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READY, SET, READ! RATIONALE: In order for students to read fluently, they need to be able to read quickly, expressively, and smoothly. Once students are able to decode effortlessly, they are able to enjoy reading much more because they can focus more on the story than on decoding the words. To improve fluency, students need to have repeated direct practice with texts. This lesson is aimed at helping students read expressively, smoothly, and quickly. · Book The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch (one copy per student or pair of students) · Rubric (one per student) · Stopwatches (one per pair of students) · Board and chalk 1. Review cover-ups with students: “Who remembers what we do when we come to a word we don’t know? That’s right! We use cover-ups. Does everyone remember how we do that? Let’s review. Let’s say we have the word snatch (write the word on the board). We would cover-up everything but the a in the word like this (show the students how you cover the word). We know that a makes the /a/ sound. Alright, then we look at what comes before the vowel (uncover that part of the word) sn=/sn/. Now we blend them together to get /sn/ /a/. Now look at the end of the word (uncover the rest) tch=/ch/. Put it all together and we get /sn/ /a/ /ch/. Whenever you see a word you don’t know, use this strategy.” fluency to students: “When we read and reread a text many times, we are able to read it quickly and smoothly. Every time we read the same book, we get better at reading it. Now I will read a sentence from the story we are about to read, The Paper Bag Princess. It’s a funny story about a girl named 3. Explain cross-checking to students: “It is important for fluent readers to read fast. But it is also important that they understand what they read. Cross-checking is a great way for making sure what we read makes sense. (Write sentence on the board: The cat played with the yarn) If we read the sentence very quickly and accidentally read it ‘The can played with the yarn’ we would need to use cross-checking to see that this does not make sense. A can can’t play with yarn. We would look at the sentence again and see that can should have been cat. Ohhh…. The CAT played with the yarn!” 4. Place students in pairs: “Alright, now I am going to pair you up with another student (you should already have students paired; provide each student with a stop-watch, markers or crayons, two rubrics, and a copy of the book). First you and your partner will read the whole book together. Then I want one of you to read the book again and the other person should time the reader. The timer should start the stop-watch as soon as the reader starts reading. When you reach one minute, stop the stop watch and count how many words the reader read. Write this down on the rubric. Color up to the number of words you read with your marker or crayon. Then have the other person read and do the same thing. Each person should be timed 2 times and this should be written on the rubric. If there aren’t any questions, let’s get started!” Assessment: Ask each student to come up and do a one-minute read with you. You can ask the student questions at the end to see how well they comprehended the story. Such questions might be “who Remembered more words Read with expression Munsch, Robert. The Paper Bag Princess. Roehm, Sara. “Go Speed Racer!” http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/insp/roehmgf.html Lloyd. Teach decoding: why and how. Click here to return to Explorations

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/explor/mooregf.html

Ears are made up of three parts: - the outer ear - the middle ear - the inner ear Parts of the Ear The outer ear consists of the pinna, or auricle, and the ear canal. The pinna – the part of the ear that we see – collects and guides sound vibrations into the ear canal. It helps us determine the direction and source of sound. The middle ear begins with the ear drum at the end of the ear canal. The middle ear contains three small bones, called the ossicles, or ossicular chain. These bones are called the malleus, incus and stapes, also known as the hammer, anvil and stirrup. These bones connect the ear drum to the inner ear. The bones sit in an air filled space which is ventilated by the eustachian tube - which leads from the back of the nose and throat to the middle ear. The inner ear contains the sensory organs for hearing and balance. The cochlea is the hearing part of the inner ear. The semicircular canals in the inner ear are part of our balance system. The cochlea is a bony structure shaped like a snail and about the size of a pea. The Organ of Corti is the sensory receptor inside the cochlea, a complex structure which includes thousands of hair cells or cilia sitting in fluid. These hair cells are connected to nerves which lead to the auditory nerve. Nerve impulses are carried to a ‘relay station’ in the mid-brain and then on to other brain pathways that end in the auditory cortex (the hearing part of the brain) where the sound is interpreted. Also housed within the inner ear are the semicircular canals. These structures help control steadiness or balance. These balance organs share the space in our skull with the cochlea. References and Further Reading American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, How We Hear

http://www.ezisound.com.au/page/ears

Return to Physics Index Sandra E. Broomes Sherman 1000 W. 52nd Street Chicago IL 60609 Designed for Grades 2 & 3. To develop and experiment with flying. To understand basic principals of energy of motion. To make and fly paper Materials listed are for groups of four. pop cans (empty) Take two sheets of paper the same size. Crumple one of the papers into a ball. Hold the crumpled paper and the flat paper high above our head. Drop them both at the same time. The force of gravity pulls them both downward. Which paper falls to the ground first? What seems to keep the flat sheet from falling Draw a picture of a plane on the board. Write the word lift above the plane. We say the wings give a plane lift and makes a plane go up. Gravity below, drag behind and thrust in front. Ask the students what these words mean. These four forces are always working on paper planes as well as real airplanes. Take a balloon blow it up and let it go. This will show thrust which makes the balloon zoom across the room. The students will experiment with blowing between the two empty pop cans. We discuss the Bernoulli's Principle. Each group will make a helicopter and fly it off the 3rd floor. We will go on to make several different styles and designs of paper planes. Work in groups of four and discuss answers to the questions. Write down results on how planes were made and how long they were able to fly. Did their helicopter fly when launched? Which way did it fly? Students will have the actual paper helicopter and plane as the result of the experiment.

http://mypages.iit.edu/~smile/ph9526.html

|Eighty-eight officially defined regions of the sky, usually (especially in the northern hemisphere) based on traditional groups of stars. Traditionally, constellations simply described prominent groups of stars. For purposes of nomenclature, internationally-agreed constellation boundaries were set up in 1930. This means that every star, and indeed every point in the sky, falls within a specific constellation. Many of the constellations we know today go back to ancient times: Ptolemy listed forty-eight of them in the second century CE, and many are older still. Five hundred years before Ptolemy, for instance, a Macedonian scientist named Aratos compiled a consistent list of constellations known as the Phainomena. To the Greeks, constellations and groups of constellations held great significance, and many have origins interweaved with mythology. In one part of the sky, for example, we see Andromeda, with her mother and father Cassiopeia and Cepheus, being rescued by the hero Perseus. Other star-groups (like Corona Borealis or Crater) were said to represent items literally cast into the sky by the gods. Supreme importance, though, was reserved for the twelve zodiacal constellations. These are the constellations intersected by the ecliptic (the plane of the Solar System). This means that, seen from the Earth, the Sun, Moon and all the planets but Pluto travel through this group of constellations. Now we understand the workings of the Solar System, we can see why this should be, but it was natural for the ancients to conclude that there was something magical about the zodiacal constellations. Incidentally, gravitational effects on the Earth since ancient times mean that the ecliptic now passes through thirteen constellations (the new addition is Ophiuchus, the Serpent Holder). What's more, the planets can also sometimes briefly enter other constellations, such as Cetus or Orion. For all their inventiveness, there was one important limit on the Greek astronomers: there were many stars in the southern hemisphere that they could never see. Not until the age of discovery did Europeans see these stars, and the names of their constellations are therefore much less ancient than those of the northern sky. Compared with their ancient northern counterparts, the names of the southern constellations seem rather arbitrary and uninspired. Many are named after scientific instruments, such as the Telescope, Microscope, Reticule and Air-pump. The others seem to consist mainly of a more or less random selection of birds and fish, with the occasional curiosity such as the Chisel or the Indian. The area of the sky isn't equally distributed among the constellations: some describe huge areas, while others are minute. The largest, such as Hydra, Virgo and Ursa Major, have areas of around 1,300 square degrees, and each describe about a fiftieth of the sky. By comparison, the smallest, like tiny Crux or Equuleus the Foal, have areas of just seventy square degrees or so (about one nine hundredth of the full sky). Because 'constellations' are officially defined, some well-known star-groups can't, technically speaking, be described with that term. Groups such as the Plough (Big Dipper), the Square of Pegasus or the huge 'superconstellation' of Argo Navis are more properly referred to as asterisms - traditionally accepted groups of stars that don't have an official designation. The Electronic Sky site contains entries for all eighty-eight official constellations, and many of the better known asterisms. Visit the Constellations Index for a full list. One of the most recognisable of constellations is Leo, the Lion. The shape formed by these stars almost irresistably describes the outline of a seated lion.

http://www.glyphweb.com/esky/concepts/constellations.html

Note: This message is displayed if (1) your browser is not standards-compliant or (2) you have you disabled CSS. Read our Policies for more information. Mononucleosis (or mono) is an infection caused by the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). Most children are exposed to EBV, which is a common virus. Infants and young children who are infected usually have very mild or no symptoms at all. Teenagers and young adults who become infected are more likely develop a full-blown, classic case of mononucleosis. Mononucleosis is spread by direct contact with the saliva of an infected person. It can be spread by kissing, coughing or sneezing, or any contact with the saliva of someone infected with EBV. People with infectious mononucleosis may be able to spread infection to others for weeks. It is not normally spread through the air or through blood exposure. Adolescents and young adults are at higher risk for classic or full-blown mononucleosis than children and older adults. Persons who have contact with the saliva of an infected person are at risk for developing mono if they have not been previously exposed and infected. Typical symptoms of mononucleosis are: Other symptoms may include headache, sore muscles, abdominal pain, skin rash, loss of appetite, and night sweats. Persons with mononucleosis are usually very tired and weak for several weeks, and may have an enlarged liver or spleen. There is no specific treatment for infectious mononucleosis, other than treating the symptoms. Some practical ways to help with symptoms include: Symptoms usually go away in 2-4 weeks, but an enlarged spleen and lymph nodes can last longer. Doctors usually recommend that persons with mono avoid sports activities for at least one month because an enlarged spleen can easily rupture. There are very few prevention measures that can be used to stop the spread of mononucleosis. If you are infected, you can help reduce the spread of EBV to others by not kissing them or sharing food or drinking and eating utensils for several days after the fever has gone (and longer if possible). Good hygiene and frequent hand-washing are important factors in preventing the spread of most infectious diseases. Currently, there is no vaccine available to prevent mononucleosis. All information presented is intended for public use. For more information, please refer to the CDC Web site at: or the Mayo Clinic Website at: This page was last reviewed September 22, 2008

http://www.state.in.us/isdh/22124.htm

A number of early-twentieth-century scientists and engineers recognized the potential for radio-based detection systems. Radio direction-finding and distance-measuring experiments were conducted during World War I and in the 1920s. From these early efforts, several theoretical radar systems were proposed before World War II. Between 1934 and 1940, practical radar systems were developed independently in several countries as military instruments for detecting aircraft and ships. One of the first practical radar systems was devised in 1935 by Scottish physicist Sir Robert Watson-Watt. His success with this early system can be attributed to the fact that a number of critical technical components became available during the 1930s; it was Watson-Watt who integrated transmitters and receivers, modulators capable of generating microsecond pulses, and high-speed cathode-ray tubes to display search results. Much of this equipment was the by-product of civilian work on broadcast television. By the late 1930s, laboratories in Britain, the United States, Germany, France, Italy, and the Soviet Union had all begun radar experiments on a modest scale. Japan did not take notice until 1941 but then hurried to catch up. Thus, all of the principal belligerents in World War II entered the conflict with some radar technology. At the insistence of Air Vice Marshal Hugh Dowding, Great Britain adopted radar in the late 1930s to augment the defenses of the home islands. Before the start of the war, Great Britain began construction of the Chain Home (CH) radar network, which was enhanced in 1939 with a number of Chain Home Low (CHL) stations, capable of detecting low-flying aircraft approaching the English coast. The CH and CHL stations were the first integrated radar defense system, staffed by crews who were trained to track incoming aircraft and relay tactical information to air defense control centers and air bases. The CH/CHL system played an important role during the Battle of Britain in 1940, giving British defenders valuable advance warning of the relentless attacks launched by the German Luftwaffe. In September 1940, Britain provided the United States with examples of key radar components, including a magnetron, with the understanding that cooperation would lead to the further development of radar technology. The Americans moved quickly. The Radiation Laboratory was established in 1940 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the leadership of Lee DuBridge. Other emergency radar research programs were created in 1940 and 1941, and the close cooperation of Bell Laboratories, the Army Signal Corps, and the Naval Research Laboratory led to substantial improvements in the accuracy and range of radar equipment. High-power microwave radar systems were among the important advances made by the United States. Although Germany had the opportunity to exploit radar technology before World War II began, the indifference of the country's political leadership hindered the development of the technology. Before the war, Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring, chief of the Luftwaffe, were reportedly suspicious of radar's utility and antagonistic to the idea of adopting the technology as a defensive weapon. Later, interservice rivalries within Germany slowed the development of radar even further as resources for research and development became scarce. Germany did finally put into operation the Kammhuber Line, an interlocking system of radar, aircraft, and ground controllers that ran from the North Sea to southern France and went into full operation in September 1942. It was similar to the Chain Home system in scale and purpose, but the Allied use of long-range fighter escorts for bombers limited its value. Italy had a limited radar capability on land and at sea by the middle of 1942. It utilized its own equipment and that of Germany. The Japanese were late in developing and adopting radar technology, a fact that greatly advantaged the Allies in the Pacific Theater fighting. However, though U.S. radar identified the Japanese aircraft approaching Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the information was not utilized. Radar provided early warning of subsequent Japanese air strikes as well—for example, during the decisive Battle of Midway in June 1942, where the Japanese lost four aircraft carriers. Throughout World War II, continuous improvements to radar technology increased the accuracy of the U.S. Navy's tracking and intercept capabilities. By 1943, thanks to aggressive research and development, the Allies had a wide variety of radar systems at their disposal. The technology evolved rapidly during the war, and specialized radar units were developed for early warning, battle management, airborne search, night interception, bombing, and gun aiming. Experiments with terrain-following radar for aircraft presaged the enhanced electronic avionics developed for jets and helicopters after the war. Air defense radar systems, which came to include gun-direction devices, proximity fuses, and increasingly accurate direction-finding and ranging capabilities, had greatly enhanced the accuracy of antiaircraft fire by the end of the war. In the postwar years, as missiles replaced artillery as the backbone of air defense, radar technology improved still further, and radar systems were adapted for a number of useful purposes. As the systems became even more powerful and sensitive, radar was used in navigation, meteorology, and astronomy (the first radar emissions were reflected back from the moon in 1946). Shannon A. Brown Brown, Louis. A Radar History of World War II: Technical and Military Imperatives. Philadelphia: Institute of Physics Press, 1999.; Buderi, Robert. The Invention That Changed the World. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999.; Von Kroge, Harry. Gema: Birthplace of German Radar and Sonar. Philadelphia: Institute of Physics Press, 2000. Shannon A. Brown

http://www.historyandtheheadlines.abc-clio.com/ContentPages/ContentPage.aspx?entryId=1145950&currentSection=1130224&productid=3

Unforgettable Experiences in an Extraordinary Place |History and Archaeology of Mission San Luis||Back | Next| For thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, the people who would one day be called Indians lived throughout the North and South American continents. Many of them went through a series of changes over time – from simple groups that depended only on hunting game and gathering wild plants for food to more complex tribes that grew their own food. Some Native Americans eventually developed organized societies that rivaled those of Europe. The Apalachee Indians, who lived in the area around present-day Tallahassee, were among the most advanced and powerful of the Florida tribes that were met by early explorers. Before contact with Europeans, the Apalachee Indians planted corn (maize), beans, and squash, adding to this diet wild game, fish, wild fruits, berries, and nuts. These farmers built groups of palm-thatched huts close to agricultural fields where men, women, and children tended crops. In fact, the word Tallahassee is derived from the Muskogean language's word for "old fields." Most work was assigned by gender and custom. Women did most of the farming, gathering of food, and food preparation. Men hunted wild game, fought in wars, and assisted in building and maintaining the villages. Childrearing was shared though much of the burden fell to women. Children worked alongside the adults, learning skills needed for everyday life. Still, children had time to play – boys shot arrows from bows; girls made baskets and clay pots. Everyone played ballgames, even the women. Apalachee society was well-organized and ruled by "chiefs" (holatas) who inherited their positions and were guided by priests. Gods representing natural forces guided the Apalachee religious beliefs and worship ceremonies. The sun, moon, rain, and thunder were thought to be divine since these were needed for growing food. The Apalachee built large villages that included earthen "platform" mounds and plazas where religious and cultural ceremonies were conducted. They participated in a far-reaching trading network that brought them things made or gathered by other Native Americans beyond Apalachee Province – the metal copper is one example. An Apalachee family placed more importance on the mother's relatives than the father's kin as was usually the custom in Europe. Native clans or extended families took the names of animals – deer, bear, snake – or natural forces – wind clan, for example. When an Apalachee man married, he resided with his wife's clan. Apalachee chiefs traced their inherited positions of power through their female relatives. When a chief died, his oldest sister's oldest son inherited the position of chief. This custom granted more cultural status to Apalachee women than European women. Before their Christian conversion, chiefs might also have been the religious leaders of their people. The Apalachee chiefs governed villages and nearby fields and forests. The chief of San Luis was one of the most important in the province. Europeans described the size of San Luis as extending for miles around.

http://www.missionsanluis.org/research/history.cfm

Title: Diagram of a Dust Collector Source: Minnesota Historical Society Description: The dust collector in this diagram was designed and patented to prevent the dangerous build-up of flour dust two years before the Washburn "A" Mill explosion. These collectors gained wider use in the United States after the explosion in Minneapolis. - This machine was used for milling grain into flour. The grain would be put in the hopper at the top of the machine and ground between the two stones in the center of the drawing. Why would a machine that grinds grain need a dust collector? - The patent on this machine was given in 1876 and the Washburn A Mill exploded in 1878. What could that tell you about whether this machine was used at the time it was patented? - An engineer who came to the Falls after the explosion had actually talked to the inventor of this machine in 1876. The inventor had been unable to convince people to believe his machine was needed at that time. Why might he not have been able to convince them? Why might that have changed after the mill explosion? - How can a drawing like this help you as a researcher understand a machine or a process better than a written description of the same machine or process?

http://www.mnhs.org/school/online/communities/milestones/EXPdgm1T.htm

General Science 181 Lab #10 Radioactivity Pre-Test Questions. 1. What is the objective of this lab? 2. What apparatus is used in today’s lab? 3. Describe an alpha( a) particle, a beta (b) particle and a gamma(g) ray. (See your Textbook too.) 4. What type of materials will stop the three types of radiation? 5. Give the equation that tells us the intensity of radiation that gets through an absorber. Give SI units for each variable. 6 If 1.34 X108 gamma rays per second hit lead absorber 8 mm thick, How may gamma rays will penetrate the absorber and come out the other side. The absorption coefficient (also called the range of the particles) is 5.67 mm. 7. A piece of lead with an absorption coefficient of 5.67mm has a thickness of 25mm. If the number ofg particles hitting one side of the absorber is9.5 X 1010 particles per second, how many will get through to the other side? How thick will the absorber have to be, to cut the number of g rays that get through to 1/1000 of the number that got though in the first case? 8 What kind of curve should we get when we plot the graph of Intensity vs. Thickness of the absorber. 9. How will we find the range of the particles (Also called the Absorption coefficient) from the graph of Intensity vs. Thickness of the absorber? 10 What will be used to measure the thickness of the absorber? 6.Ix = Io e-X/Xo = 1.34 X108 (p/s) e- (8mm/5.67mm) 7.Ix = Io e-X/Xo = 9.5 X1010 (p/s) e- (25mm/5.67mm) = 9.5X 1010 p/s (0.0121) = 1155699531p/s = 1.15 X 109 p/s This is the number that gets through the 25mm piece of lead 1/1000 Ix = 1155699531p/s(0.001) = 1.15 X 106 p/s (1)ln ( Ix / Io) = ln( e -X/Xo ) Take Natural Log of both sides (2)ln ( Ix / Io) = -X/Xo (3)ln(1.15 X X 106 p/s / 9.5 X1010 p/s) = -X/5.67 mm (4)ln (1.25 X 10-5) = -X/5.67 (5) – 11.32= -X/5.67mm (6) X = (5.67mm) (11.31) = 64.17mm= 64.2mm NOTE: If questions 6 or 7 are asked on the pre-test they will not have the same values in them as in the example problems. DO NOT MEMORIZE THE ANSWERS. I expect you to know the procedure. 8. This type of curve is a decaying exponential curve. As the absorber gets thicker less and less radiation get through. Calculate what 37% of Io is. Draw a line parallel to the X-axis until it intersects with the exponential curve. Draw a line from this point of intersection until it strikes the X axis. This value is Xo

http://www.utc.edu/Faculty/Harold-Climer/radioptq.html

Photodermatitis is an abnormal skin reaction to sunlight, or more specifically to ultraviolet (UV) rays. It can be acute (sudden) or chronic (ongoing). Photodermatitis occurs when your immune system reacts to UV rays. You may develop a rash, blisters, or scaly patches. Exposure levels and reactions differ for every person. Several factors can make your skin sensitive to light UV rays, including having an inherited tendency to photosensitivity, taking certain medications, or being exposed to plants in the Apiaceal or Umbelliferae family, including weeds and edible plants, such as hogweed, cowbane, carrot, parsnip, dill, fennel, celery, and anise. Photodermatitis can have several causes, including: In reaction to UV rays, certain chemicals and drugs can cause sunburn, an eczema-like reaction, or hives. The reaction may be related to an allergy, or it may be a direct toxic effect from the substance. Below are examples of substances or circumstances that may trigger one or the other type of reaction: Direct toxic effect: Your health care provider will perform a physical exam and take a detailed history of your exposure to chemicals, drugs (see What Causes It? section), and UV rays. Your health care provider may order blood and urine tests to detect any related diseases. Allergy tests may help identify substances that may trigger or worsen the condition. These measures may help prevent photodermatitis: For blisters or weepy eruptions, apply cool, wet dressings. With certain types of photodermatitis, doctors may actually use phototherapy (controlled exposure to light for treatment purposes) to desensitize the skin or to help control symptoms. For extremely sun sensitive patients, doctors may prescribe azathioprine to suppress the immune system. Short term use of glucocorticoids may help control eruptions. For those who cannot be treated with phototherapy, doctors may prescribe hydroxychloroquine, thalidomide, beta-carotene, or nicotinamide (see Nutrition section). Note: Thalidomide causes severe birth defects and should never be used by women who are pregnant or wish to become pregnant. If you don't get enough of some nutrients, your skin can become sensitive to sunlight. Pellagra, for example, is caused by a niacin deficiency and leads to photosensitivity. Other nutrients, particularly antioxidants and flavonoids, may help protect skin against sun damage in healthy people. Antioxidants help remove free radicals, harmful byproducts that result from cells' use and generation of energy. Free radicals are linked to skin damage. Recent studies suggest that antioxidants, especially beta-carotene, may help lessen the symptoms of photodermatitis. Some supplements and herbs may be beneficial for some people but cause side effects or undesired drug interactions in others. Always tell all of your health care providers about any supplement or CAM therapy you are using or considering using. You may address nutritional deficiencies with the following supplements: Herbs are generally available as standardized, dried extracts (pills, capsules, or tablets), teas, or tinctures/liquid extracts (alcohol extraction, unless otherwise noted). Mix liquid extracts with favorite beverage. Dose for teas is 1 - 2 heaping teaspoonfuls/cup water steeped for 10 - 15 minutes (roots need longer). Herbs to avoid Some herbs can cause photodermatitis, including: Few studies have examined the effectiveness of specific homeopathic remedies. A professional homeopath, however, may recommend one or more of the following treatments for photodermatitis based on his or her knowledge and clinical experience. Before prescribing a remedy, homeopaths take into account a person's constitutional type -- your physical, emotional, and intellectual makeup. An experienced homeopath assesses all of these factors when determining the most appropriate remedy for a particular individual. Most photosensitivity reactions go away eventually and cause no permanent harm. However, symptoms can be serious when there is an underlying disease or when the exposure has been severe. Some photosensitivity reactions can continue for years after exposure ends. Complications may include: People who need steroids to treat photodermatitis must be monitored closely. In addition, anyone with a history of photodermatitis or photoreactivity should keep track of the frequency and duration of symptoms. This information can help determine appropriate treatment. Skin disorders - photodermatitis; Sunburn Adamski H, Benkalfate L, Delaval Y, et al. Photodermatitis from non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Contact Dermatitis. 1998;38(3):171-174. Afaq F, Malik A, Syed D, Maes D, Matsui M, Mukhtar H. Pomegranate fruit extract modulates UVB-mediated phosphorylation of mitogen activated protein kinases and activation of nuclear factor kappa B in normal human epidermal keratinocytes. Photochem Photobiol. 2005 Jan-Feb;81(1):38-45 American Academy of Pediatrics. Ultraviolet light: a hazard to children. Pediatrics. 1999;104(2):328-333. Auerbach: Wilderness Medicine, 5th ed. St. Louis, MO: Mosby; 2007. Blumenthal M, ed. The Complete German Commission E Monographs: Therapeutic Guide to Herbal Medicines. Boston, Mass: Integrative Medicine Communications; 1998:35-36; 214-215; 245-249. Darr D, Dunston S, Faust H, Pinnell S. Effectiveness of antioxidants (vitamin C and E) with and without sunscreens as topical photoprotectants. Acta Derm Venereol (Stockh). 1996;76(4):264-268. Eberlein-König B, Placzek M, Przybilla B. Protective effect against sunburn of combined systemic ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and d-alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E). J Am Acad Dermatol. 1998;38(1):45-48. Enta T. Dermacase. Contact photodermatitis. Can Fam Physician. 1995;41:577, 586-587. Enta T. Dermacase. Photodermatitis reaction to chlorothiazide. Can Fam Physician. 1994;40:1269, 1276. Fernandez de Corres L, Diez JM, Audicana M. Photodermatitis from plant derivatives in topical and oral medicaments. Contact Dermatitis. 1996;35(3):184-185. Freedberg IM, Eisen AZ, Wolff K. Fitzpatrick's Dermatology in General Medicine. Vol. 1. 5th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 1996:1573-1586. Fuchs J, Kern H. Modulation of UV-light-induced skin inflammation by D-alpha-tocopherol and L-ascorbic acid: a clinical study using solar simulated radiation. Free Radic Biol Med. 1998;25(9):1006-1012. Garmyn M, Ribaya-Mercado JD, Russell RM, Bhawan J, Gilchrest BA. Effect of beta-carotene supplementation on the human sunburn reaction. Exp Dermatol. 1995;4(2):104-111. Goldman L, Bennett JC. Cecil Textbook of Medicine. 21st ed. Philadelphia, Pa: W.B. Saunders; 2000:2295-2296. Hadshiew I, Stäb F, Untiedt S, Bohnsack K, Rippke F, Hölzle E. Effects of topically applied antioxidants in experimentally provoked polymorphous light eruption. Dermatology. 1997;195(4):362-368. Hanada K, Sawamura D, Nakano H, Hashimoto I. Possible role of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3-induced metallothionein in photoprotection against UVB injury in mouse skin and cultured rat keratinocytes. J Dermatol Sci. 1995;9(3):203-208. Heinrich U, Neukam K, Tronnier H, Sies H, Stahl W. Long-term ingestion of high flavanol cocoa provides photoprotection against UV-induced erythema and improves skin condition in women. J Nutr. 2006 Jun;136(6):1565-9 Kamat JP, Devasagayam TP. Methylene blue plus light-induced lipid peroxidation in rat liver microsomes: inhibition by nicotinamide (vitamin B3) and other antioxidants. Chem Biol Interact. 1996;99(1-3):1-16. Katiyar SK, Matsui MS, Elmets CA, Mukhtar H. Polyphenolic antioxidant (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate from green tea reduces UVB-induced inflammatory responses and infiltration of leukocytes in human skin. Photochem Photobiol. 1999;69(2):148-153. Katiyar SK, Afaq F, Perez A, Mukhtar H. Green tea polyphenol (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate treatment of human skin inhibits ultraviolet radiation-induced oxidative stress. Carcinogenesis. 2001 Feb;22(2):287-94. Kerr H, Lim H. Photodermatoses in African Americans: A retrospectivce analysis of 135 patients over a 7-year period. J of the Amer Acad of Derm. 2007;57(4). Leroy D, Dompmartin A, Szczurko C, Michel M, Louvet S. Photodermatitis from ketoprofen with cross-reactivity to fenofibrate and benzophenones. Photodermatol Photoimmunol Photomed. 1997;13(3):93-97. Leung AY, Foster S. Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients Used in Food, Drugs and Cosmetics. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Wiley and Sons; 1996. Murata Y, Kumano K, Ueda T, Araki N, Nakamura T, Tani M. Photosensitive dermatitis caused by pyridoxine hydrochloride. J Am Acad Dermatol. 1998;39(2 pt 2):314-317. Neumann R, Rappold E, Pohl-Markl H. Treatment of polymorphous light eruption with nicotinamide: a pilot study. Br J Dermatol. 1986;115(1):77-80. Newall CA, Anderson LA, Philpson JD. Herbal Medicines: A Guide for Health-care Professionals. London: The Pharmaceutical Press; 1996. Pigatto PD, Legori A, Bigardi AS, et al. Multicenter study of allergic contact photodermatitis: epidemiological aspects. Am J Contact Dermat. 1996;7(3):158-163. Quinones D, Sanchez I, Alonso S, et al. Photodermatitis from tetrazepam. Contact Dermatitis. 1998;39(2):84. Rhodes LE, Durham BH, Fraser WD, Friedmann PS. Dietary fish oil reduces basal and ultraviolet B-generated PGE2 levels in skin and increases the threshold to provocation of polymorphic light eruption. J Invest Dermatol. 1995;105(4):532-535. Rhodes LE, White SI. Dietary fish oil as a photoprotective agent in hydroa vacciniforme. Br J Dermatol. 1998;138(1):173-178. Ross JB, Moss MA. Relief of the photosensitivity of erythropoietic protoporphyria by pyridoxine. J Am Acad Dermatol. 1990;22(2 pt 2):340-342. Sasseville D. Clinical Patterns of Phytodermatitis. Dermatologic Clinics. 2009;27(3). Scholzen TE, Brzoska T, Kalden DH, et al. Effect of ultraviolet light on the release of neuropeptides and neuroendocrine hormones in the skin: mediators of photodermatitis and cutaneous inflammation. J Invest Dermatol Symp Proc. 1999;4(1):55-60. Stahl W, Heinrich U, Jungmann H, Sies H, Tronnier H. Carotenoids and carotenoids plus vitamin E protect against ultraviolet light-induced erythema in humans. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000;71(3):795-798. Tierney LM, McPhee SJ, Papadakis MA. Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment 2000. New York, NY: Lange Medical Books/McGraw-Hill; 2000:177-178. © 2011 University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC). All rights reserved. UMMC is a member of the University of Maryland Medical System, 22 S. Greene Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. TDD: 1-800-735-2258 or 1.866.408.6885

http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/photodermatitis-000155.htm

(An interactive version of this document is available in the "Related Links" section of this release.) When Galileo used his homemade telescope 400 years ago to view mountains on the Moon, satellites circling Jupiter, and myriad stars in our Milky Way Galaxy, he launched a revolution that changed our view of an Earth-centered universe. The launch of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope aboard the space shuttle Discovery 15 years ago initiated another revolution in astronomy. For the first time, a large telescope that sees in visible light began orbiting above Earth's distorting atmosphere, which blurs starlight and makes images appear fuzzy. Astronomers anticipated great discoveries from Hubble. The telescope has delivered as promised and continues serving up new discoveries. Astronomers and astrophysicists using Hubble data have published more than 4,000 scientific papers, on topics from the solar system to the very distant universe. The following list highlights some of Hubble's greatest achievements. Shining a Light on Dark Matter Three-Dimensional Distribution of Dark Matter in the Universe. STScI-2007-01 Astronomers used Hubble to make the first three-dimensional map of dark matter, which is considered the construction scaffolding of the universe. Dark matter's invisible gravity allows normal matter in the form of gas and dust to collect and build up into stars and galaxies. The Hubble telescope played a starring role in helping to shed light on dark matter, which is much more abundant than normal matter. Although astronomers cannot see dark matter, they can detect it in galaxy clusters by observing how its gravity bends the light of more distant background galaxies, a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. Astronomers constructed the map by using Hubble to measure the shapes of half a million faraway galaxies. The new map provides the best evidence to date that normal matter, largely in the form of galaxies, accumulates along the densest concentrations of dark matter. The map, which stretches halfway back to the beginning of the universe, reveals a loose network of filaments that grew over time and intersect in massive structures at the locations of galaxy clusters. Astronomers also used gravitational lensing in a previous study to make the first direct detection for the existence of dark matter. Hubble teamed up with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, and the Magellan optical telescopes to make the discovery. Astronomers found that dark matter and normal matter were pulled apart by the tremendous collision of two large clusters of galaxies, called the Bullet Cluster. A Speedy Universe History of the Universe: A Cosmic Tug of War. STScI-2006-52 By witnessing bursts of light from faraway exploding stars, Hubble helped astronomers discover dark energy. This mysterious, invisible energy exerts a repulsive force that pervades our universe. Several years later, Hubble provided evidence that dark energy has been engaged in a tug of war with gravity for billions of years. Dark energy, which works in opposition to gravity, shoves galaxies away from each other at ever-increasing speeds, making the universe expand at an ever-faster pace. But dark energy wasn't always in the driver's seat. By studying distant supernovae, Hubble traced dark energy all the way back to 9 billion years ago, when the universe was less than half its present size. During that epoch, dark energy was struggling with gravity for control of the cosmos, obstructing the gravitational pull of the universe's matter even before it began to win the cosmic tug of war. Dark energy finally won the struggle with gravity about 5 billion years ago. By knowing more about how dark energy behaves over time, astronomers hope to gain a better understanding of what it is. Astronomers still understand almost nothing about dark energy, even though it appears to comprise about 70 percent of the universe's energy. Galaxies from the Ground Up The telescope snapped images of galaxies in the faraway universe in a series of unique observations: the Hubble Deep Fields, the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, and as part of an armada of observatories in the All-wavelength Extended Groth Strip International Survey. Some of the galaxies existed when the cosmos was only 700 million years old. The observations provided the deepest views of the cosmos in visible, ultraviolet, and near-infrared light. In the most recent foray into the universe's farthest regions, Hubble uncovered a rich tapestry of at least 50,000 galaxies. The galaxies unveiled by Hubble are smaller than today's giant galaxies, reinforcing the idea that large galaxies built up over time as smaller galaxies collided and merged. Many of the galaxies are ablaze with star birth. By studying galaxies at different epochs, astronomers can see how galaxies change over time. The process is analogous to a very large scrapbook of pictures documenting the lives of children from infancy to adulthood. The deep views also revealed that the early universe was a fertile breeding ground for stars. Observations showed that the universe made a significant portion of its stars in a torrential firestorm of star birth that abruptly lit up the pitch-dark heavens just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. Though stars continue to be born today in galaxies, the star-birth rate is about half the rate of the opulent early years. Planets, Planets Everywhere Artist's Impression of a Transiting Exoplanet. STScI-2006-34 Peering into the crowded bulge of our Milky Way Galaxy, Hubble looked farther than ever before to nab a group of planet candidates outside our solar system. Astronomers used Hubble to conduct a census of Jupiter-sized extrasolar planets residing in the bulge of our Milky Way Galaxy. Looking at a narrow slice of sky, the telescope nabbed 16 potential alien worlds orbiting a variety of stars. Astronomers have estimated that about 5 percent of stars in the galaxy may have Jupiter-sized, star-hugging planets. So this discovery means there are probably billions of such planets in our Milky Way. Five of the newly found planet candidates represent a new extreme type of planet. Dubbed Ultra-Short-Period Planets, these worlds whirl around their stars in less than an Earth day. Astronomers made the discoveries by measuring the slight dimming of a star as a planet passed in front of it, an event called a transit. The telescope also made the first direct measurements of the chemical composition of an extrasolar planet's atmosphere, detecting sodium, oxygen, and carbon in the atmosphere of the Jupiter-sized planet HD209458b. Hubble also found that the planet's outer hydrogen-rich atmosphere is heated so much by its star that it is evaporating into space. The planet circles its star in a tight 3.5-day orbit. These unique observations demonstrate that Hubble and other telescopes can sample the chemical makeup of the atmospheres of alien worlds. Astronomers could use the same technique someday to determine whether life exists on extrasolar planets. Besides testing the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet, Hubble also made precise measurements of the masses of two distant worlds. Monster Black Holes Are Everywhere A Gallery of "Tadpole Galaxies." STScI-2006-04 Hubble probed the dense, central regions of galaxies and provided decisive evidence that supermassive black holes reside in many of them. Giant black holes are compact "monsters" weighing millions to billions the mass of our Sun. They have so much gravity that they gobble up any material that ventures near them. These elusive "eating machines" cannot be observed directly, because nothing, not even light, escapes their grasp. But the telescope provided indirect, yet compelling, evidence of their existence. Hubble helped astronomers determine the masses of several black holes by measuring the velocities of material whirling around them. The telescope's census of many galaxies showed an intimate relationship between galaxies and their resident black holes. The survey revealed that a black hole's mass is dependent on the weight of its host galaxy's bulge, a spherical region consisting of stars in a galaxy's central region. Large galaxies, for example, have massive black holes; less massive galaxies have smaller black holes. This close relationship may be evidence that black holes co-evolved with their galaxies, feasting on a measured diet of gas and stars residing in the hearts of those galaxies. The Biggest "Bangs" Since the Big Bang Four Gamma-Ray Burst Host Galaxies. STScI-2006-20 Imagine a powerful burst of light and other radiation that can burn away the ozone in Earth's atmosphere. Luckily, flashes of such strong radiation occur so far away they will not scorch our planet. These brilliant flashbulbs are called gamma-ray bursts. They may represent the most powerful explosions in the universe since the Big Bang. Hubble images showed that these brief flashes of radiation arise from far-flung galaxies, which are forming stars at enormously high rates. Hubble's observations confirmed that the bursts of light originated from the collapse of massive stars. Astronomers using Hubble also found that a certain type of extremely energetic gamma-ray bursts are more likely to occur in galaxies with fewer heavy elements, such as carbon and oxygen. The Milky Way Galaxy, which is rich in heavy elements released by many generations of stars, is therefore an unlikely place for them to pop off. Planet Construction Zones Artist's Concept of Nearest Exoplanet to our Solar System. STScI-2006-32 Astronomers used Hubble to confirm that planets form in dust disks around stars. The telescope showed that a previously detected planet around the nearby star Epsilon Eridani is orbiting at a 30-degree angle to our line of sight, the same inclination as the star's dust disk. Although astronomers had long inferred that planets form in such disks, this is the first time the two objects have been observed around the same star. Some stars have more than one dust disk. Hubble images of the nearby star Beta Pictoris revealed two such disks. The observation confirmed a decade of speculation that a warp in the young star's dust disk may actually be a second disk inclined to the star. The best explanation for the second disk is that an unseen planet, up to 20 times Jupiter's mass, is orbiting it and using gravity to sweep up material from the primary disk. The telescope also witnessed the early stages of planet formation when it observed a blizzard of particles around a star. The fluffy particles are evidence of planet formation because they were probably shed by much larger, unseen, snowball-sized objects that had collided with each other. Going Out in a Blaze of Glory A String of "Cosmic Pearls" Surrounds an Exploding Star. STScI-2007-10 A Sun-like star ends its life in a blaze of glory, much as trees display colorful foliage in autumn before the barrenness of winter. Sun-like stars die gracefully by ejecting their outer gaseous layers into space. Eventually, the outer layers begin to glow in vibrant colors of red, blue, and green. The colorful glowing shroud is called a planetary nebula. Hubble revealed unprecedented details of the death of Sun-like stars. Ground-based images suggested that many of these objects had simple spherical shapes. Hubble showed, however, that their shapes are more complex. Some look like pinwheels, others like butterflies, and still others like hourglasses. Turning its vision to the tattered remains of a massive star's explosive death, Hubble helped astronomers rewrite the textbooks on exploding stars. The telescope's observations of Supernova 1987A showed that the real world is more complicated and interesting than anyone could imagine. Hubble began observing the supernova shortly after the telescope was launched in 1990. Among Hubble's findings were three mysterious rings of material encircling the doomed star. The telescope also spied brightened spots on the middle ring's inner region, caused by an expanding wave of material from the explosion slamming into it. How Old is the Universe? Closeup of Ancient, White-Dwarf Stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. STScI-2002-10 Hubble observations allowed astronomers to calculate a precise age for the universe using two independent methods. The findings reduced the uncertainty to 10 percent. The first method relied on determining the expansion rate of the universe, a value called the Hubble constant. In May 1999 a team of astronomers obtained a value for the Hubble constant by measuring the distances to nearly two dozen galaxies, some as far as 65 million light-years from Earth. By obtaining a value for the Hubble constant, the team then determined that the universe is about 13 billion years old. In the second method astronomers calculated a lower limit for the universe's age by measuring the light from old, dim, burned-out stars, called white dwarfs. The ancient white dwarf stars, as seen by Hubble, are at least 12 to 13 billion years old. Quasars, the Light Fantastic Looking "Underneath" Quasar HE0450-2958. STScI-2005-13 Quasars have been so elusive and mysterious that the hunt to define them would have taxed even the superior analytical skills of detective Sherlock Holmes. Since their discovery in 1963, astronomers have been trying to crack the mystery of how these compact dynamos of light and other radiation, which lie at the outer reaches of the universe, produce so much energy. Quasars are no larger than our solar system but outshine galaxies of hundreds of billions of stars. These light beacons have left trails of evidence and plenty of clues, but scientists have only just begun to understand their behavior. Astronomers using Hubble tracked down the "homes" of quasars to the centers of faraway galaxies. Hubble's observations bolstered the idea that quasars are powered by a gush of radiation unleashed by black holes in the cores of these galaxies. A Shattered Comet Rocks Jupiter Photo Illustration of Comet P /Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Planet Jupiter. STScI-1994-26 Imagine setting off every atomic bomb on Earth all at once. Now imagine repeating such an apocalyptic explosion two dozen times in a week! Unleashing such energy would destroy Earth's surface, but the giant planet Jupiter hardly flinched when it underwent such a catastrophe in 1994. Hubble provided a ringside seat to a once-in-a-millennium event when two dozen chunks of a comet smashed into Jupiter. The telescope snapped dramatic images of massive explosions that sent towering mushroom-shaped fireballs of hot gas into the Jovian sky. The doomed comet, called Shoemaker-Levy 9, had been pulled apart two years earlier by Jupiter's gravity. Each impact left temporary black, sooty scars in Jupiter's planetary clouds. Pluto and Beyond The telescope spied two new moons orbiting Pluto. Named Nix and Hydra, the moons have the same color as Charon, Pluto's only other known moon. The moons' common color further reinforces the idea that all three moons were born from a single titanic collision between Pluto and another similarly sized Kuiper Belt object billions of years ago. Hubble also searched the solar system's last frontier, a region called the Kuiper Belt, to view the frozen bodies residing there. The Kuiper Belt contains the relics from the early solar system, and may offer clues to the origin and evolution of our Sun and planets. With Hubble's help, astronomers discovered that an object named Eris is only slightly larger than Pluto. The diameter of Eris is 1,490 miles. By comparison, Pluto's diameter, as measured by Hubble, is 1,422 miles. Studying the solar system's farthest known object, unofficially named Sedna, Hubble provided surprising evidence that the frozen body does not appear to have a companion moon of any substantial size. Turning its gaze closer to Earth, Hubble found that Ceres, the largest known asteroid, may be a "mini planet," sharing many characteristics of rocky, terrestrial planets like Earth. Ceres' mantle, which wraps around the asteroid's core, may even be composed of water ice. Ceres resides in the asteroid belt, a region between Mars and Jupiter. In its 17 years of exploring the heavens, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has made nearly 800,000 observations and snapped nearly 500,000 images of more than 25,000 celestial objects. Hubble does not travel to stars, planets and galaxies. It takes pictures of them as it whirls around Earth at 17,500 miles an hour. In its 17-year lifetime, the telescope has made nearly 100,000 trips around our planet. Those trips have racked up plenty of frequent-flier-miles, about 2.4 billion, which is the equivalent of a round trip to Saturn. The 17 years' worth of observations has produced more than 30 terabytes of data, equal to about 25 percent of the information stored in the Library of Congress. Each day the orbiting observatory generates about 10 gigabytes of data, enough information to fill the hard drive of a typical home computer in two weeks. The Hubble archive sends about 66 gigabytes of data each day to astronomers throughout the world. Astronomers using Hubble data have published nearly 7,000 scientific papers, making it one of the most productive scientific instruments ever built.

http://www.hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2007/16/background/

Scientists have known for almost five years now that the moon is watery--or at least that lots of water molecules are trapped in its crust and its permanently dark, frozen craters. The prevailing theory is that this water comes from molecules in the solar system. But maybe the moon has had water all along, according to a new study of Apollo moon rocks. Hejiu Hui of Notre Dame, Youxue Zhang of the University of Michigan and their colleagues studied several rocks from the lunar highlands, recovered during the late Apollo missions. One rock was nicknamed the “genesis rock” after Apollo 15 astronauts recovered it on a crater rim. The rock was thought to have come from the moon’s primordial crust. The researchers used infrared spectroscopy to peer inside the rocks without disturbing them, and were able to analyze the rocks’ water content. It’s not really water, per se, but the related chemical known as hydroxyl, which contains one atom each of oxygen and hydrogen. Recent missions have found a whole lot of this on the moon. In the fall of 2009, the Lunar Crater Observating and Sensing Satellite, LCROSS, slammed into a permanently dark crater and found rich deposits of water ice. Around the same time, instruments on India’s Chandrayaan-1 probe found evidence of water molecules in the moon’s soil. And since then, follow-up observations have yielded plenty of other water evidence. These vast quantities of water have mostly been explained by micrometeoroid bombardment, or even free molecules deposited by the solar wind. But Hui and Zhang say otherwise. The hydroxyl content of the rocks they examined suggests the lunar interior contained a whole lot of water when the moon was still young and molten, before the crust solidified. That poses a bit of a problem, however. Most moon-formation theories hold that a Mars-sized object whacked the Earth and sheared off a giant hunk of rock that became our moon. Recent computer simulations show how this could have happened. But if it really did, all the water on that chunk would have instantly vaporized as the rock superheated. So why is it still there? “Because these are some of the oldest rocks from the moon, the water is inferred to have been in the moon when it formed,” Zhang said in a statement. So maybe the moon didn’t form that way after all, or maybe this inference is incorrect somehow. More work now needs to be done to figure this out. The paper appears in Nature Geoscience.

http://www.today.az/news/interesting/119370.html

Light we can see (visible) is produced when electrons change orbits within atoms or molecules. Outside the range of human vision and to the far side of violet lies radiation with higher energies and shorter wavelengths than visible light. This "ultraviolet" radiation (called "black light" because it can't be seen) results from energy changes in the orbiting electrons in atoms that make up very hot substances. X-rays are produced when tightly-bound electrons, close to the nucleus, change orbits due to violent collisions or other energetic processes, but they can also be generated when electrons slow down very fast. Gamma rays result from high energy processes that affect the atomic nucleus itself such as nuclear fusion. Moving beyond red light brings us to lower energies and longer wavelengths than visible light. "Infrared" radiation (called heat radiation - remember the bed?) results from changes in the loosely-bound electrons far from the atomic nucleus and from changes in the motions of molecules. The atoms and molecules of objects at normal temperatures on Earth emit radiation in this range. Atoms and molecules that make up matter are constantly in motion, changing their energy states and emitting radiation. The amount and frequency of radiation decreases until the temperature of the object reaches "absolute zero", when theory predicts all of these movements stop. Very cool objects emit part of their radiation at microwave or radio frequencies. As the temperature increases, the amount and frequency of radiation increases. Very hot objects emit part of their radiation in the X-ray, UV or visible range.

http://www.windows2universe.org/cool_stuff/Exploratour_1n.html&edu=high

New technologies that allow scientists to trace the fine wiring of the brain more accurately than ever before could soon generate a complete wiring diagram–including every tiny fiber and miniscule connection–of a piece of brain. Dubbed connectomics, these maps could uncover how neural networks perform their precise functions in the brain, and they could shed light on disorders thought to originate from faulty wiring, such as autism and schizophrenia. “The brain is essentially a computer that wires itself up during development and can rewire itself,” says Sebastian Seung, a computational neuroscientist at MIT. “If we have a wiring diagram of the brain, that could help us understand how it works.” For example, scientists previously identified the part of the songbird’s brain that is important in the birds’ ability to generate songs. Seung would ultimately like to develop a wiring diagram of this structure in order to elucidate the features underlying its unique capability. Only one organism’s wiring diagram currently exists: that of the microscopic worm C. elegans. Despite containing a mere 302 neurons, the C. elegans mapping effort took more than a decade to complete, in the 1970s. It has been an invaluable research resource and earned its creators a Nobel Prize. With an estimated 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses in the human brain, creating an all-encompassing map of even a small chunk is a daunting task. Using standard methods, it would take roughly three billion person years to generate the wiring diagram of a single cortical column, a narrow functional unit of neurons in the cortex, estimates Winfried Denk, a neuroscientist at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany. Denk, Seung, and their collaborators are now developing sensitive new imaging techniques and machine-learning algorithms to automate the construction process. They have already generated a partial wiring diagram of part of the rabbit retina. But they’ll need to make their technique a million times faster to finally bring larger maps–like that of a cortical column–into the realm of reality. Previous efforts to map the wiring of the brain have focused on larger anatomical features, such as the thick wiring tracts that connect different parts of the brain, or on the paths of single neurons, stained a particular color to distinguish them from their tangled multitude of neighbors. But to truly understand how a network of neurons can perform a particular function, scientists need a new kind of map. “A lot of properties of brain function are at the level of the circuit–information is being integrated, processed, extracted,” says Elly Nedivi, a neuroscientist at MIT who is not involved with the research. “To understand what that means, you need to be able to see who connects to who.” Denk and his colleagues developed a new technique to make more fine-scaled wiring maps using electron microscopy. Starting with a small block of brain tissue, the researchers bounce electrons off the top of the block to generate a cross-sectional picture of the nerve fibers in that slice. They then take a very thin–30-nanometer–slice off the top of the block and repeat the process. Scientists go through the images slice by slice to trace the path of each nerve fiber. “Repeat this [process] thousands of times, and you can make your way through maybe the whole fly brain,” says Denk.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/409070/a-wiring-diagram-of-the-brain/?mod=related

Firefighter Safety Report: Truss System Failures NIOSH | John Howard M.D. What is a Truss? A truss can be defined as structural members (such as boards, timbers, beams, or steel bars) joined together in a rigid framework. They are most often in the shape of a triangle or series of triangles. Some trusses are rectangular. Trusses can be built of wood, steel, wood and steel, or aluminum. Concrete trusses are not common but do exist, usually in very large structures (see Appendices B and C for descriptions of different truss types). The truss framework is usually arranged in a single plane so that loads applied at points of intersecting members will cause only direct stress (compression or tension). Three-dimensional trusses (space frames) are very light in weight. The design of a truss, which separates compressive and tensile stresses, allows for a minimum of materials to be used, resulting in economic benefit. The top and bottom members of a truss are called chords. The top chord of a truss is in compression, and the bottom chord is in tension. The inner members are called webs and give stability to the truss system. The unique characteristic of a truss is the inherent stability of the triangle. Web and chord members arranged in a triangle are much more stable than the same members arranged in a square. The square configuration requires diagonal bracing, which then produces multiple triangles. Although many types of trusses exist, three typical truss construction methods are most commonly used: • Heavy timber roof and floor truss systems • Lightweight wooden roof and floor truss systems • Steel roof and floor truss systems Each of these construction methods is described in detail in Appendices C and D, along with causes of failure for each under fire conditions.

http://firelink.monster.com/training/articles/3094-firefighter-safety-report-truss-system-failures?page=2

When ice is heated, it melts. When a thermoplastic object is heated, it melts as well. The melted ice can be formed into a new shape, and it will keep that shape when it's cooled. Similarly, a melted thermoplastic object can be formed into a different shape, and it will keep that new shape when it's cooled. Thermoplastics have long, linear polymer chains that are only weakly chemically bonded, or connected, to each other. When a thermoplastic object is heated, these bonds are easily broken, which makes the polymers able to glide past each other like strands of freshly cooked spaghetti. That's why thermoplastics can readily be remolded. The weak bonds between the polymers reform when the plastic object is cooled, which enable it to keep its new shape. The most common method for making plastics is molding. To make a thermoplastic object, plastic granules known as resin are forced into a mold under high heat and pressure. When the material has cooled down, the mold is opened and the plastic object is complete. When making plastic fibers, the molten resin is sprayed through a strainer with tiny holes. There is a huge range of uses including plastic wrap, food containers, lighting panels, garden hoses, and the constantly encountered plastic bag. Thermoplastics are easy to recycle since they can be melted and reshaped into other products. For example, a plastic bottle that contained a soft drink could be reformed into the fibres of a fleece jacket.

http://cltad.arts.ac.uk/groups/camberwellmateriallibrary/revisions/12ed4/20/

The moon may have possessed a magnetic field for much longer than previously thought, one that was also much stronger than scientists had predicted, a new study finds. Earth's magnetic field is created by its dynamo, its roiling molten metal core. Scientists have long suspected that the moon once had a dynamo as well, since evidence of magnetism was found in rocks brought back from the moon by Apollo astronauts. But, meteoroids colliding with the moon could have created plasma, which could in turn have generated magnetic fields. To see if a dynamo or meteoroids might be responsible for magnetism on the moon, researchers wanted to examine rocks that had not been influenced by cosmic impacts. Now an analysis of lunar volcanic rock returned from the Apollo 11 mission suggests the moon did indeed possess a powerful dynamo in its core 3.7 billion years ago. "The findings in general were a big surprise," said study lead author Erin Shea, a geologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "When we selected this sample, we had an idea that it'd have a good magnetic record, but we didn't have an idea how good it would be." These findings, combined with previous analyses of different 4.2-billion-year-old lunar rocks, suggest the lunar dynamo existed for at least a half-billion years. [ Infographic: Inside Earth's Moon ] "The implications are amazing and interesting," Shea told SPACE.com. "If the moon had a dynamo that lived a long time, why not an asteroid like Vesta or a smaller asteroid?" It remains unclear, however, what might have powered this ancient lunar magnetic field, the researchers added. Scientists had thought that any lunar dynamo that might have once existed was generated much the same way as it is on Earth — by the cooling of its interior, which would caused the moon's core to churn as molten metal cooled and sank. However, if the lunar dynamo lasted at least 500 million years, as the current findings suggest, researchers now have to find alternative power sources to explain such a long-lived effect — perhaps impacts from large asteroids, or shifts in the moon's axis of spin. "If the moon's dynamo had the same power source as Earth, it would have died off a really long time ago," Shea said. "Now we want to see how long it did last, by looking at lunar samples from existing collections and, hopefully, fingers crossed, by going back to the moon. We'd want to see if the moon had a steady-state dynamo, one that lasted the entirety of the 500 million years, or if it maybe started up and then turned off and then turned on again." The scientists detailed their findings in the Jan. 27 issue of the journal Science. - Latest Moon Photos from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter - Does the Moon Have a Strange Ionosphere? - 10 Coolest New Moon Discoveries © 2013 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/46156573/ns/technology_and_science-space/

Whether you are a classroom or preservice teacher, teacher educator, content leader, department chair, or administrator, the materials below can assist you in implementing the practices presented in the video clip. Assessment and Evaluation: Some Useful Principles The terms assessment and evaluation are often used as synonyms. Distinguishing between them can be helpful as you plan instruction. Assessment means looking at what students can do in order to determine what they need to learn to do next. That is, assessment, whether of individual students or an entire group, is done in order to inform instruction. Typically assessment is holistic, often recorded simply as "credit" or Evaluation occurs after a concept or skill has been taught and practiced and is typically scaled, indicating the level of achievement or degree of competence a student has attained. Mini-Lesson Planning Tips For suggested mini-lesson topics, see Suggested Mini-Lessons for Literature Instruction. - A mini-lesson can be short or might take up 15 to 20 minutes of class time. - Typically, mini-lessons are singular topics of whole-class instruction, meant to give students a brief overview of a concept, explore the author's craft, ponder a question, or hone a skill. Often the mini-lesson provides a segue into the application of new learning. - Mini-lessons can also be student-directed, in which students are given a guide, following the teacher's predetermined path of learning. Here, students are asked to define concepts and synthesize the information. Then students apply the information in a meaningful way. - Students should be given many opportunities to apply the new learning beyond their initial introduction. - Consider asking students to construct and present a mini-lesson to their classmates in which they demonstrate an approach to literature that they have found successful. As you plan literature experiences for your students, consider offering text pairings. Some teachers like to introduce students to a number of books by the same author. Others try to find books with similarities in theme or content. Books that have received awards and appear to be developing into contemporary classics are also favored choices. No list of suggestions can be complete or can address every criterion. However, the following list of texts may help you choose titles to complement the ones used in this lesson plan: Speak by Halse Anderson Tangerine by Edward Bloor Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos My Louisiana Sky by Kimberly Willis Holt Silent to the Bone by E. L. Konigsburg Mine for Keeps by Jean Little Lovey, a Very Special Child by Mary MacCracken Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick The Man Who Loved Clowns by June Rae Wood

http://www.learner.org/libraries/engagingliterature/discussion/tools.html

Eukaryotic Organelles: The Cell Nucleus, Mitochondria, and Peroxisomes We will now begin our discussion of intracellular organelles. As we have mentioned, only eukaryotic cells have intracellular sub-divisions, so our discussion will exclude prokaryotic cells. We will also focus on animal cells, since plant cells have a number of further specialized structures. In this section we will discuss the importance of the cell nucleus, mitochondria, peroxisomes, endoplasmic reticulum, golgi apparatus, and lysosome. The Cell Nucleus The cell nucleus is one of the largest organelles found in cells and also plays an important biological role. It composes about 10% of the total volume of the cell and is found near the center of eukaryotic cells. Its importance lies in its function as a storage site for DNA, our genetic material. The cell nucleus is composed of two membranes that form a porous nuclear envelope, which allows only select molecules in and out of the cell. The DNA that is found in the cell nucleus is packaged into structures called chromosomes. Chromosomes contain DNA and proteins and carry all the genetic information of an organism. The nucleus gains support from intermediate filaments that both form the surrounding nuclear lamina and makes direct contact with the endoplasmic reticulum. The nucleus is also the site of DNA and RNA synthesis. The mitochondria, with its specialized double-membrane structure, generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a molecule that provides organisms with energy. Peroxisomes are single-membrane structures found in all eukaryotic cells. They are small, membrane-bound structures that use molecular oxygen to oxidize organic molecules. The structure is one of the major oxygen utilizing organelles, the other being the mitochondria. Peroxisomes contain oxidative enzymes and other enzymes that help produce and degrade hydrogen peroxide. Because of their varying enzymatic compositions, peroxisomes are diverse structures. Their main function is to help breakdown fatty acids. They perform specific functions in plant cells, which we will discuss later. The Endoplasmic Reticulum The endoplasmic reticulum, or ER, is a very important cellular structure because of its function in protein synthesis and lipid synthesis. For example, the ER is the site of production of all transmembrane proteins. Since nearly all proteins that are secreted from a cell pass through it, the ER is also important in cellular trafficking. In addition to these major roles, the ER plays a role in a number of other biological processes. There are two different types of ER: smooth ER and rough ER (RER). The rough ER has its name because it is coated with ribosomes, the structures most directly responsible for carrying out protein synthesis. Smooth ER lacks these ribosomes and is more abundant in cells that are specific for lipid synthesis and metabolism. In addtion to protein and lipid synthesis, the ER also conducts post-synthesis modifications. One such modification involves the addition of carbohydrate chains to the proteins, though the function of this addition is unknown. Another major modification is called protein folding, whose name is rather self- explanatory. Another role of the ER is to capture calcium for the cell from the cytosol. Finally, the ER can secrete proteins into the cell that are usually destined for the golgi apparatus. The Golgi Apparatus The golgi apparatus is usually located near the cell nucleus. It is composed of a series of layers called golgi stacks. Proteins from the ER always enter and exit the golgi apparatus from the same location. The cis face of the golgi is where proteins enter. A protein will make its way through the golgi stacks to the other end called the trans face where it is secreted to other parts of the cell. In the golgi apparatus, more carbohydrate chains are added to the protein while other chains are removed. The golgi stacks also sort proteins for secretion. After sorting, the membrane of the golgi buds off, forming secretory vesicles that transport proteins to their specific destination in the cell. A protein's destination is often signaled with a specific amino acid sequence at its end. A protein secretion most often travels back to the ER, to the plasma membrane where it can become a transmembrane protein, or to the next structure we will discuss, the lysosomes. Lysosomes are sites of molecular degradation found in all eukaryotic cells. They are small, single-membrane packages of acidic enzymes that digest molecules and are found throughout eukaryotic cells. As such, Lysosomes are a sort of cellular "garbage can," getting rid of cellular debris. Proteins that are not correctly folded or have significant mutations can be secreted to the lysosomes and be degraded instead of taking up space in the cell. Detritus proteins and other molecules can find their way to the lysosome in a variey of ways. Molecules from outside a cell can be taken in through a process called endocytosis. In this process, the cell membrane invaginates, forming a vesicle containing the transported molecule that will eventually reach a lysosome. The reverse of endocytosis is exocytosis. In this process, molecules within a cell are secreted into an endosome, a membrane-bound structure that delivers the molecule to the lysosome. After reaching the lysosomes, the molecules are secreted from a cell in membrane vesicles. Proteins secreted by the golgi apparatus into the plasma membrane can also be taken back to the lysosome by endosomes.

http://www.sparknotes.com/biology/cellstructure/intracellularcomponents/section2.rhtml

One of the ways African American communities fought legal segregation was through direct action protests, such as boycotts, sit-ins, and mass civil disobedience. The tactic of non-violence civil disobedience in the Civil Rights Movement was deeply influenced by the model of Mohandas Gandhi, an Indian lawyer who became a spiritual leader and led a successful nonviolent resistance movement against British colonial power in India. Gandhi's approach of non-violent civil disobedience involved provoking authorities by breaking the law peacefully, to force those in power to acknowledge existing injustice and bring it to an end. For its followers, this strategy involved a willingness to suffer and sacrifice oneself. In 1960, black college students used non-violent civil disobedience to fight against segregation in restaurants and other public places. On February 1, four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, North Carolina, sat down at the whites-only lunch counter in Woolworth's and politely ordered some food. As expected, they were refused service, but they remained sitting at the counter until the store closed. The next day, they were joined by more than two dozen supporters. On day three, 63 of the 66 lunch counter seats were filled by students. By the end of the week, hundreds of black students and a few white supporters filled the lunch counters at Woolworth's and another store down the street. The sit-ins attracted national attention, and city officials tried to end the confrontation by negotiating an end to the protests. But white community leaders were unwilling to change the segregation laws, so in April, students began the sit-ins again. After the mass arrest of student protestors on the charge of trespassing, the African American community organized a boycott of targeted stores. When the merchants felt the economic impact of the boycott, they relented, and on July 25, 1960, African Americans were served their first meal at Woolworth's. The success of the Greensboro sit-ins led to a wave of similar protests across the South. More than 70,000 people – mostly black students, joined by some white allies – participated in sit-ins over the next year and a half, with more than 3,000 arrested for their actions. Like the sit-ins, the Freedom Rides of 1961 were designed to provoke arrests, though in this case to prompt the Justice Department to enforce already existing laws banning segregation in interstate travel and terminal accommodations. These were not the first Freedom Rides. In 1947, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), an organization devoted to interracial, nonviolent direct action led by the African American pacifist Bayard Rustin, co-sponsored a bus ride through the South with the Christian pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation, to test compliance with 1946 Morgan v. Virginia decision that prohibited segregation on interstate buses. Those first Freedom Riders were arrested in North Carolina when they refused to leave the bus. In 1961, James Farmer – one of CORE's founders and its national director – decided to hold another interracial Freedom Ride, with support from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (founded in 1957 by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP, founded in 1909). The Freedom Ride began in Washington DC in May, with two interracial groups traveling on public buses headed toward Alabama and Mississippi. (John Lewis, who appears in Unit 2 lesson 7 and Unit 3 lesson 5, was among those on the first buses of Freedom Riders.) They faced only isolated harassment until they reached Anniston, Alabama, where an angry mob attacked one bus, breaking windows, slashing its tires, and throwing a firebomb through the window. The mob violently beat the Freedom Riders with iron bars and clubs while the bus burned. The second bus was also brutally attacked in Anniston. Violence followed both buses to Birmingham, where a mob beat the Freedom Riders while the police and the FBI watched and did nothing. No bus would take the remaining Freedom Riders on to Montgomery, so they flew to New Orleans on a special flight arranged by the Justice Department. The CORE-sponsored Freedom Ride disbanded, but SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, founded in 1960) took up the project, gathering new volunteers to continue the rides. A new group of Freedom Riders, students from Nashville led by Diane Nash -- a young, tiny, African American woman -- gathered in Birmingham and departed for Montgomery on May 20. The Montgomery bus station, which initially seemed deserted, filled with a huge mob when the passengers got off the bus. Several Freedom Riders were severely injured, as were journalists and observers. The mob violence and indifference of the Alabama police attracted negative international press for the Kennedy Administration. In response, Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent 400 U.S. marshals to prevent further mob violence, and called for a cooling off period, but civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King, James Farmer and SNCC leaders insisted that the Freedom Rides would continue. So Robert Kennedy brokered a compromise agreement: if the Freedom Riders were allowed to pass safely through Mississippi, the federal government would not interfere with their arrest in Jackson. At this point, the Freedom Riders developed a new strategy: fill the jails. They called on civil rights activists to join them on the Freedom Rides, and buses from all over the country headed South carrying activists committed to challenging segregation. Over the course of the summer, more than 300 Freedom Riders were arrested in Jackson, where they refused bail and instead filled the jails, often facing beatings, harassment, and deplorable conditions. More than half of the white Freedom Riders were Jewish. Judith Frieze, a recent graduate of Smith College, was among those white northerners and many Jews who joined the Freedom Rides in the summer of 1961. Arrested in Jackson, she spent six weeks in a maximum security prison. Upon her release, she documented her experience in an 8-part series of articles published in the Boston Globe. Eventually, the Freedom Rides succeeded in their mission: by the end of 1962, the Justice Department pressed the Interstate Commerce Commission to issue clear rules prohibiting segregation in interstate travel. The experience revealed the hesitancy of the federal government to enforce the law of the land and the intransigence of white resistance to desegregation. But it also strengthened SNCC, whose leadership at a crucial moment of the Freedom Rides led to the project's success and taught these young civil rights activists about the central role of politics, and the importance of appealing to the pragmatism of politicians -- even the President -- in the fight for civil rights.

http://jwa.org/teach/livingthelegacy/civilrights/civil-disobedience-freedom-rides

March 29, 2013 On the morning of July 16, 2010, a hunk of ice four times the size of Manhattan cracked away from the tongue of Greenland’s Petermann Glacier and drifted to sea as the largest iceberg since 1962. Just two years later, another massive section of ice calved from the same glacier. Icebergs like these don’t stay put in the Arctic–they get picked up by currents and ushered to warmer climates, melting along the way. According to a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, Greenland’s melting glaciers and ice caps sent 50 gigatons of water gushing into the oceans from 2003 to 2008. This comprises about 10 percent of the water flowing from all ice caps and glaciers on Earth. The research comes on the heels of a study last year that showed the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are disappearing three times faster than in the 1990s, and that Greenland’s is melting at an especially accelerated rate. In the new study, scientists were able to put an even finer point to the ice-melt situation by separating out the glaciers and ice caps from the ice sheet, which blankets 80 percent of the island. What they discovered is that Greenland’s glaciers are actually melting more quickly than the ice sheet. Studies such as these demonstrate the impacts of a warming climate on Greenland’s glaciers. But, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Visual evidence of this liquefaction is captured by NASA satellites, which are able to take snapshots of calving glaciers and document longer-term ice melt. NASA displays photos of the glaciers in its State of Flux photo gallery, along with a rotating collection of satellite images that illustrate other changes to the environment, including wildfires, deforestation and urban development. The photos, with their “now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t” quality, illustrate how glaciers are fast becoming ephemeral. Here are a few stark examples: The set of images above shows the edge of Greenland’s Helheim Glacier, located on the fringe of the Greenland Ice Sheet, as captured by a satellite in 2001, 2003 and 2005. The calving front is marked by the curved line through the valley, while bare ground appears brown or tan and vegetation is red. According to NASA, when warmer temperatures initially cause a glacier to melt, it can spark a chain reaction that accelerates the thinning of the ice. As the edge of the glacier begins to liquefy, it crumbles, creates icebergs and eventually disintegrates. The loss of mass throws the glacier off balance, and further thinning and calving occurs, a process that stretches the glacier through its valley. Total ice volume decreases then shrinks the glacier as calving carries ice away. Helheim’s calving front stayed put from the 1970s until 2001, at which point the glacier began hasty cycles of thin, advance, and dramatic retreat, ultimately moving 4.7 miles toward land by 2005. The massive calving event at Petermann Glacier in 2010 is pictured in these two images. The glacier is the white ribbon on the right side of each photo, and its tongue extends into the Nares Strait, which appears as a bluish-black stripe across the center of the right image and is heavily flecked with white chunks in the photo on the left. In the first image, the tongue of the glacier is intact; in the second, a huge chunk of ice has broken off and can be seen floating away through the fjord. This iceberg was 97 square miles in size–four times bigger than the island of Manhattan. In the summer of 2012, a second massive iceberg crumbled away from the Petermann Glacier. In these images, the glacier is the white ribbon snaking up from the bottom right. If you follow the tongue up, you’ll see that it appears intact in the photos at left and center (though the center image has an ominous crack spanning its width), which were taken the day before the calving occurred. The photo on the right shows that it crumbled as the glacier calved. Given that Greenland experienced an exceptionally warm summer in 2012 and temperatures were higher than average this winter, 2013 is primed for more melting and massive icebergs. Last year’s ice-melt season lasted two months longer than the average since 1979, and this year’s is already off to an inauspicious start. It kicked off on March 13 with the sixth-smallest sea-ice area on record for Greenland, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. What will the new summer calving season bring? March 8, 2013 If you had to guess what part of the the U.S. has the very worst air pollution–where winds and topography conspire with fumes from gasoline-chugging vehicles to create an aerial cesspool–places like Los Angeles, Atlanta and as of late, Salt Lake City, would probably pop to mind. The reality may come as a bit of a surprise. According to the Environmental Protection agency, California’s bucolic San Joaquin Valley is “home of the worst air quality in the country.” Not coincidentally, the San Joaquin Valley is also the most productive agricultural region in the world and the top dairy-producing region in the country. Heavy duty-diesel trucks constantly buzz through the valley, emitting 14 tons of the greenhouse gas ozone daily, and animal feed spews a whopping 25 tons of ozone per day as it ferments, according to a 2010 study. In addition, hot summertime temperatures encourage ground-level ozone to form, according to the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. Pollution also streams down from the Bay Area, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the east help to trap all of these pollutants near the valley floor. Particulate matter that creates the thick greyish-brown smog hanging over the valley is of paramount concern–it’s been linked to heart disease, childhood asthma and other respiratory conditions. So when NASA devised a new, five-year air quality study to help fine-tune efforts to accurately measure pollution and greenhouse gases from space, it targeted the San Joaquin Valley. “When you’re trying to understand a problem, you go where the problem is most obvious,” the study’s principal investigator, Jim Crawford, said in an interview. To Crawford, the dirty air over the valley may be important to evaluating how human activities contribute to climate change. “Climate change and air quality are really traced back to the same root in the sense that air quality is the short term effect of human impact and climate change the long term effect,” Crawford said. In January and February, NASA sent two research planes into the skies above San Joaquin Valley to collect data on air pollution. One plane flew at high altitude over the valley during the daytime, armed with remote sensors, while the second plane cruised up and down the valley, periodically spiraling down toward the ground to compare the pollution at higher and lower altitudes. Weather balloons were used for ground-level measurements as well. The data NASA collected in the experiment was similar to what satellites can see from space: the presence of ozone, fine particulates, nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde (precursors to pollution and ozone) and carbon monoxide (which has a median lifetime of a month and can be used to watch the transport of pollution). But satellites are limited in their air-quality-sensing abilities. “The real problem with satellites is that they’re currently not quantitative enough,” Crawford told Surprising Science. “They can show in a coarse sense where things are coming from, but they can’t tell you how much there is.” Nor can satellites distinguish between pollution at the ground level and what exists higher in the atmosphere. Also, they circle just once a day, and if it isn’t in the early morning, when commuters are busily burning fossil fuels, or in the late afternoon, when emissions have festered and air quality is at its worst, scientists don’t have a clear picture of just how bad pollution can get. Monitoring stations on the ground are likewise limited. They provide scientists with a narrow picture that doesn’t include the air farther above the monitoring station or an understanding of how the air mixes and moves. The research from the NASA study, specifically that collected by the spiraling airplane, fills in these gaps. Data from the flights will also be used in conjunction with future satellites. “What we’re trying to move toward is a geostationary satellite that will stare at America throughout the day,” Crawford told Surprising Science. Geostationary satellites–which will be able to measure overall levels of pollution–can hover over one position, but like current satellites, researchers need ancillary data from aircraft detailing how pollution travels above the Earth’s surface, like that retrieved from the San Joaquin Valley, to help validate and interpret what satellites see. “The satellite is never going to operate in isolation and the ground station isn’t going to do enough,” Crawford said. But first, the research will be plugged into air-quality computer models, which will help locate the sources of emissions. Knowing how sources work together to contribute to poor air quality, where pollution is and exactly what levels it’s hitting is a priority for the EPA, which sets air-quality regulations, and the state agencies that enforce them, according to Crawford. The data will inform their strategies on reducing emissions and cleaning the air with minimal impact to the economy and other quality-of-life issues. “Air quality forecasts are great,” Crawford says. “But at some point people will ask, ‘Why aren’t we doing something about it?’ The answer is that we are.” The researchers have conducted similar flights over the Washington, D.C. area and are planning flyovers of Houston and possibly Denver in the years to come. One thing’s for sure: Data to inform action is sorely needed. In 2011, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, on the eastern edge of the valley, violated the EPA’s national ambient air quality standard a total of 87 days of the year and Fresno exceeded the standard 52 days. Pinpointing exactly where pollution originates and who’s responsible–a goal of the study–will go a long way to clearing the air, so to speak. February 15, 2013 Climate change, believed to have contributed to the decline of the Ottoman Empire (PDF) when drought forced villagers into a nomadic life in the late 16th century, is once again having an adverse affect on the Middle East. Precipitation has dropped off and temperatures have climbed for the past 40 years, with conditions growing especially severe in the last decade. A 2012 Yale study (PDF) showed that a drought from 2007 to 2010 so seriously stunted agriculture in the Tigris and Euphrates river basins that hundreds of thousands of people fled Iran, eastern Syria and northern Iraq. A new study published today in the journal Water Resources Research puts an even finer point to the climate change fall-out in the Middle East: The Tigris and Euphrates river basins lost 117 million acre-feet of their stored freshwater from 2003 to 2010, an amount almost equivalent to the entire volume of water in the Dead Sea. The research, conducted by scientists at UC Irvine, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, is one of the first large-scale hydrological analyses of the region, encompassing parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. Drought typically sends water-users underground in search of aquifers, and in the midst of the 2007 water crisis, the Iraqi government, for one, did just that, drilling 1,000 wells. Such pumping has been the primary cause of recent groundwater depletion, according to the new study. Sixty percent of the lost water was removed from underground reservoirs, while dried-up soil, dwindling snowpack and losses in surface water from reservoirs and lakes exacerbated the situation. “The [groundwater storage loss] rate was especially striking after the 2007 drought,” hydrologist Jay Famiglietti, principle investigator of the study and a professor at UC Irvine, noted in a statement. Overall, the area has experienced “an alarming rate of decrease in total water storage,” he added. Since gathering information on the ground in a region marked by such political instability isn’t very practical–or in some cases, even possible at all–the scientists instead utilized data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites. These satellites measure a region’s gravitational pull; over time, small changes observed in the strength of this pull are influenced by factors such as rising or falling water reserves. From this, the scientists uncovered variations in water storage over much of the last decade. The video below is a visualization of groundwater fluctuations in the Tigris and Euphrates basins using GRACE satellite imagery; blues represent wet conditions and reds are indicative of dry conditions. The drought that began in 2007 is clearly reflected. “The Middle East just does not have that much water to begin with, and it’s a part of the world that will be experiencing less rainfall with climate change,” said Famiglietti. “Those dry areas are getting dryer.” In fact, the region is experiencing the second-fastest rate of groundwater storage loss on the planet, surpassed only by India. Yet, demand for freshwater continues to rise worldwide, including in the U.S., where aquifer depletion is also a growing problem. Groundwater supplies in the Southwest and western Great Plains have been stressed for many years, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The area surrounding Tucson and Phoenix in south-central Arizona has seen the highest drop in groundwater levels–300 to 500 feet–but other regions have also suffered. Long Island and other parts of the Atlantic coast, west-central Florida and the Gulf Coast region–notably Baton Rouge–are out of balance. And perhaps most surprisingly, the Pacific Northwest is experiencing groundwater depletion as a result of irrigation, industrial water use and public consumption. According to study co-author Matt Rodell of NASA, such depletion is unsustainable. “Groundwater is like your savings account,” Rodell said. “It’s okay to draw it down when you need it, but if it’s not replenished, eventually it will be gone.” What’s to be done? More research, according to the authors of the new Middle East study. “The opportunity to construct the most accurate and holistic picture of freshwater availability, for a particular region or across the globe, is now on us,” they wrote. “Such science-informed studies are essential for more effective, sustainable, and in transboundary regions, collaborative water management.” Building on that last point, they called for international water-use treaties and more consistent international water laws. They will also spread word of their findings by traveling to the Middle East. Famiglietti and three of his UC Irvine colleagues, including the study’s lead author, Katalyn Voss, are heading to Israel, Palestine and Jordan tomorrow to share their data with water authorities, scientists, water managers and NGOs; verify the GRACE measurements with locally obtained data; and begin collaborating with local groups on hydrology and groundwater-availability research. They hope to educate themselves on the region’s best practices for water efficiency, with the goal of introducing those techniques to other water-strapped areas, including California. “Ideally, this trip will set the foundation for future research collaborations in the region, with universities and government agencies, as well as provide an opportunity for cross-regional learning between California and the Middle East,” Voss told Surprising Science. February 1, 2013 It’s become a destructive cycle in the western U.S.: Warmer temperatures and drought conditions prolong the life cycle of mountain pine beetles, allowing them to prey on the pine, spruce and fir trees that blanket the mountains. The trees turn reddish-brown before dying off–a phenomenon the National Park Service deemed “an epidemic stretching from Canada to Mexico.” There’s widespread concern that such tree mortality creates an excellent fuel source for wildfires. Until recently, scientists were left to survey the damage from the ground, with little ability to understand the causes and processes. But now new technology is enabling them to use satellite imagery to identify the sources of small, ecosystem-altering events–some of which, for example beetle outbreaks, are related to climate change drivers. A computer program called LandTrendr, developed by Boston University Earth and Environment professor Robert Kennedy, allows scientists to combine data they collect on the ground with satellite imagery from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA to get a better understanding of environmental disturbances. Since 1972, NASA and the USGS have deployed satellites that snap specialized digital photographs of Earth’s landscapes. They’re able to capture details that exist in wavelengths invisible to the human eye, including those slightly longer than visible light called the near infrared. Healthy plants reflect energy in the near infrared, and by scanning the imagery, scientists can detect disruptions in Earth’s landscapes. In the past, these images were prohibitively expensive, limiting scientists’ access. “We’d look at an image from 2000 and one from 2005 and ask, ‘What’s changed?’” Kennedy explained. “If you’re only looking at two images, it’s very difficult to track slowly evolving changes. You can tell something’s changed, but you don’t know how long it’s taken.” When the USGS began providing these images for free in 2008, it was a turning point for Earth scientists. They now had access to thousands of shots of any given geographic region–images that Kennedy’s LandTrendr tool utilizes. “By looking at all the images, you can watch [changes] unfold. You have more confidence that you’re actually seeing trends,” he said. This is particularly useful for understanding climate change and land use change, which are “all about process,” according to Kennedy. Kennedy is currently using LandTrendr technology to look at the net carbon exchange of forests; among other things, his work analyzes the amount of carbon lost in forests due to fire, clear cuts, partial cuts and urbanization. Studies of climate change in the Arctic and in transition zones between ecosystems are also utilizing LandTrendr. But in the Pacific Northwest, Garrett Meigs, a forestry PhD candidate at Oregon State University, is using LandTrendr to study the intersection of wildfire and insects. Specifically, Meigs is examining the large wildfires that have ravaged Washington and Oregon since 1985, and how outbreaks of the mountain pine beetle and western spruce budworm affect subsequent fire activity. “When there’s drought, stress, a higher susceptibility to infestation, we can see the dieback of forest,” he said. The LandTrendr algorithm incorporates satellite images of the regions affected by fire and bugs with Meigs’ own fieldwork and historical aerial data from the U.S. Forest Service, which has long used airplanes to survey insect infestations. “There were things we couldn’t detect or see before, but now we’re able to,” Meigs said. Below is a video showing a LandTrendr visualization of the Pacific Northwest. Kennedy explains how it works: Stable evergreen forests are represented by the blue areas; when a mountain pine beetle infestation erupts, in this case in the Three Sisters area of Oregon, the imagery glows red. And when a slow-moving western spruce budworm moves into an area–there, the southern foothills of Mount Hood–it morphs yellow. Could LandTrendr help predict climate change? Possibly. “We can’t see the future, we can only document with the satellites what has happened. But the whole game with science is to develop understandings that allow for prediction,” Kennedy says. “My hope is that by creating these maps and capturing these processes in ways we haven’t been able to see them before, we can test [climate change] hypotheses” by documenting where, when and if predicted effects occur, he said. While Meigs’ study of insects and wildfire is largely retrospective, it has the potential to aid in future forecasting efforts. “We have a baseline to measure future change,” he says. “By seeing the conditions leading up to big insect outbreaks or wildfires, we may be able to recognize them as they emerge in the future.” January 16, 2013 NASA first dipped its toe into climate-change research in the 1980s by using satellite and aircraft imaging. Its efforts grew more serious with the launch of a large network of satellites in 1991. And by 2004, the agency was spending $1.3 billion annually on climate science. It now has more than a dozen spacecraft studying everything from the oceans to the atmosphere to the cryosphere (the Earth’s frozen bits). On Friday, it will add the stratosphere to that list when it launches an unmanned Global Hawk aircraft from California’s Edwards Airforce Base. The project, called Airborne Tropical TRopopause EXperiment (ATTREX), will study humidity in the tropical tropopause layer, the area of the atmosphere eight to 11 miles above the Earth’s surface that controls the composition of the stratosphere. According to ATTREX scientists, small changes in stratospheric humidity can significantly affect climate. “Cloud formation in the tropical tropopause layer sets the humidity of air entering the stratosphere,” principal investigator Eric Jensen says, adding that the pathways through the tropical tropopause influence the chemical composition of the stratosphere. Although the group won’t focus on the impact of standard greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, water vapor is a powerful greenhouse gas, and understanding its variability within the stratosphere is the group’s priority. Filling in this gap, they believe, will allow scientists to forecast how changes in the stratosphere affect global climate change, which will in turn improve the accuracy of mathematical models used in climate change predictions. The tropopause and stratosphere have proven elusive to climatologists until now. “We’ve been wanting to sample this part of the atmosphere for a long time,” Jensen says. The problem has been access — a specialized high altitude aircraft is necessary to conduct this type of research. Enter the Global Hawk, which can travel up to 65,000 feet into the atmosphere for up to 31 hours at a time and is fitted with instruments that can measure surrounding temperatures, clouds, trace gases, water vapor, radiation fields and meteorological conditions. All of this will let the ATTREX team sample a range of conditions over a large geographic span. Test flights conducted in 2011 showed that the Global Hawk and its instruments can withstand the frigid (as low as minus-115 degree Fahrenheit) temperatures above the tropics. They’ll send the craft above the Pacific Ocean near the equator and off the coast of Central America six times over the course of the next two months, monitoring it from the ground while it’s in flight. “We get high-speed real-time data back from the aircraft via satellite communications,” Jensen says. “The instrument investigators monitor and adjust their instruments, and we use the real-time data to adjust the flight plan throughout the flight.” ATTREX is one of the first projects launched by NASA’s new Earth Ventures program, which provides five years’ funding to low- to moderate-cost missions. This is far more time than previous airborne-science studies, and the ATTREX crew will use the added time to re-launch the Global Hawk in winter and summer 2014, allowing them to look at seasonal variation. The longer timeframe is also conducive to international collaborations. In 2014, the ATTREX team will venture to Guam and northeastern Australia. In Guam, they’ll connect with British researchers, who will be using a low-altitude aircraft to study climate change, and a National Science Foundation crew doing similar research with a G5. “We’ll have measurements from the surface all the way to the stratosphere,” Jensen says. “And we’ll be able to connect emissions at ground level up to measurements of the composition in the stratosphere.”

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/tag/nasa/

In the middle of the eighteenth century, Jews living in German territories were just beginning to feel the effects of the political, social and intellectual changes that would soon be recognized as the hallmarks of the modern world. Until this period, Jewish communities had been constituted as distinct and autonomous social, religious and legal entities within an essentially feudal social organization. The Jews were subjected to the will of the rulers of individual German states, who imposed onerous regulations, taxes and restrictions on their ability to marry and settle where they chose. Distinguished from the rest of the population by religious traditions and family structure, Jews lived under the authority of the Jewish community, wholly separate from the non-Jewish population. In the early 1780s, however, Enlightenment thinkers began to call for an end to the discrimination against Jews in Prussia and Austria. Most important among these voices was the high-ranking Prussian government official Christian Wilhelm Dohm (1751–1820), who argued that Jews be granted the same civil rights as those accorded to non-Jewish citizens. In his essay “On the Civil Betterment of the Jews” (1781) Dohm explained Jews’ moral “depravity” as the result of centuries of oppression. Only with the elimination of the oppressive conditions that produced their allegedly defective character, Dohm argued, would Jews be able to gradually overcome their “disabilities” and prove themselves to be useful citizens. These changes in the intellectual realm coincided with broader social and political realignments of the period. In its attempt to centralize its power and eliminate intermediate corporate bodies such as guilds and estates, the emerging absolutist state also sought the dissolution of the autonomous Jewish community and the integration of its members into the larger social body. Thus the development of more modern social and political structures for German Jews arose as much from larger external factors as from a desire to address the particular situation of the Jews. Indeed, the practical reforms that were introduced by Emperor Joseph II in his “Tolerance Decree” of 1781 probably exerted a more immediate impact on the situation of Jews in parts of the German-speaking territories than did Enlightenment thought itself. Joseph II’s decree enacted the first legal measures to reduce legal restrictions on the Jewish population in parts of the Habsburg Empire. Despite the beginnings of a more consolidated state authority, Jewish legal status still varied within the territories of the German Empire until the unification of Germany in 1871. Simultaneous with the political developments that gradually began to erode the legal barriers separating Jew from non-Jew were important changes that also took place within Jewish society itself. Influenced by the spirit of the Enlightenment, Jewish intellectuals began a new critical engagement with Jewish tradition and, in so doing, created a new cultural, social and intellectual framework and helped bring forth an invigorated public sphere that challenged the authority of the official Jewish community. A new intellectual elite emerged, distinct from the rabbinate and its influence. The combined impact of the centralizing absolutist state and the emergence of the European and Jewish Enlightenments marked the beginning of a change in the legal status of the Jews that would extend over more than a hundred-year period. Yet the progress of Jewish Emancipation in different territories was anything but linear. During periods of political liberalization, progress toward equal rights proceeded apace, but the process was set back during periods of conservative counterreaction. Because of the protracted nature of the struggle for Jewish Emancipation, and the twin efforts to win both legal and social acceptance, the uneven development of Emancipation was a central defining experience for German Jews. Yet historians have generally treated the Emancipation of the Jews as an event of universal significance for German Jewry without paying significant attention to the gendered aspects of its unfolding. After a long and often painful process, Jewish men did finally achieve full political and civil rights with the unification of Germany in 1871. In principle, if not entirely in practice, this removed most remaining legal disabilities that had prevented the full integration of male Jews into German society. But at the time of Emancipation, Jewish women—like women in general—received no such rights and remained unable to vote until 1918. In fact, as men looked toward an era of increasing liberalization, women were politically disenfranchised as the result of a law that was in effect until 1908, banning women from joining political organizations. Although German women were citizens, their status was ultimately determined by the citizenship of their father or husband. The status of East European Jewish women was even more precarious, since many immigrant women were not permitted to become citizens at all. Within the Jewish community, Jewish women had to wait even longer to gain a voice and a vote. In Germany, Jewish women suffered the double indignity of sexism and antisemitism, with second-class status imposed both inside and outside the Jewish community. If Emancipation affected Jewish men and women in distinct ways, the pace and extent to which Jews adapted themselves to the demands of German society also differed according to gender-specific patterns. Because social acceptance was made contingent upon the acquisition of the basic customs, behaviors and values of German society, Jewish men and women took different paths toward, and found different means for, becoming at once fully German and distinctly Jewish. Jewish men tended to adapt to the demands of middle-class society by abandoning public religious behaviors, including the observance of Jewish dietary laws and the prohibition of work on the Sabbath. They also concerned themselves less with Jewish learning and worship than with secular education, which they pursued with unparalleled enthusiasm. For women, the road to acculturation led to the formation of new roles inside and outside the home. Changes in family structure and employment patterns led to adjustments in the gender division of labor between the domestic and public spheres, and these changes in the family, religion and labor, in turn, affected the construction of gender roles within the Jewish community, and gender relations as a whole. Even the category “Jewish woman” was infused with new meanings that accorded with middle-class norms and ideals for the bourgeois German woman. In fulfilling their newly defined “woman’s nature,” Jewish women created a proliferation of voluntary associations, involved themselves in non-Jewish associations, and pioneered the field of social work. The path to becoming “German” and “German Jewish” thus proved to be profoundly gendered. One of the earliest examples of a specifically female experience of the Enlightenment can be found in the Berlin salons of the late eighteenth century. Although the German Jewish Enlightenment is usually associated with the intellectual circle around Moses Mendelssohn and its literary output, most historical literature has treated the Enlightenment as an intellectual and socio-cultural phenomenon that has almost exclusively involved men. Yet during the last two decades of the eighteenth century, even as Mendelssohn was evolving his philosophical reformulation of Judaism, a small group of young women from Berlin’s small but influential Jewish upper class crafted a place for themselves at the very center of the city’s social and intellectual life. Jewish salionières, most notably Rachel Levin Varnhagen and Dorothea Schlegel Mendelssohn, hosted social and intellectual gatherings in their homes that brought together Jews and non-Jews, noblemen and commoners to socialize and exchange ideas. Creating a cultural space unprecedented in its openness to Jews and women, these salons appear to have existed only for a brief historical moment as if outside the normal social constraints that enforced the hierarchical organization of society around the axes of gender, class and religion. Because a substantial number of these women converted to Christianity and entered into (often second) marriages with non-Jews, Jewish historians have sometimes been quick to condemn them for the betrayal of their people and faith. So traitorous were they, concluded Heinrich Graetz, that “these talented but sinful Jewish women did Judaism a service by becoming Christians” (Lowenstein, 109). Indeed, for their contemporaries, as well as for many historians, these women represented the embodiment of a larger set of social problems afflicting Berlin Jewish society. Whatever the exact mix of their motives for conversion and intermarriage—an ascent in social status, the promise of companionate marriage or liberation from their patriarchal families—the fact that contemporary observers and later historians held these boundary-crossing women responsible for the most visible symptoms of modern social change suggests the extent to which the transition from traditional Jewish society to modern Judaism was represented through the language of gender. Among the earliest and most important trajectories for the progress of German Jewish acculturation was the modernization of Judaism. Although religious modernization by no means did away with gender hierarchy, it nevertheless altered gender expectations and gender roles, as well as popular forms of religious practice. Within traditional Judaism, those aspects of religious practice that had historically been invested with the greatest value were organized hierarchically along clearly gendered lines: the study of Torah and public prayer formed the religious centerpiece of Jewish life, and these acts were accessible only to men. Women’s religious activity tended to be less structured and more personal and took place primarily in the family, focusing on religious aspects of home life, the observance of Sabbath and holidays, and the maintenance of dietary and family purity laws. Though accorded importance within Judaism, these “domestic” practices of Judaism were lower in prestige than the more public practice of Judaism dominated by men. The liberal religious reform movement, which has garnered so much attention in the historical literature, did not, however, fundamentally transform the role of women in Judaism. Reformers seeking to modernize Judaism in accordance with Enlightenment ideals and middle-class behavioral and aesthetic visions endeavored to make prayer services more attractive to women as well as men by changing the language of prayer from Hebrew to German and replacing Hebrew excurses on the law with uplifting preaching in German that was modeled on Protestant worship services. Equally important, greater attention was paid to women’s religious education, primarily through the inclusion of women in the newly introduced ritual of confirmation. There was even some discussion at the 1846 Rabbinic Assembly in Breslau of far-reaching changes that would have granted women greater religious equality. Yet when it came to practice, the nineteenth-century Reform movement failed to eliminate many of the traditional religious restrictions that kept women in a subordinate status. In the synagogue, women could still neither be counted in a prayer quorum nor called to the Torah, and they often remained seated apart and comfortably out of view in the women’s gallery. Despite pronouncements against the segregation of women, religious reformers ultimately made few substantial improvements in women’s status. In addition to religious reform, religious modernization also includes those religious and cultural changes that resulted from the increased participation of women in religious associations outside the home and the formal sphere of the Jewish community. Indeed, it may well have been this phenomenon, more than religious reform itself, which affected gender relations more broadly and contributed to a more substantive reconfiguration of the traditional Jewish gender order. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, middle-class women began to create charitable associations, such as sick care and self-help societies, that mirrored both the form and content of male associations. According to the historian Maria Benjamin Baader, these new female voluntary organizations were made possible with the declining emphasis on traditional male learning that had once marked women as marginal. Expressing both Jewish and bourgeois values, women’s activity in this realm would, by the early twentieth century, lead into new professional opportunities as well as to the production of new forms of Jewish religious and ethnic expression. Women’s activities in voluntary organizations, in turn, were linked to broader cultural shifts in the German bourgeoisie. Thus, in addition to being inflected by gender, it is important to note that the process of becoming a German Jewish woman was also affected by class status. Whereas on the eve of the modern era the majority of German Jews were poor, as they entered German society over the course of the nineteenth century, Jews aspired to join the class that was most suited to their skills in trade and commerce: the middle-class. Jews quickly embraced the ideal of the educated middle class that made culture, rather than birth, the defining character of class. While middle-class status for men was to be achieved through self-improvement and education (Bildung), the most important determinant of middle class respectability for women and for their husbands was her status as full-time “priestess of the home.” Paradoxically, an important measure of specifically Jewish and middle class acculturation was a new form of family-centered Judaism that arose out of the strong emphasis placed on the family in bourgeois culture on the one hand, and the decline in traditional Jewish religious practice on the other. The nineteenth-century bourgeois ideal for the family was a prescriptive model based on a rigid gender-based division of labor that delimited women’s activities to the domestic sphere and men’s activity to the “public” arena. As an ideal, it quickly eclipsed the typical structure of premodern Jewish families where the boundaries between public and private remained more fluid. Of course, not all Jewish families could afford to imitate this model, since lower middle-class and working class families often had to rely on the work and wages of children and wives for the family economy. But the power of this construct as a universal model for Jewish family life is perhaps most evidenced by the fact that, since the mid-nineteenth century, the bourgeois family type has been viewed as the “traditional Jewish family.” By the time the German states were joined in a federal system within the new German Empire in 1871, most of Germany’s Jews could proudly display their middle class status by pointing to their family life. Indeed, the research of Marion Kaplan has demonstrated how Jewish women managed the double task of transmitting the values and behaviors of the German bourgeoisie while helping to shape the Jewish identity of their children. Jewish women made sure their children learned the German classics and, at the same time, organized the observance of holidays, family gatherings and the religious and moral education of the children. Illustrating the family’s crucial role in the acculturation of German Jews, Kaplan’s research also suggests the extent to which the home was gradually being recast as the primary site for the transmission of Judaism. With the declining appeal of formal religious practice and institutions, including the synagogue, the Jewish mother, according to historian Jacob Toury, was expected to become the “protector of a new system of Jewish domestic culture” (Maurer, 147). Although some historians suggest that Jewish men abandoned religious ritual and practice more quickly than women, by mid-century Jewish community leaders nevertheless began holding women increasingly accountable for assimilation, conversion and intermarriage—in short, for the decline of Judaism. This was the case despite the fact that the intermarriage and conversion rates of Jewish women remained lower than those of men through almost the entire nineteenth century. Even in the early twentieth century, twenty-two percent of Jewish men but only thirteen percent of Jewish women entered marriages with non-Jews. Whereas Jewish men who entered mixed marriages usually had middle-class incomes, Jewish women, by contrast, tended to marry non-Jews out of economic need or because of a lack of available male Jewish partners. And even though women’s intermarriage rates were lower than men’s, women in mixed marriages stood to lose their status in the official Jewish community, while men suffered no equivalent punishment. Male and female conversion rates similarly reflected the disproportionately high male intermarriage rates. Relatively few women converted before 1880, and when the rate increased, as it did during the years 1873–1906, women still accounted for only one quarter of all converts. In comparison with male converts, nearly double the number of women came from the lowest income categories. Rising female conversion rates appear to have coincided with the growth of secularization on the one hand, and women’s increasing participation in the workforce and ensuing encounter with antisemitism on the other. By 1912, women accounted for forty percent of all conversions. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Jewish girls received an education that was consonant with social expectations for women of their class. Until the 1890s, the only form of secular education available to girls was the elementary school and non-college-preparatory secondary school. Jewish girls of all classes attended either private or public elementary schools where they learned reading, writing, arithmetic and such “feminine” subjects as art, music and literature. From mid-century on, a disproportionately high percentage of Jewish girls attended girls’ secondary schools (Höhere Töchterschule) which tended to be associated with upward mobility and higher class status. Indeed, around the turn of the century, while 3.7 percent of non-Jewish girls in Prussia attended the Höhere Töchterschule, approximately forty-two percent of Jewish girls did. Upon completing school at the age of fifteen or sixteen, middle-class girls passed their time socializing, embroidering or doing volunteer work as they waited for their families to find them a suitable husband. Even through the Imperial period, most middle-class Jewish marriages continued to be arranged either by marriage brokers or, more often, with the aid of parents and relatives. As a social institution, arranged marriage served as a means of locating Jewish marriage partners while simultaneously providing for the financial security of middle-class daughters and cementing economic alliances between families. By the end of the nineteenth century, the heavy emphasis placed on financial considerations in the search for marriage partners generated substantial criticism from within the Jewish community and particularly among young modern-minded women who wanted to choose their own life partners on the basis of romantic love. Beginning with the salon women in the eighteenth century, the decision to marry a non-Jewish man appears to have sometimes been driven at least in part by the ideal of companionate marriage. In other words, for some women, intermarriage represented not simply an act of betrayal, as it was sometimes perceived by observers, but in fact an act of independence, a rejection of a patriarchal social system that treated marriage as a financial and social transaction that was divorced from the individuals themselves. Since the nineteenth-century ideology of separate spheres consigned women to the home, those women who desired access to higher education and professional training had a particularly difficult path to navigate. For both men and women, higher education offered a means of self-improvement that facilitated German Jewish acculturation together with the possibility for personal emancipation. Yet whereas young Jewish men had been permitted to attend college preparatory high schools (gymnasia) and universities since the early nineteenth century, Jewish women had been excluded from both institutions until the end of the century. It was not until the first decade of the twentieth that German universities began admitting women. In the three years following the opening of Prussian universities to women in 1908, Jewish women already accounted for eleven percent of the female student population. By the time of the Nazi accession to power in 1933, a high proportion of Jewish women received doctorates from German universities. One of the fields of study most in demand among Jewish women, and east European Jewish women in particular, was medicine. Philosophy was also the first choice of many Jewish women since it provided the required academic preparation for a teaching certificate. As one of the few careers considered socially acceptable for middle-class women, education continued to draw Jewish women despite the antisemitic discrimination they often faced. With somewhat less frequency, Jewish women also studied the social and natural sciences and law. Despite the relative prevalence of Jewish women at universities, however, their social acceptance did not proceed apace. Like men, Jewish women encountered widespread antisemitism at the university, but their sex proved to be an added obstacle in their path toward integration. Because of the predominantly middle-class status of German Jews, fewer Jewish women were wage earners than non-Jewish women. But both single and married Jewish women did work outside the home, and they did so in growing numbers. The 1882 employment statistics for Prussia list only eleven percent of all Jewish women as part of the labor force, compared with twenty-one percent of non-Jewish women, but this figure masks the work of many more women who helped run family businesses or otherwise contributed to the household economy. In 1907, when the Prussian census included more of these invisible female workers, the employment rate was eighteen percent of Jewish women, compared with thirty percent of non-Jewish women. By the time of the Weimar Republic, with increased east European immigration, a worsening economy, and an increasing number of women working to support themselves, the gap between the Jewish and non-Jewish employment rate narrowed further, with twenty-seven percent of Jewish women now working, compared with thirty-four percent in the general population. Like Jewish men, middle-class Jewish women worked disproportionately within the commercial sector of the economy. But in contrast with native-born German women, east European immigrant working women were clustered in industrial labor, primarily in the tobacco and garment industries. In specifically low-status female occupations such as domestic service, east European immigrant women were significantly overrepresented. One of the promising new employment opportunities for Jewish and non-Jewish women at the turn of the century was social work. Formulated by women themselves as an extension of the domestic sphere, social work involved, in the words of Alice Salomon, one of the Jewish founders of modern social work in Germany, “an assumption of duties for a wider circle than are usually performed by the mother in the home” (Taylor Allen, 213–214). Jewish women seemed to flock to the profession, evident in their overrepresentation within social work training colleges. Particularly during the Weimar Republic, social work stood out as a field generally free from the mounting antisemitism increasingly being felt in other professions. Among those Jewish women who trained as social workers, some elected to work with the working class, lower middle class and east European Jewish population sectors within the Jewish community that required, in the view of their middle-class patrons, the provision of health services, job training and “moral reform.” From their roles as organizers of mutual assistance and charitable work in the eighteenth century, middle-class Jewish women became, by the Weimar period, the agents of a rationalized and “scientific” social work, one that was viewed by its practitioners as the modern-day realization of the traditional Jewish ethic of charity. As a gendered sphere of Jewish communal activity, the social arena became not only a site where those in need received assistance, but also a form of Jewish social engagement that strengthened the bonds of solidarity and cohesion among those engaged in social work. In Germany, this idea of “social motherhood” not only provided the intellectual foundation and political justification for the emergence of modern social work, but it also animated the German feminist movement from its early years until its collapse and cooptation under Hitler in 1933. Feminists’ conceptions of citizenship, rooted in distinctly organic notions of German citizenship, emphasized duties over rights and tended to define individual self-fulfillment in the context of community. Social motherhood also formed a central pillar of the German Jewish feminist movement that was founded by Bertha Pappenheim in 1904. The membership of the Jüdischer Frauenbund, which consisted primarily of middle-class married women, engaged in social work, provided career training for Jewish women, sought to combat White Slavery and fought for the equal participation of women in the Jewish community. Claiming the membership of more than twenty percent of German Jewish women, the Frauenbund became an increasingly important organization on the German Jewish scene until its dissolution by the Nazis in 1938. Middle-class Jewish women who were less interested in joining their Jewish and feminist commitments could become active in the moderate wing of the German Women’s movement, whereas working-class and east European women tended to join unions or the socialist women’s movement. Within the bourgeois women’s movement, Jewish women assumed significant leadership roles: Fanny Lewald and Jenny Hirsch gave voice to the aspirations of the movement through their writings on the “Woman Question,” while Jeanette Schwerin (1852–1899), Lina Morgenstern, Alice Salomon and Henriette Fürth became important women’s rights leaders and social workers. It has been estimated that approximately one third of the leading German women’s rights activists were of Jewish ancestry. The new democratic republic that was born amidst the catastrophe of German defeat in World War I promised Germans their first real possibility for liberal democratic governance. The constitution guaranteed equal rights to all its citizens, including full and complete equality for Jews and women. But the spirit of openness and tolerance enshrined in the constitution was quickly compromised by an eruption of virulent antisemitism that resulted in a growing economic and social exclusion of Jews, even as opportunities in some fields, such as politics and the professions, continued to expand. Weimar’s contradictory bequest to Jews—greater inclusion but also growing exclusion and intensified antisemitic rhetoric—was fueled by the ongoing economic and political instability of the period. In addition to the political instability that dogged the Republic from its inception, social and economic changes ushered in by the war also led to shifting gender roles. Many more women entered the workforce out of economic necessity and young women also sought out new professional opportunities. These and other changes in turn gave rise to the widespread perception that Germany—and German Jewry—faced an unprecedented social crisis. Rising rates of juvenile delinquency and out-of-wedlock births, the decline in the number of marriages and numbers of children born, suggested to many middle class observers that the Jewish family could neither socially nor biologically reproduce itself. Nothing embodied the social threat posed by young women to the Jewish middle-class gender norms better than the image of the sexually liberated and financially independent “New Woman,” who reputedly rejected motherhood in favor of a hedonistic urban lifestyle. What is particularly significant in the 1920s is how the identification of social crisis, as in Berlin over one hundred years before, was conceptualized largely through the lens of gender. Offering a counterpoint to the emancipated Jewish New Woman, male and female Jewish leaders placed new emphasis on the reproductive Jewish woman. Feminist leaders joined rabbis and eugenicists in calling for an increased Jewish birthrate and Jewish women’s organizations dedicated themselves to reversing Jewish women’s “self-imposed infertility” (von Ankum, 29). By reproducing Jews, women would be helping to fortify a declining Jewish community and fighting the rising tide of assimilation. In an age of assimilation, Jewish mothers had a vital role to play in the maintenance of Jewish difference itself. In the construction of a redemptive Jewish femininity that would address the challenges of assimilation, Jewish women also sought to redefine the meaning of Jewish motherhood at a time when national identity among non-Jewish Germans was growing increasingly exclusionary. According to both male and female leaders at the time, a crucial part of a Jewish mother’s task in the 1920s was to educate her children in ways that would help reduce antisemitism, while simultaneously making her family a refuge from antisemitic hostility. Shaping a new form of Jewishness that could both resist the appeal of Gentile acceptance and minimize Gentile hatred became an important aspect of Jewish “women’s work” in the 1920s. Women were thus cast both as the problem and the solution, embodying both the threat of a barren future and the promise of collective renewal. With the slide of the Weimar Republic into authoritarianism and ultimately dictatorship in the early 1930s, National Socialism signaled the end of democracy, women’s equality and Jewish emancipation in Germany. Although National Socialism targeted Jewish men and women equally, the impact of restrictive regulations, increased antisemitism and social exclusion affected Jewish men and women in ways that were often distinct. Marion Kaplan’s research on the 1930s shows how social exclusion experienced by men in the workplace appears to have had somewhat of a lesser impact than the increasing isolation from the informal social networks maintained by women. In addition, women often proved to be more attuned to the humiliations and suffering of their children. Perhaps less invested in their professional identities than their husbands, women were more willing to risk uncertainty abroad. Overall, women displayed greater adaptability than men in reorienting their expectations and their means of livelihood to accommodate new realities both at home and abroad. Ironically, it may have been women’s very subordinate status that made them more amenable to finding work that under other circumstances would have been considered beneath them. Gender roles in Jewish families also shifted as families faced new and extreme economic and social realities. Women increasingly represented or defended their husbands and other male relatives with the authorities. In addition, many more women worked outside the home than before the Nazi period and became involved in Jewish self-help organizations that had been established after Hitler’s rise to power. Some had never worked before, while others retrained for work in Germany or abroad. Although women often wanted to leave Germany before their husbands came to share their view, they actually emigrated less frequently than men. Parents sent sons away to foreign countries more frequently than daughters, and it was women, more than men, who remained behind as the sole caretakers for elderly parents. Indeed, a large proportion of the elderly population that remained in Germany was made up of women. In 1939, there were 6,674 widowed men and 28,347 widowed women in the expanded Reich. Although men and women were equally targeted for persecution and death, they were subjected to different humiliations, regulations and work requirements. Within certain types of mixed marriages, Jewish men faced greater dangers than women. In the case of childless intermarriages consisting of a Jewish woman and an “Aryan” man, the female Jewish partner was not subjected to the same anti-Jewish laws as the rest of the Jewish population. But a Jewish man with a female “Aryan” wife in such a marriage received no special privileges. With the onset of the war, German Jewish women began to suffer the kind of physical brutality that many of their husbands, fathers and brothers had endured during the 1930s. Overall, however, Jewish men were probably more vulnerable to physical attack than women. Although Jewish women who went into hiding could move about more freely and were in less danger of being discovered than men, it is speculated that fewer women than men actually went into hiding. Despite their equal status as subhuman in the eyes of the Nazis, Jewish men and women frequently labored to survive under different constraints. As was the case in other countries outside of Germany, Jewish women appear to have suffered the ultimate fate of death in disproportionately greater numbers. Even for an historical event as defining as the Holocaust, gender analysis proves a valuable means for elucidating different reactions to persecution by men and women, as well as highlighting gender-distinctive experiences of emigration, hiding and surviving in the camps. To view German Jewish history from the Enlightenment through the Holocaust from a gender perspective deepens our understanding of history in general and provides us with a richer, more complex and more inclusive picture of the Jewish past. Allen, Ann Taylor. Feminism and Motherhood in Germany 1890–1914. New Brunswick, New Jersey: 1991, 213–214; Ankum, Katharina von. “Between Maternity and Modernity: Jewish Femininity and the German-Jewish ‘Symbiosis.’” Shofar 17/4 (Summer 1999): 20–33; Baader, Maria Benjamin. “When Judaism Turned Bourgeois: Gender in Jewish Associational Life and in the Synagogue, 1750–1850.” Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook 46 (2001): 113–123; Fassmann, Irmgard Maya. Jüdinnen in der deutschen Frauenbewegung 1865–1919. New York: 1996; Freidenreich, Harriet. Female, Jewish and Educated: The Lives of Central European University Women. Bloomington: 2002; Hertz, Deborah. High Society in Old Regime Berlin. New Haven: 1988; Hyman, Paula. Gender and Assimilation in Modern Jewish History: the Role and Representation of Women. Seattle: 1992; Kaplan, Marion. Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany. New York: 1998; Idem. The Jewish Feminist Movement in Germany: The Campaigns of the Jüdischer Frauenbund, 1904–1938. Westport, CT: 1979; Idem. The Making of the Jewish Middle Class: Women, Family, and Identity in Imperial Germany. New York: 1991; Kaplan, Marion, ed. Geschichte des jüdischen Alltags in Deutschland. Vom 17. Jahrhundert bis 1945. Munich: 2003; Lowenstein, Steve. Berlin Jewish Community: Enlightenment, Family, Crisis 1770–1830. New York: 1994; Maurer, Trude. Die Entwicklung der jüdische Minderheit in Deutschland (1780–1933). Tübingen: 1992; Meyer, Michael, and Michael Brenner. German-Jewish History in Modern Times. New York: 1997, Vols 1–4; Quack, Sybille. Zuflucht Amerika. Zur Sozialgeschichte der Emigration deutsch-jüdischer Frauen in die USA 1933–1945. Bonn: 1995; Rahden, Till van. “Intermarriages, the ‘New Woman’ and the Situational Ethnicity of Breslau Jews from the 1870s to the 1920s.” Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook 46 (2001);125–150; Richarz, Monika. “Jewish Social Mobility in Germany during the Time of Emancipation (1790–1871).” Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook 20 (1975): 69–77; Springorum, Stefanie Schüler. “Deutsch-Jüdische Geschichte als Geschlechtergeschichte.” Transversal: Zeitschrift des David-Herzog-Centrums für jüdische Studien 1 (2003): 3–15; Usborne, Cornelie. “The New Woman and Generational Conflict: Perceptions of Young Women’s Sexual Mores in the Weimar Republic.” In Generations in Conflict: Youth Revolt and Generation Formation in Germany, 1779–1968, edited by Mark Roseman, 137–163. New York: 1995; Volkov, Shulamit. Die Juden in Deutschland 1780–1918. Munich: 1994; Idem. “Jüdische Assimilation und Eigenart im Kaiserreich.” In Jüdisches Leben und Antisemitismus im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, edited by Shulamit Volkov. Munich: 1990, 131–145; Werthheimer, Jack. Unwelcome Strangers. New York: 1987; Zimmermann, Moshe. Die deutschen Juden, 1918–1945. Munich: 1997.

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/germany-1750-1945

Special Relativity: Kinematics Time Dilation and Length Contraction The most important and famous results in Special Relativity are that of time dilation and length contraction. Here we will proceed by deriving time dilation and then deducing length contraction from it. It is important to note that we could do it the other way: that is, by beginning with length contraction. |t A =| In the frame of an observer on the ground, call her O B , the train is moving with speed v (see ii) in ). The light then follows a diagonal path as shown, but still with speed c . Let us calculate the length of the upward path: we can construct a right-triangle of velocity vectors since we know the horizontal speed as v and the diagonal speed as c . Using the Pythagorean Theorem we can conclude that the vertical component of the velocity is as shown on the diagram. Thus the ratio the diagonal (hypotenuse) to the vertical is . But we know that the vertical of the right-triangle of lengths is h , so the hypotenuse, must have length . This is the length of the upward path. Thus the overall length of the path taken by the light in O B 's frame is . It traverses this path at speed c , so the time taken is: |t B = =| Clearly the times measured are different for the two observers. The ratio of the two times is defined as γ , which is a quantity that will become ubiquitous in Special Relativity. All this might seem innocuous enough. So, you might say, take the laser away and what is the problem? But time dilation runs deeper than this. Imagine O A waves to O B every time the laser completes a cycle (up and down). Thus according to O A 's clock, he waves every t A seconds. But this is not what O B sees. He too must see O A waving just as the laser completes a cycle, however he has measured a longer time for the cycle, so he sees O A waving at him every t B seconds. The only possible explanation is that time runs slowly for O A ; all his actions will appear to O B to be in slow motion. Even if we take the laser away, this does not affect the physics of the situation, and the result must still hold. O A 's time appears dilated to O B . This will only be true if O A is stationary next to the laser (that is, with respect to the train); if he is not we run into problems with simultaneity and it would not be true that O B would see the waves coincide with the completion of a cycle. Unfortunately, the most confusing part is yet to come. What happens if we analyze the situation from O A 's point of view: he sees O B flying past at v in the backwards direction (say O B has a laser on the ground reflecting from a mirror suspended above the ground at height h ). The relativity principle tells us that the same reasoning must apply and thus that O A observes O B 's clock running slowly (note that γ does not depend on the sign of v ). How could this possibly be right? How can O A 's clock be running slower than O B 's, but O B 's be running slower than O A 's? This at least makes sense from the point of view of the relativity principle: we would expect from the equivalence of all frames that they should see each other in identical ways. The solution to this mini-paradox lies in the caveat we put on the above description; namely, that for t B = γt A to hold, O A must be at rest in her frame. Thus the opposite, t A = γt B , must only hold when O B is at rest in her frame. This means that t B = γt A holds when events occur in the same place in O A frame, and t A = γt B holds when events occur in the same place in O B 's frame. When v 0âáγ 1 this can never be true in both frames at once, hence only one of the relations holds true. In the last example described ( O B flying backward in O A 's frame), the events (laser fired, laser returns) do not occur at the same place in O A 's frame so the first relation we derived ( t B = γt A ) fails; t A = γt B is true, however. We will now proceed to derive length contraction given what we know about time dilation. Once again observer O A is on a train that is moving with velocity v to the right (with respect to the ground). O A has measured her carriage to have length l A in her reference frame. There is a laser light on the back wall of the carriage and a mirror on the front wall, as shown in . |t A =| Since the light traverses the length of the carriage twice at velocity c . We want to compare the length as observed by O A to the length measured by an observer at rest on the ground ( O B ). Let us call the length O B measures for the carriage to be l B (as far as we know so far l B could equal l A , but we will soon see that it does not). In O B 's frame as the light is moving towards the mirror the relative speed of the light and the train is c - v ; after the light has been reflected and is moving back towards O A , the relative speed is c + v . Thus we can calculate the total time taken for the light to go up and back as: |t B = + = âÉá γ 2| But from our analysis of time dilation above, we saw that when O A is moving past O B in this manner, O A 's time is dilated, that is: t B = γt B . Thus we can write: |γt A = γ = t B = γ 2âá = γâál B =| Note that γ is always greater than one; thus O B measures the train to be shorter than O A does. We say that the train is length contracted for an observer on the ground. Once again the problem seems to be that is we turn the analysis around and view it from O A 's point of view: she sees O B flying past to the left with speed v . We can put O B in an identical (but motionless) train and apply the same reasoning (just as we did with time dilation) and conclude that O A measures O B 's identical carriage to be short by a factor γ . Thus each observer measures their own train to be longer than the other's. Who is right? To resolve this mini-paradox we need to be very specific about what we call 'length.' There is only one meaningful definition of length: we take object we want to measure and write down the coordinates of its ends simultaneously and take the difference. What length contraction really means then, is that if O A compares the simultaneous coordinates of his own train to the simultaneous coordinates of O B 's train, the difference between the former is greater than the difference between the latter. Similarly, if O B writes down the simultaneous coordinates of his own train and O A 's, he will find the difference between his own to be greater. Recall from Section 1 that observers in different frames have different notions of simultaneous. Now the 'paradox' doesn't seem so surprising at all; the times at which O A and O B are writing down their coordinates are completely different. A simultaneous measurement for O A is not a simultaneous measurement for O B , and so we would expect a disagreement as to the observers concept of length. When the ends are measured simultaneously in O B 's frame l B = , and when events are measured simultaneously in O A 's frame l A = . No contradiction can arise because the criterion of simultaneity cannot be met in both frames at once. Be careful to note that length contraction only occurs in the direction of motion. For example if the velocity of an object is given by = (v x, 0, 0) , length contraction will occur in the direction only. The other dimensions of the object remain the same to any inertial observer. Readers' Notes allow users to add their own analysis and insights to our SparkNotes—and to discuss those ideas with one another. Have a novel take or think we left something out? Add a Readers' Note!

http://www.sparknotes.com/physics/specialrelativity/kinematics/section2.rhtml

Traditionally, treating wastewater and other refuse is a very energy-intensive process, which requires numerous components in order to function. The process is extremely complex, and features numerous species of bacteria, each of which has its special environmental requirements. But now, experts propose a new species of bugs that could help treat water more efficiently, while at the same time producing energy, rather than consuming it. The bacteria was discovered by scientists at the Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands, who were led by expert Gijs Kuenen, NewScientist The standard clean-up process starts with numerous bacterial cultures being organized in an activated sludge, which is used to digest solid wastes. The result is methane gas, which is derived directly from the organic matter the microorganisms consume. Following this stage, all that remains is ammonium and phosphates-filled liquid wastes, which then need to be further processed. They are introduced into special chambers, where the ammonium inside the wastes is converted into nitrates by bacteria. The wastes are again passed in other chambers, where the nitrate is again converted, this time into nitrogen gas, in the presence of methanol. The DU team managed to find a solution to treating wastewater that could see the need for the energy-intensive, bacteria-reliant stages disappear. Their secret weapon is an uncommon type of bacteria, which is apparently able to consume ammonia without having to be fed oxygen artificially. The result is producing nitrogen gas directly, and an added bonus of using anammox bacteria is the production of methane. Kuenen explains that the gas can then be easily harvested, and stored for later use. According to his calculations, this process would generate up to 24 watt-hours of electricity per person per day. “This is about trying to make waste water treatment plants completely sustainable, in the sense that they could even produce energy, which is not the case in present treatment facilities,” the expert adds. “The anammox story shows how fundamental discoveries by microbiologists can revolutionize waste water treatment,” says University of Vienna in Austria microbiologist Michael Wagner. He goes on to say that anammox bacteria were only discovered about 20 years ago, and that they are already beginning to have important applications.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Generating-Power-from-Sewage-Treatment-Plants-141571.shtml

Although geography has long been a part of the elementary curriculum, today there is a renewed interest in teaching the subject. Particularly significant is the large public response to the essay "Geographic Ignorance: Time for a Turnaround" written in 1985 by Gilbert Grosvenor, President of the National Geographic Society. Also, Geographic Awareness Week was instituted by an act of Congress in 1987 to draw attention to the need to improve geographic literacy in the United States. Furthermore, a recent survey of states and territories reports that 93 percent of their schools will increase emphasis on geography at the elementary level within the next five years (CCSSO 1988). This ERIC Digest discusses (1) reasons for teaching geography in elementary schools, (2) how geography is taught, (3) major deficiencies in the teaching and learning of geography, and (4) how to improve geographic education in elementary schools. WHY SHOULD GEOGRAPHY BE TAUGHT IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL? Geography helps one understand the physical and cultural characteristics of the world. Geographic education provides the values, knowledge, concepts, and skills to better understand ourselves, our relationship to the earth, and our interdependence with other peoples of the world. The locational organization scheme of geography provides a framework for learning the physical, social, and historical phenomena studied in both elementary and secondary schools. Formal instruction in the primary and elementary grades is effective in increasing geographic knowledge and skills (Buggey & Kracht 1986). Elementary students have the abilities to learn geographic skills in observation, classification, organization, and map reading and interpretation. Elementary school students also have measurable attitudes concerning people in other nations and are interested in and able to learn about people in other areas of the world (Mitsakos 1976; Pike & Barrows 1976). These attitudes often develop, however, without accurate knowledge of the locations and characteristics of places and the people who live in them. There is a great need to increase the quantity and quality of geographic education in elementary schools to overcome ignorance of geography. HOW IS GEOGRAPHY TAUGHT IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS? Place names and locations are stressed in geography in the elementary grades, as are map and globe skills and the recognition of physical landforms appearing on maps. Teachers promote the study of geography through one or more teaching strategies: personal experiences, textbooks and printed media, and interactive computer software. Personal experiences begin with children interacting with their own environment. Children begin by recording their observations from walks and fieldtrips in essays, pictures, or simple maps. Children decide what is important to show on their maps and what symbols to use. At first children show things rather crudely, using sequence, approximate size, and location. Interactive formal instruction in the cardinal directions begins by learning left and right and locating north through observations of the movement of the sun. By interacting directly with people from other places or vicariously through stories and pictures, children begin to recognize both the common and unique attributes of more distant locations. They offer explanations for locations and differences in the environment. Such interactions result in descriptions and definitions of places. Textbook series in social studies introduce geographic instruction in grades 1 and 2 and emphasize geographic study in grades 3 and 4. Throughout the elementary grades the identification of map and globe terms, use of the compass to find directions, computation of distance, collection of information, and making of inferences, predictions, and drawing conclusions are the map and globe skills emphasized in the textbooks. In textbooks the learning of map skills begins in the first or second grade with the introduction of a picture of the earth. Children are asked to distinguish the shape of the earth and the differences between the land and the water. The first maps in the textbooks are of classrooms and familiar locations, such as shopping centers. Children learn map skills related to the uses of symbols, the legend, and cardinal directions. Children begin studying scale in the third grade and grid systems in grade 4. Small scale political maps of the United States begin to appear in textbooks as early as second grade. By the fourth grade the texts include many physical and cultural maps both within the text and in atlas sections. The supplementary materials accompanying textbook series for all grades include practice sheets for map skills, outline maps, questions, and paper-and-pencil puzzles which teachers may use. In addition to concentrating on the location theme of geography through map study, elementary geography currently places emphasis on learning the physical and human characteristics of places. In third grade rural and urban communities are investigated, while in fourth grade emphasis is on climatic and physical regions of the world and their natural resources. Therefore, such concepts as mountain, river, plain, continent, equator, suburb, transportation, community, and lake appear most frequently in the textbook series (Haas 1988). WHAT ARE THE MAJOR DEFICIENCIES IN THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF GEOGRAPHY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS? Many geographers are disturbed by the fact that when geography is taught in elementary schools, students are not told they are studying geography. Therefore, their concept of geography is severely limited and sometimes non-existent. Many students and teachers associate geography only with the study of map skills. Most geography is taught as a part of social studies and, to a lesser degree, in science. Only a small portion of the school day is spent in the study of these subjects. Teachers are often concerned with the shortage of time to teach what they perceive as more important subjects, and when they do teach geography feel pressed to cover material in textbooks and curriculum guides rather than to work toward comprehension (Thornton & Wenger 1989). In 1984 the National Council for Geographic Education and the Association of American Geographers took a major step toward helping to improve the organization of the geographic curriculum with the publication of GUIDELINES FOR GEOGRAPHIC EDUCATION. These guidelines provide help in the selection of objectives and organization of geographic knowledge for elementary students. Five themes of geography are recommended for study by students at all levels: location, place, human and environment relationships, movement, and regions. Location and place currently receive most emphasis in the elementary grades. Often such an emphasis results in students trying to memorize information in isolation rather than trying to analyze relationships. The printed media fail to systematically group or carefully define geographic concepts. Organization and repetition to assist students in learning and retention of key ideas, such as the spiral curriculum and concept clustering, are lacking in most elementary textbook series (Haas 1988). First graders are aware of a wide variety of physical geographic concepts through travel and the media, but these children still tend to have many misconceptions and errors concerning the criterial attributes of geographic concepts. For example, students may say that a volcano explodes yet they are unable to identify a volcano in a picture and may not be able to name landforms found near their own residences. However, experimental studies with primary and elementary children indicate that students can learn geography when taught by well-prepared teachers and carefully sequenced instruction (Buggey & Kracht 1986). HOW CAN GEOGRAPHIC EDUCATION IN THE ELEMENTARY GRADES BE IMPROVED? In November 1988 the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) surveyed forty-one states and territories concerning geographic education. All forty-one indicated that instruction in geography is required in the elementary schools. Those responding said that the CCSSO should concern itself with developing new curricula in geography and suggested that bringing together geographers, geographic resources, and teachers in workshops at the state and individual district level is the best way to improve geographic instruction. State-level geographic alliances, state departments of education, private corporations, and the National Geographic Society have collaborated to provide workshops for teachers throughout the United States. These efforts need to continue and to involve elementary teachers. The emphasis in such workshops needs to be placed upon understanding the content and importance of the five major themes of geographic education at all grade levels and upon how geographers analyze cultural as well as physical data. Teachers need to be taught how to go beyond memorization with children and emphasize questioning, analyzing, verifying, and evaluating geographic information. The role of decision making about the environment also needs to be considered in both historical and current situations. The selection of meaningful objectives for elementary students, the organization of geographic knowledge, and the appropriate teaching methods to use with young learners are keys to improving instruction and preparing new curricula. All of these goals need to be emphasized concurrently with those who are preparing to become teachers. The following list of resources includes references used to prepare this Digest. The items followed by an ED number are in the ERIC system and are available in microfiche and paper copies from the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). For information about prices, contact EDRS, 3900 Wheeler Avenue, Alexandria, Virginia 22304; telephone numbers are 703-823-0500 and 800-227-3742. Entries followed by an EJ number are annotated monthly in CIJE (CURRENT INDEX TO JOURNALS IN EDUCATION), which is available in most libraries. EJ documents are not available through EDRS; however, they can be located in the journal section of most libraries by using the bibliographic information provided below. Buggey, JoAnne, and James Kracht. "Geographic Learning." In ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SOCIAL STUDIES: RESEARCH AS A GUIDE TO PRACTICE, BULLETIN 79, edited by V. A. Atwood. Washington, DC: National Council for the Social Studies, 1985. Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION AND THE STATE. Washington, DC. Council of Chief State School Officers, 1988. ED number will be assigned. Grosvenor, Gilbert. "Geographic Ignorance: Time for a Turnaround." NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 167 (June 1985): 6. Haas, Mary E. AN ANALYSIS OF GEOGRAPHIC CONCEPTS AND LOCATIONS IN ELEMENTARY SOCIAL STUDIES TEXTBOOKS: GRADES ONE THROUGH FOUR. (1988). ED number will be assigned. Haas, Mary E. THE PERCEPTION OF OTHER NATIONS BY STUDENTS IN NORTHWEST ARKANSAS. (1985). ED 257 710. Joint Committee on Geographic Education of the National Council for Geographic Education and Association of American Geographers. GUIDELINES FOR GEOGRAPHIC EDUCATION: ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS. Washington, DC: The Association of American Geographers, 1984. ED 252 453. Mitsakos, Charles L. FAMES PROJECT: FINAL REPORT. Boston, MA: Boston University, 1976. ED 132 072. Pike, Lawrence W., and Thomas S. Barrows. OTHER NATIONS, OTHER PEOPLES: A SURVEY OF STUDENT INTERESTS AND KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTIONS (FINAL REPORT). Washington, DC: Educational Testing Services, U.S. Dept. of HEW, 1976. ED 189 190. Saveland, Robert A. "Map Skills Around the World." SOCIAL EDUCATION 47 (March 1983): 206-210. EJ 278 675. Thornton, Stephen J., and R. Neill Wenger. GEOGRAPHIC EDUCATION IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: CURRENT PRACTICES AND THE PROSPECTS FOR REFORM. Paper presented at annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, March 28, 1989. ED number will be assigned.

http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9212/geography.htm

Anatomy of the Knee The knee is a vulnerable joint that bears a great deal of stress from everyday activities such as lifting and kneeling, and from high-impact activities such as jogging and aerobics. The knee is formed by the following parts: Tibia. Shin bone or larger bone of the lower leg Femur. Thighbone or upper leg bone Each bone end is covered with a layer of cartilage that absorbs shock and protects the knee. Basically, the knee is two long leg bones held together by muscles, ligaments, and tendons. There are two groups of muscles involved in the knee, including the quadriceps muscles (located on the front of the thighs), which straighten the legs, and the hamstring muscles (located on the back of the thighs), which bend the leg at the knee. Tendons are tough cords of tissue that connect muscles to bones. Ligaments are elastic bands of tissue that connect bone to bone. Some ligaments on the knee provide stability and protection of the joints, while other ligaments limit forward and backward movement of the tibia (shin bone).

http://www.memorial.org/your_health_resources_health_centers_orthopedics.html?itemID=d1c97286-b947-44de-8f96-20f967c165fa&section=5&contentTypeId=89&contentId=P07388&subtopicD=32825

How To Plan A Lesson Whether you use published ESL resources or plan your lesson from scratch, you will need a basic structure. With some experience, you may only need to jot down a quick list of topics and activities and then gather your materials together, but especially for new teachers, it's usually helpful to write a complete lesson plan. Consider the following framework. Decide which communication skills you wish to develop. Will you focus on reading? writing? listening? speaking/pronunciation? a combination of these? In what context? Consider a useful application for the language you will practice, things such as taking phone messages, using the post office, or interviewing for a job. These types of specific skills are sometimes referred to as "competencies." Seemingly non-interactive themes like gardening or holidays are fair game, as long as you integrate communicative activities. It's often a good idea to begin with some kind of warm-up activity to help the learners focus on English and block out the distractions of daily life. This doesn't necessarily need to be connected thematically to the rest of the lesson, but it's nice if it is. Warm-ups usually take 5-15 minutes and practice material the learners already know. Avoid new material in a warm-up because the goal of a warm-up is to diffuse inhibitions and help students transition into English thinking and speaking. A game-like atmosphere can help capture student interest, or you may choose a quick review of the last lesson or homework. When reviewing, ask learners what they remember and then fill in missing pieces rather than simply summarizing the last lesson for them. Most of your meeting time will probably be spent focused on one or two themes. Present new material and give learners a chance to practice it thoroughly. You may want to include pair or group work, silent reading/writing, games, or conversational discussion. Your lessons will be more interesting if you use real-life materials to support the text. For example, if the lesson theme is telling time, bring in a large clock with adjustable hands to demonstrate with. Show a video of a job interview, bring in a rental application, play a recorded clip from the radio, share photos of your family. Try to incorporate something outside of the textbook or printed lesson every time you meet. Especially if the lesson content has been challenging, end by reviewing what what was covered as well as what the learners already know. By finishing with something familiar, learners will leave with the impression that English isn't too difficult after all. You can use the following reproducible worksheet to design a thoughtful and complete lesson plan. You may choose to omit a section or add activities based on the time you have. Use the "Time" column on the worksheet for estimating the amount of time you wish to spend on each section. If you find during your lesson that your estimate was incorrect, you can adjust by adding or cutting another activity. New teachers frequently over-estimate the time needed for an activity, so it's wise to have some backup ideas to fill in leftover time. Write any handouts or real-life objects you will need in the "Notes/Materials" column.

http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/teaching/esl/structure.cfm

An important way to unravel the Earth’s history is to find and study old rocks that have been turned up and exposed on the surface through the Earth’s tectonic activity. At Raven Ridge (image center, left to right), which extends across the Colorado-Utah border, geologists can walk across successive layers of rock deposited approximately 54-50 million years ago during the Eocene Epoch—approximately 10–15 million years after the dinosaurs went extinct. The sedimentary layers at Raven Ridge were originally deposited as flat-lying beds in an ancient lake known as Paleolake Uinta, and later they were tilted by tectonic forces. The tilted beds are visible in this astronaut photograph as hard, erosion-resistant ridges of tan, buff, and white rocks (freshwater limestones), with less resistant layers (mudstones and shales) forming valleys between ridges. A prominent topographic break in the ridgeline, Mormon Gap, provides road access across the ridge. To the northwest of the gap, dark brown alluvial deposits (sand and gravel carried by moving water) extend southward from the crest of the ridge. These deposits likely cover a pediment—a flat, sloping surface of eroded bedrock that extends outward from a mountain front. The rocks and fossils at Raven Ridge indicate that during the time when they were created, the area was covered in tropical forests that were filled with the early ancestors of modern primates, horses, and deer (among other animals). Astronaut photograph ISS018-E-11127 was acquired on December 6, 2008, with a Nikon D2Xs digital camera fitted with an 800 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 18 crew. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by William L. Stefanov, NASA-JSC, and Alexander R. Dutchak, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. - ISS - Digital Camera

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=36504

- slide 1 of 6 Understanding Landforms on Maps Students often find cultural geography much easier to understand than the physical division. With this map landform activity, your students will develop new vocabulary and practice map-reading skills to make physical geography easier. They will also practice drawing and labeling their own maps. - slide 2 of 6 - Students will understand the terms landform, cartography, and topography. - Students will recognize that landforms are generally identified on physical maps. - Students will name the characteristics of familiar landforms. - Students will identify geographic examples of different landforms. - slide 3 of 6 - Introduce the terms topography, cartography¸ and landforms. - Ask students to speculate on their possible meanings. - Use the word parts and etymology to help students define the words. - Create a tag study guide for the words. On the front of a shipping tag, students should write the word and a graphic reminder of the word’s meaning. On the back, they write a definition (preferably their own paraphrase) and a sentence to demonstrate their understanding of the word. - Present pictures of the landforms you want students to understand. - Elicit descriptions of the characteristics of each one. - Provide the name of the landform. - Using the brainstormed descriptions, help students develop a definition. - Discuss ways in which a cartographer might show that landform on a map, including colors or symbols. - Have students create a tag card for their study guide, using the symbols and/or colors and definition the class developed. - Divide the class into pairs or triads. Assign them to find an example of each landform somewhere in the world. Groups should name the location and explain why they believe it to be that landform. - Extend the lesson by having students record the latitude and longitude for each example. - slide 4 of 6 - As students study their tag guide daily, they should make a tally mark on each card as they correctly identify the landform on the tag. When they have 10 marks on the card, they remove it to a second ring; words on the second ring should be reviewed twice a week. - Provide students with a crossword puzzle in which they must identify the landforms from their definitions or pictures. Alternately, allow students to create their own puzzles and exchange them with classmates for solving. - slide 5 of 6 - Provide a map of various landforms marked with symbols. Students fill in the names of the landforms in the legend. - Provide a list of landforms. Students use the list to create a map that includes the appropriate symbols for each landform and a legend for the map. This map landform activity can easily be adapted for any specific landforms you want your class to study and it can be repeated throughout the year. - slide 6 of 6 For more information, check these sites.

http://www.brighthubeducation.com/elementary-school-activities/106823-landform-mapping-activity/

|Allergic eye disease| |Classification and external resources| Allergic conjunctivitis is inflammation of the conjunctiva (the membrane covering the white part of the eye) due to allergy. Although allergens differ between patients, the most common cause is hay fever. Symptoms consist of redness (mainly due to vasodilation of the peripheral small blood vessels), oedema (swelling) of the conjunctiva, itching and increased lacrimation (production of tears). If this is combined with rhinitis, the condition is termed allergic rhinoconjunctivitis. Treatment of allergic conjunctivitis is by avoiding the allergen (e.g. avoiding grass in bloom during the "hay fever season") and treatment with antihistamines, either topical (in the form of eye drops), or systemic (in the form of tablets). Antihistamines, medication that stabilizes mast cells, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are safe and usually effective. Signs and symptoms The conjunctiva is a thin membrane that covers the eye. When an allergen irritates the conjunctiva, common symptoms that occur in the eye include: ocular itching, eyelid swelling, tearing, photophobia, watery discharge, and foreign body sensation (with pain). Itching is the most typical symptom of ocular allergy and more than 75% of patients report this symptom when seeking treatment. Symptoms are usually worse for patients when the weather is warm and dry, whereas cooler temperatures and rain tend to assuage symptoms. A study by Klein et al. showed that in addition to the physical discomfort allergic conjunctivitis causes, it also alters patients' routines, with patients limiting certain activities such as going outdoors, reading, sleeping, and driving. Therefore, treating patients with allergic conjunctivitis may improve their everyday "quality of life." The cause of allergic conjunctivitis is an allergic reaction of the body's immune system to an allergen. Allergic conjunctivitis is common in people who have other signs of allergic disease such as hay fever, asthma and eczema. Among the most common allergens that cause conjunctivitis are: - Pollen from trees, grass and ragweed - Animal skin and secretions such as saliva - Skin medicines - Air pollution - Dust mites - Eye drops Most cases of seasonal conjunctivitis are due to pollen and occur in the hay fever season, grass pollens in early summer and various other pollens and moulds may cause symptoms later in the summer. Perennial conjunctivitis is commonly due to an allergy to house dust mite (a tiny insect-like creature that lives in every home). Giant papillary conjunctivitis is a very rare condition that is mainly caused by an allergic reaction to "debris". Surgery may also cause this type of allergic conjunctivitis. Contact dermatoconjunctivitis is caused by the rest of the allergens that conjunctiva may come into contact with: cosmetics, medications and so on. The ocular allergic response is a cascade of events that is coordinated by mast cells. Beta chemokines such as eotaxin and MIP-1 alpha have been implicated in the priming and activation of mast cells in the ocular surface. When a particular allergen is present, sensitization takes place and prepares the system to launch an antigen specific response. TH2 differentiated T cells release cytokines, which promote the production of antigen specific immunoglobulin E (IgE). IgE then binds to IgE receptors on the surface of mast cells. Then, mast cells release histamine, which then leads to the release of cytokines, prostaglandins, and platelet-activating factor. Mast cell intermediaries cause an allergic inflammation and symptoms through the activation of inflammatory cells. When histamine is released from mast cells, it binds to H1 receptors on nerve endings and causes the ocular symptom of itching. Histamine also binds to H1 and H2 receptors of the conjunctival vasculature and causes vasodilatation. Mast cell-derived cytokines such as chemokine interleukin IL-8 are involved in recruitment of neutrophils. TH2 cytokines such as IL-5 recruit eosinophils and IL-4, IL-6, and IL-13, which promote increased sensitivity. Immediate symptoms are due to the molecular cascade. Encountering the allergen a patient is sensitive to leads to increased sensitation of the system and more powerful reactions. Advanced cases can progress to a state of chronic allergic inflammation. SAC and PAC Both seasonal allergic conjunctivitis and perennial allergic conjunctivitis are two acute allergic conjunctival disorders. SAC is the most common ocular allergy. Symptoms of the aforementioned ocular diseases include itching and pink to reddish eye(s). These two eye conditions are mediated by mast cells. Nonspecific measures to ameliorate symptoms include cold compresses, eyewashes with tear substitutes, and avoidance of allergens. Treatment consists of antihistamine, mast cell stabilizers, dual mechanism anti-allergen agents, or topical antihistamines. Corticosteroids are another option, but, considering the side-effects of cataracts and increased intraocular pressure, corticosteroids are reserved for more severe forms of allergic conjunctivitis such as vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC) and atopic keratoconjunctivitis (AKC). VKC and AKC Both vernal keratoconjunctivitis and atopic keratoconjunctivitis are chronic allergic diseases wherein eosinophils, conjunctival fibroblasts, epithelial cells, mast cells, and TH2 lymphocytes aggravate the biochemistry and histology of the conjunctiva. VKC is a disease of childhood and is prevalent in males living in warm climates. AKC is frequently observed in males between the ages of 30 and 50. VKC and AKC can be treated by medications used to combat allergic conjunctivitis or the use of steroids. Giant papillary conjunctivitis Giant papillary conjunctivitis is not a true ocular allergic reaction and is caused by repeated mechanical irritation of the conjunctiva. Repeated contact with the conjunctival surface caused by the use of contact lenses is associated with GPC. Phlyctenular keratoconjunctivitis A detailed history allows physicians to determine whether the presenting symptoms are due to an allergen or another source. Diagnostic tests such as conjunctival scrapings to look for eosinophils are helpful in determining the cause of the allergic response. Antihistamines, medication that stabilizes mast cells, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are safe and usually effective. Corticosteroids are reserved for more severe cases of ocular allergy disease, and their use should be monitored by an eye care physician due to possible side-effects. When an allergen is identified, the patient should avoid the allergen as much as possible. If the allergen is encountered and the symptoms are mild, a cold compress can be used to provide relief. It is a quick and easy solution without using any medications. The cold temperature of the water will help to bring down swelling, as it would in a bruise or burn. In addition, there are many antihistamine medications available for purchase. Mast cell stabilizers can help curing patients with allergic conjunctivitis when cold compress are no longer effective. They tend to have delayed results, but they have fewer side-effects than the other treatments and last much longer than those of antihistamines. Some patients are given an antihistamine at the same time so that there is some relief of symptoms before the mast cell stabilizers becomes effective. Doctors commonly prescribe lodoxamide and nedocromil as mast cell stabilizers, which come as eye drops. A mast cell stabilizer is a class of non-steroid controller medicine that reduces the release of inflammation-causing chemicals from mast cells. They block a calcium channel essential for mast cell degranulation, stabilizing the cell, thus preventing the release of histamine. Decongestants may also be prescribed. Another common mast cell stabilizer that is used for treating allergic conjunctivitis is sodium cromoglicate. Antihistamines such as diphenhydramine and chlorpheniramine are commonly used as treatment. Patients treated with H1 antihistamines exhibit reduced production of histamine and leukotrienes as well as downregulation of adhesion molecule expression on the vasculature which in turn attenuates allergic symptoms by 40–50%. Dual-action medications are also prescribed frequently. Olopatadine (Patanol) and Ketotifen Fumarate (Alaway or Zaditor) both provide protection by acting as an antihistamine and a mast cell stabilizer together. Patanol is a prescription medication, whereas Ketotifen Fumarate is not. Many of the eye drops can cause burning and stinging, and have side-effects. Proper eye hygiene can improve symptoms, especially with contact lenses. Avoiding precipitants, such as pollen or mold can be preventative. Desensitization allergen immunotherapy with subcutaneous introduction of allergens can be performed in atopic individuals as well. Sublingual administration has also shown effect, although multiple allergens are more difficult to combine with this approach. Experimental research has targeted adhesion molecules known as selectins on epithelial cells. These molecules initiate the early capturing and margination of leukocytes from circulation. Selectin antagonists have been examined in preclinical studies, including cutaneous inflammation, allergy and ischemia-reperfusion injury. There are four classes of selectin blocking agents: (i) carbohydrate based inhibitors targeting all P-, E-, and L-selectins, (ii) antihuman selectin antibodies, (iii) a recombinant truncated form of PSGL-1 immunoglobulin fusion protein, and (iv) small-molecule inhibitors of selectins. Most selectin blockers have failed phase II/III clinical trials, or the studies were ceased due to their unfavorable pharmacokinetics or prohibitive cost. Sphingolipids, present in yeast like Saccharomyces cerevisiae and plants, have also shown mitigative effects in animal models of gene knockout mice. Allergic conjunctivitis occurs more frequently among those with allergic conditions, with the symptoms having a seasonal correlation. Allergic conjunctivitis is a frequent condition as it is estimated to affect 20 percent of the population on an annual basis and approximately one-half of these people have a personal or family history of atopy. Giant papillary conjunctivitis accounts for 0.5–1.0% of eye disease in most countries. - Bielory L, Friedlaender MH (February 2008). "Allergic conjunctivitis". Immunol Allergy Clin North Am 28 (1): 43–58, vi. doi:10.1016/j.iac.2007.12.005. PMID 18282545. - Ono SJ, Abelson MB (January 2005). "Allergic conjunctivitis: update on pathophysiology and prospects for future treatment". J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 115 (1): 118–22. doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2004.10.042. PMID 15637556. - Whitcup SM (2006). "Recent advances in ocular therapeutics". In Cunningham ET Jr, Ng EWM. Int Ophthalmol Clin 46 (4): 1–6. doi:10.1097/01.iio.0000212140.70051.33. PMID 17060786. - Allansmith M.R., Ross R.N. (1991). "Phlyctenular keratoconjunctivitis". In Tasman W., Jaeger E.A.,. Duane's Clinical Ophthalmology 1 (revised ed.). Philadelphia: Harper & Row. pp. 1–5. - "Conjunctivitis (inflammation of the eye)". netdoctor.co.uk. Archived from the original on 15 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-06. - "Allergic Conjunctivitis". familydoctor.org. Retrieved 2010-04-06. - "What Is Allergic Conjunctivitis? What Causes Allergic Conjunctivitis?". medicalnewstoday.com. Retrieved 2010-04-06. - "What is conjunctivitis?". patient.co.uk. Archived from the original on 30 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-06. - Liu G, Keane-Myers A, Miyazaki D, Tai A, Ono SJ (1999). "Molecular and cellular aspects of allergic conjunctivitis". Chem. Immunol. Chemical Immunology and Allergy 73: 39–58. doi:10.1159/000058748. ISBN 3-8055-6893-2. PMID 10590573. - Buckley RJ (December 1998). "Allergic eye disease—a clinical challenge". Clin. Exp. Allergy 28 (Suppl 6): 39–43. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2222.1998.0280s6039.x. PMID 9988434. - Sun, W. Y.; Bonder, C. S. (2012). "Sphingolipids: A Potential Molecular Approach to Treat Allergic Inflammation". Journal of Allergy 2012: 1. doi:10.1155/2012/154174. PMC 3536436. PMID 23316248. - Rosenwasser LJ, O'Brien T, Weyne J (September 2005). "Mast cell stabilization and anti-histamine effects of olopatadine ophthalmic solution: a review of pre-clinical and clinical research". Curr Med Res Opin 21 (9): 1377–87. doi:10.1185/030079905X56547. PMID 16197656. - Avunduk AM, Tekelioglu Y, Turk A, Akyol N (September 2005). "Comparison of the effects of ketotifen fumarate 0.025% and olopatadine HCl 0.1% ophthalmic solutions in seasonal allergic conjunctivities: a 30-day, randomized, double-masked, artificial tear substitute-controlled trial". Clin Ther 27 (9): 1392–402. doi:10.1016/j.clinthera.2005.09.013. PMID 16291412. <ref>tag; no text was provided for refs named sphingo(see the help page). Cite error: Invalid - "Conjunctivitis - Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Treatment and management". encyclopedia.stateuniversity.com. Archived from the original on 9 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-06. - "Conjunctivitis: Differentiating Allergic, Bacterial & Viral Conjunctivitis". conjunctivitis.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2010-04-06.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allergic_conjunctivitis

This post includes a variety of resources (books, websites, lesson plans, games, printables, etc.) that can be used to introduce basic division concepts to students and aid them in committing the basic division facts (dividends to 144) to memory. The target grade level is third grade since these skills are first introduced at this level. However, many of these resources could and perhaps should be used at the fourth and fifth grade levels to reinforce basic division skills, which are the basis for so many other higher-level math concepts. FIVE BOOKS for INTRODUCING SIMPLE DIVISION The Great Divide, written by Dayle Ann Dodds and illustrated by Tracy Mitchell: Using a cross-country race as a plot line, Dodds demonstrates how dividing by two decreases the contenders in the race to the finish. Eighty contestants start out on bikes in ten groups of eight but when half pop tires, only forty continue. Forty becomes twenty, twenty becomes ten, and ten becomes five, at which point one contestant has to stop with a rock in her shoe and only four move on. Though the plot is minimal, a surprise ending, likable characters, and fun illustrations keep children engaged while getting the mathematical concepts across. Divide and Ride, written by Stuart Murphy and illustrated by George Ulrich: Murphy's book introduces division as eleven children sort themselves into smaller groups in order to go on different rides at a carnival. Mathematical vocabulary such as "per", "divide", and "left over" is used throughout to introduce the concepts of "groups of", "sets of", and remainders. The children in the story are racially diverse and even young children can relate to the idea of going to an amusement park and begin to see the patterns that emerge as the book continues. How Hungry Are You, written by Donna Jo Napoli and Richard Tchen and illustrated by Amy Walrod: In the same vein as Pat Hutchins classic, The Doorbell Rang, Napoli and Tchen's book is a great introduction to simple division and the difficulties that can arise when sharing. A rabbit and a frog decide to have a picnic. Along the way, they meet up with a variety of other creatures who share in the food (creating the need to redivide) and contribute more food. The story presents a great opportunity for reader's theater as the entire tale is told through dialogue of the various characters identified by rebus-like headshots at the beginning of each line. A Remainder of One, written by Elinor J. Pinczes and illustrated by Bonnie MacKain: An army of 25 insects line up in multiple arrays in an attempt to create a formation that doesn't leave anyone out. Rhyming text and simple illustrations combine to present the basis for a clear understanding of remainders and the use of arrays in division problems. One Hungry Cat, written by Joanne Rocklin and Marilyn Burns and illustrated by Rowan Barnes-Murphy: A hungry cat bakes 12 cookies and invites over two friends to share them, but each time he divides the cookies into equal shares, he gets hungry, gobbles them up, and has to bake something else. Throughout the story, subtle math problems arise. For example, how does one divide eight cookies onto three plates, or cut a square cake into three equal pieces? Answers to the problems are presented in the back of the book along with suggested activities for reinforcing the math lesson. The cartoon illustrations add to the fun and kids will enjoy the slapstick while they figure out the math. ADDITIONAL BOOKS FREQUENTLY REFERENCED Everybody Wins, written by Sheila Bruce and illustrated by Paige Billin-Frye: When Oscar and Emmy both contribute box tops for a contest and agree to split the prize of 100 frozen pizzas, they learn valuable lessons about how to divide and the costs and rewards of friendship. As the book continues, so does the sharing as friends practice dividing other things among their classmates. Additional activities to support the lessons in the book are listed on the inside back cover. Division, written by Sheila Cato and illustrated by Sami Sweeten: Less of a story and more of a straight up math lesson, this book effectively uses authentic math problems to teach division. A group of ethnically diverse children present a series of division problems using everyday examples that get progressively more difficult. Equations are used to reflect the original word problem and the explanations are thorough and concise, building on prior knowledge. Boxed areas provide further information and offer more practice equations, while colorful cartoons break up the text and illustrate the answers. The Doorbell Rang, written and illustrated by Pat Hutchins: Pat Hutchins uses a dozen cookies to illustrate the partitive model of division as more and more children have to share the same batch of cookies. Two children are delighted when their mother bakes a tray of a dozen cookies and they find that by dividing them equally each can have six. But the doorbell rings repeatedly, friends arrive and the cookies must be re-divided again and again. When each child's share is down to one, a surprise visit from Grandma brings dozens more cookies for the elated multiracial children to share. 17 Kings and 42 Elephants, written by Margaret Mahy and illustrated by Patricia MacCarthy: As 17 kings and 42 elephants make their way through the jungle, they encounter a variety of animals from crocodiles and tigers to hippopotomums and baboonsters. Though the book has no formal plot and uses words both sensible and nonsensical, it holds great appeal to children because of the rollicking rhymes, joyous adventure, and beautiful illustrations. From a mathematical perspective, the book can be used as a springboard for a division problem with remainders as students figure out how many elephants each king has if the kings share the elephants equally. One Hundred Hungry Ants, written by Elinor J. Pinces and illustrated by Bonnie MacKain: Rhymed verse is used to tell this whimsical story of 100 hungry ants setting out in one long line for a picnic. When the littlest ant announces that the line is moving too slowly and suggests 2 lines of 50, followed by 4 lines of 25, 5 lines of 20, and 10 lines of 10 to speed things up. By the time the ants reach the picnic, the food is all gone but students will have gained valuable background knowledge about both multiplication and division. WEBSITES FOR REINFORCING BASIC DIVISION FACTS Divider Machine: Students attempt to answer basic division facts and obtain a score of 100 without making any mistakes by selecting the appropriate level of difficulty. Division Derby: Choose from a series of racecar themed multiplication and division games for single or multi-players focused on basic facts. Flashcards: Students can use this site to generate their own division flashcards by entering the highest level of quotients they are interested in working with. The site also has a variety of division games for students to choose from to support their learning process. Math Magician: Great site for building automaticity with basic division facts. Answer 20 division facts in a minute or less and earn a certificate. Mystery at the Peculiar Zoo: Students read and use the clues in a poem along with multiplication and division skills to figure out how many animals were stolen by the Zoo Bandit. If you like this story, additional mysteries are available through this scholastic site as well. ADDITIONAL TEACHER RESOURCES Basic Division Facts Differentiated Learning Pack: This Scholastic resource, while worksheet driven, does provide a good opportunity for differentiating activities for students who are reading below, on, or above grade level. Lesson Idea for Introducing Division: In this activity, students are placed in groups of five or six and provided with 30 pieces of dry pasta and a paper plate for each child. Students are asked to share the pasta equally and talk about their results. Dividing with Bricks: This worksheet is a simple way to support the development of division concepts while children divide sets of bricks (or any cubes) into towers. All About Division Smartboard Lesson: This Smartboard Lesson provides an introduction to the math concept of division and provides students with the opportunity to practice dividing by 3's, 4's. and 5's.

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How to Lead Discussions: No Need to Speak Like Obama For intermediate and advanced learners it is important to dedicate time to discussing topics so that students have practice organizing their thoughts and expressing their views. Lessons focused on debating, giving advice, and reading articles are some examples of when discussion activities could be conducted. There are a lot of phrases and vocabulary words that go along with debating but introducing only a couple new things each time you have this kind of lesson will allow students to focus mostly on the lesson topic while still building their vocabulary. Phrases such as “I see your point however…” and “I agree/disagree with you but/because…” would be appropriate. To lead a debate, divide students into two groups with each one representing one side of the argument. You can give them a passage to read about the topic and some facts or perhaps give one side facts to support its argument while giving a different set of facts to the other. While students are working in groups, it is important to ensure that each student has the opportunity to practice speaking. Give students some time to review the material and organize their thoughts before conducting the activity. Students should decide who presents the initial argument for their group and then take turns presenting their case and responding to the other group’s points. You may decide to judge the groups based on how they present material and the strength of their arguments or simply conduct the activity for fun. Once students have exhausted the topic, it may be appropriate to have groups switch sides so that students get to argue both sides of the same discussion or have another debate on an entirely new topic if there is enough time. To start this lesson, you could ask each student to write down a problem he has and submit it anonymously at the beginning of class. This way, the advice given during the lesson is sure to relate to issues that the students are dealing with and thus gives it much more relevance than any sort of problems you may think of to use for this activity. To start, simply draw a problem out of a hat, box or jar for instance and read it aloud to the class as if it were your problem. Ask students to take turns giving you advice about the problem. After a piece of advice has been offered you can open it up for discussion by saying “Do you think that’s a good idea?” and perhaps having students raise their hands if they agree with the advice. Then ask why students agree and why other students disagree with the advice. Call on a student who disagrees to give another piece of advice and repeat this again or move on to another problem. This gives students examples of real life situations where they may need to give advice as well as lots of speaking practice. Articles relating to current events, new technology, fashion, travel, or any hobby may be appropriate reading material for your class. It is important to choose a topic which will appeal to your students. You can use the article to practice pronunciation and introduce vocabulary but also to lead into a discussion. An article about soccer might lead to questions such as “Do you like soccer? Who is your favorite player? Did you watch the World Cup?” and then move on to more complex questions such as “Do you think soccer is getting more or less popular? Why?” Students can be asked lots of questions based on their responses and you can encourage other students to ask questions as well. Discussions are often challenging to lead in larger classes because there is a lot of time where students are not speaking so you may want to have students work in groups to discuss and then present material on a specific theme. Each group could be given a different theme and then students would have more time to express their individual opinions. With smaller classes discussions are much easier to conduct but you may have to prepare more questions for these lessons because students may move through the material more quickly. With both class sizes discussions are an important part of learning English because students need to be able to produce their own material based on their thoughts and opinions as opposed to simply regurgitating information and memorizing grammatical structures. Discussion classes are an excellent method of encouraging students to express themselves and give students lots of speaking practice. How often do you have discussion classes? How successful are they? Please share your ideas below. Tara has worked with English Language Learners of all ages for many years and has taught in Japan, Cambodia, and China as well as online. When she is not teaching, she enjoys cooking, traveling around the world, and scuba diving. She is a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi and is currently pursuing an M.A. in Teaching-TESOL at the University of Southern California. That's all it takes for you to say 'thank you' for the articles you find useful! Use the buttons above to show us your love, we know you want to! Get 25 'Like a Pro' ESL E-books at 70% OFF! Don't miss this unique opportunity to get the complete 'Like a Pro' series (twenty-five phenomenally popular ESL best-sellers) at only $3/book. Unbeatably priced, this Bundle literally saves you hundreds of dollars and fits your budget just right! I disagree that the textbooks are full of discussions. In my experience, you can use almost any material to launch a discussion, but textbooks cannot effectively introduce them or monitor them. These are the kinds of skills we teachers get paid the big bucks for! ;) Rabadi, I'm not sure what the purpose of your English class is, but it seems like it might be an English for academic purposes program. In your class you might not have the time to manage a discussion for such a large group as you probably have a lot of material to cover. However, in my experience of classes, both large and small, allowing students time to create their own language on the spot has been very beneficial. I have a lot of students who learned English as a foreign language, and they are used to reading and writing in English. However, I am working with them in America, and they need to be able to form coherent speech without a visual aid or the time to look the vocabulary and grammar up. This isn't always an official "discussion", but I give time after we have covered new material or read an interesting text for the students to talk in groups (about 5-10 minutes is the norm). I try to make time for the group to elect one person to share their group's opinions with the class. This can be modified depending on time, but it also helps me with classroom management. If I don't allow them to express their ideas, they will try to do it in their language or in English while I am teaching. We also learn a lot about each other this way. I agree that discussion is a vital part of learning English - perhaps that's why 'the textbooks are full of them'! My own students have a group discussion element in their speaking and listening exams and knowing how to take turns, interrupt appropriately, ask for the opinions of of others are all important skills. To simply 'just forget about discussion classes' as expressed by rabadi, in large classes would deny learners opportunities to interact in a constructive and meaningful way that will enrich their English learning experience. I think that what is needed on behalf of a teacher is to overcome the fear of trying new ideas and experimenting and above all to not be afraid to hand responsibility over to the students. I recall once initiating a discussion that just wasn't going anywhere. I was sitting with the students who all seemed to feel they should address their comments to me. At one point my programme manger came in to ask a question and called me over. While we were talking in whispers away from the class area, I noticed that the students started to become animated and begin speaking freely. The reason? Now the discussion belonged to them! Now, I urge the students to make eye contact with each other and speak as if I'm not in the room. It is still possible to monitor only in a less obvious way. This way, when students can practise in a non threatening way discussions will work and they will develop useful skills not only for the exam but to take part in the many other situations they will encounter outside the classroom. I am not being negative towards these types of methods and advice” how to lead….” The texts books are full of them. If you have a large class my advice to you is, just forget about discussion classes, it won’t work; instead you ask each student to prepare some topics, facts or current events as homework, and you might choose 2 or 4 students “depending on your timetable” to read out their written essay and be ready to answer any questions and defend his article. And it would be advisable if the teacher knows all the topics before hand and prepare a kind of discussion “only within the chosen topic” and encourage the speaker to stick to his origin thoughts and ideas and not to give in easily. I think this way gives every student equal share of the discussion classes, besides it gives the teacher a good opportunity to see the progress of his students.

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The Spanish-Portuguese War between 1735-1737 was fought over the Banda Oriental, roughly present-day Uruguay. At that time, this part of South-America was sparsely populated and was on the border between Portuguese Colonial Brazil and the Spanish Governorate of the Río de la Plata. Spain claimed the area based on the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, but Portugal had founded the first city there, the Sacramento Colony, in 1680. Spain had taken the city twice, in 1681 and in 1705, but had had to give it back to the Portuguese by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. The following years saw an expansion of the Portuguese settlements around the Sacramento Colony, in a radius of up to 120 km. As a reaction, capitán general of Río de la Plata Bruno Mauricio de Zabala had founded Montevideo on December 24, 1726 to prevent further expansion. But the Portuguese trade made the Spanish suffer, as they were still compelled to trade with Spain over the Viceroyalty of Peru, who imposed heavy taxes. Spain considered the Portuguese presence illegitimate and their trade contraband. In March 1734, the new capitán general of Río de la Plata, Miguel de Salcedo y Sierraalta, received orders from Madrid to reduce the action radius of the Sacramento Colony to "a gunshot", say two kilometers. He sent an ultimatum to António Pedro de Vasconcelos, the Portuguese governor of the colony, who stalled for time. In 1735 tensions raised between Spain and Portugal and Spanish ships under Alzaybar captured several Portuguese vessels. On April 19, Prime minister José Patiño ordered Salcedo to attack Sacramento. Salcedo gathered 1500 men and marched slowly on Sacramento, wasting a lot of time attacking minor targets along the road. He was supported by 4000 Indian warriors who came from the Jesuit Reductions. The siege started on October 14, 1735. By that time Vasconcelos had prepared the defense and sent a messenger to Rio de Janeiro to ask for reinforcements. José da Silva Pais send six Portuguese ships, which arrived on January 6 followed by 12 more ships a few days later. The Spanish had tried to impose a naval blockade, but the Portuguese had more ships and gained naval superiority. In 1736 and 1737 more ships were sent from Spain and Portugal and an occasional confrontation between a few ships occurred. But Spain couldn't gain the upper hand and on September 6 1736, the Portuguese even lay siege to Montevideo, but withdrew when Salcedo sent a relief force of 200 men. On March 16, 1737 under influence of France, Great Britain and the Netherlands, the Treaty of Paris was signed. In September the siege was lifted and the Spanish withdrew their forces and Miguel de Salcedo was disposed as governor of Buenos Aires. The war was local and involved only a couple of thousand men on each side.

http://www.reference.com/browse/Spanish%E2%80%93Portuguese+War%2C+1735%E2%80%931737

QUIET, clean fuel cells could soon replace the noisy and dirty diesel generators used to supply electricity to camp sites or remote buildings, now a team in Germany has worked out how to extract the hydrogen needed to power such fuel cells from propane gas. A hydrogen fuel cell is a way of burning a gas that generates electricity directly, instead of heat. Rather than allowing hydrogen to react with oxygen directly, the gas is first split into protons and electrons by a catalyst. The electrons flow through a circuitproviding electrical powerbefore combining with oxygen molecules to form negative ions, which then react with the protons, producing water. But fuel cells require a constant supply of hydrogen, and it is not safe to store hydrogen in sufficient quantities. So Thomas Rampe of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Freiburg looked for new ways to make it in close ... To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16221812.800-a-clean-green-power-machine.html

Lesson Plans and Worksheets Browse by Subject Spanish 2 Teacher Resources Find teacher approved Spanish 2 educational resource ideas and activities Watch the video, La Catrina, before reading the text as a class and translating Spanish to English. As students read the book, they practice Spanish pronunciation, develop Spanish vocabulary, and complete extension activities to reinforce their understanding of the text. There is rich symbolism behind a country's flag. Have your Spanish speakers research a country's flag and inquire about its symbolism. Then, to prepare for their presentation, each learner could find a way to visually represent their country's flag using materials of their choosing.

http://www.lessonplanet.com/lesson-plans/spanish-2

The fruits of Pollia condensata, which are found predominantly in Africa, have an iridescent hue that stays intense for years after the parent plant has perished. The fruit’s metallic blue hue is produced by specialized structures in its cells. Researchers at the University of Cambridge, UK, found that the cells of P. condensata had walls that were made of tightly coiled cellulose strands that are very efficient at reflecting light. The slight spacing between the strands in each cell reflects light of different wavelengths, creating an iridescent blue color. The scientists published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Optically, the fruit is quite impressive. There are no other examples of this in nature, but there are other examples of structural color in animals like peacock feathers, beetle carapaces, as well as some of the wings of butterflies. However, all of these use different structures and materials to achieve the effect. This is the first demonstration of structural color in a fruit. The fruit has no nutritional value since it contains only seeds and no pulp. The glittering effect might be to attract birds to disperse their seeds. The plant therefore doesn’t waste any energy by producing nectar, which is the most common way of doing this. Century-old specimens of the fruits maintain their iridescence, since there is no pulp to rot and no pigments that could fade. If synthesized, such colorants could be used to produce non-toxic pearlescent effects, for use in anti-counterfeiting and anti-forgery applications.

http://scitechdaily.com/african-fruit-gets-iridescent-hue-from-cell-structure-stays-intense-for-years/

(Phys.org) -- Over the past several years, additive manufacturing has become the golden child of process engineering. This is because it allows parts to be made faster, more cheaply and in some cases to be made at all. Now space engineers are looking at additive processing technology as a means for allowing astronauts on extended missions to build their own replacement parts during their trek, rather than relying on carrying tons of spare parts with them. Additive manufacturing refers to using techniques to add material to a beginning base of nothing to create something new as opposed to the way things have generally been done up to now, i.e. creating a big chunk of something and then removing the bits that are not wanted, generally by cutting and then machining. Besides the obvious reduction in material costs, there is also a reduction in machining costs if the part is made nearly perfect in the first step. Some additive processing technologies are referred to as 3D printing because the process is very similar to that used in inkjet printers. If an inkjet printer used thicker ink and repeatedly passed over a page, for example, eventually the ink would build up, producing a three dimensional object and that is what is at the heart of additive processing. Engineers at NASA are currently testing something they call EBF3 for Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication, which marries inkjet technology with welding techniques. In this process, a wire is heated to the melting point using an electron beam, similar to when two pieces of metal are welded together. But instead of joining pieces, the EBF3 adds new layers of material building up three dimensional objects. The result is a process that produces no waste and that can be preconfigured and run in the same fashion as robots that weld parts together when making cars. Because no one can predict which parts on a spacecraft might fail during a long trip, tons of spare parts would need to be carried along to ensure a safe and productive trip, unless most of those parts could be created on the fly by the astronauts themselves. Thats what the engineers working in several NASA facilities are working on right now. The trick is to build an additive processing machine that is small enough to take on a space flight mission, yet versatile enough to allow for adding materials of many different types while fashioning just one part, i.e. metal, plastic, rubber, etc. Thus far, engineers have tested additive technologies on planes that simulate zero gravity and have found their machines work just as well as when used here on Earth. The next step is to put together a program to test the machines by astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Explore further: Research paves the way for accurate manufacturing of complex parts for aerospace and car industries More information: www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=29574541

http://phys.org/news/2012-07-nasa-additive-space.html

Make Clay Idioms a "Piece of Cake"! "That test was a piece of cake!" "It's clean as a whistle!" Idioms, well-known words or phrases that have figurative meanings different from their literal ones, can be found everywhere from the books we read to our everyday conversations. That’s why it’s important that your child understands the figure of speech he’s using. Luckily, an idiom is more than just an expression. It is also the inspiration for this fun, hands-on art activity! In this activity, your child will use modeling clay to represent the literal meaning of an idiom which can then be compared to how we use the phrase when we talk or write. To complete this activity, your child will brainstorm all the idioms he knows and think creatively about how to represent his favorite one using clay. Above all, he’ll discover that practicing English grammar can be fun! What You Need: - Sheet of paper - Modeling clay (can be found at any craft store) - Internet access (only if you need help brainstorming)

http://www.education.com/activity/article/create-clay-idioms/

Did you know that the Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the planet? As the worldwide climate warms, Arctic autumns are growing warmer due to a process called surface based Arctic amplification. Why Autumns And Not Summers? Summers are warming too, but not as dramatically. That’s because during summer, the sun’s energy is used to melt snow and sea ice. Once they melt, the darker colored land and ocean are exposed to absorb the sun’s energy. Over the last three decades, the Arctic summer melt season has grown longer and more intense. It is particularly noticeable over the ocean because water is slow to warm and slow to cool. The Arctic Ocean maintains its heat long after the summer season is over. Ocean ice insulates the Arctic atmosphere from warmer ocean waters. As more ice melts over the summer, more ocean water is left exposed in the fall. That allows more ocean heat to transfer from the water into the lower atmosphere. More ice melting in summer leaves more water exposed in autumn to make the atmosphere warmer during that time. Scientists didn’t have good measurements of the ice until 1979 when satellite tracking began. Since the early nineties, September sea ice has been declining, and autumn Arctic temperatures have been on the rise. Ice cover in the Arctic has been variable in the past, but if the present warming trend continues, scientists expect to see warmer Arctic winters next. And then warmer springs.

http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/arctic-warming/

| Wiki Help | IV Home | All Countries The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election. The Congress meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The Constitution provides checks and balances among the three branches of the federal government. The authors of the Constitution expected the greater power to lie with Congress and it has been theorized that that is one reason they are described in Article One. Introducing Bills and resolutions A proposal may be introduced in Congress as a bill, a joint resolution, a concurrent resolution, or a simple resolution. Most legislative proposals are introduced as bills, but some are introduced as joint resolutions. There is little practical difference between the two, except that joint resolutions may include preambles but bills may not. Joint resolutions are the normal method used to propose a constitutional amendment or to declare war. On the other hand, concurrent resolutions (passed by both houses) and simple resolutions (passed by only one house) do not have the force of law. Instead, they serve to express the opinion of Congress, or to regulate procedure. Bills (and other proposals) may be introduced by any member of either house. However, the Constitution provides that: "All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.Nevertheless, while the Senate cannot originate revenue and appropriation bills, it does retain the power to amend or reject them. Each bill goes through several stages in each house. The first stage involves consideration by a committee. Most legislation is considered by standing committees, each of which has jurisdiction over a particular subject matter, such as Agriculture or Appropriations. The House has twenty standing committees; the Senate has sixteen. In some cases, bills may be sent to select committees, which tend to have more narrow jurisdictions than standing committees. Each standing and select committee is led by a chair (who belongs to the majority party) and a ranking member (who belongs to the minority party). Committees are permitted to hold hearings and collect evidence when considering bills. They may also amend the bill, but the full house holds the power to accept or reject committee amendments. After considering and debating a measure, the committee votes on whether it wishes to report the measure to the full house. Once a bill is approved by one house, it is sent to the other, which may pass, reject, or amend it. In order for the bill to become law, both houses must agree to identical versions of the bill. If the second house amends the bill, then the differences between the two versions must be reconciled in a conference committee, an ad hoc committee that includes both senators and representatives. In many cases, conference committees have introduced substantial changes to bills and added unrequested spending, significantly departing from both the House and Senate versions. After passage by both houses, a bill is submitted to the President. The President may choose to sign the bill, thereby making it law. The President may also choose to veto the bill, returning it to Congress with his objections. In such a case, the bill only becomes law if each house of Congress votes to override the veto with a two-thirds majority. Finally, the President may choose to take no action, neither signing nor vetoing the bill. In such a case, the Constitution states that the bill automatically becomes law after ten days, excluding Sundays. However, if Congress adjourns (ends a legislative session) during the ten day period, then the bill does not become law. Thus, the President may veto legislation passed at the end of a congressional session simply by ignoring it; the maneuver is known as a pocket veto, and cannot be overridden by the adjourned Congress. Bills introduced related to Legal Immigration in the recent past Latest immigration bill in senate Immigration related legislation, congressional action and regulatory actions June 6, 2010 Grassley-Sanders Amendment News articles and reports 1 News articles and reports 2 News articles and reports 3 Immigration deal announced May 24 Senate Proceedings April 5th senate proceedings May 18 Senate proceedings May 17 Senate proceedings May 22 Senate proceedings May 16 Senate proceedings US House of Representative Further Info and Discussions HR5882 scheduled for July 31 IV needs support Updates from Congress CIR in senate, May 07 Important IV update: What we are working on and our plans Omnibus Appropriations Bill HR 6039 introduced in House Important news and updates about CIR Senate Immig Amdmnt to Min Wage Bill not passed Supprt Cornyn-Cantwell amendment Omnibus update from IV Legislative movement on Immigration CIR in Senate, June 07 Call lawmakers on HR 5882 9 Immigration bills in 2006 Updates: House Judiciary Committee CIR Conference committee updates Lame duck session 2 action items alert June 27 live update from senate floor Senate passes CIR 06 with IV Goals Sen.Cornyn introduces skill bill in senate

http://immigrationvoice.org/wiki/index.php/US_Congress

How is sound used to study undersea earthquakes and volcanic eruptions? Undersea earthquakes and volcanic eruptions (seismic events) make low frequency sounds. The sounds they make can be heard far away from the seismic event location. In the Pacific Ocean, sounds from a volcanic eruption have been heard thousands of miles away. Hydrophones located around the Pacific Ocean monitor the ocean for sounds of seismic events. The sounds made by a seismic event are also used to accurately locate the event. Very small eruptions can be monitored and located with sound. These small eruptions far from land can be difficult to monitor and locate with seismometers on land. Earthquakes not associated with volcanic eruptions make different sounds than volcanic eruptions. Using the sounds made by the seismic event, scientists can tell if the event is an earthquake or a volcanic eruption. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) VENTS Program uses the Navy's Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) and additional hydrophones to monitor the North Pacific Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean for seismic events.

http://www.dosits.org/people/examineearth/studyearthquakesandvolcanos/

Case studies require students to analyze problem situations and reach their own conclusions concerning the outcome. Case studies can take many forms: legal cases based on written opinions of courts; hypothetical situations involving some conflict or dilemma; and real-life situations drawn from newspapers, magazines, books, or other sources. While case studies are generally presented in written form, they can also be presented by use of an audiovisual medium such as a movie or tape recording. Whatever the source of the case, it will usually include the following elements: - a description of the facts - a statement of the issue or problem posed by the case - a reference to the arguments or various positions that can be taken on the issue - a decision or a result on the issue presented - an explanation of the reasoning behind the decision. Select the Case Materials: Cases may be real or hypothetical, long or short, based on written opinions of a court or derived from an everyday situation. Review of Facts: The facts of the case serve as the basis for classroom discussion. Therefore, the inquiry process should be started by carefully reviewing and clarifying all of the facts. Students should be asked the following questions: - What happened in this case? - Who are the parties? - What facts are important? Unimportant? - Is any significant information missing? - Why did the people involved act the way they did? Frame the Issue: Students should pinpoint and discuss the issues or problems presented by the case. The legal issue is the question of law on which resolution of the case turns. An issue should be posed in the form of a question. While most cases revolve around a legal issue, students should also consider issues of public policy, values in conflict, and practical reality. For example, a case study involving abortion might involve the following issues: - Legal: Is abortion legal? If so, under what circumstances? - Public Policy: Should abortion be legal? Why or why not? - Values in Conflict: Which value is more important, a woman's right to privacy or an unborn child's right to life? Why? - Practical: What are the options open to someone faced with an unwanted pregnancy? Where can someone in this situation go for help and advice? Discuss the Arguments: Once students have focused on the issues, they should develop and discuss the arguments that can be made for and against each of the various points of view. When discussing the arguments, students should consider questions such as the following: - What are the arguments in favor of and against each point of view? - Which arguments are most persuasive? Least persuasive? Why? - What might be the consequences of each course of action? To the parties? To society? - Are there any alternatives? In discussing the various arguments it is important to foster a climate of acceptance and openness. Students must know that all opinions are welcome and that their ideas will receive a fair hearing and analysis no matter how controversial or touchy the issue. In other words, students should be encouraged to listen to, consider, and evaluate all points of view Reach a Decision: A decision is the answer to the issue or issues posed by the case. When students are given the decision, as in a court case, they should be asked to evaluate it. - Do they agree or disagree with it? - A statement of the issue or problem posed by the case, a reference to the arguments or various positions that can be taken on the issue What will the decision mean for the parties? For society? Students might be asked how they would decide a case and why. After the students have reached their own conclusions, the teacher can tell them the actual result or holding in the case, at which point students can compare their own result to that of the court. Variations: When conducting a case study, the teacher may wish to try one of the variations on the case method. Typical variations include the following. - Giving Students an Entire Case: (i.e., facts, issues, arguments, decisions, and reasoning). This approach focuses on student identification and comprehension of the facts, issues, arguments, decision, and student evaluation of the decision and the court's reasoning. - Giving Students Unmarked Opinions: (i.e., facts, issues, arguments, and unmarked judicial opinions). Using this approach, students are not told which of the court opinions is the actual holding of the court. Rather they are asked to select the opinion they agree with and explain why. Later they can be given the actual holding and asked to compare their reasoning and result against that of the court. - Giving Students Only the Facts: With this approach, students are asked to identify and formulate the issues, prepare arguments on each side, develop a decision, and then evaluate their issues, arguments, and decision against the actual holding of the court. After giving out only the facts, or the facts and the issue(s), many teachers organize students into "law firms," asking them to develop and rank for persuasiveness the arguments for each side.

http://www.streetlaw.org/en/landmark/teaching_strategies/case_study

Number Recognition and Counting Number sense is more than merely counting – it involves understanding the different uses for numbers, relationships between numbers, counting, adding, subtracting, ordering, problem solving, recording, division, fractions and multiplication to name a few!1 From just a few days old babies can recognise small groups of up to 3 objects (Macnamar 1996).As toddlers, children are forming comparisons between the sizes of small groups of objects and at about 2 years of age children begin to use the language of comparison such as ‘more’ same and different. Two year olds will ‘count’ in counting language but not necessarily in counting order.2 Recent research believes that the experience of counting in real and different contexts is key in learning to count effectively, and leads to developing understanding of numbers and number operations such as addition and subtraction. Children may begin by using counting words mechanically, repeating them with little meaning attached, they then begin to count objects, gradually moving to a more sophisticated view of counting and it’s relationship to number 3 The young girl below is joyfully and playfully incorporating numbers into a game linked with her art activity. The counting sequence hows that she knows well one of the functions of counting – ie it can be used as a countdown mechanism to signify the end of making a mark in the made up game. We believe that children become confident mathematicians through many of the experiences and opportunities they have each day in playgroups, full day care services and of course in the home. It is in the home that the basis for mathematical thinking, concepts and practices begin. Imagine the parent climbing the stairs with the toddler. Mum is counting ‘one, two, three’ as they move up each stair. Apart from the enjoyment and intimacy of being with Mum, the toddler begins to make associations between the number ‘1’ and what that exactly means. Children learn about money as they go shopping with parents, and they start to understand the concept of time as they become familiar with the routine of their day– wash, dress, breakfast etc.In this way the learning is very real and relevant to the toddler as it is embedded in a situation that is both familiar and safe. In the pre-school setting young children sort and classify dinosaurs by type and by size as they gather the big and small Tyrannosauruses, they play games involving sequences, they sing rhymes and songs that involve numbers and fun, they tidy up by sorting all the home corner crockery (plates, saucers and cups by size) and they build train tracks deciding which shape is needed for the game. The children in the ‘car race’ learning story are building an awareness that a variety of symbols (print and numbers) are used to communicate, and understand that these can be read by others. They are having opportunities to use mark making materials in an enjoyable way and they are developing counting skills and mathematical language in different situations. Here are some other simple ways of incorporating number and counting opportunities into your service so that children can experience these in their everyday routine and play: A language rich environment is crucial in developing children’s numeracy and literacy. Discuss with children what numbers are used for, such as keeping score in a game, or finding a street address. Use the language of quantity to make comparisons such as more, the same – ie do we have enough cups for everyone? Next, before, more, fewer, add, take away, left, how many, guess, estimate, nearly, close to, about the same, not enough, too few, zero, nothing, all gone, same, different, first, second, third, more/most, bigger/biggest, fewer/fewest, smaller/smallest, less/least, compare, order, size – are all useful words for encouraging an understanding of number. Use everyday opportunities as they arise,to count things that are familiar to the children as they play. Counting toy cars, blocks, play money, farm animals and everyday objects that children encounter, will have more meaning for them. Use fingers to count. Put up a finger one at a time as you count it: fingers are tools you always have with you. Demonstrate one-to-one correspondence by purposefully touching each item as you count it. Have the children join you by counting aloud and/or pointing to the items as you count together. Children also develop their fine motor skills through activities such as threading beads and counting them. Create basic counting games by counting aloud how long it takes to set the table, put away toys, or put on jackets or wellies. These games can be played in short spans of time and in any place, since no materials are needed. Display numbers and label items with names, where it is possible and useful in the room. Clocks, telephones, calculators, birthday board, photos with numbers ie house numbers. Have books in the display area with counting pictures; recognition of numbers as symbols or words; adding and subtracting in pictorial form will all contribute to a learners first knowledge of maths. Numbers can also be displayed outside also in creative ways so children can touch and feel them as they count. Read books with counting themes or repetitive phrases to the children. The pictures should be colourful, engaging and easy to count and the numbers should be easy to identify and printed clearly.As you read a counting book, encourage children to say aloud the number on each page and then count the objects on the page by touching each picture as you count. Touching each picture one time while counting aloud reinforces the concept of one-to-one correspondence. Songs and rhymes Use popular children’s songs such as ‘ten in the bed’ to sing and act out the numerical meaning in them. Similarly use action number rhymes and stories Games such as marbles, hopscotch, skittles all involve number, as do many mnade up games that children naturally play. When children are older you can play the “What comes next?” game to help children’s understanding of numbers. For example, say “3,4,5, What comes next?” Have number dice available for board and other games that children enjoy playing. Notice how the children devise their own rules for maths and counting games, that may differ widely from the ‘correct’ way. Very often, children need this exploratory stage before they are ready to play the game in the usual manner. It frees them of the frustration of something that may still be too hard for them. Sorting objects helps children to learn that numbers are used to describe quantities and relationships. Encourage children to sort objects looking for similarities in either color, shape, or size, which is an everyday part of tidyup time.Encourage childrent to sort objects by their differences also, like which box is bigger, smaller and so on, within their everyday play. Have a shop area either /and inside and outside – Shopping role play stimulates both children’s imagination and social development. It is good for language skills and problem-solving, and provides countless opportunities to explore maths. A well-equipped home corner and outdoor area containing resources that children can use to set up shop is vital if we are to support this area of children’s play.4 The village shop in the Garden of Possibilities , a recent Early Childhood Ireland publication, has a fantastic example of an outdoor shop area. Similarly provide opportunities for dressing up with different clothing and costumes – ie The Three bears. Provide opportunities in the home area for preparing food and inviting guests for dinner- ie plates for tables etc Blocks encourage and provoke mathematical thinking as children explore their properties. Observe children at their block play and take note of their comments and non-verbal problem solving(nw) Sand and water play Extend children’s sand and water play by asking how many sandcastles, how much water do you need to fill the bucket and so on. Provide paper, pens and clipboards so that children can avail of them in their play. Look out for interesting junk mail with forms and ‘boxes’ for filling in with numbers. Small whiteboards and markers are useful as well as easels for big number writing, and paintbrushes and water can be used outside for non permanent mark marking! |Display:||Use low-level boxes or tables at different heights to make it easier to play with the interactive displays.| |Storage:||Make sure children can see and access resources easily. Shelving with baskets makes the perfect storage. It’s easy to see what’s inside and baskets can be easily transported around the setting.| |Rugs and Cushions:||Include a rug and a few cushions for comfort and bring the resources down to the floor as well as at different levels. Look out for cushion covers with numerals printed or stitched onto them and buttons in clusters for counting.| In the Parents’ Section of the website we have outlined ways in which parents can encourage children’s numeracy and literacy in the home. Things to think about How do I use language in my setting to encourage number? How do we encourage children to play with number? What opportunities and support do we give children to seek challenges and persist with their problem solving? Links to Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Exploring and Thinking Aim 3: Children will explore ways to represent ideas, feelings, thoughts, objects, and actions through symbols. In partnership with the adult, children will: |1||make marks and use drawing, painting and model-making to record objects, events and ideas| |2||become familiar with and associate symbols (pictures, numbers, letters, and words) with the things they represent| |3||build awareness of the variety of symbols (pictures, print, numbers) used to communicate, and use these in an enjoyable and meaningful way leading to early reading and writing| |5||use letters, words, sentences, numbers, signs, pictures, colour, and shapes to give and record information, to describe and to make sense of their own and others’ experiences| Let us Know Your Suggestions: 1&2Montague-Smith,Ann.Mathematics in Nursery Education.London:David Fulton Publishers, 2nd ed.2003

http://www.earlychildhoodireland.ie/number/

We previously discussed common errors made when writing at intermediate level. This current entry is about punctuation, and what we should consider when writing at this level. Here are some basic rules on how to use the period, comma, semicolon, colon, question mark, and exclamation mark. Remind students that they should end a sentence with a period (full stop - British English). A sentence is a group of words which contains a Subject, and a Verb. He went to Detroit last week. They are going to visit. Utilize students' writing and other guided activities to show how the comma is used. Teach the more advanced uses, or the ones which differ from their mother tongue (if/when the group's source language is one). Here is a list of most common uses: 1. It's used to separate a list of items. This is one of the most common uses of a comma. Notice that a comma is included before the conjunction 'and' which comes before the final element of a list. I like reading, listening to music, taking long walks, and visiting with my friends. They would like books, magazines, DVDs, video cassettes, and other learning materials for their library. This use is a good example of the conjunction 'and' used with a comma. This is in reference to one of your queries on how to use the comma with conjunctions such as and. 2. Use it to separate phrases (clauses). This is especially true after a beginning dependent clause. In order to qualify for your certificate, you will need to take the TOEFL exam. Although he wanted to come, he wasn't able to attend the course. 3. Use it to separate two independent clauses that are connected by a conjunction such as 'but'. This is another clear example of how to use the comma with the conjunctions but, and, etc. They wanted to purchase a new car, but their financial situation would not allow it. I'd really enjoy seeing a film this evening, and I'd like to go out for a drink. 4. Use it as parentheses to separate a noun, a noun phrase, or non-defining relative clauses. Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, comes from Seattle. My only sister, who is a fantastic tennis player, is in great shape. I am personally very confused about the first use of the semicolon and avoid it. It is common and required in American English to use it when separating two independent clauses: 1. You can use it when one or both of the clauses are short, and the ideas expressed are usually very similar. He loves studying; He can't get enough of school. What an incredible situation; it must make you nervous. 2. The second use is more common, and I tend to resort to it in longer sentences. Use it also to separate groups of words that are themselves separated by commas. I took a holiday and played golf, which I love; read a lot, which I needed to do; and slept late, which I hadn't done for quite a while. They plan to study German, for their travels; chemistry, for their work; and literature, for their own enjoyment. A colon can be used for two purposes: 1. To provide additional details and explanation. He had many reasons for joining the club: to get in shape, to make new friends, to lose some weight, and to get out of the house. She gave notice for the following reasons: bad pay, horrible hours, poor relations with colleagues, and her boss. 2. To introduce a direct quote (a comma can also be used in this situation). He announced to his friends: "I'm getting married!" She cried out: "I never want to see you again!" THE QUESTION MARK Point out to students that a question always ends with a question mark. Where do you live? How long have they been studying? THE EXCLAMATION MARK Utilize their writing and other reading texts to demonstrate that the exclamation mark is used at the end of a sentence to show surprise. It is also used for emphasis. Stress that they should be careful not to use an exclamation mark too often. That ride was fantastic! I can't believe he is going to marry her! Students at this level very often find it difficult to follow the capitalization rules. Possibly because they are different in their mother tongue. Currently, they rebelliously refuse to use capital letters because of bad writing habits when answering emails and writing text messages. Take every opportunity to remind them to: 1. Capitalize the first word of a sentence. There is something wrong with this cheese. Strange things have happened recently. 2. Capitalize the pronoun "I" He asked me where I had bought my jacket. If I see her, I will give her your message. 3. Capitalize proper nouns I visited California on my vacation. She gave Peter a present for his birthday. 4. Capitalize languages, states, countries, nationalities, continents, etc. Do you speak Russian? My friend lives in South Carolina. We are planning a vacation in South Africa. 5. Capitalize days of the week, holidays, and months of the year. She flew to Dallas in September. Do you have any time on Monday? These are some basic tips on how to prepare for a writing task. As a teacher I keep a checklist when reviewing writing assignments. These are some key points on my checklist. I hope you've found this article informative. I'd very much appreciate your comments regarding the topic. Please, click on the following links for further information on punctuation and capitalization.

http://bookstefl.blogspot.com/2011/12/capitalization-and-punctuation.html

This chapter has been published in the book INDIA & Southeast Asia to 1800. For ordering information, please click here. In the Andhra land Satavahana king Simuka overthrew the last Kanva king in 30 BC and according to the Puranas reigned for 23 years. The Andhras were called Dasyus in the Aitareya Brahmana, and they were criticized for being degraded Brahmins or outcastes by the orthodox. For three centuries the kingdom of the Satavahanas flourished except for a brief invasion by the Shaka clan of Kshaharata led by Bhumaka and Nahapana in the early 2nd century CE. The latter was overthrown as the Satavahana kingdom with its caste system was restored by Gautamiputra Satakarni about 125 CE; his mother claimed he rooted out Shakas (Scythians), Yavanas (Greeks and Romans), and Pahlavas (Parthians), and records praised Gautamiputra for being virtuous, concerned about his subjects, taxing them justly, and stopping the mixing of castes. His successor Pulumavi ruled for 29 years and extended Satavahana power to the mouth of the Krishna River. Trade with the Romans was active from the first century CE when Pliny complained that 550 million sesterces went to India annually, mostly for luxuries like spices, jewels, textiles, and exotic animals. The Satavahana kingdom was ruled in small provinces by governors, who became independent when the Satavahana kingdom collapsed. An inscription dated 150 CE credits Shaka ruler Rudradaman with supporting the cultural arts and Sanskrit literature and repairing the dam built by the Mauryans. Rudradaman took back most of the territory the Satavahana king Gautamiputra captured from Nahapana, and he also conquered the Yaudheya tribes in Rajasthan. However, in the next century the warlike Yaudheyas became more powerful. The indigenous Nagas also were aggressive toward Shaka satraps in the 3rd century. In the Deccan after the Satavahanas, Takataka kings ruled from the 3rd century to the 6th. Probably in the second half of the first century BC Kharavela conquered much territory for Kalinga in southeastern India and patronized Jainism. He was said to have spent much money for the welfare of his subjects and had the canal enlarged that had been built three centuries before by the Nandas. In addition to a large palace, a monastery was built at Pabhara, and caves were excavated for the Jains. Late in the 1st century BC a line of Iranian kings known as the Pahlavas ruled northwest India. The Shaka (Scythian) Maues, who ruled for about 40 years until 22 CE, broke relations with the Iranians and claimed to be the great king of kings himself. Maues was succeeded by three Shaka kings whose reigns overlapped. The Parthian Gondophernes seems to have driven the last Greek king Hermaeus out of the Kabul valley and taken over Gandhara from the Shakas, and it was said that he received at his court Jesus' disciple Thomas. Evidence indicates that Thomas also traveled to Malabar about 52 CE and established Syrian churches on the west coast before crossing to preach on the east coast around Madras, where he was opposed and killed in 68. However, the Pahlavas were soon driven out by Scythians Chinese historians called the Yue-zhi. Their Kushana tribal chief Kujula Kadphises, his son Vima Kadphises, and Kanishka (r. 78-101) gained control of the western half of northern India by 79 CE. According to Chinese history one of these kings demanded to marry a Han princess, but the Kushanas were defeated by the Chinese led by Ban Chao at the end of the 1st century. Kanishka, considered the founder of the Shaka era, supported Buddhism, which held its 4th council in Kashmir during his reign. A new form of Mahayana Buddhism with the compassionate saints (bodhisattvas) helping to save others was spreading in the north, while the traditional Theravada of saints (arhats) working for their own enlightenment held strong in southern regions. Several great Buddhist philosophers were favored at Kanishka's court, including Parshva, Vasumitra, and Ashvaghosha; Buddhist missions were sent to central Asia and China, and Kanishka was said to have died fighting in central Asia. Kushana power decreased after the reign of Vasudeva (145-176), and they became vassals in the 3rd century after being defeated by Shapur I of the Persian Sasanian dynasty. In the great vehicle or way of Mahayana Buddhism the saint (bodhisattva) is concerned with the virtues of benevolence, character, patience, perseverance, and meditation, determined to help all souls attain nirvana. This doctrine is found in the Sanskrit Surangama Sutra of the first century CE. In a dialog between the Buddha and Ananda before a large gathering of monks, the Buddha declares that keeping the precepts depends on concentration, which enhances meditation and develops intelligence and wisdom. He emphasizes that the most important allurement to overcome is sexual thought, desire, and indulgence. The next allurement is pride of ego, which makes one prone to be unkind, unjust, and cruel. Unless one can control the mind so that even the thought of killing or brutality is abhorrent, one will never escape the bondage of the world. Killing and eating flesh must be stopped. No teaching that is unkind can be the teaching of the Buddha. Another precept is to refrain from coveting and stealing, and the fourth is not to deceive or tell lies. In addition to the three poisons of lust, hatred, and infatuation, one must curtail falsehood, slander, obscene words, and flattery. Ashvaghosha was the son of a Brahmin and at first traveled around arguing against Buddhism until he was converted, probably by Parshva. Ashvaghosha wrote the earliest Sanskrit drama still partially extant; in the Shariputra-prakarana the Buddha converts Maudgalyayana and Sariputra by philosophical discussion. His poem Buddhacharita describes the life and teachings of the Buddha very beautifully. The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana is ascribed to Ashvaghosha. That treatise distinguishes two aspects of the soul as suchness (bhutatathata) and the cycle of birth and death (samsara). The soul as suchness is one with all things, but this cannot be described with any attributes. This is negative in its emptiness (sunyata) but positive as eternally transcendent of all intellectual categories. Samsara comes forth from this ultimate reality. Multiple things are produced when the mind is disturbed, but they disappear when the mind is quiet. The separate ego-consciousness is nourished by emotional and mental prejudices (ashrava). Since all beings have suchness, they can receive instructions from all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and receive benefits from them. By the purity of enlightenment they can destroy hindrances and experience insight into the oneness of the universe. All Buddhas feel compassion for all beings, treating others as themselves, and they practice virtue and good deeds for the universal salvation of humanity in the future, recognizing equality among people and not clinging to individual existence. Thus the prejudices and inequities of the caste system were strongly criticized. Mahayana texts were usually written in Sanskrit instead of Pali, and the Prajnaparamita was translated into Chinese as early as 179 CE by Lokakshema. This dialog of 8,000 lines in which the Buddha spoke for himself and through Subhuti with his disciples was also summarized in verse. The topic is perfect wisdom. Bodhisattvas are described as having an even and friendly mind, being amenable, straight, soft-spoken, free of perceiving multiplicity, and free of self-interest. Detached, they do not want gain or fame, and their hearts are not overcome by anger nor do they seek a livelihood in the wrong way. Like an unstained lotus in the water they return from concentration to the sense world to mature beings and purify the field with compassion for all living things. Having renounced a heavenly reward they serve the entire world, like a mother taking care of her child. Thought produced is dedicated to enlightenment. They do not wish to release themselves in a private nirvana but become the world's resting place by learning not to embrace anything. With a mind full of friendliness and compassion, seeing countless beings with heavenly vision as like creatures on the way to slaughter, a Bodhisattva impartially endeavors to release them from their suffering by working for the welfare of all beings. Nagarjuna was also born into a Brahmin family and in the 2nd century CE founded the Madhyamika (Middle Path) school of Mahayana Buddhism, although he was concerned about Hinayanists too. He was a stern disciplinarian and expelled many monks from the community at Nalanda for not observing the rules. A division among his followers led to the development of the Yogachara school of philosophy. Nagarjuna taught that all things are empty, but he answered critics that this does not deny reality but explains how the world happens. Only from the absolute point of view is there no birth or annihilation. The Buddha and all beings are like the sky and are of one nature. All things are nothing but mind established as phantoms; thus blissful or evil existence matures according to good or evil actions. Nagarjuna discussed ethics in his Suhrllekha. He considered ethics faultless and sublime as the ground of all, like the earth. Aware that riches are unstable and void, one should give; for there is no better friend than giving. He recommended the transcendental virtues of charity, patience, energy, meditation, and wisdom, while warning against avarice, deceit, illusion, lust, indolence, pride, greed, and hatred. Attaining patience by renouncing anger he felt was the most difficult. One should look on another's wife like one's mother, daughter or sister. It is more heroic to conquer the objects of the six senses than a mass of enemies in battle. Those who know the world are equal to the eight conditions of gain and loss, happiness and suffering, fame and dishonor, and blame and praise. A woman (or man), who is gentle as a sister, winning as a friend, caring as a mother, and obedient as a servant, one should honor as a guardian goddess (god). He suggested meditating on kindness, pity, joy, and equanimity, abandoning desire, reflection, happiness, and pain. The aggregates of form, perception, feeling, will, and consciousness arise from ignorance. One is fettered by attachment to religious ceremonies, wrong views, and doubt. One should annihilate desire as one would extinguish a fire in one's clothes or head. Wisdom and concentration go together, and for the one who has them the sea of existence is like a grove. During the frequent wars that preceded the Gupta empire in the 4th century the Text of the Excellent Golden Light (Suvarnaprabhasottama Sutra) indicated the Buddhist attitude toward this fighting. Everyone should be protected from invasion in peace and prosperity. While turning back their enemies, one should create in the earthly kings a desire to avoid fighting, attacking, and quarreling with neighbors. When the kings are contented with their own territories, they will not attack others. They will gain their thrones by their past merit and not show their mettle by wasting provinces; thinking of mutual welfare, they will be prosperous, well fed, pleasant, and populous. However, when a king disregards evil done in his own kingdom and does not punish criminals, injustice, fraud, and strife will increase in the land. Such a land afflicted with terrible crimes falls into the power of the enemy, destroying property, families, and wealth, as men ruin each other with deceit. Such a king, who angers the gods, will find his kingdom perishing; but the king, who distinguishes good actions from evil, shows the results of karma and is ordained by the gods to preserve justice by putting down rogues and criminals in his domain even to giving up his life rather than the jewel of justice. After 20 BC many kings ruled Sri Lanka (Ceylon) during a series of succession fights until Vasabha (r. 67-111 CE) of the Lambakanna sect established a new dynasty that would rule more than three centuries. Vasabha promoted the construction of eleven reservoirs and an extensive irrigation system. The island was divided briefly by his son and his two brothers, as the Chola king Karikala invaded; but Gajabahu (r. 114-36) united the country and invaded the Chola territory. A treaty established friendly relations, and Hindu temples were built on Sri Lanka, including some for the chaste goddess immortalized in the Silappadikaram. Sri Lanka experienced peace and prosperity for 72 years, and King Voharika Tissa (r. 209-31) even abolished punishment by mutilation. However, when the Buddhist schism divided people, the king suppressed the new Mahayana doctrine and banished its followers. Caught in an intrigue with the queen, his brother Abhayanaga (r. 231-40) fled to India, and then with Tamils invaded Sri Lanka, defeated and killed his brother, took the throne, and married the queen. Gothabhaya (r. 249-62) persecuted the new Vetulya doctrine supported by monks at Abhayagirivihara by having sixty monks branded and banished. Their accounts of this cruelty led Sanghamitta to tutor the princes in such a way that when Mahasena (r. 274-301) became king, he confiscated property from the traditional Mahavihara monastery and gave it to Abhayagirivihara. The Tamil epic poem called The Ankle Bracelet (Silappadikaram) was written about 200 CE by Prince Ilango Adigal, brother of King Shenguttuvan, who ruled the western coast of south India. Kovalan, the son of a wealthy merchant in Puhar, marries Kannaki, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy ship-owner. The enchanting Madhavi dances so well for the king that he gives her a wreath that she sells to Kovalan for a thousand gold kalanjus, making her his mistress. They sing songs to each other of love and lust until he notices hints of her other loves; so he withdraws his hands from her body and departs. Kovalan returns to his wife in shame for losing his wealth; but she gives him her valuable ankle bracelet, and they decide to travel to Madurai. Kannaki courageously accompanies him although it causes her feet to bleed. They are joined by the saintly woman Kavundi, and like good Jains they try not to step on living creatures as they walk. They meet a saintly man who tells them that no one can escape reaping the harvest grown from the seeds of one's actions. In the woods a charming nymph tries to tempt Kovalan with a message from Madhavi, but his prayer causes her to confess and run away. A soothsayer calls Kannaki the queen of the southern Tamil land, but she only smiles at such ignorance. A priest brings a message from Madhavi asking for forgiveness and noting his leaving his parents. Kovalan has the letter sent to his parents to relieve their anguish. Leaving his wife with the saint Kavundi, Kovalan goes to visit the merchants, while Kavundi warns him that the merits of his previous lives have been exhausted; they must prepare for misfortune. Reaping what is sown, many fall into predicaments from pursuing women, wealth, and pleasure; thus sages renounce all desire for worldly things. A Brahmin tells Kovalan that Madhavi has given birth to his baby girl; he has done good deeds in the past, but he warns him he must pay for some errors committed in a past existence. Kovalan feels bad for wasting his youth and neglecting his parents. He goes to town to sell the ankle bracelet; a goldsmith tells him only the queen can purchase it, but the goldsmith tells King Korkai that he has found the man who stole his royal anklet. The king orders the thief put to death, and Kovalan is killed with a sword. Kannaki weeping observes the spirit of her husband rise into the air, telling her to stay in life. She goes to King Korkai and proves her husband did not steal the anklet by showing him their anklet has gems not pearls. Filled with remorse for violating justice at the word of a goldsmith, the king dies, followed quickly in this by his queen. Kannaki goes out and curses the town as she walks around the city three times. Then she tears her left breast from her body and throws it in the dirt. A god of fire appears to burn the city, but she asks him to spare Brahmins, good men, cows, truthful women, cripples, the old, and children, while destroying evildoers. As the four genii who protect the four castes of Madurai depart, a conflagration breaks out. The goddess of Madurai explains to Kannaki that in a past life as Bharata her husband had renounced nonviolence and caused Sangaman to be beheaded, believing he was a spy. His wife cursed the killer, and now that action bore fruit. Kannaki wanders desolate for two weeks, confessing her crime. Then the king of heaven proclaims her a saint, and she ascends with Kovalan in a divine chariot. King Shenguttuvan, who had conquered Kadambu, leaves Vanji and hears stories about a woman with a breast torn off suffering agony and how Madurai was destroyed. The king decides to march north to bring back a great stone on the crowned heads of two kings, Kanaka and Vijaya, who had criticized him; the stone is to be carved into the image of the beloved goddess. His army crosses the Ganges and defeats the northern kings. The saintly Kavundi fasts to death. The fathers of Kovalan and Kannaki both give up their wealth and join religious orders, and Madhavi goes into a Buddhist nunnery, followed later in this by her daughter. Madalan advises King Shenguttuvan to give up anger and criticizes him for contributing to war, causing the king to release prisoners and refund taxes. The Chola king notes how the faithful wife has proved the Tamil proverb that the virtue of women is of no use if the king fails to establish justice. Finally the author himself appears in the court of his brother Shenguttuvan and gives a list of moral precepts that begins: Seek God and serve those who are near Him. Do not tell lies. Avoid eating the flesh of animals. Do not cause pain to any living thing. Be charitable, and observe fast days. Never forget the good others have done to you.1 In a preamble added by a later commentator three lessons are drawn from this story: First, death results when a king strays from the path of justice; second, everyone must bow before a chaste and faithful wife; and third, fate is mysterious, and all actions are rewarded. Many sanctuaries were built in southern India and Sri Lanka to the faithful wife who became the goddess of chastity. The Jain philosopher Kunda Kunda of the Digambara sect lived and taught sometime between the first and fourth centuries. He laid out his metaphysics in The Five Cosmic Constituents (Panchastikayasara). He noted that karmic matter brings about its own changes, as the soul by impure thoughts conditioned by karma does too. Freedom from sorrow comes from giving up desire and aversion, which cause karmic matter to cling to the soul, leading to states of existence in bodies with senses. Sense objects by perception then lead one to pursue them with desires or aversion, repeating the whole cycle. High ideals based on love, devotion, and justice, such as offering relief to the thirsty, hungry, and miserable, may purify the karmic matter; but anger, pride, deceit, coveting, and sensual pleasures interfere with calm thought, perception, and will, causing anguish to others, slander, and other evils. Meditating on the self with pure thought and controlled senses will wash off the karmic dust. Desire and aversion to pleasant and unpleasant states get the self bound by various kinds of karmic matter. The knowing soul associating with essential qualities is self-determined, but the soul led by desire for outer things gets bewildered and is other-determined. Kunda Kunda discussed ethics in The Soul Essence (Samayasara). As long as one does not discern the difference between the soul and its thought activity, the ignorant will indulge in anger and other emotions that accumulate karma. The soul discerning the difference turns back from these. One with wrong knowledge takes the non-self for self, identifies with anger, and becomes the doer of karma. As the king has his warriors wage war, the soul produces, causes, binds, and assimilates karmic matter. Being affected by anger, pride, deceit, and greed, the soul becomes them. From the practical standpoint karma is attached in the soul, but from the real or pure perspective karma is neither bound nor attached to the soul; attachment to the karma destroys independence. The soul, knowing the karma is harmful, does not indulge them and in self-contemplation attains liberation. The soul is bound by wrong beliefs, lack of vows, passions, and vibratory activity. Kunda Kunda suggested that one does not cause misery or happiness to living beings by one's body, speech, mind, or by weapons, but living beings are happy or miserable by their own karma (actions). As long as one identifies with feelings of joy and sorrow and until soul realization shines out in the heart, one produces good and bad karma. Just as an artisan does not have to identify with performing a job, working with organs, holding tools, the soul can enjoy the fruit of karma without identifying. In The Perfect Law (Niyamsara), Kunda Kunda described right belief, right knowledge, and right conduct that lead to liberation. The five vows are non-injury, truth, non-stealing, chastity, and non-possession. Renouncing passion, attachment, aversion, and other impure thoughts involves controlling the mind and speech with freedom from falsehood and restraining the body by not causing injury. The right conduct of repentance and equanimity is achieved by self-analysis, by avoiding transgressions and thoughts of pain and ill-will, and by self-contemplation with pure thoughts. Renunciation is practiced by equanimity toward all living beings with no ill feelings, giving up desires, controlling the senses, and distinguishing between the soul and material karma. A saint of independent actions is called an internal soul, but one devoid of independent action is called an external soul. The soul free from obstructions, independent of the senses, and liberated from good and bad karma is free from rebirth and eternal in the nirvana of perfect knowledge, bliss, and power. After the disintegration in northern India in the third century CE, the Kushanas still ruled over the western Punjab and the declining Shakas over Gujarat and part of Malwa. Sri Lanka king Meghavarna (r. 301-28) sent gifts and asked permission to build a large monastery north of the Bodhi tree for Buddhist pilgrims that eventually housed more than a thousand priests. Sasanian king Shapur II fought and made a treaty with the Kushanas in 350, but he was defeated by them twice in 367-68. After two previous kings of the Gupta dynasty, Chandra-gupta I by marrying Kumaradevi, a Lichchhavi princess, inaugurated the Gupta empire in 320, launching campaigns of territorial conquest. This expansion was greatly increased by their son Samudra-gupta, who ruled for about forty years until 380, conquering nine republics in Rajasthan and twelve states in the Deccan of central India. Many other kingdoms on the frontiers paid taxes and obeyed orders. The Guptas replaced tribal customs with the caste system. Rulers in the south were defeated, captured, and released to rule as vassals. Local ruling councils under the Guptas tended to be dominated by commercial interests. In addition to his military abilities Samudra-gupta was a poet and musician, and inscriptions praised his charity. His son Chandra-gupta II (r. 380-414) finally ended the foreign Shaka rule in the west so that his empire stretched from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea. He allied his family with the Nagas by marrying princess Kubernaga; after marrying Vakataka king Rudrasena II, his daughter ruled as regent there for 13 years. In the south the Pallavas ruled in harmony with the Guptas. The Chinese pilgrim Fa-hien described a happy and prosperous people not bothered by magistrates and rules; only those working state land had to pay a portion, and the king governed without using decapitation or corporal punishments. Kumara-gupta (r. 414-55) was apparently able to rule this vast empire without engaging in military campaigns. Only after forty years of peace did the threat of invading Hunas (White Huns) cause crown prince Skanda-gupta (r. 455-67) to fight for and restore Gupta fortunes by defeating the Huns about 460. After a struggle for the Gupta throne, Budha-gupta ruled for at least twenty years until about 500. Trade with the Roman empire had been declining since the 3rd century and was being replaced by commerce with southeast Asia. The empire was beginning to break up into independent states, such as Kathiawar and Bundelkhand, while Vakataka king Narendra-sena took over some Gupta territory. Gupta decline continued as Huna chief Toramana invaded the Punjab and western India. His son Mihirakula succeeded as ruler about 515; according to Xuan Zang he ruled over India, and a Kashmir chronicle credited Mihirakula with conquering southern India and Sri Lanka. The Chinese ambassador Song-yun in 520 described the Hun king of Gandara as cruel, vindictive, and barbarous, not believing in the law of Buddha, having 700 war-elephants, and living with his troops on the frontier. About ten years later the Greek Cosmas from Alexandria wrote that the White Hun king had 2,000 elephants and a large cavalry, but his kingdom was west of the Indus River. However, Mihirakula was defeated by the Malwa chief Yashodharman. The Gupta king Narasimha-gupta Baladitya was also overwhelmed by Yashodharman and was forced to pay tribute to Mihirakula, according to Xuan Zang; but Baladitya later defeated Mihirakula, saving the Gupta empire from the Huns. Baladitya was also credited with building a great monastery at Nalanda. In the middle of the 6th century the Gupta empire declined during the reigns of its last two emperors, Kumara-gupta III and Vishnu-gupta. Gupta sovereignty was recognized in Kalinga as late as 569. In the 4th century Vasubandhu studied and taught Sarvastivadin Buddhism in Kashmir, analyzing the categories of experience in the 600 verses of his Abhidharma-kosha, including the causes and ways to eliminate moral problems. Vasubandhu was converted to the Yogachara school of Mahayana Buddhism by his brother Asanga. Vasubandhu had a long and influential career as the abbot at Nalanda. As an idealist Vasubandhu, summing up his ideas in twenty and thirty verses, found all experience to be in consciousness. Seeds are brought to fruition in the store of consciousness. Individuals are deluded by the four evil desires of their views of self as real, ignorance of self, self-pride, and self-love. He found good mental functions in belief, sense of shame, modesty, absence of coveting, energy, mental peace, vigilance, equanimity, and non-injury. Evil mental functions he listed as covetousness, hatred, attachment, arrogance, doubt, and false view; minor ones included anger, enmity, concealment, affliction, envy, parsimony, deception, fraud, injury, pride, high-mindedness, low-mindedness, unbelief, indolence, idleness, forgetfulness, distraction, and non-discernment. For Vasubandhu life is like a dream in which we create our reality in our consciousness; even the tortures of hell have no outward reality but are merely projections of consciousness. Enlightenment is when mental obstructions and projections are transcended without grasping; the habit-energies of karma, the six senses and their objects, and relative knowledge are all abandoned for perfect wisdom, purity, freedom, peace, and joy. Vasubandhu wrote that we can know other minds and influence each other for better and worse, because karma is intersubjective. In 554 Maukhari king Ishana-varman claimed he won victories over the Andhras, Sulikas, and Gaudas. A Gurjara kingdom was founded in the mid-6th century in Rajputana by Harichandra, as apparently the fall of empires in northern India caused this Brahmin to exchange scriptures for arms. Xuan Zang praised Valabhi king Shiladitya I, who ruled about 580, for having great administrative ability and compassion. Valabhi hosted the second Jain council that established the Jain canon in the 6th century. Valabhi king Shiladitya III (r. 662-84) assumed an imperial title and conquered Gurjara. However, internal conflicts as well as Arab invasion destroyed the Valabhi kingdom by about 735. The Gurjara kingdom was also overrun by Arabs, but Pratihara king Nagabhata is credited with turning back the Muslim invaders in the northwest; he was helped in this effort by Gurjara king Jayabhata IV and Chalukya king Avanijanashraya-Pulakeshiraja in the south. After Thaneswar king Prabhakara-vardhana (r. 580-606) died, his son Rajya-vardhana marched against the hostile Malava king with 10,000 cavalry and won; but according to Banabhatta, the king of Malava, after gaining his confidence with false civilities, had him murdered. His brother Harsha-vardhana (r. 606-47) swore he would clear the earth of Gaudas; starting with 5,000 elephants, 2,000 cavalry, and 50,000 infantry, his army grew as military conquests enabled him to become the most powerful ruler of northern India at Kanauj. Somehow Harsha's conflicts with Valabhi and Gurjara led to his war with Chalukya king Pulakeshin II; but his southern campaign was apparently a failure, and Sindh remained an independent kingdom. However, in the east according to Xuan Zang by 643 Harsha had subjugated Kongoda and Orissa. That year the Chinese pilgrim observed two great assemblies, one at Kanauj and the other a religious gathering at Prayaga, where the distribution of accumulated resources drew twenty kings and about 500,000 people. Xuan Zang credited Harsha with building rest-houses for travelers, but he noted that the penalty for breaching the social morality or filial duties could be mutilation or exile. After Gauda king Shashanka's death Harsha had conquered Magadha, and he eventually took over western Bengal. Harsha also was said to have written plays, and three of them survive. Xuan Zang reported that he divided India's revenues into four parts for government expenses, public service, intellectual rewards, and religious gifts. During his reign the university in Nalanda became the most renowned center of Buddhist learning. However, no successor of Harsha-vardana is known, and apparently his empire ended with his life. Wang-Xuan-zi gained help from Nepal against the violent usurper of Harsha's throne, who was sent to China as a prisoner; Nepal also sent a mission to China in 651. The dynasty called the Later Guptas for their similar names took over Magadha and ruled there for almost a century. Then Yashovarman brought Magadha under his sovereignty as he also invaded Bengal and defeated the ruler of Gauda. In 713 Kashmir king Durlabhaka sent an envoy to the Chinese emperor asking for aid against invading Arabs. His successor Chandrapida was able to defend Kashmir against Arab aggression. He was described as humane and just, but in his ninth year as king he was killed by his brother Tarapida, whose cruel and bloody reign lasted only four years. Lalitaditya became king of Kashmir in 724 and in alliance with Yashovarman defeated the Tibetans; but Lalitaditya and Yashovarman could not agree on a treaty; Lalitaditya was victorious, taking over Kanauj and a vast empire. The Arabs were defeated in the west, and Bengal was conquered in the east, though Lalitaditya's record was tarnished when he had the Gauda king of Bengal murdered after promising him safe conduct. Lalitaditya died about 760. For a century Bengal had suffered anarchy in which the strong devoured the weak. Arabs had been repelled at Sindh in 660, but they invaded Kabul and Zabulistan during the Caliphate of Muawiyah (661-80). In 683 Kabul revolted and defeated the Muslim army, but two years later Zabul's army was routed by the Arabs. After Al-Hajjaj became governor of Iraq in 695 the combined armies of Zabul and Kabul defeated the Arabs; but a huge Muslim army returned to ravage Zabulistan four years later. Zabul paid tribute until Hajjaj died in 714. Two years before that, Hajjaj had equipped Muslim general Muhammad-ibn-Qasim for a major invasion of Sindh which resulted in the chiefs accepting Islam under sovereignty of the new Caliph 'Umar II (717-20). Pulakeshin I ruled the Chalukyas for about thirty years in the middle of the 6th century. He was succeeded by Kirtivarman I (r. 566-97), who claimed he destroyed the Nalas, Mauryas, and Kadambas. Mangalesha (r. 597-610) conquered the Kalachuris and Revatidvipa, but he lost his life in a civil war over the succession with his nephew Pulakeshin II (r. 610-42). Starting in darkness enveloped by enemies, this king made Govinda an ally and regained the Chalukya empire by reducing Kadamba capital Vanavasi, the Gangas, and the Mauryas, marrying a Ganga princess. In the north Pulakeshin II subdued the Latas, Malavas, and Gurjaras; he even defeated the mighty Harsha of Kanauj and won the three kingdoms of Maharashtra, Konkana, and Karnata. After conquering the Kosalas and Kalingas, an Eastern Chalukya dynasty was inaugurated by his brother Kubja Vishnuvardhana and absorbed the Andhra country when Vishnukundin king Vikramendra-varman III was defeated. Moving south, Pulakeshin II allied himself with the Cholas, Keralas, and Pandyas in order to invade the powerful Pallavas. By 631 the Chalukya empire extended from sea to sea. Xuan Zang described the Chalukya people as stern and vindictive toward enemies, though they would not kill those who submitted. They and their elephants fought while inebriated, and Chalukya laws did not punish soldiers who killed. However, Pulakeshin II was defeated and probably killed in 642 when the Pallavas in retaliation for an attack on their capital captured the Chalukya capital at Badami. For thirteen years the Pallavas held some territory while Chalukya successors fought for the throne. Eventually Vikramaditya I (r. 655-81) became king and recovered the southern part of the empire from the Pallavas, fighting three Pallava kings in succession. He was followed by his son Vinayaditya (r. 681-96), whose son Vijayaditya (r. 696-733) also fought with the Pallavas. Vijayaditya had a magnificent temple built to Shiva and donated villages to Jain teachers. His son Vikramaditya II (r. 733-47) also attacked the Pallavas and took Kanchi, but instead of destroying it he donated gold to its temples. His son Kirtivarman II (r. 744-57) was the last ruler of the Chalukya empire, as he was overthrown by Rashtrakuta king Krishna I. However, the dynasty of the Eastern Chalukyas still remained to challenge the Rashtrakutas. In the early 8th century the Chalukyas gave refuge to Zoroastrians called Parsis, who had been driven out of Persia by Muslims. A Christian community still lived in Malabar, and in the 10th century the king of the Cheras granted land to Joseph Rabban for a Jewish community in India. Pallava king Mahendra-varman I, who ruled for thirty years at the beginning of the 7th century lost northern territory to the Chalukyas. As a Jain he had persecuted other religions, but after he tested and was converted by the Shaivite mystic Appar, he destroyed the Jain monastery at Pataliputra. His son Narasimha-varman I defeated Pulakeshin II in three battles, capturing the Chalukya capital at Vatapi in 642 with the aid of the Sri Lanka king. He ruled for 38 years, and his capital at Kanchi contained more than a hundred Buddhist monasteries housing over 10,000 monks, and there were many Jain temples too. During the reign (c. 670-95) of Pallava king Parameshvara-varman I the Chalukyas probably captured Kanchi, as they did again about 740. On the island of Sri Lanka the 58th and last king listed in the Mahavamsa was Mahasena (r. 274-301). He oversaw the building of sixteen tanks and irrigation canals. The first of 125 kings listed up to 1815 in the Culavamsa, Srimeghavanna, repaired the monasteries destroyed by Mahasena. Mahanama (r. 406-28) married the queen after she murdered his brother Upatissa. Mahanama was the last king of the Lambakanna dynasty that had lasted nearly four centuries. His death was followed by an invasion from southern India that limited Sinhalese rule to the Rohana region. Buddhaghosha was converted to Buddhism and went to Sri Lanka during the reign of Mahanama. There he translated and wrote commentaries on numerous Buddhist texts. His Visuddhimagga explains ways to attain purity by presenting the teachings of the Buddha in three parts on conduct, concentration, and wisdom. Buddhaghosha also collected parables and stories illustrating Buddhist ethics by showing how karma brings the consequences of actions back to one, sometimes in another life. One story showed how a grudge can cause alternating injuries between two individuals from life to life. Yet if no grudge is held, the enmity subsides. In addition to the usual vices of killing, stealing, adultery, and a judge taking bribes, occupations that could lead to hell include making weapons, selling poison, being a general, collecting taxes, living off tolls, hunting, fishing, and even gathering honey. The Buddhist path is encouraged with tales of miracles and by showing the benefits of good conduct and meditation. The Moriya clan chief Dhatusena (r. 455-73) improved irrigation by having a bridge constructed across the Mahavali River. He led the struggle to expel the foreigners from the island and restored Sinhalese authority at Anuradhapura. His eldest son Kassapa (r. 473-91) took him prisoner and usurped the throne but lost it with his life to his brother Moggallana (r. 491-508), who used an army of mercenaries from south India. He had the coast guarded to prevent foreign attacks and gave his umbrella to the Buddhist community as a token of submission. His son Kumara-Dhatusena (r. 508-16) was succeeded by his son Kittisena, who was quickly deposed by the usurping uncle Siva. He was soon killed by Upatissa II (r. 517-18), who revived the Lambakanna dynasty and was succeeded by his son Silakala (r. 518-31). Moggallana II (r. 531-51) had to fight for the throne; but he was a poet and was considered a pious ruler loved by the people. Two rulers were killed as the Moriyas regained power. The second, Mahanaga (r. 569-71), had been a rebel at Rohana and then its governor before becoming king at Anuradhapura. Aggabodhi I (r. 571-604) and Aggabodhi II (r. 604-14) built monasteries and dug water tanks for irrigation. A revolt by the general Moggallana III (r. 614-19) overthrew the last Moriya king and led to a series of civil wars and succession battles suffered by the Sri Lanka people until Manavamma (r. 684-718) re-established the Lambakanna dynasty. Included in a didactic Tamil collection of "Eighteen Minor Poems" are the Naladiyar and the famous Kural. The Naladiyar consists of 400 quatrains of moral aphorisms. In the 67th quatrain the wise say it is not cowardice to refuse a challenge when men rise in enmity and wish to fight; even when enemies do the worst, it is right not to do evil in return. Like milk the path of virtue is one, though many sects teach it. (118) The treasure of learning needs no safeguard, for fire cannot destroy it nor can kings take it. Other things are not true wealth, but learning is the best legacy to leave one's children. (134) Humility is greatness, and self-control is what the gainer actually gains. Only the rich who relieve the need of their neighbors are truly wealthy. (170) The good remember another's kindness, but the base only recall fancied slights. (356) The Tamil classic, The Kural by Tiru Valluvar, was probably written about 600 CE, plus or minus two centuries. This book contains 133 chapters of ten pithy couplets each and is divided into three parts on the traditional Hindu goals of dharma (virtue or justice), artha (success or wealth), and kama (love or pleasure). The first two parts contain moral proverbs; the third is mostly expressions of love, though there is the statement that one-sided love is bitter while balanced love is sweet. Valluvar transcends the caste system by suggesting that we call Brahmins those who are virtuous and kind to all that live. Here are a few of Valluvar's astute observations on dharma. Bliss hereafter is the fruit of a loving life here. (75) Sweet words with a smiling face are more pleasing than a gracious gift. (92) He asked, "How can one pleased with sweet words oneself use harsh words to others?"2 Self-control takes one to the gods, but its lack to utter darkness. (121) Always forgive transgressions, but better still forget them. (152) The height of wisdom is not to return ill for ill. (203) "The only gift is giving to the poor; all else is exchange." (221) If people refrain from eating meat, there will be no one to sell it. (256) "To bear your pain and not pain others is penance summed up." (261) In all the gospels he found nothing higher than the truth. (300) I think the whole chapter on not hurting others is worth quoting. The pure in heart will never hurt others even for wealth or renown. The code of the pure in heart is not to return hurt for angry hurt. Vengeance even against a wanton insult does endless damage. Punish an evil-doer by shaming him with a good deed, and forget. What good is that sense which does not feel and prevent all creatures' woes as its own? Do not do to others what you know has hurt yourself. It is best to refrain from willfully hurting anyone, anytime, anyway. Why does one hurt others knowing what it is to be hurt? The hurt you cause in the forenoon self-propelled will overtake you in the afternoon. Hurt comes to the hurtful; hence it is that those don't hurt who do not want to be hurt.3 Valluvar went even farther when he wrote, "Even at the cost of one's own life one should avoid killing." (327) For death is but a sleep, and birth an awakening. (339) In the part on artha (wealth) Valluvar defined the unfailing marks of a king as courage, liberality, wisdom and energy. (382) The just protector he deemed the Lord's deputy, and the best kings have grace, bounty, justice, and concern. "The wealth which never declines is not riches but learning." (400) "The wealth of the ignorant does more harm than the want of the learned." (408) The truly noble are free of arrogance, wrath, and pettiness. (431) "A tyrant indulging in terrorism will perish quickly." (563) "Friendship curbs wrong, guides right, and shares distress." (787) "The soul of friendship is freedom, which the wise should welcome." (802) "The world is secure under one whose nature can make friends of foes." (874) Valluvar believed it was base to be discourteous even to enemies (998), and his chapter on character is also worth quoting. All virtues are said to be natural to those who acquire character as a duty. To the wise the only worth is character, naught else. The pillars of excellence are five-love, modesty, altruism, compassion, truthfulness. The core of penance is not killing, of goodness not speaking slander. The secret of success is humility; it is also wisdom's weapon against foes. The touchstone of goodness is to own one's defeat even to inferiors. What good is that good which does not return good for evil? Poverty is no disgrace to one with strength of character. Seas may whelm, but men of character will stand like the shore. If the great fail in nobility, the earth will bear us no more.4 Kamandaka's Nitisara in the first half of the 8th century was primarily based on Kautilya's Arthashastra and was influenced by the violence in the Mahabharata, as he justified both open fighting when the king is powerful and treacherous fighting when he is at a disadvantage. Katyayana, like Kamandaka, accepted the tradition of the king's divinity, although he argued that this should make ruling justly a duty. Katyayana followed Narada's four modes of judicial decisions as the dharma of moral law when the defendant confesses, judicial proof when the judge decides, popular custom when tradition rules, and royal edict when the king decides. Crimes of violence were distinguished from the deception of theft. Laws prevented the accumulated interest on debts from exceeding the principal. Brahmins were still exempt from capital punishment and confiscation of property, and most laws differed according to one's caste. The Yoga-vasishtha philosophy taught that as a bird flies with two wings, the highest reality is attained through knowledge and work. The famous Vedanta philosopher Shankara was born into a Brahmin family; his traditional dates are 788-820, though some scholars believe he lived about 700-50. It was said that when he was eight, he became an ascetic and studied with Govinda, a disciple of the monist Gaudapala; at 16 he was teaching many in the Varanasi area. Shankara wrote a long commentary on the primary Vedanta text, the Brahma Sutra, on the Bhagavad-Gita, and on ten of the Upanishads, always emphasizing the non-dual reality of Brahman (God), that the world is false, and that the atman (self or soul) is not different from Brahman. Shankara traveled around India and to Kashmir, defeating opponents in debate; he criticized human sacrifice to the god Bhairava and branding the body. He performed a funeral for his mother even though it was considered improper for a sannyasin (renunciate). Shankara challenged the Mimamsa philosopher Mandana Mishra, who emphasized the duty of Vedic rituals, by arguing that knowledge of God is the only means to final release, and after seven days he was declared the winner by Mandana's wife. He tended to avoid the cities and taught sannyasins and intellectuals in the villages. Shankara founded monasteries in the south at Shringeri of Mysore, in the east at Puri, in the west at Dvaraka, and in the northern Himalayas at Badarinath. He wrote hymns glorifying Shiva as God, and Hindus would later believe he was an incarnation of Shiva. He criticized the corrupt left-hand (sexual) practices used in Tantra. His philosophy spread, and he became perhaps the most influential of all Hindu philosophers. In the Crest-Jewel of Wisdom Shankara taught that although action is for removing bonds of conditioned existence and purifying the heart, reality can only be attained by right knowledge. Realizing that an object perceived is a rope removes the fear and sorrow from the illusion it is a snake. Knowledge comes from perception, investigation, or instruction, not from bathing, giving alms, or breath control. Shankara taught enduring all pain and sorrow without thought of retaliation, dejection, or lamentation. He noted that the scriptures gave the causes of liberation as faith, devotion, concentration, and union (yoga); but he taught, "Liberation cannot be achieved except by direct perception of the identity of the individual with the universal self."5 Desires lead to death, but one who is free of desires is fit for liberation. Shankara distinguished the atman as the real self or soul from the ahamkara (ego), which is the cause of change, experiences karma (action), and destroys the rest in the real self. From neglecting the real self spring delusion, ego, bondage, and pain. The soul is everlasting and full of wisdom. Ultimately both bondage and liberation are illusions that do not exist in the soul. Indian drama was analyzed by Bharata in the Natya Shastra, probably from the third century CE or before. Bharata ascribed a divine origin to drama and considered it a fifth Veda; its origin seems to be from religious dancing. In the classical plays Sanskrit is spoken by the Brahmins and noble characters, while Prakrit vernaculars are used by others and most women. According to Bharata poetry (kavya), dance (nritta), and mime (nritya) in life's play (lila) produce emotion (bhava), but only drama (natya) produces "flavor" (rasa). The drama uses the eight basic emotions of love, joy (humor), anger, sadness, pride, fear, aversion, and wonder, attempting to resolve them in the ninth holistic feeling of peace. These are modified by 33 less stable sentiments he listed as discouragement, weakness, apprehension, weariness, contentment, stupor, elation, depression, cruelty, anxiety, fright, envy, arrogance, indignation, recollection, death, intoxication, dreaming, sleeping, awakening, shame, demonic possession, distraction, assurance, indolence, agitation, deliberation, dissimulation, sickness, insanity, despair, impatience, and inconstancy. The emotions are manifested by causes, effects, and moods. The spectators should be of good character, intelligent, and empathetic. Although some scholars date him earlier, the plays of Bhasa can probably be placed after Ashvaghosha in the second or third century CE. In 1912 thirteen Trivandrum plays were discovered that scholars have attributed to Bhasa. Five one-act plays were adapted from situations in the epic Mahabharata. Dutavakya has Krishna as a peace envoy from the Pandavas giving advice to Duryodhana. In Karnabhara the warrior Karna sacrifices his armor by giving it to Indra, who is in the guise of a Brahmin. Dutaghatotkacha shows the envoy Ghatotkacha carrying Krishna's message to the Kauruvas. Urubhanga depicts Duryodhana as a hero treacherously attacked below the waist by Bhima at the signal of Krishna. In Madhyama-vyayoga the middle son is going to be sacrificed, but it turns out to be a device used by Bhima's wife Hidimba to get him to visit her. Each of these plays seems to portray didactically heroic virtues for an aristocratic audience. The Mahabharata also furnishes the episode for the Kauravas' cattle raid of Virata in the Pancharatra, which seems to have been staged to glorify some sacrifice. Bhasa's Abhisheka follows the Ramayana closely in the coronation of Rama, and Pratima also reworks the Rama story prior to the war. Balacharita portrays heroic episodes in the childhood of Krishna. In Bhasa's Avimaraka the title character heroically saves princess Kurangi from a rampaging elephant, but he says he is an outcast. Dressed as a thief, Avimaraka sneaks into the palace to meet the princess, saying, Once we have done what we can even failure is no disgrace. Has anyone ever succeeded by saying, "I can't do it"? A person becomes great by attempting great things.6 He spends a year there with Kurangi before he is discovered and must leave. Avimaraka is about to jump off a mountain when a fairy (Vidyadhara) gives him a ring by which he can become invisible. Using invisibility, he and his jester go back into the palace just in time to catch Kurangi before she hangs herself. The true parentage of the royal couple is revealed by the sage Narada, and Vairantya king Kuntibhoja gives his new son-in-law the following advice: With tolerance be king over Brahmins. With compassion win the hearts of your subjects. With courage conquer earth's rulers. With knowledge of the truth conquer yourself.7 Bhasa uses the story of legendary King Udayana in two plays. In Pratijna Yaugandharayana the Vatsa king at Kaushambi, Udayana, is captured by Avanti king Pradyota so that Udayana can be introduced to the princess Vasavadatta by tutoring her in music, a device which works as they fall in love. The title comes from the vow of chief minister Yaugandharayana to free his sovereign Udayana; he succeeds in rescuing him and his new queen Vasavadatta. In Bhasa's greatest play, The Dream of Vasavadatta, the same minister, knowing his king's reluctance to enter a needed political marriage, pretends that he and queen Vasavadatta are killed in a fire so that King Udayana will marry Magadha princess Padmavati. Saying Vasavadatta is his sister, Yaugandharayana entrusts her into the care of Padmavati, because of the prophecy she will become Udayana's queen. The play is very tender, and both princesses are noble and considerate of each other; it also includes an early example of a court jester. Udayana is still in love with Vasavadatta, and while resting half asleep, Vasavadatta, thinking she is comforting Padmavati's headache, gently touches him. The loving and grieving couple are reunited; Padmavati is also accepted as another wife; and the kingdom of Kaushambi is defended by the marriage alliance. Bhasa's Charudatta is about the courtesan Vasantasena, who initiates a love affair with an impoverished merchant, but the manuscript is cut off abruptly after four acts. However, this story was adapted and completed in The Little Clay Cart, attributed to a King Sudraka, whose name means a little servant. In ten acts this play is a rare example of what Bharata called a maha-nataka or "great play." The play is revolutionary not only because the romantic hero and heroine are a married merchant and a courtesan, but because the king's brother-in-law, Sansthanaka, is portrayed as a vicious fool, and because by the end of the play the king is overthrown and replaced by a man he had falsely imprisoned. Vasantasena rejects the attentions of the insulting Sansthanaka, saying that true love is won by virtue not violence; she is in love with Charudatta, who is poor because he is honest and generous, as money and virtue seldom keep company these days. Vasantasena kindly pays the gambling debts of his shampooer, who then becomes a Buddhist monk. Charudatta, not wearing jewels any more, gives his cloak to a man who saved the monk from a rampaging elephant. Vasantasena entrusts a golden casket of jewelry to Charudatta, but Sharvilaka, breaking into his house to steal, is given it so that he can gain the courtesan girl Madanika. So that he won't get a bad reputation, Charudatta's wife gives a valuable pearl necklace to her husband, and he realizes he is not poor because he has a wife whose love outlasts his wealthy days. Madanika is concerned that Sharvilaka did something bad for her sake and tells him to restore the jewels, and he returns them to Vasantasena on the merchant's behalf, while she generously frees her servant Madanika for him. Charudatta gives Vasantasena the more valuable pearl necklace, saying he gambled away her jewels. As the romantic rainy season approaches, the two lovers are naturally drawn together. Charudatta's child complains that he has to play with a little clay cart as a toy, and Vasantasena promises him a golden one. She gets into the wrong bullock cart and is taken to the garden of Sansthanaka, where he strangles her for rejecting his proposition. Then he accuses Charudatta of the crime, and because of his royal influence in the trial, Charudatta is condemned to be executed after his friend shows up with Vasantasena's jewels. However, the monk has revived Vasantasena, and just before Charudatta's head is to be cut off, she appears to save him. Sharvilaka has killed the bad king and anointed a good one. Charudatta lets the repentant Sansthanaka go free, and the king declares Vasantasena a wedded wife and thus no longer a courtesan. Although he is considered India's greatest poet, it is not known when Kalidasa lived. Probably the best educated guess has him flourishing about 400 CE during the reign of Chandragupta II. The prolog of his play Malavika and Agnimitra asks the audience to consider a new poet and not just the celebrated Bhasa and two others. In this romance King Agnimitra, who already has two queens, in springtime falls in love with the dancing servant Malavika, who turns out to be a princess when his foreign conflicts are solved. The king is accompanied throughout by a court jester, who with a contrivance frees Malavika from confinement by the jealous queen. The only female who speaks Sanskrit in Kalidasa's plays is the Buddhist nun, who judges the dance contest and explains that Malavika had to be a servant for a year in order to fulfill a prophecy that she would marry a king after doing so. In celebration of the victory and his latest marriage, the king orders all prisoners released. In Kalidasa's Urvashi Won by Valor, King Pururavas falls in love with the heavenly nymph Urvashi. The king's jester Manavaka reveals this secret to the queen's maid Nipunika. Urvashi comes down to earth with her friend and writes a love poem on a birch-leaf. The queen sees this also but forgives her husband's guilt. Urvashi returns to paradise to appear in a play; but accidentally revealing her love for Pururavas, she is expelled to earth and must stay until she sees the king's heir. The queen generously offers to accept a new queen who truly loves the king, and Urvashi makes herself visible to Pururavas. In the fourth act a moment of jealousy causes Urvashi to be changed into a vine, and the king in searching for her dances and sings, amorously befriending animals and plants until a ruby of reunion helps him find the vine; as he embraces the vine, it turns into Urvashi. After many years have passed, their son Ayus gains back the ruby that was stolen by a vulture. When Urvashi sees the grown-up child she had sent away so that she could stay with the king, she must return to paradise; but the king gives up his kingdom to their son so that he can go with her, although a heavenly messenger indicates that he can remain as king with Urvashi until his death. The most widely acclaimed Indian drama is Kalidasa's Shakuntala and the Love Token. While hunting, King Dushyanta is asked by the local ascetics not to kill deer, saying, "Your weapon is meant to help the weak not smite the innocent."8 The king and Shakuntala, who is the daughter of a nymph and is being raised by ascetics, fall in love with each other. The king is accompanied by a foolish Brahmin who offers comic relief. Although he has other wives, the king declares that he needs only the earth and Shakuntala to sustain his line. They are married in the forest, and Shakuntala becomes pregnant. Kanva, who raised her, advises the bride to obey her elders, treat her fellow wives as friends, and not cross her husband in anger even if he mistreats her. The king returns to his capital and gives his ring to Shakuntala so that he will recognize her when she arrives later. However, because of a curse on her from Durvasas, he loses his memory of her, and she loses the ring. Later the king refuses to accept this pregnant woman he cannot recall, and in shame she disappears. A fisherman finds the ring in a fish; when the king gets it back, his memory of Shakuntala returns. The king searches for her and finds their son on Golden Peak with the birthmarks of a universal emperor; now he must ask to be recognized by her. They are happily reunited, and their child Bharata is to become the founding emperor of India. An outstanding political play was written by Vishakhadatta, who may also have lived at the court of Chandragupta II or as late as the 9th century. Rakshasa's Ring is set when Chandragupta, who defeated Alexander's successor Seleucus in 305 BC, is becoming Maurya emperor by overcoming the Nandas. According to tradition he was politically assisted by his minister Chanakya, also known as Kautilya, supposed author of the famous treatise on politics, Artha Shastra. Rakshasa, whose name means demon, had sent a woman to poison Chandragupta, but Chanakya had her poison King Parvataka instead. Rakshasa supports Parvataka's son Malayaketu; Chanakya cleverly assuages public opinion by letting Parvataka's brother have half the kingdom but arranges for his death too. Chanakya even pretends to break with Chandragupta to further his plot. Chanakya is able to use a Jain monk and a secretary by pretending to punish them and have Siddarthaka rescue the secretary; with a letter he composed written by the secretary and with Rakshasa's ring taken from the home of a jeweler who gave Rakshasa and his family refuge, they pretend to serve Malayaketu but make him suspect Rakshasa's loyalty and execute the allied princes that Rakshasa had gained for him. Ironically Rakshasa's greatest quality is loyalty, and after he realizes he has been trapped, he decides to sacrifice himself to save the jeweler from being executed. By then Malayaketu's attack on Chandragupta's capital has collapsed from lack of support, and he is captured. Chanakya's manipulations have defeated Chandragupta's rivals without a fight, and he appoints chief minister in his place Rakshasa, who then spares the life of Malayaketu. Chanakya (Kautilya) announces that the emperor (Chandragupta) grants Malayaketu his ancestral territories and releases all prisoners except draft animals. Ratnavali was attributed to Harsha, who ruled at Kanauj in the first half of the 7th century. This comedy reworks the story of King Udayana, who though happily married to Vasavadatta, is seduced into marrying her Simhalese cousin Ratnavali for the political motivations contrived by his minister Yaugandharayana. Ratnavali, using the name Sagarika as the queen's maid, falls in love with the king and has painted his portrait. Her friend then paints her portrait with the king's, which enamors him after he hears the story of the painting from a mynah bird that repeats the maidens' conversation. Queen Vasavadatta becomes suspicious, and the jester is going to bring Sagarika dressed like the queen, who learning of it appears veiled herself to expose the affair. Sagarika tries to hang herself but is saved by the king. The jealous queen puts Sagarika in chains and the noose around the jester's neck. Yet in the last act a magician contrives a fire, and the king saves Sagarika once again. A necklace reveals that she is a princess, and the minister Yaugandharayana explains how he brought the lovers together. Also attributed to Harsha: Priyadarshika is another harem comedy; but Joy of the Serpents (Nagananda) shows how prince Jimutavahana gives up his own body to stop a sacrifice of serpents to the divine Garuda. A royal contemporary of Harsha, Pallava king Mahendravikarmavarman wrote a one-act farce called "The Sport of Drunkards" (Mattavilasa) in which an inebriated Shaivite ascetic accuses a Buddhist monk of stealing his begging bowl made from a skull; but after much satire it is found to have been taken by a dog. Bhavabhuti lived in the early 8th century and was said to have been the court poet in Kanauj of Yashovarman, a king also supposed to have written a play about Rama. Bhavabhuti depicted the early career of Rama in Mahavira-charita and then produced The Later Story of Rama. In this latter play Rama's brother Lakshmana shows Rama and Sita murals of their past, and Rama asks Sita for forgiveness for having put her through a trial by fire to show the people her purity after she had been captured by the evil Ravana. Rama has made a vow to serve the people's good above all and so orders Sita into exile because of their continuing suspicions. Instead of killing the demon Sambuka, his penance moves Rama to free him. Sita has given birth to two sons, Lava and Kusha, and twelve years pass. When he heard about his daughter Sita's exile, Janaka gave up meat and became a vegetarian; when Janaka meets Rama's mother Kaushalya, she faints at the memory. Rama's divine weapons have been passed on to his sons, and Lava is able to pacify Chandraketu's soldiers by meditating. Rama has Lava remove the spell, and Kusha recites the Ramayana taught him by Valmiki, who raised the sons. Finally Sita is joyfully reunited with Rama and their sons. Malati and Madhava by Bhavabhuti takes place in the city of Padmavati. Although the king has arranged for Nandana to marry his minister's daughter Malati, the Buddhist nun Kamandaki manages eventually to bring together the suffering lovers Madhava and Malati. Malati has been watching Madhava and draws his portrait; when he sees it, he draws her too. Through the rest of the play they pine in love for each other. Malati calls her father greedy for going along with the king's plan to marry her to Nandana, since a father deferring to a king in this is not sanctioned by morality nor by custom. Madhava notes that success comes from education with innate understanding, boldness combined with practiced eloquence, and tact with quick wit. Malati's friend Madayantika is attacked by a tiger, and Madhava's friend Makaranda is wounded saving her life. In their amorous desperation Madhava sells his flesh to the gods, and he saves the suicidal Malati from being sacrificed by killing Aghoraghanta, whose pupil Kapalakundala then causes him much suffering. Finally Madhava and Malati are able to marry, as Makaranda marries Madayantika. These plays make clear that courtly love and romance were thriving in India for centuries before they were rediscovered in Europe. The Rashtrakuta Dantidurga married a Chalukya princess and became a vassal king about 733; he and Gujarat's Pulakeshin helped Chalukya emperor Vikramaditya II repulse an Arab invasion, and Dantidurga's army joined the emperor in a victorious expedition against Kanchi and the Pallavas. After Vikramaditya II died in 747, Dantidurga conquered Gurjara, Malwa, and Madhya Pradesh. This Rashtrakuta king then confronted and defeated Chalukya emperor Kirtivarman II so that by the end of 753 he controlled all of Maharashtra. The next Rashtrakuta ruler Krishna I completed the demise of the Chalukya empire and was succeeded about 773 by his eldest son Govinda II. Absorbed in personal pleasures, he left the administration to his brother Dhruva, who eventually revolted and usurped the throne, defeating the Ganga, Pallava, and Vengi kings who had opposed him. The Pratihara ruler of Gurjara, Vatsaraja, took over Kanauj and installed Indrayudha as governor there. The Palas rose to power by unifying Bengal under the elected king Gopala about 750. He patronized Buddhism, and his successor Dharmapala had fifty monasteries built, founding the Vikramashila monastery with 108 monks in charge of various programs. During the reign of Dharmapala the Jain scholar Haribhadra recommended respecting various views because of Jainism's principles of nonviolence and many-sidedness. Haribhadra found that the following eight qualities can be applied to the faithful of any tradition: nonviolence, truth, honesty, chastity, detachment, reverence for a teacher, fasting, and knowledge. Dharmapala marched into the Doab to challenge the Pratiharas but was defeated by Vatsaraja. When these two adversaries were about to meet for a second battle in the Doab, the Rashtrakuta ruler Dhruva from the Deccan defeated Vatsaraja first and then Dharmapala but did not occupy Kanauj. Dhruva returned to the south with booty and was succeeded by his third son Govinda III in 793. Govinda had to defeat his brother Stambha and a rebellion of twelve kings, but the two brothers reconciled and turned on Ganga prince Shivamira, whom they returned to prison. Supreme over the Deccan, Govinda III left his brother Indra as viceroy of Gujarat and Malava and marched his army north toward Kanauj, which Vatsaraja's successor Nagabhata II had occupied while Dharmapala's nominee Chakrayudha was on that throne. Govinda's army defeated Nagabhata's; Chakrayudha surrendered, and Dharmapala submitted. Govinda III marched all the way to the Himalayas, uprooting and reinstating local kings. Rashtrakuta supremacy was challenged by Vijayaditya II, who had become king of Vengi in 799; but Govinda defeated him and installed his brother Bhima-Salukki on the Vengi throne about 802. Then Govinda's forces scattered a confederacy of Pallava, Pandya, Kerala, and Ganga rulers and occupied Kanchi, threatening the king of Sri Lanka, who sent him two statues. After Govinda III died in 814, Chalukya Vijayaditya II overthrew Bhima-Salukki to regain his Vengi throne; then his army invaded Rashtrakuta territory, plundering and devastating the city of Stambha. Vijayaditya ruled for nearly half a century and was said to have fought 108 battles in a 12-year war with the Rashtrakutas and the Gangas. His grandson Vijayaditya III ruled Vengi for 44 years (848-92); he also invaded the Rashtrakuta empire in the north, burning Achalapura, and it was reported he took gold by force from the Ganga king of Kalinga. His successor Chalukya-Bhima I was king of Vengi for 30 years and was said to have turned his attention to helping ascetics and those in distress. Struggles with his neighbors continued though, and Chalukya-Bhima was even captured for a time. Dharmapala's son Devapala also supported Buddhism and extended the Pala empire in the first half of the 9th century by defeating the Utkalas, Assam, Huns, Dravidas, and Gurjaras, while maintaining his domain against three generations of Pratihara rulers. His successor Vigrahapala retired to an ascetic life after ruling only three years, and his son Narayanapala was also of a peaceful and religious disposition, allowing the Pala empire to languish. After the Pala empire was defeated by the Rashtrakutas and Pratiharas, subordinate chiefs became independent; Assam king Harjara even claimed an imperial title. Just before his long reign ended in 908 Narayanapala did reclaim some territories after the Rashtrakuta invasion of the Pratihara dominions; but in the 10th century during the reign of the next three kings the Pala kingdom declined as principalities asserted their independence in conflicts with each other. Chandella king Yashovarman invaded the Palas and the Kambojas, and he claimed to have conquered Gauda and Mithila. His successor Dhanga ruled through the second half of the 10th century and was the first independent Chandella king, calling himself the lord of Kalanjara. In the late 8th century Arab military expeditions had attempted to make Kabul pay tribute to the Muslim caliph. In 870 Kabul and Zabul were conquered by Ya'qub ibn Layth; the king of Zubalistan was killed, and the people accepted Islam. Ghazni sultan Sabutkin (r. 977-97) invaded India with a Muslim army and defeated Dhanga and a confederacy of Hindu chiefs about 989. South of the Chandellas the Kalachuris led by Kokkalla in the second half of the 9th century battled the Pratiharas under Bhoja, Turushkas (Muslims), Vanga in east Bengal, Rashtrakuta king Krishna II, and Konkan. His successor Shankaragana fought Kosala, but he and Krishna II had to retreat from the Eastern Chalukyas. In the next century Kalachuri king Yuvaraja I celebrated his victory over Vallabha with a performance of Rajshekhara's drama Viddhashalabhanjika. Yuvaraja's son Lakshmanaraja raided east Bengal, defeated Kosala, and invaded the west. Like his father, he patronized Shaivite teachers and monasteries. Near the end of the 10th century Kalachuri king Yuvaraja II suffered attacks from Chalukya ruler Taila II and Paramara king Munja. After many conquests, the aggressive Munja, disregarding the advice of his counselor Rudraditya, was defeated and captured by Taila and executed after an attempted rescue. In 814 Govinda III was succeeded as Rashtrakuta ruler by his son Amoghavarsha, only about 13 years old; Gujarat viceroy Karkka acted as regent. Three years later a revolt led by Vijayaditya II, who had regained the Vengi throne, temporarily overthrew Rashtrakuta power until Karakka reinstated Amoghavarsha I by 821. A decade later the Rashtrakuta army defeated Vijayaditya II and occupied Vengi for about a dozen years. Karkka was made viceroy in Gujarat, but his son Dhruva I rebelled and was killed about 845. The Rashtrakutas also fought the Gangas for about twenty years until Amoghavarsha's daughter married a Ganga prince about 860. In addition to his military activities Amoghavarsha sponsored several famous Hindu and Jain writers and wrote a book himself on Jain ethics. Jain kings and soldiers made an exception to the prohibition against killing for the duties of hanging murderers and slaying enemies in battle. He died in 878 and was succeeded by his son Krishna II, who married the daughter of Chedi ruler Kokkalla I to gain an ally for his many wars with the Pratiharas, Eastern Chalukyas, Vengi, and the Cholas. Krishna II died in 914 and was succeeded by his grandson Indra III, who marched his army north and captured northern India's imperial city Kanauj. However, Chandella king Harsha helped the Pratihara Mahipala regain his throne at Kanauj. Indra III died in 922; but his religious son Amoghavarsha II had to get help from his Chedi relations to defeat his brother Govinda IV, who had usurped the throne for fourteen years. Three years later in 939 Krishna III succeeded as Rashtrakuta emperor and organized an invasion of Chola and twenty years later another expedition to the north. The Rashtrakutas reigned over a vast empire when he died in 967; but with no living issue the struggle for the throne, despite the efforts of Ganga king Marasimha III, resulted in the triumph of Chalukya king Taila II in 974. That year Marasimha starved himself to death in the Jain manner and was succeeded by Rajamalla IV, whose minister Chamunda Raya staved off usurpation. His Chamunda Raya Purana includes an account of the 24 Jain prophets. In the north in the middle of the 9th century the Pratiharas were attacked by Pala emperor Devapala; but Pratihara king Bhoja and his allies defeated Pala king Narayanapala. Bhoja won and lost battles against Rashtrakuta king Krishna II. The Pratiharas were described in 851 by an Arab as having the finest cavalry and as the greatest foe of the Muslims, though no country in India was safer from robbers. Bhoja ruled nearly a half century, and his successor Mahendrapala I expanded the Pratihara empire to the east. When Mahipala was ruling in 915 Al Mas'udi from Baghdad observed that the Pratiharas were at war with the Muslims in the west and the Rashtrakutas in the south, and he claimed they had four armies of about 800,000 men each. When Indra III sacked Kanauj, Mahipala fled but returned after the Rashtrakutas left. In the mid-10th century the Pratiharas had several kings, as the empire disintegrated and was reduced to territory around Kanauj. A history of Kashmir's kings called the Rajatarangini was written by Kalhana in the 12th century. Vajraditya became king of Kashmir about 762 and was accused of selling men to the Mlechchhas (probably Arabs). Jayapida ruled Kashmir during the last thirty years of the 8th century, fighting wars of conquest even though his army once deserted his camp and people complained of high taxes. Family intrigue and factional violence led to a series of puppet kings until Avanti-varman began the Utpala dynasty of Kashmir in 855. His minister Suvya's engineering projects greatly increased the grain yield and lowered its prices. Avanti-varman's death in 883 was followed by a civil war won by Shankara-varman, who then invaded Darvabhisara, Gurjara, and Udabhanda; but he was killed by people in Urasha, who resented his army being quartered there. More family intrigues, bribery, and struggles for power between the Tantrin infantry, Ekanga military police, and the Damara feudal landowners caused a series of short reigns until the minister Kamalavardhana took control and asked the assembly to appoint a king; they chose the Brahmin Yashakara in 939. Yashakara was persuaded to resign by his minister Parvagupta, who killed the new Kashmir king but died two years later in 950. Parvagupta's son Kshemagupta became king and married the Lohara princess Didda. Eight years later she became regent for their son Abhimanyu and won over the rebel Yashodhara by appointing him commander of her army. When King Abhimanyu died in 972, his three sons ruled in succession until each in turn was murdered by their grandmother, Queen Didda; she ruled Kashmir herself with the help of an unpopular prime minister from 980 until she died in 1003. In the south the Pandyas had risen to power in the late 8th century under King Nedunjadaiyan. He ruled for fifty years, and his son Srimara Srivallabha reigned nearly as long, winning victories over the Gangas, Pallavas, Cholas, Kalingas, Magadhas, and others until he was defeated by Pallava Nandi-varman III at Tellaru. The Pandya empire was ruined when his successor Varaguna II was badly beaten about 880 by a combined force of Pallavas, western Gangas, and Cholas. The Chola dynasty of Tanjore was founded by Vijayalaya in the middle of the 9th century. As a vassal of the Pallavas, he and his son Aditya I helped their sovereign defeat the Pandyas. Aditya ruled 36 years and was succeeded as Chola king by his son Parantaka I (r. 907-953). His military campaigns established the Chola empire with the help of his allies, the Gangas, Kerala, and the Kodumbalur chiefs. The Pandyas and the Sinhalese king of Sri Lanka were defeated by the Cholas about 915. Parantaka demolished remaining Pallava power, but in 949 the Cholas were decisively beaten by Rashtrakuta king Krishna III at Takkolam, resulting in the loss of Tondamandalam and the Pandya country. Chola power was firmly established during the reign (985-1014) of Rajaraja I, who attacked the Kerala, Sri Lanka, and the Pandyas to break up their control of the western trade. When the Pandyas invaded the island, Sri Lanka king Sena I (r. 833-53) fled as the royal treasury was plundered. His successor Sena II (r. 853-87) sent a Sinhalese army in retaliation, besieging Madura, defeating the Pandyas, and killing their king. The Pandya capital was plundered, and the golden images were taken back to the island. In 915 a Sinhalese army from Sri Lanka supported Pandyan ruler Rajasimha II against the Cholas; but the Chola army invaded Sri Lanka and apparently stayed until the Rashtrakutas invaded their country in 949. Sri Lanka king Mahinda IV (r. 956-72) had some of the monasteries burnt by the Cholas restored. Sena V (r. 972-82) became king at the age of twelve but died of alcoholism. During his reign a rebellion supported by Damila forces ravaged the island. By the time of Mahinda V (r. 982-1029) the monasteries owned extensive land, and barons kept the taxes from their lands. As unpaid mercenaries revolted and pillaged, Mahinda fled to Rohana. Chola king Rajaraja sent a force that sacked Anuradhapura, ending its period as the capital in 993 as the northern plains became a Chola province. In 1017 the Cholas conquered the south as well and took Mahinda to India as a prisoner for the rest of his life. In India during this period Hindu colleges (ghatikas) were associated with the temples, and gradually the social power of the Brahmins superseded Buddhists and Jains, though the latter survived in the west. Jain gurus, owning nothing and wanting nothing, were often able to persuade the wealthy to contribute the four gifts of education, food, medicine, and shelter. In the devotional worship of Vishnu and Shiva and their avatars (incarnations), the Buddha became just another avatar for Hindus. Amid the increasing wars and militarism the ethical value of ahimsa (non-injury) so important to the Jains and Buddhists receded. The examples of the destroyer Shiva or Vishnu's incarnations as Rama and Krishna hardly promoted nonviolence. Village assemblies tended to have more autonomy in south India. The ur was open to all adult males in the village, but the sabha was chosen by lot from those qualified by land ownership, aged 35-70, knowing mantras and Brahmanas, and free of any major crime or sin. Land was worked by tenant peasants, who usually had to pay from one-sixth to one-third of their produce. Vegetarian diet was customary, and meat was expensive. Women did not have political rights and usually worked in the home or in the fields, though upper caste women and courtesans could defy social conventions. Women attendants in the temples could become dancers, but some were exploited as prostitutes by temple authorities. Temple sculptures as well as literature were often quite erotic, as the loves of Krishna and the prowess of the Shiva lingam were celebrated, and the puritanical ethics of Buddhism and Jainism became less influential. Feminine creative energy was worshiped as shakti, and Tantra in Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism celebrated the union of the sexual act as a symbol of divine union; their rituals might culminate in partaking of the five Ms - madya (wine), matsya (fish), mamsa (flesh), mudra (grain), and maithuna (coitus). Although in the early stages of spiritual development Tantra taught the usual moral avoidance of cruelty, alcohol, and sexual intercourse, in the fifth stage after training by the guru secret rites at night might defy such social taboos. Ultimately the aspirant is not afraid to practice openly what others disapprove in pursuing what he thinks is true, transcending the likes and dislikes of earthly life like God, to whom all things are equal. However, some argued that the highest stage, symbolized as the external worship of flowers, negates ignorance, ego, attachment, vanity, delusion, pride, calumniation, perturbation, jealousy, and greed, culminating in the five virtues of nonviolence (ahimsa), control of the senses, charity, forgiveness, and knowledge. The worker caste of Sudras was divided into the clean and the untouchables, who were barred from the temples. There were a few domestic slaves and those sold to the temples. Brahmins were often given tax-free grants of land, and they were forbidden by caste laws to work in cultivation; thus the peasant Sudras provided the labor. The increasing power of the Brahmin landowners led to a decline of merchants and the Buddhists they often had supported. Commentaries on the Laws of Manu by Medhatithi focused on such issues as the duty of the king to protect the people, their rights, and property. Although following the tradition that the king should take up cases in order of caste, Medhatithi believed that a lower caste suit should be taken up first if it is more urgent. Not only should a Brahmin be exempt from the death penalty and corporal punishment, he thought that for a first offense not even a fine should be imposed on a Brahmin. Medhatithi also held that in education the rod should only be used mildly and as a last resort; his attitude about a husband beating his wife was similar. Medhatithi believed that a woman's mind was not under her control, and that they should all be guarded by their male relations. He upheld the property rights of widows who had been faithful but believed the unfaithful should be cast out to a separate life. Widow suicide called sati was approved by some and criticized by others. During this period marriages were often arranged for girls before they reached the age of puberty, though self-choice still was practiced. The Jain monk Somadeva in his Nitivakyamrita also wrote that the king must chastise the wicked and that kings being divine should be obeyed as a spiritual duty. However, if the king does not speak the truth, he is worthless; for when the king is deceitful and unjust, who will not be? If he does not recognize merit, the cultured will not come to his court. Bribery is the door by which many sins enter, and the king should never speak what is hurtful, untrustworthy, untrue, or unnecessary. The force of arms cannot accomplish what peace does. If you can gain your goal with sugar, why use poison? In 959 Somadeva wrote the romance Yashastilaka in Sanskrit prose and verse, emphasizing devotion to the god Jina, goodwill to all creatures, hospitality to everyone, and altruism while defending the unpopular practices of the Digambara ascetics such as nudity, abstaining from bathing, and eating standing up. The indigenous Bon religion of Tibet was animistic and included the doctrine of reincarnation. Tradition called Namri Songtsen the 32nd king of Tibet. His 13-year-old son Songtsen Gampo became king in 630. He sent seventeen scholars to India to learn the Sanskrit language. The Tibetans conquered Burma and in 640 occupied Nepal. Songtsen Gampo married a princess from Nepal and also wanted to marry a Chinese princess, but so did Eastern Tartar (Tuyuhun) ruler Thokiki. According to ancient records, the Tibetans recruited an army of 200,000, defeated the Tartars, and captured the city of Songzhou, persuading the Chinese emperor to send his daughter to Lhasa in 641. Songtsen Gampo's marriage to Buddhist princesses led to his conversion, the building of temples and 900 monasteries, and the translation of Buddhist texts. His people were instructed how to write the Tibetan dialect with adapted Sanskrit letters. Songtsen Gampo died in 649, but the Chinese princess lived on until 680. He was succeeded by his young grandson Mangsong Mangtsen, and Gar Tongtsen governed as regent and conducted military campaigns in Asha for eight years. Gar Tongtsen returned to Lhasa in 666 and died the next year of a fever. A large military fortress was built at Dremakhol in 668, and the Eastern Tartars swore loyalty. During a royal power struggle involving the powerful Gar ministers, Tibet's peace with China was broken in 670, and for two centuries their frontier was in a state of war. The Tibetans invaded the Tarim basin and seized four garrisons in Chinese Turkestan. They raided the Shanzhou province in 676, the year Mangsong Mangtsen died. His death was kept a secret from the Chinese for three years, and a revolt in Shangshong was suppressed by the Tibetan military in 1677. Dusong Mangje was born a few days after his royal father died. The Gar brothers led their armies against the Chinese. During a power struggle Gar Zindoye was captured in battle in 694; his brother Tsenyen Sungton was executed for treason the next year; and Triding Tsendro was disgraced and committed suicide in 699, when Dusong defeated the Gar army. Nepal and northern India revolted in 702, and two years later the Tibetan king was killed in battle. Tibetan sources reported he died in Nanzhao, but according to the Chinese he was killed while suppressing the revolt in Nepal. Since Mes-Agtshom (also known as Tride Tsugtsen or Khri-Ide-btsug-brtan) was only seven years old, his grandmother Trimalo acted as regent. Mes-Agtshom also married a Chinese princess to improve relations; but by 719 the Tibetans were trading with the Arabs and fighting together against the Chinese. In 730 Tibet made peace with China and requested classics and histories, which the Emperor sent to Tibet despite a minister's warning they contained defense strategies. During a plague in 740-41 all the foreign monks were expelled from Tibet. After the imperial princess died in 741, a large Tibetan army invaded China. Nanzhao, suffering from Chinese armies, formed an alliance with Tibet in 750. Mes-Agtshom died in 755, according to Tibetan sources by a horse accident; but an inscription from the following reign accused two ministers of assassinating him. During Trisong Detsen's reign (755-97) Tibetans collected tribute from the Pala king of Bengal and ruled Nanzhao. In 763 a large Tibetan army invaded China and even occupied their capital at Chang'an. The Chinese emperor promised to send Tibet 50,000 rolls of silk each year; but when the tribute was not paid, the war continued. In 778 Siamese troops fought with the Tibetans against the Chinese in Sichuan (Szech'uan). Peace was made in 783 when China ceded much territory to Tibet. In 790 the Tibetans regained four garrisons in Anxi they had lost to Chinese forces a century before. After Mashang, the minister who favored the Bon religion, was removed from the scene, Trisong Detsen sent minister Ba Salnang to invite the Indian pandit Shantirakshita to come from the university at Nalanda in Nepal. The people believed that Bon spirits caused bad omens, and Shantirakshita returned to Nepal. So Ba Salnang invited Indian Tantric master Padmasambhava, who was able to overcome the Bon spirits by making them take an oath to defend the Buddhist religion. Shantirakshita returned and supervised the building of a monastery that came to be known as Samye. He was named high priest of Tibet, and he introduced the "ten virtues." When Padmasambhava was unable to refute the instantaneous enlightenment doctrine of the Chinese monk Hoshang, Kamalashila was invited from India for a debate at Samye that lasted from 1792 until 1794. Kamalashila argued that enlightenment is a gradual process resulting from study, analysis, and good deeds. Kamalashila was declared the winner, and King Trisong Detsen declared Buddhism the official religion of Tibet. Padmasambhava founded the red-hat Adi-yoga school and translated many Sanskrit books into Tibetan. A mythic account of his supernatural life that lasted twelve centuries was written by the Tibetan lady Yeshe Tsogyel. As his name implies, Padmasambhava was said to have been born miraculously on a lotus. His extraordinary and unconventional experiences included being married to 500 wives before renouncing a kingdom, several cases of cannibalism, surviving being burned at the stake, killing butchers, attaining Buddhahood, and teaching spirits and humans in many countries. In the guise of different famous teachers he taught people how to overcome the five poisons of sloth, anger, lust, arrogance, and jealousy. The Tibetan Book of the Dead was first committed to writing around this time. Its title Bardol Thodol more literally means "liberation by hearing on the after-death plane." Similar in many ways to the Egyptian Book of the Dead, it likely contains many pre-Buddhist elements, as it was compiled over the centuries. The first part, chikhai bardo, describes the psychic experiences at the moment of death and urges one to unite with the all-good pure reality of the clear light. In the second stage of the chonyid bardo karmic illusions are experienced in a dream-like state, the thought-forms of one's own intellect. In the sidpa bardo, the third and last phase, one experiences the judgment of one's own karma; prayer is recommended, but instincts tend to lead one back into rebirth in another body. The purpose of the book is to help educate one how to attain liberation in the earlier stages and so prevent reincarnation. Muni Tsenpo ruled Tibet from 797 probably to 804, although some believed he ruled for only eighteen months. He tried to reduce the disparity between the rich and poor by introducing land reform; but when the rich got richer, he tried two other reform plans. Padmasambhava advised him, "Our condition in this life is entirely dependent upon the actions of our previous life, and nothing can be done to alter the scheme of things."9 Muni Tsenpo had married his father's young wife to protect her from his mother's jealousy; but she turned against her son, the new king, and poisoned him; some believed he was poisoned because of his reforms. Since Muni Tsenpo had no sons, he was succeeded by his youngest brother Sadnaleg; his other brother Mutik Tsenpo was disqualified for having killed a minister in anger. During Sadnaleg's reign the Tibetans attacked the Arabs in the west, invading Transoxiana and besieging Samarqand; but they made an agreement with Caliph al-Ma'mun. When Sadnaleg died in 815, his ministers chose his Buddhist son Ralpachen as king over his irreligious older brother Darma. After a border dispute, Buddhists mediated a treaty between Tibet and China in 821 that reaffirmed the boundaries of the 783 treaty. Ralpachen decreed that seven households should provide for each monk. By intrigues Darma managed to get his brother Tsangma and the trusted Buddhist minister Bande Dangka sent into exile; then Be Gyaltore and Chogro Lhalon, ministers who were loyal to Darma, went and murdered Bande Dangka. In 836 these same two pro-Bon ministers assassinated King Ralpachen and put Darma on the throne. They promulgated laws to destroy Buddhism in Tibet and closed the temples. Buddhist monks had to choose between marrying, carrying arms as hunters, becoming followers of the Bon religion, or death. In 842 the monk Lhalung Palgye Dorje assassinated King Darma with an arrow and escaped. That year marked a division in the royal line and the beginning of local rule in Tibet that lasted more than two centuries. Central Tibet suffered most from Darma's persecution, but Buddhism was kept alive in eastern and western Tibet. Buddhists helped Darma's son (r. 842-70) gain the throne, and he promoted their religion. As their empire disintegrated into separate warring territories, Tibetan occupation in Turkestan was ended by Turks, Uighurs, and Qarluqs. In 978 translators Rinchen Zangpo and Lakpe Sherab invited some Indian pandits to come to Tibet, and this marked the beginning of the Buddhist renaissance in Tibet. Atisha (982-1054) was persuaded to come from India in 1042 and reformed the Tantric practices by introducing celibacy and a higher morality among the priests. He wrote The Lamp that Shows the Path to Enlightenment and founded the Katampa order, which was distinguished from the old Nyingmapa order of Padmasambhava. Drogmi (992-1074) taught the use of sexual practices for mystical realization, and his scholarly disciple Khon Konchog Gyalpo founded the Sakya monastery in 1073. The Kagyupa school traces its lineage from the celestial Buddha Dorje-Chang to Tilopa (988-1069), who taught Naropa (1016-1100) in India. From a royal family in Bengal, Naropa studied in Kashmir for three years until he was fourteen. Three years later his family made him marry a Brahmin woman; they were divorced after eight years, though she became a writer too. In 1049 Naropa won a debate at Nalanda and was elected abbot there for eight years. He left to find the guru he had seen in a vision and was on the verge of suicide when Tilopa asked him how he would find his guru if he killed the Buddha. Naropa served Tilopa for twelve years during which he meditated in silence most of the time. However, twelve times he followed his guru's irrational suggestions and caused himself suffering. Each time Tilopa pointed out the lesson and healed him, according to the biography written about a century later. The twelve lessons taught him about the ordinary wish-fulfilling gem, one-valueness, commitment, mystic heat, apparition, dream, radiant light, transference, resurrection, eternal delight (learned from Tantric sex), mahamudra (authenticity), and the intermediate state (between birth and death). Naropa then went to Tibet where he taught Marpa (1012-96), who brought songs from the Tantric poets of Bengal to his disciple Milarepa. Milarepa was born on the Tibetan frontier of Nepal in 1040. When he was seven years old, Milarepa's father died; his aunt and uncle taking control of the estate, his mother and he had to work as field laborers in poor conditions. When he came of age, his sister, mother, and he were thrown out of their house. So Milarepa studied black magic, and his mother threatened to kill herself if he failed. Milarepa caused the house to fall down, killing 35 people. Next his teacher taught him how to cause a hail storm, and at his mother's request he destroyed some crops. Milarepa repented of this sorcery and prayed to take up a religious life. He found his way to the lama Marpa the translator, who said that even if he imparted the truth to him, his liberation in one lifetime would depend on his own perseverance and energy. The lama was reluctant to give the truth to one who had done such evil deeds. So he had Milarepa build walls and often tear them down, while his wife pleaded for the young aspirant. Frustrated, Milarepa went to another teacher, who asked him to destroy his enemies with a hail storm, which he did while preserving an old woman's plot. Milarepa returned to his guru Marpa and was initiated. Then he meditated in a cave for eleven months, discovering that the highest path started with a compassionate mood dedicating one's efforts to universal good, followed by clear aspiration transcending thought with prayer for others. After many years Milarepa went back to his old village to discover that his mother had died, his sister was gone, and his house and fields were in ruins. Describing his life in songs, Milarepa decided, "So I will go to gain the truth divine, to the Dragkar-taso cave I'll go, to practice meditation."10 He met the woman to whom he was betrothed in childhood, but he decided on the path of total self-abnegation. Going out to beg for food he met his aunt, who loosed dogs on him; but after talking he let her live in his house and cultivate his field. Milarepa practiced patience on those who had wronged him, calling it the shortest path to Buddhahood. Giving up comfort, material things, and desires for name or fame, he meditated and lived on nettles and water. He preached on the law of karma, and eventually his aunt was converted and devoted herself to penance and meditation. His sister found his nakedness shameful, but Milarepa declared that deception and evil deeds are shameful, not the body. Believing in karma, thoughts of the misery in the lower worlds may inspire one to seek Buddhahood. It was said that Milarepa had 25 saints among his disciples, including his sister and three other women. In one of his last songs he wrote, "If pain and sorrow you desire sincerely to avoid, avoid, then, doing harm to others."11 Many miraculous stories are told of his passing from his body and the funeral; Milarepa died in 1123, and it was claimed that for a time no wars or epidemics ravaged the Earth. The biography of his life and songs was written by his disciple Rechung. A contemporary of Milarepa, the life of Nangsa Obum was also told in songs and prose. She was born in Tibet, and because of her beauty and virtue she was married to Dragpa Samdrub, son of Rinang king Dragchen. She bore a son but longed to practice the dharma. Nangsa was falsely accused by Dragchen's jealous sister Ani Nyemo for giving seven sacks of flour to Rechung and other lamas. Beaten by her husband and separated from her child by the king, Nangsa died of a broken heart. Since her good deeds so outnumbered her bad deeds, the Lord of Death allowed her to come back to life. She decided to go practice the dharma; but her son and a repentant Ani Nyemo pleaded for her to stay. She remained but then visited her parents' home, where she took up weaving. After quarreling with her mother, Nangsa left and went to study the sutras and practice Tantra. The king and her husband attacked her teacher Sakya Gyaltsen, who healed all the wounded monks. Then the teacher excoriated them for having animal minds and black karma, noting that Nangsa had come there for something better than a Rinang king; her good qualities would be wasted living with a hunter; they were trying to make a snow lion into a dog. The noblemen admitted they had made their karma worse and asked to be taught. Sakya replied that for those who have done wrong repentance is like the sun rising. They should think about their suffering and the meaninglessness of their lives and how much better they will be in the field of dharma. Dragchen and his father retired from worldly life, and Nangsa's 15-year-old son was given the kingdom. Machig Lapdron (1055-1145) was said to be a reincarnation of Padmasambhava's consort Yeshe Tsogyel and of an Indian yogi named Monlam Drub. Leaving that body in a cave in India the soul traveled to Tibet and was born as Machig. As a child, she learned to recite the sutras at record speed, and at initiation she asked how she could help all sentient beings. In a dream an Indian teacher told her to confess her hidden faults, approach what she found repulsive, help those whom she thinks cannot be helped, let go of any attachment, go to scary places like cemeteries, be aware, and find the Buddha within. A lama taught her to examine the movement of her own mind carefully and become free of petty dualism and the demon of self-cherishing. She learned to wander and stay anywhere, and she absorbed various teachings from numerous gurus. She married and had three children but soon retired from the world. By forty she was well known in Tibet, and numerous monks and nuns came from India to challenge her; but she defeated them in debate. It was said that 433 lepers were cured by practicing her teachings. A book on the supreme path of discipleship was compiled by Milarepa's disciple Lharje (1077-1152), who founded the Cur-lka monastery in 1150. This book lists yogic precepts in various categories. Causes of regret include frittering life away, dying an irreligious and worldly person, and selling the wise doctrine as merchandise. Requirements include sure action, diligence, knowledge of one's own faults and virtues, keen intellect and faith, watchfulness, freedom from desire and attachment, and love and compassion in thought and deed directed to the service of all sentient beings. "Unless the mind be disciplined to selflessness and infinite compassion, one is apt to fall into the error of seeking liberation for self alone."12 Offering to deities meat obtained by killing is like offering a mother the flesh of her own child. The virtue of the holy dharma is shown in those, whose heavy evil karma would have condemned them to suffering, turning to a religious life. The black-hat Karmapa order was founded in 1147 by Tusum Khyenpa (1110-93), a native of Kham who studied with Milarepa's disciples. This sect claims to have started the system of leadership by successive reincarnations of the same soul, later adopted by the Dalai and Panchen Lamas. In 1207 a Tibetan council decided to submit peacefully to Genghis Khan and pay tribute. After the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, the Tibetans stopped paying the tribute, and the Mongols invaded in 1240, burning the Rating and Gyal Lhakhang monasteries and killing five hundred monks and civilians. In 1244 Sakya Pandita (1182-1251) went to Mongolia, where he initiated Genghis Khan's grandson Godan. Sakya Pandita instructed him in the Buddha's teachings and persuaded him to stop drowning the Chinese to reduce their population. Sakya Pandita was given authority over the thirteen myriarchies of central Tibet and told the Tibetan leaders it was useless to resist the Mongols' military power. He is also credited with devising a Mongolian alphabet. After Sakya Pandita died, the Mongols invaded Tibet in 1252. After Godan died, Kublai in 1254 invested Phagpa as the supreme ruler in Tibet by giving him a letter that recommended the monks stop quarreling and live peaceably. Phagpa conducted the enthronement of Kublai Khan in 1260. Phaga returned to Sakya in 1276 and died four years later. In 1282 Dharmapala was appointed imperial preceptor (tishri) in Beijing. The Sakya administrator Shang Tsun objected to Kublai Khan's plans to invade India and Nepal, and the yogi Ugyen Sengge wrote a long poem against the idea, which Kublai Khan abandoned. After Tishri Dharmapala died in 1287, the myriarchy Drikhung attacked Sakya; but administrator Ag-len used troops and Mongol cavalry to defeat them, marching into Drikhung territory and burning their temple in 1290. Kublai Khan had been a patron of Buddhism in Tibet, but he died in 1295. After his death the influence of the Mongols in Tibet diminished. Between 1000 and 1027 Ghazni ruler Mahmud invaded India with an army at least twelve times. About 15,000 Muslims took Peshawar and killed 5,000 Hindus in battle. Shahi king Jayapala was so ashamed of being defeated three times that he burned himself to death on a funeral pyre. In 1004 Mahmud's forces crossed the Indus River, then attacked and pillaged the wealth of Bhatiya. On the way to attack the heretical Abu-'l-Fath Daud, Mahmud defeated Shahi king Anandapala. Daud was forced to pay 20,000,000 dirhams and was allowed to rule as a Muslim if he paid 20,000 golden dirhams annually. Mahmud's army again met Anandapala's the next year; after 5,000 Muslims lost their lives, 20,000 Hindu soldiers were killed. Mahmud captured an immense treasure of 70,000,000 dirhams, plus gold and silver ingots, jewels, and other precious goods. After Mahmud defeated the king of Narayan and the rebelling Daud, Anandapala made a treaty that lasted until his death, allowing the Muslims passage to attack the sacred city of Thaneswar. In 1013 Mahmud attacked and defeated Anandapala's successor Trilochanapala, annexing the western and central portions of the Shahi kingdom in the Punjab. Next the Muslims plundered the Kashmir valley, though Mahmud was never able to hold it. To attack Kanauj in the heart of India, Mahmud raised a force of 100,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry. Most Hindu chiefs submitted, but in Mahaban nearly 5,000 were killed, causing Kulachand to kill himself. Next the Muslims plundered the sacred city of Mathura, destroying a temple that took two centuries to build and estimated to be worth 100,000,000 red dinars. After conquering more forts and obtaining more booty, Mahmud ordered the inhabitants slain by sword, the city plundered, and the idols destroyed in Kanauj that was said to contain almost 10,000 temples. In 1019 Mahmud returned to Ghazni with immense wealth and 53,000 prisoners to be sold as slaves. When Mahmud's army returned again to chastise Chandella ruler Vidyadhara for killing the submitting Pratihara king Rajyapala, the resistance of Trilochanapala was overcome, making all of Shahi part of Mahmud's empire. Although he had 45,000 infantry, 36,000 cavalry, and 640 elephants, Vidyadhara fled after a minor defeat. The next year Mahmud and Vidyadhara agreed to a peace. 50,000 Hindus were killed in 1025 defending the Shaivite temple of Somanatha in Kathiawar, as Mahmud captured another 20,000,000 dirhams. In his last campaign Mahmud used a navy of 1400 boats with iron spikes to defeat the Jats with their 4,000 boats in the Indus. Mahmud's soldiers often gave people the choice of accepting Islam or death. These threats and the enslavement of Hindus by Muslims and the Hindus' consequent attitude of considering Muslims impure barbarians (mlechchha) caused a great division between these religious groups. During this time Mahipala I ruled Bengal for nearly half a century and founded a second Pala empire. In the half century around 1100 Ramapala tried to restore the decreasing realm of the Palas by invading his neighbors until he drowned himself in grief in the Ganges. Buddhists were persecuted in Varendri by the Vangala army. In the 12th century Vijayasena established a powerful kingdom in Bengal; but in spite of the military victories of Lakshmanasena, who began ruling in 1178, lands were lost to the Muslims and others early in the 13th century. Military campaigns led by the Paramara Bhoja and the Kalachuri Karna against Muslims in the Punjab discouraged Muslim invasions after Punjab governor Ahmad Niyaltigin exacted tribute from the Thakurs and plundered the city of Banaras in 1034. Bhoja and a Hindu confederacy of chiefs conquered Hansi, Thaneswar, Nagarkot, and other territories from the Muslims in 1043. Bhoja also wrote 23 books, patronized writers, and established schools for his subjects. Karna won many battles over various kingdoms in India but gained little material advantage. About 1090 Gahadavala ruler Chandradeva seems to have collaborated with the Muslim governor of the Punjab to seize Kanauj from Rashtrakuta ruler Gopala. In the first half of the 12th century Gahadavala ruler Govindachandra came into conflict with the Palas, Senas, Gangas, Kakatiyas, Chalukyas, Chandellas, Chaulukyas, the Karnatakas of Mithila, and the Muslims. The Ghuzz Turks made Muhammad Ghuri governor of Ghazni in 1173; he attacked the Gujarat kingdom in 1178, but his Turkish army was defeated by the Chaulukya king Mularaja II. Chahamana Prithviraja III began ruling that year and four years later defeated and plundered Paramardi's Chandella kingdom. In 1186 Khusrav Malik, the last Yamini ruler of Ghazni, was captured at Lahore by Muhammad Ghuri. The next year the Chahamana king Prithviraja made a treaty with Bhima II of Gujarat. Prithviraja's forces defeated Muhammad Ghuri's army at Tarain and regained Chahamana supremacy over the Punjab. Muhammad Ghuri organized 120,000 men from Ghazni to face 300,000 led by Prithviraja, who was captured and eventually executed as the Muslims demolished the temples of Ajmer in 1192 and built mosques. From there Sultan Muhammad Ghuri marched to Delhi, where he appointed general Qutb-ud-din Aybak governor; then with 50,000 cavalry Muhammad Ghuri defeated the Gahadavala army of Jayachandra before leaving for Ghazni. Prithviraja's brother Hariraja recaptured Delhi and Ajmer; but after losing them again to Aybak, he burned himself to death in 1194. Next the local Mher tribes and the Chaulukya king of Gujarat, Bhima II, expelled the Turks from Rajputana; but in 1197 Aybak invaded Gujarat with more troops from Ghazni, killing 50,000 and capturing 20,000. In 1202 Aybak besieged Chandella king Paramardi at Kalanjara and forced him to pay tribute. In the east a Muslim named Bakhtyar raided Magadha and used the plunder to raise a larger force that conquered much of Bengal; his army slaughtered Buddhist monks, thinking they were Brahmins. However, the Khalji Bakhtyar met tough resistance in Tibet and had to return to Bengal where he died. The Ghuri dynasty ended soon after Muhammad Ghuri was murdered at Lahore in 1206 by his former slave Aybak, who assumed power but died in 1210. The struggle for power was won by Aybak's son-in-law Iltutmish, who defeated and killed Aybak's successor. Then in 1216 Iltutmish captured his rival Yildiz, who had been driven by Khwarezm-Shah from Ghazni to the Punjab; the next year he expelled Qabacha from Lahore. In 1221 Mongols led by Genghis Khan pushed Khwarezm-Shah and other refugees across the Indus into the Punjab. Iltutmish invaded Bengal and ended the independence of the Khalji chiefs; but he met with Guhilot resistance in Rajputana before plundering Bhilsa and Ujjain in Malwa. Chahadadeva captured and ruled Narwar with an army of over 200,000 men, defeating Iltutmish's general in 1234, but he was later defeated by the Muslim general Balban in 1251. After Qabacha drowned in the Indus, Iltutmish was recognized as the Baghdad Caliph's great sultan in 1229 until he died of disease seven years later. Factional strife occurred as Iltutmish's daughter Raziyya managed to rule like a man for three years before being killed by sexist hostility; his sons, grandson, and the "Forty" officials, who had been his slaves, struggled for power and pushed back the invading Mongols in 1245. After Iltutmish's son Mahmud became king, the capable Balban gained control. In 1253 the Indian Muslim Raihan replaced Balban for a year until the Turks for racist reasons insisted Balban and his associates be restored. When Mahmud died childless in 1265, Balban became an effective sultan. He said, "All that I can do is to crush the cruelties of the cruel and to see that all persons are equal before the law."13 Mongols invaded again in 1285 and killed Balban's son; two years later the elderly Balban died, and in 1290 the dynasty of Ilbari Turks was replaced by the Khalji Turks with ties to Afghanistan. Chola king Rajendra I (r. 1012-44) ruled over most of south India and even invaded Sumatra and the Malay peninsula. His son Rajadhiraja I's reign (1018-52) overlapped his father's, as he tried to put down rebellions in Pandya and Chera, invading western Chalukya and sacking Kalyana. Cholas were criticized for violating the ethics of Hindu warfare by carrying off cows and "unloosing women's girdles." Rajadhiraja was killed while defeating Chalukya king Someshvara I (r. 1043-68). In the Deccan the later Chalukyas battled their neighbors; led by Vikramaditya, they fought a series of wars against the powerful Cholas. After battling his brother Vikramaditya, Someshvara II reigned 1068-76; in confederacy with Chaulukya Karna of Gujarat, he defeated the Paramara Jayasimha and occupied Malava briefly. Becoming Chalukya king, Vikramaditya VI (r. 1076-1126) invaded the Cholas and took Kanchi some time before 1085. When the Vaishnavites Mahapurna and Kuresha had their eyes put out, probably by Kulottunga I in 1079, the famous philosopher Ramanuja took refuge in the Hoysala country until Kulottunga died. Ramanuja modified Shankara's nondualism in his Bhasya and emphasized the way of devotion (bhakti). He believed the grace of God was necessary for liberation. Although he practiced initiations and rituals, Ramanuja recognized that caste, rank, and religion were irrelevant to realizing union with God. He provided the philosophical reasoning for the popular worship of Vishnu and was thought to be 120 when he died in 1137. In Sri Lanka the Sinhalese harassed the occupying Chola forces until they withdrew from Rohana in 1030, enabling Kassapa VI (r. 1029-40) to govern the south. When he died without an heir, Cholas under Rajadhiraja (r. 1043-54) regained control of Rajarata. After 1050 a struggle for power resulted in Kitti proclaiming himself Vijayabahu I (r. 1055-1110). However, in 1056 a Chola army invaded to suppress the revolt in Rohana. Vijayabahu fled to the hills, and his army was defeated near the old capital of Anuradhapura; yet he recovered Rohana about 1061. The Chola empire was also being challenged by the western Chalukyas during the reign (1063-69) of Virarajendra. The new Chola king Kulottunga I (r. 1070-1120), after being defeated by Vijayabahu, pulled his forces out of Sri Lanka. Vijayabahu took over the north but had to suppress a rebellion by three brothers in 1075 near Polonnaruwa. After his envoys to the Chalukya king at Karnataka were mutilated, Vijayabahu invaded Chola around 1085; but he made peace with Kulottunga in 1088. Vijayabahu restored irrigation and centralized administration as he patronized Buddhism. Vijayabahu was succeeded by his brother Jayabahu I; but a year later Vikramabahu I (r. 1111-32) took control of Rajarata and persecuted monks while the sons of Vijayabahu's sister Mitta ruled the rest of Sri Lanka. The Hoysala king Vinayaditya (r. 1047-1101) acknowledged Chalukya supremacy; but after his death, the Hoysalas tried to become independent by fighting the Chalukyas. Kulottunga ordered a land survey in 1086. The Cholas under Kulottunga invaded Kalinga in 1096 to quell a revolt; a second invasion in 1110 was described in the Kalingattupparani of court poet Jayangondar. After Vikramaditya VI died, Vikrama Chola (r. 1118-1135) regained Chola control over the Vengi kingdom, though the Chalukyas ruled the Deccan until the Kalachuri king Bijjala took Kalyana from Chalukya king Taila III in 1156; the Kalachuris kept control for a quarter century. Gujarat's Chalukya king Kumarapala was converted to Jainism by the learned Hemachandra (1088-1172) and prohibited animal sacrifices, while Jain king Bijjala's minister Basava (1106-67) promoted the Vira Shaiva sect that emphasized social reform and the emancipation of women. Basava disregarded caste and ritual as shackling and senseless. When an outcaste married an ex-Brahmin bride, Bijjala sentenced them both, and they were dragged to death in the streets of Kalyana. Basava tried to convert the extremists to nonviolence but failed; they assassinated Bijjala, and the Vira Shaivas were persecuted. Basava asked, "Where is religion without loving kindness?" Basava had been taught by Allama Prabhu, who had completely rejected external rituals, converting some from the sacrifice of animals to sacrificing one's bestial self. In his poem, The Arousing of Kumarapala, which describes how Hemachandra converted King Kumarapala, Somaprabha warned Jains from serving the king as ministers, harming others and extorting their fortunes that one's master may take. In the mid-12th century the island of Sri Lanka suffered a three-way civil war. Ratnavali arranged for her son Parakramabahu to succeed childless Kitsirimegha in Dakkinadesa. Parakramabahu defeated and captured Gajabahu (r. 1132-53), taking over Polonnaruwa. However, his pillaging troops alienated the people who turned to Manabharana. Parakramabahu allied with Gajabahu, becoming his heir, and defeated Manabharana. Parakramabahu I (r. 1153-86) restored unity but harshly suppressed a Rohana rebellion in 1160 and crushed Rajarata resistance in 1168. He used heavy taxation to rebuild Pulatthinagara and Anuradhapura that had been destroyed by the Cholas. The Culavamsa credits Parakramabahu with restoring or building 165 dams, 3910 canals, 163 major tanks, and 2376 minor tanks. He developed trade with Burma. Sri Lanka aided a Pandya ruler in 1169 when Kulashekhara Pandya defeated and killed Parakrama Pandya, seizing Madura; but Chola king Rajadhiraja II (r. 1163-79) brought the Pandya civil war to an end. This enabled larger Chola armies to defeat the Sri Lanka force by 1174. Parakramabahu was succeeded by his nephew, who was slain a year later by a nobleman by trying to usurp the throne. Parakramabahu son-in-law Nissankamalla stopped that and ruled Sri Lanka for nine years. He also was allied with the Pandyas and fought the Cholas. During the next eighteen years Sri Lanka had twelve changes of rulers, though Nissankamalla's queen, Kalyanavati reigned 1202-08. Four Chola invasions further weakened Sri Lanka. Queen Lilavati ruled three different times and was supported by the Cholas. In 1212 the Pandyan prince Parakramapandu invaded Rajarata and deposed her; but three years later the Kalinga invader Magha took power. The Culavamsa criticized Magha (r. 1215-55) for confiscating the wealth of the monasteries, taxing the peasants, and letting his soldiers oppress the people. Finally the Sinhalese alliance with the Pandyas expelled Magha and defeated the invasions by Malay ruler Chandrabanu. When his son came again in 1285, the Pandyan general Arya Chakravarti defeated him and ruled the north, installing Parakramabahu III (r. 1287-93) as his vassal at Polonnaruwa. Eventually the capital Polonnaruwa was abandoned; the deterioration of the irrigation system became irreversible as mosquitoes carrying malaria infested its remains. The Tamil settlers withdrew to the north, developing the Jaffna kingdom. Others settled in the wet region in the west, as the jungle was tamed. Hoysala king Ballala II proclaimed his independence in 1193. Chola king Kulottunga III (r. 1178-1216) ravaged the Pandya country about 1205, destroying the coronation hall at Madura; but a few years later he was overpowered by the Pandyas and saved from worse defeat by Hoysala intervention, as Hoysala king Ballala II (r. 1173-1220) had married a Chola princess. In the reign (1220-34) of Narasimha II the Hoysalas fought the Pandyas for empire, as Chola power decreased. Narasimha's son Someshvara (r. 1234-63) was defeated and killed in a battle led by Pandya Jatavarman Sundara. Chola king Rajendra III (r. 1246-79) was a Pandyan feudatory from 1258 to the end of his reign. The Cholas had inflicted much misery on their neighbors, even violating the sanctity of ambassadors. The Pandyas under their king Maravarman Kulashekhara, who ruled more than forty years until 1310, overcame and annexed the territories of the Cholas and the Hoysalas in 1279 and later in his reign gained supremacy over Sri Lanka. The dualist Madhva (1197-1276) was the third great Vedanta philosopher after Shankara and Ramanuja. Madhva also opened the worship of Vishnu to all castes but may have picked up the idea of damnation in hell from missionary Christians or Muslims. He taught four steps to liberation: 1) detachment from material comforts, 2) persistent devotion to God, 3) meditation on God as the only independent reality, and 4) earning the grace of God. Marco Polo on his visit to south India about 1293 noted that climate and ignorant treatment did not allow horses to thrive there. He admired Kakatiya queen Rudramba, who ruled for nearly forty years. He noted the Hindus' strict enforcement of justice against criminals and abstention from wine, but he was surprised they did not consider any form of sexual indulgence a sin. He found certain merchants most truthful but noted many superstitious beliefs. Yet he found that ascetics, who ate no meat, drank no wine, had no sex outside of marriage, did not steal, and never killed any creature, often lived very long lives. Marco Polo related a legend of brothers whose quarrels were prevented from turning to violence by their mother who threatened to cut off her breasts if they did not make peace. Nizam-ud-din Auliya was an influential Sufi of the Chishti order that had been founded a century before. He taught love as the means to realize God. For Auliya universal love was expressed through love and service of humanity. The Sufis found music inflamed love, and they interpreted the Qur'an broadly in esoteric ways; the intuition of the inner light was more important to them than orthodox dogma. Auliya was the teacher of Amir Khusrau (1253-1325), one of the most prolific poets in the Persian language. Many of Khusrau's poems, however, glorified the bloody conquests of the Muslim rulers so that "the pure tree of Islam might be planted and flourish" and the evil tree with deep roots would be torn up by force. He wrote, The whole country, by means of the sword of our holy warriors, has become like a forest denuded of its thorns by fire. The land has been saturated with the water of the sword, and the vapors of infidelity have been dispersed. The strong men of Hind have been trodden under foot, and all are ready to pay tribute. Islam is triumphant; idolatry is subdued. Had not the law granted exemption from death by the payment of poll-tax, the very name of Hind, root and branch, would have been extinguished. From Ghazni to the shore of the ocean you see all under the dominion of Islam.14 In 1290 the Khalji Jalal-ud-din Firuz became sultan in Delhi but refused to sacrifice Muslim lives to take Ranthambhor, though his army defeated and made peace with 150,000 invading Mongols. Genghis Khan's descendant Ulghu and 4,000 others accepted Islam and became known as the "new Muslims." This lenient sultan sent a thousand captured robbers and murderers to Bengal without punishment. His more ambitious nephew 'Ala-ud-din Khalji attacked the kingdom of Devagiri, gaining booty and exacting from Yadava king Ramachandra gold he used to raise an army of 60,000 cavalry and as many infantry. In 1296 he lured his uncle into a trap, had him assassinated, and bribed the nobles to proclaim him sultan. Several political adversaries were blinded and killed. The next year 'Ala-ud-din sent an army headed by his brother Ulugh Khan to conquer Gujarat; according to Wassaf they slaughtered the people and plundered the country. Another 200,000 Mongols invaded in 1299, but they were driven back. Revolts by his nephews and an old officer were ruthlessly crushed. Money was extorted; a spy network made nobles afraid to speak in public; alcohol was prohibited; and gatherings of nobles were restricted. Orders were given that Hindus were not to have anything above subsistence; this prejudicial treatment was justified by Islamic law. In addition to his three plays we also have four poems by Kalidasa. The Dynasty of Raghu is an epic telling the story not only of Rama but of his ancestors and descendants. King Dilipa's willingness to sacrifice himself for a cow enables him to get a son, Raghu. Consecrated as king, Raghu tries to establish an empire with the traditional horse sacrifice in which a horse for a year is allowed to wander into other kingdoms, which must either submit or defend themselves against his army. His son Aja is chosen by the princess Indumati. Their son Dasharatha has four sons by three wives; but for killing a boy while hunting, he must suffer the banishment of his eldest son Rama, whose traditional story takes up a third of the epic. His son Kusha restores the capital at Ayodhya; but after a line of 22 kings Agnivarna becomes preoccupied with love affairs before dying and leaving a pregnant queen ruling as regent. Another epic poem, The Birth of the War-god tells how the ascetic Shiva is eventually wooed by Parvati, daughter of the Himalaya mountains, after the fire from Shiva's eye kills the god of Love and she becomes an ascetic. After being entertained by nymphs, Shiva restores the body of Love. Their son Kumara is made a general by the god Indra; after their army is defeated by Taraka's army, Kumara kills the demon Taraka. Kalidasa's elegy, The Cloud-Messenger, describes how the Yaksha Kubera, an attendant of the god of Wealth, who has been exiled from the Himalayas to the Vindhya mountains for a year, sends a cloud as a messenger to his wife during the romantic rainy season. Kalidasa is also believed to be the author of a poem on the six seasons in India. Bana wrote an epic romance on the conquests of Harsha in the 7th century and another called Kadambari. Bana was not afraid to criticize the idea of kings being divine nor the unethical and cruel tactics of the political theorist Kautilya. Bana was one of the few Indian writers who showed concern for the poor and humble. About the 6th or 7th century Bhartrihari wrote short erotic poems typical of those later collected into anthologies. He reminded himself that virtue is still important. Granted her breasts are firm, her face entrancing, Her legs enchanting - what is that to you? My mind, if you would win her, stop romancing. Have you not heard, reward is virtue's due?15 Torn between sensual and spiritual love, Bhartrihari found that the charms of a slim girl disturbed him. Should he choose the youth of full-breasted women or the forest? Eventually he moved from the dark night of passion to the clear vision of seeing God in everything. He noted that it is easier to take a gem from a crocodile's jaws or swim the ocean or wear an angry serpent like a flower in one's hair or squeeze oil from sand, water from a mirage, or find a rabbit's horn than it is to satisfy a fool whose opinions are set. Bhartrihari asked subtle questions. Patience, better than armor, guards from harm. And why seek enemies, if you have anger? With friends, you need no medicine for danger. With kinsmen, why ask fire to keep you warm? What use are snakes when slander sharper stings? What use is wealth where wisdom brings content? With modesty, what need for ornament? With poetry's Muse, why should we envy kings?16 The erotic poetry of Amaru about the 7th century often expressed the woman's viewpoint. When someone questioned her pining and faithfulness, she asked him to speak softly because her love living in her heart might hear. In another poem the narrator tries to hide her blushing, sweating cheeks but found her bodice splitting of its own accord. This poet seemed to prefer love-making to meditation. The erotic and the religious were combined in 12th century Bengali poet Jayadeva's "Songs of the Cowherd" (Gita Govinda) about the loves of Krishna. A poet observed that most people can see the faults in others, and some can see their virtues; but perhaps only two or three can see their own shortcomings. In the late 11th century Buddhist scholar Vidyakara collected together an anthology of Sanskrit court poetry, Treasury of Well-Turned Verse (Subhasitaratnakosa), with verses from more than two hundred poets, mostly from the previous four centuries. Although it begins with verses on the Buddha and the bodhisattvas Lokesvara and Manjughosa, Vidyakara also included verses on Shiva and Vishnu. One poet asked why a naked ascetic with holy ashes needed a bow or a woman. (103) After these chapters the poetry is not religious, with verses on the seasons and other aspects of nature. Love poetry is ample, and it is quite sensual, though none of it is obscene. Women's bodies are described with affection, and sections include the joys of love as well as the sad longing of love-in-separation. An epigram complains of a man whose body smells of blood as his action runs to slaughter because his sense of right and wrong is no better than a beast's. Only courage is admired in a lion, but that makes the world seem cheap. (1091) Another epigram warns that the earth will give no support nor a wishing tree a wish, and one's efforts will come to nothing for one whose sin accumulated in a former birth. (1097) Shardarnava described peace in the smooth flow of a river; but noting uprooted trees along the shore, he inferred concealed lawlessness. (1111) Dharmakirti's verses describe the good as asking no favors from the wicked, not begging from a friend whose means are small, keeping one's stature in misfortune, and following in the footsteps of the great, though these rules may be as hard to travel as a sword blade. (1213) Another poet found that he grew mad like a rutting elephant when knowing little he thought he knew everything; but after consorting with the wise and gaining some knowledge, he knew himself a fool, and the madness left like a fever. (1217) Another proclaimed good one who offers aid to those in distress, not one who is skillful at keeping ill-gotten gains. (1226) A poet noted that countless get angry with or without a cause, but perhaps only five or six in the world do not get angry when there is a cause. (1236) The great guard their honor, not their lives; fear evil, not enemies; and seek not wealth but those who ask for it. (1239) Small-minded people ask if someone is one of them or an outsider, but the noble mind takes the whole world for family. (1241) An anonymous poet asked these great questions: Can that be judgment where compassion plays no part, or that be the way if we help not others on it? Can that be law where we injure still our fellows, or that be sacred knowledge which leads us not to peace?17 A poet advised that the wise, considering that youth is fleeting, the body soon forfeited and wealth soon gone, lays up no deeds, though they be pleasurable here, that will ripen into bitter fruit in future lives. (1686) Although collected from ancient myths and folklore, the eighteen "great" Puranas were written between the 4th and 10th centuries. Originally intended to describe the creation of the universe, its destruction and renewal, genealogies, and chronicles of the lawgivers and the solar and lunar dynasties, they retold myths and legends according to different Vaishnavite and Shaivite sects with assorted religious lore. The Agni Puranam, for example, describes the avatars Rama and Krishna, religious ceremonies, Tantric rituals, initiation, Shiva, holy places, duties of kings, the art of war, judicature, medicine, worship of Shiva and the Goddess, and concludes with a treatise on prosody, rhetoric, grammar, and yoga. Much of this was apparently taken from other books. The early Vishnu Purana explains that although all creatures are destroyed at each cosmic dissolution, they are reborn according to their good or bad karma; this justice pleased the creator Brahma. In this Purana Vishnu becomes the Buddha in order to delude the demons so that they can be destroyed. The gods complain that they cannot kill the demons because they are following the Vedas and developing ascetic powers. So Vishnu says he will bewitch them to seek heaven or nirvana and stop evil rites such as killing animals. Then reviling the Vedas, the gods, the sacrificial rituals, and the Brahmins, they went on the wrong path and were destroyed by the gods. The Vishnu Purana describes the incarnations of Vishnu, including his future life as Kalkin at the end of the dark age (Kali yuga) when evil people will be destroyed, and justice (dharma) will be re-established in the Krita age. The gradual ethical degeneration is reflected in the change in Hindu literature from the heroic Vedas to the strategic epics and then to deception and demonic methods in the Puranas. The Padma Purana explains the incarnations of Vishnu as fulfilling a curse from lord Bhrigu, because Vishnu killed his wife. Thus Vishnu is born again and again for the good of the world when virtue has declined. By appearing as a naked Jain and the Buddha, Vishnu has turned the demons away from the Vedas to the virtue (dharma) of the sages. The most popular of all the Puranas, the Srimad Bhagavatam was attributed to the author of the Mahabharata, Vyasa, given out through his son Suta. However, scholars consider this work emphasizing the way of devotion (bhakti) one of the later great Puranas and ascribe it to the grammarian Vopadeva. Bhagavatam retells the stories of the incarnations of the god Vishnu with special emphasis on Krishna. Even as a baby and a child the divine Krishna performs many miracles and defeats demons. The young Krishna is not afraid to provoke the wrath of the chief god Indra by explaining that happiness and misery, fear and security, result from the karma of one's actions. Even a supreme Lord must dispense the fruits of others' karma and thus is dependent on those who act. Thus individuals are controlled by their dispositions they have created by their former actions. Karma, or we might say experience, is the guru and the supreme Lord. Brahmins should maintain themselves by knowledge of the Veda, Kshatriyas by protecting the country, Vaishyas by business, and Sudras by service. Krishna also notes that karma based on desire is the product of ignorance, of not understanding one's true nature. The king who is listening to the stories of Krishna asks how this Lord could sport with other men's wives; but the author excuses these escapades by explaining that although the superhuman may teach the truth, their acts do not always conform to their teachings. The intelligent understand this and follow only the teachings. The worshiping author places the Lord above good and evil and claims that the men of Vajra did not become angry at Krishna because they imagined their wives were by their sides all the time. Krishna also fought and killed many enemies, "as the lord of the jungle kills the beasts."18 He killed Kamsa for unjustly appropriating cows. Krishna fought the army of Magadha king Jarasandha seventeen times and presented the spoils of war to the Yadu king. He killed Satadhanva over a gem. Krishna carried off by force and thus wed Rukmini by the demon mode. Several other weddings followed, and Krishna's eight principal queens were said to have bore him ten sons each. The author claimed he had 16,000 wives and lived with them all at the same time in their own apartments or houses. In the 18th battle Jarasandha's army finally defeated Krishna's, and it was said that he captured 20,800 kings; but Krishna got Bhima to kill Jarasandha, and all the confined Kshatriyas were released. Krishna cut off the head of his foe Sishupala with his razor-sharp discus; he also destroyed the Soubha and killed Salva, Dantavakra and his brother. Although the methods of action (karma) and knowledge (jnani) are discussed in relation to Samkhya philosophy and yoga, in the Bhagavatam the practice of devotion (bhakti) to God in the form of Krishna is favored as the supreme means of salvation. The great war between the Kurus and the Pandavas is explained as Krishna's way of removing the burden of the Earth. Krishna tells his own people, the Yadus, to cross the sea to Prabhasa and worship the gods, Brahmins, and cows. There rendered senseless by Krishna's illusion (maya), they indulge in drink and slaughter each other. Krishna's brother Balarama and he both depart from their mortal bodies, Krishna ascending to heaven with his chariot and celestial weapons. Before the 11th century seventy stories of "The Enchanted Parrot" were employed to keep a wife entertained while her husband was away so that she would not find a lover. A charming parrot satirizes women, comparing them to kings and serpents in taking what is near them. The proverb is quoted that when the gods want to ruin someone they first take away one's sense of right and wrong, and the listener is warned not to set one's heart on riches gained by wickedness nor on an enemy one has humiliated. When the husband returns, the parrot is freed from the curse and flies to heaven amid a rain of flowers. In the late 11th century Somadeva added to the Great Story (Brihat-katha) of Gunadhya to make the Ocean of the Streams of Story (Katha-sarit-sagara) collection of more than 350 stories in Sanskrit verse. The author noting that jealousy interferes with discernment, a king orders a Brahmin executed for talking with his queen; but on the way to his punishment, a dead fish laughs because while so many men are dressed as women in the king's harem an innocent Brahmin is to be killed. The narrator tells the king this and gains respect for his wisdom and release for the Brahmin. The author also notes that for the wise, character is wealth. Somadeva recounts the legendary stories of Vatsa king Udayana and his marriages to Vasavadatta and the Magadhan princess Padmavati. The former is commended for cooperating in the separation in Yaugandharayana's scheme; he says she is a real queen because she does not merely comply with her husband's wishes but cares for his true interests. An eminent merchant sends his son to a courtesan to learn to beware of immorality incarnate in harlots, who rob rich young men blinded by their virility. Like all professionals, the prostitute has her price but must guard against being in love when no price is paid. She must be a good actress in seducing and milking the man of his money, deserting him when it is gone, and taking him back when he comes up with more money. Like the hermit, she must learn to treat them all equally whether handsome or ugly. Nonetheless the son is taken in by a courtesan and loses all his money, but he contrives to get it back by using a monkey trained to swallow money and give it back on cue. From Somadeva also comes the Vampire's Tales of "The King and the Corpse." In an unusual frame for 25 stories a king is instructed to carry a hanged corpse inhabited by a vampire, who poses a dilemma at the conclusion of each tale. For example, when heads are cut off and are put back on each other's bodies, which person is which? After becoming orphans the oldest of four Brahmin brothers tries to hang himself; but he is cut down and saved by a man who asks him why a learned person should despair when good fortune comes from good karma and bad luck from bad karma. The answer to unhappiness, then, is doing good; but to kill oneself would bring the suffering of hell. So the brothers combine their talents to create a lion from a bone; but the lion kills them, as their creation was not intelligent but evil. The last brother, who brought the lion's completed body to life, is judged most responsible by the king because he should have been more aware of what would result. 1. Prince Ilango Adigal, Shilappadikaram, tr. Alain Daniélou, p. 202. 2. Tiruvalluvar, The Kural tr. P. S. Sundarum, 99. 3. Ibid., 311-320. 4. Ibid., 981-990. 5. Shankara, Crest-Jewel of Wisdom tr. Mohini M. Chatterji, 58. 6. Bhasa, Avimaraka tr. J. L. Masson and D. D. Kosambi, p. 73. 7. Ibid., p. 130-131. 8. Kalidasa, Shakuntala tr. Michael Coulson, 1:11. 9. Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa tr. Kazi Dawa-Samdup, p. 176. 10. Ibid., p. 253. 11. Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines tr. Kazi Dawa-Samdup, p. 75. 12. Majumdar, R. C., An Advanced History of India, p. 292. 13. Speaking of Shiva tr. A. K. Ramanujan, p. 54. 14. Elliot, H. M., The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, Vol. 3, p. 546. 15. Poems from the Sanskrit tr. John Brough, p. 58. 16. Ibid., p. 71. 17. An Anthology of Sanskrit Court Poetry tr. Daniel H. H. Ingalls, 1629. 18. Srimad Bhagavatam tr. N. Raghunathan, 10:44:40, Vol. 2 p. 321. This chapter has been published in the book INDIA & Southeast Asia to 1800. For ordering information, please click here.

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Astronomers have discovered hundreds of Jupiter-like planets in our galaxy. However, a handful of the planets found orbiting distant stars are more Earth-sized. This gives hope to astrobiologists, who think we are more likely to find life on rocky planets with liquid water. The rocky planets found so far are actually more massive than our own. Dimitar Sasselov, professor of astronomy at Harvard University, coined the term "Super-Earths" to reflect their mass rather than any superior qualities. But Sasselov says that these planets — which range from about 2 to 10 Earth masses — could be superior to the Earth when it comes to sustaining life. On shaky ground It is said that 99 percent of all species that ever lived have gone extinct. Earth, it seems, is a tough place to call home. Our planet has gone through Ice Ages and global warming trends, it has been hit by comets and asteroids (leading, in one case, to a mass extinction that felled the mighty dinosaurs), and the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere has risen and fallen over time. Our planet is always in a state of flux, and life must adapt to these changes or die. The shifting of tectonic plates is another example of Earth's restless nature. Continents bang together, forming mountains, only to be later torn apart. Islands grow from underwater volcanoes, and elements are liberated from rocks when they are melted beneath the crust. While all this geologic activity makes us literally stand on shaky ground, scientists have come to believe that tectonics is one of the key features of our planet which makes life possible. If not for tectonics, carbon needed by life would stay locked within rocks. The fear today is that too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will lead to global warming. Yet too little carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would make Earth a much colder place, and the photosynthetic plants and algae that rely on CO2 would perish. The demise of these oxygen-producing organisms would leave us all gasping for breath. According to Sasselov, Earth's mass helps keeps tectonics in action. The more massive a planet, the hotter its interior. Tectonic plates slide on a layer of molten rock beneath the crust called the mantle. Convective currents within the mantle push the plates around. For smaller planets like Mars, the interior is not hot enough to drive tectonics. Super Earths, with a larger and hotter interior, would have a thinner planetary crust placed under more stress. This probably would result in faster tectonics, as well as more earthquakes, volcanism, and other geologic upheavals. In fact, Sasselov says the plate tectonics on Super Earths may be so rapid that mountains and ocean trenches wouldn't have much time to develop before the surface was again recycled. Venus, only slightly less massive than Earth, has had a great deal of volcanic activity, but it does not appear to have tectonics. This may be because low mass planets need water to lubricate the process, and Venus lost its water long ago through evaporation. Sasselov says Earth has just enough water for tectonics to work. Tectonics on Super Earths might be so efficient that water isn't even needed. On the other hand, it's possible that a Super Earth could be entirely covered by water. Sasselov says that in the case of such an ocean world, most of the water will be in an exotic state known as iceVII — a very compressed, hard ice with a melting point above 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius). Whether made of rock or ice, Sasselov says Super Earths will be only 1 or 2 times the actual size of Earth because they become densely compressed as they gain mass. This higher density will result in greater gravity. Sasselov says the most massive Super Earth would have about 3 times the gravity of Earth. Tests of human resistance to vertical G-force, where the blood is pulled down to the legs, have found the typical person can tolerate up to 5 Gs before losing consciousness. So while you might feel much heavier walking on a Super Earth, the extra gravity wouldn't be beyond what human explorers could endure. Of course, any life that evolved on a Super Earth would be adapted to the greater gravity, just as a human feels comfortable on the 1 G surface of Earth. Habitable hot spots This greater gravity means a Super Earth can easily hold onto an atmosphere, so it would not end up with a tenuous atmosphere like Mars. But the role of a planet's atmosphere in creating prime conditions for life can be tricky. Venus has a surface temperature of nearly 900 F (480 C) due to the thick greenhouse atmosphere that doesn't let heat escape. One of the biggest influences on a planet's climate is the star it orbits. Earth has a circular orbit 150 million kilometers away from the Sun, a yellow dwarf star. This helps keep conditions warm enough so that our oceans don't freeze over, but cool enough so that we don't lose all our water through evaporation. The Super Earths discovered so far orbit a variety of stars. The first Earth-like extrasolar planets ever found orbit a pulsar, a rotating neutron star that emits high energy radiation. The other Super Earths orbit stars that are smaller and cooler than our Sun. Most of the known Super Earths are very close to their stars, closer than the planet Mercury is to the Sun. Even though these stars don't burn as brightly as our Sun, the planets are so close they are like burnt cinders flickering close to a fire. One such hot Super Earth is CoRoT 7-b (named for the CoRoT telescope that was used to locate the planet). CoRoT 7-b orbits the orange dwarf star TYC 4799-1733-1 once every 20 hours. This planet is nearly 5 times the mass of Earth, but is less than twice as big. This solar system has another hot Super Earth, CoRoT-7c, which is 8 times as massive as Earth and circles the star in 3 days and 17 hours. For astrobiologists hoping to find alien life, two Super Earths orbiting the star Gliese 581 have potential. Gliese 581, a red dwarf star, is cooler than our Sun. Based on their orbit around this star, planets Gliese 581-c and Gliese 581-d are thought to have habitable conditions, although some think planet "c" might have a runaway greenhouse atmosphere like Venus. Another aspect affecting the potential for life is the presence of a companion moon. Earth's Moon helps balance our planet's rotation on its axis. Sasselov notes that a Super Earth's extra mass would give it a very stable rotation, so a moon would not be needed to help keep the planet in line. Superior alien civilizations Missions like the Kepler space telescope, launched just this year, could help astronomers find many Earth-like planets in the years to come. Sasselov estimates there could be a hundred million habitable Super Earth planets just in our Milky Way galaxy. He predicts we'll find 50 to 100 Super Earth planets in the next five years. The existence of so many Super Earths could explain the "Fermi Paradox" of why aliens have not contacted us. If our lower mass planet does not have the ideal conditions for life, alien explorers would be less likely to look to us, choosing instead to target the many Super Earths in the galaxy. "Earth is a marginal planet when it comes to conditions we would like to see for complex life to sustain itself," Sasselov notes. "In the family of Earth-like planets, the sweet spot for complex chemistry and biochemistry to emerge and sustain itself lies in planets larger than the Earth." If aliens on Super Earths ever decided to investigate Earth to see if such a tiny world could harbor life, they would have a harder time sending rockets into space because of the higher gravity on their planet. "This could be another answer to the Fermi Paradox," says Sasselov, "but it's not an insurmountable problem." It could even be that because of their deeper gravity well, aliens living on Super Earths would have to develop a technology superior to our chemical rockets in order to explore the universe. Sasselov's own suggestion for the Fermi paradox relates to the age and evolution of planets in the universe. When the universe was young, only hydrogen and helium were available. Generations of stellar evolution were needed to produce the heavier elements, such as silica and iron, which build rocky planets. Even though the universe is approximately 14 billion years old, our solar system only formed about 4.6 billion years ago. (Astronomers did find a 12.7-billion-year-old Jupiter-mass object in our galaxy, but Sasselov thinks this so-called ancient planet could instead be the remnant of a red or brown dwarf star that was stripped of some of its mass.) If other rocky worlds with life are about as young as we are, then perhaps the lack of visiting spaceships indicates there are no ancient, highly advanced alien civilizations out there. "Most life emerges on Super-Earths with habitable potential, but Super-Earths started forming in the galaxy only relatively recently, and few technical civilizations have managed to emerge since," Sasselov says. © 2013 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/34230212/ns/technology_and_science-space/

In 1609 Galileo began using a new kind of instrument that magnified distant objects: a telescope. When he trained it on the heavens, he saw countless stars and other faint objects never before seen. Suddenly, the Universe was no longer limited to what the naked eye could see. As telescopes improved, astronomers continued to push back the boundaries of the known Universe, peering ever deeper into the surrounding sea of stars known as the Milky Way. By the late 1800s, photography was changing the way astronomers studied the Universe. The telescope had become a high-powered camera that recorded images of objects on photographic plates. These images were more accurate than hand drawings and revealed objects and details far too faint for the eye to detect. Astronomers would soon discover that the Milky Way was only one of countless galaxies, each one a vast swirl of stars. While astronomers were starting to use photography to capture light from celestial objects, they were also learning how to analyze light itself. They found that an object's spectrum, the rainbow of colors that forms when light passes through a prism, could tell them what the object was made of and how it moved. By the late 1920s the use of spectroscopy, creating and studying spectra, produced an amazing discovery: the Universe of galaxies was expanding.

http://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/gal111/universe/etu/html/looking_further/index.html

In this activity, students become familiar with radio waves that are used to remotely sense the topography beneath the ice sheet. They experiment with travel time of waves and convert these to distance. The students, in groups, examine time data acquired along profiles of the Antarctic ice sheet and convert these data to depth, resulting in a profile of the topography beneath the ice sheet. The students "pool" their profiles to get a better view of the topography beneath the ice sheet. They compare their findings with radio-echo soundings of the ice sheet and with the map of sub-ice topography. Students contrast this method of data acquisition with that of coring (What's Under There?). Maps of the Antarctic continent showing the land under the ice have been difficult in the past to make. Today, with the use of satellites, almost our whole earth and even our sky are being mapped using the scientific instruments involving electromagnetic or sound waves. 6th grade and higher, Earth Science, Physical Science, Physics The student will: Teacher Preparation for Activity Place each of the three maps of Antarctica on a separate wall. The students will approach these maps in groups to examine them; the class also will discuss the maps. For each group of 4 to 5 students: Two class periods Engagement and Exploration (Student Inquiry Activity) As a class, discuss the findings of the students (refer to questions). How do the students think the maps were constructed? Do we have data for every single point on the map? Were cores used? Are there other ways to acquire information? Researchers get information about the thickness of the ice sheet and depth to basement through cores - a data collection method similar to the way students collected topographic information in their mystery boxes. They also use other techniques, using sound waves and electromagnetic waves. Some sound waves we can hear; electromagnetic waves includes light in the spectrum we see. The researchers using electromagnetic waves to image through the ice sheet use radio waves. The technique is called "radio-echo sounding" or RES. The more recent term applied to the tool is "ground penetrating radar" or GPR. Scientists use devices to generate radio waves at the surface of an ice sheet. The radio waves travel through the ice sheet. When the wave "hits" a surface, such as a layer of more dense ice, or a pool of water, or the rock surface under the ice, part of it bounces back to the surface where the scientists record the return. The scientists can figure out where the object is under the ice using the amount of time the wave traveled to the object and back. They can change "time" into depth (or thickness) because they know how fast the waves travel. Actually, there are computers that make this conversion for the scientists; the data are displayed as a radar image. The students will look at GPR data from the ice sheet later in the activity. The time has to be divided in half because the time the scientist records includes the wave's trip to the object and the wave's trip back to the surface. Elaboration (Polar Applications) Provide each group with a slinky, a measuring tape, a stopwatch, graph paper, pencils. Have each group work near a wall. The students will explore the d=vt relationship by creating waves with the slinky and timing how long it takes for the wave to travel to the wall and back to the student generating the wave. Ask the students to measure 3 meters from the wall. One student can sit close to the wall and one student can sit at the 3 meter mark. Have the students quickly move the slinky to the right and then to the left so that a wave is created. What happens to the wave? This is similar to how waves act in the ice sheet. The scientists have an instrument that generates the wave. The wave travels through the ice (across the floor), hits the rock beneath the ice sheet (the other student), and then bounces back to the top of the ice sheet (the first student). Teacher Note: The side-to-side wave is similar to a transverse wave. Light, radar, ultraviolet, and TV waves are transverse waves. They are all members of the electromagnetic spectrum. By creating a "pull and push" motion with the slinky on the floor, students can simulate longitudinal waves (compressional). This models how sound waves travel. While GPR uses radar waves, other methods to image the ice sheet employ sound waves. The results are similar. Ask the students to measure the time taken by the travel from the student generating the wave and back again. Have the groups measure this same distance several times. What parts of the experiment do we want to keep constant? The students should try to generate the waves in a consistent fashion. Why do we want to repeat the experiment several times? Make sure the students record their data. Next, have the students repeat the experiment with the students 2.5 meters from each other. Record the data for three trials. Repeat for 2, 1.5, 1, 0.5 meters. What happens to the speed of the wave as the students get closer and closer? At some point, the students may not be able to measure the difference. Have the student groups graph their results of distance and time. Remind them that they want the time for the wave to travel one way, just like scientists only want the time the wave travels to the rock under the ice sheet. They need to cut the time in half. How do they want to show the multiple trials? Suggest that they average the three trials so that they get a single number to plot. Ask the students to calculate how fast the wave was traveling using the equation: How can they find the speed of the wave? They will need to move the parts of the equation so that: What trends do they see? Does the speed vary for the trials? Probably not by much. For older students, this can be discussed in the context of the slope of the line that is created by plotting depth versus wave travel time. When the scientists are measuring the thickness of the ice sheet, or the depth to the bottom, they know the speed of the wave in ice and the time that it takes for the wave to return. Exchange (Students Draw Conclusions) Have the students present their graphs to the class. Are all the graphs similar? Why or why not? What controls how fast a wave returns to the "surface"? If the scientists were measuring radar waves on the ice sheet, and the wave returned very quickly from the rock surface beneath the ice sheet, how close would the rock surface be? Close? Far away? If the wave took much longer to bounce back, how close would the rock surface be? Close? Far away? Give each student group a RES image. Show them on the map where the image was collected. What do they see? Can they identify the surface of the ice sheet? The bottom? The rock under the ice sheet? The layers inside the ice sheet? This image was collected by recording radar waves that penetrated the ice sheet and then bounced back to the surface. Return to the maps. Ask the students how the data to make the map were collected. Some students may recall the coring activity. Much of our information about the thickness of the ice sheets and the sub-ice topography is gained by data collected by techniques illustrated in this activity - remotely sensing the ice sheet with radar and sound waves. Ask the students why coring is still very important. While more expensive, coring provides new information about the ice sheet and it provides "ground truth" - evidence that the data from remote sensing is interpreted correct. Evaluation (Assessing Student Performance) Sandra Shutey, Butte High School, Butte, Montana; Stephanie Shipp, Rice University, Houston, Texas; Kristen Bjork, Educational Development Center, Newton, Massachusetts The International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1958 marked the initiation of focused investigations into the structure of Antarctica. Our knowledge of the continent increased dramatically as a result of these studies. We continue to investigate the continent with ever-changing technology. During the early years, scientists used explosives to generate sound waves. Charges of dynamite were placed in the ice and exploded. The shock waves, recorded on a seismograph, penetrated the ice and the rock below. The waves bounced off the different layers and returned to the surface where they were recorded by the sensors (Image). Changes in the rate of travel of the waves passing from ice to rock allowed scientists to determine the ice-rock boundary and to measure the true depth of the ice. From these data, scientists created cross-sections that revealed the great thickness of the ice. Today, scientists use techniques such as radio-echo sounding (RES) to collect data about ice sheet thickness inexpensively and quickly (also a little less dangerously!) (Image). RES involves either sledding or flying over the ice sheet while transmitting and receiving radio signals. The data used in this activity are RES profiles. Radio-echo sounding (RES) techniques are relatively new to the field of glaciology. A radio pulse between the frequencies of 35 and 300 MHz is transmitted from an instrument at the ice surface. The pulse penetrates the ice and reflects from internal layers and the ice/substrate contact back to surface listening devices. The returned signals are recorded and processed digitally into high-resolution images of the internal structure and thicknesses of ice sheets. The potential to use RES as a method to measure ice thickness came about from some accidental airplane landings on the Greenland Ice Sheet. During WWII military aircraft had radar devices to indicate their clearance above the ground surface. Ice is partly transparent to radio waves, and portions of the radio signal penetrated the ice sheet and bounced off the rock surface underneath. Thus the radar provided the clearance above the bed of the ice sheet and not the surface of the ice sheet! In consequence, airplanes made unintentional wheels-up landings on the snow on top of the ice sheet. No one was hurt, but scientists learned about this new method. RES data allow scientists to look into the ice sheet and see its base in a continuous profile. But the RES profiles tell glaciologists much more than just the thickness of the ice sheet. RES data show layers within the sheet that can be traced across great distances; each layer is a time line. These help glaciologists understand how the ice is flowing. By comparing RES profiles at the same location from different times, researchers can trace the movement of a parcticular pattern or feature and can determine how fast the ice sheet is moving. RES data can even provide information about the temperatures of ice sheets! Radio waves travel at different speeds through ice of different temperatures; these differences can be interpreted to give glaciologists more information about the ice sheet and its activity. Based on the pattern of the returned signal, glacial geologists and glaciologists have identified different types of rock under the ice sheet, the locations of subglacial lakes, and the presence of large crevasses at the bases of ice shelves. Based on RES and seismic surveys of the Antarctic ice sheet, a better understanding of the size, volume, and conditions within the ice sheet has emerged. RES data provide scientists with a method of data collection that is relatively rapid, and more continuous and less costly than other types of surveys. Remember, however, interpretations of the data must be field tested. Ice cores and other types of sampling are invaluable for verifying that the interpretations are correct! Background modified from GLACIER supplementary curriculum. Materials are available through GLACIER. Employing Remote Sensing in the Field: Kim Giesting Journals; Oceanography Hubble Space Telescope; Astronomy Antarctic sub-ice topographic, thickness, and surface elevation maps are available from the Scott Polar Research Institute. We look forward to hearing from you! Please review this activity. Return to top of page Back to: TEA Activities Page

http://tea.armadaproject.org/activity/tea_activity_shutey_res.html

Description of the phenomenon A rapidly changing magnetic field induces electric currents to flow in a closed circuit. In the diagram above, a bar magnet is dropped vertically through a coil linked to a centre-zero galvanometer. A graph of coil EMF against time shows that: When the first pole(S) falls through the coil EMF increases to a level then decreases. When the middle of the magnet falls throught the coil, the EMF is at a minimum. No lines of force are being cut by the coil. Maximum EMF is obtained when the second pole(N) falls through the coil. This is when the rate of cutting lines of force is highest, because the magnet is falling faster. As a result of the velocity being greater the period of high EMF is shorter. Note that because the field direction is reversed when the poles drop through the coil, the induced current direction is also reversed. So the EMF is reversed (EMF is directly proportional to current). Consider different sized coils when the same magnet is introduced into the body of each coil with the same velocity. It is found that, So induced EMF E is directly proportional to number of turns N, Now consider just one coil and in turn introduce three magnets. The magnets are of different strengths and are introduced into the coil at the same velocity. By measuring the maximum EMF and flux for each magnet, it is found that, So induced EMF E is directly proportional to flux φ, Faraday's Law simply states: The induced EMF in a closed circuit is directly proportional to the flux linkage. Flux linkage Nφ is the product of flux φ and the number of turns N on a coil. We have seen that, The direction of the induced EMF is such that the induced current opposes the change producing it. So when a magnetic south pole is moved towards a coil in a circuit, the face of the coil presents a south pole. The induced current is opposing the change that produced it by trying to prevent the south pole from entering the coil (by repelling it). Similarly, when a south pole is pulled from a coil in a circuit, the face of the coil presents a north pole. The induced current is opposing the change that produced it by trying to prevent the south pole from leaving the coil (by attracting it). 1.) How the current direction is changed by the magnet direction. 2.) On each coil face, how a line drawn between the ends of arrows(in grey) makes an 'N' and an 'S' , giving the polarity of the coils. This combines the proportionalities in Faraday's Law with the direction of the induced current from Lenz's Law. As a result of the consistency of units used (SI), there is no need for a constant of proportionality. The minus sign is from Lenz's law, indicating the opposing nature of induced EMF and rate of flux linkage cutting. The equation can be amended to include the rate of flux cutting dφ/dt by taking the number of coils N out of the differential. Flemming's Right Hand Rule The rule describes the resulting directional motion of the induced current for a conductor moving at right angles to the field direction. The three quantities FIELD, CURRENT AND MOTION are mutually at right angles to each other. using the right hand, position the first finger, second finger and thumb to form the x,y,z axes. The highlighted letters within the words help you remember the three quantities First finger - Field direction seCond finger - Current direction thuMb - Motion produced EMF induced in a metal rod For an induced EMF E to be produced across the length L of a metal rod, the magnetic field B, the velocity v and the major axis of the rod must all be mutually at right angles to each other. The derivation of E = BLv : Consider a metal rod of length L. If the rod is travelling at a velocity v at right angles to its length then the area A swept out per second is given by: The total flux φ threading through this area per second is the product of the area A and the flux density B. Substituting for the area A, In this case, since the total flux φ refers to 1 second, we can write : where dφ/dt is the rate of flux cutting. By definition, EMF (E) is equal to the rate of flux cutting, |MORE . . .| |MORE . . .| |MORE . . .|

http://a-levelphysicstutor.com/field-electro-mag-ind.php

Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter Some of the most frequently asked questions we get here at Universe Today and Astronomy Cast deal with black holes. Everyone wants to know what conditions would be like at the event horizon, or even inside a black hole. Answering those questions is difficult because so much about black holes is unknown. Black holes can’t be observed directly because their immense gravity won’t let light escape. But in just the past week, three different research teams have released their findings in their attempts to create black holes – or at least conditions analogous to them to advance our understanding. Make Your Own Accretion Disk A team of researchers from Osaka University in Japan wanted to sharpen their insights into the behavior of matter and energy in extreme conditions. What could be more extreme than the conditions of the swirling cloud of matter surrounding a black hole, known as the accretion disk? Their unique approach was to blast a plastic pellet with high-energy laser beams. Accretion disks get crunched and heated by a black hole’s gravitational energy. Because of this, the disks glow in x-ray light. Analyzing the spectra of these x-rays gives researchers clues about the physics of the black hole. However, scientists don’t know precisely how much energy is required to produce such x-rays. Part of the difficulty is a process called photoionization, in which the high-energy photons conveying the x-rays strip away electrons from atoms within the accretion disk. That lost energy alters the characteristics of the x-ray spectra, making it more difficult to measure precisely the total amount of energy being emitted. To get a better handle on how much energy those photoionized atoms consume, researchers zapped a tiny plastic pellet with 12 laser beams fired simultaneously and allowed some of the resulting radiation to blast a pellet of silicon, a common element in accretion disks. The synchronized laser strikes caused the plastic pellet to implode, creating an extremely hot and dense core of gas, or plasma. That turned the pellet into “a source of [immensely powerful] x-rays similar to those from an accretion disk around a black hole,” says physicist and lead author Shinsuke Fujioka. The team said the x-rays photoionized the silicon, and that interaction mimicked the emissions observed in accretion disks. By measuring the energy lost from the photoionization, the researchers could measure total energy emitted from the implosion and use it to improve their understanding of the behavior of x-rays emitted by accretion disks. The Portable Black Hole Another group of physicists created a tiny device that can create a black hole by sucking up microwave light and converting it into heat. At just 22 centimeters across, the device can fit in your pocket. The device uses ‘metamaterials’, specially engineered materials that can bend light in unusual ways. Previously, scientists have used such metamaterials to build ‘invisibility carpets’ and super-clear lenses. This latest black hole was made by Qiang Chen and Tie Jun Cui of Southeast University in Nanjing, China. Real black holes use their huge mass to warp space around it. Light that travels too close to it can become trapped forever. The new meta-black hole also bends light, but in a very different way. Rather than relying on gravity, the black hole uses a series of metallic ‘resonators’ arranged in 60 concentric circles. The resonators affect the electric and magnetic fields of a passing light wave, causing it to bend towards the centre of the hole. It spirals closer and closer to the black hole’s ‘core’ until it reaches the 20 innermost layers. Those layers are made of another set of resonators that convert light into heat. The result: what goes in cannot come out. “The light into the core is totally absorbed,” Cui said. Not only is the device useful in studying black holes, but the research team hopes to create a version of the device that will suck up light of optical frequencies. If it works, it could be used in applications such as solar cells. Black holes in your computer? Could you create a black hole in your computer? Maybe if you had a really big one. Scientists at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) hope to make use of two of the fastest supercomputers in the world in their quest to “shine light” on black holes. The team was approved for grants and computing time to study the evolution of black holes and other objects with the “NewHorizons,” a cluster consisting of 85 nodes with four processors each, connected via an Infiniband network that passes data at 10-gigabyte-per-second speeds. The team has created computer algorithms to simulate with mathematics and computer graphics what cannot be seen directly. “It is a thrilling time to study black holes,” said Manuela Campanelli, center director. “We’re nearing the point where our calculations will be used to test one of the last unexplored aspects of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, possibly confirming that it properly describes the strongest gravitational fields in the universe.”

http://www.universetoday.com/43110/could-a-black-hole-fit-in-your-computer-or-in-your-pocket/comment-page-5/

Sir Ernest Shackleton is one of Britain's most famous and widely respected explorers. The aim of the Nimrod Expedition was to be the first to make a successful journey to the South Pole. With nineteenth-century technology, and the Antarctic still almost completely unknown territory, his was an undertaking equivalent to a modern-day moon-landing. Shackleton failed. Yet the expedition successfully achieved the first ascent of Mount Erebus, which was the first ascent of any peak in the Antarctic. They were the first team to reach the Magnetic South Pole, and the first team to reach the plateau above the Transantarctic Mountains. Shackleton, Adams, Wild and Marshall got to within 97 miles of the Pole on January 9th, 1909 before "The Boss" made the pragmatic decision to turn back to base. By declining what would have been a suicidal race to glory, and choosing instead to preserve the lives of his men, Shackleton not only survived to carry out future exploits but proved himself a leader that the same men would gladly follow through any adversity. This was the farthest mankind had reached in achieving the South Pole. More on the web: Wikipedia has a solid if brief entry. south-pole.com has a longer, detailed and well-written article online. Posted by SCE on September 15, 2006 11:40 AM

http://shackletoncentenary.org/polar-history/the-nimrod-expedition-19071909-1-print.php

Connect me to: Winter Solstice Festival Holidays and Celebrations Spring Volume: 2000 Issue: 7(1) page(s): 11 and 12 Chinese festivals originally were religious and ritualistic in character. These important holiday events kept the spirit of the rituals alive as they honored gods, ghosts, and ancestors throughout the year. In America, early Chinese who were Cantonese referred to Christmas as Gaw Dung. Observance of this Christian holiday came some days after the Winter Solstice, called Dong Zhi. The latter falls on the 15th day of the 11th moon. According to the western calendar, December 22nd is the shortest day of the year. This winter day and others close to it are marked by many cultural observances around the world. Universally, the Winter Solstice was regarded as the beginning of the annual reawakening of nature. Days would grow longer and the nights shorter. For the Chinese, the Winter Solstice celebrated the beginning of the triumph of yang over yin. It was their holiday to celebrate near Christmas. Many people would offer incense the morning of Dong Zhi. Some would take a break from work. But most would use the evening of the solstice as the time for a ceremony performed at the family altar. There was incense, candles, and offerings of prayers of thanksgiving. These were made to Heaven and Earth, the household gods, and to the spirits of the ancestors. Following the ceremony, families assembled for a sumptuous dinner celebrating the arrival of winter and the lengthening of the days. In the early Southern Song Dynasty (1127 - 1279 CE) villagers beat drums and donned masks to chase out epidemics and other disasters culminating a festival of exorcism and renewal. Then and now, they made a very thick porridge called Laba and they make it on December 8th. This gruel consists of various whole grains and rice with fruits and nuts such as dates, longans, raisins, chestnuts, peanuts, and pine seeds. It is often made at the break of dawn at major Buddhist temples. Monks believe that eating it, they will be protected by the spirit of Buddha. They make it December 8th because on that day of the lunar calendar, Sakyamuni became Buddha. According to Chinese custom, every year on that day, people make this sweet congee as an offering to Buddha and/or their ancestors. The recipe for Laba varies considerably from province to province and region to region. Some people make Laba for the Winter Solstice Festival. Last year this holiday was on December 22nd, next year celebrate it with be on December 21st. Personally, I like to celebrate the Winter Solstice by including some of the following foods at mealtime: Rice Congee (juk) and Glutinous Rice Dumpling Balls in Broth(tang yuan). Tang stands for reunion and yuan means round or complete. I make my tang yuan with meat and vegetables or stuffed with a sweet filling. I serve them in a sweetened broth. I also like to make a thick soup with ground raw rice, almonds, walnuts, peanuts, and/or other items. In addition to these, I make a steamed glutinous rice pudding called ba bo fon for this holiday. This latter item has many of the ingredients of the Laba made in earlier times; it reminds me of it. Eating tang yuan is symbolic of family unity and harmony. At a recent meeting of the Association of Chinese Cooking Teachers, I discussed this holiday and made most of these items for them. Allow me to share some of the recipes with you. At that meeting, and in my house, tong yuen are served in a light chicken broth. They can also be served in a chicken or meat broth with vegetables, in a soup made with only brown sugar and water, or in a chrysanthemum leaf soup with meat and vegetables on the side, and in the ways indicated below. Margaret Lau-Kee Marr, a retired elementary school teacher, is still teaching about Chinese culture and cuisine. This article began as a presentation and demonstration about this holiday at a recent meeting of the Chinese cooking Teachers Association in California. |Plain Tong Yuen| 2 cups glutinous rice flour 3/4 cup hot water (approximately) 1. Put the flour in a large bowl and using chopsticks, mix the hot water in a little at a time. 2. Knead the dough in the bowl until it is soft and smooth. If it feels a little dry, wet your hands and knead again. Then put the dough into a plastic bag and let it rest for a short time. 3. Remove one quarter of the dough and break off gum-ball size pieces about one-inch in diameter. Repeat with the rest of the dough. 4. Put them one by one into twelve cups of rapidly boiling water, stir a few times to prevent sticking, and boil for seven to eight minutes until they float; then cook one more minute, drain and serve in a light soup. |Pork-filled Tong Yuen| 1/2 pound chopped or ground pork 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon cornstarch 2 Tablespoons minced sauteed shallots or salted turnips 1 recipe plain Tong Yuen dough 1. Mix all ingredients except the dough. 2. Make round balls from the entire dough mix that are about one and three-quarter inches in diameter and make each of them cup-shaped in your hand. 3. Fill each with a teaspoon of filling and using thumb and forefinger, push the dough up and around the meat mixture to seal it completely with dough. Then gently roll each ball until smooth and round. 4. Boil as in the recipe above, or any soup, then drain. Serve these in a light soup, the Black Sesame Soup recipe below, or any soup you choose. |Tong Yuen with Black Sesame Seed Paste| 1 and 1/2 cups black sesame seeds 1 and 1/2 cups confectioners sugar 1/2 cup solid shortening 1. Put the sesame seeds in a large bowl with water, stir then scoop out only those that float (sand and other debris usually sinks during this process). 2. Spread them out onto a cookie sheet, preferably one with sides, and bake for thirty minutes in a preheated oven set at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Stir them a few times while they are baking; and when done cool then. 3. Put about one-quarter of them in a blender and blend until they are powder-like. Repeat until done. 4. Mix with sugar and knead this mixture with the shortening until a well-mixed paste has been made. Refrigerate until hard (This can be made ahead until this point, and the paste can be kept in the refrigerator for several months). 5. Fill using the Plain Tong Yuen recipe or put this filling in another dough. Boil them for seven to eight minutes until they float, then cook an addtional minute, drain, and put them in a light soup, the Black Sesame Soup recipe, or a soup of your choice. |Black Sesame Soup Concentrate| 1/2 pound black sesame seeds 1 cup rice, soaked for at least one hour, then drained well 1. Soak the seeds in a large bowl with water, then scoop out only those that float. 2. Put them in a 200 degree Fahrenheit oven, then raise the temperature to 400 degrees. Mix frequently and bake until fragrant, then cool. 3. Put sesame seeds and rice into a blender and add enough water to reach the three and a half cup mark. Blend first on low speed then on high until smooth. If needed add additional water one or two tablespoons at a time. Now add two and a half cups more water (divide into two or more batches if you have a small blender) and blend for an additional minute. Store in refrigerator or freeze in one cup batches until needed. This yields six cups of concentrate. |Black Sesame Soup| 1 cup sesame seed soup concentrate 3 cups water 1/2 cup sugar 1. Mix the above and boil slowly for five minutes. If it gets too thick, add a little boiling water and boil for five minutes more. 2. Add cooked Tong Yuen with Black Sesame Paste or other black sesame balls and serve.

http://www.flavorandfortune.com/dataaccess/article.php?ID=219

Grade Range: 6-12 Resource Type(s): Lessons & Activities Duration: 75 Minutes Date Posted: 9/25/2012 Every year, hundreds of thousands of people become American citizens through naturalization. Use these guidelines to contribute a naturalization story to the Museum’s YouTube channel. This resource includes teacher suggestions for indentifying interviewees and uploading the video(s), as well as questions for students to ask the interviewees. By recording an oral history, students will improve their communication skills and gain deeper understanding of the motivations for and process of naturalization. This resource complements the site Preparing for the Oath: U.S. History and Civics for Citizenship, a learning portal for individuals studying for the naturalization exam. Historical Thinking Standards (Grades 5-12) United States History Standards (Grades 5-12)

http://historyexplorer.si.edu/resource/?key=7910

Free, Fair, & Regular Elections: History Origins: Athenian Democracy and Republican Rome The holding of elections dates back to the times of the Greek city-states and republican Rome. Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries BC is often considered the first direct democracy. During this period, Athenian citizens had the right to participate in debates and vote on public matters in the Assembly, the state's sovereign body. Although matters addressed in the Assembly still needed final approval from the Council, a body composed of the most elite citizens, the Assembly still had the power to amend the Council's propositions. The Athenian leader Cleisthenes is attributed with expanding the size of the Council from 400 members to a more representative 500 members. Elections in republican Rome, from the fifth to the first centuries BC, were also carried out in assemblies, but segregated by class and tribe. Patricians (the wealthy and large estate owners) elected senators, while the lower class, known as plebeians (small landowners and artisans), elected tribunes. The size of the Senate varied over time, but its power to set policy, levy taxes, declare war, and appoint the city's magistrates remained fairly constant. There were between two and three tribunes who acted as interceders on behalf of the plebeian class (they also used their positions to advance their military careers). While ancient Rome was thus more populist than ancient Athens in some respects, the Senate retained a supreme position. Both ancient Athens and Rome, it must be pointed out, excluded most people from the franchise, including foreign-born residents, women, and slaves. Furthermore, both economies relied heavily on slaves, a fact that plantation owners in the American South pointed to as showing democracy's compatibility with slavery. Still, in contrast with the tyrannies of their time, both polities offered a significantly more democratic model. England: The First Parliament The 1215 signing of the Magna Carta (Great Charter) in England established the basis for the world's oldest and most enduring elected representative parliament (eventually consisting of the House of Lords and the House of Commons). The Magna Carta outlined the limits of the monarch's power, indicating that the king or queen was also subject to the rule of law. In the late 13th century, an assembly convened that included representatives of both the upper and lower classes. During the reign of King Edward III, who ruled during the 14th century, the assembly was divided into an upper House of Lords (those with hereditary rank and the high clergy) and a lower House of Commons, representing the counties and boroughs. Notably, the boroughs set their own rules for electing representatives to the Commons. Some adopted general suffrage for adult males. For county representation, in 1430, parliament established a voting requirement of taxable property generating a minimum income of 40 shillings, or 2 pounds. Since the parliament never consented to change the standard, by the mid-1600s this class of voters grew by inflation to include most adult male property owners. By 1628, the House of Commons represented a sizable enough constituency to raise an army against a recalcitrant king who sought to go to war without consent (see also "Consent of the Governed"). Further expansions of the franchise did not take place until the mid–19th century. General male suffrage was established only in 1918 (for nearly all purposes), and limited women's suffrage (for single women over the age of 30) was established in 1918 with the Representation of the People Act, which was passed in recognition of the sacrifices of both men and women in World War I. Universal suffrage for women and men was achieved only in 1928. The U.S. Model As one of the modern world's earliest representative democracies, the United States has a long history of holding general elections for both the executive and legislative branches of government. In the country's earliest years, however, the franchise was surprisingly limited. The U.S. Constitution itself did not establish a national standard for voting. The states, by tradition, generally adopted similar property requirements as the British in the belief that only those with a rightful (meaning propertied) interest in the state possessed sufficient education and reason to decide upon its affairs. Only in the mid–19th century did states gradually adopt general suffrage for adult white men. It took until 1920, after a century of agitation, for the passage of the 19th Amendment establishing women's suffrage. The first territory, however, to establish women's suffrage was Wyoming in 1869. The Most Enduring Struggle for Suffrage—and Freedom In the United States, one of the most enduring struggles for suffrage and freedom has been that of African Americans. The U.S. Constitution's infamous 1787 "three-fifths compromise" left slavery in place and strengthened the South's representation in Congress. While slavery was abolished in the northern states, free black citizens were still routinely denied the right to vote, even after the adoption of general suffrage, except in a few states like Massachusetts that ensured voting rights for freedmen. After the Union's victory in the Civil War and the freeing of slaves, the 15th Amendment to the Constitution in 1870 guaranteed male suffrage regardless of race. Yet by the end of Reconstruction in the 1870s, blacks faced a new form of white oppression in the form of Jim Crow laws. These were collections of state and local laws that mandated "separate but equal" standards, allowing segregation and discrimination to continue. 1963 March on Washington For over 90 years, African Americans struggled against discriminatory practices in the South and the North. Nonviolent actions and initial victories against segregation gave rise to the modern civil rights movement. The 250,000-strong 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom propelled passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned segregation in public places, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which banned literacy tests for voting. These legal changes have led to some tangible improvements in political participation and representation for black Americans. The percentages of blacks who are registered and have voted in national elections have increased over time, although rates are still higher for white Americans. In addition, blacks have increased representation in most state legislatures and in the House of Representatives. The Senate, however, has just one black member. Universal and Equal Suffrage As American history indicates, the establishment of a fully democratic political system does not happen immediately. Often, democracy emerges from a long and difficult struggle to expand democracy's freedoms to all citizens of a country. During the period in the 18th century known as the Enlightenment, philosophers considered the system of democracy, seen as mob rule, to be inferior to all others. Indeed, the founders of the United States, such as James Madison, were by and large republicans who believed in constitutionalism (a state "ruled by laws and not men"). They believed that some property ownership should be necessary to exercise the franchise. By contrast, the more radical French Revolution in 1789 established the principle that citizen participation in politics is a civil right and was included in the Declaration of the Rights of Man. Although the Revolution's downfall led to the Napoleonic Empire, the republic's initial spirit of equal citizenship became the basis for future French republics and has been a source of democratic inspiration around the world. |As American history indicates, the establishment of a fully democratic political system does not happen immediately. | Although restrictions on suffrage have been common, today, full and equal suffrage is a universal principle outlined in UN conventions. It is also inevitable. Industrialization during the 19th century in Europe and the United States contributed to the rise of strong working-class movements and to a greater involvement of women in the workforce. As democratic systems arose in the British Commonwealth, Europe, and Latin America, popular social movements, inspired both by liberal and radical philosophies, successfully demanded suffrage based on citizenship and not property ownership. In response, many governments around the world extended voting rights to previously disenfranchised groups. Yemeni women voting in 2006 Women's suffrage lagged general male suffrage, but generally not by long. In 1893, New Zealand became the first country to grant universal suffrage, and in 1906, Finland became the first European country to do so. Azerbaijan became the first democracy in the Muslim world with the adoption of universal suffrage in 1918, which lasted until the invasion of the Bolshevik Red Army in 1920 (see Country Study of Azerbaijan below). The United States and the United Kingdom adopted women's suffrage relatively late, in 1920 and 1928, respectively. Surprisingly, the French government granted women's suffrage only after the country's liberation from Nazi occupation in 1944. In many other countries, such as in Latin America, universal suffrage took much longer. In Venezuela, property, literacy, and other restrictions on voting were not lifted until the 1952 revolution. A Universal Norm Today, free and fair elections and universal and equal suffrage are considered international norms for all of the 123 electoral democracies listed in Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2007 survey. Several international institutions monitor elections around the world, such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Council of Europe, and the United Nations, as well as election monitoring organizations from the United States and the European Union (EU). Within countries, domestic observers are another check on abuse by national and local officials. International observers are likely to be found in countries seeking to transition to democracy or looking for international legitimation of political changes. However, dictators may allow observer teams into the country in the belief that the government controls the process so well that observers can be fooled into giving nondemocratic elections a seal of approval (see Country Study of Azerbaijan).

http://www.democracyweb.org/elections/history.php

A Geocentric theory is an astronomical theory which describes the universe as a Geocentric system, i.e., a system which puts the Earth in the center of the universe, and describes other objects from the point of view of the Earth. The Greek philosophers Aristotle and Plato described such a theory wherein all celestial bodies move on spheres around the earth, the moon on the innermost one and the fixed stars on the outermost one. Ptolemy invented the most elaborated geocentric system, allowing the planets not only to move on circles around the earth, but using epicycles. By adding further ideas, he was able to predict the motion of the planets quite well. Ptolemy's model was extremely popular from ancient times until the 1600s, as it had better agreement with observation than any alternative. His model was particularly effective at cosmological predictions. However, during the 1500s and 1600s, alternatives were proposed. The Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe made the most accurate observations possible before the invention of the telescope. These showed discrepancies within Ptolemy's system. With the invention of the telescope, the observations became more precise, and new phenomena were discovered: In particular, Galileo's use of the telescope to look at the skies revealed that Jupiter had at least four moons, and Venus had phases like the Moon: both phenomena were not predicted by Ptolemy's model. Johannes Kepler used Brahe's measurements to improve the heliocentric system Copernicus had proposed, showing that planets had elliptical orbits around the sun. When Isaac Newton applied the newly discovered universal theory of gravitation to the data, he used a heliocentric model. By the 1800s, the spectacular successes of Newtonian theory and Maxwell's equations for electromagnetism had convinced practically everyone that the Sun is a preferred frame of reference, and that the laws of physics must be applied in that frame. The geocentric theory was considered to be profoundly mistaken at that time. Since the advent of relativity theory in the early 1900s, the laws of physics have been written in covariant equations, meaning that they are equally valid in any frame. Heliocentric and geocentric plotting systems are both used today, depending on which allows more convenient calculations. Scripture Quoted to justify Geocentric Theory A few Bible quotes use geocentric terms. While some attempt to use these quotes to discredit the Bible's hold on science, others dispute this usage, claiming that the usage of the terms is similar to the way people today use terms like "sunrise" and "sunset". In this account, the terminology is not wrong, but merely reflects the observer's view. - "He has fixed the earth firm, immovable." (1 Chronicles 16:30) - "Thou hast fixed the earth immovable and firm ..." (Psalm 93:1) - "Thou didst fix the earth on its foundation so that it never can be shaken." (Psalm 104:5) - "...who made the earth and fashioned it, and himself fixed it fast..." (Isaiah 45:18) - "The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose." (Ecclesiastes 1:5) - "Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day." (Joshua 10, 12-13)

http://www.conservapedia.com/Geocentrism

Apr. 5, 2001 Daffodils, tulips, roses and other flowers are so much a part of our daily lives that we take them for granted. But to evolutionary scientists, the question of how and when flowering plants appeared on Earth has gone unanswered for more than a century. Mosses were the first plants to emerge on land some 425 million years ago, followed by firs, ginkgoes, conifers and several other varieties. According to the fossil record, flowering plants abruptly appeared out of nowhere about 130 million years ago. Where did they come from, and how could they have evolved so suddenly without any transitional fossils linking them to other ancient plant species? "An abominable mystery" is how nineteenth-century naturalist Charles Darwin referred to the origin of flowering plants, and the puzzle remains as controversial today as ever. Now a team of Stanford geochemists has entered the debate with evidence that flowers may have evolved 250 million years ago - long before the first pollen grain appeared in the fossil record. "Our research indicates that the descendants of flowering plants may have originated during the Permian period, between 290 and 245 million years ago," says J. Michael Moldowan, research professor of Geological and Environmental Sciences. "We based our findings on an organic compound called oleanane, which we found in the fossil record," he adds. Moldowan and his collaborators, research associate Jeremy Dahl and graduate student David A. Zinniker, will present their findings at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in San Diego on April 2, during a symposium titled, "Biogeochemistry of Terrestrial Organic Matter." Oleanane is produced by many common flowering plants as a defense against insects, fungi and various microbial invaders. But the chemical is absent in other seed plants, such as pines and gingkoes. Using gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy, Moldowan and his colleagues have been able to extract molecules of oleanane trapped in oily rock deposits that are hundreds of millions of years old. "Our work has shown that oleanane is lacking from a wide range of fossil plants," he notes, "but the chemical is found in Permian sediments containing extinct seed plants called gigantopterids." That makes gigantopterids the oldest oleanane-producing seed plants on record – an indication that they were among the earliest relatives of flowering plants, concludes biologist David Winship Taylor of Indiana University Southeast, a co-author of the ACS study. "This discovery is even more significant because we recently found gigantopterid fossils in China with leaves and stems that are quite similar to modern flowering plants," Taylor notes – further evidence that flowering plants and gigantopterids evolved together, roughly 250 million years ago. Moldowan and his colleagues point out that the chemical fossil record can be an important tool for studying the history of life on Earth. "In our research we use molecular fossils, or biomarkers, such as oleanane to provide evolutionary and paleoenvironmental information from sediments and petroleum," he says. Perhaps one day this technique will help solve Darwin’s "abominable mystery" once and for all. Related Web Page: http://pangea.stanford.edu/GES/faculty/moldowan.html Other social bookmarking and sharing tools: The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stanford University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above. Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/04/010403071438.htm

Gamma radiation from black holes to diffuse gas in space heating, which delayed formation of dwarf galaxies. The graph shows an extremely massive black hole surrounded by a dust ring (torus). The incidence of gas onto the black hole leads to a high-energy beam of matter and radiation, which can be transported over cosmological distances. If the beam is shown in our direction, we speak of a “blazar.” The influence of extremely massive black holes is limited, cosmic seen on its immediate environment – is so at least the previous assumption. An international team of astronomers has now discovered, however, that these black holes of millions to billions of solar masses also affects much more distant objects, and subsequently even may have on the formation of galaxies. The researchers from Germany, Canada and the United States observed that diffuse gas absorbs the light in space gamma radiation from black holes and heats it. This surprising finding has important implications for the formation of large structures in the universe. In the center of every galaxy is an extremely massive black hole. It can emit high-energy gamma radiation and is then called blazar. Other types of radiation such as visible light or radio waves passing through the universe without any problems. This is true for high-energy gamma radiation is not. This radiation interacts with the optical light emitted by the galaxies, and is converted into the elementary particles, electrons and positrons. The elementary move initially nearly light speed, but slowed down by the diffuse gas in the universe. Since each braking process generates heat, the surrounding gas heats it to extreme. It is ten times hotter on average and in the cosmic regions with less density than the average even more than a hundred times hotter than previously thought. Temperature measurement in the line of forest “Blazars, the thermal history of the universe to write,” said Christoph Pfrommer, one of the authors, from the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS). But how can you verify such an idea? In the optical spectra of distant quasars seen a number of lines, the so-called forest line. The forest is created by absorption of ultra-violet quasar by neutral hydrogen atoms in the early stages of the universe. If the gas is now hot, then the weakest lines are widened. This effect produces a great way to measure temperature in the early universe and thus virtually to observe the universe in his youth. The HITS-examined Astrophysicists this newly postulated heating process for the first time with detailed computer simulations of the cosmological origin of structures. Surprisingly, the lines were just so broadened that they exactly match the measured line in the quasar spectra match statistics. “We can solve elegantly a long standing problem with these Quasardaten” says Ewald fixed Puchwein who performed the simulations on the mainframe at the HITS. The impact on galaxy formation What other consequences resulting from this new source of heat? The forest line in the quasar spectra is caused by density fluctuations in the universe. Here, the densest fluctuations fall together over time to form galaxies and galaxy clusters, as we see around us. If the diffuse gas is too hot, it can not collapse and the formation of dwarf galaxies is delayed or even completely suppressed. This could be the key to the solution of another problem in the theory of galaxy formation are that there has long been: Why are close to our Milky Way and in dense cosmic regions observed significantly fewer dwarf galaxies than predicted by cosmological simulations? Volker Springel, head of research group at HITS, said: “The most exciting of the new process is the Blazarheizens that this same effect can explain several puzzles in the cosmological structure formation.” The group now plans to further refine the simulation models and to understand so the physical nature of blazars and their impact on today’s universe better.

http://scienceray.com/astronomy/black-holes-have-an-effect-on-how-entire-galaxies/

January 1, 2005 The relaxing sound of a babbling brook; the happy laughter of a giggling child; the rousing sound of a marching band. All of these and more enrich our daily lives and are dependent on our ability to hear sound. But what exactly is sound and how is it that we are able to hear it? Keep reading to learn the answers to these questions and what logically follows as implications for the theory of macroevolution. Sound! What’s it all about? Sound is the sensation we experience when vibrating molecules of our surrounding environment (usually air), strike the ear drum. When these changes in air pressure, as determined by measuring the pressure on the tympanic membrane (ear drum), are plotted on a graph against time, a wave form appears. (see Figure 1). In general, the louder the sound, the more energy is required to produce it, and the greater the amplitude of air pressure change. Figure 1. Wave B is louder than Wave A. Wave C is of a higher frequency than Wave A. Loudness is defined by the decibel system using as its starting point the threshold for hearing (the level of intensity that something can just be barely heard by the human ear). The scale is logarithmic, which means that any jump from one absolute integer to the next, provided that it is divided by ten (don’t forget a decibel is only one-tenth of a bel) represents an increase in the order of ten times. For example, the threshold for hearing is designated as 0 and normal conversation occurs at about 50 decibels, so the difference in intensity is 10 raised to the power of 50 divided by 10 which equals 10 to the fifth power, or one hundred thousand times the intensity of threshold hearing. Or take for example a sound that causes you to feel severe pain in your ears and could be potentially damaging, which usually occurs at about the 140 decibel range; this sound, such as an explosion or a jet plane, would represent a 100 trillion-fold variation in sound intensity from threshold. The shorter the distance between the waves, i.e. the more waves that are packed into one second of time, the higher the pitch, or frequency, of the sound being heard. This is usually designated as cycles per second (cps), or hertz (hz). (see Figure 1) The human ear is generally capable of hearing sounds that range in frequency from 20 hz to 20,000 hz. Normal human speech involves sounds from the frequency range of 120 hz for males, to about 250 hz for females. Middle C on the piano is 256 hz and tuning A done by the oboe for orchestras is 440 hz. The ear is most sensitive to sounds that range between 1,000- 3,000 hz. A Concerto in Three Parts The ear consists of three general regions designated as the external, the middle and the inner ear. Each plays its own unique and necessary part in allowing us to hear sounds. Here’s a quick overview of which region does what and the components that are instrumental in accomplishing the function of hearing. (see Figure 2) Figure 2. Anatomy of the Ear. The pinna, or auricle, of the external ear acts like your own personal satellite dish by collecting and funneling sound waves to the external auditory meatus (opening to the ear canal). The sound waves then travel down the canal to the ear drum, or tympanic membrane, which by moving in and out in response to these changes in air pressure reproduces the vibration pattern of the sound source. The three bones (ossicles) in the middle ear, called the malleus (hammer), which is directly connected to the tympanic membrane, the incus (anvil), and the stapes (stirrup), which is directly connected to the oval window of the cochlea, combine to transmit these vibrations to the inner ear. The middle ear is air-filled and is able to maintain the same air pressure on both sides of the tympanic membrane by way of the eustachian tube which connects up just behind the nose, and opens during swallowing to allow ambient air inside the middle ear chamber. Also, there are two skeletal muscles, the tensor tympani and the stapedius, which act to protect the ear from very loud sounds. The inner ear, which contains the cochlea, first encounters these transmitted vibrations through the oval window, which results in a wave formation being set up in the internal structures of the cochlea. Within the cochlea sits the organ of Corti, which is the true organ of the ear, that is capable of converting these fluid vibrations into a nerve signal that is then sent off to the brain for interpretation. So there you have it. Now let’s look at some specific aspects of each of these regions. Evidently, the external ear is where all of the action begins. If we didn’t have an opening in the skull that allowed sound waves to pass on to the ear drum, we wouldn’t be able to talk to each other. For some, maybe that would be considered a good thing! How exactly this opening in the bony skull, called the external auditory meatus, came into being by random genetic mutation or incidental change, remains to be explained. The pinna, or ear flap if you will, has been shown to be important in sound localization. The underlying tissue that forms the pinna, allowing it to be so flexible, is called cartilage and is similar to the cartilage found in most of the joints of the body. How cells that are capable of cartilage formation acquired this ability, never mind how they ended up extending themselves from each side of the head, to the bane of many young women, would seem to require some sort of satisfactory explanation if one is to espouse the macroevolutionary model for the development of hearing. Anyone who has ever undergone the experience of having had their ears plugged up with wax can appreciate the fact that although they may not know what benefit wax provides for the ear canal, they’re sure glad that it’s natural composition did not result in a substance that has the consistency of cement. Even more importantly, those who must interact with these unfortunate people appreciate their ability to elevate the volume of their voice in order to generate enough sound wave energy to be heard. Ear wax, officially called cerumen, is a mixture of secretions from various glands contained in the external ear canal, which combine with the material from shedding cells along the lining of the canal, to form a white to yellow to brown waxy substance. Ear wax serves to lubricate the external ear canal while at the same time protecting the ear drum from dust, dirt, insects, bacteria, fungi, and anything else that the external environment can throw at it. Interestingly enough, the ear has its own ear wax clearing mechanism. The cells that line the external ear canal form near the middle of the ear drum and migrate out to the walls of the canal and continue outward to the external auditory meatus. Along the way they carry with them the overlying ear wax which is then sloughed off when it reaches the outside opening. Jaw movements appear to enhance this process. In effect the whole scheme is like one big conveyer belt for wax elimination from the ear canal. The whole understanding of wax formation, its consistency that allows for proper hearing, while at the same time providing an adequate protective function, and how the ear canal naturally eliminates it to prevent hearing loss, would seem to require some logical explanation. How could mere step by step innovations brought on by either genetic mutation or incidental change account for all of these factors and still allow for proper function along the way? The ear drum, or tympanic membrane, consists of specialized tissue whose consistency, shape, attachments, and exact positioning, allow it be in the right place for the right function. It is all of these factors that need to be accounted for to explain how it is able to resonate in response to incoming sound waves and thereby start the chain reaction that results in the vibration wave within the cochlea. Just because other organisms have somewhat similar features that allow them to hear does not in itself explain how these features came into existence by the undirected forces of nature. In this I am reminded of the quip by G. K. Chesterton in which he said “It is absurd for the evolutionist to complain that it is unthinkable for an admittedly unthinkable God to make everything out of nothing, and then pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into everything.” But I digress. The middle ear takes on the task of transmitting the vibrations of the ear drum to the inner ear where lies the cochlea in which is contained the organ of Corti, which is the actual “organ of the ear”, much like how the retina is the “organ of the eye”. So the middle ear is essentially the “middle man” in the operation of hearing. As often occurs in business, the middle man takes something away from the monetary efficiency of what is being transacted. So too, the transmission of ear drum vibration through the middle ear does result in some loss of energy resulting in only 60% of the energy being sent down the line. However, if it were not for the energy spread across the larger tympanic membrane being focused on the smaller oval window by the three ossicles, combined with their inherent lever action, this energy transmission would be much less and hearing would be much more difficult for us. A projection from the malleus, (the first ossicle), called the manubrium, is directly attached to the ear drum. The malleus itself is connected to the second ossicle, the incus, which is itself attached to the stapes (the stirrup) which has a foot plate that is attached to the oval window of the cochlea. As mentioned already, the lever like actions of these three connected ossicles allow the vibration to become amplified on their way to the cochlea. Review of two of my previous columns, namely “Hamlet Meets Modern Medical Science Parts I & II”, may allow the reader the see what is necessary to be demonstrated regarding bone formation itself. But how these three perfectly formed and interconnected bones ended up in precisely the right position to allow for the proper transmission of sound wave vibration, requires one more“ just-so” explanation of macroevolution to which we must look askance. Curiously, within the middle ear exists two skeletal muscles, the tensor tympani and the stapedius. The insertion of the tensor tympani is attached to the manubrium of the malleus and on contraction it pulls the tympanic membrane back into the middle ear thereby limiting its ability to resonate. The insertion of the stapedius is attached to the the foot plate of the stapes and on contraction it pulls it off of the oval window, thereby reducing the amount of vibration that is transmitted to the cochlea. Together these two muscles reflexively try to protect the ear from overly loud sounds which can cause pain and damage. The time that it takes for the neuromuscular system to react to a loud noise is about 150 milliseconds, which is about 1/6 th of a second. So sudden loud sounds, like from gunfire and explosions, are not as easily protected against as much as prolonged sounds or continuously noisy environments. Experience tells us that loud sounds can sometimes be painful, just like overly bright light. The functional parts for hearing, such as the ear drum, the ossicles, and the organ of Corti, perform their function by moving in response to sound wave energy. Too much movement can cause damage and pain, just like if you overextend your elbow or your knee. So, it would seem that the ear has developed some sort of protection against self-injury if exposed to prolonged loud sounds. Review of three of my prior columns, namely “Wired for Much More than Sound Parts I, II and III” which together explain neuromuscular function at a biomolecular and electrophysiological level, will allow the reader to better appreciate the inherent complexity that is contained within what would seem to be a natural protection against hearing loss. What is left to understand is how these two perfectly placed muscles ended up in the middle ear doing what they do, and doing them reflexively. What sort of genetic mutation or incidental changes occurred one step at a time to allow for such a complex development within the temporal bone of the skull? Anyone, who on landing in an airplane, has experienced the sensation of pressure in their ears, associated with diminished hearing, and feeling like they are talking in a vacuum, has in effect demonstrated to themselves the importance of the Eustachian tube (auditory tube) that runs between the middle ear and the back of the nose. The middle ear is an enclosed, air-filled chamber, in which the air pressure on either side of the tympanic membrane must be equal in order to allow for adequate mobility, which is referred to as its compliance. This is a measure of how easily the ear drum will move when stimulated by sound waves. The higher the compliance, the easier it is for the ear drum to resonate in response to sound, and the lower the compliance the more difficult it is to move in and out and therefore the threshold at which one can hear is raised i.e. now sounds have to be louder to be heard. The air in the middle ear tends to be absorbed by the body which can result in the reduction of air pressure in the middle ear causing a reduction in tympanic membrane compliance. This occurs because instead of staying in the right position, the tympanic membrane will tend to be pushed into the middle ear by the ambient air pressure that is being exerted down the external ear canal since it is higher than the pressure in the middle ear. The Eustachian tube connects the middle ear with the back of the nose and pharynx. On swallowing, yawning and chewing, the associated muscular action tugs open the Eustachian tube which allows ambient air to enter and go up into the middle ear and replace any air that has been absorbed by the body. In this way, the tympanic membrane can maintain its optimal compliance which allows for adequate hearing. Now, let’s go back to the airplane scenario. While you are cruising at 35,000 feet, the air pressure on both sides of the ear drum is the same, although the absolute amount is less than it would be at sea level. The important thing here is not the actual air pressure that is being exerted on either side, but that whatever the air pressure is on either side of the ear drum is the same. As you begin to descend, the ambient air pressure in the cabin begins to rise and immediately exerts itself against the ear drum from the external ear canal. The only way to correct this imbalance of air pressure across the ear drum is to be able to open up the Eustachian tube to allow the new ambient air pressure in. This is usually accomplished by chewing gum or sucking on candy that makes you swallow and apply that tugging action on the tube. The speed at which the descent occurs and the resulting rapidly changing ambient pressure increases makes most people experience at least some sort of plugged sensation in their ears. If someone has or has recently had a cold, sinus problems or a sore throat, their Eustachian tube may not work as well during this pressure stressing event and they may experience severe pain, prolonged congestion and occasionally a severe hemorrhage in their middle ear! But Eustachian tube dysfunction doesn’t end there. For if someone has chronic problems, over time the vacuum effect in the middle ear can pull fluid out of the capillaries which if not tended to can result in something known as glue ear. This is prevented and treated by myringotomy and tubes. The ENT surgeon puts a small hole in the ear drum and places tubes there so that any fluid that develops can migrate out of the ear and this serves to replace the Eustachian tube function until whatever has been causing it can be corrected, thereby preserving proper hearing and preventing damage to the structures within the middle ear. It’s great that modern medicine is able to tackle some of these problems when the Eustachian tube doesn’t work right. But one has to immediately ask oneself how this tube came into being in the first place and which parts of the middle ear came first and how did it all function without the others? Does a step by step development based on some as yet unknown genetic mutation or incidental change even make sense here? A close inspection of the parts of the middle ear and their absolute necessity for proper hearing that would allow for survival shows that there is an air of irreducible complexity about them. But none of what we’ve looked at so far will in itself result in us being able to hear. There’s one more piece of the puzzle to look at that has its own incredibly complex, and might I say, beautiful mechanism that takes the vibrations from the middle ear and converts them into a nerve message for the brain to interpret as sound. Hardwired for Sound The nerve cells that are responsible for sending the messages to the brain for hearing are located in the “organ of Corti” which is housed in the cochlea. The cochlea consists of three interconnected coiled tubes which spiral together for about two and a half turns. (see Figure 3). The upper and lower tubes are both surrounded by bone and are called the scala vestibuli and the scala tympani respectively. Both of these tubes contain a fluid called perilymph whose sodium (Na+) ion and potassium (K+) ion contents are similar to other extracellular fluids (outside the cells) i.e. they have a high Na+ ion concentration and a low K+ ion concentration in contradistinction to intracellular fluid (inside the cells). Figure 3. Anatomy of the Cochlea. They communicate with each other at the tip of the cochlea through a small opening called the helicotrema. The middle tube, which is embedded in membranous tissue, is called the scala media and it contains a fluid called endolymph which has the unique property of being the only extracellular fluid in the body that has a high concentration of K+ ions and a low concentration of Na+ ions. The scala media does not directly communicate with the other tubes and is separated from the scala vestibuli by flexible tissue called Reissner’s membrane and from the scala tympani by a flexible basilar membrane. (see Figure 4) Figure 4. Anatomy of the Organ of Corti. The organ of Corti sits suspended, like the Golden Gate Bridge, on the basilar membrane that is located between the scala tympani and the scala media. The nerve cells for hearing, called hair cells, because of their hair-like projections, sit on the basilar membrane which allows the bottom of the cells to be in contact with the perilymph of the scala tympani. (see Figure 4) The hair-like projections of the hair cells, which are known as stereocilia, sit on top of the hair cell and therefore are in contact with the scala media and the endolymph contained within it. The significance of this will become more apparent when we come to discuss the underlying electrophysiological mechanism behind auditory nerve stimulation. The organ of Corti consists of about 20,000 of these hair cells that sit on the basilar membrane which runs for the entire spiraled cochlea, a distance of about 34 mm. In addition, the thickness of the basilar membrane varies from about 0.1mm at the beginning, the base, to about 0.5mm at the end, the apex, of the cochlea. This feature will become important when we discuss pitch or frequency. Now remember, sound waves have entered the external ear canal where they have caused the ear drum to resonate at an amplitude and frequency that is inherent within the sound itself. The inward and outward motion of the ear drum allows vibration energy to be transferred to the malleus, which is connected to the incus, which is in turn connected to the stapes. In the ideal circumstance, the air pressure on either side of the ear drum is equal, allowing for the ear drum to have a high compliance for motion, because of the Eustachian tube’s ability to allow ambient air into the middle ear from the back of the nose and throat when yawning, chewing and swallowing occur. This vibration is now transferred from the stapes to the cochlea via the oval window. Now we’re ready for action. The resulting transfer of vibration energy to the cochlea causes a fluid wave to be transmitted through the perilymph in the scala vestibuli. However, because the scala vestibuli is encased in bone and is separated from the scala media, not by a rigid wall, but by a flexible membrane, this vibration wave is also transmitted to the endolymph in the scala media by way of Reissner’s membrane. The resulting fluid wave in the scala media is itself responsible for causing the flexible basilar membrane to also undulate. These waves peak and then die down quickly somewhere along the basilar membrane in direct relationship to the frequency of the sound being heard. The higher frequency sounds cause more motion at the base or thinner part of the basilar membrane, and the lower frequency sounds cause more motion at the apex or thicker part of the basilar membrane, at the helicotrema. Eventually the wave action comes into the scala tympani via the helicotrema and dissipates through the round window. One can immediately see that if the basilar membrane is waving in the “breeze” of endolymphatic motion within the scala media, that the suspended organ of Corti, with its hair cells, is going to undergo a trampoline-like effect in response to this wave motion energy. From here on, in order to appreciate the complexity and to truly understand what is going on for hearing to take place, the reader must have a knowledge of neuron function. If you haven’t read it already, I suggest that you look at “Wired for Much More than Sound Parts I and II” which reviews neuron function. Hair cells at rest have a membrane potential of about -60mV. Remember from neuron physiology that the resting membrane potential exists because of the tendency for more K+ ions to leave the cell through K+ ion channels than Na+ ions entering through Na+ ion channels when the cell is not stimulated. However, this tendency is predicated on the fact that the cell membrane is in contact with extracellular fluid that is usually low in K+ ions and high in Na+ ions, like the perilymph with which the base of the hair cells are in contact. When the stereocilia, i.e. the hair-like projections of the hair cell, are stimulated to move by wave action, this causes them to bend. This motion of the stereocilia results in certain transduction channels being opened that are very permeable to K+ ions. So when the organ of Corti experiences this trampoline-like effect from the wave action brought on by the vibration from the resonance of the ear drum through the three ossicles, this results in K+ ions entering the hair cell, which causes it to depolarize, i.e. become less negative in its membrane potential. “Hold it”, I hear you say. “I just reviewed all of that stuff on neurons and to my way of thinking when the transduction channels open up, K+ ions should flow out of the cell and cause hyperpolarization, not depolarization.” And normally you’d be absolutely right because in the usual set of circumstances when specific ion channels open up to increase the permeability of that specific ion across the membrane, it is Na+ ions that go into the cell and K+ ions that come out because of the relative concentration gradients of Na+ ions and K+ ions across the membrane. But remember, we’re not dealing with the usual set of circumstances here. The apex of the hair cell is in contact with the endolymph of the scala media and not the perilymph of the scala tympani that is contact with the base of the hair cell. And remember, we stressed the point above that the endolymph has the unique distinction of being the only fluid outside of the cell that has a high concentration of K+ ions. So high that when those transduction channels that are permeable to K+ ions open up in response to the bending motion of the stereocilia, K+ ions now enter the cell and thereby causes it to depolarize. The depolarization of the hair cell causes voltage-gated calcium ion (Ca++) channels in its base to open up and to allow Ca++ ions into the cell. This results in a neurotransmitter from the hair cell being released to stimulate a nearby cochlear neuron which will ultimately send the message on to the brain. The frequency of the sound that generates the fluid wave determines where it will peak along the basilar membrane. As mentioned above, this is dependent on the basilar membrane’s thickness, in which higher pitched sounds cause more activity at the thinner base, and lower frequency sounds result in more activity at the thicker apex. One can immediately see that the hair cells that are closer to the base will maximally respond to very high pitched sounds at the upper limit of human hearing (20,000 hz) and the hair cells at the extreme apex will maximally respond to sounds at the lower limit of human hearing (20 hz). The cochlear nerve fibers demonstrate tonotopic mapping in that they are more sensitive to specific frequencies which are ultimately mapped out in the brain. This means that specific cochlear neurons service specific hair cells, and their nerve signals are eventually transmitted to the brain which is then capable of determining the pitch of the sound based on which hair cells were stimulated. In addition, it has been shown that cochlear nerve fibers have spontaneous activity so that when they are stimulated by a sound of a specific pitch with a particular amplitude, this results in a modulation of their activity which is ultimately analyzed by the brain and is interpreted as a particular sound. In summary, the hair cells that are located on a specific spot on the basilar membrane will maximally bend in response to a particular pitch of sound wave that results in that spot on the basilar membrane receiving the crest of the wave. The resulting depolarization of that hair cell will cause it to release a neurotransmitter which will stimulate a nearby cochlear neuron that sends its message along to the brain where it is interpreted as the sound that was heard with a certain amplitude and frequency based on which cochlear neuron sent the message. The pathways for all of this auditory nervous activity have largely been mapped out. There are more neurons that are contained in junction boxes that receive these messages and then pass them on to other neurons. Eventually the messages reach the auditory cortex of the brain for final analyses. But how the brain then converts this myriad of neurochemical messages into what we know as hearing is as yet totally unknown. The impediments to solving this problem may indeed be as mysterious as life itself! A brief review of cochlear structure and function will provide the reader with many questions to be asked of those who are enamored with the theory that all life came about through the random forces of nature without any intelligent input. Here are a few of the major factors whose development over time are in need of plausible explanations given their absolute necessity for the function of hearing in humans. Is it possible that these developed one step at a time by the processes of genetic mutation or incidental change? Or failing that, is it likely that each of these parts served some, as yet unknown, function in multiple other progenitors, which then came together to allow for human hearing as we know it? And if either of these explanations are considered valid, then what exactly were these changes in principle, and in fact, to allow for the development of such a complex system that allows for the transduction of air waves into something that the human brain perceives as sound? The development of the three coiled tubes, called the scala vestibuli, the scala media and the scala tympani, which form the cochlea The presence of the oval window to receive the vibration from the stapes and the round window to allow the wave action to dissipate The presence of Reissner’s membrane to allow the vibration wave to be transmitted to the scala media The basilar membrane, with its variable thickness and its perfect location between the scala media and the scala tympani, to play a part in the function of human hearing The construction of the organ of Corti and its position on the basilar membrane so that it may experience the trampoline effect that is instrumental for human hearing The presence of the hair cells within the organ of Corti whose stereocilia play an all important role for human hearing and without which, it would not exist The presence of perilymph in the upper and lower scalae and endolymph in the scala media The presence of the cochlear nerve fiber in close proximity to the hair cells that are located on the organ of Corti A Final Word When I set out to write this column I first looked at the original medical physiology text that I used when I was in medical school 30 years ago. In this book the authors noted the unique make-up of endolymph as compared to all of the other extracellular fluids in the body. At this point in time, it was “unsettled” as to the exact reason for this unusual set of circumstances and the authors freely admitted that although it was known that the action potential that was generated by the auditory nerve was related to the movement of the hair cells, how this happened was as yet unknown. So what are we to make of this now that we have a better understanding of how all of this works? Simply this: Is there anyone who upon listening to their favorite piece of music thinks that the notes being played in that specific order have come about by the random forces of nature? No! One realizes that the music one is enjoying was written down by a composer so that others would be able to enjoy what he had created and heard in his own mind. He makes sure of this by signing his own name to the original manuscript so that the world will know who created this piece. To think otherwise would result in most people being subjected to ridicule. Similarly, as one listens to the cadenza being played in a violin concerto, is it likely to come into one’s mind that the notes emanating from that Stradivarius have occurred simply by the random forces of nature? No! One intuitively knows that there is a talented virtuoso who is playing specific notes in order to produce the sounds that she wants the listener to hear and appreciate. So much so, that her name is emblazoned on the CD jacket so that those who know of her talent will be induced to buy it. But how is it that one is able to hear what is being played in the first place? Did it all come about by the undirected forces of nature as evolutionary biologists believe? Or is it possible that at some point in time an intelligent designer made its presence known, and if so, how would we be able to detect it? Are there any signatures or emblazoned names within nature that may help direct our attention to them? There are numerous examples of what I consider intelligent design within the human body which I have detailed over the last year within this column. But when I came to the realization of how hair cell motion results in the opening of K+ ion transduction channels causing the movement of K+ ions into the hair cell and its depolarization, I was literally dumbfounded. For I suddenly realized that here was such a “signature”. Here was an example of the intelligent designer letting it be known that just when humanity thinks it knows all there is to know about life and how it developed, it is faced with something that should give it pause. Remember that the almost universal mechanism for neuron depolarization occurs by the influx of Na+ ions from extracellular fluid into the neuron through Na+ ion channels after sufficient stimulation. The development of this system in itself has as yet not been sufficiently explained by evolutionary biologists. However, the whole system depends upon the existence and stimulation of Na+ ion channels in combination with there being a higher concentration of Na+ ions outside of the cell as compared to inside the cell. This is how the neurons of the body work. Now we come to find out that there exists within the body a set of neurons that work in exactly the opposite way. They require, not Na+ ions to enter the cell to cause depolarization, but K+ ions. On the face of this, it would seem to be an impossibility because everyone knows that all extracellular fluids in the body contain very low amounts of K+ ions in comparison to the inside of the neuron and therefore it would be physiologically impossible for K+ ions to flood into the neuron to cause depolarization the way that Na+ ions do. What was once considered as “unsettled” has now become crystal clear as to the reason why endolymph must have the unique property of being the only extracellular fluid in the body with a high K+ ion content and a low Na+ content. It is located precisely in the right place so that when the K+ ion permeable transduction channels open in the membrane of the hair cells, depolarization will take place. Evolutionary biologists must be able to explain how both, seemingly opposing sets of circumstances, could arise and how they could occur in the right place in the body where it is needed. Much like the notes for a concerto being placed just right by the composer and then being played on the violin by the virtuoso. To me, that’s an intelligent designer saying to us; “Do you see the beauty in what I have created?” Of course, for a person who sees life and how it functions only through a materialistic and naturalistic filter, the idea of an intelligent designer is an impossibility. The fact that all of the questions that I have proposed for macroevolution in this and other columns, are highly unlikely to receive plausible answers in the future, does not seem to deter or even concern the proponents of the theory that all life has developed from natural selection acting on random variation. As William Dembski so adroitly observed in The Design Revolution: “Darwinists take this present lack of insight into the workings of an unevolved designer, not as remediable ignorance and not as evidence that the designer’s capacities far outstrip ours, but as proof that there is no unevolved designer, period.” Next month we’ll be looking at how the body coordinates its muscular activity in order to allow us to sit, stand, and stay mobile: in my last installment on neuromuscular function. See you then in: Wired for Much More than Sound Part VIII: Run for your Life Howard Glicksman M. D. graduated from the University of Toronto in 1978. He practiced primary care medicine for almost 25 yrs in Oakville, Ontario and Spring Hill, Florida. He recently left his private practice and has started to practice palliative medicine for a Hospice organization in his community. He has a special interest in how the ethos of our culture has been influenced by modern sciences understanding and promotion of what it means to be a human being. Comments and questions about this column or any of the previous ones are welcome at [email protected] Copyright 2004 Dr. Howard Glicksman. All rights reserved. International File Date: 1.01.05 This data file may be reproduced in its entirety for non-commercial use. A return link to the Access Research Network web site would be appreciated. Documents on this site which have been reproduced from a previous publication are copyrighted through the individual publication. See the body of the above document for specific copyright information.

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December 2, 2011 Adaptive radiation is a principle in evolutionary biology in which one species, in response to opportunities in its environment, quickly adapts and develops new traits and diversifies into many species. An example of adaptive radiation is found in columbine flowers (genus Aquilegia), a group of about 70 species that have nectar spurs extending from the base of the flower petals. What makes these spurs special is that each species has spurs of a different length, seemingly tailored to that species’ pollinator, whether it be a hummingbird, hawkmoth or bee. Scientists since Charles Darwin have observed similar examples of adaptive radiation but have been unable to describe what happens on a cellular or genetic scale. “Darwin, observing orchids, recognized that the extraordinarily long nectar spur on the Angraecum must have evolved in concert with the equally long tongue of the moth that pollinated it, but the exact mechanism for this kind of adaptation has been a matter of speculation,” says Sharon Gerbode of Harvard University. Gerbode and her colleagues at Harvard and the University of California at Santa Barbara investigated that mechanism in columbines and report their findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. For decades, scientists had thought that the differences in nectar spur length were due to the number of cells in the nectar spur. But when the researchers counted the number of cells and calculated the area and degree of elongation of each cell–which required more than 13,000 measurements across several species–they found that the assumptions were wrong. Nearly all of the difference in spur length can be attributed to the length of the cells. In each species, cell division in the nectar spur stops when the spur is about 5 millimeters long. Then the spurs begin to elongate, and how many days they spend growing determines the eventual length of the spur. “Now that we understand the real developmental basis for the first appearance and diversification of spurs, we can make more informed guesses about what genes contributed to the process,” says study co-author Elana Kramer. Further research should give the scientists insight into the genetic basis behind the radiation of this genus. Check out the entire collection of Surprising Science’s Pictures of the Week and get more science news from Smithsonian on our Facebook page. Sign up for our free email newsletter and receive the best stories from Smithsonian.com each week. No Comments » No comments yet.

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2011/12/the-columbines-and-their-pollinators-an-evolutionary-tale/

sp., native Spirostreptida, New Zealand. Common name: millipedes, Maori weri mano. Scienific name: phylum Arthropoda, class Diplopoda. From Greek “diplos”, two, and “poda”, legs, referring to two legs per segment. The millipedes are easily recognizable. Most of them are slow-moving, elongate animals with a cylindrical or flattened segmented body (trunk), a rounded head and a large number of short walking legs. The cuticle of most millipedes is calcified and rather hard, and the body is relatively inflexible. Each body segment is covered with hard plates, or sclerites. In many millipedes the plates are fused together to various degrees, each segment often forming an almost solid ring. Millipedes differ from other myriapods (multi-legged arthropods, such as centipedes and Symphyla) by having two pairs of legs on most body segments (hence the name Diplopoda). The first body segment after the head, the collum, has no legs. The three following segments each carry a single pair of legs. Most other segments of the body, the so-called diplosegments, all have two pairs of legs, except for the legless terminal segment. The presence of diplosegments, which are formed during embryonic development by fusion of two adjacent embryonic segments, is one of the defining characters of Diplopoda. Juvenile millipedes may have several legless segments at the end of the body. Contrary to their name, millipedes do not have thousand legs, although the number of legs is still very large. For example, a large New Zealand millipede Eumastigonus sp. has 186 legs (93 pairs). In male millipedes, the legs of the 7th body segment are modified for sperm transfer and are called “gonopods”. The shape of the gonopods is an important taxonomic character for identification of genera and species. The head of a millipede bears well-developed antennae, eyes (if present), and chewing mouthparts with strong mandibles, with which millipedes masticate dead wood and plant debris, their common food. The antennae consist of 6-8 segments and bear various sensory organs, including receptors for smell, taste, touch, and temperature. The eyes, if present, are located on the sides of the head, and consist of one or a group of simple eyes (ocelli). Many of the common litter millipedes – for example all Polydesmida – are eyeless. The millipedes are a very diverse group, and show a variety of body forms, colours and sizes. The size of millipedes varies from 2 mm to 30 cm. Most of the New Zealand species are 2-5 cm in length, brown, grey or black in colour. Some tropical species can be bright orange, blue, or red. There are 15 recognized orders of millipedes, and their taxonomy is continuously under revision. The main groups found in New Zealand are described below. Bristle millipedes - order Polyxenida The small size and unusual appearance of bristle millipedes may cause them to be mistaken for insect larvae or springtails. The polyxenid millipedes are only 2-5 mm long, with soft, non-calcified cuticle and a short (11-13 segments) body, which is covered with tufts of bristles. In New Zealand I have occasionally found bristle millipedes in litter samples, but they are not common. , a pill millipede endemic to New Zealand. Pill millipedes – order Sphaerotheriida Similar to terrestrial isopods (slaters) pill millipedes roll into a sphere when disturbed, the ability for which they have received their name. New Zealand pill millipedes are members of the order Sphaerotheriida, a group with a Gondwanan distribution, with ~100 species known from Australasia, South Africa, and Madagascar. New Zealand pill millipedes Procyliosoma (5 species) reach 1-3 cm in length and are found in native forests, where they inhabit humus and leaf litter, especially at the bases of trees. “Juliform” millipedes – orders Julida and Spirostreptida , an introduced Julida widespread in New Zealand. Juliform millipedes are the familiar smooth, cylindrical grey or brown millipedes, often found in rotting wood, in leaf litter, and under logs. Juliform millipedes have numerous small legs and larger number of segments than the flat-backed and pill millipedes. The native New Zealand species, often found in forests, belong to the order Spirostreptida. A number of introduced species (mainly European) belong to the order Julida. Unfortunately, these two orders look very similar and may share the same habitat, so a juliform millipede cannot be readily identified as Julida or Spirostreptida without a close-up examination under a dissecting microscope. When harassed, juliform millipedes secrete yellowish defensive fluid, which contains benzoquinones and which has a very strong, unpleasant and tenacious smell. Pseudoprionopeltis sp., a polydesmid millipede, New Flat-backed millipedes – order Polydesmida Millipedes of the order Polydesmida are flattened. The dorsal plate of each body segment extends laterally, forming side projections, or paranota. The dorsal plates and paranota are often ornamented with ridges, tubercles, and patches of colour. In New Zealand, polydesmid millipedes are common in all environments, dwelling in leaf litter, under rocks, and under the bark of rotting logs. All Polydesmida are eyeless. Members of the order Chordeumatida, very common in native New Zealand forests, are surface runners, and are quite agile for millipedes. Chordeumatid millipedes are relatively soft, with a slightly flattened body and longer legs visible from above. The body is tapered towards the end. Millipedes from the orders Siphonophorida and Polyzoniida are small, elongated, and slow-moving animals. sp., an active native Chordeumatida millipede, New Zealand. This millipede from the order Siphonophorida is 0.5 cm long. There is one species in New Zealand. Notes on biology Most millipedes are detritivores and fungivores, feeding on decaying vegetation, dead wood, and similar materials. Millipedes use the help of symbiotic microorganisms living in their gut to break down and digest the plant cellulose; in addition, millipedes digest the fungi and bacteria that inhabit decaying vegetation and rotting wood. Some millipedes will scavenge, eating dead animal matter. Occasionally, millipedes may feed on live plant tissue – roots and tubers, and also on fallen fruit, and so they may become pests in areas of high population density. Millipedes have separate sexes. Male and female clasp each other during mating, and the male uses his modified legs – gonopods, to transfer the sperm packet (spermatophore) to the female. Female millipedes lay hundreds of eggs in soil, leaf litter, etc., often building a protective nest. Parthenogenetic reproduction is known in some species. The young millipedes hatch with only three pairs of legs. Although small and colourless, they resemble adults in shape, and grow gradually through a series of moults, adding more segments and legs with each moult. In temperate zone, millipedes take one to several years to reach maturity, hibernating during winter in colder climates. Some millipedes reproduce only once and then die, while other species live for several years as adults, reproducing repeatedly. Large tropical species grow slowly, and may live for many years as adults. Slow-moving and unflexible, millipedes lack active defenses. To discourage predators they may roll into a ball or coil into a tight spiral, so that only tough exoskeleton is exposed. In addition, many millipedes exude toxic or foul-smelling substances that repel predators. The repellent fluid is produced in special glands in each segment, and is released through lateral ozopores; these can be seen as a row of dots along each side of the body. Millipedes use a wide range of defensive chemicals. Juliform millipedes use benzoquinones and other compounds, polydesmid millipedes use cyanide. Small mammals, birds and predatory arthropods may eat millipedes, although mammals and birds often avoid millipedes, if given a choice. The repellent fluid of large tropical millipedes can be irritating to human skin. Miillipedes are very important in soil ecosystems – they are one of the few groups able to fragment dead wood and plant debris into smaller pieces, pre-processing the organic material and making it available for further decomposition by fungi, bacteria, and microinvertebrates. In forest soils in particular, millipedes facilitate decomposition of woody debris and leaf litter, support soil food webs, and aid in nutrient cycling and soil formation. In some countries, during the reproduction period in spring or summer, or during autumn in the search for overwintering sites, adult millipedes occasionally appear in mass quantities. Millipedes are generally not considered to be pests, but they can be a nuisance in urban environments if they aggregate in Where to find them? , a "spotted snake millipede" - introduced and widespread in New Zealand. Millipedes are common litter and soil animals in New Zealand. As in all other Myriapda, millipedes lack a waxy layer on the cuticle, and therefore dessicate easily if exposed to dry air. The millipedes prefer damp, protected habitats – they are common underneath logs, under rocks, in rotting wood, in moss, and in leaf litter. Many millipedes live burrowing through the dead wood of decomposing logs or through matted layers of litter. Around human habitations millipedes are common under mulch, leaf litter and compost in gardens, and under tiles, stones, flower pots, and piles of debris in damp situations. Most millipedes are nocturnal and they generally avoid the light. If discovered, millipedes will try to move away, although many species are very slow walkers. Pill millipedes roll into a perfect ball if disturbed, many other species coil their body into a tight spiral and remain immobile, relying on their chemical defences. Millipedes are harmless and do not bite, but if picked up, many will secrete a defensive fluid from ozopores, which may irritate the skin and stain cloths, and which often has an extremely tenacious bad smell. Millipedes can be preserved in alcohol, but will become brittle and loose their colour. In addition, identification of millipedes is very challenging. Many species and genera are superficially similar, so only an experienced taxonomist can distinguish one from another, and many New Zealand species are still undescribed and unnamed. For a non-specialist, I would recommend observing and photographing live millipedes, rather than collecting them. Distribution and conservation Millipedes are common all over the world, they are particularly diverse in the tropics. Worldwide, 16 orders, 135 families, and close to 11,000 species of millipedes have been described. It is estimated that there are approximately 80,000 species in the global millipede fauna. Diplopod taxonomy is constantly changing. The fauna of New Zealand is still poorly known. The New Zealand millipedes occur in all environments, but are most common and numerous in forests. Approximately 12 families and ca. 60 species of millipedes have been described from New Zealand, several hundred species are awaiting description, and many more species remain undiscovered. We know very little about the distribution, biology, and ecological importance of New Zealand millipedes. Millipedes are cryptic animals, and can be spread by unsuspecting humans with soil, garden materials, vegetables and wood. Presently, twelve exotic species of millipedes are common in urban gardens and urban woodlands of New Zealand, having been introduced from Europe. Australian Akamptogonus novarae (Polydesmida) has been introduced to New Zealand as well. The exotic Ophyiulus pilosus, Blanuilus guttulatus and Cylindroiulus britannicus (Julida) are the three most common millipedes in New Zealand gardens. Millipedes are not protected in New Zealand. - Order Siphonophorida - Family Siphonophoridae - Siphonophora ?zelandica? (Chamberlin, 1920) - Ohinetonga Scenic Reserve, TO, North Island (3 images) - Order Sphaerotheriida - Family Sphaerotheriidae - Procyliosoma striolatum (Pocock, 1895) - Canaan Road near Harwood Hole, NN, South Island (3 images) - Order Polyzoniida - Family Siphonotidae - Siponethus sp. - Te Purere, TO, North Island - Order Chordeumatida - Family Metopidiotrichidae - Schedotrigonia sp. - Karori wildlife sanctuary, WN, North Island - Schedotrigonia sp. - Canaan Road near Harwood Hole, NN, South Island - Schedotrigonia sp. - Rimu Valley Walk, SD, South Island - Schedotrigonia sp. - Kahurangi National Park, Flaro Saddle, NN, South Island - Schedotrigonia sp. - Kaiteriteri Road, NN, South Island (2 images) - Schedotrigonia sp. - Westland National Park near Okarito, WD, South Island - Schedotrigonia sp. - Kawhatau Base, RI, North Island - Order Polydesmida - Family Paradoxosomatidae - Akamptogonus novarae (Humbert et Saussure, 1869)* - Ohinetonga, To, North Island - Family Dalodesmidae - Tongodesmus sp. - Te Purere, TO, North Island - Tongodesmus sp. - Kahurangi National Park, Flora Saddle, NN, South Island (2 images) - Icosidesmus variegatus - Craigieburn Forest Park, Cave Stream, NC, South Island - Icosidesmus sp. 1 - Palmerston North, WI, North Island - Icosidesmus sp. 2 - Palmerston North, WI, North Island - Pacificosoma ?yaldwyni? - Palmerston North, WI, North Island (2 images) - Pacificosoma ?yaldwyni? - Palmerston North, WI, North Island - Pseudoprionopeltis sp. - Canaan Road near Harwood Hole, NN, South Island - Pseudoprionopeltis sp. - Canaan Road, NN, South Island - Pseudoprionopeltis cinereus (Carl, 1902) - Torlesse Range, Porters Pass, NC, South Island - Pseudoprionopeltis cinereus (Carl, 1902) - Hawdon Valley, NC, South Island - Dityloura sp. - Hawdon Valley, NC, South Island (2 images) - Unidentified sp. undescribed - Canaan Road, NN, South Island - Unidentified sp. undescribed - Kaiteriteri Road, NN, South Island (2 images) - Unidentified sp. - Peel Forest Park, Dennistoun Bush, SC, South Island - Unidentified sp. - Katikara Stream, Taranaki, TK, North Island - Unidentified sp. - Lake Wilkie-Tautuku Beach, Catlins, Southland, SL, South Island (3 images) - Unidentified sp. - Trounson Kauri Park, Northland, ND, North Island (2 images) - Order Spirostreptida - Family Cambalidae - Eumastigonus sp. - Katikara Stream, Taranaki, TK, North Island (2 images) sp. - Otinehonha Scenic Reserve, TO, North Island sp. - Canaan Road near Harwood Hole, NN, South Island sp. - Rimu Valley Walk, NN, South Island sp. - Kaiteriteri Road, NN, South Island sp. - Craigieburn Forest Park, Broken River Road, Jack's Pass, NC, South Island (2 images) sp. - Craigieburn Forest Park, Cave Stream, NC, South sp. - Kahurangi National Park, Flora Saddle, NC, South Island (2 images) - Order Julida - Family Blaniulidae - Blaniulus gluttulatus (Bosc, 1792)* - Palmerston North, WI, North Island (2 images) - Blaniulus gluttulatus (Bosc, 1792)* - Nelson, NN, South Island - Ophyiulus pilosus (Newport, 1843)* - Palmerston North, WI, North Island (2 images) - Ophyiulus britannicus (Voerhoeff, 1891)* - Nelson, NN, South Island (5 images) - * - species exotic in NZ Further information on New Zealand Diplopoda: Blower, J. G. 1985. Millipedes. Synopses of the British Fauna (New Series). No 35. The Linnean Society of London, 242 p. Dawson, E.W. 1958 Exotic millipedes (Diplopoda) in New Zealand. New Zealand Entomologist 2, p. 1-5. Holloway, B.A. 1954. New locality records for Propolyxenus forsteri Conde (Diplopoda Polyxenidae). New Zealand Entomologist 1, p. 12-13. Holloway, B.A. 1956. Revision of the New Zealand pill millipedes (Oniscomorpha, Sphaerotheridae). Transactions of the Royal Society of NZ 84, p. 431-446. Hopkin, S. P., and H. J. Read. 1992. The Biology of Millipedes. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, Johns, P.M. 1962. Introduction to the endemic and introduced millipedes of New Zealand. New Zealand Entomologist 3, p. 38-46. Johns, P.M. 1964. Insects of Campbell Island. Chilopoda, Diplopoda (preliminary note on the Myriapoda of the New Zealand Subantarctic islands). Pacific Institute Monogr. 7, p. 170-172. Johns, P.M. 1964. The Sphaerotrichopidae (Diplopoda) of New Zealand. 1. Introduction, revision of some known species and description of new species. Records of the Canterbury Museum 8, p. 1-49. Johns, P.M. A note on the introduced millipedes of New Zealand. New Zealand Entomologist 3, p. 60-62. Johns, P.M. Centipedes and millipedes. New Zealand National Heritage 5(61), p. 1700-1702. Nguyen Duy-Jacquemin, M., and J.-J. Geoffroy. 2003. A revised comprehensive checklist, relational database, and taxonomic system of reference for the bristly millipedes of the world (Diplopoda, Polyxenida). African Invertebrates 44, p. 89-101. McColl, H.P. 1982 Soil critters 17: millipedes. New Zealand Soil News 30, p. 33. Schubart, O. 1962. Notes on two European millipedes (Diplopoda) in New Zealand. Transactions of the Royal Society of NZ, Zoology 2, p. 191-197. Shelley, R. M. 2003 (2002). A revised, annotated, family-level classification of the Diplopoda. Arthropoda Selecta 11, p. 187-207. Shelley, R.M. and Lehtinen, P.T. 1998. Introduced millipeds of the family Paradoxosomatidae on Pacific Islands (Diplopoda: Polydesmida). Arthropoda Selecta 7, p. Diplopoda Resources on the Web by R. Shelley and the team, Biology Department, East Carolina University, provides description and detailed information on classification, life history, and distribution of millipedes. Also includes check-list of North American millipedes (Milli-PEET project), image gallery, and the links to millipede research. by J. Shultz and H. Wilson, University of Maryland, includes details of morphology and reproduction, with good illustrations. millipedes, by B. Mesibov, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, provides general information on millipedes, their description, distribution and identification key for orders. millipedes page, by G. Ramel, includes general description of millipedes, information on millipede life history and ecology, bibliography, and links to other millipede websites. of Life - Diplopoda; gives phylogenetic relationships within the class, and lists the references and websites about International de Myriapodologie, J.J. Geoffroy, International Society of Myriapodology and Onychophorology. Includes introductory description of Diplopoda, images, and various links. millipedes, by C. Arment, Arment Biological Press (Herper.com). This hobbyist site includes biology facts and care instructions for pet millipedes; provides links to a number of millipedes websites and images. by R. Butler, Mongabay.com. A comprehensive collection of links to Diplopoda-related sites from educational and academic institutions, organizations, and government agencies worldwide. Bibliography on Subterranean Myriapoda - Diplopoda, by B. Lebreton, a bibliography on cave-dwelling Diplopoda. Faunal Directory - Checklist for Diplopoda, Department of Environment and Heritage, checklist of Australian fauna, including world distribution, bibliography, and some information on ecology for each species. of Kentucky, by B. Newton, Department of Entomology, University of Kentucky; includes short general description of common Kentucky millipedes, and some life cycle, ecology, pest status centipedes, the methods for collecting and photographing centipedes, and curious centipede facts. by D. Kendall, Kendall Bioresearch Services, the site presents general descriptions and photos of Brown Centipedes, Garden Centipedes and House Centipedes.

http://soilbugs.massey.ac.nz/diplopoda.php

Ion propulsion, a futuristic technology that for decades catapulted spacecraft through the pages of science fiction novels is now a reality. A Glenn-designed ion engine, just 12 inches (30 centimeters) in diameter, is the main propulsion source for Deep Space 1 a 20th Century spacecraft now off on its primary mission to validate technologies for 21st century spacecraft.Image right: The flight hardware ion engine. Credit: NASA An ion propulsion system converts power from the spacecraft power system into the kinetic energy of an ionized gas jet. That jet, as it exits the spacecraft, propels it in the opposite direction. The system, or any electric propulsion system, consists of four major components: a computer for controlling and monitoring system performance; a power source (on Deep Space 1 (DS1) this source is the solar concentrator arrays); a power processing unit for converting power from the solar arrays to the correct voltages for the engine; and the thruster, or engine, itself. The fuel used in DS1's ion engine is xenon, a chemically inert, colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas. The xenon fuel fills a chamber ringed with magnets. When the ion engine is running, electrons emitted from a cathode strike atoms of xenon, knocking away one of the electrons orbiting an atom's nucleus and making it into an ion. The magnets' magnetic field controls the flow of electrons and, by increasing the electrons' residence time in the chamber, increases the efficiency of the ionization.Image left: Overall ion engine workings. Credit: NASA At the rear of the chamber is a pair of metal grids that are charged with 1280 volts of electric potential. The force of this electric field exerts a strong "electrostatic" pull on the xenon ionsmuch like the way that bits of lint are pulled to a pocket comb that has been given a static electric charge by rubbing it on wool. The xenon ions shoot past the grids at speeds of more than 88,000 miles per hour (146,000 kilometers per hour), continuing right on out the back of the engine and into space. These exiting ions produce the thrust that propels the spacecraft. A second electron-emitting cathode, downstream of the grids, neutralizes the positive charge of the ion beam to keep the spacecraft neutral with respect to its environment. At full throttle, the ion engine consumes about 2300 watts of electrical power and puts out 0.02 pound (90 millinewtons) of thrust. This is comparable to the force exerted by a single sheet of paper resting on the palm of a hand. Typical chemical on-board propulsion systems, on the other hand, produce far greater thrust 100 to 500 pounds (450 to 2250 newtons) but for far shorter times. A chemically propelled spacecraft gets its big boost and then coasts at constant speed until the next boost. But an ion engine can produce its small thrust continually and thereby provide near constant acceleration and, so, shorter travel times. Ion propulsion is also 10 times more fuel efficient than chemical on-board propulsion systems. This greater efficiency means less propellant is needed for a mission. In turn, the spacecraft can be smaller and lighter, and the launch costs lower. Deep Space 1 carries 178 pounds (81 kilograms) of xenon propellant, which is capable of fueling engine operation at one-half throttle for over 20 months. Ion propulsion will increase the speed of DS1 by 7900 miles per hour (12,700 kilometers per hour) over the course of the mission. Electric propulsion technology, which includes ion engines, has been studied at Glenn (at that time the NASA Lewis Research Center) since the 1950's. Ion propulsion technology development at Glenn began when Dr. Harold Kaufman, now retired from NASA, designed and built the first broad-beam electron-bombardment ion engine in 1959. It used mercury as fuel, but is otherwise similar to the engine flying today on DS1. The laboratory tests of variations of the original ion engine were promising enough for Glenn to begin suborbital flight tests in the early 1960's. By 1964, an ion engine launched on the Space Electric Rocket Test I (SERT I) operated for all of its planned 31 minutes before returning to Earth. In 1970, two modified ion engines were launched on SERT II; one operated for nearly three months and the other for more than five. Both engines suffered grid shorts, believed to have been be caused by debris from thruster grid wear, before the planned end of the mission. After an attitude control maneuver cleared its grid of the short in 1974, one of the engines was started and was operated on and off for six more years. The information learned from these genuine space success stories was used to refine and improve the technology that today flies on communications satellites and, of course, on DS1. Early ion engines used mercury or cesium instead of xenon as propellants. (Glenn researchers had worked on cesium ion engine technology in the mid 1950's.) But both proved to be difficult to work with. At room temperature, mercury is a liquid and cesium is a solid, making them easy to store. But both had to be heated to turn them into gases. Then there was the cleanup. After exiting the ion engine, some mercury or cesium atoms would condense onto the ground test hardware, causing numerous cleanup difficulties. In the 1970's, NASA managers decided that if ion propulsion research was to continue, it would have to be environmentally clean and less hazardous. Glenn researchers soon turned to xenon as a cleaner, simpler fuel for ion engines, with many of the same characteristics as mercury. One of the first xenon ion-engine-like devices ever flown was a Hughes Research Laboratories design launched in 1979 on the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory's Spacecraft Charging at High Altitude (SCATHA) satellite. It was used, not to propel the spacecraft, but to change its electrical charge. Researchers then studied the effects of the "charging" on spacecraft system performance. In 1997, Hughes launched the first commercial use of a xenon ion engine on the communications satellite PanAmSat 5. This ion engine is used for stationkeeping, that is, keeping the satellite in its proper orbit and orientation with respect to Earth. In the early 1990's, NASA identified improved electric propulsion as an enabling technology for future deep space missions. Glenn engineers believed that their ion engine technology was the closest to being ready for long, complex missions. NASA Glenn partnered with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the NASA Solar Electric Power Technology Application Readiness (NSTAR) project. The purpose of NSTAR was to develop a xenon-fueled ion propulsion system for deep space missions. Glenn developed the engines and power processors, and JPL was responsible for the development of the xenon feed system, the diagnostics, and integration of the hardware into the spacecraft.Image left: Ground test setup in the Glenn Research Center's Electric Propulsion Laboratory. Credit: NASA In 1996, the prototype engine built at Glenn endured 8000 hours of operation in a JPL vacuum chamber that simulates conditions of outer space. The results of the prototyping were used to define the design of flight hardware that was built for DS1 by Hughes Electron Dynamics Division and Spectrum Astro Inc. One of the challenges was developing the compact, lightweight power processing unit that converts power from the solar arrays into the voltages needed by the engine. NSTAR team contractor, Hughes designed a 2500 watt power processor that weighs a little over 33 pounds (15 kilograms) and has an efficiency of 93 percent. The first spacecraft in NASA's New Millennium Program of missions to flight-test new technologies, DS1 blasted into space in October 1998 aboard a Delta II launch vehicle. Now on its own and headed toward a July 1999 flyby of asteroid 1992 KD, 12 new technologies aboard the spacecraft are being tested for use on future space science missions. Among those 12 is DS1's main propulsion source, the Glenn-designed NSTAR ion engine.Image right: Artist's conception of Deep Space 1 in flight. Credit: NASA The following March the spacecraft was 30 million miles from Earth. The ion engine had surpassed it performance goals by thrusting continuously for over 330 hours, the longest continuous thrusting of any other deep space propulsion system and it had operated for over 1200 hours. The next New Millennium Program mission to use Glenn ion engine technology will be Space Technology 4/Champollion, which will rendezvous (match orbits) with the periodic Comet Tempel 1. Three NSTAR ion engines (with minor modifications) will provide the primary propulsion for the spacecraft. The planned launch date is in 2003. Glenn engineers are also responding to and anticipating mission planners' needs by developing both higher and lower power ion propulsion systems. Ion engines with extended performance and higher power NSTAR engines, in the 5-kilowatt and 0.04 pound-thrust range, are candidates for propelling spacecraft to Europa, Pluto, and other small bodies in deep space. Glenn engineers plan to achieve higher ion engine power levels by retrofitting NSTAR engine with enhanced components. Low power (100 to 500 watts) systems can be used to deliver miniaturized robot spacecraft (launched using small, inexpensive rockets) to interesting space bodies including comets, asteroids, and planets. Such missions will allow for the delivery of instruments, sensors, and mobile vehicles to the bodies. Laboratory tests on low-power, light-weight ion propulsion system components and subsystems are now underway at Glenn.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/fs08grc.html

The Story of Mineral Crystallization A crystal forms primarily through processes that function with the changes in the temperature or pressure of a fluid. If there is enough time and space for individual crystals to grow, they will develop into faceted geometric shapes. If not, crystals will develop the interlocking texture seen in most crystalline rocks. Minerals form in three basic ways: is a complex process by which minerals form from magma. Magma is liquid rock that contains a great variety of elements in motion in the form of ions. As magma rises upward, both pressure and temperature decrease. As the magma cools the movement of ions past each other slows down until the attraction between compatible elements is strong enough for the ions to join and form particles of similar composition. Further cooling allows these particles to grow into the interlocking crystalline minerals that make up whatever rock is eventually formed. The cooling history of magma is recorded in the texture of the rock. The slower the drop in temperature (or pressure), the larger the crystal will be. The faster the change, the smaller the crystal will be. In fact, if the drop in temperature is quick enough, no crystallization will take place and the solid produced would be a glass (obsidian). If pressure is reduced rapidly enough, escaping gases can create vesicles (bubbles) in the rock or turn it into froth (pumice or scoria). Porphyry is a type of igneous rock that contains large mineral grains (phenocrysts) surrounded by finer grained minerals. This reveals that this magma has experienced two phases of cooling rates. Note: ice is fused water. Ice is a mineral... check the definition. is a relatively simple process where ions of dissolved minerals in a liquid will precipitate out when the temperature and/or pressure of the solution decreases or the amount of liquid is reduced (evaporation for example). Again, the size and texture of the crystals formed depends on the rate of change in temperature and pressure which essentially determines how much time is available for the crystals to develop. Of course the supply of material available from the solution would also be a factor. Crystal lined geodes and veins, evaporites like halite and gypsum, and cave deposits of travertine are examples of some of the minerals that may form from solution. is a chemical process where matter either changes directly from the solid state to a gas without passing through the liquid phase, or changes directly from a gas to a solid. Mineralogically, it is the later route that has an important function in crystal development. When super heated, mineral-rich gases escape from deep subsurface chambers, they are released at the surface through fumaroles, vents and volcanoes. Here, very rapid drops in temperature and pressure cause minerals to form around hydrothermal and volcanic openings. Sulfur and cristobalite are examples of minerals that may form by sublimation. Snow flakes and frost on the window would be another. written by George Allgaier photography by Lisa Nordstrom. Conservator

http://www.garviespointmuseum.com/mineral-crystallization.php

In our last article, Bully-Proof Your Preschooler, we featured tips and signs for helping young children deal with aggressors. Today we’ll take a look at empathy and its role in prevention. Why empathy matters Empathy is the ability to understand and identify with another person’s feelings. It includes regulating one’s own emotions and is central to success in social relationships. Children who are empathic are less likely to use aggression. Empathy has to be taught Although there is evidence that the human brain may be pre-wired for empathy, just ask a group of toddlers to share a toy and you’ll see plenty of evidence that empathy doesn’t come naturally! It has to be taught. That’s why you play a crucial role in the development of empathy skills – starting in infancy. Where to start The first step in teaching empathy is to help your child learn to recognize and label emotions. “The feelings that adults label for infants and toddlers on a regular basis are the foundation for emotional vocabulary,” says Emily Adams, a training specialist for the Early Head Start National Resource Center. With sign language, you can help your child begin to identify and label feelings even before your child begins talking. The Signing Time video “Family, Feelings and Fun” teaches signs and songs for feelings that appeal to children of all ages. You can make this Feelings Flip Book with your child – and and watch demonstrations of signs for feelings in the Signing Time Video Dictionary. Online resources For parents, Dr. Gwen Dewar, creator of parentingscience.com, has several fascinating research-based articles on empathy: For teachers, the NAEYC publication The Visible Empathy ofInfants and Toddlers summarizes a research study on empathy in a child care setting. It includes examples of how non-verbal communication (signs) enhanced children’s self-control in peer interactions. Also, an evidence-based classroom program for teaching empathy is available through Roots of Empathy. Coming up next in this series: Cultivating Creativity

http://www.signingtime.com/blog/2013/03/8948/

Mangrove forests are found in the intertidal zone between the average sea level and the high tide mark in estuaries, bays and coastal areas. Mangroves are marine plants and are subject to varying levels of salinity (salt levels), as they are flushed by sea water at high tide, by freshwater at low tide and during storm events and flooding. Because of such constant inundation, the soils that mangroves grow in are: - low in oxygen, making it difficult for plants to breathe through their roots - muddy and soft, thereby offering little structural support for the mangrove trees These limitations of the mangrove's environment, mean that mangroves have to possess some unique adaptations. For more information see the Field Guide to the Mangroves of Queensland and The Mangrove Environment.

http://indigiscapes.redland.qld.gov.au/Plants/Mangroves/Pages/default.aspx

Fact and Opinion Explanations and exercises online A fact is a statement that can be proven by direct experience or objective verification. This evidence may be in the form of the testimony of witnesses, agreed-upon observations, the written records of such testimony and observations, or the result of research or investigation. A statement of fact can theoretically be checked for accuracy. You should know that a statement of fact may be found to be untrue. When that happens, the statement is no longer a fact, it is an error. An opinion is a statement of belief or judgment that cannot be objectively proven true or false. Opinions usually express the feelings, preferences or biases that a person has about a subject. You should know that a statement of opinion is sometimes disguised as a fact. For example: It is understood that the children of working mothers feel rejected. The use of the phrase "It is understood..." implies that what follows has been proven. This is not the case and the statement is an opinion. Hopefully, you took good notes from the class lecture on these two types of statements. In addition to the in-class discussion and your textbook, you may visit web sites which will give you additional practice with distinguishing between statements of fact and statements of opinion. Fact or Opinion Quiz Reading for Results: Fact and Opinion Exercise Reading for Thinking: Fact and Opinion Exercise I Reading for Thinking: Fact and Opinion Exercise II Remember; a fact is not the opposite of an opinion. They are simply types of statements. If a fact is untrue or false, it does not turn into an opinion. By the same logic, if an opinion is believed by everyone, it does not turn into a fact. Opinions cannot be proved, however they can be supported with facts and other knowledgeable opinions. Facts can be proved with evidence, statistics, records, photographs, data, etc. Perhaps most important, facts are not better than opinions, or vice versa. There is no hierarchy. They are simply types of statements, so even though an opinion cannot be proved, opinions are every bit as important as facts.

http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/~steuben/factopinion.htm

SIGNIFICANCE OF DATED MORAINES, CHANNELS, AND MELT-WATER DEPOSITS The deposition of gravel and boulders by glaciers and by glacial melt water, the occurrence of slides and floods in the last few decades, and the record of similar events in the last 500 years testify to the marked changes that have occurred and are occurring in the landscape. When one views Mount Rainier from a distance, he really observes each detail for a mere instant. Because of the impressive mass of the mountain, he may depart believing that the mountain will remain in its present form forever. If, on the other hand, he could photograph the scene many times a year for 500 years and project the film on a movie screen, he would see rapid advance and melting of glaciers, frequent floods, avalanches, slides, and rapid shifting of stream channels. Landscape features, such as hills and gullies, are silent evidence of these events, and the presence or absence of trees on some of them permit a close estimate of their age. Because trees start to grow and will survive after a landscape feature at low altitude becomes stable, the age of the oldest trees closely approaches the age of the feature. The absence of trees and other plants on a landscape feature containing fine, loose material probably means that the feature is presently active as, for example, a rock slide. If only shrubs are present on steep slopes well below timberline, trees are probably prevented from growing by frequent snow avalanches. In initiating this study of the recent fluctuations in the positions of the glaciers on Mount Rainier, we had as a primary objective "* * * determining where modern water-supply data fit into the long-term pattern of fluctuating water supplies * * *" (Sigafoos and Hendricks, 1961, p. Al). We further stated, "The hypothesis is simple: "Glaciers advance and retreat in a manner somehow related to climate; therefore, if something is known of a glacier's movement in the past, some kind of crude inferences about the climate existing at the time of movement may be drawn." It now appears that even this cautious statement was overoptimistic. Through the collection of additional data since the initial report, it became apparent that no evidence exists to permit the dating of glacial advances. The data show only when glaciers started to retreat from terminal and lateral moraines. Nothing is known about how far they retreated following the formation of specific moraines. They could have retreated several thousands of feet or they could have retreated only a few tens of feet. Nothing can be inferred, therefore on the magnitude of climatic and hydrologic changes that preceded or followed moraine building. Meier (1965, p. 804-805), in summarizing existing knowledge of the relation between glacier behavior and climate, concludes: Glacier variations may reflect or indicate variations in climate, but the connection is indirect and complex. The general meteorologic environment controls the precipitation of snow, but local influences, caused largely by topography, may greatly modify the resulting accumulation on a glacier. Slight changes in seasonal temperature or precipitation distribution may affect accumulation totals in a glacier * * * Moraines and outwash features offer physical evidence of past glacier fluctuations, even though the exact meaning of some of these deposits is unclear. Botanical evidence of glacier variations can he especially useful. However, at the present stage of knowledge one cannot trace back from glacier variations to changes in climate, except in a gross, hypothetical way. Meier (1965, p. 800) further stated: It should he possible in the future to determine response characteristics and delay times for different types of glaciers, up to and including ice sheets of continental dimensions It is well known that contemporary glaciers do not, in general, behave synchronously. This can result from variations in net budget resulting from different local meteorological conditions or it can result from variations in dynamic response. The delays in dynamic response for large glaciers extend into hundreds or thousands of years. It is possible that some apparently different ice-sheet advances, which have been assumed to have general chronological significance, could just be different dynamic responses to the same climatic event. From these considerations it is clear that some risk exists in developing an overall chronology for Mount Rainier glaciers by piecing together the record of movements of all the glaciers, because of the possible anomalies in responses of adjacent glaciers. Even if one could safely do this, the present knowledge of time delays in dynamic response of individual glaciers permits only the grossest inferences on the fluctuations in climate that produced the observed sequence of glacial responses. Thus we leave climatic inferences to others, with the hope that the data recorded here may help some investigator of the future unravel the mysteries of past climatic change as indicated by these glacial histories. If one draws hydrologic inferences from the glacial record, it is clear that, although precipitation may have varied in the past, changes in the regional water supply may also have resulted from changes in storage of water in ice. When glaciers were extended, more regional water was frozen in ice; when and if they were smaller, less water was frozen. Again, because little detail is known relating variations in glacier response to climate, we can only speculate upon the effects of greater or lesser storage of water as ice in glaciers upon discharge of water downstream. Changes in climate and the concurrent storage of water in ice might have been in opposition in their effects upon downstream water supplies, or they might have been complementary. More water was taken from the environment and stored as ice when glaciers were larger than now so that one might expect smaller flow in streams merely because of an increase of water in storage. However, the expansion of glaciers might well be the result of an interval of greater precipitation during which there was also increased flow in streams because of increased runoff from rain and snowmelt. The two phenomena, increased flow because of increased melt-water discharge and decreased flow because more regional water was frozen in ice, tend to offset one another. Flow in streams below extended glaciers in the recent past, then, could have been virtually the same as it is now. If, on the other hand, glaciers expanded because of a general lowering of temperatures, more water would be held not only in glacier ice but in longerlasting snow cover. The effect then would be decreased flow below glaciers, with less water available for use. Although the evidence around the mountain indicates a sequence of recession from moraines, its climatic significance and the effects upon water supply are not known. Recessions started on the fol-lowing approximate A.D. dates: 1525, 1550, 1625-60, 1715, 1730, 1765, 1820-60, 1875, and 1910. More water may have drained from receding glaciers than from the advancing glaciers of the present; certainly water drained through different channels below some glaciers than it does today. Discharge of melt water in some valleys below some glaciers is believed to have been greater (Tahoma, Winthrop, and Emmons Glaciers, p. B7, B12, and B13) when glaciers were larger than they are now. It is not known if the total quantities of melt water from each of these glaciers were greater than it is now, because discharge could have been less in some valleys than in them today, or it could have been nonexistent. These periods when discharge was greater in some valleys occurred when glaciers were receding and melting faster than they do now. If glacier recession resulted from lowered precipitation, total discharge could have been the same as or less than it is now, and valleys that earlier carried more water may merely represent a physical shift in the site of melt-water discharge. During the early part of the last century, Mount Rainier presented a different face when viewed from afar by an Indian than it does today when viewed by visitors. Eight major glaciers were considerably farther downvalley 125 to 130 years ago than they are now. The upper slopes, heavily weighted with ice, exposed little bedrock to view, and valleys were filled with long tongues of ice protruding between the dark, forested slopes. All glaciers studied receded from this maximum stand in the last century. For Nisqually, Van Trump (Crandell and Miller, 1964), Tahoma, and Puyallup Glaciers, this stand represented the farthest downvalley advance of the last 10,000 years. The othersSouth Tahoma, Carbon, Winthrop, Emmons, Ohanapecosh, and Cowlitz Glaciersalso were far advanced 125 to 130 years ago but earlier, within the last 750 years, were even larger and more extended (table 10). A lateral moraine of Carbon Glacier was formed before A.D. 1217 (Crandell and Miller, 1964). These 125- to 750-year-old moraines were formed during the Garda Stade of the Winthrop Creek Glaciation, recognized by drift laid down since deposition of pumice layer C (Crandell and Miller, 1964). Some of these moraines are separated into old Garda drift overlain by pumice layer W (deposited about 450 years ago) and young Garda drift not overlain by layer W (Crandell, 1969, p. 30). TABLE 10.Ages of glacial or pyroclastic deposits at Mount Rainier, Washington [E., end; L, lateral] End and lateral moraines, from which eight glaciers started to recede between 1830 and 1850, indicate a consistent pattern of recession around the mountain for this period of time. The older moraines, however, do not show this correlation. This may be the result of insufficient data or may indicate different recession patterns of the glaciers. The older moraines generally are small segments that remain after the more extensive parts were destroyed by later glacier advances, by landslides, or by stream erosion. Some glaciers, such as Emmons, Carbon, and both Tahoma Glaciers behaved differently at different times. Earlier they must have been thicker and not as long as during later times (Sigafoos and Hendricks, 1961, p. A7-A8). In spite of the vagaries of Mount Rainier glaciers, their dynamic nature is clear. That we are able with considerable accuracy to date the modern moraines of Mount Rainier by using botanical evidence is a step toward solving the problems of dynamic glacial processes. Last Updated: 28-Mar-2006

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/geology/publications/pp/387-B/sec8.htm

Image courtesy Crystal Schaaf, Boston University, based upon data processed by the MODIS Land Science Team A new sensor aboard NASA’s Terra satellite is now collecting the most detailed and accurate measurements ever made of how much sunlight the Earth?s surface reflects back up into the atmosphere. By quantifying precisely our planet?s reflectivity, or albedo, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is helping scientists better understand and predict how various surface features influence both short-term weather patterns as well as longer-term climate trends. (Click to read the press release.) The colors in this image emphasize the albedo over the Earth’s land surfaces, ranging from 0.0 to 0.4. Areas colored red show the brightest, most reflective regions; yellows and greens are intermediate values; and blues and violets show relatively dark surfaces. White indicates where no data were available, and no albedo data are provided over the oceans. This image was produced using data composited over a 16-day period, from April 7-22, 2002. This image originally appeared on the Earth Observatory. Click here to view the full, original record.

http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=2599

« Back to list of position statements NSTA Position Statement: The National Science Education Standards (NSES p. 23) defines scientific inquiry as "the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and propose explanations based on the evidence derived from their work. Scientific inquiry also refers to the activities through which students develop knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, as well as an understanding of how scientists study the natural world." The Science as Inquiry Standard in NSES includes the abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry and understanding about scientific inquiry. Scientific inquiry reflects how scientists come to understand the natural world, and it is at the heart of how students learn. From a very early age, children interact with their environment, ask questions, and seek ways to answer those questions. Understanding science content is significantly enhanced when ideas are anchored to inquiry experiences. Scientific inquiry is a powerful way of understanding science content. Students learn how to ask questions and use evidence to answer them. In the process of learning the strategies of scientific inquiry, students learn to conduct an investigation and collect evidence from a variety of sources, develop an explanation from the data, and communicate and defend their conclusions. The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) recommends that all K–16 teachers embrace scientific inquiry and is committed to helping educators make it the centerpiece of the science classroom. The use of scientific inquiry will help ensure that students develop a deep understanding of science and scientific inquiry. Regarding the use of scientific inquiry as a teaching approach, NSTA recommends that science teachers - Plan an inquiry-based science program for their students by developing both short- and long-term goals that incorporate appropriate content knowledge. - Implement approaches to teaching science that cause students to question and explore and to use those experiences to raise and answer questions about the natural world. The learning cycle approach is one of many effective strategies for bringing explorations and questioning into the classroom. - Guide and facilitate learning using inquiry by selecting teaching strategies that nurture and assess student's developing understandings and abilities. - Design and manage learning environments that provide students with the time, space, and resources needed for learning science through inquiry. - Receive adequate administrative support for the pursuit of science as inquiry in the classroom. Support can take the form of professional development on how to teach scientific inquiry, content, and the nature of science; the allocation of time to do scientific inquiry effectively; and the availability of necessary materials and equipment. - Experience science as inquiry as a part of their teacher preparation program. Preparation should include learning how to develop questioning strategies, writing lesson plans that promote abilities and understanding of scientific inquiry, and analyzing instructional materials to determine whether they promote scientific inquiry. Regarding students’ abilities to do scientific inquiry, NSTA recommends that teachers help students - Learn how to identify and ask appropriate questions that can be answered through scientific investigations. - Design and conduct investigations to collect the evidence needed to answer a variety of questions. - Use appropriate equipment and tools to interpret and analyze data. - Learn how to draw conclusions and think critically and logically to create explanations based on their evidence. - Communicate and defend their results to their peers and others. Regarding students’ understanding about scientific inquiry, NSTA recommends that teachers help students understand - That science involves asking questions about the world and then developing scientific investigations to answer their questions. - That there is no fixed sequence of steps that all scientific investigations follow. Different kinds of questions suggest different kinds of scientific investigations. - That scientific inquiry is central to the learning of science and reflects how science is done. - The importance of gathering empirical data using appropriate tools and instruments. - That the evidence they collect can change their perceptions about the world and increase their scientific knowledge. - The importance of being skeptical when they assess their own work and the work of others. - That the scientific community, in the end, seeks explanations that are empirically based and logically consistent. —Adopted by the NSTA Board of Directors American Association for the Advancement of Science (1993). Benchmarks for science literacy. New York: Oxford University Press. National Research Council (1996). National science education standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. National Research Council (2000). Inquiry and the national science education standards: A guide for teaching and learning. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

http://www.nsta.org/about/positions/inquiry.aspx

Understanding Electronic Components 3. Coils and transformers Coils are not a very common component in electronic circuits, however when they are used, they need to be understood. They are encountered in oscillators, radio-receivers, transmitter and similar devices containing oscillatory circuits. In amateur devices, coils can be made by winding one or more layers of insulated copper wire onto a former such as PVC, cardboard, etc. Factory-made coils come in different shapes and sizes, but the common feature for all is an insulated body with turns of copper wire. The basic characteristic of every coil is its inductance. Inductance is measured in Henry (H), but more common are millihenry (mH) and microhenry (µH) as one Henry is quite a high inductance value. As a reminder: 1H = 1000mH = 106 µH. Coil inductance is marked by XL, and can be calculated using the following formula: where f represents the frequency of the voltage in Hz and the L represents the coil inductance in H. For example, if f equals 684 kHz, while L=0.6 mH, coil impedance will be: The same coil would have three times higher impedance at three times higher frequency. As can be seen from the formula above, coil impedance is in direct proportion to frequency, so that coils, as well as capacitors, are used in circuits for filtering at specified frequencies. Note that coil impedance equals zero for DC (f=0). Several coils are shown on the figures 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4. The simplest coil is a single-layer air core coil. It is made on a cylindrical insulator (PVC, cardboard, etc.), as shown in figure 3.1. In the figure 3.1a, turns have space left between them, while the common practice is to wind the wire with no space between turns. To prevent the coil unwinding, the ends should be put through small holes as shown in the figure. Fig. 3.1: Single-layer coil Figure 3.1b shows how the coil is made. If the coil needs 120 turns with a tapping on the thirtieth turn, there are two coils L1 with 30 turns and L2 with 90 turns. When the end of the first and the beginning of the second coil are soldered, we get a "tapping." A multilayered coil is shown in figure 3.2a. The inside of the plastic former has a screw-thread, so that the ferromagnetic core in the shape of a small screw can be inserted. Screwing the core moves it along the axis and into the center of the coil to increase the inductance. In this manner, fine changes to the inductance can be made. Fig. 3.2: a. Multi-layered coil with core, b. Coupled coils Figure 3.2b shows a high-frequency transformer. As can be seen, these are two coils are coupled by magnetic induction on a shared body. When the coils are required to have exact inductance values, each coil has a ferromagnetic core that can be adjusted along the coil axis. At very high frequencies (above 50MHz) coil inductance is small, so coils need only a few turns. These coils are made of thick copper wire (approx. 0.5mm) with no coil body, as shown on the figure 3.3a. Their inductance can be adjusted by physically stretching or squeezing the turns together. Fig. 3.3: a. High frequency coil, b. Inter-frequency transformer Figure 3.3b shows a metal casing containing two coils, with the schematic on the right. The parallel connection of the first coil and capacitor C forms an oscillatory circuit. The second coil is used for transferring the signal to the next stage. This is used in radio-receivers and similar devices. The metal casing serves as a screen to prevent external signals affecting the coils. For the casing to be effective, it must be earthed. Fig 3.4 shows a "pot core" inductor. The core is made in two halves and are glued together. The core is made of ferromagnetic material, commonly called "ferrite." These inductors are used at frequencies up to 100kHz. Adjustment of the inductance can be made by the brass or steel screw in the centre of the coil. Fig. 3.4: A "pot core" inductor For electronic devices to function it is necessary to have a DC power supply. Batteries and rechargeable cells can fulfill the role, but a much more efficient way is to use a POWER SUPPLY. The basic component of a power supplyr is a transformer to transform the 220V "mains" to a lower value, say 12V. A common type of transformer has one primary winding which connects to the 220V and one (or several) secondary windings for the lower voltages. Most commonly, cores are made of E and I laminations, but some are made of ferromagnetic material. There are also iron core transformers used for higher frequencies. Various types of transformers are shown on the picture below. Fig. 3.5: Various types of transformers Symbols for a transformer are shown on the figure 3.6 Two vertical lines indicate that primary and secondary windings share the same core. Fig. 3.6: Transformer symbols With the transformer, manufacturers usually supply a diagram containing information about the primary and secondary windings, the voltages and maximal currents. In the case where the diagram is missing, there is a simple method for determining which winding is the primary and which is the secondary: a primary winding consists of thinner wire and more turns than the secondary. It has a higher resistance - and can be easily be tested by ohmmeter. Figure 3.6d shows the symbol for a transformer with two independent secondary windings, one of them has three tappings, giving a total of 4 different output voltages. The 5v secondary is made of thinner wire with a maximal current of 0.3A, while the other winding is made of thicker wire with a maximal current of 1.5A. Maximum voltage on the larger secondary is 48V, as shown on the figure. Note that voltages other than those marked on the diagram can be produced - for example, a voltage between tappings marked 27V and 36V equals 9V, voltage between tappings marked 27V and 42V equals 15V, etc. 3.2.1 Working principles and basic characteristics As already stated, transformers consist of two windings, primary and the secondary (figure 3.7). When the voltage Up is connected to the primary winding (in our case the "mains" is 220V), AC current Ip flows through it. This current creates a magnetic field which passes to the secondary winding via the core of the transformer, inducing voltage Us (24V in our example). The "load" is connected to the secondary winding, shown in the diagram as Rp (30Ω in our example). A typical load could be an electric bulb working at 24V with a consumption of 19.2W. Fig. 3.7: Transformer: a. Working principles, b. Symbol Transfer of electrical energy from the primary to the secondary is done via a magnetic field (called "flux") and a magnetic circuit called the "core of the transformer." To prevent losses, it is necessary to make sure the whole magnetic field created by the primary passes to the secondary. This is achieved by using an iron core, which has much lower magnetic resistance than air. Primary voltage is the "mains" voltage. This value can be 220V or 110V, depending on the country. Secondary voltage is usually much lower, such as 6V, 9V, 15V, 24V, etc, but can also be higher than 220V, depending on the transformer's purpose. Relation of the primary and secondary voltage is given with the following formula: where Ns and Np represent the number of turns on the primary and secondary winding, respectively. For instance, if Ns equals 80 and Np equals 743, secondary voltage will be: Relationship between the primary and secondary current is determined by the following formula: For instance, if Rp equals 30Ω, then the secondary current equals Ip = Up/Rp = 24V/30Ω = 0.8A. If Ns equals 80 and Np equals 743, primary current will be: Transformer wattage can be calculated by the following formulae: In our example, the power equals: Everything up to this point relates to the ideal transformer. Clearly, there is no such thing as perfect, as losses are inevitable. They are present due to the fact that the windings exhibit a certain resistance value, which makes the transformer warm up during operation, and the fact that the magnetic field created by the primary does not entirely pass to the secondary. This is why the output wattage is less than the input wattage. Their ratio is called EFFICIENCY: For transformers delivering hundreds of watts, efficiency is about µ=0.85, meaning that 85% of the electrical energy taken from the mains gets to the consumer, while the 15% is lost due to previously mentioned factors in the form of heat. For example, if power required by the consumer equals Up*Ip = 30W, then the power which the transformer draws from the maains equals: To avoid any confusion here, bear in mind that manufacturers have already taken every measure in minimizing the losses of transformers and other electronic components and that, practically, this is the highest possible efficiency. When acquiring a transformer, you should only worry about the required voltage and the maximal current of the secondary. Dividing the wattage and the secondary voltage gets you the maximal current value for the consumer. Dividing the wattage and the primary voltage gets you the current that the transformer draws from network, which is important to know when buying the fuse. Anyhow, you should be able to calculate any value you might need using the appropriate formulae from above. 3.3 Practical examples with coils and Fig. 2.6: a. Amplifier with headphones, b. Band-switch, c. Detector radio-receiver The most obvious application for a transformer is in a power supply. A typical transformer is shown in figure 3.8 and is used for converting 220V to 24V. Fig. 3.8: Stabilized converter with circuit LM317 Output DC voltage can be adjusted via a linear potentiometer P, in 3~30V range. Fig. 3.9: a. Stabilized converter with regulator 7806, b. auto-transformer, c. transformer for devices working at 110V, d. isolating transformer Figure 3.9a shows a simple power supply, using a transformer with a centre-tap on the secondary winding. This makes possible the use two diodes instead of the bridge in figure 3.8. Special types of transformers, mainly used in laboratories, are auto-transformers. The diagram for an auto-transformer is shown in figure 3.9b. It features only one winding, wound on an iron core. Voltage is taken from the transformer via a slider. When the slider is in its lowest position, voltage equals zero. Moving the slider upwards increases the voltage U, to 220V. Further moving the slider increases the voltage U above 220V. The transformer in figure 3.9c converts 220v to 110v and is used for supplying devices designed to work on 110V. As a final example, figure 3.9d represents an isolating transformer. This transformer features the same number of turns on primary and secondary windings. Secondary voltage is the same as the primary, 220V, but is completely isolated from the "mains," minimizing the risks of electrical shock. As a result, a person can stand on a wet floor and touch any part of the secondary without risk, which is not the case with the normal power outlet. © C o p y r i g h t 2 0 0 3. m i k r o E l e k t r o n i k a. All Rights Reserved. For any comments contact webmaster.

http://www.mikroe.com/old/books/keu/03.htm

- A signalling molecule attaches to a receptor protein on the cell membrane. - A second messenger transmits the signal into the cell, and a change takes place in the cell. So, signal transduction starts with a signal to a receptor, and ends with a change in cell function. In either step, the signal can be amplified. Thus, one signalling molecule can cause many responses. Receptors are in the cell membrane, with part of the receptor outside and part inside the cell. The chemical signal binds to the outer portion of the receptor, changing its shape. This causes another signal inside the cell. Some chemical messengers, such as testosterone, can pass through the cell membrane, and bind directly to receptors in the cytoplasm or nucleus. Sometimes there is a cascade of signals within the cell. With each step of the cascade, the signal can be amplified, so a small signal can result in a large response. Eventually, the signal creates a change in the cell, either in the expression of the DNA in the nucleus or in the activity of enzymes in the cytoplasm. Most often, ordered sequences of biochemical reactions inside the cell are involved. These are carried out by enzymes and linked through second messengers. So a "second messenger pathway" is produced. These things usually happen quickly, sometimes very quickly. They may last from milliseconds (in the case of ion flux) to days for gene expression. In bacteria and other single-cell organisms, the transduction processes a cell has limits the number of ways it can respond to its environment. In multicellular organisms, lots of different signal transduction processes are used to coordinate the behavior of individual cells. By this means the function of the organism as a whole is organized. The more complex the organism, the more complex the repertoire of signal transduction processes the organism must possess. Thus, sensing of both the external and internal environment at the cellular level, relies on signal transduction. Many disease processes such as diabetes, heart disease, autoimmunity and cancer arise from defects in signal transduction pathways. This highlights the critical importance of signal transduction to biology and medicine. Related pages [change] - Reece, Jane; Campbell, Neil (2002). Biology. San Francisco: Benjamin Cummings. ISBN 0-8053-6624-5. - Loewenstein, Werner R. 1999. The touchstone of life: molecular information, cell communication, and the foundations of life. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-514057-5 - King N, Hittinger CT, Carroll SB (2003). "Evolution of key cell signaling and adhesion protein families predates animal origins". Science 301 (5631): 361–3. doi:10.1126/science.1083853. PMID 12869759.

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_transduction

About Saturn & Its Moons Magnetosphere - Why Study Magnetospheres? Saturn's magnetosphere is formed by its magnetic field. The structure and strength of the field at different locations within the magnetosphere can tell us about Saturn's interior structure and reveal unseen details about how the planet interacts with the solar wind – the flow of electrically charged particles (electrons and ions) blown outward by the sun – which fills interplanetary space. A planet's magnetosphere forms a sort of shield against the solar wind, and its particles respond to the electric and magnetic forces present in this magnetic bubble. Magnetic fields themselves are invisible, but we can study them with a diverse set of instruments, like those on Cassini. Cameras can take images of auroras formed by magnetospheric particles slamming into the planet's upper atmosphere. Measuring the flow of charged particles around the spacecraft can hint at how Saturn's rings and moons release material into the magnetosphere, interacting with it and modifying it. Puzzlingly, the rotation rate Cassini measured was slower than that measured 25 years earlier by the Voyager spacecraft. Since an actual slowing of the giant planet's rotation was highly unlikely, scientists had a mystery on their hands. Cassini data later suggested that material blasted into space by the geologic activity on Enceladus was likely to blame. Apparently Saturn's magnetic field is slowed down as it drags through the ring of particles that litter the orbit of Enceladus. Cassini also observes lightning-produced radio emissions in order to detect and track monster storms that sometimes punch through Saturn's clouds from below. These radio emissions act as an alert to point Cassini's cameras, as well as telescopes on Earth, toward Saturn to monitor the activity of such powerful storms and learn more about them. Studying the environment of Saturn's magnetosphere reveals other hidden information, like the fascinating possibility that Rhea might have rings of its own. The ghostly ring features called spokes appear to be closely connected to the magnetic field, so magnetosphere studies are key to understanding how they form.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/index.cfm?SciencePageID=60

African-American Civil War Soldiers Lesson Plan Fighting for African-American Rights and Responsibility of Citizenship By Mary E. Anthrop (Central Catholic Jr./Sr. High School) Length of Time: 3-4 class periods - Students will recognize the role of African-American soldiers in the Civil War. - Students will identify efforts of African-American soldiers to secure rights and responsibilities of citizenship. - Students will analyze Civil War primary source documents 1. Given the Emancipation Proclamation, War Department General Order 143, and the 15th Amendment, students will discuss the role of each of these documents in the Civil War. 2. Given these same three documents, students will analyze their impact on African-American soldiers. 3. Students will identify a historical site (ex: battlefield, church, camp) and create a marker, memorial, or mural, dedicated to the achievements of African American soldiers. • Documents: Emancipation Proclamation, War Department General Order 143, and the 15th Amendment • Excerpts from any of the following films: Glory (1989), The 54th Colored Infantry (The American Experience), The Civil War (Ken Burns- PBS) • African American Civil War soldier biography, letter, or diary excerpts • Pictorial examples of Civil War memorials • Computer access When did the Civil War take place? Who became a leader in proving that African Americans could fight in battle? What other facts did you learn, that can be applied to our study of African Americans in the Civil War? Glatthaar, Joseph. Black Soldiers. Eastern National Park and Monument Association, 1996. Indianapolis Daily Journal. Lafayette Daily Courier. Our Documents. www.ourdocuments.gov/ Begin the lesson with a brief lecture. Review the Northern objectives and the course of the Civil War up to, and including, the battle of Antietam. Introduce the documents and discuss what is found in each. View with the class the 1898 drama Glory, a fictional account of the 54th Massachusetts, the American Experience documentary, The 54th Colored Infantry, or excerpts on black regiments from the Ken Burn’s series The Civil War. Instruct students to record any references in the films to any primary sources. Identify an African-American soldier who served in a Civil War regiment and collect biographical data. Search for an appropriate subject from popular Civil War era biographies, published collections of letters and diaries, or African-American regimental histories found at public libraries. Discuss with the students when and how the Emancipation Proclamation, War Department General Order 143, and 15th Amendment affected the soldier or how he responded to them. Where there is no documented source of the soldier’s response, instruct students to compose a letter of diary excerpt that might explain his participation in the Civil War. Tell students to defend their explanations from evidence in the biographical data or the related local and state documents. Closure & Assessment: Instruct students on the significance of historic sites and the role of markers, memorials, and murals, as tangible reminders of the values of past generations and lessons of history. Show examples of local, state, and national Civil War commemoratives, and elaborate on any memorials dedicated to or including African-American soldiers. Encourage students to visit Internet Sites that discuss the creation of such memorials as the African-American Civil War Soldier Memorial in Washington, D.C. and the Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts 54th Regiment. Then challenge students to create a set of markers, a memorial, or mural, based on the individual experiences of an African-American soldier. Brainstorm with students about appropriate sites for their commemoratives. Finally, direct students in their tribute to show evidence of the soldier’s experiences with the Emancipation Proclamation, War Department General Order 143, and/or the 15h Amendment. 1. Read the three documents in pairs, or as a whole class. 2. Have students create the brochure by hand.

http://www.civilwar.org/education/teachers/lesson-plans/african-american-soldiers-lesson-plan/fighting-for-african-american.html

Common light sources, such as the electric light bulb emit photons in all directions, usually over a wide spectrum of wavelengths. Most light sources are also incoherent, i.e., there is no fixed phase relationship between the photons emitted by the light source. By contrast, a laser emits photons in a narrow, well-defined beam of light. The light is often near-monochromatic, consisting of a single wavelength or color, is highly coherent and is often polarised. Some types of laser, such as dye lasers and vibronic solid-state lasers can produce light over a broad range of wavelengths; this property makes them suitable for the generation of extremely short pulses of light, on the order of a femtosecond (10-15 seconds). Laser light can be highly intense — able to cut steel and other metals. The beam emitted by a laser often has a very small divergence (i.e. it is highly collimated). The beam will eventually spread due to the effect of diffraction but much less so than a beam of light generated by other means. A beam generated by a small laboratory laser such as a helium-neon (HeNe) laser spreads to approximately 1 mile (1.6 kilometres) in diameter if shone from the Earth's surface to the Moon. Some lasers, especially semiconductor lasers due to their small size, produce very divergent beams. However, such a divergent beam can be transformed into a collimated beam by means of a lens. In contrast, the light from non-laser light sources cannot be collimated. A laser can also function as an optical amplifier when seeded with light from another source. The amplified signal can be very similar to the input signal in terms wavelength, phase and polarisation; this is particularly important in optical communications. The output of a laser may be a continuous, constant-amplitude output (known as c.w. or continuous wave), or pulsed, by using the techniques of Q-switching, modelocking or Gain-switching. The basic physics of lasers centres around the idea of producing a population inversion in a laser medium. The medium may then amplify light by the process of stimulated emission, which if the light is fed back through the medium by means of a cavity resonator, will continue to be amplified into a high-intensity beam. A great deal of quantum mechanics and thermodynamics theory can be applied to laser action (see laser science), though in fact many laser types were discovered by trial and error. Population inversion is also the concept behind the maser, which is similar in principle to a laser but works with microwaves. The first maser was built by Charles H. Townes in 1953. Townes later worked with Arthur L. Schawlow to describe the theory of the laser, or optical maser as it was then known. The word laser was coined in 1957 by Gordon Gould, who was also credited with lucrative patent rights in the 1970s, following a protracted legal battle. The first maser, developed by Townes, was incapable of continuous output. Nikolai Basov and Alexander Prokhorov of the USSR worked independently on the quantum oscillator and solved the problem of continuous output systems by using more than two energy levels. These systems could release stimulated emission without falling to the ground state, thus maintaining a population inversion. In 1964, Charles Townes, Nikolai Basov and Alexandr Prokhorov shared a Nobel Prize in Physics "for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle." The first working laser was made by Theodore H. Maiman in 1960 at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California, beating several research teams including those of Townes at Columbia University, and Schawlow at Bell laboratories. Maiman used a solid-state flashlamp-pumped ruby crystal to produce red laser light at 694 nanometeres wavelength. Even low power lasers can be hazardous to a person's eyesight. The coherence and low divergence of laser light means that it can be focused by the eye into an extremely small spot on the retina, resulting in localised burning and permanent damage in seconds. Certain wavelengths of laser light can cause cataracts or even boiling of the vitreous humor, the fluid in the eyeball. Infrared and ultraviolet lasers are particularly dangerous, since the body's "blink reflex", which can protect an eye from excessively bright light, works only if the light is visible. Lasers are classified by wavelength and maximum output power into the following safety classes: The laser powers mentioned above are rough indications; the classification is also dependent on the wavelength and on whether the laser is pulsed or continuous. The use of eye protection when operating lasers of class III and IV is strongly recommended. However, it is common practice in scientific research that knowledgeable operators do not use eye protection while working with class-IV lasers. This is often the only alternative with laser systems that use more than one wavelength, for example when a Ti:sapphire laser at 800 nm is pumped by a frequency-doubled Nd:YLF laser at 527 nm. It is nearly impossible to construct eye protection filters that completely block these two wavelengths and at the same time allow the operator to see what he/she is doing. - class I: inherently safe; no possibility of eye damage. This can be either because of a low output power (in which cases eye damage is impossible even after hours of exposure), or due to an enclosure that cannot be opened in normal operation without the laser being switched off automatically, such as in CD players. - class II: the blinking reflex of the human eye will prevent eye damage. Most laser pointers are in this category, with output powers of around 1 milliwatt. - class IIIb: can cause damage if the beam enters the eye directly. This applies to laser powers up to a few milliwatts. - class IIIa: similar to IIIb, but with large beam diameters, such that the pupil will only allow a 'class-II'-amount of light to enter the eye. Lasers in this class are mostly dangerous in combination with optical instruments which change the beam diameter. - class IV: highly dangerous; even non-direct scattering of light from the beam can lead to eye or skin damage. This applies to laser powers of more than a few milliwatts. The verb "to lase" means to give off coherent light or possibly to cut or otherwise treat with coherent light, and is a back-formation of the term laser. - Commonly used laser types for dermatological procedures including removal of tattoos, birthmarks, and hair: - Argon (488 or 514.5 nm) - Ruby (694 nm) - Alexandrite (755 nm) - Pulsed diode array (810 nm) - Nd:YAG (1064 nm) - Ho:YAG (2090 nm) - Er:YAG (2940 nm) - Semiconductor laser diodes, used in laser pointers, laser printers, and CD/DVD players; - Dye lasers - Quantum cascade lasers - Carbon dioxide lasers - used in industry for cutting and welding - Excimer lasers, producing ultraviolet light, used in semiconductor manufacturing and in LASIK eye surgery; - Neodymium-doped YAG lasers (Nd:YAG), a high-power laser operating in the infrared, used for cutting, welding and marking of metals and other materials; - Erbium-doped YAG, 1645 nm - Thulium-doped YAG, 2015 nm - Holmium-doped YAG, 2090 nm, a high-power laser operating in the infrared, it is explosively absorbed by water-bearing tissues in sections less than a millimeter thick. It is usually operated in a pulsed mode, and passed through optic fiber surgical devices to resurface joints, remove rot from teeth, vaporize cancers, and to pulverize kidney and gall stones. - Titanium-doped sapphire (Ti:sapphire) lasers, a highly tunable infrared laser, used for spectroscopy; - Erbium-doped fiber lasers, a type of laser formed from a specially made optical fiber, which is used as an amplifier for optical communications. Source | Copyright

http://allwebhunt.com/dir-wiki.cfm/Top/Sports/Laser_Games

The evolution of whales from four-legged land dwellers into streamlined swimmers has been traced in fossilised ears, the journal Nature reports. At one stage, whale hearing was crude in both air and water The ancestors of cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) slowly lost their ability to move around on land to become efficient swimmers. This shift is recorded in whale ears, as they evolve a sound transmission better able to hear underwater. Whales went through a stage where their hearing was crude in both air and water Directional hearing - the ability to determine which direction a sound is coming from underwater - is vital for modern toothed whales. They pinpoint their prey through echolocation, in which some of the high-pitched sound whales send out bounces off an object and returns to them. Toothed whales then interpret this returning echo to determine the object's distance, shape and other characteristics. Almost like a whale "In less than 15 million years, bodies of cetaceans evolved to adapt to life in the water. However, the change from living on land to living in water caused great problems for hearing," said co-author Hans Thewissen, associate professor of anatomy at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. "As every swimmer knows, mammals are unable to determine the direction from which sound originates under water." The earliest cetaceans, the pakicetids - which lived about 50 million years ago - used the same sound transmission system as land mammals and had poor underwater hearing. By 43 million years ago, their relatives the remingtonocetids and protocetids (which lived between 43 and 46 million years ago) had developed a new sound transmission system. Basilosaurus could hear in a similar way to modern whales These whales could hear better in water than pakicetids, while retaining their ability to hear in air. But this halfway house meant hearing in both air and water was crude. With the advent of the basilosaurids about 40 million years ago, this compromise was abandoned in favour of a hearing system more akin to that of modern whales, giving them refined underwater sound reception. However, the basilosaurids lacked the ability to echolocate like modern toothed whales.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3558350.stm

Bacteriochlorophylls are photosynthetic pigments that occur in various phototrophic bacteria. They were discovered by C. B. van Niel in 1932 . They are related to chlorophylls, which are the primary pigments in plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. Groups that contain bacteriochlorophyll conduct photosynthesis, but do not produce oxygen. They use wavelengths of light not absorbed by plants or Cyanobacteria. Different groups contain different types of bacteriochlorophyll: Bacteriochlorophylls a, b, and g are bacteriochlorins, meaning their molecules have a bacteriochlorin macrocycle ring with two reduced pyrrole rings (B and D). Bacteriochlorophylls c, d, e, and f are chlorins, meaning their molecules have a chlorin macrocycle ring with one reduced pyrrole ring (D). - ^ Bryant, Donald A. et al. (2007-07-27), "Candidatus Chloracidobacterium thermophilum: An Aerobic Phototrophic Acidobacterium", Science 317 (5837): 523–526, doi:10.1126/science.1143236, PMID 17656724 - ^ Vogl, Kajetan et al. (2012-08-10), 298, "Bacteriochlorophyll f: properties of chlorosomes containing the "forbidden chlorophyll"", Front. Microbiol. 3: 1–12, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2012.00298, PMID 22908012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriochlorophyll

For some animals, two wings just won’t do — as was the case for a four-winged dinosaur that lived 130 million years ago. Fossils of the creature were unearthed in China about 10 years ago. Since then, scientists have puzzled over how this dino used its two bonus wings. Now researchers report a likely answer. In a new study, scientists Justin Hall and Michael Habib and their collaborators suggest the dino tucked its hind wings under its body most of the time. It brought the extra wings out only when it needed to make tricky turns in midair. To make a right turn, the dino would lift its left hind wing, for example. Hall and Habib, who work at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, presented the new idea about these dinos at a recent meeting of scientists who research prehistoric animals. Other scientists had suggested that the dinosaur glided through the air either with all four wings out or with one pair positioned beneath the other, like the wings on a biplane. Scientists are still arguing over whether the dinosaur could flap its wings and stay in the air like birds or just glide gently downward. The new study suggests a simpler solution to the mysterious function of the four wings. Keeping the back wings tucked away most of the time would have made it easier for the animal to remain aloft, Hall finds. He notes that the feathers on the back legs were arranged in a shape that probably didn’t add much lift. Lift is an upward force that acts against gravity. Keeping two wings hidden away when moving straight ahead would have made the dinosaur more aerodynamic, meaning it would have had a shape that let air flow past more freely. Extended all the time, the extra wings would have slowed the dino by creating resistance from the air. Air resistance, or drag, is the enemy of flight: A raindrop falls faster than a feather because air resistance doesn’t slow the drop down as much as the feather. Hall and his collaborators studied the dinosaur Microraptor gui. It was the first found to have four wings. But it’s no longer the only one: Since M. gui’s discovery, other four-winged dinos have turned up. And their hind wings probably worked the same way, says dinosaur expert Luis Chiappe at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. aerodynamic Having a shape that reduces resistance from air flowing past. drag A slowing force exerted by air or other fluid surrounding a moving object. lift An upward force that acts against gravity. gravity The force that attracts any body with mass toward any other body with mass. The more mass there is, the more gravity there is.

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2012/11/four-winged-dinosaur/

The Constitution of the United States of America, written well over 200 years ago, has been the foundation for building one of the great nations. It is the central instrument of American government and the supreme law of the land. For more than 200 years, it has guided the evolution of U.S. governmental institutions and has provided the basis for political stability, individual freedom, economic growth and social progress. However, the birth of the Constitution is not accidental, but has complicated economic and political backgrounds. The period after the Revolutionary War was characterized by economic depression and political crisis on the grounds that the Articles of Confederation just devised a loose association among the states, and set up a central government with very limited powers. The central government could not get the dominant position in the country’s political life while the individual states could do things in their own ways. In this chaotic situation, the central government was incapable of paying its debt, of regulating foreign and domestic commerce, of maintaining a steady value of the currency, and worst of all, incapable of keeping a strong military force to protect the country’s interests from foreign violations. As time went by, the old system became more and more adverse to the development of the young nation, and political reform seemed to be inevitable. The best solution was to draw up a new constitution in place of the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution was drawn up by 55 delegates of twelve states (all but Rhode Island) to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787 and ratified by the states in 1788. That distinguished gathering at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall brought together nearly all of the nation’s most prominent men, including George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin. Many were experienced in colonial and state government and others had records of service in the army and in the courts. As Thomas Jefferson wrote John Adams when he heard who had been appointed: “It is really an assembly of demigods.” Despite the consensus among the framers on the objectives of the Constitution, the controversy over the means by which those objectives could be achieved was lively. However, most of the issues were settled by the framers’ efforts and compromises, thus the finished Constitution has been referred to as a “bundle of compromises”. It was only through give-and-take that a successful conclusion was achieved. Such efforts and compromises in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 produced the most enduring written Constitution ever created by humankinds. The men who were at Philadelphia that hot summer hammered out a document defining distinct powers for the Congress of the United States, the president, and the federal courts. This division of authority is known as a system of checks and balances, and it ensures that none of the branches of government can dominate the others. The Constitution also establishes and limits the authority of the Federal Government over the states and emphasizes that power of the states will serve as a check on the power of the national government. Separation of Powers in the Central Government One important principle embodied in the U.S. Constitution is separation of powers. To prevent concentration of power, the U.S. Constitution divides the central government into three branches and creates a system of checks and balances. Each of the three governmental branches, legislative, executive and judicial, “checks” the powers of the other branches to make sure that the principal powers of the government are not concentrated in the hands of any single branch. The principle of separation of powers and the system of checks and balances perform essential functions and contribute to a stable political situation in the United States. 1. Theory of Separation of Powers The principle of separation of powers dates back as far as Aristotle’s time. Aristotle favored a mixed government composed of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, seeing none as ideal, but a mix of the three useful by combining the best aspects of each. James Harrington, in his 1656 Oceana, brought these ideas up-to-date and proposed systems based on the separation of power. Many of the framers of the U.S. Constitution, such as Madison, studied history and political philosophy. They greatly appreciated the idea of separation of power on the grounds of their complex views of governmental power. Their experience with the Articles of Confederation taught them that the national government must have the power needed to achieve the purposes for which it was to be established. At the same time, they were worried about the concentration of power in one person’s hands. As John Adams wrote in his A Defense of the Constitution of Government of the United States of America (1787), “It is undoubtedly honorable in any man, who has acquired a great influence, unbounded confidence, and unlimited power, to resign it voluntarily; and odious to take advantage of such an opportunity to destroy a free government: but it would be madness in a legislator to frame his policy upon a supposition that such magnanimity would often appear. It is his business to contrive his plan in such a manner that such unlimited influence, confidence, and power, shall never be obtained by any man.” (Isaak 2004:100) Such worries compelled the framers to find a good way to establish a new government, thus separation of powers and a balanced government became a good choice. Two political theorists had great influence on the creation of the Constitution. John Locke, an important British political philosopher, had a large impact through his Second Treatise of Government (1690). Locke argued that sovereignty resides in individuals, not rulers. A political state, he theorized, emerged from a social contract among the people, who consent to government in order to preserve their lives, liberties, and property. In the words of the Declaration of Independence, which also drew heavily on Locke, governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Locke also pioneered the idea of the separation of powers, and he separated the powers into an executive and a legislature. The French political philosopher Baron de Montesquieu, another major intellectual influence on the Constitution, further developed the concept of separation of powers in his treatise The Spirit of the Laws (1748), which was highly regarded by the framers of the U.S. Constitution. Montesquieu’s basic contention was that those entrusted with power tend to abuse it; therefore, if governmental power is fragmented, each power will operate as a check on the others. In its usual operational form, one branch of government (the legislative) is entrusted with making laws, a second (the executive) with executing them, and a third (the judiciary) with resolving disputes in accordance with the law. Based on the theory of Baron de Montesquieu and John Locke, the framers carefully spelled out the independence of the three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial. At the same time, however, they provided for a system in which some powers should be shared: Congress may pass laws, but the president can veto them; the president nominates certain public officials, but Congress must approve the appointments; and laws passed by Congress as well as executive actions are subject to judicial review. Thus the separation of powers is offset by what are called checks and balances. 2. Separation of Powers among Three Governmental Branches Separation of powers devised by the framers of the U.S. Constitution serves the goals: to prevent concentration of power and provide each branch with weapons to fight off encroachment by the other two branches. As James Madison argued in the Federalist Papers (No.51), “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.” Clearly, the system of separated powers is not designed to maximize efficiency; it is designed to maximize freedom. In the Constitution of the United States, the Legislative, composed of the House and Senate, is set up in Article 1; the Executive, composed of the President, Vice-President, and the Departments, is set up in Article 2; the Judicial, composed of the federal courts and the Supreme Court, is set up in Article 3. Each of these branches has certain powers, and each of these powers is limited. The First Article of the U.S. Constitution says, “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” These words clearly define the most important power of Congress: to legislate for the United States. At the same time, the framers granted some specific powers to Congress. Congress has the power to impeach both executive officials and judges. The Senate tries all impeachments. Besides, Congress can override a Presidential veto. Congress may also influence the composition of the judicial branch. It may establish courts inferior to the Supreme Court and set their jurisdiction. Furthermore, Congress regulates the size of the courts. Judges are appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. The compensation of executive officials and judges is determined by Congress, but Congress may not increase or diminish the compensation of a President, or diminish the compensation of a judge, during his term in office. Congress determines its own members’ emoluments as well. In short, the main powers of the Legislature include: Legislating all federal laws; establishing all lower federal courts; being able to override a Presidential veto; being able to impeach the President as well as other executive officials. Executive power is vested in the President by the U.S. Constitution in Article 2. The principal responsibility of the President is to ensure that all laws are faithfully carried out. The President is the chief executive officer of the federal government. He is the leader of the executive branch and the commander in chief of the armed forces. He has the power to make treaties with other nations, with the advice and consent of two-thirds of the Senate. The President also appoints, with Senate consent, diplomatic representatives, Supreme Court judges, and many other officials. Except impeachment, he also has the power to issue pardons and reprieves. Such pardons are not subject to confirmation by either house of Congress, or even to acceptance by the recipient. Another important power granted to the President is veto power over all bills, but Congress, as noted above, may override any veto except for a pocket veto by a two-thirds majority in each house. When the two houses of Congress cannot agree on a date for adjournment, the President may settle the dispute. Either house or both houses may be called into emergency session by the President. The judicial power—the power to decide cases and controversies—is vested in the Supreme Court and inferior court established by Congress. The following are the powers of the Judiciary: the power to try federal cases and interpret the laws of the nation in those cases; the power to declare any law or executive act unconstitutional. The power granted to the courts to determine whether legislation is consistent with the Constitution is called judicial review. The concept of judicial review is not written into the Constitution, but was envisioned by many of the framers. The Supreme Court established a precedent for judicial review in Marbury v. Madison. The precedent established the principle that a court may strike down a law it deems unconstitutional. 3. Checks and Balances The framers of the U.S. Constitution saw checks and balances as essential for the security of liberty under the Constitution. They believed that by balancing the powers of the three governmental branches, the efforts in human nature toward tyranny could be checked and restrained. John Adams praised the balanced government as the “most stupendous fabric of human invention.” In his A Defense of the Constitution of Government of the United States of America (1787), he wrote, “In the mixed government we contend for, the ministers, at least of the executive power, are responsible for every instance of the exercise of it; and if they dispose of a single commission by corruption, they are responsible to a house of representatives, who may, by impeachment, make them responsible before a senate, where they may be accused, tried, condemned, and punished, by independent judges.” (Isaak 2004:103-104) So the system of checks and balances was established and became an important part of the U.S. Constitution. With checks and balances, each of the three branches of government can limit the powers of the others. This way, no one branch is too powerful. Each branch “checks” the powers of the other branches to make sure that the power is balanced between them. The major checks possessed by each branch are listed below. By distributing the essential powers of the government among three separate but interdependent branches, the Constitutional framers ensured that the principal powers of the government, legislative, executive and judicial, were not concentrated in the hands of any single branch. Allocating governmental authority among three separate branches also prevented the formation of too strong a national government capable of overpowering the individual state governments. In order to modify the separation of powers, the framers created a best-known system—checks and balances. In this system, powers are shared among the three branches of government. At the same time, the powers of one branch can be challenged by another branch. As one of the basic doctrines in the U.S. Constitution, separation of powers and a system of checks and balances contribute to a stable political situation in the United States. Separating Powers between the Federal Government and the States As is mentioned above, the United States was in a chaotic state after the American Revolution. Under the Articles of Confederation, all of the thirteen states only had a kind of very loose connection. They were like thirteen independent countries, and could do things in their own ways. They had their own legal systems and constitutions, made their own economic, trade, tax and even monetary policies, and seldom accepted any orders from the central government. Localism made the state congresses set barriers to goods from other states, thus trade between states could not develop. At the same time, the central government did not have any important powers to control the individual states well. As time went by, the old system became more and more adverse to the stability and development of this young country. Many Americans viewed a number of grave problems as arising from the weakness of the Confederation. They thought the Confederation was so weak that it was in danger of falling apart under either foreign or internal pressures. They appealed for reforming the governmental structure and establishing a stronger central government. This government should have some positive powers so that it could make and carry out policies to safeguard state sovereignty against foreign violations and to protect the people’s interests. This idea was embodied in the U.S. Constitution: The powers of the national government and the states were divided. The central government was specifically granted certain important powers while the power of the state governments was limited, and there were certain powers that they shared. All those powers granted to the Federal Government by the U.S. Constitution are enumerated principally as powers of Congress in Article I, Section 8. These powers can be classified as either economic or military. As is known to all, economic and military power are fundamental and essential to a government. Possessing such powers, the U.S. central government was capable of controlling the country well, thus keeping up a stable political situation and promoting the economic development. Economic powers delegated to the Federal Government include the authority to levy taxes, borrow money, regulate commerce, coin money, and establish bankruptcy laws. In Article I, Section 8, the Constitution writes, “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United State; …to borrow money on the credit of the United States; to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes; to establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures.” According to this stipulation, the Federal Government has gathered the most important economic power into its own hands: with the right to collect taxes directly, the Federal Government could pay its debt and provide funds for the nation’s common defense and general welfare; with the right to issue uniform currency and to determine the value of foreign currencies, the Federal Government could control the money supply and restrain inflation; with the right to regulate trade with foreign nations and among the states, the Federal Government became able to control the economic situation of the country. The stipulation about commerce regulation won strongest support from big cities and centers of manufacturing industry and commerce, such as New York, Philadelphia and Boston, because they knew that the regulation of the central government would be quite helpful for the sale of their products. Alexander Hamilton, one of the most active representatives in the Constitutional Convention, pointed out that free trade in the whole nation was very profitable for any kind of business. For example, when the local market was weakened, the markets in other states and areas of the country would support the sale of the producers, thus their business could keep developing. Hamilton concluded that any farsighted businessman would see the power of the unity of the country, that they would find the unity of the whole nation would be much better than the separation of the thirteen states. Power to Declare War Certain military powers granted to the Federal Government involve declaring war, raising and supporting armies, regulating and maintaining navies, and calling forth the militia. In Article I, Section 8, the Constitution stipulates, “The Congress shall have power to declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water; to raise and support armies, …to provide and maintain a Navy; to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces; to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions; to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia….” With these powers, the Federal Government can not only protect the land and provide guarantee for the development of the country, but also create conditions to invade other countries on the grounds that it has the power to declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal. The framers of the U.S. Constitution regarded the military power of the Federal Government as a tool to protect the domestic interests of their country from foreign invasion. John Jay, one of the three writers of “The Federalist Papers” and the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, even said that when a country wanted to gain something, it would engage itself in a war. Most representatives in the Constitutional Convention had realized that when the United States broke up, it would easily become a sacrifice to its neighboring and enemy states. They saw that other countries still threatened the security of the United States. The Great Britain was unwilling to secede from America and kept military bases in the Northwest boundary of the United States. At the same time, France blockaded some important river mouths so that it could monopolize the market, and Spain also tried to blockade the Mississippi River. The European powers did not want the United States to develop into a powerful nation, or to share their market, neither in the United States itself nor abroad. The framers of the U.S. Constitution fully realized that a strong navy and land force could become not only a tool to protect the interests of the United States, but also a tool to force other countries to open their markets. A strong army would definitely make the European countries respect their country. Apart from the foreign troubles, the leaders of the United States had also seen the serious influences of clashes between different classes. They believed that in time of trouble, a strong army would be decisive. Of course, they would not ignore the danger of such domestic rebellions as Shays’ Rebellion. When talking about the danger of rebellions, James Madison said, “I have noticed a kind of unhappy people scattered in some states. They degrade under the human standard when the political situation remains steady; but when the society is in chaos, they would provide their fellow people with a great force.” (Smith 1986:194) So the rulers of the country needed a strong army to suppress the revolt of these “unhappy people”, and to maintain a stable domestic political situation. The U.S. Constitution grants so many specific powers to the Federal Government, at the same time, lists a rather large number of things that the Federal Government is not allowed to do. Evidently, the framers were afraid that too strong a central government would easily bring about autocracy. In order to restrict the authority of the central government, the framers wanted to make it clear in the Constitution that certain powers were emphatically denied to the Federal Government. Restrictions of the powers of the Federal Government are listed below: When the Constitution granted the Federal Government certain powers, the framers also considered reducing the power of the state governments, so that the central government could force the states to take unified steps if necessary. In Article I, Section 10, the Constitution stipulates, “No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment or debts….No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws…. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war….” According to this clause, the states were deprived of the power to issue currency, to levy taxes freely, to keep troops in time of peace, to make a compact of agreement with another state of the U.S., or with a foreign state, and to engage in war. With the prohibition of the states from issuing currency, the United States could now avoid inflation and depreciation of currency caused by unregulated money supply. With the restriction of the states from levying taxes freely, the obstacles of the commerce were removed. Now the state congresses did not have the power to collect heavy taxes freely on goods from other states any more, thus the commerce in the United States began to thrive. With the prohibition of the states from keeping troops in time of peace and engaging in war, the territorial integrity of the United States could be guarded, and the Union could be maintained. As the power of the state governments was limited, people’s confidence in their central government was greatly strengthened. The society of the United States was being led onto a right path of development. Although the power is restricted, the states still possess some necessary powers and exercise important functions in the United States. The Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution indicates that the states possess those powers that are not given to the Federal Government or prohibited to the states. The Tenth Amendment stipulates, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” State powers then are called reserved powers. Reserved powers are interpreted as the right to establish schools and supervise education, regulate intrastate commerce, conduct elections, establish local government units, and borrow money. In addition, a broad and generally undefined “police power” enables the states to take action to protect and promote the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of their inhabitants. All of these are functions that directly affect Americans every day and in every part of their lives. There are still some powers that both the national and state governments can exercise. They are called concurrent powers, which include the power to tax and borrow money, to take property for public purposes, to enact bankruptcy laws, and to establish laws and courts. Thus in the course of the U.S. Constitutional Legislation, a federal system was created by separating power between two levels of government, state and national. According to the Constitution, the Federal Government was granted certain powers, the states were given certain powers and there were certain powers that they shared. In order to overcome a series of domestic crises and keep a stable political situation, a strong central government was created. This central government was granted certain important powers while the power of the state governments was limited. The U.S. Constitution has remained in force because its framers successfully separated and balanced governmental powers to safeguard the interests of majority rule and minority rights, of liberty and equality, and of the central and state governments. For over two centuries it has provided the basis for development of the United States and a guarantee for the stability of the country. About the Author

http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/2009_summer_fall/constitution-separates-power.html

Small groups of students will first speculate on a chronology for these three selected paintings. Then each group will explore one of these three paintings, looking closely at the artwork, discussing it and finding out about the artist and its context. Students next speculate about what the painting tells about the past and how people lived at this time. After small groups present what they discovered and speculated, class as a whole returns to the original speculated chronology and corrects it if needed. To conclude lesson, each student selects two of the three artworks about which to write. Each student will compare and contrast and reveal what each tells the viewer about the past and how people lived at that time. Equality of Rank Time Alloted2 Hours State Content Standards Visual and Performing Arts Content Standards, Grade 1 1.3 Identify the elements of art in objects in nature, in the environment, and in works of art, emphasizing line, color, shape/form, and texture. Historical and Cultural Context: 3.1 Recognize and discuss the design of everyday objects from various time periods 3.2 Identify and describe various subject matter in art. Connections, Relationships, Applications: 5.4 Describe objects designed by artists that are used at home and at school. Visual and Performing Arts Content Standards, Grade 4 1.5 Describe and analyze the elements of art, emphasizing form as they are used in works of art and found in the environment. Historical and Cultural Context: 3.1 Describe how art plays a role in reflecting life. 4.5 Describe how the individual experiences of an artist may influence the development of specific works of art. Connections, Relationships, Applications 5.3 Construct diagrams, maps, graphs, timelines, and illustrations to communicate ideas or tell a story about a historical event. 5.4 Read biographies and stories about artists and summarize the readings in short reports, telling how the artists mirrored or affected their time period or culture. English Language Content Standards, Grade 1 Listening and Speaking Strategies: 1.5 Use descriptive words when speaking about people, places, things, and events. 2.4 Provide descriptions with careful attention to sensory detail. English Language Content Standards, Grade 4 1.1 Select a focus, an organizational structure, and a point of view based upon purpose, audience, length, and formal requirements. 1.2 Create multiple-paragraph compositions. 1.10 Edit and revise selected drafts to improve coherence and progression by adding, deleting, consolidating and rearranging text. Written and Oral English Language Conventions: 1.1 Use simple and compound sentences in writing and speaking. 1.4 Use parentheses, commas in direct quotations, and apostrophes in the in the possessive case of nouns and in contractions. 1.6 Capitalize names of magazines, newspapers, works of art, musical compositions, organizations and the first word in quotations when appropriate. 1.7 Spell correctly roots, inflections, suffixes and prefixes, and syllable construction. History-Social Science Content Standards, Grade 1 1.4 Students compare and contrast everyday life in different times and places around the world and recognize that some aspects of people, places, and things change over time while others stay the same. 3. Recognize similarities and differences of earlier generations in such areas as work (inside and outside the home), dress, manners, stories, games, and festivals, drawing from biographies, oral histories, and folklore. - Focus works, projected from the Internet or copies of each - Paper and pencils for making notes and final written exercise - Chart paper for teacher to record observations and conclusions - Commentary on each focus painting Wilhelm Marc is a 19th century German painter of everyday scenes. His son Franz Marc was one of the most well known German Expressionist painters who belonged to the group Der Blaue Reiter in the early 20th century. Equality of Rank seems to tell a story about a young privileged girl who invites those of a lower social class into her world. Equality of Rank takes place outside in the country at a picnic, dance or other festivity in the summer on a beautiful sunny day. Marc painted this in 19th century Germany. Since the action of the painting takes place in the country, it is unknown what the cities are like or when exactly the painting was created. Is it an accurate observation of life at a specific time and place or a wish to return to a life of a simpler time? Why is this significant? The Crocker Art Museum collection contains German academic history paintings. This is an example of a 19th century academic genre painting. Make a connection: Locate another genre painting from another country or another time period in the Crocker Art Museum. Compare and contrast it with Equality of Rank. Without looking at the date of the second genre painting and based on your analysis of the costume and environment, etc., decide which of the two is earlier in time. How do artworks tell us about the past? • Teacher projects or distributes copies of each of the three paintings to small groups of students (about 5 per group). In these small groups students discuss which painting they think was created first, second and third, putting them into a chronology. Teacher asks for feedback from each small group and records their speculations on chart paper. If all groups do not agree, record the chronology for groupings and note which groups belonged to each of the groupings. • Teacher assigns one of the three paintings to each small group for further looking and discussion. Students will look carefully and silently for about 3 minutes at the print and jot down any words or ideas that come to mind on scratch paper. Based only on what they see in the artwork, students can also speculate on what they think the work might be “about.” • Students in the small groups will then be instructed to discuss with one another the following questions. One member of each group will act as recorder, noting down the important ideas of the group. o What do you see? o What does it mean? o Why do you think so? • Teacher facilitates a discussion and charts important information from one small group about each work of art. Other groups who explored the same artwork are encouraged to add any new or additional observations. Each work of art will be discussed individually. • Teacher distributes a copy of the commentary to each student for the painting explored by his/her small group. If there are readers in the classroom for whom the commentary is too difficult, then the small group can do a “read around” or pair a good reader with a poor one and the pair can read the commentary together. After reading the commentary, each small group discusses what the group learned and what it adds to what the group already knew. At the conclusion of the small group discussions, the teacher asks for feedback about each of the three paintings and charts new observations / learning. • Class then returns to the original chronologies they had developed. They determine the correct chronology after their study of each of the selected works. Teacher then opens up a discussion of what each work of art tells the viewer about the past and about the people who lived at that time. Teacher charts important observations as he/she facilitates the discussion. • At the conclusion of the lesson or the next day, teacher asks each student to write a page and a half about he following: o Select two of the three paintings to compare and contrast. o Reveal what each painting tells the viewer about the past and how people lived at that time. For younger students: Teacher might introduce one painting per day or art session and then review each. Teacher can then facilitate a discussion and chart students’ responses about what the paintings tell them about the past. Teacher might also ask younger students in small groups to illustrate a student-produced story that tells about the time in which a particular painting took place. Assessment: to what extent did students • Participate in small group discussions? • Participate in classroom discussions? • Write an essay which compares and contrasts two of the three artworks and reveals what each painting tells the viewer about the past? • Address appropriate (for grade level) written English standards? Wilhelm Marc was a 19th century German artist who was born in Landshut, Bavaria in 1839. Nothing is known of his early life. He completed law studies at the age of 24 and then decided to become an artist. He studied at the Munich Academy under Erich Correns, a portrait painter. The two were friends and took many trips to Italy together until the death of Correns in 1877. At the age of 37 Marc married Sophie Maurice, the governess of his sister’s children and an Alsatian from a strict Calvinist tradition. They had two sons, Paul born in 1877 and Franz in 1890. Franz Marc was the well-known painter of German Expressionism and described his father as a landscapist of “curiously philosophical character.” As a student at an art academy, Marc participated in a strictly formulated and rigorous course of study. Before an artist was taught to paint with a brush, he had to demonstrate a great proficiency in drawing, considered the foundation of academic painting. Students first copied prints after classical sculptures, becoming familiar with principles of contour, light and shade. Academies believed that by copying, students would learn art making from the great artists of the past. In the next stage of training, students drew from plaster casts of famous classical sculptures. Upon advancement, students were allowed to draw from a posed live model. After advancing step by step through this required drawing instruction, the student was allowed to join the studio of an academician and learn how to paint. Throughout this entire process, competitions were held. Students painted a composition in which the subject was predetermined within a specified period of time. These competitions measured each student’s progress. By the time a student had completed his training, he would be able to produce a painting that met the strenuous standards of the academy. During his training the student also learned about the academy’s hierarchy of genres. At the top of this hierarchy was history painting, classical, religious, mythological, literary, and allegorical. In descending order from history painting was genre (scenes of everyday life) painting, portraiture, still life and landscape at the bottom. With the exception of three mythological paintings, Marc became an academic genre painter whose subjects were mainly simple, ordinary people. Marc painted many works which focused on the rural life of the peasant. The titles of many of his works are intimate and sentimental. For example Music in the Alpine Meadow, Children at Play, The First Bouquet, Morning Prayer, and Parting among others. Such sentimental and anecdotal- sounding titles betray Marc’s upbringing during the end of the Biedermeier period (see below). Marc received a bronze medal at the 1894 London Exhibition, held in the Crystal Palace. In 1892 Marc contracted a terminal illness and the portrait of him painted in 1902 by his son shows his physical deterioration. Wilhelm Marc died in Pasing, a suburb of Munich, in 1907. 19th Century Painting in Munich: At the beginning of the 19th century, Germany was a conglomeration of small states and remained so until 1870 when it finally became unified as one country. With Napoleon’s invasion of German territory in 1805 the Holy Roman Empire came to an end. Napoleon formed a league of German states which lasted until 1814 when he fell from power. At the Congress of Vienna the defunct Holy Roman Empire was re-constituted into the German Confederation with 39 states. The city of Munich became the center of Bavaria, one of the 39 states. Ludwig I, ruler of Bavaria, tried to establish himself as the artistic mentor of Germany and sought to bring about a whole new era of art by assembling the best talents in Germany and making them work for the greater glory of the Bavarian monarchy. The name “Biedermeier” refers to the period between the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and 1848. The fictional character of Gottfried Biedermeier was invented by the writer Adolf Kussmaul in 1853 who along with Ludwig Eichenrodt composed “Biedermeier Poems” for a Munich satirical magazine. The Biedermeier character was modeled on a real person, Samuel Friedrich Sauter, a childlike, docile and simple-minded teacher and poet. The name Biedermeier subsequently became synonymous with the period, its arts, furniture and lifestyle. Biedermeier paintings depicted ordinary middle-class life, with a greater or lesser degree of sentimentality but always unheroically and without political comment. It was the antithesis of academic history painting and showed a propensity to sentimental moralizing, anecdotal detail and sly touches of humor. This was the period into which Wilhelm Marc was born. By the end of the 19th century German artists were adopting the tenets of Realism. Carl Spitzweg was the leading Munich artist and like other artists of this time included anecdotal narrative in his works. Wilhelm Marc’s Equality of Rank is a good example of anecdotal narrative with the principal figure, the little girl in white, welcoming the young rural boys into her circle. The viewer engages with her gesture and wants to know more of the story behind the painting: who are these boys? Who is the little girl? Is the painting a document of some kind of celebration? If so, what is the occasion? Title and date: Equality of Rank, 19th century Artist and dates: Wilhelm Marc, 1839 – 1907 The focus of Equality of Rank is the little girl in the crisp and clean white dress with her lace gloves, fashionable straw hat and buttoned shoes. Her white dress contrasts with the rest of the earthy colors in the painting and she appears to stand in a small ray of sunshine which spotlights her. Her gesture indicates her wish to engage the two rural boys into the festivities. They are clearly of a different social class with one boy’s bare feet, the rustic clothes and the shyness, exhibited by the taller boy. Behind her is a group of dancing children, some well-dressed like the protagonist and others dressed similarly to the two boys. Seeming to enter the “stage” from the left is a group of two girls, one well dressed with gloves leading another with no shoes. At the right a group of adults sit at a table and observe the scene. In front of the adults a little barefoot girls sits on the grass beside a cradle. Is the little girl inviting the boys to join in the festivities for this day only or as a gesture of true equality? Based on the moment depicted, the question is impossible to answer. Perhaps the uncertainty of the answer retains the viewer’s interest longer than if the answer was clear. The painting bears the smooth finish of academic art, whereby brush strokes are blended one into another so that the illusion of reality is not broken. Marc has handled groups of people in space convincingly. The groups appear somewhat isolated from each other, as each presents its own anecdotal narrative. However, the large tree to the right of center in the middle ground unifies all the groups under its umbrella of branches. www.metmuseum.org “Central Europe and Low Countries, 1800-1900 A.D.,” 2/5/09. en.wikipedia.org “Academic Art,” 2/12/09. Martin Henig, Sabrina Mitchell, Eric Fernie, Marguerite Kay, Peter Cannon-Brookes, William Vaughan and Frank Whitford. Art Treasures in Germany. McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1973. Christian Lenz. The Neue Pinakothek Munich. C. H. Beck/Scala Publishers, 2003. Edna Marelia, CAM Research Docent. “Equality of Rank,” April, 1986. Mark Rosenthal. Franz Marc: 1880 – 1916. University Art Museum Berkeley, 1980. Thieme, B. and Becker, F. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Kunstler, Volume 24. E.A. Seeman, Leipzig, 1930.

http://www.crockerartmuseum.org/school-educator/striking-gold/item/equality-of-rank?category_id=53

A polymer is a molecule, made from joining together many small molecules called monomers. The word "polymer" can be broken down into "poly" (meaning "many" in Greek) and "mer" (meaning "unit"). This shows how the chemical composition of a polymer consists of many smaller units (monomers) bonded together into a larger molecule. A chemical reaction bonding monomers together to make a polymer is called polymerization. Some polymers are natural. Proteins have polypeptide molecules, which are natural polymers made from various amino acid monomer units. Nucleic acids are huge natural polymers made up of millions of nucleotide units. Cellulose and starch (two types of carbohydrate) are also natural polymers made up of glucopyranose monomer bonded together in different ways. Some polymers are man-made. Plastics, rubber, and fibers are made up of polymers. Make of polymers [change] If the "units" called monomers in a polymer are all the same, then the polymer is called a "homopolymer". Homopolymers are named by adding the prefix poly- before the monomer name from which the polymer is made. For example, a polymer made by bonding styrene monomer molecules together is called polystyrene. If the monomers are not all the same, the polymer is called a "copolymer" or a "heteropolymer". Many polymer molecules are like chains where the monomer units are the links. Polymer molecules can be straight-chain, have branching from the main chain, or cross-linking between chains. As an example of cross-linking, sulfhydryl (-S-H) groups in two cysteine amino acid units in polypeptide chains can bond together to make a disulfide bridge (-S-S-) joining the chains together.

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymers

CURTIS ACT (1898) During the 1890s, as white settlers flooded into Oklahoma Territory, demands increased to join the lands of the Five Civilized Tribes (Indian Territory) with Oklahoma Territory and thus form a new state. In 1887 the Dawes Severalty Act (General Allotment Act) legislated the allotment of communal tribal lands into individually owned plots, indicating a major shift in federal government policy. To aid the drive toward Oklahoma statehood and the full assimilation of its Indian population, the U.S. Congress created the Dawes Commission in 1893. Another congressional law, enacted June 28, 1898, was sponsored by Charles Curtis, a mixed-blood Kansa Indian and senator from Kansas. With the passage of the Curtis Act, Congress took final control over affairs in Indian Territory. The Curtis Act helped weaken and dissolve Indian Territory tribal governments by abolishing tribal courts and subjecting all persons in the territory to federal law. This meant that there could be no enforcement of tribal laws and that any tribal legislation passed after 1898 had to be approved by the president of the United States. Towns could be surveyed and incorporated under the act, and residents were permitted to vote. The establishment of public schools was also sanctioned. Prior to 1896 each of the Five Civilized Tribes had exercised sole jurisdiction over its citizenship requirements, determining who was a tribal member and who was not. With the passage of the Curtis Act Congress authorized the Dawes Commission to prepare new citizenship rolls for each tribe. Sen. Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts undertook the compilation of a census to be used as the basis for allotment of tribal lands to individual Indians. Enrollment of tribe members, and ensuing allotment, was done without tribal consent. The Curtis Act dealt a blow to the governmental autonomy of the Five Tribes, but the act was merely the culmination of legislation designed to strip tribal governments of their authority and give it to Congress and/or the federal government. Ironically, Charles Curtis, himself of Indian blood, was responsible for the act that helped pave the way for the demise of the Indian nations and for the statehood of Oklahoma. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Kent Carter, The Dawes Commission and the Allotment of the Five Civilized Tribes, 1893-1914 (Orem, Utah: Ancestry.com, 1999). Troy R. Johnson, ed., Contemporary Native American Political Issues (New York: AltaMira Press, 1999). David E. Wilkins, American Indian Politics (New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2002). M. Kaye Tatro © Oklahoma Historical Society

http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/C/CU006.html

We will be working with regular pyramids unless otherwise stated. are three-dimensional closed surfaces. The one base of the pyramid is a polygon and the lateral faces are with a common vertex. The vertex of a pyramid (the point, or apex) is not in the same plane as the Pyramids are also called polyhedra since their faces are polygons. The most common pyramids are regular pyramids. A regular pyramid has a regular polygon for a base and its height meets the base at its center. The slant height is the height (altitude) of each lateral face. In a regular pyramid, the lateral edges are congruent. Since the base is a regular polygon, whose sides are all congruent, we know that the lateral faces of a regular pyramid are congruent isosceles triangles. Pyramids are named for the shape of volume of a pyramid is one-third the product of the base area times the height of the pyramid. (Volume of a B = base area, h = height) = height (altitude) from vertex to base B = area of base The Great Pyramid of Egypt The Great Pyramid of Khufu, at Giza, Egypt, is 751 feet long on each side at the base, is 450 feet high, and is composed of approximately 2 million blocks of stone, each weighing more than 2 tons. The maximum error between side lengths is less than 0.1%. The sloping angle of its sides is 51°51'. Each side is oriented with the compass points of north, south, east, and west. Each cross section of the pyramid (parallel to the base) is a square. Artist's rendering of the pyramids. Until the 19th century, the Great Pyramid at Giza was the tallest building in the world. At over 4500 years in age, it is the only one of the famous Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that remains standing. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the Great Pyramid was built as a tomb for the Pharaoh Khufu.

http://regentsprep.org/regents/math/geometry/GG2/PyramidPage.htm

Project mentor’s guidelines for The Aurora Project, an internet-based space physics lesson The Aurora Project, a step-by-step, space physics lesson assignment, outlines a research oriented, internet\world wide web (WWW) based, “science project” style lesson. Teachers, parents, or relatives, can serve as “Project Mentors” to help students complete the Aurora Project learning experience. The earth’s auroras are explored by de-emphasizing the importance placed on the written report and the table-top display which are normally the focus of science project oriented tasks. Instead, the Aurora Project develops a sequenced, interlinked learning method that reinforces the student’s usage of WWW resources. Such WWW-based resources include other space physics lessons, simulations, real-time data and images, video clips and movies, and scientifically oriented, text-based materials. As students, either individually or with a partner, progress through the lesson, they repetitively integrate and associate the individual steps in a connective fashion utilizing text, graphics, models, and visually oriented displays. The culmination of the project, The Aurora Learning Center (either a table-top or WWW-based page presentation) allows other students to learn about the earth’s magnetosphere by experiencing the research and experimentation results. The information about the earth’s aurora necessary to effectively complete this lesson can be obtained from Internet links embedded in this lesson or from independent student research utilizing WWW-based resources. Try WWWeb site: http://www.oulu.fi/~spaceweb/textbook/ for both on-line and off-line resources. Background information about auroras can be obtained from off-line resources such as: The Aurora Watcher’s Handbook by T. Neil Davis, University of Alaska Press. 1992: ISBN 0-912006-60-9. Two videos, Aurora and The Aurora Explained, are available from the University of Alaska Geophysical Institute. Contact Rose Watabe via EMail at [email protected] or (907) 464-7487. A suggested Project Timeline and Schedule is provided to assist in lesson planning. A step-per-week assignment schedule allows for the Aurora Project to be completed within a 12 week time-frame. Assessing the Project’s Effectiveness Combining teacher as well as student peer assessment to evaluate student project accomplishments has proven to be an effective assessment protocol. Any of the student products: the Match-up Puzzle (Step 5), the Illustrated Quiz Cards (Step 7), the Briefing Booklets (Step 8), or the Research Report (Step 10) materials, can be assigned to individual students or student groups for review and evaluation. A rubric could be developed to assist students in their evaluation of each of these lesson steps. Such intra-student evaluations laterally distributes the magnetospherel research among all students in a class or across several classes. To evaluate the effectiveness of the Aurora Learning Center, several learning centers can be reviewed by individual students or student groups. Afterward, these students’ knowledge about the earth’s auroras can be assessed by examination, either orally and/or in writing. Suggested Student Assessment Protocols Students can evaluate any of the suggested Steps listed above by answering the following general questions: - What new material did you learn from this Step activity? - What could have been done to make this Step activity even better? - What was special about this Step activity? An assessment value (points) could be assigned by the student evaluators after they are shown what typical scores could be assigned. In general, students who assess other students’ work often are very critical with their value placement and often assign a lower value to the work than experienced teachers. Student assessment should always be moderated before any value is awarded to the work being evaluated. Utilizing a 9.5 by 11.5 in Project Folder, with inside pockets, facilitates the evaluation, task completion monitoring, and overall organization of the project. A copy of the Timeline and Assignment Schedule should be placed in the left pocket and used to score and record the completion of each of the 12 Step assignments. When a new Step assignment is turned in, it is placed on the right side of the folder in the pocket. After that Step is evaluated, it is transferred to the left pocket and placed in order in accordance with the Assignment Schedule. The score for this Step is also recorded on the Assignment Schedule. Step 7 (Illustrated Quizcards) and Step 8 (Briefing Booklets) tend to be bulky materials and can be stored in the right side pocket. As a safeguard against &ldqruo;lost” project folders, copies of all documents should be made by the student and stored at home in another folder.

http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/timas/resources/online-space-physics-lessons/the-aurora/mentors-guidelines/

Similarity and identity To say that people or things are identical, we can use as or like. The structures so do I and neither do I are also used to show similarity. She looks just like her mother. She likes reading, and so do I. The baby’s eyes are just the same color as yours. The papers didn’t come, and neither did the post. To show differences, we can use the negative forms of these structures. She doesn’t look like her mother. The baby’s eyes are not at all the same colour as yours. To say that people or things are equal in a particular way, we can use the structure as … as. I earn as much money as she does. I am as tall as she is. She is as cool as cucumber. Note that much is used with uncountable nouns. Many is used with countable nouns. In negative comparisons, we use not so…as or not as…as. She is not as tall as he is. It was not as good as I thought. Study the following sentences The dog is an intelligent animal. The horse is equally intelligent. We can combine these two sentences using the structure as…as. Structures using more and less are also possible. Study the examples given below. The horse is as intelligent an animal as the dog. / The horse is no more intelligent than the dog. / The dog is no less intelligent than the horse. Pooja is industrious. Roopa is equally industrious. Pooja is as industrious as Roopa. / Roopa is no more industrious than Pooja. / Pooja is no less industrious than Roopa.

http://www.englishpractice.com/learning/comparison/

For bacteria, snipping apart DNA that bears certain signature sequences is a defense mechanism. For scientists working in the lab, the same strategy can be a powerful research tool. With a newly discovered component of an adaptive bacterial immune system, scientists have identified a targeted method of slicing DNA that they say can be easily customized for a variety of applications in the lab. Tools that snip apart DNA strands in defined locations are essential for editing genomes in the laboratory to study or alter gene function. To target the specific site in the genome they are interested in, researchers often have to design and produce a protein that will recognize and bind to that particular DNA sequence, a laborious and time-consuming process. But this could change, says Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Jennifer Doudna at the University of California, Berkeley. In A Programmable Dual-RNA–Guided DNA Endonuclease in Adaptive Bacterial Immunity, published in Science, she and her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier of the Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine at Umeå University in Sweden report the discovery of an RNA-based complex used by bacteria to guide the DNA-cutting enzyme Cas9 to specific sites in the genomes of viruses and other invaders, thus silencing their genes. From this bacterial complex, Doudna and her colleagues have crafted a system with which an easily programmable guide RNA can be used in the lab to direct Cas9 to cleave double-stranded DNA at a desired target sequence. Doudna, a biochemist, is interested in the molecular mechanisms by which RNA can influence gene expression. She says the discovery of an RNA-programmable DNA cleaving enzyme stems from a collaboration with Charpentier established last year. Both labs were studying different aspects of RNA-based defensive systems in bacteria that recognize and destroy the genomes of invading viruses and plasmids. First described in the late 1980s, the system is called CRISPR, for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. In response to a viral infection or plasmid transformation, bits of the invader’s DNA—known as proto-spacers—are integrated into the host chromosome. The captured sequences are transcribed and processed to form short crRNAs, which serve as RNA recognition elements that bind to corresponding sequences in foreign DNA. Guided by the RNAs, proteins known as Cas (CRISPR-associated) then move in and attack the invaders, cleaving their DNA and silencing them. Researchers studying CRISPR systems in various bacteria had found that in most cases a single crRNA joins with a large, multi-protein complex to attack viruses and plasmids. However, Charpentier had discovered that in Streptococcus pyogenes, a human pathogen, crRNAs could only be produced in the presence of a second RNA, which they called a trans-activating crRNA (tracrRNA). In addition, theS. pyogenes and related CRISPR systems require just a single protein, Cas9, for immunity to viruses targeted by crRNAs. Doudna’s lab worked with the Charpentier lab to investigate how Cas9 and crRNAs function in this bacterial immune system. Martin Jinek, an HHMI Research Specialist in Doudna’s lab, succeeded in purifying the Cas9 protein. Krzysztof Chylinski, a graduate student in the Charpentier lab who is located at the Max F. Perutz Laboratories at the University of Vienna, used that sample to show that Cas9 needed both crRNA and tracrRNA to guide and execute its attack. “We then decided to test whether we could link these two RNAs into a single, chimeric RNA molecule,” Doudna says. Combining the elements of the crRNA and tracrRNA that were necessary for Cas binding and DNA target recognition into a single molecule would make the system easier to manipulate for laboratory use, she explains. It worked: the result was a DNA-cleaving enzyme that can be programmed with a single RNA molecule to cleave specific DNA sites. “We can direct it to any site we select,” says Doudna. “Because the guide RNA contains both the structure required for Cas9 binding and a separate guide sequence that can base pair with DNA, we can program Cas9 to cleave a specific site by simply changing the guide sequence. This system offers a straightforward way to cleave any desired site in a genome, which could be used to introduce new genetic information by coupling it to well-known cellular DNA recombination mechanisms.” The next steps, Doudna says, are to test the single-RNA construct along with Cas9 to find out whether the RNA-programmed enzyme works in the cells of eukaryotic organisms, such as worms, plants, and humans. If that is successful, she anticipates many practical applications of the tool. For biotechnology efforts ranging from engineering biofuel-producing microorganisms to enabling cell-based medical therapies, “having a simple and inexpensive tool for genome editing available will be very important,” she says.

http://floridabiotechnews.com/biotech/rna-can-be-used-to-cleave-double-stranded-dna-at-a-desired-target-sequence/9854/

To begin with, the links below explain what a cap is and the forecasting implications of a cap. The rest of this essay will explain what creates a cap in the first place. A cap is a layer of air that prevents convection or limits dynamic lifting. Another way of describing a cap is that it is a layer of stable air aloft. Below are some common ways a cap can form: 1. Sinking air aloft: Sinking air warms at the dry adiabatic lapse rate. Suppose the air near the surface is not sinking but there is a layer of air around 800 mb for example that is sinking. Over time the air will become more stable. A stable situation occurs when there is warmer air above cooler air or the temperature lapse rate is weak. This situation can occur when high pressure is influencing the weather. The surface may be warm and moist and it feels unstable at the surface but a layer of very stable air aloft can prevent the warm and moist air near the surface from convectively rising into thunderstorms. 2. Horizontal advection of hot air aloft: This is a primary process that creates the famous Great Plains capping inversions that can either prevent storms from occurring or holds off thunderstorm activity until the heat of the day. The geography of the plains is that the elevation generally increases moving from the east to the west. Further west of the plains the elevation increases further into mountains and high plateaus. In the warm season, the air over the high plains, mountains and Mexican plateau is often dry and hot during the day. When the upper level flow pattern has a component of wind coming from the west then this air will be advected toward the east. Since this hot dry air originates at higher elevations it will stay around that higher elevation as it moves east. As the hot air moves east the air is higher and higher in elevation above the surface since the land elevation of the plains decreases when moving east. This can create situations in the plains where there is warm and moist maritime tropical air near the surface and hot and dry continental tropical air above. The hot and dry air creates a cap. This cap is most noticeable in the morning hours when the air near the surface has cooled off but the air aloft is very warm. 3. Shallow cold front: Cold air is dense and tends to spread along the earth's surface and hug the earth's surface. When a shallow cold front moves through it creates a stable situation with cold air at the surface with warmer air above the shallow cold air. Once a cold front passes the chances for thunderstorms usually decreases significantly. There are special situations in which thunderstorms can still occur but generally the chances of strong and severe thunderstorms ends once the cold front passes. 4. Cooling at night of earth's surface: This is a very common way a cap is developed. The creation of this type of cap is a reason why thunderstorms are less common in the early morning than they are in the afternoon and evening. At night the earth's surface cools through longwave energy emission. If the skies are clear then the cooling is most significant. In the early morning hours the air at the surface will have cooled off while the air higher aloft is not influenced. This creates the classic radiational cooling cap. This type of cap weakens through daytime heating.

http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints2/405/

AQA German AS Written for the AQA GCSE German specification, our student book provides comprehensive coverage of the contexts and topics. - Objectives are clearly divided into Topics, Grammar and Skills and are linked to AQA specification guidelines for each sub-topic. - Each double-page spread provides core reading texts, starter activities (supported by electronic resources) and follow-up material for each of the four language skills. - Extension and self-study activities are provided to stretch students and consolidate knowledge and are supported by electronically editable worksheets. |Author(s):||Paul Shannon, Monika Niedziela, Michael Wardle|

http://www.nelsonthornes.com/shop/nt/secondary/modern-languages/aqa-german-as

What is Light and How is it Produced All matter has an internal property of energy. This energy is related to the electrons traveling in orbits around the nucleus of the atoms. As the electrons change orbital levels, energy is emitted or absorbed. For example, if we burn a sheet of paper, energy is given off, which we see as a flame. The matter in the filament of a light bulb emits light when it is excited by an electrical current. The term that we use for emitting energy from matter is called radiation. Radiation is often referred to as electromagnetic radiation because the emitting energy has both electrical and magnetic properties. The emitted energy is transmitted at a wavelength determined by the nature of the matter and the forces acting on it. The human eye can only detect a very small range of wavelengths of radiation. What it detects we call light. Physicists often refer to it as visible light. The electromagnetic spectrum, shown in Figure 12.1, includes the energy emitted at all wavelengths. This includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared rays, visible light, ultraviolet rays, X-rays, gamma rays, and other electromagnetic radiation of longer and shorter wavelengths. Radio waves, which we use for AM, FM, TV, and shortwave radio, range in length from around 1 centimeter to a kilometer long. Some naturally occurring radio waves are much longer, actually thousands of kilometers long. At the opposite end of the spectrum are the gamma rays, which are radioactive and have a wavelength of less than a trillionth of a centimeter. Note that the names given to various portions of the spectrum are arbitrary labels chosen by scientists for convenience. By setting up these artificial divisions, scientists can describe the specific nature of the waves they are examining. The various portions of the spectrum blend into one another. For example, a microwave and a radio wave at their point of contact would be identical (Chen, Kao, & Liu, 1999). Electromagnetic radiation has three properties: wavelength, amplitude, and polarization. Wavelength is the length of the wave, which determines its properties. In visible light the wavelength determines the color. The amplitude of a wave determines the brightness of the light. Polarization is the angle at which the wave is vibrating. © ______ 2009, Merrill, an imprint of Pearson Education Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The reproduction, duplication, or distribution of this material by any means including but not limited to email and blogs is strictly prohibited without the explicit permission of the publisher. Add your own comment - Kindergarten Sight Words List - The Five Warning Signs of Asperger's Syndrome - First Grade Sight Words List - Graduation Inspiration: Top 10 Graduation Quotes - 10 Fun Activities for Children with Autism - What Makes a School Effective? - Child Development Theories - Should Your Child Be Held Back a Grade? Know Your Rights - Why is Play Important? Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development, Creative Development - Smart Parenting During and After Divorce: Introducing Your Child to Your New Partner

http://www.education.com/reference/article/what-how-light-produced/

Baseball player, civil rights activist. Born Jack Roosevelt Robinson on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia. Breaking the color barrier, Jackie Robinson became the first African–American to play in baseball's major leagues. The youngest of five children, Robinson was raised in relative poverty by a single mother. He attended John Muir High School and Pasadena Junior College, where he was an excellent athlete and played four sports: football, basketball, track, and baseball. He was named the region's Most Valuable Player in baseball in 1938. Robinson's older brother, Matthew Robinson, inspired Jackie to pursue his talent and love for athletics. Matthew won a silver medal in the 200-meter dash—just behind Jesse Owens–at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Jackie continued his education at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he became the university's first student to win varsity letters in four sports. In 1941, despite his athletic success, Robinson was forced to leave UCLA just shy of graduation due to financial hardship. He moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, where he played football for the semi–professional Honolulu Bears. His season with the Bears was cut short when the United States entered into World War II. From 1942 to 1944, Robinson served as a second lieutenant in the United States Army. He never saw combat, however; Robinson was arrested and court–martialed during boot camp after he refused to move to the back of a segregated bus during training. He was later acquitted of the charges and received an honorable discharge. His courage and moral objection to segregation were precursors to the impact Robinson would have in major league baseball. After his discharge from the Army in 1944, Robinson played baseball professionally. At the time, the sport was segregated, and African–Americans and whites played in separate leagues. Robinson began playing in the Negro Leagues, but he was soon chosen by Branch Rickey, a vice president with the Brooklyn Dodgers, to help integrate major league baseball. He joined the all–white Montreal Royals, a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers, in 1945. He moved to Florida in 1946 to begin spring training with the Royals, and played his first game on March 17 of that same year. Rickey knew there would be difficult times ahead for the young athlete, and made Robinson promise to not fight back when confronted with racism. From the beginning of his career with the Dodgers, Robinson's will was tested. Even some of his new teammates objected to having an African–American on their team. People in the crowds sometimes jeered at Robinson, and he and his family received threats. Despite the racial abuse, particularly at away games, Robinson had an outstanding start with the Royals, leading the International League with a .349 batting average and .985 fielding percentage. His excellent year led to his promotion to the Dodgers. His debut game on April 15, 1947, marked the first time an African–American athlete played in the major leagues. The harassment continued, however, most notably by the Philadelphia Phillies and their manager Ben Chapman. During one infamous game, Chapman and his team shouted derogatory terms at Robinson from their dugout. Many players on opposing teams threatened not to play against the Dodgers. Even his own teammates threatened to sit out. But Dodgers manager Leo Durocher informed them that he would sooner trade them than Robinson. His loyalty to the player set the tone for the rest of Robinson's career with the team. Others defended Jackie Robinson's right to play in the major leagues, including League President Ford Frick, Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler, Jewish baseball star Hank Greenberg and Dodgers shortstop and team captain Pee Wee Reese. In one incident, while fans harassed Robinson from the stands, Reese walked over and put his arm around his teammate, a gesture that has become legendary in baseball history. Jackie Robinson succeeded in putting the prejudice and racial strife aside, and showed everyone what a talented player he was. In his first year, he hit 12 home runs and helped the Dodgers win the National League pennant. That year, Robinson led the National League in stolen bases and was selected as Rookie of the Year. He continued to wow fans and critics alike with impressive feats, such as an outstanding .342 batting average during the 1949 season. He led in stolen bases that year and earned the National League's Most Valuable Player Award. Robinson soon became a hero of the sport, even among former critics, and was the subject for the popular song, "Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?" An exceptional base runner, Robinson stole home 19 times in his career, setting a league record. He also became the highest–paid athlete in Dodgers history, and his success in the major leagues opened the door for other African–American players, such as Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron. Robinson also became a vocal champion for African–American athletes, civil rights, and other social and political causes. In July 1949, he testified on discrimination before the House Un–American Activities Committee. In 1952, he publicly called out the Yankees as a racist organization for not having broken the color barrier five years after he began playing with the Dodgers. In his decade–long career with the Dodgers, Robinson and his team won the National League pennant several times. Finally, in 1955, he helped them achieve the ultimate victory: the World Series. After failing before in four other series match–ups, the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees. He helped the team win one more National League pennant the following season, and was then traded to the New York Giants. Jackie Robinson retired shortly after the trade, on January 5, 1957, with an impressive career batting average of .311. After baseball, Robinson became active in business and continued his work as an activist for social change. He worked as an executive for the Chock Full O' Nuts coffee company and restaurant chain and helped establish the Freedom National Bank. He served on the board of the NAACP until 1967 and was the first African–American to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. In 1972, the Dodgers retired his uniform number of 42. In his later years, Robinson continued to lobby for greater integration in sports. He died from heart problems and diabetes complications on October 24, 1972, in Stamford, Connecticut. He was survived by his wife, Rachel Isum, and two children. After his death, his wife established the Jackie Robinson Foundation dedicated to honoring his life and work. The foundation helps young people in need by providing scholarships and mentoring programs. Provided courtesy of © 2009 A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved. For a listing of places to find additional information on Jackie Robinson, click on the link below to download our bibliography. Click to Download the Bibliography To download the Student Guide click here

http://www.jackierobinson.org/about/jackie.php

Prepared by Richard Hill Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2004 ISBN 0 642 55009 3 Threats to the species Island birds are particularly vulnerable to extinction and a very high number of island birds relative to continental species have become extinct in the past century (Diamond 1985, King 1985). This is because (i) island birds tend to have smaller population sizes than continental species and small populations are more vulnerable to extinction (Lacy 1987); (ii) island birds have often evolved in the absence of many predators, diseases and competitors and they can be catastrophically affected by the introduction of one of these (King 1985); (iii) there are often no opportunities for dispersal and thus recolonisation on islands, and this factor also predisposes a population to extinction (Lacy 1987); and (iv) there is often less opportunity to make reserves on islands because land area is limited (Diamond 1985). Predators in general are often naturally rare because their prey, other animals, are less abundant than other food resources. Thus island raptors are a particularly vulnerable group of island birds. The exotic invasive yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes) arrived on Christmas Island more than 70 years ago, and is now widespread throughout rainforest (Orchard et al. 2002). The ants can form multi-queened 'super-colonies', in which they occur at very high densities. This has apparently been a relatively recent phenomenon; with the first supercolony discovered in 1989, with further dramatic increases probably beginning around the mid-1990s. At supercolony densities, the ant is having a devastating impact on the island's ecosystems. Red crabs, robber crabs, blue crabs and most other ground dwelling animals such as reptiles, have been and are continuing to be severely impacted, sometimes to the point of local extinction in heavily infested areas. By eliminating local populations of red crabs, the ants are also having a marked effect on forest composition and structure, and litter dynamics in infested areas. The feeding activities of the ants and their mutualistic scale insects can stress large trees to the point of death, and appear to be causing canopy dieback in areas of supercolony formation (Orchard et al. 2002). In addition groundings of birds in crazy ant supercolonies would most probably result in the death of the bird. Although research has shown that crazy ants have little impact on canopy insects, it is possible that the ants may reduce insect populations. In the recent Risk Watch List compiled for the Christmas Island National Park and Conservancy, the crazy ant invasion was rated as an Extreme Risk to biodiversity and conservation values, with catastrophic consequences of failure to implement effective control measures. PAN field workers and assistants conducted an island-wide ant survey during May-August, 2001. The survey was designed by CAMBI (Centre for the Analysis and Management of Biological Invasions, Monash University). Of 972 sites surveyed; 741 surveyed points fell in natural forest. Crazy ants were recorded at 46.7% of sites in natural forest. Super-colony densities were recorded at 22.7% of sites in natural forest. Using these survey points as a representative sample of the forest, it was estimated that 2,379 ha of the estimated 10,492 ha of forest on the island was infested with crazy ants at supercolony densities (Orchard et al. 2002). Crazy ants are not evenly distributed throughout natural forest but are more commonly found on terrace forests and less commonly found in deep-soil tall-closed forest, which make up most of the natural forests on the island plateau. Deep-soil tall-closed forest made up 31% of census sites in natural forest but only 6.5% of supercolony records (Orchard et al. 2002). In September 2002 an aerial baiting program was undertaken, and all known supercolonies treated with insecticide. Results so far indicate the program was successful in controlling supercolonies over 2500ha of Christmas Island. Crazy ants are still present in low densities, however, further high densities of crazy ants may establish in the terrace forests without warning. PAN staff will continue to monitor any new supercolony formation and treat by hand baiting over the next few years. A serious threat to all island birds is the introduction of new diseases. Island birds have often evolved in the absence of diseases common in continental bird faunas and the introduction of such diseases to island birds can be disastrous. An example of this is the introduction of avian malaria to Hawaii, which caused the extinction of almost the entire endemic bird fauna from below 600 m altitude, and was probably the main cause of the total extinction of several bird species (Hay 1986). The range of many surviving species was severely reduced and fragmented which in turn markedly increased their chances of extinction. Avian malaria arrived with the accidental introduction of a new species of mosquito (Hay 1986). Christmas Island has been very vulnerable to the accidental introduction of new disease. In 1994 a quarantine barrier was established between the island and Indonesia and Australia and this has reduced that risk. Approximately 25% of the island's original forests have been cleared and replaced by shrublands of ferns on minefields, Secondary Vegetation on stockpiles, and roads and housing (Environment Australia 1994). This has meant a loss of available forested habitat, although secondary vegetation growing along roadsides and on stockpiles contributes to the feeding habitat for Christmas Island Goshawks at least at some times of the year. Nonetheless, based on the decrease in available habitat, the total Christmas Island Goshawk population has probably decreased by at least 25% since settlement (Stokes 1988). Primary forests on Christmas Island have been fragmented in places by clearing and most Primary Rainforest is dissected by roads and old mining 'grid lines' The grid line system, a series of parallel lines 120 m apart and a bulldozer blade in width was installed in the 1970's to explore the island's phosphate resources. After 25 years these are mostly overgrown with dense stands of Secondary Vegetation. There are some major development proposals and associated infrastructure in particular the Immigration Centre, Satellite launching station, airport upgrade, and expansion of phosphate mining that have the potential to reduce the area of goshawk habitat. One development condition for the satellite launching facility is to develop and implement an environment management plan, which is currently underway. The EMP will address threatened fauna and their habitat on the sites. The immigration centre is exempt from assessment under the EPBC Act, however, the DEH is being consulted on environmental aspects of the development, including monitoring of habitat for potential impacts. The airport upgrade and phosphate mining expansion proposals are undergoing assessment for environmental impact under the EPBC Act. Survey and monitoring of the Christmas Island Goshawk will aid in determining potential impacts of these and future developments on goshawk habitat. The Christmas Island Rainforest Rehabilitation Program (CIRRP) is a long term program to revegetate old minefields. The CIRRP is funded by a conservation levy that is collected from Phosphate Resources Limited at an indexed rate per tonne. Rehabilitation priorities are primarily determined to protect Abbott's Booby sites, although other threatened species are also considered in determining the priority of sites. A significant additional result of CIRRP will be the reestablishment of habitat that supports other species such as the goshawk. Although goshawks, as generalist raptors, are likely to cope well with habitat modifying natural catastrophes, the effect of events such as cyclones are more severe on small populations. There is a possibility of an increase in severe storms and cyclones occurring as a result of Greenhouse gas-induced climate change. It would be useful to understand the effects of cyclones and severe storms on goshawk populations to help predict the impact of any increases. The risk of extinction varies inversely with population size (Lacy 1987) due primarily to demographic and environmental variability the effects of which can become marked in small populations. Demographic variability is the individual variation in reproductive success, which is masked when population size is large. Very small populations (< 30 individuals) can easily become extinct as a result of random demographic variation between individuals (Caughley & Sinclair 1994). The reproductive success of a population is also likely to vary with fluctuations in the environment. The degree of this fluctuation is determined by how much seasonal and annual variation in habitat quality there is. The influence of this on the risk of extinction increases markedly with decreasing population size. For example, a cyclone, an extreme example of environmental variation, causing the death of half the population of 10000 animals has an insignificant affect on the probability of extinction of that population. However, if half a population of 200 animals dies, the risk of extinction of that population increases significantly (Caughley & Sinclair 1994). The risks of inbreeding depression increases with decreasing population size due to the increase in frequency of homozygous alleles. Populations at risk of inbreeding depression are probably a couple of dozen individuals or smaller in size which have been at that size for several generations, as a population contraction must last for several generations to lead to a significant loss of heterozygosity (Caughley & Sinclair 1994). Any action on the island which might permanently, rather than temporarily, reduce the number of mature individual Christmas Island Goshawks (such as permanent forest clearance rather than temporary storm damage) would raise the possibility of inbreeding depression as a concern in their conservation. Killing of Christmas Island Goshawks, especially by poultry owners, has been considered to be a significant threat to goshawks in the past (Stokes 1988). Given the small population size, any killing of either juveniles or adult Christmas Island Goshawks would be considered a significant threat to this taxon. Another possible threat is posed by cats, especially near settled areas. Road killed Christmas Island Goshawks have been reported. A substantial increase in vehicular traffic will be associated with the proposed satellite launching station and the new immigration, reception and processing centre (IRPC). This will likely increase the number of roadkills in high traffic areas. Thus it is possible that collisions with cars will become an issue for the conservation of populations in high traffic areas. Weeds, especially newly introduced invasive species, could potentially impact on Christmas Island Goshawk nest sites, for example by forming vine towers over nesting trees.

http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/recovery/a-fasciatus-natalis/threats.html

TEACHER RESOURCES: Communication Social Scripts is an approach to scaffold beginning communicators with having successful communication interactions with multiple turns. Developed by Caroline Musselwhite, social scripts simulate a conversation and are often done using sequenced listing devices, such as the Step by Step. Click here to learn about Social Scripts and other Step by Step Activities Partner Assisted Scanning is a way for communication "partners" to "assist" students by listing or "scanning" through possible choices. This is a quick strategy to use when a communication device is not available or does not have the needed vocabulary. Click here to download the Top 10 Tips for Partner Assisted Scanning TEACHER RESOURCES: Reading Shared Reading is a fun, interactive time where an adult and student read together. Adults help students learn critical language skills, what books are for and how they are used. Shared reading is an ideal time for students with significant disabilities to learn how to communicate. In addition to have access to good vocabulary words, the use of generic, open ended messages can be useful. Messages such as, "What is that?" or "awesome!" can facilitate multiple communication opportunities throughout a book. Click here to download the Generic Reading Interaction Overlay Guided Reading is a way for teachers to provide reading comprehension instruction to students who are early conventional readers. Teachers are learning a variety of instructional strategies, including comprehension lessons based on a before-during-after approach. Click to download the lesson templates. - Text to Text Comprehension Lesson - Text to Self Comprehension Lesson - Text to World Comprehension Lesson Self Selected Reading is a time for students to explore and read books independently. For students who are unable to hold a book, Tarheel Reader is an easy-to-use, free internet based book collection. It contains hundreds of simple, age appropriate books for students of any age who are very beginning readers. The books can be accessed using switches or the IntelliKeys. Many of the classrooms are using this site to give their students access to easy books. For more information, go to www.tarheelreader.org TEACHER RESOURCES: Writing Writing is undeniably an essential component of communication and literacy instruction for students without disabilities. Many of the students in the classrooms are unable to hold a pencil and as a result need an alternative way to write with the alphabet. To address this challenge, the alternative pencils listed below have been demonstrated and are now being used successfully in the classrooms for early emergent writing activities. Print Alphabet Flip Chart is an alternative pencil. Students write with the flip chart using a partner assisted scanning technique to select letters. The partner scans through the letter choices and the student uses a device or physical response to indicate the letter they want. To learn more about instructions, strategies and activities, download the Print Flip Chart Guide. Color-Coded Alphabet Eye Gaze Frame is an alternative pencil. Students write with the alphabet frame by eye gazing at particular letters on the frame. The pencil is used with a partner who interprets the student’s eye gaze and then records the student's selection. To learn more about instructions, strategies and activities, download the Alphabet Eye Gaze Frame Guide. Emergent Writing is the type of writing that very beginning writers engage in. Many of the students in the classrooms are very beginning, emergent writers who are now having opportunities to write for the very first time. The teachers are beginning to implement very simple, early writing activities, such as journaling, sign in, picture captions etc. To learn more, download Emergent Writing Activities. Click here to learn more about Writing with Alternative Pencils! by the Center for Literacy & Disability Studies Visit the Center for Literacy & Disability Studies Deaf-Blind Teacher Resource Page for more lesson and adaptation ideas.

http://www.med.unc.edu/ahs/clds/resources/teacher-resources

Part II: Gold, Greed and Government (continued) |is an excellent way to begin a U.S. history course, but students should be reminded that, while some presidents might be considered great, they usually also had to rely on a supportive nation, legislature and judiciary. Lesson 1 deals with how California changed from a Mexican province to an American state. Students will examine data that will help them to see that California skipped formal territorial status and went from an American possession to an American state. As they speculate on why so many people suddenly swarmed into California, some students should recall from their fourth-grade studies that this growth is related to the 1848 discovery of gold in California. (The burgeoning population also represented the broadening of California's diverse populationan enriching experience in some ways, but the beginning of interethnic tension.) Lesson 2 asks the question "How did California's constitution and laws reflect the values of the political majority?" Students will analyze and read a variety of primary source images and statements, and will then predict how the constitution and laws would respond to questions about slavery and the rights of minorities. Some of the students will read material about what people said and did in early (post-Rancho) California that will be totally new to them. Because information about how California (and other states) treated minority populations is not usually found in U.S. history books or included in the fourth-grade California history curriculum, a large number of activities, images and source readings are included. The teacher can select and use any or all, depending on time constraints. Lesson 3 helps the student to realize that California has had a long history of cultural and ethnic diversity, conflict and cooperation, and that California laws, like those of any other society, reflected the values of the political majority. The influence of unchecked majority rule, however, is sometimes tempered by respect for the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and students should recognize such incidents. Other Californians acted on behalf of minorities because they cared about justice and fairness for all, and students should appreciate this time-honored practice, which many Americans still support today. Students will find a number of similarities between early California and contemporary California. The readings and worksheet for Lesson 3, "Law and Order in California," give examples of prejudice and intolerance, but they also document compassion and empathy. Some students will recognize a practice that foreigners observed as peculiar to Americansthe impulse to organize and to establish some sort of sociopolitical order before anarchy prevails. Students also will identify factors that encourage "civilized" societies, and those that permit lawlessness or extralegal behaviors to emerge, elements that they might recognize even today. Lesson 4 calls for the use of resources already available in the classroom and the school library, because U.S. history textbooks and other available resources generally cover the Compromise of 1850 fairly well. However, the significant role that California played at this time is sometimes overlooked. Therefore, this lesson is designed to provide a different perspective on the Compromise of 1850. It emphasizes California's pivotal role during this crucial moment in our nation's history. Gold Mines of California is an optional map activity that will give students an idea of the physical geography of the region and further insight into the diverse population of miners. A magnifying glass might be of help in reading the place names. Part II, Overview

http://museumca.org/goldrush/curriculum/8g/81200003.html

Aborigines were the first inhabitants of Australia, migrating there at least 40,000 years ago. While Asian explorers had landed in northern Australia well before AD 1500, it was not until the 17th century that the first Europeans from Holland managed to sail to Australia. Of the several Dutch expeditions into the southern oceans, the most successful was that of Abel Tasman, who in 1642 discovered an island now known as Tasmania. However, the Dutch did not formally occupy Australia, finding little there of value for European trade, opening the way for the later arrival of the English. Starting in 1765, Captain James Cook led a series of expeditions to Australia and he subsequently supported settlement in Australia. Curiously it was a rising crime rate in England that led to the occupation of Australia. After the American Revolution ended in 1783, Britain moved quickly to establish its first settlement in Australia as a place to send its convicts, since it could no longer ship British convicts to America. In 1786, the British government announced that it would establish a penal settlement at Botany bay in Australia, and in 1788, retired Royal Navy captain Arthur Phillip arrived at Botany Bay with more than 1,450 passengers. This included 736 convicts, 211 marines, 20 civil officers, and 443 seamen. Subsequently, he moved the fleet north to Port Jackson, an excellent natural harbor, and began the first permanent settlement on January 26, 1788 (now known as Australia Day). This settlement was subsequently named Sydney in honor of Lord Sydney, Britain's home security who was responsible for the colony. Food supply was a major problem in the early settlement days, and needed food supplies came mainly from Norfolk Island, which Phillip had occupied in February 1788, an island that later served as a jail for convicts who committed new crimes while serving their sentence in Australia. (In fact, the later Warden of Norfolk Prison, Captain Alexander Maconoche is legendary for having instituted a then controversial practice of releasing convicts early for good behavior as a means of managing an unruly population of convicts. This innovation resulted in Maconochie being dubbed "the father of parole," and also led to his dismissal as warden.) The New South Wales Corps replaced the Royal Marines in 1792. They were given grants of land and became excellent farmers. Through controlling the price of rum, used as an internal means of exchange, they posed a threat to the governors. When Captain William Bligh (whose crew aboard the Bounty had mutinied in the Pacific) became governor in 1806 and threatened the corps with the loss of their monopoly, they responded with a so-called Rum Rebellion. Bligh was arrested and sent back to London, giving the leaders of the corps a victory. Coincidentally, one of the corps leaders, John Macarthur, found a solution to the colony's lack of valuable exports by interesting British manufacturers in Australian wool. After 1810, the wool of the Australian merino sheep became the basis for a major economic activity. The New South Wales Corps was sent home by the next governor to be followed by more free settlers claiming farmland on which convicts could serve as laborers. As convicts completed their sentences, the convicts agitated for land and opportunities, and were known as emancipists, opposed by the free settlers, who were known as exclusives. In 1825 the island settlement of Van Diemen's Land (today's Tasmania) became a separate colony, having been established in 1803 as a penal colony because of fear that the French would claim the island. Sheep grazing expansion caused a growth of land claims by squatters and resulted in the colonization of the Port Phillip district that became the colony of Victoria in 1850, with its capital at Melbourne. Another colony to the north, Queensland, was settled by graziers and separated from New South Wales in 1859. Other settlements of European people were subsequently established elsewhere, resulting in the creation of six independent British colonies: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania. In 1850, the sending of convicts to New South Wales was abolished. It was abolished to Van Diemen's land in 1852. (More than 150,000 had been send to the two colonies.) Owed to a movement toward free trade, which nullified the need for colonies, from 1842 to 1850, Australian colonies received constitutions and were given legislative councils (preventing a war of independence which might have unified the Australian colonies). Australia had its own gold rush in the 1850s, which resulted in an influx of Chinese immigrants attracted by gold, a movement that was opposed by the white settlers in their exclusion of all but European settlers. This became known as a "White Australia" policy, a policy that endured up until recently in Australia. Seemingly, this policy also applied to the Aborigines who as the frontier pushed inland, were often poisoned, hunted, abused, and exploited by the settlers. After a constitutional convention in sydney from 1897 to 1898, the six colonies approved and became a federation. The Commonwealth of Australia was subsequently approved by the British Parliament in 1900 and came into existence on January 1, 1901 (although since then, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory have been granted self-government). The federal constitution combined British and American practices, with a parliamentary government, but with two houses - the popularly elected House of Representatives and Senate representing the former colonies (which were now states). However, the Balkanization of Australia into separate unrelated states continued until WWI when the nation unified, sending 330,000 volunteers to fight with the allies. WWII brought a greater alliance with the United States. This alliance has endured until today through Australian participation fighting along-side the Western alliance in the Korean War and fighting in the Vietnam war as an ally of the United States. The White Australia policy was discarded during the 1950s through 1970s. Under the Colombo Plan, Asians were admitted to Australian universities in the 1950s. In 1967, a national referendum granted citizenship to Aborigines, and in the 1970s, the entry of immigrants began to be based on criteria other than race. Australia remains part of the British commonwealth, after a national referendum failed to win a majority vote to change Australia's form of government to a republic. The Commonwealth of Australia has nine separate parliaments or legislatures, most of which have lower and upper houses. There are also several hundred local government authorities, known as councils or shires. The national or Commonwealth Government is responsible for defense, foreign affairs, customs, income tax, post and telegraphs. The State or Territory Governments have primary responsibility for health, education and criminal justice, although the Commonwealth Government is also influential in these areas. There exists a level of tension between the governments at the State or Territory level and the Government of the Commonwealth. This tension is almost exclusively concerned with the issue of the allocation of monies raised from income tax and the appropriate distribution of power. Since the 1970s, there has been a noticeable shift of power toward the Commonwealth Government. "Australia." Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2002, http://encarta.msn.com (23 June, 2002) Crime is generally defined in Australia as any conduct which is prohibited by law and which may result in punishment. Crimes can be classified as either felony, misdemeanor or minor offenses, but more commonly they are classified as indictable or not indictable offenses. Indictable offenses are those which are heard by the superior courts and may require a jury, whereas non-indictable offenses, which comprise the vast majority of court cases, are heard in magistrates courts, where no juries are employed. While there are some classification differences among the various jurisdictions, in all jurisdictions indictable offenses generally include homicide, robbery, serious sexual and non-sexual assault, fraud, burglary and serious theft. Homicide includes murder, manslaughter (not by driving) and infanticide. Assault is defined as the direct infliction of force, injury or violence upon a person, including attempts or threats. Sexual assault is a physical assault of a sexual nature, directed toward another person where the person does not give consent; or gives consent as a result of intimidation or fraud; or is legally deemed incapable of giving consent because of youth or temporary/ permanent incapacity. Sexual assault includes: rape, sodomy, incest, and other offenses. Rape is defined as unlawful sexual intercourse with another person by force or without the consent of the other person. Robbery is defined as the unlawful removing or taking of property or attempted removal or taking of property without consent by force or threat of force immediately before or after the event. Unlawful entry with intent (UEWI) is defined as the unlawful entry of a structure with the intent to commit an offense. UEWI offenses include burglary, break and enter and some stealing. Motor vehicle theft is the taking of a motor vehicle unlawfully or without permission. "Other theft" or stealing is defined as the taking of another person's property with the intention of permanently depriving the owner of property illegally and without permission, but without force, threat of force, use of coercive measures, deceit or having gained unlawful entry to any structure even if the intent was to commit theft. In some jurisdictions, such as South Australia, there is a group of "minor indictable" offenses which can be heard in the superior or lower courts, according to the wish of the accused. Criminal justice statistics are based on a classification scheme which divides crimes into offenses against the person, property offenses and "other." The minimum age of criminal responsibility and the upper age limit for hearings in juvenile courts varies among Australian States and Territories. The minimum age of criminal responsibility in juvenile courts is 7, while the minimum age to be tried in an adult court is 16. In all jurisdictions, any child above the age of criminal responsibility who is charged with homicide can be tried in an adult court. In some jurisdictions, juveniles may have their offenses tried in adult courts for offenses such as rape and treason. Drug offenses constitute a major focus of all Australian criminal justice systems. The possession, use, sale, distribution, importation, manufacturing or trafficking of a wide range of drugs is illegal in all Australian jurisdictions. Illegal drugs include: marijuana (cannabis), heroin, designer drugs (ice, ecstasy), amphetamines (speed, LSD) and cocaine (including crack). While the possession or use of any of these drugs is illegal, in some jurisdictions, notably South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory, marijuana has been partially decriminalized. Its possession or use may result in the imposition of a relatively small fine without the need to appear in court. Tasmania is one of the world's major suppliers of licit opiate products; government maintains strict controls over areas of opium poppy cultivation and output of poppy straw concentrate INCIDENCE OF CRIME The following data has been compiled by the Australian Institute of Criminology from information contained in the annual reports of Australian police forces for the year 2000. In year 2000, there were 346 homicides reported to the police, for a rate of 2.0 per 100,000 population. The percentage of homicides committed with a firearm was 17%. Attempts are not included. In 2000 there were 141,124 assaults reported by the police at a rate of 737 per 100,000 population. There were 15,630 victims of sexual assault recorded by the police in Australia in 2000, about 82 victims per 100,000 population. Police recorded 23,314 victims of robbery during 2000, with 122 per 100,000 population. In 2000, there were 436,865 incidents of unlawful entry with intent to commit an offense, a rate of 2281 victims per 100,000 population. Police recorded 139,094 motor vehicles stolen in 2000, with 726 victims per 100,000 population. A total of 674,813 victims of "other theft" was recorded by the police in 2000, with 3,523 victims per 100,000 population in Australia. A victim survey of households was conducted by the the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 1998 for some of these crimes. From this survey it was estimated that 4.3% of households were victimized by assault, .4% by sexual assault, .5% by robbery, 5.0% by break-in, and 1.7% by motor vehicle theft. If these were converted to rates per 100,000, the rates would be 4300 for assault, 400 for sexual assault, 500 for robbery, 5000 for break-in, and 1700 for motor vehicle theft, in all cases higher than the incidence recorded by police. Trend analysis has been done for years 1973/4 to 1991/2. Trend data using official statistics indicate apparently ever-increasing levels of crime. By contrast, national crime victimization surveys show much more stable trends in crime. Total property crimes reported to police increased from 385,453 to 1,168.423 in 1990/1 (an increase of 203%) before falling in 1991/2 to 1,024,569. Total violent offenses rose from a mere 7,056 to 36,909 in 1991/2, an increase of 423%. Expressed as an annual rate per 100,000 population, property offending went from 2834.4 crimes reported per 100,000 to 6563.8 in this period; violence increased from 51.9 to a startling 213.4. Adjusting for population change, then, these increases are of 132% and 311% respectively. Of particular concern are trends in reported sexual assaults (rape rates up 426%) and other serious assaults (up 452%). In addition, reported drug offenses were up 612% between 1974/5 and 1991/2. However, the national statistics for homicide remain remarkably steady within a range between 1.62 per 100,000 and 2.40 per 100,000. By contrast, National Crime Victims Surveys done for years 1974/5 through 1991/2 show less of a change. These figures suggest increases in these eighteen years of 51% for break, enter and steal, and no increase at all for motor vehicle theft. For robbery, the survey suggests a 33% increase, a decrease of 9% for assault, and no change in incidence for sexual assault. The discrepancy between police and survey data is partly explained by increased reporting which itself is explained by an increase in the numbers of police. The number of police rose from 178 per 100,000 population in 1973/4 to 244 in 1991/2. INTERNATIONAL CRIME RATE COMPARISONS In a comparison of survey victimization from the International Crime Victim Survey, it appears that Australia has a high rate of crime. Car theft is virtually double the average rate for 21 countries, and in most of the other offenses including burglary and violence, Australia risks are at least fifty percent higher than the average. These offenses include car theft, theft from car, car damage, burglary, theft of personal property, robbery, sexual assault, and other assault. Only bike theft ranks low in comparison to the average of other counties. The Commonwealth of Australia is a federalist government composed of a national government and six State governments. If Territories are included, there in effect nine different criminal justice systems in Australia - six state, two territory, and one federal. The eight States and Territories have powers to enact their own criminal law, while the Commonwealth has powers to enact laws. Criminal law is administered principally through the federal, State and Territory police. There is no independent federal corrective service. State or Territory agencies provide corrective services for federal offenders. The government of the Commonwealth is responsible for the enforcement of its own laws. The most frequently prosecuted Commonwealth offenses are those related to the importation of drugs and the violation of social security laws. Offenses against a person or against property occurring in Commonwealth facilities are also regarded as offenses against the Commonwealth. The States are primarily responsible for the development of criminal law. Queensland, Western Australia, and Tasmania are described as "code" States because they have enacted criminal codes which define the limits of the criminal law. The remaining three States, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia are regarded as "common law" States because they have not attempted codification. In practice, however, there is little difference in the elements of the criminal law between the "code" and "common law" States. Local governments can pass legislation, known as bylaws. These generally include social nuisance offenses as well as traffic and parking rules. Local government officials or the State and Territory police generally enforce the local government bylaws. The maximum penalty that can be imposed for conviction of a bylaw offense is a monetary fine. However, non-payment of fines can result in imprisonment. The structure of the Australian legal system is derived from, and still closely follows, that of the United Kingdom. In addition to parliament-made law, there is the "common law" inherited from the English courts which has since been developed and refined by Australian courts. It should be noted, however, that since 1963 Australian courts have ceased to regard English decisions as superior or even equal in authority to those made by Australian courts. The legal system is adversarial in nature and places a high value on the presumption of innocence. Due to the federalist system of government, there are nine separate legal systems in operation. Although there are some significant differences between these systems, they are essentially similar in structure and operation. Australia has one police force for each of the six States, the Australian Capital Territory, and the Northern Territory. There is also a Commonwealth agency known as the Australian Federal Police (APF) which provides police services for the Australian Capital Territory and is also involved in preventing, detecting and investigating crimes committed against the Commonwealth, including drug offenses, money laundering, organized crime, and fraud. The APF was brought into existence by the Australian Federal Police Act of 1979. However, because of findings of several Royal Commissions in the late 1970s and early 1980s that revealed the extent of organized crime in Australia, the Commonwealth Government in July 1984 established the National Crime Authority (NCA). Legislation was passed in each State, the Northern Territory, and the Australian Capital Territory, to support the work of the NCA in those jurisdictions. The NCA is the only law enforcement agency in Australia not bound by jurisdictional or territorial boundaries. Its single mission is to combat organized criminal activity. Thus, there are now ten separate police forces for the nation, including the NCA and the AFP, police for the two territories, as well as police for the six states (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania). There are, however, a large number of other agencies which have specific law enforcement functions, including health inspectors, tax officials, and immigration and customs officers. All Australian police forces have a hierarchical organization. In the larger police forces, the chief officer is known as the Commissioner, except in Victoria, where he or she is known as the Chief Commissioner. The larger forces also have one or more Deputy Commissioners and a number of Assistant Commissioners. Below these ranks are Chief Superintendents, Superintendents, Chief Inspectors and Inspectors. Officers achieving the rank of Inspector or above are known as commissioned officers. The remaining ranks consist of Senior Sergeants, Sergeants, Senior Constables and Constables. In the State and Territory police forces, the administration is divided into geographical districts, which are themselves divided into divisions and subdistricts. There is also a movement towards increasing the autonomy of regional police commanders in many Australian police forces. The Commissioner of Police is directly accountable to a Minister, but the Minister is usually not permitted to influence the operation and decisions of police commanders. An Australian Police Ministers Council (APMC) meets at least once a year and is supported by the Commissioners in this context as the Senior Officers Group (SOG). The APMC and SOG structures have attempted to create a higher level of cooperation and uniformity of police practices throughout Australia. Australian police forces are not closely associated with the military forces. Australian military forces have no responsibility for the maintenance of civil order. However, on very rare occasions the military forces have been required to provide assistance to the police. In the event of a serious natural disaster, such as a flood or bush fire, the military forces are asked to assist the police and other civilian authorities. Australian police recruits are required to have completed their secondary education, although it is not always essential to have been awarded a qualification known as Higher School Certificate. A university degree is not generally required of police in Australia except for specialist posts. University training is encouraged for all recruits to the Australian Federal Police and increasingly in other police forces. Recruits must undergo medical and psychological tests and are evaluated on their overall suitability, competence, physical fitness and character. Recruit training is a combination of classroom and field-based experience which takes approximately 18 months to complete. A portion of this training takes place in a police academy and the remainder is conducted on the job. All police officers may use "appropriate" force when encountering violent persons. "Appropriate" is defined by the level of force required to overcome and apprehend the person(s). Police officers may use "lethal" force on a person if they believe their life or the life of another person is in danger. "Lethal" is defined as the level of force that might result in the person's death. All police officers carry handguns and handcuffs. They rarely carry batons; these are usually kept in police cars. In general, a police officer may stop and apprehend any person who appears to be committing, or is about to commit, an offense. The law provides that law enforcement officials may arrest persons without a warrant if there are reasonable grounds to believe a person has committed an offense. The vast majority of arrests are made without a warrant although there are jurisdictional differences concerning prerequisites to arrest. Law enforcement officials can seek an arrest warrant from a magistrate when a suspect cannot be located or fails to appear. Once individuals are arrested, they must be informed immediately of the grounds of arrest and given a "criminal caution," that is, informed of their rights. Police are generally required to obtain a search warrant from a judge or a magistrate before they enter premises and seize property. However, illegal drugs and weapons can be seized without a warrant. Whereas the issue of obtaining confessions from suspected offenders has been a controversial subject in the past, the controversy has diminished with the onset of video. Virtually all interviews with persons suspected of serious offenses are videotaped. Complaints against the police are investigated by different authorities in different jurisdictions. Once taken into custody a detainee must be brought before a magistrate for a bail hearing at the next sitting of the court. Persons charged with criminal offenses generally are released on bail except when charged with an offense carrying a penalty of 12 months imprisonment or more, or the possibility of violating bail conditions is judged to be high. Attorneys and families are granted prompt access to detainees. Detainees held without bail pending trial generally are segregated from the other elements of the prison population. The law prohibits all such practices; however, there were occasional reports that police mistreated suspects in custody. Some indigenous groups charge that police harassment of indigenous people is pervasive and that racial discrimination among police and prison custodians persists. Amnesty International reported several incidents that involved such abuses. State and territorial police forces have internal affairs units that investigate allegations of abuse and report to a civilian ombudsman. The federal Government oversees six immigration detention facilities located in the country and several offshore facilities in the Australian territory of Christmas Island and in the countries of Nauru and Papua New Guinea. These facilities were established to detain individuals who attempt to enter the country unlawfully, pending determination of their applications for refugee status. Hunger strikes and protests have occurred at immigration detention facilities over allegedly poor sanitary conditions, inadequate access to telephones, and limited recreational opportunities. All accused persons have the right to defend themselves in court but in serious cases most prefer to be represented by a legal practitioner. A recent decision by the High Court of Australia held that in all serious matters if the accused does not have access to legal advice, the case must be adjourned. In any trial, both the prosecution and the defense have the right to question and cross-examine witnesses. In New South Wales, the accused person also has the right to make an unsworn statement, thus avoiding being cross- examined by the prosecution. This practice has been abolished in all other Australian jurisdictions. A national system for the provision of free legal aid to accused persons was established in 1993 and subsequently some of the States have established legal service commissions which monitor and oversee the provision of this service. Eligibility to receive legal aid depends on the financial means of the individual and the merit of the case being defended. Legal aid is provided either through the salaried staff of a Legal Aid Commission or by assignment to private legal practitioners. Also, an extensive number of Aboriginal legal services throughout Australia receive separate funding from national or state legal services. Arrested persons are brought to a police station where charges are brought against them. Before being charged, the arrested person is usually searched. The police are empowered to use force if the search is resisted. In all serious cases, arrested persons are photographed and finger printed before being charged. If no charges are brought, the accused person is released. In most jurisdictions the police allow arrested persons to make a telephone call to a legal adviser, friend or relative. After the charging procedures are completed, the accused is either released on bail or held in custody. The role of the police in pre-trial decision- making includes performing the necessary investigation and detection work, filing charges and, except for the Australian Capital Territory, prosecuting the case in court. In some cases and in all Federal matters, the Director of Public Prosecutions is involved in determining what charges will be brought. If the Director decides that the case should be heard on indictment (heard in a superior court), a committal or preliminary hearing in a lower court is usually held in order to discover whether there is sufficient evidence to proceed with the trial. If the accused pleads guilty to a charge, the judge or magistrate may immediately impose a sentence without setting the case for trial. Thus, guilty pleas help to speed case flow and reduce case overload in the court system. If the accused pleads not guilty, the evidence of the prosecution and defense are heard in an adversarial manner in court. Cases involving serious charges are heard in a higher court with a 12-member jury. However, in some cases, the accused person has the right to waive a jury trial. Police will often conduct the prosecution for lower court cases, but not for those in the higher courts. In some jurisdictions there are alternatives to formal charging and court appearance procedures. These alternatives involve the use of community justice centers or dispute resolution centers to provide for the resolution of disputes between conflicting individuals. The proceedings in these centers are relatively informal and the hearings are less expensive than court procedures. In addition, most States have small claims tribunals or courts that allow for minor matters to be settled without involving the police or lawyers. Although plea bargaining is not officially permitted in any jurisdiction, some commentators have suggested there exists a form of charge bargaining, an arrangement by which an individual chooses to plead guilty to one or two particular charges with the understanding that other charges will be dropped. Pre-trial incarceration is usually referred to as "remanded in custody." In all jurisdictions there is a strong presumption in favor of granting bail. Bail can be granted either by police or by the courts. There are three main grounds for the denial of bail and remanding an individual in custody: 1) to prevent the offense from being continued or repeated; 2) to ensure that the offender does not abscond and appears in court as required; and 3) to ensure that the accused person does not interfere with the process of justice (for instance, by contacting jurors or witnesses). Generally, suspects brought on very serious charges, such as homicide, are remanded in custody for a substantial period of time while awaiting trial. Approximately 13% of all Australian prisoners are awaiting trial with the period of stay on remand varying between a few days to more than one year in a small number of cases. Australia has a hierarchical system of courts with the High Court of Australia operating at the top. The High Court of Australia is the final court of appeal for all other courts. It is also the court which has sole responsibility for interpreting the Australian Constitution. Within each State and Territory there is a Supreme Court and, in the larger jurisdictions, an intermediate court below it, known as the District Court, District and Criminal Court, or County Court. There is no intermediate court in Tasmania or in the two territories. Below the intermediate courts there are Magistrates Courts at which virtually all civil and criminal proceedings commence. Approximately 95% of criminal cases are resolved at the Magistrates Courts level. Cases passing through the courts generally share the following common elements: lodgment - the initiation of the matter with the court; pre-trial discussion and mediation between parties; trial; and court decision - judgment or verdict followed by sentencing. Cases initiated in Magistrates' Courts account for 98.1% of all lodgments in the criminal courts. The majority of criminal hearings (96%) take place in Magistrate's Court. The duration between the lodgment of a matter with the court and its finalization is referred to as "timeliness." Generally, lower courts complete a greater proportion of their workload more quickly because the disputes and prosecutions heard are less complex than those in higher courts, and cases are of a routine and minor nature. Committals are the first stage of hearing indictable offenses in the criminal justice system. A magistrate assesses the sufficiency of evidence presented against the defendant and decides whether to commit the matter for trial in a superior court. Defendants are often held in custody pending a committal hearing or trial, if ordered. Defendants' cases are finalized at the higher court level in one of the following two ways: adjudicated - determined whether or not guilty of the charges based on the judge's decision; and non-adjudicated - a method of determining the completion of a case thereby making it effectively inactive. Overall, 77% of the defendants whose cases are heard by a higher court are found guilty of an offense. Parallel to the Supreme Courts in the States and Territories is a Federal Court that is primarily concerned with the enforcement of Commonwealth Law, such as that related to trade practices, but that also hears appeals from the Supreme Courts of the Territories. Each State and Territory has a children's or juvenile court. Children's courts are invariably closed to the public and the press in order to protect the anonymity of the accused. The High Court of Australia has seven judges. Since its creation in 1901 there have been 37 appointments to the High Court. Except for one, all appointments have been male. A Chief Justice heads the Supreme Courts in each State and Territory. The actual number of judges varies according to the size of the state. In some jurisdictions, lay persons are appointed as Justices of the Peace. Although, in the past, these lay persons were able to convene courts and sentence offenders, this power has largely been removed in recent years. All of the persons appointed to the High Court of Australia have been distinguished members of the legal profession, but a significant minority of them have also had political experience or have been judges in a Supreme or Federal Court. The appointment of judges at each government level is the responsibility of the relevant government. In the case of the High Court and the Federal Court, formal judicial appointments are made by the Governor General. The Governor of the State formally appoints judges to the Supreme Courts. The identification and recommendation of persons to be appointed as judges in each jurisdiction is primarily the responsibility of the corresponding Attorney-General. In cases where a person either pleads guilty or is found guilty, the judge or magistrate responsible for the case determines the sentence. In complex or serious cases there is frequently an adjournment to allow the judicial officer to consider the appropriate sentence and to hear argument from the prosecution and defense in relation to sentence. Victim impact statements may be submitted in South Australia. In other jurisdictions pre-sentence reports are prepared to assist the judicial officer, usually by probation officers. Pre-sentence reports may also include a psychiatric opinion. There are a variety of sentencing options available at each court level; fine, good behavior bond, probation order, suspended sentence, community supervision, community custody, home detention, periodic detention, and imprisonment. All jurisdictions permit the following penalties to be imposed: fines, probation orders (supervision or recognizance orders), community service orders or imprisonment. Some jurisdictions provide for the imposition of home detention. Home detention is usually employed as a post-prison order rather than as an order imposed directly by the sentencing court. Capital punishment and corporal punishment have been abolished in all Australian jurisdictions. The last execution took place in 1967. Prisons are the responsibility of states or territories. There are no federal penitentiaries or local jails. There are approximately 80 prisons throughout Australia. This number is an approximation because several large institutions are subdivided into administratively independent units. Although most prisons are designated as either high, medium, or low security facilities, prisoners at varying levels of security classification occupy most. In June, 2000, the total number of prisoners in Australia was 21,714, 94% of which were male. The rate for imprisonment in Australia was 148 per 100,000 population. According to a report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, as of June 30, 2000, aboriginal adults represent 1.6 percent of the adult population but constituted approximately 19 percent of the total prison population, or approximately 14 times the nonindigenous rate of incarceration. The main offenses for which male offenders were sentenced included break and enter, robbery, and sex offenses. For female offenders, the main offenses included drug offenses, fraud, and robbery. Male prisoners sentenced for the violent offenses of homicide, assault, sex offenses, and robbery accounted for almost half of all sentenced male prisoners in 2000, while for females only one-third of sentenced prisoners were incarcerated for violent offenses. Generally, the training period for prison officers varies from 3 to 12 months and always involves a combination of classroom study and on-the-job training. Prison officers are required to undertake further study and pass examinations in order to be considered for promotion in the prison system. In Western Australia, persons who are appointed as superintendents or officers in charge of institutions must obtain some form of tertiary qualification. Until recently all convicted Australian prisoners were entitled to earn remissions or time off for good behavior. This approach has since been changed in New South Wales and Victoria as a result of support for an approach known as "truth in sentencing." This change is said to have resulted in a significant increase in the number of inmates in prisons, particularly in New South Wales. All States and Territories in Australia have provisions for parole and virtually all persons serving sentences of one year or more are released under a parole system. Most of the time, the number of persons serving parole is approximately two thirds of the total number of persons in prison. In addition, for every person in prison, there are approximately four persons serving other forms of non-custodial sentences such as probation or community service. All prisons have provisions for work, education and training, recreation and support. Inmates classified as requiring low security are able to obtain weekend leave. Other privileges are also available. A number of large victim surveys conducted in Australia have consistently shown that most victims do not report crimes to the police. The main reasons that victims have cited for not reporting are that they consider the offense to be trivial or they believe the police either could not or would not do anything about the crime report. Such surveys have also found that victims are more likely to be men than women, young than old, unemployed and less well educated than the Australian norm. The most recent crime survey data for Australia come from the International Victims Survey (ICVS), which was conducted in March 2000. The most commonly mentioned personal crimes for Australia were consumer fraud (9%), assault (7%) and theft from the person (7%). About one in five persons reported being a victim of personal crime in 1999. The most common household crimes were motor vehicle damage (9%) and theft from a motor vehicle (6%). Just over 4% of households reported being a victim of a completed burglary (break-in). About 10% of households own a firearm in Australia (compared to 33% in the United States). About 66% of murders and 41% of robberies occurring in the United States in 2000 involved the use of a firearm, compared to 20% and 6% of murders and robberies, respectively, in Australia. There are a number of agencies that provide crime victim assistance in all Australian jurisdictions. These agencies include rape crisis centers, women's shelters, safe houses and voluntary organizations such as Victims of Crime Assistance League (VOCAL) and Victims of Crime Services (VOCS). Crime victims do not play an active role in the prosecution or sentencing of an offender in any Australian jurisdiction. South Australia has enacted a Victims of Crime Charter, based on the United Nations Charter. This charter provides for victim impact statements to be prepared and used in certain cases and for victims to be consulted at the various stages in the criminal iustice process. Violence against women is a problem. Social analysts and commentators estimate that domestic violence may affect as many as one family in three or four, but there is no consensus on the extent of the problem. While it is understood that domestic violence is particularly prevalent in certain Aboriginal communities, only the states of Western Australia and Queensland have undertaken comprehensive studies into domestic violence in the Aboriginal community. It is agreed widely that responses to the problem have been ineffectual. The Government recognizes that domestic violence and economic discrimination are serious problems and the statutorily independent Sex Discrimination Commissioner actively addresses these and other areas of discrimination. A 1996 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) study (the latest year for which statistics are available) found that 2.6 percent of 6,333 women surveyed who were married or in a common-law relationship had experienced an incident of violence by their partner in the previous 12-month period. Almost one in four women who have been married or in a common-law relationship have experienced violence by a partner at some time during the relationship, according to the ABS study. Prostitution is legal or decriminalized in many areas of the states and territories. In some locations, state and local governments inspect brothels to prevent mistreatment of the workers and to assure compliance with health regulations. There were 14,074 victims of sexual assault recorded by the police in 1999 (the latest figures publicly available; they do not distinguish by gender), a decrease of 1.8 percent from 1998. This amounts to approximately 74 victims of sexual assault per 100,000 persons. Spousal rape is illegal under the state criminal codes. Though prostitution is legal or decriminalized and occurs throughout the country, child sex tourism is prohibited within the country and overseas. In the past, the occurrence of female genital mutilation (FGM), which is criticized widely by international health experts as damaging to both physical and psychological health, was insignificant. However, in the last few years, small numbers of girls from immigrant communities in which FGM is practiced have been mutilated. The Government has implemented a national educational program on FGM, which is intended to combat the practice in a community health context. Trafficking in women from Asia and the former Soviet Union for the sex trade is a limited problem that the Government is taking steps to address. Sexual harassment is prohibited by the Sex Discrimination Act. According to the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) report released in March, indigenous people were imprisoned nationally at 14 times the rate of nonindigenous people in 1999. The indigenous incarceration rate was 295 per 10,000 persons, while the nonindigenous incarceration rate was 18 per 10,000 persons. The AIC reports that the incarceration rate among indigenous youth was 18.5 times that of the nonindigenous youth population in 1999. Over 45 percent of Aboriginal men between the ages of 20 and 30 years have been arrested at some time in their lives. Aboriginal juveniles accounted for 42 percent of those between the ages of 10 to 17 in juvenile corrective institutions during 2000, according to the AIC. Human rights observers claim that socioeconomic conditions give rise to the common precursors of indigenous crime, for example, unemployment, homelessness, and boredom. Controversy over state mandatory sentencing laws continued throughout the year. These laws set automatic prison terms for multiple convictions of certain crimes. Human rights groups have criticized mandatory sentencing laws, which they allege have resulted in prison terms for relatively minor crimes and indirectly target Aboriginals. In July 2000, the U.N. Human Rights Commission issued an assessment of the country's human rights record that was highly critical of mandatory sentencing. The federal Government decided not to interfere in what it considered to be the states' prerogative, arguing that the laws were passed by democratically elected governments after full political debate, making it inappropriate for the federal government to intervene. The newly-elected government of the Northern Territory repealed the territory's mandatory sentencing laws in October. Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander Commission (ATSIC) welcomed this repeal and called upon Western Australia to follow suit. Western Australia continued to retain its mandatory sentencing laws, which provide that a person (adult or juvenile) who commits the crime of home burglary three or more times is subject to a mandatory minimum prison sentence. Indigenous groups charge that police harassment of indigenous people, including juveniles, is pervasive and that racial discrimination among police and prison custodians persists. Human rights groups have alleged a pattern of mistreatment and arbitrary arrests occurring against a backdrop of systematic discrimination. Although Asians make up less than 5 percent of the population, they account for 40 percent of new immigrants. Public opinion surveys have indicated concern with the numbers of immigrants arriving in the country. Upon coming to power in 1996, the Government reduced annual migrant (nonrefugee) immigration by 10 percent to 74,000; subsequently, it has increased to approximately 80,000. Humanitarian immigration figures remained steady at approximately 12,000 per year from 1996 through this year. The significant increase in unauthorized boat arrivals from the Middle East during the past 3 years has heightened citizens' concern that "queue jumpers" and alien smugglers are abusing the country's refugee program. Leaders in the ethnic and immigrant communities expressed concern that increased numbers of illegal arrivals, as well as violence at migrant detention centers, contributed to a few incidents of vilification of immigrants and minorities. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, a mosque in Brisbane was subjected to an arson attack, and cases of vilification against Muslims rose. TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS Legislation enacted in late 1999 targets criminal practices associated with trafficking, and other laws address smuggling of migrants. Trafficking in persons from Asia, particularly women (but also children), is a limited problem that the Government is taking steps to address. The Government's response to trafficking in persons is part of a broader effort against "people smuggling," defined as "illegally bringing non-citizens into the country." Smuggling of persons--in all its forms--is prohibited by the Migration Act, which calls for penalties of up to 20 years imprisonment. In September Parliament also enacted the Border Protection Act, which authorizes the boarding and searching of vessels in international waters, if suspected of smuggling of persons. The country is a destination for trafficked women and children. In June the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) issued a report entitled Organized Crime in People Smuggling and Trafficking to Australia, which observed that the incidence of trafficking appears to be low. The Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) have determined that women and children from Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, China, Indonesia, South Korea, Vietnam, and parts of the former Soviet Union have been trafficked into the country. They are believed to be entering primarily via air with fraudulently obtained tourist or student visas, for purposes of prostitution. There also have been reports of women trafficked into the country from Afghanistan and Iraq. The high profit potential combined with factors such as the difficulty of detection, unwillingness (or inability) of witnesses to testify in investigations, apparently short stays in the country by workers in the sex trade, and previously low penalties when prosecuted have contributed to the spread of groups engaged in these activities. There have been some instances of women being forced to work as sex workers in the country by organized crime groups. There are some reports of women working in the sex industry becoming mired in debt or being physically forced to keep working, and some of these women are under pressure to accept hazardous working conditions especially if their immigration status is irregular. Some women have been subjected to what is essentially indentured sexual servitude in order to pay off a "contract debt" to their traffickers in exchange for visas, plane tickets, food, and shelter. However, the available evidence suggests that these cases are not widespread. Some women working in the sex industry were not aware prior to entering the country that this was the kind of work they would be doing. Investigations in past years by DIMIA have found women locked in safe houses with barred windows, or under 24-hour escort, with limited access to medical care or the outside world. These women have been lured either by the idea that they would be waitresses, maids, or dancers or, in some cases, coerced to come by criminal elements operating in their home countries. There are also reports of young women and children, primarily from Asia, being sold into the sex industry by impoverished families. Prostitution is legal or decriminalized in many areas of the states and territories, but health and safety standards are not well enforced and vary widely. In September 1999, the Criminal Code Amendment (Slavery and Sexual Servitude) Act came into force. The act modernizes the country's slavery laws, contains new offenses directed at slavery, sexual servitude, and deceptive recruiting, and addresses the growing and lucrative trade in persons for the purposes of sexual exploitation. The act provides for penalties of up to 25 years' imprisonment and is part of a federal, state, and territory package of legislation. No prosecutions have been brought under this federal law. Another government initiative was the 1994 Child Sex Tourism Act, which provides for the investigation and prosecution of citizens who travel overseas and engage in illegal sexual conduct with children. Under the act, there have been 11 prosecutions, resulting in 7 convictions. Another case was pending at year's end. During the year, the Customs Service increased monitoring of all travelers (men, women, and children) entering the country who it suspected were involved in the sex trade, either as employees or employers.

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/rwinslow/asia_pacific/australia.html

They're the building block of graphite ultra-thin sheets of carbon, just one atom thick, whose discovery was lauded in 2010 with a Nobel Prize in Physics. The seemingly simple material is graphene, and many researchers believe it has great potential for many applications, from electronic devices to high-performance composite materials. Graphene is extremely strong, an excellent conductor, and with no internal structure at all, it offers an abundance of surface area much like a sheet of paper. When it comes to producing and utilizing graphene on a large scale, however, researchers have come upon a major problem: the material's tendency to aggregate. Like paper, graphene sheets easily stack into piles, thus greatly reducing their surface area and making them unprocessable. Researchers at Northwestern University have now developed a new form of graphene that does not stack. The new material inspired by a trash can full of crumpled-up papers is made by crumpling the graphene sheets into balls. A paper describing the findings, "Compression and Aggregation-resistant Particles of Crumpled Soft Sheets," was published October 13 in the journal ACS Nano. Graphene-based materials are very easily aggregated due to the strong interaction between the sheets, called "Van der Waals attraction." Therefore, common steps in materials processing, such as heating, solvent washing, compression, and mixing with other materials, can greatly affect how the sheets are stacked. When the paper-like sheets band together picture a deck of cards their surface area is lost; with just a fraction of its original surface area available, the material becomes less effective. Stacked graphene sheets also become rigid and lose their processability. Some scientists have tried to physically keep the sheets apart by inserting non-carbon "spacers" between them, but that changes the chemical composition of the material. When graphe |Contact: Megan Fellman|

http://www.bio-medicine.org/biology-technology-1/Frustration-inspires-new-form-of-graphene-20749-1/

Reducing Acid Rain What EPA Is Doing Congress created the Acid Rain Program in Title IV of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. The overall goal of the program is to achieve significant environmental and public health benefits through reductions in emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), the primary causes of acid rain. To achieve this goal at the lowest cost to the public, the program employs both traditional and innovative, market-based approaches for controlling air pollution. Specifically, the program seeks to limit, or “cap,” SO2 emissions from power plants at 8.95 million tons annually starting in 2010, authorizes those plants to trade SO2 allowances, and reduces NOx emission rates. In addition, the program encourages energy efficiency and pollution prevention. There are several ways to reduce acid rain—more properly called acid deposition—ranging from societal changes to individual action. It is critical that acid deposition be reduced, not only in the United States and Canada, but also throughout the world to preserve the integrity of natural habitats, as well as to reduce damage to man-made structures. EPA has taken steps to limit the amount of NOx and SO2 emitted into the atmosphere because they are the main contributors to acid deposition (for more information, see EPA’s Acid Rain Program). Additionally, individuals and society as a whole can participate in various efforts to help reduce acid deposition: - Understand acid deposition’s causes and effects - Clean up smokestacks and exhaust pipes - Use alternative energy sources - Restore a damaged environment - Look to the future - Take action as individuals Understand acid deposition’s causes and effects To understand acid deposition's causes and effects, and to track changes in the environment, scientists from EPA, state governments, and academia study acidification processes. They collect air and water samples and measure them for various characteristics such as pH and chemical composition, and research the effects of acid deposition on human-made materials such as marble and bronze. Finally, scientists work to understand the effects of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx)—the pollutants that cause acid deposition and contribute to particulate matter —on human health. See the acid rain effects section for more information. To solve the acid rain problem, people need to understand how acid rain damages the environment. They also need to understand what changes could be made to the air pollution sources that cause the problem. The answers to these questions help leaders make better decisions about how to control air pollution and therefore, how to reduce—or even eliminate—acid rain. Because there are many solutions to the acid rain problem, leaders have a choice of which options or combination of options are best. The next section describes some of the steps that can be taken to tackle the acid deposition problem. Clean up smokestacks and exhaust pipes Almost all of the electricity that powers modern life comes from burning fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil. Acid deposition is caused by two pollutants that are released into the atmosphere when fossil fuels are burned: sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). Coal accounts for most U.S. SO2 emissions and a large portion of NOx emissions. Sulfur is present in coal as an impurity, and it reacts with air when the coal is burned to form SO2. In contrast, NOx is formed when any fossil fuel is burned. There are several options for reducing SO2 emissions, including using coal containing less sulfur, washing the coal, and using devices called “scrubbers” to chemically remove the SO2 from the gases leaving the smokestack. Power plants can also switch fuels—for example, burning natural gas creates much less SO2 than burning coal. Certain approaches will also have the additional benefit of reducing other pollutants such as mercury and carbon dioxide (CO2). Understanding these “co-benefits” has become important in seeking cost-effective air pollution reduction strategies. Finally, power plants can use technologies that do not burn fossil fuels. Each of these options, however, has its own costs and benefits; there is no single universal solution. Similar to scrubbers on power plants, catalytic converters reduce NOx emissions from cars. These devices have been required for over 20 years in the United States, and it is important to keep them working properly. Recently, tailpipe restrictions were tightened to help curb NOx emissions. EPA also continues to make, changes to gasoline that allow it to burn cleaner. Use alternative energy sources There are other sources of electricity besides fossil fuels. They include nuclear power, hydropower, wind energy, geothermal energy, and solar energy. Nuclear and hydropower are used most widely in the United States, while wind, solar, and geothermal energy have not yet been harnessed on a large enough scale to make them economically-feasible alternatives. There are also alternative energies, such as natural gas, batteries, and fuel cells, available to power automobiles. All sources of energy have environmental costs as well as benefits. Some types of energy are more expensive to produce than others, which means that not all Americans can afford all of them. Nuclear power, hydropower, and coal are the cheapest formsof energy today, but advancements in technologies and regulatory developments may change this in the future. All of these factors must be weighed when deciding which energy source to use today and which to invest in for tomorrow. Restore a damaged environment Acid deposition penetrates deeply into the fabric of an ecosystem, changing the chemistry of the soil and streams and narrowing—sometimes to nothing—the space where certain plants and animals can survive. Because there are so many changes, it takes many years for ecosystems to recover from acid deposition, even after emissions are reduced and the rain pH is restored to normal. For example, while visibility might improve within days, and small or episodic chemical changes in streams improve within months, chronically acidified lakes, streams, forests, and soils can take years to decades, or even centuries (in the case of soils) to heal. However, there are some things that people can do to bring back lakes and streams more quickly. Limestone or lime (a naturally occurring basic compound) can be added to acidic lakes to “cancel out” the acidity. This process, called liming, has been used extensively in Norway and Sweden but is not used very often in the United States Liming tends to be expensive, has to be done repeatedly to keep the water from returning to its acidic condition, and is considered a short-term remedy in only specific areas, rather than an effort to reduce or prevent pollution. Furthermore, it does not solve the broader problems of changes in soil chemistry and forest health in the watershed, and it does nothing to address visibility reductions, materials damage, and risk to human health. However, liming does often permit fish to remain in a lake, allowing the native population to survive in place until emissions reductions reduce the amount of acid deposition in the area. Look to the future As emissions from the largest known sources of acid deposition—power plants and automobiles—are reduced, EPA scientists and their colleagues must assess the reductions to make sure they are achieving the results that Congress anticipated when it created the Acid Rain Program in 1990. If these assessments show that acid deposition is still harming the environment, Congress may begin to consider additional ways to reduce emissions that cause acid deposition. It may consider additional emission reductions from sources that have already been controlled, or methods to reduce emissions from other sources. Congress may also focus on energy efficiency and alternative energy. Implementation of cost-effective mechanisms to reduce emissions and their impact on the environment will continue to evolve. Take action as individuals It may seem like there is not much that one individual can do to stop acid deposition. However, like many environmental problems, acid deposition is caused by the cumulative actions of millions of individual people. Therefore, each individual can also reduce their contribution to the problem and become part of the solution. Individuals can contribute directly by conserving energy, since energy production causes the largest portion of the acid deposition problem. For example, you can: - Turn off lights, computers, and other appliances when you're not using them. - Use energy-efficient appliances: lighting, air conditioners, heaters, refrigerators, washing machines, etc. For more information, see EPA’s ENERGY STAR Program . - Only use electric appliances when you need them. - Keep your thermostat at 68°F in the winter and 72°F in the summer. You can turn it even lower in the winter and higher in the summer when you are away from home. - Insulate your home as best you can. - Carpool, use public transportation, or better yet, walk or bicycle whenever possible - Buy vehicles with low NOx emissions, and properly maintain your vehicle. - Be well informed.

http://epa.gov/acidrain/reducing/index.html

Antarctic ice sheet may be more durable than thought The stability of Antarctic ice has long concerned climate scientists. If the west Antarctic ice sheet’s base were to collapse, global sea levels could shoot up by five meters. But new research shows the ice could be a bit more tough than scientists thought. In a study published online last month in the geo-science journal Palaeogeograpy, Palaeoclimtology, Palaeoecology, University of Exeter-led geographer Christopher Fogwill and colleagues found that blue-ice moraines in West Antarctica fluctuated in thickness during the ups and downs of the Earth’s glacial cycles. But for at least the past 200,000 years, and maybe as long as 400,000 years, they remained intact, even during warm, interglacial periods. Moraines are a pile of rocks, often covered in ice in glaciated areas, that have been amassed by moving glaciers. The scientists analyzed the moraines in the Heritage mountain range near the central dome of the west Antarctic ice sheet for beryllium isotopes produce by cosmic radiation. When the rock is exposed, meaning it’s absent of ice, the isotopes accumulate. Fogwill and his team found that the moraines have been covered in ice for at least 200,000 years. Presumably, these areas might outlast this latest bout of climate change. At the very least, the findings could change scientists’ understanding of how sensitive the ice sheet is to a warming world.

http://www.astrobio.net/blog/?p=1157

Ancient Roman Religious Year The Roman calendar was an important part of Roman religion as it regulated the many religious events intended to conciliate and secure the goodwill and favour of the gods. Each month was outlined with certain kinds of days and specific religious festivals that honoured the gods and united the people within the Roman Empire. From very early times, the Romans had established a calendar that contained all of their important religious events and gave structure to the religious year and religious state practices. This calendar contained the fixed festivals of different gods set on specific dates, called feriae stativae, as well as festivals that could move without certain time periods, called feriae conceptivae, like our modern day Easter. This original calendar satisfactorily established the dates of all the festivals but did not take into account the differing lengths of the solar and lunar years. In 46 B.C., Julius Caesar attempted to reconcile this problem and issued a new calendar system with a leap year every four years, which we still use today. Caesar publicised his new calendar by displaying it in public places throughout the empire on stone tablets. Fragments of about forty of these still survive today and provide us with evidence of the proceedings of the Roman religious year. Writings of Ovid also survive which provide evidence of religious festivals marked on the Roman calendar in his verse commentary, the Fasti. From these sources of evidence, an understanding of the operation of the Roman calendar has been established and most of the events of the Roman year worked out. A Roman month was divided into weeks of eight days marked from A-H with a market day, called a nundinae, on the eighth day. There were three key points in a month; the Kalends on the first day of...

http://www.writework.com/essay/ancient-roman-religious-year

The hypothalamus is a small gland found at the base of the brain, which fundamentally operates as a thermostat for reproductive hormones. It controls the levels of a number of hormones produced by providing responses to and stimulation of the pituitary gland. How does the hypothalamus works? The hypothalamus produces gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), which signals to increase or decrease hormone production throughout the first phase of a women’s ovulatory cycle. In the feedback response, the pituitary increases FSH production that then causes follicle production in the ovaries. The production of estrogen is then accomplished as the follicle enlarges. As estrogen levels increase, the FSH levels eventually decrease. Once the follicles are mature, the hypothalamus signals a spike in luteinizing hormone (LH), which leads to ovulation 36 hours later. If something within this course is uneven or missing, and the process of ovulation does not occur, infertility will result. Irregular ovulation can be due to numerous factors, but most frequently is secondary to the failure of the ovary to produce a follicle that ovulates. Anovulation occurs when the ovaries cannot release eggs for fertilization. Although this is a natural consequence of aging associated with menopause, it may occur earlier in some women. Some factors in irregular ovulation are: - Hyperprolactinemia – abnormally elevated prolactin levels. This may be due to a small tumor on the pituitary and may require medications and/or surgery. - Thyroid dysfunction – hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism. Thyroid levels can cause irregular ovulation. Medications can be used to treat thyroid dysfunction. - Adrenal disorders. Androgens are male hormones, such as testosterone, produced by the ovaries and adrenal gland. High levels may lead to oligo-ovulation. - Environmental factors like pollution, radiation, etc. - Excessive exercise, obesity, and/or stress Fertility treatments are available for such cases. In these situations, it is assumed that the fallopian tubes are still open, unless the patient has had a tubal ligation surgery. A special test called a hysterosalpingogram can be done to make sure that the fallopian tubes are open. If the patient has had a tubal ligation, she would need to have a tubal reversal performed to open the tubes again. Any patient who will be undergoing a tubal ligation reversal would benefit from a hormonal evaluation prior to the tubal reversal surgery to ensure that once her tubes were reversed, she would not have infertility from a hormonal issue. Tags: Hypothalamus in BBT

http://www.mybabydoc.com/blog/hypothalamus-in-bbt-limitations.html

Learn something new every day More Info... by email Open architecture, in relation to computer programming, refers to a hardware system, network or even software that is able to be extended by users to provide new or expanded functionality. When dealing with software, open architecture means that, while a program performs on its own, either the entire source code for the program or a development kit is available so users can rewrite parts of the software or develop plug-ins and extensions to allow the program to perform new tasks. A computer or other hardware system that uses open architecture is usually constructed in a way so users are able to change, remove or upgrade components within the system. It also enables users to add additional hardware or modify elements of the system to increase what a machine can do or to streamline it toward a single task. A system or piece of software that is set and cannot be modified is known as using closed architecture but also can be called a proprietary system. One of the features of using open architecture is that the system or software that an end user receives can be seen more as a generic tool. If the needs of a user or company change, then the hardware or software can be changed to remain relevant without the need to completely remove an entire system that is already in place. Depending on the type of system, such as a network or an operating system, it can be possible to fully change the basic functioning to accommodate evolving technologies or new business paradigms. This can be especially important for computers and network hardware, where components can be upgraded regularly as technology advances without destroying an existing framework that has already been installed. The concept of open architecture arose from the development of systems that were completely closed. The earliest types of systems offered no way to upgrade components, and software had no mechanism in place for extensions. These proprietary systems had limited use and, as the pace of advancements increased, became obsolete increasingly faster. Although there are still propriety systems in widespread use in the computer industry, many of these systems do offer the ability to upgrade or expand the core functionality. Unlike an open architecture system, in which several vendors could provide different and competitive upgrades, proprietary upgrades are usually only available through the manufacturer of the system and can command a high price for access. The reliance on a single manufacturer as a source for all parts, plug-ins and upgrades to a system is one of the reasons why open architecture is favored over proprietary systems in large-scale applications.

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Off to the Races By: Katie Griggs Rationale: To read fluently, a student must read quickly, smoothly, and expressively. In addition, word recognition must be automatic for students to comprehend what they read. If word recognition is automatic, reading becomes an enjoyable activity for a student. For students to gain automatic word recognition, the reading and re-reading of connected, decodable text is needed. The more a student comes in to contact with a specific text, the more fluent he or she becomes. In this lesson, students will learn how to read quickly, smoothly, and expressively in order to gain fluency. Students will gain fluency through repeated readings and one-minute reads. Materials: Marker board with sentence "We loaded on to the bus after school." written on it, individual pieces of paper with the sentence "My friends and I played baseball on Sunday afternoon." and a corresponding picture on them, chart with a race track on it for each student (charts should go up to one-hundred words per minute), small cut-outs of cars for each student, Velcro to attach each race car, one stopwatch for every two children, multiple copies of In The Big Top and Charlie (enough of each book for every two children) (both books should be marked with pencil after every ten words so that the children can count the words), pencils Procedure: 1.Direct the students to look at the marker board. Read the sentence slowly and then quickly, pointing out the difference in reading. "It is very important for readers to read quickly and smoothly. If we read quickly and smoothly, two things happen as we read: our reading sounds nice and we can understand what we read better. Also, our reading becomes more fun and enjoyable! Watch me. I am going to show you how my reading becomes more and more fun as I read more fluently and smoothly. I am going to read a sentence one time just like a beginning reader would, and then I am going to read it again like a really good reader would read it. Listen to how different the two sentences sound. W-e loa-d-e-d o-n th-e b-u-s a-f-t-e-r s-ch-oo-l. That didn't sound natural, did it? That's because I wasn't reading quickly and smoothly. Listen again. We loaded on to the bus after school. The sentence sounded better that time, didn't it? What did I do the second time that helped the sentence sound right and make more sense?" (Answer: I read more quickly and smoothly.) 2.Pair the students into groups of two. Be sure to pair them off homogenously so that they can share a graph and be able to use the same book. Pass out paper with "My friends and I played baseball on Sunday afternoon." "Now I am going to pair you into groups of two. I am going to give the members of each group a sentence to work with. I want each of you to read the sentence out loud to your partner. Be sure to pay attention to the way it sounds the first time that each of you reads it. After you have read it out loud, I want you to read the sentence silently to yourself five times. Reading the sentence over and over will help it make more sense and sound better. It will also help you read faster. Then, read the sentence out loud to your partner again." (Allow them to complete the activity.) "Do you notice a difference from the first time that you read it aloud? What makes it sound better? (Answer: It is quicker and smoother.) Did it sound better when you read it the first time or the second time? (Answer: The second time.) Way to go!" 3.Pass out the stop watches, cardboard race tracks, cars, and various books. Instruct the students to conduct one minute reads, record the number of words they read, and move their cars accordingly. Each student will do four one minute reads. "Now we are going to practice reading with a real book. I am going to give each group a book to read. While one member of the group reads the book, the other will be the timer. The reader will be timed for one minute. If you are the reader, I want you to read as many words as you can. If you come to a word that you do not know, use the cover-up method to try to figure it out. If that does not work, ask your partner for help. I will walk around the room to help anyone who needs it. The reader will read for one minute four times. After each one minute read, the reader will record the number of words that they read and move their car to that number on the race track. Then they will draw a star above their car. The stars will allow you to tell how much faster you read each time. I bet that your car will get farther and farther up the track with each reading that you do! Then you will switch so that the timer gets a chance to race to read!" Assessment: Once everyone has finished reading four times I will ask the students to be sure that their names, the date, and the title of the book they read are on their race track charts. Then, the students will turn them in. I will assess the children by looking at their progress charts. The chart will show each student's beginning and ending point and will be turned in for me to evaluate. I will let the children take the books home to show their families how well they read. Also, the class could discuss the two books to make sure that each student comprehends the material. Eldredge, J. Lloyd. Teaching Decoding in Holisitc Classrooms. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1995. pp. 122-145 In The Big Top. Phonics Readers Short Vowels. Educational Insights. Vaughan, Richard. Charlie. New Zealand, Scholastic, 1990. 24. Williams, Andrea. Start Your Engines! http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/connect/williamsgf.html Return to Caravan Index

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In the hundred years following Bacon's Rebellion of 1676, Virginia became the colony that we now imagine when we think of Virginia. Prior to 1676, Virginia was a profitable but socially crude and politically unstable tobacco factory. But after the rebellion, it matured into the colonial powerhouse that provided much of the political and philosophical leadership for the American Revolution. During these years, Virginia's House of Burgesses expanded its powers and developed its sense of political purpose. The colony's tobacco economy expanded to the west and south, generating enormous wealth for American planters and English merchants. The slave labor force on which this economy depended grew from a few thousand to close to a quarter million. And the social and cultural order that completed these political and economic developments took shape. By 1776, Virginia looked like Virginia—a colony of small farms and great plantations, its tobacco fields filled with slave laborers, all ruled by a planter elite whose political and social power blended seamlessly together. Colonial Virginia was many things. It was Thomas Jefferson sitting on a hilltop thinking deeply about the natural rights of all humankind, and Patrick Henry rising to the floor in the House of Burgesses and declaring that he would rather die than sacrifice his liberty. But colonial Virginia was also 90,000 people kidnapped in Africa and carried to the colony in the death-filled hold of a slave ship. Colonial Virginia was the great plantations of Westover and Gunston Hall—enormous testimonies to genteel living nestled among fields of sweet-smelling tobacco. But it was also planter William Byrd II forcing a young slave to drink a pint of urine because he wet his bed—and Robert "King" Carter cutting off the toes of a slave who resisted other forms of discipline. Virginia was George Washington painstakingly copying the rules of good behavior into a diary as an adolescent. But it was also cockfights on Saturday and drunken militia marches through the slave quarters on Sundays. Virginia was genteel and barbaric, all at the same time. Which was the real Virginia? They both were.

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