibit will feature a number of images showcasing marine life discovered by the Census and a rare deep-sea squid specimen. The squid is only the third-known specimen of its species, which has been named in honor of Census donors, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. For more information about the exhibit and the Census of Marine Life visit http://ocean.si.edu/oceancensus or http://www.si.edu/exhibitions or visit the museum and use a smart phone to scan the QR code found in the display that links to the Ocean Portal website.
# # # | <urn:uuid:0de920db-cd7b-48bc-acb5-cc850df02998> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://newsdesk.si.edu/releases/national-museum-natural-history-opens-marine-biodiversity-exhibit | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00200-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929887 | 510 | 3.28125 | 3 |
- Special Sections
- Public Notices
February is “I Love To Read Month” – unless you are “Henry.”
Henry can’t read.
He’s in the fourth grade and can’t read. Actually he can read, but he reads on the first-grade/sixth-month level. Henry desperately needs catch-up growth in reading.
A catch-up kindergarten curriculum did not adequately focus on letter recognition, phonemic awareness, phonics and vocabulary development. That robbed him of valuable literacy learning time every year since kindergarten. Neither Henry nor his parents know that.
Now Henry needs 180 to 240 minutes of personalized, direct reading instruction a day. That is instead of the 90-minute, 3-reading-group format that currently gives him 30 minutes of direct instruction a day in the fourth grade.
He needed this individualized intervention in kindergarten, and because he didn’t get it then, he has needed it every year since, with increasing urgency. What his school is doing for him now in fourth grade is too little and far too late. They are working hard, and so is Henry, but their system is based on a dwindling hope that Henry will “develop” into a reader.
Henry doesn’t know any of this. What Henry does know is that he is dumb. Dumb at science. Dumb at math. Dumb at social studies. He gets the same message every day. He has figured out there is not a lot of correlation between working hard and doing well. He’s right. When a child doesn’t read, there is virtually none.
Actually Henry is a bright kid. He has a strong work ethic and good reasoning skills. But part of his brain needs exercise. He started kindergarten two to three years behind, and there is no way he can catch up in 90 minutes or even 120 minutes a day.
Henry’s teachers, despite their genuine hope for Henry, look at each other and shake their heads while at the same time reassuring Henry and his parents that everything will be fine in time. Henry knows they aren’t telling the truth. He’s smart. He sees the looks they give each other when he can’t read the science information, the math word problems or the stories about other countries. He hears other kids whisper about him.
Four years ago we set our first BIG goal – to send every fifth-grade student to middle school performing above grade level. Teachers worked hard. They used every spare minute for extra reading time, and each year the percentages increased – slightly.
After four years of ever-improving intervention instruction, we have not reached our goal. Is it too lofty? Some may say yes. But our Henrys deserve to be ready for adulthood.
Add up all of the disadvantages for our Henrys. Some of them have language experience that is not in English. Some can’t sleep most nights because someone is screaming next door. Some can’t find a clean, quiet place to do homework – ever. Their parents never go to parent-teacher conferences or call the teacher back.
All of these disadvantages will be impossible to overcome if they can’t read. Henry’s real handicap is that he can’t read!
In the next month I will be recommending to our principals and our board of education the creation of radical schedule changes for our students who are still below grade level. These changes would include a minimum of 90 minutes of direct, eyeball-to-eyeball instruction daily for each year a student is behind. Does this mean some students may be in reading instruction for a majority of every day? It does.
As Shelbyville Mayor Tom Hardesty told me a few days ago when I shared the Henry story, “If he can’t read, he can’t do science or history or math. He has to be able to read.”
NOTE: The thoughts above come directly from Annual Growth for All Students, Catch-up Growth for those who are Behind. Some parts are quoted word for word. | <urn:uuid:2cd92ecd-1dce-4a22-a81c-574acd7ab959> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.sentinelnews.com/content/neihof-non-readers-need-drastic-help?quicktabs_2=0&mini=calendar-date%2F2013-08 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00004-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956969 | 855 | 3 | 3 |
CDC: First case of MERS contracted in the United States; Here’s how to protect yourself
The CDC says an Illinois man caught the sometimes-deadly virus after “close contact” with an Indiana man who had contracted it.
The Indiana victim was diagnosed with the flu-like illness returning from a trip to Saudi Arabia.
The agency says the Illinois resident did not require medical care.
But health officials have been monitoring his condition since May 3rd as part of the investigation.
The World Health Organization has confirmed nearly 600 cases of MERS, including 171 deaths.
Middle east respiratory syndrome was first diagnosed in the Arabian Peninsula in 2012 and has since spread to 18 countries.
Here’s what you need to know:
MERS does not appear to spread easily between humans like the flu, for example. The risk to the general public remains low, according to the CDC.
It takes close contact with a sick person, usually a healthcare worker or a loved one, to catch the virus.
MERS is in the same family of viruses such as the common cold. MERS attacks the respiratory system.
Symptoms include fever and cough and can progress to pneumonia and kidney failure.
Experts don’t know exactly where the virus came from, but it has been linked to infected camels in Saudi Arabia and other countries in the middle east.
There is no vaccine or medicine to prevent or cure MERS.
To help protect yourself the CDC advises people to wash their hands, not touch their eyes, nose or mouth with unclean hands. The CDC also says to avoid close contact with sick people. | <urn:uuid:3abbede9-c840-4e46-bf6c-c93b05ce988a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://kfor.com/2014/05/17/cdc-first-case-of-mers-contracted-in-the-united-states-heres-how-to-protect-yourself/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395621.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00039-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968064 | 336 | 3.140625 | 3 |
If you’re planning to build a robot with an Arduino, you’ll probably need a motor shield to drive your motors. The Official Arduino Motor Shield, now available in the Maker Shed, fits right on top of your Arduino Uno (or compatible) microcontroller and uses a full-bridge L298 driver. The L298 driver is capable of providing 2 channels with 5-12V at 2 amps per channel (or 4 amps max with external power supply) to control inductive loads such as relays, solenoids, and DC or stepper motors. It’s perfect for robotics because it is able to control the speed and direction of two DC motors independently, as well as measure the current each motor is using. This means that you can use your motors as an input device by measuring changes in current flow. Did your robot just hit a wall? With the right programming, your Arduino will sense the sudden rise of current from the stalled motors and command your robot to reverse to safety. The shield also features braking so you can stop your robot quickly should the need arise.
- Operating Voltage 5V to 12V
- Motor controller L298P, Drives 2 DC motors or 1 stepper motor
- Max current 2A per channel or 4A max (with external power supply)
- Current sensing 1.65V/A
- Free running stop and brake function | <urn:uuid:3f14b1e8-8b17-4a05-ba18-770d37d5e2a2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://makezine.com/2012/01/10/new-in-the-maker-shed-arduino-motor-shield/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00065-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916386 | 285 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Wind energy is one of the fastest-growing sectors of renewable energy in the U.S. Over four per cent of the total electricity in America was generated by wind turbines in 2013, which is equivalent to the annual electricity use for about 12 million households. Now, showing the power of wind energy, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has created an interactive map that shows the 47,000 ground-based wind turbines in the country. This special map uses high-resolution aerial imagery and data from the Federal Aviation Administration to create a national chart that can be zoomed in on to see specific facilities and even individual turbines. The map supports the rapidly growing numbers for wind energy.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s report, 20% Wind Energy by 2030, projects that wind power could supply 20 per cent of all U.S. electricity by that date. These numbers tell the tale: even without a comprehensive national energy policy, wind power is on its way to becoming a well-established source in the renewable energy market. Therefore, this USGS wind map will help to assess the impacts of wind energy development on wildlife at a national scale.
Knowing the location of individual turbines, as well as information such as the make, model, height, area of the turbine blades and capacity creates new opportunities for research and important information for land, and resource management. For example, turbine-level data will improve scientists’ ability to study wildlife collisions, the wakes causes by wind turbines, the interaction between wind turbines and ground based radar, and how wind energy facilities overlap with migratory flyways.
This fascinating map reveals clusters of wind farms in regions where you might expect to find them—in the windy plains of Texas and Oklahoma, and in some unexpected areas: the rolling hills, forests, and farm lands of Iowa and Minnesota. There are also dense concentrations in the power-hungry Northeast and in California. However, with the exception of a lone facility in Tennessee, there are no wind facilities in the South, a blank spot that requires further study. Sixteen states have installed over 1,000 MW of wind capacity. Texas leads the list, followed by California and Iowa.
Forty percent of all carbon emissions in the U.S. come from the electric power sector. Scientists say “decarbonizing” electricity is critical to holding carbon dioxide to a safer level in the atmosphere, and avoiding the worst impacts of climate change cost effectively. Reducing carbon emissions is high on the American agenda as the financial consequences to future generations and business interests will be a great burden. The country needs an energy transformation and many experts in the U.S. see wind energy as no longer an ‘alternative’ but an imperative.
Photo Credit: USGS
– See more at: http://www.justmeans.com/blogs/interactive-us-map-shows-the-power-of-wind-energy#sthash.oucyrjvy.dpuf | <urn:uuid:b357a3fb-8a35-4877-8056-4059bac69e96> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://socialearth.org/interactive-u-s-map-shows-power-wind-energy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00029-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924026 | 614 | 3.765625 | 4 |
Here I offer another spin-off from writing a lecture course on conformational analysis. This is the famous example of why 1,2-difluoroethane adopts a gauche rather than antiperiplanar conformation.
One major contribution to the greater stability of the gauche is the stereoelectronic interactions, and this is best probed using the NBO (Natural Bond Orbital) approach of Weinhold (DOI: 10.1021/ja00501a009). The process is approximately described as first reducing the wavefunction down to a set of orbitals which have been localized (using appropriate algorithms) down to two or one centres (corresponding to two-centre covalent bonds, or one-centre electron lone pairs). Perturbation theory is then used to evaluate the interaction energy between any filled and any empty combination. For the molecule above, six such combinations are inspected, involving any one of the six filled C-H or C-F σ-orbitals, and the best-overlapping σ* orbital which turns out to be located on the C-H or C-F bond anti-periplanar to the filled orbital.
A filled C-H orbital is shown above on the left, accompanied by an empty C-F σ* orbital on the right which is anti-periplanar to the first. This alignment allows the phases of the two orbitals to overlap maximally (blue-blue on the top, red-red beneath).
The interaction energy between this pair is determined not only by the efficacy of the overlap, but by the energy gap between the two. The smaller the gap, the better the interaction energy (referred to as E2, in kcal/mol). For the gauche conformation, the six pairs of orbitals have the following interaction energies; two σC-H/σ*C-F interactions (illustrated above), 4.9; two σC-H/σ*C-H 2.6 and two σC-F/σ*C-H 0.8 kcal/mol. For the anti-periplanar conformation, the terms are four σC-H/σ*C-H 2.5 and two σC-F/σ*C-F 1.8 kcal/mol. The two totals (16.6 vs 13.6) indicate that gauche is stabilized more by such interactions.
There is of course a bit more to this story, but I have documented the above here, since I can include an explicit (and rotatable) illustration of the orbitals involved (which I have not seen elsewhere). If you want a recipe for generating these orbitals, go here. | <urn:uuid:c2f06111-5d20-477a-a976-3f640b5da17b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ch.imperial.ac.uk/rzepa/blog/?p=1887 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00081-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911544 | 574 | 2.625 | 3 |
This observation shows a series of parallel layers eroding into peculiar knobs and hills.
These sedimentary rocks were imaged on the floor of a large crater located at 8.8 degrees North, 358.3 degrees East. Similar rock units are found within several nearby craters also imaged by HiRISE, as seen in images PSP_001902_1890, ESP_013611_1910, and PSP_002733_1880. The occurrence of similar layers in each of these locations may indicate that they were once part of a much more extensive geologic unit that has now been largely eroded away.
One particularly interesting aspect of the layers in this image is their repetitive nature. Each layer appears to be nearly the same thickness throughout the outcrop, as has also been observed in other nearby layered units. This cyclic nature points to a formation process which occurred repeatedly, building up the deposit layer by layer. However, the exact formation mechanism and the climate cycle possibly responsible for forming the layers here remain unknown.
Studying the record exposed in rocks like these can help reveal secrets of the ancient Martian climate.
The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the spacecraft development and integration contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. | <urn:uuid:6d8bca9a-8892-43bc-a70f-092af155ed42> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13072 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00163-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95419 | 316 | 4.03125 | 4 |
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March 14, 2013 | Volume 8 | Issue 12
Table of Contents
Common Core Quick-Start
Incorporating Digital Devices into Common Core Lessons
Elizabeth Ross Hubbell and Kirsten Miller
Technology and the Common Core State Standards are a natural fit: after all, the standards are peppered with references to technology, digital tools, and multimedia. But though the Common Core standards tell us what to teach, they don't tell us how to teach it—or, in this case, which technologies teachers and students can use to implement the standards.
When it comes to technology, the wording of the standards is purposefully broad so that the documents won't become dated as specific tools are replaced by newer technologies. However, a teacher new to technology might find this general treatment of 21st century tools frustrating and obscure. If nothing else, the lack of specific guidance might be limiting for teachers who aren't yet tech-savvy.
For example, mathematics standard 7 under interpreting functions in high school states that students should, "Graph functions expressed symbolically and show key features of the graph, by hand in simple cases and using technology for more complicated cases." Although most teachers would immediately think of using a graphing calculator, there are also a variety of online tools and iOS (Apple's mobile operating system) apps that could be used for this purpose.
Similarly, one of the college- and career-readiness anchor standards for writing states that students should, "Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others." Though blogs or e-mail might first come to mind, tools such as ScreenChomp and ExplainEverything can create vodcasts (video podcasts) to provide even richer collaborative communication experiences.
So, how can teachers choose the right technology to use when implementing the Common Core standards? As with any instructional tool, we need to adjust its application to our intended outcome.
Defining the Purpose of Technology
We first need to determine what we're teaching and how we're teaching it and then consider how technology can help us get there.
One helpful tool for choosing technologies is Pitler, Hubbell, and Kuhn's (2012) Matrix of Strategies and Technologies. The matrix helps teachers first identify the instructional strategy that they intend to use (Dean, Hubbell, Pitler, & Stone, 2012) and then narrow down the myriad of choices to one of the nine types of technology:
Let's say, for example, that a 6th grade teacher wants his students to research varying points of view about what should be done about a pollution issue in their small town. Following Writing Anchor Standard 1 in the Common Core State Standards, he wants his students to "Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence." In addition, he hopes to incorporate a rich multimedia and collaboration activity to tap into his students’ recent interest in connecting with learners outside of their school.
As he looks over the matrix, he decides that his proposed activity will use the instructional strategies of summarizing and cooperative learning, because students will have specific roles on which they will be graded in addition to the group product. Next, he reviews the technology types and decides that the tools he has in mind fall under the communication and collaboration and multimedia creation categories of the matrix.
With this information in hand, he can search the Internet and the iTunes store for tools that will fit his purpose. He decides to use VoiceThread, an online resource and iOS app that allows students to upload pictures or slides, record their voice, draw on the slides, and comment. This tool not only gives his students a place to verbally and nonlinguistically summarize what they find, but also gives them a platform for providing feedback to their team members.
As his students grow more comfortable with using these types of technologies, he will later give them the freedom to choose their preferred tools for projects.
To find specific tools for each type of technology, here are some useful resources:
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Dean, C., Hubbell, E. R., Pitler, H., & Stone, B. (2012). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Elizabeth Ross Hubbell is a principal consultant at McREL and coauthor of Using Technology with Classroom Instruction That Works, 2nd Edition. Kirsten Miller is lead communications consultant at McREL.
ASCD Express, Vol. 8, No. 12. Copyright 2013 by ASCD. All rights reserved. Visit www.ascd.org/ascdexpress.
Subscribe to ASCD Express, our twice-monthly e-mail newsletter, to have practical, actionable strategies and information delivered to your e-mail inbox twice a month.
ASCD respects intellectual property rights and adheres to the laws governing them. Learn more about our permissions policy and submit your request online. | <urn:uuid:f7288314-cc57-42f6-9beb-cc8a4cc4664f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol8/812-hubbell.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00045-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916654 | 1,178 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Bresse (Arpitan: 'Brêsse') is a former French province. It is located in the regions of Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne, and Franche-Comté of eastern France. The geographical term Bresse has two meanings: Bresse bourguignonne (or louhannaise), which is situated in the east of the department of Saône-et-Loire, and Bresse, which is located in the department of Ain. The corresponding adjective is bressan, and the inhabitants are Bressans.
Bresse extends from the Dombes on the south to the Doubs River on the north, and from the Saône eastwards to the Jura mountains, measuring some 60 miles in the former, and 20 miles in the latter direction. It is a plain varying from 600 to 800 feet above the sea, with few eminences and a slight inclination westwards. Heaths and coppice alternate with pastures and arable land; pools and marshes are numerous, especially in the north. Its chief rivers are the Veyle, the Reyssouze and the Seille, all tributaries of the Saône. The soil is a gravelly clay but moderately fertile, and cattle-raising is largely carried on. The region is, however, more especially celebrated for its table poultry.
Bresse belonged in the Middle Ages to the lords of Bâgé, from whom it passed in 1272 to the house of Savoy. It was not till the first half of the 15th century that the province, with Bourg as its capital, was founded as such. In 1601 it was ceded to France by the Treaty of Lyon, after which it formed (together with the province of Bugey / 'Bugê') first a separate government and later part of the government of Burgundy.
Initially, Bâgé was the principal city of the province. But its location, close to the borders of France, encouraged the emergence of Bourg-en-Bresse, which became the capital. The province was coveted by the King of France, who wanted to increase his territory. The flat nature of Bresse was difficult to defend. Finally the sovereigns of Savoy ('Savouè') agreed to relocate to the Alpine part of the Duchy and to give up Bresse and Bugey in exchange for Château-Dauphin in Piedmont. | <urn:uuid:e4a4dc6a-aa63-4605-9f70-5c85bf6447e5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Place:Bresse%2C_France | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393332.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00076-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969296 | 522 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Cheshire Students Learn About Space, Robotics
|Aerospace educator Gary T. Pozzato demonstrates how his homemade robot works during a presentation at Cheshire Elementary on Thursday.|
CHESHIRE, Mass. — Of all the questions kids have about astronauts and outer space, perhaps there's one that's not often addressed.
How do astronauts go to the bathroom?
Aerospace educator Gary T. Pozzato gives kids that answer in his "Go for the Stars" multimedia space program presentation.
"A space toilet is not like our toilets down here," he told the pre-kindergartners through second-graders at Cheshire Elementary School on Thursday during a PTG-sponsored trip to the school. "No, no, no."
Instead of water, a space toilet uses air, he told the kids, who responded with typical giggles. The astronaut sits on a toilet in which air is being circulated below and "expels the waste" as normal, and then the air blows the waste into a compartment for storage.
"There's no secrets, no tricks," he said.
Pozzato, who is based in Connecticut, shared many secrets about space and science during the presentation, which included a visit from his homemade robot, ROBO the Friendly Robot, and a slideshow of images of Mars captured by the several robots NASA has sent there over the years.
Several children were chosen to wear blue astronaut jumpsuits and participate in hands-on activities, including commanding ROBO to recycle a water bottle and demonstrating how a planet orbits. Pozzato gave a second presentation immediately after the first for the third- through fifth-graders at the school.
Karen Isbell, president of the Cheshire PTG, said the school received a flier about the presentation and chose to bring Pozzato in because they were looking for enrichment activities to supplement regular classroom time.
"We wanted to bring in something educational but fun," Isbell said.
"I was happy I got to talk to a robot," said first-grader Haley Wood as she removed the jumpsuit she got to wear during the presentation.
"They're never going to forget this," Pozzato said.
Tags: Adams-Cheshire, school program, science, | <urn:uuid:2e6825a1-48a4-44e2-9ea5-afd30463812c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.iberkshires.com/story/46303/Cheshire-Students-Learn-About-Space-Robotics.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00169-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978158 | 470 | 3.09375 | 3 |
The man-in-the middle attack intercepts a communication between two systems. For example, in an http transaction the target is the TCP connection between client and server. Using different techniques, the attacker splits the original TCP connection into 2 new connections, one between the client and the attacker and the other between the attacker and the server, as shown in figure 1. Once the TCP connection is intercepted, the attacker acts as a proxy, being able to read, insert and modify the data in the intercepted communication.
Figure 1. Illustration of man-in-the-middle attack
The MITM attack is very effective because of the nature of the http protocol and data transfer which are all ASCII based. In this way, it’s possible to view and interview within the http protocol and also in the data transferred. So, for example, it’s possible to capture a session cookie reading the http header, but it’s also possible to change an amount of money transaction inside the application context, as shown in figure 2.
Figure 2. Illustration of a HTTP Packet intercepted with Paros Proxy.
The MITM attack could also be done over an https connection by using the same technique; the only difference consists in the establishment of two independent SSL sessions, one over each TCP connection. The browser sets a SSL connection with the attacker, and the attacker establishes another SSL connection with the web server. In general the browser warns the user that the digital certificate used is not valid, but the user may ignore the warning because he doesn’t understand the threat. In some specific contexts it’s possible that the warning doesn’t appear, as for example, when the Server certificate is compromised by the attacker or when the attacker certificate is signed by a trusted CA and the CN is the same of the original web site.
MITM is not only an attack technique, but is also usually used during the development step of a web application or is still used for Web Vulnerability assessments.
MITM Attack tools
There are several tools to realize a MITM attack. These tools are particularly efficient in LAN network environments, because they implement extra functionalities, like the arp spoof capabilities that permit the interception of communication between hosts.
- Cain e Abel
MITM Proxy only tools
Proxy tools only permit interactiion with the parts of the HTTP protocol, like the header and the body of a transaction, but do not have the capability to intercept the TCP connection between client and server. To intercept the communication, it’s necessary to use other network attack tools or configure the browser.
- OWASP WebScarab
- Paros Proxy
- Burp Proxy
- Odysseus Proxy
- Fiddler (by Microsoft) | <urn:uuid:ae1dfdf9-7b39-45e1-8937-b646ebe213c4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.owasp.org/index.php?title=Man-in-the-middle_attack&oldid=58198 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00021-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906983 | 564 | 3.453125 | 3 |
What does an eight year old boy escaping the Nazis on a boat to the United States have in common with the award-winning chemist who taught at some of the most preeminent Universities in the United States? Easy: they’re the same person. Martin Karplus, an Austrian-born chemist who holds American citizenship was honored last week with the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Karplus was one of the nine Americans Nobel Prize winners for sciences. Of the nine, four of them were immigrants. These awards highlight the importance of immigrants to the vitality of sciences within the United States.
All three winners for Chemistry were immigrants who became American citizens. In addition to Karplus, South-African born Michael Levitt and Israeli born Arieh Warshel shared the Chemistry award “for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems.” Put simply, they developed “a powerful new way to do chemistry on a computer” in the 1970s. As a result of their work, computer “simulations are so realistic that they predict the outcome of traditional experiments.” That includes predicting the chemical reactions used in developing new drugs.
The other immigrant honoree, German-born Thomas C. Südhof, received his award for Physiology or Medicine along with two other Americans “for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells.” According to a professor at Harvard Medical School, their work is critical “for elucidating how Alzheimer’s plaque and tangle pathology arises in the brain, especially at synapses.” Südhof, who immigrated to the United States on a post-doctoral fellowship in the 1980s, has done scientific work that made progress in our understanding of autism and is a member of Cure Alzheimer’s Fund.
The Institute for Immigration Research at George Mason University found that since 1906, when the first Nobel Prize was given, “foreign born scientists and engineers are over-represented among Nobel Laureates in the U.S.” Specifically, 32 percent of all U.S. Nobel laureates were immigrants. And the U.S. has produced more science Nobel laureates than any other nation. Considering these numbers, it is not surprising that immigrants also make up more than 40 percent of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) students in American MA and PhD programs. It is increasingly difficult for these STEM graduates to stay in the United States due to difficulties obtaining a visa.
The high proportion of immigrant Nobel Prize winners emphasizes the significant contributions of immigrants to the sciences within the United States. More than awards, immigrants are making huge leaps in our understanding of the world and our bodies. The work of these immigrant honorees has tangible importance to every American who suffers from Alzheimer’s or autism, or whose life has been saved because of a new drug developed with the help of the computer program written by immigrants. If our immigration system cannot meet the demands of science in the 21st century, then it jeopardizes the future scientific achievements of the United States.
Photo Courtesy of Adam Baker. | <urn:uuid:cd74563d-532c-4ccd-b3b5-d92b358ba32f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://immigrationimpact.com/2013/10/16/four-out-of-nine-of-this-years-u-s-nobel-prize-winners-are-immigrants/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396455.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00015-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962416 | 641 | 2.953125 | 3 |
I know what you're thinking: parking policy sounds like a tedious, unsexy, small-stakes squabble. But its economic, environmental, and social impact cannot be overstated. Plus, many Americans really care about parking. After all, we are a country with over 250 million registered passenger vehicles, and roughly 800 million parking spots. Not to mention that the average American spends 614 hours driving every year.
As parking battles are waged from city to city, some activist groups have begun to deploy diverse strains of "freedom" rhetoric to help advance their goals. (One group in L.A., for instance, has dubbed itself "The Los Angeles Parking Freedom Initiative.") This raises some questions: Is parking a right? Should Americans be provided with free parking? Should the government just quit regulating parking altogether?
To determine whether parking extends beyond policy and into the arena of rights, let's first look at the basic nature of rights. Whether they are human rights, which apply to every individual on the planet, or civil rights, which apply to citizens of a particular nation, rights are shared by everyone in the group. The right to free speech, the right to due process, the right to vote — these are entitlements shared by all American citizens. Moreover, my right to vote does not inherently inhibit your right to vote.
With this framework in mind, it's clear why parking is certainly not a right, and instead just a matter of public policy. First off, driving is not an absolute right — you have to earn that privilege and it can be taken away. Not everyone can, will, or should drive a vehicle. And if driving is not a right, by extension, parking isn't.
But moreover, parking in a spot inherently obstructs someone else from parking in that spot — an outcome incompatible with rights. My right to a free public education does not, on principle, conflict with yours. But my ability to park somewhere does.
But even if we don't have a natural right to park our cars, should Americans get free parking anyway?
In Los Angeles, activists have been organizing for months under the banner of The Los Angeles Parking Freedom Initiative. They argue that the city takes advantage of its citizens to ameliorate its budget problems. The LA Times reports that an average L.A. parking ticket costs $68, and that money secured from parking fines has grown from about $110 million in 2003 to almost $161 million this year. Activists are now seeking to cap non-public safety related parking fines at $23.
Activists in Keene, New Hampshire, are fighting for more than just a decreased financial penalty; they want parking fines eliminated altogether. Although there is free parking in Keene after 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and all day on Sunday, libertarian activists involved in the Free Keene campaign are not satisfied. To demonstrate their discontent, they are feeding expired meters before tickets can be issued, and have allegedly prevented the city from issuing more than 4,000 parking tickets since 2009. They also have taken to harassing parking enforcement officers.
In other areas, like Detroit, the city actually spends more money issuing parking fines than it does from collecting them. And almost half of the Motor City’s 3,400 parking meters don't work on any given day, further complicating parking governance.
So why don't these governments just make parking free? Why not forget faulty parking meters and quit it with regressive fines that disproportionally hurt the poor? Wouldn't that solve these vexing problems?
While it would certainly make libertarians happy, this kind of move would hinder some policy aims that lie behind parking penalties. As Washington Post reporter Emily Badger explains, parking tickets aren't really supposed to generate municipal revenue. (Although many cities do use parking tickets for such ends.) Rather they're supposed to help "manage public assets" and ensure that curbs and streets will be preserved for the public good. Moreover, research shows that free parking is often directly responsible for staggering traffic congestion — when people leave their cars parked all day, others are left to "cruise" around in search for empty spots, causing major traffic issues.
Free parking also seems to change behavior, and not in a good way. One study showed that free parking in Manhattan meant 19,200 more cars entered the tiny island each day. Other studies have found that limiting the number of available parking spots can incentivize cities to invest in public transportation, which can help the environment and strengthen a city's economic structure.
In some cities and regions, free or subsidized parking makes sense. In others, charging market rates to park or issuing higher penalties might be the right policy. Whatever the municipality and its citizens decide, and the needs vary from place to place, the point is that "free parking" is never free. There are always tradeoffs. | <urn:uuid:071499bf-ed05-4b21-9a23-69f5f15da813> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://theweek.com/articles/446022/americans-have-right-free-parking | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00200-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965584 | 989 | 2.515625 | 3 |
This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.
Obama Administration Announces $14.2 Million in New Funding to Develop Lightweight Materials for Advanced Vehicles
Today, as President Obama went to Ohio State University to discuss the all-out, all-of-the-above strategy for American energy, the White House announced a new $14.2 million effort at the Department of Energy to accelerate the development and deployment of stronger and lighter materials for advanced vehicles that will help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, save drivers money, and limit carbon pollution. This funding will support the development of high-strength, lightweight carbon fiber composites and advanced steels and alloys that will help vehicle manufacturers improve the fuel economy of cars and trucks while maintaining and improving safety and performance.
"By investing in next-generation vehicle materials and components, we are helping U.S. manufacturers improve the fuel efficiency of our cars and trucks and ensuring American companies remain at the cutting-edge of the global auto industry," said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. "Lighter, stronger materials will help improve the performance of our vehicles while saving families and businesses money at the pump."
Replacing cast iron and traditional steel components with lightweight materials—including advanced high-strength steel, magnesium, aluminum, and polymer composites—allows manufacturers to include additional safety devices, integrated electronic systems, and emissions control equipment on vehicles without increasing their weight. Using lighter materials also reduces a vehicle's fuel consumption. For example, reducing a vehicle's weight by 10% can improve the fuel economy by 6 to 8%.
The Energy Department intends to fund projects across three major areas of materials research and development, including developing modeling tools to deliver higher performing carbon fiber composites and advanced steels, as well as researching new lightweight, high-strength alloys for energy-efficient vehicle and truck engines. The specific research areas include:
- Predictive modeling of carbon fiber composites: Carbon fiber composites are capable of reducing vehicle component weight by up to 50% over conventional automotive steel structures. Projects selected in this area will validate modeling tools to optimize the performance and cost-effectiveness of carbon fiber composite materials for vehicle body, chassis, and interior uses.
- Predictive modeling of advanced steels: Advanced high strength steels are capable of reducing vehicle component weight by more than 25%. Projects selected in this area will develop modeling tools to optimize the performance and cost-effectiveness of third-generation high strength steels for the vehicle body and chassis.
- Advanced alloy development for automotive and heavy-duty engines: As manufacturers continue to push the limits of engine efficiency, cast engine components must be strong enough to withstand higher cylinder pressures. Projects selected in this area will develop low-cost, high-strength alloys for automotive and heavy duty engine blocks and cylinder heads.
The Energy Department will make up to $8.2 million available in fiscal year 2012 for selection under this funding opportunity announcement, and subject to congressional appropriations, the Department plans to make an additional $6 million available in fiscal year 2013 to fully fund these advanced materials projects, which will take 2-4 years to complete.
The Department will accept applications from industry, national laboratories, and university led-teams to address these challenges and enable technologies that will drive innovation in vehicle design. Applications for the solicitation are due May 7, 2012. For more information and application requirements, please visit the Funding Opportunity Exchange website.
The Energy Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy accelerates development and facilitates deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies and market-based solutions that strengthen U.S. energy security, environmental quality, and economic vitality. Learn more about DOE's efforts to meet tomorrow's transportation challenges with an integrated portfolio of advanced vehicle and fuel research, development, demonstration, and deployment activities. | <urn:uuid:66721d32-6b4a-4609-a3bc-e279313c79e0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=18194 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394987.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00179-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925204 | 781 | 2.625 | 3 |
The DNS protocol is used to resolve FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Names) to IP addresses around the world. This allows us to successfully find and connect to Internet websites and services no matter where they are. Its usefulness, however, doesn't stop there: local company and private networks also rely on DNS to operate efficiently and correctly.
In many cases, where a local DNS server is not available, we are forced to either use our ISP's DNS servers or some public DNS server, however, this can sometimes prove troublesome. Today, small low-end routers have the ability to integrate DNS functionality, making life easier, but so do Cisco routers - they simply have to be setup and you're done.
This article will show you how to configure your Cisco router to provide DNS services to your network, and make all clients use it as a DNS server. Our easy to follow step-by-step process ensures you'll understand the process and have it running within minutes.
Consider the following network diagram. This is our example network, we'd like to enable the DNS Service so our workstations can properly resolve Internet domains but also local network names.
First step is to enable the DNS service and domain lookup on the router:
R1(config)# ip dns server
R1(config)# ip domain-lookup
Next, we need to configure the router with a public name-server, this will force the router to perform recursive DNS lookups, in other words, for every request it receives from our workstations the router will try to find the answer by asking as many DNS servers it needs, and finally return with an answer:
R1(config)# ip name-server 22.214.171.124
The Cisco IOS will allow you to enter up to 6 different name servers (essentially DNS servers). Usually you would use your ISP's DNS server to ensure you have quick responses, then place a few free public DNS servers such as the ones above. This will ensure that you'll get a DNS response from either your ISP or public DNS servers.
Next step is to configure your DNS server with the host names of your local network, this way when Alan's PC trys to ping or connect to Wayne, the router will successfully resolve its netbios name to the appropriate IP address:
R1(config)# ip host john 192.168.1.11
R1(config)# ip host wayne 192.168.1.12
If you now try to ping 'wayne' directly from your router's CLI prompt, you should receive an answer:
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 192.168.1.12, timeout is 2 seconds:
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 1/1/4 ms
At this point, you can configure your workstations to use your router's IP address as the primary DNS server:
We've covered how a Cisco router can be used as a basic DNS server to enable network clients to perform DNS queries for the local network and Internet.
Future articles in DNS will cover more advanced configurations, including full domain resource records, DNS load balancing and more.
If you have found the article useful, we would really appreciate you sharing it with others by using the provided services on the top left corner of this article. Sharing our articles takes only a minute of your time and helps Firewall.cx reach more people through such services. | <urn:uuid:b3253a8b-13a6-4504-86e6-97760f66e390> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.firewall.cx/cisco-technical-knowledgebase/cisco-routers/257-cisco-router-dns-server.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00150-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914873 | 733 | 3.46875 | 3 |
by M. Gross and C.E. Swift* (11/14)
Revised by K. Jones**
- In Colorado, Kentucky bluegrass, tall fescue, and perennial ryegrass lawns must receive supplemental irrigation to survive.
- Soil preparation is critical to the rooting depth and drought tolerance of turf.
- Kentucky bluegrass lawns may require 2.5 inches of water or more per week during the heat of summer.
- The best time of day to irrigate is between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
- Lawns grown on sandy soil require more frequent irrigation applications (with less water per application) than lawns
grown on clay soil.
To determine the most appropriate irrigation schedule for an established lawn consider the following: turf species; soil type; cutting height; potential disease and pest problems; local weather patterns; and microclimates (i.e., shade vs. full sun exposure; low vs. high areas of the yard). For example, a lawn cut at 3 inches holds water longer than a lawn cut at 2 inches; or lower areas of a lawn hold water longer than higher areas. A properly designed and installed automatic sprinkler system should be programmed to accommodate these specific lawn needs. Rain sensors are useful for residents who are unable to adjust automatic systems when rainfall occurs.
When designing an irrigation system and developing an irrigation schedule consider the presence of trees and shrubs in the lawn because they have roots in the turf area that compete for water and nutrients. Take care to avoid root damage when installing a sprinkler system in areas with established trees and shrubs. For more information see Colorado State University Extension fact sheet 2.926, Healthy Roots and Healthy Trees.
A lawn’s tolerance to drought is directly related to how well the soil was prepared prior to applying seed or sod. Heavily compacted soil that is low in organic matter does not facilitate deep, healthy root growth. Grass roots grow to their maximum depth in well-aerated soil containing four to five percent organic matter. A healthy, deep root system produces vigorous turf that is tolerant of drought and resistant to disease and insect pests.
In Colorado, cool season turfgrass such as bluegrass, fescue, perennial ryegrass, or bentgrass need regular applications of water. And even though warm season grasses (blue grama and buffalograss) are known for their drought tolerance, they too thrive with occasional watering. The condition of the grass and soil – not the number of days since watering – is the best guide to irrigation. If you water daily or every other day, just because water is available, it is a waste of water and can be detrimental to the lawn. Doing this can predispose the turf to disease. Watering too frequently causes root death of trees and shrubs in or near the turf area either from root rot disease or lack of oxygen in the soil.
Amount and Frequency of Application
The rule of thumb for watering an established lawn is, “water as deeply and as infrequently as possible.” Deep and infrequent irrigation stimulates root growth, resulting in healthy, drought tolerant, and pest resistant turf. While it’s true that a deep, healthy root system produces vigorous turf, rooting depth is determined primarily by genetics and soil condition – not irrigation. Maximum rooting depth occurs when soil conditions allow the roots of a particular species (or variety) to reach their full potential. This is not achieved by proper irrigation alone; a combination of proper irrigation, proper fertility (see fact sheet 7.202, Lawn Care), and regular core aerification (once in spring and/or once in fall) maximizes rooting depth and overall turf vigor.
Apply 1 to 1.5 inches of water per irrigation. Determine how long this takes by setting several shallow containers (such as baking pans) in different areas of the lawn for thirty minutes while irrigating. Measure, in inches, the depth of water accumulated in the containers. The average depth of water in these containers multiplied by two is the inches of water per hour emitted by the sprinkler system.
Clay soils (which include most Colorado soils) have a much lower penetration rate than sandy soils; therefore, clay needs to be watered at a slower rate in order to avoid runoff and puddling. To avoid runoff from very heavy clay soil and/or a sloped lawn you can water for a short period, then stop and start back up again until 1 to 1.5 inches of water has accumulated. Most irrigation clocks permit this type of cycling feature. This cycle may be as short as 5 minutes. This is best determined by the appearance of water running off the area being irrigated.
Water pressure varies from one location to another, thus the length of time a neighbor waters may not necessarily be appropriate for your lawn. Lawns also have different soil types which permit water infiltration at different rates. Experience will eventually turn this seemingly tedious process into one that is quick and second nature. The addition of a pressure regulator at the valve is required if misting of water occurs. Set the regulator at the pressure appropriate for the particular nozzle in that zone.
Irrigate when the turf indicates water is needed. Look for signs of wilt, which often show up in the same location on the lawn time after time. Footprints or lawn mower tracks that remain at least one half hour after traffic has passed indicates irrigation is needed. Turf will also turn a shade of blue-gray when it is water stressed and in need of irrigation.
Do not irrigate again until you see signs of wilt. It’s important that the soil profile dries somewhat between irrigation applications. Continually water-logged soils are deprived of oxygen which is required for proper root growth.
On very hot days turf may appear stressed even if the soil is wet. This is caused by heat stress and can be remedied by cooling off the turf by wetting it for 15 seconds or less. This technique is called syringing and is not the same as watering. The use of a Smart Controller that uses local weather data to determine the watering requirement of the turf and other irrigated areas will ensure proper watering. These include the Smart Line Weathermatic controller, the Hunter ET System and the ET Manager system. Further information on these units and other smart controllers is available from your irrigation supply house or on the Internet. These units can reduce water use in the landscape by as much as 55 percent, without jeapardizing the beauty of the landscape.
Time of Day to Irrigate
The best time to irrigate your lawn is between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. During this period it is generally cooler, less windy, and the humidity is higher so evaporation losses are less. Water pressure may also be higher at this time providing a more even spray distribution pattern.
Irrigating between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. also overlaps with the turf’s natural dew period. Most diseases of turf occur when grass blades are wet for longer than 14 consecutive hours. Watering before 10 p.m. or after 6 a.m. extends the natural wetness period and increases disease problems. Dew contains substances exuded from the plant tissue. These materials increase the growth of disease organisms. Water applied between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. dilutes these materials thus reducing the growth of turf disease organisms.
If it is not practical to water during this time period, another option is to water between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., starting the irrigation after the dew has dried but before the winds begin. From a disease prevention perspective, irrigating anytime between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. is fine (as long as the turf dries before the evening dew period sets in); however water loss from sun and wind will be greatest at this time.
Winter watering may not be necessary for established lawns. However, lawns started within the last year are especially susceptible to winter dessication injury and need supplemental winter irrigation. Areas of Colorado which experience open, dry winters are more susceptible to winter grass mites and dessication if occasional winter irrigation is not applied. See fact sheet 7.211, Winter Watering for more information.
*M. Gross, former Colorado State University Extension horticulture and natural resources agent, Eagle County; and C.E. Swift, former Extension horticulture agent, Tri River area, Grand Junction. **K. Jones, Colorado State University Extension natural resources agent, Chaffee County.7/02. Revised 11/14.
Go to top of this page. | <urn:uuid:1c9f86b9-201f-445c-85a3-5844c7885d38> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/yard-garden/watering-established-lawns-7-199/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00084-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940692 | 1,787 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Botanical name: Rungia pectinata Family: Acanthaceae (Acanthus family)
Synonyms: R. parviflora var. pectinata, R. parviflora var. muralis, Justicia pectinata
Comb Rungia is a small annual herb, abundantly found on rocky surfaces. The species name pectinata means comb-like, probably referring to the resemblance of the flower-spike to a comb. Cylindrical stems are weak, 10-20 cm long. Oppositely arranged leaves, 1-3 cm, are oblong-lanceolate, sharp-tipped. Tiny violet-blue flowers are about 3-4 mm, and occur in spikes at the end of branches, or in leaf axils. Flower-spikes are 0.5-2.5 cm long, with sharp-tipped bracts arranged in 2 rows, like a comb. Flower is 2-lipped with tube narrow. Stamens 2, filaments short. Flowering: November-December.
Identification credit: Dinesh Valke
The flower labeled Comb Rungia is ... | <urn:uuid:effcaf7e-fb54-41b8-b442-0e7fa6bf404c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Comb%20Rungia.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396875.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00004-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.858636 | 244 | 2.90625 | 3 |
"Build a Giant Puzzle!" is a hands-on activity in which visitors assembly large cubes to make nano related images. They learn how different objects are related to nano.
"Exploring Fabrication - Self-Assembly" includes several full-body interactive games visitors can play to model the process of self-assembly in nature and nanotechnology. Visitors learn that self-assembly is a process by which molecules and cells form themselves into functional structures.
"Snowflakes" is a public presentation that introduces nanoscale science through the subject of snowflakes. Visitors learn that the complex structure of snowflakes results from the nanoscale arrangement of water molecules in an ice crystal, and that snowflakes are examples of self-assembled systems studied by nanoscientists. During the program, visitors watch videos of snowflakes growing and observe real ice crystals growing in a chilled chamber. | <urn:uuid:aac9e134-3bb3-421d-97dd-60d84486fdfb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://nisenet.org/catalog/topics/snowflake | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00077-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935036 | 180 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Dane County Libraries: Growing more than readers
What is a Seed Library
For thousands of years people have cultivated gardens enjoying the fruits of their labor.
Until recent times saving the previous year’s seeds to plant the next crop was an essential part of the process. Today many people are enjoying the return of the seed saving tradition.
Seed saving is important because you:
- Develop seeds that become acclimated to our local climate
- Grow plants that are more pest resistant
- Save money on seeds and plants
- Know where your food is coming from
- Become less dependent on large food producers
By participating in the seed library you are helping to create a culture of sharing and community. Saving seeds leads to a sustainable future for your community and your garden. If you already save seeds, consider contributing to our seed library.
Borrowing seeds from the seed library is FREE! However, your contribution to your community is priceless. Gardening allows you to become more self-sufficient, eat more nutritious food, and save money.
To participate in the seed library we ask that you not only save seeds for yourself but also for the seed library. When you return seeds to the seed library they will be cataloged and other community members can check them out.
The greater number of seeds that are returned to the seed library the greater the number of community members who can benefit.
How it Works
The seed library will start with these seeds because they are fun and easy to grow for beginner seed savers. These seeds tend to produce plants that are like what you planted and are self-pollinating. The seeds are generally easy to harvest and dry.
|Beans||Hot Peppers||Sweet Peppers|
|Chard||Lettuce (2)||Tomatoes (2)|
- Choose seeds to checkout, take home and plant
- You will receive instructions specific to your seeds on how to plant and save seeds
- Check out related programs at participating libraries
- Plant your seeds and enjoy the fruits of your labor!
- Before harvesting your seeds review the specific instructions you received at checkout.
- Once the seeds are collected and fully dried set some aside for yourself to use next year, fill out the information on the labeled envelopes, and place the seeds inside.
- Drop off your seeds at your library for others to check out!
- UW-Extension Plant Health Helpline:
May-October there will be a Master Gardener who has gone through the PHA training in the office from 9-12:00, Monday- Friday to answer gardener's questions. People who call when we aren't at the phone can leave a voice mail. We always call back. There are times when we have to call back the gardener if we have to do some research to give the caller bona fide answers. Gardeners can also email us which is very helpful for some questions because people can send email pictures. The pictures are often very helpful.
- Phone 224-3721
- Email [email protected]
- learningstore.uwex.edu/Vegetables-C81.aspx and learningstore.uwex.edu/Lawn-Garden-C2.aspx (click on the selected article's cover and scroll down to click view pdf)
- Wisconsin Horticulture through UW-Extension
- Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic from University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension
Seed Saving Links:
Seed Donation Form (pdf)
Planting Instructions (pdf)
Dane County Bookmobile
Visit us at www.dcls.info for a complete schedule of community visits or call us at 608-266 9297
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Funding for this program generously provided by the John A. Johnson Fund and an anonymous donor through the Madison Community Foundation. | <urn:uuid:2fa012a7-2754-43a9-8aba-7f57bfd9da92> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.oregonpubliclibrary.org/seed-library?qt-linkcat_search_search_this_site=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397695.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00036-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.89685 | 1,009 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Italy and World War One
In the years that led up to World War One, Italy had sided with Germany and Austria-Hungary in the Triple Alliance. In theory, Italy should have joined in the sides of these two nations when war broke out in August 1914. She did not. Italy’s experience in World War One was disastrous and ended with the insult of her ‘reward’ at the Versailles Settlement in 1919.
What Italy did was wait and see how the war progressed. On April 26th 1915, she came into the war on the side of the Triple Entente – Britain, France and Russia.
Many socialists had supported the government ‘s stand in keeping Italy out of the war in 1914. The nationalists, however, were horrified. To start with, Mussolini was against the war:
“Down with the war. Down with arms and up with humanity.” (July 1914)
However, by October 1914, he had changed his mind and referred to the war as “a great drama”.
“Do you want to be spectators in this great drama? Or do you want to be its fighters?”
Mussolini was kicked out of the Socialist Party in Italy but many young socialists agreed with Mussolini and left the party and followed him. Therefore, they greeted the news of April 26th 1915, the entry of Italy into the war.
Why did the government want to go to war?
In 1915, Italy had signed the secret Treaty of London. In this treaty Britain had offered Italy large sections of territory in the Adriatic Sea region – Tyrol, Dalmatia and Istria. Such an offer was too tempting for Italy to refuse. Britain and France wanted Italy to join in on their side so that a new front could open up t the south of the Western Front. The plan was to split still further the Central Powers so that its power on the Western and Eastern Fronts was weakened. The plan was logical. The part Italy had to play in it required military success. This was never forthcoming.
Between 1915 and 1917, Italian troops only got 10 miles inside Austrian territory. But in October 1917 came the disaster of Caporetto. In this battle, in fact a series of battles, the Italians had to fight the whole Austrian Army and 7 divisions of German troops. The Italian Army lost 300,000 men. Though the Italians had a victory at Vittorio Veneto in 1918, the psychological impact of Caporetto was huge. The retreat brought shame and humiliation to Italy.
Mussolini fighting in World War One
By the end of the war in 1918, 600,000 Italians were dead, 950,000 were wounded and 250,000 were crippled for life. The war cost more than the government had spent in the previous 50 years – and Italy had only been in the war three years. By 1918, the country was hit by very high inflation and unemployment was high. But at least Italy had been on the winning side and could expect her just rewards at Versailles………
In fact, Italy got very little at Versailles. The Italian public believed that her leaders there had been humiliated as the “Big Three” (Wilson of America, Lloyd George of Britain and Clemenceau of France) all but ignored the Italian delegation who were seen as secondary figures at Versailles. This heaped further humiliation on the government.
The Italians did not get what they felt had been promised at the Treaty of London and that caused resentment especially at the losses Italy had endured fighting for the Allies. The government came over as weak and lacking pride in Italy. For nationalists, the failure of the government to stand up to the “Big Three” at Versailles was unforgivable. | <urn:uuid:bb2a0b8c-f440-4226-a930-237d876fef3e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/modern-world-history-1918-to-1980/italy-1900-to-1939/italy-and-world-war-one/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397744.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00092-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988139 | 780 | 3.71875 | 4 |
Paint bubbles or foam can form during paint application, and when they break and dry out, they create paint cratering.
Some formation of tiny bubbles (foaming) is normal during paint application. Higher-quality paints are formulated so that any bubbles that may form break while the paint is still wet.
What Causes Paint Foaming and Cratering?
- Shaking a partially filled can of paint
- Using low-quality latex paint, or paint that is old
- Applying (especially rolling) paint too rapidly
- Using a roller cover with the wrong nap length
- Excessively rolling or brushing the paint
- Applying a gloss or semi-gloss paint over a painted surface without first priming
How to Prevent Paint from Foaming and Cratering
- Avoid excessive rolling or brushing
- Avoid using paint that is more than a year old
- Prime porous surfaces before applying paint
- If applying gloss or semi-gloss paints, prime before painting and use a short nap roller
- Avoid vigorous shaking or the paint can or swirling the brush in the paint
- Sand problem areas before repainting
Find solutions for other interior paint problems.
Find solutions for exterior paint problems.
View our premium paints, stains and other products. | <urn:uuid:0c60978b-2f50-4b5e-a887-a77ee95085c2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/for-architects-and-designers/foaming-and-cratering | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00032-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.893875 | 262 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Leipzig Cantors before Bach
[December 2001. Originally appeared in La Folia 3:5.]
Today we think of J.S. Bach as the first Stadtkantor of any real distinction. Not so. As far back as 1616, with the appointment of Johann Herrmann Schein, the Leipzig Cantor was one of the most accomplished composers in Germany.
The Stadtkantor was a municipal magistrate for music appointed by the City Council, usually after an examination which sometimes required submission of a piece specially composed to demonstrate the applicant’s skill. In Leipzig the Stadtkantor had his own group of singers and musicians who visited alternately the Thomaskirche and the Nicolaikirche, the town’s two most important churches.
In addition to the usual Sunday services, which sometimes lasted for four hours, including a two-hour sermon, the Stadtkantor also supplied music for special occasions, such as the installation of a new City Council. Wealthy citizens would also commission special music for funerals and weddings, with the score printed and presented to the lucky couple as a wedding present. The four top Cantors: Schein, Knüpfer, Schelle and Kuhnau are detailed below.
JOHANN HERMANN SCHEIN. La Capella Ducale, Musica Fiata Köln (Roland Wilson). GLISSANDO 779 006-2 (1999)
Dr. Peter Czornyj (ex DG-Archiv) and Dr. Barbara Schwendowius of Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (and also ex-Archiv) have teamed up to record the seldom-performed choral works of Schein, who became Thomaskantor in 1616. Seventeen singers and twenty-seven instrumentalists take part, including 4 organs, 2 bombardes, 4 trumpets, 3 cornetts and 4 trombones, which helps explain the paucity of performances. This all recorded in the spacious Jesus-Christus-Kirche in Berlin-Dalem. These are similar forces to those used by Wilson in his set of motets by Michael Praetorius (SONY S2K 62 929 – 1996).
Schein was among the very first to combine severe Netherlandish choral polyphony with the new madrigal style, all orchestrated with the latest Venetian polychoral instrumental style of the Gabrielis. This is very similar to what Schütz and Michael Praetorius were doing at the same time.
Wilson & Co. give us a representative sample with two burial motets in the madrigalian style up to a Te Deum in 24 parts, with two choirs and five instrumental choruses! The spacing of the instrumental choirs and singing groups is well defined. There’s nothing draggy or stodgy about these performances. And don’t forget to duck when the trumpets and tympani enter!
A playback note: this recording is a perfect test of the absolute polarity of your system. If the polarity is reversed, you’ll hear a vagueness in the spacing of the choirs and a tizzy quality to the trumpets. Reverse the polarity and it all disappears. [Grieve’s thoughts on absolute polarity are one of those audiophile hot-button topics the Editorial Aerie neither endorses nor dismisses. But we will mention that our Mark Levinson No.39 CD player has a handy little button that inverts absolute polarity. Ed.]
Sacred Music by Sebastian Knüpfer. The King’s Consort (Robert King). HYPERION CDA67160 (1999)
Knüpfer (1633-1676) succeeded Kantor Tobias Michael in l657 and combined the new Italian basso continuo solo style with some of the older Venetian touches of Schütz.
I must commend Ted Perry of Hyperion Records and Robert King for producing first recordings of virtually unknown composers during “these distracting times” for the major record companies. Not only are these premiere recordings, but they are completely professional and unstinting in the number and quality of the performers.
With texts both in German and Latin Knüpfer’s music can well hold its own besides compositions by Schütz, Praetorius, Monteverdi and Grandi. If you have enjoyed these composers’ use of basso continuo and polychoral styles, you’ll luxuriate in skilled solo singing backed by solemn trombones and tympani. Knüpfer is a delightful discovery.
SCHELLE: Sacred Music. The King’s Consort (Robert King). HYPERION CDA67260 (2000)
Johann Schelle (1648-1701) started as a chorister under Heinrich Schütz, who recommended him to the Thomasschule at the age of 16. He then enrolled at the University three years later and studied under Knüpfer while teaching music as well. In 1676 he succeeded Knüpfer as Thomaskantor.
With Schelle we enter the mid-Baroque style familiar from Tünder and Buxtehude which the young J.S. Bach studied so avidly. This delightful CD samples three different styles employed by Schelle:
1) the choral motet in the Venetian style of Schütz, with one or two choirs.
2) the chamber consort style of solo cantatas also used by Schütz and Hamburger organists like Weckmann.
3) the chorale cantata, using the chorale cantus firmus
with multiple choirs, trombones, trumpets and tympani.
Whether it’s Purcell, Schelle or Knüpfer, Robert King seems to have the exact knack for the pacing and phrasing of all this music. Schelle deserves to join his contemporaries, Weckmann, Tünder and Buxtehude as conveyor of serious, but never stodgy pleasure.
Could we possibly persuade Mr King and the Hyperions to record the extant Tünder and Buxtehude choral cantatas? The only Buxtehude collection is by Ton Koopman on Erato (ECD 75374, 1987), and it’s a joyful revelation!
KUHNAU: Sacred Music. The King’s Consort (Robert King). HYPERION CDA 67059 (1998)
If you expect solemn, heavy-handed Lutheran church music from the pen of Kuhnau, you’re indeed in for a delightful surprise. On this disc at least Kuhnau’s music comes across more like Purcell or the early Handel of the Italian Cantatas: very lyrical and light Italianate or French-Italian in the style of M. Lully.
After early musical training in Dresden Kuhnau became Thomaskirche organist in Leipzig in 1684, succeeding to the Director Musices position in 1701. Besides his skill in music Kuhnau was also a practicing lawyer and was instrumental in setting up the Opera in Leipzig
Johann Kuhnau was a cousin of Johann Schelle and his successor in 1701. And following Kuhnau the next Thomaskantor was Herr J.S. Bach himself. And we come here into very familiar ground musically, with recitatives, arias and choruses almost identical to the kind Herr Bach composed.
Look out for a surprising obbligato of trilling French horns in the Chorus: “Uns ist ein Kind geboren” in the Chorale Cantata “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern.”
Except for the language (German) the cantata “O heilige Zeit” could fit in perfectly with Mr Purcell’s music for James II’s Chapel Royal. Counter tenors James Bowman and Robin Blaze both share the starring honors here.
There’s much musicological speculation about the rivalry between Kuhnau and the young Telemann, quite a bit historically documented. What I don’t recall reading is the idea that perhaps Herr Bach’s more traditional cantatas were a reaction to Kuhnau’s and Telemann’s more operatic styles, commanded by the Thomaskirche authorities?
This sample of Kuhnau’s music gives us such a delightful ear-opener that I look forward to succeeding discs from the same forces.
GERMAN 17TH CENTURY CHURCH MUSIC. Robin Blaze, countertenor; the Parley of Instruments. HYPERION CDA 67079 (1998)
I must congratulate Robin Blaze for eschewing the hooty, bleating tone still favored by some falsettists in British choral establishments. Joined by Peter Holman’s Renaissance fiddles Blaze gives us exciting samples of solo cantatas by Schütz, Bernhard, Rosenmüller, Buxtehude, Krieger, Geist, Hofmann and a gaggle of Bach’s ancestors and relatives: Johann Michael, Heinrich and Johann Christoph.
Though not localized to the Leipzig area as the Thomaskantor CDs listed above, this disc does share the same locale of Central Germany and the time frame of the 17th Century. And Blaze and The Parley are every bit as lively and musical as Robert King’s ensemble.
The two Buxtehude solo cantatas give us a taste of the Lübeck master’s vocal style. Not only the major choral works of Buxtehude await, but also gems from Samuel Scheidt, Johann Hermann Schein and Heinrich Scheidemann. Even as we ask for more let’s be grateful to Hyperion for bringing us so much to date. | <urn:uuid:cf7f91c4-d321-4422-9237-82da6fb92ab2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.lafolia.com/leipzig-cantors-before-bach/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403825.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00057-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.898557 | 2,127 | 2.640625 | 3 |
This week's CEATEC technology show just outside Tokyo is home to not just the latest mainstream gadgets, but also some of the weirdest tech you'll ever come across.
In the latter category we have a mobile phone application that is supposed to let users see through walls.
The 'Real Space See-through Mobile' software comes from KDDI's R&D laboratory and Tokyo University and is – you'll not be surprised to learn – still just a prototype.
Although we weren't able to see it in action, we can tell you that it is supposed to be able to judge its surroundings, including those on the other side of a wall, using six different sensors.
Three acceleration sensors combine with a similar number of geomagnetic sensors and a GPS chip to work out exactly where the phone is and in what direction it's pointing.
Using some sort of digital voodoo, the software then uses OpenGL to draw on the screen what it has 'sensed' is in the immediate surroundings.
Better yet (we think), it also has the ability to work out whether the user is walking, running or in a vehicle and calculate calories burned in doing so.
We're told it even uses the phone's microphone to work that one out, although quite why the engineers bothered, we're still pretty much clueless.
Article continues below | <urn:uuid:5b9f9eaa-ee37-493f-8f27-0a285ea4bf3d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/bizarre-phone-lets-users-see-through-walls-472360 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00085-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961183 | 274 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Uruguay Festivals and holidays are occasions that everyone looks forward to because of the food, fun and excitement. They Uruguay people enjoy celebrations and they are very happy to share these times with family, friends and visitors.
People in the large cities of Uruguay and rural villages are all eager to celebrate these special occasions. The festivals are always well attended and the planned events and activities are spread out over several days. This makes it possible for nearly everyone to share in the excitement created by parades, live Uruguay music, dancing and games.
Learning about the culture of a country is always easier when you are able to mingle with the people that live there. This is one reason that so many visitors make plans to travel to Uruguay during the times when some type of special event is set to occur.
There are only 2 months of the year when there are no regularly planned national festivals or Uruguay holidays in this country, September and April. This means that most tourists can expect to experience some type of holiday or festive event when they travel to Uruguay.
In January the list of Uruguay festivals begins with the Ano Nuevo celebration. This is, of course, the annual New Year festival which is a favorite among the people of Uruguay. While no national festivals are held at this time, the day is still a holiday and many parties will take place at homes, restaurants and other large gathering places.
On the 6th of January Uruguay celebrates the holiday of the Epifania (Epiphany). This is the date that traditionally marks the beginning of the Uruguay Carnival season.
The Virgen de la Candelaria is the Uruguay festival that is held on February 2nd.
In either February or March it is time for the country to celebrate Carnaval and Las Llamadas. Carnaval is one of the major celebrations for Uruguay and this is one of the Uruguay festivals that draws the largest crowds.
Although the capital city of Montevideo hosts many of the large Carnaval events there will be local celebrations occurring throughout the nation. Las Llamadas is the official name of the carnival that takes place in the black community.
The Semana Santa holiday also takes place during February or March.
On the 1st of May it is time for the people of Uruguay to celebrate their country's Labor Day. This holiday is known as Dia de los Trabajadores. Another May holiday is Batalla de la Piedras which is observed on May 18th.
June 19th is when Natalicio de Artigas occurs. This is an annual holiday observance.
Jura de la Constitucion is celebrated by Uruguayans on the 18th of July.
The 25th of August is when Dia de la Independencia takes place.
Columbus Day is observed on October 12th. This day is known locally as Dia de la Raza.
On November 2nd it is time for the country to observe Dia de los Muertos.
December 25th is when Navidad, or Christmas Day in Uruguay is celebrated. Christmas is a time when families and friends come together for a day of sharing and fun.
Carnaval Week has long been the national festival for the country of Uruguay. The actual celebration is designated as being the Monday and Tuesday just before Ash Wednesday. This means that the date of this festival changes each year.
Even though the calendar designates a 2 day celebratory period the people of Uruguay celebrate this event for the entire week. You will find that almost all of the businesses, government offices and local shops will close in honor of this festive event. People go to great extremes to make sure that their homes and streets are decorated and everyone is focused on having fun.
There are many shows that take place at the open air theaters in Uruguay during Carnival Week. Many groups of people such as the black Uruguayan societies, lubolos, murgas and parodistas will compete by staging tablados.
If you visit the business districts in Maldonado during Carnival you will be able to observe the tablados. These are popular scenic displays that are erected especially for this one Uruguay festival. Some of the tablados are movable while others remain fixed at one location until the end of Carnival.
The organizer of the Uruguay Carnival is the Department of Culture and each year this Uruguay festival becomes bolder, brighter, bigger and better.
There are Carnival Queens that are elected from the different zones and many parades to be planned. These events begin taking place several months prior to the actual date of the festival.
Among the special parades for Carnival are the children's parade (Carnival of the Promises) in January, the Parade of the Calls in Sur and Palermo and Desfile de las Llamadas in Montevideo.
Candombe is a very unique musical treat during Carnival time. This is a combined music form that utilizes Bantu drumming techniques as well as some European and Tango influences. | <urn:uuid:639bc4a1-54ae-4c49-a6de-74c0f3da6320> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.explore-uruguay.com/uruguay-festivals.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397567.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00089-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953125 | 1,020 | 2.59375 | 3 |
- Historic Sites
May/June 1989 | Volume 40, Issue 4
In 1979 RCA announced that it was developing what it called Selectavision, a process that, using Thomas as Edison’s basic technique for recording sound but now hooked up to a television set, produced pictures as well. Edison, no doubt, would have loved it. The public did not.
Selectavision came onto the market in 1981, just when the VCR was catching on, and few people saw any reason to buy a machine that could play back but not record when they could buy one that did both for the same price. In 1983 RCA sold only 250,000 Selectavision machines, against 4,000,000 VCRs sold by RCA and others. The following year it canceled the project, losing $580,000,000 on what the company had once called its Manhattan Project. Certainly no one could argue that RCA hadn’t produced a bomb.
Selectavision represented the end of a very long technological trail, for it had been 102 years earlier, in 1877, that the original, brilliant idea had suddenly flashed into the mind of Thomas Alva Edison. He had an assistant make a gadget consisting of a grooved metal cylinder that rotated and moved freely along a shaft when the shaft was cranked. To either side were diaphragms with a stylus in the middle of each that could come into contact with the groove on the cylinder.
Edison wrapped the cylinder in tinfoil, placed the stylus in the groove, and, turning the crank, shouted close to the diaphragm, “Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.” Then he placed the other stylus at the beginning of the groove and cranked the cylinder a second time. Partially deaf since childhood, the inventor heard nothing and thought the experiment had failed. But the others had heard. Faintly but unmistakably, the machine had spoken in Edison’s voice.
“ Gott im Himmel ,” said Edison’s assistant.
The idea that sound might be captured and preserved for posterity had been considered as early as the 1830s, when light was first being captured and preserved by photography. But it was forty years before Edison discovered a practical method of doing so, a method both simple and profound.
The sound waves of Edison’s voice caused the membrane of the diaphragm and its attached stylus to vibrate. As it moved along the groove on the cylinder, the vibrating stylus incised a pattern of hills and valleys in the tinfoil. When the cylinder was replayed, the pattern now made the stylus and the membrane vibrate, re-creating the original sound waves.
The inventor saw the commercial potential immediately, for he realized that “music can be crystallized as well.” He told a New York newspaper reporter, “I’ve made a good many machines, but this is my baby, and I expect it to grow up and be a big fellow, and support me in my old age.”
Edison’s machine caused an immediate sensation. President Rutherford B. Hayes was so astonished by it at a late-night demonstration in the White House that he insisted that his wife get out of bed to hear for herself. But while it was a sensation, it was still just a gimmick. It would be another decade before Edison’s invention was a viable commercial product.
In 1885 C. A. Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter discovered that wax worked much better than tinfoil as a medium for recording sound waves. In that decade also Emile Berliner first used a flat disk with a spiral groove rather than a cylinder with a helical one. Around 1900 lateral recording, in which the recording stylus vibrates back and forth rather than up and down as Edison’s had done, came into use and much improved the fidelity. By the time of the First World War, the 78-rpm record had completely displaced the cylinder and could play four and a half minutes on a side.
At about the same time, Lee de Forest invented the electrical amplifier, and by the early 1920s electronic methods had begun to replace acoustical recording and reproduction. In 1948 the long-playing record made it possible to play thirty minutes of uninterrupted music, and in 1958 stereo was introduced. By using both Edison’s original up-and-down motion and the later lateral motion, two channels could be recorded in the same groove. For the first time reproduced music began to sound much like live music.
But stereo was the last major elaboration of Edison’s seminal idea to be commercially successful. Twenty years later RCA pushed the technology one step farther still and stumbled into disaster. Today digital technology is fast replacing Edison’s analogue method of recording, and the digital videodisk, with its many advantages over videotape, is beginning to find the place in the market that Selectavision never found. CDs now outsell long-playing records, and in a few years the latter will be history. Thanks to Edison, however, the voices and music of a century will be with us forever.
The problem with Selectavision was that it pushed a technology to its limits when another, better technology was already beginning to supplant it. This is hardly the first time this has happened. In fact, exactly the same thing occurred in the history of sailing ships, with similar economic but quite different emotional results.
The full-rigged ship had come into being in the late fifteenth century. Over the next three centuries it was slowly refined and became the single greatest instrument in the spread of European civilization and power around the world. By the second decade of the nineteenth century the standard commercial sailing ship was bluff-bowed and full-bottomed to maximize its cargo space, with a length-to-beam ratio of only about three to one. Such characteristics did not make for speed. | <urn:uuid:2a1cc60b-dfca-4c2c-8a3a-a42b59f8baf6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.americanheritage.com/content/technological-turkeys | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393093.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00029-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976116 | 1,244 | 3.4375 | 3 |
such as "Introduction", "Conclusion"..etc
Known in America chiefly as the bane of hikers, the single-celled intestinal parasite Giardia lamblia is a major cause of diarrheal illness worldwide with estimates of 100 million infections a year. The parasite colonizes the upper small intestine by fastening to the microvillus brush border of intestinal cells.
But exactly how Giardia attaches itself was unknown until now. University of California, Berkeley researchers present evidence that Giardia uses an osmotic "suction cup" to hang on, a discovery that could make attachment a prime target for new treatments of Giardia infections.
Osmotic pressure is measured in terms of tonicity, the difference in concentration of a substance in solution on opposite sides of a semipermeable membrane. It is a powerful force in the biological world and tightly regulated in the human body. Tonicity, however, fluctuates in the small intestine during fasting and after eating.
Using video microscopy, the researchers challenged Giardia attached to different surfaces with conditions of low and high tonicity. The researchers found that Giardia detached rapidly in response to both lowering and raising the tonicity, yet the parasite was able to adapt to a new tonicity after only a few minutes of exposure.
But experiments with Giardia attached to monolayers of human intestinal epithelial cells revealed that a large percentage of the parasites could be forced to detach when exposed to a timed pattern of high and low "tonic shock."
The researchers believe that the susceptibility of attached Giardia to tonicity changes can be traced to an unusual cellular structure on the parasite called the ventral disk. They believe it acts as a suction cup of sorts but with the "suction" created by osmotic pressure from a concentration imbalance between the outside environment and the fluid trapped beneath the ventral disk.
As a potential focus of treatment, Giardia's osmotic grip may prove to be its Achilles heel.
The paper, The Parasite Giardia lamblia Uses an Osmotic Mechanism of Attachment, was presented Monday, Dec. 3 at the American Society for Cell Biology annual meeting.
◊ A public release from American Society for Cell Biology in December 2007, viewed from Biology-Online.org.
Enter the code exactly as it appears. All letters are case insensitive. | <urn:uuid:71a580ce-7d7c-4207-8869-af88c3599119> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.biology-online.org/kb/revision.php?p_id=11187&a_id=4448 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00117-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937845 | 491 | 3.421875 | 3 |
- Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage.
- p. 238 of "The 5 Essential People Skills" right at the bottom, friend! ;)
- When dealing with people, remember they are not creatures of logic but are that of emotions.
This page had "Breckenridge" as Dale Carnegie's middle name. This differs from both the Wikipedia page for Dale Carnegie, as well as the recent biography Self-Help Messiah: Dale Carnegie and Success in Modern America, Steven Watts, Other Press (2013), Chapter 1 ( Poverty and Piety ) : ISBN 159051503X, 9781590515037 , both of which give Dale Carnegie's middle name as Harbison. I will make this change on the main Wikiquote page. CononOfSamos (talk) 21:45, 25 May 2016 (UTC) | <urn:uuid:425620e7-ad59-42fe-9e45-53a56038d563> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Dale_Carnegie | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399117.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00158-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917319 | 177 | 2.671875 | 3 |
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In Chapter 38 of Kate Chopin's The Awakening, Dr. Mandelet and Edna talk after the birth of Adele's fourth child. The experience has been unpleasant for Edna, even though she has given birth to two sons herself. She wanted to leave, but did not...
With an inward agony, with a flaming, outspoken revolt against the ways of Nature, she witnessed the scene's torture.
The incident "seized her with a vague dread." She did not feel well upon leaving Adele, who cautioned her to "think of the children!" Dr. Mandelet tells Edna that it would have been better if she had not been there for the birthing...
There were a dozen women she might have had with her, unimpressionable women. I felt it was cruel...
He feels Edna was not up to the experience emotionally. Edna states that one must "think of the children sometime or other..."
The Doctor asks when Edna's husband returns, and whether she will go abroad. She explains that Mr. Pontellier will return in March, and that she will not go abroad. She wants to be "let alone"—she insists that the only people who have the right to disturb her or make demands of her are the children, though she is not quite sure about even this. The Doctor then explains (basically) that a woman is manipulated into becoming a wife and mother—a "mother woman." Surprising for a man of that time period, the Doctor seems to understand Edna more than she (or the reader) might expect. The process of bringing women into marriage and motherhood—a trap, he infers—is based upon youthful illusions. Women are "captured" in this role, with little regard to the "consequences." As Edna struggles with the expectations of society—which are strongly at odds with her desires—she speaks to Dr. Mandelet, and he responds with understanding:
"The trouble is," sighed the Doctor, grasping her meaning intuitively, "that youth is given up to illusions. It seems to be a provision of Nature; a decoy to secure mothers for the race. And Nature takes no account of the moral consequences, of arbitrary conditions which we create, and which we feel obliged to maintain at any cost.
Edna agrees with the Doctor, as she explains that life before now was a dream—but now she is "awakened." While the Doctor is aware of society's expectations and sympathizes—even wants to help her—Edna is determined to pursue this new path that has opened before her: it will be of concern to society (for whom she has little regard), but she worries for her children.
We’ve answered 327,678 questions. We can answer yours, too.Ask a question | <urn:uuid:2bd7b72c-6214-424f-9724-54f63515c7fb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-doctors-view-marriage-childbearing-353688 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00172-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980975 | 588 | 2.84375 | 3 |
One of the broadest trends in contemporary style is microtonality, or using more than twelve distinct notes per octave. While such a definition appears quite simple, the applications of and intentions behind "microtonality" can diverge widely, both in their artistic and historical motivation. Examining the meaning & context of "microtonality" will clarify the (at least) two separate intents behind the movement, as well as provide some insight into the development of musical conventions. To begin, the structure of the word "microtonality" subsumes a Western concept of tonality, and this is something to be set aside immediately. While one cannot entirely separate functional characteristics such as key relationships from the development of scalar-tuning structures, it is also clear that the coalescence of Western tuning theory into twelve-tone equal temperament was not particularly motivated by harmonic relationships. If anything, it was done in spite of them. The complexity (or lack thereof) of functional relationships was accommodated & optimized by distinguishing only twelve notes per octave, and one motivation for microtonality has been a desire for increased complexity and hence increased distinguishability.
Microtonality is about distinguishing notes more than it is about adding to sonic density. Even the most straightforward historical tunings distinguished between sharps & flats in ways which twelve-tone equal temperament does not. Moreover, even while twelve-tone equal temperament was officially the tuning of Western music, musicians capable of accommodating a finer degree of tuning (especially the string quartet) did so. In that sense, there has long been microtonality, as the precise pitch of notes which were nominally the same was adjusted to fit the context. From that perspective, much of explicit "microtonality" has been about specifically realizing a diversity which standard notation already partially captured. Such concerns were already prominent in the sixteenth century, in proposals for keyboards with split keys, and other systems to accommodate modulations perfectly in tune. Gesualdo's harmonic relationships, for instance, are now seen not so much as dissonant, but as taking great care to connect modulations with precise "microtonal" tuning. In effect, the microtonality makes the music seem less dissonant, and it is on this point that I want to divide the two fairly distinct uses of the term.
The entire idea of "dissonance" is a thorny one, built as much from context as from any hard physical facts. However, if tuning a note more distinctively serves to clarify its relationship to other notes, one can suggest with some degree of precision that microtonality has served to make it "less dissonant." That such modifications and accommodations should be undertaken by the performers has been a given. It was equally true before Western notation fully distinguished sharps & flats from unaltered notes in the form of musica ficta, and continued to be true on a smaller scale as pitch notation was refined. In the case of notation to specify tuning relationships, the impetus is a desire for more control on the part of the composer. This is true for any refinement to notation, and in the case of microtonality, it explicitly demands intonational refinements which may or may not have occurred otherwise. The most distinctive cases are, of course, the latter, and this additional control has given composers the ability to play one tuning system off another in the same piece, or to exploit motivic relationships which would have essentially dissolved into the relative imprecision of standard tuning. The discovery & use of historical tuning systems — as well as world tuning systems — has provided a fine impetus for such explorations & juxtapositions, and indeed any conservative backlash suggesting that the audience is physically incapable of hearing these distinctions is refuted in practice by such systems as Indian classical music. There, a recognition of the finer points of tuning is sometimes necessary to tell one raga from another.
Note, of course, that Hindustani music accomplishes these distinctions with a theory no more involved than ours, i.e. sharps & flats. Further distinctions tend to be described imprecisely, and conveyed orally. The inclination to settle on more explicit prescription is there, however, as it is in Western music. Especially as more styles coexist closely, the idea that a composer should — at the very least — specify a basic tuning for his piece becomes far from frivolous. With technological advances, more instruments can accommodate such variety, and so any motivation for using twelve-tone equal temperament becomes as much historical as practical. The counter-balance to enthusiasm for more precision in tuning (or what some call "just intonation") is, unfortunately, the industrial degradation of human hearing. Demand for something as basic as intonational precision can easily be seen as elitist too, fundamental complexity aside. Such impressions can be readily observed in basic listener reactions to manifestos on microtonality, namely that they imply a greater degree of dissonance. Much of the historical motivation behind "microtonality" is just the opposite, but the association of sonic complexity with dissonance is strong. Musical construction which demands that the ear distinguish more than twelve notes obviously places a greater burden on the listener, but the ultimate result of failing to perceive such differences is not that the piece sounds harsher, but that it sounds simpler. Its distinctions are obscured.
Microtonality used other than to clarify relationships between notes might better be termed "infra-chromaticism," and it is in this area that greater dissonance is often sought. The impetus there is to obliterate the discrete character of notes, making a continuum of sound, and then a clash of intervals smaller than a semitone. Here there is little historical precedent, although the noises of the industrial age do offer various suggestive analogies. Obliterating note boundaries can even be seen as a route to transcendence, although certainly a daring one. The "anything goes" pallet of infra-chromatic can easily bewilder the listener, even as it offers something of a natural extension to tuning refinement. Although the notation required is essentially similar, infra-chromaticism is more the limit of twelve-tone equal temperament than it is related to the quest for tuning precision driving the first type of microtonality. Microtonality derived from juxtaposing various tuning systems should eventually have a similar limit, but for now its exploration is much more cautious, as much to separate it from the disorientation of infra-chromaticism as for any other reason. The "whys" of using more notes can be very different indeed.
Behind microtonality is, fundamentally, an urge to refine notation. It provides a richer pallet of specification which can be put to a variety of ends, ends not necessarily having any connection to "dissonance." Moreover, microtonality need not imply additional complexity, at least from the listeners' perspective, as specifying a particular tuning does not necessarily mean that a greater variety of notes will be used, only that those used will be used more precisely. The consequent refinement & recognition of the variety inherent to tuning also provides a structural basis for fusion, as a way to find correspondences on the most minute level and elaborate them into larger forms. Perhaps most fundamentally, microtonality reflects a way of hearing music which does not seek to regard similar notes as the same, but rather glories in their differences.
To TMM Editorial index.Todd M. McComb | <urn:uuid:648eb10f-4e20-4e9b-b218-77ea21e73ec1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.medieval.org/music/ccc/aaaa020530.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396959.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00091-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95675 | 1,513 | 3.25 | 3 |
What is in this article?:
- Children involved in significant number of grain bin entrapment cases
- Tragedy hits quickly
- Risk factors
• The frequency of grain bin engulfment has increased by 7 cases per decade since 1964.
• OSHA-exempt facilities are where most grain bin entrapments occur.
• Engulfment happens within seconds.
SCOTT FUCHS, DBI/Sala Fall Protection, demonstrates proper use of fall prevention equipment to participants at the Coastal Bend Grain Storage and Handlers Safety Conference in Sinton, Texas.
Tragedy hits quickly
Engulfment happens within seconds, typically when workers are inside the grain bin while augers or vacuums are in operation and creating “flowing grain.
Grain flows rapidly from a 10-inch auger,” he said. “Flow rate may be 68 bushels per minute. That means a person who is 6-feet-tall and 165 pounds will be entrapped within five seconds to the point that he cannot free himself. Within 25 seconds, he will be completely engulfed.”
The key for survival in that short window is to stop the grain from flowing as quickly as possible. Persons trapped in grain, even if they are not completely covered, may die of suffocation from the pressure exerted by the grain. “One foot of grain over an individual’s entire body weighs about 300 pounds.” With that much pressure, extracting the worker without causing serious injury is difficult.
Smith said unloading operations offer significant risks. Also, grain bridges, surfaces that have crusted over leaving cavities underneath, may collapse and trap workers. Grain masses adhering to side walls also pose hazards of breaking away and engulfing workers inside the grain bin.
Poorly conditioned grain is a contributing factor. Grain put up too wet may begin crusting and create those bridges or adhere to walls. When the grain is unloaded, those structures have to be broken up to allow the grain to flow. In many cases, that means workers enter the bins to “walk down the grain,” to keep it flowing. “That’s when workers become engulfed.”
The ideal solution to bridges and other in-bin grain problems is to use tools to break up the grain. With someone inside a bin, augers and vacuums should be shut down and proper communication established with an observer at the bin entrance and with someone on the ground.
“With augers or vacuums in operation, the equipment operator outside often cannot hear cries for help,” Smith said. | <urn:uuid:362035b2-1466-49b1-8176-12d400f66790> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://southeastfarmpress.com/grains/children-involved-significant-number-grain-bin-entrapment-cases?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00016-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941332 | 542 | 2.734375 | 3 |
In fact, the sole purpose of unionization is political power, even among teachers. Indeed, it was Sam Lambert, Secretary of the National Education Association, who told the teachers in 1967 that “The NEA will become a stronger and more influential advocate of social changes long overdue…. The NEA will become a political power second to no other special interest group…. And, finally, NEA will organize this profession from top to bottom into logical operating units that can move easily and effectively and with power unmatched by any other organized group.”
Although the NEA had been established in 1857 as a professional organization, it wasn’t until 1962 that it became a labor union, after which it drafted model collective bargaining statutes covering teachers, which by 1980 were enacted into law in 31 states. Unionization also led to unified membership — meaning that a member of a local affiliate was forced to join the national organization and pay its dues.
Forced membership increased the number of NEA members from 713,994 in 1959-60 to 1.7 million in 1983, to 3.2 million in 2011. The NEA’s budget increased from $5 million in 1957 to $67 million in 1979-80, to $307 million in 2006-07. The NEA was also able to get school boards to automatically deduct from teachers’ salaries their union dues, which were automatically deposited in the union’s bank account, all at taxpayer expense.
Before the 1960s, only a small portion of public school teachers were unionized. But, ironically, that began to change in 1959 when Wisconsin became the first state to pass a collective-bargaining law for public employees. In those days, Wisconsin basked in the warm sunlight of progressivism. Little did they know that they were creating a potential Frankenstein.
While the Wisconsin teachers have been part of the mobs demonstrating in favor of their collective bargaining rights, their curriculum is no bargain for the children they teach. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress test given in 2009, only 32 percent of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders earned a “proficient” rating in reading, while another 2 percent earned an “advanced” rating. The other 68 percent of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders earned ratings below “proficient,” including 44 percent who earned a rating of “basic” and 22 percent who earned a rating of “below basic.”
In other words, Wisconsin public schools are turning out functional illiterates by the thousands. Indeed, the test showed that the reading abilities of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders had not improved at all between 1998 and 2009 despite the increase in the amount of money spent per pupil each year.
In 1998 the cost of educating a public school pupil in Wisconsin was $4,956. In 2008 it was up to $10,791. So money is not the problem. It’s teacher incompetence. Obviously the taxpayer is being cheated by teachers unable to do their jobs but using collective bargaining to make it difficult to fire them.
Too bad Wisconsin’s public school children can’t organize a protest against being taught to read by methods that produce dyslexia and reading disability. Unfortunately, they aren’t unionized.
For unions, power is the name of the game. Ninety-five percent of the NEA’s political contributions go to Democratic candidates and the few liberal Republican RINOs who support NEA interests. Teachers, who pay hundreds of dollars in annual dues to national, state, and local affiliates, have no control over the NEA’s endorsement of candidates or advocacy of socialist policies. In 28 states teachers risk losing their jobs if they refuse to join a union.
The NEA has long advocated leftist policies leading to a world socialist government. The NEA was responsible for creating UNESCO as a future world board of education. As early as December 1942, the NEA was advocating world government. In an editorial entitled “The United Peoples of the World,” the editor of the NEA Journal wrote:
“In addition to a framework of government, the world needs…a world system of money and credit; a uniform system of weights and measures; a revised calendar; a basic language; a police force; a board of education; a planning board.” And much more.
The latest resolutions adopted by the NEA at its July 2010 convention tell the story. They favor initiatives leading to the end of American sovereignty: global education, education on peace and international understanding, peace and international relations, an International Criminal Court, an International Court of Justice, [regulations related to] global climate change, linguistic diversity, environmental education, and multicultural education.
They oppose home schooling, education vouchers, tuition tax credits, right-to-work Laws..
They favor same-sex marriage, free education for children of illegal immigrants, early childhood education in public schools for children from birth to age eight, abortion rights, and sex education that includes birth control, family planning, diversity of sexual orientation, homophobia, etc. They favor celebrating Earth Day.
They oppose: prepublication critiques of textbooks, privatization of Social Security, the use of ID cards for voting at elections, and designating English as the official language of the United States.
There is only one truly effective way to reduce the power of the NEA, and that is for parents to remove their children from the public schools and place them in good private schools or home school them. By now about two million families have done just that. But it is unlikely that the vast majority of parents will follow suit. And so we shall have to accept the increase in functional illiteracy and learning disabilities among our children.
In November 2007, the National Endowment for the Arts released its report on the decline in American literacy, Reading at Risk. According to the report, the number of 17-year-olds who never read for pleasure increased from 9 percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004. About half of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 never read books for pleasure.
Endowment Chairman Dana Gioia stated: “This is a massive social problem. We are losing the majority of the new generation. They will not achieve anything close to their potential because of poor reading.” The survey found that only a third of high school seniors read at a proficient level. “And proficiency is not a high standard,” said Gioia. “We’re not asking them to be able to read Proust in the original. We’re talking about reading the daily newspaper.”
Chairman Gioia declined to say what was causing the problem, although the cause has been known since 1955 when Rudolf Flesch wrote Why Johnny Can’t Read. The educators threw out the alphabetic-phonics method of teaching reading and replaced it with a method that teaches children to read English as if it were Chinese — a look-say, sight method. That method causes dyslexia and reading disability.
But the NEA couldn’t care less. | <urn:uuid:ed86fd69-1c1e-4a3b-96f7-b71d5066f5e0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/267-the-power-of-teachers-unions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403825.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00173-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966226 | 1,466 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Delhi’s ‘Procession of the Florists’ marches toward obscurity
Every fall, people gather in Delhi’s Mehrauli area for the “Procession of the Florists,” a festival to commemorate the return from exile of a 19th-century prince who crossed India’s British colonial rulers.
The “Phool Walon ki Sair,” as it is called in Hindi and Urdu, features the offering of a “chaadar” or a “sheet” of flowers at a Muslim shrine and floral “pankhas” or fans at a nearby Hindu temple but after nearly 200 years, its popularity is fading.
The annual procession began in the early 19th century when Queen Mumtaz Mahal and her subjects walked to the shrine of Khwaja Qutub-ud-Din Bakhtyar Kaaki to fulfil a vow that she made. During the reign of her husband, Mughal ruler Akbar Shah II, their son Mirza Jahangir taunted the British Resident Archibald Seton. The young prince also took a shot at Seton at the Red Fort, but missed his target and killed his orderly instead.
The British exiled Mirza Jahangir to Allahabad, and the queen vowed to offer a chaadar at the shrine if her son returned. When the prince came back a couple of years later, she kept her word.
Things didn’t turn out well for the Mughal Empire though, and two decades after the death of Akbar Shah II, the last Mughal emperor was exiled to Burma. But the 32-kilometre procession from Chandni Chowk to Mehrauli continued. The British stopped the procession in 1942, the year of the “Quit India” movement, but Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, revived it in the 1960’s.
These days, about a few hundred people attend the festival in Mehrauli. Pankhas are offered to some of India’s top politicians, and the governor of Delhi leads a procession to the shrine. There is also a grand amusement fair — kite-flying competitions; wrestling bouts and other sports and cultural performances. All-night qawwali sessions follow.
The main event of this year’s festival, at a bedecked but otherwise neglected palace, started late on Oct. 26. The chief guest, the government tourism minister, didn’t turn up. There was no formal welcome note; the shehnai players were asked to stop mid-way for a small procession carrying a pankha from the Indian president.
Impassive spectators clapped as troupes from a few states performed to folk songs, a modern-day addition to the festival seen as a symbol of ‘national integration’ because Hindus and Muslims alike participate in it. The fair, happening in the nearby ground, pulled in far more people.
R. K. Khera, whose family migrated to Mehrauli from Pakistan after India’s partition, was in his early teens when he started attending the fair with his father. He recalls watching sound and light shows — a form of outdoor entertainment with narration, music and special effects to help dramatize historical events — but for him the festival is not what it used to be.
“Earlier lot of money was spent on this festival, which is not the case right now. Ten days before the start of this festival, all roads in Mehrauli used to be swept clean. But now it is limited to Jahaz Mahal,” said the 51-year-old government employee, referring to the dilapidated palace from the Lodi era, the site of the festival’s cultural show.
“The flavour of this festival is gone, it’s just a formality. This festival used to be among the biggest in Delhi. But now it is not even promoted,” said 23-year-old history student Asif Khan Dehlvi, founder of ‘Delhi by Foot’, a non-profit group that conducts “heritage walks” around the city.
History lovers also rue the fact that Mehrauli’s neglected monuments, including the historical water body beside which the Phool Walon ki Sair festival takes place, are looked after only during this time of the year.
“It’s an inclusive festival and we need to celebrate this inclusion because that’s the strength of our civilization. And that can only be made by not making it into a bureaucratic, controlled set-up,” said historian Sohail Hashmi, who regularly leads heritage walks in the city.
K R Narayanan was the last Indian president to visit this procession, recalls Usha Kumar, general secretary of Anjuman Sair-e-Gul Faroshan, the organising committee of the festival. A Google search throws up a black-and-white picture of the late president taken in 2001.
“Nehru … came to Mehrauli on every Phool Waalon Ki Sair as long as he lived,” according to the committee’s website. Barring Indira Gandhi, her son Rajiv, and Chaudhary Charan Singh, Kumar couldn’t recollect names of any other recent prime minister who paid a visit.
Kumar, who has been associated with this festival for the past four decades, admits she’s no less a victim of “red tape” as she puts together this week-long show. She faces trouble getting the premises cleaned on time and the special invitees don’t follow the schedule either.
“No VIP is interested. Now we have decided from next year we won’t call any VIP,” Kumar said. “Because there is no point. We invite them, wait for them and they don’t turn up.”
(Editing by Robert MacMillan, Tony Tharakan and Rahul Biddappa; follow Ankush on Twitter at @Ankush_patrakar, Robert @bobbymacReports, Tony @tonytharakan and Rahul @rahulbiddappa. This article is website-exclusive and cannot be reproduced in any form without permission) | <urn:uuid:b0cf0b38-c3fe-4444-b481-cb38e006d4ac> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.reuters.com/india/2013/11/02/delhis-procession-of-the-florists-marches-toward-obscurity/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00193-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955384 | 1,334 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Write a program with a function main () and selecting a menu of functions:
Generate a programming-random number generator data for lottery ticket / max 100 / with six-digit numbers and store them in an array
-Overwrite generated a new array and sort this array in ascending order and display output
-Counting and display output and numbers of all "happy" six digit lottery tickets /these numbers which sum of the first 3 digits is equal to the last three/
-Save in the array and display output sequence numbers of downloaded "lucky" lottery tickets
int a_ticket = "932041" // Read from a file or generated during run-time
// get first ticket value, made-up of two parts; low&high
lowTikNum = a_Ticket[n] a_Ticket[n+1] + a_Ticket[n+2]
HighTikNum = a_Ticket[n+3] a_Ticket[n+4] + a_Ticket[n+5]
if lowTikNum = HighTikNum then Happy = TRUE
//Get next ticket number ie Next 6 INTs ( 246753) - into a_ticket
You can generate , say, 600 INT values at the start of the program
and place the INTS into an INT array named something like...
a_Ticket = 0;
for( j=0, j++; j<600 )
a_Ticket[j] = RND(0) MOD 10;
Now that you have 600 INTs ( or 100 - 6 digit values) with values of 0-9,
you can cut and process 6 INTs at a time to get a ticket number
and cut that value in half ( 1-3 & 4-6 ) for comparison for happy numbers
Then get the NEXT SIX values and process again the same way, until you've processed all 600 INT values in the array.
= = = =
Now with 600 INTs in a single array, you can now SORT the array
and move it into a new array in ascending order.
// next step is to preform a BUBBLE SORT
Take the first six INTs from the array and place them into an INT var
Place this into the first position of the newly created ascending array
Take the NEXT six INTs from the array and place it ABOVE or BELOW the
first value. ( in this case "246753" would be ABOVE " 932041 "
which is the reason for preforming a bubble sort of the ASCENDING array
and why the same ASCENDING array only requires 100 INT values.
SAVE and PRINT ( btw, the array is already saved "automatically! )
in a loop just print the a_Ascending array from 0-99 and UR done.
(1) generate 600 random values between 0-9
(2) store them into an array
(3) use your array indexing to group the values by 6 for tickets
or by 3 for happy number comparisons
(4) bubble sort your array in groups of six into a new, smaller array
(5) print the new array & stop
PS, I just noticed the MAX 100 tickets, remember to ASK the user how many tickets to generate.
" how many tickets do you want? n
if n < 0 or n > 100 then n = 100
Ok here is the code, one friend told me how to do this with lucky numbers, but i dont know how to connect algoritm with random generatet numbers and dont know how to sort it, can someone repair the code
when i choice option 2 from menu i seeing this 6
sum of the first 3=dum of the last 3
The function with lucky numbers i probably wrong
You've got the number generating function correct. Your second function is totally wrong. It doesn't even check the array where you stored the numbers you generated.
EDIT: Sorry, just noticed you were trying to test out your algorithm on the numbers 123456 and 123321? Well, the algorithm is totally wrong.
What you should do is to create a copy of the number. Inside a loop, find the value of the copy modulo 10, then divide the copy by 10. Sum the first 3 values from the modulo operation in one variable, and sum the next three in another variable.
If the two sums are the same, then it's a lucky number. | <urn:uuid:70a007b6-3450-4c7d-8e1c-fdbf07ef9aff> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/beginner/84640/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00039-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.811972 | 947 | 2.75 | 3 |
Iodine - I
Iodine is a non-metallic, dark-gray/purple-black, lustrous, solid element. Iodine is the most electropositive halogen and the least reactive of the halogens even if it can still form compounds with many elements. Iodine sublime easily on heating to give a purple vapour. Iodine dissolves in some solvents, such as carbon tetrachloride and it is only slightly soluble in water.
Iodine is used in medical treatment as tincture and iodioform, it is employed in the preparation of certain drugs and in the manufacture of some printing inks and dyes. Silver iodine is used in photography. Iodine is added to almost all the table salt and is used as a supplement to animal feed. It is also an ingredient of water purification tablets that are used for drinking water preparation.
Iodine in the environment
Iodine is added to nearly any kind of salt that is applied. It is an ingredient of bread, sea fish and oceanic plants. Iodine is naturally present in the ocean and some sea fish and water plants will store it in their tissues.
Iodine can be found naturally in air, water and soil. The most important sources of natural iodine are the oceans. About 400.000 tonnes of iodine escape from the oceans every year as iodide in sea spray or as iodide, hydrichloric acid and methyl iodide, produced by marine organisms. Much of it is deposited on land where it may become part of the biocycle.
There are some iodine-containing minerals, such as alutarite, found in Chile and iodargyte, found in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. World-wide industrial production of iodine is about 13.000 tonnes per year, mainly in Chile and Japan, plus small amounts in Russia and USA. Iodine is extracted from natural brines and oil brines, which have up to 100 ppm of the element or form chilean nitrate deposits. Known reserves of easily accessible iodine amount is around 2 million tonnes.
Read more on iodine in water
Back to the periodic table of elements
Suggestions for the topic: Iodine | <urn:uuid:903d1b58-7f9d-4973-9d11-26000185598e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.lenntech.pl/iodine.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398628.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00157-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952515 | 468 | 3.34375 | 3 |
Engineers. The Practical Management of Engines and Boilers, including Boiler Setting, Pumps, Injectors, Feed Water Heaters, Steam Engine Economy, Condensers, Indicators, Slide Valves, Safety Valves, Governors, Steam Gages, Incrustation and Corrosion, etc. A Practical Guide for Engineers and Firemen and Steam Users generally. By William B. Le Van. 12mo, cloth. 267 pages. 49 illustrations. 1897 $2.00
Experimental science. By George M. Hopkins. This book treats on the various topics of Physics in a popular and practical way. It describes the apparatus in detail, and explains the experiments in full, so that teachers, students and others interested in Physics may readily make the apparatus without expense and perform the experiments without difficulty. The aim of the writer has been to render physical experimentation so simple and attractive as to induce both old and young to engage in it for pleasure and profit. A few simple arithmetical problems comprise all of the mathamatics of the book. Many new experiments are here described for the first time. It is the most thoroughly illustrated work over published on Experimental Physics. 840 pages. Over 790 illustrations. Seventeenth edition. Revised and enlarged. 8vo, cloth $4.00
Explosives. Lectures on Explosives. A course of Lectures prepared especially as a Manual and Guide in the Laboratory of the United States Artillery School. By Willoughby Walke, First Lieut. Fifth United States Artillery. Second edition. Revised and enlarged. 8vo, cloth. 435 pages. New York, 1897 $4.00
Feeds and feeding. A Handbook for the Student and Stockman. By W.A. Henry. 8vo, cloth. 657 pages. 1898 $2.00
* * * * *
Our large Catalogue of American and Foreign Scientific and Technical Books, embracing more than Fifty different subjects, and containing 116 pages, will be mailed, free, to any address in the world.
Any of the foregoing Books mailed, on receipt of price, to any address. Remit by Draft, Postal Note, Check, or Money Order, to order of
Munn & Co.,
361 Broadway, new York.
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By prof. T. O’CONOR Sloane,
Comprising five books, as follows:
Arithmetic of Electricity, 138 pages
Electric Toy Making, 140 pages 1.00
How to Become a Successful Electrician, 189 pp. 1.00
Standard Electrical Dictionary, 682 pages 3.00
Electricity Simplified, 158 pages 1.00
—The above five books by Prof. Sloane may be purchased singly at the published prices, or the set complete, put up in a neat folding box, will be furnished to Scientific American readers at the special reduced price of five dollars. You save $2 by ordering the complete set. Five volumes, 1,300 pages, and over 450 illustrations. | <urn:uuid:1ac1bc1f-99e8-4b18-a33a-f9001d964988> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/18265/66.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403508.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00074-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.887187 | 627 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Sub—Saharan Africa is one of the poorest regions of the world. Because most Africans work in agriculture, escaping such dire poverty depends on increased agricultural productivity to raise rural incomes, lower food prices, and stimulate growth in other economic sectors. Per capita agricultural production in sub—Saharan Africa has fallen, however, for much of the past half—century.
Successes in African Agriculture investigates how to reverse this decline. Instead of cataloging failures, as many past studies have done, this book identifies episodes of successful agricultural growth in Africa and identifies processes, practices, and policies for accelerated growth in the future. The individual studies follow developments in, among other areas, the farming of maize in East and Southern Africa, cassava across the middle belt of Africa, cotton in West Africa, horticulture in Kenya, and dairying in East Africa.
Drawing on these case studies and on consultations with agricultural specialists and politicians from across sub—Saharan Africa -- undertaken in collaboration with the African Union's New Partnership for Africa's Development -- the contributors identify two key determinants of positive agricultural performance: agricultural research to provide more productive and sustainable technologies to farmers and a policy framework that fosters market incentives for increasing production. The contributors discuss how the public and private sectors can best coordinate the convergence of both factors.
Given current concerns about global food security, this book provides timely and important resources to policymakers and development specialists concerned with reversing the negative trends in food insecurity and poverty in Africa. | <urn:uuid:dd932bff-969a-45c2-a7fb-826d116414a7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ifpri.org/publication/successes-african-agriculture | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393146.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00192-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.899232 | 296 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Growing Green: Indoor gardening - tips for herbs
The things I miss most in mid-winter are fresh herbs and veggies from my garden. Although I still have canned and frozen produce, there's nothing quite like fresh culinary herbs added to your recipes direct from the plant.
Herbs are an easy indoor plant to start from seed and can be a wonderful family project on these cold winter days.
Start with a sterile pot: clean yogurt cartons, clay pots, egg cartons, or any vessel that suits your fancy. If your container doesn't have adequate drainage, punch a few small holes in the bottom.
Add a good basic potting mix. Use your favorite brand or make your own (extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/node/945).
Purchase fresh seeds or use cuttings from existing plants. Have a balanced fertilizer on hand, such as fish emulsion, compost, or your favorite brand. Make sure you follow directions for application on herbs.
No special lights are required. Herbs thrive in a bright window that is free from drafts. Bathroom and kitchen windows are ideal, as they have the added benefit of the higher humidity common to those rooms.
Not all herbs are suited for indoor gardens. The following are just a few that are ideal for indoor gardening.
Genovese compact basil (Ocimum basilicum): This compact Italian basil is ideal for container gardens and makes great pesto. Sow thinly and cover with approximately a quarter-inch of compost or fine soil. Germination should occur within 5-7 days.
German winter thyme (Thymus vulgaris): This works very well in containers. Sprinkle the seeds over the soil surface, and then barely cover them with more soil. Gently water until germination. Plants will germinate in 14-21 days.
Greek oregano (Oreganum vulgare): Gently press the tiny seeds into the soil and keep evenly moist. Oregano and thyme can be prone to damping off disease if the soil is kept too moist. Germination should occur within 14 days. However, this small-seeded herb can take a few weeks to germinate, so be patient.
Parsley (Petroselinum crispum): Either flat or curly leaved parsley will start easily from seed indoors. For best results, choose a small variety, such as Titan. Soak seeds overnight in warm water to soften the seed coat. Sow seed on moist soil and cover lightly with vermiculite or light potting mix. Seeds will germinate in about two weeks.
Chives (Allium schoenoprasum): Fine leaf chive is a shorter variety with soft, fine leaves for fresh use. Sprinkle the seeds over the soil's surface, press in lightly, and water gently. Keep the soil moist, and within a few days, the grass-like seedlings will appear.
Harvest your herbs as you are preparing your meal. Clip the amount you need with sharp, clean scissors. Fertilize your herbs every two weeks with half strength fertilizer to keep them producing.
When the weather warms, transplant your herbs in the garden for more vigorous growth. Oregano and chives are hardy perennials, which will survive in your garden for years to come. At the end of next season, dig a clump to grow indoors next winter.
For more information about growing herbs, visit www.extension.
Until next time, happy gardening! | <urn:uuid:8ce2a5ba-643c-4059-8cbb-1b87898737e7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.echopress.com/content/growing-green-indoor-gardening-tips-herbs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398628.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00115-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932245 | 730 | 2.734375 | 3 |
- Flooding Bring State of Emergency for 44 WV Counties
- Huntington Police Report Burglary, Possession, Overdose
- How Can You Help Flood Recovery in WV?
- Marshall hosts undergraduate students for biomedical research opportunities
- Senate President Bill Cole Urges Caution During State of Emergency
- Flash Flood Warning for Counties in Three States
- Huntington's Street Department Completes Upgrades, including Safer Dietz Hollow Dropoff Area
- West Virginia American Water Responding to Operational Impacts of Widespread Flooding
- Nostalgic Images of Ten Forgotten Huntington Venues
- Cash Sales Share Fell Sharply in March
After Demolition of Huntington Pilot Plant, U 235 and U 238 Contamination Deemed Low; Baseline Soil in Ohio River Basin High in Nickel Contamination Then
Congress determined that nuclear weapons production and testing involves unique dangers and workers could be harmed by exposure to even small amounts of radiation or beryllium. Congress felt that many Cold War nuclear weapons workers at Department of Energy (DOE) sites had been put at risk without their knowledge or consent. Previously secret records documented unmonitored exposures to radiation, beryllium, and toxic chemicals. Studies also show that 98% of radiation induced cancers in nuclear workers occurred at radiation levels less than the existing maximum “safe” levels.
About $6.3 million has been paid to Huntington workers/survivors. This story does NOT attempt to analyze ; it only reports the newly received memorandums and data. Additional data/info has been posted in PDF form. An analysis will follow.
The Huntington Pilot Plant (Reduction Pilot Plant), which processed starting materials for two gaseous diffusion plants, was demolished for "regulatory reasons" and removal of classified nickel materials and nickel carbonyl , according to recently released Department of Energy documents obtained by HNN under the Freedom of Information Act. The plant utilized Uranium 235 and Uranium 238 from gaseous diffusion plants which performed uranium enrichment operations.
Until the receipt of the documents, the government decision making process to demolish the plant had not been made public.
The Huntington plant was built on four acres of the International Nickel campus in 1951. It was demolished in 1978-1979. According to the documents the decision to remove the structure was more for regulatory and classified decisions, rather than health concerns. During a cold stand by period from 1963 until prior to demolition, the site was maintained by Huntington Alloys under a "separate appendix to the original contract" with the Atomic Energy Commission.
Based upon the results of a January 15-16, 1975 radiation survey and security inspection , "the presence or potential presence of nickel carbonyl and the presence or potential presence of classified starting materials determined portions of the plant for disposal at the classified landfill at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
"The process equipment and piping were unsuitable for conventional disposal," the November 14, 1979 RPP Clearance Report stated. "The residue unloading system and the building walls, floors and structural members surrounding it were slightly contaminated and contained classified starting material. The CO holding tanks were slightly contaminated and were all scheduled for burial at Portsmouth."
59 truck and four railcar loads of scrap were transported to the Portsmouth Plant. 138 truck loads of clean scrap were removed by Cleveland Wrecking.
Demolition started November 27, 1978 and was finished May 18, 1979. All contaminated material had "left the site" by May 15, 1979. During demolition contaminated equipment was color coded. Red indicated carbonyl contamination and white indicated uranium contamination. The two colors included all classified materials. Clean scrap was placed south of the compressor Building outside the fence.
According to Richard D. Smith, health physicist Health Protection Branch, certified that as of May 15, 1979, "the site radiation level" qualified the property to be "released for unrestricted use."
Decisions about the site are based on "Guideline for Decontamination of Facilities and Equipment Prior to Release for Unrestricted Use or Termination of Licenses for by product, source, or special nuclear Material" published in 1976 by the Division of Fuel Cycle and Material Safety of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Oversight for the "unrestricted use" decision was to be filed with both the Fuel Cycle and Material Safety division of the USNRC and the Director of the Regional Office of Inspection and Enforcement of the USNRC.
Under these guidelines, the NRC could authorize the relinquishment of possession or control of premises, equipment or scrap having surfaces contaminated with material in excess of limits. One of the "special circumstances" included "razing of buildings, transfer of premises to another organization continuing work with radioactive materials."
NICKEL AND OHIO RIVER FLOOD PLAIN
At the time of the only radiological survey in 1980 (following removal), the site was tested for Uranium 235, Uranium 238, and Radon. Hot spots were found on the site.
For instance, "hot spots" were found in the change and shower areas with "elevated gamma level" readings. The loading pad had been a prior hot spot for "elevated radionuclide concentrations." Describing a northern portion containing a concrete pad, the report states that subsurface testing there was "unnecessary" due to "the presence of coarse gravel" and "subsurface concrete pads."
Baseline/control soil samples from near the Ohio River flood plain (1.5 miles from the plant) were substantially higher for nickel than on-site samples, the documents state. This suggests that "general nickel contamination of surface soil may exist throughout this area as a result of past International Nickel Operations."
The Radiation Contamination Clearance Report prepared by Oak Ridge Operations or the DOE on April 4, 1980 concluded that "the only uranium introduced into the plant was in the form of contamination contained on the surface of recycled barrier materials." The report stated that primarily uranium "ash" was extracted from the Huntington facility "at the bottom of the reactor and was vacuum transferred to the residue system." The document stated that the ash was "drummed and shipped to Oak Ridge . No material was disposed onsite."
William H. Travis , director Safety and Environmental Control Division , stated that there were no "drains or sumps" inside the building.
Based on the data available in that time frame, Travis wrote "the only area which might not have complied [with criteria for unrestricted release] was "the housing of the residue system and the residue system itself." Further , at the time, there was no "de minimis [inappropriate] quantity" for enriched uranium under NRC Regulatory Guide 1.86.
The letter stated that "contamination levels were already below the applicable guidelines" for unrestricted release; however Traavis noted based on a radiological survey that "political pressures may dictate otherwise."
Argonne National Lab report http://www.remm.nlm.gov/ANL_ContaminantFactSheets_All_070418.pdf | <urn:uuid:7b50ee40-0f6e-483e-85a7-9c383ca77b2a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.huntingtonnews.net/86212 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392069.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00146-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957272 | 1,449 | 2.625 | 3 |
LAWRENCE — While most discussions about water shortages in Kansas focus on western parts of the state, officials say the east also needs to address looming problems.
The state is planning a $20 million project to dredge sediment from the John Redmond Reservoir near Burlington. Researchers say the state’s 24 federal reservoirs will lose more than half their capacity by 2100, and that dredging would be difficult, The Lawrence Journal-World reported (http://bit.ly/1nMOS3X).
“Restoring the original volume of the 24 at the end of the century, at today’s prices, would cost $13.6 billion,” said Jerry deNoyelles, deputy director and senior scientist at the Kansas Biological Survey at the University of Kansas. “And where would we put all this sediment if we chose to dredge it?”
The John Redmond project is being financed over 15 years with state bonds, with the first year’s payment on those bonds, $1.6 million, included in this year’s budget bill signed Gov. Sam Brownback.
The governor has directed state agencies to develop a 50-year “vision” for sustaining water resources, with much of the work concentrated on western Kansas, where residents largely depend on the rapidly depleting Ogallala Aquifer.
Eastern Kansas gets much of its supply from surface water impounded in artificial lakes, and that also poses challenges, deNoyelles said.
“The governor is asking for a 50-year plan,” deNoyelles said. “Over the next 50 years, seven of our reservoirs will become 50-percent infilled with sediment.”
Besides dredging, eastern Kansas could consider constructing floodwater bypasses around the dams so that sediment doesn’t become trapped in the lake. But most of the dams were originally built for flood protection, he said, meaning that won’t be a viable solution in most cases.
Building new reservoirs is a possibility but on whose land, he asked.
Eastern Kansas residents could copy efforts in the west to reduce water use.
“There are still communities in Kansas where 50 percent of their reservoir water use during the summer is for watering lawns,” deNoyelles said. “And we are going to have to get way more serious about conserving water, both for groundwater systems and surface water systems.” | <urn:uuid:6e9f45cd-5daa-45ec-a2be-2454677ec1ca> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cjonline.com/news/2014-05-27/eastern-kansas-facing-water-supply-shortages | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404405.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00181-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957404 | 509 | 2.921875 | 3 |
|The Road to the Middle Class: A Manifesto||The Way of Faith|
by Christopher Chantrill
January 01, 2005 at 12:18 pm
EDUCATION is an essential travelers aid on the journey from country to city. An old woman living in the Gobi desert nailed it when she told the National Geographic:
I only know eating, drinking, and tending animals. This is what my parents did. Their parents. The young people today, once they leave the [Gobi], they never return. I dont blame them. The life of herding is coming to an end. Work in cities is the future.
The reason the young people of the Gobi dont return is that they all go to boarding school from first to ninth grade, only returning home in the summer. Nine years of boarding school education prepares them for life in the city. So they join the great trek.
Education is also important to the earnest churchgoer in an American sriver suburb. Said Mary Johnston of Rock Hill, South Carolina, to a Washington Post reporter in 2000: I want my children to go to the best schools, first grade through college.
Modern opinion about education assumes a Year Zero some time in the mid-nineteenth century, when the activists for modern universal education began their agitation for free government schools. The time before Year Zero is treated as prehistoric, an embarrassment of Ragged Schools, one-room schoolhouses, Dotheboys Hall and Wackford Squeers, and opportunity denied to the poor. In fact, of course, education has had a long and checkered history over thousands of years. Athens, for instance, had a free market in education, and Sparta had a government monopoly.
In the United States, mass education has been accepted from the earliest days of the colonies and literacy has always been high. In 1787, free male adult literacy was estimated at about 65 percent, and in the census of 1850 literacy was reported as 90 percent. In colonial times, education was supported with a mixture of private and public funding. In smaller towns, district schools financed by public and private funds were common. Some poorer children got to attend for free, but most parents paid fees for their children to attend.
In England literacy was not as widespread as in the United States, for the rulers preferred that the lower orders remained illiterate. However, according to E.G. West, literacy increased steadily from the beginning of the nineteenth century as the lower orders sought out education for their children in defiance of their rulers. In 1813 James Mill (father of John Stuart Mill) wrote of the rapid progress which the love of education is making among the lower orders in England. He noted that
There is hardly a village that has not something of a school; and not many children of either sex who are not taught more or less, reading and writing. We have met with families in which for weeks together, not an article of sustenance but potatoes had been used; yet for every child the hard-earned sum was provided to send them to school.
Henry Brougham conducted surveys of schools in 1820 and 1828, and found that the numbers in schools had doubled in one decade. Literacy in England increased steadily until government education was legislated in 1870.
Schools exist to teach children things that their parents cant teach them. For the peasant, school gives his children a chance to make it in the city. For the illiterate costermonger in Victorian London, it gives his sons the chance to move off the street and sell something that needs a bit of book-learning and bookkeeping. For the earnest churchgoer in an American striver suburb it gives her children the chance to join the professional classes in the big city for whom life is not a grim struggle but a creative adventure, not meat-and-potatoes but nouvelle cuisine. Education, then, is all about embourgeoisment, the making of a citizen, one who lives and works in the city.
It seems that everyone in the modern era, from the lower orders of industrial Britain to the illiterate grandmother in the Gobi desert, understands the value of education for their children. It is curious that we should have developed a system of educational compulsion that treats every parent as a feckless ignoramus that must be dragooned into sending their children to school and compelled through taxation to pay for it. It isnt as though there is a free-rider problem in education. Parents everywhere want their children to thrive and will sacrifice for them.
Buy his Road to the Middle Class.
The incentive that impels a man to act is always some uneasiness...
But to make a man act [he must have]
the expectation that purposeful behavior has the power to remove
or at least to alleviate the felt uneasiness.
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action
But I saw a man yesterday who knows a fellow who had it from a chappie
that said that Urquhart had been dipping himself a bit recklessly off the deep end.
Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison
At first, we thought [the power of the West] was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next we focused on your economic system. But in the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity.
David Aikman, Jesus in Beijing
[In the] higher Christian churches... they saunter through the liturgy like Mohawks along a string of scaffolding who have long since forgotten their danger. If God were to blast such a service to bits, the congregation would be, I believe, genuinely shocked. But in the low churches you expect it every minute.
Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm
Civil Societya complex welter of intermediate institutions, including businesses, voluntary associations, educational institutions, clubs, unions, media, charities, and churchesbuilds, in turn, on the family, the primary instrument by which people are socialized into their culture and given the skills that allow them to live in broader society and through which the values and knowledge of that society are transmitted across the generations.
Francis Fukuyama, Trust
In England there were always two sharply opposed middle classes, the academic middle class and the commercial middle class. In the nineteenth century, the academic middle class won the battle for power and status... Then came the triumph of Margaret Thatcher... The academics lost their power and prestige and... have been gloomy ever since.
Freeman Dyson, The Scientist as Rebel
Conservatism is the philosophy of society. Its ethic is fraternity and its characteristic is authority the non-coercive social persuasion which operates in a family or a community. It says we should....
Danny Kruger, On Fraternity
What distinguishes true Conservatism from the rest, and from the Blair project, is the belief in more personal freedom and more market freedom, along with less state intervention... The true Third Way is the Holy Grail of Tory politics today - compassion and community without compulsion.
Minette Marrin, The Daily Telegraph
When we received Christ, Phil added, all of a sudden we now had a rule book to go by, and when we had problems the preacher was right there to give us the answers.
James M. Ault, Jr., Spirit and Flesh
I mean three systems in one: a predominantly market economy; a polity respectful of the rights of the individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and a system of cultural institutions moved by ideals of liberty and justice for all.
In short, three dynamic and converging systems functioning as one: a democratic polity, an economy based on markets and incentives, and a moral-cultural system which is plural and, in the largest sense, liberal.
Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism
There was nothing new about the Frankish drive to the east... [let] us recall that the continuance of their rule depended upon regular, successful, predatory warfare.
Richard Fletcher, The Barbarian Conversion
We have met with families in which for weeks together, not an article of sustenance but potatoes had been used; yet for every child the hard-earned sum was provided to send them to school.
E. G. West, Education and the State | <urn:uuid:9765ee6f-5c99-4b31-b9aa-be24fe763707> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.roadtothemiddleclass.com/opeds.php?road=58 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392069.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00127-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967862 | 1,725 | 2.65625 | 3 |
The art of Karate is a system of combat developed on the island of Okinawa, Japan. The word literally translates to “empty hand way”. This refers to Karate originating as a system of self-defense that relied on the effective use of the unarmed body of the practitioner. This system consisted of techniques of blocking or thwarting an attack and counter-attacking the opponent by punching, striking or kicking. The modern art of Karate has developed out of a thorough organization of these techniques. Karate as a means of self-defense has the oldest history, going back hundreds of years.
It is only in recent years that the techniques which have been handed down were scientifically studied and the principles evolved for making the most effective use of the various moves of the body. Training based on these principles and knowledge of the working of the muscles and the joints and the vital relation between movement and balance enable the modern student of Karate to be prepared, both physically and psychologically, to defend himself successfully against any would-be assailant. Karate may be more popular than judo and taekwondo, but unlike its martial arts cousins, it is not an Olympic sport. The international Federation of KarateIt is bidding for inclusion in for London 2012. The Trinidad and Tobago Karate Union is the affiliate in Trinidad and Tobago. | <urn:uuid:d905dfd6-9d26-49fa-9770-e7e3fd4119d4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ttoc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=95&Itemid=197 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394937.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00164-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959257 | 271 | 2.640625 | 3 |
|Date(s):||May 1966 to 1966|
|Location(s):||Dist Columbia, District of Columbia|
|Tag(s):||Counterculture, Drug Culture, Government, Law|
|Course:||“US Since 1945,” Juniata College|
|Rating:||5 (5 votes)|
By 1966, interest in LSD had proliferated in the public sphere to an enormous extent. The debate over the chemical’s risks and therapeutic possibilities led to Senate subcommittee hearings on its use. Acid, as LSD is commonly called, had been sensationalized by mass media publications and, although in its early years it had been extensively and responsibly studied by medical professionals, the effects of such a powerful chemical remained unclear. Psychologist Timothy Leary was one of the most prominent advocates of LSD, arguing that his medical research of LSD had shown tremendous therapeutic possibilities. However, many Americans remained suspicious of the chemical’s powerful nature. Chairman Thomas Dodd, a conservative Democrat from Connecticut, called for quick measures to stamp out the rapid spread of LSD among America’s youth generation.
In order to gain a better understanding of LSD’s implications, Senator Dodd convened subcommittee hearings on recreational drug use among America’s youth. Leary was one of many expert witnesses called to testify. In his testimony, he asserted that “the challenge of the psychedelic chemicals is not just how to control them, but how to use them,” emphasizing the need for further investigation of LSD rather than complete prohibition. Leary also claimed that LSD and many other psychedelic drugs were not dangerous if used wisely and with precautions.
However, his opinion endured aggressive questioning by Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, who criticized Leary’s testimony as “general hyperbole.” Additionally, the subcommittee chairman cited an earlier testimony by another doctor who argued that LSD encouraged homicidal tendencies and destructive behavior. Leary continued his attempts to placate the committee and remove LSD’s negative associations. When Kennedy asked if LSD usage was “extremely dangerous,” Leary replied, “Sir, the motor car is dangerous if used improperly… Human stupidity and ignorance is the only danger human beings face in this world.” Leary’s testimony urged for some type of licensing that would require LSD users to be highly trained, much like a pilot’s license, so that responsible adults could use LSD “for serious purposes, such as spiritual growth, pursuit of knowledge, or their own personal development.” He also noted that without such licensing, Americans faced “another era of prohibition” that would create a new group of college-educated white-collar criminals. In a later autobiographical work, Leary would claim that Kennedy’s bullying presence was merely an attempt “to gain respectability points by lynching me!”
Leary was one of many experts who testified at the 1966 subcommittee hearings, which showed both ardent support and uncompromising opposition to LSD. Its testimonies marked the conflict between medical professionals, intellectuals, and government officials who struggled to agree on LSD’s meaning as well its regulation. The hearings also embodied the highly politicized atmosphere of the 1960s, which had conservative politicians utilizing acid as a scapegoat and to suppress radicalism among America’s younger generations. Just several months after the subcommittee hearings, LSD was banned in California. By October 1968, possession of LSD was banned federally in the United States with the passage of the Staggers-Dodd Bill, marking a tremendous step towards the “War On Drugs” campaign that would arise in the 1970s. | <urn:uuid:2e7484d6-cb3b-415a-b989-7fca160cb6d5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/5257 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00164-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970723 | 744 | 2.890625 | 3 |
A child's toy, similar to a rocking horse. But rather than two long runners connecting the front feet to the back, the walking horse has smaller runners, one on each foot. The front legs are connected to eachother and can swing forward. There is a rope (reins) attached to the front legs, so when the child rocks back, he or she pulls the rope, swinging the front legs out. Then, the child rocks forward onto the extended front legs. The back of the horse is pulled forward so the horse is in the neutral position. In this manner, the toy horse may "walk" across a room. | <urn:uuid:8eb9776a-229a-4900-ad54-745a308ae067> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://everything2.com/title/walking+horse | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397744.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00146-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940328 | 128 | 2.984375 | 3 |
A language disappears when its speakers disappear or when they shift to speaking another language – most often, a larger language used by a more powerful group. Languages are threatened by external forces such as military, economic, religious, cultural or educational subjugation, or by internal forces such as a community’s negative attitude towards its own language. Today, increased migration and rapid urbanization often bring along the loss of traditional ways of life and a strong pressure to speak a dominant language that is – or is perceived to be – necessary for full civic participation and economic advancement.
A language is endangered when its speakers cease to use it, use it in fewer and fewer domains, use fewer of its registers and speaking styles, and/or stop passing it on to the next generation. No single factor determines whether a language is endangered, but UNESCO experts have identified nine that should be considered together:
- Intergenerational language transmission
- Absolute number of speakers
- Proportion of speakers within the total population
- Shifts in domains of language use
- Response to new domains and media
- Availability of materials for language education and literacy
- Governmental and institutional language attitudes and policies including official status and use
- Community members’ attitudes toward their own language
- Amount and quality of documentation
For more information on how these nine factors can be considered, see the report, Language Vitality, of the UNESCO Ad Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages (2003).
Every language reflects a unique world-view with its own value systems, philosophy and particular cultural features. The extinction of a language results in the irrecoverable loss of unique cultural knowledge embodied in it for centuries, including historical, spiritual and ecological knowledge that may be essential for the survival of not only its speakers, but also countless others.
For speaker communities, languages are the creations and the vectors of tradition. They support cultural identity and are an essential part of a community’s heritage. An Evenki poet, Alitet Nemtushkin, summarizes the feelings and the apprehension of speakers of endangered languages:
- If I forget my native speech,
And the songs that my people sing
What use are my eyes and ears?
What use is my mouth?
- If I forget the smell of the earth
And do not serve it well
What use are my hands?
Why am I living in the world?
- How can I believe the foolish idea
That my language is weak and poor
If my mother’s last words
Were in Evenki?
- If I forget my native speech,
In the normal course of human history, languages disappear and new ones appear, and this remains true today. New languages may be the result of a conscious effort (Esperanto) or other processes such as pidginization (development of a simplified, mixed language for communication among two or more groups) or creolization (development of a mixed language that becomes the mother language of a group). New languages also arise as dialects of an existing language become more and more different from each other over time, and speakers of one dialect no longer fully understand speakers of another.
Many languages may exist but not be known yet by linguists or other researchers. New languages may be discovered by a diligent researcher or, for example, as a consequence of building a road through a rainforest and coming across a small indigenous group unknown to the outside world.
Regions with the greatest linguistic diversity are also the ones with the most endangered languages (for instance, Melanesia, Sub-Saharan Africa or South America). But endangered languages can be found in every region and in almost every country in the world.
It is impossible to estimate the total number of languages that have disappeared over human history. Linguists have calculated the numbers of extinct languages for certain regions, such as, for instance, Europe and Asia Minor (75 languages) or the United States (115 languages lost in the last five centuries, of some 280 spoken at the time of Columbus). Some examples of recently extinct languages are:
- Akkala Saami (Russian Federation) - the last speaker died in 2003
- Aasax (Tanzania) – 1976
- Ubyh (Turkey) – 1992, with the death of Tefvic Esenc
- Eyak (United States, Alaska) – 2008, with the death of Marie Smith Jones
This Atlas is the result of an international collaboration of more than thirty linguists from around the world (see Contributors), some of whom had already been involved in the previous two editions. The editor-in-chief is Christopher Moseley, whose works include the Encyclopedia of the World’s Endangered Languages (London: Routledge 2007) and the Atlas of the World’s Languages (London: Routledge 1994 and 2007). The on-line edition will be enriched by contributions from many other researchers, and from speakers of endangered languages. The cartographer of the present printed edition is Alexandre Nicolas.
The linguists who edited the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger agreed that it should include not only languages that are endangered, but also those that have become extinct in the last half century or so. When we say that a language is extinct, we mean that it is no longer the first tongue that infants learn in their homes, and that the last speaker who did learn the language in that way has passed on within the last five decades. It may be possible to revive extinct languages, provided that there is adequate documentation and a strong motivation within the ethnic community. In many communities, revitalization efforts begin when there are still elders alive who learned as infants, even if there is often a gap of several generations of non-speakers in between. There are more and more examples of languages being brought back to life, even if many linguists still wish to distinguish such revived languages from those that have been spoken continuously, without interruption.
The most important thing that can be done to keep a language from disappearing is to create favourable conditions for its speakers to speak the language and teach it to their children. This often requires national policies that recognize and protect minority languages, education systems that promote mother-tongue instruction, and creative collaboration between community members and linguists to develop a writing system and introduce formal instruction in the language. Since the most crucial factor is the attitude of the speaker community toward its own language, it is essential to create a social and political environment that encourages multilingualism and respect for minority languages so that speaking such a language is an asset rather than a liability. Some languages now have so few speakers that they cannot be maintained, but linguists can, if the community so wishes, record as much of the language as possible so that it does not disappear without a trace.
See the Selected Bibliography for descriptions of specific projects and methodological approaches.
UNESCO acts on many fronts to safeguard endangered languages and prevent their disappearance:
- In education, UNESCO supports policies promoting multilingualism and especially mother tongue literacy; it supports the language component of indigenous education; and raises awareness of the importance of language preservation in education.
- In culture, UNESCO collects data on endangered and indigenous languages, develops standardized tools and methodologies, and builds capacities of governments and civil society (academic institutions and speaker communities).
- In communication and information, UNESCO supports the use of local languages in the media and promotes multilingualism in cyberspace.
- In science, UNESCO assists programmes to strengthen the role of local languages in the transmission of local and indigenous knowledge. | <urn:uuid:20917274-bb1b-4de8-a19b-b82ff12fb347> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.unesco.org/new/zh/culture/themes/endangered-languages/faq-on-endangered-languages/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00173-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919639 | 1,543 | 3.6875 | 4 |
Hantavirus found in African wood mouseResearchers have discovered the first African hantavirus, a type of rodent-borne virus that can cause life-threatening infections in humans when it is inhaled through aerosolized rodent urine or droppings.
A team led by Jan ter Meulen while he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) international research scholar at the University of Conakry in the Republic of Guinea, identified the new virus in an African wood mouse (Hylomiscus simus) in Sangassou, Guinea. Their findings are published in the May 2006 issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, published early online on April 18, 2006.
"This discovery represents the first genetic evidence for the presence of hantaviruses in Africa," said ter Meulen, who also holds a position at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. "This novel hantavirus is related to viruses that cause severe disease in humans in Central and Eastern Europe."
European and Asian hantaviruses cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), a group of similar illnesses with symptoms including, fever, kidney failure, and bleeding. The viruses are carried by a number of rodents, including the brown rat, the striped field mouse, and the yellow-necked mouse. If left untreated, mortality can be as high as 15 percent.
Hantavirus was not seen in the Americas until 1993, when it killed approximately 20 people in the western United States. The American virus causes hantavirus pulmonary syndrome: fever, chills, and severe muscle pain, followed by respiratory distress. Nearly four in 10 cases are fatal. Initially called "Four Corners Disease," the malady was later traced to a previously unknown hantavirus carried by the deer mouse.
The team has suggested calling the virus they found the Sangassou virus, for the region in which it was found. This follows tradition; in 1976, the first hantavirus was found near--and named for--the Hantaan River near Seoul, South Korea.
"We don't yet know what symptoms the Sangassou virus might cause or how virulent it is," said ter Meulen, "but we have already obtained preliminary evidence that the Sangassou virus can infect humans, because we identified hantavirus-specific neutralizing antibodies in [the blood] of humans living in the area where the virus was detected. We do not know if these people suffered from an HFRS-like illness, but studies to determine this are in progress."
Ter Meulen said, however, that there's little cause for alarm; this is not the next bird flu. Like each of the more than two dozen other types of hantavirus, Sangassou virus is carried by only one host species--limiting its spread to the natural range of the African wood mouse, from southern Guinea across parts of Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ivory Coast, to Ghana.
This one-to-one pairing of virus with host also means that the Sangassou discovery has implications for rodent classification, said ter Meulen. "According to the co-evolution hypothesis, the phylogeny (evolutionary history) of viruses that are restricted to a host species mirrors the phylogeny of their respective hosts," he explained. "So the discovery of an African hantavirus will significantly advance the understanding of hantavirus evolution and of rodent evolution."
The researchers originally collected hundreds of African rodents during a study of the variability of Lassa virus--another rodent-borne virus--in its hosts and in humans. They started looking for an African hantavirus in their unique, West African rodent collection because no hantaviruses had previously been reported from Africa, and they had the technology for detecting unknown hantaviruses. "We are also planning to look for other emerging viruses in our rodent collection," said ter Meulen.
To isolate the virus, the team collected blood samples from more than 600 rodents. Using a technique called reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), the scientists searched each sample for a segment of RNA characteristic of hantaviruses. They found a match in one of the four African wood mice in the study.
After finding the virus, the group cloned and sequenced it and compared it with known hantaviruses. The new virus shares approximately 75 percent of its nucleotides and 85 percent of its amino acids with Asian and European hantaviruses. "Those observed differences are large enough to allow its classification as a novel hantavirus," said ter Meulen. The new virus appears most closely related to the Dobrava virus, originally discovered in Slovenia.
The researchers have also grown the virus in cell culture, which is notoriously difficult to do with hantaviruses. Now they can easily test to see which antibodies react with the virus and how strongly they react. Antibody reactivity comparisons are another way to determine genetic relationships among viruses. Isolation of the virus is also required for development of a vaccine.
The scientists also are planning to develop and assess a diagnostic test for infection. The work will be done in Guinea, where the group operates an HHMI-supported virological laboratory.
"Other researchers will probably now screen their rodent biopsy collections for similar African hantaviruses based on the sequence information of the Sangassou virus," said ter Meulen.
In addition to ter Meulen, authors of the article detailing the discovery include Boris Klempa, Detlev Kruger, Brita Auste and Helga Meisel, from the Institute of Virology of the Charité in Berlin (Klempa is also affiliated with the Institute of Virology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovak Republic); Elisabeth Fichet-Calvet and Christiane Denys of the Museum of Natural History, Paris; Emilie Lecompte of the Institute of Virology, Philipps University, Marburg, Germany; Vladimir Aniskin of the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Moscow; and Lamine Koivogui of the Viral Hemorrhagic Fever Project, Conakry, Guinea.
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 30 Apr 2016
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:45d9828b-3926-424e-b48c-d02ee65df2bd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://psychcentral.com/news/archives/2006-04/hhmi-hfi041806.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397842.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00141-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947492 | 1,331 | 3.25 | 3 |
Symbaloo has long been a favorite site of mine. I love that users can aggregate the sites they most frequent. Think of this as a visual bookmarking site that you can share and change over time. Whether it’s our blog, our Facebook page, our Edmodo TCI User group, or Twitter….we examine many tools that can […]
We’ve updated our list of great free technology sites and apps. Teachers don’t have to use technology to have powerful classrooms, but they can sure help! See how this guide, by the makers of History Alive, can create a spark of thought for educators just easing into using web 2.0 and mobile technology in their […]
Posted: October 17th, 2013 under Challenging Students, Classroom Technology, Educational Trends and Issues, Geography, groupwork, History Alive! The Ancient World, History Alive! The United States Through Industrialism, History Alive! World Connections, Professional Development, Social Studies Alive! America's Past, Social Studies Alive! Our Community and Beyond, students, TCI info, TCI Subscription, TeacherGenius, Teaching Strategies, U.S. History, Web 2.0 Tips and Tools, World Cultures Alive!, world history, Writing.
Tags: edtech, education, education apps, teaching, web2.0
If you have seen QR Codes (Quick Response), then you know they are popping up everywhere. Their rise mirrors the widespread use of smart phones equipped with cameras. QR codes present a great opportunity for educators to use technology in a meaningful way. Here are two ways teachers can use QR codes with students along […]
Posted: August 8th, 2012 under Challenging Students, Classroom Technology, Educational Trends and Issues, groupwork, primary sources, students, Teaching Strategies, Web 2.0 Tips and Tools.
Tags: classroom technology, edtech, qr code, quick response, technology
Though mobile devices such as the iPad are becoming more ubiquitous, most schools still are struggling to find their way through the thicket of technology implementation. Yesterday, I had the great opportunity of teaching a class of 1:1 High School AP Gov students at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Each student in Ms. […]
Posted: May 17th, 2012 under Challenging Students, Classroom Management, Classroom Technology, Educational Trends and Issues, groupwork, Learning Styles, students, Teaching Strategies, Web 2.0 Tips and Tools.
Tags: 1:1 classrooms, edtech, iPads in the classroom, mobile learning, qr codes
A good definition of Disruptive Technology can be summed up as: “A new technology that changes the current way of approaching a particular problem or issue.” Using this definition, tablets certainly fit the bill. From our earliest days of life, we are hard-wired as humans to reach out and touch what we want. Tablets allow […]
Posted: November 10th, 2011 under Challenging Students, Classroom Technology, Educational Trends and Issues, Games, Professional Development, students, Web 2.0 Tips and Tools, Writing.
Tags: Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, edtech, iPad2, Kindle Fire, Nook Tablet, tablet
Our focus on our blog, Facebook, and a webinar (11/16) for November is going to be financial literacy. One of the things that we thought teachers and administrators might be interested in would be a buyer’s guide for education tools. These guides could help when shopping for things like tablets, clickers, interactive white boards, or […]
Posted: October 31st, 2011 under Classroom Technology, Educational Trends and Issues, students, TCI info.
Tags: buyers guide, edtech, education gadgets, educational tools, instructional tools
The ability to create custom assessments in TCI Subscriptions is a super popular feature. This two-minute video shows you how create an assessment with question bank questions from more than one lesson, how to edit questions and how to drag and drop. We think it’s quite cool and hope you do, too.
If you are in a school district that is using a BYOT (Bring Your Own Tech) policy with students, what are the benefits and challenges to it? We’d love to hear the voice of the teacher crowd! Use the Voicethread link below to add your voice to the conversation.
Posted: June 8th, 2011 under Challenging Students, Classroom Management, Classroom Technology, Educational Theories, Educational Trends and Issues, Grants and Funding, Professional Development, students, Teaching Strategies, Web 2.0 Tips and Tools.
Tags: byot, edtech, voicethread
We have updated and included more sites in our popular Starters Guide to Free Web 2.0 tools. You can download the document by clicking the download button. Please print and share with teachers you know. For more great ideas, tips, and sites like these, visit TeacherGenius . Don’t miss out on a chance to share your […]
Posted: February 9th, 2011 under Challenging Students, Classroom Technology, groupwork, students, TCI info, TeacherGenius, Web 2.0 Tips and Tools.
Tags: 21st century skills, edtech, strategies, teaching, web 2.0 | <urn:uuid:1b2b2810-7cfc-4b60-b909-9224c72e6250> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.teachtci.com/tag/edtech/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00177-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904543 | 1,105 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Like anything made of metal, valves are subject to corrosion and other natural forces that compromise their performance. However, the right coating can protect those valves not just against corrosion, but erosion and wear.
Many coatings in use today, including both organic (paints, for example) and inorganic (zinc, chromium, nickel, aluminum and others) are applied to the outside surfaces to protect those surfaces. However, protecting the inside of a valve is a bit trickier because of the myriad of factors that come into play. This article concentrates on those challenges, covering coatings for the insides of valves that resist corrosion, prevent wear of the trim and other moving parts, and reduce erosion by abrasive media.
CHOICE OF METHODS AND MATERIALS
A wide selection of coatings is available today. Control Valves, part of the ISA Practical Guides for Measurement and Control (1998), lists electroless nickel to protect steel bodies and bonnets from corrosion, aluminizing for protection from high-temperature corrosion, boronizing to prevent internal erosion and a variety of sprayed coatings.
Many methods covered in this area are presented by the companies that make or provide them as alternatives to chrome plating—which is desirable because the newer coatings promise better properties and because chromium is facing ever-stricter environmental restrictions.
The requirements of individual applications determine which type of material is optimum for helping a valve resist corrosion, wear and erosion, says Dore Rosenblum, director of marketing, Sub-One Technology.
“For example, let’s say a valve is operating in a purely corrosive environment—gases flowing or something. Then, the goal is to make sure the coating is thick enough and doesn’t have any holes in it or pinholes that can cause corrosion,” Rosenblum explains.
The coating in this case could be a simpler one than a valve that had a very heavy sand flow, “where you have to worry quite a bit about erosion or abrasion or some other wear occurring in addition to corrosion,” he says.
For that second case, “we would create … a different type of coating that would be able to support the erosive flow through it and protect against damaging the surface of the valve,” he explains.
Hardcoating (Figure 2), which deposits a fairly thin layer of material and is often done with a thermal spraying technique, is distinguishable from hardfacing, which uses a form of welding for a thicker deposit, though considerable overlap in applications exists. The choice of which to use “usually has to do with the geometry of the part followed up by the volume of pieces that needs to be done,” says Ozzie Bell, manager, business development, Deloro Stellite. Manual methods used include MIG or TIG welding or oxyacetylene. If volumes are high and the part geometry is simple, he continues, “then there will be an automated process where we would have something like a plasma transferred arc piece of equipment being used, or an HVOF [high velocity oxygen fuel] system.” (Figure 1)
One of the oldest hardfacing materials used in valves is Stellite 6 (the name Stellite was trademarked in 1911), which is based on cobalt, chrome and tungsten carbide. However, Tribaloy alloys are increasing in popularity; the alloy consists of cobalt, chromium and molybdenum. Bell explains that: “They tend to stand up better under high abrasion and high corrosion applications.” They’re typically “used on the trim, on stem, seats, some bushings and possibly some of the flapper valves,” he says.
Another hardcoating gaining favor is Hardide Coatings’ tungsten carbide-based material, which consists of tungsten carbide nanoparticles dispersed in a tungsten metal matrix. This material is applied using chemical vapor deposition (CVD), which can coat both external and internal parts. The coating has been approved for use on a new line of coated metal ball and seats.
Meanwhile, Sub-One Technology uses a different deposition technique; the company employs a process applied by using “hollow cathode plasma immersion ion processing,” which can deposit carbon-based coatings, metal carbides and oxides—for example silicon, tantalum and chromium carbides—and diamond-like carbon films on the insides of objects (Figure 3). As this description implies, the process does not involve putting a part in a vacuum chamber and spraying or bombarding it with the material. Instead, says Rosenblum, “we … create a chamber within the part where we create a vacuum. We then apply the process so that it deposits the coating onto the internal surface.”
What that allows the company to do is to support a variety of components formerly very difficult to coat because the line of sight was not good. This is generally done while the valve is being manufactured—parts are sent for processing, which the company does, “and they [the valve manufacturer] would then complete the manufacturing process for the component,” Rosenblum explains.
A LOOK AT THE FUTURE
Technology seldom stands still, and valve coatings are no exception. An interesting development at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation and the University of Duisburg-Essen was reported recently in an article in MIT’s Technology Review. The article explains that researchers are developing a way to electroplate metals containing liquid-filled nanoparticles. The hope is that these particles could be filled with liquid polymers or other materials that would be released if the plating was cracked or scratched, effectively sealing the crack and preventing corrosion.
This development and others like it ensure the valves of the future will have even more protection than those in years past.
Composite Electroless Nickel Coatings
By Michael D. Feldstein
Electroless Nickel (EN) is generally an alloy of 88% to 99% nickel with the balance being phosphorous, boron or a few other possible elements depending on the specific requirements of an application. It can be applied to numerous metals, alloys and nonconductors with outstanding uniformity of coating thickness to complex geometries. In addition, its super fine particles can be added to form composite EN coatings that can enhance existing characteristics and add entirely new properties. Particles from a few nanometers up to about 50 microns in size can be incorporated into coatings that are a few microns up to many mils in thickness. The particles can comprise from 10% to over 40% of the coating depending on the particle size and application.
The widest use in the valve industry for these coatings is for increased wear resistance. Particles of many hard materials can be used in this process, such as diamond, silicon carbide, aluminum oxide, tungsten carbide, boron carbide and others. Diamond is the most common and has a Taber wear index of 1.159. Where low coefficient of friction, dry lubrication and repellency of water, oil and/or other liquids are crucial, the coating can contain 20% to 25% of sub-micron PTFE particles. Tests show that the lowest coefficient of friction is achievable when both mating parts are coated with composite EN-PTFE. Where high heat is a problem, composites with particles of ceramics such as boron nitride (which can withstand temperatures above 1562º F [850º C]) are used. When loading is high, the coefficient of friction of EN-BN and conventional EN actually decreases as the load increases.
EN coating can also be made to fluoresce under ultraviolet light, which can be useful in telling genuine OEM parts from counterfeit parts as well as in identifying specific manufacturing lots. The fluorescent material can even serve as an indicator layer, warning when the coating has worn off and replacement or recoating is necessary. | <urn:uuid:f89797c6-565f-4ab5-a609-9b6b2cbcba3a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.valvemagazine.com/index.php/news/manufacturing-a-economy/4379-oklahoma-city-tops-list-of-healthiest-metro-area-economies | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00090-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942954 | 1,672 | 3.609375 | 4 |
So, let's say we have a spacecraft in deep space. It activates its rocket engines, to keep it simple. The engine reaction channels exhaust through the aft nozzle, right? How does that chemical reaction actually induce a change in the velocity of the spacecraft? The particles have to push against the geometry of the spacecraft to provide a force. Do they do that and how when their direction vector clearly goes away from the spacecraft?
And here's something else. A pressurized spacecraft opens up an airlock which decompresses the entire deck, would that create a small thrust for the spacecraft and how? Is it the contact hull - air as it is accelerating outwards? | <urn:uuid:b15673c7-3bf2-4713-98cf-6b7129eb7667> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/16422/on-the-topic-of-action-and-reaction | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00135-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964769 | 134 | 3.34375 | 3 |
The key to a healthy garden is good soil, and good soil is full of nutrients and organic matter. The best way to improve your soil is to add compost. You can buy compost or make it yourself in a store-bought or homemade composter.Materials
- Large plastic garbage can with lid
- Utility knife
- Cut the bottom out of the garbage can with a utility knife.
- Help your child use a hammer and nail to punch holes about eight inches apart in three parallel circles around the top, middle, and bottom of the can.
More on: Activities for Kids
Copyright © 2001 by Patricia Kuffner. Excerpted from The Children's Busy Book with permission of its publisher, Meadowbrook Press.
To order this book visit Meadowbrook Press. | <urn:uuid:b76de0f7-e3ab-4ecd-81d6-510d7c70e8a5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://fun.familyeducation.com/environmental-education/plants/36824.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00077-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.898801 | 162 | 3.609375 | 4 |
The story of Psyche as related in 'The Golden Ass' (IV-VI) by Apuleius tells how Cupid falls in love with Psyche but conceals his identity from her, visiting her only at night. Fearing he is an evil magician, she looks at him, although forbidden to do so. Cupid then abandons her. The moment shown by Claude, however, may be before Psyche has encountered Cupid, when, following her salvation from danger by the West Wind, she was 'qualifying the troubles and thoughts of her restless mind'. Alternatively, it may be after she has been left by her two sisters who attempted to persuade Psyche to murder her beloved.
The picture was painted in 1664 for the Roman aristocrat, Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna. It influenced John Keats's 'Ode to a Nightingale' (1819).
Jay Griffiths: The character of Psyche is to me, the character of someone who is half in love with the enchantment of love, with the force of Eros, and so half of her – it’s as if her body language… with her left half, she’s kind of sitting and waiting, she’s like Rodin’s 'The Thinker'; with her right half she’s just ready to run – it’s a kind of ‘should I stay or should I go?’ And I think also in the balance of the picture, there is something sort of enraptured about the brightness and the brilliance and the radiance of the sun and the sky and at the same time, you know, the gloom and the darkness and the shadow – that terrible undertow of anxiety or nervousness or vulnerability or fear within it.
But it’s also that Psyche herself is in this landscape which has aided her story, which is also a sort of beautiful pun within – you know, probably an unintended pun, but it’s still to our ears a pun nonetheless because it’s called 'Landscape with Psyche' – because you could say that the landscape itself has psyche within it, the landscape is ‘en-minded’. There’s a point in the story where she is rescued by the west wind, which picks her up from a mountain top and gently, gently drops her into the sweet and gentle valleys. There’s another point where, when she’s devastated by the loss of Eros, she tries to commit suicide. The river refuses to allow her to do it; the river throws her out, so it’s as if the landscape is ‘en-minded’. The landscape has psyche by which it is operating and choosing and aiding and helping. So it’s as if all the way through the story there’s an enchantment, not only in love, and the Enchanted Castle, but there is also an enchantment in nature as everything is alive, as if it’s animated with mind, with psyche.
Miranda Hinkley (in the studio): Thanks to author Jay Griffiths.
From The National Gallery Podcast: Episode Forty, February 2010 | <urn:uuid:633b515a-b3b8-4a26-af5f-3b74fc370392> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/claude-the-enchanted-castle | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393463.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00107-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963954 | 658 | 2.6875 | 3 |
WASHINGTON - Lung cancer is inching down among women after decades of smoking-fueled increases - and overall survival rates are improving for most types of tumors among men and women.
Not everyone is reaping the gains: Minorities still are more likely than whites to die from cancer, says the nation's annual report on cancer, published June 3 in the journal Cancer.
But largely, the news remains optimistic. Death rates from cancer in general have dropped 1.1 percent a year since 1993, and the June 3 report confirms that decline continued in 2001. Rates of new cases are declining about half a percent a year, too.
Most striking in this latest tally is what's happening with the No. 1 cancer killer: Rates of female lung cancer diagnoses have declined about 2 percent a year since 1998, years after men began a similar improvement. Also, female death rates from lung cancer have leveled off, remaining virtually unchanged since 1995, the report says.
"For the first time, we are turning the corner in the lung cancer epidemic in women," said Ahmedin Jemal of the American Cancer Society, who co-wrote the report with scientists from the National Cancer Institute, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and North American Association of Central Cancer Registries.
Smoking became rampant among men long before women, and the resulting lung cancer consequently struck men sooner. Lung cancer remains the nation's top-killing malignancy, and the second most common cancer.
But it slowly declined among men starting in the early 1990s as older smokers died and fewer young men took up the habit.
The report's other new finding: More people are living at least five years after a diagnosis of most types of cancer.
Five-year survival is a major milestone for cancer patients, and the scientists found significant gains over the past two decades in how often that milestone was met.
For men, survival rates improved more than 10 percent for cancers of the prostate, colon and kidney, and for melanoma and leukemia.
For women, the biggest survival improvements came in colon, kidney and breast cancers.
What does that mean? Today, 99.3 percent of men diagnosed with prostate cancer will live five years, up from 70 percent in the 1970s. Five-year survival for breast cancer is 88 percent, up from 75 percent in 1970s.
But that survival is strongly connected to how early cancer is caught, stressed co-author Brenda Edwards of the NCI's cancer-control division.
Then there's the racial gap.
When looking at all cancers combined, black men are 26 percent more likely to die of a malignancy than white men, and Hispanic men are 16 percent more likely than non-Hispanic whites, Jemal said. Black women are 52 percent more likely to die of cancer than white women, and Hispanic women 20 percent more likely, he said.
But notable differences remain even when scientists examine people diagnosed at the same stage of cancer, said NCI's Edwards. Black women were more likely to die of breast cancer, even though it is more common among whites.
Access to the best treatment options probably plays a role, as may additional illnesses patients have that complicate cancer treatment, Edwards said. | <urn:uuid:f6084f95-d26f-4e93-a773-98e1036f1edb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://amarillo.com/stories/2004/06/12/usn_cancer.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397797.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00037-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966166 | 651 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Sometimes, it might seem like the battles for our rights and liberties are some distant memory – even something you’ve only read about in a textbook or seen in a documentary.
The Emancipation Proclamation was signed a century and a half ago. The marches and boycotts and lunch counter sit-ins of the civil rights era are 50 or 60 years behind us.
And today, there are no longer any separate water fountains, no more guards keeping any of our children from the schoolhouse door. That’s a sign of how far we’ve come – we live in a world with progress that our parents and grandparents would never have even dreamed of.
But that doesn’t mean that our work is finished.
And while today’s challenges may not feel as glaring, they’re every bit as urgent. Do children who go to an understaffed, crumbling school truly have a fair shot at success? If a family has a son or daughter born with a genetic disease, should they have to fight day and night with insurance companies just to get the insurance coverage they need? Are our children falling behind because our communities aren’t safe or supportive enough for them to reach their potential? And how do we preserve our most fundamental right to cast our ballots for our children and grandchildren?
Read more at NewsOne | <urn:uuid:2598fadd-45f9-402c-ba50-571c75ece96f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.blackenterprise.com/news/exclusive-op-ed-michelle-obama-voter-rights-voices/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00021-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961283 | 279 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Bonnie Prince Charlie
More than two centuries ago, amid the Jacobite uprising, Bonnie Prince Charlie requisitioned Culloden House as his lodging and battlefield headquarters.
He lived here, on and off, including the two nights prior to the battle.
Charles was hoping to win back the throne for his father, the son of the last Stuart king. He was opposed by his cousin, the Duke of Cumberland, who was fighting to keep the throne for his father, George II.
Both were 25 years old.
Charles was out-gunned and outnumbered. He escaped but the Scots way of life was henceforth altered. It was the end of an era and never again was a pitched battle fought on British soil.
Culloden is a site which changed more than the history of Scotland. It has been estimated that there are some 20 million people of Scots descent living in other countries as a result of the huge diaspora as the aftermath of this one battle.
The battle site became a place of pilgrimage for millions of Scots, both in Scotland as well as those scattered abroad. The most recognizable feature, a 20 foot memorial cairn built in honor of the fallen by Duncan Forbes, 8th Laird of Culloden, became a focal point for battlefield visitors.
Today the 180 acre moor is held in perpetuity for the nation by the National Trust of Scotland.
Culloden House therefore stands out a symbol, both of Scotland's past, and her present. Its name and situation are redolent of a turbulent and romantic history, its present that of a welcoming Scotland, welcoming to her sons and daughters making the pilgrimage back home, providing the finest of accommodation within a superbly historic setting. | <urn:uuid:09940e26-d8a3-4df2-8784-c58cc387e6ec> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cullodenhouse.co.uk/index.php/about-us/bonnie-prince-charlie | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396538.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00156-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978484 | 355 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Sydney - July 11, 2001
The existence of a large Moon in orbit around the Earth and its implications for the origin and nature of life have been a subject of considerable discussion. With the Hartmann/Davis models for the catastrophic origin of the Moon by glancing collision, it has become clear that our Moon is a rare celestial object and that few Earth-like planets could have produced such a chance outcome during their assembly.
If, therefore, aspects of the Moon's existence strongly impact on the origin and development of life, then we may be able to explain why life (as we know it) might be rare in the Universe.
The bulk of arguments about the Moon relate to its effect on the orbital dynamics of the Earth-Moon system (which is stabilised against spin-axis inclination variations, unlike Mars), and to the tidal influence on ecosystems (developing broad coastal flats with regular currents, water-depth variations, and monthly cycles).
None of these are compelling arguments for the origin or nature of life. Instead, we look here at plate tectonics as an essential engine for maintaining the continent/ocean duality on Earth, which enabled advanced life to emerge on land and develop to a tool-using electro-mechanical civilisation (our definition of "advanced life"?).
Others have speculated that the heat pulse due to the Lunar-originating impact was the trigger to start plate tectonics but we show that this is a minor effect of timing. Instead, the enabling factor is the removal of ~70% of the primordial crust of the Earth to a position in orbit 400,000 km overhead. If that crust were returned and replaced on Earth it would fill the ocean basins with wall-to-wall continent. This would choke plate tectonics, as on Venus, and displace the oceans to flood the land to a depth of several km.
Without plate tectonics, new mountain belts could not form. Earth would be a Waterworld with occasional shield volcanoes emerging briefly above the waves. If regular catastrophic convective overturn occurred, as on Venus, life would have a precarious foothold indeed. There may be many habitable worlds, but they are likely to be Waterworlds where swimming or flying creatures might evolve significant intelligence, but would be unlikely to progress to discover fire, electricity, computers, radio, and rockets.
The Origin of the Moon
During the last decade, the science community has rallied squarely in favour of a catastrophic origin model for the Moon. Late in the Earth's accretion a large body of perhaps Mars size hit the Earth (then about 60% complete, and already with a differentiated core, mantle and crust). This in itself was not unusual. Most of the planets show signs of large late impacts in their eccentric orbits and tilted spin axes, but this one was something special.
The impact was at just the right angle to almost bounce off, but to be captured and swallowed by the Earth. The highly oblique impact struck a glancing blow to the Earth's surface and set up giant shock waves that spalled material into space. The surface of the Earth was heated and may have begun to boil --not just the Oceans, but the rock itself!
The debris that was spalled off, and the boiling clouds of rock gas formed a ring around the proto-Earth and then condensed into one or more glowing clumps of molten material that finally amalgamated into a giant Moon. When the dust settled, the nature of the Earth had been changed forever some 60-70% of its primordial crust had been blasted off into space. A giant glowing ball reared overhead, perhaps ten times closer than the Moon is today (and ten times larger, visually). Giant tides would have been raised of over one kilometre in height in the oceans that condensed back onto the Earth, and of several tens of metres in solid rock!
The heat produced by these tides absorbed energy from the spin of the Earth, and some was transmitted by tides (gravity gradients) to the Moon itself, pushing it further away from the Earth. Gradually the tides lessened and the surface of the Earth stabilised, while the Moon cooled and settled into a slower, steadier orbit. Accretion was still continuing, mopping up the last debris of the Solar System, and soon the giant scars of the formation process were concealed by new impacts.
Of key importance for the Earth, it had gained extra core material from the dense centre of the impactor, but it had lost a large amount of its crust. That crust is now in orbit nearly 400,000 km over our heads - a very strange place for a planet to keep its crust. The consequences for the Earth, and life on it, have been profound. It is no exaggeration to say that without the Moon, there would be no civilised life on Earth. In fact, there would probably be very little land on Earth, as we shall see...
Earth - the divided planet
Our planet seems familiar to us, and we accept as commonplace its gross structure and how it works. Although it took until the 1970's for plate tectonics to be accepted fully by the scientific community, that model for the way that all processes on Earth are geared together, and for how mountains are built and rebuilt over time seems totally normal to us today. We even accept without comment that we actually have continents and Oceans as distinct entities, but no other planet or Moon in our Solar System is organised like this. No other planet has plate tectonics.
Some authors suggest that plate tectonics was enabled by the heat pulse of the Moon impact, but once the first billion years have passed, events like that are irrelevant thermally. What is important is why plate tectonics continues, despite the lack of such a thermal pulse. To understand this we need to look again at the Moon, the Oceans, and the Continents.
One common misconception about the Moon is that it was somehow spat out of the Earth, and the Pacific Ocean marks the scar of its birth. We know this is dynamically impossible, and anyway the Pacific Ocean is far too young (<180 Ma) to be the birth scar of the 3.8Ga Moon (and that's just a surface age, the Moon-forming event probably occurred at ~ 4.45Ga). However, we can make use of this concept. Let's take the Moon, which is after, all, the primordial crust of the Earth. Let's tear it up into pieces like a giant ball of modelling clay, and flatten out those pieces into broad flat plates about 40 km thick - In short, let's form the Moon back into crust, and put it back on Earth.
Today, the Earth is about 70% ocean and 30% land. If we replace the missing 70% of crust, then we will entirely fill the ocean basins. The water will be displaced and will flood out over the land. If we do this to the modern Earth, only a few decent areas of land remain from the 3 km deep flood. All of Australia is gone. The Himalayas and the Andes are some of the few remaining "continents", and Iceland of course survives because it is such a profuse volcanic centre. Everything else is just a tiny pimple of a mountain (usually volcanic) adrift in a planetary ocean.
Even this is an overestimate of the land area. Those major "continents" are all intimately related to plate tectonics. They are either young active mountain belts, or intense volcanic centres built high on the spine of the mid-ocean ridge system. How would these fare on the remodelled Earth?
The secret of plate tectonics is that the Earth has gaps between the continents, and so they can move around like a sliding block puzzle. But if we replace the missing crust, there are no longer any spaces to slide into. Although tectonic forces might tug and squeeze, all they can do is make a few wrinkles here an there. That's what happens on Venus, where the crust is planetwide and ~30km thick everywhere. On Venus nothing can rift, or spread, or subduct, or collide, because there's already something there blocking the way.
If we restored the Moon to the Earth, we would block up plate tectonics. The planet would have to find other ways of losing heat - like the profuse volcanism of Venus, or the massive stacked volcanoes of Mars. Plate tectonics would stop. (Or would have never started). The oceans would flood the land, and any mountain belts would be worn away in a few hundred million years. Soon, there would be nothing left but a ball of water, with just an occasional volcanic island poking through the spindrift.
The Earth is not unique because if its oceans. Any planet in the right part of the habitable zone will have those. What is unique about the Earth is that it has LAND. If the moon had not carried away most of the crust, there would be no ocean basins, no land, and no chance for life to evolve on land.
Click For Part Two: Venus - What The Earth Would Have Been
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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 medicine, a wound is a type of injury in which in the skin is torn, cut or punctured (an open wound), or where blunt force trauma causes a contusion (a closed wound). In pathology, it specifically refers to a sharp injury which damages the dermis of the skin.
Types of woundsEdit
Self inflicted woundsEdit
Open wounds can be classified according to the object that caused the wound. The types of open wound are:
- Incisions or incised wounds, caused by a clean, sharp-edged object such as a knife, a razor or a glass splinter. Incisions which involve only the epidermis are legally classified as cuts, rather than wounds.[How to reference and link to summary or text]
- Lacerations, irregular wounds caused by a blunt impact to soft tissue that lies over hard tissue (e.g. laceration of the skin covering the skull) or tearing of skin and other tissues such as caused by childbirth. Lacerations may show bridging, as connective tissue or blood vessels are flattened against the underlying hard surface.[How to reference and link to summary or text] The term laceration is commonly misused in reference to injury with sharp objects, which would not display bridging (connective tissue and blood vessels are severed).
- Abrasions (grazes), superficial wounds in which the topmost layer of the skin (the epidermis) is scraped off. Abrasions are often caused by a sliding fall onto a rough surface.
- Puncture wounds, caused by an object puncturing the skin, such as a nail or needle.
- Penetration wounds, caused by an object such as a knife entering the body.[How to reference and link to summary or text]
- Gunshot wounds, caused by a bullet or similar projectile driving into or through the body. There may be two wounds, one at the site of entry and one at the site of exit, such is generally known as a through-and-through.
In a medical context, stab wounds and gunshot wounds are considered major wounds.[How to reference and link to summary or text]
Closed wounds have fewer categories, but are just as dangerous as open wounds. The types of closed wounds are:
- Contusions, more commonly known as bruises, caused by blunt force trauma that damages tissue under the skin.
- Hematomas, also called blood tumors, caused by damage to a blood vessel that in turn causes blood to collect under the skin.
- Crushing injuries, caused by a great or extreme amount of force applied over a long period of time.
- Main article: Burns
- Main article: Electrical injuries
Bacterial infection of wound can impede the healing process and lead to life threatening complications. Scientists at Sheffield University have identified a way of using light to rapidly detect the presence of bacteria. They are developing a portable kit in which specially designed molecules emit a light signal when bound to bacteria. Current laboratory-based detection of bacteria can take hours or even days.
From the Classical Period to the Medieval Period, the body and the soul were believed to be intimately connected, based on several theories put forth by the philosopher Plato. Wounds on the body were believed to correlate with wounds to the soul and vice versa; wounds were seen as an outward sign of an inward illness. Thus, a man who was wounded physically in a serious way was said to be hindered not only physically but spiritually as well. If the soul was wounded, that wound may also eventually become physically manifest, revealing the true state of the soul. Wounds were also seen as writing on the "tablet" of the body. Wounds gotten in war, for example, told the story of a soldier in a form which all could see and understand, and the wounds of a martyr told the story of their faith.
- Wounds, online open-access journal featuring articles about wound care and related research.
- Ostomy Wound Management, online open-access journal featuring articles about wound care, ostomy care, incontinence care and nutrition
- Journal of Burns and Wounds, online open-access journal featuring articles about wound care and related research
- Information on lacerations
|This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).| | <urn:uuid:3ef90622-7906-441c-b9ef-1130f7de01b3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Wounds | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00082-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930199 | 955 | 3.5625 | 4 |
Eleanor of Aquitaine
The Queen Who Rode Off to Battle
This accessible biography urges readers to celebrate the life and work of one of the most remarkable women of the Middle Ages. Born to nobility, Eleanor of Aquitaine’s (1122-1204) parents were William X, duke of Aquitaine, and Aenor, daughter of Dangerosa, the viscountess of Châtellerault. Though she was called the English name Eleanor, she was named Alia-Aenor, Latin for “the other Aenor.” During childhood, Eleanor enjoyed many of the privileges of royalty—luxurious surroundings, entertainment, travel, and the arts.
Her father’s death when she was fifteen years old ended her childhood. Suddenly, she was one of the richest women in the area, serving as duchess of Aquitaine, Poitou, and Gascony. Louis VI of France arranged Eleanor’s marriage to his son, Louis, and the couple became involved in the crusades. Instrumental during the organizing phases of the crusade, Eleanor, now the queen of France, recruited vassals and knights and coerced others, including women, to join them in their attempt to take control of Jerusalem.
Women during Medieval times had few rights, yet Eleanor managed to defy a number of limitations. Convinced her marriage to Louis VII, the king of France, was over, she divorced him though she was not allowed to have custody of their two daughters. She arranged her own second marriage, choosing the powerful duke of Normandy. Henry, duke of Normandy, and Eleanor were soon crowned king and queen of England. She governed the country in her husband’s absence, traveling, presiding over legal matters, and raising funds. While deeply involved in politics, she still managed to give birth to eight children, including Richard the Lionheart, before the marriage dissolved and she joined forces with her sons in a plot against their father. Henry imprisoned her, but Eleanor never tired of working to secure power and position for her children and grandchildren. She is revered for her ambition and business acumen.
Colorful illustrations complete with background information, sidebars, a bibliography, a welcomed glossary, and a timeline that extends the length of the book, might help those who are working on reports. Double page spreads about medieval and feudal societies, the crusades, courtly love, and the church, though they threaten to interrupt Eleanor’s story, provide a view of women’s lives during the Middle Ages. The author, a freelance writer and editor for Dorling Kindersley’s Children’s Illustrated Encyclopedia, has written two other books in National Geographic’s World History Biographies Series, Nelson Mandela: The Rebel Who Led His Nation to Freedom and Anne Frank: The Young Writer Who Told the World Her Story. Here she offers a well-researched introduction to an extraordinary woman and an interesting period in history.
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The author provided free copies of his/her book to have his/her book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the author for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love and make no guarantee that the author will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255. | <urn:uuid:30ee00aa-05ea-43ef-985c-9e5195400825> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/eleanor-of-aquitaine/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391766.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00151-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964888 | 715 | 3.890625 | 4 |
America’s National Institutes of Health will soon sponsor clinical trials abroad to evaluate whether early and very aggressive drug treatments for babies infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, can effectively clear the virus from their bodies. The hope is that such treatments might “cure” at least some of them, as seemingly happened in one famous case in the United States. But no one yet knows whether such therapy can be successful on a broad scale.
The standard approach to treating babies whose mothers are infected with H.I.V. is to give the babies a low dose of two drugs until doctors are sure the baby is also infected. If the baby is infected, they administer three drugs at high doses, the standard treatment for treating infected people. Not all babies born to infected mothers are themselves infected, so doctors have reasoned that the high dose regimen is too toxic to use on babies who might not need it. That risk-benefit calculation may be changing with the realization that prompt treatment might potentially save many lives.
The benefit of early aggressive treatment was startling in a baby born in Mississippi in 2013. The baby’s mother was infected with H.I.V., but she got no treatment during her pregnancy. Doctors gave the baby the strong three-drug regimen some 30 hours after birth and continued the treatment for 18 months, until the mother stopped coming to the hospital and giving her baby the drugs. To the amazement of doctors, the Mississippi child, now more than 3 years old, remains essentially free of the virus, a condition some call a “cure” or a “functional cure.”
At a meeting in Boston last week, doctors reported the case of another baby, a girl born in Long Beach, Calif., who was put on a three-drug regimen starting four hours after birth. The baby, now 9 months old, has no signs of virus in her blood that can be detected by the most highly sophisticated tests. She cannot be considered “cured” or even “in remission” because she is still taking the drugs. A big question is when it might be safe to stop. If the baby is virus-free at age 2, doctors may consider stopping treatment briefly to see if the virus is gone for good.
There are reports that similar cases of effective treatment have been found in Canada and South Africa, but those will need to be verified.
Researchers preparing to conduct new clinical trials will try to find some 50 to 75 babies who are born infected. Countries under consideration include South Africa, Uganda, Brazil and Thailand, though no final decisions have been made. The babies would be put on high-dose drugs within 48 hours of birth and be followed for several years. If the results are promising, this treatment could spare more than 250,000 infants who are born infected each year from a lifetime of illness or costly and toxic treatments. | <urn:uuid:b9237037-fce5-4cef-9fc8-a487e16f1a08> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/opinion/sunday/great-hope-for-babies-with-hiv.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397748.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00197-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970023 | 592 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Definitions for hardwareˈhɑrdˌwɛər
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word hardware
major items of military weaponry (as tanks or missile)
instrumentalities (tools or implements) made of metal
hardware, computer hardware(noun)
(computer science) the mechanical, magnetic, electronic, and electrical components making up a computer system
Any of the physical objects used in carrying out an activity, in contrast to the knowledge, skill, or theory required to perform the activity; mostly used collectively.
Specifically: (Computers) The sum of all the physical objects, such as the electrical, mechanical, and electronic devices which comprise a computer system; as, the typical PC hardware suite consists of a mainboard and a number of peripherals such as hard drives and speakers, connected by adapter cards, but the input and output from users occurs mostly through the keyboard and monitor; contrasted with software, the programs executed by the computer.
Specifically: (Military) The weapons, transport, and other physical objects used in conducting a war.
(Slang) Weapons, especially handguns, carried on the person; as, check your hardware at the door before entering.
Fixtures, equipment, tools and devices used for general-purpose construction and repair of a structure or object. Also such equipment as sold as stock by a store of the same name, e.g. hardware store.
He needed a hammer, nails, screws, nuts, bolts and other assorted hardware, so he went to the hardware store.
The part of a computer that is fixed and cannot be altered without replacement or physical modification; motherboard, expansion cards, etc. Compare software.
ware made of metal, as cutlery, kitchen utensils, and the like; ironmongery
British National Corpus
Spoken Corpus Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'hardware' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #4441
Written Corpus Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'hardware' in Written Corpus Frequency: #4252
Rank popularity for the word 'hardware' in Nouns Frequency: #1790
The numerical value of hardware in Chaldean Numerology is: 8
The numerical value of hardware in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6
Sample Sentences & Example Usage
The important thing is hardware can be replaced.
Hardware the parts of a computer that can be kicked.
Poetry is our heart, our spirit, our soul. Call it whatever; without it, everything else is nothing but hardware.
The NeXT Computer The hardware makes it a PC, the software makes it a workstation, the unit sales makes it a mainframe.
This says that the Surface might be dead and Microsoft understands that they are very good at productivity but not at hardware.
Images & Illustrations of hardware
Translations for hardware
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- maquinariCatalan, Valencian
- hardware, zbraňCzech
- våben, hardware, isenkram, maskinel, udstyr, maskineDanish
- Hardware, EisenwarenGerman
- σιδηρικά, είδη κιγκαλερίας, βαρύς στρατιωτικός εξοπλισμός, ηλεκτρονικός εξοπλισμός, δομικά υλικά, υλισμικό, υλικούGreek
- fierros, hardware, arma de fuegoSpanish
- rautatavara, tuliase, rauta, laitteistoFinnish
- arme à feu, quincaillerie, matérielFrench
- bathar-cruaidhScottish Gaelic
- ハード, ハードウェアJapanese
- 굳은모, 하드웨어Korean
- hardware, ferragensPortuguese
- hardware, dotare tehnică, aparatură, echipament, aparatajRomanian
- оборудование, хардвер, аппаратураRussian
- ڳڻپيوگري, سامگريSindhi
- željezarija, tvrdovlje, sklopovlje, tvrdotvorina, hardver, strojna oprema, čvrstovlje, strojevina, računalna sklopovska podrškaSerbo-Croatian
- hårdvara, maskinvaraSwedish
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President vs Vice President
Though there are Presidents and Vice Presidents in most democratic countries that are political offices held for the governance of a country, we are concerned with the titles of President and Vice President in the corporate world where these are titles held by officers in the management. Not many people are aware of the differences in the roles and responsibilities of Presidents and Vice Presidents that will be discussed in this article.
Time shave changed and so have organizational structures with specialization being the buzzword. Thus, we have CEO, COO, and of course the Presidents and the Vice Presidents. Who is more important in an organization, a CEO or a President and whose opinions matter more for the shareholders, President’s or the Vice President’s. All this is clear once a person understands the functions and responsibilities of President and Vice President.
Vice President is a title that is used commonly in large organizations. There may be many vice Presidents in a company with each Vice President specialize in a certain department implying a VP having specific set of skills. So we have VP finance, and we also have VP personnel. But irrespective of the number of vice presidents, there is a single person with the title of President. He is the most influential person in the organization and is equivalent to Chief Executive Officer or Managing Director.
In a company where there are many VP’s, there is a convention to rank them according to their seniority. Thus, we have the Senior Executive VP who is the senior most VP, and he is the person next in command to the President. Thereafter, we have Executive VP, Senior VP and then just VP’s of various departments. All VP’s are under the control of the President, but in the absence of the President, it is the Senior Executive VP who performs the functions of the President. However, in the case of a successor being searched for the President, it is the board of directors that decide and not necessarily the senior most VP who becomes the President.
What is the difference between President and Vice President?
• President and Vice President are titles of key officers in an organization with President being the most powerful officer. He is considered to be equivalent to the CEO or the Managing Director of a company.
• There may be just one vice president in a small company but in the majority of instances, there are many VP’s in a large organization, each having a specific set of skills reflected by their title. Thuis we have VP (finance), VP (personnel), and so on.
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If you're gonna cheat, cheat smart. Like an Oxford math professor, who has revealed how he used the world's first wearable computer to beat the roulette tables of Las Vegas back in the 1970s.
In an interview with New Scientist, Oxford mathematician Doyne Farmer explains that, as a graduate student, he used a small computer secreted about his person to shift the odds in his favor. Or, cheat, depending on how you look at it.
The reason he's come clean? Two other researchers—Michael Small and Michael Tse—have recently published research just like his from the 70s. New Scientists explains what the new research, which you can read in full here, reveals:
"Their model divides the game into two parts: what happens while the ball rolls around the rim of the wheel and then falls, which is highly predictable, and what happens after the ball starts bouncing around, which is chaotic and hard to predict. Because the first part is predictable, Small and Tse were able to calculate roughly where the ball would begin its erratic bouncing and therefore in which part of the wheel it was more likely to land.
"Using a subtle counting device similar to Farmer's, the pair was able to predict in which half of the wheel the ball would fall in 13 out of 22 trials. In three trials, the model predicted the exact pocket. That is equivalent to taking the odds from 2.7 per cent in the house's favour (on European roulette wheels) to 18 per cent in the player's favour. That is a very small number of trials, so they then confirmed their technique via 700 trials using an automated camera system, which would be too conspicuous to use in a casino."
Farmer, however, is going to publish his own research, which used calculations based on air resistance rather than Small and Tse's model which uses rim friction.
And, before you ask: no, you probably can't use this trick these days. The researchers reckon casinos are aware of the ploy, and can get round it by closing bets before the wheel has rotated enough times for sufficient measurements to be taken. Dammit. [New Scientist]
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Researchers from the University of Washington are the first to visualize the insidious way that the flu virus latches onto a cell and plows its way inside, causing an infection.
Scientists say a groundbreaking fertility treatment to correct potentially harmful genetic mutations has the potential to backfire, recreating the exact mutation the intervention was meant to fix. It’s a problem that could put an immediate halt to the pending practice—but a work-around may be possible.
Scientists have sustained human embryos in a petri dish for 13 days, shattering the previous record of nine days. The breakthrough will allow researchers to study early fetal development in unprecedented detail, and brings us one step closer to viable “artificial wombs.” But it’s adding fuel to an already heated…
Using state-of-the art microscopy, scientists have peered inside cardiac cells while they beat, revealing tube-like structures that buckle and then snap back into shape, much like shock absorbers. The details now appear in Science.
Scientists have already created mini-cyborgs out of living cells and semiconductor materials, but now biological cells can also contain tiny silicon chips, which could become sensors that monitor microscopic activities, deliver drugs to target cells or even repair cell structures. | <urn:uuid:873bba95-35bd-46d8-b630-fc37b1f895f9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://gizmodo.com/tag/cellular-biology | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00025-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920262 | 257 | 2.859375 | 3 |
A Brief History of the Sleeping Giant
The trap rock ridges in Connecticut began life about 170 million years ago when volcanic eruptions formed the columnar patterns of basaltic rock. This hard rock which fractures at near 90 degree angles gives the rock the name trap meaning step or stair in Swedish. In Connecticut most of these ridges run north-south, but one unique ridge six miles north of New Haven runs east-west and has the distinctive profile of a recumbent human, especially when viewed from the south. This Sleeping Giant has held a mythical quality for all who see it.
The Native Americans in the area called the Giant Hobbomock, an evil spirit who became angry at the neglect of his people and stamped his foot near the current location of Middletown causing the Connecticut River to change course. Keitan, a good spirit cast a spell on Hobomock causing him to sleep forever so that he would do no further damage.
Although the ridges to the north of New Haven were easily visible from the harbor and Long Island Sound, it was almost a century after the founding of New Haven Colony before Europeans began to settle the area which would be named Mount Carmel. In 1735 Joel Munson began work on a dam on the Mill river just southwest of the Giant's head. He built a grist mill and saw mill on the site. The presence of the mill spurred settlement of the area as did a north-south road constructed through a difficult area known as the Steps, just west of the Mill River. In 1828 a canal from New Haven to Northampton, Massachusetts brought barge traffic to the area. In 1846, the canal company ceased operations, and a rail line was laid along the bed of the canal. The Mount Carmel Axleworks moved to the location of Joel Munson's dam.
The second half of the nineteenth century saw cottages built on many of the Giant's ridges. The summer homes were used by many local notables for either overnight stays or summer-long residency. Many ingenious devices were used to provide comforts at these remote locations. The highlight of this era was John H. Dickerman's opening of Blue Hills Park on July 4, 1888 when local residents were invited to travel a carriage road that had been constructed to a pavilion on the fourth ridge for a "basket picnic" which included ice cream.
Judge Willis Cook who owned the first ridge or the Giant's head had an ox road built to the top of the head so he could transport building materials for a cottage. Parts of this road are now the blue trail on the north side of the head. By 1911 however vandals had become such a problem that Judge Cook decided to accept an offer from the Mount Carmel Traprock Company to lease the land for quarrying. The lease was for 20 years with a renewal option for another twenty years. Perhaps to ease the objections of his neighbors, Judge Cook included a clause in the lease that no quarrying should be visible from Mount Carmel Avenue. The objections of local residents to the continuous blasting and ultimately to the changing of the Giant's shape led to the formation of the Sleeping Giant Park Association and the beginning of Sleeping Giant State Park. For more information on this part of the Giant's story, see the page on More About SGPA. For more information about the history of the Giant, you can find Nancy Davis Sachse's book Born Among the Hills – The Sleeping Giant Story at many local book stores and libraries or purchase it from the SGPA Trading Post.
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- Special Sections
- Public Notices
More than 100 perennial Milkweed species in the Asclepias genus originated in the Americas. Similar African plants with inflated prickly seed pods were recently reclassified into the Physocarpus genus.
Acslepias was the mythical Greek god of healing. Parts of some milkweeds have been used in folk medicines. Milkweeds contain the chemical oleandrin, a cardiac glycoside. The sap is a milky, acrid latex containing alkaloids which may irritate the skin in some people. Monarch butterfly caterpillars ingest the toxins, making them distasteful to birds and other predators.
Nectar in Milkweed flowers attracts pollinators — bees, wasps, butterflies, moths and hummingbirds. Milkweed pollen is not a single grain or tetrad, but grouped in complex sacs called pollinia. The feet or mouthparts of pollinators become stuck in any of the 5 slits between the flower anthers. The pollinia thus mechanically attach to the pollinator. When the pollinator leaves, pairs of pollen sacs are pulled free and are carried to the anther slits of a different flower to ensure pollination.
On all Milkweeds, the characteristic small, five-petal flowers reflex downward surrounding a central waxy corona. The Australian/Asian Hoya plants have similar flowers.
Tropical Milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, from South America, zones 9-12, is commonly called Bloodflower. It is readily available in local nursery outlets. This perennial has deep tuberous roots and grows, about 3 feet tall and is evergreen in South Florida. It dies to the ground in central Florida’s cooler winters. Loose clusters of a few flowers are usually red and orange, although there is a yellow, weaker selected variety.
There are at least 20 species of Asclepias native to Florida, but few are commercially available. The most widespread Milkweed in the United States is A. tuberosa commonly named Butterfly Milkweed, which grows in zones 4-10. It grows naturally in about 40 lower states but not in the Pacific Northwest or the Canadian maritime provinces. Its northern limit is about latitude 48.
The plant grows 2 to 3 feet tall from a deep, underground rhizome. It is prevalent in dry sandhills, woodland edges, roadsides and any well-drained, full-sun site. It does not tolerate root disturbance, wet soils or excessive irrigation.
Large clusters of bright orange flowers top sturdy stems that range from 6 to 12 inches high in younger plants to 36-inch stems in an older specimen.
This long-lived perennial is the host plant for Monarch Butterfly caterpillars. Adult Monarch females lay eggs the size of a pinhead on the alternate, lance-shaped leaves. Tiny caterpillars hatch after three or four days and munch the milkweed leaves for about two weeks before going into a chrysalis, where they change into adults.
Milkweed seedpods are elongated, paper-thin pods called follicles. When mature, they dry and split open to reveal rows of overlapping black seeds attached to silky floss called pappus. The seeds are wafted away on the filament-like parachutes to germinate and grow far from the parent plant.
The second most common Milkweed is A. syriaca, growing naturally in about 39 states and six provinces, but not in Florida, the southwestern states, or Idaho and Washington. Flowers are clustered in a round globe atop 3-foot tall stems. Heat zone 10 in Florida is too hot for this species to survive.
Milkweed is a colorful and useful plant in wildflower meadows and butterfly gardens throughout Florida. Companion plants include Black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia; Purple Coneflower, Echinacea; Blazingstar, Liatris; and the evergreen flowering vines Carolina jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens and Coral Honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens.
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Managing the Environment
The Planning Commission has identified twelve Strategy Challenges for the 12th Plan Approach Paper. “Managing the Environment and Ecology” with the following five components is one of the Challenges:
. Land, mining, and Forest Rights
. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategy for Climate Change
. Waste management and Pollution Abatement
. Degradation of forests and loss of biodiversity
. Issues of Environment Sustainability
The general expectations of the citizens with respect to environment are: Access to clean air, water, and soil; Right to Natural resources; Sustainable Livelihoods and healthy surroundings.
Detailed below are some suggestions in respect of, Policy, legislation, both national and international, institutional mechanisms, infrastructure, and Science and technology in the management of Environment and Ecology and specific suggestions with respect to the five components.
a) Institutionalize a holistic, integrated approach for the management of environment and natural resources, converging national regulations and international protocols in relevant sectoral and cross-sectoral policies, through review and consultation.
b) Evolve schemes to encourage trading in air and water pollutants in industrial complexes. Establish on-line continuous monitoring systems to enable trading of pollutants and encourage public and private sector participation in GHG emission trading.
c) Identify emerging areas for new legislation, including our obligations under multilateral environmental regimes and review the body of existing legislation.
d) Ensure accountability of the concerned levels of Government (Centre, State, Local) in implementing existing legislation and introducing necessary legislation, wherever required in a defined time-frame, ensuring the livelihoods and well-being of the poor and improved access to the necessary environmental resources.
e) Promote research and the use of information technology based tools, together with necessary capacity-building. Bring about transparency through public web-portal for national resource accounting for Non Wood Forest Produce ( NWFP) , common property resources, usufruct rights etc on GIS platform.
f) Encourage Industrial Associations to shoulder greater responsibility of environmental management, implementation of regulation, including drafting strategy on issues on environment and trade that affect industry.
g) Develop multiple models, for rapid and effective restoration, of open and degraded forests, wastelands and urban areas through PPP and community participation.
h) Introduce Performance monitoring and development of Environment performance linked financial devolution mechanisms to states.
i) Setup regional databases on natural resources to support the information requirements of planning and prepare inventory through land cover mapping (Remote Sensing, 1;4000 scale ).
j) Review the list of International Conventions to which India is a signatory and party to fix a timeframe to ratify and fulfill obligations under these Conventions.
k) Put in place rules and guidelines in the Area of Access and Benefit sharing , trade especially exports in LMO’s and GMO’s in respect of Biological Resources.
l) 12th plan should focus on leadership role for India in SAARC, ASEAN, and SACEP, including serving as repository of information and help train in early warning systems for disasters. A Strategy and action plan should be drawn up to forge partnership among countries in the region.
m) TIFAC be commissioned to list 10 cutting edge technologies for possible exhaustive studies and field trials in environment sector.
n) Strengthen Scientific Research, Technology Development and Human Resource in areas of environment and ecology which are critical for Sustainable Development
1. Land, Mining and Forests Rights
1.1 The key suggestions identified for effective land management include the following:
a) Land development/diversion for various uses, be based on a national policy.
b) A national strategy based on scientific understanding of the natural resources both above and below ground, resettlement and livelihood requirements is necessary,
c) Existing policy, in respect of Energy, Raw materials etc., to indicate the various source options taking into consideration availability, cost and environmental impact, be modified.
d) Conduct Cumulative Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for vulnerable regions and Carrying capacity studies in selected river-basins, and
e) Adapt remediation techniques developed elsewhere for de-contamination of contaminated sites.
1.2 The key issues identified in respect of mining include the following;-
a )Effective land management to restore degraded lands .
b) promote, more efficient metals recycling industry by adopting modern technology,
c) formulate, a sustainable Development Framework which addresses issues related to economic viability, environmental impact and social concerns, and
d) Take action to check illegal mining activities
1.3 Forests Rights
The livelihood rights of forest-based communities need to be respected in conservation efforts, even as new livelihood and revenue options are explored. Following are some key issues :-
a) Current schemes of compensation needs to be reviewed, and
b) Payments for Environmental Services (PES) schemes needs to be introduced and proposals developed to prevent poaching of flagship species like tiger, rhino, elephants, etc; to check fragmentation and degradation of wildlife habitats and corridors; to reduce instances of human–wildlife conflict; to control illegal trade in wildlife products; Creation of inviolate areas for tiger and other flagship species, and; Voluntary relocation of people from core areas. In PES schemes, locals be paid to conserve and manage resources.
2. Mitigation and Adaption Strategy for Climate change
1. The two key challenges that have to be addressed by various stakeholders in the short term on Climate Change are:
a) Ensuring, involvement of various stakeholders, including the State Governments, in implementing the National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC), and
b) Achieve a low-emission sustainable development growth model using a voluntary approach.
2. The strategy/ guidelines of NDMA be modified to draw up regional disaster preparedness and mitigation plans, which should also address pre and post disasters migrations.
2. States need to prepare the State Level Action Plan for Climate Change (SAPCC) within a time frame, which can be dovetailed with the NAPCC.
4. The eight National Missions documents needs to be finalized, adopted, and actions initiated.
3. Waste Management and Pollution Abatement
1. Encourage 4 R’s (Recycle, Reuse, Reduce and Remanufacture ) and co-processing of HW for recovery of energy
2. Incentivize public-private partnership for creating the required infrastructure for Setting up of Treatment Storage and Disposal Facilities (TSDF) for hazardous waste management across the country.
3. Ensure Segregation of Bio-medical wastes as per existing rules and the infectious and hazardous wastes treated in dedicated facilities. Common facilities be setup.
4. Enhance recycling facilities for E-wastes in the country.
5. Ensure Municipal Solid Waste segregation ,collection and setting up of facilities for complete disposal. Where ever possible recycling and processing has to be ensured during the 12th Plan to protect our people and the environment
6. Green belt for dust and Noise abatement and odour mitigation is considered essential.
The key challenges for maintaining acceptable water quality and quantity across the country are:-Water Pollution and overuse; Indiscriminate use of Wetland/lakes, Agricultural run-offs as residual fertilizer, pesticides and feedlot wastes. Following are suggested:
1. Improve coverage and efficiency of sewage treatment systems , encourage use of low-cost decentralized measures for treatment of wastewater e.g use of microbes for sewage treatment in open drains.
2. Clean critical rivers state wise and all polluted rivers in the country by 2020.
3. No Net loss (NNL) of wetlands acres be set as the goal and a system of permits be introduced to provide replacement wetlands.
4. A National Action Plan to remediate contaminated sites be drawn up.
5. Massive Plantation drives, including other methods for recharging ground water levels be propagated.
4. Degradation of Forests and loss of bio-diversity.
1. The target should be to increase Forest and Tree cover (FTC) by 5%.
2. Encourage efficient use of forest products and alternative sources of fuel, fodder, and timber.
3. Provide Legal backing for JFMCs.
4. Evolve a comprehensive national policy for non-destructive extraction and marketing of both timber and MFP.
5. Organize markets, Build infrastructure, Capacity and upgrade skill for carrying out trade in MFP.
6. Prepare Master greening plans/Roadmaps for all cities with over 1 million populations.
Biodiversity and wildlife
1. The major challenges of the sectors include: 1. Preventing poaching of flagship species like tiger, rhino, elephants, etc.; 2. check fragmentation and degradation of wildlife habitats and corridors; 3. reduce instances of human–wildlife conflict; 4. control illegal trade in wildlife products; 5. Creation of inviolate areas for tiger and other flagship species, and; 6. Voluntary relocation of people from core areas.
2. Draft a national action plan on the management of biological invasion., and
3. Create proper institutional mechanisms for involving local stakeholders, including local communities, in coastal and mangrove restoration and conservation programs.
5. Monitorable targets for the 12th Plan
1. To increase forest and tree cover by 5 percentage points.
2. To reclaim wetlands/inland lakes /ponds (of ------ Ha) by 2017
3. To identify, assess and remediate contaminated sites (hazardous chemicals and wastes) with potential for ground water contamination.
4. To improve forest production and maintain biodiversity.
5. To establish continuous on-line monitoring systems using GIS & GPS for air and water pollution.
6. To create Common Infrastructure for Environment Protection viz; CETP, TSDF etc.
7. To clean all critically polluted rivers by 2020.
8. To reduce 20-25 percent energy use per unit of GDP by 2020.
9. Epidemiological studies to assess improvement in health status due to better management of Environment and ecology. | <urn:uuid:dd4d0df2-ad84-46bb-acea-b79ff2684815> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.12thplan.gov.in/forum_description.php?f=10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00005-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.878196 | 2,082 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Within a year of Wilhelm Roentgen’s 1895 discovery of a new form of radiation, that he called X-rays, the medical profession was using them for therapeutic as well as diagnostic purposes. Their first reported use in dermatology occurred in 1896 when Leopold Freund – the Viennese founder of radiotherapy – deployed them to treat a large hairy growth covering the entire back of a patient. After twelve days of treatments, during which the patient was exposed to 20 hours of X-rays, the hair on the growth began to fall out. The report on the case in 1901 began a long medical interest in using X-rays to treat hypertrichosis and other forms of excess hair.
Hypertrichosis – abnormal or excessive hair growth – is a medical condition with a number of causes, including genetics, abnormal skin growths and skin trauma. A second medical condition that can produce excessive hair in women and children, referred to as hirsutism, is the result of abnormally high levels of androgen hormones.
Some women who did not suffer from either of these conditions also sought medical treatment for what is known as superfluous hair, typified by the darker hairs on the upper lips of women of Middle Eastern or Mediterranean origins. When these women emigrated to places such as America or Australia they often sought treatment to remove these marks of their ethnicity. As the fashion for smooth, hairless skin increased in the twentieth century so to did the demand for treatments to remove superfluous hair, particularly that on the face. Currently, it accounts for the vast bulk of hair permanently removed from the human body.
Although there are numerous methods for temporarily getting rid of excess hair, before X-rays, the only recognized procedure for permanently removing hair was electrolysis. First used in 1875 to remove problem eyelashes, by the 1890s it was widely accepted by the medical practice as the safest and surest treatment. Unfortunately, it was slow, painful and expensive, making it less than suitable for treating large areas of the body such as Freund’s case of the large, hairy growth.
See also: Electrolysis
The medical profession enthusiastically adopted X-rays to treat a large array of skin complaints including eczema, acne and Lupus vulgaris, even though the rays were shown to cause skin burns, dermatitis and cancerous growths (Wolbach, 1909). Although some condemned the treatments, many practitioners of the time thought the known problems were the result of bad practices that occurred when X-rays were new and poorly understood. They believed that the use of screens, shorter exposures and generally improved techniques would reduce the risk of the more serious consequences and noted that cases in which patients were harmed were decreasing rapidly. Unfortunately, the medium-term and long-term effects of X-rays would not become generally apparent until the 1920s.
When used in hair removal, the immediate (acute) consequences of X-rays could be controlled. However, to ensure that the hair would not grow back patients had to receive significant doses of the ray. This meant that skin changes in pigmentation, thickening, redness, telangiectasia, dermatitis and shininess were often undesirable side effects of the treatments.
In ordinary cases of hypertrichosis we regard electrolysis as the safest and surest method, but in some severe cases which cannot be treated in this way X-rays hold out the only hope of amelioration. Patients must be warned not only of the possibility of dermatitis, but also of the late appearance of pigmentation, atrophy, and telangiectasis. On account of these sequelae, results which appear highly successful at first may eventually prove to be anything but satisfactory. Most observers agree that the removal of downy hair is difficult, and, on the other hand, cases may occur in which strong, coarse hairs cannot be removed—without giving a larger dose than the skin of the face which is more sensitive than that of the scalp—is able to bear without dermatitis. The majority of reported cases have been treated with small repeated doses, smaller doses being required after epilation has occurred to prevent recurrence. Some authors prefer to give a full dose of 3 or 4 H., varied according to the sensitiveness of the skin short exposures of five to ten minutes being given subsequently about every two months to prevent re-growth.
It is a testament to the desire of clients to lose their excess hair that many would accept these harmful side effects.
In one case, a male, a music teacher, was desirous of having all of the hairs removed from the forearms and the backs of his hands during the summer vacation. This patient was made aware of the dangers connected with such heroic treatment. The right forearm and back of the hand was a complete success. All of the hairs fell out after the fourth exposure, the erythema was marked, but at no time required any particular attention. The left forearm having received as nearly as possible the same amount of raying, showed a decided erythema, which in some places destroyed the superficial skin and upon healing showed that typical scar which is the result of a Roentgen ray dermatitis. While this patient declared himself as perfectly satisfied, such a condition is not desirable upon the face.
Given the problems with X-ray burns and other dangers any development which was likely to reduce risk was warmly received.
In 1908, Albert Geyser demonstrated his new Cornell X-ray tube at a meeting of the New York Physical Therapy Society. Named after the Cornell University Medical College, where he was based, Geyser claimed that the Cornell tube eliminated many of the dangers associated with the use of X-rays, including X-ray burns.
The Cornell tube is made of heavy lead glass so that no rays are emitted, except through a flint glass window, which corresponds in size to the lesion to be treated. The connecting wires are encased in glass insulators to prevent sparking on any part of the patient while under treatment. The flint glass window is situated at the end of a projector, and must be in direct contact with the lesion, thus furnishing a ground and doing away with the air space which would otherwise be the dielectric between the tube and the patient.
When the tube is brought into direct contact with the patient only the ionizing effect of the X-ray is exerted on the tissue, and this effect is all that is needed to furnish the most brilliant therapeutic results.
Although it might have reduced the possibility of inducing burns, and despite the title the New York Times gave its story on the invention, ‘New Tube Robs X-Ray of Danger’, as we now know, the instrument was anything but safe; however, that is to judge it in hindsight. Geyser himself was well aware of the hazards of X-rays – the fingers of his left hand were so badly disfigured by exposure during his experiments that he had been urged to have them amputated – so would not have taken its dangers lightly.
Geyser used his device to treat a range of skin conditions including Lupus vulgaris, rodent ulcers and eczema but it was excess hair that became the centre of his attention. Although he was initially critical of using X-rays for removing hair, his opinion on the subject appears to have changed by the end of the First World War. At a meeting recorded in the 1918 Journal of Cutaneous Diseases, when he was asked about his change of heart his reply was recorded as follows:
It did not make any particular difference because he said a certain thing was dangerous, everything was dangerous. Every drug may be dangerous, but the oftener and longer one used it, the greater the experience and results. There was every reason for changing an opinion, and he had shown case after case at this Society and every one of them showed good results.
Both Albert Geyser and his son Frank Roebling Geyser – a practising medical physician – conducted numerous X-ray treatments to remove excess hair using the Cornell tube. Presumably, through a combination of trial and error, they developed a standardised treatment regime that they thought would allow them to remove hair without causing dermatitis or other permanent skin reactions. Like other practitioners of the time, Geyser thought current methods of measuring dosage were problematic because they did not take into account the idiosyncrasies of the patients, and that the secret to achieving a good result lay in observing the reaction of the skin of the patient.
Dr. Geyser said the whole secret lay in screening the dose—simply screening sufficiently with aluminum, giving the patient two or three treatments with 2 or 3 milliamperes of current, and if one saw a reaction that came too soon, or no reaction at all, one would not expect to use 5 milliamperes. Only when one could see absolutely no reaction, that was the dose; and if the case were screened more than that, there would be no result, and if less, a dermatitis.
It seems clear that Geyser thought that X-rays could be used to produce permanent hair loss with minimal damage to the skin of the client, so long as procedures and machines were standardised and operators periodically checked the skin of their clients to ensure that individual differences did not result an adverse outcome.
At some stage a decision was made by Geyser to commercialise what had been learned. In 1920, a business advertised in Philadelphia that it was using the Roebling Geyser Method and this may have been an early licensing attempt. Things got more serious in 1924 when Frank Geyser submitted patent applications for the Cornell tube, first in the United States and then later in Great Britain, France and Germany. These patents would underpin the formation of a commercial enterprise – the Tricho Sales Corporation.
Established in 1924 by a group of investors with Albert Geyser as its Medical Director, the new company was to produce and lease X-ray machines that used the Cornell tube, and to train operators to use them. Operators of the leased machines did not need to be medically qualified and were put through a short course that presumably gave them the basics of how to operate the machine and the treatment courses they were to offer. Tricho Institutes were set up across the United States and abroad, many of which were in beauty establishments. Advertised as the Tricho System, the treatments were branded as being safe, modern and scientific; no mention was made that they used X-rays.
Tricho or Hair Wave—was discovered and first used by Dr. Albert C. Geyser, formerly professor and lecturer on Medical Electricity at Cornell and Fordham Universities and lecturer at the New York Polytechnic, more then twenty-five years ago. Since the adoption of the Marconi system of wave selection, Dr. Geyser has perfected the Tricho apparatus by which thousands of women and men have been successfully treated during the past ten years.
Tricho wave is a specially selected wave length that cannot be heard, seen or felt. Like the radio wave, the Tricho wave finds its way along the hair shaft to the hair papilla, destroying the papilla by causing it to dry up.
In hindsight, we find it difficult to believe that the widespread use of these machines was possible. However, many other pieces of medical equipment had made the move from medical to lay usage without major harm, electrolysis machines being a case in point. X-ray machines were considered simple to operate and not to require the use of a skilled technician. In fact, a good case could be made that it required less skill to remove superfluous hair using X-rays than it did by electrolysis.
Also X-rays, if used correctly, were not generally considered dangerous by the medical profession which used them to treat a wide variety of skin conditions including acne, eczema, ringworm and Lupus vulgaris. So, despite the fact that the Tricho Company took out insurance policies to cover themselves for accidental injury, it is likely that Geyser thought his machines were safe. In his defence, his machines did address the major medical concerns of the day regarding X-rays, most of which were related to clients receiving the right dosage.
As well a being made of heavy lead glass, the Cornell tube at the heart of the Tricho machine had a square, not a round, window. This allowed the operator to cover the treatment area in a grid fashion, avoiding overlapping and overdosing any part of the skin; something that was criticised in machines where the beam was circular and overlapping was unavoidable. Surrounding screening kept the treatment area localised to the square window, a filter was used to remove the less penetrating ‘soft’ X-rays, and the machine had an automatic cutoff that prevented the operator accidentally exceeding the recommended treatment time. As variation in the distance between the X-ray source and the client was another cause of dosage error, operators of the Tricho machines were told to ensure that clients put their face up against the glass so that the distance between the tube and the skin was correct and that it was the same for all treatments. All of these features reduced the risk of exceeding the intended dosage. Treatment times were also kept short – less than 5 minutes a sitting – to minimise the risk of getting an X-ray burn.
Most of the tens of thousands of women who undertook a Tricho hair removal course were happy with the procedure, the cost and the outcome, at least in the short term. Compared to electrolysis it was fast, painless and effective. The only comparable treatments were those that used radium, which also proved to be unsafe. Investors in the Tricho System were also pleased, clients were plentiful and with fees starting at hundreds of dollars, the system was very lucrative. The New York clinic boasted that it had treated 20,000 cases of superficial hair permanently without a single failure (Collins, 2007).
This situation only lasted until the medium-term effects of being treated with large doses of X-rays became apparent and clients began to sue. In 1926, Ida E. Thomas took Frank Geyser to the Supreme Court for the $739 cost of her treatments and for an additional $100,000 in damages. Her treatments in his medical practice from 1920 to 1922 had removed her facial hair but had also resulted in her facial skin thickening and wrinkling. In 1925, she declared, her face became swollen and her skin hard and brittle. Other cases followed.
In 1929, the American Medical Association condemned the Tricho treatment for “precancerous keratoses and other untoward effects”. In spite of the evidence Geyser remained defiant, stating that the production of keratoses was “physically and physiologically impossible with the Tricho System” and the “very fact that these machines are installed in beauty parlors and that the beauty parlor public is a hypercritical public, is prima facie evidence that this system of treatment is eminently satisfactory” (AMA, 1929).
Despite Geyser’s protestations, the prospect of being sued for millions of dollars and, I would imagine, the impossibility of obtaining insurance, meant that the Tricho Sales Corporation collapsed in 1930 and was wound up in 1932. Unfortunately, the practice of using X-rays to remove superficial hair continued.
Before the Tricho Corporation was formed, others had been at work. From 1914 at least, Jules (or Julius) Marcell Marton had been advertising in newspapers that he could permanently remove hair by the Marton Method. Although he was not a graduate of any reputable medical school or licensed to practice medicine in the United States he was using x-rays to do so.
I do not know what equipment he was using early on but in the 1930s he was using Coolidge Tubes to generate his X-rays. He avoided using the term X-ray in his advertising and literature referring to them by other names such as Epilex-rays or Rœntgen Rays.
The Coolidge Tube; the use of filters to eliminate undesirable rays; the complete control of the electrical current; the perfection of mechanical timers, have all made the use of this machine another great benefaction to mankind.
Like Tricho, Marton was sued but unlike them, he did not go out of business. He continued to operate using the technique that had enabled many patent medicine operators to survive in earlier times – move and change your name. Using business names such as Marton Laboratories, Dermic Laboratories, Dermic Institute and Hair-X Laboratories, Marton and his partners continued to operate through the 1930s in the United States and Canada until the businesses he set up were closed down by the authorities (Cleveland, 1948).
See also the company brochure: Beauty: Woman’s Most Precious Gift
From the 1930s onwards, concerned members of the medical profession tried to put Marton and similar operations out of business. Their objections were mainly due to what could be termed the medium-term effects of X-ray treatments – telangiectasia, skin thickening, scaliness, atrophy, wrinkling, ulcerations and the like – not skin cancer; that would come later. However, they were hampered by the lack of interest of many public health authorities, the secretive nature of the operations, and the lack of ordinances in many jurisdictions that would enable prosecutions to be made. Even if a proprietor was shut down, fines were often small and the machines were not confiscated. This meant they could be moved and/or resold to start up again under a different name and/or location. Devices continued to be on-sold and reused for many years. As the AMA discovered, operators usually had little or no idea about what they were doing and simply followed set procedures. The fact that they were easy to operate was what enabled these machines to be used by non-professionals, with minimal training, in the first place and this now made the job of closing them down more difficult.
Questioned about the machine and her technique, the proprietor had no idea what voltage she was using, said the amperage was “4”, the distance between tube and skin “about 6 or 8 inches”, the time of exposure “about 2 or 3 minutes”, the size of each area treated was “about 4 by 4½ inches”; 10 to 20 treatments at intervals at first of 1 to 10 days and later 2 to 4 weeks constituted a “course”. A filter was used, the thickness and composition of which was unknown.
Although it is may be true that some operators, particularly in later years, knew they were causing irreparable damage and were just in it for the money, I think it is more likely that many were ill-informed and thought the treatments were safe.
The median interval between X-ray exposure and the diagnosis of skin cancer is 21 years (Martin, Strong & Spiro, 1969) which meant that by the 1940s the long-term effects of using X-rays to treat excess hair and other skin conditions became all too evident, belatedly forcing authorities to act. Unfortunately, closing down all the establishments would take many years as many were run by sole proprietors with clients gained by word of mouth. Articles and reports in newspapers, magazines and books as to the dangerous nature of the treatments helped to cut off business and eventually the last of the machines went out of operation.
Not long ago an unscrupulous person offered a machine guaranteed to remove hair. It was a modification of the X-ray, but as with other frauds, its exact character was secret. The machine could not be purchased; it could be rented only. Physicians, expert in treatment of various diseases by X-ray, report that no X-ray machine can permanently remove hair without at the same time destroying normal surrounding tissue. The very success claimed by quacks practicing hair removal with X-ray proves that the skin has been destroyed, else the hair would grow. … Skin, exposed to X-ray for hair removal, shows signs of destruction sooner or later, by becoming dry, scaly, having enlarged blood vessels, and finally developing a skin cancer. This is not an alarmist statement. It is fact. Many women who submitted to the removal of excess hair by the X-ray method are now being treated by physicians for skin cancer. Many law suits have reached the courts in behalf of women so injured. The court usually awards damages in these cases. Rarely are they collected, for the operator of the machine has either left the jurisdiction of the court or is without funds to satisfy the judgment. He or she does not even own the machine responsible for the damage. The financial loss suffered by the victim is insignificant when compared to the serious damage done to the skin. The skin is far more unsightly than it was with the excess hair.
So passed a very sorry episode that continued to produce a great deal of personal distress, physical harm and death long after the last machine was shut down.
The demise of X-ray treatments meant that the use of electric needles was now the only sure method of permanent hair removal. Fortunately, in the 1940s, a quicker method than electrolysis began to become common. Known mainly as diathermy or thermolysis, it too was often described as being a ray. It was however, considerably safer.
See also: Thermolysis and the Blend
Updated: 12th January 2016
AMA Bureau of Investigation. (1929). The Tricho system: The Albert C. Geyser X-ray method of depilation. Journal of the American Medical Association, 92(3), 252.
Cleveland, D. E. H. (1948). The removal of superfluous hair by X-rays. Journal of the Canadian Medical Association, 59, 374-377.
Collins, P. (2007). Nothing but a ray of light. New Scientist, 195(2620), 68-69.
Beauty: Woman’s Most Precious Gift. [Booklet]. (n.d.). USA: The Dermic Laboratories.
Geyser, A. C. (1915). A resume of two hundred cases of hypertrichosis treated with the Roentgen ray. The Journal of Cutaneous Diseases Including Syphilis, 33, 520-524.
Geyser, A. (1918). Hypertrichosis. The Journal of Cutaneous Diseases Including Syphilis 36(1) 55-57.
Goodman, H. (1943). Your hair: Its health, beauty and growth. Garden City, NY: Halcyon House.
Herzig, R. (1999). Removing roots “North American Hiroshima maidens” and the X-ray. Technology and Culture. 40(4), 723-745.
Herzig, R. (2003). Situated technology: Meanings. In, N. E. Lerman, R. Oldenziel, & A. P. Mohun, Eds. Gender & technology: A reader (pp. 72-97). Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
Herzig, R. M. (2003). Plucked: A history of hair removal. New York: New York University Press.
Humphris, F. H. (1913). Electro-therapeutics for practitioners: Being essays on some useful forms of electrical apparatus and on some diseases which are amenable to electrical treatment. New York: Longmans, Green & Co.
Lapidus, S. M. (1976). The Tricho system: Hypertrichosis, radiation, and cancer. Journal of Surgical Oncology (8), 267-274.
MacFarlane Winfield, J. (1903). A brief history of the treatment of various forms of light and radio-therapy. Brooklyn Medical Journal 17(4), 163-167.
Martin, S., Strong, E., & Spiro, R. H. (1970). Radiation-induced skin cancer of the head and neck. Cancer, 25 (1), 61-70.
Morris, M. & Dore, S. E. (1907). Light and X-ray treatment of skin diseases. Chicago: W. T. Kenner & Co.
Wolbach, S. B. (1909). The pathological histology of chronic X-ray dermatitis and early X-ray carcinoma. Journal of Medical Research, 21(3), 415-450. | <urn:uuid:5c893c59-31c8-4e67-a0d8-a7c50461bda4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cosmeticsandskin.com/cdc/xray.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00072-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976579 | 5,069 | 3.59375 | 4 |
We are stacking the climate dice against the survival of many species on planet earth. A few species may be able to ride the changes, at least temporarily. And so it is with the largest of birds, the wandering albatross, with some populations of this species able to take advantage, so far, of the changing winds of climate change. But for how long?
Global warming has caused the westerly winds in the Southern Ocean to increase in intensity and move poleward. The wandering albatross, with a three metre wing span, spends much of it's life soaring above the ocean searching for food, with the changes in the winds increasing it's foraging ability, breeding capacity and reducing it's conflict with commercial long line fishing operations.
A study published in 2001 found that there were differences in flight performance and foraging patterns between males, females and juveniles. Male wandering albatrosses tend to forage in the extremely windy sub-Antarctic and Antarctic zones south of the breeding colony in the Crozet Islands. Females tend to forage in subtropical and tropical waters to the north, where winds are lighter. Fledglings forage farther north in even lighter wind conditions than adults of either sex.
The species has been in steady decline through the twentieth century with a total population at 2010 estimated at about 8,000 breeding pairs. It is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Redlist. It nests mostly on sub-antarctic islands. Breeding populations are found on South Georgia (20%), Prince Edward Islands (South Africa) (40%), Crozet Islands and Kerguelen Islands (French Southern Territories) (40%) and Macquarie Island (Australia) (approximately 10 pairs breeding per year), but albatross roam the high seas and are found right across the Southern Ocean, including Antarctic, subantarctic and subtropical waters. Juvenile birds remain at sea for 5 to 10 years before returning to their natal island to breed. They can live for up to 70 years.
The main threats to the species come from being caught and killed as incidental seabird bycatch in long line fishing such as for Bluefin Tuna and trawling fisheries, and introduction of alien species (such as rats or cats) which threaten breeding colonies. The accumulation of human pollution, plastic debris and fish hooks also has negative effects on albatross numbers.
The research is part of a long term study by biologists on the wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) breeding in Crozet Islands, part of the the French Southern Territories located in the southern Indian Ocean (halfway between Madagascar and Antarctica). Data on the duration of foraging trips and breeding success has been gathered for 40 years, with information on foraging and body mass recorded for the last 20 years. The research team is made of of scientists from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS-CEBC) and the German Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ).
"The wandering albatross Crozet population has decreased as a result of adult mortality on longline fishing in subtropical waters, especially females since they favour warmer subtropical waters in the north compared to the more southerly distribution of males" says Dr. Maite Louzao Arsuaga, who has been modelling albatross movement from 2009 to 2011 at the UFZ. "Due to the changing wind conditions, females are now foraging in more southward areas where such fishing is not that widespread".
As winds have increased in intensity and moved to the south, the flight speed of albatrosses increased resulting in them spending less time foraging. This has aided breeding success and both male and female birds have increased their body mass by about one kilogram, which corresponds approximately to one tenth of their total body weight. The scientists say the weight increase is due to shorter incubation periods on the nest, and also an adaptation to windier conditions.
The foraging movements of birds were plotted using miniaturised tracking devices. The results show that albatross have altered their search patterns following changes in wind conditions over the past two decades. Females used increasingly more poleward and windy areas for foraging. As a consequence their travel speed increased while the total distance covered during foraging flights did not change. "This means that they spend less time at sea while incubating the egg and thus the breeding success increases" explains Dr. Henri Weimerskirch of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS-CEBC).
The wandering albatross can live for 60-70 years. Chicks take a year to raise, so breeding usually occurrs every second year. It is at the top of the food web and provides a valuable indicator to scientists of the health of marine ecosystems in the southern ocean.
"Because the species has no natural enemies and is at the top of the food web, it is particularly well suited as an indicator of the health of marine ecosystems," says Dr. Thorsten Wiegand from the UFZ, who supervised the work of Dr. Maite Louzao. "This could help not only a single species, but the underlying biodiversity associated with pelagic key habitats to protect Southern Ocean. Moreover, we have developed methods of habitat modelling broadly applicable and can be used to assess changes in species distribution within the current global change scenario."
The research team identified key marine areas for conservation of wandering albatrosses in the southern Indian Ocean in a previous the paper - Conserving pelagic habitats: seascape modelling of an oceanic top predator (abstract) published in the Journal of Applied Ecology in 2010. This was the first map to support the future development of a network of priority protected areas in the southern part of the Indian Ocean, which are based on habitat predictions.
Unfortunately climate scenarios predict that westerly winds will move even further south by 2080 and wandering albatrosses might have to fly further to find optimal conditions for flying. This may then have a negative affect on albatross breeding and populations.
Biodiversity under threat
There are a thousands of local stories about the threat to species biodiversity. From San Francisco Mayor Gives Death Sentence to Endangered Frogs, to penguins facing an uncertain future.
While global warming is increasing temperatures, exacerbating extreme weather events, and reducing biodiversity, many species will be losers, such as many lizard species, and iconic species such as the Australian koala.
Recent scientific studies have identified that Species biodiversity is under threat from the velocity of climate change, and that Climate change and habitat loss threaten biodiversity, with the extinction rate underestimated. Marine scientists have been warning that our Oceans are at high risk of unprecedented Marine extinction.
It all comes down to the explosion in the human population and the consumerist lifestyle based upon a system of production and energy that has taken no account of the cost of pollution to ecosystems and other species. Human industrialisation has caused the carbon pollution that is changing our climate. But worse is yet to come.
If we do not tackle the issue of carbon pollution quickly the impacts of climate change will escalate. Human health is already threatened in the increase in extreme events, and we have only seen 0.8 degrees celsius of global warming so far. Imagine the world at 5 degrees Celsius which is where the world is heading by 2100 with business as usual according to the Climate Interactive scoreboard. Once climate feedback processes kick in, we could be in for a very rough ride. Scientists studying climate sensitivity say the paleoclimate record points towards potential rapid climate change.
- Adapted from Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) media release, 12 January 2012 - Largest seabird alters their foraging due to climate change
- Henri Weimerskirch, Maite Louzao, Sophie de Grissac, Karine Delord in Science, 13 January 2012 - Changes in Wind Pattern Alter Albatross Distribution and Life-History Traits(abstract) - DOI: 10.1126/science.1210270
- Photo: David Gremillet/CNRS Copyright Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) used for non-commercial purposes - Researchers on Crozet fitting a transmitter on a wandering albatross. | <urn:uuid:90de8aba-d90c-4709-b0f4-ccf31d617c9b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://takvera.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/wandering-albatross-riding-winds-of.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396147.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00071-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930169 | 1,711 | 3.953125 | 4 |
When there is a war not only does the official army fight to prevent their country from being invaded, but there are also people called partisans who join together to resists those who are going to occupy their country. Can we use "guerillas" in this meaning? The dictionary says that guerillas fight the army of THEIR OWN country during a mutiny or a civil war. Is that true? Can we call partisans guerillas?
They're not words I use very often, but they seem to be pretty similar in meaning and could probably be used interchangeably in most cases, yes.
Definition of Partisan:
The main difference for me is that guerilla suggests a particular style of fighting too. One of harassing a more powerful army.1. A fervent, sometimes militant supporter or proponent of a party, cause, faction, person, or idea.
2. A member of an organized body of fighters who attack or harass an enemy, especially within occupied territory; a guerilla. | <urn:uuid:b9cada9d-672b-4652-aa07-e30c18220008> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/176423-partisans-guerillas?p=914088 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393332.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00166-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957312 | 205 | 2.9375 | 3 |
This illustration by Harry Anderson appeared in a magazine ad in 1941. The ad copy reads: "In a world of strife, there's peace in beer. In these bewildering times, where can a man turn to replenish the wells of his courage...to repair the walls of his faith?"
The beer industry in America had some big setbacks from Prohibition through the outset of World War II, so brewing companies banded together to promote beer's benefits. The history is summarized in a Wikipedia article "Beer in the United States."
Thanks, Jim Pinkoski. | <urn:uuid:adb2aa4d-9f11-44f7-848c-2ce8bf8d105f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2013/05/invasion-have-beer.html?showComment=1369848350787 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403826.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00197-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956249 | 114 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Eventually, post-human life spreads the dawn of vegetative intelligence. Piles and piles of green and reusable technology keeps feeding its power-on mechanisms from sunlight, wind, dirt, etc. And plant life becomes the next reign of existence: Som Sakrifis. Fleeing one pile of electronics to the next, growth begins in tiny electrical evolutions. New forms of photosynthesises are created through post-human waste and ooze on another level — thick, purple, sometimes it’s a color indescribable to human eyes — feeds from vegetation to vegetation. Natural plant life remains relatively the same, but bio-technological life sometimes migrates and spreads viral photosynthetic properties, infecting and illuminating what once was native. Sometimes multiple types of bio-technology migrates to the natural, which festers with the culture of evolution. This festering is called “Sakrifis.” But all of these colonies and vegetative groups are only concerned with combining and webbing, networking on a massive informative scale to gain that next level. And the next level is not really the goal, but the push; the “Sakrifis” is definitely where this life force intends to continue. Through PAN, all things Som Sakrifis will begin March 7. PREPARE. | <urn:uuid:5be2af87-df1b-47e0-884b-a7a32ae39890> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.tinymixtapes.com/chocolate-grinder/watch-mohammad-sakrifis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396222.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00133-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913833 | 276 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Pictures are still filtering back from NASA’s New Horizons close-up of Pluto last year and one of the biggest surprises so far comes from the region informally known as Sputnik Planum. There’s a lack of craters on its surface, making it a unique area on Pluto and a rare spot in the solar system — it turns out it could be very young terrain indeed.
“What I did was take the pictures that we have seen — the amazing pictures! — and calculate, based on Pluto’s orbital environment, what the impact rate and therefore the surface age of Sputnik Planum must be,” wrote planetary scientist David Trilling in an email to Discovery News.
“There have been lots of press releases describing various aspects of Sputnik Planum, but, as far as I know, this is the first time that the age estimate of 10 million years or younger appears in the peer-reviewed literature,” added Trilling, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Northern Arizona University.
Trilling’s study, which is in press at PLOS One, mentions three ways the resurfacing could take place:
- Nitrogen ice on the surface could be “relaxing” if it is viscous, getting rid of any craters created by meteroids.
- Ice on the bottom could be rising up and replacing ice at the top, somewhat like how a lava lamp works.
- The ice could be partially melted at its bottom and from time to time, erupt on to the surface as cryo-lava.
As for where the meteorites are coming from, Trilling points out that Pluto is in a zone filled with smaller Kuiper Belt objects. From time to time, these small bodies crash into Pluto. Trilling’s math shows that this happens roughly every 10 million years, which would explain why Sputnik Planum appears so young.
Trilling’s research is mostly focused on near-Earth asteroids, but Pluto caught his attention not only because of the “astounding” images, but also the lack of craters. He’s also hopeful that New Horizons will be funded to look at another Kuiper Belt object up close in 2018. If that happens, Trilling will be on the lookout for more “crater-free patches” to nail down more information about the solar system’s evolution.
Originally published on Discovery News. | <urn:uuid:c2723c6b-f835-4ecd-8b4c-6f9fa650322f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.space.com/31708-young-at-heart-plutos-ice-only-10-million-years-old.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00077-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946714 | 513 | 3.78125 | 4 |
Uses Maps in many standard image formats - TIFF, BMP, JPG, PNG
These formats below can only be used in the registered version
TIF - The TIF format has many different
variations and compression schemes which can be used. This format allows
paging from disk so is efficient on memory usage.
PNG - This format gives good compression but the
image must be decompressed and fully loaded into RAM (it cannot be paged
from disk). This is the preferred "non-paging" format to use. (8bit or
24bit color images are supported).
JPG - Provides excellent compression but the fully
uncompressed image must be loaded into RAM (non-paging), not recommended
for use with large images.
Uses Maps in many proprietary formats - BSB, NV.Digital, ECW, MrSID
(These proprietary formats have been licensed for use in
OziExplorer where necessary. These formats may have geo-referencing
information included in the image or as a separate file. The map images can
be imported into OziExplorer to easily calibrate the image or can be
manually calibrated using the OziExplorer load and calibrate option.)
BSB/BSB4/BSB5 and later - formats developed specifically for
mapping, gives good compression and the image can be paged from disk.
BSB format cannot be written by the user.
NV.Digital - a format developed specifically for
mapping, similar to BSB. NV.Digital format cannot be written by the user.
MrSID - a format which gives high compression. If
SID image file is supplied with a (.SDW) file, OziExplorer
can use it for geo-referencing.
ECW - a format which gives good compression -
developed by ER Mapper. Geo-referencing information can be read direct
from the file.
JP2 - JP2000 is a format which gives good
compression. If the JP2 file is supplied with a (.j2w) file,
OziExplorer can use it for geo-referencing.
RIK - support for Swedish RIK maps (module
KOMPASS - support for Kompass digital maps.
Maptech (.024,.100,.250) maps - Terrain
Navigator maps produced by Maptech.
Maptech (.AER) charts - Aeronautical charts
produced by Maptech.
Maptech PCX (.HDR,.A01,.A02....) - An
older format produced by Maptech but still in use.
Maptech Superdisk Format (.RML) - Similar to the PCX
format above but the images are compressed.
Uses formats developed especially for
use in OziExplorerCE (also can be used with OziExplorer)
OZF2, OZFx3 - This format which gives good compression, can be
paged from disk, efficient for decompression of small image sections. Gives
smooth zoom images below 100% which look almost as good as
the original image.
OZF - (Now superseded but still supported).
You can use maps you scan yourself from paper charts
Map calibration ability built in
A map in OziExplorer is an image of a map which has been calibrated (geo-referenced)
so OziExplorer can use any pixel position on the map to determine the true
geographic position. When you scan your own map or have a digital map which
is not calibrated, you can use the built in calibration ability so the image
can be used in OziExplorer.
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The lat/lon grid can be displayed for maps of any scale and any
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Specify permanent Map features by placing symbols and comments on the map
Map Features (up to 250) can be added to any map and saved with the map
so they can be permanently displayed any time the map is loaded. You can
select or even make your own symbol to display the feature position on your
map. Map Features are used when you want to store more details about
important map features such as camping areas, islands, etc.
Map Comments are used to show text information, usually relating to
particular parts of the map, that you want to see at all times. Map comments
can only store text but can have any size or color. Easily modify a map
comments text or the way it looks, simply double click on the comment on
your map to show a properties box.
Display a complete list of Map Features or Map Comments with
position and other information about the features.
Attach a file to each Map feature
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Feature. If the files is a BMP or JPG photograph or image it will be
displayed in the properties dialog, simply double click on the Map Feature
symbol on your map. If it is any other document or image type it will be
passed to Windows to be displayed in the default handler, if it is a program
it will be executed.
Measure areas and distances
Area measurement - use OziExplorer to draw a track around
the perimeter of the area you want calculated by clicking on the map. The
accuracy of the calculation depends on the size of the area and the scale
and projection of the map.
Distance measurement - use OziExplorer to calculate the
Distance and Bearing from a Waypoint, Event, Map Feature, Track Point,
Point, Position Marker or any point on the Map. Calculate
Accumulated Distance from a Position Marker, along a Track, along a Route
or any points on the Map. | <urn:uuid:ea66d3a2-12b8-4ebe-8ea7-9a58c07382c6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.oziexplorer3.com/eng/features/features_moreinfo1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00198-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.824101 | 1,393 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The banking industry act as life-blood of modern trade and commerce acting
as a bridge to provide a major source of financial intermediation. This is why
Nzotta (2004) opine that banks owe some basic responsibilities
to their communities. The traditional functions which they render in the form
of financial intermediation must be efficiently delivered to retain the confidence
of their clients. Banks must also sustain the interest and confidence of the
public by being sufficiently responsive to their needs, honouring all maturing
obligations, avoiding actions that would lead to distress and failure in the
system. Banks must also meet the credit needs of their customers and thus sustain
the productive process. However, the emergence of a fast-paced dynamic environment
in the business world in general and in the banking industry in particular has
highlighted the significance of mergers and acquisitions. Akhtar
(2002) added that the intense competition among banks, rapid speed of innovations
and introduction of new products, changing consumerís demands and desire have
changed the way bank conducts business and services to its customers. This sophistication
in banking and changing customerís desire calls for the merger and acquisition
of banks to achieve value maximization.
The banking industry has experienced an unprecedented level of consolidation
as mergers and acquisitions. Merger and acquisition activity results in overall
benefits to shareholders when the consolidated post-merger firm is more valuable
than the simple sum of the two separate pre-merger firms (Chang,
2010; DeYoung et al., 2009; Lensink
and Maslennikova, 2008). According to Pilloff and Santomero
(1996), consolidation is based on a belief that gains can accrue through
expense reduction, increased market power, reduced earnings volatility and scale
and scope economies. As Pasiouras et al. (2006)
point out in a number of Asian countries, official recapitalization of banks
put the government in a strong position to consolidate domestic banks in order
to decrease overcapacity and cut costs while markets not dominated by government-owned
banks, policy makers have tried to encourage consolidation. In addition, diversification
enables to obtain additional benefits derived from a more extensive use of firm-specific
assets such as brand name, consumer loyalty (Altunbas and
The efficiency of banks which reflects the ability of banks in transforming
its resources to output by making its best allocation is essential for the growth
of the economy. Kaur and Kaur (2010) say with mergers
and acquisitions in the banking industry, the sizes of the banks increases the
efficiency of the system. Pautler (2003) argue that
the potential efficiency benefits from mergers and acquisitions include both
operating and managerial efficiencies.
The issue of the impact of mergers and acquisitions on the efficiency of banks
has been well studied in the literature (Focarelli et
al., 2002; Campa and Hernando, 2006; Hahn,
2007; Crouzille et al., 2008; Altunbas
and Marques, 2008; Said et al., 2008; Sufian
and Habibullah, 2009; Appah and John, 2011). Most
of the literature relates to the impact of mergers and acquisitions on the efficiency
of banks in United States of America (USA), Europe and Asia. In Nigeria, literature
on banks mergers and acquisitions is scarce. This study makes notable contributions
to the existing literature on banking efficiency in Nigeria. In essence, this
study attempts to answer this question. What is the impact of mergers and acquisitions
on the profit efficiency of banks in Nigeria? To achieve this objective, the
study hypothesized in null form that there is no significant difference between
pre and post mergers and acquisitions in the Nigerian banking industry.
Theoretical framework and empirical literature
Mergers and acquisitions in the banking industry: The banking industry has
experienced changes all over the world. These changes may be derived from several
forces including globalization, deregulation and technological advancement (Ismail
and Davidson, 2007; DeYoung et al., 2009).
Ismail and Davidson (2007) argue that regulation changes
removes product and geographical restrictions on banks. Technological advancement
enables the banks to reform their service systems such as back-office processing
and payment systems (Humphrey et al., 2006; DeYoung
et al., 2009). These changes have led the consolidation of banks
through mergers and acquisitions. Bank mergers and acquisitions occur when previous
distinct banks are consolidated into one institution (Pilloff
and Santomero, 1996). Focarelli et al. (2002)
says bank merger occurs when an independent bank loses its charter and becomes
a part of an existing bank with one headquarter and a unified branch network.
Also Kaur and Kaur (2010) adds that mergers occurs by
adding the bidder banks assets and liabilities to the target bankís balance
sheet and acquiring the bidderís bank name through a series of legal and administrative
Pasiouras et al. (2006) argue that all firms
acquisitions including mergers and acquisitions are made with the objective
of maximizing shareholders wealth. Mergers and acquisitions serves as a means
to increase market power, replace inefficient management achieve economies of
scale and scope, decrease risk through geographic and product diversification
among others (Pilloff and Santomero, 1996; Akhtar,
2002; Meijaard et al., 2005; Pasiouras
et al., 2006; Altunbas and Marques, 2008;
Kaur and Kaur, 2010). However, Gattoufi
et al. (2008) argue that there is in fact an ongoing debate regarding
whether getting bigger in the banking industry is always better in terms of
performance in general and in terms of economic efficiency in particular, though
the gain in scale and scope are often presented as the main driver for mergers
Efficiency of mergers and acquisitions in the banking industry: According
to Bwala (2003), efficiency is the ratio of a systemís
effective or useful output to its total output. It can also be defined as the
degree to which actual output (s) deviate from the optimum given a unit of resources.
Kolasky and Dick say that economic literature distinguishes four types of efficiency:
productive efficiency; transactional efficiency; allocative efficiency; and
dynamic efficiency. Productive efficiency is the ability of firms to get the
highest output from the least input given current technological constraints.
According to Meijaard et al. (2005) mergers can
influence productive efficiency through economics of scale, economics of scope
and synergies. Transactional efficiency recognizes that firms expend resources
to protect the economic returns to their efforts and property right. Allocative
efficiency concerns the clearance of markets and the achievement of maximal
consumer benefits given a particular production function. Dynamic efficiency
concerns the clearance of markets in a dynamic perspective through the improvement
of existing products and processes and the development of new products. Said
et al. (2008) argue that the merger in Malaysia was expected to bring
about greater efficiency to domestic banking, achieve economies of scale and
pave way for a strong and competitive banking sector in the country.
There are two main approaches of measuring efficiency: non-parametric and parametric. The non-parametric approaches include Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Free Disposable Hull (FDH). DEA is a linear programming technique which does not impose restrictions on the functional form of the frontier. Observations with the highest outputs (given inputs level and technology) or lowest inputs (given outputs level and technology) are considered as a frontier observations.
|| Mergers and acquisitions of banks in Nigeria
|**Foreign owned banks
The efficiency frontier is formed as a convex combination of these observations.
FDH is a special case of DEA which assumes that points on lines connecting best
practice observations are not counted as a part of the frontier. The parametric
approach (Stochastic Frontier Analysis-SFA, Thick Frontier Approach-TFA) splits
the residual into random and inefficiency component (Bwala,
2003; Sufian, 2004; Harada, 2005;
Georgiev and Burghof, 2007; Mehdian
et al., 2007; Sufian and Habibullah, 2009;
Said et al., 2008; Kaur and
Kaur, 2010; Tecles and Tabak, 2010).
Mergers and acquisitions in the Nigerian banking industry: The former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Professor Charles Soludo released a consolidation/reform time table for the banking industry in line with the policy thrust of the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS) document requiring banks in Nigeria to raise their minimum capital base from #2-#25 billion with December 31, 2005 as deadline. At the end of 31 December 2005, 25 groups emerged from 75 banks out of the 89 licensed banks in the country while 14 unsuccessful banks had their operating licenses revoked. Table 1-3 are the successful banks that were able to meet the #25 billion capitalization by December 31, 2005.
The consolidation of the banking industry in Nigeria during 2004 and 2005 resulted in the reduction of the number of banks from 89-25 as at December 31, 2005 and further reduced to 24, courtesy of the merger between Stanbic Nigeria Bank Limited and IBTC Chartered Bank Plc in 2008. Table 2 shows the basic bank indicators after consolidation.
Empirical literatures on efficiency of mergers and acquisitions of banks:
Many researchers have attempted to examine the effect of mergers and acquisitions
on the efficiency of the banking industry. For instance, Liu
and Tripe (2000) analysed a small sample of seven to fourteen banks employed
accounting ratios and two DEA models to explore the efficiency of six banks
mergers in New Zealand between 1989 and 1998. They found that the acquiring
banks to be generally larger than their targes although, they were not consistently
|| Empirical studies on mergers and acquisitions on efficiency
They found that five of the six merged banks had efficiency gains based on
the financial ratios while another only achieved a slight improvement in operating
expenses to average total income. Based on DEA analysis, they found that only
some merged banks were more efficient than the target banks pre-merger. The
results suggest that four banks had obvious efficiency gains post-merger. Gourlay
et al. (2006) examined the efficiency gains from mergers among Indian
Banks over the period 1991-92 to 2004-05 and observed that the mergers led to
improvement of efficiency for the merging banks. Table 3 shows
the sample, methodology and main results of various empirical studies on mergers
and acquisitions on the efficiency of the banking industry.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Akhtar (2002) stated that the efficiency of banks can
be measured either by using the operating approach or the intermediation approach.
The operating approach is where the bank is perceived to be the producer of
services for its account holders and it is known as the cost revenue perspective.
Bwala (2003) says the efficiency ratio is the ratio
of total operating expenses to operating income (net interest income plus non-interest
income) measures how optimally the resources of a bank are used in generating
outputs from which income is derived. The intermediation approach considers
banks as entities which convert and transfer financial assets between surplus
units acting as intermediary better called a mechanical perspective. This study
used the operating approach.
The study used ex-post research design. Documentary data is utilized from the annual reports and accounts of the sampled banks for the periods 2003-2005 and 2006-2008 using ROE as proxy for profit efficiency of pre and post mergers and acquisitions of banks in Nigeria. The population of the study comprised all the (24) banks operating in the Nigerian banking industry as at December 31, 2010. The sample was drawn from the population by selecting the banks with random digits circles on the table of random numbers. In this way every element of the population was given an equal and independent chance of being included in the sample. The sample size of the study comprised of (10) banks as follows: Access Bank Nigeria Plc, Afribank of Nigeria Plc, Diamond Bank of Nigeria Plc, First Bank of Nigeria Plc, First City Monument Bank Plc, Intercontinental Bank Plc, Oceanic Bank International Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc, Union Bank Plc and Wema Bank Plc. Excel software helped us to transform the data into a format suitable for analysis after which the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was utilized for data analysis. The paired sample t-test statistics and descriptive analysis were adopted for the analysis of data.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The Return On Equity (ROE) of the sampled banks pre mergers and acquisitions showed a total of #2.11 for the year 2003, #2.04 for the year 2004 and #1.42 for the year 2005. Also the Return On Equity (ROE) post mergers and acquisitions showed a total of #1.05 for 2006, #1.58 for 2007 and #1.27 for 2008. The pre merger and acquisition period (2003-2005) showed an average combined ROE of #1.86 and the post merger and acquisition period (2006-2008) showed an average combined ROE of #1.30. Therefore, we can conclude that the sampled banks performed better during the pre merger and acquisition (2003-2005) than the post merger and acquisition period (2006-2008). This may be as a result of several factors ranging from the written off of goodwill, merger and acquisition expenses, investment on Information and Communication Technology (ICT), expansion of branches etc.
The Table 4 and 5 show a mean of #0.2110 for the year 2003, #0.2040 for 2004 and #0.1420 for 2005 (pre mergers and acquisitions). The post merger and acquisition showed a mean of #0.1050 for 2006, #0.1580 for 2007 and #0.1270 for 2008, respectively. The year 2006 and 2008 showed the worst mean as a result of huge merger and acquisition cost that was written off and the global financial meltdown that affected the industry.
Table 6 show the mean of the ten sampled banks for the periods 2003-2005 and 2006-2008. Access bank Nigeria PLC, First Bank of Nigeria PLC, Oceanic Bank International PLC, Intercontinental Bank PLC, United Bank for Africa PLC, Union Bank PLC and Wema Bank PLC had decline in their respective ROE pre and post merger and acquisition. Also AfriBank Nigeria PLC, Diamond Bank Nigeria PLC and First City Monument Bank PLC had an increase in their respective ROE between pre and post mergers and acquisitions.
The Table 7 show the paired sample t-test for the combined
banks pre and post merger and acquisition. The t = 1.668 being significant at
0.130 is not significant at 0.05 (1.83) hence, we accept the null hypothesis
that there is no significant difference between the returns on equity of sampled
banks pre and post merger and acquisition in the Nigerian banking industry.
The findings of this study indicated that there is no significant difference
between the profitability of banks in Nigeria pre and post merger and acquisition.
The pre merger and acquisition period of 3 years (2003-2005) were compared with
that of the post merger and acquisition period (2006-2008) to ascertain whether
any difference exists in their return on equity. The findings exposed certain
important facts relating to the merger and acquisition of banks in Nigeria.
The result was in line with the study of Sanni (2009)
that the 2006 consolidation of banks in Nigeria did not improve the profitability
of banks. However, some of banks showed improved return on equity.
|| Return on equity of sampled banks for the study period
|Published Financial Statements of Banks
|| Descriptive statistics
|SPSS output version 15.0
||Mean of sampled banks for the period
|| Paired samples test
|SPSS output version 15.0
This study revealed that the pre and post merger and acquisition of banks in Nigeria showed no significant difference in return on equity of all the banks combined together. This result could be attributed to the fact that most of the banks spent huge sums of money after the merger and acquisition to expand branches, invested heavily on ICT, merger and acquisition expenses, goodwill written off etc.
Consequently, the researcher recommended among others that mergers and acquisitions should be left in the hands of the banks to decide when and how to merge rather than the quick fix method used by the regulatory authority (Central Bank of Nigeria) for banks to capitalize. Therefore, mergers and acquisitions in the banking industry must be market driven to give room for efficiency and effectiveness. Also, the banks should put in place strategies that would improve their performance, stability and growth. Mergers and acquisitions of banks may not be the sufficient approach for performance, stability and growth rather new frameworks should be developed by researchers in place of mergers and acquisitions. | <urn:uuid:a214dab5-c8f8-4f06-8907-9bad1dbd8ec0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.medwelljournals.com/fulltext/?doi=pjssci.2011.135.141 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395548.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00186-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924172 | 3,596 | 2.671875 | 3 |
noun. when one's actions are influenced by feelings of competition, rage, or violence, thereby producing injury to, or the deterioration or conquering of people, sometimes, one's own self. Whenever the main objective is planned harm to another or deterioration of another, the actions are referred to as hostile aggression, not being the same thing as operant or instrumental aggression
What is AGGRESSION?
Written by Pam MS, NCSP | Fact checked by Psychology Dictionary staff
AGGRESSION: "John's level of aggression toward his peers was cause for suspension from school that week."
About the Psychology Dictionary
Psychology Dictionary is the most comprehensive source of psychology definitions online with over 20K definitions written by our global team of psychiatrist & psychology professionals. ...more | <urn:uuid:c232cd47-3a6d-4160-8770-f609a88b30b8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://psychologydictionary.org/aggression/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00076-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926881 | 154 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Researchers have unraveled the mystery cause of the emerging wheat disease White Grain Disorder.
Scientists at the Wheat Biosecurity Laboratory in the Research School of Biology identified the cause of the disease when they isolated three previously undiscovered fungi from infected wheat samples and sequenced their genomes.
"Until now, growers and pathologists have recognised the symptoms of White Grain Disorder, but they haven't known what causes it," said lead researcher Associate Professor Peter Solomon from the Research School of Biology.
"This finding now provides all stakeholders with confidence in what they are dealing with in the field."
Australian wheat exports are worth more than $6 billion a year with diseases costing the industry around $1 billion a year. White Grain Disorder emerged about 20 years ago and has sporadically affected crops in Southern Queensland and South Australia, but until now has been poorly understood.
"This is an important advance to the field, as it can be difficult to manage diseases when you don't know what causes them. This study is crucial to our ability to manage this disease in the future," Associate Professor Solomon said.
"Growers who have invested heavily in their crops for the growing season can now have confidence of knowing what the pathogens are behind the disease and what they can do about it."
The team found the disease is caused by three previously unidentified fungi, which occur in different proportions in different diseased areas, although they produce identical symptoms.
The study, a collaboration between ANU, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in QLD and the South Australian Research and Development Institute, is published in the journal Australasian Plant Pathology. | <urn:uuid:716cf895-67b2-4be7-a0ef-4e19504065ae> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/new-fungi-behind-emerging-wheat-disease | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394987.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00014-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96662 | 330 | 2.984375 | 3 |
People return to index
A Chicago native who had never experienced segregation in public accommodations before moving to the South, Diane Nash first attended workshops on nonviolence as a student at Nashville's Fisk University. Along with John Lewis, she formed the Nashville Student Movement, which aimed to desegregate the city's lunch counters. Nash organized the sit-ins that began there in 1960, eliciting a televised admission from Mayor Ben West that segregation was wrong. Nash participated in the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and picked the group of students from Nashville who joined the 1961 Freedom Riders. Nash later became active in the antiwar movement. | <urn:uuid:9814f433-687b-4f79-bdd6-ac0aac24bde4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/profiles/25_nash.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399522.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00068-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972025 | 128 | 3 | 3 |
What’s making headlines in the New West today: authorities suspect a person and not lightning caused the devastating Black Forest fire; a new study argues wolves don’t impact the Yellowstone elk population; a look at regional business trends, and the Yellowstone Club is back in the news — the gift that keeps on giving.It’s been a rough couple of years for Colorado Springs, with fires last summer to the west of town in the Waldo Canyon area and now a large fire in the Black Forest area. So far 389 homes have been destroyed, with two people killed and 38,000 inhabitants impacted. Rain is expected later today, which should provide some relief, but officials say what happens today should determine whether the fire expands or retracts: thunderstorms would help, but the winds associated with any storm will not. The Colorado Springs Gazette is providing regular updates of the fire here.
Officials say a human was most likely for the start of the fire: with a lack of thunderstorms in the area in recent days, it’s highly unlikely lightning was a factor.
From our sister site, Yellowstone Insider: a new study from the University of Wyoming indicates that drought, and not the presences of wolves, has caused population declines among greater Yellowstone ecosystem elk herds. The study tracked interactions between wolves and elk in the Park and the Sunlight Basin and concluded that they had no impact on the reproductive levels of the elk. The more likely explanation for the declining reproductive rate: drought, which is lowering nutritional levels for the elk. From the story:
The findings were published in the scientific journal Ecology Letters. They’re based on multiple years of observation by Middleton and his colleagues at the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit — a U.S. Geological Survey program housed at the University of Wyoming in cooperation with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Middleton and colleagues used state-of-the-art GPS collars and firsthand observation to track the interactions of the Clarks Fork herd with wolves from the Sunlight, Hoodoo, Beartooth and Absaroka wolf packs in 2008, 2009 and 2010. The detailed movement data on both wolves and elk allowed the researchers to identify each time one of the collared elk encountered a collared wolf.
The study’s key finding is that even though elk varied widely in their encounters with wolves, those that encountered wolves frequently were not less fat — or any less likely to be pregnant — than those that rarely bumped into the predators. This finding differs from some previous studies that indicated wolves influence elk behavior strongly enough to contribute to regionwide declines in calf production.
“Elk respond to wolves, but less strongly and less frequently than we thought,” says Middleton who, for three years, closely followed the Clarks Fork elk herd west of Cody, along with the wolf packs that prey on it. “We found that wolves influence elk behavior, but the responses were subtle and — over the course of winter — did not reduce body fat or pregnancy. Our work indicates that the effect of wolves on elk populations is limited to direct predation and doesn’t include so-called harassment, stress and fear, which have been proposed as additional indirect effects on prey populations.”
The declining elk population in Yellowstone has been a well-documented phenomenon; arguing about the impact of wolves on elk has been an active topic on New West over time, and we suspect this study won’t satisfy the folks who condemn wolves for, well, being wolves.
Tim Blixseth and Montana tax officials have been in bankruptcy court before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Bruce Markell in Las Vegas over an attempt by the Montana Department of Revenue to pay $57 million in back taxes. Why Nevada? The state says the proceeds of loan fraud ended up in Nevada-based trusts. From AP:
The state maintains Blixseth, a resident of Washington state, owes the hefty tax bill on a 2005 loan he diverted from the Yellowstone Club, a luxury ski and golf resort he founded near Yellowstone National Park in southwest Montana.
Blixseth has said the state’s action against him is politically motivated and legally flawed. He wants the case thrown out….
Beginning in 2005, Blixseth diverted most of a $375 million loan made to the Yellowstone Club to himself and then-wife Edra Blixseth. They used the money to buy luxury estates around the world, a pair of jets, cars, furniture, art and jewelry.
Blixseth, once regarded as a billionaire, now has an estimated $230 million in assets.
One goal for us here at New West is to more heavily cover the economic scene in the region, particularly when it comes to good jobs and sustainable businesses. Todd Wilkinson has a great overview of the business climate in Bozeman and the region for the Christian Science Monitor. Money quote:
“The Internet removed geography as a significant obstacle that formerly prevented out-of-the-way places from being active players in the New Economy,” says Gianforte. “I think this is the future.”
Gianforte’s successful venture, and his passion for the outdoors, helps explain why the Mountain West is now one of the most robust regions in the United States. Drawn by the area’s natural amenities, a new generation of entrepreneurs and professional service providers, many of them well educated, is moving into towns like Bozeman and other scenic communities across the West.
From Kalispell, Mont., near the Canadian border, down the spine of the Rockies to places like Durango, Colo., and Taos, N.M., and over to Flagstaff, Ariz., they are adding an entrepreneurial dynamism to the region, a phenomenon first identified by analysts with the Federal Reserve banks of Kansas City and Minneapolis who track economic barometers. | <urn:uuid:22fb08e2-4fb9-459b-a2ff-397bc778ba90> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://newwest.net/2013/06/14/new-west-daily-roundup-for-june-13-2013/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397744.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00114-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950636 | 1,220 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Russian Lawmakers: Don't Criticize Soviet Actions In WWII
World War II remains a monumental event in the collective Russian mind. It's known as the "Great Patriotic War," and Russians believe no one made greater sacrifices than the Soviet Union when it came to defeating Nazi Germany.
The end of the war is celebrated with a huge military parade in Moscow's Red Square on May 9, commemorating the millions of men and women, military and civilian, who died during the struggle.
Any criticism of the Soviet war effort is rare. But even the rare comment has Russia's lower house of Parliament, the State Duma, looking for ways to control the narrative and make sure that the Soviet role is never portrayed as anything less than selfless patriotism.
The trouble is that World War II was fought under the leadership of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, and his repressive policies continued throughout the conflict.
In the latest flap, legislators in the Duma have called for an investigation into remarks made by an opposition deputy criticizing Stalin's wartime counterintelligence agency, SMERSH.
The agency's name comes from the abbreviated Russian phrase "Death to Spies." A fictionalized version of SMERSH appeared as James Bond's main foe in the early novels by Ian Fleming.
A recent program on Russian state television portrayed SMERSH as a heroic unit that fought Russia's enemies.
However, the opposition lawmaker, Leonid Gozman, wrote in an online column that SMERSH actually belonged in the same category as the German SS and the Gestapo.
He wrote that the name should "cause horror and disgust, but not be part of a headline for a patriotic movie."
Gozman said that's because SMERSH, at Stalin's bidding, took part in the repression of the Russian civilian population as well, resulting in the killing and deportation of thousands of Soviet citizens.
Such talk runs counter to President Vladimir Putin's call for more patriotic education for Russian children.
The Russian government is currently working on an initiative to establish a "canonical" version of Russian history that will be promulgated countrywide in a single set of textbooks.
Gozman told The Moscow Times that the Duma should also check the comments of revered Russian authors such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn, "because they said the same thing long before me."
The head of the Duma's Security and Anti-Corruption Committee, Irina Yarovaya, said a bill addressing criticism of Russia's wartime history could be brought up for consideration soon. | <urn:uuid:4d9d42ef-9c39-4b15-a1e4-5e0d2870dd71> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://wrkf.org/post/russian-lawmakers-dont-criticize-soviet-actions-wwii | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396455.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00117-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967201 | 515 | 2.65625 | 3 |
A question: Man may sweat profusely, but isn't the cooling effect
dependent on how much of this water is actually evaporated from the
skin? That's the way the heat energy is removed, by using it to
dissociate the liquid water molecules into water vapor. Agreed, the more
you sweat, the more water is available for evaporation, but I wonder, is
there an optimum rate for sweating where you achieve the maximum cooling
effect with the minimum loss of bodiy water? The point being that merely
the rate of sweat production is not the whole story in the cooling
effect. Much sweat simply drops off.
And re the Watusi... don't forget the Pygmies! Africans come in varied
Glenn Morton wrote:
> > To continue an on-going discussion:
> >(1) The unanimous consensus of the books (about 12 I read) was that
> >sweating constitutes on 25% of the cooling system in human beings;
> >60% of heat loss in humans is from radiation.
> If this is an average, over most of the time, then I have no doubt about it.
> At temperatures above 80 F or so, the rate of heat loss from the body by
> radiation is insufficient to relieve the body of enough heat. At 90 F humans
> sweat fairly easily and by 98.9 radiation removes almost no heat. Sweat must
> remove nearly all of it.
> This is a size effect. Larger animals have a smaller surface area/mass ratio.
> This is why Eskimo bodies are short and stout--that shape minimizes surface
> area and retains heat. African bodies, like the Watusi, are long and lean,
> maximizing surface area and minimizing heat retention.
> Foundation,Fall and Flood
-- --Bill Yates [email protected] [email protected] --http://www.vcnet.com/wtyates/ | <urn:uuid:ce0c73b3-8bbe-4b55-89cb-f0159482872a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www2.asa3.org/archive/asa/199701/0020.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396027.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00051-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.878147 | 421 | 2.703125 | 3 |
MaKey MaKey Makes Everyday Objects New Inventions
Kids, my daughter included, have been singing about the Bananaphone since Raffi released a song and album by the same name in 1994. Fast forward 20 years, and Raffi’s silly song doesn’t seem so silly. Eric Rosenbaum and Jay Silver, two very smart and creative guys with MIT degrees, have invented MaKey MaKey The Original Invention Kit For Everyone, which turns everyday objects into computer keyboards or touchpads. Move over Bananaphone, MaKey MaKey can turn bananas into a piano. And you thought engineers were boring.
MaKey MaKey, which comes from combining the words make and key, is a simple circuit board that connects your computer to any object using a USB cable and alligator clips. The object needs to conduct a little bit of energy, but according to their website that can be anything from ketchup to your grandmother. Once the connection is made to an object, say a banana or piece of play dough, the object can control computer commands on the keyboard as simple as the arrow keys or space bar. Or you can use MaKey MaKey’s board in Arduino mode in order to spin motors and turn on LED lights. I told you these guys were smart.
Each kit comes with the MaKey MaKey circuit board, a USB cable, 7 alligator clips, and 6 connector wires. It also includes a quick start guide and plenty of online documentation. It’s up to you to figure out what you want to create. MaKey MaKey works on both Windows and Mac OSX 10.5 and higher. And online games or software that can be controlled with a computer’s keyboard means your creation can be used to play your favorite downloadable games and programs. I will now be able to have my band by using MaKey MaKey to turn my family of five into a drum set.
Rosenbaum and Silver are believers in the Maker Movement, a DIY technology influenced group of artists, hobbyists, students and anyone who considers themselves makers. Because of their belief that everyone is creative and innovative, they have committed themselves to create invention kits that are easy to use. Before creating MaKey MaKey, they worked on the invention kits Scratch, Drawdio, and Singing Fingers.
MaKey MaKey gives kids and adults the ability to turn almost anything into an original invention limited only by imagination, and they have done it in a way that is simple and not necessary to understand. But the genius might be in the fact that the fun of inventing with their kits leads to wanting to understand how things work. They believe a “Maker’s Mindset” can change the world. And who am I to argue with MIT grads who turn bananas into pianos?
MaKey MaKey turns any object into a new invention and anybody into an inventor. It is a perfect purchase for home, school, and any community space invested in giving kids the tools to learn and create. | <urn:uuid:9faa4a17-e97f-41d2-b08e-be82e8d0ac76> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://inventorspot.com/articles/makey-makey-makes-everyday-objects-new-inventions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00195-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95471 | 625 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Major League Baseball, after a long decision process (i.e. delay), finally decided the fate of the Montreal Expos on September 30, 2004. After narrowing the field to Washington D.C. and Dulles, Virginia, the commissioner announced that the Expos would be playing in the nation’s capital. Why didn’t baseball work in Montreal and why did they move to Washington D.C.? What would cause the first baseball relocation since 1972? What sort of ramifications does this present for future relocations? To answer these questions, we not only have to go forward, but we also need to go back, thirty five years back.
The Beginning – 1969
The season that the Expos debuted was definitely a year of transition for the league. After coming off of what’s now termed the “Year of the Pitcher,” the pitcher’s mound was lowered from fifteen inches to ten.
It was also a season of expansion. The Seattle Pilots and Kansas City Royals were added to the American League while the Montreal Expos and the San Diego Padres were added to the National League. The Senior Circuit and Junior Circuit were split into an eastern division and a western division and for the first time, a five game playoff series between division winners would decide who would play in the World Series.
Of the four expansion teams, the Expos were the most noteworthy. For the first time in baseball’s long history, a team was awarded to a city that played outside the United States. In August of 1968, the former Co-Chairman of liquor distributor Seagram’s, Charles Bronfman, made his first $1 million installment to the National League. In all, the fee to the league to create the Expos would run him $10 million. John McHale became the first president of the team and Gene Mauch was named the manager.
The Expos opened the season on April 8, 1969 against the Mets, the eventual World Series Champions, winning 11-10. The Expos lost four of their next five games before they won their home opener at Jarry Park. The team finished with a 52-110 record, with the low point being a 20-game losing streak.
The Expos’ first full decade could best be termed “slow and steady.” In 1973 and 1974, they flirted with the .500 mark, finishing with 79 wins in each year. They took a step back in 1976, going 55-107. Then in 1979, the Expos finally finished with more wins then losses, going 95-65 and finishing only two games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates.
One of the most significant events during this decade happened in 1972. For the third time in the twentieth century, Washington D.C. lost their baseball team. Prior to the 1900 season, the original Washington Senators were bought out by the National League (they didn’t call it contraction back then) basically due to poor performance (their best record in nine years was 58-73). The second incarnation of the Washington Senators began play in the American League the following year and that team relocated to Minnesota in 1960 and became the Twins. Once again, baseball fans in Washington didn’t have to wait long, because in 1961 they were given an expansion franchise, and once again their team was called the Washington Senators. After eleven seasons, owner Robert E. Short claimed he couldn’t make money, so he packed his bags, the bags of the team, and moved to Texas where the team became the Rangers.
Two major ironies go along with this final move. The first was that Baltimore Orioles’ owner Jerry Hoffberger voted against the move because he felt a more popular team might relocate to Washington, siphoning fans away from Memorial Stadium. This was in contrast to the current situation where Orioles’ owner Peter Angelos is the most vehement opponent to the Expos’ move to Washington. The second irony was that Robert E. Smith was seeking, and didn’t get, public funding for a new stadium, where as it looks like now the city is currently bending over backwards to provide, at the city’s residents’ expense, the best possible stadium deal they can.
The Expos also moved down the street. In 1977, they began playing their home games at Olympic Stadium. The stadium was originally built for use in the 1976 Olympic Games.
In 1981, the Montreal Expos made the playoffs for the first and only time in the team’s existence. During the strike shortened season, the Expos won the National League East’s second season by a mere half game over the St. Louis Cardinals. They went on to beat the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies in five games before losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a dramatic five game series which ended on a walk off homerun by Rick Monday.
In 1982, the Expos hosted their first All Star Game at Olympic Stadium. Included in the starting lineup were four Expos, pitcher Steve Rogers, catcher Gary Carter, and outfielders Tim Raines and Andre Dawson. Steve Rogers walked away with the win as the National League bested the American League 4-1.
In 1986, Claude Brochu replaced John McHale as president of the Expos. Remember the name, because he plays a big part as the eventual general partner of the team.
In 1989, the Expos got off to a rocky start, but in late May they made a deal for veteran left handed starter Mark Langston who helped pushed them into the division lead. As late as early August, the Expos stood in first place. Things turned for the worse when, according to Claude Brochu, Langston took himself out of a game against the Mets despite winning 2-1, only to see the pen blow the lead. They dropped seven of their next nine games and dropped out of first place for good, finishing the season an even 81-81. To make matters worse, one of the three prospects the Expos traded away for Mark Langston was none other then Randy Johnson.
At the end of the season, owner Charles Bronfman decided to sell the club. President Claude Brochu was given the task of finding a new owner, and preferably one in Montreal.
The Sale – 1990-1991
If Brochu didn’t find an owner within the league’s time frame, the team would most likely be forced to move to the United States where there were plenty of prospective buyers. After being turned down by Quebec business owner Paul Desmarias, the owner of Power Corporation, Claude Brochu reached the conclusion that a sole owner in the area wasn’t a viable alternative. Therefore, a consortium of local businessmen seemed the best alternative.
After getting commitments from the Quebec government and the City of Montreal, who ponied up $18 million and $15 million respectively to purchase the team, the search for private funding began. After some initial resistance, money started trickling in from local business owners to try to bridge the gap between what the government was providing and the $100 million sales price Bronfman was seeking. One person who came forward with his checkbook open, and who we’ll hear from later, was Jeffrey Loria, an art dealer from New York. But after basically demanding complete control of the team, his offer was rebuffed.
When it was said and done, the money trickled in from local business owners, and on June 12, 1991, both leagues approved the sale of the team to the consortium. Claude Brochu put up $2 million of his own money and became general partner of the limited partnership that ultimately owned the team. Brochu was basically given the directive of running the team, while the other owners, although often giving their opinions, were basically on the outside looking in. Brochu was also given extra protection by the league when they stipulated that the league had to approve any change of the general partner as a condition of the sale.
The Beam – September, 1991
On September 20, 1991, a concrete beam fell off of Olympic Stadium. Fortunately, there were no injuries, but it forced the Expos to play their final thirteen home games on the road. The Expos not only failed to reach .500 for the first time since 1986, but they also failed to reach 1,000,000 in attendance for the first time since Olympic Stadium became the home of the Expos. Manager Buck Rodgers was fired and subsequently replaced by Tom Runnells.
Turnaround – 1992-1993
The Expos got off to a rough start in 1992, and after a sub-.500 start, Runnells was fired and replaced by bench coach Felipe Alou. The effects were dramatic as the Expos went 43-31 after the All Star break and finished the season in second place behind the division winning Pirates. Olympic Stadium brought in over 1,600,000 despite the worries of the falling beam the year before, and the Expos seemed poised for a playoff run in the immediate future.
Felipe Alou’s first full season at the helm of the Expos showed what he could accomplish as a manager. After a 4-5 start, the Expos never slipped below .500 the rest of the season. At the All-Star break they were 48-40, but by year end they fell just short of winning the division, as they finished three games behind the Philadelphia Phillies. They fell one game short of tying the franchise record of 95 wins, but they managed to draw another 1,600,000 fans.
The Strike – 1994
On August 11, 1994, the Expos stood on top of the world. Their 74-40 record was the best in the entire league and they had just won twenty of their last twenty three games. They were six games ahead of the second place Atlanta Braves, and in sixty two home games they drew nearly 1,300,000 fans. The only problem was that the season was finished. No playoff run. No playoffs. The season was cancelled because of a strike by the players.
The franchise suffered during this time and I view the strike as the beginning of the end for the Montreal Expos. Because they continued to pay team operating expenses, such as salaries for the scouts, employees, and minor league players, the team lost $16 million because of the strike. When faced with an expected loss in 1995, President Claude Brochu decided to begin dismantling the team to save money.
Breakdown – 1995-1999
With the break up of the successful 1994 team, the Expos began going into a tailspin, both on the field and in the front office. Attendance was stagnant (even in 1994, where they led most of the way, the team was barely drawing 20,000 fans a game), and the team was going to be an inferior product. After a losing record in 1995, the Expos bounced back in 1996 to win 88 games, putting them in second place behind the Atlanta Braves. For the rest of the decade, the Expos and Moises Alou fielded teams that finished with losing records. Attendance steadily declined from 1,600,000 in 1996, to a paltry 773,000 in 1999 (barely 9,500 per home game).
Infighting among the partners of the consortium, while always in the background, began to take center stage. President and general partner Claude Brochu was convinced the Expos needed a new stadium and began seeking assistance from the government. In the meantime, the limited partners began speaking out against Claude Brochu, whose job became more and more difficult. Dealing with one millionaire business owner can be tough, but dealing with several and trying to get agreement amongst them can be practically impossible. Self-made millionaires made money their way, and to a certain extent, their criticism could be justified as the team continued to struggle.
After unsuccessful attempts to sway the government and the local business community, Claude Brochu reluctantly gave up. On October 7, 1998, he decided to step down as President and to sell his general partnership interest in the team. Shortly thereafter, members of the consortium approached Jeffrey Loria. Loria had been rejected as a viable partner back when the original consortium was put together because he demanded complete control, but now, after nearly a decade, he was viewed as the savior of the team.
The Double Switch – 2000-2002
In December of 1999, Jeffrey Loria purchased the Montreal Expos as part of a new consortium of partners. Almost immediately, the team began losing money. The 2000 season saw a slight up tick in attendance, but the more than 900,000 fans who showed up for the games could hardly cover the cost of the team.
When it came time to cover these losses, Loria alone was willing to get out his checkbook. As he began putting his own money into the team, he saw his stake in the team increase faster than the Expos attendance was dropping. By the end of the 2001 season, his stake in the team had increased from 28% to 93%. The team continued to struggle, and attendance hit an all time low in 2001 when the Expos drew only 640,000 fans (less then 8,000 per game). Later that winter, rumors began coming out about the Expos being contracted by the league.
When contraction was taken off the table, the league decided to take matters into their own hands. On February 12, 2002, the league, i.e. the other 29 owners, purchased the team from Jeffrey Loria. At the same time, Loria took his share of the pot and purchased the Florida Marlins.
Why would the league want to own one of their teams? Since it seemed like a matter of when, not if, they’d be relocating, what was in stake for the Expos? Who would win the relocation lottery? I’ll answer these questions, some of which are developing as we speak, in the second and final installment.
References & Resources
My Turn at Bat, The Sad Sage of the Expos, by Claude Brochu
Whither Youppi? The Expo-tortion Racket is More Difficult Then It Looks, by Neil deMause at Baseball Prospectus
The Business of Baseball Committee website, http://www.businessofbaseball.com | <urn:uuid:619fda4a-4eb4-4ac6-b96e-87c69f444b75> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.hardballtimes.com/national-attention-the-expos-35-year-journey-to-washington-dc-part-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00121-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979578 | 2,937 | 2.9375 | 3 |
The tabernacle is a liturgical furnishing used to house the Eucharist outside of Mass. This provides a location where the Eucharist can be kept for the adoration of the faithful and for later use (e.g., distribution to the sick).
It also helps prevent the profanation of the Eucharist. Thus the law requires, "The tabernacle in which the Eucharist is regularly reserved is to be immovable, made of solid or opaque material, and locked so that the danger of profanation may be entirely avoided" (CIC 938 §3).
The word tabernacle means "dwelling place." Any place someone dwells is a tabernacle. The term is also sometimes used for a temporary dwelling place. Thus the tent-like sanctuary that the Jews used before the Temple was built was called the Tabernacle, because God dwelt there. Similarly, for the feast of Sukkot the Hebrews erected temporary shelters to live in for the festival, which is often called "the feast of tabernacles" or "the feast of booths" as a result.
The tabernacle in Church is so named because it is a place where Christ dwells in the Eucharist. | <urn:uuid:643ff114-7302-4215-b839-32cb8674dffa> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.catholic.com/quickquestions/what-is-a-tabernacle | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404826.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00095-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956142 | 258 | 3.234375 | 3 |
milk, liquid secreted by the mammary glands of female mammals as food for their young. The milk of the cow is most widely used by humans, but the milk of the mare, goat, ewe, buffalo, camel, ass, zebra, reindeer, llama, and yak is also used. The composition of milk varies with the species, breed, feed, and condition of the animal. Jersey and Guernsey cows produce milk of high butterfat content; Holsteins produce larger quantities of milk but with a lower butterfat content.
Milk prepared for sale is often homogenized; in this process it is pumped under pressure through small openings to break up the milk-fat globules, thus ensuring an equal distribution of fat throughout the milk rather than permitting it to rise to the top as cream. In most countries where milk is a commercial product, it is subject to regulations concerning its composition (i.e., the proportion of butterfat and other solids) and its purity, with sanitary measures in force that cover milk handlers, herds, plants, and equipment. Pasteurization (partial sterilization by heating) checks bacterial growth, thereby making milk safer to drink and increasing its keeping qualities and range of transport.
Milk, an almost complete food, consists of proteins (mainly casein), fat, salts, and milk sugar, or lactose, as well as vitamins A, C, D, certain B vitamins, and lesser amounts of others. (Many people are unable to digest milk after childhood because they stop producing an enzyme needed to break down lactose, but usually they still can digest yogurt, hard cheeses, and lactose-reduced milk products.) Commercial dairies often supplement natural vitamin D with a concentrate. Milk is a major source of calcium and a good source of phosphorus. Low-fat and skim milk fortified with vitamins A and D have the same nutritional value as whole milk, but with fewer calories and less cholesterol. Whole milk has 3.5% milkfat, low-fat milk 1% to 2%, and skim, 0.5%. Heavy cream has a minimum of 36% milkfat, half-and-half not less than 10.5% nor more than 18%.
A patent was issued for the production of dried milk in Great Britain in 1855, and for concentrated milk in the United States to Gail Borden in 1856. The two types of concentrated milk are condensed and evaporated; condensed milk is a sweetened product (over 40% sugar), and evaporated is unsweetened. Dried, or powdered, milk is made by passing a film of partially evaporated milk over a heated drum or by spraying it into a heated chamber in which the particles dry. Malted milk is a dried mixture made of milk and the liquid from a mash of barley malt and wheat flour.
See S. K. Kon, Milk and Milk Products in Human Nutrition (1972); T. Quinn, Dairy Farm Management (1980); D. Carrick, Milk (1985).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Food and Cooking | <urn:uuid:ed9c33a5-00e9-4406-813e-161a0767301d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/society/milk-food.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00097-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953007 | 656 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Use Drawings to Teach Idioms
Idioms are figures of speech that mean something other than the literal interpretation of the words. For example, the idiom "see eye to eye" means to agree with another person. Share these examples with your child, and see how many more you can come up with together. Choose a few of your favorites and draw pictures of their literal and intended meanings. | <urn:uuid:69b9f93b-83dc-481d-aac1-8458ab7aa8b2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/tip/daily-tips/use-drawings-to-teach-idioms | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00055-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947293 | 82 | 3.8125 | 4 |
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Investigations into the life histories of horsehair worms (Nematomorpha: Gordiida)
The life cycles and life histories of species of gordiids (Nematomorpha: Gordiida) were studied through the examination of the role and fate of their cysts. This study was based on three species of common American gordiids, Gordius robustus Leidy, 1851, Paragordius varius (Leidy, 1851), and Chordodes morgani Montgomery, 1898. Non-adult characters of these species were described. Morphometric measurements as well as morphological characters can be used to distinguish between egg strings, eggs, larvae and cysts of the three species. In addition, differences were found in oviposition behaviors of adult worms. Comparative experimental examinations of paratenic host specificity revealed that the three species had identical host specificities. Gordiids were able to encyst within annelids, molluscs, crustaceans, insects, and a vertebrate. Three species of putative hosts failed to get infected with any of the three species. Internal defense reactions and feeding strategies are implicated as preventing infection in these three species. Hosts involved in the natural life cycle were identified as aquatic insects. This proposed natural life cycle was tested by studying the survival of cysts within aquatic insects. All three species were able to survive and remain viable following the metamorphosis of midges, thus providing a critical link between the free-living aquatic adult and terrestrially based hosts. Furthermore, serial cyst passage between paratenic hosts was documented. Cysts in paratenic snail hosts were used to determine the geographic distribution and commonness of gordiid species in nature. Gordiid cysts were found at 70 percent of sites examined, including 8,073 cysts from 1,000 snails. Paragordius varius was established and maintained in the laboratory. This is the first time the life cycle of a member of the phylum Nematomorpha has been completed experimentally. This work provides evidence that cysts are a critically important stage within the life cycle of gordiids and suggests that the role of the paratenic host extends beyond bridging trophic levels. Ultimately, this work provides much of the basic life cycle biology of this phylum, which has been sought for over a century. ^
Biology, Ecology|Biology, Entomology|Biology, Zoology
"Investigations into the life histories of horsehair worms (Nematomorpha: Gordiida)"
(January 1, 2002).
ETD collection for University of Nebraska - Lincoln. | <urn:uuid:c581760f-143c-4fda-9be5-94a5a05dce6b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI3064559/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00182-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956127 | 629 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Math sight words sentences are hard for some elementary aged kiddos.
One of my children excels in math, until it comes to word sentences.
He is reading, but not quite confident enough for his brain to read and solve math equations at the same time as deciphering words.
Time for a confidence booster!
I went through the math work sheets that he had most recently completed and we wrote down all the common words. I was amazed at how many of the words repeated between the questions.
See the printable that we made filled with the common math words. We printed out the words and made a set of cards to help our son gain confidence.
Mix-up the words and grab handfuls of beads or other small objects. We loved using our tan puzzle pieces.
I hope this will help him in the future.
Print your own word flash cards to help your kids learn the sight words used in many math word problems.
Check out our other resources to teach kids sight words: | <urn:uuid:8f617006-30bb-4535-9079-d659cad1b74b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/49502/math-sight-words-flashcards | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00162-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968817 | 209 | 4.0625 | 4 |
Nicandra physalodes or Shoo-Fly Plant, is a coarse, erect annual that is native to Peru. The large alternate leaves reach up to 1 foot (30 cm) long and somewhat resemble Datura leaves. Plants will reach 3 to 8 feet (1-2.5 m) in height and are about half as wide. They can become very weedy and have become a noxious weed in the tropics. All parts of the plant are poisonous and care should be taken in using in the landscape.
Blooming Time:In mid-spring, the plants are adorned with 1˝ inch (4.5 cm) solitary violet bell-shaped flowers with white centers. After successful pollination, a globose fruit forms inside the persistent calyx, resembling a tomatilla.
Culture: Nicandra physalodes need full sun to partial shade, with a well-drained soil mix. In the greenhouse, we use a soil mix consisting of 2 parts peat moss to 2 parts sand to 1 part loam. Plants are watered in the morning and allowed to dry during the day. Plants that stay too wet seem to not do as well as ones grown a little drier. The plants are fertilized monthly in the greenhouse with a balanced fertilizer diluted to ˝ the strength recommended on the label. When grown outside in zone 7 you should plant them in partial shade. The plants do not tolerate our hot afternoon heat very well and tend to wilt if grown in full sun. In the greenhouse, we let the plants die off after they flower and set seed.
Propagation: Nicandra physalodes are best propagated from seed. Seeds germinate in 7-14 days at 68-70°F (20-21°C).
Nicandra physalodes was featured as Plant of the Week December 5-11, 2003.
Guide to Past Plants-of-the-Week:
Cal's Plant of the Week was provided as a service by the University of Oklahoma Department of Microbiology & Plant Biology and specifically the late Cal Lemke, who used to be OU's botany greenhouse grower and an avid gardener at home as well. If the above links don't work, then try the overview site. You may also like to look at the thumbnail index. ©1998-2012 All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:a63b7745-902b-4b98-a4fc-6138adb7531a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week239.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397797.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00032-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949597 | 481 | 2.953125 | 3 |
MATHEMATICS, SIMULATION AND MODELLING
22 May 2012
California's Design Science has released a powerful interactive equation editor for Windows that lets the user create mathematical notation for word processing, web pages, desktop publishing, presentations, elearning and TeX, LaTeX and MathML documents.
Available from UK-based Adept Scientific, MathType 6.8 works with more than 600 applications and websites including 64-bit Microsoft Office 2010. A major new feature is the ability to paste a table from a spreadsheet, document or web page straight into MathType as a matrix.
The program's features include the ability to enter maths by hand, point-and-click editing with automatic formatting and customisable keyboard shortcuts for virtually every symbol, template and command.
MathType has long been known as the professional version of the Equation Editor in Microsoft Office, used by millions of educators, scientists and engineers to create papers and presentations with textbook-quality equations.
According to scientific and technical publishers, more than 85 per cent of submitted manuscripts containing mathematical notation are Microsoft Word documents with MathType or Equation Editor equations. | <urn:uuid:2ba9ab2b-ca72-47e9-a41a-aade012c1fca> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.scientific-computing.com/press-releases/product_details.php?product_id=1225 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397562.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00012-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.884539 | 231 | 2.671875 | 3 |
"Numero Uno" Armchair
On View: 20th-Century Decorative Arts, 4th Floor
Today when we think of where inventive contemporary design
is manufactured, we often think of Italy. This, however, was not
always the case. Wide acceptance of modern design came
somewhat later in Italy than elsewhere, perhaps because of the
ever-present conservative influence of the palpable Roman classical past and the slow development of the Italian economy
in the twentieth century. To be sure, before World War II there
were important modern designers in Italy, foremost Gio Ponti,
an architect from Milan whose influence spread beyond his
native country through two architecture and design magazines he
founded, Domus and Stile. And the Fascist regime of Mussolini in
the pre-World War II period did embrace modern architecture,
unlike the Nazi regime in Germany, which consciously rejected
modernism as a source of foreign, moral corruption. It was not,
however, until the post-World War II era, when the Italian economy
expanded rapidly, that Italian modern design achieved international recognition.
One pivotal event made consumers in the United States aware
of the diversity and accomplishments of modern Italian design—the exhibition Italy at Work, which travelled to twelve venues
between 1950 and 1954. The exhibition was initiated by the Art
Institute of Chicago in partnership with two organizations devoted to the promulgation of Italian design, Handicraft Development
Incorporated in the United States and its corresponding institution
in Italy, CADMA. Italy at Work included hundreds of objects by
more than 150 artisans and manufacturers and featured furniture,
ceramics, glass, textiles, metalwork, jewelry, shoes, knit clothing,
and industrial design. The exhibition opened at the Brooklyn
Museum, and at its conclusion, when the objects were dispersed
among the host institutions, the lion’s share, more than two hundred items, came to the Museum.
In the second half of the twentieth century, Italy became a
center for modern design. Many foreigners went there to study
and work at small, adventurous firms that produced high-quality objects.
Chromed plated steel, textile, ash, metal springs, plastic, felt, Velcro
30 5/16 x 26 3/16 x 31 7/8in. (77 x 66.5 x 81cm) (show scale)
Gift of Palazzetti Inc.
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Massimo Iosa Ghini (Italian, born 1959). "Numero Uno" Armchair, ca. 1989. Chromed plated steel, textile, ash, metal springs, plastic, felt, Velcro, 30 5/16 x 26 3/16 x 31 7/8in. (77 x 66.5 x 81cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Palazzetti Inc., 1990.4. Creative Commons-BY
overall, 1990.4_bw.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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Armchair, mirror-polished and chrome-plated tubular steel, fabric, ash wood, springs, plastic, felt and Velcro. Front legs and arms formed from a continuous tube that extends upward and outward from two flat circular disk feet, each with felt pads on underside, and then curves back where it is soldered / welded (?) to rear leg. The rear legs, with plastic glides, arc forward and then back. A metal post extends from each of the rear stiles and attaches to the rear back support which is upholstered with a foam pad that follows the contours of the wood. Narrow metal tubes form the rear stretcher, front stretcher and two side stretchers. The upholstered seat cushion floats within the frame at an angle that extends outward and upward from the rear. One continuous piece of fabric in a pattern of light and dark gray with biomorphic design is slung over the arms of lower back of chair and is attached by a system of grommets which attach to small knobs at bottom of rear legs and on arms; to the rear stretcher with a Velcro strip and to the bottom of the front legs from a small flat metal triangle to which is attached to a spring that pulls the fabric tautly across the sides of the chair.
CONDITION - Excellent. Original condition from manufacturer.
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any additional information you might have. | <urn:uuid:410cb10e-6b51-47c9-ae0a-fc0ae7317b35> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/124138/Numero_Uno_Armchair | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394987.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00081-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922331 | 1,192 | 2.84375 | 3 |
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